Shiguang Dailiren Episode 7 Discussion

WaterzBailed54 said:
Don't have time to watch the episode at the moment, but making this post so that I can edit the title.

PaninaManina said:
Now we can finally say that the cracks appeared. It's not easy at all to write a story like this without created a lot of holes and other small details that you can noticed an ruin the experience for you.

PaninaManina said:
For example, Xiaoshi went into the photo, to the past, and was seen by Xiao. When they went back to the present was like this didn't had happened in their current present. Xiao mentions that he was outside the country making an explanation impossible, her friend even phoned him to make sure he didn't had got back to the country. Xiaoshi appearance should had left a big impression on that moments diminishing greatly the memory of Doudou getting kidnapped. The chances of Xiao forgetting the incident and feeling no regret are strong, and she could very well blame her failure to act on Xiaoshi.
When she talked and asked forgiveness to the father was like this didn't had happened, nothing had changed, but then letter the story tells you that the past in fact changed, Xiaoshi was even catch by the cameras allowing the detective to discover their powers.
This is a plot hole.

PaninaManina said:
Now, there's other that it's arguable...
After they discovered's Doudou photo, wasn't the case immediately solved?
Just looking into the photo, even with Doudou drugged Lu would be able to describe a sketch of the kidnapper face. There are a number of ways how they could solve this case.
But when Xiaoshi entered the photo... he could just not be kidnapped, right? The goal was this, save Doudou. There was a right possibility that he was already dead after three years so the best alternative was to enter the photo and just walk back inside the store. Done, Doudou saved.
This is a moment when the lack of exposition may makes things more complicated to the anime. We didn't see Lu and Xiaoshi discussing about how to do the work, what would the best way to do the work, we didn't see and can't say it didn't happened, but the way they acted makes us doubt. Instead of discovering what happened with Doudou or saving him, instead of doing what the father asked them to do, they did their own thing, try to get the kidnapper. What they did was wrong, just getting information about her identity to give the police would risk Doudou life if he wasn't alive anymore in the original present. Xiaoshi saved the day half by accident, by his impulse (MASTER SIWEN!). Maybe scaring the kidnapper that way saved his life. They saved his life but it was half by accident.
They're not very good at their jobs.

One reason I'm giving a lot of thoughts to this is that if you think by another angle what they did had the biggest positive effect they could achieve. Not only Doudou's life was assured, by making the kidnapper do the contrary and take care of him probably saved a lot of other children lives. This change in the story probably prevented a lot of other kidnappings to happen, but the problem is like I already described if this happened by accident and was not their intention. We don't have how to know because there's no exposition in this anime.

theGodde said:

that said
I think you have to remember the rules of this show.
The outcome will not change unless a node is changed. Lu himself is the only character capable of perceiving which events are nodes, and so since he had no problem with their actions, we can surmise that the overall outcome is the same. This cannot apply to the above plothole with Xiao since apparently motivations and context for the events can change within this node (like the kidnapper changing her ways).

The main point is that he can't not get kidnapped because that is an obvious node that would cause a paradox. If he never gets kidnapped, his father never comes to them, and they never enter the photo. Since there has never been a paradox in this show, we don't know what the consequences are and we can assume that that is to be avoided at all costs. This is basic stuff that was outlined and emphasised heavily in the country basketball arc (I don't know what else to call it so I'll stick to that).
does this help you understand a bit more?
Overall the plot is pretty tight, it's just with Xiao's reaction at the end where she didn't mention Xiaoshi's interference at all that is a bit of a problem. We can assume they discussed it offscreen but it was something we needed to see.


on an alternative note, with that ending we can assume the entire plot has come full circle. The consequences of ep 1 have caught up with them and I really like how it's reintroduced into the story. A good example of Chekov's gun.

PaninaManina said:

For example, Xiaoshi went into the photo, to the past, and was seen by Xiao. When they went back to the present was like this didn't had happened in their current present. Xiao mentions that he was outside the country making an explanation impossible, her friend even phoned him to make sure he didn't had got back to the country. Xiaoshi appearance should had left a big impression on that moments diminishing greatly the memory of Doudou getting kidnapped. The chances of Xiao forgetting the incident and feeling no regret are strong, and she could very well blame her failure to act on Xiaoshi.
When she talked and asked forgiveness to the father was like this didn't had happened, nothing had changed, but then letter the story tells you that the past in fact changed, Xiaoshi was even catch by the cameras allowing the detective to discover their powers.
This is a plot hole.

