I decided that I’m not going to be actively posting on this account anymore. I originally created it so that all my ygo-related oc could live in one place, but it’s too confusing for me to try to maintain a dual identity and I haven’t been posting much here so it’s become somewhat of a moot point anyway. I’m not going to delete my old posts, but I’m going to reblog most of the stuff here to my personal account, and that’s where I’ll be posting from now on

I decided that I’m not going to be actively posting on this account anymore. I originally created it so that all my ygo-related oc could live in one place, but it’s too confusing for me to try to maintain a dual identity and I haven’t been posting much here so it’s become somewhat of a moot point anyway. I’m not going to delete my old posts, but I’m going to reblog most of the stuff here to my personal account, and that’s where I’ll be posting from now on

I decided that I’m not going to be actively posting on this account anymore. I originally created it so that all my ygo-related oc could live in one place, but it’s too confusing for me to try to maintain a dual identity and I haven’t been posting much here so it’s become somewhat of a moot point anyway. I’m not going to delete my old posts, but I’m going to reblog most of the stuff here to my personal account, and that’s where I’ll be posting from now on

I decided that I’m not going to be actively posting on this account anymore. I originally created it so that all my ygo-related oc could live in one place, but it’s too confusing for me to try to maintain a dual identity and I haven’t been posting much here so it’s become somewhat of a moot point anyway. I’m not going to delete my old posts, but I’m going to reblog most of the stuff here to my personal account, and that’s where I’ll be posting from now on

I decided that I’m not going to be actively posting on this account anymore. I originally created it so that all my ygo-related oc could live in one place, but it’s too confusing for me to try to maintain a dual identity and I haven’t been posting much here so it’s become somewhat of a moot point anyway. I’m not going to delete my old posts, but I’m going to reblog most of the stuff here to my personal account, and that’s where I’ll be posting from now on

The Problem with Marik

In the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom, a common debate is what names you use for which character, and one of the most hotly debated names is Marik or Malik. I mention this, because this post isn’t about that debate, but is exclusively concerned with a problem with the use of Marik in the dub.

Duel Monsters was released by 4Kids Licensing between September 2001 and June 2006. This mean approximately 45 episodes would have been released a year, or in layman’s terms, a season per year. Furthermore, the recordings for Season Two, which included the start of the Battle City arc would have begun after ratings data had been obtained for some of Season One (or Duelist Kingdom).

I bring this up because the naming decisions surrounding the Ishtar Siblings would have been made following the events of September 11th 2001.

For those of you who are unaware, on September 11th 2001, two planes were piloted into the World Trade Center in New York City. This attack was linked to Islamic Extremists and triggered not only the War on Terror, but also a significant increase in islamophobia and racism towards those of middle-eastern descent.

This is relevant because the names Malik, Isis and Rishid are all Middle-Eastern, with Malik and Rishid being Arabic, whereas the names Marik, Ishizu and Odion are Czech-Polish, Japanese and Nigerian respectively. These are very quaint names to give characters with canonically Egyptian nationality - sort of like naming a Japanese character Bob, it could happen, but it’s an unusual creative decision.

More specifically, the timing horrifically implicates it as a racist decision.

Now, 4Kids Licensing already had a history of changing Japanese words - and names - to westernized versions. This is problematic as well, due to white washing, however it’s somewhat different to what happened with the Ishtar Siblings, since their names are not ‘normalized’ as white, but kept foreign. Just- -not Middle-Eastern foreign.

Whilst both the changes to the Japanese names, and Middle-Eastern names are problematic, I find the latter more troubling, because it is erasure of a specific group, rather than general and unspecified erasure.

It remains improbable that islamophobia would have uniquely influenced the changes for the Ishtar names. However, I find it equally improbable it did not play a role. Although this is all conjecture (and please if you have any further details on release dates or recording dates, I’d kill to look at them), I think this matter bears talking about as a fandom, and something we should consider when using the name Marik, Ishizu, or Odion.

