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blackfeatherdragon · 7 months

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I'll Become Your Sword and the Shield to Protect You!: An Aztecshipping Manifesto

Happy III day! I wrote up an entire meta post explaining Aztecshipping and why it's good!

(Also available on Ao3 here)

The Basics

Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal is one of multiple spinoffs of the Yu-Gi-Oh anime series, produced by Studio Gallop from April 2011 to March 2014. The main character, one Yuma Tsukumo, is a thirteen year old boy who breaks from series tradition by starting the series with very, very little knowledge of how to play the central card game (Yugi, Yami Yugi, Judai, and Yusei all knew how at the start of their respective series), but ends up going through massive character growth to become able to more than hold his own through his interactions with the main cast and his teamwork with the amnesiac alien Astral. Basically, Yuma is a very determined guy who refuses to ever give up or admit defeat, pushes on with his special catchphrase 'kattobingu', but at the same time still misses his missing adventurer parents dearly, to the point of choosing to sleep on a hammock in the attic where the artifacts collected through their adventures are stored. His relationship with his older sister Akari is a bit rocky due to her barring Yuma from playing Duel Monsters at the start of the series, but it's clear they (and their grandmother/guardian Haru) do care about each other.

Once you get past the shock of the Zexal protagonist being a highly energetic but unskilled Duelist of a thirteen year old (especially if you choose to start Zexal right after finishing the previous spinoff Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds), he's actually a really fun protagonist to root for. You want Yuma to succeed and help Astral collect the Number cards needed to unlock Astral's missing memories. You want Yuma to find a way to save everyone in the final stretch, even characters like Vector, who tricked Yuma multiple times.

(That's a great protag right there.)

On the topic of shipping, there are many different pairings involving Yuma in some way. The two most popular by far are Sharkbaitshipping (Yuma/Ryoga 'Shark' Kamishiro) and Keyshipping (Yuma/Astral), with Sharkbaitshipping holding 274 fics on Ao3 and Keyshipping holding 239 fics at the time of writing this. Other ships command varying degrees of popularity too, including Skyshipping (Yuma/Kotori, 45 fics), Seraphshipping (Yuma/Alit, 35 fics), Negativeshipping (Yuma/Vector, 169 fics), and Dokidokishipping (Yuma/Kaito, 144 fics). But there is one that is, in my mind, criminally rare: Aztecshipping, or Yuma/Michael 'III' Arclight. At the time this was written in March 2024, Aztecshipping had a mere 29 fics posted to Ao3. (30 fics if you include this!)

You explained who Yuma is, who is III?

I mean, if you're here you probably know who III is, buuut he's my special little blorbo and I'm posting this for III Day so I get to talk about him.

III (birth name: Michael Arclight) is the fifteen year old youngest son of the Arclight family, a group of four people who acted as one of the antagonist groups of the first half of the series. (The other three members being his older brothers IV and V, and his father Tron.) III is the nicest of the family and is seen to defuse arguments between his brothers, but at the same time has his own problems stemming from his broken family situation.

III is shown to be intensely and unwaveringly loyal to his family, displaying a willingness to both kill for the sake of those he cares about and die for their sake. In fact, during his Duel against Yuma, he deliberately goes out of his way to mentally break Yuma and kill Astral out of jealousy towards Yuma's healthier family and desperation to protect his own, only backing down from his desperate rage when a card he played (Final Prophecy) tried to punch a hole in reality to open a portal to the Barian World.

Tying into this, III puts up little resistance to his father's scheme to get revenge against Dr. Faker, often going along with all but the worst of his family's actions. He delivers a dangerous Number card to Shark at Tron's request, knowing that the card would try to control Shark, but later expresses discomfort when Tron performs a ritual to steal Haruto's power, due to the ritual causing pain to Haruto.

(Remember III's loyalty, it's a surprise tool that will help us later.)

Finally, III has a strong interest in ancient civilizations (with a dash of Ancient Aliens style conspiracies about out of place artifacts coming from other dimensions mixed in), much like how his father was once invested in researching interdimensional portals. This is also a surprise tool that will help us later.

The Ship Summary

To explain Aztecshipping, we have to go back to Yuma and III's fathers: Kazuma Tsukumo and Byron Arclight.

Byron was working with Dr. Faker and the explorer Kazuma on interdimensional portal research, and the three eventually went on a trip to uncover one of these portals. Unfortunately, Dr. Faker ended up betraying both Kazuma and Byron, sacrificing them to open the portal.

While Kazuma ended up trapped in the Astral World after this, Byron ended up stuck in the Barian World, and ultimately struck a deal with the Barians where he was granted power to get revenge against Dr. Faker in exchange for gathering Number cards for the Barians, and eventually returned to Earth as Tron.

As for their families that were left behind on Earth, the Tsukumos were able to stay relatively healthy, with Haru taking over as guardian to Yuma and Akari in the absence of Kazuma and his wife, the severely plot neglected Mirai. Yuma still missed his parents dearly, but his family remained functional.

The Arclights were not so lucky.

With no parents in the picture and oldest son Christopher too young to act as a guardian to his brothers/busy investigating what happened to his father while working for Dr. Faker as an assistant, both Michael and his second brother Thomas were left to an orphanage, only returning to their family when Tron came back and Christopher realized the truth. Tron reduced his sons to mere pawns in his revenge scheme, forcibly renaming Christopher, Thomas, and Michael as V, IV, and III respectively and granting them special crests to give them power, and subsequently allowed his family to fall to dysfunction as he obsessed over revenge.

In this way, Yuma and III are mirrors of each other, both losing their fathers in the same incident but reacting in opposite ways. Yuma is connected to the Astral World from the start with his friendship with Astral and his father's fate, while III is connected with the opposing Barian World due to Tron's deal and the fallout of it.

To that end, Yuma and III initially opposed each other, their first significant interaction being a Tag Duel where Yuma (working with Kaito) Dueled III (working with IV) in a bid to rescue Kaito's younger brother Haruto after his kidnapping at the hands of the Arclights. However, it really wasn't long before III became curious about Yuma and his determination, going out of his way to break into the Tsukumo household to investigate (and was subsequently distracted by the artifacts in the attic/started infodumping about them to Yuma. Nerd.)

(This is actually likely where the ship name Aztecshipping comes from, between Yuma's idolization of his absent father and III's love for ancient civilizations/his favourite card being Chronomaly Aztec Mask Golem.)

Desperate to protect his family from being potentially opposed by Yuma and jealous of the actually functional Tsukumos after meeting them, III challenged Yuma to a Duel, in which he tormented Yuma and killed Astral, before attempting to sacrifice himself in a forced tie just to stop Yuma. The turning point came when one of III's cards, Final Prophecy, started trying to forcibly open a portal to the Barian World at the cost of ending the world, forcing III to share his crest power with Yuma to try to revive Astral and stop Final Prophecy's effect.

The plan was a long shot; there was no guarantee that Yuma would be able to take that amount of power. Yuma withstood it though, and with Astral back, managed to work together to defeat III and stop Final Prophecy. This was the true turning point of their relationship, as III recognized Yuma as his first and only friend and trusted him to be able to save his broken family.

Remember III's intense loyalty? Good, we're coming back to that now.

