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!
Showing posts with label oh the drama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oh the drama. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
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:
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
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
Friday, February 26, 2010
Duel Puzzle
I've been perusing a lot of stuff lately, looking for blog ideas, and naturally, I have run into people who complain about the YGO:DM dub. A lot. Including, most particularly, lots of people who yell "this dub sucks!!" (One of the things that gets me is people who complain they should have dubbed the first series. They didn't and DON'T have the RIGHTS to the first series, you twits, they couldn't have dubbed it if they wanted to!)
Now, I am not going to say that 4Kids did a perfect job dubbing Yugioh. The only "perfect" dub I have ever seen is the dub of GaoGaiGar, which takes you half a minute to realize "Hey, I'm not supposed to understand Japanese!! Hey, they're talking in ENGLISH!" We don't live in a perfect world. The GaoGaiGar dub only lasted about twenty out of fifty episodes (And by the end of this essay, you'll know why.)
But it really cheeses me off when people call the dub by 4Kids of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters "bad."
I grew up on Power Rangers and reruns of Voltron. No one has any right to call the Yu-Gi-Oh! dub "bad." At worst, it's an "average" dub. Invid and I would call it a "much better than average dub." Regardless of who did it, 4Kids or otherwise.
You know why the dub of GX sucks so much? It's because of the idiot thankless masses who made the dubbers hate their job by focusing only on the negative and not ONCE appreciating what they do RIGHT.
So today, I plan on showing my appreciation for the 4Kids dub by pointing out all the things they DIDN'T do, that they COULD have, that older dubbers WOULD have.
1. They bothered to keep a significant portion of the original names, and didn't name anyone anything like "Kaz Kazington." The GX dub did this, possibly out of sheer spite. In a BAD dub, the SERIES wouldn't have kept its own name: They would have called it "Duel Cards" or "Shadow Puzzle" at BEST. Yugi would have been named something like "Danny," Kaiba would have been "Kenny" (to explain the K), and Joey would have been named "Mack." And the Winged Dragon of Ra would have been named "Phoenixtron."
"HA! YOU can't use Phoenixtron, because YOU don't have its ACTIVATION CODES!"
2. Nobody's sex got switched. I have been, time and again, SHOCKED and ecstatic at 4Kids' track record over this. Even One Piece's drag queens stayed their own sexes. Yubel even stayed a transsexual!! In a BAD dub, Bakura would have been named "Anita" and Alister would have been "Regina." They might even have bothered to draw boobs on them. I have a LOT of love for 4Kids when it comes to this. (WHY would a bad dub have made Bakura female? "We need more female characters!" No other reason, unless you like "Well he was VOICED by a woman so why not?")
3. There was pretty minimal fiddling with the plot. Now, I'm sure some fans reading this are going to launch into a long list of all the little things they considered fiddling with the plot, like "Welcome to AMERICA" and the apparent lack of Yugi getting shares of Industrial Illusions (it's not like the Japanese version or even the MANGA ever care about it afterwords, but whatever.) I'm not talking about changes like that. In a BAD dub, Kaiba would be chasing after the other characters because he was in love with Téa (who would be named "Alice.") Bakura-- I mean Anita, would be actively crushing on Yugi, Alister-- I mean Regina, would be mad at Kaiba because he was in love with Téa, and not "her." Pegasus, who, by the way, would have spoken with a very oversexed French accent and laughed like Pepe Le Pew, would have engaged in Duelist Kingdom just to be a jerk. Oh yeah, and Yugi would give up the Face Off duel because Kaiba asks nicely.
"Alice is going to Danny's grandfather's shop!!" [VEEN!]
4. They let Cecelia be dead. In Duelist Kingdom they even let Kaiba's parents be dead. I agree 4Kids did poorly on this later. But I'm more inclined to blame soccer moms writing angry letters than the company, even if it was stupid. At best, in a BAD dub, Cecelia would be in a coma and Pegasus would be trying to revive her by putting other people in comas. She would wake up really late in the series, but we'd never see her. (Also her name would be Patricia.)
"I just got a phone call from the hospital! Patricia finally woke up!"
5. In a BAD dub, Mai would be wearing a turtleneck. In a bad dub, Atem wouldn't have been wearing a horribly drawn shirt, he would have been glowing.
"Aren't you hot in that, Mary Jane?"
6. They kept the lip synch pretty close. Now yeah, part of the reason is because they have better tech for that now, often abused to dub out women's breasts, but it's still something I have to appreciate.
"YUGI I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL HA HA!"
7. In a bad dub, they wouldn't even have let Obelisk (who would be named Titanos the Mighty) punch Marik, much less Joey punch Atem (the latter was a pretty graphic punch, so it's understandable. It was also a friend punching another friend, which the 4Kids people seem to have trouble with. [/sarcasm])
"The AIR PRESSURE of Titanos's fist sent him FLYING!"
8. They bothered getting nice music for it. I DIE every time I hear a rap intro for a kids' show these days. Maybe you don't like all-instrumentals, but at least they didn't take the opportunity to go on about "JO-ey, he's Yugi's friend/ Stands by him to da very END."
"And we're/ and we're/ and we're/ GETTING DOWN WITH THE HEART OF THE CARDS!!!"
