#I have the same issue with yugioh

[zxal]

3 extra people in your head = 4x the hairstyle opportunities

[space-seawitch]

The first two posts remind me of when i first started reading bey fics in like 2008, and i hadn't watched all of the series because I could only rely on the show airing on tv up until that point, so i stumbled into this yubo fic, and the entire time i was like "ok, but who the hell is bryan?"

Which made me watch the entire first season and g-rev on youtube lmao (i still haven't watched v-force in its entirety, even though i did start it)

never forget my top tier early beyblade fandom experience, having finished the series and checking what kind of fics there are and "who the FUCK is this tala in all the stories"

hence

[aceofspaces16]

I had a thought what if yami spoke Arabic, this btw would change the whole backstory

Yes I am going to rewrite it, and yes atem will be called Muhammad, he probably doesn’t have to be a king/pharaoh just someone important

Yes this will change everything

[stelladess]

I feel like using very powerful operators but your own strategy that you thought of takes more skill then copying exactly one to one a low rarity guide with the same exact timings and operators and everything does.

Ive mentioned before I have played a LOT of yugioh in my life and in trading card game circles there is a term called "netdecking". Where basically you copy another person´s deck (usually from the internet, thereby the "net" part).

There are a lot of reasons why people consider it bad, it being uncreative, stealing another person´s work but the one relevant to my point here is that it requires no understanding of *why* the deck is constructed like it is.

In my opinion the best way to build your deck is to decide on what kind of deck you want, build a cheap but solid enough version of that as you can (konami is making the "cheap" part harder and harder of course but still, on master duel it is still doable for many). And then you play with it. You see what works and what doesnt, you iterate over time, removing cards you end up not having use for and adding stuff that will help your strategy or counter things that gives you trouble. A lot of these things you add may also be engines or staples you can then put into a new deck once your old one has fallen behind from power creep or gotten everything banned, although certain themes are convenient in that they almost always work at least (shaddolls, branded, bystials, tearlaments and zombies are all some of my favorite deck types in part because they are very resistant to getting outdated, dragon combo is another one like that I just do not like using it).

This way you understand why every single card is there. You learn how to use them and WHY you use them instead of some other card. The adjustments you make you know the reasoning that went into. So a netdeck might not be terrible as the first version, but you should iterate on it based on your experience if you do that, and try to think about why the person who made this deck made the decisions they did (I also think this might be a risky starting point because it will likely be much more expensive then the approach I outlined since most really good decks will have a lot of cards that either were already pricy or just shot up in price after that).

If you do not understand your deck you cannot play it well no matter how good the deck is.

I have a similar issue with following guides completely. Watching them and trying to understand why the person who made the strategy does what they do is good, but if you just copy them without trying to get the actual thinking behind the strategy you are just gonna be stuck playing increasingly difficult parts of the game without having had to overcome the challenge to get there.

Chapter 7 is one of my favorite chapters of Arknights from a pure gameplay perspective because it really kicked my ass when I first got to it as a new player. It forced me to see weaknesses in my own roster (no levelled shifters, lacking vanguards, etc). And my favorite map is H12-4 because it presented so many little problems to solve and to beat it was this long process of having to isolate each problem and figure out a solution to it, one that didn't step on the toes of a previous solution for another problem. And sure some of those solutions ended up being "pull for Eyjaberry so I dont have to worry so much about elemental damage" but it still meant I was thinking about what the actual challenges of the map were and how to counter those. But a key thing of H12-4 is that it is a map that no matter how OP your roster gets you still have to use your head to beat. It is the the best boss battle in the entire game by a huge margin currently and I really hope we can get more as good as it in the future.

Anyway I think it is just more interesting to actually solve things by thinking about it yourself. Even if it requires you to use more powerful options then someone who does it with like only 3 and 4 stars and a single 6 star. The people coming up with those strategies are like, experts at the game. And it is far more valuable for a new player to actually learn to play on their own and make their own strategies, the basics, before they can work on gaining a deeper understanding and doing more challenging stuff. It takes time to get to the skill level where you can get the prestige of clearing the hardest maps in the game with no 6 stars or only welfare operators or stuff like that.

[talaofthevalley]

I wouldn't have nearly as much beef with 4Kids/4K Media dubs of Yugioh if they didn't prioritise jokes over staying true to the spirit of the shows. Especially Zexal onwards. DM/GX/5Ds had their own issues, like the unfinished dubs and hacking the themes and characters in GX S3, but the way Zexal/Arc V/VRAINS become quip shows really bothers me.

Characters are watered down and lose their nuance, themes are simplified for a younger audience, and you get the feeling sometimes the localisation team aren't confident the shows can keep people's attention as they are if the characters aren't cracking jokes. The dubs aren't awful 100% of the time but they're just bad enough in a way that makes me mad.

It's not even like I wish the dubs didn't exist, for the sake of accesability they're a priceless resource and a lot of people wouldn't have given Yugioh a shot without it. I just wish they were different. I want people who don't want to or for any reason can't watch Yugioh subtitled to be able to enjoy the same stories I love so much.

[littlediscoveredstars]

Alright I’m on my Yugioh shit, but I think what Pegasus did to Seto Kaiba was waaaay more personal than any other Yugioh villain.

None of my thoughts are organized, but I’ll try to get it out in some kind of way that makes sense.

Let me first start by saying that Seto Kaiba is a minor through the whole series. This is important to his character, almost more than the others, because it is exactly what he’s trying to erase about himself.

Kaiba dresses himself up in outfits that accent his masculine features similar to how an adult will. His shoulder pads make his shoulders seem broader. His coat goes inward to give a very triangular shape to his torso. He’s got belts everywhere (and while yes, this is just the style of Yugioh, I believe it cannot be completely written off as just that).

At the base of it, Kaiba wants to be seen as an adult. He NEEDS to be. He runs a company and is in near constant threat of being taken advantage of by others. We see this many times throughout the show, especially by Pegasus.

Now, to connect things once again. Kaiba is a minor who was thrust into adulthood far too early, yet, he engages in child-like activities. Duel Monsters, while used for their ancient shadow games, is still just a game. A game Kaiba is OBSESSED with, to the point he becomes the face of the Blue Eyes White Dragon.

(Which is his symbol of power and autonomy over others, which further proves why he so badly hates the ancient talk, but that’s another essay)

Pegasus is the created (re-created, technically) of Duel Monsters. He made the paintings, the cards, the rules. He shows in many tournaments (assumed based off episode 2) and given how much Kaiba has won? I’m guessing they met before becoming business partners.

In short, it makes sense that Pegasus would be an important figure to Kaiba. Maybe an idol, an inspiration, or whatever it might be. Kaiba saw Pegasus and saw a man who’s game kept him alive through his years with Gozaburo, who gave him a connection to his own brother.

Pegasus is powerful. Pegasus has full control of his own actions. He is everything Kaiba wants and changed KaibaCorp. to be.

A little ways down the line, Pegasus becomes his business partner. Kaiba gets to work a littler closer with him. We never see what exactly that entailed besides letting Kaiba use the Blue Eyes (and other cards) without copyright issues and Pegasus using the holographic stages, but even that is a significant exchange.

(Makes me wonder if things hadn’t turned out the way they did, would Kaiba and Duke Devlin view him the same way?)

Then, Pegasus starts Duelist Kingdom. He uses Kaibams vulnerability to his advantage and steps in to take over. He kidnaps Mokuba, then takes his soul and shows it off like a trophy.