After this, III vanished from the plot for a while, eventually returning to protect Yuma from being menaced by the Barians Mr. Heartland and Semimaru by way of throwing a sword at Mr. Heartland and outright declaring that he would act as Yuma's 'sword and shield' before teaming up with Yuma to Duel Semimaru. In turn, Yuma trusted III to have his Number cards back, after III willingly gave them up to Yuma after their Duel some time earlier.

It seems that by now III's undying loyalty fully extended to Yuma, as he went out of his way to redirect an attack that would have hit Yuma and his monster to strike him instead, once again showcasing his willingness to sacrifice himself for those he cares about. After the Duel, which ended with III and Yuma working together to combine Yuma's 'Number 39: Utopia' and III's 'Number 6: Chronomaly Atlandis' to beat Semimaru, Yuma let III have the new Number card won off Semimaru: 'Number 3: Cicada King'.

III continued to stay with and protect Yuma after this, temporarily living in the Tsukumo household and sticking alongside Yuma at all times to fulfil this. To that end, III calls to mind a knight, someone willing to fight and die for the one he protects without thought for himself. III is also seen to become concerned for Yuma's mental state due to Astral seemingly dying at the hands of Black Mist several episodes prior, and after Yuma returns from a trip to the Astral World to find and bring back Astral, is relieved to see him again.

III sacrificing for Yuma came to a head when he and V went out of their way to stall several Barians to protect Yuma, Astral, and Kaito during the big Barian invasion. III knew going in that he would die doing this, but he didn't care, willingly sacrificing himself to save Yuma one more time.

Initially, III claimed to Yuma that he and V were going to confront the Barians to get revenge for IV's death earlier, saying that he'd grown sick of Yuma's optimism, but this was a lie meant to stop Yuma from following him. When it became clear that the brothers were fighting a losing match against the Barian Mizael, V opened a video link to Yuma to deliver a final message. III took the opportunity to apologize for lying, saying that Yuma was a true friend and say goodbye, before declaring that he'd be with Yuma in spirit as Mizael launched his final attack, killing both III and V.

This sacrifice caused Yuma to break down sobbing at being unable to stop it from happening due to traveling to track down the Barian leader Don Thousand.

Luckily, after the defeat of the Barians, everyone who died in the final invasion came back to life, III included. The final episode reveals that III enrolled in Yuma's middle school, somehow ending up in the same year as Yuma despite being two years older than him. III's literal final scene in the series has him declaring that he'll fight alongside Yuma anywhere, which again. Knight motifs.

Ship Dynamics

Yuma and III start off as enemies, facing off against each other as their goals and family situations clashed. However, it really isn't long before III starts viewing Yuma as a friend due to Yuma's unending determination and aid in preventing the end of the world via Final Prophecy, eventually even extending the loyalty once reserved for family out to Yuma. Once this shift happens, the dynamic changes to that of a knight protecting his charge with the power of his sword and his own life on the line, willing to die to see that charge safe.

In turn, Yuma seems rather okay with III protecting him despite their notable rough start. He allows III to live in his house for a time and even gives III's Number cards back and temporarily shares his school uniform with him just so that III isn't wearing the same clothes the whole time (this is before III joins Yuma's school, by the way). He's distraught when III (and V) sacrifices himself to hold off the Barians, breaking down in tears after watching the final blow.

It's not all III protecting and sacrificing for Yuma, either. They work together very well when Dueling Semimaru, coming up with a plan to join their monsters together via Chronomaly Atlandis's effect to stop Semimaru. Yuma also promises to help save III's family where III could not, seemingly genuinely forgiving III for his actions during their Duel against each other.

They also have a connection via their interests; Yuma idolizes his missing explorer father and has a number of ancient artifacts in his house, while III has a strong interest in ancient civilizations. It's not hard to imagine them working together on explorations and archaeology digs as they get older, helping and protecting each other as needed.

Tldr: Aztecshipping is a very cute ship with protector/protectee themes and two young nerds. They should be together.

References

-Yugipedia (Crossreferencing canon events and characters) -zexual-shippings (Various ship names) -Ao3 (Fic counts for various ships)

Specific episodes:

-Episodes 41-43: III and IV vs Yuma and Kaito. III starts to become curious about Yuma and his determination at the end of episode 43. -Episodes 46-49: III vs Yuma. III spends most of the Duel proper (47 to 49) tormenting Yuma and Astral, only coming out of his desperation and rage when he realizes what Final Prophecy is doing. III and Yuma work together to stop the effect of Final Prophecy in episode 49, followed by III admitting that Yuma is his first friend and asking him to save his family/giving up his Number cards to Yuma. Episode 46 also contains III nerding out over the artifacts in Yuma's attic. -Episodes 112-113: III and Yuma vs Semimaru. 112 has III throw a sword at Mr. Heartland to defend Yuma and state that he'll be Yuma's 'sword and shield'. Yuma also trusts III to have his Number cards back in 112, followed by trusting III to have the new Number card 'Number 3: Cicada King' in 113. -Episodes 114-116: III continues to stay with Yuma to protect and help him in Astral's absence, including staying over at Yuma's house and borrowing a school uniform from Yuma. III also becomes concerned for Yuma's mental state in the wake of Astral seemingly dying again. -Episodes 126-128: III and V vs Mizael. III claims he's sick of Yuma's optimism to stop Yuma from following him to the Duel, knowing that Yuma needed to go on while he and V stalled for time. III gets the chance to apologize for lying and say goodbye/that he'll be with Yuma in spirit right before dying to Mizael. -Episode 146: III is shown to have enrolled in Yuma's school and is in the same year as him despite being two years older. III later states that he'll fight alongside Yuma anywhere towards the end of the episode.

#yugioh #ygo #yugioh zexal #aztecshipping #michael arclight #iii arclight #yuma tsukumo #ship manifesto #meta #happy iii day everyone have my ship thoughts-

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evilbalwan · 17 days

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Ladies and Gentlemen, I think I might finally understand how Kazuma Tsukumo is working in Zexal world!

I believe all of us can agree that Yuma's dad is quite a convenient deus ex machima; in our world, he's just a tool to make the plot easier for screenwriters sometimes, BUT

THIS WAS NOT ENOUGH FOR ME

So I started thinking and thinking and came to the realization; Kazuma seems ominous. What other being in Zexal seems ominous too?

... DOOR OF DESTINY

Who is the first person to get Emperor's Key to then give it to Yuma???

KAZUMA

Let's dig deeper. Humans, as their nature dictates, perceive time in a linear way - from the past, through the present, to the future. We don't know the future, but we know it holds multiple possibilities. It doesn't seem to be a case in Zexal, despite what Yuma says about choosing fate, Door of Destiny and Kazuma seem always to be aware of what or when will happen. "Cause precedes effect. Effect leads to cause. The future is fixed exactly the same way as the past", Door of Destiny only needed to take necessary steps. It needed a tool. A partner, maybe. A slave.

That tool is Kazuma; either through being exposed to the Astral world or some other way, he too started thinking in such a way. He could take necessary steps, visiting Barians ruins, leaving coins there, he no longer understands the world through the human way, but rather, Door of Destiny's way.

Yuma destroying Door of Destiny during his last duel with Astral was an act of kindness, in a way. Only through that Yuma could save himself from predetermination.

