sid_guardian | Guardian drama resources: a poll

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Guardian drama resources: a poll

You know how it goes: you're thinking about Guardian (as you do), or you're writing a Guardian fic, or someone asks a Guardian-related question, and there's this thing niggling at the back of your head that you can't quite pin down. Every time that happens to me, I'm so glad for this fandom's many resources - most of my fandoms can only dream of such a bounty! And there are probably many not everyone knows about. So I thought that would be worth a post/poll of its own.

Poll #26816 Guardian reference poll!

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 16

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Trying to track down a specific scene, I generally start with ...

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galaxysoup's episode guide
9 (56.2%)

the scene discussions here on sid_guardian
1 (6.2%)

the episode discussions here on sid_guardian
2 (12.5%)

another reference (please share!)
7 (43.8%)

what do you mean, reference? I just search the Chinese transcript or the English subtitles for a key phrase
4 (25.0%)

I always remember perfectly what happens in which episode (please tell me your secret!)
1 (6.2%)

Once I start playing an episode to check something, I immediately get distracted by ...

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staring at Shen Wei's face
13 (86.7%)

staring at Zhao Yunlan's face
5 (33.3%)

staring at Zhu Hong's outfits
2 (13.3%)

staring at the beautiful cinematography
2 (13.3%)

staring at someone/something else (tell us who/what!)
2 (13.3%)

For secondary or minor characters, I refer to ...

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extrapenguin's dramatis personae/cast list
8 (57.1%)

the character discussion posts here at sid_guardian
2 (14.3%)

the episodes themselves
6 (42.9%)

other (please share)
3 (21.4%)

When rewatching an episode for a specific character, I inevitably end up ...

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making fifty billion unrelated screencaps
6 (42.9%)

watching five episodes in a row
7 (50.0%)

or ten
1 (7.1%)

or the whole drama, actually
3 (21.4%)

or something else equally unproductive (tell us what!)
3 (21.4%)

The map/floor plan I look up the most is ...

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cyberbrain's floor plan of Zhao Yunlan's flat (with reference to Shen Wei's)
8 (72.7%)

yue_ix's SID map
3 (27.3%)

Chu Shuzhi's map of the Hanga mountains
0 (0.0%)

another map/floor plan (please share!)
0 (0.0%)

who needs maps? I can navigate both Haixing and Dixing by memory alone!
3 (27.3%)

Most underappreciated Guardian resource:

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sakana17's clothes visual reference
3 (23.1%)

forestofglory's list of food and drink in Guardian
6 (46.2%)

yaaurens's Shen Wei and Chu Shuzhi Touchy Touchy lists
7 (53.8%)

other, see comment
2 (15.4%)

Finally, what's the resource you most wish existed?

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Trying to track down a specific scene, I generally start with ...

sakana17 episode summaries are gold

Once I start playing an episode to check something, I immediately get distracted by ...
The way Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei look at each other <3 <3 <3

The map/floor plan I look up the most is ...
Not quite a map or a floor plan, but

teaotter made a really useful picspam of Zhao Yunlan's flat. (Didn't someone make one of Shen Wei's flat, too?)

Most underappreciated Guardian resource:

rheasilvia's SID timeline and

extrapenguin's Guardian timeline.

(This poll is genius! *showers you with kudos*)

Ooh, yes,

sakana17's posts are excellent! And the timelines, how could I forget the timelines ...

Cyberbrain's post above has caps of Shen Wei's flat as well, but idk if that's the one you mean? No doubt there was something else as well ...

♥ ♥ ♥

Now I come to think of it,

shadaras did some excellent episode reviews/reactions, too. I never finished going through those. I should get back to them sometime. :-)

shadaras also has excellent posts about the ending! Yeah, definitely read all of them! ♥

<333 I'm glad y'all enjoy them!

unsurprisingly, going back to my own notes is where I start for "where even did this happen?" questions, because (since I wrote those!) I can remember roughly where things were in my own posts and then use other resources/context clues to narrow it down from there. :)

Haha, benefit of having done all the work to make those notes in the first place. Unlike me, so I need to rely on other people's work. *g*

<3 <3 <3

The first thing I did when I got into Guardian was put all the subs into a single Word doc, so that's almost always my starting point. (Unfortunately, they're the original subs, before

solo QC'ed them, and I've never updated the file, so searches can sometimes be foiled by typos. *g* I'm kinda attached to them anyway.)

For the record, the "other" I stare at a lot is Ya Qing's face. :D

I actually tend to look up stuff on the Guardian Wiki first, although it's not really a complete resource.

