#I dunno. don’t do Yubel kids?

[lazyassryan]

Okayyyyy, it’s Yugioh GX AU rant time. Time to get my game on and hang out in the school yard, I guess…

Some trigger warning before we start the ranting; fire, burning houses, Yubel in general (they play heavy in here), mentions of curses, and some other things I may not pick up on. I have mental illness I’m sorry.

Okay, so welcome to my Feral!Judai AU… umm so shall we start from the beginning?

Jaden Yuki, an average kid that no one seems to understand. His life is like him, normal. He plays with his “imaginary” friend, who he lovingly calls “Yubel” and his parents work all the time, but that’s beside the point. One night as Jaden and his family were sleeping, a loud boom went off. Someone was having a gender reveal party and it set the house on fire, Yubel, being worried for Jaden’s safety, took him and the Yu-Gi-Oh™️ cards to the nearby forest, and there they lived for many years. Yubel teaching Jaden the basics of American Sign Language (ASL), how to communicate and how to duel, which proved useful as he got older.

Speaking of getting older… Jay got older, Yubel got further. I think I put it best like this, “…The only person to guide him was slowly fading from his memory with age. Imaginary friends don’t last forever, even wild children grow up.”, which I wrote about two months ago in a Google doc. But anyways his hair now grown out and frizzed, mind so unkept yet tamed to the wild, it was almost as if an animal would be attending the duel academy. And everybody knew. He skipped prep, going straight for the big leagues of this academy, it’s because he didn’t know he needed to go to prep or really any school. He had someone’s teachings, a mother? A parent perhaps? He had forgotten by now… but they haven’t.

Yubel has cursed Jaden and one other person for some evil scheme, but they must wait to see their lovely Jaden. Time heals all wounds but not in this case, time only makes them worse…

Yubel’s curse; it makes anyone who touches you feel the need to protect you in some way, even if they hate you. The person will still hate you just feel conflicted. It was the last thing Yubel gave Jaden, to protect him and his innocents from the outside world, from people.

(Unoriginal and kinda Marry Sue-ish, he grows more mature when all the shit goes down and Yubel takes Jessie, I promise. I just don’t feel like detailing his whole life rn. Pure edited and reviewed for grammar and spelling mistakes by; @steelgritandironwill HAI BUBBBYYY!!!!)

Some pics of my son!!!❤️❤️💖💖

[silvormoon]

Just for Fun

This is for Soulshipping week, for the prompt “firsts’.

“All right, go, Wiseman Neos!”

Juudai’s monster bounded across the field towards the opponent’s creature. It was a formidable looking beast, all hair and claws and savage fangs, but it was no match for Juudai’s ace. The beast exploded in a flash of colored sparks, and the other player’s life points dropped to zero. Juudai whooped in delight.

“Gotcha! Great game,” he said.

His opponent, a fifteen year old boy named Hachiro, grinned back at him. The two of them had met in a convenience store somewhere in Gifu, where they had both been looking at the booster packs next to the cash register. They had naturally fallen into conversation, which had inevitably led to the two of them in this duel park showing off their decks in the best way Juudai knew how.

“That was really cool!” Hachiro enthused. “You’ve got some amazing monsters.”

“Hey, you’ve got some great ones too,” said Juudai. “Just keep practicing, and remember what I said about getting the timing right when you’re using traps.”

Hachiro nodded. “I will! And thanks for the pointers on how to use Fusion monsters. I’ve got some great ideas now for how to power up my deck.”

“Great!” said Juudai. “I’ll look you up the next time I’m passing through and you can show me how much you’ve learned.”

He said goodbye to his new friend and began ambling back to the shop where he’d left his motorbike. As he walked, he took out his phone and considered the map, wondering where to go from there. He had a general idea that he’d keep heading in the general direction of Mt. Ibuki, and then make his way around Lake Biwa and eventually to Kyoto...

Yubel’s image wavered into view next to him.

“You seemed to enjoy that,” she observed.

“Yeah, it was fun,” he said. “Do you think they have boats that cross the lake, or should we just try to go around?”

Since Yubel knew next to nothing about the geography of Japan, Juudai didn’t expect an answer and didn’t get one.

“That boy seemed to enjoy it too, even though he lost,” she said instead.

Juudai shrugged. “Well, it was just for fun, you know? He wanted to see my cards in action. It’s not like there was anything riding on it.”