My fanfic about that if you want =D

If you interested in more:

This could explain Don Thousand's nihilism: for most of the Zexal, he's stuck in Chaos form (the one that interacts with Vector the most), thus he doesn't have the full knowledge. But, once he becomes Zexal again (I'm conviced Don is original Zexal, I mean his duel vs Mizael here), he remembers Door of Destiny and that he is destined to fail.

Kazuma, especially outside of flashbacks, seems pretty indifferent when it comes to his own family, if he knows everything about their lives, how their existence will look like, does he really have to 'care'?

Mirai is stuck in a pretty much horror scenario, her husband is no longer who he was, he looks at her and sees her birth - yet, she stays.

#zexal meta #balwan meta #tsukumo kazuma #door of destiny #yugioh zexal #analysis #yuma tsukumo #originally theory published on twitter #zexal theory #zexal analysis #don thousand #mirai tsukumo

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sirdurbe · 5 months

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something, something... studio gallop's decision to create a female character for their show aimed at tween and teen boys who exists in large part for the purpose of titillation, who is explicitly portrayed as the same age as the intended middle-grade audience -- whose young age is more likely than not part of her desirability -- is NOT on the same level as artists or writers in fandom lewding the same character. that includes "creepy dudebro" fetish art, too. because at the end of the day, even all those pictures of kotori's toes are intended for adults.

kotori's sexualization in canon is unsettling because, on top of the blatant misogyny of the "sexy lamp" trope, the source material is intended for a younger audience. it's lolibait in a show made for kids. and this is coming from someone who really likes kotori btw, because trying to resist or deny that part of her existence is not actually a feminist statement, it's the opposite. despite occasionally being given really cool things to do, the main reasons she's here is to be yuuma's hetero love interest and to be fanservice. i don't say that to insult her, i say that because i'm angry for her.

at the same time, acting like you're so much holier than anyone who does make sexual or explicit content of kotori or other characters like her is incredibly obnoxious, and comparing artists or writers who are creating and tagging their adult material as for adults to the showrunners putting multiple almost-panty-shots of their 13-year-old character in their show aimed at actual 13-year-olds is profoundly ignorant.

i'm at work so maybe this isn't super eloquent but 🤷‍♂️

#text #meta #criticism #yugioh zexal #mizuki kotori #antis being antis

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realian · 6 months

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sorry to hear you suffered from prismatic bell too, xir friends that would stick around really normalized it and liked to shout down anybody hurt by xem. prismatic bell really infested the sailor moon fandom with xir madness, and other places by abusing and being so controlling of others. even before xe converted to judaism, xe liked to speak over jumblr users as being the spokesperson extraordinaire and scholar everybody should believe and that sadly has not changed.

when we were in the yugioh fandom together xe was like 27 and I was 19 and xe would go between love-bombing me and calling me xir good friend to nitpicking every single post I made as the queer elder who knew everything and was the top authority on everything. when I was asking people about the queer relationships in zexal xe passive-aggressively replied to me insinuating that it was pedophilia and when I asked, genuinely, what xe meant (because I had not watched the show yet) and if xe considered that to be the case with yugi and atem xe blew up on me insisting I was intentionally bringing up false equivalencies to spite xir and made a post saying I supported pedophilia and being as sensitive as I was back then I cried myself to sleep while leaving xir messages apologizing and in the morning xe replied blaming me for the nightmares xe had that night and gave me details about xir assault and also accused me of anti-indigenous racism because I was kin with peridot from steven universe (I was very much still a child) anyway afterwards after claiming to be blocking me xe continued to reblog and reply to various yugioh meta posts I made either agreeing or nitpicking them but never addressing me directly, just treating them like posts that appeared on xir dash organically which might have been the case because we shared a lot of mutuals but it was still weird. anyway the pedophilia in yugioh zexal xe accused me of promoting by asking about was this:

and these days xe is a staunch advocate for underage porn fics and rpf and the like.

#its all small potatoes compared to being antipalestine ofc but i think it does demonstrate a pattern with how #xe views social relationships like a game #and like im old as xe was then right now and i would never dream of acting this way to a teenager #prismatic-bell

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cyberdragoninfinity · 9 months

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🔥I would love to hear your thoughts on the girls in Yugioh

I like em a lot but I wish they got to actually Do Things (especially in Zexal, they had so many cool girls and they hardly got to do anything)

I LOVE YOU YUGIOH GIRLSSSS

🔥 kind of insane that "the yugioh girls are good characters and deserve just as much respect as the male characters do" is a bit of an unpopular take but some anime fans are stuck in 2005 livejournal mindsets and do still act like girls in yugioh existing are the most heinous crime against yaoi possible. COULDNT BE ME!!! yugioh girls get behind me i love you I WILL PROTECT YOU!!!

theyre such a weird case a lot of the time too, though, because with the way yugioh works we equate "doing big, heroic moments" with dueling, because...well. This is the Card Game Dueling Monsters show. and the girls really indeed Do Not Get to Duel A Lot (let alone Win a lot) so in that department especially YEAH THEY REALLY DONT GET TO DO MUCH. And you get instances like poor fucking Rio Kastle, who's fridged for half of Zexal in the hospital, and Akiza JUST NOT GETTING TO TURBO DUEL EXCEPT LIKE TWO TIMES, MAYBE. GOD. But something I've noticed alongside that is because dueling = The benchmark for doing big plot actions, when the girls Do get to do some pretty cool stuff that isnt a duel, it doesn't really get dwelled on or talked about too much in fan spaces, and it's a shame!

I will never stop proclaiming that the DM anime was so real and right for making Serenity Wheeler the one to dive into the ocean to save her brother after the pier duel, it's one of my favorite scenes in all of Duel Monsters. SO much bravery and determination in that action. HER EYES WERE STILL HEALING AND SHE DID ALL THAT STILL!!! WAHHH. and god Tori, Tori Kotori Zexal my daughter MY BABY, everyone wants to be like "ohh she doesnt do anything shes annoying" MISS ME WITH THAT!! It sucks that she doesnt duel, yeah, but she does SO FUCKING MUCH over the course of Zexal. She piloted a spaceship out of a black hole. She followed Shark and Kite to go save Hart and Yuma and she was BEATING THOSE LITTER BOTS TO DEATH to save her friends!! She's by Yuma's side for all the incredible bullshit he has to deal with and without her I think he would have just completely fallen apart. She's so tenacious and loyal and fearless when it counts the most and it's such a bummer there's, like, no Tori meta.

I guess that all isnt too much of a hot unpopular take is it??! hrm. I guess it boils down to "some people have equated "not dueling" with "annoying and bad character" re: the girls of yugioh, which imo is a kneejerk borderline-to-genuinelly-misogynist reaction manifesting over what's really a bad writing choice completely out of the characters' hands" and you should really give yourself a chance to take a look at Everything the girls actually did get to contribute to the plot, because you can really find some great character insight and actually pretty important to the plot gestures in there. tl;dr 🔥 if you think ygo girls are annoying im turning you into a golf ball and putting you into a sand pit.

