What is she applying for, anyway?

Because "I don't have any essays finished and the one character study I have in the queue is out of order" is nowhere near a good excuse for the silence on the blog front lately.

Although "I have a roaring headache" is probably a good excuse for this cartoon.

Invid has a guest blog he's working on, but "it's not ready." :P

Some Random Thoughts

Gee, sorry I keep vanishing like that. :P Work's been a bear.

So: Some random things that have occurred to me whilst trolling-- I mean, trawling ff.net's Yugioh forums for blog ideas, things that are pretty much just little statements that I think you'll like, but that I can't imagine doing full essays over.

-Yugioh is essentially a ghost story. Very little fanfiction remembers this at all.

-If you gave Atem his own body and let him kill people, the original manga would be two steps away from a vampire story. XD

-Yugi is totally a Christ figure. O_o Which would make that vampire story kind of awesome, now that my brain is slippering down that slope.

-Spellcheck agrees with me that "slippering" is a word. Invid is disturbed by this.

-Oops, Spellcheck just changed its mind. XD

-Members of the fandom's nerd levels can be quite accurately described using the characters from the show. That guy over there, muttering about how fancards are always stupid and the duels are never written well? He's a Kaiba-level nerd. That chick you know who's dead serious about characterization and couldn't give a bee's behind about those trap cards? More of a Téa level nerd. (Téa's a nerd, just in a different way.)

-So can the roles we actually play in the forums (not role-playing, the way we comport ourselves.) There aren't enough Yugis.

-Honestly, there just aren't enough Yugis anywhere.

-All fanfiction ideas can be done well, but finding them is like topdecking: You can't rely on it. O_o

-Invid hates ff.net.

-I can totally understand. It needs some kind of "number of favorites" or something, or at LEAST some way that's better than communities for people to find skilled writers. (I mean, come on, the third forum from the top in the YGO section is summarized: "I like to hear more about Yami/Tea and any other couples if I like them. I don't want to hear any Yoai or Yuri. I can't stand that." I mean, wat. This is an entire forum?! Streamline your system, ff.net.)

-And here's one from Invid: If Yugi is sort of a Christ figure, then one of the basic premises of YnY (the story, not the blog) makes it sort of like a metaphor about Christianity: People can get really nasty when spreading the message of love and peace, missing the point entirely.

-I'm not at all sure how I feel about this revelation. No more deep literary analysis for YOU, Mister Invid!

(The really odd part about this is that Invid is the one who insists that Duel Tanks would be awesome in the same conversations with deep literary analysis that makes me uncomfortable.)

Character Study: Yami Bakura

Character Study: Yami no Bakura

Approximate Age: (by the Japanese anime) Terribly ancient for a sixteen to eighteen year old. (Ha, she thinks she's funny.)
Character Archetype: The Demon in the Dark, the Dark Avenger
Probable Element and Alignment: Dark, changes from Chaotic Good to True Evil
Most Obvious Vocal Quirks: Forceful and self-important.

The most difficult thing about getting a handle on Yami B is trying to figure out exactly who he is and how many of him there are. I'm going to tackle him as a combination of Thief King Bakura with some massive Zorc taint and assume that, during some of his stranger moments, Zorc was actually driving the boat. (The Spirit of the RIng is sociopathic, yes, but he's still too quirkily human for him to be Zorc itself- which is essentially hunger and malice personified.) I'm also going to continue calling him Yami Bakura through most of the essay, for the simple fact that there are two characters named Bakura, and "Dark Bakura" is the closest thing he has to his own name.

As with many of the focal characters in Yugioh, Yami B has a drastic character arc and changes quite a lot over its course. One of the things that makes him unique is that we see him first at his ending point, and it takes the entire series before we see that he started as more than a sociopathic Geistermench. At his beginning, he is noble, fierce and very much a man of his own time period. He's a good man, although a bit mistaken about who his real enemies are and much too willing to do anything in his crusade for justice. (Ancient peoples tended to place a lower value on other men's lives, especially where vengeance was involved, but also it's pretty clear to me that Yami B didn't see Atem's subjects as anything beyond Atem's subjects, and a way to hurt him.) He's also in intense emotional pain, for obvious reasons.

I see the "king of thieves" as being a dark knight, although unlike Batman and the criminals of Gotham, the monster Yami Bakura was fighting is the country that exerted authority over his loved ones by murdering them viciously. Diabound's terrifying power developed because Bakura himself was filled with the most hardened resolve, and because he had survived a childhood of horrible trauma and solitude, sharpening him into a steel blade.

Several things might have happened when Bakura aquired the Millenium Ring, some of which are more clear than others. First, he started to honestly go insane. The Items themselves are seething and surrounded with evil; they connect Zorc more tightly to reality and were created by horrific means. More importantly, those horrific means were witnessed by Bakura when he was young and vulnerable, and they involved killing everyone he'd ever been close to. The Ring tapped into this deeper vulnerability, and thenceforth Bakura's motives began to blur with those of Zorc in a way that I'm not sure he even realized was actually happening. Diabound began to twist and darken, a symptom of the infection.

For me, Yami Bakura attacking Aknadin and turning him into what would become Zorc Necrophades is the strongest evidence that he was no longer acting merely as an avenger. Aknadin is the one truly responsible for the massacre of Kul Elna; indications are that Yami Bakura at least sort of is aware of this. Why, then, did Bakura simply pass on the infection, instead of messily dissecting Aknadin while the older man was still breathing? There were other ways "in" to the Pharaoh's court. The most logical answer is that Zorc is happily directing his behavior, whether he realizes it or not. Aknadin was the best suited to Zorc's purposes, and therefore Bakura leaves him alive and doesn't redirect his vengeance from Aknamkanon's son. (Atem, for those of you I've lost.)

In the modern era, Yami Bakura has been driven further insane by the mere fact that he's been aware this entire time, stuffed inside the thing that drove him crazy in the first place. He's also become more demonic in nature, especially since he must act using the bodies of others. The already considerable skills he possessed when he was more truly alive have sharpened over a period of several thousand years, and Yami Bakura now clearly fits the name of "monster."

Yet a ghost of his noble origins as avenger remains, twisted into almost a parody. This is where Ryou comes in. Maybe being stuffed into a Ring has let Bakura's social skills atrophy, maybe he's just forgotten how to identify with other human beings. In any case, he's fiercely protective of Ryou, and determined to keep the boy's friends close at hand while punishing anyone who even looks at the kid funny. As manga readers know, this often means sealing people into game pieces, or killing them, depending on his whim. He's impatient with Ryou's apparent softness, probably because of how he himself has been hardened into steel. He doesn't understand why Ryou gets so upset over little things like "belonging." Being disconnected from a body for so long, and having lived through a terrible solitude before that, Yami B also doesn't grasp that part of what Ryou enjoys about human interaction is the actual physical presence of another person.

In other words, Yami Bakura's method of "protecting" Ryou is actually perfectly logical, in Yami B's own mind. He's not exactly trying to be cruel, he doesn't understand how he IS being cruel, and the fact that Ryou responds poorly to his efforts annoys and frustrates him, and fills him with disdain for his host. Think of the hardened soldier who served in World War 2 trying and failing to identify with a sensitive hippy child. The two Bakuras come from drastically different worlds, and they'd have a hard time identifying with one another even in the best circumstances.

It is definitely real protectiveness on Yami Bakura's part, as opposed to the simple self-serving "kill em for the lawls" it's usually explained away as. There is one incident in the manga that makes this absolutely clear: when Bobasa chases Ryou out for having an "impure soul," and Ryou is sobbing by himself, Yami Bakura is shown to be thinking, irritably, that he'll have to "deal with this fool's feelings later."

He should know that this is the endgame, and he's plotting vengeance on Bobasa for making Ryou cry? What the hell, man. You've got it bad when you're doing stuff like that. (Whatever "it" is, I leave to interpretation.) He's irritated no end with how soft he perceives Ryou to be, yet he clearly cares that said soft little boy has gotten his feelings hurt. And he will kill over said soft liitle boy's tender feelings, even though he wishes the kid weren't so sensitive. (I'm not saying I see Ryou as soft. See Ryou's character study.)

It's probably because Ryou fought him for their sakes that Yami Bakura harrasses Yugi and company only minimally as the series progresses. He wants something from them, yes, but he's going to avoid giving them undue grief until absolutely necessary. After all, this is the first time he can remember Ryou showing a spine, even if it's in a direction he dislikes. If Ryou hadn't actively fought Yami Bakura, and Yugi and the others had escaped the first attempt he made to trap them in game pieces, there's a good chance he would have kept trying to ensnare them, harder now that they had escaped once. Instead, he only actively fights them when they're standing between himself and his goals, and even helps them more than once. Bakura has decided to let Ryou "keep" these people, under conditions.

