New musings on Kalin: he seems to need a purpose to be happy. In the Enforcers era, he was determined and extroverted and very happy defeating all the Duel Gangs in the Satellite. But once they were all beaten, suddenly Kalin didn’t have a purpose any more. He had to look for a new one and things started going downhill from there. He targeted innocent kids, inventing the idea that they were potentially dangerous, and later went for the big one, Sector Security. That all unraveled into complete chaos.

As a Dark Signer, Kalin had a purpose again, but it was dark and twisted, a product of his misunderstanding about Yusei as well as the darkness corrupting him. He reveals later that what he had really wanted was just to see the others again and fight one more duel with them. Instead, the darkness twisted him into the insane creature he became.

When he finally came back to himself, he was not only wracked with grief and guilt, he once again had no purpose. He decided he had to atone for his wrongdoings and went to Crash Town to try to do this. His purpose became his own self-destruction.

Kalin, however, at his core is a protective person. He needs things to protect. It’s when he feels he doesn’t have this that he seems to start tipping off the deep end and becoming dangerous and destructive. Once Yusei and the kids reach this side of him again and he realizes he actually can do something, he perks right up. He becomes the fighter he once was and has the strength to topple Lawton’s control over the town.

When Crash Town is free, Kalin decides to stay on. Why wouldn’t he? He has what he was searching for all these years. The town will need help rebuilding and being protected and the kids need looking after. Kalin will have years of protecting ahead of him.

It’s semi-popular in the fandom to have Kalin move to the City, sometimes with the kids, sometimes not. I totally get wanting him to be with Yusei and the others again, but given Kalin’s need to protect and have a purpose, I’m honestly not sure he would like living in the City. He would be happy to be with his other loved ones, but I think he would feel directionless and lost and might even start spiraling downward again. Maybe he would instead find a way to pool his protective nature into a new career in the City. Maybe Crow would encourage him to join Sector Security. (Would he, though?) I definitely think the only way he could be truly happy in the City would be if he found more purpose in protecting.

He was the first character to Synchro summon, he poses like he’s pretending to ride a motorcycle when he does, and his duel with Blood Shepherd had a Western movie aesthetic, and Revolver’s whole aesthetic in general is guns for that matter, just like a certain 5Ds arc:

Do you know what’s the best part of this arc

This

I have a dream there will be a franchise of flower shops with this name. 

Joking aside, I am glad we got a  closure on Kiryu’s and Yusei’s relationship. I am glad he found peace withing himself and those two random orphaned kids got a father figure.

(For @ygo5dsmonth2020. Yeehaw! Bring out your ponchos, set your guns to duel, and show us what all Satisfaction Town has to bring? Is it a character? The city itself? A duel? Satisfy us!)

I decided to give ya’ll some Kiryuu/Jack friendship, cause I imagine these two were very close. They definitely were in the manga, but it sort of shows through in the anime. With that said, a warning for this chapter: spoilers to season 2, especially revolving around the episodes of Crash Town. Otherwise, enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

5D’S MONTH DAY 7: THIS TOWN AIN’T BIG ENOUGH

Have a cheeky death god and a jealous birb. Chanda is aroace and she and Yusei laugh at the idiots’ petty competition. Jack started a betting pool that Yusei declined joining, so Jack constantly claims "I’m winning.”

Yusei: “No one’s even betting against you.” Jack: “Exactly. That’s why I’m winning.” Crow: “Winning what?” Jack: “Life, obviously. I’m leagues ahead of you.”

Kalin knows about the betting pool and just hasn’t deemed it necessary to share.

“Jack, are you still winning?” “I don’t know, am I?” “I don’t know. Chanda, is he still winning?” “NONE OF YOU ARE WINNING.”

Can I just say I admire ya’ll doing art for this month, cuz this took like 6 hours and my hand hurts.

These, however, are the dub names. I also explained that in the original Japanese, Radley's gang is called The Ramon Group and Malcolm's is The Malcolm Family. What is interesting, I realized, is that the names are opposite to how the gangs actually seem to behave. Radley's sounds more formal and matter-of-fact and Malcolm's more friendly and welcoming. But in actual fact ...

Exhibit A, Radley's gang hangs out in the diner Radley owns (yes, it's his, made expressly clear in the Japanese version by the sign "Ramon's Diner"). They are happy and relaxed and Radley tries to get Kalin to join the festivities. When Kalin refuses and walks out on him instead, Radley is clearly put-out and may even be hurt. But he controls his feelings, has a civil conversation with a gang member, and doesn't once take out his unhappiness on an innocent party. You can clearly see from his expressions that he is upset. If I showed these pictures out of context, I imagine anyone would think he is snarling at this poor kid. But in both Japanese and English, that is absolutely not the case. He looks mad, but he speaks perfectly evenly.

Exhibit B, Malcolm's gang hangs out in the villa Malcolm has. Malcolm gets drunk, rages, and lashes out at anyone who moves. One of the nicer gang members, another young kid, shows concern for him drinking so much. Malcolm reacts by striking him on the head with the liquor bottle and knocking him out! Real nice family there. This is, of course, cut from the dub so I unfortunately can't show it, but it's available in the first Japanese language Crash Town episode and can be watched on Hulu and Crunchyroll.

It's interesting that the dub changes the gangs' names when you think about it. The Radley Bunch fits a more informal, friendly group, as they seem to be, while The Malcolm Crew could go either way. I wonder if they had any real reason for changing the names, such as wanting names that fit them better.

https://www.deviantart.com/meromeroyui/art/Rain-Hurt-Comfort-977367931

The accompanying ficlet uses Kiss too: