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sid_guardian2020-05-01 02:08 pm
extrapenguin) wrote in sid_guardian2020-05-01 02:08 pm
Entry tags:
Focus on Li Qian
(I, and consequently the details mentioned in this post, are drama only.)
Li Qian! Shen Wei's PhD student* who quit, only to join Professor Ouyang's serum research half a year later. Raised by her grandmother alone, she sacrificed something of herself with the Longevity Dial to bring her grandmother back after a stroke – only for the grandmother she got back to not be the same one who raised her.
* Given that Shen Wei is officially 32 and already a professor, he's almost certainly just started. In the experimental sciences, professorial group building starts with a PhD student or two before expanding into postdocs. Li Qian's age bears this out as well.
When we first saw her, she was run down and tired trying to earn money to pay the medical bills by e.g. handing out leaflets. As a result, she's at the end of her rope, doubting whether it was all worth it, and when her grandmother commits suicide by overdosing on Li Qian's sleeping pills, Li Qian tries to follow her by jumping off a roof. Later, at the Department of Supervision's secret lab, she's much less ground down, and seems happy in her rolse as Institute Director a bit over a year later.
Questions!
1. What do you think the effects of the Longevity Dial are on her?
2. Do you think she has other family beyond her grandmother? (In episode 6 at about 38:25, Shen Wei mentions contacting her parents before letting her drop out.)
3. How do you think the Longevity Dial came to her family?
4. What do you think is her opinion of Dixingians? Multiple ones tried to kill her, and she was happy enough to join Professors Ouyang and Zhou for the serum research. However, she appeared conflicted later on – did she acquire ethical qualms?
5. Had she known what would happen when she held the Longevity Dial in her hands when her grandmother was in hospital, do you think she'd have done it?
6. Do you think she ever found out that Shen Wei was Dixingian?
7. How much do you think she knows about the Longevity Dial's operation? What about the other Hallows? How do you think she found out – experimenting with the Longevity Dial in the year between her activating it and canon starting, research in Professor Ouyang's lab, something else?
Fanwork recs:
[Fanvid] Let Them Eat Cake byreishiin – this is a Li Qian/Science vid, with excellent scene choices, and is a tribute to all the mad science going on. Be sure to turn on the subtitles!
Diverging Paths by![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
spinningthreads – this is a canon divergence set in episode 1, where the SID doesn't turn up at the end. It's short but savoury, and
Every Other Solemn Life bydraconicsockpuppet – this is a series of short snippets of Li Qian's life, pre-canon to post-canon happy ending AU, that really make up a nice arc for her.
So - come and talk about Li Qian! Share links to meta, picspams, and related fanworks, new or old! Self-recs whole-heartedly encouraged. Basically, this is the place for anything you want to say or link to about Li Qian.
Important: If you're commenting with meta/discussion/thoughts, please say whether you're coming from a novel perspective, a drama perspective, or a blend of the two, so we don't end up talking past each other. Thanks!
Li Qian! Shen Wei's PhD student* who quit, only to join Professor Ouyang's serum research half a year later. Raised by her grandmother alone, she sacrificed something of herself with the Longevity Dial to bring her grandmother back after a stroke – only for the grandmother she got back to not be the same one who raised her.
* Given that Shen Wei is officially 32 and already a professor, he's almost certainly just started. In the experimental sciences, professorial group building starts with a PhD student or two before expanding into postdocs. Li Qian's age bears this out as well.
When we first saw her, she was run down and tired trying to earn money to pay the medical bills by e.g. handing out leaflets. As a result, she's at the end of her rope, doubting whether it was all worth it, and when her grandmother commits suicide by overdosing on Li Qian's sleeping pills, Li Qian tries to follow her by jumping off a roof. Later, at the Department of Supervision's secret lab, she's much less ground down, and seems happy in her rolse as Institute Director a bit over a year later.
Questions!
1. What do you think the effects of the Longevity Dial are on her?
2. Do you think she has other family beyond her grandmother? (In episode 6 at about 38:25, Shen Wei mentions contacting her parents before letting her drop out.)
3. How do you think the Longevity Dial came to her family?
4. What do you think is her opinion of Dixingians? Multiple ones tried to kill her, and she was happy enough to join Professors Ouyang and Zhou for the serum research. However, she appeared conflicted later on – did she acquire ethical qualms?
5. Had she known what would happen when she held the Longevity Dial in her hands when her grandmother was in hospital, do you think she'd have done it?
6. Do you think she ever found out that Shen Wei was Dixingian?
7. How much do you think she knows about the Longevity Dial's operation? What about the other Hallows? How do you think she found out – experimenting with the Longevity Dial in the year between her activating it and canon starting, research in Professor Ouyang's lab, something else?
Fanwork recs:
[Fanvid] Let Them Eat Cake by
reishiin – this is a Li Qian/Science vid, with excellent scene choices, and is a tribute to all the mad science going on. Be sure to turn on the subtitles!Diverging Paths by
Every Other Solemn Life by
So - come and talk about Li Qian! Share links to meta, picspams, and related fanworks, new or old! Self-recs whole-heartedly encouraged. Basically, this is the place for anything you want to say or link to about Li Qian.
Important: If you're commenting with meta/discussion/thoughts, please say whether you're coming from a novel perspective, a drama perspective, or a blend of the two, so we don't end up talking past each other. Thanks!
no subject
Oh dear, I wonder if they used their own DNA to do some of the analysis? I think it'd be pretty hilarious if there were just a ton of people who had Dixing ancestors Way Back When and it massively confounded their results lolololol.
How do you think she found out, then, if it was while she was still in Professor Ouyang's lab? Or do you mean she'd found out her thesis supervisor was an alien pre-canon?
My most canon-compliant theory is that Lin Jing tells her when he goes back to be a triple agent, and that before then she had suspicions given how invested Shen Wei obviously was with the SID, but I have a soft spot for the idea that Shen Wei is Not As Good At Pretending To Be A Normal Human Being As He Thinks He Is (see: every single interaction with ZYL) and Li Qian starts to.. wonder if Prof. Shen is an alien... when she is introduced to the idea that Aliens Are Real And Not Just Out There But Are Already Among Us. And maybe one day Shen Wei does some dark energy thing accidentally where she can see, and they stare at each other in mutual startlement, until she is like "wow professor shen what amazing reflexes you have to be able to catch that falling flowerpot with your bare hands to save me (instead of using your alien powers)!" and then they both pretend nothing unusual ever happened. And that's when Shen Wei really starts to get closer to her and be a mentor in her personal life as well as her academic one. QQ I just want Li Qian to have a good life and be professionally successful and have good relationships with her peers and advisor, is that too much to ask??