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steve0discusses · 5 months

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S5 Ep 50: Tristan Hates Horses, I Think

Been a while! Tumblr’s annoying as hell changes to the text editor took a lot of wind out of my sails, ngl. It had some problems they're resolving as they go, but it was really annoying to use and to edit if you write any amount of youknow……words….

And I was talking to a friend about this, and they were like “have you tried writing it in google docs and copy pasting it after?” And I happily realized when you copy paste from google docs, it also copies the PICTURES. This has literally saved hours of my life, y'all. It has turned something that was so frustrating I didn't want to open tumblr again into something that is no longer an obstacle so I can write once more!

So lets travel to Yugi’s brain, where Tristan desperately has to make up for all the work he hasn’t done because he was just a wee tiny bit possessed.

It may be hard to pick up where Tristan is on this picture, and I hope I recorded it somewhere in OBS like 2 months ago when I finished the series because it was such a funny animation, but hot damn this boy has hops.

And you can see him there on the ground in the bottom left corner, that isn’t a rock, that’s Tristan having toppled a man with his bare hands, a man who had a sword and was sitting on an armored horse.

Can you believe this guy ran for school president? And then lost and humbly became the janitor?

Meanwhile, Joey discovered magic.

Confirmation that duel disks are made out of old tank parts.

Realizing for the first time that magic exists, they decide to peace out.

Back in the real world, Mokuba and Roland don’t know where the hell Seto went. Which is weird, I figured Seto would at least leave a note or a text message or…anything…but apparently even if he did, he just disappeared at some point down in Marik’s old living room.

So Roland and Mokuba decided that in order to find him, they would have to take a massive Boeing 747 to find their lost child.

Some kids have a motorcycle, some kids have a scooter, Mokuba just wants the most boring ass big commercial plane that is meant to sit a couple hundred people in an awkward way. That’s what Mokuba wants.

Just Mokuba things.

My bro who edits these for me wrote in huge ass letters "ROLAND SIGHTING" While saying "ROLAND ROLAND ROLAND" so I want y'all to know how much we appreciate a good Roland in this house.

Speaking of, I know it's like season 5 but...who is the other guy? He wears funny sunglasses but I have never heard his name, not once.

But this is when the plane was filled with heavenly light.

They begin to see the fight happening between Seto Kaiba (the OG Seto, the one that is cool and isn’t depressed because his not-wife died) and Bakura (who is now Zorc). Don’t ask me how the time stuff works, and why we see it now of all the times in human history, and right over Egypt in the sky. Don’t ask me why.

I assume it’s time compression shenanigans, just like FF8, so maybe it’s just every moment in time is able to see this UFO in the sky, but overall, it’s here because it looks cool. The fact that this right here is actually not a physical place, but is actually a figment of Yugi’s imagination shaped by Pharaoh’s botchy memories--is neither here nor there. Instead, it’s everywhere.

Seto is unimpressed by this, because he knows how science and timelines should work, and this wouldn’t pass Kaiba Corp inspection.

Back at the yellow palace made of cheese and mario blocks, Pharaoh is still knocked out from that time he summed all 3 dragons last episode, which to me feels like just eons ago.

But it’s OK, he’s fine now.

Typically he’d be dead, because his dragons died on the battlefield and their life force is connected to their monsters. But not only is Pharaoh 1.) already dead and 2.) the author of this universe and cannot die or this universe ceases to exist he’s 3.) got the puzzle, which means he can’t actually perma die, unlike everyone else in his court who is perma-gone.

He is not surprised by what is currently happening in Egypt’s downtown strip.

This is probably every day in Domino. Every day Seto Kaiba wakes up everyone in town with his three-headed dragon princess just because he can. Hell, Seto was doing this fight with Bakura on the top towers of Domino just this morning (or last morning…not sure if time passes in real life the same way it does in puzzle life)

The audacity of Yami right now, the one moment Yugi isn’t there to scream about ledges, this boy is leaping joyfully off that ledge.

He fuses with the dragon which gives him this familiar outfit.

