Guardian and me, May 2020

[waterscroll]

Now up to episode 23 and I had to completely give up on every hope of remaining unspoiled for anything and go binge on every spoiler I could find. Shen Wei's sketchiness and secret-keeping was starting to get to me. Not because I was worried he was Really Bad, more the opposite - there is nothing that I love in a narrative more than a good villain redemption arc, really nothing, and I felt like canon was horribly teasing me to give me the possibility of one with a character so delicious. But I wasn't seeing any villain redemption discourse about him in fandom, so I needed to read spoilers. And ok, I guess not.

But as a consolation prize, I got to meet Ye Zun, who is apparently the go-to in the fandom for people who like to write redemption arcs for villains. Or draw them, like this. I look forward to getting to know him better. And you couldn't give him an angstier backstory, all the Pain and Awful that is life in Dixing with the Extra of being trapped in a pillar for thousands of years. When he said that line about sunflowers inevitably reaching towards the sun I couldn't help but feel his pain, no matter how murdery he was being.

It seems like the character of Ye Zun was designed to meet my particular desire to see Shen Wei be more awful than he is going to be in this canon. Rather than having him be awful, they put the awful on his twin brother who looks just like him. I'm okay with that, and thank you show for working so hard to meet the emotional needs that I am bringing to it.


Guardian (at least the TV show) does seem to be a canon in which people mostly stay in their alignment, people get introduced as good or bad or morally ambiguous and then mostly stay that way. Am I right about this? Feel free to spoil me if you have relevant spoilers.

I've been moving slowly through the TV show because it is hitting me *so* hard right now, it went from feeling very emotionally safe to hurting a lot to watch...just as soon as I got invested in the plight of the Dixing people stuck underground with no light and no schools. Right now I care about that even more than the central romance, which sort of feels like engaging with the canon wrong. (I mean, guys, be happy together or not but fix Dixing already I'm crying here.) I feel like when a canon hurts this much the only way out is through, see what gets resolved in canon and find fixit fic for the rest. So I'm definitely going to keep watching, but I'm moving slowly.

*

In novelverse things I'm reading and enjoying:

This meta about how Shen Wei's novelverse arc works in Buddhist terms.
This meta about the god Kunlun in the novel.
This genderswapped Kunlun/Ghost King art.
This lovely AU in which Shen Wei reincarnates rather than Kunlun.

Comments

[waterscroll]

I thought you'd like the genderbent one! It got me thinking how Guardian would be different genderswapped, and I'm thinking possibly not very. The main thing I can think of is that novelverse ZYL's extreme sluttiness might be read or responded to differently by her team. But dramaverse ZYL doesn't canonically sleep around, he's just sexy, so in dramaverse even that might not make a difference.

But when I think about how the mythological roles might shift if they were female ghosts and deities...it might not. And for that matter, since Shen Wei's origin story is more or less just sentient bad energy, you could make a case for him not really being gendered at all, and taking on male self-presentation more or less just by default.

I feel this "engaging with the canon wrong!" thing.

I'm getting the impression that there is a lot about the canon that I'll only really notice on a rewatch. This business of not being told things is getting frustrating, I liked it much better when Shen Wei was keeping secrets from ZYL but still telling *me*. Also when ZYL was using all his resources to figure the secrets out. Although it totally makes sense from a character perspective that he'd trust Shen Wei to tell him eventually, I just find it frustrating storytelling.

[scytale]

I thought you'd like the genderbent one!

They are so gorgeous and the intimacy! And the costume porn! <3

But when I think about how the mythological roles might shift if they were female ghosts and deities...it might not.

This intrigues me a lot, because it actually does feel very different to me! It doesn't have to, especially in an AU world, but my understanding of Chinese mythology is that it mirrors the Chinese imperial court, with an Emperor and bureaucrats and everything.

My understanding is very osmosed, so I don't know if it's well-backed. I did read part of an m/f webnovel with worldbuilding based on Chinese mythology earlier, and I think that's impacting my impression, too. That webnovel felt like it was kinking pretty hard on how much it sucks to be a woman in the heavenly court, how important and powerful male gods were, how important romance was, etc. And some of that is a particular kind of m/f tropeyness, I think. It's fun thinking of an AU that focuses on goddesses without doing that particular kind of m/f tropeyness.

taking on male self-presentation more or less just by default.

There is something that feels very "default" about "ghost king" to me. Maybe because of the Yama Kings?

And there's probably something interesting about how genderbent Shen Wei (and maybe Kunlun) would relate to Confucianism.

Well. I am intrigued now.

This business of not being told things is getting frustrating

Aww, interesting. Is that something that happens later? I've been pretty okay with how things are progressing mystery-wise, but maybe that's because the charm of seeing the two of them work together still hasn't worn off. And I guess we haven't gotten to the Dixing mysteries yet.

[waterscroll]

This intrigues me a lot, because it actually does feel very different to me! It doesn't have to, especially in an AU world, but my understanding of Chinese mythology is that it mirrors the Chinese imperial court, with an Emperor and bureaucrats and everything.

This is very interesting! I will need to think about this more.

In the Guardian backstory we have one female deity - Nuwa - and three male deities, including Kunlun. I'll have to think more about how gender roles work there.

Yama Kings

Okay, after you read the novel I'll love to hear what connections you see there.

And there's probably something interesting about how genderbent Shen Wei (and maybe Kunlun) would relate to Confucianism.

That is a very interesting question! I'm also wondering what canon Shen Wei thinks of it, and if the novelverse and dramaverse versions might have different takes.

Is that something that happens later?

There are definitely more mysteries that get introduced after where you are - about Dixing, about Shen Wei's backstory, and about Shen Wei's relationship with ZYL. I think I just hit Mystery Overload.

[scytale]

I'll have to think more about how gender roles work

I would be very interested to know what you think!

Also, who are the other two deities? (And are there really only three? o.o I guess this isn't a court system in Guardian!verse!)

I'm also wondering what canon Shen Wei thinks of it, and if the novelverse and dramaverse versions might have different takes.

That does sound really interesting. o.o Novelverse Shen Wei sounds very different, from what I've heard about him.