#Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS 2.0

[itsashowtime]

「天穂・STRAWBERRYMOON」:

Halloween is Coming !

[lia404]

Which ship name for Ryoken/Revolver?

Tl;dr: Moiraishipping

OR if we really, really want to make the differentiation: Athenshipping for Ryoken/Revolver and Moiraishipping for Ryoken/Revolver 1.0/Revolver 2.0.

The actual logic beneath the cut. Time to sit down in your favourite chair with a nice cup of tea, because you’re here for a while. Of course you are, it’s a post about Revolver.

It’s all his fault. It’s always all his fault.

First: please believe me when I say that this post was meant to be short. Like really, the premise was simple: selfcest is one of my fave tropes (those who know me since my Persona era are well aware) and Vrains frankly is a goldmine for selfcest. I was elated when I found out that Emissaryshipping was a thing (albeit a rather niche one) and I was less than impressed when I discovered that in its 7 years of existence, the Vrains fandom had never coined a ship name for Revolver selfcest.

This, obviously, had to be solved at once. Which is why I brainstormed for a full week and then it took me 10 days to write this post, because I fell into a terrifying rabbit hole. And now you get to read all about it!

First approach — the obvious

My very first step was to discard the obvious:

Fateshipping is already taken in the fandom, even if in a different series (Yami Yugi/Rafael in DM. Niche, but still already coined.) We don’t want confusion.

Bulletshipping won't work either, for the same reason. (Judai Yuki/Taniya in GX.) I am also willingly ignoring the possibility of Varretshipping, since Varret is clearly meant to be Bullet in katakana, and not everyone is aligned on this orthograph.

Rokketshipping, going with the English names of Revolver's cards, could have been interesting, but it is too close to Rocketshipping, the ship name for Jessie/James of the Team Rocket. While from another fandom, the ship is prominent enough for me to be wary of mistagging.

Gunshipping is not an option, because Pistolshipping already exists in the same fandom (Blood Shepherd/Revolver) and while the words are different, it still feels very confusing.

Barrelshipping is also a no, because, seriously. In Yu-gi-oh logic, it sounds like Bandit Keith/Revolver. In real world logic, it just makes it sound like Ryoken is about to put kegs of rum in a boat. An interesting idea, but not what we’re after now. (Note that I am also ignoring Borrelshipping, for the same reason I did Varretshipping.)

Prisonershipping is… well, it’s unclear if it’s taken (I’ve found it listed for Rin/Ruri in Arc-V, but in only one occurrence.) But I also didn’t vibe much with it: words have a meaning, I would like my ship to be defined by more than just the doom of “prisoner”. Aaaaand this is what happens when you ask a linguist to name things.

With all of these names marked as unsatisfying, I decided to move to more metaphorical names, and took the direction of mythological references. After all, between Ignis and Pandor (and probably others that don’t come to mind right now), Revolver thrives on them (and so do I, which is great, because I’m totally and shamelessly indulging myself.)

Second approach — mythology, part 1: words

Once the mythological theme was decided, my first intuition was to look into a famous figure whose words carried an impact. 

My logic was that while Revolver is powerful in many ways, his words are one of his greatest powers. They are life-changing. After all, when he was 8, his words gave Yusaku the strength to survive his ordeal and beyond. When he picked up the phone and spoke up, his words saved six children and doomed his father. Even this early, his words had the power to bring life or destroy it. 

Ryoken doesn’t speak that much: his few words are meant to have a lot of meaning. (I also headcanon him as a rather quiet child, who has learnt to make his words count.) 

Revolver speaks more, and uses his words as orders or as weapons, speaking or shouting menaces, aiming at bringing despair (or at least a good reality-check.)

And let us not forget that it’s Revolver’s words that kickstart the series! 

"Begone, Cyberse!" (Yes I am resigned to my fate of being That Person Who Only Uses Screencaps In French In Her Meta Posts, because apparently we don’t have any English sub in good quality available in this country.)

Of course, no matter whether it’s Ryoken or Revolver talking (even if they do sound different), there’s also the obvious “his voice would lure the hardest of hearts into the sweetest of traps”, because, damn, that voice could speak any word. I’d listen to an ASMR recording of Revolver reading the phonebook out loud any time.

But what he chooses to say does play an incredible part.

So, words.  Mythology and powerful words, spoken out loud. 

