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Help, I want to play Nightmare Troubadour because you can play against the Big Five (read: Lector) in it. Since it's long out of print, I wonder if there's a ROM for it.... (Oooh, there are some!)
(I also wish now that Duel Links would have the Big Five as characters to duel against and unlock. I don't know if they ever will do anime-only arcs and characters, but they really should. Some people love those, and there are already references to anime-only things, like Tristan makes monkey cracks. "Nightmares ... you turn into this thing [Acrobat Monkey] if you lose!" There's even references to Capsule Monsters, as Tristan has Thunder Dragon in his deck.)
The other day I decided out of utter curiosity to see what other fics have been tagged with the Big 5 as characters. There weren't many; I was surprised there were any, honestly. Most were strange oneshots or very short poetry. One seemed to be the beginnings of a multi-chapter fic that made no sense but had pretty good characterization and narration for them.
There was one story there that clearly had a lot of effort put into it but that I wasn't personally so crazy about.... It went against canon and had the Big Five not trapped in virtual reality following The Legendary Heroes escapade, and they were plotting against Seto and planning to kill him. I was kind of okay with it at first, when it seemed like they were getting along okay like in canon. Then Lector was gradually revealed as a loose cannon who had apparently been having an affair with Gozaburo's wife and deliberately ran Noa down out of vengeance against the woman and Gozaburo when he felt they both turned against him. Yikes!
I started skimming at that point, but I did kind of want to see how the thing ended. It looked like Seto showed up and either personally gunned them down in cold blood or had Roland do it (although I go back and forth on what I think when they were clearly plotting Seto's death in the story). Lector wasn't killed at that point and just laughed at Seto removing the other men from the picture. Then they got into a gunfight. The story ended with Lector dead too and Kemo showing up to take the bodies away and calling Siegfried, and them plotting to put the Big Five into virtual reality at that point (?!).
That's the type of story that probably would have traumatized me as a kid and made me second-guess myself for liking certain characters when they were being written as such terrible people, like Lector was here. Even more recently, I've had trouble with some stories leaving really bad tastes in my mouth, like portrayals of 87 Baxter Stockman I seriously didn't agree with that were depressing. Probably a good thing I mostly skimmed this story and it only shook me up mildly, lol.
If I had to guess, it sounds like the whole story probably grew from Gansley's comment about Seto destroying their bodies at the beginning of season 3. Don't know if that was dub-only or not. Since we know the Big Five were trapped in VR world following The Legendary Heroes mess, the only destroying could have happened if Seto just left the bodies to die in the VR pods or some such. I just can't picture him doing that, and honestly, even if he wasn't a decent enough person to try to save them, he wouldn't do that simply for the bad publicity. Hence why in my verse he does get them out and preserves their bodies at his medical center, but the Big Five are still sunk because the bodies have to be connected to the VR world in order for them to escape. So season 3 happens, etc. Then when Noa tries to delete them, he instead just erases them from cyberspace and they end up back in the real world as wandering spirits (both because I don't want them destroyed and because I don't believe it would be possible to destroy spirits).
What I find most interesting about the story, even though I didn't personally care for it, is that the portrayal of Lector could technically be interpreted from canon material. He does argue with Nesbitt and Crump and that could be seen as him not liking them. And we know he gets bent out of shape if he's betrayed. Apparently in the original, he also doesn't like children, or he certainly gives that impression with the "filthy child" comment. But he may have been saying that just to get a rise out of Seto. The affair thing could be here or there; he was willing to betray Gozaburo by trying to take over the company, after all. I personally prefer not to think he was fooling around with anyone's wife, of course....
I think it's really interesting when people can come up with vastly different interpretations of a character because they're looking at the same material and just interpreting it very differently. It makes it so everyone can enjoy a series the way they want to.
For my part, I think Lector was just having little spats with Nesbitt and Crump because he was frustrated and they were all getting desperate to get out of the VR world. I think he was upset with Nesbitt for trying to go off and leave the rest of them in there, too. We've seen how well the Big Five work together as a team, and it seems like even when there are little spats, they're forgotten in the next few minutes. Lector really seemed to want to make sure that everyone got out, so he definitely came across as loyal to the team, and I think he would be upset if anything happened to the others.
Regarding kids, I have no idea how he feels about them in the dub, but in both dub and sub he was upset with Seto for supposedly using Mokuba. I honestly can't picture Lector trying to kill a kid. He didn't even want Seto dead in the original Japanese of season 1; for some reason the dub actually added a murder plot that wasn't supposed to be there. Originally the Big Five just wanted Seto held prisoner until they could complete the deal with Pegasus. After remembering that, I finally got around to changing the mentions of the murder plot in Static Code Analysis when characters are remembering the past, because I'd rather go with the original on that point. I mix and match, which is probably confusing for some, but since there are things in both sub and dub versions I like, I don't want to have to choose one or the other.
I did get plunnied by the idea that he's not crazy about kids, and I started writing a blurb thing where he's musing on why. His sister's kids were wild and he often got stuck baby-sitting them (LOL). He was relieved to get away from them when he moved to Domino City, but then he had to deal with Noa, who was often a spoiled brat. He liked both Seto and Mokuba okay at first, but didn't like Seto when he started behaving cruelly. Mokuba he continued to like when the kid stayed sweet through everything, and he found himself realizing that for the first time in his life, he was growing fond of a child. I'm contemplating that being the opening for that angsty blurb I started before, and he's thinking on how in his bitterness and anger he eventually turned against Mokuba but later tried to protect him, and he wants to protect him now. Then the present-day situation is revealed, Lector tries to protect Mokuba from the explosion, and is apparently killed. I have the stuff with Mokuba trying and failing to revive him, Seto shows up and is relieved Mokuba is safe and tries to comfort him, and then the Big Four show up and react, Nesbitt goes off to take vengeance, and I try to figure out what happens next.
