Stream Over! Thank You So Much To Everyone Who Came, It Was Lots Of Fun! And Extra Special Thanks To

Stream over! Thank you so much to everyone who came, it was lots of fun! And extra special thanks to @beamthechao for the sick tunes!

Nov 11 (Friday) Stream!

Currently planning on starting at 5pm EST! A little earlier for our European friends~

My current plan is to work on these things:

1) Clean up puzzle pieces and mark the piece Bakura had sealed a bit of his soul into 2) Work on the Millennium Puzzle Box 3) Make digital sketches of emotes and poses for the Bakura game.

However, I’m open to suggestions too!

The last stream was a lot of fun, and I bet this one will be too! 8D

Here’s a link to my streaming channel!

If you want an email alert when I start a stream, you can follow my channel. ;D

I couldn’t help myself...

v quick Inkura...

but consider: bakura happy smiles like an inkling

Day 25: Happy Birthday @vaguelygenius!

I hope you have a good day today.

Guess who’s on Teepublic now?   8)

Teepublic tees are only $14 for their first 72 hours! So I’m spacing out design launches so everyone can save on their favorite design~

There aren’t just T-shirts, there are all sorts of shirts, hoodies, prints, mugs, notebooks, and phone cases!

Here’s what’s going to uploaded next:

Free Shipping for 3D-Printed Millennium Items!

No code needed, just add $25+ of items to your cart!

This special ends 8/21 on midnight PDT, so get your hands on these ancient goods right away!

Smart!Bakura AU

Okay, don't get me wrong: Yami Bakura is one of my favorite characters of all time, and he's a really interesting villain whose choices were most likely influenced by the presence of Zorc in the Millennium Ring.

However, he could have been a much more effective villain, making the narrative much more complex and fascinating, with one simple change: make him smarter.

Note: It is entirely possible that Yami Bakura does not fully remember his past at the beginning of the story, just like Yami Yugi. Therefore by "smarter", I'm not referring to anything requiring additional knowledge of his past besides what he already seems to know in canon.

When we first meet Yami Bakura, we find out that he has been putting Ryou's friends in comas. Whatever his motivation is for that, these actions don't seem to be physically hurting Ryou or hindering his own activity, so we can presume that he would still be doing this if he were smarter.

Additionally, the first shadow RPG wouldn't have changed substantially. After all, Bakura had no reason to consider that there might be other spirits like him in the other Millennium Items. And he didn't do anything particularly stupid during the shadow RPG- there was no reason for him to expect Ryou's rebellion. Similarly, in the anime, Bakura would have won the duel if Ryou hadn't rebelled.

Ryou takes off the Ring, and is only convinced to put it back on to save his friends when they're trapped underground in Pegasus's island.

Here's where the change happens: if Bakura were smarter, then after Ryou puts the Millennium Ring back on, Yugi and Co. would never see the real Ryou again.

What does that mean? Well, Yami Bakura can clearly control Ryou's body for extended periods of time, as seen in Battle City. What's stopping him from being in control the whole time that he's around Yugi and his friends?

But wouldn't they notice? Ah, here's the clever part: as far as Yugi knows, no one can return from being banished to the shadow realm, like Bakura was. Bakura returning on his own would be a farfetched theory. And this works for canon Yami Bakura to some extent. But he could have done better.

What if Yami Bakura had impersonated kind, sweet Ryou Bakura each and every single time he interacted with the Yugi-tachi, without ever dropping the facade even once?

When Tristan is rescuing Mokuba and the guards chase after him and Yami Bakura, Bakura could have just acted like silly ditzy Ryou, especially in the anime. "Oh no!! Uh, I'm a duelist too, please don't hurt me- oh wow, what happening?? Wow, the card activated somehow?! That's so awesome!" And then Tristan would have had no reason to throw the Ring away, because it had helped them. In the manga, it would have been easy to reduce Tristan's suspicion by acting surprised that the guard randomly dropped to the floor.

