#but with the encouragement of anzu he becomes pretty good

[1v1jc]

🎵We’ve been in a maze of love🎵

🎵And we are losing control to get away🎵

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Season Zero: The Yo-Yo Crimes of Jounouchi Pt 1

It’s been a while since I visited the many times Yugi should have gone to jail, AKA season Zero, and I’m excited to visit it again.

If you just got here, this is Season Zero, which is very different vibe and a different direction plotwise than the other seasons and you can read the season zero recaps from the start in chrono order here: https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yuugi%20muto/chrono

So be warned, this is a 90′s anime, and it will do 90′s anime things, and I expect y’all reading this aren’t like 12.

Like I said in an earlier post, I wrote this out fully when I was going through the symptoms from my second dose--which PS, is worth it--but those symptoms knocked me out for 10 days. I was kind of a space cadet, and yo, I made some mistakes. Including writing this post out in full and then not clicking “save” on this post and then not realizing I had done that until several days later.

So long story short, I don’t remember what I originally wrote here, but lets all assume it was weird, and didn’t make sense and wasn’t funny. We’ll just assume this was for the best that it was deleted forever.

So this episode is about 2 things: Yo-yos and Jounouchi. Both get used as a tool for violence, and both need to get just a little bit cursed by Yugi to scale it the hell back. So, understandably, we start off this episode with Jounouchi, who has eagerly identified with this off brand yo-yo he apparently got out of a dumpster for being just a huge ass defect.

(more Yo-Yo crimes under the cut)

I see you dodging copyright infringement, Yugioh. Eireboy.

Also whenever I read “Eireboy” I do it in my mind in the same pacing and vocal tones that Pegasus uses to say “Kaiba boy.” Something about it’s conjunction to Yugioh, I see anything with “boy” at the end of it, and it’s voiced by a weird guy with one eye.

So I wrote these caps under the influence of my second dose, just assuming y’all understand the life I lived, but I realized writing this episode...traveling bands of yo-yo performers that go to your school and shill yo-yos with yo-yo shows in the hopes that it will get you so obsessed with yo-yos that you will not join a gang and do drugs and have sex may be just an American thing.

So when I saw a yo-yo episode I was like “Tight! Clearly, the yo-yo clowns have come to town!” and I assumed everyone in this class would be draped in yo-yos, because I just assumed that at some point at School you will get MAD OBSESSED with yo-yos for about 2 weeks.

But in this episode, everyone was like “Jounouchi, why are you playing with a random yo-yo?” and it didn’t occur to me until typing this out just now: only Jounouchi is doing this. He did this unprompted, without the encouragement of a bunch of middle aged performers doing tricks to techno music.

So instead, I have to think of Jounouchi as Ralphie in this scenario, and he just got a official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time for Christmas, but he’s gonna shoot his eye out.

Because yo-yos in this episode are basically guns.

...Kind of like a duel deck was also just a gun...

...or the wands in Harry Potter...

...which honestly...I’ve probably said this before but where I’m from, we just use straight up guns in these elaborate analogies because we freakin have to make the point crystal clear. The moment Ralphie finally got his hands on a bb-gun, he very nearly shot his eye out and broke his glasses. And that scene will haunt me until my dying day...

...but fine, we can use yo-yos, I guess it works, although to me, yo-yo’s are just teachers hoping you’ll become such a dork that no gang will accept you (and then in this universe, it does the opposite? So freakin weird).

The beginning of this episode is Jounouchi trying do his best to impress with his skills, but in actuality, getting very close to clubbing Anzu with a yo-yo. And, while Anzu is the strongest person in Yugioh in the later seasons, I feel like Season Zero Anzu is another level. It’s a serious tempt of fate that Jounouchi is doing, so Honda wisely cuts him off from doing any more of that so she won’t end up strangling yet another person in broad daylight in the middle of school.

Remember your yo-yo safety, children.

Straight up, Honda’s version of yo-yo safety is to just Never Use a Yo-Yo and that’s the most gun safety thing ever that they’ve slipped into this Yugioh Episode. I almost expected Yuugi to pull a “well, actually, I use a hunting yo-yo to get enough venison to feed my family.” But youknow, he lives in a city, so while Yugioh is pretty weird and Yuugi has to worry about a lot of things--he doesn’t have to worry about that.

This is actually foreshadowing, which I only realized in hind sight, mostly because I just can’t associate a Yo-yo with crime. Joey knowing how to use a yo-yo was foreshadowing that he was absolutely part of this gang in a past life.

Yeah that one went completely over my head the first time and the second time and it really wasn’t until just now that I finally caught it. Hoo boy, sometimes I wonder why y’all let me analyze this show.

Jounouchi decides to confront the yo-yo bandits and everyone else is like “Silly Jounouchi, he’s not gonna do that. That would be stupid.” And...in S0, they don’t know him well enough yet to know that he really is that much of a well meaning dumbass.

I think a S1-5 Yugi would have been sprinting out the door to keep Joey from killing himself (again), but Season Zero Yuugi had hope that Jounouchi would just naturally tucker out and fall asleep or something.

And he was so wrong.

Anzu’s “New Tricks” line was from the dub itself and man that’s a good line. I love Anzu’s sass in Zero.

So, Honda decides to help them find Jounouchi so all of them together could give Jounouchi an intervention for skipping school. This is the same Honda that once skipped school to babysit a tomagachi and said it was because of “Maternity leave,” but don’t worry about the hypocrisy, because from this episode we learned that Jounouchi needs a very short leash.

So this episode is a great Jounouchi episode to explain stuff that still hasn’t been explained in 5 seasons of Yugioh. In S1-5, we don’t get much about his home life other than his Mom left and his Sister lives far away and is like sickly as hell. We know nothing else. But this is the episode where we finally get to find out why Yuugi and his Grandfather decided to basically adopt him from S1 onward.

Yugioh is tackling some pretty heavy territory, but I respect the show for not trying to magically change Jounouchi’s parents like they did to Dartz. Instead, the crew decide to reach out and try to find their friend who clearly didn’t go home last night (and won’t be going back for a while), by checking every alleyway in Domino.

Fun fact Yuugi drops this episode, Domino is one of the biggest cities on Earth. This makes the Battle City Tournament even more crazy when you realize Kaiba shut down several blocks but, it also makes a tiny bit more sense how we have so many Millennium items in one place. (Yet...it still doesn’t explain Bakura and Joey’s accent.) And, I guess if your city is just extra large, you get an extra large warehouse district, too.

Speaking of, they eventually find Jounouchi at his new (but also old) crime antics mugging some random stranger next to this Game store that I just realized was cropped so it looks like it says “GANG.”

Say hello to our crime clown. He’s sort of like a discount joker, and that beanie is...man it is green.

I forget this green exists sometimes, but Season Zero has it as one of their prime colors. Good ol’ Retro Kaiba green.

I’m a little tempted to swatch Season Zero a bit and figure out their full color scheme--it’s really saturated, which is interesting when you compare it to the later seasons which are a lot more muted since...the 00′s were like that, they greyed a lot of colors out. But I’ll do it later if I do, maybe another post for another day.

Jounouchi and Honda, before they moved to the school with Yuugi in it, used to go to the same school and up until now I just assumed they were close friends. But apparently they were a lot more distant than that. I’m sure they met up several times as Jounouchi destroyed stuff and Honda came along in his volunteer janitor outfit to put the stuff the hell back, and maybe that’s how they got to know eachother better?

But basically, Jounouchi was the freakin worst, and Jounouchi’s best friend was Hirotani--this 45 year old 15 year old with the blue pony and turquoise fade--and Honda has SO MUCH hot goss to say about it.

I really get the gist that Honda may not have liked anyone else at his old school, like at all. Like maybe Honda likes cleaning up trash so much because his school was just trash top to bottom.

As is tradition, Yuugi got his tar beat in by Hirotani. Another concussion to add to his list of issues to tell his future therapist that lives in that puzzle he wears around his neck.

I still expect him to do a double cross, but it seems they wanted to keep it a relatable and more realistic fall-out, where Jounouchi has just bounced on them without even a goodbye. He and his Dad had a bad fight, and Jounouchi was like “well so long to all of this and everyone that has anything to do with it.”

In later seasons, Joey is the one trying to save other people. He’s saving his Sister, he’s saving Mai, he’s saving Yugi, but in this season Jounouchi’s friends had to save Jounouchi from himself a few times now.

I like this depth to his character, I’ll be honest. I can understand why S1-5 don’t touch on it, and I don’t think it’s because they didn’t want to have an abusive Dad storyline, because they did that several times over with Seto Kaiba (man the Dad situation in Yugioh is DIRE.) Instead they probably just felt like Season Zero already did it, so why do it again?

It’s just a shame that it wasn’t talked about in the other seasons. Joey makes a lot more sense to me now because we get to see why Jounouchi is so hard set on saving people. S4 Mai Valentine, who ditched everyone and joined a gang? That’s basically a Joey move, and that was why Joey Wheeler was all over that.

Really would have added a lot to that particular arc if the show...actually talked about Joey’s history at all rather than assume I would have watched something that was never released in the States. Instead...it just looked a lot like he had only romantic motivations, which may not have been what they were going for.

Speaking of romantic, check out this sunset. Like the sun is exploding for some reason--just a wild sunset you only see for a still frame before a commercial break.

As Joey, youknow, takes on an entire rival gang single-handedly.

Hey guys, I lived near a pretty big city most of my life and I have been on a roof...once. Just the one time when I was doing an internship in SF with a painter and we needed to take a reference photo of his painting for a gallery (and it was hella sketch, and we weren’t exactly allowed up there). Who are all these people giving teens Roof Access? It’s so hard to get! Even if you live in an apartment of a tall building, I can count on zero of my fingers the amount of times I was allowed on that roof. But TV shows and movies--they freakin love roof gardens and roof hangouts and roof fights.

Am I missing out?? How did y’all get on the ROOF? I know I’m on S5 of Yugioh now and I have seen a lot of roof stuff, but like...is this normal for everyone else? I know there’s schools that have roof sport--that’s common in the city everywhere--but that’s like...specialized roofs with 30 ft chainlink fencing and really good supports to your body doesn’t fall straight through it when you jump too much. The hell is using their normal ass roof?

This gang should have their legs swinging halfway into the floor below them, is all I’m saying, if my roof couldn’t handle our solar heating, then a normal ass roof cannot support a gang fight.

But it does look really, really cool.

Anyway, Anzu does some offscreen snooping and finds out where the crime hangs out, and suggests that we step right into crime zone and just yank Jounouchi out of there. Which is something you would only do and say if you were Anzu and cannot fear death.

If it were Jay’s it would be with an ‘s. That’s how you do a plural Jay. But it’s the 90′s, so we put a “z” on the end of everything that should have been an “s” and that’s how you get the...

I mean, thank you, dubbers, for not saying “Jizz” but for reals...that be Jizz.

Please don’t flag me, Tumblr. (which, PS, I think they turned off the flagbot, Tumblr hasn’t flagged me in forever and I’m so thankful. Mods are asleep, we can talk about anime again)

So even though Honda decided that he was fed up with Jounouchi and didn’t want to save his ass, he decided to give it another go but complete with some new sash. He also did this without telling any of the others, who just kinda spectated him for a little while.

Honestly, if they weren’t laughing at him, I wouldn’t have known that this sash was any weirder than any of his other sashes. I don’t know really know what a school uniform should look like. It’s a shame, I feel like this series has a lot of jokes and puns probably soaring right over my head.

A little bit embarrased he was caught being vulnerable, Honda decides to give us a little more context to why he ever decided to give Jounouchi the time of day in the first place.

They had PE class once, and Honda apparently loves the hell out of PE. Jounouchi ran really fast in a straight line that one time, and that is why he’s trustworthy friend material. He just needs to stop joining gangs, and he’ll be solid.

I have no idea if the fandub put that in there or if that was native to the show, but Miho legit stans Honda/Jounouchi and acts as if she’s off to write some fanfiction about it. Honestly if she did, it would make her so much more interesting of a character.

And so, until next time, we shall have to wait and see exactly what Yami Yuugi is going to do with a freakin Yo-yo and I’m sure it’s all sorts of real effed up. Excited to get there, honestly. A shame it had to happen on the part that isn’t dubbed yet, but I’ve done these subbed before, it’ll be fine!

