#tag duel analysis

[krakenshaped]

Me: haha card game anime could NEVER make me cry

Asuka Tenjoin in Tag Duel 2 when taken to the harbour at night, with a mourning expression on her face: I used to come here every night...

Me: .

[aptericia]

(incomplete) Utena analysis recommendations

@wherefore-whinnies, here are some good RGU essays & videos I've found! Anyone who has other recommendations, please feel free to add!

@empty-movement's analysis page is where I've found the most good essays (besides randomly searching the rgu analysis tag on tumblr). There's a TON of stuff that I most definitely have not read all of, but some of my favorites/most relevant ones include:

Playing Prince (on Utena's prince complex)

Motive and Source (on the Student Council members' reasons for dueling)

Pulling Swords Out of People (on the Black Rose duelists and their relationships with the Student Council members)

For the Garden Where All Love Ends (on the Black Rose Saga as a whole; page 2 is linked from this page)

Body as a Bargaining Chip (a really interesting one about Anthy & Touga)

To Make an Omlette You Have to Crack Some Eggs (on the Nanami's Egg episode)

And here are some YouTube series I like:

The La Duelist Series by The Digital Dream Club (one video for each of the 5 student council members)

Zarinthel's Utena analyses (explores a variety of Utena themes in pairs)

Crabe's Utena analyses (mostly in-depth looks at very specific subjects/scenes)

I haven't read/watched these in a while, so there's a small chance some of them have content I no longer agree with. Also, I'll try to add some more in the future!

[r1-jw-lover]

Caine as John Wick's Mirror: Part 2

Part two?! Really?

Actually, I was quite satisfied with the analysis I previously wrote on Caine, but then I just rewatched the first John Wick movie and now I have even more thoughts to add on the subject matter.

So buckle up because this is going to be another long post.

Tagging @evren-sadwrn, @chaoticgardenbread and @jotunvali02 again. <3

In my last analysis, I have already compared Caine with Cassian due to how similar they function in relation to John within the John Wick universe. This time, let us compare Caine with the next most similar character to him in the John Wick franchise: Marcus.

On the surface level, Caine and Marcus have similar arcs within the movie they appeared in. They are both friends of John Wick who were recruited by the villain to hunt and kill the Baba Yaga but deep down were secretly on John Wick's side.

While Marcus agreed to Viggo's contract out of his own free will whereas Caine was blackmailed and threatened by the Marquis, they would eventually forsake the job given to them and choose to give John a helping hand in a moment of crisis, a decision they were willing to die for.

(The sad and tragic part of it is that only one survived and got to live out his happy ending and the other was punished for it and died.)

The more I think about it though, the more I feel this is where the similarities end.

For one, Marcus looked way older than John, likely closer to Viggo in age. Even so, he hadn't retired from the business, and was living quite comfortably in a large apartment in New York alone. (It's almost as if Marcus is an alternate version of John if he didn't choose to marry Helen and had continued to live on his life as an assassin.)

By comparison, John was retired, and while he had a large bungalow in the New York suburbs to live in, the large wide empty spaces of his home seemed to amplify how lonely John felt after losing Helen.

Marcus: How're you holding up? John: I kept asking why her. Marcus: There's no rhyme or reason to this life. It's days like today scattered among the rest.

As much as his comforting words were sound, Marcus was content with his own life, and John clearly wasn't. On top of the implication that Marcus didn't have any family whatsoever, you can see why John immediately questioned Marcus about his intentions of visiting him after Helen's funeral right after the quoted dialogue above.

John was too drowned in his grieving for his wife's passing at the time that no one's condolences, not even Marcus (the person who Viggo claimed John was close with), could truly comfort him.

Because John wasn't done grieving while he was alive, when Iosef killed Daisy, John went on a rampage to avenge his dog. When Santino burned down his house, John shot him on Continental grounds, the supposedly safest haven in the criminal underworld. When John sacrificed his ring finger to the Elder, he rebelled against the High Table's forces head on alongside the New York Continental.

You know what finally made John Wick stop running, accept his death and find his peace?

It was when Caine comes into the picture.

For the first time in a long time, John had found someone who's similar in age as him and in a position similar to him mentally and emotionally-speaking, more so than anyone else in the franchise.

Just like John, Caine was also retired. He was discontent with his life, and he was lonely, due to the sheer fact that Caine wasn't allowed to get close to his daughter.

Despite being on opposite sides, John and Caine were equally caged by a strong sense of helplessness internally. (Where John acted upon it with defiant rage, Caine responded with palpable fear.) That's why we're rooting for both of them to get their unconditional freedom, and why the sunrise duel is so important not just for plot reasons.

Unlike Marcus, Caine had an innocent family member at stake, and because John intimately knew how it felt to lose a loved one, he ultimately sacrificed his life so to prevent Caine from having to experience the same grief John had painstakingly gone through for four entire films.

And that's something John was finally willing to die for.

(It's unfortunate that within the same movie John had unknowingly created another John Wick in Akira, but that is an entirely different story altogether.)

