Ice Fantasy 幻城 - Episode 49 (Recap)

kakashi: Oh! Who is this, all colorful and crazy looking?!
JoAnne:  I don't know, but his hair looks wormy and that will bother me. I have a thing.
SakiVI: that thing on his lip looks like a cold sore. 

Episode 49

Bear and Eagle share some wine on a frozen lake. They're best buddies now because Pian Feng is so over having his woman stolen by Bear. And Bear doesn't mind that Chao Ya still feels very deeply for Eagle. Inner demons ... vanquished! Okay.  All of a sudden, Pian Feng takes out a feather, it glows golden, and presses it against Bear's chest. It's the Golden Feather Armor, a sacred thing, and yet, Pian Feng is bestowing it onto Bear. Because he has to protect Chao Ya forever in his stead.
Shit, is Pian Feng going to die? No dying, Eagle Fairy!  No dying!
That was stupid, Pian Feng. One day, you'll marry and have kids, and you will need that Golden Feather Armour for the new family.

At the inn, Kasuo is sleeping. Suddenly, a colorful person beams himself in. He is here to murder our Emo Prince!!! Silly colorful thing, Kasuo just pretended to be asleep (and drunk)!! He's tricksy like that! The colorful thing gets away though. He's got skillz! Was it the West Guardian?
And is that Kasuo's plan?  Just lay around pretending to be drunk and sleeping in case someone shows up?
It doesn't seem particularly clever. 

Chao Ya and Eagle Fairy decide to go after him, while Luna and Huang Tuo rush to see after their king. Oh, there's a cat, too. The two fairies fight the color-thing in the streets outside, but alas, that thing is strong! Bear joins the melée and in the process, gets badly wounded.
Good thing he just got that golden eagle feather thingy, huh, or he'd be dead! The colorful thing seriously looks like he's wearing a dead animal's guts on his head. Make it stop.
A cat...

How is that possible, you may ask, since Pian Feng gave him the Golden Feather Armor very recently? Well, because silly Bear gave it to Chao Ya! And that means ... he is dying now. His soul is "fading away". Yes, sorry. He says goodbye to everyone and closes his eyes forever. 
Son of a bitch.
I remember being quite happy because the Scoobies and their stupid Scoobying annoyed me so much that one less was a relief. 

Oh, mean. The new villain actually STOLE Bear's soul! And presents it to Yuan Ji. Who gulps it up happily. And we finally learn the new villain's name! It's Phoenix! (Or Feng Huang). And he is played by Ju Laiti.

Do not like.

He is an unattractive villain.

He is eager to please his master, who doesn't think much of him though. He asks whether the West Guardian secretly assisted him - oh, so he is not the West Guardian. If he is not, it means the West Guardian is even stronger than him, which probably means our Gang is in big trouble. And yes, the West Guardian did help him.
Oh, you handsome bad man, you. So handsome.Probably the handsomest here. But I need to see you standing next to Flame to know for sure.
I'm quite, quite sure, this is the handsomest man on this show. 

That makes Yuan Ji angry. He wants to know why she didn't bring that soul to him personally and we learn that the West Guardian is new and her behavior puzzling. Phoenix doesn't like her AT ALL.
But she helped HIM to get the soul so HE could bring it to Yuan Ji....I'm confused.
You and Phoenix both. 

Have you all missed Yan Da? She is in a weird kind of space-prison, it looks like this:
I forgot about her. I also forgot what happened to her.
Last we knew, she was taken prisoner by the North Guardian.

Lian Ji comes to torture her. Wait, why does she hate her? Or is Lotus just generally and universally pissed off now? Yan Da is Flame's daughter, so of course Lian Ji hates her.  She casts a spell and finds out why Flame sent Yan Da to SnowtheMountainThat'sNotItsName (to steal the Veiled Lotus). She also learns that a fraction of Shi's soul is alive in the Deicide and that he has returned as Sword Fairy. Why has Yuan Ji kept this from her?!
Because he's not a good guy?

Gorgeous.

