#5D Mark 2

[opelman]

2-EM / 63 - Dassault Mirage 2000-5 by Laurent Quérité Via Flickr: Air Force French Air Force Fighter Group 1/2 Cigognes BA 115 LFMO Orange Caritat France IMG_4263

[cinesludge]

Movie #71 of 2023: Drive

Driver: "My hands are a little dirty."

Bernie Rose: "So are mine."

[orcelito]

Being asked to choose between akeshu and vashwood in that tumblr post is really quite mean of them

I chose vashwood by basis of tragedy bc. Oof ouch ow. I haven't even seen it all yet and yet it hurts. Stampede only fans wouldn't understand.

At least akechi has the potential of being alive lol. Can't say that with vashwood

[sigalrm]

Wolf und Storch by Pascal Volk

[jewish-microwave-laser]

on the shabbat night of august 23, 1929, and into the following day (18 av 5689), riots broke out in the city of hebron (khevron/al-khalil) in response to disinformation spread that jews in british mandate palestine were going to take over the haram el-sharif/temple mount [1], which was building off a feeling of societal imbalance following the recent influx of ashenazim who had emigrated there to attend the sladboka yeshiva four years before [2]. this disinformation was fomented by outright calls for violence by many religious and bureaucratic leaders of the area [3]. rabbi ya'akov slonim and a sefardic rabbi named franko tried to ask for help in the hours before, fearing the worst, but they were turned away [4]

the massacre began with arab youths throwing rocks at a group of jewish yeshiva students, with the first death occurring that night when some of those youths broke into the yeshiva to find shmuel rozenholtz, age 23, alone and studying, and killed him as he read [5]

the group went house to house, killing and mutilating and raping as many jews as they could come upon. at one point, they approached the son rabbi slonim, eliezer dan slonim, and told him that if he agreed to hand over all the ashkenazi yeshiva students who were sheltering in his house, then they would spare the sefardim from their attacks [6]. slonim, who was well known in the community for being an activist for improving the relations between the arab and jewish populations in the region, responded "we jews are one," and refused [7]. he and about 40 other jews (who had been davening (praying) at the time) were killed in that home [5]

at the end of the massacre, almost 70 jews lay dead (the counts are usually either 67 or 69, depending), and countless more were gravely wounded and raped, and many were left with life-altering mental and/or physical injuries from the event. this event marked the end of the mostly peaceful coexistence between arabs and jews in the city (though it was by no means a utopia) that had gone on for hundreds of years. it is important to remember, however, that "some 400 jews were saved by their arab neighbors" [8]

may the memories of those whose lives were lost on that day, and of the survivors of the massacre who have died since, be for a blessing to us all

[1] https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/this-week-in-jewish-history--massacre-in-hebron-kills-67-8-3-2020

[2] https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-756156

[3] https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/plb/1929/09/08/01/article/11/?e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxTI--------------1%5d

[4] http://pdfs.jta.org/1929/1929-09-01_1455.pdf - let me know if you can't read this and i'll transcribe the article for you

[5] http://en.hebron.org.il/history/1270 - oded avisar, who compiled the first hand testimonies written out here, uses some words that would not be considered proper today to describe the arab perpetrators. this source also has some very graphic descriptions and photos of what happened. if any of that is something that may bother you it may be a good idea to look over this source

[6] https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-hebron-massacre-of-1929

[7] http://en.hebron.org.il/history/520

[8] yossi klein halevi, letters to my palestinian neighbor, pg 77

[rjalker]

3/3 people add the image description to the original posts in plain text, so now you get to see my new design for the Sphere even though I'm not done writing the short story yet, which will be posted to @neopronouns-in-action

This version of the sphere is named Kormance, and uses the pronouns xet/xev/xel/xevself, which are used like he/him/his/himself:

Replace he with xet

Replace him with xev

Replace his with xel

Replace himself with xevself

EX:

"He is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as he gets a fence set up around his yard so the puppy can go outside without him having to walk it. His uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting him use, since he lost his. He's going to buy toys and train the puppy himself."

Becomes:

"Xet is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as xet gets a fence set up around xel yard so the puppy can go outside without xev having to walk it. Xel uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting xev use, since xet lost xel. Xet's going to buy toys and train the puppy xevself."

this is not actually a scene from the short story.

[ID: A three panel comic, showing A Square and the Sphere from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. A Square is a 2D square with purple and blue insides, with blobs for organs in different shades of pink and purple. Kormance the Sphere is a light red sphere with blue and darker red spots and diamond markings, with sharp teeth. Xet has a single diamond shaped eye, with blue and black diamonds inside it. Xet has two arms, one ending at the elbow unevenly. Both characters are sitting on tall stools with yellow and orange cushions, while the Sphere uses a short rod to point at a chalk board marked in blue white and gold, showing the progression from a point, to a line (3) to a square (3 squared), to a cube (3 cubed). Panel 1 has Kormance the Sphere asking, "So do you finally understand the mathematical progression now?" A Square replies, "Yes, and I'm ready to learn about the 4th Dimension now", with a smiley emoticon. After panel 1, the cushions on the stools become the same green as the chalkboard. Panel 2 has Kormance staring at A Square with a blank expression, saying nothing. Panel 3 has Kormance with arms lowered, mouth agape, asking, "…What?". A Square is lost in thought, thinking, "A Fourth Dimension…with a sublime creature made of cubes…where we will look down and see the insides of all Solid things…some more spacious space…some more dimensionable dimensionality…what next? What about 5D? Why stop there? 6D! 7D! 8D!" End ID.]

For every $10 donated to a Palestinian relief fund, I will make another character design like this to be public domain!

Click here once a day to help Palestinians!

[kaiowut99]

TFSP Re-Translation Progress: Aki (5D's Stories: 2/5 Done)

DING, finished re-translating Aki's TFSP story events! Worked on it over a couple evenings and this weekend, and it does feel like a hint of the Arcadia Movement arc we should've gotten in-show that gives that part of her some more closure; finding out that the Arcadia Movement is still around and using kids in distress (from the old Satellite, as revealed later) as their pawns, Aki sets out to put an end to them once and for all, only to come up against Divine being the one trying to get her to rejoin.

Also thought this was a good exchange as Yusei jumps in and acknowledges how much she's grown (I can hear "Hopeless Battle" faintly in the background):

(It is wild how often I bump up against the original story "translation" maybe trying in a few places but then completely missing the mark on things most everywhere else and making things up [and needlessly worse in spots] to get the card game side of things out there--but then again, maybe Aki saying "I'm going to fucking destroy you" to Divine instead of "I'm here to put an end to the Arcadia Movement" is a good thing)

Now, to give her in-duel lines (which I roughly worked on to include some in the announcement video I did) another look-through, and then she should be good to go; once I do that, I'll likely start more work on my finalized GX 111-112 subs, so stay tuned!

[inkblackorchid]

What the hell happened with Crow: an autopsy (Part 2)

Hope you didn't think I'd forgotten about this post yet. Lads, ladies, and other lovely people, here we go. I have more yelling about bird boy to do.

But first, a few disclaimers. For people who may have missed part one, yes, as the title implies, this post is part two of an attempt to analyse Crow's character throughout 5Ds' whole run. You can find part one here. Now, both for people who may not have the time/energy to read my first, huge post about this right now, let me explain what I'm about here before we start again: My analysis is not meant to deter people who like Crow from liking him. It's also not meant to convince Crow haters otherwise, even if I admittedly personally like Crow. All of this stuff is just my personal attempt at dissecting how his character was handled in the show and why that might have been. And because this is part two, and I covered the Fortune Cup and Dark Signers arc in the first post, I'll start with the pre-WRGP arc, then dig into the backstory Crow was given directly before the WRGP begins properly. Also, mind the length of this post. I'm physically incapable of writing short things.

