#Dawn of the Duel

[thewittyphantom]

Baby Atem is so cute but I wonder what his parents thought about that hair. XD

[yuwugiowo]

starting a watchthrough of Dawn of the Duel, and i’m loving this theme TKB has, declaring that he cannot be contained, WHILE focusing all of his efforts on returning to the Millennium Ring

or, maybe more accurately, returning the Ring to himself. He misses what it does for him, and hates what it does to him. It’s messy, and maybe one of the best things they did for Bakura here

[blossomfestival]

*Throws these at you and runs really far away*

[sad-endings-suck]

Taigen will duel Mizu in London, where unbeknownst to him, you use guns instead of swords in duels… and the rules are very different, such as allowing another to duel in your place. But thanks to Fowler (and having been in London a little longer than Taigen, presumably) Mizu will know this… and chaos will ensue in the least predictable and most entertaining way possible.

[oddberryshortcake]

Silver and Malleus will never make the same mistakes their parents did

Malleus has found it in his heart to care about humans and Silver will always stand for what he believes is right. They both have enough compassion to come together for all of human and fae kind. They're family.

[eremin0109]

My heart just absolutely breaks thinking what if Majima knew beforehand that Kiryu's days were numbered but he was in denial, refusing to believe that a fucking illness of all things would put the nail in the Dragon's coffin. So when they finally meet in that shack, he starts their conversation with a taunt, because he needs to see it for himself to believe it. To come to terms with the fact that Kiryu is actually dying.

And so, they fight. It gets real ugly real quick and by the end of it, Majima's eye is glazed over with a terrifying realisation as he stands over Kiryu's beaten body, his breathing more laboured than it had any right to be.

Going into the fight, Majima wanted to be absolutely crushed by those large hands, years of pent up feelings and frustration being pounded down onto him. That way he'd know that the Dragon was still alive and kicking. That his Kiryu-chan was not actually dying an excruciatingly slow death.

But his victory rings like a funeral toll in his ears. This is all wrong. Kiryu Kazuma is supposed to his perfect rival, his true equal. The only one who could tame the Mad Dog. Not the bleeding, coughing mess of a man that laid underneath him. This couldn't be happening.

But when Kiryu looked at Majima, he felt more than saw the remnants of wildfire in the Dragon's eyes, flickering away more and more by the second. It took every single fibre of Majima's being to not end the poor bastard's life right there.

What was the use anyway—the Dragon was already dead.

[otrtbs]

wait podcast??!!!! where do listen to and what name

hiya!! hello!!

the podcast is called “Into The Fic of It” and it is hosted by some lovely and wonderful people @sophsicle @rabidlittlestrawberry @twisted-tales-told and they have a plethora of very interesting and cool episodes all about fandom things!! <33

me and the loml @motswolo happened to be on the latest episode and you can check out all the episodes here!! (on spotify and apple podcasts 😋)

[buckybarnesss]

stiles saving lydia from eichen house 🤝 stiles saving derek from the fbi

[mars-graveyard]

um. nikkiblr i offer you this.

[randomingoftherandomness]

There is a thing I don't get, why Yuanzhi was so against the idea of Ziyu becoming the sword wielder?

Just because he wanted his brother to be it? Or because of the rumors about Ziyu's mother? I mean, Shangjue was always logical on the reasons why he didn't want Ziyu to be the leader while Yuanzhi seemed to just do what he was told to do.

I read an answer on Reddit where Yuanzhi was described as Shangjue's dog, with no opinions of his own, petty and oblivious. Many people regarded him as the true villain of the show because he caused pain and played tricks for no real reasons. Do you think he is like that? Only smart for poisons?

Me to the Redditor who said that:

Knuckle and buckle, kids, you're on the Gab Meta Train.

1. Gong Ziyu started out hella unqualified and everyone knows it

Don't come at me and tell me Gong Ziyu was the most worthy candidate to be the Sword Wielder because based on the first character setup, he definitely was not it. He was known to frequent the pleasure house, he stumbles home drunk in broad daylight, he has no involvement in the family's affairs, and he is most definitely more known as a dandy than anyone who is being groomed to take over the helm of the family.

Honestly, off the bat, in real life, would you want someone with a proven track record to lead you and protect you and your interests, or would you want some dude who is better known for hanging out at a brothel than he is actually handling paperwork or has a track record of maturity?

Yuanzhi, who is younger than Ziyu, but already is contributing to the day-to-day running and the development of tech and research for the family.

Which means...?

He has skin in the game about who he wants to lead him in the family. And that's a very valid stance to take. It's more than "oh Gege told me to do this, so I will" because that's such a sad 1 dimension take, and again, to that Redditor:

Of course, we as the audience know that Ziyu will shape up. He will step up and he will answer the call, so to speak. But Gong Yuanzhi and Gong Shangjue did not. And if you really think about it, they're pretty much 'employees' of the Gong company. They just didn't agree with what top management decided and vocally voiced that opinion.