Even in the modern era, Yami Bakura doesn't trust that Atem carries any honor, nobility, or even compassion at all. He knows that Atem will fight for who he cares about, but obviously that doesn't mean THAT much, because everyone does it, right? Through Ryou's eyes he witnessed Atem's willingness to let Seto Kaiba throw himself from the roof of the Duelist Kingdom castle, if it meant Atem would win the duel. This is why he saves Ryou from Slifer; unlike Kaiba, he can't trust enough to throw this particular life on Yugi's mercy. (Yes, it is totally possible to be less trusting than Kaiba.) If it had been his own life, of course, he might have been more willing, but Ryou, however irritating Yami Bakura finds him, is the only living being he actually cares about.

One of the sadder aspects to the series for me is the idea that Yami Bakura apparently "dies" while still twisted up with Zorc taint. One can hope that the defeat of Zorc in the Memory Arc blasted him clean, but whatever truly happened to him isn't entirely clear. (Takahashi would probably tell us he "went away to heaven," the silly old bear. XD) There is plenty of room, however, for his potential survival-- the main suggestion of this has to do with the way he sealed up a portion of his soul in one of the Millenium Puzzle pieces. All that he was doing there was gaining access to the Puzzle's intricacies, but if he could seal part of himself in a mystical Puzzle piece, he could easily seal a part of himself in something else, keeping that part, and himself, safe. A canny fanfic writer can take this and run with it in any direction. I tend to believe that he at least temporarily left an anchor within Ryou, which is how the Millenium Ring kept finding itself back in Ryou's possession, and how he didn't actually die in his first defeat.

The mere fact that he did things like this also shows that Yami Bakura had a much sharper understanding of how to use his own shadow powers than most of the other characters that possessed them. He would seem to have had a natural talent for magic, even before he aquired the Millenium Ring, and existing aware within it for so long would have given him plenty of time to adapt to being a bodiless soul. This probably is a large part of why he could face being eaten up by shadows (within Ryou's body) when defeated by Yami Marik; the other reason is that, while he didn't trust Atem to have compassion for Ryou, he DID trust Atem to defeat Yami Marik, and knew that his condition would be temporary if the pharaoh succeeded.

Several people have complained about the Oreichalchos arc within the anime, because Ryou isn't seen and Yami Bakura doesn't act. Surely, with all this insanity going on, Yami Bakura would try to take advantage of it, right? And if not, he'd try to fight Dartz and keep Atem out of his clutches, so that he could have his own vengeance, right?

Maybe not. First of all, Dartz talked about knowing of Atem since Atem was actually alive, and indicated that it was because of Yami Bakura that he didn't act (I suspect he also just wasn't really ready to take on such a strong opponent.) It's possible that canny villains know better than to get underfoot of one another. It's also possible that the Leviathan and Zorc, wanting something similar, were either in cahoots with one another or were actually the same thing. If that's the case, Zorc may have held Bakura back. Even if it's not the case, Zorc may have held him back in order to see how the Leviathan's gambit would play out.

Secondly, in the anime Yami Bakura informs Ryou that it's time to stop fooling around. I've talked about how Yami B may have been nursing Ryou back to health in the immediate aftermath of Battle City. I've also talked about how Ryou was probably in much worse shape than he appeared to be during Battle City. I'm inclined to think that Yami Bakura was granting Ryou a convalesence period, and didn't want to risk reinjuring him so soon. (He may have, however, clung close by when the God Cards were stolen, and decided that the situation was too much for him to put Ryou through at the time.)

Another aspect I want to emphasize about Yami Bakura is that he's most assuredly human, even though he no longer knows how to act human, or how to relate to other people on a human level. He displays a sense of humor and a sense of amused bewilderment during his duel with Bonz. (I also like his "there is no way there is something more dangerous than ME in this graveyard" attitude.) Despite his annoyance with Ryou Bakura, he desires to protect him on a level that goes beyond conveniance. And his understanding of Atem's own human nature is something an eldritch god would be too large to grasp-- even with the fact that he takes a dim view of human behavior (I see him as adhering to Hobbes's philosophical assumptions: "Humans are evil by nature.")

Invid has suggested one other thing regarding the more savage side of Yami Bakura's nature that I feel should be mentioned for the sake of completeness, and which I find rather appealing: an explanation for his blood fetish. It could easily be written off that he's just crazy, and it is likely that Takahashi just wanted him to be as creepy as possible to the modern mind.

But this is the important part: To the modern mind. Many cultures surrounding ancient Egypt believed in blood sacrifice, and more importantly in the idea that by consuming blood, one brought the life of something into oneself. (This is why consuming blood is considered not to be kosher.) Bakura was very much a man of his time period; it's not unreasonable to assume he spent some time among people of non-Egyptian culture during his childhood and absorbed part of that attitude.

Which is one of the many reasons I go weird about trying to write people with their cultural background in mind.

Final Distillation:
Yami Bakura transforms from a noble avenger to a demonic monster.
He is very much a man of his time period, which involves a certain amount of natural savagery.
He has been hardened into steel, although he does have his vulnerabilities (which were much more obvious when he was fully human.)
Yami Bakura is extremely skilled at magic, but he also has good natural aptitude.
He is protective, even at his most demonic.
He no longer understands human interaction on a human level.
Yet at the same time, Yami Bakura is human.

Character Study: Ryou Bakura

Character Study: Ryou Bakura

Approximate Age: (by the Japanese anime) Fifteen to seventeen
Character Archetype: I hate to say it, but he plays the Damsel in Distress quite well. He's also, to a certain extent, the Wise Wizard, or the Paladin.
Probable Element and Alignment: Dark, Neutral Good
Most Obvious Vocal Quirks: Polite and soft-spoken.

I've always had a rather strange relationship with Ryou Bakura. He was the first Yu-Gi-Oh! character I ever did fanart of, as well as the first I worked with in comic format. (They were kind of... strange... gag things.) Yet I can't be sure I'd call him my favorite character, or even a character I know very well.

Of course, Ryou is something of an enigma. Through most of the series, he's being possessed by one of the following: An ancient, vengeful thief or an eldritch god-- possibly something that is a combination of the two. Dark Bakura is a very convincing actor, and therefore we really can't tell all the time which Bakura is steering the body. (We do know that in the manga, he can be very sensitive about the things Yami B does, especially if he's accused of being evil himself. It's pretty clear that he's the one who broke down in response to Bobasa chasing him away at the beginning of the Memory Arc.) (That incident, by the way, is part of why I like the anime better. I hate to see Bakura cry. :P)

We know that he's fairly polite and quiet, yet the quiet behavior might really be a reaction to the fact that he can't be sure what's going on all the time. He seems like he's probably socially inept, yet how can he be otherwise, with a demonic being chasing anyone who even sort of hurts his feelings into hell, and trapping anyone he acts like he might like into cards and figurines? Ryou can't help but be socially damaged and emotionally shackled; it's a survival trait. (The way he seems to hold himself quietly aloof when being shown around the school by obviously enamoured girls is interesting-- has he simply decided to reserve judgment until they stop fangirling, or is he used to being treated like a doll by the opposite sex and has just learned to put up with it?)

Bakura is also in a state of mourning, which will also skew how a character behaves. He writes letters to his dead sister, asking her how she "and mother" are and telling her what he's been doing. I've seen people call this creepy, but I disagree. If you're going to write a letter to a person, you're going to act like you're having a dialogue; that's how letters are written. He's not any creepier than people who leave flowers and gifts at memorials or stand talking to gravestones in the rain. Grief makes people do odd things.

One thing I know for sure about Ryou Bakura is that I like him when he's angry. We only see a glimpse of this, too; in the manga, during his first appearance, in the anime, during the Duelist Kingdom Soul Card duel. Yet we do see it, and what we see is a frightening determination and resolve, combined with eerie calm. "I will do anything to screw you over, Spirit of the Ring, even if it means I have to die for it." (And yet he'll say it with calm eyes.) Granted, he's in a state of sheer desperation. But perhaps that is something important to remember about him: Ryou Bakura knows what it means to be pushed to the emotional limit, and he's survived it.

I do believe that Ryou is a good person, whatever else he is. If the first RPG that Atem played with Yami Bakura was intended to be symbolic, which it most certainly was (because Takahashi loves that sort of thing) then the white wizard Yugi's character yanked out of Zorc's arm was intended to show Ryou Bakura's truer nature. That character, who was an extension of his will and yet, wasn't quite Bakura himself, not only displayed the same calm anger, but casually gave his own life to restore Ryou's. The total lack of fear he shows in the face of a meaningful death is either something that shows Ryou to be somewhat unhealthy, or far braver than he's given credit for.

