#wheres that post 'yugioh is about love'

[shitpostingkats]

I just had to pause the episode I was watching and just like. Think about the Crimson Dragon.

Goodwin and Roman and Iliaster try to make it destiny, try to make it birthright, a forgone conclusion that the signers are who they are.

But it’s not.

It’s about love.

Jack and Yusei got their marks when they started to reconcile, when Yusei chose to love in spite of how he’s been hurt and reach out to reforge a connection. Yusei loves the world and Jack loves his family.

Akiza wasn’t fully a signer for the longest time, sure, the mark was there, but long inert in power. It didn’t glow, she wasn’t claimed by the dragon, until she relearned to love herself.

Crow got his when he stood up to his hero, when he sacrificed himself for his city and his kids, when he said “You don’t love the people who look up to you enough. I will.”

Luna doesn’t remember she’s a signer but she’s chosen by the dragon, she’s it’s protector. Luna is a signer because she loves the spirits, because she loves things, creatures, that are alien.

It’s why there can be more than five signers. It’s why Leo can become who he does and it doesn’t matter, he’s not breaking any rules or undermining destiny. That was a lie fabricated by the generation before them. Goodwin tried to quantify the signers; to make them few and easy to control. To make them think there was a hard cap on love. But that isn’t how this works. There’s no limit.

Love is not a finite resource.

[astralhope]

I’m trying to write something smart, but I look at him and my brain stops working because I fall in love with him again.

He’s really the most important character of all time to me.

[aliothbuzzsawshark]

what prescription glasses do you think Nail has

I hate to break it to you but I don’t have glasses and I know nothing about prescriptions.

I think Nail has shit eye sight though. One day someone will take his glasses and he’ll just immediately fall. Jinkies he can’t do anything without his glasses!

Or even funnier, they’re actually just worn for the vibes. Don’t think that’s the case, but the idea is stupid enough to make me chuckle

[aberooski]

I've been working really hard on Sons of The Stars (abby's version)(from the vault) the last few days and I'm serious when I tell you with the way it's going, if you've read SoTS before... no you haven't.

[the-kings-of-games]

If you're still doing the sending in of opinions, we should've had another zexal character in arc-v. I liked seeing Kaito as much as the next guy but I feel we missed the opportunity to send in one of the others. Pardon my use of the English names- grew up on the English dub and forgot the Japanese names- but I feel it would have been cool to include Cathy or even one of the Arclights. Or they add in Haruto as an actual character instead of someone shoved to the side- seeing how the others interact with Haruto would've been cool

No worries, bud, I use dub names out of love and spite.

Idk if you saw my reply on the first Arc-V opinion, but again dead horse. (Send me something a bit more interesting, or relatviely new take. Conspiracy theories, lol.) Arc-V's plot was too big for the runtime, and they spent way too long on the Synchro Dimension.

But still, the Xyz Dimension arc was kinda written tightly, idk how you'd add in another character without diverging from the main plot—Kite already Shay, Yūto, and Lulu as their fiend, so they all personal stakes fighting each other. Add Cathy to do what? As much as I love her, she's a gimmick character. The Arclights? Their whole thing took, like, a whole arc or two in the original series, Arc-V don't got time for that, lol.

I will say that it would've been nice for them to show Hart at least once (and also Faker), but would it really add anything too? Honestly, with how they handled legacy characters—erasing their original histories, not including other characters and thus erasing their bonds (this is really important here, especially with the 5D's legacy characters which makes me Big Sad™)—maybe it's better they didn't show him, kek.

At least we got the Tyler sisters. 😩

I'm bored, send me your YGO opinions(s) and let me judge you!

[lewiscarrolatemybrain]

So I’ve got an idea for an AU where Luffy is actually factually the reincarnation of Nika and not just Joyboy’s successor (Nika being a true deity loved people but couldn’t understand them so he ripped part of his being off and turned it into a soul and that soul was Joyboy and then that was a whole thing — not central to this post don’t worry about it)

And one of the key parts of that au idea is that Joyboy lies dormant within Luffy and after Luffy wakes him up Joyboy occasionally takes him over. Not really in a possession sense but more in like a Yugioh kinda way?

And honestly? I think it would be hilarious if Joyboy just. Hates Shanks.

Joyboy was a grown ass adult when he died. Joyboy had a wife and two kids. Joyboy heavily hardcore extremely disapproves of basically all the fathers in One Piece, but Shanks is the worst of the bunch cause Luffy’s not even his kid! He doesn’t even have a right to be using Luffy! And here he is, kicking back with his fucking pirate buddies while Luffy does the dirty work. Good intentions or not Joyboy is Not About The Child Endangerment.

(Garp also absolutely gets a visit from Catch D Hands when Joyboy first meets him.)

But other than the catharsis of watching all of One Piece’s awful parents get got mostly I’m amused by the idea of Luffy and Joyboy fighting like cats in a sack whenever the topic of Shanks comes up because Luffy will insist until he’s blue in the face that Shanks was good to him when he was young and that’s TRUE but it’s also NOT THE POINT LUFFY

[a-little-bit-of-ravioli]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @the-real-azalea-scroggs! Had to wait until I was of my phone because doing these is a nightmare on mobile lmao

1. How many works do you have on A03?

18 as of a few days ago!

