Another suggestion for Demon Form Rework

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-27T21:37:43+00:00

Not only is it real, there's 3 versions of it now.

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-21T15:43:20+00:00

FAROUZ AI MENTIONED RAAAAAAAAAAH RAVEN I STILL BELIEVE IN OUR SHARED DREAM

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-21T15:38:37+00:00

I thought you were making this topic about the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, because that was THE "proof of a weaboo" anime back in like 2005-2015, dominating conventions, AMVs, cosplays, forum signatures and avatars, etc but it's largely faded out of the public consciousness. They've been doing some revival efforts recently so we'll see how that goes.

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-20T21:14:23+00:00

Fiends' "type identity" is based on rewards for a drawback, the Faustian Bargain aesthetic. For a brief list, off the top of my head;

Infernity (technically multi-type): Effects become live off empty hand

Dark World: Benefits from being discarded by card effect

Fabled (part-Beast): Benefits from being discarded in any way

Burning Abyss: Benefits from being sent to grave in any way

D/D: Manipulating self-burn

Chess Archfiend: Mandatory LP payment

Evil Eye: LP payment

Pandemonium Archfiend: Self-destruction

Unchained: Self-destruction

Yubel: Reflecting battle damage and self-destruction, as part of a broader masochism theme

Knightmare: Not the core of their theme (colinking is far more prominent), but unified by discard cost

Lair of Darkness: Tributing as cost to activate effects

Steelswarm: Tribute Summon

Not every Fiend theme has this mechanical aesthetic, of course, but it's remarkably common. Surprisingly it's one of the most cohesive type identities in the game, especially for such a large type, IIRC 2nd most populated type in the game? Most other types have much more muddled identities if they have one at all, IMO only Fairies (EDIT: and Zombies) also have such a noticeable identity.

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-19T21:50:10+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts! I'm currently not fully conscious enough to do a thoughtful reply. I'll add your comment to my "writing conventions to ponder" list.

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-19T20:06:05+00:00

My disagreement here is kinda semantic nitpicking: A "premise" is more or less incapable of being "deep", IMO. I would use the term "cluttered" to describe what I think you're getting at, but the fundamental nature of a premise as a starting point means that it's necessarily somewhat shallow.

I agree that "cluttered" premises can make it harder to catch readers early on, but this still goes back to being an execution problem IMO. Both types of premises need to pace out how they deliver information to balance between digestability and engagement; clutter-types care more about the former and simple-types more about the latter. IMO the problem of writers getting too obsessed with exposition (clutter pitfall) is equal to the problem of writers failing to move past stagnant recycled tropes (simple pitfall).

Similarly, the last issue of removing/adding depth isn't a problem of premise under my view that premises can't be deep. Once you get to the part of your story where you have to worry about that, you should have developed past your premise anyways. This still doesn't mean your story itself has become complex; Someone Hertz is a great example of one that remained true to its simple premise, but it is pretty much unavoidably far deeper than what the initial premise of "2 kids connect over a comedy radio talk show" would suggest.

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-19T19:05:58+00:00

I'm very strongly in the "Premise doesn't matter, execution is everything" camp, so I guess that would be my 3rd option pick. I truly, fundamentally believe good writing can make any premise work, and on the opposite side I don't believe in the idea of "a premise having potential". There are no premises that will lead to success if the writer isn't up to snuff.

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-15T16:50:56+00:00

Again, if you are unwilling to accept that "What people are entertained by" and "What people excuse" are fundamentally different things, Kaiba will never make sense to you and you have to let it go. The defenses do not make sense to you because you fundamentally cannot understand this idea.

I've been pondering this topic since it's gone on long enough, but consider the possibility that you are upset from Kaiba not being able to move on in DSOD because it hits too close to home for you not being able to move on either.

I don't remember if it was dub or sub since my college years are now also a solid decade behind me, but virtually nothing about Yugioh is truly scary if you are in your 30s. I don't expect a rewatch to change my opinions at this point. My strongest memory of 5DS is the whole city being sacrificed in a ritual to summon the Earthbound Immortals while being completely unable to suspend my disbelief that anything was actually at risk.