While there’s a lot that could match, I was looking for “accidental impact” and “could be deadly”, because it seemed to me that it was what worked best for Ryoken. Cassandra came to mind first, cursed to know the future but to be unable to share it because no one believed her words. But while indeed focused on the importance of words, her legend doesn’t fit the bill exactly: Ryoken is kind of the opposite, actually. People believe him, very much (arguably, too much.) Cassandrashipping is out.

Even so, the idea of the oracles, or sybils, stuck with me: after all, they “know” the future, and share words that could bring tales of life or death (but usually brought disaster.) 

I confess a certain fondness for the Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi. Her name comes from a legendary snake, which is close enough to a dragon to satisfy me, and she was sort of a big deal with her predictions (see also: Oedipus.) While still not exactly fitting the bill, Pythiashipping or Sybilshipping were strong contenders. They sounded nice and Ryoken is really good at making his own prophecies and getting caught into a fate he builds for himself.

A typo in Pythia also brought up the (completely unrelated) idea of Pity, which amused me. This boy has a lot of self-pity. Pityshipping had potential, because it is a non-insignificant part of his relationship with himself (which is what I wanted to define after all.) I seriously considered it, but I was reluctant, and discarded it for the same reason I did for Prisonershipping. Let’s not encourage him.

Third approach — mythology, part 2: appearance (and more)

Even if I felt like I was onto something with my Pythia, I was not entirely satisfied. I thus decided to take a different path, the physical aspect. 

Revolver has yellow eyes, and Ryoken has white hair. What happens when you mash both attributes?

Don’t tell me you don’t see the resemblance.

After such a deep-dive into mythology, I would have been overjoyed to be able to say “NEVERMIND THE DEPTHS, I COMBINE HIS AVATAR’S EYES WITH HIS REAL LIFE’S HAIR AND TA-DAAAA! OWLSHIPPING!”

Except… Owlshipping was already taken. Of course it was. (From Arc-V: Dennis Macfield/Noboru Gongenzaka/Shun Kurosaki.)

Let it be known that I really tried to make things more simple, but no easy silly name for me apparently. So back to mythology I went, following a very logical stream of ideas, I promise. 

After all, there is one mythological figure that is strongly associated with owls.

Athena.

Athena is fascinating; she has so many facets she could be the goddess of disco.

Here are a few things about Athena that are interesting to focus on, in our specific case:

Athena is the daughter of Zeus, God of Lightning (!) notorious for doing whatever pleases him, creating a mess and leaving without any accountability while others have to clean after him/deal with consequences of his actions/end up punished for something they didn’t do. Zeus, you asshole. Kinda reminds me of someone.

Athena is the daughter of Metis, Deity of Wisdom, an Oceanid, a sea nymph, which is nice, considering how important the ocean is to our Topic of Interest. Her husband, Zeus, ever the lovely character, ate Metis after being told she’d give him a child more powerful than him. From the inside of her husband’s stomach, Metis still took care of the child she was pregnant with, then armed her so she could poke her way out from her father’s head. This means that Athena is born from the inside of Zeus’s head, as if an idea coming from him, but also a great source of suffering for him. I like to draw parallels, and I’ll even go so far as saying that while Athena was raised by her mother the goddess of Wisdom (and thus becoming wise too), Ryoken’s mother is out of the picture, so there was no one to give him wisdom. …Sorry Ryoken.

Athena gave life to the first human woman, Pandora (although she didn’t forge her; Hephaïstos did.)

Athena is one of the most revered, adored, respected Greek goddesses, one of the deities with most followers. I mean, they built the Parthenon in her name. That sort of means something.

Athena is a goddess of both war and knowledge, but most of all she is a goddess of protection of cities and society. She does it to assist her father, but also out of duty and attachment to certain cities.

Athena helps heroes, such as Perseus, Herakles, or Odysseus, for better or worse, sometimes (often) at the detriment of other people (including, but not only, her father.) 

Athena has a billion epithets, but the other name she’s most known by is Pallas, which means “to brandish a weapon.” 🔫 

While I am aware that, considering the richness of the myths, I probably would find ways to link Athena to absolutely any character I want, I like to think that there’s enough here to cover a good part of Ryoken’s multiple traits and the way they interact.

At that depth of my rabbit hole, I was ready to call it: Revolver/Ryoken was Athenashipping, or Athenshipping, or Pallasshipping (but not Minervashipping, because while I really love latin, it didn’t sound good.) A delightfully cryptic name that would have everyone struggle to know who was in it, and raise an eyebrow when finding out. Very faithful to the tradition of Yu-Gi-Oh ship names.