2. What's your total A03 word count?

157,937! Which is. Only a fraction of the word count in my Docs folder. Be prepared.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I mainly write for The Legend of Zelda; specifically Linked Universe! In fact, that's all that's posted on my Ao3 currently, since my fall into that fandom began with me uploading there! Pre-Ao3 I wrote for Black Cat (Anime/Manga), Megaman NT Warrior, various Pokémon things, Assassin's Creed, Yugioh, Final Fantasy XIV and Octopath Traveler! Some of these I still write privately, but I haven't gotten around to re-posting any.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Whistling on Deaf Ears - My longest fic on Ao3, focusing on Wild and Twilight's friendship and how good intentions can lead to disaster.

Iconoclasm - Warriors deals with the room full of portraits in Cia's palace. The Chain also deals with it, but with a bit more fire.

Deserving - Twilight finally tells Rusl that he was the wolf in the village during TP, but that also means dealing with some heavier topics. Colin half overhears them and forms his own conclusions.

Something Greater - The start of the "Hyrule can see magical auras" series! In this one we deal with Legend and his many rings.

Ocean Magic - Mermaid Legend and Zora Time have a race and then fight one of the Big Octos from WW! Fun times.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Every single one!! I love comments, they give me an excuse to ramble about my fic more!! I am always down to ramble about every single insignificant detail of any line and/or section. If you ever want more background info about one of my fics, look to the comments!

So please, I adore comments, I treat them like treasures, not responding to them would be a CRIME.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

There's no contest; Inevitable, my (so far) only MCD fic.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmmm, that's hard to quantify. I usually try to end fics on a hopeful note regardless. I'd say possibly either Deserving, where Twilight reconnects with his family, or Shimmering Blue, Striking White, where Time meets the Fierce Deity settled down on Satori Mountain and they both get closure.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully, no! I've been blessed with mostly amazing and patient readers, even when my upload schedule isn't the best.

9. Do you write smut?

No, not really. I've attempted it, but I'm too asexual for it lol

10. Do you write crossovers?

Very, very rarely. Mostly privately, and only very specific ones. Only a single one has had an actual plot, so far (more on that one in question 15!).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Also a nope! I tend to write for smaller fandoms, where these things don't tend to happen a lot!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have! But it's been a while. Over a decade, in fact! I tried to find the fic to link it here, but it was on the German fanfic website fanfiktion.de, and my friend who posted it back then must have deactivated her account, because it's nowhere to be seen (I still have the Word file though!). It was a Multi-Crossover that started as an RP in a forum, and we took turns turning the RP into prose one chapter each. "If a Hero Turns to Dark" was its title. We were edgy teenagers.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Hissssss. Bad question. Shoo. They are all equally important!!

But it's probably TenRose from Doctor Who.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

One of the very few crossovers I've ever worked on; a crossover fic between Assassin's Creed and Doctor Who, that I have mapped out in both chronological and timeline order, and yes, those are different. I only ever wrote about a quarter of it, since my primary audience of it disappeared when we graduated. I doubt I'll ever pick it back up properly, and if I do it'll probably go through heavy rewrites first since it's so old. Finishing it is a nice thought, but realistically, after 9 years it'll never be high priority enough for it to actually happen.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, especially arguments, and emotional impact. I've been told I do really well making characters feel alive and believable! Also I like to believe I'm decent at setting a scene and giving it the vibe I want it to have!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I struggle with dialogue tags when nothing much is happening besides the talking. I always feel it's too bland, and fall back on the same phrases. My scene transitions could use some work too.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I've done this with Japanese phrases, because I was a massive weeb. Usually I followed them up with their own translations, though; I'm not the biggest fan of footnote translations, unless they are properly linked to. Simple dialogue tags are my favourite way of indicating a language switch.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Black Cat the Manga/Anime! It's a series about an assassin turned bounty hunter trying to live a life separate from his murdery past, but getting dragged back into things by still wanting to avenge his best friend's death. The series has a special place in my heart and my bookshelf, it left an imprint on 13-year-old me that will never leave.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Probably Jailbreak, uncharacteristically enough! It's one of the only fics I never got stuck in once. Writing it was a great feeling from start to finish. I love writing all of my fics, but that was a special few days.

Tagging @ahrva @nowhere-to-go-but-down @silvercaptain24 and @aeghina! And anyone who wants to do it, really, go wild

[pikahlua]

Winner Stage-Left, or: Did you know any MHA character’s position in the frame is a spoiler?

(Subtitle: Who’s gonna stop me from converting other old Discord conversations into meta? You? YOU? Doubtful.)

Honestly it’s just embarrassing that I haven’t made this post yet.

I’ve talked before about horizontal and vertical design on the faces of MHA characters, but there’s another visual trick that’s ever-so-present in MHA--nay, in all of shounen manga and anime--that deserves at least a cursory discussion. Ever since I was a wee tyke, I noticed an odd tendency in anime to always place the winner of a fight (or...children’s card game) on the right of the screen. I never thought anything of it for a long time, but a few years ago a friend mentioned something about it to me in passing. This friend was very unfamiliar with anime but had somehow heard something about this phenomenon and its potential origins. Naturally, I had to look into it.

The research I did wasn’t as conclusive as I would have liked, but I did discover something about the topic. What I discovered was that in traditional forms of Japanese theater such as kabuki and noh, stage-left is considered a superior position to stage-right. Someone of a superior ranking to the other would stand stage-left. Sometimes this “superiority” would be as simple as social ranking or whatever.

But then you have various anime with confrontation via martial arts or sports or fights where "stage-left" can take on a different meaning.

As we explore this concept as presented in MHA, I would like to start with this back cover of tankoban #33.