[macaronnya]

Fresh(?) Impressions (11)

Other parts: |Trickstar| |UNDEAD| |2wink| |Ra*bits| |Akatsuki| |fine| |Ryuseitai| |Knights| |Valkyrie| |Switch| |MaM/Double Face/Crazy:B| |Eden| |Alkaloid|

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Hello Enstarries~☆ The most very likely longest post I've ever posted on this hellsite (affectionate) is here! I'll rate MaM, Double Face & Crazy:B (not in this exact order) and it should be obvious I'll only show one picture per character except for two. It would probably be better to show their whole outfit but I wanna use their cards for the aesthetic. I'm actually procrastinating rn bc I still have so many days left to do in the current event (Intersecting Motorshow) but the repidigit mission is causing me psychic damage. I'll come back to it later.....Oh and my wrist is still killing me 😭 It's actually both of my wrists now....

DISCLAIMER!: Everything said here is for entertainment purposes only and not meant to attack anyone. This is not an accurate description of any characters but my subjective rambling for fun, so please don't take it too seriously. (Just to be safe, I'm kinda scared of elite idol fans) Also, you will hear me mention other games a bunch of times bc I'm that bad and uncreative at explaining and I'm still grieving A3!EN's shutdown. Eng is my 2nd (or 3rd?) language so there might be some weird grammar or spelling mistakes. And I write at 3 am usually.

Without further ado.....Let's Ensemble~☆

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By the time I am writing this part.....it is unfortunately not high noon; it's 9pm right now!!! Interesting to see one guy being a w h o l e unit by himself. I was always confused why there's just one guy but eh whatever. No idea where the idea of spreading hope, positivity, motivation and cowboys intersect but if it works 🤷‍♀️ I can't say I like his outfit bc cowboys aren't my thing but he looks decent enough. The colors especially fit him very well but that's to be expected, considering there's only 1 guy to tailor the outfit to. The red piece of fabric on his waist is a very nice pop off in terms of colors & sillouette. Btw is that brown strap on his trousers the gun holder? Inconvenient placement but it would be very cool if the gun is an actual part of his outfit lol. Now comes the sad part, I don't vibe to his songs I've heard yet in the game. There is smth that makes me unrationally irritated and angry???? He's just cheering us up and encouraging us but I just don't like his songs for some reason? Sorry man 😣

5.5/10 - I think it's the first time the music brought the rating down

Madara Mikejima

Howdy boiiiiiiiiiiiii I feel so bad 🥲 He seems like a genuinely good guy. I mean, I did hear smth about him lowkey gaslighting Anzu into thinking they're childhood friends to get closer to Trickstars somehow but I don't think it could have been so bad. I hope. He really wants to spread ~good vibes~ and all and is adamant in being true to himself and his fans. Going after his own beat so to say. A strong boy. Another rich boy apparently???? Which I didn't see coming at all, though he doesn't really care much about that anyways. A very healthy boy. Like, carrying a 17-18 y/o girl is still taking a lot of power and energy even if she's only 50ish kg. And he went quite a while from what I get in his Ep.1. The absolute confidence this guy has to just become a solo performer amidst all these groups. Ik inside the world there are obv other soloists but he radiates confidence one way or another. Initially, I thought it was just the fandom making him out to be the mom friend bc of his unit name and personality but he actually says it himself 😶 I get the feeling others tend to underestimate or are intimidated by him due to his self-assured and almost over-friendly attitude, which he makes use of very well. He's the perfect example of charismatic. I am pretty sure he's also quite popular with mothers, grannies and children. Kinda like Chiaki in a lot of aspects. He looks pretty good. He's falling perfectly into my preference of brown haired green-eyed 2D guys so that checks out. His voice is also pretty nice. It's smooth, rich but still somehow airy like.......liverwurst (I had to google this word and, like, I didn't expect it to be a literal translation from the german one, very very tasty btw). There's still smth nnnggghh about it, though only minimal.

7/10 - kinda intimidating extrovert but definitely looking forward to learn more about him

Ah yes, another one of my fav units musically. They just sound so DAMN AMAZING!!! No idea what genre they tend to go but it's wild and fun and makes me just lose myself. There is not a single song I dislike, literally every song is a banger in one way or another. They all sound good together and just !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd keyboardsmash but I think you get it already. If I were forced to chosse favs, I'd say Crazy Roulette and PARANOIA STREET but all songs are really good. It was when I watched their MVs when I noticed how long their torsos and tiny their waists are. I like their uniforms very much as well. There are 2 variants with slight differences and everyone wears individual accessories, which is a bit like Ra*bits and obv makes me weak. It looks like a stylish everyday outfit, if not a bit fancy but it fits the theme of freedom and fun. Black and white are always safe options to go with but it's not boring at all with the different prints, the little bit of other colors and the bling overall. The bee brooches are soooo cute and just make the outfit 10x better. The buttons are shaped like honeycombs!! Honestly, it's probably one of the best regular unit outfits in the game, for me ofc. No idea about the group dynamic but I know that everyone is kinda wild and weird and not a single normal person is in this group, which might not seem much in this game but I mean, I can't even see them functioning with each other but at the same time it's kinda obv they just do whatever and it somehow works??? As I've said, officially, I've only read their Ep.1. And with the memes (and therefore random spoilers), that's kinda the vibe I get. That and I saw a twitter post on tumblr listing their canon crimes, which I shouldn't trust blindly ofc but there's that. I guess it's in the name. Kinda cute how they're bees though. You'd think they'd go for cooler animals like idk leopards or dogs or smth and not little bees but it's a fun novelty.

9/10 - I wanna gobble those bumblebees

Rinne Amagi

A runaway ex-monarch, now where have I heard that before???? Well, Citron (A3!) eventually got back, gave up the throne and peace somehow happened with everyone but I don't think that's the case for this guy here. I don't know much more about his past except, that he's Hiiro's brother and they lived in a remote conervative village. I can definitely see, that he used to be smn important with how he acts. He seems very carefree, lax and rough around the edges but he is in no way stupid and actually pretty sharp, I think. I couldn't fully concentrate when I was reading his Ep.1 bc 1. it was midnight and 2. he talks like a radio host or game commenter 😂 Talks a LOT and very lively. I already knew he had a good as in attractive but yeah also good singing voice but holy did his normal talking voice catch me off guard. It was very...👀 To put it in my unique descriptions....idk man. No words, it's a bit more difficult bc he goes up and down a lot, it's a very nice kind of deeper voice, though. He'd tell the best stories for children. I guess it's comparable to a nice quiet day at the beach with a bit of wind. Not too sunny or too hot. Unsurprisingly, he's obsessed with thrills and new things too, I'd say. Probably stems from the fact, that he used to live a set path in his zraditonal village. Likes gambling and considers even marriage gambling, which isn't wrong. Nothing in life is set in stone, after all. I did hear he can be kind of an asshole and self-absorbed, which is also not surprising. His vibe kinda gave it off. Very likely impulsive and does not think things through 80% of the time, which makes him not stupid but stupid. Fun person to watch but not to hang around with. I feel like he'd drag you in his problems regularly. I don't think he can cook or do basic household chores so how did he survive alone then??? He didn't get scouted immediately, right? He can clean the toilet at max. Btw. he has a pretty good sense of fashion for smn who's pretty new to urban life. He also has certain charm to him and looks kinda good. Oh and he seems like he's in his 20s, which makes me question why he calls us Nee-san. "Miss" would be more appropriate, no?

7/10 - interesting fun guy but I'm preparing myself for the coming headaches

HiMERU

So mean of him to let i be the only small letter :( Or is it some symbolism? Ok, so straight up, I heard he's impersonating for his younger hospitalized brother, which is why he always refers to himself as "HiMERU" and not in first person. If I remember correctly ofc. Now, that already goes to show he cares greatly for his brother but also that he has determination of steel bc who would go through so much trouble wth. And the thing with acting as close as the original Himeru is just.....😧 Why would he do that? Does he actually care for him, or was he somehow forced to do it? He seems pretty chill, obv very secretive and relatively distant, to no one's surprise. He's also polite but can roast you without you even noticing. Maybe I'm just being judgemental but he might also be more cold. His hair looks like bedhair but the good "I woke up like this" ⭐ variant Nonetheless, he should probably get those strands down and away from his face. Black goes very well with him for some reason. His voice sounds so seductive when he sings but is pretty calm and rather quiet otherwise. It's not weak, though, and rather like a sturdy bench but with ventilation since it's also a bit airy.

6/10 - there's a lot to uncover but I'm in no hurry to find out

Kohaku Oukawa

I'm having difficulties telling his and Niki's singing voices from each other apart. It's so stupid considering how often I listened to the songs but their differences are not that noticable and both fit. Kohaku's normal talking voice is very easily recognizable, on the other hand. In Crazy:B at least. It's similiar to Mika and Shinobu but he has a less stretchy speech pattern (M) and his voice is deeper (S). He sings pretty decent. Not 100% sure what's up with him but wasn't he some assassin or smth? He seems too friendly and normal to be one. I almost wanted to ask what one would even do here but that's a stupid question 🤦‍♀️ He seems to have family problems. I heard somewhere that he likes sweets as well so....Welcome to the club💖!!! I sure hope he's open for all kinds of sweets around the world. I thought he'd be more grumpy and serious but he's a normal amount of that. I like his hair and eye color. It's the same combination as Shu's but I like it on him more. Probably bc I like his hair more and he just looks friendlier.

7/10 - sympathetic dude fr

Niki Shiina

I see a lot of :P from him. Is the bit about his condition about being less able to absorb nutrients true? That would suck man. Being hungry 20/7 sounds like a nightmare. What also sounds like a nightmare is cannibalism, which I sure hope is just a misnderstanding or misinformation bc wtf. Anyways, aside from that, he can cook! Plus point here already. Trust goes through the stomach after all. Talks similiarly to Rinne but more playfully. His voice reminds me of fresh citrus fruits. Seems diligent (for the sake of food) and is pretty cheerful (unless there's no food). Mans got his priorities straight of retiring as an idol if it strains his physical and therefore mental well-being. Must be a bit of a pushover if he got talked into becoming an idol of all possibilities. I mean, it's obv they can't eat a lot and have to work hard to stay in shape and sing well. I thought he'd be more reserved and uh normal bc malewife material and memes portrayed him as the one who cleans up the chaos. Maybe, my memory is pretty hazy on that regard. I like his appearance. Pretty hair, blep, kinda cute.

7/10 - kinda like and curious about him

Remember how I said the typical idol outfit is inspired by imperialistic european military uniforms? I guess it's taken literally here but more shifted to the 20th century. I have no idea what the theme is supposed to be. I did see that they were called executioners when I picked the cards from the wikia but is that it? Back to the clothes, they look good! You can't go wrong with suits and gloves. It's with darker grim colors (pretty sure they're from Madara's MaM outfit) which fits to executioners. The sherrif star is a bit funny but I guess it works as a medal here. What puzzles me is the puzzle piece on their belts. Are they also seekers or smth? The harness??? or how they're called on Madara sure give the extra spice along with the ¾ sleeves, that leave a bit of room for peeking skin. And the magically hanging coat gives him the a bossy feel. Kohaku on the other hand resumes the role of being the cuter one out of the two and has cool cape-shirt to his shorts and overknee boots. The asymmetry of the top makes it more interesting to look at and shifts the focus on the basically only patch of light color on his outfit. He looks like Madara's assistant or second-in-command, not that there are others.

I don't think the group exists yet bc 1. it's not shown anywhere in-game and 2. Kohaku is a new character after all and just got introduced to be part of Crazy:B (I think, I haven't read the story yet). It will probably be formed later on for some reason. It doesn't seem like he left the other unit like Nazuna left Valkyrie. The music can be pretty good. It's more serious sounding compared to what they usually sing and it sometimes reminds me of these cool cinematic chase scenes in oldie movies.

7.5/10 - dunno what's up but I'll look forward to more or actually seeing it formed Ig

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Conclusion

Sry to any MaMPs here, I guess the positive songs are too pure and burn my dark soul away or smth along that. Maybe Madara is mermaid prince and his songs are effective against me, an evil fish (Mermaid Melody reference that nobody gets bc barely anyone knows it :,)). Crazy:B got pulled like crazy high through their songs but they're also pretty balanced on their own.

It is now 5 over half 6 am and I already completed the event before starting Crazy:B's part. I am literally so close to simply drifting off to dreamland. I tried to look out for any mistakes but I don't think I found them all. I'm gonna do the rest this week no matter what.

If you wanna share smth just write away with the limit being respectful boundaries and the knowledge, that everything here is just for fun and games! See ya'll later~☆

[subserviiient]

👏 + Anzu and either Hajime, Eichi or Tori?

relationships of the producer: accepting

Hajime:

Anzu is convinced that Hajime is a great kid, she’d never fail to jump to his defence, if anyone for some reason ( it’s near unthinkable to her ) is rude or hurts his feelings? She’ll not only assure him of his kindness, his abilities and how much everyone cares about him, but he also gets to watch her roll up her sleeves and punch someone twice her size square in the jaw. The things she’ll do for him? Limitless. Hajime? Horrified. Hotel? Trivago.

