#seven barian emperors

[cyberdragoninfinity]

💎👿🌌A hell of chaos and crystal. Seven emperors of suffering and grief. Welcome… to Barian World!🌌👿💎

Overjoyed to finally get to share the piece I did for @aygozineproduction's Zexal Zine! This was a beast to ink but I'm SOOO happy with it <3 I love the Barian Emperors a normal amount <3333

Everyone's work for the zine came out just spectacular, I had so much fun taking part!

[yugioh-polls-because-yes]

zexal obsession, here we come again...

And all it took was watching an hour-long essay on the show! Let's go...

[bariansguardian]

Barian Amnael. Because I said so.

[bariansiblings850]

"So....which of you wants to challenge me? Marin...the member of the seven Barian emperors!" Marin said as she stands here to find a worthy opponent

[baddyzarc]

You ever think about how the fact that Barians have an energy form (as seen with Vector and, albeit very briefly, Nasch) could imply that the reason why the Seven Emperors are able to speak despite having their physical forms having no mouths is because those are probably exoskeletons for the energy forms to reside in so they can interact with the physical realms in ways they cannot with just the aforementioned energy form?

I think about those barians a lot.

I actually wrote two pieces (First and Second) over the barian’s biology about 5 years ago with focus to the exoskeleton theory where their actual forms are the energy masses.

Now, those posts had a lot of heart and thought into them from me, but they were very much a Big Shitpost that I spent way too much time invested in. Haven’t read them in awhile so have zero clue on their quality or if they still hold up.

But within Zexal’s lore, the Astrals and Barians are considered “higher energy” species, so it’s likely that these—

—are typically what they look like. They simply take on a more tangible form. Also wanna point out that the Astrals can do this too, so it’s not an ability exclusive to the Barians.

It’s possible that both species take on a more tangible form to interact with the world in a way humans understand, but any body part is just for show rather than function. Most Astrals don’t have eyes, for one (or they have buggy, pupiless ones) but still see fine, and Barians can talk with or without mouths (Mr Heartland and Kurage).

Astral also has telepathy, which he used in one episode and never again, so it’s possible that Barians rely on the same method but en masse.

I do like your idea that the Astrals and Barians tether along the line of cosmic horror though, where the form that we see is nothing but an illusion that conjured to be visible and able to interact with humans. A Plato’s cave situation, if you will.

Barians are such wonderful animals, I wanna marry them all

[kaiowut99]

Went ahead and threw on ZeXal II episode 38 [111] thinking nothing big will go on, just Barian'd No. 96 overwhelming Yuma and Astral and the two going further to prove their bond together, no big dea--

*episode starts with a foreshadowing of Astral leaving the Numbers with Yuma and saying goodbye in some kind of vision Yuma's having [making me double-check to make sure I'm on the right episode lol]*

*No. 96 pushes Yuma and Astral to the edge and struggling Yuma joins Astral in a ZeXal Change, talking about how Hope embodies their bond and the concept of hope always leading them to win as they beat 96*

*sore loser/"God" 96 makes a last dash at retaking Astral to continue destroying all three worlds and Astral pushes Yuma out of ZeXal to keep him out of it*

*ultimately the vision comes true and Astral gives himself up to keep Yuma safe and gives him the Numbers as he and the Emperor's Key sink into a pit*

*Yuma's broken and Kotori and the others are looking somber*

*GO WAY GO WAY updates with a Yuma/Astral montage, including showing the cute moment with Astral's first time eating over the bridge to the chorus*

I--

ZeXal definitely has been doing a good job of getting you invested in Yuma and Astral's relationship, the differences they've had here/there with things like Yuma's trust in his opponents after the Vector trolling, and how Astral respects Yuma's always-keep-going attitude and Yuma's growth in respecting him, so with the way they went about seemingly killing Astral here as all 96 cares about is getting his way and continuing his destruction, it's reasonable to see how it'd affect Yuma the way it does. Really good episode.

