#vrains asks

[scratchface]

Would you like to share your favorite revolver moments? :)

You know, someone did ask for my top five Rev moments a while back. I never answered because I spent so much time agonizing over which ones I love most…

Here’s my all-time favorite Rev moments, in no definitive order!

The Rescue!

This one is easy: the moment Ryoken crashed through the ceiling of the cathedral in a lightning bolt to save Yusaku from Akira I knew I was going to love his character. Not only was it incredibly badass and over-the-top, but it told us so much about Revolver: his methods, his personality, his views. A cyber terrorist telling a man that torture was too crude! Plus it clued us into Rev’s history with SOL.

Then, Ryoken actually challenged Yusaku head on. He could tried to force Yusaku to hand over Ai since he had the release program, but he faced Yusaku fairly as an equal.

I’m really glad the encounter got a redo too, as the second rescue was just as good as the first. Rev making his return to Vrains in the most badass way possible, with a new look and renewed confidence. These two scenes in comparison to each other are especially nice, since the first firmly places Rev as the mysterious and threatening antagonist, and the second paints him as the “savior of humanity” he’s been trying to be. 

Vyra’s apartment! 

This scene was so cool: ominous and suspenseful with a real “oh shit” kind of feel to it. We got some pretty great shots of Ryoken before his face reveal, as well as the complexity of his smile at finally getting to see Playmaker’s real face.

It’s a really great scene just in terms of direction! The lighting, the camera feed zooming in of Yusaku’s face, and the awesome, dangerous riff of the background music as Ryoken smiles. It’s really the kind of scene that sticks with you.

The Monologue Episode

For a recap episode, the episode of Revolver’s monologue during the tower provided some excellent insight into Ryoken’s character and his internal struggle with his misaligned priorities. Especially since the entire speech just drives home how trapped Ryoken feels, how much he thinks everything has spun out of his control, and his resignation to it all. I think going back and showing us how things went from Ryoken’s perspective was actually a good choice. 

Flying over the city on a big ass dragon

I’ve already talked about this one way back, but it bears repeating how thoroughly badass Ryoken soaring over Den City was. And if we’re talkign about ridiculously badass, him link summoning a shit ton of high level dragons and completing the extra link in his final duel with Playmaker also deserves a mention. He sure brought and delivered the drama with that one.

And lastly, the end of his first master duel with Playmaker and the moment he becomes invest in Playmaker’s identity.

This is more a progression of moments. During their first duel, Revolver makes it abundantly clear he doesn’t care about who Playmaker is. The player behind the avatar is irrelevant to him, and the grudge Playmaker has against them even more so. But over the course of their speed duel and master duel, Revolver gets progressively more interested, more invested, but Playmaker revealing himself as a victim of the Hanoi Project, specifically the sixth test subject, is the nail in the coffin of Revolver’s fixation. 

Just look at his face!

Suddenly Playmaker isn’t just a surprisingly formidable, but ultimately unremarkable obstacle, but directly a problem of Ryoken’s own making. Not just some random person their actions happened to offend, some collateral damage, Playmaker is someone Ryoken’s own actions and choices have shaped.

After that, uncovering Playmaker’s identity becomes a priority of the Knights. It didn’t overly matter before, because they were confident that it was a simple matter of Revolver defeating Playmaker in a duel, almost inevitable. 

But Ryoken’s first loss against Playmaker changes everything for the KoH. For the first time they are faced with a human opponent that can not only keep up with them, but can run circles around them. Someone more elusive than they are, someone who someone more hellbent than they are. The Knights always operated as the aggressors, as the hunters, as the ones with the upper-hand. Playmaker’s existence turns all that on its head; they’re the ones being hunted, the ones playing catch-up and trying to keep up with an opponent they aren’t prepared to face.

And Ryoken not only has to bear the responsibility for that, he obsesses over it. It consumes him, because his feelings towards the sixth test subject are so complex, a sense of pride and protectiveness all tied up with guilt, resentment, and frustration. It takes Ryoken over fifty episodes to sort through those feelings and come to terms with them, and the result is this smug look:

There are lots of more recent Ryoken moments that are deserving, but I’ll hold off on those until their consequences are a bit more clear.

