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chroniclerdl · 3 years

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Seven Fundamentals to Writing Better Yu-Gi-Oh Duelfics

Ever wanted to write a duelfic just as good or better than canon?

Done right, duels are memorable action scenes.

Done wrong, duels shatter the suspension of disbelief. It’s already a big ask to imagine the world revolving around a card game.

You don’t want the tragedy where your readers yank the scrollbar past your duel, or worse, close your tab. Even the small pool of duelfic readers/writers like me will skip huge chunks of your chapters when the duels sag.

By implementing basic storytelling techniques tailored to dueling, you can hook your readers into following the play-by-play.

High Stakes

Consistent Rules

Sneaks Checked

“Balanced” Gameplay

Foreshadowing Victory

Engaging Description

Dramatic Tension

1. High Stakes

When you advertise your story as a duelfic, your first duel tells readers whether or not what you wrote is worth their time.

If your characters duel without a concrete reason to rip the opponent’s throat, readers already know the outcome:

You lose.

Why? The game is pointless. Who’s dropping whatever they’re doing just to read the equivalent of your characters sipping afternoon tea? If you’re introducing the setting and characters, why can’t you introduce exciting threats?

No reader expects your first duel to decide the fate of the world, but your characters still need to bet.

Characters wager life chips.

If your character loses, they suffer death or suicide-inducing despair.

Is it too much to start with life-and-death? No. Think of the life chip as the culmination of hopes and dreams.

As the story progresses, the stakes will rise, must rise. How? Others will entrust the main characters with their own life chips, and/or the life chips acquire additional meaning. Consider this loose analogy: at the end of a poker tournament, gamblers sit at the final table with stacks built from the chips of others.

Life chips mean different things to different characters. Let’s take the Duelist Kingdom arc.

Yugi’s life chip is the hope to save his grandfather (and later, his own soul)

Joey’s life chip is the hope to win the prize money to fund his sister’s medical operation

Kaiba’s life chip is the hope to save his little brother (and later, his own soul)

You don’t even need your final showdown to revolve around the fate of world; it just has to be one or more things that matter to your characters.

Also, make sure to communicate the stakes, or why the characters accept uneven bets.

If you have the chops, you can also play around with disguising the stakes. As in, your character thinks they’re wagering something small, but it’s actually their life chip. However, your readers still need a vague reason to believe that a defeat will devour the character.

Always make sure the characters stake one or more life chips!

2. Consistent Rules

If you watched the Duelist Kingdom arc and tried to understand the moves everyone made, your head exploded.

Ask yourself: will the clever scheme that your hero invented drive readers crazy?

If I write a magic system that requires a wand, this applies to all. I cannot become a genius and suddenly wave my hands to cast magic.

Demonstrate the rules early, preferably in the first duel, and keep them sacred.

If you must make an exception, establish it early. In that case, the exception becomes a well-defined branch of the rules that the readers can anticipate.

Can the players magically draw the card they need, whenever they want?

If you can establish the when and why, by all means. The readers proceed with the understanding that the players can reach into their deck like a glorified toolbox.

For example, Duel Links has a concept called “skills” that function like a player’s special ability. At the time I wrote this, Yami Yugi’s “Destiny Draw” skill lets the player take any card from their deck once per duel after losing 2000LP (and even if they stacked the top of the deck earlier!).

Card should also have the same, predictable effect. If the card prevents attacks, I doubt the text discusses physical properties or mentions holding things in the air. But you knew that, right?

The rules are the laws of the universe.

3. Sneaks Checked

I love duels. I also love getting what I want.

Why does getting what I want have to be through a duel?

If we talk, maybe we can come to an agreement. If I blackmail you, maybe you’ll give in to my demands. If I shoot you, I can loot your corpse. Give the readers a good reason as to why your characters would bother with the hassle of honest dueling and can’t wiggle from the consequences of losing.

Often, the duel takes place in the context of a tournament. Hopefully, the tournament officials are keeping a good eye on the players and cracking down on cheaters.

However, even that’s not a guarantee. What’s the key concept?

Power.

The competitors have equivalent capacity for coercion (usually violence) or have a neutral referee presiding over the match with the most capacity for coercion (shoutout to gambling manga Usogui).

Anyone who enters a game otherwise has lost before the first move.

In Yu-Gi-Oh, magical and sci-fi enforcement are common. The Shadow Realm can trap the loser in a desolate hell. In a digital world, the loser suffers deletion. Or just have good tournament officials.

Be vigilant when your duel doesn’t call upon these tropes.

Your amoral characters won’t mind blindsiding your other characters, and they won’t mind blindsiding you with a plot hole.

If you’re not careful, the readers will ask you why they played uncharacteristically fair.

4. “Balanced” Gameplay

Duels should be fair and fun…for the villain.

Ostensibly, everyone plays a balanced game, designed to give both sides a sporting chance. In reality, the villain tilts the field to their favor with one or more tricks up their sleeves. Why would your villain ever fight fair?

But that’s fine. We love rooting for the underdog and watching the villain get their comeuppance.

Overpowered ability to let the villain read minds? Deck full of unbalanced cards that makes the villain’s monsters invincible with no drawback? Creator who knows every strategy in the game? Readers will turn the page as they wonder how the hero will prevail.

The more obstacles you can throw in the hero’s way, the better.

Got custom cards? No problem, just follow a couple guidelines. After all, some duelists are more equal than others.

The hero’s deck is full of regular cards that have a cost to use. For every play they want to make, their cards insist that they give up their attack, discard to play, etc.

The villain’s deck is full of rare cards that power up their game for free. So long as you can justify why the card made it to print, the villain can play whatever they want.

For every step your hero takes, the villain gets two.

5. Foreshadowing Victory

How many times have you watched a duel where the protagonist comes up with this never-before-seen card that does exactly what the protagonist needs to clinch the win? In the final showdown, no less? It’s like the writers begged to be called amateurs and idiots.

No other genre tolerates such laziness.

However, readers don’t want an infodump of the characters’ decks. Show the cards in action. To cover the deck, you'll probably need multiple duels.

