ExtraPenguin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
extrapenguin) wrote2019-03-22 07:41 pm
extrapenguin) wrote2019-03-22 07:41 pm
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In transformative fandom, the song of my people is a lonely tune
So, after a very hectic week of work featuring lots of overtime, I daydreamed about what sorts of things I'd write for my letter for the 520 Guardian Reverse Exchange (I will totally write a letter of prompts for my author to choose from, because how else am I supposed to do an exchange???), and basically the answer is "porn prompts, cute scenes, plotty plot ideas, all the worldbuilding, and all the worldbuilding, except this time as if it were for a science fiction novel". The latter category includes stuff like relativity.
Assuming Shen Wei were slapped on a relativistic space ship that accelerated at 1 G for 5 000 years, then did some funky gravity assist swing stuff and decelerated at 1 G for 5 000 years more, he'd have from his POV spent 18 years on a relativistic space ship while the rest of the Universe ticked along by 10k years. This is obviously the best solution for reconciling Shen Wei saying he's sought Zhao Yunlan for 10k years yet have him not be an immortal!
(But seriously, someone sing me the song of my people. I would love to have someone take the chance to explain how the Hallows time travel is totally somehow due to the fact that they are e.g. a FTL drive left behind by a more advanced civilization that turned Zhao Yunlan into a tachyonic construct with imaginary mass who could thus break the speed limit and time travel! The pains of wanting science fiction/space AUs that aren't Star Wars or Star Trek based...)
(Guardian rewatch post ep 5 will take another few hours.)
Assuming Shen Wei were slapped on a relativistic space ship that accelerated at 1 G for 5 000 years, then did some funky gravity assist swing stuff and decelerated at 1 G for 5 000 years more, he'd have from his POV spent 18 years on a relativistic space ship while the rest of the Universe ticked along by 10k years. This is obviously the best solution for reconciling Shen Wei saying he's sought Zhao Yunlan for 10k years yet have him not be an immortal!
(But seriously, someone sing me the song of my people. I would love to have someone take the chance to explain how the Hallows time travel is totally somehow due to the fact that they are e.g. a FTL drive left behind by a more advanced civilization that turned Zhao Yunlan into a tachyonic construct with imaginary mass who could thus break the speed limit and time travel! The pains of wanting science fiction/space AUs that aren't Star Wars or Star Trek based...)
(Guardian rewatch post ep 5 will take another few hours.)
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I'd love to see things that dealt with the generation ship thing (or did they have FTL travel?) and handwaved a scientific-sounding explanation for dark energy and Dixing powers and just engaged with the worldbuilding of the show on its own merits, instead of basically treating it like a version of the novel that went through a cipher and the point of the exercise being undoing the effects of the cipher... And, of course, I'd happily read the version where it's a Space AU (even if it's a Star Wars AU of some stripe – the Black-Cloaked Envoy dresses like a Sith Lord, after all) or where hard SF elements are added in, and there is a three-page infodump on relativistic rocket equations.
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generation ship thing (or did they have FTL travel?)
I don't have an actual reason for this, but I always assumed the aliens spent at least a few generations on the ship - whether or not they had FTL travel. It's just that I like to imagine what effect this had on their society and mores, and how you could still see the results today. (I... might have a story touching on that a bit in the pipeline. ;-) )
engaged with the worldbuilding of the show on its own merits, instead of basically treating it like a version of the novel that went through a cipher
THIS. Whether it goes into a hard scifi direction or stays the kind of handwavey soft scifi the drama itself embraces, as long as it stays true to the drama world, I am happy.
(And BTW, I am all drama, but I think reincarnation would fit into the drama!verse (Kunlun *does* look exactly like ZYL, after all). In my headcanon, Kunlun is a previous incarnation of Zhao Yunlan who was killed by the bandit king because Ye Zun meddled with the past from his pillar; that's why ZYL was sucked back in time to fill a vacuum, and history restored itself to the same general shape it would have had if the original Kunlun had teamed up with Shen Wei & Friends. /excursion )
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This makes more sense than the alternative, because this'd mean that the aliens would have the opportunity to lose the knowhow to build/run interstellar spaceships, and also install in a bunch of them the fear of open spaces (a phobia of rooflessness – what's keeping the atmosphere in???) that'd lead to them voluntarily settling beneath the ground. Maybe with the generation ship burying itself so it becomes Dixing? I have Ideas, and a story that touches upon it that will enter the pipeline at some point.
(Huh! I just ... am not into reincarnation as a concept or trope. Original Kunlun does look exactly like Zhao Yunlan, but to me this is more trivia than anything interesting. A reincarnation is not the original, so a lot of the reasons people cite for liking reincarnation stuff – "second chances" etc – seem to me like they don't apply, as it's at best getting a replacement goldfish of a character. *g*)
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This is a very good point! Alternately, perhaps they weren't the ones who *built* the spaceship. Perhaps they never knew more than the basics of how to maintain it for long enough to reach their destination (if they even had one and weren't just flying away from something, rather than to something).
Yes, I also thought of Dixing possibly having resemblance to the spaceship! I look forward to reading your story. :-)
A reincarnation is not the original, so a lot of the reasons people cite for liking reincarnation stuff – "second chances" etc – seem to me like they don't apply, as it's at best getting a replacement goldfish of a character.
Oh, I agree - that's not what interests me about reincarnation. There are a lot of other possible plots that work better for me; I never liked the "second chance" thing much either, because it's not the same person without their original memories (although things are complicated with the drama's ending, argh).
