Kaiba Brand

(Hello, YnY blog readers. I am not GDG, but her brother Invid, who as a guest blogger may occasionally post here when I have the urge. The top link in "Linkage" here at this blog is Awesomer Than Thou, my blog. Click it. Click it now.)

Something that GDG talks about (well, complains about) is that the "non-sequel" Yugioh series have turned the characters of the DM series into archetypes to be utilized.

Kaiba, obviously, is one of these; in fact, he's the most obvious of them. To the point where GDG has labelled the various "Kaibas" in somewhat derogatory fashion.

Kaiba is the genuine Kaiba, of course. Whether or not you accept substitutions or imitations no doubt depends on your tastes.

You might, for instance, find Manjyome Jun/Chazz Princeton, Kaiba lite, less filling but more entertaining.

Or you might go for the hearty but bland store-brand Kaiba, Kaiser whatever-the-heck-his-real-name-is, whose only real characterization in the first season was that he was too perfect for his own good. (Be careful, he goes bad after a while.)

There's also Edo/Aster Phoenix, named either for a Yugioh-related Internet personality (there isn't a version of his webpage I know of that isn't five years out of date, hence the Google search) or a flower, who is known as both British Kaiba and diet Kaiba. Because he's British, and can give you brain damage.

Then there's Jack Atlas, who is for obvious reasons known as ghetto Kaiba. The guy does have, unlike his non-genuine Kaiba predecessors, some honest and genuine angst-you have to give him points for that, at least.

Jack is trying for a re-branding, though, having grown tired of the current characterization: Pimp Kaiba.

Only time will tell if he is successful.

Comic FAQ

I've been getting enough attention for the comic that I think it's about time we put together a Frequently Asked Questions List. My definition of Frequently Asked Question is that enough people have asked me enough times that I find it annoying (and to be honest, I like to not telegraph where I'm going with things, so plot directed questions tend to bother me anyway.)

I will add to this as time goes by. Since it'll be the only post with the label "Comic FAQ," you'll only ever have to click on the side to find it. Also, I plan to link it like crazy.

1. What the heck is going on here?
This is a long-term fancomic that builds on the first Yu-Gi-Oh! series (before GX). Game of Dreams is set in the seven years after the series ends, and is seven longer stories with some shorter, supplemental bits thrown in between. It is building up to the birth of Yukai, Yugi and Téa's son. Yukai no Yugi itself follows events that take place when Yukai himself is fifteen, twenty-two years after Atem passes on. Everything posted at the YnY DeviantArt page is part of the same fan continuity.

2. Will Game of Dreams feature X pairing?
I hate, hate, HATE being asked this. Look here, if you want the spoilers (they're not heavy spoilers, I suppose, because I do dance around them, but they're still spoilers). If you're really so sore for some pairing or another that you don't think will show up in GD, email me (through the blog email) and I'll think about posting some art or a comic featuring that pairing at my regular DeviantArt account or here, if I think I'm risking getting banned over it. (Note: second link is definitely NSFW.) If you're nice about it. Like I said, I'm flexible. (The only pairing I can't really figure out is Téa/Hitotsumi Giant, which I HAVE seen. Just don't ask me to try drawing it.)

3. Why don't you update more often/regularly?
This is only frequently asked by people who don't read my other two webcomics. They are both original, in full color, and update three to five times a week. The fancomic is easier to work on, because it's in black and white, but because I'm actually working toward making some kind of living tied to my original comics, they take priority. This is part of why the fancomic is posted on DeviantArt; to make it easier to follow. (Maybe someday I'll start posting it on DrunkDuck or something loony like that. I think they allow fancomics.) My original comics are called The Law of Purple, which has been running since 2004, and Alien Revenant, which I started in January of 2009. If you like my art, and you like my writing, you'll probably enjoy checking them out. (Also, looking at LOP can show you where my art skills were back in 2004 when I started it! Sweet Osiris.)
The other reason is that we have lives that happen to be a bit crazy sometimes, as people often do.

4. What's this about submitting fancharacters?
Look here.

5. Ha ha, Slifelmo is awesome.
Thank you.

6. Wait, are you a guy or a girl?
YnY has two people that write it and one person that reads it ahead of time to see if it's really as entertaining as we think it is. The person you're usually going to be talking to (and who is writing this) is Golden-Dragon-Girl, who (last time I checked) is definitely a girl. She wrote most of Game of Dreams herself, and also does all the art. The person who she co-writes it with is her older brother, who calls himself Invid most of the time, and who is definitely male, so far as I can tell. He at least partially created a lot of the non-offspring characters and also writes most of the duels for YnY. The plot of GD also wouldn't be the same without him. The person who (usually) betas for us is this wonderful lady. Don't bother needling her for plot points, she's not going to tell you. (She does NOT typically look at the art ahead of time, either.) The YnY DeviantArt page insists that he's male, and I'm not about to argue with him. :P

7. Do you take requests?
No, only friendly suggestions and niggling thoughts that won't go away. I'm likelier to do something you ask for if you meet any one of the following conditions: A, if you're nice about it, B, if you really sell it, C, if you're a friend of mine already, and D, if it has anything to do with my OC kids interacting with your OC kids. In case of D, because I happen to love that kind of stuff.