[starghost-fics]

fanfic master post

this is new era only; anything not listed here is likely on my AO3 as a historical curiosity from the olden days.

sometimes i use the actual summary from AO3, sometimes that's too long or I don't want to use it here. no rules, only fic

under the cut: OCTOPATH TRAVELER OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH TED LASSO DEEP SPACE NINE

OCTOPATH TRAVELER

As a preface, I would personally like to invite you to play this video game because I found it delightful, but also because I'm inordinately proud of some of this fic, and it's a little fandom.

in the near-dark

AO3

length: 3 chapters, 9100 words

summary: The group travels through Orsterra, and Therion is bad at sleeping, except when he isn't.

my favorite tag: oh no tenderness

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a little sleight of hand

AO3

length: 1 chapter, 1500 words

summary: Therion has a strange habit of squirreling away food when he thinks no one is looking. Tressa worries about it.

my favorite tag: even my fluff has class issues

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the stars above

AO3

length: 4 chapters, 9100 words

summary: After their journeys are complete, Therion moves to Atlasdam, and discovers Cyrus's new (and dangerous) avenue of study.

my favorite tag: someone is pining

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untitled octopath fanfic

AO3

length: 1 chapter, 900 words

summary: It is a wretched day in Bolderfall, and Therion is a horrible goose. (of course it's a crossover with untitled goose game!)

my favorite tag: no beta we honk like geese

tumblr post - to come?

series: divine intervention (god shit)

series summary: in which I spend nearly 100k words exploring Cyrus and Therion's relationship, among other things.

if the gods should touch you

AO3

length: 13 chapters, 60,000 words

summary: Spanning roughly from various chapter 2s to chapter 4s, the group travels, changes partners, faces fears, gets blessed, and oh also the scholar and the thief kiss.

my favorite tag: get in loser we're healing from past trauma and changing our negative coping mechanisms

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as shadows gather and gods move

AO3

length: 7 chapters, 32,000 words

summary: time loop? time loop. time loop!!! only Cyrus is aware and the solution is not what he thinks it is.

my favorite tag: the powers of a god are inexplicable but also annoying

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OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH

not a fic: a two-part essay/analysis on character weakness and desire

part one: stede bonnet and self-doubt

part two: edward teach and self-loathing and also applying this to writing

not made of glass but flesh and bone, which is worse

AO3

length: 6 chapters, 10,000 words

summary: Post s01e05, in which we diverge from canon so that Ed and Stede can go spend a night on a deserted island.

my favorite tag: a little light blasphemy

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what's a stab wound good for, anyway

AO3

length: 1 chapter, 1500 words

summary: After the (s1) duel, Ed has several thoughts, then ignores most of them.

my favorite tag: love a stabbing

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TED LASSO

And the Songbirds Keep Singing

AO3

length: 1 chapter, 4700 words

summary: Trent has a bad day and then Ted makes him dinner and they listen to records.

my favorite tag: Princess Grim Reaper (the cat)

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The Closest You Can Get to Flying

AO3

length: 1 chapter, 3600 words

summary: Trent learns to ride a bike, then he scrapes his knee and definitely needs someone to play doctor.

my favorite tag: biking is so great

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someday soon we all will be together

AO3

length: 2500 words

summary: Everyone is at Rebecca's Christmas party, and I do mean everyone. Also: heavily influenced by that one scene in The West Wing when Danny comes back.

my favorite tag: fancy pens as flirting

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SERIES: a work excuse

in which i overwrote the main fic and felt like posting the other bits.

Lafayette Comes to America

AO3

length: 24 chapters, 53,000 words

summary: Trent goes to America with a tenuous work excuse and has a lot of Tension with Ted Lasso. Then he goes home and has a lot of moping, before everyone comes to their senses.

my favorite tag: warning: i love a loooooong paragraph

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beverages and conversation

AO3

length: 3 chapters, 3900 words

summary: Ted has one or two conversations that he is not entirely prepared for over a beverage. (Ted's side of things during a few of the later chapters.)

my favorite tag: give me the slightest provocation and i WILL sketch out a midwestern life for you

the intolerable evocation of emotion via art

AO3

length: 1 chapter, 363 words

summary: Texts between Trent and his ex-wife about a playlist she made him. (Makes no sense divorced from Chapter 18 of Lafayette Comes to America, probably.)

DEEP SPACE NINE

keep a bower quiet for us

AO3

length: 11 chapters, 20,000 words

summary: Julian Bashir goes on vacation, and ends up stuck on Earth, in the past, with Elim Garak. Things could be worse, probably.

my favorite tag: we run on vibes not plot

tumblr commentary: to come!?!

[utopianparadoxist]

Hi! I'm most interested on reading your version of HS extension(?) continuation? re-adaptation? Ever since I first saw your analysis on Dirk and Jake I've considered you with amazing grip of the characters and the HS universe over all, Dirk is one of my fav characters of all time (if not the), and there is nothing I'd want more for him than a happy ending, the epilogues were truly heart breaking for him (even though I was more than willing to see where they were going with him in HS^2 in hopes of seeing him reach a happy end) Homestruck was and still is one of my fav properties ever and I'd love to see more from you, I'm sorry you had a hard time but I'm really glad you're back, here and in a better headspace. That said, I guess I'm just somewhat confused on in you have something written already or if it's in the works or from where in the timeline you're continueing from ? Maybe you have like, a master post with your list of essays and fics?

I also loved your youtube videos btw

Thanks! It means a lot to read this. As to your question:

The main project I've been managing since the Epilogues got posted is Pumpkin Path/Pumpkin Track, a sequel to the Meat and Candy epilogues focused primarily on Pumpkins and Vegetables as an alternative form of fan consumption.

The first installment of this arc is THE APOCRYPHON OF JAKE ENGLISH (2019), which follows Meat Jake immediately following Ultimate Dirk's desertion of Earth C. Brain Ghost Dirk declares Dirkjake cancelled and (trigger warning) self-destructs, unleashing the inner barriers in Jake's psychology that he always used his inner Dirk voice to maintain.