This also implies you have more freedom in how your character defeats their early opponents in the duelfic.

Does that previous statement contradict what I said about never-before-seen cards clinching the win as the mark of laziness? No, because here’s the rule:

Tolerance for the hero’s new cards decreases as the story progresses.

(Notice that I specify the hero’s new cards; your villains exist to make life harder by inventing unfair tricks.)

When you must include new cards for the hero late in the duelfic, at least find a way to make them first backfire.

Now, some writers have lots of knowledge about the card pool and metagame. Can they assume the readers a priori know the hero has access to any of the available cards in a given archetype?

I’d err on the side of caution and properly foreshadow the cards before they appear late in the duelfic. Not every reader is a walking card database. They have no reason to assume something exists unless you show the card.

Take the tolerance rule into consideration when planning your duels. If you know the awesome combo you want to use for the final turn in the duelfic climax, that’s your cue to scatter the cards into the earlier duels.

Plan the last duel first and your early duels last.

6. Description

Every reader wants a front-row seat to the action.

They’re paying you their time, so make it worth the admission: sleek combatants & budget-busting fights. Kaiba invented Solid Vision technology for a reason, so help readers envision your duels.

Who’s fighting? Describe the point-of-view’s impression of the monsters’ appearances. Red-Eyes Black Dragon should be self-explanatory.

What about a decorated monster like Time Wizard?

You could go into detail about how the red clock humanoid has yellow gears that form epaulets and purple, pointy boots and a green mustache made from clock hands and so on, but such a level of minutiae bogs pacing and invites skimming.

Readers just need to hear about a purple-caped, red clock humanoid with a wand to form an image. Their imaginations can handle the little details.

Paint appearances in broad strokes and one or two brief sentences.

How are the monsters fighting? Duel Monsters is a game where the target takes the aggressor’s attack like a champ. That doesn’t mean you can’t spice it up.

For example, my opponent’s dragon attacks my weaker knight with a fireball. My knight, interested in not dying, raises his shield. Unfortunately, he screams as the flames engulf him.

You wouldn’t just stand still with a straight face if someone armed with a knife lunged for your gut.

A fight scene is a string of action and reaction.

Most people also experience life in more senses than just sight.

A dragon’s fireball is a bright reddish-orange, hot, dries the air, smoky, and explodes with a boom on impact. I never tasted a fireball, and I hope I never do, but that’s still four senses: sight, touch, smell, and sound.

Include multiple sensory details.

Let’s spare a moment to talk about the heads-up display (HUD).

In Yu-Gi-Oh, cards have multiple stats and abilities. You’re free to mention whatever you deem necessary. No set formula exists. On one extreme, you can mention nothing to keep the narrative clean at the risk of confusing the readers. At the other extreme, infodumps about the monster’s abilities provide great detail but wreck the pacing. But there’s a cozy middle.

State only what you need from the card.

If your duels occurred before the era of Synchro, you don’t need details about levels. You can just display the basic stats to determine the stronger monster. If a deck has Pendulum monsters, just mention the scale numbers when they're played as scales. And so on.

You can also make an index of new cards at the end of a chapter.

BONUS TIP! Understanding show, don’t tell.

What is show, don’t tell? At its core, this concept refers to immersing your readers in the senses and feelings instead of exposition. Unfortunately, that definition is a bit vague to execute. After writing for a while, I had my lightbulb moment.

Don’t TELL the readers how to think or force-feed them a conclusion.

SHOW your readers the evidence.

Here’s a written example from Joey vs. Rex in Duelist Kingdom. See if you can spot what makes this prose telling instead of showing.

“Joey watched nervously as Two-Headed King Rex stomped Baby Dragon. He messed up his Baby Dragon-Time Wizard combo!”

You can see two failures: “nervously” and the second sentence.

Adverbs like “nervously” and other “-ly” friends get a bad rep because rookies tend to use them as telling crutches (especially beware adverbs after dialogue tags!). “Nervously” tells me how Joey reacts. But what does “nervously” look like? One character might bite their thumb. Another might fidget in their seat. The adverb in this context lacks nuance.

We also have the second sentence: “He messed up his Baby Dragon-Time Wizard combo!” When you’re explaining the “why” to something, you’re telling. It’s like talking down to your readers.

Contrast with the next example.

“A bead of sweat rolled off Joey’s face as Two-Headed King Rex stomped Baby Dragon. He stared at the Time Wizard in his hand.”

The first sentence shows me Joey’s physical reaction. I see him sweating, so I think he’s nervous.

We also see a second physical reaction: “He stared at the Time Wizard in his hand.” This comes on the heels of the first sentence, and I also have knowledge of when Joey used the Baby Dragon-Time Wizard combo in a prior duel. Combined, I think Joey is ruminating about a missed chance.

Readers are smart; they’ll catch your intention if you show the proof.

7. Dramatic Tension

I bet you know what it's like to draw a bad hand.

Imagine: The hero staggers into the arena, and the villain just needs to win one duel to take over the world. The villain draws a bunch of powerups with no monster, but the hero draws a one-turn-kill combo.

Anticlimactic. The readers throw that duelfic straight into the trash.

Don’t just write real-life duels. “It really happened” doesn’t mean it’s emotionally satisfying.

That’s why we have literary structure.

Success and setback pace together with progressive intensity to maximize dramatic tension and emotional payoff.

I’ll spare the nitty-gritty theory detail, but your duels should look like this on a basic level:

Part 1: Villain’s basic threats. Introduces the villain’s deck and style.

Part 2: Villain’s minor strategy. The villain’s first serious attempt to defeat the hero.

Part 3: Villain’s major strategy. The hero’s reversal! But the villain has worse in store.

Part 4: Hero’s imminent defeat. The hero must break through, or else will instantly lose!

Ideally, you’re also integrating the story itself into the duel; themes and duels synergize to create a stronger effect.

You may notice how the format resembles the three-act structure.

Act I is Part 1

Act II until the Act II midpoint is Part 2

Act II midpoint until Act III is Part 3

Act III is part 4.

