Something must be done

[branchandroot]

Okay, so we are at the stage in my fanning of Guardian where I need to put in some serious worldbuilding thought. Because the world /as given/ in TV canon makes zero sense of the way Shen Wei responds to Zhao Yunlan. Zero. If I take TV canon at face value, Shen Wei is at psychotic-stalker-levels of emotional and relationship development, and the way he acts the rest of the time contradicts that. (...usually)

So. We need some plausible rationale in here.



1: The entirety of canon is actually a cycle of the whole nightmare sub-plot towards the end. There is, actually, nothing to contradict this, but it leaves me on the hook to decide the /entire/ backstory.

2: Just accept the epilogue and write novel canon instead. A possibility for the future, but the novel canon actually doesn't have much room for ficcing, of the sort that I do.

3: The wormhole timey-wimey bit lasted, not a day, but more like weeks, possibly months. This has the benefit of giving an actual basis for Shen Wei's intensity of response to Zhao Yunlan, but does require some serious hammering of a wedge into canon. Strong possibility, though, since canon is so loosey-goosey about the time issue anyway.

4: A little of column A, a little of column B. Assume that the novel backstory is true for Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei (and likely the Dixingren, how the hell else do we explain a race that can survive with zero, mark it, zero sunlight?). Gods and demons and whatnot are totally historical fact. But! Because of the relative hands-off-ness of supernatural creatures in the last 10K years, humans have decided that there must be a scientific explanation for all this, and feel mythological pre-history should not, /of course/, be taken /literally/. The wormhole bit was, therefore, an illusion produced by Shen Wei in a last-ditch effort to keep his bargain with Shen Nong, and what /really/ happens after wormhole-ending is that Zhao Yunlan has awakened as Kunlun and calls bullshit, and then gods them both out, as per novel ending. So far, I'm most inclined to this one, as the length may show. It has the extra advantage of explaining the weirdness of the whole back-in-time bit--it's because Shen Wei is still not always very good at humaning and had to make this up off-the-cuff. I imagine Yunlan is going to laugh quite a lot over that, in addition to his general indignation.

Comments

[elizacake]

#3 is pretty much accepted canon in the fandom. Even though the drama *suggests* that the trip back in time takes place over one night, there is no proof of this. None that matters when you want to write nice, leisurely Zhao Yunlan and baby!Shen Wei fic. It's easy to hammer those wedges in.

Although #4 is really interesting! That type of world building might lure me into reading the novel.

[branchandroot]

Truly, I have rarely seen a canon that offers so many handholds for "well, /actually/...".

[ranalore]

I can't tell from this if you've finished watching, but there is canon confirmation that the wormhole bit lasted at least a month, not the overnight it seems like during the relevant eps.

For the most part, the drama and novel canons get treated as completely separate things. A lot of drama fans--possibly the majority--haven't read the novel (raises hand), while others have but don't like the way the author folded the drama into the novel world, or prefer to try to make aspects of the novel work with the drama's worldbuilding and science fictional sensibility as much as possible. I know there are authors who blend the canons more extensively, but they seem to be a--possibly growing--minority (more people are reading the novel, but more people are also watching the drama and joining the fandom who haven't read it). It can be a very touchy topic too, because apparently there was some heavy bashing of the drama by a group of novel fans before I joined the fandom, so the policy of the main DW Guardian comm, sid_guardian, is respect for both canons, try to avoid unfavorable comparisons, and respect each other's preferences.

[branchandroot]

At first glance, you know, the two don't look easy to hybridize, but the science is so damn hand-wavey that almost /anything/ can actually be worked in. I mean, when you have people transforming into animals, you just have to face the fact that the laws of physics have thrown up their hands and gone to get drunk in the corner. But by the same token, if /that/ can be accepted as "genes, yeah sure, it's all in the genes!" then gods and demons could absolutely be wandering around bald-faced saying "it's a mutation!" to every human they meet.

I've stayed out of any of the comms or boards so far exactly because one of the first things I tripped over while googling was some really vociferous drama-hate.

(I'm down to the last three eps, and have happily spoiled myself on the ending.)

[ranalore]

A lot of the handwavery of the science can be attributed to the showrunners playing chicken with the censors as far as what "no supernatural elements" covered. They were actually pretty late in production when they were told they couldn't use the original name of Dixing, which is why all the lines mentioning Dixing and Dixingren are dubbed in (with varying quality), because the original name was too suggestive of a supernatural underworld. I should have been more clear. It's not that working in supernatural elements seems to be an issue for most, but more the hybridization of the characters and their backstories will throw drama-only fans (though AO3 has some useful tags, so depending on how extensive your blending is, you can upload work as a crossover, or just tag it "contains novelverse elements").

I was lucky enough to have Boni point me to the sid comm as a friendly place for drama fans, and a place I could find out more about the novel and decide if I wanted to read it at some point. But yeah, apparently that comm was created in response to the drama hate elsewhere.

(How's your Kleenex supply holding up?)

[branchandroot]

(I have not yet cried on the cat, but I can see it coming from here.)

...crossover might be about the level of what's currently percolating, yes. Or possibly I should just tag it "you don't really think someone that beautiful is mortal, right?".

[ranalore]

(You are a stronger woman than I.)

Hmm, well. If you're working within the setting of the drama, and using the alien background for Yashou and Dixing, and the only elements you're changing are that supernatural things can happen and Zhao Yunlan is actually a god, I think tagging it "novelverse elements" would be enough, and getting more specific if you want. I'd say use crossover if you're throwing out the alien explanation and using whatever the novel uses for Shen Wei on top of making Zhao Yunlan Kunlun, though. Is that helpful?

They are both ridonkulously beautiful, it's true.

[branchandroot]

Yes, that is helpful, thank you!