Ranking the Yugioh Protags. Dueling strength. This is going to be hard.
6.
Yuya Sakaki (Knows almost all summoning, created Pendulum and defeated Declan, but he mostly relies on Action Cards, has the 2nd least amount of Skill and doesn't have a way to get any card to his hand)
5.
Yuma Tsukumo (Master Of XYZ and Numbers, has Shining Draw and Zexal Forms, but heavily relies on them, is the least experienced, and alot od his cards are situational.)
4./3.
Jaden Yuki (The Supreme King, possibly the most versitale cards, the most amount of Draw cards, Statistically the best, won the most amount of duels, and was on equal footing with Prime Yugi, however, his deck is heavily inconstent since it has Yubel, Rainbow Dragon, E Heroes and Neos.)
Yugi Muto (King of Games, defeated the Egyptian Gods, Bakura, Seto, Aigami and Atem.)
Him and Jaden are innerchangable since we never saw who won the duel.
2.
Yusei Fudo (King of Synchro Summoning, had the most skill, is the oldest Protag, has more powerful monsters and has the 5 Signer Dragons)
1.
Playmaker/Yusaku Fujiki (Do I have to explain this? Master Of Link, XYZ, Fusion and Synchro. Has Darkfluid and Accesscode, defeated Link-5 and 6! And defeated Ryoken, Bohman and Ai.)
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so for my final speech in my comm class, I did a character study on Viktor Nikiforov
ive been doing this character study for over 3 months now and im still adding more to it. in this speech, I focus on proving that Viktor is a round character, not a dynamic character. so uh, yeah, here's the script for it.
(the speech itself was shit. I'm a creative writing major with a minor in professional writing and publishing, I'm supposed to write what people perform, not perform it myself. but hey at least the structure was top tier. remember reading this that I was turning this speech into my 60 something year old professor and I was trying to avoid the homosexual parts and not confuse him, so summaries are pretty generalized. im also too lazy to take out my stage directions)
(also why the fuck is there a word limit on blocking, so ignore the random paragraphs)
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Would spending one year out of your home country change your personality? (pause) The sports anime Yuuri on ICE! Follows the journey of figure skating legend Viktor Nikiforov. Viktor is a russian skater that is at a loss of motivation for his upcoming season, despite winning his 5th national championship in a row. After seeing japanese skater, yuuri katsuki, perfectly (emphasis) copy his own routine, he decides to move to japan for the next season to coach yuuri, despite yuuri planning to retire due to his failed season. (mini pause) Some say that because of this dramatic change in way of life, Viktor's personality and core values also changes, making him a dynamic character. (matter of fact tone) A dynamic is defined by dictionary.com and author’s magazine as a “...a character who undergoes innerchange-- or overcomes a flaw-- as a change of personality or attitude.” However, I (gesture to self) have been studying Viktor as a Creative Writing Major for over 3 months now, and I define Viktor as a round character. (matter of fact tone) Dictionary.com defines a round character as a character “...whose personality, background, motives, and other features are fully defined by the author” which in other words means that there is not a change in character.
In the next 8-10 minutes, I (gesture to self) am going to persuade you (gesture to audience) to believe that although Viktor changes his way of life, his values and personality remain consistent through analyzing his character of selflessness, raising others up, and his hidden emotional side.
I will first show you that Viktor is the opposite of selfish, despite how his peers perceive him to be.
In the second episode (two fingers up), when Viktor’s coach, Yakov, is being interviewed about his thoughts on Viktor taking his year break, he tells the reporters that Viktor “...only thinks of himself, and will never be anyone’s coach.” (questioning/curious tone) (open gestures) You would think that Viktor’s coach, (emphasis) the person who spends the most time with Viktor, would know Viktor the best,(move hand from left to right) and that when Yakov says Viktor is selfish, (all knowingly tone)then he must be selfish. However, Yakov has clearly been misled by Viktor. He thinks Viktor to be selfish because (put hand down) Viktor makes his own routines and chooses his own music, which means that he does not consult Yakov, which makes Yakov believe that Viktor only cares about his skating. However,(pause) this is far from the truth. On the surface level, (pause) Viktor is leaving Russia purly for himself, because he is at a loss of motivation. This is false. Sure (more playful but still serious tone), it is a factor, but the real reason for Viktor leaving is because he can no longer surprise his audience.
