YMMV / Dueling Trigger Finger

• Adorkable: Eliza. Watch her act all brash and confrontational one minute, then act all polite and apologetic the next. Then there's also her reaction upon hearing that Hajime has the Black Luster Soldier. And her reactions to seeing that Chiaki's pregnant, married, still considers her a friend, and is willing to share whom she mains in Blazing Emblem.
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • This fic takes the idea that Hiyoko was always a Loving Bully to Mikan with a dose of A-Cup Angst because Mikan could just trip, fall and cry and get attention, while no one would care if Hiyoko did the same thing. It also implies that Hiyoko was tough on Mikan because she was trying to toughen Mikan up and because being bratty was how Hiyoko always dealt with bullies at home because of her size and position.
  • Instead of Kaiba hating on Joey because he's a "bad duelist", Junko, and by extension the author, poses the idea that Kaiba sees Joey as everything he used to be and is compelled to stamp it out. Judging by Kaiba's reaction, Junko seems to be right on the money when she brings it up.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Izuru at the end of the Virtual World arc. Despite the massive build-up in the prior chapters leading to a Triangle Duel between him, Chiaki and Nagito (who only gets about two turns max before being eliminated which contrasts his declaration to stand as Chiaki's equal in the previous chapter); the duel ends up feeling rushed and concludes just as it feels like it just began.
• Arc Fatigue: The Kaiba Corp Grand Prix Arc. Not only was the amount of contestants doubled from 16 to 32, the author also decided to write out all duels, dedicating at least a full chapter to almost each of them. This led to over 30 chapters of back-to-back card duels with important plot developments and most of the arguably more interesting matchups being reserved to the final third of the arc. Even the author, by own admission, wasn't spared by this with the wait between chapters varying between a day and several months. By the time the KCGP finished it was the second longest arc in DTF and ran for over two years.
• Ass Pull: Sonia being able to successfully control Ra in her duel with Marik. While it isn't out of the realm of possibility for her to know how to read the Hieratic Text on Ra's card, considering her background as the Ultimate Princess, Sonia should still lack an explicit connection to the ancient past, i.e. the most necessary requirement for being able to control an Egyptian God, and there's nothing in the story to even suggest that she has one.
• Awesome Art: An artist from deviantart, Starcoookies, has drawn several well-received pieces of fanart for the story. The author even asked her to become the official fan-artist.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Mukuro being prominently on display in this fic is one of the many reasons why she's becoming slightly controversial. The rest is almost assuredly her connection to Junko and her demonization in Danganronpa 3. But Mukuro also seems to be struggling with her own morality and because she's still obeying Junko like a Yes-Man, some of her actions draw ire from readers. Good example is murdering Zigfried. Some feel that Mukuro should just turn on Junko and be done with it because she has all the tools to end The Tragedy prematurely, and always did. Others argue that those people don't fully comprehend the abuse and emotional torment that Mukuro lives with on a regular basis and that they vastly underestimate what growing up with Junko as a sister can do to one's mental state. Mukuro is, to her defenders, just as much a victim as the people she kills and see those people as victims of Junko's will, not Mukuro, who struggles to even have a will of her own.
  • Hajime also qualifies under this especially during the early arcs of the story where he gets a substantial amount of focus dueling-wise whether it be going far in major tournaments or even obtaining a Legendary Dragon. Some do not mind Hajime getting this treatment, as they think it is something that comes off naturally within the story. Others on the other hand, feel like he gets too much story favoritism, sometimes even to Spotlight-Stealing Squad or even Creator's Pet status. Chiaki fans in particular are also not too fond of her constantly being relegated to the sidelines or suffering just for Hajime's sake. Thankfully later arcs severely tone down Hajime's over-prominence.
  • Believe it or not, Chisa Yukizome also gets slapped with this. Many enjoy seeing the Housekeeper finally get her due and show what she's really capable of as an individual. Others, however, feel that the author overcompensated and made Chisa too powerful, with her being one of the strongest duelists in the story without ever being given a proper reasoning as to why she became that good, especially with her rather dismissive attitude towards the game, to the point of calling others out for putting too much faith in it. While this can be seen as a breath of fresh air among the Yu-Gi-Oh! cast, it can also make her come off as ingenuine.
• Broken Base:
  • The story's tendencies to have canon duels/conflicts resolve entirely off-screen: On one hand, it saves page time from the story if said conflicts still happen the same way they do in canon. But on the other hand, it makes all the ensuring build-ups from prior scenes feel wasted if one minute there is heavy elaboration on what made the canon conflicts to meaningful, only for its resolution to be summarized in a sentence or two. Notable instances of this would be the duel between Yugi and the mind-controlled Joey, as well as Kaiba's duel with his stepfather Gozaburo during the Virtual World arc.
