Solo Tremaine

Bleh, I've heard some nasty stories about the food in McDonald's. I hardly eat there anyway (me being a bit of a health freak), but some of the things I've heard are disgusting. A friend of mine works at one, and she tells me they have an ants nest next to the deep-fat fryer. At another store, a girl caught herpes or some other STD after drinking a milkshake. I'll let you figure out how that happened... The employees weren't even fired, as far as I gather. I really don't like the corporation. Stupid huge conglomerate. As far as things I've found in my food... a maggot in my broccoli stalk, along with various other small bugs which get caught up in the heads and won't come out under tap water. They're thoroughly cooked, though, and small enough not to do you any harm if you do eat them (the bugs, I mean. Not the maggot. I'd never eat one of them). I also had a piece of wood in a bag of crisps. It was small, but wood nonetheless.

Just to let people know, this is different to the [URL=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17511]Rate My Deck![/URL] thread, which is a different Sticky. I'm not sure how Altron's doing with the ones he'd taken on first, but if he wants more to submit to Version Next I'd wait for him to say before submitting more.

OOC: I hope I have the Younger details right- lesser councils of smaller groups, aren't they? ------------------------------------------------------ Alaris marched through the torch-lit tunnels, nodding his head to any passing friends. He'd almost come to regard them as family now. He'd been among the armadillo-clones for about six years, and had gained most of his knowledge and skills from them. Most of the older ones regarded him as a son of their own, which he felt a little concomfortable with. He turned a corner, entering an area where the tunnel structure changed slightly- the walls were carved into more regular shapes, akin to a sandstone building. He was nearing the Youngers chamber. The torches on the walls disappeared and were replaced by the light crystals creeping along the ceiling. They had a blue-green sheen to them, although the light emenating from them was faint sunlight. The further you went out of the caves, the brighter they became. He remembered the first time he'd seen these. He'd almost walked into someone while gazing at them in awe. The ones in the chambers of the Capital were the most beautiful, though. He could look at those for hours. Not that he usually had the chance to, though. He was needed around here. Slowly, the tunnels became lighter, and he could hear the growing rumble of dozens of voices in the Hall, where mealtimes took place. He didn't realise he was this late up. Giving a quick glance inside as he strode past, he felt a sudden pang of indifference. He wasn't sure whether he really belonged here. He stood about a foot taller than most of the other clones, and was of a much slimmer build. His armoured skin wasn't in plates, but smaller individual scales and golden brown opposed to browny-red. It wasn't much, but it mattered to him. That said, there were certainly a good number of females looking out for him. Ahead of him stood the large doors of the Youngers' chamber. Taking a deep breath, he swung open the doors.

[i]Splash.[/i] The water dripped rhythmically on the stone floor, the quiet sound slowly becoming more and more irritating to the one trying to sleep on a low wooden bed on the other side. "Damn..." the creature sighed, rolling onto his back and placing his hands behind his head. He'd been living here for a number of years now, but no matter how many times he patched up leaks, water always managed to find its way into his room. He must be underneath a spring. The curtain door to his room shook slightly. Everyone else seemed to be up already. He could see light creeping in through the gaps either side of the old cloth, and through the various holes eaten into it by moths. He sat up and stretched, reaching for the clothes and armour he kept next to his bedside. Pulling them on, he could hear whispered voices outside. "Should we wake him?" "Yes. We need him." Just as a shape drew closer to the door, he pushed the curtain swiftly aside, making the two young armadillo-clones standing behind it jump. "What is it?" he asked quietly. "Oh, Alaris, sir," one of them replied nervously. "Um, we were just..." Alaris stifled a sigh. The young ones meant well, but were always incredibly nervous about him. He'd never been able to work out whether it was his status that did it, or the fact that he was a good few feet taller than then, muscular, and of a different species. "What? Does Greymar want to see me?" The two of them nodded furiously. Alaris strode back into his room, pulled his sword from the back wall and entered the long, winding corridor that led to the briefing room.

