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sid_guardian2019-12-05 08:01 pm
extrapenguin) wrote in sid_guardian2019-12-05 08:01 pm
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Guardian Episode by Episode: 38
Welcome to the rewatchalong! This week we watch the antepenultimate episode, 38! The Imgur screencap album has 70 images.
(Episode 39 will be dealt with on Monday and episode 40 the following Friday, probably.)
Previously on:
Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5
Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10
Episode 11, Episode 12, Episode 13, Episode 14, Episode 15
Episode 16, Episode 17, Episode 18, Episode 19, Episode 20
Episode 21, Episode 22, Episode 23, Episode 24, Episode 25
Episode 26, Episode 27, Episode 28, Episode 29, Episode 30
Episode 31, Episode 32, Episode 33, Episode 34, Episode 35
Episode 36, Episode 37
This week, there's a field trip to Dixing and Ye Zun ties people up.
Characterization
Chu Shuzhi continues sort of being Guo Changcheng's background support system. He gives a very nice little speechlet of support when Guo Changcheng's about to livestream, and also continues his scathing insight run with "The fear of death has made them forget their will to live."
Guo Changcheng, OTOH, is going full into Responsibility, what with indulging the SID-wide livestreaming fetish to deliver the last thoughts and wishes of the deceased to their hopefully-listening nearest and dearest. He also shows gumption by resisting Ye Zun's whole mental suggestion thing, but then again, when we were shown the mind control scene, he ... said to Ye Zun, "You go to the bathroom dressed like that?" and Guo Changcheng, um, I don't know what it's like in your universe but in mine people do their clothes adjustments inside the stalls, not outside the bathroom, wtf.
Even if he has a halo, he still needs to get a second brain cell to rub against the first one.
In the secret room, the manual is written in what looks like seal script (similar to what levitated about Ye Zun's pillar in episode 27), which Zhu Hong can read – unlike Da Qing. She also kneels before Fu You (logical, given that if Ma Gui has a portrait in the Haixing Department of Supervision office, his compatriot Fu You should've lived on as a legend in her tribes as well).
Left to right: A wastrel cat who probably only learned to read once forced by circumstances, a snake who paid attention to the classics, and the token human.
Zhao Yunlan continues his entitlement thing with being the one to use the Sacred Wood to open the door to the secret room, despite Zhu Hong being right there and also the High Chief of the Yashou Tribes. His judgement also gets a little clouded, I guess due to stress/insomnia/Shen Wei being away – I'm not sure if Professor Ouyang stabbing himself with the serum again was worth rushing him, frex, and the whole agreement about Zhang Shi getting to have his body if he had to sacrifice himself for the Guardian Lantern was a bit wtf, given that Guo Changcheng was right there, but more on that anon.
Or perhaps he just wanted the excuse to nap.
In Dixing, he twigs on to Wu Xiaojun's fakery delightfully fast, and then does a quick one to give the bartender the Lantern later. We also get an 100% delightful scene of Zhao Yunlan being growly over Shen Wei and vowing to kill whomever hurt him.
"You have lost because you are stupid and I am smarter than you."
Our supervillain Ye Zun continues projecting like an IMAX – asking Shen Wei how it feels to be a prisoner, or reiterating that Ye Zun is the master and gege the slave isn't going to give him any huge revelations – and then has what seems to be a complete deranged breakdown over his fight with Shen Wei not being the epic battle of equals he wanted. Also all the jealousy issues over Zhao Yunlan. And in an epic display of WTFery, he doesn't notice that the Guardian Lantern (you know, the largest Hallow) is missing until the other three don't merge. Oh Ye Zun.
"Why is this not going exactly like in my favorite revenge fantasy, cultivated over first an adolescence of abuse and then 10 000 years of empillarment?"
Shen Wei's theme this episode seems to be too little, too late. He finally asks Ye Zun why he hates him so much! (At least two decades too late to get an actual answer.) He finally criticizes the Regent about Dixingians living in a timeless darkness! (When he's tied to a pillar and has no political power to change anything or make others change things.) I suppose he's also woozy from blood loss, given all the bleeding he's been doing, and since he's full-on suicidal and planning to sacrifice himself in a big kaboom, he's sort of ... ticking off items on his "do before you die" checklist. It's sort of sad. Especially when he doesn't even get a proper hug with Zhao Yunlan!
If he hadn't just lost half his blood, he'd get a nosebleed thinking of Zhao Yunlan.
