(Trigger/Content Warnings: injury, minor physical violence mentions, perhaps blood(?), minor mentions/implications of death, fighting(?), and murder… if I miss any, just let me know)
Urgh, I’ve just… Yu-Gi-Oh is one of my biggest if not all time hyperfixations, especially 5D’s. I’m a bit fuzzy on some info that I used to know very well because it’s been ages since I watched it (not really).
See, I love the sub, especially because the tone is much grittier and holds more significance in my heart. I mean??? The themes of classism as well as poverty?? And the different insecurities and traumas each character has that I can’t help but delve too deeply into. A feast for my eyes and brain, yum yum.
The dub definitely has a place in my heart, I mean, it’s 4Kids, it’s just that kinda thing, and I have a love/hate relationship with it, especially after learning about Cup Ramen Man…
Anyway, this is mostly more headcanons for Crow, but also like, kinda piggybacking canon onto why I have these headcanons.
His childhood (from what I understand from canon, as well as assumptions and then headcanons):
From what I can remember off the top of my head, before Crow had ended up with Yusei and Jack at Martha’s, he was just… roaming around. The most he had were other kids, probably older orphaned kids or kids who did have parents that just hung around, looking out for him.
It’s likely that they’re like, neighborhood kids if Yusei and Jack met him around some of those kids. I say neighborhood kids lightly because the Satellite… I can imagine a lot of kids probably got hurt because of the state of the surrounding area, and that’s hardly a livable area before Yusei did protagonist things and got it fixed up.
During Crow’s monologue, the context is beyond me right now, it’s late and I’m just here, but he said that he didn’t know how to read or do math, but Duel Monsters helped him do that, which makes some sense.
I mean, the other kids he knew at the time before Martha probably taught him some stuff, but I highly doubt it was all Duel Monsters and not some of Martha’s work as well. I imagine she did some sort of schooling for the kids, otherwise Crow would be kinda bad off.
If I used only math I learned from Duel Monsters to keep track of my rent and bills, man, I’d be fucked, terribly. And yes, I do have a bunch of cards and a personal deck I play with, as well as a Master Duel deck that I play with occasionally (not too big on games other than Animal Crossing or Tomodachi Life right now).
Now for the childhood headcanons:
Since he was unsupervised for a few years (definitely years if he went from being a baby at some point to maybe 6-8ish when he met Jack and Yusei) he definitely has scars or injuries from that time
He has minor scarring on his eyebrow, chin, and knees (caused by usual kid injuries such as tripping), and more severe scarring on his arms and back (likely from falling debris or climbing things)
Because of how Crow grew up, he has a great sense of gratitude and wants to pay the goodwill of those around him forward by ensuring the children in his life have a better youth than he did
Yusei’s scared of bugs because they used to get in the orphanage and crawl on him while he was sleeping, Crow’s scared of broken dolls because he used to see them a lot when he was on his own, often accompanied by memorials of children, and Jack is scared of earthquakes (which if I’m not mistaken, is slightly more common in Asia than in the US? Lemme fact check that realll quick…) which has caused buildings in the Satellite to collapse before, and it’s not hard to get them down either
(Yup, Asia experiences considerably more earthquakes than the United States. When it comes to Yu-Gi-Oh, I’m always doing research about Japan since Domino City is there, and I imagine New Domino or Neo Domino would be as well, except GX, that’s where I can have fun with different cultures and get that cultural exchange since the island is kinda ambiguous)
(Ahem, back on track) Cooking is a skill Crow picked up from Martha, he used to help her make food for them (like rinsing produce and getting seasonings)
Crow is the middle child between him, Jack, and Yusei (I mean, this guy is doing their taxes, working hard, and while he is immature, I think that’s more personality thing than an age thing)
Okay, now onto Team Satisfaction. I will say, that brief look into that part of their past, especially in the sub, was a trip. In the dub, we see that Kalin wasn’t arrested because… I forgot the initial reason as to why he was arrested, but obviously it was super mild compared to killing a cop.
This is mostly me trying to remember what occurred, and assumptions as well, but the four of them were trying to unify the Satellite almost. They were trying to make it better, and to do that, they figured they should be the ones to take charge and defeat those who stood in the way of that.
Kalin then took it a step further, after all, the ones that kept them low and suffering was Sector Security, so he wanted to start removing them from the equation. Now, when it came to this scene, we mostly got Yusei’s feelings on that situation. I mean, yeah, he’s the most important character since he’s literally the main focus, but even in previous Yu-Gi-Oh’s, other characters that associated with the lead got some sort of opportunity to understand them.
And Crow does get some of that, but he’s not really… the most important, I suppose. I’m not entirely sure what Crow was doing at that point in time, since he was barely there. All I know is that he and the other two split off after that, but the order of events is always so fuzzy since we don’t get a clear idea of how old they were at that time, but this was before Crow had been arrested at any point in his life.
Let me tell you, seeing a fresh-faced Crow Hogan was so wild the first two times. Yes, I was surprised during my first watch, and then watching the sub for the first time, I couldn’t help it. The lack of his markers really nailed home to me that this was a pretty young guy (Yusei and Jack were a bit too tall for me to register the first go round how young they could’ve been, only after the fact with fresh eyes did I think about it)
My assumption is that they were definitely teens at that point, like, 14-16ish almost? Their like… split up was so sad to me, like, after Kalin? They just… did that. Those three have felt like siblings to me the entire time, like, they grew up together and probably shared spaces together, they even shared food, but it all just collapsed at some point.