Ah yes, Revolver and his famous Light/Fairy deck.

However. (It can't be that easy!)

I still wasn’t satisfied. Because while Athena, her multiple names, myths and characteristics did tie together many aspects of Ryoken, it felt incomplete.

One thing was particularly missing: Ryoken’s guilt and commitment issues, which are a HUGE part of his relationship with himself.

As Greek gods tend to do, Athena doesn’t display a lot of guilt. She’s been known to grieve occasionally, although she seems to lack the weird habit that gods have to turn the person they more or less accidentally faulted into a plant. (That said, she did turn her favourite girl into an olive tree after she got killed by fellow athletes who were jealous because the Goddess liked her better. But that’s not relevant here. Or, I don’t think it is. I might be missing a parallel.)

Anyway.  Words and power and knowledge and adoration and multiple names were all good, but this ship needed more guilt and grief to work. 

Back to the mythology books we go. Again.

Fourth approach — mythology, part 3: where we try about everything and anything

I wanted guilt, so I looked up guilt. I found Aidos, goddess of Shame, daughter of Prometheus (remember, the dude who stole fire and gave it to humans?), whose counterpart and bff was Nemesis (goddess of rightful retribution. Sounds familiar).  That sounded really good at first, but in this case “shame” rather means “modesty”: in Latin, she's Pudicitia. I’m not exactly sure “modesty” applies to Ryoken.

I wanted grief, so I looked up grief.  Penthos came up, Greek spirit of Grief, whose parents are none other than Aether and Gaia, the air and earth literally. 

I discarded both, first because they were too mono-faced and lacked interactions with the other aspects of Ryoken’s personality, and second because I didn't know enough about them. (Third, I'm not a fan of the names Aidosshipping or Penthosshipping; they just don’t sound great, and can even create confusion in the case of Aidosshipping.)

In the process, I also considered then discarded Aletheia, goddess of truth (Veritas in latin). While Revolver very rarely tells open lies (the only one that comes to mind is when he says he doesn't know who Playmaker is. I think everything else is the truth, even if it's the truth only for him), this kid is still far from always speaking the truth.

While Aletheiashipping sounded nice in a very typical, needlessly complicated way, Aletheia means “unconcealment” and Ryoken is painfully concealed.  Pass.

See, I tried everything! And with that, I was about to really conclude that Athenshipping was the best ship name for Ryoken/Revolver.

UNLESS…

Final approach — Wait, there’s three!

You know, in retrospect, it feels a little obvious. At that point of my deep-dive, I remembered that while the ship Ryoken/Revolver was nice, why should I deprive myself of the joy of the ship Ryoken/Revolver 1.0 / Revolver 2.0?

And look, that was a pattern of three, there. Couldn’t I make it simple and call it Threeshipping? The name was not taken.

————————— INTERMISSION —————————

Maybe you already noticed, and then this intermission will seem silly. But in case you haven't noticed, and since I blew my own mind with this realisation, there's no reason I wouldn't blow yours in the process. Have you ever wondered why the number three, specifically?  It has likely nothing to do with mythology this time. 

However: - it's a convenient one in general, easy to reach and easy to remember. - it is, as Yusaku notices, the number of cards you can have in your main monster zone in Speed Duels. - but most of all, and that's where I had an "oh." moment: it's also, dun dun dunnn~

~the number of rods used in the problem of the Tower of Hanoi.  Coincidence? I think not.

(This intermission is actually an excuse to note that I didn’t go into Hanoishipping because that just sounds like Revolver/his whole organisation, and Knightshipping is already taken by a ship from Arc-V, Shingo Sawatari/Yuto. I didn't know how to fit it in the rest of my stupid narrative, bullet points wouldn't comply. Thank you for your patience.)

————————— END OF INTERMISSION —————————

So, threeshipping could work, in theory. But it didn’t sound… really good. It felt rather bland, honestly. I discarded it along with all the others and, since I was too deep at that point, I was unstoppable and turned back to mythology. Again again.

I kickstarted the brainstorming again with an easy question: which figure goes with the number THREE in mythology? 

The first that came to mind was Hecate, with her three heads, but I really couldn't find any link with Ryoken. I mean, she’s the daughter of the titan of destruction and the titaness of stars (although Hecate’s father might also be Zeus, which, well, isn’t it true for basically anyone in Greek mythology at this point), and she’s the goddess of protection, and borders, and the moon, and plenty of other things I don’t fully grasp because I should probably read more of the Theogony than just what I studied in class, but I’m not sure I’m THIS dedicated.

