Sometimes It Takes A Man To Be Best Girl

I get it. Canon Zarc was a compilation of reference to other villains, just like Arc V was a compilation of references to the other series.

But I never liked the way he stole the Supreme King title from Haou. Specially when his own title as the "Demon Duelist" fits him better.

And I'm gonna prove it now!

From starters, what is the story of the demon?

The demon was once the most beautiful angel of all heaven, until one day he became too prideful and decided to defy heaven, believing he should be God.

In other words, the story of the demon is one of corruption. He used to be one of the purest creatures of all creation before descending into the worst enemy of it and human kind. That's that sounds like certain someone to you?

Yep. According to Akaba Leo, Zarc was once just an entertainment duelist who wanted to make everyone smile with his shows. But the desire of violence of the people of the original dimention drove him to madness.

Now, that is just part of the truth, because a lot of times the youngest members of the fandom tends to just throw all the blame in the audience, minimizing Zarc's contribution to the problem. It's time to talk about something that is not explore that much by the fandom or treated as nothing but just a funny joke: Zarc's pride.

In his resurrection, Zarc is incredibly arrogant. But I would say he was like that since the very beginning.

Most of the time I get the impression that the fandom treats Zarc situation as unavoidable. If he stopped hurting people with his duels, he would lose his fans and his career would be over.

But that couldn't be further from the truth. Zarc COULD have avoided his faith easily. If he stopped, he would have lost his fans, but new ones would come. Because dueling is not a job were fame is more important than talent like singing or acting. Duels are a sport. And as any sport, it really doesn't matter how talented you are, rather how skilled you are. Zarc was the best duelist in the original dimention, if he did or didn't duel hurting his opponents, it wouldn't end his career. As long as he didn't lose, he will still have a career. And even if his fans would leave him for feeling dissapointed because he wasn't giving him the duels that they wanted, new fans would come that would prefer his entertainment duels. Because I refuse to believe that the only sane person in that entire dimention was Ray.

In other words, if Zarc became what he is, is not because a pitiful and misguided desire to give bad people what they want; rather a selfish desire to keep being praised by people who never were worth a second of his time. He was too much of a coward to set his foot down for his own believes. He wasn't able to do that to help himself. He wasn't able to do that to help the people that he cared.

His dragons are the only friends that we know he canonically have. We don't get to see more people in his life. We don't know about his family or any human friend. The fandom have the headcanon that Zarc, aside of his dragons, was completely alone. And even when they are the only beings that loved him for his entire life, he throw their love aside as long as he can still satisfy an audience that he ended up hating anyways.

Zarc was very prideful from the start. Because think about it. If you were presented with the option of hurting other people just to be famous and praised by a bunch of sadics, or just find another path in life, what would you choose? Most normal people would just choose the second option, you would need to a psycopath to choose the first one. Yuri was a fragment of his identity, but I don't think Yuri was formed when the audience wanted violence, I'm sure that Yuri existed all the time inside of him, just waiting to be awake.

Just as the devil, Zarc was prideful from the start, only that he himself didn't notice until this side of him finally appeared.

Another things that relates Zarc to the devil is his desire to be God.

Zarc case is not that explicit. There are no gods in Arc V, so Zarc himself never explicitly say that he wants to be a god, because that context doesn't exist in the first place.

But when he gets resurrected and summon his dragon form he calls himself a supreme king who dominates the four methods of summoning.

By dominating the four methods of summoning in just one form and being the strongest monster on the entire series, Zarc is the closest thing to a god. Even his title as the Supreme King is that, what is God if not the Supreme King who rules over everything? Except that at difference of Zarc or the devil, he reigns with kindness and love.

Even when he doesn't say he wants to be a god with those exact words, Zarc certainly wants to feel superior to everyone else, which is basically the same thing.

Finally, there is Zarc weapon to achieve his victory: Temptation.

Just as the real demon, he can't touch you. The devil is in a complete separate realm, he can't harm you (unless you are stupid enough to summon him free willingly, but that's another topic) Zarc was banished into the Yuboys minds, he couldn't force them to do his will, he couldn't go out to hurt them or his loved ones. You are safe from him.

