#duelist kingdom alternative story arc

[originalqueenhottub]

Preface

Pegasus J Crawford (Or Known as Maximillion Pegasus to other audiences) is the legendary architect to the world of Duel Monsters as many who played the game could tell you. The charismatic, witty, poised man who's very presence poured a sense of mystery; created a game based on a more ancient and dangerous version. But the reason why? Even more elusive to most experts of the game. Pegasus had plans for Duel Monsters. Plans that few were not privy to know. A singular desire, a forlorn wish but one with catastrophic consequences if answered. 

Enter, Anath. An intuitive character who is about to unknowingly weave fate into another direction for both Pegasus and herself. Her arrival to his castle just days before the events of Duelist Kingdom have started the unraveling of the threads of fate. Hindered by her own ancient curse, however, will these two be able to break the chains that threaten to not only drag them to their pre-destined doom? Will they conquer an ancient darkness that stretches from the eons of time?

(This story is definitely going to be fun. I have had a good bit of it down for a while, I am just in those stages of Editing that I dread... I am spontaneous on my story writing timelines and write down ideas quickly from different parts of the story 😅 And it can make it difficult to string it together. But if you want a good story, I can guarantee this one will be decent!

It's funny, originally I was writing it as a one-shot or a "Joke" but it actually turned into a project for me! Complete with art, smut, and my own alternate reason why Pegasus is alive in the anime, but dead in the Manga. It kinda was inspired by the Game- Duel Links, and the Bonds Beyond Time movie.

The exploration of alternative universes is a endeavor I try to navigate carefully, as I am not a fan if it is done poorly. Just know when reading my story, I did copious amounts of research (re-reading the manga, watching it in original Japanese format, finding old articles from my Shonen jump magazines and notes from Takahashi himself.) and found things that unexpectedly fit not only my plot, but Yu-Gi-Oh's vast and beautiful storyline.

And while accumulating knowledge, I seemed to have stumbled upon others who seemed to want the same thing I did. An emotional, deeper side of Yu-Gi-Oh that Kazuki Takahashi DID want to give us, but due to editing and people in his editorial circle caused him to have to cut a lot of back stories. This was to focus more on the card games (Boo!) But in a way, I get it. That's what made this franchise so popular.

This story I hope will deliver substance that I feel we all wanted from a Yu-Gi-Oh story. Yeah, it may be a fanfiction, but like other works of art and stories out there, this came from the heart of someone who loved the story so much as a child, that I wanted to keep it alive like it has me.

Takahashi, may you rest in peace. I want you to know not only did you pass away a hero to others, you saved me and countless others by showing us- "The heart of the cards" )

[themattress]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Story Arc Ranking

Elaboration from yesterday's post, plus including the Duel Monsters anime.

MANGA:

-Duelist Kingdom Arc: I strongly feel like this is the story arc where Kazuki Takahashi got just about everything right. It's where he fully fleshed out the card game to the point where it became feasible and tangible, which is why it quickly came to exist in the real world. It's where he had a perfect team dynamic going with Yugi, Yami Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu, Honda and Bakura, with Grandpa Moto as their mentor. It's where he perfected the writing of villains and side characters, with Pegasus and his minions, Mai, Haga, Ryuzaki, Ryota, Kozuka and "Bandit" Keith all standing out. It's where Seto Kaiba came into his own as a truly interesting character and worthy rival to Yugi. It had a fantastic environment in the titular Duelist Kingdom, and a perfectly paced structure across 8 volumes. And it was also the biggest game-changer in terms of the manga's overarching narrative: expertly linking together the three arcs that had come before and setting up the three arcs that would come afterward.

-DEATH-T Arc: Takahashi's personal favorite story arc, and I can certainly see why. While it has a rough start with a bizarre one-shot chapter about virtual pets and a two-parter that while fun has little to do with games at all, once Mokuba Kaiba is introduced it follows a sequential plot about the revenge of Seto Kaiba via his deadly game tournament, DEATH-T. While it would later be topped by Duelist Kingdom's McGuffin hunting to gain access to a castle to face its king, the format of scaling the floors of a tower, facing tougher and tougher challenges in order to reach the villain at the top was a highly engaging structure. And of course, there's the unforgettable emotional development of the characters: Yugi fighting for the life of his grandfather, the famous smiley face drawing on the hands of Yugi and his friends, Honda almost sacrificing his life, Yugi breaking down and confessing that he has an alternate personality to his friends, and the tragedy of the Kaiba brothers. It's brilliant stuff. Tbh, if not for Duelist Kingdom - and for Johji's existence - this arc would be my favorite too.

-Pharaoh's Memories Arc: The only real flaw of the manga's final story arc is that due to both editorial meddling and Takahashi having a health scare, it got cut short. It's certainly well paced at 7 volumes, but its material was enough for anywhere between 8 and 10 volumes, which means that there's no avoiding the feeling that several components are missing or otherwise not as fleshed out as they could have been. But that aside, this is a fantastic culmination of everything the series has been building toward, finally letting us see Ancient Egypt and the life Yami Yugi led when he was the Pharaoh, revealing what Yami Bakura's sinister end goal is, and ending with the most logical final duel possible: Yugi vs. Yami Yugi.

-Battle City Arc: This arc is dead middle in my ranking because it has some of the highest highs of the manga and some of the lowest lows all across its incomparably lengthy run. I adore the character development for characters like Yami Yugi, Jonouchi and Kaiba, I adore the Ishtar siblings and all that they bring to the table, I love getting Shizuka as an actual character and not just a plot device, I love the advancements in the overarching narrative, and I love the majority of the duels. But at the same time, the focus on the card game officially reaches the point of exhaustion and suspension of disbelief, running around Domino City isn't particularly interesting setting-wise, too much feels derivative of Duelist Kingdom, Yami Marik is a frustrating and one-dimensional villain, and what gets done with Mai is absolutely shameful. It's an iconic story arc, but I can't call it the best...in the manga, anyway.

-RPG Arc: The actual RPG part of this arc, which serves as the introduction of Ryou Bakura and Yami Bakura and thus when the series' overarching narrative starts revving up before Duelist Kingdom sends it full throttle, is fantastic. It's hilarious seeing Yugi and his friends as miniatures in a fantasy tabletop RPG world, it's great seeing Yugi and Yami Yugi interact with each other for the first time, and Yami Bakura is an immediately iconic, charismatic foe. The problem is that the handful of one-shot chapters preceding it were pretty weak. Takahashi admitted that he was running out of ideas for games at this point, and it shows (A phone game against a Ferris Wheel car bomber? Really?) And so its score for me gets lowered.

-Dungeon Dice Monsters Arc: The shortest arc in the series meets the baseline for just "good". The game is good, the antagonists are good, the actions and development undertaken by the main characters are good, the advancements made in the overarching narrative are good, and the climax is good. It's good, but in the shadow of arcs that are great.

-School Arc: Is anyone surprised? It's the first story arc, the point where Takahashi is still trying to figure everything else and enduring all the growing pains that many series can expect to go through at the start. It's average at worst, but always showed signs of potential for something better, particularly with the bond between Yugi and Jonouchi, the existence of Yami Yugi, and the Ancient Egyptian connection; potential that would be realized later on.