I also feel the need to reiterate another thing before I really get into the meat of things again: If you were hoping to see any old rumours about 5Ds confirmed, this is the wrong post. In fact, thanks to the very thorough work of someone over on Reddit (another shoutout to @mbg159 here, who's the author of those posts), I know for a fact that literally all the big rumours surrounding Crow are one big pile of logistically impossible horseshit, and I think after so, so many years of people citing this nonsense, the fandom as a whole finally deserves to let these go:

No, Crow was not meant to be a dark signer, least of all the final boss of season one, and Blackwings were not the reason he got more screentime later.

No, Aki being sidelined was not the result of her irl voice actress' pregnancy.

Yes, I know these two posts are both a long read each, but I cannot begin to tell you how tired I am of these rumours. So even if you don't have time to read the stuff above, please take away this: The big 5Ds production conspiracy theories are. all. bullshit. Because, to put it in as simple terms as possible, none of them work out logistically. The events people have pretended affected the show's production in a major way all don't line up with the actual production timeline. So just can the rumours already. Please let them die. And no pitting Aki and Crow against each other on his post or because of this post, yes? I beg you, I am so tired. Ok? Ok.

All right, now we can get to the good part. In my previous post, I left off at the end of the DS arc. So, in what position is Crow at the end of the DS arc? He helped save the world by defeating Goodwin and got his very own signer mark after Rudger/Roman Goodwin's death.

And now, where is Crow at the start of the pre-WRGP arc?

(Bam. Delivery bird boy be upon ye.)

This time, Crow wastes absolutely no time coming back on screen. We see him again within the first episode of the second half of the show, and wouldn't you know it! He moved in with Yusei and Jack and the three of them have a funny, brotherly, bickering dynamic between them. Also, as a fun little add-on that is very much in line with his deeply Satellite, down to earth characterisation from the first half, Crow now works as a delivery driver to earn money for the household. That's all very nice and good.

But what is his role in the plot from here on out? Well.

First, a small note about the pre-WRGP arc. Though this arc is fun to watch because it gives us a lot of silly character interactions the show no longer found the time for once the WRGP started, the pre-WRGP arc really can't be said to bother with actual plot much. It's the known filler arc of 5Ds, and as such, Crow is not the only character who gets pretty much nothing plot-related to do during this arc. Thus, I'll only give a quick run-down of what he does get up to, just in case any of these tidbits end up showcasing a relevant aspect of Crow's character I might come back to later.

Furthermore, another thing that's pretty much obvious to everyone who's ever watched the show in its entirety but still bears mentioning: Crow gets a lot more screentime from this point on out. Technically. Why do I say "technically"? I'll get back to that further below. For now, just keep it in mind.

So, how does Bird Boy spend his time during the arc where the plot's on the back burner? To be honest, on the sidelines, mostly. Don't get me wrong, Crow's there. Most of the time. But he gets pretty much only two episodes where he's the focus, and both of those aren't exactly known for being 5Ds' most memorable episodes (even though I still like them both tbh, but I digress): For one, in episode 68, he gets to convince Bashford to move in with Martha so the depressed old man isn't spending his entire retirement living in a scrapyard.

(This episode's comedic moments are actually fairly solid. But those are just my two cents.)

And for two, in episode 85, Crow gets to bond with the boys' somewhat cranky landlady, Zora, by duelling some sense into her son, Lyndon. (Which also introduces us to a duelling tactic only Crow uses that we will later see again: Losing on purpose.)

(And here we can see Crow showing off his skills at dealing with petulant children.)

Now, do these two episodes where he gets to be relevant actually do anything for Crow? As a character? Debatable. If nothing else, they strongly reaffirm the values Crow represents which we were introduced to in the first half of the show, though. They reintroduce us to his stubbornness, to his (in comparison to Jack and Yusei) more playful nature, to his very Yusei-ish dedication to doing the right thing, to his penchant for spite, and to his strong sense of family and community and his belief that these two things shouldn't be abandoned unless you have a damned good reason for it.

You may notice that there's a sizeable gap between these two episodes. That's because those episodes are where we get the only smidgens of plot in this arc. Among them, highlights like Sherry's introduction, the first reveal of accel synchro, Aki's turbo duelling license exam, three separate story beats hinting at the machinations of the emperors of Iliaster (Luciano's little stunt with Rua and Ruka, Placido getting started on building a killer robot army, and the Jack double being unleashed onto NDC), and Bruno's introduction. So, here's the thing: Crow is technically present during most of those episodes, too, but he doesn't actually get to meaningfully interact with the plot-relevant elements. (Which is not to say he doesn't have nice moments here and there. He does get to bounce off the other characters, and, just as one example, helps Yusei and Jack upgrade Aki's duel runner, as well as help Yusei build Rua's duel board. Crucially, he doesn't get to do anything that later becomes plot-relevant, though.) Moreover, not one, but two characters who end up becoming major players in the series' finale are introduced here, which is relevant insofar as that Bruno and Sherry both end up needing a good amount of development before they can impactfully take their later roles. Now, I say this with nothing but genuine appreciation for both these characters, because I do like them, but I feel the need to point out what this means not just for Crow, but for pretty much everyone who isn't Jack or Yusei: Every minute of screentime that was dedicated to Bruno and/or Sherry was one minute less the writers could spend on the rest of the cast. This is not to say that time shouldn't have been spent on them, they needed it, especially because they were introduced so late, but it's something I do want people to keep in mind when talking about who got how much screentime and whether or not that time was well spent. (I also have a larger gripe with the definition of "screentime" in general, but more on that later.)

So when does Crow get to be relevant to the plot again, now that he's even a signer and all? Well, not until episode 94, when the WRGP arc has already started. (Note that I'm using the 5Ds episode list on wikipedia as a general guide for which arc and which season starts where. You can find it here.)

*Deep breath*

So. Episode 94.

(Pictured: One very scruffy dragon. Bird? Dragon-bird. Bird-dragon. You figure this shit out.)

That episode. The episode where Crow, who was awarded with the status of a signer during the finale of the DS arc, finally gets a dragon to match his mark. And the episode where we finally, finally, get some actual backstory for Crow that goes beyond his involvement with the Enforcers and childhood with Jack and Yusei. A backstory that's only Crow's own. Except. How do I put this politely...

This shit doesn't make a lick of sense. Neither the events in the duel between Crow and Bolger in the present resulting in Black-Winged Dragon's appearance, nor the Pearson backstory.

Now, I'm not saying this to step on anyone's toes. From a writing standpoint, I can even make a fairly reasonable guess as to why this episode/mini-arc is here, I think: As I mentioned in part one of this analysis, Crow was not only introduced very late, but also got very little backstory of his own, which set him apart from the other signers. Don't get me wrong, he did get some backstory—we know of his strong connection to Duel Monsters because he learned to read from cards, and we know of his involvement with the Enforcers/Team Satisfaction. Crucially, though, Crow doesn't really get a backstory segment that feels as unique to him as the others. Aki gets her tragic past with her parents and her powers, Jack gets his betrayal of Yusei, which also doubles as part of Yusei's backstory, who as the protagonist understandably gets the most backstory, and even the twins, though they are as always treated as one unit, get their very own segment about the time when Ruka was essentially in a coma. Meanwhile, Crow only has that one-off tear-jerker moment about learning to read from his cards and his being a part of the boys' duel gang, which, and I cannot stress this enough, is treated as more of a Yusei and Kalin/Kiryu backstory by canon than a Crow backstory. Thus, it makes perfect sense from a writing standpoint that the Pearson/Black-Winged Dragon mini-arc would be here. Crow, up until this point, has neither a backstory segment dedicated solely to him, nor a signer dragon to call his own. So, how do we solve this? Give him both in a strategic double-whammy! The math checks out. Unfortunately, the writing of said mini-arc... doesn't.