When she gets free time, she’ll send him a text with an offer to hang out, she’ll take him wherever he likes and will buy him things even if he tells her it’s not necessary since she’s just so used to paying for everything to begin with, which when she makes that comment, makes him incredibly confused. Why is she the one who buys everything for everyone in her house? Well, either way, he hopes she doesn’t spend too much on him- not that she’d care if she did.

Sewing buddies, sewing buddies, sewing buddies! It’s not always guaranteed that they’d be working on a project at the same time, but when they are, they sit together, talking about their days or their projects with each other as they work, it makes the time pass by faster and they can give each other their opinions as if one looks at something long enough, certain things can pass their usually keen vision and they want to make sure they’re great.

She occasionally helps him out with his costumes, make up or hair when Nazuna is too busy and they’re going on stage soon, as it’s one of her jobs, but he’s probably the only one who’d be able to convince her to let him try the reverse, after all- Hajime wouldn’t willingly tug out all the tangles in her hair by force, right? 

Anzu’s physically affectionate with Hajime, seeing it as another form of validation, hugs, head pats, playing with his hair and taking his hand if they cross the street are all things she does for him- she wants him to know she’s always there for him, or if he did a good job, and she knows she can lay the praise on rather thickly. 

Eichi: 

Eichi recognises that Anzu has worked herself into the hospital before and while he gets it because he’s always pushing himself past his limits, he does try to remind her to proceed with caution- but she always replies with telling him to do the same so he’s never really going to win that argument, when he has more at risk. 

Anzu and Eichi both make jokes about dark subjects but they both try to ignore when the other one does it since while they’re used to joking about their deaths ( Anzu’s from murder, Eichi’s due to his condition ) but they’re not so used to other people doing it. Eventually they manage awkward chuckles in response, but that’s the most they can do.

Sometimes she forgets he is in fact, filthy rich, because she’s around him so often that she just sort of associates him like she would anyone else in school- but then he mentions his limo or something and he just sees her look genuinely confused for a couple of seconds before she remembers. He thinks it’s funny that she just...keeps forgetting? Like, Anzu he’s shown how rich he is multiple times, how do you keep forgetting?

“Well, wouldn’t Ibara stop being an issue if we just bit him?” “Kobayashi-san, as much as I find that idea hilarious, we cannot afford either of us getting an infection from his venom.” “Damn, you’re right.” and comments like that are common between the two and then they go back to what they were doing like nothing happened? How. 

Anzu has had to carry his passed out body to the infirmary a couple of times so that he has somewhere better to rest while waiting for an ambulance to arrive, he tried to make a sneaky comment about how she must have been embarrassed but she went “Projecting much, senpai?” and he didn’t know how to respond. He was literally unconscious, how could he be embarrassed-

Tori: 

She feels uncomfortable when he offers to buy her anything, even as a present so she simply requests more work if he asked her if she wanted anything and while she has nowhere near as much money as Tori, she’ll occasionally buy things to make him snacks as she’s far more comfortable giving him things than receiving them.

She’s so proud of his growth and development as both an idol and a person, he’s becoming more independent and that’s a great trait to have but she cannot stop herself from spoiling him at least a little because she just can’t help being affectionate, especially since Tori seems to like it too. She does praise him when he does things by himself to encourage this behaviour, though.

Tori refuses to let anyone mess with Anzu, even if he finds them scary ( as the radio drama proves ) but he’s actually pretty surprised to find the sentiment is mutual, she’ll scold others or physically drag them away if they insult him or prod a bit too long in the case of a classmate of his or another Yumenosaki student. He rarely sees firm Anzu, but he thinks it’s nice of her to defend him.

He once took a sip out of her cup by accident and gagged, ever since then he wonders how she can drink such horrible combinations?! Are humans even able to drink those things? It tastes like battery acid! So, he tries to offer her regular drinks like can of cola in hopes that she won’t down those horrible combinations again. 

Tori can hug her any time, any where, even if it’s sudden and startles her or she has a mountain of paper work in her arms that he made topple over- and she won’t be mad at all, she doesn’t understand how, because all her files are on the floor, she should be furious- but she’s not, instead she’s doting on him.

[techouspeaks]

Puzzleshipping: My Most Hated Shipping

Now before anyone tries to flag me or send me hate mail or both, look and read before you get mad. Also, if you do love this shipping, that’s perfectly fine. I have nothing against you. I’m not saying people who enjoy this shipping are bad people or stupid nor do I wish any ill fated action on them. None of that. This is just my personal gripe with this shipping.  I am ranting it here, on my page, on my blog. Not attacking anyone personally about it. I know how loved this shipping is, I may not get it but okay I‘m just sharing my views, to share a different perspective.

All I ask anyone is to read this with an open mind. Everyone is gonna have a different opinion. This is more so my reasons why I hate this ship for reasons of both sharing opinions and also as away to get off my chest.

To start off there are many reasons why I absolutely despise Puzzleshipping and some reasons are ones that fans probably heard a lot. If you dunno what Puzzleshipping is for followers new to my blog or this subject, it’s the shipping or pairing of YugiXYami/Atem in Yugioh Duel Monsters.

First is the whole Yami/Atem and Yugi look alike and are possibly related, thus getting into um inappropriate (family romance) levels.  (I’m honestly trying not to get this censored by tumblr). True, it’s never stated whether or not Yami/Atem and Yugi are related, except in one video game which is not canon to the series. 

Honestly, you can’t blame people for feeling like this shipping goes into that territory. They look exactly alike. If you had a stranger who knew nothing of Yugioh and they saw some questionable fan art of the two, it’s only natural that they would think fans are into inter-family relationships and think “What the actual hell?” 

When I was first really into the internet at a high school age, that was my main shock of the relationship because I’m like “Aren’t they related?”. I know this is still debatable but even then I’m like “Kinda creepy”.

Another obvious one is that Yugi blushes or gets more flustered around women. He is never this way around men. He’s never shy around men and especially Yami. Shoot, the moment a woman hands out sample ad brochures for Duke’s shop, Yugi blushes at her. Obviously, he doesn’t know her but still flusters around her since she’s pretty, indicating a more well obvious attraction to the opposite sex. Not to mention when Yugi is kissed by Rebecca and when Tea gets obviously jealous.

 Yami on the other hand, I would argue he’s even asexual or even aromantic because he doesn’t seem that remotely interested in anyone. Maybe, Mana but even that is still debatable. He cares for people sure, but never shows that much of an interest in that kind of way. He protects Yugi and of course, cares for him but the way he’s does so is more of a brother or father figure looking after their brother/son. It’s protective love but not romantic. He doesn’t want to kiss Yugi or show anything that would indicate a romantic relationship. In fact, he even encourages Yugi to go after Anzu in the Japanese version. Most of this over protective attitude stems for the fact Yami feels guilty for dragging Yugi and his friends in his personal endeavors that can be dangerous, which often Yami states through out the series.

Now, I’m not going to go on with superficial and typical reasons that are often heard of when hating on this ship. I’ll just get to my main gripe about it and it’s a very deep reason for hating it. It’s my inner core of why I hate this ship. This shipping is the top, number one shipping of any series I can’t stand and here is why.

I honestly believe Puzzleshipping goes against what the story of Yugi Mutou is about and even who Yugi is as a character. The story of Yugioh Duel Monsters and generally Yugi’s personal story is about growing up. Yugi becoming an independent, strong, individual that can hold up his own in personal fights. Yami helps Yugi along, first as an entity that Yugi isn’t aware of yet but feels the presence of. As time goes on and he realizes who Yami is, at first he’s afraid because of what Yami does to Kaiba. He goes against Yugi’s wishes to not hurt Kaiba, but thanks to Anzu/Tea, Yugi stops Yami.  After he vows to not go against Yugi’s wishes ever again, Yugi begins to trust Yami and become good friends, realizing that he is the confident entity that’s been protecting Yugi and helping him stand against tough foes, as well as gain the confidence to make friends.

Yami of course, goes against Yugi’s wishes again when he decides to use the Seal of Orichalcos against Rafael, though ultimately regrets this after Yugi pushes Yami and gets sealed away instead.  Though this leads to Yugi and Yami in a heated duel, that results in Yugi explaining that it was for Yami to finally defeat the darkness within his heart, thus allowing Yugi to help Yami grow this time. Yugi continues to lend in the strength that Yami needs as Yami did for Yugi during his times of needs.

Now after explaining all that, it does seem like Puzzleshipping is legit, right? Not really. See, my gripe and why I say Puzzleshipping goes against it is how the fandom depicts Yugi in Puzzleshipping. When the time came and Yami had to be sent to the past, this was basically Yugi growing up and moving forward to continue on with being his own person, while Yami learns to be a strong, individual leader that his people need. 

The way Puzzleshipping often depicts Yugi is the exact opposite to that. PS often depicts Yugi as a helpless damsel or someone that can’t live without Yami. The shipping seems to throw away all the development that Yugi gained, making Yugi look more helpless and more needing a man than Snow White and Sleeping Beauty! I know Yugi isn’t always strong and always confident but my goodness, he’s definitely come along way and I just feel that most PS works just throw this development way like it was nothing but garbage.

Same with Yami. Puzzleshipping often displays Yami as the hero that rescues Yugi or seductive flirty person, which he is not. While there are some that depict Yugi and Yami similar to the series, that’s also a problem too. It depicts Yugi and Yami before they grew and learn the lessons they learned.

Also why I am not showing puzzleshipping artwork in this post is because that would probably be considered art theft and I don’t want this blog flagged! Google it yourself!

Yugi is a character that in my youth, I looked up to a lot. When I was in middle school, I was bullied a lot and wish I had a large group of friends to stand by me. I probably wouldn’t have survived school without seeing Yugi during his struggles, showing he can be strong but also kind and accepting, thus giving me hope to find someone equally as kind and accepting.

Put it short, Yugi, his story and his friends helped me out during the toughest times as a kid. So seeing Yugi depicted as this prissy, helpless princess that needs his Egyptian Prince is just down right insulting to the character, I highly respect. Yeah, he’s fictional but again, he’s a character I grew up, highly respecting and looking up to as an example of a person I wished to be and a person that I wanted to be with. (Though I’m happy for Tea/Anzu, since she’s also really awesome.)  Yami is too though he got a bit emo for my tastes down the road, he’s still a character that certainly deserves some respect as well.

It’s sorta like how people can’t stand remakes and reboots, despite this is just pure fandom fluff. Yeah, nothing is gonna stop it but that doesn’t stop people from feeling the way they feel about it and wanting to rant about it now and then and I’m not saying that all Puzzleshipping works are like what I described, but a majority of them are, especially in artworks.

Puzzleshipping just ruins the long, struggling, development of our two main leads and what are a great, strong and reliable individual characters. The whole point of the Dark Side of Dimensions movie was for Yugi to settle with his conflict he had when Yami left him and finally move on and I just feel like Puzzleshipping throws this type of development out the window, for a more “Kawaii-ish feels” or often from my perspective, to just add more gay to Yugioh. 

I get there are AUs and people are allowed to have their fun and if I insulted fans well, sorry but call it even because I can’t search Yugi Muto without Puzzleshipping work being in my face and there’s only so much soft blocking I can do.  I’m not at all saying that people can’t ship these two because yeah, like I’m the queen of the world! Hell no! It’s also not like I don’t have a few questionable ships and shippings a lot of people may not agree with myself.

 (Drawing and Violet, child in the middle by me. Angel Dust and Vaggie belong to VivziePop)

Like I said, I’m just giving my reasons for why I personally hate it, why it ticks me off and why I think it’s one of the worst shippings in terms of pairings that are otherwise not that morally bad. There are far worse shippings that are more obvious on why they’re bad, but this one just gets under my skin for personal reasons, as I stated.

Think of this post as a dive into a different perspective, if you will. The goal isn’t to change the minds of puzzleshippers but to give a different point of view, especially to those that may not fathom why someone would hate this shipping. As I said, on the surface, Puzzleshipping seems legit but on the deeper levels, it’s not as wonderful as it may seem, at least to people like me and at least the majority of works that show case it.

I hope this rant though long, is at least informative and shares light on personal feelings that I certainly have and some who hate this shipping as much as I do also have. As stated, ship who you want. I mean, I obviously can’t tell you what to ship and to not ship. If it makes you happy, go for it. As said, just wanted to share my thoughts and my reasons. Obviously there’s worst things out there but everyone has a pet peeve or something that maybe mundane but is annoying or even infuriating to them.

