30 days of Guardian: Day 1 - Favourite episode

[frith_in_thorns]

tassosss made a 30 days of Guardian meme! Since I have been talking about Guardian nonstop for way more than 30 days so far, let's see if I can do it in a structured way. You can find their original list here. I made a couple of changes (4, 5, 10, 11, 18, 19).

Day 1: Favourite episode

I'm glad there will be lots of chances to talk about specific favourite moments later, but for favourite entire episode I'm going to pick episode 8. Which was the episode when I fell utterly and deeply in love with the show. Also it is consistently great the entire way through.

The episode title, btw, is "Zhao Yunlan fails at impressing Shen Wei with antique books". Yes. Yes, he did. So much fail. I was screeching out loud watching this and wailing "oh nooooooo", especially when Shen Wei just... walks off. AND ALSO this is then the episode where Shen Wei first has a fight with Zhu Jiu and then rescues an unwell Zhao Yunlan and brings him home and tucks him into bed and then cleans his apartment and it's generally the episode of him realising in despair what a disaster he has fallen in love with. IT'S ALL SO GREAT. Also I just watched all these scenes, for research, and I adore Zhao Yunlan flirting so utterly shamelessly after he wakes up and finds Shen Wei in his apartment. "If you keep on rejecting me it'll be my life's greatest failure!"



(gifs by naye)


1. Favorite episode
2. Favorite case
3. Favorite Hallows arc
4. How you started watching the show
5. Favourite set
6. Favorite character
7. Favorite SID member
8. Favorite guest character(s)
9. Favorite ship
10. Favorite worldbuilding detail
11. Missed opportunity
12. Favorite rarepair
13. Favorite Yashou tribe
14. Favorite 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. Moment you'd like to take AU
19. Favourite headcanon
20. If /when do you think Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei get together?
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

[clevermanka]

Wow, they really packed a lot into that episode, didn't they?

it's generally the episode of him realising in despair what a disaster he has fallen in love with
How have I never realized that? Oh my gosh, he was so star-struck by Kunlun--Zhao Yunlan must have been such a shock. Definitely incorporating that into future SW POV fic, thank you.

[frith_in_thorns]

You can see him looking around Zhao Yunlan's apartment -- particuarly when he gets to the sink -- and hear him thinking FML~~~! Poor Shen Wei. Waited 10,000 years to be faced with.... this.

Yeah, loads happens in this episode! It also features Shen Wei altering important messages* and talking to a terrible CGI tree and Zhu Jiu yelling at a creepy pillar.

*I've just realised that the Regent sends a message saying that in the "ancient texts" there's reference to a senior official using the alias Shen Wei. Except he obviously knows damn well who Shen Wei is, so this is him being genuinely tactful for once, maybe?

[xparrot]

Huh I've never done a daily meme but I'm tempted by this one!

And oh ep 8 is so good. The taxi ride scene is one of my all time favorites... And then Shen Wei sighing and cleaning up the apartment. And also the way Zhao Yunlan jumps back when he realizes Shen Wei is sitting beside his bed when he wakes up - and then switches immediately to flirting!

...ooo research for what? The just posted fic or another one? ^^

[frith_in_thorns]

I don't think it matters so much about doing it literally every day (I won't be able to do that anyway) but I'm intending to work through the list :)

The research was for writing this post, sorry nothing more exciting :P I love all those scenes so much. The shameless flirting was definitely a highlight. And Shen Wei's face through... literally everything. I think this episode was where I fell head-over-heels into love with the ship too.

[jo_lasalle]

That episode is hard to top!

I followed your comment from sid_guardian and I might nick some of your adaptations to the meme in addition to my own, if you don't mind, as I also couldn't talk about that many different ships. ^_^

[frith_in_thorns]

Go for it!

My feelings for Weilan are an extreme anomaly for me, I usually barely notice ships and don't have feelings for them beyond "yeah, cute". And then Weilan came along and I am all I WOULD DIE FOR THIS SHIP, I still have no idea what happened there 0_0

[frith_in_thorns]

Looking at your list, I see I forgot to put in one of my own edits I said I was going to make (favourite headcanon). Gosh, I'm competent.

[jo_lasalle]

You could say I'm a very efficient thief, stealing things that aren't there! ^-^

(I just assumed you changed your mind, actually, I liked your other changes too!)

[frith_in_thorns]

I've changed 18+19 now in my list, I think I'm also no so interested in talking about least favourite villain + character. I've got more to say about other things :)

[jo_lasalle]

HMMMMM! That new one looks tempting too... (Yeah, 'least favourite' is not usually that exciting unless one has a really entertaining hateboner; it would make for a short posting day, probably. *ponders*)

[schneefink]

I'm one of the few people who didn't like the scene with the antique books - it just hits my embarrassment squick too hard >.<
I do love the taxi ride a lot :)

[frith_in_thorns]

It was right on the edge of being watchable for me, so I get you!

The taxi ride is the sweetest thing. I just kept watching and I could not believe that we got all those tropes in the canon -- leaning, tucking into bed, tidying up, staying all night... so excellent.

[tassosss]

Ep 8 is one of my favorites too for all those reasons! I was cackling so much the first time I watched, it was so good.