#culminating in mutual fratricide and two completely broken individuals

[mejomonster]

mmm guardian really gave me it all

Queer romance spanning 10,000 years perpetually starting and already eternal, people born with powers, comedy and horror in equal parts, cute tropes and devestating stakes you only get in heavy action, critique of government systems and authority, character arcs galore of personal growth and improving compassion (especially our two leads, but also a lot of the main cast - zhu Hong deciding what she values in helping the world over her personal lives or feelings, Lin Jing choosing loyalty to innocent people and justice rather than to his govt and status and safety, guo changcheng being the perfectly ordinary everyday perso who musters the bravery and desire to face any threat or danger to help people), commentary on various issues (classism, racism, government abuse, rape, child abuse, censorship, being closeted, abuse of power, corruption, family versus individual, influence of our actions in public eye on society, paparazzi, aging and death, greed, losing loved ones, etc god so many I can’t think of them all), ridiculously dumb cgi that’s funny to watch, killer soundtrack I love everything on, opening song and vid perfectly reminiscent of my other faves like buffy in vibe, impeccable main lead actors, plot structure ideally suited to my attention span of mini stories that built a larger one and climax every ten eps, paralleling plots so episodes of the week build the themes and characters later return and side romances highlight major factors in the Main romance, as a result it’s chock full of star crossed lovers as the human/non-human romances and important relationships on the show is sky high to parallel Shen wei and zhao yunlan.

domestic romance and goals of having a best friend and love to come home to and be yourself with, a bi protagonist who feels comfortably himself, a love triangle handled lovely, a villain who is intensely dramatic and also paralleling the main characters in experience struggles demons and literal appearance, side villains who are all intense to comic book proportions while all having very understandable motives that turned them into what they’ve chosen, main characters who have their own sets of flaws. More I’m forgetting... it just... it’s got it all. Hot men in chains. People sucking provacatively on lollipops, fake identities, time travel, falling in love while already in love, political intrigue, human villains to rival Sentinel Program in Xmen while also being abusive to the humans they act like they’re helping, some fun sci fi horror to dollop alongside the vague supernatural horror. The hardest terror hitting because the show is aiming for your heart and personal fears, not with its powers or monsters. The first arc makes it clear, when Li qians story is horrific because she witnessed losing closeness with her most loved one, did something to try and save her and found only a dragging out of that same loss and pain we actually do and will go through in life, never mind a depiction of depression in college that feels horrifically real if you’ve been where she was, and the hint that Shen Wei’s pain is going to be paralleling the worst of all of these stories (and eventually, for the other main characters pains as well). Or the story about the teacher and rogue powered student, which feels like an age difference lesbian romance in a murder mystery driven by justifiable revenge and so horrifying in that no one helped until it was too late that it was already to that point - to Shen Wei finding out the awful things his students are capable of, of students driven to kill thinking it’s the only way they can help, and the glimpse of happy endings some people might find. Which just as a personal story wrecked me but also on a bigger level parallels SO much of what comes later - government attacking the sid and Shen Wei, dixing and haxing abusing their own people, people taking it into their own hands to various consequences, struggling for a better outcome. The sheer number of fun murder mysteries in this show too...

Like fuck if you need some good short-story murder mysteries or sci fi romps or star crossed lover tales wow does it deliver. If you want that, and a Giant one in the form of Shen Wei/zhao yunlan, then stick around. I still think about so Many of the individual cases, I loved them so much. The girl in the mirror who came out and fell in love, and the human man who loved her and is left in agony and loss when the law arrives and they have no chance to ever have a future. The child who was abused, who a man tries to help, and the both of them used by a villain because they’re too vulnerable to stay out of the mess, too guilty already because murder was the outcome of all that abuse and the only escape the little girl even temporarily managed. The constant horror that is Shen Wei having fought for a better future, only to be in the present and bear witness to the sufferings and failings of this world hes charged with enforcing. Sha Ya trying to protect her sister.