#more like a watch judai and yugi duel for the hell of it while i fangirl in tears

[overobsessedfanboy23]

My Favourite Duel in Each Yugioh Series

I have done specific posts on some duels in the Yugioh franchise so a few of my picks might be obvious. Still, I figured I’d make this anyway. I won’t include Go Rush since it’s not complete and because my favourite duel so far is a rather spoilery one. DM - Sevens only!

Favourite DM Duel - Yugi vs Atem

Probably a generic pick but this really does stick out to me as a pretty solid duel, even as someone who’s not really a fan of DM’s super long, often lawless duels. I think it showcases the development and bond Yugi and Atem have over the course of the series really well. It was the perfect note to end the show on and seeing Yugi face off against all three Egyptian God cards was a blast.

Favourite GX Duel - Judai vs Yugi

Okay I promise these won’t all be the final duels. GX honestly had a ton of great picks for me. Ryo vs Yubel, Judai vs Darkness, Judai vs Yubel, and Judai vs Ryo 2 all rank pretty highly for me but Judai vs Yugi is the one I have the most fun with. It does exactly what it sets out to do: Judai regains his love of duelling and duels on par with a duelling legend: his idol, the protagonist of the first series. It’s blatant fanservice but it fits the narrative and Judai’s character arc well so I never minded it. I think the constant back and forth of this duel is just really fun and it makes me smile every time I watch it.

Favourite 5Ds Duel - Jack vs Carly

Another close call honestly but as much as I adore the Team Taiyo duel and a lot of Akiza’s duels, I gotta give the edge to the one duel that truly hooked me on my first viewing on 5Ds. Jack vs Carly goes so damn hard. It’s heartbreaking in all the right ways and perfectly shows Jack and Carly’s growth over the arc. And… man, I always get teary eyed at the way the duel ends. I never expected Jack to try and die with Carly. It was such a shocking yet impactful moment that every time I see the card Shockwave now, I can’t help but immediately associate it with that powerful moment.

Favourite Zexal Duel - Nasch vs Vector

Maybe a bit of an unconventional choice and while I was tempted to go with Yuma and Kaito’s fun rematch, I went with this one for the fact that it just always stuck out the most to me. I just was not expecting Vector to lose so the sheer unpredictability of this duel for me, plus how entertaining Vector always is coupled with the really well done backstory portions covered in this duel make it stick out as my favourite Zexal duel.

Favourite Arc V Duel - Sora vs Shun

I know, I know, generic opinion but this really was such a huge turning point, and a betrayal I never saw coming. I love how it gets more intense and war-like as it goes on, with Sora’s monsters becoming more and more twisted as he himself shows off more of his true twisted colours. It’s some great stuff.

Favourite VRAINS Duel - Ai vs Playmaker

Even without the power of its ending, this duel really does a great job at showing the extent of both Playmaker and Ai’s power, with a lot of back and forths and both of their greatest monsters duking it out. And the way the duel slowly unravels the layers to Ai’s motivation and brings everything to light in time for that painful as all hell ending is magnificent. This is the best instance of the final “protagonist versus their spirit guide who’s been by their side the entire series” duel for me. It was the most heartbreaking and the most interesting.

Favourite Sevens Duel - Yuga vs Roa 1

Sevens has a lot of fun duels. I could’ve gone with just about any duel from the tournament finals but I’ve decided on the early Yuga vs Roa because of how much the content of that duel sticks out to me. This duel managed to concoct a scenario where the protagonist drawing his ace, something any other duel would consider the start of a comeback victory, will lead to him automatically losing the duel through disqualification, as it’s learned halfway through the duel that Yuga’s ace is potentially an illegal card. So Roa spends a portion of the duel forcing Yuga to draw more and more cards to try and force that disqualification as the rest. And honestly those scenes of Roa forcing Yuga to draw cards are some of the most intense Sevens gets. It’s such a neat subversion of the usual Yugioh trope, which is what I believe Sevens, particularly its first half, was best at so I had to give this duel a shout out.

#yugioh #ygo #yugioh duel monsters #ygo dm #duel monsters #yugioh gx #ygo gx #gx #yugioh 5ds #ygo 5ds #5ds #yugioh zexal #ygo zexal #zexal #yugioh arc v #ygo arc v #arc v #yugioh vrains #ygo vrains #vrains #yugioh sevens #ygo sevens #sevens

[booksanditsseriesormovies]

Ep. 180 done aka I AM CRYING BECAUSE OF A DAMN KIDS' SHOW

Finally. It's done. 180 episodes of a 12 y/o series yes.

Once again, Darkness was a sort of underwhelming character with cards that were way to fucking broken. His goal of losing everyone's identity ti merge with it sounds a bit similar to the Light of Destruction (while Kagemaru's and Yubel's goals were clearly different). I still think we needed more buildup.

What was interesting is that he is the only one who manages to snatch away Yubel from Judai (which must have been a bit scary considering they are literally one soul).

Yubel's powers are what protected Judai from Darkness' mind control and what allowed him to materialize Neos in times of need. We suddenly see this guy who gains control of them and even makes them attack Judai (tho 0 ATK points so joke's on Darkness)

(Can I say I love Yubel's snarkiness towards Judai? Seems like purging the Light out of them made them a much more likeable character, we don't see their obssession anymore and looks more like the protector they are meant to be).

Just last post I had said i loved the continuity of Johan not disappearing into Darkness because Fujiwara said he and Judai could not join it. Well they spat it right back at me 1 episode later with Johan effectively joining the darkness (thx pals). But well it was nice to see everyone pulling through the darkness.

The graduation ceremony and party had me almost in tears. It does give off the sense of letting go of childhood and growing up. Asuka even said it, Judai took a bit of their childhood with them, even as Johan said Judai changed the most (and you weren't there to see him duel a damn monkey, my child).

But it was a bit painful that Judai wasn't there, so he didn't say goodbye to any of them (like the whole cast was there to see you mate wayd).

And when you think about how Judai started off wanting to become the King of Games, to completely changing his goal to become a bridge between spirits and humans (cough like my rainbow child cough). It just puts into perspectice how much Judai has grown, switching from purely personal ambitions to dedicating his life to help others.

Also, did i know the final episodes were his duel vs Yugi? Yes. Did that stop me from fangirling like my life depended on it? ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT.

This duel was just pure golden fanservice and idgaf it wrapped it up perfectly. Both super skilled duelists, taking each others' ace cards out. AND THEN FUCKING ATEM SHOWS UP AND SUMMONS SLIFER LIKE HOLY SHIT ON A STICK.

I want to point out I would have loved to see who won but I think YuGiOh is not about to put one protagonist over the other. Each are meant to be viewed as the best within their universe and that's it.

(That being said Slither did have more ATK points than Neos and Judai promised to grow more and face him again so sounds like Yugi won. Then again Judai said Gotcha which he never said when he lost but maybe is just his newfound love for dueling talking).

All in all I enjoyed these series a lot. It dealt with human growth in a more down to earth way than DM did. It also dealt with human problems much more darker than DM ever did and that came as a shocker to me but made me love it even more. I feel like Judai is a much more relatable protagonist, he doesn't have that air of invincibility that someone like Atem had (except for maybe in Waking the Dragons when Yugi is taken by the Orichalchos).

He started off as a kid who just wanted to have fun and reach his own selfish goal. He grew through trials and sacrifices, he collapsed emotionally and mentally, he had to learn to stand up again, to think about others. And ultimately that made him lose a part of hinself which he ultimately recovers. I fucking loved all his character growth. I know some say the cast of GX is underused (and I agree like seriously in 1 season I learned to care more about Jim, O'Brien and Johan than Asuka, Sho or Kenzan), you can't possibly expect every character in a 20 min episode anime to have the growth Judai's did. That's why he is the protagonist.

