on the alt ending of Guardian, and how the show (may have) got there

[xparrot]

So Guardian is still my fandom du jour -- just posted a new fic, and now here's some meta speculation, to join in on the fandom renaissance on Dreamwidth! (at least for Guardian and the very active sid_guardian! Only makes sense, given that Guardian feels so much like a '90s genre/cop show, just with 10x the subtext and fanbait. So many old-school fans here, it's like coming home...)



Love it or hate it, the ending of the Guardian drama is certainly memorable. It's also not the only ending that was written for the show.

(Note: I'm only familiar with the English-speaking side of Guardian fandom. The Chinese-speaking side may know way more about this -- anyone have more details?)

As far as I'm aware, the full script of the alternate ending has never been released. However, one clip from it does exist, so it got far enough along in production to be filmed. You can watch the clip here. (It's at 1:20 mark, preceded by another cut scene of Zhu Yilong playing Ye Zun playing Shen Wei, indulging in a little light homicide and a lot of criminal hotness.)

The alternate ending clip shows Zhao Yunlan (alive??) in Dixing, where (according to dialog translation) he's acting as principal of a Dixing school, when he meets two twin boys who are the reincarnations of Shen Wei and Ye Zun. As this doesn't really fit with the aired ending, gnine and I developed a theory about how it was supposed to play out. This is all pure speculation on our part, based on the clip and what scenes we got in the aired show.

Given Shen Wei and Ye Zun's reincarnation in the alt end, it seems likely that they were always intended to die the way they did. It's Zhao Yunlan's fate that was probably changed. In the aired ending, Zhao Yunlan sacrifices his soul to become the wick of the Guardian Lantern, and his body is possessed by Zhang Shi, the Dixingren spirit formerly in his father.

This ignores a bunch of foreshadowing that Guo Changcheng is meant to be the wick (and was placed in the SID by Zhao Xinci for that purpose). It's possible that in the alternate ending, Xiao Guo does light the Lantern, but it's not fatal for him. In the last ep when Lao Chu is chewing Xiao Guo out for not being confident, he reiterates that Xiao Guo was said to be the best nutrition for the Lantern (which seems less than encouraging, if it's supposed to kill you?) Also worth noting, when Zhao Yunlan flashes back to his father telling him about the Lantern and the wick, for a good chunk of that conversation you can't see Zhao Xinci's mouth, so they could've easily overdubbed any dialog they wanted, changing the requirements of the lantern as the revised plot demanded.

So if Zhao Yunlan doesn't sacrifice himself to the lantern, what does happen to him? It seems his life was always meant to be in jeopardy -- even before he uses the lantern in the aired ending, he's already injured/dying from using the Dixing serum. When the SID carry Zhao Yunlan back through the portal, there's no mention in the dialog of what he actually did -- Lao Chu just says vaguely that it's "the price of redemption."

In the aired ending, there's the timeskip after this, and then we see Zhang Shi in Zhao Yunlan's body, accepting praise and flowers for his role in saving the city. However, there's no visual proof of Zhang Shi's possession in the scene; you never see his eyes go yellow. The only clear sign that it's Zhang Shi is the voiceover.

It's true that Zhao Yunlan's whole appearance in the scene is very out of character: he's stiff and quiet, and looks incredibly sad. It works for Zhang Shi mournfully having taken over Zhao Yunlan's body -- but it also would work for a Zhao Yunlan who survived the Dixing serum (perhaps thanks to Zhang Shi?) but lost Shen Wei. It's a year later so it's unclear what he's getting the flowers for -- maybe just the anniversary of the world not ending? But it could be marking some other event -- such as retirement, Zhao Yunlan leaving the SID to go to Dixing. Which would explain why we then see Xiao Guo at an SID without any Chief Zhao in sight.

Last but not least, there's the final scene in the aired drama, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan's conversation in the space-time void. If you can get through the tears to rewatch it, there are two confusing things about this scene. One, how is Zhao Yunlan there at all and looking fine, when his soul was supposed to be burning endlessly in the Lantern? Two, Zhao Yunlan asks Shen Wei "Are you leaving?" -- but it's not clear why Shen Wei would be leaving -- where he'd be going, and why not both of them, if they're both dead? And if Shen Wei had already been waiting (a year?) for Zhao Yunlan (to get out of the Lantern?), why can't they take five minutes (to passionately make out)? The scene makes more sense if Shen Wei is dead but Zhao Yunlan isn't, and that's why they must part ways.

