StarryVictory

He’s warning you

Dude ngl I'm catching up on Plan3 s videos starting with the Infinite Hallway and tbh, i love how good everything feels compared to Dan Plan.

Now that I'm looking back, Dan always had a bit "mean" aura/streak on him during the Can You Survive? videos. Like as if he wanted to create content for the audience, especially after how good the Sociopath video did, and prioritised the viewers' enjoyment over his employees enjoyment, especially Stephen's. Hart, at the other hand, is just a fun DM who knows what he is doing and keeps it light-hearted for everyone involved.

Back in DP, it felt like Stephen would get forced into taking the "cruel villain" while Hosuh would be the "weaker link" either emotionally or bodily or both because of the, again, Sociopath video. It didn't felt like they were allowed any other roles to play in Dan's videos other than what the public wanted to see because that's what bought the views. In comparison, you can actually see how relaxed Stephen and Hosuh are in Plan3. Because Hart is actually a good story teller/DM who knows how to make the players comfortable while also keeping it fun. I'm sure if I dig into the DP videos again, I'll catch so many moments of Dan overriding Hosuh and Stephen's decisions or forcing them to go through the choices he wanted them to go. At the other hand, all Hart doing is narrating a story and letting them choose what they want to do, and rolling a dice when it's necessary.

Only from the infinite hallway video, you can see how much freedom Hart allows the players. The first to get out of the elevator was Hosuh and he did on his will, followed by Stephen who also choose it on his own. Hosuh choose to try to open and knock on one of the doors. It was Stephen who suggested to check their belongings and set up the camera to test the infinite hallway. Hart doesn't force them to go through with it either, in fact he asks them "Do you take it?" after they both walked down the hallway and find a turn. It was Stephen's idea to kick a door and it was Hosuh's idea to repeat it after he saw Stephen's injury. Stephen also choose to kick the window and get a cut on his leg (All Hart did was to roll a dice, as a DM should, to keep things fair and unpredictable, while also narrating the story in a trustworthy way). Hosuh came up with the idea of unknown source electric and turn the lamb into their makeshift lighter. They both choose go through with the window. Hosuh asked to check the corpse in the second room. Stephen choose to pick the note and read it... on and on it goes. Comparing that to Dan, who only let them do things when he wanted. Yeah. Dan was just a narrator who simply wanted real life audience made out of his friends while Hart is a good DM who allows so much; letting himself, Stephen and Hosuh have fun while also giving them freedom without letting the story go astray from the topic.

[For context: I have not watched full episodes of Season 0, nor have I watched The Dark Side of Dimensions, but I am on Season 5 of binge watching Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters}

I've seen how some people talk about the eye color inconsistency in Ryou's appearances throughout the series. And in my speculation, I think its because of different interpretations of Ryou's character in its entirety.

What to expect:

1.) Color Psychology: Throughout the Series

Season 0

Yugioh Duel Monsters

2.) His deck

control over utter power

3.) Cognitive Functions

Exploring INFP cognitive functions

4.) Synthesis

{I won't go deep into his lore, my primary focus here is character design}

1.) Color Psychology: Throughout the Series

Let's just say that a common thread throughout all his character designs is that he specifically has spiky, long, and pale hair.

⚪ White as a color

Represents an idea of vast, spaciousness. Almost like a blank canvas that you can easily project onto, as white itself makes colors bounce off of it by nature.

White on Ryou? it really makes him look "friend shaped" (approachable and almost innocent), a "cinnamon roll" as people call it.

What could the long hair mean for him?

Ryou is pretty much one of the only characters of the main cast with long hair (besides Duke Devlin) . I interpret it as more of an extension of his even-keeled temperament. Comfortable just going with the flow of things, letting things be as they are, open to go along with what others want but also maintaining self possession over their own appearance. It feels more like an emphasis that Ryou himself doesn't trouble himself with over emphasis on being presentable and overly efficient in any given scenario.

Season 0

The spiky, blue-ish, long hair and green eyes really lean into that

"I know more than I appear" pretty boy look.

It makes him look ethereal, intuitive, but may hold back a lot like there's something he knows that we don't.

What Would ⚪+🔵 Signal?

In Season 0, his hair is more of a pale turquoise color.

In my readings, a common symbolism of turquoise is:

Empathy

Compassion

Healing

Clarity

So, what would having light green eyes mean?