For clarity’s sake, note that Izuku is looking towards the right of the page while Katsuki is looking to the left side. Stage-left is determined by looking to the left of an actor when they stand on stage and face the audience (in other words, from the audience’s perspective, stage-left is to the right). Izuku and Katsuki in the above page are facing each other, and so on-screen Izuku would be standing stage-right and Katsuki would be standing stage-left.

But what does it all mean?

(It means Katsuki is the hero in this moment.)

I wrote above that in anime confrontations "stage-left" can take on a new meaning. Specifically, the concept of what "superior ranking" is can be played with. We end up with the story’s hero often being stage-left. Or sometimes this positioning is broadcasting who will be the winner of the match. Go watch an older anime like Dragonball Z or Yugioh and take note of each match-up: who is standing on the left and who is on the right? Then guess who wins the match. The statistics are pretty clear on this: stage-left is most often (if not always) the winner.

But in many of these older anime, the positioning of the characters remains the same for the entire match. That’s not the case with MHA; Horikoshi loves to change up who is standing where throughout a match (or dialogue, if you will), so it’s important to pay attention to what’s happening when positions get swapped around.

With regards to the above image and the events of Deku vs Class 1-A, consider who is positioned where and when. Just think about these images:

Here in chapter 319, Izuku is stage-left. The depiction is supposed to prime us to believe he is stronger than Class 1-A, which technically he is--in a contest of each individual’s strength.

But then if you read chapter 320, you'll find that once the action starts, Class 1-A is almost always standing stage-left of Izuku, specifically when they're trying to talk him down.

The whole ice ramp chase sequence in chapter 321 shows Izuku fleeing towards stage-right while the others are stage-left and chase after him.

And then you have this moment, where Iida passes Izuku just to get more stage-right of him. This is an interesting way to play with the “winner” side of the stage. In order to save Izuku, Iida is elevating him from the self-destructive “Symbol of Peace" back into Izuku Midoriya their classmate. Izuku, their friend and one piece of class 1-A, is meant to be the “hero” they wish to save, not the loner Deku whom Izuku tried to become.

And then we get to think about what this staging means in the apology.

Katsuki stands stage-left, which we’d expect him to do as the forecast "winner." But this is such an interesting take on staging because Katsuki is essentially debasing himself by bowing to Izuku with his apology--but it’s in order to win, in order to get Izuku back, in order to achieve his goal of saving Izuku. It's almost paradoxical, but it's basically broadcasting to us the reading audience whom we should be cheering for: Katsuki.

This isn’t the first time MHA has played with positioning like this. The sports festival is one of my favorite examples. If you look at how the anime depicts the match-ups and who wins each match, the matches can be listed in stage-right vs stage-left format (bold names are the winners):

Midoriya vs Shinsou Todoroki vs Sero Kaminari vs Ibara Iida vs Hatsume Ashido vs Aoyama Yaoyorozu vs Tokoyami Kirishima vs Tetsutetsu (draw) Uraraka vs Bakugou

Tetsutetsu vs Kirishima (arm-wrestle tiebreaker)

Midoriya vs Todoroki Ibara vs Iida Ashido vs Tokoyami Kirishima vs Bakugou

Iida vs Todoroki Tokoyami vs Bakugou

Bakugou vs Todoroki

And if we take a closer look at the anomalous stage-right winners:

Midoriya vs Shinsou ends with Midoriya's victory, but Shinsou is portrayed as the hero we should sympathize with in the end. Thus, he wins the attention of Aizawa and the audience enough to give him a shot at the hero course, which fulfills his original goal in competing.

Todoroki vs Sero ends with Todoroki's victory, but the end is perceived by Midoriya as "sad," and the audience ends up cheering for Sero when it's all over. Todoroki is still a captive of his hatred for his father, and in that sense he is the loser.

Iida vs Hatsume ends with Iida's win on a technicality. Hatsume clearly has control over the entire match and only loses because she wants to, and even then only after she presents all the gadgets she wanted to, which achieves her goal in competing.

Ashido vs Aoyama can be considered an outlier with Ashido's win until we remember Aoyama as the unwitting traitor may have actually wanted to lose? Either that or this fight is meant as a joke to subvert our expectations because of Mineta's call to see Ashido's underwear at the start. Either way, even if Ashido starts on stage-right, she actually swings her way over to stage-left for her surprise victory at the end.

And then we have Bakugou vs Todoroki, which actually becomes Todoroki vs Bakugou as soon as the story makes it clear to us that Torodoki is wavering on whether or not he'll use his fire. Bakugou switches over to stage-left before the end, and the final non-clash keeps him there, even if that's not how he wants things to play out (he certainly would have a hard time considering himself the “winner.”)

Another one worth rewatching while keeping this positioning phenomenon in mind is absolutely “Deku vs Kacchan, Part 2.” Holy shit, they swap places so damn often, and it's always about what they're saying or doing in the moment.

What’s wild is how in the manga, this sequence is played with Katsuki stage-right...

...but in the anime he’s played as stage-left.

And just think about how that affects the portrayal. In the manga version, is Katsuki being portrayed as a victim who needs saving by hero (stage-left) Izuku? Is Katsuki’s despair the trial for the hero to overcome? In the anime version, is Katsuki’s anxiety meant to be relatable and sympathetic for the audience? Is Izuku’s ignorance of Katsuki’s true feelings the obstacle for hero (stage-left) Katsuki to overcome?