I can now confidently say thay whoever hates on GX or Judai either didn't watch it at all, watched just the dub or didn't get to season 3. I get it it's hard to like a series when you have to endure 100 meh episodes before you get to the good stuff but it's worth it. Or you could read the synopsis of s1 and s2 (or have someone tell you about them) and then watch s3 and s4. Because, as kind of indifferent as I feel towards s1 and s2 (specially s1) you do need the context they provide SPECIALLY of Judai's personality or you would never motice the change and growth and he just becomes a Yusei who is just badass all the way and that's it.

(I will definitely watch season 3 and 4 again...the other two ehm....yeah)

#i watch ygo gx #more like a watch judai and yugi duel for the hell of it while i fangirl in tears #thanks gx

[pridewhatpride]

"rival"

There you are. You. Asking for a GX Rivalshipping drabble with 'Rival' as a keyword. Here you go. I hope you're happy ;; The length is around 2k words.

Special thanks to @deadkura for proofreading, but I note that any and all mistakes are on me. They were just... my poor lab rat. Apologies, my friend.

That aside, there are no warnings that need to be given, this is light-hearted in tone. Nobody dies and nobody gets hurt, aside from Shou who happens to be there at some point and just succumbs to the need to get on with some semblance of a plot.

... It's on Ao3 because why not. Here.

The story is below the cut! Enjoy (or don't)!

____ ____ ____

Manjoume could vaguely remember the first time he’d watched the Battle City recordings. He couldn’t remember when it had been exactly, but he did know he’d been at a classmate’s house with a bunch of other kids. He had a faint memory of being pressed up against other children, all of them shouting and cheering along as the duel between Seto Kaiba and Yugi Mutou came to a roaring end.

… It had been noisy. And he’d found himself mildly annoyed. Not that the duel didn’t have him on the edge of his seat- quite the opposite. He was completely mesmerised by the unforgiving tornado of grace that was Seto Kaiba, most of all. Perhaps that was why he’d found the others to be so bothersome in that specific instance. It seemed very rude to him that they would take him out of the experience with their screams. Was that fun? Was it supposed to be fun? Was he simply out of the loop? Should he have been screaming, too?

The thing he could recollect with a surprising amount of clarity was some kid who’d grabbed his arm to get him off the couch. To this day, he still had no clue what his name was.

“Jun! Come on, I want to play Yugi! You can be Kaiba!”

He remembered muttering something about the suggestion being extremely stupid. The kid wasn’t Yugi Mutou and neither of them possessed any Duel Monsters cards. What was the point of just replicating what they had just watched on screen? They could just… rewatch the scene. But the kid had seemed to be very set on the idea and when Manjoume looked around to see expectant looks on the others’ faces, he ended up giving in. He remembered thinking something along the lines of: ‘Why me?’ And even in retrospect, it made very little sense. He’d never played with this specific kid before. He was a friend of a friend- or a friend of someone he thought was a friend at the time.

“Why do I have to do this?” He had ended up asking, not hiding any sign of his annoyance. “Because you’re like Kaiba!” “I am?” “Yeah! You always say mean things like him! And Taro says you’re like… super rich.”

The rest was a bit of a blur, but he remembered being the ‘Kaiba’ of the group, for as long as it lasted. Which wasn’t a very long time, admittedly. But it had been the one and only ‘friend group’ he’d found himself being a part of, up until he’d entered the dueling circuits, when people started sucking up to him either because of his early successes or just to see what could be squeezed out of the youngest of the Manjoume brothers.

Reminiscing about things like that was… weird, to say the least. He wondered why he’d been that stuck up, even as a kid. He just couldn’t figure out what exactly had made him believe that acting like he was above everyone else could get him anywhere at all. Of course he was aware of the futility of the act, now that he’d grown up and a few years had passed, but it turned out that knowing something on a rational level does not, in fact, equal being able to put it into practise.

… He knew why he was doing what he was doing, anyways. It had stopped being meanness for the sake of being mean when he knew he could get away with it and had stepped into habit territory. And he hadn’t been allowed to go to Duel Academy so that he could make friends who shared the same hobby. He had imagined that 3 years could go by in the blink of an eye if he got involved as little as possible. All that mattered was winning duels, right? And the last thing he needed in order to do that was to start caring about his opponent’s feelings, really.

The thing he hadn’t really considered was that, maybe, his winning streak wouldn’t last forever. He should have known that the outcome of a duel did not depend entirely on how driven one was. It was still fucking annoying to have to see everyone’s surprised- no, incredulous faces upon seeing him finally defeated. Finally, yes. Clearly people had been waiting for nothing more than to see him brought to his knees. It turned out they had firmly believed he had no actual merits outside of his family connections. They had their long-awaited confirmation. He’d lost a single fucking duel. Obviously he was nothing but a blowhard.

Well, good. Whatever. He couldn’t have cared less.

What did infuriate him, however, were the words that the idiot who’d defeated him had exclaimed, entirely unaware of the fact that he’d just completely crushed everything Manjoume had tried to build for himself.

“That was a fun duel! We have to do this again some time!”

He hadn’t cared to stay behind to listen to anything else the other had to say. The guy clearly hardly had a clue where he was or what he was studying to become. Who had allowed that moron to smile like that while trampling his pride? How the fuck had Manjoume let himself be defeated by someone like that?

May the fucker go to hell. Him and his dumb red uniform. Everyone in the Academy. They could fucking die for all he cared. And Manjoume would have probably laughed at the sight.

He really thought he would have. And yet.

As he was going over his deck, sitting with his back against a tree, doing his best to avoid anyone and everyone, he heard footsteps approaching, accompanied by two voices he felt he knew.

“Aniki, I still can’t believe you beat that guy- he’s an Obelisk Blue- and the top ranking first year at that!” … Is this- “He is? Well, that checks out, he was pretty tough.” That’s- Yuki Judai. No doubt about it. “But you beat him.” … Because that needed to be pointed out, how insightful. “Doesn’t everyone lose at least once?” No. “Not against Osiris Red students!” Exactly. “… Why does that even matter in the first place?” It just fucking does, asshole. “Because! A top student isn’t supposed to lose against just anyone, Aniki! I don’t think he took that well.” … Who the fuck would. “Why, though. He didn’t duel poorly or anything. We were pretty evenly matched, there shouldn’t be shame in that.” “Doesn’t that just make it worse?” “… Does it?”

He’d known they were about to pass him, but didn’t bother getting up or making it look like he hadn’t heard anything. He’d clearly been right about this Yuki guy. A complete idiot who clearly understood nothing of what it meant to be a duelist. He glared at the two as they walked by.

… Ah, so the other was Marufuji. A failure younger brother, much like him. How ironic. The boy looked absolutely devastated to see him, too. What, wasn’t expecting the woods to have ears, eyes and a blue uniform?

He furrowed his eyebrows as Yuki abandoned his carefree walking posture, disentangling his fingers from behind his nape and letting his arms drop to his sides. And then proceeded to point straight at him, as if he’d just seen a mythological creature prancing about. Tch.

“It’s Manju!”

… Was that supposed to be a joke? Why was his first thought that that would make for an awful pet name?

After a second of silence, he decided there would be no harm in responding as he usually would to his name being tossed around improperly. “It’s Man-jou-me,” he corrected, making it a point to hold a hand up to count the three syllables as he spelled them out. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not actually food.”