ANIME:

-Battle City Arc: Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters was never better than it was in Battle City. Retaining all of the manga version's strengths while eliminating or mitigating its weaknesses while also adding some new positive changes of its own, not even being interrupted by a terrible filler arc can detract from how awesome this arc is. I will forever marvel, for example, how it took one of the weakest main antagonists of the manga, Yami Marik, and turned him into an iconic, entertaining freakshow that you actually love to hate rather than find tiring.

-Duelist Kingdom Arc: I love this arc. It was my introduction to Yu-Gi-Oh!, as I suspect it was for most people. I'd love to place it first just as I did its manga counterpart, but...well, that's the thing. The manga version was the dead middle arc of the series, whereas the anime version is the first arc. As such, there are countless changes for the weaker, all sorts of instances where context has been stripped away for certain plot beats and character arcs, and adaptational plot holes aplenty. It especially falls apart after Yugi defeats Pegasus: throwing in an abbreviated version of Shadi's first appearance, then rushing out of Duelist Kingdom so that Yugi can face a bratty girl back in Domino City, and then having a mini-arc centered around a video game parody of Duelist Kingdom run by Pegasus' co-conspirators from Kaiba Corp. It's a testament to the strength of Duelist Kingdom as an arc that it still remains by and large interesting and enjoyable despite all of this. It's a very solid 2nd place.

-Dark Side of Dimensions Arc: This arc is technically in the manga's continuity, but it's got the animators and voice-actors from the anime and is in anime format so I'm including it here. I enjoy the story, which is about all of the characters, particularly Yugi and Kaiba, reacting to life without Atem. While Yugi is moving forward with a newfound independence while still accepting support from his friends, Kaiba spirals into a co-dependent madness as he tries to find a way to resurrect Atem and duel him again, coming afoul of a group of supernatural kids who don't want that to happen. The only downsides of this movie is the mixing of manga continuity and trappings of the anime leading to some dissonance (especially in regards to Jonouchi), it has an unnecessary and lame "Save the World" second climax, and all of the duels are horrendously written and rushed, clearly beyond what the film's runtime could fit.

-Orichalcos Arc: OK, I know that this arc gets a bum rap, and a lot of it is deserved since it's got a lot of problems. But I'm sorry, there's so much about it that works and is really cool, and more that while badly executed held great potential in concept. Dartz and his minions are all superbly designed and have interesting dueling gimmicks, and they could have been truly epic villains if written better. The Atlantean lore held promise and could have been connected to Duel Monsters in a more sensible way. It's great seeing Yugi and his friends go to America, and having characters like Rebecca Hawkins, her grandfather Arthur, and Maximillion goddamn Pegasus himself return. And there are so many memorable moments, especially involving Yami Yugi once he gets forcibly separated from regular Yugi for much of the arc's second half ("It should have been me, not him! It's not fair!") So I can't help but appreciate it.

-Pharaoh's Memories Arc: There are many things to like about this arc - several of the manga's strengths are retained, some new additions are good such as the expanded roles for female characters Mana and Kisara, and in the Japanese version it has a banger of an OP and a banger of an ED! But there are just too many changes for the worse for my tastes: too much that got left out and too much that got added even when it went against the point of the original, most notably Seto Kaiba's whole presence ultimately at the expense of his past life.

-KC Grand Championship Arc: This could have been a short, simple and fun filler arc: before going back to Japan, Yugi and his friends compete in a Kaiba Corp tournament held at his newly opened American theme park. Unfortunately, the writers stupidly decided that this arc needed villains, which is why we have the Von Schroeder brothers and Vivian Wong, annoying foes who just end up dragging the whole experience down. It's the peak of the anime's misuse of Jonouchi when his final duel in the series is lost to Zigfried Von Schroeder of all people. That's right, not to Yami Bakura, but a fruity German Pegasus rip-off. Weak!

-Pyramid of Light Arc: Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie has great animation, a fantastic duel between Yugi and Kaiba, the interesting concept of the titular artifact and its connection to the Millennium Puzzle, a spectacular climax, and the presence of Maximillion goddamn Pegasus, so it's got a lot going for it. Sadly, it's dragged down by a short runtime that doesn't allow the plot to be developed in the way it should, a one-dimensional villain who is hardly ever on screen and lacks a solid motivation, and a campy even-by-its-usual-standards English dub.

-Virtual World Arc: Fuck this arc. It insultingly interrupts Battle City between its quarter-finals and semi-finals, rehashes the premise and villains from the post-Duelist Kingdom video game three-parter, begins the anime version of Kaiba's transformation into this overtly sympathetic, honorable and "cool" deuteragonist that he was never meant to be, features a new badly-written and badly-designed villain in Noah Kaiba, and just drags on and on until ending on an underwhelming and nonsensical conclusion that outright undermines the development that Kaiba is supposed to have in the remainder of the Battle City arc. The only decent parts of this arc are getting to see Anzu and even Shizuka duel. Otherwise it's a huge waste of time.

-Dungeon Dice Monsters Arc: There were changes to the Duelist Kingdom, Battle City and Pharaoh's Memories arcs, but they weren't total bastardizations of their source material. This, on the other hand, is. Remember when I said its manga counterpart was the definition of just "good"? Well, this is the definition of just "bad"! Nothing about it works. It's horrendous, poisoning the well on Ryuji as a character and kick-starting the anime's Jonouchi abuse, all while the most important and emotional material is moved to the start of the Battle City arc instead. Maximillion goddamn Pegasus' flashback cameo is the only worthwhile thing here.

-Capsule Monsters Arc: Yeah, this arc's not canon. I refuse to acknowledge it.

[universestreasures]

Inferiority Complexes

As far as my YGO DM muses go, Yugi & Mokuba are not only the youngest of my current line up, but are also the two who possess heavy feelings of inferiority regarding themselves and someone they care about a lot / look up to. With that comes shaky self-confidence and high self-doubt. However, how their feelings manifested, the intensity of those feelings, and how they are eventually overcome are different, and I want to go into that in this post (prepare yourself it's gonna be a lengthy one)

So, let's begin with Yugi, whose feelings are pretty blatant in the text (both anime and manga wise) and are a big part of his character growth / central arc. Yugi, unsurprising to anyone, feels a sense of inferiority to Atem, someone he looks up to and sees like an elder brother. So, when did this all start?

Well, pretty much as soon as Yugi figured out there was 'someone or something else' who shared his body and was the one doing the majority of the big feats in terms of the plot (Manga wise that's Death-T and Anime Wise that's in Duelist Kingdom). Atem always appears as a source of strength for Yugi when something is too tough for him to handle emotionally or physically. Even when he was unaware that Atem wasn't just an alternate personality of his but in fact his own person, he still was very much aware of the strong presence taking him over in times of adversity. And that fact...made him feel so weak and pathetic in comparison, that he Yugi Muto, wasn't strong enough to handle whatever he had to face.

