"Any card—so long as it exists—has a power that is needed."

rhodanum:

Maybe I’m being unreasonable, buuuut….. I’m really, really tired of YGO fandom’s habit of treating Takahashi’s concepts and ideas as being ‘sacrosanct’ and thinking that he intended the spin-off series to follow the same path as DM, as far as their underlying mythology, world-building and overall fantasy concepts are concerned.

I mean, there is a case to be made for inconsistency if you insist that world-ending shit should only be going down when Millennium Items are concerned…. but that, honestly, is incredibly boring. One, what do you do when there are no more such items in play? Two, the ancient Egyptians were not the be-all-and-end-all where mysticism, creation myths and concepts of humanity-communicating-with-what-lies beyond are concerned. What of the early medieval hermetic scholars who established the basis of alchemy as both the precursor to modern chemistry and a philosophical system concerned with the change in the individual? What of the native South American cultures, from Aztec to Quechua, which are still alive and vibrant to this day? What of ancient Babylon? Ur? Uruk? Akkad? What of ancient Rome and its cutthroat society games, or the principalities of the Holy Roman Empire? What of the Atlantis of legends?

Elements from most of the cultures listed above appear throughout YGO, from DM to Zexal. GX introduced tarot and hermetic alchemy as both aspects of the game and more subtle systems of symbolism woven through the narrative, along with elements of South American mythologies. 5Ds picked up where the other left off and was suffused with the marks of Quechua/Peruvian culture, whereas Zexal is more of a melange of various ancient civilizations that influence the present, one way or the other. All of this without even getting into the Atlantis-themed DOMA arc.

Most of the additions only served to enrich the world of YGO, to make it apparent that this is a place where the theory of multiple worlds/universes is in play, where mythology is real, where gods exist, albeit not in forms we’re used to, when they can act through humans, can mark them with their power and change them, for good or ill (see Crimson Dragon and the Earthbound Gods as very good examples for this, though the Light of Destruction and its habit of using thralls fits the bill as well. The very same for Don Thousand). In YGO, dueling is ritual, even in the most casual of circumstances. Through Duel Monsters, the narrative tells us, one can see the heart of another, their worries and fears, their aspirations and ambitions. Dueling in YGO is a focus for power, an ancient way of communing with otherworldly energies, of opening doors that were shut and paying homage to the gods, just as much as it is a sport and a fun past-time for the vast majority of the people who never get tossed in end-of-the-world shenanigans.  

Thus the question naturally rises — if humanity can interact with the divine. with other planes of existence and other beings, why limit the narrative to only one people, one culture, one pantheon and one way of wielding power? There are mythologies that see spirits in animals, plants and even places tied to very strong memories. There are creation myths where the act of imagining something, shaping its image and speaking its name makes it as real as flesh and blood.

Isn’t that such a waste, limiting yourself, in a world so diverse?

(via hai-hai-sictir-deactivated20170)