If you reeeeeallly want to think about it, they were just unionising :)

(gonna put this under a read more coz it got long)

2. Gong Shangjue has instilled a mentality of "Family First"

Relating to the first point.

Shangjue is obviously Yuanzhi's North Star. He is who Yuanzhi is shaping himself to be, and for all we know of his character, of course he would. He's basically the perfect man to aspire to be in a society like theirs.

So, when Shangjue says, "Family is the Most Important", don't you think Yuanzhi is gonna listen? Gong Shangjue is Gong Yuanzhi's most important person. He's family in a way that the rest aren't. Even if he doesn't outright say "I want that position", Yuanzhi would have done anything to help support him and get him there.

And going on the point where Shangjue and Yuanzhi were on Ziyu's case coz of the rumours that his mom was possibly pregnant when she married into the Gong family; I know other users on the MJTY tag have quite possibly discussed this matter (shoutout to @kingsandbastardz @swiftletinthecloud @romchat for their lovely metas and analysis posts ❤️ I consume them with much gratitude and glee), but let me crudely try to wrangle what has been beautifully said into my my own words;

For a family that prides themselves with being very strict about their familial rules, the fact that there is some measure and level of doubt persisting about Ziyu's parentage should have and must disqualify him from the position itself. Ziyu's dad could have easily kiboshed the rumours but he didn't, why?

More than that, the implication given to Shangjue over tea was that the position of Zhiren was always meant to go to him. Rewatch that scene where he last saw his uncle. Tell me differently.

The whole paternity issue is just one facet of a very Ziyu shaped problem. Having a murky paternity will raise issues of succession. Why do you think the nobilities of Europe back then had a court of people, usually people of importance, to be present when a marriage was consummated and a child was born? This is to make sure that there was no doubt that the marriage was legitimate and the line of succession and paternity remains unbroken.

(there were always exceptions to the rule, of course, but you get my drift, right?)

Of course, we got the resolutions to all of these issues; Ziyu was always the bio son of the Zhiren, he probably didn't kibosh the rumours because he never wanted to have his son carry that burden of leading the family when he could tell that his son had always wanted to leave the Valley, and Shangjue never coveted the position in the first place, he just wanted the right person to lead.

3. Yuanzhi has no opinions

Yuanzhi's just a dog to Shangjue? Well, if he's a dog, I wanna be one too Woof Woof.

Yuanzhi has his own motivations and drive. They just so happened to be Gege-shaped. I don't see how that warrants being called someone's dog.

He doesn't have his own opinions? Bro quite literally almost died to prove a point that the porridge was poisoned and Shangguan Qian cannot be trusted. HOW IS THAT NOT HAVING AN OPINION?

WERE WE EVEN WATCHING THE SAME SHOW???

Honestly, it's Reddit so I shouldn't be this surprised about the hot takes that happen on there, but damn if some people lack two brain cells to rub together to critically consume the media in front of them.

4. Yuanzhi is a reactionary character

Think about it; how many times throughout the narrative did he cause problems for no apparent reason?

If anything, don't you think that Ziyu & co. are the ones who deliberately do things to antagonise him and Shangjue? It's almost midnight as I am typing this and the old noggin is starting to lag, but let's focus on the blood GPS incident.

Yuanzhi saw that the people in the Yu residence were being a bit suspicious so he goes to snoop (cause + reason = reaction). Jin Fan is best boy, but Yuanzhi did not instigate that fight, he did (with good reason i know i know). (offense + defense = reaction). Ziyu & co. tried to stuff him into the closet (*snerk*) and what does he do? Bites down until he bleeds because he knows Gege will find him if he sniffs him out. And he did. A successful reaction.

In my opinion, he's like gunpowder -- left alone, they'll be fine. When given a spark, will react.

And again with feeling... To the Redditor who spouted such utter shite;

Class dismissed

[thewittyphantom]

This card reminds me of Thief King Bakura.

[phatcatphergus]

Of course the tubparents took up archery. It’s so random but makes so much sense in my head

[fyeahygocardart]

Raidacross, Hero of the Dawn

[stizzysupremacy]

rewatching OFMD and damn, we really do just skip right over the fact that they LEFT STEDE PINNED TO THE MAST FOR HOURS!

Izzy had time to pack up a boat to leave and Ed stood and watched him do it. Roach, the fucking medic, took the time to go make Izzy a sandwich. And Stede is just standing there skewered like a kebab.

[thatonebasicfan]

Just had the glorious thought of Reepicheep absolutely ENDING Pettigrew's shit.

Because where Reepicheep is loyal and will die for his friends, Pettigrew helped kill James, one of his closest friends, and his other close friend to Azkaban for framing him of a crime that he didn't commit. Reepicheep views Pettigrew as a blog on the name of rats.

[feyosha]