#IF THE SHOW WONT GIVE THEM ENOUGH LOVE WE MUST PICK UP THE SLACK OURSELVES!!! AND CELEBRATE THE THINGS THEY DID GET TO DO!!!!#ygo posting #asks #anonymous

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lyricalchrysanthemum · 1 year

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REESE WAS TALKING ABOUT THE TYPE OF DECKS SLATER WOULD USE.. and I think the thing about Piper is he doesn’t use any concrete deck of his own. Both before and after the horrors(tm).

The thing about Piper is that he’s always chasing after feelings of fulfillment, success, and being the top of his league. Being at the top of league guarantees a name in the stars (his mark in history.) and fills an empty void in his heart (at least he thinks so) and because he chases after this constantly, he wouldn’t find himself sticking to just one deck.

He’d use decks that make people angry and tick them off. Dominating control decks (stuff like mystic mine (which is horrible to think about in a Zexal-like duel arena)) and agonizing combo decks. He has experience with stuff like burn decks, and even exodia too. Whatever is the top, he’s played.

The meta changes constantly, so he must keep up, adapting to the newest deck by making it his own. So he can be the best. He has no desire to attach himself to just one.

But that’s before the horrors.

DURING the horrors, he ends up building a Jinzo centered deck. A deck that’s supposed to be unstoppable weapon unlike the one seen in the dominating meta. And it’s a deck he ends up making stronger himself with the inclusion of the number cards that he gathers for team plasma (which hurt him every time he uses them. Btw.)

Jinzo is a dark, machine type monster. Which falls back into the idea that Team Plasma is using him as a tool for their own goals. Which he was helpless to realize before both he and Slater are too late to realize. (And also is the opposite of the heralds, fairy, light monsters) And it becomes his duel spirit during this time. Unlike Herald of Perfection, who gives Slater absolute silence, Jinzo doesn’t shut up. Grilling him on every move he does and ordering him around. Like the tool he’s become.

His deck focuses on absolute control of the board. Making it so that, no matter what his opponent does, they’re completely shut down and helpless to fight back. (This gets turned against him with Ghetsis using his own deck against him. As well as using Jinzo, Layered (a card he didn’t even know existed) against him. Reflecting that even what little control he thought he had, never existed in the first place.)

After the events of the horrors, he and Slater don’t duel for a while. They deckbuild, sure, but a passion they had becomes tainted for a long, long time.

But during the time where they just deckbuild, he finds himself building obscure, rogue decks. Instead of focusing on nothing but tier 0. He’s focusing on decks he enjoys and makes himself feel happy and proud of what he’s made.

He’s not limiting himself to just one deck still. But instead of it being a desire to be the best… it’s just because he likes the game and is expressing his passion for it. And through his numerous deck builds, a different duel spirit manifests.

Ash Blossom and Joyous Spring is a staple among every deck. Yugioh players can’t escape it from both their opponents and their own decks. And no matter how many decks he builds, with varying gimmicks and strategies, one handtrap (Ash Blossom) always manages to work its way in.

He does manage to get his hands on his corruption deck. But even when he’s comfortable dueling finally, he takes a while to warm up to the idea of even playing it. He gets comfortable enough experimenting with Jinzo (albeit with Slater only.) but he’s still focused on just. Having fun and trying what no one else can think of.

#cheren piper #Numeron code AU

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paperandhis-paper · 1 year

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Arc-V Month Day 8: The Regular- ah, Standard Show and Day 9:Light Across the Aether

Combining two prompts, as I'll be gushing about (among other parts) about the Standard arc. Hope that's fine, @arcvmonth

Anyway, Arc-V has a lot of positives (that tend to get washed by the hatejerk), but what I want all of us to appreciate is that this silly show...exists. Not only that, but the awesome way the staff managed to hype all of us up?

What do I mean by this? Let me put it this way. This is a show about a multidimensional war where each dimension is based on a previous Yugioh series, featuring Returning Characters, and every Summoning Type is used.

Now go back to the original trailer for Arc-V. Notice how there're some things missing. Namely? ALL OF THE ABOVE. We knew about Pendulum Summoning, we knew Yuya rode a hippo...and that's about it.

Marketing-wise maybe this wasn't the brightest move, but it's an example of something I love about early Arc-V. In the year of our lord, 2023, where crossovers are everywhere and meta-commentary is so overdone people do meta-commentary about meta-commentary, it's bewildering how Arc-V kept its cards close to its chest and drip-fed information about its plot to keep the audience interested.

All of Season 1 is like this. At first we only really see Pendulum Summoning. But as early as Episode 3, we get hints about the other Summoning Types, since LDS has courses on each one. But whatever, you may think. It's only an Easter Egg, right?

Then this little fella shows up.

Casually, this kid activates Polymerization like it's nothing. And it's not like Jack randomly Fusing in early 5D's, Sora's deck is clearly Fusion-focused. But if that's not enough, we then meet the LDS trio, who use Xyz, Fusion, and Synchro. AND THEN Reiji tops them all by using all three at once. And Pendulum.

It's easy to take it for granted now, but this was legit just such a "holy shit" moment back then. 5D's featured Fusion a few times, but it was mostly a Synchro Spam. And Zexal pretended Synchros didn't exist. So it was so exciting to know Arc-V would be different.

That would be cool enough, but then they went ahead and made it so that each Summoning Type was tied to a specific Dimension. And again, the war plot was dropped slowly but surely. We get introduced to Yuto, who not only looks like Yuya, but he mentions something about some "Academia". But hey, a GX reference, whatever. And then it keeps going. We learn about Shun, about Ruri. And it all culminates in Shun vs Sora, which... ok, everyone knows this duel is amazing, but it's not just about the duel itself being spectacular. It's about the confirmation that, yes, we really are doing this. That Action Field IS Heartland, Shun and Yuto are from there, and the Academia Sora belongs to is based on GX.

The most ambitious crossover in history is here. And all they told us at first is that Tomato-boy rides a hippo. What the fuck.

Speaking of hippo-ridah. Arc-V always gets the somewhat-backhanded compliment of being the most ambitious Yugioh series, a statement I agree with. However, this is generally just refers to the overall scope of the plot. Today, one aspect that can sometimes get neglected that I want to highlight is how daring their choice of protagonist is.

Yuya, my beloved. I don't wanna spend too much time about how much I love him, because I'm sure I'll do so in the future, but I want everyone to appreciate the writers' choice in creating him.

I'm gonna be blunt: Shonen fans can be dumb. They are not the kind to be receptive to protagonists who're not hyper-macho, badass types and who are prone to show weakness. Just look at the response characters like Shinji Ikari or Natsuki Subaru get. Now, I'm not saying Yuya is as well-written as those, but it shows that even if the writers had written him perfectly there was always going to be a crowd of people who were going to hate him.

So I gotta give a shout-out for creating what's easily the most complex Yugioh protag by a long shot. Other protags could be slotted into one of two categories: "Serious" (Yugi, Yusei), or "Upbeat" (Judai, Yuma). Meanwhile, from Episode 1, Yuya defies categorization. He plays the clown, making one think he'll fit right in with Judai and Yuma, before the show makes it clear that it's just a facade... but also it's not. He truly strives to be the fun-loving, charming Entertainer he projects, but his own struggles and feelings prevent him from succeeding. It's a fascinating struggle, and I'm impressed that a franchise like Yu-gi-oh would even attempt this. And then you throw in the demon inside of him, and the waters get even muddier.

Speaking of which...