Marufuji’s hands shot up to cover his face, at least he had the decency to be embarrassed for his friend. … But Yuki just laughed. “What! My name isn’t so forgettable that you’d just mistake it for dessert, asshole!” And laughed harder. “I-“ he paused to catch his breath. Manjoume looked on, entirely unimpressed. Hopefully. “Look- look, I’m not the best with names, I didn’t-“ a loud exhale. “I didn’t mean to make fun of you, I swear.” “… Sure you didn’t.” He tried to keep his voice as hostile as he could. But he… couldn’t fully bring himself to shut the guy down. He supposed his laughter was just contagious.

“Glad that’s settled!” He turned around to face a barely still present Marufuji. “See, Shou? The guy isn’t so bad!” Ah. Right. It had almost slipped his mind. “Aniki- please, I get it, there is no need-!”

“I’ll be winning the next one, anyways,” he said as he got up. And that, apparently, was enough to get both boys to gape uselessly. For half a second. Because before anything else could be said, Yuki shot him a thumbs up and a wide smile. “I’m counting on it, Manjoume!” He couldn’t stop himself from smirking back.

It didn’t take long for rumours to spread about a supposed rivalry between himself and Yuki Judai. It turned out that most off the students of the Academy had very little to do aside from gossiping about such things, which was honestly just a disappointment. Perhaps that was why Judai ended up growing on him, despite everything. While he wasn’t necessarily serious or studious by any means, he was… passionate. He meant it when he said that he was looking to have fun and, to an extent, it was admirable. Enjoy the game no matter the outcome. Easier said than done. But in a sense it was… pleasant to get along with and play against someone who was so different from him.

On one specific evening, they had ended up staying out, discussing strategies and dispensing sarcastic advice- or at least that was what Manjoume was doing. Judai actually seemed quite intent on asking how he’d built his deck and why he’d chosen certain card combos rather than others. They had had a match a few hours prior and Manjoume had surprised him with some new faces. Manjoume Jun was a lot of things and predictable wasn’t one of them. And if the way Judai’s face lit up whenever he pulled a surprise play was anything to go by… it was clearly a trait he appreciated immensely, which it was something that made him swell up with pride. To the point where, when switching out cards, he would often find himself thinking about what Judai’s reaction would look like upon the big reveal of his new strategy.

“It’s always my pleasure to be your lab rat, Manjoume.” The response came in the form of a light shove. “Oh shut up, I like testing out things and, clearly, so do you.” Judai’s laugh rang out, light and unintrusive. “You’re right about that, at least.”

They spent some minutes silently studying eachother’s decks. Manjoume had been about to comment on the card ratio, before Judai blurted out something that made him forget all about it. “We’re kind of like Yugi and Kaiba.” And then a necessary addition, judging by the urgency in his voice. “If they had been actual friends, that is.” … Huh. One of his eyebrows shot up. “Don’t tell me it’s because you win most of the times and I’m a stuck up asshole who also happens to be rich.” Judai laughed, as he always did. And it was only fair that after being shoved earlier he’d playfully punch Manjoume’s shoulder. “That could be one way to look at it, I guess.”

A small pause followed. And the increase in intensity of the sound of shuffling cards suggested that Judai was… nervous. “What I meant to say is that we’re rivals. Like them.” Majoume scoffed, without any actual bite, his eyes set on a Polymerisation copy. “That isn’t specific to them. Isn’t it just… normal? To have someone you want to defeat, I mean?” “Hah, so you admit I’m the role model you’re striving to overcome!” “I didn’t say anything of the sort, dumbass.” “… Well, for me… playing with you keeps the game fun.”

Manjoume actually looked away from the Elemental Heroes he’s been adamantly staring at. He turned to face Judai, who seemed to have been looking his way for some time.

He would do that a lot. Make a joke, get a snarky reply and immediately say something serious afterwards. What an idiot.

Fun he said, huh? “Not that it isn’t fun in and of itself, but it’s different, I guess. I find that I actually do want to win, when I’m up against you.” Judai’s hand moved to play with his bangs. “I didn’t think I’d ever think twice about a lost duel, but I… kind of do, now.”

“Oh yeah, sorry- Welcome to the magical world of normal people who don’t necessarily win every single time.” “You speak like I’m not the only one who’s beaten you.” “So do you, asshat.” Judai’s expression morphed back into a smile. “It’s refreshing to have a genuine challenge. If you were to quit I would probably lose my interest in playing, too.”

Ah. That part of the Yugi-Kaiba rivalry. He felt like he started to understand.

“Keep dreaming, Judai. I’m not quitting anytime soon. I vowed to never let you off the hook.”

He thought of what he could or should say next. A part of him suggested: ‘You make it fun for me, too.’ That wasn’t in his style, however.

“But I have to agree. I’d get really bored if winning were to become too easy. You’ll die before I allow you to quit, Judai.”

#ygo #yugioh #ygo gx #yugioh gx #gx rivalshipping #manjoume jun #jun manjoume #chazz princeton #yuki judai #judai yuki #jaden yuki #ulri's abysmal fics #@ deadkura if you'd rather i untag you i will

[finding-fallen-stars]

YGO Questionnaire

Tagged by @howaboutalittlehelpneos​ (thank you, Zen)

I don’t actually use this platform to talk very often-- I’m more often than not content to be a silent lurker-- but this is a fun opportunity to talk about the Special Interest, so hell yeah! Fair warning, this isn’t exactly spoiler free.

Favorite series: This isn’t really a difficult pick for me-- out of all of them, GX is the one that resonates with me the most! There’s a lot of aspects I look for when it comes to storytelling, and GX just happens to check a lot of boxes; I’m a sucker for a good coming-of-age story, and with devotion, deconstruction of common shounen archetypes, well-written representation of mental illness, and even the rare but important sentiment that reckless altruism is not, in fact, a good thing? It’s pretty much everything I could want out of a story. 

I know a lot of people say that season 3 is the one that makes GX worth watching, and while s3 is my favorite, I honestly believe that it’s all worth watching; the filler episodes (in season one especially) are genuinely entertaining and really contribute to the show’s theme of growing up and changing, and I love the earlier episodes just as much as the later ones.

Go watch GX-- it’s just so gooooood

I will say, if I had to pick a close second, it would be 5Ds-- GX just has a special place in my heart.

Favorite Protagonist: Most people who know me know the answer to this one-- it’s Yusei. No contest whatsoever.

I have gone on no shortage of long, rambly essays about why I love this boy too damn much-- part of it is just because I personally connect with him in a lot of ways, part of it is just because he’s so compelling and interesting, from the depth of his guilt over something he had no hand in to the fact that his desperation to save people has almost become his sole aspiration. I could talk for a while about how much and why I love him, but I can just leave it at saying that I think he’s a really wonderful character, protagonist, and he gets the serotonin going. (I have a little Yusei charm on my keys that just brings a smile to my face every time I look at it, lmao)

crab boy is the best boy.

Favorite Rival: Hoo boy this was a hard one for me because my taste in fictional characters ranges from holy and good (see: Yusei and Yugi) to literal garbage, so I adore pretty much every rival in every Yugioh series I’ve watched. (minus Jack-- I’m not exactly a Jack fan lmao) But if I did have to pick (and I do), it would have to be Manjoume.

He’s just... such a good character. I think the anime does him dirty in a lot of ways, but his character arc is just so GOOD. He starts the series out with no genuine friends-- just people who follow him around because of his name and influence, but he forms sincere friendships over the course of the series and manages to grow past his fear of loss, and it’s just... wonderful. I was so genuinely proud of him when he could stand up again and resolve just to try again after losing by the final season; it displayed so much growth in one statement and it made me really happy. Is it strange to feel genuine pride for a fictional character? Maybe. Do I care? No.