Yubel smiled. “Rather unusual.”

Juudai nodded thoughtfully. It was true - most of the dueling he’d been doing lately had been for one reason or another. He’d followed a tip from Edo to some card thieves who needed a good shaking-up, played in a couple of small tournaments to earn some quick cash, and dueled a few rough types who had seen a lone ragged-looking boy wandering through what they thought was their turf and wanted to show him who was boss. He’d had some interesting adventures so far, but he hadn’t spent a lot of time just relaxing and enjoying himself.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m glad we did it.”

“I think,” said Yubel, “that this was the first time the two of us have dueled together just for fun.” Yubel pronounced the word “fun” as though it were foreign and difficult to pronounce.

Juudai turned to look at her. “I dunno. We had some good games back when I was a kid.”

“They weren’t games to me,” said Yubel. “To me, they were part of protecting you. Winning made you happy, and losing made you sad, so I tried to make sure you would always win.”

“So today was the first time you ever just played for fun?” Juudai asked.

“I suppose so. How odd.”

Juudai grinned. “Sounds like an opportunity to me!”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’ll still be a while before they’re done tuning up my bike. We might as well have a couple of games. You still have your deck, right?”

“I do,” Yubel agreed, beginning to smile.

“Great,” said Juudai, and laughed. “I don’t mind if you go a little easy on me, though. Some of those dragons of yours are scary.”

Yubel laughed too, shaking her head. “No, you would mind. My Juudai always wants his opponent to play with everything they have.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Juudai agreed. “Come on, let’s find someplace we can play without being watched. Winner gets to choose where we sleep tonight.” It had become a regular discussion between them that Juudai liked to sleep under the stars, scenery and weather permitting, but Yubel thought it was more fitting for him to sleep in a real bed. Right now the weather had been good enough that he usually won the argument, but he thought he might feel differently when the nights turned cold again.

“Ahh, then you wish me to play seriously after all,” said Yubel, with a grin that showed her teeth.

Juudai just laughed. It seemed like such a natural thing to have a friendly game of cards with Yubel that he was amazed he hadn’t thought of it before.

This might be the first time, he thought, but it definitely won’t be the last!

[future-circuit]

i always get kind of antsy when people start talking about season three cause way too much of the time i feel like a huge lump of the blame is pushed onto judai’s friends. like do they share a lot of the blame? yes, of course. did they mean it? does that make them awful friends? not really. they’re kids and the friend group just so happens to consist of the kids with the biggest problems in the entire school which isn’t really helped by the fact that there’s maybe three members of faculty that’s reliable? and only one of those that regularly kind of tries to help. and said one also spent the better part of first year hating aggressively on them. 

like okay, i dunno. i think the people who do this tend to be doing it to push more spotlight onto johan as a ‘saviour’ or some bullshit like that even when he’s not that and wasn’t intended to be that. he’s an outsider looking into judai’s friend group. the biggest problem with judai’s friend group is that they all became friends at fifteen- kids a lot more immature than people would like to admit. and a lot of maturing happens in a teen’s brain during a short span of time but they didn’t have the greatest environment to mature in- that environment being world ending activities on the daily. they’re used to the abnormal and they’re used to judai being judai and, most importantly, judai’s used to the abnormal and he’s used to pushing past it and having everything work out. 

johan doesn’t fit this mold because we can only assume he had a better environment and didn’t know judai or friends. so he sees weird shit go down and says ‘hey maybe this is weird and y’all should stop for a moment’ like that time shou is hanging over the cliff and he calls judai out for focusing more on the potential duel than his friend about to die- that’s weird for johan, know who it isn’t weird for? judai. 

oh also i feel like it’s forgotten a lot that when judai’s friends berate him in the dark world in the duel against brron that’s not really them? they have those magic seals or whatever (don’t remember whether they heighten emotions or just place them there entirely or maybe that’s all something i assumed since it’d be out of character for them to hate judai to the extent they seemed to show). either way, i’d probably start yelling too, i’d be terrified so i wouldn’t hold myself accountable to what i said in those moments. 

in season four a lot of people give them grief as well even though? i’m pretty sure shou mentions in the first episode that they did try their best to get him back out? you can’t expect them to put their entire lives on hold for him though. like he had to work through that shit himself and they had to try and get their lives back on track for graduation. they even cared enough to think ahead in advance that he probably wouldn’t go to the graduation party and sneaked the parting letter to him.

they’re dumbass kids at the beginning of the show and they’re still kids by the end, kids with a lot of issues. a lot of them. judai was shoved into the leadership role because he didn’t have issues that’s why things started to fall apart when he started to change and develop, y’know, actual issues. it’s not his fault, it’s not his friends’ fault, it’s not really anyone’s fault (okay actually yes it is, it’s yubel’s fault technically but details).

so uh. i hope that clears stuff up somewhat. even if it’s just me rambling.

