YGO music and typos
I decided to do something I've wanted to do for a couple of weeks and get out some of my Japanese YGO music. I have all the albums for the classic series, save the one with all the openings and endings on it. I'm pretty sure most, if not all, are bootleg copies. (Ooops.) My favorite album was always the one for season 4. I still love the early tracks on it especially, including the themes for the individual bikers. Each one fits so well. I still think, however, that the dub vastly improved on the Seal of Orichalcos theme. For Dartz, I like both themes.
I also tried some of the Battle City soundtrack. I love the tracks Warmth and Serenity's Feelings, and there's some fun things like a Millennium Ring theme. And Joey has a pretty good theme. But when it comes to Seto and Marik ... honestly, I think the dub themes are better. And then I got a little bored with the tracks that came after Seto's theme, so I turned my attention to looking up more dub scores on YouTube.
Then I got out my YGO Handbook that they released in 2016, probably to promote the movie, and looked through it for a while. I love it, especially since it's the kind of book I longed for while the show was running and couldn't seem to find. However, there really are some bad typos in it and I wonder why on earth they weren't caught before the book went to press. They stuck a blurb about Jack's Knight in the space for Obelisk the Tormentor, which was really WTH material. Worse, Tracey West didn't seem to have the Marik and Yami Marik problem straight and she wrote that Yami Marik was the one inhabiting Marik's body straight through after his first appearance. **headdesk.** Yet in other parts of the book, she correctly lists Marik as the one starting the Rare Hunters and performing some of the acts such as mind-controlling Joey. And her blurb about Alister wasn't very nice, whereas she was nice to the other two bikers. It was truthful, I suppose, as she talked of the airplane duel and that Alister didn't care if everyone onboard was either harmed in the crash or caught by the Orichalcos, but what she made no mention of was that Alister was under the spell of the Orichalcos at that point. In fact, I don't recall anything in the book at all about how the Orichalcos changes personalities by darkening hearts.
(And a totally superficial complaint, but I object that there were no pictures of Thief King Bakura, even though he was repeatedly mentioned. But at least there were lots of pictures of Yami Bakura.)
While listening to the music, I was also working with Dragons at Dawn, going over the remaining chapters and adding stuff where needed. I expanded a conversation between Dartz and Alister and I really love the results. I hope to have the whole story posted before long.
I also plan to write a story involving Valon taking place shortly after Doom. Someone on Tumblr made the rather disturbing observation that while everyone else's personalities noticeably change after being poisoned by the Orichalcos, Valon's alone does not. They theorized that Valon has accepted his darkness while the others are denying theirs and that hence, the Orichalcos has no hold on Valon. That ... rather makes him sound darker than anyone else, even Dartz, if he's doing all of these dark things without being corrupted. When watching the episodes, I have to admit I didn't notice much, if any, change in him during his duel with Joey. In the Japanese, however, Valon tells Mai that she saw the awful side of him, which could mean different things, but I wondered if that was any indication that the Orichalcos did change him after all and it's more apparent in the Japanese version. I thought I might tinker with this problem a little.
More than that, though, I'm leaning towards the story maybe being a little friendshippy and maybe being a basic redo of On My Way Home for the current timeline. The bikers are all separated at the end of the arc, but I'm sure Raphael, at least, might try to find the other two, and I'd like to explore their thoughts and feelings and how they ended up reunited, as many fans like to believe they were. On My Way Home is a well-written piece, but it has some ideas that I'd rather tweak around now that I'm contemplating some other personality details. I'd like to explore Valon's feelings of fighting for himself and not caring about others, and how Mai and Joey changed that, and how he might feel about the possibility of friendship and the other bikers. And I'm contemplating Alister working at a broken-down theatre while looking for the other two and Valon maybe finding him there. And they probably have a clash, not understanding each other well and Valon maybe not ready to admit yet that he does care about Alister, at least. He's probably more willing to accept caring for Raphael.