(I say "seemingly" not so much because spoilers as because ofc I still have 40-odd episodes to go so that can't be it for Astral lol)

Also, really good shots here [feels like the closest Astral's looked to Kaz's sketch so far too]; I almost thought this was a Hara/Gil-bo episode (Gil-bo looks to be on the next one with Heartland talking with Yuma), but Akemi Yokota's team did a great job on this one (it has been cool seeing some of the Animation Directors I know from ARC-V on start to really get their style going in ZeXal or keep it going after 5D's like Gil-bo and Hara)

Also since it's been a while, I did enjoy the Seven Ruin Numbers arc too, was interesting to see that the Barians are reincarnations of these past figures (and also interesting how Yuma's dad had seen each one...), and of course the big revelation with Shark and Rio being reincarnations themselves... Was kinda neat how they did those visions Atem-in-Memory-World style by dropping Shark into Nasch's body and all, lol. Knowing few details here/there about how things go there, I'm curious to see how it shakes out, since Shark seems to be thinking about it in the next episode.

(Also, was really amused seeing how Mizael's legend was edited in the dub; I get you couldn't show Mizael giving himself up so the townspeople saw he was right about his horse yet the invading country killing him anyway, but it felt like dub!Crashtown's ending a bit with what they did lol)

[dementedseal]

AL-FUCKING-RIGHT EVERYBODY SIMMER DOWN 'CAUSE I'M ABOUT TO LEARN Y'ALL SOME SHIT

NONE OF YOU ASKED BUT I'M WRITING UP A DISSERTATION ON NUMBER CARDS FROM YU-GI-OH! ZEXAL. HERE WE FUCKING GO.

So, firstly we need to define some terms. Yu-Gi-Oh is a little scatterbrained with this shit and definitions are a little flakey so I'm gonna set out some base lore. THE UNIVERSE: okay this may seem a little silly to define, but the preceeding three series of Yu-Gi-Oh were all set in the same universe. The one in Zexal ISN'T that universe, and doesn't seem to be the same as the Arc V, Vrains or Sevens universes. Some of Zexal's lore conflicts with the lore presented in the original series, and KaibaCorp isn't ever mentioned. Cards also existed way before they ever did in the original universe. CARDS: Also might seem a little silly to define, but these seem to be a lot more inherently powerful than in the previous shows (where they were mostly just a way of harnessing power). I'll explain in more detail later. BARIANS/ASTRAL-WORLD DENIZENS: This one is for people who know fuck-all about zexal. Which is like, most people reading this probably. Barians and Astral-World denizens are energy based beings from two different worlds, full of both Chaos and Order energy. These are just forces mostly, however this doesn't stop Astral World from being really racist towards Chaos. Barian World was actually originally made from a section of Astral World they cordonned off and cast out so they didn't have to deal with Chaos.

SO. What The Fuck Are Number Cards? Well, in short, they're powerful cards that enhance emotions and convey power. This is basically the most explanation for what they do we get. HOWEVER we are not pussies and we will go for the Long Explanation. That's what I made this post to do after all. First of all, the Number cards were created when Don Thousand, vengeful god of Barian world, fought Astral, Space Jesus of Astral World. This caused Astral to lose some his memories, which were then coverted into 50 Number Cards. Later, a portal was formed between Astral World and the human world because Yuma Tsukumo, an incarnation of half of Astral that was also lost in the original battle, used an artifact called The Emperor's Key on a door in his dream. This allowed Astral to enter the human world, but caused him to lose his remaining memories and convert them into 50 more Number Cards, totalling 100. Throughout the duration of the Yugioh Zexal Anime, the aim is to collect these cards and get Astral's memories, for multiple reasons.

[thewittyphantom]

A new ZEXAL event has begun in Duel Links, featuring Dumon!

Dumon: Girag...Alito...And Mizar...Three of the seven emperors have fallen...I have no choice but to handle this myself! Nash and Marin...Where are you? We could truly use your help...What!? My Baria Crystal has been damaged! Ahhhhhh! Without my Baria Crystal, I will not be able to use my full powers! But I must do what I can...to save Barian World!

[444names]

Names generated from the names of USA presidents and vice-presidents, combined with the names of Roman emperors

Aacalucing Aball Aballexan Abasdos Abrideridge Abrius Adianius Adicher Adinus Adron Aelson Aember Agalius Agnus Albalentius Alballmonos Albilin Alerice Alison Allaroos Allmocalter Alvian Analeo Analey Androe Anian Anios Anius Annerry Antibent Antius Anuayloron Anuela Anust Aphow Aprenes Arcarford Ardidge Arrian Artios Augus Aviniam...

