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inkblackorchid · 1 year

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I was gonna try to keep my mouth shut, but I can't. I just can't. I have to go on another Aki rant because I feel like I'm going to explode. It's about this scene:

This drives me insane and I'm putting this under a readmore. Expect incoherent screaming, all ye who enter here.

Ok. Ok. I have so many issues with this scene. Specifically, with the way it develops later, when Aki's busy trying to figure out how to save a child from being swept up by a storm:

And I just. Look, I think the fact that I already wrote a fic that basically completely turns Aki's reaction here on its head should basically tell you everything. But! But. Allow me to defend why I think this whole scene is one big heap of horseshit, with a bit of analysis of canon and actual evidence to back up my claims and shit.

The thing is, I have seen people give this scene a charitable read. I've seen people be happy for Aki to enjoy freedom from the psychic powers that have given her so much trouble in her life. And the thing is, if this were season one or season two Aki, I would be completely on board with that take. Unfortunately, this scene is preceded by the pre-WRGP arc. But more on that below.

Moreover, I can make an educated guess about what they were going for here (in terms of messaging, because this is a kids' show at the end of the day and messaging is something you have to be properly concerned with when it comes to these). I can imagine it running somewhere along the lines of "you don't need special powers to be a hero". Or even "you can grow past the hurt and/or the mistakes in your life and still become a good person or even a hero". And really, I wish I could believe that take. It's just. The writing simply doesn't add up. I wish it did, but it doesn't.

This is where we get back to the pre-WRGP arc. And not just that, actually, but the timeskip between the dark signers and pre-WRGP arc, too. Because the thing is, the last time we have seen Aki in anguish about her powers on-screen by the time the episodes above (108-109) arrive was during the DS arc, during the duel with her father, which happened during episodes 40-41. 40. to. 41. This was over sixty episodes ago at this point. And after that, that's it. As far as the DS arc is concerned, Aki's conflict about her powers is resolved the second she controls them for the first time when her father tries to interfere in her second duel against Yusei.

(Yeah, remember this moment? That was literally the last time we saw Aki in conflict with her powers.)

And I know some people would argue "but what about the dark signer duel with Misty?". And yes, I get it. Misty does accuse her of having murdered her brother with her powers and Aki gets incredibly (understandably) upset about it. But the thing is, we know that's fake, and during the duel, Aki knows that, too. She goes as far as insisting that there were no casualties at the duel where Misty thinks Toby died.

(Yes, I have screenshot proof for literally every dumb little thing in this show, why do you ask?)

It's only after Misty keeps pushing and backing her into a corner during their duel (and literally gaslighting her) that she begins to believe Misty's version of the events. Which is why this doesn't "count" as Aki being in conflict with her powers the way her second duel with Yusei does. At least not to me, feel free to debate me over this if you wanna.

Okay, but what am I driving at here? Fair question. Let me hop back to after the dark signers' defeat.

So, we know there's a half-year timeskip between the DS and the pre-WRGP arc (which was allegedly enough for NDC to connect the city and Satellite, deal with all the social issues that entailed, and also build a giant duel network, which I will never believe but I digress). Unfortunately, what exactly our main characters did during that timeskip is never addressed, it's just kind of there to segway immediately into the WRGP setup. So the only thing we can do is guess at what they got up to based on where they are as people by the time we get back to them during the start of the pre-WRGP arc. So where's Aki at when we see her again after the dark signers' defeat then?

Oh, she's attending duel academy again now! That's nice. So that probably means the student body isn't scared shitless of her anymore and she's not being ostracised anymore.

Wow, she's an exceptional student! That means she must be a really good duellist. So she got the hang of her powers, then?

...Ah.

Do you start to see my problem? Past the DS arc, we are not being given any indication that Aki is still struggling with her powers or still resents them or herself like she used to. You could be forgiven for thinking that she's healed in the meantime. She's fine. She has accepted herself and can now use her powers safely. Which makes her later claiming "she no longer needs that cursed power" a bit... hmmm. And another thing. The fact that she refers to it as "cursed" rubs me the wrong way. After the defeat of the dark signers, she literally never does that even a single time before the moment in the hospital during the storm. (I'd post all the screenshots to prove it here but for one, tumblr doesn't allow it, and for two, I hope you'll believe I did my due diligence without it.)

And it just irks me. If the powers are still a "curse" to Aki by episodes 108-109, why give us the moment above?

And why give us this moment, where she saves Sherry, Yusei, and herself with those powers?

And why give us this moment, where she literally uses her powers at a public event to protect people, and is evidently not cussed out as a witch for it? Neither of these moments do anything to indicate that Aki still hates her powers. They don't indicate that she sees them as a "beast of burden" or necessary evil of a sort, either. On the contrary, I don't think it would be too out there to claim all these moments make her look rather badass. Like a small celebration of "hey, now she can finally use these powers for cool and not evil things!".

Yet, somehow, we still end up with episodes 108-109, where the writers expect the audience to buy that Aki was secretly still hoping she might eventually be rid of these powers after all. And maybe this would be easier to swallow if there weren't also the fact that they later literally go back on it to add to this confusing mess. Because the thing is, we all know the finale scene after the three-way duel with Sherry where Aki protects them with her powers (which have suddenly reappeared, aha!) again and also finds out she can use these powers to heal. So not only is the framing of Aki suddenly being glad to have lost her powers extremely weird, it's also temporary anyway!

So my question is. What was the point. What was the point of all this if the writers ended up going back on it anyway? Because I want to believe there's a reasonable, charitable explanation that also makes sense with what they show us in terms of Aki's characterisation past the DS arc, but if there is, I cannot for the life of me find it. If anything, this whole thing feels like it completely contradicts itself.

First, they tie up Aki's conflict with her powers with a neat bow after she manages not to hurt her father anymore. Then, they launch into the pre-WRGP arc and blatantly tell us that she can now control them. No questions asked. Indisputable fact, and we get nothing that contradicts that, either. Then, we get a bunch of setup showing her using her powers, too, and what's more, we get other significant players in the cast taking notice of it, too, as though it might become relevant. Because Sherry isn't the only one who gets curious about Aki's powers.

(I will never understand how Placido's hood works together with his horn-thingies and have stopped trying at this point.)

The literal, central antagonists of season 3-4 also take notice of it. Like that means something. Like it'll come up again later. But, well. We know it doesn't.

Instead, she suddenly loses her powers out of nowhere (and we are never given a reason for it, either, which does nothing to make this writing decision seem anymore understandable). And, look. The thing that upsets me most about this isn't even the fact that it feels a little inconsistent with Aki's character post DS arc. If that were the only problem, I could still suspend my disbelief far enough to go along with the idea that she secretly still hated her powers quietly in the background and wanted them gone anyway. What really pisses me off is that it reeks of zero setup and knee-jerk decisions in the writing room ten miles against the wind. If they wanted us to believe Aki's glad to be rid of her powers, why give absolutely no indication that she's at odds with them past episode 41 anymore? Why let her state outright that she can now control them? Why show her on several occasions using them to her own and other people's benefit, the way a hero would? And if her powers are supposed to vanish and it's supposed to make sense, why is there no reason for it? They already used cyborg timetravel at that point, they could have literally come up with any nonsense related to that and it would have probably made at least more sense than just letting her powers vanish for no reason at all. Also, if the message behind all this is supposed to be either of the things I mentioned way above—if the idea the audience is supposed to be getting is either "you don't need special powers to be a hero" or "your past and/or your mistakes don't define you and you can heal and grow past them"—why reintroduce the powers, which, in this reading, would be a symbol of Aki's pain, of her mistakes and her dreaded past, at the very end, during the finale, then? It just doesn't add up, and it frustrates me to no end.

The writers wanted to make the moment Aki realises she can help people (well, one person, a child) without her powers seem triumphant so bad, but every time I watch it, it just completely falls flat for me. This isn't a triumph, this is a hot mess of bad writing decisions. All I'm saying is, if they wanted me to buy that Aki would be happy about losing her powers here, they were missing a hefty amount of setup and also shouldn't actually have given them back to her during the finale (no, not even as healing powers).

Moreover... I'll freely admit I also have a personal problem with this scene. I've seen this show and these episodes several times by now, and during my last rewatch and my current one, something about this scene has been creeping up on me, and I think I've figured out what that is now. So I talked about the possible message behind this scene already, and the reading I've given so far was fairly forgiving. But the thing is, there is another reading that has occurred to me that I can't unsee anymore. As much as you could make a valid case that this scene is trying to say that people don't need to be special to be heroes and save others, that past mistakes don't define us, and yadda yadda, there's also a much, much less pleasant way to interpret this scene: "You're better off if you don't stand out." And I'll freely admit, this interpretation probably occurs to me specifically because I was considered a "weird kid" at school, singled out by bullies, and avoided by "popular" kids (take a wild guess why I relate to Aki so much!). And over the years, you learn to downplay that "weirdness" because you become desperate to be accepted by someone, anyone. And given everything the show gives us about Aki's relationship with her powers, it'd make sense that this idea would be buried somewhere in her head, too. It's better not to stand out. Don't be weird. Sand down your edges so there's no chance people could get upset about them. You're better off being whatever everyone else considers "normal" than being whoever you are. It doesn't matter if this is a part of who you are, just become someone else. Someone who's easier to accept. Who's easier to love. You don't need your "weirdness".

You don't need this cursed power.