Honorable mentions go to both Seto Kaiba and Shark, too! It was a tough choice between these three.

Favorite BFF: This is a hard one-- I’d say Johan no contest if I counted him as a best friend, but I don’t because he always read as a love interest to me lmao so I’m just gonna say Joey

I’m really not all that fond of Duel Monsters, to tell you the truth? I find the story flat and while there are some good concepts, nothing ever really seemed to have an impact, but Joey always stood out to me as one of the few characters that actually actively developed and grew as the story unfolded. He was a genuine delight and I appreciate him both as a well-written character and as an interesting narrative foil to Kaiba. I just wish more current media took him seriously and respected him lmao (looking at you, Duel Links)

Favorite GFF: Aki! Easily Aki, even if I find her lack of relevance later in the story absolutely tragic. I don’t really know what I expected when she was introduced, but she proved to be a lot more interesting and well-written than I anticipated-- her backstory is heartbreaking, the spiral she goes down as the people who are supposed to uplift and take care of her reject her and regard her as a monster is very understandable, and she’s just... such an interesting, well-written, and flawed character. I didn’t agree with all of her actions, of course, but I think that was the point in the end, and I wish there could have been more focus on her recovery from everything that happened with Arcadia and her moving forward from Divine’s manipulation and all. There’s a lot of potential there that just didn’t get tapped.

god I love her

Favorite Villain: VECTORRRR

I’m not fond of any of GX’s villains (minus Saiou and Camula), I do like 5Ds’s villains but just not as much as Vector, and as much as I adore Marik, Bakura, and Pegasus... my only justification is just that he’s Vector

(using the squishy Vector, in honor of Zen)

S tier design, genuinely entertaining villain despite how despicable his actions are, charismatic, and actually legitimately competent-- I didn’t trust his little carrot bitch facade the first time around, but he had me several times after that. He’s just... so well-written, so well-performed, and so good altogether. I think he’s the best villain across all of the series.

Favorite Card: 

As much as I love my Aromages... Stardust Dragon and Rainbow Dragon have special places in my heart.

Favorite Episode: I also have to go series-by-series here.

Season 0: Episode 7 - “The Underhanded Digital Pet Rebellion”; this whole episode was just a wild ride in concept and in execution, and I loved it-- genuinely wasn’t expecting that plot twist either!

Duel Monsters: Episodes 96-97 - “Darkness vs. Darkness/One Turn Kill” - Again, I’m not big on DM, but I love these episodes just because of how much of a bitch Bakura is the whole way through. Marik and Bakura bickering like a married couple is also good content.

GX: Episode 152 - “Activate Super-Fusion! Rainbow Neos” - I have rewatched this episode a ridiculous number of times-- I just love seeing Judai’s efforts to save Johan finally pay off, and the moment where he saves him again at the end is just... so so good. Easy favorite.

5Ds: Episodes 86-92 (Crash Town)/106-110 - Okay, I’m cheating here, but I couldn’t deciiiide. I loved seeing Kiryu’s arc wrapped up so neatly and just the aesthetic of Crash Town, and then the entire duel with Placido in the WRGP arc where Shooting Star Dragon gets summoned is SO good. I genuinely couldn’t decide. 

Zexal: Episode 143 - “The Aloof Duelist ‘Nasch’: The Destined Final Duel” - Not going to lie, I bawled like a fool at the end of this episode, and I picked it primarily because it impacted me so much emotionally. Shark’s parting words to Yuma did in fact make me weep and @howaboutalittlehelpneos​ can testify.

Favorite decks to use: I mostly use Aromages, but I try to also use my Magician Girl, Crystal Beast, and Junk Synchro deck too! 

Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, XYZ, Pendulum, or Link?: I’m a Synchro lover myself, but fusions entertain me as well~

Years in fandom: I’ve been here since April lol

Who am I tagging: I don’t really interact with many people and I’m kind of shy as is, so... whoever wants to?

#yugioh #ygo tag meme

[3w-writer-with-wings]

1, 5, 6, 10, 17, 19, 22, 23, and 34 for the yugioh meme?

1)  Favourite Yu-Gi-Oh! series

This is like asking me which out of my six children should survive while the other five die XD. I love all the series since they all have both pros and cons, and they all have interesting characters and stories, but I guess ARC V will always have a special place in my heart since it got me back in Yugioh fandom (I stopped after 5Ds for a while several years ago). VRAINS is currently my favourite series plotwise since it continues to surprise me and keeps me hyped every single week.

5)  Favourite opening/ending

For the opening, it’s a tie between second and fifth ARC V opening. “Burn” has an incredibly upbeat melody that makes me smile every time I listen to it. “Light of Hope” on the other hand tells a story of how there is despair but smiles will be there to make it go away. I’m rather torn between choosing either of them since they are both really nice endings. As for ending - “Close to You”, 4th ending from 5Ds. I first started watching 5Ds in English dub but once I caught up with it, I was too curious what is going to happen next so I started watching Japanese dub from that point on and that was probably the smartest decision ever. I got to see “Close to You” not only as the first Yugioh Japanese ending but the very first anime ending ever. I loved every single moment of it, of all the characters just chilling around the city, then meeting up, watching the sunrise and then riding D-Wheels with their dragons! It is an ending that is beyond perfect and really emphasises the bonds and friendship between all Signers. 

6)  Favourite character

If you had asked me this question before Takeru showed up, I would’ve probably blurted out the names of several characters and say how I love them all, but Takeru is a special case. You see, he is a character that I loved before he even officially appeared XD. I’m following the news, cast lists and summaries, so when Takeru showed up for the first time in an anime magazine (like a month before his official anime appearance), I fell in love with everything about him. Both his human self and avatar had all the right colours and designs that fit his personality well, his backstory was intriguing, I was already looking forward to seeing another Lost Child and out of all possible voices, he got to be voiced by one and only Kaji Yuuki (who is among my Top 3 anime voice actors!). Then he showed up in the new opening and ending and him being friendly and cosy with Yusaku was just plain adorable! I had no idea what his role was going to be but from that point it was clear - Yusaku is getting a new friend! And was his entrance perfect - lightning, fire tornado and then him! 10/10 Burner of Souls! Not only was he righteously hyped up, but he also continues to be amazing and I have a feeling his character will get even more development!    

10)  Favourite Duel Monster

It’s hard to pick a single monster, but I love every single card in Johan’s deck aka. Crystal/Gem Beast archetype. The designs are simple but so well executed and out of all of them, it’s hard to pick just one. I love their story, the legend and just the fact how much they all care about Johan, trying to reach out to him when Yubel possessed him. A big plus is also the fact how much personality they all have and they are always there to help up Johan.

17)  Have you ever cried over YGO and why?