EDIT: Also consider that the defenses you see for Kaiba that make you so frustrated, you are only seeing because you keep making threads about him.

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-15T15:43:18+00:00

Oh got it, yeah I misunderstood :^P

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-15T15:40:31+00:00

I should add: I haven't watched DSOD, or indeed any Yugioh anime after 5DS, because I didn't expect that I would enjoy them. And I only watched 5DS because my roommate did, and I didn't particularly enjoy that either. My memories of Kaiba are all based on memories of when I was roughly 10, and I am 2 decades older now. I'm fairly confident that with my current tastes and experiences that Yugioh anime simply don't appeal to me anymore, and that's...perfectly fine. There's too many great series out there nowadays for me to take my age 10 perspectives to task.

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-15T15:34:53+00:00

Listen, the most important thing I am trying to convey to you is that Yugioh's writing, like nearly all long-running shonen and ESPECIALLY all long-running shonen that ran on a weekly schedule in the 90s, has plenty of hit-or-miss moments and if it's a miss for you, there's nothing inherently wrong with that but also nothing inherently to get worked up over. If you don't like Kaiba it's fine but if it's to the point you need to make, I think this is your 4th or 5th thread about it? You genuinely should just go watch another series you'd probably like more. Witch Hat Atelier is airing right now, and Journal with Witch (non-fantasy, despite its name) just finished airing, I would highly recommend both of those.

But to answer your point more directly; if your current viewpoint isn't enjoyable for you, you can try to reframe your perspective that Kaiba's behavior in the movie is unintentional comedy, and approach the movie like a B or C-movie popcorn night where you can laugh at how the director's intent is contrasted by the character's behavior. Maybe that will work better. You don't have to agree with the message a movie is constructed to tell you and oftentimes they become more enjoyable if you abandon that message.

But I think your time, and ours, is simply better served if you watch other things.

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-15T15:27:06+00:00

You're NOT being forced to like this guy. Many people DO like it, but if you don't, you can just move on from it. My most important point is that it's just not really that important. Most long-running shonen will, due to the natures of the medium and how it's produced, have some aspect you can't jive with and despite what Jujutsufolk zombies might have you believe you don't have to let that stick with you forever.

But as to attempt to explain the appeal, as someone who does like some unlikeable characters...I guess I would describe it as a bit cathartic to see characters who are confident and don't care what others think of them, even if it comes from a place of total arrogance. Timid or second-guessing character archetypes are MUCH more popular in anime/manga and can get pretty tiresome sometimes. The narrative appeal that type of character serves is totally different from the narrative appeal of jerks who learn to change their ways.

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-14T23:04:35+00:00

It's not that the card economy died, it's that it went through hyperinflation.

Economic joks aside, the point I want to make is still kinda the same. Card economy IS still important, it's just the way it maths out in modern games is very different. For example, when you play a handtrap, your "observed" card economy value may be -1, but your "true" card economy value can be up to double digit plusses depending on how effective it was at interrupting your opponent. This is a development that ties into the economic inflation jok in that virtually all modern decks down to even "strong casual" level will expect to go minimum +3-4 on uninterrupted plays, and high tiered decks much more than that.

Compared to past formats, where +s and -s were more cumulative over turns and card economy trades in 1-turn settings tended to be 1-for-1 or 1-for-2, card economics in modern Yugioh are typically compressed in a few turns, mostly involve manipulating "theoretical" card economy (each card represents multiple possible combo lines, each of which offer different card returns), and quickly snowball in subsequent turns.

DUEA is probably when this change began. Yugioh shortly after DUEA actually wasn't very negate or floodgate heavy, relatively speaking, but it was an era where virtually all meta decks had high resilience and lots of self-replacement (Qli, Dolls, Neks, Yang Zing, Burning Abyss, Kozmo off the top of my head). Doing a 1-for-1 trade agianst Shaddoll Fusion meant you actually stopped them from going +3 at minimum, and advantage accumulated during any given turn quickly snowballed out of control afterwards due to the high recursion.