You know, the "cursed power" that Aki had from the beginning of the show, that was a part of her for years, and that the show didn't give any indication could vanish. The power that we were led to believe would just be there forever, because it was simply a part of Aki, not a conscious thing she (or the narrative) could choose. The power that we were, for all intents and purposes, led to believe she had mastered and maybe even accepted along the way. But sure, let's get rid of that. It's better if she's """normal""". And more convenient for the writers, too! After all, if she doesn't have powers anymore, they can't cause plotholes (of which the WRGP already has enough) and can't possibly give Aki any more badass moments, which makes it that much easier to sideline her. And let's package this weird, shittily set-up moment in a message about how she's better off without her powers anyway. She's happy! It makes complete sense that she's happy. She's finally normal like everyone else. Ignore the way people who might relate to the character could possibly interpret this moment differently. And ignore how none of the writing surrounding this moment makes sense.

...Sigh.

Okay, I think I've let off enough steam. I just. Yeah. I'm sorry, but I cannot for the life of me view this scene in a favourable way and watching it today made me want to chew glass tbh. My only solace is that they went back on this trainwreck writing decision in the finale. Which, really, just makes this whole mess really, really pointless, doesn't it?

For anyone who stuck around this long, thanks for reading. Sorry if this got extra-rant-y. Idk man, I just think “it’s worth the effort to accept yourself as you are, even with all the bits you might not like at first” would have been a better message than whatever this turned out to be.

#yugioh 5ds #aki izayoi #akiza izinski #ygo 5ds #5ds #character analysis #orchid watches 5ds (again)#episode 108 #episode 109 #orchid rambles

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canonmisogynyvictimstournament · 1 year

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PRELIMINARY ROUND - YU-GI-OH!

PROPAGANDA

Aki Izayoi/Akiza Izinski

1.) Famously built up as part of a protagonist group during the first and second season, complete with her own tragic backstory and several duels she got to participate in (very important in yugioh), only for a change in the lead writer (who, in some of his other works, literally admitted "he's not good at writing women") to occur after the second season, turning her from almost a main character into a literal "benchwarmer" for her duelling team (one of the outtro sequences in the later seasons literally refers to her as that). Fun things included such as: Had special powers in the earlier seasons which she struggled with and learned to control only to lose them for no reason in season 4; went from duelling several times to duelling literally twice during the entire 3rd, 4th, and 5th season, one of which was a tournament duel she lost embarrassingly despite being set up as a very capable duellist before; painstakingly learned a special form of duelling (card games on motorcycles) only to lose the only duel she partook in in this format; was briefly put into a coma (and lost her powers directly after) shortly before two of the male protags GAINED power upgrades; went from an acceptable amount of screentime to a background prop; also, despite being canonically sixteen, standard overly sexy outfit design with lots of cleavage (big tits because of course), a very short dress, and stockings with garters.

2.) She develops psychic powers when she is 8, accidentally injures her father since she can't control them yet. He calls her a monster, abuses and neglects her, and eventually sends her to a dueling boarding school rather than actually care for her. Other fear her and her powers so she suppresses them and never really learns how to control them. Eventually a cult called the Arcadia Movement recruits her because they want to exploit her powers for their own gain. In the first season she is introduced as a strong duelist with psychic powers, a rival on par with the male protagonist. She also nearly beats the protagonist in duel when they go head to head. She only starts to lose because she starts to open up emotionally about her past and fear of hurting others with her powers.

After this she joins the protags and is a love interest for the main character. They NEVER bring up and develop her backstory and stuff after this EVEN THOUGH this is such a good and interesting backstory. Even though she is introduced as a competent duelist, they reduce her to a benchwarmer on the team. THEY LITERALLY SAY SHE IS A BENCHWARMER IN THE SHOW!! She doesn't get to contribute to the plot, partake in important duels, or develop her character arc after the first season despite the fact she had so much potential.

Her character could EASILY have been used to explore trauma and exploitation, major themes already present in the show. But sadly they chose to only explore how those things impacted the male characters instead

3.) My poor girl. Her story starts off great, good set up, good characterization. She has psychic powers and her parents did not know how to help her. She ran away from home and joined a cult of people with similar powers. All normal character beats. The main character shows her the power of friendship and shows she has a connection to 4 other 'signers' who are suppose to protect against the season antagonist. She starts leaving the cult, talking to her parents again etc because she now knows there are prople who care for her. But thats where her development kind of ends. She learns the leader of the cult was manipulating her but she never really gets to confront him.

By the end of the season, she and the other female signer get sidelined because they doesn't have the core mechanic of the series, how to play a card game on a motorcycle. Instead they are replaced by a character who was not originally a signer but by the end became one cause he helped.

Season 2 and beyond is shows not much more than that. Except for she has a whole episode dedicated to learning how to ride a motorcycle. The biggest thing about that is we never really see anyone else in the series learn or be uncomfortable riding and while it's realistic, it's only her. And in that episode there was like a couple of guys trying to make her fail like? I guess it's part of the episode of learning and overcoming challenges but why intentionally introduce the misogyny now? I think there was maybe 2 other woman who rode motorcycles in this show which is an overall series problem.

She went from a main character to background as the rest of the story focuses around the main character and his 2 childhood friends for the rest of the series.

Ultimately her story is wasted potential, she started out with interesting character and development but there was no strong follow up. We never see her work through how the cult used her or how it affects her after a first confrontation. She was just left hanging like every other woman in yu-gi-oh. And don't get me started on the manga. Iirc she gets introduced at the end for plot reasons and nothing else.

Aoi Zaizen/Skye Zaizen

1.) she's presented as a really strong dueller and is really famous for it - a duelling idol - and everything. she proceeds to have pretty much no substantial wins which wouldn't hurt as much if not for the fact that one loss in particular is just infamous for how dirty it does her. like alright. duels take place in the air in cyberspace, you with me? and when she lost this one infamous duel she fell off her board and faceplanted into the ground which would kind of be like fine whatever i guess but it's SUCH a visceral faceplant. like. if you haven't seen it you should go find the clip cause man. it was so unnecessary… besides that she also gets brainwashed (par for the ygo girls course) and falls into a coma (also par for the course). before i move on though the fact that she doesn't really win any important duels is made even more frustrating by the fact that she used one of the best archetypes at the time then changed for a worse archetype for basically no reason. her character has a lot of interesting set up from the start that's just never properly delivered upon but they trick you into thinking she's receiving good character development by changing the design of her duel idol persona and like sure the designs may slap but that doesn't excuse that she doesn't really get the cohesive character development they're meant to signify. not really

2.) Although she is supposed to be a strong and popular duelist in canon, she loses almost every single duel horribly. One loss is particularly brutal as she falls from a large height directly onto her head and goes into a coma (again. yes this was the second time). She has the least amount of duel wins out of all the other Yugioh female leads, save for one who never dueled one on one.

3.) In the show, she plays a trickstar deck. In real life, this deck became known as one of THE most overpowered decks you could use. Literally so strong they had to nerf it. You'd think this kind of overpoweredness would reflect in the show. No. Her biggest win comes from basically an AI child, a minor antagonist.

#polls #preliminary round

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oivsyo · 2 years

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Hyūga men chilling on the hot springs [censored|sfw ver.]

For uncensored version go to my Twitter =)

ok, let me introduce them>>>

this is an adult Neji who survived the war, hope it is obvious bc of his scars. Along with Hinata Neji is the main POV in my HC.

Kō Hyūga with my redesign. I got so used to this appearance on him, so I have to remind myself that he doesn't look this way in the canon and other people may not recognise him.

He is 2,5 years older than Neji. In my HC his B-day is on 31 December because this day is Bertolt’s (AoT) b-day and my HC Kō has many things in common with Bertolt. His temper is soft and is much like Hinata's, only that he is rather strong and is confident in his skills. His problem is the unhealthy desire to meet other people's expectations, the fear of accepting himself as he is.

He was the younger son in one of the main house’s families, but his elder brother was killed during Orochimaru invasion, his eyes torn out and stolen. It happened 2 weeks before Kō’s 17th birthday, so he didn’t get the seal. But it makess him miserable, he would happily bear a hundred seals if only it could turn his brother back to life. He has always been on good terms with Hinata, he looked after her and was supposed to be her guard. After the events of OG Kō gradually makes friends with Neji and eventually becomes one of the closest ppl for both Neji and Hinata. Kō is one of 4 POVs in my HC.

Kō is a sweet cinnamon bun and just perfect, I want to marry him but he is 2D and gay :(

Hiashi Hyūga. My fav part of this art.

Hiashi is DILF.Don't judge me.

I hc him being rather young, so that he is around 31-32 yo during Chunin Exam Arc I gave him background story and better developed personality in my hc so he turned out to be a very interesting and contradicting character.

Hiashi is one of POVs in my HC, through his character the clan’s story, traditions, political relations with the village, with Uchiha clan and inside the clan are told.

Tokuma Hyūga a.k.a Neji's main rival for the title of the most handsome Hyūga man. In my HC Tokuma looked after Neji when his father died and his mother was away on missions so he is kinda brother for Neji even tho they are not that close related. Tokuma has a rather difficult and heavy character, Neji picked some of his traits up. He is not too tall, around 175cm, and looks really young being one of the eldest among Neji, Kō and the next character.

This one is my OC. His name is Yojiru.

At first I wanted him to be more like RtN Neji, but gradually he switched to Dandelion from the Witcher saga. He is Neji's first cousin, their mothers were sisters, so they look alike. He is almost 10 years older than Neji. He is a poor fighter and medic-nin, but is rather well-read and knows a lot of things. He is also a talented musician, he plays some musical instruments, sings and even writes songs. He likes to tell jokes and fool around, he has a playful and carefree nature.

In the time skip period between OG and Shippuden he gets acquainted with Ko, they quickly become friends. Yojiru teaches Kō to live for himself and not to look back on other ppl opinion. Later they become lovers.

