#kirisae

Oh boy.

To get this out of the way first and foremost, because we all know how badly I want this and think it should have happened—I would make Wishshipping 100%, undeniably canon.The thing is, this would be incredibly easy to do. The set-up is already there. Yuugi tells Jounouchi that he loves him using extremely strong language right before he attempted to sacrifice his life to save Jounouchi’s. He wanted Jounouchi to keep the Millennium Puzzle, his treasure, in the event of that sacrifice, trusting Jounouchi with the Puzzle (and therefore Atem!) above all else. And Jounouchi’s response? On top of trying to sacrifice his own life to save Yuugi’s instead (THESE BOYS, ISTG), he says “thank you,” which is pretty goddamn powerful from the standpoint of the Japanese language, which is strongest in its subtleties. If either Yuugi or Jounouchi were female, no one would doubt that Wishshipping became canon at the pier. No one. Given that they’re both boys, however, there are many, many more hoops that they have to jump through before people accept it.So that said? Let’s set up those hoops!As far as the actual manga goes, I probably would have altered their conversation on the boat to the Ceremonial Duel a bit in order to make it more concrete, particularly since that conversation provides the perfect set-up. Between already putting the idea of romance in the reader’s mind by almost having Anzu confess her feelings for Atem before chickening out (and it’s clear that it’s Atem she wants to confess to; her thoughts later on in the Ceremonial Duel about how it’s Atem specifically that she wants by her side forever aside, she also specifically asks Yuugi if Atem said anything, wanting to know if he was thinking of her), and then also having Jounouchi clue in to Yuugi’s feelings without Yuugi having to say what he’s thinking + the two of them talking about the future, the opportunity is downright perfect for it. So that said? I would have extended that scene a bit. As they talk about the fact that Atem will have to go on to the afterlife should Yuugi win the Ceremonial Duel (and as Yuugi says with certainty that he will be the one to duel), I would probably have Yuugi trail off a bit and quietly say something along the lines of how much he’s going to miss Atem once he crosses over. Jounouchi, of course, hears this, and comments sincerely that, yeah, he will, too. They all will, of course. Yuugi would nod, quiet for a moment more, and then—YUUGI: “Jounouchi-kun?”JOUNOUCHI: “Yeah?”YUUGI: “We’ll—you and I … we’ll always be together, won’t we?”JOUNOUCHI: “’Course we will. I’m never gonna give up on us, remember?”YUUGI: “Yeah!”The “I’m never gonna give up on us” is a callback to Death-T, wherein Jounouchi said, “I’ll never give up on myself, or on you.” Furthermore, Yuugi asking Jounouchi if they’ll always be together (perhaps rephrased like “you’ll always be by my side,” or phrased to call that to mind) is a parallel to what Anzu thinks about Atem during the Ceremonial Duel. Only, this story gets a happy ending.But since that’s still subtle enough so that I’m sure some would deny it, I would probably include a flash-forward epilogue that, perhaps, shows the two of them going a date, holding hands, to see one of Anzu’s dance performances. =) Something like that. And if I did make a sequel movie years later, well … a Big Damn Kiss (and at the very least a returned love confession!) would certainly be included.But yeah, this would be canon, particularly since it would be beautifully developed, healthy LGBTQA representation in an influential series aimed at kids. Sign me the fuck up, we need this.

Speaking of Anzu, better involvement for the ladies (and better treatment overall). Specifically:- Anzu’s dancing career needs more focus. I know that this is a series about games, but Anzu just had the one dancing game and that’s it. (Oh, and she did get to help out during Death-T as well—that was nice.) I want there to be more mention of her dream, and less focus on her involvement insofar as the romance subplot. And speaking of that? Once she realizes that Atem and Yuugi are two separate people, I want them to have an actual, legitimate conversation about how her feelings are for Atem, not Yuugi, because it’s pretty obvious that her romantic interest in Yuugi began and ended when she thought he was just an opposite personality of Atem’s. Once she realized they were two separate people, she went back as seeing him as something of a kid brother (emphasized when she refers to him as a “tough kid,” using the actual Japanese word for child, when talking with Atem right before Battle City started). Anzu was confused for a time and that’s fine, she’s a teenage girl and she is allowed to be confused without being vilified for it—but that needed to get sorted out definitively so everyone could move on with no hard feelings. More importantly, though, I do want more focus for her outside of the romance. She’s more than eye candy. Treat her like it.- Shizuka deserves to do something more other than be motivation for Jounouchi and his support during Battle City. I want to see Shizuka play games, such as music games. I want to see her bond with Mokuba, and other characters. Hell, I want a scene where Malik tries something with Jounouchi on the blimp (after revealing who he is), and Shizuka tries to fight for the brother who so valiantly fought for her. She’s his baby sister—let her show some temper and will of her own! Let her do something!- Mai should have won her duel against Atem in Duelist Kingdom, because frankly he was an ass for the entire duel and didn’t deserve that ass-pull victory. But since that would fuck up the entire plot, that duel needs to at the least be rewritten so that he’s not being an asshole to her for the entire match. Also, I hate that in order to force her to “develop” she was damsel’d during Duelist Kingdom so that Atem had to win her star chips back for her. Likewise, that she was damsel’d in Battle City to motivate Jounouchi, which … was unnecessary, considering Jounouchi already had motivation to fight Malik because of the pier duel. Honestly, her coma seemed more like a reason to get her “out of the way” and create drama, which is no good. Mai deserves better. Give her better.- I really would have liked to see Isis defeat Kaiba, advance to the finals, and get a real shot at facing her brother. Or, hell! Instead of having Mai face Malik and get put into a coma, force Malik to go up against Isis in a duel! Let them fight it out! Let Isis do more for her brother than orchestrate a tournament and then get kicked out of it so the boys can have all the fun!- The entire Kisara subplot needs to be rewritten, because Kisara was honestly created just so that she could be fridged to motivate Set + give him a dragon. She, like so many other ladies, deserved better than to be objectified (dragonified?) in a sense and then killed off just to give Set angst + Kaiba a reason to obsess over a dragon.Basically, justice for the YGO ladies 2k17, with a side order of I really don’t like Set/Kisara, or Kaiba/Kisara, or whatever variation we’re going with this week, because it was terribly written and I’m not letting Takahashi off the hook for it, even if he was extremely sick at the time the Memory World arc was written. (I mean, that’s said, but he wasn’t sick when he wrote Cyndia’s story, and she was also fridged to give a man reason to angst, so I feel like it wasn’t the illness that created the problems here. The only real problem the illness created was how rushed that arc was, and also Zorc’s dragon penis. Everthing else is on Takahashi.)

Speaking of Zorc, less Duel Monsters, more Shadow Games. I LOVED the Shadow Games from the school arc. LOVED THEM. Oh sure, they were a remnant of corruption from the Puzzle and yadda yadda, but they were fun. They were interesting! They were far more interesting than thirty-odd volumes of goddamn Duel Monsters! We can have Duel Monsters for a bit, sure, fine, but I want to see more Shadow Games. Part of the reason why Malik is so wonderful is because his set-ups for Yuugi in Battle City were very reminiscent of Atem’s Shadow Games. The Pandora set-up? The pier duel?? Those are so creatively sadistic that I adore them, particularly the pier duel. More of that, less of boring card games, please and thank you.

And speaking of Shadow Games + boring card games, Jounouchi should have won his duel against Malik, idgaf. He can still (temporarily) die, but I would make that final attack connect, because he won that duel through sheer skill, and I’m still salty that he was robbed, tbh. The Sun Dragon Ra should have been his, without a doubt.