Sunday six but not really

[marcicat]

Instead of six sentences I've written, here are six Guardian questions I'm pondering:

*The Dixingian with the paralyzing gas power, who teamed up with the face-stealer -- did we ever get a name for her other than Zhang Danni? Because I thought that was one of her victims' names, but now I'm confused.

*Ah ha! Mi Lu is the name for the forest-illusion Dixingian who was working with Ye Zun -- what happened to her? Because I think maybe they just knocked her out and left her in the forest, which is -- okay, it was a stressful time, I get that.

*Hypothetically, if you were flying a spaceship to an alien planet, would you prefer to arrive the first time via shuttlecraft, or some sort of beaming technology?

*When Shen Wei told Zhao Yunlan that most of the people he was seeing in the streets of Dixing didn't have powers, did he mean they don't have powers *yet,* or do lots of them not have powers? Because based on the poor treatment of Zhu Jiu for his perceived lack of powers, that raises some troubling questions about class discrimination in Dixing.

*Can all of the Yashou do a partial transformation like Zhu Hong's snake tail in the first episode? (Da Ji did a claw thing that looked very magical, but I'm not sure Cat Tribe should be representative of anything, really.)

*Does Lin Jing's sensor not pick up Shen Wei because he's not using *his* power when he pops in and out? Because while that logically makes some sense, A) I'm not convinced Lin Jing's sensor is picking up anything except 'traces of dark energy,' which would theoretically be present when Shen Wei used any Dixing power at all, and B) I wouldn't put it past Shen Wei to mess with the sensor just for funsies.

Comments

[starandrea]

*Hypothetically, if you were flying a spaceship to an alien planet, would you prefer to arrive the first time via shuttlecraft, or some sort of beaming technology?

...The more I think about this, the more I think "beaming," even though my first reaction is "shuttlecraft." I want to be able to see where I'm going, right, and have warning signs as I get closer to possible danger so I can turn around if necessary, as opposed to just beaming in past the warning signs and maybe having it be too late when I get there to abort. But if I have the technological capability to beam, presumably I have the capability to... see where I'm going? And if I can beam there, presumably I can beam back? I guess logically it seems less risky to beam in - only one thing to go wrong, and only one person to risk, as opposed to taking a shuttle - lots of things to go wrong, and at least one person and one piece of equipment at risk.

*When Shen Wei told Zhao Yunlan that most of the people he was seeing in the streets of Dixing didn't have powers, did he mean they don't have powers *yet,* or do lots of them not have powers? Because based on the poor treatment of Zhu Jiu for his perceived lack of powers, that raises some troubling questions about class discrimination in Dixing.

It does! Good call! But also... didn't they supposedly get powers through mutation caused by exposure to the stronger energy at the center of the planet? How many of those mutations are passed down genetically (not a lot, maybe, if you assume 1) the two sets of twins we saw had different powers (debatable), and 2) Butler Wu's kid didn't get either of his parents' powers (also debatable)) and how many are new each generation, as kids grow up and mutate on their own, leading to the "coming of age" powers that it's implied Shen Wei, Ye Zun, and possibly Zhu Jiu experienced? I mean, my point being, maybe you have to be around long enough to have powers? The people we saw on the streets did look sort of young, maybe (?) relatively speaking.

*Can all of the Yashou do a partial transformation like Zhu Hong's snake tail in the first episode? (Da Ji did a claw thing that looked very magical, but I'm not sure Cat Tribe should be representative of anything, really.)

Given the almost zero overlap with Dixing powers in the show and demon powers in the novel, I probably shouldn't even try to make this comparison, but for what it's worth, in the novel, transforming into a human was an advanced skill that animal shapeshifters (again, their overlap with Yashou is limited, but I'm going there anyway!) didn't learn until they were old(er, ish). So if there's any parallel to be drawn there (and yeah, I'm not sure there is, but) it might be that any Yashou we see as a human is good enough at transforming to have that kind of... control, over partial forms?

Okay, no, you should probably strike that whole argument. That's just me thinking out loud; it doesn't make much sense when I write it down.

♥!

[marcicat]

Thank you! That's a good point about the beaming -- presumably if they can beam you, they could beam you some stuff too, if you wanted it! Or just beam you back if you wanted a snack!