Hoheto Hyūga. He was a background character in the canon and for now he is only a background character in my HC. He is the oldest man on this art, he is around 5-7 years older than Hiashi I think he is a real clan's patriot judging from the scene with him on the war. Probably he is Hiashi’s guard and assistant.

This one is a rather new OC that is based on one of background Hyūgas from the anime. I HC that he is Natsu's older twin brother. They are from the main house so he doesn't have a seal, and Natsu being the younger twin has it. At the moment I don’t have any ideas about his personality, I'm choosing a name for him from Aki and Haru.

****

This is my first drawing for Naruto Horny ASK, that I've joined recently, and it is kinda redraw of this mangacap. I liked the composition I decided to finally draw all my handsome white-eyed men together

#hyuga neji #neji hyuga #Neji Hyuuga #Hyuga Clan #hiashi hyuga #tokuma hyuga #byakugan #tokuma #neji #Hyuga Headcanon #hoheto hyuga #i'm a simp for Hyuga men #my artwork

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hijinks-n-lowjinks · 23 days

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Idk if you’ve already made a list or whatnot but do you have like a top 10 fav ships? From any media or anything, like all time

I'm always happy to blabber about former/current hyperfixations so this question is perfect. This is in no particular order except for the first one, they will always be my #1:

kyoru (Kyo Sohma/Tohru Honda) from Fruits Basket: The 👏🏻 ship 👏🏻 ever 👏🏻 They invented love, their relationship has the perfect development and resolution, they truly love and understand each other and have such amazing character arcs both individually and together. Kyo's realization that he loves Tohru is my favorite episode in the entire show and it's constantly on repeat in the back of my mind: "She didn't erase all my pain or offer to solve all my problems. She didn't fix what was broken, but that's not what I needed anyway. What mattered most was that she stayed."

hualian (Hua Cheng/Xie Lian) from TGCF: Another couple that invented love. I sprinted through these books while season 2 was being animated and the absolute faith and trust those two have in each other is unparalleled. "What matters is you, not the state of you" has been imprinted on my brain. I cried so many times while reading these books, they were amazing, definitely one of my favorite stories ever.

mikayuu (Mika/Yuu Hyakuya) from Seraph of the End: These boys... I'm still actively reading the chapters from this manga despite having no fuckin clue what's going on with the plot all because I'm so invested in these boys. Devoted to each other since they were kids, the epitome of "I'd burn down the world to save you". Everything they do is for each other, they are always each other's first choice in everything. And we got a canon confession which is insane to me. I'll never be over them.

satosugu (Gojo Satoru/Geto Suguru) from JJK: Probably the ship that makes me the most emotional in the worst way. I'm a sucker for a good tragedy and those two fit the mold perfectly. The absolute love they have for each other even after they've split makes me so emotional. If you don't see their relationship as romantic idk what to tell you, you're just blind. Jjk 0 and the Gojo being sealed are two scenes that fuck me up each time without fail. I could rave about them for hours.

itafushi (Itadori Yuuji/Fushiguro Megumi) from JJK: The boys I'm best known for. Now, I enjoyed them as a ship from the beginning but it wasn't a true "they're everything to me" until the Itadori Extermination Arc. Yuuji's "you'll only be hurt if you're with me" and Megumi's "start by saving me" had me GAGGED. That's when I really started to pay attention and went back and became extremely invested instead of a casual enjoyer. They've always done their best to watch each other's backs and stick together. 216 fucked me up SO BAD, and everything Yuuji has done since them is to try and get Megumi back. They love each other so much, they are the parallel to stsg that will make it. I don't know how anyone can read the manga and not see how much they love each other.

bellarke (Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin) from The 100: This was my SHIP back in high school. I was obsessed with The 100 back in the day and these two were everything to me. Enemies to friends to lovers is my favorite dynamic, and these two fit that bill perfectly. Everything about their relationship was so perfectly set up for them to be endgame and yet the writing for the last few seasons was SO FUCKING BAD that I couldn't even watch the last season. From what I hear, they totally switched up Bellamy's character and he switched up on Clarke so quickly when he's always been her #1 supporter after they became friends. Their friendship was my favorite thing about the show, they truly were each other's right-hand man and constantly looked out for each other. Still pissed about what we could have had.

akiangel (Aki Haykawa/Angel Devil) from Chainsaw Man: Another tragic ship. I cannot wait to see these two animated together. I binge read all of Chainsaw Man (which was like 98 chapters at the time?) in two days and it rewired my brain. The staunch hatred/dislike of each other's kind out of principle to slowly realizing that they actually do care about each other was so good. They have such a subtle chemistry and relationship, it was one of my favorites in the series. Aki reaching out a hand to save Angel and them holding onto each other during the Bomb Girl Arc is probably my favorite scene in the entire manga, I can't wait for them to get their flowers once it's animated.

tododeku (Shouto Todoroki/Izuku Midoriya) from MHA: Narrative foils. What more can I say. These two have so many parallels in their arcs and have such a great relationship. Idk how this ship isn't more popular with how healthy their relationship is and how it started off with such strife. Deku also means so much to Todoroki and you can see that throughout the entire series that their friendship means the world to him. They give each other such a good support system, I adore them.

bokuaka (Bokuto Koutarou/Akaashi Keiji) from Haikyuu: Simp behavior, the both of them. You don't really see it initially, but these two are obsessed with each other. The Fukurodani v Mujinazaka game was so incredible for diving into their characters and relationship more! Finding out that Akaashi only came to Fukurodani because he saw a cute jock play ONE game was so funny because you don't expect him to be a love at first sight character in the slightest. He and Bokuto work so well together, they balance each other out and understand each other on such a deep level, you can't convince me they aren't in love. They bring out the best in each other and know how to get the other out of their head.

zelink (Princess Zelda/Link) from Legend of Zelda: This is specifically going to be focused on botw/totk zelink because those are the games where their relationship is explored the most, but MY GOD. Those two make me weak. Link is just this autistic/selectively mute dude who's just trying to do his job and Zelda is so jealous of his freedom and ease of being able to do his assigned role without trouble that seeing the development of their friendship/relationship through the memories was my favorite part of the game. Their bond is so strong, they truly become each other's biggest link in the chain of their support system. Totk in particular made me cry multiple times because of the tragedy of realizing what happened to Zelda that imagining what Link must be feeling upon the discovery fucks me up. They never stop fighting to protect each other and never lose faith in each other.

#wayyyyyy more information than you asked for but I love yapping on about things I love so here you go #thank you for the ask!!!! this was sooooo fun!!!!#jinx answers #jinx talks

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emmebearpaw · 2 months

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the things i think would fix my ttrpg ocs. a semi comprehensive, semi joke. Talks about Aki, Egg, Atsuko/chiyo

Aki:

A normal human person to talk to and have a human conversation with (she would seek this out)

Someone to go "hey are you good"

Open and honest communication about her feelings with the people in her life

therapy

adderall wouldn't fix her but she should get some

Egg:

A good meal

Someone to go "hey are you like good?"

Therapy

A normal human person to talk to and have a human conversation with (Does NOT want to do this and there will be a fire started)

lock them in a room and force them have to have open and honest conversation about their feelings about the people in their life

Therapy again

Atsuko:

Someone to go "hey. are you like, good?"

Open and honest conversation about their feelings

multivitamin + iron supplement taken daily. especially in combination with Chiyo getting B12 supplements.

therapy

Chiyo:

Regular Vitamin B12 supplement

Open and honest conversation about their feelings

i don't think she needs therapy she's chilling. may this potentially change? most likely. For the most part Chiyo, despite in all honesty likely being older than Atsuko (her age is nebulous) barely feels as though she has gotten that far past basic survival. Like I don't know if she ever developed a personality, this is probably on my habit of making characters in a duo and developing one far more, but Chiyo has only 3 motivations: eat, have fun (pranks and being obnoxious are fun), Atsuko <3. I'll keep working on her. Will be fun to gently place her in front of my rp group as an npc tomorrow.

#my post #oc tag #aki #Oc: egg #atsuko #chiyo

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atlaskrr · 3 months

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webtoons I've read recently that i enjoy!

I finally read our walk home! its rlly sweet and i cant wait for it to come off hiatus. i instantly got hooked by the characters. i like how its a they get eo thing and not an actual rivals to lovers thing. idk it feels more special. and the characters mentalities being explored is sooo good man. im also curious on the lot abt the angel and devil + akis brother. on a side note if i were either of them id fold so quickly cause why they both so pretty. their interactions are so cute man. its soft, genuine. i like it.

peace restaurant. love it. was reading it and i was like damn fknally something that gives me what yohaji did (tho not the same obvi) it is only starting on en ver (7 free chaps iirc) and i was so hooked i ended up reading all the kr released chaps on aggregator sites. im so confused and sad bcs it stopped at chap 28 back in nov 2023. still its really good. i love the dynamic between sua, belial and nhedhuk. they are so found fam to me. like nhedhuk is obvi the younger sibling and belial is her older brother. sua is their unconventional mom. speaking of belial his development was really nice. the way his fear was all the ppl he cared abt dying (INCLUDING SUA AND NHEDHUK) im scared abt whats gonna happen with him with how 28 ended off tho 😅 i think i have a thing for op female mcs (ty bofuri) and also this is why for one of the very few times the mc is my fav chara followed closely by the 2 deuteragonists. comedy that grows plot gotta be my new fav thing. in the beginning tho i love how every time you think smth serious will happen its just another gag. anws the whole dimension ordeal is also cool.

ok this thing had me clicking from its artstyle. i think yohaji made me a comedy person cause this is a comedy as well. i continued reading the few short chaps cause it was silly and sweet. this ghost truly is just a kind and pathetic thing. the fact shes mute is also really nice as the creator actually competed twice and placed in silent manga competitions (which were really good btw. go check out volpee). when the managers were introduced i thought plot was coming but nope! but also i was even more hooked cause the design for mr. h??? love. the vibes and style is immaculate. the ghost of cloth is also really silly and has a nice design lol. there was no ep last month but its back on now! oh yeah the toy ghost is really cool as well. somehow they can still make it expressive despite its still face. the whole remote control car situation had me cackling tho lmao.

