I wonder if the doll actually burned, too, and Chu Shuzhi was so off-balance when he reached Dixing that he'd kind of forgotten when he went to dig him up. If not, how did the doll survive the fire?
Depends on the materials, and how well protected a corner it ended up in - people are a lot more vulnerable.
Good question about how the doll got salvaged, though! I figure it might be connected with just how Chu Shuzhi can know about his brother's use of his power in that moment ...
Does it explicitly say that Chu Nianzhi's power was puppet-related? I was wondering if he might have a power like Zhang Shi. Or if not, does that mean that Chu Shuzhi puts a piece of himself inside his puppets so they can act independently, and Nianzhi just took that to extremes and vacated his own body in the process?
It doesn't explicitly say, no, I just assumed - but it doesn't seem very like Zhang Shi to me; I don't think Zhang Shi can put himself into inanimate objects.
I love the idea that Chu Shuzhi's puppet control works by putting a piece of himself into them, and that's why they can act without him ... But maybe Chu Shuzhi's power is controlling puppets, and Nianzhi's power was inhabiting them, related but different. It's all ambiguous; I guess we get to pick and choose. *g*
And whoever took it was a grave robber. /o\
Yeah, and by taking the puppet desecrated Nianzhi's grave. No wonder Chu Shuzhi reacts as badly as he does!
Which kind of makes me wonder how they thought their research was going to end, you know?
I think Li Qian at least would have been more excited earlier, but now there's open conflict between the Inspectorate and the SID, and Professor Ouyang has been getting increasingly irrational and obsessed, and it's all no longer about science for her.
For the same reason that all the problems in BtVS only ever affected Sunnydale, I expect. :-)
LOL!
Checking in with Shen Wei?
Oh, yes, good thought! Damn, now I want a missing scene where not only does Zhao Yunlan go and check up on Shen Wei's recuperating, he brings Da Qing and Chu Shuzhi with him! I wonder what Shen Wei makes of that ...
This episodes has hands-down my favourite Cong Bo scenes. I love him stepping up when Zhu Hong is too shaken and furious to think straight. <3
Yeah, this is a good episode for him!
I'd argue this moment is proof Zhao Yunlan has come a long way, too. He's putting the lessons he learned in Zhu Hong's dream into action here, aware of his importance to his team, being supportive rather than fake sarcastic or making jokes.
Yeah, agreed - he used to be practically allergic to sincerity, and now he's capable of being entirely sincere when called for, without trying to downplay his feelings or hiding behind jokes. Which is where he needs to be before he goes to YOHE!
I also feel like this works to resolve the previous, mostly-forgotten discord between them before Chu Shuzhi's dream started. Then Zhao Yunlan was telling Chu Shuzhi that if he wasn't happy, he should leave; now he's saying Chu Shuzhi is an intrinsic part of the team, they're all in it together.
I guess that works if you look at it that way, but honestly I didn't think it needed resolving? It's already become entirely irrelevant to both of them; neither of them cares about that argument any more.
LOL, every time this happens on TV, I think, "But if [A] just saw/heard it, by the time [B] turns on the TV/radio, the news story will have moved on to something else!"
Haha, I know! The only way it would work is if they were broadcasting the same thing on a loop, LOL.
Which, wow! /o\ (I wonder which Dixingren they think he colluded with. Is that why there's also a warrant out on Shen Wei? ;-p)
Ha, could be! (I figure they meant he's colluding with the Black-Cloaked Envoy. Which he is!)
Because Zhao Yunlan's car wasn't exactly chosen with the possibility of being a fugitive in mind
(Is that the last time we see the car? Does he get it back at any point? Something to keep an eye out for.)
I don't remember either! Will be interesting to see.
I love that even here, he sticks to his principle (I presume) of not hurting humans with his powers. (The only times I remember his using his powers on humans are removing the security people(?)'s memories after he's talked to Wu Tian'en in the street, and hypnotising Jiajia and Xiao Quan on the field trip(?).)
Yeah, he's pretty consistent with that! I figured he froze them before talking to Wu Tian'en, and what we see is him unfreezing them. But yeah, that's one of the few times he uses his powers on humans. He also uses them on Tan Xiao, but that's under very different circumstances.
I don't know if that's Zhang Shi? It's a very Zhao Xinci attitude, too. Never regret, never look back (even if you should)! I could go either way on that.
It doesn't seem like Zhao Xinci to me; Zhao Xinci very much wants his son to change his mind, whereas Zhang Shi is fine with the path Zhao Yunlan is on.
And just the idea of Shen Wei a) thinking about clothes at a time like this, and b) consulting Zhao Yunlan about fashion at all is so ludicrous, I can't help feeling that, even dazed from the Dial, he must know something's wrong -- even without the lack of Hallows-related scolding. But then, his reaction to the "is it worth it?" line is so dramatic, that definitely shifts his thinking, so idk.