Ballai Bardian Barian Barin Basdos Bider Bidge Binus Blian Blield Brian Brius Bucheodrius Burelarius Burey Burius Burrebon Burtill Calagan Calbales Calber Calent Caleviand Callanas Candrianas Canovemius Carce Carding Cardius Caron Carry Chaembenew Challac Chamalevi Chard Chardius Cheron Chuberan Chuyley Cleran Cliancolfai Clidece Clison Colfairo Colius Commy Compkin Conaft Conalus Conian Coosephonio Curting Dalhon Dallaurew Damerius Dandro Dandromit Dawer Dawespiency Deckefedy Dence Denus Dicks Diderbersh Didge Diosius Diustus Dommonian Donan Donikeney Donry Dontin Dorey Dwigus Dwiliannion Dwillmon Elsonaft Faing Faire Faximilinus Ferahamitus Fientin Filison Fillmodonal Foretinroun Forius Fraite Frakinus Fraklon Fratillan Gabren Gabrin Galert Garcemin Garsono Geodust Getasianks Getrus Glybraklon Glyce Glyndrius Glyssenjan Goranianus Gordidge Goris Grakin Grakios Grald Granneley Grantian Granumer Gratingtont Gromp Hadanover Hadios Haemocleo Hamanuayles Hamardius Harcart Harce Harcus Harklonroe Haron Harougulin Hartobus Hayler Heelle Hemberius Hemicius Hemilicince Heodomales Heodord Heodus Heraphic Herillison Herius Hershamax Hershence Homulus Honry Hoodono Hooln Horanus Hougus Howas Howeran Humber Hurenrinton Irbaley Irber Isaarcius Isevel Jamaximick Jamenner Jamius Jannes Jantius Jimilla Jimius Jimmonalber Joanklever Joanuman Johns Johnst Jorew Jovelt Jovenustan Julagnus Julara Juliatinus Julidger Julight Julin Julint Julus Julybrius Kames Kefer Keffeder Kince Kincy Kinian Lenerbas Lenuel Leodos Leriantios Lerick Leveran Leves Lexan Lianton Lidemikos Linus Lischalban Liseptiscus Lycemius Macinike Macitus Mackiock Macksonson Madawer Madidge Madio Madlaur Madrinallin Majackios Majoanuayle Maley Malla Manius Marace Maratioses Marcinios Marfield Marler Marlexan Marley Marout Marreptinus Marson Martrus Masion Maugh Mauridge Maxen Maxenderma Maxennian Maxenton Maximicks Maxios Mcksonrius Mentograck Milian Minielson Mitus Mocard Modroolk Monannikos Monio Morebon Mortical Nalespastic Nalius Nanuary Natinus Neran Neratilic Nerianting Nerin Neroe Nibill Niken Niostack Nosil Nuarrelson Oballis Obarius Oburry Ocracalla Othower Otobasharus Pasil Penjan Penstin Petitus Philing Philla Phite Phoctor Phort Phout Phroclinus Phroe Piennius Pierterce Pikos Pikosius Porge Preck Preney Prent Prenus Priam Prianus Pubeney Puber Puberson Publa Publippike Pupient Pupierought Pupirbasius Pupiroma Quart Quary Quincolius Quingtogro Quiniatiate Quinus Relted Repting Robarcheeld Robenjan Robus Romilianord Rondorting Ronionike Roolk Rounalucius Scham Scump Scustabas Senew Sentonasius Sepupien Seven Sever Seves Sevitincy Spiel Stabam Stanius Stant Staureckson Tabrison Tacarcump Tasiancump Taudios Tayleo Thember Thembert Themiling Themilla Themon Thenton Theodomary Therian Theridge Threntonios Throno Thros Thublastan Thublincoln Thumens Thuyle Thuyler Ticard Ticemian Timmorecks Tinius Titushitus Traklexion Trobenerry Tronian Trustano Tylerian Tyley Tylore Tylos Ulaudius Ulielter Ulinus Ulush Unash Uniant Uniatilla Unikos Vacharsh Vackin Vacrius Valus Vanincy Venst Verforing Viter Walexan Waliand Wallippiel Warac Warincon Warklon Warson Warus Wasdon Wasius Wastancy Whertintin Whight Whilius Whillan Whinus Whitus Wight Willianus Woodus Wooliand Woovinus Zacian Zackeffel Zacks Zacril Zenus