Previous times that Zhao Yunlan traveled to Dixing, he ended up seeing visions of his mother and such, in the same CGI void. So it would make sense that in transit back to Dixing, after quitting the SID, Zhao Yunlan could see Shen Wei to have their goodbye and make their bet.

Then Zhao Yunlan goes and founds a school in Dixing (fulfilling the plot thread of Dixing's need for schools and hospitals) and eventually gets a couple students who are going to make things really awkward...

--Of course, it's also possible that the entire ending played out exactly as we saw, and then the scene with Principal Zhao Yunlan was tacked on without any explanation (as in my limited experience cdramas do sometimes go for inexplicable surprise endings?)

If this was the originally intended ending, why it was cut/rejected is anyone's guess -- maybe it was too happy (???) an end for the mlm romance; maybe it was the confirmation of reincarnation, as supernatural themes are also prohibited? At any rate, while personally I'm very glad it's not the ending we got, there are some parts of the story it would've better explained.

So what do you think? Is this a likely scenario or implausible speculation? Any other thoughts of how it might've gone down? And how do we arrange to get a season 2 so we can move on from all of these endings!?

ETA: Supplementary material: zeest linked this vid by AvenueX that goes into detail about where the original deleted clips came from (it was an effort to smear Zhu Yilong that backfired and just made him and Guardian more popular!) and also the prevailing theory on Weibo for what the alternate story was -- which is even more complicated! The gist is that Zhao Yunlan's physical body went back to Haixing (and was possessed by Zhang Shi I assume?) while his spiritual body ended up on Dixing, where he started a school, and then after 10K years (??!?) Shen Wei and Ye Zun are reincarnated...

(And supposedly this ending was cut because fans hated it, which, well, can't blame them...though I want to know if they were given a choice between this and the ending they got!)

Comments

[riventhorn]

Interesting!! I think it's a plausible scenario; in particular I agree that it would make sense for Guo Changcheng to have become the wick given how that's foreshadowed. I don't think it's exactly happier though--ZYL having to live on without Shen Wei is just sad. And then Shen Wei being reincarnated as his student is just... as you say, super, super awkward. Given that I feel we all agree that the show intends their romantic relationship to be unstated canon, it seems like they might have thought about the implications of that reincarnation scenario and gone, uh, no.

[xparrot]

Ah, I don't think it's happier myself, but when I first heard about it people were calling it the happier end? Though Zhao Yunlan living for a time without Shen Wei before getting him back, that parallels Shen Wei waiting for him nicely.

...the awkwardness of the romantic relationship in this scenario, yeeeeeeeeah. (Though given a lot of BL etc, I don't know if that would've been seen as that much of a stumbling block? ^^;)

[riventhorn]

Though given a lot of BL etc, I don't know if that would've been seen as that much of a stumbling block?

Well that's true, lol.

[trobadora]

when I first heard about it people were calling it the happier end

I saw that too, and then when I actually found it I was so confused. Does anyone really consider that in any way happy?!

[teaotter]

That's the clip I was looking for recently! I've been thinking of it as a cut ending -- something that came after the ending that was shown -- but I'll have to think about your arguments that it was originally intended as a separate ending.

As long as I can avoid the part where Zhao Yunlan might have to be responsible for kid!Shen Wei, I'm okay with it. For me personally, a fix-it that starts with 'and then ghost spirit-body-Zhao Yunlan had to go on walkabout for twenty years' is still easier than one that starts with 'somehow they're both un-dead now.' It makes a nice parallel with Shen Wei being in the present for 20 years before meeting Zhao Yunlan, too.

[xparrot]

Oh good, you found it, I was just looking for your post to link you! (your post reminded me that I had this one drafted, but then I had to go looking for the vid itself, which took me a while to find because Tumblr >.>)

Yeah, Zhao Yunlan having to wait for Shen Wei does have symmetry, though I'd prefer he just doesn't meet him at all until Shen Wei's properly grown up! (otoh if child!Shen Wei gets all his memories back, then it's just super weird...)

...And apparently the Chinese fandom theorized that Zhao Yunlan somehow was waiting 10K years for Shen Wei??

