#teams 5ds

[shitpostingkats]

[team-orichalcos]

Every Trio has:

Tall Blonde Himbo with a Complex

Short Hubristic Instigator with a Heart of Gold

Average-Height Angsty Twink with a Superpower

Both ride motorcycles, Both play card games.

Yusei can speak computer and Alister can impersonate anyone

Both Crow and Valon are short tempered but kind, often getting hurt because of their actions.

Jack has a royalty complex and Rafael has a honor or destiny complex.

And both deal with divine powers beyond human comprehension. (i.e; The Crimson Dragon and Earthbound Immortals, The Great Leviathan and Orichalcos.)

[littleyusa]

Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's

[okayto]

The two modes of Jet Lag: The Game

When players/teams are talking to the camera like this:

Or like this:

[nyupuun]

Happy International Women's Day

[inkblackorchid]

Had a general faithshipping thought pop into my head and figured the best thing to do with it was to yeet it into your ask box:

Between Yusei and Aki, who do you think would have an easier time adjusting to being parents? Each of them has unique trauma with their own parents, and by the end of the series they’ve made peace with it, but I could see the news that they are about to become parents bringing up old pains and worries

I personally see Aki being more outwardly nervous at first but getting reassured fairly quickly (it helps she’s a doctor and friends with other doctors) while Yusei’s outwardly perfect dad material and fully ready but internally is agonizing over how to be a father since he had no example growing up and it’s not until he’s holding his kid that he’s convinced he can do this

But I’m curious what you think

Faithshipping thoughts are always welcome, haha.

Interesting question! While I can see your reasoning and agree with certain parts of it, I see Aki and Yusei a bit different in this scenario, though. For me, I think it'd be Yusei who would have an easier time adjusting to being a parent—and the "why", ironically, comes down to role models. You're correct to say that Yusei's dad wasn't around to model fatherhood for Yusei, but the thing is, Yusei did have a positive role model when it comes to parenthood in general: Martha, who, based on everything canon tells us, seems to have been an excellent guardian. Jack, Crow and Yusei all have fond memories of her, visit her every once in a while, take her advice to heart when she gives it, and, most importantly, feel safe turning to her when shit hits the fan. All of that checks out as a great parental figure for me. So while Yusei may not have had his dad look up to, he does have an idea of what raising a child properly entails.

Aki, meanwhile, is a whole different can of worms. I stand by the firm belief that Aki's parents love her and want the best for her, but canon shows us that both of them were mediocre at best at showing it, and that might still be generous. (Granted, Setsuko barely gets enough of a personality for us to tell whether or not she was a capable mother. But the fact that she worries about her husband and not her daughter first in every flashback we see of the Izayoi family, even the one where Hideo hits Aki, and that Aki condems her and Hideo both when confronted with them during the DS arc says something, I think.) Point is, I would argue that between Aki and Yusei, Aki is the one who doesn't really have a frame of reference for what good parenting is. She knows what you shouldn't do, but that doesn't translate into knowing what will work. And the thing is—and I know this because I have seen it in real life—not having a good role model when it comes to parenting can make you very insecure about how to be a parent and sometimes even about whether you should be a parent in the first place.

All this is a rather long-winded way of saying that while Aki and Yusei arguably both have plenty of baggage surrounding parenthood and would approach the idea of becoming parents with no shortage of well-hidden anxiety, I think Aki would be the one who'd have more trouble adjusting because she would never stop questioning whether she's doing her job right. Given her history with her own parents, I think there would be few thoughts more painful to her than her relationship with her own kids turning out like the one she had with Hideo and Setsuko as a teenager. Yusei, meanwhile, I could see turning to and being reassured by Martha (and by Crow, who, let's be real, has a good deal of experience with children himself before canon even ends) when he doesn't know what to do. So while I agree with you that he'd have his troubles with the idea of parenthood, too, I don't think they would be quite as persistent as Aki's.

[team5ds]

the worst part is i can't even say he's wrong. they certainly did figure out how to contribute the city by joining the wrgp. but like. this is one of those things where it literally does not make sense. this is insane levels of logic. "we're not sure how to contribute to the city. we think entering a magic the gathering tournament will help." like. imagine saying that fr when your parents ask what you're going to do after you graduate college. "idk. thought i'd play card games and figure it out, man"

[cardbored-box]

The funniest scene in yugioh was when Bruno had an existential crisis and was questioning the nature of his existence because he picked up a cat

[puzzling-reeds]

The Missed Opportunity of Crow vs. Bommer

Crow's introduction (for better or worse) to Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's has been talked to death at this point, and I don't think I'm going to be able to bring anything unique to that topic. Instead, I wanted to do an analysis of how one element of Crow could've been done differently that I think would've gone a long way toward making his presence in the Dark Signers (DS) arc more interesting. Specifically, I want to focus on the build up to—and the fight between—Crow and Bommer | Greiger.

Fair warning: This is a ridiculously long post.

CANON SUMMARY

We first meet Crow in episode 30, four episodes into the DS arc. His introductory fight is with sector security where he's stealing back some cards for the kids of Satellite. This battle establishes two core elements of Crow's character: (1) his plucky antagonism toward the local authorities and (2) his devotion to the kids in his care. Fundamentally, Crow is childlike, pure-hearted, and loyal.

In the next episode, Crow meets up with Yuusei and they fight sector security again. One of the most important conversations vis-à-vis Crow happens afterward, that being the Daedalus Bridge story. As a recap, the story focuses around an unnamed man who tried to build a bridge between Satellite and Neo Domino City. Ultimately, he is unable to complete the bridge, but using the piece of the bridge that was built, the man "flies" from the bridge to Neo Domino using a D-Wheel. It's highlighted that this story is why Crow has added wings to his bike, and befitting Crow's boyish nature, he asserts that the Daedalus Bridge story lives on in him and anyone else who believes in it.

Afterward, Crow is present for Yuusei's duel with Kiryuu | Kalin and takes him to Martha when he wipes out. For the most part, Crow disappears from the plot for a while, only showing up to duel Yeager | Lazar in a low-stakes match. An Earthbound Immortal is summoned nearby, and Crow barely makes it out alive by hiding in a fridge.

Crow learns the kids he's been taking care of were absorbed by the Earthbound Immortals, so he goes to brawl with the first dark signer he can find, which happens to be Bommer after a few episodes of absence.

Bommer, meanwhile, first appeared midway through season 1. His main motivation is his younger siblings and the children of his village, not unlike Crow. Bommer will go to any lengths to make a better life for them, which leads him to work for Godwin in the Fortune Cup arc. During his and Yuusei's duel, Bommer learns that Godwin was the reason his village was destroyed and attempts (unsuccessfully) to kill him. He's summarily arrested, freed, and recruited by the dark signers in season 2.

At this point, we get the same song and dance for Bommer that we got in the previous arc. Bommer wants revenge on Godwin | Goodwin and agrees to become a dark signer to accomplish this. During the duel with Crow, it's revealed that—no, Godwin didn't destroy Bommer's village—it was the dark signers and their Earthbound Immortals all along. So Bommer's been swindled...again.

In the end, Bommer realizes that the spirits of his family are in his Earthbound Immortal, and he's about to make nice with Crow and Yuusei without finishing the duel. Before he can, he gets taken over by dark signer fate magic and is forced to complete the match. Crow wins. Bommer's family is freed. After the duel, Crow is almost killed by a piece of falling rubble until Bommer knocks him out of the way and takes the blow for him, dying shortly after. Thus ends Crow's big dark signer duel.

CANON ANALYSIS

Duels serve multiple purposes in Yu-Gi-Oh. Usually, a character’s first duel is to introduce their deck. We get this with Crow in episode 30 when he escapes Sector Security and—to some degree—in his duel with Yuusei in episode 31 and Yeager in episode 43. (I would argue the Yeager duel was more because the writers needed to have a duel scheduled for those episodes, but anyway). Once we know a character, their duels tend to take on a more philosophical slant. These philosophical duels are critical for Yu-Gi-Oh, as they clarify the worldviews of characters and create emotional tension. Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's is no exception to this: The DS arc was dominated by these types of high-conflict, character-developing matchups. Hence, why I wanted to talk about Crow and his dark signer duel against Bommer.

Unlike with Kiryuu vs. Yuusei or Jack vs. Carly, Crow and Bommer are narrative mirrors—not narrative foils. Crow and Bommer’s connection as characters stems from their mutual devotion to the kids in their lives: Bommer has his siblings and adopted kids which—at the start of the duel—he believes were killed by Godwin; Crow has his own adopted family which were absorbed by the Earthbound Immortals before their duel. In fact, Crow’s loss is what galvanizes him to challenge Bommer in the first place.