In this context, it makes characters look intuitive. Like you can project onto them and make you think "what you see is what you get" when in actuality the green is a form of armor, and they're reading you a lot more well than you read them.

When I think to examples of where this speculation is applicable, I think to Reze from Chainsaw man and Kurama from YuYu Hakusho

Brief summary, Reze pretty much appears almost as an angel of light, until you find out that this lady is literally the Bomb Devil who really showed up in Denji's life to acquire something of his, but ended up feeling genuinely attached to him.

Kurama (YuYu Hakusho)

Kurama just like Ryou, has the whole "pretty boy with a demonic side" trope. They both appear gentle, kind, but have a struggle between two "truths" that live within themselves, but in the end they still choose to have compassion for others.

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To combine both aspects together

Pale turquoise hair + green eyes,

creates a character who puts an external focus on other people, hell, Ryou puts others way above himself a lot of times, and he also knows too much and perhaps sees too much but keeps it to himself. Which creates a constant push and pull like waves but inside his own psyche, which is why, even as a "soft looking character" like Ryou, I do believe that his favorite card being "Change of heart" do fit him as a character (besides the whole Yami Bakura situation) I think he's the type of character who is able to hold two contradicting truths simultaneously without losing his core self.

Which is its own mental toughness on its own despite presented as almost fragile.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters

(Dark) brown eyes make him look grounded, like a familiar friend who you can almost instinctively trust. It shows the side of his personality that he's usually the one just tagging along, going with what everyone wants to do, and generally just enjoy the concept of just "being there" with other people. It very much leans into the idea that he himself does not occupy much space socially or interpersonally.

Hell, in that cave scene where they were running from a "boulder" rolling towards them, he kept chanting both in the Japanese and English version "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" as if he immediately just blames himself for anything bad going on even if its not even founded in the reality of the situation.

I feel bad for the fact that while its true he is within Yugi's friend group, I don't think anyone has really gotten to a first name basis with him, better yet, I don't think anyone really remembers to think "how's Bakura doing?" in just a normal day within their lives.

2.) His deck

In the Duel Monsters series people commonly know, the first time we encounter both Yami Bakura and Ryou Bakura is literally in his moment of showing his favorite card, that being "change of hearts"

It's not a direct pressure of power like how Kaiba pressure plays using strong attack stat monsters, but in that same episode, he uses alot of cards that forces your opponent to react to you, instead of directly attacking them via strong atk monsters.

Its a kind of "disruption deck" where the game is not just about "who has the higher attack stat" anymore compared to most duelists in Yugioh, but how much you can attack them indirectly. Whether mentally or psychologically.

Which reminds me of how he influences the show's story,

indirectly.

3.) Cognitive Functions

Ryou Bakura being INFP

(Fi-Ne-Si-Te)

Dominant Fi (Introverted Feeling), would mean that he feels through things to ask himself is something is alright, correct, or when he should step in as a dominant way of living and seeing the world.

(Ne and Si...I might leave this blank for now until I find more things about Ryou)

You can argue that his inferior Te (Extroverted Thinking) shows up in the fact that (yes, the millenium ring comes right back to him) but boy does he CONSTANTLY WEAR IT. I'm not sure if it just magically appears on his neck even if he tried throwing it out, but based on the anime (most people know and watched) he voluntarily puts the millenium ring around his neck, but seems to be okay with Tristan throwing it away if it "makes him act weird".

4.) Synthesis

With every variation of Ryou Bakura, even in the tiny tidbits I see from The Dark Side of Dimensions, he is someone who:

is self sacrificial

puts other people first

easy to get along with

a lot more perceptive than he appears

self possessed despite his attention to others

has a strong inner core

I get the feeling that this part of Ryou that puts over emphasis on other people may come from the fact that in his life he probably has no one actually asking him, "how is he doing?" so he focuses on other people's well being instead (plus the fact he does seem rather lonely, often *is* alone socially, and lives all by himself.)

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We see Yami Bakura a lot more than Ryou Bakura in the duel monsters series 😭 don't get me wrong, I enjoy Yami Bakura doing his shenanigans, but I also feel like Ryou deserves a lot more love. (I plan to read the manga of yugioh only after i pick up Season 0) oh well, atleast with so much yugioh content, technically you'll still see more of Ryou in small doses in each series...