Whenever Yami Bakura used the powers of the Ring, he just needed to pretend that the Ring had done it all on its own, and act innocently surprised at the results. Especially after Pegasus talks about the "evil intelligence" in the Items- that gives him the perfect excuse to blame any magical happenings on the Ring. There would be no evidence for the possibility of Yami Bakura's presence, and therefore no pressure for "Ryou" to take off the Ring.

Any suspicion that Yugi and friends harbored about Ryou not acting like himself would slowly fade away. After all, if Yami Bakura always portrays Ryou a particular way, that's consistent behavior over a long period of time, and it's not like any of them really knew Ryou Bakura for very long. And no one has ever returned from the shadow realm, and even if it were possible, wouldn't the Spirit of the Ring have done something evil by now?

Now imagine the Battle City with "Ryou" instead of Yami Bakura. If he chooses to keep up the facade around Marik, he just needed to say, “Ahh, you almost ran me over!!! Oh hey that's a cool gold stick you've got there! Could that be... A Millennium Item?” Whether or not Marik would have fallen for the act would be interesting speculation.

But now imagine this: the Battle City Finals. Yami Yugi vs. "Ryou". Any suspicion that "Ryou" isn't himself is long gone at this point. Yami Yugi wouldn't be taking him seriously like he hadn't been taking Mai seriously in Pegasus's castle.

Yami Bakura still could have had his shadow game, there are at least two different paths he could have taken: 1) Pretend the spookiness is purely a visual effect of his occult-themed cards, or 2) Act surprised and scared that there's a shadow game in place, and ask if Yami Yugi had started the shadow game. He could have asked if Yami Yugi was trying to take his Millennium Ring, or if the Millennium Puzzle was reacting to his Ring, either way throwing suspicion on Yami Yugi.

And the duel itself, ohhhh he could have messed with their heads so much if he had played his cards right. Yami Bakura pretending to get injured at Yami Yugi's every attack in order to pull at Yugi's heart strings, along with those of the audience.

Imagine "Ryou" being enthusiastic about his monsters and waxing on and on about how cool each of them is and how he relates them to people in his life and Yugi/Yami Yugi feeling increasingly uncomfortable about destroying them.

"Ryou": Look at this guy! He's coming out of a painting haha. He's based on this awesome myth from Korea!

Yami Yugi: Uh.... Yeah, it's cool... Umm... Dark Magician... Attack that card directly...

“Ryou”: oh.. ):

He could even tell Yami Yugi that Dark Necrofear reminds him of his dead mom and sister. "My sister liked to roleplay too, you know. She likes to pretend she's one of the monsters, but she always makes you guess which one!  :) "

Whatever would make "Ryou" even more sad and pitiable. "Ryou" slowly starting to cry as Yami Yugi does more and more damage to his lifepoints, visibly struggling to be enthusiastic about the duel and the monsters and everyone's just feeling terrible, no one's even cheering for Yugi any more.

Mokuba would just begging Kaiba to cancel the duel and Kaiba might actually do it because Bakura doesn't have a God card so why does he even care. If Yami Bakura still thinks he has this in the bag, then he just has to say something like, "Oh haha please don't cancel the duel I think maybe I can turn it around? Haha I just want to do my best!"

If Yami Yugi hadn't been taken off his game by the prospect of dueling "Ryou" and the duel had gone the same way, would he have blasted "Ryou" with Slifer the Sky Dragon? Yami Bakura wouldn't have had to switch because he would've been in control the whole time.

If Yami Yugi gives in and fails to attack Ryou, Seto would have very likely given the win to "Ryou", possibly reasoning that Yami Yugi's friendship had failed him (just as he had warned before the Yugi/Possessed!Joey duel) and that it would be easier to win Slifer from Ryou than from Yami Yugi anyways, and he could always come back to destroy Yami Yugi personally once he got all the God cards.

If Yami Yugi completed the attack on "Ryou", Yami Bakura would have lost but none of Yami Yugi's friends nor Yugi would really trust him any more. It's a catch-22 because yeah they need to advance in the tournament, but Ryou doesn't even have a God card and just seems to have gotten in this mess accidentally, and here Yami Yugi is, blasting him with an OP card when he's injured and crying. It would have made his upcoming actions in Season Four even more questionable.