Thus Jake's own mind begins to lead him down a rabbit hole of speculatory metaphysics, esoteric spiritual symbolism, and esoteric magic theory that ultimately leads to his ascension to Ultimate Self as Prince English: Himself wearing Dirk's shades and orange hat and essentially larping as a Prince in imitation of Dirk proper.

Through the power he gains from this, he blasts off from Earth C and tracks down Ultimate Dirk for a no holds barred 8eatdown in which he reclaims their lost love and makes Dirk his prisoner with chains of love and mercy, cancelling his ability to die and comitting to becoming the vill8in of Homestuck, as well as its Her8, if it means he can keep Dirk safe and alive.

In the process he finally establishes Dirkjake as indisputable endgame canon, and becomes the equivalent of the I AM Christian God, the new existential equivalent to Lord English himself, with a will that predominates completely over everything else in Paradox Space. There may be some surprises that happen along the way, too.

Now, That much of the story has been written and published since 2019. You can read it on A03 right now and always could. In fact, I'd encourage you to do so and @ me, as well as maybe tag it with #Pumpkin Path, #Pumpkin Track, or just straight up #Homestuck for all I care. I want eyes on this thing, and I wanted them 4 years ago.

That said:

I am now nearing completion on the follow-up to the Apocryphon as an intermission piece between the Epilogues and Pumpkin Track proper, with what is essentially ACT 1 of Pumpkin Track: W(1)LDSCR1PT-B4R0QU3STUCK, a high-drama spectacle driven continuation of the plot of the Epilogues centering on a confrontation between Ultimate Jake English and Meat Jade Harley, who must duel for the right to decide if Dirk Strider dies.

In the process of their battle and Jade's necessary Ascension to Ultimate Selfhood in order to Rise uP to the level necessary to compete against a being like Prince English, deeply hidden truths will be unveiled; about the lives of Jade and Jake, about the moral logic that rules Earth C, and about the very nature and purpose of Paradox Space itself.

If I have it my way, if all goes as I Hope, then nothing in Homestuck will ever be the same once it's posted. The Apocryphon was setup. Now it's fucking Sh8wt1m3, and I can't w8.

The first half of Wildscript is written and has been being beta'd for several months, and I have a full outline written for the rest. Anyone who gets their eyes on the thing seems to come away pretty excited. Sometime in the near future, I'll post the first four Chapters of Wildscript on Ao3 or some other platform, and update the rest as I go. And once Wildscript is finished, I have future Acts and Intermissions planned for the foreseeable eternity, tackling off the top of my head: Ultimate Ascensions for Rose and Kanaya, Vriska and Terezi, Roxy and Calliope, Jane Crocker, and Nepeta Leijon and Tavros Nitram as they lead the twin charges of Nepetaquest 3033.

There is no endpoint to my ambition for the future of Homestuck save simply: 8. The only question is whether the fandom wants to come along for the ride with me in the long run. I think Hope Remains that we'll have a great time here if they do.

If not, I hope they have even more fun elsewhere.

Let's rise.

[cyberdragoninfinity]

if youre doing the ask game

🔥

unpopular opinion for seto motherfucking kaiba? mayhaps? blease?

ok so. i wrote. like four fucking paragraphs answering this, talking about how i feel about kaiba, and then. when i went. to fucking add tags. tumblr fucked up and deleted my whole post <333 super cool website very fun to use <33333

anyway im not rewriting all of that so here's the tl;dr: i like kaiba, he's iconic for a reason, but my 🔥🔥🔥est kaiba take is just that honestly i dont think he's nearly as deep a character as people want him to be, and that's not a bad thing. He fulfills the role he has in DM's narrative fantastically well, and he has his veins of things that could be interesting to discuss, but after 25 years it feels like it's just nonstop hitting bedrock when it comes to kaiba 'analysis.' I feel like i see the same 3-4 kaiba meta posts every other week (and i do sometimes wish that level of love and dedication to character analysis got extended to. any other yugioh character. i feel similarly about atem too tbh dfghd)

like with kaiba, it feels like a massive chunk of his implied depth is things fans have willed into existence through the sheer power of I Want it To Be That Deep. and i dont even think there's anything wrong with that, it just doesn't interest me very much. i like my kaiba discussion where the elephant of "this character is in many ways defined by stagnant growth and if this is left unchecked it's going to get really fucking bad" is Very in the room. kaiba is at his best to me when he's doing digital duel links necromancy, when his interpersonal relationships beyond mokuba are under the microscope and revealed to be, uh, hanging by a thread or two!

also, just, with not being terribly interested in it all, at this point now five yugiohs in and fully out in the spinoff reeds, i gotta say, every other yugioh rival is a more engaging character to me on a narrative and symbolic level than i have ever personally found kaiba. i honestly think a lot of them are also, by their series' end, far kinder people than seto kaiba is. 🤷‍♀️ maybe in another world another life kaiba could have dueled a robotic embodiment of all his negative traits and been humbled to some degree by that. what a world to think of

[transmascutena]

> aven, 21, he/it, aromantic genderfluid butch lesbian

> revolutionary girl utena blog (@bird-butch is my blog for everything else)

> check out my original posts here, my fanart here, and my fanfiction here

> my rgu + mabel podcast sideblog: @revolutionarygirlmabel

> i don't tag spoilers or trigger warnings for any of the topics covered within the show itself but if you need anything else tagged please let me know ! ask box is always open for anything

tag directory below:

fanart , fanfics , amvs , analysis , parallels , headcanons , sillyposts , gifs and screencaps

