Question: What do the Guardian characters remind you of?

[mekare]

Or: how have you been primed via previous characters to fall for them?

For me it definitely was the dynamic between them that made it inevitable to fall in love. It reminds me so strongly of two previous (and current) fandoms:

Batman/Superman
Benton Fraser/Ray

Aka duty,justice,reservedness, loneliness, sacrifice tendencies, quasi-superpowers + sunny nature, quick wit, big open heart, Notice Me behaviour/wheedling

With both parts partly hiding behind masks, personas.

What about you?

Btw, Guo Changcheng reminds me so strongly of Sailor Moon in the first episodes. And Zhao Yunlan's sprawling reminded me strongly of John Sheppard.

Comments

[china_shop]

I totally get the Fraser/Kowalski vibe of which you speak. (I presume you meant RayK?)

ZYL also reminds me a little of one of my other loves, Sam Wilson from the MCU, in his swaggering show of self-confidence and complete fearlessness in the face of superpowered opponents. :-)

[mekare]

Yeah I mainly meant Ray K. Ray V was pretty much a different kind of Ray. :-)

Oh you are right about the Sam Wilsonness of his not being impressed or daunted by superpowers though!

[asya_ana]

I kinda feel like this show is so tropey in general that some aspect will relate to almost any m/m fandom. In my case it's definitely Merlin. There's so much overlap between the kind of fey but badass magical protag who lives and breathes to protect the person he loves. And then the reincarnation narrative, of course. Then also for me it was X-Men with SW being like Professor X, a young genius professor of genetics dealing with mutations that gave superpowers, but also created a divided world and a people who needed to hide their identities.

At the same time, Zhu Yilong's reserve + passion for acting is strongly reminiscent of Colin Morgan's (who played Merlin), and his relationship with BY, who is more fun and teasing, is so much like Colin's relationship with Bradley.

In other words, I may have discovered this show only a few weeks ago, but I feel like I've been on this ship for 8 years.

I was doomed.

[goss]

I may have discovered this show only a few weeks ago, but I feel like I've been on this ship for 8 years

You've hit the nail on the head! I think many of us feel the same way.

While watching, I keep wondering whether the creators were like baby shippers back in SV and Merlin days or something. It's like they took all fic tropes and character interaction that we loved and amped it x100.

[asya_ana]

My guess is it comes from the genre the original novel belongs to. I think in general there might be a lot of overlap between fic and m/m romance and in BL novels.

And they totally victimized me.

[mekare]

I kinda feel like this show is so tropey in general that some aspect will relate to almost any m/m fandom.

You are definitely right there. And I forgot to mention Merlin! I think it was you who first talked about that.

but I feel like I've been on this ship for 8 years.

I was doomed.

haha we are all doomed together.

[asya_ana]

It's so Merlin. And the more I learn about Zhu Yilong, the more like Colin he seems, not just physically, but also in his reticence, refusal to share details about himself, being single at 30 to concentrate on acting (I think but who knows honestly with them), nerding out on acting, and getting cajoled by a big goofball into chilling out a little. :'(

[jo_lasalle]

It's interesting, I've definitely had Fraser/RayK cross my mind as a sort-of parallel to the characters, with Shen Wei being as buttoned up as he is and Zhao Yunlan being a bubbly in-your-face type. But weirdly enough the dynamic between>/i> them feels quite different to me - like the needs that they meet for each other are of a very different flavour, to me. (But puzzling out exactly why would probably take a lot more words...)

My pre-Guardian main fandom pairing has really zero in common with Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, though I will say that for most of my first viewing run, Guo reminded me exasperatingly of a not very competent and scaredycat member of my preferred boy band.

[mekare]

Their dynamic is very different in a lot of respects, even just considering how many secrets Shen Wei keeps from ZYL! What is similar however is the tendency not to lie outright but to tell a different truth or evade, like Fraser does.

[solo]

I can basically just second what jo_lasalle said. Shen Wei and Benton Fraser have loads in common and there are some overlaps between Zhao Yunlan and RayK, too, but who the pairings work for each other is different.

I can't really figure it out either, but one thing that just bubbled to the top of my mind is that I think, while neither RayK nor Zhao Yunlan is quite as self-confident as they sometimes like to pretend, RayK is deep down needier than Zhao Yunlan, and Fraser needs to be needed in that ways; I don't think Shen Wei does.

Let's see if this thought survives half a day of me mulling it over.

Guo... god, he reminded me of that band member Jo mentions so much, I could never remember his name and either had to call him by the band member's name or call him Wall Wall, both of which I found more memorable than Guo Changcheng. But I'm over that now.