9. Nobody had voices like Erica Scheimer's "little boy" voice. I'm sorry, but you wanna complain about Serenity sounding "too old?" Watch He-Man for a few hours straight, you'll just be happy she has a voice that sounds like a normal human being. (Not to knock the talent of the Filmation staff. They worked with what they had.) And what are you on about "they don't sound like teenagers like they did in the Japanese?" Where are you people getting thirteen year olds that sound like four year olds and teenage boys that sound like middle aged women with lung cancer? I WANT TO KNOW.
(I happen to be in love with Serenity's voice, by the way. Not Lisa Ortiz, though she strikes me as pretty cool. Just her voice.)
10. Yes, they dubbed a show aimed at teenagers as though for little kids. But guess what? Shows aimed at teenagers don't MAKE it over here unless they're live action. This is exactly why the Uncut!Dub didn't last very long-- it was a financial sinkhole. I'm not sure why. You'd think teenagers would have enough money to have more power in the market than eight and ten year olds. But those few shows that ARE aimed at teens still have to be SAFE for their younger siblings, because there ARE NO TIME SLOTS in the States for teenage viewers, only for little kids and adults. The Yugioh dub actually was aimed at teens-- it was just being tamed down because little kids were going to watch it anyway. If they hadn't dubbed it the way they did, there would have been no Dan Green screaming "YUGI! IT'S NOT FAIR!!" because the show wouldn't have lasted that long.
And that would be a crying shame.
Now, I am not going to say that 4Kids did a perfect job dubbing Yugioh. The only "perfect" dub I have ever seen is the dub of GaoGaiGar, which takes you half a minute to realize "Hey, I'm not supposed to understand Japanese!! Hey, they're talking in ENGLISH!" We don't live in a perfect world. The GaoGaiGar dub only lasted about twenty out of fifty episodes (And by the end of this essay, you'll know why.)
But it really cheeses me off when people call the dub by 4Kids of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters "bad."
I grew up on Power Rangers and reruns of Voltron. No one has any right to call the Yu-Gi-Oh! dub "bad." At worst, it's an "average" dub. Invid and I would call it a "much better than average dub." Regardless of who did it, 4Kids or otherwise.
You know why the dub of GX sucks so much? It's because of the idiot thankless masses who made the dubbers hate their job by focusing only on the negative and not ONCE appreciating what they do RIGHT.
So today, I plan on showing my appreciation for the 4Kids dub by pointing out all the things they DIDN'T do, that they COULD have, that older dubbers WOULD have.
1. They bothered to keep a significant portion of the original names, and didn't name anyone anything like "Kaz Kazington." The GX dub did this, possibly out of sheer spite. In a BAD dub, the SERIES wouldn't have kept its own name: They would have called it "Duel Cards" or "Shadow Puzzle" at BEST. Yugi would have been named something like "Danny," Kaiba would have been "Kenny" (to explain the K), and Joey would have been named "Mack." And the Winged Dragon of Ra would have been named "Phoenixtron."
"HA! YOU can't use Phoenixtron, because YOU don't have its ACTIVATION CODES!"
2. Nobody's sex got switched. I have been, time and again, SHOCKED and ecstatic at 4Kids' track record over this. Even One Piece's drag queens stayed their own sexes. Yubel even stayed a transsexual!! In a BAD dub, Bakura would have been named "Anita" and Alister would have been "Regina." They might even have bothered to draw boobs on them. I have a LOT of love for 4Kids when it comes to this. (WHY would a bad dub have made Bakura female? "We need more female characters!" No other reason, unless you like "Well he was VOICED by a woman so why not?")
3. There was pretty minimal fiddling with the plot. Now, I'm sure some fans reading this are going to launch into a long list of all the little things they considered fiddling with the plot, like "Welcome to AMERICA" and the apparent lack of Yugi getting shares of Industrial Illusions (it's not like the Japanese version or even the MANGA ever care about it afterwords, but whatever.) I'm not talking about changes like that. In a BAD dub, Kaiba would be chasing after the other characters because he was in love with Téa (who would be named "Alice.") Bakura-- I mean Anita, would be actively crushing on Yugi, Alister-- I mean Regina, would be mad at Kaiba because he was in love with Téa, and not "her." Pegasus, who, by the way, would have spoken with a very oversexed French accent and laughed like Pepe Le Pew, would have engaged in Duelist Kingdom just to be a jerk. Oh yeah, and Yugi would give up the Face Off duel because Kaiba asks nicely.
"Alice is going to Danny's grandfather's shop!!" [VEEN!]
4. They let Cecelia be dead. In Duelist Kingdom they even let Kaiba's parents be dead. I agree 4Kids did poorly on this later. But I'm more inclined to blame soccer moms writing angry letters than the company, even if it was stupid. At best, in a BAD dub, Cecelia would be in a coma and Pegasus would be trying to revive her by putting other people in comas. She would wake up really late in the series, but we'd never see her. (Also her name would be Patricia.)
"I just got a phone call from the hospital! Patricia finally woke up!"
5. In a BAD dub, Mai would be wearing a turtleneck. In a bad dub, Atem wouldn't have been wearing a horribly drawn shirt, he would have been glowing.
