#ofc it also doesn’t help that Black Rose Dragon never got a Majestic version

[inkblackorchid]

Have you ever thought about moments (whether in canon or in your own scenarios) where Aki could possibly call on the full Mark of the Dragon? Out of the signers, only Aki and Luca iirc are the only ones seen without manifesting the insignia on their backs.

Anon I have thought about this so often it’s not even funny. I have, on several occasions, sat in rooms by myself, seemingly staring at nothing while my mind was going at 200 km/h trying to figure out a scenario where this could happen to Aki. As it turns out, though, canon is… kinda in the way when it comes to that. Bear with me, this answer might get more long-winded than intended, but here’s the thing(s):

I had to go back and check myself just to be sure, but in canon, only four people have managed to unify the signer marks in special situations: Yusei, Jack, Rua, and, surprisingly, Rex Goodwin. And Yusei is the only one who managed it not one, but several times. (Among those times: his second duel against Kiryu, his first duel against Placido, the BBT duel against Paradox, and his final duel against Z-ONE. Meanwhile, Jack only did it in his duel against dark signer Carly and maybe also in the duel against Red Nova, I don’t remember that exactly, Rua did it when he almost died against Aporia, and Goodwin did it for no apparent reason during his stint as the final antagonist of the DS arc.) Meaning that Crow, Ruka, and Aki never even got their chance. As to why they didn’t, frankly (at least in my opinion, mind, I’m not the central authority on canon), I think it’s because the antagonists bringing about the situations where the mark is unified (not counting Goodwin’s nonsense) were all tailored to the people defeating them. Kiryu, Placido, and Z-ONE were super personal fights for Yusei. Carly was arguably THE single most personal duel for Jack in the entire show. And Aporia, the personification of despair, facing off against little Rua, who refused to give up hope until his (nearly) last breath? Yeah, also personal.

And the thing is, Crow, Ruka, and Aki don’t really… have anyone like that. Arguably, their respective dark signer duels would have still fit the bill the best, since the dark signers were very personal antagonists by default (a reason why I adore them). At the same time, I can see why the writers didn’t do that, because if every signer had had a unified-mark-Majestic-Dragon moment during a dark signer duel, it would have quickly felt gimmicky instead of earned.

Which brings me back to your question—a moment where Aki could possibly unify the signer marks would have to feel earned, and thus, it would have to put her up against an antagonist who’s a fairly big obstacle, for one, and who’s ideally a personal fight for her, too. As you may realise, canon doesn’t exactly give her that. All the major antagonists, especially during the WRGP arc, aren’t personal fights for her, more vague threats against the whole world. None of them are written to juxtapose or foil her, and she isn’t written to juxtapose or foil any of them. (You could argue that Sherry is somewhat personal, but with her flip-flopping allegiances, she honestly doesn’t count as enough of an antagonist for this for me.) The only antagonists who come even close to being appropriate fights for a scenario where Aki could get her hypothetical Majestic Rose Dragon (or other upgrade) moment are Misty, who isn’t treated as big enough of a threat for the reasons stated above, and Divine, who exits the stage after his last hurrah in the Misty duel with absolutely no fanfare whatsoever. Which means that as far as canon is concerned, Aki has no proper opponent available who could make a moment like that happen. As such, I feel that if one wanted to give Aki a nice, well-earned moment where she gets to unify the signer marks (and god, do I want to give her that moment), there are only two ways it could go: 1. Dust off Divine and make him a proper threat somehow (which is risky because he was previously already removed from the narrative and might thus come off as repetitive), or 2. Make up an antagonist who’s not tailored to Yusei or Jack for once, but to Aki (which is also risky because it requires good setup in order to make the payoff moment feel earned).

So yes, anon, I have thought about it, haha. Often enough that it drives me a little insane. Unfortunately, canon is extremely unhelpful where this scenario is concerned. Which is not to say that I am not scheming to find a way to make such a moment happen anyway, at least in my adjusted version of canon.

#aki izayoi #akiza izinski #yugioh 5ds #ofc it also doesn’t help that Black Rose Dragon never got a Majestic version #and that Ruddy Rose Dragon was printed years and years after the show ended #but oh well #sometimes you gotta take a hammer and FIX the canon you know? #ask the orchid #thanks for the ask hope the answer wasn’t too long-winded!