selenay | Guardian episode 36 (Reply)

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