Arc-Ved Protagonists is a series of short story fan fics, made by KuriMaster13
, in where an alternate version of a character from a previous Yugioh series is put into the universe of Yugioh Arc-V and duels a character original to that series.
Most of them have their duel be between an Alternate form of one of the Protagonists from the previous series and one of the 4 boys that made up Zarc in Arc-V... with the exception of the ones that involve GX, as Yuri dueled an alternate form of Atticus Rhodes in 'Reluctant Choice', and the alternate Jaden went against Sora in 'Dark Fusion'. Since then, 'Dark Fusion' has been extended into multiple chapters, with each chapter featuring the alternate Jaden going up against a different character from Arc-V.
The fan-fics by name are:Shining Warrior, Dark Dragon (Alternate Yuma Vs Yuto), Synchro Testing (Alternate Yusei Vs Yugo), Coming Right Back (Alternate Yugi Vs Yuya), Reluctant Choice (Yuri Vs Alternate Atticus), and Dark Fusion (Alternate Jaden Vs different Arc-V characters).
Those above links lead to there individual stories on fanfiction.net, while This Link goes to the the series page for all of them over on Archiveofourown.org.
Arc-Ved Protagonists provides examples of:
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game : Averted in most of them, as the duels are either just for fun, or have a purpose that doesn't require one particular side to win. Played straight in “Reluctant Choice” and “Dark Fusion”, where at least one of the duelists is at risk of getting turned into a card should they lose.
- Adaptational Badass: All cards used in the duels use their real world effects be prioritized over their anime version's effects. As such this trope can apply for some cards while other's get the opposite depending on what the effects of the two versions are. Such as Yuto's Phantom Knights, which in the card game, have effects that can be activated in the graveyard by banishing them that they didn't have in the anime. As such Yuto's deck is capable of more combo's here and has better consistency here.
- Adaptational Wimp: Because the cards used in duels use there real-world effects over the anime effects whenever possible, this trope can apply to some cards, while other cards get the oposite. An example being Yuma's Utopia monsters, in the anime and manga all Number monsters (including the Utopia's) could only be destroyed in battle against other Number monsters, they do not have that effect in the TCG or OCG, as such, the Utopias can be beat in battle by any monster here.
- All There in the Manual: Every card Kurimaster made for someone to use in a duel in this series gets posted over onto his deviantart (sometimes with a large gap between posts). Looking at the card's effects can reveal details that were never mentioned in the duels themselves. For example: The Fusion monster, Evil HERO Sonic Ragnarok has an effect that prevents the opponent from activating effects of monsters that have lower attack then itself, but when it showed up, Roget wasn't in a position in which he could try to use any monster effects to gain any advantage before he lost.
- Anime Hair: Lampshaded when Yuya first sees Yugi. Making note of his tri-colored star shaped hair, saying it has got to be the craziest hair style he had seen, and that is taking into account how his hair was naturally growing into a tomato-resembling appearance.
- Calling Your Attacks: Like in canon, the characters do call out and explain the effects of all cards they use when said effect is relevant, and when a monster's attack or effect has it's own special name, the duelist in control of said monster will call out the name of the attack or effect when appropriate.
- Chekhov's Gun: We get both a subversion and a straight example at the same time in “Dark Fusion”. At one point, Jaden has to discard his entire hand and we see all the cards discarded. Among the cards is Necro Gardna, a card that has an effect allowing it to negate an attack when it hits the graveyard. You can be forgiven for thinking Necro Gardna was going to be used latter on, but that winds up being a Red Herring. Also among those cards is Elemental HERO Burstinatrix, a level 3 normal monster that is also used as fusion material from the graveyard by the effect of a card Jaden latter plays.
- Deus ex Machina: Yuri gets one in “Reluctant Choice”, he has no cards on his field, and just one card in is hand, which can't help him at all against 3 monsters each with more attack points then he has life points, and where two can get effects that can either destroy any monster he is able to summon, or just deal enough effect damage to win that way. Zarc then starts speaking to Yuri and activates his Awakened state, seemingly giving him access to Super Polymerization just in time for Yuri to add it to his hand with a graveyard effect and then win the duel.
- Duels Decide Everything: When something needs to be done, chances are, a duel will be involved. Whether it is helping to cheer a kid up, or capture someone to turn them into a card. This is Yugioh after all.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Happens quite a bit.