Something Cool about the Zarc Duel

(Yeah, that's as good of a segue as you're getting. I just wanna talk about something cool I noticed.)

So. The Zarc-duel. It's a mixed bag. I'm of the opinion most of it is meh (not helped by it taking over a month to air), but that the first and final episodes of it are amazing. And I wanna talk about something cool about said last episode that doesn't get talked about enough.

So, as we know, Zarc, alongside Yuya, created Pendulum to get revenge. And yet he gets defeated the exact-same way, by Ray activating the En Cards...or does he? If you pay attention, you'll notice that the En Cards destroy monsters, negate their effects, and deal 600 damage for each Monster sent to the graveyard (very particular wording these uber-powerful cards). Zarc has 2800 LP, and five monsters affected. 600x5 means his Life Points naturally drop to... 1000?

Of course, that's because Odd Eyes and Zarc are Pendulum monsters, so they're sent to the Extra Deck. If they weren't, he'd have lost right there and then. And not only did Zarc's scheme prevent his defeat, it basically got him the duel: he still had Scales set, and Reira's field was empty, so nothing stops him from Pendulum Summoning Zarc and/or Odd Eyes, and attack for game. Thankfully, the Lancers' efforts managed to reach Yuya, and he regained control and basically Shining Drew Smile Universe. In a hint of irony, they even play Swing, Pendulum of Souls, a song usually reserved for Zarc possessing Yuya.

Speaking of which, Smile Universe's effect is really similar to that of the En Cards. I guess it's the Unofficial 5th one and Smiles are the 5th beauty of Nature.

On that note, one last thing.

The Title: Arc-V

Arc-V is a very peculiar name for a show. And what I love is that it has many meanings. Most straight-forwardly, it's the name of the machine Leo builds to fuse the Dimensions. And obviously, it refers to it being the fifth Yugioh series. But it also refers to both the arc of a Pendulum, as well as the shape of a smile (there's an ED literally called "ARC OF SMILE", in case you think I'm reading too deep into things). I love how well-crafted this show's symbolism and visual language is.

Anyway, this turned into a massive ramble. I'm just happy to talk about this silly show that's burned itself into my mind. Thanks for reading if you somehow made it this far.

#arc v #arcvmonth #arcvmonth2023 #yuya sakaki #zarc arc v

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number-1-kuaidul-fanboy · 2 years

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Yugioh Endings Worst to Best

Yeah, “worst to best” because some of these endings flat out suck. Gonna be talking about the currently completed seven shows at the time of writing this as Go Rush hasn’t ended yet.

Worst: Sevens, an unsatisfying and predictable mess to an otherwise fun subversive show

Yeah, I said it. Even on rewatch, I don’t think Arc V has the worst ending. Arc V’s ending surprised me and had some things it actually did well (which I’ll get to). This ending though. After an entire show of subverting the tired old Yugioh tropes, Sevens goes really hard into their worst trope: a fake out death, which the previous Yugioh also ended with except with VRAINS, it was much more believable that the death could’ve been permanent, which I’ll get to. Sevens though? The characters are all 11, and Rush Duels are the new, cool thing for younger players, it’s so obvious the show isn’t going to end on the note of the protagonist dying and rush duels disappearing and yet it’s played out for so long. There’s an entire two year timeskip during which rush duels and Yuga are gone but the former is somehow okay because the game is back in the hands of children, even though earlier in the show, they were criticising master duels for becoming too overly complicated for the original intended audience, children, to understand and enjoy, which is legitimately a good meta criticism that I dug (especially coming right off the curtails of VRAINS). This ending feels like they were last minute trying to apologise to the master duel fans without trying to make it make sense with what they’d already set up in prior episodes. So yeah, Sevens ending not good. Not awful by any means, just very ill-fitting and weird.

6 Arc V-Messy/confused

I’ve always had problems with this ending and rewatching the entire show recently did not do it any favours. I think the final 8 episodes themselves were a saving grace after how boring I found the Z-Arc duel and how much of a mess the fusion arc was. The final 8 are fun and return the show to its roots and remind us that this whole journey has been about a kid who just wanted to make others happy with his duelling. I love that rather than defeating Z-Arc, Yuya becomes the first person to actually understand him (realising how similar they are) and saves him by making him smile. That’s really touching, and brings the themes of the show full circle. So in that way, it is better than Sevens’s ending as it’s more thematically and tonally consistent with the rest of the show. Still, I don’t like where we end up with the ending: Yuya and Yuzu now both permanently having their counterparts inside them was weird and Layra being de-aged into a baby and a vessel for Z-Arc, when previously, their whole character arc was about being their own person and not being a vessel for others is downright destructive and wrong. The final duel is at least good though, that’s something this and Sevens have in common, Arc V just had the good themes to back it up.

5 Zexal-Unoriginal/confusing

Throwback to the very first Yugioh ending I ever felt disappointed by. Nowadays, I find myself mostly mixed on this ending, and went a bit back and forth between it and Arc V’s endings. I think Zexal is the better show by a long shot and I actually like where nearly all the characters and the story end up by the end. The Don Thousand and Nasch duels are really great, even if the ending of the latter could be seen as rushed (I’m willing to accept it on account of just how good Yuma and Shark’s friendship was throughout the series). It’s the final duel that I take issue with. Yuma vs Astral… as a duel, it’s pretty good and exciting but plotwise, it’s just a rehash of Yugi vs Atem, with the whole “partners duelling with the conclusion of splitting up” and Judai vs Yugi with the whole “protagonist needs to learn to have fun with duelling again.” The second one in particular feels out of nowhere because even though it’s true that Yuma hasn’t been duelling for fun due to the war, his character hasn’t seemed all that different for it, unlike Judai who spent the majority of the final season isolating himself from everyone and acting very different to how he was prior to the events of season 3. Also, Astral lying that he’ll destroy the Barian world is jarring, it’s flat out jarring and weird that he’d do something like that and feels especially wrong for him to be doing in his final appearance of the show. Still, Astral and Yuma’s final scene is a good one (though definitely the least powerful of the three “partner farewell” scenes) and the final scene is pretty nice and cozy. So definitely very flawed but I’ve softened on it with time.

4 VRAINS-Conclusive, except when it wanted to advertise Duel Links

I'm conflicted on VRAINS's ending. The general reception I saw of it when I first watched it was that it was good, much better than the mess that was Arc V's ending and… yeah I can definitely agree it's better than both Arc V and Zexal's endings but I still have one glaring issue: it ends on a cliffhanger. Sure, Zexal does too but that was more of a casual "we're going to help Astral," and implies they're just going to do that now when there's a major issue. Plus all the characters seemed happy so answering this cliffhanger wasn't as much of a pressing matter. The VRAINS ending on the other hand… Yusaku has been gone for three months, endlessly searching for Ai who for all we know before the final shot, could be permanently dead considering the fact that the show was willing to permanently kill the other Ignis and Roboppi. Ai perma-dying was something I dreaded would happen before the finale. But he doesn't. Ai is alive and Yusaku doesn't know that but is looking for him anyway. What kind of ending note is that for an entire series?! It's definitely better than if Ai had permanently died (because that would've REALLY ruined the themes of VRAINS, full rant here: ) but it just… feels so obvious this wasn't the original intended ending, and it just doesn't feel like an ending to a series, it feels like they're trying to get us to watch the continuation, which in this case is Duel Links. Which I have played. Even now that this cliffhanger has been answered, I still don't like that the show ends on it. (Though to be fair, VRAINS was cut short due to behind the scenes troubles and had its ending changed somewhere during production so this may not entirely be the show’s fault.) Other than that though, the ending is actually pretty solid. It leaves everyone outside of Ai and Yusaku in a really good place and Ai and Yusaku's final scene is honestly great. It's probably the single most emotional scene in any of these series for me and I wouldn't change a thing about it, as much as it absolutely tears me apart. I just… wish what came after it didn’t feel so sequel-baity.