So, creative question to anyone who reads this, what is a shipping you really can’t stand and why? Is there a shipping you hate? Also, what’s a shipping you like? My personal favorites are SpiderMoth (Angel Dust and Vaggie from Hazbin Hotel), Peachshipping (though I see it as canon), TomaXChiffon from Futago Hime and CloseXHaruka/Cure Flora and ShutXTowa/Cure Scarlet from Go Princess Precure.

[midnightroseprincess]

Yugi Mutou?

Do I Like Them: I adore Yugi so much. He’s been my favorite male anime character for years. Set the standard, pretty much. 

5 Good Qualities: Empathetic as heck. Selfless as heck. Dedicated to his friends as heck. Strategic as heck – more so than even the Pharaoh, tbh. Forgiving as heck but will END YOU if you try to hurt his friends – inspirational. 

3 Bad Qualities: Sometimes his pacifistic tendencies let people walk over him too much (until they bring his friends into it, THEN he stands up to them – which is good and also relatable, but I wish I’d both he and I would stand up for ourselves more). Not good with telling fangirls ‘No’ to their flirtations. And while he got better, at one point he did deny the importance of his feelings compared to the importance of his friends’ feelings (which is misguided, even if good-intention-ed).

Favorite Episode/Etc.,: One of my all time favorite Yugi moments is the Dungeon Dice Arc in the manga, chapters 134 to 145, which the anime bungled horribly. In it, the Millennium Puzzle is shattered and Yugi is on his own dueling Otogi to win the Millennium Puzzle back. Talk about his time to shine… showing how quickly he can adapt and strategize to an unfamiliar game and dedicate himself to winning because a friend’s on the line. Also he worries about the effects shattering the Millennium Puzzle has on the Pharaoh throughout. Its also an eerily memorable moment that Yami Bakura pops in to encourage him in this weird ‘enemy mine’ kind of moment, saying he’s the true recipient of the Millennium Puzzle (aka kinda validating Yugi’s place in this huge chain of destiny other characters *coughKaibacough* constantly deny or belittle.) Then the fact that it ends with him rebuilding the puzzle in a burning building and SUCCEEDING in the limited time frame he has when it took him EIGHT YEARS to build it the first time. I’m so proud of him. 

OTP: Yugi’s the Launcher of a Thousand Ships, but I usually ship him with either Anzu (Peachshipping) or Heartshipping (Ryou). Anzu and Yugi have childhood friendship going for them, and even with Anzu’s crush on Atem, her bond with Yugi is stronger than most people, even herself, realize. Atem himself ships them, and really what more confirmation do I need? As for Heartshipping, Ryou deserves an extreme amount of support and care from his ordeals and Yugi is in the best position to understand what he went through (to a point) and he and Yugi share so many hobbies that finding common ground to build upon is easy. 

BroTP: Jonouchi and Atem, so much. He’s more or less the freaking light of Jonouchi’s life and holy crap they go 150% on each other’s behalf (manga chapters 11 & 12 when they rescue each other from Hirutani’s gang come to mind.) As for Atem, their brotp is the cornerstone of the show? Their bond is so strong and they reassure each other of their doubts and despite all the detsiny drama they still stay up all night like goofs editing their deck? Effing adorable. Also there’s a lot to be said for the fact that even though the temptation is there for them to shrug responsibilities they have to stay together forever (which can have co-dependent vibes), they acknowledge it and let each other grow in a healthy way until it’s time for them to separate. 

OT3: Anzu/Yugi/Ryou. When conflicted about otps, make it an ot3 as the saying goes. XD Seriously, they work ludicrously well together and make for an extremely supportive ship, both in pushing each other out of their comfort zones at a manageable and healthy pace and also just being happy and adventurous. 

NoTP: Pretty much Yugi with anyone who has ever abused him, belittled him, betrayed him, or hurt him utterly. Namely Insector Haga, Yami Marik, Kaiba, etc., etc.,

Best Quote: “I wish for friends, friends who would never betray me, no matter what… and friends whom I would never betray!” The wish that started it all. It’s my favorite despite all of Yugi’s wisdom and humor because, like, he GOT it. Both in the Pharaoh’s presence and that of his friends. Plus, it kinda gutted me that like, for the longest time, only he and Atem had any idea what the wish was. Then the memory arc happened and Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda finally realized what Yugi wished for back in the day. And you could argue they didn’t even become friends just because of the wish, but because Jonouchi CHOSE to return the piece of the puzzle he took from Yugi so Yugi could finish it. With or without the wish, Yugi still got what he dearly wanted and needed, but because of it he reached his full potential and became such an amazing character. 

Headcanon: I headcanon that his hair is actually absurdly soft, and as he gets older he starts tying it back more in a low ponytail. Then as he takes over the Kame Game Shop, little kid fans of his adore him and give him hair clips and he’s too nice to not accept them and the next thing you know he’s got like 20 hair clips keeping his bangs out of his eyes and his ponytail in place. His friends think it’s sweet and hilarious. I’ve actually seen this illustrated here and here (go support the artist). I also headcanon that while he still remains to be a bit of a Perky Goth in fashion sense, he does mellow out and start wearing more casual clothing with less accessories as he becomes more confident in who he is and what he wants out of life. 

Hope those answers were good! I didn’t mean for them to get that long, but oh well. XD Can’t expect me not to gush about a favorite, right?

[sage-nebula]

YGO - In Plain Sight - Outline

Thanks to @brooklynhype‘s prompt (“When does Jounouchi say ‘I love you’ back?”) and also encouragement (along with @severalbakuras’ encouragement), I’ve decided to share an outline I wrote up aaaages ago (like, two years ago) for a longfic showing exactly how Yuugi and Jounouchi’s relationship progresses to the romantic stage. This fic takes place when Yuugi and Jounouchi are ~22/23, in the post-canon headcanon I have where they ended up getting an apartment together when they were ~18/19 that was close to Yuugi’s university. I’ll still write this fic someday, and I’ve already written parts of it (which will be linked within). It may take a while, but I’ll still get to it someday. Someday . . . (Though that said, if you want to draw art just based on this, by all means, please do.)

That said . . . have a very detailed outline below the cut.

Chapter 1 --- April

Yuugi has lunch with Kisugi and Shiori; Shiori assumes that Yuugi and Jounouchi are a couple, and he assures her (and Kisugi) that they are not, but this gets him thinking about how he felt when she assumed that

Yuugi and Jounouchi watch a movie cuddled up (kind of—each one has a head on an armrest, Yuugi is sprawled across/on top of Jounouchi) on the couch; it’s not romantic but Yuugi can’t stop thinking about how it looks/what it feels like; Jounouchi goes to work (it’s late) and Yuugi falls asleep playing 3DS on the couch

Yuugi does not know this, but when Jounouchi gets home and sees Yuugi sleeping on the couch, Jounouchi carries him to bed

The next morning, Yuugi realizes Jounouchi carried him to bed (maybe?), and he makes coffee for Jounouchi, which wakes Jounouchi up; Yuugi brings up plans for after graduation and mentions he might apply to Nintendo, in Kyoto; Jounouchi tells him he should do that, after saying that he (Jounouchi) doesn’t know what he wants to do, and Yuugi bails

Yuugi ponders over his own feelings, that he doesn’t want to leave Jounouchi necessarily, that he doesn’t want Jounouchi to leave him, or maybe that he’s upset because it seems like Jounouchi doesn’t care as much? He’s distracted enough that he misses his train and opts against going to class. It’s the last day of the school week so after a few hours he decides to go his grandpa’s for the weekend to clear his head

He still ends up being distracted by recurring thoughts of Jounouchi; after talking with his mom (and his mom pressuring him about do this, do that, have you found a gf yet) he decides to ask out Mina since Kisugi mentioned that she was interested in him before

Yuugi successfully asks Mina to a carnival that’s in town the following weekend; when he tells Jounouchi this Jounouchi is very congratulatory and tells Yuugi to give him all the details of their date and Yuugi doesn’t really know how to feel about this

On their date, Yuugi thinks Mina looks very pretty, but throughout the date his heart isn’t really in it and he can’t help but thinking that he and Jounouchi would be doing this-or-that instead if he’d gone (and then he wonders if he’d have liked to go with Anzu as well, thinks probably, but Jounouchi was at the forefront of his mind); at the end Mina says she had a nice time and Yuugi says he did, too . . . but he thinks probably it’s not going to work out between them. Mina is hurt but Yuugi figures it’s better if he’s honest

When he gets home, Jounouchi asks how the date went, Yuugi said it’s over and Jounouchi says he’s sorry; Yuugi points out the carnival will be in town the next day as well and asks Jounouchi if he wants to go, to which Jounouchi says yeah, sure, and Yuugi is pretty happy about it, though he is determined to see this as just any other time of them hanging out

Throughout the next night at the carnival he can’t stop comparing it to how things were with Mina the previous night; things just get more confusing when they’re walking home and Jounouchi throws an arm around his shoulders; this never bothered him before, so why does it bother him now?? Yuugi can’t figure it out, things are 100% too confusing; he resolves to ask for help

Chapter 2 --- May

Yuugi’s main experiences in the areas of romance come in the form of 1.) his crush on Anzu, and 2.) porn videos, which are not informative at all. He tries to compare what he feels to Jounouchi to what he felt for Anzu, but the feelings are different (he thinks) and he’s honestly not sure if he still has feelings for Anzu or not given that she’s lived halfway around the world for the past few years, so it’s honestly pretty confusing in that regard, too

He tries to talk to Anzu on Skype to see if he can settle whether or not he has feelings for her; whether or not he succeeds (like, if she’s available) is tbd

Yuugi tries to ask his mom what it felt like when she fell in love with his dad; this conversation goes nowhere fast because she’s more invested on who he might be in love with rather than what love feels like

His grandpa doesn’t help by very nearly bringing up the porn tapes in front of Yuugi’s mom (“I bet I can guess who it is, I know from those tapes you have a ty—” “Grandpa!!”)

Many people at university now resent Yuugi for “playing” Mina and breaking her heart; more like they’re spreading gossip about him doing just that; Yuugi has to decide on his senior overview project and what it’s going to be

While eating lunch with Shiori and Kisugi (above bullet point comes into play here), Jounouchi shows up on a surprise visit because his shift at the radio station ended early that day for whatever reason; Kisugi flirts with Jounouchi, Jounouchi shoots him down, Shiori gives many meaningful looks to Yuugi and asks him again if he’s sure when Jounouchi leaves; Yuugi is not sure of anything tbh

That night Jounouchi ends up making dinner again (okonomiyaki—so nothing too fancy, but still good), and they make cookies and play Mario Kart or some other game and it’s really, really great night and Yuugi enjoys himself a lot—but again, confusing, because this is really domestic but?? Normal???

The next day he goes to Bakura’s for advice; Bakura says he’s not the best for advice because he’s aromantic so this isn’t really his area, but they talk for awhile and eventually Yuugi comes to the conclusion that he really, really, really cares for Jounouchi, obviously he loves him . . . but love doesn’t necessarily mean IN love . . . it’s different from how he felt about Anzu, like, it’s not like he has wet dreams about Jounouchi, but he thinks maybe he would like kissing him? Or he’d like to try. But mostly it’s that yeah, he loves him . . . he’s happy being with him, and being with Jounouchi makes him feel . . . safe? Secure? Warm? Happy? Like, it’s right, like this is how things are supposed to be, and living with him has been great. And whenever he thinks about not living with him in a year or whatever if he has to move to Kyoto for work or whatever he starts to feel anxious and unhappy, but it’s worse thinking that Jounouchi is okay with that, because Yuugi doesn’t want to leave but he also doesn’t want to stay if Jounouchi doesn’t want him to. And through all this ramble one thing becomes clear: Yuugi is for defo sure in srs love with Jounouchi; the question is: what does he do about it?

