Guardian episode 16
Apr. 28th, 2020 12:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waterscrollI continue to not understand what is going on and have intense feelings anyway.
Zhao Yunlan goes on a tour and finds that Dixing is, well, a kind of shitty place to live. There are no schools (just like in terrible real life right now!) and also no hospitals. The government is nonfunctioning and there's random crime on the streets. (Although Haxing's government doesn't seem to be great either so maybe I shouldn't hold that against them.) People on the streets consider Lord Black Cloak a traitor.
Right now I'm having maybe a little too much sympathy for purple-haired villain who, as he says at the end of the episode, just wants Dixing people to be able to come up to Haxing. And while I do trust this show to resolve the central romance in a way that I'm more or less ok with, and fandom to fix anything I'm not ok with with, I am not sure if I can trust the show to resolve things for the Dixing people. This is making me nervous.
I do have some confidence in Zhao Yunlan personally, though, and in his ability to not let infatuation turn off his brain and moral compass. Here he expresses some confidence that his boyfriend is on the right side of this mess while still trying to figure out what is going on. It seems...odd...that Shen Wei would let him wander Dixing like that, no matter what the necessity, but I suppose this isn't a show that you watch for absence of plotholes. And Zhao Yunlan really is making the most of his time there. Watching him gather information in a freakishly competent way is quite satisfying, and shows that in his own way he's something of a match for his terrifyingly powerful boyfriend.
Meanwhile we get to know Zhao Yunlan's dad who is 1. awesome 2. weirdly hot and 3. a Dixing person? Something else? Which means that Yunlan is also part....? I am a little taken aback by this. And the bit about Zhao Yunlan and Zhu Hong having the same polarity... I am also not sure what to make of the talking pillar. Clearly there are some mysteries about Zhao Yunlan too, and right now I don't have any good guesses.
Zhao Yunlan goes on a tour and finds that Dixing is, well, a kind of shitty place to live. There are no schools (just like in terrible real life right now!) and also no hospitals. The government is nonfunctioning and there's random crime on the streets. (Although Haxing's government doesn't seem to be great either so maybe I shouldn't hold that against them.) People on the streets consider Lord Black Cloak a traitor.
Right now I'm having maybe a little too much sympathy for purple-haired villain who, as he says at the end of the episode, just wants Dixing people to be able to come up to Haxing. And while I do trust this show to resolve the central romance in a way that I'm more or less ok with, and fandom to fix anything I'm not ok with with, I am not sure if I can trust the show to resolve things for the Dixing people. This is making me nervous.
I do have some confidence in Zhao Yunlan personally, though, and in his ability to not let infatuation turn off his brain and moral compass. Here he expresses some confidence that his boyfriend is on the right side of this mess while still trying to figure out what is going on. It seems...odd...that Shen Wei would let him wander Dixing like that, no matter what the necessity, but I suppose this isn't a show that you watch for absence of plotholes. And Zhao Yunlan really is making the most of his time there. Watching him gather information in a freakishly competent way is quite satisfying, and shows that in his own way he's something of a match for his terrifyingly powerful boyfriend.
Meanwhile we get to know Zhao Yunlan's dad who is 1. awesome 2. weirdly hot and 3. a Dixing person? Something else? Which means that Yunlan is also part....? I am a little taken aback by this. And the bit about Zhao Yunlan and Zhu Hong having the same polarity... I am also not sure what to make of the talking pillar. Clearly there are some mysteries about Zhao Yunlan too, and right now I don't have any good guesses.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-28 07:04 pm (UTC)Dixing really is a hell hole (no pun intended). I blame the Regent for a lot.
If you want spoilers, I am your person.
He totally is and I love this so, so much. In the show, he's just an ordinary human but boy can he match the superpowered aliens!
Wait, Zhao Yunlan's dad is... awesome? Are we watching the same show? (I give you the 'hot' along with the 'weirdly'. The rest will become clear.)
The talking pillar is highly relevant.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-29 04:25 am (UTC)I'm sure you know but I think for the moment I'd like to flail around misunderstanding things and wildly speculating for a bit more. I may take you up on the offer of spoilers a bit later.
Also thinking about Shen Wei as a professor coming from a place where there are no schools, I mean he clearly values education, and it not happening in Dixing has to affect him somehow.
he's just an ordinary human but boy can he match the superpowered aliens!
Which is an interesting choice, to take a character who was a god in the novel and turn him into someone who doesn't *need* to be anything more than human because what he is as a human is enough.
(But if he's human, what is up with his dad? I guess I'll find out.)
no subject
Date: 2020-04-29 06:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-29 05:18 pm (UTC)There are no schools (just like in terrible real life right now!) and also no hospitals. The government is nonfunctioning and there's random crime on the streets.
...WHAT.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-29 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-29 07:21 pm (UTC)Also this changes my view of mirror thief - I think she probably appreciated school way more than the girl she replaced. (Although also...how did she pass high school?)
I think it's the "no hospitals" that breaks my brain, personally. A city without any infrastructure for medical care sounds...just strange.
no subject
Date: 2020-04-29 07:41 pm (UTC)A city without any infrastructure for medical care sounds...just strange.
Yeah. :(
no subject
Date: 2020-04-29 08:29 pm (UTC)This makes me think about how light and air isn't really just about light and air...which is also something I am feeling right now.
I keep thinking about face stealing girl (wow there is a lot of thieving going on) and her boyfriend, and how they came aboveground and still weren't happy, because they had no one and no place to belong to.
