This scene was a bit harder on me because I had very specific things in mind and it didn't always pan out quite right. I am pleased anyhow, though.
That doctor Téa asked for directions is totally Sephiroth. I don't know why I'm so convinced of this.
I love Téa. XD This scene was mildly inspired by several humorous scenes actually in the series, incedentally: Téa rubs her shoulders when she has to use the bathroom (Duelist Kingdom), Téa comes up with pretty decent lies when she wants out of a situation (Battle City), Bakura shows up in weird places (all the time.) I actually tend to think that, since Bakura has been shown to be very attractive to teenage girls (shown? HA!) he probably has spent enough time with them to know where a woman will probably go in a public place when she needs to be alone.
Also, it was important to me that I show some of Bakura's "real" personality showing through. He seems fairly sensitive and empathic, and without Yami Bakura giving him all those blackouts anymore I'd think he'd be more likely to take his own initiatives, too, especially with those people who stuck with him despite his being possessed by an elder god thing.
I tend to think that all this time, Yugi's suspected this but pushed it aside because he didn't want to think he was competing with Atem. (His love/lust for Téa is canon, it's pointless to argue about it because Takahashi even talks about them getting married. XD)
Also, you can practically hear his poor little heart shatter into pieces and crash all over the floor in this scene. :(
Yes, Bakura sees him and isn't telling Téa. Would you? Be honest.
For some reason I seem to like scenes with Yugi accidentally overhearing things. In half my unfinished plot bunnies there's a scene where Yugi accidentally overhears a heavy conversation. He's overheard everything from "I was in love" to "why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?" XDD
In page eighteen, Téa shows that she has Yugi's personality down. Also, the line "I thought I was done" is a reference to the fact that I don't think Téa can let this go so easily. She thought she was prepared. She thought she was finished, but she's not. In a way, I drew from my own grieving experiences for this.
I have one more panel I want to comment on:
First of all, I was listening to "Sonne" whilst inking this page, which is really just hilarious when you think about it.
Secondly, this particular line inspired this slightly slashy piece on my main deviantart:
Darnit, this is the wrong computer to upload an "appropriate" image from to head the blog off with. Oh well, we can edit it later. XD
There's no way to keep everybody happy when it comes to pairings. Some people only like a fic when all the pairings are "totally and undeniably canon," whatever that means, while others can't stand anything resembling canon pairings and will only read a fic if Weevil is paired up with Princess Adina from the VR episodes right after Duelist Kingdom (or something equally WTF.)
And then, of course, there's the people who can't stand slash ("gay" pairings) and the people who can't live without it.
This is a nexgen. GDG and Invid (the authors) are both very creeped out by MPreg. Therefore, there will be little actual slash to speak of between canon characters.
That doesn't mean either of us really has anything against slash. Invid doesn't like sex in his fic fare at ALL, and GDG is bisexual. All sexual relationships in YnY and Game of Dreams will not so much be shown as hinted at (sometimes very, very strongly.) We believe that, for the purpose of this story, less is more.
There will be hints of pairings that don't actually end up happening in the long run. The driving force of Game of Dreams is mainly to get everybody together that are parents of main characters of YnY. After that, pairings won't be quite as central, despite the fact that Yukai's sexual orientation seems to be Kaiba's daughter. (If you've read the preboot, you know this already. It's not a spoiler.) But slash will rear its crack-dazed head more than once in both YnY and GD, occasionally humorously, sometimes as nothing more than a whisper, and possibly for real at least once.
But I refuse to limit any two characters by keeping them solely to each other. Yes, Kira Kaiba is Serenity's daughter and GD needs to explain how a heck that happened. But Kaiba's relationship with Joey plays a major role in that, as does Serenity's relationship with Joey. Even Mai's relationship with Joey. And the same goes for other relationships that exist in this fancomic, up to and including relationships with dead characters.
Game of Dreams is not a romance about any one pairing. It's about a web of relationships both romantic and otherwise. And YnY isn't really a romance at all. It's about a father-son relationship (and about one of the most entertaining characters I've ever devised, including my original works.)
One of the reasons I arrived at some of the pairings I use, in fact, is the fact that they create very interesting relationships between the main Yukai no Yugi cast. If, for example, Joey and Kaiba ended up together instead of Serenity and Kaiba, then not only would Yukai not be all weird about Kaiba's daughter (as opposed to Kaiba's niece, which mightn't be so charged), but Kira and Ken (Joey's oldest son) wouldn't be cousins and wouldn't act like siblings. I find the fact that Kaiba and Joey's kids act like brothers and sisters to be much more interesting than an uneasy friendship or fullblown rivalry would be.
