#(where did it come from?? I don't know. money kaiba)

[2hoothoots]

poking my head in to say sorry about the radio silence! i'm not dead, just moved house & started a new job this month so there's been a lot going on. regularly scheduled posting to resume soon, in the meantime here's a blue eyes white dragon model kit i spent my long weekend building to put next to Money Kaiba in my display case

[blueeyesking]

Not a Rematch- a Duel for Revenge! Alister Revealed Pt. 2

[After Seto accused the person Dueling him of not being Pegasus- "Even [he] wouldn't be stupid enough to copy our first duel to the letter!"- the Musketeer of Doma, Alister, removed his disguise and began using his real deck. For his first draw, Alister sealed himself and Seto inside of the Seal of Orichalcos, a field spell that would take the "soul" of whoever lost. It terrified Mokuba, who was left outside of its radius of effect.

After demonstrating the effect of the Seal and his new monster, Alister launches into a long explanation of his story, why he's chosen to attack Seto and his company: when KaibaCorp was still controlled by Gouzaburo, their weapons of war destroyed Alister's home... and killed his little brother. Since that day, Alister has wanted nothing but revenge.

Mokuba countered that Seto took the company to redeem it, to help people, orphan children like them most of all! But Alister wouldn't hear it. Seto Kaiba, or whoever lead the Kaiba Corporation, had to die; it was the money of the company that fueled the war that killed his brother, and the Kaibas are its heirs.

And so the Duel continued.

Alister activated a trap that disabled all other Traps while it was on the field, crippling Seto's strategy, and forced Seto to end his turn with only Pitch-Dark Dragon in Defense Mode and a useless Crush Card Virus on his field.

Alister's turn. He drew, then attacked the Pitch-Dark Dragon with Gorlag, his ace monster, using its effect to resurrect the Dragon and bring it to his side of the field in his end phase; and, without any defenses, attacked Seto with his own resurrected Versago the Destroyer. Seto's LP fell to 400.

Seto was in a bad position. He needed just one card in his deck to eke out the win...

And he drew it. Seto smirked.

Seto plays Card of Demise in order to draw three cards (bringing his hand to five), and draws a combo that should work. Using White Dragon Ritual, Seto discards a Blue-Eyes in order to directly summon Paladin of White Dragon- then plays Monster Reborn to bring that Blue-Eyes back onto his field. A much better position.

Paladin of White Dragon attacks the stolen Pitch-Dark Dragon (now in Attack Mode due to Gorlag's effect), causing Gorlag to become weak enough to be destroyed with Blue-Eyes White Dragon. When the dust settles, Alister is left defenseless, now, with only 1200 LP.

But Seto isn't done! Paladin of White Dragon can be sacrificed in order to Special Summon a Blue-Eyes White Dragon from his hand or deck! Seto crosses his arms in front of his chest as he is flanked by his Blue-Eyes.

"You told me before that I couldn't win- how do those words taste, knowing the worst is yet to come?"

Alister's turn. He huffs at Seto, "You're so predictable," and uses Pot of Greed to draw two cards.

Then, Alister activates the spell card Aetonyx Flame, destroying all monsters that don't have the FIRE-Attribute: both Blue-Eyes White Dragons! And, it resurrects Gorlag in Attack Mode. But Alister has another trick: Fire Whip! Fire Whip returns all monsters destroyed this turn to Alister's side of the field, as FIRE-Attribute monsters (which buff Gorlag by 500ATK each). Seto now faces down his own Blue-Eyes, infused with dark power from the Seal, and a monster just as strong.

Seto is incredulous, panicking a little, and shouts in betrayal, "NO! Those Blue-Eyes are mine, how dare you use them against me?!" Memories of his fateful duel with Yugi, where the same thing happened, flash behind his eyes.

Alister is now the one in the smug posture, smirking. "It's the perfect revenge, isn't it? Soon, I'll use your own favorite monsters to take you down and feed your soul to our God."

Because Alister can't attack the turn he activated Aetonyx Flame. Seto still has a chance. Alister sets a card, and adds, "When you lose this, you'll suffer just like I did at the hands of your father. This will be your last draw!"]

[catrose13]

Chapter 4 A Very Particular Set of Skills... "Learning things whether you want to or not" is my favourite of this chapters "Brought to You By" The chapter art also continues to be awesome

Mokuba is very unimpressed with Pegasus' hostage keeping skills

"in his Barbarous rage" yikes, he was feral enough without Barbarous rage

What's an evil lair without a bottomless pit?

..."Testicular-trauma based revenge" yikes, Mokuba possibly you should avoid the guards

He thanks the Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon topiary bush, aw

Lol Pegasus you underestimated Mokuba

...Joey...are you...breaking the Fourth Wall? Are you allowed to do that?

Poor Yugi, clowns can be very disturbing. Téa's ready to throw down, no clowns gonna touch her friends

Honestly I don't think the foxes need training to steal from people

Heh using facts you learnt an hour ago to make your point, nice one Joey

Ah Joeys Mom returns once more to prove how bad a parent she is

"Lost" can have so many connotations

...Joey this is the second time you've touched upon the Fourth Wall is there something you'd like to tell us?

So many ocean facts. I am definitely learning

Wow dolphins are assholes

Yugi...how many crimes are you going to encourage during this tournament?

Poor naive Yami "Oh I thought this would be because of the Shadow Game, glad we're only messing with his money" "No we're definitely gonna fuck him up" paraphrased

Mako knows so many "mad reliable people"

The casual shade thrown at the British museum

Pegasus, the joke wasn't funny to begin with

...I thought ketamine was a vet thing, can it be prescribed to humans?...Google says it can good to know

Kemo you really should have listened to your Grandma

Pegasus you're still talking in Capital Letters and it's less Ominous than you think and a lot more... concerning

...Cornered Rabid Mongoose, I can see why the Parasite would want to avoid that outcome

Bakura is really not a fan of this or any of the Parasites adventures, and yet he finds ways to make the most of it.

Joey...again with the Fourth Wall

Secrets age like melons because aged milk can still be cheese. Yami just spilling truths into the world

Poor Yami, so confused, "Where are all these people coming from? And why do they hate you?"

"Spiritual Appendectomy With A Chainsaw" Welp that's one way to explain what they did to Kaiba

Ohp Joeys measuring the shoulder height, he's noticing the differences!!

