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blaster-aichi · 4 years ago

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Cardfight!! Vanguard Extra Story IF 16 things

forgot to post this, heck

Fanguard’s dream of actual hobo Kai-kun sleeping on Bench-chan is finally realized

There’s a lot of Kamui and Shin instinctively having feelings true to the true reality and mismatched to IF’s world. There’s two possibilities for this: a) Aichi did a really shitty job nailing down everything due to his concentration being focused primarily on Kai-kun b) the rupture from the illusion around Kai-kun unravelling tore into the IF world as a whole and it’s unable to entirely maintain its story, allowing for instances like Morikawa recalling Kai-kun’s line from Reboot’s first episode or Kamui and Shin recognizing Kagero as a clan expected of him.

The Kamui/Morikawa interactions were really cute, it’s nice to see them butting heads and just being rambunctious kids

Izaki sank the Miyaji Kai-kun theory, curious what he’s like at school in this form.

The ferocity of his original memories invading and scaring him having a lasting impact and making him afraid to play again even a couple/few days later is both fascinating and gutwrenching.

Honestly very surprised that Shin would reprimand anyone for being loud, particularly when that’s Misaki’s thing and where are you hiding her?

The softer he is, the more heartbreaking his situation is in the grand scheme of things, even if he’s come to terms with it. How dare you, Bushi.

IF 15: [roasts himself]. IF 16: [literally roasts a nerd]

Love and hate how the opportunity to elaborate and delve into Kai-kun’s relationship with Dragonic Overlord is taken advantage of because why not just stab me instead? It’s a nice insight into a facet of his time away from Hitsue that was never truly touched on in either version prior.

Emi and Shingo become Fanguard.

Right eye sighted. But being it’s Shingo's recollection of Aichi, not yet willing to buy that it’s completely normal with the fact that, beyond this and his encountering Shuka, it’s remained hidden — the purpose of the shot itself was to establish Shingo isn’t remembering things correctly, so there’s no reason to believe that he’s aware of anything that might be different about it. — This could be reflected in how Aichi keeps his distance from the others, holed up in his private quarters and suffering with only Kourin seeming to be anywhere near him during such times. It’s reminiscent of Legion Mate, both in his trying to shoulder everything alone/hide the agony he’s going through and Kourin’s close proximity, standing as his right hand in a manner that no-one else fills. — Also to go with the Legion Mate topic, in this moment, IF Aichi gives off VoidAichi vibes. Despite how broken up it’s apparent he would and should be to exile himself (see V epi 21 and the flashback to him watching the others in Card Capital from Legion Mate), he shows no emotion, but rather seems completely numbed. Also probably looking waaaay too far into it, but 2/2 times when his face has been completely obscured, there’s been a stylistic choice beneath his eyes that is typical of exhaustion/strain/fatigue and it keeps worrying me.

IF 17

The preview gives the impression that this episode is about to be a turning point; that with Naoki and Shingo both having some understanding that things aren’t quite right, their loyalty to Aichi might start to wane.

Naoki’s going out in his Miyaji school uniform has alarm bells ringing, personally, for reasons elaborated below.

Never knew that needed Kai-kun working a part-time job in my life but boy is it a need now.

Here for Mamoru reigniting his fandom for Kai-kun. Very here for it.

IF vs. V 21

As a first note, Kai-kun being the one to separation between Aichi and his deck against their IF selves has a nice touch of irony to it. Calling back to it would be a powerful way of drawing on their positions in relation to the scene.

Considering just how badly Aichi freaked out over the idea of giving up his Royal Paladin deck and what it would force unto him, there’s little reason to suspect anything that’s happening in IF is really of his own free will. — It’s been brought up that, without the two meeting as kids, Aichi shouldn’t really have much knowhow about Vanguard, much less a relationship to it. Considering Kai-kun remained a Hitsue student, it’s an easy assumption to make that Aichi’s education followed the same pattern (though his reasoning for returning to Miyaji remains a mystery, with his lacking the confidence that his original reality/Outside World self had); his exposure to the game might come through his time in Middle School, but it’s a loose and distant connection at best. IF World Aichi, without knowledge of Outside World (if they are two separate versions), would have no reason to target Vanguard over anything else.