Oh, I knew I was missing something really obvious! *headdesk*

The wiki is an excellent resource. :D

That's also the place I was going to mention! The character page in particular is pretty good.

I'm really headdesking that I forgot to include it in the poll!

Sometimes these things just slip our minds!

(I refer to the wiki wayyyy too much when I forget how to spell people's names, hahaha.)

I have

extrapenguin's original dramatis personae post saved, so I mainly just open that from my Guardian folder when I'm looking up character names, rather than going to the link or to the wiki. But there's so much other useful stuff on the wiki! Like that long list of Shen Wei's powers ...

Just speaks well of the fandom that we have so many resources :D

Seriously! I wish I had resources like this for some other fandoms!

Btw, since

presumenothing just reminded me this exissts - you said you wished for a screencap resource; are you familiar with

kernezelda's caps?

:000000!!!

I was not familiar, but now I am and it's great! Thanks for the link!

This is a fun poll!

The resources I most wish for:
* complete transcripts (in script style, i.e., not just the Mandarin subtitles, but each bit of dialogue prefaced by who's speaking)
and
* English translations of what we can see of Zhao Yunlan's file (read by Shen Wei), Zhao Yunlan's self-criticism (written by Shen Wei), and the "Record of Ancient Secret Tales."

I'd love to do a visual reference for everyone's clothes (Zhu Hong!), but the Shen Wei & Zhao Yunlan one was a bear to compile. (Perhaps because I kept getting distracted...) So I'll add "an expanded clothes reference" to the list of resources I wish could magically appear. :D

Ack, you just reminded me that I typed up that one paragraph from ZYL's file the other day but didn't actually get around to translating it.

Alas, the self-criticism is mostly not clear enough to read coherently, especially with how thin the brushstrokes are, but highlights at a brief glance: (a) Minister Gao's name (高劲风 Gāo Jìngfēng), (b) such gems as "the root cause is due to my lack of respect for others" "failing to realise how difficult it is to find a suitable job these days" and proposed corrective steps including "seriously tackling my weaknesses of indolence and carelessness" "regularly strengthening communications with colleagues", and (c) a concluding paragraph that begins "in these short hundreds of words" and, one assumes, continues to describe how it's insufficient for Proper Repentance(tm).

…when does the Record appear again? It'd be interesting to do a novel comparison too, never mind that archaic language is a pain to deal with, but I'm blanking on where it happens drama-wise.

b) such gems as "the root cause is due to my lack of respect for others" "failing to realise how difficult it is to find a suitable job these days" and proposed corrective steps including "seriously tackling my weaknesses of indolence and carelessness" "regularly strengthening communications with colleagues"

OMG that is delightful!!!

Since I just finished bashing out a rough translation, here it is anyway…

ZYL's file (specifically the 1+ paragraph of text on the second half of the page), as seen in Episode 1 –

CN transcript:

个人资料

工作六年，特调处的处长，指挥特调处日常工作。有着异于常人的洞察力和推理能力。格斗技巧一般但枪法极准。配备一把黑能量枪，能够克制一切黑能量，是地界人的克星。从小家境殷实，父亲是前特调处长、现督导[? unclear character, presumably 星]督局长赵心慈。母亲为普通家庭主妇，并于十年前在某件事件中受害，因此与父亲长期不睦。

表面玩世不恭，实则冷酷独断、赏罚分明、[？？人？、blurry beyond rescue]神领袖。

EN translation:

Biodata

Has worked for six years; chief of the SID, directs the SID's everyday work. Possesses extraordinary insight and deductive ability. Average fighting skills, but extremely accurate marksmanship. Equipped with a dark energy gun that is capable of restraining all dark energy and thus the nemesis of Dixingren [note: Dijieren in the first shot]. Family well-off since young; father is previous SID chief and current Xingdu Bureau director Zhao Xinci. Mother was an ordinary housewife, and was killed during a particular case ten years ago; he has thus been on bad terms with his father for a long time.

Apprars cynically frivolous on the surface; in reality coolly decisive, strict and fair in handling matters, [unreadable] leader.

You are a star! ❤❤❤

Dixingren [note: Dijieren in the first shot]

Oh, delightful, they changed it when they switched to Dixingren in post-production, but missed a bit! :D

And thank you so much for the translation, that is fascinating. Of course prop canon isn't to be taken too seriously, but from an in-universe POV, I do wonder about the motivation for putting in that bit about his father ...