...Tristan I think it's a bit late to be shielding Mokuba's innocence

Sweet mercy Téa is beating the crud outta those guys

Yikes, No Kemo the Kids are Not Alright

Oh Yami is now well ready to mess Pegasus up, ya done fucked up

"Pegasus’ idea of Benevolence is probably several war crimes in a cartoon trench coat" Welp you're not wrong Marik

Hodgekiss I do not think he meant you when complimenting his work force

The Russians are not Twins Marik, they are really not Twins

Oof Hodgekiss

Yugi really is the more feral of the two of them isn't he?

Duels as a Ritual, is actually really interesting, especially in the context of Ancient Egypt and dispute solutions

...The Hippo

He makes sure to strictly obey the Rules of the Ritual to avoid Hippos

Dammit Joey stop poking the Fourth Wall...I think I'm going to start counting

Oh no you hit Yugi's Berserk Button

"Speak not to me of this 'Febreeze'" Brilliant, just wonderful

Oh no Grandpa this is what happens when you endear yourself to the Gods

Grandpa...you are denying the existence of Gods to the face of a God...

...The Hippos again... Why does this God want to continue being able to fight Hippos?

"Beloved" Gramps... Is there something you need to tell us?

Yugi is definitely not a fan of the Abomination...Boys speaking in Capitals...

Lol cold as burning anger and Yugi still has time to throw shade on Yami

Joey and the others are unaware of Mokuba's recent Finger biting adventures

Tristan. Tristan Did you just give Mokuba what I think you just gave Mokuba? Tristan the last thing this feral child needs is a gun. You better not have just given him a gun. Tristan!

Intense Battle Focus....Cheerful phone call... Poor Yami bugs freak me out too

Noot-Noot

Joey has a spare tea pot just incase they use the first one to destroy a Ghostly Abomination?

Heh Anti-Ghost-Teapot-Grenade

Pegasus should really know better than to screw around with the rules of a shadow game

No Croquet they did not give you shrooms, Yami is invoking Great Powers

Hello Anubis...Goodbye Goons

Kaiba could possibly stand to expand on his decorating scheme

"tortured into submission" is that what we're calling Pegasus' love of terrible cartoons?

"Divine Guidance"? What God is guiding you Seto?

He's channelling Salmon...an interesting choice

How expensive are these plushies? And why is it so big?

Yeah pants are probably a good idea right about now

[x-heartofthecards-x]

@screwtherules

If Seto were the man he used to be, a jab like that may have had him lashing out and shooting an insult to Yugi in kind. But as it was, he knew that he deserved it. He’d heard those words more than once, during their breakup, or at least something along those lines. It had his chest tightening painfully and knocking the air out of his lungs.

He had done that. And the fact that he didn’t tell Yugi or bring the boy with him during his excursion into the afterlife only to lose a goddamn duel against the Pharaoh— that made it even worse. But he didn’t do it for Yugi or for Atem or for their relationship. It was just something he needed to do. He needed that closure that Atem never gave either of them. But he should have told Yugi how he was feeling at least. Explained the situation. Communicated his needs. But he did none of those things.

It had been a difficult situation to explain to his therapist, that was for sure. But the amount of money he was paying her meant that he could be as open as he wanted.

With a heavy sigh, Kaiba stopped by his car at the passenger side and tugged his phone from his pocket. He offered Yugi a weak smile and replied, “I see now that this was a bad idea. You are still angry with me— deservedly so. Let me call you a car. The driver will stop for coffee for you, paid, and will make sure you get home safely. And if you need anything, for the shop or your grandfather, you know where to find me.”

Yugi rolled his eyes at the sigh and pushed off of the car as Setobpulled out his phone. He shoved a hand in his pocket as he said, "No, man. I'm over it. I don't need a car. I'll walk."

The shorter man had fully begun walking off, but only got a few steps before he turned and said, "But if I was mad, it would be justified. Because who fucking does that, Seto? I mean, after Atem left you totally withdrew from me when I needed you most. Then you just up and killed yourself. You didn't even give me a heads-up or leave me a note about your experimental, completely unsafe interdimensional vacation plans. I had no way of knowing if you were going to come back. You were just gone and I didn't matter."

Yugi let out a scoff and added, "And also, if I was still mad, how would I have worked through any of this to not be mad when your knee-jerk reaction is calling me a car to get me decidedly the fuck away from you because it is a mistake to talk to me when I'm emoting. This is why I haven't talked to you. Because you don't actually want to talk to me."

He took a step back and added with his fist clenching in his pocket, "But it was never actually me you wanted to talk to, so I shouldn't be surprised. Anyway, thanks for the wake-up call, boss."

[starlightshadowsworld]

Something hit me about the Seto adopts Jaden thing: Jaden would be childhood friends with some of his wealthier classmates, like Chazz, Adrien, Aster, and maybe the Rhodes siblings.

(Oh absolutely, you just know there families would be at those rich people parties)

Jaden tried not to laugh at his pops grumbling, it was well known that Seto Kaiba hated having to attend what he considered idiotic events. Where he would stand infront of groups of morons who would try to take his money and get in his good graces.

Luckily for him Uncle Yugi was attending, not that he cared for these events much either but he would keep his pops from losing his mind.

Jaden didn't worry to much, though he was nervous as it was his first true social event after his adoption. It had been announced that he was Kaiba's heir but subtly, as the last thing Kaiba wanted was the paparazzi to go after him.

So Jaden was a bit unsure but he had Atem, who found the whole Kaiba having to be polite thing hilarious, and made it quite clear he did so. He floated beside Jaden, using his abilities as a spirit to make himself invisible to all but Jaden, the last thing they needed was for anyone to ask about that.

"You've got this Jaden, why don't we go wander about. There's some kids your age, maybe you can make a friend?" Said Atem, encouragingly "if it gets too much for you we can head back to your dad and Yugi. " He added, knowing that for Jaden this was a big moment but one he wouldn't be pushed into.

Jaden nodded before giving his pops a hug before wandering through the hall. If was large, apparently it was for a charity but Jaden wasn't quite sure what it was. It was there he ran into a black haired boy slightly taller than him who was sat by himself. "Hi" greeted Jaden, a shy smile on his face though the boy looked upset. "What do you want?" Said the boy, trying to act angry but it fell away quickly.

Jaden frowned "are you okay? How come your by yourself?" He asked, he knew it was probably a werid question but did so anyway. "... My brothers went out, told me to stay here... I didn't want to come these parties suck" said the boy. "We could play a game?" Asked Jaden, sitting beside him "a game? With justf us?" Asked the boy, though he was starting to look excited.