In this way, Crow and Bommer are both motivated by avenging children, even at the cost of their own lives. While Crow draws the line at doing damage to others, Bommer doesn’t. That’s the key difference between their philosophies. In a twist of fate, Bommer became the same kind of monster as the ones who took the lives of his family. It’s a nice cautionary tale about hate and revenge. The sad thing is that this doesn’t really relate to Crow much at all beyond the baseline similarity of “avenging my kids.” Bommer doesn't reflect on how he's inflicted the same kind of violence against Crow's family that the dark signers inflicted on him. If anything, Bommer dies happy that his family is safe and is otherwise unaffected by his role in this cycle.

To be entirely fair to Crow here, Bommer wasn't a great opponent from a philosophical stand point: Bommer and Yuusei already had the same betrayal-realization plot point in their duel in season 1. Crow is assigned the unenviable task of doing that same routine with Bommer in season 2. It makes their duel underwhelming and doesn't give Crow's character much to play off of.

Another huge issue with this duel is that Yuusei is there most of the time. In fact, Bommer's last words before he dies are to Yuusei, not Crow. (Bommer asks Yuusei to take down the dark signers for his sake.) The only thing he really says to Crow is to thank him for freeing the souls of his family. Also, it is completely swept under the rug that Bommer willfully became a dark signer to get revenge against Godwin. Prior to Crow and Bommer's duel, Bommer is actively hunting Yuusei in order to duel (and kill!!) him in the name of vengeance against Godwin. The duel doesn't engage with this concept much at all: Bommer in season 1 is a noble person with good intentions, and those intentions are willfully corrupted. Instead, the narrative pulls back and gives Bommer an out. He was merely tricked again into working for bad people, so he is absolved of all his wrongdoings. This idea flies in the face of other messaging in the show, like Aki | Akiza's arc where Aki has to acknowledge her sadistic tendencies despite being manipulated by Divine | Sayer.

Furthermore, compare Bommer's death to the death scenes for Carly with Jack or Kiryuu with Yuusei. The emotional depth could not be more different. Carly changed Jack; Jack changed Carly. Kiryuu changed Yuusei; Yuusei, in the end, changed Kiryuu. Nothing about Crow or Bommer really changed beyond Bommer finally being at peace about his village. Importantly, I think comparing these three dark signer duels is fair here considering that Crow is groomed to be the tritagonist of the whole show behind Yuusei and Jack, respectively. Crow's solo duels must have more philosophical nuance to make Crow's position feel earned to the audience. I believe this is part of why his character fell flat for some viewers.

BRAINSTORMING

As a lot of people have covered before, there are tons of different ways to go about tweaking Crow's character to make him better mesh into season 2. My recommendations are going to be limited to the DS arc exclusively, and I'm going to try to work within the established framework as much as possible—no huge plot alterations or extra fights.

To reiterate, the Bommer match needs a philosophical leg to stand on like the Yuusei and Jack fights do. I'm going to make a case for the following line up, explain how I'd get there, and argue why this type of Crow vs. Bommer fight better fits within the greater moral discussion Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's tries to have in the first two seasons. (We get a similar point about pessimism in the WRPG arc, but stick with me here and you'll see where I'm headed, I promise.)

(Explanation: In canon, Yuusei learns in his duel with Kiryuu that he is too self-sacrificing and that his over-willingness to take the fall for his friends inhibits their growth. In her duel with Jack, Carly learns that her destiny is not dictated for her. She gains the agency to live the way she'd like to, rejecting Misty's perspective in favor of Jack's views on self-determination that he—ironically—learned from Carly.)

There are a few other things I want to try to resolve here. @inkblackorchid made a good point in her post on Crow that the fan reaction to the Daedalus Bridge story was mixed. To some people, it felt like the story was shoehorned in to give Crow a thin connection to Godwin, who is the ultimate baddie of the arc. Obviously, we weren't in the writer's room to know what actually happened there, but if that fan sentiment is common enough, then it means something in the writing felt inorganic.

Another point I'd like to resolve actually deals with Ushio | Trudge's character arc. In between the time we get introduced to Crow (ep 30) and his and Bommer's dark signer fight (ep 51-53), Ushio undergoes a transformation. Ushio meets a Satellite boy, Takuya | Taka, who wants to become a police officer, and after helping Martha around the house, Ushio begins to question his role in the subjugation of these people. Ushio's change isn't met with a counterweight, however. We see Ushio understand the pain he's caused others and how he wants to do better, and everyone else at Martha's is very open to this change. No one struggles with the long-term effects of Ushio's bigotry or acknowledges that work is necessary to rebuild trust. I suggest that Crow fill that role. He's clearly had his fair share of run-ins with the police and has done jail time on multiple occasions. Back-to-back clashes with Sector Security are how we get introduced to Crow, after all!

With all that said, let's get into some changes.

A HYPER-DETAILED REWRITE

Everything until the Daedalus Bridge story goes unchanged. Crow has his intro against Sector Security, and that antagonism is reiterated during Crow and Yuusei's duels the following episode. Most importantly, this needs to establish Crow's personality baseline. He's quippy, easy-going, and fiercely loyal.

When we get to the Daedalus Bridge legend, things change slightly. Crow still insists on telling the story to the kids, and it's still implied that it's something he tells often. When the kids go to bed and the adults continue discussing it, however, Crow admits that he tells the story less because he believes in the legend and more because it provides a rare sense of optimism for kids in Satellite. Essentially, it's a lie he tells them that he himself doesn't fully believe anymore. This nuance becomes important later.

We skip the Yeager duel for now (We'll come back to it), and everything else stays the same from then on until episode 45 when the signers all head to the Satellite together. This is where we see Ushio undergo his character arc while staying with Martha. In canon, Crow is MIA in this episode, but I propose that Crow actually be there for the majority of it instead. Certainly, Ushio would know Crow from his beat cop days. Have Ushio taunt him when they first meet at Martha's with a, "You finally got out, huh?" and have Crow reply snarkily. Just something to highlight the animosity there and maybe explain why Crow was never mentioned in season 1. We then get into Ushio's arc where Martha drafts him to do chores. In the midst of it, have a scene of Crow playing in the yard with the kids (just to remind us that he's normally a happy-go-lucky guy), and he notices Ushio cooking through the window. Take a second to really show Crow's face: He's perplexed by the change but is also deeply aware of the bad blood between him and Sector Security officers in general.

The biggest change in this episode would be the dinner scene. In canon, Ushio makes the dinner for everyone and Yuusei tells the kids that, if they defeat the dark signers, the bridge between Satellite and Neo Domino City will be completed. Ushio thinks to himself that the Satellite boy Takuya could really be a police officer then. The scene is cut by a lightning strike, and a dark signer is waiting in the backyard to duel Yuusei. End dinner.

I suggest that Crow feature heavily in this scene, even if he doesn't say much. Takuya is super excited that Ushio cooked for everyone. Ushio is bashful about it. Show a moment of hesitation with Crow where he debates if he's going to eat any of this food made by a Sector Security officer and ultimately partakes. The gesture's a silent olive branch that goes unnoticed by everyone else at the table, but we as the audience can tell Crow still has something bothering him.

Yuusei proceeds to talk about the bridge like he does in canon. In the dubbed version (not the subbed), Yuusei name drops Godwin as the one who would build the bridge. At this point, Crow stands up from his chair abruptly; we can tell he's upset. Crow immediately remembers that there are kids right next to him and tries to laugh and excuse himself, saying he needs air. Yuusei clocks that something's up and follows him outside. Getting on his bike, Crow insists more honestly that he's fine and that he's going to make himself useful by looking for the dark signers. Before Yuusei heads back inside, though, Crow suddenly and seriously asks Yuusei if he believes in the Daedalus Bridge legend. Pull the standard anime trope of Yuusei just saying Crow's name and Crow shaking his head, brushing off his own question with an uncomfortable laugh. He puts his helmet on and drives off, telling Yuusei to stay safe.

With Crow gone, the kids all go to bed and Ushio has a moment alone to help clean up dinner with Martha. He contemplates how Takuya could be an officer with the bridge completed, the dark signer appears, and the duel progresses in line with canon.

Given this set up with Crow, we can get a much more interesting duel between him and Yeager now. In canon, this match happens before episode 45 at Martha's, but I think we can afford one (1) episode without a duel in order to slide this matchup further back. We can still have the B.A.D. energy explosion and all of that during episode 44 if need be. Just move Crow and Yeager's battle up to episode 47 after the scenes at Martha's and Rudger | Roman's fight with Yuusei. (Also, drop the fridge scene. If Crow is going to be a signer, have him not be affected by the dark signer magic and show him visibly confused by that turn of events. We clarify in Yuusei's duel at Martha's that signers' souls are unaffected by Earthbound Immortals. Give some foreshadowing that Crow will be the next signer so that that event doesn't come out of left field later on.)

So, episode 47. Crow would initially be looking for the dark signers around B.A.D. but recognizes Yeager. He's the second-in-command of Sector Security. I'm sure the plot could allow Crow to know who Yeager is. Crow therefore challenges Yeager not under the pretense of believing Yeager is a dark signer but because he has questions about Godwin and his intentions with the bridge. Crow could make a lot of valid points here. If Godwin was capable of building the bridge, why didn't he do it years ago? What changes after the bridge is built? Do all the struggles of the people of Satellite cease to exist and it's all kumbaya afterward?