8. Do you mind fanart/if I color something you did?
Please, show me if you do. That kind of stuff makes me feel horribly loved. :3

9. Are you going to do a Character Study for [insert character here]?
The goal, when we started in on the Character Studies, was to cover every one of the original canon characters who would be important in the YnY comics.   There is a very good chance at this point that every character who appeared in the original YGO anime will get at least a little love.  Requests do make a difference in this case; they move certain characters further ahead in the queue.

Guess what I'm wearing

So I've been thinking about clothing.

No, despite my femaleness, that actually is sort of unusual-- I may have a wild assortment of clothing, but it's only because I also have a small assortment of other women who love to buy me clothes. Mostly my mother. Whenever she's at a yard sale and sees a nice dress shirt, a t-shirt she thinks I'll like, or pants that might fit me, she buys 'em (because they're ALWAYS cheap). I have collected more clothes than I'll ever need through the habits of my mother.

But I digress.

What I mean is that I've been thinking about the clothing the Yu-Gi-Oh characters wear (of course I have) throughout the DM anime (and also in some parts of the manga.)

And I have several observations to make (of course I do).

First of all, you can tell a LOT about Kaiba's insecurities through looking at his clothing. In his first manga appearance, his school uniform practically sags around him, only really fitting at the shoulders. I've long suspected that right before he entered high school, the hormones suddenly set in and he shot up from anywhere to a foot taller to two feet taller than he previously was. (I think this is partly because he always looks so SHORT next to Gozaburo in flashbacks.) So Seto hasn't filled out enough to fit in his uniform.

You can tell this is a source of insecurity for him because of his Battle City onwards costumes. All of them have over-wide shoulders, and the white trenchvest is clearly intended to make him look larger. It's like a lion's mane.

As for what he wears in Duelist Kingdom? I'd been looking at how subdued it is compared to his later costume (and even his earlier costume, that white suit with the huge red cape? That thing was so overblown.) And suddenly it struck me.

Those are Kaiba's pajamas and his house coat. Lots of people, Japanese or otherwise, wear shoes inside their homes that technically could be worn outside, but aren't so as to keep the house cleaner. He was essentially vegging out in his house, not bothering to wear dayclothes, while he obsessed over his Duel Disk prototypes and losing to Yugi and being soul-broken. (XD) He left by the window. That blue duster is the shortest of all non-uniform coats he wears in public (Neither of the white suits count, because suits are a kind of uniform). His pants are loose and comfortable looking, much unlike his regular clothes, which are usually sleek and form-fitting. His shirt doesn't cover his neck (Kaiba always covers his neck!) instead lazily drifting away from it and exposing his collarbone for all the world to see. Not only that, but the housecoat doesn't have a collar-- the shirt collar is what produces the effect most of his coats do by themselves. His pants and shirt are the same color, and it's a color that pants don't tend to be. Finally-- he's not wearing any socks.

Which kind of gives a new flavor to Kaiba's part in Duelist Kingdom, if you ask me. Makes it feel even more desperate than before. I like that.

And now you all know what Kaiba wears to bed. :D

Here's another random doozy: Serenity's outfit ethstetic tends to be a feminized, extremely toned-down version of Kaiba's. I do not say this lightly. Certainly, we only really see her spend a lot of time in the Battle City outfit, but that's what both their Battle City outfits ARE-- a high-collared vest over a shirt. It's probably because I'm a silentshipper, but I find this hilarious. Follow that theme for Serenity (feminized and toned-down Seto Kaiba) and you won't go far wrong when it comes to costumes that feel "right" for her to wear.

Of course, she also looks pretty good in a plaid skirt, but then she IS much, much liklier than Kaiba to be running around in a skirt at ALL. (snickers)

Joey, of course, wears whatever didn't smell bad enough that day. He probably bought it off the cheap rack, but since he's scruffy it works for him. Tristan dresses in a similar fashion but it's likelier his mother buys his clothes, because they look to be in better shape and of higher price tag.

Yugi of course is a punk with an Egyptian bent. It's not entirely clear if he only became a punk AFTER he was possessed, but I think he just didn't have the guts to wear his collar to school before (Atem had to have found the thing SOMEWHERE.) He also likes hoodies, although you wouldn't know it if you'd never read the manga. I like Yugi in hoodies, but I also like real-life punks in hoodies, so go figure. The hoodie doesn't detract from a goth/punk ethsetic at all. Atem seems to have at least SOME influence on what he wears, of course-- sure, there's the jewelry choices, but I'm actually thinking more about that uniform. Egyptians were kind of weird about fashion, by our standards, and it may well be that Atem likes that damn uniform because in ancient Egypt everybody dressed pretty similarly. (And yes, I know he's the one putting on the muscle shirt under it. Pharaohs dressed up their uniforms, but they still dressed pretty similarly to everyone else. The muscle shirt may be what he sees as an acceptable way to mark himself as different from Yugi's peers, and since it's like armor, that makes a lot of sense.)

Téa is always up on Japanese "respectable girl" fashion, although I do admit the yellow dress shirt flaring out from under the pink vest in Duelist Kingdom probably wasn't the best choice (I love her boots there, though.) She never vamps it up too high, she never goes too far into any counterculture. In short, she's a bit preppy. That's fine for her; it works with her sensible personality. She also wears shirts with Engrish on them, but that keeps getting dubbed out. Other than the Engrish she looks much like any American high school girl you might see in the mall or walking down the street. (I love the Wavebody shirt.)

