SO. On page 23, I drew the best Duke Devlin that I have ever drawn. Ever. Speaking of which, I was using the last few manga issues as reference for these pages, and I don't think even Takahashi is entirely sure how to draw the guy. His headband just kind of.... vanishes behind his bangs. Never to be seen again. I sacrificed accuracy to the character design so as to draw a headband I could believe existed.
Kids? Duke is a player. Serenity is not stupid. She's either very uncomfortable or insincere pretty much every time he's up in her face. Serenity knows Duke is a player.
Which is pretty much why I spit acid at the pairing. There are ways it could work, but to be quite honest I don't think Serenity would put up with it for very long. She's just too nice to tell him so and is hoping he'll eventually lose interest.
As I noted in the comments for page 24, this is pretty much Duke giving an honest opinion for once. I tend to think he mostly chases Serenity to agitate Tristan anyhow, but apparently with everything going on, he's gotten a little tired of Tristan denying that it bothers him. Or something. This is so in character I can't even puncture it in a way that makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about. (What can I say? I write more intuitively than anything.)
Yay for page 25! I used to ship those two, before I stopped shipping Kaiba/Ishizu. No, I seriously, seriously did. I can't even remember why. But I do know that any good story that considers romances seriously has to take into account all the relationships outside the romance, and this is an important one. Even more important, for the purposes of GD, than the relationship between Joey and Kaiba. Why? Because Mokuba loves his big brother desperately and wants him to be happy. I'll let you consider the implications of that on your own.
Red Eyes Plushie is awesome. He's also a little on the fat side, but that's because I was trying to consider the need for stuffings.
I don't actually have much to say about page 26 except that it was mucho fun to draw. XD
Small spoiler for page 27: Serenity is deliberately fooling herself. She knows perfectly well it was not Kaiba who would be so thoughtful as to give her such a gift, she knows perfectly well Mokuba's the considerate one.
She does not care. Right at this moment, she feels good, she knows that Mokuba is a potential avenue to spend more time in the vicinity of Kaiba anyway. And he's a nice kid.
I totally wiggle my butt like that when I'm happy. XD Picked it up from my cat.
The Ishizu of page 28 is not the best Ishizu I have ever drawn. But that's okay.
For some reason I find the line "after destiny comes paperwork" both hilarious and deeply profound.
Page 29 and page 30 make me happy for a number of reasons. For one thing, Pegasus feels completely in character. For another, he's gorgeous.
GORGEOUS.XD
Check out that shading around where his left eye used to be. It terrifies me. I love it. XD
(I don't consider this bragging, because I often don't have a clue how I pull this sort of thing off.)
Also, it makes me happy because I love the pairing. Whoof. Perhaps essays on such matters will rear their over-emotional heads sooner or later.
Preview for the next set of pages!
Striped socks will be seen. Joey will get a most welcome break from hospital boredom. Serenity will give Kaiba a guilt trip without meaning to. Téa will do some reading. Serenity will "reconcile" with her father. (Not really.) And then Yugi will end Magic Light with some introspective narrative. :D On to the next story!
