Rewatching some Arc V and we just wrapped up the Yuzu vs Sergey arc and, god it’s nothing short of a miracle that Yuya didn’t full on snap and go into Berserk/Awakened mode there.
But can you imagine?
Yuya just fuckin snaps and Zarc takes over and he just breaks himself out of his room to go look for her. Fuck the duel he’s supposed to be taking part in, he needs to find Yuzu. And like, who’s gonna stop him??
Like, we saw him lose his shit like that during s3. So take that but drop it in s2.
Someone hears a noise of something breaking so they open Yuya’s door and there’s just a hole in the window and no Yuya (summoned a monster and got out). Or the door is abruptly blown/ripped from its hinges.
genuinely what pushes yuya from a really good protag into “oh my fucking god” levels of good for me is the reveal that while he’s the personification of zarcs pure wish to make others happy he’s not perfect yuya has had so many instances in arc v where he gave into anger, where he wasn’t always happy, where he retreated into himself and refused to accept help from his friends but what ultimately separated him from zarc is that he still never gave up on this ideal and instead managed to grow it past what even zarc once wanted. he was zarcs second chance but he was also JUST as prone into falling into the same pitfalls that zarc fell into: he stumbled, hurt people by mistake and intentionally, got frustrated and impatient, acted rashly, but was still able to hold onto his wish and didn’t let anyone else twist it in the end like it was twisted for zarc. the only instance where yuya actively gives up on his wish was when he first dueled barret and chose yuzu over his wish and he literally tortures himself with it for the rest of the synchro arc bc while it was something he believed in whole heartedly he was also just borrowing it from his dad bc it was the only memento he had of him for years and it was only jack telling him that he doesn’t have to abandon that wish but rather speak it and believe it in HIS OWN WORDS where yuya managed to begin growing out of his role as merely an alter ego. even then, he still wasn’t perfect nor all were all of his traumas and problems resolved, and when shit hit the fan and when the literal fate of the universe hinged on him defeating yuri while all his friends were screaming at him that he HAD to win was only when he fully became zarc once more because he was pushed to his limit the same way zarc was. AND DESPITE ALL THAT, it was when his friends put themselves through the same hell he was put through, when they suffered a gauntlet of defeats at his hand after having relied on him so heavily to absolutely win was when their words, HIS words actually managed to reawaken that wish from zarc. zarc was SCARED when told that he still held onto his original wish, but yuya took that step with courage despite the fear aaaaauuuuaaaghahhh watch arc v