Throughout the series, Viktor praises that the best skating is the skating that surprises the audience. In his previous competitive season, he only won by 34 points to his best friend, Chris. (more curious, but not intensely curious) Despite being behind, the audience was not surprised that Viktor won because it is clear that he is the best of the best. Not being able to surprise the audience anymore is what makes Viktor unmotivated and his reason for leaving. If (<--power) Viktor truly was selfish, he would not care about his audience and continue dominating. (emphasis) But he isn't selfish, (more breathy, like we should know this by now) he cares more about the audience than his own skating and takes the break not for himself, but for the audience. (take a step) Now that Viktor has decided to take a break, it is time for him to choose who to coach. With keeping in mind that Viktor has the purpose of surprising the audience, he needs to choose someone who they will be surprised by. Viktor is not going to leave this season without surprising the audience, which is why he chooses Yuuri to coach. If Viktor was selfish, he would choose an already amazing skater and make them his rival for the next season. The obvious choice would have been Chris, who almost beat him. However (pause) Viktor is selfless and his first priority is surprising the audience, so Chris winning the Grand Prix Final, which is recognized by the International Skating Union (ISU) to be the second most important competition, would not be surprising.
The next obvious choice would be Yuuri Pelsiky, also known as Yurio, because he is making his senior debut and is also Russian, which means that Viktor would be able to stay at home. (curious-ish tone) But Yurio winning wouldn't be surprising either because no one has seen skate in the Senior division, (playful, matter of fact tone) and of course he would win with the world’s top skater as his coach. So Viktor chooses Yuuri,(pause) who in last year’s Grand Prix Final took last place and planned on retiring. Viktor choosing Yuuri is selfless because (list making tone, use fingers to show what number we’re on) he is one, choosing someone that he knows will surprise the audience if he wins, and two, he knows that yuuri still loves to skate and is amazing because even after he took last, he still skated Viktor’s program on his own time perfectly that Viktor used to win. Viktor purposely chose someone who he knew needed his help and at the same time, would surprise his audience--which to me (pause and gesture to self), is the most selfless choice. But, (pause) before Viktor can officially become Yuuri’s coach, Yuuri must outskate Yurio because Viktor made the promise to Yurio that he would choreograph his routine for his senior debut. In this competition, (pause) Viktor does the least selfish act and gives both of his routines that he meant to use this season to Yuuri and Yurio. (matter of fact tone) Of course he would not be able to use either of them this season because he is not skating, but he still could have perfected it even more and used them for next season, but he doesn’t. Instead of being selfish and keeping them for himself, he gives both of them away. By the end of the show, Viktor is clear to be selfless because he tells Yuuri that he is proud that Yuuri and Yurio beat both of his world records (short program and free skate) using the programs that he choreographed for himself. (very short pause) A selfish person would be jealous of these accomplishments because those are the programs that they were supposed to use, and the programs that would’ve made them an even better skater and broke their own record, making it harder for those to become better than them.
(take a step, loosen up) So in review, (small pause) if you believe what Yakov said to be true, then Viktor would seem to be a dynamic character because his personality trait changes from (left hand out, then right)selfish to selfless. But after studying his character (lower hands), I have proved that Viktor was selfless from the start, and that his actions only reinforced his character, not changed it, making him a round character.
Now that we understand that Viktor is selfless and not selfish, (smile, playful) let's understand how he does the opposite of bringing others down.
As said earlier, (small pause) Viktor was at his peak when he took a break, he was the skater to beat. Because he is at the top level, some see his critiques of others as negative and that he has the intention of putting others down; however, (making light of the situation)what seems to be his discouragements is really encouragement and he is trying to raise others up. In episode 5, Yuuri fails to motivate Minami, a skater making his senior debut and sees Yuuri as an idol. Viktor yells at yuuri and says “if you can’t motivate others, then how are you supposed to motivate yourself?”. At first,(small pause) this comment seems filled with (closed fist) anger and that Viktor is meaning to put Yuuri down on how he handled the situation. After looking into his true intentions, it is clear that he is trying to motivate Yuuri to do better. (a little quieter, like this is a secret) This comment is really for both of them.(matter of fact tone) Remember, that one of the reasons why Viktor is coaching is to motivate himself. What he is really telling Yuuri, is that if Yuuri can’t motivate him, then how is he supposed to motivate himself? As they both know, coaching Yuuri is really motivating Viktor, so by Viktor saying this to Yuuri, he is encouraging him to become more motivated because others are motivated by him. This comment isn’t made to make Yuuri feel bad about himself, it’s made so that Yuuri feels more confident because he is able to motivate others, that he is an inspiration and can continue to do so.