OH MY GOD PROJECT CAMELLIA HAS LIKE 6 EPS AND ONE IS A AUTHORS NOTE THING BUT DO I CARE??? NO. the pretty boy cover enticed me and im so glad it did bcs it seems so promising. the author note had stuff about their process and the future and the way they thought it through, how the 2 mcs change eo and it shows PHYSICALLY. in love. the way they plan to change the main mc throughout the story has me scared and excited. it seems like they can handle chara development well which is something i value highly as i read for charas most of the time. the art style is also really nice. if you check out the creators insta you can really see how skilled they are like the art there looks majestic (theyre a danmei fan). apparently therell also be a yuri side couple 👀 basically, the future seems bright for this webtoon.

i hust finished catching up to the tl ver of the students of illip arts high cause the en is new to webtoon just like peace restaurant. i was hooked by the unique style used for the vr game and how so yi and han sol bonded and allat. their relationship is so ough to me. dakyung is also a fun chara and for seiun idk she seems kinda pretentious. i dont like how they dealt with eppys chara either. still its early on so even though the charas besides mc seem to not have as much impact as they could it has much room to grow.

#webtoon #webtoon review #webtoon recommendation #webcomic #our walk home #peace restaurant #peace restaurant webtoon #pyeonghwa restaurant #the bathroom ghost #the bathroom ghost webtoon #project camellia #project camellia webtoon #the students of illip arts high

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suhmingo · 5 months

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TL;DR

Fuckers in school telling me, always in the barber shop Part 2 ain’t bout this, Part 2 ain’t bout that My boy a fraud on fuckin Gege and them He, he they say that he don’t be putting in no work SHUT THE FUCK UP! Y'all ain’t know shit All ya motherfuckers talk about Part 2 ain’t no hitta Part 2 ain’t this Part f a fake SHUT THE FUCK UP Y'all don’t live with Part 2. Y'all know that Part 2 had AQUARIUM ARC, Fighting at the Karaoke and shit. Fujimoto been on no assistant since fuckin… I don’t know when! Motherfuckers stop fuckin' playin' him like that Them devils savages out there If I catch another motherfucker talking sweet about CSM Part 2 I’m fucking beating they ass! I’m not fucking playing no more

In my opinion, Chainsaw Man is going through an evolution. Not an awesome Pokemon evolution (Or digivolution, those are cooler.) But a slower evolution, with all the growing pains that come with it. Many have noticed how “slow” recent arcs have been, or how bad the fights have become. And to be fair, the Quanxi ones are kind of ass if you’re looking for a fight fix. But I will go to bat against basically every other complaint and critique of the pacing, the characterization, and the theming. I think the best way I would describe the pacing is as methodical, or more apropos to my argument, literary.

Now I’m not gonna sit here and say that Jane Austen’s planning the story of Chainsaw Man. To my knowledge, there are no pinups of Elizabeth Bennett anywhere in the book, but I do think that there has been a shift in terms of how the story is told and how much detail it does it in, pushing closer to that of a more detailed plot structure and planning than the fast, weekly pace of a traditional battle manga.

Compared to CSM Part One, CSM Part Two is trying to tell a slower, intricate story with a more human element, rather than the fast, succinct, hard-hitting style that Part One embodied. Where the growing pains fit in is that very change in style is hard to get used to, both for the author and audience. The biggest challenge is that it’s difficult to portray methodical storytelling when on 18-20 manga pages a week, and that the Manga medium as a whole is restrictive in terms of how slow you can and likely should take things. Actually, it just seems pretty restrictive in general.

Part One is a very utilitarian story for most of the first half. There’s exist a devil(s) trying to kill Denji, forcing everyone to work together to beat them, secondary characters die, the villain gets Chainsawed, and by the end of it we get Denji feeling more complex emotions. There are core subplots such as Makima’s mask faltering, and/or Aki or Power breaking down or maturing respectively, but those generally feed back into Denji’s growth. Characters, however developed, live and die based on the completion of their arc or the perspective they bring to the story, and no longer than that. Even Reze, a beloved cutie-pie, has her core arc within 14 chapters. Point is, it’s simple story, and that simplicity allows the bulk of it to be told through action.

Finally, Denji and co have their entire stories resolved within 97 chapters. To put that in perspective, that’s where something like the Arlong Arc Ends, and that’s not even halfway through JJK’s Shibuya Incident. Part one is very much a sprint, with the talent showcase being how well-crafted the story is at that very same pace. It really is a testament to the writing quality of how dense that story feels in that short of a time.

That isn’t to say I’d want that again though. One of the most important aspects of any continuation is to not only progress the story, but also how the story is told. Now that there are established elements to a story, it is a good idea from the creator’s perspective to push the boundaries of what is already established. You could do more of the same, but in my opinion that isn’t as stimulating or fruitful long term. That’s where I think Part Two thrives.

Whereas Part One was more focused on characters realizing the goal they want to achieve and reaching a baseline level of human decency, Part Two is more focused on the struggle of maintaining that humanity in an oppressive and equally depressing world. It’s inherently a meatier concept to explore and requires fewer fights and more introspection. For my two cents, I think Part Two is pretty fantastic at this in the long run, but at the same time the week-to-week chapter focus of Part Two means we as an audience will spend far more time digesting and analyzing the setup compared to an explosive fight scene. I think that’s where the bulk of the frustration comes from with part 2, it’s progressing themes and complexity, but it’s hard to fit that within week-to-week chapters without sacrificing something there before, in this case being the fights.

For starters, there are considerably more subplots and mysteries than in Part One. To name a few, there are:

- Yoshida’s allegiance to Public Safety and has own personal end goals

- Denji’s role as a roommate/big bro/parent to Nayuta, and how that affects his personal goals and future

- Denji’s internal conflict with being Chainsaw Man, it’s future, and what it represents (Which I think is meta-commentary, but that’s for another day.)

- Asa’s internal conflict with herself and Yoru, but mostly herself as well as her desire to be loved/admired.

- Nayuta’ purpose in life as the control Devil and how that comes into conflict with her bond with Denji

- Makima’s lasting influence on Denji mirrored in the form of characters like Fami, Barem, and Nayuta.

- The shipping wars I never thought would show up

- Fami. Just Fami.

- WILL DENJI GET LAID???

That’s probably a non-exhaustive list of general questions that are still up in the air and concurrently being explored. The story has gone from being a subversive battle manga with dramatic themes of existentialism, desire, and love to a drama about existentialism, desire, and love with battle manga elements. There’s a lot more focus on thematic cohesion, whole chapters are now given to exploring a character’s state of mind over plot progression. Part One had its downtime, yes. But I don’t think it had nearly as much internal cringing as Asa has had (To be fair, I don’t think any character ever internally cringe fests as much as Asa does). You need that downtime in an introspective story, hell I’d say that’s the uptime, but it’s very against the grain in what came up as a more mature battle manga, so much so that it feels like tonal whiplash to do so.

It’s easy to see that there’s a lot more setup to an arc before it gets to the payoff. For most of the plot threads listed above, we haven’t even gotten a proper payoff in the chapters we’ve had, something that would have been unheard of in part one. At this point in Part One, we would have been nearing the end game, with the development of the story and cast clearly indicating that.

Furthermore, these conflicts aren’t nearly as “cleanly” resolved as the Part One conflicts, at least as clean as anything involving chainsaw combat can be. The punchline of much of Chainsaw Man’s early arcs comes from the dismal world being undercut by a horny, ADHD-laced, solipsistic teenager's ability to 1v1 most problems. Most of the problems grow increasingly difficult to just Denji them, growing in complexity until the conflicts become more abstract. Something like Denji vs. Reze can be realistically resolved within a fight since they’re goals and objectives make sense to come into conflict. Less so for Denji vs “Gun Fiend” since we all know how well that went down. As things progress, Denji can’t slice his way through consoling Power, nor can Pochita’s powers help him cut through his trauma and self-reflection.

That’s the jumping point Part 2 develops from. None of Denji nor Asa nor Nayuta are able to literally fight their way into achieving their goals. This is a stark contrast for Denji particularly since most of Part 1 has the ostensible goal of “Kill this and I’ll let you get to X Base with me,” which is never actually a resolution to his problems. The end of part one and almost all of part two so far has been focused on conflicts which can’t be meaningfully resolved through a fight. The end of the world is not the final boss of these characters, that only serves to contextualize and add weight to their need to solve their own problems. The characters as we see them are mature enough to identify the problems that hold them back, but not mature enough to actually see them through or see clearly in the moment.

That stuff just needs time to sit and simmer, it’s as simple as that. That’s where the action is going. Fujimoto has to show how much Nayuta means to Denji and Vice Versa, he has to show Asa’s growing feelings for Denji against the wishes of both Yoru and her own ego, and so on and so forth. Notice how most of the villains plans aren’t just simply “Kill chainsaw man” (I think the only exception is like Yoru) They tend to be more complex than that. They either want to evangelize Chainsaw Man or silence his influence. That all needs time to unravel too.

With that much going on, it’s considerably harder to get satisfying moments chapter to chapter. So many things have to be established, developed, put into conflict, that the story cannot go nearly as fast as it did in part one. The writing goes far slower to accommodate these things, but the weekly chapters don’t. They still remain in the 18-20 pages that you come to expect. For that reason, we’re left more time salivating until we reach a conclusion that could be chapters away, and even then that conclusion could just be a setup for a later arc. It’s a much bigger story with more ambition to me, something that you’d see like in a regular sized novel.