  • The final duel against Izuru can fall under this: On one hand; the duel is appropriately paced and choreographed that reflects how powerful an opponent Izuru is to Chiaki and Nagito and that it can be agreed upon that the highlight of the chapters is Chiaki's heartfelt moments with Izuru/Hajime. On the other hand; the duel feels like a rushed mess that ends right when the the duel reaches its tipping point, wastes Nagito's Let Get Dangerous declaration to stand as Chiaki's equal/field by having him eliminated very early on in the duel, and has the unfortunate mess of sharing page time with the resolution of Gundham and Marik's Shadow Game and all the other scenes that happened.
  • Chisa's duel with Joey during the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix. While she does lose—and almost everyone saw this as a good thing—many also noted that the amount of dead draws Chisa had during the duel were a sign that the author made Chisa so skilled and broken that the only way Joey was going to be able to beat her was if she just got unlucky and feel it takes away from the accomplishment of actually winning against her. Or to put it another way: Joey isn't punching up, if Chisa is tripping and falling down the stairs. However, to the people that loved the duel, they see it as one of the story's best so far, noting the dead draws as "just part of the game".
  • The duel between Junko and Chiaki in Chapters 128 and 129. While the duel itself is very well-received, the actions of Junko surrounding it aren't. Not only did she intentionally trigger Chiaki's PTSD, her new "Dark Castle of Despair"-card hacked the system to make damage feel as real as possible, thus by her own words creating a pseudo-shadow game. With Junko already being a Base-Breaking Character, many readers saw their concerns about her characters confirmed, further exasperated by this being the first singular duel to stretch over multiple chapters and thus initially lacking a conclusion. The soon after released second half thankfully addressed many of these concerns, as mentioned in Author's Saving Throw above, with Junko having irrevocably damaged her relationships to almost the whole cast, though some think she still got off too lightly.
• Cant Unhear It: Thanks to the popularity and notoriety of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series (of which the author is a fan of and references in the story from time to time), it is almost impossible to read certain Yu-Gi-Oh! characters' lines without taking their abridged selves into mind. A special mention goes to Dartz considering the drastic differences between his canonical and Abridged selves.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Seeing the Steering Committee getting their just desserts by Kaiba, Chisa and Kyosuke's hands for all the immoral deeds they've done in canon that they got away from scot-free in Chapter 59 is just so damn satisfying.
  • For those who were on the verge of Too Bleak, Stopped Caring for the Orichalcos arc, Yukizome's victory in chapter 66 and subsequent cries of victory are most certainly this.
  • Tea slapping Junko across the face, even if it was unwarranted for once, is still a happy place for many.
  • As a consequence of her actions during her duel with Chiaki in the KCGP Junko ends up being called out by almost every person she comes across. Of course the readers do enjoy seeing Junko face setbacks to her plans, especially of her own making.
  • Kaiba. Punching. Haiji. Followed by an equally cathartic verbal takedown of one of Danganronpa's most universally hated characters.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Miho blew fans away with her shocking appearance, Character Development, and Break the Cutie factors. She's often praised for being so layered for a bit character from Season 0/the original Yu-Gi-Oh manga.
  • Even though he was only around for two chapters, Izuru made reviewers go wild, since his sole duel was full of emotional moments.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: The author has occasionally asked readers which ships they like the most, and so far the resounding winners are Hajime/Chiaki, Gundham/Sonia, and Yugi/Tea—which, perhaps not coincidentally, are keeping with their canon statuses.
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • Some have seen this between Celeste and Joey as a result of their duel. As time goes on and she slowly integrates herself into the main group this becomes less Foe Yay and more normal shipping.
  • Between Marik and Celeste, given how they're an Enemy Mine at best. She even proposes that he make her his queen.
  • The Orichalcos arc is chuck full of these, most of which go in line with the canon of both series:
    • First off you have the canonical Yugi/Raphael and Kaiba/Alister pairs, with the latter pairing even being lampshaded by Hiyoko to Alister himself during Chapter 66.
    • As a result of Nagito and Gundham's Face Heel Turns, Hajime/Nagito and Sonia/Gundham become this as a follow-up from their canonical shipping statuses.
    • Joey/Natsumi could be considered a canon example of this, with the reveal that both of them were actually dating back when they were in middle school.
    • With Mai not undergoing her canonical Face–Heel Turn in this story, she and Valon also qualify.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In chapter 89, Hiyoko says she doubts that, despite Hajime and Chiaki not using protection during sex, that Chiaki would go all teen mom on the group. Guess what's revealed 4 chapters later?