Moreover, the Daedalus Bridge legend Crow feeds the kids is based on someone from Satellite building the bridge through blood, sweat, and tears. Godwin building the bridge would be a handout from Neo Domino, which hasn't gone through the effort to change its discriminatory views of the Satellite. In fact, Godwin is the literal head of Sector Security, the very people who've worked to subjugate Crow and his friends. Those would be some very complicated, understandable, and messy feelings for Crow to reckon with. In this way, the Yeager-Crow match would provide a huge pay off to the audience since it's the first time we're allowed into Crow's head about any this.

Therefore, this setup establishes Crow as an natural counterweight to Ushio's arc:

Ultimately, the duel with Yeager ends in a similar way to canon with it being interrupted by a dark signer mark—it could even be the summoning of the spider mark during Yuusei and Rudger's match. Worried, Crow checks on his kids, finds they are missing, and heads out looking for a fight with the dark signers as usual.

Here is where I would add the only entirely new scene to this plot line. At this point in canon, all the signers are heading to different terminals to fight their own personalized dark signer. Yuusei is going to fight Kiryuu, and this is where he runs into Crow and Bommer, acting as a weird third wheel for their fight. Instead, don't involve Yuusei at all in the Crow vs. Bommer match. Leave this battle entirely between Bommer and Crow.

However, while both Yuusei and Crow are driving—Yuusei to fight Kiryuu and Crow to (unknowingly) fight Bommer—have Yuusei call Crow up on his D-Wheel. Or have them run into each other separately if their calls can't go through. Either way, Crow needs to be informed that Martha's dead, that the dark signers are waiting for them, and that Ushio was the one who saved Takuya—much to Crow's surprise. Also, we need closure about Crow and Yuusei's earlier conversation. What does Yuusei think about the Daedalus Bridge legend?

Yuusei presents the following opinion: It doesn't matter if the legend is true or not. Sometimes, you just need something to believe in.

This view for Yuusei is strongly supported by canon. In fact, after Martha's death in episode 47, Yuusei tells her adopted family that beating the dark signers will bring back the souls of those who have been lost. Jack quickly calls Yuusei out on this, as Yuusei admits he actually has no idea if that's the truth. It's simply something Yuusei has to believe is real in order to stay sane.

This kind of conversation would dovetail Crow's arc really nicely, and afterward, he goes into his fight with Bommer with that conceptualization of hope on his mind.

(Just an observation, but after Crow finds the kids missing in canon, he literally goes and stares off the end of the Daedalus Bridge. Great place for that conversation with Yuusei.)

For Bommer, I'd do a complete rewrite of his motivations in this match. In canon, he maintains all of his nobility and only is a dark signer under the false pretense that Godwin killed his family. When that pretense is revealed to be untrue, Bommer completely changes and no longer wants to fight Crow. His rationale for dueling is entirely constructed on lies and doesn't unveil any deeper worldview.

Instead, have it be true that Godwin is the reason his family is dead—don't get the dark signers involved in that at all. Bommer is 100% working to kill Godwin and destroy the signers because Godwin truly is a monster who used his village as his own personal Crimson Dragon playground. This version of Bommer would be jaded by society and its power structures and would want to burn it all down. To him, society is beyond saving, and given that Bommer's initial values of nobility and devotion left him vulnerable to manipulation in season 1, Bommer in season 2 would be satisfied with rejecting those values in order to pursue his own brand of justice, regardless of who he hurts in the process.

We now have the ground work for a super interesting philosophical conflict. Crow becomes the only person who makes sense as an opponent for Bommer. Both have lost their families. Both have been hurt by Godwin. And unlike Yuusei, both Crow and Bommer could be painted as people who struggle with believing flawed systems can be rectified. They remain mirror characters like how they are in canon, only Bommer is more solidly an extension of Crow's internal philosophy. While Crow is skeptical of peace, Bommer is outright antagonistic toward it because he's been so thoroughly screwed over. Give me a man who once was honorable and now is willing to destroy society if it means erasing the power structures that have harmed him. That leaves us with duel philosophies that look like this:

With this set up, there's no resolving Bommer's hurt. His family isn't coming back if he loses, and the damage done to him by those in power is something that can't be remedied by him losing a duel. Instead, Bommer has to lose the duel because he learns that his worldview is wrong. He has become the very villain he once professed to hate. In this way, Bommer's trauma parallels Crow's. Nothing can undo the suffering of the people of Satellite, not even completing the Daedalus Bridge. Their connection over pain could be emphasized by Bommer commenting that Crow couldn't possibly understand the suffering Godwin's inflicted on him and have Crow reply that he has his suffering tattooed on his goddamn face.

Through fighting Bommer, Crow has to come to grips with this parallel. If he's not careful, Bommer is who Crow could become, and that reality shakes him to the core. It catalyzes Crow to embrace Yuusei's philosophy on hope. Like Yuusei said, it doesn't matter if the Daedalus Bridge legend is real or not. Change can be won through grit and determination, and Crow has to believe that in order to not fall victim to the same ideologies that corrupted Bommer. In other words, Crow is someone who struggles to imagine a life where he doesn't need his wings, where he can literally walk across a bridge to the place he wants to go. But by the end of the duel, Crow understands that he has to believe it's possible and urges Bommer to believe the same.

The duel essentially unfolds the same way from here on out: Bommer's motion to end the duel is foiled by dark signer magic, forcing Crow to finish him off, and Bommer sacrifices himself to save Crow. Before he dies, he asks Crow to build that better future, choosing to believe that he and Yuusei can achieve it.

In canon, this duel is followed by Yuusei's battle with Kiryuu. Crow canonically watches this match along side Rua | Leo, Ruka | Luna , and—wouldn't you know it—Ushio. Close out Crow's character arc with a more amenable nod to Ushio and a thanks for saving Takuya. There's a mutual understanding from here on out that he and Ushio see eye-to-eye on the need for Satellite and Neo Domino City to bury the hatchet in order to pursue peace. This character arc could also better explain Crow's motivation to join the police at the end of the series. He is more explicitly determined to change the institution from the inside out whereas this motivation is only loosely implied in canon.

With this change to Crow and Bommer's duel, Crow's connection toward Godwin is also more thoroughly explored. Godwin eventually is revealed to be the man from the Daedalus Bridge story, which Crow canonically takes a huge issue with, decrying Godwin for sullying their legend of hope. With a rewrite, Crow's view of the legend is more nuanced, and his faith in unity is now founded in Crow's own sense of self, not the legend. It gives Crow's argument toward Godwin more weight, as we've seen him grow into his current feelings that hope for the future is a choice we all must make.

CONCLUSION

Obviously, this rewrite isn't perfect, and even beyond the DS arc, Crow's character could be further retooled to give him more interesting things to do. That being said, giving Crow a character arc early on could've gone a long way toward making him a more organic member of the Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's cast. In canon, his most compelling character trait is that he spits in the face of destiny by defeating a dark signer while he is a normal person. That concept is immediately dashed when Crow becomes a signer at the end of the arc. Crow therefore must connect with the themes of Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's in a different way if he is going to be a signer.

So, as I said in the beginning, a trifecta of Yuusei, Jack, and Crow meshes better when the three of them embody a different element of the story's core themes.

Yuusei represents sacrifice and unity. He's no longer willing to be a doormat for his friends after his fight with Kiryuu, but he is willing to let bygones be bygones for the sake of a brighter future. This attitude is necessary in order for Satellite and Neo Domino City to move beyond their differences.

Jack represents free will and self-determination. After being manipulated by Godwin's sweet talk, Jack is determined to define who he is and his place in the world on his own terms. Again, this attitude is necessary for redefining the Neo Domino-Satellite relationship later on.

Lastly, Crow more clearly represents hope. He embraces this motif in the source material with the Daedalus Bridge story, but in this rewrite, it is emphasized that that hope isn't some mythical, innate belief. Hope for the world is an active choice that Crow wrestles with and—eventually—adheres to. That dogged hope is essential in order to bring Satellite and Neo Domino City together against the odds. Crow having this kind of arc therefore aligns with the larger conversation of Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's.

What are your thoughts on Crow and/or Bommer? How would you change their fight? Also, who's your favorite 5Ds character?

Thanks for reading this absolute monster!

[stardustlegacy-cosplay]

"Let's go, Team Satisfaction!"

🎊 Happy Birthday Kiryu Kyosuke 🎊

#鬼柳京介誕生満足祭

#鬼柳京介生誕祭2024

#鬼柳京介誕生祭2024

Kiryu Kyosuke: me

📸: @ cyberse1701 (Insta)

🖌: @ votodream_fantasy_cosplay (Insta)

[asksakura1125td]

Ygo haul! Was supposed to get these back in November but the release got pushed back. Which honestly worked out better in the end for me lol

[1apple-fox1]

revenge from this attack in 2022! one of my faves. I started the sketch last year and unfortunately didn't quite finish it in time, so congrats on the first attack of this year, it goes to you!