Now, the Dixing field trip. If Zhang Shi knew that Guo Changcheng's karma was so good that it could save the world, why couldn't he have said that Guo Changcheng could also light the Lantern? Then they could've kept the Hallows on Haixing and merged them there, and the Hallows project would've been completely separate from the mission to rescue Shen Wei. Make Ye Zun go kaboom with the merged Hallows, find Shen Wei from Dixing, fuss over him and patch him up. Or at the very least go to Dixing without the Hallows and without Guo Changcheng (because Guo Changcheng and the Hallows are required for merging the Hallows), so Zhao Yunlan's accompanied by someone with actual powers. Argh.
Canon details
Cinematography
Shots from afar
The entrance to the secret room. Opening the door. Shen Wei being tortured. Zhao Yunlan compliments the architechture.
Shen Wei's face when he uses his yutoudao to prop himself up is some wonderful close-ups
It was a long haul.
And tilted shots to accompany subverted expectations
After Shen Wei finally asks Ye Zun why he hates him so much. Zhao Yunlan tells Wu Xiaojun he's stupid and Chief Zhao ain't buying it.
Zhao Yunlan jacket watch
Still the same affair:
Now available with a death glare.
Did Shen Wei take off his glasses?
Ye Zun took them off for him!
(Episode 39 will be dealt with on Monday and episode 40 the following Friday, probably.)
Previously on:
Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5
Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10
Episode 11, Episode 12, Episode 13, Episode 14, Episode 15
Episode 16, Episode 17, Episode 18, Episode 19, Episode 20
Episode 21, Episode 22, Episode 23, Episode 24, Episode 25
Episode 26, Episode 27, Episode 28, Episode 29, Episode 30
Episode 31, Episode 32, Episode 33, Episode 34, Episode 35
Episode 36, Episode 37
This week, there's a field trip to Dixing and Ye Zun ties people up.
Characterization
Chu Shuzhi continues sort of being Guo Changcheng's background support system. He gives a very nice little speechlet of support when Guo Changcheng's about to livestream, and also continues his scathing insight run with "The fear of death has made them forget their will to live."
Guo Changcheng, OTOH, is going full into Responsibility, what with indulging the SID-wide livestreaming fetish to deliver the last thoughts and wishes of the deceased to their hopefully-listening nearest and dearest. He also shows gumption by resisting Ye Zun's whole mental suggestion thing, but then again, when we were shown the mind control scene, he ... said to Ye Zun, "You go to the bathroom dressed like that?" and Guo Changcheng, um, I don't know what it's like in your universe but in mine people do their clothes adjustments inside the stalls, not outside the bathroom, wtf.
Even if he has a halo, he still needs to get a second brain cell to rub against the first one.
In the secret room, the manual is written in what looks like seal script (similar to what levitated about Ye Zun's pillar in episode 27), which Zhu Hong can read – unlike Da Qing. She also kneels before Fu You (logical, given that if Ma Gui has a portrait in the Haixing Department of Supervision office, his compatriot Fu You should've lived on as a legend in her tribes as well).
Left to right: A wastrel cat who probably only learned to read once forced by circumstances, a snake who paid attention to the classics, and the token human.
Zhao Yunlan continues his entitlement thing with being the one to use the Sacred Wood to open the door to the secret room, despite Zhu Hong being right there and also the High Chief of the Yashou Tribes. His judgement also gets a little clouded, I guess due to stress/insomnia/Shen Wei being away – I'm not sure if Professor Ouyang stabbing himself with the serum again was worth rushing him, frex, and the whole agreement about Zhang Shi getting to have his body if he had to sacrifice himself for the Guardian Lantern was a bit wtf, given that Guo Changcheng was right there, but more on that anon.
Or perhaps he just wanted the excuse to nap.
In Dixing, he twigs on to Wu Xiaojun's fakery delightfully fast, and then does a quick one to give the bartender the Lantern later. We also get an 100% delightful scene of Zhao Yunlan being growly over Shen Wei and vowing to kill whomever hurt him.
"You have lost because you are stupid and I am smarter than you."
Our supervillain Ye Zun continues projecting like an IMAX – asking Shen Wei how it feels to be a prisoner, or reiterating that Ye Zun is the master and gege the slave isn't going to give him any huge revelations – and then has what seems to be a complete deranged breakdown over his fight with Shen Wei not being the epic battle of equals he wanted. Also all the jealousy issues over Zhao Yunlan. And in an epic display of WTFery, he doesn't notice that the Guardian Lantern (you know, the largest Hallow) is missing until the other three don't merge. Oh Ye Zun.