Stage-left is even played with when the boys are airing their grievances! Whoever is speaking gets to occupy the hero spot:

And of course there’s my favorite example from this face-off: the ending where stage-right Katsuki, refusing to lose, grabs Izuku's sleeve and forcefully switches them around to pin Izuku from stage-left.

We have a winner!

These examples, of course, are not the entire list. Read the chapters or watch the episode and count how many times they swap places. It puts that whole sequence in the anime where the camera swoops around the boys as they clash in the sky into a whole new perspective (like the story-boarders just gave up on all the position swaps and pulled out the 3-D graphics in protest.)

So give it a shot next time you read/watch MHA and see if you notice these positions. I obviously pay the most attention to the ones with Izuku and Katsuki (their stage positions get played around with a lot). Consider the first anime opening when they're drawn in one positioning as kids but swap when they hit middle school. And the creek flashback scene? Izuku offers his hand to Katsuki from stage-left. And in the PLW arc? Izuku vs Tomura in the sky? Izuku starts out stage-left, but they swap when Izuku goes feral and Katsuki starts panicking. Katsuki saves Izuku by traveling from stage-left. In the final panel of chapter 285, we see Katsuki still positioned stage-left as he’s stabbed, which highlights his heroism.

Oh, and here’s the new part I’m adding that wasn’t in the Discord conversation that spawned this meta: Katsuki vs TomurAFO. I just find it so telling wherever Katsuki is positioned.

Chapter 359: Katsuki is portrayed as stage-left.

Chapter 360: Katsuki is forced stage-right by TomurAFO...

...but the heroes pluck Katsuki back into stage-left...

...where he stays.

Chapter 362: Katsuki attacks from stage-left and continues to circle around TomurAFO to stage-left.

Katsuki is depicted as stage-left as he meets All Might’s vestige...

...but as soon as he expresses his desire for an autograph, he unexpectedly moves to stage-right...

...and takes a fatal blow.

Talk about a visual plot twist!

(I also happen to think Tomura’s positioning throughout this arc is very curious, and I will continue to pay attention to it.)

Have fun with the new lens!

[kaibacorpintern]

I sense an impending category 5 fandom event (Yugioh DM favorite ship poll), so to spare us all some pain and annoying discourse and bloodshed over several weeks, I've run a simulation of how it would go. let's assume it was seeded correctly and powerhouse ships get pitted against rarepairs in the first round, but this does not mean we're short on surprises.

discoursebait ships like scandal, toon, and tabloid get swept immediately. voters who are not bakurae get confused between gemship, angstship, thiefship, deathship, and citronship and vote for what they think is one ship, but is actually some other ship, bc the poll mod forgot to put the character names in the polls and they get lots of anons about it. dragon is taken out by wish. kiddyship and siblingship are matched up and you can choose whoever you want to win, bc it doesn't matter. gets obliterated by pride in the next round. There is brief but intense discourse around calling it "puppy" or "violet" or "joukai" or "kaijou." the poll mod gets annoyed and just calls it "kaiba/joey" in perpetuity. visionship makes a valiant effort before falling in the round of sixteen to whichever bakurae ship pulled out of the initial bloodbath, sweating and spitting blood.

Rivalship trots along at a strong and respectable pace, but ultimately falls to violetship because violet have had the ship propaganda game on lock for decades, and rival is a post-DSOD new wave resurgence ship. Ships that pair Kaiba with a woman (mizu, azure, blue, trust) have very few but very devoted fans who lovingly write heartfelt propaganda, but this is a shounen series for teenage boys, so we're fighting a doomed, sisyphean battle here. ergo, every kaiba/woman ship gets steamrolled. however, "crack" ship Kaiba/Kaiba (moneyshipping) gets the single best written propaganda - loving, insightful, and deeply profound (It's not crack. It's real to ME). sealshipping and kingshipping fight to the death. whoever wins loses to stubbornshipping, because i want stubbornshipping to win at least one round. we make passive aggressive vague posts. we rally the ship discord servers. we send DMs to our trusted mutuals and besties: HOWWW did this ship LOSE TO THAT ONE?!?!?!! WHERE IS THE JUSTICE?

regardless, the polls continue. Puzzle eats up literally everyone on its way to the final four. prideshipping reaches the round of eight, after defeating peach, due to posts escaping fandom containment, but falls to puzzle, in a crushing blow to me personally. This is an honorable death. In all honesty I completely forgot about heartship. if you ship this, you can pretend it did really well, but then it lost to a ship you also like, so you're pretty satisfied overall. If you don't ship this, you don't have to think about it.

In the final four violet loses to puzzle. The bakurae ship falls. this leaves puzzle, a worthy and beloved ship, facing off against the final contender: keg.

[mirpuzzle]

You know those two grown men that hang out with Ghost whose names I can never remember? Who are they and why are they hanging out with a 15 year old? Did they meet at Duelist Kingdom and after being betrayed by Keith they just decided to stay friends? Are those his cousins? His dads? Just some friends of his?

I'm asking you because I think you're the only one who has even the slightest idea who those guys are and why they're hanging around Ghost.

Hello! ✨ I'm glad you ask, because I love those two, and they rarely get any attention from the fandom, except for a few devoted fans. I hope you don't mind long posts TwT I'll write everything under the cut.

My guess is that the three of them met at Duelist Kingdom when Bandit Keith brought them together. However, I like to think they could've been friends before that. After all, there's so little information about them that we practically are forced to make up headcanons.

In the manga, that's the only time they appear. They weren't with Kotsuzuka during his Duel against Yami Bakura.