"Well... Maybe we could find some other kids to play it with" said Jaden, he saw Atem point to a group of similarly bored kids, a grey haired boy with an action figure, a brown haired boy being closely followed by a a girl, a black haired boy messing with a calculator and two siblings that were bickering with each other.

Jaden grinned, taking the boys hand and dragging him over, ignoring his complaining as he did so. The group of kids watched them, with varying looks of confusion and amusement. "We wanted to play a game, do you wanna join us?" Asked Jaden, smiling through his nervousness.

"... Sure this place is boring" said the grey haired kid with a shrug, the siblings agreed joining him. Jaden looked at the brown haired boy for a few seconds with puppy dog eyes making the boy huff and walk over, the girl following him. "Sure, why not" said the other black haired boy putting down his calculator.

"I'm Chazz by the way, Chazz Princeton." Said Chazz, smoothing his sleeve that Jaden had stretched dragging him over. "Atticus Rhodes, this is my baby sister Lexi" said Atticus, narrowly avoiding a slap from said sister "my name is Alexsis, not Lexi stop calling me that" she said with a glare, he smirked but said nothing.

"Aster Phoenix" said Aster simply though he did look amused by everyone's antics. "Bastion Misawa" said Bastion politely with a kind smile. "Tch... Adrian Gecko, this is Echo" said Adrian, rolling his eyes but staying polite enough.

"You'll do well to remember his name" said Echo with a mysterious smile, everyone just kinda... Ignored that.

"Cool, I'm Jaden Kaiba" said Jaden, not seeing the shocked faces that this was Seto Kaiba's son and he wanted to play with them, no one saw Adrian's smirk.

"So, what game did you have in mind?" Asked Chazz, curiously. "Oh... I don't know I thought we could make one up said Jaden, making them all sweat drop before all talking over each other coming up with something.

Atem chuckled to himself, yup Jaden had made his friends.

[synthient]

Could you elaborate on what you mean about Death T re stanning and fairness? It sounds interesting and I'd love to hear about it if you don't mind sharing.

ajhfakj hoo boy. Okay.

So some time around the summer before last (judging by the point where the first baffled and frustrated readmores start showing up on this blog), I read Death-T. It made me feel…some kind of way. An…unpleasant kind of way.

Here’s the thing about me: I can’t just let myself have an emotional reaction to a piece of fiction. I have to, first, pick apart my own emotions to figure out why I had that reaction, and second, pick apart the story to figure out how it works and how it made me feel that way.

On the Feelings Front, I’ve isolated two main causes:

1. I have a brain that Needs Things To Be Fair. That doesn’t mean I can’t handle unfairness in a piece of fiction. Unfairness creates conflict, and conflict is what makes for good storytelling. But it does mean that I need the story to be aware of its own unfairness. I need the unfairness to be the point. Otherwise I start vibrating at high speeds and shaking my fist at clouds.

2. I’m a Kaiba stan. I accidentally got emotionally attached to the Funny Card Game Boy from the Funny Card Game Show. 

There’s the feelings part. That leaves the “picking apart the story” side of the equation. And I’ve been trying to do that in nice punchy little one-or-two-paragraph text posts for the past year or so, but I don’t think I’ve ever really done the argument justice that way. So I guess that leaves only one option: writing a giant wordvomit essay on Yugioh (1996-2004).

Why This Is A Death-T Hateblog: The Masterpost

An important note: I like being able to back up my thoughts with Evidence From The Text, but I’m specifically working off the (Viz translated) manga. You can read Cards with Teeth here, Capumon here, and Death-T starting here if you want to check any of my facts or draw your own conclusions. Keep in mind that the Toei anime made pretty huge changes to the s0 Kaiba storyline, and the DM anime skipped most of it entirely–if you’re more familiar with those continuities, there’re some major differences in the manga.

(Also this thing probably reads better on desktop. I think the formatting got screwed up on mobile)

How We Got Here

Before we can actually dig into Death-T, we need to start at the very beginning (♫a very good place to start♫). So that means taking a look at “The Cards with Teeth (Part 1)” and “The Cards with Teeth (Part 2).”

For its first 8 chapters, the Yugioh manga chugs blissfully (if repetitively) along with an episodic, conflict-of-the-week formula. No overarching plot. Next to no sense of continuity. No trading cards in sight.

Then this asshole shows up. 

His name is Seto Kaiba (or “Kaiba,” at least–not sure if this is just a Viz thing, but my copy of CwT never mentions his given name). Not that he bears a whole lot of resemblance to the Seto Kaiba we later come to know and love (and/or love to hate).

Almost none of his most defining traits are there yet. There’s no mention of Mokuba, no mention of Kaibacorp, no indicationthat he’s especially rich (besides the fact that he’s carrying around a wholebriefcase of trading cards), no reason to believe he has a specific obsession with Blue Eyes (he just thinks it’s a strong card and it’d help him win tournaments), and no sign of any special hacking/strategy/hand-to-hand-combat/etc. skills (the kid is hilariously incompetent). 

This dude was never supposed to be a recurring character, and it shows.

But anyway, let’s run through the basic series of events:

- Kaiba wanders into the game shop looking forbooster packs. Yugi recognizes him as an acquaintance from school (not as a famous kid CEO, and not as a recent transfer student)

- Kaiba happens to notice the Blue Eyes card lying out onGrandpa’s counter (in this version of events, he hasn’t been stealing rare cards for months before this, he didn’t creep on Yugi’s conversation and followhim home, he had no idea going in that the Blue Eyes was there, and he didn’t already have the other three)

- He offers to trade all the cards in his briefcasefor the Blue Eyes (although he doesn’t tell Grandpa to name his price—again,the millionaire CEO element isn’t a thing yet)

- Grandpa refuses, so the next day Kaiba comes up with alaughably badly thought-out plan to steal the card

- Shockingly, Yugi notices that the “color copy from the catalog” isn’t the real deal. He gently tries to confront Kaiba about it in private

- Kaiba (without showing an ounce of the cool head you’d think you’d need to take over and run a company) panics, starts stammering and unconvincingly denying it, and then smacks Yugi with his briefcase

Annnd then Part 2 plays out like a standard s0 chapter.