This fact of him feeling like the 'lesser Yugi' damages Yugi's own low amount of self-confidence that he had even before completing the puzzle. He's never seen himself as anything special, partially due to his own humble nature. Even after the main story is done, he still feels that way. That low self-confidence leads to self-doubt and needlessly beating himself up for being so 'weak' to the point there are moments he gives into what others, such as Marik, have said about him only being Atem's 'vessel' and nothing else. As if that is the only thing he is good for, that he is the 'weaker' Yugi.

Sometimes he even questions if he should just 'vanish', that everyone would be better off if he wasn't there or that people would prefer Atem being around over him. We see this in the anime when Anzu is dueling in the Noa Arc, Yugi thinking that she is calling out for Atem and not him.

But it is Atem, along with the rest of Yugi's friends, who help him through these complex feelings, Atem especially. He teaches Yugi about strength and courage, a trait Yugi has had all along inside of him that he was unable to truly see. For example, he stood up to Ushio to defend Jonouchi and Honda even before Atem appeared, to stand up to a bully and protect people he called 'friends'. That kind of strength, the strength of kindness, is Yugi's strength, and it is through seeing Atem and teaching that fact to him, along with the encouragement of his friends, that allows him to really see it for himself.

This is why Yugi takes steps, such as during Battle City, to prove his own strength to himself. He wants to prove he isn't as weak as he thinks he is, to use what he's learned from his partner and stand on his own because he knows one day he will have to. This is done mainly through his battles with Otogi in the manga, possessed Jonouchi in both versions, and Yami Bakura in the Dark RPG. They were battles Yugi had to primarily or entirely fight on his own. And those battles showcased Yugi's own unique strength that wasn't just 'an inferior version of Atem's' or even a 'copy', which is shown well through Yugi's own unique deck he used against Yami Bakura.

This all cumulates in the ceremonial duel, where Yugi proves his strength and truly is able to overcome his insecurities to fulfill his last mission as Atem's vessel / partner. And he takes as much pride in that victory as he does sadness, for it was the last step in his journey. After that fight, he no longer sees himself as inferior to Atem, but rather his equal. For he knows that duel was evenly matched, and if he didn't predict Atem's final plan to win, he would have lost.

Lastly, he gets to prove to everyone who did believe those negative thoughts he had about himself to be true in DSOD, such as with Kaiba. Kaiba at the end acknowledges him as a true duelist, and that meant the world to Yugi. It really helped cement that new found self-confidence of his, especially because Kaiba has always been someone Yugi's respected and was Atem's rival.

Overall, Yugi's inferiority complex is a key part of his character arc. It is something he overcame with time and the support of his loved ones, and I for one as a Yugi mun cannot be more proud of my boy. I'm sure Atem is proud of him too, as we can no doubt see by the end of their duel and I suspect he felt when seeing Yugi again in DSOD.

As for everyone's favorite little bro, Mokuba feels a sense of inferiority to Seto, which isn't probably that surprising considering how he views his big brother and just what his brother has accomplished. Unlike Yugi who developed his feelings in the midst of the story, Mokuba's feelings have been pretty much a part of him since he could remember. Though, they are just as deep-rooted and potent as Yugi's, if not more so.

Mokuba's feelings began when he first developed his admiration for his brother. Seto was a genius, a capable young boy most would consider a prodigy. From Mokuba's POV, everything his brother was able to do was impressive, be it from grades, to ideas, to his talent for gaming. This feeling was probably shared by their parents and many other adults, to the point I am 100% certain Seto was a prime adoption candidate who probably refused if they did not want to take Mokuba too (which I imagine most if not all did not). And while he felt no feelings of jealousy to his brother for all that praise or attention he got (jealousy is a feeling Mokuba's never felt towards Seto ever), he did sorta start to see himself as...lesser in comparison.

Though, this is Mokuba 100% being unfair to himself. You must keep in mind Mokuba and Seto are 5 years apart in age, and Mokuba was only 5 and Seto was 10 when they were dropped off at the orphanage. That's a huge gap in terms of development, and Mokuba had not gotten as much life experience as his brother or time to learn and hone any really major skills (because I do think Mokuba is a fast learner when he puts his mind to something and is very motivated, similar to his brother).

But this reality goes over Mokuba's young mind (and it still does, even after knowing the logic). After all, if his brother can do all those things, surely he can too, right? So it must be an issue with HIM. It's part of why, more often than not, Mokuba sees himself as a burden to his brother, that his own lack of 'competence' or 'specialness' holds him back. He blames himself for them not being adopted by potential nice families who wanted Seto and not Mokuba, because if he was just 'better' than they surely would want both (even though that's not at all how that works, but again, little kid logic).

This is why, even at a young age, Mokuba tries to prove himself and can often be reckless. We see this in Death-T primarily in canon with him wanting to challenge Yugi (which was also motivated by getting his brother's approval), but I imagine he did this with just about anything he tried to do. He wanted to sorta 'catch up' to his brother, even though there was never a 'race' between the two of them to begin with.

These feelings of inferiority intensify after they are both adopted by Gozaboru. I imagine Gozaboaru, much like other parents, only really was after Seto. He had no interest at all in Mokuba. Why would he when Seto was the one to be the heir?

I imagine Mokuba didn't get the same harsh treatment his brother did from Gozaboru, because it was almost like he wasn't 'there' to begin with. Mokuba was isolated from his brother I imagine through a lot of their childhood, so he wouldn't be a 'distraction'. Sure he got educated too (I imagine he was just sent to regular school much like we see him in the manga going to), but it was not anything special. It was more like 'good enough' as opposed to anything extraordinary. And he was no doubt compared to his brother constantly, whether it was by staff or by people at school. That only made what he was feeling worse and led to both beating himself up needlessly (like Yugi does) and contributing to his nightmares at times.

On top of all of that, as Seto and him (manga wise anyway) got further and further apart, he sorta got the vibe from his brother that Mokuba was no longer 'worth his time'. He wasn't anything attention-grabbing anymore, hence leading to Mokuba's early manga actions (because I 100% think everything from the first Capsule Monsters game to his match with Yugi in Death-T was all to get Seto's attention and not his true nature. Why else would he just suddenly change personality traits upon Seto's loss, when he didn't get mind crushed?).

Even after repairing his relationship with his brother post Manga Duelist Kingdom, his feelings of inferiority were not addressed (he hasn't brought them up to Seto directly before cause he doesn't like to burden his brother and it's hard to talk about for him) and only grew as his brother accomplished more and more. He almost like saw himself at the bottom of the hill with his brother at the top, with the distance being too great between them. That distance was indeed one of his motivators for him to start working harder, to start taking a more active role in Kaiba Corp, and to start honing his gaming skills without the use of cheating.

So, with all that said, how does Mokuba overcome these feelings? Well, aside from working hard as I mentioned, I imagine it will be a slow process that is helped by both his friend squad and his brother. Mokuba's Buddyfight friend group (AKA my Gao, Tasuku, Suzuha, and Akatsuki) are the first real friends (outside of Yugi's gang) he's made that see him as NOT Seto Kaiba's brother but rather his own individual. They constantly lift him up, support his efforts, and are there for him. They've done a lot for him personally to feel like he's worthwhile and that he's not as 'weak' as he thinks.

