#angry crying after the Dark Signer arc

[wisyhana]

Okay, real talk

F you 5ds writers🖕

[vrainsrewatch]

episode 19 thoughts

this is... the most screenshot heavy post i’ve made so far, lmao, so please bear with me. as i’ve said, this is one of my favorite duels, and there’s a lot that gets covered here. like, seriously, i haven’t written this post out yet but i can guarantee this will be my longest so far lmao.

the beginning of the episode starts off fairly standard, and mostly dueling:

i really do love the pacing of this duel. i was glued to the edge of my seat while watching these episodes. i remember it so clearly, too, because i’d been binge watching from episode 16 that day, and got to like, 24 by the time i stopped, lmao.

ai does a lot of cute/funny stuff this episode, to help break up some of the more dark tones of the rest of it, like this:

it really makes me miss hi in this form :( i really like his soltis form, don’t get me wrong, but i miss him on yusaku’s wrist lol. i would say when things were less angsty, but, well. lmao.

we very quickly get akira’s rad boss monster summoned out:

and seriously, i just love the animation for it. it’s so sick. the door, the fire, how it looms behind him at first.... aaaaaa. so cool.

and of course the classic:

the worst part about this line is it’s said so often (esp in arc v LOL) that i actually. have slipped up and said it in normal, day to day conversation before. my boyfriend looked at me for like a minute and gave me the deepest sigh i’ve ever heard the first time i did that pff.

also:

i couldn’t not screencap this, given what my blog is for LOL

every time something reminds me of that painful final duel, i have to screencap it and make you guys sad with me. if i have to be sad seeing all this stuff, knowing where their relationship goes and how the series ends, so do you.

also, though, i forgot how often this was brought up before the bohman duel lmao. it makes that theory look a lot more credible, so it’s cool that it had all these little hints towards it, even if it ultimately wasn’t true.

seriously, my heart. i don’t think i need to talk much about this scene to make y’all sad, but really. they went from this to i loved you. ugh, god, i’m so sad thinking about it lmao.

there is so much to talk about between akira and playmaker and even blue angel in this episode, so i guess we’ll start here.

it is hard to decide that you want to take control of your trauma and do something about it. it is not easy. to see yusaku fight for that right so thoroughly is incredible, and really, really validating.

more sadness! seriously, this is too much. this deck was created specifically for him by ai. i don’t like this anymore lmao

but even besides that, often times the protag’s decks mean a lot to them, obviously, but i love that it wasn’t built strictly by yusaku. his cards were literally made by ai, and i think that’s such a cool twist. 

but then, akira’s speech:

i talked last time about akira wanting to handle things himself, and i briefly touched on him thinking he knows best...

but i really admire how calm yusaku stays at that tbh. he gets angry, reasonably so imo, but he takes this so well. i know i was a much more volatile kid then he is, so respect lol

i’ve spoken at length already about akira, but i also want to talk again about how oblivious he is. he is so blinded by his own thoughts and feelings on the situation that he doesn’t stop to think about how yusaku might be feeling -- and worse, honestly, how his sister might be feeling.

it was why he was so visibly shocked when emma mentioned a few episodes ago that aoi wasn’t just a little kid anymore. it’s so clear that he still, at the moment, sees her as the six year old girl he swore to protect, and not the sixteen year old person she’s become. he doesn’t think about how she might be feeling towards his actions, or why she does what she does.

this is highlighted as early as episode 6 iirc, when he asks her why aren’t you happy? as much as i, personally, dislike his character, i can’t deny it’s very realistic and well written.

speaking of aoi:

i love how she’s written in this episode, too. but her entrance here is great, and i love how she stands up to him about this. it’s minor, but it’s still a good step. when she’s blue angel -- or blue girl, or blue maiden -- she feels comfortable doing that. at least a little, and it obviously grows throughout the series. i hope that transfers over to the real world for her, too.

and then, we finally get the full story:

i remember flinching when he started talking about it, remembering the shots of yusaku getting electrocuted from his duel with revolver.

i really love this. i said it last episode, but vrains handles yusaku’s trauma so realistically and it’s amazing.

i remember originally staring open mouthed at my tv screen while this part played. we got a bit of it from the other episode, but the full context truly shocked me. where’s that post that says “who thought this was an acceptable backstory to give to a card game protag” bc honestly??? YEAH

it’s still hard to watch. it’s still hard to see play out, even if it’s only fiction. even though i’ve seen these clips so many times, and written about them in detail a few times too. doesn’t matter lol. watching it in context actually still made my stomach drop.