But course CSM Isn’t a novel, it’s a serialized shonen with all the prerequisites and industry pressure that comes with it.

It’s no secret that the Manga Industry is cutthroat. It’s basically luck whether your story picks up steam or not (JJK was almost canceled at like Chapter 4, for a recent example.) And once you make it, you have to perform at that same level, with the expectation that you’ll continually improve both your quality and numbers, but mostly the numbers. So it’s only natural that the level of quality of the story is going to dwindle at times. So when chapters are bad, it’s not simply because of sloth or laziness. When deadlines are that tight and success is measured in numbers, it’s a testament to the creativity of many an author that these things even get made at all. Hell, the fact that CSM manages to have such intriguing characters and thematic depth is indicative of the writing chops that ol’ Fuji has.

When I think of it like that, it’s easy to see why Fujimoto would prefer to write than to draw. As a writer, I can definitely say writing isn’t a fast art form (At all.) but I at the very least don’t have to worry about drawing the writing in my head week to week, while also trying to appease longtime reader’s desire for action. You can more quickly explore the ideas that you want to explore by putting words on a page. You want to kill a character it’s as as easy as writing “And then the dagger plunged into their heart.” Ok Ideally it’s a lot better than my asstastic writing, but the point is the same. It’s just one of the more reflexive art forms out there.

That’s kind of all I had to say. Hopefully we can all move on to more productive things, preferably within the hour. Thanks for reading.

#chainsaw man #analysis

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black-mask-babyyy · 7 months

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Ok I’ve had like 24 hours to digest the ending of P3 so I’m here to dump my thoughts. Full disclosure this is going to have a ton of spoilers for Persona 3 Reload!!

The party members were good, I didn’t like them as much as 5 but I do prefer them over 4.

I was kind of annoyed to learn that Chidori could be saved, because the whole thing is easy to miss. I also think the whole idea of her coming back alive and not remembering anything about the Dark Hour or her persona is kind of… lame. It’s just a very convenient way to wrap up her storyline. I did like Junpei’s growth, though, and she obviously contributes to that. Their personas merging when she dies is really… bittersweet.

Speaking of character deaths… Shinjiro??? Hello??? Absolute shock, I was not expecting to lose a party member. Can’t believe they got me to instantly ship Shinjiro and Akihiko just to have Shinji die in Aki’s arms.

And bringing up both Chidori and Shinjiro’s death, let’s talk about Strega. Jin is overall pretty plain, I don’t have much to say to him either way. Takaya, on the other hand, I have so much to say. Full disclosure, I started calling him “Jesus” as soon as I saw him, which I mean… makes sense with the theme of the game. He’s a good, creepy, culty villain and he does it well. My only issue with him (aside from like, obviously disliking him because he’s the villain and a murderer and stuff), is his design. I absolutely hate that he is always shirtless, it is super uncomfortable and weird (which is presumably the point, but still it gives me the ick).

I enjoyed most of the social links, overall. I didn’t really like Kenji and his whole dating a teacher thing, but his link did get better once he was dumped.

I was also kind of irked by Nozomi because his character and the writing is… pretty fat-shamey, but my main problem was the way his storyline feels incomplete. We learn he was in a cult but don’t ever really learn directly what they were about.

I maxed out all but two social links. Chihiro was left at rank 9 and Kazushi at rank 6. I consider that a pretty solid attempt at maxing for a first run.

I knew this going in (one of the few things I knew about the game before playing) that the male party members did not have social links. It’s still a bummer though, because I would have liked to spend more time with them and see them developed outside of the main plot.

And speaking of main plot. I did actually like the pseudo-science involved in the Dark Hour’s creation, I thought it was kind of neat to have a sort-of explanation for how the world with shadows came about (at least for this game).

The way I lost my mind when it was revealed that Ryoji was death… damn. It was a little predictable, because something was obviously weird with him but I was not expecting it to be that weird!

The whole end of the world final showdown is pretty standard JRPG stuff, so I don’t really have much to say on that plot point, but I have to admit I don’t really like the ending.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the idea of the protagonist sacrificing themselves is fine, even if it’s emotionally charged, I respect that as an ending. I’m more irked by the idea that the protagonist basically fought to survive a few months in order to fulfill his promise to meet the team on the school roof, just to die right before they all arrive (excluding Aigis). It feels like the ending doesn’t really give closure, to see SEES happy together after their success or alternatively have them grapple with the loss of their leader and friend.

Overall, I thought the gameplay was fun. Theurgy adds an extra little boost to your character’s strengths which was nice and helpful in speeding up some of the full moon boss battles (and cheesing the Reaper). People (and cats) getting lost in Tartarus adds an extra reason to explore Tartarus along with Elizabeth’s requests, making extra trips to Tartarus worth doing.

The music is fantastic, of course. Bangers all around, and I don’t think this needs any additional explanation.

So here’s my final thoughts/stats for the time being—I’ll be back to 100% it soon:

Persona 3 Reload

Achievement Progress: 85%

Play Time: 85:15

Rating: 8/10

Favorite Song(s): Master of Shadow, Mass Destruction, Burn My Dread - Last Battle

Favorite Character(s): Yuko, Ryoji, Mitsuru, Shinjiro, Koromaru

#persona 3 #persona 3 Reload #persona 3 reload review #persona #game review

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williamaltman · 2 years

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So. Gossip Girl ended. And now I want to talk about my ship! Makidrey! I would have done so anyways but I needed to even more since I promised I would a while back lol.

So, they broke up in the finale, Aki and Audrey stayed together despite their all for all or none for none promise, just like I predicted a while ago. Of course I'm not happy about it, but I'm glad that the showrunner already confirmed that Makidrey was the intended endgame at least. Like I know some people don't really consider Word of God, but I do, even if it's not the same as the thing actually being done and shown.

First of all, fuck Maudreys for making up fake leaks to mess with triad shippers. If it wasn't for y'all I would have worried less in the past few weeks, even though episode 8 (and 6/7 too kinda) actually made that seem plausible. Or idk, maybe you were the ones to fall for fake leaks and actually thought that would happen, which deserved.

It's actually hilarious how, after that, which made Maudreys and even others think they were going that route, in the next episode they went back to business as usual, with Max being the one feeling left out, which is in line with how the story was always framed. That helped me with predicting the finale would be more about whether the triad stays together or not, than Maudrey turning into a couple. Aki and Audrey are really joined at the hip.

Now, what I had wanted to talk about before this, which is: Episode 8, despite pointing out to Max and Audrey and Aki wanting out (because yes it would have been him wanting to break up, not Maudrey dumping him like their delusions lol), it actually showed why they wouldn't be so good as a couple. They're too messy, and Max can end up enabling Audrey's worst side.

I mean, I know some people don't care, and/or think Audrey was completely right about Julien, but clearly that was not what they were trying to say. They were obviously framing her whole plan to fuck over Julien at the store as the wrong thing to do, and Max helping her and saying "everything you did was out of love", while Aki had earlier in the episode told her to choose forgiveness and hoped she made things right with JC, shows how Aki is more in touch with what's actually healthier for her.

And that's why, not only Audrey, but both of them need him. Remember when Max had that whole thing with Rafa, and Aki was the one to look out for him and try to stop it? Max and Audrey are both chaotic, but thankfully Aki is there to be their voice of reason.

To be completely honest, had the shown gotten renewed, I think Maudrey getting together for angst and then realizing they need Aki would have actually been a better choice writing-wise! (though the hiatus would've been hell for me).

When they said they were cutting things I even wondered if Maudrey would be getting cut if the leaks were real. Akidrey having to realize they need Max is literally what season 1 was all about already! But well, since it got cancelled and this ended up being the series finale, I'm really glad they didn't. I'd rather Akidrey be the consequential "endgame" than Maudrey at least.

Honestly, I never thought people were really so against shipping poly ships before this. Makidrey was by all means the main ship of the show. Julien was THE main character but Jobie didn't get as much development as them, and their characters weren't as focused on the ship. I know their writing wasn't always the best, but it was ALWAYS, like from the trailer, obvious that they were meant to be, as a triad.

And they are, and they will be. Good for Akidreys I guess that they can consider them endgame, but it's so obvious from the episode, from the whole show, that the triad was the end goal. Idk why the sex was suddenly good again, but even that had happened randomly in 1B too, before they realized they needed Max. And even in Rome they still mention him, and are sad that they hurt him and that Max doesn't want to talk to them.

At the end of the day I'm still glad for this show, and for them. Goodbye GG. Makidrey forever. (not akimaudrey)

#makidrey #max x aki x audrey #aki x audrey x max #max wolfe #aki menzies #audrey hope #anti maudrey #gossip girl #gossip girl 2021 #gossip girl reboot #ggrb

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roseicicles · 1 year

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Looks at Aki. I have no idea how they do it. They can keep the KING JACK ATLAS at KING level but they still cant keep a competent female through arc-V. They either die, are humor only, or fade into obscurity sadly

Yugioh doesn't, and never has known how to write badass female characters. They either start out strong, or can be good, but all end up just being either non existent, or as you said, fade into obscurity.

Like lets go series by series.

OG Yugioh: Mai? Mai? The girl who basically lost most of her duels, was pretty much used as canon fodder. As in just to showcase Ra, and give reason for Joey's epic duel vs Marik. To then join up with the whole Dartz thing, only to then STILL feel like a poor duelist. Sure, she and Joey had an epic duel, but then after that....Meh. Then after that season she was g o n e.

