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#showing his own growth in his time with yugi
randomidiocyncrazies · 4 months
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#12K12Days: 12/13 Favorite Character
Nakajima Youko is fr fr my favorite character in 12K, and one of my favorite fictional characters in general.
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I first came across the Twelve Kingdoms anime as a pre-teen, and the historical fantasy vibe immediately captured my interest. The synopsis sounded cool, and—most importantly to baby ace me—there was no talk of romance being a defining arc in the show.
there's nothing wrong with romance arcs, but because most of the female-led stuff i was aware of at the time had one—especially Fushigi Yugi, which was around at the same time and had superficial similarities with Twelve Kingdoms—I was elated that Youko's story never centers around romance, but on her growth and integrity in other aspects.
Like. She starts out as being a hypocritical, wishy-washy people-pleaser who doesn’t really stand up for her own values, mostly because of how she was raised in a household with rigid gender roles. Her father demanded meek submission from her as a "proper lady", and her mother was complicit in it. Youko was taught to "be a good girl," where being a good girl meant being subservient to other people's wishes—especially men—and never standing out... something that her natural-born auburn hair complicates. It's something she's born with, but her father and teacher makes her dye it to fit in, and places the fault on Youko for "standing out too much" even though she had no control over it.
After all the Bad Shit that happened to her after arriving in the 12 Kingdoms—being thrown into a confusing world with no information and hunted by deadly demons who are specifically out to get her, the discrimination she gets being in a country that hates people like her, being betrayed and almost dying multiple times—she becomes cold and calculating, distrustful of everyone around her and shuts down her emotion.
but unlike grimdark cutthroat fantasies where trust is derided as foolish by the narrative, Youko's triumph comes from refusing to give up on the goodness in people after meeting a kind person who is also discriminated for being different, and resolves to defend her values with concrete action, taking responsibility for her own actions. Her confrontation with the Blue Monkey is breathtaking, and the way she rejects his nihilistic despair by staying true to herself left a strong impression on pre-teen me. Going along with other people may seem easier, but staying true to yourself and taking responsibility for your life is true fulfillment.
She continues to grow after the first novel. As she takes the throne—a duty and responsibility tied to her life, as well as the lives of the people in her kingdom—she realizes how much she still has to learn, and takes action so that she would not be reduced to a mere figure head and people-pleaser, like she had been. She questions the structure of the world, and makes changes to not only benefit her own kingdom, but to also strengthen international diplomatic relations across the 12 Kingdoms.
In short, Youko is cool as hell and an admirable person to look up to, especially after seeing how much she's changed from her first appearance.
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rainstormcolors · 1 month
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1, 5, 6, 11 for Yuugi, Mai, and/or Pegasus, as it suits you :')
Thank you for the ask, and I apologize for the delay in answering. Thank you for the unique character choices too.
1. What Pokemon would you compare this character to? (may be replaced with “what Digimon” or other such monsters / critters)
I confess I’m primarily familiar with the first generation of Pokemon, and have passing knowledge of the second generation, and then all the other generations I only know of through osmosis. So my choices here will be skewed by this.
Yugi reminds me of an Eevee some – the idea of inner potential and growth and open future in a seemingly cute package – and maybe of a Nidoran and of a Paras some and even a bit of Venonat (those colors and that Kuriboh-like body). Yugi reminds me of dewy-eyed basic-level Pokemon who will grow.
For Mai, a Sensu Oricorio is what comes to mind. I saw fanart of this lavender bird Pokemon several years ago and it was the Pokemon that sprung right to mind for me as suited for Mai. The lore of this Pokemon doesn’t precisely match Mai, but she seems to seek escape and the tropics and this is a tropical bird.
Pegasus reminds me a little bit of Persian. I think a psychic Pokemon may be a solid choice too but visually Persian fits better. I do think Pegasus, while not exactly being comparable to Psyduck, would on a personal level adore Psyduck. The cartoony comedy of this suffering psychic exploding duck.
5. What is a gentle memory they might have?
I think of Yugi’s grandfather taking little Yugi to the zoo. I think of Yugi’s grandfather showing little Yugi new games that have arrived at their family’s game shop, and sometimes they’d play one together.
For Mai, I think of the fanfiction I wrote for you that mentioned Mai’s father giving her a souvenir sand dollar when she was a little girl before he died.
I think for Pegasus, the memories he harbors of his time with Cyndia dimly glow like embers. He’s lost who he was and those times are faded and dim and surrounded by the dark now, but they’re still there. What is he even doing and why? He lost the “why” a while ago.
6. What part of themself might they resent?
Yugi fears being unable to keep people -- even his friends -- interested and he hates how he feels helpless and so weak, at the beginning of the manga. I think he allows Atem to step up for him a lot because of these fears. He’s afraid of being alone but he also feels selfish for wanting people to stay, most sharply in the case of Atem.
Mai resents how she can’t be as strong and independent and confident as she projects herself to be. She holds herself to a standard she can’t reach and it’s part of the core of her insecurities. She wishes she was strong enough to stand all on her own, without anyone to lean on. She’s lived and breathed that way, and it’s like roots trapped inside a small pot that couldn’t expand, and in turn she struggles to find her footing as she finally maybe begins to want to be friends with others.
I think Pegasus doesn’t really care “who he is” anymore. He doesn’t let himself think about it.
11. What’s a superficial thing you enjoy or dislike about this character?
I like the silly little desk clock that Yugi keeps in his bedroom.
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Mai can be very pretty in some of the manga panels. I like her Duelist Kingdom jacket.
Younger me liked in a certain way the “edginess” of Pegasus’ death in the manga. I don’t mean in a gleeful way – rather the bite of it.
Thank you again for the ask and thank you for your patience.
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Yugioh Main Protagonists Ranked
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(No Yuudias because Go Rush isn’t complete at the time of writing this and I’m not even caught up on what is out.)
You get a veteran's pass to this blog if you know who I put at number 1 before I even start this list. Because spoilers it hasn't changed at all. And it probably never will. The rest of this list though? It was tight. The middle three are so interchangeable for me I just had to just go with my gut without overthinking it. This first one however was not difficult:
7 Yusei Fudo
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While the dub did make me like him more, I'm still not that big on Yusei. His dub added sassiness is entertaining and I even relate to his habit of pushing people away and wanting to do everything on his own. But as a protagonist, he's really plain. He wins every time (outside of a flashback) so his duelling isn't interesting to watch and he just doesn't have any substantial character growth. He’s a completely static character which might be okay for a side character but not for the main character.
6 Yugi Moto
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/Atem I guess? Atem gets more screen time and is the one who's duelling 90% of the time, let's be real. That's a problem and all but honestly the switching between and dynamic of Yugi and Atem is enough to put them above Yusei. They lose a lot more than him, making their duelling more interesting and both of them grow over the course of the series. It's fairly basic but still nice, nothing wrong with simple sweet development. Also Yugi himself made a pretty decent protagonist in DSOD, I like how his grief over Atem is explored.
5 Yuma Tsukumo
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…yeah this was a really tight list. I love these top five so much that Yuma just ended up here due to stiff competition. Yuma took what Yugi and Atem did and perfected it with his bond with Astral that's more focused on and more well developed as we see exactly how they met and every step in their journey as they become closer and help each other grow as people. It's sweet as hell. Also yes Yuma could be annoying towards the beginning of the show but most of his "stupidity" was coming out of wanting to help his friends so he came off as more of a “caring dumb” most of the time. Plus first impressions, while important, shouldn't define a character (or a person for that matter) and he becomes a much better character and duellist overtime.
4 Yuga Ohdo
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I think Yuga is the most unique take on a YGO protagonist. He's not the greatest duellist, he actually loses quite a lot and that majorly raises the stakes of the duels (a point that also applies to Yuma, though I feel they stopped letting him lose after part one ended but it’s still good). Because it's made clear he can lose at any point and there are consequences for those losses. Not life threatening consequences but still. Consequences that can hurt him, rush duels, and/or his friends and that made the show so unpredictable and interesting to watch for the very first time. But Yuga's not a pushover either. He's still a strong duellist who gets up after each loss and for gosh sake he invented Rush Duels. I like having a protagonist who's special not because of his duelling or friendships for once, I think that's really neat.
3 Yuya Sakaki
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Fun fact: Yuya was the main thing that pushed me to watch Arc V before 5Ds and man did he not disappoint. He is an endearing silly bean who just wants to make everyone around him smile with his entertainment duelling and it was so very sweet and wholesome- OH GOD WHY IS HE A DEMON?! Yeah, Yuya's an interesting protagonist. He's the main hero but also simultaneously the main villain, or at least one fourth of a villain and man was that interesting as hell. Yuya himself is also the perfect summation of Arc V's main themes if that makes sense, since the show is all about how stopping to be kind/share a smile can go a long way and Yuya’s whole goal is to spread smiles.
2 Yusaku Fujiki
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I’ll admit, these top two are really personal characters for me. (Yusaku was straight up a part of my wake up call to getting a handle on my mental health.) I relate to Yusaku immensely, even though, to my knowledge, I don’t have PTSD. His more serious stern attitude also fits the more dark serious feel of VRAINS and most importantly, he isn’t completely without personality or character development. From almost the very beginning, he has Ai, an upbeat little bean who is completely opposite to him in personality, to play off of and over the course of the show, Yusaku gradually learns to open up to others easily but his flaws of secretiveness and distancing himself from others remain. And that just felt very real to me. I like how he isn’t just all better one day, it’s a process and the bad things that happened to him shaped him when he was young, but that pain doesn’t have to define him and by the end, it doesn’t. He lets go of his desire for revenge and more easily expresses his emotions/attachments and it’s nice goddammit.