(I also wish now that Duel Links would have the Big Five as characters to duel against and unlock. I don't know if they ever will do anime-only arcs and characters, but they really should. Some people love those, and there are already references to anime-only things, like Tristan makes monkey cracks. "Nightmares ... you turn into this thing [Acrobat Monkey] if you lose!" There's even references to Capsule Monsters, as Tristan has Thunder Dragon in his deck.)
The other day I decided out of utter curiosity to see what other fics have been tagged with the Big 5 as characters. There weren't many; I was surprised there were any, honestly. Most were strange oneshots or very short poetry. One seemed to be the beginnings of a multi-chapter fic that made no sense but had pretty good characterization and narration for them.
There was one story there that clearly had a lot of effort put into it but that I wasn't personally so crazy about.... It went against canon and had the Big Five not trapped in virtual reality following The Legendary Heroes escapade, and they were plotting against Seto and planning to kill him. I was kind of okay with it at first, when it seemed like they were getting along okay like in canon. Then Lector was gradually revealed as a loose cannon who had apparently been having an affair with Gozaburo's wife and deliberately ran Noa down out of vengeance against the woman and Gozaburo when he felt they both turned against him. Yikes!
I started skimming at that point, but I did kind of want to see how the thing ended. It looked like Seto showed up and either personally gunned them down in cold blood or had Roland do it (although I go back and forth on what I think when they were clearly plotting Seto's death in the story). Lector wasn't killed at that point and just laughed at Seto removing the other men from the picture. Then they got into a gunfight. The story ended with Lector dead too and Kemo showing up to take the bodies away and calling Siegfried, and them plotting to put the Big Five into virtual reality at that point (?!).
That's the type of story that probably would have traumatized me as a kid and made me second-guess myself for liking certain characters when they were being written as such terrible people, like Lector was here. Even more recently, I've had trouble with some stories leaving really bad tastes in my mouth, like portrayals of 87 Baxter Stockman I seriously didn't agree with that were depressing. Probably a good thing I mostly skimmed this story and it only shook me up mildly, lol.
If I had to guess, it sounds like the whole story probably grew from Gansley's comment about Seto destroying their bodies at the beginning of season 3. Don't know if that was dub-only or not. Since we know the Big Five were trapped in VR world following The Legendary Heroes mess, the only destroying could have happened if Seto just left the bodies to die in the VR pods or some such. I just can't picture him doing that, and honestly, even if he wasn't a decent enough person to try to save them, he wouldn't do that simply for the bad publicity. Hence why in my verse he does get them out and preserves their bodies at his medical center, but the Big Five are still sunk because the bodies have to be connected to the VR world in order for them to escape. So season 3 happens, etc. Then when Noa tries to delete them, he instead just erases them from cyberspace and they end up back in the real world as wandering spirits (both because I don't want them destroyed and because I don't believe it would be possible to destroy spirits).
What I find most interesting about the story, even though I didn't personally care for it, is that the portrayal of Lector could technically be interpreted from canon material. He does argue with Nesbitt and Crump and that could be seen as him not liking them. And we know he gets bent out of shape if he's betrayed. Apparently in the original, he also doesn't like children, or he certainly gives that impression with the "filthy child" comment. But he may have been saying that just to get a rise out of Seto. The affair thing could be here or there; he was willing to betray Gozaburo by trying to take over the company, after all. I personally prefer not to think he was fooling around with anyone's wife, of course....
I think it's really interesting when people can come up with vastly different interpretations of a character because they're looking at the same material and just interpreting it very differently. It makes it so everyone can enjoy a series the way they want to.
For my part, I think Lector was just having little spats with Nesbitt and Crump because he was frustrated and they were all getting desperate to get out of the VR world. I think he was upset with Nesbitt for trying to go off and leave the rest of them in there, too. We've seen how well the Big Five work together as a team, and it seems like even when there are little spats, they're forgotten in the next few minutes. Lector really seemed to want to make sure that everyone got out, so he definitely came across as loyal to the team, and I think he would be upset if anything happened to the others.
Regarding kids, I have no idea how he feels about them in the dub, but in both dub and sub he was upset with Seto for supposedly using Mokuba. I honestly can't picture Lector trying to kill a kid. He didn't even want Seto dead in the original Japanese of season 1; for some reason the dub actually added a murder plot that wasn't supposed to be there. Originally the Big Five just wanted Seto held prisoner until they could complete the deal with Pegasus. After remembering that, I finally got around to changing the mentions of the murder plot in Static Code Analysis when characters are remembering the past, because I'd rather go with the original on that point. I mix and match, which is probably confusing for some, but since there are things in both sub and dub versions I like, I don't want to have to choose one or the other.
I did get plunnied by the idea that he's not crazy about kids, and I started writing a blurb thing where he's musing on why. His sister's kids were wild and he often got stuck baby-sitting them (LOL). He was relieved to get away from them when he moved to Domino City, but then he had to deal with Noa, who was often a spoiled brat. He liked both Seto and Mokuba okay at first, but didn't like Seto when he started behaving cruelly. Mokuba he continued to like when the kid stayed sweet through everything, and he found himself realizing that for the first time in his life, he was growing fond of a child. I'm contemplating that being the opening for that angsty blurb I started before, and he's thinking on how in his bitterness and anger he eventually turned against Mokuba but later tried to protect him, and he wants to protect him now. Then the present-day situation is revealed, Lector tries to protect Mokuba from the explosion, and is apparently killed. I have the stuff with Mokuba trying and failing to revive him, Seto shows up and is relieved Mokuba is safe and tries to comfort him, and then the Big Four show up and react, Nesbitt goes off to take vengeance, and I try to figure out what happens next.