During Duelist Kingdom, too, he's the one that puts his hands on Yugi's shoulders after Yugi throws the rooftop duel, in a way that can only be described as protective. It's probable that he understands better than any of the others what's really bothering Yugi (Atem being willing to kill without Yugi's consent), and silently, he reaches out to let Yugi know he's there. This is more likely Ryou acting than Yami Bakura, because Yami B wouldn't think to do it. It's just a sweet, sensitive gesture. In a way, Ryou simply has insight into Yugi's head that the others can't fathom, and that even Yami Bakura probably doesn't understand, because otherwise he would have exploited it.

(I've always suspected that Takahashi intended to give Ryou more character development, btw, he just never got around to it.)

There's no way of telling who's talking through most of Battle City, although I'm quite certain Ryou was totally unconscious from some point while he was in the hospital up to the end of the duel with Yugi, and that Yami Bakura was just pretending to be his host. It seems strange that he would react so poorly to what appears to be a mere gash in the arm, and many people just attribute it to his general tenderness. I'm inclined to think that he must have lost a lot of blood, that the wound was much worse than it looked (we never do see the gash itself, only a bandage and bloodstains) and that the hospital pumped him full of painkillers. Yami Bakura seems to thrive on pain, not to mention he went around eating heavy, rare-cooked foods and doing a lot of other things that the hospital probably wouldn't have approved of. XD

So during Battle City, that body underwent a lot more punishment than just a gash on the arm, and what it really means is that Yami Bakura has a freakish pain tolerance. Meanwhile, all Ryou knows is that he woke up with a gashed apart arm, a roiling stomach, with the strong sense that he's been running around with something very heavy on his injured arm doing only Yami B knows what. He's confused, he's in pain, and there's a damn big red dragon getting ready to snort lightning on his head.

Yeah, I'd freak out (and fall over) too.

The next time we see him, we once again can't be sure it's really him. After all, he just woke up in a strange place. We don't know that his arm is healed or that the drugs have worn off, we don't know that his blood's replenished itself. He's hungry, so he cleans out the kitchen. This could be a sign that Ryou's very practical, or it could be a sign that Yami Bakura is in charge, quietly nursing him back to health.

(One assumes, however, that Ryou probably IS a fairly practical person-- he can't get rid of the stupid Ring, so he just deals. He can't control his situation, so he doesn't get overly upset about it. He lives practically on his own, so he'd have to have a sensible head on his shoulders when it comes to this kind of thing.)

Another side to Ryou that is very firmly his is that he's probably the best duelist we never see play. I don't believe that he had any say in the deck he carries; that belongs to the Spirit that enslaves him, and he doesn't throw it away because he can't. But when Yugi isn't there to explain things (usually because he's the one dueling), Bakura fills the role of ringside commentator, especially during Duelist Kingdom. Other characters sometimes fill the role (Duke is his official pinch-hitter when it comes to this), but Ryou is better at it than most of them. During the duel with Panik, he very clearly has a better grasp on what's happening than Mai, and is the first person to pick up on Yugi's strategy. (Which is a pretty insane strategy, so yeah.) He is similarly canny during the Ceremonial Duel, keeping up at least as well as, if not better than, Kaiba.

The only other character I have seen display such a keen understanding when discussing duels from the sidelines is probably Yugi's grandfather. (Not counting Pegasus.) Ryou does claim to enjoy playing the dungeon master, and this might be a sign of why: he enjoys deep-trenched and insane strategem. I'd hate to play chess with him, but I'd love to play one of his RPGs. (WHY would I hate to play chess with him? Because half the time you'd be clueless as to what the hell he just did to snare you in that checkmate, that's why.) (He'd probably be a good sport about it, but that doesn't mean I'd enjoy it.) So Ryou Bakura is definitely very smart, and is at least capable of seeing through other people's deviousness, through their strategy and machinations when even their opponents can't.

Lots of people like to write Bakura as extremely clumsy. I feel that the clumsiness is a combination of a lowered confidence (due to the nature of his possession) and Yami B amping it up deliberately so that Ryou himself seems even less of a threat. So I, at least, am less inclined to writing him as clumsy post-possession.

I mentioned earlier that I dislike the scene in the manga in which Bobasa declares that Ryou can't help with the Pharaoh's Memories because he carries darkness within him. It's not because I don't like what it does with his character, I just found it kind of mean. :P I think that Ryou had really come to consider himself a part of this group of people, that it was the first time in a long time that he felt like he belonged anywhere, and that Bobasa really shook that feeling. (He probably felt a lot better later when he realized that, yet again, it was all Yami B's fault. Yami Bakura, you jerk. XD)

So even though I don't like the scene, I think the way Bakura reacts there is understandable and within his previously established character, and not wussy at all. XD (Gives Ryou a hug)

Final Distillation:
Much of Ryou's behavior is a result of his being possessed. :P
He is emotionally shackled, due to his possession.
He is very calm about his own anger.
He is fearless at the idea of dying in a meaningful way-- he's very brave.
He actually can take care of himself, when he's keeping out of trouble.
He is intelligent, and has a keen understanding of strategy.
He is a good person, and sensitive to other people.
He values the sense of belonging highly.

The Children's Card Game

There's something that my dear sister (GDG-this is Invid) refers to as the "children's card game fallacy."

Simply put, it's the fact that fans of the series view the characters as treating a simple "children's card game" as a huge piece of srs bsnss. (Thanks a lot for that observation, LittleKuriboh. You have officially warped the fandom.)

Well, it's certainly true that they put an awful lot of stock into a game, but it goes beyond being a children's card game.

You see, when Takahashi was writing the early chapters, there was only one card game that was well-known enough for him to be talking about.

He called the game in his manga Magic & Wizards, but he was really talking about Magic: The Gathering.

(Note Grandpa's emphasis that it was the card game that "is such a hit in America." If you ever get pestered by people talking about the purity of the card game in Japanese due to its origins, there's a stick to hit them with. Yeah, the game is different-but Takahashi thought of it as an American game.)

You might dismiss this as an unfounded theory, but aside from the obvious fact that Magic was and is the first, biggest, and most-played card game in the entire world, the cards that Takahashi designed are essentially a simplified version of the M:TG cards.

Not necessarily the individual cards (though I'll get to that). If you look at the card back of a manga or anime Yu-Gi-Oh! card, you'll see that it has a dark brown oval in the center, with a brown "background" and a tan border.

Check out this article on the M:TG site, which showcases the game's card back (with a hypothetical variant back that never was). The proportions are rather different, but it's essentially what Takahashi was building from.

The fronts have some similarities, too; when Takahashi designed his cards, he put stars on them, possibly because he didn't know quite enough about M:TG to know just what the mana cost on a Magic card meant. (By the way, if you ever wondered about the "spell card" change in Yu-Gi-Oh! because you weren't following the game, it's all Hasbro's [M:TG's proprietary company] fault. They thought the use of "magic" was a misleading use of their trademark, as Magic players refer to their cards in a similar fashion. Never mind that Hasbro can't actually trademark the word "magic...")

It does, in fact, go further.

Check out this old picture of the Blue Eyes White Dragon, and then compare it with this picture of Shivan Dragon, one of M:TG's old famous cards.

Note the general similarity of the poses.

There's another one that has similarities to an old school Magic card, Summoned Skull. Compare this manga image to Lord of the Pit:

This is further highlighted by Takahashi's anniversary art version of Summoned Skull, which in homage to its origins has the same color scheme as Lord of the Pit, though its appearance has diverged along different directions from the "traditional" Summoned Skull design most of us know from the anime.

(Note that, in the two games, their positions of power relative to each other are essentially reversed. Lord of the Pit is [mostly] stronger than Shivan Dragon but less practical, while the same is true of Blue Eyes White Dragon compared to Summoned Skull. Not that any of the cards are competitive in the modern games...)

Of course, any discussion of the early manga version of Duel Monsters/Magic & Wizards would be highly incomplete without looking at Seto Kaiba, everyone's favorite psycho player.

Takahashi has apparently stated that Kaiba was based on somebody who was a huge jerk to one of his friends originally, but the character has obviously moved away from his humble, cruel-guy origins.

I have a theory as to why the character evolved the way he did, and I'm going to share it here. It's pretty crazy, and it hinges on a completely insane coincidence, but I'm sticking with it.

Flash back to 1999. This was during the early days of the anime, more or less. Guess who was rocking the Magic: The Gathering world at that time?

His name was Kai Budde.

Now, Kai Budde is not Japanese (although Japanese players have traditionally had a pretty big impact on the game). He's German. But if you parse his name, well... It's not much of a stretch at all to notice the similarities between Kai-ba and Kai-Budde.

They even look a bit similar, as far as such things go.