-

adolescence of utena , manga

crossovers and aus

web weaving

animal motif

the narrative (posts about the narrative as an oppresive system and escaping it)

to not be chosen is to die (posts about the black rose arc)

the revolution (posts about the final duel and its aftermath)

don't be afraid of this world where we'll meet (after-ohtori posts)

tangential (posts that were not originally about utena but are thematically relevant. mostly jokes, but occasionally serious posts about the real world equivalents of rgu's themes)

-

utena and anthy , juri and shiori , touga and saionji , utena and wakaba , utena and juri , utena and nanami , nanami and kozue , nanami and anthy , akio and utena , akio and anthy , kaoru siblings , kiryuu siblings

[inastarlesssky]

I feel a big rambling coming on. I was just thinking about characters I like, tropes/ships I like, and those I don't, and this happened.

I'm going to start by saying I respect that everyone likes different characters and ships, and that's a good and fantastic thing. I myself don't like Grindelwald. Regardless of how he looks. I just. Don't. Like him. I see so much of him in the FB tag bc well, he's the big baddy, but damn is he creepy.

I mean it could be that I don't understand him, maybe, but my understanding of him comes primarily from the understanding you get of Newt's perspective and everyone on the good side, I'd say. I didn't even fully understand the whole blood pact thing between him and Albus. Was it that they loved each other so much that they swore never to duel each other? I think the thing is, I don't know enough about who Gellert Grindelwald was before he became the next big bad guy of the wizarding world before Voldemort hit the screens. I'm not so sure my opinion of him would change, but I would genuinely like to understand him as a character.

I think I mentioned this earlier but I felt funny about the way that Albus acted or thought in regards to Grindelwald. I got the idea that Albus sort of saw it as there was nothing else he could do, and Newt was the best option he had of getting close to a good solution. But if Albus felt anguish or real conflict over this, I either missed that or didn't pick up on it.

Anyway, I digress. This is not a Grindeldore analysis, this is about Grindelwald.

I will admit, I was very much horrified by the part when Grindelwald resurrects the Qilin he murdered to get precognition. Like sickened to my stomach. I mean, hats off to Mads Mikkelsen because he did an excellent job playing the villain and rocking it, but I was very very far from any sort of benevolent feeling toward him.

Anyway, this is just my opinion about that, and I thought it was curious, bc I'm someone who likes enemies to lovers, and I've seen my fair share of fics with this trope, and it's great. But I found that obviously, I've liked both the characters who were enemies and then became lovers. I like Albus Dumbledore, I do. I don't like Gellert Grindelwald.

Again, this is just Ella rambling, don't mind me.

[ultraviolet-ink]

hot take, genklint (and genklintville) sucks as ships and does their characters a HUGE disservice and actively makes them less interesting, especially since both men are defined by their families rather than their friendship. genshin did kill klint out of honor, but both mens families impact the game and story more than that one single moment. that moment wouldnt have been so impactful if they had no families, thats what makes it so horribly tragic. lbr, people dont care about lady baskerville like they do genshin and klint— she's just an afterthought of "oh shes here too i guess". cowards...

Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly disagree

So I will admit that I'm not much of a Genk/int girlie, and I'm even less a Genk/intvi//e girlie (censoring these so they don't show up in the tags), so I do hope that this won't come off as super salty/mean. I do try to keep myself from saying that certain ships suck bc I know what it's like to be on the other side of that. That being said, I definitely see why Genk/int is so popular, it's very homoerotic to duel to the death to save your bff's honor, and tbh, Lady B really is kind of a lamp in this story (she doesn't even have a name!). If there's anything I'm still really salty about in the games is that Lady B really is treated like an afterthought to the point where she doesn't even have a name, despite being one of the main characters' mother! This could easily be explained as part of the sort of rushed nature of production since DGS 1 wasn't as big a success as it could have been, and the fact that Takushu had to cut the games down significantly, but that's a rant for another day. I do think that as a ship Genk/int could easily provide another layer of tragedy and angst, this sort of illicit affair that could prove disastrous should their loved ones find out, these paragons of honor and loyalty proving that they are human after all, flaws and imperfections and all that comes with it. I guess that's one aspect that makes the ship interesting to me, that telenovela shit XD As for your Genk/intvi//e analysis, I definitely agree there, she really does feel kind of like a third wheel and is sort of tacked on at the last minute. And I do say this as someone who really likes making ocs and filling in the blanks, but at the end of the day, there is only so much you can do with a character that is just a lamp before you just get to straight up oc territory (not that that's a bad thing, it's always really fun to see different interpretations on Lady B!)

[roselightfairy]

Throwback Thursday

@sallysavestheday tagged me in this on what is conveniently a year to the day that I started the splinter sect AU, so how can I not post a bit from Only Through Surrender? Broadly speaking, a fic in which Qui-Gon survives and a series of small changes end up leading to much larger shifts in the chronology of the Star Wars prequels.