Now, look. The juicy question of whether Crow would have worked better as a non-signer or not, which I already discussed in part one aside, I personally don't hate what this backstory is trying to do. It's just that the whole Pearson-drama has some very notable, logical holes which I'll get into below. Furthermore, this is not the first time something related to Crow has some unfortunate, logical and/or chronological issues. I already brought up the infamous fridge and Rex Goodwin's rather confusing backstory in part one, both of which raise some serious questions. However, Pearson and everything surrounding him arguably blow that clean out of the water. Let's examine this more closely, shall we.

The long-overdue backstory we get for Crow begins with a mystery: Mikage and Trudge, for a reason that is never given to us, are investigating the death of Robert Pearson (whose death would have been several years ago at this point), whom Crow knew very well, and they're doing it because they found a hint that the person who killed Pearson used an illegal card, Crimson Mefist, to do it.

(Post redemption-arc Trudge actually doing his job instead of bullying random Satellite citizens. Who would have thunk.)

Thing is, here, we already encounter our first, minor problem: Pearson has never been mentioned up until this point, not even as an aside. And this issue is compounded by the fact that not only Crow seems to know him, but Trudge claims to as well, because "Satellite used to be his jurisdiction". So, a named character who's familiar to both one of our protagonists and a notable side character, and we've never seen hide nor hair of him. If we pull our heads out of the story for a second, the irl reason for how this came to be is probably pretty obvious: Pearson was never mentioned before because the writers had nowhere near as solid of a plan for Crow as they did for the other characters, which leads to him being introduced out of nowhere here because we need a backstory and a dragon for Crow and we need those now. Moving on.

The mention of Pearson having been not simply killed in a fire, like Crow previously assumed, but having been murdered through a special, illegal card immediately makes him suspicious. So, he goes to consult Bolger/Bolton, another never-before-seen character who gets introduced in service of this backstory, and who knew Pearson well. And while this guy certainly acts amiable towards Crow at first, implying that the two have a good rapport, at least, he quickly starts acting suspicious when Pearson's murder comes up. Moreover, we as the audience at this point already know Bolger's looking for Black-Winged Dragon so he can use the card essentially as collateral to save his company. And the name "Black-Winged Dragon" already leaves very little to the imagination as to whose deck this monster is supposed to fit into. But, in a small twist, we learn from Crow that this was apparently Pearson's card, and supposedly lost in the fire where said man died, to boot. Then Bolger challenges Crow to a duel, too, offering to tell the truth about Pearson's death if he loses, but demanding Black-Winged Dragon, which he believes Crow to be in possession of, if he wins. So far, so good. We've got a mystery here, and canon is not contradicting itself just yet. Until we get to the actual backstory, which shows us the time Crow spent with Pearson, that is. Before we get into that, I'd like to highlight one theme this mini-arc introduces that actually feels like it fits Crow: Legacy. Over the course of meeting Bolger again and being reminded of his time with Pearson, Crow starts thinking about whether he's taking over his former mentor's/father figure's legacy well enough.

(Crow having some Deep Thoughts TM, featuring one of Yusei's most relaxed, easygoing smiles in the entire show, probably.)

This theme, I would argue, is one of the major things this backstory introduces that really meshes well with the Crow we already had until this point. He's a community-focussed guy and absolutely a family person, if him taking care of Satellite orphans is anything to go by, so leaving behind a good legacy for the people after him (read: the kids he took care of) would absolutely be something he cares about. We see this element of legacy again in his cards during this episode, too, which canon implies he inherited from Pearson. (I'll get to THAT can of worms below.) And on paper, with the themes he's already got going, Crow being the only one to inherit his deck rather than build it all by himself would actually make sense!

However. This is where we have to get into the meat of the backstory. I'll start by listing the barebones information Crow's backstory with Pearson gives us, then going into why several aspects of it are either logistical or chronological nonsense.

So, as canon tells us, Crow met Pearson after Kiryu/Kalin was arrested, when the Enforcers/Team Satisfaction all went their separate ways. During this period, Crow had already set up shop near the original Daedalus Bridge and started out taking care of orphans, but it wasn't all smooth sailing. He was, by his own admission, "living aimlessly". Then, during a pinch, Pearson and Bolger show up, take care of some bad guys for Crow and the kids, and Crow sees a new role model in Pearson. Pearson, who rides the Blackbird, plays a Blackwing deck and owns Black-Winged Dragon. So, he joins up with Pearson, presumably learns how to work on duel runners from him, and also befriends Bolger. Then, one day, a fire breaks out at Pearson's workshop and the man in question dies, but leaves Crow his runner and his duel disk before he does so. End flashback. Because I want to tie this together nicely, we also learn later that Pearson technically left him Black-Winged Dragon, too, by sealing it in his runner. And, of course, that dragon later becomes Crow's very own signer dragon.

Several points to be dissected here. And funnily enough, Bolger's duel with Crow isn't relevant for any of them. Let's start with the big one: The timeline. I want you to remember that as far as canon is concerned, Crow is 17 during the DS arc. Moreover, it's canonically stated that Jack stole Yusei's first duel runner two years before the show's start, at which time Crow would have been 15. And their time together as the Enforcers must have been even before that, because Kiryu/Kalin was already in prison for a while at that point and Crow and Yusei don't reunite until the DS arc is basically in full swing. So, I'll make a vague estimate here and say that during the time of the Enforcers, Crow would have probably been 13-14. (Which is hilarious when you think about the fact that this gang of angry teenagers essentially took over the entire duelling underground of Satellite, but I digress.) Now we add the idea that Crow met Pearson after the Enforcers, but that he died before canon starts into the mix. That means Crow first ran into Pearson sometime around age 15, and that he then died presumably before Crow turned 17. So far, so good, that still slots into canon, even if it makes Crow pretty damn young for some things. He's even missing the personalised Blackbird duel disk he later wears during the Enforcer days, I went back to check. What he is not missing, however, are his Blackwings. And this is where canon may or may not have made an implication that, if intentional, breaks this timeline. See, during the scene where Pearson's workshop is burning down and he's already trapped under debris and has embraced death, he tosses Crow his duel disk and leaves him his runner.

(Two important screenshots, in sequence. One, Pearson with his duel disk still strapped to his arm. His deck is very obviously still in there. Two, Crow with that same duel disk, as made obvious by its distinct shape.)

What this implies is that Pearson also left Crow his deck. Which, yeah, fair enough, if I were dying in a fire I'd probably also think "fuck it, not like I'll need my cards in the afterlife". What this (and Crow's look the first time he sees Pearson's monsters) implies, though, is that Crow didn't start playing Blackwings until Pearson left him his deck. Which is factually untrue, because there is literal evidence in the show that Crow already had Blackwings during his time as part of the duel gang, before ever meeting Pearson. (The exact episode, if you want to check for yourself, is 33, where Crow summons both Bora the Spear and Blackwing Armor Master during a flashback.) However, I will concede that the show never actually states this is the case, it's just implied by what we see on screen, so perhaps the idea here was that Crow already played Blackwings before Pearson, but grew to love them even more through his mentor/father figure, and so later happily integrated the deck he inherited into his own. Crucially, canon never states this outright, either, though, so the option remains on the table. But, to give the benefit of the doubt here, the possibility that this could still slot in with canon and that it was just handled poorly is there. The same cannot be said for the Blackbird, however.

