Trope sorting meme + Guardian

[extrapenguin]

Via trobadora, the trope sorting meme. In doing it, I realized that either the tropes I like are off the list, or I just hate trope-based fic. I love worldbuilding, and I'm much more into fiction that starts out as elaborating a premise instead of trying to hit a trope qua trope.

Stuff I actually like:
1 Loyalty Kink
2 Hurt/Comfort
3 Enemies to Friends to Lovers
Okay so Loyalty Kink is My Jam, and I also like hurt/comfort currently (because Guardian) even if not that much in the past, and Enemies to Lovers has lots of potential for fraught tension!

Depends on the execution:
4 Supernatural Creature/Human Romance
5 Amnesia Fic
6 Friends to Lovers
7 A/B/O
8 Magical Connection (Telepathy, etc)
9 'Groundhog Day'/Karmic Time Loop
I suspect Amnesia Fic would be lower if I didn't have half a fic idea in my mind for a fic with amnesia. A lot of these, there's a chance of worldbuilding that might be interesting, but in practice, it'll be terrible and only have that trope instead of my one love of worldbuilding.

Too tropey for my tastes but could be bearable:
10 'Falling For A Coworker/Teammate Is A Bad Idea' Except This Is Fiction So It Works Out
11 Found Families
12 'Everyone is Evil'/Mirrorverse AU
13 Fairy Tale/Mythology AU
14 Royals/Political Marriage Turns Into Feelings
15 Characters Swap Roles AU (I don't mean in the bedroom)
16 Reincarnation/'25 Lives' AU
17 Soulmate Identifying Marks (Tattoo, Red Thread of Fate, etc)
18 Seemingly Unrequited Pining
19 Unusually Specific Occupation AU, Like, The Author Clearly Has The Same Job
20 Accidentally Fell In Love With The Mission Target
21 Body Swapping
22 Hot Single Parent(s)
23 Adopting/Raising a Baby
24 Selfcest (possibly due to time travel)
Stuff I'm not really into, but if they interact with the external world, might be redeemable. Fic that's tagged as based on these tropes would not be something I'm interested, but maybe perhaps something that hits upon these tropes as part of investigating a premise would work.

I loathe each and every single one of these: (save Polyamory, which isn't really a trope)
25 Fake Dating/Fake Marriage Accidentally Turns Into Feelings
26 They Break Up (but then They Get Back Together)
26 And They Were Roommates!
26 Daemons
26 Polyamory
26 Snowed-In Cabin/Isolated Together For Extended Period of Time
26 Pride and Prejudice AU
26 Vampires/Werewolves AU
33 Coffee House AU/Food Service AU
33 'They All Work In An Office' AU
33 High School/University AU
33 Actually Unrequited Pining
33 Hogwarts AU
A mix of my least favorite tropes and setting change AUs which I hate as a category! I have zero patience for misunderstanding drama, relationships written as two-person cults detached from the rest of the world, or stuff that rips the characters from their roots to stuff them in an unrealistic coffee shop. The lone exception is polyamory, which isn't a trope; I do have some polyships, but those are more closed OT3s instead of open arrangements.

---

The character list for Guardian has 80 entries! I've based it on the Baidu cast list plus added in people who're not there (frex because they didn't have a separate actor, e.g. Chu Shuzhi's twin) who get named at some point. I've added the voice credit as well if there is one listed. Example entry:

赵云澜 Zhao Yunlan Zhào Yúnlán (白宇 Bai Yu; child 唐孜悦 Tang Ziyue)
Main character, SID boss, lollipop sucker, hallows groper. Surprisingly good with people, including in relationships.

I have now rewatched the first 3 episodes, and will continue watching, but if any of you recall these people offhand, please drop a comment:


高天宇 Gao Tianyu Gāo Tiānyǔ (宁桓宇 Ning Huanyu)
谈啸 Tan Xiao Tán Xiào (陈伟栋 Chen Weidong)
来苏 Lai Su Lái Sū (吉志威 Ji Zhiwei)
丁顿 Ding Dun Dīng Dùn (赵俊伟 Zhao Junwei)
小全 xiao-Quan xiǎo-Quán (全康伟 Quan Kangwei)
郑中原 Zheng Zhongyuan Zhèng Zhōngyuán (高贵根 Gao Guigen)
郑意 Zheng Yi Zhèng Yì (许烁 Xu Shuo)
高劲风 Gao Jingfeng Gāo Jìngfēng (周杰 Zhou Jie)
包老三 Bao Laosan Bāo Lǎosān (马斯 Ma Si)
安松 An Song Ān Sōng (许家程 Xu Jiacheng)
丹丹 Dandan Dāndān (刘家辰 Liu Jiachen)
波比 Bo Bi Bō Bǐ (胡博 Hu Bo)
小杰 xiao-Jie xiǎo-Jié (李信鹏 Li Xinpeng)
卫蓝 Wei Lan Wèi Lán (张蓝心 Zhang Lanxin)
吕织 Lü Zhi Lǚ Zhī (杨雪莹 Yang Xueying)
刘浪 Liu Lang Liú Làng (孙秋生 Sun Qiusheng)
金浩 Jin Hao Jīn Hào (程魏 Cheng Wei)
朱豪 Zhu Hao Zhū Háo (窦全忠 Dou Quanzhong)
孔鲸 Kong Jing Kǒng Jīng (李佳伟 Li Jiawei)
郑大钱 Zheng Daqian Zhèng Dàqián (吴宣 Wu Xuan)
茵茵 Yinyin Yīnyīn (王心予 Wang Xinyu)