Qui-Gon had never thought himself particularly prone to denial. His understanding of the Force, of the flow of life and fate, was reactive, adaptive: accepting the complexities and possibilities of each moment and responding to what presented itself to him. He had counseled Obi-Wan throughout his apprenticeship to focus less on conditional regret, on what could or should have been, and more on what could come to be, basing that analysis on the truth of the situation and not on wishes or yearnings. And yet here he was, with a body that had forgotten its earlier strength and refused to obey the demands of his own wishes, but he was demanding of it that it perform as it always had before. A message. Yes, a message from his body or from the Force itself. The truth was, he had fared no better in this duel than he would have a month into his recovery, once his organs had been replaced and his wound thickened into a scar. The weakness in his muscles, the fatigue that dragged at his body, the shortness of his breath – all had been examined by healers and droids alike, and they had found no medical explanation, nothing in the replacement heart or lungs he had been given to explain them. And still, six months later, they had lessened not at all. He had been released from the medical bay; he could take care of his own basic needs now, but the truth was that any exertion beyond the most basic still left him winded and gasping, steadying himself on walls against rushes of dizziness. And there was the exhaustion: he had perhaps three hours in the day that he felt alert, awake and able to perform his responsibilities; otherwise he felt the seductive pull of sleep dragging at his eyelids, his muscles, his thoughts – and yet no matter how much he slept, the fatigue never seemed to lessen. Was he still recovering, or was this – was this permanent? The spike of panic in his chest at that thought made the room spin around him. Qui-Gon breathed through it, stabilizing himself, calling himself back to the most basic of meditations, the simplest grounding techniques: the solid floor beneath him, the feeling of his robes between his fingers, clenched tight in alarm. He relaxed them, one finger at a time, let himself sink back down, back to the Force. The Force was still there, waiting patiently for him to turn to it once again. Sometimes it felt like the only thing in the galaxy that had patience for him anymore.

Sorry for not doing a LOTR fic for you, but I couldn't do anything else today! Tagging, if they're interested, @katajainen, @unnamedelement, @enide-s-dear, and anyone else who sees this and wants to do it!

[chaos-has-theories]

WIP Tag/Reblog Game

Thank youuuuu @aidanchaser!

List the titles your top five priorities for WIP updates (link your fics for new readers!)

An upcoming scene, event, or detail in each fic that you're looking forward to writing

Bonus: make a poll for your followers to vote on which top 5 WIP they are most excited to see an update on!

Then tag 10 writer friends!

WIP TITLES

Specifically 5 fanfics this time around - the things that are loudest about rattling my head at the moment.

Timetravel AU - Septimus Heap After a series of escalating deaths, Marcia and Septimus use the House of Foryx to travel back in time and - hopefully - fix things.

Merlin Resurrection AU - working title "I Refuse" Merlin has been alive for a thousand years, and he just found out that the rest of the gang is back. The problem is, none of them fully remember anything: It's only just enough to spook Arthur hard enough that he cut contact with all of the others and is trying his hardest to just be an obnoxious college student.

Three is Company - Septimus Heap, role swap AU. Prequel/Equel to The Long Way Home. Answers such thrilling questions as "how did Septimus get adopted by the Queen?", "how much trauma can you put into one freshly-minted EOW?" and "What exactly IS going on between Marcia, Milo and Cerys?"

The Egypt Agenda Part 4: The Distant Goddess I have yet to properly write out my Egyptian analysis of Nona the Ninth! Also I've been meaning to put the other parts on Ao3 for a while

Gideon the Musical Ohhhh boy I just rediscovered this while going through my drafts and?? I mean no there's pretty much nothing in that file yet but now I really want to pick it up again

UPCOMING SECTIONS

I am two-thirds through the scene in which Septimus and Simon infiltrate the Young Army to rescue 412. I'm not sure why I haven't kept working because technically I'm at such a juicy point? 412 thinks he's about to be thrown into DN1, Septimus can't tell him what's really going on, and Simon is being told to do a spell that this-timeline Simon has no reason to know. It's GOOD I think I'm just scared I can't hit the correct balance for it

sgahjhgsshfdg Merlin just met Gwen and the Knights at a metal concert and they made their way backstage to greet Morgana and Morgause but like. Morgana is half-convinced he'll try to kill her again. Gwen is crying. Merlin is inwardly screaming because if THEY'RE all back does that mean Arthur is as well??? I probably COULD skip the explanations and just continue the scene where he confronts Arthur. I'm just.... not sure how to resolve it yet. Stubborn Prince is being Stubborn.

Milo just fished a baby from the river and is walking towards the Palace to greet his wife and newborn daughter. He is about to a) be accosted by a very panicked Marcia b) have to fast-talk his way past the Supreme Custodian and c) find out that his daughter is very dead. Noone is having a good day, except maybe for me, because all of this is setup for some VERY stupid miscommunication.

DID YOU KNOW that there's an actual myth in which "Alecto" runs off to live in a land where "John" has no direct jurisdiction so he has to send "Ianthe" to cajole her into coming back? YEAH. THAT

Act I works pretty well! Even Act II is fine! It gets more difficult after that. Anyway I have decided there's going to be a song called "To the Floor" and then it can have reprise elements in all the other duel scenes. How? I dunno whatever gave you the idea that I know what I'm doing

No way I can think of 10 and I don't know if any of you have already been tagged but hmmmm - @echo-has-queries @into-september @trainsinanime @liesmyth @septimus-heap

[krakenshaped]

Okay so more tag duel posting of cool things I've noticed on my first playthrough (as someone who chose Asuka as their duel partner)

Tag Duel 2 Spoilers ahead!!!

If not paired with the player, the other characters will pair themselves up as so (not sure about Asuka + Kenzan has Not Been Spotted Yet) (<- not sure if partners can change or randomise)

- Judai will partner up O'Brien. I've found them hanging outside the Osiris dorms in the morning, In the locker room next to the store at noon and in the dueling arena at night.

- Manjoume oddly enough partners up with Johan. I've found them in the classroom at night.