[theloveinc]

"semiu wlw queen of gk!!!!!" yes i agree but also. kyoka.

[dabihaul666]

he gets the seal so jun wont miss him when they play on seperate teams next season :"). btw.

[nyupuun]

Yusei being autistic is not even a headcanon to me it's just canon.

[inkblackorchid]

What the hell happened with Crow: an autopsy (Part 3)

Trying my absolute damnedest to finish this one and part four sooner now that I've finally covered the Pearson backstory. *Ehem* Hello again! I hope you're ready for more yelling about a certain spiky-haired Blackbird aficionado, because I sure am.

To get some things out of the way first, though, here come the usual disclaimers:

This is part three of a series of posts about hpw Crow's character was handled during 5Ds' whole run. You can find part one here and part two here. Reading them technically isn't required, but things sure will make a whole lot more sense if you do. (Bring snacks, they're long.)

This post isn't meant as a Crow hate post, nor is it meant to convince people who didn't vibe with his character to change their mind. This is my very long winded-attempt to analyse the writing decisions surrounding his character as best I can, without too much bias. That said, full disclosure, I do personally like Crow, so there's a good chance that will shine through whether I want it to or not. But also, I'm trying to have fun here, so please cut me some slack.

In case you haven't read my previous Crow posts (no shade there) and/or still believe the many, many production rumours that have been haunting the 5Ds fandom since the show's original run, please let me burst your bubble(s) with some insanely comprehensive research by someone over on Reddit (thanks again to @mbg159, who's also here on tumblr): No, Crow was not meant to be a dark signer, or the final boss of season 1, and his spike in screentime has nothing to do with his cards. And also, No, Aki didn't get less presence in the narrative because her VA got pregnant. What if you don't have the time to read either of those long posts? In that case, please take away this simple, very easy rebuttal of why the above theories are bullshit: Their would-be "key points" don't line up with the 5Ds production timeline. At all. Not even vaguely. So please, ditch them, let them die, seeing them still talked about makes me feel like I'm gonna break out in hives. And for the love of god, don't use this post or in fact anything else I post to pit Aki and Crow against each other. Both characters have their strengths and their reasons to love them. I am not the least bit interested in starting any character discourse. So please, spare my sanity. Ok? Thank you.

And now, we can get to the good part at last. In my previous post in this series, I stopped my analysis at episode 95, a.k.a. part two of the Pearson backstory. In this post, I will thus be picking up right after, at the very start of the WRGP—with the Team Unicorn match. The goal for this post is to analyse Crow's part in this particular arc, then provide some food for thought/ideas on how things that rubbed some people the wrong way could have been improved.

More below the readmore, and I give you not just my usual warning, but an extra warning, too: The universe will not let me write short things, so tread with caution, stay hydrated, and expect a veritable dissertation below, because this post feels long even to me, who has long since lost her sense of length when it comes to text. (But I'm well aware this is the result of me refusing to split the WRGP part into two separate posts, so I take full responsibility for that.)

Since we left off right after I chewed through all the issues with Crow's rather belated backstory and especially Black-Winged Dragon last time, we jump right into the thick of things now, with episodes 96 and 97, which serve as the preamble to Team 5Ds' first WRGP duel against Team Unicorn. Crow only gets two major things to do during this short stretch of episodes, the first being that he's Team Unicorn's gateway into roping Yusei into a duel during practice, which helps them set up a ruse that baits the 5Ds gang into sending Jack as their first wheeler because they think Jack's deck is best suited to countering Andre's—which, as it later turns out, it is not.

(Arguably the screenshot where Crow gives off the strongest Youngest Sibling Vibes during the entire show. Look at him, all chastised.)

Crow's second role is an odd one that I argue only he out of the main three guys could fulfill at this point: He's the one to get injured right before the Team Unicorn match, rendering him unable to compete, which leads to Aki offering to take his place for that particular match.

(Pictured: Bird Boy regretting all his life choices up until that point simultaneously.)

Here's the first moment I have to talk about in greater detail. See, the thing is, I don't know what the fandom consensus on Crow getting injured here is, but I argue that this moment was a (rare) strategic decision made by the writers at this point. Crow's injury accomplished several things: 1. It sets up the mystery of why his back wheel locked up out of nowhere, which is later paid off through Team Catastrophe's shenanigans. 2. It organically allows Aki to take his spot without introducing any argument about which of them is "worthier" of having that third spot. 3. Through this, it also allows him to actually bounce off Aki for once (a point I will come back to below, during the Team Catastrophe section). And 4. It allows the show to (TECHNICALLY) pay off the setup they did in letting Aki get her turbo duelling license and train with the boys. (Generally, Crow's and Aki's character writing intersects a bit during the pre-Diablo incident WRGP section, something I'll touch on below.)

Moreover, I think this is also the only match where they could have done something like this, and the reason for it is very simple: Team Unicorn are one-off opponents whose presence in the narrative is only relevant as far as it concerns the WRGP, and they are also one of the first teams the 5Ds gang faces. If we think about the opponents Team 5Ds has after this, it becomes very obvious why Crow could only be injured during this duel: If they had tried pulling this stunt later, it would have forced the writers to pull Aki centre stage during a much more plot-relevant duel than this one (which they were apparently allergic to, but let's not go there), not to speak of the fact that it would have forced them to sideline someone they were definitely trying to sell as the third portion of their protagonist trifecta, which would have probably been awkward. (If not for the fact that they literally did this to Crow later in the show, but I'll get there. Yes, I know there's a lot already that I'll still be "getting to".)

The thing is, whether or not it feels like an awkward writing choice to make so early in the big tournament of this arc (you be the judge of that), Crow's injury finally allows him to have a few interesting character moments for once. For one, there is his immediate disappointment about being forced to stay on the sidelines. Aside from the fact that this is a human and relatable reaction to his injury, it stings even more for the character than it does for us as the audience, because Crow got a moment where the Satellite orphans he previously took care of cheer him on for the tournament literally within the same two Team Unicorn preamble episodes.

(Say what you will, this is just stupid cute.)

So when Aki eventually offers to take his place during the match, he's understandably apprehensive—and again, this is human. It may seem mean in the moment, but from a character writing standpoint, it's a natural response. Plus, it's certainly more interesting to watch the group have a bit of conflict among themselves, rather than everyone immediately jumping straight to acceptance. It introduces tension, and, for however brief a moment, raises the question of whether Crow might refuse to let Aki take his spot. This is also the point where Aki and Crow's character writing officially intertwines, at least for the stretch of episodes between the Team Unicorn duel and the Team Catastrophe duel. And you know what? Say what you will, but I think it does a world of good for both of them. The 5Ds cast, as lovely as it is, doesn't get a lot of room to bounce off one another where it concerns personal matters anymore, once the WRGP starts. Arguably, they get little time to bounce off one another outside of plot-related discussions at all once this portion of the show comes around. The characters are treated as "fully developed", and thus, the writing largely doesn't take the time to show us how the group naturally interacts with one another anymore, especially not with how many side characters (chiefly Bruno and Sherry), antagonists, and duels the show now has to juggle. So Aki and Crow getting even a smidgen of personal conflict here is honestly a breath of fresh air. The interaction kicked off by Crow's injury isn't completely plot-irrelevant, like most character interactions during the pre-WRGP were, but it's not something that feels like it's only there to explain the machinations of the antagonists to the audience, either.

Let me go through this in a little more detail to illustrate my point.

So, episode 97. Crow storms off after Aki offers to take his spot, while Aki heads out to prepare her runner, intent on helping her team. The personal motivations here are already very nice and reflective of these characters as we've gotten to know them up until this point: Crow's angry and disappointed (mostly at himself, which is noteworthy!) because he can't compete. And specifically, he's angry because not being able to compete in the first match means he can't show the kids his duelling like he wanted to. Then there's Aki, whose offer to take Crow's place is every bit as much of a strategic suggestion as it is a bid for acceptance from her. Acceptance, which is the thing she's been all about ever since she was introduced, basically. So she pleads with her friends to accept her, see her as an equal, and allow her to duel for the team, which they do. And Crow initially throws a fit, but then...

(Listen. You have no idea how much Crow and Aki getting to actually be friends means to me.)

He comes around to the idea and not only gives Aki his express permission to take his spot, he even coaches her a bit right before the match. Moreover, as his text states above, he literally entrusts her with the kids' hopes, as well as his own. This quickly brings both of them full circle: Crow, who already has a theme of legacy attached to him, passes the torch to Aki for this match, and in so doing, offers her the acceptance she asked her teammates for. (Frankly, stuff like this makes me wonder why on earth people were so eager to pit these two against each other, when their shared moments are actually some of the best-written during the often rocky WRGP arc.) So, though this injury pulls Crow out of the duel, it, funnily enough, ties him better into the story and to the other characters.