(Pictures ganked from the Yu-Gi-Oh! wiki's Kaiba page and Kai Budde's previously linked Hall of Fame bio page. Sorry if it bothers anybody, but I'm doing a historical essay here, and I think it's fair use.)

It's impossible that Takahashi derived Kaiba's name from Kai Budde's-Budde's first victories that propelled him to worldwide Magic fame occurred in 1998, and even presuming an extremely leisurely publishing schedule, "The Cards with Teeth" would have come out well before that, sometime in late 1996 or early 1997. (The Yu-Gi-Oh! wiki, being heavily focused on the card game, doesn't have a date for the chapter itself, and I'm hesitant to guess too closely.)

Anyway, why is it important that Yu-Gi-Oh!'s card game is based on Magic?

Well, according to market research, the biggest demographic of Magic players is in the 15-16 year old age bracket. In effect? The same age as the characters from the series.

Further, it might seem silly, but Magic really is serious business. Aside from the fact that certain old cards from the game are extremely pricy (some go for somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand dollars apiece, which makes participating in a format where those cards are legal very difficult for newcomers), you can actually make big money playing Magic. People do.

There are hundred upon hundreds of players worldwide who compete in sanctioned tournaments, and many of these sanctioned tournaments have large monetary prizes. Kai Budde actually made something of a living off of the game at the height of his career, as I understand it.

Basically, the game we see in the various Yu-Gi-Oh! series is what Magic would be like if it reached the scale of a big-name pro sport.

Which isn't entirely impossible, you know. Just not likely.

Yet.

Why Background Characters In Yugioh Are Awesome

If you look, the other characters in this are also doing entertaining things. X3 (Two of them are staring at Kaiba with either trepidation or awe, while the couple to his right are having an argument and ignoring him completely. XD)

Building a Soul Room

(Note: I may eventually add pictures to this. Scans are a wonderful thing, but not if you can't find the large versions of the pages you actually want to scan. I reallly need to organize my Shonen Jump issues.)

I talked about Bakura's soul room in the most recent comic commentary. Obviously, I didn't know how Takahashi would have built it; but thanks to the soul rooms seen in the manga and anime, I did have an idea of how he might have started.

The three soul rooms we see in any detail are those of Atem (obviously) Téa, and Professor Yoshimori, a one-story character who suffered quite a bit of abuse (but didn't die, which is what would have happened to him otherwise.) We see a very little bit of Yugi's: it was bright, and there were toys scattered across the floor. Shadi judges him to have a pure soul with a mere glance, indicating, perhaps, that brightness can mean this.

Each soul room's starting point was something that was important to the character, usually involving interests. Téa's was a dance studio. Yoshimori's was full of books, like a library. Atem was wrapped up in his own mystery and in his death, and therefore his room resembled a cross between a royal tomb and an Escher maze. As noted, we can't see exactly what kind of room Yugi's room begins as-- but the walls have a very modern material look to them, and I'm inclined to believe that it's based off the game shop, a video arcade, or something similar.

If I were to build a soul room for myself, I would start off with an art studio, with off-color furniture and books piled haphazardly around the room in little towers. I have an image in my head of something like Merlin's Tower in Disney's "Arthur."

The decorations and furnishings in the room indicate several things: stuff like trees, shelving, books, chairs, anything that doesn't represent something specific but rather something general, represents aspects to a personality. In Téa's room, the walls were covered with mirrors, which Shadi declared showed her to be either confident or prideful, and that in any case, she has strong beliefs. I interpreted the open ceiling to mean an open personality, and likely the fruit trees indicate generosity of spirit or an outgoing will. Different kinds of trees probably mean different things; in Ryou's soul room, I chose to use willow trees in part of the room to indicate his occasionally meloncholy nature. The books in Yoshimori's room showed that he is a man of learning. He also had a lot of ancient artifacts sitting around in his room, showing his love of the past.

Photographs, portraits, statues of people and other specific things should be taken to represent specific things that are important to a person. Téa had a faceless portrait of a man with a superhero shield on his chest, to represent Atem (who she didn't know at the time was Yugi), and it was sitting on a loveseat. She also had a picture of the Statue of Liberty holding a ballet slipper, which pretty obviously represented her New York dreams. Professor Yoshimori had a little portrait of his family sitting in the corner, covered with cobwebs to show how he had neglected them and now regrets it.

For whatever reason, I like the idea of dead people having curtains and shrouds around their portraits in other people's soul rooms, the way Cecilia's portrait was hidden by a curtain in Pegasus's private sanctuary. This wouldn't always be the case, and sometimes a shroud could instead indicate estrangement or a long separation. In Yukai's soul room (which you WILL eventually see!) there will be a double portrait of his father and Atem, overlapping one another to show how they've sort of blurred in his mind-- but Atem will be turned mostly away, a figure important in Yukai's life, yet a person that Yukai has never met.

How different things are represented can be shown in different ways, especially depending on the person a soul room belongs to. I tend to think that things like trees, water, mirrors and clouds would tend to be very general and usually mean the same sorts of thing from person to person. A dance studio, the style a loveseat is done in, the types and titles of books, would be more specific to a certain person. Whether the portraits are framed images or statues probably won't make much difference, but a gold statue versus a clay one might mean something, and so would the fanciness of the frame. (A statue versus a framed portrait might show how "real" some dream or person is to the soul room's occupant, but your mileage will vary.) The kinds of flowers that appear in a room might mean something specific depending on their prominence and location, but if they're scattered randomly about, they might just be there to add a sense of lushness to the room, or to indicate a full, romantic, or whimsical spirit. The toys on Yugi's floor were probably intended to indicate his playful nature, or his general innocence and sweetness.

Téa's soul room also featured a big smiley sun that reminded me very strongly of the Sun and Moon clocks and art that one of my aunts absolutely filled her home with. I am going to be upfront and say that I really have no idea what the hell that's supposed to represent, because I always found them a touch folky and creepy, and I don't think of Téa as folky or creepy. Maybe Takahashi just wanted to show how cheerful she is. :P (Suns should not have faces, dammit!!) Also, that Statue of Liberty portrait was kind of pushy, because it bounced around all over the room and managed to appear in every single panel. I doubt that means anything, and yet I find it hilarious.

Sources that would be helpful for devising symbology in a soul room would include dream dictionaries, books on religious symbology (Not for imitating slavishly, but for ideas- especially if a character's religion is important to them), and imaginary therapy scenarios. I went on a mindwalk as part of a group therapy session in high school once.* Among other things, there was a path, a forest, a cup along the path, a pool of water, and a wall that stood in the way of the path and went as far as the eye can see in either direction. The way you imagined each of these things and what you did with them was supposed to indicate aspects of your personality and how you approached life. Keep that idea in mind when building soul rooms, and you may begin to find the excercise is actually very fun, and even better, can put you into very deep touch with a character, even an original one.

*(For the curious, my mindwalk indicated that I was quiet and contemplative, but materialistic, that I considered my sexuality mildly forbidding and mysterious but liked to, ah, tease the fish, and that death made me more curious than anything. At the time, this actually described me pretty well. Unfortunately I suspect going on the same mindwalk today would be colored by knowing what each thing represented. You can bet we laughed pretty hard when I said I teased the fish and then found out the pool represented sexuality.)

Little Voices: Pages 28-37

Geez, I let this one go too long. Updating the blog has been a little more difficult lately, due to work.

I had all sorts of issues with the last panel of Page 28-- mostly, I didn't know what I wanted to do with it. Early lines included Joey talking about his father (out of character) and Yugi and Joey teasing Kaiba about having been adopted again (addressed in a later scene.) I only hit on the "talking nonsense" line after doing the bonus art mentioned in the last commentary. Kaiba muttering deliriously fixes everything in fanfic.

No, really, it does. Next time you can't figure out where your story's going, just get the man drunk. He will show you the way.

Page 29 is basically just a wrap up of the scene, but it still amuses me horribly. I love those little Calvin and Hobbes style chases, and I don't get to do them often in enough in serious storylines. (Also I got to draw Kaiba snoozing some more, echoing the first page in the sequence. I was pretty happy with that.)

As mentioned on the page, the random bystander lady belongs to My-Oh-Mai, one of our longtime readers who contributed to the open invite I keep mentioning.

I've mentioned in the original comments for page 30 that I love Duke. I say that about a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh characters. This is because it's true. XD

Duke is one of those characters that I draw consistently off-model, mainly because his hair didn't make much sense in the series (Hah, hair making sense in this fandom. Right.) When I talk about a character's hair not making sense, mostly I mean things like the fact that Duke's headband doesn't seem to circle around his head, instead terminating behind his bangs (without even a string to hold it up) and the fact that you really just can't tell where Téa's bangs start or where the part of her hair begins.