So, just as the demon, Zarc uses temptation to make the Yuboys do his biding. Zarc can't take control of the Yuboys unless they feel angry first. But even with this, they can supress him with enough free will. So he plays his cards correctly. He whispers into their ears, increasing their anger and bloodlust in order for them to succumb and let him take control. Because the demon can't touch you, he will make you doom yourself in order to achieve what he wants, and Zarc does the same things.

Has to be say, this is the aspect where Zarc lacks a lot. Zarc is not a great manipulator by any means, even when it was not only good to the character to be one, but also neccesary. THe guy really needed to have a lot more participation into his plan to work, because now everyone (including me) believe that he only resurrected for dumb luck. Emphasis in DUMB, Akaba Leo is such an idiot. But Zarc is an even bigger idiot because if it wasn't for Akaba Leo stupidity, Zarc would never be able to revive by his own.

Have to say, I never had in high regard the canon version of Zarc, but these last days I get to aprecciate his character a little more, or at least the ideas because the execution ruined it.

machine deck users from hell

iv's a hyena and kaiser's a feline

there was once a little boy.

he is born disabled. his body hurts, and he can’t walk properly the way the other children do. he doesn’t understand why. he’s a little boy. but he plays with wooden boats and pulls toys on a string.

somebody makes him a tunic. they sew ducks onto it in red and green and yellow and blue. the bright colours of a child.

the little boy is eight years old, and he’s going to be king now. there’s a big ceremony about it. he doesn’t really fully understand what’s going on, because he’s eight, but he wears the tunic with the brightly coloured ducks for the occasion because he loves it. look at his ducks! aren’t they great?

he is a child. the adults around him manipulate and coax him to gain more power for themselves. he still plays with toys.

as a teenager, not yet an adult, he fathers children. they do not survive. he’s not even old enough to have full agency in his job and is still being manipulated, but he had babies and they died.

he does not make it to his twenties. at eighteen or nineteen years old he dies, and is buried. his babies, so tiny, are buried with him.

and so is his tunic with the little ducks that he loved so much he kept it long after it no longer fit.

yeah i think that like. especially with historical figures in your mind people who were kings and queens or important nobles were adults. even if you know how old they were it doesn’t really click. it doesn’t seem real

but then you get something like a little tunic with brightly coloured ducks on it and it hits you like a fucking truck that this really was a little kid and no matter how far removed you are a little kid is still a little kid. their brains didn’t develop any quicker back then. he was just as developed/mature mentally as any 8 year old now. he had cartoonish animals on his clothes and he played with toy boats and probably terrorised the local cat population.

tutankhamun was a child and he didn’t make it to adulthood because he was unfortunate enough to be a very important child

his dad died when he was 8. he saw his own babies die when he was still just a boy himself.

tutankhamun had a little pair of sandals with ducks on them. he had earrings decorated with ducks. he kept those, and other items of childhood clothing. some toys. keepsakes. things he loved, and treasured. he kept them all in a little wooden chest. the chest… was carved with ducks.

and that little duck chest, filled with things he kept from his childhood, was buried with him. maybe he was keeping them for the little babies who did not make it. maybe they just reminded him of good days and fun times.

WITH PLEASURE

(greyscale makes it hard but the duck head is on the right above the toe strap. always takes me a while to find it too)

The patterns between them, to either side of what looks like lilypad/lotus flower petals, could very well be “ducks as seen from above.” There is a beak on the lower edge, a clear “head” shape above/behind it, darker ovals that look like folded wings, and a body/tail. I didn’t see the red circled ducks first, I saw the “swimming on a pond” ducks amongst the lotus flowers.

So I've been seeing a few comments like this in this video(rustling noises) and, I will assure you, just because she is white cat does not mean she's deaf. She's just tired of my shit. Peep this. [clears throat] [clicks tongue] [clicks tongue] See? See, not deaf. But watch this.

[deep breath, then fast] summa-lumma, dooma-lumma, you assumin' I'm a human, What I gotta do to get it through to you, I'm superhuman, Innovative and-

See, she's just sick of my shit.

(tiktok ending sound plays)