Guardian Episodes 5-7
Mar. 24th, 2019 08:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee34I think I've been rendering everyone's names incorrectly in my reviews. I should be writing Zhao Yunlan rather than just Zhao, right?
I'm also a little confused by the way people are being titled old. Is that just a literal translation of an honorific? It's been used for older people but also Zhao Yunlan who is definitely not old. And the use of brother and sister, is that analogous to comrade?
Episode 5
1. Sartorial squee: the bar pin through the collar is back plus a lapel pin!
2. Shen Wei is Superman. Glasses on--mild mannered professor. Glasses off--lord of the underworld!
3. I absolutely adore that Shen Wei wants to protect Zhao Yunlan. Nobody touches him!He's mine!
4. What is with these heartbreaking stories? I can't figure out exactly what they did with the boy--Emma thinks they kept him captive somewhere. I thought they dropped him off in a desert somewhere to die, and it took him that long to get back to Dragon City and enact his revenge. In any event, really sad story for both parent and child.
5. Zhao Yunlan is willing to use the dial and give up part of his life force to save the butler (although Little Guo offers first *my heart*).
6. I very much like that this show has a Buffy/Angel trajectory: DemonsDixing are evil-------well, maybe just some of them some of the time. Zhao Yunlan is getting his world morally greyed and learning to empathize with the Dixing.
7. Oh, wow. The underworld is surrounded by lava. LOL
8. And Shen Wei moves across the hall from Zhao Yunlan because of course he does.
Episode 6
1. Again with the heavy plots. I love the reveal that he fell in love with mirror girl and never even knew the real Wei Wei. I think it's also significant that she never did anything wrong until the very end when she was angry and scared; Wei Wei traded places with her willingly.
2. The Clan of Flowers is super cool.
3. Awwww, Zhao Yunlan Gibbs slaps Little Guo.
4. Little Guo is consistently the heart of this show. His story about growing up an orphan with no friends and how he is always working for the happiness of others because that makes him happiest is really moving.
5. Looking forward to an explanation of puppet master's flashback to a brother? Not sure.
6. Emma is convinced this show is going to involve reincarnation because Zhao Yunlan is a normal human and could not be thousands of years old. IDK I don't think that's where it's headed. *shrugs* She's really good at predicting plot lines, though, so maybe it will.
Episode 7
1. So Emma and I spent a day or two in deep fantasy about how Shen Wei would get out of his mugging predicament. We both thought it was too early for an identity reveal and guessed that Zhao Yunlan would show up and rescue him. I'm so glad we were right because damn that scene is good.
Love Zhao Yunlan's joke that he hired them to rough up Shen Wei so he can rescue him like a damsel in distress. And then all the sexy bruise rubbing! *swoon*
2. Little Guo camouflaging with the leaf behind his ear! *dies* He is so precious. I think he might just end up my favorite character.
3. I think the plot of this episode is really interesting; it's a classic Aristotelian "the revealer is the thing revealed."
4. Did this episode seriously just end with "winter is coming?" WTF? LOL
We had to skip a night last night because we had guests. I'm really looking forward to episode 8!
I'm also a little confused by the way people are being titled old. Is that just a literal translation of an honorific? It's been used for older people but also Zhao Yunlan who is definitely not old. And the use of brother and sister, is that analogous to comrade?
Episode 5
1. Sartorial squee: the bar pin through the collar is back plus a lapel pin!
2. Shen Wei is Superman. Glasses on--mild mannered professor. Glasses off--lord of the underworld!
3. I absolutely adore that Shen Wei wants to protect Zhao Yunlan. Nobody touches him!
4. What is with these heartbreaking stories? I can't figure out exactly what they did with the boy--Emma thinks they kept him captive somewhere. I thought they dropped him off in a desert somewhere to die, and it took him that long to get back to Dragon City and enact his revenge. In any event, really sad story for both parent and child.
5. Zhao Yunlan is willing to use the dial and give up part of his life force to save the butler (although Little Guo offers first *my heart*).