1 Judai Yuki
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Yeah, I’ll never change. Take everything I said about Yusaku having a realistic/relatable reaction to a traumatic event, add multiple traumatic events and an adorably sweet personality and you have Judai. I love his upbeat personality at the beginning of the series, he’s arrogant and a bit air-headed but in a way I found really charming. Then the show started hurting him… and hurting him more… and while he mostly retained his cheerfulness and seemingly came back swinging in seasons 1 and 2, there was a gradual shift in his personality which took centre stage in season 3. His determination to save Johan becomes his downfall and after seemingly losing the rest of his friends, it completely destroys him. He endures constant traumatic events and pressure from everyone around him and it changes him and breaks him like it would a real person. Makes me so glad that Judai was able to come back from it. During the highly underwatched and underrated season four, he gets space from all the pressure that was put on him and is able to regain his love of duelling and in a way, his childhood. Not so much childhood innocence, but he’s able to have the heart of a child while still being an adult mentally. I just, oh my gosh I love Judai so much.
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mywaywardcupcake · 6 months
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4, 8, 15, 18, and 32 for the meme?
4. Favorite season/story arc?
Oh, this one is hard time narrow down! I absolutely love season 0, I think it's amazing and unhinged. But if we're talking about the series, it's going to be the battle city season. Manga, I would say it's harder to narrow down. It would be between death t, monster world or Otogi's story arc. I love each of those for different reasons, and its hard to choose between them.
8. Favorite antagonist/villain?
I had a whole thing typed about TKB/Bakura and how great he was until I remembered that technically, Seto Kaiba counts as an antagonist/villain. I have to go with him. His character is so interesting and amazing. From what he was like in the death t arc to the end of the series (or even dsod), it is such an amazing growth and shift. He doesn't become instantly "good." There's so many mixed emotions, him just really working through who he was and forging his own path towards the light. I just really love this character.
15. How did you get into YGO?
The first episode I ever watched was the dubbed episode "Evil Spirit of the Ring" when I was a kid and I was hooked. I stopped keeping up with it until I had a weird dream a few years ago about ygo and went, "huh, I used to love that show." I was curious if anything new was happening with it, found out that DSOD was coming out and got back into it and the Fandom. I absolutely love it and I'm glad I rediscovered it.
18. A random headcanon.
When at carnivals, Yugi always wins the prizes at all the games. He loves giving them to his friends, but if a carnival game has a scapegoat, he 100% goes for that one so he can give it to Jou. At this point, Jou is drowning in scapegoats but just can't tell Yugi to stop because of how excited he gets about it.
32. Favorite voice actor.
Oh! Either Eric Stuart or Wayne Grayson. I think Eric Stuart is hilarious, and I love that he has done extra stuff, but Wayne Grayson gave us Brooklyn Joey Wheeler.
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enderon · 4 years
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Ah yes, nothing quite like a wonderful video analyzing and explaining the greatness of Yubel as a villain to reignite my eternal irritation at the wasted potential of Bakura and how the story ended for him
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steve0discusses · 2 years
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S5 Ep 28: You’ll Never Guess What Happened to Mokuba
Lets start off this episode at the heels of the last, with a weird dutch angle that kind of clips Weevil into this wall on the right but don’t worry about it. Animation, being an abstract drawn medium, lets us do weird ass perspective choices like this that would be absolutely hell to watch in live action and impossible to recreate. So lets embrace it, just like how Yugi immediately accepted that Rex and Weevil hella died in front of him and there’s nothing he can do about it.
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Bakura kind of doing a solid since Weevil and Rex did happen to murder that entire Caltrain--if those people were even real on that Caltrain? S4 left it a little open ended. (Or at least it was the dub that did. The dub desperately trying to bring down that Death Count number and failing to do so.)
Anyway, in case you were like “Ah, no, Bakura has all the millennium items, just like he always wanted!” he just straight up gives them back.
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Incredible character growth on Bakura here.
Although, he did decide to keep the necklace, which we have already clarified does not need to be “given” back to Bakura because it goes where it wants. It can fly, it can dissolve, it can even roll around on those little dongles. That necklace schmoves when it wants to schmove.
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So Bakura decides to finally tell Yugi how this all works because it’s S5 and we still have literally no idea. Like we probably wouldn’t have gotten quite so lost in America/India for an entire season and a half if Yugi and Pharaoh just had any idea how to use these damn cards and items and weren’t randomly throwing them at a wall (which I can’t believe is canon, that you must thrust them at a cursed wall, but do it wrong, and you have freakin Dartz all over again.)
Anyway we find out from Bakura that we were using the wrong wall anyway, we want the one that looks like a golden sarcophagus and has neat little places to put each item like a spooky advent calendar. We saw that wall dude back in S1 with Pegasus, sometimes referenced throughout the series, and honestly I forgot that it exists so thanks Bakura, for the refresher.
(read more under the cut)
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Dunno why in S1, Bakura was so adamant about doing this all himself, or why in S2 he clearly wanted to mess around with God Cards, but maybe being dead in S2 gave him time to think and realize...he doesn’t really need to steal anything. Maybe getting possessed by Marik at the end of S2 made Bakura way more lazy, since this seems way more a Marik move to just let other people do all the hard work.
So Bakura finally decides to tell us secret past stuff. But I’m sure he’s leaving a fair amount of it out because Bakura is very clearly puppet master and everyone is completely falling for it.
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It would tell us why Ryou is like “actually I will help my ghost remove itself from my damn body.” Does mean Ryou has to do some effed up stuff but damn if he can heal himself from the evil ghost that keeps killing everyone, he’ll do it.
Yugi sees this opportunity more as a way to help Pharaoh regain his memories and move on--but like...I live on the internet so I did find out the spoiler that at some point the end of this show will address that moving on is exactly what it sounds like and..............................show, wtf. Like I dunno how they’ll justify it in any way, but we’ve had 4 seasons of demonstrating that every time you remove Pharaoh from Yugi and visa versa, really bad stuff happens because both are not fully developed on their own. They’re both not a complete person, Pharaoh especially so. 
So it’s kind of weird to me that Yugi is down to go through with this when Bakura is being kind of blunt about what will happen if they do. I wouldn’t say Yugi and Pharaoh are all “nice! I’m so happy to be possessed!” but I was here in S4. I remember what happened when Yugi hella died.
and apparently so was Pharaoh who was like “EXCUSEY? We are not getting a brain divorce.”
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And off he goes. Thanks for the lore dump that will force Yugi to do........the same thing Yugi was going to do anyway. To run over to the evil Mr Potatohead and shove all the items inside...just like he was going to do anyway.
But weird talk, Bakura. It was good to see you.
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So off Bakura goes, to do more mischief because it’s been kind of a long time since he’s done anything and he needs to make up for the season and a half he spent taking a nap and binging TV.
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Seto Kaiba is burning the early AM oil, no idea the scope of this crazy power point presentation he must be making--but sure hope those power point transitions are worth just not sleeping.
Also, we get a good look at this desk and it’s accompanied Worst Carpet Color I Have Ever Seen In My Life. Please admire the amount of cords this desk has, and they kind of go off onto the floor instead of into the desk? Love that. And---what is this thing?
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OK I gotta go on a rant about this gadget. Like y’all I was alive when this episode came out and I have no idea what this tech is at all.
He clearly has a phone on the other side of his computer, so it’s not an answering machine. Is it like a music synthesizer? A baby toy where you click the button and it goes “moooo”? Like what the hell is this thing? It almost looks like a cash register or an ATM or something.
Like is it an intercom? It couldn’t be! Intercoms are used with your phone, which is on the other side of his computer. Also it’s REALLY early in the morning so no one else could be here to page (and it’s deffo not a pager).
OMG I just realized something. Is this the internet?
Holy crap what if this is his second phone line? Like we used to have multiple phone lines back in the day so that way one could use the internet, and then the other could be a working phone. Is this is his second line perhaps?
But no! It couldn’t be! There was wifi and broadband by 2003!
WTF is this thing???? It’s too small to be a fax machine. It has an up and down button like a printer but what the hell does it print...?
is it a stamp printer? Is Kaiba personally stamping and selling his duel disks himself? Is it a card printer? Is he testing printing individual cards? (which he couldn’t be doing because Pegasus makes the cards)
WTF is this thing???? If any of you figure this out please tell me, I have been on google image search digging though old tech and I cannot figure this out because it looks like a cassette player, but this is the 00′s when we used CD’s and thumb drives. You could barely even buy cassettes at this point.
Anyway, the power’s out, but Bakura can appear in your screen, which is a neat thing the Millennium items can hella do, but Yugi has never done.
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eyyyyyyy it’s Mokuba! Looking good!
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Also Mokuba’s looking hella twinner with that striped outfit next to Bakura’s. Gotta love a good blue stripe. (that Stockholme syndrome set in so fast it was there before he was even abducted wow)
So Kaiba goes “MY FREAKIN LIFE.” and pulls his cards case out of his desk.
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TBH I feel like Kaiba wanted to get distracted. It’s like would you rather work on a project at 4-5 AM or would you rather duel to the death on top of a skyscraper? You know what Kaiba’s answer would be.
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I don’t usually get a kick out of funky looking tweens because that’s just what you need to animate, and they should be funky, but this one got me good.
Anyway, Mokuba’s hella dead. Bakura just throwing down body counts to make up for Dartz and the past two filler arcs that didn’t have that many dead people, honestly.
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Also, like...is my font too small here? The papyrus font has some presets that I tend to use because it’s easier, but if y’all are on the phone (no idea if tumblr lets you pinch and zoom) you’d tell me, right? I still have these caps around, and I can still change the sizes if need be. Please let me know if I made something that is illegible.
Anyway, Bakura says he’s doing this to make his final plan come together but damn does Bakura have a reason to get back at Seto Kaiba for that time that Seto Kaiba did basically nothing to save Bakura’s arse during that tournament.
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Yo remember Dead Card Wife from S2?
The show decided to NOT forget about Dead Card Wife, and I find that shocking. I figured they’d be doing all they could to unwrite Dead Card Wife from all of our collective memories, but she’s still here! She even got a name! That I have already forgotten!
Freakin Seto Kabia’s going to have a human love interest and I don’t know how to parse that. Good freakin luck with that, writers.
And then Bakura, our Charlie Kelly (I think accidentally labelled Joey as a Charlie Kelly at one point, but it was wrong, it’s always been Bakura) decides to pull out the random card and left the game right before beating Seto and probably would have shoved his soul into the shadow realm.