• He's Just Hiding: Reviewers are very hopeful that Izuru will be making a return, possibly as a split personality for Hajime. It helps that what happened to him after his loss is thus far ambiguous.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Dueling Trigger Finger was first posted back in June 2017 around the time that Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony was just being announced for an international release. Come the release of the game, one of Kokichi Oma's free time events has him blatantly referencing Yu-Gi-Oh!.
  Kokichi: Then you gotta play a Shadow Game! It's time to du-du-du-du-du-du-du-duel!
  • And then the author confirmed their intention to include the V3 cast in a crossover with GX.
• Ho Yay:
  • Gundham and Espa certainly have some of this going on ever since they meet one another, not helped by Gundham's dismissal of several women crowding around him later.
  • Ibuki follows Mai's career in magazines because she has a thing for blondes in leather.
  • When Celeste poses the wager of, if Yugi lost to her, he'd spend six months as her manservant in a skintight butler outfit, both Kaiba and Marik note their delight in wanting to see that. Make of that what you will.
  • Kaiba's treatment of Makoto throughout the story, however aloof it may be, has raised more than few eyebrows; especially since Makoto seems to have struck a warm and fuzzy chord in Kaiba that only Mokuba is able to note even existed to start with. And when you consider how Makoto later becomes a Morality Pet for Byakuya in his home series and how Byakuya and Kaiba are similar, one has to wonder...
  • Just like in canon, Hiyoko has some shades of this with Mahiru. Who has some with Serenity.
  • Byakuya can definitely come off that way towards Joey. By the Kaiba Corp Grand Prix arc he's insistent on declaring Joey his (and only his) rival, making sure he's respected by others and giving him credit whenever he can. This is even further exemplified by the story going out of its way to parallel his actions with Celeste's.
• Just Here for Godzilla: For some readers, the main draw of this story is just to see their favorite Danganronpa/Yu-Gi-Oh! characters dueling and interacting with the other series' characters, the alterations to their storylines, or both.
• Like You Would Really Do It: There have been two duels so far in the story that have pulled this, both involving similar characters:
  • Chapter 37: Chiaki winning against Kaiba. There was some very close calls during their duel with there being several points that made it seem like Kaiba's loss was possible in spite of the latter's Plot Armor.
  • Chapter 51: Yugi losing to Makoto - an idea which is just as if not more unsuspecting than Chiaki vs. Kaiba above considering Yugi has a much stronger Plot Armor than Kaiba. Even if there were some very close calls in their duel which made the possibility seem possible; there was still no denying that duel already had a Foregone Conclusion when taking Yu-Gi-Oh! canon into consideration.
  • Chapter 133: Chiaki beating Yugi. For a split second it looked like it might actually happen (his life points even reach zero), but then he pulls out one last trap card to turn the duel around.
• Memetic Mutation: Comb through the comments and you'll find plenty of fans calling Joey a Harem Anime Protagonist with how many girls are into him in this fanfic and how oblivious he is to it all. The Shipping Goggles sent at Joey range from the frequent—Mai, Celeste and Ibuki—to the slightest positive interaction he has with a girl (like Hiyoko and Mahiru) to even citing Byakuya as a Gay Option.
  • Given how long the arc took, several jokes were thrown around regarding Yugi and Yami stuck in the same chair for over a year to the point that it was surprising to many when he stood up.
• Moral Event Horizon: Junko goes screaming over this in Chapter 61, wherein she tortures, molests, and breaks Ishizu into becoming a Remnant of Despair, then shows all this to Marik to bring back out his Superpowered Evil Side.
  • Despite her history speaking for itself, to some, there comes a point where people are responsible for their own actions. So, Mukuro murdering Zigfried on Junko's orders has made it a bit difficult for people to like her or sympathize given how much damage she's causing in the name of despair when she could just as easily turn around and put a bullet in Junko's head.
• Narm:
  • Before Gundham and Yami Marik start their shadow game, what's Gundham's response to Yami Marik's threat? "You're about to have a bad time." Not only is it a Lame Comeback, the Sans reference kind of ruins the dramatic scene.
  • After losing her soul to Nagito's Seal of Orichalcos, Chiaki originally mumbled "Hajime, I don't feel so good.". The reference to a meme, of all things, was a bit mood-killing for some, and the author later changed it.
  • Due to a case of Cant Unhear It as mentioned above, it can sometimes be difficult to take any scene with Dartz seriously, even if he's doing something genuinely villainous. This also applies to Alister, Valon and Rafael to a minor extent.
  • And on a similar note, Junko refers to Yami Marik and Yami Bakura as "Melvin" and "Florence" respectively. Fans of the Abridged Series will get a chuckle, despite how serious the scenes are.