I thiiiiink it’s the same outfit as Alexander season? I’ll be real with you though, I don’t really want to look it up. Either way, good to see the return of putting on a ton of armor in a card game, I don't think we've seen it Canonically since that one time Joey did it against Valon, and ever since then, Joey kind of forgot it was a thing he can just do.

But unlike Joey, Yami doesn’t take the opportunity to punch Zorc in the face, instead he just loses yet another time.

This time he didn’t even pass out, he barely even died. This is progress, truly.

But as Zorc is powering up the peepee missile to fire in Yami’s face (what a way to die!), Shadi has decided to inform us why he’s been stalking these kids for this entire show.

So there’s two ways to read this. 1.) Shadi was Hassan the entire time but had to go back in time from this moment in order to do it or 2.) Shadi possessed the power of Hassan last second so Yami could avoid death one final time.

Both of these explanations don’t fully make sense to me, I’ll be honest, because in order to know that he’ll be needed in the first place, Shadi had to know that Yami would die at this particular moment--a moment that is a different timeline than has ever existed before.

So really, Shadi was just going by a hunch. He was like “I dunno, I’ll see how this goes.” which is more in line with the Shadi we know and love.

Is it a crying shame that Shadi, who has been with us for so many seasons, and it so integral to this show had such an unceremonious death? Yeah. I feel like I didn’t quite get the closure I wanted but I’m also sort of confused as to…what happened. But I’ll leave it there because apparently we get more Shadi content in Dark Side of Dimensions.

Anyway, I have no idea if these images will even fit into a post with how how tumbler does posts nowadays, and I'll be real I had to re upload the last bit of it, which I suspect was over 15 images???? Not sure??? but we found a workaround! google docs works!

Also, Seto didn’t die today! Instead it was Shadi! For a SECOND time!

I cannot believe how freakin lucky Mana is, this girl is still kicking and if Mana survives everything I am…going to be astonished, that’s what. Mana secretly OP, who knew?

And always you can read the rest of these here

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

if I turn it into a link it doesn't work right because the text editor is really, really bad. I hate it a lot. But uh...feel free to copy paste it until I can get links to cooperate.

#yugioh #photo recap #yugi muto #joey wheeler #seto kaiba #tristan taylor #ygo #bakura #yu gi oh #yami muto #S5 #Shadi

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sojourner-between-worlds · 6 months

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THE MONKEY IS ACTUALLY RELEVANT???

WHY IS THE MONKEY RELEVANT

#yugioh gx #look i get that it was just for a recap episode bUT STILL

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tauriel-of-moondoor · 2 months

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Some dear friends of mine started a yugio comedy podcast

If you want to listen to three nerds talk about a show they love, check it out

#podcast #yugioh #yami yugi #yu gi oh #yu gi ho #comedy #recap #duel monsters #Spotify

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kaiowut99 · 7 months

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Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episodes 102-104 Subbed (Finalized)

(Previously: Episodes 99-101 Subbed [Finalized])

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

TURN-102: The Pulse of Light VS the Neo-Spacians

Ed was defeated in his battle against Saiou, who was taken by the Pulse of Light. Saiou asks Judai for his key to the laser satellite in exchange for Ed, pushing him into a corner. Right then, Neos appears and prevents the key from getting to Saiou--causing a furious Saiou to duel with Judai and settle this. As with his bout with Ed, he predicts the future, leading the duel to play out in his favor. For his part, Judai uses his Fusion specialty to summon Monsters, but...

TURN-103: Judai in a Pinch! The Light Barrier Field Magic

Saiou, taken by the Pulse of Light, activates his Light Barrier Field Magic. This barrier has an effect that even weakens the power of Card Spirits, driving Judai's Monsters into a corner. Saiou also summons his "The World" Arcana Force and pounces on Judai. Elsewhere, with both laser satellite keys in hand, Prince Ojin--being controlled by the evil Saiou--activates the satellite. Kenzan tries to stop him, but he's already too late as the laser satellite fires its beam right at the Earth. Will it be possible to...

