fickle | Ryuuji characterization thoughts.

While going through my old entries, I realized that I'd done this for Yami no Malik but never Ryuuji. So, here goes with my attempt to take a look at the world's favorite green-eyed gamer, canon versus fanon interpretations, RPability and some ideas from other people. (Please note, I'm talking about the manga version, not the anime. If you need an explanation of how they're different, read this post for a basic summary or the comments for a more detailed run-through.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ryuuji or YGO. I don't claim these views are 100% right and the only way to look at him. The following is just a listing of popular and rare fanon theories and my take on them, supported by scans from the manga and logical extrapolation.

Eyeliner/Tattoo/Scar:

One of the things that's oddest about Ryuuji's looks is the streak of black eyeliner he has under his left eye. Popular fandom theories are as follow:

1. It's eyeliner as a style thing (found in fics about anime!Duke).
2. It's eyeliner to cover up a scar (found in fics and my personal favorite theory).
3. It's a scar (originally encountered in an RP with sakata), her thoughts explained a little further here.)
4. It's a tattoo (mentioned in a story by 9tails).
5. It's a tattoo his father made him get to mar Ryuuji's perfect looks (discussed in this entry by cairnsy).

The last theory is one that I would have never thought of on my own, but there's a certain logic to it, especially when you consider how it mimics the clown look of his father's mask. And his father is definitely bastard enough to make him have done. The tattoo-versus-eyeliner theory is also backed up by the fact that Ryuuji, even when sleeping, has the streak in place, not smudged or smeared in the least.

However, that could also be due to really strong/waterproof eyeliner? I don't know. I might be tempted to split the two and make it a tattoo covering up a scar in the future since I like the idea of Ryuuji turning something ugly into something pretty but at the same time, I also like the idea of him reapplying it every morning after a shower. Like a little permanent reminder of how his life has changed and how he can't get hurt any longer -- with a tattoo, you don't have the constant reminder. You go in, you're hurt, it heals, over and done with.

Wristlets:

Ryuuji also wears wristlets 24/7. Just like for the eyeliner, there are a couple of different theories behind it:

1. It's a style thing (found in fics about anime!Duke).
2. Ryuuji's a cutter and has bandages under the wristlets (found in fics about manga!Ryuuji).
3. They're actually secretly concealing wristblades (my favorite theory).
4. They cover up scars from a failed suicide attempt (more in this entry by cairnsy).
5. They cover scars caused by bloodmagic (found in fics about manga!Ryuuji).

The cutter thing bugs me personally because what we see of Ryuuji is an extrovert-introvert split whose behavior adapts depending on his company, who is ruthless, efficient, occasionally cruel, chivalrous and charismatic. He strikes me as too focused on being happy to secretly angst and cut himself; he isn't the type to allow himself to be lost for long. His life has had a purpose since he was born.

At the same time, I'm willing to semi-believe the failed suicide attempt theory, because that's a fairly decisive move to make, it's one way out of a situation that he can't escape otherwise -- though, cairnsy, fifteen, really?! I always thought he was sixteen when he ran into Yugi's pack -- and considering his father has no problem using a whip on him, Ryuuji ought to have a high enough pain tolerance that the thought of how much it would hurt might not bother him.

I'll fully buy into the scars-from-bloodmagic theory, and I heart the secret weapons theory because after all, they're positioned in the exact right place, Ryuuji was brought up by an Evil Clown and wristblades are a sneaky weapon and he's sneaky. Personally, I don't RP/write Ryuuji as having scars under the wristlets but I would think it makes sense for him to hide something ugly under something pretty, again like with the eyeliner-scar theory.

Education/Work:

In this page from the manga, Ryuuji's father says that he raised and educated Ryuuji himself. There are a couple of ways you can take that:

1. Ryuuji was fully home-schooled and that Domino was the first school he attended (logical conclusion from that page).
2. Ryuuji's father taught him magic but Ryuuji went to normal school for the rest of it (found in fics about manga!Ryuuji).
3. Ryuuji was partly home-schooled, but also attended normal schools to keep his social interaction skills up to par.

Ryuuji is a very successful game designer as made obvious in that page, where sales of the games are limited on the first day to make sure they don't get stockpiled, meaning that D.D.D isn't the first game he invented. Therefore, it's possible that he was academically and magically home-schooled to make sure he'd be able to juggle his schedule well enough to make sure that he'd have time to keep inventing games.