[quillreflections]

Title: Beautiful Times [song]

Chapter: oneshot

Series: Yugioh GX

Pairing: Jaden Yuki/Reader

Disclaimer: kinda old, written because I love traveler’s notebooks, basically just me getting one of my recurring daydreams down on paper tbh

The pen's cartridge burst in his grip, splattering all over the page, his hand, the front of his shirt- he lets out a strangled groan in frustration, standing up off the bench and shaking his hand, sending more ink flying. He looked back to the page he'd just been writing on; stained deep, unfortunately. Flipping a few pages forward proved that, the ink leaking further.

From over his shoulder, a voice echoes- not entirely there, but loud enough for him to hear. "Jaden. You've been distracted lately."

Wiping his stained hand down the front of his equally-stained shirt, Jaden turns to face Yubel. Her arms are crossed over her chest, and she barely floats above the bench, her dual-colored gaze narrowing at him. He smiles sadly, almost automatically reaching up to run his fingers through his hair, barely stopping himself in time. "I just- I dunno, I'm fine."

Jaden sits back down, absently examining his surroundings as he lets the ink-stained pages dry so he can keep writing.

This place felt nothing like home.

A bustling city, with the buildings towering much higher than anything on the Duel Academy's campus, filled with people who barely cared about dueling and just preferred going about boring, everyday lives. He couldn't tell the differences between the office buildings and the penthouses, because every time he looked up, there was a professional-looking somebody on every balcony or in every window, getting into arguments on the phone, chugging what seemed to be their fifth coffee of the hour.

On one of the balconies above him now, a young woman leaned over the railing, waving a piece of paper at a man who didn't seem to hear her as he joined the jostling crowd of people on the sidewalk. The woman pouts, and her eyes wander. Jaden waves.

The ink has mostly dried. Next to the worst of the splatter, he scrawls a note about clumsiness and turns the page.

"What will happen when you reach the end of this book? What will you do?" Yubel tilts her head curiously, watching Jaden fill several pages with his messy handwriting before he responds.

"I'll just get another one. That's what you do with notebooks."

"That. . . isn't what I meant."

He refuses to look at her.

Jaden's fingers tap in patterns on the leather cover and the cluttered pages as he flips back and forth. Yubel goes silent, not asking anymore questions, but instead trying to tune into her human partner's thoughts. Unfortunately, Jaden has much more control of himself than one would expect; there's practically a wall around his own spirit, and try as she might, she can't peer into his heart.

It seems he's closed it to her. It's for someone else now.

Maybe it always has been.

☆☆☆

Barely a week later, Jaden hunkers down under a heaping, twisting steel structure, hoping that a place like this doesn't have any guards to notice the small fire he's lit. He admires the roller coaster looming above him; the light of his pitifully small fire only goes so far, and a vast majority of the ride stretches off into the darkness.

Smiling to himself, he digs through his unorganized bag until he finally finds the camera he'd saved for. It was instant, and had no phone or internet connectivity, and most would consider it old-fashioned, but as he rocks back on his heels to take a picture, Jaden is perfectly happy with it. The camera whirs and clicks for a moment before spitting out a blank image, and he's careful to hold it away from the fire as the picture fades in.

As the image develops, Jaden sinks down into the grass, resting his back against one of the large metal supports. His fishes out the notebook- agh, there's a myriad of new scratches across the leather- and starts writing.

She likes to hear stories. So he tells one to the page, reminiscing about amusement park visits as a child, with his family or for birthdays, recounting all the times he'd ridden coasters until he was sick. He carefully sticks the picture onto the page and smiles. Maybe they can go to one together someday.

The chain link fence clatters off in the distance. He kicks dust over the fire to put it out.

☆☆☆

"I've decided!" He says aloud, to both Yubel and the store clerk. She floats closer. The man behind the counter steps over, holding the case keys. Jaden points to the small charm, and the clerk smiles as he removes it, holding it up to the light for them both to admire.

