The Winter Court of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

I marathoned Doom/Doma arc from Monday through Saturday. I'd really forgotten how and why it was always my favorite YGO season. It's definitely the darkest arc, but I guess it's like ThickerThanLove says, sometimes it's the darkest arcs that have the sweetest moments. I always found Doom Arc beautiful because of the strong morals of overcoming the darkness in your heart and embracing the light. There are so many heartbreaking things, true: the bikers' (uncut) pasts, Yami Yugi falling to the darkness, Yugi sacrificing himself to save him, Yami Yugi flipping out on Weevil, the duel against Yugi, the whole Mai catastrophe, people losing their souls left and right.... But there's a beautiful light of hope that shines throughout the arc and eventually triumphs, saving everyone, even Dartz. The second duel against Raphael is beautiful (even with the dub's mashing of the cemetery scene) and there are so many powerful moments. I love Yugi's sacrifice, although it's heartbreaking at the same time. And the scene where Yami Yugi encourages all of the captured souls to remember the light and focus on that instead of the darkness is powerful!

I have to admit, I always liked that the dub changed that bit at the end where Yami Yugi decides he's going to try to absorb all of the world's darkness. That's just WTH because it can't be done. If it could, there wouldn't be any more conflicts or villains and there were certainly more. That in addition to my finding it uncomfortable from a religious perspective. Of course, Pharaohs were considered gods, so that has to be taken into account too and may be the reason why it was done in the original Japanese. But I still like the dub changing it to Yami Yugi fighting a final battle against his own darkness better.

Alister is still my favorite biker, although I love them all. Valon was always my least favorite of the three, mostly because he didn't have a "noble" or least a deep reason for taking part and I can't really relate to characters who like to physically fight. But I think I liked him better on this round. Still prefer the other two, but I absorbed his storyline better now. I really love how Joey's attitude changes Valon by the end of their duel. That was very moving!

At least on Dreamwidth, I've restored my old Alister icon. Not sure if I can fit it in on Livejournal, but maybe I'll look and see if there's anything I want to remove in order to slip it in. Alister was always one of my "image" characters, one of the main ones I was told reminded someone of me. If I remember right, she said I was like Alister in some ways. I guess that would probably mostly be in bluntness/attitude, but also perhaps in that we both enjoy voice-acting and cosplay. Oddly enough, I think maybe the other character I would be most like is Serenity. Sheltered most of my life and maybe a little reserved/quiet/shy at first, but I can open up and be playful if I start to feel comfortable. And Serenity is awesome in that despite her fears, she stands up and is strong when the situation calls for it. I would like to be like that. I just adore writing her showing that quality in fics! I think she may be my favorite YGO female character, although I still love Tea to bits too. Really, I love all four main females, Ishizu and Mai too. Rebecca I can usually handle alright, especially in Doom Arc. The only YGO female I truly despise is Vivian Wong. Creepy and rotten as heck, kidnapping Solomon and deliberately hurting his bad back to force Yugi to duel her! GAH. As if Yugi would ever like her if she does stuff like that! Now, if it wasn't for stunts like that, I would like her fine. Heck, if she'd developed by the end of the arc and got past such behavior, I'd like her fine. But that didn't happen.

I remember having some songs I felt fit all the bikers collectively, with The Children of Eve being my favorite. Somewhere I Belong was another favorite. Finding songs that fit individual bikers was much more difficult. Life is Like a Boat was always Alister's song. I adore that song so much, especially how the character (Rukia, I guess) goes from feeling so alone to knowing she has a friend to wanting to be a friend in turn. Beautiful! There are very few songs with a progression like that. Most songs just stick with a particular feeling and don't have the song character develop beyond that feeling. The only other song I can think of that does is, of all things, Someone is Missing at Christmas (which I thought for years was romantic, and only this past season I learned it was actually about siblings, and based on real-life, gah). Back to Life is Like a Boat, I love it so much I even sang it in public once, at a talent show. Of course, I slightly alter the lyric in the second verse to say "maybe they just don't care at all" instead of "maybe they just don't give a damn." Okay, so it doesn't quite rhyme then, but eh. And yes, I do sing it with both the English and the Japanese parts, instead of translating the Japanese parts to English.

