The Art of Dialogue and the kitchen knife scene

[china_shop]

I was watching a YouTube video about how to write snappy dialogue (banter) by heyjameshurst. The creator used examples from The Princess Bride, The Empire Strikes Back, His Girl Friday, and The West Wing to illustrate that good dialogue is like a tennis match, a playful competition, and in each volley the tension escalates to "a sudden, sharp reveal of truth."

Afterwards, I was thinking about it in terms of Guardian, and the first scene that came to mind was the kitchen knife scene. Wow, this is a stellar example of what the video talked about! It's dynamic because every line fires back in a way that is difficult for the other person to respond to. (Often they're reacting to the subtext -- or actually, what they perceive the other's subtext to be -- rather than the words, and sometimes slightly at cross-purposes, so lines that could be non-sequiturs feel seamless.) And the truth is forced out of them. It's so impressive!

ZYL: I woke up because I was hungry.
SW: *turns and drops the knife*
ZYL: *strides over and grabs his wrist* Don't you think of lying to me. What did you do in order to heal my eyes?
SW: *starts to leave*
ZYL: You used the Longevity Dial.
SW: *stops*
ZYL: *moves to his side* You shared your life force with mine. You used your power to neutralize the corrosion of my body. Am I right?
SW: My... My... My body's energy structure has suffered a severe blow. I need to exchange all my energy.
ZYL: It must hurt a lot.
SW: *ghastly smile* Fortunately... Fortunately, I'm used to getting injured.
ZYL: I do not deserve what you are doing for me.
SW: You're worth it.
ZYL: *explodes* Then, what do you want me to do? Be indebted to you? To bow to you? You are not immortal! Why should I so casually owe you a life?
SW: This life is what I'm returning to you.
ZYL: ??????
SW: You should rest soon.

There are so many truths here!! <3 <3 <3

Thinking about it also made me realise something about Shen Wei's initially trying to leave and his "Fortunately, I'm used to getting injured" line, which I will explain in six screencaps:













Newsflash, Shen Wei: Zhao Yunlan's tactics are no more reassuring or less infuriating when you try them.

Comments

[trobadora]

to me it's all factually right, but emotionally not right, lol. Like, 'that's the right thing to do in this situation' vs. 'it's not fair to be in this situation to begin with'

Ha, yes, this! You put that so succinctly. :D

My headcanon is that the energy exchange only works to cure ZYL is because SW has black energy, yeah; if it were a mundane injury, that wouldn't matter, but it's due to black energy corruption. And they're swapping corruption, aren't they? Instead of ZYL having black energy corruption, now SW has white energy corruption - there's an equivalence there, which to me fits with what the Sundial does.

[facethestrange]

"My headcanon is that the energy exchange only works to cure ZYL is because SW has black energy, yeah; if it were a mundane injury, that wouldn't matter, but it's due to black energy corruption. And they're swapping corruption, aren't they? Instead of ZYL having black energy corruption, now SW has white energy corruption - there's an equivalence there, which to me fits with what the Sundial does."

Yeah, I think so too, this explanation makes the most sense to me. Which means that no one other than Shen Wei could have done it at all even if they wanted to, which kinda puts it in a very different context. (But it's still a good thing that the only person who can do it is also someone who can handle it.)

[trobadora]

100% agreed with all of this!