30 days of Guardian - Day 25. Thoughts on the Ending
DAY 25
I've been procrastinating on this, because I don't want to think about the ending too much. But the longer I wait the more I forget. I'm pretty sure I've already forgotten about half of what I'd been meaning to say.
Also, you're all going to hate me for my luddite ranting...
1) My main problem with the ending: I simply didn't get it. If I hadn't been in this fandom for over a year now and heard bits and pieces and explanations left and right about what happened in that episode, I would not have understood a single thing.
Shen Wei explodes and takes Ye Zun with him. I got that he was trying to do that, but the way it happened confused me so much. How did we not see Ye Zun die, but instead got a (completely unreligious) meeting of brothers (souls) leaving Zhao Yunlan behind? Wtf.
Zhao Yunlan opens the pendant and sees the lollipop wrapper. How? I wouldn't even have recognized that as a lollipop wrapper if people hadn't repeatedly told me that's what it is. It went right over my head. Not to mention the fact that I don't like the lollipop wrapper thing one bit. Give me soulfire any day.
Zhang Shi possesses Zhao Yunlan. When? I also mostly missed that. I was able to piece that part together on my own, but just barely. The whole scene with "Zhao Yunlan" standing there accepting flowers was just so terrible. Nothing happened, and it was just sad. Why did he even need to keep Zhao Yunlan's body alive? Was that supposed to be a hint that he'd come back to it later? I have read too many fanfics with that theme that it makes sense to me, but wouldn't a clear cut have made more sense plot-wise?
Honestly, I was just completely confused and angry.
The German word for this kind of storytelling is "verquast". The word has some religious implications, but mostly it means "intentionally opaque and vague". I get that Chinese storytelling is always like this, and that in this instance in particular they wanted to keep their cake and eat it when it came to any of the supernatural references, so the important bits got even more oblique. Usually, I complain about shows that are too dumbed down. It's just... this is the other extreme, and I hate it just as much.
2) My other problem with the ending is at least an in-canon reason: the fact that THEY ALL DIE. There would have been so many good opportunities to let them all live, even Ye Zun, because his redemption is something I would have expected from a Chinese story. I could actually even have lived with Shen Wei choosing Ye Zun over Zhao Yunlan to bring him back from the brink and thus save the world. But... he didn't even do that! It was all so symbolic that nothing made sense.
The scenes with Zhao Yunlan sacrificing himself to the lantern were just all very painful. I knew they were coming and they were just as hard to bear as I'd feared. (Much better than Shen Wei preparing to explode, btw, which was just weird. Maybe it was the terrible fake stomach set, or maybe I just don't like Lin Jing. Whatevs.)
And then the minor annoyances that Da Qing had to cry over his girlfriend (again), Chu/Guo got a lackluster implicit date scene that rubbed it in our faces even more that everyone I wanted to survive died and they got to live, argh, that the King and the Justiciar got to chuckle about how much they fucked up things but "hey, now there's sun and we did not do a thing to bring this miracle about but hey we're still in power".
Zhu Hong was pretty much the only one who got a relatively satisfying story. But it's literally the only positive thing I can say. Okay, and the scene with the touching of Zhao Yunlan's dead body. That actually touched me, too.
That was a good scene!
I did not even realize (until extrapenguin pointed it out in their version of the meme) that the political message was terrible as well: let's separate Dixing and Haixing forever, yay. I was seething so much about the rest that that detail escaped me, although of course I should have known, since this has been fixed over and over by fanfic as well.
Phew. I am not sure I remembered everything, but at least I'm done with this day of the meme now. Maybe it'll go faster again from now on.
1. Favorite episode
2. Favorite Hallow
3. Favorite set
4. Favorite character
5. Favorite SID member
6. Favorite worldbuilding detail
7. Favorite difference between the novel and the drama
8. Most appealing point for a canon divergence AU
9. Favorite quote
10. Favorite headcanon
11. Favorite Weilan outfits
12. Favorite villain
13. Favorite pairing besides Weilan
14. Villain you’d like redeemed or whose redemption you liked
15. Favorite conversation between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei
16. Favorite Dixing power and/or power you want to have
17. Least favorite villain
18. Least favorite character
19. If/when do you think Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei get together?
20. Favorite character moment
21. Favorite badass moment
22. Favorite soft moment
23. Favorite team moment
24. Favorite Weilan moment
25. Thoughts and feelings on the ending
26. Rec a fanfic
27. Rec a vid
28. Rec a fandom thing
30. Prompt for a fanwork
x-posted from dw (comments:
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