As for Seto, any kind of praise or showcase of being 'proud' of him helps. This can be done in many forms, including being given important tasks at Kaiba Corporation, such as running things in his absence post-DSOD until he returns. I do imagine if Mokuba ever told his brother about his feelings, that Seto would tell him something along the lines of that he doesnt' need to feel that way or that he should not compare himself. Being seen in such a way by his brother would help greatly, along with I imagine if Mokuba is able to beat him in any sort of game and his brother expresses that he did 'good'.

In conclusion, I do not think it will be till Mokuba is an adult that those feelings he has will completely go away (I imagine they pop up every now and again too, like any deep-rooted feeling). It is only after having stood on his own two feet, having proved himself, having gotten that approval from those around him, and having probably bested his brother in a game that his view shifts from being 'lesser' to that of an equal, a true Kaiba in his own right (something he didn't have to 'earn' btw but he thought he had to). And I hope to get to explore that journey of growth through all my threads!

[namitomoon]

*hits blunt*

Ok now hear me out...

Imagine an alternate timeline where, somehow, Toei managed to keep producing the anime and either Bandai or Konami continued with the card game.

So the anime ends and instead of letting the franchise sleep, it continues with Toei. Instead of making spin-offs, they pull out a Captain Tsubasa/GeGeGe no Kitaro and simply decide to keep remaking the same story from the manga except they introduce the new card game mechanics.

Yeah, imagine Duelist Kingdom with the same focus GX had on Fusion monsters, or Battle City with Synchro and XYZ summons. Or the early Yugioh arcs remade to fit the Pendulum Summons. Or the Memory World arc shoeing in Link Summons somehow.

That'd be...dope ig

Or ANOTHER remake but all the duels are Rush Duels.

[nyanbinaryrose]

Hello! Resident Siegfried Apologist here with my manifesto! I'm actually not going to touch on his backstory too much, @kaibacorpintern did an excellent job illustrating the tragedy of Siegfried failing to escape the expectations put on him by his family better and more succinctly than I ever could.

Instead, I want to talk about a few choices the show made that undercut the emotional heft of Siegfried's backstory:

1. Putting this arc before Millennium World was such a mistake. By the time you get to KC Grand Prix, you've already watched 175+ episodes, many of which are filler, and just got off the tale end of the Doma Arc- which no matter your opinions on that arc, we can all agree, it's a chonker. You enter the KC Grand Prix fucking exhausted, and then are told you have a whole ass tournament arc before you even BEGIN to find out the secret of the Pharaoh's memories, aka the whole damn point of the show. Furthermore, we go from a villain who basically made himself into a dark god and then summoned a monster with INFINITY attack points, and then pivot to admittedly, just a guy. Siegfried doesn't even know the Pharaoh exists, and he never learns! This arc is setup for failure just from it's placement in the show. The fact is, duel-wise, it's a good tournament arc. Nothing special, but it's fun. If this arc were placed say, after Duelist Kingdom, with the Rebecca and Duke Devlin arcs, I don't think Siegfried or the Grand Prix would get half as much hate. It's the fact it's literally keeping you from the finale when you can almost touch it, that immediately puts viewers in a position to take the arc's more emotional moments in bad faith. 2. The dub, specifically, does not help this with the creative choices they made. No hate to anyone involved, it was a different time, but it's a fuckin CHOICE to make a character flamboyant and sassy just because he has pink hair. For reference, in the original Japanese:

Siegfried uses 'watashi' which contrary to popular belief, is not exclusively used by women or feminine characters, it's just an extremely formal personal pronoun/form of "I". For context, Raphael from the Doma Arc also uses watashi. You know, gun show mcgee with the sideburns? Yeah, he uses watashi too. It's just ultra formal.

Siegfried has a deep voice. I mean DEEP. It never falls into the realm of feminine, or even gender neutral. It's the the kind of voice given to a devious but refined villian archetype in many other animes. It's never camp, and he's actually quite serious and calculating, telling Jounouchi that he has a less than 1% chance of winning.

Siegfried never mentions hair care, skin care, fashion, or lavender jets. That's not to say he doesn't have beautiful hair, nice skin, bespoke suits, or purple possessions, it's just he never talks about them. In the dub, he's called a "trendsetter". In the sub of the same line, however, it only calls him a "nobleman".

Fight about whether Malik is gay or not because of a crop top, the dub team literally looked at a man with pink hair in a show where every hair color is represented natural or not, and said "haha, let's make him gay".

Again, not playing the blame game. And obviously, he's not canonically gay in the dub, they just make a lot of decisions that point to the "gay or European" humor of early internet comedy in that era.

But there's consequences to that. To queer viewers and allies, he's a parody, at a time when flamboyant villains where starting to get criticized as bad representation in media, especially children's shows. To everyone else, he's an obnoxious gay.

These choices only serve to undercut the tragedy of his story: There's an alternate timeline where Siegfried and Leon are close brothers, and where Siegfried focuses on the success of Schroeder Corp without an unhealthy obsession towards Kaiba, and without ever manipulating Leon. But he never gets that. Which leads me to...

3. Something cut from the dub, which I think could be written off as just throwaway flavor, but actually serves a purpose: Siegfried frequently refers to himself as lucky, and claims the goddess of fate favors him. I have no idea why this is cut from the dub, because it indicates a level of delusion that's important to his character.

The truth is, he is extremely unlucky. His parents force a future on him against his will. He is a tool to his family and Schroeder Corp, born and bred to destroy enemy companies and CEOs. Yes, his focus was Kaiba and Kaiba Corp, but let's say Siegfried succeeded at that: would it have ended there? Of course not. He would have been set on another company, another rival, and the cycle would continue.

He's not favored by the goddess of fate. He's favored by the god of war. He's a weapon, wielded by his family to serve corporate interests. He never really escaped the legacy of weapons manufacturing, he just became the weapon- as ruthless as any general, willing to sacrifice his own brother for the prosperity of his family's name.

And it's exactly how Kaiba could have ended up if Gozuboro had his way.

Siegfried's greatest tragedy is that he did try to escape his fate, as OP pointed out. And thankfully, by the arc's end, it's implied he begins to realize that maybe all the sacrifice isn't worth it, that he should forge his own path for what Schroeder Corp's success looks like. But unfortunately, there's choices around his arc that make it near impossible for viewers to feel the weight of his story, even a little.

... and also the arc is poorly paced and unable to communicate this as well as it could if had more additional episodes to flesh out its villain. Just putting that out there. I'm a Siegfried Apologist, not a Yugioh Writer Apologist.

BONUS: Just want to address something that comes up sometimes... both of Siegfried's parents are very much alive. They are referred to as alive several times by both Siegfried and Leon, in the dub and the sub. A lot of fanfic writers, myself included, write their father as dead, often by horrific circumstances. Frankly, I really respect this fandom for us all agreeing that Yugioh characters aren't allowed to have good and/or alive dads.