As Void and Star-Vaders aren’t a facet of the Reboot continuity, a theory that had in mind for a while is that a remnant of Brandt may have seized the moment when Aichi was Deleted and been festering away in the same manner as the Link Joker Seed. A previous post detailed the mindfuckery involved to break Aichi enough that he would turn on the game, particularly given how fearful he was of relinquishing it and the isolation it would return him to — the very circumstances he’s imposed upon himself (but far worse, in exiling himself from the real world). Though he’s a selfless boy and Kai-kun means an enormous amount to him, it simply doesn’t make sense that he would willingly go down this road.

Rather he’s mind has been twisted so much to believe in what he’s now doing or he’s being controlled by something of Brandt (as we’d never confirmation it was no longer a threat), if not some other force (though to introduce a new one at this stage in both the franchise and the reboot continuity with OverDress around the corner would be a peculiar choice).

Couple of theory things, feat. one really out there idea:

Naoki:

Naoki’s actions in the preview might be glimpses of him starting to break away from Aichi’s will; not with malicious intent, but rather the opposite.

The line of thinking goes as so: as he and Shingo come to realize their memories have been tampered with, Naoki seeks out Emi and Shuka, obtaining Blaster Blade with the intent of returning to the point in time where Aichi should have received it. Among the screencaps Bushiroad has released, one shows a young Naoki and Aichi, who’s holding a card — rather than allowing the event to play out as it should have, Naoki intends to give Aichi the card himself.

In doing so, Aichi can begin down his path that liberates him from the crushing loneliness that he endured prior to actively playing the game, or in the case of IF, running away from home. Simultaneously, Naoki himself is freed from the guilt that’s shackled him in both continuities about not doing anything to help Aichi, as the Reboot has demonstrated how he yearned to at the time but was too late to make any move. This is his means of doing so and atoning for a reality when he failed.

When Emi, Shuka and Kai-kun would recognize him as the one who threatened the latter’s parents plus Suiko (and Ibuki) would be familiar with him as normal, there’s not a clear reason why he would forgo his Sanctuary Knight uniform for a civilian look other than to avoid attracting the attention of bystanders.;(It might be overthinking it to speculate there being anything more to it than this, but when has that ever worked?) — Granted this is under the assumption that he would be able to leap through the timeline though Jammers of earlier episodes were capable of doing so, none of the enemy’s core have made any such move yet. And the consequences of doing so; if Aichi’s suffering is the result of IF World unravelling, then Naoki venturing to alter the timeline further may, in fact, cause him more harm than any good he may intend.

2.5 hours later edit: Courtney just shared the epi synposis and FUCK

Alternatively, Naoki might regain glimpses of the Psyqualia Zombie arc and see himself beating Aichi, leading to Destiny Conductor being able to control him and his eventual Deletion by Ibuki’s hand.

On the one side, it reinforces Aichi’s feelings that Vanguard is something they shouldn’t come into contact with, but Naoki could see it otherwise. He harbours guilt over being the catalyst for those instances, piling on top of his failure to reach out when they were in elementary school, spurning him to go back and redo everything so that he can always protect Aichi, not to embody anguish that the other goes through.

It would also strengthen a hostile opposition towards Ibuki, whose past sin comes back into play. He might throw the event in his face as a means of trying to dredge up his old feelings towards Vanguard and sway him to resist setting things right, whenever/however it is he’s released from wherever Aichi sent him and depending on what he experiences there.

Kourin:

Where we are currently feels very much like the “Sera’s betrayal leading to the Quatre Knights’ dissolution” point. Sera and Rati clashed with one another personally, Gaillard joined with Kai-kun and Naoki, Neve opposed VoidAichi directly — Naoki’s actions in the preview might be glimpses of him starting to break away from Aichi’s will. Though Naoki’s intentions are ultimately to save Aichi from the position he’s stuck in, it’s ultimately defying him — a far cry from what has been shown of the Knights, thus far, who have been fiercely loyal to him, which makes this sort of movement striking.

Miwa also doesn’t appear best pleased in the preview. As someone whose best friend was nearly killed as a result of Aichi’s orders — a friend at risk now that he’s taking a stance against the group’s status quo — there’s every reason for him to defect for the sake of preventing another (and possibly actually fatal) incident. It’s very possible that It’s entirely possible that, in similar vein to Legion Mate, the collapse of the Knights will leave only Kourin by Aichi’s side, who’ll serve as the last line of defence.