You should’ve rather ask me when I didn’t lol. But yeah in every spinoff there was a moment that I actually cried. In original series there were two moments, when Yugi duelled Atem in the fourth season, letting him defeat him and then fading away in his arms and the Ceremonial duel when Yugi stumbled on his knees and cried, I cried with him cuz I also didn’t want Atem to go. Then in GX, it was basically whenever Judai would show vulnerability, cuz really, I hated his guts and his goofy overpowered persona. But then when he lost Johan, when he was afraid of Yubel, when he succumbed to the power of Supreme King and the entire season 4 when he was battling with depression - to see someone so cheerful becoming a mere shell of himself was so darn sad. 5Ds started darker but nothing could prepare me for two scenes, Yusei nearly dying, being afraid to duel and then watching his friend die in his arms and then losing another friend for real (Bruno! :’( ). Zexal made me cry a weird mixture of happy and sad tears whenever Yuma and Astral did something. When Astral sacrificed himself for Yuma I don’t know when I cried more - when Yuma watched Astral die or Yuma suffering from major depression for the next few episodes. But that scene when he got reunited with Astral was that more powerful because of it and their relationship is truly the purest of them all. ARC V, spinoff all about smiles was probably one of the saddest series, not just because of many sad moments throughout the whole thing aka. Yuto dying in Yuya’s arms for real, Yugo losing Rin, Yuya losing Yuzu, the fate of other Bracelet Girls and Yu-Boys and the overall ending, but also how inconclusive the ending felt. I kinda get the point was to show the realism of war, how not everyone can get a happy ending but it could still be executed better. Then there’s VRAINS…. *sighs* where do I even start with this….

VRAINS truly took the plotline seriously and doesn’t seem like it’s going to back down. It is like the writing staff put together a medley of the saddest moments in Yu-Gi-Oh! and were like, “Let’s make it sadder!”. From the fact that mere six-year-old children were tortured so badly, that Ryoken was so messed up by his father, that all Lost Children are still suffering in one way or another, that SOL practically killed a living being and all the drama that it’s going on between Yusaku and Kusanagi right now. Last week’s episode had me nearly tear up and for tomorrow I will most definitely cry. It’s just so painful to see someone so desperate to save their own family, to attack someone they were all set to protect just a few episodes ago… And VRAINS isn’t even over yet. I thought nothing could top Earth’s death scene, but from the looks of it, tomorrow will be getting a dose of the most painful feels.

19)  Least favourite series

It’s a tie between GX and the first series if I had to choose one. GX has a rather monotone first half when there is some stuff going on, but it’s really episodic and easily forgotten. While there were some interesting episodes, the rest was just one giant filler that tried to deliver too much nostalgia from the first series instead of developing on its own. And speaking of the first series - I know the card game wasn’t as developed at the time so tons of duels made absolutely no sense. Then it was only Yugi, Kaiba and Joey having the development and extremely long duels that were starting to feel off and annoying to watch. But overall - I know that was the very first series and the spinoff, so it was obvious it wouldn’t be perfect. What I truly love about Yu-Gi-Oh! is that it’s a franchise that continues to grow with every single spin-off, even if they’re becoming less relevant they are still getting stronger storywise.

22)  Least favourite character

This little brat is a perfect representation of how to create the most annoying character. Everything about him screams “annoying, useless and awful”. It would be completely fine if he was an episodic villain, but noooo for some reason writing staff was like, “hey let’s make this dude into Yuma’s friend”. I get it, Yuma can make friends easily, but for the love of God, why him?! Yuma has enough friends already, why bring this brat into his group? Tokunosuke has literally no purpose to be here but to cause trouble or be a plot device to bring Yuma trouble. Okay, I was fine with that one time that he got Yuma into trouble and Yuma still forgave him, but why the hell did they have a need to repeat that three more times? I feel the same way about Kotori - she has no basic purpose but to be moral support or act as a damsel in distress.ZEXAL had way too many characters and out of them all, they picked the most useless ones for major roles. 

23)  NOTP

Canon datastormshipping. I think I made it clear why I dislike it in two posts already, but I guess I could sum it up for the third time. In canon verse they are two unstable people who bring out the worst of each other. They rarely interact, their ideologies are vastly different and they are in a way obsessed with each other in a very unhealthy way. If the two of them dated it would most likely result in a very toxic relationship which would only worsen up their already broken mental states. Again, I greatly dislike this ship in canon verse (in anime up to episode 92) and my opinion could change by the end of VRAINS. I still like the fanfics and fanarts that depict “what if” scenarios where their relationship could work (I’m actually writing one at the moment and I have plans to write one where I focus on their relationship in detail), but canon shipping just feels off and dysfunctional.

34)  If you met Kazuki Takahashi, what would you say to him?

First of all, I would thank him for coming up with those amazing characters and plotlines. I still love the original manga and season 0 the most since it had so much creativity with different games, but I can see it keep getting included more with new summoning methods and unique stories. Then I would most likely present him my idea for the 7th series and its protagonist. From the start of the series, there wasn’t much about card game production or who designs them. We got some info on how Pegasus discovered Millenium Items and the tablet with Egyptian Gods and in GX it showed Hayato working as a card game designer. I would love to see a protagonist who loves games just like Yugi and wishes to create more, so he strives to become the best card game designer. He is not that keen on playing the game since he prefers to make the cards more, but when he creates a particular card(kinda like how Takato created Guilmon in Digimon Tamers) he is pulled into an adventure where he must find other cards that contain powerful Duel Monsters spirits and he has to lock them back into their cards. I would also love to have a protagonist that can talk with spirits again since while Judai had adorable interactions with Winged Kuriboh and Neo Spacians, it was still largely brushed aside and not that much explored. So yeah please make the next protagonist into a card game designer, it will be unique and open to so many interesting plotlines and potentials. 

#yugioh series #vrains #homura takeru #Soulburner #ygo #yugioh zexal #yugioh gx #yugioh 5ds #yugioh arc v #datastormshipping

[skittymon]

So after some encouragement from twitter, I’ve decided to write down my feelings about the Yusaku/Revolver rivalry, since their second duel is coming up, and I don’t have the highest exceptions in it, except that were bound to learn more about the Lost Incident, and Ignis.

Also to keep it fair I’ll be analyzing the past rivals only up to their second duel, with the exception of GX. That being said let’s dive in.

I’ll be basing rivals and their rivalries based off three points:

1. Their motivation to win.

2. Their effect on the protagonist, or vise versa.

3. Their threat as a rival.

Off the bat Revolver does hold for point three: he’s the leader of a terrorist group, however as a rival Revolver lost most of his treat, at least to me, after losing to Yusaku. Of course other rivals have as well, but I respect them more as a rival and character than Revolver. Let’s go over previous rivals.

To get the easy ones out of the way: Reiji and Kaito. 

While both of their first duels against their protagonists ended inclusive, it’s very clear Reiji and Kaito would have both won their duel. Which is amazing considering protagonists is ygo are usually unbeatable. So their threat as a rival stands.

Not only that, their motivation which we learn well before their second duel against the protagonists is phenomenal: Reiji’s discover his father started an interdimensional war and wants to stop it, he’s a rival to Yuya to push him further to evolve him and his dueling so Yuya can become a powerful Lancer. Kaito wants to save his little brother who is suffering and gets off on pain now. He antagonizes Yuma and Astral because they hold the number cards that can save Haruto.

Finally, their effect on the protagonists. After Yuma and Astral’s duel the two are afraid, of losing and disappearing and I’m pretty sure after that Yuma goes to the Duel Temple, I may be mistaken. Yuya, learning other people can use Pendulum Summoning, shuts down once again and it takes a duel with Shuzo to pull out of it.

So both Kaito and Reiji are phenomenal rivals, the best if I might say. 

And while both did win their duel against Yuma and Yuya the second time, those duels happen at later points (ep 72 (i think) and ep 51 of Zxl and A5 respectively) which is later than the presumably ep 34-36 range that the second duel of Yusaku and Revolver will take place, so these points were ignored will giving Kaito and Reiji their checks.

Next, Jack, since his first (on screen) duel with Yusei ended inclusive as well. However, according to Jack, Yusei would have won their duel had it continued. 

So instead of effecting Yusei, the inclusive duel effects Jack and causes him to struggle and wonder if he is worthy of being King. So their rivalry passes the second check.