3 DM-Really good

Finally, an ending I can unequivocally call good. DM is far from my favourite YGO show (though I still really love it, don’t get me wrong) but even on rewatch, Atem’s farewell still makes me shed a few tears. Atem’s saved the world, he can finally rest in the spirit world and see all his old friends again, but that doesn’t mean his new friends won’t miss him. It’s simple, but it’s effective. The dub screws up the ending a little by cutting off so abruptly but I’ve seen the sub ending, it’s nice and cosy and has some nice closure for everyone. So not too big a deal personally.

2 5Ds-Extremely satisfying

Yeah, despite all the bumps in the road (some of them causing horrible crashes in quality), I think the ending of 5Ds was stellar and more than worth picking it up again to see. It ends kinda where the series began: a duel between Jack and Yusei only this time, they're duelling to figure out their futures. Yusei wants to stay in New Domino City while the others all have varying reasons that are pushing them to leave the city to pursue and in the end, that's what they decide on. The friendship between them absolutely still matters and will stand the test of time, their lives are just going in new directions and… that sentiment is honestly really touching to me. That bit where they're all driving together one final time, and Yusei stops just outside the city to high five them all as they pass and go on literal separate paths on the road moved me to tears. I'm getting teary-eyed writing about it honestly. The final episode isn’t perfect by any means but that final scene and the places it leaves its characters in the end honestly are, I really don’t have any complaints. The only reason it’s not number one is because GX is-

1 GX-Conclusive and mad fun

Yeah, yeah, the final duel is total fan service but like hell if Judai vs Yugi isn’t one of the most fun in any of these shows despite that. Or maybe because of that, I don’t know. I can personally assure you I’m not blinded by DM nostalgia here, I consider DM easily the weakest series. I just think it’s awesome as hell to see two duelling experts evenly trading blows and countering every move with such swift yet strangely simple precision. The duel itself is simple by today’s standards but at the time, it was mind-blowing to me and it’s still damn fun on rewatch, which is exactly what Judai needs at this point: a fun duel to remind him why he loved the game in the first place, after all the hardship and all the trauma he endured as a result of it. Now for the first time in a long time, he can have fun with a duel and regain his passion and his inner child. And lemme tell ya, if I loved the sentiments of the 5Ds ending, I absolutely adore the sentiments of this ending, primarily with Judai: still my absolutely favourite character in all of Yugioh (at the very least tied with Ai). That final scene of him running through the desert, talking about how he’s gonna keep moving forward and looking to the future, and looking hopeful and lively for the first time in so many episodes gives me so many good feels and so much genuine hope for my own future. It’s the kind of scene, and the kind of episode, that makes me happy to be alive. I love it so much. And Judai isn’t the only character who’s amazingly handled. All the major characters, Sho, Manjome, Asuka, they all graduate and begin working toward their futures. It’s the same sentiment as the 5Ds ending, how their lives are going in different directions but they’ll face the future with courage and their bonds will last forever. And as much as I do love how 5Ds did it, GX did this idea first and better. And in a slightly more relatable way as the characters of GX are essentially graduating high school in this finale, can you imagine how a senior in high school/college or a recent graduate would react to seeing their anxieties represented and worked through on-screen by characters they had come to love over the course of almost 200 episodes?

I don’t have to, because that was my experience with this ending. I started GX when I was finishing up my last year of school and finished it about a month after I’d graduated. So as you can imagine, this final season, and the ending especially, hit really hard and will always stick with me for that reason.

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arkadiaasks · 2 years

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Looking at the Yugioh wiki(because Yugipedia is still down), it came to my mind that very few of Judai’s “signature” cards had any meta relevance during their time. Matter of fact, the only ones I can think of are Metamorphosis and Card Trooper. The rest either only became meta during the Synchro or Xyz era or were not meta relevant at all. Why is that? Yugi had cards like Summoned Skull, Mirror Force, Swords of Revealing Light, and so many more cards that were meta staples of their era that were banned IRL; Yusei had Junk and Quickdraw Synchron, Stardust Dragon, Starlight Road, and a good portion of Junk Synchros that became popular during the Edison Era; Yuma had Gagaga Cowboy and a shocking amount of cards that would be part of the Rank 4 spam decks; Yuya had numerous cards that tore the meta a new one as part of PePe; and let’s not even mention the hell called Firewall Dragon or the rest of the generic link spam Yusaku brought to the table. But Judai is the outlier for some reason. Even counting the protagonists of the Rush Duel era, Yuga had SRM, Thunderbold, Amazing Dealer and Dark Liberation. Why would they give Judai so few signature cards with meta relevancy if he’s the protagonist?

GX was a highly experimental period when Konami and NAS didn't know what made Yu-Gi-Oh! Yu-Gi-Oh! and there weren't any real solid rules or tendencies.

That and a lot of card design was under done during GX because of concerns of the sheer power Goat Control Chaos and Chaos Yata Lock had.

They did give Judai sorta meta relevance but it was more in 5D's and ZEXAL with his manga Fusion strategy and later Masked HERO.

Which is sort of a Judai thing to do anyways, being late and what not.

#yugioh #yugiohocg #yugiohgx

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lunatic-fandom-space · 2 years

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OKAY i just had a bit of a Yugioh Zexal Moment and it made me remember a theory I had when I was watching Zexal for the first time (I went into it w/ basically no spoilers), some of yall might remember it from my liveblogs

This was all mostly based off those memories Astral had of the Astral World getting destroyed (sidenote, but wtf happened to those memories?? Like, they were initially Astrals whole motivation and then the writers just kinda forgot about them lmao) and Number 96

Basically, I thought that Astral was created as weapon to fight the enemies of Astral World or whatever so they made this insanely powerful synthetic being who was just like, A Guy personality-wise and since that obviously doesnt make for a good soldier/weapon, they had to like, inject him with negativity and destructive impulses or smth in order to change his personality. My idea was that whenever the higher ups in the Astral World cough Eliphas cough even though I didnt know abt him when I was spinning that theory cough cough wanted him to go out and destroy something (possibly for like, colonizing purposes but that wasnt really based on anything in the show, I think I was just influenced by how many serialized kids shows feature stuff like that) they would trigger that Fucked Up And Evil part of him and he would basically act like Number 96 and when they were like "ok thats enough destruction for now" they would recapture him and do some stuff to make him revert back to his 'base" personality and idk, just kinda keep him in a cell bc I like it when Astral suffers and is lonely and isolated

