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twisted-art-wounders · 2 years

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YGO AU Leviathan Rising

Yugi learns to let his rage out in a safer way.

Chapter 9- Let It all Out

Yugi jolted up quickly letting out a small yelp as Levi moved back a bit to give him space.

“Le-Levi! I'm sorry I didn't mean to break my promise! I fell asleep but I didn't end up back here! I-” Yugi was panicked since he knew Levi would be furious with him for not coming back.

“It's fine Yugi.” was all Leviathan said as he placed a hand on Yugi's shoulder and rubbed it tenderly “I was concerned when you did not return as quickly as I'd hopped but I know it wasn't your fault. The Nameless Pharaoh kept you.”

“Ex-exactly...You knew I was with the other me?” Yugi asked a bit confused only for Levi to nod.

“Indeed...We are still attached you know so even the smallest fragments of your soul I can feel and follow...Besides you did use my seal.” Levi grinned resting his chin on his hand and leaning in closer with a snide smile.

“Y-yeah but I only used it to help the other me snap out of his guilt!” Yugi was sweating a bit not liking how the god was staring at him “Are you the reason why I turned into that...thing?” Yugi was referring to monstrous form he took during the duel. The god grinned wider and nodded.

“But it did feel good, didn't it?” Leviathan's hand moved further towards Yugi's neck which gave him a bit of shutter at first.

“What? No! Why would being evil feel good to me?” Yugi pulled away form his touch and started to move away form him “I was just influenced by the power and you!”

Leviathan chuckled and crawled back over to Yugi, who looked more nervous than before but tried to stay clam.

“You humans are all the same...you don't want to look evil to each other out of pride but really, you're all just in denial. The human heart can harbour both good and evil in it, but you spend so much time trying to hide away form your evil thoughts they come out in... other ways.”

Yugi listened as Leviathan's words started to really sink into him; was he too in denial? Was he evil too? He did feel anger and rage at times, he wanted justice against those who wronged him or his friends but was it really justice? Or revenge?

Levi continued his speech.

“My stones allow that evil a path to come through, but it is up to each individual human to choose how much it overtakes them. Those with weak wills always fall into their own despair and so the evil in them grows and consumes them! So few of you have the will to master the darkness, but once you learn to embrace your evil instead of fearing it only then can you truly find paradise~”

“Paradise?” Yugi blinked.

“For each human it is different...But I guess you can call it inner peace? I know you do not feel that in your heart do you Yugi?” Levi tilted his head watching him with those gold sleeted eyes.

“What do you mean of course I'm not peaceful right now! Not only is our world being in danger of being destroyed by a maniac cult leader but the duel monsters world as well! My friends are in danger of being attacked and having their souls taken to feed you! My other self is still wavering in his resolve so much and he's the only one who can save us! Timeaus wont rust me anymore! And let's not forget I'm the new vessel of the god who’s going to destroy everything! And you know whose fault it is!?” Yugi shouted and stood as tears started to build in the corner of his eyes.

“It's Mine! Because I didn't stand up to the other me and stop him form playing that card! Because I was too weak to pull him back again!” Yugi held his fists tightly and brought them up to his face.

Around them the world had changed; playing behind them was a painful memory for Yugi. Back at Duelist Kingdom when the other Yugi faced off against Seto Kaiba on the roof of the castle. Kaiba was ready to die if he'd lost the duel and other Yugi was going to let him do it!

All just to win the game. But Yugi had stepped in.

Yugi pulled the other Yugi back form the edge of no return; his other self was willing to put his pride of winning before a human life. Winning, that was all it ever came down to with him...And once again the other Yugi put his pride before everything else even Yugi...

“I had thought he'd changed...he did change! But...but he still did it anyway! And I just stood there and let it happen!” Yugi let the tears run down his cheeks again

“That's all I ever do, isn't it? Because I'm not strong like him or Joey or Kaiba...because I can't speak my mind like Tea or Tristan...All my friends could have...would have done something to stop him! but I didn't...because I'm too weak.” Yugi fell back and sat down pulling his legs closer to his chest.

Levi come closer to Yugi and stood before him, as he watched Yugi try to shrink deeper into himself. This is what he did best right? Just stay quiet and watch while the other Yugi, the ideal Yugi was a hero...that's why he was chosen wasn't it?

Levi got down on one knee and took both of Yugi's shoulders in his hands, moving them from the shoulders and to his face, pulling his head up so he could investigate his sorrow filled orchid eyes.

“You don't need to feel this way...not here. In your mind. Because in your heart you are the strongest soul I've ever encountered...I did not pick a weak vessel. I chose the strongest.” Levi used his thumb to wipe the tears form his cheeks.

“I will help you find your strength. I'll help you let it out.” Leviathan took Yugi's hands and pulled him to his feet, with a wave of his free hand he made their whole landscape wide and blank like an open canvas.

“You see you feel as though you live in a world made of cardboard, correct? So fragile and so delicate...You must keep your anger and rage in because if you don't then someone will get hurt.”

“What are you talking about? The world is way harder than cardboard...” Yugi rubbed his eyes looking around at the blank world, an endless void that went on forever.

“But remember Yugi you are not in the real world right now. This world can take it. This world is one of your design, think of it like...a video game!” Levi held onto Yugi's shoulders again and smiled.

“My own design...my own game...” Yugi looked around again as his imagination was started to swirl slightly.

“I think we have a rare opportunity for you to cut lose! And show me just how strong you really are...” Levi whispered into Yugi's ears.

“Now close your eyes...you need to concentrate. Now breathe and think about what you just told me; about feeling weaker compared to the nameless pharaoh to everyone, about everything weighting down in your mind, the frustration of not being about to do anything!”

Yugi closed his eyes and started to breathe deeper; he could feel his anger... it was prickly and hot in the back of his mind like a compressing against it and squeezing him. He could feel his frustration closing in around him like a rope binding itself to his chest and tightening like a python.

“Can you feel it? Anger is starting to bubble. All that hostility you feel about being weak. Now YOU are powerful! You can do anything you want, and no one can stop you...You have the power! Break your chains and unleash your beast!” Leviathan's voice echoed in Yugi.

His heart was racing as he felt a great storm that had been building in him finally hit over the horizon and barrel its way out of his heart shattering the ties that bond him.

The world once again changed this time they where in a city, Domnio city to be exact. Levi looked around as they stood in the middle of the city square. The place Yugi and Levi had first met; Yugi stood with a card in his hand, but it wasn't Timeaus in his hand this time.

“I just got this new monster that even the other me hasn't seen...But this card called to me like it knew I was meant to have it.” Yugi looked down at the monster and could feel power pulsing from it in his hand.

“This card...I feel it will help me let out my anger...You wanted me to show you my strength Levi? Well, here it is!” Yugi held the card up to the sky, as he did a glowing red light came form it and shot up before coming back and hitting Yugi with it's full force enveloping Yugi in the light.

“Merge with me Gandora and let us become one!”

Levi stood back as he watched the light enter Yugi'. His body rose up and started to change he was growing at such a fast rate his clothes tore to shreds He grew a long-spiked tail with red jewels on each side, the same jewels started to grow along his limbs as his hands and feet started to grow claws and change to a dark blue. His body did the same as a massive red jewel grew out of his chest, more of his skin became scale like. At the sides of his jaws come two prominent spikes, followed by his teeth changing into fangs. A large horn grew form his forehead also aliened with the same red jewels. Finally, a pair of matching dragon wings burst form his back, Yugi let out a earth shattering roar before slamming down into the earth. The new beast rose up again this time his enormous form cased shadows that darkened the streets of the city, he towered over every sky scrapper near him.

Levi stood back in awe at the massive kaiju sized Yugi, a single clawed foot was big enough to crush a building and then some. Yugi looked down with his new golden eyes, he could barely make out Levi at this height.

A grin came cross his face now as he asked, “Tables seem to have turned Levi...how strong do you think I am now?”