As a Middle Eastern person, I thank you for this post.

If you don’t mind me adding on. The name Malik, while an Arabic name, was also around as a Semitic name, pre-Arab conquest, and that also has some implications.

History of the Middle East as understood in the US is warped and this idea of ~Arab colonizers who wiped out the entire inidigenous population~ has been propagated— which makes it very difficult for the descendants of Middle Eastern indigenous people (like myself), as we’re constantly erased and homogenized as Arab, and this idea of “evil Arab conquestors” has been used to demonize Arab people and excuse white supremacist colonization— and Europeans have taken advantage of this to pit us indigenous people against Arabs (especially Muslim Arabs) as a tactic to cause internal conflict and further white supremacy.

So Malik having that name, specifically, isn’t only an identifier of him as Middle Eastern, it could also be significant to his lineage as an indigenous Middle Eastern person of Egypt. Malik comes from a lineage of secret and likely inbred tombkeepers, who believe in the Ancient Egyptian deities. They were around way before the Arab migration and consequent spread of Islam, and they still are here.

This reminds me of my own ethnic group; we were here with our faith before the Arab migration and subsequent spread of Islam, and we’re still here, even if people want to erase us. We don’t live underground, so there’s been racial/ethnic mixing, and religious conversion, etc. But as far as Malik goes, his family and had very little contact, if any, with the outside world. So I’m banking on Malik and his sister Isis (which is also significant as being related to the Kemetic faith, as opposed to just a Middle Eastern name) being very strongly descended of the indigenous population.

Whether this was intentional on 4Kids’ part, or whether they just wanted to get rid of Middle Eastern names (because all Middle Easterners are the same amirite), they still did an excellent job of shitting on the descendants of indigenous people (like the Copts of Egypt) whose lineage as the closest living descendants of the Ancient Egyptians is constantly erased. It’s upsetting.

Which is also my issue with the romanization of kana as ‘Mariku’. The Japanese phonetic alphabets are limited in their abilities to mimic foreign words (like all alphabets) so it comes out with the characters for ‘Ma’ ‘ri’ ‘ku’ as the closest possible approximation. We don’t have this issue with English, so please consider that before just straight up romanizing kana. It contributes to erasure, whether you intend it or not.

Fanfic: i wanted more from life than it could give

Title: i wanted more from life than it could give Genre: ship study, idk i just wanted to see sort of the beginnings of a dynamic Ship: puppyship, beginnings thereof Summary: “I am not a charity case,” Jounouchi snarled, hand yanking away from Seto’s, “You still don’t understand; poverty doesn’t destroy people, hopelessness does.” Gift for operagoose

the use of this pic makes me happy

The "shadow" of ones personality

In Jungian psychology, the shadow or “shadow aspect" may refer to:

"The shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself" and can often be plainly seen by others.

The shadow is largely the negative aspect of ones’s personality (one tends to reject or remain ignorant of them) but may also be positive (especially in people with low self-esteem).

 ”Everyone carries a shadow,” Jung wrote, “and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.”

Projecting your shadow onto other people

According to Jung, the shadow is prone to projection, where a personality trait is seen to belong to another person, but in fact you have transferred (projected) it from your own personality onto the other person.

Possessed by the shadow 

According to Jung, the shadow sometimes overwhelms a person’s actions; for example, when the conscious mind is shocked, confused, or paralyzed by indecision. ‘A man who is possessed by his shadow is always standing in his own light and falling into his own traps … living below his own level’ and has no certainty of emergence from it. It is a time of decent which requires genuine courage and strength to overcome.

Integration of the shadow

Integration or assimilation of the shadow requires reincorporating the shadow into the personality, producing a stronger, wider consciousness than before. 

Integration of ones shadow does not happen all at once, but rather is done step by step, a process that continues throughout ones life.