[zeest]

I’m... not fond of the alt ending haha so I have no theories to offer but I’ll like to share this AvenueX video for people who have not seen it. Starting from around 6:40, she talks about how the deleted clips came to light (interesting gossip :p) and after that she talks about the alt ending, including an explanation of what happens in that ending that I saw widely shared on weibo back when the clips first appeared (though afaik there’s no confirmation that the explanation came from an official source).

Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfKAPSu5B8s

[xparrot]

Wah thanks for this! That's fascinating (I've added an ETA to the post so people don't miss it).

And yeah, I'm not a fan of the alt ending myself (is anyone?! ^^) but I do like knowing that reincarnation was the intention...

[zeest]

I loved that Zhao Yunlan was in Dixing and opened a school, basically doing for Dixing what Shen Wei wanted but couldn’t do. I also like the reincarnation and them meeting again thing! But like most people, child!Shen Wei is a no for me and the glasses thing... I just noped out so hard at that point haha.

[xparrot]

Yeah, Zhao Yunlan opening a school is great. The rest...

The glasses thing? ...Like, kid!Shen Wei wearing glasses, when he didn't need them as Shen Wei? Oh no, I never even thought of that! Haaaah (I was just trying to figure out how they so failed to get kids that looked anything at all like Zhu Yilong. Okay identical twin kid actors maybe aren't that common, but still...!)

[zeest]

The kid didn’t look like Shen Wei at all (which is fair) but his glasses look the same. Was that how Zhao Yunlan recognized him? Was it Shen Wei who was reincarnated or his glasses?? <- the point where I noped out lol

[xparrot]

AHAHAH! ...if you know Gintama, now I am totally picturing Shen Wei channeling Shinpachi, "That's not me that's my glassssses!!"

[zeest]

I DO know Gintama but somehow hadn’t made the connection before this?? Now I have and CANNOT UNSEE, thanks :p

[xparrot]

..I already had the thought that Zhao Yunlan and Gintoki would make decent drinking buddies, but the image of Shen-pachi is...not one I needed at all ^^;;;;

(Though Da Qing as a Sadaharu-esque giant cat does have its appeal...!)

[mecurtin]

I've heard that test audiences rejected this ending (yay test audiences!) which is why it was never used.

There's also the fact that it STRONGLY implies reincarnation, which they went to a LOT of trouble to edit out of the story.

Why they decided NOT to make Changcheng the wick is the real puzzler for me. Was he the wick in the novel?

My experience with Hollywood makes me shudder at the idea of a Season 2, but Guardian is in SO MANY WAYS better than anything from H'wood, I might hope a little.

But honestly, I don't think Zhu Yilong or Bai Yu can afford the typecasting. Better scripts, better pay, and more het is what's in their future.

[xparrot]

Yeah, I'm really curious whether it was a bad reaction to the ending that made them cut it, or they just thought it was too risky because of the explicit reincarnation, or what (it sounds like most of the bad reaction to the ending happened after the cut scene was leaked as opposed to test audiences before the show aired, but I'm not clear about that? Anyway it amuses me that as much as many of us want fix-its for the ending...we don't want them like this!)

The English translations for the novel haven't gotten to the end yet, but yeah, I'm pretty sure Xiao Guo is the wick there (but it's not fatal for him, possibly because he is so pure?)

I doubt s2 of Guardian will happen, but I'd still love to see Zhu Yilong and Bai Yu onscreen together (which might not ever happen again...) (Though as far as "more het" goes, given that Zhu Yilong's next major role is Tomb Restart and the major relationships there are a trio of him and two other dudes...I'm not sure he got that memo?!)

[jo_lasalle]

Yeah, I also read the info that the principal thing is Zhao Yunlan as a ghost, and he meets the two boys reincarnated after ten thousand years, and it was changed because of test audience hate. I just could never remember where I got it from because it was in the early days of brain soup and hnnnnngaaa.

Which, thank you, test audiences. Seriously. I don't like the ending but at least you can do something with it. Schoolboy!Shen Wei and ghost Principal Zhao? Argh. I basically made peace with the aired ending over this. *g*

I've also always wondered if the alternate ending is the reason we don't see Bai Yu getting his wrap bouquet in the credits - if he filmed the school thing last, they might not have had footage from that that wouldn't have been weird.

The 'trying to smear ZYL' is... >.<

[xparrot]

Haah yeah, I'm always gonna be sulky about the end, but I can always go "at least it wasn't THAT"!