Mai's sort of a cross between trashy and classy, and it's a very weird cross that works very well. She doesn't get enough different outfits. Also, she's the only major character to have a color theme that she sticks to faithfully-- that is, purple. Most of the other ones waver between two colors or don't stick to a color at all (Joey and Tristan don't stick to a color, Kaiba vacillates around the cooler colors and black and white, Téa likes pinks and yellows for some unfathomable reason that probably has to do with Takahashi's own weird preferences. Yugi... well, Yugi's usually wearing his uniform, and that doesn't count, especially since it's probably because Atem's all like "Woot! Uniform!" That wacky Egyptian. XD)

Out of the characters, the two who have the most different outfits are Téa and Kaiba (I'm sure you've never heard THAT pulled out as reasoning for azureshipping!). The outfit which potentially says the most about the person wearing it is Mokuba's Battle City outfit, which includes a very ornate cross necklace. (What does it say? That's up to the fanfic author. Takahashi probably just thought it looked cool.) Sexual-orientation-confirmation prize goes to the French maid outfits Zigfried had all his female servants wear. Most iconic is probably either Kaiba's Battle City outfit or Yugi's Battle City outfit (although Yugi's hair carry most of his outfits. You can't get too complex with clothes when someone has hair like that.) My personal favorite outfit is the white vest and black turtleneck Yugi wore during the Dungeon Dice Monsters episodes. It's Just So.

Colors that should be worn more often:
Blue, for Serenity and Mokuba, green, for Téa, and red, for everyone else.

Maybe, after I've finished the next character study, I'll do an essay about how Yugi and company can be adapted or interpreted as a Power Rangers/Super Sentai team. 83 IT'LL BE FUN.

Wacky Dub Moments: The Best and the Worst

Note: This list refers to those moments in the dub that were just so nuts, even the people watching the series for the first time noticed they were kind of off. The "Worst five" list is the "Worst Five" because, even though I'm a dubbie, they interfered with my enjoyment of the episode even the first time around, when I didn't know what had happened in the Japanese. Most of them because they involved dubbing inconsistencies. The "Best" list is the "best" list because all of them made me laugh the first time I encountered them, and still do.

Worst Five:
1. We're all living in America, America is wunderbar...

-In the first episode, Kaiba refers to himself as the Japanese champion. When being welcomed to Domino, Ishizu is told, "Welcome to America!"
What is the Japanese champion doing attending high school in America? Our standard of teaching sucks compared to Japan! (Apparently, Domino City moves between countries, because later they talk about going to America during Waking the Dragons, and it was made quite clear they needed plane tickets to get back home. The only explaination for that, if Domino was still in America, is that it's in Hawaii, and somehow I just don't think it is.)

2. Yugi, let me help you!

-Up to that point, it was pretty clear that Atem was doing the dueling when Yugi's eyes went all slanty. Changing that episode, so that Atem was supposedly being held back, instead of in need of Yugi's skills, threw the entire thing into confusion.

3. The Magic Marker.

-Dubbing out women's chests. I have an entire article about this at my Horakte's Sock Drawer blog. My body is not a corruptive force, and neither is Mai's, no matter how low her neckline is, as long as she's still actually clothed.

4. I miss you, Kaiba.

-(sputter) Mokuba just called Seto by their ADOPTIVE SURNAME! In one of Seto's FLASHBACKS! From BEFORE they were ADOPTED!

5. After our parents died-- I mean disappeared...

-In Duelist Kingdom, Mokuba and Kaiba both clearly say their parents passed away or DIED, respectively. During Noa's storyline, the policy on death had been changed, so Kaiba had to say they had "disappeared," clearly contradicting earlier dialogue. The only way to explain this away is that previously, they'd been talking to themselves, and so apparently Seto and Mokuba don't say the truth of what happened to their parents in front of each other?

Best Five:
1. "You can beg later. When you are punished." "Huh!?"

-Every single time Pegasus suggests locking Croquet away or torturing him, Croquet responds in the most bewildered tone of voice, like he has no idea what the hell Pegasus is talking about. It's hilarious.

2. "No I refuse!"

-Invid and I quote this at each other sometimes.

3. "You'll pay for that stinging jab with your life points!" "DUEL!"

-This too.

4. "When that blade touches your legs, it'll send you straight to the SHADOW REALM!"

-My soul is in my LEGS? Bahahahaha. No, no, what does it really do?

5. Pegasus's favorite fruit juice.

-Oh come on, like little kids don't know grown-ups drink wine. It's better than what Daddy probably drinks. It even has health benefits. And anyway, shouldn't it be GOOD to show the bad guy doing something you don't want little kids to do? He's the BAD GUY.

I find most of the other really weird stuff in the dub fairly easy to ignore, actually. It mainly amounts to looking elsewhere on the screen, or closing your eyes for a few moments and thinking about butterflies. XD

Obviously, this is all a matter of opinions. But it made ME laugh.

Character Study: Joey Wheeler

Approximate Age: (by the Japanese anime) Fifteen to seventeen
Character Archetype: The Open-Hearted Hero, twisted into a supporting role.
Probable Element and Alignment: Fire, Chaotic Good
Most Obvious Vocal Quirks: Typically, an inner-city sort of accent and rather odd twists on common phrases, like "Smell ya later."

Like most of the main characters, Joey suffers from a lot of mischaracterization and misunderstanding, which could be seen as odd as he's a basically straightforward person. But straightfowardness and simplicity are not the same as being a flat character-- Joey is equally as complex as Yugi or Kaiba (albiet much less fractured than Kaiba). Joey's most common plague is the label of "the dumb one." He's also shown as the "girly one" in a lot of puppyshipping fics, which quite frankly is beyond me, since Joey is also one of the most, if not THE most, masculine characters in the series. (Invid comments, "He is less masculine than Rafael, and... um... and Panik. Maybe Mako.")

