Guardian thoughts, part 6 (of 6)

[nnozomi]

34
Unexpectedly moving reversal of strengths--wibbly panicky Xiao Guo, while still mostly zonked, comfortable and at ease with love, and stern stark Chu-ge shattered with feeling.
I liked getting to see Lin Jing and Li Qian together, having just written a fic about them and feeling reasonably confirmed in my characterization, but boy are they both screwed here.
I just don’t like the long hair, sorry (even though having his hair pulled back makes Zhu Yilong’s eyes EVEN MORE of a thing, he looks like something out of anime), but other than that I enjoyed the past stuff more than I thought I would. Zhao Yunlan’s short laugh when he recognizes Ma Gui is wonderful—“How is this my life,” but also “Well, this is ridiculous and marvelous and here I am so let’s give it what I got…” So much in character, and showing how 器の大きい he is (Shen Wei hit the jackpot on his first crush). Bai Yu is terrific at this kind of spot-characterization.

35
The epic scale of Shen Wei and Ye Zun’s tragedy is too much for me really (although I think when I watch that last conversation on the street between Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan with English subtitles, it will get to me); I like the small things.
To wit, Guo Changcheng’s actor does a nice job with expression and posture, keeping him in character but showing his added self-possession and self-confidence. (You also feel that if the guards knew Lin Jing, they would not be reassured by him saying “Oh, that? Never mind, I’ll take it.”)

36
One of the many things I think Zhu Yilong does nicely is to give now-Ye Zun the body language of someone with vast confidence, not to say arrogance, paired with physical frailty, in contrast to the restrained but resilient physical presence of Shen Wei. Plus (along with the camera angles?) some things with eyelashes and lips and chin as well, so that when Shen Wei appears in his black robes you remember, that’s what the Envoy’s jaw is supposed to look like.
Li Qian calls Xiao Guo “Changcheng” like they’re on pretty intimate terms; a lot of conversations at gravesides?
Zhao Yunlan and his city-sized personality spread out to its full extent, and all the heroes who work for him (LIN JING! Changcheng! stone-faced Lao Chu and his old sparring partner, the Yashou in their cute baseball caps, even Cong Bo: well, humanity is depending on it? Um, okay, I guess I can give it a try), and Shen Wei’s blazing gaze.
“Long time no see” like a wonderful running joke. Teasing each other is a part of the character of the SID, based in but not wholly derived from Zhao Yunlan being in charge of it; so back when they embarrassed Shen Wei with the “Good morning, Lord Black Robe!” thing, they were also saying hello, you’re one of us.

37
Oh Lin Jing, oh Changcheng.
The little episode of Mi Lu-centered dark comedy is extremely jarring after the tragic tone of the first half. It is funny and comforting—Zhao Yunlan half knocking himself out on a tree, Da Qing being a cat, and less comically Zhu Hong getting her own back in two seconds for everything she’s been put through from strangulation through hypnotism and illusions—but it’s a disconcerting shift of mood after Lin Jing’s calm sacrifice and Xiao Guo’s transcendent grief and Shen Wei’s bloodstained struggle.

38
Xiao Guo and Chu Shuzhi, oh dear.
Although it must have been a golden (as it were) opportunity for the actor, I would find Zhao Xinci’s arc more moving without Zhang Shi.
Li Qian’s air of having been through hell and come out the other side with pure confidence and self-possession is dazzling.
Shen Wei, bloody and battered and all luminous eyes--impossible to look at anything else while he’s there.

39
Shen Wei says “Zhao Yunlan” as a kind of talisman word, from near the beginning, but this is the first time we hear Zhao Yunlan say “Shen Wei” that way.
小妹妹Zheng Yi gets a chance to use her powers for good…
Ye Zun has broken Zhao Yunlan, and is finding that the shards are sharp enough to cut.
Poor Lin Jing, compelled to become the last element of the plan of a Shen Wei in extremis, agonized and magnetic.
Ye Zun’s “没有人” is terrifying (not least because it’s probably what he was told himself). Ah, Xiao Guo…proving him wrong, being human…(the same theme as Zhao Yunlan’s livestream…)

40
“Shen Wei ah…” oh Zhao Yunlan. Oh Shen Wei.

Comments

[trobadora]

Shen Wei says “Zhao Yunlan” as a kind of talisman word, from near the beginning, but this is the first time we hear Zhao Yunlan say “Shen Wei” that way.

Oooh, that's such a good observation! ♥

[nnozomi]

:) I always like noticing the use of names...

[winter_blossom]

I, too, don't find Shen Wei's YOHE look very appealing. Though I actually like long hair (Kunlun is my favourite ZYL look), little SW's pinned-back braids are meh. Wish we could have had the bangs and the high ponytail instead! (Zhu Yilong looked absolutely gorgeous as Fu Hongxue in Bordertown Prodigal, after all.)

One of the many things I think Zhu Yilong does nicely is to give now-Ye Zun the body language of someone with vast confidence, not to say arrogance, paired with physical frailty, in contrast to the restrained but resilient physical presence of Shen Wei.

I could go on about how brilliantly Zhu Yilong plays the various versions of both SW and YZ on this show, but then we'd be here all day XD

Teasing each other is a part of the character of the SID, based in but not wholly derived from Zhao Yunlan being in charge of it; so back when they embarrassed Shen Wei with the “Good morning, Lord Black Robe!” thing, they were also saying hello, you’re one of us.

I like this headcanon!

Li Qian’s air of having been through hell and come out the other side with pure confidence and self-possession is dazzling.

