Some thoughts about Joey and his abuse:
Joey craves validation from people who constantly beat him down because that’s what he’s used to. Mai is a straight-up bully when they first meet (and continues to be wishy-washy especially during the Oricalcos arch) and never officially apologies, Seto is an asshole who puts Joey’s life on the line for entertainment yet Joey still attempts to receive recognition from him.
Joey, by no fault of his own, looks for validation in people who hurt him because that’s just what he’s used to. At least if they’re giving him attention, they’re staying in his life and not abandoning him, and he’s learned that negative attention is the one that attracts people.
And to further elaborate, Joey’s involvement in a gang can also be an example of this.
So I wonder how complex this makes his relationship with Yugi, and what it says about Joey’s outlandish (sometimes annoying and risk taking) behavior with Yugi.
What I mean is Joey is used to doing the extreme to get people to like him, even if they hurt him. But with Yugi it’s just different. Yugi doesn’t require anything but Joey’s friendship, he’s not trying to hurt him, he’s not bullying him, he genuinely wants to be his friend, and I think this is incredibly hard for Joey to deal with. So he does the most for Yugi, because he’s secretly afraid that he’ll just leave him.
that’s why he does the most even it means death, that’s why he’s so loud and rowdy around Yugi because anything less means that Yugi’s attention isn’t on him and that Yugi can end their friendship in a heartbeat. And it’s not a stretch to say that he tries to get Yugi annoyed with him, because he’s waiting for him to snap, he’s waiting for Yugi to fall into his perceived “norm”, because that’s safe for Joey.
He’d rather get a reaction when he respects it than never.
And of course Yugi would never do that, but that’s just how Joey’s mind works. That’s why he considers himself his best friend, despite Tea being there for ages, Joey establishes himself closest to Yugi because he is so afraid of being abandoned by him.
And I’m pretty sure it’s really hard for Joey to trust Yugi, initially. Just because Yugi challenges everything Joey is used to and the barries he’s created for himself.
(anyway i’m elaborating on this in a larger meta where I do case studies for certain characters from shows i like. Seto and Mokuba are coming after the initial Joey one. )
(also please, please if you’re going to read this and find some instance that “only applies to the dub” just close out the window and leave my post alone. There’s this level of superiority amongst people who read the manga/watch the sub, and act like the dub doesn’t exist when in fact it does, it’s marketing choices affected an entire generation of children, and the content it communicated where very much real. at this point i don’t understnad what the point of trying to up people on the dub is unless it didn’t exist and unless it wasn’t impactful, because it was)
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