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Be aware that Kaiba has been working all night, and now probably assumes he’s fully asleep. It’s just like my roomate who took 32 hours of college classes one semester on top of a part time job (yes, that wasn’t allowed, but she begged the dean until they allowed it) and she was so screwed during finals week that she took a hell ton of caffeine pills, stayed awake for 36 hours, and started seeing a ghost man in our kitchen who stole our juice, drank it straight from the bottle, and vanished. (she failed nearly all of her exams, in case you were curious about the end of that story.)
No way that Seto thinks that any of this is real, although the dead Mokuba might make him question it come morning.
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And then just out of freakin no where Bakura lobs this oily nugget across the stage:
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What an amazing morning that Seto Kaiba is having. And you know he’s never going to finish that power point presentation. The power went out and totally lost all his work. Like Seto’s morning of “I’m going to be productive, I’m going to be the best” ended with a gross ass eyeball from his distant past.
Like how do you even log “Bakura lobbed a nasty false eyeball at me after killing my brother” into a bullet journal? You can’t. His day is ruined before it started and it was because he didn’t go the hell to bed the night before.
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Like Kaiba seems pretty satisfied with being in love with a paper card that’s shaped like a dragon. Does he really need it to be in love with a person from 5000 years ago who is hella dead now? As far as un-attainable soul mates go, he should stick with dragons.
Also, considering that Pegasus and Kaiba are back on speaking terms...wouldn’t he just give the eye back?
Like obviously for the course of the show he won’t, but like...wouldn’t Kaiba just be like “I don’t want this.” and give it back the next time he and Pegasus go out to brunch? Seto doesn’t think the eye is haunted.
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Anyway, lets go to Egypt. No idea what happened to Mokuba, Rex, or Weevil, the show decided to go to Egypt instead. (I’m assuming Grandpa buried their bodies in the parking lot, and Roland is in charge of hooking up Mokuba to the nearest computer orb)
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Where we find out that Tea bought everyone’s tickets the day of departure.
Bro did some research and the price of this plane ticket is actually well below 6 grand for 3 tickets, but...still more than your average teenager.
I have mentioned before that these kids seem hella loaded going to this fancy school that had Seto Kaiba in it but damn, Tea too? Like is Joey the only average Joe person here? If there were a next season...pretty sure we’d find out that Tristan is secretly a prince or something. Where does their money come from?
Like for reals Tea doesn’t have a job anymore because she nearly got shot at the burger restaurant...
...or what if this is payout for that time she suffered damages at the burger restaurant? Maybe this is hush money so she won’t sue the burger chain?
Or...she won it in MMA fighting and we all know the correct answer to that one.
Anyway, marvel at Yugi bringing a carry-on of horrific cursed items onto a plane, staring the TSA agent directly in the face as his huge necklace keeps setting off the metal detector. Each of these kids are going to be patted down for being just the most sus people who ever entered an airport, especially after their last flight went down over the Himalayas.
Anyway, that’s all for today, and here’s the link to read these from the beginning if you’re new here:
https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono
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Yu-Gi-Oh: Final Thoughts
I used to watch Yugioh when I was much younger. Honestly, it was one of my first obsessions. I watched it religiously on the WB every chance I got. It was on directly after Pokémon, which was interesting. I always felt like I was just watching Pokémon because it was on, but I was actually there just waiting for Yugioh. Why I never caught on with Pokémon, I couldn’t tell you. But there you go. It just wasn’t for me. Once Pokémon was over, I could feel the excitement. What episode of Yugioh would it be today? Duelist Kingdom? Marik being his creepy self? The Orichalcos arch? It didn’t matter. I was ready to watch it, even if I had already seen it. And if it was a new episode I hadn’t seen, even better. No one could talk to me while I was watching it. I was zeroed in. Nothing else existed.
I had Yugioh cards, and I forced my younger brother to have some too, so we could “duel” to a degree. It was really just playing random cards until one of us played a Blue Eyes, which basically meant the duel was over. Neither of us liked math, so we didn’t keep track of life points. My dad went on a business trip to Japan during this time, and he brought back Japanese Yugioh cards for both of us. They were the coolest thing I owned for a good long while, even if I had no idea how to use them.
Then I got older, and I moved on to different obsessions. My cards got buried under the detritus of a messy life, until they fell into some kind of crack in the universe, and I lost them. I’ve moved quite a few times since then, including to a different state, so I’m guessing they got left behind somewhere, perhaps in the few boxes that always seem to go missing in a move. I hope they were found by someone who knew how to use them.
Now that I’ve reached a certain point in my life, I’ve started feeling very nostalgic. So, one night, as I was surfing through Netflix, I saw the first season of Yugioh appear in my recommendations. Instantly, I was transported back to simpler times, when weekday afternoons were filled with anticipation for a few episodes of a cartoon, and having my now lost deck of cards.
Watching this silly cartoon about the threat of ancient and dark forces being resolved by a trading card game was truly a wonderful experience. I remembered why I loved this show, why I was strangely into reading about ancient Egyptian history when other kids were more interested in gossip, why I constantly rented the Yugioh movie at Hollywood Video.
One character who surprised me this time around was Seto Kaiba. In the past, I was always obsessed with Atem, and I still very much am. But I found myself getting drawn towards this snarky billionaire, where previously I barely paid him any attention at all. This is probably because, as a young and optimistic child, I couldn’t understand him. But as an embittered and negative adult, I could finally SEE him. So I started paying attention, and I was not disappointed. He’s a character that seems to have been gift wrapped for us to come back to as adults, so we can better appreciate his sense of humor and negative worldview as we grow up and understand just how right he was about a lot of things.
Another surprise for me was… Yugi. This is going to be a hot take, so apologies in advance. I didn’t like Yugi when I was younger. I was just always hoping for the pharaoh to come out, because I thought he was badass, and Yugi was just weak. Now, this very much could be the result of my consuming this show out of order when I was younger. I can now say, proudly, that I have revised this error in judgment on a rewatch as an adult. Yugi is a treasure. He’s my precious cinnamon roll. His growth throughout this series was phenomenal, and I truly felt glad to have been able to witness it. His relationship with Atem was beautiful. A bond for the ages. A reciprocal relationship which allowed BOTH OF THEM, regardless of their level of dueling expertise, to learn from one another. It was a lot of fun to watch play out.
This brings me to Atem himself. Wow. My dude is still definitely a badass, but now I can really understand why he’s a badass. This might sound weird, but bear with me. Atem is almost like John Wick. He is a man of focus, commitment, and sheer fucking will. But, while John Wick is a badass for personal reasons, and because he was a major player in a criminal underworld, Atem is a badass for the right reasons. Imagine having a John Wick fighting to save the world, rather than just for righteous vengeance. That’s Atem. He was determined to be victorious, BECAUSE he knew the fate of the world depended on him, and also because saving the world meant protecting Yugi. To have someone like that on the good side meant I could gladly watch him be the best at defeating other people just as determined as him.
Anyways, this is a very long post, but Yugioh deserves it. It was special to me back then, and it’s still precious to me now. Sure, it’s a little weird, but that was fine with me. The story underneath all that marketing was fun to watch, so it was all more than worth it.
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queeriboh · 2 years
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Okay then, what’s your Mokuba deep character analysis? 😗
Also, are you talking DM version or manga version or both lol. I’m assuming DM but idk
omg I definitely didn't expect anyone to actually ask wow!! okay! well personally and like, for my RPverse, I like to blend canon from the manga and anime. like prioritizing manga first and fleshing it out with anime details that dont directly contradict anything. I feel like the s0 manga sets up everyone's characters in such an integral way that without it, the anime versions of the characters all fall a little bit flat and some of their motivations aren't very clear.
but I specifically I was just thinking about Mokuba's character and development in the early manga and how its too important to ignore because it shows just how jaded and corrupted he was by Gouzaburou and Seto's hatred and how much he's willing to grow compared to his brother and step father. like he started out following his brother so closely and blindly that, as an actual child, he poisoned and watched Joey writhing in pain and just laughed, but by the end of the next year, he was going behind Seto's back to try and get help for Joey after he lost to Marik.
( which!! I'm absolutely obsessed with the headcanon of Joey becoming a better brotherly influence in Mokuba's life post canon. to the point I have a very strong headcanon about Mokuba using a Red Eyes centric deck but this post is already long so I won't over explain that rn ))
I think about how he was so ready to be cruel, to be vindictive just to hear his brother praise him once. how he wanted so badly to win their bet and outshine Seto, because that was the only way he could see worth in himself was by making his brother proud.
I 100% believe that Mokuba is the more intelligent Kaiba Brother. he is constantly out performing his brother on all intellectual, strategic, mechanical, and even social aspects for his age, but everyone is so impressed by Seto's new accomplishments that no one notices Mokuba growing and learning at a much faster rate.
I think that if Yami hadn't had his own moment of growth and decided to pull Mokuba out of Seto's holographic penalty game, Mokuba could have become just the most unhinged (and hilarious) villain. but I love that his change in attitude wasn't an immediate 180. like sure he instantly decided to do the right thing and go save Honda, and after Yugi won he told him their origin story and everything. but when they meet again at Duelist Kingdom, Mokuba swears he still hates Yugi, and points a lot of the blame for Pegasus getting the opportunity to even try his evil plan at the fact Yugi put Seto in a coma and, by the way, when IS he going to wake up, Yugi??? I like that he's still got that grudge months later, and that he does finally try and let it go after Yugi saves not only him, but Seto too.
and that kid has ?? so much trauma oh my god. these are all just headcanons but. he's claustrophobic from the capsule monsters penalty game. he thinks about how willing he was to kill someone, and spends nights wondering, what if I'd really done it? he sleeps with a light on after duelist kingdom because waking up in a dark room takes him right back to the dungeon.
okay I rambled a whole lot without really saying anything I think so I'm going to just cjejdjesbwj stop here but s0 makes Mokuba SUCH a fascinating character to me like he's just the perfect blend of unhinged, tragic, and unbelievably hilarious that I spend a lot of time at work thinking about how he's going to grow up. I have like 800 different post canon aus just depending on things like. if he takes over Kaiba Corp and finally focuses on building theme parks for underprivileged children instead of card games and revenge. or does he resent the corporate life eventually and sell the company? or does he destroy it completely?? how much of his own interests, goals, and personality did he sacrifice for his brother and how much of it can he ever get back???