Whee, thank you Ben ^_^ I wouldn't mind at all if he were the Leader, although strictly speaking he's not an armadillo- he's a pangolin. It's only a mild technicality, though, hehe.

Yeah, but the Decks in the show stand to showcase the creatures on the cards- even though the Decks might not actually work in practice, they do in the show. Some of the cards we've seen only once and then never again, just because they happened to suit the plot (i.e. BLS, Magician of Black Chaos, Valkyrion). I blame the writers, heh.

[b]Name:[/b] Alaris 'Ax' Tyrone [b]Age:[/b] 16 [b]Race:[/b] Pangolin-clone (scaled anteater) [b]Special Ability/ies:[/b] Hard armoured shell for strong defense, long prehensile tail which enables him to climb well (as pangolins can). He can jump very high into the air, as well (some pangolins can jump about two metres into the air. Scaling it up to a hybrid clone could make it pretty high, but nothing over four, methinks) [b]Weapons:[/b] A very large, double-handed sword called a [URL=http://www.lancasters-armry.demon.co.uk/images/flambard.jpg]Flambard[/URL], and that's it. He can use his tail as on offensive weapon if he wants to, however, and rolling into a ball enables him to crash into people, but he'll only use these as a last resort, as his altered body shape makes it more difficult for him to do this than regular pangolins. [b]Bio:[/b] Born and living in a particularly large cave on the outskirts of the clone's underground world, Ax is the sole survivor of his tribe who were wiped out by a viral infection some years ago. Not embittered by this, his primary goal in life is to bring the clones to the surface so he can look for others of his species. More than anything, he wants to find a mate. This notwithstanding, he is very well-versed in armed combat, and is a well-respected warrior amongst those he lives with (since his tribe doesn't exist any more he takes shelter with a family of armadillo clones), and is often told that he should be recommended for a promotion to a senior position, something he always politely declines. His nickname 'Ax' came as a matter of course- he couldn't pronounce his full name when he was young. [B]Occupation:[/B] Warrior I hope that's okay ^_^ Sorry it's a little late

I always interpreted a Mary-Sue as being a story starring completely original characters, rather than just a singular character who's all-powerful. *shrugs* I guess the two would tend to come together anyway, maybe.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Domon [/i] [B]I hate to say this but this is a favorite thread and this usually ends up with nothing but spam. [/B][/QUOTE] [SIZE=1][COLOR=purple]Yeah, I was going to leave it for a while, but I don't think much decent discussion's going to come from it. But, bear in mind that replying to spam threads is also spam, so be careful when pointing it out. Thread closed.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

Being a fanfic writer myself (and with my main story being somewhat of a Mary Sue- the link's in my signature), I'm inclined to say that not all of them are bad. The ones where one of your own characters gets romantically involved with another can be awkward and clunky, not to mention out of sync with the parameters already set by the show. I tried that once and decided to scrap the idea, not least because I could think of an original character much better than the first, heh. I don't like blowing my own trumpet, but mine only half-involves the main characters from the series, so new characters can be introduced while still retaining the old ones to keep stalwart fans interested (I hope). Having an entirely new cast of characters can be annoying and boring if they're not written in an interesting enough way. But then again you have the problem of being able to get the characters from the series right. People seem to like mine so far, but the reason I've not put it up on ff.net is because it's a Mary Sue. I'm a little afraid of how people will take it, even though I know my fanfic skills [arrogance] are at least above average [/arrogance]. I just want people to read it without it having the stigma of a Mary Sue, which'll probably damn it for all eternity.

*merges threads* The Exodia card is one of the 'Chinese' (i.e. mostly fake) promotional Sealed Exodia cards. You can get them by the bucketload on eBay. I've no idea what the other one could be. I take it that it was missing the holograms too?