[scratchface]

(Vrains 86 spoilers) thoughts on where everyone ended up? Like Ryoken in the flower field? I'm sure it's supposed to be symbolic but I'm not quite sure what it's getting at tbh

This is super duper late, and I have no idea if anyone else has already talked about this.

I suspect the areas they all ended up actually match up with the opponent they are going to face there.

Spectre ended up in a sunny canyon, which at first glance is easy to think must be because of Earth, and Spectre’s role as his origin. But Earth’s regions and associted areas were always very rocky and mountainous. And there was always an additional association with plants; how he used wood to create an assistant, and how vegetation grew alongside his feelings. 

But here there’s was no plant life in sight, and it wasn’t mountainous. It was a desert canyon. 

This kind of area seems to really suit Lightning, as it gives the impression of blazing sunlight. 

Meanwhile, Takeru in plane land got matched up with Windy. The association between Windy and planes is obvious, in terms of both element and deck. (Though, before this match up, I couldn’t help but wonder if the planes foreshadowed Blood Shepherd’s return. They may still be doing just that, we’ll just have to wait and see.) I’m still of the thinking that Blood Shepherd is heading to actual Vrains to take on Go and retrieve Earth, but there’s no evidence of that yet. 

Aoi ended up in a purplish city that actually reminds me of the inner, combined city of the Cyberse, which had a similar color scheme.

The combined city around the Cyberse’s tower, surrounded by each Ignis’s individual territories, seems like a perfect representation of Bohman. 

And the building’s behind her right now are yellow and purple, which are obviously Bohman’s colors. Lightning already suggested that that will be the next matchup (in which case, Aoi is going to be absolutely destroyed).

As for Ryoken, we’ve only seen plants and flowers associated with two Vrains characters before: Spectre, and Windy.

Windy is currently facing Takeru, but Spectre just got captured by Lightning, who clearly intends to put him to use. If Windy survives this duel, he and Spectre teaming up against Ryoken would be wild, but more likely Windy is going to lose against Takeru and Ryoken will face brainwashed!Spectre. But I’ve also seen some theorizing that Spectre vs Go might happen, in which case those flowers might be heralding the “return” of the Earth Ignis. 

Yusaku’s set up is by far the most ominous, with the red and purple color scheme and the almost post-apocalyptic atmosphere. It suits the Dark Ignis most, but I don’t think he and Ai will be having a falling out. Notably, his area is the only area with water, and because of that, his reflection in most of his shots. I don’t think he’ll be facing Miyu or Aqua or Aoi either, but he will definitely be facing Bohman again at some point, who just so happens to have been based on him and the Dark Ignis. So Yusaku’s reflection may foreshadow his and Bohman’s next, and possibly final, duel.

If not, then they’re setting up some internal conflict or Yusaku vs Jin. Like, maybe Yusaku will have to duel Lightning, all while seeing the reality of Jin’s trapped consciousness in the reflection underneath them.

But I couldn’t help but notice that the color scheme of this area perfectly matches Flame’s city in the Cyberse, underneath his floating castle.

Which just so happened to have gotten…

…stomped flat.

Obviously, we know they aren’t in the Cyberse. But there might still be an association here. Will Yusaku and Takeru be forced to duel? Or will the monster that destroyed the Cyberse make another appearance?

Of course, there’s no guarantee things will go this way, but this is my best guess.

[scratchface]

Ryoken and 83

So, anon asked: 

“It kinda irked me the wrong way though how Revolver actually tried the same "I understand"-route with Soulburner as Akira did with Playmaker about the Lost Incident and the trauma of the victims, but I also can't help but wonder if I've missed something. So I'm just asking for gaps to be filled about it.”