Hot take but Siegfried von Schroeder is interesting guy. Functionally the president of SchroederCorp because his father Pink Gozaburo couldn't do it anymore. He assumed responsibility not because his father is dead (like Kaiba), but because he HAD to step up early.

Switched to gaming because, rather than continue a futile rivalry, he decided he DIDN'T want to throw elbows on the military industrial dance floor. could be cowardice (scared of losing), but could also be maturity (this is stupid and I don't want to be part of your obsession of beating the Kaibas and it hurts only ourselves). and yet when Kaiba enters his new chosen field and succeeds extravagantly, Siegfried is catapulted back into the childhood he tried to leave behind. Sorry dude it's not your fault. In trying to escape his own cycle, Kaiba doomed you to return to yours

[likeabxrdinflight]

okay, it took forever, but I finally finished the entirety of the battle city arc (well not the clip show filler episode, but that one doesn't really count imho). I skipped over the virtual world arc intentionally, because it really really disrupts the flow of the battle city finals, and I gotta say that was the right call for this re-watch- there's very minimal references to it during the second half of the finals, and getting to watch the story (mostly) as it was presented in the manga was a much better way to experience it.

so with that in mind, battle city to me has two very distinct halves, and they are very divergent in quality.

cutting this because long:

at the start of the arc, battle city has a compelling set up. we learn that the person we've thought of as "the other yugi" all this time is really the soul of an ancient pharaoh, that he's lost all his memories, and that he's connected to some mysterious incident in ancient egypt that led to his soul being sealed in the millennium puzzle. we learn that the new villain and his family are also connected to this and hold the secrets to unlocking the pharaoh's memories. kaiba's obsession with battling yugi is set up nicely, as is his connection to the past, and we learn about these all powerful god cards. most importantly, we learn that if the pharaoh pursues this path of unlocking his memories, he will probably have to leave yugi and his friends. it's never exactly stated, but there's a large shadow overhanging this entire arc- if "the other yugi" is really the soul of a 3,000 year old pharaoh, well...that means he's not some alternate personality- he's dead. and has been for a very long time.

but once the tournament starts, the preliminary duels just drag. there's some good ones- atem vs marik pt 1, jonouchi vs haga, kaiba/atem vs the masked dudes, and of course posessed jonouchi vs atem/yugi, but a lot of them just drag on longer than they need to. duelist kingdom handled this much better imho- duels that weren't super plot relevant never lasted longer than two episodes tops in duelist kingdom. some were only one episode. but in battle city? pretty much every duel is two to three episodes, some last for four. and it really grinds the pacing to a halt. great example of this is immediately after the atem vs marik duel, we learn that marik is targeting jonouchi- but then we have to stop for two more duels, one of them an absolute tone-killing two episodematch between jonouchi and ryota kajiki, and another being the four episode time waster that is kaiba/atem vs the masked dudes, before we even get to the part where marik possesses jonouchi at all.

(and I know I said the kaiba/atem tag duel was good, and it is, but god is it in a bad place for the plot progression)

this half of the arc also has shit character development for anyone that isn't jonouchi, atem, and kaiba for five minutes before he decides to be a dick again in the finals. we do also get some decent set up for marik, but his character development doesn't really get going until the finals. all the other main cast might as well not exist. yugi himself is absent for the majority of this arc, he doesn't even materialize much in his ghostly form to communicate with atem during their duels, and it is noticeable to me. anzu and honda spend several episodes just running around looking for their friends, doing absolutely nothing to contribute to the plot. shizuka was introduced properly in this season, yet she gets very little to do except be jonouchi's cheerleader/morality pet. for some reason otogi shows up just for kicks, which is a waste of screen time for him because he does nothing relevant except flirt with a shizuka and annoy honda. and mai? mai gets like ten minutes of screen time just to establish she's in the tournament before fucking off until the finals start. mai gets nothing in this half of the arc.

things turn around when we get to the yugi/atem vs jonouchi duel- suddenly the stakes ramp way up, yugi returns to the plot in full force for some fantastic character moments, jonouchi is at his absolute best, anzu is relevant again if only as a hostage, mai and shizuka get to do something meaningful, and kaiba actually shows some humanity for a change. this duel is fantastic and it marks a turning point for battle city, because from here until the end of the finals is arguably the best arc of the entire show. not necessarily my favorite, but arguably the best.

so yeah, the battle city finals. this half of the story is just a night and day difference to me from the prelims. all the set up they did before the prelims pays off here. these duels are all amazing, the stakes are as high as they've ever been, and the characters pretty much all get some good moments.

mai finally gets to duel on screen again and we learn about her past, get to see her nearly take down our final villain, and see how far she's come in learning to value her new friends. we see anzu struggling with the reality of this tournament and what it means for atem and yugi- notably she seems to be the only one besides yugi who understands that atem might have to leave them- and we see her challenge atem on continuing to push forward when so many people have gotten hurt. shizuka doesn't get a ton to do but she does show a lot of inner strength. bakura finally comes back into the plot to be relevant for ten minutes and gets some fun duels at least. honda and otogi...remain pretty useless ngl.

of our four finalists, jonouchi...I mean god, jonouchi has come so far. not only does he manage to prove how far he's come as duelist, he shows how far he's come as a person and as a friend. he overcomes ra's lightning and only loses to marik on a technicality. kaiba goes back to being asshole number one, but he does get a lot of character development and ends the tournament in a better place despite having lost- and seeming to somewhat accept atem's message about friendship. atem and yugi are finally totally in sync with each other, and are much more clearly a team in these duels than in the prelims- especially the final duel against marik. and of course atem shows how far he has come- the man who started off as a feral gremlin child dealing out penalty games left and right has regained so much of his true self, has become someone who puts full faith in compassion and friendship- and comes out on top for it. and then of course there's the ishtars, who finally come together as a family to move past their varying traumas. I'd say more but this wall of text is long enough.

so you get it. the battle city finals are just fantastic, full of really meaningful character moments, have very high stakes, and it's so easy to get invested. the duels never seem to drag like the prelims did, they're just so much more compelling- the only one that's maybe a little longer than it needs to be is yami marik vs atem, but not by much. and admittedly, the addition of yami marik as a villain is a huge part of why the finals are as good as they are. much as I will criticize the depiction of DID, there's no denying that having such a balls to the wall villain like him does a lot to make these duels so much more threatening and to make this arc as emotional and compelling as it is. yami marik don't give a shit, he's having the time of his life torturing everybody, and it makes him so much scarier than regular marik ever was. and he actually manages to hurt people- mai and jonouchi nearly die, bakura gets yeeted for several episodes, and if ishizu hadn't intervened in time yami marik would have stabbed rishid in the eyeballs without even blinking. I just kinda wish they could have achieved that level of absolute chaotic evil without the botched portrayal of DID.

anyways, the first half of battle city is a bit of a slog and a lot of the characters don't get enough to do, but it's still decent and once you get to the finals it's all worth it. the pay off is so good. really an excellent arc overall, 8/10, only losing points for the worst parts of the prelims.

...now I just need to decide if I want to go back and watch the virtual world, or head right into season four...