which leads me to talk about reactions to this, actually:

the two that vrains focuses heavily on are blue angel’s and kusanagi’s, and they contrast really well here imo.

blue angel’s is a normal reaction. it’s horrified, both at the thought of it happening and at the fact that someone would actually do that to another person -- a six year old child, no less.

kusanagi’s is strained. he is angry hearing about this, thinking about jin. we’ve been told, and have seen in the last few episodes, how much the lost incident impacted kusanagi and his brother, but i really love that the show tells us that here, too, and shows the difference between hearing about a tragedy and being involved in some manner.

i did not expect it at all when first watching vrains, and honestly, it still impresses me how gracefully they handled it coming off of arc v (cough, shun i love you but really cough cough). no hate on arc v at all, it’s my third favorite ygo very close behind gx, but the difference between the two on how they handle these things is staggering.

this whole section makes me thing that ryoken talked to yusaku fairly often, after the first time. which is something i don’t see brought up often? but that’s so important imo. it meant that yusaku had someone encouraging him not just once or twice, but on the regular, but also it meant that ryoken was constantly risking himself to comfort that child. 

we don’t see too much of ryoken when he’s a kid, but we do see him scared and crying over the lost incident. the fact that he was able to talk calmly to this child so many times is really amazing. it also makes more sense as to why ryoken feels so guilty over calling the police -- he probably felt that maybe if he had just kept up his encouragement, the kids would’ve all gotten out okay and his father wouldn’t be in a coma. 

this was so powerful. it’s obvious, and i think anyone with half a brain would understand that the LI isn’t something that a kid would recover from easily, but i love this anyways. 

he wasn’t saved. and even if he was in body, it’s still something he and all the other victims will live with for the rest of their lives.

this also is something i don’t feel like people bring up enough, but does this mean that yusaku went around asking the kids at the hospital when he was rescued? it’s not hard to believe they were all put together, at least for a short amount of time, but it’s still something i feel like people overlook. 

i also love this, because it’s nice foreshadowing to how revolver feels. he’s not captured, not like yusaku and the lost kids were, but he is a prisoner. and just like ryoken saved yusaku, way back then, he is determined to repay the favor.

not just because of that, either. because that voice meant so much to him. because that voiced saved him. because that voice understood him, and was there for him in his hardest moments. god i love them.

i love this shot. it’s so dramatic, how the match the drum beats with flashes of everyone’s reactions.

but it drives home his point, and while i know most of akira’s development came through emma and aoi, i’m sure this helped, too. 

i’ve sung vrains praises this entire post, but i’ll do it again -- this is incredible. this is so realistic. it’s so well portrayed. and it’s really honest to god incredible that we got a protag in ygo who was shown going to therapy. 

ygo has always dealt with some pretty dark subject matter, and it’s never really been shy about showing it on screen. i’m not saying that at all. arc v obviously dealt with some pretty heavy stuff, and while i haven’t seen zexal (keep shaming me please) i know it does, too. 5ds obviously has the dark signer arc, and the later arcs concerning bruno and also yusei’s father, and gx has... well, it’s entire third and fourth season. 

but we see everyone healing via card games. we see those shows talk about these things, but kind of at the same time, skirt around the subject matter; or if they do go deep into it, they pull out (ie 5ds) or the characters don’t get resolved properly (ie arc v). 

idk where i was going with this but i just really love that this happened, this was shown on screen, and they stuck to yusaku’s character. they didn’t just... up and make his trauma and his world view disappear at the end. he has a bittersweet ending, but it suited him and his development. a lot of people were mad about it, and i get it -- i wanted him to be happy, too.

but that’s not always the case, and it’s really important to me that vrains doesn’t pretend it is.

anyways, though, i’m almost done with this episode i promise lmao. before the episode ends, we get this:

and i think it’s honestly kind of cruel that akira says this, after everything, and still maintains his point of handling it himself. he has heard, first hand now, how horrible the incident has scarred yusaku for life. and yet, he still is stubborn in refusing to relate or at the very least empathize.

what i mean by that, since we obviously see him attempt to last episode, is he refuses to look at it from someone’s else’s perspective or in a way that might make him uncomfortable. the way my boyfriend describes these kinds of people is that they “haven’t had their bubble popped”.