Chapter 3 --- June / July

Yuugi does nothing about it at first, continues to try and sort his feelings; he has started getting job offers for when he graduates in March (Jounouchi is not surprised by this, Yuugi feels a bit overwhelmed, esp because he hasn’t even done his senior overview yet wtf), but he doesn’t know what to do with them because he doesn’t know if he wants to leave Domino or not

The Tanabata festival is coming up; there is a celebration going on at Yuugi’s university, but also a big festival going on down at the docks; Jounouchi says that he’s going to that one because station management has asked him to make a video about it (sort of like a vlog, Jounouchi says) for the website, and he asks Yuugi to go with him; Yuugi says yes because of course he does, esp because he was going to celebrate Tanabata anyway

They are both a bit uncomfortable because it’s down near the docks, near where they had their duel, but it’s easier if they’re with each other and Jounouchi is good about fooling around with the camera for the vlog

Yuugi’s wish on the tanzaku (wish tag) that he hangs on the festival tree is something to the effect of “I wish for my future to work out, and for Jounouchi-kun to be part of it”

Jounouchi also writes a wish on the tanzaku (it’s bad luck not to and he’s superstitious anyway) but Yuugi does not know what it is

KaibaCorp was hosting some of the entertainment at the festival and so they run into Mokuba, who is in charge of that sort of thing (given that he is better at PR than Seto); Shizuka is there bc she wanted to surprise Jounouchi & also Mokuba invited her; they also run into Honda and Bakura as both came down to celebrate as well

They stay and watch as the festival tree is set out to sea and lit on fire at festival’s end

Shizuka stays the night after Tanabata, and because Jounouchi does not want his baby sis having to sleep on the couch, he has her take his bed; he plans to sleep on the couch, but Yuugi casually suggests they share his bed instead, and Jounouchi sees no problem with it once he’s sure they can both fit, so Yuugi’s pretty happy (even if his heart is beating ten thousand miles a minute)

The next morning, Shizuka is rather surprised to see her brother emerging from Yuugi’s room, and she starts to ask him, “Are you---?” before she decides against it; Jounouchi asks her what she was about to ask, and she says it’s nothing, so he threatens to tickle it out of her, and they get into an impromptu wrestling / tickling match, but she still never says anything, and Yuugi (who witnessed this) wonders what she thinks, and if she’s thinking what he thinks she’s thinking, and if she is, what she thinks the chances are of Jounouchi feeling the same way as him, then

Yuugi has final exams for the spring semester, which are pretty stressful, so they distract him from things for a time after Tanabata, but Jounouchi helps him through his finals

Within a day or so of Yuugi’s finals wrapping up and summer vacay starting, Jounouchi announces that the radio station offered him a permanent position as a radio co-host—on a trial basis but w/e, point is they were impressed by his vlog and how many hits it got so like??? He’s got a real job now, provided he makes it through the trial run of August, go him

Yuugi is super happy for Jounouchi, but this also means that Jounouchi will probably absolutely have to stay in Domino, so . . . that complicates things, frick

Chapter 4 --- August

Yuugi decides on his senior overview finally: it will be a largely text based adventure game in which the protagonist has to successfully avert the end of the world, albeit the end of the world is really a metaphor for the protagonist’s own life, with multiple endings

Since it is summer break for Yuugi and Honda, they agree that they’d like to take a vacation, only that is hard given that Bakura is pretty broke, and Jounouchi has to work; they decide that they’ll take mini vacations over each weekend in August since Jounouchi doesn’t work on weekends; since none of them have a lot of money, ultimately they settle on one four day weekend trip to Hokkaido

In Hokkaido:

Failed attempts at surfing, Honda and Jounouchi try to bury each other in the sand

They can’t afford hotels so they end up camping out on the beach and brought tents for this purpose

See some bikini clad ladies, and Yuugi, Jounouchi, and Honda all find them attractive while Bakura is just like “ok, you do that, I’m going to go get some ice cream”; Yuugi finds the ladies really attractive, but it’s seeing that and knowing he doesn’t feel the urge to go flirt or anything that lets him know his feelings are legit

Spooky stories around the campfire to Jounouchi’s dismay; Bakura is devious and tells extra spooky stories because he knows that Jounouchi and Yuugi are sharing a tent

Yuugi and Jounouchi share a tent; Yuugi innocently asks if Jounouchi is okay and Jounouchi says that ofc he is, everything is cool, but strange spooky noises are heard outside of the tent and so Yuugi “sacrifices” by sleeping closer and Jounouchi says that ofc he’ll keep Yuugi safe and hugs him close—for Yuugi’s benefit ofc

The spooky sounds were Bakura, that devious lil thing

Other summer shenanigans as they crop up maybe: impromptu beach volleyball tournament? Other beach games they can’t resist playing (Yuugi and Bakura especially)? Things like that

When they get back from Hokkaido Yuugi tries to tell Jounouchi how he feels, but chickens out at the last second and they go to bed

Chapter 5 --- September

School has started again and Yuugi presents his senior overview project idea to his advisor, who thinks it is a bit cliché; Yuugi is hurt and put-out by this but resolves to try and find a new idea

People at school have heard Jounouchi on the radio and Shiori and Kisugi approach Yuugi about it, to ask him what is up; specifically Shiori wants to know if this means Jounouchi is staying in Domino, has Yuugi thought about his options, has Yuugi talked to him? And she knows that they’re not dating, she knows it, but she figures, they’re still roommates, this is still probably something they should—but Yuugi cuts her off and says no, no, but he will, soon. Probably.

Since Jounouchi lasted the entire month of August and proved to be very adept at what he does, he’s officially an official radio host now at the station, congrats, go him. They officially slot him in at the mid-morning/afternoon show, and while they considered giving him a co-host at first they’ve decided against it, ultimately, because he talks enough for two people

That night, Jounouchi and Yuugi talk Yuugi’s career options again (discuss him leaving Domino, him staying in Domino, working for KaibaCorp etc), and this segues into Yuugi finally confessing how he feels in a roundabout way, and they talk about it; Jounouchi says that he can’t return Yuugi’s feelings, but he also promises that ofc they’re still best friends even if they’re not going to start dating, Yuugi is Yuugi etc; Yuugi is relieved but he still feels deep disappointment because ultimately his feelings weren’t returned (or so he thinks)

When he wakes up the next morning Jounouchi is already gone; Yuugi tries not to read into it and goes to class; Shiori and Kisugi ask what’s up, and Yuugi kind of wants to tell them, but opts against it; it’s hard to concentrate in class and he still doesn’t have a new idea for his senior overview

At work, Jounouchi (POV switch!) has a hard time concentrating on the radio; he manages to get through the show all right, except halfway through he starts rambling about unexpected changes and what to do when you’re in a jam like that and etc etc he ends up turning it into an extended Duel Monsters metaphor and caps off the entire thing by telling his listeners that sometimes they just have to take trap cards as they come and use a luck card to pull it through, only too bad luck cards don’t’ work in real life, right? Station management does not know wtf is up with this and they send him home and tell him to pls feel better tomorrow; Jounouchi texts Honda to tell him he’s coming to visit for a time (also texts Yuugi to let him know he’s going to Honda’s and says it’s bc Honda needs help with something, but he’s vague about what that something is)

Jounouchi tells Honda that this must keep this secret under threat of pain of death, but that Yuugi told him that he loved him; they talk about this for a long while, Jounouchi ends up spending the night; the next day before he leaves he resolves he’s going to be super careful from now on because he doesn’t want to lead Yuugi on or anything

This is where things get hard.

Chapter 6 --- October

Things are awkward in the apartment; Jounouchi is often out later, and when they are at home together there isn’t the same level of comfort they had before (e.g. no cuddling on the couch during movies)

Yuugi invites Jounouchi out to the arcade (“you know, just to hang out”) on a Saturday, and they go, and as they’re walking home Jounouchi goes to sling an arm around Yuugi’s shoulders—only to quickly pull it back and apologize, which makes the whole thing super awkward but really makes Yuugi feel like the world just split in two; Yuugi makes up an excuse about something he remembers he had to do and bails

Yuugi goes to Bakura’s and is basically already crying when Bakura opens the door (“I ruined everything”) and tries to seek counsel, but it’s hard because things are different and awkward and distant now and Yuugi doesn’t know what to do

Jounouchi calls Honda because he can tell he really hurt Yuugi pretty badly and he doesn’t know what to do either, because aren’t things better this way?? He doesn’t want to lead him on or make things harder, but is this a damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t??? (“Because it’s not like we can be together—” “Why can’t you?” “Why do you think? I can’t---I’m not gonna spell it out for you right now”)

Yuugi gets home that night, things are super awkward, sort of a “I’m sorry about before” “yeah no it’s ok” kind of situation; Yuugi excuses himself to go work on his senior overview and Jounouchi goes to his room to play guitar; both doors are shut (they were always open before) and both boys are unhappy

KaibaCorp hosts a Halloween event in the city that is basically like a fear trial utilizing their virtual reality/hologram technology in a massive complex supposedly built for this purpose (really it was an old weapons facility but shh no need to let anyone know this); the station sends Jounouchi to go vlog it like before much to his dismay, and when he tells Yuugi he asks if maybe Yuugi wants to go, and Yuugi excitedly says yes before he says, well, Bakura was already going because he helped with some of the ideas (“great” Jounouchi says, even less enthused than before), so the three of them can go together

At the fear trial event thing:

Bakura speaks with Mokuba beforehand to make things extra frightening for Jounouchi (unknown if this shown or will be referenced later, we’ll see)

The entire thing is actually underground in specifically designed tunnels and the like; each tunnel is fitted with holographic technology and the holograms and such adjust as guests wander through

Mokuba is present at the event again because, again, PR

As they go through things start out OK until the jump scares start in with demons and ghosts and things; there’s a particularly bad one at a three way split, and on pure instinct Jounouchi bolts down one corridor while Yuugi went down the other (and Bakura wondered which one he should pursue)

As they’re separated, Jounouchi tries to find Yuugi again while trying to explain himself to the camera, and spends a lot of time running; he ends up finding Yuugi again at another point in the maze, and it looks like Yuugi is being harassed by a big group of dudes

Jounouchi immediately rushes in to his defense, about to whoop some serious ass, but 1.) they’re holograms and 2.) they shift to demons whenever Jounouchi gets there, so he grabs Yuugi’s wrist and takes off running again

When they reach some distance away Jounouchi makes sure Yuugi’s all right, and Yuugi reminds him that everything’s a hologram, but they lost Bakura; Jounouchi is like “oh, right” and they go to look for Bakura

Everything feels normal as they battle their way through the underground maze; at one point they’re assaulted by Duel Monsters holograms and at another they have to avoid illusions of falling CapMon capsules (like Penalty Games, eh?)

It soon becomes apparent that to escape the maze (or maybe they knew from the start) they actually have to battle and play a game that is part riddle and part logic; KaibaCorp is a gaming company after all

When the event is over and Jounouchi and Yuugi go home together, it’s in silence, and it seems like maybe, tentatively, they just . . . won’t discuss Yuugi’s feelings, or Jounouchi’s feelings, or anything like that; things are still a little awkward but before anything can be discussed Jounouchi says he needs to transfer the video to station management for editing, and Yuugi says yeah, he needs to work on his senior overview; once again they’re in their own rooms, doors shut

Chapter 7 --- November

Yuugi has another meeting with his senior overview adviser to discuss his project; he starts throwing out random ideas like “maybe something with time travel so the player can fix their mistakes” (but cuts back on that because “no, that’s too much like Braid”) and basically throws out random ideas until, wishing that he had Atem to talk to about this whole mess with Jounouchi, he says, “what if the player has an alter ego they can switch to in order to skip over hard parts in the game for them, only in so doing they make the game longer every time they do it because they’re not actually clearing the obstacles themselves” and his adviser is like “I’m listening”

Jounouchi tries to force himself to be upbeat on the air, but it’s hard; station management has a talk with him about his “depressing demeanor” and consider sticking him with a co-host again (or giving him some time off if he needs it?) but he insists that’s not necessary and that he’s fine, really

A few days later (or so) Yuugi and Jounouchi are both home in the evening and Yuugi mentions off-hand that he made a resume and that he noticed Nintendo had an opening for a game developer and he was thinking about applying; Jounouchi tells him that he should go for it, and Yuugi says that he’d have to move to Kyoto, and Jounouchi says again, in as firm a voice as he can manage, he really thinks Yuugi should go for it; Yuugi takes this the wrong way (ofc he does) and goes to his room; Jounouchi takes a walk

The next day, Jounouchi is real depressed on air, and station management ends up sending him home basically immediately after with the note of “take tomorrow off if you have to, but this has gotta stop”; as he leaves he runs into Mai, who is in town for a gig with KaibaCorp, and she sought him out because “I’ve heard happier people presiding over funerals”

Jounouchi does not tell Mai all of the details; basically just talks to her in general terms about relationships etc; Mai tells him that he needs to take chances when he has them because otherwise he won’t, and wasn’t he always the recklessly courageous one? Jounouchi says this is easier said than done; in any case they talk over dinner

When Jounouchi gets home, Yuugi is in his room with the door closed; he is working on his senior overview project, but Jounouchi figures that’s probably a hint, too . . . and closes his own door all the same

The next morning, it’s small talk over breakfast until Yuugi brings up that Anzu will be in town next month, so, he figured, they could have a holiday party or something, if that was okay, and Jounouchi says that yeah, of course it is, they can invite everyone, it’ll be awesome; it’s a tentative, tiny band-aid over the issues between them

Chapter 8 --- December

Jounouchi and Yuugi plan for the holiday party together, though Jounouchi does much of the food purchasing and such as Yuugi still has to work on his senior overview/other homework and also prepare for his final exams