[satoshi-mochida]

Some games on the NA(and possibly EU) PSN’s “Big in Japan” sale(full list/prices):

PS4

428: Shibuya Scramble

Aegis of Earth

AI: The Somnium Files

Akiba’s Beat

Alternate Jake Hunter

Atelier Arland Series Deluxe Pack(each game is also on sale separately)

Atelier Ryza

Berserk and the Band of the Hawk

Birthdays the Beginning

Black Clover: Quartet Knights

BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle Special Edition

BlazBlue: Central Fiction

BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle

Chaos;Child

Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy!

Cladun Returns: This is Sengoku!

Code Vein

Code: Realize ~Bouquet of Rainbows~

Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~

Crystar

Damascus Gear: Operation Osaka HD Edition

Danganronpa 1•2 Reload

Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

Dark Rose Valkyrie

Dark Souls III

Date A Live: Rio Reincarnation

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record

Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package

Death end re;Quest

Death Mark

Demon Gaze II

Devil May Cry HD Collection

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory

Disgaea 1 Complete

Disgaea 4 Complete+

Disgaea 5 Complete Bundle

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2

Dragon Ball Xenoverse Super Bundle

Dragon Quest Builders

Dragon Quest Builders

Dragon Quest Builders 2

Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree’s Woe and the Blight Below

Dragon Quest Heroes: Digital Slime Edition

Dragon Quest Heroes II: Explorer’s Edition

Dragon Quest XI – Digital Edition of Light

Dynasty Warriors 9 Complete Edition

Earth Defense Force 4.1: Wingdiver the Shooter

Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair

Earth Defense Force 5

Earth Defense Force 5 Deluxe Edition

Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain

Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain Ultimate Edition

Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky

Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force

Final Fantasy IX Digital Edition

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered

Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

Final Fantasy XV Multiplayer: Comrades

Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition HD

Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition

Final Fantasy XV Royal Pack

Final Fantasy XV Season Pass

Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ardyn

Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ignis

Final Fantasy XV: Episode Prompto

Fire Pro Wrestling World

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise

Ghost Parade

God Eater 2: Rage Burst

God Eater 3

God Wars: Future Past

Grand Kingdom

Guilty Gear Xrd -Revelator-

Guilty Gear Xrd: Rev 2

Gundam Versus

I Am Setsuna

Illusion of L’Phalcia

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven Bundle

Judgment

Kingdom Hearts All-in-One Package

Kingdom Hearts III

Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk

Life is Strange 2 – Episode 1

Life is Strange 2 – Episodes 2 to 5

Life is Strange 2 Complete Season

Little Dragons Cafe

Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time

Lost Sphear

Megadimension Neptunia VII

Megadimension Neptunia VIIR

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Metal Max Xeno

Monochrome Order

My Hero: One’s Justice

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Road To Boruto (and many other Naruto games)

Natural Doctrine

New Gundam Breaker

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom – Deluxe Edition

NieR: Automata

Nights of Azure

Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon

Nioh

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence

Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension

Okami HD

Omega Quintet

One Piece: Burning Blood

One Piece: World Seeker

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3

Oninaki

Our World is Ended.

Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection

Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness

Many Resident Evil games.

River City Melee Mach!!

Romancing SaGa 2

Romancing SaGa 3

Root Letter

SaGa Scarlet Grace: Ambitions

Saint Seiya: Soldiers’ Soul

Samurai Warriors 4-II

Secret of Mana

Shenmue III

Sleeping Dogs

Spirit Hunter: Death Mark

Spirit Hunter: NG

Star Ocean: First Departure R

Stay Cool Kobayashi-san!: A River City Ransom Story

Steins;Gate 0

Steins;Gate Elite

Steins;Gate: My Darling’s Embrace

Super Neptunia RPG

Tales of Berseria

Team Sonic Racing and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD Bundle

The 25th Ward: The Silver Case

The Alliance Alive HD Remastered

The Caligula Effect: Overdose

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III Digital Deluxe Edition

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince

The Lost Child

The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories

The Silver Case

The Ultimate Sonic Bundle

The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition

The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2

The Witch and the Hundred Knight Wicked Bundle

Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters Daybreak: Special Gigs

Tokyo Xanadu EX+

Touhou Double Focus

Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet

Touhou Genso Wanderer

Touhou Genso Wanderer Reloaded

Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle

Toukiden: Kiwami

Toukiden 2

Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception

Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth

Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Truth Bundle

Utawarerumono Zan

Valkyria Chronicles 4 Complete Edition

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered + Valkyria Chronicles 4 Bundle

Valkyria Revolution

Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story

White Day: A Labyrinth Named School

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap

World of Final Fantasy

World of Final Fantasy Maxima Upgrade DLC

World End Syndrome

Yakuza Kiwami 2: Clan Creator Bundle

Yomawari: Midnight Shadows

Ys Origin

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana

Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist

YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love At the Bound of This World.

Zanki Zero: Last Beginning

Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma

Zero Escape: The Nonary Games

Vita

7’scarlet

Adventures Of Mana

Bad Apple Wars

Code: Realize ~Future Blessings~

Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~

Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~

Collar X Malice

Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky

Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster

Illusion of L’Phalcia

Mind Zero

Muramasa Rebirth Complete Collection

Muramasa Rebirth Genroku Legends Collection

Norn9: Var Commons

Period Cube: Shackles of Amadeus

Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk

Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly

Romancing SaGa 2

Romancing SaGa 3

Secret of Mana

Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate

Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God

Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters Daybreak: Special Gigs

Tokyo Xanadu

World of Final Fantasy

Zero Escape: The Nonary Games

Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma

PS3

Aegis of Earth: Protonovus Assault

Darkstalkers Resurrection

Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster

Final Fantasy XIII-2

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Lost Planet 3

Mega Man 9 and 10 Combo Pack

Megaman 9

Megaman 10

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

PSP

Dissidia 012 Prologus Final Fantasy

Dissidia 012 [Duodecim] Final Fantasy

Dissidia Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

PSOne Classics

Castlevania Chronicles 

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night 

Chrono Cross 

Chrono Trigger

Darkstalkers 3 

Final Fantasy IX 

Final Fantasy Origins 

Final Fantasy Tactics

Final Fantasy V

Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy VII 

Final Fantasy VIII 

Legend of Mana 

Silent Hill 

Suikoden 

Suikoden II

PS2 Classics

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence

God Hand

Suikoden 3

Suikoden IV

The sale run from  February 21st to March 3rd.

[synthient]

In light of the theory that the new ygo series will be a DM reboot:

My personal wishlist, with an assessment of the likelihood of each point:

- more sypathetic handling of Kaiba (than the manga anyway): probably kind of a given, since he's one of the most marketable characters in the franchise at this point

- more respectful treatment of women: not a given. at all. i Live In Fear

- less racial caricaturing/whitewashing: also not a given (hi dsod)

- a version of Mem World that's less of a trainwreck: likely (also not hard)

- more sympathetic handling of TKB: possible

- less shitty handling of Kisara: extremely unlikely

- anti-imperialist Mem World: mmmaybe? that new art was promising

- a version of s0 that's better paced, less episodic, has an actual overarching storyline and better character development, transitions smoothly into Duelist Kingdom without feeling like we've taken a sharp right turn into a completely different story: I guess they'd sort of have to? hopefully?