"Aren't you hot in that, Mary Jane?"
6. They kept the lip synch pretty close. Now yeah, part of the reason is because they have better tech for that now, often abused to dub out women's breasts, but it's still something I have to appreciate.
"YUGI I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL HA HA!"
7. In a bad dub, they wouldn't even have let Obelisk (who would be named Titanos the Mighty) punch Marik, much less Joey punch Atem (the latter was a pretty graphic punch, so it's understandable. It was also a friend punching another friend, which the 4Kids people seem to have trouble with. [/sarcasm])
"The AIR PRESSURE of Titanos's fist sent him FLYING!"
8. They bothered getting nice music for it. I DIE every time I hear a rap intro for a kids' show these days. Maybe you don't like all-instrumentals, but at least they didn't take the opportunity to go on about "JO-ey, he's Yugi's friend/ Stands by him to da very END."
"And we're/ and we're/ and we're/ GETTING DOWN WITH THE HEART OF THE CARDS!!!"
9. Nobody had voices like Erica Scheimer's "little boy" voice. I'm sorry, but you wanna complain about Serenity sounding "too old?" Watch He-Man for a few hours straight, you'll just be happy she has a voice that sounds like a normal human being. (Not to knock the talent of the Filmation staff. They worked with what they had.) And what are you on about "they don't sound like teenagers like they did in the Japanese?" Where are you people getting thirteen year olds that sound like four year olds and teenage boys that sound like middle aged women with lung cancer? I WANT TO KNOW.
(I happen to be in love with Serenity's voice, by the way. Not Lisa Ortiz, though she strikes me as pretty cool. Just her voice.)
10. Yes, they dubbed a show aimed at teenagers as though for little kids. But guess what? Shows aimed at teenagers don't MAKE it over here unless they're live action. This is exactly why the Uncut!Dub didn't last very long-- it was a financial sinkhole. I'm not sure why. You'd think teenagers would have enough money to have more power in the market than eight and ten year olds. But those few shows that ARE aimed at teens still have to be SAFE for their younger siblings, because there ARE NO TIME SLOTS in the States for teenage viewers, only for little kids and adults. The Yugioh dub actually was aimed at teens-- it was just being tamed down because little kids were going to watch it anyway. If they hadn't dubbed it the way they did, there would have been no Dan Green screaming "YUGI! IT'S NOT FAIR!!" because the show wouldn't have lasted that long.
And that would be a crying shame.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Fanfiction Peeves
I was looking through some notes for some pairing essays that I did, and MAN, I am rather opinionated, aren't I?
For those of you who follow this blog without following us at DeviantArt, you might have missed that I plan on updating at least once a week here, and probably at least once a week at the DA, from now on. Trust me, I have every determined intention of actually doing this. I'm making my Angry Yugi Face right now. (The little cute guy. I couldn't pull off Atem by any stretch of the imagination.)
So for today, I give you my list of things which, if I see it in the first few paragraphs of a fanfic, I'm liable to close the window and look elsewhere. I don't actually run into them on a regular basis (thank RA), because I now only skim recommended and favorite fanfic lists, but I still find 'em from time to time. There's no accounting for taste. XD
1. Kaiba using the word "mutt" when referring to anything other than an actual dog.
-Kaiba only very rarely uses animals as insults, even in the dub, and he really only ever insults Joey to his face. (Probably because he's going for a reaction, because I don't see him as actually disliking Joey.) I think he's called Joey a "monkey" more than he's called him a dog, so really, we should be calling it "Monkeyshipping" instead. Or "Bonkotsushipping." Maybe "Moneybags-shipping."
2. References in the narration to Téa as a "bitch," "mean girl," or anything else blatantly negative.
-Okay, I get that you don't like her, but good narration is unbiased. This also goes for when a character who is friends with Téa in the show reacts with some form of horror or distaste when they see her coming. I GET that you don't like her, but Yugi DOES. A good fanfic writer accepts that sometimes a character they like gets along with a character they dislike.
3. Taking a character out of a scene from the show due to dislike.
-Yeah.
5. Slavish imitation, in dialogue, of a character's accent.
-So you want the characters to "sound" like themselves. I understand. But Joey's "voice" has little to do with his accent, it has to do with the words he chooses to use. Having him say "da" instead of "the" is one thing. Having him say "Da quick braown fohx jumped ovah da lazy dohg" is quite another. Writing like that hasn't been in fashion since Mark Twain. Stop doing it. (On the other hand, using British spelling, like "colour" instead of "color," is a perfectly acceptable way to imitate a British accent. Why? It's less distracting.)
6. Runtogethersentencesandparagraphswithoutformatting.
-Don't upload with notepad; save it into Word or something first. And if FF.net eats your formatting anyway, keep at it until it's at least sort of readable. Just trust me on this. Don't have any of the acceptable filetypes except for txt? Get them. You're going to need them eventually anyway.
7. Mixing dub names and Japanese names, such as calling Serenity "Shizuka Wheeler."
-Following a mixed continuity? Almost impossible not to do, since the different continuities fill in each others' gaps. Using mixed names? Confusing and weird. I used to put up with this, but my tolerance has gone down the more I've seen it.