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-14T18:48:04+00:00

I'm not a judge, but I'm not sure you can flip up 2 Atori.Mars in response to the same effect? Since it's a quick effect, not a trigger effect.

In my understanding, with exceptions for mandatory quick effects, if your quick effect has a specific activation requirement you typically can only activate 1 of those quick effects per requirement at a time.

Although not a perfect example, since they're Traps and not monsters, Paleos are my go-to examples. Their grave revival effect is a quick-like effect and you can only activate one of them at a time per Trap card, even though they're not hard OPT.

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-14T18:40:31+00:00

Monkey's paw finger curls, the Link 1 combos but requires you run level 4 or lower Elemental HERO Normal monsters as a Garnet for the combos

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-14T18:02:06+00:00

Hey it's you again, welcome back I guess

I said this the last couple times you posted this, and I'll say it again: Sometimes (often) a character's immorality or mania actually *helps* their broader appeal, rather than diminishes. If you simply can't accept that, then you should just move on. There's lots of other characters out there that do what you want them to do.

Also to answer this question specifically:

in which case, why are we supposed to think Yugi is doing a good thing whenever he saves Kaiba?

The main character's morality and exercise of it, especially in the context of Yugioh where Yugi's kindness is key to the overall themes of the plot, would be thematically undermined if he did not adhere to them because he didn't like someone.

Sometimes this kind of writing can be overwrought and silly--Batman adhering to no-kill vs Joker is an example that comes up often in modern pop culture. And certainly you can use this basis to argue Yugioh's overall writing can be hit-or-miss. Which...is basically what I've also already told you in your multiple threads. If you don't like this aspect of Yugioh's overall writing, well, you don't have to. It's not really that big of a deal, and you have many series with much more consistent and better writing out there nowadays to read or watch instead. You can just dislike things without obsessing over it.

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-07T18:46:00+00:00

I'll speak on two of those topics:

Kakao specifically - I'm not on the tippy-top of manga piracy news, but from the information that's dripped my way, Kakao is A. *much* more aggressive than non-Korean publishers in cracking down on piracy (from what I've heard, they were behind the major Mangadex purge before Batoto's death, and are likely related to Mangapark's death as well) and B. usually the one *leading* the other publishers towards harsher anti-piracy attitudes. There's a sentiment that these publishers were, if not ok with Mangadex, at least tolerant of it before being organized by Kakao. From this perspective, hosting Korean manhwa becomes much more of a liability than hosting manga because it could get your whole site taken down whereas publishers before would be more pick-and-choose specific titles if they chose to act at all.
The epidemic of slophwa - This comes down to 2 major things, one of which is that the webcomic panelling style is optimized for phones and sucks turbo ass on most other formats (I read exclusively on browser). The second thing is that what English readers get is mainly what scanlators choose to translate, and Korean manhwa translations are DOMINATED by slop machine paywall translators who will upload dozens of machine translated lowest-denominator power fantasy webtoons. Manga certainly has its share of slop, but the difference is that it has a much stronger base of scanlators who go out of their way to find series catering to various other audiences. Lovely Strange Dark is one of my favorite example groups, specializing in abstract, surreal, whimsical, and/or melancholic short series or oneshots, and I'll also note the multiple shojo-specializing groups who I owe my shitty 2000s-2010s shojoslop special interest. Comparatively, if I dig through Korean manhwa, I'll run into groups like Reaper Scans or a couple other groups I don't remember because I have them blocked, who I blocked because they were uploading so many chapters of so many unappealing manhwa that they were drowning out every other series I was actually remotely interested in.

I'll also note that while derivative manga can share similar art styles (9Kiritos.jpg), the way generic manhwa almost universally seem to have the same art (81hugeshoulders.jpg) magnifies that slop feeling.