Pegasus has not just betrayed Kaiba’s trust, but he turned into a real person for Kaiba. It shows him that, just like everyone else, Pegasus is greedy and selfish. He takes what Kaiba worked so hard for, what he loves, just because he can. And he does so with the same smiles and teasing as before.

It’s beyond disappointment. This is heating your favorite person side with your abusers. This is a childhood hero watching you get kicked and laughing as he kicks you alongside them.

So, naturally, Kaiba won’t forgive him. We see in Battle City how bruised Kaiba’s ego is. He’s mad at Yugi, he’s mad at Izushi, no one is saved from his ire. Even Mokuba gets the short stick every so often. He is compensating BIG TIME and it’s directly connected to how things went over last season.

Might I add that Duelist Kingdom takes place less than a year after Kaiba took over KaibaCorp? This is a still pretty fresh CEO with some very big trauma that he simply has not dig into yet.

I think in a world where Pegasus was not so disillusioned by his own desperation to revive Cecelia, he would’ve been a good mentor to Kaiba. They both have a love for games, for the visual experience (painting and holograms) and they’re both very particular. Honestly, their traits would work relatively well, all things considered.

But it didn’t and we see Kaiba go through cycle after cycle of trying to get better and stumbling every step of the way.

Anyway, that’s my TedTalk. As a Pegasus enjoyed and Kaiba analysis, I found this topic very fascinating.

[disgruntled-screaming]

Honestly the biggest issue with me writing YuGiOh fanfiction is the fact that I'm a character writer, and I don't see the Duel Monsters Card Game as a character.

Please, let me explain this.

If you are familiar with the YuGiOh franchise and have delved into it as far as I have, you would know that it initially started off with a love with games. The card game featured in one of the chapters got so popular that Kazuki Takahashi decided to try and make the game himself after some fans were interested in playing it.

Despite me not liking the game, or rather how it was implemented into the story, it's still an important factor to the show.

I see the game as a tool more than a character. I don't see any personality with the game, just a bunch of pieces of cardboard that are activated by a machine that then projects holograms. (I have a theory that Kaiba Corp made a special set of paint for Industrial Illusions to use in order for the machines to work with the cards. I don't know how else the machines would work, since they are cardboard.)

I see the game more as a tool to be used. And like with most tools in real life, you don't always need to use them. It could be because of all the rules to the game, since I can use the monsters associated with it as nightmares or spirits; hell, YuGiOh GX did that and it was honestly very interesting.

Is there anyone that's going through the same issues as I am? It honestly sucks, since I have this huge YuGiOh project in the early production stages.

[cardbored-box]

so! Arc-V! How was it ?

I've seen that show absolutely warp minds. Folks are not the same afterwards!

I liked it a lot! I’m not sure where I’d put it in my overall list (Zexal is at the top, everything else changes biweekly) but it was a very fun time.

Starting with the characters, they were great! The supporting cast can be pretty hit or miss but I felt they were solid all around. (Shay Obsidian my beloved. He is the world’s coolest dude.)

Yuya was an excellent protag, it helps that he falls into two of my favorite character tropes (guy who is more than one guy + good guy who is a bad guy) and in addition to that this idealistic theater kid was a joy to watch. He did his job well, a lot of the action duels made me smile. Good job little guy, I wish you had a good day more that once a season.

Action duels were a fun and creative mix-up to the formula, plus I loved how having all summoning methods on the table made duels much more diverse.

Yugioh is a franchise that has a lot of legitimately interesting lore but rarely touches upon it, so all the stuff with the united world and how the technology of solid vision brought magic back to the game of duel monsters was very very cool. I love that stuff give it to me now

Plus it was confirmed that magic is tournament legal and that’s hilarious

I think the biggest issue with arc v is that it has a lot going on, four times the amount of stuff of past shows. I liked so much of what they offered but because they offered so much nothing got more time than was necessary. For example the relationships between Yuto/Ruri and Yugo/Rin got like two focus episodes each and they were main characters. I loved what little we got, that I wanted more. (rip Yuto you would’ve loved having screentime)

I’ve heard that a lot of people don’t like the ending, and I see where they’re coming from. It did feel mean-spirited, dumping all the pressure of saving the world on Yuya after all the Zarc stuff, (I haven’t mentioned the Zarc stuff! Loved it) but Declan has always been harsh but well meaning so him setting up this final gauntlet makes sense. Still bro just because Yuya is the only one who can save the world doesn’t mean he has to do it alone. Plus there’s the lack of closure for six main characters (are they dead? Just chilling in the void? Their bodies evaporated so is there any hope of bringing them back? Who knows)

It’s not the strongest finale but I did like a lot of aspects. For example the Yuya vs. Dennis duel is my favorite entertainment duel in the show

I HAVENT MENTIONED YURI YET. LOVE THAT GUY. Turns out the key to making a good villain is ‘psychopath but very silly about it’

[teamfreewill58]

Yugi's Attachment to calling Atem "My Other Self"

One of the big aspects of Yu-gi-Oh is that for most of the series Atem doesn’t have a name and his name goes through stages. “The Other Me” “Yugi” “The Other Yugi” “Yami” “Yugioh” “Nameless Pharaoh/Pharaoh” and then finally his own name “Atem”. (I’m including both the eng dub and the eng sub names in this list) 

Since they don’t know his name and he is also a Pharaoh it makes sense that he has so many different titles but the fact that Yugi in the original so explicitly calls him “Other Me/My Other Self” is interesting. We know part of it is in the manga and up to episode 51 everyone including Atem and Yugi believe that Atem is just another personality inside Yugi. But even after everyone discovers they are completely separate entities and that Atem is a pharaoh Yugi still refers to him as “Other Me/My Other Self” and even explicitly asks Atem permission to do so. “Atem. Umu, Can I still call you my other self? Because we’re still sharing the same body.”  (Yugi Episode 220 2:51) “Of course, partner.” (Atem Episode 220 2:29) 

Yugi’s reasonings for this are kind of fascinating because they shift over the series going from “This is a personality of mine” to “we’re separate but sharing a body so I still want to call Atem my other self” and by this point Atem has willingly answered to Yugi and “Other Me” and has no issue being called either--but I don’t believe that’s the only reason Yugi calls him that. Because if you think about it “Other Me” sounds like its an attempt to separate--”that’s not me that’s other me” but for Yugi its the opposite.

For Yugi calling him “Other Me” is a form of connection and bond to Atem that helps him feel close to Atem even though they are in fact separate people and do have a lot of differences. It’s almost Yugi’s personal way of telling Atem that they’re a team no matter what and that whatever they get involved in it will always involve both of them no matter which of them is the current target. It’s also a way for Yugi to give himself permission to access the traits Atem has that he feels he doesn’t. Because unlike Atem's "Partner/Aibou" which is also a way to refer to one's other half but is usually seen as a relationship of equality between two separate people--Yugi's "Other Me" keeps him attached to Atem and able to access the things he feels he lacks. Yugi often feels like he needs him or has to rely on him in order to do certain thing and that if he didn't have Atem he wouldn't be able to do them at all. Yugi doesn’t feel like he’s brave but he knows Atem is and so knowing and associating Atem as “Other Me” gives Yugi the push that he needs to be brave or to make a choice when he usually can’t or doesn’t. Because then he can reason with himself that he did the brave thing because of Atem and not because of his own inner strength. We the audience know that Yugi is brave and strong but Yugi never believes it until Atem gently says it to his face.