From there, we then dive into the Team Unicorn match proper. And well, being injured as he is, Crow doesn't exactly get a whole lot to do there. However, since we're in the portion where his and Aki's writing overlaps a bit, I do need to go on a quick tangent about what Aki's portion of this duel means for Crow.

(Sigh. Okay, buckle up for a quick and rough detour.)

First, something I need to get out of the way and off my chest: I have made no secret out of the fact that I hate Aki's portion of this duel, save for the moment where she summons Stardust. Hell, this duel segment is pretty much universally hated by anone who has even a smidgen of sympathy for Aki. It's regarded by many as the very moment the writers axed Aki's character, and for good reason: After all the buildup surrounding her getting her turbo duelling license, the supposed "payoff" of it all is that she gets to duel against Andre for a depressing four turns before being defeated immediately, which leads into Yusei's frustrating portion of this duel, which, to my knowledge, isn't regarded any more kindly by fans than Aki's segment. It's a massive let-down, simply put. But the thing is, it's not just a let-down for Aki. After all, the brief character conflict she had with Crow about taking his spot here can and should be regarded as part of the setup for this moment, and as such, it can also be considered to be wasted the second Aki leaves the track after barely making an impact whatsoever.

However, I do need to mention that I have a theory on why this segment was handled the way it was, mostly because I feel like Crow's later interaction with Aki, shortly after she's out of the duel, underlines it (mind that this is just my personal theory, though, after having watched the show perhaps more times than can be considered sane): I think there is a cultural aspect to this duel. See, the word ganbaru, which anime subtitles often like to translate with "do your best" or something along the lines, has a greater significance than the translation implies. Though it's not inaccurate per se, there's more than just the idea of doing your best behind ganbaru, because it's something like an umbrella term not just for doing your best and succeeding, it's also the idea that you have to keep trying, even if you don't succeed. It's related to tenacity, to persistence, even in the face of terrible odds. And make no mistake, I don't mean the Japanese equivalent of "if at first you don't succeed, try again" here. I genuinely do mean "you have to keep trying, even if you fail". There is no guarantee of success here. And for that reason, the idea behind ganbaru is also that it's not simply the success that has value, but the effort made in the attempt to attain it, regardless of the result. (Side note: I tried to scrounge up a resource I could link to that nicely explains this concept, but unfortunately, all the promising articles were paywalled and the ones I learned it from require institutional access to lecture materials.) And this is where I will posit the tentative theory that this is exactly what the 5Ds writers were going for with Aki's segment of the duel—it was very much meant to be the payoff for her turbo duelling license setup and her plea to take Crow's place, but it wasn't so much her success that was meant to be valued, as the effort she (and by extension, Crow) made for and during this duel. And this is where Crow's little pep-talk with Aki after she's out of the duel comes in, because it feels like it supports exactly this interpretation:

(This is essentially the whole sequence. Note how Crow, despite so fervently entrusting Aki with his and his kids' hopes prior, doesn't admonish her for making a bad showing in the slightest.)

I don't think it gets any clearer than it is here. During this sequence, Aki is painfully aware of how poor her performance was against Andre, especially after she was so insistent on duelling at first, and despite having been entrusted with Stardust by Yusei, to boot. Yet, Crow doesn't have a single word of criticism to offer her. Instead, he even tells her she did well and that nobody's perfect. It very much reads as valuing Aki's effort over the result she achieved to me, and thus seems perfectly in line with the idea behind ganbaru.

However, if we assume I'm correct about the intentions behind this writing choice, we come back to why Aki's segment of the duel is so hotly debated and why it may have arguably been a disservice not just to her, but to Crow, too, character-wise. Because the majority of non-Japanese watchers of the show culturally don't have a 1:1 applicable concept like ganbaru, this writing choice was more likely to fall flat for them, because to someone who wasn't raised to understand the idea behind it, Aki's portion of the duel doesn't register as a payoff; it registers as a massive disappointment, because it feels like the writers, who had so much setup already done for her, let her fail on purpose, just to later let Yusei attain his arguably dumbest victory of the entire show. Thus, they also essentially waste the conflict she had with Crow about whether she would be allowed to take his spot in the first place, because with how little she achieved during the duel, she may as well not have gotten on the track. (Figuratively speaking. Please Do Not take this to mean I would prefer a version where Aki hadn't duelled at all. That would be worse. It would be infinitely worse.)

(Also, side note: If this post reaches anyone who's actually Japanese and still remembers this duel, I would genuinely love your input on whether my interpretation is feasible or just wishful thinking. Did you interpret Aki's part of the duel the way I did here? Or did it fall flat for you, too? If what I'm saying here feels like an absolute reach, please tell me. I'm honestly just trying my best to make things make sense here and remembered this concept from some classes I took in Japanese studies at uni.)

With all that in mind, it doesn't come as a surprise that some people were just as frustrated with the way Crow was barred from duelling here as they were with Aki's segment or Yusei's later victory. But it is what it is—the Unicorn duel concludes the way we all know it to, and with that, the show begins setting up the following duel with Team Catastrophe.

The only other, non duel-related, noteworthy thing that happens between the Unicorn and the Catastrophe match is a brief appearance at the Poppo Time by Sherry, who admonishes the signers for celebrating their victory early and warns them about Iliaster. Why do I bring this up? Because it's one of less than five times that Crow is in the same room with Sherry. Remember, Sherry. The girl he later, during the finale, talks out of working for the big bad evil guy because he suddenly seems to have such a deep understanding of her motivations and character that he can accurately deduce what argument will make her understand that working with Z-ONE won't give her what she's looking for. So, does Crow get a meaningful interaction with her during this scene, then? Nope. Not even in the slightest. Crow says exactly one sentence that is aimed at Sherry during her appearance, and that sentence is this:

(What a meaningful conversation!)

And yes, I will come back to Crow and Sherry's dynamic in particular. But we'll save that for the Ark Cradle arc post. For now, just keep it in mind as we move along to the other WRGP duels.

So. Team Catasrophe.

During the duel against this team, which was previously only hinted at ominously, the writing for Crow and Aki overlaps again, and this starts with the writers essentially doing a complete switcheroo of what came before: Instead of Crow getting injured and being unable to compete, it's Aki who crashes, ends up in the hospital, and is thus forced to give up her spot during the duel. (This also goes hand in hand with her suddenly losing her powers, which we are given absolutely zero explanation for, but let's not talk about that clusterfuck here. If you're interested in my opinions about that particular trainwreck, I have a rant for you.) Additionally, it's during this stretch of episodes (103-105, which is a whopping four episodes less than Team Unicorn got) that we find out that not only Aki's crash, but Crow's previous one, too, were both sabotage, caused by the rather unscrupulous Team Catastrophe by way of a special card that can cause real damage even when there is no psychic duellist present. (A card we also find out was given to them by Placido/Primo, but this is irrelevant for both Aki and Crow.) Crow's reaction to this piece of information, particularly once Aki gets injured due to the same thing, is where things get interesting for him again, because he gets pissed, to say the least.

(A moment I imagine firebirdshippers must have been positively delighted about.)

Here, I have to reiterate an earlier point: Think what you will of Team Catastrophe, of Aki's crash, and of the sequence where her powers suddenly don't work, but this moment here, where Crow gets angry on her behalf and swears to duel Team Catastrophe into submission—not because he wants his kids to cheer for him, or because he wants to prove himself, but as revenge for his friend—is one of sadly only a handful of moments the writers use to show the strengthened relationships between the individual members of Team 5Ds after the dark signers arc. It's one of the precious few scenes that actually shows, rather than tells us or lets us search for scraps in the subtext, that the signers, and the members of Team 5Ds as a whole, care for each other outside of revolving around Yusei like planets around the sun. Even if it's laughably small, it's at least a hint that there are individual friendships between the other signers, too, that they all stick around one another for reasons beyond gravitating towards Yusei for one reason or another. And for that alone, I'm grateful that they put this here, even if Team Catastrophe was otherwise so ridiculous and made such a bad showing at their actual match that they could barely be taken seriously as antagonists at all.

Speaking of which. The actual meat of the matter. The Team Catastrophe match. What does Crow do here? Well, he duels! Even though he wasn't supposed to, for injury-related reasons. What both his participation as well as the actual duel accomplish, though, are that they not only showcase previously established character traits of Crow's again, but they also make a (possibly unintended) callback to a previous, major duel Crow took part in: His dark signer duel against Bommer/Greiger. Where and how? Let's see.

Firstly, Crow's participation. The reactions of the other characters to this make it very evident that Team 5Ds did not plan for this, with Yusei and Jack even going as far as to say they "had no choice" but to let Crow duel, because he insisted. This is perfectly in line with the stubbornness we already know from him at this point—a stubbornness that was also a major reason for why he took Bommer on and later continued his duel with said man, despite Yusei showing up and telling him he shouldn't be duelling a dark signer.