[mekare]

RayK is deep down needier than Zhao Yunlan,

Oh I agree! Even with his tragic past ZYL is pretty well put together emotionally. And I believe more resilient than Ray. Same for Shen Wei.

[naye]

Fascinating - I've seen the canons mentioned, and yet I watched the entire show... getting 90's TV vibes - definitely due South! - but not so much the main couple? Who most of all remind me of Goyjo & Hakkai from Saiyuuki, but only after the fact and mostly through the novel-only reincarnation plotline? But definitely their domesticity is very similar.

[bonibaru]

Ever since I first saw someone say this reminded them of Saiyuki I cannot un-see them as Gojyo and Hakkai.

[naye]

Hakkai of course has less control of his superhuman powers. And they're both so young! Zhao Yunlan with his 28 years is practically a wise old man compared with Gojyo's very immature 23. And Goyjo and Hakkai both have been through Some Shit in ways I don't think maps on to either show Yunlan or Shen Wei? Still...

[schneefink]

Yep, Zhao Yunlan's posture reminded me of John Sheppard, too ^^

[mekare]

:-) And now I keep wodnering if there are other characters who do that too that I forgot. *ponders*

[firestar]

Seconding - thirding? - the ZYL and John Sheppard lounging similarities. I'd love a crossover between the two, as well. The thought of a Wraith trying to feed on Shen Wei and just... failing and being very confused about it before meeting its demise courtesy of either SW or ZYL entertains me.

I can't say they remind me of any other pairings or fandoms specifically, but I do have a thing for more reserved characters with partners who poke and prod at them into being more relaxed and open, even if only with them.

[bonibaru]

ZY's ability to activate the hallows reminds me of John's relationship with Atlantis. I have postulated that the Hallows are sentient (Lin Jing and I both believe this lol) and they love ZY, starting with the Dial who loves him best, and she takes care of him and protects him; she also ships Weilan, and it takes a while but eventually she brings brother Lantern into the 'ship and that's how Weilan get reunited in the end, lol. Yunlan/Hallows is my second favorite ship of the show.

[bonibaru]

There's a discussion around the dial early on where Lin Jing says maybe they are sentient and can choose to activate only for people they think are worthy, and the camera lingers on Xiao Guo as he's saying this, which is a really nice bit of foreshadowing you don't catch until you've seen the whole series at least once through.

[firestar]

I need to pay attention to that next time I rewatch those eps.

[firestar]

Ooooh, I hadn't thought about the Atlantis/Hallows activation symmetry. That's super interesting and I love your theory. Is it a case of sister wheedling or sister demanding that gets them reunited? XD

[bonibaru]

Could go either way; you know how sisters are lol

In episode - is it 5? After they bring Old Wu back to health, she totally skypes her brother Awl so she can introduce him to Yunlan by video chat so I thought that was sweet of her. This after Yunlan yelled at her because she wouldn't activate and SOMEONE'S LIFE WAS AT STAKE. So she activated and called the BCE in to shut down Yunlan's foolishness and get BCE to do it instead of Yunlan. That is how my head canon goes anyway.

[firestar]

Only child here, so not from personal experience. XD

*cackles* That was good of her. Even after being yelled at. XD

[mekare]

ZY's ability to activate the hallows reminds me of John's relationship with Atlantis.

OH! That is a great parallel!

[trobadora]

With John Sheppard, it's not just the sprawling - it's someone who's outwardly very sociable, but actually a total introvert.

[bonibaru]

sparkly on the outside, soft in the middle

[firestar]

Ooh, this too.

(Is there room in this comparison for a crack about Sheppard's hair? Because I feel like it's not an SGA discussion if no-one's poking fun at Sheppard's hair. >.>)

[trobadora]

I don't know, but I have the icon for the occasion!

(I like Sheppard's hair.)

[firestar]

!!! *cackles like a maniac*

(oh same, but it has a life of its own. XD)

[mekare]

it's someone who's outwardly very sociable, but actually a total introvert.

I can see this, yes.

[unrelaxing]

Zhao Yunlan and John Sheppard are very similar books in my fandom shelf, for sure. Actually, as opposed to Batman and Superman, Shen Wei and Yunlan remind me of the Batman and Dick Grayson dynamic, with Yunlan playing the role of Dick Grayson - comic wise, this character is Batman's 'light', his true partner, and basically maybe the one person he values above all else.

I also sometimes get Tamaki Suoh/Kyouya Ohtori vibes, with Shen Wei as Kyouya, of course.

[mekare]

Hmmm, he certainly is way more shameless and exuberant than Clark. You are right.