Leviathan's face matched Yugi's smug grin as he said, “Show me.”

Yugi's eyes glowed red as he pulled back one of his massive, clawed fists and brought it down on the tiny Leviathan who only stayed in place as the full force of the fist hit the earth. An earth-shattering impact levelled a portion of the city; buildings collapsed, roads buckled and broke, cars and other larger objects along with other debris flew all around. When the dust settled Yugi pulled back his fist only to leave a massive crater that had to be 60ft deep at least.

Yugi investigated the crater expecting to see Levi on the ground or maybe as a splat shape but in the centre stood Leviathan as if he didn't hit him at all.

Yugi's eyes widened a bit as Levi dusted himself off.

“I guess that was pay back for when I attacked you the first time. That is fair...But I said I wanted to see your strength.” Levi's eyes glowed now as his form started to grow, his skin too changing to match his widely spreading scales; teal spikes ran along his back as his fangs grew out, his golden eyes glowed as he matched Yugi's in height in an instant.

“Let's have some fun!” Levi roared.

To Be Continued...

#yugi #levi #yugioh #leviathan rising #waking the dragons #au

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magpiejay1234 · 1 month

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I guess I can talk about the Takato/Juri relationship, but Konaka flip-flops with it, and given the later canon stories he wrote for Tamers timeline, I'm pretty sure he felt rather disappointed that he didn't default for the main guy/main girl ship with Takato/Ruki. Kind of shame really, considering how well the relationship is written.

Also, though Konaka put lots of thought to Ruki's character for the early part of Tamers, it seems some of the remaining resentment from Adventure 02's production left their mark, since he didn't realize her initial arc is kind of a speed-run of Ken's Kaiser storyline. This gets funnier since due to executive meddling, we insert Ryo to Ruki's story, just like how we did with Ken.

In the same vein, given Willis's later characterization in the 02 post-canon stuff, I wonder if there was some weird cross-pollination between his character, and Jiangliang's. Jiangliang's later characterization in the aforementioned post-canon Tamers works is quite different, so I suspect there has been some cross-pollination, but that didn't stick of course.

Of course, we may need to discuss about Guilmon. Its design was made way before Tamers, during Adventure 02 era, same as other main Digimon (of course, besides Impmon, rest of the partner Digimon are straight up Adventure era Digimon that didn't get much screentime, so Toei could reap the merch, and use old character reference artwork). However, in-canon its design is humorous, since it is literally an older-looking Agumon, but with Devilman wing ears, and Unit-01-like Berserk Mode. Of course, as others noted, it is indeed one of the edgy Virus-Types, used by the Adventure villains, and Ken's partner Wormmon. Considering Devilman inspiration for most Devil Man Digimon, this implies Takato reads Go Nagai's very erotic stuff, and outside of his friend circle, is actually an edgelord. He is truly the Digimon fanbase's collective manifestation.

Another thing, though the Dub is more explicit about this, Takato, and to a lesser extent, his friend group, are supposed to represent the cross-media aspect of Digimon, specifically the animé, and toy merch, similar to how Ruki represents the TCG, and Jiangliang represents the video game part. JesuOtaku's commentary would give you to wrong idea, as it is true that there are no explicit references to Adventure besides Hirokazu's shirt (and Cathode Tamer reference in the Japanese original), but it is pretty obvious that is what being referenced. The fact that they don't explicitly reference Adventure is a good thing, though, since otherwise the cast would be too savy about the upcoming events (and basically undo most of the plot before it occurs), but there would be big continuity flub with Ryo, bigger than the currently existing one. (Ryo was planned to be added to third series beforehand, but Konaka's statements imply he didn't initially know this, so this obscuring of Adventure references was likely not planned in advance.)

That said, if by random chance they gave the option of making a Tamers reboot to Atsuhiro Tomioka, I can immediately expect for him to make an entire season about these weird continuity flubs, and make Tamers gang too genre savy, only for them stumble into weirder stuff, turning Tamers from Evangelion for Kids to RahXephon for Kids. (Also Tomioka would probably give all the Devas their Ultimate/Mega forms to match Andiramon, just like how he expanded various antagonist Digimon lines in the Adventure reboot.)

****

Another thing to notice, which we briefly mentioned, is of course Guilmon's creation is directly reused by YGO GX for Neos cards' creation. I don't know how much of a popular trope this was in 2000s, the fans of the franchise bringing their OCs into their reality to become major parts of franchise in-universe, since both YGO, and Digimon utilize a lot of fan art contests for making new cards, obviously less so these days, due to legal complications.

Big difference, of course, Guilmon was designed as the protagonist partner Digimon way before Tamers was greenlit, whereas Neos, and its associated cards were designed in part to look like a fan's creation, with Neo-Spacians referencing DC's Super-Friends alongside various older animé, and Western Animations, and Neos predominantly referencing Ultraman in-universe, despite being conceptually, and visually based off Guyver.

#digimonstrosities #shitposting

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lucky-ladybugs-lovelies · 3 years

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A Fistful of Crash Town

So last night I watched A Fistful of Dollars, something I've intended on doing for some time. This is a film every Crash Town fan should watch. While the YGO Wikis are not completely accurate, one thing they do seem to have right is that Crash Town was heavily inspired by this iconic movie. There were so many things throughout the film that Crash Town referenced, it's hard to know where to begin.

Let's start with a brief summary of the film. Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name arrives in the small town of San Miguel, where two rival gangs are locked in a war for control of the town. He arrives wearing a poncho and is accosted by several bullies. He takes them out and decides to pit the gangs against each other, which results in misunderstandings and bloodshed on both sides and eventually causes the death of the less powerful of the gangs. He has a showdown with the other gang leader in the town square to save his friend and successfully defeats him. With the town free, he heads on out to his next adventure.

Fans of Crash Town can immediately pick out references like the classic poncho, the warring gangs, and the town square showdown. There are many more.

Even the names themselves are references in some cases. The anime gives us Sergio, for the director Sergio Leone, and the game Over the Nexus gives us Clint, for our star. There is one other important name, and we'll get into that in a bit.

Upon arriving in town, Clint asks which of the gangs is the most powerful. He is told the Rojo Brothers, and he sets about trying to join them with a show of his strength by killing the bullies from the rival gang who tormented him and his mule. He discovers the sadistic and lustful leader of the Rojo gang is holding a mysterious woman hostage, and later he is able to reunite her with her husband and son and get them safely out of town.

As with Crash Town, the more powerful and cruel gang is the one most widely developed. We see many instances of the Rojo Brothers' sadism, including gunning down an entire military convoy trying to deliver some gold. By contrast, the sheriff John Baxter's group is more mysterious and not as well-developed. Baxter certainly doesn't seem to be a sadist, even if he isn't strictly upholding the law. We're told the Baxters are gun-runners, but we don't see them engaging in criminal activities or shooting people down for no reason. They're apparently participating in the war and hiring gunslingers, but judging from the Rojo gang's attacks on them throughout the film, I would venture to say that Baxter is hiring men for self-defense and not to cruelly gun his enemies down in the streets. They certainly come across as more sympathetic, if either gang is so, and towards the end of the film the entire gang is massacred by the brothers. Baxter's widow screams at them for shooting her husband and her son, as they were unarmed. She is then shot down as well.

Crash Town featured two brothers, Malcolm and Lawton. The movie has three. The movie opens with the most powerful and evil brother currently away, but he joins the action before long. This character is definitely the Lawton counterpart, despite what Crash Town does with his name.

And so we come to the third important name, the only character name from the movie that is retained for Crash Town. This evil brother's name is Ramon. Of course, for Crash Town the name Ramon was switched and given to the John Baxter counterpart. Was this irony or complete seriousness? Baxter was the sheriff, the one possible force for law in town. The brothers muse at one point that the Baxters want peace in town. The name Ramon means "protector." Instead of leaving the name with the Lawton character, where it would be a true irony, it was given to the one man who was standing in the way of a complete, totalitarian takeover of Crash Town. Ramon/Radley was indeed Crash Town's protector until Kalin finally stepped up to the task himself and took Lawton down. Who knows how long Ramon held off the takeover before Kalin even arrived? As bad off as Crash Town was when Yusei got there, it became far worse after Malcolm and Lawton assumed total control.