- a Spoopy Scary s0 with fun horror tropes n aesthetic shit: definitely

- s0 actually exploring the morality of torturing teenage bullies: probably not

- less protagonist-centered morality in general: I feel like they'd have to fix it at least a little, both anime adaptations tried

- acknowledgement of the filler arcs: Doma's probably the only one that even stands a snowball's chance, but they're canon in my heart,,

- alternate ending where Atem and TKB don't have to second-die: won't happen, they're too attatched to the ~subversiveness~

- 4Kids 4K Media """Konami Cross Media""" does a cast reunion: please

The please please no category:

- a focus on making it "closer to the manga" over telling a good story (absolutely Not congruent goals)

- any new fucked up fanservice shit on top of the old fucked up shit

The definitely not happening but I can dream category:

- trans Yugi

- 2 eps maximum per card game

[pendulum-sonata]

Chapters: 3/7 Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Serena/Yuri (Yu-Gi-Oh) Characters: Serena (Yu-Gi-Oh), Yuri (Yu-Gi-Oh) Additional Tags: Drama & Romance, Forbidden Love, Tanabata, One Shot, Alternate Universe - Mythology, Predatorshipping Week 2019, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Belligerent Sexual Tension, First Meetings, Predator/Prey Summary: This is were i will post all the prompts from the Predatorshipping week of this year:

“It’s always a gallant knight who slays the dragon and saves the people.”

Like any other Academy soldier, Yuri is not allowed great variety on reading material, most of it consists on dueling books, about history, usages, types of summons and strategy… you name it; but entertainment reading, that is a huge no, and seen as a waste of time that could be used in studying.

Fairytales is the only exception to that rule.

Or maybe the exception that confirms the rule.

(It’s always good to have soldiers seeing themselves as the good guys, to give form and name to the dragon they ought to slay…)

Yuri doesn’t need to become a better duelist, he’s already the best around, so much he gets bored of dueling at times.

So, instead, he devours those silly stories, full of fire-breathing dragons, spiteful step-mothers, evil witches, stubborn royals to the point of stupidity, a helpless princess awaiting to be rescued, and the gallant hero who comes to her rescue.

At the end, they both live happily ever after.

(They ride off together into the sunset… to where? Do they stay together? Or maybe they part ways? Is not like the ending is ever more than a couple sentences long.)

The heroes are always brave people, defenders of the weak, dutiful, sometimes painfully naïve.

Yuri is not a hero.

If he was one, then people wouldn’t avoid him, because heroes are always popular with everyone, swaying people to their side, dashing even.

He’s too young to be a king or a parent, he can’t do magic so he can’t be a witch.

Did that make him the princess? Nobody ever paid attention to princesses, they were receivers of hatred and pity, she was always wandering around where she wasn’t called, getting into trouble which ended off in her demise.

Other than that, she did little than waiting for a hero to save her… if she was even awake for it anyway.

Princesses sometimes are born because of a magical deed (…Why can’t he remember having parents, or a home?)

Sometimes have some type of magical trinket. (Starve Venom lurks below the surface, annoyed at being called for something so dumb…)

They rule a kingdom and are many times spoiled rotten too. (Yuri reluctantly admits a part of him enjoys walking the Academy halls full of cowering figures before his feet.)

…Would he one day take a bite of a poisonous apple? Prick his finger on a cursed needle? Would he be kidnapped by a monster?

If he did, who would rescue him?

(It can’t be the one who reaches his hand out to him, for Yuri is certain he carries himself like a king.)

He learns from the professor that the dragons don’t wait around for the hero to show up, they call up their attention by taking away what they want the most; they don’t feel pain and have no feelings, they just take whatever they want because it caught their eye, if they get bored then they just break havoc among people…

Yuri learns that he’s better suited as a dragon.

-oOo-

She carries herself like a soldier should.

Despite her short stature and small complexion, she never acts as if anyone is ever above of her in anything else than isn’t height.

And this particular kid doesn’t even meet those requirements; if anything he looks shorter than her; his skin is a little too pale and smooth, she bets his hands are not even calloused.

Like her, he doesn’t wear a normal uniform – she’s too young the Professor says –  and when she takes a look at his eyes, they look vacant, dead, as if there’s nothing that can possibly bring him any joy or pride.

Truly pitiful.

…Then why is the Professor acknowledging him? Why does he pat his head and tells him he can be of use around here?

Her fist ball at his sides and she almost wants to stomp on the ground, until she remembers that is not proper behavior for a soldier.

The boy’s eyes shine when he hears the kind words of the Professor, basking in them.

And Serena swears to herself to duel him and win someday…

They day never comes, because afterwards she is confined to her room more and more hours, only allowed to get out for classes and medical testing.

There were times when from the corner of her eyes she would catch a glimpse of purple, but it was gone too fast.

Sometimes she swears that she sees a shadow –  small and thin like hers –  roaming around in the garden below her tower.

Weird presents find their way on her window: a duel disk; rare cards, a pin medal from a high ranked officer.

They tempt her. (You want these right? Come out, come out to play…)

Before she can trace a pattern, the gifts slow down to a halt, and so does the feeling of being observed; all coinciding with the time where more guards where posted around her living area.

Serena lied in her bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking.

If only she could escape…

[recentanimenews]

4 Things Yu-Gi-Oh! Teaches Us About Crafting Good Anime Side Characters

  It would be very easy for Yu-Gi-Oh! to center its sights solely on the titular protagonist and never really focus on anything else. I mean, it's a show about a boy that, through the use of his mystical jewelry, grows taller and more confident while playing a monster card game. That seems like a recipe for the supporting cast to do little more than stand around and politely clap. And yet, Yu-Gi-Oh! has some of my favorite side characters in anime, mainly because they often feel as valid in the story as Yugi. Yu-Gi-Oh! puts a lot of care into people like Katsuya "Joey Wheeler" Jonouchi and Seto Kaiba, and I feel like it can teach us a few things about what goes into creating characters that allow us to stay engaged in the show even when the tall-haired boy with the pyramid puzzle around his neck isn't onscreen.

  1. They're Allowed To Grow At A Consistent Rate

  When we first meet Jonouchi in Yu-Gi-Oh!, he's not terrible at Duel Monsters. He's just really, really clumsy, with his initial deck being full of monsters while also being seemingly allergic to magic cards and strategy. And when he does figure out a tactic of sorts (Step 1: Play Time Wizard. Step 2: Repeat Step 1), he tends to use it a bunch while lightly improving in other areas. His growth in the Duelist Kingdom arc is incremental and it rarely feels like he leaps ahead to attain an unspoken power level that's required by the storyline. When he reaches the finals, he seems to have earned it. 

  By the time Battle City rolls around, his deck is more fleshed out and stable, though he does like using luck-based cards to offset his opponents. We also see his particular brand of confidence when it comes to the game change over time, with his loud bravado being slowly replaced by actual self-assuredness. By the end of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Jonouchi has gone from bumbling sidekick to one of the best players in the world, and the evolution feels pretty natural.