"A rather feminine choice; for anyone in particular?" He has a knowing smile on his face.

Jaden blushes as he smiles back, but he doesn't give any particular answer.

He fumbles with the small bag as he leaves the store, pulling the tiny charm from its fancy little packaging and clipping it to the elastic closure on the notebook. It suits the thing well; a small bronze heart, decorated sparsely with twinkling red rhinestones, looking like an absolute treasure as it rests on the deep brown leather.

He senses Yubel's gaze boring into him.

"You've decided?"

"Yep!" Jaden forces himself to keep walking. "As soon as it's full, I'll. . ." his voice trails off, and he smiles at the Duel Spirit. "I'll do it, I really will."

☆☆☆

Shipping was expensive.

The young man frowned at the prices listed up on the board. It all varied by weight and distance- he tucks the box under his arm and holds his fingers up in front of his face, muttering and trying to do the math. Yeah, way too expensive for something only that far.

He turns to leave the post office, pushing past the line of people.

One old woman, holding a stack of what looks like bills. A teenage boy, waving an envelope and holding it to the light; it's sealed with a heart-shaped sticker, and he seems nervous. A young mother, guiding her small children to the counter, each of them holding a small package and grinning at each other.

What would she look like when she got it? Would she smile? Would she cry? He hoped it wouldn't be sad tears.

Jaden steps into the cold. The freezing air hits his lungs and rejuvenates him. Shifting the box to one hand, he pulls out another notepad, one he's had for awhile- the one she'd scrawled her address on at graduation, before he'd left. The last time they'd seen each other.

He hoped she hadn't moved since then.

He starts walking, looking up at the street signs as he passes. He slowed for a moment to check a map on one of the street corners; it'd be a long walk, but that's fine.

The cluttered city streets meld into suburbs, and cute neighborhoods, and the sidewalks go from well-maintained to cracked and broken and crumbling and well-used. He trots along, running a cold hand along a rough stone wall as he passes, stopping to pet a cat.

He's not nervous.

Graduation really wasn't that long ago- she couldn't have forgotten him already. And she'd said. . . she'd said she would wait for him as long as needed-

There it is.

Jaden stops outside the fence surrounding the cute house. The gate is more for decoration than anything; it swings open easily as he rests his hand on it. Not even locked.

His eyes nervously search each window as he approaches the home. He doesn't think he can face her yet, so he's praying she isn't watching from somewhere here can't see.

Finally reaching the porch, Jaden brings his hand up to knock on the door, but he hesitates; behind him, he feels a whisper of air, and when he turns, Yubel is motioning him onward with her wings.

He inhales deeply and knocks.

☆☆☆

You'd almost missed it.

There had been nobody at the door when you opened it, so you'd assumed it was some neighborhood kids fooling around- but then you'd noticed the small brown box on your welcome mat, with your name etched in very familiar handwriting. All of the air rushed out of your lungs.

Now, seated at your kitchen table, the sloppy packaging having fallen to the floor long ago, you're completely absorbed in the small leather notebook.

'I'm in Paris now! Man, I thought Slifer had some funky food-' A picture of plate after plate of cuisine.

'This reminded me of that story you told me about your parents!' An old movie theater, lit up at night.

'Today, in the middle of Italy, I met someone who needed me.' You smiled at that, remembering how lonely he'd seemed when he'd told you that was his plan.

Page after page after page of Jaden's messy handwriting. Stamps and stickers. Spilled ink. He'd pressed your favorite flowers in between a few pages, and included copies of your favorite card whenever he found them in another country.

On the very first page, he'd written your name. On the very last pages, a note.

'I'm sorry I've been gone so long. Believe me, I miss you more and more as the days go by- but now, no matter how things were, I don't know if you'd want to see me again. Are you still waiting for me? I promise I'll be home soon. Please, wait until then.'

You blink back a few tears, wondering how he could ever think you'd be unhappy to see him.

Maybe he hadn't gotten too far yet. Wiping your eyes, you climb out of your chair and head back to the front door, hoping to find another memory of the boy you feel so strongly for-

When you open the door, he freezes like a deer in headlights. His hand is in the air like he's going to knock again. You stare at each other for a long silent moment.

