Guardian episode 36

[selenay]

So I've gone into this largely unspoiled, except for an understanding that the ending is sad and there is a lot of fix-it and everyone lives AU fanfic. Which means I'm basically expecting the worst every time I watch an episode now. But it also means that I don't know what's going to happen, so it's all exciting and new and amazing.

And honestly, I can deal with all the tragedy (I think) if every episode gives me at least one good Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan moment (Weilan? Is this the ship portmanteau I'm looking for?). And the great thing is that it usually gives me plenty of them, not just one "squint if you look for it" moment, so I'm generally happy even while I'm also terribly sad and hockeybosh and I are texting each other crying emojis.

(Usually the crying emojis are Guo-related. Why do they hurt our precious baby so?)

And so, we braced for impact and watched episode 36.


Okay, I know neither of us are huge Lin Jing fans, but Ye Zun EATING HIM seems a bit extreme as a way to take him out. Even hockeybosh is hoping there's a way to reverse all this eating people that Ye Zun does.

(As villains go, he's very very villainous.)

I'm going to call it and say that Guo's power is something about touching dead (or nearly dead) people and getting their memories. As powers go, it's probably not the one he'd have picked. He's not good with dead bodies. But it's probably better suited to him than fancy blasty fighty powers?

We're going to need more details on this "Guo can save the world by lighting the lantern" thing, but I'm assuming the detail is coming. I will be very happy to see Guo being a big fucking hero, because it makes such a great journey from the terrified child who started at the SIU.

Really, Zhu Yilong is ridiculously talented because I could clearly see it was him under Ye Zun's mask and floofy hair, but it definitely wasn't Shen Wei and Ye Zun is evil in ways Shen Wei would never. Not that Shen Wei would ever be evil, but Ye Zun is casual and smily and awful in ways that suit him and are fundamentally the antithesis of Shen Wei.

I was preparing myself to be deeply unimpressed by Zhao doing a global address to all humans, and ended up loving it. What is this show doing to me that I actually like the OTT tropes like that?

(And I also love his deeply sneaky devious ways. Yes, characters who hide their intelligence under an exuberant casual flirty facade are my catnip, particularly if the person who gets to see under the facade most clearly is the serious scholarly badass member of the partnership. I definitely have A Type when it comes to ships.)

I'm delighted to have (almost) the whole gang back together again. I love this dysfunctional little gang, they're so great.

hockeybosh and I are taking bets on which ridiculous place the lantern will end up being found in. I was initially betting on it having been on display somewhere in the SIU all this time, except hockeybosh pointed out that Shen Wei would probably recognise it. Maybe? He only got a glimpse before the sacred items did their whirlwind vortex thing and he ended up BURIED FOR 10,000 YEARS (apparently I'm not over that yet) but possibly he'd recognise it anyway. So now we're both betting on it being in a box in a cupboard of crap, probably put there to be sorted out and logged later except you know how those junk cupboards go. They swallow everything and nobody can ever find things.

Second option is it's in the library somewhere, carefully tagged and catalogued, but Ye Zun ate the librarian ghosts so it will also be tricky to find.

I look forward to finding out how very wrong we both are :D

Comments

[hils]

Weilan? Is this the ship portmanteau I'm looking for?

Yep, that's what it's called!

I'm not going to say anything else but I love seeing all your theories about how things are going to play out :D

[selenay]

You're probably laughing at how wrong they all are, but I don't care :D

[umadoshi]

the great thing is that it usually gives me plenty of them, not just one "squint if you look for it" moment

Bai Yu and Zhu Yilong gave us everything they could. I'm so grateful to them for it.

Has anyone told you about Zhao Yunlan's hairstyle change back when he found out Shen Wei was the Black-Cloaked Envoy? The explanation, I mean?

A specific thing that kills is me is that there's a scene at one point where we have a bit of video of a take that didn't get used, and Zhu Yilong gave that take EVERYTHING and it would have been so good, but no. I expect it didn't get used because the director/editors figured it wouldn't get through censorship, but it hurts.