If something having to do with pairings disappoints or upsets you, I apologize. Go over the Golden-Dragon-Girl account at DeviantArt (or email at yukaimotou@gmail.com) and send me notes demanding your slashcrack there. Or your hetcrack. Or your Weevil/Adina crack. It might not work, but then again it might. But don't knock YnY for something you dislike about the canon character pairings. You'll deprive yourself of all the crazy slashy jokes we start making about three (four? five? something like that) chapters in.
So right now we're working on the first part of Game of Dreams, which is the prologue to Yukai no Yugi and'll be in seven parts (The number of times I've written that....)
Thus far there are fifteen pages but they'll all be linked in the cover comments by the time it's done.
Now for "indepth commentary", I suppose. If you haven't read the fifteen pages yet, it'd be better to do so now.
I worry I'm going to be accused of overdoing the drama here. The first page narration only barely manages to not be overwrought, although most people seem to not care about the first page much even though I was mostly very pleased with it. XD
Is it wrong that I'm amused that the grand majority of the comments, including my own, on page two, go along the lines of "No, Joey!!" We all sound like Serenity or something. (I would post a video of Serenity yelling "No, Joey!!" but I can't find it on Yuutube and I can't remember the episode number. XDDD)
I don't remember why Yugi was in the shower in his first scene. I think I just wanted something for him to be doing. ^_^; Which means, natch, that I'm a pervert, because that was the first thing I thought of. Also I admit to being pleased with how he looks in most of his scenes; I have trouble drawing big-eyed Yugi because apparently "cute" just isn't programmed into my style or something. >D (I LIE?)
One of the important things I tried (and possibly failed) to get across in these pages is the fact that Yugi understands Kaiba-- and Téa and Tristan do not. In fact I tend to think that, other than Mokuba, Yugi and Joey (yes, Joey too) are the only people who really understand Kaiba in any way. Which is part of something he comes to realize in the background. And Yugi considers Kaiba a friend, which is why he so insistently tells him not to worry, Yugi will take care of things.
That's also why Yugi keeps asking Kaiba if he's okay. XD
It's not very clear, but Kaiba actually helped to lift Joey off the front of the car, and has blood on his clothes. That's what he's burning in a garbage can on page seven. He talks about self-therapy because his doctor has him on some medication to mitigate such obsessive compulsive behavior, and being Kaiba, he's ticked off by the idea that he'd need to take medication for something like that. I don't know WHEN he started to take the medication, but I suspect it started right after Duelist Kingdom, and that he stopped taking it at some point before or during the Doom arc, because he was convinced it was causing hallucinations. During the Doom arc he realized that it couldn't possibly be the medication causing him to see things, so he's going back on it as a trial run. XD This theory, obviously, only holds up in the dub.
If you don't follow the dub continuity then just assume he started taking it some time in the undefined past, I'm mostly joking anyway.
In page eight's dream sequence, I'm mainly referencing a line from the manga right after Death T; in which Mokuba says that his and Seto's father died "in an accident" when Mokuba was three. I strongly suspect this of being a car accident. I have not seen anything to refute or contradict this suspicion within anything canon. I'm writing under the assumption that it WAS a car accident because that makes the impact of the accident with Joey more personal.
Do note the bandaid on little Seto's cheek.
In case nobody was aware, Kaiba sleeping in means there is something VERY WRONGTM. Thus Moku-chan's concern. (I've only seen him asleep when he was actually either knocked unconscious, soulless, or both. Heee.)
In page 10, I wanted to imply (from Yugi's expression) that Tristan has been bitterly harping on this line several times already. Also, Yugi sounds like Atem (which as I note in the comment will be gone into) and Téa's just like OMG. 8O Notice her posture in the last panel, if you aren't too distracted by the evil shadow trying to eat Seto's shoulders.
If it isn't clear in the next page from the positioning of characters, Serenity is going in one direction (after Kaiba, in the direction of Joey's room) while Téa is running in the opposite, the direction Kaiba came from. One of the things that will be set up in this story arc is a sudden drift between Yugi and Téa. There were things that happened in the main anime and manga that I was unsatisfied with the resolution of, in this case, Téa's mourning of Atem. She was in love with him (so sayeth the manga outright), and being someone who's been in love with people I can't have, this is something I want to see real development and human behavior in, because I've been there.
In pages 12-15, I mostly wanted to lay the groundworks for my version of Silentshipping. I'll admit it. Anyone who's looked at the character sheets for YnY proper know that this story has Silentshipping in it. Basically, I have several things here to say about the pairing itself and how I write it:
1. Kaiba's relationship with Joey is vital to this pairing. I have committed Puppyshipping for its own sake before, but it's also very important to Silentshipping because Joey is the most important man in Serenity's life, and because in canon, I often read Joey and Seto's relationship as being love/hate/twisted fraternal. On whatever level, Kaiba cares about what happens to Joey by the end of the series, and what's happened hurts.