[bonibaru]

Smallville's Clex had a similar dynamic - a suave handsome mildly hedonistic worldly guy with Daddy issues trying to figure out/seduce a smart but shy bespectacled alien ingenue with secrets. Right down to the bad excuses and allowing someone to lie to you hoping that you'll earn their trust. The differences here I think are that Shen Wei doesn't have parents nattering in his ear that Zhao Yunlan can't be a good person, and Zhao Xin Ci might be a bit of a sociopath at times but Lionel Luthor didn't have a Dixingian symbiote keeping him from totally ruining his son's life and trust in others. And Lex didn't have a team like the SID to shape him into a leader who cares about others. Lex had kindness and compassion similar to Yunlan at the beginning, but his was burned out of him with one too many lies from every side. Comparing the two really brings home the message about a healthy support system keeping one warm and able to love in the face of intense pressure to become hard and cold. Even in episode 5 (I think? the water bender?) ZY begs the BCE to save old Wu, saying people are people and letting someone die if you can save them is the wrong choice. BCE thinks to himself that SID has changed, and when we meet Xin Ci later we see just how much it has. At some point, Lex might have walked away from a dying alien, but Yunlan never ever will.

[goss]

<3

[mekare]

Right down to the bad excuses and allowing someone to lie to you hoping that you'll earn their trust.

haha you are right, how did I not see this before??

[extrapenguin]

As someone who's been in approximately zero of the popular live-action M/M fandoms, I do not recognize any of the characters, but would like to offer my five cents, anyway!

Shen Wei is basically catnip for my id, and he reminds me of every single loyalty kink-y MilSF canon character ever. His loyalty would not be out of place in David Weber's Honor Harrington series. He's also strangely reminiscient of Mei Changsu for some reason – maybe the insistence towards never telling anything about the Shared Past? (And speaking of Nirvana in Fire, Chu Shuzhi reminds me a bit of Zhen Ping, for some reason.) For fand of Modao Zushi, I'd also draw an equivalence with Wei Wuxian: they're both loyal, want to do the right thing, and like learning things.

Zhao Yunlan is more elusive to pin down, but I will be even more obscure and compare him to Yoko Tsuno from the French graphic novels by Roger Leloup! Just like Yoko Tsuno, Zhao Yunlan is chill and adapts to any new situation he's thrown into, and makes friends easily.

[mekare]

ha I don't know any of these canons but yes. So much loyalty kink!

[rheasilvia]

This is a very interesting question! Unfortunately I'm going to have to be rather boring in my answer, since in all honesty, they don't remind me of anyone. It may simply be that I don't generally draw a lot of comparisons between characters cross-canon.

I definitely do see that they have some characteristics that other characters I've loved share. On the whole I still see them as pretty unique, though.

Now I will have to go think about why I am so odd. ;-)

[trobadora]

Actually, I'm with you on that, so if you're odd, we both are!

(They share traits with other characters I love, of course, but they don't remind me of anyone else - they're too much themselves to me.)

[rheasilvia]

They share traits with other characters I love, of course, but they don't remind me of anyone else - they're too much themselves to me.

Yes, that's exactly it. And it's not just in this fandom, either. Characters I love(d) in other fandoms have also been so much themselves to me that I never really felt reminded of other characters. Of course there are similarities, but I never think things like "he is so much like X from Z canon" or "this character seems to be much like Y from Q, so I may like him, too".

On the other hand, I do sometimes think about what characters from one fandom would make of characters from another - how they would react to each other, what they would think, things like that. :-)

[trobadora]

Yes! It's not that they're all so unique, it's just that I don't look at characters and think "oh, they remind me of X" unless it's a really, really blatant parallel. I do sometimes think "oh, X is totally Character Type Y, so I'll probably love them", though.

It's a different way of approaching characters, I suppose.

[mekare]

I definitely do see that they have some characteristics that other characters I've loved share. On the whole I still see them as pretty unique, though.


They certainly are unique! I only meant is as them sharing a lot of characteristics with previous characters. Obviously they have additional ones that make them different.

[rheasilvia]

Yes, absolutely. Even characters who do share a lot of traits with others are unique - or definitely should be, at any rate. ;-) It'd actually be impossible to create a character who didn't share many traits with others!

Still, I think that similarities to other characters are just not something I look for in the way you describe. Regardless of how many traits characters who've caught my eye share with others, they won't actually remind me of anyone.

I've been trying to think of an instance where I've thought "oh hey, character A from B is a lot like character Y from Z", but literally the only cases I can think of have been in CLAMP canon crossovers where the authors re-use characters as alternate universe versions of themselves. :-)