(Uh oh. So much for canon continuity.)

The above two screenshots directly contradict each other. First we have Yusei, upon reuniting with Crow in Satellite during the DS arc, casually remarking that Crow finished his duel runner. Which means that canon at this point suggests to the audience that one, Crow built this duel runner by himself, for himself, and two, that Yusei knew about it for a while already. Then there's the second screenshot, from the Pearson backstory episode, where Crow outright claims the Blackbird was left to him when Pearson died. I don't think I need to tell anyone that these two things can't be true at the same time. And again, I think this is where Crow fell victim to the writers not having a clear outline for him. At first, he was supposed to be this scrappy guy who also built a duel runner for himself, just like Yusei. But now, he's a signer, needs a backstory and a dragon, and because a theme of legacy is introduced alongside Pearson, the runner suddenly needs to be inherited, as well as (possibly) Crow's cards. Now, a crafty fanfic writer could probably reconcile the above contradiction somehow, and I know some stories that accomplished that. But the point isn't that we, as the audience/fandom could make this work, the point is that canon didn't make it work. What canon, sadly, also didn't get to work was Black-Winged Dragon.

(We meet again, bird-dragon.)

Here comes the next elephant in the room: Everyone and their mother who has watched 5Ds knows that Black-Winged Dragon was never implied to be a signer dragon up until the duel where Crow acquires it. In fact, an entirely different dragon is teased so heavily long before BWD ever shows up that it to this day is one of many people's major gripes with the show's writing.

(Why, hello, Life Stream Dragon! Fancy seeing you here.)

And yet, Black-Winged Dragon is turned into a signer dragon before Life Stream Dragon, who was teased more than sixty (!!!) episodes before BWD was ever even mentioned. Why? Simple: Because Crow became a signer and Rua/Leo didn't, because the signers all need dragons (or else the "5Ds" part kind of doesn't work), and because Life Stream Dragon thematically doesn't fit Crow.

Now, I've seen people post theories to reconcile this weird hitch in canon, hell, I've even posted an idea for how it could be reconciled myself. But, again, that isn't the point here. The point is that as far as good old, barebones canon is concerned, it isn't reconciled. Canon at first states there are five signers, suggesting that there are also five dragons. But then, the fifth dragon never shows up, and one of the signers dies, to boot. Only for canon to then teach us, oh, no, look, the signer marks can wander from one person to the next. And to add insult to injury (at least where the show's writing and internal consistency is concerned), the signer mark that was "freed up" by Roman/Rudger's death doesn't wander to Rua/Leo, who any attentive watcher would have expected to become a signer because it was heavily teased during the DS arc, but to Crow. Frankly, I'm not surprised many people were angry about this, but in case my disclaimer didn't make it clear, I don't think it's productive to pin this on Crow by claiming his cards became super popular irl. There was definitely an out-of-left-field writing choice made here, but the only answers as to "why" were left in the 5Ds' writer's room, I believe. At a guess, if you want me to throw out a non-sugarcoated theory as to why, though? They probably thought Crow would be a more interesting character for their target audience. He's a scrappy guy who sticks it to authority, he's brave, he's funny, he plays a cool deck, and most of all, unlike Rua, he never embarrasses himself in a duel on screen. Why am I highlighting that last part? Because I feel like people sometimes forget that the target audience for this show, at the time of its creation, were about twelve year-old boys. And you can feel free to contradict me on this, but most twelve year-old boys I've known and know don't want to project themselves onto a chracter who loses and gets his butt kicked a lot, and who's a bit awkward and steps in it sometimes, which is much closer to how actual twelve year-olds are—but that's exactly why they prefer the cooler characters. And Crow is the cooler character, by average twelve year-old boy logic, regardless of what the grownups of this fandom think.

So Crow gets a dragon and the writing doesn't bother explaining the how or why of it, let alone tackles any of the implications made by Black-Winged Dragon's existence as a signer dragon. (Like what does this mean for the larger worldbuilding? Does the Crimson Dragon actually have more than five servants, but chooses to only ever bestow five marks at a time? Can any "dragon" the Crimson Dragon chooses be a signer dragon, and it just so happens that the constellation of signer dragons is nearly the same as the original one in present-time 5Ds canon? Did the Crimson Dragon specifically elevate BWD to a signer dragon because it felt like it? Was BWD always supposed to be a signer dragon? Was Pearson supposed to be a signer, but died too early before the dark signer prophecy was set into motion? Am I overthinking this? (Yes.)) He also obtains his dragon in what feels like the weirdest way possible to me, because it suddenly??? Just decides to appear in his runner????? Out of nowhere??????

(Why is that here. How did it get there. Why did Pearson even put it in there. And HOW. Is it just wedged between the machinery or what???? And how on earth did Yusei, Bruno, and/or Crow never find it before this point considering how often someone tinkered on the Blackbird on screen???)

(This scenario, of course, also raises the question how the other signers even got their dragons. But like many other, interesting questions, this episode chooses not to interact with that one whatsoever.)

In short, this backstory is a bit of a mess, to say the least. For as much good as it tries to do by contextualising Crow's character and giving him something that sets him apart from the rest of the protag group, it feels like a rough draft of an episode was given the green light to be produced without any editing, judging by the contradictions and weird implications. As such, it harms Crow's character as much as it builds it, as evidenced by how much fandom backlash he still receives years later for the things that were bungled in this backstory and also in different aspects of his character writing.

Now, you may notice this post has gotten stupidly long due to just how convoluted the specific hangups of Crow's backstory are. I originally meant to cover the WRGP and even the Ark Cradle arc for Crow in this post, too, but due to how much there was to say about canon's attempt to finally make Crow a "proper" signer, I've decided that trying to force another two whole arcs in here would be a disservice to the analysis and the character, and also make this agonisingly long, so I'll close this part out here and write a part three, perhaps even a part four depending on how much material the WRGP gives me to work with.

There's one more thing I need to get back to before I finish up this part, though: The "screentime" discussion. I mentioned far above that I take issue with how some people seem to be using the word screentime, and now I can explain why. First, I want you to take a look back at the episodes I covered here, those being 65-95, essentially. Now, as anyone who usually dislikes Crow will tell you, Crow is present in most, if not all of these episodes. He's on screen. He's getting screentime, and, according to many people, hogging it, even. Okay. Now, I want you to look back up at the analysis. How many episodes did I cover where Crow actually gets something to do? As in, where he's either the focus of the plot or gets to contribute to it in a significant way? There's the old man Bashford episode. There's the Poppo Time clock episode. There's his two backstory episodes. That's four. Four episodes. If you're generous, you might add in the episode where he gets to narrate Yusei's backstory alongside Jack and the two fake Jack episodes where he gets to have an emotional moment or two with his foster-brother. If you're less generous, you'll note that none of these episodes have Crow actually interacting with the main antagonists in a meaningful way or set up anything important that pays off later. (Hell, he doesn't even get any, and I really mean, any meaningful setup interactions with Sherry, who ends up being his final-boss-level opponent during the final episodes! Aki gets more meaningful interactions with Sherry than him, not that this ever gets a payoff.) And this is why I take an issue with people claiming Crow gets so much "screentime" post DS arc. Because to me, "screentime" should be time spent letting a character act meaningfully within the story, which most of the pre-WRGP episodes aren't for Crow. He's on screen, yes, but in many episodes, it wouldn't matter one whit whether you replaced him with a nameless side character, which isn't exactly a great look for a supposed third of a protagonist trifecta. Perhaps I'm being too strict with my definition of "screentime" here, fair enough! But the claim that Crow hogs screentime already rubs the wrong way during this comparably unimportant arc, so I can't leave it alone. It feels very decidedly malicious to claim a character who during some episodes seems to only be there to provide exposition or make whatever jokes Yusei and Jack's personalities aren't suited to is stealing screentime from other characters. As for the WRGP duels and whether he's "hogging" anyone's screentime there, I'll dig into that nonsense in the next part, please be patient with me.