TURN-104: Whither Victory?! Judai VS Saiou

Judai summons his Glow Neos and destroys Light Barrier, waging a direct attack against the evil Saiou upon turning the tables. Driven into a dilemma, the evil Saiou tributes The Material Road, The Spiritual Road, and The Heavens Road to summon his ultimate card, Arcana Force Extra - The Light Ruler, using it to deal him an intense blow. For his part, Judai also has Gran Mole and Neos do a Contact Fusion and summons Gran Neos as he shifts into a counterattack, but...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A bit delayed due to some life stuff going on (like moving!), episodes 102-104 are now up and finalized as we make our way into the Season 2 finale!

that Saiou eyecatch is haunting my nightmares all over again

As this three-parter gets underway, we have the aftermath of Ed losing to Saiou as the Light within him decides to use him as leverage to get the second SOLA key from Judai; once he does and tries to get them for himself, Neos shows up to stop that, forcing him to duel Judai for them (I do like how, when Judai tells the Light he'll give up on his plans if Judai wins after he's given up his key, Saiou correctly notes, "The keys are already with me and you expect me to agree to your terms?" lol). This is one of my favorite duels because of how much it emphasizes Judai's attitude of "the future's not set, we change our fates with each card we draw!" that he first told Ed about in episode 53, along with the foreshadowing we get to the events of Season 3--and the huge literal shadow it puts into play. At the same time, we have GeneX finishing up as Rei makes her surprise comeback and duels Manjoume for the championship, and I like that it serves as good cutaway material from the Judai/Saiou duel, though I do wish we got to see more of Rei's deck (especially since, 17 years later, her Mystic cards have still not been printed). Ojama Yellow also gets to make the finishing blow, to the onlookers' chagrin, which is fun, and Saiou and Mizuchi get to satisfyingly reunite in the end which is cute.

Also, Kenzan's dino DNA helps him turn into a Space Saurus to help bust up SOLA--A+ content.

(Quick Translation Note: As Manjoume and his group approach the remaining Society of Light members, he's holding a Gunbai baton (the Gunbai being "a type of signal baton and Japanese war fan," per Wikipedia) with the Japanese text 一意専心 on it, translating to "with heart and soul." I translated it for the hardsub, as covered here, in the two scenes it appears in by applying the English text over the Japanese text in Photoshop--similar to the edit worked on by Kay for episode 9's "Fighting Spirit" banner. I was also inspired with "Whither Victory" for 104's title translation after looking at a Dragon Ball Kai title used for the dub that more concisely conveyed the "where is victory" idea in the JP title here.)

Animation error-wise, interesting mix here. I worked on about 30 of them altogether (a bit fewer than in 99-101), not counting the additional hardsub-only edits I made to translate the "With Heart and Soul" staff Manjoume carries for two clips in 102 or fix re-applications during the recaps; part of the delay with this was my moving and adjusting accordingly, as it took a few days before I could work on these fixes. About half of these were little quality-of-watching fixes, mostly split-screens but including fixing a stat-counter SFX error in 102, while the rest were mixes of incomplete-drawing errors, card errors, and card-related consistency errors--with a little "missing Burstlady shoulder strap" for good crowd-favorite measure. More in my separate post here with my usual fix/edit breakdown for the interested, due to Tumblr’s dumb link limit in posts yeeting them out of the tags used and limiting their reach, to give you a more visual element to it! (And had to split it in two again due to that) have I mentioned my love for this show is like an Ojama

Quick housekeeping: made a slight revision to 101 to update Saiou's line as he summons Light Ruler vs Ed for consistency with the tweak I made in 102. The 101 link in 99-101's release post now links to the re-uploaded version; I've updated its link in the Masterpost and will be posting the re-finalized hardsub/script/MKV on NAC soon as I post these.

Anywho, enjoy! Feels really good to get Season 2 taken care of, as that makes 104 episodes I've finalized my translations for; while I did like most of my last-go-around work on 102-104, it was good to make some updates to match my current style. With that, of course, comes a brief little Season-ending lull period; I'll be doing a little housekeeping to correct a few ending-credit typos in episodes 83 and 89, and a minor sub-styling correction in episode 81, which I'll post on NAC once done. After that, I'll putting in a little more work on a special project in progress that I'll hopefully post about soon over the next few weeks, along with work to prep for finalizing Season 3, including touching up my last textless edit for Teardrop V1 (which wasn't released officially textless and has Judai all sad with Johan, used from 105-112) and some work on some other side projects. All told, thinking I'll start small with work on 105 starting later this month, since a clip-show episode works well to come back with and all, lol; stay tuned!