  2. They're Just As Passionate As The Main Character

  A big thing in battle anime is that while a villain's belief may be strong, they'll never believe in it as strongly as the main good guy believes in the stuff they're specifically into. They lose not because they're out-muscled, but because they're out-willed. And while this works for antagonists that may only appear sporadically after, it doesn't really work for someone who has a constant slot in the upcoming storyline. It just makes them look kinda dumb, like they never learned their lesson. Why bother, dude? Go update your resume and find another career.

  However, one of the reasons Seto Kaiba is so many people's favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! character is that he's got more passion than anyone about literally everything. Kaiba's approach is never halfhearted, which often makes him more interesting than Yugi. You can beat Kaiba if you're a good-enough duelist, but it takes a very special kind of person to break Kaiba. Because no matter how you win, deep down Kaiba knows there's a very good chance he's still the best. 

  3. They Each Have Their Own Methods When It Comes To Accomplishing Goals

  Most of the characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! want to be the best duelist. However, the way they go about this is often pretty unique to them. Insector Haga has no qualms with being openly mean to other duelists, throwing the Exodia cards overboard in a way that would probably make other major players sick. Dinosaur Ryuzaki is more brutish than Haga and seems less openly vile, even though they're often paired together.

  Mai is no stranger to tricks, but draws the line at open maliciousness. Bandit Keith will definitely throw his weight around (considering that he might be one of the only people in Duelist Kingdom who can do a pull-up), and hides his deceit behind his machismo. And Pegasus is cunning and manipulative, creating an air of mystique that throws everyone off. These are all side characters that are made memorable because of how they approach what is basically the same objective.

  4. They Keep You On Your Toes

  One of the major facets of Bakura's character is that his "other self," Yami Bakura, often shows up unexpectedly. While it would be easy to have him do away with this alternate personality, Yami Bakura keeps the main group of friends interesting. They don't really know if they can ever trust him, even though they sometimes have to in order to escape danger. Bakura's character growth is less marked by him saying "I used to have a wild side. I'm good now, though" but by his team attempting to become used to his instability.

  Being able to surprise an audience is great, but they'll eventually become tired of constant "You thought I was a good guy! But I am actually, ummm, NOT THAT AT ALL." However, if you build it into a character, it becomes less of a plotline "jump scare" and more of an aspect that keeps you engaged.

  In short, Yu-Gi-Oh! has some of my favorite side characters in anime because they're treated with some semblance of importance. They aren't thrown on the altar and sacrificed for the sake of making Yugi Muto more popular. Rather, they're threaded throughout the story in a way that if an episode is suddenly based around them, I'm definitely down to watch it.

  What is your favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! side character? Let me know in the comments!

----------------

  Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

   By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[recentanimenews]

No Anime Characters Have It Worse Than Yu-Gi-Oh! Villains

    Recently, I purchased Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution for the Switch. This is the second time that I've bought this game (I also got it for the Xbox One back when it didn't have "Link Evolution" in the title), and it's what I've been playing as I read ProZD tweets about Fire Emblem: Three Houses. And even though it's technically my second go-round with the same game (though Link Evolution has some neat updates), I still love it, mainly because there's enough options that it feels fresh.

  And one of those options is the "Reverse Duel." See, the main single player campaign of the game takes you through the various Yu-Gi-Oh! arcs and lead characters, ranging from the original series to VRAINS. This is both fun and challenging, as it's basically throwing in my face every criticism I've ever had about the duelists. "Okay, you think you could do better with Joey Wheeler's deck? Why don't you try it, genius?"  But, after you've gone through a duel on this standard mode, you can try a Reverse Duel, which means that you play with the deck of the person that lost in the anime. And it's here that I found that no anime characters have it worse than Yu-Gi-Oh! villains.

    If you can, imagine for a second that you're in Duelist Kingdom, Maximillion Pegasus' big island devoted to nothing but card games about monsters and the angst associated with that. And imagine that you're good at Duel Monsters. Like really good. Like ranked good. You've won tournaments with your deck and the beasts that it unleashes are infamous around the world. And then you come across Yugi, the guy that beat Kaiba, and you figure "Yeah, I could take him. Sure, he beat Kaiba but that was probably a fluke and also he probably needs a stepladder to see the arena. How hard could it be?" 

  But as someone who has played copious Reverse Duels, let me tell you: It's super hard. Weevil may have been number one, with Rex Raptor as number two, and Mako Tsunami as number three, but they never stood a chance against any of the good guys. Because Yugi has one thing that they don't, and no, it's not the power of friendship. It's a second strategy.

    I don't know what Weevil aka Insector Haga does with the cards he gets from packs that aren't bugs. I imagine all of the trash cans in his parents' house are filled with hundreds of pounds of cards that didn't pass the Weevil Quality Assurance Test of "Does it have a bug on it?" But maybe building an entire deck around hoping that Yugi will stumble for long enough for you to get your Great Moth out and literally nothing else isn't the best idea. Maybe consider a Plan B for if your opponent has a good first hand. 

    This all comes to a boiling point with Mako Tsunami, a guy who, if you remember, cooks fish on the shore to lure people into fighting him and his water monsters. This is an official tournament, so he could probably just ask people to duel as that's what they're all there for. No one's just on a day hike and are like "Oh crap. You wanna duel me? If I'd known I would'a brought my cards!" But I admire Mako's confidence, because having played with his ocean beasts, he's really, really certain that everything is gonna go exactly right. Because if it doesn't, Yugi is gonna plow through his parade of octopuses and fish critters. 

    Now, this game is much more strict about the rules than the glorious anime. And I adore the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, as it's got solid voice acting, pretty good animation, killer music, and the Kazuki Takahashi's monster designs are top notch. Seriously, the guy doesn't get enough credit for creating a cavalcade of monsters that I want to collect. However, every once in a while, the anime will throw something out like "BUT SURPRISE, YUGI. THIS IS A FOREST ARENA, WHICH GIVES ALL OF MY DINOSAURS PLUS 300 IN ATTACK AND DEFENSE AND FORCES EVERYONE NAMED YUGI TO RESHUFFLE HIS HAND INTO HIS DECK." You're left wondering if it's legal, but hey, everyone just goes with it, so it seems cool. Don't wanna be a nerd about things and pull out the rule book.

  But in this game, you can't count on surprises like that. You have to make every turn count and not mess up at all. So I see why Yu-Gi-Oh! villains tend to be obnoxious little tyrants. You have to have such inflated self worth to think "Yeah, every card in my deck is dinosaur or dinosaur-adjacent and I refuse to even consider an alternative to that. Also, I deserve the prize money." I almost feel bad for them. You spend your whole life dueling against kids who I assume are just now learning what Duel Monsters is and then you suddenly face Yugi, a child with a diverse deck and the Heart of the Cards.

  Oh Weevil. You poor thing. You never stood a ghost of a chance. 

  What is your favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! villain? What's your favorite series in the franchise? Let us know in the comments!

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Daniel Dockery is a writer and editor for Crunchyroll. You should follow him on Twitter!

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