This, though? A time-twisty double twist with ZYL replacing himself? I love that thought. (And seriously, why does Ye Zun know that it's useless to try to change the past because time will right itself? It's like he TRIED, and failed. *g*) And I love the idea of Zhao Yunlan someday grabbing up Shen Wei's weapon in the heat of the fight and using it with instinctive expertise, and being at a loss to explain how he knew how to fight with a sword - and perhaps always having had nightmares he put down to an overly active imagination. And then more and more strangeness coming out... just that kind of creepy thing. :-)
Remembering flashes of a life the character never lived, along with the resulting identity issues, could be a very nice element in a story, I think.
no subject
Ooh, so a third species gave them the spaceship so they could escape? (Or, more sinisterly, so they could invade Earth. Or so they could be used as slaves by a member of that third race.) Now I want to see the angry spaceship rental agent come and try to get it back... *g*
It would, but I think I like them best in a context other than reincarnation – have them be clearly scenes from someone else's life with magical memory implantation or Hallows handwaving or something, instead of this ... "oh but you're a reincarnation, so you're technically sort of the same person". Commit or get out, none of this half-way stuff!
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Possibly! Or they stole the spaceship to escape when the space-faring species invaded their original planet. Or they were actually slaves on their home planet (but of the same species as the people who had the knowledge to build spaceships). Or ...
Now I want to see the angry spaceship rental agent come and try to get it back... *g*
LOL! That'd be a great crack fic - they are bound to have violated the lease in so many ways. I wonder what the contractual penalty is...
Commit or get out, none of this half-way stuff!
*g* Looks like that's where our tastes differ! I am *so weak* to identity issues - and to me, the identity issues loom more threateningly when the memories are from someone who can technically be seen as the same person, but who still acts and thinks in ways completely foreign to the person in question. Reconciling that... that can be rough.
Someone else's memories would be fascinating in a different way, though, and I would very much love to read that story, too!
Basically, I just want to read ALL THE STORIES, and am glad the reincarnation plots weren't taken off the table with the time loop. Guardian lets us have our cake and eat it, too. :-)
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Damn you, I already had *one* idea for the next fic involving the Dixing spaceship, why did you give me another one??? Blast. (Whatever his flaws, Zhao Yunlan is pretty sure that he'd remember crashing a spaceship, no matter how drunk he might have been at the time!)
Huh, interesting! I might read a reincarnation story that took that approach, but as a chronic nonbeliever in souls, "reincarnation" just reads as "completely different person" in the absence of magic stuff (and no, Guardian the drama has science stuff, not magic stuff!), and thus I am baffled.
One of my other lingering plotbunnies if that Zhao Yunlan asks the Hallows to bring Shen Wei back, and they do - except there wasn't enough Shen Wei left, and they had to use what was left of Ye Zun to patch the gaps, leading to the Hallows giving him a "Shen Wei" who is half Shen Wei, half Ye Zun, and has a selfhood and consciousness separate from either. I imagine the crisis of self and reconciling being born from two conflicting sets of memories would very much up your narrative wheelhouse.
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Muahahahahahaaaaaa! My evil plan has come to fruition!
Whatever his flaws, Zhao Yunlan is pretty sure that he'd remember crashing a spaceship, no matter how drunk he might have been at the time!
Ooooh, now you have me very intrigued. This is an amazing opening line - I very much hope you write the rest of the story!
as a chronic nonbeliever in souls, "reincarnation" just reads as "completely different person" in the absence of magic stuff
I absolutely see where you're coming from - in a strictly scifi world, reincarnation (rather than clones or the like) does seem out of place. For me, though, Guardian is a special case in this regard, because the drama allows science to step in for so many phenomena that are standard fantasy/magical fare. In a world where the Hallows are scientific artefacts and people are filled with dark and light energy that explodes when it mixes, reincarnation as the result of natural energy transfer seems absolutely logical and fitting to me. ;-)
But in the end, hey - if the reincarnation plot bunnies aren't hopping for you, there are plenty of others out there. Guardian seems to breed them in industrial quantities.
I imagine the crisis of self and reconciling being born from two conflicting sets of memories would very much up your narrative wheelhouse.
It should be, you are absolutely right! It's a fascinating idea - and I could definitely see an accident like this happening through reckless Hallows use. (Oh, Zhao Yunlan.)
All in all, this scenario sounds a bit too dark for me, though... I think the absolute and irreversible loss of self, and the actual destruction of Shen Wei as a person, would take it more into the horror genre for me.
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It would be in the summary, but in the actual fic, more like the 4th line. He has to get accused of crashing the spaceship first!
Indeed it does! I'll focus on my own infinite plotbunnies. :P
Huh, I conceptualize it more as an extreme case of Came Back Wrong, since Shen Wei already died. With the idea, I'm torn between the played for drama option of Zhao Yunlan realizing this person isn't Shen wei (or Ye Zun) and then the relationship fallout and the whole concept of second love with eventual Zhao Yunlan/Shen San - and playing it for comedy, where after Zhao Yunlan reconciles himself with being together with Shen San only, Shen San starts oscillating between a state of being himself and a state of being Shen Wei and Ye Zun as two separate beings. Then Zhao Yunlan has to figure out how to stabilize things and grapple with which option he wants: Shen San dead in favor of the twins, or Shen wei (and Ye Zun) dead in favor of Shen San, and how to solve the problem while having all three Dixingren live. (Even if one of them is his least favorite Dixingian.)