What people who label Joey the "dumb one" tend to miss is that he's actually the leader of the group. Yugi is the main character and the Chosen One, certainly, but he's perfectly happy to stand in back and let Joey take point. In group shots, there are always two characters leading the stroll-- Joey with Yugi slightly behind him. Joey almost always enters a room first. Joey usually speaks first. It usually means something is up when anything different happens.

This is because Joey's base character is that of the typical shonen hero: hot-headed, good-hearted, too quick to speak and act. The man always says the first thing that comes into his head (and speaking from experience, that usually ends with you saying many very strange or stupid things.) Compare both Yugi and Joey to the first other shonen heroes that spring into your mind-- Ash Ketchum. Naruto. Goku. Luffy. Who resembles them more? (Hint: It's not the short one.)

This does not mean Joey is stupid. He's merely much, much less reserved. When he does take the necessary time to think things through (and this is difficult for him mainly because he has too much energy and can't calm down enough most of the time) he's easily as strategic as Kaiba. If there's anything "wrong" with Joey per se, it's that he has ADD.

Joey is, in his own way, a crazy sort of ingenius. Because Yugi stands beside him, we tend to overlook his incredible accomplishments. Even with Yugi there, no one else would have had quite the fire and ability to come in second at Duelist Kingdom despite having had no name for himself before (and Joey did give Yugi a run for his money, so to speak.) Yugi doesn't assist him once during Battle City, but once again Joey excells despite occassionally thinking too fast. Pegasus displays genuine admiration for him during the duel with Bandit Keith (and in the dub, tellingly, Joey is never called "Joey-boy" by Pegasus. He gets "Joseph," which for Pegasus is much more respectful.) In the Oreichalchos saga, he finds himself with the most difficult of the three dragons to use (Hermos, who needs not one but two monsters on the field AND you have to figure out what the heck your new toy DOES) and yet uses it skillfully after only one "trial" duel (the one with Mai, interrupted by Valon.) Joey's growth as a duelist is also another sign of the fact that he's a more traditional shonen hero than Yugi is-- Yugi already had his skills, just not the confidence. Joey had more confidence than he had skills in the beginning, but his mastery of those skills is quick and incredible.

Beyond all that, Joey has a very strange collection of skills. Most of these are best on display during the early manga and the anime's Duelist Kingdom, in which Joey avails himself as
1. A carpenter
2. A locksmith (or a lockpick, but they're essentially the same thing)
3. A pickpocket
4. and a cook.
For whatever reason, Téa refuses to eat Joey's cooking during the Oriechalchos saga, but I suspect that either the writers or Téa forgot that, during Duelist Kingdom, he was the only one who bothered making their dinner outside the castle worth eating. (Probably the writers, as Téa is infallible. XD [/joke]) Joey's purpose within the gang, as a team, is to take point and to take care of random needs presented to the group. Because of this he's sort of a Swiss Army knife when it comes to his abillities: they're small, but numerous and practical. (He's a good fighter, but an unskilled one. This is why Kaiba always wins.)

Probably Joey's skills come from his background: he's the son of a divorced alchoholic who essentially grew up on the streets and had to fend for himself. He spent a lot of time in gangs before coming to high school and terrorized a lot of other kids. Before becoming friends with Yugi, his main prospects for the future included armed robbery and carjacking. One wonders how he ended up at Domino High instead of Rintama High-- potential reasons include a falling-out with Hirutani or the realization that this path was no way to keep his promise to his sister (in Japan, remember, students have some choice in what high schools they go to.) My personal favorite theory is that Tristan had something to do with it. Most likely, it was a combination of all three. Joey is one of the only characters whose direct relationship with his father is vital to his character. Though his father's neglect almost ruined Joey's life, Joey actively continues to support him financially throughout the series. (This is probably the real reason he continues to hold a job after getting the Duelist Kingdom money, at least so far as the dub is concerned. If papa knew Joey had money, he might drink it all up.)

Not that I'm sure Joey suffers from active physical abuse from his father. He probably has been hit with the occasional beer bottle, and most certainly has obtained a few bruises over the years, but it occurs to me that Joey might not even realize he's being abused, seeing that he himself is very rough when physically affectionate. If anything, "That's just how Dad is when he's drunk." He does love his father, which the early manga makes clear, and at least at that point, is convinced that just obtaining financial security will "fix" their relationship (he probably already feels otherwise by the end of the series, though. Kaiba is living proof that money does not equal happiness. XD) Being a top duelist makes money less of a worry later on, I imagine, but as part of his early character money is a constant struggle and source of envy for him.

One of his greater accomplishments as a man is proving himself capable of earning, winning and providing for his loved ones, something his father failed to do. The actual most likely source of the family's falling apart, and even the most likely source of his father's alchohilsm, were struggles with Serenity's medical issues. Joey solved the problem. Part of the reason for his success was learning to accept the help of others. Joey's father probably never learned that, and I can imagine him having once been a very proud man.