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goloyieng · 3 years
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Yugi Riong'o, the Debate Smith of Muriethi: A Memoir
I was born on July 1st, 1952 in an Agikuyun village of Muriethi. I am of the Yonye clan; a cluster group that make up 25 major clans of Kikuyu people( also called Agikuyu). The Agikuyu people are close to numbering to 7 million living souls; it won’t take a mathematical guru to figure out how we became the largest tribe in Kenya. The Agikuyu must have done something extraordinary to have generated such a large number of people when some tribes number only 800,000 mere souls. My father was a ladies man through and through; he had 16 wives; my mother was the seventh wife. My childhood coincided with the arrival of the British 88 years earlier. They came because we Africans believe in the ubuntu philosophy: meaning, you are a person through other people. The world had to be connected somehow, and they did their ultimate best to bring Africa on par with the rest of the advanced world. There were some instants were they look down on black Africans, but that is because they were trying to know us. Even now, in the 21st century, those Africans who earlier ventured into farming look down on the red ochre, pastoral communities, because they are stereotypically thought to be still more attached to their animals who they largely depend upon for survival necessities. Even within the same racial groups, cultural differences still abound. Contemporary African nation states are no exception either; Zambian leaders have sold their nation to China in the name of having gone stale on the western economic developmental ideals who took pains to leave their motherland in droves to make sure economic infrastructure of the likes of Zambia become the launching pad for the rest of continental Africa; however, the leaders had their own agenda at hand, and soon after, they became mired in debt; the end result was that, Chinese started arriving in Lusaka in the name of saying you owe us and it is time to show you how wrong you were from the very beginning. I went to Yube High School; in those days, both the elementary and secondary schools were not separate institutions, as we know them today; one had to start from the first grade and stayed until the 12th grade. At Yube, I was more interested in getting good grades with the ultimate mission to earning a full scholarship to Makerere College (as Makerere University was known by then). I wanted a sustained reputation of a classy and great scholarly student; the one meant to presevere even when the conditions change during the course of my further studies, I won't fall out with my sponsors; so I studied and read all kinds of subjects, from mathematics to social sciences to natural sciences; not to discredit the mighty field of literature, which is perhaps the first field I fell in love with. Now, people have come to love my novels such as Weep Not, Child; the River Between, A grain of Wheat, Matigari, Wizard of the Crow and the memoir series ranging from the Birth of a Dream Weaver to, In the House of Interpreter; however, my political writings in the fold of Moving the Centre and Decolonizing the Mind, are equally scholarly master pieces on their own right. Just as Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Elechi Amadi's the Concubine are regular required readings for African literature in high schools and colleges around the world; Moving the Centre and Decolonizing the Mind, are also read widely across the globe. In these political writings, I argued that the arrival of Europeans was ubuntu at its core, connecting humanity through trade, technology and being able to compete through cultural customs and that was how Moving the centre came to assert itself; the development of home grown languages so that the past teachings of our people become our launching pad for economic development; it was in essence, allowing our cultures to join hands with the rest of the world. I was one of the first clansmen from the whole tribe to have gone to school because rigorous academic pursuits were considered foreign imperial influences and were less considered prospective lifetime careers. The British didn't require
our families to pay our fees; for one, it wasn't that our families were too poor to pay, but on the other hand, it was considered a trial and error period. By 1965, I was enrolled at Makerere College. Makerere was a meeting plethora of academic minds from all over Africa and some even came from Afghanistan. Makerere College was one of the best institutions of learning in those days; it was one of the top 7 elite colleges on the continent; unlike the washed up Makerere University of Yoweri Museveni of today, that had become copy and paste come and go as like you like slut. Milton Obote knew that our female counterparts were not naturally reliable in the career world; so it was better to equip the boy child with the best education that life could afford, besides, it wasn't his business to change the God way of life, where women are required to be natural incubators of life.
At Makerere, I immersed myself in deep and intense literature studies, but as I always had an insatiable appetite for learning; I took extra courses on mathematics, natural sciences and physical sciences; the so-called STEM of today. Milton Obote may have been weak on the development front, but he made sure 25% of the national budget went to the educational sector. Education was free from the elementary level all the way to the tertiary institutions of higher learning; so by the time, the students attend the universities, it was something unlike any other in the world, students were great at debate, laboratory sciences and had a knack of imagining greater future world for the fatherland. For this, Makerere College had lots of money going into the hands of their star students of which I was a proud member of. Our quarterly vacations were spent on, you know, 'my baby got back moments.' These Ugandan mama booty became something else when they find out you have a weakness for romance. They came in all sizes; from the Northern Uganda lean looka to the lumpy Buganda type; size didn't matter, because they knew how to play their role well. My rigorous academic pursuits with a multidisciplinary approach served me well after I became the professor of African literature at Yanykath University in Yeng; I have been teaching African literature for 34 years and counting at Yanykath, after I had a fall out with both Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi's administrations. I have been invited to lecture about African literature and the political future of the African continent in colleges across the globe; and I have to say, had I not studied all kinds of subjects at Makerere, I would have been a scholarly beggar; DP William Ruto is a prime example; those who depend on thieving the hard won scholarly research of others is the exact opposite of the mind field of the meeting of the debate smiths.
Yanykathing Golo Yieng to Rooy Gapayer
We have been particularly hard on the kid from Gapayer; I mean, the homeless lad we tragically sent to America in the early 2000s; we did this without thinking everything through, because we thought we would be better off with him suffering on the streets of Yauketui, New Mexico, when he should be eating good meals in Gualyek, Yekker, every single day. Hey look, how he turned now, he cries every single day because he has no inborn stamina to withstand the nonsecured life on the harsher streets of Yauketui. Why didn't we send Jacob Mabior Dau, who I truly think has the hunger to serve his people well with all his heart. We still don't know how this lad, who called himself Golo Yieng came to live among us; I mean, are we sure that he is of the same blood as everyone of us. He claims, the ancestor of his adopted father, Maliduon artificially maneuvered his way onto the love canal(wall) of his adopted grandmother, and for that he was never ryithfully born among the Maliduonei. Southern Sudanese leaders of Rer Reclamation Army/Movement robbed him of the right to return to his rayierooy, Gapayer when they started a meaningless war against the Yemenis of Sudan, when in fact, hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese, if not millions still live in refugee camps up to this very day. Why didn't we give him enough money meant to last his lifetime before we sent him to America? Was our greed that too great that we refuse to help out the great guest from another yunerse. How do we speedily sent him to his homeland now that he seemed stuck in the quagmire wretched life of our blue earth? It is a give and take world; therefore, we must give him the just kind of treatment he truly deserves, if we want to continue to keep our heads held high. Are we truly sure that it is growth that we were all after with Golo Yieng; what if he just suddenly disappear after greasing himself with corn the same way as the yonce scene he saw with Jimmy Dyke and Mama G with a Nollywood flick?
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sapphira-mydnyte · 4 years
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King of Light (Chilling & Deep Headcanons)
He’s got a powerful spirit & you can feel his presence when entering Domino. Chills will run down your spine knowing he’s there & even more so if you attend anything he does.
Everybody gets lost in his blue eyes & nobody in Domino can hold a candle to the sheer fear he drives through his foes.
Nobody in Domino has a colder stare than Seto does & that cold stare is bone chilling, voice silencing & makes everybody wonder what goes through his head. It’s a “Shut Up” stare!
He can supercharge a room when his adrenaline levels rise & it makes everybody around him very nervous.
Most of Domino’s recent growth is from him pouring billions into the city & it’s infrastructure is in the top 3 in the international community. The man is a hero to more than just the kids.
Seto’s power is more than his position, his commanding spirit & towering height combined with his outfit is a chilling presence too.
Seto found Yugi calling him out amusing, but in reality it made him proud to see the normally shy champion actually stand on his own feet without the Pharoah. 
Seto doesn’t hate Yugi, he hates the FACT HE GOT DEFEATED in a duel by Yugi. Despite his hatred of the defeat, he keeps an eye on Yugi & will not hesitate to jump into the fray if his life is in danger after the events of Diva. 1 call from Yugi & he’s running full speed for his jet!
Few in Domino have the courage to stand against him, but Yugi is 1 of maybe 3 to 5 he won’t outright go off on these days other than Mokuba.
Seto’s emotions run far deeper than they should at times & when he feels that deep, Mokuba struggles to bring him back to his right state of mind. Yugi has helped Mokuba pull Seto out from those depths on more than 1 occasion, but nobody at KC is to ever know, else they face the wrath of Seto himself. Why? Seto isn’t mentally stable after falling that deep & has a recovery time.
Seto doesn’t care what names he gets called, but insult Mokuba & it’s an automatic ass-kicking in his own way. If anybody disses Yugi when he’s around...tag-team ass-kicking no questions asked, no warning given!
His presence in an arena is awe-inspiring! The room is charged before he even appears to the sold out crowd. Chills run down every spine as the clock ticks down to show time. Seto is the king of mind games when it comes to messing with his fans, but they love it!
Seto has come to terms in accepting Joey as a decent duelist, but also respects the fact that they both hold the big brother rank in their families. The only reason he calls Joey names at times anymore is to see if he can control his outbursts...which he finds hilarious when Joey loses his cool.
He knows what goes on in Domino due to the city having bargained out with his company to keep the city’s infrastructure in good condition. The school district is also on a deal to where any student excelling in science, math & tech gets a chance to work for him!
When he attended Domino High, he was THE one the girls went after, making every guy in the school absolutely jealous! The only reason most of them wanted him though was his money, but he remained kind to the ladies that went after him. Despite his cold attitude, he does have manners & it’s what earned him the most loved man of Domino High. Joey & Tristan tried to win girls, but when Seto came around...nope! He stole em all! Duke is envious of Seto’s power over the ladies as even he couldn’t hold a candle to the overwhelming CEO.