GX: Alexis could've been a great character. She had links to the shadows through her missing brother, she was best friends with the school's top duelist. But after her good start, she gets captured lol. Sure, she does get her payback, but I swear, after that it's mostly downhill for her development. While everyone around her goes down a major path of development and character.

Another point going to Blair, cause what could've been for her. When you consider her Tag Force 3 deck. Imagine if she had Lightsworns in the show. She'd be a unit, but nah, she just became a cheerleader sadly, and a damsel during the Yubel later stages.

5DS: Honestly, the Blackwings are at fault here LOL. Akiza had such a grand opening, and then the second half/rest dropped the ball SUPER hard. Hell, you could argue all the females here had great starts, only for it to go downhill, or just nothing. Carly, Misty, Luna even((Mina doesn't count as she's just more a proper side character)). Of course later we had Sherry, whom we should've had a epic Sherry vs Aki duel one on one. But what did we get? Shery vs Aki AND Crow. Like least Jack having Leo and Luna made sense, as it was to set up Life Stream's birth from Power Tool, but jfc.

Zexal: Rio huh. Honestly like I said, she has a good opener, but then later just becomes basically worth nothing. Even when the big reveal happens. She's not threatening, or important. We also have Anna who had fucking trains, yet was barely used.

Arc-V: OK. Now here is where I first talked about it. Cause honestly, THESE FOUR GALS DESERVE BETTER. Yuzu has a good growth period, but after basically Serena takes her spot, Yuzu basically becomes NOTHING. While Serena kicks ass like a true badass, and becomes a great character. Her duel with Yugo is honestly one of my favorites. It helped her realize that maybe dueling can be fun. But what do we get after that? Oh, she's taken away in the most bullshit plot armor way, and mind controlled lmao. Rin and Ruri? We get told they're great through flashbacks, do we get to see it? Nop, they're controlled. Then the end, only Yuzu gets to be free basically. What a mess.

Vrains: How many times do you want to fuck Blue Angel/Aoi did you say? Like, what important duel did she win? Every important duel, she loses. She came off as a really good character, and everything good and cool they threw at her, they then decide to make her LOSE. I'm not saying she has to win to become relevant and good, but it just felt like she became a punching bag, and only Playmaker and later Soulburner COULD save the day.

Sevens: Sevens is more of kid Yugioh honestly, so I can't really expect too much from it, as comparing it to other series, yeah. Sevens isn't bad, just...Alright. Though I will say, it had some pretty good female characters. But like the dudes in this show, pretty average gdigsdidg. Will say though, Romin surprisingly had a positive dueling record. With 11 duels. One not shown, three loses, and SEVEN WINS. There are some notable characters too, like Luke's sister, and the construction crew girl. But in terms of what my post is mainly following, can't put that there.

Go Rush: Same can be said here tbh. Might be some 'nice' characters, but none fitting the mold.

I'm not making all this to say, 'oh the female characters are complete shit' when they're not. I love em for a reason, I just get so sad when their writing goes to sour shit, as if they get the rug pulled from under them, while the dudes continue forward, and get the lime light.

It's why if Yugioh ever goes serious again, I'd love a female lead. A female lead that would kick ass, and not go down a more forgetful or poor writing path like these have before.

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inkblackorchid · 1 year

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What the hell happened with Crow: an autopsy (Part 1)

*deep breath* Hiiiiiiii.

After sitting on this for ages, I finally decided to make the Crow post. And because this ended up getting stupidly long, I decided to turn this into part one of two, maybe three, we'll see (which I honestly should have done with the Aki posts too, but oh well). So let me quickly make it clear what I'm about here: This analysis is not meant to convince people who hate Crow to change their mind. It is also not meant to dissuade people who love Crow from doing so. Instead, I wanna look at how Crow was handled during the show (up until the end of the DS arc for now, I'll dive into the rest later) and give my own take on why he developed the way he did and turned into such a polarising character. Also, disclaimer, despite the fact that I'll be making an effort to analyse things objectively, I am a mere human and obviously not the one and only expert on all things 5Ds. My only claim to knowledge here is that I've watched 5Ds several times now, love the show and its characters deeply, and like to think I have a decent amount of media literacy. Also, I take no responsibility for the length of this post. Despite me splitting things up, it's stupidly, exhaustingly long. Like, very, very long. So. Let's hop to it, shall we?

Before I get into the meat of things, there's one more thing I would like to get out of the way: I know plenty of people, even now, so long after the show ended, would answer the question of "what happened with Crow, anyway" with something along the lines of "well Blackwings got so popular" or "well Aki's VA got pregnant so Crow stole her spotlight" and I need to burst some people's bubbles here because no. Neither of these things are true. Nor is the infamous "well Crow was meant to be the main villain", actually! And I could go into all of that here, but that would be a whole post of its own for each topic, and luckily, someone else has already done all of that work. I direct you to two posts over on Reddit from @mbg159, who did an absurd amount of digging to comprehensively disprove two of the 5Ds fandom's favourite scapegoat theories:

No, Crow was not meant to be a dark signer, and most certainly not the boss of the dark signers.

No, Aki being sidelined and suddenly having less presence in the narrative than him was not because her VA got pregnant.

I really don't want this to come off as an "assigned reading"-thing, but it is so, so important to keep these things in mind when looking at Crow, and honestly? I'm just tired of these rumours at this point. It's been 12 years since the show ended, we don't need to keep believing this nonsense. And the posts linked above aren't crackpot theories or anything of the sort—they provide sources all over and all of the links still work. If you still can't be bothered to read them (they are long, yes), then at least take away this tl;dr: Crow allegedly having been planned as a villain doesn't work because there is no evidence that supports it, and both his spike in screentime being caused by the Blackwings' popularity and him "taking Aki's spot" because her VA got pregnant make zero sense because they simply don't match up with the production timeline of the show. It is literally impossible for either of these things to be true. (And believe me, I am as mad as anyone that Aki got shafted, maybe even madder than the average fan, but if it doesn't add up, it simply doesn't add up and there were no regrettable outside influences, someone just actively made shitty writing decisions and that's that.) So please. It has been 12 years. Forget this stuff. Ditch it. Let it die. Because I'm not here to spin conspiracy theories, I'm here to analyse the writing of the show as best I'm able. Okay? Okay.

Now, for the good part. Shall we start with some facts? Let's start with some facts.

Crow is introduced to the audience in episode 30, shortly after the dark signers arc kicks off. And considering that he later ends up as one of the main characters, arguably even the third most important character in the show after Yusei and Jack, this immediately stands out. For reference, the rest of the signer group is introduced within the first 14 episodes of the show. Even Aki, who is the last signer to be introduced, takes less than half the number of episodes Crow does to finally make her debut. And I don't think you could blame anyone for finding this weird. 30 episodes, even in a show with a relatively short episode length like 5Ds, is an absurd amount of time for a protagonist to get introduced. As for how he's introduced to us...

We get the gist of his character pretty quickly. He's a daredevil, he's used to flipping sector security the bird (pun not intended), he's got a soft spot for kids, and he knows Yusei well—well enough for the two of them to tag-duel some security officers almost immediately after not seeing each other for an undefined amount of time, which, if you know anything about yugioh, says it all.

(Pictured: two lads getting up to Shenanigans.)

There is history there. These two know each other's decks. They know how each the other plays. They can work together immediately and seamlessly. This is a big deal. Aaaaannd... It immediately begs some questions: If this guy knows Yusei so well, and they are really close friends, why the hell is he only showing up now? Why wasn't he helping Yusei put together his duel runner? Why didn't he help him stick it to sector security at the start? Why weren't they in contact?

The thing is, the show never really answers any of that. At least not properly. We can only read between the lines as to why Crow wasn't with Yusei from the start. (At least in-universe. Irl, it's easy enough to guess that Crow was not there at the start of the show because the writers at first didn't think they'd be putting this side character Takahashi originally came up with into the show.) Which brings me to the Enforcers. (Side note: As a sub watcher, I know the Japanese name is Team Satisfaction and I know Kiryu's catchphrase works a million times better with that name, but "Team Satisfaction" will always sound like a boyband name to me and I like to mix and match the sub and dub names based on what I like better on an individual basis anyway, please bear with me.) And before I properly open that can of worms, I feel the need to point something out: After Crow made his debut in episode 30 and got the opportunity to show off his duelling a bit during episodes 30-31, we are immediately introduced to Kiryu/Kalin at the end of episode 32. What this means for Crow is that he has zero backstory at this point and his character had zero time to settle. His only tie to the main story, as far as the audience is concerned, is that he's Yusei's friend from however long ago, and aside from that, he's only got two other things going to endear him to viewers: 1. he stands up to sector security (whom the first season did a pretty good job of establishing as pigs) and 2. he cares for abandoned children. He gets a "Save the Cat" moment and a tie to the main character, and that's it. Just to put that into perspective, we know the most important points of all the other signers' backstories by that point. Jack and Yusei's deal is made obvious to us within the first five episodes; the twins, though the narrative largely only spares them breadcrumbs, anyway, at least have that bit about Ruka/Luna having been in a coma at one point and having a connection to the spirit world shown during episodes 18-19; and though it once again takes Aki the longest to reveal what she's all about, we at least have a good idea of why she is the way she is by episode 24, and we get the icing on the cake of her traumatic past during the narratively excellent duel in episodes 40-41 (no, I will never shut up about how much I love this duel). Plus, she arguably has the most complicated backstory, so it's no surprise that it takes longer to reveal. But here's where the Enforcers come in again.

(And here we see the arguably most deranged rat bastard of a man (affectionate) in the entire show. But hey, at least he has an exquisite sense for dramatics.)

