#zhao yunlan

[kaidenchii]

So I binged and finished guardian…here’s a treat for the Weilan peeps

[redswordseekingbed]

"Would you fall in love with me again" but make it a ten-thousand-year wait

[face--the--strange]

[xiaobaosnoona]

mischievous charming man who can't sit normally + uptight cute professor who can kill you with his pinky

@asiandramanet creator bingo - found family + event 11 - duos

[whyaretheresomanygoodblsoutthere]

Shen Wei is trying to prepare future lessons but someone’s making it hard to focus.

[ashyybees-art]

I'm getting in on this meme

[lisyamoska-artist]

[beautifulsummersunsets]

Today, after years and years of yearning and wishing, finally I've got the last novel of Guardian/Zhen Hun 😭😭😭😭

I love that as the story progresses, the art on the cover gets gayer 😂

Thank you Seven Seas 👌🏻

[talk-danmei-to-me]

Weilan Appreciation Post: Vol 3

[fluffy13-4]

I’ve finished watching Guardian. Some thoughts…

I-waited-for-you-for-tenthousand-years-and-you-are-trying-to-hit-on-me-with-some-old-books-that-I-just-donated

[whispers] “I don’t deserve what you are doing for me!“ [whispers back] “You are worth it!“

You-are-such-a-mess-you-don’t-know-how-much-I-love-you

“I rather stay in this dream! In here you are not telling me that you are going to look for Shen Wei. That you are willing to die for him.“

Just shove your lollipop into my mouth……. YES! An ACTUAL lollipop.

[whispers] “It took me 10.000 years to find you.“

Zhao Yun Lan of all people tidied up a place and put the fourth hallow in a storage box 🫠🫠🫠

(no notes 🥺🥺🥺)

“Let's make a bet. Let's bet that no matter how long it takes, and no matter where we go, we'll meet again.“ “Okay.“

@lunarriviera and @hideyseek can I please have my ceremonial box of tissues now 😭😭😭😭😭

And, Sam, you were so right - Zhu FUCKING Yilong!!! I appreciate so much that he fully commited to this-brief-encounter-10.000-years-ago-changed-me-so-profoundly-that-I-would-give-anything-to-you. (Of course he was also a hot villain but... the romantic parts...)

[skeptical-lynx]

Through time

this is a beautiful commission I’ve got here as a present to a friend! always love drawing weilan 🤍

and here comes the gif:

[pyxchta]

the dark room

[auchrauch]

Commission featuring a Ghost King (a slightly different one this time) for Danmei Dreams

[xiaobaosnoona]

when you're super mad at your stupid bf but you still wanna care for him vs. when your bf is rightfully super pissed at you and you find it kinda hot

[dual-domination]

A gift from @sagittariusdarkarrow 😂

[lunarriviera]

I'm watching Guardian right now but the god awful CGI is making me laugh during serious moments. help.

legit reaction tho, almost all the CGI is truly hilaribad, especially during the first few episodes (that whole water demon/spirit thing? wow. just…wow) (and chu shuzhi's puppet ksdhfksfd whyyyyyyy)

BUT. here's the thing about guardian: 1) try to think of its kitsch as a feature, not a bug. just go with it, lean fully into all of the cringe. shen wei's dorkiness. dixingren being meteor-mutated aliens imprisoned underground. snake lady. talking cat. zhao yunlan's terrible hair (that at least will change). just EMBRACE it. that way when the very sharp knives suddenly come out and start flashing, in classic cdrama style, you will be completely taken aback and gasp in shock, and, not long thereafter, begin to weep and not stop until 3 days after you've seen the last episode. because, if you truly accept the initial lunacy of guardian, eventually it WILL gut you like a wriggling fish.

also 2) it's much easier to accept the rocky production values if you make mental allowances for how the company went utterly bankrupt midway through filming; the only reason guardian ever got finished AT ALL was that the cast and crew basically decided to work for free on an insanely accelerated schedule, during which all the actors are having to wear their own clothes. (fortunately for zhu yilong he had kept a bunch of pieces from modeling shoots, so he's able to fabricate some kind of more or less consistent Look for shen wei—like the painted-on blue suit with its inexplicable ass chain. mad drip.)

like. everyone knows this already so i'm sure you do too but there's a reason they have one (1) good piece of music (the opening song) and that's about it: they just flat ran out of money. this had some good results (we never have to see chu-ge's puppet again) and some not so great ones (i won't spoil you but let's just say it involves internal organs). ultimately, guardian only knows how to do three things but it does those superbly well: a) zhu yilong and bai yu staring at each other with ravenous desperation, like they're gonna die if they can't breathe the same air forever, b) a time-loop script that really comes through in the back half, and c) related to both of these, an ending that WILL make you throw objects around your home and then immediately read the novel/a bunch of fanfic. the good news is it's an amazing novel (though very different) and the fanfic is sine qua non. (also you get two ships for the price of one so don't sleep on chuguo.)

these are my 7 am thoughts on guardian. i wasn't sold on it at all until about a third of the way through but by then i was clutching it to my face sobbing and begging it to never end. guardian is weird like that—either you're gonna fall for it so hard it will change your entire media life (the way btvs or x-files did for fans in the 1990s) or you'll wind up dropping it. which is fine! for brilliant cgi you can watch like, idk. the expanse or something. (and fwiw i laugh at serious moments ALL THE TIME, my film students really hate it. i feel like it's a gen x coping strategy but they're alpha and very Earnest and Sincere.)

tldr watch guardian at least until you get to the kitchen scene before you decide. then you'll know if it's right for you. love you madly!! <3