Well, as some of you might know, I'm an avid toy collector. I have been for as long as I can remember, althought I can't quite remember what first got me started. Anyway, seeing as they're a big part of growing up, or are at least heavily associated with it, I think their importance is underestimated. It's known that playing games with toys improves your imagination and your social skills to some extent (as has been observed in various studies), but they can be more than just a development tool. Or less, in some cases :p. I tend to spend rather a lot of money on these, and not just because I want the whole set or for the sake of it, but because they make me happy. Maybe it's just because I've not grown up yet or something, but I really enjoy playing with them. And yes, I make all the explosion sound-effects, too. My room's covered in Transformers, Star Wars and Digimon figures ^_^; But anyway, I can't help but notice there's a huge gap between what's considered boys' toys and girls' toys- it's a hard thing to describe, but the general idea I get is that while boys are being encouraged to be brave and fight evil with real karate action and whatever, girls are being trained to eitherbe mothers, or look fashionable and have parties and pick up boys, something which can be a little dangerous to encourage at such an early age (read: underage sex increasing. I know that's not wholly due to toys, but enforcing image-obsessive ideas like that isn't going to help). So anyway, I have a few questions: [b]1. What were your favourite toys (if you had any)?[/b] When I was younger I used to love the Visionaries figures. They were so-well articulated it was amazing. Nowadays we'd take it for granted, but back then usually all a figure could move would be the arms, legs and head if you were really lucky. But it wasn't just that. They had fantastic animal holograms, which on the TV series they'd change into anytime they wanted to. You didn't get the animal with the figure, which was a little disappointing, but it looked very nice anyway. [b]2. What did you think of the toys then?[/b] I loved them. Totally and absolutely. There were always more that I wanted, other figures that looked nice, along with their vehicles, but I was never able to get hold of them. I used to really like the series that went along with them, too. My favourite guy, Ectar, had a nice claw-weapon, too. [b]3. What do you think of the toys now?[/b] They're pretty clunky now. I hardly ever play with them any more, because the plastic feels a little too heavy and they're only held together in the middle by a rubber band. Bearing in mind this was about 1989 these were made, the rubber band in mine's doing well to still be going. Newer figures are better-made, and more detailed. And some do even transform into animals, hehe. [b]4. What do you think of the stereotypes that some toys seem to encourage?[/b] I think it's probably something that's roots lie way back when toys were first made. Because girls and women in general tended to have a bigger role around the house than they do now, I'm guessing toys which helped them identify with the role they were expected to fulfil would have sold more effectively. it's probably also partly instinctive- since women will have a more caring and innate motherly instinct anyway, encouraging that role seems to make sense. Likewise with the boys, who tend to be more active and agressive- give 'em soldiers. But I don't think it's necessarily right to impose these things onto girls. My sisters never liked Barbies- they were into dragons, warriors, and my little sister's Transformers collection is rivalling mine now. Maybe it's because I've grown up in an odd household, but enforcing the ideas of having dates and becoming mothers at such a young age to me seems to limit the imagination of the child. They're bieng forced into a normal social role while the boys are given any number of fantasy/sci-fi ideas and worlds to play in. I think an imagination is a terrible thing to let waste, but trying to make toys which appeal to girls more without being pink and fluffy would be a little laughable now. Maybe a more gender-neutral toy would be more appropriate, so then they can live that little bit more before having to grow up. Anyway, now I've ranted, what do you think?

