Guardian Revisted

[hils]

One thing I realised when I've been doing my Lost Tomb livetweets is it's much easier both for me and others to have everything in one thread. When I was watching Guardian I started a new thread each time I watched some episodes which, in retrospect, was dumb.

So, yesterday, I gathered all the threads together and put them in a shiny new Guardian livetweet thread. I can't believe it's been over a month since I watched it. It simultaneously feels like a lot longer and a lot less. I definitely feel like I've been part of the fandom forever. Everyone is so nice.

Anyway, while I was putting that thread together I thought it might be quite funny to look through the tweets when I knew nothing about the show and compare it to now. Sort of like what I've been doing with The Lost Tomb.

So, let's have a look and laugh at past!Hils


Okay I wasn’t expecting it to start with aliens
I later found out that this was for censorship reasons. Chinese censorship doesn't allow the depiction of magic or the supernatural. I haven't read the novel yet but I think that's all about gods and reincarnation which is also not permitted. So, aliens. They kind of fudged this because after the initial prologue they don't really mention the whole alien thing again until right at the end.

Okay how old is the actor who plays Shen Wei because he does not look old enough to be playing a 32 year old
Well, he's 32 now! So I think he'll have been around 30 at the time of filming. He has a very youthful face.

Lin Jing is my favourite of the Guardians team I think
This did not last. I don't mind Lin Jing, but then Guo Chengcheng and Chu Shuzhi were adorable and in love and Zhu Hong was amazing and deserved better than her unrequited love for Zhao Yunlan.

I swear Zhao Yunlan keeps putting things in his mouth on purpose
He sure does!

I really love the sibling relationship between GCC and CSH (I’m just guessing at the abbreviations but I’m bored of typing the full names now)
Ah, yes, 'sibling'. I was saying to someone recently that if Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan hadn't had the insane amount of chemistry that they did my primary pairing for this show would have been Guo Chengcheng and Chu Shuzhi. Their story had me sobbing nearly as much as the main one.

Chu Shuzhi charging off to save GCC his new baby brother
Seriously, Hils? You are not normally this slow.

I’ve had dinner and I’m still thinking about ZYL asking Shen Wei to clean his apartment and Shen Wei seeming almost relieved to do it
And this is how I learned what a service top is

I love it when Shen Wei goes into badass protective mode
Do you mean 'all the time'?

Lol of course there’s a fireman’s pole from the library to ZYL’s office
Oh my god I had legit forgotten about this. Zhao Yunlan is the most ridiculous and I love him for it

Apparently I have a ship type and that type is smartass who hides his feelings behind humour/stoic powerful or knowledgeable who breaks rules for love.

Please see: Dean/Castiel, WWX/LWJ, these two.
Yep, it's true. I need to find more shows with this dynamic.

I think I love GCC/CSZ almost as much as SW/ZYL
There we go I got there eventually

Wow okay I don't know the significance of calling him Xiao Wei but Shen Wei hasn't stopped staring at ZYL for like 5 minutes.
Sadly they never explain it in the show. It's a thing in the novel or so I've been told. They could have at least thrown in a Xiao Wei during the Kunlun storyline.

God, that was fantastically acted. He didn't say a word and you could just FEEL the humiliation and determination
Hils finally realises what a good actor Zhu Yilong is and thus the life ruining began.

I don't like how they keep emphasising that you need to make sacrifices to protect the people you are about. I have a bad feeling.
Oh, Hils. OH, HILS.

OH FFS SHEN WEI WHY DO YOU KEEP HURTING ME LIKE THIS
I mean this is just the entire show really. I don't even know which specific instance I was yelling about.

My emotional reaction to Guardian is very different to my emotional reaction to The Untamed

The Untamed: This is so romantic my chest hurts and I want to claw my own face
Guardian: YOU ASSHOLE HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME FEEL THESE FEELINGS
I still haven't forgiven Guardian for making me feel these feelings.

Oh no Zhu Hong please have some self respect you deserve so much better than this
Truth

Also, lol, I just noticed that every student in Shen Wei's class is female. Shen Wei: Singlehandedly narrowing the gender gap for people working in STEM
Haha! This was one of my most popular tweets about the show. It's so true though!

FFS ZYL STOP BEING AN IDIOT THIS IS BAD FOR MY BLOOD PRESSURE
At this stage of the show I should have learned that being an idiot is Zhao Yunlan's default state

I don’t like it when ZYL and Shen Wei separate. Usually something bad happens
Oh, Hils

Not that I don't appreciate the visual of Shen Wei chained up but could someone maybe rescue him?
3 episodes later...

OH MY GOD NO EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE WHY DID I START WATCHING THIS
Mood

BABY SHEN WEI IS ADORABLE OMG! I love that he looks exactly the same but is somehow still more pure and innocent.
Zhu Yilong strikes again

Okay I am going to need all of the Kunlun/bb!Shen Wei fics because this is adorable
I have read so many and I have one plotted out for my hc_bingo card

Oh FFS last time Shen Wei went to the underworld by himself it did not go well
Guess what? It's going to go even less well this time

I’m trying not to be too spoilery because I know a couple of friends are still watching but let me just say that for all the silly things in the show this is by far the silliest
GDI I wish I could remember what this was. Something silly that happens in the last 4 or 5 episodes.

Oh fuck
Yup

OH FUCK!!
YUP!!

I was okay until the necklace reveal
I still can't look at clips/gifs of the necklace reveal without crying. Goddamn this show and its feelings.

Which happened like 10 mins ago and I’ve only just stopped crying. Also there is no heterosexual explanation for Chu dragging Guo out of that blind date.
Honestly most of the ending is still a blur because from the necklace reveal to the end I was just sobbing my heart out at my desk. And then for about an hour after it had finished too. This show packs a punch.

Okay, that wasn't as embarassing as I expected. No wild opinions or theories that later got debunked. That was a fun little trip down memory lane. Now I'm going to go and read some Guardian fic.