I’ll use Yugi/Pharaoh vs. Pegasus in Duelist Kingdom as an example.

Part 1: Mind scan. Pegasus can read minds to counter combos.

Part 2: Toon World. Indestructible, cartoonified monsters attack.

Part 3: Shadow game. Toons destroyed! But playing a shadow game weakens Yugi.

Part 4: Yugi passes out. The Pharaoh must find a new way to stop Pegasus’s mind scan!

Figure out each part of the structure for your duels before writing the turn-by-turn plays.

By the way, modern real-life Yu-Gi-Oh duels don’t suit drama because the rules provide weak constraints to creating strong boards. A good modern deck usually establishes a scary turn one board and jumps straight into Part 4, whereas other card games like Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone force the powerhouse cards to wait several turns until the player builds the mana to pay costs.

You can still write a good modern duel. Here’s a basic outline of Arc-V’s duel between Sora and Shay. Technically, “tragedy” is the structure of this duel, so I’ll make Shay the “hero” to flip it and keep matters simplified.

Part 1: Basic monsters. These clash before a monster appears from the Extra Deck.

Part 2: Frightfurs. They come one after another to crush Shay’s Raidraptors.

Part 3: Sora’s wrath. Rise Falcon survives! But Sora’s malevolent nature comes to light.

Part 4: Frightfur Chimera. Sora chomps candy and summons his biggest fusion horror!

If following the four parts is too difficult for you, that’s okay. They're just logical extensions of one basic concept. Keep the following in mind, and you’ll never go wrong:

The villain’s subsequent threats become increasingly overwhelming.

Conclusion

Much of writing a duel boils down to storytelling technique.

Let’s tl;dr the main takeaways.

High Stakes: Minimum ante is the life chip, worth a character’s hopes and dreams.

Consistent Rules: Everyone plays by the same logic.

Sneaks Checked: Characters can’t skip the duels with violence and coercion.

“Balanced” Gameplay: Villains enjoy advantages.

Foreshadowing Victory: Readers have a chance to predict the winning combo.

Engaging Description: Immerse senses and invite reactions.

Dramatic Tension: The villain makes progressively stronger threats.

As a duelfic reader/writer, I can gauge a writer's ability by measuring their duels with the fundamentals. Many fan writers struggle; even the canon writers struggle.

But writing a duelfic isn’t rocket science. With practice, minding the fundamentals will become second nature.

And don't forget to tag your story as a duelfic. It's a whole genre in fanfic, so sort it properly and help readers from the future find you.

May the heart of the cards be with you.

…

Want to see in-depth examples of my advice? I rewrote the Orichalcos arc to reimagine its untapped potential without the failures of the canon presentation. You can find it on FFnet and AO3.

#yugioh #ygo #yugioh fanfiction #yugioh fandom #fanfic writing #duelfic #writing #writing tips #writing advice #writing help #how to write #listicles

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lafeae · 5 years

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Prompt: Bloodstained Clothes

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh!

Characters: Kaiba Seto, Jounouchi Katsuya/Joey Wheeler

For: @badthingshappenbingo

Read on AO3

Detergent was expensive. When weighing to buy it versus food, Jounouchi always picked the food. He’d rather be able to cobble more meals together for him and the Old Man than to be able to throw soap pellets on clothes.

If he needed to wash something, hot water and a little bar of soap worked, even if it left behind stiff, chalky streaks. He’d usually rubbed out the worst of the stains, at least until he could bother the lady next door for a cup of detergent which, on Sundays, she had begun to leave in the laundry room for him.

But in the mornings, when bleary and half asleep, Jounouchi didn’t care too much about what shirt he grabbed off the floor as long as it didn’t smell like beer or piss. Any white shirt was fine for under the uniform.

At least, he didn’t care until Honda batted his arm in the middle of class and asked: “Wearin’ the ketchup for lunch later?”

Jounouchi glanced down at his shirt and pulled at the hem. Little splotches hung from the collar and dripped straight down. They were browned, faded, a little gross. Could have been ketchup....or ponzu sauce. Maybe soy. He wouldn’t know until he wet his finger to taste it.

“Yeah, I’ll ya dip fries in it later, jackass.” Quickly, Jounouchi fastened the top button of his uniform jacket. “Now shut up a’fore Sakamoto hates me worse.”

As if on cue, Sakamoto-sensei asked: “Do have something you’d like to say, Jounouchi-san?”

Honda snorted behind his hand.

“Uh....no?”

“Then would you like to answer the problem?”

Jounouchi’s face reddened, and he finished fastening his jacket. “....not really?”

Sakamoto-sensei motioned for Jounouchi to rise, and he did with reluctance while quickly looking over the scribbled math problems that were pure gibberish, all the whole trying to ignore Kaiba’s mirthful laughter. Jerk had been gone for a blissful week, but of course he would be there when Jounouchi needed the extra kick in the nads.

“Shut it, moneybags,” Jounouchi hissed.

“Jounouchi-san?”

Jounouchi groaned. It was gonna be one shitty thing after another today.

—

Jounouchi was happy to go to lunch. It meant unbuttoning the God forsaken uniform and airing out the heat it trapped. If the summer got any hotter before their break, he would probably die.

Between bites, he caught Kaiba’s quick looks; as if the prick was being sly—he just seemed like a weirdo instead. Jounouchi shot him dirty looks back, instead, curling his nose, sticking out his tongue, and itching his eye with his middle-finger for Honda and Yuugi’s amusement.

“Seriously?” Anzu asked.

Jounouchi shrugged. “Kaiba’s bein’ weird again.”

“And...?”

“And it’s fun t’ mess with him?”

Anzu sighed. “He’s just trying to rile you up, you know. And it’s working. Then you’ll go over to him mad, he’ll insult you, and you’ll get more mad...”she waved her hands. “Whatever.”

“Sounds like a normal day to me,” Yuugi quipped.

“I ain’t goin’ over to him. I swear,” said Jounouchi, though he looked across at Kaiba anyways. Anzu glared at Jounouchi. “I really ain’t. He’s hopped over prick and went straight to creeper. Few weeks ago he gave me this....”