[SIZE=1]OOC: Okay, I guess it really is time to end this now ^_^ Thank you, everyone. --------------------------------------------------[/SIZE] Jinzo roared in fury as he ripped the arrow from his eye, shards of metal and glass spilling from the opening it had torn in his face. "Time to end this!" he turned back to where Necrophia was standing in front of the four other Exodia pieces, casually destroying troops of Celtic Guardians and a few Dai Grepher Warriors. "Necrophia, get ready to summon Exodia!" His chilling cry echoed over the darkened city. For a second, everyone froze. Valkyrion looked back to the castle, where a Mystical Knight of Jackal was carrying the final Exodia piece towards him. "If this doesn't work," he said to St Joan quietly. "It won't matter- none of us will be around to regret it." He took to the sky and pointed his sword at Jinzo. The battle below had stopped, all eyes on the crystal slab being carted onto the marble steps of the Light Guardian Temple. Its energy surged through the crowd- every living creature could feel its power struggling to break free. A few started to retreat in fear. "Jinzo!" Valkyrion yelled. "We surrender the final Exodia piece to you. We cannot win." Jinzo's eye was slowly rebuilding itself, the flow of bloody oil trickling from the gap was ebbing. "It's about time, Valkyrion. Necrophia!" The fiend marched forwards, the four other slabs floating eerily behind her. As they became closer to the final slab, they began to glow. The Mystical Knight of Jackal stepped away as she stroked a gloved hand over the smoothly-carved surface, her other hand tightly clutching the broken doll which lolled around like a dead body. She clicked her fingers and the slab rose into the air, floating down to meet the others. Jinzo growled in anticipation. Soon, he'd be in control of the greatest power in the universe. Necrophia had to summon it now. He could wait no longer. A terrified silence fell covered the battleground. Even the Dark troops, who had fought for so long to gain control of this power, were starting to turn away. Could such a thing really be controlled? It didn't matter any more. Necrophia threw wide her arms and started chanting in an ancient language. With each word, wisps of purple smoke rose from the tablets and a faint shape appeared on the ground underneath them. A circled hexagram started rotating in the air about her, its speed increasing the more smoke appeared. Valkyrion looked to Melody. "Get ready..." Necrophia was screaming the chant now, as if trying to fight against some other noise inhibiting her thinking. Suddenly, a huge column of purple smoke exploded from the centre of the circle. A glowing white symbol thundered form the sky and penetreted the thick mystical cloud. A loud moan emenated from the darkness. Immediately, the troops started to scatter. Jinzo ordered the Red Eyes to fly in closer, so he could get a closer look at his destiny. "Exodia is REBORN!" he screamed, as two massive shoulders burst from the smoke. Gigantic hands unfurled from a leviathan chest, and the thunderous stomp of huge feet shook the ground. Slowly, as the smoke cleared, the horrible visage of the monster's face became clear. Its eyes shone a blood red, its dark gaze penetrated through everything it saw. Valkyrion was starting to shake. "Melody... any second now..." Jinzo threw back his head and let out a piercing laugh. "Exodia, you belong to me!" The gigantic creature turned to face him, its face devoid of any emotion. It showed no sign of alleigence to him, nor defiance. "DESTROY THEM!" Jinzo yelled. The leviathan creature whirled round to face the castle. Huge beams of white light exploded from the palms of his hands and swept across the ground, obliterating anything in their paths and penetrating deep underground. In the tunnels underneath the earth Realm, Millenniuth could hear a rumbling. Pausing to listen, the ground in front of him was vaporised in a burst of white light. As it dissipated, he looked into the hole above him. Exodia's leer pierced into his very soul. He had to help. he'd already defeated a God. perhaps he could help defeat Exodia too. Beating his wings, he flew up the hole. Silistra gripped her staff tightly. She had never felt such fear in her life. "Now, Melody!" Jinzo watched as Exodia's beams drew towards the Guardian Temple and laughed. Suddenly, they stopped. "What?" he gasped. "Exodia, destroy them now!" The leviathan slowly turned around to face him. "I... can't keep this up!" Melody screamed. Her head was burning with immense pain- the energy inside Exodia was too powerful. "[i]He's going to destroy me![/i]" "Just a little longer, Melody! I know you can do this." Valkyrion yelled. Exodia stepped forwards and drew back a gigantic fist, which started to fill with energy. Doma spied the young Magician practicing the Change of Heart spell. "Tut tut! It's not good to mess with magic you can't control!" He zoomed forwards, his staff outstretched. The metal tips began to glow a deep purple. "Time to die, vermin!" Suddenly, he felt something pierce his stomach. A wave of pain cascaded over his body. He looked down. Mina held onto the Sword of Dark Destruction tightly, making sure it penetrated deeply into the dark fairy's stomach. DOma let out a strangled hiss before disappearing in a cloud of dark smoke. "Exodia, what are you doing?" Jinzo roared. "DESTROY!" Exodia shrieked. The blast of energy thundered from his hand and struck the Red Eyes and Jinzo, vaporising them both. Melody collapsed on the floor, unconscious. Nexcii knew this was his chance. Immediately, he teleported from his room in the Temple and appeared in the sky above them. An orb of pure darkness appeared around him, sucking in everything around him. It grew more powerful. Valkyrion could feel it beginning to draw them in. Trees were ripped from the ground, stragglers who couldn't make it to shelter disappeared into the void above. "Now, Silistra!" She thrust her staff forwards and a white orb appeared on the ground underneath them. The Dark realm forces were catapulted into the centre of the Dark Hole, while the others watched them all fly into oblivion. Exodia covered its eyes as it too, slowly began to be drawn in. "Nexcii!" Valkyrion yelled. "Can you hear me?" "Yes." his voice was faint. "Thank you, Nexcii. You will always be remembered." With a final smile Nexcii felt himself let go, and the Dark Hole's strength increased dramatically. Exodia roared as he was pulled into the void and disappeared... * * * A blue sky. Valkyrion opened his eyes a little wider. All around him, people were picking themselves up, looking almost as dazed and confused as he was. There was no sign of the dark forces anywhere, but they had certainly left their mark on the land. Buildings lay in ruins, and the injured almost carpeted the ground. "We did it!" came a joyous yell from behind him. He turned round to see Rydia smiling gleefully back at him. "Yeah, we sure did!" Chaos replied. "If this doesn't go down in the history books as the biggest battle of all time I'm a Mushroom Man." Valkyrion looked around. Could they be sure the Dark realm gone for good, though? He picked up a small piece of crystal from the ground. A slight wisp of smoke rose into the air. It didn't matter much now. They certainly wouldn't be back for a while. And- he looked back at those who had all helped in the battle -he was sure they'd be ready for them if and when they did. ---------------------------------------------------------- [SIZE=1]OOC: you can have an 'Epilogue' post if you want to, but that's basically it for this. Thank you so much for participating, everyone. Even though it was a little slow towards the end, I can happily say that this couldn't have gone better even if I'd tried ^_^[/SIZE]

