Guardian on YouTube edited - List of cut scenes

[cyberbrain]

Earlier, naye shared shizuning's find that the Youtube version of Guardian has now been edited.

Curious and with nothing better to do, I decided to find out which scenes were cut.

What I found was this:

Episode #	Original duration	New duration	Cut start	Cut end	Total time cut
20	45:38	44:20	36:11	37:30	01:19
22	44:03	43:27	24:46	25:23	00:37
23	44:34	42:48	09:13	10:58	01:45
32	44:14	43:25	26:19	27:08	00:49
35	43:53	43:22	37:49	38:20	00:31
37	44:49	44:00	07:05	07:53	00:48

Warning: spoilers below.

Episode 20



In the park, Zhao Yunlan and Zhu Hong confront Ye Zun and Ya Qing. They talk about Ye Zun's motive and eating habits. Ya Qing throws a dart at Zhu Hong.



Episode 22



Sha Ya walks into the lab to steal and knocks out Professor Zhou.



Episode 23



Shen Wei talks to Ye Zun in the pillar, while Da Qing spies on him.



Episode 32



Chu Shuzhi talks to Ye Zun, accuses him of taking his brother's puppet.



Episode 35



Ye Zun calls Dixingren in the palace to rise up against Haixing. Shen Wei looks shocked/horrified upon hearing of this.



Episode 37



Zhao Yunlan remembers seeing the Guardian Lantern in Old Haixing and remembers he'd put it away when doing renovations after becoming SID chief. The SID members go to the second floor and arrive in front of the boxes that have been keeping the Lantern.



Update: I went to leave comments about this on YouTube and found a translator's note in the subs on episode 32, saying they were re-synced on May 24, 2020. Starting "two months ago," lots of complaints about unsynced subs have been made on episode 23.

Comments

[trobadora]

Wow, thank you for compiling this! This is such a bizarre set of things to cut. *boggles*

[cyberbrain]

No problem. ^^

This is such a bizarre set of things to cut. *boggles*
*throws hands in the air* I don't get it either! 4 out of 6 of those are scenes with Ye Zun... but none of them offer any redemption points for him (which, afaik, isn't allowed).

The only one that sort of makes sense to me is the call for an uprising. ...And maybe the episode 22 scene for violence against the elderly?

[trobadora]

The scene where Zhao Yunlan remembers the Guardian Lantern is the weirdest of them all. Seriously, WTF????

It might be random vandalism for as much sense as it makes to me!

[china_shop]

but none of them offer any redemption points for him (which, afaik, isn't allowed).

Oh really? That explains a lot (about the drama, not the cuts).

The only one that sort of makes sense to me is the call for an uprising.

Yeah, I was wondering about that. Maybe that's the actual target, and the other cuts are obfuscation?

[cyberbrain]

Oh really?
It seems so, at least. When Guardian was taken down from Youku in 2018, the episode 40 scene where Ye Zun gives his motive and the scene of him and Shen Wei reconciling were removed. Some people have theorized that sympathetic villains aren't welcome anymore. More details on what was cut back then here.

Maybe that's the actual target, and the other cuts are obfuscation?
That's a good theory! But I still don't get why they would do any cutting on YouTube. It's already banned in China, so why?

[china_shop]

Is Hong Kong behind the Chinese firewall, I wonder?

[cyberbrain]

My memory told me they aren't but I looked it up and found this news article from July 8, 2020. The great firewall is coming to Hong Kong.

...You might have hit the nail on the head.

[mecurtin]

Are there any theories about WTF is going on? Why those cuts?

[cyberbrain]

I have absolutely no idea.

[satsuma]

I think what's weirding me out the most about these cuts it has basically no overlap with the list of cuts from the Youku version

It all just seems so bizarrely random....

[cyberbrain]

Exactly! Nothing overlaps. This is partly why I decided to make this list.

[sakana17]

Thank you for compiling this! Have to agree with everyone else about it being such a random set of edits. I can't remember if some of the shorter scenes were in the episodes I watched on YouTube last year, but definitely what was cut from episode 20 was in it last year, so it appears these are recent(ish) edits?! It's so bizarre.

[cyberbrain]

Definitely super random! china_shop has a good theory above on why this might have happened.

They should be recent edits but I don't know just how recent. Going by the conversation above, perhaps from this month. I believe all these scenes were still there when I watched on YouTube in June last year.

(I can compare with what was up in January because back then I downloaded the episodes from YouTube, not knowing there were better versions available—the January files are complete, no cuts in them.)

[sakana17]

Yeah, the call for an uprising being edited out would make sense. You'd think they'd also cut out the bartender guy on the streets of Dixing calling to storm the palace in episode 39. Maybe that's allowed because Dixing and the palace are seen as decadent and old? But an uprising in Haixing is too close to modern China? There's probably some rationale behind the other cuts, but it only makes sense to Chinese censors...

ETA: Okay, this might be a stretch, but in the episode 20 and episode 23 cuts, there's dialogue referring to sacrifice (ep 20: Ye Zun says Zhu Jiu would willingly give his life to become part of Ye Zun's light; ep 23: Shen Wei says he'd sacrifice himself to defeat Ye Zun). Not sure about the cut from episode 32, though Dixing being under control and violence is mentioned. The episode 37 cut is the most head-scratching one. All I can come up with is Zhao Yunlan saying everything in the SID was "old and busted" when he took over (implying an office of the government was in disrepair?) but this feels like a really long stretch! :D

[cyberbrain]

Yeah. The way I see it, Ye Zun vs Haixing is much closer to a depiction of an oppressed minority rebelling against the governing body oppressing them than anything the bartender does. His is much more people going against the villain, who is pretending to be the government, than people rising up against a government they dislike. Too close to current world events, I guess.

[cyberbrain]

Ah! I wrote my previous comment before seeing your edit.

there's dialogue referring to sacrifice
That makes sense. But wait, what's wrong with making sacrifices?

implying an office of the government was in disrepair?
That's a good point too! It makes the most sense as an explanation.

[sakana17]

But wait, what's wrong with making sacrifices?

Yeah, that's why I think it's a stretch! Zhu Jiu's sacrifice might be wrong because he gave himself up to make the villain stronger. Otherwise, all I got from that clip is the cannibalistic references. Maybe that's just too extreme now?

Shen Wei sacrificing himself to stop the villain seems like it should be okay. Hmm, maybe it's Ye Zun's lines, where he's trying to make the case that he's the oppressed one and it's all Shen Wei's fault...

[solo]

Thank you for listing all this. I have no words for how bizarre that is...

[cyberbrain]

No problem. Me too.