And come to think of it, mirror girl too. I wonder what would have happened if she'd told her fiance she was a Dixing person and asked him to go to Dixing with her. But I don't think she would have, and realistically speaking that may just be swapping one kind of tragedy for another.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-02 12:32 am (UTC)*hearts*
Dixing youth seem to be literate so I assume what this means in practice is some level of informal home schooling. I mean, Dixing seems to be stuck in pre-industrial era, and did most Europeans go to school then? (I don't know! Now I have to go and ask wikipedia: Obligatory school attendance became common in parts of Europe during the 18th century.) I guess it partly depends what kind of work is available, how educated you need the population to be, and we never really find that out re Dixing.
I assume, wrt health care, that there are people with healing powers, and possibly herbalists and so on, but nothing we'd call a hospital and no modern medicine. But the healing powers might compensate for that pretty well?
Ha, I know, right? I spent a lot of my first watch going, "But why shouldn't they be able to escape their volcanic hellscape?!?"
Yes, I love that! Fwiw, I think Shen Wei lets him wander around because a) he has an escort, b) Zhao Yunlan can handle himself, and c) Shen Wei hasn't spent much time in Dixing in ages and doesn't really have a handle on how dangerous it can be or how much anti-Haixing sentiment there is around. (I don't know how much that's canon and how much that's my view of things.)
♥ ♥ ♥
Hee! I mean, I do find him very charismatic, but... I'm not sure I'd go with "awesome". *g* Looking forward to your reaction to the next episode. :-)
no subject
Date: 2020-05-03 01:54 am (UTC)It does seem to be the obvious question at this point!
So I take it that after the first watchthrough you stopped feeling that way? I keep feeling like I'm missing a lot my first time through.
Shen Wei hasn't spent much time in Dixing in ages and doesn't really have a handle on how dangerous it can be or how much anti-Haixing sentiment there is around.
I would really like to know what Shen Wei's thoughts are about his homeland being in such bad shape right now, what he knows and what he doesn't know, and if he has done or plans to do anything about it. Because that seems to be another obvious question.
Re: Zhao Xinci, I have a lot of sympathy for him showing up to find the division that he ran at great personal cost looking like a frat house, and some admiration for how despite that he managed to pull himself and the crew together and appreciate some of the good that was happening there. I ended up feeling a lot for his tragedy in episode 17 as well, again maybe more than I was supposed to.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-03 10:52 pm (UTC)Hmm, after the first watch I understood how it had ended up that way, and that the path that led there was paved with understandable steps and good intentions. And also that Zhu Jiu and his boss's agenda goes well beyond escape.
*bites tongue* :-) There's also the question of how much direct power and influence Shen Wei has in Dixing, in the face of the Regent and the King...
Ahaha, that is a great Zhao Xinci perspective! :D :D :D I don't see it that way (I think trying to impose Zhao Xinci-style order on the present-day SID team is missing the point of who they are and what their strengths are as a group) but I really like that POV. Thanks! <3
Yeah, I get that. He was in an impossible position, and of course Zhao Yunlan blames him for the loss of his mother, and it shaped his attitudes towards danger (ie, throwing himself in front of every bullet before it can hit anyone else), but it's not like Zhao Xinci made the decision lightly! Tragedy for everyone. :-(
Maybe I need a Zhao Xinci icon...
no subject
Date: 2020-05-04 01:47 pm (UTC)That makes sense, and I'm curious to see how it plays out.
He was in an impossible position, and of course Zhao Yunlan blames him for the loss of his mother, and it shaped his attitudes towards danger (ie, throwing himself in front of every bullet before it can hit anyone else), but it's not like Zhao Xinci made the decision lightly!
Yes, exactly. I can see why Yunlan blames him, but I couldn't blame him myself. Maybe it's also The Moment, as I sit here two months into pandemic parenting I'm not inclined to blame any parent for being unable to successfully resolve an impossible situation. But children do blame their parents for not being able to resolve an impossible situation, and we see things from Yunlan's perspective. Right now when I look at Yunlan and Xinci I see two basically good people pushed apart rather than together by their shared traumas and tragedies. I wish there could be healing between them but it might not be possible.
But yes, I get that there's a lot that I don't know about Xinci yet, so the 'basically good' might not hold up once I get to know him better. But I think I'm going to be inclined to read him sympathetically to the extent that canon allows.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-05 09:33 pm (UTC)*sends hugs and fortitude*
I think by their different values, too. Zhao Yunlan is committed to peace between all the people (humans, Yashou and Dixingren), and Zhao Xinci is concerned with protecting humans above all else. That's what really sets fandom against him, imo.
*nodnod* I tend to use him as a villain in fic, but I like him more than a lot of people do. Hence the icons! :-)
no subject
Date: 2020-05-06 12:25 am (UTC)Thank you.
Zhao Yunlan is committed to peace between all the people (humans, Yashou and Dixingren), and Zhao Xinci is concerned with protecting humans above all else. That's what really sets fandom against him, imo.
I can completely understand why that would make people not like him. I guess I can also see how both ways of thinking would make sense as a response to the kinds of challenges they both face in SID. I could imagine a plotline in which they learn to see the value in each other's perspectives, but it sounds like canon isn't going to go there.
I'm also thinking about the conversation where Shen Wei talks about how much Yunlan has changed in his attitudes towards Dixing people. That was confusing at the time since I don't think I've ever seen Yunlan be all that negative towards Dixing people, but maybe there's a backstory of him sharing his dad's attitudes and then changing his thinking?
Your icons are lovely, thank you for the link and I'm glad to have been part of the inspiration.
no subject
Date: 2020-05-06 10:39 am (UTC)Yes, and in response to the different social and professional expectations they grew up with. Zhao Xinci came specifically from a policing background and tends to tar all Dixingren with the same brush, I think.
Yeah, we never see that, but there are a few references to it, especially early on.
Glad you like the icons, yay! :-)