Ice Fantasy 幻城 - Episode 23 (Recap)

kakashi: Many people do a lot of things to keep Kasuo and Li Luo apart - and you know how they say 'just throw enough time and money at something and you'll succeed'? I really like them together, both light up when they're with the other and Kasuo's whole expression and body language changes. But I guess it's a love that cannot be... *sobs* Poor Shi has a lot going on too, because there is no denying it anymore: he is not of pure Ice Tribe lineage.
JoAnne: Poor Shi. So, if he's from that Other Tribe, The Tribe That Does Not Officially Exist - was it 50/50 he'd end up passing for Ice most of his life? I mean, it could really have gone the other way very early on, right? You're right about Kasuo and Li Luo too - I like him best when he's with her. I like her all the time, though. By the way, am I the only one thinking the other Realm Guardian, the one NOT in love with Li Luo, is very, very, very cute?

Episode 23

Kasuo Ice Baby alert! It's sleeping peacefully, making its cutesie sounds when a black-clad "someone" (we know exactly who it is, show!) attempts to poison it with the wrong blood! Thankfully, Li Luo appears at the door that very second! The assassin flees. The only person the Ice Guards come across when they search the entire City is Lady Lotus. Straaaaaaange. Also, the black smoke ... it's always watching.
Who was it? I did not know. Was it Shi's Mom? - yes, it was her - I could have been not paying attention here. Where'd she ditch the black cloak? Oooh, was it MADE from the Smoke Monster?
Li Luo gets injured a tiny little bit during the exchange with the assassin and Kasuo worriedly tends to the wound afterwards. Uhm, what? his room is called "Limpid Black Chamber"? Doesn't look very black to me.
Hahahahahahah no way - really? Let me guess, they redecorated during his emo teen years. Or maybe last week.
*shrugs* DF subs
She asks why he never sent a reply when she sent him an owl the other day - and he admits it's because he injured her on the ice field and is afraid to even go near her. She doesn't care about that, since it wasn't really him but the evil sword fairies in her opinion. She's such a great friend... And she has brought him some medicine that will make his blood extra strong. She wants him to take good care of himself - while she is away. To hear that she's leaving for the mortal realm is a huge shock to him, but she promises to be back soon. And she assures him she meant every word she told him at the ice lake.
I wonder if the medicine that makes his blood strong will also turn those nasty little sword fairies even stronger?
In the meantime, Xing Gui has done some research for her brother: what all the magic powers of all the tribes look. He shakes his head at each option though. Not was he is looking for.
Wouldn't it be common knowledge to the Dream Tribe?
But there is a last one...
... and that is it! It's the power that Shi used !! Only ... that power belongs to an immortal tribe that has been extinct for ten thousand years. It's called the Ice Flame Tribe. Oh. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh...