#rbs would be appreciated for reach :)#yugioh #ygo #GX #yugioh gx #yu-gi-oh gx #ygo gx #yu-gi-oh!#yu-gi-oh! gx #Judai Yuki #Takuma Saiou #Yuki Judai #Saiou Takuma #my subs #also i love the art in 104 #though it is a bit funny seeing the transition in how Judai's drawn from the recap of Sung Min Nam's 103 jumping to Kyoung Soo Lee's 104 #OST choices were also pretty on point #with Rival's Onslaught being used for the 103 recap among my favorites #[editing the other posts with Tumblr's new editor being A LOT is suffering]

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vanibear · 10 months

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jack and crow are an underrated duo imo

#I have words to say abt them but Im too tired remind me tmrw #yea the jack imposter episode made me kinda emotional.how upset crow was thinking that what he said when he was mad couldve been his last #words to jack :(#also how half a recap episode was spent with them lying on the ground bc the scrap table jack built collapsed #and they got too distracted reminiscing to get up 💀#yugioh #yugioh 5ds #kat post

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phoenixfarce5 · 5 months

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Stoked to announce The Kuribros podcast is live! Listen as I and my bestie talk about the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. We have insights into the official card game and the original manga to guide our journey as we set out to recap the entire series, both subbed and dubbed. The show uploads every other week, runs about an hour, and we cover 4-5 episodes per episode.

Podcast Link

Twitter

Instagram

#Yu-Gi-Oh!#yugioh #ygo #podcast #anime recap

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aliothbuzzsawshark · 1 year

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Me: ah I can’t wait to watch The Melancholy Of Yuo when it gets dubbed. Yuo is one of my favorite characters, so it would be really sad if I can’t watch his birthday episode. They’re (dub team) probably gonna change stuff, but whateve-

Me, looking through the episodes that are listed from Hulu (where I watch Sevens) and realizing an episode is gone: oh, that’s weird, but Hulu also didn’t list a few episodes until later, so this is probably fine.

Me, remembering that the dub cut out a recap episode from earlier in Sevens, and that The Melancholy Of Yuo is half recap: OH NO WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE-

#yugioh sevens #yuo goha #talks with buzzsaw #crying right now #Like I get it it’s a recap episode #and people don’t like recaps #but it also starts out the foreshadowing of Yuga Goha and what happened between him and Yuo #PLUS MAGICAL GIRL ROMIN AND GAKUTO #Praying on my hands and knees that it was just not put on yet #This is written very quickly sorry if I can’t spell I’m just really sad now #Catboy tag💛

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overobsessedfanboy23 · 2 years

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Okay, episode 59 was definitely a recap but it also brought back the Knights of Hanoi and had a lot more plot to it than the other recap episodes. It’s really the only recap episode so far that probably would’ve existed whether there were production troubles or not because it actually fits the story and tone. So overall, good job, Vrains, you figured out how to make a recap bearable.

#yugioh #ygo #yugioh vrains #ygo vrains #vrains #it's also just been a while since a recap #so that helps

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blackfeatherdragon · 2 years

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my fatal flaw is always watching the recap episodes in case there's anything remotely plot relevant in them, only to be disappointed with myself for watching them when there isn't.

#anime #recap episode #this is about yugioh gx #i hit the second recap episode last night

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projectcatzo · 4 months

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Society has progressed beyond the need for anime recap episodes

#in a literal sense obviously but also in the sense that most shows are 12-24 episodes there is nothing to recap this isn't yugioh in 2002 #anme

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batmanisagatewaydrug · 4 months

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something nice!!!

some friends that I dearly love but have grown apart from due to circumstance (living far apart and leading wildly different lives) reunited for the first time in FIVE YEARS over zoom and did a 2023 recap PowerPoint party! One of them studies whales and went into detail about their research and one of them does community outreach work and scheduled a coat drive and one of them won a yugioh tournament. It was so wonderful and we’re planning on making it an annual thing to keep in touch!!

aaaah that's so fun! what a cool and fun idea :)

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steve0discusses · 6 months

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S5 Ep : I don't know the episode numbers anymore I never wrote them down, so from here on out, I'm just going to number up from my previous post. So I guess episode 49

Fun fact I finished this post a week ago and then never pressed send. I can blame this on a lot of things, (work, illness, brain fog, etc) but at this point we just know it's the universe trying to keep me from finishing S5 of my Yugioh reblog, lmao.