 “If I were you, I wouldn’t cry.” (Atem 16:08 Episode 224) 

“Since I’m such a weakling, you were always someone I wanted to live up to. I wanted to be strong like you.” (Yugi 16:18 Episode 224)

“You’re not a weakling. You always had strength unmatched by anyone. A strength called kindness.”  (Atem 16:23 Episode 224) 

Atem then tells him “I am no longer another you. You are you--and no one else.” (Atem 16:47 Episode 224)

This is Atem again confirming to Yugi that he is not a weakling and that he -already has- the traits that he admires in Atem. That his bravery, intelligence, confidence, those are Yugi’s that Yugi built for himself through Atem’s influence and example Atem didn’t like transfer those traits to Yugi just like Yugi didn’t transfer his traits to Atem they just brought it out in each other and gave each other the strength to act on those aspects of their own personality. After this conversation though Yugi does start to believe it because he never calls Atem "Other Me" again. In DSOD he calls him by his name and it was such a interesting character progression to see.

[quinnyundertow]

Can I ask what got you into writing? I love your writing style and I'm so curious about your process as well.

This is such a sweet ask. I love it. This may be way more than what you were expecting haha. But I’m alone in the hospital and this feels cathartic.

I’ve always loved to write since I can remember. When I was in elementary school I remember getting yelled at and crying because I had to write a story about a thanksgiving turkeys adventure and mine was like twenty pages. They said it was too long and hurry up and I was frustrated because I wasn’t done!

I think what really solidified my love for writing is I needed fantasy to escape. In middle and early high school my parents divorced and I was bullied relentlessly. Gum put in my hair, things thrown at me, called fat at every opportunity. I had teachers that bullied me too for being fat. I was SA’d multiple times, depressed and started cutting. I’ve honestly tried to block most of it out.

The point is I had found anime and a few friends who loved it too. So any opportunity I had I begged friends to do writing journals with me. We’d make up a crack fic plots then write self insert and pass a notebook back and forth between classes every chapter for the next person to write. We wrote for Yugioh, Naruto, Dragonball Z, Fruits Basket popular ones at the time. I also wrote poetry, fanfics and original stories to try and escape anyway I could. Writing was the highlight of my teenage years. But other than that it was hell and you could never pay me enough money to repeat them.

I dropped out of Highschool from the bullying and my depression. But I studied and took a test for Highschool equivalency and then went to college and got straight As. College is nothing like Highschool. No one cares what you do. At least in my experience. I wanted to be a writer or manga artist but my father told me I wasn’t good enough and I wish I wouldn’t have taken it to heart and listened. I stopped writing for like ten years except for periodic ideas in notebooks until this last November.

Jujutsu Kaisen had become my comfort anime and then chapter 236 happened. I was so depressed I decided to try and read fanfics again. I’ve always read a lot of published books and was staggered to see a ton of fanfic writers were just as good if not better than published writers. After reading a ton of amazing works I decided I needed a fix it story that was ultimately happy for JJK and here we are.

Sorry if this was boring or too much. But if you take away something from this take this. Life is always changing. Tomorrow will not be the same as today. That much is guaranteed. If you have nothing left to live for then you have nothing to lose by trying something crazy or new. I was broken down to nothing by bullies, family issues, mental and physical health and I was incredibly suicidal. Somehow I found the will to try again. I got on depression and anxiety medication (still on to this day), worked for a higher education and took a shitty paying job to claw my way back up. My life is far from perfect but despite everything I worked hard to now have a boss babe high paying career and after restarting writing and meeting you all I’ve never been happier.

As far as a writing process I pretend I’m not going to post what I write and write it just for me. I ask myself what do I think would be the coolest thing to happen? What would I want to see next? Then I write it. Most of the time it sucks, or I don’t feel like writing it but I force it out. I make myself sit for 15 minutes and just write something. Then I rewrite it. Keep what parts I liked toss what feels off. Repeat. Eventually I’m having fun and loving the process.

When rewriting I’ll name them things like WICYG Chapter 12.2 for the second rewrite etc. I’ll screen shot my google doc so you can see the insanity haha. Sometimes I’ll rewrite four plus times. At the end of the day I want to love what I write and do it for me. Then when I find people that like it too it makes me over the moon happy. I hope one day to have the confidence to write my original stories in my head out. Writing fics for yall has definitely helped build my confidence as a writer.Thanks again for the ask anon sorry for the life story but I’ve never told people all that and it was healing to get out.

My messy google docs 🥹 Madhouse is Sanity Last Stop lol.

[maple-moose-muffin]

Seeing olds vs youths fandom etiquette discourse breaks my heart because there's such a lack of empathy. It's literally ageism and generation vs generation bullshit playing out the same way as always, except because it's painted over with a veneer of pixel men and literay analysis we preted it's actually a human rights fight and we're justified for spitting on our juniors.

I saw a post talking about squicks, where the Fandom Youths who hadn't encountered the word before were rolling their eyes and calling it millenial baby talk nonsense, while the Fandom Olds were responding with statements like "omfg why didnt you google it you dumbass!!" As if you, Fandom Old, ever learned that word by googling it. Fuck me, but I don't remember ever googling what 'whump' meant. I learned it by having it demonstrated by the fandom figures I looked up to. For years of my early fandom life I thought 'slash' meant gore. It wasn't until I saw other fans talking about the fluffiest slash pairings that I realized it was another word for yaoi, which was the term *I* knew, coming from an anime background.

Fandom is huge but we are still a subculture, and culture is taught through interaction, demonstration, and the kindness and *patience* of your culturemates. That means listening to each other and fucking explaining shit to those who will inheret our Discord servers and our Archives, not screaming at them for being too stupid to know the stove is hot before they touch it. And it means opening your damn minds and ears, and absorbing those lessons when your foremothers give them to you. It goes both ways. It's just that this post is mostly aimed at the Fandom Olds, my peers, whom I see berating people simply for being new. Who take screenshot of tags from Youths asking what the hell Superwholock is and wail, "What is the world coming to??" Instead of answering them. Instead of teaching them our history. Their history.

Do YOU know all about every Star Trek email chain that came before you? Do YOU know all the big names of the OG Buffy circles? Xena Warrior Princess? Do you even know the most famous fics of the contemporary fandoms you never participated in? YuGiOh, Sailor Moon, Homestuck, Big Time Rush? When exactly did you learn omegaverse was born of the Supernatural fandom? When did you discover hanahaki? Why didn't you just know about it the day you made your tumblr?

We cannot fall into the curmedgeoning ways of gatekeeping fandom from the new bloods simply because they haven't been around long enough to know their own history. I've been writing fanfic for fifteen years, and I learned the Fuck or Die trope was born in Star Trek THIS WEEK. Ignorance does not make you lazy, entitled, or unworthy. It does not make you a fake fandom citizen. For fuck's sake, do you really want to be the person who says "Oh you like fanfiction? Name five tropes that aren't fake dating and there was only one bed"?

Yes, there has been an uptick in lack of etiquette. Yes there is an issue of purity policing. But correct me if I'm wrong, as it was before *my* time -- isn't that what killed LiveJournal? Isn't that why we now have an Archive who explicitly states in their ToS they won't take down content just because it is deemed offensive? This shit isn't new, and the Fandoms Youths aren't single handedly killing the kinky fic industry.

The Youths These Days are not ruining fandom anymore than I used to ruin it when, at age 14, I used to lash out at female characters for 'ruining' the gay ships. I've grown. You have grown. The Youths will grow.