Before admitting anymore, Jounouchi stopped and bit the tip of his tongue until he tasted blood.

“Gave you what?” Yuugi asked.

“Nothin’.”

“You can tell us, Jou-kun.”

“Seriously, ain’t nothin’.”

There wasn’t an exact reason for Jounouchi to stop talking. At first, he convinced himself that it was because he didn’t want to admit that Kaiba was nice because his friends would laugh in his face. But as Kaiba eyed the messy splotches on Jounouchi’s shirt, the more Jounouchi realised it was purely his own embarrassment. His clothes weren’t stained with ketchup or ponzu sauce. He knew it was blood. Probably from a bloody nose from the Old Man. Something. And that meant going into the forbidden zone of his friends acknowledging his terrible situation but saying nothing.

Further more, Jounouchi considered, it meant that it wasn’t just him. The touch Kaiba gave him, the momentary expression of understanding, lingered on his shoulder and in his memory. He wasn’t alone. Admitting that Kaiba helped him for the forbidden reason meant that he at least sympathised or, at worst, empathised. Did the prick even do empathy?

“You sure?” Yuugi asked. “Kaiba...Kaiba didn’t give you the black eye, did he? Because I though it was your—,”

Jounouchi waved Yuugi off. “Nah, Nah! Yuug’, now you’re bein’ silly. Ya think I can’t take that beanpole on? Puh-lease! That wouldn’t even be a contest. Prolly break his hand on me punchin’ wrong or somethin’. Right Kaiba?”

But Kaiba was gone, and Jounouchi chuckled at his own cluelessness long enough that everyone started talking about something else. Good.

—

Gym came around near the end of the day. Jounouchi was happy to change out of his uniform for the hour, not worrying if anyone was looking at the stains because he’d be damned if he was buttoning his jacket again.

They paired off to continue the course of tennis practice—something Jounouchi had picked up enough not to lob the ball into the net. The rest of it was rather lacklustre. Near misses and chasing balls across three courts only to do it again the very next serve.

Kaiba wasn’t helping. He’d had the misfortune of pairing up with the prick ‘at random’ the couch said. Yeah right. As if they didn’t have enough problems.

“Ya don’t gotta show off ya know,” Jounouchi said after coming back for the 27th time. “I know ya got a stupid personal trainer an’ shit but ya don’t gotta rub it in.”

“Then learn to hit it back, mutt.”

“Stop tryin’ to drill it in my face, asshole!” Jounouchi weakly served, and the ball came back instantly, probably at ninety miles an hour. He avoided it, clenching his racket so hard to thought he’d break it. “Seriously?”

Kaiba rolled his eyes.

Huffing, Jounouchi grabbed the ball and threw it back to Kaiba, intentionally missing to make him run after it. Though Kaiba glided more than ran. He wasn’t exactly the picture of a perfect body. He was all legs—how long were those damn legs without shorts on?—and skinny as a twig. Without the studded shoulder pads or ridiculous coats and leather, Kaiba was just a lanky teenage boy who hadn’t finished growing into his limbs, though he was fortunate to have a pretty face. Maybe. Whatever.

Kaiba’s next serve caught Jounouchi off-guard, scrambling his thoughts and causing him him stumble to hit the ball back. He tripped over his own feet to reach every hit, but at least they were managing something that could be called a tennis match.

It was almost fun. Kaiba was almost nice; his hits were hard, fast, erratic, but Jounouchi was determined to keep up. He lost confidence when Kaiba hit a ball out of bounds.

“Ya don’t gotta play easy, either,” Jounouchi said.

“Don’t get cocky, mutt.”

“What? I mean, c’mon man. Ya whiffed that.”

“Please. Why would I do you any favours?”

Jounouchi shrugged. “Ya know there’s a mode called ‘normal’ in most games. You should try it sometime.”

Kaiba said nothing.

By the end of it, Jounouchi was happy to quickly shower off, even if it meant getting back into the ponzu-blood stained undershirt. He weaved through the locker room and kept his eyes down. The last thing he needed was more thoughts like the ones about Kaiba. He wanted to change and get going.

But his locker was distinctly missing an undershirt.

“Oh come fuckin’ on!” He groaned. “A’right! Which one of you jerks is stealin’ my clothes now?”

No one owned up to it. No matter how hard he pressed, everyone denied it. Who the hell wanted a blood-ponzu stained shirt, even if it was a prank?

One by one, Jounouchi’s classmates filed out and left him standing in the middle of a steamy locker room, half-dressed and wondering if there was someone who needed his shirt worse than he did. He grumbled in acceptance of that far out thought—it made it, along with this tedious day—easier to deal with.

Quickly, he gathered up his things, pausing at the half-used make-up jar. Right. That. He needed to give to back to Kaiba.

When Jounouchi to leave, he panicked and stumbled back into the lockers holding his chest.

“Shit, Kaiba! What the hell man, warn a guy?”

Kaiba raised a brow. “You’re really going to go to class without you’re shirt?”

“Ain’t like I got a choice. It’s sorta gone, if ya didn’t notice.” Wordlessly, Kaiba displayed the stained shirt in his left hand. “Why you freakin’ prick. I knew I shoulda hit ya with a ball you—“

“Same night?” Kaiba interrupted.

“Same night what?”

“As the black eye?”

Jounouchi pursed his lips and studied Kaiba. Ever the emotionless cinder-block, but there was a hint of something deep in him. His lips twitched and his eyes thinned waiting for an answer that Jounouchi didn’t owe him. But he felt compelled to speak nonetheless.

“I...I dunno.”

“No?”

“Don’t do laundry all that much. Essentials, ya know? Detergents expensive an’...”

“And it’s happened more than once?”

Jounouchi shrugged. “Once or twice. Ain’t keepin’ count.”

Kaiba’s lips parted and closed; for a second, Jounouchi saw something surreal. An anaemic smile, barren of any kind of pity or sympathy. It was more than knowing, too. It was like a wordless mental connection, brain-to-brain. With moneybags, of all people.