Other than that, I like drawing Duke because he dresses in a semi-girlish way-- not unlike the way that I dress, to be honest. (Although I seem to trend toward Atem's jewelry tastes.) This makes him easy for me to dress while keeping his outfits interesting, so drawing him is actually pretty relaxing. (It helps that he has a pretty ponytail. I love drawing hair.)

Tristan's nephew right there appeared in the manga. I like the fact that Tristan has a nephew, and that he gets pressed into watching the kid; it adds a dimension of harrassed younger brother to him that I identify with and am entertained greatly by. I gave Johji some aging up for the simple fact that time has passed and babies grow quickly; Johji will probably make more appearances, and he will look different every time.

Also I totally drew a picture of freaky baby Johji when I was prepping for that page. It makes me feel mildly dirty. XD

As noted pretty much everywhere I've mentioned her so far, Amber, making her introduction on page 31, belongs to SK Dark Dragon, who I asked for permission to use the character some time ago. We used to hang out in the same Yugioh forum back when TV.com was TVTome, and she hosted some of my early fanart on her website before I was allowed to have a DeviantArt account. I became very fond of Amber after reading several stories that featured the character, and asked if I could write a version of her into the future story I was concocting. Obviously, she said yes. (But I asked her again a year or two ago, because we hadn't talked in a while. XD SK still said yes.) (SK now has a blog on BlogSpot, and as she says herself, usually calls herself Little Scarf Girl now.)

Anyway, I liked Amber enough to let Duke chase her around in Game of Dreams. There is some amount of canon that indicates that Duke isn't entirely straight, but anybody who's read The Law of Purple knows I don't give half a damn about that kind of thing. XD Not being entirely straight doesn't disprove any hetero tendencies. (Incedentally, the LOP character Lette was very mildly inspired by SK, although they're absolutely nothing like each other and Lette isn't actually based on her. It's complex.)

Sometimes, YnY being a slightly disjointed online comic requires a scene to wrap quickly. I usually go for humor when this happens.

Also, I was very gratified by the positive response to Amber. Often when you introduce a recurring non-canon character into fanfic, a lot of acid is spat. (And let's be frank, a full-body shot is like the equivilant to a Mary-Sue description page in comics sometimes.) I'm sure it helps that she's not actually mine. XD

Some people were a little confused by Bakura's soul room on page 32. At least one person who was confused by it seemed to have never read the manga; this is where I got a lot of my ideas on what a proper soul room should look like. Téa's, for example, used a dance studio as a starting point, with lots of mirrors to indicate a confident personality, and an open ceiling to indicate an open personality. There was a cute little love seat and a tree in the middle of the floor, and a framed picture of a superhero without a face, which represented Atem (she didn't know who he was at the time.) There was also a portrait of the Statue of Liberty holding a ballet shoe and a soft drink cup. XD Another character, who spent a lot of time with himself and concentrating on ancient knowledge, had a dark soul room which used a library as a starting point.

Ryou's soul room started as a combination between a medieval courtyard and a Japanese garden, to represent, among other things, his love of the fantastic (as manga readers and those familiar with Series 0 will know, he likes to make his own tabletop RPGs.) On the wall directly opposite the viewer is a window hidden by a curtain and obscured by willow trees; behind this shroud is a portrait of his mother and sister, who died prior to the series. Though I doubt we'll ever see the portrait, his sister is slightly more prominent in the image, because he wrote letters to her in the manga, which indicates to me that he took her loss harder than that of his mother.

To the left of the portrait, from our viewpoint, is another arch. In this arch, which is uncovered, you can see a portrait of Yugi, Téa, Tristan and Joey, although the distance involved makes it a smallish picture and therefore obscures exactly who is represented there. These four people are the only friends that Ryou has had that have not abandoned him or rejected him outright when they learned that he was possessed, and who went to great lengths to help him even when they didn't know him that well. Therefore he holds them in a place of great importance, and they get to have a picture in his soul room.

Even more prominent is the statue to the left of that, whose feet can be seen in the side of the panel. This is Atem, who he's given a Theban style monument in his head. I refuse to go very deeply into that, aside from the fact that it started in the same place as the portrait of Yugi-tachi. (I did mention elsewhere that there were going to be undertones of this.)

Somewhere in the soul room, where we cannot see, there is probably a smaller image of his father, whom he doesn't seem to be especially close to. This is understandable, because Ryou's father would appear to be out of the country a lot. On the opposite wall from the viewer, there is another window, but it looks "out."

The pool in the floor handles several jobs. First of all, it represents a deeper emotional and spiritual side to Ryou that he keeps private. Secondly, it divides his soul room into two parts: the "lighter" side, with Atem, his friends, and his father (and his sister and mother hovering in between) and the "darker" side, which features more trees, some ivy on the wall....

And a screen door, which leads us into page 33, and Ryou into a blank room. The screen door was Invid's idea. As anyone who is into this fandom knows, when Atem and Yugi's soul rooms were depicted, we never saw inside Yugi's (except for a few toys scattered on the floor), but there was a hallway dividing the two rooms, and the hallway itself resembled Atem's room more than it did Yugi's (Although Yugi's door had something that looked like metal plating and circuitry on it. Which is awesome.) Invid postulated that this hallway represented the fact that Atem's soul room actually existed within the Millenium Puzzle, and thus if Atem had actually fully inhabited Yugi's body, it would have looked different.

Hence the screen door. Yami Bakura's blank soul room is actually directly a part of Ryou's room, but their souls remain distinct; Yami B is just hiding out in Ryou's head. Since it's a single vessel containing two souls, there's only one soul room, but it's been divided into two by a screen door so as to represent the separation of the actual personalities.

Yami Bakura is currently in a very bad way, as the blankness of his side should indicate. Consider: if everything in Ryou's room means something, and the Escheresque maze in Atem's soul room represented hidden secrets, what does blankness mean? Marik will get to show up later and explain a bit of this to us, and to Ryou.

I was aware that having Yami Bakura turn out to be alive might put certain readers off. I can only say that I had several good reasons for doing it; which can be summed up like so: There is a starting point from the series for this that makes it possible (the fact that several times he shunted part of his own soul into objects other than the Ring.) I like him and want to see him heal. And he plays an important role in later stories, a role that only Yami Bakura can play. (Also Yukai likes him a great deal. I'm not sure why, because Yukai actually has to have a human relationship with him, and I don't, but there you go. They have some weird things in common with each other, and they're both snarky. Maybe that's enough.)

Ryou maybe loses some of those manly points he's been racking up on page 34. I have to admit I kind of giggle when he drops Yami B, even though it's horrible. Mostly he didn't expect Yami B to flop like that, but he's also startled that Yami B doesn't seem to be a figment of his imagination. I dressed Yami B in darker clothes than Ryou to make it simpler to tell them apart. As time goes by, I'll be using varied methods, like shadow scars, actual scars, shadows over the eyes, mascara, and context. I try to draw Yami B's little hair horns that started to show up in Battle City, but somehow that doesn't make them look different enough when I'm the one drawing them.

Do notice that on Yami B's side of the soul room, the screen door appears to be just floating there. XD Aside from that, I am very pleased with Yami B's hair, and the way he looks as Ryou is dropping him. The dropping pose came about in a very natural way and I'm not sure how I did it.

Yami Bakura wants you to help him, Roooo! He is bleeding spiritually! Augghhh!

I don't really have anything else to say about page 35, because I said most of it in the comments. XD

Page 36 features that nice statue of Atem. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, although it seemed to confuse at least one person into thinking Atem was alive in Ryou's head too. O_o He's not. That would be weird. And also he'd be like "Bakura, I don't want that half dead guy on my feet, put him back." Other than that, I'm happy with the progression of the page, and stuff.

On page 37, Ryou once again references time. I may as well mention here that the next storyline is another half a year later, but that it takes three months, and that the next two storylines coexist over a time period of about a year. I'm mildly shaky on exact time within the actual series, but have chosen to assume it covers a time period of maybe a year to a year and a half. The end of the last story will be about seven years after the Ceremonial Duel. :P

Ryou moves Yami B from the "dark" side of his room to the "light" side of his room and puts him at Atem's feet. Make of that what you will.

Let it be known that I have no intention of reviving Atem in the same way. He's conclusively dead. He has every reason to rest in peace. Bringing him back would destroy the point of the series ending, which is "death must be accepted." Yami B's problem is partly an inability to take the moral to heart.

(Despite this, Atem manages to be very present throughout Game of Dreams, as the statue itself indicates.)

This page was the result of a lot of last minute editing, and it was mostly because I suddenly realized I had never made it clear, anywhere in the storyline, that Yami B has amnesia. I'm not sure how that happened, but I like the page.