I liked Li Qian ever since her first appearance, so I felt like a proud older sister to see her so well-grown, haha.

Shen Wei, bloody and battered and all luminous eyes--impossible to look at anything else while he’s there.

Real conversation between me and my sister while I was watching Guardian, months ago now:

Sis: You're gawping at the screen without blinking and your mouth's been wide open for, like, 5 minutes. Shen Wei getting a lot of screentime right now?

Me: *Several beats later* Huh? What? Oh, yeah. *Goes back to staring*

Sis: Whelp, then you're useless for the next couple of hours. *Leaves*

Poor Lin Jing, compelled to become the last element of the plan of a Shen Wei in extremis, agonized and magnetic.

I honestly felt so bad for Lin Jing in this final arc! (My feelings for SW there was always more along the lines of, "I don't think I've ever seen a more perfect tragic hero - both in the romantic sense and the actually heroic sense." *Admiration*)

Shen Wei says “Zhao Yunlan” as a kind of talisman word, from near the beginning, but this is the first time we hear Zhao Yunlan say “Shen Wei” that way.

Since I've already babbled to you at length about my feelings on the SW/ZYL relationship, I'll just leave it at saying I <3 this observation...

[nnozomi]

I could go on about how brilliantly Zhu Yilong plays the various versions of both SW and YZ on this show, but then we'd be here all day XD
Feel free, what makes you think I'm not up for this discussion? :)

Sis: Whelp, then you're useless for the next couple of hours. *Leaves*
LOL, your sister knows the score. Too true to be funny.

I honestly felt so bad for Lin Jing in this final arc! (My feelings for SW there was always more along the lines of, "I don't think I've ever seen a more perfect tragic hero - both in the romantic sense and the actually heroic sense." *Admiration*)
As a Lin Jing fan, one of my favorite small moments in ep. 39 is the little earthquake (Ye Zunquake, I guess), when debris comes raining down and Lin Jing braces himself over Shen Wei to protect him, with Shen Wei murmuring "Thank you." It's one of the things I think the drama does so well--almost all the SID members, not to mention Li Qian, Zhao Xinci, even Cong Bo et al., have their own arcs of growth and change, it's not just the main two (irresistible as they are).
Shen Wei as a tragic hero in all senses, oh dear, yes.

[winter_blossom]

As a Lin Jing fan, one of my favorite small moments in ep. 39 is the little earthquake (Ye Zunquake, I guess), when debris comes raining down and Lin Jing braces himself over Shen Wei to protect him, with Shen Wei murmuring "Thank you."

Ooh, yes, that was an excellent scene! I really loved how Lin Jing developed over the course of the drama; I liked him from the beginning, but there's no denying that he was a bit of a brat, before. After Sha Ya and the whole double-agent thing, being devoured by Ye Zun, being the one who, in all actuality, killed Shen Wei, and then being rescued by him at the last millisecond... He went through a hell of a lot, and I really appreciated the much-more-solemn-but-still-somehow-himself version of him we got to see talking with Da Qing in the "one year later" scenes, bittersweet as it was.

It's one of the things I think the drama does so well--almost all the SID members, not to mention Li Qian, Zhao Xinci, even Cong Bo et al., have their own arcs of growth and change, it's not just the main two (irresistible as they are).

Absolutely! One of my favourite things about the show, as well.

As for Zhu Yilong - I mean, at first I was like, "Nice double-acting!" Until I realised that it isn't really "double." Since SW wears so many masks and YZ is so volatile, they both go through multiple iterations of their characters - sometimes in the same scene - and yet he managed to nail all of them.

For Shen Wei there's: (1) The cute innocent professor, (2) The Envoy-slash-Prof persona that he sometimes can't contain even in the earlier episodes and which became his default after the identity reveal, (3) The present-day Envoy, (4) The less self-confident Envoy from the YOHE days, (5) YOHE Shen Wei.

For Ye Zun: (1) YOHE Ye Zun - first powerless and then newly grown into his powers, but always vindictive (2) Present-day Ye Zun, more smug and self-confident than he ever was before, (3) Ye Zun masquerading as the Envoy and as Shen Wei (the sheer wrongness you experience when you see the mocking tilt of his smile, the barely-contained contempt and cruelty in his eyes, the moments where he looks practically unhinged - none of which are expressions SW/the BCE would ever make... Wow!) and the final one: Ye Zun in the afterlife, when he thought he'd lost it all, only to realise that he had to lose it all to find what he'd really wanted... (Ugh, too much purple prose, lol)

When you see the same actor playing two diametrically opposite but still identical-looking characters in the same scene but still somehow feel full of anger/disgust for one and fondness/admiration/fear for the other, you know that actor's doing a spectacular job, imo.

Okay, end of rambling! I'm so gonna use your what makes you think I'm not up for this discussion? as an excuse for my paragraphs-long gushing ;)

[nnozomi]

I enjoy your rambling!
I agree absolutely that Lin Jing's character development is great; his first appearance makes him look like a one-note mad scientist joke, but he gets more and more depth as the series goes on (his recorded message to the SID made me cry as much as anything Shen Wei or Zhao Yunlan did...).

Since SW wears so many masks and YZ is so volatile, they both go through multiple iterations of their characters - sometimes in the same scene - and yet he managed to nail all of them.
I KNOW oh my goodness, and you describe this beautifully. I really want to see what it looked like inside Zhu Yilong's head while he was doing that--how much of it was sheer method acting and how much was deliberately calculated, for each of the various personas you describe (and probably having to switch back and forth among them in the time it took to do a costume change, oh dear).