Kaiba shrugged off his jacket and quickly unbuttoned his undershirt, shrugging it off and extending it to Jounouchi.

“What’s this...?”

“A clean shirt.”

“No shit. I mean what are you doing?”

No response. And Jounouchi didn’t really know if he wanted an answer. It wasn’t everyday that Kaiba went around being magnanimous, though it seemed have to increased in frequency.

After several moments of staring, Jounouchi took the shirt and shrugged it on. It was too long for him, and the shoulders were too wide, but it was a good fit.

“So...what are you gonna wear?”

“I have another.”

“‘Course ya do,” Jounouchi said, but that didn’t change the fact that Kaiba gave him the literal shirt off his back. “What are ya gonna do with mine?”

“Wash it properly. Actually get the stains out.”

“Gonna bring my fresh-laundered clothes to class, then?”

Kaiba dressed and tucked the shirt in his satchel. “I was thinking you should stop by the estate on Sunday to pick it up.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes.”

“Do ya want this back, then?” Jounouchi asked, proffering the make-up jar. Kaiba didn’t reply and left out the door.

It registered too late that he’d been invited to the fancy Kaiba estate, even if it was to pick up clothes. Something about that made butterflies flutter in his chest.

Maybe Kaiba wasn’t a prick, but he was still weird.

That was okay.

#ygo #yugioh #seto kaiba #fanfic #joey wheeler #jounouchi katsuya #hurt/comfort #whump #puppyshipping #violetshipping #badthingshappenbingo #tw: implied abuse

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psychic-echo · 6 years

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Yugioh Theory: Mai’s Dark-Side

Okay, so hear me out. Might sound stupid, but I have a theory that Yami Marik wasn't completely destroyed by Marik upon his surrender to the Pharaoh at the end of Battle City. In fact, it might be possible for Yami Marik to be partially responsible for Mai's turn towards the Dark-side during the Doma Arc; in more than a PTSD Nightmare fuel sense.

(Longer version after the break)

So, as stated above, the theory revolves around Mai's personality change in comparison to where she was when she drove off into the sunset at the end of Battle City, and when she comes roaring in as a bad-ass biker babe only 7 episodes later at the start of the Doma Arc.

Mai's motivations as to why she is now a rival of Yugi & co., and has given into the power of the Orichalcos and turned to the dark side, seems a little baffling. Mai is said to want power and become a stronger duelist, but is also suffering from post-traumatic stress and possibly other psychological disorders (Anxiety, etc.) by the mental torture she had to endure in the penalty game imposed on her due to her loss to Yami Marik, in the Battle City Semi-Finals. She thinks she's abandoned by her friends, who no longer care.

To quote her exactly on her motivations: "You've never been an outsider like me, All alone. Duel Monsters is all I have, and after the battle city tournament I set out to become the best. I dueled against chump after chump to improve my dueling skills. I needed to make a name for myself. Even though I won match after match, I didn't feel any stronger as a duelist. In fact, I felt worse, and I certainly wasn't making a name for myself. Not long after that the nightmares began [....] Every night it was the same dream. I was weak, and no one was there to help me! I was at the end of my rope, scared, lonely, pathetic, and my so called friends were no where to be found. "

Well, yeah it's understandable she's fed up with not being considered being in the same league of Duelist or as well recognized as Kaiba, Yugi, and even Joey. It's also understandable she's still traumatized from the events of Battle City, to the point she's convinced herself that she doesn't belong with them, and they don't care about her.

After all; part of the Shadow Game she played in involved her friends being erased from her mind, and her penalty game involved showing her an illusion of her friends being happier and better off without her, completely forgetting about her.

Mai's final scene in Season 3 she exchanges farewells with Joey. She appears to acknowledge the fact that Joey actually does care about her and consider her a friend; and she tells him that the feeling is mutual and she considers them to be friends as well. It's a sweet scene and feels more like a send off to Mai, and the conclusion of her character arc.

That's because in the Manga, Mai's character arc ended with the Conclusion of the Battle City Arc. She is never seen again throughout the rest of the Manga. But of course, that's not the case in the Anime; as she was brought back in season 4 (which was not adapted from an arc in the Manga--as the arc bridging the gap in between the Duelist volumes, and the Millennium World Volumes of the Manga was the 5 volume series Yu-Gi-Oh R, which people tend to forget as being a thing. Though I can see why Yu-Gi-Oh R, was never adapted into Anime; but that's for a future discussion.)

Mai's return as a character, and an antagonist seemed mostly for character motivation for Joey as a secondary protagonist character; giving him more of a mission and reason to be there than just as moral support for Yugi and the Pharaoh. His purpose in this battle against evil, aside from the standard "I promised Yugi I'd help him face whatever evil there was"; becomes more of a rescue mission, repeating a lot of the same steps from the Battle City Finals: showing Mai that she has friends who care about her. Though in the process Mai's motivations for being against them feel more like the writers forgot, or rather, undid, all the development in the past three seasons. But also adding the "inadequacy as a Duelist" subplot--which doesn't get focused on quite as much as the "friendship" thing, or this weird "Love-triangle" subplot between her, Valon, and Joey.

Even when Mai defeats Joey, and the Seal of Orichalcos takes his soul, freeing Mai from it's influence as she sees Joey cares about her enough to risk his own soul. She sees that what she had convinced herself of was wrong:

"I was angry and confused and I blamed all my loneliness on you. So I tried to get rid of you. How could I be so selfish? You're the only one who ever cared about me. You're the closest friend I ever had and how did I repay you? By leaving you for a mad man who promised me power."

That's all fine and good, except now this make time number two that Mai has repeated this arc. Blaming Joey for her loneliness, and her problems, and why her victories seemed to be meaningless and empty. Literally they have the same exchange as the end of Season 3, just done slightly different (with Joey being unconscious). Mai acknowledging Joey's friendship and how much he cares about her and what happens to her, that he was willing to lose everything just to save her.