Death-T was torn down after he came out of his coma & all the horror stuff has been remade into Halloween decorations for the park. 
Seto’s birthday is 6 days before Halloween (Oct. 25), so he takes pride in being the King of Halloween in Domino. No wonder he’s so frightening! 
Seto doesn’t really celebrate all the holidays, but Halloween & Christmas he will do & nobody out-decorates him on those! He does it namely for the kids, but he’s even scared Mokuba & Roland at Halloween. Christmas is when he & Mokuba play Santa to all the orphanage kids in Domino & to the underprivileged kids in the more run-down neighbor hoods. If you’re a duelist however, Seto & Mokuba have bargained with I2 to get some of the rarest cards to give out as Christmas gifts & they’ll upgrade all duel disks to the most recent version of the software no matter how old the duel disk you have is.
Seto doesn’t trust anybody from Industrial Illusions, but Croquet has proven to be the best of their men by keeping the cards coming to Seto at a steady pace to update the monster art & move-sets in the duel disks. Mokuba & Roland are always with Seto when Croquet comes to personally deliver the cards. 
Seto’s instincts are dangerously sharp & his reflexes are synchronized with his hyper speed mind. If you think him stopping the hammer of a gun is impressive...he’s now attuned to magic thanks to his exposure to the Millennium items. His instincts were triggered mere seconds before his machines picked up on Diva & that’s something normally Atem is known for. 
Seto’s body is extremely durable & he has abnormally high pain tolerance. Yes he’s graceful, but if his eyes don’t scare you, then his strength will! Joey can tell you that firsthand too! Seto is incredibly strong, almost superhuman with how far he tossed Joey & how far he kicked the chair at Pegasus’s guards! This boss is the most dangerous man in Domino & those who’ve been physically in conflict with him have learned their lesson. Joey may be strong, but Seto has him beat by levels of power. 
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ayma-nidiot · 3 years
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“Don’t Speak Their Names” - Shrimpshipping fic Chapter 13
This chapter on AO3 can be found here.
Chapter 13 - 11 Years
~29 August 2005~
“Hum de dum…” Rex could not contain his happiness as Ptera drove Weevil and him to his first day of college. He had spent a good deal of that morning preening himself, and even wore his hair in a low ponytail for the occasion.
“I don’t know why you’re so proud of yourself,” Weevil thought aloud. Unlike his boyfriend, Weevil had been sleeping until about ten minutes ago. He was never the type to spend any significant time getting ready for something. He ate the breakfast that Ptera had cooked for everyone, hoping that his groggy head would go away soon. “Getting accepted via the waitlist isn’t exactly a great honour.”
“Ah, shaddap. I’m a student of Domino City University, and nothing’s gonna change that.”
Weevil yawned. “But did we have to get up so early? Our first class isn’t even until noon.”
“Yeah, but I heard there is a morning club fair going on. I wanted to check it out before class.”
Ptera parked the car into a spot; she had just barely beaten someone else, who flicked her off before driving for another spot. “Look at my little man, being such a proactive student already! Have a good first day, Rex! Don’t forget to call me if you need anything!”
Rex felt embarrassed as his mother kissed his cheek, and a few passing older students giggled watching them. “Mom, I’m not little anymore - in fact, I’m far from it. May I remind you I’m now so heavily pregnant that I’m wearing maternity clothes?” Rex gestured towards his baggy beige pants. He wore a black maternity shirt that said “Mamasaurus,” with a dinosaur on it that vaguely resembled Two-Headed King Rex.
Tears of joy formed at the corners of Ptera’s eyes. “You’re growing up too fast.”
“Okay, Mom, love you.” After a few more hugs and kisses, Rex and Weevil entered the grand courtyard, complete with a reflecting pond. As it was the first day of school - and on the day of a club fair, at that - the university had well over 20000 students this day. In the sea of wildly varying hair and skin colours, Rex recognized a few faces from his senior class. Naturally, they acted like the buffoons they were when they were still in high school. One even tried to take a dip in the reflecting pond before being chased out by a dean.
But other than that, most of the student body seemed dignified. He was pleasantly surprised to see that there weren’t just young adults in the student body, there were a few middle-aged and senior citizens too. He wasn’t sure how to feel about Amber suddenly coming at him with, “Hi, guys! So, you made it into university, Rex. Congratulations.”
“I’m not surprised that you made it too,” spoke Rex.
“Wiiiiith a full ride,” Amber practically sang.
“No need to rub it in. Again.”
“Plus, going to university is now free,” Weevil remarked. “Or have you not been watching the news lately?”
“Okay, okay, I’ll stop. If you’re here for the club fair, it’s just past the student union, which is pretty far from here. Come.” Amber didn’t like how both boys seemed hesitant to talk to her. Then again, she expected it, since they hadn’t contacted each other since their café visit almost a month ago, and the tiring battle that soon followed it. “So, how are things?”
“I’ve finally said goodbye to that sack of shit I once called ‘Father,’” Weevil replied. “And the best part is, I never have to see him again! Adelaide and I live with Rex now. Oh, yeah, Adelaide is my friend who taught me how to duel.”
“I see. I suppose some congratulations are in order.”
“It makes me happy not only to get away from that toxic man, but also to see the growth of my child.”
“Ah…” For the first time, Amber had noticed Rex’s baby bump, and stopped to touch it. “How fortunate for you.”
“Amber?” Rex looked at the raven-haired girl quizzically. Her face had taken on a longing expression he had never seen before. “You’re acting weird.”
“S-Sorry!” Amber quickly retracted her hand and continued the walk to the student union. “It’s so rude to touch a pregnant person’s belly without permission. I… That was wrong of me.”
“Dude, it’s fine,” Rex laughed.
The trio enjoyed a few more seconds of silence before arriving at the bustling student union. The first thing Rex noticed a giant mobile with a mosaic-like pattern hanging from the ceiling. There were so many different restaurants that he feared he would get nauseous again - so he was surprised to find out he still felt fine.
 Amber pointed to a group that approached her. “I’ll tell you what’s not fine… These guys.”
“Hey, would you like to join Domino’s Finest Society?” spoke a red-haired man, who appeared to be the club’s president. He had a gaggle of other officers behind him in colourful, goofy garb.
“You sure sound full of yourselves,” Rex guffawed.
“Who asked you, ignoramus?” spoke the orange-haired vice president of the club, who put her hands at her hips. “We don’t need the opinion of the one who graduated at the bottom of Domino High School’s class.”
“Huh! Ignore him,” a green-haired young woman snorted. “Just his presence is befouling the room.”
“But you, on the other hand…” The purple-haired secretary placed his hand on Weevil’s shoulder. “We could use you. To think that the top two students of Domino High School would attend this esteemed university… How fortunate we are!”
“Beat it, ya freaks!” Amber snorted as she beckoned for Rex and Weevil to follow her. “Come on, you two, let’s not give them the time of day.”
“Uh… Okay.” As Rex turned to leave, he made sure to give the president a good grimace. “Amber, who are they? Besides people I would certainly like to smack upside the head right now.”
“They’re apparently a society of only the highest I.Q. individuals. Apparently, the founding president had an I.Q. of 300. A load of hogwash, that is. Even with my good grades, mine is only 150.”
“‘Only…’” Rex’s eyebrow twitched.
“So why didn’t you join them, then?” Weevil questioned.
“Because there’s this other club I’d much rather join instead. Let me show you!” With that, Amber led her friends past the Legalize Recreational Marijuana Club (Rex had to admit he was mildly interested in it) to a booth with various types of playing cards.
“Ta-dah! This is what I’ve been wanting to show you!”
Rex looked at the sign. “‘Domino Tabletop Gaming?’”
“If you like tabletop games, you’ve come to the right place!” The president lit up when he saw Rex. “We have traditional games, we have more modern ones… And you bet your bottom dollar we have Duel Monsters.”
“All right, I know which one I’m joining!” Amber picked up a pamphlet. 
“What is this? The Amber of Domino High School has chosen us over Domino’s Finest Society?” 
The president got so excited that he took Amber’s hands into his own, which she was quick to snatch away. “Don’t get any funky ideas, man.”
“Hehehe…” An approaching student temporarily distracted the president. “Well, hello there. Would you like to join Domino Tabletop Gaming?”
Rex wasn’t expecting to see Mako there. Unlike most of the members of the “Dweeb Patrol,” he found his presence to be just fine.“Oh! Mako Tsunami, I didn’ t know you were a student here. I thought you’d be off fishing in a new boat or something.”
“I decided to start taking classes here, hoping to be a marine biologist. While fishing as a side hustle, of course.”
“Then we’ll be schoolmates, then.” Weevil’s eyebrow twitched as he recalled his not-so-friendly, very brief encounter with Mako at Battle City. “Charmed. And we’ll be even more charmed to see you at the Tabletop Gaming Club.”
“Y-Yeah…” Mako scanned his surroundings, as if he were looking for someone. “Bummer. I thought that Espa was going to be here, but… I guess he won’t be joining the club after all.”
“It’s not like today’s a deadline to join a club,” the club president chuckled. “You can still tell your friend about it, and he can join if he’s interested.”
“Phew, thank goodness.”
“Why, did you have something you wanted to say to him?” Rex asked.
“I… um…” Mako began to act coy, very much unlike his usual proud demeanour. “I just wanted to apologize to him. I guess I’ll… um… just wait until the club meeting, then.”
“Hmm…” Rex raised an eyebrow as he watched Mako walk off. “I wonder if there’s something interesting going on between those two.”
“Even if there was, it’s really none of our business.” Weevil decided to change the subject. “Anyway, Mr. President… Sir, as a president of a tabletop gaming club, you should know something. I saw some really awry real visions a few weeks ago. They attacked me, but there didn’t seem to be any duelists nearby.”
“Real visions gone bad, you say?” The president scratched his chin. “I can’t say that any of my club members have anything to do with it. That sounds like something you’d need to bring up with KaibaCorp. But if it makes you feel any better, we can talk about it at the meeting.”