[tff500]

Gandalf the Grey Vs. The Seven Barian Emperors

Nash: you can't kill us old man

Gandalf: What did you say

Nash: Old man

Dumon: Oh boy

Marin: well done big brother you missed him him off

Girag, Alito and Mizar: Crap

Vector: well nice knowing you guys

Gandalf: YOU SHALL NOT PAAAAASSSSSSSS

[irlquattro]

rio and shark but they are plum pits ?!!?! i plan on making all seven barian emperors out of fruit pits/seeds but i just had to start with these two because they are just so silly and i love them

[cyberdragoninfinity]

👀 would you care to talk about the symbolism of the other yugioh rivals

SMILES. i would love to. i cant speak for revolver or the bridge rivals yet and i havent seen enough arc-v to have a solid grasp on declan's symbolism yet but i will talk a little about the spinoff rivals i do know pretty well

as a sidenote, like. ok so Kaiba's main motifs and 'symbolism' is...well. centered around Blue-Eyes and dragons in general mostly, of course. And he kind of has those weird disease/virus and mild clown motifs that show up a little in his cards, and those are all plenty cool and they work for what seto kaiba needs to be! but imo that doesn't really get nearly as expanded upon either in the show itself or otherwise in official yugioh What Have You, compared to the guys who came later. i didnt have a good spot to say this otherwise so it's going here lol of course thats just my opinion on the matter

Chazz: anyway, so something I notice is explored a bit more with the spinoff rivals is that they'll have these motifs that actually get extended into their archetypes in the actual tcg, and it's so SO cool to see. Chazz/Manjoume has his whole iconic thunder motif of course, and he also gets that little s2 stint with the Society of Light giving him a brief Bright Distressing White motif and BOTH OF THOSE. HAVE BEEN INVOKED WITH ARMED DRAGON LV 10 CARDS

i really especially love Armed Dragon Thunder Lv. 10-- its whole effect is the Manjoume Thunder chant!!! IT'S DOING THE POSE. IT'S SO FUN.

and of course also Chazz is a character very tied to the symbolism of "weak" duel monsters, of "weak" decks, one-star monsters and the Ojamas especially, and that in general is such a fun spin on a yugioh rival. we do a complete 180 from Guy Tied Almost Exclusively to Very Powerful Dragon to Guy So Symbolically Correlated With Weak Monsters He Dresses Up as One in His Last (and one of his best) Duels. peace and love on planet finding strength in the unremarkable

Jack: ok so Jack is an interesting one. He's very symbolically tied to being the 'King' and to underworldly draconic hellfire imagery [which in of itself is really cool, and I think there's some very interesting dichotomy in there with how Jack's tied with a fiery hellish dragon motif but Yusei's tied to a cosmic heavenly dragon motif...i really love Jack and Yusei as narrative counterparts.] But the thing is, in the same vein Jack's tied deeply to Burning Soul-- the issue is 5D's also very clearly puts forward that the Burning Soul iconography is also tied (and in large part originated) with the Legendary Signer...who is. an indigenous brown South American guy.

And they. gave it to one of the arguably whitest Yugioh characters. Erm. 🥴 classic yugioh racially questionable moments !This is what I mean when I say the spinoff rivals have far more interesting symbolism to me--sometimes the interest is out of uhhhh not great narrative handling!! Gives even more to chew on.

Shark: yeah Shark is the one that makes me insane. There's no way to talk about him and his symbolism without getting into deep Zexal Spoilers, so. Be mindful of that. I'm gonna talk about him and Kite under the cut

ok so Shark is like the goddamn yugioh rival symbolism rivalry gold rush. You trip into the Reginald Ryoga "Shark" Kamishiro Kastle motifs and symbolism well and youre falling for ten thousand years. You cant talk about him without having to get into him also being Nasch, and then you have to talk about the Barian Emperors, and that second you get into that is the second you get sandblasted with some of the most insane symbolism yugioh writers have every cooked up.

