2021-04-25

Location of scene: Episode 17, 37:03-39:35

Following Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan’s return from Dixing, Shen Wei is confronted by the Chancellor of Dragon City University and told that he must choose between his position as a professor or his role as a consultant with the SID; he cannot keep both. Just as Shen Wei is beginning to tender his resignation, Jiajia bursts in to interrupt, revealing her relationship as the granddaughter of the Chancellor. She convinces her grandfather to withdraw his ultimatum, who ends up leaving the decision of whether he can truly balance both roles up to Shen Wei, while Jiajia later tries to encourage Shen Wei to remain with the university.

( Detailed re-cap, scene commentary, and ridiculously-meandering thoughts on some of the show’s themes and messages below the cut! )

( Okay, I was serious about my thoughts on this scene being meandering... below this cut is a lot of word vomit related to my Big Feels about how this show handles themes of Choice and the Intrinsic Meaningfulness of Good. I will not be offended if you skip this bit! XD )

This is why I truly, deeply love this show. Because Guardian says that making the right choice despite hardship and difficulty is still worth it.

That choosing goodness despite scorn and adversity is its own reward.

Even when it only leads to personal suffering or results in failure in what we were trying to accomplish, it still intrinsically matters how we choose to live our lives.

The effort matters. The choice matters. And it is a choice. One that often in life, as in this show, is the harder, less rewarding one.

Shen Wei will always make the choice of selflessness over selfishness, and it wouldn’t be such a meaningful thing if we never saw him struggle over it. The fact that it’s hard, that it hurts, but that he still musters the willpower to choose the right thing over and over again, is what makes his story such a powerful one.

Related Fanworks and Recs
I’m not aware of any fanworks that really center on this scene in particular, but I will happily rec the delightful fic: The unofficial newsletter of Dragon City University (BioEng Dept) by frith_in_thorns, a series of short stories featuring Jiajia-related hijinks at the University!

A few questions to ponder and/or spark discussion… if you have alternate questions of your own or just think of something worth calling out in the scene that I glossed over, please chime in!

Do you think the Chancellor would have followed through on his ultimatum if Jiajia hadn’t interrupted? Or would he have compromised his stance after all once Shen Wei made his determination to keep working for the SID absolutely clear and allowed him to keep on teaching?
I know I babbled a whole diatribe up there about how I think these scenes connect to one of the show’s overall thematic messages, but what are your thoughts about what was going through Shen Wei’s mind when he’s looking troubled and lost in thought at the end of his conversation with Jiajia and later in Zhao Yunlan’s office?
Not so much directly related to the scene directly, but does anyone have any fun conjecture/head-canons to share about how/why Shen Wei ended up affiliated with the University to begin with? His power of ‘learning’ is an obvious tie-in, but there were infinite paths he could have chosen to learn about and integrate into Haixing society when he first came up… why do you think he ended up going with this one?

So, come and have your say! Share links to meta, picspams, and related fanworks, new or old! Self-recs are wholeheartedly encouraged. Basically, this is the place for anything you want to say or link to about this scene.

2021-04-25

A first ficlet

Funerary practice

Focus on: Jiajia prevents her grandfather's ultimatum to Shen Wei from ep. 17