6. I very much like that this show has a Buffy/Angel trajectory: Demons
7. Oh, wow. The underworld is surrounded by lava. LOL
8. And Shen Wei moves across the hall from Zhao Yunlan because of course he does.
Episode 6
1. Again with the heavy plots. I love the reveal that he fell in love with mirror girl and never even knew the real Wei Wei. I think it's also significant that she never did anything wrong until the very end when she was angry and scared; Wei Wei traded places with her willingly.
2. The Clan of Flowers is super cool.
3. Awwww, Zhao Yunlan Gibbs slaps Little Guo.
4. Little Guo is consistently the heart of this show. His story about growing up an orphan with no friends and how he is always working for the happiness of others because that makes him happiest is really moving.
5. Looking forward to an explanation of puppet master's flashback to a brother? Not sure.
6. Emma is convinced this show is going to involve reincarnation because Zhao Yunlan is a normal human and could not be thousands of years old. IDK I don't think that's where it's headed. *shrugs* She's really good at predicting plot lines, though, so maybe it will.
Episode 7
1. So Emma and I spent a day or two in deep fantasy about how Shen Wei would get out of his mugging predicament. We both thought it was too early for an identity reveal and guessed that Zhao Yunlan would show up and rescue him. I'm so glad we were right because damn that scene is good.
Love Zhao Yunlan's joke that he hired them to rough up Shen Wei so he can rescue him like a damsel in distress. And then all the sexy bruise rubbing! *swoon*
2. Little Guo camouflaging with the leaf behind his ear! *dies* He is so precious. I think he might just end up my favorite character.
3. I think the plot of this episode is really interesting; it's a classic Aristotelian "the revealer is the thing revealed."
4. Did this episode seriously just end with "winter is coming?" WTF? LOL
We had to skip a night last night because we had guests. I'm really looking forward to episode 8!
no subject
Date: 2019-03-24 02:18 pm (UTC)And that fight/rescue scene is one of my favourites in the show. <3
I should be writing Zhao Yunlan rather than just Zhao, right?
*nods* Zhao is the family name and Yunlan is the first name. From what I've gathered, it would be weird to casually refer to him as Yunlan, however using the entire name Zhao Yunlan is perfectly acceptable in regular conversation.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-24 02:29 pm (UTC)It really is very fanfic tropey. I love it. All the longing looks, the tiny smiles Shen Wei smiles when Zhao Yunlan's not looking. Soooo good.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-24 05:56 pm (UTC)Yeah, the way I understand it, you wouldn't use the surname on its own, or a one-syllable name on its own, in Chinese. Full name is pretty much always appropriate and (unlike in English) never too formal.
"Old" (lao) and "Little" (xiao) are both ways to form nicknames (for people older or younger than you, mostly).
"Brother" (ge, older brother) or "sister" (jie, older sister) are also both ways to form nicknames, both for friends and in a romantic context.
(This twitter thread has excellent explanations, but it also mentions two small things that happen later during the show, so proceed with caution.)
Emma is convinced this show is going to involve reincarnation because Zhao Yunlan is a normal human and could not be thousands of years old. IDK I don't think that's where it's headed. *shrugs* She's really good at predicting plot lines, though, so maybe it will.
Hee! This is so fascinating to read. I'm really looking forward to what you'll both say after you get to that part. :)
(Also, episode 8 is glorious. Can't wait for your reaction! :D)
no subject
Date: 2019-03-24 09:15 pm (UTC)I'm just excited about being excited! It takes so much to actually get me to watching TV now much less actively looking forward each day to the time I get to turn the show on. :)
no subject
Date: 2019-03-24 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-25 12:43 am (UTC)Episode 8 just ended and I need more! But I have to go to bed! LOL
no subject
Date: 2019-03-25 04:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-31 03:39 pm (UTC)re: Winter is coming: the Chinese says, "a time of dark and rain is coming". Which would normally be translated as "dark times are coming", but the subtitler made it into a Game of Thrones reference. (the same translation has been spotted in other amateur cdrama subtitles.)
no subject
Date: 2019-03-31 03:51 pm (UTC)Oh, that's such a fun little fannish confluence. The other day, an episode of My Little Pony did a Winter is Coming reference which was totally lost on my other daughter, the five year old. LOL