"Okay, but now....aren't we supposed to be talking about Yami Marik being partially responsible for this relapse and influencing Mai's dark personality, under the power of the Orichalcos? You've yet to actually explain where he fits in to this. All you've done is sort of highlight the baffling writing in Season 4 in regards to Mai."

I'm getting to that. Just needed to establish that we're given the reasons why Mai joined with Dartz's organization. She felt weak and that her friends had abandoned her. She was desperate and miserable. But when Mai left at the end of season 3, she didn't seem like what she was now coming to understand and see would be something she would forget about anytime soon. I'm not sure if it's ever stated how much time passes between Battle City and the events of the Doma Arc, but it's seems like enough for Mai to win a number of tournaments; and have a number of reoccurring nightmares, to be at that point where she's desperate and feeling hopeless right before she encounter Valon, and begin working for Dartz.

So, the main theory; Yami Marik is responsible for Mai's turn to darkness in more than just the memory of their duel and his torturing of her being the source of her PTSD. He may actually be present in Mai's mind and is helping influence all these things. Even if she, and no one else might know.

But we're going to set Mai aside for right now to talk about Yami Marik for a bit, but don't worry these two paths are gonna converge, but I'm sure before I even get to that point. You'll see exactly where Yami Marik fits in to Mai's darkness and backwards progression. If you haven't already and are screaming at me right now to make the point.

We know from what we've seen, Yami Marik was created after Marik's initiation as Tomb Keeper, from Marik's hatred, anger, sadness, among other negative emotions. He's been shown to influence Marik's personality, so it isn't too much of a stretch to say that plenty of Marik's motives and actions as an antagonist were influenced by Yami Marik as a play to gain more power, to eventually become strong enough to possibly over come the suppression which the ritual Odion performed on his face as a sign of solidarity to his little brother, without having to have Odion fall unconscious.

Yami Marik gains power and a greater influence on Marik, through Marik's own actions and emotions and through the pain he inflicts on others; like a vampiric parasite he feeds off of misery, darkness, desperation, hopelessness and evil and negative energies. They sustain him enough to remain present in Marik. He messes with Marik's mind and emotions to keep him miserable and fueling his hatred, just as Marik screwed with the mind and emotions of others through the Millennium Rod's Power.

The idea to use the Millennium Rod's power in this way on others probably came from Yami Marik himself. His influence over Marik has grown in the past few years since the death of Mr. Ishtar. It's become strong enough now that Marik's personality has changed and become this revenge driven, scheming evil master-mind. Of course this greater influence is from the benefit of the power of the Millennium Rod and the shadow-magic within it. He feeds off of the power of the Shadow Realm and the suffering of his victims (including the Rare Hunters he controls, as many of the Rare hunters he's possessed, Like Arcana, Lumis, and the Exodia Rare Hunter, have all been shown to be fearful of him appearing in their mind and taking control of them, when they've failed him.)

(The fact that Yami Marik feeds off of the Shadow-Realm and the Millennium Rod's power can be evidenced through just the change in his appearance among the episodes. He becomes more deranged, and his face becomes all sorts of distorted and those muscles. I mean just....Damn.)

(Yami Marik feeding off the darkness of the Shadow Realm and the torture of his victims; also can be evidenced through a cut scene cut from the 4Kids dub, where after his duel with Joey, in which he narrowly escaped defeat, he is shown momentarily becoming ill, and nearly vomiting, making it almost seem as if the energy he received from the Shadow's in that duel was tainted in some way.)

Okay, so let's talk about the Millennium Rod and it's power at this point. Among the abilities of the Millennium Rod, such as mind-control, and mental mental manipulation, the ability to leave a portion of the owner's mind in the people that he has controlled. This ability was used in a couple instances, such as allowing Marik to appear in Bakura's mind to tell him to enter the Battle City Finals, and to appear to seek Bakura's assistance when Yami Marik took over, and of course using this ability with Tea.

At only one point in the Duels after Yami Marik awakens do we ever see him use the ability to enter into someone's mind. That is right after Mai's loses the Shadow Game against him. He appears to her in her mind, to trap her there inside an hour glass, that once the sand ran out would completely erase everything of her memories. While there he created the illusion to make Mai think her friends were happier without her and that no one was coming to save her.

It's possible that when this happened Yami-Marik left a piece of his mind inside of Mai; in order to appear in her mind, he would have had to do this. Did he intentionally mean to leave this piece of his mind inside of Mai? Maybe. Though the theory still works if it was not intentional; I believe this was intentional.

Why? Because...."I always have a plan."

These are the exact words Marik himself uses shortly after he has his Rare Hunters capture Joey and Tea and they become Marik's mind slaves to lure Yugi into a duel to the death against Joey at the harbor. Marik has been shown many times to have several plans running in action at the same time, (like a good villain). Any time one plan falls through, the next can be put into motion.

Having gained control of Marik's body, no longer being suppressed by Odion, now that he's been struck down; Yami Marik has to try to keep his control. Prior to his awakening (the first time and the recent time); Marik has shown active resistance to his Dark-Sides control, even shortly after losing control, appearing to call out for Ishizu's help, only to be locked up and banished.

Given that Yami-Marik actively goes after Odion multiple times in order to kill him,in order to eliminate the threat of Marik regaining control were Odion to regain conciousness like the last time he was in control; he would have to have plans in play in the probable chance he may be defeated. Even if those plans have to be improvised to a degree; using the only available people around. (It's the finals, there aren't that many people around, you're on an aircraft/island/etc.) He needed a back-up plan incase this all went south, and he was banished. So what are your options at the time? They're pretty damn limited.

You're not going to go after the non-duelists on board. I mean, they probably don't have cards, or any real means of accomplishing the mission to defeat the Pharaoh, or anything else really. They're worthless to you.

Like fuck you're going to try possessing Odion, he's the reason you were supressed in the first place, You'd rather prefer his dead ass chopped up into peices and tossed out into the ocean for the sharks. Because like hell you're taking that risk of bringing him back to conciousness and getting yourself destroyed. I mean, Fuck. That. Shit.

