Summary of my replies to reviews for "Return to Romance" Chapter 22
Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I really appreciate it and it was so encouraging to hear from people!
Kaiba and Isolation: One thing I’ve tried to build up (it’s included in the next chapter too) is the idea that Kaiba is really alone in this in a way that Yami isn’t, especially now that Yami has opened up to Sugoroku about what happened as well as to Yugi. While Yugi’s advice isn’t always good or realistic - and Yami takes it too literally, Yugi is a sounding board that Kaiba doesn’t have. And in Sugoroku, Yami has someone who can and is willing to offer a different perspective and who is encouraging him to take his time and think about who he is and what he wants.
I think having people like Yugi and Sugoroku is important - and it’s precisely what Kaiba is lacking. As a result, Kaiba is kind of floundering, he misses Yami and he doesn’t even know how to express the tangle of emotions he’s feeling. Given the age difference and his role as Mokuba’s father as well as brother, Kaiba doesn’t have anyone to help him sort things out. In fact the person who up until now has been the one to help him sort things out more than anyone else is Yami.
Yami and Communication: I agree - Yami was too upset to explain himself clearly, but even if he used words of one syllable and drew pictures, Kaiba probably still wouldn’t have grasped what he was talking about. Kaiba’s main experience of relationships is that they center around being used and abandoned - so the idea of someone leaving because they were afraid of hurting him would be something almost beyond his ability to process.
Kaiba is not the only one with some learning to do. I really have been trying to show that for all of Kaiba’s showy, in-your-face flaws, he’s not the only one making mistakes here. Yami has to learn not only that Yugi’s values may not always work for him - and that that’s okay, but that he really isn’t trapped by the past anymore. He isn’t doomed to repeat it. Even though he’s lost his destiny, he’s still clinging to the idea of it.
Yugi and Advice: The terrible advice train rolls on. Yugi means well, but since he has no idea what’s going on or how Yami feels and no experience with relationships, his advice is about as off target as you’d expect. I wanted Sugoroku to be the only one to offer reasonable advice because he’s listening to Yami and basically advising Yami to listen to and think about himself. He has experience to know that he doesn’t have the answers, that Yami has to figure them out for himself.
Kaiba: Yeah, Kaiba does need the title. He needs Yami to come out and say that Kaiba is important to him (probably in words of one syllable) because if there’s a way to doubt and misconstrue things, Kaiba will find it - and right now Yami’s giving him more than enough room to do that.
it’s striking how many times Kaiba basically demands that Yami prove that trust and friendship are real, so I could see him recounting all the reasons why he couldn’t expect Yami, while hoping he was wrong. Yami needed the time to sort things through here, but I could see that being another thing Kaiba would misinterpret.
General Cluelessness: They don’t know if they were dating, Kaiba isn’t sure they had a bad fight, and they don’t know if they’ve broken up *throws up hands* they’re clueless!
At the same time, part of the reason Kaiba’s so clueless is because he’s so unused to relationships where someone actually cares about him that he doesn’t even know how to process the idea, which is really sad. At the same time, because being used or abandoned is so normal to him, he almost sabotages any chance of anything else happening.
Kaiba and Asking: For the last several chapters, I’d been setting up this idea that Kaiba was not going to ask Yami for anything because it made him feel powerless and also because (although he’d never acknowledge it) he couldn’t risk asking and then being denied. So I really wanted the last thing that happened before their fight to be Kaiba finally asking Yami for something.
The link to Chapter 23 at FFNet is here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11040748/23/Return-to-Romance
The link to Chapter 23 at AO3 is here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/3341984/chapters/17492923
This entry was originally posted at http://www.dreamwidth.org/12345.html There are
comments on the original post.
Kaiba and Isolation: One thing I’ve tried to build up (it’s included in the next chapter too) is the idea that Kaiba is really alone in this in a way that Yami isn’t, especially now that Yami has opened up to Sugoroku about what happened as well as to Yugi. While Yugi’s advice isn’t always good or realistic - and Yami takes it too literally, Yugi is a sounding board that Kaiba doesn’t have. And in Sugoroku, Yami has someone who can and is willing to offer a different perspective and who is encouraging him to take his time and think about who he is and what he wants.
I think having people like Yugi and Sugoroku is important - and it’s precisely what Kaiba is lacking. As a result, Kaiba is kind of floundering, he misses Yami and he doesn’t even know how to express the tangle of emotions he’s feeling. Given the age difference and his role as Mokuba’s father as well as brother, Kaiba doesn’t have anyone to help him sort things out. In fact the person who up until now has been the one to help him sort things out more than anyone else is Yami.
Yami and Communication: I agree - Yami was too upset to explain himself clearly, but even if he used words of one syllable and drew pictures, Kaiba probably still wouldn’t have grasped what he was talking about. Kaiba’s main experience of relationships is that they center around being used and abandoned - so the idea of someone leaving because they were afraid of hurting him would be something almost beyond his ability to process.
Kaiba is not the only one with some learning to do. I really have been trying to show that for all of Kaiba’s showy, in-your-face flaws, he’s not the only one making mistakes here. Yami has to learn not only that Yugi’s values may not always work for him - and that that’s okay, but that he really isn’t trapped by the past anymore. He isn’t doomed to repeat it. Even though he’s lost his destiny, he’s still clinging to the idea of it.
Yugi and Advice: The terrible advice train rolls on. Yugi means well, but since he has no idea what’s going on or how Yami feels and no experience with relationships, his advice is about as off target as you’d expect. I wanted Sugoroku to be the only one to offer reasonable advice because he’s listening to Yami and basically advising Yami to listen to and think about himself. He has experience to know that he doesn’t have the answers, that Yami has to figure them out for himself.
Kaiba: Yeah, Kaiba does need the title. He needs Yami to come out and say that Kaiba is important to him (probably in words of one syllable) because if there’s a way to doubt and misconstrue things, Kaiba will find it - and right now Yami’s giving him more than enough room to do that.
it’s striking how many times Kaiba basically demands that Yami prove that trust and friendship are real, so I could see him recounting all the reasons why he couldn’t expect Yami, while hoping he was wrong. Yami needed the time to sort things through here, but I could see that being another thing Kaiba would misinterpret.
General Cluelessness: They don’t know if they were dating, Kaiba isn’t sure they had a bad fight, and they don’t know if they’ve broken up *throws up hands* they’re clueless!
At the same time, part of the reason Kaiba’s so clueless is because he’s so unused to relationships where someone actually cares about him that he doesn’t even know how to process the idea, which is really sad. At the same time, because being used or abandoned is so normal to him, he almost sabotages any chance of anything else happening.
Kaiba and Asking: For the last several chapters, I’d been setting up this idea that Kaiba was not going to ask Yami for anything because it made him feel powerless and also because (although he’d never acknowledge it) he couldn’t risk asking and then being denied. So I really wanted the last thing that happened before their fight to be Kaiba finally asking Yami for something.
The link to Chapter 23 at FFNet is here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11040748/23/Return-to-Romance
The link to Chapter 23 at AO3 is here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/3341984/chapters/17492923
This entry was originally posted at http://www.dreamwidth.org/12345.html There are
comments on the original post.