...Phew. Okay.

Now, before I leave you to wonder whether I'm every finishing my Crow analysis in full again, I want to attempt to do the same thing I did in part one—propose some changes that could have been made to the writing for Crow's character in order to make things slot in better with the rest of canon. With a small disclaimer, of course: These are just my suggestions as to how Crow's character could have fit into canon more smoothly and been done less of a disservice by his own backstory.

So. First, a quick-fire thing about the pre-WRGP, to get that out of the way: Crow, alongside Aki, is the only signer who didn't get his own confrontation with either Iliaster or their minions. (Yusei had Ghost, Jack had fake Jack, Rua and Ruka had Luciano.) Instead of having him confront a cranky old man in a scrapyard or Zora's son, they could have easily given him a very short side-story where he gets to experience the threat of Iliaster up close and personal, too. Hell, they could have very nicely cut the recap episode where Crow and Jack lie in the mess of Jack's terribly built coffee table and philosophise about Yusei's backstory for this, too. (As funny as their interaction about the coffee table and Jack lying on the floor with a perfectly intact coffee cup are.)

(Pictured: Two idiots (affectionate) contemplating life among the scraps of a shitty, broken coffee table.)

Then, there's the Pearson backstory, of course. So, here's the thing, I think two very different kinds of "fixes" could have worked here. Crucially, they both depend on Crow's status as a signer. I argued in part one that Crow might have worked better as a character if he hadn't actually become a signer, so I'll give both versions here. Let's go.

Option A: We try not to touch canon too much and Crow stays a signer.

How to do this? Frankly, I think what Crow's mark and Black-Winged Dragon were majorly missing was setup. The mark is the smaller offence here, since, fair enough, the idea that signer marks can wander from person to person isn't too out there for 5Ds canon. However, the lack of a dragon despite the alleged 5Ds stands out, and Life Stream Dragon's wasted setup only makes it worse. Thus, making Black-Winged Dragon make sense would have required giving him the same amount of foreshadowing as Life Stream Dragon, at the very least. And you know who could have been great for that? Sweet, ever-forgotten-by-canon Ruka. She was already shown having flashback dreams to the signer dragons' first battle against the dark signers, so who's to say she couldn't have gotten dreams about a shadowy, new dragon she's never seen before? Perhaps even dreams where she's not sure if the dragon is good or bad at first! It could have provided intrigue, it could have made the audience curious. To strengthen that, canon could have also bothered taking the question "hey why are there only four dragons now" seriously. No character in canon ever questions why there are five marks, but only four dragons. Even Rua, who was previously hopeful that he might secretly be a signer, never brings it up. If canon had bothered to actually point this mystery out, they could have used it not only to foreshadow Black-Winged Dragon, but to aid Life Stream Dragon's setup, too. What the fuck am I talking about, I hear you ask. Hear me out: Life Stream Dragon is shown way, way later down the line, long after the audience probably already accepted that it was simply never going to show up, literally bursting out of Power Tool Dragon's armour. We are not provided with an explanation as to why. Imagine if they had sprinkled in another dream Ruka could have had about the ancient past here. Imagine if they had used the opportunity to show something like, oh, during the battle, Life Stream Dragon got injured so badly they had to protect its wounded body with a suit of armour, in the hopes that it would heal. And with one original signer dragon out of commission, the Crimson Dragon sadly had to choose a replacement in between, because the Earthbound Immortals were sure to return. Bam. Black-Winged Dragon. Two signer dragons, set up simultaneously, without forcing the canon lore to do somersaults. Furthermore, to actually explain why Pearson had the dragon but wasn't a signer, they could have easily sprinkled in a flashback between him and Crow. Maybe Pearson could have mentioned how the dragon always feels like it's never really his, as a joking aside. It would have been enough for me to suspend my disbelief, you know? And then the rest of canon could have played out exactly as we know it. Crow could have confronted Bolger, could have obtained Black-Winged Dragon because maybe the dragon finally decided he was worth throwing its weight behind. The mystery behind the missing fifth dragon could have been solved, and it would have made for satisfying payoff without kneecapping Life Stream Dragon's setup or conjuring an extra dragon out of thin air. And really, stuff like the runner thing could have so easily been solved by simply picking one version (did he build it himself or inherit it?) and sticking with it. All it took was a little more care.

Option B: We assume Crow didn't actually become a signer, but try to keep his backstory intact.

Okay, this version works under the assumption that Crow, despite partaking in the final battle against Goodwin during the DS arc, didn't receive a signer mark. To make this work, I would, bluntly put, simply make it so that Black-Winged Dragon doesn't exist. Pearson can still play a powerful Blackwing monster during his flashback that Bolger wants to find and sell later, but it simply isn't that dragon. Really, Blackwings have enough to choose from there. If the backstory episodes had been placed a little later, say, during the pause in the middle of the WRGP, he could have even received something like Blackwing Full Armor Master here. (Yes, I know that card didn't exist at the time, but my point is that he could have simply received a powerup like Yusei and Jack did, instead of a completely new monster.) With this setup, they could have still added the intrigue of taking the question why there are only four signers now seriously. They could have still set up a mystery about why no one ever saw the fifth dragon outside of dreams. And it could have made Rua becoming a signer later, and in this version getting the tail mark instead of a completely new one, that much more satisfying. And Crow could have kept his "fuck destiny, I'm trying to save the world here"-attitude from the DS arc, providing a nice, amusing counterweight to our heroes chosen by an ancient Incan dragon deity. All it would have taken would have been not giving him a mark and switching out Black-Winged Dragon for something else.

So, take your pick, I guess. In the meantime, I'll try my best to work on part three faster than I did part two, lmao.

See you next time!