- Sho and Rei partner up. I've found them in the forest and on the volcano (if I'm remembering right, it was early game)

- I found Edo with Fubuki. Which is an interesting concept as well as a fun nod to the manga (maybe), Fubuki's win animation is that little thing they do when they poses, shake their tush and thumbs up. (The 10join classic) They're also found in the classroom at night.

- Kenzan has Not Been Found. He's missing in action.

- Jim partners up with Junko but I have a feeling it would have been Asuka had I not chosen her. They hang out at the harbour at night.

-Amon (lol) partners up with Napoleon (lol) because it seems a little obvious (lol) he couldn't find anyone to partner up with him (L bozo) he's having a baby tantrum in the card shop.

Other facts to note when considering when writing your ygo fanfiction (whether it be Asuka trivia or just map trivia)

Asuka likes grapes and steak sandwiches. She does not like gyoza or fermented cheese. Like. Girlie HATES gyoza and fermented cheese.

Asuka talks about Fubuki like he's still dead. Lmao. This can be written off as copy paste dialogue/win-lose quotes from TD1 but I think it's interesting to consider about what it says about their relationship.

Asuka has other reactions to areas around school at different times (which I'm assuming is the same for every character). One is the aforementioned harbour dialogue and the other, which happens during morning or noon, is Asuka hoping that nobody drew the golden eggwich yet.

In the first morning, Asuka chides you for sleeping in and gets angry at you for keeping her out too late, claiming its the girls curfew and she doesn't like staying out too late. This somewhat suggests Asuka is an early to bed early to rise sort of person as at least Judai and Edo don't comment on it.

Similarly if you try and skip class, Asuka will get angry at you and drag you to class anyway (honor student queen).

The abandoned dorm is easily one of the biggest maps in the game. Entering it plays some corpse party ass music. It's not scary but it is almost hilarious how Konami put their whole konamusi into the abandoned dorm while not even letting you enter the Yellow, Blue or Girl's dorm. (Which was what interested me the most since I was curious if there were rooms for each character.)

That being said, you can enter every room in Osiris including Manjoune's old room.

Oh right. Johan also confirms he's been living in the Red dorm in a stray piece of dialogue about how Ruby needs to lead him back to the Red dorm at night. This means he's probably staying with Judai and Manjoume (since at this point in time Manjoume was forcefully evicted out his own room by Rei.) Food for thought.

I'll probably update more trivia, tidbits and thoughts as i continue playing and tag it

-> #tag duel analysis

[better-call-mau1]

How can I choose a WIP title?!? So excited to see some of your writing!!

I’m going with Visions, Voices, and Awkward Hypotheticals since we chatted about that underrated exchange before. 😄

Aww thank you!!! ☺️ I’ve been busy the last few weeks and haven’t been able to wrap up the couple of WIPs that are close to finished, but I should have some more free time next week — hopefully to get Visions, Voices, and Awkward Hypotheticals done!

Along with the dozen-or-so episodes that provide the bulk of Sabezra content, there are a handful of episodes with minor moments that don’t always get the attention they deserve (although you do a really great job of remedying that with your meta/analysis posts. 😉) Of those, “Visions and Voices” might be my favorite — mostly because of The Look which Sabine gives Ezra when he runs back into the cave, but also because…as you mentioned in the tags of this wonderful post, she gives him that other look while possessed by the spirit. 😅 Seriously though, The Look and Ezra dueling Possessed Sabine make V&V a fantastic Sabezra-breadcrumbs-episode, regardless of the other stuff.

Anyway, I really loved that exchange we had, and reading back through it makes me that much more enthusiastic about finishing VV&AH. For now, here’s a little snippet (which happens to be right at the climax…so not something I’d normally share, but I can’t help myself lol). For context, it features Ezra attempting to resolve the semi-absurd argument that’s been escalating for a while — caused by Sabine being thrown off balance by her own feelings and Ezra…well…being Ezra. 😆 (And here’s the post this ask game is from for anyone else who wants a WIP snippet!)

“Alright — just wait! Listen! We’re talking about two completely different things here! The idea of spirit-possessed Sabine and spirit-possessed Ezra getting together and making a bunch of spirit-possessed babies gives me the creeps. That freaks me out! I don’t like that at all!” He paused and slashed his hand vertically through the air, emphasizing the distinction he was trying to make. “But that’s totally unrelated to non-spirit-possessed Sabine and non-spirit-possessed Ezra having a bunch of non-spirit-possessed babies! That’s great! I have no problem with that! Now, is that acceptable to you?”

“Yes! Yes it is!”

The petty side of Sabine that facilitated their quibble in the first place was so supremely satisfied with its unexpected and undeserved victory that the rest of her — the sane rest of her — took a few moments to process the words that came out of Ezra’s mouth (the ones she agreed with in enthusiastic fashion).

[jose92gt]

Resúmenes de los episodios 96 al 98 y 99 solo título de Yu-Gi-Oh Go Rush

Episodio 96: 沈黙の丼 – Chinmoku no Donburi

(El cuenco del silencio)

Yuna está esperando en el área de las máquinas expendedoras, donde se supone que debe aparecer Yuga. Sin embargo, Yuga termina siendo capturado por el dispositivo de Manabu. Decidida a ver a Yuga pase lo que pase, Yuna desafía a Manabu a un Duelo una vez más. ¡Si gana, Manabu tendrá que dejarla ver a Yuga!