“Yami Yugi” takes over. They play a shadow game. Kaiba cheats by slipping the stolen Blue Eyes out of his sleeve (Atem’s like “That’s my Grandpa’s card!” and Kaiba straight up goes “Whaaat, nooo, that’s my card that I, uh, found on the street just now.” A teen genius criminal mastermind, everybody). The shadow magic gives him a spritz from its metaphorical Karmic Cat-Training Spray Bottle and makes his Blue Eyes dissolve (I’d like to think that was Kisara going “I’m not mad, just disappointed,” and Memory World tries to retroactively make that connection, but it’s pretty abundantly clear that nothing about this series was planned that far ahead). He loses. Yadda yadda yadda.

And then Atem goes in for the penalty game.

To recap: 

Some random 10th grader from Yugi’s school stole a trading card, hit someone, and was generally kind of a jerk. As punishment, he was trapped in a hyper-realistic illusion of being ripped apart and slaughtered by half a dozen monsters at once.

Y…ay…?

Let’s Stop and Reflect for a Sec

In theory, I shouldn’t be that much more upset about Cards with Teeth than I am about any other part of s0, right? It’s not like the manga framed it as horrific and wrong when Atem set off an explosion in some teenage bully’s face a couple chapters ago. Giving us the vicarious pleasure of punishing our bullies in over-the-top, Carrie-style ways without actually exploring any of the consequences is, like, the early manga’s whole thing.

But even taking into account the fact that I already had an attachment to this Nasty Bowl Cut Boy thanks to the anime, I do actually think that there are at least two factors that set CwT apart.

The first is that Atem’s karmic punishments are usually…well, karmic. If he inflicts physical harm on someone, it’s because they already inflicted or tried to inflict roughly the same amount of harm on Yugi & co. If the crime was relatively minor, then he only gives out a minor punishment–like, say, when the homeroom teacher was Just Kinda Mean, all he did was allow the class to see her without her makeup on (…setting aside the Let’s Get Into Gender Politics-ness of that chapter).

There’s even a few cases where you could argue that the punishment is too light to fit the crime. Ushio beat Jonouchi and Honda half to death and tried to murder Yugi with a knife, and all he got was this lousy t-shirt an illusion that made the trash on the ground look like money.

In another chapter, the villain of the week tried to rape Anzu, and the only punishment he faced was having his side business exposed as a scam (Let’s Get Into Gender Politics).

Yet in CwT, we see one of the most harmless villains in all of s0 (no prolonged beatings or attempted murder? unheard of!) receive what’s arguably the most horrifying penalty game in the whole manga. At least when that guy got set on fire, it was over fast.

And that brings us to factor number two: Kaiba is the first penalty game victim in s0 who comes back. 

Capumon: Gotta Catch ‘em All!

Well, technically he doesn’t come back in person, at first. Someone else shows up to fight in his name.

Oh hey Mokie. How’s it going?

Rather understandably (imo), Mokuba wants the guy who tortured his brother last week to face some actual consequences for it.

Now here’s an interesting opportunity that the manga has set up for itself. Is it going to dig deep into the balance between defending yourself vs lashing out and causing undue harm? Is it going to remind us that most of the penalty game victims so far, whatever their crimes,have been children? Is it going to demonstrate that when you take out your anger on someone, you don’t just hurt your immediate target, but their loved ones as well?

Nah, who am I kidding.  

Hurting or inconveniencing the Good Guys in any way is Bad. Anything the Good Guys do is Good and Justified. Using magic to stick an already-hurting eleven-year-old in his own personalized hell? Good and Justified.

Before he’s shoved screaming into the Giant Vending Machine Capsule Where Bad And Naughty Elementary Schoolers Go To Atone For Their Crimes, Mokuba mentions that the other penalty game he heard about “made my brother go crazy!”

He also drops a hint of things to come with all the subtlety of an anvil. So I guess by this point, the numbers had come in and the card game chapter had proved unexpectedly popular enough that a sequel was in the works.

Death-Twink? Death-Tastic?Death-Two: Electric Boogaloo?

I’ve been pretty hard on Cards with Teeth and Capsule Monsters Chess so far. But you want to know the truth?

On their own, they aren’t necessarily that bad.

What really matters in a story isn’t the literal events: it’s how those events are framed. At the moment, we’re only midway through an incomplete storyline. Maybe we’re supposed to be horrified. Maybe we’re supposed to be questioning whether or not the hero is really in the right. It all hangs on what these chapters are building to.

As it turns out–as Mokuba just helpfully clued us in on–they were building to Death-T.

And that’s where the shit hits the fan.

Over a dozen chapters after we first met Kaiba, a whole bunch of completely-unforeshadowed facts about him are suddenly dumped on us all at once. He’s rich! The kind of rich that allows for limo rides, a giant mansion, and flouncing around in a fur-lined cape like feudal European nobility! And he’s the president of a company, even though “Whaa?!! But he’s still in high school!” Speaking of which, apparently Kaiba “hasn’t been at school recently.”

The Death-T arc opens with Yugi and Jonouchi attending the world’s most awkward sleepover–the host never shows up, and they don’t even get to paint each others’ nails or watch movies. Also Mokuba tries to murder them in the night, but you know what? If someone tortured my brother, “made him go crazy,” and left him huddled in the house feverishly working on a bizarre project and refusing to go to school for the next few weeks, I’d probably poison them too.

The morning after the sleepover, we learn another new Kaiba Fact…

Ever since the Experience of Death happened, he’s been having horrible recurring PTSD nightmares about it. As you do. When you get tortured.

(This is why, even though I know intellectually that it’s Not That Deep and people arejust having fun, I still get a little skeeved out when I see jokes about howDeath-T happened “just” because Kaiba was that mad about losing a card game or “just”because he had a crush on Yugi and he didn’t know how to deal with it. I’malways internally like “Nnno, I’m pretty sure it was the torture?”)

So far we’ve been shown in pretty brutal detail that our “hero” psychologically broke a fifteen-year-old for no good reason. The manga’s going to have its work cut out for it if it really wants to do a convincing redemption arc for its protagonist. And there’s no way it could possibly try to spin that random act of torture as an acceptable thing, right?

…right?

Crime and Punishment

That’s one of my first big problems with Death-T: to me, it reads as a way of trying to retroactively justify the Experience of Death.

That seems to be the purpose of suddenly giving Kaiba all this wealth and power that was never hinted at in Cards with Teeth. See, he wasn’t just some random high school kid who had the bad luck of crossing someone with magic powers; he was (however improbable that is, as the story lampshades) a high school-aged CEO. He’s so ludicrously powerful that he can torture an old man in front of a live audience and get away with it. Punching up looks a lot better than punching down, doesn’t it?