Mamoru & Tokoha / Aichi & Emi:

It wasn’t touched on during Nagisa and Gouki’s episode, but the dynamic of older brother and younger sister has the potential to crop up here, as well as the chance to contrast the Sendous’ current selves with the Anjou siblings (and the former’s past).

— Not to mention how Mamoru and Aichi are polar opposites, at the moment in regards to their sisters in danger. Mamoru gambled with his life to keep Tokoha safe in the Dragon Empire attack of the original continuity, and anyone could see Aichi would do the same, but IF Aichi is the one who would inflict harm upon Emi, made clear by his soldiers’ attack on her and Shuka when they attempted to enter the past. Maybe, inadvertently, Tokoha might be put in jeopardy and Mamoru propelled to protect her in the same way, bringing about the behaviour of the two versions of her brother that Emi knows in the same situation.

Give me 11-year old Tokoha to mirror 11-year old Emi at the start of each continuity and drive this home.

And most importantly:

DRAGONIC OVERLORD ARMOUR

#Cardfight!! Vanguard #Cardfight!! Vanguard IF #cfv spoilers #give me Alfred Aichi vs DO Kai kun sword fight #better yet give me Alfred Aichi vs BB Emi AND DO Kai kun fight #also free Misaki 2k20 #long post

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alice-of-dreams · 6 years ago

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Vanguard rant because I love this dumb cardgame show too much

It's really interesting how the Legion Mate arc parallels not only the Link Joker arc but also the Psyqualia arc.

HECK All the major arcs draw really interesting parallels to each other.

Like one of the central themes of Vanguard is about Kai and Aichi's encounter and friendship and how it changes both them and the people around them. That's literally what the show is about plus dramatic card games.

The most obvious parallels are between the Psyqualia arc versus the Link Joker arc.

Psyqualia arc:

- Aichi loses himself to power offered by external force because he feels inadequate and incapable of keeping up with Kai and Ren in Vanguard. Also external force actively manipulates his insecurities to push him to that point.

- Ren being pretty much gone in Psyqualia drunk madness because the only thing he cared about was winning. He determined people's worth by whether they win or lost.

- team Q4 being a hot mess of a team. Like i love them but god lord they were a terrible match back then.

- Kai being the cause of Aichi sinking into Psyqualia madness and also the one who saves him from it. The arc acknowledging that it's also Aichi's own greed to win that's responsible and Kai saving Aichi from himself.

- Kourin who's supposed to be a neutral entity actively helping these kids save Aichi because she's too kind and is the kind of person who wants to protect what's the right thing.

- epic Kai vs Ren match

Link Joker:

Just reverse everything in the above points and you have Link Joker. Seriously.

- - Kai loses himself to power offered by external force because he feels inadequate and incapable of keeping up with Aichi and Ren in Vanguard. Also external force actively manipulates his insecurities to push him to that point.

- Ren actively having his own arc and rejecting both external power and Psyqualia because in this arc, he's not fighting to win, he's fighting to save the people important to him. And that right there is the biggest example of how much he's changed from season 1. The parallel of the conversation between him and Suiko especially with the reveal that she was the one who introduced Psyqualia to him (in the reboot but there's hints that's what happened in the original too).

- Aichi's club actively working together to save people/protect each other. Just the huge emphasis on being there for each other and proper communication in this arc OOF

- Aichi being the motivation of Kai accepting the Link Joker and also the one who saves him from it. The arc very explicitly stating that it's Kai's own greed consuming him and his self destructive tendencies. Aichi saving Kai from himself.

- Kourin actively siding with the antagonist and doing what she knows is wrong and it almost tearing her apart because she doesn't want to lose the people important to her.

- epic Kai vs Ren match pt 2: bonus the match also parallels their match from season one.

There's like a few other parallels but these are just the ones off the top of my head.

Now Link Joker vs Legion Mate:

Where do I even begin omg. THERE'S so many not to mention Legion Mate itself is a big parallel to the rest of the series.

- first, switching the protag from Aichi to Kai.

- SWITCHING THE ANTAGONIST BETWEEN THE TWO

- Link Joker being the cause in both cases, but one voluntarily, the other involuntarily. One out of selfishness, one out of selflessness.

- SKSKS i could probably write a whole essay on the symbolic parallels of their relationship in link Joker vs Legion Mate

- the reverse zombies vs the Quatre Knights parallels

- the fucking parallels of Gaillard vs Kai vs Naoki omg.