Secondly, there's the manoeuvring thing, and here's where I can call attention to a fun tidbit: The WRGP isn't what introduces the concept of manual mode during turbo duels to the audience. It's Crow. During his duel with Bommer. Being crafty and a bit shrewd as he is, Crow, during said duel in the DS arc, purposefully switches to manual mode when he duels Bommer, because he figures that attacks that can deal real damage can probably be evaded if you actually have control over your runner and aren't stuck in autopilot.

(Don't believe me? Here it is. And frankly, it is somewhat hilarious, yet also very fitting that Crow is the only one who thinks to do this during a duel with a dark signer.)

The reason this particular bit is relevant during the Team Catastrophe duel is because Crow essentially repeats this trick here. Of course, it's a bit less impactful now, given that manual mode is standard for WRGP duels, but still: Due to Hook, the Hidden Knight, Crow is forced to pay attention to the track and manually evade the monster's attempts to make his back wheel lock up during the duel, mirroring how he thought to manually evade Bommer's attacks during the DS arc.

Thirdly, there's the revenge angle, and this one is a particularly juicy callback. Remember, Crow's major reason for taking on Team Catastrophe, despite being injured, is that he wants to get revenge for Aki. This directly parallels how his major reason for duelling Bommer during the DS arc was that he wanted revenge for his kids, whom he believed to be dead at that point in time. (It also, interestingly, establishes a bit of a connection to his deck, which boasts a fair amount of revenge effects, but I'll not get into that here, seeing as I've talked about Crow's cards a bit before.)

Keep in mind, despite all the things listed above that this duel accomplishes, it's also by far the shortest WRGP duel. It lasts a whole six turns, total, which is ludicrous compared to the likes of 27-turn Team Unicorn, 26-turn Team Taiyou, or 25-turn Team Ragnarok. And I don't think it's controversial to say that the Catastrophe guys are probably the most forgettable WRGP Team, too. Yet, somehow, despite all its shortcomings in terms of memorable antagonists and plot relevance, this is one of the best duels of the WRGP where Crow's character writing is concerned. Now, I'll be perfectly candid: Coming into this post, I did not expect the Team Catastrophe duel, of all things, to end up being as good at actually showcasing Crow's character and his ties to other characters (who aren't Yusei) as it was, but here we are. And we had better hold on to the good the Team Unicorn - Catastrophe segment did for Crow, because the next thing that's coming up is a harsh break from the WRGP, starting with the sudden appearance of Placido's home-engineered army of killer duel robots. And what does Crow get to do during this part?

Uh. Well.

(Pictured: Bird Boy being demoted to benchwarmer while the city's being ransacked by murder duel robots.)

Nothing. A whole lot of nothing, is what.

During the duel robot invasion, we only ever flash back to Crow to ascertain that he is, in fact, useless during this part of the show, something he shares in common with Ruka, Rua, and Aki here, because all of them get pretty much nothing to do while Yusei finally gets the hang of accel synchro. Granted, Aki gets to save a little girl at the hospital, but in comparison to Yusei's lengthy, plot-heavy duel with Placido, this feels like a consolation prize. And for once, Jack is only marginally better off, too, because sure, he gets to beat up a couple of robots, but that's it, really.

Where Crow is concerned, his plot relevance doesn't actually resume once the Placido duel finishes, though. (And neither does Rua's, Ruka's, or Aki's, while we're at it.) Because wouldn't you know it, the next big thing directly after the duel robot invasion are the Red Nova episodes, where three out of five signers (Crow, Aki, and Ruka, unsurprisingly) are removed from the screen almost in their entirety again while Jack gets his much-needed dragon upgrade so he can keep up with Yusei, in order to uphold his status as a classic, almost-evenly-matched yugioh rival.

Speaking of upgrades and dragons, let's make a quick detour while our protag and rival duo take their express vacation to the Nazca plains. It is, of course, no secret that no signer outside of Yusei and Jack ever got a dragon upgrade within the anime. (No, I'm not forgetting about Life Stream Dragon. But that one, unlike Shooting Star Dragon and Red Nova Dragon, was a.) teased all the way back in the DS arc and b.) didn't have a unique summoning method or some other gimmick that made it an "elevated" synchro. So I'm discounting Life Stream as a "proper" dragon upgrade on purpose.) Is this the point where I start arguing that Crow should have gotten one, then? Well, not quite. Not with the writing the show canonically gave us, at least—after all, with how late Black-Winged Dragon was introduced, it would have been bonkers to upgrade him here already, if even at all. However, I do argue that the way the show hands only Yusei and Jack upgrades seems a bit... off. Now, I know why only those two get upgrades, or at least I think I do. After all, they're the central protag/rival duo, and within the framework of the character archetypes the larger yugioh canon has created for itself, this would have always made them the first, if not the only candidates for dragon upgrades. What feels a bit off to me, though, is that specifically the 5Ds cast feels like it... chafes a bit against those character archetypes, for lack of a better word. The problem is this: The signers, as far as the first two arcs are concerned, are sold to us as equals who all have very powerful ace monsters. Yes, Jack and Yusei are still undoubtedly the best duellists among them, but not on account of having uber-powerful extra special monsters that were acquired through supernatural means that are categorically inaccessible to the other signers. However, with the appearance of Shooting Star and Red Nova, this changes. While Yusei and Jack were previously and would have always been the two guys who had a Special dynamic with a capital "S" on account of their character archetypes, their acquisition of the dragon upgrades—and even more so, the lack of upgrades their fellow signers receive—now decidedly puts them in a different power bracket and skews the balance between previous, supposedly "equal" characters. (Which, unfortunately, is yet another thing that makes everyone else easier to sideline.)

Why do I bring all this up in a post dedicated to Crow? Because this new power imbalance arguably impacts him more than the other signers—because he's Team 5Ds' second wheeler and doesn't miss another WRGP match from here on out. Thus, that power imbalance is felt in the upcoming duels, where Yusei and Jack bust out Shooting Star and Red Nova like it's nothing, while Crow is left manoeuvring with the somewhat underpowered Black-Winged Dragon and whatever else he can come up with. This is also why I claimed that the show did sideline Crow in some aspects further above. Because while some parts of his writing go to great pains to establish him as part of a protagonist trifecta that is now supposed to take centre stage before the other characters, he also permanently lives in Jack and Yusei's shadow, ultimately barred not just from reaching equal status as a signer (due to his late and rocky introduction and dragon acquisition), but also barred from becoming the equal of his foster brothers as a duellist. Frankly, I'm surprised the show didn't make this a plot point, because the first thing my mind jumps to when I think about this is whether Crow felt left behind after his brothers acquired such immensely powerful, special cards. But more on my personal writing ideas later. For now, let's just put a pin in the power-imbalance thing.

So, when is Crow back on screen in any meaningful role, then? (Note that I mean this as literally as possible. As per my discussion about "screentime" and my gripes about it in part two, I gloss over the parts where Crow is on screen, but could be traded for any other signer or even a lamppost without affecting the scene at all.)

Well, the next thing Crow gets to do isn't exactly glorious, but it sure is funny.

(I want you all to remember that he has to wear this costume and play this part in Team 5Ds' absurd plan to capture Yaeger/Lazar because he lost at rock-paper-scissors. This will never not be funny to me.)

Ignoring the hilarious outfit and Crow playing the bait at a fabricated cup ramen promo event meant to lure Yaeger in, bird boy does actually get something that's not just for funsies to do during the two episodes where Team 5Ds is trying to get more information about Iliaster: He gets to have a duel revanche against Yaeger, who, if we remember the DS arc, ditched him the last time they squared off. Much like the Team Catastrophe duel, this one, too, calls back to previous duels Crow has had: For one, it's the obvious conclusion to his unfinished, first duel with Yaeger. And for two, Crow repeats a "trick" (for lack of a better term) here that is also unique to him: losing on purpose, which we remember from his duel with Lyndon.

(Identical-looking clown family jumpscare be upon ye.)

And again, much like getting injured for the Team Unicorn duel, I argue that this story beat here is something that could also only have been accomplished with Crow. Because he's the only one who has previously duelled Yaeger, firstly, because not wanting to make a child cry by beating their dad in a duel makes sense for him as a character due to him being a family-oriented person who loves children, secondly, and because losing on purpose in this scenario is a tactic that would seem out of character from anyone else, thirdly. (We recall, the only times Jack and Yusei, respectively, ever consider/offer to lose on purpose is when the lives of people close to them are on the line, in the shape of Carly/Rally. As for the others, aside from not being present, Aki, Rua, and Ruka are so heavily sidelined at this point that they would have never been an option for this. And if his writing is anything to go by, Bruno is mostly purposefully forbidden from accomplishing Plot Things, especially through duels, while he's Bruno.) But hey, due to the way this episode is set up, losing on purpose works out for Crow, because it convinces Yaeger to stop hiding and actually share his knowledge about Iliaster. This, by the way, is the second scene where Crow gets to be in a room with Sherry for a longer stretch of time. And look, him joking that Sherry might kill Yaeger if he doesn't spill the beans about Iliaster soon is fun and all, but in light of the Ark Cradle duel later, I have to point out that he, again, doesn't get to have so much as a shred of a meaningful conversation with Sherry here. Again. But moving on. The scene with Yaeger at the Poppo Time then leads us first to the small sequence in the arcade where the gang has to win a simulated duel to get Yaeger's encoded intel, then to episode 116—the Moment Express episode, where, due to this being a Yusei, Sherry, and Bruno-focussed episode, Crow gets nothing to do again. (And also doesn't get to interact with Sherry again.)