I think he's a bit slow on picking up on it because he's been using the Sundial, and it took a lot out of him - last time he tried it, it looked pretty similar, and he passed out from that! And then he's just glad Shen Wei isn't being too pushy about scolding him, so everything takes longer than usual to really sink in. It works for me.
I've written six of these! LOL.
Hee! There can never be enough! :D
Also, here's no record of anyone coming back after entering a wormhole. (The fact that he adds this makes me think Ye Zun, who saw the wormhole sucking up Kunlun, must have figured out the time travel too, by now ...)
I'm not sure how that follows?
I mean that Ye Zun, when talking about time travel, brings up wormholes - so he thinks (correctly) that time travelling means going into a wormhole. How does he know that? Presumably this doesn't actually happen often ... but it did happen once, right in front of him, with Kunlun. I figured he'd made the connection between Zhao Yunlan and Kunlun and the wormhole, and that's how he knows about time travel involving wormholes.
He's like the Nightmare Guy pretending to be Changcheng in the street outside the SID -- so close to getting what he wants that the performance starts to completely disintegrate.
Yeah, this! Great point, that's very much a parallel.
I wonder what would have happened if he'd shot straight away, rather than talking first. (I love that he's mostly a talk-first kind of guy, though.)
Like I said above in another comment, I don't think it would have made much of a difference, but yeah, I love that about him too!
Well, not based on whether it's worth it for them personally, anyway.
Definitely not based on "these people have been awful to me, so I won't bother trying to protect them"!
I feel like the failure of Wang Zheng and Sang Zan's sacrifice to change anything kind of foreshadows the ending: Ye Zun is so powerful that the ultimate triumph against him is just having Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan's sacrifices actually be meaningful and effective at stopping him.
Oooh, yes, now that you say it, that makes so much sense! Completely agreed, and that's really well constructed!
This makes me wonder (again) what conditions are required for the Hallows to activate like that.
It's hard to say! They're so erratic otherwise in what they do and when ... there might not be a rhyme or a reason at all. Or maybe it's just that Zhao Yunlan has become the kind of person he needs to be, to be Kunlun?
Which is fair enough, I think?
Oh, yeah, for sure! And he was thinking about going back a few weeks, not ten thousand years! It's just funny to me because he goes from suggesting time travel to actually time travelling without realising at first. *g*
I wonder how much it's a response to the attack on Lin Jing, and Wang Zheng and Sang Zan's sacrifice? He's at war now, almost as much as the young!Envoy is.
I think Wang Zheng and Sang Zan's sacrifice have to be a big part of it, even if the drama doesn't dwell on it. It's the first time he's suffered that kind of loss on his team - presumably the first time he's lost people close to him since his mother. (Which might also be why he sees his mother in the Hallows void?) So that makes everything so much more real and dangerous, and he's willing to do a lot to prevent it from happening again.
Although Zhao Yunlan is hurt, too. His knee!
Yeah, but Shen Wei's two men could barely stand. He should have been able to keep up if there were no powers involved.
(Does he say master there, or boss? I was wondering if it was more "of course I know your name, I'm your SID chief" equivalent? He doesn't know for sure he's Da Qing's master until the bells, does he?
The word he uses is 主子 - true, there's previous talk of a master Da Qing doesn't remember, and Zhao Yunlan obviously doesn't know that's him, but I think one of the things he's very sure about in his relationship with Da Qing is that Da Qing is his cat, previous other masters or no.
Ha, I wonder if the contemporary Yashou play down their ancient involvement so people won't expect anything of them. :D
Haha, could be! They clearly don't want to be bothered by people.
And I love how the fact that it's time travel (vs reincarnation), as well as being super romantic and time-loopy, also means we can have these ancient-past events play out on screen with a very contemporary Haixing sensibility/POV. If it had been pure flashback from Shen Wei's pov, it could have been very serious and earnest, but because we see it all through Zhao Yunlan's eyes, it's immensely poignant and engaging, but still with these ridiculous comic moments and modern context as we see all the time-loopy realisations fall into place. <3 <3 <3 3 <3 <3
This is such a good point!
And it's also the pay-off for Zhao Yunlan's character arc. He's got to a point now where he can be very real with young!Shen Wei.
Yes! And his sincerity and openness with his feelings - as you say, despite all the joking and teasing, the genuine sentiment is just unmistakable - are exactly why he's having such an impact on young Shen Wei.
But now I'm wondering if it's more a reaction to Shen Wei putting off his own pleasure (smiling).
If so, it's on one hand true (Shen Wei absolutely does that) and very presumptuous (because some rando you don't know asking you to smile is an imposition, not a pleasure). He's lucky Shen Wei likes him being OTT/extra like that. *g*
no subject
I wonder if the doll actually burned, too, and Chu Shuzhi was so off-balance when he reached Dixing that he'd kind of forgotten when he went to dig him up. If not, how did the doll survive the fire?