I'm glad they did stay together in the anime. Unlike when they followed Bandit Keith's orders, Kotsuzuka's gang seems to have no leader. They treat one another as equals, so much so that they were okay with working together to get at least one of them to the Battle City finals. It would mean achieving what they couldn't at Duelist Kingdom because of Keith. I see them as close friends.

The red-haired one is Kiyoshi Takaido, or Sid in the dub. His full Japanese name is shown in the episode where we see their rarest cards.

Takaido seems like the kind of friend who backs you up from afar. He doesn't talk much compared to the others. However, he can have an explosive personality, and has no problem with provoking others. He can be a bit of a coward, too. We didn't get to see enough of him. I think his character holds great potential to explore in terms of trust, bonds, and self-improvement.

His rarest card being Firewing Pegasus, along with his hair being red and shaped like a flame, has led many of us to assume that he could be a Pyro/FIRE duelist.

The black-haired one is Satake, or Zygor in the dub.

The scene I mentioned earlier doesn't last long enough to show his first name. However, he may actually have one. I plan to make a post specifically about this in the future.

Satake seems to have experience fighting, so I wonder if he tends to get into fights often or what kind of past he carries. He's shown to be very supportive of Kotsuzuka. I like to see him as the protective one, and the one who keeps the group together.

Due to his rarest card being Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon, and the shape of his hair, many of us assume he plays a Thunder Dragon deck, or specializes in Thunder monsters.

I doubt they have canon ages. We are lucky they even have names in the anime, since they were nameless characters in the manga. They could be 20, or they could be 17. Who knows? I guess we'll have to resort to headcanons, much to my disliking.

With Yugioh, there's no way to tell a character's age based on their appearance alone. Tell me about it. I frown every time I see someone assume Kotsuzuka is 10 or something just because he's short. Sometimes I want to yell 'Kotsuzuka is 15, people, fifteen!!!' at them. He's only 1 or 2 years younger than Yugi's group.

This is one of the reasons why I like to imagine Kotsuzuka, Takaido and Satake as childhood friends. If that's not the case, meeting for the first time at Duelist Kingdom, getting along, and then bonding after Keith's betrayal (like you said) also works.

Thank you SO much for the ask! I love these three guys with my life, and I could talk about them for hours.

[gramarye]

really really long post where i just talk about johan from yugioh gx thank you

im thinking about johan tonight bc i was drawing him and i wanna talk abt him. bear with me. I REALLY LIKE JOHAN . TO START THIS OFF WITH i have an official licensed johan "WHERE AM I" shirt and i adore it its really funny also i used to have like a johan pin i bought from a german anime store and it was like 8 euros but i shipped it off to my friend who is really really crazy about johan

^johan where am i shirt

anyway johan. jessejohan. i like johan so much believe me he is my nordic scandinavian brethen i just think his writing has issues mainly that he has like no real relationships outside judai and like. i know as a gay person -- i am literally a lesbian In A Lesbian Relationship In Real Life -- that characters will become more likeable when they're queer coded bcuz its Different and its relatable. however i think his writing is kind of really weak and i quote this thing my friend said in 2022 like a lot

HARD TRUTHS TO SWALLOW jesse is a beautiful damsel in distress and his personality outside jaden and crystal beasts is kind of nothing. i love him tho

but the most offensive thing abt it writing wise is like in season 4 when they duel against trueman sorry it was fujiwara. okay i was rewatching gx ages ago and my ex was watching it with me and it was her first time seeing it and shes a literature major and when the whole. "what is the darkness in johan's heart" scene, AFTER IT WAS ESTABLISHED EVERYONE, EVERY STUDENT INCLUDING MANJOUME SHO ASUKA O'BRIEN ETCETC has darkness in their hearts,

my ex goes "if they reveal that he has no darkness in his heart because hes such a special boy im going to be so fucking mad because hes already a mary sue" (HER WORDS NOT MINE she was so mad about johan its funny.) AND THEN THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY DO

like he is literally too perfect. his only flaw is his one (1) time thing about getting lost which is never really brought up again (also its more of an endearing haha funny thing and yes i like it i have a shirt referencing that scene.) and the fact that.. he gets taken over i guess.

i do think the switch around where they bamboozle fujiwara is really funny. it is a funny scene i just wish they literally didn't do it at the cost of "johan is a perfect person without any mental weaknesses when literally every single other character has some flaws" I DONT GET IT!!!

maybe he can just photosynthesize his worries into strength i dont know. does anyone remember that meme

but really like WHAT IS JOHAN WITHOUT JUDAI!!!! why is he literally perfect and above other characters also. why could they not give him any darkness like What possible reason does that serve except me think he is BORING!!!! i do like johan btw as i said i really do. i just think his writing kinda sucks and people are way too nice on johan because he is queer coded but the fact is his writing is really weak. this isnt exclusive to johan ok i also dislike some aspects of jadens writing and asukas and so forth (naming characters i really like to prove my point) I AM CRITICAL this is just. about johan. ok.

and this brings me to the weirdo youtube essayists who only care about s3 and think its the peak of gx and yugioh in general and also. ONE SUCH YOUTUBER. WHO SAID IT IS "HOMOPHOBIC" THAT JESSE IS SOUTHERN IN THE DUB WHICH. WHAT?