Some may protest that Radley was part of the problem in town. Technically this is true, but the situation is not cut-and-dry. Radley's Bunch is not as well-developed as Malcolm's Crew and instead, they are much more mysterious. We never see their part of the dyne mine and we don't know that they torture their miners like Malcolm's Crew does theirs. Canon never says or shows this. For all we know, they may indeed be deliberately trying to protect the town as well as to make money from the mine.

It's interesting that while Clint's character is assaulted by members of Baxter's gang, in Crash Town Yusei is cornered by Malcolm's Crewmembers instead of Radley's Bunch. Was this change deliberate? It certainly makes more sense, since Malcolm's Crew is repeatedly shown to be bullies while Radley's Bunch is not. And it makes Radley's Bunch look more sympathetic than their counterparts, Baxter's gang.

Since this is YGO, the entire gang doesn't get wiped out when Malcolm and Lawton decide to assume complete control. But Radley does meet his fate similarly to John Baxter, when Lawton challenges him to a duel and then doesn't let him get off one move, instead using effect damage to cruelly and painfully take him out on the first turn. The uncut version of this scene shows him being shot over and over by a Gatling gun-wielding Duel Monster. It is gruesome and horrifying and is very similar to some of the massacre scenes in A Fistful of Dollars. At the end of the round, Radley collapses unconscious.

Unlike poor Yusei, who is "befriended" by the traitorous Barbara, Clint's character makes a genuine friend in the saloon owner. There doesn't really seem to be a Barbara character in the film. The closest would be the woman Ramon is holding hostage out of lust. In Crash Town, Lawton certainly took a shine to Barbara, although there it was mutual (and the dub has it that they're married).

Even the adorable boy West is represented in A Fistful of Dollars; the hostage woman Marisol's son is likely whom West was based on. The child is always agonizing over not being able to see his mother and keeps trying to get over to her. Marisol, hence, becomes a female version of Sergio/Jordan, West and Nico's father who becomes a prisoner in Malcolm's sadistic part of the mine.

For the town square climax, Clint's friend the saloon owner is abducted and held hostage, his arms strung above his head as he stands near a wooden pillar. Someone cracks a whip. This certainly brings to mind Lawton and Barbara tying up West and Nico to a pillar in the town square, and who could forget Barbara's whip? Clint takes Ramon Rojo out during a climatic gun fight and he drops dead. It's not quite as iconic as the moment where Lawton is defeated by Kalin and crashes to the ground, but at least it's a relief. The friend is rescued and the film ends as happily as is possible considering everything that happened.

There are other parallels, such as that the Rojo Brothers like explosives just as Lawton does. At one point Clint's character is captured and tortured by them, which could be thought of as a bit of a parallel with the mine and Malcolm's Crew torturing the miners. There is an intense scene where he tries to escape their grasp. Earlier in the film, he also overhears the brothers plotting to kill him, paralleling that Malcolm's true plan was to betray Yusei all along. We also have a live body being transported in a coffin when Clint hides in one.

All in all, this is an important piece of movie history that deserves to be remembered as a classic and as what launched both Clint Eastwood's movie career and the spaghetti Western genre. Crash Town keeps its legacy alive and fresh. And for me personally, I am just so excited by the parallels running between John Baxter and Radley. Maybe things were deliberate, maybe not, but to me it looks like more possible evidence that Radley was indeed intended to quietly be considered the town's first protector. Baxter having been the sheriff, and Radley's original name Ramon meaning "protector," and seeing how Crash Town fell apart without him there to push back against Malcolm, all says it loud and clear to me.

#yugioh 5ds #radley #ramon #lawton #malcolm #a fistful of dollars #clint eastwood #crashtown #crash town

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higuchimon · 3 years

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[fanfic] Not A Good Job

He slipped in through the window, sneering at how easy this was. For all that this Haou had a monstrous reputation as a duelist, he didn't seem very aware of how to keep unwanted guests from entering his home.

Snowdun kept his tail tucked close to himself, ears perked and nose drawing in air, ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble. But so far, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He could tell that there were spirits in the area, but this was the castle of a warlord. Spirits were all over the place.

So carefully he moved forward, finding the areas that would leave no trace of his passing. He passed rooms where people talked to one another about whatever the servants of Haou spoke about, none of them noticing anything as he did so. He sneered to himself again; this would probably be the easiest gig that he'd pulled off in his entire life.

Somewhere around here, he knew, would be Haou's treasure room. He didn't know what sort of treasure it was, but he knew one thing - Haou was a king, a mighty warlord who'd ruled this land for quite some time now, and that meant he had treasure gathered somewhere. Treasure that Snowdun would identify, decide if it was worth his efforts, and then return to take away.

This wasn't even close to the first time that he'd done this. Snowdun enjoyed going around to whatever fortresses he could find, scoping out their most valuable treasures, and taking them away to sell for money. He'd done it to Brron several times; the Mad King hadn't even noticed. There were other as well that he'd dealt with over the years.

Though he wasn't ever going to try sneaking into the Fallen Angel fortress ever again. He wasn't even certain which one of them had caught him, but he'd seen the look in the eyes of Fallen Angel Lucifer, and he never wanted to see that ever again.

He shook his head to dismiss the memory and focused on what he was doing now. Where would Haou keep his treasures? The most sensible place would be down below, where most people would never be able to get to. Carefully he flicked down there, bypassing guards and warriors alike, sometimes having to wait in hidden alcoves for half an hour or more at the time. He found himself quite grateful that he didn't have anywhere else to be. Not to mention that he'd neither eaten nor drunk before coming here. The last thing he would have wanted in this situation was to have a sudden call of nature and not know where the proper area was!

But slowly he made his way downward. He listened to those he passed to determine if any of them said anything that might be useful. Once he stopped, concealed by a fine tapestry, and paid strict attention to the conversation.

"Did you pick up anything interesting?"

Snowdun resisted the urge to peer from behind the tapestry and see who it was that spoke. These voices weren't familiar, but anything could provide him with information.

"A few things." This voice whispered of flame and burning death. Snowdun flinched briefly at the sound. He'd never been fond of fire. He closed his eyes, trying to ignore that and focus just on the words. "I put them in my hoard."

Hoard. Snowdun licked his lips. Hoards were treasure. Now all he needed was a way to get to the hoard. But - that could also mean - he had to look.

Slowly he peeked out, keeping himself as concealed as he could while still seeing what was going on. That wasn't easy but he did have a lot of experience. It mostly involved staying very still, since movement attracted attention.

Two monsters stood there chatting with one another. One he recognized as Skull Bishop - one of Haou's chief servants, his Death Duelists. Snowdun had made a point of ensuring he knew what all five of those, and the two or three others who were known to be close to Haou, looked like. At least this wasn't Snoww, Magician of Dark World or Freed the Dark General.

The other one, however, was even more terrifying to him. He bit back a whimper of fear at the sight of Dark Blaze Dragon, a creature of pure flame. It hovered above the floor, tail twined about itself, voice hissing with the flames that composed it. Snowdun shivered; he'd never robbed a dragon's hoard before, let alone a dragon of fire.

Never robbed a dragon's hoard before. He considered that carefully, then slowly smiled to himself. He didn't know any other thieves who'd done that either. While robbing Haou would be impressive and worth a great deal, robbing a dragon's hoard would be even more so. And if he could do both? They would sing of his exploits forever.

He kept himself back behind the tapestry, listening harder. There had to be a hint of where the treasure would be. Did Dark Blaze Dragon keep their hoard in the castle or did they have somewhere else to store their treasures? What were they even doing here? Did they guard Haou's treasure?