But not if you alientate and refuse to teach them.

[onebraincell-itmiebcraft]

Okay time for the liveblogging of real life in order (liveblogging life SMP call that lifeblogging) I have never done this b4 be easy on me

Grian

I've already watched his perspective at like 5 in the morning but heyyyyy nothing wrong with rewatching with added non sleep deprived commentary but also not really memories of what I originally thought watching this too :^))

I remember being so stunned they called it real life and the anatomically correct heart 🫀tickled my funny bone heeheehoo hahaha

Thought when grian said replay 3rd life I thought they'd reenact it 😭

We live in a society taxes man (I could ramble about it)

GRIAN IRL FACE!!!

has anyone fell over btw?

No lie that B can BIG

Reminds me of slimecicle jshitt and traves VR Minecraft where Travis got progressively shorter what a laugh

Does Scott ever see his scream

Is it take the Mick or take the nick love that idiom

RENDOG!

Scar looks like a child doing that thing

Awww hug

ABUSE

scar take the headset off dzuh 🫀🫀🫀

Grian literally me balance issues

Yugioh????

I called it, scar would say he's American 😎

I'm eating dinner while watching this at the same time what fun w

Giran called solidaritygaming jimmy no way + he died first fr this time + loud "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Perfectly timed his mic peaking is iconic

Ha haa!

He ear him bread

Really putting the mine in craft for Minecraft

reminds me of secret life EP 4 and scar is sweaty

*scar noises*

How did scar drop his phone???

Check your wrist? More like check your a- (tom cardy référence)

I love the way VR makes you hit stuff goofy

Can you run in game if you irl

(watch him die)

Haha he died

Why Jim is he sabotaging him

Jim Jim Jim gym gym

Doesn't Jim die here oh LMFAO he does

Jimmy you are famous to me

(scout voice) Chicken

How did scar die???

I love how vr makes them expressive Jim pointing to village house is so funny

There's only one bed

Wtf is happening in top right corner in 9min 30 sec

Ayyyyy there's grian the maniac love the casual position of the arms

Last life you can join me moment

Egg

Grian gaslighting

Jimmy you wanna dance quote of the year

PvP is so silly

Skizz is fighting a losing battle Jim killed him icon

I love how grian and Jim's yells overlap there's probably something music theory there idk

Awww scar he's so funny

Go pick him up from daycare haha

Facing away from the camera we live in a society

OHHHHH impulse big smart man Jimmy's arm movements are so smooth it's solly

Jimmy immediately leaving for fish cocomelon brain I agree

Love the arm movements

Lol they actually like down

It's okay grian scuffed is worth celebrating

Has anyone layed on their side

Friend just texted me about my monologue what am I doing man I have an audition tomorrow

Anyway Minecraft vr

The lying down model inventory so goofy

Rewatching the bread scene no wonder tumblr loves it looks like Jim jam actually has a mouth 👄

Impulsesv guess the build sheep flashbacks

Best sleepover

Polyamorous tony (died)

Sleepover reminds me of crazy Christmas w/gem and pearl

Grown men learn how to close doors

Minecraft fatshaming grian smh my head

Man thought it was more than Joel there + o2 max(xing) scar love it (i use maxxing ironically) (it's such a stupid suffix to me linguistically funny) (I hate incels) (don't cancel me tumblr) (I love all genders)

Two steps: die, and die

Jimmy isn't on fire??

Casual "it burns so much!" Love it

Wait right Jim still has a wooden sword

Joel Joel Joel Joel you know that one part in waiting for Godot where they just go back and forth in saying aideu yeah

So silly

Jim saying get in British people man

"noffing" - joel is it a British thing

Love Joel screaming he's so malding

Just remembered how scary heights are in VR because I thought for a second "why don't they jump down? are they stupid?" (Meme Reference) (Didn't actually think that) ("Stupid" is kinda stupid but I digress)

Hole

Boob stroke

Does scar enjoy the swimming

Why *does* swimming cause motion sickness anyway

Why bucket scar (this is a bucket)

Brain eating amoeba

GOON SQUAD!!!

Love Grian's arm movements I really did thonk Jim was gonna win for the funnies

He says come here weirdly

The joy of killing

Is Jim punching

It's okay hiking simulation

Go Jim go what a gamer boy

I remember the triple dog door dugout is like... Gem's? Joel's? Uhhhh I fotgor

Concussion era

Fresh meat

I just love their dynamics

JIM STOP SOUNDING LIKE THAT it's like his eyes are 🥺 and his mouth is boowomp spongebob like he's got tears in eyes scrimblo sounding ass

Ohhh there's my favourite theatre kids

'orrible

Joel saying boys make me happy

Wait that can misinterpreted

Joel saying "boys" sounds pleasant to my ears

I remember watching this part and going GRIAN FIRST OUT HUH???

awww the funnies

Love the way gem says "we're the last Grians. Grians? Greens!" It's like... Spunky

Grian falling reminds me of my scuffed keyboard when it registers a button press as a hold and then I like never stop walking right *sigh*

The downward spiral by nine inch nials

Ascending is TRUE watcher lore

Oh the music is so cute

Bye scar! Bye Joel!

Okay never let me liveblog cook again i kinda listened to the vid instead of watching reading this does not make sense to anyone but me reference hell half formulated thoughts RIP BOZO HAHA

Maybe I'll like do it in 5 mins chunks for JJJJJJoel and the next ones onward I spent like an hour on this wayyyyy too long for incomplete sentences

End

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Asians are all the same, right? The racism of a company cock gurgling moron

Like herpes and unlike the Dobbear, I am back baby.

At this point, deepest apology for my long absence. Personal issues over the last two years prevented me from writing anything and also destroyed for the longest time any desire to really continue the blog.

However, I don’t want to let things unfinished and seeing how the hypocricyofandrewdobson still manages to get some rise out of old Dobson related stuff, I wanted to just return, in order to properly contribute a bit more critical thinking in regard to his old comics.

And while I will not immediately return to my retrospective of SYAC, here is at least (for a start) my opinion on one comic of his, that in my opinion just proved hilarious and controversial in hindsight, and rather racist even back then.

I admit, I don’t know anymore what the title of the comic here is. All I know is, that it came out around 2018, shortly after the release of his “Black Panther” comic, another malignant piece of Dobtrash that has made the rounds online ever since. However, unlike the Black Panther comic, which became the center of a lot of discussion regarding Dobson’s racist assumptions about comic book fans while ironically trying to present himself as woke, this one was weirdly drifting off into obscurity. Which is kinda weird, cause in my opinion, it is way more racist and actually kinda insulting to the very craft Dobson supposedly “dedicated” his life to.

Let me explain.

First, over the course of three panels, Dobson comes essentially off like he is considering the medium of comics as inferior to the medium of movies. Making it look as if comics are unsuccessful because they cannot rail in the same amount of money than certain flics and calling them at best nothing more but a pitching ground for corporations to create new shallow mass product.

Now I am a bit of a realist and I know that, especially in the world of mainstream American superhero comics, this is kinda the case. Most comic book characters, stories and franchises are owned by multibillion dollar corporations, who either have a direct hand in the creation of the product (via corporate mandate for example) and/or use the likeness of the product to make profit in additional, more valuable revenues than the printed medium. Such as cartoons, merchandise and movies. One example I can think of, to show that it isn’t just an American issue: Yugioh. The card game wouldn’t have come to be if there hadn’t been a manga starring a little boy putting together an ancient Egyptian puzzle, but while the original manga ended way back in March of 2004, the card game makes millions globally still after 25 years and counting.