... Also, the official spelling really does seem to be Rafael, but I don't think I could ever spell it that way. I never have and it's too ingrained in me to spell it the more standard way. (Plus, I thought Rafael was a Mexican/Spanish variation, and this Raphael is French. Hmm.... Yep, Raphael is how it's spelled in French. But in Japanese, it's Rafael, so I guess that's where it's coming from. Interesting.)
I also tried some of the Battle City soundtrack. I love the tracks Warmth and Serenity's Feelings, and there's some fun things like a Millennium Ring theme. And Joey has a pretty good theme. But when it comes to Seto and Marik ... honestly, I think the dub themes are better. And then I got a little bored with the tracks that came after Seto's theme, so I turned my attention to looking up more dub scores on YouTube.
Then I got out my YGO Handbook that they released in 2016, probably to promote the movie, and looked through it for a while. I love it, especially since it's the kind of book I longed for while the show was running and couldn't seem to find. However, there really are some bad typos in it and I wonder why on earth they weren't caught before the book went to press. They stuck a blurb about Jack's Knight in the space for Obelisk the Tormentor, which was really WTH material. Worse, Tracey West didn't seem to have the Marik and Yami Marik problem straight and she wrote that Yami Marik was the one inhabiting Marik's body straight through after his first appearance. **headdesk.** Yet in other parts of the book, she correctly lists Marik as the one starting the Rare Hunters and performing some of the acts such as mind-controlling Joey. And her blurb about Alister wasn't very nice, whereas she was nice to the other two bikers. It was truthful, I suppose, as she talked of the airplane duel and that Alister didn't care if everyone onboard was either harmed in the crash or caught by the Orichalcos, but what she made no mention of was that Alister was under the spell of the Orichalcos at that point. In fact, I don't recall anything in the book at all about how the Orichalcos changes personalities by darkening hearts.
(And a totally superficial complaint, but I object that there were no pictures of Thief King Bakura, even though he was repeatedly mentioned. But at least there were lots of pictures of Yami Bakura.)
While listening to the music, I was also working with Dragons at Dawn, going over the remaining chapters and adding stuff where needed. I expanded a conversation between Dartz and Alister and I really love the results. I hope to have the whole story posted before long.
I also plan to write a story involving Valon taking place shortly after Doom. Someone on Tumblr made the rather disturbing observation that while everyone else's personalities noticeably change after being poisoned by the Orichalcos, Valon's alone does not. They theorized that Valon has accepted his darkness while the others are denying theirs and that hence, the Orichalcos has no hold on Valon. That ... rather makes him sound darker than anyone else, even Dartz, if he's doing all of these dark things without being corrupted. When watching the episodes, I have to admit I didn't notice much, if any, change in him during his duel with Joey. In the Japanese, however, Valon tells Mai that she saw the awful side of him, which could mean different things, but I wondered if that was any indication that the Orichalcos did change him after all and it's more apparent in the Japanese version. I thought I might tinker with this problem a little.
More than that, though, I'm leaning towards the story maybe being a little friendshippy and maybe being a basic redo of On My Way Home for the current timeline. The bikers are all separated at the end of the arc, but I'm sure Raphael, at least, might try to find the other two, and I'd like to explore their thoughts and feelings and how they ended up reunited, as many fans like to believe they were. On My Way Home is a well-written piece, but it has some ideas that I'd rather tweak around now that I'm contemplating some other personality details. I'd like to explore Valon's feelings of fighting for himself and not caring about others, and how Mai and Joey changed that, and how he might feel about the possibility of friendship and the other bikers. And I'm contemplating Alister working at a broken-down theatre while looking for the other two and Valon maybe finding him there. And they probably have a clash, not understanding each other well and Valon maybe not ready to admit yet that he does care about Alister, at least. He's probably more willing to accept caring for Raphael.
... Also, the official spelling really does seem to be Rafael, but I don't think I could ever spell it that way. I never have and it's too ingrained in me to spell it the more standard way. (Plus, I thought Rafael was a Mexican/Spanish variation, and this Raphael is French. Hmm.... Yep, Raphael is how it's spelled in French. But in Japanese, it's Rafael, so I guess that's where it's coming from. Interesting.)