8. A character like, say, Tristan, calling Téa "darling," and then you realize a few sentences later it's because he's gay.
-Tristan would be the butchest gay guy ever. Not all gay guys talk like that.
9. Realizing a few sentences in that the character you thought was a canon character is actually an original character who happens to have the same name.
-Curse you all for the confusingness! Make it clear from the outset! Good grief.
10. Author's notes that say anything along the lines of "Marik is the yami, Malik is the hikari, okay?"
-It's not so much that I begrudge you the right to do that, but if you do, you're going to confuse me. It's a difference of one letter that doesn't actually happen to be much difference; the dubbers call him "Marik" because that's what the Japanese VAs sound like they're saying. And I, personally, am very mildly dyslexic: I am going to forget which you said is which, and I am going to get frustrated. Besides that, it's not even accurate to either versions of the show OR to the manga. Call Yami Marik something else in narrative-- if you don't like "Yami Marik" (and there are so many reasons not to) you can call him "Ishtar," or "the Ishtar demon," or whatever else that appeals to you and makes sense. (Yami M himself considers his name to be that of the original Marik Ishtar, because he considers himself to BE his "hikari.")
11. A sex scene between two members of a non canon pairing in the first chapter.
-I love silentshipping, as anyone who knows me should know. I love it to death. But I accept that any fic featuring it needs to nurse it along, to nurture it and let it grow. A good silentshipping story accepts that the "blimp scene" doesn't point to eternal love; Kaiba's reaction to meeting Serenity again would probably run more along the lines of "Oh, it's you. Uh. Hi." Not the first meeting, but it might as well be. Personally, this fanfictionist can't see Kaiba as a "kiss on the first date" kind of guy, much less a "sex after the first walk in the rain when we're not even sort of dating" kind of guy. I mean, yuck.
12. The lyrics of a song, cut and paste verbatim.
-I have no problem with songfics, even though ff.net's management does (obviously, you get around THAT by not posting it on ff.net) but I didn't click into your fic to read a huge block of text that didn't come from you. If you're planning to incorporate the lyrics into the story itself, be a little more creative than that. And if your story is only INSPIRED by a song, all you need to do is point out the song's official video on Yuutube and inform the reader of the relationship. It'll keep you out of trouble AND be less annoying. I didn't used to click out of these right away, but now I don't tend to waste time on them-- because I've spent too much time already reading through the songs in the past, only to find out that the story itself is only two paragraphs long.
13. Overly cute stuff.
-I'm not really talking about fluff here. When I come across a sentence like "Yugi skipped across to Kaiba and stared up at him with enormous puppy eyes," there's something wrong.
14. A character being the wrong gender without explanation.
-If it's an AU (alternate universe), please, please tell us before we start reading. If it's NOT and Kaiba is secretly a woman, please explain in the story WHY she's a crossdresser (and shame on you if Mokuba doesn't know already.) And for heaven's sake, DON'T gender switch someone just because you like a pairing but can't get past the ghey. Pairings don't have to involve sex or romance. Write something where they become brotherly friends and get it out of your system.
15. Male pregnancy with no explanation.
-One time I read this story in which Bakura was "getting really chubby" and the doctor was all "Oops, Marik, you got him preggers!" It was supposed to be funny, but the fact that nobody even batted an eye at the idea of a pregnant man and the only explaination was "gay sex" really killed the humor for me. Even humor has to make SOME sense. When you treat male pregnancy like it's a normal thing, it is not funny absurd, it's just absurd absurd.
16. When the summary of the story is essentially the first paragraph.
-It's a narrative. Not an essay. Take a writing class.
17. Dialogue, in a supposedly serious story, which sounds like chat-room speak. And also narrative that sounds like chat-room speak.
-USE PUNCTUATION. USE IT. USE SPELL CHECK. IT DOES NOT COST MONEY. For that matter, reread your story before putting up for the rest of us to read. The computer, she misses things.
18. Being dumped into a non-canon status quo without any warning, explanation, or reaction on the part of the characters.
-If it's a few years in the future, say so in the narrative. If it's AU, say so in the author's notes (unless it's a case of "AU clashes with Canon Universe," then you can just do it in the narrative.) If the story opens with Pegasus essentially saying "I love you kay?" to somebody we've never met before, there needs to be some explanation of how the characters got to that point, like "ever since they had met several months before" or "Since Joe was the first person Pegasus had laid eyes on after drinking the magic potion...." I mean, seriously.
19. Mokuba needing a babysitter.
-Did we seriously watch the same series, guys? This kid is an awesome little ninja who referees tournaments and is the vice president of Kaiba Corp. And when he's not in school or being Kaiba's ninja messenger and head general, he's hanging out in Kaiba's office, apparently making sure he stops working long enough to eat and sleep. If anybody needs a babysitter, it's Kaiba-- and he's got one: Mokuba. Being able to take care of himself and more mature than he might have been otherwise is one of Mokuba's character traits-- and anyway, at the age of ten, he's already old enough to be left home alone by most countries' laws. The same goes for Mokuba feeling ignored by Kaiba or for Kaiba abusing Mokuba in any way after Duelist Kingdom. This isn't going to happen.