[watertribe-enya]

ygo5dsmonth/Week 2024 Day 4 - iDuel

Since the prompt is music, I thought we could talk about the visuals in the 5D's openings maybe? So here are my favorite parts, and some things I noticed in general

Opening 1 Kizuna

The beginning with the Signers, Godwin and the dragon marks looks super cool. Too bad I don't like the music that goes along with it, haha. A little Jack and Yusei heavy, but it's alright, at least the side characters get time to shine too

Opening 2 Last Train

It's soooo good, a like practically everything here. The new characters and monsters get presented well, and everyone has some solid screen presence. The coolest parts are the view of the Dark Signers in their lair, Kiryu appearing on his D-Wheel, and the Signers at the end (the Dark Signers look cooler though, sorry fellas)

Only thing that bothers me is how Godwin shows up so little in the opening, he's (barely) more in the ending ffs, and he's the final villain of this arc. I know that was a twisted plot twist and I'm the only one who cares, but still

Opening 3 Freedom

Phew, the opening wastes no time to tell you that this is the Yusei/Jack/Crow show now, Rua, Ruka and Aki get into the back right now! And if you're focusing so heavily on the boys at least let them do something other than standing/driving casually, you're not really hyping me up like this OP. Fun fact: this was the first japanese opeining the german dub decided to leave in, after they started dubbing the 4kids version and did their own synchro

Sherry's face looks fuckin weird in this

Why should I care about the stupid WRGP (You're a grand prick!) again? Sigh, tournaments for the sole sake of getting better at something work better before you save the world from certain doom (but that's a writing problem not an opening problem)

The Majestic/Savior dragons look cool at least, and I like that this sequence kinda mirrors the dragons from Last Train, just in their evolved forms

Opening 4 Believe in Nexus

The villains get to look cool for a hot minute, damn. Although Lucciano is the only one with rollerblades, so him sliding and everything makes sense. The other two...are robots and ignore how uncomfortable this should be

Sherry too? They must feel really sorry for having to remove her from the plot

Ally of Justice monsters, so scary! Isn't that the archetype that only ever had one good monster, a generic synchro? But of course everyone has to be dumbass in this arc and plays light monsters, which Ally of Justice is strong against

Opening 5 Road to Tomorrow-Going My Way!!

This is intense as you can see on the two exclamation marks in the title. At long last the other Signers get to be something other than background filler. Also it's so fuckin funny how Yusei and Crow roll out all their Synchros, even those they don't use anymore

and meanwhile Jack...

I refuse to play anything besides Red Demon's Dragon!!!

Jack: Man, I'm sure gonna miss to have someone to stand on rooftops with, once Arc V rolls arround

@ygo5dsmonth-week

[hedgiwithapen]

This is an odd one but Cisco as The Flash for AU headcanons?👀

I think I've read a fic with that premise (I know I have, I just. cannot recall Details like. title or writer.) So if I Plagiarize that fic by mistake please no one yell at me ok? ok. 1. now this IS partially from the fic I think, i'm already being a criminal, but like. it was still Nora Allen who died, not Ms Ramon (who I have named Pilar and no comics contradict me so!) and Eobard is very like. well shit, gotta adjust the Plans. on the one hand, can kill barry whenever, don't need him, but on the other hand what if I do? what if he also becomes the flash at the correct time for him, and this thing with Cisco doesn't work out and then I am stuck? bro's playing 5d chess against himself and it's not helping. so barry lives, for now, and Dante sits in an ugly plastic chair waiting for cisco to wake up. 2 I think for Cisco to get struck by the lightning it goes like this. Ronnie and Cisco both go into the accelerator. Two of us can get the vents (or whatever Ronnie was doing faster than one.) and the thing is it almost works. it almost works. almost is never enough. someone-- maybe hartley, in this au, maybe a distraught caitlin, closes the door at the 2 minute mark. all that energy goes up and out-- and the lightning bolt strikes into the heart of star labs along that same path. when the fema crews etc go shifting through, they find no sign of Ronnie--firestorm-- and Cisco, lightning scars branching down his body, comatose. 3. Cisco picks his name right off the bat. Barry starts writing about him-- and not very positively (barry had the blog in e1 and the writers forgot but I did not) because he what if that's the guy who killed my mom?? Joe, Joe /look/. And Cisco is a little offended! goes to confront Barry (who tries and fails to hit him with the CCPD's second shittiest microscope) and goes hey, could you not?? first " the man in the lightning " is a damn mouthful, I'd rather something like, i dunno, Sonic Boom, or The Flash, and furthermore I was all of 8 years old when your mom died so uh stop it??? there is a very tense moment and then they're Friends Now. Cisco doesn't understand why Wells is so deeply against having a CCPD liason??? we need one? this guy already believes in the impossible and also someone killed his mom and we can help! what do you mean no ??? ok fiiiiine. 4. Eddie, not Joe, is the one who sees Cisco fight Mardon. Eddie is more than happy to be the new liason to star labs, this is Great!!! he can use this to win over Iris and Barry! (he has big crushes on them both. potentially he gets over these crushes and he dates Cisco, I think that'd be fun.) 5. Cisco obviously does not build the cold gun, so Snart never actually manages to steal anything in central city, but he sure does try! it really does not work out for him. kidnapping an engineer to build you a weapon would be one thing if you could. you know. hold on to said engineer. Cisco Simply Dips. 5, right? fuck it one more for funsies 6. while cisco's in the coma Caitlin keeps a tv going with every episode of Star Trek queued up. constant background noise. Dr. Wells can't decide if he's learned his lesson about fucking with time or if he's so sick of the music he's going to go back even further the second he gets a chance and make them compose something else.

[buddicat]

BRING IT ON.

bfdi 1: take the plunge bfdi 2: barriers and pitfalls bfdi 3: are you smarter than a snowball? bfdi 4: sweet tooth bfdi 5: bridge crossing bfdi 6: power of three bfdi 7: bfdi 8: cycle of life bfdi 9: bfdi 10: crybaby! bfdi 11: lofty bfdi 12: bfdi 13: don't lose your marbles bfdi 14: half a loaf is better than none bfdi 15: vomitaco bfdi 16: the reveal bfdi 17: reveal novum bfdi 18: recission bfdi 19: bowling, now with explosions! (?) bfdi 20: gardening hero bfdi 21: bfdi 22: bfdi 23: hurtful! bfdi 24: insectophobe's nightmare 2 bfdi 25: return of the hang glider bfdia 1: yeah, who? i wanna know bfdia 2: get digging bfdia 3: zeeky boogy doog bfdia 4: insectophobe's nightmare 3 bfdia 5a: get in the van bfdia 5b (the game) bfdia 5c: no more snow! bfdia 5d: bfdia 5e: the long lost yoyle city idfb 1: welcome back bfb 1: getting teardrop to talk bfb 2: lick your way to freedom bfb 3: don't do this on a swingset bfb 4: today's very special episode bfb 5: fortunate ben bfb 6: four goes too far bfb 7: the liar ball you don't want bfb 8: questions answered bfb 9: this episode is about basketball bfb 10: enter the exit bfb 11: get to the top in 500 steps bfb 12: what do you think of roleplay? bfb 13: return of the rocket ship (the hype surrounding this was real) bfb 14: don't dig straight down (this one too!!!!) bfb 15: the four is lava bfb 16: the escape from four bfb 17: x marks the spot bfb 18: take the tower bfb 19: how loe can you grow? bfb 20: a taste of space bfb 21: bfb 22: who stole donut's diary? bfb 23: fashion for your face! bfb 24: the game has changed bfb 25: bfb 26: bfb 27: uprooting everything bfb 28: bfb = back from beginning bfb 29: sos (save our show) bfb 30: chapter complete tpot 1: you know those buttons don't do anything, right? tpot 2: the worst day of black hole's life tpot 3: getting puffball to think about rollercoasters tpot 4: gardening zero

contestants, i'll do this per team because it's easier for me tor emember LMAOO

abntt:

8-ball basketball golf ball tennis ball blocky grassy robot flower tv

tic:

donut barf bag gelatin naily spongy bomby firey jr bracelety

the losers (i forget abt them alot honestly):

leafy (after bfb 11) firey needle coiny pin loser cake clock eggy

bleh:

teardrop ice cube book gaty saw lollipop dora taco

iance:

pencil match bubble ruby flower snowball fanny lightning

death pact:

black hole liy tree pie bottle pen pillow remote

free food:

eraser bell fries yellow face puffball marker foldy stapy

beep:

roboty david leafy (originally) balloony cloudy rocky nickel woody

tpot newbies: winner + price tag

alr hosts.

announcer flower speaker box firey speaker box puffball speaker box four x purple face (i think that's it...)

seasons. quite easy if i say so myself

bfdi bfdia idfb bfb tpot

thank u for reading through this long ass thing! some eps might be there but in different placements (especially with insectophobe's nightmare 3 hfbjhjfg)

[opelman]

59 - Lola T70 MK3B de 1969 by Laurent Quérité Via Flickr: Team OC Racing Steven BROOKS / Jamie CONSTABLE / Michael CANTILLON Les 2 Tours d'horloge 2023 Circuit Paul Ricard Le Castellet Var France IMG_0729

[lord-squiggletits]

Tbh there are so many things about the situation at Delphi that make me ask questions that it makes me feral.

