30 Days of Guardian

[extrapenguin]

(But first, announcements banner: I wrote darkfic for brush_and_lantern's September theme! Duty is Shen Wei-centric and 720 words long.)

9. Favorite piece of worldbuilding
After a lot of puzzling out over what counts as a "detail", I edited the prompt. Now, I can wholeheartedly answer that my favorite piece of worldbuilding, hands down, is that Dixingians are aliens originally from outer space. I just absolutely love that bit! It was also instrumental in keeping me watching. (I had seen it around on my reading list, then went idly browsing Yuletide requests last year, and spoilers about the time loop made me take a look. The fact that it was science fiction about aliens made me keep watching past episode 1.) (Yes, I am the only person in the world who liked the prologue infodump.)

I prefer my entertainment to be science fiction, especially space-related. Combine that with going in with a fannish mind, and, well, it should be no great surprise that I'm writing my spaceship rental WIP. Actually, have a snippet from it:

Zhao Yunlan walked around for a few hours before calling Da Qing, who promptly piled kittens into his lap. It was calming in a way, Zhao Yunlan had to admit, even if the corner of the park the cats had chosen was something of an olfactory assault.

"The trouble with Dixingians," Da Qing sagely said, "is that they're insufficiently catlike. They cling too much. Get too attached. Just like humans."

"Thanks," Zhao Yunlan sighed. His pants had claw holes in them and he would never get the cat hair out. Typical Da Qing.

...I almost wrote the cut tag end as /cat.

1. Favorite episode
2. Favorite case
3. Least favorite case
4. Favorite Holy Tools arc
5. Least favorite Holy Tools arc
6. Which character would you resurrect?
7. Favorite SID member
8. Favorite guest character(s)
9. Favorite piece of worldbuilding
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]

Hey now, I also liked the prologue infodump! Even if I do keep trying to reconcile it with Da Qing's version in ep35? 36?... anyway, there's a lot of room to play with the implications of Dixingren and Yashou being aliens, and the various ways that could have happened, and why so much was forgotten between the time of the spaceship landing and the present.

Also: Da Qing! Piling kittens on Zhao Yunlan! #goals !!! 😍

[extrapenguin]

Well, we know that Da Qing has magic Alzheimer's, and if we take the beginning infodump to be the Haixing officials' semi-classified briefing, which is historical knowledge, then they can be both wrong in different ways!

[phyrry]

I tend to enjoy "everyone is an unreliable narrator but in different ways" so that works out well for me. 😉 There's just so many ways you can put the pieces in vaguely the same place and then glue together the gap! Lots of ideas!

[maggie33]

I like the fact that Dixingians are aliens originally from outer space, too. And that snippet is funny and super cute. :D

[extrapenguin]

Yay! I'm glad I'm not alone amidst the people who prefer the fantasy novel take. :) And Da Qing automagically makes every snippet funnier and cuter!

[trobadora]

Now, I can wholeheartedly answer that my favorite piece of worldbuilding, hands down, is that Dixingians are aliens originally from outer space.

Hee! Yes, it's not really a detail, is it? It's too foundational. But it's my favourite piece too! And you are emphatically NOT the only person who liked the prologue. :)

(I do like fantasy, but I like SF more, and I've always had a special fondness for the genre of "fantasy trappings and tropes, but with a SFnal sensibility and underpinning". One reason the Coldfire trilogy is such a favourite.)

[extrapenguin]

Yes, it's not really a detail, is it? It's too foundational.
It is! I was having trouble with recalling the details, so I went bigger-picture so I could answer with something I truly loved. :3

And you are emphatically NOT the only person who liked the prologue. :)
\o/ It's on occasion hard to remember, if one is stuck in a corner where everyone else prefers the fantasy side of things and novel stuff. (I, OTOH, am a science fiction penguin through and through. I wouldn't have checked out the show if it had been fantasy.)

[china_shop]

*joins in the chorus of liking the prologue* :-)

[extrapenguin]

♥

[jo_lasalle]

Yes, I am the only person in the world who liked the prologue infodump.

I was going to say "maybe" but then I scanned the comments. *g*

The kittens getting piled in Zhao Yunlan's lap are very cute! Though his pants having even more holes is probably something Shen Wei will disapprove of...

[extrapenguin]

Though his pants having even more holes is probably something Shen Wei will disapprove of...
Shen Wei is a bit preoccupied, but I imagine that at some point they might have this discussion:
Shen Wei: "Zhao Yunlan, *why* are your pants full of holes?"
Zhao Yunlan: "So that you could rip them off easier, of course!"

(nice icon, btw!)

[tinny]

Lolol, the Dixingren=aliens is an unpopular opinion, though, isn't it? :D

I hated it, because I love the novel so much, and fantasy with ghosts and gods is just as much my thing as aliens.

But I don't hate aliens, per se, and I am very much looking forward to Space Ship Rental, I am just always skeptical of tv productions changing canons. :)

[extrapenguin]

Lolol, the Dixingren=aliens is an unpopular opinion, though, isn't it? :D
I mean, it's not an opinion, it's canon? (Just like "Ye Zun exists" is canon.) AFAIK Dixingians don't even exist in the novel, as it only has ghosts/demons/residents of Hell. So demons are demons and Dixingians are aliens. :)

I have an ongoing meh-bleh relationship with fantasy as a genre, and everything I've heard of the adaptation changes and the novel is, like, the only adaptation change I'm not completely positive on is the fact that it has an unhappy ending, but that's easily fixed with fanfic. In a way I suppose I'd have preferred for the drama to have had a different title so the fandoms would've been more separate, as I really resent the untagged crossovers.