OTOH, one lovely thing is that there's audio out there of Bai Yu reading a couple of key Zhao Yunlan lines from the novel (on a podcast or something, I think?)--a love declaration and an extremely dangerous spell. I've seen both bits worked into at least a couple of fanvids very successfully.

(For Bai Yu's sake I'm extra sad that Zhao Yunlan got so profoundly powered down from the novel. He would have had so much fun with a supernatural whip and a pocket full of talismans.)

[selenay]

Has anyone told you about Zhao Yunlan's hairstyle change back when he found out Shen Wei was the Black-Cloaked Envoy? The explanation, I mean?

...Nooooooo. What is the explanation? I'm sensing it's amazing in some way?

A specific thing that kills is me is that there's a scene at one point where we have a bit of video of a take that didn't get used, and Zhu Yilong gave that take EVERYTHING and it would have been so good, but no. I expect it didn't get used because the director/editors figured it wouldn't get through censorship, but it hurts.

Is there, by any chance, a leaked copy of that scene lurking out there somewhere?

He would have had so much fun with a supernatural whip and a pocket full of talismans.

Oh. My. God. Yes, he really would. It would have been amazing. How can I fic that?

I've seen both bits worked into at least a couple of fanvids very successfully.

Ooh, do you have any links?

Bai Yu and Zhu Yilong gave us everything they could. I'm so grateful to them for it.

They did. I don't know much about the production (apart from losing all their funding at the start and censorship being an issue), but I can definitely see that they knew the novel and what Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan really meant to each other and have put in everything they possibly could. It's great to have actors who wanted to do that (and had such great chemistry to make it work).

[umadoshi]

Before I fall into throwing links at you: do you know about how c-dramas are dubbed...?

It would have been amazing. How can I fic that?

Drama-novel canon-fusion fics are definitely a thing! Some people think the canons are completely incompatible, but I and many other people disagree! Although it obviously involves playing very fast and loose with both iterations.

What is the explanation? I'm sensing it's amazing in some way?

Here you go!

Is there, by any chance, a leaked copy of that scene lurking out there somewhere?

Since I have the relevant gif pulled out on Twitter, this is the (still with greenscreen) unused take of Shen Wei jumping in front of Zhao Yunlan. And this behind-the-scenes video includes the shot being filmed.

(Speaking of excruciating gifs from near the end.)

But also, here is qik's general resources page (all invaluable), and I direct you in particular to the body language highlights.

And for comforting imagery, here's a behind-the-scenes featurette of Zhu Yilong filming Shen Wei's scene in the rain and being bundled up by staff afterwards.

Vids using Bai Yu's bonus unofficial audio from the novel: this absolutely stunning ending remake that draws on a gazillion sources and the novel canon (the Chinese fandom does mindbogglingly good work) and this romcom trailer. ^_^

(Now I'm just throwing links at you.)

This is a spliced-together and deeply horrifying cut scene featuring Ye Zun and Jiajia, beautifully acted. (ROT13 content warning: fgenathyngvba naq cerfhzrq zheqre.)

Bai Yu and Zhu Yilong's version of "Flying Across Time" (official video, unofficial subs).

Their song from their promo appearance on the show Happy Camp!

(Hopefully I got all of these links right--some of them I'm just c&ping from my spreadsheet. ^^; Let me know if anything turns out to not be what I said it was.)

I can definitely see that they knew the novel and what Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan really meant to each other and have put in everything they possibly could.

They are MAGIC and delightful and amazing and I love them both with my whole heart. *^^*

[selenay]

Before I fall into throwing links at you: do you know about how c-dramas are dubbed...?

This is my first c-drama, I know nothing.

Thank you for all those links, I am rolling around in them (and sharing them with hockeybosh because I'm generous).

The hand holding killed me. But in a weirdly good way? So many conflicted feelings.

[umadoshi]

One day I will write up a post about what I know re: c-drama dubbing (and then make multiple people look it over and help me annotate it, because I still feel like I don't understand it quite well enough).