(Even if BY did get his wrap bouquet there, it's just the Dixing set, so it wouldn't have been that odd? Considering they show Zhu Yilong getting his bouquet as Ye Zun, which is weird until you've seen the very end of the show! ^^)

The ZYL-smear-campaign is...on the one hand it's horrible that there's such a concerted effort for something like that. yet otoh...that was the worst thing they could find on him? okay...

[jo_lasalle]

Considering they show Zhu Yilong getting his bouquet as Ye Zun, which is weird until you've seen the very end of the show!

That's a fair point. I didn't even know that was him until the teens of the eps >.< (and then I spent a bunch of episodes worrying they were going to do some Gandalf the White thing. I worried entirely about the wrong things all the time. Zhao Yunlan all bloodied and staring vacant into space didn't really set off my alarm until like episode 35...) Though otoh, maybe the Dixing set would have looked quite different, because the lantern would have 'saved' Dixing even with someone else as the wick, and maybe that was considered a spoiler? IDK, IDK...

[xparrot]

Ahahah, no, in my experience cdramas do not care about spoilers in the credits. At all. Like, the opening credits for Dreamlike Life literally end with the final scene of the show (and yes, they're on every single episode! with the end just there!) And I've been warned not to watch the credits for Nirvana in Fire...

I worried entirely about the wrong things all the time. Zhao Yunlan all bloodied and staring vacant into space didn't really set off my alarm until like episode 35...

Eeehee you too? I remember having this precise realization of "UH OH..." (admittedly I had spoilers that things Ended Badly -- not the details, but I like to get a baseline for shows I'm fanning on, so...)

[jo_lasalle]

I actually thought the credits to Nirvana in Fire are incredibly well done - they tease a little, and yeah, some stuff is from the end, but unless you already know the end you won't *know*, or know what it means. That said, I don't read Chinese and I was watching on a TV, not a HD PC screen right in front of my notes, so I wouldn't want to suggest watching them in case I'm wrong! Just, like a lot of things Nirvana in Fire, they struck me as The Way Things Should Be Done. *g*

We knew nothing about the ending, I actually stayed away from any fandom stuff for fear of spoilers. At the end our house was like a bookie's den just trying to do ever changing survival probability math, and the bloodied Zhao Yunlan in the credits was not a good data point ... *sigh*

[naye]

YES YOU POSTED IT you already know I love this meta for what it tells us about what they actually filmed vs. what they showed us in the end. (And I will go for what they showed us in the end over the original ending too, but only because the original ending is creepywrong wtf.)

But things I particularly love because they make sense with this ending in mind:

- Xiao Guo as the wick! It was set up all along and then... nothing.

- That weird scene with Yunlan getting flowers! It actually reads a lot better to me if it's because he's leaving the SID and he's sad and stiff because he's lost Shen Wei (ow)

- It explains why we don't see Xiao Guo and the new SID interacting with Zhang Shi

- The swirly space scene happening as Yunlan is crossing over to Dixing makes so much sense to me?

- Oh yeah and Shen Wei and Ye Zun leaving Yunlan behind... again, that jives more with what we see and explains why Shen Wei would leave a dying Zhao Yunlan behind with a smile (because he doesn't think Yunlan is actually going to die)

- Even Zhao Sr makes more sense if he's not sending his only child off to eternal torment, but to maybe sacrifice one of his team and maybe lose Shen Wei for good!

- Possibly the biggest one: this ending reconciles Dixing and Haixing in the way the show seemed to be set up to do! Yunlan going over there to start a school is a lot better than the two being separated forever but at least now there's light in Dixing.

[xparrot]

It just explains a lot! (why was Zhao Yunlan getting flowers, otherwise? And yeah, Zhao Sr. is better too...and maybe Zhang Shi sacrificed himself to save Zhao Yunlan's life, and that's why he's not in ZXC anymore?)

And YES Dixing and Haixing still together! (why did the gates all close up anyway?? Couldn't the Hallows reopen them? Argh why?!)

