#anyway yes lore exists. there is background. but the vibes are all here on this page | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

xsdjkl · 5 months

Note

Just realize that I don't know much about your V. Do you have anything to share about them?

omfhfhdhjfdhgdhgay I am so excited that you asked this 🥹🥹I never had a chance to talk about my V before👉👈

My current and 'canon' V is a quite an exciting story (at least to me lol). I started developing her around time when Phantom Liberty was first announced, so over ~1 year ago. She went through A LOT of changes since then.

Originally, she was a mix of a netrunner and a ninja (called it a cyberninja lmao). I even remember attempting to draw her design, but no idea where I have it now. Her overall vibe was also very different back then. Eventually, I abandoned the netrunner part, and turned her more into a solo with guns and a sandevistan. Instead of using katana, I settled on mantis blades which are quite important part of her character. Her overall relationship with chrome is an interesting one, which I wish to explore in depth in the fic. She relied on her implants while in Arasaka, then during game events and also in the future👀 I might even say she's a bit too devoted to them at this point.

Her appearance changed a lot, but the original blue hair stayed for the most part :P That's how she looked like for 3/4 of my game.

A bit of background lore - when she was about to turn 18, she was offered a 'scholarship' by Arasaka, which in reality was a cover to scout for young and promising recruits. She commited herself fully to the training, and later the job, putting aside any other distracions - family and friends included. It was already too late when she realised that she's all alone in the cold corporate world.

That's how she looked like at the start of the game^^ I change her appearance as the time progresses. A transition from the corpo-rat to a freelance merc.

She's always finishing the gigs per client's wishes, no matter how ugly things may turn out. I play PL quite late-game, and at that point she reached a certain level of a cold professionalism. Because of her life experiences she has a certain problem with keeping her relationships with other people. Even when she cares about them deeply. That being said, she'd do anything for them. I guess corporate habit of following orders, keeping her true feelings inside, pretending that she's fine when she's not, and also the rising stakes of the story, make for quite a packet of flaws. Despite that, I'm rooting for her, even when she's sooooo set on the path to self-destruction🥰

Thing I should mention here is her relationship with Johnny. At first they couldn't stand each other's guts, but over time became near soulmates material. By changing her hair colour back to the natural one, she started to look like Johnny, and eventually even behaving like him. She really does inherit worst and best of his traits 👀

The most interesting part about my V is that I created her with a very specific headcanon ending in mind (it was the first thing I ever knew about her). Not a very positive one, I should add. Yet, everything changed with Phantom Liberty, and yes, Songbird.

Not only did she greatly influence V's character and decision making throughout the expansion, but she literally saved her from the ~destined since the very beginning~ fate. I explore the latter in the fanfic I'm writing and I just can't wait to share more about it >.< The original idea of the ending survived, but because of So Mi ruining my evil schemes in such poetic manner, it exists in very modified version now.

I just realised it's the only picture of late game V I have hah. She's having best time of her life, while So Mi is having a mental breakdown lmao.

I am considering the idea of writing the alternative version of the events where V's original fate fulfills, but that definitely won't happen before I am done with the fanfic™. Anyway, this post is already much longer than I intended😅 Thank you again for this ask, it's been really fun to talk about my V for once🥹💙

I also have a maleV, but maybe I'll just make a seperate post about him some other day lmao.

#long post #again? xD #i want to talk about her so badly but it's all in the fic😩#one day it will be ready i promise🥹#cyberpunk 2077 #how am i supposed to tag my own oc😭😭#oc: v #???#i guess #btw not checking for spelling/logic mistakes #hope u don't mind

3 notes · View notes

evilisk · 3 years

Text

Thinking About TH18′s Cast

Just revisiting my thoughts on TH18′s cast now that we’re hours away from this year’s popularity poll.

= = =

Here are the Unconnected Marketeers characters from “least to most liked”

No. 8: Takane Yamashiro

Before UM, I always thought a second Kappa would be good. I thought that because ZUN has Nitori appear so often in official works that a second Kappa would allow Nitori to feel less overexposed. While I still like Takane, and I eagerly anticipate what fan works will do with her and Nitori, I do have to admit she’s the weakest newcomer of the bunch.

I think her design (which is a remix of Nitori’s one) is the most disappointing aspect. On the one hand, it’s consistent with Touhou’s lore; the Yamawaro have been in Gensokyo’s background since Wild and Horned Hermit, and their visual design straight up was just “Kappa but with Camo”. On the other hand, it’s hard not to call the design extremely safe. Takane’s design looks even worse when we have Megumu to compare to; she’s another Tengu, sure but she looks nothing like the existing tengu. I think it wouldn’t be wrong to call Takane’s design the least ambitious one in TH18.

I should say: I really do love UM's cast. Her being my least favorite doesn't mean I dislike her at all. But I really can’t justify putting her above anyone else.

No. 7: Sannyo Komakusa

It’s another character I appreciate for the world building. I didn’t explicitly want another Mountain Hag, but I do appreciate that we got her anyway; she and Nemuno help make it feel like Youkai Mountain isn’t just populated by Tengu. I don’t have much else to say; she’s just not my type of character. I find her unconventional power to be really fun. I’ll always prefer ridiculously specific and mundane powers like “the ability to listen to 10 people at once” or “the ability to calm people with tobacco smoke” in Touhou.

No. 6: Mike Goutokuji

She’s still a Stage 1 boss (most Stage 1 bosses don’t end up being hat interesting) but she’s great. Her backstory is just interesting enough to make her better than most Stage 1 bosses (it arguably makes her better than a good number of Stage 2 bosses too). I also like her attacks. Most Stage 1 bosses are too easy, but Mike’s spellcards are just difficult enough to make Stage 1 interesting.

No. 5 Megumu Iizunamaru

I wasn’t expecting to place her so low when I started this post. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that, to me, she’s the least interesting of UM’s Big 4. It's still great that we get some Tengu worldbuilding with her. But Megumu’s simple “hungry for power” motivation is a bit generic compared to the other co-conspirators. I can’t dislike her too much though, her theme is great and her star themed danmaku is so pretty.

No. 4 Misumaru Tamatsukuri

While I don’t like her design, she’s just so mysterious that I can’t help but be fascinated by her. I mean this lady crafted the Hakurei Yin Yang Orb. She has so much potential. The context of her fight is also hilarious. We’ve all heard Touhou bosses go, “sorry but I can’t let you pass” but Misumaru’s fight is the first time where “actually, yes, you really shouldn’t keep going forward”

No. 3 Chimata Tenkyuu

The Goddess of the Marketplace herself has really grown on me. At first I thought her design was horrid and her theme was underwhelming. Now I can't even get her theme out of her head (...that outfit still bad though. At least fan artists can make it look good. And the original, bad as it is, is bad in a fun, “vintage ZUN Art” kind of way a la TH10 Hina). Chimata really is a fun addition though. Her backstory gives me such strong “underdog final boss vibes” like Shinmyoumaru in TH14. I’ll also admit I love Touhou’s god characters more than the youkai, so I’ll happily accept another.

As for second and first place... I actually cannot decide which character I like more.

No. 1A Momoyo Himemushi

“Giant, stinky, fight hobo centipede youkai that wants to eat dragons” is just such a fun concept. And everything also about her is great too from her patterns to her boss music to her design (it’s honestly perfect for Momoyo’s personality. Though I am also in love with all the unnecessary ribbons on Momoyo’s limbs). At the same time, she is a bit simplistic. And Momoyo is far from the only fight hobo Touhou. Even if she’s one of the rare fight hobos that ISN’T an oni...