2. I am perfectly aware that he has no idea who she is. That's what makes page 13's second and third panels so awesome. XD
3. Yes, Serenity is crushing on him. In the VR Noa arc, during Kaiba vs. Jinzo, you can see her clapping insanely when he makes a spectacular move. She does that for Joey, but I somehow doubt she does it for Yugi. (chuckles) She blushes badly when she has to talk to him in the blimp arc, obviously screwing up all her courage. At the very least Serenity finds Kaiba both exciting and intimidating.
4. Serenity is the second person in fifteen pages to ask Seto if he's okay.
Other subjects of note in this scene include that Joey is listening to the entire conversation, is only pretending to be asleep to spare Kaiba the humiliation, that Kaiba is desperately trying to assauge his guilt, and that Kaiba is making the mistake of assuming that not being hurt means he's got no right to be upset. Also, Serenity is annoyed that Kaiba remembers Mai and not her.
Asj and I had a short discussion about how Kaiba would have referred to Serenity if he had seen her duel.
~AsjJohnson Hmm... Serenity should realize that Mai's a duelist and she's not. I do wonder what may have happened if Kaiba was there to see that duel she was forced into... O_o No wait, that would be a bad idea because Serenity was all whiny. ^_^" Perhaps if he saw near the end... I think Serenity got it together at the end, if I remember right... Then Kaiba would think of her as "Virtuous, mahogany-haired, Saint-Joan girl" (... that is the name of the card, right? >_>" I think it was...) Heh. First I was going to say "cute" instead of "virtuous", but I couldn't picture Kaiba using that word - even if I meant it as "short and child-like, like Mokuba". ^_^"
--~Yukai-no-Yugi XD Yeah, I was kind of dissappointed I didn't have enough room to write "Well NOW I know how to get his attention..." next to Serenity's head there.
Saint Joan, yeah. Virtuous doesn't really sound like him either, though, maybe just "short" or "bubbly?" XD And he'd probably say "redhead" because it's shorter. Hee. -- ~AsjJohnson Hmm... Well, I guess I can't argue about Serenity having brown instead of red hair anymore ^_^", because I'm pretty sure I've heard Ichigo from Bleach being referred to as having red or orange hair - and I'm still confused about that, when it's definitely blond... v_v (pretends to compare Ichigo and Ed) Ed's blond hair is oranger than Ichigo's orange hair.Anyhow... Um... was there enough room to say "I need to become a duelist"?I basically decided on "virtuous" because Kaiba says Serenity's a virtue name. ^_^" Perhaps Kaiba could just call her "Mutt-sister"? Seems more appropriate at the moment, since he didn't see her dueling. (tries to keep from laughing as I picture Kaiba calling her "virtuous Mutt-Sister" - and then tries very hard not to laugh as I picture Serenity's look, which is similar to panel seven except that she's smirking darkly as she considers how to kill him.)
-- ~Yukai-no-Yugi I actually thought of writing that AFTER I had already written OMG, so no, sadly, there wasn't. (Sigh! XD) Pfa ha ha ha ha! "Virtuous Mutt-sister." XDDDD Darn you, now I've got it in my head too! X33
(Serenity: DX Keel yuuu!!
Kaiba: What? What'd I say?)
Nah, if he did that he would have said something about Mai having a corny name.
XD If I have something wrong with me, I don't care, because I have more fun this way.
Speaking of that duel, I actually think it shows Serenity to have prodigious talent when she calms down.
And then Joey ruins the moment by letting Serenity know he's awake. Take note of his expression in the largest panel of page 15. I applaud Serenity for not losing her cool the entire scene, though.
Right now there are four and a half pages in production; three are scanned and cleaned but not shrunk.
This has basically been set up for behind the scenes blah about this fancomic right here. It'll probably turn into a dumping ground for things about Yu-Gi-Oh in general, too, knowing me.
I love Téa. XD This scene was mildly inspired by several humorous scenes actually in the series, incedentally: Téa rubs her shoulders when she has to use the bathroom (Duelist Kingdom), Téa comes up with pretty decent lies when she wants out of a situation (Battle City), Bakura shows up in weird places (all the time.) I actually tend to think that, since Bakura has been shown to be very attractive to teenage girls (shown? HA!) he probably has spent enough time with them to know where a woman will probably go in a public place when she needs to be alone.