The holiday party is really just Yuugi, Jounouchi, Honda, Anzu(!!!), and Bakura

Midway through the party Anzu notices the odd distance between Yuugi and Jounouchi and she pulls Jounouchi into his room to talk about it; they discuss things for few seconds but when Jounouchi says he can’t talk about things there she declares to everyone that they are taking a walk and drags him out of the apartment

Jounouchi ends up spilling everything to Anzu in the park, and they talk about what has been going on (this bullet was originally more detailed, but the entire conversation is in the link so just read that)

In the next few days/week or so(?) Anzu and Yuugi are hanging out, and it feels kind of date-ish, and as they walk Anzu brings up the idea of the two of them dating, if they ever wanted to pursue a relationship etc; Yuugi is caught very off-guard and, much like she did with Jounouchi, Anzu takes Yuugi to the park so they can talk (and note, Anzu still does not have feelings for him, but more she wanted to create an opening to talk about Yuugi’s feelings for Jounouchi); Yuugi tells Anzu about his feelings for Jounouchi and what has been going on there and Anzu assures him everything will work out just fine (though she refuses to tell him why she thinks he shouldn’t give up hope just yet, because even if she doesn’t want him to give up / wants to reassure him, she’s not going to tell him everything Jounouchi told her in specific, it’s not her place to do so)

Yuugi has to buckle down and finish his senior overview after this (as well as study for his upcoming exams etc);  after some deliberation (including some not-vague-enough deliberation ON-AIR, FFS JOUNOUCHI PLS), Jounouchi decides they for sure need to talk about this when Yuugi’s exams are over

Chapter 9 --- January

Yuugi presents his senior overview to the committee for his department and it is accepted/he gets a pass on it; he also feels that he does all right on exams so with any luck he will graduate for sure come March

Jounouchi ends up asking him again about his future prospects, job-wise, after congratulating Yuugi on things going well and Yuugi says that oh, he doesn’t know, he’s applied to some places but he’s still deciding, you know; Jounouchi tries to tell him then, tries to talk to him about things, but he ends up chickening out and going for a walk instead

Jounouchi comes back that night, and Yuugi is playing a game in the living room; Jounouchi reminds himself that he’s got balls, he can do this, he’s faced scarier things, he did Kaiba’s fear trial bullshit back in October, he can do this; he asks Yuugi to turn off the game for a sec, or at least pause it, so they can talk

Basic bottom line here is Jounouchi explains to Yuugi how much he cares about him, and does love him, and he never really thought it before because they were always bff but Yuugi is really, really, very, very important to him and he thinks that he, probably—no, he does, love Yuugi, and he thinks that it probably is like that, you know, but he freaked out and he’s sorry, but part of the reason why he’s been like this is because he doesn’t think that he’s very good for Yuugi, all things considered, Yuugi can do better and shouldn’t let himself be held back by—

Yuugi kisses him. Lightly, on the lips, just once. He pulls away, leans forward to kiss him again—and Jounouchi kisses him back, again, chaste, just testing the waters

Jounouchi stares at him, and things are tense and emotional and hearts are beating very, very, very, very fast, and Yuugi wants this, and Jounouchi wants this, and that scares him, so he says, “um, actually, I think I have to go do a . . . a thing” and bails (god DAMN it Jounouchi god DAMN IT)

Jounouchi goes to Honda’s, and Honda is not happy about being woken up at whatever time of night, but when Jounouchi blurts “I kissed Yuugi” Honda lets him in; they talk for a long, long time about things, Jounouchi finally vents all of his “BUT I’M NOT GOOD ENOUGH AND ANYWAY I JUST BAILED AFTER HE KISSED ME LIKE WTF HE’S NEVER GOING TO WANT TO SEE ME AGAIN ANYWAY I’M SO STUPID THIS IS WHY HE DESERVES BETTER” etc, but Honda insists that no, Yuugi is not like that, and anyway, the more important thing here is Honda wants both of his friends to be happy and if this makes them happy, then really the only thing standing in their way right now is Jounouchi, and goddamn he’s never seen anyone so determined to be in the way of their own happiness, honestly. Jounouchi is really quiet for a time and finally, just--- “Do you love him?” “. . . yes.” “How much?” “More than . . . god, I . . .” (Unintelligible mumbling as he buries his face in his arms) “Dude, there’s your answer, just get over yourself and be honest with him, let this happen, you guys’ll work it out somehow. Now go the hell to sleep, I still have an exam tomorrow.”

Jounouchi goes home the next morning, Yuugi isn’t there because Yuugi went to go have breakfast with Bakura. When Yuugi gets back in the afternoon Jounouchi throws the remote at the TV to turn it off (smooth—it doesn’t even work), and apologizes for bailing, Yuugi says it’s okay, Jounouchi says it’s not . . . and more calmly explains everything he’s been stressing over, how he thinks that he doesn’t want to hold Yuugi back, Yuugi could probably do better etc, BUT, he says, before Yuugi can interrupt, BUT he . . . he . . . and he kisses Yuugi, this time he initiates it, and it’s more desperate and far less chaste than before (well—less chaste when Yuugi introduces some tongue as, you know, a test), and when he pulls away Jounouchi says, “I . . . I really . . .” and he just hugs Yuugi as he finishes the, “I love you, and I’m sorry, but I mean it—” and Yuugi hugs him back because finally, FINALLY, finally everything will be all right.

Chapter 10 --- March (Epilogue)

Yuugi graduates, of course; he has his degree in game design and practically a hoard of game companies knocking down his door

Jounouchi has been much, much, much happier on air, of course, given that everything is sorted out and like it used to be (except with more physical intimacy, natch)

Yuugi accepts at a job at an indie games company (MalleaBoundary Games) in Domino; it’s on the other side of town so they do have to move, but they opt to move together esp since the commute still won’t be too bad for Jounouchi

 All in all, everything is as it should be.

[the-cryptographer]

For the yugioh ask meme - 9, 13, 18, 23, 31!

Thank you!! 9 and 13 got answered already. In my ‘ask’ tag if you’re interested  x’)

18. A random headcanon

Ah, I have so many at this point,lol. A lot of them really kind of spring up in the process of writing fic, andwhat I think makes sense and carries weight for that story so *shrugs*

There are some things I more or lessaccept as permanent facets of the characters, hmm:

Things about how Jounouchi’sgang life with Hirutani went, and how it ended. And how Jounouchi feels aboutthat, and how Honda helped and encouraged him in this huge way that Jounouchi couldn’t even acknowledge at the time and still struggles with acknowledging during canon. Experimental sexual encounter with Honda inmiddle school is also one of a few things about Jounouchi’s sexual history that’skind of permanently burned into my brain at this point as something that definitely happened.

Things about how Seto’s relationshipwith Gouzaburou went. I guess you could say I’ve crafted headcanons about how andfor what purpose Gouzaburou intended to mold Seto, and how and where heundermined his own motivations, but still ultimately succeeded. heh, I keepimagining Gouzaburou sitting on a recliner in hell, watching Seto build andopen Death-T and just shaking his head with such disdain. “What is all this? A death theme park? How is this going to monetiseproperly? How is this going to sustain Kaiba Corp? Seto. Seto. Papa taught youbetter than this~”And Seto’s just like, “fuckyou, I can build a death theme park and wear belts on my arms and piss awayyour whole estate and die penniless in a ditch if I want to – you can’t stopme.”Caught between a rock and a hard place, Seto. If you succeed at lifeand work you’ll only be doing what your abuser wants, but if you fail you’llonly be miserable. It’s your choice, with only your life on the line here :v

And, I guess Yami Malik not beinggone from Malik’s psyche post-canon is a headcanon? going from what canon’s seemingintent is in how it presents the end of Battle City, I think we’re meant to thinkthat Yami Malik is and Malik’s hateful feelings are gone(?) But I’m not surehow seriously anyone takes that? idk, I certainly don’t take it seriously.

None of these are fun headcanons,lol. idk, it can be a headcanon that Mai comes into town and treats everyone todim sum, right? Just imagine the whole gang eating dim sum. Imagine Jounouchiand Honda and Shizuka having a chopstick battle over the last shrimp dumpling.And then continuing to fight, over the gai lan this time, even though Honda doesn’t even like it.

31. Favorite duel

Isis vs Seto. It’s just… socathartic, omg. I have so many feelings about what this duel meant for both thecharacters. I like how it really ricochets through Seto’s fears and hubris anddownfall and resurrection, against Isis’s stony and completely assuredconfidence that they are utterly powerless. And how Seto ultimately believes inthe power of something more personal and connecting than just raw strength, andhow that becomes the power to decide your own destiny. It’s just- very good.

The Atem vs Seto duel from Duellist Kingdom, and the Atem vs Mai duel are second and third runners up.

23. NOTP

Ah, I still don’t really think I have any? I have prettynarrow preferences regarding a number of ships, but there’s not really anythingI think in abstract I’m really never up for seeing some portrayal of? In termsof ships I see regularly enough on trips around tumblr and fanfic land that I’mkind of full of mixed feelings on… the rest is under the cut:

I can’t say I find myself super interested in Atem/Yuugi. I don’t reallyunderstand myself, but I’ve even kind of been randomly and viscerally squicked at times byportrayals of them kissing or preforming sex acts on one another (as opposed topreforming sex acts on someone else in each other’s general vicinity, lol).Which is really bizarre, since I’m a big fan of emblematik’s fic and own agrand total of one R18 doujin about them. So, idk, there’s nothing objectionable about it in the slightest. But I seem to heavily preferAtem and Yuugi being platonic in most cases for some reason?

I’m also not really fond of the vast majority of Ryou/YamiMalik interpretations. I’m not really that fond of Yami Malik in a completelyseparate body and as a completely separate entity that’s not at all amanifestation of Malik prime’s emotional needs (or vice versa, really). I kindof consider Malik and Yami Malik a package deal, so I’m not really especiallykeen on seeing one ship dealt with in absentia of the other. And, even if I was,I kind of think Malik and Yami Bakura are better developed characters that canbe used to cover a lot of the messy Ryou ship dynamics, well, better. But- I really, reallylike (platonic or nonplatonic) angstshipping, and I do consider (platonicor nonplatonic) Ryou/Yami Malik a facet of that. A facet that can reap reallyinteresting results. And so I want to see a lot more of Ryou and the Maliks butmaybe not in the way I see the fandom usually be about them.

And, idk, it seems like I’ve had a lot of salty af feelingsabout Isis/Mai. I don’t know. I am (1) very overly invested in Mai being reallytraumatised by Yami Malik’s behaviour towards her, (2) very overly invested inMalik being held accountable as (at the very least) complicit in Yami Malik’sbehaviour, (3) very overly invested in Mai being allowed to never forgive Malikever, and (4) very overly invested in Isis and Rishid being there to supportMalik and be on his team basically regardless of how bad he’s fucked up ateverything ever. These four points feed right into so much that I love aboutBattle City and DOMA, and somewhere in them is a pretty big conflict ofinterest that kind of prevents Isis/Mai and Mai/Rishid from not being superfucked up on some level. And, idk, I don’t really see a lot of super fucked upportrayals of them? Which is fine, I guess? I think my four points up there areperhaps overly specific readings of the text? But they all kind of lead me tohaving a kneejerk reaction against the ships bc my insect brain goes: ‘this ispressuring a woman to get over her abuse and pretend it didn’t happen’. Whichis something I’m familiar as with per my personal life, which is kind ofuncomfortable. Which makes me want desperately to read a Isis/Mai fic aboutgaslighting, and them dealing with dissimilar approaches to their own abuserecovery and erroneously expecting the other to be on the same page, and eventually beingable to understand each other and knowing their relationship needs a lot of distancein places and that’s sad but it still might be something worth holding onto? SoI guess I’m back to shipping it again, except I have to write it myself orsomething, idk.(except i also understand that everyone i unabashedly ship Maiwith is a tiny baby and that has its own potential problems – just ones ihaven’t had to live with? idk, why doesn’t ygo canon have any passionate,hot-blooded adult people i want to ship Mai with? Vivian, you are my onlysalvation.)

idk, I don’t like Mokuba/Shizuka either. except it might befine if somebody convinced me Mokuba and Shizuka could connect on a meaningfullevel that wasn’t just ‘making JouKai drama happen’. and i don’t likeHonda/Shizuka either. except i do like it, because I like Honda/Otogi/Shizukatriad. except I’ve never read any Honda/Shizuka by itself that wasn’t justuncomfortably assuming that Shizuka would get with Honda and not dealing withthe fact that Honda is an entitled lying liar who should question just what it ishe feels entitled to, and why. andwhat kind of relationship he’ll be participating in, and why. smh.