One puzzlement I always had was debating if I portrayed Alister correctly in that I had him aloof, since he was certainly open about his emotions to Seto. But it makes sense that he would tell Seto stuff, since he was enraged at him and wanted him to know why. Plus, the Orichalcos was generally being used when he was particularly open, so that could have been a factor too. It definitely warped his personality when he used it. He certainly isn't very open with Valon; Valon has no idea why Alister is upset with Seto. And then it's debatable if Raphael knew, as Alister definitely seemed to get along better with him. In my stories, post-Doom, I had it that Alister didn't want to publicly display his acting talents under normal circumstances and that he even worked from home because he preferred not interacting with people. He did, however, also volunteer at a group home to interact with kids. I still debate on if he should be as closed-off as I made him.

Not being bound by the old timeline, I have a chance to experiment with other things and see what I think of them. I'm toying with Alister still being aloof, especially with Valon, but that he does like acting. As mentioned before, if a character shows no canon interest or talent in it, I don't particularly want them to have that as an interest because I like them to be themselves. But since Alister does show a canon talent, maybe he has the interest too. That's honestly hard to say. I think if he does like acting, it's part of his aloofness, actually. He hides behind the characters he plays and it's hard to find the real him. There's always a little of him in each character, if you know where to look.

Hmm, but then if he does like acting, he probably has to get into romantic situations in the plays at times, and I also always headcanoned it that he wasn't especially interested in or comfortable with romance. Trying to picture him otherwise is not computing. It's very difficult for an asexual to picture characters as being interested if they don't show a canon interest. At least, it's very difficult for this asexual! Pretty much the only other situation where it will compute is if I've fallen head over heels for a particular pairing and want it badly, which is an extremely rare situation. I will always love Seto/Tea, no matter how unlikely it is to ever happen in canon. (Funny thing about that one is that I started out fully against it, WTH is this, etc. But then in trying to argue why it was impossible, I got myself thinking, "Hmm, wouldn't it be a fun challenge to see if it could be possible?" and things went from there.) With Alister, I am not a fan of any pairings with him.

I definitely think I'll keep that at least at first, he didn't want people to get close to him because he was so afraid he would fail them as he feels he failed Miruko. He either deliberately behaved off-putting because of that or he didn't try to explain his off-putting behavior because of that. And naturally, he and Valon still argue. That's a fun dynamic.

He's still blunt, of course, and he may cop a little more attitude. I am still amused by his obnoxious "Surprise!" in the dub when he reveals his true identity. I do remember him quipping that in at least one of the old stories. The dub naturally added more obnoxiousness than there originally was. I think I tried to write a little more with the original personality in mind when I did the old stories. Of course, with all the bikers, I wrote their pasts uncut so the readers could know the full story and not just the mashed-up version.

I'm the first person to be outraged at stupid dub changes, but I will always prefer the English voices, music, and dub humor. I missed the humor when I tried watching the uncut dub. I just wish the dub hadn't become afraid to say characters were dead. In Duelist Kingdom, they actually acknowledged it twice (gasp!): with Cecelia, and also with Seto and Mokuba's parents. But by season 3, it was their parents disappeared instead of died, and of course, all that ridiculous covering up of Alister and Raphael's loved ones dying in season 4. It is really amazing that they let Shadi say he'd been killed in season 5.

I also wish the dub didn't make Seto so much more horrible than he was in the original. I think what really got me up in arms is that during the duel with Dartz, in the original he yells for the mind-controlled Joey to fight if he's a true duelist, and in the dub he says, "That second-rate duelist has held me back for the last time!" **repeated headdesk.** Why, dub. And then in the original he was concerned about Yami Yugi when he was hurt, but the dub changed it so he didn't sound concerned and Yami Yugi sarcastically said, "I'm fine. Thanks for asking." For the most part, Seto is fairly likable in Doom Arc; he does seem to have finally gotten over the hatred that drove him in season 3 especially. But of course, there are moments that were terrible in both the original and the dub, particularly when he learns that Yugi lost to Raphael. And then there were good moments earlier than season 4 that the dub sometimes changed, like how he didn't want Tea to be harmed in season 2, but the dub made it sound like he only cared because she was Mokuba's friend. Oy vey....

One amusing thing I noticed is that in Doom Arc, any time someone exclaims "What?!" the other person will say, "You heard me." That exchange happens at least three times, with different characters each time. **snerk.**

And you know, considering how much Seto denies the supernatural, I found it really intriguing that in season 1 he never scoffs at the concept of Pegasus stealing souls. He just accepts it and is focused on saving Mokuba from that fate. My guess is that it was so horrifying for Seto when he ended up losing his soul that from that point, he desperately tried denying anything supernatural.