"I've missed you so much-!" The words feel like they're bursting out of him. You step forward, wrapping your arms around him, not quite believing he's real yet.

"Please don't leave me again." It's barely a whisper as you bury your face in his chest.

He wraps his arms around you in return, nuzzling into your hair and holding you close. "I'm home, [Name]."

[riyuyami]

For the flower shop au, Yusei and Jaden go to a botanist garden and explore. Yusei shows off his art skills and Jaden falls hard.... again.

THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME TO DO SOMETHING FOR THIS AU LIKE I ASKED LAST NIGHT!

–

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Yusei asked, his hand gently squeezing Judai’s own as the walked past the entrance gates. “I mean, you’re around flowers all the time…”

Judai flashed him a bright grin. “I’m cool with this! I don’t mind it, it’s cute that you suggested coming here.”

The taller man looked a little flushed as he glanced away, his attention on a board with a map of the large botanical garden on it. “Aki suggested it, actually, she said it would be a nice way to spend the day, especially since…”

The grin shrank a little on Judai’s face as he let out a soft, tired chuckle. “Sorry, for… you know, putting up with me when all of that mess happened.”

“It’s not problem, I understand that it can happen, and often at unexpected times. Believe me.” He replied quietly, squeezing his hand again. “I don’t mind, and besides, today is suppose to be a fun day, let’s make it so, yes?”

“Of course!” Judai chuckled and approached the sign. “Hmm… where to go to first. There’s the fountain area… ooh, they have a playground! Haha, wouldn’t that be fun to check out? Uhh… a maze, hmm… what’s this one?”

“‘The Garden of Death’, looks like it’s full of deadly plants. And plants that smell like death.”

“Wanna check that out first? Might make the rest of the place look brighter when we get that area out of the way!”

Yusei let out a small laugh. “Sure, we can do that.” He headed for the path that would lead them towards that area. “So…” Yusei began to break the ice. “Do you actually like plants?”

The brunet gave a nod. “Yeah, my mom liked to garden, and would let me help her sometimes. Plus, they’re really nice to look at. I’ll be cliche, I like red roses best, beautiful flowers with a deadly weapon attached to them. Kind of badass, if you think about it! Yubel says it’s dumb.”

“Yubel seems to be a stubborn individual.”

“Hehehe, yeah, she can be. But she’s my best friend, and sure, she can be stubborn and negative, and rude, she is still rather sweet.”

“She reminds me of Jack during his worst, egotistical days.”

Judai let out a laugh. “Was he like that? Now he just seems like an egotistical dork!”

“Yes to both of those.” Yusei nodded, smiling a little as they walked, before his smile died a little as he smelled something. “I think… we found the area.”

Judai sniffed and pulled a face. “Uhg! It smells like the time me and Shou left a bagged sandwich under his bed by accident, and we found it weeks later. And we opened the bag.”

“Why… did you open the bag?”

“His brother dared us to. We got ten bucks each, but it wasn’t worth it.”

Yusei couldn’t help it, he laughed at the look on Judai’s face at the memory of this incident. “I figured as much. Uhg, this smell is bad, but I think that’s the point, right? Aki said there are plants that smell like rot for a reason…”

“OH!” The smaller man perked up. “It’s cause they attract insects that like that smell! It’s how the pollinate! A lot of them tend to be jungle plants, and some of them look really pretty, but smell like rotten ass! Like this one, check it out!” He pulled the dark-haired man up to a fence, where a display of flowers were. “These are… ah! I was right, pawpaw! It’s pretty, but smells awful.”

“You’re telling me. Come on, let’s move on. What else do they have here?”

“I dunno, I see a lot of smelly flowers. Hey, there’s some plants over there that are caged.” Judai approached the caged plants, seeing plants that are used for drugs, and others that contains deadly toxins when eaten or touched. No wonder this place was related to death, it was interesting, but a little queasy, for a number of reasons.

Once they got through this area, the two of the walked through the large flower hedge maze, getting lost three times from one another, so a game of Marco Polo had to be played to find one another and get out.

After that, they walked through an area full of orchids of all types and colors, it was beautiful, a bit romantic. A quick kiss was shared hidden in an area that other people would not be able to see them. Yusei wasn’t one for PDA, simply because he was a rather shy man, and Judai was fine with that. Actually, he was pleased that Yusei continued to hold his hand as they wandered around.