But that doesn’t change the fact, that comics as a medium still have value. Without the stories told within their pages, we wouldn’t have characters such as Captain America, Superman, the Mask, the Ninja Turtles and so on to begin with. Don’t get me even started on stories that aren’t falling into the American mainstream comic trend, but still succeeded in the printed comic medium partly because of genuine artistic and profound value such as Maus, Barefoot Gen, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, TinTin and a shitton of (other) stuff from Europe and Asia.

So when Dobson, who always acted like he is proud to be a cartoonist and that comics are a superior medium to others, suddenly reduces them to just being a “pitch ground for better stuff down the line” at best, I as a fan of the medium and just the art of creating stories in itself, get kinda pissed.

Additionally, the way how he compares movies to be better than comics, is severely flawed.

He brings up the fact, that “Captain America: Civil War” made over one billion dollars at the box office as an example, while pointing out the fact, that most single comic issues barely manage to sell 100.000 copies, while holding up a copypasted “Civil War” issue.

Already, Dobson essentially compares apples with bananas, while also giving both false and incomparable data, that also ignores many aspects to be considered.

For starters: He compares the earnings of both movies and comics with two different values. For movies, he goes by the monetary profit a superhero movie could possibly make, while for the comic issue, he goes by the total number of copies sold.

But here is the thing: Assuming the average selling price of a comic is at 4 dollars for a single 30 page issue, selling 100.000 copies would ring in like 400.000 dollars. And considering that producing one issue likely costs a company less than 20.000 dollars (obvious costs for mass production and distribution not withstanding) they can still make a decent profit this way from ONE issue alone. One issue. Not multiple issues of a long running, but sadly underperforming series. All of that by the way doesn’t even account for the fact, that most single issues at best tell only a quarter of a decent short story nowadays and ignores later “long term” factors, such as reprints of the issue, late term buying of the issue, tradepaperback sells of the issue, the longterm effect and cultural impact the issue may have on the actual series or plot continuity  (such as Amazing Spiderman 122, aka “The Night Gwen Stacy Died”). Don’t get me even started on the fact, that many of these issues get first sold in the US and only over the course of one year or longer may then additionally be sold in other parts of the world, therefore bringing in even more money for the publisher.

Example: The Duck comics by Don Rosa, which earn more than four times more in Europe, than they ever did in America, despite the guy being from California. Finally, a a little add addendum: that example Dobson gives indirectly via the “Civil War” issue? A quick google search revealed, that Civil War issue 1 sold over 300k copies in May of 2006 alone. Sure, not necessarily the best numbers ever for a single issue (as evident by the following list: https://bookriot.com/bestselling-comics-of-all-time/ )but still nothing to be ashamed of.

And yes, I know that we live currently in a time, where comic book sells have dropped significantly for a variety of reasons, one of them being an overall lack of decent stories. But as long as other stuff still manages to run freaking circles around American superheroes (*cough* One Piece *cough*) I wouldn’t say the medium itself is dead. Just a specific branch of it is suffering from a lack of quality and the customers are jumping ship.

A superhere movie meanwhile is a completely different beast. Ever since “The Avengers” came out in 2012, most superhero movies are 150-250 million dollar behemoths, that get overhyped by advertisement campaigns that are almost equally as expensive and try to trick the audience into believing, that they all are somehow the next big mindblowing thing on the big screen. Plus there hasn’t really been a superhero movie in the last 10+ years, that didn’t release simultaneously worldwide, instead of only coming out in the USA, and then a few months later, in other parts of the world.

So is it any wonder then, if a superhero movie that got advertised like the second coming of a saint, makes 1 billion, when there are already billions of potential customers worldwide all at once when the product launches?

That number btw becomes actually less impressive, once you start to think about how it came to be. Something our blue bear obviously didn’t.

See, on average every movie theater demands like what, 12-14 dollars per movie nowdays?

If we divide the box office of Civil war (1.152 billion btw) with 12 dollars, that makes on average 100 million people worldwide who watched the movie. A bit more than one or two percent of the worlds population. Not to forget, that of the box office success we have to substract such things as production cost of the movie, advertisement, the earnings of the theaters… so suddenly the movie may at best have had only earned one quarter of its box office for Disney as actual profit.

Not to forget, Dobson made that comic in 2018, when superhero movies on average did ring in so much money, because of the hype machine. But now we have 2023 and within the last five years (and especially 2023 itself) we have seen how superhero movies can also utterly fail to make money or even earn just enough to make back the production cost. Birds of Prey, Eternals, Ant Man 3, that Secret Invasion streaming show that still cost over 200 million… Do I need to get on?

Bottom line, Dobson’s indirect jab at comics as the less profitable revenue doesn’t hold that much water really in the real world, where once the hype dies down, comics may actually prove themselves as the more valuable longterm medium. Even if it may just be for the fact, that they end up staying longer relevant in the popcultural subconscious than the current movies, which tend to lose relevance with each new hastily produced and released installment in the franchise.

But where this comic really shines and shows Dobson’s ignorance on a cultural level, is in the last panel. When all off sudden it turns “racial” by claiming that Asian people, unlike “traditional” comic readers (aka white, in Dobbear s eyes therefore instantly racist people), would eat a Marvel character like Amadeus Cho up.

Question Dobson: Why do you assume, they would eat him up? You give no real argument based on anything the character does storywise, that the “target audience” may find admirable. So I can only think, that your reasoning is, because he is ever so slightly east asian coded.

Boy, do we have to unpack not just a can of worms, but a whole package of cans now.

First, the chosen language by saying “eat it up”. When being a writer, you should know that you need at times to choose your words wisely, because of the sheer implications they can carry. And the statement “eat it up” sounds way to close to a negative statement like “suck it up”. Making it come off as if Dobson considers Asian people to be mindless cattle that will consume the grub the House of Mouse will give them without question or any desire for actual quality to it.

Second, it recks of a certain mind set I hate within the American entertainment industry and some of its creators and consumers. That mind set being, that “non-traditional” American cultures supposedly don’t know better than Americans in what is okay for the sake of representation and entertainment or not. It’s a mindset that goes beyond the necessity of e.g. localizing a foreign product to the national market, by e.g. creating a sterilized, corporately mandated and rather unrealistic depiction of another culture within their product, that will fall apart as soon as the people who are supposed to be represented get a proper look at it and realize, how pandering and often times badly researched, if not outright offensive, it is.

Only recently did we see in the world of animation how that can backfire, when Disney released the trailer for “Primos” an upcoming animated show supposedly about a half Latina girl spending her summer vacation with her annoying cousins, people calling it based on the intro (and a leaked pilot) pandering towards a latino audience in a racist manner. And guess what: currently, Disney shelves it and tries to bury its existence like Dobson his old inflation art.

Dobson himself has actually indulged in that sort of shit kinda, back with his infamous Nintendo comic.

Essentially calling the “true”, Nintendo corporation approved depiction of his childhood Nintendo heroes disgraceful, for not falling in line with the late 80s depictions he saw in localized, made in America products such as the DiC cartoons. That and minor homophobia mixed with misogyny by calling Link “girly” for having longer blond hair since Ocarina of Time and blaming fangirls for it.