Episodio 97: 奪われたロボ – Ubawareta Robo

(El robot robado)

Dinois y Muda interrumpen el análisis del robot que se encontró en la Reliquia. Habiendo aceptado el destino de los Velgearianos, los dos roban el robot y luego desafían a Yuhi y Yuamu a un Duelo Tag. A pesar de los desesperados esfuerzos de Dinois y Muda, el final de sus vidas todavía se acerca rápidamente...

Episodio 98: 消滅 – Shōmetsu

(Extinción)

Cuando la tragedia está a punto de ocurrir, Zuwijo siente un impulso incontrolable, además de alegría. En el momento en que descubre cuál es esta misteriosa emoción, decide retar a Yudias a un Duelo. Es un Duelo que nadie podrá parar. La batalla final de Zuwijo zir Velgear ahora comenzará.

Episodio 99: ラストセミザムライ – Rasuto Semizamurai

(El último semi-samurái)

Episode 96: 沈黙の丼 – Chinmoku no Donburi

(The Bowl of Silence)

Yuna is waiting at the vending machine area, where Yuga is supposed to show up. However, Yuga ends up getting captured by Manabu’s device. Determined to see Yuga no matter what, Yuna challenges Manabu to a Duel once again. If she wins, Manabu will have to let her see Yuga!

Episode 97: 奪われたロボ – Ubawareta Robo

(The Stolen Robot)

Dinois and Muda interrupt the analysis of the robot that was found in the Relic. Having accepted the fate of the Velgearians, the two of them steal the robot, and then challenge Yuhi and Yuamu to a Tag Duel. Despite Dinois and Muda’s desperate efforts, the end of their lives is still fast approaching…

Episode 98: 消滅 – Shōmetsu

(Extinction)

As tragedy is about to strike, Zuwijo feels an uncontrollable urge, as well as joy. The moment he learns what this mysterious emotion is, he decides to challenge Yudias to a Duel. It’s a Duel that no one will be able to stop. Zuwijo zir Velgear’s final battle will now begin.

Episode 99: ラストセミザムライ – Rasuto Semizamurai

(The Last Semi-Samurai)

[alicevandrusen]

TDLR; Why Seigfried Didn’t Work As A Kaiba Expy, He Wasn’t Neurodivergent

Hi everyone! While I’m writing the next chapter and trying to survive Capitalism despite living its real-time collapse (I work two jobs, why chapter production is slow these days), I���d like to make a post like this while it’s still Autism Awareness month. Now, not to say you can’t enjoy the pink haired frilly goofy man. I never have though. I felt like he was a let down after Dartz, who is my favorite villain of Yugioh, I SAID WHAT I SAID. And I’m also saying you can enjoy your villains of Yugioh, and I will enjoy mine. All that out of the way, I would like to dive into an analysis of Seto Kaiba and who I felt were his good expies, Noa/Noah and Alister/Amelda. Anyone who has autism (myself included, I’m not 100% on paper yet but I’ve had multiple doctors agree with me), you know. There’s a Neurodivergence ESP, when you are talking to someone you just Know when someone else just isn’t neurotypical This is based off of their canon, observable in the show behaviors, trying not to lean into anything headcanon unless it slightly grays the area a little. Using dub names but will tag original names later (I just don’t like Amelda as a name...) But first starting with Seto himself, he’s very blunt and impulsive. Which isn’t helped by the fact he’s got a lot of money. So he can act on literally every impulsive thought he has. Man probably filmed that idea to send Duel Monsters cards into space the minute he had it in GX. He’s very egocentric, which a lot of people get confused with his arrogance. Not that he’s not both, but he really genuinely believes that any time his company is under attack, it’s because someone’s trying to take it over. Not that it’s the one sure-fire way to draw him out of hiding, it’s that everyone is out to get him. Always! (as an example, during Season Four his company gets bought out by the villains. He’s convinced this was ALL a ploy to take it over, when really Dartz needs him out in the open because he needs to kill him.) His special interest is Duel Monsters. Literally all his money comes from making electronics and technology specifically for playing his special interest. And he’s richer THAN the person he pays royalties to because Seto doesn’t own Duel Monsters. Pegasus does. All Seto did was invent the technology to play it, and fixing the rules to actually make the game playable (The rules of Battle City were his, after all.) He’s pretty close to being nonverbal, a LOT of Kaiba’s lines are actually thoughts in his head rather than stuff he says out loud, except when he’s delivering snarky comments or talking to Mokuba. He’s got a perpetually weird relationship with the protagonists because he’s not good with social cues or interacting with people in general. Not that he wouldn’t die for them, he’s not good at expressing it though. They’re his friends, but they gotta squint to hear what he’s actually saying. ----- Noah’s is going to be a lot shorter as far as canon behaviors go since we only have a few episodes with him really, and I’d also think of him as having both BPD and autism (which happens co morbidly, around 15% of BPD patients also meet the criteria for having ASD.) (There’s also that they all have some very intense levels of PTSD, but that’s another kettle of horses.) His biggest sign that he’s both is his emotional state of being when we encounter him in his half of Season Three. Not to say that his environment didn’t help him any, but I think it’d just made it more obvious. Both conditions affect mood stability, which cause intense emotions and a grandiose sense of self at the same time. But there’s also a sense of emptiness and a negative impact on self esteem, a diffuse of self (in TVTropes words, he definitely has a Superiority-Inferiority Complex.) Much like Seto, as well, social cues aren’t something he excels in. The idea of anyone being nice to him is confusing, but he really develops one bond (Mokuba), and he convinces himself he needs to die for him and the people he brought into the Digital World. But a few scenes before he steals Mokuba’s body briefly, he can’t comprehend why someone is being nice to him. He thinks he’s being slow and steady with the reveal he’s about to drop on the protagonists of being Gozoboro’s son, but remember that his entire arc is only a few hours of one day in Battle City (when they cut to Yami Marik being like ‘.... Where the hell did everyone go?’), so they’re not really there long before he starts traumadumping and infodumping about his own monsters. He’s so socially deprived that he’s A) going to tell you all what he’s been through because all he wanted was to be loved by someone who couldn’t possibly love him, and B) He’s going to tell you about his niche interest in computer programming to make the world he’s in more interesting, as well as the extremely niche tidbits of information he has about Spirit Monsters and their development in the game of DM. (Remember, the Deck Master system and the rules of their abilities is the stuff he made up. Pegasus still made the Spirit Monsters, don’t let the rules of the Season throw you. They’re using a database of every known card, they’re in a computer, and it doesn’t trip up the rule of Season Four of the Orichalcos. Because it’s being used by one specific cult and no one else. The cards in Noah’s deck, broken effects and all, actually existed in-universe, and given how all of the protagonists had never heard of them until the duel with Noah, despite Solomon owning a Card Shop and there being more in Domino, that means he was into the REALLY obscure cards of the game.) ---- Alister is probably the most neurodivergent of them all, to start he has a very one-track mind ability to hyperfocus. The only thing on his mind ever is getting revenge on Seto Kaiba because he’s the living body still. If Alister COULD kill Gozoboro still, he would. Unquestioningly. He’s got a very strong sense of justice powered by a black-and-white morality way of thinking. He is definitely someone you want in your cult to destroy the world, it takes very little convincing that someone is evil and needs to be destroyed. And he can’t be swayed from his opinions, either. He’s got very intense feelings that are being taken advantage of. He’s got a very declarative memory and trauma dumps with very little prompting. He’s got a comfort item that ties into his traumas, of course. He’s got some odd reactions too and is strangely very naive despite everything (aside from the normal response of ‘Who are you?’, doesn’t seem to question that he’s straight up hallucinating/receiving a mental link directly to Dartz the first time they ever speak. Not a ‘what the hell is going on, what is happening, where did the world go’, ect, ect. Just ‘This person can tell me what happened and who hurt me? Okay.’ ) Alister’s also got issues with social situations, the only friends he has you can count on one hand. And that comes with its own weird rules of That’s Just How They Talk To Each Other. (He does love Raphael and Valon, even saying that he and his ‘new family’ are saving the world.) Also, this one is semi-canon, semi- head canon, hence the disclaimer earlier. He’s got sensory issues and is sensitive to light (he wears sunglasses inside of buildings, and during the nighttime.) And his clothing, at least to me, suggest he gets hot easily but still needs pressure due to an aversion to touch. (His shirt is midriff exposing, but he also has like eight belts and a huge ass trench coat on. And heat intolerance is a littler-known sign of autism) ---- I never got anything that deep out of Seigfried. He really just that butthurt about his company. While my story doesn’t go past Season Four, I know how I’d fix Season Five.

