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.)

Magic Light: Page 23-30

Yeah. I fell behind on some of these a little bit. OH WELL.

SO. On page 23, I drew the best Duke Devlin that I have ever drawn. Ever. Speaking of which, I was using the last few manga issues as reference for these pages, and I don't think even Takahashi is entirely sure how to draw the guy. His headband just kind of.... vanishes behind his bangs. Never to be seen again. I sacrificed accuracy to the character design so as to draw a headband I could believe existed.

Kids? Duke is a player. Serenity is not stupid. She's either very uncomfortable or insincere pretty much every time he's up in her face. Serenity knows Duke is a player.


Which is pretty much why I spit acid at the pairing. There are ways it could work, but to be quite honest I don't think Serenity would put up with it for very long. She's just too nice to tell him so and is hoping he'll eventually lose interest.

As I noted in the comments for page 24, this is pretty much Duke giving an honest opinion for once. I tend to think he mostly chases Serenity to agitate Tristan anyhow, but apparently with everything going on, he's gotten a little tired of Tristan denying that it bothers him. Or something. This is so in character I can't even puncture it in a way that makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about. (What can I say? I write more intuitively than anything.)

Yay for page 25! I used to ship those two, before I stopped shipping Kaiba/Ishizu. No, I seriously, seriously did. I can't even remember why. But I do know that any good story that considers romances seriously has to take into account all the relationships outside the romance, and this is an important one. Even more important, for the purposes of GD, than the relationship between Joey and Kaiba. Why? Because Mokuba loves his big brother desperately and wants him to be happy. I'll let you consider the implications of that on your own.

Red Eyes Plushie is awesome. He's also a little on the fat side, but that's because I was trying to consider the need for stuffings.

I don't actually have much to say about page 26 except that it was mucho fun to draw. XD

Small spoiler for page 27: Serenity is deliberately fooling herself. She knows perfectly well it was not Kaiba who would be so thoughtful as to give her such a gift, she knows perfectly well Mokuba's the considerate one.

She does not care. Right at this moment, she feels good, she knows that Mokuba is a potential avenue to spend more time in the vicinity of Kaiba anyway. And he's a nice kid.

I totally wiggle my butt like that when I'm happy. XD Picked it up from my cat.

The Ishizu of page 28 is not the best Ishizu I have ever drawn. But that's okay.

For some reason I find the line "after destiny comes paperwork" both hilarious and deeply profound.

Page 29 and page 30 make me happy for a number of reasons. For one thing, Pegasus feels completely in character. For another, he's gorgeous.

GORGEOUS.

XD

Check out that shading around where his left eye used to be. It terrifies me. I love it. XD

(I don't consider this bragging, because I often don't have a clue how I pull this sort of thing off.)

Also, it makes me happy because I love the pairing. Whoof. Perhaps essays on such matters will rear their over-emotional heads sooner or later.

Preview for the next set of pages!

Striped socks will be seen. Joey will get a most welcome break from hospital boredom. Serenity will give Kaiba a guilt trip without meaning to. Téa will do some reading. Serenity will "reconcile" with her father. (Not really.) And then Yugi will end Magic Light with some introspective narrative. :D On to the next story!

Magic Light: Page 19-22

In Page 19, Tristan comes to an interesting realization-- and Yugi shows signs of having known the same thing all along.

Like I've said before, I think of Yugi and Joey as being two of the only people in the entire series who understand Kaiba on any level.

Also, I think it's cute that Yugi apologizes for "yelling" at Tristan when most of us would have called it "stern telling off that Tristan needed."

I don't have that much to say about page 20 except that for some reason, adding lines around Serenity made the first panel much more dynamic, and that I like the effect that adding a gradient over the entire page had on the feel of the page.

I love page 21. I think it's the best page in this sequence, because of how well it shows the dynamics between the two characters (and because of how pokeable Yugi is in the first panel.)

Poke him! Poke him I say!

Also, this is the second time I've made a joke about drugs in this fancomic. There must be something wrong with me.

Of course, page 22 is good for interaction too, and I like it in part because it lets Joey's more vulnerable side out (a side of him I don't go into very often).

"Were you aware my sister has a crush on Kaiba?" is Joey's way of changing the subject to Kaiba without seeming like he actually gives a care about Kaiba (even though he does-- as I noted before he pretends to be unconscious whilst Kaiba is apologizing for Kaiba's benefit).

XD Joey thinks Kaiba is funny. Clueless, and funny.

Yugi: "I am the rock!"

(is smacked)

Magic Light: Pages 16-18

This scene was a bit harder on me because I had very specific things in mind and it didn't always pan out quite right. I am pleased anyhow, though.

That doctor Téa asked for directions is totally Sephiroth. I don't know why I'm so convinced of this.

I love Téa. XD This scene was mildly inspired by several humorous scenes actually in the series, incedentally: Téa rubs her shoulders when she has to use the bathroom (Duelist Kingdom), Téa comes up with pretty decent lies when she wants out of a situation (Battle City), Bakura shows up in weird places (all the time.) I actually tend to think that, since Bakura has been shown to be very attractive to teenage girls (shown? HA!) he probably has spent enough time with them to know where a woman will probably go in a public place when she needs to be alone.