- In “Coming Right Back”: Yugi was able to get Maximum use out of the spell card United We Stand because he was able to fill his entire field with Kuriboh tokens by the effect of kuritablet, which would only do so after Yuya destroyed a monster. Furthermore, because Yuya attacked one last time after that, Yugi had one open space to be filled with Dark Magician (the monster United We Stand was used with) thanks to Eternal Soul.
- In “Synchro Testing” Yusei would only be able to use the effect of his Synchro Uprising Trap if one of his Synchro monsters was destroyed that turn. Once Yugo used the effect of his Clear Wing Synchro Dragon on Junk Warrior, Yusei was able to play it to allow him to summon Cosmic Blazar Dragon and win the duel.
- In “Shining Warrior, Dark Dragon”, Yuto played Magic Cylinder against Yuma, Which can negate an attack and inflict Damage to his opponent equal to the attack of the monster whom had it's attack negated. As an added bonus, Yuma's monster actually had an effect that can take it off the field and dodge the trap card, but because Yuma powered it up with Stoic Challenge, he wasn't allowed to activate that effect, costing him the duel.
- In “Reluctant Choice”, Atticus using the effect of Red-Eyes Wyvern winds up helping Yuri more then it helped him, as without it, there wouldn't have been enough monsters on the field for Yuri to use as Fusion Material on his next turn.
- In “Dark Fusion”, Jaden's strategy to defeat Dennis heavily relied on the fact that Dennis's Pendulum cards were treated as spell cards while in the Pendulum Zone, both to power up his monsters and to get rid of one to stop it's effect from getting in the way. To make it even more of this trope, Jaden haven't even heard of Pendulum Summoning when the duel started or knew anything about Pendulum cards, Jaden only knew this info because Dennis made use of it on his previous turn.
- Let's You and Him Fight: In “Coming Right Back”, Yoko and Syuzo set up a duel between Yugi and Yuya. Yuya was never made aware that the purpose of the duel was for Yugi to be a Warrior Therapist for him.
- Magical Incantation: Subverted. Like in canon (from 5Ds onward), the characters do give special chants when summoning important monsters. These aren't necessary for summoning the monster, it is just done to make the monster's summoning a little less dull.
- Mythology Gag: There are a LOT of them here
- In “Coming right back”: When Yugi is explaining the story of Dark Magician, he states that he waited 3 or 5 millennia to meet his friend again, forgetting which one. In the 4Kids dub of the original Yugioh, it was 5 millennia, but originally it was 3. Also, when Yugi comes in, he is described as wearing his jacket like a cape, something Yami did back in DM with the Domino High school uniform, Yuya makes note of this, thinking it looks cool, referencing that he is seen doing the same thing with his school uniform in Arc-V.
- In “Synchro Testing”: Yusei summons monsters from both the anime and the manga, as well as monsters from neither. One monster he summons is Cosmic Blazar Dragon, which was supposedly used by an alternate version of him from the time line Z-one originated from in 5Ds. Furthermore, Akiza is stated to be a doctor and even patches up Yugo's broken arm, referencing how she chose to become a doctor to help people by the end of 5Ds.
- In “Reluctant Choice”: Atticus puts on a small black mask that only covers the upper half of his face, just like the mask he wears when taking on the powers of Nightshroud (aka Darkness) in GX. Also, the last turn of the duel has singularities with the last turn of the first duel in Arc-V, where Yuya/Yuri is able to summon their Ace Dragon, after getting a slight boost from Zarc when their field is empty and they have seemingly bricked, and attacks with it to win the duel with the help of the dragon's effect.
- “Dark Fusion”, being the longest of the stories, has more then the rest:
- The monsters Sora summons when facing Jaden are the same ones he summon when facing Shun in Arc-V, even summoned in the same order and with the same materials.
- Whenever someone fusion summons without needing to activate a card effect first, Jaden refers to it as Contact Fusion, the term used in GX to describe when he did just that with the Neo-Spacains.
- The outfits Syrus, Bastion, Hassleberry, and Chazz all wear after switching out of the Duel Academy blazers are based on alternate outfits they wore in GX. For Syrus Hassleberry, and Bastion, it is what they wore before joining Duel Academy, and for Chazz, it is what he switched to when he temporarily transferred to North Academy.
