More on watching Guardian in Corona Times

[waterscroll]

In episode 15 Zhao Yunlan visits Dixing for the first time. He asks Shen Wei a fairly dumb question: why is it so dark? And gets the obvious answer: Dixing is underground and light is a scarce resource. Fortunately, Dixing people don't need it to survive.

This was probably intended to hurt when it was written, but sitting here in April 20fucking20, having not left my apartment to see daylight in approximately one billion years (or six and a half weeks, who can tell at this point) this probably hurts more than it was intended to. I don't need sunlight to live. Really, I don't. I'll be fine. And whatever treaty made the Dixing people have to agree to this IS NOT OK AND HAS TO STOP AND IS TERRIBLE AND AWFUL FOREVER. Um. I'm fine. Really. Except that I'm not and neither is the world and now I am having intense feelings about fictional underground-dwellers and it's this damned show's fault.

This episode threw me for an emotional loop and I take back everything I said about this show being emotionally safe. Mostly because this is the episode where finally Shen Wei is in a relationship with the guy he's been pining over for millennia, and you'd think he'd be happy but he's not. I mean there are moments, but mostly he still looks like a tense nervous bunny buried in secrets up to his pining eyes. And I don't know what these secrets are! But I want him to be happy, and right now he's not.

Some of it is maybe the power games. I am utterly in awe of Zhao Yunlan's determination to not only marry a terrifyingly powerful hell demon but to boss him around, pry out all his secrets and get him to do housework. It's kind of hilarious to watch. But the problem with pining for someone for a very long time is that when you finally get together it can be hard to have proper boundaries or protect yourself in any way, and for all Shen Wei's terrifying powers I'm a little worried about him. Maybe more than a little.

But look, that's realistic I guess, and it also makes sense thematically. For all the show is at its heart a romance, it's a romance that is intertwined somehow with the great and unresolved tragedy of this show's universe, which includes but is not limited to Dixing people not being able to see the sun. There's much more at stake here than the love between two people, no matter how prettily they pine and lust after each other. The power balance is weird and out of whack - on an individual level Shen Wei is vastly more powerful than Zhao Yunlan, but it seems (?) that as a whole Haxing is more powerful than Dixing, at least in that it is keeping them underground and out of the sun. There's also apparently a ton of painful history between Haxing and Dixing, as well as between Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan personally, that Zhao Yunlan doesn't know about. How to make a happy relationship out of this mess? Who knows. But damnit show I am expecting you to tell me.

Comments

[solo]

Aaaah, I was wondering if there was an update. I found it!

I'm really sorry about your shitty situation. :( I wish there was something I could do to help, and in case you're living in any major conurbation in England, Scotland, or Wales, I invite you to come stay at my house for the duration because I've also been isolating so I'm safe but I have a garden! And I mean this very seriously. (I'm used to meeting complete strangers and hanging out with them.)

mostly he still looks like a tense nervous bunny buried in secrets up to his pining eyes. And I don't know what these secrets are! But I want him to be happy, and right now he's not.

He knows too much and for better or worse feels he can't tell Zhao Yunlan. Once you find out what it is, you can join the meta about whether it was necessary or not. :)

There's much more at stake here than the love between two people, no matter how prettily they pine and lust after each other. The power balance is weird and out of whack - on an individual level Shen Wei is vastly more powerful than Zhao Yunlan, but it seems (?) that as a whole Haxing is more powerful than Dixing, at least in that it is keeping them underground and out of the sun.

Yes, that's true. Shen Wei has far more power than Zhao Yunlan even though, I have to break it to you gently, he's not a hell demon really. That's one of the differences between the show and the novel that I actually like: the 'demons' in the book are actually evil demons and Shen Wei is the only one who has decided he doesn't wnat to be like that. Nobody cares about killing the rest of them. Whereas as this show goes on, we meet so many Dixingren who are just like us, and the show makes a very determined point of that.

The Dixing in darkness thing... there was a treaty to keep Dixing and Haixing separate and that wasn't actually an issue because Dixing still had the Holy Tools and therefore, light. It's not like the treaty condemned them to a horrible fate. The Tools just got lost later, the Guardian Lantern got extinguishes, and then life got bad.

Haixing... well, they are trying to keep the Dixingren away because those people have powers they can't match. It's not kind but fear does stuff to people's attitude.

I'm enjoying reading your thoughts ast you go through this without being utterly spoiled! I hope you aren't spoiled for the ending.

[scytale]

I'm sorry that this episode was so painful. :(

And yeah, the line about not needing something to survive hits hard.


This episode threw me for an emotional loop and I take back everything I said about this show being emotionally safe.

I am still in the middle of episode 13 and it is already starting to feel not emotionally safe. It's interesting how quickly the show managed to go from cheesy pining fun to BUT MY FEELINGS.

But the problem with pining for someone for a very long time is that when you finally get together it can be hard to have proper boundaries or protect yourself in any way, and for all Shen Wei's terrifying powers I'm a little worried about him. Maybe more than a little.

Yeah...and I think part of Shen Wei's brand of pining is choosing to give in, which would be fun to watch if I didn't care about him so much.