Congrats! We've survived the WRGP break. This leaves us with three more WRGP duels before shit hits the fan and the Ark Cradle arc commences. And full disclosure, I'll be doing a bit of a quick-fire round of those three duels. Why? Because despite them all having their merits in their own rights (they're the better liked duels of the WRGP for a reason), there honestly isn't that much focus on Crow during them. He duels, yes, and I've seen people point this out over and over again as the supposed smoking gun that shows how Crow had so much more relevance and screentime than Aki and yadda, yadda. We've been there. And it's not that I can't see where this argument is coming from—I'll be the first to tell you that it's a travesty that Aki never got to duel in the WRGP again outside of the Unicorn match. But I want to use the final three matches to dig into how the way these matches—and especially the opponents to go with them—were set up made it nearly impossible for Aki to replace Crow again during any point of the WRGP finals.

First, episode 118. This is the only preamble episode we get for the first two WRGP finals teams, and here, our group is split in two: Yusei, Bruno, and Rua introduce us to Team Taiyou, while Jack, Aki, and Crow introduce us to Team Ragnarok. There isn't much to say here, because the only thing this episode does for Crow is a shallow repeat of what the Team Catastrophe duel did: By putting him in a group with Aki and Jack, and letting them decide among themselves, independently, to check out the exhibition match, it implies that he voluntarily spends time with signers who aren't Yusei. Thumbs up. Gold star. You made an effort (I guess). Then, the real fun starts.

Round one. Team Taiyou.

(Pictured: The sweetest country bumpkins to ever grace this earth. Yes, I'm biased.)

So here's the deal with Team Taiyou, from a narrative standpoint, as best as I can grasp it: They are a callback to Team 5Ds' roots. Specifically, to the boys' Satellite roots. The Taiyou boys come from humble origins, have only one, mostly home-engineered duel runner, and play using old cards that are widely considered shitty, as 5Ds canon tells us. They are essentially the non-signer, countryside version of what Jack, Crow, and Yusei once were, which is why this is the first duel where the duellist constellation on Team 5Ds' end couldn't possibly have been altered. Team Taiyou is there to remind us where our boys started, so it has to be our boys duelling them. This also goes for Crow, even though this duel otherwise doesn't accomplish much for him, character-wise. Instead, it's more of a narrative wink at the audience, as well as providing a breather between otherwise extremely tense, plot-focussed duels. But yeah, Crow's part in this match isn't much to write home about; he doesn't get any verbal interactions that are very meaningful to his character, can't get so much as a scratch in on Zushin, even with Black-Winged Dragon, and is defeated so Yusei can take out the legendary giant.

Round two. Team Ragnarok.

(Behold the pizzazz of at least two contenders for Haircuts With The Most Spikes in the show.)

Though this duel is framed as being even more so aimed towards bolstering Jack's character writing than Crow's, given the inclusion of Dragan's personal history with Jack, Team Ragnarok gets significantly more interesting for Crow again than Team Taiyou did. This is, of course, mainly because of Brave/Broder. Where Team Taiyou were a callback to the 5Ds boys' roots, Team Ragnarok are their narrative foils. Dragan is the duellist who lost his pride to contrast Jack, who's brimming with pride at all times, and Harald/Halldor is essentially the rich, "destiny isn't bullshit, actually" version of Yusei. Meanwhile, unlike the first two, who highlight our 5Ds boys' characteristics by contrasting them, Brave acts as Crow's mirror. Through Team Ragnarok's flashbacks, we see that he gets almost exactly the same, lovable-rogue-type backstory that Crow did during the DS arc, just in a different setting. The only, major difference between them is that while Crow is more down-to-earth, Brave likes to be pretty flashy.

(Keep in mind that he's doing this on a runner. Is there such a thing as courses on how to do acrobatics on your runner? Like there are courses for vaulting on horseback irl? I'm overthinking this again.)

Unsurprisingly, the duel thus ends up addressing the similarities between Crow and Brave, mostly through two things: One, the duel essentially becomes a contest of who can out-trickster who, culminating in the famous, ridiculous-in-the-good-way sequence where Crow activates a trap from his graveyard, to the shock of pretty much everyone present. And two, despite being on opposite sides, the two bond over their concern for the children they took care of and their concern for children in general, which is expressed most clearly in the scene where Crow's kids, in an attempt to hold the poster they made for him higher, very nearly fall over the barricade in the WRGP stands. Despite the hefty length of the full duel, these are pretty much the only things actually related to Crow's character that come up, though. They're good, don't get me wrong, but in a duel that is otherwise this dense with plot, Aesir shenanigans, and Iliaster foreshadowing, it's no surprise that the duel doesn't add that much to Crow's character, outside of giving him someone he can bounce off very well and relate to. Again, though, we are faced with the same situation as with Team Taiyou: Due to the way the members of Team Ragnarok are written, meant to contrast/parallel one male duellist each from Team 5Ds, nobody other than Crow could have taken the third spot here, either. It would have felt awkward from a narrative standpoint (as much as I would have loved to see Aki duel more).

Now, finally. Round three. Team New World.

(Welp. Here come the robots.)

I had to check to make sure I wasn't misremembering this, but due to the way this duel was set up so José/Jakob could bust out Meklord Emperor Granel with a ridiculous amount of attack points, Crow gets a resounding four turns total in this duel. (Gee, I wonder which other character got this treatment during a WRGP duel.) During those four turns, there are only two things he accomplishes: One, leaving behind two combo pieces Yusei later uses, and two, showcasing the shrewd tactics that earned him the label of "trickster" during the Ragnarok duel by bringing out a non-synchro monster that can take advantage of a synchro monster's attack points and effects—Aurora the Northern Lights. And arguably, this is a very smart play, moreover, it's the only time anyone in the show has the bright idea to not use synchro monsters against the known and feared synchro-killer Meklords. Unfortunately, as smart as it is, the narrative doesn't reward Crow for this play—José all but shrugs what could have been a turning point in the duel off, then proceeds to steamroll Crow the next turn, leaving Yusei to score the win, as usual. To get back to the "Crow got so much more screentime than Aki during the WRGP" thing for a second, of all the duels in the WRGP finals, this is arguably the one where Aki could still most easily have taken Crow's spot again, because here, it doesn't matter whether it's him or someone else, as this duel isn't tied to his character in any way. Unfortunately, due to the Granel-steamroller-strategy, this is also the duel where letting Aki take his spot again would have been the biggest shot in the foot, because unless they had changed Team New World's strategy, Aki would have gotten brutally guillotined here, same as Crow—something I can't imagine anyone, not even people who hate Crow, being happy about.

With that, though, we've finally made it through the WRGP. So, what's the bottom line here? Frankly, speaking from my own interpretation, Crow occupies an... odd spot during this tournament, to say the least. Though he does get to duel the majority of the time, few of the duels actually cater to his character in any way. Moreover, he only gets to be the star of the show in a WRGP duel once, during the by far most forgettable match against Team Catastrophe. And mind that I use the term "star of the show" very loosely here, because the problem the WRGP arc as a whole has, in my opinion, is that the rather lame Team Catastrophe duel is the only one in the whole tournament that isn't won by Yusei, which categorically means that any of the other character's big moments are usually undermined by the fact that they ultimately still need him to save the day. Thus, moments like Aki summoning Stardust Dragon and Crow using an anti-synchro-killer strategy that for once actually forgoes synchros are somewhat cheapened by the fact that they're not actually the turning-point moments they're initially painted as, because ultimately, Yusei always has to be the one to save the day. What's worse is that this almost feels like a bit of a non-issue that could have easily been fixed—given that the show tells us that teams can shuffle around their line-up for a match any time. But unfortunately, the writing never interacts with this as a possible strategic element, nor does it ever seem to consider letting Yusei lose, or forcing him to give up his spot for a match. I feel the need to say that I don't put the blame at Yusei's feet here, though: This strongly feels like an oversight by the writers, and perhaps a disproportionate need to have a nigh-infallible protagonist (on the duelling side of things) that their audience would never run the risk of calling "lame". For Crow, though, this chiefly means one thing: In any duel other than the Catastrophe one, it was always clear that even if he partook, he would never finish the match. And yes, this is technically an issue Jack has, too. But this is where the character writing outside of the duels comes into play, too.