\o/ You are wonderful! Thank you for this! Wow!

Oh, yay!! The self-criticism is fabulous! :D

We get a good look at the Record in episode 17 when Zhao Yunlan is in the SID library, after Sang Zan leaves him. Title page and first page are at around 34:18.

…alright, so hilariously enough, while looking this up I found a bunch of small differences between the three occurrences I could think of (episode 17 as above, then twice spoken in episode 21 via Zhu Hong's recording) XD more on that below.

CN transcript – based on ep 17 book:

上古秘闻录
乙酉年玖月
俞蒙书

俗说天地开辟，人丁流离。有名黑袍者举于当世，振臂而呼，四海景从，除乱以安天下，天命人归，万民悦服，天禄永终。

四柱镇四方，西北天倾，昆仑封字，曰：未老已衰之石，未冷已冻之水，未生已死之身，未灼已化之魂。此皆不可成之事，封之以不可抵之地，以为四圣，天不落，地不陷，则四圣不出，天下遂安。

EN translation – very roughly, because neither Ye Olde Ancient Language nor mythological references are my strong points:

Record of Ancient Secrets
Year Yiyou, Ninth Month
Written by Yu Meng

It is said that when the world first began, mankind wandered lost. A black-robed figure rose up in this time, with a sweeping call to arms, and the whole world followed inseparably, quelling chaos to bring peace to the lands, as wished by heaven and people alike; the masses rejoiced in adoration, fortune lasting for the ages.

Four pillars guarded the four directions; towards the northwest the sky tilted, and Kunlun sealed the words, speaking thus: The stone frail without aging, the water frozen without cold, the body dead without living, the soul gone without burning. All things beyond possibility, sealing the land beyond reach, as the four hallows; should the sky not fall, and the land not sink, then nor shall the four hallows appear, and thus the world comes to peace.

Notes:

The book is printed in traditional characters, appropriately enough.
Also, I don't remember if this is ever stated in the show, but it's made clear in the novel that the four parts of Kunlun's line each refer to one Hallow in order.
vs the novel: Only the second paragraph is from the novel (the preceding parts in the novel are about Nuwa instead). Hilariously, a typo in ch 70 (为冷 instead of 未冷) got carried over verbatim to the book LOL
vs Zhu Hong's recording in ep 21: In line with the other show changes, the body and soul lines are replaced – it's "the tree rotted without living, the gold/metal gone without burning" (未生已朽之木，未灼已化之金) instead. Also, the "sealing the land beyond reach" line is removed from the version heard in the hospital, but later in ZYL's flat you can still hear the first word of it right before SW stops the recording.

......................I should probably migrate this a new post, shouldn't I

OH, thank you, this is brilliant - the translation and the comparison both! And that is indeed hilarious about the typo. :D

(I will admit I don't quite understand how some of the original parts refers to the Hallows, but that may have to do with differences between novel and drama? I can see the Sundial and the Lantern; the other two baffle me. With the version in Zhu Hong's recording, it's not exactly any clearer, LOL.)

"the water frozen without cold, the body dead without living" are tripping me up to. I suppose water could refer to the awl because Mountain River Awl <.< But then, it separates ghosts from bodies so 'dead without living' could make sense for it, too. I really can't figure out what the Merit Brush might be in these at all though... OTL

I'm glad I'm not the only one!

🙏 thank you for all your work translating these bits

The typo is hilarious xD at least it proves how closely they worked with the source material? :')

Idk why I always assumed the Kunlun book was written by Kunlun but... clearly not <.< *sneaks off to fix it in fics*

Is Yu Meng a random name, or was there an ancient person whose writings survived with that name?

Is Yu Meng a random name, or was there an ancient person whose writings survived with that name?

A cursory search didn't turn up anything of note, so I'm inclined to say the former? Probably.

Thanks for looking!

Totally agreed on both your wishes, those would be excellent! The subtitles are great, but a transcript (that ideally would also include nonverbal action, and be in both Chinese and English) would be AMAZING. I wonder if a thing like that exists on the Chinese side ...

And OMG, any on-screen text translations would be so helpful! There are a few scattered around, but they're basically not findable unless you already saved them. Hm, that might make a good project, compiling everything that already exists and making a wishlist for what doesn't?

I can only imagine how much work the clothing reference must have been! But I would LOVE it if someone did it for other characters as well ...