Third, and that is kinda related to my prior point, the reality of things is, that “Asians” actually did not eat up that sort of thing in the last couple of years. Sure, there is always that thing about a Chinese market. the big movie companies try to pander to and may succeed with some dumb action flics featuring big robots.

But the reality is, that not even people living in a dictatorship will eat up every trash you give to them, just because it comes from Hollywood or is supported by their glorious leadership. Disney tried to create two pandering messes of movies for Chinese people to watch, called Mulan (the live action adaptation) and that Shang Chi movie. And how did they do there? Oh right! The government did not even allow Shang Chi to be released and Mulan was released but supposedly didn’t do so well, considering (COVID not withstanding) it only made 70 million globally!

Don’t get me even started on every human right controversy in relation to the later, starting with filming in China near a concentration camp and ending with the main actress being essentially a Chinese propaganda puppet.

So, if those movies flopped, why would Chinese people for example flock for an Asian Hulk? A hulk that is not even Chinese but Korean.

See, this is another issue that fails with the example: The actual choice of character Dobson name dropped is actually kinda terrible.

For those unaware: Amadeus Cho is a supporting character in the Marvel comics, created in 2005 by American writer Greg Pak and artist Takeshi Miyazawa. The later, despite the name being very east Asian, sounding, actually being from Canada. Now both do have east Asian roots so to speak (Pak  e.g. is the son of an Korean-american man with a Caucasian woman), but they also have grown up within a society that taught them both western social values more so than we would see in east Asian countries. So with the creators already not necessarily having the most real life experience with the average mindset of a Korean citizen, can we really say that their actual creation helps “represent” those people of a foreign, non-american culture?

And that is not even covering stuff like the actual story of the character itself.

See, in the comics, Cho is supposed to be an American-Korean genius (wish fullfillment much, Greg?) and one of the smartest people in the Marvel Universe. His parents named him after Amadeus Mozart (a pretty white motherfucker as far as I remember) and he grew up under Methodist beliefs. So basically the “Korean heritage” of the character has already been thrown out of the window. Now I don’t expect the character to act stereotypical Korean, listen to K-pop, declare bulgogi to be his favorite dish or any of that shit. But when you want to sell me the character as being in some way or another connected to his ancestral culture, shouldn’t he engage at least in some “Korean coded” things?

I mean, the character of Anne Boonchuy in Amphibia is a Thai-American who acts more like a 13 year old girl that learns to be less selfish and impulsive over the course of the show and whose “heritage” isn’t thrown at us, the viewer, most of the time. In fact, Anne herself acknowledges that she e.g. can’t really speak thai, despite her own mother being fluent in it and a season 3 episode reveals, that Anne is “begrudgingly” a part of the L.A. thai community. And yet, in connection to the shows story and as part of Anne’s characterization, her heritage is acknowledged and plays a part of who she is. Even if it simply means she knows how to cook certain thai dishes, loves her parents and their customs, helps out in their restaurant, can speak a few words thai and knows the basics of Muay Thai, a form of martial arts (and fighting sport) from Thailand.

Amadeus doesn’t even have Korean parents anymore, because they were killed as part of his tragic hero backstory. Nor has he ever visited an Asian country. Oppps.

To build further up on it, Amadeus becomes for the longest time simply a major supporting character in the Marvel universe for the likes of Hulk and Hercules, two white coded characters. Sure, he plays a major role in the defeat of some cosmic horror level villains (such as Mikaboshi in the Chaos God storyline most people forgot even existed) but it takes a long time for him to become a “A-lister” so to speak.

In fact, according to Wikipedia, it wasn’t till after “Secret Wars” in 2016 (eleven years after the character was created), that Amadeus thanks to a chain of events eventually got his chance to Hulk out. And then they still had to kill Bruce Banner to make Amadeus “stand out” initially (don’t worry, Bruce came back. I mean, characters actually staying dead in comics, so that heroes can learn there are consequences? Preposterous) In fact, Amadeus hasn’t really proven himself as a decent “solo” act. Instead he became a member of the Champions (among Miles Morales, Mrs. Marvel, Vision’s daughter Viv. Nova and Cyclops), essentially creating yet another superhero team for teenaged vigilantes. Despite the fact, Cho himself should be by now in his mid 20s.

Now look, I do not want to shit talk the character. Partly because I haven’t read everything he was in myself and partly because in the few things I did see him in (both pre- and post Hulk) he was okay. He is a decent hero and person, who tries to do good, even if he screws up here and there. That is something I can admire in a character in general. But he is not a good “representation” of another culture, because his complexion and minor physical features aside, he is NOT embodying even minor values or traditions of that foreign culture. He is simply a Korean-American (or technically Canadian), who falls more on the American side of things.

So essentially, Dobson who virtue signaled on multiple occasions how bad it is when companies he didn’t like tried to speak on behalf of other cultures, would have no problem at all to ask for Asian people to swallow this obviously “Made in American” product. The “Made in America” line actually working both on a metaphorical and a storytelling level, cause trying to google what “east Asian coded” heroes in the Marvel Universe actually come from an Asian country instead of being simply born on American soil, is pretty damn small.

After 20 minutes I only found Shang Chi, as he was born in China, and that character was created as part of kung-fu exploitation in the 70s by white dudes.

Yaiks

However, none of that tops the next two points that really sell Dobson to me as an American centralistic racist. Or at least a twat who doesn’t understand how through bad wording he comes of as ignorant of other people’s cultures.

The way he generalizes Asian people in his statement, while also ignoring the actual accomplishments in the creation of entertainment in multiple Asian countries.

If you’ve read closely what I typed, you may have seen that I used the term Asian at times in tandem with the term “east Asian” to e.g. describe Amadeus Cho.

And that had a very deliberate reason. While I was not a fan of geography in school, even I know that Asia as a continent is not “nationally” as homogenous as let’s say Australia or North America. In fact, Asia is the biggest continent on the planet, hosts more than half of earth’s population and consists of at least 47 internationally acknowledged states.

States such as Turkey, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, North- and South Korea, Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Iran and so on.

Now what all these states have in common, is that they have their own unique historical, social and “racial” culture and background. Heck, religiously speaking, Asia is the cradle of the world.

As such, Dobson stating that a “Korean coded” character such as Amadeus Cho (who is only Korean on the most surface level and would technically just be a legacy character of yet another white person) would be an immediate hulk smash hit with all these different people of different backgrounds…. Yeah, it sounds like condescending, colonization inspired shit, a smooth brain would come up with.

To Dobson “Asia”, at least based on that comic, is only defined as the “yellow skinned” people from the far east, who like rice, noodles, spicy food and give us anime, Godzilla, fireworks, buddhism and communism. It does not include anyone from the middle east or of more European ancestry. And if you are even remotely familiar about history, you would also know that Japanese, Koreans and Chinese all around do not e.g. like to be thrown into a pot with the others for a variety of reasons. Many of them political.

Or to sum it up even shorter: Dobson insinuated that a very shallow, “east Asian” coded American comic character would be an immediate hit with more than 47 different countries, ignoring that not all of them share the same background despite being part of the “same” landmass. And in doing so, he simultaneously generalized and denounced entire groups of people based on their racial and cultural background, which in as far as I am aware of, is considered racist.

But the “racism” is supposedly justified, because “representation” matters, it would be giving the middle finger to “traditional” comic fans and those nations and their culture are underrepresented globally.

Which is baloney.

Don’t get me wrong, I myself think that representation does matter. But the world does not necessarily rely on the good old US-Ayy only to give it to us.

