Poll: Location, location, location (drama)

[china_shop]

Poll #33318 Location, location, location

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 16

View Respondents

What's your favourite location in the show?

View Answers

the main room at the SID
9 (60.0%)

Zhao Yunlan's flat
10 (66.7%)

Shen Wei's office
3 (20.0%)

the Dijun's palace
0 (0.0%)

the Sky Pillar in its field of ruins
4 (26.7%)

the SID lab
2 (13.3%)

the Inspectorate lab
0 (0.0%)

Shen Wei's flat
4 (26.7%)

the streets of Dragon City
3 (20.0%)

the streets of Dixing
3 (20.0%)

the Dixing bar
4 (26.7%)

the Allied Forces Head Quarters (YOHE)
0 (0.0%)

other (please specify)
2 (13.3%)

When we first see Da Qing in Ye Olde Haixing Era, how long has he been wandering around looking for Kunlun?

View Answers

thanks to the Hallows' planning, only a few hours
2 (12.5%)

a day or less
3 (18.8%)

several days
1 (6.2%)

one to two weeks
0 (0.0%)

he kept getting distracted chasing mice and birds, so more than two weeks
6 (37.5%)

Shen Wei sent news of his benefactor (short hair; strange weapon) to Ma Gui and Fu You, who did the math and sent Da Qing out to find him, so less than an hour
9 (56.2%)

other (please specify)
1 (6.2%)

Comments

[china_shop]

Or maybe other healers are seeing to his men, and he's grimacing and sweating as he heals himself? ;D

[trobadora]

I think he'd make sure first that all his people are going to be okay, and then heal himself, but yeah! *g*

[china_shop]

Aw, this makes me want the camp to have one of those crusty, bossy, fearless medic types who can say, "I've got this, you're just getting in the way. Go and tend to yourself."

[trobadora]

Aw! That would be nice.

[facethestrange]

AWWW! He needs people like that so much. ♡ People who will tell him 'you're being too serious business', lol. (And he clearly has never met any of them until Kunlun, which is one of the reasons why it's such a shock. AW.)

[china_shop]

Yeah, I suspect everyone in the Allied Forces is pretty serious business, even Fu You (who seems generally kind and to have a sense of humour). Difficult times. :-(

[facethestrange]

On some level it's probably everyone (or nearly everyone - I think there must be jokers and pranksters in every military :D), but I feel like Shen Wei is particularly serious, and all the reverence only reinforces that - people hold back around him while maybe not holding back around each other.

[trobadora]

That's how I see it too, yeah. He needs people who won't hold back around him, but until Kunlun, no one actually does that. They all think it would be inappropriate/disrespectful, and/or are too tongue-tied around their hero.

[facethestrange]

Yep, this, exactly! It creates/reinforces one of his metaphorical masks. I wish he had met other people who don't hold back, just because it would have been nicer for him, but otoh I like it the way it is, with Zhao Yunlan being the first one. :D

[trobadora]

Yeah, ZYL being the first one is kind of essential to their entire mutual time-loopy arc, and I 100% like it that way, too. *g*

[china_shop]

Okay, this suddenly made me extremely curious about Shen Wei's arrival at the Allied Forces and, in particular, his first meeting with Fu You. Because I feel like she and Ma Gui would have been initially suspicious and defensive (Dixingren at HQ!!), but then they would have tried to get to know the Envoy, right? Because a) you need to know your allies, and b) they're basically good people (albeit preoccupied). So now I'm thinking that SW's isolation was something he believed about himself after the loss of Ye Zun, which became a self-fulfilling prophesy as he rebuffed anyone's attempt to know him and interpreted them accepting being rebuffed as fear or respect. (I mean, just mask + reputation + silence would be enough to deter most people, especially if they thought it meant SW didn't want company.) By which I mean, maybe it's not that ZYL is the first person who has tried to know him (though it obviously feels 100% like that to SW) -- he's just the first person who has blown right past the battlements and "Beware of the Envoy" signs SW has erected.

From Fu You's pov, I imagine she tried at first to form a closer working relationship (because personally and strategically speaking, why wouldn't you??), but when SW seemed to expect/want only polite respect and/or fear, she respected his wishes and has been treating him formally ever since.

tl;dr There are costs to choosing to be masked the whole time, and one of them is ~being known~. You can't blame other people for that!

[trobadora]

My take is a little different. I do think Shen Wei's isolation is in part a self-fulfilling prophecy, but not because he rebuffed any attempts - just the effects of the mask and the hood and the reputation (both his and that of Dixingren in general). IMO these alone were enough to stop most attempts from happening.

With Fu You and Ma Gui, I don't think they did try to form a closer relationship. My headcanon: the Envoy was leading his own group of Dixingren before they joined the alliance, and Ma Gui and Fu You were already leading a combined/allied human/Yashou group. These two groups came together in a tentative alliance with both sides initially wary of each other, and only gradually came to trust each other. And even so, there's still plenty that Ma Gui and Fu You are keeping from the Envoy. They're holding themselves apart from the Envoy - and once they decided to keep secrets about the timeline, that secret only kept them further appart.

[china_shop]

but not because he rebuffed any attempts - just the effects of the mask and the hood and the reputation (both his and that of Dixingren in general).

Yeah, that's mostly what I meant: passive rebuffing! But there's also the way he reacted to ZYL's approach in the HQ, that stern/unwelcoming, "You are?" (And given the context, he has reason to think this person an ally.)

And even so, there's still plenty that Ma Gui and Fu You are keeping from the Envoy. They're holding themselves apart from the Envoy

Idk, this feels very chicken-and-egg to me. He's holding himself apart, too, because he doesn't expect anyone to want to get to know him. (ETA: I am probably influenced by having just wanted a Kdrama about people needing to learn, in a variety of ways, how to let themselves be loved. ;-p)

ETA: That line DQ quotes in ep 26 (If I don't kill, it's for the sake of all people; if I have to kill, it's for the sake of the whole world.) -- do you think SW said that before or after Kunlun's arrival? (IOW, when would DQ have heard him say this?)

[trobadora]

But there's also the way he reacted to ZYL's approach in the HQ, that stern/unwelcoming, "You are?" (And given the context, he has reason to think this person an ally.)

Do you really think that was inappropriate of him?!

Regarding the line Da Qing quotes - it would make sense to me if it was before Kunlun, but after would, too.

[china_shop]

Do you really think that was inappropriate of him?!

No, not at all. I'm not saying any of this is inappropriate. But it's not the behaviour of someone trying to make connections, you know?

Regarding the line Da Qing quotes - it would make sense to me if it was before Kunlun, but after would, too.

Right. I'm just wondering what DQ and SW's relationship was like pre-Kunlun (ie, if they had one at all). Did DQ just witness SW making that statement to FY and MG, or did DQ and SW actually talk to each other at some point. That kind of wondering.

[trobadora]

I think we're looking at this too differently; let's leave it there.

Regarding SW and DQ, I don't think they had a relatonship pre-Kunlun - I don't think Da Qing was actually close to anyone except Fu You pre-Kunlun. And I don't think SW said those words to Da Qing in either case.

[china_shop]

<3 <3 <3

[china_shop]

I think there must be jokers and pranksters in every military :D

Yes, absolutely, if only as a coping mechanism. But now I'm wondering how much the Dixing contingent were more serious because they were taking their cue from SW's solitary, fearsome vibe... /o\

[facethestrange]

Around him, definitely! Not around him, it could really go either way imo, but yeah, I could see that they got so used to this vibe that they were subconsciously adopting it.