What I said to someone on Twitter a few months ago, in the context of The Untamed, was "The gist: all the dialogue is recorded in post-production, and (depending on the show/actor--lots of factors, and I have only a superficial grasp on it) is often done by a voice actor, not by the actor physically playing the role." Here's a thread and subthread about it (also talking about it re: The Untamed; in its case, all of the significant characters but one were dubbed over by different actors than you see on screen).

For Guardian, Zhu Yilong and Bai Yu both do their own voices, but not all of the supporting cast do. For both of them, part of the reason I'm very cautious about delving into their back catalogues is that they've both been dubbed over by voice actors sometimes, which is especially common in historical/costume drama shows (of which Zhu Yilong has done several). My impression is that post-Guardian they're both big enough names to just keep doing their own voice work, so I hope that'll always be the case going forward.

Another link: I love this livestream they did during their Guardian promo appearances (despite getting a bit of contact embarrassment from some of the things the host/interviewer got them to do). The part I love most is at around 17 minutes, when they're trying to say each other's names in their respective home dialects. (The "laosi" part is, AFAIK, a respectful "teacher" that gets applied to actors on set?)

I remembered this link because Zhu Yilong's Wuhan accent is strong enough when he speaks Mandarin that people sometimes can have trouble understanding him, which is also probably a contributing factor for how often he used to get dubbed over. (But since everything's subtitled in Chinese to begin with, so that people who speak all sorts of different dialects can watch, that's apparently not as much of a dealbreaker as it could be otherwise.)

(That livestream includes them doing the "meow" song from the icon I used in my last comment, too. Poor Long-ge resisted, but Bai Yu won.)

(and sharing them with [twitter.com profile] hockeybosh because I'm generous)

This is the appropriate course of action!

[selenay]

That is really interesting - I had no idea that was what happened! I'm feeling weirdly grateful that Bai Yu and Zhu Yilong got to do their own voice parts right now.

And prepared for this not being the case in The Untamed.

I'm not usually a "dive into the back catalogues" kind of person, but it's useful to know.

(But since everything's subtitled in Chinese to begin with, so that people who speak all sorts of different dialects can watch, that's apparently not as much of a dealbreaker as it could be otherwise.)

I'd wondered about why there was still subtitling in Chinese, but that makes total sense.

[umadoshi]

I'm feeling weirdly grateful that Bai Yu and Zhu Yilong got to do their own voice parts right now.

I'm definitely grateful. I love their voices so much. It's still weird for me to think that some of the supporting cast have different voice actors.

There are little filming clips from The Untamed floating around where you can hear the cast's actual voices, and much as I enjoy the voice actors for the show (seriously amazing talent!), it makes my heart ache, too. (BTW, the one exception among The Untamed's cast who does his own voice work is Ji Li, who plays Nie Huaisang. Apparently he's certified or in the process of becoming certified as a voice actor.)

I'm not usually a "dive into the back catalogues" kind of person, but it's useful to know.

Also handy to know in Zhu Yilong's case: a lot of his back catalogue is apparently just not very good. I gather he had a not-great agent (?) for quite a while, and he's so earnest and believes so firmly in trying all kinds of roles and constantly learning from them, that there seem to have been a LOT of cases of "It's work, I'll take it." Which is not a bad attitude in and of itself, obviously, but combined with the kinds of shows that were being negotiated for him, it was often a massive waste of his talent. :(

But! In happy news, The Lost Tomb Reboot is giving him so much to sink his teeth into and he's acting the hell out of the role. (And will be bleeding and coughing up blood a lot, which he's known for doing well. ^^;)

[selenay]

I'm definitely grateful. I love their voices so much. It's still weird for me to think that some of the supporting cast have different voice actors.

They have great voices :) And it means that when I'm trying to write, I've got the right voice in my head, if that makes any sense?

(And will be bleeding and coughing up blood a lot, which he's known for doing well. ^^;)

*cries* Yes, yes he is and that's distressing.

[umadoshi]

And it means that when I'm trying to write, I've got the right voice in my head, if that makes any sense?

It absolutely does!