Now motivation, Jack’s motivation prior to their first is to find a better life than the shitty one he had in the satellite. He achieves this goal and vows to never look back. But when Yusei, his past, comes after him he strives to beat to prove that he’s better than Yusei, the satellite, that he’s better than garbage. So point one checks.

Point three for all the rivals from now one is gonna be iffy because they lose against the protagonist, and that to me, makes them not a threat. But for Jack, he didn’t technically lose, and as the final boss for the fortune cup and seeing his resolve to beat Yusei makes it hard to willingly want him to lose.

Next we have the interesting case of Manjoume, who sadly has never beaten Judai. Revolver has a good chance of being on this boat too considering than chances of Yusaku losing the duel with everything at stake is slim to none. But what makes Manjoume such a good rival in my book?

Let’s take a look at point two first: effect on protagonist or vise versa. Honestly, to me, Manjoume doesn’t make a difference on Judai, the only ones to do so are Ryou and Edo, but ho boy does Judai make an impact on him.

After losing his credibility from being defeated by a Osiris Red, Manjoume loses practically everything, favor from his teachers, his ‘friends’ and I’m pretty its at this point he loses respect from his brothers. So what does he do? He builds himself back up.

That episode where Manjoume is outside South Academy, looking for cards and climbing to the top has to be my favorite in season 1. Hell Judai was my favorite protag before Yuya came along and damn did I want him to lose so Manjoume’s efforts could pay off - point one checks out.

A well written ‘loser’ who may have never beaten his rival but damn do I want him to. 2/3 points to him, I understand why people would claim Ryou or Edo are Judai’s true rivals.

Finally we have Kaiba and Shark the two who lost their first duel against their rival, but won the rematch.

Now, only Shark actually won out of skill (granted season ones rules are bullshit), but I’m 80% sure Yuma was over confident in that match, I don’t remember. But lets look at the lead up to those duels since that’s where we are in Vr.

I’m gonna be honest and say I hated Kaiba for the longest time. He’s an asshole and at like six years old destroying someones property is the worst thing someone can do. But once Mokuba was introduced? I felt bad for the guy. HELL, he had to see Mokuba’s unmoving body - HIS ONLY FAMILY THAT LIKES AND HE GIVES A FLYING FUCK ABOUT. 

Sadly I have to leave out the AMAZING second duel of their and what Kaiba does to be fair but I will say that point two checks out with Yugi after that duel.

But what about point three? Kaiba lost to Yugi before. HOWEVER, that won was practically bs as Yugi had managed to summon the one monster that legally causes automatic win, which was now lost. That win had nothing to do with either of their skills, just luck and what cards they happen to have. Without Exodia, Kaiba has a solid chance to defeat Yugi and with the title of World Champion (at least in the dub) Kaiba is very much a real threat. 2/3 points.

Now Shark. Shark is interesting in the fact he doesn’t have a point one at this moment in zxl, thats his entire arc. He doesn’t know what to do with himself so he turns to the thug life. This downward spiral started because he lost to Yuma. And Yuma was able to his journey to becoming a better duelist because of his first duel with Shark. Both influence each other greatly - just in opposite ways. Point two stays.

Now point three is very meh because with Astral’s help, Yuma can win probably easily but at this time in zxl Yuma and Astral relationship is...rocky with Yuma blatantly refusing Astral’s help. But seeing how Shark is even worse off than Yuma his threat as a rival doesn’t stick that well. 

1/3 points however that’s intended in the story and Shark turns this around after their second duel.

Now how does Revolver stack up against the previous rivals? 

I already stated he doesn’t have a threat as a rival and I mean it. ‘He has a powerful new card!’ Yea okay but....look what happens if Yusaku loses:

-Ema stays dead forever

-A bunch of other people will die

-Yusaku would have failed to protect the LINK VRAINS thus breaking his promise to that little boy and god forbid if a protag can’t keep a promise

-No more speed duels which is the series gimmick

-The actual end of the digital age thus no more duel besides table duels and no will watch episode of that

so I hardly doubt Yusaku will lose with all that’s at stake. At most Yusaku wins and Revolver somehow manages to take Ignis from his somehow.

So...no threat. In verse yes, but people watching? lmao hell no.

Point two, effects on the protagonist or vise versa.

....

I got nothing.

Besides getting information from one another (Yusaku learning more about the Lost Incident and Revolver discovering his one of the six kids) from their first duel to know they haven’t effected each other.

Yusaku didn’t stop the KoH, in fact more hooligans apparently joined based on the Another Incidents. No one in the KoH questioned Revolver’s authority despite losing to the guy who causing them the most problems. 

The only thing that might pass is that Yusaku and Ignis’ relationship deepened but consider there’s a good chance Ignis is going to betray him I guess not. Oh and Firewall Dragon showed up, yea (not counting that as influencing since Yusaku could have potentially grab Firewall from any data storm).

So no point two.

Finally point one, what is Revolver’s reason for wanting to beat Yusaku?

Well that’s easy, he wants Ignis!

Why?

Because he’ll destroy the world as we know it!

How?

Uhhhh...

It is really worth putting society back to an era without technology?

Maybe...?

Yes, most likely we’ll learn the answers during the duel but that why I brought ulp the previous rivals. At this point, before any of the other rivals second duel against the protag we have learned:

Kaiba is dueling to save his little brother who’s soul was taken and has seen his lifeless body

Manjoume is dueling to get his respect back after we have seen him fall to the pits and valiantly brought himself back up

Jack is dueling to prove he is King, it’s his destiny, and that he’s more than satellite trash and he won’t go back there.

Shark doesn’t have purpose and Yuma has to throw himself out there to save Shark from ruining his own life.

Kaito is dueling to save his little brother who screams in terror and helps destroy an entire world.

Reiji is dueling to stop his father’s plan and to help bring peace back to the dimensions.

So while Revolver’s motives are noble, there’s not a lot of backbone to them. Does he feel guilty that his father’s project caused this? I know those professor people Faust and Ava did but does he? 

I feel like I don’t know Revolver at all. I know about him, but I don’t know any of his emotions and that just makes him feel like a level boss for Yusaku to defeat, not his rival for the show.

So dude, for me of course, gets a soft 1/3.

So year here you go. I hope after this hyped up duel I’ll learn to like Revolver more cause haha he’s kinda disappointing to me atm.

#skitty rambles #vr damn it #sorry but had to get that off my chest #congrats if you read it all and I hope i made sense #and tell me if I made any grammar errors I'm very bad at everything

[exaproduction]

Ok I made that post yesterday about how I like Yusaku and Ai’s relationship the most already, and someone made a relpy and now I’m just thinking about it and I’m going to share my thoughts.

I think the reason why Yusaku and Ai’s is for me the best partner relationship in Yugioh is because they’re friends, like how myself and a lot of us have friends. We rag on eachother, bitch and moan, but we are still friends. That is how I view their relationship. Yusaku was visually upset when he lost Ai momentarily, and after winning the toughest duel he had so far and almost losing Ai, he destroys him when Ai is happy about getting his body back (That’s it?). Meanwhile Ai has no quarrel ragging on Yusaku even though he’s a hostage (imagine Yusaku, talking to a girl?). 