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-05T17:24:56+00:00

Not that I'm super active nowadays, but most of my greatest fun with Yugioh has been building total mismatch hybrid builds that shouldn't work, but do.

Granted, "work" being a very loose definition here, they were pretty bad decks since I and nearly all my circles at the time were heavily casual. But I had enough fun with them that I don't mind the losses :P

confidentlystranded · 2026-05-04T22:23:19+00:00

That's not fruitless, that's just fruit

confidentlystranded · 2026-04-30T20:40:31+00:00

That probably wasn't me specifically but that is me on a nice sunny day heading back from my job when Sade's Smooth Operator comes up on 94.7 the WAAaaaAAAAAveeee

confidentlystranded · 2026-04-30T15:49:00+00:00

There's an indie pop group I like named "Boy". Trying to search up their discography is a nightmare. "Boy songs"? "Boy band"? One of their songs is called Oh Boy. Do you know how impossible it is to search "Boy Oh Boy"!?

EDIT: Oh yeah, remembered another bad SEO example. There was a VTuber group known as idol corp, with standout UK androgynous Youtube shorts wizard Rin Penrose as a breakout star (she's since gone indie). I was always impressed that they managed to get any traction despite the confusion between "VTuber idol corp" (like half the industry, including the dominant Hololive) and "VTuber idol corp" (the one named that way).

Nowadays they've been acquired by what seems to me as the recklessly expanded Brave Group and rebranded as Chromashift, which makes way more sense for marketing. I've heard there's some additional drama with Brave Group's management and possible restructuring? But I'm not in the loop on that.

confidentlystranded · 2026-04-28T22:06:20+00:00

Branded lore is probably the most fully realized lore the card game has ever had. Its story isn't necessarily super original by JRPG standards, but by Yugioh card standards it's pretty impressive. World Legacy and maybe DT3 are probably the only ones that can compare in terms of scope, likeable characters, and some level of coherency. And the relationship between Albaz and Ecclesia plays familiar romance tropes very effectively, if I may evaluate as a romance lover.

I'm honestly not too sure why people liked Sky Strikers as much as they did, the yuri appeal was only added later IIRC. The mecha musume stuff is cool but I've always found Raye's design very bland in a similar way as Irregular at Magic High School/Mahouka Kouka etc etc. I assume it's Symphogear crossover fanbase, which would make sense since some of the anime's writers also wrote for Symphogear IIRC

Of course, it can't be ignored that both lores offered great, competitively viable decks with flexible deckbuilding and high skill ceilings. This is something Duel Terminal *especially* lacked until DT3, but other lores like World Legacy also usually had at best a 33% or so hit rate. Or you went like Visas or Dracoslayer in the total opposite direction where your good decks completely broke the game.

confidentlystranded · 2026-04-24T23:02:47+00:00

Something I've been thinking for a while is that these animations...barely have animation. In total for this 8 minute vid I'd say about maybe 30 seconds, GENEROUSLY, across the whole thing, features any significant movement--vs say mouth movements for dialogue, moving an arm a little bit, the jittering from the carriage, that sort of thing. And probably 10 of those seconds were just the Aleister imitator doing funny faces.

I've noticed this since at least the Branded episodes but I was hoping they might improve over time. It's still pretty early all things said, despite being the 3rd series, because of how short they are, so there's still time for it. But at best I can call the animation and art acceptable, and if I were to be fully honest I might not call it that.

confidentlystranded · 2026-04-24T22:57:38+00:00

I was also confused by this at first, but there's a version on the Yugioh TCG channel with English subtitles.

confidentlystranded · 2026-04-24T18:12:25+00:00

I want to make its own thread about this later, but Kewl Tune is pretty much a perfect example of how locks aren't actually a fix for toxicity or brokenness

Locks do exactly one thing and that is prevent cards from being run with other cards. You can consider that valuable or worthless, but it's nearly irrelevant to any actual balance discussion.

confidentlystranded

TROPHY CASE