#ho boy i kinda got side tracked a biiiiit

[chromsai]

Thank you for answering my mini rant. (The one about Yuuya). Idk, is just pisses me off when ppl say x character is badass or is a Dork/adorable ignoring their faults then when it comes to Yuuya its instantly bashing him straight away I mean, where's the justice? Like you said ignore the haters but idk it just gets to me sometimes.

lmao such is consumer culture. people love their exaggerated character tropes.

example (sticking with/picking on arc v here since if i mention any of the other spinoffs, someone will literally come at me all offended & what not): when you said “badass” i immediately thought of Shun. he’s just the very definition of badass, ya know? and it’s because of him acting so badass that made him one of the most popular characters. being badass & stoic is a character trait that, especially in shounen, is so beloved, you can’t have a series without a “badass, stoic” character otherwise the fans won’t deem the story to be “deep”. however, the moment that Shun showed some humility and worry for his comrades or started acting “soft”, the fandom started to claim that he was being written completely out of character.

and i don’t understand that? sure, i’m picking on Shun here as an example because, despite the fact that he’s one of my absolute faves from the show, i will admit that his character development was handled a bit wonky, but not entirely terribly. mostly, i felt it was somewhat rushed, but not too much tbh. but i wouldn’t call it out of character at all. he’s a traumatized character, and he copes with his trauma by being ruthless, reckless, and distrusting of others, which is what leads many to see him as “badass”. but people forget that there’s ways for characters- for people- to break away from that trauma and just want to try to heal and be normal as they used to be. sure, things won’t ever be the same for him again and he’ll always have to cope with his pain, but him showing signs of being “soft”, of wanting to move on, of smiling despite his pain- there’s nothing “out of character” about that.

people just liked him a lot more when he was “badass” and angsting all the time. because him being JUST “badass” all the time was HIS THING. no one ever expected him to move on beyond that.

returning to criticism of yuya, well that’s just the thing... i don’t think people can deny how much he grows over the course of the show. hell, it’s extremely hard to deny that he grew a lot by the end of the show. and i think that’s what trips people up about yuya specifically. he’s so damn dynamic as a character that people don’t exactly know where to place him under in a list of tropes; he doesn’t fit just one trope specifically. he may exaggerate on some parts of his character, but then again he always tends to show us the other side of the coin: he can be extremely happy at times, but breakdown completely the very next second; he can show when he doesn’t care about something yet the very next scene he’s up in a fiery rage; he’s a complete noob at times but the very next moment he’s shown thinking thoroughly and logically and surprising his opponents and audience, etc. some characters treat him like a complete joke, while others have the utmost respect for him.

he’s done some really “badass” things, but he’s also done some really “dumbass” things too. 

in fiction, people don’t usually expect a character to be as dynamic as yuya, they usually expect characters to represent one or two traits as best.

now logically the argument to this is “well yeah duh if a character shows off more than these one or two traits about them then they’re not going to be as memorable in the end.”

and the way you combat that problem is pretty simple: you make your character relatable while still giving them a unique quirk or power only they possess.

all those things i described yuya as make him relatable. just like us, he’s not always right but sometimes he is, and when he is, he shows it in a grandiose way. that’s his entertainer personality. THAT’S what makes him unique and memorable. not his pendulum, not his monsters (you could hand these things to any character and call them the protag). it’s how he uses them in his own way to create a style all his own that will become memorable to us. 

and this is, ironically, also a part of his character development: learning to break away from his dad’s entertainment style and developing one of his own that will push him to become even better.

anyway, as i said, people like breaking down characters into tropes that are easily recognizable since it’s easier to find individual things they admire in characters- in people- that they can label easily. our brains kinda just work that way on auto-pilot. but taking the time to dig deeper into things, the more facets of a person you see, the less you tend to become fascinated with them unless it turns out that you like everything about that person, which, in real life, isn’t always gonna be the case. like i said last time, not everyone’s gonna like a certain person or character and of course some are gonna be criticized harsher than others, but that all depends on how real they feel to you.

lastly, to answer your question “where’s the justice?” with regards to bashing yuya over other characters, well... that’s subjective. the answer to that, tho, will always rely on the tropes you like (and which you like) and whether or not you like tropeyer characters or prefer more dynamic characters, or both.

personally, i like both, but i prefer more dynamic characters since i just find them way more interesting than their tropey counterparts, but a lot of people find dynamic characters to be... too much? or... too realistic for their tastes? idk... i don’t think like most people, apparently...

to give you a more concrete answer tho: (imo) there is no justice. the standard of fiction that people are used to is to have a cast of characters where each character represents a different individual character trait or trope (which is so cliche and formulaic, especially in anime, and also unrealistic) and have them all interact and call it a “diverse” cast. this is bad enough as it is in shounen, but in ygo, in particular, we don’t see characters like yuya very often so they’re kinda breaking the mold in a well established formula-based franchise that whenever they come along, they’re treated as “over the top”, when in reality... they’re just... not limited to the formula we’re so used to seeing. in truth, if yuya was a character in a different anime, especially a different genre, i have no doubt that he’d be hailed as a franchise fan favorite and bashing or negative criticism of him would be kinda... (i don’t wanna say “nonexistent”) not as common as it is in the ygo fandom.

at least, that’s what i’d like to believe.