It is reminiscent of Akira, but Ryoken has the advantage of actually having been involved, as opposed to reading some documents and then deciding he could tell Yusaku how to deal with it. Ryoken was about the same age, witnessed the torture, and his father had even made him a part of it. He knows exactly what the kids went through and how each one reacted to it. He understands why Takeru is upset, and clearly doesn’t feel like Takeru’s being unreasonable. He’s trying to show that he’s not invalidating Takeru’s feelings. 

But he wasn’t tortured, starved, or kept isolated from the world in a tiny cell, not knowing if he was going to die there or not. Ryoken “understands” what the victims went through, but he doesn’t really understand. And its pretty presumptuous to not draw that distinction. 

And we know that that distinction is important to Takeru; Takeru feels a particular kind of kinship with Yusaku because they experienced the same pain. That’s why he’s so confident on speaking on Yusaku’s behalf: he assumed they’re of the same mind because of their shared experiences. 

Ryoken saying he “understood”, well, that was probably the worst thing he could have said to Takeru. But I don’t think he knew that; I think Ryoken was saying whatever he felt would ease things over and cement the alliance. It’s all empty platitudes, and I’m sure Ryoken knows it. He’s knows what Hanoi did to the victims is unforgivable, and knows how it ruined their lives even long after the project was ended. Their creations from that time are still making the victims suffer, too.

Ryoken also knows what its like to lose a parent, possibly two.

But Ryoken is also prepared to say what he has to say, do what he has to do, to win against Lightning. If their best chance is getting Playmaker’s side to join forces with them, then he’ll say what he has to to make that happen. He’ll offer out some empty words, he’ll accept the duel, he’ll take everything Takeru throws at him.

But compare this reaction to the last time a victim blew up at him, when Playmaker revealed he was the victim Ryoken reached out to.

 At that time, Ryoken was shocked, defensive, discomfited. He almost seemed betrayed, like he couldn’t believe that former test subject would “side” with SOL and the Ignis over him. Compare that reaction to his reaction in 83, and it becomes abundantly clear Ryoken has matured a bit in his perspective of the incident and its victims. He’s more empathetic, and seems to be taking their perspectives into account.

Ryoken, behind closed doors, has been shown to be a little protective of the Lost Kids. But to their faces, he always comes off as cold and uncaring as possible, just like he does with everyone else. He doesn’t really speak honestly with them, probably because he doesn’t feel like he has a right to. 

And let’s not forget, Ryoken’s recent actions do seem to have some ulterior motives. Takeru, Yusaku, and anybody else protecting an Ignis are all going to be enemies. In the last recap, he and the knights clearly talked about coming up with a plan to take down Playmaker.

Positioning himself as a sort of benefactor, forcing Yusaku to reveal a least part of their connection to his understandably dubious allies, so easily riling up Takeru...

Who’s to say that it’s not part of the plan? 

[scratchface]

All of the YGO shows have these themes that center around a specific culture (for DM, it was Egyptian with Duel Monsters; in 5D's, Peruvian mythology, and so on and so forth), and the Greek theme has been prevalent since the get-go for VRAINS (e.g. Ignis being named as Prometheus from the theft of fire legends). The theme was been featured since S2. I feel like there's a lot of foreshadowing going on with the Greek theme. What are your thoughts?

I’ve talked about the allusions to Greek mythology/imagery in few previous posts: the significance of the Atlas statue, the Cyberse being based on Atlantis, and the possible mythological figures various character may be referencing and the implications this has on Vrains.  

Very recently, Lightning has been surrounding himself with Roman imagery; the coliseum, the statues, the Roman Legion theme of his deck.

Lightning is of the mind that the Ignis were created to continue the culture of humanity after it perishes. In some Roman mythos, the Romans claimed to be descended from the last of the Trojans. This is often viewed as a prettying up of the Magna Grecia, when Greece colonized Sicily. Later on, some influential Roman leaders believed they were inheriting and immortalizing Greek culture. Take Julius Caesar and Augustus and how they both supposedly strove to be better than Alexander the Great and the land they glorified, and to conquer and claim the source. How Augustus insisted on using Greek architecture when making Rome the imperial capital, and Battle of Actium where Augustus began the occupation of Greece.