20. Kaiba having a girlfriend that Mokuba doesn't like.
-Unless she has eldritch powers and is controlling Kaiba's mind, this isn't going to happen either. Kaiba places his brother's needs above his own when it comes to this kind of thing. Mokuba doesn't need any help getting Kaiba's brain out of the gutter and the girl out of the house-- all he really needs to do is say "Well, Seto, I hate to say it but she's kind of a bitch" and Kaiba'll respond with "Oh well, sex isn't everything." (My cat has a similar hold on my love life, so I know what I'm talking about.) (On the other hand, if your story actually features this conversation in just the first few paragraphs, I would totally read it.)
21. Yugi being significantly younger than the rest of the cast, or Mai being in high school with the rest of the cast.
-Yugi is shown as being in high school. Mai is explicitly stated as being out of high school even in the dub-- as being IN HER TWENTIES even in the dub. Yugi is not a little kid and Mai is not a teenager; jokes are made right in the series about Yugi looking younger than he is, and a large part of Mai's character is that she's been around the block once or twice. I'd totally read a story about Mai before Duelist Kingdom, but you can't just shove her in a Domino High uniform, plop her in Yugi's class, and expect me to go along for the ride.
I'm stopping here, because these are the main things that kill a fic for me in the first chapter. Ciao for now!
For those of you who follow this blog without following us at DeviantArt, you might have missed that I plan on updating at least once a week here, and probably at least once a week at the DA, from now on. Trust me, I have every determined intention of actually doing this. I'm making my Angry Yugi Face right now. (The little cute guy. I couldn't pull off Atem by any stretch of the imagination.)
So for today, I give you my list of things which, if I see it in the first few paragraphs of a fanfic, I'm liable to close the window and look elsewhere. I don't actually run into them on a regular basis (thank RA), because I now only skim recommended and favorite fanfic lists, but I still find 'em from time to time. There's no accounting for taste. XD
1. Kaiba using the word "mutt" when referring to anything other than an actual dog.
-Kaiba only very rarely uses animals as insults, even in the dub, and he really only ever insults Joey to his face. (Probably because he's going for a reaction, because I don't see him as actually disliking Joey.) I think he's called Joey a "monkey" more than he's called him a dog, so really, we should be calling it "Monkeyshipping" instead. Or "Bonkotsushipping." Maybe "Moneybags-shipping."
2. References in the narration to Téa as a "bitch," "mean girl," or anything else blatantly negative.
-Okay, I get that you don't like her, but good narration is unbiased. This also goes for when a character who is friends with Téa in the show reacts with some form of horror or distaste when they see her coming. I GET that you don't like her, but Yugi DOES. A good fanfic writer accepts that sometimes a character they like gets along with a character they dislike.
3. Taking a character out of a scene from the show due to dislike.
-Yeah.
5. Slavish imitation, in dialogue, of a character's accent.
-So you want the characters to "sound" like themselves. I understand. But Joey's "voice" has little to do with his accent, it has to do with the words he chooses to use. Having him say "da" instead of "the" is one thing. Having him say "Da quick braown fohx jumped ovah da lazy dohg" is quite another. Writing like that hasn't been in fashion since Mark Twain. Stop doing it. (On the other hand, using British spelling, like "colour" instead of "color," is a perfectly acceptable way to imitate a British accent. Why? It's less distracting.)
6. Runtogethersentencesandparagraphswithoutformatting.
-Don't upload with notepad; save it into Word or something first. And if FF.net eats your formatting anyway, keep at it until it's at least sort of readable. Just trust me on this. Don't have any of the acceptable filetypes except for txt? Get them. You're going to need them eventually anyway.
7. Mixing dub names and Japanese names, such as calling Serenity "Shizuka Wheeler."
-Following a mixed continuity? Almost impossible not to do, since the different continuities fill in each others' gaps. Using mixed names? Confusing and weird. I used to put up with this, but my tolerance has gone down the more I've seen it.
8. A character like, say, Tristan, calling Téa "darling," and then you realize a few sentences later it's because he's gay.
-Tristan would be the butchest gay guy ever. Not all gay guys talk like that.
9. Realizing a few sentences in that the character you thought was a canon character is actually an original character who happens to have the same name.
-Curse you all for the confusingness! Make it clear from the outset! Good grief.
10. Author's notes that say anything along the lines of "Marik is the yami, Malik is the hikari, okay?"
-It's not so much that I begrudge you the right to do that, but if you do, you're going to confuse me. It's a difference of one letter that doesn't actually happen to be much difference; the dubbers call him "Marik" because that's what the Japanese VAs sound like they're saying. And I, personally, am very mildly dyslexic: I am going to forget which you said is which, and I am going to get frustrated. Besides that, it's not even accurate to either versions of the show OR to the manga. Call Yami Marik something else in narrative-- if you don't like "Yami Marik" (and there are so many reasons not to) you can call him "Ishtar," or "the Ishtar demon," or whatever else that appeals to you and makes sense. (Yami M himself considers his name to be that of the original Marik Ishtar, because he considers himself to BE his "hikari.")