Well, there's Joey---but..he's shown resistance to the Millennium Rod's Mind control before and even managed to break himself free. You can't break his will that easy, and his mind may actively fight you. So, that's a no go.

Kaiba? Kaiba has connections to the ancient past, so the Millennium Rod's power isn't going to work, and besides--there's a chance the Millennium Rod might recognize this connection between Kaiba and it's former wielder and Yami Marik could lose control of the Millennium Rod. You want to keep that. Besides, the only thing you want from Kaiba is his Obelisk the Tormentor. (Wait---that came out wrong.)

As well, You're not going to hide out in this eighth duelist because, they haven't shown their face yet. Who cares who they are. Maybe when and If you have to face them, you can use them. Of course by the time you do find out who they are (surprise of surprises: it's your sister.) you'll have to eliminate them as an option, not only does she have a Millennium item (which she gives up) She also has a connection to the ancient past through the family lineage, so she's probably protected from most of the powers of the Millennium Rod. I predict the future says no on this one.

Bakura's an option--but there's already another dark spirit working there within the Millennium Ring, who's probably already pissed off at you after your weaker half almost got his host obliterated by Silfer in Match 1 of the finals---You need someone who's not going to pose a threat to you. Someone who can't use a millennium item to banish you before you even have a chance. Forget it. Leave the Cream-puff alone; he's got his own problems. Besides, like with Tea, your weaker half might be hiding out there. You'll have to eliminate him and any other pieces of him that might be lurking around anyhow.

So, who's left? Ah, well, isn't it your luck the Blue-Eyes Bingo Machine just puked out your number and that of your first opponent, and what a joy; she's already brimming with feelings of loneliness, isolation, and anger, masked behind the tough-girl lone-wolf Duelist façade. Perfect. You can use this to your advantage for the perfect shadow game and even set her up as your backup plan.

She's got all the negative emotions you can feed off of, to sustain yourself upon should it eventually come down to it. Sure, you're back to square one if your weak half some how gets back in control, and if Odion does regain consciousness, giving your weak half the confidence enough to destroy you and banish you forever from his body. But, hey; if you do enough damage, you can mentally scar her enough to get some sort of advantage should you have to actually rely on your backup plan.

To make things even better; when she loses this game, you can completely destroy her mind. Torture her, and put a timer on her penalty game. Anyone who wants to save her better do it in enough time. Even if this whole "destroy the Pharaoh" plan doesn't work out the way it should; if they don't take you down in enough time; there won't be any Mai left to bring back, and no Mai left to be able to resist your power. You basically get a back-up body to inhabit, without nearly as much of the work you had to put in to Marik. (And even better, Odion won't be able to stop you, that whole ritual thing that been suppressing you probably only works with Marik...and you won't be him. so yay.)

Anyhow, It seems like a perfect set up for a back up plan. However as I mentioned before, the theory still works on the idea it was all accidental and Yami Marik didn't know he was leaving a piece of his mind behind in order to enter into Mai's mind. He only finds out about this after appearing in Mai's mind sometime after the end of Battle City and her departure from the group.

Either way, sometime after Yami Marik is defeated; he appears inside of Mai's mind. Mai's acknowledgement of her friendship with the others has occurred and now she's off on her own with that confidence in her heart. For now. Yami-Marik is back at square one with his power, back like when Marik was still a kid. Well, that is enough. You can still mess with her mind. Bring up those old scars, and traumas. Put the power of suggestion in her head.

All it takes is that first tournament win. Yami Marik takes the joy from it, just by the power of suggestion. Make her believe it's an empty win, and it makes her no stronger than before. She might have won, but what's the point? No friends to share the victory with? It makes her miserable, thinking something is wrong with her. Her misery makes him stronger. Repeatedly again and again, sucking the joy from the only thing Mai has in her life at the moment. It drives her mad, and she can't understand what the reason for it is.

He suggests to her it's because she'll never be a respected Duelist. Yugi, Kaiba, Joey, those are the real stars; those are the real duelists, and she's fooling herself if she thinks anyone will consider her in their league. Of course the words she's been hearing from her competition, and others only reinforces this idea.

Then the nightmares start. Now he can confront her, he can bring back those memories of her loss in Battle City. He can torture her more. Really drive home the fact she's alone, she's weak, and make her believe no one cares and she'd have been better of in the shadows, forgotten about. It makes her desperate. She slips into depressive state, and really starts to believe that her friends don't care. Now she's absolutely miserable, and Yami-Marik can sustain himself for quite some time. She feels hopeless, and it's difficult to find the positive when there seems to be nothing left to make her happy, or have a sense of worth and purpose in the world. She can't talk to anyone about it, because her "Mind" has convinced her they don't care, because they haven't tried to contact her, and she would be bothering them if she tried to contact them. She's convinced they only tolerate her, but don't actually think she's a friend. Despite all evidences to the contrary.

He's basically undid every piece of character development Mai's ever had. Then something Yami Marik didn't count on happens. Valon crosses paths with Mai. He's defeats her in a duel, the first person to do that since Yami Marik himself. Valon could be trouble with his promises of giving her friendship and a sense of belonging. However, there is something else Valon promises to show Mai if she goes with him; true power. Valon says Dartz, the man he's working for has power, and that Power can belong to Mai.

Power? Now that has Yami Marik's interest. He's greedy. Sustaining himself off of Mai's misery is fine, but what he really needs is a boost of power. Something which might allow him to take a greater influence on Mai, maybe actually take control of her. Mai's desperate anyways, and convinced she's weak. Here Valon is offering friendship and power to over-come the nightmares and become a stronger person. The idea sounds appealing to her, so she goes.

The minute she is given the power of the Orichalcos through Dartz, Yami Marik takes greater control, now boosted by the dark power of the Orichalcos. It's not the power of the Millennium items but it's a dark power that will do for now, until he can get his hands on a Millennium item. It turns into an even better luck this power comes with a mission. Destroy Pegasus and Destroy the Pharaoh. (The Pharaoh is who Yami Marik is really after; destroying Pegasus is an added bonus.) Even better, if it's the Pharaoh we're after then Wheeler isn't going to be too far behind.