Unlike Jack, who actually gets to do something during the Diablo invasion (albeit very little), who gets his very own dragon upgrade and who gets a very personal, pre-duel plot with Dragan, the show's writing doesn't bother giving Crow a lot of plot- or character-relevant things to do, once the WRGP starts. This is also why I was so surprised at how much the Unicorn and Catastrophe duels embrace his interactions with Aki—compared to the later duels in the finals, this portion still makes Crow feel genuinely relevant and interwoven with the other characters. Meanwhile, out of the three final duels, only the Ragnarok one actually tries to establish a connection to his characterisation, through Brave. The Taiyou duel only sets itself up in such a way that Aki partaking instead of him would have been awkward. Meanwhile, the New World duel just has him being treated like a floormat in a sad parallel to Aki during the Unicorn duel, seeing as they both get a nice moment where it looks like they might turn the duel around (Aki summoning Stardust Dragon and Black Rose Dragon onto the field at the same time; Crow summoning Aurora the Northern Lights, which couldn't be absorbed by the Meklords), only to have their hopes dashed as they're mercilessly cleared off the track. Outside of the duels, many scenes sadly give the impression that they may as well not have included Crow, though—he often gets so little to contribute to a moment or even to say at all that substituting him with a cardboard box seems like it would not have impacted the scene in any way. And that's without addressing his non-existent connection to Sherry, which feels extra glaring, given his later interactions with her on the Ark Cradle.

All in all, the WRGP feels like a very mixed bag, where Crow's character writing is concerned. His belated backstory, which I talked about in part two, is front-loaded and asks as many questions as it answers. Then the tournament commences, gives him some actually decent character interplay with Aki for once (at the cost of letting her succeed in the tournament, it seems), only for him to be basically irrelevant during the WRGP pause again. And once the whole thing resumes, it becomes this hot-and-cold thing where some duel aspects seem tailored to him, while others treat him as completely expendable. The end result is an arc where I'm left wondering why exactly the writers felt the need to make it seem like Crow made up one portion of a protagonist trifecta, if they never actually bothered treating him as equal to the other two. (The answer, I believe, lies somewhere between the fumbled setup they did for him during the Fortune Cup and DS arc, and the way yugioh in general treats its character archetypes. But that's just speculation on my part.) The one, saving grace the WRGP (outside of the Pearson backstory) has for Crow is that it at least doesn't introduce any new character- and/or timeline inconsistencies. In fact, his character stays remarkably true to form once the tournament begins.

Okay, onto the final bit, then. As I've done in both previous posts, let me delve into completely subjective territory and offer some ideas on how this arc could have been handled to make it seem a little less all over the place with Crow. And since his writing here canonically intersects with Aki's several times, let me try to do it while offering the best of both worlds to both characters, if I can.

As far as Crow's backstory is concerned, I've already offered my solutions to that in part two. Now, to stay consistent with my own suggestions, I'll try to branch off what I wrote in the last post. This means that, as per my previous two analyses, we're dealing with two scenarios again: One, Crow stays a signer and we try to touch canon as little as possible. Two, Crow isn't a signer and we adjust canon in whatever way we need to to make him feel interesting and necessary despite/because of that.

First, though, let's get two adjustments I personally would have made in both versions out of the way:

The way the WRGP is structured puts every character that isn't Yusei at a massive disadvantage, where character moments in duels are concerned. Thus, I propose an overhaul. Among the changes I think could have benefitted the characters (yes, all of them) are: One - Aki actually getting to accomplish something during the Unicorn duel (she can and should still have her moments with Crow, but maybe let her portion of the duel end in her thanking him for coaching her, creating a more upbeat scene that strengthens their friendship, which could double as good setup for their later double-duel against Sherry). Two - letting the Team Catastrophe duel actually play out properly (as in, they become more meaningful as opponents by having a better strategy, for example, and Crow could stick it out longer against them, in order to make this more so his win than Jack's. Also, why not let Aki actually see him get back at Team Catastrophe for her?). Three - giving Crow an actual character moment during the Taiyou duel (what if one of the country boys had played a card or two of the ones he learned to read from? It could have helped drive the parallel between the two teams home.) Four - letting Crow's anti-Meklord strategy get at least a little payoff, if only for two turns (show us at least proof of concept, damn it!). Yes, the Ragnarok duel is the only one I wouldn't rewrite (unless special circumstances are introduced, see below). Additionally, let Team 5Ds alter their line-up more than once, damn it. Let them actually strategise about the duels, let them take into consideration who should go first when and whose deck might be better suited to which scenario. Also, remove Yusei from at least one duel. Doesn't matter how, just let him not partake once. Perfect setup to let Aki duel again, and would also allow for spicy character interactions. (Arguably the best duels where this could have been done would have been any of the final duels, though it would have also required rewriting the antagonists somewhat in any case.)

For the love of god, give Sherry and Crow some setup. Let them actually interact, let them introduce their philosophies to one another, just do something, anything to make Crow understanding and talking sense into her during the finale seem earned. A few chance meetings, or maybe even a tiny side-plot could have done so much here. And if you can't let them interact outright, at least let Aki and Crow talk about Sherry! Double whammy! The two characters who end up duelling against her are made to seem even more like a team, and Crow actually gets to find out what Sherry's deal is on-screen. Just. Set. it. up. I beg you.

There we go. Now, onto the two branches.

Option A: Crow stays a signer and obtained Black-Winged Dragon.

Seeing as Crow's signer status, funnily enough, isn't all that relevant during the tournament itself (save for two notable exceptions), there aren't that many fixes to be made here. Crow can still get injured, miss out on the Unicorn duel and be the star of the Catastrophe duel. But giving him something to do during the duel robot invasion that isn't standing around and hoping Yusei will fix everything would also be nice. It's fine if he can't drive out there and duel, but why not let him do something else? He's a crafty guy, why not let him find, say, a way to fry the Diablos' runners, taking a few of them out even from a semi-stationary position without duelling them? He could at least get as much of a consolation prize scene as Aki got with her saving that child. Then there's Team Taiyou, which, save for what I proposed above, is a duel that doesn't feel like it needs changes. Crow does his thing here. That's it. The same goes for Team Ragnarok, especially given that they're specifically written to oppose an all-signers Team 5Ds. Finally, there's Team New World, which, if I'm being completely candid, I would personally overhaul to change the cyborgs' strategy entirely in order to actually let all three members of Team 5Ds shine. But this is the version where I touch canon as little as possible, so... Aside from what I wrote above, no changes needed. Just make Crow seem a little more relevant, make his strategy have at least a little payoff, even if Granel's back out and menacing literally two turns later.

Option B: Crow, as per my previous posts, isn't a signer and doesn't have Black-Winged Dragon.

This is the version that would categorically require heavier changes, though they honestly don't arrive until the break in the tournament. Unicorn and Catastrophe stay the same, I would still propose that Crow gets to be a little more useful during the Diablo invasion. But! In this version, seeing as he never acquired BWD, the break in the WRGP would be an excellent spot to let Crow acquire an upgrade for his beefy Blackwing ace monster of choice. Give him a little side-plot, too, something to do, something where he proves himself. Maybe let him run into Iliaster here, or maybe call back to Pearson again and introduce the new Blackwing upgrade as a treasure Pearson stashed away before he died (maybe this could have even been the card Bolger was actually after; the world is our oyster here). Then he's beefed up, too, and actually feels a little more on the same level as Jack and Yusei. The tournament recommences and again, the Taiyou duel could stay mostly the same, I think. Ragnarok and New World are where it gets really interesting, though. The way I see it, Ragnarok could go two ways with Crow not being a signer: Either he partakes as he did in canon and his non-signer status is called out as a peculiarity by our Swedish boys who happen to be obsessed with fate (which would make his performance against Brave seem all the more impressive), or, due to this being a duel all about destiny and celestial pissing contests, Crow's spot is given to Aki again for this duel due to her signer status (this would, obviously, require rewriting Brave, perhaps even switching him out for a Ragnarok lady instead). As for Team New World, this duel would honestly be a lot more juicy with a non-signer Crow, because much like he was for the dark signers, a non-signer Crow would essentially be an unknown in their plan for the cyborgs. He would be the guy who's Not Supposed To Be Here. Granted, he would still be beaten, but he could still get an excellent moment where his out-of-left-field anti-Meklord strategy genuinely seems to turn the tables for a bit, angering José and providing even stronger setup for Yusei to win later.

Aaaaand that's that. Somehow, I get the feeling the WRGP had the least things that needed fixing because it also had the least actual character writing. But that might just be me. It's late and I have been writing for A While. But hey, I got out part three faster than part two! I consider that an achievement.

Now, while I get my talking points in order for part four, I hope you'll have fun chewing on this one. See you in the grand finale to my Bird Boy dissertation.