tempestuously (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tempestuously) wrote2005-06-05 06:23 am
tempestuously) wrote2005-06-05 06:23 am
"Our duelist blood has brought us together again."
I dislike when I try to tell people that I'm having trouble with an IRC channel/server and they reply to me like I'm retarded, telling me how to use IRC or simply repeating the channel words. Grr, what part of "Channel won't load" makes it seem that I'm not using IRC or idling in the channel or whatever.
Bought Duelist 5 and HikaGo 4 today. Duelist 5 is god! I could write my entire Yami/Kaiba analysis using it alone. The slash is far more rampant than in the anime, with Kaiba and Yami both going on about how the fight exhilerates them and with Kaiba explaining how he admires Yami's strategy and why he's the only one that could ever defeat Pegaus and how they are destined to fight each other. Not to mention that it's clear how psychotic Kaiba is in this volume, with his threatening to slam his briefcase closed on Croquet's neck, his gun play, and his honest belief that if he can't save Mokuba, his life means nothing. It's still partially a threat because he knows Yugi and Yami so well, but there's more of a sense of honesty in the manga. You see Kaiba actually standing down Yami's final attack with this totally acceptant expression, just before Yugi intervenes. The whole fight is more intense than the anime. It's the best volume yet, though I only read the First Series Yugioh once and not in such detail as I went through this one. I also found it touching that Mokuba is the one who put the card pendant on Kaiba while he was unconscious. Kaiba was sweeter toward Mokuba at this point in the anime, but in this you see how truly crushed Kaiba is at realizing that he failed his brother in many ways up until this moment. Manga!Kaiba seems more complex in this way than Anime!Kaiba, especially with attempts to recover the missing pieces of his heart. It sounds corny but it's done really well, with child!Kaiba giving hints and death glares.
I also noticed something about Jou in the manga. People who write KaiJou either go for a master/servant approach or for pure fluff. When Kaiba is uke, as he tends to be in some KaiJou, it's usually because he's messed up or angsty. The reason should be that Jou could probably kick his ass. Kaiba knows guns and he's had some physical training, but Jou comes from the streets, the gang kid. He's not afraid to threaten Kaiba about it either. I honestly believe that if Yugi and Anzu weren't around to hold Jou back, he'd knock the shit out of Kaiba. Because Kaiba would never see it coming. Kaiba doesn't understand Jou at all and sees him as a reckless friend of Yugi. He would never expect the dark past that lies beneath the friendship talk and comical persona. It would be a very ugly fight either way. This is my second main contention with KaiJou (though don't get me wrong, I still enjoy it, second favorite yaoi pairing). Many writers assume that Kaiba and Jou can understand each other because of their "abusive" parents. Now, while Jou might be able to get Kaiba, thanks to some reasoning from Yugi and Anzu, Kaiba DOES NOT get Jou. If you're going to do KaiJou, you have to accept this fact, and write it accordingly (i.e. show how Kaiba begins to understand and not by simply reducing him to a pathetic angst subject). People have to accept that Kaiba really does see Jou as beneath him. He may respect him as a duelist following Battle City and not detest the ground he walks upon. He may be concerned about him because he's Yugi's friend and Kaiba's learned to care for others (Doma). But I still doubt that Jou is an equal in his eyes. That's another issue KaiJou writers must actively tackle in fiction, one that's rarely dealt with.
Case in point, Kaiba seems to get Amelda more than he really gets Jou. As shown by the way that Amelda can really affect Kaiba at times, making his not want to boast about Amelda's defeat, remembering how he promised Amelda that he could save Mokuba, and in general treating Amelda more respectively in their final duel. Almost as if he was trying to get a point across, instead of just crushing his opponent as he usually does. As frequent as his scenes with Jou can be, they just lack this sense of parallelism and respect. It can be created in fiction easily enough and it should be if one wants to write KaiJou properly. Just don't tell me that they're lovers because all that hate is a mask for their true feelings toward each other. In this case, you need a bit more to create feasibility in the relationship. I adore love/hate, which is why KaiJou does appeal to me, but love/hate needs something else to work and that something is the belief that both parties can eventually understand each other. Just to get in my digs, I will add that this is something Yami and Kaiba have in spades.