The Pharaoh and Yugi was more of a relationship of being whole. They werent seperate enough for me to enjoy it, rather they were two parts of a whole and the ending of yugioh was each of them leaving what the other was missing (I still enjoy their relationship (Yugi? This Isnt a Duel!)). Yubel and Jaden(Judai) wasnt a relationship for me due to how little we saw of Yubel in Season 4 (not much interaction). Rip Yusei. Then there’s Zexal, essentially the second attempt at Yugi/Atem. Like I didnt finish watching Zexal (i should so I can talk about it more) but from what I gather its more of the generic friendship (like friends forever till we die bullcrap that anime has) with a lot more romance hints (apparently the show is gay) but while all that is cool (gay stuff is cool), but I’m not a huge fan of this for a partner relationship, although I am missing a bunch of stuff from Zexal since I didnt finish it so there’s more to their relationship that I’m missing.  And who the hell is Yuto (seriously why does he just show up out of nowhere at Season 3).

Yusaku feels more independent from is partner, where Ai isnt doing the work for him (looking at you Yugi and Early Yuma). But he has the support and help from Ai (Seize the Wind PLAYMAKER!). And again they feel like real friends, like friends that’ll talk shit to your face but you’d kick someone’s ass for doing something to them.

End

#yugioh #yugioh vrains #yusaku fujiki #ai #iginis

[pxiao]

5 reasons I love Arc-V

Today as I was bored, I kept reading metas of why some people loved Arc-V or their favorite moments of the show and I decided to analyze why Arc-V is my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! show and honestly one of my favorite shows period(this honestly shocks me today still) Also in this piece I’ll generally talk about the previous series and I don’t mean to insult them(well most of them) but I’ll have to talk about what I found about them lacking and how Arc-V fixed that for me, sorry if anything I say is offensive.

Lessons

I’ll be blunt, most of the franchise’s “lessons” are generic lessons like believe in yourself and your friends will help you do anything stuff, especially when Yoshida is writing, that you can find in any show for kids. While yes it’s important for kids to learn this but when that’s the lesson for nearly everything it gets old fast, especially for a franchise that’s 2 decades old. That’s not to say there aren’t some good lessons in there as well like the past makes who you are and by trying to ignore it, you’re not doing yourself a favor but it’s soooo overwhelmed by the generic lessons. 

In comparison Arc-V gives some really unique and interesting lessons. Like when Yuya was scared of not being special because Reiji was cracking Pendulum monsters, instead of the generic “everyone is special” stuff, Shuzou gave Yuya a great goal, become the pioneer of Pendulum Summoning thus everyone will remember and look up to you. That’s not something you hear regularly if ever. 

The best example of this is how Jack continually called Yuya out on using his father’s dueling and we all expected this would be Yuya breaking free of his father’s influence and “be himself” whatever that means. But Jack gave a rather interesting spin on it, that people are influenced by others and you know what that’s FINE. To be yourself doesn’t mean everything has to be original but that you’re able to understand the influence that others had on you and use to it explain your will. And that craziest thing is, Jack’s right. People are ALWAYS influenced by others, no matter what you say, we always look up to others and use them as examples whether it be our parents, friends, celebrities or fictional characters. A strong example is writers, every writer will tell you that there are no more original stories, every possible story that can be told has been told, but if so why are some stories seems original while others feel bored and generic. Easy the writers of original stories take the story elements of well known stories/genres and put their own spin on it, they make it their own. While generic stories are the result of writers lazily copying what was done before and hoping it works. For example Game of Thrones takes the basic fantasy tropes and then takes out the part where the heroes somehow survive and actually face the consequences of their honorable but stupid actions  

Standing

I’ll admit watching people duel is fun and if I didn’t like that I wouldn’t like this franchise. But at the same time, you have to admit it gets OLD having two or more episodes, DM sometimes took FOUR episodes on 1 lousy duel, of two people yelling at each other, pointing and smirking. 

5D’s riding duels were an attempt to fix this by having the duelists and the monsters in motion and giving the characters something to do beside react. But if I have to be honest, Action Duels are the perfect way to fix this. By having Action Duels, we get to see the characters in motions and show off their agility or showing their monsters helping them. Who didn’t enjoy seeing how agile Sora and Shun was when they dueled in episode 34. It gives a sense of suspense and the previous series generally lacked cause if they were in trouble, we thought, oh they have an face-down, that’ll save them. 

Predictability

Yu-Gi-Oh! is many things but unpredictable it is not. We generally knew the result of every duel and every twist before it ever started. Sure there are some twists like Atem playing the seal, Kaito dying despite winning, Carly dying and the whole Supreme King thing in GX. But this was more of the a treat in a LONG, LONG WHILE. 

And lets face it, whatever you felt about Arc-V it was always unpredictable don’t try to deny it. In plot development, characters and even duel results. A great example is Yuya vs Yuri. We knew they were going to duel because of course they were, they were the counterparts that represented the greatest extremes. But when the episodes finally came out, NOBODY was sure if Yuya or Yuri was going to win, it was a literal toss up. We questioned, argued and were shocked that Yuya did win. The day when we have a duel with the protagonist and the fandom is literally split 50/50 on the result shows the writers were great at surprises.  

Main Characters 

Ok this is going to get me in the dog house but Yuya is a fucking breath of fresh air in modern anime. It’s so nice to have a sympathetic main character that gets continuous character development and has flaws, like HONEST to god flaws that aren’t there to make him look good. That’s not to say there aren’t good protagonists in recent anime like Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul or Yato from Noragami just they’re more and more rare due to the many, many harems or how many shows are more or less power fantasies. And Yuya as a character is even more amazing especially this compared to Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonists, not to say I hate them, except one, but that Yuya just blows them out the water. 

For Atem got the short end of the stick as he did get character development but the anime started at the start of said development so we didn’t get to see how he changed. DM started at the end of the Death-T arc where Atem was starting to get more kind. His mind crush is literally the nicest punishment he’s given, he literally drove people crazy and set a man on fire before. And for Yugi, look the anime also shafted him, he rarely got focus and most of the time that was for exposition. By the time we saw his development, it had occurred off-screen and well that’s one of my pet peeves in terms of writing.

Judai, Ok I admit out of the protagonists before Yuya, he got the most development. But he got it in his third year and that’s it. He spent his first and second year more or less unbothered by the events around him and then said third year broken him into a million of pieces and tried to put him together in time. But at the same time, his development bothered me too, it most or less came down to this phrase, “Children card games aren’t all fun and games, it’s serious”. Yeah that’s ridiculous. 

Yusei, oh this is hard to admit as he’s either my second or third favorite protagonist(it’s tight race with Atem) but he has the least development of the protagonists or more than Atem in the anime. I admit, he rarely changes and that’s sad, especially when Yoshida got his hands on him. But luckily Yusei was interesting enough to work as a character but the issue remains he’s pretty static and a bit too perfect.  

Yuma ....... You know how I said Yusei’s issue is he’s a bit too perfect, yeah Yuma’s the exact opposite. And Yuma fans look away, I’m going on a fucking rant here. Yuma’s issue is that he does have flaws but his series continually pushes it’s head up it’s ass to convince us that said flaw is actually a strength despite showing yes it is flaw. And then there’s how he gets everyone to fall in love with him, the show bending it’s logic so he’s always right and the biggest annoyance is that he remains the fucking same. Just as stupid, just as naive and just as flawed and we’re supposed to support that. HELL NO.

While Yuya is this guy that wants everyone to be happy and well he has flaws that stop him from doing this. He can be selfish, stubborn, lacks self confidence and hesitates. And this just makes him all the better, Yuya has flaws like real people, he suffers like real people, he questions his ideals like more people should but he changes and we get to see it in front of us for three years. No matter what people say Yuya will always be one of the best characters Yu-Gi-Oh! has ever produced.   

Suspension of Disbelief   

Look I’m not going to mince words here to watch this franchise, you need to turn off your brain. This happens for every show where all conflicts can be solved by using consumer goods that are for some reason connected to magic. 