Because well, there were Autobot nucleon mines there, and the DJD also had their base on Messatine. Pharma says that Prowl kept sending more soldiers and miners, so that meant there was some sort of battling going on there on a consistent basis. Not the DJD surely, as the DJD's primary job duty is hunting traitors and that's something that has them doing a lot of traveling. But Pharma DOES also say that the DJD could destroy the entire base in an instant but don't do it because of Pharma's deal with Tarn.

And tbh it just makes me ask so many questions like. Why was Ambulon, a Decepticon traitor, sent to work on the same planet the DJD live on? Isn't that like flagrantly disregarding his safety and putting the entire clinic at risk to a raid by the DJD? What about Pharma? Why did Prowl send one of the best doctors in the Autobot army to a clinic at some random mine that doesn't seem to have much relevance to the war effort? And the fact that the DJD works out of Messatine is very much known; I mean, Pharma knows, and he's just a doctor, surely this is common knowledge? Did Prowl offer the post at Delphi to Pharma specifically because he thought that Pharma was resourceful enough to be able to handle such a stressful position? Or did he anticipate that Pharma would be willing to make morally questionable deals to keep Delphi and the mines running, despite the fact that Pharma has had no bad marks to his name until now?

Did the Autobots at Delphi even know about the war being over? I mean, true, the war didn't technically end until Megatron gave his speech on Luna-2 telling the Decepticons to demobilize, but the war was mostly over and Cybertron had been reverted, did the Delphi medics know? DID ANYONE EVEN FUCKING CHECK IN ON DELPHI TO NOTICE THERE WAS A FUCKING PLAGUE GOING ON??? Pharma's entire plan hinged on Autobot High Command shutting down the clinic and evacuating without Pharma being implicated in the t-cog deal, but Prowl never even brings up Delphi in ex-RID, in fact no one seems to ever bring up Delphi at any point during phase 2??? And if Delphi was so easily forgotten that no one checked in on it and it took a random visit from the Lost Light to reveal Pharma's plot, then it couldn't be very important in the scale of the war, could it? SO THEN WHY WAS PHARMA SENT THERE TO BEGIN WITH if it was nothing but some nucleon mines that seemingly made no impact on the war effort?

Did Pharma really just get unlucky enough to get a shitty job posting? But the DJD being on Messatine was no coincidence, there's no way that Prowl didn't know. So did Prowl offer the Delphi posting to Pharma for one of his 5D chess game moves or was it just pure misfortune? Did Prowl, a notable mathematical and tactical genius, notice the climbing mortality rates at Delphi and calculate their cause himself? Why would Prowl not investigate them, unless he was busy, unless it was part of his plans all along? But why would Pharma getting in contact with the DJD have anything to do with Autobot war efforts?

And that's not even getting into the nature of how Pharma's red rust plague operates based on transformation. Both of Pharma's main assistants either couldn't or chose not to transform. Tarn is notable for having a transformation addiction. Did Pharma purposefully design the plague so that (unfortunate collateral damage aside) it wouldn't kill Ambulon or First Aid but would have devastating effects on Tarn?

[anxso]

@ygoc-week day 3!

YU-GI-OH! 5D’s — RAIN ORICHALCUM

DECKS! Rain once had her archetype of choice countered in tournament, so she swaps decks often thanks to the lingering paranoia.

I mainly did it so I could give a lot of variety to the duels and give love to both 5D’s era and older decks that don’t get to appear in the anime! There are a handful of original cards, but I’ll go over those later. First, introducing a nice collage of ace monsters/cards representing her archetypal decks!

She uses a Blue-Eyes mixed with good dragon cards as her “primary” deck and I ABSOLUTELY made an original line of Synchros: Orichalcos Dragon/Orichalcos Deuteros Dragon/Orichalcos Tritos Dragon :o) Also, because she has the anime-esque Timaeus, Hermos, and Critias cards, we get to see a lot of neat fusions! Like Hermos + Exploder Dragon, for example, making an equip spell that prevents destruction by battle, destroys the monster it battled with, but prevents battle damage

The Crimson Dragon card didn’t exist when I wrote my series, so I made my own 😂 YES they get attack and effect names! YES the characters yell them out! YES I had so much fun with this The Crimson Dragon 8-Star, LIGHT Attribute [Dragon/Synchro/Effect] [2500 ATK / 2000 DEF] 1 LIGHT Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monster(s) When this card is Special Summoned: you can target one of your opponent’s monsters. As long as this card is on the field, that monster’s effect is negated. (Ability Name: Crimson Masquerade) When this card battles a monster targeted by this effect, during the Damage Step only, this card gains ATK equal to the ATK of the targeted monster. (Ability Name: Crimson Star Flight) At your End Phase, you can send this card to the graveyard; special summon it during your next Standby Phase. (Ability Name: Crimson Molting) and a good old season 2 leveled up version of him! Akakiryu of the Sacred Flame 12-Star, LIGHT Attribute [Dragon/Synchro/Effect] [3000 ATK / 2500 DEF] 1 LIGHT Tuner + 2 or more non-Tuner monsters When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can destroy all Spell and Trap Cards your opponent controls. [Ability Name: Ignite the Sacred Flame] Once per turn, if this card is targeted by your opponent's card effect (Quick Effect): you can negate and banish that card. [Ability Name: Sacred Cinder Disarmament] Once per turn, you can deduct 1000 ATK from this card to target one monster on the field; banish that target. During your next Standby Phase, this card's ATK becomes its original (printed) ATK. [Ability Name: To Sacred Ashes]

AND NOW a fun excerpt from the fic with Akakiryu because I adore fire descriptions my friends. (From Jack's POV, and you will see Beelzeus here, I be giving the enemies some OP cards too haha)

--------------------

Rain tossed her head back. A crack of lightning lit her grin.

“I am not running.”

Fire blazed to life. Orange sparks licked the air. Water hissed against flame, and steam flooded the ground. I shielded my eyes from the blaze with my forearm. The flames spurted from the earth itself and raced around the port in a circle. I shouted, “Rain!”

“No use,” Syd said. “She’s gotta be burning alive by now, and thanks to her own psychic powers.”

My brow furrowed. The way the fire had come to life was similar to a night of war several months ago. This blaze wasn’t causing destruction, though. The memory gave birth to a mad idea.

I stretched my arm towards the flames. Fire licked my fingers. Instead of raw pain, a kind warmth found me – one I had known before. I glanced out from the awning and up to the sky. The red flare reflected against the black clouds: the full glyph of the Crimson Dragon.