It depends what your theme is- things like United We Stand and Mage Power are good in any Deck because they are both powerful and can be equipped to any monster. Others like that are Axe of Despair and Malevolent Nuzzler. Otherwise, you may need type-specific equips (e.g. Lightning Blade and Fusion Sword Murasame Blade for Warriors)

Please try and keep posts above a certain length, HoT LaVa. Were it not to do with the topic, that would be an entirely SPAM post. A staple is a card that should be in every deck, regardless of the theme. Some of the cards listed aren't exactly staples, but can be very useful to have in a Deck anyway.

[SIZE=1][COLOR=purple]Thanks for answering the question, Altron. In future, [i]all[/i] questions about cards and card rulings should go in the [URL=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20652]Yu-Gi-Oh CARD Advice Thread[/URL]. It's the sticky at the top of the page, not really that hard to find.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

It's not a website as such, it's a program you download which allows you to duel over the internet. It's like a souped-up chat program with a duelling field on it. Personally, I think YVD is a lot better than Apprentice- since it's made specifically for Yu-Gi-Oh, I think it's a lot less confusing and easier to get to grips with. Plus, the card images are bigger, hehe ^_^

In Battle Blimp, [spoiler]he also saves Duke and Tristan's lives after they almost fall off the top after fighting over Serenity while looking for Bakura's Millennium Ring. He also knows Ishizu- the two of them have a short conversation.[/spoiler] He seems a pretty integral character, if only so far for expositionary purposes. I reckon his Items and powers will come into play more towards the end of the entire saga. [spoiler]Perhaps he'll be the one who frees Yami after he gets possessed *shrugs*. It's just an idea, but you never know. I guess we'll have to find out.[/spoiler]

