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The S-Force/‘Future City’ card-lore setting in Yu-Gi-Oh is so funny when it comes to a kind of ‘dissonance’ between the narrative and IRL card game.
Because on paper, the titular S-Force archetype are meant to be the central narrative ‘binding agent’ connecting the various other archetypes in the setting; the PSY-Frames, Time Thief, I:P Masquerena and (kinda*) the Live/Evil Twins.
In the sense that the S-Force are a group of dimension-hopping, time-traveling space-cops who are sending their agents out to ‘apprehend’ (murderize) the various other archetypes for conveniently morally vague and nebulous reasons.
Specifically, Orrafist is hunting Time Thief Redoer (as well as presumably Winder and Perpetua), Professor DiGamma is going after PSY-Frame Driver, and Rappa Chiyomaru is sent after Masquerena. Also, while Pla-tina’s targets are heretofore unknown, the fact that the artwork of ‘S-Force Bridgehead’ indicates that she specifically has two targets could indicate that she’s going after the Evil/Live Twins Ki-sikil and Lil-la.
The funny thing is though, while the S-Force might be presented by the narrative as this powerful and imposing organization looming threateningly over the other groups in the setting, this intimidation is rather undercut by the fact that the actual S-Force cards, across the board, fucking SUCK. As in, they are an archetype with, among other issues, few and clunky means of getting their cards out, and a central strategy of setting up floodgates that happen to be ridiculously easy for an opponent to play around.
Something made even MORE hilarious by the fact that ALL of their target/enemy/rival archetypes in the series are fairly unanimously WAY BETTER in one way or another, or at least have seen far more use in the card game. PSY-Framegear Gamma has historically seen widespread use as a very powerful handtrap (to the point of even having to be limited to one copy per deck in both the OCG and TCG). Time Thief, while not considered all that good on their own, has seen a fair bit of use splashed into various other decks, with Redoer in particularly considered to be a pretty good generic Rank-4 Xyz monster. Evil/Live Twin is a generally competent and capable mid-to-upper tier strategy. And of course I:P Masquerena is a strong contender for THE best and widely used generic LINK-2 monsters in the entire game.
And I think that just gets so fucking FUNNY when contextually applied to the lore? Especially with how later lore developments, particularly the most recent Master Duel Solo Mode, has made it clear that the S-Force are NOT in fact the good guys they might try to paint themselves as. Like we know for sure that they’re a bunch of asshole space-cops likely pushing some Minority Report bullshit to justify (heh) hunting down various people they consider ‘undesirable’, but now I’m just imagining that on top of all of that, they also just kinda SUCK at it? XD
I mean how fucking funny is it that when S-Force Rappa Chiyomaru decided that actually she didn’t want to be a cop and would rather hang out with and smooch I:P Masquerena and became S:P Little Knight, she coincidentally went from being a half-assed starter for a shitty archetype to being one of the OTHER contenders for best and widely used generic LINK-2 monsters in the entire game? XD
So now I just have to imagine that while Orrafist and DiGamma might look all cool and intimidating squaring up to fight Redoer and Driver, they are in fact about to just get their asses kicked.
I just think it would be so fucking funny if later lore developments reveal the S-Force to be much more of an annoyance to their targets than any true threat. And that the ultimate climax of their lore-series winds up being the PSY-Frames, Time Thieves, Evil Twins and I:P/S:P just getting kinda sick of these assholes bothering them and all just going to the S-Force headquarters and kicking their asses. Like it’s not even a full and proper ‘teamup’, aside from the Evil Twin and :P duos (since Rena is already friends with Ki-sikil and Lil-la), they just happen to all bust into S-Force HQ at the same time and it’s all ‘Oh, you’re here to beat up these assholes? Cool, us too! Let’s team up!’
Meanwhile S-Force Justify is probably lamenting that this is ‘exactly the disaster they predicted!’ and how it’s the reason all these people needed to be stopped, all with the expected UTTER lack of self-awareness or concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy XD
Presumably right before Rena and Chiyo run him over with their motorcycle :D
Anyway, that’s my latest bit of rambling on Yu-Gi-Oh! Care Lore.
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*The ‘kinda’ in this case being that the Evil Twins Ki-sikil and Lil-la were shown to be friends with I:P Masquerena prior to being shown to have any connection with the S-Force.