Rain dropped to her knees among the flames. They clung to her skin, hair, and clothes without leaving scars. Maroon marks on her pale face, shoulders, and arms pulsed with a bright, red glow like a slow heartbeat. Fangs protruded from her kind smile. Her hands clasped together. Rain said, “White Stone of Legend tunes with Horus LV8 and Exploder Dragon. With one LIGHT tuner and two monsters, I call upon the legendary power of old.”

The flames leapt from the ground and spiraled into a pillar from her place of prayer. Cinders sparkled around her, leapt towards her duel disk, and formed a white-hot rectangle. A trio of humongous green rings formed as a column towards the sky. Their color tinged red. Rain’s eyes shot open, and their irises shifted to crimson. Her whisper echoed across the bay like the shouts of thousands. “Synchro Summon: Akakiryu of the Sacred Flame.”

A tornado of pure flames ripped to life on the pier. Gold and red blended like a blazing autumn. Black clouds scattered, and rainwater evaporated. Fiery wings extended from the twister. A lengthy, skinny tail whipped from the phenomena, and the fire scattered from the dragon’s body. Akakiryu opened its mouth, revealing a bright, yellow tongue matching the startling color of its eyes.

Rain pushed to her feet, reached out her fist, and lifted her index finger. “Ability one. Upon summoning, all of your spells and traps are destroyed. Ignite the Sacred Flame!”

The blaze returned to the earth, tearing through Syd’s backline. The remaining Block Dugout and Nightmare Wheel shattered. Rain’s Blue-Eyes White Dragon was freed from its torture. Syd said, “So what? A fancy light show don’t mean nothin’. You got 3000 attack, which don’t match up. Even if it did, Beelzeus here can’t be destroyed.”

Rain extended her middle finger. “Ability two. By deducting 1000 attack from Akakiryu, I banish one monster on the field. Beelzeus is judged not fit for this world by the strength of a god.”

“Not so fast!” Syd said. “I discard Effect Veiler from my hand to negate your monster’s abilities!”

Rain’s ring finger popped up. “Ability three. Once per turn, I negate an ability that targets Akakiryu and banish the offender. Sacred Cinder Disarmament!”

Akakiryu spit a flare into the sky. It landed on the ghostly Effect Veiler, locking it in a fiery bubble. The sphere closed to crush the monster. Rain said, “Ability two continues! To Sacred Ashes!”

Beelzeus shied back from the intense heat of Akakiryu. The dragon flapped its wings forward. A pair of flame tornadoes approached Beelzeus. The twisters spun around the black dragon. Beelzeus attempted to flee the encroaching fire to no avail. The tornadoes captured Syd’s Synchro. Their ferocity enticed a pained roar from Beelzeus. Akakiryu’s attack spiraled faster before dissipating with nary a whisper.

“Shit,” Syd said, “the hell kinda card is that?”

I found the strength to stand. “A dragon who does not lose.”

“Akakiryu’s current attack is 2000,” Rain said, “equal to your remaining life points. Direct attack! Blazing Crimson Flight!”

Akakiryu unfurled its wings. A golden flare danced to the tips. The dragon’s cry deafened the quaking thunder. Akakiryu dove onto Syd and skimmed the ground, leaving the bay ablaze. His holler could barely be heard over the roar of the flames.

A slice caught my attention. Akakiryu cut down my runner and held it in his two claws. He lowered it to sit on its wheel beside Rain and curled around her. Black ashes from the destroyed monsters clung to her sweaty skin. Her criminal mark glowed with the golden reflection of Akakiryu’s light through the dirt.

Rain beamed at the glowing monster. She leapt towards its snout and wrapped her arms around it. I was taken aback. Instead of worshipper and god, she embraced Akakiryu like a daughter to a father. Much to my surprise, the dragon shut its eyes and leaned into it.

With a chuckle, I said, “Welcome home.”

--------------- From Ch. 76, "Prayer from a Heart of Roaring Flames" (Again, just a writer - image credit for header in alt text!)

[yugirl-with-dragons]

Hey, been looking into your Yugioh! 5Ds aus since getting back into Yugioh (and finding myself drawing a Stardust Dragon Chick instead of working on Commissions, orz). Kind of been wondering, what are your thoughts on a 'Yusei being a Psychic Duelist' Au? I stumbled onto that as a fic, and I'm a bit intrigued by the idea of it myself. Just not sure how it'll work in the story in general as I haven't seen 5D's in a long while...

ASDFGHSDFGH (LOL)

Honestly, I'd love an AU with Yusei as psychic duelist. But that would imply a lot of changes in the main storyline:

Yusei would get extra reasons to be discriminated (not only bc he's from Satellite + prison, but also bc he's dangerous)

would his friends be supportive throughout their whole childhood time? they'd be a positive influence on him for sure, I like to imagine they helped him when he struggled to be accepted by other kids in the Satellite and to control his powers, but that's my 2 cents

I like to also imagine that he can control his powers during the time of the main storyline events, while Aki cannot. That would make him an even better "role model" for her, especially comparing him to Sayer/Divine! (Gosh, Divine would hate him sooo much more XD)

As you know, in prison, the guards tried to force his mark to manifest. He was also forced to duel. Would that have happened knowing fully well that he was a psychic duelist??? They had only two options, leave him alone or risk their lives, depending on the amount of pressure they would put on him. I really don't know what would have happened in that case.

Now, the Arcadia Movement would have found out about him for sure. Would he have been one of them??? I mean, why not? Maybe he could have met Aki THERE. But the story would have become very psychic duelist-centered. Still an excellent shift for me, I love psychic duelists way more than standard duelists. I'm sorry I don't make the rules here-

We would have still got an arc about the runaway from the evil movement and some boss battle against Divine. So yeah, I'm in for this

REAL STARDUST DRAGON??? HELLO???

[una-vaga-con-titulo]

El cine peruano es malo por una simple razón: el peruano no sabe contar historias. Y eso se debe a que los directores y sus guionistas leen muy poco o nada. Ellos creen leer. Piensan que con uno o dos libros al mes basta, pero no (y mejor no hablemos de escribir). Pero eso no termina aquí. La voracidad por el texto escrito debe estar acompañada por un recio y constante entrenamiento audiovisual (mínimo 2 o 3 películas diarias durante muuuuuuucho tiempo. Una vida entera si es posible). Por último, es menester acceder a un poco de teoría y crítica literaria y cinematográfica, para salir de la obviedad y comprender la importancia de cosas no tan evidentes en las narraciones. Recien ahí, al final (pero nunca acaba el proceso), viene la parte técnica: uso de cámaras, lentes, iluminación, edición, etc.

El problema es que cualquier huevonazo, cualquier pituco, cualquier vagazo que estudió fotografía por un par de añitos, ya cree que si le pide a papá una Blackmagic por Navidad o se compra a crédito 24 cuotas su Canon 5D Mark IV y un puñado de angulares, ya puede pegárselas de Kitano o de Cronenberg. Y así, fintero lector, no juega Perú. El desgraciado cine peruano está lleno de gente con saberes de separata, de bibliografía virtual, de tutoriales de YouTube, de filtros preseteados, de frases celebres de Pinterest. Los imagino buscando uno (haré la prueba ahora mismo, en vivo): entraré a Google y pondré "frases sobre la soledad" + Enter (regreso en un minuto). Encontré una: "Mientras más grande la ciudad, más profunda puede ser la soledad". Listo. Pongo a Ciccia en primerísimo primer plano en claroscuro o subexpongo la toma en -2 y ya está. En Perú todos somos directores de cine porque nadie realmente lo es. Y esta es una verdad incontenible, así tengan que complotarse todas las huestes de la estulticia, de esas que dicen ser artistas, para negarlo.