#yami leaving is a metaphor for growing up

[im-tempted]

One of my favorite parts of yugioh is that it is a horror manga

And a coming of age anime wrapped in so many metaphors it kinda isn't anymore???

[uniasus]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3838953/1/Sight-the-King/

Fic rec! 127K Puzzleshipping

Summary: After Yuugi wakes up at the scene of a crime with blood on his hands and a voice in his head, there's only one thing he can do: Run.

Comments: Oh did this fic catapult itself to top fic status! If you didn't like the card game, this fic is for you, because it takes off very early. Vol 2 in the manga, and by anime timeline I think shortly after the first duel with Kaiba.

Yugi becomes aware of Yami before he can leave the site of a Penalty Game, and is accused of murder - including that of Joey. And yet, while there's no card game, no Ishtars, this fic still hits all the good points of the show - understanding who Yami is, building Yugi's confidence, and solving the puzzle of...the Puzzle.

Yami is amazing here - all dark shadows and see-through spirits in the style of S0- and the lore around the Puzzle and the implications for Yugi are brilliant. There's a fair bit of metaphor, wrapped up in the way myth is passed through generations, and there's a wonderful parallel of what happens to this pair. EG: Just as Yami gets trapped by the puzzle, so too does Yugi. There's also a great sense of a feedback loop between them, shared grief growing or touches echoing across them to the point where the sex scenes are pretty much static to show how overwhelming but wonderful things are between them.

The way Yami is like 'i have dominion over all games' and uses that. Over the Puzzle. Over Yugi.

Yugi's sacrifices so much for Yami in a way I can't get enough of, and Yami seeing that gets him to do what I'll always want him to do - stay- to the point he passes on a chance to be Pharaoh. So much of this fic will stay with me forever. From the metaphors to the ideas of split souls to just how all consuming Puzzleshipping can be.

It's a long, old fic, that's only on ff.net at this point. But you really, really do need to read it.

[thespiralgrimoire]

So just realized that all of the female cast members (and probably some of the male ones) are based on fairytales Grey is Cinderella, Noelle is Snow White, Vanessa is rapunzal, Yuno might be Peter Pan or at least Sylph is tinkerbell

I got an ask similar to this quite a while ago, but it was a little more cumbersome and I wasn't sure how to respond to it....

I think this is an interesting take but personally I think it's a little reductive. There are definitely some similarities between the BC ladies and the Disney princesses, but I think to say that any of them are based on Disney princesses is a disservice to them as characters. While the BC universe is definitely loosely based in a European fantasy setting, I would think that the fact that it's written from a Japanese perspective would mean that the similarities to our classic Western fairytails can't be taken for granted.

HOWEVER, there is also the point to be made that the Disney Princess stories are based in tropes that show up in a LOT of traditions and stories, so maybe it would be more accurate to say that these characters' stories contain a lot of the same elements that appear in folklore all around the world?

That being said, I think it's fun to play with what we know, and I don't know a lot of Japanese fairytales. So let's take a look at some of the ones you listed, because I spent $75,000 on a Bachelor's degree in English literature and I don't get to use it much.

☘️ Of all of these, Grey is DEFINITELY the most obvious one. Like, it’s every element of Cinderella... The step sisters, the mistreatment, the false identity. But I think that’s is very important how it differs from the classic tale to play on Grey’s sense of self.

The classic Cinderella story doesn’t paint Cinderella as a self pitying damsel who needs to be rescued. She is upset with her situation, she knows it’s not fair, and she knows she’s entitled to a nice night out, especially after she puts in the work in to make an outfit appropriate for the occasion. Her step sisters’ vindictive nature ruins this for her, not any fault of her own, which is why her fairy godmother steps in to right the wrongs of her situation.

Grey doesn’t have the sense of self that Cinderella has. Be it through abuse or quirks of her own personality, she’s a rather passive victim to her step sisters’ bullying, and instead of doing what she does despite of them like Cinderella, she does everything she can to please them. The ending result is more or less the same: they can’t be pleased. In both cases the step sisters retaliate violently: in Cinderella’s case, they destroy the dress she’s made for herself, and in Grey’s case, they drive Grey into the woods, taking her attempt to please them as a personal insult.

