zacrathedemon5

[zacrathedemon5]

you CANNOT read too much old timey fiction because I was playing Raft with the lads this morning and without a THOUGHT said we could sail over to another island "if the wind would consent to blow" & let me tell you. This did not pass by unremarked.

[zacrathedemon5]

Editing Shou Tucker in the year of our lord 2025.

Anime: Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) Song: Charcoal Grace II: A World Without by Caligula's Horse

[zacrathedemon5]

look I'm not gonna pretend I know anything about electronics, but sometimes a plug is so big it blocks another socket, and I'm always like "who the fuck do you think you are"

[zacrathedemon5]

i hope this email kills us both instantly

[zacrathedemon5]

There is no pain quite like Utena pain.

Anime: Revolutionary Girl Utena Song: Wake Circling Above by Allegaeon

[zacrathedemon5]

Overdramatic Madoka angst is my comfort editing material and I'm here to inflict it upon you all again.

Anime: Madoka Magica Rebellion

Song: A Reverie to Quell the Giants by Others by No One

[zacrathedemon5]

it is so hilarious that tdh has about 40 minutes of recurring leitmotifs throughout the acts and yet when they say ‘one life for another’ legitimately like 30 times in the procession this is not EVER reincorporated he just gets it all out there. like fuck it I guess. who needs recurring lyricism when we can say it several dozen times in one song and never again

[zacrathedemon5]

I'm sorry but WHAT is happening in Duel Links??

*CRACKS KNUCKLES* ALRIGHT im certain other people could explain this better than I could (bark at me if any of this is wrong,) but, an attempt at a quick rough tl;dr of it:

so like. an important thing to note with DL is that like..... the in-universe explanation for Duel Links is that it's one of Seto Kaiba's new VR New Evolution of Dueling Ego Projects, which like, ok sure, he Makes Those, but what's a little alarming with this one is that technically (almost) none of the characters In The Game are actually Those Characters Specifically, they're AI recreations of them with their original self's memories (that's already a lot, right out the gate.) (I say "almost" everyone because I think it's implied DSOD Kaiba and maybe Mokuba actually Are them because it's Their Game and they're always product testing it, there might be others though)

anyway another thing with this situation is that, uh, Most Characters in Duel Links Do Not Know They're AI. They just assume they're the original guy, that's just them! Hanging out in this cool new Duel VR! But then sometimes you DO get characters who actively are aware that they're just code in a video game (Yami Bakura and Bruno 5D's both comment on it), so you have this really interesting ecosystem of duelists who Are aware they don't really exist, and duelists who are None the Wiser. absolutely batshit.

and sure this is all well and fine with like, DM and maybe GX characters, ok sure it makes sense Kaiba would be recreating notable duelists of that era, but i cannot stress enough He Is Also Making AI Recreations of Dead People. DL very much takes place post-manga, post-DSOD. But Yami Yugi is There. Yami Bakura and Yami Marik are Very There. Manga Pegasus is there. Seto "I Will Never Learn to Come to Terms With Grief" Kaiba is actively raising the dead in his little VR card game simulator so they can live forever and there's a 50/50 chance they'll be FULLY AWARE that they died. JESUS.

There's also the hulking elephant in the room of Duel Links Has Been Including Characters From Series Kaiba Has Nothing to Do With For Quite Some Time Now--and a lot of those characters are like HEY. WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE. like I SWEAR someone from either Zexal or Arv-C was actively like "hi what the hell is KaibaCorp" so like...Kaiba's branding is ALL OVER THE VR WORLD EVEN IN THE WORLD'S HE DIDNT EXIST IN. It's painting this absolute off the rails picture of Seto Kaiba trying to create this virtual multiverse of The Best Duelists From Every Timeline Living or Dead, and half the guys he's pulling in at this point are like *spawns into a perfect recreation of their hometown with no real idea of who did this* "what in the goddamn."

like guys from zexal/arc-v are actively IN GAME like trying to figure out why this VR world exists and who created it. It's absolutely wild and fascinating to watch. excited to see what happens when they add VRAINS world next month?!?!? idk anything about VRAINS really but it's probably going to make the DL lore even more bananas.

ANYWAY. ALL OF THAT SAID. NOW WE HAVE MAXIMILLION PEGASUS DROPPING IN-GAME OMINOUS SENTIMENTS it's kind of a culminations of all of the aforementioned shit. Duel Links Pegasus (an AI recreation of manga!Pegasus, who is fully aware A.) that's he's dead and B.) that there's multiple worlds and timelines crammed into this Virtual Reality) has a conversation with Paradox (an AI recreation of Paradox the Bonds Beyond Time Yugioh Movie Bad Guy, who, for all intents and purposes, fully believes he's the real dude and he wants to kill-die-explode-murder Pegasus SO BAD) breaking down that "hey, this place unites different histories, and if you kill me duel monsters won't cease to exist. Anyway, I'm not real! Ohoho! This world holds threads of tragedy, Paradox-boy!" <-- (not verbatim. but i wish it was.) Meanwhile Paradox is having a sputtering breakdown right next to him. This is a video game to play yugioh the trading card game.

like. it's just absolutely wild. konami could have just said "hey heres yugioh characters from every series. whatever" but no instead they threw in a bunch of mild psychological horror and inter-series friction and existentialism and it's a freemium video game that i have 600+ hours on on steam. yugioh duel links !

[zacrathedemon5]

i genuinely love how rin and serena are complaining about yugo together

[zacrathedemon5]

The yugorin interaction was so hilarious too—

And yeah, heartwarming 🥹🥹

[zacrathedemon5]

Things that made me lol

[zacrathedemon5]

New AMV! Did anyone order an extra strong dose of self-hatred and angst? Well Vanitas has it, whether you ordered it or not.

Anime: The Case Study of Vanitas

Song: Mute by Caligula's Horse

[zacrathedemon5]

Arcane season 2 act 2 did things to my emotions and my soul and I needed to vent something for it before act 3 dropped, and managed to get this out just in time!

I also wanted to vent some love for Arcane, the band, so it worked out that I was able to kill two birds with one stone haha.

(If anyone knows and likes Caligula's Horse, Arcane was another band Jim Grey featured in, and they were also really good! And he sounds just as glorious as ever in it.)

Series: Arcane

Song: Learned by Arcane

[zacrathedemon5]

watched princess tutu for the first time :')

[zacrathedemon5]

New AMV! I got inspired by my recent Princess Tutu viewing and the release of Wintersun's new album Time II to put together a fun little combination. A celebration of both.

Anime: Princess Tutu

Song: Silver Leaves by Wintersun

[zacrathedemon5]

New AMV up! My first ever collab with the great Violet Skies, and another Penguindrum video, with a twist!

[zacrathedemon5]

But the world was a large place, so the monster split into two on his journey.