“Would you really? Thank you; that means a lot.”
“Anyway, nice seeing you!” The president waved at the three as they left for the nearby dining hall to get brunch. “Our first meeting is tomorrow at 7pm! We hope to see you there.”
“Hmm…” Rex took a look at the pamphlet while he let Weevil pay for their food. “The second day of school is a bit soon for a club meeting, don’t you think?”
“Maybe so.” Amber saved a table for her and Rex; before either of them knew it, the bug duelist was already out to get their food. “Weevil’s a kind young man, isn’t he?”
“I don’t know about that… We still get into quarrels about dueling strategies and such. And if you ask Yugi and his friends, he’s what you would call a ‘duelin’ disgrace.’”
“I wouldn’t have thought that with the way he treats you like a princess.”
As they conversed, the trio learned that they shared the exact same class at noon - freshman composition with Professor Dick Hwad. But that was the only class they had together at the same time. For obvious reasons, Rex had a much lighter schedule; he only had one other class that day - ancient history at 3pm. Weevil’s and Amber’s schedules were nearly identical, with calculus classes, anatomy classes, and a few other classes with such specific subjects that Rex didn’t want to try to understand.
After brunch, Rex, Weevil, and Amber took a seat at a small table in their freshman comp classroom.
“For this being a required class for all freshmen, it sure is a small one,” Amber noticed. “I’d say this room can’t fit more than 20 people.”
After about 15 minutes, the teacher had not yet arrived, even though it was the start of class. “Say, isn’t there a college rule that if the teacher is more than 15 minutes late, then class is unofficially cancelled?” Rex asked Amber.
“Keyword, ‘unofficially.’ And you’ll find out that’s just one of the many unwritten rules college students have made.”
Just then, the door barged open, and a man with goofy glasses ran to the podium. “Hello, everyone, sorry I’m late!”
Amber had already turned to leave the classroom, and the arrival of her professor prompted her to sit back down. As soon as he got himself settled, he returned to his dignified composure.
As Professor Hwad set up his PowerPoint presentation, Weevil whispered, “He sure seems like a scatterbrain, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah, well it’s better than being a dino brain.” Rex made finger guns at Weevil.
Ignoring what Rex just said, Amber replied, “He may seem like a scatterbrain, but he’s actually pretty smart. I heard he graduated this university when he was only 20.”
“Huh.” Rex looked at the first slide of the PowerPoint presentation; it appeared to be the class syllabus. He squinted at the materials list and raised his hand. When Professor Hwad called on him, he said, “I didn’t know ‘Internet’ counted as a class material.”
“You’ll find that unlike high school, college is technologically-oriented,” answered Professor Hwad. “Your assignments, as well as copies of my PowerPoint presentations, will be found on our class website.”
“Oh? Then why come to class?”
“Young man, if everyone in college could get by on just reading PowerPoint presentations, then everyone would pass. Plus, you will have in-class presentations as part of your grade.”
Rex sat back down, and didn’t like how Weevil and his classmates snickered at him. He never thought he’d hear that signature laugh of his again. “Haha! It’s only the first 20 minutes of class, and you’ve already made a fool of yourself. Good going, dino brain.”
Rex watched the rest of this presentation with a pouting face. Though that pouting face soon faded as Professor Hwad cracked a few funny jokes throughout - something that his high school teachers dared not to do. He never thought that a teacher could be strict and goofy at the same time, yet here he was. College can’t be this fun… can it?
Luckily, class was over 15 minutes before class was set to end, which gave Professor Hwad an idea. “Since you will be spending the next four months or so together, and since this class will involve a lot of group work, the last 15 minutes of class will be for an icebreaker. When it’s your turn, state your name, your major if you’ve declared it, and a few facts about yourself.”
A few of the introverts - Weevil included - squirmed at this idea yet didn’t feel brave enough to just up and leave. Rex, however, was as outgoing as they come. Even before it was his turn, he shot up and spoke, “Yup, I’m the one and only Rex Raptor, runner-up in the regionals! I love dinosaurs more than anything else in the world! And… uh… I actually haven’t the faintest clue what I want my major to be. Truth be told, I’m only here because Weevil is.”
“Yes, we know,” spoke a young male student from the table behind Rex. “We all saw you get your ass handed to you at that match.”
“Naw, I let Weevil win that one.”
Professor Hwad interrupted this quarrel. “Well, I’m glad we already have some sense of camaraderie. Speaking of Weevil, I believe it’s your turn.”
“Yes, well.” Weevil got up and cleared his throat. “I am the salutatorian of Domino High School’s graduating class, Weevil Underwood. And unlike certain dino brains which shall remain nameless, I have come to college to show the world how smart I am.”
“Hmm, maybe teaching would be a good profession for you, then.” Professor Hwad smiled. “We’re down to our last two people. And you, young lady?”
Amber stood up. “My name is Amber, and I graduated at the top of the class from Domino High School. I love Duel Monsters! By the way, if anyone wants to duel me, you know where to find me.”
Professor Hwad spoke through the men’s whistling, “And your major?”
“I already have declared mine to be Education - Life Sciences. I want to be a biology professor.”
“And at the tender age of 16!” Professor Hwad was clearly impressed. “The world needs more teachers, especially potential ones of your caliber. Thank you, Ms. Amber, you may take a seat.”
“Wow, Amber, I didn’t know that,” Rex also sounded impressed. “You should have told us.”
“I didn’t know you were only 16, either,” spoke Weevil. “I can see why you took the valedictorian spot from me.”
“Hehehe… Thanks, guys.” Amber stopped talking when she noticed the last person about to speak her piece. She was a middle-aged woman with mint green hair, tied up in a traditional Japanese bun, with traditional Japanese clothes to match. “Wow, what an unusual hair colour. The only people I’ve seen with hair like that are Espa Roba, and of course you, Weevil.”
“Speaking of Espa, we just might see him in one of our other classes,” Rex whispered to Weevil.
“Um… Hello.” This woman was clearly shy around her new classmates - embarrassed, even, for being the oldest student there. “My major is Biomedical Sciences. I want to be a doctor, even though I don’t know what kind yet. Some of you may be wondering why I’m so late into my college career. Well, I had an abusive husband, who kicked me out of the house 11 years ago.”
“‘Kicked me out of the house 11 years ago…’” Weevil pondered this woman’s words for a while, and his eyes opened wide. “That’s about when Mother was kicked out of the house!”
“My husband didn’t let me study when I lived in that house. All he saw me for was a housewife. The only thing I had in that house was my then-8-year-old son. I’m here today because I want to make a better career for myself, one that my son can be proud of.”
“What a story!” This woman’s speech moved everyone in the room - some even to tears - not the least was Professor Hwad. “Except it’s missing one thing. Your name.”
“My name is Camellia Kaiba, sister of the late Gozaburo Kaiba. My brother practically gave me as a ‘gift,’ if you will, to my husband to symbolize their new business partnership. But their one-upmanship got so out of hand that eventually, my husband left KaibaCorp to start his own company.”
“Well, we’re glad you’re here. We’re about five minutes early, but I’ll dismiss class anyway. Be sure to read the syllabus and check the class website! If you have questions, you may contact me through there.”
“Well, time to move onto the next enchilada, as they say.” Rex motioned to take a short break before his next class, but stopped when he noticed Weevil approach Camellia, and followed him. “Weeves?”
“Wait!” Weevil stopped Camellia just before she could leave.
“Hey…” Camellia stared into Weevil’s eyes. “Can… Can it be?”
Weevil knelt to the ground and immediately began to cry. “I… I… I never thought… that after 11 years, we would meet like this…”
“You’re…” Camellia knelt down, still not believing the sight of the person before her.
“Mother!” Weevil threw himself at Camellia, burying his face into her chest. “Oh, Mother!”
“Weevil, my son…” Camellia patted her son’s hair and cried too. “I’ve missed you… My sweet son, I’ve missed you so much. You’ve grown into such a handsome young man.”
After Weevil stopped crying, he let his mother wipe away his remaining tears. “Mother, there’s so much I want to tell you, so much I want to talk to you about. I’ve finally cut ties with Fa- with Roach. So has Adelaide.”
“Adelaide is with you?”
“Yeah, we moved in with Rex and his family.”
“Rex?”
Rex revealed himself. “That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”
“I didn’t know that this young man was a friend of yours.”
Weevil hadn’t prepared to meet his mother, let alone come out to her. But after all they had been through, he didn’t need to prepare himself. “Mother, there’s something I have to tell you. I’m a bit scared to do this, since Roach disowned me for it, but… I’m gay, and Rex is my boyfriend.”
“Ooh, you make a cute couple!” Camellia grinned. “In fact, I kind of thought that way after I saw you two hug after regionals.”
“You actually saw that?!” Weevil hid his face in his hands. 
“Actually, I’m more impressed by the fact she started shipping us long before we became an item.” Rex winked, eliciting a flick on the nose from Weevil.
“You’re okay with it, then?” Weevil asked, still a bit nervous.
“That you had the courage to tell me just makes me all the more proud of you, son. I love you no matter what.” Camellia let Weevil cry on her shoulder again.
“Sooo…” Rex still tried to process the fact that he had just met his boyfriend’s mother in the strangest of circumstances. “If you’re Weevil’s mom, and you’re the sister of Gozaburo, then… that makes Weeves…”
“...the nephew of Gozaburo, and therefore the rightful heir to KaibaCorp,” Weevil finished.
“Whoa.” Rex blinked. “That’s wild. There’s still so much I haven’t learned about you, baby.”
“Ah! Thank you for reminding me. Mother, you’ll be glad to know that you’re going to be a grandmother. Rex is not only intersex, but he’s also 22 weeks pregnant.”
“Is that so?” Camellia curiously reached for Rex’s baby bump. “M-May I?”
“Of course.”
“Are you… Do you feel all right?” Camellia asked as Weevil put his hand on the baby bump too.