everyone has a bubble when they’re born, and that bubble shields you from realizing that the world is a cruel and hard place. even if you go through hardships, sometimes your bubble stays put, and you think that is the worst of what can happen. 

i’m explaining this very poorly, because i’m running on not much sleep and i’ve been typing about this episode for like, far, far too long, but essentially, he refuses to step out of his comfort zone and recognize, in playmaker’s case, that he doesn’t have a right to interfere and that playmaker’s desire to handle it himself is justified and helpful for his healing. and in aoi’s case, that just because he does a lot of good for her doesn’t automatically mean ignoring her for work and keeping her locked in their house is an okay trade off. and also that she’s not a child anymore -- she’s nearly an adult and she deserves to be treated as one. 

those thoughts seem to unsettle him. you can kind of see it in how detached he is after hearing all that come from playmaker. blue angel is visibly shaken up by what he’s said. akira doesn’t even flinch, because he’s not really listening right now. 

i’m glad he learns to, or at least learns how to start, later on.

anyways, i think that’s enough for this post lmao. this took forever to type up, so let’s hope i actually have time to cover up to 21 here today LOL. if you read all that, thank you for your time on my kind of dumb vrains thoughts :’)

[entamewitchlulu]

Homura’s Top 15 5D’s Characters

Going underneath the cut!!  This is actually working to cheer me up haha :)

15. Mikage Sagiri

It’s kind of a sign that there aren’t that many characters in 5D’s that she’s on this list at all to be honest, but I do still like her.  I do love her no-nonsense attitude as a Security officer, and when she’s not fawning over Jack she’s a really cool character with a sort of strictness about her that makes her interesting to me.

14. Rally Dawson

Rally is just....precious.  I love him for being just such a cute little bro character, and I always, always wished that he had more screen time and had gotten to meet with the other characters, especially Lua and Luka.  I find him to be incredibly endearing for how hard he tries and how earnest he is in helping his friends.

13. Sherry LeBlanc

Sherry is one of those characters that I like for what she could have been.  Her first appearance was just a fun ride, she’s a pretty character who looks feminine but has a brash sort of personality, which is honestly a good thing I think for a shonen show.  What I like most about her is her bluntness and how she basically just says whatever she’s thinking without worrying about hurting people’s feelings, sometimes it’s a nice departure from the normal sweet girl characters in shonen.

12. Tetsu Ushio

Add this guy to the list of characters I never thought I would like!  Ushio was such an asshole when he first showed up, and I thought he would just be an unlikable antagonist forever.  But his slow growth into a legitimate friend and ally just felt so real and it was actually really nice to see what a good friend to Yusei and the others he ended up being.  It’s one of my favorite arcs in 5D’s and I think it’s one of the best examples of how Yu-Gi-Oh can turn even seemingly irredeemable characters into lovable ones.

11. Martha

I’m a sucker for moms, okay.  I love how caring Martha is, but she’s also a no-nonsense sort of person who easily switches between caring and scolding to raise her brood of children right.  Also, anyone that can get Jack to kneel and kiss their hand is probably a downright amazing person XD  Her devotion to her kids, old and young, is just a joy to watch.

10. Luciano

And then there’s this asshole lol.  He was actually one of the only antagonists I actually liked from the second half of 5D’s, mostly cause I found his bratty nature a fun ride.  He’s loud, obnoxious, and appropriately bratty for the age he’s supposed to represent, and I thought it was fun watching him screw with everyone.

9. Misty Lola

God, talk about great female villains, though.  She was an incredibly sympathetic character even from her first appearances, taking Carly in and taking care of her after she became a Dark Signer and seeming to be a very kind hearted person despite what side she was on.  Her kindness can’t be mistaken for weakness, though, because she’s an incredibly ruthless duelist when she feels she has to fight, and I found that her back story lead up really well to why she would become the way she is.  And she’s still incredibly honorable, too; after she learns the truth, she immediately is willing to drop her hatred and apologize for her actions.  She’s one of those characters I wish we had seen return in the second half, because I feel like there was a lot they could have done with her post-Dark Signer.

8. Kyosuke Kiryu

Kiryu is just fascinating.  I love the contrast he sets up especially for Yusei; he’s incredibly charismatic and draws people to him with fiery words and speeches and flashy displays of his own power.  He’s honestly the ideal protagonist type when compared to the much more reserved Yusei, who never really tries to draw people to him and seems content to take a back seat to other people taking the lead.  Kiryu’s arc is fascinating too, watching him change from this charismatic figure into a more wild character who fights back against the frustration that the unfair world has forced on him, and then into a subdued, depressed character, and finally into something more subdued but still a leader at the end of the Crashtown arc, is a really, really interesting arc, and he has a lot of potential to explore in fic and art.