Shi tries to feed an Ice Baby his blood again but... boom.
I swear to God, I laugh so hard I get wheezy. Every time. Every. time. The way it looks up at him first.... I'm laughing now.
He won't give up though! And when he ventures onto a mountain to collect a different type of ice nucleus, he becomes aware of Shuo Gang, who throws burning pebbles around. How did Shi get in when Shuo Gang can't get out? Never mind Do not ask the tough questions, Kakashi. Shou Gang begs desperately to be freed, but Shi has a condition: teach him Fire Magic. Shuo Gang gives in, but tells him that's impossible. Only if you have Fire blood can you do Fire Magic. Yup, but Shi CAN do some kind of Fire Magic.
I felt sort of bad for Pee Wee Face when he smiled that hopeful smile, and for a minute I wondered if they'd become frenemies. It'd be sort of like having Yan Da and yet... more to Shi's liking. We think.
Kasuo's mother is pleased about the stamina-herbs that Li Luo brought but less pleased about her son's love for this mortal. She, too, tells him he'll never be able to live a lifetime with her, but he does not care and will never care - and he rushes out to meet with her when he finds the kite string she seems to have dropped in his Limpid Chamber.
Limpid Chamber of Doooooooooooooooooooooooom
The Guardians are packing up everything and getting ready to leave, but Li Luo stares towards the snow-capped mountains and says it's because Snowdash hasn't come to say goodbye. With a sigh, she turns her back ... when there's nickering behind her and Kasuo appears on the unicorn. 
Where nothing had been, for miles and miles and miles. Just boom! there he suddenly is.
It's a supersonic unicorn!
Teasing her about the kite-string that he doesn't want to give back, he takes her to a mortal town. He brought lots of immortal fishes to try his hand at his future job (fishmonger). Nobody wants to buy them as pet fish though ... until Li Luo turns them into sashimi.
He is completely hopeless. She should be ready to just take care of everything.
And then, he buys flowers for her. *melts* He is so goddamn cute, I can't! She thinks he's hungry at first and is buying them for himself. She's not used to be given flowers, this girl.
I keep forgetting they eat flowers.
Actually, I think he just sniffs them. Not that that's any better :D 
They continue their date on an incredibly fake looking hill with tree - and she still thinks he should "eat" the flowers. Lol. They share a drink and a few tender words, but when he says he needs to go back before sunrise, she turns all sad and wants to leave immediately. He almost falls into the pond though and she saves him. What will he do without her ... In the end, they hug... and wish each other farewell. It's sad.
It was sad. Good thing I had all those clumps of plastic flowers to keep my spirits up.
They walk towards Ice Realm together through the early morning fog... it's time for the final goodbye. I'm not sure what exactly they did between that farewell hug and now, but anyway, now seems to be the final goodbye. He wants to give the kite string back but she says keep it until I return. All of a sudden, the black smoke attacks!! And kidnaps Kasuo. All the Guardians go looking for him and indeed find him - unconscious near the river.
Perhaps the better question is what did the black smoke do to him during the time he was away? Hmmm? Because Kasuo is more of 'have things done to him' than a 'do things to others' kind of guy, really.
They rush him to Ice City and everyone is super worried, but Kasuo ain't dead. However, his mother "senses someone evil trying to assassinate" him. You don't say. From all of this, she deducts that there must be a spy among them. Well, it's true, but how are the two things connected? On top of everything, Li Luo is banished from the City because she failed to protect him. And because they blame her for Kasuo going to the mortal realm in the first place.
You know, for a guy with no powers, no will to lead, and no real skill at anything... Kasuo is sure hard to kill. That could be his thing: he'll be the king nothing can kill.
She is currently kneeling in front of the city gates. Shi comes out with his father's orders: Li Luo is to go to the northern border and stay there. When Kasuo next wakes up (repeating Li Luo's name several times in the process), Lan Shang is with him in the room. Thanks to her, he finds out that Li Luo is being sent far away. Judging by Kasuo's reaction, the northern border is a death sentence.
And then, Lan Shang does something that makes her less annoying overall: she tries to mollify the Ice King and the Ice Queen about Li Luo because she does not want Kasuo to be sad. The Mermaid Saint has a different idea about things and tells her to stop being stupid and help a rival.
That damn Saint needs to just fall off a seahorse and die or something. I was proud of Lan Shang, though.
Huang Tuo helps Kasuo walk to his father's chamber the next morning. But the Ice King remains ice cold and kicks his son out. To the northern border Li Luo must go.
Listen, Daddy. It's Kasuo's choice if he spends a thousand years alone after a day with his Mayfly. Stop interfering!

Comments

Idiots. Okay, I get it. From the father's point of view, marrying a mortal cannot be done and Li Luo is distracting his son from doing what he really should be doing: getting his powers back and becoming king. The mother is softening up already I think. If Kasuo is not getting his powers back, he is neither fit to be king nor will he live long. Why not maximize his happiness? He really is only happy when he is with her, the poor sod.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Just let him go with her. If you don't want Shi to be the King because you know he's not really Ice Tribe, then have another kid, Daddy.

As for Shi... how mortifying it must be to find out you're not someone's son in the process of making a big gesture about becoming the next king! But what is this about the Ice Flame tribe?
I don't know, but I'm guessing they don't keep Ice Nuclei as pets.

Hey, we made it through the whole thing before I even thought of trying to work Vanilla Ice into this conversation. Maybe I'm growing up.