Another oft-overlooked aspect of Joey is that he is an awesome judge of character, once he's past that first impression. Out of the characters in the series, the ones who understand Kaiba best by the end of it are Mokuba, Yugi and Joey. When Mai needs things said to her, it rarely takes him long to ferret out the best thing to say (even though, as noted before, all the wrong things to say come out first, because he always says the first thing that pops into his head.) He also has slightly better social skills than either Yugi or Kaiba, at least in that he's unafraid to approach people he finds interesting and presents a more approachable manner himself. He's definitely better-adjusted than Kaiba is, although their respective characters share a lot in common. (This isn't surprising given their respective archetypes, which are two sides of the same coin.)

Something that most people DO understand about Joey's character is that he's almost everybody's best buddy, although I don't think most of them quite realize how far the series pushes this. Yes, he's Yugi's best friend, but he's also Tristan's best friend, and he's Bakura's pretty darn good friend, and Téa's best (platonic) friend, and his sister's best friend, and he sure does get along with Duke quite well. Mako likes him, Mokuba likes him, Pegasus respects him, Valon likes him (eventually), Mai falls in love with him. Marik likes him, and he's seen exchanging rough affection with Odion at one point in the manga. And, of course-- Kaiba likes him, too. As I noted in Kaiba's character study, Kaiba picks on Joey because Joey is funny. More importantly, by the end of Battle City, Kaiba even respects Joey, although obviously that doesn't stop him from teasing Joey. Kaiba doesn't have very many friends at all, much less ones he can tease. Joey fulfills an important role for him, and in turn, Kaiba gets Joey mad enough to stand up and excell. If Yugi, Tristan and Téa provide Joey with the support, and Serenity provides the motivation, Kaiba stokes the fire and acts as the grinding stone to sharpen Joey's determination. (wow what a mixed metaphor.) By the end of the series, Joey is one of Kaiba's closest friends, even if Kaiba isn't one of Joey's. (Although I do believe Joey considers Kaiba to be a friend. Just not the kind you borrow money from. XD)

Earlier in the study I commented that Joey is one of the most masculine characters in the series. People familiar with the cross-dressing fiasco from Series 0 may feel otherwise, but one thing to remember about that is that Joey IS Japanese. Before becoming infused with Western culture, the Japanese wore what was essentially unisex clothing, the main differences being in how people tied their kimonos. I tend to think this makes the average Japanese person more comfortable in his or her masculinity or femininity, and Joey is one of the most comfortable people in the whole series-- if he does things like that, it's because he's comfortable enough in his masculinity that it's not a big deal to him. Out of the male characters, Joey's body language is among the most masculine, when he's not effecting someone else's. (He's also got that horribly terrifying "macho" face he and Tristan both do, but I'm not going to go too far into that.) For Joey, much of the series involves his proving himself as a man. The first time I watched the scene where he and Mai part after Battle City, I felt like he had "arrived." The "final duel of Battle City" scene only solidified that. (Invid disagrees: he feels Joey "arrived" during his duel with Yami Marik. I'm cool with that, but his parting with Mai made it feel more sealed and permanent to me.)

Joey is boisterous and immature at the beginning of the series, wandering aimlessly through his life. By the end of it, he's still energetic and boyish in the best ways, but he's also become the man his father never managed to be, with drive, purpose and yes, even dignity.

Final Distillation:
Joey is the leader.
Joey has a lot of crazy skills, many of which wouldn't seem to have anything to do with each other.
He's brilliant when he thinks things through.
But he rarely thinks things through, because he has too much energy on his hands.
He's incredibly masculine, and very comfortable in that.
He always says the first thing he thinks of-- his heart is on his sleeve.
Eventually, everyone likes him.

Fandom Rant: Kaiba, Kisara, and silentshipping

(glances at title) That seems a little off, does it? Well, it's not.

Recently while searching for more stuff to put into YnY's collection of other people's Yu-gi-oh next generation stuff (this doesn't count GX, it's fanmade nexgen of the original cast I look for) I became more aware of the attitude that many Kisara/Kaiba fans have toward other Kaiba pairings.

As one shipper put it: "Seeing Kaiba with anyone but Kisara sickens me." (Emphasis mine.)

Sickens you? Really? That seems a little harsh, for one thing.

I guess I can understand the roots of this rather arrogant, evangelistic attitude about the whole thing. Kaiba/Kisara is considered "canon" by most people. (For the record, I actually like the person who said that, just not what she said. Which is why I'm not pointing out her name, because I don't want any jerks getting the idea that I want her flamed or something.) Some anti-silentshippers, whom I have much experience with (being the stalwart captain of the ship), go so far as to call Kisara "evidence" that Kaiba and Serenity shall "never be." My fellow silentshippers have gone to such extremes in order to "get around the obstacle" of Kisara as claiming that Serenity is Kisara's reincarnation. This is preposterous, and it's kind of disheartening that they feel the need to stretch so far.

Here's what really bothers me about the whole thing, though-- Seto Kaiba and Kisara are not actually a canon couple.

You read right. And I'm not insane. Kisara's in love with Priest Seto, not Seto Kaiba. Kaiba is Priest Seto's reincarnate, sure-- but he's not Priest Seto himself. Are Yugi and Atem the same person? All evidence points to NO. In Yu-Gi-Oh, reincarnation is not resurrection. If Seto Kaiba is fulfilling some destiny, it's because Priest Seto is using him, by proxy, to get the job done. Kisara herself says, "you're like him, but you're NOT him." And even more than that? By the time Priest Seto would have died, he and Kisara were actually a merged soul. THAT soul is the one that would have been reincarnated, which is how Kaiba still had a Blue Eyes as a Ka. (The Shipper's List agrees with me: "blueshipping" is Kaiba/Kisara, "Mizushipping" is Priest Seto/Kisara.)

