Quick little Guardian musing--no spoilers past episode 8 please!

[lunabee34]

Emma and I were talking on the way home from physical therapy today about how it took us both a little bit to warm up to Zhao Yunlan, partially because of the contrast between him and Shen Wei.

From the first episode, Shen Wei is so impeccably dressed and formal and buttoned up and reserved and restrained and correct and appropriate. And Zhao Yunlan is not. He's messy and slouchy and sticking things in his mouth and smiling and joking and laying down all over every surface.

In that first episode, the contrast between them is so marked, that Emma and I both saw Zhao Yunlan as silly. Part of that is first episode-itis. You don't know who anyone is or how the story is going to work, and the show hasn't hit its stride yet.

Now that we've watched 8 episodes, it's clear that Zhao Yunlan isn't silly at all. He's caring and he takes his job seriously and he deliberately cultivates a lot of those casual mannerisms to disarm the people he's questioning. Emma said that he wants people (outside of his team) to underestimate him, and I think that's true. Now, the contrast between the two of them is one of my favorite parts of the show. One of the main questions for me has become--What's it going to take to get Shen Wei to loosen a button, to be unrestrained, to do a little slouching of his own?

Can't wait for episode 9!

Comments

[china_shop]

Now that we've watched 8 episodes, it's clear that Zhao Yunlan isn't silly at all. He's caring and he takes his job seriously and he deliberately cultivates a lot of those casual mannerisms to disarm the people he's questioning.

Yes yes yes yes yes! <3 <3 <3

It's so much fun watching you watch! :-D

[lunabee34]

Yay!

I am having such a good time. We watched 2 episodes last night because we just couldn't stand it. Of course the second one also ended on a cliffhanger, but we had to go to bed. LOL

[trobadora]

He's caring and he takes his job seriously and he deliberately cultivates a lot of those casual mannerisms to disarm the people he's questioning.

Hee! Yes! And also to push people's buttons. Like slinging his arm around Guo Changcheng in the first episode. *g*

Your Guardian posts are so much fun. ♥

[lunabee34]

Yes! He is such a button pusher. I love that sort of character.

[mecurtin]

Chinese people in the fandom say that ZYL's casualness, sloppiness, and disregard for boundaries are MORE startling (and even shocking) in-culture. He CAN behave and speak properly when he wants to, so his casualness isn't due to ignorance, it's an actual choice--and to some extent a critique of Chinese mores.

[lunabee34]

Oh, that's really interesting. Thank you for sharing that. That makes his character a lot more complex because it didn't register with me that he was skirting the edge of social propriety.