Abuse:

Anyone who's read the manga knows that Ryuuji was physically abused, thanks to Mr. Psycho Clown Daddy who walked around with a whip and couldn't take even the slightest failure on Ryuuji's part. Theories about that fall into the following categories:

1. The abuse was only physical (found in fics where the author is idiot enough to think that you can get hit by a parent without feeling any emotional backlash).
2. The abuse was physical and mental (found in fics, RPs, canon and favored by cairnsy, ego_chan and myself).
3. The abuse was physical, sexual and mental (found in the occasional fic).

From this sequence of events, I think it's pretty obvious that Ryuuji's father is a manipulative mindfucking bastard, since not only does he lash Ryuuji twice with the whip within a short space of time, but he also guilt-trips Ryuuji by showing his 'war wounds' and saying that Ryuuji is the only one whom he can rely on. That's enough to have Ryuuji apologizing for having failed his father, when his failure was nothing more than losing a normal game of chance which allowed him to scout out his opponent's abilities anyway.

Sexual, you can make a case for it by saying that Ryuuji looks nothing like his father and therefore can be taken to resemble his dead mother and also, for someone as hideously deformed as Ryuuji's father is, having such a beautiful son must be torture. The fact that Ryuuji's androgynous probably counts against him there, and the touchy-feelyness of his father also gets used as evidence that his father sexually abused him.

Personally, I dislike that theory for the simple reason that c'mon, the kid is physically abused, mentally fucked over, got guilt/perfectionist complexes, and seriously, how much more trauma does he need? I'd really rather not debate it -- since there's no hard canon evidence in favor of it like there is with the physical/mental abuse, I'm not interested in reading further into the lines to figure out if it's implied or not.

Right. That's it for now. If I do a second part, I'll look into magical training, attitude, intelligence, sexuality and personality quirks.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...Ehhhh. Don't make me think about that. Mostly because I'm envisioning Harley/Sindin and THAT is a brainbreaking thought now.

Good take. Really good take. I think that Ryuuji'd stay still for it and afterwards, keep it like a kind of reminder instead of risking having it lasered off.

Oh? I haven't seen that. But dude, that is ONE way in which I could see Ryuuji cutting himself, whereas I am usually totally against that.

Check out

411allsystemsdown if you want to see me playing Seto and Lix playing Sieg against each other. XD I usually write Ryuuji/Malik and Ryuuji/Seto but hm, Ryuuji/Sieg would definitely get to Seto in crazyverse. And it would be something that'd smart for Sieg too, getting fucked by Seto's lover but not being able to keep him. Losing out on that level as well. *snickers* But I left it vague on purpose.

And yes, I think that Ryuuji'd be way protective of darling snarky Mokuba. Especially knowing that Mokuba had his own bad side when trying to get Seto's attention. He'd be very insistent on making sure that Mokuba has enough attention from Seto -- some sort of Saturday brunch with cartoons or game night where they all play Monopoly. ~~Selina and Talia both! I mentioned them both in the fic. XD And I think that Talia also had green eyes, actually.~~

So way annoying but fortunately, I usually get it settled within a few posts. I still prefer playing in third person past tense to anything else. You?

... XDDDD Yeah, but it was TASTEFULLY done. No details!

OH MY GOD DO NOT FUCKING WANT. *head explodes* D8

Yeah. He'd hold still, and wait for it to be over--but he'd be reminded of it forever.

I like it, but it's not for everyone. ♥ If you like creepy mind-trips and plot twists, though, by all means, check it out. Yeah, I'm against that, too, but that is a case where I can se that happening.

Ooh, ok, i will. ♥ OMFG I KINDA WANNA SEE THAT IN CRAZYVERSE. Jealous!Seto FTW, since the man normally appears to have the emotional capabilities of an ice-cube. Waaaant it~ :x

I can majorly see Ryuuji taking him under his wing. XD So cute. ~~... OMFG. In the whole "Dragon Knight" thing V.S. and I are writing, one of the character's names is Talia. >.> She has blue eyes, though.~~

I prefer the same thing. I dislike most other formats--I'm so picky.

... XD

I could make it worse. Imagine Sindin/Joker/Harley. That's EVEN WORSE.

I think he might curl his toes, because nobody can see that and it's one way to tense up without his father being aware of it.

I don't really like cutterfic, because it's usually done really badly and cliche. I prefer self-destructive fic, where people spiral downwards, getting dragged towards the darkest, hardest core of themselves.