Which, in a way, makes Kisara Seto Kaiba's mother.

Give me a few moments, I need to get over the squick factor before I can continue.

Kisara has no direct reincarnate counterpart, but Kaiba decorates all his stuff with twisting, twining Blue-Eyes White Dragons. He feels a direct affinity for it. Priest Seto had no relation to the beast until he fell in love with Kisara. You can call that a sign that Kaiba remembers the romance somehow, or you can see it as something deeper-- Kisara living on within Kaiba himself. He's like her child. I, personally, find that a lot sadder and more touching, especially since we have no real hint of what his biological mother might have been like. (There are going to be photographs shown of her in Game of Dreams. I intend to make her look rather like Kisara, for the reasons given.)

Now then-- because Kisara has no direct counterpart, making one for her is essentially creating a fancharacter. I've mentioned elsewhere, I don't care for OC pairings, if I can help it.

So I'm going to stick to silentshipping, thank you.

Magic Light: Page 31-Bonus Tabloid

DANG, I need to not make goals for when I'm gonna post these things (I had the goal, I'ma post a commentary blog once Magic Light's DONE, not sooner. Dippy GDG, DIPPY!)

SO.

In the previous commentary, I promised stripey socks, and on Page 31, I delivered! I don't know if there's something in the Domino HS dress code that forbids girls from having interesting variation between their clothes or something, but it's actually a little annoying. The boys have all sorts of variation-- the studious, repressed, and straight-laced wear their uniforms like they're supposed to, the slacker kids wear their jackets open, Yugi gets away with a black shirt and a leather collar, the little punk, but the girls? The girls all wear their uniforms exactly the same. Except those chicks hanging around Kakenura or whatever his name was (the false seer guy from the manga) who were wearing priestly accrouments over their uniforms, and that doesn't count. XD

Which makes absolutely no sense, because girls are crazy about accessorizing and wearing cute stuff. XD

ANYWAY. I also love Yugi's expressions in that page. I think he swings between being amused with or put off by Serenity, probably because she's so like Joey, in her way. (lol)

I confess, Mai's legs are too long in Page 32. This used to be a real problem for me, but I'm working on it, and when I pay attention it's not too big a deal.

I like designing outfits for her, though. For some reason, Mai's outfit esthetic comes naturally to me (which is odd because you couldn't catch me dead in those skirts.) Probably just 'cause I like looking at her.

Yes, I'm an extreme Mai/Joey fan. What's there in the series is the only real "out" love story Yugioh GOT until Jessie/Jaden (I'm mostly kidding) or perhaps Jack/Carly (I'm not kidding at all.) I'm the last person to say that "evidence" is really a reason to support a pairing, but I like what the series writers did with it. It was beautiful. It was only missing an ending.

And anyway, you know after the Doom saga parting Mai was going to come running when she heard about Joey's accident. :3

I admit: I may be writing this, but Page 33 STILL had me muttering "it's about damn TIME you told her, you big jerk." XD Also, that nurse's expression was even funnier in the sketch for this comic. Maybe someday I'll scan it and post it in YnY's scraps or something.

Also, I don't know how, but Joey always ends up being oddly eloquent when he needs to be. That's probably part of why I love him. (Mai too. Who can resist a goofball who has the ability to suddenly transform into Shakespeare?)

Pages 34 and 35 were really fun to do. I love writing Kaiba being sad, and I love writing Serenity tripping over her own words. Ironically, Page 36 was originally a last minute afterthought-- I was going to leave Seto and Ser hanging at the lines "thank Mokuba for the locket" and "Ehh!?" And it turned out to be one of the best pages of the entire thing. Mokuba's been great throughout the whole story; I should really buy him a parfait.


Kaiba's expression was just so awesome I made it into an icon. XD (Feel free to use it, just make sure to point anyone who asks about it back to me!)

Yes, Mokuba set the Batman ringtone specifically to his brother. He considered a James Bond theme briefly, maybe Mission Impossible, but after a lot of snickering about how there's no WAY Kaiba gets that much action, he settled on Batman instead. XD

Also, that kid wasn't actually intended to BE anyone, but as someone pointed out, he DOES look something like Leon Schroeder. I have no problem with this at all. I think Mokuba and Leon would have an easier time hanging out with each other than they would with other kids their own age.

Téa is reading The Book Of the Dead in page 37. Sadly, due to angle and her arm, that wasn't entirely clear. ^^; I have the same feeling toward the covers of these things; I had this cute idea that all the Game of Dreams covers would have cards on them that represented an overlying theme of the chapter (Magic Light's was Yu-Jyo) and I've gotten almost finished with the next cover and you can't tell what the cards are at all.

FYI, because (I can't believe I DID oh Bastet) I've actually had issues about this before with other people, I'll say it right now: The Book of the Dead is the English name of Coming Forth By Day, a collection of spells and a guide to the Eqyptian afterlife. It is NOT A FICTION PIECE they based The Mummy on. They based The Mummy on a novel (or maybe it was a play) called The Mummy.

For Ra's sake.

