#the 'thats yugi! he goes to my school!' was so funny to me for some reason

[romanceddawn]

the beginning of this part where seto's all business-y and has cool security around him makes you think hes so mature but then he throws a literal tantrum and it reminds you "oh right this is a teenage boy who just came out of a coma. huh."

[hereforthefunnyguys]

Just a thought, but like you should totally talk about how much you love irateshipping.

I lvoe it so much you guys my thoughts are sometimes easy to figure out and sometimes they're just kind of a blurry static field of warmth but i'll try my best.

As a side note, this got. Uh. Long. So it's under a cut now.

Okay so the first thing I adore about it is that it can really easily switch between a kind of funny domestic dynamic with two teenagers who don't know how to make emotions work and also can be “fucked up traumatized dudes try to kill each other with a gun.” That part is great for me.

Second of all, I talk a lot about like mariks perspective on the whole thing but I don’t know if I talk about Joey's perspective on the whole thing where like... Marik is objectively everything he hates. He's controlling, he's wealthy, he's narcissistic, he's like kaiba if kaiba was somehow worse and had nicer hair <- whoa who said that? Yet he still possesses a kind of inherent charm that ends up pulling you in closer and sort of forces Joey to have some kind of feeling about him, whether that be hatred or love or just "Wow! What a Freak".

I like to picture (read: there's no canon evidence for it, but a man can fantasize) that there's kind of a... weird attraction to Marik, especially with the brainwashing in a "i don't have to think anymore" way. Like, uh how do I explain this; Joey is used to having to work all the time to support himself and his family.

He goes for 7 straight hours at school doing work he doesn't understand with teachers that hate him, around friends that love him (and he loves back!) but always seem to overshadow him and, at least in canon, don't seem to quite 'get' the situation he's in at home, plus, you know, Yugi + Atem always overshadowing with the one big hobby he has. Then he goes back home, gets yelled at by his dad and has to play tip-toe around him (or, at least, I'd assume so), then hauls ass out to go work until 9:00, buy cheap dinner, then collapses and wakes up at 6:30 the next morning to go work again before going to school again. He's burning out 24/7. First man to ever desperately need a workers union for the simple act of existing.

But then Marik comes along with the Ghouls, and gets to say, you don't need to think anymore. You don't have to worry anymore. All the decisions are made for you. And it's never explicitly stated (probably because it would be a lie lmao) but in Joey's head this also has a connotation of you're finally safe. And you know what? To Joey, that's kind of blissful. No thinking. No more worrying. Just sort of... existing.

Of course, he hates it too, obviously. It's sickening to feel yourself be puppeted like that, out of your own control, forced to fight the people you love, etc. So we can't be having that. But there is still a certain bond thats formed by having someone inside your mind, and it goes both ways; not only is Joey dealing with the feeling of having all his brains pried open and picked apart like stir-fry, but Marik also now knows everything that happens in Joey's head. What's that even like??? Does it make him feel bad for Joey? Is he attracted to it? Does it just make him think Joey is stupid? Does he feel a sense of responsibility to maybe try and fix some of those problems when he becomes a Good Person? Is he now like the Expert on how Joey's brain works and has to decide how to use (or abuse) that knowledge?

Post-Battle City, I think they have a very awkward relationship. In canon they seem friendly, but imo thats kind of a cover-up for the awkwardness, because what else are they supposed to say to each other? "Hey, again, guy who brainwashed me and saw the innermost depths of my mind!" "I told you I don't do that anymore :(" type stuff. If you put them in a room alone, it'd just be like. An hour straight of pure silence, occasionally interrupted by asking where the bathroom is and conversations that go like "well uh how's life been?" "Not great." "ah. okay. cool. Cool."

At least imo Joey doesn't actually realize what he has are romantic feelings. In his mind, this weird sweatiness he feels and inability to put Marik out of his mind is probably a side effect of brainwashing or something. Marik does though. Marik is pretty much permanently looking at Joey like he wants to eat him alive or, perhaps more scandalously in his mind, hold his hand.

Also... This is a different conversation but I think marik is like - Jealous? Approving? Something like that- of joey. Not in a “I want to be an impoverished delinquent bad boy who breaks the rules” way but more in a “see, this is what I Should Have Been. The loyal son that sticks by his father no matter what.” And in one hand he doesn’t particularly care for Joeys father (finds him classless and unappreciative) and, on a surface level, recognizes that their situations are very Very different, but the jealousy remains. Like. That should be me trying up there.

Because both Marik and Joey have the same specific form of daddy issues where they wholeheartedly believe that they are the problem here, so if they just go the Right Chance they could fix everything with their parents and could live happily ever after. So they end up in an endless feedback loop of (nodding) "yes, he's doing the right thing by trying to make it up to his dad" and don't get why their friends are all like "please go talk to like. Someone else about this. Anyone."

I do think they have potential to actually help each other out with this type of stuff as they mature and are able to also recognize the affect that it has on the other ("You go deer-in-the-headlights whenever you're around open fire"/"you start cringing uncontrollably whenever someone throws anything at you") but also Not Right Now! right now they're not even talking to each other.

Anyways. Yeah. God. I'm in love with them in case you couldn't tell. I don't even know if this makes sense to anyone else other than me but I'm having fun and thats what matters mostly

Also yeah sometimes its that marik just wants to date a stupid jock and hes so real for that. Let marik have a good boyfriend and psychologically torment joey more 2k24 campaign.

Anyways enjoy a Collection (of scenes where they are in the same panel)(*devours my rarepair scraps*)