![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkI first heard about the Chinese show "Guardian" about a month ago on my flist and put it on the to-watch list, and then more people talked about it and I bumped it up, and then I was in the mood for something silly and also found out that there is a character who is a cat, that was the deciding factor. DD and I have now watched 22 episodes and we both love it. It's ridiculous and the production quality is often terrible and the worldbuilding has huge holes but omg the characters are so much fun, and there is so much h/c and a whole bunch of wonderful iddy tropes. Even the intro has grown on me. Also it is definitely a romance. My favorite character might still be the cat though.
I finally got to the point where I have to write down some thoughts.
I've been curious about Da Qing's amnesia from the beginning, apparently he can't remember most of his 1000 years? and even forgot that he used to be able to speak to cats, and that wasn't that long ago. My headcanon was that Shen Wei was one of his previous owners. Now in episode 22 we found out that he was already alive 10,000 years ago – so he forgot so much!
The h/c just keeps getting better. Recently when Zhao Yunlan was blind, for example. Shen Wei kneeling outside the doctor's house for half a day was so great. Shen Wei, kneeling! And then shortly afterwards Zhao Yunlan gives the healing back because it used other people's life energy (that poor doctor), and Shen Wei grabs him when he realizes what Zhao Yunlan is planning and there is eye contact and more touching and then Shen Wei lets him go and it's just all very nice. They are so ridiculous about each other. The big rescues and gestures, and so much smaller stuff just showing how comfortable and close they are with each other. With the occasional trolling, of course. Not sure if they themselves know/fully realize yet but definitely everyone in the department knows this is a romance (especially Zhu Hong.) When Sang Zan and Ge Lan had that dance through the rose petals in the library and the candlelight dinner, that was clearly to showcase that this is what a romance looks like and therefore anything else obviously isn't, no matter how they look at each other ;)
Even Guo is starting to be actually useful. …well, kinda. Maybe. Extremely slowly. At first I suspected that I'd be constantly frustrated by how stupid everyone is and then to my surprise that wasn't the case, which just makes the instances in which they are extremely stupid all the more frustrating. Like when they captured Zhu Jiu and left him alone with Guo and Guo took off his handcuffs so he could go to the bathroom, really guys. And then Zhu Jiu jumps out of the window and apparently this is a magical barrier that nobody else can cross.
Guo and Chu are very cute together though. Chu promised to tell him about the taboo crime he committed and I look forward to it.
By the way I feel cheated that we didn't get to see everyone's reactions to Zhu Hong telling them Shen Wei is Black Cloak Envoy. I'd been waiting for that! Boo. At least when Zhao Yunlan confronted Shen Wei it was great, and then he pretended to be mind-controlled, heh. Shen Wei has been a lot more lax with his identities recently, but I don't mind so much because while I do like his mask, he also looks very good when he's being badass in civilian clothes. (I also wonder if his abilities are decreasing. We saw that he appears to have some kind of time limit when Zhao Yunlan was kidnapped by Zhu Jiu, and I'm not sure but I think he's doing less magic - I'm sorry, science – now than in the beginning.)
Other things I'm curious about: what the hell is up with Zhao's dad being possessed maybe. Last time Zhao Yunlan thought he might meet his father he escaped into Dixing to avoid it, but it's hard to avoid someone when you're blind. I also want Zhao's dad to meet Shen Wei, and Black Cloak too. Zhao's dad trying to take over the SID and testing Zhao Yunlan's people for loyalty was fun. But if he's compromised in his high position, that's bad news. And then there's also that secret government science project… With what looks like a dinosaur skull, yess let's have a Jurassic Park episode.
DD goes on vacation in less than a week and I really hope we'll be able to finish watching it beforehand because I'm not going to wait until she gets back. At our current pace there's a good chance.
I finally got to the point where I have to write down some thoughts.
I've been curious about Da Qing's amnesia from the beginning, apparently he can't remember most of his 1000 years? and even forgot that he used to be able to speak to cats, and that wasn't that long ago. My headcanon was that Shen Wei was one of his previous owners. Now in episode 22 we found out that he was already alive 10,000 years ago – so he forgot so much!
The h/c just keeps getting better. Recently when Zhao Yunlan was blind, for example. Shen Wei kneeling outside the doctor's house for half a day was so great. Shen Wei, kneeling! And then shortly afterwards Zhao Yunlan gives the healing back because it used other people's life energy (that poor doctor), and Shen Wei grabs him when he realizes what Zhao Yunlan is planning and there is eye contact and more touching and then Shen Wei lets him go and it's just all very nice. They are so ridiculous about each other. The big rescues and gestures, and so much smaller stuff just showing how comfortable and close they are with each other. With the occasional trolling, of course. Not sure if they themselves know/fully realize yet but definitely everyone in the department knows this is a romance (especially Zhu Hong.) When Sang Zan and Ge Lan had that dance through the rose petals in the library and the candlelight dinner, that was clearly to showcase that this is what a romance looks like and therefore anything else obviously isn't, no matter how they look at each other ;)
Even Guo is starting to be actually useful. …well, kinda. Maybe. Extremely slowly. At first I suspected that I'd be constantly frustrated by how stupid everyone is and then to my surprise that wasn't the case, which just makes the instances in which they are extremely stupid all the more frustrating. Like when they captured Zhu Jiu and left him alone with Guo and Guo took off his handcuffs so he could go to the bathroom, really guys. And then Zhu Jiu jumps out of the window and apparently this is a magical barrier that nobody else can cross.