I have definitely had a love/hate struggle regarding Seto for years. But I think I may finally be coming to grips again and being able to enjoy the good in him more again. My YGO character obsessions were him, Marik, Alister, and Siegfried, while I also always enjoyed Duke, both Bakuras, and Yugi. I was frustrated that I couldn't get many story ideas for Duke and the Bakuras aside from their roles in the mysteries. Later on, I had ideas for them more than any other characters, LOL.

This entry is very long and rambling. That's what happens when I don't update because I'm working on a story. The first draft of Dragons at Dawn is done! I can hardly wait until all chapters are posted. I felt like more details were needed at parts, so I'm still adding things, including a segment where the Neo-Orichalcos tries to get Yami Bakura to join it. He's not sold on being one of the good guys yet, but he's hopping mad at the thing trying to tempt him because of what it did to Bakura. He really tells off the Neo-Orichalcos for that. It's a fun scene.

I also decided to check out Pokemon Live. I read a detailed summary of the whole thing and have been skipping around in the video looking at the Team Rocket parts. I'm not too fond of many of the voices. I'm generally okay with James', even though he has a way higher pitch than on the show. Jessie's voice, on the other hand, really makes me cringe. She shrieks and screeches half her lines and some of her dialogue sounds more fitting to Jessiebelle.

Giovanni's and Delia's voices are the best in the production, I think. And hearing Giovanni sing about his plans and using his robot to defeat trainers all while sounding like Pegasus will never not be amusing.

Not crazy at all about all the mush subplot nonsense. Of course. I'm not a Pokeshipper and I tend to think that spoils the great friendship Ash and Misty come to have in canon. (I also wonder why shipping them is called Pokeshipping. That makes it sound like the definitive pairing or something. Seems like Pokeshipping could describe almost any pairing on the show, so why was that name picked for them?)

I am kind of intrigued by Delia knowing Giovanni from the past. I may watch those scenes later.

Overall, the thing seems to be around the same crackiness level as the Turtles' live show. I'm trying to figure out why I get a kick out of the latter but am cringing at Pokemon Live. I think the mush subplot and Jessie's voice are the main reasons. And somehow most of the characters feel kind of off. Especially Misty and Brock. (And is it terrible that I find it super weird for Ash to sound like a teenage boy whose voice has broken?) In the Turtles' show, any OOCness is more for cracky purposes, like Shredder rapping. ROTFLOL. But in Pokemon Live, a lot of it is supposed to be taken seriously, like the mush stuff. (I think if Misty has a crush on Ash in canon, she's denying it to herself instead of knowing it and just keeping quiet about it.) Although I guess Brock's refusal to acknowledge they're lost and such was supposed to be funny. That felt OOC too and I didn't care for it. Of course, Baxter in the Turtles' stage show is OOC by 87 series standards, but I seem to be more forgiving of that since they actually included him. And since I decided the stage show is just a separate verse. It feels like its own verse because it has elements from different branches of the franchise. And there are so many Turtles verses that it's easy to accept one more. By contrast, for Pokemon I think there's just anime, manga, and game verses. With Pokemon Live, it really seems to be meant to be the anime verse, yet it doesn't feel like it. So yeah, I think those things are why I'm having trouble fully liking Pokemon Live. That said, I'm enjoying some of it, and if they'd left the mush and OOC stuff out, or else made it more clear that it's a separate verse, I'd probably accept it better.

I also figured out why I love the Orange Islands arc so much. I was watching one of the filler episodes from season 1, during the time Ash should be training for the Pokemon League, and I felt the same love for it that I do for the Orange Islands. Some of my favorite season 1 episodes are among those filler ventures. I've always had a habit of loving filler, largely because characters seem to develop the most in filler episodes, and because they're fun and usually without baggage, and Orange Islands feels like filler in between Kanto and Johto. I like the slice-of-life feel of those episodes. I also like how Team Rocket often gets to shine in filler, and how Ash and company seem more likely to help them in filler. They jump to help in both Onixpected and Blank-Out Blaistoise episodes. Not usual, and very enjoyable. (I also enjoyed Ash helping in the non-filler All Fired Up! episode, though I wondered why that occasion was different than the other occasions where they're on fire and he doesn't help.)