My favorite minor characters

[maggie33]

The work is frustrating lately and I like making lists, so to cheer myself up I made a list of my top 5 minor characters form Guardian. :)

For the purpose of this post I defined a minor character as anyone who’s not Zhao Yunlan or Shen Wei, or SID team member, or three main villains.

The list is behind the cut, because pics are quite big.

Doctor Cheng Xinyan – my favorite minor character, I enjoy her interaction with Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan so much. She can clearly see right away how much Zhao Yunlan means to Shen Wei when she says “You must be really worried if you came to me.” When Zhao Yunlan’s alarm goes off and he reminds Shen Wei about his class, she smiles with such a fond smile like “Aww, Shen Wei has a boyfriend”. And she’s so patient with Da Qing.

Yehuo (Fire) – I love this guy and I love his power and that he only started to use it to help people. I feel for him when he says with that wistful tone of voice to Chu Shuzhi: "I envy you, you have such a wonderful life here."

Tan Xiao – I love how he cares for Zheng Yi and does everything he can to help her. And then tries to take the blame for her crimes.

Li Qian – I love all the angst in the beginning, I love that she’s so smart and intelligent and that she secretly helps SID after she starts working for Professor Ouyang.

Ma Gui – he’s caring and works hard to help bring peace, and he’s adorably shy when trying to talk to his crush.

Comments

[trobadora]

Oh, I love so many of the side characters, and these are great ones. I also have a huge soft spot for Ya Qing.

(The images in your post aren't displaying for me, unfortunately ...)

[maggie33]

Ooops, I set the security for images to private, I think that's why you didn't see it. It should be fine now. At least I hope it is. :)

[trobadora]

Yes, they're visible now, yay! Thank you. :)

[maggie33]

Thank you for letting me know. I never uploaded images to dreamwidth before. But hey you learn fastest from your own mistakes. :)

[china_shop]

Aww, I love all these and your reasoning! Such good people! Now I want to do my own list -- you may have started a meme! Hee!

(You should link this at sid_guardian and share the love! /gentle encouragement)

[maggie33]

Yes, they are all good people. Which kind of surprised me after I made the list, because usually I prefer villains, or at least morally ambiguous people. :) And I will post it to the comm, I always forget I can do it. :)

[yantantether]

Dr Cheng is so great! I love it when ZYL and Shen Wei are having one of their most married moments in front of her and she's just like *g*

[maggie33]

Yep, she is great, I so like to observe her reactions when she sees Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan together. :)

[rheasilvia]

The minor characters in Guardian are another one of its great strengths, in my view. There are so many strong and interesting ones, and many of them even grow into their own little character arcs. Like Li Qian, who is also one of my favorite minor characters for all the reasons you name! I also like all of your other favorites, especially Ma Gui. <3

I will think more on who I would consider my own favorites. Thank you for this lovely post!

[maggie33]

What I find interesting, considering my propensity for villains, is that in Guardian all my favorite minor characters are good people. :) If I would make top 10 list there would be probably a place for, for instance, Sha Ya and Ya Qing – but they are both more morally ambiguous than straight up villains, especially Sha Ya.

[rheasilvia]

That *is* interesting! I also know just what you mean, since I am usually drawn to far darker characters than Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei, and yet in this series I love that they are both such deeply, genuinely good people.

The villains... well, I have developed an odd fondness for Zhu Ji (mostly because he postures so amusingly and his wig is so hilariously bad, I think), but the other villains - major and minor - don't appeal to me at all. That is also unusual for me, come to think of it. Thank you for pointing that out, I hadn't even noticed it.

I love Ya Qing, though. She is definitely on my list of favorite minor characters, and I don't see her as a villain, either.

This seems to be a show that presents good people in an interesting and effective way - the way many other shows don't manage to do!

[maggie33]

I like Zhu Ji and his bad wig. :) I didn’t really care for him during my first watch, but he grew on me after a few re-watches. And I love Ye Zun (one of the reasons of course is that he is played by Zhu Yilong, but also because I love complicated sibling relationships). But the other villains are rather meh for me.

This seems to be a show that presents good people in an interesting and effective way - the way many other shows don't manage to do!

I agree.

[mekare]

AWWW I agree with all of them! They are the best!

[maggie33]

They really are. :DDD