Anyway, let’s forget about Hecateshipping. Three faces don’t make a Ryoken.

And suddenly, I had a vision. An epiphany. A true “how am I so stupid I feel like bashing my head against the nearest wall” moment.

Because, you see, there is one famous figure linked with the number three in mythology. In multiple mythologies, even. And if you’re not me, you may have seen it coming about 2000 words ago (or maybe the tl;dr just clued you in.) There is one very, very, very famous mythological figure linked with the number three. Or rather, three mythological figures.  And they’re among my favourite myths of all times, so really, even the wall is too soft for my head.

I’m obviously talking about these lovely ladies.

The Greek Moirai. Also known as the Parcae in Latin, close to the Norns in Scandinavian mythology, or you know, in English, simply: the Fates.

Sometimes it’s so obvious you miss it!

And so, here I am now, chilling with my buddies Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, discussing how they are perfect to define the relationship between Ryoken and himself-but-in-the-virtual-world and also himself-but-in-the-virtual-world-but-with-yellow-eyes.

It is unclear who their parents are (so many different myths), although Zeus could probably be the father again. But it doesn’t matter, because even Zeus doesn’t hold any power over them, which is frankly badass of them. What is clear is their functions: - Clotho spins the thread: she’s the source of the tapestry, triggering life. - Lachesis unwinds the thread and measures it, observing life with an absolute knowledge of everything that goes into the tapestry.  - Atropos cuts the thread: she brings the end, the destruction, not out of evilness but because it is where the end is meant to happen.

I have a feeling that Clotho would get along well with Revolver 2.0 and his creation of Pandor. Lachesis might have a few things to chat about with Ryoken, the younger one who watched children his age get tortured or the older one who or the older one who is now watching over the network. And if the thread has to be moved a little to make the tapestry better, no one has to know (even if one’s father dies in the process.) And finally, Atropos would probably take a liking to Revolver 1.0, who destroyed the Cyberse world and almost destroyed the network with the Tower of Hanoi because he had to, it was the best option to do so.

I doubt the Moirai feel guilt or grief, but as they encompass the entirety of human fate, they surely carry a lot of feelings. It’s good enough for me.

And thus, after this way too deep rabbit hole (that was more like an army of rabbits), I propose to you:

MOIRAISHIPPING.

(Parcaeshipping didn’t sound as good, and the Norns, while similar, are still different enough that Nornshipping wouldn’t convey the same meaning.)

Although, as mentioned in the tl;dr at the top of this post, we can also differentiate the ship Ryoken/Revolver and Ryoken/Revolver 1.0/Revolver 2.0, and thus keep Athenshipping for the first. Fun fact: Athena is also the goddess of weaving!

But to be honest, I do think it’s not necessary to make this differentiation, and Moiraishipping is enough.

I rest my case.

If you're wondering: yes, I completely used the excuse of ship names to write yet another analysis of this character. It’s like he never ceases to cause ink to flow. Damn you, Revolver. Seriously, with all the words he makes me write, I should have gone with something like Museshipping instead (IT IS NOT TAKEN. HOW DOES IT NOT EXIST YET. Quick, someone come up with a ship that can be named Museshipping.)

And I’ll conclude by: considering how cool his new Moirai friends are, I sure hope Ryoken will consider taking up weaving and tapestry soon, to keep himself occupied on his boat, between two cyber attacks.

Thoughts are welcome, and now it’s time to populate the tag in Tumblr and AO3!

————————— OMAKE —————————

Kudos to my partner for having the patience of a saint while I was brainstorming.

He came back to around 50 messages of stupid tentative ship names and increasing frustration, followed by the descent into mythology madness I described above. And he still agrees to live with me, HOW.

[mattapparentlystumbltourneys]

BRACKET REVEAL

Alright. At long last, I present to you the bracket...or should I say...*BRACKETS* for the Virtual Character Tournament!

Given the scale, the first round is going to be one bracket per week, 4 a day, with each lasting 24 hours. I know that this is still tight, but given how many contestants there are, along with the necessary inclusions of images and propaganda (oh and I guess also my job), it's what I can do to keep this semi-manageable. There's also no redemption round this time. It's gonna be a single elimination tournament. Be kind to your peers. This is not but a drop in the infinite ocean of the internet.

...oh yeah the brackets themselves. We'll be going in order over the course of 4 weeks. I'll make proper announcements for them as they commence. Given how many there are and what I want to get done beforehand, Bracket 1 will likely begin some time this week. But for the matchups...