And I assumed that the reason Astral World got destroyed (and to a lesser extend the reason Astral has such vivid memories of it, although its yugioh so details like that dont really matter tbh) was that they kinda lost control of him one day for some reason and he started destroying shit, although Im pretty sure they made it clear that the Astral World was being attacked by some other forces so its like, more of a joint effort ig. And yeah, thats kinda it

The main reason I bring that up is bc while I was scrolling through the Astral tag just now I also stumbled upon some more critical posts about the writing and how certain things were handled and there were also plenty of Dark Mist posts included there. and it made me remember the profound disappointment I felt when they revealed that Dark Mist was never "really" a "part" of Astral like the other Numbers, he was just kinda created by Don Thousand to fuck Astral up ig

And yeah, now that I wrote this down and thought about it for a moment I realize that Dark Mist just kinda being created by The Astral World Higher Ups to fuck Astral up isnt that much better, but like, it makes the Astral World seem less Pure and Good and dare I say, °•~Heavenly~•° and thus makes the conflict between them and the Barians a lot more interesting

But whatever this is just some stuff I remembered hope you liked it

#maybe I'll write an au of this one day idk #it would probably just be like a oneshot of astral getting experimented on and suffering lol #yugioh zexal #ygo zexal #yugioh zexal meta #astral (yugioh)#dark mist (yugioh)

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paragon-arthur · 3 years

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I’m going to be a little controversial regarding Yu-Gi-Oh today.

I think Kaito Tenjo is the best of the Kaiba legacy characters... because of how he contrasts to Kaiba’s best attribute- his care for his brother.

Both of them set out to protect their brothers with everything they had; Kaito hunted Numbers, broke down his body, solely to heal and help his younger brother. He didn’t care one bit about his own health- Haruto’s was far more important.

Kaiba defended Mokuba from bullies, and in the event his gambit with Gozaburo failed, at least paved the way so that Mokuba wouldn’t have to suffer like he would. Even if it caused a great deal of pain, and that Kaiba can’t defend himself about the cruelty, it was at least born from a place of concern.

But this where they differ, and it’s why I think while Kaiba legacies are good, they are great because of Kaiba.

While Kaiba’s primary concern is Mokuba, he does repeatedly demonstrate a lack of care or at least consideration. His ranting about discarding the past ignores his positive memories with Mokuba, and especially early in the manga when he’s spiralling from Gozaburo’s suicide, he treats him with disdain and no small amount of cruelty. In essence, Kaiba ‘forgot’ why he journied down this road- to make a better life for each other. It’s only after the Penalty Game he can even come back as a fraction of his former self.

Kaito grows hardened, sadistic even, and he causes no shortage of pain in his quest. He even begins to enjoy it like a predator. He shows absolutely no regret as he hurts people for his objective, and he’s akin to the Terminator. You begin to wonder whether he’s going to fall. Fall like Kaiba, to where the game is more entertaining than the goal.

But he stops. On the very precipice he stops, he thinks and he decides no.

From then on, Kaito tries to atone- both for himself and to live up to his old memories with Haruto. He refuses to abandon that past, it’s why he chases the Numbers so fervently. He refuses to abandon that once peaceful life and seeks to bring it back.

In the end, Kaiba disregards the past and Kaito enshrines it. One looks forward, the other looks back.

Kaito and Kaiba are both fantastically written characters, but the contrast to Kaiba makes Kaito just as excellent. Because for half the time, you wonder whether he’ll fall like Kaiba... or if he’ll find his way out of the darkness.

#yugioh #yugioh zexal #seto kaiba #mokuba #kaito tenjo #haruto tenjo #the parallels are what make Kaiba legacies good #my meta

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descendant-of-truth · 4 years

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I just realized - a possible reason Yuma's so bad at Duel Monsters despite playing it all the time is because he's just not taking the time to read his cards.

Like, have you seen anyone in this show pause to actually read their cards? They probably memorized them while setting up their deck and through active play.

If Yuma's struggle is in memorization, and he's still trying to play as fast as everyone else, then of course he's going to mess up! Astral helps him slow down and really think about what each card does instead of trying to match the pace this game is usually played at.

#In conclusion Yuma is neurodivergent #thanks for coming to my TED talk #yugioh zexal #ygo zexal #yuma tsukumo #ygo #yugioh #analysis #meta

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mallowcream-art · 3 years

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I posted 483 times in 2021

81 posts created (17%)

402 posts reblogged (83%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 5.0 posts.

I added 311 tags in 2021

#yugioh sevens - 58 posts

#my art - 41 posts

#kirby - 39 posts

#yugioh arc v - 38 posts

#anime art - 35 posts

#precure - 23 posts

#meta knight - 21 posts

#yugioh - 19 posts

#sevens - 19 posts

#arc v - 18 posts

Longest Tag: 113 characters

#theres also some kind of symbolism with how yuga is always sleeping and having near-prophetic dreams all the time

My Top Posts in 2021

I did the 6 fanart thing but for precure

27 notes • Posted 2021-06-04 15:10:15 GMT

Ok who hurt him?

29 notes • Posted 2021-06-24 19:34:48 GMT

Cure heart kirby

Their spreading the love

31 notes • Posted 2021-02-04 20:26:01 GMT

I made a funny

43 notes • Posted 2021-07-13 19:35:32 GMT

a chart I made of ygo characters and their war crime. ive only seen zexal, arc v, and some of gx idk if characters from otherseasons also have war crimes

118 notes • Posted 2021-03-28 04:52:31 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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blooming-blooming · 8 years

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Mizael and Arrogance: A Look Into his Motivations and Common Fandom Misconceptions

I see a lot of people describe Mizael as “arrogant”, and, in many cases, say it’s his most defining trait. While I see where people are coming from, this is a very large misunderstanding of his character. Make no mistake: Mizael is very well aware of his skills as a Barian emperor. However, confidence =/= arrogance, and much of his pride is a bravado he puts on during the war. The few times we see below this bravado, Mizael is shown to be an extremely caring person who puts his concern for the well being of others before most other things.

In this post, I will be raising two points with screenshots. One, that while Mizael is prideful in his skill, he does not necessarily think of himself as superior to others. Two, that because he does not think of himself as superior and cares about others, his biggest flaw is actually that he cares too much. For the most part, both of these ideas will be analyzed with similar scenes/points in the series that address both at once.

A warning in advance: this post is really long.

I’m going to get one thing out of the way right now: Mizael is flashy. He is confident. He knows he’s good. This is established in his first appearance.

Not only does Mizael blast a crater into a mountain, but Gilag and Alit both comment that he’s the only one who would have such a simultaneously powerful and flashy entrance. Right off the bat, the viewer can infer that Mizael is strong and very well aware of that fact. This image of Mizael is further pushed when he gives Alit and Gilag Sphere Cubes from Durbe. The two are excited to finally be able to fight head on, which prompts this response from Mizael:

This is, at its core, extremely dismissive, followed by him leaving immediately after. This being the viewer’s first real impression of Mizael definitely leaves the imprint that he is flashy, arrogant, and views himself as being better than others. However, this behavior is revealed to be a bravado a few episodes later, when Alit gets attacked by Shingetsu.

While the comment itself is dismissive, his face is full of concern for Alit’s well being and he looks as if he’s about to cry. This action lines up a lot more consistently with Mizael’s behavior throughout the series. There will be more detail on this aspect of Mizael’s personality later in the post, but I am going to stay focused on this scene, as the continuing dialogue reveals more about Mizael: mainly, that despite belittling Gilag earlier, he has full faith in him when he sees he is serious about avenging Alit.