ChaosK9 said:
AHHH! We're really going back to (hopefully save) Emma! I thought her return would be hinted for a couple more episodes since I thought the last couple of episodes would be the last arc to cover Emma. Since I thought Emma's case would be the last major arc, perhaps it will be a 3-4 episode arc (or 2-3 episodes if episode 5.5 counts towards the 11 episodes)?

I bet Lu Guang will decline the case for the sake of Cheng Xiaoshi... only for Cheng Xiaoshi to eventually find out somehow. I feel like it might take the whole next episode for them to finally accept the case.

Edit:

The kidnapper waking up was stuff of nightmares. Reminds me of Queen Vanessa in the Hat in Time video game.

Also, I find it a bit sad that the picture of Emma shows her as very tired/overworked. The eye bags even makes me want to rest my eyes.

ilalochezia said:
This episode felt lackluster compared to the other ones because it featured the same old 'bad person gets caught' trope, even complete with the 'bad person starts to repent' part. Previous episodes actually felt unexpected and as a result more fulfilling.

ilalochezia said:
Adding on to the fact that the production team appears to be making up the story as it goes along, this difficulty of working with the genre of time travel is really setting the stage for a bad ending.

theGodde said:
I think you have to remember the rules of this show.
The outcome will not change unless a node is changed. Lu himself is the only character capable of perceiving which events are nodes, and so since he had no problem with their actions, we can surmise that the overall outcome is the same. This cannot apply to the above plothole with Xiao since apparently motivations and context for the events can change within this node (like the kidnapper changing her ways).

The main point is that he can't not get kidnapped because that is an obvious node that would cause a paradox. If he never gets kidnapped, his father never comes to them, and they never enter the photo. Since there has never been a paradox in this show, we don't know what the consequences are and we can assume that that is to be avoided at all costs. This is basic stuff that was outlined and emphasised heavily in the country basketball arc (I don't know what else to call it so I'll stick to that).
does this help you understand a bit more?

elany said:

As for this part, let's remember that this moment doesn't exist in a vacuum. Qiao Ling has lived with these events for 3 years already, her seeing Cheng Xiaoshi is something she could've easily justified as soon as she had learnt about their abilities, none of that even compares to the very immediate guilt of being faced with the consequences of her (in)actions. Something else happening alongside the original event doesn't change the fact that she could've - or at least feels like she could've - prevented a a child from being kidnapped and honestly? Very few things could possibly trump that in somebody's mind.

PaninaManina said:

What? This kidnapper is the first real "bad person" in this story. The executive in the first episode was a "shitty" person. The other stories weren't about bad or good anything at all.


I don't think this is the case.

PaninaManina said:

The rules don't cover this.
In other thread I talked a bit about what I think how the time changing works.
What is a "node"? I think it's only about what affects both of them, and only that. It's not about "the world", is about them.

Also, the Baseball Arc. I also discussed a bit about this. Remember that Xiaoshi never met the client before the job? In the end of the arc he goes to the story to reveal the photos and talk with Xiaoshi and it's like he doesn't know him. So there's a strong impression there that Baseball Arc Client never went to the studio before that moment in the altered present.

This is a problem with this anime, again, the lack of exposition makes us waste time discussing this trying to understand. In the end I don't think it's that relevant, it only gets in the way of telling the stories they want to tell.
(and there's a lot of important questions to be made, like, how much they ask for the job? And if happens that the present is changing leading to the client not going to their studio anymore, how they are paid? I had thought they charge before hand, but in those cases the money would disappear. They're handling this problem the best way they can, not addressing it in any way)

ilalochezia said:
for the second point there technically is no evidence to back up my claim.

TruongfromVN said:

Nah i doubt Emma would be saved cause Gu Lang said you can't change death (hence episode 5). Also maybe it's just me but the killer probably got some connections with Gu Lang

TruongfromVN said:

Nah i doubt Emma would be saved cause Gu Lang said you can't change death (hence episode 5). Also maybe it's just me but the killer probably got some connections with Gu Lang

PaninaManina said:

The rules don't cover this.
In other thread I talked a bit about what I think how the time changing works.
What is a "node"? I think it's only about what affects both of them, and only that. It's not about "the world", is about them.