Bracket 1:

Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid) vs. Elohim (The Talos Principle)

Flame (Yu-Gi-Oh! VRains) vs. The Supervisor/Mouthless (Tenkuu Shinpan)

XANA (Code Lyoko) vs. MetalMan.EXE (Mega Man Battle Network)

9-Jack-9 (Zot!) vs Poppy Pipopapo (Kamen Rider Ex Aid)

Sage (Sonic Frontiers) vs Mektryllis (Fate/Extra CCC)

Dot Matrix (Reboot) vs V Flower (Vocaloid)

Wizardmon (Digimon) vs Delta (Red Vs. Blue)

Sora (Ever17) vs Kasane Teto (UTAU)

The Doctor/EMH (Star Trek Voyager) vs Crash (Awful Hospital)

Burroughs (Shin Megami Tensei IV) vs Quorra (Tron Legacy)

The Machine (Person of Interest) vs The Rocket Dex (Pokemon)

P03 (Inscription) vs. M.X.E.S (FNAF Security Breach: Ruins)

Hakuno Kishinami (Fate/EXTRA) vs Data Riku (Kingdom Hearts)

Samaritan (Person of Interest) vs ART (The Murderbot Diaries)

Cortana (Halo) vs M-Bot (Skyward)

Mitsuko Miyazumi (Archer) vs Ritsu (Assassination Classroom)

Bracket B:

Ene (Kagerou Project) vs The Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe)

Amadeus (Steins; Gate 0) vs D.O.M (The Adventure Zone)

AM (I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream) vs Theo (Meta Runner)

Colonel.EXE (Mega Man Battle Network) vs Daia (Kiratto PriChan)

Agumon (Digimon) vs The Bobbiedots (FNAF Fazbear Frights)

Felix the Desktop Cat (Real Life) vs SHODAN (System Shock)

MegaMan.EXE (Mega Man Battle Network) vs Church (Red vs. Blue)

Shepherd (ENA) vs Dr. Coomer (Half Life VR But the AI is Self-Aware)

Sophie/Sophia (Persona 5 Strikers) vs Dizzy (Beyblade)

Miss J/SCP 5094 (SCP) vs Ultraman X (Ultraman X)

SAYU (No Straight Roads) vs Falulu (Pripara)

Incarceron (Incarceron) vs Benry (Half Life VR but the AI is Self-Aware)

Lea (Crosscode) vs Kiracchu (Kiratto PriChan)

Dragon (Prahumans) vs Murder-Bot 2.0 (The Murderbot Diaries)

Ai (Yu-Gi-Oh! VRains) vs Glitch Slime (Slime Rancher)

Eris (Wolf 359) vs Monika (Doki Doki Literature Club)

Bracket III:

Hera (Wolf 359) vs Shin AI (Your Turn to Die)

Alba (Star Twinkle Pretty Cure) vs The Denpa Men (The Denpa Men)

Guy (Free Guy) vs EDI (Mass Effect)

Aetna (Lore Olympus) vs Yui (Sword Art Online)

Nicole the Holo-Lynx (Archie Sonic) vs Gabumon (Digimon)

Jacqueline Box (Pripara) vs Mamechi (Tamagotchi)

Vanellope von Shweetz (Wreck-It Ralph) vs Cleverbot (Real Life)

The Phantom Virus (Scooby-Doo) vs Chiaki Nanami (Danganronpa)

Alter Ego (Danganronpa) vs Digit (Cyberchase)

Simulcast (Reflection TTRPG) vs SARA (Toonami)

Lumina Ichihoshi (Dig Delight Direct Drive DJ) vs The World Machine (OneShot)

Rumble McSkirmish (Gravity Falls) vs Holly (Red Dwarf)

HAL 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey) vs Samantha (Her)

PAMA (Minecraft Story Mode) vs Noah Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!)