[borreloadsavagedragon]

STATE OF THE WIPS

@pocketsonny tagged me in a wip sharing post so here we are gjdakslgj

WRITING:

A 3+1 Vrains Post Canon Project Summary: Exploring Takeru's view of love through 4 different relationships(Kiku, Aoi, Yusaku, Ryoken). There's break ups, celebrity crushes, unrequited love, and more. AN: I've been working on this one for at least 2 years now LOL, I really want to finish it sometime soon, I have committed far too much of my own emotions into it. Originally wanted this one done for a certain shipweek that just passed, but that was never happening because I had my Alaska trip right beforehand haha, it's also still growing somehow omfg, I'm really having fun exploring Takeru's voice, Takeru's such an important character to me gjdsklajg Current Word Count: ~ 19K

An AU I affectionately call "Rites For Warring Kings" Summary: Takes place 8+ years after Zexal concludes. Discussing past lifes, reincarnations, and the power of the human spirit, and how you don't need divinity to stand among gods. AN: This one is still in the outlining stage with me writing out various scenes and moments as they come to mind so as to not lose them. Home to my Zexal OC's backstory, though this one is just one of the endings, and also a bit of a love letter to my favorite deck, Photon/Galaxy, as well as the support that came for it following Zexal's end.

I also don't talk about this one because some of its content will not be a lot of people's cup of tea, sweats, so I may never really share it or promote it once it's done, it's truly just a self-indulgent project. Current Word Count: putting all outlines, scenes, and chapters together, ~30K

The Analysis Paper: Summary: Literally what it says... and it's about an onion, god help me. AN: I'm rewatching Zexal and company slowly so I can do this, right now it's outlined for what I wanna focus on but I need visuals and a refresh on some parts, I'm excited though, lowkey might make this one into a video essay Word Count: 9K

There's also a ton of miscellaneous AUs that pop into my brain for a week before disappearing until I wake up in a cold sweat in 4 months and have to work on them Like I want to do more with Duel Links As Canon oneshots, and I have so many writing week projects I wanna finish on principal-

---

As for non-writing, I have SO MANY cosplay wips too but right now the only cosplays I'm actively working on are Shingo Sawatari from Arc V and the Duel Monster S:P Little Night lol

I do want to remake Ryouga's wig because it sits so BAD on my head and I hate it a little, after remastering Kaito's, I just know my skill set can make a good one jfdkslaj And I really wanna finish Soulburner's props now that Gazelle is at 3 and I can play full power Salad at tournaments eyeball emojis