• No Yay: Yugi (or more specifically Yami) gets ship teased with Junko a lot during the Orichalcos arc and beyond. Suffice to say, any appeal of the ship tease loses all its charm seeing as it's, well, Junko.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat:
  • Joey has three girls he's been teased with throughout the story - Mai, Celeste, and Ibuki. Naturally, each possibility has its fans and arguments about why they work. Thankfully, it hasn't turned vitriolic.
  • Makoto's not far behind him, with both Makoto/Sayaka and Makoto/Mukuro having their fans. And then there are those who are hoping for Kyoko to show up and be tossed in the mix.
• Shocking Moments:
  • Nagito summons Exodia against Odion's counterfeit Winged Dragon of Ra. Never before, not that it could've happened, has a god card gone up against the most unstoppable monster in all of the series' run, fake or no fake.
  • All of Chapter 82 qualifies, with the heroes fighting Dartz in an RPG-esque battle instead of a standard duel. Both sides summon monsters that have many devastating attacks and abilities, with the power scale escalating the further the battle goes. All of this caps off with Yukizome summoning Iona and fusing her with several powerful monsters over and over, adding more to her astronomical power resulting in her defeating Dartz's final Orichalcos minion. And if that wasn't enough, she also throws down the gauntlet onto Dartz, challenging him to a duel where it is clear that he is playing by her rules this time around.
• Squick:
  • Chapter 61. Just Chapter 61.
  • Chapter 85 has Junko abduct Rafael with plans to convert him to despair, with Word of God confirming she does all of this while dressing up as his younger sister. Thank the gods above, that unlike with Ishizu all of this will be mainly off-screen.
  • Chapter 133 not very subtly implied that the finale of the KCGP got Nagito so excited... he had to leave for the bathroom, to put it mildly.
• The Un-Twist:
  • No one was surprised by the fact that Chiaki lost to Kaiba in their duel in Chapter 37.
  • Same can be said about Makoto losing to Yugi in Chapter 51.
  • Gundham losing to Marik in Chapter 53.
  • Joey losing to Kaiba in Chapter 54.
  • Yugi winning the final duel of the KCGP.
• Values Dissonance: Crosses over with Deliberate Values Dissonance. The scene where Chiaki forgives her parents after they apologize for treating her neglectfully did not sit well with some fans. However, this is because in America, abusive parents are often called out for their behavior and child protective services are in place to protect abused children. In Japan, no matter what, the fault is always with the child and the parents are always seen as "trying their best". Children are always expected to forgive their parents for their misdeeds or their considered a "bad child". So while the scene might make some uncomfortable, points can still be given for cultural accuracy.
• The Woobie:
  • Poor, poor Chiaki gets hit hard with this trope between what has been revealed about her pre-HPA life which is revealed in full during her Shadow Duel with Yami Bakura and only gets expanded upon in the Virtual World Arc. It says something that a good number of entries on the Tear Jerker page involve her in some manner.
  • Miho not only suffered from a fatal car accident, but when her mind was sent to the Virtual World, she started believing that Sayaka and everyone else had forgotten about her. She made a friend in Noah, only to watch him go off the deep end, which did not help her abandonment issues. Is it any surprise she's become unhinged by the time we see her?
  • Despite his minimal screentime, Izuru. He's an antagonist solely because he's fighting for his existence; even the fact it would erase Hajime's personality isn't his fault, since, as he points out, he never asked to be created. When he throws the duel for Chiaki, he softly wonders what's going to happen to him, since he's lost the only body he has, and admits he's afraid of dying or having a Fate Worse than Death.
  • Gundham spent most of his younger years friendless and ostracized due to his eccentricities and his fondness for animals, so much that even his peers who were relatively civil with him still did not want to associate themselves with him. It's no wonder he initially had a low outlook on humanity.
  • The Ishtar siblings in spades. There were already woobies to begin with in canon (some a bit more deserving of it), but come Chapter 61 they go through one big Happy Ending Override as they are captured by Junko, who proceeds to torture Ishizu into becoming a remnant of Despair, have Odion killed by the despair-converted Ishizu, then shows all of this to Marik, causing another Despair Event Horizon that causes his dark half to resurface.
  • Sonia during the Orichalcos arc. The poor girl was traumatized so badly through her experience in the Shadow Real that she's pretty much gained PTSD that she hesitates to duel again. Then she learns that her best friend AND her long-lost, thought-to-be dead older brother are in leagues with an organization that's responsible for stealing the souls of most of her friends.
  • Tea's interactions with Yugi after he becomes an Ultimate are...painful to watch to say the least since Tea now feels inadequate as a love interest to Yugi. Junko getting in the way is not helping matters.