"Why is this not going exactly like in my favorite revenge fantasy, cultivated over first an adolescence of abuse and then 10 000 years of empillarment?"
Shen Wei's theme this episode seems to be too little, too late. He finally asks Ye Zun why he hates him so much! (At least two decades too late to get an actual answer.) He finally criticizes the Regent about Dixingians living in a timeless darkness! (When he's tied to a pillar and has no political power to change anything or make others change things.) I suppose he's also woozy from blood loss, given all the bleeding he's been doing, and since he's full-on suicidal and planning to sacrifice himself in a big kaboom, he's sort of ... ticking off items on his "do before you die" checklist. It's sort of sad. Especially when he doesn't even get a proper hug with Zhao Yunlan!
If he hadn't just lost half his blood, he'd get a nosebleed thinking of Zhao Yunlan.
Now, the Dixing field trip. If Zhang Shi knew that Guo Changcheng's karma was so good that it could save the world, why couldn't he have said that Guo Changcheng could also light the Lantern? Then they could've kept the Hallows on Haixing and merged them there, and the Hallows project would've been completely separate from the mission to rescue Shen Wei. Make Ye Zun go kaboom with the merged Hallows, find Shen Wei from Dixing, fuss over him and patch him up. Or at the very least go to Dixing without the Hallows and without Guo Changcheng (because Guo Changcheng and the Hallows are required for merging the Hallows), so Zhao Yunlan's accompanied by someone with actual powers. Argh.
Canon details
- Ma Gui says he thought the Hallows' abilities were just legends – so he didn't make the Hallows, he just found them somewhere?
- Either all passages to Dixing or just the passage in Yashou lands are unstable when first opened
- Zhao Xinci hugged his son for the first time in 20 years
- All the passcodes used in the Haixing Department of Supervision building come from the lab
- Using his powers reinforced the suggestion planted within Guo Changcheng, so would that mean that Dixingians with powers are more vulnerable to Ye Zun's mind control?
- Zhang Shi says he was born 9 900 years ago, so unless Ma Gui lived to well over 100, the war didn't actually happen quite 10 000 years ago (more like it ended 9 950 years ago).
Cinematography
Shots from afar
The entrance to the secret room. Opening the door. Shen Wei being tortured. Zhao Yunlan compliments the architechture.
Shen Wei's face when he uses his yutoudao to prop himself up is some wonderful close-ups
It was a long haul.
And tilted shots to accompany subverted expectations
After Shen Wei finally asks Ye Zun why he hates him so much. Zhao Yunlan tells Wu Xiaojun he's stupid and Chief Zhao ain't buying it.
Zhao Yunlan jacket watch
Still the same affair:
Now available with a death glare.
Did Shen Wei take off his glasses?
Ye Zun took them off for him!
no subject
Chu Shuzhi continues sort of being Guo Changcheng's background support system.
I'm very fond of their interactions in these episodes.
Now, the Dixing field trip. If Zhang Shi knew that Guo Changcheng's karma was so good that it could save the world, why couldn't he have said that Guo Changcheng could also light the Lantern?
I think he was afraid that if he came out and said it, Zhao Yunlan would insist that he couldn't let one of his people sacrifice themselves.
Ma Gui says he thought the Hallows' abilities were just legends – so he didn't make the Hallows, he just found them somewhere?
One of the enduring mysteries of the world. Where did the Hallows come from? Why do they have those specific shapes and powers? Why do they like Zhao Yunlan so much?
Ye Zun took them off for him!
Ouch.
no subject
Yeah, he ... doesn't really seem to have had the time to switch clothes. Or he thinks they're so iconic he can't swap? Though now I wonder whether getting a new wardrobe would help with his issues.
I actually didn't get the impression Guo Changcheng would be sacrificing himself at all – I thought it'd be more like, his karma is so good that part of it can go live in the Lantern and the most he'll suffer is equivalent to a headcold. (Cf his karma being good enough to save the world once.)
I have a lot of cracky theories, like the Hallows being Shen Wei (and Ye Zun?) who time travel back and then do stuff to preserve the timeline. It wouldn't explain why they have those shapes and powers, but it would explain why they like Zhao Yunlan so much! (And then they could happily play house inside the Lantern forever.)
no subject
Extreme Makeover: Dixing Edition.