* I am not sure if Bao Laosan is a name or a title that should be translated

Other notes from the rewatch:

• Shen Wei is very much presented cinematographically as the villain/not on the SID's side, from the setting scene to the verbal kung fu to the way the light flashes off his glasses
• There is no proof re: Shen Wei's super strength – Zhao Yunlan was doing just fine lifting Li Qian before the pipes gave way from beneath his feet, and when Shen Wei went to aid, it'd be 100% logical that two people lifting half a Li Qian would do better than one person lifting a whole Li Qian
• I hate xiao-Guo
• Shen Wei's Professor shoes have quite a heel on them; he should borrow Teacher Zhang's stilettos
• Expressionwise, that scene much later on where Ye Zun impersonates Shen Wei badly? It's actually a pretty decent impersonation of early-series Shen Wei, save the contents of his words (and the terrible flirting)
• Shen Wei was projecting himself and Zhao Yunlan all over Wang Yike and Zhang Ruonan's relationship

I have also acquired 81 screencaps of people's faces and actions. Please send help.

Comments

[naye]

郑意 Zheng Yi - she's the little girl with the mind control/sonic powers

谈啸 Tan Xiao - the guy who adopts Zheng Yi, I think??

安松 An Song - at a guess, because I don't think he's ever named in canon: he's the tall guy with An Bai 安柏 (the new Dixing King). (My guess is based on them sharing a last name and a first name naming scheme.)

丹丹 Dandan - also at a guess, because they're listed together in the cast: this is An Bai's girlfriend, who tries to take out Zhao Yunlan together with An Song and An Bai.

[extrapenguin]

Ooh, yes, Zheng Yi and Tan Xiao ring bells in that context! (While the cast list is mostly in order of appearance for the non-main cast, Tan Xiao is way before Zheng Yi in the list, for some reason.)

An Bai's two friends are named at least a few times offhand, and that might be them. I'll have to rewatch.

[naye]

An Bai's two friends are named at least a few times offhand, and that might be them. I'll have to rewatch.

Oh, cool. I didn't catch them on my cursory search, so let me know what you find!

[trobadora]

Oooh, very cool! Offhand:

谈啸 Tan Xiao Tán Xiào (陈伟栋 Chen Weidong)

Sonic guy. Not actually Dixingren, but gets taken by the Envoy at one point.

来苏 Lai Su Lái Sū (吉志威 Ji Zhiwei)

The webnovelist whose monsters become real.

丁顿 Ding Dun Dīng Dùn (赵俊伟 Zhao Junwei)

The Dixingren with the "touch objects and see what the last person who touched them was thinking/feeling" power. Also the guy who stole the Dijun Booklet, or whatever that thing should reasonably be translated as. IIRC also the guy who's investigating Hallows-related incidents in Haixing on the Regent's orders, and finds Shen Wei waking from his 10,000 year sleep.

郑意 Zheng Yi Zhèng Yì (许烁 Xu Shuo)

Hypno-girl. Tan Xiao's adopted little sister.

[extrapenguin]

Great, thanks! And based on this, I can say that Zheng Zhongyuan is Zheng Yi's abusive adoptive father.

IIRC also the guy who's investigating Hallows-related incidents in Haixing on the Regent's orders, and finds Shen Wei waking from his 10,000 year sleep.
Huh, this is interesting! I'll have to pay attention to this.

[rheasilvia]

Ooh, I know a bunch of these!

Bao Laosan: the Dixingian criminal who can change the composition of the earth in ep 17

xiao-Jie: probably the little brother of the fighter who attacks Fire (the one who killed himself with Zhu Jiu's encouragement); I only know his name was Jie, and the Xiao would make sense – it's in ep 18

Liu Lang: one of the victims of the Merit Brush – the young man on a date who is aged in ep 22

Jin Hao: the male doctor who tries to kill himself in ep 23 (and is also in a couple of other eps)

Zhu Hao: the taxi driver involved in the entire greengrocer's wife tragedy (he first appears in ep 24) who carries the personality virus

Kong Jing: the taxi driver's contagious guest and the actual source of the multiple personality virus (named in ep 25, though I think he is also in ep 24); he is a serum mutant, as it later turns out

Zheng Daqian: catgirl's murderous husband in ep 26

[extrapenguin]

Ooh, thanks! This is super useful.

[china_shop]

I am so excited about the character list, you have no idea!! *showers you with sparkles*

I'm much more into fiction that starts out as elaborating a premise instead of trying to hit a trope qua trope

Yes! This is definitely part of my disinterest in doing the meme. Plus I tend to lump all the other-setting AUs in together, so... eh.

[extrapenguin]

It's pretty far done! There's a few episodes I need to re-watch to see if a name belongs to the person I think it does to, and then I'll ask the Guardian comm for the rest.

Yeah, it's "Setting Change AUs" all the way down as my least favorite, though ubiquity increases the loathing of a few. I'm sure if Pride and Prejudice AUs were as common as Coffee Shop AUs, I'd loathe them with the fiery passion of a thousand suns as well!