"Haou-sama said I could keep it," the fiery dragon purred, tail moving back and forth casually. "He has no use for it."

"That doesn't surprise me." Skull Bishop agreed. "Are you going to attend dinner tonight?"

The flaming tail shifted back and forth, possibly in some form of negation given the following words. "I would prefer to hunt for my dinner tonight. I've caught the scent of something interesting and I wish to track it down."

Snowdun winced. He did so hope that it wasn't him the dragon hunted. He thought he could hide enough - he was very good at that - but being chased never set well with him.

The two of them bid farewell and departed, each in a different direction, neither of which were near Snowdun. He leaned his head against the cool flagstones and pondered his options. Tracking Dark Blaze Dragon would probably lead him to the dragon's hoard or maybe even Haou's treasure. Following Skull Bishop might not award such treasures. But continuing downward stood both a chance of finding the loot and doing so without being caught. If he found nothing, then he could take another chance at a later time.

Once he was certain that no one else was out there, he moved onward, looking for a way to the lower regions. He headed down a row of stairs, through another corridor or two, then more stairs. This wasn't the first time he'd had to go so far down to find treasure but by the time he spied a wide set of double doors, reinforced with steel, but with no guards outside of it, he looked forward to carrying as much out of here as he could right now. He had an enchanted bag with him that he'd intended to use to gather a sample of the treasure to carry back and ask his contacts how much they were worth before going back to take the rest of it.

Now he would pick everything up that wasn't nailed down. Haou could and probably would take more from wherever he got this. He didn't need all of it. He didn't need any of it. He controlled his minions through absolute terror. They didn't get paychecks.

Snowdun waited behind a pillar, watching and sniffing. He could still smell hints of fire here, so Dark Blaze Dragon probably came down here a lot. This might even be his hoard after all. It wasn't labeled; it could be anything. Slowly finally Snowdun moved forward and rested his fingers against the door. It didn't seem locked.

In retrospect, that should have sent him fleeing as fast as he could go. But at the moment he pushed the door in and entered, still trying to keep himself aware and yet in awe at what he saw.

Treasure chests everywhere. Each one sealed and locked, but he was a thief. It was what he was, a Burglar. He knew treasure when he saw it, and he knew that these would bring him wealth beyond his wildest dreams, before or after he sold it all. He whisked out his bag and started to drag it over the nearest chest.

One by one each chest ended up in the bag. Snowdun stopped paying attention to what else happened in the room as he worked on clearing it out. Hours must have passed before he finally turned back to the door, ready to leave. He'd done a very good job. There wasn't a single chest or random coin or jewel left. The last item he held and admired, a glorious golden goblet, set with diamonds and rubies. Quite gaudy and probably worthless to drink out of, but Snowdun liked it.

But when he raised his head, ready to slip out, he stood shocked. There in the door stood those two same ones from before - Skull Bishop and Dark Blaze Dragon. Snowdun growled low. This wasn't going to be a good night.

"I told you that I smelled a thief," Dark Blaze Dragon declared, tail lashing back and forth, setting small bits of dust on fire as they did. "A Burglar, in fact." A tongue of flame licked at their jowls. "Dinner."

Skull Bishop chuckled, regarding Snowdun as if he were some sort of dirt beneath his feet. He fingered his great sword. "You were right indeed. Now, thief, set the bag down and I might consider requesting Haou-sama to spare your life."

Snowdun shifted, gripping harder onto the bag. He'd taken this all - he wasn't going to give it up. "Why would I do that? I'm not hurting anyone!"

"You're attempting to take what's mine," Dark Blaze Dragon hissed, tail flashing harder, tiny bits of flame falling from their claws. "And I will not allow that. Haou-sama has assigned me to guard this place and I am free to devour any who enter here without permission."

Snowdun backed off, clutching the bag and goblet close to himself. He didn't have any spare hands to defend himself and he didn't see any other ways out of here. Skull Bishop stalked forward, boots clicking on the floor.

"If you choose not to surrender what you've stolen, then my companion will roast you. Surrender the items and you might be spared. Haou could find a use for you."

That didn't encourage Snowdun at all. He shook his head. "There's nothing that I would want to do for Haou!" He judged the distance between the two of them and darted forward, intent on sliding between them and pelting his way up the stairs. He would figure out what to do after that - but finding the nearest window and jumping out of it remained one of his favorite plans. Most people didn't expect that and while they stood around in shock, he could get to safety.

He was a rat, after all. Hiding in plain sight was one of his specialties.

He'd scarcely begun to slide between them before Skull Bishop's heavy sword slashed down onto him, knocking him to one side and sending that goblet skittering across the floor and out of sight. Only the fact it was the flat of the blade saved his arm from having been taken off. Snowdun skittered to one side, uncomfortably aware of how close he was to Dark Blaze Dragon, especially when one fiery claw caught onto the back of his shirt.

"Fleeing isn't an option," the flame dragon hissed. "Especially not when you carry what isn't yours with you." A claw of flame wrenched the bag away from him, then the creature sniffed even more at him. "He has more treasure on his person," Dark Blaze Dragon reported. "Search him."

Snowdun wanted to get out of there. But Dark Blaze Dragon shoved him towards Skull Bishop, who wrapped one powerful hand around his throat, choking his air off. The rat creature struggled and squeaked, tail lashing furiously, his metallic claw trying to grab hold of Skull Bishop's hand and get it off of him, but to no avail. If he'd been able to get a grip, it might have been different.

Coldly and clinically, Skull Bishop searched him, pinning him up against the wall with one hand. One by one he pulled out other bags that Snowdun had with him, dropping them with small metallic clinks onto the ground. He shook his head.

"I'd heard rumors of a skilled thief. You might be useful indeed to Haou-sama. This is your last chance. Agree to serve my master or face the consequences of refusal."

Snowdun twitched harder and harder, tail lashing hard against the cold stone, trying not to look too often at the dragon and how the dragon kept staring at him, as if he had a sign over his head reading "good food here". He wasn't doing a very good job of it. "What would he want me to do?" If he could buy just time enough to escape that would be good enough. He had no intentions whatsoever of doing anything that over-arrogant human wanted him to do.

"You are skilled in getting in and out of places without being seen. You can go to where people resist Haou and worm your way into a position to open gates for our army. In return, you would be allowed to live." Skull Bishop informed him.

Snowdun snorted as harshly as he could. Speaking wasn't his greatest strength, especially not not when he had only what air he could get in through Skull Bishop's grip on his neck. But he tried his best to appear unaffected - and knew he still wasn't doing a good job of this.

"Be his little run ahead dog? Why would I do that?" Every word was one more moment that he had to live. Each moment he lived was one more moment to find a way out of here. He thought he saw one, slim as it might be, but he had to walk this carefully. He fought to keep away a moan of fear just at the thought of Haou and having to do anything that he said.

Skull Bishop's lips performed a movement that in someone else might have been considered a smile. Snowdun wasn't so certain about it. He thought it might mean the same thing. Or at least be intended to.

"Because if you don't, then you're going to be killed. You won't even be allowed the honor of a duel - if you even know how."

Snowdun had to admit to himself that he didn't know how. He'd never gone to the effort to learn, not when thievery came so much easier to him. He twitched harder, then sank back against the wall, relinquishing all efforts to get away.

"Do I really have a choice?" He sagged back, hoping this would allow him some air if nothing else. At least he wasn't yet to the point of not being able to speak at all. Though he didn't doubt Skull Bishop would get him there with little effort.

Dark Blaze Dragon's tail swished ever so lightly. Tiny bits of trash on the floor flared up in its wake. "You can choose to serve Haou - or you can choose to be my dinner. I can tell you which one I would prefer."

Skull Bishop shifted his grip so that Snowdun could actually breath but wasn't touching the floor at all. "I'll introduce you to Haou-sama."