So, last we left off, Sad Seto was next to die.

What makes this extra weird is that the other Seto is going to just watch this entire thing happen. He apparently didn't have enough traumatic disassociating while watching his Blue Eyes Wife die, now he will disassociate from watching himself go out in a blaze of glory, too.

Sad Seto's strategy against Zorc is not really what you'd expect out of the #2 of Egypt's court. Although...I guess before everyone biffed it, Seto was more like #5? #6?

He's above Mana I feel. Barely. Mostly because Mana probably isn't the right age to legally work, even in ancient Egypt when the working age is like...if you can walk.

But he was apparently so busy doing Aknadin's taxes that he's decided it's good judgement to throw himself at a 800 ft tall dragon/crotch/man.

for his credit, Sun Tzu's art of war hasn't been written yet.

And Sad Seto realizes his true purpose, which is that he has a smarter, stronger, and more powerful girlfriend (ish.) Which is a running theme on this show, as we all know.

In a bizarre cut that I can't believe they left on US TV...other than I think they couldn't cut this any other way, the penis dragon attached to Zork extended it's neck up to grab Blue eyes by her neck and just fling her into the ground, killing her instantly.

I don't like that the neck can extend longer. I don't like that it's a function of the dragon crotch. They knew. They knew what this looked like. Thanks, I hate it.

Also what an embarrassing way for Seto's past self to die. Truly the hieroglyphs about this event will be wild, and thousands of years later, Grandma Muto probably looked at this event etched into stone and just thought it was weird ancient pervert stuff.

Sorry if you were thinking Sad Seto would recover last minute and realize he's like the most OP person in Yugioh. He instead rotted from his hand and joined the rest of our Egyptian cast in Shadow Hell.

Leaving us with just Mana. And like kudos to her, but how on EARTH did she survive so freakin long!? Like of all of them, I thought Seto would be the last one. Not Mana. Not in a million years did I think it'd be the girl who hid in a pot.

But youknow maybe that's why she survived?

And then Bakura casually walked away from the only Seto who matters. Which is fitting, because if memory serves, that's also what Yami did to Seto for like half of the Battle City tourney.

It's such a weird strange bod on this dragon. It's such a strange bod. He's both got kind of a belly, but also is ripped to shreds. Such a weird bod.

In case you were like "We haven't given Seto enough motivation," we also toss in a few nearly dead brothers just to make sure we have properly traumatized this boy to the point where he'd duel someone who isn't Yugi Muto.

Seto decided magic exists 6 minutes ago, and he's already better at magic than Yugi Muto who's had access to it for YEARS.

Like he learned about magic in a different culture, a different time, a different language, and now he's fighting the final boss.

But it's Seto, so I buy it. He would speedrun his life like this.

That's the dialogue of the show where he says his first words were "neutron blast attack" and youknow...he probably has very few memories of himself as a child since his parents died and his other family put him up for adoption...but he knows his first words?

That, or Seto likes making his brand a reality by making up whatever nonsense it takes to make that brand legit. Which I can also see him doing.

Also please don't look at this foreshortened hand, don't look at it, ignore that this happened.

So thanks to Bakura's weird choice to drag Seto into this universe in the first place, now Bakura has to fight Seto and his 3 blue eyes that would not have existed here otherwise.

++++++ME RANTING ABOUT THE SETO ARC FEEL FREE TO SKIP++++

TBH it kinda makes the whole Sad Seto arc feel kind of like it didn't need to exist. Like this is the Seto fight that matters. This one right here, and although they share a name, it's not with the same guy who fought Zorc at the beginning of this episode.