Cause a lot of the Asian nations I brought up here? They have their own entertainment industry and stories, which again, get ignored by Dobson to make a dumb and false point.

I mean, manga is currently dominating the international comic market, all while Japan has also a booming animation industry and some of the most iconic heroes in modern popculture with the likes of Son Goku, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai etc.

China has a prominent -if propaganda driven- movie industry.

India has Bollywood and delivers some of the most ridiculous but awesome musical movies on the planet.

Russia had authors such as Tolstoy and movie directors, that redefined the “art” of filmmaking.

Korea had a few years ago one of the biggest streaming hits with Squid Game, while also earning an Oscar for a movie titled Dobs- I mean “Parasite”.

Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Turkey… even nations that have not entertainment living up to “western standards” still produce stuff in some way or form to entertain the masses and their people. Just google up the character Kara Murat aka the avenger of Anatolia.

And don’t get me even started on the sheer ton of mythology, stories and history each of their cultures have provided the world with. Journey to the West? Baba Yaga, the entirety of the Gilgamesh epos...

And yet, there is this indirect assumption by Dobson, that all of them would be so deprived of “heroes” in their media and folklore, they would letch on second hand shop Hulk? Fuck off, Dobbear. I know you like to suck corporate cock as long as you think they are woke and you have childhood nostalgia for them, but this is pathetic. Take Amadeus before A Rama Raju comes around and roundhouse kicks him back to Canada. Then get the taste of mouse smegma of your Disney cock gobbling lips.

[sirdurbe]

@goakizaizinski asked me ages ago about my zexal ship opinions and i forgot to answer, but since it's on my mind, here are some of my thoughts (which are mostly durbe-centric because, duh)

first, durbe/nasch. atem/mahad was my bread and butter when i was super into dm, so i'll always have a fondness for this pair -- and yet, at the same time, i find more and more that i prefer it unrequited on durbe's end if it's just the two of them. i guess i just like being mean to durbe? 😂 but it also means i can use yūma/shark as a plot device to push durbe and kotori together. (i'm pretty lukewarm about yūma/shark outside of this express purpose. it's totally fine, i just don't have strong feelings about it.)

"durbe and kotori?? did they interact even a single time???" yes, actually, and i haven't been the same since. they have archlord kristya in common and durbe's deck can natively go into fairy cheer girl, which was a very popular option during star seraphs' heyday in duel links. case closed. nah, i really don't know how to explain this one? it kind of blossomed from my generally negative feelings toward kotori/yūma, which...... i'll try to keep short, because ship bashing isn't my thing, but kotori/yūma in canon is all give and no receive on her part and it's genuinely really sad. the way she identifies astral as yūma's most important person right after she confesses her feelings to him is just,, ouch. like it literally feels cruel when it's clearly not meant to be. and it's not meant to be because women being unilaterally dedicated to men who pour their own emotional energy into other men is regrettably common, not just in yugioh, not even just in anime or media. but i digress. durbe and kotori are both nurturers in very different ways and i think letting them both experience that would be really good, because neither of them is used to being on the receiving end of that kind of care. plus durbe is borderline comically serious and kotori can be such a silly birb, i think they'd make a fun pair 🩷

since we're already touching on big ships. yūma/astral. eh. the irony is that i actually started watching zexal for them. i do more or less consider it canon? but not in a way where i care all that much about it. part of it's that i find yūma to be the least interesting part of zexal, which i hate to say because i also feel that the story generally benefits from how unremarkable he is -- he's supposed to be this more or less normal kid who has no stake in these interpersonal and interdimensional conflict, he just has a huge heart and wants to help people. i also just... don't remotely buy that astral's maturity is on the same level as a 13-year-old's. (it's really funny to me that the same people who get up in arms about age gaps have no issue with these two. they have an even bigger gap than atem and yūgi. it's almost like they're hypocrites or something... 🤔) obvious disclaimer that i'm not remotely suggesting it's ""immoral"" to ship this -- ships can't be immoral -- i just personally don't because of the huge maturity gap from my pov.

i made this post to talk about durbe and the twins and got sidetracked. durbe/merag. s tier. god, i love holyice more and more every day, i swear. i like it by itself and i like it as part of a throuple with nasch, whereas durbe/nasch i prefer as one-sided except in the context of durbe/nasch/merag. i need to get around to publishing something with these two asap. i wish i had more words but my brain genuinely just goes !!!!!!!!🩷🩷🩷 can't wait to subject everyone to my hyper specific headcanons.

all of this also applies to durbe/rio, though i actually like durbe/ryouga a smidge more than durbe/nasch, whereas durbe/merag and durbe/rio are about the same? maybe it's that both incarnations of rio get less focus than her brother and as such, don't feel as distinct in their dynamic with durbe, in spite of how much i like to play with her both being and not being merag. durbe and ryouga are really petty and that's funny.

i quite like durbe/mizael and i've been kicking around the idea of durbe/thomas. i like kaito/chris despite my apathy towards kaito, but i supremely don't care about kaito/mizael. have i forgotten any big ones?? kotori/cathy and kotori/anna are fun. astral/96 was my old stomping ground and i still have a soft spot for it. i like 96/akari and astral/akari, too. yūma/96 is okay but inferior to other 96 ships. i only like 96/vector when vector isn't an uwu innocent victim and vector/yūma when it's properly fucked up. yūma/fūya, yūma/kaito, yūma/michael and michael/kotori are cute. michael/astral and especially michael/mizael seem fun in my head. i want to see fūya/anna explored more, too, i just don't care to do it myself.

my kaito apathy means kaito/ryouga doesn't do much for me, either. i like thomas/rio and vector/rio a little more than thomas/shark and vector/shark, but see the appeal in the latter pairs as well. i like @shifuto's astral/shark stuff even if i'd never think of it on my own. kotori/rio deserves more love -- too much of the content feels really performative for me. if i think of a ship i forgot i'll edit this.

i can't believe orbital 7 fucked. that's all

[kuriboo]

for the yugioh ask meme: Yudias!!!!! >:3c

YUDIAS! BNUYY BOY! disclaimer: i am only through episode 101 of go rush

tall bnuyy boy

Why I like them/why I don’t

Yudias is in-tune with himself, unfailingly kind. He's a bit stubborn about it, in a good way. He does not stop supporting his friends. He believes in the power of Rush Duels like they're a higher power, which, to be fair, they kind of are in the text. He has a collection of 8.88 million emotional support catboy countrymen who follow him around everywhere in a tiny spaceship (i miss them dearly). He stopped an intergalactic war with the power of card games. Even when he's faced with extinction and genocide, he puts on a brave face for his friends, gives his boyfriend his last wish, and when he breaks down, it's because everything hits him all at once when he witnesses rush duels being disrespected.

He's also got self-confidence issues. I love me a guy with self-confidence issues, because, same.

What I like about their appearance

His human-like appearance would be perfect if it weren't for the UTS orange. I do not like the UTS orange. But. His hair is beautiful. Look at his little horns under his hat. I also really like his hat, when it's not orange. The pink shirt is SO funny. The scenes where he's wearing a middle school uniform are 10/10 in appearance.

Above is a perfect boy.

As for transformed? His shorter hair is cute, too, though I'm surprised I don't prefer it. I usually prefer shorter hair on characters because longer hair characters just remind me how much I hate it when my hair gets too long and it just feels so wrong... Maybe it's the headset that isn't doing it for me. I do love the bnuyy parts of his hair most when transformed, but I do like his hair, just slightly less than when he's not transformed.