And the BIGGEST reason I love Arc-V is well they do a great job justifying everything. Why are card games dangerous, holograms with mass are awesome to kill people with. Why use holograms with mass, cause it’s awesome and people will pay to see it. Reiji’s being a dick, Yuya tries to punch him. Police lose a duel, they still try to catch the “criminal”. With Arc-V, you get the sense of what happens if you take Yu-Gi-Oh! and put in in the real world and watch the chaos as the rules we know and love are twisted by reality. 

And some of you reading this might wonder if I even like Yu-Gi-Oh! beside Arc-V and I do besides Zexal but I can admit that Yu-Gi-Oh! as a franchise has many problems, how it handles the female characters for example ..... and I can admit Arc-V has issues too, pacing and sadly how they treated female characters in the end too. But again just because you like something doesn’t mean you should believe it’s perfect.   

#arc-v

[booksanditsseriesormovies]

GX Month Day 5

September 4th: “Pass The Salt” 

No story is perfect. So what is something you wish you could have seen in the story of GX?

Oh boy where do I start

While I love GX there are quite a few things a would have done differently.

The case of Daichi Misawa

We are all more than familiar with Misawa and his fall from grace, from one of Judai’s potential top rivals, to a recurring joke even for the other characters (”Oh, Misawa, you’re here”). I get it, GX has a HUGE cast, like seriously huge. And we went from having 5 to 7 important characters in DM to around 15 in GX. Not everyone was going to survive the chopping block. Another victim of this was Hayato, but he was gone so soon (and with dignity) I didn’t really mind it. But Misawa’s case in S2 and S3 is just sad. I wish they could have done something better for him. At least he helped everyone get back from the other dimension and got Tanya in the end.

Johan vs Hell Kaiser Ryo

So, I don’t think I am the only one who thinks the duel between Ryo and Yubel (Possessing Johan) is one of the best if not the best in all of GX. It’s absolutely mind blowing. 

But I think that the duel between Ryo and Johan in the first arc of S3 to bring everyone back from the other dimension is one that goes under a lot of people’s radars. Call me biased because Johan is my favorite GX character, but I was really digging that duel. Like even without Rainbow Dragon, Johan was putting up a serious fight against Ryo with the way he used the Crystal Beasts. So I am forever salty that they could never revisit this duel (vs actual Johan, not Yubel). 

I get it, this duel served more as a preview for what was to come when we saw they would duel again. And Johan was barely in S4 and Ryo could hardly duel anymore given his heart condition. But for Ryo to have said that Johan had been the only one besides Judai to make him feel excited in a duel and who could have Judai’s unlimited potential...I think it would have been very very fun and exciting to watch, specially with Rainbow Dragon.

“Everyone’s dead....JUST KIDDING”

I know it’s a kids’ show, and it would have been extremely tough to follow another season without like 3/4 of the cast. But having everyone come back alive from the Hell Dimension felt like a bit of a cheap move that also makes some of Judai’s character development lose some significance. 

So everything he went through from the moment his friend’s died (becoming the Supreme King out of pure helplessness and desire for revenge, then coming back from that with a terrible, terrible case of PTSD basically leaving him unable to duel, coming to terms with everything he had done and learning to use the strength of the Supreme King without letting it overtake him), it was all for nothing? Then all the people the Supreme King killed are alive and well?

It also takes merit from the other characters’ themselves and the circumstances of their deaths. Kenzan, Manjoume, Asuka and Fubuki being sacrificed, victims treated as collateral damage to create a super powerful card, right in front of a collapsing Judai as their hearts were corrupted too. Jim and O’Brien (the two most emotional deaths in S3 for me), who sacrificed themselves to bring Judai back and bury the Supreme King away. Edo, who sacrificed himself to try and save Echo (who gave her life away for someone who took advantage of her feelings), and Ryo, who even though he said was only looking for the ultimate opponent, tried until the last minute in the duel to separate Yubel and Johan. Hell, Ryo basically died twice (because of his heart failure and losing the duel), yet he survived. 

As I said, I know the show would have been extremely hard to keep going. But it took away from the serious, dark story S3 was becoming. It takes away from Judai, and the ones who died because they all came back brand new. 

Reincarnation

It’s not that I didn’t like it, Reincarnation is a trope that I LOVE. But in GX we literally got it dropped on us out of absolutely nowhere. We literally had no clue Judai could have had a past life and that’s where his story with Yubel came from. 

Like idk, maybe some flashbacks or random shots of the Supreme King’s backstory (which wouldn’t make sense until we find out it’s Judai and would have made it pretty cool) would have made it better, IMO. 

PTSD? Only Judai can relate

Another thing that I found weird was how quickly everyone got over what happened in the Hell Dimension except for Judai. We can see he is depressed and dealing with the aftermath of what S3 did to him. But what about everyone else? Weren’t they supposed to be in like a dimension of pain and suffering even if they were alive? I am glad so many main characters got their time to shine in S4, but, as we wrapped each story, a nod to what happened to them in S3 would have been nice. It’s all part of the process of growing up, too, learning to deal and cope with out most painful moments.

S4: “Overseas champions? I don’t know them”

Yeah, so given the HUGE (LIKE REALLY HUGE) role the Overseas Champions played in S3, barely seeing them in S4 was a bit of a whiplash. I am glad we got O’Brien dueling Mr. T and him playing with his mind with false memories was heartbreaking yet super interesting to watch. But we got literally no Jim and Karen, at all. The guy gave his life and his supernatural eye to try to bring Judai back. I had hoped we would have at least seen some of him in S4. We literally have no idea what the hell happened to Amon, my theory is that he stayed in that other dimension to build his perfect world and become its Monarch. But we literally have no clue about what became of him. And did Echo come back, too? Is she with Amon in the other dimension?

And then we have Johan. Considering Judai went to basically Hell to rescue him, I thought we would see a bit more of him in S4. Like at least bidding each other farewell? You know “Thanks for rescuing my soul from my card and saving me from your eternal guardian who was corrupted by evil and almost ended the Universe as we know it”? No? Okay then. I am so so glad we got him in that Battle Royale against Fujiwara tho, that kind of made up for it :)

Edo’s fate

From the start we know Edo is one of those characters that know they are fucking amazing at what they do and make a point of it. He is at the top of the food chain. The young pro duelist, talented beyond his years (for Pegasus to say he was just below Yugi, Kaiba and Joey?!), rich, refined, confident and a bit arrogant. 

Then how is it that the last we see of him is receiving a direct attack from Ojama Yellow straight to the face? I know Manjoume was meant to win this duel, but it would have been great to see him summon Plasma and that Manjoume had summoned Armored Dragon, or maybe using the Ojamas with the Spell Cards to banish monsters from the field or to summon Ojama King. Like Edo didn’t even want to duel, it was all a scam from his former manager and they still made him go out like that :( I wanted a more epic goodbye duel for our Edo tbh.

Then again, I am biased because Edo is my second favorite character in GX.

Season 4 rushing

5D is very cool and all....BUT WHY DID THEY HAVE TO CUT GX SHORT FOR IT. 

S4 is so obviously rushed and for me it Darkness was a bit of an underwhelming villain after the AMAZING villain that Yubel was for S3. Fujiwara just popped out of nowhere and we got no development of him in comparison to Yubel or even Saio (I won’t say that of Mr. Chairman because he literally popped out of nowhere in S1). 

I just wished we had gotten a proper, full S4. More GX to fawn over.

Wow that was a lot of salt now I sound like I hater but I promise I love GX as much as Manjoume loves Asuka (lol).

#gxmonth2020 #yu gi oh gx #Yu-Gi-Oh! #i sound so salty omfg