Grey gets no fairy godmother, and no ball. And unlike Cinderella, she gets rescued by a “prince” character (as much as I loathe to call Gauche that, but an analogy does exist there, so let’s acknowledge it.) Gauche saves Grey in the literal sense, and he also gives her the courage to better her situation, which eventually leads her to develop a sense of self that is not “her step family’s doormat.” She varies from Cinderella in this way because Cinderella never had to make this personal jump in her narrative; she started her narrative already there. Whereas Grey was desperately trying to become something that someone would respect, Cinderella knew from the start that she was worthy of more than the world had given her.

But the nice thing about Grey’s narrative is that she IS working to be this person! She’s got to put in the work to get to where Cinderella is, but who knows? Maybe by the time she isn’t afraid to be her authentic self, she’ll get some help from an exterior source (a metaphorical fairy godmother character) or maybe that power will come from within (with this new magic she’s using to save Gauche?). If we stick with the fairytale princess narrative, her reward would be Gauche. Just like Cinderella was rewarded for her strength during an adverse time in her life, Grey will be rewarded for overcoming her insecurities.

☘️ I... gotta come clean here, I read “Snow White” but my brain went “Sleeping Beauty”, and I was all ready to talk about THAT fascinating analogy. So apologies if this one is a little lackluster while I get my fairytales straight.

I think this one is a little flimsy, but again, I prepared to talk about the wrong fairytale. Would we paint Magicula as the evil queen, wanting Noelle dead because she’s “fairer”? Or would her siblings be an abstract reading of the “evil queen” because Noelle looks too much like their mother, and therefore is the bane of their existance, like Snow White was for the evil queen? The Black Bulls as the seven dwarves is the one part of this I’m really digging, because it’s hilarious. But I think this one is a hard sell. Noelle has failed to be a victim to any serious threat for more than a few minutes because she’s always surrounded by people who fight tooth and nail for her, and she’s fighting every second to be stronger. Of course, that furthers the “Black bulls = seven dwarves” thing, which is just. So great. Snow White never had to do anything but housework. She doesn’t get stronger because strength was never a part of her equation.

☘️ Vanessa as Rapuzal is eh. She’s a classic princess trapped in a castle, but she’s the second one of those in the series (Charlotte being the other). In both cases, Yami saves them with a strange mix accidental concern and casual heroism. I think this says more about Yami as an accidental prince charming than it does about either of them as Disney princesses.

I haven’t seen Tangled, but from what I’ve gathered, there’s an analogy to be made here between Vanessa and Tangled Rapunzal being trapped by their mothers under the guise of caring for them. Hell yeah, can’t deny that connection! But it’s far from a sign of a fairytale princess. It’s just shitty parenting. Unfortunately, it’s rampant across all cultures, and therefore appears in all forms of media.

Charlotte’s case is, I believe, supposed to be a parody of a “strong independent woman” (which is a big problem I have with how she’s written but that’s a different conversation). There very well could be a specific fairytale that fits Charlotte’s case (Sh. Shrek?) but I think it’s meant to be more of a parody of the false persona she puts out than anything else.

Yami is really the one to look at here, since it’s not a coincidence that he’s rescued TWO of these fairytale-princess-knockoffs over the course of the story, and they both have unrequited crushes on him (although Vanessa’s is mostly for show). While Charlotte is a parody of a strong independent princess, Yami is a parody of Prince Charming. He doesn’t want the role, he didn’t ask for the role, he’s not looking for the role... He’s just doing what he’s doing and if he happens to rescue some ladies in peril, it’s just part of his day of wandering around busting through walls like the Koolaid man. That’s not a jab at Yami’s character. It doesn’t mean that he’s not a hero. Yami’s whole shtick is that you don’t have to be a conventionally handsome dude in a cape with a winning smile to be a hero. That’s the mantra he’s built the Black Bulls around. His whole character is a counterpoint to the traditional hero stereotype with Fuegoleon (and to a lesser degree, Nozel) as the point he’s countering.

Yami and the Black Bulls exist to make the point that there is more than one way to be right, to be strong, to be brave, to be heroic. You don’t have to look, act, think, or feel a certain way to be on the right side of things.

☘️ Okay so Yuno as Peter Pan is the one I’ve really been chomping at the bit to talk about because while I don’t think you’re right, I can’t decide if you’re wrong???

I don’t know what other stories and traditions could influence Bell’s design, so based on what I know, she’s a dead ringer for Tinkerbell. Moving past that.