Gilag had been really sloppy and lazy in his work up to this point, which supplemented Mizael’s condescending comment towards him and Alit in his debut. Once he sees Gilag is serious, he has absolutely no doubt in his mind that he can handle things. Mizael not only is well aware of Gilag’s skills, but he is confident enough in them to not get involved himself. This implies a lot of trust and respect between Mizael and Gilag; especially considering how closed off Mizael seemingly keeps himself from the other Barians.

Mizael not only has respect for his comrades, but he shows it to his enemies as well. During the Sargasso duels, everyone who controls an Xyz monster loses 500 life points per turn due to the field spell. The Barians have a trump around this with the card Sargasso’s Lighthouse, which negates this effect. Vector, being extremely dishonest, and Durbe, who has an “ends justify the means” mentality, have no problem using this card. Mizael, however?

He doesn’t use it because it gives him an advantage over Kaito. Considering the priorities of Barian World, it makes sense for Mizael to use Sargasso’s Lighthouse, same as Durbe. However, he doesn’t because it goes against his moral code, and he can’t truly say he beat Kaito if he has a handicap. This show’s Mizael’s respect for Kaito because he’s willing to hinder his own mission for the sake of giving him an even match. And Kaito isn’t the only opponent Mizael show’s respect and gives a fair fight to.

The second Mizael leans of V’s connection, he’s more than eager to duel him and III both.

The biggest point that comes from this interaction (and the duel as a whole), is Mizael’s willingness to duel III along with V, who has not proved his “worthiness” to duel. Mizael still respects him despite not having the connection to Kaito that his brother does, and gives them both a fair duel.

(This has no relevance to the point I’m trying to make. I just want to point out what an absolute little SHIT Michael Arclight is. I love my son so much.)

Additionally, after Mizael beats the Arclight brothers and watches them die, he stops and takes a moment to mourn their passing.

This scene shows that despite his victory over III and V, he still respects them. He has much more pressing matters with Kaito to attend to, but he takes a moment to revere his opponents. This is an act of humility. There is no gloating over his victory, nor anything else that would be considered “arrogant”, but rather, the exact opposite.

Humility itself is a very key aspect to Mizael -- especially in his past life, where he values peace and the life of others far above his own.

The Barians’ past lives reflect the people who they currently are, and Mizael is certainly no exception. When he was faced with having to choose between his people and his dragon for peace, he instead decided to take a third option and offer his own life instead. This action is very humble and noble -- he puts others before himself first and foremost. This aspect of Mizael’s personality is why Don Thousand wanted him to become a Barian to begin with. This isn’t the only time Mizael offers his own life, either -- had his strategy in his duel against Don Thousand worked, it would have resulted in a tie and both of them would have died. Both of these moments show that if it benefits the greater good, Mizael has no problem taking his own life.

All of these scenes combined bring up one very defining aspect of Mizael: while he is aware of his skills, he by absolutely no means thinks of himself as superior to others. He has respect for his comrades and opponents alike, and is even willing to commit suicide if it means those he respects will have a better future. Which brings me to my next point.

Not only is Mizael far from arrogant, but in reality he cares a lot more about others than he lets on. One of his biggest flaws is actually that he cares too much.

As mentioned previously in this post, Mizael shows a lot of hidden distress when Alit gets attacked by Shingetsu, hinting at some hidden compassion for him. He becomes a lot more open about his concern for both Alit and Gilag, however, when Vector admits to being the one who attacked both.

When Vector belittles Alit and Gilag for getting ambushed by him, Mizael’s first instinct is to attack him out of anger. It’s only when Durbe makes Mizael stop that he stops from fighting back. In doing this, Mizael shows just how upset he was by what happened to his comrades; not only is he livid that they are being mocked for what happened to them, but he is also willing to fight back for their honor. This is further cemented by his refusal to listen to Vector’s plan after what he did, and he only complies because Durbe asks him to.

Mizael’s priorities for the well being of his comrades is further explored in his duel with Kaito in Sargasso.

(A fun fact about Sargasso: it gets its name from The Sargasso Sea, the only sea in the world which is surrounded by other bodies of water on all sides. Very appropriate for both the setting of the duel and the point in the story that these episodes take place in.)

When Mizael sees what Vector, his ally, his doing to Yuma in their duel, his first instinct is to curse him for playing so dirty. This goes back to how heavily Mizael prioritizes respecting opponents. Furthermore, there is an earlier scene that mirrors this one where Durbe asks Shark if he earnestly believes Yuma can win, to which Shark responds that of course he can. Mizael, though? He asks Kaito why he doesn’t care about Yuma because isn’t worried about his safety. (To which Kaito responds that he does care about Yuma, he just has full faith that Yuma can take care of himself. For what a minor, short scene it is, it reveals a lot about both Mizael and Kaito as people.)

This question Mizael asks reveals two things: One, that he highly values the safety of his teammates, because he wouldn’t ask Kaito why he wasn’t worried about Yuma if it wasn’t a personal priority of his. And, two, that Mizael cares so much about others that he stops to wonder if the enemy in a war to save his own home world is okay.

This concern for Yuma highlights two problems with Mizael in the setting he is in: He is in a war to protect his home, and yet he is getting angry at his ally for his underhanded tactics and has absolutely no trust in him, and he is sympathizing with the enemy. This is why I think he spends so much time focusing on Kaito, rather than the war itself; he does not trust the people he is fighting with, and the the people he did trust are now dead. He doesn’t know if he can fully commit to the cause, so he focuses on the one aspect he know he can passionately and fully commit to -- seeing who is the master of the Galaxy Eyes, because Tachyon is the only being he fully believes in. This is also what makes the Moon Duel so powerful, and Kaito’s final words so poignant.

Up until this point, Mizael did not have the power to do things his way, nor did he even know what he truly did believe in with the war. When Kaito dies and trusts him with the Numeron Dragon, the door is opened to Mizael. He finally has the ability to put things into his own hands, and to do what he truly believes in. He doesn’t have to worry about conflicts between allies, or if he’s truly right for his vehement hatred of humans. With everything he’s been through, he’s finally found his answer thanks to Kaito.

And that answer is to fight for others, to fight for the future.

So, to summarize Mizael’s situation: He’s an honorable, caring person who’s stuck in a war with his leaders gone. The next in charge is making several decisions he does not agree with, but does not have the power to fight. Then his allies are killed, and he’s forced to work with the person who killed them despite his objections. He decides to take his focus away from the main war and put them into Kaito, but this results in him learning he’s human. This complicates his situation even more, because if he’s human he’s fighting his own people, which he also doesn’t want to do to save Barian World -- hence how hard he tries to fight being human. This struggle is what leads to him eventually being freed through Kaito’s words, accepting his identity as a human and being able to fight Don Thousand.

Mizael is strong. Mizael is powerful. Mizael hates slackers. But, above all else, Mizael cares about others a lot more than he lets on as a means of protecting himself.

#watch me get REALLY PASSIONATE about a yellow alien from a cartoon for 9 year olds #zexal #yugioh zexal #mizael #mizar #write tag #Niki Gets Meta

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