Oops, messed up the name. It was too long.

411systemsdown. There. XD Liz and I play it out over MSN and whenever we have time, we clean up bits and I usually post them. And LOL! Poor, poor Seto! And poor Sieg too! I mean, seriously, Ryuuji would just stretch out afterwards, whack Sieg lightly with a pillow (if they went back to his hotel) and then walk over to the bathroom, totally unself-consciously naked. And if Sieg tried to ask about a second time, Ryuuji would just laugh and lean in and whisper that Sieg can't compare to Seto in bed -- or anywhere else -- and Ryuuji just wanted to be able to tell Seto that he knew that for a fact. This experiment doesn't need repeating.

Adorably cute. Mokuba'd get TWO overprotective and awesome brothers. ~~XDDD I had the dragonandknight comm set up for Ryuuji/Terry but never reallly did much about it.~~

Whee! Match. I can do present tense, occasionally, but past tense is a lot easier to stay in for me. Present tense just doesn't work outside of fics for longterm writing.

Shut up. It was tasteful. :P

.. .OH GOD PLEASE STOP THAT IT BURNSSSSSS. *shot*

Yeah, that. And he'd force himself to breathe steadily and look like it wasn't effecting him at all.

Me, either--it's majorly overdone and it's normally written badly. THOSE fics. YES. I love them. ~~I swear I'm sadistic. :x~~

YAy! I was all "Why does it not work ;~;", but now yay! And I can see Siegfried smirk, tilting his chin slightly, and laugh at how silly those two are, and just act like it didn't affect him at all. But... ow, that would hurt, but he wouldn't show it, even if it killed hi,.

And it would be AWESOME. ~~... YOU'RE SPYING ON ME. Or the other way around. And the link is here, (http://fan-dancer.livejournal.com/145744.html) you didn't see that. XD; Aw. ;;~~

Yeah, I mostly do present-tense for a synopsis or a bio.

... Yeah, it was. ;x *hit*

...Joker/Harley/Sindin/Mad Hatter? XDDDDD

Exactly. Can't make a fuss. It'll just make his father angrier. And he'd hold his breath at the worst bits to stop himself from screaming/panting when his father has the knifetip right near his eye and is talking about making taking it out completely.

HAH! See, you are a girl with taste. Which is obvious since you like my fics and spiral-inwards tastes. ~~At least sadism doesn't scar you as badly as masochism does. No guarantees for the other person, though!~~

Sorry, I keep forgetting we had to change the original comm name because it was too long. And Ryuuji would just be all glittery green eyes and endless, beautiful arrogance. And if Sieg tried to gloat about it to Seto or anything, Seto would just smirk and say that he knows, and that Ryuuji said that Siegfried was absolutely miserable in bed. But he'd be eaten up inside with jealousy, because what Ryuuji would've actually said that is that he told Siegfried that to hurt him, but it wasn't true at all. Siegfried was mind-blowing. But like hell will Seto repeat that.

Lucky, lucky Mokuba. Especially when he starts stealing their clothes. ~~HAH! dragonandknight existed before your fic did :P~~

I do present tense if I'm just messing around, like above with the 'he would, they would' etc, but that's technically not really present tense, but I'm too sleepy to care what the real name is.

HAH! *preens* Who rocks the house? I do, I do!

... NO. D8

And he's maybe thinking Fuck, I hope this ends soon or Maybe he'll go completely nuts and kill me this time, then I'll be free.

I am a lady of exquisite taste, thank you very much. XD ~~True. At least not physically. :D~~

XD S'ok, I've done that, too. ;; And Sieg wouldn't, I think, he'd just keep it to himself, and maybe make a few snide, underhanded remarks. It would be just too delicious not to. ANd maybe Sieg would catch the spark of jealousy in Seto's eyes and smirk just a little wider whenever he saw him. ~~Though, I also like the idea of hate!UST (or NOT UST :x) Seto/Sieg.~~ And yeah, Sieg wouldn't just walk in and be all "o hay don't know what I'm doing" before fucking Ryuuji, he's probably STUDY to make sure he wasn't. XDD

... And Ryuuji would take him shopping so it wouldn't happen any more. But he'd really be amused and maybe a little "Ha! I rock" about it. ~~... I'M READING YOUR MIIIIND~ D8~~

XDDD Yeah, that one's cool for imagine-sequences.

... And I just... agree. XD;

Ryuuji characterization thoughts.

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