Agent Smith (The Matrix) vs O.R.C.A (Splatoon)

Spunc (Alpha Betas) vs Porygon (Pokemon)

Bracket Delta:

GIFanny (Gravity Falls) vs Coco (Aikatsu Friends)

Vic Fontaine (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) vs Red One (The Last Angel)

Glitchtrap (FNAF Help Wanted) vs Holo (My Holo Love)

Avina (Mass Effect) vs Light Hope (She-Ra)

Motherboard (Cyberchase) vs Aya (Green Lantern: The Animated Series)

Bonzi Buddy (Real Life) vs Tama (AI The Somnium Files)

Dragon (Worm) vs Bip (Runway to the Stars)

Failsafe (Destiny) vs J.A.R.V.I.S (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Aiba (AI: The Somnium Files) vs CanHaz (DC Comics)

SAYER (SAYER) vs Fey (Welcome to Night Vale)

Buddy (Buddy Simulator 1984) vs Ziggy (Quantum Leap)

Maggy (Hellspark) vs The Squip (Be More Chill)

Lyla (Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse) vs Durandal (Marathon)

Beta Jay 137 (Ninjago) vs Zero III (Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward)

Sergey Ushanka (The Magnus Archines) vs Demetra (Spy Kids 3: GAME OVER)

Alie (The 100) vs Lil' Hal (Homestuck)

As always, thank you for bearing with me during this long and arduous process. Sorry for the hassle, and be prepared, as it is almost upon us.

[magpiejay1234]

So Episode 93.

Decode Talker Extended debuts in this episode as the ace card against Kusanagi.

Kusanagi's Codebreakers are DARK Warriors (like Destiny HEROes), but they are made of computer viruses (which look like sludge in their design), and like Ai's Ignisters, look similar to Yusaku's cards, with a more anti-hero bent like Destiny HEROes.

This is Kusanagi's first, and only Duel in series. None of his Spell/Traps have been printed, so it will be a while until we get new Codebrakers, but since it is one of the physically printed Decks, Kusanagi will likely make it to Duel Links.

With Ai, and Roboppi's status as the antagonists of S3, the only allies from S1 that didn't turn against Yusaku are Naoki, Aoi, and Revolver, both of which also served as antagonistic roles (Aoi working for Akira in early S2, Revolver's status as the main villain in S1, and later role as a pseudo-antagonist in the end of S3). I guess if there was a S4, Takeru, and some sort of resurrected Flame would have backstabbed Yusaku. He is truly Peter Parker.

(Yamamoto (Frog), and Saito (Pigeon) technically are forced to be against Yusaku for the final Duels of S2, so they also add up to the count.)

(Emma & Akira started as non-villainous antagonists, so you can put them wherever you can like.)

*****

Taking this Duel as a break for final boss rush, Boss Rush part 1 had the following Duels:

**Revolver vs. Soulburner (immediately aborted)

**Aoi vs. Haru

**Lightning vs. Spectre

**Takeru vs. Windy

**Aoi vs. Bohman

**Yusaku vs. Shoichi Kusanagi

So 2 of Yusaku's gang, 2 of Lightning's gang, and Kusanagi lost. Kusanagi's loss is technically worse for Yusaku than Lightning, as he is now stuck with the lesser Knights of Hanoi, as Emma & Akira are in LINK VRAINS 2.0, and as we later find out, Roboppi.

[leveliflared]

[itsashowtime]

⋆「 ☾ 」⋆  He's so gorgeous in your style!!! Thank you so much 😭 💙🌙 ✨ 

A drawing of Asahi for @itsashowtime because I love them both

[rivaltagonist]

Alien man.

[fairytalefragments]

CRESCENT ; STIMBOARD

for anonymous ; x x x / x x / x x x

[forgettableotaku]

I drew everyone's favourite smug boi Jerm from Yu-gi-oh Vrains 2.0!!! His hair is so cool!!!

[itsashowtime]

「天穂・STRAWBERRYMOON」:

🌙お月見🎑Moon Viewing���

[princesshalfdemon]

@tsukuyomishirabes​ replied to your post “*thinks about how VRAINS literally spits on the face of everything...”

please elaborate, this sounds like a hot take in the making

its not a hot take bc its the majority opinion actually but!!! Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS is a horrifically cynical show that takes pride in its cynicism

YGO is a shounen about the power and bonds of friendships and love. yes, at heart, YGO is a commercial, and it fails to do even that right, but i’ll get back to that in a bit