I like Bakura in this sequence. Especially his expression right here from Page 38:

That looks way better than it has any right to. I think not being worried about being randomly taken over is good for the lad, he's got a much better idea what's going ON now. XD

Serenity's behavior from Page 39 on probably surprised a few people, but I got mostly positive feedback so that's fine. XD I actually see it as perfectly in character. Joey's mad at Mom, Serenity's mad at Dad. Serenity is MORE mad at Dad when Tristan comments that, hopefully, he won't have anything to throw on hand. Serenity also wants to be like Mai when she grows up (and to be honest, squeaking in like a mouse WOULD have gotten something thrown at them. Scaring the pee out of him probably was a better idea. XD)

I like Serenity's plaid skirt.

And on Page 40, we see what my design for Mr. Wheeler looks like. I sort of worked backwards from Serenity and Joey and took out anything they more likely got from Mom. My Mr. Wheeler is blonde. He's also named Jonathan. XD (Because if they got "Joseph" out of "Jounouchi," why shouldn't I get "Jonathan" out of it?) I love how bewildered he is.

Of course, Ol' Jon ain't taking threats on his beer lying down, but Serenity ain't taking threats on her person any less seriously. XD The only other thing I have to say about Page 41 is that, from time to time, I work as a bagger. I promise I've NEVER put anything that ridiculous together-- but I HAVE seen other people do it.

Page 42! I have no idea who that guy is! It doesn't matter! Yugi's making mincemeat out of him!

When Yugi says "sorely," he means it. Feel the fear, goggles wearing fool! FEEL THE FEAR!

XD

As for the Bonus Tabloid, you can mostly draw your own conclusions. It's there to be funny. There's going to be at least one for every story of Game of Dreams. I don't know if they're all going to be issues of The Big Eye, though. One thing about the secondary cover article, however? The one that's headed "BOUGHT OFF???"



Still can't see it? Look a little closer. Closeeeerrrr..... EGADS! That's a KaibaCorp symbol on that paper! Kaiba gave Mrs. Wheeler his business card!

(Well, he had someone pass it on to her, but still.)

Character Study: Seto Kaiba

Approximate Age: (by the Japanese anime) Fifteen to sixteen
Character Archetype: The Wounded Antihero
Probable Element and Alignment: Light, Chaotic Evil (pre-Mind Crush) Lawful Good (post Mind Crush.)
Most Obvious Vocal Quirks: He tends to have somewhat clipped speech, and he also tends towards rude manners of address. He's not very good at talking to people.

Kaiba is one of the easiest characters to write out of character. He's one of the (cough) most studied characters in the fandom and one of the least understood ones at the same time. As Eric Stuart would say, he's a pretty deep guy. It's interesting that we the fans, who supposedly have deeper insight into the world of Yugioh than the characters should, don't seem able to understand him any more than the other characters do-- he's often cast as either evil, the romantic "bad boy" or simply as the prick everybody loves to hate, but he isn't actually any of these things.

I tend to see Seto Kaiba as being one character very slightly fractured into two, in the way that Bruce Wayne and Batman are presented as being the same person but act very differently. In the case of Batman, Bruce is the mask, Batman the brutal true personality. In the case of Kaiba it's a bit different, because both aspects of his personality are equally himself.

I will refer to the two halves as "Seto" and "Kaiba," which is what I do when writing narratives anyway. XD

Seto is a tortured, frightened child. He's terribly sensitive, easily hurt, insecure, and extremely needy. Kaiba is the mask, the protective, badass outer layer that takes on a persona not unlike that of James Bond-- without the sex, because even loveless sex would allow another person too close to Seto. People can have relationships with Seto Kaiba based on one of the two personas or both. They aren't totally separated from each other but they're different enough that he can switch back and forth to an extent.

This can easily be traced to his chaotic childhood-- He grew up crooked because somebody kept breaking him bit by bit as he went. (I actually have this theory that his biological father accidentally started the process by constantly telling him to buck up and be strong.)

His only adult relatives (so says the manga) basically threw him and his brother away the minute they had gotten through the money his parents left behind. It's possible-- and sadly, somewhat probable, that they didn't even get through the money. He lived daily with the constant threat of separation from the last person left to him (it's little wonder he was desperate enough to cheat Gozaburo in order to get adopted.) And then it turned out that the man he himself had chosen was a psychotic and abusive jerk, if not a sadist. Who wouldn't be a little twisted after all that?

The other aspect of Seto Kaiba's character that makes him difficult to pin down is this: He's dynamic, and part of that changing character shows in that his two halves slowly meld together as the series progresses.

In the beginning of the manga, the only part of "Seto" that we see is the oversensitive part. "Kaiba" is almost entirely driving the boat, and that's what makes early manga Seto Kaiba so insane and bloodthirsty. What I find fascinating about early manga Kaiba is that Atem-- psycho, wrathful Atem, not the noble king he is by the end of the series-- has mercy on him TWICE. Yes, first he made him "experience death" and then he tears the poor boy's mind into pieces, but both times it's something he intends his adversary to learn and grow from. This is the man who came closer than anyone (excepting a certain gunman) to actually MURDERING Yugi and his friends, and Atem still has pity on him.

Because by the time Atem applies the "Mind Crush" (or whatever you choose to think of it as), Seto Kaiba is such a scarred and twisted human being that the only way to fix him is to shatter him, so that this time maybe he heals right. (This is even pretty close to what Atem tells Mokuba in the comic.) Even in the Duel Monsters anime, this is more or less accurate. As Atem says there, Seto is searching for himself.