Snowdun found himself carried along like a child in a sack. His own sacks were taken by Dark Blaze Dragon into the vault and the last he ever saw of them included the dragon tearing open the bags and starting to sort out the treasure as it tumbled out in a waterfall of silver and gold with thousands of sparkles of gemstones. He wished that he would have the chance to come get it all again.

But he told himself over and over as he was dragged up the stairs he'd worked his way down so carefully that even if he had to open the way for Haou's army, that also meant that he could open the way for anyone who might want to enter into Haou's castle.

If he were stupid enough to trust a Burglar, then Haou deserved whatever he got.

The End

Notes: I do have plans for a sequel. One day. But not today. Also, I love the Death Duelists and I wish we’d seen more of them. Well, that’s what fanfic is here for!

#fanfic #higuchimon writes #ygo gx #gxmonth2021 #yuuki juudai #haou #skull bishop #burglar (oc)#dark blaze dragon (oc)

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dogezakat · 3 years

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Nations are awesome, and overDress can potentially help Vanguard follow the same path as Magic.

Preface

This is basically an essay. Well, it's more a brain dump than an essay, but it's something that's been sitting on my mind since the reveal of overDress, and I want to discuss it with the community.

With that said, I just want to clear some assumptions the title may have caused. I'm not saying that overDress will finally be the thing that'll allow Vanguard to contest Magic in terms of dominance, nor will it finally be the thing that brings Vanguard into the likes of the top three (MTG, Pokémon, and YGO). This post is completely about Vanguard in and of itself. What I meant by the title is the path the game itself is moving towards in reference to its past path. Also, I may just be stating the obvious here, but, again, this is just a brain dump that I wanted to get off of my chest. If I can get some fun discussions going, though, that'd be an awesome plus.

Nations > Clans = New Game

Nations seem to be a combination of clans, which they are, for the most part. At least, for now. However, the most exciting thing about nations is not the combination of two clans' gimmicks, the constant support for a clan that didn't get consistent support in the past, or something that is a function of a past concept; it's that we're almost starting the game off from a blank slate. Many Vanguard-tubers have already said this, but overDress is almost like a completely new game with a Vanguard skin on it. What does this mean?

In essence, with nations being a thing now, essentially dissolving the concept of clans, along with lore that's 3000 years into the future, anything goes. Bushiroad has essentially created a system that transcends the concept of clans and has moved onto a system that not only brings room for greater creativity without adding pressure to game design but also fixes the issues that came with its older clan-based game design. At least, this is what I surmise with the information we have so far. But how is it that having clans was hurting the game, rather than helping it?

The Issue With A Clan-based System

Many of us have suffered from this in the past: because there were so many clans, we got support for our favorite clan once in a blue moon. Hell, some of us have favorite archetypes within our favorite clans, which got even less consistent support. Of course, there were several other issues with a 24-clan-based game design. Simply put, the sheer number of unique support required, along with creating a tangibly large divide among the player base, based on clan biases, just made game design too difficult. This resulted in so many generic cards that essentially were nothing more than watered-down attempts in trying to assuage this issue. As a company, you don't want to divide your customers the way Bushiroad did, nor do you want to create an environment where they feel like they're not cared for. And that's where overDress comes in.

How Nations Can Fix The Game

A wise man once said, "simple is better". Having 24 clans is unique, indeed, and it was perhaps a good idea during Vanguard's infancy; however, it was not a strategy that would evolve well in the long term, as we have all witnessed. As the game matured, things just got too jumbled and out of hand. Having 24 clans made the game design way too specific, which ended up leading to a whole ton of design complications and bottlenecks. The more generic you are, the better off you are with game design, under most circumstances. Magic the Gathering is a great example of this. If I were to give a high-level explanation of the game design for Magic, it's simply this: colors. That's it. It's very simple, which is why it has an infinite amount of room for creativity. Sure, nations aren't like colors, because you can't splash one nation's cards with another, but it's much more generic than having clans. Having a generic base allows card games like CFV or MTG to build upon itself, rather than cave itself in. So, what should we be excited for with the replacement of clans by nations?

What I'm Personally Most Excited For With Nations

To build on the point of generic game design, let's use a nation as an example here: Dark States. Right now, our perception of Dark States, and all of the other nations, is that it's basically a combination of all of the clans that were available in its previous identity, Dark Zone. This is cool because we might be able to create decks that carry gimmicks from, say, Dark Irregulars and Gear Chronicles. But that's just the beginning.

Like I said in my second paragraph, anything goes at this point. We might get a completely new zombie archetype (as opposed to a new clan) that revives an opponent's own unit from their drop zone onto your own field for one turn. I can see that totally fitting into Dark States. Perhaps this could also fit into Stoicheia. Regardless, the point I'm trying to make here is that developers can freely create new gimmicks, new interactions, and new archetypes without having to be afraid of having to support another clan.

This is just a theory on my part, but I feel that the developers, behind the scenes, felt hindered by having to design the game around clans, essentially bricking their ability to move the game forward in a positive direction. Rather than the developers controlling the game, the game was controlling the developers. So having this pressure off of the developers' shoulders is a big win for all of us, as it will allow the game to evolve into something we've never seen in Vanguard, and that's why having nations is such an exciting thing moving forward.

That's about it for this brain dump. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

#cardfight #cardfight vanguard #cardfight!! vanguard #cfv #bushiroad #bushi #brain dump #tcg #trading card game #magic the gathering #magic #mtg #overdress #cardfight vanguard overdress #cardfight!! vanguard overdress #cfv overdress

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eleutheramina · 4 years

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Jack Atlas Analysis - Part 2

Who is FC arc Jack?

How about DS arc Jack? - here

How could the DS arc have done better with regards to Jack?

Part 2: How about DS arc Jack?

DS!Jack is certainly in a much different situation that FC!Jack, and I think the line between character derailment and character development can be hard to draw sometimes. There are some who would argue that the change of lead from Tomioka to Yoshida does change him into a different character, but again, I don’t wholly agree with that. I actually am pretty fine with his characterization for most of the arc. I’m not going to touch on Team Satisfaction and how that retroactively affects Jack’s character because that’s a whole can of worms I don’t care to open.

So who is DS!Jack? Well, he no longer holds his King title, he is definitely not unbeatable, and his Satellite origins are revealed to the public. He spends the first couple of the episodes unconscious, the third in the hospital with a broken arm. FC!Jack would probably think DS!Jack is pathetic and a disgrace.

Less of Jack’s Internal Monologue More than how he’s characterized himself, I think one of the more subtle but significant differences about DS!Jack is how his personality is conveyed to the audience. Whereas FC!Jack has a decent amount of moments of internal monologue, I feel like there’s relatively little of Jack’s internal monologue for most of the DS arc. This, I think, contributes to why DS!Jack feels different than FC!Jack even right off the bat. Not to say FC!Jack doesn’t also convey a lot about Jack through his body language, actions, or dialogue, but I think how DS!Jack is characterized relies on it more heavily.

For instance, we don’t get much (or really, any) internal monologue about Jack’s feelings about his loss. Jack’s first action in the DS arc is to knock down a vase in anger because of his Satellite background being revealed; he also reacts similarly angrily when it makes the headlines in episode 31, paired with a flashback of his defeat and Yusei’s words about his pride of being a King, as well as when he hears his fans’ cheers and imagines Yusei’s face very heterosexually in the fountain.

Both the reason for and the impact of not knowing a lot of Jack’s thoughts regarding his loss is, I think, that the audience mainly has Carly’s perspective on him, especially in episode 31. I think this contributes to the foreignness of DS!Jack--after all, Carly did not exist in the FC arc and we as an audience are not used to her perspective on Jack being the primary way we know him. I don’t say this as necessarily a good or bad thing, just to be clear.

Right at the beginning of the DS arc, Carly is introduced and given an amount of protagonist-like focus to rival Yusei’s, especially notable since she does not initially have any clear connections with any of the other established characters (unlike Crow, who gets a comparable amount of focus but is retconned into being revealed to have been friends with Yusei and Jack).