In the next episode, same competition, Chris tells Victor that because Viktor is not skating this season, he “...no longer feels motivated…” and “...cannot get serious…”. But after watching Yuuri skate, he says he “... does not want to lose to…” him. Skaters, (head tilt) and Chris, that have competed against Viktor in the past felt that by taking a break, that Viktor was saying that they were not good enough to compete against, and just like Chris told us, makes them unmotivated and at a loss. However, what Viktor is really trying to do is show his competitors that he is not the only threat. Now that Chris has made it clear that Yuuri skating is now motivating to him, and to others, it is clear that Viktor was really trying to tell the others that they too (emphasis, think of the president being motivating) can be just like Yuuri and rise to the top. Viktor didn't leave to tell others that they are not good enough, he left to show them they can become the best and win competitions, even if they feel like they’re not good enough. Viktor never had the intention of bringing them down, instead, he’s raising them up through coaching Yuuri. This proves that Viktor is not a dynamic character and changes to raise others, but instead he is a round character and has always been this way.
In review, by choosing to coach rather than skate, Viktor is opening the eyes of others competitors in an attempt to motivate them and raise them up to the next level.
(take a step) Now that it is clear that Viktor has the intention of bringing skaters to the next level, let's analyze if Viktor developed an emotional side to him.
Countless characters say time and time again that Viktor does not feel emotions, that he simply breathes skating. It is the only other thing that Yakov criticized about Viktor, that Viktor does not feel the emotions that he is skating. Because of this, (small pause) people assume that Viktor simply does not feel emotions, but that is not true. (offended type of tone) Firstly, just because Viktor does not feel the emotions that he's portraying through his skating, does not mean that he doesn’t feel them at all. It is clear that Viktor is accurately getting emotions across because of the audience reaction, but he is only able to be this accurate if he has once felt these emotions. As stated by Viktor himself, he “...can now feel (a little louder on new)new emotions” thanks to Yuuri. This means that before, he was feeling real emotions, he was just really good at hiding them. Viktor was a man who kept to himself and skating, Yuuri is the first person to bring new emotions out of him. He was never emotionless,(matter of fact tone to soft) he just hid them well. To further understand Viktor’s hidden emotions, (small pause) you again have to understand his coaching. In his coaching of both Yuuri and Yurio in the beginning, he never teaches them anything that he doesn't know how to do himself. So when Viktor sends both of them on a journey of self discovery to be able to accurately portray the emotions in the programs that he gave to him, we can assume that Viktor does this himself. He would never try to coach them on something he already hasn’t done before. Because of this, it can be concluded that this is the strategy that Viktor used to get in touch with his emotions, something that an emotionless person would not be able to do. This means that Viktor is not a dynamic character and changed from emotionless to emotional, he has always been emotional and moving has brought this side to light, making him a round character.
(deep, soundless breath, relax, shake out the legs a little) so in review, Viktor was always able to feel emotions from the start, he just hid them well and through Yuuri, he learned how to better express himself and was able to feel some new emotions.
(take a step) I’ve been studying Viktor’s character for well over 3 months now. I have watched the full series three times now, along with countless hours of individual episodes to understand his character. To me, (distraught tone) it is upsetting when someone makes incorrect conclusions about his character.( small sway of body, barley noticeable but still there) Like when they think that Viktor is selfish when really all of actions are done for other people. Or when they think that Viktor takes advantage of his high status and drags others down with it, when really he is trying to motivate them and dare them to take their own skating to the next level. And lastly, when they assume that he cannot feel emotions just because he keeps to himself. Leaving his home country for a year didn't change who he was, it only reinforced it.
In the last 8-10 minutes, I hope that through my character study of Viktor Nikiforov, you see him the same way I do, that he doesn’t change throughout his story, he only becomes stronger.
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