Well, darling. Let me tell you that Yuan Ji cares nothing for his son. He wants to be the only true immortal - if Shi was still alive, he would probably have him killed. Lotus runs to him to tell him the "happy news", but Yuan Ji has bad news. The Veiled Lotus has its limits. It cannot bring the dead back to life. What now???! Is he lying?! Or are Kasuo et al. on a fool's errand! Yuan Ji promises Lotus that he will try some other way and she smiles happily. Woman ... use your brain.
Yeah! Use your brain! Not...your other bits.
Be Fair. How much of your brain work around this?

At Bear's grave, Chao Ya takes his iron first thing (which is called Earth Breaker) and returns the Golden Feather Armor to Pian Feng. As he walks away (after thanking her for "having loved" him) she prays for his well-being. She couldn't bear to lose another loved one.
Sigh. I hope he finds someone better than her. I still don't like her.
I really dislike her. I don't even find her necessary for this trip.
But .... but .... harp-boat! 

Meanwhile in the Ice Realm, Dreamer has gathered many Dreamweavers to appease the many souls that are trapped in the Holy Flame. Yes, it's still stuck in the ice. I thought they had already solved that problem? Obviously not. Anyway, they do set the souls free, but they go on a rampage, kill quite a few Ice Soldiers and then return straight to Flame - who eats them all.
I do not think that was part of the plan.
Flame looks happy. 

At the mock mortal village, Pian Feng offers Kasuo the two dreams that Xing Gui sent him. He has bottled them up, how nice! A psychologist would have so much fun with this.  Kasuo enters the first and Xing Gui tells him to look for Crown Prince Shang Lie. Crown Prince of what?  He knows everything there is to know about the West Guardian. He is a "man who isn't human" and very close to them. Oh. In the house? Pian Feng has seen that name before! As a signature, on the picture of a cat. Luna recognizes the cat she saw earlier, it's the one drawn here! But the picture was not as chubby when they first arrived...
Oh great, a picture that eats things.

How to catch a cat? With food, of course! They put fish out on the table and indeed, the black cat jumps out of the picture and starts eating. It runs away when it sees the Scoobies, but they follow it to an empty room in the house. Empty? Probably not. Kasuo shouts: "Excuse me, Crown Prince Shang Lie?"
Here, kitty kitty kitty!

A wall opens up and reveals a throne room behind it. There are several people in there, all busy with something. But which one is the Crown Prince? Him? Him? Her or him? Her?
Okay that's just weird. Were all these people just hiding behind the wall wondering if the visitors camping out in their house would find them?
Yes.

None of them! It's in fact .... her.

 The maid, who is massaging the black-clad noble woman. Kasuo is very pleased he knew right away. The noble woman in black is, in fact .... the cat. Haha.
Kasuo knows his p....never mind.
Hahahahahaha! Also, totally unexpected of Kasuo. 

Amaaaazing skills, Kasuo. Amazing. The Crown Prince promises them, friends of Xing Gui, to investigate about the West Guardian.

I was wondering how the Crown Prince was a girl, but never mind.

After a bit, the Crown Prince asks to see Kasuo (he was frying some fish over an open fire, in the hope of seeing Shi) alone. He says he once fought with the West Guardian. He has never met him or her though. Because the West Guardian can fight without making an appearance. Also, somebody killed his cat! It's time to get out, he suggests. Kasuo can come with him. I say WTF to all this.
First: cute. Second: So he makes people pretend to be his cat? Third: how do you fight without being there? Never mind, don't tell me.

Kasuo won't go, so the Crown Prince utters a warning: Don't trust your companions. And don't tell them about this meeting. Because the West Guardian has disguised himself inside one of them. We cut to Pian Feng, asking for "an item" at the blacksmith .... when he is attacked by the purple vicious stuff that killed Bear earlier. Full of pain, he walks towards the inn... leaving feathers in his path.
Nooooooooooooooooooo
This death I'd be sad about. 

Comments

Uhm .... why this interlude with the Crown Prince? That seemed utterly pointless. Also utterly pointless: Kasuo. What a wimp. People are dying and he is just standing around.
And actively refusing to do things. I'm tired of him.
Me too. I liked him for a bit after Shi died because he suddenly got all determined, but now I don't know what he's up to.