“Eh. My back hurts, and I have to go to the bathroom, like, every hour. But other than that, I can manage.” Rex stopped talking when he felt the baby move. “Oh! What was that?”
Camellia and Weevil felt it too. “Rex… I think… that these are our baby’s first kicks!”
“Oh, Weeves…” As if there hadn’t been enough crying that day, Rex shed his own tears of joy as he talked to his unborn child. He couldn’t be happier to experience yet another pregnancy milestone, especially with Weevil there to experience it with him. “I know, I know, you want out. Don’t worry, we’ll all get to meet you in another four months. And when we do, you’ll get the best party ever!”
Amber watch this scene from near the classroom door. The next class already started to file into the room. “So are you guys going to go to your next class, or what?”
“I’m right behind you.” Weevil started walking to the door, but not without asking Camellia, “What about you?”
“This actually is my next class. But here’s my phone number…” Camellia exchanged phone numbers with Weevil. “We can catch up later.”
“And I should totally invite her over, hehe.” Rex sat on a nearby bench after they left. “Amber, you’re more than welcome to join us, too.”
“...I have a class to get to, so I’ll catch you later.” And with that, Amber was suddenly gone.
“She doesn’t seem all too excited about the baby, does she?” Rex wondered out loud. “But whatever. I think, Weeves, that this is going to be a fun college career.”
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imagitory · 4 years
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could you talk aout violetshipping for the fandom ask,since you said you like it?
Totally!
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When I started shipping them: Oh gosh, Jounouchi/Kaiba goes back a long way with me – I shipped them while the show was still on the air, which was from 2001-2002, so yeah, I would’ve been 11-12 years old.
My thoughts: When I was younger, violetshipping (or, as it was more commonly called then, “puppyshipping”) was incredibly popular in the fanfiction circles I frequented, largely because of the supposed “intense sexual tension” between Kaiba and Jounouchi (or Joey) in the show. A lot of the fandom for this ship resulted in very OOC characterization for both Jounouchi and especially Kaiba in order to make it work, but even with that, I enjoyed fanon!puppyshipping for what it was, largely because it reminded me of other “opposite ships” I liked at the time like Ron/Hermione. Fanon!puppyshipping from that time often took a lot of cues from Pride and Prejudice or Beauty and the Beast-type stories, making Jounouchi a little more forgiving, patient, and/or victimized by his abusive father and Kaiba a little more romantic, lonely, and/or damaged in order to more smoothly fit them together, and although I look back now and think that a lot of those stories kind of glossed over the interesting character development Jounouchi and Kaiba could respectively go through in order to get to the good stuff, I can’t be too cynical about it. A lot of that sort of fanfiction – including the stuff I wrote – were written by young authors who were still exploring plot, characterization, and sometimes even their own sexuality through their work, and as much as an author should learn to examine and critique their own writing so as to improve, there is nothing wrong with stepping stones. The same can likewise be said for the people who read and enjoyed those OOC stories too.
But okay, so that’s my past with Jounouchi/Kaiba, what about the present? Now I look at these two and think, “Wow – the original series dropped so much potential development for these two and their relationship, didn’t they?” We were so focused on playing card games and saving the world that a lot of characters and relationships didn’t grow as much as they could or even should have. We had so much time for Atem and Kaiba to duel alongside each other more than once, and for Jounouchi and Atem to duel alongside each other more than once, but when we had the chance for Jounouchi and Kaiba to team up (with Atem too, as luck would have it) in season 4, they got no substantive time to tag-team and work out how to win even with their opposing styles. Even though Jounouchi and Kaiba were both such strong characters and talented duelists, and even though Jounouchi grew so much both as a person and as a competitor, Kaiba’s opinion of him barely budges an inch even after five seasons of interactions. And instead of acknowledging Kaiba’s stubbornness – instead of showing how much Jounouchi has improved and lampshading how truly foolish Kaiba is for underestimating him at every turn – we have all of this build-up with these two antagonizing each other and not seeing eye-to-eye that leads up to nothing by the time the series finale rolls around, because everyone is so busy focusing on Atem getting his memory back and going to the after-life. Even if in the Atlantis arc, we’d gotten some pay-off where Kaiba acknowledges Jounouchi as a competitor and finally awards him begrudging respect or, contrariwise, Jounouchi singlehandedly saves the day, Kaiba is left on the sidelines stubbornly refusing to award him the respect due, and Jounouchi just basically decides “f*** you, then – I know my worth and that’s all that matters,” that would’ve been a great pay-off for what was set up.
But yeah, basically, I see Jounouchi/Kaiba as the culmination of two character arcs that the show didn’t deliver on. Both of them could learn something from each other, if they both learned to surmount their own pride. They have a lot in common – both having traumatic pasts with less-than-stellar father figures, both having a younger sibling that they would do anything for, both loving games and competition, both being determined, stubborn, proud, and passionate – but they also have contrasts that could encourage growth in both parties. So, in essence, Jounouchi/Kaiba as a love story would be about the beauty of potential.
What makes me happy about them: Their different types of intelligence – Kaiba being much more conventionally “smart” with his academic, logical-mathematical intelligence, and Jounouchi having a lot more interpersonal and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. Also, the way they constantly butt heads – yes, I know, I just emphasized that the “sexual tension” isn’t exactly what makes me ship these two, and it’s not, but it doesn’t mean that their arguing doesn’t still make me laugh! I love good old-fashioned bantering. *eyes Han/Leia and Dimitri/Anya out the side of her eye*
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What makes me sad about them: Again, how much more growth they could have gone through! I am glad that some post-series fics do actually take those roads not taken, though.
Things done in fanfic that annoys me: Although most of the OOC fandom depictions of Jounouchi and Kaiba don’t bother me that much overall, there are a few characterization choices I don’t like as much, and the big one is turning Jounouchi into a victim that needs to be “saved” by Kaiba. Yes, Jounouchi’s father is an alcoholic and a pretty awful parent, but Jounouchi has never been the sort to just sit around and passively wait for someone else to save him, even when he was in over his head. He’s a proud, resilient character, and making him a poor, helpless damsel in need of a rescue romance I just feel does him a bad service.
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Things I look for in fanfic: ORGANIC CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! I love Kaiba and Jounouchi learning from each other and evolving into better people. I love them clashing on things, awkwardly trying to patch things up, coming to grips with who they are as individuals and how they relate to each other – I love them facing their inner demons both on their own and together.
My wishlist: …Can Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Monsters get one of those shiny reboots like Sailor Moon and Fruits Basket got, one that follows the manga a little closer, but still gives us the chance to maybe give these characters more dimension and development that they didn’t get in the original series or even in the manga? I love the new animation style they used for Dark Side of Dimensions!
Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: LOL, ironically it’s the same person, as I also ship both Yugi/Jounouchi and Yugi/Kaiba! XD
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My happily ever after for them: Jounouchi and Kaiba dueling each other with confident smiles on their faces, as romantic partners and true equals – Red Eyes and Blue Eyes – both not knowing who is going to win today, but being thrilled to find out.
Fandom Ask!
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jadenvargen · 5 years
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I was wondering what made you involved in Joey’s and Seto’s relashionship ? I have basic knowledge of yu-gi-oh but LOVE your art and I was wondering if they had special moments that got to you ?
no not at ALL lol frikk n i kinda jokingly started talking about seto after in the original manga(ive seen dm like 7 times and read it even more. i dont care for it) he gets his heart back together(in the o.g manga ”his heart rots” after being continually abused as a child and he becomes evil then yugi crushes it and he puts it back together and becomes nice basically which is a.... huge can of worms kind of and im not gonna touch it) he just gets a huge crush on joey but cant express it cause hes so awkward... then it kinda just rolled further. in canon i dont really like their relationship if setos just mean to joey, i hate that, but i like the POTENTIAL kind of.
theyre very much exactly the opposites sodes of the same outcome. their history and personality is essentially the same, its just theyve chose to deal with things differently. they have the same thoughts and reactions to things, but refuse to see or accept this because itd challenge both their worldviews, and both of them are EXTREMELY family-oriented and love and want to protect kids more than anything in the world due partly to their own trauma at the hands of their guardians. since they are so incredibly similar but opposites i think they could learn and grow sooo much with each other too. i like to think if the series had allowed kaiba to grow as it was set to do and not be stuck in the mindset of ”we dont have a villain rn so well shove aside all of kaibas development and male him nasty again” i think his growth couldve been amazing, and i think an ideal character end for him would be to stop repressing his feelings and show love for his friends. i also think once hed start showing his emotions he wouldnt be able to STOP showing them, with love and affection, a validation joey sorely needs and wants. ANYWAY THIS IS ALOT BUT I HAVE TO STOP NOW basically theres not really moments like that because i dont give a shit about ygo canon really but... the POTENTIAL. also hot take but kaiba was never yamis rival, he was joeys, and joey shouldve won against him. yamis rival is yugi.
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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)
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minashaia · 4 years
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After doing a list for the protagonist, I will do My top 6 rivals this time. Three things before I start;
1- I don’t consider Shark or Kaiser as a rival “ don’t even try to convince me🤣”
2- This is my personal opinion you are can disagree with me but no need for questioning me for my opinion 😂”
3- this list based on them as a character, so things like who was the strongest or best rivalry with his protag are unnecessary “ let’s be honest strong or better duelist isn’t a thing in yugioh since some characters need to lose for plot purposes. As for the rivalry it’s not their fault that protagonists like Yusaku,Yugi or Yuma had partners to duel in their ceremonial duels while Yuya and Yusei didn’t have so they had to duel their rivals”
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6- Akaba Reiji; I will describe Reiji by one word “meh” Basically I understand why everyone love him. He is really a great and of the strongest rivals in the franchise alongside Revolver. They are both more strategic duelists and not just summing their strongest monster to win “ looking at You Kaiba” also he is the first rival that started the show respecting his protagonist. But the guy barely appeared in the show for me to care about , didn’t have great duels “ except the ones with Yuya” he doesn’t act like a rival. Simply I know nothing about Reiji , I might dislike Arc v and it’s my least favorite, but I will tell I enjoyed a lot of characters and Reiji was not one of them
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5- Jun Manjome, in some way Manjome was unique and most importantly he had personality even if the characters don’t take him seriously as what rival supposed unfortunately. However I do appreciate his character development and growth into a better duelist. The biggest problem with him and petty much half of Gx main cast is that they all were overshadowed by Judai.