They found the fountain area, seeing several beautiful fountains and many more flowers of different types planted around the place. “Are you having a nice time?” The older of the couple asked softly as they walked around the area, ignoring the other people in the gardens.

Judai nodded, he actually was, it was… a relaxing date, especially after what had happened recently. He was happy when Yusei asked him out, just a day for the two of them, and he would need to thank Aki for suggesting the gardens, it was helping his mood greatly.

“I am, this is a really nice date, Yusei.” Judai smiled sweetly.

“I’m glad. Wanna check out the playground?”

“Heh, isn’t that for kids?”

“Do you think that’s gonna stop us?”

“Nope!” Judai laughed as they made their way to the playground area, surprised to see that it wasn’t really occupied. Then again, it was a school day, so most children wouldn’t be here. Judai laughed, letting go of the other’s hand as he made his way for the large jungle gym, beginning to climb up it.

Yusei blinked, before chuckling and following his boyfriend, where they ended up playing on it for a few minutes before just sitting up at the highest platform, looking out over the garden, with Yusei leaning on Judai.

The brunet smiled a little, glancing at his boyfriend, looking at his arms and seeing the tattoos on the artist’s arm. “What do those mean?” He asked, having never really asked about them before. He didn’t know if it would be nice to do or not.

Yusei blinked and glanced at his arms. “My tattoos? Oh, well…” He pointed to the one on his right arm, the red thing that looked kind of like a head or some sort. “It’s a dragon’s head, me and some of my dearest friends have these tattoos of different parts of a dragon. We came up with it when we were younger, this big, red creature, from some silly RPG we came up with that involved the Nazca lines, don’t ask. And we thought, hey, why not remember those amazing days by putting marks on us just as our characters had.”

Judai chuckled. “That’s pretty cool, and… the stars?”

Blue and brown eyes looked at Yusei’s left arm, covered in blue and white stars of different sizes, scattered all over the limb, going up to his collarbone. “When I was little, I really wanted to go into space, but I never felt I was capable of doing such a thing. All I wanted to do was be close to the stars, I always loved them, the night is my favorite time of the day.”

He sat up better, pushing up his sleeve to point a blue star on his upper arm, it was a bit faded, and not straight like the lines of the other stars. “This was my first tattoo, I got it when I was a kid, against Martha’s wishes, oh man, she was so mad, but I had paid for it myself and everything, so she said if I regretted it, it was my fault. I don’t regret it, I love it, it was the start of my little collection. I like to get new ones whenever something amazing happens to me, cause it made me happy, just as the night sky does.”

He then pulled a face and scratched his head. “Seems kinda cheesy, right?”

“No, I think it’s kinda cute, and dorky, but really cool! Soooo… what about this one?” Judai tapped the yellow mark on Yusei’s cheek.

“Got into an accident with my bike, scarred my face under my eye, and I didn’t like it, so Crow marked the scar over with the tattoo. People don’t seem to notice the scarred skin, and I think it looks cool.”

“And it does. Did you design all your tattoos?”

“Yes, including all the dragons parts for my friends. I tend to usually do the artwork for the tattoo parlor, and it’s fun. Sure, people bring in their own designs, yes, but I tend to touch them up if people ask. I like it, I like drawing and seeing people with my art on their skin, so happy about it, something they’re gonna keep years to come.”

Judai gave a nod. “I’d like to get a tattoo one day.”

“What would you get?”

“I wanna get… something that reminds me of you.” Judai spoke softly, glancing at Yusei, seeing the pink that came to his cheeks. He smiled and leaned in close, gently kissing him on the lips. “Would that be okay?” He asked as he pulled away.

Yusei blinked, his face more flushed, he opened his mouth to speak but appeared to have lost his voice in the moment, so he just nodded. Judai grinned and leaned on him. “Awesome, give me time to come up with something good, okay? Oh, and do you wanna get lunch? I’m starting to get hungry.”

“S-sure, we can go get lunch, wanna go to that place you like? With the fried shrimp?”

“Yes!”

–

Sorry, I was gonna do something about Yusei being artistic, but I couldn’t come up with anything, so I went with him talking about is tattoos.

[entamewitchlulu]

To be fair though aren't the mangas all significantly different than the anime? Like manga Manjoume doesn't even have his Ojamas/manga Johan doesn't have Gem Beasts

oh no they all are, for sure.  i went into the arc v manga expecting it to be a separate entity.