VRAINS is an extremely cynical show that just actively mocks these kinds of bonds that really define YGO as a franchise. what was once originally going to be an anime about a nervous boy stepping out of his shell became Yusei Fudo 2.0 in his stoicness and just being the Absolute Best at this game, and cold about how he goes about things. he defrosts somewhat, but fails to be as interesting a hero as Yusei, despite his traumatic past. rather than letting him come out of his shell and smiling and learning to truly love and embrace life (like the second ending, Writing Life is all about) he just remains kind of. edgy as a hero from beginning to end. sure he’s better at the end than the beginning, but that’s... not saying much

the themes of true companionship is replaced by this obsession with strength. nobody really has a strong kinship with their deck. Aoi is an idol so she gets the idol deck. Go is a wrestler so he gets the wrestler deck. Ropoppy is a fucking vacuum cleaning robot so he gets the cleaning deck. everyone’s deck is just slapped onto them, and nobody really has a true and genuine bond with their deck, something that in yugioh is just as important as the bond between friends. they don’t even do a good job at advertising yugioh: during VRAINS’ era, Trickstar was on top of the world, even winning the world championship in 2017 or 2018. and yet Aoi, despite having this top-tier meta deck, is constantly humiliated and plays her deck laughably terrible in a way no Trickstar player would ever use. it’s funny considering the meme of “BUY BLACKWINGS” back in the 5D’s era, when Crow was arguably given much more screentime because of how popular Blackwings were (while there is some truth in this there were other factors behind the screens in 5D’s production, such as Aki’s VA becoming pregnant). the main character has arguably the worst deck in the series, maybe the worst of any YGO protagonist except Yugi (Yugi i’m so sorry) or Judai (before Elemental Hero had a truly defined playing style), yet Aoi who possesses a tier 0 deck is given a grand total of one or two truly great duels before being humiliated left and right.

like. Aoi has a duel against a major villain to whom she feels a personal connection with. as he is also familiar with the Blue Angel fairy tale she explicitly states her sympathy for him and says she wants to heal him. while his deck is actually a genuinely good counter to Trickstar this duel ends with her other humiliated, literally thrown into the air and landing face-first as Spectre laughs maniacally at her suffering and at the insinuation she could possibly help him. and when Yusaku, a man, comes to duel him, he overpowers Spectre so brutally (as his deck while a good foil to Trickstar does little against

at the end of the show Aoi literally shows compassion and sympathy for Ai, so in return? Ai responds by literally putting her brother into a coma for absolutely no reason after defeating him just to torment and agonize Aoi more after this series had already shit on her for two seasons straight. this is the last time Aoi is ever relevant in the story: Ai making her suffer literally just for shits and giggles for no real reason other than VRAINS wanted to indulge in its misogyny even more.

Go Onizuka who was a compassionate man who literally did everything he could to help out his orphanage becomes suddenly obsessed with strength to the point his physical health deteriorates... for no real reason? he fought alongside Yusaku and Aoi proudly near the end of S1, yet becomes power-hungry and obsessed with his bond with Yusaku no longer existent to the point to this day i’d actually argue VRAINS against all odds managed to ruin Go’s character worse than Aoi’s. that’s saying a lot.

Go’s and Aoi’s friendship with Yusaku isn’t even really a friendship. its just an alliance at most. none of them truly bond or become close friends, and while Yusaku becomes friends with Homura it doesn't change the fact this is an anime that should revolve around friendship.

VRAINS rejected everything that is so beloved about Yu-Gi-Oh! and so wholesome and fun in favor of giving the worst parts of the fandoms what they had wanted for years: a darker and edgier Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, which we received years ago in 5D’s. but unlike 5D’s which had a great cast while still remembering these important bonds, VRAINS just got darker and darker and reveled into it, ending almost universally despised by the end. and thank the fucking Lord Almighty they finally got things right in SEVENS

[darkzorua100]

So nothing much really happened in 79. It was mostly just set up for the Blood Shepherd and Lightning duel. We did get to see more of Lightning, as the title would imply him being the main focus of the episode, and geez this Ignis really is just a prick but he’s an interesting prick. 

As Ryoken has stated, Lightning has been watching everything that has been going on in Link Vrains. The episode starts off with him trying to watch the Revolver vs BS duel but isn’t able to because Ryoken knows how to cover his tracks. He monologues to Jin about their whole situation like they are actual allies in this war before correcting himself that Jin was nothing more then his puppet basically but it is still fascinating to me that he does this. Like the whole Lightning/Jin dynamic from Lightning’s POV. Unlike Windy, Lightning doesn’t so much as hate humans as he finds them to be a lesser species, as he explains to BS, but he almost treats Jin like an equal. Yeah he made him into a human shell, but unlike Windy with his kid, he hasn’t physically harmed him and in a A.I. mind like Lightning’s, he might not take into account the mental pain. Plus he went out of his way to kidnap Jin to use as his footstool when he really didn’t need to. Windy and Earth have both shown that the Ignis don’t need their humans to duel. The Origins and the Ignises are connected to each other and maybe because of that Lightning does see Jin as some kind of higher being, because he was the one to give him a shape, but because of the way he was programmed, he has no choice but to see Jin as nothing more then a simple human as well. I don’t know, I just find their connection intriguing.