No. 1B Tsukasa Kudamaki

Tsukasa is such a lovable scamp though. And she appeals so much to my tastes. I love manipulative Touhou characters like Miko and Mamizou, and I especially love the ones that really don’t do much fighting (a la Seiga and Tewi). I also appreciate how Tsukasa is so good and so prominent in UM’s story, she makes you forget that she’s just a midboss.

I really don’t know who I prefer more. Momoyo has an actual boss fight and is more “complete” as a Touhou character, but Tsukasa has so much potential (if nothing else, I really want to see Tsukasa interacting with Mamizou). I think, for this year’s popularity poll, I’ll have to go with Momoyo. For no other reason than “I liked Momoyo first”. If they end up giving us more votes this year, maybe I’ll vote for both. If not, I’ll probably just vote Tsukasa next year/poll.

5 notes · View notes

oletuslured · 2 years

Text

blah blah another comment about things being bad / really bad vibes and distracting outside of the blogs here etc etc anyway more important news

ada is an immediate addition coming to the blog and im gonna try to put this energy into something productive by doing character bios throughout the night. aesop is request only and is intentionally not on the carrd for that reason, wujiu will also probably be falling under that, && someone for the love of god remind me to add grace.

but more on ada and affiliated things;

1) i understand that the logic and emotion sides can lend to some different interpretations which was neat and also not so neat of netease for various reasons, but understand that i think ill be more emotion side leaning with ada. HOWEVER i can imagine it being more rationalized in a whole i need to take care of you and will do everything i can to help you to im falling in love with you and canon divergence re: emil and the time she’s there at the asylum so its a bit more organic but we’ll see when i get to writing her info up // dependent on emil. they’ll remain married regardless in interactions with other people but if there’s emils out there i wont assume or force this on you, we can talk this out. (additionally, i do see issue with co-dependency and i would LOVE to develop that into something more healthy where they both come to terms with this and theyre like okay let’s set a healthy line here. ada does try to get emil out to socialize in emotion ending anyways so. yeah!)

2) i do subscribe to open relationship /+/ poly adaemil. ada will be open to shipping regardless. but do not misconstrue this as cheating cause its absolutely not. it will function under the following specifications:

- if its simply an open relationship, emil is ok with it. this is cool and all, but ill probably go more toward poly adaemil than simply open relationship cause of their personalities tbh. depends.

- poly adaemil is, again, probably what id be going with. shipping in this regard is a BIT di...fficult? not the word i want to use but itll suffice. anyway yes, if theres a ship you’d like to engage with for ada in this sense, assume that your muse will have to also be shipped with emil. (this blog’s imaginary emil for the sake of blog canon unless state otherwise!!!) it’s not one or the other in this respect. package deal. not only will you have to win ada over but your muse has to make sure emil is fine with said muse and likes your muse too. the same would be assumed with emil too. (again, this blog’s imaginary emil, i’m not forcing this on any actual existing emil muse.)

so needless to say... having a muse that vibes with BOTH of them might be a challenge, but if youre up for it, be my guest! i will outright say in my eyes luca (depending on characterization and interpretation. ive run into lucas that dislike ada and i respect that sm) seems to be the number one contestant for this in my various discussions and experience, but i do have a couple others in mind that you’re free to inquire about if you really want. but ultimately, everything is up for discussion, and im willing to bend my ear to consider new things :].

3) act two of the story update is rapidly approaching and it seems like theres two more acts in the coming weeks and frankly im not patient enough to wait that long to have ada’s backstory and lore sitting around blank since the background trailer of ada and emil seemed to point at ada and the baron or whoever that was having some sort of connection and we may or may not get info on that. so i will simply slap on the canon divergent label for her and call it a day, and probably wont stray from what ill write her bg as unless we get some absolutely insane new info.

tldr of the bio and divergence? outside of already written canon info is that ada gets approached one day with the one and only briefcase we see in the story update, with a bottle of hydra (the memory restoration drug) as a payment in advance and is promised that if she and emil attend the manor, she has a chance of getting more of it along with other medical drugs to help emil if they win their game. naturally, she accepts. so her reason for attending is solely for emil’s improvement. this is the allusion to paradise she mentions. however the baron’s real wish for ada attending was to use ada for her psychology and medical background to test shit on survivors and pregame for the future matches which is obviously a big fucking no no that she never agreed to. just to add a morbid touch to everything <3

anyway, that’s it. if you read all of this, i really appreciate it!

#absolute harbinger of chaos. >> ooc.#unwind the scroll. >> long post.

2 notes · View notes

maareyas · 4 years

Text

Au silver backstory time :] Repost bc tumblr drafts erased the last version. also this is part 1. NOW WITH ADDED BACKGROUND LORE AND ANGST!

edit: i forgot to link to the original pic

First! Some background on the state of the future! unlike 06, this silver's future isn't covered in flames and ash. rather, its empty and lifeless. endless, barren wastelands with only little plant life and the scattered ruins of cities/other structures left of a previously vibrant world. this future is the direct result of the metal virus, abt 300 years later (instead of 200 like in canon). everything that was infected during sonic's present had already disintegrated. things that were infected much later still remain, though. this is why, while most of the world has been cleared of the virus, there are still some areas that DO have it. and why most plantlife on the planet went poof.

There were survivors of the original outbreak who were able to avoid the virus. So there’s still people in the future world. Borrowing from evan stanley’s concepts for the Silver Age saga of the archie comics, moving settlements like Onyx City exist. These cities are indifferent/hostile to outsiders who want in though. As a result, everyone outside these settlements are nomadic, travelling alone or in small groups at most. Resources are scarce, after all.

Now onto silver’s actual backstory. Silv has been alone his whole life. I do not vibe with the idea of giving canon charas blood relatives for some reason, so the circumstance of his birth are a mystery lol. Silver drifts from place to place, trying to survive and trying to uncover what happened in the past. He’s a sort of archeologist! He explores ruins of the past world and pieces together history from the things he can find in faded books and partially corrupted computers. He doesn’t know much, only that the world was lively 300 years ago. He wonders what happened that made everything so desolate.

Silver has met and befriended other nomads before. Given the situation though, becoming an actual companion is a no-no. At most, he runs into them one or two times and never sees them again. Groups tend to be more hostile to outsiders like him since he might try to join them. More people = more mouths to feed, and possibly, the collapse of the existing internal structure.

So yeah, silver is a VERY lonely boy. But not to worry, its time for…….Found Family Trope.

On one of his Ruins ExplorationsTM Silver runs into prof. Von schlemmer and the Bits, who were doing the same. They decide to team up on their search. They talk about their shared interest in uncovering the past, as well as their life (well. Schlemmer does anyway. Silver didn’t have much of his life to take about). Schlemmer talks about how he was kicked out of Onyx City for reasons I haven’t decided yet. Probably something to do with being too curious about the past? Idk. He now lives in a makeshift mobile lab he made himself. So ye basically the whole ruins exploring thing become a bonding moment

Schlemmer then asks if silver would like to become his assistant or smth. Silver, of course, having been alone for so long, is beyond overjoyed at the idea of having a home and a friend. Ecstatic, he accepts schlemmer’s offer. So Found Family stuff happens. Schlemmer just sorta. Becomes Silver’s dad. His weird science dad. They go around exploring ruins, uncovering stuff about the past, and doing general father-son Mad Science. Schlemmer also makes a personal Bit for silver! Since I’m bad with names its name is Sil-bit until I can think of something else

Eventually, they gather enough information to pinpoint a general timeframe for when things went to hell and led to the future being ruined. They have a plan to change past events, and Schlemmer has already built the time machine, but is reluctant to use it. Now that the chance is here, he’s begun to second-guess the idea for several reasons: 1.) the time machine isn’t exactly fully tested. 2.) Changing history is a risky idea even by his standards. Silver convinces him to go through with the plan, however, and even volunteers to be the one to travel back in time.