Guo and Chu are very cute together though. Chu promised to tell him about the taboo crime he committed and I look forward to it.
By the way I feel cheated that we didn't get to see everyone's reactions to Zhu Hong telling them Shen Wei is Black Cloak Envoy. I'd been waiting for that! Boo. At least when Zhao Yunlan confronted Shen Wei it was great, and then he pretended to be mind-controlled, heh. Shen Wei has been a lot more lax with his identities recently, but I don't mind so much because while I do like his mask, he also looks very good when he's being badass in civilian clothes. (I also wonder if his abilities are decreasing. We saw that he appears to have some kind of time limit when Zhao Yunlan was kidnapped by Zhu Jiu, and I'm not sure but I think he's doing less magic - I'm sorry, science – now than in the beginning.)
Other things I'm curious about: what the hell is up with Zhao's dad being possessed maybe. Last time Zhao Yunlan thought he might meet his father he escaped into Dixing to avoid it, but it's hard to avoid someone when you're blind. I also want Zhao's dad to meet Shen Wei, and Black Cloak too. Zhao's dad trying to take over the SID and testing Zhao Yunlan's people for loyalty was fun. But if he's compromised in his high position, that's bad news. And then there's also that secret government science project… With what looks like a dinosaur skull, yess let's have a Jurassic Park episode.
DD goes on vacation in less than a week and I really hope we'll be able to finish watching it beforehand because I'm not going to wait until she gets back. At our current pace there's a good chance.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-31 11:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-31 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-31 07:57 pm (UTC)Hee! I made you a gif set! ♥
no subject
Date: 2018-08-31 08:38 pm (UTC)We watched some more episodes today (up to 28) and there was just so much meaningful eye contact. And the episode with the game in the hospital had a lot of angst and h/c even for this show's standard, it was great.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-31 08:49 pm (UTC)The hospital episode I feel I should not have liked as much as I did because it's a morality tale about the dangers of video games but O-M-G I am screaming about so much of it:
- Zhao Yunlan's casual attitude until the moment he sees another person at risk
- the way he fucking PRESSES THE TRIGGER TWICE because no matter his usual attitude he is absolutely there to protect people like the nurse
- he's so worried about his friends for like 0.5 seconds and then he just beats the shit out of them... with a feather duster??
- his actual breakdown at failing to save the last guy
AND THE BOMB. You have no idea how many feels I had about the whole conversation where Shen Wei's like "well I'll just take this with me to hell and die" and Zhao Yunlan is all "how about instead we either live or die together?" and Shen Wei can't resist and they're holding on to that bomb together and they have it so bad for each other. So bad. They've now explicitly stated they'd rather die together than live without each other. (And now I'm thinking about how long Shen Wei has gone without his love and sobbing internally.)
no subject
Date: 2018-08-31 09:08 pm (UTC)And when Shen Wei finally arrives right at the end... How did he find out what was happening? Maybe their coworkers left a message before they got to the hospital but that doesn't explain how he knew what was going on. As we've seen early on Black Cloak has some way of secretly observing the SID and probably Zhao Yunlan in particular so I think of Shen Wei just casually checking in/spying on Zhao Yunlan as he does and seeing this - how much did he see?
Oh man if the nurse had actually died that would have been... not good.
I was also amused because the episode had two scenes I recognized from the intro and both times the context was different than I expected: my guess was Zhao Yunlan putting a gun to his own head would be some kind of possession or mind control, and Da Qing, Guo, Chu and Zhu Hong running forward together would be against an enemy, not Zhao Yunlan with a freaking feather duster. Lucky for him that the game didn't know how to make them fight well.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-01 06:53 pm (UTC)I think Shen Wei just teleports in from whenever to get Zhao Yunlan out of trouble. I mean. How else is Zhao even still alive?! And also that he just assumes that Zhao Yunlan is in trouble when he hasn't heard from him in like. An hour.
I know! I had expected a completely different context for both. Still, A+ use of Russian Roulette. The fight... I think the others were trying to fight him? But as we've learned, one (1) moderately hard strike against the back of the neck and you're out, those are just the rules, and also what happened was he turned off the lights so the others couldn't see but because he was blind for a couple of episodes he can now fight in the dark. I... I think.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-01 08:00 pm (UTC)How about Da Qing making Shen Wei pinky promise not to hurt Zhao Yunlan? That was so great. Shen Wei was so confused ^^
one (1) moderately hard strike against the back of the neck and you're out, those are just the rules
I'm used to ignoring all the brain damage happening on screen usually but in this show it's particularly bad.
no subject
Date: 2018-09-02 06:26 am (UTC)Do you remember what episode the pinky promise was in? I agree that it's adorbs. ♥
This show it's not even brain damage, it's like. Neck damage?? It's all fun and games until someone breaks their spine I guess?
no subject
Date: 2018-09-02 10:55 am (UTC)That was in episode 23 :)
Maybe it's Vulcan pressure points. ~Science. Except not always in the same place, because ma- excuse me, science. And healing works similarly. Idk how Shen Wei's powers work but it's really convenient that it's so vague.