#ya5

What's better than one dad! Two dads! - Crow and the kids are cute on their own, but seeing Shinji come into the unit as well is just really sweet, we don't get to see much domesticity before shit hits the fan, but it is cute

Crow and Shinji are allowed to have different opinions/conflict - While it isn't like the card game commercial's analysis of class warfare is particularly deep or nuanced, it is great that both of them get to have their own individual POVs on the Tops/Commons divide and that they respond to it differently despite still being a recognized duo

Then three years later, the mysterious girl shows up out of nowhere in his life, he tracks her down, asks her if she remembers him and does a whole "join me so we can take my father down together" spiel

She goes, "no thanks, I want to murder people," and throws over proof of her first kill, later it is confirmed that her presence will bring more of his father's invading troops she is like, "damn that sucks, guess I'll kill them too," then leaves

And he just watches her go, doesnt even try to stop her

24 hours later she comes back and is like, "turns out killing ppl makes us the bad guys, can I join you now?"

What made you ship it?

After I caught up with the the Friendship Cup I was trying to sort out my feelings about everything, rewatching a few episodes, and I was very ??? about how to feel about these two and what exactly their relationship was, I looked for content that might show how ppl ship them, and when I was dissatisfied with the amount, I made my own and got super invested ^^’

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Look we love “met once by chance as children and resulting meeting had a great effect on future character development” even if it isn’t carried through, they have a sense of history and intimacy in 40-41 and I think the two of them have a chance to really connect and understand each other through their shared strained relationships with Leo

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

favorite thing about them: I’m a sucker for a kid who has to grow up too quickly, and I love just despite having all the appearances of the scheming villain type he is at his core still a painfully earnest boy trying so hard to be good

least favorite thing about them: I feel like his arc is very understated and if you aren’t paying close attention then it might feel like there isn’t much to him

favorite line: when he keeps slipping into further and further child-like versions of “father” while facing Leo, it’s a great finally seeing his collected mask start to slip

brOTP: Akabros forever

OTP: I love to multiship Reiji but prodigy will always rule my heart

nOTP: again I like most popular Reiji ships, probably Reiji/Leo

random headcanon: he once met Yuya and Yuzu as babies but was too young to remember it

unpopular opinion: I see the mindwipe incident as less a comment on his character and more a lazy plot device so that the writers didn’t have to worry about these side characters anymore

song i associate with them: Seven Devils by Florence + The Machine is my goto song for him

favorite picture of them: love the intensity of this shot

1. Who would sell their soul to the devil to save the other.

Both

2. Who would become a stalker, in the right (wrong) situation.

Yuya bc he’s already chasing her across dimensions, just got to add in some Zarc maliciousness

3. Who would pine away in silence their entire lives without confessing their love.

Yuzu bc feelings are stupid and embarrassing and she has to be 100% sure to make the first move

4. Who would leave their friends, family, and life to move overseas to be with the other one.

Both

5. Who would be the most worried the other might cheat on them.

Neither it just isn’t a concern

6. Who would run into a burning building to save a stranger while the other calls 911.

Both

7. Who would haunt the other after death and chase away other suitors.

Yuya (although once he got settled down then he would chill on the chase away part)

8. Who would stand up at the other’s wedding and say they object.

Yuzu, bc once she has any idea that there are feelings there and sees that point of no return approaching, she would definitely fight for her man

9. Who would write long, beautiful poems for the other.

Yuzu tried once, but neither are that literary

10. Who would love the other no matter how evil the other became.

Both, Yuya in a more enabling way, Yuzu in a more “I will fight you to save you” way

11. Who would be the most likely to become an addict (gambling/drugs/etc.).

Yuya

12. Who would propose in a grand gesture of some kind.

Yuya bc he is nothing if he isn’t an entertainer at his core

13. Who would go berserk at harm or death befalling the other.

Yuya, this is pretty much canon

14. Who would spend too much money on expensive gifts for the other.

Yuzu, it is a way to make up for her initial shyness

15. Who would fight an impossible battle to give the other time to escape.

Both, Yuya is more likely to do so bc as caring as she is, Yuzu also has strong self-preservation instincts

16. Who would be able to spend centuries in misery waiting for the other to be reborn.

God, being a secondhand fan of yugioh must be such a weird experience, bc like the plot is soap opera levels of drama, all the terms ppl throw around and the oldschool -shipping names for ships, plus the fact the most popular ships ppl seem to be totally on the same page about will turn out to be based on one (1) scene in a 100+ episode series

To try and not do that you (bc I ping pong from different fixations often) I’m going to focus on one with a more foundation 

Yuya/Yuzu or Fruitshipping features the two leads of the spinoff Arc V and did not have to go off as hard as it did, they start out as childhood friends with some romantic tension between the two of them which is cute but standard fare, it is only when the plot explodes into an inter-dimensional war that shit gets real

Due to plot shenanigans, they spend most of the rest of the series apart and just trying to reunite back to together, and it is some high grade star-crossed lovers drama, bc not only does the world metaphorically seem to want them to apart, but it turns out in a past life the two of them were basically God and Satan respectively and concentrated on nothing but destroying one another and even when those past lives get revived, they gain back control just to try and reach out to each other again, the power of love overrides the very workings of the universe

Like if you aren’t invested in these two and their love story then idk how you enjoyed Arc V bc the shift to romantic epic can be pretty surprising but I love it

As for Kaiba/Atem, there from the original series which I really only consumed as a child, so I don’t have many fandom feelings for it, but I can see the appeal for the ship (which is called Prideshipping) it is that good old rival homoeroticism, Kaiba wants to beat him more than anything else and in the latest movie that came out a few years ago he literally builds a machine that lets him travel to the afterlife just to duel him, my personal attachment isn’t strong but I can enjoy it secondhand for that nice classic flavor

Holy fuck, looking back on the misogyny surrounding Ray is astonishing, like people could not accept that a teenage girl was both powerful and a force for good.  People treated her like she was arrogant to be confident that she could defeat Zarc again, when like considering she’s done it before, like what is there to doubt?  No she must be secretly evil in some capacity

Like i love me my morally gray women and sometimes played into writing Ray as such, but to be frank, in canon she does nothing wrong, like yeah a good character has flaws, but she is a paragon of justice and I can’t believe that I got convinced enough to say “well she isn’t 100% evil or good!” when actually she is as conventionally heroic as you get