So they do that. Silver and Sil-bit timetravel to Sonic’s present. But since they aren’t sure exactly what event was the catalyst for the Bad Future, silver goes back and forth between time periods during every major event (maybe changing this event worked?). Schlemmer is intact in all instances, if not a bit disoriented memory-wise due to the timeline changes.

Once the metal virus hits, silver puts two and two together and realizes this is the catalyst event for the ruined future. So! They deal with it, Silver is relieved. He travels to the future again, more hopeful this time.

When he gets there, EVERYTHING is different. There are cities! There’s plants! There’s people! There’s LIFE! He tries to look for Von Schlemmer in this new future…

But he doesn’t find him. The timeline changed was so drastic this time, the old Schlemmer he knew isn’t there anymore. Instead, he finds New Future! Von Schlemmer who has no knowledge of silver or the previous timeline. Silver is devastated by this, but they knew that this was a possibility. So, he tries to make a new life for himself in this new future, despite his grief.

But then he starts glitching out. As if his atoms are trying to tear themselves apart. This part is kinda vague but, probably with New! Schlemmer’s help, Silver realizes that he erased himself from the timeline.

Silver doesn’t know what to do, so he timetravels back to Sonic’s present, still glitching out. Compared to when he was in the future however, he’s glitching out less.

lucky for him, sonic just happened to be passing by when he gets spat out the time portal or whatever. Sonic carries him to help, so silver can focus on using his psychokinesis to calm down his atoms. not a ship thing, i just want to see friends being Soft

#ideas #rey rambles #thats gonna be the new tag for these #its Sad Silver hours!!!

13 notes · View notes

plasticflowering · 3 years

Text

Ranking Every ONEUS Song Because I Have Opinions

I guess it’s time for me to embark upon this task. Come along for the ride if you’re so inclined.

This is by no means a definitive ranking, because that’s impossible and the consumption of music is an intrinsically personal experience. But I personally like ranking things for arbitrary reasons.

Each song is ranked in order, and within those rankings I’ve assigned Tiers. Enjoy.

Note: this includes only studio tracks officially released by RBW or KissEnt, which means I’m sadly not including the Road to Kingdom songs. Actually, wait, you wanna know what? The real reason I’m not including Road to Kingdom songs is because I’m still salty that my favorite song from that show is one that didn’t get a studio release. Justice for Warrior’s Descendant.

Let’s begin.

I’ll start things off with the top tier, the best of the best, my absolute favorite ONEUS songs. Now what should I name a tier that represents the pinnacle of what ONEUS can offer us?

Black-Haired Seoho Tier

1. “Valkyrie”

This song goes places. It's the one that made me fall in love with ONEUS and it's still my favorite, oops.

2. “Blue Sky”

"Blue Sky” defies genre to me. The first time I heard it, I was blown away. It has some of my favorite vocals AND two of my favorite raps in their discography - I love Leedo and Ravn's "ballad raps" in general but this is my favorite.

3. “BingBing”

So full of personality. Such an earworm. Emotional and kinda unsetlling lyrics. Xion speaking French? OKAY. It's title track worthy, for sure, so it's a shame it gets so overlooked by casual listeners. I’m glad the fanbase has at least given it the legendary status it deserves.

4. “Lost”

Was not expecting this one to enter my top ten with turbo boosters, but I started to listen to it a lot last year and in the process I started to feel things for this song that I previously have only felt for “Blue Sky”

5. “Plastic Flower”

It me.

6. “Rewind"

It’s all about the synth hook, to me. I am pathetically manipulable where good synth hooks are concerned. Also, the cadence and arrangement of this song reminds me of “Lost” and that’s never a bad thing.

7. “Dizzy”

I just feel like this is where they all shine as a vocal ensemble. Their personalities shine through in Dizzy, and I'm a sucker for that emotive sort of performing.

8. “Incomplete"

Right in a row here, you’ve got two sets of “my favorite song on the album” followed by “what I believe to be the best song on the album”. “Incomplete” is the best song on “DEVIL”. The lyrics are amazing and, this may sound weird, but as a Human in Their Thirties the lyrics hit even harder. Bonus points for guitar, as always.

9. “Dead or Alive”

I’ll never get over how strange and wonderful this song is, and yes I do believe it’s the best song on “LIVED”. (Vee shouts through a megaphone again about how “Dead or Alive” incorporates musical themes or lyrical elements from every other song on “LIVED” and hopes someone listens). Also (vee voice) guitars.

10. “Lit”

“Lit” just rules and I don’t believe there’s much I can add that has not already been said about it

Leedo Face Scrunch Tier

Now for those songs that are still my favorites, and make the world an immensely better place for existing, but don’t quite crack the ultimate ONEUS songs pantheon.

11. “No Diggity”

I'm a simple person, okay? I love bright and poppy songs but I'm also weak for unapologetic bangers, and "No Diggity" is an UNAPOLOGETIC BANGER. I think the guitars are (unsurprisingly) what takes this song to the next level for me. The arrangement in general is so impressive, and it’s obvious that they balanced it well to make use of all the members’ individual strengths. RIP my bias though.

12. “Crazy & Crazy”

The "Crazy & Crazy" appreciator has logged on! When Ravn said "hakuna matata 원하면 이뤄져 bibbidi-bobbidi-BOO", I felt that!!! If I ever get to go to a ONEUS concert and god forbid meet any of you there, I cannot be held responsible for how HAM I will go during this song.

13. “Hide and Seek”

I’m weak for this funky little bass-driven bop.

14. “Red Thread”

I don’t ever feel like I truly have gone in hard for a group until I start proselytizing their ballads to my unsuspecting friends. Ballads have a high barrier of entry in K-Pop especially, but my god!! MY GOD!!! This is a god-tier ballad.

15. “808″

They threw every single synth possible at the wall with “808″ and it absolutely sends me with how well it works. It’s undeniably “a Japanese single,” if you know what I mean, but even with that I think it’s one of their strongest title tracks. The chorus is endlessly singable, too, and that means a lot to me while I’m listening to it while doing the dishes, which I do a lot.

16. “Leftover”

I believe that Seoho and Ravn team songwriting will save our souls, and this song is one more reason to do so. I love that their songs aren’t just straight-up R&B (not that I don’t love R&B), and that there’s something very playful and unique about them.

17. “Zig Zag”

I’ll never forget you, “Zig Zag,” or the way Keonhee absolutely owns your vocals. In fact, if I had to assign an image song to every member I would most likely assign “Zig Zag” to Keonhee. 18. “Lion Heart"

As far as “weird little song” vibes go, “Lion Heart” really wins. Has undoubtedly one of the weirdest moments in any ONEUS song in the first post-chorus, and I’ll never shut up about the implied lore associations.

19. “Hero”

In every ToMoon's life, there is that indelible moment when they first heard Seoho's pre-pre-chorus vocals on "Hero" and suddenly realized so much about life and love and the nature of miracles. And, less dramatically, I love a good rap that uses the word biscuit.

Road to Kingdom Era Xion Tier

I became a Xion bias in Road to Kingdom era, so this is not meant disparagingly. These are those songs that show so much promise and goodness, and make me love them, but are kind of an acquired taste so to speak.

20, “BBUSYEO”

I always love BBUSYEO when it shuffles up, but I never like... seek it out, you know? Even if it is a bop. It’s just a silly little hetero love song that includes toilet humor, and it goes. I love that for it!

21. “Come Back Home”

It's all about the build up here. This song has such a beautiful arrangement that builds to something, dare I say, epic. Good background music for taking a dramatic walk when it’s like, -this- close to raining.

22. “To Be Or Not To Be”

This song works in the context of ONEUS mythology and lore but I tend not to really put it on my playlists if I'm simply wanting to experience an emotion or bust out some fun jams. It is a very strange time signature for a jam, but it’s too up-tempo to really be a mood setter.

23. “Intro: Time"

This intro is like... beautiful, but also kind of slutty, and I love that?

24. “A Song Written Easily”

It's good! It's fun! I really like it, I think it's lovely. But it’s not a song I’m going to rec to a friend and assume it will give them an adequate view of what ONEUS is. If anything I’d expect they’d just be like “that was really fun, but it just makes me want to listen to Blood Sweat & Tears.” “and I’d go “yeah me too.”

25. “Twilight”

I overplayed the fuck out of this song when I was first getting into ONEUS, so forgive me for ranking it low. Also, there is a high barrier of entry here for casual listeners even if it is a classic. Do you ever really think about how weird “Twilight” is? Like, the song structure? It’s very weird. I love it.

26. “Stand By”

I decided to make "Stand By" my charity case after seeing a few people dismiss it as their least favorite off Fly With Us, and I wound up loving it so much. That bridge is crazy good! Vocal line blessing us.

27. “Intro: Fly Me to the Moon”

As far as intros go, this is god tier honestly. But it's still only an intro, and I always feel cheated out of a beautiful full song when I hear this. Like, even for an INTRO it feels short.

My Complicated Feelings About A Thousand Stars Tier

28. “A Thousand Stars”

I just made an entirely separate post about this.

That Overenthusiastic Thicc Ssam Ravn Made for Seoho That One Time Tier

Like, there’s a lot here. I like all the parts individually but something about them just doesn’t go down easily.

29. “Youth”

I’ll be honest, I love “Youth” and I think it’s an absolutely beautiful song with a great hook. I’m just firmly out of the demographic for it at this point and that’s a bit alienating. It’s also weak compared to other songs on “DEVIL”

30. “Intro: Devil is in the Details”

It’s a great intro that does some ambitious things, but on its own it doesn’t hold up as well. Intimidating.

31. “Intro: Lived”

I love Leedo and Ravn, but I don't like how this one opens. That said, I love the way this ends.

32. “White Night”

The fact that I had to rank this so low, when it's such a gorgeous ballad, drives home how many pure bangers ONEUS has. I love this song, but I don't really jam out to it, so it's lower in my ranking.

33. “What you doing?”

Please don’t judge me too harshly for this. I just feel like this song could have been performed by another group and there would have been no appreciable difference. I like Cosmik’s songs, but they’re not, in my opinion. the most ONEUS of the ONEUS songs. Which is weird since Cosmik is a bit synonymous with ONEUS. Anyway Keonhee sounds great in this song.

34. “Now”

Same as above, but this one has the added problem of never really going anywhere. That said, the bridge slaps.

35. “Airplane”

I guess one of the proper tracks on Lived had to rank low, and for me it's definitely Airplane. When I listen to it, I have fun, but it's very... how do I put this nicely? Generic. The stages elevated it, absolutely, and otherwise it might rank even lower sadly.

36. “I.P.U.”

I don’t know how to put this nicely, but the only way I want to listen to this song is if ONEUS is singing it in concert, at which point I can imagine it being very emotional. It’s a special song for special occasions and I’m not going to listen to it to have fun.

37. “Outro: Connect with US”

You’d think I’d love the government-assigned SeoJo song, wouldn’t you? I mean, it’s okay.

38. “Eye Contact”

By the time this song hits the chorus, it always gets me and I love it. But the verses leave something to be desired imo. It is firmly a mid-tier song to me, and I feel like this particular musical formula was much better in “Now.” Also please don’t make eye contact with me I have social anxiety.

ZigZag’s Cursed Live Audio Tier

Unfortunate.

39. “Level Up”

WHY is this song so low??? Every time I hear it start I get so hyped up, but I feel like it never delivers on that hype fully. It feels too mid-tempo and generic for what the mix promises. I don't know. I can't explain it. The bridge doesn't lead up to much and that always feels like a betrayal. And because it has so much potential I’m even more disappointed about that.

40. “Intro: Light Us”

I have absolutely no opinion about this intro

41. “English Girl”

I’m way too queer and old for this song. :/

42. “In My Arms”

I don't feel their personalities at all in this song, which makes it stand out from almost all their other tracks. It just doesn't sound like a ONEUS song, to me.

43. “Kiseki”

A rare song that I skip when shuffling through the ONEUS discography

44. “Koisii”

The other rare song I skip when shuffling through the ONEUS discography, but also I would fight it if given the opportunity.

#v.opinions #this took... a couple of weeks #enjoy i guess #v.text

4 notes · View notes

steve0discusses · 4 years

Text

Yugioh Season Zero: Seto Kaiba's First Kidnapping

It’s Christmas vacation, I have Mannheim Steamroller on repeat, so much chocolate just an arms reach away from me. And I have purposely given myself nothing to do as an attempt to teach myself to do nothing.

So lets watch something weird and revisit Zero.

For those new here, I have been also reviewing most of Season Zero. If you don’t know what that is, you can my recaps in order by clicking this link here.

And like last time, I am not actually affiliated with Team Millennium, and I hope they don’t mind that I am capping their episode. You can find them on Youtube where they are slowly redubbing this season into English, and um--this next episode is the last episode they have! So I don’t know how I’m going to recap the rest?

Probably the same way I did in the first episode where it’s a lot less dialogue and more just...my reaction to it.

And, as always, my disclaimer for the new people that this was made in the 90′s and based off of the OG manga and it is...not the same show. It’s problematic. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s a counter-culture anime from the 90′s. Though this episode is pretty tame, honestly. Weird, but tame.

So, we start off the episode with a very lovingly drawn sky, not sure why it’s on THIS show but it’s here. This post apocalyptic sunset.

And staring directly into this sun going supernova is Seto Kaiba in his green hair, just brooding...

Not sure how he has this view from his Pemberly style mansion, but I dunno, maybe the city is visible from the backyard, or Seto just has really good vision. Either way don’t worry about it, we see Seto vibe out and visualize weird stuff all the time.

So, spurned by his hate for his classmate that beat him in cards once, Seto decides it’s time to enact his revenge by...what sounds a lot like some weird Lord of the Rings Lore and I dunno if it’s a bad translation or I just don’t really know what the hell he’s going off about because I never read the Yugioh version of the Silmarillion. Probably both.

See, while the first couple episodes of this show have different variations on Youtube, this one really only had the Team Millennium version in English (which is fine, there’s just some confusing things) and then the other version I saw skipped half of the episode because I guess they decided this part was boring or something. So forgive the fact that I’m flying on the seat of my pants here and I assume y’all will know all the deets I don’t know. For once, my contribution will be...kind of a lot less words.

So lets get right to it.

(read more under the cut)

Seto, who is in so much denial from Seasons 1-4, that I’ve headcanoned is actually cursed to never admit magic is real, has decided to call upon the (checks notes)

4 Game Masters

Yeah, that’s a new mechanic, these are a thing now. Don’t worry if you never heard of them before, I’ve been capping this show and I also have never heard of the legendary 4 magical Game Masters either.

So at this point these statues start glowing all creepy, and because it’s Yugioh I just kinda assumed...they’d do something.

I’m starting to think that maybe that was supposed to be symbolic, actually. Maybe there was never actually magic in the statues. Maybe it’s part of Seto hallucinating, as always. This whole show kind of runs on being a sort of metal fever dream whenever people get intense about games, so I’m probably not supposed to align it with any established magic laws anyway. It’s just I never know when things are real or just aesthetics, which I enjoy, quite a bit, that it’s open ended--but still it’s somewhat confusing as to if these gargoyles are...a thing now or were just always set dressing to kind of remind us of the cards that come later in the episode.

But, remember the spooky indoor gargoyles in your mind, keep it there, these menacing gargoyles over a fiery sunset...

OK now lets meet the real villain.

There he is. Our villain. And his name? Ripley Sheldon.

MAN to go from spooky gargoyles to Ripley Sheldon. There’s a name. That’s a name all right. I’ve only seen one episode of Big Bang Theory but Sheldon is a name forever ruined for me.

So--sidestory--this one time, my friend was at a wedding in Santa Cruz, which is a pretty beachy hippie town that always smelled like weed before it was legal, and there was just...a doll at the wedding. My friend was seated at a dinner party table just right next to this doll, and the family was like “Ah yes, this is the doll, you have to speak to her. She’s a member of the family.” and my friend had to suffer roleplaying with this doll for hours.

So before you’re like...there’s no way grown ass adults are this weird with dolls in public.

Yes. It happens.

Ah, and it’s the first instances of the Kaiba Corp logo and it’s the same. Complete with helicopter, because that Logo is never done until it’s surrounded by a fast military vehicle of some sort.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh great.

Yo remember that one episode where Yugi almost got his legs chopped off by Arcana and Arcana’s wife was being held behind a curtain, and at the end of the episode Arcana pulls back the curtain and his wife was a manikin the whole time and her head fell off?

Getting those vibes.

Back at school, Miho is busy being the most manipulative human being, this time with losing at cards. Like y’all I am TRYING to give Miho the benefit of a doubt here, but it seems even the translators hated Miho so much they had her refer to herself in the 3rd person. I am trying, really I am, sorry to everyone who loves Miho, I will leave that door open as I watch these--that maybe Miho will...grow on me.

But not this episode.

And then this happened. I guess from the breeze of Honda leaning over too far.

Believe it or not, Yuugi’s vertigo will come back later in this very episode. This whole bizarre scenario was just foreshadowing.

But for reals, Yuugi is so FRAIL in Season Zero. While I appreciate the contrast between Yuugi and Yami Yuugi, I gotta recognize how much Yugi has evolved over 4+ seasons because Yuugi is just...eggshells. Every part of him is polite little eggshells.

But in contrast, you have Anzu who is ready to fight in every single scene she’s in and I’m OK with that.

That and the very clear romantic direction that is just...simple. It’s very simple in Season Zero. That’s nice.

Anzu isn’t even possessed by two ghosts. In fact, between Anzu and Yuugi right now, there are 0 ghosts. So weird. So kosher.

Speaking of weird,

Y’all, I have no explanation for this. I only know so much Kanji.

The translation I watched tried so very hard to do what they could with this, and kudos to them, but...this is what happens with translation, it’s just a very hard job sometimes. So I get how they decided to form this joke into English, but if anyone is like a Japanese speaker and gets the pun that was clearly happening here, feel free to youknow, share the knowledge.

Unfortunately the undubbed episode that exists on Youtube that I found edited out this part so they didn’t have to try and translate it, lol. Either way, I appreciate Orange Jounouchi a lot, as well as the background squids on Squid Jounouchi.

Can you imagine just being in high school, and you get summoned to the Nurses Office? Can you even imagine what rumors would start from that? Like I know Seto wants revenge against Yuugi through cards, but I think he just did. I think he did like maybe one of the worst things you can do to a High Schooler just now. May as well page over the intercom that Yuugi has to pick up his yeast infection ointment.

And this is where we meet...a ridiculous satire. This 30 year old beautiful woman flirting with a child disaster who cannot balance while seated on a low chair.

And predictably, Yuugi lost because things just got THAT weird and awkward. Dunno if the translators put that in there for fun, or if that’s honestly how it was in the original. My bet it was probably exactly that weird in the original. Mostly because this show has a lot of “stranger danger” set ups to teach little children to never trust bad adults and this just seemed like exactly that type of set-up. Don’t trust the overly nice nurse or she’ll steal your cards in a game, kids.

After this really awkward card game (and I’m not going to bother to dive into it because I don’t talk about the card mechanics here), we find out...that Seto’s just been staring at them...the entire time.

Like it has such a voyeuristic vibe to it, it really makes you wonder about Seto’s whole deal just an awful lot. Like Season 1-4 doesn’t really ship Yugi/Kaiba, in my opinion (and just my opinion, I know how y’all feel about the ship and that is a-ok, all ships are welcome here)...but Season Zero ships A LOT. It’s not a serious ship by any means, it’s clearly a crack ship, but they...very clearly know what they’re doing with Seto being this obsessed with Yuugi in this way, omg. It just sounds like a kink to me.

So, ways to beat Yuugi Muto:

steal his stuff halfway through the game, try to kill yourself, rock paper scissors, try to kill Joey Wheeler, or dress up a sex doll like a nurse and have a gross old man have it play cards while he makes a sexy lady voiceover.

(Y’all I’ve been to my share of arcades in my life and I think I’ve only seen like 6 pinball tables total. Do good arcades only exist on TV? I think it’s all a lie.)

Then, because I guess this episode wasn’t going anywhere, Yuugi goes to the arcade to play some video games. The video game is unimportant, and it’s never been brought up before, but he’s dead set on finding it. Because unlike Yugi, Yuugi just doesn’t really have a goal in this series so he just kind of flutters around until someone tells him what to do.

TBH that’s a pretty 90′s thing for a show or a movie to do. To have characters just exist and have things happen to them, but in all, they’re just...wandering. So it’s not so much a knock on the show, it’s just that sometimes it’s a little of a transition to go from a goal being something physical, like finding the lost city of Atlantis before every human’s soul is absorbed into the great Leviathan, to the goal being more of a mental acceptance--Yuugi just learning to accept this curse he doesn’t even know he has yet, and trying to find acceptance in his group of friends.

With Yuugi, we’re kind of just watching his daily life, which is mostly watching him try and sneak games into every spare moment that his local adult has turned around. It has a very slice of life feel to it, but minus the near constant innuendo slice of life tends to have (at least the ones that have been recommended to me)

Now, because this is a show about people getting a real EXTREME comeuppance every time they break the law, what will happen to Yuugi for ignoring his Grandpa’s wishes and going to the arcade before going home?

First, we meet this mushroom haired person.

That’s right kids, NEVER stop by the arcade on the way home from school--1.) The local arcades are almost always 90% boring racing games and busted shooters that came out on the Nintendo 64 when I was a child and 2.) You will get abducted.

And then we get this face swap.

Kaiba just really loves dress-up. No wonder he was hanging out with a guy super into dolls. And like, I went into before how Seto Kaiba is always doused in facsimile energy. He loves faking it up, and apparently that’s been true since Zero.

He introduces that he will have four challenges from four Game Masters and uh so welcome to the...I don’t where this is, but a weird place full of dolls that must exist somewhere in Domino.

I guess this is to make it seem like they have an audience to watch Yuugi fail but even still...what?

So we get kind of a mirror to the scene at the beginning with Miho crying and Honda telling Yuugi to apologize for beating her, except replace Miho with Seto and Honda with this guy who really likes dolls (and Miho is a lot like a cursed doll). Like, if there were a theme to this episode it’s “grow up and stop apologizing when you beat someone in a card game” which isn’t a terrible theme, especially in this show that is about Yuugi learning how to adult.

In fact the “grow the hell up” theme is so strong we have a villain who is just...a big baby who carries dolls around. Kinda makes you wonder if the show would have eventually had Yuugi just...grow out of toys and games completely for the finale. Like in the Yugioh we have now, he can’t, because first off they licensed a hell ton of toys, but also because Yugi does games for his actual job. Even if Pharaoh was gone, Yugi still has to play games all the time. In this case, he could just...be using the games to learn how to do adult things, which is actually why we give kids games in the first place.

But, speculation aside, it’s at this point that a card play knocks Yuugi off of his chair and he passes out. Despite the fact that this isn’t a Shadow game and there...shouldn’t be any magic present. In fact, I don’t think any part of this game in this episode required opening the door of darkness. When he switches to Yami shortly after falling off of his own chair he’s like...yeah this is fine. Seems all above board. No need to kill anybody

And then apparently there’s a type of Dual Monster’s card I was unaware of.

A doll-type.

So I looked it up, is there a doll type card in Yugioh?

And it seems like there’s a lot of dolls, but not like...a type, as far as I can tell. Again, I don’t play this game, I’m only here for the plot and this one just seemed like they really had to reach for Yuugi to have just the right type of card to play.

And again, because this wasn’t a Shadow Duel, our loser just kind of walks away...all the way back to Britain, I guess.

And Seto just stands there behind a window in a rainstorm to allude to his many unshed salty tears, and it cuts to Miho who I guess has learned not to cry when she loses to Yuugi now.

And then she pulls out an absolutely winning tactic. This would win, actually. It’s actually genius.

And that is a very strong

From me. Wow. No thanks. I actually don’t want to see Yuugi do a kissy face ever again, thank you.

Half of you loved that though. This is fine. We’re all different.

Anyway, I assume the game was never played, or Miho won and the show just decided not to show it. If Season Zero Yuugi is a Yuugi that makes out then...that is...shocking. Then again, we’re only like...a third of the way through? I think?

Anyway, it’s...after Christmas because I went out of town for a spell, but I’ll just...post this now. Last post before the new year.

I’ll see y’all in 2020!

#ygo #yugioh #season zero #yuugi muto #anzu #jounoushi #seto kaiba #honda #dolls?#Like lots of creepy dolls?#ripley sheldon #miho #photo recaps #episode recap

31 notes · View notes

crystalelemental · 4 years

Text

Voting is complete. Now to wait a week for results that will be utterly predictable, in which no major shifts in popularity occur at all, and not a single one of the new characters, who all seem really cool, will break top 20 because god forbid the fandom collectively stops sucking EoSD’s dick for one year.

Anyway, my picks for everything’s under the cut.

Characters:

Okina. I really love Okina. I don’t get how she’s so (relatively) unpopular. Like I really don’t. She’s so much fun! Like, every time she’s in the spotlight, you’re constantly caught between what she’s telling you and what you think her hidden motivations are. And oftentimes, I think both are true. I also just like how she operates. She’s drawn to ambition and willpower. It’s why she likes Marisa so much and is determined to get Marisa to work for her, and why she’s so insistent that Aya take pride in beating her, even when she was holding back. It’s why she helps Sumireko in Violet Detector despite having nothing to gain from it. She love ambitious, strong-willed people, and seems to motivate those qualities in others. She wants to see people overcome hardship on their own merits, which, after the reveal in Visionary Fairies that she is disabled and sometimes needs a wheelchair to get around, adds a great new layer of context to this aspect of her character. Okina is a fantastic character, and my only wish for future works is to see her play a bigger role.

Keiki. Surprisingly, I adore Keiki too, despite not having played WBaWC. Keiki just...hits right, you know? You have this world where everything’s fucked, and humans are used more as resources than as people by the powerful beast youkai in charge. Keiki’s spawned into existence by their desperation, but all she can think to do is fulfill her role and turn everything static. I honestly enjoy how she’s super well-intentioned, but her actions are questionable over whether they’re effective or the right thing to do. Plus she was adorable in the Komachi manga.

Kanako. Look, we all know I’m a Mountain of Faith person at heart, and especially love the Moriya Shrine, so I’m not gonna waste too much time here. Kanako’s awesome, she’s the lowest ranked of the three, this had to happen.

Mamizou. How a character who’s so routinely important to the stories and plays her role this well is so low ranked is beyond me. Mamizou is such an interesting character. She’s like this sweet old grandmotherly figure up until she reveals her master plan and desire for power. She’s like an active version of Yukari and Okina, out in the open and pulling off her grand schemes, and it’s a ton of fun to watch.

Doremy. My blood pact to vote for her aside, Doremy does sustain as one of my favorites. She’s just...I don’t know how else to describe it but “unique.” She’s different from a lot of the cast, in that she’s overall just really nice. Like she genuinely seems to care about people, and her dream people especially. She’s got her job to do and will carry it out, but mostly stays out of the way otherwise. She’s a bit mischievous, but this is Touhou.

Junko. I like Junko. Vengeance mom who won over a part of Hell by swearing to bring chaos to the Lunarians. I don’t have a ton to say, because unfortunately she doesn’t get much play. I wish she did. Maybe in the next Fairy-focused manga. Everyone goes for a sleepover at Clownpiece’s mom’s place, and has to travel into hell and Junko’s just around. That’s all I really need.

Sumireko. While Sumireko’s fallen a bit as a favorite, and is almost certainly going to continue falling, I do like the kid. She’s a bit of an obnoxious dingus at times, but I find her antics funny. The way she sometimes just goes off on a ranting tangent that’s spot-on is just...it’s very in line for a super smart teen who’s just disillusioned with everything. I dunno, I just enjoy her a lot.

Music:

Concealed Four Seasons. Turns out, Okina’s not just a great character, but has a kickass theme song. I love this battle theme, I think it’s my favorite. It’s got such a good energy to it.

Desire Drive. Best stage theme in the series. It’s so catchy.

Lullaby of Deserted Hell. I love this one entirely because it’s this soft, gentle music that plays as you’re traveling through hell. And I mean that in the literal sense of it was once physically hell, and also this stage is a fucking disaster and I love it. It’s like why the sixth stratum theme from Etrian Odyssey 2 is good. Nightmare land with the most calming theme imaginable.

Heartfelt Fancy. Listen, SA did good music. I actually like the stage theme more than Satori’s boss theme.

Lost Emotion. Kokoro’s theme is great, and one of exactly two themes I remember from the fighting games (the other is the Yorigami sisters’). Fight game music tends to not be very good, in my opinion, but Lost Emotion hits all the right notes with me.

Shining Needle Castle. Fun fact! I don’t like DDC. At all. I think the cast is pretty boring, especially in the second half. I don’t like the collection system. The only cool thing visually, for me, was fighting music-themed enemies in a thunderstorm, which is cool as shit. But goddamn this song is good. It’s one of the few highlights of the game for me.

Dream Palace of the Great Mausoleum. I really like just how grand it sounds. Like it sounds awe-inspiring, and fits the area you’re in well. I like the track on its own, but I really like when a track syncs up with the atmosphere of a place.

Fires of Hokkai. Speaking of, good god this song. This is probably the single best establishment of atmosphere in the series. After everything else in the game, and all the craziness of the last stage, you hit the final destination and it starts out with a quiet heartbeat sound. Then it just builds and builds into this powerful, driving theme that loops perfectly back to near silence as you encounter Byakuren herself. Stage 6 is so fucking good, shame I suck at this game too much to ever get there.

Beast Metropolis. This is purely off sound, since I haven’t played the game. But you may notice that, thematically, it fits in with a lot of my favorite tracks. Softer vibe, stage theme setting the mood of an area that you’d expect to be crazy but turns out to be eerily...not that.

Faith is for the Transient People. This was a toss-up, with a lot of options I was considering, but Sanae’s theme won out. I do like it a lot, and I didn’t vote for Sanae in characters despite her being one of my long-standing favorites, so she got this one.

Works:

Hidden Star in Four Seasons. Okay listen. I get that this game is not popular among fans. I do not get why. Are you seriously going to look me in the eye and tell me this game wasn’t a relief to play? After the last four games had bullshit collection systems for resources, having a game that just played lives based off score again isn’t a good thing? Yes, it was easier. Good. Did you miss how bullshit LoLK was? Sometimes you gotta backpedal, right into the range of things I can actually play. I know some people don’t like the cast at all, some nonsense about “Why are they so familiar with characters if I’ve never seen them” or something. But the cast is spectacular. Eternity Larva’s a fun new fairy to add to the group, and her short-lived stint in VFiS was great, proving that she’s the only fairy who has her own reserve of braincells. Aunn is precious and wonderful. Okina. OKINA. This was easily my favorite cast since Subterranean Animism, and that was a strong cast. I just do not get the dislike of this game at all.

Mountain of Faith. Hey, look at that, I like the games that are simple and fun for me to play. What a surprise. MoF was the first game I beat, because Suwako was the first character I encountered and I had to one day git gud enough to beat her. So I did. After like three weeks. That was an adventure. Anyway, I think MoF holds as one of the best in the series. Aside from simple gameplay that’s actually fun instead of painful, it had a great cast of characters, and honestly the best environments. Like, this game just looks good. Maybe that’s personal bias because autumn theme and autumn is the best season, but I loved the backgrounds in this game.

Forbidden Scrollery. Hey, it’s the thing that got me into the written works! Yeah, I really like Forbidden Scrollery. It’s a fun exploration of things from within the human village, from the perspective of a human who lives there. Plus we got some of the more interesting lore bits for the series from this work, which is valuable. And of course...human disguise Mamizou. 10/10.

Visionary Fairies in Shrine. While there are many fairy-focused manga, this one’s my personal favorite. Because it’s got Clownpiece. No really, that’s it. I like the general fairy shenanigans that the trio gets in to, but I really enjoyed how this one almost focused on Clownpiece’s integration into Gensokyo. I think it’s a lot more compelling to have that sort of arc for the character, and it really endeared Clownpiece to me as a whole. My only complaint with it is that Eternity Larva didn’t stick around too. I know she had less to contribute and that Clownpiece is the central focus of this one, but it would’ve been nice to have Larva stick around and get a bit of development herself. Maybe next manga, eh?

Subterranean Animism. I debated this and Cage in Lunatic Runagate. I actually regret my choice. Subterranean Animism won out based on my enjoyment of the music and characters in the game, and (if you can believe it) my enjoyment of the gameplay. Yeah, it turns out when the game rewards just surviving, even if resources are more scarce, I do like 10x better than when resources are only obtained through flying headlong into a storm of bullshit like the next four games demanded. FUCKING IMAGINE THAT. Anyway, CiLR was a serious contender that, again, I kinda regret not picking. Bougetsushou in general was a strong compilation, but CiLR is the one that made it really stand out. SSiB was a fun silly story, and Inaba was hilarious, but CiLR was by far the most serious and poignant of the works. It focused really strongly on the characters, something Touhou...hadn’t really done at the time, and still doesn’t always do, and expanded them beautifully. We get a lot more insight into Kaguya and what her life is like, we get the backstory for the new Reisen, we get background on the Watatsuki sisters, we get the Mokou chapter, arguably the best character development in the entire series. So it really comes down to a game that I like because I can play it, or a written work that also did a lot for the characters in it. Both excellent but I locked myself into one or the other.

#touhou #touhou popularity poll #touhou popularity poll 2020 #long story short vote Okina

2 notes · View notes

steve0discusses · 4 years

Text

Yugioh S4 Ep6: Gozaburo Kaiba Just Casually Started WWIII And Only This One Guy Cares

Welcome to November, where we celebrate writing a 50,000 word book as if I don’t do that every single time I write about an episode of Yugioh. Hello, this is my season. It’s wordy season. I’m so freakin good at doing this. I can’t say most of what I’ve made is any good, but I CAN say at least I’m prolific. Do enough content to fill that bitter pit and walk right over it, that’s been my motto for the past 5 years.

Anyway, I had an awful flu this past week. (Everyone I live with had it so every bathroom was like ground zero) It was SO bad. I still can’t eat spicy food over a week later (Which is so hard for me because usually I can keep up with my Indian friends, that’s my spicy level--max spicy, please--but since this illness, my white taste genes went into overdrive and I tried putting pepperoncini slices in my sandwich and it set my mouth on fire. Pepperoncini. It’s v embarrassing.)

I did attempt to write this post. Unfortunately I never made it past this cap because I got VERY distracted by the emblem on Alister’s face, and how it isn’t proportionally adjusted to match the angle of his face, and it was like three paragraphs of just wanting to talk about it. And then at some point I got very distracted talking about how many empty glasses I was given at my place setting at this baby shower I went to during the flu epidemic, and it mattered a whole lot to me at the time, but I think, overall, was mostly just some sort of nonsense. The things I’ve spared you.

(bro has just informed me that the 4 gold-lipped crystal goblets I was given at this baby shower was actually very distressing and a very big deal and that I should absolutely talk to at least someone about it, but maybe he’s just saying that to make me feel better, but I have no idea. I am too sick for sarcasm at this time but my god why was I given so many glasses????)

I straight up have no memory of if I’ve made this joke before. Maybe.

(read more under the cut)

Since it feels like 8 years since the last time I could just eat chicken without feeling like I consumed an entire Thanksgiving meal, a little recap:

-Alister pretended he was Pegasus to lure Kaiba and then, off screen, murdered everyone in Pegasus’ castle

-Pegasus got murdered by I’m pretty sure Mai (which is like...OK then...)

-Yugi and Co went on vacation by driving directly through San Francisco and peeking out the window and saying “yeah that’s enough for me”

-No adults, not even Roland, bothered to come with their kids this time, so the only adult of the entire crew--Pegasus--is dead

-Rex and Weevil are luggage

-The Eye of Sauron showed up and it was the end of the world but Yugi threw a dragon at it so I guess everything is OK now

-Monsters are real but they are hard to animate so we’ll just pretend like they’re causing havoc everywhere although most of the planet seems basically unaffected by this.

-The Grim Reaper is a friendly monster that hangs out in a Japanese park and that feels fairly on brand.

And I think that was all that was happening so far.

In a weird twist of fate, Mokuba is the only one in this room that isn’t trapped which sort of...if you’re the only one NOT kidnapped wouldn’t that also be a type of being kidnapped?

And we finally get to figure out why Alister wants to Murder Kaiba so bad and, spoiler, it reaches.

???

I’m gonna get more to the obvious problems with Alister’s devotion to murdering all the Kaibas in a bit but yes, Alister is in fact going to try and Kill Kaiba on this kid’s show because of Kaiba’s Dad, who is such a horrible and abusive person that Kaiba essentially drove the bastard out of Japan and straight to the bottom of the ocean.

Just kinda feels like Alister has been living under a rock...which, I guess he has been. He has been living in some weird Atlantis structure so I guess he never got the memo that Gozaburo Kaiba is hella dead.

So that’s what they’re up to. How’s Sausalito?

Um.

Huh.

So the North Bay is a really classic scenery. It’s rolling hills. It’s NAPA. It’s like...definitely not Arizona. California has a couple of mesas but they’re no where near here and the Monument Valley style Mesas really only exist in Monument Valley.

And I know it’s because the background artist for Yugioh is all horny for horny rock structures but like...this couldn’t be farther from the Bay Area in the way that it is drawn and it is such a shock after all the work they did last episode to research that Bay Area lore. Once they crossed the Golden Gate they were like “well no one will care about this part” which is true not only of Yugioh but also of real life Californian politics.

Anyway, I have been making a map, but unfortunately my original file will not suffice. time to fix it.