...also I think I've decided that in this alternate-ending-that-never-happened, Zhao Yunlan steps down from his principal position, goes on sabbatical and spends the next fifteen years hiking Dixing's backcountry, helping open up recently lit realms. Then he comes back to help found Dixing's first graduate school (staffed by Haixingren mostly) and then eventually hires one of their first PhD earners to be their biochemistry professor. And once Shen Wei's on the staff, then Zhao Yunlan finally gets around to asking him out...(he was gonna wait until Shen Wei got tenure, but in the end couldn't quite make it that far :P)

[abyss_valkyrie]

He really knows how to play evil so seductively. OMG!
Did people really expect his name to be dragged by that performance? O_o
I'd heard of the school ending but didn't see it until now from here,thank god Yunlan is alive but kid Shen Wei after all that? Oh my god, no!!!! T_T
Though yes,the ending is confusing even now,cuz I'm a little lost as to how they got in the void and the timeline basically,I'll probably think more about it on a rewatch and from lots of discussions by others. :D

[trobadora]

Did people really expect his name to be dragged by that performance? O_o

Right?

Also, I feel like anyone who's seen the drama can tell it's Ye Zun, even just from the still image ...

[xparrot]

Zhu Yilong is sooooo good at being evil. Mmmmmm...yeah, as far as dragging him goes, that was a spectacular misfire. I can totally imagine watching that one clip and going 'O who is that? more please!!"

I think the end with the void is a little confusing in the show...in part because it's pretty clearly referring to reincarnation, except they're not allowed to show reincarnation. Which parallels the rest of the show, really, in which they're not supposed to have a romance between two men, and then...do.

[trobadora]

OMG, the schoolboy ending. I hate it so much - it's such a "ick, ick, get it away from me" thing for me. I think if that had been the actual ending it would have completely soured me on the drama - no amount of brain bleach could have got that aftertaste out. I mean, I love the ending we did get, but literally anything would have been better than that. One of them surviving while the other was dead for good would have been better! And that's usually my worst-case scenario. /end rant

Anyway, this is really interesting speculation! I can see what you mean about the one-year-later scene. But, hm, there is foreshadowing for Zhao Yunlan ending up as the wick - did you notice the lanterns in his apartment? So I'm not sure Guo Changcheng was ever more than a red herring for that, in the drama. *ponders*

(I'm not bothered by the "not burning endlessly" thing - Zhang Shi claims that's what happens to the wick, but how would he know? Unless someone already did it once and came back ...)

Oh, and I don't remember where I got that from, but I thought that ending was supposed to happen instead of the meeting in the void, rather than in addition to it ...

[xparrot]

Heh, you know how I feel about the ending myself, but I still prefer what we got to the alternate. I could've found a workaround for it (the easiest being Zhao Yunlan nopes out of there for a couple decades and comes back when it's not so creepy!) but just as soon we didn't have to...

But no, the meeting in the void was definitely meant to happen along with the schoolboy ending -- or part of it, anyway; during the schoolboy ending (the cut we have), Zhao Yunlan actually flashes back to the void meeting. Which confirms, I think, that the void meeting was originally intended to refer to reincarnation (to me it pretty clearly did anyway, but it's technically more ambiguous in the aired version? Same as WeiLan is technically a good communist bromance in the show...)

Honestly I'm confused why the whole "burning endlessly" thing with the Lantern was put in at all. What's the purpose, narratively speaking; isn't someone dying for the thing enough of a sacrifice? Especially when we don't see Zhao Yunlan suffering at all; we just see him die. And then that he's in the void and doesn't seem to particularly be in pain...it's odd!

[trobadora]

Which confirms, I think, that the void meeting was originally intended to refer to reincarnation (to me it pretty clearly did anyway, but it's technically more ambiguous in the aired version? Same as WeiLan is technically a good communist bromance in the show...)

That's really fascinating! Because the the ending as it stands isn't just ambiguous in that regard, it's completely open. Personally I didn't think it referred to reincarnation, and I don't personally like reincarnation in the drama!verse (it doesn't fit well with the worldbuilding for me), but of course it's not ruled out at all. On the other hand, we've seen the Mountain-River Awl kick out a dead person as an amnesiac energy ghost a hundred years later, so we've definitely been presented with other options ...

Honestly I'm confused why the whole "burning endlessly" thing with the Lantern was put in at all. What's the purpose, narratively speaking; isn't someone dying for the thing enough of a sacrifice?

I thought it might be a reference to something from the novel? But if not that, I have no idea.