As far as backstory for Crow is concerned, the Enforcers drama initially revealed during episodes 33-35 is as much as we get for him after his introduction. His later duel with dark signer!Bommer/Greiger during episodes 51-53 offers a bit more, but more on that later. First, I want to preface this by saying that I don't think it was a coincidence that Crow and Kiryu/Kalin were introduced so shortly after one another. Because at this point in the story, I think Crow's main role is to add a counterweight to Kiryu/Kalin. To Crow, whatever happened with the Enforcers was evidently not enough to break the friendship between him and Yusei—they're still close and get along well. And then we have Kiryu/Kalin—for him, whatever happened with the Enforcers was a big deal and he's more than a little resentful about it, to the point of wanting to murder Yusei in revenge. (It is also noteworthy that this is the first thing that ever calls Yusei's character into question, because here is a guy who evidently knew him well once and absolutely loathes him, and it's clearly not because of his Satellite upbringing, his marker, or any of the stuff the other antagonists up until this point hated him for. Yusei fucked something up here. Big time. But let's not get sidetracked.) So, what does the Enforcer drama tell us about Crow, anyway? Frankly, not much. We learn two things: One, same as Yusei and Jack, Crow was all for the "liberating Satellite"-thing at first. Two (and this one's way spicier), unlike Yusei, he had the guts to ditch Kiryu/Kalin when it became clear he was willing to go too far. He was even the first to do it. (And I'd argue that if Crow hadn't walked away, Jack wouldn't have, either, but the relationship between these two is a whole other funky can of worms.)

(I love how Yusei grabs him like a naughty cat every time Crow gets worked up.)

The thing is, I wish I could say this tells us something integral to Crow's character, but looking at the rest of the show... it kind of doesn't. Implicitly, it shows us that he draws the line somewhere, and where people he loves doing absolutely insane things is concerned, he does it sooner than Yusei. It's just that this is never brought up again. And as far as his introduction is concerned, this, the first dark signer!Kiryu/Kalin duel, and him rushing to get Yusei to Martha's on his runner is the last we see of Crow for a while.

(For the love of all that's good and holy, why on earth did he deposit Yusei on his runner like that, shrapnel-stab-wound-side down?? Did he pull out the biggest piece of shrapnel before doing this? How did Yusei's legs not drag on the asphalt? Why did nobody think to tie something around his stomach to slow down the bleeding? Ok I need to calm down I'm overthinking this)

After this bit, the signers are pulled centre stage for a while—which was to be expected, for one, and also seems like the right call, writing-wise. After all, they're the ones the audience expects to save the day. As far as viewers are concerned at this point, Crow is just Some Dude who happens to be good friends with Yusei. We've had characters like this before. Hell, the opening episode of 5Ds introduced us to a whole four of them, and for all we know, Crow could have a first been intended to be precisely that, just another Satellite side character, who just so happens to have ties to the Enforcers-debacle that the others don't.

However. Where the writing for Crow as a character, especially considering where he ends up later, is concerned, this looks like less of a smart move. Because the "set-up" (if you can even call it that) to make Crow a protagonist later is... shaky, to say the least. And I'll be frank with you, I'm pretty sure this is because Crow was intended to be neither a dark signer nor a signer (which the Reddit post about him I linked above also proposes). In other words, it was never meant to be set-up in the first place. Considering how the show developed and turned him into a protagonist later, though, I can't help but wonder how Crow could have been written differently to make him actually slot in well with the rest of the signers without stepping on many people's toes. But before we dive into hypotheticals, let's continue looking at what they did with him first.

We see him between episodes 30 and 35, and then he briefly poofs out of existence until episodes 43-44 where he... mistakes Yaeger/Lazar for a dark signer and has a duel with no outcome against him, which only barely serves to keep him relevant.

(The face of a dark mastermind, servant of an ancient, immeasurable evil. Truly.)

Though him outmanoeuvring the vice director despite all the data he has on him shows him to be a cunning duellist, it feels a bit like a throwaway episode, like the show saying "oh yeah wait don't forget that this guy's also there". Crow exists in the narrative—and gets to duel, which sets him apart from Yusei's other Satellite friends—but he does nothing to advance the plot, despite getting whole episode segments dedicated solely to what he's currently getting up to. He's just kind of there, and it doesn't help to set up any of what comes later, except the idea that he can and will fight a dark signer if he finds one, maybe. But the thing is, Crow vanishes after this duel. Literally.

(Run, bird boy, run! Or, uh... drive?)

And look. The way this moment looks? With the black fog literally catching back up to Crow on-screen? And with what he says, swearing that he won't die here, which is strikingly similar to how the other dark signers refused to die, swearing themselves to revenge instead? I get why people thought this would be the moment Crow died and turned into a dark signer himself. But the thing is, even without all the hints pointing to Goodwin instead of him from the start (Goodwin speaks about being willing to sacrifice Satellite within the first ten episodes, the condor is literally on his shirt, ffs, and the corresponding geoglyph is shown in the background when he talks about the Nazca Lines, I am not making this up), Crow becoming a dark signer makes zero sense because it doesn't fit his character. He has no motivation to become a dark signer, because the dark signers ultimately aim to destroy Satellite. And even with what little the audience knows about Crow at this point, it is crystal clear that Crow would never destroy Satellite, not to speak of sacrificing the children he cares for to summon an Earthbound Immortal. It simply doesn't work, because his character doesn't work like that. Crow is deeply protective of Satellite—as his devotion to making it better during the Enforcer days shows—and he is even more fiercely protective of the kids he takes care of. Destroying either or both to turn the world into a literal hellscape instead goes against everything we've seen him say and do up until this point.

However, this is where we have to address the refrigerator in the room.

(Ah yes. The fridge for Crow. The fridge for Crow that was there from the start. The fridge that Crow totally had the time to curl up and hide inside of. The fridge specifically for Crow. Crow's fridge.)

Every time I watch this moment, I don't know whether to laugh like a maniac or heave the biggest sigh of my life. Even when you're being extremely generous with the show and its writing, there is no getting around the fact that this is as though someone wrote DEUS EX MACHINA all across the screen in bold, red letters. And again, I get why people thought this was the moment where the writers decided to do a 180 and turn Crow into a good guy instead of a dark signer due to the popularity of his cards or whatever. The production timeline still doesn't add up, but I get it. And cards or no cards, you can tell that someone made an out-of-left-field decision in Crow's writing for this moment to exist, because the way things were going for him before, purely based on visual evidence, it looked more like he was going to be another victim of the ominous black fog here, for someone (presumably Yusei) to have an angsty moment about later. (Or, hell, perhaps somewhere around this point, they decided that the final boss duel against Rex Goodwin would be a 3v1 turbo duel, which Aki, despite being a kickass duellist, categorically couldn't participate in because she doesn't have a license at this point! It could have been as simple as that.) To contextualise this, between Crow vanishing and him reappearing here, 7 whole episodes pass. He vanishes in episode 44 and reappears in episode 51. His saving grace is that all the duels in between canonically take place within the same night, which is why it's technically not unrealistic for him to be stuck in a fridge for a few hours. Technically. Ok, but what does he reappear for? Well, to have his very own dark signer duel, of course.

(Not pictured: Bommer's hilariously large runner.)

This is the first time we get to see Crow actively contributing to the larger plot, and in light of where he ends up later, I think this duel does a world of good for him. Firstly, it offers us more backstory (though still less than for the other signers), establishing why Crow's so attached to his orphans, why he's so close to Yusei, and throwing in tidbits like how he learned to read from duel monsters cards. It's "Save the Cat" moments all over, and it also does two other things well: For one, this is the only dark signer duel we get where both parties technically have the exact same goal—revenge. Bommer wants to avenge his hometown, Crow his kids. This duel, more than anything else, shows us that Crow could have become a dark signer—in a world where doing so didn't also mean destroying Satellite and killing his kids. Plus, it's the only duel against a dark signer we get that is fought and won by someone who, at this point, is not a signer. And this is especially important to me because it supports themes the show already began establishing with Rudger/Roman Goodwin and continues much later with Team Ragnarok and the likes: Fate is bullshit, the future is not set in stone, it is determined by what we do here and now and we have to fight to make it better. Therefore, contrary to what "fate" would dictate, Bommer/Greiger is not beaten by a signer. He's beaten by Crow. This is an extremely solid bit of writing that 100% supports the show's themes. (Arguably, this duel might have been even more solid if Crow hadn't actually turned into a signer, because him as a non-signer who stayed a non-signer would have been an even bigger "fuck you" to fate than him becoming the replacement fifth signer later.)

And, well, we know where Crow ends up after that. Seeing as he's been freed from fridge-prison and seeing as Aki doesn't have a runner yet, but the final boss duel is set up as a turbo duel, he joins the fray next to Yusei and Jack to fight Rex Goodwin. And the only thing this duel does for Crow character-wise is bring the whole Daedalus Bridge story full circle.

Which. Let me swing back to that for a second and put on my extra big nerd glasses because wouldn't you know it, I'm a greek mythology nerd and when I hear the name "Daedalus", I perk up like a dog that just spotted a piece of ham.

(Pictured: The least OSHA compliant bridge in the world, probably.)

So. As not to derail this with greek mythology, the short version of the Daedalus myth, as far as it's relevant here, for people who don't know it: Daedalus was a famed architect of Crete, who (among other things) built the labyrinth that kept the Minotaur imprisoned. What he also built was a pair of functional, sort-of mechanical wings held together by wax (because he needed to make a quick getaway at some point, but let's not go there). And he had a son: Icarus. Who famously donned the wings his father built and flew too close to the sun, which made the wax holding the wings together melt, causing him to fall into the sea and die, leaving his father to grieve.