you think all southern people all homophobic??? im sorry but i know so many goddamn queer people in thhe south. are you out of your mind. please blow up. LET HIM BE A GAY TEXAN you are just showing your own prejudice literally why did so many gx fans eat up "umm it was homophobic of 4kids to make him southern" they give like everyone accents. he has cowboy boots in his design. its not homophobia hes just southern and southern gay people exist. watch brokeback mountain or something

anway

i think johan is a much more interesting character if you incorporate his manga counterpart into it. like combine him with his anime self and it'd be really fun. his bug enthusiasm in the manga is fun like he has an actual hobby and personality. ADHD bug king

also i think personally they should lean into him being scandinavian more. ITS FUNNY. i think he should try to feed manjoume blodplättar because he looks anemic. he should open a can of surströmming around asuka (canonically very much hates food with strong smells) and she gets so upset she has to like leave the building entirely. she should get into a cultural dispute with o'brien because he thinks carola's swedish cover of mickey is better than toni basil's original

i think this and like. septembers mikrofonkåt is what he should listen to. swedish pop baby

anyway. i like johan i just think Some of his fans are insane and thats why i need to take him down a peg every now and then . in a loving bully way. also hes very gender to me dont worry about it. also TWO different people have said some variation of the "fuck danganronpa and its fans i hope komaeda marries a woman" post about him to me in different years which is so funny.

anyway yes i love jessejohan. send post

[cyberdragoninfinity]

if youre doing the ask game

🔥

unpopular opinion for seto motherfucking kaiba? mayhaps? blease?

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

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

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

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

[feretra]

ETA: It was brought to my attention by a few very lovely folks that I wasn’t entirely clear about a key point in this post. So before you go any further, allow me to eliminate any confusion about that: I only became aware of Sam’s behaviour after terminating my friendship with her. Much of this comes from deep dives into tags and from google, based on the usernames provided in her previous callout. If you have any other questions or experiences with Sam, you are welcome to reach out to me.

I wasn’t going to do this. It’s the holiday season, and I have limited energy stores, but if I am going to be stalked and gaslit to this extent solely for putting up a boundary? I may as well get a swing in. Because this is what I’m dealing with, and have dealt with, when I simply tried to part on amicable terms:

The person behind this behavior is breadandbloodybutter — otherwise known as Gig, otherwise known as Samantha — and they have years of extremely dubious behaviour, but they tend to delete their accounts and remake them often so that much of it gets expunged from tumblr and doesn’t follow them. But if you dig deep enough into the archives, you can find hints of what was there.

Sam enjoys writing as or with villains, which is not intrinsically a problem in and of itself. The actual problem? Is that Sam writes writes some extremely questionable roleplay content that should be trigger warned at absolute minimum because it is full of noncon, dubcon, graphic torture, multiple forms of abuse, grooming, murder, cannibalism, and other deeply concerning topics. She has even cosplayed as a murdered kid. There were some hints that I could not fully corroborate — because like I said, so much of her past history is repeatedly deleted that it exists in fragments — but there are implications that some of these topics may have been written with minors. Given the fandoms Sam is in besides Baldur’s Gate tend to be skewed towards a teen to young adult demographic (Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss, FNAF, Stephen King’s It, Yugioh, Dragonball), that is not surprising.

But weren’t you and Sam friends? We were. Until Sam used one of her many accounts to share posts about how crushing tracheas under a boot heel and fucking people with loaded guns was sexy (I cannot believe I just typed this out, oof.) As an Indigenous person who has survived extreme violence towards my person that has nearly taken my life, and having seen how it has generationally impacted the people around me, I decided to use this incident as an opportunity to inform everyone who follows me that I did not want to see that sort of violent fetishization on my dash. They can totally post it — especially if you have characters into wackass shit — but please make sure it is tagged adequately and liberally so that people who have gone through similar traumas and know their limits don’t run the risk of being triggered randomly on a Tuesday at 1pm when they’re just trying to enjoy their day.

Sam reached out to me and tagged her posts and I thought we had solved this. Apparently we hadn’t, because Sam was running her mouth not only to other people about this, but on her personal where she was making herself a victim. While missing the point and also telling way too much on herself, because I never once said she was a shitty person. What I was talking about, is how posts like those do not exist in a vacuum. If you can have the privilege to say “oh, this is entirely fictional,” then you live in a world where your body has not become sexualized or a vehicle for violence solely by existing. This is what was being said to me:

And this is what was going on where she thought I couldn’t see it:

( This is now deleted, but it was followed up with similar posts reblogged from other people about how it is okay to engage with problematic topics in media, etc. Which is completely missing the forest for the trees. A nice accompaniment to… )

This post, made yesterday, came a whole three minutes after I finally broke my silence and pointed out that befriending racists who explicitly hated us was an even worse look than whatever it was that was preceding it. Because guess what Sam has done now. But that’s jumping ahead a bit, I think. Because I did give Sam another chance for a few weeks after that debacle. She just completely blew it within a couple weeks to once again write some pretty questionable content. Because hey, posting untagged torture porn is fun, right? And then joking about it?

So @laceratiio and myself both tried to part ways with Sam. Quietly. We even gave her our reasons for why. Sam even seemed fine with this. I don’t have Mirza’s on hand, but here’s mine, for the sake of transparency.

( I’m leaving the topmost part of this clipped off because it details my trauma and I’ll spare yall that without your consent. That’s not what you’re here for. )

Cue, uh, Sam stalking the shit out of @laceratiio and I for the last few days? Just relentlessly. Which apparently is not a new thing, according to the Sam Archives, if it’s anything to go by:

I have roughly forty plus images I have saved in my folder of receipts about Sam at this point. They range from her not understanding how she is manipulating the people around her:

To straight up joking about noncon with the implication being about minors:

And a lot of wanting to be the victim in any given situation, even though she is the one antagonizing people who are just wanting to be left alone —

Is this meant to be a callout? I don’t know. I don’t know what the fuck this is. I just see a lot of red fucking flags about someone I once called a friend because they hid a lot about themselves and I think I want to warn people, honestly. That’s what I think this is. If I have to otherwise lose my sanity over the course of this goddamn weekend.

