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GUARDIAN REWATCH - Episode 34
Sep. 9th, 2023 02:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trobadora
Beginning of episode: Chu Shuzhi tells his true history to an unconscious Guo Changcheng
Ending of episode: "Kunlun" asks the young Envoy about his name
Important scenes/developments:
- Chu Shuzhi tells an unconscous Guo Changcheng the truth about Nianzhi
- Lin Jing and Li Qian talk about the SID, and Professor Ouyang announces his success
- the Inspectorate shuts down the SID and tells everyone to vacate the premises
- Zhao Yunlan hears on the radio that his arrest has been ordered, and narrowly gets away
- Shen Wei is accosted and almost arrested in the street
- Wang Zheng and Sang Zan put two two Inspectorate men out of commission
- Professor Ouyang tests his serum on himself, with painful and powerful effects
- Wang Zheng returns Zhao Yunlan's black energy gun to him with a message from his father
- Ye Zun arrives at the SID, pretending to be Shen Wei
- Zhao Yunlan tries to use the Sundial AGAIN
- Ye Zun-as-Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan: attempted deception, confrontation, Wang Zheng's and Sang Zan's sacrifice; last minute save by wormhole
- Shen Wei follows Zhao Yunlan into the wormhole
- Zhao Yunlan falls into YOHE and interferes in a battle
- Zhao Yunlan meets YOHE!Da Qing and is told to "take his place"
- Zhao Yunlan meets Ma Gui and Fu You, and learns about the war
- Zhao Yunlan gets a new look, meets the young Envoy again and asks him to take off his mask and smile
- clifftop scene: Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei talk about duty, fear, masks, the different flavours of life, and identity
- Fu You tells Ma Gui the Yashou will retreat after everything is over
- Zhao Yunlan asks the Envoy's name
( thoughts )
Discussion starters:
- What's your favourite scene in this episode? Your favourite line?
- When we went into the Nightmare Master arc on this rewatch, one of the things most of us wanted to do was make more sense of all these dreams and dreams-within-a-dream, to sort out what's real. Do you feel you've managed to do this? Now that the arc has ended, what are your thoughts?
- What do you think Guo Ying thinks about all these rumours about the SID? How much does he worry about his nephew? And he and Yu Jinlan seemed to have practically accepted Chu Shuzhi into the family - what are they making of what's now being said about Chu Shuzhi's background?
- Zhao Yunlan's arrest has been ordered, and Shen Wei is nearly arrested as well. Probably Chu Shuzhi would also be arrested on sight - but why were Zhu Hong and Cong Bo allowed to leave the SID unharrassed? Guo Changcheng being allowed to transfer to the Inspectorate can be chalked up to nepotism, I guess. *g* But why is Shen Wei being singled out, other than narrative parallels between our heroes?
And does the Inspectorate know who Shen Wei is, by now? Zhao Xinci certainly knows. But who would think it was a good idea to try and arrest the Black-Cloaked Envoy? - Regarding "my little Yunlan": does Ye Zun really think Shen Wei talks like that? Why do you think Ye Zun chooses that phrasing? (And how delightful is it that even Ye Zun knows these two are together? *g*)
- Do you think Ye Zun is right that the timeline corrects itself? And that no one's ever come back from a wormhole? He could be lying, trying to prevent people from undoing his success, but since he goes on to suggest Zhao Yunlan give him the Hallows and let him try fixing the timeline, this warning doesn't particular benefit him either, so it could also all be true ....
- At what point do you think Zhao Yunlan realises Ye Zun is not Shen Wei? The obvious moment is when Ye Zun asks whether it's worth it, but does he have suspicions before that? To be fair, he has no idea that Shen Wei has an identical twin, or any reason to think the shield is down and unauthorised Dixingren can enter, so it's perhaps not the most obvious conclusion.
- If Zhao Yunlan hadn't interfered in the battle, what would have happened? Would the Rebel Leader have thrown Shen Wei down a cliff for the second time? (Shen Wei did survive that even as a kid, but everyone else would definitely have been toast.)
- What do you think the young Envoy and Da Qing make of all of the weird things "Kunlun" says? Do they ever compare notes?
- I get the impression there's some definite distance between humans and Yashou on one side, and Dixingren on the other, even within the YOHE alliance. What do you think Ma Gui and Fu You make of Zhao Yunlan's interest in and behaviour towards the Envoy? Does it change anything for them?
Let's talk about episode 34!
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!