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4- Seto Kaiba, our classic rival,He has best rivalry with Yugi and their duels are epic. But The biggest problem I have with Kaiba is that he hasn’t his own story arc or a character development. When Noah’s arc starts, Thats supposed to be his moment to shine but no Yugi step in and takes his place. And seriously , he saw people dieing , his soul was taken , went to the past and saw himself?! And he still don’t believe all that?!! Not saying Kaiba didn’t change but not the same way I felt with the first three. He is still an iconic character in the franchise that no one can deny.
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3- The king himself Jack Atlas , if ppl watch Zexal because of Shark and Kaito , since they hate Yuma. Then guess what? I was almost close to drop 5ds cause I couldn’t stand or care for Yusie’s character “ that was at the beginning only” but Jack and Aki are one of the reasons why I watched the show. Jack was fantastic in so many way. The way he betrayed his friends and once he lost everything, he started from zero and learned to stand up for himself. Jack grow up and change through out the series , he cares for his friends and others. He has respectful and perfect rivalry with not only the one that he consider as friend but also a brother.
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2- Tenjo Kaito , isn’t that enough?! Kaito fits the criteria for perfect rival. Not only that he is awesome, cool, badass and strong . He also has sad backstory. The poor guy suffered from watching his young brother sick and he can’t do anything. And his father abandon him. After that he was forced to hunt the numbers and to take ppl souls. Kaito never know anything about trust, it’s because of Yuma and Astral he started to accept others help. His character’s development was the best among the rivals. And finally he was the only one who never lost a duel against his protagonist.
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1- if there’s only one rival that can beat all of them it’s my gun boy REVOLVER/KOGAMI RYOKEN. Why Revolver is the best character?! Very complex and well developed. This guy was just 8 years old boy who loved dueling ,laying on the flowers looking at the sky being in peaceful world. However his asshole father decided to ruin his entire childhood and life by making him part of his shitty project. His father asked him to bring one of the children to his home ,listening to their crying and screaming, he decided to be the voice for one of them then save them from their suffering and be a hero, unfortunately this is where his life with guilt begins. for 10 years he was manipulated by his father’s beliefs and followed him even it takes to hurt ppl or sacrificing lives like what he did back in season1 he was basically behind his father’s mask aka hiding like criminal. After his father’s out of the picture Revolver starts to choose his own ways to deal with things he no longer wants to hurt ppl in real world only things needs to be done in LV . He was mad for what happened to Windy’s partner, for Lightning attacking unconscious PM , worried about Spectre and let Sb unleash his anger, pushed him to over come his trauma and stopped his attack for Jin. Basically Revolver went from antagonist who hide his face like criminal, was following his father’s path, to an antihero who still holds to his fathers’ wishes but in his own way without hurting ppl. To true knight who now will protect ppl and the network. The way they wrote him with balancing his story and character without taking his personality or making him change all of sudden or act out of his character it was pleasant to watch him I will miss him so much.
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steve0discusses · 3 years
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Yugioh Ep33 S4 pt 2: The Best Storyboarder Came Back Just so They Could Draw Tristan Getting Hit in the Nuts
OK lets just get to the good stuff.
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God bless you, storyboarder.
(read more under the cut)
The team has entered the Atlantis lair of Dartz, which is also accessible through Paradius in San Fransisco, but youknow...we don’t have magic so it’s not like we could’ve skipped like 10 minutes and just done that instead of the helicopter escape, the Military moment, and the ride through a hurricane.
Oh wait, we do have magic, that’s right...well...for now, pretend we don’t.
Enjoy the snakes.
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Strangely, Kaiba does not feel comfortable with the snakes, when snakes really just a smaller and cuter dragon. I love snakes. Never owned one...but I trust em.
Dartz has the Yugioh “old guy” aesthetic of “We just really like yellowed sandstone”
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I get that they want this place (and also Yami’s house) to look like a tomb so there won’t be any paint on the wall but this is just a pet peeve of mine that Ancient times freakin loved garish colors on the wall in layers and layers of patterns and yet in fiction we never show that.
But...it doesn’t go with the vibe. I’ll let it go because it would absolutely ruin the vibe to have a bunch of swirly stuff in neon orange and green.
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Before we have a chance to grab a step stool and just kinda yoink Yugi Muto, Dartz shows up, and this shot happens.
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I couldn’t not grab a cap of that. I mean...look at it. It is SO HARD to foreshorten hands so it looks right and then bam they just did that. It’s just...
...I’ve been breaking down foreshortening in Yugioh shots for a while now trying to figure out why when I do it, it looks like a busted huge hand, but when they do it, it looks really good, and I’m starting to realize that maybe it’s more than just stacking but also...the composition?
You can’t really look at this picture as a whole. The hand is such a strong focal point that you must start there, and then follow down the arm to the face. I think when I do these foreshortening shots I make the hand the same weight as the face, and that’s my downfall. You gotta let the composition force the viewer to slow down and take time in order for the optical illusion to happen...maybe? I’m like over 30 now, you’d think I’d figure this out by now.
Whatever, that’s another post.
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So like...what happened to those two people who used to be there????
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And now prepare thyself for my lazy math. I know this math is bad. For people out there who feel like working out the geometric growth and calculate just how many souls Dartz slurps up--feel free to tell me. If I like the explanation, I will adjust the Death Count to match it. It’s just too 2020 for me to do more than multiplication at the moment.
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Did I count how many people would have existed 10,000 years ago? no. Did I account for plagues? No. Like this math of 4 a day is bad...but eh it’s all I got right now in my mental ammunition.
Something that we did think about was...
Why not slurp up the Pharaoh soul when Yami was still alive? Like we assume the puzzle existed in the past but like...did Yami not get superpowered until Yugi woke him up? Was he in fact useless until he got a little bit of a battery charge during Season Zero when he was dumping people off of bell towers?
And like I get not knowing about the underground Ishtars, and not being able to get a hold of Shadi because Shadi is a lazy ghost, but Bakura was RIGHT THERE. You can’t munch up Pegasus off screen and then say “eh but Bakura’s kinda low tier” we know for a fact that Bakura is not...so like...there must have been some copyright situation where they couldn’t use certain characters. This is a filler arc--but it would have been nice to have at least some explanation as to why it took Dartz so long to finally murder the hell out of Pharaoh.
Which is me expecting way too much out of this show. Just something I was really hoping would get addressed but leave it for the headcanon.
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It’s at this point that Mokuba realized he’s standing on top of people.
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A crypt made out of human souls! Crazy, usually we’re in a crypt made out of one single human soul....and both of these crypts have Yugi in it.
In Raphael’s storyline, he’s been busy just cleaning up after everyone else. It’s supposed to come off as very serious but I was totally busting up when he’s just dropping bodies into the back of this jeep.
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And in the Kaiba Corp plotline, Roland is anxiously wondering if he should be a Dad and save the kids or if he should be a dog and stay in the plane.
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He stays in the plane.
Strangely this was the right call. (And this is why Roland has never died)
So they start throwing around cards, as you do, and Dartz puts down his Orichalcos, has he does, when suddenly...they started seeing stuff again. Can’t have a single card game without it.
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So the Orichalcos is just a backstory device? For reals?
Something I alluded to quite a few episodes back with Valon was just...wondering why the hell the Orichalcos crew had so much freakin magic as to make all these visions during duels. Turns out...it’s just a thing to occasionally trip on Oricalchos juice. I’m not sure why we never had a vision with Mai, Weevil, Rex, or Gurimo, but at least we now know that Raphael and Valon weren’t as magical as I thought they were.
So we’re in like...outer space. Kind of the last place you’d expect out of ancient Atlantis and Dartz isn’t having ANY OF IT.
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And honestly that makes sense. Imagine giving someone 10,000 years ago the run down on outer space. They’d freak. They’d definitely think you’re talking about demons.
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If space is an elaborate analogy, we don’t know that yet. For how this is presented, it’s just an old man hootin and hollerin about how much space sucks, and I love that.
PS how anime is this shot of the earth behind the orichalcos symbol and the dude in the middle with the ass length blue hair--really damn anime, right?
Like at least one of you has this wall hanging, right?
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For those that are too tired to look it up, Pangea was 280-230 million years ago.
THAT REALLY CHANGES MY MATH.
AND I’M TOO TIRED.
So my thoughts are...either the math is wrong and I’ll fix it eventually in post, depending on my mood come next Wednesday, OR...humanity was deleted and then came back later??? (because the dawn of mankind was 7 million years ago)
OR...
They just felt like drawing Pangea 10 million years ago. Maybe that’s all. Maybe I don’t have to fix anything. I dunno.
Maybe this isn’t Earth.
Maybe Yugioh Earth never had Loma Preita because it isn’t actually Earth. And, like a Final Fantasy situation, is a second planet on a parallel plane of our own?
Either way, I’m not redoing the math because I actually don’t know how to change it anymore. I’m v undecided of the timeline now......maybe the next episode will tell us more? (I doubt this very much)
RIP deathcount.
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Yo Atlantis!
I have a lot of questions!
About Atlantis!
And the purpose of the aqueduct going the wrong direction.
Is that in fact the poop shoot?
But wtv it looks neat.
So anyway, that’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed my bad math, and I hope you enjoy your Halloween. Ours is a whole lot of nothing. I’ll be watching lots of Phasmaphobia streams while eating Butterfingers that I legally can’t give to children because it’s an epidemic (butterfingers is like the last candy that my old 30 yo ass can handle without passing out or gagging. Weird how getting older makes me hate all the good things I couldn’t eat when I was younger because I was too young to be allowed to eat them.) and that’s about it.
WHY did Halloween finally fall on a Saturday DURING an epidemic? I only get so many Saturday Halloweens in my youth...just why.
(and here’s a link to read these in chrono order)
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