- especially Kai vs Gaillard because this needs to be reiterated. Kai, takes up Aichi's royal paladins vs Gaillard using Aichi's gold paladins. Then later fighting with Kai's Kagero vs Gaillard's own deck. The way they both think of Aichi.

- funnily enough, Serra's parallel to Kourin in Link joker.

- Kourin's parallel to herself in Link Joker. ;; Poor girl really doesn't get a break. Another parallel of selfishness versus selflessness. But honestly it's so heartbreaking when you think of Kourin having to watch Aichi be slowly consumed by Link Joker and know she indirectly had a hand in it and just hhhhh im gonna cry

- MISAKI AND KOURIN'S RELATIONSHIP PARALLELS

- Aichi and Kourin's relationship parallels. In Link Joker, he's the one trying to save her. In Legion Mate, she can't save him no matter how much she wants to and instead does her damn best to support him.

- the parallel of having an alien entity as the antagonist that uses human insecurities to take over versus Serra who used their faith against them.

- that fucking end Kai vs Aichi fight in both seasons. One is about teaching Kai to depend on others who are there for him and the other is to teach the same.

There's a bunch more but you get the gist.

Psyqualia arc vs Legion Mate arc:

this one is super self explanatory tbh.

-Aichi at the start vs Aichi at the end.

- Kai at the start vs Kai at the end

- team Q4 at the start vs team Q4 at the end

- Kourin being a helpful outsider to being one of their important friends to save.

- misaki who wanted nothing to do with them and vanguard, teaching the importance of friends to someone else.

- the running theme of selfishness versus selflessness and how it's not a matter of which is the right answer but a balance of both.

- kai and Kamui's argument from their time as Q4 came back to bite Kai in the ass hard lol

- REN BEING SAVED BY AICHI AND REN REFUSING TO HELP AICHI BECAUSE HE DOESN'T WANT TO LIVE IN A WORLD WITHOUT AICHI

- Kai and Aichi's relationship obviously.

- Miwa and Kai's relationship for that matter.

You get the general gist.

Now we come to Asia Circuit vs Legion Mate:

- LEON LEON LEON LEON LEON LEON

- Aichi's ability to touch lives and people and change them.

- Aichi having to fight void possessed Leon vs Aichi becoming slowly possessed by the link seed.

- "next time, can you show me the way?" Screech why are they always in a constant ping pong of saving each other from each other's darkness these dumb card game nerds.

- how absent kai is this season vs the explicit absence of Aichi in Legion Mate

- kai and ren's relationship lol

- i feel like the biggest parallel was definitely Kai though. Just the difference in how he handled things in Legion Mate compared to how he behaved in Asia Circuit says so much about his growth. But also about the growth of his friends who don't take his lone wolf bs anymore haha

- the massive Beatdowns handed down to the squad in both arcs in cardfights. Also the increased seriousness in Legion Mate with greater stakes.

- wow can you believe the same Kai who more or less told Aichi to figure it out on his own why both their clans got erased, ran around in Legion Mate willing to get burned as many times as it took to get him back.

- AICHI'S SELF CONFIDENCE GROWING LEAPS AND BOUNDS

- Aichi growing into himself

- Aichi being pulled around by Takuto's strings vs Aichi actively manipulating the whole magical moon sanctuary coma plan

- Aichi saving people versus the people he saved coming to save him

- "how about i beat you, take the seed and you become my Quatre Knight?" SkSKSKS this is so far from the Kai in Asia Circuit who just threw vague advice and encouragement at Aichi im crying guys their relationship is so beautiful.

- throwback to starry night date on the cliff because thanks Bushiroad that's what my heart needed.

- Kai's improved communication skills lol

Seriously i know i joke about the ridiculousness of the background setup of Legion Mate a lot and how nonsensical it is, but storytelling wise it's definitely my favourite next to the Psyqualia. Because everything came around in a full circle in the most beautiful way and that's so satisfying tbh.

Like it pulls together the overall plot in a really nice way, character development wise.

Honestly I dunno what I'm trying to say. All the arcs parallel each other in really interesting ways and allude to each other and hence the character development is one of my favourite things in Vanguard because its progression is understandable but not overly simplified.

#cardfight!! vanguard #sendou aichi #kai toshiki #this is basically just me having too many feels about vanguard again #character development is definitely one of the strongest points of this series #no character stays stagnant and i love that

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