30 Days of Guardian

[extrapenguin]

26. What Dixing power do you wish would've existed in the show?
Something hilariously stupid! As cracky as possible! We already got the ability to "harden one's lower body", so why not the ability to compact dirt into snowballs or whatever? Alternatively, something mundanely useful used for not-evil, like the person Ye Zun ate the "de-blood clothing" power from operating a laundry, or Bao Laosan with his soil-composition-altering power going into civil engineering or something. Zhu Jiu operating a taxi service. All the mundane or comedic uses of superpowers!

...in the realm of actually answering the question, I think something touch-based – say, being able to absorb all the information of a book, figure out people's true identities, all just by touch – would've been cool. Or some other sort of power that'd jeopardize Shen Wei's double identity separation. Or another person with Shen Wei's power of learning/study to be a spanner in the works!

1. Favorite episode
2. Favorite case
3. Least favorite case
4. Favorite Holy Tools arc
5. Least favorite Holy Tools arc
6. Which character would you resurrect?
7. Favorite SID member
8. Favorite guest character(s)
9. Favorite piece of worldbuilding
10. Favorite rarepair
11. Favorite headcanon
12. Least favorite headcanon
13. Favorite main villain
14. Favorite minor character relationship
15. Villain you’d like redeemed or whose redemption you liked
16. Favorite conversation between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei
17. Favorite bit missed on first watch but picked up on rewatch
18. Least favorite villain
19. Least favorite character
20. Most appealing point for a canon divergence AU
21. Sluttiest dresser award
22. Favorite science moment
23. Which two characters who didn't meet should have, and how might that scene go?
24. The one thing you most wish they'd expanded on because it was a cool idea and needed more details
25. What do you love most about the drama?
26. What Dixing power do you wish would've existed in the show?
27. What minor plot arc should have gotten another episode, and why?
28. Thoughts and feelings on the ending
29. Favorite interpretation of why the Hallows do the things they do
30. Favorite unanswered question (and what you want the answer to be)

Comments

[phyrry]

Ahhh, crack, sweet crack. There are so many ways to utilize superpowers in daily life! There was an extremely low-budget superhero movie made twenty years ago where the main (terrible) character gets offered a job as a welder because he can shoot lasers out of his arms. But most superhero stories never think about the practicalities! Bao Laosan would make a great civil engineer with that power, it's dangerously cool.

I think if Zhao Yunlan had gotten more of a chance to really work with his power, and hadn't already known Shen Wei's identity, that would have been a neat way to reveal it. ... Oh no, it's a new bunny: Hallows groping leads SID's Chief to learn about the Black-Cloaked Envoy's secret identity before he ever meets Professor Shen, and when he starts stalking the professor, he starts questioning his understanding of Dixing...

[extrapenguin]

There was an extremely low-budget superhero movie made twenty years ago where the main (terrible) character gets offered a job as a welder because he can shoot lasers out of his arms.
Yes, this! The grey economy of Dragon City should be based on use of Dixing powers by undocumented immigrants. (And then you'd get a complicated tension between the SID's law enforcement and pressure from above to not upset the magnates by deporting their cheap labor, which would be a cool thing to navigate in a story.)

Hallows groping leads SID's Chief to learn about the Black-Cloaked Envoy's secret identity before he ever meets Professor Shen, and when he starts stalking the professor, he starts questioning his understanding of Dixing...
This is an excellent plotbunny, and this quasi-power idea is even better than the "But what if Professor Ouyang's serum gave Zhao Yunlan a literal healing cock?" one!

[clevermanka]

if Zhao Yunlan had gotten more of a chance to really work with his power
I am very tired and must be having A Moment...can someone please remind me what ZYL's power turned out to be? I'm not remembering at all. *laugh-cry emoji*

[phyrry]

He sees glimpses of possible futures! A couple of examples (not exhaustive): episode 21, episode 28, both referring to his father being kidnapped later in 28 (at night, cough).

[clevermanka]

Ahhh, got it. I thought you meant after the serum injection...

[phyrry]

The grey economy of Dragon City should be based on use of Dixing powers by undocumented immigrants. (And then you'd get a complicated tension between the SID's law enforcement and pressure from above to not upset the magnates by deporting their cheap labor, which would be a cool thing to navigate in a story.)
Oh no, this has to go on the prompt spreadsheet now. 'Undocumented Workers With Superpowers Cause High-Level Political Tensions'? (It's not really flash exchange material - too complex - but I don't want to lose it.)

I have far too many plot bunnies for this fandom. Even if I don't get any new ones (and these were not the only new one for the day) I'll be writing on them for years.

[phyrry]

Nope, working purely from the Hallows groping.

[extrapenguin]

As phyrry said, it's the limited precognition he got from groping the Hallows, not the power of being supremely pissed off that he got from the serum injection. :P (Though consider the best fixit AU where the serum gives Zhao Yunlan a literal healing cock.)

[extrapenguin]

Yay that it's going on the spreadsheet! It's a bit too long for a flash exchange, but maybe a mini-bang or a longform exchange or just because? After your mountain of other plotbunnies has either been written or collapsed into a black hole under its own weight.

[phyrry]

Luckily, conceptual bunnies have no mass! I enjoy tossing stripped-down tags in flash exchanges because even if we never get around to writing them, there's a big pool of people who can use them and enjoy them, even if not in this fandom.

Longer exchange deadlines, so far, have proved a net negative to my productivity. If I could figure out how to get them to trip hyperfixation brain like flash exchanges do, that would help a lot. (Argh, neurochemistry, argh...)

[jo_lasalle]

or Bao Laosan with his soil-composition-altering power going into civil engineering

That would have been nice!

[extrapenguin]

I know! Just ... all the mundane/non-criminal/non-murdery uses for powers, please?