And like I could add it to a list of problems with this season. But Sad Seto started out so interesting, and then forgot. It was like he only existed to introduce the dragon, and not explain anything at all about the nature of Seto Kaiba we know and love. Like the possession of Aknadin can be a parallel to how Seto was raised following Gozaburo's footsteps, but youknow...that's all old territory.

Like, I wish I had any sort of new growth from the interaction of either of the Seto's together in the same room, much like we've been getting from Yami facing his past self. Yami's been growing a lot, he's been facing his demons, but Seto? Seto's been walking around this desert trying find wifi.

(which like he did find a "wifey" which is almost wifi but wasn't as helpful because she was dead)

The Seto Kaiba who is fighting Bakura right now, is the same exact guy we saw at the end of the last arc against Zeigfried Von Schroeder.

Which means the reason that Seto is now souped up and capable of going up against Bakura isn't because of anything we witnessed here in this arc, but because of the weird horse guy last arc who taught him how to put up a better firewall.

And maybe there was a draft where Seto decides he is a spiritual reincarnation of the Pharaoh of Egypt. Maybe there was a draft where he gained a new ability. Maybe there was a draft where he realized the gravity of what was happening and wanted to save the world.

But it ain't this draft, unfortunately.

Seto is here not because of an internal growth reason, but because he was on a tablet in S2, and we have to know where that plot thread went to have an ending...but the show rewrote what it initially said in S2.

Like in the OG timeline, it was Seto who killed Pharaoh. But here we found out it was actually Aknadin who possessed Seto to kill Pharaoh. (and at some point in that fight, Pharaoh stuck his soul in a box and sealed away Zorc)

Sad Seto was apparently a chill bro the entire time. Just a nice guy who arrested half of Cairo and had a sort-of-girlfriend for about 8 hours before she biffed it.

And I would have been OK with that, if it were more interesting than what we initially thought happened in the past: where we thought it was a kickass Seto launching a coup. But unfortunately, it's not, instead it's a boy who started out powerless, and continued to be powerless despite working in Pharaoh's literal court. He didn't even have the power to not get possessed.

And I am sure there were other drafts, and endings are hard, and the author did get hella hospitalized while he wrote this season, animation is a miracle of many moving parts and budgets, and we were lucky to even get an ending to this show. So I don't want to sound like I'm complaining when there are so many worse directions this show could have gone. I'm just a little surprised it went this direction, mostly.

But say what you will about Yugioh, it doesn't like to be predictable, doesn't it?

+++++++++++++++++++OK I'M DONE++++++++++++++++++++++

Speaking of characters who haven't gained anything from being here, Tristan is no longer possessed!

Tristan begs his apologies and Yugi takes it gracefully. Which means, it's time for the main character of this entire show to finally re-enter the plot.

And they do so, in style.

Y'all I remember being excited about the look and style of extreme sports, but I do not remember this many heelies in the 00's.

Anyway, this is the link to read these in chrono order, you know the drill. See you next time to see yet another girlfriend biff it!

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

#yugioh #yugi muto #seto kaiba #bakura #yu gi oh #photo recap #S5 #YGO #theif king bakura #Tristan taylor #zorc necrophades

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vertigo-express · 7 months

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Megaman Battle Network: Staying Connected (Part 0)

A few months ago as of this writing, in April 2023, Capcom released the six main Battle Network titles of the Megaman franchise as a collection. The collection went on to sell 1.32 million units in a matter of months, making it one of the best selling releases of the franchise.

This, of course, isn't actually surprising looking at the whole course of affairs surrounding the Battle Network branch of Megaman. Upon its debut, it steadily sold higher units peaking with the fourth game, it received a serialised manga, anime and ranges of merch becoming a miniature juggernaut for Capcom. Nevertheless, the subseries earned the ire of many for a variety of reasons. Accused by some of chasing the card game fad kickstarted by Pokémon and YuGiOh, for the release schedule or for simply "not being Megaman". Of these criticisms, the latter holds weakest. What is "Megaman"? Battle Network keeps the main idea of Megaman: A young blue character of a artificial nature. Yet, Battle Network is of a different genre and worldview than the original games. To look at why Battle Network differs from this, we need to look at why Battle Network exists and sort of position Megaman was in when BN was in production during 1999-2001 and recap the franchise's history leading up to that point. Mainly because combining this section with how Battle Network evolved the franchise would make the post simply too long read for certain people coming across this and because I think it's more effective to talk about this topic in this manner.