Reblog if you want. It’s up to you.

[aberooski]

Fuck it.

Random Yugioh GX headcanon dump!

I've posted about some of these at various points in the past in more detail but yknow 😌

All in no particular order of course, just the order they pop put of my brain lol

Syrus is actually really smart, but school is hard for him because of anxiety

Alexis is the spitting image of her and Atticus's mom

Jesse's favorite song of all time is Our Song by Taylor Swift

They're all varying degrees of Swiftie

Crowler's favorite show is The Golden Girls

Jaden will accidentally burn down the kitchen if they let him try to cook anything

Syrus, Alexis, Atticus, and Zane all knew each other pre-series. Or at the very least knew of each other since Atticus and Zane were already friends.

Syrus is afraid of storms but actually really likes gentle rain

Bastion was always insecure about his skills and needed and craved validation and recognition from others

Chazz has a hard time expressing and understanding emotions and distinguishing different kinds of love and care because his family is so emotionally distant with each other

Chazz and Alexis are platonic soulmates he's just confused by the platonic part. They love each other but are not in love with each other.

On that note, when Chazz is able to finally move on from Alexis, they develope and almost brother/sister relationship

Alexis suffers from separation anxiety and paranoia after Atticus returns because she's so scared of him getting hurt or being taken away from her again

Jaden is so protective of his friends because he didn't have any as a kid after the whole Yubel debacle even though doesn't remember Yubel for a while so he desperately wants to keep the ones he has now at any cost and keep them from getting hurt because people have been hurt because of him Yubel in the past and doesn't want to go through that whole rigamarole again. Also because he just loves his friends, but that's a given.

Syrus has a scar from being bit by the duplicate Camula in episode 32

Chazz has scars from being abused by his brothers. Only Atticus has ever actually seen them.

Hassleberry has chronic pain because of his dinosaur leg that he hides so the others won't worry about him

The J-Squad never told Hassleberry about a lot of stuff that went down in season 1

Atticus is uncomfortable in the dark and has trouble sleeping when he returns so he sleeps with at least one light on every night

Atticus's positive and silly personality and quirks and eccentricities are all genuine and authentic, but they've also become a coping mechanism for his trauma after his return

Hassleberry is a massive Dolly Parton fan

Hassleberry's seen every movie Dolly is in. Steel Magnolias makes him cry every time.

Syrus doodles on stuff in class and like on his notes and homework and stuff. It's something he does to help him focus and think

Bastion actually really likes classic movie musicals. His favorite musical is My Fair Lady

Chazz says that he has a dog at home in the dub, but it's the family dog. He's more of a cat person.

Atticus, Chazz, and Alexis are a Sun, Moon, Star trio respectively.

Hassleberry and Chazz are the biggest hopless romantics, actually

Both Crowler and Alexis's favorite movie is Titanic

Atticus can play any and all stringed instruments. If it has strings, he can play it. But his best instrument is the guitar.

Atticus hosts weekly campfire jam sessions for the J-Squad down at the beach. He pulls out an acoustic and just plays songs for them to sing and have fun together

On that note, every single one of them can sing. All of those kids have vocals for days.

Chazz and Atticus have sleepovers dates every Saturday night where they get together and watch movies. Atticus usually picks and makes Chazz watch musicals and romcoms and chick flicks.

Chazz actually enjoys musicals, especially watching them with Atticus. Hence his quoting Bye Bye Birdie during his duel with Adrian.

Atticus's favorite movie is Singin' In The Rain

Atticus does a lot of dumb shit in attempts to impress Chazz or otherwise get his attention

Syrus takes more after his and Zane's mom, while Zane takes more after their dad. Hence her saying Sy's the one who got the looks 😌

Jaden doesn't even know what sexuality means let alone what his is. His sexuality is Jesse.

Jaden's mom is a pianist

Chazz's family is all sooo much older than his is. For example, his brothers are at minimum ten years older than he is.

The worst familial relationship Chazz has is with his brothers. He's his mom's favorite, and he just doesn't really have a relationship with his dad at all. Cold, distant rich old businessman dad y’know?

Chazz wasn't necessarily an accident, but I don't think they planned on having another kid so long after the first 2 either.

Chazz's brothers manipulate their parents' perception of them and their relationship with Chazz so they don't know how bad things actually are with the three of them

Jaden thinks it's really silly and fun that his and Chazz's birthdays are the bookends of the month of August since they're rivals and stuff

Chazz has naturally cold hands

One time after graduation the kids got Crowler a father's day gift kind of as a joke. But it made him so happy they get him a group gift every year. They got him a world's best dad mug

Everyone crashed the next year's graduation so they could see Hassleberry graduate number 1 in his class 🥺

That's all for now!

Part 2

[fanfic-lover-girl]

When Shipping Does Not Matter

Shipping wars can be annoying. As a kid, I never cared about ships. But even some media that I have come to enjoy as an older teen or adult are perfectly fine without shipping. Here is my list:

Danny Phantom - Sam is cool but I hardly cared about DannyxSam (although I have found arguments for DannyxValerie to be very intriguing). Danny's friendships, ghost lore and his identity reveal and how it impacted his relationship with his family were WAY more interesting.

