Focus on: Zhao Yunlan confronting Ye Zun in the park from episode 20

[trickytricky]

Location of scene: Episode 20, 33:35-43:55

Apologies in advance for the length guys (and the extreme lateness; this should have gone up over the weekend… sorry!). When I chose this scene I didn’t quite realize how long it stretched… it covers about ten minutes of screen time! And I miiight have gotten a bit carried away with the gif-making. There just ended up being so many interesting moments I wanted to highlight where the expressions/visuals were just too great.

The gist of the scene involves Ye Zun, having newly-gained enough freedom to project his image/some portion of his powers from the pillar and interact with the world (thanks to Zhu Jiu just finishing up collecting enough human sacrifices for him earlier this episode, including sacrificing himself), summoning Zhao Yunlan to meet with him. It starts off with Ye Zun actively trying to gain sympathy, maintaining a courteous demeanor, and offering justifications for the murders he directed. However, from the beginning and maintained throughout, although Zhao Yunlan plays along a bit at first, he remains very clear-eyed about Ye Zun’s actual motivations and eventually makes it obvious that he’s not interested in indulging the facade of excuses.

At that point, Ye Zun drops his pretense of benevolence and goes in for the kill, but is shocked to find that Zhao Yunlan not only has the Longevity Dial in his possession, but that he can activate it and use its energy to (temporarily) hold off Ye Zun’s dark energy assault. Zhao Yunlan’s stalling ends up successfully buying himself enough time for Shen Wei to show up with his Big Damn Hero entrance to banish Ye Zun’s projection back to the pillar in Dixing, but the damage from Zhao Yunlan using the Dial to hold off Ye Zun’s attack has already been done. Everyone is appalled when they realize some combination of the influx of Hallow/dark energy has caused Zhao Yunlan to lose his sight.

( Detailed scene re-cap and commentary with lots of fun visual aides! )

( A few interesting tie-in scenes )

Here are a few questions that came to mind to lead-off discussion... feel free to address any of these that spark interest, or bring up anything else that you found particularly engaging in this scene!

• Was there anything Ye Zun could have said or offered in this scene, at this point in the story given what Zhao Yunlan has already seen and experienced with Zhu Jiu on Ye Zun’s behalf, that would have shaken Zhao Yunlan’s convictions or persuaded him to support his cause?
• Do you think Ye Zun made any efforts to use his mind control powers to influence Zhao Yunlan in this scene… was that the point of the performative manipulations, courtesy, and probing nature of the conversation at the beginning, but Zhao Yunlan was able to resist the attempts to influence him or was all the verbal probing and attempts at eliciting sympathy *because* he couldn’t exercise his powers at that point, and was forced to attempt to suborn the SID Chief the ‘old-fashioned’ way? (Can Ye Zun influence minds as a projection at all, or does he only have that ability in person?)
• When Zhao Yunlan points out that for someone claiming to be acting in accordance with the interests of Dixing, he seems to have no compunction about killing and consuming them, including his followers, Ye Zun holds his hand in a gesture over his mouth for a moment before snarling out justifications. Was that a movement that just reflected his reminiscence about the taste/sensation he experienced when consuming Zhu Jiu? Was there an instant of guilt/shame there that drove him to cover his face before he shook it off and rejected any wrong-doing?
• Why does Shen Wei hide the fact that Ye Zun is his brother from Zhao Yunlan, in this scene, as well as not confessing his suspicions about the identity of the 'person behind the scenes' previous to this and after? There are many potential reasons, I’m curious to hear what you think the primary motivation is there!

So, come on over and chime in with your thoughts! (If you actually managed to make it all the way through this ridiculously bloated post, that is...) If you have any links to meta, picspams, and related fanworks, new or old, please share them here! Self-recs are wholeheartedly encouraged. If you have any thoughts to share or links you think would be relevant to this scene, we’d love to hear them.