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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
funny
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This series was such a rollercoaster especially towards the end like there were layers upon layers of deception and lore, tbh it was very confusing ... but I didn't mind it at all because all the characters are extremely loveable (I already got attached to them) and the narrative was very funny and entertaining. I was still ambivalent towards the romantic development of the main story (like I love them, but the development did not make perfect sense for me) but one of the bonus stories cleared things up, like I had a total aha moment in that one. Overall, I had a really great time!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
slow-paced
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I really enjoyed the writing! It was both poetically romantic and very funny with its colorful cast of supernatural characters. With Guardian being 3 volumes, I felt like it moved fast with regards to romance - though it made sense with the whole reincarnation thing and "I'll love you in every lifetime" / "I'll love every version of you" trope. I really enjoyed the supernatural mysteries and the bonus story about how Shen Wei got his name (I might have even liked it more than the main story LOL).
The main reason why I rated 3.75 is because overall, the plot was a bit hard to follow. I feel like you'd need to have good knowledge about Chinese mythology in order to fully understand it (which I unfortunately did not, thought I learned a lot from it!). Guardian is good for a fast-paced danmei but I personally prefer slow burns when it comes to romance, so it really depends on the reader's preferences for overall enjoyment.
The main reason why I rated 3.75 is because overall, the plot was a bit hard to follow. I feel like you'd need to have good knowledge about Chinese mythology in order to fully understand it (which I unfortunately did not, thought I learned a lot from it!). Guardian is good for a fast-paced danmei but I personally prefer slow burns when it comes to romance, so it really depends on the reader's preferences for overall enjoyment.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In this final volume, we reach the conclusion of the story, with some final revelations in store. I found reading this a lot easier than the previous volumes, and yet I was more confused than the first two volumes combined. There was a lot of plot stuffed into this final arc, and it was not always clear to me what was going on or what people's motivations were. I found myself having to go back a reread some plot points multiple times to try to understand what had happened, particularly in regards to Shěn Wēi's manipulations. I'm still not sure that I entirely understand it all.
The defeat of the primary antagonist felt very anticlimactic. He just...blew himself up? Okay. Overall, he turned out to be a pretty weak villain. He only mattered due to his desire to break the Great Seal and unleash chaos onto the world. He was more of a plot device than an actual character. I would have liked to see him become a bit more three-dimensional, but that's not what his role in the story was.
The defeat of the primary antagonist felt very anticlimactic. He just...blew himself up? Okay. Overall, he turned out to be a pretty weak villain. He only mattered due to his desire to break the Great Seal and unleash chaos onto the world. He was more of a plot device than an actual character. I would have liked to see him become a bit more three-dimensional, but that's not what his role in the story was.
“What we call ‘fate’ isn’t some divine constraint. It’s a single moment when you’re confronted with tens of thousands of possibilities. In that instant, you can ascend to the Heavens or descend into the earth, but in the end, there’s only one path you’ll inevitably choose. I didn’t understand it when I was younger either, but when you grow up, you’ll probably understand too.”
Other stuff I enjoyed a lot in this book - and in the other volumes as well - is the development of Guō Chángchéng, both on his own and in partnership with Chǔ Shùzhī. I've thought for some time that there was something more to this poor intern and the reveal was a surprising and satisfying one. His friendship - and maybe more? - with Chǔ Shùzhī has been so fun to read. They are such an odd couple but they play off each other really well. Dà Qìng remains my very best boy. I love him and the fatphobia around his character is a sour note for me.
Another sour note is the lacklustre portrayal of women. Were it only one character, this wouldn't annoy me so much, but the women in this series - including minor characters - are pretty roundly portrayed as silly and clueless. With Zhù Hóng and Wāng Zhēng, the two women we see the most and who are the most fleshed out, they are written almost entirely around their romantic interests and often make poor choices in life due to these romantic interests. This is a trend in Priest's writing, given what I know of her later works.
All in all, this volume had a lot of interesting things going on in it but the confusing plot made it difficult to fully follow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence
Moderate: Fatphobia, Sexism, Gaslighting
I like guardian overall but this was def the weakest volume for me.
A bit of a complex, telling rather than showing, ending for the short amount of time it was given. Ironically, at the part of the story I should have been the most locked in and emotional, I was the most removed from the plot just bc of.. this.
A bit of a complex, telling rather than showing, ending for the short amount of time it was given. Ironically, at the part of the story I should have been the most locked in and emotional, I was the most removed from the plot just bc of.. this.