I have read all of the manga that’s out so far save for the few chapters of arc v that i haven’t caught up on, and tbh the arc v characters in the manga are entirely unrecognizable.  Their characterization is even worse than manga!Crow saying he hates kids….I’m not even kidding.

If these characters were drawn with different designs I would have never known that they were based off of arc v.  imo no other manga has done this badly with the source material.  The Zexal manga characters were practically the same as the anime characters.  5Ds was a little off in places, and Yusei wasn’t really Yusei, but you could tell they were who they were supposed to be.  GX was pretty damn close with its characterization at least among the main cast, Judai was undeniably his same old self, just without the Yubel angst backstory.

But like…the arc v manga is like……..who the fuck are these people?

Yuzu in the anime is a tough girl who doesn’t take any shit, is introspective and thoughtful, is unfailingly determined to help people and to reach out to other people.  In the manga, she’s been reduced to a caricature of a greedy, cheap school owner who can only think about money, and doesn’t form any decent relationship with Yuya at all.

In the anime, Shun is an angry, kind of edgy dude, yea, but he has reasons, he’s broken up and he’s hurting and he takes it out on the world around him by lashing out and getting cold and sharp.  In the manga, he’s just some run of the mill thrill seeker who wants to get hurt in battle so that he can feel alive.

And like…don’t get me started on Yuya, honestly.  His original self is a kind, thoughtful individual who has a lot of self-doubt and confidence issues that he slowly works through by understanding the roots of his own selfishness and how to become the person he wants to be.  manga yuya is every other shonen protagonist who’s smooth, suave, and can never, ever do any wrong.  he rarely, if ever, shows any distress over anything.  he’s always in control and he’s always right.  There’s none of the softness and uncertainty in him that made Yuya who he was: he’s just every other generic shonen protagonist.  and it’s a little upsetting.

in my opinion like…no other manga has gotten it this wrong.  It may be my own bias talking since i’m more emotionally invested in arc v and so i see the differences more strikingly, but i didn’t think there was this much of a disconnect between anime and manga in the previous series back before arc v took over my life and i was just into all of the yugioh series equally. so i dunno.  i really just don’t get how it ended up this different :/

[future-circuit]

For the ask thingy 001: yugioh gx!! :O

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character: yubel partially because i can project and also just because i love em man i don’t know what else to say, how to put it into words. austin’s a close second, that boy deserved better

Least Favorite character:amon- what a little bitch

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): well the first to come to mind are:SoulshippingSpiritshippingLow-key like… Austin and Maiden of the Aqua? Y’feel? I dunnoPossessshipping (had to look up the name for this one. it’s yubel, johan and judai)Tigershipping (which is apparently the ship name for Misawa and Tania? huh)

Character I find most attractive:legit i love Maiden of the Aqua though. i don’t know if i like her design or i think she’s attractive but either way she pretty

Character I would marry:tough fucking question jeez uh. fuck i haven’t a clue. 

Character I would be best friends with:just one? uh. to be completely honest probably like johan? thinking personality wise? i gravitate towards dumbasses but i think judai would be a bit too much of a dumbass. i’d parent him too much. 

A random thought: so like all those missing students did no one ever do anything? like the ones from the blue dorm were covered up we know that (i don’t know how they kept that under wraps from the families but i mean. they go to nerd school so i guess their parents don’t care) but i guess i mean more like. the island is fucking dangerous. there’s an active volcano that isn’t barred off, a fucking lab? that just sorta exists? like it came in for the fucking goddamn monkey episode and then it kept just popping up? and no one cares that a ton of illegal stuff just goes on there? do students use it for anything? they must, they’re teenagers; maybe its like a meth lab or something at some point i dunno. you can really tell the parents don’t care cause kids go off the grid, judai went missing (cause he was in s p a c e), shou tried to sail himself back home on a fucking shitty ass raft that one time, the entire FUCKING SCHOOL goes missing alongside the entirety of the staff and students and then the school finally returns and then kids go missing again, they come back except for one who just kinda. shows up in a pile of smoke and no one’s like ‘what the fuck?’ oh yeah and then like. god shows up right in the schoolyard or something. so uh. hey who’s watching this island? does anyone care? there’s no one responsible on the entire island. 