11. A sex scene between two members of a non canon pairing in the first chapter.
-I love silentshipping, as anyone who knows me should know. I love it to death. But I accept that any fic featuring it needs to nurse it along, to nurture it and let it grow. A good silentshipping story accepts that the "blimp scene" doesn't point to eternal love; Kaiba's reaction to meeting Serenity again would probably run more along the lines of "Oh, it's you. Uh. Hi." Not the first meeting, but it might as well be. Personally, this fanfictionist can't see Kaiba as a "kiss on the first date" kind of guy, much less a "sex after the first walk in the rain when we're not even sort of dating" kind of guy. I mean, yuck.
12. The lyrics of a song, cut and paste verbatim.
-I have no problem with songfics, even though ff.net's management does (obviously, you get around THAT by not posting it on ff.net) but I didn't click into your fic to read a huge block of text that didn't come from you. If you're planning to incorporate the lyrics into the story itself, be a little more creative than that. And if your story is only INSPIRED by a song, all you need to do is point out the song's official video on Yuutube and inform the reader of the relationship. It'll keep you out of trouble AND be less annoying. I didn't used to click out of these right away, but now I don't tend to waste time on them-- because I've spent too much time already reading through the songs in the past, only to find out that the story itself is only two paragraphs long.
13. Overly cute stuff.
-I'm not really talking about fluff here. When I come across a sentence like "Yugi skipped across to Kaiba and stared up at him with enormous puppy eyes," there's something wrong.
14. A character being the wrong gender without explanation.
-If it's an AU (alternate universe), please, please tell us before we start reading. If it's NOT and Kaiba is secretly a woman, please explain in the story WHY she's a crossdresser (and shame on you if Mokuba doesn't know already.) And for heaven's sake, DON'T gender switch someone just because you like a pairing but can't get past the ghey. Pairings don't have to involve sex or romance. Write something where they become brotherly friends and get it out of your system.
15. Male pregnancy with no explanation.
-One time I read this story in which Bakura was "getting really chubby" and the doctor was all "Oops, Marik, you got him preggers!" It was supposed to be funny, but the fact that nobody even batted an eye at the idea of a pregnant man and the only explaination was "gay sex" really killed the humor for me. Even humor has to make SOME sense. When you treat male pregnancy like it's a normal thing, it is not funny absurd, it's just absurd absurd.
16. When the summary of the story is essentially the first paragraph.
-It's a narrative. Not an essay. Take a writing class.
17. Dialogue, in a supposedly serious story, which sounds like chat-room speak. And also narrative that sounds like chat-room speak.
-USE PUNCTUATION. USE IT. USE SPELL CHECK. IT DOES NOT COST MONEY. For that matter, reread your story before putting up for the rest of us to read. The computer, she misses things.
18. Being dumped into a non-canon status quo without any warning, explanation, or reaction on the part of the characters.
-If it's a few years in the future, say so in the narrative. If it's AU, say so in the author's notes (unless it's a case of "AU clashes with Canon Universe," then you can just do it in the narrative.) If the story opens with Pegasus essentially saying "I love you kay?" to somebody we've never met before, there needs to be some explanation of how the characters got to that point, like "ever since they had met several months before" or "Since Joe was the first person Pegasus had laid eyes on after drinking the magic potion...." I mean, seriously.
19. Mokuba needing a babysitter.
-Did we seriously watch the same series, guys? This kid is an awesome little ninja who referees tournaments and is the vice president of Kaiba Corp. And when he's not in school or being Kaiba's ninja messenger and head general, he's hanging out in Kaiba's office, apparently making sure he stops working long enough to eat and sleep. If anybody needs a babysitter, it's Kaiba-- and he's got one: Mokuba. Being able to take care of himself and more mature than he might have been otherwise is one of Mokuba's character traits-- and anyway, at the age of ten, he's already old enough to be left home alone by most countries' laws. The same goes for Mokuba feeling ignored by Kaiba or for Kaiba abusing Mokuba in any way after Duelist Kingdom. This isn't going to happen.
20. Kaiba having a girlfriend that Mokuba doesn't like.
-Unless she has eldritch powers and is controlling Kaiba's mind, this isn't going to happen either. Kaiba places his brother's needs above his own when it comes to this kind of thing. Mokuba doesn't need any help getting Kaiba's brain out of the gutter and the girl out of the house-- all he really needs to do is say "Well, Seto, I hate to say it but she's kind of a bitch" and Kaiba'll respond with "Oh well, sex isn't everything." (My cat has a similar hold on my love life, so I know what I'm talking about.) (On the other hand, if your story actually features this conversation in just the first few paragraphs, I would totally read it.)
21. Yugi being significantly younger than the rest of the cast, or Mai being in high school with the rest of the cast.
-Yugi is shown as being in high school. Mai is explicitly stated as being out of high school even in the dub-- as being IN HER TWENTIES even in the dub. Yugi is not a little kid and Mai is not a teenager; jokes are made right in the series about Yugi looking younger than he is, and a large part of Mai's character is that she's been around the block once or twice. I'd totally read a story about Mai before Duelist Kingdom, but you can't just shove her in a Domino High uniform, plop her in Yugi's class, and expect me to go along for the ride.
I'm stopping here, because these are the main things that kill a fic for me in the first chapter. Ciao for now!