[qikiqtarjuaq]

Huh. I was under the impression when the whole thing was leaked that the thing was an attempt to discredit the show and the assistant director (a.k.a. the girl who played Jiajia in the clip with Ye Zun) rather than a direct attack on Zhu Yilong. The smear was supposed to be that the woman was being very unprofessional in fabricating a romantic scene between her and the male lead. But obviously all the Guardian fans knew immediately this was Ye Zun and not Shen Wei. :P

As an aside: One of the funniest things about Zhu Yilong's antis in c-fandom is how they are completely unable to dig up dirt on him because he's super boring, so their attacks are always ineffectively funny. Like that time they accused him of littering. :P

ALSO why aren't more people talking about this very excellent point you raised?

Why can't they take five minutes (to passionately make out)?

Making out in the wormhole! Taking advantage of the rift in the space-time continuum to have wild sex! This should be a more common trope in Guardian fandom!

[xparrot]

As an aside: One of the funniest things about Zhu Yilong's antis in c-fandom is how they are completely unable to dig up dirt on him because he's super boring, so their attacks are always ineffectively funny. Like that time they accused him of littering. :P

AHAHAHAHAH oh bunny...his boringness is part of his charm, for me. His befuddled reaction to any personal question ever he has to field, in which you can just see flashing through his eyes 'but I'm an ACTOR, it's my characters who do things, I just eat hot pot and play video games and ACT ;_;'

And YES we were denied space-time sex and I am Very Disappoint! Fandom, get on this! Heck, Yunlan's gun is floating at one point, it can be zero-g or whatever! Siiiigh...!

[ranalore]

Yeah, my reaction the first time I heard the actual details of the deleted ending boiled down to: YIKES. And I'm a fan of several pairings with a large age gap! Granted, in most of them, at least one character is immortal and/or dead, which would also apply here, but the whole meeting when the younger and alive one is pre-pubescent and the older/dead one has some responsibility and authority over him...I repeat: YIKES.

I do like your theory of a possible alternate endgame, though, which does take some of the elements we've alluded to in other discussions and weave them together in a way that makes for good story logic. That's especially true of Guo Changcheng being the wick, which I kept expecting right up until ZYL ordered everybody to just leave him to die in Dixing; that is absolutely a dropped storyline, and I say that even thinking they did a good job of building toward the ending we got. I also must confess, I keep forgetting that the portals between Haixing and Dixing are closed forever in the ending as aired, because that element kind of makes everything fall apart. I mean, not only does it violate the key theme of the show, that the two populations can and should interact in order to have true peace and prosperity (and lovebrotherhood), but the appearance of sunlight in Dixing isn't in itself the appearance of resources, there'd be no more need of the SID, and what did Shen Wei and ZYL even sacrifice for, if the Hallows are basically saying, "Nope, everybody take your toys and go home"? I'm not sure that I necessarily buy the idea of ghost!ZYL in Dixing while his body goes on in Haixing (Dixingren all seem pretty corporeal, for one), but I'd buy Zhang Shi perhaps sacrificing his own immortality to save ZYL, and a now functionally immortal ZYL resigning from the SID to act as an ambassador to Dixing, introducing a school system because that's what Shen Wei wanted (and maybe getting the help of Dr. Cheng to set up hospitals). If they'd given us that, then did a "10K years later" meeting with a Shen Wei ambiguously in his late teens/early twenties (basically, the age he was in the time loop eps, so Zhu Yilong could play him and there'd be no need for ridiculous props to tell Zhao Yunlan and the audience exactly who this was), I would have been happy as a pig in mud.

[xparrot]

If the schoolboy ending had actually been canon, my fix-it simply would've been for Zhao Yunlan to go on sabbatical for a couple decades and come back when Shen Wei is grown up (it would've paralleled the ??? decades Shen Wei had to wait for Zhao Yunlan post-dirt-nap?)

I admit, I'm really not a fan of the ending myself, and one of the big reasons is the separation of Dixing and Haixing -- I don't understand why that was included story-wise, as opposed to the joining of the worlds that the story seemed to be leading towards? That in the end Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan ended up sacrificing themselves to divide their worlds instead of uniting them makes it that much harder for me to take. And I really don't get why the writers made that choice, because really what we see of the ending wouldn't have been much different if they were still connected? It wouldn't have been harder to film or anything.

But yeah, why the alternate ending wasn't just Zhao Yunlan meeting an adult Shen Wei -- shaking hands with him and not letting go -- what a strange choice!!