Interview with Kazuki Takahashi from TIME FOR KIDS in 2002

TIME: How did you get your start? Takahashi: As a kid, I always liked to draw. But it wasn’t till high school that I tried to actually put a manga (story) together. I published my first one 20 years ago. It was a cartoon comedy about a high school, and it was a total flop. Then I followed with one about pro-wrestling, which was also a failure. I don’t really like to think about it.  TIME: How did the idea for Yu-Gi-Oh come to you? Takahashi: I’ve always been obsessed with games. Certainly as a kid, and even today, I like blackjack and board games like Scotland Yard. In a game, the player becomes the hero. And that’s the basic premise for Yu-Gi-Oh. The main character, Yugi, is a weak and childish boy who becomes a hero when he plays games.  TIME: In the early episodes, Yugi plays a whole variety of games, some with toys, others with gadgets. But the manga didn’t take off until you introduced the card game.  Takahashi: That’s right. Originally, I’d planned to phase out that particular game in two episodes. But the reader response we got was enormous. Shonen Jump started getting calls from all these kids who wanted to know more about the game — how to play it, where they could get it. At the time, kids didn’t really play card games; they were way into video games. But it’s much more thrilling to battle against a human being while looking them in the eye than playing with a machine. I realized I’d hit on something, so I began to concentrate on the card game.  TIME: Is it hard to come up with unique creatures for the cards, each with their own set of strengths and weaknesses? I heard you’ve created something like 700. Takahashi: I stopped counting, but I think it’s more like 1,000. And, yeah, it’s hard. I’m not sure how many more I’ve got left in me. But all boys love monsters, and I’m no different, so it’s also really fun. What I try to do is fit the creature to the characteristics of the character playing the card. For instance, Kaiba, Yugi’s archenemy, is mean and vicious, so his cards tend to be that way, too.  TIME: What’s your favorite? Takahashi: Blue Eyes White Dragon. It’s the very first card I introduced, so it has special significance.  TIME: Yu-Gi-Oh has been called the next Pokemon. What has turned it into such a monstrous hit?  Takahashi: The thing about the card game is that you can’t play by yourself. You have to play with friends. That’s how it spread: one kid saying to another, let’s play Yu-Gi-Oh. As far as the manga story goes, I think all kids dream of henshin — the ability to turn into something, or someone, else. Yugi’s henshin into a savvy, invincible games player is a big appeal (to children). There’s also the mystery surrounding the games and the characters on the cards. Kids like that, too.  TIME: How do you think Americans will respond to Yu-Gi-Oh?  Takahashi: The story centers on the life of a normal Japanese schoolboy, so I’m not sure they’ll understand all of it. But here’s the main thing I want them to understand: if you combine the yu in Yugi and the jo in Jounouchi (the main character’s best friend), you get the word yujo. Yujo translates to friendship in English, but it’s actually more powerful than that. If American kids get a strong sense of friendship among the characters in the story, I’ll be happy. 

Original article (now deleted)

I briefly mentioned the book Pharaonic Egyptian Clothing (one of the few available surveys on, predictably, pharaonic Egyptian clothing) in my historical fashion master post some months ago, but I also mentioned that it’s out of print and a royal pain in the butt to get your hands on.

Seeing how I’m never one to selfishly hoard good reference (and I’m tired of checking it out of the library over and over again like I’m Belle or something), I finally scanned the whole damn thing and uploaded it HERE for you to download and peruse!

(point of note: this book was published in 1993 so there’s always a slim chance that some of this information might be considered out of date over the past twenty-odd years, but there are so few resources dedicated to the topic that I’m more than willing to take that chance.)

Enjoy, let me know if the link stops working, and go draw some historically accurate Egyptian people!  NOW.  GO GOGOGOGO.

Year: 1996 (Heisei 8)

If Yuugi is 16 at this point in volume 2, that would mean he turns 17 less than two months after this chapter. Which means he was born in… 1979. I’ve been trying to remember WHERE this stupid panel was, ever since I went back and did that timeline post

1979. 80s glam rock childhood. first generation internet user around the time he graduated high school. only seven and a half years younger than my mom.