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Call to all Ryuuji-lovers...
So, we know that everyone's favorite snarky gamer has a dark and tragic past, with an insane father who immolates himself, but can anyone give more details on that? I ask for it on behalf of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
otakugyrl who is a goldmine of information on Yami no Bakura but needs to be told more about the wonderfully sarcastic brat that is Ryuuji.
To read her heartbroken pleas and distress at not knowing enough about his past, click here.
*waves a little "Yami no Malik for Total Dictator" flag*
otakugyrl who is a goldmine of information on Yami no Bakura but needs to be told more about the wonderfully sarcastic brat that is Ryuuji. To read her heartbroken pleas and distress at not knowing enough about his past, click here.
*waves a little "Yami no Malik for Total Dictator" flag*
no subject
..... .... *speechless*
Part one (word count too long. Damn it)
Ok. In the manga, Yugi's grandfather is not the person who actually finds the puzzle, Ryuuji's father is. The puzzle and its powers were actually intended for Ryuuji, but his father ends up playing a really scary occult game with Yugi's grandfather, and ends up losing. As a result, Yugi's grandfather gets the puzzle, and Ryuuji's father starts to mysteriously age very rapidly and becomes very grotesque looking.
Not being the forgiving sort, Ryuuji’s father (who is only known in the manga as “Mr Clown’, as that is what he is *constantly* dressed as) dedicates his life to seeking revenge on Yugi’s grandfather, and basically uses his son as a pawn to achieve this. He trains Ryuuji in various areas, and the whole reason they move to Domino (where they open a game shop) is to take revenge on Yugi’s grandfather through destroying Yugi, and to take back the puzzle and Yami.
At this stage, it is perhaps important to note that Ryuuji’s father is practically drowning in all this occult stuff, and Ryuuji appears to know a fair bit as well – for instance, Ryuuji knows all about Yami and his powers, and the way he deliberately humiliates Jounouchi during class (similar to the anime scene) is simply to draw Yami out so he can face him. Not only does Ryuuji seem to know more about Yami and the puzzle than Yami does, but Ryuuji can instantly tell when Yami takes over control of Yugi. It’s one of the real missed opportunities of the series; the way Ryuuji’s knowledge was never fully explored.
Anyway, back to the plot. Ryuuji and Yami end up playing a game at school with normal cards, which Yami wins. Ryuuji is all pissed, and the version we see of him at school is very much like his anime persona. Arrogant, bitchy. When he goes home however, we see a very different Ryuuji. Around his father, Ryuuji is amazingly polite and very formal – pretty damn submissive. When Ryuuji tells his father that he faced Yami and lost, his father actually hits him. With a whip. Did I mention that his father carries the whip around with him everywhere? Immediately afterwards, his father apologises, and asks Ryuuji if he is all right, too which Ryuuji replies that he is (*snorts*, not likely), and that he is the one who is sorry. It doesn’t come across well in typing, but it shows how amazingly manipulative his father is, and just how much Ryuuji is completely under his thumb. It’s at that point that you really start to get the feeling that Ryuuji is a little screwed up.
The next day, Jounouchi, Honda and Yugi visit Ryuuji’s father shop for its grand opening. Ryuuji’s father separates Yugi from the others, and locks him in a room with a DDM game board, and Ryuuji. Ryuuji’s father forces Yugi to play against Ryuuji even though Yugi doesn’t know the rules of the game. The puzzle is broken, and so Yugi has to duel Ryuuji as himself, as opposed to letting Yami do it – a huge difference from the anime.
(continued in part two below)
Re: Part one (word count too long. Damn it)
Not to mention that emotional manipulation is perfect for what the information is needed for though. It's so weird, it's like the mun for Ryuuji was RPing with that stuff in mind even though I'm not sure if he knew it. *nods*
Thank you so much for putting this up.
Part two.
Long story short, Ryuuji loses. He apologises to his father for losing, but finds that he can’t hold any bad feelings against Yugi because he’s starting to like him. Ryuuji comments that perhaps this has all gone to far, and his father agrees. Apologetic!Ryuuji’s father goes to put the puzzle back around Yugi’s neck, but instead uses the actual puzzle to choke Yugi, pulling him away into a secret room, but not before blasting his son for being useless/a waste of space/a simple pawn who couldn’t even achieve it’s only purpose in life/ a disgrace etc, etc. Poor, poor Ryuuji. When it comes to shitty fathers, he got the worst of them. In the separate room, the puzzle is nailed to a table and Ryuuji’s father and Yugi participate in an occult game that Ryuuji’s father loses before then going completely mad, and ends up accidentally setting the room on fire. Ryuuji’s father escapes, but Yugi refuses to leave without the puzzle, which he’ll be able to remove from the table only if he can put the pieces back together. What happens next is basically the same as the Yugi x Keith duel from Battle City, Jounouchi comes in, tries to get Yugi to leave. Yugi refuses, saying he can’t leave until he fixes the puzzle. Yugi fixes puzzle, collapses, and Jounouchi has to carry him out.
Once they’re all outside, a fireman comes up and asks if anyone else is still inside, and it is YUGI who has to say that Ryuuji’s father is. Whether Ryuuji would have mentioned it isn’t really known, and I think the scene is up to interpretation. I think we see his father get carted off in an ambulance, and that is the last we ever see or hear of him.
A lot of it comes down to the actual feel of the scenes between Ryuuji and his father. I mean, there is somehting freaky about the fact that the man wears a clown suit in the first place, let along the whip he carries along with it. The complete contrast in Ryuuji's character when he's around his father as opposed to others is pretty huge, and the scene where Ryuuji is actually hit by his father is just done perfectly. His father makes it pretty damn clear that Ryuuji's only purpose in life was to act out his revenge - which Ryuuji's father himself couldn't do, and it's always made me wonder personally exactly how much Ryuuji's father lived through his son.
Anyway, hope that was of some help! I could talk for hours on ym various opinions and interpretations of those scenes, but I doubt that that is hardly a surprise!
Re: Part two.
WOW to the info you know
and
WOW to his life...