Law & Order: SVU - I was there for the crime drama. Olivia and Elliot should be friends. Romance between these two is not necessary.

Star Wars - I literally got into SW because of Vader/Anakin & Luke's family drama. I couldn't care less about Han/Leia. And even Anidala is only interesting to me because of Anakin. I like Padme but I don't care much for her as an independent character.

Justice League/Batman Media - I admit that I enjoy some fics where Bruce/Talia raise Damian together as a family. And I have read some Superbat and Wonderbat fics but I quickly lost interest. I like JL for their friendship and their family bonds (give me Jason & Bruce angst and I will read that for HOURS).

Xiaolin Showdown - I know Raimundo and Kimiko had obvious crushes on each other but that was always a background thing for me. I like focusing more on the lore and Raimundo's character. I love Rai so much. Easily the best character in the show.

Teen Titans - Robin/Starfire are great but like Raikim, it is just background for me. Was never super into Beast Boy's relationships either.

Yugioh - I admit that most of my romantic fics in Yugioh were slash :). But I think for the most part the pairings in Yugioh are fine. You won't find me looking up posts about Yugioh ships. Romance is not a big deal in Yugioh anyway. I will say that Joey/Mai is one of the best Yugioh ships. Mai deserved better. Most Yugioh girls deserved better.

Dragonball series - The canon ships are fine. I enjoy wholesome family-centered fics but I hardly care about shipping in dbz. The only canon ship that's truly interesting in DBZ is VegetaxBulma because of how it shapes Vegeta's arc.

Avatar the Last Airbender *** - I am putting asterisks here because I feel strongly about Zutara. But that love was mostly inspired by fanfiction and reflection after watching the show. Watching the show as a kid, the story was perfect without shipping. In fact, the romance was the worst part and could have been removed entirely. The only ship that is arguably necessary is Sukka and even that relationship could have been platonic and Sokka's arc would be the same. Shipping for me only becomes important post-series. Literally all my post-series ATLA fics were Zutara lol. I can't recall ever reading a post-series Kataang fic. And this was before I really became sour on Kataang. I don't think I ever read a Kataang fanfic period. Maybe the Zutara fanfics are just better??

There are probably others but these are my main ones. What other shows do people think are great without shipping involved?

[gx-gameon]

I’m in season 5 of Yugioh Duel Monsters and I just finished the KC Grand Prix arc. The one with Zigfried. 

(And oh boy you can tell where all the animation budget went for this season. Because I remember the memory arch looking crisp but the Grand Prix and the Capsule monster arcs look so bad it’s laughable. I’m not mad the memory arch should get all the good animation. It’s just a shock how different it looks from the rest of the season)

But that’s besides the point.

Zigfried

I was thinking about my Yugi raise Jaden au while I watched it and it got me thinking about some little adventures I could have with the Gx cast.

Cause Zigfried hates Kaiba and while his little brother is willing to move on from the rivalry with Kaiba Corp I can’t see Zigfried moving on.

And here’s the thing everyone knows Yugi has a son. And everyone knows Kaiba and Yugi got hitched, making that kid Kaiba’s son to. But Yugi is very serious about Jaden’s privacy and having as normal a childhood as he can and Seto protects his loved ones fiercely so no one knows that son is Jaden right.

But Zigfried is a smart man. Kaiba has a son. Kaiba opens Duel Academy. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that Kaiba’s son will probably attend Duel Academy (its a popular guessing game with the kids trying to guess which of their classmates is the duel prince)

Zigfried still wants to ruin Kaiba Corp and what better way than going after Kaiba’s kid. But he knows Kaiba is protective of his kid. So he needs a way to lure the kid out.

So he hosts his own tournament and invites the duel academies to send their best (there is no way the son of Yugi Mouto and Seto Kaiba is not one of the best) he’s using this to narrow down his search options and then plans to hack into the kid’s files.

Kaiba finds out about this and he can’t stop the academy’s from accepting without looking like he’s taking opportunities from students for “selfish petty reasons” but he can ban Jaden from participating. Jaden’s bumbed but he understands when Seto and Yugi tell him about what Zigfried did the last time.

He loves dueling but he’d like to keep his secret a bit longer, so he ops out. (Now if this is season 4 which is where I would put it it’s easy for him to play off, but anything earlier then that and his friends think he’s dying)

Crowler and Sheppard are freaking out because Jaden is one of the best chances they have for Duel Academy to win and Kaiba has sent out memos to all of his schools talking about giving money to whichever school the winner attends (he doesn’t want Jaden dueling but one of ‘his students’ are winning this tournament or all these schools are disgraces)

Jaden still tags along to watch. He’s just a student cheering on his friends, in actuality he is spying for his Oto-san to see if he can see anything funny going on.

The DM crew is there, Zigfried wants them there when he exposes the duel prince to the world. But they are trying hard to not be around Jaden so they don’t give away his identity.

Since this is post season three you can have Jesse, Jim, and Axel there to represent their schools. Jaden probably hangs out with Jesse. All of his friends are dueling but Jesse knows who he is he can tell Jesse the real reason he’s not dueling in the tournament.

This can lead to some fun shenanigans as Zigfried tries to figure out which duelist is Yugi/Seto’s son while not having any clue Jaden exists since he’s not dueling. You can have him accuse Jesse or Chazz of being the duel prince which has Seto laughing in his face.

This is a rough idea right now. I have to think more on it when I’m not so tired but I think it has potential.