This situation is not permanent, but won't be changed during Game of Dreams, because it's partly thanks to Yukai that the change happens. There, ya'll have your spoiler for the day. XD

Next up, Ryou goes looking for answers!

Character Study: Tristan

Character Study: Tristan Taylor

Approximate Age: (by the Japanese anime) Fifteen to seventeen
Character Archetype: The Pinch Hitter, the straight man (As in comedy, not as in sexuality. :P)
Probable Element and Alignment: Earth, Lawful Good
Most Obvious Vocal Quirks: Sort of a "cool tough guy" lilt.

Poor Tristan. Poooor, poor Tristan. When he's not being ignored, he's being made fun of for being boring. They really could have put more about the poor guy in the DM anime; he has more backstory than Téa does.

For example, we know (mostly from the manga) that he has an older sister, who married a guy with a motorcycle, and that their son, Johji, is already a disturbing little pervert before he can walk. We also know that Tristan's sister probably picks on him, because he was apparently bullied into watching said nephew. His brother-in-law apparently trusts him enough to let him borrow said motorcycle, indicating that he's pretty trustworthy.

We know that Tristan has a dog and that apparently he never thought to get her spayed. We know that he's a fairly sensible guy who doesn't see the point to overly expensive shoes just because they're the cool thing. We know that he used to look up to Joey and that he apparently used to hate himself before he really became friends with Yugi, at one point telling Yugi he didn't want him to fight gang members "because even though you're my friend, I don't want you falling to my level." Like with everyone else, Yugi was a good influence on him.

We know that he tends to like shy girls (because the other girl he's crushed on is Miho, who in her appearance in the manga never is seen directly face on, only from the side) and we know that he's usually ready to get caught up in Joey's enthusiasm when it involves either fighting or flipping skirts. We know that he's a crack shot, and that he likes Westerns.

From the anime, we know that he's always ready to step up when no one else is there, that he's got a better sense of how to carry a souless shell than Kaiba does (Fireman's carry, Kaiba, not bridestyle! XD) that he's a bit more skeptical than Yugi, Joey OR Téa as well as a bit more realistic, and that he's willing to lie his head off to impress a pretty girl (Serenity.) We also know he's about as shameless as Duke.

Just by looking at him, we know that he's the kind of guy to get a crew cut. Because I'm fairly sure that's what that's supposed to be. ^_^''

(I've heard SOMEWHERE he wants to be a pilot someday, but I know not where I heard that, and he apparently doesn't mention what KIND of pilot, of which there are many.)

Point is, we know a lot about this guy, and he presents himself as pretty likeable, when he's not chasing after redheads. The thing about Tristan is that he's a fairly believable, ordinary kid. Aside from everything else I've listed, he's probably from a family that's comfortably middle-class, because his clothing is always neat and looks like his mother picked it out to make him look handsome. His family life is probably boringly stable, and so it's possible he got caught up with Joey more because of Joey's charisma and his own boredom than because of any dramatic strife in his own life.

All of Tristan's major flaws come out more strongly when he's crushing on someone than at any other time. I've mentioned he seems to crush on shy girls (obviously this isn't as true in Season 0, but I don't count it in my canon because Season 0 was totally insane.) I suspect this is because Tristan is essentially looking for someone to protect. But if there's anyone I tend to feel should try to date outside his own type...

In order to impress Serenity, Tristan puffs himself up by lying about his own abilities as a duelist. As I've mentioned, he's already got plenty of good qualities, and if he was just himself Serenity would probably be plenty and appropriately impressed with him. But for whatever reason, Tristan decides being a crack shot and a pretty sensible guy aren't good enough for this girl. Perhaps he's been luckless enough in love that he feels the need to lie, or maybe he's decided she wants a good duelist because her brother is.

He also lies because he's trying to protect Serenity from the reality of who Joey really is: a kind of goofy guy who doesn't really manage to look cool all the time. Tristan doesn't understand that Serenity doesn't expect Joey to look cool, that's not why Joey is her hero. He assumes he knows what she wants, and he's dead wrong. The worst part is, even after she calls him out on the lying, he continues trying to protect her, from Duke, behind her back. As Duke points out, Tristan really doesn't know what Serenity wants, he's just being possessive.

So yeah, when it comes to Serenity, Tristan lies to her, assumes too much, and acts way more possessive than he has the right to (the girl never ONCE said she liked him like that), and I have to admit I don't care for that. (I'd prefer to see him with a woman who will tell him in no uncertain terms what she wants out of him, see how he likes THAT. XD) When it came to Miho in the manga, he was far too eager to have Yugi write the love letter he was going to give her, once again showing that he just doesn't seem to think he's good enough to win a girl on his own.

Despite this, he does at least want very earnestly to fill the role of "shining knight" for someone, and if he just were himself, Tristan wouldn't be half bad at it. As I noted, he's very capable and responsible. He can take on two to five thugs alone (as long as he doesn't have to worry about innocent bystanders) and can still grin while he's doing it, a prerequisite for many young women when it comes to "my hero."

I don't tend to think he's a very good judge of character, though. He assumes, because she is a quiet and polite girl, that Serenity is "sweet Serenity," pure and innocent and easily broken (a lot of fans make the same mistake), but she's actually canny, surprisingly resilient, and likes the idea of nobody being able to push her around. He mistrusts Mai as a femme fatale for much longer than the other characters do, when Mai is actually sensitive, good, and sad. In other words, Tristan takes people at face value, and has a hard time getting past that first impression, even with his friends.

Another sign of his "rescuer" trait is the fact that he's the one who trotted all over Pegasus's castle looking for soulless bodies. He's also the one who dragged Bakura and Téa all over selfsame castle trying to prove that Pegasus was cheating, he's the one who offered to carry Bakura after Yugi had to blast him with Slifer, he's the one who tried to shake Joey out of a coma during Battle City, and he's the one who carried Joey when Joey lost his soul during Waking the Dragons. Tristan is proactive, and he's not only unafraid to shoulder the burden of an injured friend, he's eager. He's also apparently got some wisdom with regards to how to do that, since you'll notice that he almost always resorts to fireman's carry, which is considered the "proper" way to carry another person.

Of course I haven't really mentioned the fact that Tristan is kind of a pervert and used to pick on people. They're part of his character, yes, and yet somehow they feel kind of incidental; he'll read dirty magazines and appreciates Serenity's body because he's a man, he used to pick on Yugi mainly because he used to be angry all the time and it was a way to vent his frustration at the world.

And hey, also because Joey did it. He's something of a follower, at least when Joey is concerned. It's not that he can't think for himself (because obviously he can) it's that it's so easy to get caught up with whatever Joey wants to do. Often when Joey's not around, Tristan is much calmer, and steps up as the point man, even when Yugi's there (especially when a situation requires a certain kind of action.) Tristan's parents probably see Joey as a bad influence on him, which admittedly Joey sort of is. XD (If there's any reason at all that Tristan fights with his parents, this is it.) Tristan is a second-in-command sort; he can lead, but if his chosen leader's there, he does what the leader wants, even when he's trying to be a voice of reason.

(At one point in the manga, Joey decides he needs new shoes-- and not just new shoes, super special awesome air pump sneakers. Tristan complains through the entire story that this is just ridiculous, and even offers Joey a pair of his own shoes, but he still goes with him to the crazy scorpion shoe store, is still willing to beat the crap out of the guys that steal the shoes later, and doesn't exactly try to stop Joey from stomping his foot into a sneaker that allegedly has a scorpion in it. Joey, by the way, continues to wear these shoes for pretty much the entire rest of the series.)

Tristan is only a piece of the unit that makes up Yugi's core group of friends, and he's a piece that tends to fade into the larger picture. But if he wasn't there, the series would sorely miss him, and the support, reason, and stability he adds to the cast.

Final Distillation:
Tristan is capable and responsible.
He's Joey's wingman, and therefore picks up any slack in the group.
He also keeps the other characters on a straighter course. He's stable.
Tristan is a "rescuer." His taste in women reflects this.
He tends to take people at face value.
He gets caught up in Joey's charisma very easily.
Tristan is proactive.

As always, comments can be made either to the DeviantArt journal, here, or through our Gmail, I'd be happy to hear them.

XD Old dubmerch is fun

So the other day Mom brought home some elderly Yugioh magazines and such (circa Pyramid of Light) that she found free/cheap at a yardsale, and I have a few comments in reaction to them:

1. I never knew that Scholastic printed a "guide" to Yu-Gi-Oh using the overused official art and barely-informative blurbs. I was horribly amused. (Kid brother William ended up with it, and he's thrilled.)