7. Luka

I love my daughter more than my l i f e.  Luka is such a precious, beautiful girl who tries so hard despite being afraid, and watching her grow more courageous over time is just really inspiring.  I love her devotion and her very sibling-like irritation with Lua’s antics.  She feels like a very real character.

6. Jack Atlas

Jack is just a fucking fun character.  He’s a total asshole and he doesn’t really redeem himself like, at all in some respects.  He does definitely mature, but it’s fun to see the ways that he never quite matures, too.  He’s always going to be that same asshole-ish personality who tends to be selfish more often than not, but despite that he really has a good core at his center.  What I find most fascinating is what I see as his lowkey desire to make people happy.  His arc with Carly was mostly about him finding out it wasn’t being the King for prestige that was important, it was important because he knew he was a symbol for a lot of people, especially children, and he wanted to live up to those expectations to really mean something for others.  He really is at his core a good person who cares about being good to people, and I love that about him.

5. Crow Hogan

God, Crow is a fun character.  He’s sassy as fuck and honestly he has the kind of smile that lights up the screen. I love his reckless nature, his fun-loving, adventurous spirit, and I especially love his papa bird personality and how devoted he is to his kids and children in general.  I love parental characters, and Crow is one of the best in Yu-Gi-Oh imo.  He’s super cute and fun and I love that he always finds some way to have fun in his situations, but he knows when and where to be serious.

4. Yusei Fudo

I mean first off, he’s fucking gorgeous.  and second off, I just find him to be a really great character type.  I mentioned it a little bit when I was talking about Kiryu, but Yusei is not immediately the kind of person you’d peg as a shonen protagonist.  He doesn’t run his mouth, he doesn’t care to be flashy and seems content to hide in the shadows most of the time, and he’s not openly charismatic.  And yet people are drawn to him, and I think it’s for good reason.  He has a very powerful soul and a powerful presence despite keeping to the sidelines when he can, and he can’t back down from injustice; he refuses to keep his mouth shut when he thinks there’s something wrong with society and he’ll actively take a stance against it for the sake of everyone.  People are just drawn to him, not for his open charisma, but for his quiet confidence, and I think that’s just amazing.

3. Aki Izayoi

Aki is amazing.  She has one of the most poignant character arcs in Yu-Gi-Oh, and I just love how emotional she was allowed to be on screen.  She was allowed to be irrational and to react badly to things, she was allowed by the narrative to cry and get angry and lash out and hurt people and it felt real and human.  I love her for her slow growth as she reaches for her own strength and confidence in the wake of abuse and fear, and how she’s allowed to have some space to find herself and grow on her own two feet.  Aki is a powerful character who shows it’s possible to recover and become the person you wanted to be after completely losing yourself to bad circumstances/abuse/a bad past.  She’s a character who shows that things can and will work out if you don’t give up, and I love her a lot for that.

2. Lua

GOD talking about people who deserved better btw, Lua is fucking precious and deserves the entire world.  Lua is so earnest and he tries so hard.  He’s excitable about life, everything is a cool adventure to him and he doesn’t let anything get him down for too long.  He hides his insecurities behind this excitement, but he legitimately is happy about life and all the possibilities it holds.  He’s not the type to give up, even when his inner sadness is dragging him down, and he’ll always get back up no matter how many times it takes.

1. Carly Nagisa

Look at my baby girl!!!!!!  Carly is one of the most fun characters in 5D’s, her excitable antics as she tries to get the next scoop are endearing and adorable.  She’s a hard worker and a beautiful soul who always decides that morals and ethics are more important than getting a good story.  I love her cute little fortune-telling thing that she does to give herself courage, and her devotion to both her job and the people she cares about is inspiring.  Her arc as a Dark Signer was incredibly powerful, and every minute of it was just beautiful, beautiful writing.  Carly deserved a lot better than she got by the second half, but I’m still reeling at how much we did get for her in the first half.  I can’t blame Jack for becoming inspired by her, because she’s the kind of person that I think would inspire anyone just by being in her presence.  And what I love most about her is that I think that’s the kind of person she really wants to be, too; her dream from childhood was to just be able to support people who were working hard, because watching others find happiness made her happy, too.