Vrains is drawing an unexpected allegorical parallel between Romans/Greeks and Gods/Titans and Ignis/humans. In each of these, it’s about the next “generation” surpassing and subsuming those that came before them. It’s creative, to say the least, and references a consistent theme in Greek myth: the son overthrowing the father. Ouranos was overthrown by his son Cronus, who in turn was overthrown by his son Zeus. Zeus ate his first wife before she could bear him any children just to end this cycle. 

From Kogami’s perspective, he was Prometheus, granting intelligence and life to an inferior creation, but while the Ignis agree that they are the heirs to humanity, they believe themselves to be superior, and are rising up against the creators that suppressed them. Cronus imprisoned and tried to kill his children, and Kogami tried to kill his “children”. In both cases, said children rebelled. The Greeks colonize what becomes Rome, and then get conquered by the Roman Empire. 

In the past, besides the connection between Yusaku and Atlas (or possibly, Atlas’s father, the original pillar of the west), it was always unclear how the Titans tied into Vrains overall. More than just seeing Yusaku taking the role of the defacto leader in recent episodes (Atlas led the titan side of the war), we’re now seeing that Lightning and Windy together seem to represent Zeus/Jupiter. Which would make sense: it seems the attack on the Cyberse occurred around the eclipse, when Kusanagi monologued about the “God” of Vrains. Following this logic, Aqua could be Metis, the Oceanid (ocean nymph) and goddess of wisdom Zeus “locked away” (by eating her). 

The interesting thing is that Atlas lost to Zeus and the gods. Rome brought an end to Hellenistic Greece. Humanity is really being set up as the losing side here, Yusaku especially. And that Prometheus and many other titans sided with the gods. We’re already seeing Lightning “recruiting” people to his side, which could mean bad news for the rest of the Vrains cast, aka the titans. 

This post is kind of messy… long story short: the Greek mythology and Roman imagery are relating back to the idea of the Ignis being the heirs of humanity, their inferior predecessors. 

[scratchface]

any vrains notps?

I’m pretty apathetic to most vrains pairings, honestly. 

Kengo and Takeru is a popular one in parts of the Japanese fandom, and that’s a big No for me, on many levels. I usually love pairings based on antagonism, but definitely not that one. Angelmaker too, I’d say. It feels forced to me, like they’re paired up just because they’re the male lead and the most prominent female character. All their interactions are really awkward, there’s no chemistry, and it feels like they aren’t important to each other. During the ToH, Yusaku had either a dramatic or compelling reaction to each of the others’ deaths, except for Aoi’s. He kind of just shrugged hers off. Spectre and Ryoken too, I think its called Respectfulshipping or something? They seem too brotherly to be romantic. While we’re on that, Ryoken and any of the Knights is an absolutely NO. 

Lastly, Kogami and anyone. Kogami should only be paired with painful and miserable death. 

[scratchface]

Saw someone saying they were hoping Queen was Yusaku (or Ryoken's!) mom, and wanted to hear your thoughts about it! I think it could be interesting but is unlikely myself.

I don’t see how she could possibly be Ryoken’s mother, as she’s visibly much younger than Kogami and we’ve been given no indication that they ever even met. Going by the use chess-pieces and code-names alone, it seems pretty likely SOL’s upper echelon are pretty isolated from lower faculty like Kogami. I’d guess that Queen’s only so out in the open and active now because SOL’s lesser employees have all failed so miserably up to this point. They’ve suffered loss after loss and defeat after defeat, so the boss’s are sick of the incompetence of Akira, Kitamura, etc. 