Capcom released Megaman, or Rockman as he was known, in Japan in 1987 for the NES system. It was a 2d platformer that brought forth innovative ideas from both the gameplay and worldview. It was set in a world reminiscent of many old mangas such as, but not limited to: Astro Boy, Kikaider, Tetsujin 28, Cyborg 009 etc. The player character, Megaman, was a robot boy named Rock who bravely volunteers to converted to a fighting machine to put a stop to rampaging robots sabotaged by Dr. Wily. The game was not initially successful but the staff that had become attached to the characters wanted to make a sequel. A sequel was published in 1988, and in 1990, another sequel was released that expanded and added on many features. From that point on, after Megaman 3 until 1993, Megaman had yearly instalments to the NES system, steadily refining its gameplay and also the worldview.

The setting looked bright and poppy, but there was a element of sadness and loneliness inherent to Rock. Unlike other platformer protagonists, Rock has no real allies or friends beyond his non-combatant "family", his pacifist nature and innocence mark him out from his peers. The gameplay developed a steady tempo that rewarded skilled players with a seamless and satisfying sense of travel and combat. Despite this, Megaman was still on the NES, and the whole world had moved on to the next generation of consoles. Capcom knew this too, and in 1992, they made their own plans to bring Megaman to the next generation of consoles.

Actually, another thing that helped to make Megaman stand out, and still does to an extent even today, is his ability to assimilate the abilities of his defeated enemies to use in combat and stage exploration. Essentially, the core of Megaman both as a playable character and a narrative character is his capacity to quickly adapt to differing situations. This would be expanded on further with the next step to the franchise with Megaman X which exemplifies that adapting is what makes Megaman, Megaman: the ability to express the same set of core ideas in a new and creative fashion while adding new elements.

The X series takes place a century after the Classic series, wherein the original Rock's creator, Dr. Light, creates a robot that can make decisions on its own and develop human emotions, Megaman X, and seals him away. When he is rediscovered, X's schematics are used to create Replicant Androids or Reploid/Repliroids. Unfortunately, the humans do not appreciate the scope of reploids possessing human like sentience or emotions enough and so treat them like tools. X volunteers as a Maverick Hunter (Irregular Hunter), a military-police force that destroys reploids who have harmed humans or are seen as a threat to humanity claimed by the authorities to be due to an error in their electronic brains.

X, like Rock, is also a pacifist but possessing genuine emotions is even more torn over his perceived duty of hunting Mavericks. He wishes nothing more than for humanity and reploids to co-exist, but in X3 and X4, X begins to question why humans force reploids to war with one another and then what a "Maverick" even is after realizing that the antagonists of the game were only defending themselves from execution for a crime they were misblamed for. His only friend, Zero, is a contrast, duty-bound and hyper competent, these attributes are ultimately, the cause for his infamous mental snap in X4. By X4, he is made to kill two close friends, one who was buying time for his allies to escape, and his friend's sister who attempts to kill Zero out of revenge. Zero is also the swan song of Classic series antagonist Dr. Wily: Created to destroy all robots. The discovery of his background, and his current duty for human society causes him to believe he is unable to change or evolve past his role as a destroyer.

In these games, there is a greater emphasis on high speed action and combat; these facets are further expressed by implementation of faux-RPG elements. X begins the game easily losing a life from very few hits, lack of combat options and is generally inflexible. As the game progresses, X can gain armor parts that boost his abilities and grow in power. You start the game weak and frail but end the game a walking war machine, reflecting X's ability to evolve. I talk of only the first 4 X series games, because these games were the only ones in existence when BN was conceived, and the core staff for Battle Network only worked on these four X games. The later X series ran concurrent to Battle Network but greatly suffered in many aspects - they simply did not understand what made Megaman, Megaman. Even by the time of X4, the original plot details as written by Keiji Inafune and Hayato Kaji were allegedly altered by producer and scriptwriter Koji Okohara to lessen the moral ambiguity of the game's conflict.