And I have a hard time seeing Atem being attracted to Anzuin canon, so I’m not big on shipping them, but it wouldn’t drive me away fromsomething either? Anzu/Atem: why not? and i used to feel sort of ‘why not?’ but not super interested inAtem/Kaiba. but then I gotangry at antishippers and then I talked to rainstormcolors too much, and now Ikind of ship it. Except I still get the feeling that most people who ship itaren’t really looking for the same dynamic in it that I’m really looking for.Which is, when I think about it, the exact same problem I have with JouKai(except slightly less bad, bc JouKai is much trashier). So I’ve done a 180degree turn here from notp problems to otp problems because for me they are thesame problems. always the same problems.

ETA: Itoccurs to me I probably could have added Seto/Shizuka to this list. Myunderstanding of Seto is that he’s someone who wouldn’t be at all compassionateabout her no-money, abuse, and disability problems. And my understanding ofShizuka is that she’s someone that would take that keenly to heart in arelationship. But, oh noes, once more I have read at least one fic for thisship that I liked. And I kind of like the idea of fucked up Season Zero Seto/Shizuka a lot too ;_;

Thank you again for the ask x)

[very-merry-sioux]

“How can anyone not be afraid of love?”, Mahaad + Atem? ｡◕ ‿ ◕｡

From this meme: [X]  

Send me two characters or more and a prompt and I’ll write you a short fic a long mess, how did this happen???

(I was planning to put it in a read more line but idk it doesn’t show on tumblr mobile so… just scroll down the block if you don’t wanna read it)

It’s very rare that he asks Yuugi for anything, not wanting to interfere with his life. But he couldn’t help it, he finally had some clues on what he was, on who he was, on why he was in the Puzzle. He just… he had to make sure it was real.

So he asks Yuugi if he could do something, go out and relax in his body, and he obliges with no hesitation. Encouraging him to take his time, and actually threatening him if he switched control too soon. He asks again if this could be private, and Yuugi is fine with it.

So here he was, at the museum, standing before the tablet again. A tablet of friendship created by a high priest, Isis said. One that had apparently been close to him.

He wonders how much of that was true. It’s just one tablet, one event in his life (one he couldn’t remember).

“You’re interested in Ancient Egypt?”

He turns to find a man leaning against a pillar. He was tall, a little taller than Kaiba, and had long black hair. Hair so dark and silky it looked violet against the light.

Usually he would be wary of strangers, especially those who ask him about Egypt. It was always a theme in their lives that anyone who’s interested in Egypt and approaches them were not nice, to put it mildly.

But this was a museum, and he supposes it was a normal question. Considering he was a teenager staring at an Ancient Egyptian artifact intensely.

“Of sorts,” he says, observing the man some more. Blue eyes, not as vibrant as Anzu’s or intense as Kaiba’s, but still striking in its own way. Like looking into a calm river. “Things related to Ancient Egypt frequently appear in my life,” an understatement, “and it wouldn’t hurt to know more about it.”

The man hums, looking at the tablet then at him. He suspects that he’s looking at the carving of the pharaoh, perhaps comparing their similarities.

“Any questions you wish to ask?”

He blinks.

“I know a lot about Ancient Egypt,” the man says. “I can give you plenty of obscure facts about it. For instance, did you know that onions were considered an aphrodisiac?”

He snorts at that, knowing from Yuugi’s memories that onions were a pretty common ingredient for many dishes. “We must all be horny as hell twenty-four-seven.”

He probably shouldn’t be talking to a stranger this much, this was still Yuugi’s body. And it wouldn’t be good if they met the man again, only to find Yuugi and not him. Yuugi’s friends were enough, he shouldn’t intrude in his partner’s life any more than he already has.

(but it was nice to talk about things that weren’t life-threatening, and it felt nice to be not the Other Yuugi for once)

“Perhaps,” the man says, smiling. “Priests were forbidden to eat them because it might raise their libido, and they wouldn’t be able to perform any of their sacred duties.”

“I take it you like onions, considering this is your opening line to convince me of your Egyptian expertise?” He raises an eyebrow, turning completely towards the stranger. He looked around the same age as Pegasus (though really, most people looked older than the multimillionaire manchild). He was wearing a grey cardigan and black slacks.  

It was fascinating how plain and simple the man looked. Yet at the same time, not. There was something about him, beneath the mellow and approachable appearance of the man, he felt there was a kind of… flair to him.

Like something magical.

“I love anything with onions in it.”

“You’d be a horrible priest, then.”

“There were ways around it,” the man says, eyes twinkling with amusement. “Rituals to purify one’s self. Priests weren’t saints, after all.”

“I’m sure there were people who’d still say you’d be a horrible priest.”

“I can think of at least one,” the man chuckles, laughing at some inside joke only he was privy to.

He thinks of Shadi who had barged into people’s soul rooms and even changed them to suit their needs. He thinks of Shadi who had given the Eye to Pegasus when he was obviously grieving and emotionally vulnerable. 

He thinks of himself, the first weeks of being out of the Puzzle, punishing Yuugi’s classmates with no hesitation.

Shadi could be considered a priest, couldn’t he? And him… he was a pharaoh, someone who should be above priests.

“None of us are, some less saintly than others,” he says, giving himself a self-deprecating smile. He turns back to look at the tablet, eyes roaming through every symbol and image on it. He had assumed that Isis and her clan would be the only people who knew about the history of Nameless Pharaoh, but considering this was part of an exhibit - and the fact that people like Pegasus, Sugoroku, and even Ryou knew parts of it? It seems a bit silly to think it was some kind of secret.

“Can you tell me anything about them?” He asks, pointing at the two figures above his supposed self and the priest.

The man tilts his head. “Not about the one that looks like you? I would have been curious about that.”

So he did assume he was interested because of that. “I’m,” scared of finding out what kind of person he was, “more curious about them. They look a lot like two Duel Monsters I know.”

The man hums, walking towards the tablet. He was beside him, looking up at the tablet, seemingly unaware of how the teen stiffened in response of their sudden change in proximity.

“I don’t know much about the dragon, only that she was incredibly steadfast and strong,” the man says. “I know more about the man above the pharaoh, he was one of his high priests.”

A high priest, like the one who ordered this tablet to be made? Did he have an item then? “So he couldn’t eat onions too?” He jokes.

“No, much to his dismay, it didn’t stop him though.”

“Much to his dismay?” He raises an eyebrow. “Are we talking about him or you?”

“Why not both?” The man shrugs. “Kill two birds with one stone.”

“Right,” he snorts, looking at the details of Dark Magician in the tablet. So did that mean his monster had been a priest? Was Dark Magician even the person depicted in this tablet? “A high priest… what was special about him that he was carved here?”

One could say that perhaps it was because he was his ace. Kaiba had Blue Eyes White Dragon, while he had Dark Magician. But that was pushing it too far, even for him. This was something that happened thousands of years, he doubted they were carved because both were their favorite cards.

Even he had to draw the line with using fate as an explanation.

“Loyalty perhaps? That would be obvious. Protectiveness? It is depicting a battle, maybe he was one of his best warriors,” the man says. “But I would have to say love.”

“Love,” he repeats flatly.

“You don’t think so?”

He thinks of this tablet, one that was a symbol of friendship that he didn’t remember. This was the only thing in his past that didn’t seem to want to kill him, a symbol of love. He doesn’t know how to handle love, he never considered it was something his past had. “I’m… wary of love.”

“How can you be scared of love?”

“How can you not?” He shoots back. He thinks of Kaiba and how most of his world was his little brother. Thinks about how much he must have lost and taken just to give him a comfortable life.

He thinks of Mokuba, and how much of an unbearable and murderous brat he was before, because he had been drifting away from the only family he had and didn’t know what to do.

He thinks of Jounouchi, living with his drunkard of a father and still hoping they’d regain their father-son bond, willing to give all of his prize money from Duelist Kingdom, a nightmare of a tournament, for his sister.

He thinks of Otogi, who had done horrible things to Yuugi in hopes to make his father proud. He thinks of Ryou, who often looks in longing at passing families. He thinks of Pegasus, a man who couldn’t handle losing his wife well.

He thinks of Yuugi and the burn scars on his hands.

“How can anyone not be scared of love?” He wonders. “You have to endure, you have to lose, you have to hurt… all for love.”

Silence.

“Some would say it’s worth it.”

“Do you think so?” He remembers how much Yuugi wouldn’t let go, remembers how Jounouchi was so torn between leaving the Puzzle behind and taking the risk of wasting time to bring the Puzzle with them too. He would have rather both of them left him, instead of slowly burning in that hell hole. “Love often means sacrifice.”

“You don’t like sacrifice?”

“I don’t like people sacrificing for me, love’s not worth it if they’re hurt because of me.”

“Many would say that sacrificing for a loved one is worth it.”

He laughs, forced and bitter. “And what if the loved one is hurt because of it? What it they forever think that it’s their fault? What if they wished you never loved them, so you’d never become hurt? What then? What if they have nobody else and you’re gone? What if they choose not to have anyone else so that nobody sacrifices for them ever again? Who picks up the pieces when your sacrifice breaks them?”

More silence.

“… I don’t know.”

He laughs again. “That’s a bit selfish, isn’t it? That you wouldn’t consider the feelings of a loved one, even if you justify it with sacrifice.”

He thinks of Yuugi’s thoughts, the moment the Puzzle was put back together, he felt his partner’s desperation in taking him back. The mantra “I want to see him again!” playing over and over until he fainted. 

A selfish thought for a selfless act.

Love was scary.

He recalls what Isis had told him, about how he sealed himself in the Puzzle for the greater good. Sacrifice then, to keep his loved ones alive. He wonders vaguely if that high priest, the past incarnation of Kaiba, had been mad at him. That this tablet of friendship was more of a tablet of grief, of pain, of anger.

That seemed more like Kaiba, in his opinion.

“Is that what you feel then?”

Have you been broken? Is what the man means.

He considers it, he doesn’t have any memories to know if he had lost people. If people sacrificed for him, if it had become too much for him.

Yet…

Whenever Yuugi put his life on the line, whenever anyone put their lives on the line, there was something familiar about it that he couldn’t dismiss. Horror. Fear. Pain. Anger.

Resignation. The quiet pleas of “No, not again” echoing in his mind.

“I don’t know,” he whispers. “But, I sometimes feel phantom pains when I see someone I love hurt,” he touches his chest. “Like a thousand knives stabbing me all at once. I’m beginning to wonder if my sacrifice was more for me than for them, if I was just tired… if that was the only thing I knew, because so many who loved me sacrificed as well. It must have been normal.”

He doesn’t know that the man hears, doesn’t see the man wince.

“I’m sorry.”

He jerks at that, blinking. Then he laughs awkwardly. “What are you sorry for? You were offering me trivias and I was the one who rambled,” he places his hands in his pockets. “I should be sorry, I was wasting your time.”

“You would never wast-! … It was not a waste of time, I was happy to help,” the man sighs. He gives him a quiet long stare.

“… What is it?”

“You’re a duelist, correct? One of your decks is a Dark Magician one.”

He blinks, he didn’t expect someone to describe him like that. Most usually say things about him beating Kaiba or Pegasus. And then either running away or demanding a duel. Nobody has ever taken note what his deck was, except Kaiba (and that was usually because he was spending half his time trying to defeat it).

“Here,” the man holds out a card.

He takes it, widens his eyes at the title of the card. “Thousand Knives?”

It was a Dark Magician support card too.

“It’s an apology, for all the pain you had to endure,” the man says with a solemnity that he couldn’t place. “Let all the knives you’ve taken become a weapon against your enemies, not yourself.”

What?

“I can’t-! This isn’t-!” He sputters, looking at the card. It was a very useful card, and something that appealed to him greatly. He imagines using this against monsters more powerful than Dark Magician. It was so tempting but- “I can’t accept this, you don’t know-”

The man wasn’t there.

“… Me?”

[peppermint-shamrock]

So. Movie.

Thanks to @zelka94, I got a chance to see the movie! I’m very happy about that, and I have some thoughts, under the cut because spoilers:

Overall I liked the movie. Visually, it was stunning - the monsters looked great, the people looked great, the environments looked great, the animation looked great, the effects looked great. It was just a very, very pretty movie. Seriously.

Other stuff I liked:

- Yuugi is a badass. He legit just stares Kaiba down and is all “You’re going to do what I say and let me duel first.” And Kaiba does. Nobody orders Kaiba around, except Yuugi, apparently.

- The cute friendship moments! Supports my headcanon about Jounouchi and Bakura becoming fairly close.

- Peachshipping bait. So cute!