Also, it was important to me that I show some of Bakura's "real" personality showing through. He seems fairly sensitive and empathic, and without Yami Bakura giving him all those blackouts anymore I'd think he'd be more likely to take his own initiatives, too, especially with those people who stuck with him despite his being possessed by an elder god thing.

I tend to think that all this time, Yugi's suspected this but pushed it aside because he didn't want to think he was competing with Atem. (His love/lust for Téa is canon, it's pointless to argue about it because Takahashi even talks about them getting married. XD)

Also, you can practically hear his poor little heart shatter into pieces and crash all over the floor in this scene. :(

Yes, Bakura sees him and isn't telling Téa. Would you? Be honest.

For some reason I seem to like scenes with Yugi accidentally overhearing things. In half my unfinished plot bunnies there's a scene where Yugi accidentally overhears a heavy conversation. He's overheard everything from "I was in love" to "why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?" XDD

In page eighteen, Téa shows that she has Yugi's personality down. Also, the line "I thought I was done" is a reference to the fact that I don't think Téa can let this go so easily. She thought she was prepared. She thought she was finished, but she's not. In a way, I drew from my own grieving experiences for this.

I have one more panel I want to comment on:

First of all, I was listening to "Sonne" whilst inking this page, which is really just hilarious when you think about it.

Secondly, this particular line inspired this slightly slashy piece on my main deviantart:

Intoxication-Yugioh-slashy by ~Golden-Dragon-Girl on deviantART

Intoxication

is the color of your eyes

Liberation

the promise in your smile

Give me one last day

to fall upon your arms

You are the warmth in the dark

and I am drowning

No more myself in you.

Resurrection

my breath within you sighs

Captivation

alive within your smile

I wish that I could stay

be human in your charms

You are the light in the dark

and I am screaming

Once more myself in you.

See, nothing against slash at all. XD

What's up so far and commentary

So right now we're working on the first part of Game of Dreams, which is the prologue to Yukai no Yugi and'll be in seven parts (The number of times I've written that....)



Thus far there are fifteen pages but they'll all be linked in the cover comments by the time it's done.

Now for "indepth commentary", I suppose. If you haven't read the fifteen pages yet, it'd be better to do so now.

I worry I'm going to be accused of overdoing the drama here. The first page narration only barely manages to not be overwrought, although most people seem to not care about the first page much even though I was mostly very pleased with it. XD

Is it wrong that I'm amused that the grand majority of the comments, including my own, on page two, go along the lines of "No, Joey!!" We all sound like Serenity or something. (I would post a video of Serenity yelling "No, Joey!!" but I can't find it on Yuutube and I can't remember the episode number. XDDD)

I don't remember why Yugi was in the shower in his first scene. I think I just wanted something for him to be doing. ^_^; Which means, natch, that I'm a pervert, because that was the first thing I thought of. Also I admit to being pleased with how he looks in most of his scenes; I have trouble drawing big-eyed Yugi because apparently "cute" just isn't programmed into my style or something. >D (I LIE?)

One of the important things I tried (and possibly failed) to get across in these pages is the fact that Yugi understands Kaiba-- and Téa and Tristan do not. In fact I tend to think that, other than Mokuba, Yugi and Joey (yes, Joey too) are the only people who really understand Kaiba in any way. Which is part of something he comes to realize in the background. And Yugi considers Kaiba a friend, which is why he so insistently tells him not to worry, Yugi will take care of things.

That's also why Yugi keeps asking Kaiba if he's okay. XD

It's not very clear, but Kaiba actually helped to lift Joey off the front of the car, and has blood on his clothes. That's what he's burning in a garbage can on page seven. He talks about self-therapy because his doctor has him on some medication to mitigate such obsessive compulsive behavior, and being Kaiba, he's ticked off by the idea that he'd need to take medication for something like that. I don't know WHEN he started to take the medication, but I suspect it started right after Duelist Kingdom, and that he stopped taking it at some point before or during the Doom arc, because he was convinced it was causing hallucinations. During the Doom arc he realized that it couldn't possibly be the medication causing him to see things, so he's going back on it as a trial run. XD This theory, obviously, only holds up in the dub.

If you don't follow the dub continuity then just assume he started taking it some time in the undefined past, I'm mostly joking anyway.

In page eight's dream sequence, I'm mainly referencing a line from the manga right after Death T; in which Mokuba says that his and Seto's father died "in an accident" when Mokuba was three. I strongly suspect this of being a car accident. I have not seen anything to refute or contradict this suspicion within anything canon. I'm writing under the assumption that it WAS a car accident because that makes the impact of the accident with Joey more personal.

Do note the bandaid on little Seto's cheek.

In case nobody was aware, Kaiba sleeping in means there is something VERY WRONGTM. Thus Moku-chan's concern. (I've only seen him asleep when he was actually either knocked unconscious, soulless, or both. Heee.)