Yeah, but the point about fanfiction is that it's written more or less just for the author as a 'What if?'. It's not something that should be taken offence to. If you don't like it, don't read it. It's as simple as that. Saying that the people who write it aren't true fans and don't deserve their work to be called fanfiction is derogating and rather narrow-minded in my view, because they may like the series just as much as anyone else, but just want to explore their own adventures. After all, you can't deny that you'd have thought about what you'd write about if you had control of the next series. Just because you think one character may be better suited to someone they're not meant to be with according to the series doesn't make you less of a fan at all. That's more or less what fanfiction is anyway; being able to play out an idea that you have for the series that you can show to everyone else, be it yaoi, yuri, straight or even lemon.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Jinzouningen17 [/i] [B][spoiler]how do they explain Malik's father's death? Do they show when Malik took the millenium rod and killed his father?[/spoiler] How much did they change from that?[/B][/QUOTE] A fair bit. [spoiler]There was certainly no blood, and again no blade coming from the Millennium Rod. Again, I can't quite remember exactly how it went, but I assume it was just banishing to the Shadow Realm again or something like that. And we don't see Rashid getting whipped, either. I'd have remembered that (I think. Damn, I'm inept). To be honest, I'm not even sure if they mentioned Marik's father being killed at all, or whether he just 'died'. Either way, there was nothing that evil. I wish I could tell you with more detail and confidence- it's been a while since I was last able to see it, and we won't get to that episode again until about the same time that everyone in the US will anyway. [/spoiler] [QUOTE][B]Oh yeah, one last thing. How is Yami Malik's voice? Does it change like Yami Bakura's and Yami Yugi's? Or is it the exact same as his normal voice. [/B][/QUOTE] It changes a lot from his regular voice. [spoiler]Heh, I'm not sure this needs to be in spoilers, but what the heck. It's a lot deeper, and they may have synthesised it a little. It no longer sounds whiny, but a lot more dark and commanding. Imagine a very angry Yami.[/spoiler]

This sounds like a silly rumour to me. A live-action version of an anime just wouldn't work- I severely doubt they'd convert Yu-Gi-Oh into it because the styles are so contrasting, and it'd lose its stylistic charm. Not to mention the hairstyles would be hard to replicate.

Nothing like that, no. [spoiler]He just never gets to do anything to Rashid/Odeon. The Rod stayd the same, he keeps threatening to banish his mind to the Shadow Realm, but doesn't actually do anything. The 'one turn kill' was similar, but there was no burning to a crisp. All of Marik but his eye disappeared, and I think he described it as fusing with Ra. I wish I could remember what it was called instead, though. Although we did actually see Yami Bakura at the end of the episode- just after his body disappeared, he's seen underneath a staircase in Yami's 'mind' (as seen when Shadi was exploring it). Marik still stays in T'ea's mind.[/spoiler] Boy, they do cut out a lot.

[SIZE=1][COLOR=purple]I think this thread's run its course now, not to mention the post quality is getting progressively worse. There are only so many rare cards released in the game, and I think most have probably already been mentioned anyway. Hence, I'm going to close the thread.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[SIZE=1][COLOR=purple]It's an interesting concept, but without any proper dicsussion as to why the characters relate to the cards that have been chosen, it's essentially spam. And I don't think much discussion can stem from it anyway, bearing in mind that these are mostly based on looks anyway. So, I'm going to close the thread.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

If you delete the latest post, then the thread goes back to where it was at the time of the last post. So even if you did want to break the double-posting rules, it wouldn't work anyway. The best thing to do would be to save the content of the original post and then delete that one, then edit it into a new post to put into the thread. But do bear in mind that some discussions do just finish and can't be continued any more, and trying to do so might get irritating if [i]everyone[/i] wants a decent reply to their topic.