Unlike Jack, Carly does get both internal and external monologues, and the amusement park plot of episode 31 is primarily from Carly’s perspective. She doesn’t know where Jack is trying to go or what Jack’s intentions are for 90% of the episode, and so neither does the audience, and only when she figures it out do we know that he’s heading to the tower. We don’t get to hear Jack mourn his loss of his Kingship when he’s staring at the fountain; it’s Carly who narrates his hurt for us.

This is especially clear with this shot:

Carly is literally looking at the audience during her internal monologue, suggesting she’s talking to us. Also lowkey this line is funny in hindsight because like she does melt his heart later.

Even while they’re watching Kiryu and Yusei’s duel, or even in episode 37, we basically don’t get anything about what Jack thinks. We only get what he says to Carly or Mikage (most of which is exposition about Zero Reverse or Team Satisfaction), or Carly’s perception of him.

Jack’s Relationship with Carly Jack’s initial interactions with Carly feel fairly in-character to me. He’s pretty indifferent to her initially, but if Jack is someone who evaluates people based on their merit, I think the moment when Carly defends him from a blast is when she overcomes the threshold to be worthy of some respect by Jack. And even then, he continues to seem either indifferent or annoyed by her--he initially leaves her apartment without any notice, he gets fed up with her antics to get a scoop from him, and he leaves her at the park and does what he’d originally set out to do. Even after the scene at the tower at the end of 31, he continues to not show much warmth to her at all for the remainder of their interactions before she becomes a DS.

The impact of the scarcity of internal monologues for DS!Jack is that the development of Jack’s feelings for Carly is kept under wraps for most of the arc. FC!Jack has copious monologues about his being King, etc. As for DS!Jack? Well at one point, he thinks, “What I need to protect” when staring at Carly’s glasses. . . and that’s basically it as far as what Jack thinks about Carly.

The rest is conveyed through Jack staring at her glasses a lot--often paired with or commented on by Mikage, which helps put what he’s doing in a more explicitly romantic light--and conversations with Mikage. Indeed, we only fully understand his motivation when Mikage asks him directly why he’s going to Satellite. Contrast with FC!Jack whose motivation is clear from the beginning and which we hear from his own words.

Now, I think having Jack’s feelings be mostly beneath the surface is a smart move; in hindsight, it’s pretty clear that he has feelings for Carly, but because they are not overstated, Jack doesn’t seem too lovesick or sentimental in a way that would definitely feel out of character. Rushed Relationship Development Even the most ardent of Scoopshippers can probably agree that the leap Jack and Carly’s relationship takes is a large one. In their duel, it is beyond clear that Jack is extremely in love with her, extremely considerate of her wellbeing, her feelings, her desires, and willing to die with her, and Carly’s feelings are of similar intensity.

Now, I do think we see that Carly as a character understands and pushes Jack in ways other characters don’t, and in a way that I can imagine Jack eventually also comes to reciprocate.

But ultimately the relationship itself is quite rushed and the two lack actual quality time together on screen. The scene where Carly is imagining Jack in her apartment and crying about things he took from her helps in creating the illusion that they spent a lot of time together and were able to get close--but ultimately, we don’t get to see much of that on screen, and I think that’s probably the biggest weakness of this subplot. Suggested interactions don’t make up for onscreen interactions, especially when it comes to moving characters from feeling lukewarm about one another to the passion and commitment that Jack and Carly display in their duel. The scenes from episode 29 and episode 31 get references in flashbacks a lot later in the arc--and while they’re certainly shiptastic, they don’t feel commensurate to the intensity of their feelings for one another later.

Of course, I imagine part of this is because, at its core, YGO is not a romance anime, and the DS arc just really needed to move the plot along. Kiryu and Yusei’s duel, and Jack’s subsequent leaving of Carly, starts in the episode right after the tower scene. The writers needed Jack/Carly’s relationship to go from point A to point B as efficiently as possible.

Part of the drama/mystery of the Jack/Carly plot is that the audience isn’t fully sure what Jack feels until the duel itself, even though it’s hinted that he cares for her; Jack’s confession of love comes as somewhat of a surprise. But I think this also meant that we did not get to see a lot of the moments of them caring about each other on screen. And I also think that it’s possible to increase their onscreen interactions and make their bonding more obvious without sacrificing too much of the mystery surrounding Jack’s real feelings. Continuity With FC!Jack One thing I do think the DS arc does well is articulating Jack’s FC character pretty accurately and continuing his arc with similar themes/ideas. “Change Destiny” is a really heavy-handed card, but I do think that the idea of Jack believing he is destined to be King or walk on the path of the King, and then abandoning that concept entirely for a path he makes himself, is consistent with FC!Jack’s doggedness in being King and the way Godwin/Jaeger talk about it as something he’s meant to be.

Although the execution was not great, I think the idea of Jack being tempted by the idea of being a Dark King - one who “needs not friends, bonds,” and rules over the whole world turned into hell, is an extreme version of the loner king who abandons friends for something better, as Jack did

Similarly, the idea of a real King that Carly hopes Jack will become in episode 59, though cheesy, does expand on the idea of him being a King in a way that is also consistent with not being a loner/gaining bonds. When Jack calls himself “a person who would never give a thought to others... willing enough to betray and hurt [his] friends, sacrificing any and all for [his] own ambitions” — I think that’s spot on who Jack is in the FC arc.

And Godwin and Jack’s dramatic exchange during their duel at the end of episode 63 about the only way to being a King is being alone, about how Jack abandoned bonds — that’s pretty congruent with FC Jack. And having Jack say that he also abandoned being the King, when his attachment to being the King was the cornerstone of his character before, is an effective move in terms of rounding out his character arc. The other biggest flaw with Jack in the DS arc is that we don’t see him struggle more with abandoning that identity.

In fact, DS!Jack spends a lot less time angsting talking about being the King--which again, makes some sense because he lost the FC and the focus of the story shifts/expands to be more about the Signer vs Dark Signer conflict. If it is brought up, it’s mostly to emphasize that he’s not the King anymore, such as when he corrects Mikage about calling him King in episode 32, or when he calls that man “a different person” to Godwin in episode 42.

Jack feels notably less condescending and egoistical in the DS arc, even from the very beginning. Part of this can be explained away by the fact that he is no longer in the settings in which his ego can shine the most--the Duel Stadium, or his mansion--and therefore doesn’t really have that many people to look down on anymore. I also think part of it is because, due to the lack of internal monologue (and the use of Carly as a viewpoint character), we don’t hear his thoughts as often, disparaging or not.

The most we see of the condescending Jack is probably in episode 43, when he beats up Yusei when he’s upset about having to fight Kiryu. It’s also the main time we see Jack talk about how he feels about losing his title - he says Yusei “dragged [him] off his throne and gave [him] such disgrace.” Here we see how this aspect of Jack, rather than mostly serving to make him look cruel as it had in the FC arc, actually helps to challenge Yusei’s character. Indeed, in general we see Jack is more supportive of Yusei. We also see a bit of Jack’s old boastfulness when he says that “Your Earthbound Gods aren’t so great” and saves Martha’s kids in episode 46.

Jack also doesn’t push other people away as much in the DS arc, though he definitely still does at some points. When Mikage tries to draw closer to him, he ultimately rebuffs her. Even Carly initially leaves without much thought and brushes her off when she first tries to talk to him. When Yusei’s talking about his nakama in episode 45, it’s Jack who says he’s not anyone’s friend. Jack is also arguably the most closed off from the other Signers. No one knows who he’s dueling, and he’s the only Signer to not have anyone watching his duel.

Yet he also more openly cares about other people. Yusei’s injury in episode 35 gives him great concern for him that honestly he doesn’t show Yusei much during the FC. We are shown Jack’s old caregiver, Martha, whom he clearly cares for. And of course, there’s Carly.

