Your wife? OUR WIFE, COMRADE.
- Why I like them/why I don’t
Ryoken might, putting aside biases, be the perfect evolution of the Kaiba rival archetype. He is a remarkably well-written character who has one of the strongest performances in the show both in the sense of his duels, his writing and his VO. Even when he works with Yusaku and the gang, he’s always doing so to push his own agenda forward and remains an unpredictable rogue element. He’s one of my favorite characters across the entire franchise, to be blunt and to keep myself from pivoting into just how much I love him.
- What I like about their appearance
His piercing blue eyes, the pink V-neck, that thing he does where he puts his hand on his waist and walks like a runway model, you know what I mean.
Also that second design, chef’s kiss, no notes, he’s so pretty. He even makes those green highlights work for him.
- Do I prefer their dub names or original names?
I have never called him Roken once, and the only times I have said Varis willingly is after playing Duel Links and having it stuck in my head for a few hours after a lot of Dragon Link grinding. Performance wise I do have to give it to the sub, Daniel J Edwards does fine, but the layers that Shunsuke Takeuchi brings cannot be understated enough.
You know it’s Datastorm. They functionally complete each other in a way that’s near impossible to describe. You cannot have this show without them, they are the fundamental pillars on which this series rests. They are a deeply fascinating pairing who bounce off each other so well, they are perfect foils which even represents in their decks and playstyles. They should logically hate each other and yet they keep crawling back to the other for one more hit of that good shit. They would move the heavens for each other and violate almost any moral code if the other asked.
Any of the Hanoi leaders, mostly because I think they all only deserve the romantic comfort of a sock. Also not too fond of him and Soulburner due to personal preference.
The weird post-canon situationship of Datastorm/Aiball happening at the same time is so funny to me where Ryoken has to play nice with Ai, who is revelling in that Ryoken can’t touch him because they both like Yusaku too much to make a fuss.
YOU KNOW IT’S BORRELOAD SAVAGE DRAGON. The herald of his great comeback, it has a kickass summon animation and involves Revo summoning a BOLT OF LIGHTNING to flex.
Bring it back Konami, it’s fine, it never needed to be banned.
- Favourite moment they were in
My joke answer is gonna be in the Season 1 finale when he catches feelings for Yusaku and decides the logical course of action was to RUN AWAY ON HIS FUCKING BOAT FOR THREE AND A HALF MONTHS.
My real answer is from his first duel when he summons Toplogic Bomber Dragon and Ai calls him a hypocrite for using a Cyberse monster, to which he looks Ai dead in the eye and replies, “It’s fun to fight poison with poison.” Absolutely banger line but also shows genuinely how willing Revolver is to do anything for The Mission, that he’ll dabble with poison as long as it suits him to.
Honorable mention to his boomer traps (always love seeing people react to MIRROR FORCE for the first time) and his comeback in Season 2 where he kicks in the roof to remind you all who the real GOAT is.
His misplay against Soulburner in their final duel annoys me enough that I have to headcanon he threw the duel. Otherwise I always thought it a bit odd how egregiously he glazes Blood Shepherd after their duel, given I think Blood Shepherd is… lame.
That’s really it, like I said he’s overall a really consistently written character.
- Would I fuck, marry or kill them
I would marry him for the money, but he and I would both know that he’s thinking of Yusaku the whole time.