And you can’t really fault the hero for torturing someone evil, can you? Kaiba used Grandpa’s sanity as a blackmail chip! He ran experiments on human test subjects! He wants to kill Yugi and everyone he loves! Surely a little torture is no worse than he deserved.

There’s only one one problem with that: the Experience of Death happened before Death-T. There’s no way Atem could have known any of this was coming. The audience couldn’t have known it was coming. Takahashi didn’t know. Chronologically speaking, the Experience of Death wasn’t revenge for Death-T. It’s the other way around.

Best Served Cold

So Death-T is a form of eye-for-an-eye vengeance: “Yugi” beat Kaiba at Duel Monsters and tortured him, so now Kaiba’s gonna beat Yugi and torture him, using his own perfect virtual recreation of “Yugi’s” penalty game (oh yeah, that whole “the average person goes insane in about 10 minutes” thing? Kaiba was able to program that detail from personal experience).

But wait! This isn’t really eye-for-an-eye! Kaiba’s going after Yugi’s loved ones, not just Yugi, and that’s worse than what Yugi did to him! And even if it was proportionate, revenge is bad and wrong. That’s how you get endless back-and-forth chains of vengeance and generational blood feuds and stuff. Two wrongs don’t make a right!

And those could all be reasonable points, except…

This entire story is about how great and badass eye-for-an-eye justice is.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if you could take everyone who ever hurt you and make them suffer even worse” is practically the thesis of Season 0. You can’t make something look awesome when the protagonist does it and then turn around and make it seem evil and inexcusable coming from anyone else.

And while Kaiba does wind up targeting Yugi’s friends, that wasn’t part of his original plan. He’s surprised when random people start jumping out of the bleachers/the Kaibacorp employee roster and insisting that they won’t let Yugi do this alone. The writing uses his surprise as proof that he just doesn’t understand The Power of Friendship, but it’s also evidence that his original target was just Yugi.

“If you’re gonna side with my torturer, then you can have the same fate as him, I guess.” It’s not even that far outside the logic Atem’s been using all this time. Just because there’s only one main gang member who personally hurt his friend, that doesn’t mean that Atem won’t rope every random mook who gets in his way into the death game too. (Granted, this doesn’t really apply to Kaiba’s treatment of Grandpa. Or the offscreen experimentation/blackmailing. Or Mokuba, but…we’ll get to that).

…But like I said before, the big issue isn’t the events. It’s the framing. Maybe the point will ultimately be that if penalty games are wrong when the bad guy does them, then they’re wrong when the hero does them too. Maybe this is all leading up to a big reexamination of Atem’s moral code and some much-needed character development.

Maybe. Let’s keep going and see.

*Great Gatsby comic voice* Baby? What Baby

Death-T runs for 14 chapters, but Kaiba isn’t actually there for, like…half of them.

I mean, he’s technically there? Occasionally? He’ll show up long enough to dramatically play chess for a panel or so, or to stick his head on a TV monitor and provide some Helpful Death Game Hints. But for all practical purposes, he’s pretty much absent for the entire middle section of the story arc.

And, uh…let’s just say I 100% understand and respect the DM anime’s decisionto go straight from Grandpa’s heart attack to the final duel and skipeverything in between.

If Kaiba’s real goal is to beat Yugi at Duel Monsters, then all the death games leading up to that one are basically filler. And they manage to be just as contrived and nonsensical as any anime filler arc, without a fraction of the fun.

It’s largely a tonal issue. The writing swings wildly between grimdark dramatics, sentimental conversations about friendship where everyone hugs and cries (tbh that’s one of the few redeeming qualities of the arc), and “comic relief” where the “““comedy””” is all either bodily function jokes or sexual assault jokes (L̠̤̯͍̦e̮̪͎̞t's̞̮̳̱̰̦̲ ̲G͖͉̹̻̯͉͖e̜̝̗͓̟͚t̖͚ ͚̰̞̮̝̫͎I͓̜̦̳̭͚͎n̪̪͈t͍̥̰̼o͚͎͇̣̘̝ ̪̼̜̣̳G͈̠̫e̳̝̗̪ṋ͚̞͎ͅd͔̙͓̯̹e̯̺̯̩r͔̣̲͔̳̗ ̘͙P̖̦o̩̺͖͎̞̬l͎̺͕̹i͇̣̼̦t̰i̬̰̝͙̗̝c̜̼̺̪̲̞s).

Honestly, in terms of the “stanning and fairness” argument, there’s not much to talk about here. It just adds insult to injury that not only does Death-T throw my fave under the bus, but it’s really badly written.

The Mokuba Thing

Okay, let’s fast-forward through the filler zone and stoppp…here. 

In the context of the anime, where we know (and see multiple flashbacks demonstrating) that their whole life has been an “us against the world” story, this scene is tragic. Seto’s trust in people has been eroded so much that he even thinks Mokuba is conspiring against him? Their love and support for each other, which has survived through so much hardship, has finally cracked under the weight of this latest trauma? There’s a lot of dramatic and tearjerking potential there.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that most of us bring our baggage from the anime with us when we read the manga. The vast majority of the western Yugioh fandom did start with DM. 

But if we look at this purely in the context of the manga–if we can pretend, for a second, that none of us have ever heard of the anime–this is the first time we see the two of them interacting onscreen. And none of those touching flashbacks of Seto comforting Mokuba and defending him from bullies and promising to be his father exist here. All we ever really learn about their relationship before this point is “They used to be a little closer when they were younger. Source: one (1) photo of them playing chess.”

So instead of serving as the tragic lowpoint of their relationship, this scene sets the baseline for it: Mokuba desperately wants to make his brother happy and earn his approval, while Seto responds with dismissal and cruelty.

In the anime (and to a certain extent in the later manga), Mokuba’s purpose in the narrative is to humanize Seto. But in Death-T, he serves the opposite function. Every interaction they have is an opportunity for Seto to kick the dog and prove what a monster he is.

And it’s all downhill from here.

………………

…So.

I have…mixed feelings about this.

On one level–a meta level–I think this scene serves the same purpose as taking that random high schooler from CwT and suddenly giving him ridiculous amounts of money and power and mustache-twirling levels of villainy. It’s a way of making the Experience of Death seem retroactively justified (and also a way of making the upcoming penalty game look fair).

On the other hand. It’s. 

Horrific.

This scene is supposed to make us hate Kaiba, and it does it’s job really really well.