An unpopular opinion: i don’t think the cast is too bloated. at least, not to the extent that everyone else seems to think. like yeah i think that more time to flesh out certain characters would be great but with what we have i think everyone’s handled relatively well? misawa’s deal is clearly intended (or at least in the way that the writers realised they’d not been using him and decided to keep it like that cause it was funny- which it is by the way) and he got a good ending i’d say. asuka’s deal was never gonna be great being like the one main female character til rei became main in season three but she wasn’t too badly done either i wouldn’t say- she was there for her arc and her moments, and it’s not like she didn’t do anything in season four (even if a lot of what she did was there to further judai’s character, she wasn’t out of character for any of it and exerted her annoyance reasonably). like. i think everyone forgets that a lot of characters show up and have an arc then leave or linger and are there when needed after their arc’s over. i don’t want to ramble too much and it’s a bit hard to try and explain what i mean. everyone has their part and they’re there when it’s important to their character or it’s generally in-character for them to be there even if it’s not important to them. i also think it’s interesting though  that there’s some off-screen development. i think that may annoy some people but i think it’s cool. lets the audience know that these characters have lives that exist even when they’re not on screen. 

My Canon OTP: i don’t think yugioh knows the concept? i mean you could (and i might) argue that soulshipping is technically canon? but also you could very much argue not so. whatever.

edit: i realised misawa and tania’s pretty much canon so uh. that one if y’all ain’t accepting soulshipping.

My Non-canon OTP: depending on what you’re arguing it’s soulshipping

Most Badass Character: austin and jim both deserve a medal guys c’mon you can’t say they don’t. there’s a lotta badass gx characters (depending on your definition i suppose) but those two fucking rocked the dark world

Most Epic Villain: yubel because i’m biased and also they produced one if not my absolute favourite duel

Pairing I am not a fan of: fianceshipping(?). you can like it if you want, i’m just not here for it. not here for most asuka ships honestly? but y’know. it is what it is. my views on asuka’s sexuality aside i don’t think any chemistry really had the chance to build up between them. asuka was there to be the level-headed one which can work as chemistry but they never had time to talk together properly so it never had time to build up, y’know? i’ve said y’know a lot in this ask huh. anyway. i think season four’s a good show as to another reason i don’t think they work well together. asuka’s not only stubborn but she can get really annoyed really easily at people who have no regard for her feelings and i understand that judai had a lot of hang ups at that point but even before then, he never was that mindful about feelings. that’s literally how season three went. on judai’s side she’d be more of a dead weight to him in terms of how he is. he’s someone who leaps before they look and asuka’s not enough of a ‘mum friend’ character to hold him back i wouldn’t say. she’d watch to make sure nothing bad happened, but she’s not a good fit for him when you try and really nuance it. they work as friends because they don’t work romantically, i think, in a weird way. if that makes sense? i rambled but i have a lot of thoughts on the nuances on ships. like i’ve talked a lot about how asuka doesn’t fit well with judai because of her responsible nature which may seem hypocritical considering i love soulshipping but again. nuances. i digress. 

tldr; fianceshipping cause of nuances. i have too much time on my hands.

Character I feel the writers screwed up: uuuuuuuhhhhh… i don’t know? i don’t think there are any i can think off the top of my head that makes me actively annoyed at their end game. they all had their ups and downs. echo maybe? she got fucked, she deserved better. 

Favourite Friendship: hard in a different way. i love them all. pretty much everyone with judai, shou and kenzan, that weird thing edo and ryo had going on, asuka and ryo is slept on (i wish we got to see them be more friendly), as is ryo and fubuki for that matter, rei and martin is especially slept on i love those two stupid fucking kids, that weird thing shou and ojama yellow had going on (man the dark world was a bit weird for the marufujis huh), manjoume and his cards in general (but yeah mostly the ojamas of fucking course), kenzan and rei, austin and jim, edo and saiou (slept on again. so many are slept on)… everyone. i love all their friendships. friendship pile.

Character I most identify with: i couldn’t really say? i relate with different characters in different ways. i think that if you fused austin and johan together you’d get closest to me. that doesn’t make sense but it also does. think about it- don’t, actually

Character I wish I could be: none of em. have you fuckin seen those kids? traumatised, the lot of em! if i had to choose maybe hayato? y’know, there for some fun, made some good friends, got to experience a mild threat to the world, grew some, got a good paying, stable job. that’s the life. wonder what he was up to while all the shit at duel academia was going down.