Guardian

[kutsuwamushi]

Somehow I started to watch Guardian without realizing that it was based on a BL novel. I want to share with you my journey, as I tried to explain the show to a friend over Discord:



It's a Chinese urban fantasy drama

The basic premise is that there are two types of magical people, the Yashou and the Dixing

The Yashou are shapeshifters and live on the surfaces

The Dixing are psychics and live down below

The Dixing are kind of the bad guys

But they're not really evil, and it looks like there are different factions of them

So, things that I do not understand:

1) Does this take place in the real world or not? On one hand, it seems like more characters know about the Haixing and Dixing than should know, if it's a secret. But on the other hand when there are mysterious invents involving the Yashou or Dixing there is this air of cover-up

2) It takes place in a city called "Dragon City"?

3) The chief of the Special Investigation Division, which investigates mysterious events due to rogue Dixing, seems to have no powers at all. What is he doing there?

4) Why is the thousand-year-old cat shapeshifter a Scottish Fold? Did he like... change the type of cat he is? They didn't exist a thousand years ago.

5) Why is the newbie so useless? What does he do? Seriously, he also has no powers - he also seems very surprised the first time he encounters fellow investigators with powers. What does he do? Why is he there? He doesn't even have a job title as far as I can tell, mostly he seems to be there just to faint at the sight of dead bodies.

6) Fuck, Shen Wei, what happened to your face



6) Shen Wei, why are you sad in the rain



7) Is your secret identity even supposed to be a secret at this point



8) Why are you giving Zhao Yunlan a lollipop in this screenshot, and why is Zhao Yunlan also in a wig



9) IS THE SEXUAL CHEMISTRY ON PURPOSE

10) In this screenshot Zhao Yunlan is teaching you to "eat a lollipop", SURE, THAT'S DEFINITELY WHAT'S GOING ON



11) Why are secret identity masks in Chinese dramas always so corny, also, is this a sex thing



12) ... do .... do you have garters on ALL of your limbs or just the upper ones



13) IS THIS TAKING PLACE IN THE REAL WORLD WHERE SLEEVE GARTERS ARE A STATEMENT, OR IS THIS JUST LIKE, NORMAL

14) Are the spoilers going to make any more sense after I've watched more of the show, because I have to tell you, as much as I enjoy the idea of Zhao Yunlan telling Shen Wei to wear floral pants and take off his shirt, I am very confuseed about how we got there

Found on a blog: Both ZYL and SW fell into such micro-universes, from small ones as short as a 10-min loop to large ones decades long. To break through each universe, they had to destroy something on themselves. Eventually, ZYL had lost all his God powers and tools, and he got to the 81st universe which lasted 10,000 years. At the end of this universe he had nothing left but himself, so he sacrificed himself, breaking the last bubble. When he remerged from those micro-universes, so did SW, who also went through a crazy ride and was still quite confused. They then took a vacation on the beach where ZYL tried to force SW to wear floral pants and take off his shirt.

14) So, apparently, this drama is based on a series of novels, and goes in its own directions in some ways, but in the novels Shen Wei and his true love end up together, you know, as much as they probably can in China

And the writer was kind of like "hahaha I'm going to fix the drama ending"

15) ALSO HOLY SHIT

Guardian (Chinese: 镇魂[1]) is a web drama adapted from the fantasy BL novel of the same name.[2] The novel of Guardian is a famous supernatural internet novel about legendary gay romance, which is created by famous network novelist, Priest.[3] The original novel was changed in the show to be a bromance, rather than romance between the two leads due to the censorship.

16) I am super amused

17) No wonder the show is so fucking BL

Comments

[anotherslashfan]

There is a lot of Guardian-related activity on DW, check out sid_guardian if you're interested in connecting with other fans over here, especially the intro post.

[kutsuwamushi]

Joined!

[schneefink]

Have fun :D How far along are you?
Yes thank you I was also very confused by the sleeve garters.
I have however never wondered about what kind of cat Da Qing is ^^

[kutsuwamushi]

I'm on episode... five.

I was on episode three when I wrote this. I don't even know how I found it. I must have seen it linked somewhere, and I'd had it open in a tab for a while. But I had NO IDEA what it was about until I started to Google where it came from. It doesn't help that I was watching it while I worked and probably missed some vital details...

[brithistorian]

I had never heard of this show before. I had never heard of Youku before. And I found more possibly interesting things while trying to find this on Viki and on Netflix. Thanks for widening my world!

[kutsuwamushi]

I finally finished this show and I can say I'd recommend it, as long as you can avoid taking it seriously - some of the writing choices are a little WTF. But it is a fun, cheesy, romp through the trope forest, if that's your thing.

[brithistorian]

Thanks for the recommendation! It definitely sounds like something I'd enjoy, but given the size of my queues at Netflix and Viki, I don't know how likely it is that I'll ever get to it. There's just so much good media out there and so little time!