#rishid ishtar

Like, all three of them went through so much, each in a different way. Post-canon, they would still have such a huge amount of internalized trauma to deal with.

I could also see all three of them having actual trouble opening up about how they each feel, especially to each other. With Rishid and Ishizu's tendency to put Marik first, I feel like both of them would be reluctant to confront their own issues (or even admit they exist).

There is so much to explore and imagine with Marik, Ishizu and Rishid's stories, whether it's pre-canon, during the manga, or post-canon. Like, did Marik and Rishid leave Ishizu behind without her knowing after their father's death ? Or did Ishizu refuse to go with them ?

When did they actually leave the underground ? How many years were they separated ? Did Ishizu speedrun her way through university to land such an important job while being only 20 years old ? How close were Rishid and Marik during their time with the Ghouls (like, did they actually have a bit of an actual brotherly relationship or were they mostly pretty formal, like we've seen in the manga ?) What kind of shady things did they have to do to survive ?

Also, how much guilt did Ishizu feel because she helped Marik get out of the underground, ultimately setting in motion the chain of events that led to Yami Marik killing their father?

Also, their dynamic post-canon would be so interesting. They're finally reunited after years apart, but they'd have to learn how to be around each other as a family again. But, like, Marik and Rishid were criminals. Ishizu is the only one with a job. And like I said before, they all have a ton of trauma to deal with.

(I personally also love the idea of Ishizu having to learn how to live without the Millennium Necklace's visions of the future. The uncertainty of it all. And on a lighter note, post-canon Ishizu being bad at mundane things, like time management, is a personal favorite headcanon of mine.)

Marik: No!

Rishid: Unethical means morally wrong.

Also the 'abused and forced to be a man for cult purposes' just fits a transfem experience more imo.

When the same thing is done with rishid it's usually done in a way that looks away from all the crimes he was either complicit in or the active perpetrator of.

Like the most common interpretation of his role in malik's crimes I've seen people express is "poor thing he had to do it even though he knew it was wrong :((". I feel like in every version of the story that isn't the 4kidz dub, it's made very clear that he's actively choosing to enable this because he'd rather let a ton of innocent people as well as malik and himself die than deal with Malik's Dark Self. His personal desire for a dead man's approval + his love for his remaining family + his constantly reinforced lack of agency all played a role but he was very willing to kidnap torture and kill people knowing damn well he had the power to at least influence malik away from this at any point.