Personally speaking? I’m of the opinion that trying to hurt the child under your care as badly as you conceivably can is a “don’t pass go, don’t collect $100″ kind of deal. There’s no coming back from that. There’s no fixing or salvaging this relationship.  

(God, this whole thing is wrapped in so many layers of fantasy that I’m not even sure what the real-world equivalent would be. Trying to beat your child not quite to death?)

Mokuba should not have had to continue living with his brother after this, any more than the Ishtars should have had to stay with their dad or Seto should have had to stay with Gozaburo. Mokuba forgiving Seto for this isn’t touching to me, it’s gut-wrenching. Every “heartwarming” brotherly moment in the later manga (all, like…2 and a half of them) feels hollow and sad.

As far as I’m concerned, this scene doesn’t “complicate” their relationship in any interesting or meaningful way. Their anime relationship already has plenty of complications–their sometimes unhealthy co-dependence, the fact that Seto is still a kid himself and he’s not really equipped to be a parent,Mokuba’s difficulty understanding that Seto can’t just “go back to who he was” before his trauma, the times when Seto is too caught up in his own pain to really be there for Mokuba, the manipulation involved in Seto’s takeover plan, etc. This just makes their relationship outright child abuse.

But hey, they hugged that one time in Duelist Kingdom, so it’s fine, right?

ExODiA iiiIIIIT’s not pAHsible

The final duel happens. The big Blue Eyes vs Exodia showdown.

*Bill Wurtz voice* So that’s pretty nifty, I would say.

It’s..? A genuinely cool and dramatic duel. There’s a reason it’s one of the, like, three Death-T elements the DM anime actually bothered to keep. Not much to say about it.

Sure was a whole lot of buildup just to end things with one (1) deus ex machina instawin card, tho.

The Tragic Backstory

So if all this happened because of a penalty game, what do you think the solution could be?

Did you say “another, even harsher penalty game”?

Ding ding ding!

This time, instead of torturing the fifteen-year-old, our hero puts the fifteen-year-old in a vegetative state as he begs for mercy.

Yaaaayy! 

Some fun facts about the Mind Crush that we don’t actually learn until Duelist Kingdom:

1. It lasted for 6 months

2. Mokuba spent that entire time alone, in the big empty mansion, with no parental guidance or adult supervision except the butlers and maids, caring for his brother’s comatose body 24/7

3. When Atem put Kaiba in that coma, he had absolutely no idea if he’d ever be able to wake up or not. He thought he could, maybe–Kaiba’s pretty strong, right? But he also finds the idea that Kaiba died in his coma and came back to haunt him perfectly believable. “Fixed,” dead…eh, it was kind of a coin toss.

But wait, the story’s not over yet! First we have to find out Why Kaiba Is The Way He Is (“Because your buddy tortured him last month” isn’t enough of an answer, apparently).

This is communicated in the most natural way possible: Mokuba just starts monologuing about all his brother’s deepest darkest traumas to a bunch of strangers his brother hates.

The claim that Kaiba’s backstory is “more complex” in the manga than it is in the anime has always confused me, because this is…it. These three pages are the whole backstory. I mean, in Battle City we do get one more passing line of dialog about how Kaibacorp used to be a weapons manufacturer and Gozaburo “sold Seto’s soul to the military industrial complex,” but other than that… The anime took these bare bones and fleshed them out significantly, but from a pure manga canon standpoint, it’s not a whole lot to work with.

But there’s still enough here to rub me the wrong way.

For one thing, this sequence is almost an exact parallel to two later moments in the manga: Pegasus’s backstory dump at the end of Duelist Kingdom, and Malik’s backstory dump mid-Battle City. In both of those cases, the purpose of the scene is to take a villain whose motives seemed cruel and inexplicable and finally reveal the reasons behind his actions. We’re supposed to be seeing these characters in a sympathetic light for the very first time.

But Kaiba’s motives in Death-T, uh, weren’t exactly a mystery. He already made it pretty explicitly clear that this was about the torture. So as a narrative tool, Mokuba’s monologue:

1. seems a little superfluous

2. seems like a way of taking any responsibility out of the protagonist’s hands. Kaiba didn’t snap because of anything Atem did, he just had a bunch of fucked up baggage that Atem couldn’t possibly have known about or accounted for. Who knew some people take it badly when you torture them??

3. seems to suggest that we weren’t supposed to be sympathizing with Kaiba before this point. If this is the big “oh, now that I know why he did it, I guess I feel a little bad for him :(” moment, then that means the part where he got tortured…wasn’t?

And, as always, there’s the issue of the framing.

The grace note of the monologue–the thought it leaves us with, the intended takeaway–isn’t “If only he hadn’t gone through years of abuse, in circumstances he had no real control over because he was a child.” It’s “If only he hadn’t brought all this upon himself by cheating.”

Even if we ignore the fact that it’s physically impossible to cheat at chess (which seems like kind of a big oversight for a gaming manga, but oh well, That’s Yugioh Babe)…

How can you possibly present a ten-year-old cheating at a board game in a desperate gambit to get himself and his brother out of an orphanage as his start of darkness?

Yet that’s exactly what the writing does. This is a story about how games “reveal the true hearts” of their players and bring karmic retribution down on anyone who doesn’t respect the game and follow the rules. The implication is that the child abuse Seto suffered was karma. He rightfully earned it by cheating at chess, just like he brought the Experience of Death upon himself by cheating at Duel Monsters.

Oh yeah, speaking of which…

Wheel of Morality, Turn Turn Turn, Tell Us The Lesson We Should Learn

What was the outcome of Death-T? What impact did it actually have? 

Did it bring about any big moral reckoning? Any questioning of the heroes’ values? Did Atem learn the difficult but important lesson “torture bad”?

Nnnnope!

Death-T is immediately followed by a series of episodic chapters that take us right back to the status quo like nothing happened. Atem keeps merrily handing out penalty games all the way up to the very end of Duelist Kingdom. When he does finally stop doing them, his decision has nothing to do with Death-T. It takes a comment from Pegasus about the Millennium Items having an “evil intelligence” to make him wonder “wait…I’m from a Millennium Item…I’m an intelligence…could evil…maybe include…torture????”

And even after the manga lukewarmly reverses its position to “torture sort of bad I guess,” it never really does anything with that revelation. None of the past penalty games are ever reexamined. No apologies are made. The Experience of Death is quietly swept under the rug, and the Mind Crush, when it’s brought up at all, is framed as noble act that “fixed” Kaiba (because “if you make someone suffer badly enough, you can hurt them into being a better person” is a great message).