EDIT: Cross-posting KaiJou essay to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
yugi_fans because I'm some sort of masochist or as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quebelly tells me, I'm just no good at making friends.
Bought Duelist 5 and HikaGo 4 today. Duelist 5 is god! I could write my entire Yami/Kaiba analysis using it alone. The slash is far more rampant than in the anime, with Kaiba and Yami both going on about how the fight exhilerates them and with Kaiba explaining how he admires Yami's strategy and why he's the only one that could ever defeat Pegaus and how they are destined to fight each other. Not to mention that it's clear how psychotic Kaiba is in this volume, with his threatening to slam his briefcase closed on Croquet's neck, his gun play, and his honest belief that if he can't save Mokuba, his life means nothing. It's still partially a threat because he knows Yugi and Yami so well, but there's more of a sense of honesty in the manga. You see Kaiba actually standing down Yami's final attack with this totally acceptant expression, just before Yugi intervenes. The whole fight is more intense than the anime. It's the best volume yet, though I only read the First Series Yugioh once and not in such detail as I went through this one. I also found it touching that Mokuba is the one who put the card pendant on Kaiba while he was unconscious. Kaiba was sweeter toward Mokuba at this point in the anime, but in this you see how truly crushed Kaiba is at realizing that he failed his brother in many ways up until this moment. Manga!Kaiba seems more complex in this way than Anime!Kaiba, especially with attempts to recover the missing pieces of his heart. It sounds corny but it's done really well, with child!Kaiba giving hints and death glares.
I also noticed something about Jou in the manga. People who write KaiJou either go for a master/servant approach or for pure fluff. When Kaiba is uke, as he tends to be in some KaiJou, it's usually because he's messed up or angsty. The reason should be that Jou could probably kick his ass. Kaiba knows guns and he's had some physical training, but Jou comes from the streets, the gang kid. He's not afraid to threaten Kaiba about it either. I honestly believe that if Yugi and Anzu weren't around to hold Jou back, he'd knock the shit out of Kaiba. Because Kaiba would never see it coming. Kaiba doesn't understand Jou at all and sees him as a reckless friend of Yugi. He would never expect the dark past that lies beneath the friendship talk and comical persona. It would be a very ugly fight either way. This is my second main contention with KaiJou (though don't get me wrong, I still enjoy it, second favorite yaoi pairing). Many writers assume that Kaiba and Jou can understand each other because of their "abusive" parents. Now, while Jou might be able to get Kaiba, thanks to some reasoning from Yugi and Anzu, Kaiba DOES NOT get Jou. If you're going to do KaiJou, you have to accept this fact, and write it accordingly (i.e. show how Kaiba begins to understand and not by simply reducing him to a pathetic angst subject). People have to accept that Kaiba really does see Jou as beneath him. He may respect him as a duelist following Battle City and not detest the ground he walks upon. He may be concerned about him because he's Yugi's friend and Kaiba's learned to care for others (Doma). But I still doubt that Jou is an equal in his eyes. That's another issue KaiJou writers must actively tackle in fiction, one that's rarely dealt with.
Case in point, Kaiba seems to get Amelda more than he really gets Jou. As shown by the way that Amelda can really affect Kaiba at times, making his not want to boast about Amelda's defeat, remembering how he promised Amelda that he could save Mokuba, and in general treating Amelda more respectively in their final duel. Almost as if he was trying to get a point across, instead of just crushing his opponent as he usually does. As frequent as his scenes with Jou can be, they just lack this sense of parallelism and respect. It can be created in fiction easily enough and it should be if one wants to write KaiJou properly. Just don't tell me that they're lovers because all that hate is a mask for their true feelings toward each other. In this case, you need a bit more to create feasibility in the relationship. I adore love/hate, which is why KaiJou does appeal to me, but love/hate needs something else to work and that something is the belief that both parties can eventually understand each other. Just to get in my digs, I will add that this is something Yami and Kaiba have in spades.
EDIT: Cross-posting KaiJou essay to
yugi_fans because I'm some sort of masochist or as quebelly tells me, I'm just no good at making friends.
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