Finally, Jack has more moments of generic heroism in the DS arc, whereas in the FC he basically has none. He goes into the crumbling Arcadia Movement to save Aki, and he also dramatically saves the orphans from being sacrificed to the Earthbound God Uru. Whereas Jack could be said to be one of the antagonists of the FC arc, he certainly is portrayed as more of a protagonist in the DS arc, when the grander Signer-Dark Signer conflict plays out.

#jack atlas #yugioh 5d's #ygo 5d's #5d's meta #yugioh

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iyliss · 4 years

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@one-groovy-rose

I SHALL TALK ABOUT THE POTENTIAL CTHULHU REF

Alright so first i wanna get back a (lil) bit on gx, tcg, and what specific part of the cthulhu mythos is involved in yugioh. While I don’t know enough about how the anime’s writting and the card’s designing go on, I can assume that there’s connection, maybe similar people, working on it. Why is it important? Because if there’s an obvious reference somewhere, something else could be a reference as well. So. GX. for those who don’t talk to me nor minded that aspect: there’s a heck lot of lovecraft reference. Not detailing it, but two reference are especially important for Zexal. It is clear that the story The Dream quest of the unknown Kadath has been a bit of an inspiration (one of the monster is just too detailed to not be straight up from the story’s description), and we can assume the other stories related to that character (Randolph Carter) were red as well: The silver key and Through the gate of the silver key. Finally, Nyarlathotep is heavily referenced -though I am not sure how much- in at least one form, (that is not the one from the stories involved). Meanwhile, in the card game, an archetype is introduced: Outer Entities (beware as their designs are quite more freaky than what you would expect from ygo). It’s around the last part of Zexal, and features reference to very specific short stories that aren’t well known either (important because: the reference are straight from the stories not from things like the rpg or general knowledge) and there is, again, our good friend Nyarlathotep.

So, after this long introduction, I can get into the main part. The two important cthulhu reference I can see in Zexal are 1) with they key and the gate 2) Don Thousand and Nyarlathotep. I will ad some more thoughts about some elements of Zexal that.... vibes with hpl, but it isn’t as clear and just me having fun.

The Gate and the Key

When Randolph Carter was thirty he lost the key of the gate of dreams.

Zexal’s gate and key can be associated with many things. One I like is pandora’s box, but I really don’t understand why it took me so long to connect it with the straight up Gate and Key from hpl’s work.

In The Silver Key and Through the Gate of the Silver Key, our protagonist Randolph Carter finds a mysterious key in his pocket, through dreams and maybe some timetravel, which allows him to open a gate where godly beings welcome him to behold the knowledge of the universe, featuring travelling to other planets/dimmensions. So. Yeah I think the connection can be made.

A gate had been unlocked—not indeed the Ultimate Gate, but one leading from earth and time to that extension of earth which is outside time, and from which in turn the Ultimate Gate leads fearsomely and perilously to the Last Void which is outside all earths, all universes, and all matter.

Overall, the way the two gates and keys are portrayed are very similar. The mysteries, yet with hints to the truth, of what exactly is this gate or the guide within it, or the truth beyond it are and where it comes from. The sense of otherwordly knowledge. The link with dreams and timetravel.

Nyarlathotep and Don Thousand

He said he had risen up out of the blackness of twenty-seven centuries, and that he had heard messages from places not on this planet.

In both The Dream quest of the unknown Kadath and other stories appear Nyarlathotep (that i will call Nyarla from now on for obvious reason). He has many forms and I think Don thousand is partly inspired by him.

First, an easy one. Nyarla has some nicknames, including a first one: the Crawling Chaos. Chaos, you know? Another one is the Black Pharaoh, and we will talk again about the black part, but the paraoh part well... Don Thousand’s deck is strongly related to ancient egypt and Im sure he has reference to it I couldn’t catch. There’s also other things, like The God of a Thousand forms.

Now, lore-wise. It’s a bit hard to explain what Nyarla is but, here, we don’t need to know too much. Mostly that his hobby is mainly to sneak amongst human, alter their fate, push them into madness, into worshipping him, make them join his dark cult, and just lie, manipulate, abuse and deceive to bring out and more suffering, sometimes for his own power, sometimes for his own pleasure. And, already you can see the similarities. In Kadath, he appears at the end though he’s teased throughout the story, and it acts the final boss. More specifically, how his cult function can be associated with the Barians. Basically, throughout history, they just sacrifice their humanity out of despair and gain immortality and power and can go through various dimmensions.

“[...]a lone figure strode; a tall, slim figure with the young face of an antique Pharaoh, gay with prismatic robes and crowned with a golden pshent that glowed with inherent light. Close up to Carter strode that regal figure; whose proud carriage and swart features had in them the fascination of a dark god or fallen archangel, and around whose eyes there lurked the languid sparkle of capricious humour. “

Finally, visually. Taking the various representation of Nyarla feels quite close to Don Thousand’s final form. His description of tall, young and beautiful, is already important. Amongst all the yugioh bosses, Don Thousand is clearly meant to be exceptionally gorgeous. The third eye could be related to his incarnation as the Haunter in the Dark, who has “three-lobed burning eye “. Finally, the dark grey skin is very much specific to Nyarla. In the Dreams in the Witch-House, he’s again describe as tall but also are dark skinned, not dark brown, but dark grey or black: “a tall, lean man of dead black colouration “.

Other things and conclusion

There are some other details that just feels lovecraftian. Like the continuation of magic and science, in cthulhu mythos, travelling through dimmension can be both done through the help of some mystical entities and objects (like they key), or with pure science like math (like Faker and Byron did, and just like in the stories, it ends terribly compared to the first option). Otherall, Byron and Faker’s story feels very lovecraftian. The travel to a distant place that few people have found, the absurd archeology, discover a lost alien civilization and multiple dimmension. They way Byron comes back “changed”, or not even himself, also feels like both in Through the gate of the silver key (where Randolph gets stuck in an alien body) and The Shadow out of time (where the father and doctorate protagonist is possess by an alien being that radically changes his behaviour).

And, yeah that’s about all I can think of right now. Am sure there could be more I may find upon rewatches and thinking, but I hope it’s already interesting enough! tried to make sure it was understandable by anyone.

#Zexal #LisTalksAboutYugioh #yugioh zexal #don thousand #Idk if i hope to ever find ref in other series but tbh not really. i already have enough to do with gx and now zexal

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sage-nebula · 7 years

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Wait, I'm confused about the whole Japanese naming thing...if it's [family name] [last name] then shouldn't Yuugi's name be written as Mutou Yuugi and not Yuugi Mutou? And why do the characters call him Yuugi and not Mutou but refer to each other as Jounouchi, Honda, Kaiba, etc.? Is it ever stated anywhere that Yuugi just prefers his first name? I'm hazy with the manga as a whole so if I'm missing something obvious let me know.

Yuugi’s name is indeed written as Mutou Yuugi in Japanese name order / the Japanese manga. =) In fact, a quick run through of all the characters’ names written in Japanese name order ( [Family Name] [Given Name] ) is as follows:

Mutou Yuugi

Jounouchi Katsuya

Mazaki Anzu

Honda Hiroto

Bakura Ryou

Otogi Ryuuji

Kaiba Seto

Kaiba Mokuba

Kawai Shizuka

Kujaku Mai

Yes, that’s right—“Jounouchi” is Jounouchi’s family name, not his given name. His given name is Katsuya, though this is something that many western fans (understandably!) don’t catch.

As for how they refer to each other—how someone addresses someone else in Japanese (whether it’s by their family name, given name, with or without honorifics, et cetera) typically depends on the relationship they have with that person, as well as what that person is comfortable with. There are a lot of different nuances here, but I’ll try to keep this explanation as succinct and simple as I can! (And keep in mind, I’m also speaking of general relations in most cases. These can of course vary between individuals and relationships!)