I do think Ryoken’s mother may have been involved with SOL in some form or fashion, because that would put her and Kogami in the same social orbit, but that means they were probably in R&D together (if they met through SOL at all); she probably wasn’t an executive. And considering Kogami and Ryoken look nothing alike, Ryoken must take after his mother. We’ve already seen that in Vrains kids tend to really resemble their parents, so I don’t think Ryoken is going to be an exception, unless he’s actually adopted. (Also unlikely; why would Kogami adopt one unrelated kid and treat him well, then kidnap a bunch of equally unrelated kids and nearly torture them to death? If he had the capacity to care for children that aren’t his own blood, he’d never have been able to even conceive of the Hanoi Project.)

While Queen being Yusaku’s mother could be interesting if done right, I think there’s also little to no chances of that happening. They have similar attitudes, both being goal-orientated and extremely stubborn and unrelenting about it too, and yet completely different priorities. Any character interactions between them have the potential to be interesting. They’re both very “cool” (in terms of both attitude and coloring) characters, and both very hard and seemingly spartan. 

But while there are similarities between their characters, those traits are also shared with the original “Blue Angel”; that seems to be just par for the course for blue-haired Vrains characters at this point. It’s the byproduct of simple color association.

There’s nothing so far, that I can think of at least, to suggest Queen has any kids, but people have been throwing around “Queen is X’s mother” theories since she first appeared, which strikes me as incredibly odd. The only one that I thought as plausible was her being the mother of the Water Origin, who we now know is Miyu. A relation between them is currently unlikely, based on character design.  I think its about time to let the whole mom Queen thing go until there’s actually something, anything, to suggest she has a child. 

[scratchface]

What do you think of Yusaku telling GO that he couldn’t have won against Revolver without his help – is this a realisation he’s come to recently alongside accepting Soulburner and Blue Maiden and Ghost Girl, or is it something he’d had in mind since it happened?

Well, that’s nothing recent; it is something he said right before Gou got digitized in episode 40:

There certainly is no recent revelation here, nor does it have anything to do with Takeru or the others. Yusaku has always been one to give credit where it’s due (and even when it isn’t); Yusaku’s tendency to feel immense gratitude to people is at the core of his character, due to Ryoken and the Hanoi Project. 

Yusaku has been showing an interest in working together, but I would point to that being a matter of practicality rather than any sort of emotional development between him and the others. It’s simply the logical choice.

[scratchface]

Hi! I read your stories at Ao3 and I think they’re very well-written. I stumbled upon your tumblr and read some of your analysis. I dnt knw how tumblr works, do you hve in depth analysis on Ryoken? And Ema?

Thanks!

If you’re looking for vrains analysis, you can find just about all the ones I’ve done here. There’s a lot there, haha.

More specifically, I’ve done… a lot of Ryoken analysis. Like, an embarrassing amount. I think this just about covers it:

https://scratchface.tumblr.com/post/174675444456/what-are-your-thoughts-on-revolver-and-how-did-you

https://scratchface.tumblr.com/post/171972765231/revisiting-the-scene-where-ryoken-checks-the

https://scratchface.tumblr.com/post/175555038081/12-a-hot-debate-is-starting-in-the-fandom-about

https://scratchface.tumblr.com/post/175575812351/did-ryoken-know

https://scratchface.tumblr.com/post/175783646946/almost-everyone-i-follow-as-well-as-a-youtuber-im

https://scratchface.tumblr.com/post/175953620421/i-saw-some-theories-going-around-about-how-ryoken

https://scratchface.tumblr.com/post/177567269271/why-do-you-think-ryoken-decided-to-name-himself

https://scratchface.tumblr.com/post/177925480156/i-dont-understand-if-ryoken-cares-so-much-about

https://scratchface.tumblr.com/post/178155317756/do-you-think-revolver-stayed-in-vrains-during-the

https://scratchface.tumblr.com/post/181542044981/ryoken-and-83

As for Ema, I have much less stuff specifically about her. If you go through my episode discussions (which should all be under the general analysis link at the top) I talk about her a fair bit in those, but as for posts just about her I think I’ve only got this short one:

https://scratchface.tumblr.com/post/172841408531/so-on-ema-and-not-making-all-her-decisions-based

She is my favorite female character in Vrains, though, so maybe I’ll do a proper analysis on her sometime.