There we go. Now they’re in the right place. Just smack dab in Monument Valley, Arizona, smack dab in the middle of the Navajo Nation and so hypothetically, not even in the United States anymore.

While in the car, Yugi has just been anxious as hell the entire time, and just going “y’all I have a bad feeling I’m uncomfortable I have a bad feeling” while Joey and Tea just patiently stared at him flipping out in the corner. So...kinda like a normal trip with someone who has high anxiety/possessed by a ghost. I kinda feel like this is every girls trip to Disneyland for me. There’s always one Yugi who’s like “no one said anything about CROWDS.” and you kinda just gotta let them do their thing. Just let them get it out of their system and hide in the bathroom when they need to hide in the bathroom and don’t fight it, they’ll be fine. Just hold their spot in line when they desperately look for a secret place to medicinally vape because there’s too many freakin children at Disneyland.

And it is HILARIOUS that Yugi is able to have this type of premonition but cannot figure out that they have somehow missed San Fransisco and have wandered into a DESERT.

Back in Pegasus’ California (an island that legitimately looks more like California than actual Yugioh California) Alister has decided to go completely off the rails and it happens so fast and without any warning.

the line is actually “This doll used to be my brother’s” which is a very different meaning but both are likely from weird ass Alister and this weird ass show, so I’ll leave the cap like this (although yes, this is what I thought Alister was saying for kind of a while until I recorded it for this blog and was like “oh shoot I heard the line wrong when I had the flu huh.”)

Man, RIP Noah, he would have been excellent this episode.

Honestly seems like just yesterday when Seto and Noah were pitted against eachother by a cyberdemon Dad-head floating in the sky, Mokuba was possessed for some reason and being used as a human shield, Tristan was a robot monkey, and Yugi was just shrugging at Kaiba from across the field like “Kaiba if you don’t play good you die--oh my gods, he died. Well that was bound to happen...again.” Man.

Alister should be their best friend, this is nonsense.

So lets do the math to 7 years before 2002.

I searched Wikipedia for wars during 1995 (they do have a list of 90′s wars) and looked for any that involved heavy use of tanks and their artillery fire (on big swatches of cities like this), inner city western architecture, temperate landscapes, and western clothing that match Alister and Mikey (AKA WWII vibes) and found out:

Nothing fits that description

UNLESS Alister and Mikey are time travelers from a WWII bombing in Europe. This is Yugioh. That could happen. Probably not, but youknow...it’s not too late for Yugioh to bring in time travel.

I mean if you don’t want to get super political in your cartoon just invent a world war I guess? We’ve already clarified that Gozaburo was Big Boss, so at this point I can easily see him inventing wars just to sell ships.

(I could probably add thousands of more deaths at this point but I have no idea where they are, if they’re on a tiny island or an entire country so I’ll just...leave the count alone but just now it’s implied that a hell ton of people died during this episode)

People going off about how Sesame Street is so amazing for talking about issues like you’re Dad going to prison while Yugioh was straight up talking about the intricacy of the War Economy. Yugioh being all “don’t forget kids, your good capitalist economy survives off of the undeserved bloodshed of civilians in other countries! Eat the poor!” and it’s like hot damn this heavy commentary came out of freakin no where.

Anyways, this is stuff most kid’s shows will delicately skip over but nah, Yugioh is going to go here, and they are going to steamroll directly through it with massive tanks.

So, lets kill this kid’s entire family and talk about the terrors of the World War of 1995 and all the war orphans who get recruited to become soldiers at the ripe old age of 9. Alister was 9 when he was recruited to be a child card soldier.

This kid’s show.

Alister is...basically Raiden, right? Like as long as we’re talking about Metal Gear, this kid is just one step away from cyborg implants and weird colored blood?

Better wear bright red when you visit the war crime scene, surprised Gozaburo didn’t invite like an entire photo -op crew to incriminate him even further.

Now we did look up “where the hell is Alister from Yugioh from?” (there is no answer) and we did find out a little factoid. In the Japanese version of the show, Gozaburo had bought the land and was just forcibly evicting Alister and his family from their home with tanks.

Which is wild.

He just straight up evicted an entire metropolitan city????

Like the dub did a way better job than the sub at this one, I’ll give them that.

It’s just so weird that Gozoboro just didn’t like...raise the rent like a normal bad landlord. Instead he was like “rather than gentrify my land and save me a ton of money, I’ll just destroy everything I just bought and murder everyone here” which is like...

...Seto did the world so many favors when he kicked out his Dad, right? Like Damn. I don't understand why Alister isn’t freakin worshiping Seto right now when his whole deal is “I must kill Gozaburo” and Seto’s like “yo I already did that. Twice. I didn’t even have to literally kill him either, I just embarrassed him so bad that he killed himself. His stupid tank company sells joke games now. I literally turned the man into a joke.”

Then again, Alister is on the green magic and like I think it alters your brain chemistry somewhat.

(How ripped did Alister get in this episode, by the way? The kid is like 16 years old or something so how did this happen? ...The perpetual horny line running straight through Yugioh, man. Look at it run. That 16 year old is drawn like he’s 28 and really into Crossfit and his crop top gets smaller and smaller like every scene.)

So like this is a very gray issue that I cannot believe they brought up in a kid’s show (like can you imagine if Scrooge McDuck had to face facts that his company murdered tons of people???), but also this is Seto Kaiba. Seto grew up in the system, so like he doesn’t need to be lectured to about dirty money because he was on the losing end of that not too long ago. Seto is himself basically a upscale war orphan since he was adopted by Gozaburo to continue the machine like a freakin maniac (a Solidus Snake, if you will) so of all the people on this show I don’t get why Seto would care about this. This is just how Seto views the entire world as either losing or winning and no reason to feel bad about it because he’s been both.

Also...Seto stopped the machine. Kind of. He was unaware that cards were the same thing as weapons, but at least he stopped the sale of huge child-stealing tanks.

So they play the game for a little while and Seto does kind of poorly as usual, and just when I thought this episode couldn’t get any weirder...

And just like that, Seto peaces out. Like he does almost every single time he has ever played a card game solo except for that one time he was playing Joey Wheeler. (Which was also one of the few times Seto ever won.)

Like I just want to remind you that this segment is in the same episode as WWIII and the tonal whiplash is pretty remarkable.

That’s right, we’re back in the Unnamed Monster World, which is not the Shadow Realm, and which I thought you could only access if you were dreaming and able to search through the puzzle maze.

Apparently this can just happen at any time and all that stuff with the guiding Kuriboh and Yugi and Pharaoh trying to find this place was just...them wasting time.

Again he ditches the legendary sword so freakin fast because who needs a sword when you have a dragon? Only this anime.

And that’s how Seto, who was absolutely going to lose this game, somehow just barely came to a draw.

So just to recap, Seto has yet to win a card game that he didn’t get prophetic help for via a hallucination or Yugi telling him what to do. Unless you count Joey and grandpa.

Then, the one last adult I forgot about, the driver of Yugi’s car, decides that it’s about time that he also died and left this show as adult free as possible.

THE HELL ARE THEY?

Also...maybe it’s the angle but the writing on that gas station looks a lot like kanji.

Yo, what if this is the backgrounds for a different show and they’re just sharing? I mean I doubt it because Yugioh had a good enough budget but...what if? What if that’s why they’re in Arizona?

Anyway, next time we’ll find out if this guy just drops dead or has been a Yugioh monster this whole time, and I think maybe both?

And if you just got here, this is a link to read all my Yugioh recaps in chrono order

#yugioh #ygo #photo recap #episode recap #yugi muto #seto kaiba #mokuba #alister #joey wheeler #tea gardner #tristan taylor #Arizona

25 notes · View notes