GUARDIAN REWATCH - Episode 23

[trobadora]

Beginning of episode: Da Qing has been caught trying to sneak into the Dixing archives
Ending of episode: at the hospital, Zhao Yunlan is passive-aggressively overpolite to Shen Wei

Important scenes/developments:

• An Bai is revealed to be the next Dijun
• Da Qing warns Zhao Yunlan that Shen Wei is untrustworthy; Zhao Yunlan reveals his current strategy in dealing with Shen Wei's secrecy
• Da Qing spies on Shen Wei confronting Ye Zun, and makes him perform a pinky promise
• the Dijun is found murdered, and An Bai is missing
• Zhao Yunlan impersonates An Bai to expose Ye Zun's mole in the palace
• An Bai is forced to become the new Dijun
• Shen Wei explains the function of the Merit Brush
• Ye Zun suborns An Bai's friends
• Shen Wei stays with Zhao Yunlan for one more night; Zhao Yunlan sees a strange energy barrier
• Zhao Yunlan catches Shen Wei cutting his wrist and bleeding black energy
• Guo Changcheng visits his parents' graves, and we see Dong Nan for the first time
• Wang Xiangyang cries at his wife's grave and wants to avenge her death
• Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei give each other the silent treatment at the SID
• at the hospital, Zhao Yunlan is passive-aggressively overpolite to Shen Wei (beginning of scene)

( Thoughts )

Discussion starters:

• What's your favourite scene in this episode? What's your favourite line? (I figure a lot of people will pick the kitchen scene, but my favourite scene - like I said above - is the pinky promise one.)


• Did you notice anything this time round that you didn't before, or that you'd forgotten? I didn't remember the bit at the start with Zhao Yunlan stepping in rather than letting Shen Wei rescue Da Qing! And I don't think I ever put Shen Wei's reaction in the aftermath of An Bai's ascension together with the kitchen scene before ...


• An interesting bit from Shen Wei's confrontation with Ye Zun: Ye Zun claims credit for returning Shen Wei to glory, but Shen Wei says it has nothing to do with Ye Zun, and his awakening is a joke the world is playing on him. What do you think Shen Wei means by that? And what exactly is he refuting?


• Ye Zun says that only because he's trapped in the pillar can Shen Wei go on with his life - does that imply something more than just that this is the only way Ye Zun won't interfere with Shen Wei's life? Ye Zun's conclusion is that therefore Shen Wei can't kill Ye Zun, and I don't think I understand his reasoning. Any thoughts?


• How does the Attendant's power work? Does he have other powers too? We see him use energy blasts (most notably the one he sends at Da Qing) and something like an energy-reinforced punch as well as the literal hardening of his body (such as when Shen Wei's dao hits his arm with a metallic clang, and when Da Qing steps on his foot), but he also suddenly vanishes after the first confrontation, and in the scene at the bar no one seems to notice this very conspicuous robed man walk past and stab one of the guards! Did Ye Zun interfere somehow in these cases?


• I'm still not at all clear about why the Regent apparently wanted Shen Wei at An Bai's ascension. In episode 22, the Regent told Shen Wei there might be information about the Merit Brush at the palace, luring him to Dixing - but for what purpose? Perhaps he suspects the presence of a mole, but he's clearly taken aback by the murder of the Dijun and by the Attendant's actions. And he certainly couldn't have known Shen Wei would bring Zhao Yunlan along again ...


• Any thoughts to what the Attendant's purpose was in attacking Da Qing, and in bringing An Bai to the Pillar? Just showing off for Ye Zun? *g*


• Shen Wei stays the night at Zhao Yunlan's place. Do you think they're sleeping together at this point?


• And why does Shen Wei decide to cut himself and bleed out his energy in Zhao Yunlan's kitchen? He clearly doesn't want Zhao Yunlan to know, and it would be easy to just go elsewhere for a few minutes.
  
  (My feeling is that it makes emotional sense even if it's not practical - he wants to stay near Zhao Yunlan. and he doesn't expect Zhao Yunlan to wake up. Perhaps, since they've been essentially cohabitating since Zhao Yunlan first went blind about two weeks earlier, he knows Zhao Yunlan usually sleeps like a log? *g*


• Impromptu poll:
  
  
  Poll #29241

  Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

  
  

  View Respondents

  
  

  When do you think Shen Wei decides on exchanging his energy and turning himself into a potential white energy bomb?

  View Answers
  

  immediately after the exchange with the Sundial
  3 (37.5%)

  during the confrontation with Ye Zun
  2 (25.0%)

  after An Bai's ascension
  0 (0.0%)

  not until the night he actually cut his wrist
  2 (25.0%)

  at some other point (see comment)
  1 (12.5%)


• What did I forget to mention? I'm pretty sure there's something - there's so much in this episode!

Let's talk about episode 23!
Come and talk about this episode - anything from favourite scenes or lines of dialogue to notes/questions about continuity or translation, most gorgeous (or angsty) smile, or anything else that strikes your fancy! And share links to your own and/or others' episode-related meta, picspams, and fanworks, new or old!