2. Johnny Depp as Marik. My brain just about exploded trying to imagine him in one of those belly shirts, pretending to be fourteen. It didn't help that Beckett readers also voted the Rock to be Odion. I seem to recall hearing something about this back when it happened. Other trials on my sanity included Jim Carrey as Joey and some random homely child actor as Yugi (keep in mind he would have had to also play Atem. And, you know, the kid was like ten, and Yugi is older than Marik. Who would be Johnny Depp.) Oh yeah, and Hillary Duff as Mai. They VOTED for these. Never leave casting to a bunch of pre-teens.

3. Hayden Christiansen as Bakura? Hayden is six foot two. Bakura is shorter than Joey-- who is something like five foot nine.

4. Obelisk the Tormentor versus any critter in any other number based card game: Depends on how easy it is to feed Obelisk. DUH. XD

5. I was reminded very strongly as to why I quit buying these things shortly after starting. On the one hand, nice little art gallery. On the other... Yeah. I was never twelve when I watched this show.

On a related note, we were watching Duelist Kingdom episodes again recently, and I suddenly realized for the first time that Hitotsume Giant is wearing shadow pants, even in the dub. Holy cheese.

The Science of Pairings

(Note: Feel free to go find "She Blinded Me With Science" on YuuTube or whatever and listen to it while reading. I don't think it'll add any flavor or anything to it, but you never know.)

Nobody knows for sure what makes any particular fan fall in love with a particular pairing, be it canon or otherwise. Maybe a glance passes between two favorite characters, and a surge of emotion swells in the chest of the fan in question. Maybe one stumbles across a pairing on a fanart hunt, and cannot help but think, "You know, there's something about that which just feels right." Or maybe one comes across a fanfiction or comic that just handles the pairing, and the characters, so well that it fixates in the mind.

I could tell all about how I fell in love with Kaiba/Serenity first because of fanart, then because of watching the characters myself. I could also tell how it happened that I fell in love with any of my Téa pairings, with Joey/Kaiba, with Joey/Mai, with Ishizu and Pegasus. I can tell the exact story of how I arrived at every single conclusive pairing in YnY, too. But each of them would take at least as long as a character study to explain properly.

This essay is about how I think about pairings in general, what I think makes them appealing, and how two characters can bubble together in a way that makes a story worthwhile. Please be aware that much of this is based solely on my own opinions and my own observations of real relationships-- most especially on what I observed of my own parents, my father and his first wife, my aunts and uncles, my siblings and their respective exes and current mates (I don't feel that examining my own romantic relationships would be very helpful, as I can't exactly be less than passionate about them. XD There will be a few observations as handed to me by other people, however.)

Obviously, the differences between two people in a pairing tend to give it a lot of its conflict, and therefore, its fire. But similarities can do the same, and in any event a couple with the wrong mix of similarity and difference, or characters too similar or too different, cannot work if you want the characters involved to feel real or be interesting as a couple. Too, tailor-making a character to fit with another usually backfires without the right kind of interplay. (Making a character, for example, who has an uncanny understanding of Kaiba's tics and issues, is exactly what he wants in a woman (or man!), is infinitely patient with him all the time, is great with Mokuba, etcetera, would probably find that Kaiba was about ready to launch her from a cannon off the roof of KaibaCorp in a fiction that handled him realistically. Kaiba can't stand perfection in other people-- and really, who can?)

I tend to find that the most important differences and similarities lie in temperament-- likes and dislikes, while important, mean nothing with incompatible temperaments. These characters might be friends, but that doesn't mean they could stand each other for more than a few hours. Yet the cocktail will be different between any two people: I like both Seto/Wheeler pairings but for totally different reasons. Serenity is calm and patient yet quietly strong, Seto is abrasively stubborn and dramatic, yet often gives in to patience with time and is terribly vulnerable under a veneer of arrogance. Joey and Kaiba are like two sides of one coin, yet Joey is an extrovert and good with people, while Kaiba is not. These are both mixtures that appeal to me, and it's also the real reason why I think both pairings are so popular, although plenty of fans on both sides don't seem to have any idea what really drew them to the couple interplay.

Some differences or similarities in temperament are more forgivable than others. Two fiery personalities with short tempers are going to have a harder time meshing than two calm ones. (Although as many foe-shippers will tell you, sometimes that's half the fun!) I have a lot of such pairings that I like quite well, but not as long term relationships. Other differences and similarities don't really matter much at all; I see a lot of Kaiba/Rebecca on the basis that they're both "geniuses" and therefore would have an easier time keeping up with one another, but I tend to see being able to understand the other person's work as more of a bonus than as a necessity. (Kaiba and Rebecca are practically a male and female version of each other and are both temperamental, stubborn, and oversensitive. While I understand how this draws other people to the pairing, it reminds me way too much of the relationship I have with my father. No thanks.)

Often, a pairing will work less when you toss the characters together as they are, and more if you let one or both of them grow up a little. With Kaiba and Serenity, for example, both of them need to work on their social skills, while Tristan would be much more successful at any romantic relationship if he could just garner a little more confidence.

In some cases, we can see that certain characters clearly have "types," based on the characters they go after within the canon. Rebecca's "type," at least at the moment, is a calm, kind, gentle sort of person (obviously there'd have to be a lot of patience there, too.) Joey seems to go for the tall, well-built and forceful type (although he values their vulnerable sides. XD) Téa likes them stoic and enigmatic. Tristan prefers quiet, shy, "princess" types (and he's easier to pin down, because he's had more girls he's crushed on.) This can certainly tell a writer what kind of characters a character will chase after, but it says nothing about who a character will actually end up with-- sometimes a person picks a "type" that turns out to lead them into destructive relationships no matter how often they try. (Tristan, in my opinion, definitely needs to go against type: he comes on too strong and tends to scare the shy ones off.)

When I consider a pairing, I not only take into account whatever interaction the characters might have had (including any assessments they may have made of each other) nor do I merely consider temperaments (although that's a large part of it), but I also think about the relationships they have outside of the pairing. All Seto Kaiba pairings absolutely MUST consider Mokuba's feelings in the equation: since Mokuba trusts Yugi, the closer someone is to Yugi the more likely Mokuba is to approve. The more stable and level-headed the potential mate is, the more likely Mokuba is to approve. The older the brothers are at the time of story (like, if Mokuba is in his twenties) the less likely Seto is to care about Mokuba's opinion, and he's also less likely to care about Mokuba's opinion pre-Mind Crush. The way she/he treats Mokuba when Seto's not around is a huge factor, and so is the way Mokuba treats him or her when Seto IS around. I can easily see Seto sneaking around with a relationship just because he's strongly suspicious that his little brother wouldn't like it. Similarly, I can see Mokuba trying to set Seto up with people.

No matter who you pair Serenity with, Joey's going to be mad (unless it's Yugi. Or possibly a woman. Who isn't Vivian.) So the real question there is, how are Tristan and Duke going to respond, and does Serenity care about their opinion OR Joey's? Joey doesn't particularly care how his friends respond to his love interests, as long as they're not unkind to said interests, but it should still be taken into account that, for whatever reason, Tristan disapproves of most of them. XD (He probably cares more about what Serenity thinks, but less than Seto cares about Mokuba's thoughts-- partly because she's not dependent on him to support her.) Ishizu's brothers should be considered at the same time one considers any pairing involving her, not because their disapproval would keep her away from anyone but because it adds significantly to the story. Any pairing with Pegasus has to consider (unless it's Cecilia herself) how he might reconcile his widower status with his new relationship, and whether he'd be able (I dislike Mai/Pegasus as a pairing for the sole reason that the person who suggested it to me said "because she looks like his wife" and it really, REALLY put me off.) Mai pairings have to consider the fact that she's a sought-after woman-- who really knows for sure how many other Jean Claude Magnums there are in her past? (Certainly Valon can't be ignored, either, if you're going by anime continuity, and Joey can't ever be ignored here, even if you only consider him her close friend.) Téa is more likely to ask her friends directly what they think of a boyfriend or girlfriend, but not what they think of a crush.

Sometimes, after considering the out-of-pairing interplay, the potential conflict I see causes me to drop a pairing. I don't pair Téa with Joey more because Joey would be determined not to hurt Yugi than because they wouldn't make a good couple (and I don't like that kind of "we can't hurt him! SNOG" story. Personal taste.) Other times, the potential reaction sucks me in, and I just can't keep myself from rubbing my hands together and grinning from thinking about it. I love the idea of Ishizu marching her brothers into a family meeting and declaring, like a general heading into battle, "I am in love with Maximillion Pegasus!" I also love the mental picture of their faces after she's declared. XD (Sigh. Now I have to do a picture.)