- Mokuba is also awesome, I loved him in every moment he was in. He joyrides on the Puzzle container and headbuts Aigami off of it while flying up to a helicopter. I also love how friendly he is with Yuugi while Kaiba’s challenging him, and how sassy he is with Aigami.

- I liked that we finally got to see how Yami Bakura killed Shaadi.

- from @dark-angel-of-muses I found out that dub Aigami is dub Dennis. I liked Aigami’s voice so that’s just awesome.

- In the final duel, Aigami’s monsters were really neat looking, rather Eldritch horror-esque.

- Aigami looked more like a demon than Zarc, and I really like the design

- color schemes changed a lot and always looked really cool

- Characters had nice new outfits. Especially Anzu and Yuugi.

- Anzu confirmed for going off to achieve her dreams

- Kaiba was absolutely ridiculous

- I was somewhat amused by Shaadi apparently being Yoda “Fear leads to hate”

- Yuugi rides a motorcycle and looks super cute in his helmet. Too bad we didn’t get to see his hair floof out afterward though.

- Yuugi’s hair is somehow rain resistant.

- I’m convinced Yuugi would have an entire deck of cute magician girls if he could get away with it.

- Kaiba just stands in the middle of an intersection and traffic stops for him. Same traffic doesn’t seem to mind running over Yuugi though.

However, there were some things I didn’t like so much. Some may be dub only, some are inherent to the original as well.

- The whole Plana thing. Very overpowered, poorly explained. Doesn’t make a lot of sense. It gets the slightest amount of evil in it and it goes horribly wrong. Okay, dumb decision, who designed that thing? Who thought having a universe-shaping device that could potentially be used that way would be a good idea? Why did Shaadi have it, why and how was it connected to Atem? While I did like Aigami, this whole plotline is weird. Also, aren’t Kaiba’s egg things supposed to come into it? How is that or anything that happened in Transcend Game related? Also if they had the power to reshape the world completely, why did they not do it already?

- I’ve said from the very start that I did not want Atem to come back. This was something I have been firmly against. I know it’s an unpopular opinion, and Atem is one of my favorites, but I think it undermines the original story to have him come back in any capacity. I recognize that they really had to have him in there, and the simulation and Jou’s vision I think were handled pretty well. But I was NOT happy with the Deus Ex Machina at the end (although I admit it did look AMAZING and he and Yuugi have an adorable ship-baity moment together). It was bullshit. Very pretty bullshit, but still absolute bullshit. This was probably my least favorite part of the movie. I also don’t particularly like the very end, either, but eh. It’s not as bad because he’s not actually coming back. Although why was he so pale?

- Some dumb dubbish dialogue

- Jou in a dog suit once again

- Wasn’t there supposed to be a moment where Kaiba acknowledges Yuugi’s worthiness as a duelist? Did I miss it or did the dub cut it out?

- Who’s Bakura living with if his dad died when he was so young? Before that memory is invoked, Bakura talks as though his dad is alive. And if this is manga canon, Bakura’s dad owns Domino Museum.

- Kaiba’s obsession is a mixed bag for me. I’ll come right out and say that prideshipping isn’t one that’s ever interested me (I don’t dislike it but it doesn’t appeal). There is a lot of prideshipping bait (Exact quote from Seto Kaiba: “I want the Pharaoh”). Like, Atem needs to file a restraining order type of deal. On the one hand, Kaiba’s motivations are understandable. And highly entertaining. But I wish that he’d been allowed the chance to move on and deal with grief properly. Or at the very least that the other characters didn’t encourage and enable him (Yuugi originally tries to tell Kaiba that Atem can’t come back, but at the end says something along the lines of “You believed in him when I didn’t”, essentially giving approval to Kaiba’s obsession). He’s so consumed by this that he doesn’t even reassure Mokuba at the end.

- Sera’s voice, she sounds too old. A lot like dub DMG, too (might be the same person)

- The final duel with Aigami was a little similar to the duel with Dartz, with Kaiba losing and passing it off to his teammate.

- What about the other Millennium Items? Also, how does the Ring still have evil power in it, I thought Zorc was destroyed? And the spirits of Kul Elna should have been led to their rest a long time ago.

As I said above, though, overall I really liked it, it was a lot of fun. I’m definitely going to buy the DVD when it comes out, and I can’t wait to watch the original version.

I think I might write a fic where Kaiba can start to move on, though.

[the-cryptographer]

on fathers and sons - an index of YGO abuse narratives

When discussing Noa’s arc, it seems like people place a lot of emphasis on this moment and declaration from Seto:

It’s a very stark and strong moment - Seto’s rejection of Gouzaburou, and I think it’s right to take this into account. But I think maybe we should be putting just as much, if not more weight, in the sequences in Noa’s arc following this. Particularly in the structure of Seto and Noa’s duel:

Make no mistake. This is a duel set up to run on Gouzaburou’s terms. Seto and Noa are fighting in the understanding that there’s only one living body between them, and the winner will have proven themselves superior and the rightful heir to Kaiba Corp. They are fighting for the right to Gouzaburou’s legacy, and the loser will be left behind in VR. To Lose is to Die.

Continued under the cut:

Noa believes he has the upper hand, both because he was born and bred for this job. And because he outstripped the boundaries of humanity when his mental capacities were enhanced living in VR.

Seto is not impressed with this line of reasoning.

Not only did Seto put in the hard work and struggle to inherit Kaiba Corp. Noa’s already dead. He’s already lost once by Gouzaburou’s terms. Seto accepts the challenge to duel in the understanding that Noa was the loser once, and a loser once is a loser always.

...Both ultimately betray Gouzaburou’s teachings during this duel - Noa by cheating, and Seto by both admitting there are things more important than his own life on the line here in deciding to save Mokuba, and in Atem helping him finish the duel after he’s petrified. (Notably the BC final duel also subverts Seto’s expectations for loss, in Atem’s ability to find a method to save Malik’s life in their shadow game.)

But before that moment of truth, you’ve certainly got a lot of trash talk, some of which seems to betray certain line of reasoning from Seto.

[Insert long speech about the value of humans having to struggle against the chaos of the real world versus this VR of Noa’s creation.]

“Of course Gouzaburou loved me more! Gouzaburou must have been confused if he even considered that you might bet the better or superior compared to me! How pathetic of either of you to even doubt! He acknowledged me as superior - and the result of duel is going to prove him right!”

Okay, I’m being hyperbolic but, contrary to what you’d believe from the first set of caps, I think what Seto says here, combined with the circumstances surrounding this duel, betray a certain amount of Seto deeply desiring recognition and acknowledgement from Gouzaburou. Or at least recognition and acknowledgement for having the qualities that Gouzaburou would have valued.

I’ve seen people pan the direction of this arc, and Noa as a villain, specifically on this basis. Seto should, in theory, not care about what Gouzaburou thought, and thus not care about stomping out Noa’s desire to prove himself the worthy son. Gouzaburou was his abuser, no real parent to Seto, and therefore Seto should not care. And, make no mistake, I think Seto’s hatred for his stepfather is clearly documented.

But I’m going to defend how Noa’s arc frames this conflict and Noa as a villain, and the idea that Seto may have feelings regarding Gouzaburou that are rooted in a desire for acknowledgement and affection. There is very little of Gouzaburou in manga canon, nothing that would generally suggest Seto having any conflicting fond feelings for him - although I think the fact that Seto continues to make decisions to build and destroy duel towers in the memory of Gouzaburou might be indicative of the fact that he cares a little too much.

But the reason I think this is a particularly good extrapolation from manga canon, is that it matches the themes we see in REPEATEDLY in the narratives of abuse that ygo offers to us.

I’m sure you’re aware that the surplus of absentee and abusive dads in DM, it’s… a bit of a joke. Even for characters for which you can assume a somewhat normal family life, such as Anzu and Honda, there’s a kind of sense in the story of a lack of presence from their parents. Which I would expect in a manga filled to the brim with ~adventure~ How are the characters gonna pile onto ships and blimps and go traipsing off to Egypt if their parents are always bugging them about school?

Well, I guess Yuugi has somehow managed to make it onto ships and blimps even with his mom bugging him about school…

There are multiple layers to this – The fact that absentee dads have become a norm in Japan given the increasing demands of corporate life. The fact that in a measure of personal experience a dead parent is much the same as an absent one – but dead parents make for better narrative drama. The fact that we never see Atem and his father together and are instead relayed an inherently biased posthumous recollection of their relationship. And the fact that there’s a kind of woefully imbalanced attribution of certain roles onto certain demographics of character. On that last point – I think it’s telling that, as a whole, it’s elder male children that are victimised in Takahashi’s narratives of family. It’s telling that mothers have an even smaller presence in Yu-Gi-Oh than fathers (and that when Yuugi’s mom hits him with a ladle up there, it’s framed as a joke). And it’s telling that father-daughter relationships are also very poorly defined. I’m going to give Shizuka a pass given the discrepancy in hers and Katsuya’s living situations, but I think it’s a pretty huge oversight that Isis’s relationship with her father is as unexplored as it is. (If I’m being brutally honest, I don’t think Takahashi empathises enough with his female characters to understand how they might, also, be deeply unhinged or affected by trauma.)

But, although I can critique the way Takahashi repeatedly approaches this same narrative – the narrative of a young man at odds with a cruel, violent, and single-minded father – I can’t help but love it, as I am perpetually surprised and enamoured with the amount of understanding, empathy, and realism Takahashi allows to his victims. This cuts in a lot of different ways, but there is one aspect that I particularly appreciate:

He not only understands that it’s normal for abused children to be angry and vengeful, but that it’s also normal for them to care about their parents regardless and to desire reconciliation with them, no matter how unlikely or misguided. And they are not shamed for it.

--

Jounouchi ended up being the prototype for this character in ygo canon, although these threads were dropped by the time the card game started. We see the gang caught of guard by an attack meant for Jounouchi.

And Honda confirms this behaviour is typical of Jounouchi’s dad.

But when we see Jounouchi’s attitude towards his dad, it’s warm and full of forgiveness. He enters a game show with the intention of winning money to pay off his father’s debts-

-specifically on the hopes that, by winning, he’ll be able to repair their relationship, and live together happily.

--

Gouzaburou was introduced next into the narrative, but Otogi and his father followed not far after.

Otogi’s father, Mr Clown, hits and berates him.

But, even so, Otogi continues to seek revenge on his father’s behalf.

And, beyond that, he’s very mild and apologetic.

Even when he’s pushing back against his dad, he’s apologising. This is framed as a harsh moment of rebellion - one that shocks Mr Clown - but all Otogi does is disobey his father’s request, and snatch the puzzle’s chain from his hand. And he’s still apologising while doing so. I think it goes to show how uncharacteristic it is for Otogi to express any harshness towards his father.

And, even when Mr Clown renounces Otogi as his son-

We see Otogi afterwards (on Jounouchi’s urging) hurry to cradle his father in his arms and and lead him to safety, and away from the fire that’s started in the Black Clown game shop.

But maybe the most persuasive show of Otogi’s desire to reconcile with his dad, is that he succeeds. They seem to be on good terms in Darkside of Dimensions, have opened a new business at the shopping plaza together.

--

I think Malik embodies this pattern most completely though. His abuse is portrayed with imagery more gruesome than the other characters on this list. His father’s whip, and the scars that were carved onto his back.

I’ve seen people operate under the impression his beef with the Pharaoh has to do with being confined to life underground, or having his back mutilated as part of the tombkeeper ritual, or for twisting his father’s personality into something terrible. I’m not going to say that those could not also be factors in Malik’s motivations. But the primary motivation for his behaviour in BC, is textually that he believes the Pharaoh’s spirit is responsible for killing the father that he loved. And being unable to accept the fact that the father he loved was also the father he hated enough to kill himself.

(Also, wow, panels that make much more sense after DSoD. If Bakura was surprised because Shada reappeared despite having been killed 3000 years ago, why was he not surprised to see modern incarnations of Isis and Set. Except in addition to killing Shada, he also killed Shadi ~5 years ago. Now his surprise makes sense.)

But, yeah, this vein is carried through to the end of Malik’s story arc. He’s not able to forgive himself for killing his father, no matter how abusive or terrible, he’s only able to decide, with encouragement from Rishid, that it’s preferable to keep on living.

Anyhow, insofar as Seto goes, as I’ve said, there’s scant evidence to draw from regarding his feelings about Gouzaburou. But I think it’s prudent to consider, as with the rest of these characters, his feelings are probably not limited to disdain. According to Takahashi’s commentary, Seto does consider Gouzaburou a father and is has been deeply haunted by his involvement in Gouzaburou’s downfall and death. Taking it a step further, it’s entirely likely that, he feels some form of fondness for his lost parent. No matter how misguided and futile such feelings would be.