Monday, August 17, 2009
Wacky Dub Moments: The Best and the Worst
Note: This list refers to those moments in the dub that were just so nuts, even the people watching the series for the first time noticed they were kind of off. The "Worst five" list is the "Worst Five" because, even though I'm a dubbie, they interfered with my enjoyment of the episode even the first time around, when I didn't know what had happened in the Japanese. Most of them because they involved dubbing inconsistencies. The "Best" list is the "best" list because all of them made me laugh the first time I encountered them, and still do.
Worst Five:
1. We're all living in America, America is wunderbar...
2. Yugi, let me help you!
3. The Magic Marker.
4. I miss you, Kaiba.
5. After our parents died-- I mean disappeared...
Best Five:
1. "You can beg later. When you are punished." "Huh!?"
2. "No I refuse!"
3. "You'll pay for that stinging jab with your life points!" "DUEL!"
4. "When that blade touches your legs, it'll send you straight to the SHADOW REALM!"
5. Pegasus's favorite fruit juice.
I find most of the other really weird stuff in the dub fairly easy to ignore, actually. It mainly amounts to looking elsewhere on the screen, or closing your eyes for a few moments and thinking about butterflies. XD
Obviously, this is all a matter of opinions. But it made ME laugh.
Worst Five:
1. We're all living in America, America is wunderbar...
-In the first episode, Kaiba refers to himself as the Japanese champion. When being welcomed to Domino, Ishizu is told, "Welcome to America!"
What is the Japanese champion doing attending high school in America? Our standard of teaching sucks compared to Japan! (Apparently, Domino City moves between countries, because later they talk about going to America during Waking the Dragons, and it was made quite clear they needed plane tickets to get back home. The only explaination for that, if Domino was still in America, is that it's in Hawaii, and somehow I just don't think it is.)
2. Yugi, let me help you!
-Up to that point, it was pretty clear that Atem was doing the dueling when Yugi's eyes went all slanty. Changing that episode, so that Atem was supposedly being held back, instead of in need of Yugi's skills, threw the entire thing into confusion.
3. The Magic Marker.
-Dubbing out women's chests. I have an entire article about this at my Horakte's Sock Drawer blog. My body is not a corruptive force, and neither is Mai's, no matter how low her neckline is, as long as she's still actually clothed.
4. I miss you, Kaiba.
-(sputter) Mokuba just called Seto by their ADOPTIVE SURNAME! In one of Seto's FLASHBACKS! From BEFORE they were ADOPTED!
5. After our parents died-- I mean disappeared...
-In Duelist Kingdom, Mokuba and Kaiba both clearly say their parents passed away or DIED, respectively. During Noa's storyline, the policy on death had been changed, so Kaiba had to say they had "disappeared," clearly contradicting earlier dialogue. The only way to explain this away is that previously, they'd been talking to themselves, and so apparently Seto and Mokuba don't say the truth of what happened to their parents in front of each other?
Best Five:
1. "You can beg later. When you are punished." "Huh!?"
-Every single time Pegasus suggests locking Croquet away or torturing him, Croquet responds in the most bewildered tone of voice, like he has no idea what the hell Pegasus is talking about. It's hilarious.
2. "No I refuse!"
-Invid and I quote this at each other sometimes.
3. "You'll pay for that stinging jab with your life points!" "DUEL!"
-This too.
4. "When that blade touches your legs, it'll send you straight to the SHADOW REALM!"
-My soul is in my LEGS? Bahahahaha. No, no, what does it really do?
5. Pegasus's favorite fruit juice.
-Oh come on, like little kids don't know grown-ups drink wine. It's better than what Daddy probably drinks. It even has health benefits. And anyway, shouldn't it be GOOD to show the bad guy doing something you don't want little kids to do? He's the BAD GUY.
I find most of the other really weird stuff in the dub fairly easy to ignore, actually. It mainly amounts to looking elsewhere on the screen, or closing your eyes for a few moments and thinking about butterflies. XD
Obviously, this is all a matter of opinions. But it made ME laugh.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Fandom Rant: Kaiba, Kisara, and silentshipping
(glances at title) That seems a little off, does it? Well, it's not.
Recently while searching for more stuff to put into YnY's collection of other people's Yu-gi-oh next generation stuff (this doesn't count GX, it's fanmade nexgen of the original cast I look for) I became more aware of the attitude that many Kisara/Kaiba fans have toward other Kaiba pairings.
As one shipper put it: "Seeing Kaiba with anyone but Kisara sickens me." (Emphasis mine.)
Sickens you? Really? That seems a little harsh, for one thing.
I guess I can understand the roots of this rather arrogant, evangelistic attitude about the whole thing. Kaiba/Kisara is considered "canon" by most people. (For the record, I actually like the person who said that, just not what she said. Which is why I'm not pointing out her name, because I don't want any jerks getting the idea that I want her flamed or something.) Some anti-silentshippers, whom I have much experience with (being the stalwart captain of the ship), go so far as to call Kisara "evidence" that Kaiba and Serenity shall "never be." My fellow silentshippers have gone to such extremes in order to "get around the obstacle" of Kisara as claiming that Serenity is Kisara's reincarnation. This is preposterous, and it's kind of disheartening that they feel the need to stretch so far.