Finally, how the two characters actually do treat each other, or how they might treat each other. This is wrapped up heavily in temperament-- Joey's going to be at least a little rough and playful with pretty much anyone. Yugi will be sweet and supportive even if he doesn't want the relationship. Most people who try to have a relationship with Kaiba are going to find themselves taking on a mildly parental role, and because of this, their probable parenting styles should also be considered. (I'm not saying Kaiba's an overgrown child. He just tends to need somebody who can handle his vulnerable side in a way that won't backfire and piss him off.) This is pretty important towards whether a relationship will work, yet at the same time, the way two characters treat one another will and should change within a story, especially one focused on a pairing.

Anyway, that's the bulk of it. Hope this got the gears working for at least a few of you (and if you can't figure out why someone likes a pairing? Ask me, I can probably come up with at least one reason.)

On the Subject of Kaiba Brands...

...I rest my case.

Need I say more?

Little Voices: Pages 20-27

As I noted in the last commentary, I wanted to talk about pages 20, 21 and 22 as a unit, so that's what I'm doing.

Bakura has always been a fascinating character to me, and I tend to feel that he gets a bit abused in current fandom (mostly, apparently, thanks to the Abridged Series, but the character abuse has always been there.) Throughout the series, the man was living a horror story, but it's kind of a different one from the abuse-slash that ran rampant in the fiction lines for a while there (I'm sure it still does, but I stopped reading it a while ago.) So I try to handle him with a bit more respect than that. What I wanted, with this scene, was to really strike the readers with the pain and horror of his story, and contrast it with the quiet dignity and anger he has while he's telling it.

I also wanted to point out that he's not really the weak sissy-boy that people think of him as being. XD I don't think any of us would have fared much better in his position.

Yes, he did sort of cut off a friendship speech on page 22, although I don't think it was a friendship speech that was going to run on for more than a sentence. One of the other things I happen to like about Bakura is that something about his voice lets me wax more poetic than I usually get to in comics; Joey gets surprisingly poetic sometimes too, but most of the time, for most characters, poetic descriptions and musings sound odd in regular dialogue. Maybe that's also why I enjoy writing Japanese people in general.

Bakura's also quite a bit worried here that there's some specific reason that the Ring kept teleporting back to him, and that it's a reason he doesn't want to know about. I'll sort of spoil it by saying that he discovers most of the truth by the end of Little Voices.

Also, the black bird from page 21 is gone in 22.

Page 23 starts one of my favorite scenes in Little Voices. The girl in the first panel replaced a different character in the precomic: Green, from my original webcomic The Law of Purple. I replaced him because it didn't make any sense for an alien to be dueling Yugi in Game of Dreams, and enough of the people who read YnY also read LOP. XD (Unfortunately, that's also why I couldn't use anyone that got sent in: Green's voice is too uniquely his own, and wouldn't have worked for anyone in the handful of characters I have in the pool.) I kind of wish now that I had drawn Green's Frog Shirt on her, though.

I have a short skit in my head of what happened right before Joey ran up to Yugi, for the interested:

Joey and Serenity see Kaiba sleeping on a bench in an out of the way corner.

Joey: What the hell?

They lean over him.

Serenity: (slightly pink, because Kaiba is a cute sleeper) Maybe we should wake him up.

Joey: Nah, let him sleep. We need to find Mokuba.

Serenity: We can't leave him here by himself!

Joey: So, you stay with him and watch him!

Serenity: (blushing madly) JO-EEY!

But Joey is already gone.

He was tucked beside a vending machine, btw, that somehow never got drawn. I'll probably do gimme art of it later. Also, I love how Serenity gets almost comfortable with teasing him, then switches into Mom Mode on page 24. The Kuriboh Bag was inspired by Aaliyan, who also, by the by, has done some gift art for me featuring Yukai and her character Kipacha. :3

I've had the idea of Kaiba coming down with the flu for years. It was in all the very earliest versions of Game of Dreams, including the version that wasn't actually part of YnY as a story. (In a couple of them, Serenity had to deal with him all by her poor little self. Weep for her.) I like how it brings him down without involving a crapload of drama, which to be frank a lot of fanfiction could do with less of. (I prefer craploads of drama to be used in cautious amounts.)

And since this scene deals with Serenity seeing a little more past the Kaiba Ultimate to the vulnerable Seto, I had to let Seto see a little bit of Tough Girl Serenity on page 25. She's still embarrassed as hell, and not as sure of herself as she was in Magic Light when she was hitting her father upside the head with a turkey, but she absolutely refuses to fail at what she's been charged with doing, and Kaiba can respect that.

Also, page 26 totally proves Serenity right and Kaiba wrong, when he passes out just like she said he would. Take that, boy. XD I think Joey's Duel Disk looks more like a spaceship glued to his arm in the first panel, but somehow that amuses me more than it annoys me.

Yugi's laughing mainly because, when I was first writing all this, I had to express how hard I was laughing somehow. There aren't words for how pleased I am with that expression. Serenity's little girl act gets me going pretty badly too. X3

Poor Joey. His legs are still hurting him, and now he has to carry Kaiba around. (You must really care, Joey, if you're still willing to put up with this.)

I did several inked versions of panel three as practice, because I was worried Kaiba passing out wouldn't look quite right. I think it paid off. Second panel's "What's going on with you" feels kind of clunky, but it's for a good reason: Joey knows Kaiba well enough to know "What's going on" and "What's wrong with you" would both be taken in completely the wrong way, so he phrases it in a very deliberate way, so that Kaiba understands him.

There were two extra pages that would have gone next, but they were, despite amusing, slightly tedious and messy with the flow. (I might post sketchy versions of them later.) The first one mainly featured things like Mokuba declaring that he was going to do a paparazzi check, Yugi taking both Joey and Kaiba's Duel Disks (because Kaiba by himself is heavy enough) while Joey shifted him into a better position, Serenity arranging some benches for them to lay Kaiba down on (so he wouldn't be on the floor, you know), and Kaiba muttering utter nonsense through his fever. (At one point snuggling into Joey and smiling in his sleep, which weirded Joey out more than just a bit. XD) The second page mostly covered them putting Kaiba on the bench (Yugi is helping Joey with all the more awkward parts of moving Kaiba around, btw, like making sure his head doesn't flop back violently).

And of course he wakes up on page 27, because Serenity got something cold for his head. This scene is, as a matter of fact, the exact and only reason I designed that bulky, poofy leather jacket for Yugi to wear in this storyline: It was designed to look good, yes, but it was designed first and foremost to double as a decent pillow for this scene. Their Duel Disks are all underneath the bench, and Yugi, Serenity and Joey are all sitting on the floor because they're hoping to shield him from view a little more. (I doubt it's really working.)

I like the one-liner scolding from Mokuba while Serenity's making a relieved face in the background. I also like that, while Joey's scolding Kaiba and Kaiba's snarking back at him, Kaiba is also noticing where Joey's coat is and is practically hugging the thing when he tells Joey not to touch him. (I'm not entirely sure he's aware that he's doing it.) It's another one of those nice things about comics; doing one thing with the dialogue and another with the imagery, and also just doing two things at once. (Kaiba started shivering violently when Joey put him down; that's why Joey gave him the jacket.)

I'm also very amused at Joey calling Kaiba an idiot. When Kaiba does things like running off without seeking help or refusing to accept help, Joey's reaction to me always says "Kaiba, you are an idiot!" And while Joey has plenty of his own idiotic moments, it's pretty well a fact that Kaiba can be a real idiot himself. I just sort of like watching them call each other idiots. I had a lot of male friends in high school who interacted exactly like this.

Kaiba's facial expressions turned out a lot more little-kid vulnerable than I had originally planned here, but it's something that I'm happy with. Joey's all "Don't you DARE get up" and he looks totally docile in response, whereas in the sketch he looked more like a wet cat. I basically decided, factoring the exhaustion and the sickness with the fact that he totally had no idea where he was for a moment there, that he probably doesn't have enough energy to look like a wet cat quite yet. XD


Kaiba just has one of those character designs that looks quite childlike and youthful as soon as he stops yelling and looking fierce. So drawing that vulnerability out of him is really pretty easy, even to do by accident. :P

There's a little hint of the direction I'm going with Mokuba in this page, too, which is basically that he's going to be as awesome as an adult as he is as a little kid. 83 I've always felt there's a strong undercurrent in Mokuba and Seto's relationship in which Mokuba is taking care of Seto as much as Seto is taking care of Mokuba, and I certainly know I'm not alone in that opinion. And since this (Mokuba as caretaker) began sometime in the series and got stronger as time went by, I like to take the opportunity to play with it here. (Of course, Seto doesn't always realize he's being taken care of, but that's his problem.)

Oh, let's see, what's coming next... Next few pages, this problem gets resolved, and then we discover where Duke and Tristan have been this entire time. Then I believe it's back to Bakura, which is as it should be. XD