Depends on the materials, and how well protected a corner it ended up in - people are a lot more vulnerable.
Good question about how the doll got salvaged, though! I figure it might be connected with just how Chu Shuzhi can know about his brother's use of his power in that moment ...
Does it explicitly say that Chu Nianzhi's power was puppet-related? I was wondering if he might have a power like Zhang Shi. Or if not, does that mean that Chu Shuzhi puts a piece of himself inside his puppets so they can act independently, and Nianzhi just took that to extremes and vacated his own body in the process?
It doesn't explicitly say, no, I just assumed - but it doesn't seem very like Zhang Shi to me; I don't think Zhang Shi can put himself into inanimate objects.
I love the idea that Chu Shuzhi's puppet control works by putting a piece of himself into them, and that's why they can act without him ... But maybe Chu Shuzhi's power is controlling puppets, and Nianzhi's power was inhabiting them, related but different. It's all ambiguous; I guess we get to pick and choose. *g*
And whoever took it was a grave robber. /o\
Yeah, and by taking the puppet desecrated Nianzhi's grave. No wonder Chu Shuzhi reacts as badly as he does!
Which kind of makes me wonder how they thought their research was going to end, you know?
I think Li Qian at least would have been more excited earlier, but now there's open conflict between the Inspectorate and the SID, and Professor Ouyang has been getting increasingly irrational and obsessed, and it's all no longer about science for her.
For the same reason that all the problems in BtVS only ever affected Sunnydale, I expect. :-)
LOL!
Checking in with Shen Wei?
Oh, yes, good thought! Damn, now I want a missing scene where not only does Zhao Yunlan go and check up on Shen Wei's recuperating, he brings Da Qing and Chu Shuzhi with him! I wonder what Shen Wei makes of that ...
This episodes has hands-down my favourite Cong Bo scenes. I love him stepping up when Zhu Hong is too shaken and furious to think straight. <3
Yeah, this is a good episode for him!
I'd argue this moment is proof Zhao Yunlan has come a long way, too. He's putting the lessons he learned in Zhu Hong's dream into action here, aware of his importance to his team, being supportive rather than fake sarcastic or making jokes.
Yeah, agreed - he used to be practically allergic to sincerity, and now he's capable of being entirely sincere when called for, without trying to downplay his feelings or hiding behind jokes. Which is where he needs to be before he goes to YOHE!
I also feel like this works to resolve the previous, mostly-forgotten discord between them before Chu Shuzhi's dream started. Then Zhao Yunlan was telling Chu Shuzhi that if he wasn't happy, he should leave; now he's saying Chu Shuzhi is an intrinsic part of the team, they're all in it together.
I guess that works if you look at it that way, but honestly I didn't think it needed resolving? It's already become entirely irrelevant to both of them; neither of them cares about that argument any more.
LOL, every time this happens on TV, I think, "But if [A] just saw/heard it, by the time [B] turns on the TV/radio, the news story will have moved on to something else!"
Haha, I know! The only way it would work is if they were broadcasting the same thing on a loop, LOL.
Which, wow! /o\ (I wonder which Dixingren they think he colluded with. Is that why there's also a warrant out on Shen Wei? ;-p)
Ha, could be! (I figure they meant he's colluding with the Black-Cloaked Envoy. Which he is!)
Because Zhao Yunlan's car wasn't exactly chosen with the possibility of being a fugitive in mind
(Is that the last time we see the car? Does he get it back at any point? Something to keep an eye out for.)
I don't remember either! Will be interesting to see.
I love that even here, he sticks to his principle (I presume) of not hurting humans with his powers. (The only times I remember his using his powers on humans are removing the security people(?)'s memories after he's talked to Wu Tian'en in the street, and hypnotising Jiajia and Xiao Quan on the field trip(?).)
Yeah, he's pretty consistent with that! I figured he froze them before talking to Wu Tian'en, and what we see is him unfreezing them. But yeah, that's one of the few times he uses his powers on humans. He also uses them on Tan Xiao, but that's under very different circumstances.
I don't know if that's Zhang Shi? It's a very Zhao Xinci attitude, too. Never regret, never look back (even if you should)! I could go either way on that.
It doesn't seem like Zhao Xinci to me; Zhao Xinci very much wants his son to change his mind, whereas Zhang Shi is fine with the path Zhao Yunlan is on.
And just the idea of Shen Wei a) thinking about clothes at a time like this, and b) consulting Zhao Yunlan about fashion at all is so ludicrous, I can't help feeling that, even dazed from the Dial, he must know something's wrong -- even without the lack of Hallows-related scolding. But then, his reaction to the "is it worth it?" line is so dramatic, that definitely shifts his thinking, so idk.
