#pharahos

Bad Presentation Slides | ACCEPTING

mun-directed | accepting | ask

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

Does revolutionshipping count? Honestly, Atem is the least heterosexual character I’ve ever laid eyes on, and I just don’t think he’s attracted to women. All his strong dynamics have been with male-gendered characters, and he seems downright oblivious with Anzu, Mai, Vivian-- the list goes on.

Meanwhile, he’s flirting in duels with Jou, and Kaiba, and Yuugi...

Like. Really. Really Atem.

Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

I mentioned it before, but Yami no Malik no Jinkaku. Times are changing, and tides are turning, but I remember when nobody in an entire writing challenge wanted to write anything to do with him. It’s hard not to see why given his actions in series.

But there’s a lot to read into what and who Yamima is.

I suppose put very bluntly, we only see him during emotional emergencies, and his behaviour makes sense as an alter that is trying to protect against threats through viciousness and violence. I find it hard not to wonder who Yamima is outside of these situations.

I can understand why the fandom uses him as a swiss army knife for plot villains, and drama, after-all, that’s what he is in the show, but I personally find him intriguing. What is he like really? Who is he outside of this? A little empathy about the situation from Yami Malik’s perspective changed my entire view of him, and he’s one of my favourite characters for it.

Unpopular opinion about your fandom?

I think there’s a tendency in the fandom to either agree unilaterally with Bakura, and despise Atem, OR to support Atem entirely, and revile Bakura. It eclipses the interesting parts of the dynamic, and conflict though.

I think it would be inaccurate to assume Atem feels no guilt over his uncle’s actions. Atem is a guilt-machine. He thrives on it, and culturally it IS his responsibility, and it HAS fallen to him to rectify.

I think it would be short-sighted to agree with Bakura, when his reaction to things is essentially burning the entire world down around him, because nothing is just, or fair, and fuck everything.

I think it would be unfair to dismiss the real responsibility Atem has for Bakura, both as HIS KING, and Akhnakanem’s son. Atem is - for better or worse - responsible for Bakura’s fate, for Bakura’s anger, and for Bakura’s loss.

I think it would be cruel to ignore the fact Atem has inherited evil born from good intentions, and that he did, in fact, die for it.

But I think the fandom gets locked behind one or the other, and projects that onto how they portray them. Either Atem is a self-justified martyr and none of this had anything to do with him therefore he did nothing wrong ever and knows it, or Bakura’s coping mechanism of regicide and ragnarok are ~valid just because it’s an understandable reaction to the situation.

Bluntly speaking, Atem - like his father before him - used items of unknown origin, that turned out to be some seriously BAD blood and shadow magic. Canonically, his family began conquering surrounding nomes after winning the war. Corruption thrived under his rule, and it was turned against his people.

He has also personally shown himself to be prideful to the point of harming others, and struggles to grasp grey morality.

Atem has shit he’s responsible for, and as a character, he is prone to assuming it.

And Bakura TRIED TO END THE WORLD. Cool motive, still the apocalypse. Understandable journey of desperation, grief, and growing anarchist extremism. STILL THE APOCALYPSE.

     He'd seen these dunes before. They weren't unlike the ones he'd encountered in the World of Memory or during his trip to Egypt to send off his other self, but they were not one and the same. No, he’d seen these much more recently and much more frequently. Unnaturally white sand nearly indistinguishable from freshly fallen slow stretched out as far as tired, violet eyes could process, but the feel of the grains underfoot gave away their true form, silently shifting back and forth instead of crunching like ice or its softer kin would. The sun spared no mercy as it beat down over its vast kingdom of nothing, yet Yugi found himself oddly chilly as he retraced the invisible steps he’d taken before, over and over, night after night. 

They never lead anywhere, or to anything, nor was he left with any profound thoughts when he awoke the next morning, oddly confused to be back in his bedroom instead of lost in the never ending sandy wastes. The morning never came soon enough, as there was something so overwhelmingly melancholic about wandering in the desert of his dreams. Small movements could be seen in the distance; unknowable spectres of whatever animal life found its home here, and he always felt so dreadfully alone. Where he normally felt the presence of his friends in his heart, he could only find a gaping loneliness, so different from his waking feelings, yet awfully familiar; nostalgic, perhaps. 

He was never quite sure what drove him to keep walking. He never reached anything and there anything in the distance but more sand under an empty blue sky, yet he continued to travel. If he was tired, he couldn’t tell. Despite the loneliness, he found himself fueled by determination to press on until he could make sense out of the recurring vision; until the purpose of it revealed itself to him. Just then, only moments after promising himself he wouldn’t rest until this mystery was resolved, he spotted a figure standing out in the middle of the broad nothingness, unmistakable in form even as grains of sand swirled through the air between them.

It was almost vague, the way the words spilled out, shedding too much information on the floor, “Long time no see,” Bakura inclined his head, giving Ryou’s quiet, reflective smile. The sort of thing that could welcome a king (crowned and adorned with blood, perhaps, but royalty nonetheless).

Something loyal. Something sweet.

Something rattling in Bakura’s borrowed bones anyway.

Rebecca never was good at finding her way around places that she wasn’t all that used to and she was definitely worse at doing so at night. At least during the day she could maybe spot something familiar to her but not at night. “Ugh..Where do I go from here?” She mumbled to herself before turning and going down another street, though she didn’t really check for other people on the street. She was too busy trying to spot something familiar and that is what caused her to bump right into someone.

QUESTIONS FOR MUN.

☠ What does someone have to do for an instant unfollow from you?

Answered! On top of the ones mentioned before, though, it’s also when I’m nagged for replies/starters/anything else. I guess that’s not instant, though? More if it happens a lot. Also people trying to start drama with me. NAH BOI.

♒ Thoughts on the fandom you're currently rping in?

Hmm. Generally, I love the YGO fandom. It’s very protective of the characters in the series, and there’s some very talented people in it. I do think, however, that it’s a little too sexualised. That’s a problem with all fandoms, obviously, but with YGO it seems particularly bad. Characters bonking that have no mutual ground. Characters bonking that would actually loathe one another. Individual characters bonking when they have canon trust issues like. Idk, man. 

It was only as he heard the other’s voice, that his gaze lifted from the gold. Green irises raised towards his company’s face, attentively scanned the familiar features, taking them in, much like with the other’s pendant a moment back, as though tracing after something invisible. Like he could reach for it, and catch it within his stare. A naive thought.

The moment their eyes met, he was the first one to look away.

"Why... I wonder.” His lips curled into a slight smile. A weak tilt of his head. “Maybe I am the one growing mad, after all?” An airy chuckle accompanied his words, and-- He found himself staring off at the Millennium Puzzle again.

The very treasure that by the twist of fate, bore the origins with the pendant of his own. How unfitting it was of him, of them, owners of such relics, to still know so little of what purpose they had-- of their history, of their importance...

Lost in thought, Ryou let his hand reach to the other’s gold. Index finger nearly touching the edge by now, yet, not quite. He paused just like that, not attempting to cross any lines. 

“It just feels like... The answer is here, somewhere -- Between us” He blinked. Rephrased. “Our items perhaps”