The classic series continued to the next generation of consoles as well, emphasising the subtle tragic undertones of the series. In Megaman 7, Rock befriends a robot named Bass/Forte, however Bass/Forte was a mole for Wily, betrayed his trust and destroyed Light's laboratory. Bass/Forte goes on to become a major antagonist for the remainder of the series. The next major classic series game contrasts this by introducing Duo, a benevolent force who fights with and respects Megaman for fighting alone for peace for so long. Spin off games released on arcade have Dr. Light and Rock discuss how robots are able to free themselves from human misuse and the final Classic game prior to Battle Network, Megaman and Bass (Rockman and Forte) tackles human mistreatment of robots head on. Even then, Megaman was still Megaman, and the design sense gradually evolved to be more mature and closer to contemporary anime while still maintaining the fundamentals.

By 1996 however, the huge niche for 2d platformers that peaked in the 3rd and 4th generation of console markets had dwindled with the advent of 3d technology and lack of interest in 2d games in the fifth generation. Once more, Megaman had to evolve or risk becoming dormant. It was also coming close to the franchise's 10th anniversary. Current series director, producer, character designer and story writer Keiji Inafune and other key figures observed this time frame in particular. A 3d series with the mindset of appealing to what they thought Megaman fans who had grown up with the series would want to see as well as well as a fresh break was created. It was perhaps the most daring directions to take a 3d Megaman in at the time but one that remained true to the series' roots...

In 1997, a decade on from the original Megaman, Megaman Legends/Rockman DASH was released on the Playstation. Set in a world of water where civilisation resides in islands and relies on the ruins of the past for sustenance, the series appears devoid of what people mistake for "Megaman". Apart from Volnutt and Roll Caskett's likeness to the original Rock and Roll robots, the game has no other iconography. In the original Japanese version, the name "Rockman" is not even said until the final boss fight who reveals that the society present in the MML world is built upon the foundation of a deeply dark secret: both heavily implied to be the conflicts of the X series and a trope employed in a variety of Japanese media throughout the 1990s reflecting the state of the nation at the time. These wars led to humanity's escape to the Moon, their extinction and the dominance of Carbons/Decoys. A perfect combination of organic and artificial life. The MML series was the brunt of Capcom's focus on the Megaman franchise for the remainder of the 90s but failed to sell well next to its high budget to afford voice acting, 3d animation and high production values.

Even though the setting is radically different to Classic and X, Rock Volnutt aka Megaman Trigger is still "Megaman". He isn't a volunteer for peace, he is a scavenger for resources to keep society powered. Simultaneously, only stops evildoers, because he simply wants to. He carries the same sense of justice that Rock and X before him had and yet also carries a deep sense of loneliness in him. This is carried to the other major characters; his assistant Roll Caskett and his rival Tron Bonne. All three are ultimately lonely people and rely on interactions with one another to remain encouraged in their respective goals. In the sequel, Volnutt is able to interact with Roll in ways that make her happy, and this overall connects to the climax of that game. Even though Carbons did not naturally occur, do they still deserve to inherit the Earth, have they outlived the meaning of their own existence or rose above it? The connection between player character and non player character and how they might feel about keeping the carbons alive is boosted by npc interactions, you can perform side quests that build a connection to the setting - the game rewards you for this by giving you resources to power up Volnutt much like X. Legends itself leans in much harder to being an rpg game with classic dungeon/overworld layouts and a heavy emphasis on its plot.

In fact, Battle Network was pitched right when the core Megaman team were finishing work on Legends 2, and the title page for the pitch perhaps sums up perfectly what Battle Network and every other subseries before and after it was - a attempt to both express the same core ideas and evolve it. You can view it here

Can you begin to see how the prior points begin to all add up? Like Legends, Battle Network takes place in a completely different world, one that is a split timeline from the other three, but is still fundamentally Megaman - there was a clear vision to evolve the series further in a way that would resonate with a contemporary audience and bring something new to the table too. You can learn more in the next part here

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