How smart!Bakura would have handled Yami Marik would also be something interesting to speculate. If he had had Slifer the Sky Dragon, he might have been able to turn the duel around, and if he had, then that would have led to some pretty interesting consequences. Marik would no longer have a body, and Yami Bakura would have Slifer, Ra, and the Millennium Rod in his possession. That would have changed the story line immensely!

But assuming that even smart!Bakura was still taken out by Yami Yugi and Yami Marik, there is still a lot he could have done to mess with the protagonists, especially if "Ryou" being better friends with Yugi & Co. led to his inclusion in Season Four.

While it wouldn't have been convenient for Dartz to resurrect Leviathan, so he wouldn't want Yami Yugi to lose in this case, it doesn't mean that he can't keep sowing seeds of unease between Yami Yugi and his friends. Yami Yugi would do most of his work for him when he uses the Seal of Orichalcos after all. "Ryou" just has to ask whether the ends justify the means, especially since losing the duel had no real consequence until Yami Yugi himself put down the Seal.

Even if "Ryou" didn't get to join the crew in Season Four, there was still plenty of time for him to wedge them apart before he put his final RPG into action. "Ryou" could very easily imply that all of the Millennium Items and spirits must be bad because of the actions of the Spirit of the Ring and Yami Marik, as well as how Pegasus had turned evil and Ishizu had lost hope for the future once they gained their Millennium Items. It would be easy to say that the spirits were all pieces of Zorc, the silent implication being that Yami Yugi was one too.

After all, Yami Yugi has a long list of bad deeds on him. All of the original manga was of highly questionable morality, especially since he often seemed to let Yugi get quite beaten up before stepping in, and a lot of the punishments were not proportional to the crimes. Even setting all of that aside, Yami Yugi was perfectly willing to let Kaiba die there in Duelist Kingdom, and he either blasted "Ryou" with Slifer or took a long time to spare him.

All of this vs. literal saint "Ryou" Bakura, who has only ever been nice, and who doesn't even tease Joey and Tristan like the actual Ryou Bakura would. The difference would have been heightened by "Ryou"'s help against Bandit Keith in the warehouse, and "Ryou"'s support against Duke Devlin. Yugi himself would end up seeming more problematic for harboring a dangerous spirit than "Ryou".

If Yami Bakura remembered the Kul Elna massacre, then he could have even dialed up the angst to eleven.

"Ryou": I had a vision when I first touched the puzzle... Of a pharaoh leading an army into a poor village struggling in the middle of the desert... Everyone died, everyone... And we're wearing them around our necks...

Yugi and friends would have been absolutely horrified, and Yugi might actually take off his Millennium Puzzle, at least while he got his thoughts straight. The tension and drama would have been in overdrive with this revelation.

"Ryou" could have told the gang that the Items have their own sense of good and evil, and that it's very different from their own. Then when Bobasa doesn't let "Ryou" enter the pharaoh's memories, the gang will wonder if that's proof. After all, "Ryou" has been the sweetest, nicest friend ever, and has never not acted like a literal saint with them.

Friends who were doubting Atem and scared of the darkness within the Puzzle would have had a lot more trouble finding the door to his memories, and friends who didn't make it into the memories in time would not have been able to help Atem.

There are a number of ways that the story could end with smart!Bakura, which are all interesting to speculate on, though Takahashi would probably still have ended the story in a positive note. Perhaps the final revelation of his existence would have given Yugi and friends renewed faith to back Atem, or perhaps smart!Bakura might have been redeemed and/or cleansed of Zorc. Or maybe Ryou Bakura would make a final comeback and destroy Yami Bakura, just as he had in the first RPG.

Just interesting things to think about- how else would the storylines had changed if Yami Bakura was a little more cunning?

Also, the thought that "smart Bakura" has to be an AU never fails to crack me up.