In Duelist Kingdom, he's balanced more between the two (and this is fairly clearly authorial intent, if you HAVE read enough of the manga to be aware of the "inner puzzle" symbolism that originally went with that.) But we see much more of "Seto:" we see him hurting, loving, and even trusting Yugi so far that he's willing to risk death for it-- and also suicidal, since he doesn't seem to mind the idea that Atem MIGHT kill him after all. I personally think that one of the factors that brings Seto out so much more strongly in Duelist Kingdom is that Pegasus somehow got more past "Kaiba" than anyone before Mokuba, and so his betrayal hurts more deeply. (Consider how important Duel Monsters was to young Seto, and the fact that Pegasus essentially allowed this broken child to directly influence the way the game itself was played. That must have meant a lot.) I tend to see Kaiba's reaction to Pegasus later as that of someone deeply dissappointed in a personal hero.

In Battle City, he's starting to settle into being both Kaiba and Seto at once-- and the Kaiba aspect of himself is also a bit calmer, the Seto aspect a bit stronger. We see a lot less drastic switching back and forth. He doesn't scream or yell or throw people around when he's ticked off at them, either. (Except when they need it.) He has fun from time to time. During the anime's Noa arc and with the destruction of Battle City Tower, he symbolically and literally defeats Gozaburo and leaves him behind forever. During the Noa arc, the anime watchers get to understand why he is what he is, and his relationship with his brother becomes stronger than ever. (I'm sure I haven't gone enough into his relationship with Mokuba, so far as certain of you are concerned, but I feel that's actually better discussed in Mokuba's essay.) As far as the comic is concerned, this state of affairs is enough to let us, the readers, know that he's going to eventually be okay.

In the anime, of course, we get about two seasons more of Seto Kaiba character development, and for those of us who enjoyed that part of the anime (for one, me) Kaiba's behavior was one of the main points of enjoyment. He becomes closer to Yugi and company, for one, and betrays the fact that maybe, just maybe, he actually has warm human feelings for them. Note the scene in which the Yugi clan is running away from the possessed rats. Several times he keeps Tristan from dropping Joey's soulless body, at one point even dragging Joey onto a fire escape and then holding Tristan up long enough for the rats to pass by. His hissy fits are also wonderful-- the hissy fit about Yugi losing to Raphael (so that's how Kaiba acts when he's dissappointed in people), the panic attack at the discovery of Paradius (what else would you call that?), and that last delicious, encouraging jab at Atem from the dub-- "You'd better not screw this up." YES, it's a jerky thing to say, but it's also a word of encouragement. Kaiba's not very good at talking to people, remember. And, of course, the subplot involving Alister, deliberately set up to be Kaiba's mirror, is terrific. Kaiba displays pity and compassion for Alister-- not because he deserves any compassion, but because he needs compassion, and Kaiba has compassion in him to give. He's not a romantic hero, but he's hardly evil, and he's much more than just a mouthy prick.

The most important piece of character development in the anime after the Atlantis arc, I feel, is the reaction he has to Yugi's proclaimation that Yugi will be dueling Atem. (I am glad he's in the AE arc in the anime, of course, but mostly because that gives a sense of closure in that he finally understands his role more fully.) He wants to duel Atem, he says, because he was the one who should beat Atem. But what Kaiba says is rarely exactly the way he feels. He wants to duel Atem because not dueling Atem feels like he won't have properly said good-bye. Atem is as important to him as Atem is to the rest of the group, and his behavior here is what proves it.

This brings up one more important aspect to Kaiba when it comes to writing him in character. Kaiba almost never says what he feels. He keeps silent at times that most people would feel a need to say something. When he does say something, he often sounds like a jerk even when he's not trying to be. This makes his facial expressions fairly important, and I personally often finding myself writing what I WOULD have him say, if he said things, and then taking it out, simply because it works better when I know what's going on in his head but don't reveal it.

One last note, and this being on the interaction between Kaiba and Joey: I get the very strong impression that Kaiba thinks Joey is hilarious. This is why he picks on Joey; not because he hates him, but because Joey is fun to pick on. Except when he landed at Duelist Kingdom, and then he was picking on Joey because, quite frankly, Joey was being a jerk at the wrong time. Eventually he and Joey are essentially friends; more on this in Joey's entry, I'm sure.

Final Distillation:
Kaiba is a collection of extremes.
Kaiba is dynamic and becomes a more stable person through the series.
He is a jerk partly because he has no social skills, but also partly because he really is just a jerk.
He still has warm human feelings anyway, and can be somewhat needy.
He's actually rather fragile, at the same time that he's tough as nails.
He rarely says what he means, and often says nothing when most people would.



Feel free to comment on this and tell me whether you feel I've left something important out, or if you think I'm completely off base, or even if you agree with me. Comments can be made through email or right here, since I do believe anon-comments are enabled.

Wargh

I need to post more.

This will happen.

Unfortunately for me, the local station that airs the 5Ds dub has moved it to 7:00. 7:00 AM.

This is too early for me to be up in the morning. I got up at 9:00 three days in a row and actually feel sick because of it.

Fortunately for you, me ducks, this means I have to be less passive about getting my "sort of Kazuki Takahashi style art and YGO characters" fix. Which also means I'll have an easier time being more active with both the blog and the comic.

Yay!

There are three pages left in Magic Light. The next story, which shall be titled "I Hear Little Voices" (either Hear Little Voices or just Little Voices for short) should be of comparable length, depending on how many pages I add or compress, but I'll try to get it out more consistently.

There you go. A blog update. (wanders off to eat food)