When it came to my interpretation of their relationship, I was always left a bit confused by their dynamics. Yusei and Jack were definitely much closer than Crow was with either of them, but the one who kept the three of them together definitely seemed to be Yusei.
But Jack did seem to like Crow, especially since he shared food with him, unless Yusei shared that with Crow. However, the two don’t seem to get along without Yusei being present, so I can’t tell very well how their relationship was in their youth, but there’s definitely resentment on Crow’s end. Either Crow did respect Jack before Jack up and left them, or Crow blames Jack for what I think was Jack becoming Yusei’s sole focus, leaving Crow on his own.
In Arc V, which is… frankly a hot mess, we can tell… to some degree, that without Yusei, Crow and Jack never have a good relationship, at least not entirely… but I feel like Arc V kinda muddled with the core of both Jack and Crow. Like, without New Domino splitting in two, Jack and Crow grow up just fine, sure. They have parents, and none of those traumas they walk away with in 5D’s… but Dark Signers still exist? I don’t…. It’s tough.
Not the point though, Jack is meant to be arrogant and thinking of himself. He doesn’t want to be seen as beneath someone, he has to be the top. He sees himself as something more, and he was willing to throw away a lot of trust and relationships just for that goal.
Crow on the other hand, he grew to cherish those relationships, because without them, who knows what could’ve happened to him? Every relationship he’s ever had shaped him, and because they saw potential in him, he has the capacity to see that same potential in the children he’s surrounded by, possibly because he sees himself in them, and doesn’t want them to be him.
Which I guess is why canon made him a cop, but come on!! He’s rebellious, he taunts cops and has a healthy dislike and distrust of the system, after all, that same system is why he stole and was arrested multiple times. If they truly wanted to rehabilitate him and have less crime in the Satellite, there wouldn’t be a Satellite, or permanent tracking tags imbedded in their flesh. They wouldn’t be scary to the people in New Domino and treated as subhumans, like, Crow!!! You let me down by joining the MAN!!
That’s why, in Gremlinheadcanonville, he’s a teacher! Hehe, mah mama birb teaching the lil’ baby birbs lessons, hehe. Ahem, went down the wrong thought path. This thankfully segues into my next headcanons; his appearance!
Like I already scrawled down, he has some scars from childhood, neato, cool, he also has more from his teens to adulthood
He has burn scars from dinking around with hot metals and machinery, and D-Wheel maintenance, as well as scarring from fist fights (dude nailed him in the mouth once and his tooth cut up his lip)
There’s also scarring from accidents he’s had on his D-Wheel, mostly centered on his hands and face
Piercings! Piercings galore, which I did mention in my other headcanon post
He did a majority of his own piercings, the ones he did in his teens were done after Team Satisfaction broke up, and Yusei and Jack were having their beef
He’s bounced between having an undercut and growing his hair out but using a shit ton of gel
He has a chipped tooth from falling off his D-Wheel once, and it looks kinda like a little fang
When he gets flustered, he has this like, forehead blush, this is usually when he’s irritated and embarrassed at the same time
He has a crooked nose from getting it broken and reset improperly multiple times, there’s also a scar there from head butting a person he was in a fight with, and their tooth cut him up (he doesn’t start fights (most of the time), but he sure can finish them)
And finally, since I’m starting to run out of steam here, and I feel like I’ve run out of things to say, (cause hot damn, this is long as shit), issues I feel like he’s walked away with from the beginning of 5D’s to the end (I’m still trying to pretend him being a cop doesn’t hurt lol).
I feel like he definitely has attachment issues to some degree. I mean, growing up without having what others consider a proper family kinda gets to you, even as a kid. I’m gonna project a little bit too, to help better elaborate on that one.
Like I said, Jack and Yusei have a closer relationship than Crow does with the two of them, while Crow does have a friendlier relationship with Yusei. But imagining growing up as a little unit, only for one of them to betray the other, and then that brother figure ends up making getting what was stolen from him back his whole focus, it’s gotta be bitter.
It’s hard to know where any of them were at the time, but Crow was definitely around, and probably couldn’t see anyone as often as he liked with the kids he’s got, and when Yusei and Crow met up for the first time in a long time, they hadn’t had contact at all, in my eyes and understanding.
I’d imagine a lot of Crow and Jack’s back and forths come from Crow’s own resentment at him tearing up their unit for his own satisfaction, and being left behind by both of them, though he definitely isn’t bothered by it on Yusei’s end from what I can tell. (Or being put in the position of sole breadwinner because Jack is Jack Atlas, and receives only a third of support on that end by Yusei)
But even though they grew up together, not once in their older years did I see that translate between any of them. They just seem like really good friends, which is probably reflective of the distance between them since then.
Wanting to be wanted and included as an adult has to be tough to communicate, especially because you’re an adult. The three of them living together despite having 0 conversations about what happened between them (not counting what occurred while they were separated) is a terrible idea! And they just??? Did it???
They’re basically living with complete strangers, but stuck with the past memories of their childhood, stuck referencing and remembering the good parts, but never actually bridging that gap. There’s a lot of gaps in canon regarding those parts, and I wonder if it was on purpose to some degree, also I’m only counting the sub in that part because there’s missing content in the dub because 4Kids.
Either way, it still doesn’t change the fact that 5D’s has this special place in my heart, regardless of how BADLY I want canon to dig deeper into Crow, Jack, Akiza, the twins, and Carly.
I’ll probably do another post like this for Akiza, Chazz, Syrus, and the Ishtar siblings, and then double back on Crow because I love him, and I have so much to say about him.
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