Basically, we learned nothing from Death-T, nothing changed, and our takeaway is supposed to be “Atem was 100% in the right and Kaiba was 100% in the wrong, and also he’s an evil monster who deserved everything he got.”

Guess I Need A Satisfying Conclusion of Some Kind Even Through Death-T Didn’t Really Have One, Huh

Wow.

That was…a whole lot of words of Death-T rage that I apparently had in me zjkghzkkf. 

I tend to feel less justified about constantly harping on Death-T then I do when it comes to, like, the racism in Memory World, or the series’ general Miss O’Gyny. It’s not like “magical vigilantism” is exactly a real-word social issue that’s being reflected in this piece of fiction. I realize a lot of my anger pretty much boils down to “hey,, ! thats…my fave. stopp...being mean to him >:(”

But I also feel like the issues in Death-T aren’t limited to Death-T.

The manga has this…this thing where it wants to be able to pinpoint a few clear, unchanging moral rules (“cheating is bad!” “graverobbing is bad!” “patricide is bad!”) and just apply them neatly to every situation, without having to take into account any of that inconvenient stuff like “what were the circumstances of this specific situation,” or “how many choices were actually open to this person,” or “how much harm was done by this choice compared to its benefits in terms of basic human well-being.” Yet at the same time, that moral absolutism is somehow coupled with a reluctance to apply any moral judgement to its protagonists at all. 

The two points where that becomes clearest are Death-T and Memory World. And I feel like even when people acknowledge the issues with those arcs, they still want to be able to write it off as “oh, that was just a problem with the early chapters, it was fixed as the writing matured,” or “oh, that was just a problem at the end because of the mad rush to finish the story before it got canceled, it was never a thing before then.” But it’s not an isolated problem. It’s there at the beginning of the story, it’s there at the end, and it’s baked into everything in the middle.

…but anyhow. 

hey,, ! thats…my fave. stopp...being mean to him >:(

[evilkitten3]

I'll be greedy and say rivalshipping, devotionshipping (I think I haven't seen you write/post about the last... so leave that out if you don't ship them :-) for all of the OTP questions.

Fair enough. XD I’m not a huge Devotionshipping fan, but it’s still cute.

Rivalshipping (Mutou Yuugi x Kaiba Seto) & Devotionshipping (Jounouchi Katsuya x Mazaki Anzu)

1: Who spends almost all their money on the other?

Nobody. Yuugi and Anzu are smarter than that, Kaiba’s a businessman, and Jounouchi doesn’t have any money.

2: Who sleeps in the other’s lap?

Yuugi falls asleep on Kaiba and Jounouchi takes naps on Anzu.

3: Who walks around the house half-naked and who yells at them to put on some clothes?

Yuugi and Kaiba just wear what they always wear, so it’s mostly Anzu yelling at Jounouchi (he never does the same because oh my god musCLES)

4: Which one tells the other not to stay up all night and which one stays up all night anyway?

Yuugi teams up with Mokuba to get Kaiba to go the fuck to sleep. Sometimes they even pull it off. Both Jounouchi and Anzu are pretty good about it, though.

5: Which one tries to make food for the other but burns it all by accident and which one tells them that it’s okay and makes them both cookies?

Actually, Yuugi is the only one that can’t really cook. Kaiba learned how because of trust issues after he was adopted, Jounouchi usually has to make dinner since his dad… isn’t good about that, and Anzu worked in a restaurant so she knows her way around a kitchen. Ironically, Yuugi is the only one with any idea how to bake.

6: Which one reads OTP prompts and says “Oh that’s us!” and which one goes “Eh, not really”?

Jounouchi. For everyone, not just him and Anzu. Including people who aren’t dating. “Hey, Honda, this one reminds me of you and Anzu!” “…She’s dating you, you idiot.”

7: Which one constantly wears the other’s clothes?

Kaiba and Yuugi can’t fit in each other’s clothes, and Jounouchi is too tall for Anzu’s, so mostly Anzu wears Jounouchi’s clothes (mostly she’ll just borrow a t-shirt after a work out or something).

8: Which one spends all day running errands and which one says “You remembered [thing], right?”

Jounouchi runs the errands, Anzu asks if he forgot anything. Kaiba has people to do that for him.

9: Which one drives the car and which one gives them directions?

The only vehicle Kaiba drives is the Blue-Eyes White Dragon jet, which Yuugi insists is the silliest thing he’s ever seen. Mostly, they get chauffeured. Jounouchi usually takes public transit, so Anzu drives and he gives directions.

10: Which one does the posing while the other one draws?

I honestly doubt any of them can draw. XD

11: If they were about to rob a museum, which one does backflips through lasers and which one is strolling behind with a bag of chips?

Anzu backflips because she can. Yuugi and Jounouchi walk in with the chips. Kaiba just hires someone else to do it for him. Actually, he probably hires Anzu.

12: Which one of your OTP overdoes it on the alcohol and which one makes the other stop drinking?

Nobody, really. Kaiba sometimes worries that Yuugi’s had too much, since he’s… vertically challenged, but neither of them drink too much. Anzu only sometimes drinks, and Jounouchi avoids alcohol like the plague because… well, y’know.

13: Which one likes to surprise the other with a lot of small random gifts?

Yuugi likes to surprise Kaiba, who always points out that he doesn’t have to buy Kaiba freaking Seto anything, but he does it anyway. Jounouchi and Anzu’s “surprises” are mostly just take out. XD

14: Which one keeps accidentally using the other’s last name instead of their own?

Neither Yuugi nor Kaiba make this mistake, and Anzu doesn’t either. But Jounouchi once writes down “Mazaki Katsuya” as a joke and realizes he really likes the sound of it.

15: Which one screams about the spider and which one brings the spider outside?

Jounouchi screams and Anzu rescues. Yuugi doesn’t mind spiders and Kaiba has “better things to do than acknowledge the presence of inferior beings”.

16: Which one gives the other their jacket?

Yuugi still gives Anzu his jacket, even though they’re not a couple, because he’s polite like that. Kaiba sometimes gives his jacket to Yuugi, but mostly as a blanket. Jounouchi doesn’t share his jacket because he’s embarrassed of how old and worn out it is (Anzu doesn’t mind, though).

17: Who keeps getting threatened by the other’s overprotective older sibling?

