30 Days of Guardian

[extrapenguin]

5. Least favorite Holy Tools arc
Without question, the Merit Brush, because it drags so long. (Not even Zhao Yunlan's hot hairstyle can save it!) There's a bunch of interesting stuff that happens during it, but that stuff is the stuff least connected to the Merit Brush, and the actual Merit Brush stuff has a lot of fat to trim. I also found Zhu Jiu preferrable to Wang Xiangyang.

Alternative answer: the Guardian Lantern arc, because it didn't exist. *g*


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

[phyrry]

Zhu Jiu is so much more entertaining than Wang Xiangyang it's not even funny. I do feel sorry for Dark Hoodie Fruitseller, but uh I feel a lot more sorry for Bai Suxia.

That said, Dr. Cheng, Li Qian's new lab job, and Li Qian vs Sha Ya were all a lot of fun. The Merit Brush itself was criminally underused for what is basically a magic wand powered by the user's lifeforce, though. (So many creepy &/ awesome things that could be done with it without spending budget on extra special effects... ah well, that's what fic is for, right?)

[extrapenguin]

Zhu Jiu is so much more entertaining than Wang Xiangyang it's not even funny. I do feel sorry for Dark Hoodie Fruitseller, but uh I feel a lot more sorry for Bai Suxia.
Now I want the fic in which he abuses the Merit Brush to get his wife back, sacrificing himself in the process, except surprise! Zhu Jiu was also resurrected. *g*

Dr. Cheng, Li Qian's new lab job, and Li Qian vs Sha Ya were all a lot of fun.
They were! Except I wanted Shen Wei to react to Li Qian's new job somehow.

And the Merit Brush was criminally underused, yes. (Could Zhao Yunlan have asked Shen Wei about using it/buffing Shen Wei's powers with it, at least? He's the #1 Hallows groper! Or is he monogamously gropey with the sundial?!)

[phyrry]

Now I want the fic in which he abuses the Merit Brush to get his wife back, sacrificing himself in the process, except surprise! Zhu Jiu was also resurrected. *g*
There is a stunning lack of Zhu Jiu resurrection fic in this fandom, I assume because his cosplay store costume and wig put people off. (Or possibly I'm the only person who's fond of him? Hmm.) But yes, I would 110% read this. Bai Suxia had a lot of personality and I was sad we only got to see much of her in the flashbacks.

They were! Except I wanted Shen Wei to react to Li Qian's new job somehow.
By that point in the show I think they'd pretty much forgotten that Shen Wei had a job, a couple of moments during ZYL's blindness aside. (ZYL's alarm in Dr. Cheng's office, and SW getting distracted and writing stuff down wrong on the board in class.)

ZYL seems to be gropiest with the dial and the awl, which, fair considering what we saw the brush do to Wang Xiangyang's hair. But yeah, I don't recall him ever groping the brush after the rooftop?

[extrapenguin]

Zhu Jiu is definitely someone who grew more appealing with the rewatch. I guess his costuming doesn't help, and people aren't that fond of his sheer OTTness?

ZYL seems to be gropiest with the dial and the awl, which, fair considering what we saw the brush do to Wang Xiangyang's hair. But yeah, I don't recall him ever groping the brush after the rooftop?
I think he mostly gropes the dial? And uses the awl as a weapon at the end. But yeah, he doesn't seem to touch the brush.

[phyrry]

Yeah, I don't know that I liked Zhu Jiu so much on first watch either, but that was a long time ago. But now that I'm on rewatch number - okay, I don't know how many now, but it's a lot - anyway, I enjoy most of the minor villains but I definitely have a soft spot for him and his terrible wig/dye job. (I know it's a wig, but thinking about him dying his hair purple in an old rusty bathroom sink somewhere makes me laugh, so that's my headcanon now.)

I think he mostly gropes the dial? And uses the awl as a weapon at the end. But yeah, he doesn't seem to touch the brush.
There are a couple of really good scenes with him groping the Awl, actually! Both the ladder-punching scene in Episode 19 and the swoony catch in Episode 12. The groping that led to the "why are you so stupid" scene in Episode 28 was the dial, though.

[solo]

Zhu Jiu has really grown on me. Wang Xiangyiang is just... meh.

Someone, maybe powwie, made me realize that there is actually a Guardian Lantern arc: it activates when Ye Zun and Zhao Yunlan fight in the SID and is instrumental in transporting Zhao Yunlan to YOHE. The timeloop and everything that follows is essentially the Guardian Lantern arc.

[extrapenguin]

Zhu Jiu is OTT guy who's loyal to his boss; Wang Xiangyang wants to avenge his wife but didn't even fact-check his targets properly.

there is actually a Guardian Lantern arc: it activates when Ye Zun and Zhao Yunlan fight in the SID and is instrumental in transporting Zhao Yunlan to YOHE.
I ... guess? But that was still not at all about the actual lamp. Which was found in the most anticlimactic of fashions, even if it didn't drag on terribly like the Merit Brush arc did.

[jo_lasalle]

I appreciated how early Wang Xiangyang was introduced in the show. I enjoy that kind of build-up. But I still can't quite wrap my head around how the Merit Brush arc was all supposed to go and what the 'rules' of the Merit Brush were, so it's still kind of BZUH.

[extrapenguin]

The foreshadowing/build-up was well done, yes, I just dislike him as a villain. :P And yeah, the Merit Brush's rules really weren't that clear, though I guess the rewatchalong will shed more light on that in coming weeks.