There is so much goddamn demonology imagery and motif and symbolism jammed into the Barians I will be here all day getting into it. NOT EVEN GETTING INTO THE BUDDHISM INFLUENCE TOO. You cannot convince me that the Barian Emperors aren't supposed to correlate with the Seven Princes of Hell, alongside their deeply implied Seven Deadly Sin symbolism (and the Ursa Major symbolism too of course--it's what they get their names from!) To me I think Nasch is supposed to be tied to Leviathan especially, being an aquatic-based monster, but he could also correlate to Lucifer, playing on the pop cultural idea of Lucifer being the leader of Hell (and in demonology, typically associated with pride...pretty big trait of Shark's!)

That's just me barely scratching the surface with him. He's got the demonology symbolism, and Ursa Major motif, and seven deadly sins symbolism, and the sea predator symbolism and motif, and the royalty symbolism (good god his DUB SURNAME IS FUCKING KASTLE. THE PALER PART OF HIS HAIR LOOKS LIKE A CROWN.) And also all the insane numerology symbolism Zexal is leaking out the ears with. he's the fucking best. Why did they make this 14 year old so jampacked with this shit. it RULES.

Kite: it's so neat that Zexal has two rivals effectively. ANYWAY. Kite doesn't have as much 'oh my god it keeps going. it keeps going. oh holy shit' tier symbolism as whatever going on with Shark but he's got some stuff going on; I think it's especially cool that he and Mizar/Mizael have this "light vs. time" motif going on with their dragons, a Galaxy-Eyes arms race based on the speed of light. In general Kite's really associated with light, in the the very scientific sense, be it the way his jacket turns white when he duels, his Photon-filled deck, HELL even literally the way his eyes get damaged and his vision suffers is arguably tied to it, and it rocks. I feel like Kite is (esp since Zexal is supposed to parallel DM in a lot of ways) really the rival meant to parallel Kaiba the most, even down to having a dragon ace monster based around something bright (white dragon, photon dragon,) but I think they really took the time to expand on that inherent symbolism and show it off in even more ways narratively than we see with Kaiba. it's just cool the more i think about it the more i really like what they did with kite.

[team-frightfur]

Got to Vector vs Nasch in Zexal today. Vector is GREAT. He's really Yuri but better. Pity the show around him… exists.

To be frank, I think redditors just see characters die in droves and think "Wow! what a dark and mature story!"

They see sympathetic villains and say "wow, what a morally complex story!"

In reality, the show is mainly killing characters for shock value and none of the relationships are built up. You can't even describe Durbe, Rio, and Mizael without referring to another character! (Ryoga/Kaito) That's how little they work as an individual! Tell me, does Durbe know what Shark's least favourite foods are? What is Durbe's card waifu? Why did Rio join the barian world? Unanswerable, basic questions!

Admittedly, though, Alito and Girag's deaths were pretty good. Not only are they clearly, genuinely friends, but they both have endearing qualities and a lot of humanisation. Alito is an honourable bi-disaster who falls for everyone he meets. Girag is a club-obsessed mahou shoujo fanboy with questionable morals and zany ideas.

In turn, Kaito's death is very impacting because, despite how little he gets in Zexal II, he had Zexal I to be built up. Haruto watches his brother die mere months after their family is fixed. Kaito sacrifices himself in an undeniable show of friendship, revealing the dere beneath the tsun. Good shit.

Durbe and Rio, though? They exist just to die and make Shark angry. It's just fridging (gender equal fridging, mind you).

Secondly, its not complex morality if literally everything ever is Don Thousand's fault. Having sympathetic villains makes a tragedy! Not complex morality! Complex morality would be if:

Don Thousand witnessed the Astral World violently raze the Barian World and grey terrified of their military might. Thus, he DID brainwash the emperors, but refused to consume them. Instead, he was simply keeping military resources (the emperors and their mythic numbers) out of Astral hands.

OR

The seven Barian Emperors weren't brainwashed and the most tragic version of their memories is what is true. (Ie. Alito WAS betrayed, etc). This forces the story to contend with the tragedy and give them a REASON to forgive rather than "I guess it was all Don Thousand's fault!"