Nobody. Actually, Shizuka and Mokuba generally threatened their brothers, since Mokuba looks up to Yuugi and Shizuka sees Anzu as a sister.

18: Who’s the first one to admit they have feelings for the other?

Yuugi, but only once he realizes that Kaiba’s just going to keep challenging him to a Duel while screaming internally. As for Anzu and Jounouchi… neither one really confesses; it just sorta happens.

19: How good would your OTP be at parenting?

Honestly, Kaiba’s too busy to be any kind of parent, and Yuugi doesn’t really want kids. He’s not at all against it, but it’s not like a life goal or something. Jounouchi and Anzu would be great parents, but Jounouchi is really worried that his dad’s parenting would affect his own parenting. They’ve agreed that they’ll probably adopt a kid once Jounouchi’s comfortable with it.

20: Which one types with perfect grammar and which one types using numbers as letters?

Kaiba types like he’s someone’s granddad, Anzu just makes sure to use proper punctuation, Jounouchi does whatever the hell he wants, and Yuugi is the King of Emojis. XD

21: Who gets attacked by a bully and who protects them?

Yuugi and Kaiba are both famous, so they’ve got bodyguards. Jounouchi’s ex-gang knows better than to start shit with him. Anyone who goes after Anzu regrets it because that girl can kick your ass seven ways to Sunday.

22: Who makes the bad puns and who makes a pained smile every time the other makes a pun?

Yuugi and Jounouchi love puns. Kaiba just sighs and Anzu rolls her eyes, but both of them smile sometimes.

23: Who comes home from work to see that the other one bought a puppy?

Kaiba. Because Yuugi’s the only one with the time, energy, and money to spend on a puppy.

24: Which one gives the other a piggyback ride when they’re tired?

Both Anzu and Jounouchi have given Yuugi piggyback rides. Kaiba gives him jet rides. Neither Anzu nor Jounouchi pick each other up all that often.

25: Which one competes in some sort of activity and which one does the overzealous cheering?

Anzu is the GOD of cheering. Kaiba’s version of encouragement is less “cheering” and more “weird mix of compliments and insults”. Jounouchi nd Yuugi both cheer too, though.

26: Who takes a selfie when the other one falls asleep on their shoulder?

Yuugi takes one of Kaiba because it’s adorable (and because he’s finally asleep thank fuck) and Anzu and Jounouchi take pictures of each other.

27: Which one would give the other a makeover if they asked?

I… honestly can’t see any of them doing this.

28: Which one owns a pet that the other is absolutely terrified of?

Jounouchi, Anzu, and Yuugi have no pets. And Kaiba has no fears aside from something happening to Mokuba, losing at Duel Monsters to anyone but Yuugi, losing at Duel Monsters to Yuugi, and a pissed-off Mazaki Anzu (Yuugi came to her house crying after Kaiba said something insensitive without realizing it, and oh boy did she blow a fuse).

29: Which one holds the umbrella over both of them when it rains?

Kaiba, although it’s hard to find a way to get both him and Yuugi under the same umbrella. Anzu and Jounouchi usually just hold their bags over their heads and book it.

30: If your OTP went on vacation, where would they go and what would they do? Who would take the pictures?

They’d go to Egypt. You know why, you know where. It would be sad for everyone, but also happy, in a strange way. Mokuba takes pictures of Yuugi and Kaiba (not that Kaiba is aware of this), and Anzu and Jounouchi take their own pictures.

[x-heartofthecards-x]

@numberoneduelist

If he were a more sentimental man, he might wax poetic about how things used to be. He might go on about how they were perfect rivals, opponents of the highest calibre. How he’d never before and never again found someone that could take him on at the level he found compelling. And that he knows that Yugi is still right here, standing next to him.

But he isn’t.

He hums in affirmation, fingers drilling the button for medium kick as he comes down from a jump. Yugi’s health takes a significant hit.

Summerset Gardens - he files this away for later, makes a mental note to send a little bit of money that way. A “charitable donation” to take care of some of the cost. Not a lot, just enough to help cover the rest of this year for Solomon. He’s not going to be patronizing; he’s just feeling a little generous. He never really apologized to the man for destroying his prized card, after all.

Man, it’s been a while since he’s had any kind of liquor.

At the mention of the international circuit, he lets out a bit of a laugh. This time, he’s definitely condescending about it.

“I can see Kujaku taking the win, but I didn’t think that idiot had it in him. Maybe he’ll pull it off and surprise me.” He pulls out the finisher. Knock Out. “…Yeah, it has.”

With a speed betraying his fatigue, he picks up his drink and knocks the rest of it back, then drops the plastic cup back into place on top of the machine. He’s not going to fall into the same trap that he’d sprung.

“And it all comes down to this.”

Yugi had only chuckled and rolled his eyes at the jab toward Jonouchi. The fact of the matter was that his friend had become a remarkable duelist. One of the very best by normal standards.

Of course, Yugi and Seto did not have normal standards when it came to Duel Monsters.

The world's duelists had likely fully rejoiced when the pair that were currently settled at the arcade game had decided not to compete, which in turn, gave everyone else a fighting chance.

The smaller man rolled his shoulders back as Kaiba quickly downed his drink and the timer for their next round counted down. The first two rounds had put them at even and it came down to this one. He could feel that flickering flame of passion in his chest fighting to become the inferno that it had once had been.

There was something about facing off with the megalomaniac billionaire that made him feel... alive again.

They both went in hard as soon as the match began, even their playful banter falling to the side as the tap, tap, tap of buttons took the place of words. A series of perfect combos, parrys, blocks, and special moves had both of their life gauges steadily draining, though by the time that each of them were at nothing more than a sliver of health, it seemed like their timer might run out first.

But then Chun-Li moved forward and quickly began kicking Ibuki in the midsection. She then switches legs, kicks Ibuki once more, then unleashes a barrage of fast kicks at Yugi's unlucky sprite. Seto finished this move with a final upward kick to Ibuki's face. The Critical Art finishing move, Hoyokusen.

Yugi's jaw fully dropped as the screen flashed, 'CHUN-LI WINS'.

Through his depressive spiral, there had been many moments where he had thought that he was getting bad. That he had vaguely chastised himself for the state he had let himself get into.

None had been a bigger reality check than losing to Seto fucking Kaiba.

He slowly looked up to the other man with an almost playful look of abject horror, one hand coming up to his chest as if he was clutching pearls around his neck as he asked, "Is that what it feels like to lose when we fight? I don't like that at all. How have you coped all these years?"