#ghost girl vrains

[chaosmax]

...the knights of hanoi are gonna need some ice for this burn

[number-1-kuaidul-fanboy]

My bestie who's watching VRAINS with me (her first time, my second time) pointed out that nearly everyone we've met so far has earrings in Link VRAINS and that got me thinking:

If the other characters had earrings, who would get the ghost earrings? Spectre or Ghost Girl?

What if they BOTH had ghost earrings...?

[pico-farad]

I finished season 1 of Vrains and it was cool but I thought it needed about 2 billion more secret identity shenanigans

extended thoughts below

So I went into a deep dive in my last two posts (1, 2) about all the problems I had with Vrains, and you'd think I didn't enjoy it, but in fact as I was watching, there was a separate, parallel version of Vrains that was playing in my head, a Yugioh I think we were robbed of and which fixes every problem I had with the first season, and that is Secret Identities AU.

Yusaku needs FRIENDS

This is YUGIOH.

This dynamic is everything I wanted from Vrains. Yusaku developing unexpected fondness for these bozos who think he needs a defense squad. I want Miraculous Ladybug levels of secret identity shenanigans. I want Yusaku slapping his duel disk every time Ai tries to blow their cover.

This AU sprung forth from the scene in the duel club where he shows Naoki his decoy deck. Having Yusaku passing as a bad duelist is 1) so funny, but 2) Yusaku needing to maintain his low profile is a useful contrivance for other characters to get more duels, and 3) I think it would be a really fun one-off episode where Yusaku has to duel using his bad deck. When he wins, Naoki is so proud he cries.

Having Yusaku actually have to interact with the other characters in the real world opens up Greek play levels of dramatic irony. The crux of a secret identity story is that every single interaction builds up anticipation, because you the viewer know that the other party is being deceived, and that the tension will snap when the secret is revealed.

I have zero anticipation about Playmaker's identity being revealed, because Aoi would be like "oh.... I guess he goes to my school" and Go would be like "have I seen that guy before?" But SIAU Playmaker? My guy is making friends just so he can betray them. Insane.

Go needs A ROLE IN THE STORY.

I said in my first post that Go isn't a rival or a best friend character. SIAU fixes this by making him both simultaneously.

Having him be the ace of the duel club is a natural replacement for his whole hero of the orphans schtick, while placing him directly the circle of relevance with the other characters. Instead of being disgruntled that the orphans suddenly like Playmaker more than him, he's disgruntled that Naoki and the duel club mooks are fawning over Playmaker -- which is actually just Naoki's character anyway.

I would kill for a big dramatic moment where Go learns that Playmaker and Yusaku are the same person, and even though Go feels betrayed that Yusaku has been deceiving him, he stands by Yusaku anyway because they're friends.

With a secret identity story, every conversation is working on multiple levels because each character is working with asymmetric information. You get these fascinating, layered scenes of two characters talking past each other because they cannot give up their secret.

Which would go especially hard with Go and Yusaku, because Go has legitimate criticisms of Playmaker in canon and Yusaku has legitimate reasoning behind the things he does, and as Go Onizuka and Playmaker they could never come to an understanding on them, but as Go and Yusaku, two friends in duel club, that door becomes open to them.

Aoi needs WRITING THAT ISN'T A TRAINWRECK

I made a whole post on this. Basically every problem would be solved if Akira doesn't know that she's Blue Angel. There's no reason for her to lose grotesquely against Yusaku, or have her basic autonomy called into question constantly. 

Having her actively deceive her brother is delicious. Like I said in my last post, it's so obvious how Akira's overprotectiveness has taken its toll on Aoi, and pushed her into developing this other persona, Blue Angel. I want this absolutely dysfunctional sibling relationship so badly. The Blue Angel vs. Zaizen duel would make me lose my mind.

And a secret identities setting works so well with the potential themes of VRAINS as a stand-in for the internet and Blue Angel as an idol. Give me that Perfect Blue Satoshi Kon good stuff. Give me those themes about identity, and the different lives we live, outward and inward, online and offline.

This also helps Akira's character, because I think he would be much more interesting and relevantly positioned in the story if he stayed a SOL Technologies baddie. SOL Technologies has very little presence in season 1 despite being critical to the story. After Zaizen is replaced by an irrelevant clown, they don't do anything but send out mook AIs to get destroyed. By having a three-way standoff between Yusaku's squad, the Knights of Hanoi, and SOL Technologies, both Hanoi and SOL Technologies become more compelling. They've both got all the reason in the world to want to take down the other. Zaizen vs. Revolver or Spectre? That's good shit.

And don't get me started on how I would turn Revolver into a Secret Identities character.

[bradbradleyart]

Some random Ygo doodles I can’t remember if I posted

[talaofthevalley]

Yu-Gi-Oh Vrains Sprite Comparison - Duel Links VS Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution

[leveliflared]

rewatching vrains and like who tf can take kengo seriously

he's so easy to bully

[yourlocalpurplekinnie]

Been dropped into a Yugioh Vrains hyperfixation for a few months now :3 so might as well share some art

I Have drawn A LOT of other stuff (specially traditional cause these drawings were the first proper digital art I’ve done in ages that wasn’t just me doodles while bored in class on whatever I could).

I might post some of my traditional art but ehhh we will see :3

[hiezu]

[baddyzarc]

Duel Links: Ema Basic Sprites

[chaosmax]

I like their sisterly relationship c:

[stardustlegacy-cosplay]

"Can't wait to see what tricks you have in store for me?" 😉💜

Ghost Girl: me

📸 & 🖌: OH3-Studios

[kcuf-ad]

My favourite Sibling dynamic is where the sister constantly bullies her brother.

Yugioh perfects this:

[catasblog2005]

Cr:@GilboNoh on twitter/X

[nightfurylover31]

Go, Ghost Gal!

[autismgirl4998]

Wait? What? What is it?! What did you see?! Do I have to wait until the end of the Ghost Girl event to know what they saw?!?!?!?!?!??!

[zeravmeta]

So, why do people hate him its like some Donald Trump hate sydnrome?

definitely. weirdest way to phrase it tbh

uhh the long and short of it is that he's had a notable presence throughout all the series and basically there's a solidly good chance that a good chunk of the misogyny present throughout the different yugioh series' comes from him.

He's also pretty infamous for potentially having a thing for incest? The arc v manga's wild as fuck ending twist where yuzu (yuyas main love interest) turns out to go back in time and marry his dad to have him (!!!!!) comes from him, but its not an isolated incident and there's notable instances throughout the series to this, like the weird dynamic between Asuka and her brother Fubuki in GX and Shark and Rio in Zexal, to name those which come to mind

overall, pretty weird guy! card game anime narrative compels me, though