#therearetoomanyshipnames

[desudesuanimu]

bisexual Joey

Ok, I can’t deny that this is totally random and I’m working with some 3am thoughts here but I have to put it out there. 

Please, note that this isn’t anti Joey and Mai as a couple (Polarshipping?) so please no hate tagging. 

While I do not like Joey and Mai as a couple I don’t exactly hate it either and it’s most likely to be canon / become canon? And I love Mai as a character! This isn’t about this ship but I wanted to start with this because I absolutely hate fights over couples and fictional characters in general. 

Anyway, I rewatched all Yu-Gi-Oh DM episodes (English dub because I don’t understand much Japanese) and I noticed a few things.

I only rewatched the show because I recently started watching Vrains and felt nostalgic, so I didn’t exactly do research. Also, I’m not an expert on bisexuality but that’s not the point either.

When I was watching the Joey centric episodes or scenes I noticed that while there are a lot of subtle (or less subtle) hints that Joey and Mai have at least some kind of romantic/ flirtatious feelings for each other but there’s also always a scene involving Seto fucking Kaiba!

And I know that this could be a coincidence and I may be crazy but it happened all the time, except for like a few scenes that focus solely on Joey and Mai. 

Best example is the prominent dream or hallucination in Joey’s duel against Odion when he’s in a class room and all of his friends are there to help him get up but Kaiba is there too and whilst he insults Joey as usual it just confused me why he would be there in the first place?

Either he’s so heavy on Joey’s mind (as a rival or potential friend) or this is just because they actually went to the same class for some time. 

But then again when Joey battles Kaiba in the Battle City arc he compares Kaiba’s aloof attitude with how he used to be and literally says:” inside I’ve felt alone.” and “Trust me, you need friends.” and I thought this was very interesting because if he doesn’t care at all why bother?

But not only does he challenge an obviously frustrated Kaiba who is moping because he just lost to Yugi (again) but he also tries to get trough to him several times. For example when he says that the duel is fun and Kaiba should relax and enjoy it.

Again, this is just my interpretation but it really seemed like Joey wanted to distract Kaiba. He tried to actually make him realize his faults because maybe, just maybe he wants him to be a part of their ‘gang’. He did invite Kaiba to play duel monsters with them in the first episode but is then insulted by Kaiba and gets super upset about it. I get that this was a dick move and Joey has a short temper but if a person would be this rude to me I’d just ignore them. Especially, if I didn’t even know them before! So, why does he want to prove himself to Kaiba?

Joey also knew that Kaiba was more likely to win despite him improving because he even admits that he may not win their next duel but that he’ll get there some day. Was this duel Joey’s way of trying to cheer up Kaiba? Who knows? I mean, he could’ve just left or rub in Yugi’s victory but he didn’t.

Another scene was the illusion in Noah’s virtual world when Mai asks Joey to ‘settle down’ and ‘stop dueling’ and Joey refusing because one he realizes that this couldn’t be the real Mai since she’s still in a coma and two because he really loves duel monsters. But this is before the battle with Kaiba and I think that beating Kaiba is a big goal for Joey. Wether it is romantic, stubbornness or just determination but Joey does focus on Kaiba heavily. I just remembered that Joey dreams about Mai a second time (or maybe that was before the virtual world?) and in the scene before that he talks in his sleeps and says something like: “Who are you calling a monkey boy, Kaiba?”

WHY DOES HE ALWAYS HAVE DREAMS STARRING KAIBA?????

It’s not just Joey either! Kaiba accepts Joey’s first challenge in Battle City rather quickly but then leaves for the Egyptian god card and when he’s challenged again he refuses at first but in the end does agree to duel Joey. He says that it’s such a waste of his time but agrees to do it anyway? Maybe it’s just his ego but you get the point.

When Mokuba and Seto buy that fancy sports car (one of my favorite scenes btw) Kaiba thinks that he senses that ‘Wheeler is in trouble again’ but then says that he has no time to help him. Why think about helping him in the first place if he’s so worthless?

Last but not least it is kinda symbolic that both Kaiba and Joey favor their Dragons which means they at least share that much. I know that there are a lot of dragons in YuGiOh but the two clearly represent two of the most popular ones.

People often complain about a potential relationship between Joey and Kaiba being too unhealthy or unrealistic and while I agree that they would never be an overly romantic, sappy couple because let’s face it: Kaiba is too messed up to actually deal with any kind of feelings, I don’t think that they would make a bad match.

Mai seems to be more aware of her feelings towards Joey and she is more grown up than some of the characters but she also did a few things that really messed Joey up and she felt bad about it but then realizes that these were so bad that she can’t face him any time soon. I have to add that I didn’t like the whole arc all that much because I think Mai’s character was poorly portrayed.

In a weird way Kaiba and Mai have a lot of things in common and maybe the creators decided not to make Mai and Joey canon because they play with the thought of Joey being bisexual. It would totally suit his personality and the way he acts towards the other characters in the show. Originally, the manga was a lot darker and dealt with psychological issues such as Joey’s father gambling and Joey trying to pay the depts. So, exploring sexualities and complex relationships don’t seem that far off.

I’m aware that this isn’t proven and maybe it really is just the bad writing of the show because I think that most of us can agree that the Yu-Gi-Oh series generally doesn’t handle romance very well but I do think that there could be more behind these ideas if one thinks about it. 

I apologize for this very long and probably very unnecessary post but it felt good to write down these crazy conspiracies.

Finally, I can say that no matter what we ship in the Yu-Gi-Oh-verse is completely up to us and we could find hints for almost every ship and that’s good. I love thinking about (possibly) gay characters, so that’s what my brain focuses on without me being able to control it. 

Have a great day and never forget that...

YOU STILL TAKE DAMAGE!