Yuno as Peter Pan has me WILDING because he’s literally the host for an unborn baby. I don’t know how much harder you can drill in the “Never grow up” theme.

Does it really hold up past that though? I kind of want it to, just because the very premise of Yuno as Licht’s baby screams it so hard. But I don’t think it does.Which is a shame, because it could.

Yuno was a crybaby as a kid, which is a very infantile trait, but when he and Asta made their pact to be the wizard king, he went the opposite direction of “never grow up” and rapidly matured in order to accomplish this dream. We don’t really know how else Yuno may have changed besides “he doesn’t cry anymore”, but from the way he acts and the way he’s treated at the orphanage, it seems to me that a lot was placed on him. And that carries into his magic knight career. Because of his talent and his resolve, he was made to face some very adult problems at a very young age.

Major manga spoilers ahead!

This carries into the current events we’re seeing, too. There is no semblance of “never grow up” in the way that Yuno acts or is being treated as a member of the Golden Dawn. He’s the vice captain at... what, 16? 17? and he’s just found out that he’s also the next heir of a kingdom that he does not call his home-- that’s he’s considered the enemy for his entire career. Then he’s forced to handle the violent deaths of half his squad, the severe injury of the other half, and the kidnapping of his captain, which leaves him in charge. We see him give a big old holler about all this, but I what’s really interesting to me is that he doesn’t cry. The most infantile part of his identity, which he abandoned to get where he is now, does not come back to him in a moment of weakness, at a time where he very much has every write to feel like a helpless child. Whether he wants to or not, Yuno is no longer allowed to be a child, and he will never get the opportunity to be one again.

I guess you could say that this may mean that we’ll see him want to be Peter Pan, that he’ll grow nostalgic for the days where everything was simpler and he had the time to cry, the freedom to be scared and confused and feel sorry for himself. I would love to see that explored in his character, but I really don’t think that we’ll see it happen. In both the meta and the story universe, there’s no time for Yuno to have that breakdown and regression. It wouldn’t fit the pacing and Yuno’s got shit to do. Yuno isn’t Peter Pan. He’s lost the chance to be.

So in conclusion, I can see why a lot of people want to assign fairytale roles to characters in Black Clover, and I do think that the creators play with the concept themselves, but I think to boil any of the Black Clover characters down to a single character or fit them into a single fairytale is a disservice to the characters themselves, and overlooks everything else going on with them. None of the black clover characters are “based” on a fairytale character. Their stories may take inspiration from them, but there is far more going on with each and every one of them to ever take such similarities at face value.

[uozlulu]

Black Clover chapter 257 reaction and spoilers

"Sorry for blowing your body away like that. It's just, you know, it even had that target pattern on it and all." ilu Yami

”My innate magic is body magic, the devil’s power explosively boosts my ability o regenerate. You see, I won’t die or age or deteriorate.” So, this means Dante’s gravity attacks are actually a manipulation on the body and how the body relates to gravity rather than gravity’s effects of the body. That’s good to know because it means his power is so much more horrific than originally presented. It also means that Dante’s had the ability to slow aging and so forth even before teaming up with Luciferio, which again, doesn’t really help us with the timeline in terms of did Vanica join forces with Megicula first or did Acier make a deal with Megicula first. Last week Vanica seemed to imply that she fought Acier before joining forces with Megicula, but it wasn’t definitive proof either. However, we do know via Dante’s body magic, the Dark Triad could really be any age for all we know still. Maybe even centuries old.

Or maybe the gravity magic was Luciferio’s (hur hur the fall = gravity magic) and Dante just prefers to use his devil magic more than his human magic. 

I like that Asta wants to surpass his limits, but in the end, it’s Yami saying, “I can’t win this one without you, Asta,” that brings strength of Asta’s body. It’s really good at showing that even though Asta’s come so far since we first met him, he’s still learning and growing, he hasn’t quite come into his own, but he’s getting there. It’s also a good metaphor for the fact he’s sixteen going on seventeen.

I also like it, because as someone who’s got this age difference with an older sibling, it comes off very true to me in how my sister inspires me to do better and be better. Also how when she includes me in things it makes me feel stronger as a person too.