I think he's a bit slow on picking up on it because he's been using the Sundial, and it took a lot out of him - last time he tried it, it looked pretty similar, and he passed out from that! And then he's just glad Shen Wei isn't being too pushy about scolding him, so everything takes longer than usual to really sink in. It works for me.
I've written six of these! LOL.
Hee! There can never be enough! :D
Also, here's no record of anyone coming back after entering a wormhole. (The fact that he adds this makes me think Ye Zun, who saw the wormhole sucking up Kunlun, must have figured out the time travel too, by now ...)
I'm not sure how that follows?
I mean that Ye Zun, when talking about time travel, brings up wormholes - so he thinks (correctly) that time travelling means going into a wormhole. How does he know that? Presumably this doesn't actually happen often ... but it did happen once, right in front of him, with Kunlun. I figured he'd made the connection between Zhao Yunlan and Kunlun and the wormhole, and that's how he knows about time travel involving wormholes.
He's like the Nightmare Guy pretending to be Changcheng in the street outside the SID -- so close to getting what he wants that the performance starts to completely disintegrate.
Yeah, this! Great point, that's very much a parallel.
I wonder what would have happened if he'd shot straight away, rather than talking first. (I love that he's mostly a talk-first kind of guy, though.)
Like I said above in another comment, I don't think it would have made much of a difference, but yeah, I love that about him too!
Well, not based on whether it's worth it for them personally, anyway.
Definitely not based on "these people have been awful to me, so I won't bother trying to protect them"!
I feel like the failure of Wang Zheng and Sang Zan's sacrifice to change anything kind of foreshadows the ending: Ye Zun is so powerful that the ultimate triumph against him is just having Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan's sacrifices actually be meaningful and effective at stopping him.
Oooh, yes, now that you say it, that makes so much sense! Completely agreed, and that's really well constructed!
This makes me wonder (again) what conditions are required for the Hallows to activate like that.
It's hard to say! They're so erratic otherwise in what they do and when ... there might not be a rhyme or a reason at all. Or maybe it's just that Zhao Yunlan has become the kind of person he needs to be, to be Kunlun?
Which is fair enough, I think?
Oh, yeah, for sure! And he was thinking about going back a few weeks, not ten thousand years! It's just funny to me because he goes from suggesting time travel to actually time travelling without realising at first. *g*
I wonder how much it's a response to the attack on Lin Jing, and Wang Zheng and Sang Zan's sacrifice? He's at war now, almost as much as the young!Envoy is.
I think Wang Zheng and Sang Zan's sacrifice have to be a big part of it, even if the drama doesn't dwell on it. It's the first time he's suffered that kind of loss on his team - presumably the first time he's lost people close to him since his mother. (Which might also be why he sees his mother in the Hallows void?) So that makes everything so much more real and dangerous, and he's willing to do a lot to prevent it from happening again.
Although Zhao Yunlan is hurt, too. His knee!
Yeah, but Shen Wei's two men could barely stand. He should have been able to keep up if there were no powers involved.
(Does he say master there, or boss? I was wondering if it was more "of course I know your name, I'm your SID chief" equivalent? He doesn't know for sure he's Da Qing's master until the bells, does he?
The word he uses is 主子 - true, there's previous talk of a master Da Qing doesn't remember, and Zhao Yunlan obviously doesn't know that's him, but I think one of the things he's very sure about in his relationship with Da Qing is that Da Qing is his cat, previous other masters or no.
Ha, I wonder if the contemporary Yashou play down their ancient involvement so people won't expect anything of them. :D
Haha, could be! They clearly don't want to be bothered by people.
And I love how the fact that it's time travel (vs reincarnation), as well as being super romantic and time-loopy, also means we can have these ancient-past events play out on screen with a very contemporary Haixing sensibility/POV. If it had been pure flashback from Shen Wei's pov, it could have been very serious and earnest, but because we see it all through Zhao Yunlan's eyes, it's immensely poignant and engaging, but still with these ridiculous comic moments and modern context as we see all the time-loopy realisations fall into place. <3 <3 <3 3 <3 <3
This is such a good point!
And it's also the pay-off for Zhao Yunlan's character arc. He's got to a point now where he can be very real with young!Shen Wei.
Yes! And his sincerity and openness with his feelings - as you say, despite all the joking and teasing, the genuine sentiment is just unmistakable - are exactly why he's having such an impact on young Shen Wei.
But now I'm wondering if it's more a reaction to Shen Wei putting off his own pleasure (smiling).
If so, it's on one hand true (Shen Wei absolutely does that) and very presumptuous (because some rando you don't know asking you to smile is an imposition, not a pleasure). He's lucky Shen Wei likes him being OTT/extra like that. *g*