Do I prefer their dub names or original names?

He's a protag, so... yknow. I will say I tend to type out protag/related names as Yu instead of Yuu, but that's a me thing.

OTP

I know that Zwijo/Yudias is the canon and most popular ship, and I do like them! However! My otp has to be Yudias/Yuhi

Please look at them. That is all. Thank you

NOTP

Idk about this one? I've never seen a ship thrown out there that I like, hated, for Yudias. Oh, wait, I have one

Yudias/Chupataro

If you mention Chupataro in my presence I will eye beam you. I hate that guy.

OT3

Zwijo/Yudias/Yuhi for sure. I am a sucker for ot3's like this and then taking the characters that interact the least and going insane about them. Once I've caught up on go rush, I will be going insane about Zwijo/Yuhi. They are both Yudias' boyfriends.

Tonight the group chat is selling me on Zwijo/Yudias/Yuhi/Phaser. I see the vision. I think it's cute. Let's add more boys to this polycule.

Favourite card they use

Definitely, her. She's gender, she's pretty, she's the moment.

Favourite moment they were in

It's really hard to pick one. Burgalarly was so funny. Any time Yudias uses eyebeams is a classic. I am very fond of the moment he played his new Maximum against Phaser.

HOWEVER, the best moment, on further reflection, HAS to be the galaxy cup finals

PROBABLY THE MOST HYPE DUEL BEFORE EPISODE 100, though 100 may have surpassed it. But god I loved this duel so much. The switching off of Yudias' opponents. Yudias being the guy we're cheering to lose. GOD this duel was insane. I wanna rewatch it again sometime. Cannot wait to rewatch this when it's dubbed.

Least favourite moment

this entire episode can go burn in hell

Would I fuck, marry or kill them

Marry in a heartbeat. He's not my go rush overall favorite (that's Yuhi rn, if we look at Yuga as a sevens character) but Yudias is very high up there.

thank you everyone for listening to me talk about yudias. in conclusion, you should watch yugioh go rush.

[cyberdragoninfinity]

👀 would you care to talk about the symbolism of the other yugioh rivals

SMILES. i would love to. i cant speak for revolver or the bridge rivals yet and i havent seen enough arc-v to have a solid grasp on declan's symbolism yet but i will talk a little about the spinoff rivals i do know pretty well

as a sidenote, like. ok so Kaiba's main motifs and 'symbolism' is...well. centered around Blue-Eyes and dragons in general mostly, of course. And he kind of has those weird disease/virus and mild clown motifs that show up a little in his cards, and those are all plenty cool and they work for what seto kaiba needs to be! but imo that doesn't really get nearly as expanded upon either in the show itself or otherwise in official yugioh What Have You, compared to the guys who came later. i didnt have a good spot to say this otherwise so it's going here lol of course thats just my opinion on the matter

Chazz: anyway, so something I notice is explored a bit more with the spinoff rivals is that they'll have these motifs that actually get extended into their archetypes in the actual tcg, and it's so SO cool to see. Chazz/Manjoume has his whole iconic thunder motif of course, and he also gets that little s2 stint with the Society of Light giving him a brief Bright Distressing White motif and BOTH OF THOSE. HAVE BEEN INVOKED WITH ARMED DRAGON LV 10 CARDS

i really especially love Armed Dragon Thunder Lv. 10-- its whole effect is the Manjoume Thunder chant!!! IT'S DOING THE POSE. IT'S SO FUN.

and of course also Chazz is a character very tied to the symbolism of "weak" duel monsters, of "weak" decks, one-star monsters and the Ojamas especially, and that in general is such a fun spin on a yugioh rival. we do a complete 180 from Guy Tied Almost Exclusively to Very Powerful Dragon to Guy So Symbolically Correlated With Weak Monsters He Dresses Up as One in His Last (and one of his best) Duels. peace and love on planet finding strength in the unremarkable

Jack: ok so Jack is an interesting one. He's very symbolically tied to being the 'King' and to underworldly draconic hellfire imagery [which in of itself is really cool, and I think there's some very interesting dichotomy in there with how Jack's tied with a fiery hellish dragon motif but Yusei's tied to a cosmic heavenly dragon motif...i really love Jack and Yusei as narrative counterparts.] But the thing is, in the same vein Jack's tied deeply to Burning Soul-- the issue is 5D's also very clearly puts forward that the Burning Soul iconography is also tied (and in large part originated) with the Legendary Signer...who is. an indigenous brown South American guy.

And they. gave it to one of the arguably whitest Yugioh characters. Erm. 🥴 classic yugioh racially questionable moments !This is what I mean when I say the spinoff rivals have far more interesting symbolism to me--sometimes the interest is out of uhhhh not great narrative handling!! Gives even more to chew on.

Shark: yeah Shark is the one that makes me insane. There's no way to talk about him and his symbolism without getting into deep Zexal Spoilers, so. Be mindful of that. I'm gonna talk about him and Kite under the cut

ok so Shark is like the goddamn yugioh rival symbolism rivalry gold rush. You trip into the Reginald Ryoga "Shark" Kamishiro Kastle motifs and symbolism well and youre falling for ten thousand years. You cant talk about him without having to get into him also being Nasch, and then you have to talk about the Barian Emperors, and that second you get into that is the second you get sandblasted with some of the most insane symbolism yugioh writers have every cooked up.

There is so much goddamn demonology imagery and motif and symbolism jammed into the Barians I will be here all day getting into it. NOT EVEN GETTING INTO THE BUDDHISM INFLUENCE TOO. You cannot convince me that the Barian Emperors aren't supposed to correlate with the Seven Princes of Hell, alongside their deeply implied Seven Deadly Sin symbolism (and the Ursa Major symbolism too of course--it's what they get their names from!) To me I think Nasch is supposed to be tied to Leviathan especially, being an aquatic-based monster, but he could also correlate to Lucifer, playing on the pop cultural idea of Lucifer being the leader of Hell (and in demonology, typically associated with pride...pretty big trait of Shark's!)

That's just me barely scratching the surface with him. He's got the demonology symbolism, and Ursa Major motif, and seven deadly sins symbolism, and the sea predator symbolism and motif, and the royalty symbolism (good god his DUB SURNAME IS FUCKING KASTLE. THE PALER PART OF HIS HAIR LOOKS LIKE A CROWN.) And also all the insane numerology symbolism Zexal is leaking out the ears with. he's the fucking best. Why did they make this 14 year old so jampacked with this shit. it RULES.

Kite: it's so neat that Zexal has two rivals effectively. ANYWAY. Kite doesn't have as much 'oh my god it keeps going. it keeps going. oh holy shit' tier symbolism as whatever going on with Shark but he's got some stuff going on; I think it's especially cool that he and Mizar/Mizael have this "light vs. time" motif going on with their dragons, a Galaxy-Eyes arms race based on the speed of light. In general Kite's really associated with light, in the the very scientific sense, be it the way his jacket turns white when he duels, his Photon-filled deck, HELL even literally the way his eyes get damaged and his vision suffers is arguably tied to it, and it rocks. I feel like Kite is (esp since Zexal is supposed to parallel DM in a lot of ways) really the rival meant to parallel Kaiba the most, even down to having a dragon ace monster based around something bright (white dragon, photon dragon,) but I think they really took the time to expand on that inherent symbolism and show it off in even more ways narratively than we see with Kaiba. it's just cool the more i think about it the more i really like what they did with kite.