In page 10, I wanted to imply (from Yugi's expression) that Tristan has been bitterly harping on this line several times already. Also, Yugi sounds like Atem (which as I note in the comment will be gone into) and Téa's just like OMG. 8O Notice her posture in the last panel, if you aren't too distracted by the evil shadow trying to eat Seto's shoulders.

If it isn't clear in the next page from the positioning of characters, Serenity is going in one direction (after Kaiba, in the direction of Joey's room) while Téa is running in the opposite, the direction Kaiba came from. One of the things that will be set up in this story arc is a sudden drift between Yugi and Téa. There were things that happened in the main anime and manga that I was unsatisfied with the resolution of, in this case, Téa's mourning of Atem. She was in love with him (so sayeth the manga outright), and being someone who's been in love with people I can't have, this is something I want to see real development and human behavior in, because I've been there.

In pages 12-15, I mostly wanted to lay the groundworks for my version of Silentshipping. I'll admit it. Anyone who's looked at the character sheets for YnY proper know that this story has Silentshipping in it. Basically, I have several things here to say about the pairing itself and how I write it:

1. Kaiba's relationship with Joey is vital to this pairing. I have committed Puppyshipping for its own sake before, but it's also very important to Silentshipping because Joey is the most important man in Serenity's life, and because in canon, I often read Joey and Seto's relationship as being love/hate/twisted fraternal. On whatever level, Kaiba cares about what happens to Joey by the end of the series, and what's happened hurts.

2. I am perfectly aware that he has no idea who she is. That's what makes page 13's second and third panels so awesome. XD

3. Yes, Serenity is crushing on him. In the VR Noa arc, during Kaiba vs. Jinzo, you can see her clapping insanely when he makes a spectacular move. She does that for Joey, but I somehow doubt she does it for Yugi. (chuckles) She blushes badly when she has to talk to him in the blimp arc, obviously screwing up all her courage. At the very least Serenity finds Kaiba both exciting and intimidating.

4. Serenity is the second person in fifteen pages to ask Seto if he's okay.

Other subjects of note in this scene include that Joey is listening to the entire conversation, is only pretending to be asleep to spare Kaiba the humiliation, that Kaiba is desperately trying to assauge his guilt, and that Kaiba is making the mistake of assuming that not being hurt means he's got no right to be upset. Also, Serenity is annoyed that Kaiba remembers Mai and not her.

Asj and I had a short discussion about how Kaiba would have referred to Serenity if he had seen her duel.

~AsjJohnson
Hmm...
Serenity should realize that Mai's a duelist and she's not. I do wonder what may have happened if Kaiba was there to see that duel she was forced into... O_o No wait, that would be a bad idea because Serenity was all whiny. ^_^" Perhaps if he saw near the end... I think Serenity got it together at the end, if I remember right... Then Kaiba would think of her as "Virtuous, mahogany-haired, Saint-Joan girl" (... that is the
name of the card, right? >_>" I think it was...) Heh. First I was going to say "cute" instead of "virtuous", but I couldn't picture Kaiba using that word - even if I meant it as "short and child-like, like Mokuba". ^_^"

--~Yukai-no-Yugi
XD Yeah, I was kind of dissappointed I didn't have enough room to write "Well NOW I know how to get his attention..." next to Serenity's head there.

Saint Joan, yeah. Virtuous doesn't really sound like him either, though, maybe just "short" or "bubbly?" XD And he'd probably say "redhead" because it's shorter. Hee.
--
~AsjJohnson
Hmm...
Well, I guess I can't argue about Serenity having brown instead of red hair anymore ^_^", because I'm pretty sure I've heard Ichigo from Bleach being referred to as having red or orange hair - and I'm still confused about that, when it's definitely blond... v_v (pretends to compare Ichigo and Ed) Ed's blond hair is oranger than Ichigo's orange hair.Anyhow... Um... was there enough room to say "I need to become a duelist"?I basically decided on "virtuous" because Kaiba says Serenity's a virtue name.
^_^" Perhaps Kaiba could just call her "Mutt-sister"? Seems more appropriate at the moment, since he didn't see her dueling. (tries to keep from laughing as I picture Kaiba calling her "virtuous Mutt-Sister" - and then tries very hard not to laugh as I picture Serenity's look, which is similar to panel seven except that she's smirking darkly as she considers how to kill him.)

--
~Yukai-no-Yugi
I actually thought of writing that AFTER I had already
written OMG, so no, sadly, there wasn't. (Sigh! XD)
Pfa ha ha ha ha!
"Virtuous Mutt-sister." XDDDD Darn you, now I've got it in my head too!
X33

(Serenity: DX Keel yuuu!!

Kaiba: What? What'd I say?)

Nah, if he did that he would have said something about Mai having a corny name.

XD If I have something wrong with me, I don't care, because I have more fun this way.

Speaking of that duel, I actually think it shows Serenity to have prodigious talent when she calms down.

And then Joey ruins the moment by letting Serenity know he's awake. Take note of his expression in the largest panel of page 15. I applaud Serenity for not losing her cool the entire scene, though.

Right now there are four and a half pages in production; three are scanned and cleaned but not shrunk.