rhodochrosite

on the plane listening to 8tracks user neeeeeon's seminal kurosaki shun playlist "flight" and thinking about how shun and yuto's deck archetypes are such effective characterisation tools... raidraptors and phantom knights reflect their outlooks on the academia-xyz war so well. once again this is an It Could Be That Deep post

> raidraptors are the perfect cornered underdog deck, relatively low base stats that increase with the activation of effects. the way they gain power when they're outnumbered and outmatched... see: shun powering rise falcon (100 atk without effects) up to 16400 atk in his first onscreen duel when he's battling 1 v 3 and his opponents all had monsters with huge atk out on the field bc rise falcon's effect allows him to take advantage of powerful enemy monsters. after all xyz had no soldiers to fend off academia's overwhelming military strength, only civilians like shun and yuto who duelled for fun and were forced onto the front lines in order to survive

>> a lot of shun's raidraptor monsters can call or rely on monsters in the graveyard... literally drawing strength from Fallen Comrades. academia slaughtering so much of xyz's population -> raidraptors transforming that weakness into a strength. also their efficient swarm capabilities -> safety in numbers that xyz's resistance doesn't have the luxury of anymore among the living. birds flock together after all! then overlay into the individual xyz monsters . . . something to say here (maybe re: rank up magic quick play spells too? importance of the element of surprise in the resistance's guerrilla warfare tactics since there's no way they can win head-to-head? ETA: omggg the way rank up magic spells work by special summoning a monster once it's destroyed and ranking it up to a more powerful monster... you try to kill them but they only come back stronger) but i'm not sure what exactly

>> fury and vengeance are shun's calling cards and his monsters are all like, machine birds of prey who attack by dropping bombs (nts make post on reiji forcing shun to become complicit in the destruction of his homeland by setting the action field to neo heartland city for his duel against sora + the awful catharsis of seeing heartland aflame and in ruins from his own monsters' attacks + what arendt said in on humanity in dark times re: trauma and art and understanding by reliving). and yet his highest ranked most powerful monster is named /final fortress falcon/, explicitly geared towards PROTECTION. iirc the summon chant is uncharacteristically gentle too, no violently crushing enemies or exacting revenge? eta now that i have internet access: falcon of my very soul, with your heart of unwavering conviction and deep affection, become my sturdy last defense and descend! helppp SO IT WAS LOVE ALL ALONG

but what's even left for him to protect? ruri is dead/written out of existence, yuto is dead/written out of existence, his home is razed to the ground. omfg he really is the last living member of xyz trio T___T no more war only defending the legacy you are now the sole inheritor of T____T time to turn to rebuilding what's left. good bay world this is fucking me up so bad shun pisces venus ass could have been capable of so much love if he'd had the opportunity

> phantom knights have a lot of effects including xyz summon capabilities that only activate when they're in the graveyard ie more powerful after death NVM FUCK YOU I CAN'T DO THIS SHIT NO MORE