I’m glad that we’re ending on this battle because it makes me so excited to see where it’s going. I mean I almost ALMOST think they can pull this off, but at the same time I know it’d be pretty logical for Dante to turn out and capture Yami anyway, which will leave Asta, Yuno, and Noelle in a position of having someone to rescue during future battles to come. Also I like the idea of Yami getting captured and Charlotte leading the Vangeance-Loropechika-Yami rescue mission so we can see how much she’s grown and changed during the six month time skip too. Also since we’re seeing key figures in the last major final battle become key figures for the upcoming final battle to this mega arc, Charlotte has a place here too.

[nenya85]

My rambling thoughts on DSoD

I’m putting the rest behind a spoiler cut, but I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that the animation is beyond amazing.  Dark Side of Dimensions is one of those rare movies where you could erase the dialogue (more on that one behind the spoiler cut) and I’d sit in the dark watching the images – and still feel like I’d seen a complete movie.

My completely Kaiba-centric thoughts are below the cut. 

Before I get into my really long comments I have to add a Mokuba note:  Mokuba is amazing!  He and Kaiba are such a total team and you can see what a completely badass duo he and his big brother are going to be when he gets older.  I would hate to be the person who gets in their way.

Okay, on to my Kaiba-centric thoughts...

I had my doubts about the dub version, and I ended up being pleasantly surprised.  

Takahashi clearly set out to make a movie about loss, connection and hope – and his vision survived everything 4-Kids threw at it.

In both the manga and the original anime, dueling is a metaphor. Each character’s deck says a lot about who they are as individuals from Kaiba’s need for power to the balance of Yugi and Yami’s deck to the way Yugi leaves Silent Magician on the field, almost unnoticed, yet growing stronger with each turn, to the way Jounouchi’s original deck is created with cards from his friends and cards he gains from each challenge, in much the same way he grows as a person.

The duels are often explicitly framed (usually by Kaiba) in terms of the beliefs being tested: self-reliance and cooperation, destiny and self determination, distrust and friendship.  Kaiba and Atem view duels as signposts for how they are to live.

From the beginning, the dub cut that aspect out.  If Yu-Gi-Oh! Is a story told through card games; the dub is a story about teenagers who happen to play card games.

Kaiba’s character is disproportionately affected by this change because he has hardest time connecting and communicating outside of the dueling arena.  

To me, one of the most moving scenes in DSoD is the one where Kaiba duels a holographic Atem.  Once the duel ends and he has to acknowledge that none of it was real, Kaiba is visibly angry and shaken.  As Kaiba talks to his staff, he becomes increasingly agitated by his inability to fool himself with his own creation.  It’s a powerful image of loss-fueled rage.  But this message is undercut by both the voice direction, which has Kaiba using the same sarcastic tone when talking about his inability to recreate Atem that he uses for everything else and by the dub addition of yet another dialogue reminder that this is only about revenge.

Interestingly, despite Kaiba’s repeated (and I mean repeated) assertions that his only reason for wanting to find Atem is for revenge, that posture becomes harder to maintain the further into the movie we get, and it disappears by the time he duels Yugi.  Kaiba’s shocked anger when Yugi assembles the Puzzle goes so far beyond any desire for a rematch, that the movie abandons the attempt. This is entirely thanks to Yugi himself – who goes straight to talking about grief and loss and moving on, and who interrupts the duel to complete the Puzzle because he recognizes that Atem’s death and Kaiba’s need to see him is what they are truly fighting about.

What I love about Yugi’s duel with Kaiba is that they are each speaking from such opposite perspectives and yet both are treated with such respect.  Yugi is talking about moving on because that is what he needs to do: live an independent life despite the loss of the person he once called his “other me.”  But for the first time, Kaiba shows that even more than moving on, he needs closure first.  In the manga, that’s something Yugi got that Kaiba didn’t, and his desire for it now is both genuine and genuinely moving.

And I like it that Kaiba is right, that Yugi could call Atem.  Kaiba sacrifices his life points as a sign of his total faith in Atem, and that faith is rewarded.  I love the way Yugi and Kaiba acknowledge each other at the end and discover more common ground than either would have believed possible.  For the first time we get to hear a Kaiba who is something other than sarcastic or angry when he tells Yugi: “You have your bond with him and I have mine.”

And I love the end.  Of course Kaiba would jump into an untested prototype for the chance to see Atem again and of course that visit would involve a duel.  This is Yu-Gi-Oh! after all, where characters deal with their problems by flinging cards at them.

And Atem’s smile at the end, a true smile of acknowledgement, was the perfect closing moment.