#i'm a yugioh blog mostly because that's what i enjoy thinking about and it feels stupid when not many people like my original jokes

[number-1-kuaidul-fanboy]

Ughhhhhh

This is off topic of this blog and deals with real world people and allegations and I don't want to discuss the specifics in detail but...

I'm sorry, I have to talk about the Chuggaaconroy situation. Not what happened (because I am not qualified for that) but just... how I feel.

If you don't know anything about this (and/or you're my Yugioh followers), you can skip this one. I just... really need to get this off my chest.

I just... why

Why why what the fuck

I'm just... sad. I'm just so fucking sad.

So many famous people have ended up getting exposed for things like this, including people I watched or liked to some degree. And those sucked, but I mostly just felt disappointed or irritated.

This though? This fucking hurts.

I didn't really idolise the guy, but I watched his videos for YEARS.

The reason Super Paper Mario is one of my favourite video games to this day is because of HIS let's play. I've never beaten the game myself. I don't think I ever even got past chapter 2 honestly. I experienced that game primarily through his videos.

I loved his Kirby's Epic Yarn series. That game was a treasure to me as a kid and seeing someone be enthusiastic about it while gleefully making so many bad puns gave me such joy, especially since nearly everyone else I saw at the time bashed that game.

I watched the crap out of RunawayGuys (particularly the Wii series and Mario Party and platformer games) consistently as those came out.

I rewatched all these series I mentioned during the pandemic, and even some I hadn't gotten around to or were new at the time, and they were such fun light-hearted wonderful distractions from the horror that was occurring in the world.

Hell, even recently I watched Chuggaa's Sticker Star series as that came out. I've never played Sticker Star, I just found the pun-filled critique of a Paper Mario superfan funny.

But now... now this person who I've spent years of my life casually enjoying the content of hurt so many people, directly and indirectly, including the two he made so much of that content with, and it's awful. Looking through the fallout just breaks my heart.

[voidsparkk]

low key sad that a meme post has more notes than that post i made about mmiw a few years back

[aceyugiohdreamer]

Hey! (I'm the anon dude who asked about your Judai hatred) So I'm currently gradually catching up in my watch on VRAINS, and I just finished EP34. The whole badly animated episode made me quite uncomfortable because of its more blatant fanservice that sucked the episode's obviously weak budget. But when I reached the end to see Aoi's persona violently crushed head first on the ground, it made the feminist within me feel REALLY uncomfortable watching this. (1/2 or 3, I dunno)

Hey again! Thanks for coming back! I’m putting the rest under a cut because I ended up having quite a bit to say lol …

I know what I’m watching, a kid showtarget towards nippon boys and mostly otaku, and even the original mangacommitted the original Dark Magician Girl sin first, but now that the show ispurely a TCG commercial, I guess there’s not much moral left. I vigorously hatethe previous two shows but actually surprised myself enjoying VRAINS, knowingwhat it is, as I usually don’t watch anime. But after reading about somedragging Japanese idol assault case on my feed today, (2/3)

this episode really strikes me… Idon’t see many YGO fans that I relate too online, and I only found your blogrecently, but I wondered what you opinion on this would be (?) , what yourreaction at the time of the ep’s broadcast was (?) , being a queer duelist too- if I may label you as such without intended offense. Maybe I’m just gettingtoo old for anime as a mid-20s guy, but this Blue Angel character’s fucked,whilst the Aoi side is the most decent female since early Aki.. Opinion? (3/3)

(I’m definitely not offended by“queer”, I like the word, so you are more than welcome to use it with me ^^)

Ughhhh what a topic. Frankly, Ican’t really name anything about yugioh that has ever felt feminist to me, andvrains is no exception. I had some hopes in the very beginning that Aoi wasgoing to be a respectable (and respected, by the narrative) character, but those hopes were dashed pretty quickly and it’s only gottenworse as the show has gone on. She was set up to be a strong duelist, but thenquickly got demoted to damsel who’s not allowed to be on par with the amazingprotagonist. She gets lip service from characters who say she’s good, but wedon’t get to see it on screen, which is a problem.

And I don’t understand idol culture,so that whole persona of hers really turned me off. It’s not just that Ipersonally don’t like that kind of hyper-feminine aesthetic, it was also thatthey directly tied that aesthetic with a character that the writers seemeddeliberately determined to weaken and fetishize. She’s only allowed to havecute, frilly female monsters, and in any duel that matters to the plot, sheloses most of the time, which just continues this association betweenfemininity and weakness. Aoi/her Blue avatars are mostly meant to be eye candyand waifus, and it’s so fucking frustrating.

To be honest, I tend to forget a lotof details from vrains after I’ve watched an episode because I’m just not incrediblyinvested in it, so I don’t put much effort into trying to remember it. I justremember what happens to stick, and I don’t think about it much. I’m mostlyonly watching out of some kind of nostalgic love for the original, not out of agenuine love for vrains itself, even though I do enjoy it on some level.

So I had to google which episodenumber 34 was to remember the scene you mentioned. And yeah, I feel you, thephysical abuse Aoi endures in this show comes across as brutal in a way thatfeels different from the trauma Yusaku went through. What he went through wasfucked up too, but it’s been presented as the catalyst for him becoming strongand focused and justice-oriented. With Aoi, her defeats are spectacles,sometimes given lavish attention, and they don’t seem to lead to anysubstantial development for her. She gets a few superficial changes, but thenarrative still treats her as second-class and expendable, because ultimatelyher development doesn’t have much impact on the overall story.

I don’t really remember how I feltat the time I first saw the episode, but I’m pretty sure it was something alongthe lines of an annoyed sigh, because it was just so disappointing andpredictable at the same time. Of course she lost. It’s just Blue Angel afterall, why would she be important enough to defeat an enemy? (At least a maleone. She does win against the one other female character in the enemy camp,because THAT’S allowed apparently.)

I don’t think the violent manner ofher defeat struck me at the time, but seeing it again and in that context ofactual idols getting assaulted, it does feel pretty gross. It’s always felt tome like idols are presented as public property and not human beings deservingof dignity and agency, and they perform specifically to draw out love fromtheir fans to encourage them to obsess and feel possessive of them. So when yousee a fictional idol getting physically hurt like that, it does smack of thatidea that idols exist for the emotions of their fans. If Blue Angel gets hurt,it’s because the writers are hoping to get an emotional reaction, not becausethey plan on using it for any substantial purpose. So yeah, anything having todo with Aoi makes the feminist in me cringe, but I went through that with Akitoo and I’ll still never forgive the writers for how they ruined her.

I wanted to like Aoi, but they justcouldn’t resist making a mockery of her and dropping any potential she had tobe a character that actually mattered.

And I totally agree that the show feelslike an ongoing TCG commercial. That’s why I only half payattention to the duels because I can’t keep up with them anymore. I don’t remember the originalfeeling this way, and maybe that was because a lot of the monsters felt likecharacters themselves and actually played an emotional role in the players’ lives, whereaswith vrains, there’s no relationship between players and their monsters. It’sall about their relationship with vrains and the AIs. The cards have become simple tools now with no heart and soul and meaning to them.

(and if you want to keep talking about this, you’re more than welcome to message me on chat, or keep sending anons, whatever works for you, it’s all good ^^)