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paperandhis-paper · 10 months

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Arc-V Month Day 8: The Regular- ah, Standard Show and Day 9:Light Across the Aether

Combining two prompts, as I'll be gushing about (among other parts) about the Standard arc. Hope that's fine, @arcvmonth

Anyway, Arc-V has a lot of positives (that tend to get washed by the hatejerk), but what I want all of us to appreciate is that this silly show...exists. Not only that, but the awesome way the staff managed to hype all of us up?

What do I mean by this? Let me put it this way. This is a show about a multidimensional war where each dimension is based on a previous Yugioh series, featuring Returning Characters, and every Summoning Type is used.

Now go back to the original trailer for Arc-V. Notice how there're some things missing. Namely? ALL OF THE ABOVE. We knew about Pendulum Summoning, we knew Yuya rode a hippo...and that's about it.

Marketing-wise maybe this wasn't the brightest move, but it's an example of something I love about early Arc-V. In the year of our lord, 2023, where crossovers are everywhere and meta-commentary is so overdone people do meta-commentary about meta-commentary, it's bewildering how Arc-V kept its cards close to its chest and drip-fed information about its plot to keep the audience interested.

All of Season 1 is like this. At first we only really see Pendulum Summoning. But as early as Episode 3, we get hints about the other Summoning Types, since LDS has courses on each one. But whatever, you may think. It's only an Easter Egg, right?

Then this little fella shows up.

Casually, this kid activates Polymerization like it's nothing. And it's not like Jack randomly Fusing in early 5D's, Sora's deck is clearly Fusion-focused. But if that's not enough, we then meet the LDS trio, who use Xyz, Fusion, and Synchro. AND THEN Reiji tops them all by using all three at once. And Pendulum.

It's easy to take it for granted now, but this was legit just such a "holy shit" moment back then. 5D's featured Fusion a few times, but it was mostly a Synchro Spam. And Zexal pretended Synchros didn't exist. So it was so exciting to know Arc-V would be different.

That would be cool enough, but then they went ahead and made it so that each Summoning Type was tied to a specific Dimension. And again, the war plot was dropped slowly but surely. We get introduced to Yuto, who not only looks like Yuya, but he mentions something about some "Academia". But hey, a GX reference, whatever. And then it keeps going. We learn about Shun, about Ruri. And it all culminates in Shun vs Sora, which... ok, everyone knows this duel is amazing, but it's not just about the duel itself being spectacular. It's about the confirmation that, yes, we really are doing this. That Action Field IS Heartland, Shun and Yuto are from there, and the Academia Sora belongs to is based on GX.

The most ambitious crossover in history is here. And all they told us at first is that Tomato-boy rides a hippo. What the fuck.

Speaking of hippo-ridah. Arc-V always gets the somewhat-backhanded compliment of being the most ambitious Yugioh series, a statement I agree with. However, this is generally just refers to the overall scope of the plot. Today, one aspect that can sometimes get neglected that I want to highlight is how daring their choice of protagonist is.

Yuya, my beloved. I don't wanna spend too much time about how much I love him, because I'm sure I'll do so in the future, but I want everyone to appreciate the writers' choice in creating him.

I'm gonna be blunt: Shonen fans can be dumb. They are not the kind to be receptive to protagonists who're not hyper-macho, badass types and who are prone to show weakness. Just look at the response characters like Shinji Ikari or Natsuki Subaru get. Now, I'm not saying Yuya is as well-written as those, but it shows that even if the writers had written him perfectly there was always going to be a crowd of people who were going to hate him.

So I gotta give a shout-out for creating what's easily the most complex Yugioh protag by a long shot. Other protags could be slotted into one of two categories: "Serious" (Yugi, Yusei), or "Upbeat" (Judai, Yuma). Meanwhile, from Episode 1, Yuya defies categorization. He plays the clown, making one think he'll fit right in with Judai and Yuma, before the show makes it clear that it's just a facade... but also it's not. He truly strives to be the fun-loving, charming Entertainer he projects, but his own struggles and feelings prevent him from succeeding. It's a fascinating struggle, and I'm impressed that a franchise like Yu-gi-oh would even attempt this. And then you throw in the demon inside of him, and the waters get even muddier.

Speaking of which...

Something Cool about the Zarc Duel

(Yeah, that's as good of a segue as you're getting. I just wanna talk about something cool I noticed.)

So. The Zarc-duel. It's a mixed bag. I'm of the opinion most of it is meh (not helped by it taking over a month to air), but that the first and final episodes of it are amazing. And I wanna talk about something cool about said last episode that doesn't get talked about enough.

So, as we know, Zarc, alongside Yuya, created Pendulum to get revenge. And yet he gets defeated the exact-same way, by Ray activating the En Cards...or does he? If you pay attention, you'll notice that the En Cards destroy monsters, negate their effects, and deal 600 damage for each Monster sent to the graveyard (very particular wording these uber-powerful cards). Zarc has 2800 LP, and five monsters affected. 600x5 means his Life Points naturally drop to... 1000?

Of course, that's because Odd Eyes and Zarc are Pendulum monsters, so they're sent to the Extra Deck. If they weren't, he'd have lost right there and then. And not only did Zarc's scheme prevent his defeat, it basically got him the duel: he still had Scales set, and Reira's field was empty, so nothing stops him from Pendulum Summoning Zarc and/or Odd Eyes, and attack for game. Thankfully, the Lancers' efforts managed to reach Yuya, and he regained control and basically Shining Drew Smile Universe. In a hint of irony, they even play Swing, Pendulum of Souls, a song usually reserved for Zarc possessing Yuya.

Speaking of which, Smile Universe's effect is really similar to that of the En Cards. I guess it's the Unofficial 5th one and Smiles are the 5th beauty of Nature.

On that note, one last thing.

The Title: Arc-V

Arc-V is a very peculiar name for a show. And what I love is that it has many meanings. Most straight-forwardly, it's the name of the machine Leo builds to fuse the Dimensions. And obviously, it refers to it being the fifth Yugioh series. But it also refers to both the arc of a Pendulum, as well as the shape of a smile (there's an ED literally called "ARC OF SMILE", in case you think I'm reading too deep into things). I love how well-crafted this show's symbolism and visual language is.

Anyway, this turned into a massive ramble. I'm just happy to talk about this silly show that's burned itself into my mind. Thanks for reading if you somehow made it this far.

#arc v #arcvmonth #arcvmonth2023 #yuya sakaki #zarc arc v

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