We cut over to Windy after that and man, Revolver f*cked him up. Windy isn’t completely healed and Lightning tells him that he won’t ever be completely healed and I loved the fact that he won’t be. It makes sense because the Knights of Hanoi created the Ignis, they should know how to kill them with a program that even the Ignis can’t heal themselves from, but I just love the literal eye for an eye karma in it. If Windy’s Origin is still alive, he has got to have so much physical scarring because of his accident. The fact that now Windy has his own physical scars to match his kid’s just makes me happy because I love these types of symbolism and now I can’t wait for Windy’s kid to be revealed even more because as soon as we see someone with scars just like Windy’s, I’m going to flip out. So yeah, safe to say Windy is kinda pissed and if he didn’t hate humans before, he does now. Again, can’t wait to see his kid because if he didn’t hate A.I. before because of the Hanoi Project, after the car accident because of Windy, oh boy hello more symbolism. Anyway, Lightning gives Windy the details about Earth’s death (which amuses the little psychopath greatly apparently) and Aqua joining Team Playmaker (who annoys him (no one likes Aqua apparently in this group XD). After that, we get some interesting foreshadowing to something big, from the looks of things, from Lightning’s group as after giving Windy the plot rundown, Lightning sends Windy out to Bohman’s location where it seems that Lightning might be constructing something deadly. I very much want to know what Lightning is planning. Tower of Hanoi 2.0 anyone?

We get some sibling interaction between Emma and Kengo visiting their father’s grave. Emma tries to get her brother to join Team Playmaker which fails (if he wasn’t going to join Ryoken’s club, I very much doubt he would join Yusaku’s because you can’t beat what Ryoken is offering I’m sorry) and five seconds later, BS logs into Link Vrains and Lightning invites him to his place. Team Playmaker and the Knights (Revolver and Spectre) follow suit and we get the beginning of the Lightning vs BS duel. Nothing to crazy happens other then BS taking Revolver's advice to heart and takes into account the strategy of Lightning’s group with the Link Spell Cards, with BS destroying Judgement Arrows and that’s how the episode ends. 

Lightning’s deck is spammly but I like the theme. Yu-Gi-Oh Vrains has this Greek Mythology theme to it, but Lightning’s deck almost feels Roman like. Greek and Roman Mythology go hand and hand so it makes sense. I don’t think this is the end of Lightning’s Link Spells though. I’m 100% sure he has another Link Spell in his deck exclusive to him. It might not even be a Spell, it could very well be a Link Trap. If he didn’t have another one of these cards, that would be to easy. As for the stakes of this duel, the winner basically gets the other’s data. BS wins, he gets Lightning and will probably murder him five seconds later if he does and if Lightning wins, it sounds like he is going to turn BS into a mindless drone just like I thought he would. After all, he said it himself, his team is low on numbers. He would be taking out a threat and be gaining one too. Now we all know Lightning is going to be winning this duel, that’s not even a question, but I’m very concerned if this show will do another cop out in order to keep BS on the “hero” side. I’ve seen some people saying that Revolver could jump in and save BS from getting his data stolen once he loses and I very much hope that doesn’t happen and will be something similar to Earth’s lose where it just happens instantly that no one, not even Revolver, can stop it. I think this whole thing would just work out better if BS did get hiveminded because Lightning really does need more people on his team for Team Playmaker to face off against. Like who are half of these people that aren’t Playmaker, Soulburner, and Revolver going to duel against if Lightning doesn’t have more players? BS needs to get brainwashed so Ghost Girl can save her brother and get a win and I’m still crossing my fingers that we will get a Miyu vs Blue Maiden duel because of the virus Lightning put into Miyu.

But yeah overall, it was just a episode to get the ball moving. Next week Jin is speaking and after the monologue Lightning had with his Origin, with the camera focusing a lot on Jin this episode, I’m really curious now to know why he is speaking, if he actually is trying to break free from Lightning’s control or Lightning is just speaking through him. Crossing my fingers for Society of Lightning to happen. We need more anguish. Plus brainwashing always leads to some epic moments in Yu-Gi-Oh. Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon anyone? 

[itsashowtime]

( DRACO / 晃了 )

[itsashowtime]

[itsashowtime]

Happy VRAINS 2.0 5th anniversary!

[itsashowtime]

AKITA BOYS