Joey must be eliminated. Yami Marik has already started to convince Mai a lot of her problems stem from Joey in some form or another. He's a cause for her loneliness. If Mai is ever going to be respected as a Duelist, and ever going to be happy ever again; she needs to get rid of him.

Though, the truth is a little more off than this. Joey is a threat. He's already shown amazing friendship, courage, and dedication to his friends and to Mai, risking his own life. Mai knows this and has come to accept this, and there is a piece of her still deep under all the shadows in her heart which remembers this. Basically, Joey had become to Mai what Odion was to Marik. A source of encouragement and a pillar of strength. A threat to the control Yami Marik has over his host. He must be eliminated.

I say Yami Marik has partial control over Mai, in the fact that frequently during her duel with Joey whenever she is explaining why she took a turn towards evil, she refers to herself in a third person;

"[....] the Mai you knew is gone, I traded in her soul for power. The old Mai was too lonely and pathetic, the girl was just holding me back. So I did what I had to. I sent her packing. Now my weak side is gone for good."

Oddly enough Mai, who is supposed to be the same person and hasn't spawned a "Dark" personality in spite of the Orichalcos, rather just changed personality to become tougher, refers to herself as her "weak-side", now---who else has called their other half their "weaker self?" Oh, right, Yami Marik.

On a side note: A lot Yami-Marik's dialouge in Mai's nightmares mirror words which Yami Marik said when Marik (in Tea's Body) confronted him ontop of the Duel-Tower before the finals of the tournament took place. In the dream Yami Marik says to Mai:

"I told you you're weak, you don't belong in this world. So I'm banishing you into the shadows where you'll spend all eternity."

To Marik he said:

"I'm afraid you're too weak now. Marik, I'm the real you, and you're nothing but a small peice of my memory [...] Sorry Marik, but it's time for me to banish what's left of you into the Shadows where you belong."

He speaks to Mai in her Nightmare as if she is now the personality he has to contend with for control.

Anyhow. So now Mai is being controlled by Yami Marik through the power of the Orichalcos. He's only able to take control through the Orichalcos, but still has influences on her personality outside of it. So Mai sets out to accomplish the mission Yami Marik had initially started out to do before his defeat.

"but----wait. We see Yami Marik appear in that valley of the dead area with all the ghosts and shit. Like implying he's dead so what do you make of that?" Well, Weevil is there too and he's not dead, he just doesn't have his soul anymore. Besides; like 99% of Yami Marik was destroyed, so yeah he's technically dead, even if a peice of his soul/mind is hiding out inside of Mai. I mean, they think he's dead too. So, yeah. (Also, the Paradox brothers are there….and we know they’re not dead.)

Whenever Mai is on her way to stop Valon and Joey from Dueling later in the episode. She does have a breif moment where she has a flare-up in the orichalcos controlling her, but it appears only after there is a breif image of Yami Marik appearing in her mind, as she declares she isn't going to go back to that place.

However, Mai's good personality starts to fight back as she watches Valon and Joey fight, realizing both of them care for her as a friend. Something in her heart sparks at the memory of seeing Joey nearly bite the dust in the duel, and she starts to fight back against Yami Marik. She starts to fight for control, because now she sees what she was led to believe was wrong.

The moment Mai is unable to attack Joey in her duel against him, in order to win; Mai remembers everything between her and Joey. How he and his friends made her feel welcome and understand friendship for the first time on Duelist Kingdom. But most importantly, she remembers the unspoken words between them as she left at the end of Battle City, and Joey's message finally gets through to her. "I'll always be your friend." With just that, Mai is able to over come Yami-Marik's influence, and the dark power of the Orichalcos which has also been messing with her mind. With Yami-Marik having been feeding off the power of the Orichalcos, when the stone shatters, the last of his mind is gone. He is dead. She is free of her darkness. (Maybe? At the very least she cut off his power boost.)

Now Mai has realized the damage "she" has done; the fact Joey has lost his soul because of her, and she let herself be controlled by giving in to Dartz power. She has to make things right. She has to make it up to joey and Valon for all the shit they've had to go through because of her. It's time to try to face Dartz. .....and promptly get your soul stolen by Raphael. (Dissappointing, and it all happens off screen too. It would have been cool to see Mai getting to use Hermos in a duel against Raphael. but oh well.)

The whole season ends and now Mai finds herself free of her darkness, and the influence of her past. Maybe some day, she can truely forgive herself for the horrible things she allowed to happen to her friends, but until that time comes she knows she has the support of her friends and they'll never forget about her and she'll never forget about them.

I know it's not a perfect theory, but It's a fun theory to play with none the less, and might make for an interesting fanfiction. Seriously, Go back and watch the Orichalcos arc and any of Mai's appearances in the season with the idea of Yami-Marik being present/controlling her (A couple of Joey's lines and Mai's reactions become interesting, and the duel between Joey and Mai becomes a bit of an interesting paralell with Joey and Yami-Marik's duel. Joey being drained of energy and getting weaker as the duel wears on, and the duel being won due to the fact of Joey collapsing from exhaustion. Even Joey's reasons for dueling are the same. To save Mai.) --

Anyhow, I hope that you guys found this theory as interesting of an idea as I have and might want to do something with it. (I know I will probably be doing a few things with it...and have already started on a couple of projects involving the idea.) I thought it'd be interesting to share, even if I let myself get a little carried away with the idea and explaining it.

Want to go back and watch Yugioh Duel Monsters from Episode one? Buy the DVDs. Don't have that much money? The entire series is available to watch for free on Yugioh.com. (It's the 4Kids English Dub, for the original Duel Monsters so if you aren't a fan of it, I don't recommend you heading over there and watching it, but let the rest of us enjoy it okay?).

-- Until next time!

#Yugioh #Theories #Mai Valentine #Mai Kujaku #Marik Ishtar #Yami Marik #Malik Ishtar #Yami Malik #seal of orichalcos #doma arc #Season4 #LONG post

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