Here's what really bothers me about the whole thing, though-- Seto Kaiba and Kisara are not actually a canon couple.
You read right. And I'm not insane. Kisara's in love with Priest Seto, not Seto Kaiba. Kaiba is Priest Seto's reincarnate, sure-- but he's not Priest Seto himself. Are Yugi and Atem the same person? All evidence points to NO. In Yu-Gi-Oh, reincarnation is not resurrection. If Seto Kaiba is fulfilling some destiny, it's because Priest Seto is using him, by proxy, to get the job done. Kisara herself says, "you're like him, but you're NOT him." And even more than that? By the time Priest Seto would have died, he and Kisara were actually a merged soul. THAT soul is the one that would have been reincarnated, which is how Kaiba still had a Blue Eyes as a Ka. (The Shipper's List agrees with me: "blueshipping" is Kaiba/Kisara, "Mizushipping" is Priest Seto/Kisara.)
Which, in a way, makes Kisara Seto Kaiba's mother.
Give me a few moments, I need to get over the squick factor before I can continue.
Kisara has no direct reincarnate counterpart, but Kaiba decorates all his stuff with twisting, twining Blue-Eyes White Dragons. He feels a direct affinity for it. Priest Seto had no relation to the beast until he fell in love with Kisara. You can call that a sign that Kaiba remembers the romance somehow, or you can see it as something deeper-- Kisara living on within Kaiba himself. He's like her child. I, personally, find that a lot sadder and more touching, especially since we have no real hint of what his biological mother might have been like. (There are going to be photographs shown of her in Game of Dreams. I intend to make her look rather like Kisara, for the reasons given.)
Now then-- because Kisara has no direct counterpart, making one for her is essentially creating a fancharacter. I've mentioned elsewhere, I don't care for OC pairings, if I can help it.
So I'm going to stick to silentshipping, thank you.
Recently while searching for more stuff to put into YnY's collection of other people's Yu-gi-oh next generation stuff (this doesn't count GX, it's fanmade nexgen of the original cast I look for) I became more aware of the attitude that many Kisara/Kaiba fans have toward other Kaiba pairings.
As one shipper put it: "Seeing Kaiba with anyone but Kisara sickens me." (Emphasis mine.)
Sickens you? Really? That seems a little harsh, for one thing.
I guess I can understand the roots of this rather arrogant, evangelistic attitude about the whole thing. Kaiba/Kisara is considered "canon" by most people. (For the record, I actually like the person who said that, just not what she said. Which is why I'm not pointing out her name, because I don't want any jerks getting the idea that I want her flamed or something.) Some anti-silentshippers, whom I have much experience with (being the stalwart captain of the ship), go so far as to call Kisara "evidence" that Kaiba and Serenity shall "never be." My fellow silentshippers have gone to such extremes in order to "get around the obstacle" of Kisara as claiming that Serenity is Kisara's reincarnation. This is preposterous, and it's kind of disheartening that they feel the need to stretch so far.
Here's what really bothers me about the whole thing, though-- Seto Kaiba and Kisara are not actually a canon couple.
You read right. And I'm not insane. Kisara's in love with Priest Seto, not Seto Kaiba. Kaiba is Priest Seto's reincarnate, sure-- but he's not Priest Seto himself. Are Yugi and Atem the same person? All evidence points to NO. In Yu-Gi-Oh, reincarnation is not resurrection. If Seto Kaiba is fulfilling some destiny, it's because Priest Seto is using him, by proxy, to get the job done. Kisara herself says, "you're like him, but you're NOT him." And even more than that? By the time Priest Seto would have died, he and Kisara were actually a merged soul. THAT soul is the one that would have been reincarnated, which is how Kaiba still had a Blue Eyes as a Ka. (The Shipper's List agrees with me: "blueshipping" is Kaiba/Kisara, "Mizushipping" is Priest Seto/Kisara.)
Which, in a way, makes Kisara Seto Kaiba's mother.
Give me a few moments, I need to get over the squick factor before I can continue.
Kisara has no direct reincarnate counterpart, but Kaiba decorates all his stuff with twisting, twining Blue-Eyes White Dragons. He feels a direct affinity for it. Priest Seto had no relation to the beast until he fell in love with Kisara. You can call that a sign that Kaiba remembers the romance somehow, or you can see it as something deeper-- Kisara living on within Kaiba himself. He's like her child. I, personally, find that a lot sadder and more touching, especially since we have no real hint of what his biological mother might have been like. (There are going to be photographs shown of her in Game of Dreams. I intend to make her look rather like Kisara, for the reasons given.)
Now then-- because Kisara has no direct counterpart, making one for her is essentially creating a fancharacter. I've mentioned elsewhere, I don't care for OC pairings, if I can help it.
So I'm going to stick to silentshipping, thank you.
Friday, July 3, 2009
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.)
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. XDSerenity'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.)
Thursday, October 23, 2008
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.
GORGEOUS.
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!
Friday, July 4, 2008
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)
Sunday, June 22, 2008
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.
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
See, nothing against slash at all. XDIntoxication
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.
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