OR

The worlds are under existential threat. For example, when the Astral World separated, it not only created the Barian World, but the Human World as well. Because of this, the worlds are slowly fading from existence and crumbling apart. The only way to save the worlds are to unite them again. Unfortunately, uniting the worlds will incur damages.

Imagine it as literal burn. All the worlds have 5000 LP, uniting the worlds incurs 1000 burn on each world, but conquering a world incurs 0 burn for the victor and 1500 burn for both losers. If two worlds team up, they can divert their 1000 burn onto the loser.

Unification: AW: 4000 LP

BW: 4000 LP

HW: 4000 LP

B conquers all:

BW: 5000LP

AW: 3000LP

HW: 3000LP

B and H conquer A:

BW: 5000 LP

HW: 5000LP

AW: 2000 LP

Relevant questions:

Is it better for everyone to suffer equally? Together, can we bear the pain?

Does the Astral World's precipitating this disaster justify diverting the burn onto them?

If the Barian World and the Human World join forces to conquer the Astral World, thereby sacrificing them to save themselves, does that make those who support a unification 'traitors'? Are they responsible for what happens to other humans and barians?

Wow! Look at that! It's a trolley problem! The most basic moral dilemma in academic ethics!

Instead, the answer is always :Just kill Don Thousand lol.

[miraivelgear]

Alright, random question: Why or how did you get the first idea of Mira/Mirai? There seem to be several counterparts to her, all of whose origins I'm kinda curious about.

Oh geez which version even originated her... I think it was the zeXal version who was first named Mirai back in like 2011? and the name stuck from there, except zeXal since got renamed to Mira when I opted to make her a barian(Vector's twin sister to parallel Nasch and Merag) and I wanted a star reference like the other barian emperors- in this case mira variables! Basically each time a new YGO series came out I was like 'must fit OC into this' and like the very start of it Mirai's design was much more shamelessly self-insert. Arc V Mirai got her current backstory fairly recently, as I'd toyed with a totally different idea previously and scrapped it in favor of Zarc being her adoptive brother first, then her adopting Yuto as her brother after the split.

And then we have my beloved Mirai Velgear who was the victim of a total retcon when canon decided Velgearians are artificially created 'cards that can think'. I kept the OC planet I created, Blizzaria, but changed Mirai from being an alien hybrid to a Velgearian designed for combat in the extremest of extreme cold who was kidnapped by the blizzarian ruler and led to believe she was blizzarian until ending up on Earth and meeting Yudias. And I gave her an obligatory Sevens descendant using the name Mira again, this time as a Luge/Luke thing. I don't have a backstory for Sevens Mira yet. Idk what I'm gonna do with her honestly, she's just kinda there lol.

...and then there's the 5D's, GX, and DM verses which I did have a Mirai for but I haven't touched those in years lmao. The mains are Mira (barian), Mirai Shimo (Arc V, may as well keep her old last name for that one although I still have not done anything with the fact that her first and last names together translate to 'to know the future'), and Mirai Velgear. Designs have come a long way too!

Mira (barian)

Mira's barian form

Mirai Shimo

Mira (Sevens)

Mirai Velgear

Their ships are: Mira (barian) - Durbe, Mirai Shimo - Shun Kurosaki, Mirai Velgear - Poly with Yudias and Zwijo(and bffs with Dinois that might be another ship) lol, Mira (sevens) doesn't have a ship yet, in the fashion of her ancestor she might end up in a poly with Luke and Yuga XD

[bariansiblings850]

“Sword of Ice, Merag!”

“The one who leads the Seven Barian Emperors…I am Nasch!”

Independent || Selective || Private Reginald Kastle/Nash (Nasch) and Rio Kastle/Marin(Merag) from Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal.

Post Canon || Canon Divergent || Headcanon Based.

Muse 25+ || Mun 25+

I can only write the light, dark and heavy topics here, but don’t be afraid to do this.💙💜

[phantomknights]

merag is singlehandedly gaslighting gatekeeping and girlbossing for the weight of seven whole barian emperors. i love you fucked up women thank you for your service merag