So, first off—given names. Typically people only refer to each other by their given name if they’re very close, and by “very” close I mean family members, significant others, close friends who have that permission, et cetera. So for example, in “Cardcaptor Sakura” it’s a very big deal when Syaoran calls Sakura by her given name, and she asks him if it’s okay for her to call him “Syaoran-kun” instead of “Li-kun” in response. For her to do that without permission could be considered offensive or rude, because it would be insinuating that she is assuming a closer familiarity than what they actually have. (Of course, Syaoran gives her permission, so it’s all right for her to call him Syaoran-kun from that moment on. Everyone else, you’ll notice, still calls him Li-kun.) The level of emotional familiarity or intimacy in this case is also determined by honorifics. To use this same example, if Sakura started calling Syaoran simply “Syaoran” without the “-kun,” that would be implying another level of intimacy and closeness. When they get married, I expect she’ll drop the “-kun” and simply refer to him as “Syaoran” on the regular. But until then, it’s “Syaoran-kun,” to show that they’re very close friends (well, dating now), but also still keeping that level of … not respect, per se, but formality? Kind of? It’s a bit hard to explain, but “Syaoran-kun” is not as intimate here as “Syaoran” would be.

So to bring this back to YGO, most of the Japanese characters are referred to by their family names rather than their given names because they’re simply classmates with one another, and although most of them are close friends (Yuugi and Jounouchi have literally tried to die for one another on several occasions; you don’t get much closer than that), they either haven’t discussed switching to given names, they still don’t feel that they have the relationship upgrade to switch to given names, or both. So to use Jounouchi as an example:

Yuugi refers to him as “Jounouchi-kun” because they started out as classmates and are now best friends, but again, they either haven’t discussed + just don’t have the relationship upgrade (i.e. dating) for him to make the switch to Jounouchi’s given name. It would really stand out to others if he made the switch besides, given that no one else addresses Jounouchi as “Katsuya” (even Shizuka simply calls him “oniichan” most of the time when she’s around). Yuugi adds -kun to the end of Jounouchi’s name because he tends to have politer speech, and does this with pretty much everyone.

Anzu refers to Jounouchi as “Jounouchi” because she refers to pretty much all of her classmates by their family names (save Yuugi, but more on him in a minute). She does not add -kun to his name because the two of them did not get along at first, and as such she was a bit harsher / ruder toward him than she would be to others (e.g. I’d have to double-check, but I’m pretty sure she calls Bakura “Bakura-kun”). Leaving off the honorific like that is a bit rude / impolite, especially if it’s from a person who would generally use it, so it counts here. (Note: I’m not criticizing Anzu for this, before anyone gets defensive. She and Jounouchi held mutual dislike for each other at first. Their relationship is beautiful and I’m not saying otherwise.) As for why she never added it later, I’d say it’s simply habit for her to refer to him as “Jounouchi” alone, and it’s not like he cares, anyway.

Honda refers to Jounouchi as “Jounouchi” because he doesn’t use honorifics for anyone, period. They’ve been friends since middle school, but again, it’s common to refer to someone by family name, Honda doesn’t use honorifics anyway, and they don’t have the relationship upgrade to necessitate given name usage (which again, would cause attention). Hence, simply “Jounouchi.”

Bakura refers to Jounouchi as “Jounouchi-kun” because, like Yuugi, he uses polite speech, sees Jounouchi as a friend and classmate, et cetera.

Otogi refers to him simply as “Jounouchi.” I believe he sometimes adds -kun on to be patronizing when he’s first introduced (as honorifics can also be used mockingly; Jounouchi mockingly refers to Malik’s split personality as “Malik-chan” in this way once, and it’s beautiful), but for the most part I believe he simply leaves off honorifics as well. It’s a tough guy thing. But I did just double check his first chapter in my scans of the Japanese raws and saw him refer to Jounouchi as simply “Jounouchi,” so I think he typically leaves off honorifics as well.

When Kaiba deigns to use Jounouchi’s actual name, it’s simply “Jounouchi.” He does not like, nor respect, Jounouchi, and so it’s rare he even gets that far, but yeah. Definitely no honorifics to be seen here.

Interestingly, Hanasaki refers to Jounouchi as “Jounouchi-san,” a sign of respect, during their phone call in Death-T, when Hanasaki was keeping on eye at Sugoroku in the hospital. This puzzles me a little, but it might have something to do with Hanasaki’s timid personality, which makes him even more polite than the standard Domino High student.

And so on and so forth, you get the idea. So for most of the characters it’s [Family Name], and sometimes [Family Name]-[honorific], but generally they just refer to each other by their family name because that’s how it’s done in Japan. So it’s not at all odd that most of the characters refer to Jounouchi as such.

As far as Yuugi, that’s never directly explained. Best I can tell, the Doylist reason is probably because Takahashi wanted Yuugi’s name to be said as much as possible, given that Yuugi’s name directly translates to “game” and thus was chosen as a meaningful name. A Watsonian explanation could be a number of things:

Yuugi has known Anzu since childhood, so it’s incredibly possible that he gave her permission to call him by his given name ages ago, particularly since he has a crush on her in canon. Likewise, I could see him asking her if it’s okay if he simply calls her “Anzu,” and she probably said yes since she doesn’t seem to care when people call her by her given name. (Jounouchi and Honda do call her “Mazaki” in the first chapter, but switch to using her given name after that, even before they’re all on decidedly friendly terms with each other. This could also be their way of being rude at first (again, assumed familiarity), but if Anzu minded she would have called them on it, and she never does. Thus, we can infer that Anzu really doesn’t care if others use her given name or not, despite the cultural boundary that usually prevents that. Again, it can vary from individual to individual.)

Others could simply call Yuugi by his given name because they don’t respect him / don’t care if it upsets him or not, i.e. they’re being rude. But Yuugi, like Anzu, doesn’t seem to really care if that’s the case.

Or it could be that Yuugi gave his friends permission to use his given name off-page. That doesn’t explain the antagonists and enemies who also use it, but it’s possible.

Regardless of why others do or don’t, it’s highly probable that Yuugi, like Anzu, just doesn’t care.

On that note, the women in the series generally are addressed by their given names, though typically with honorifics. Anzu pretty much never has honorifics used for her name (I do think Sugoroku addressed her as “Anzu-chan” in the first chapter), but Mai is typically addressed as “Mai-san” rather than “Kujaku-san,” or simply “Mai” by those who don’t use honorifics (e.g. Jounouchi, Honda, et cetera). Shizuka, too, is usually called “Shizuka-chan” by the characters given that she’s younger than all of them, with the exception of Jounouchi; as her brother, he’s allowed to simply call her “Shizuka.” They have that familiarity given that they’re family.

I feel like this is something of a confusing mess of an explanation, and I’m sorry if it is! If you want anything clarified / cleared up, please feel free to ask, especially if you want to know why Character A refers to Character B a certain way, et cetera. But just as a general summation:

It’s standard to refer to classmates, friends, et cetera by their Family Name unless given permission to do otherwise.

Honorifics have different meanings (e.g. -san is more polite than -kun), and are usually polite, but can be used mockingly / to patronize as well. (Tone, context, et cetera usually determines this.)

Leaving off honorifics isn’t always impolite; really it denotes closeness, which can be rude if that closeness does not actually exist, but can also be genuine and sincere.

Like I said before, there’s a lot of nuance, but if you want further clarification just feel free to ask, and I’ll do my best to explain. ^^

#orasforlife #another example of honorific nuance: in the JP anime Shigeru (Gary) sometimes refers to Satoshi (Ash) as ''Satoshi-kun''#they ARE childhood friends - BUT he's being PATRONIZING when he does this #he's using ''-kun'' in a mocking way #this is why the dub sometimes has him call Ash ''Ashy-boy''#it's a condescending pet name #it's not affectionate - it's an insult #hence why - when he's not being a dick - he simply calls him ''Ash''#(or ''Satoshi'' by itself)#the more you know~

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