I've been very slowly putting together a Chinese transcript including speakers (combining that ZYL/BY script findable online with transcriptions of the Chinese subs kindly provided by tinny and q, watching the actual episodes to figure out who's saying what), but the way I've been doing it is very much oriented toward "practicing Chinese and looking up all the words I don't know" and not so much toward, like, creating a usable resource in a hurry, so it could definitely be done better and faster. Anyway I'm only up to about episode 7, because it gets done in slow work periods. I wonder, as you say, if there's an existing version somewhere?

Ooooh, that sounds excellent! Even if it's slow going, it's very useful! I hope you'll share at some point. :)

I don't know anyone who actually knows their way around the Chinese side of fandom, but I wish we knew what resources are out there!

Even if it's slow going, it's very useful! I hope you'll share at some point. :)
Not very useful right now but available to anyone who wants it (or prefers to do it more efficiently) any time... If I ever get, like, a 10-episode chunk done I will post about it. (Right now I'm in the middle of episode 7 and wow, Lin Jing has A LOT to say about his favorite webnovel, oh sweetie ;) .)

Haha, Lin Jing is such a fanboy, yeah! And then he's so disappointed in the actual author! *pets him*

Because it's been a slow work month (April always is), I have a Chinese transcript of episodes 1-10 now! Mostly thanks to the original person who posted the BY/Z1L script on bilibili, and to people around here who grabbed the subtitles. Because I'm old-fashioned and untechnical it's just a Word document, with names of speakers and timestamps to indicate scene changes. Anyone who wants it can have it, but I'm not sure how to make it available?
(I'm working on 11-40 too, but the way I do it it's likely to take quite a while...)

Oooh, that sounds fantastic! Yay for slow work months! :D :D :D

Hmn, if you have a gmail account you could upload it to google docs? That's the easiest way to share a Word doc, I think.

They aren't organized by episode, but Tin did costuming spotlights for the side characters. https://twitter.com/i/events/1435879839010000901

Oooh, thank you for linking, that looks excellent! :D

On tracking down scenes: I have the Guardian episode playlist on YouTube bookmarked – the cracktastic "titles" are not-unhelpful in jogging my memory (at least in terms of roughly where in the show's arc the episodes map to).

Unproductive things I inevitably end up with: terrible gif ideas that I subsequently dump on elenothar. Then again, to be fair, this does not at all require that I actually be watching anything at the time XD

What I generally wish existed, as answered above: a full Chinese transcript because that'd just help so much with language discussion given that I have 0 attention span for reviewing audio/video material.

What I personally wish existed, for reasons: an audiobook of the novel read by BY and Z1L…

Also, I haven't needed maps for anything but that SID one is gold.

(Re: screencaps – I recall seeing a series of mass screencaps per episode somewhere on the comm before…?)

ETA: also on maps, the 龙爪山 (dragon claw mountain) marked on the bottom right of the Hanga map amuses me greatly. I guess it does kinda look like a three-fingered(?) foot?

Edited 2022-04-04 14:57 (UTC)

the cracktastic "titles" are not-unhelpful in jogging my memory

I can imagine! I wish I could read Chinese well enough.

terrible gif ideas that I subsequently dump on elenothar

That sounds excellent. Gif inspiration is not to be sneered at! *g*

What I generally wish existed, as answered above: a full Chinese transcript because that'd just help so much with language discussion given that I have 0 attention span for reviewing audio/video material.

Yeah, I know! I use the Chinese softsubs from Viki for that - I downloaded them all and compiled them into a document. They're mostly accurate, and incredibly useful. But a full transcript would be even better!

What I personally wish existed, for reasons: an audiobook of the novel read by BY and Z1L…

HA. OMG. I would 100% listen to that on repeat even without understanding anything, and without being a novel fan. *g*

(Re: screencaps – I recall seeing a series of mass screencaps per episode somewhere on the comm before…?)

Yeah, you just reminded me - that was

kernezelda's project, here!

also on maps, the 龙爪山 (dragon claw mountain) marked on the bottom right of the Hanga map amuses me greatly. I guess it does kinda look like a three-fingered(?) foot?

It does, a little! And I appreciate their commitment to the dragon theme. I mean, it only makes sense that Dragon City is near the Great Dragon Mountain, but still! It made me smile the first time I noticed.

What I personally wish existed, for reasons: an audiobook of the novel read by BY and Z1L…

Oh, if only! *sigh*

I treasure every "terrible" gif idea that is in fact gold XD

What I personally wish existed, for reasons: an audiobook of the novel read by BY and Z1L…

I've never seconded anything so strongly in my life

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