30 Days of Guardian

[extrapenguin]

4. Favorite Holy Tools arc
The Sundial arc! Admittedly, the competition isn't that stiff, but it was a very nice microcosm of the entire show, and a very effective introduction to our leads. The Sundial was also nicely present in its arc. Li Qian is one of my favorite minor characters. (The way Shen Wei takes care of her is adorable, and I wish we'd have seen more of the professor-postgrad relationship. Also papa wolf Shen Wei defending her from that shadow man!) The one minus is Zhao Yunlan not having his hot hairstyle yet, but he won't get that until time for the Merit Brush arc, which sucked.

Also, we got a bunch of nice shots:











1. Favorite episode
2. Favorite case
3. Least favorite case
4. Favorite Holy Tools arc
5. Least favorite Holy Tools arc
6. Favorite character
7. Favorite SID member
8. Favorite guest character(s)
9. Favorite worldbuilding detail
10. Favorite rarepair
11. Favorite headcanon
12. Least favorite headcanon
13. Favorite main villain
14. Favorite case villain
15. Villain you’d like redeemed or whose redemption you liked
16. Favorite conversation between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei
17. Favorite Dixing power and/or power you want to have
18. Least favorite villain
19. Least favorite character
20. Most appealing point for a canon divergence AU
21. Favorite character moment
22. Favorite badass moment
23. Favorite soft moment
24. Favorite team moment
25. Thoughts and feelings on the ending
26. Rec a fanfic
27. Rec a vid
28. Rec a fanart
29. Rec a meta post
30. Prompt for a fanwork

Comments

[solo]

Lovely screencaps. And whooo, that look on Shen Wei's face when stepping between Li Qian and the shadow man. Harmless University prof, my ass!

[extrapenguin]

Shen Wei has likely interpreted the whole "ensure the health and safety of your student" thing a little bit more broadly than intended! And for all his acting, he really isn't very convincing at being a harmeless university prof. (He'd still fit in, because they're a bunch of eccentrics, but ... he does not match the stereotype he's aiming for.)

[phyrry]

Aww, it was such a good arc, and our best look at Professor Shen before Zhao Yunlan went full bore on sabotaging his career. (Cough.) I admit a fondness for the Awl arc, but the whole Hanga thing kinda dumps its score down. (There is such a thing as too many flashbacks, and the Hanga episodes were giving me flashbacks to Highlander...)

Speaking of your screenshots, that park where BCE and Chu Shuzhi met up is utterly gorgeous! If only the portal to Dixing had been located there -- well, maybe the production team didn't have access after the first few episodes. (That's the only excuse I will accept for not utilizing such a beautiful location more often! ^^;)

[extrapenguin]

Professor Shen! He is so good at mentoring Li Qian, let him go back to that, please. Have him complain about academia to Zhao Yunlan, and have publication deadlines going on! He could recruit another PhD student to replace Li Qian, except oops, that one is Dixingian and working for Ye Zun! So many possibilities.

The Awl arc is nice enough (certainly better than the Merit Brush), but there was too much Hanga flashback, and the really good stuff re: identity reveal only happened afterwards, so.

Speaking of your screenshots, that park where BCE and Chu Shuzhi met up is utterly gorgeous!
It is! It must be Shen Wei's secret place, which only his nearest and dearest are allowed into. (But yeah, likely they only had a few days of filming there.)

[phyrry]

1000% more actual professoring from Professor Shen yes good please. Does he even have a lab? What specific topics is he into in his field? I need to know these things! 😭

If the Awl arc is 9-21 (which is what the wiki says, anyway), then it does cover most of the reveal, as well as Zhao Yunlan's first field trip to Dixing. Mmm, Dixing.

[extrapenguin]

Does he even have a lab? What specific topics is he into in his field?
He did have research duties scheduled for one day, and he gave a public lecture on mutations in humans, and he's stated to be a prof of Bioengineering! This is the sum total of our knowledge. Probably genes and likely human genes, though I tend to make him work with bacteria a lot.

If the Awl arc is 9-21
Dafuq? The Hallows arcs end when the Hallow is at the SID! While the identity realization is still part of the Awl arc (as it happened in the mountains), all the mind control girl stuff isn't, and it's not part of any Hallows arc. I am ??? at the wiki.

[phyrry]

Yeah, that sounds about right for canon's elaboration on Professor Shen. I could have stood more showing and less telling - we get a lot more on Professor Ouyang, come on. (Although Shen Wei in the Haixing Bureau lab was a great moment.)

There's a couple different ways to look at the show by arc - the wiki basically broke the entire show up into four sections, so the Awl section stretches from the point where the Awl storyline begins (episode 8) to the point where the Merit brush storyline starts (episode 22). Which is not to say that every episode in that range focuses on the Awl, but if you have to cut the show up into rough quarters somehow...

(Also, that means Zhu Jiu dies at the end of the Awl section, and Dr. Cheng and Sha Ya show up at the beginning of the Merit Brush section.)

[jo_lasalle]

LOL, that shot of Shen Wei holding his back as he's getting up after being attacked at the hospital...

I never hated the early hairstyle, but I'm becoming actively fond of it in retrospect. In a sort of "awwww, when he was half-hot!" way. *g*

[extrapenguin]

It's like he was trying to be a caricature of innocent professorhood *and* badly flirt with Zhao Yunlan at the same time!

The hair ... I have standards. They aren't that exacting, but I need to be able to see the eyebrows. The rest of the forehead can be whatever, but: eyebrows.

[jo_lasalle]

LOL! That is fair; eyebrows, you shall have! ^^