Also, the Baseball Arc. I also discussed a bit about this. Remember that Xiaoshi never met the client before the job? In the end of the arc he goes to the story to reveal the photos and talk with Xiaoshi and it's like he doesn't know him. So there's a strong impression there that Baseball Arc Client never went to the studio before that moment in the altered present.

This is a problem with this anime, again, the lack of exposition makes us waste time discussing this trying to understand. In the end I don't think it's that relevant, it only gets in the way of telling the stories they want to tell.
(and there's a lot of important questions to be made, like, how much they ask for the job? And if happens that the present is changing leading to the client not going to their studio anymore, how they are paid? I had thought they charge before hand, but in those cases the money would disappear. They're handling this problem the best way they can, not addressing it in any way)

PaninaManina said:

Now something for people to think about: Lu Guang is the "Hidden Last Boss".

soughtflower said:
alrighty, so that took an unexpected turn where dou dou started doing some moves LMFAO??? laughed a bit when dou dou punched her, and laughed again when our trio came in all dressed up www

happy ending for the family, i'm glad that it did not end brutally. seems like that was just a beginning introduction to a more serious case that we have on our hands now.. welcome back emma, we all missed you! this is fine, there is most definitely going to be an unhappy ending for this series (in which i hope as well ngl)

https://youtu.be/SPXtxem1grM, this is a youtube link to cheng xiaoshi's character pv. the thing that stands out to me the most is the sequence in the beginning with all of the case files of our main trio.. is anyone able to translate the text? i am most worried about how it says 'all information contained is most confidential, please destroy in one week'

skulaathens said:
Personally this is the only show I'm really invested in at the moment and I really hope they're able to wrap up the story in a way that makes sense or hold suspense and keep us guessing until a cliffhanger for a season 2. I really love the vibe of the show so I would hate to see the ambitious concept squandered during the last arc. I'm still really hopeful.

jr_paperbag said:
Seems like even if they change or alter something drastic, it can still conform back to their timeline/reality, so long as they do not intervene something that they already know will happen (especially a node). So, anywhere outside of their knowledge zone is a black box and they are kinda free to do whatever they want so long it does not directly affect the zone.

Kinda like Schrodinger's cat, where in the present, you wouldn't know if Doudou is alive or dead, or whatever is happening to him (but you know he is in the box). Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi's ability is to go back in time and enter this box together with Doudou, alter whatever they need to, as long as it doesn't affect anything outside of the box. This way, your current present timeline will never be altered and when they open the box, they can get the result they want.

Surely Cheng Xiaoshi will discover that one of his action earlier causes Emma's death. Can't wait to see how that will turn out.

Great episode, I had to pause and laugh when he sucker-punch the lady.

Biyle said:
the girl was back there in the cameras too so how did they single out the dude as the guy going back

Gween_Gween said:

They probably watched the videos before since they were investigating the case

Biyle said:


can they even perceive the changes in time? shouldn't the guy be there initially tho since it was in the past or did i miss something...

PaninaManina said:
Now something for people to think about: Lu Guang is the "Hidden Last Boss".

Joking, but I think he is hidden something from Xiaoshi.
Remember a past episode that he had a flashback/nightmare with his missing parents?
I suspect that in the past Lu used their power to do something about this and went very wrong. Or even Xiaoshi himself did and Lu knows. I have a suspicion that Lu rules about not asking questions is because of some past incident that affected them personally.

giveup-the-ghost said:
Well I'm glad this didn't have a grim ending and Duo Dou lived. I guess it's a good thing the kidnapper was so superstitious. Kind of have to suspend your sense of disbelief, no way something like this is realistic when it comes to child human traffickers. That's why I was expecting that Duo Dou would either be dead ,sold into child prostitution, organs harvested, who knows. This is set in China after all.

I found it weird how the episode was acting like a horror anime, and then jumps straight into slapstick comedy when Duo Duo starts beating up the kidnapper, like whaa??? it was kinda goofy.

I'm glad this arc was only 2 episodes. Now the the remaining episodes should focus on the "real" plot of the show by bringing back Emma's murder into the story, which was pretty clear it was gonna happen.

I do agree if you really start to analyze this how, you can find plot holes here and there. But that's pretty hard to avoid with any story that uses time travel and time manipulation. I also agree that LG and CX can be kind of bad at doing their job lol. Makes me wonder how long they've been doing this. They always end up making so many mistakes.

faiithfulli said:
I’m actually a lil bit confused on the moves part did I miss a episode or was that old man’s punchin move thing something we will see later?