I don't think it's hard to see how the Daedalus-Icarus story connects to the bridge. The Daedalus bridge is named after the genius inventor, reaches into the sky towards the sun, and our mechanical wings in this case are the wings attached first to Rex Goodwin's duel runner and then, you guessed it, the Blackbird. This would lead us to liken Rex Goodwin, of all people, to Icarus, then. And I'd argue the comparison works, too. See, the reason for which Goodwin actually built the bridge at first is left completely up in the air. We know that Crow believes a version wherein the "legendary duellist" wanted to build that bridge to reunite Satellite and the city—and the thing is, for all we know, that might be true. Goodwin never contradicts it, he only claims he was doing it to "oppose destiny" (read: follow Rudger/Roman's plan to take his brother's mark, assemble the signers and fight and win against the dark signers instead of having someone bear both a dark signer and a signer mark on themselves).

(Since when does becoming a dark signer make people swole, anyway? Where was that beef when Kiryu became a dark signer?)

Perhaps along the way, he thought he might as well reunite Satellite with the city, since things were already going to hell there. (Before he became director, which I find very interesting. Did the city decide immediately after the explosion that Satellite was contaminated and needed to be isolated or some such? Were efforts made to reunite city people with their relatives who might now have been stranded in Satellite? Did MIDS, hoping to cover up their mistake, lobby for cutting the Satellite off from the city? Was corruption involved? So many questions...) Or perhaps he simply built the bridge for himself, to get back to civilisation in order to follow his brother's plan and everyone else just interpreted it differently. It matters little—the only thing that matters is how Crow sees it. To him, building the bridge was obviously an attempt to reach the city, despite how hopeless things in Satellite seemed, and Goodwin's final ditch effort to jump off the bridge and "fly" on his duel runner was an act of defiance that turned him into a legend. Most importantly, both these things connect to freedom for Crow. Freedom from the misery in Satellite, freedom from sector security, and arguably, freedom from destiny. But then Goodwin tells him that all building the Daedalus Bridge and jumping off it did for him was teach him that destiny is inevitable. And Crow calls bullshit, because of course he does.

And I'd argue this is even more of a reason why Goodwin works as Icarus: He jumped off the bridge (flew too close to the sun), fell and lost his arm (the wax melted and he crashed into the sea), and ultimately, that fall completely changed his outlook on life and turned him from a (possible) hero into a villain (he "died", metaphorically speaking). This led to him now confronting every hopeful, younger person with the outlook that fate cannot be altered unless you're willing to sacrifice your very humanity itself. And there's Crow, a non-signer partaking in a "destined battle" only signers are supposed to be part of, calling bullshit on all of that merely by breathing.

(Bird boy is angry, watch out)

This moment could have been exemplary to emphasising the show's later themes (and I think to those who love Crow, it is), yet, at the same time, I understand why some people think the writers fumbled the ball with his introduction and role in the plot and cast of characters too much for it to hit as well as it could have. There is also the argument to be considered that the whole Daedalus Bridge-thing, though it might thematically fit Satellite, feels like it could have been written in solely to prop up Crow's character and give him something to clash with Goodwin about. Which, you know. I can't refute that, really. It might have been. And the timeline on Goodwin's shenanigans as the legendary duellist is a bit wonky, too, unfortunately—after all, we know only that the Zero Reverse happened 17 years before the show's start, when Yusei is only a year old. Crow's story would then lead us to believe that Goodwin, after somehow surviving that explosion, stayed in Satellite long enough to see it start turning into a floating heap of junk. (Which means this either happened very quickly or it took him a good few years to start building the bridge; both options have some logisitical issues.) Then he builds the bridge, gets cornered by security, jumps off, and... Then what? He looses his arm (but somehow manages to hold onto his brother's??), somehow makes it over to the city anyway (wow, he must be a great swimmer), then... manages to get hired by the public maintenance bureau somehow, only to climb the ranks at record speed and become director within only a few years? (Or did he meet Iliaster first and they somehow helped him climb to the city's political top?) It's all rather nebulous, and does suggest that Goodwin was not originally written with this bit as part of his backstory in mind. But can I prove that? Nope. Might also just be another instance of the writers fumbling the ball, despite having a solid story outline.

At the end of the day, Crow closes out the dark signers arc by establishing himself as a part of our team of heroes—which is, of course, strongly emphasised by him receiving the dragon's tail mark, while the dragon's head switches over to Yusei.

(The Crimson Dragon, probably: Oh, sod it. Fine, the other guy went batshit and you actually helped. Here's your mark. I'll get you a dragon later or whatever.)

Now, I know this in and of itself was already a polarising moment for people—and the funny thing is, I know that even some people who like Crow hated this moment. And I can see why. Crow's whole thing during the latter half of the DS arc up until here was that he was the only one taking part in the destined battle who was decidedly not destined to be a part of it. He was repeatedly spitting in fate's face, and as I mentioned, this could have been brilliant to throw some weight behind themes the show later brings up again. So in terms of character writing, this moment might have undermined Crow's character, rather than supported it, because it feels like less of a reward and more of a "gotcha": If you're extra uncharitable, Crow suddenly isn't the guy who defied fate and fought for the future (does that ring a bell?) anyway, he's the guy who was supposed to become a chosen one anyway and, like Yusei during the start of the Fortune Cup, simply didn't have a visible mark yet. However. There is also the bigger picture to consider. Character writing aside, Rudger/Roman Goodwin dying would have had a rather sizeable impact on the story, had nobody else become a signer in his stead—because there are supposed to be five signers and Rudger/Roman dying would have seen the group short one chosen one (and short one dragon, but we'll get to THAT can of worms in part two). So, to add my two cents for a minute, I don't think adding a new signer was a bad idea, per se. The execution of this move, however...

And I can hear you yelling. "Rua/Leo should have become a signer instead". And yes. I get that, too. And yes, I know Life Stream Dragon was teased before Black-Winged Dragon was ever conceived of, probably. So yes, Rua/Leo should have become a signer earlier. The question is just where. Because the way this final boss duel is set up, nobody could become an additional signer before this point, it would have turned Rex Goodwin's whole shindig on its head. (Even though the duel against Dimak/Devack could have been a good opportunity to reward Rua with a signer mark early.) Arguably, making Rua a signer instead but letting Crow join the main cast anyway could have made for a stronger showing overall. It would have made the twins harder to sideline the way they were later. And it would have kept Crow's "piss on fate"-theme.

But. This is what we got. Crow got a fast-paced introduction, was quickly made as likeable as possible, had an unfortunate stretch of episodes where he vanished very suspiciously (what I wouldn't give to know what decisions were made among the writers in that period), came back to make a very strong showing against Bommer/Greiger and then participate in the final boss duel against Rex Goodwin, where he got to shove his fate-nonsense back in his face, too. A smooth character arc? Hardly. And with everything laid out like this, I get why he rubbed some people the wrong way. Similarly, I get why he's some people's absolute favourite, though. Both sides have a basis in canon. (But please, let's not justify either with decade-old production conspiracy theories, okay?)

To close this out, allow me to do my thing for a moment and imagine a 5Ds canon where Crow was handled in a way that allowed his character to shine more, and maybe not piss as many people off.

Imagine a Crow who was there with Yusei from the start, alongside Nerve, Blitz, Taka, and Rally. A Crow who was, maybe, angrier at Jack for leaving and stealing Stardust than Yusei was, and who was determined to help his friend get his dragon back. A Crow who still had his kids to look after, and who introduced us to the Daedalus Bridge legend way earlier, to establish it as an organic part of Satellite culture, and who maybe drops hints about the Enforcers earlier, too. And we switch back to him every once in a while as the Fortune Cup is going on. Maybe he's the only one who's slippery enough to outrun Yaeger/Lazar's people when they come to capture Yusei's friends in order to use them as blackmail against him. And he starts looking for them, and runs into Saiga/Blister, and learns what's going on over in the city. Maybe he tries to follow Yusei because all of it rings alarm bells for him, maybe he doesn't because he figures security will be too tight now that Yusei has escaped. Instead of them stumbling out of a container to find TV conveniently playing the Fortune Cup Finale, Yusei's friends are found by Crow, who gets them back to the hideout, where they all catch the finale with Saiga/Blister. (Optional: If we want him to stay a signer, maybe he gets a weird feeling while watching the finale.) Then Yusei's suddenly back and Kiryu/Kalin's introduction proceeds as we know it. Yusei's injured, but Crow sticks around for a little longer, leaving only once he knows Yusei's gonna be fine. Then he decides that he needs to take up arms against the dark signers, too, because like hell is he gonna let anyone destroy Satellite and sacrifice his kids. He can still duel Yeager/Lazar while Aki and Yusei are duking it out in the hospital and the signers learn what the hell being a signer means, it matters little. Maybe this time, he outruns the black fog—barely—and there's no fridge. And he realises that stuff makes people vanish. While the signers start their big battle, he races back to check on the kids and finds the same disaster we already know, and everything else from there on out proceeds as previously. (Except that maybe, the first time Crow sees Jack again, he has some choice words for him for legging it to the city and stealing from Yusei.) Whether he turns into a signer at the end or not is up to preference, I think.

Nobody has to be on board with this version, but this is probably how I would have adjusted it to make things less jarring.

For now, see you in part two.

#yugioh 5ds #crow hogan #ygo 5ds #5ds #rex goodwin #character analysis #yugioh meta #orchid rambles #oh sweet baby jesus this took SO LONG #AND NOW I NEED A PART TWO #BECAUSE I HAVE TOO MANY THOUGHTS #god damn #it's very late at night here but I just Had To Get This Done #anyway take it #here it is #I'll try my best to work on part two quickly but I have no idea when I'm gonna get done with that

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