- When Super Dark Fusion is first activated, the situation is similar to when Super Polymerization is first used in GX. In both cases, Evil Hero Infernal Gainer just returned to the field from it's own effect, and was then Fused to the only monster the opponent had out on their field thanks to the quick-play spell cards, and then the monster summoned from them latter made the last attack to end the duel.
- During the last chapter, Jaden senses the 4 Dimensional Dragons in Yuya's deck in a way similar to how his canon self sensed the Egyptian Gods in Yugi's deck during the last episodes of GX.. Furthermore, some of what he says to Glow Moss later on echo what his thoughts in that duel were.
- Also, the ending of the last duel shares singularities with the ending of the last duel in season 1 of GX, Where Jaden plays Battle Fusion to power up his monsters when his opponent attacks it, only for the attacking monster to get stronger despite this, causing Jaden to play Final Fusion to end the duel in a Draw.
- Original Flavour: It has been commented on that the the alternate versions of the non-Arc-V characters make perfect sense for how they exist in an Arc-V setting and that they are still true to their original selves despite the new settings they are put in.
- Pseudo-Canonical Fic: Invoked. kurimaster13 made it a rule to himself to write each installment so that all events in them could have happened within the shows allowed canon (with the exception of the duels using real-world rules and effects as opposed to the anime ones). Enforcing this trope is part of the reason why a Jaden vs Yuri duel never happened, and he instead split it apart into “Dark Fusion” and “Reluctant Choice”.
- Tempting Fate: Happens a couple times in “Dark Fusion”, with Syrus saying a variant of You Just Had to Say It afterward if he is around... including when he did it himself (although that time it was subverted).
- The Magic Poker Equation: Played with. Being Yugioh, there is almost no way to avoid this trope. However, how much of it applies may vary from time to time.
- In "Coming Right back", Yugi passes his turn at one point despite having multiple cards in his hand that we never saw. This ends up implying that he may have bricked, something that would almost never happen with this trope in effect.
- In "Reluctant Choice":
- Yuri plays a card called Last Ditch effort, which seems tailor made for allowing this trope at it's finest by giving the user a brand new hand of 6 cards, but it is downplayed as he can only use about 3 of the cards he drew at the time, and is forced to shuffle the rest back into his deck at the end of the turn.
- Latter played straight when Atticus plays his copy of Last Ditch Effort and is able to use almost all of the cards he drew off of it.
- Then Subverted in the last turn where the card drawn (with no other cards in the hand or on the field mind you) winds up being useless, so a card is searched from the deck thanks to an effect from the Graveyard, and the drawn card winds up just being discard fodder to active the searched card.
- Red Herring: You can be forgiven for thinking that Necro Gardna is going to be a Chekhov's Gun in Jaden's duel against BB in “Dark Fusion” once it is discarded to the Graveyard, as its effect can be used there to negate an attack. It is never used, the actual Chekhov's Gun here is the Elemental HERO Burstinatrix discarded at the same time and later used as Fusion material.
- Rule of Symbolism: In “Coming Right Back”, right when Yuya get's what Yugi is saying about something having vanished, doesn't mean it is gone for good, the next card he draws is Monster Reborn.
- Sailor Earth:
- The Presence of an Alternate Yugi, Jaden, Yusei, Yuma, and Atticus in an Arc-V setting can be considered this. They never appeared in Arc-V, but Alternate Versions of other character from there shows (expect Yugi's) do appear. Especially notable with Atticus since he is the brother of a GX character that DID get an Alternate version in Arc-V, without Atticus getting even a mention.
- In "Dark Fusion" much of Jaden's deck can be considered this. Here he plays Evil HERO monsters, most of which are corrupted forms of Fusion monsters he played back in GX. Only a few Evil HERO monsters exist in real life, with Jaden having played far more during the GX run. Here we see Evil HERO versions of monsters that didn't get some beforehand.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee:
- When Jaden is dueling Sora in “Dark Fusion”, he never reveals what card he added back to his hand with Supreme Command the second time that effect went off. He later uses it as Fusion material to summon a monster that wins him the duel.
- Played with in “Coming Right Back” Yoko and Syuzo mention a potential combo Yuya could pull off with the cards in his hand and Graveyard, that could allow him to inflict damage to Yugi every turn without leaving a monster with weaker attack then Dark Magician out on the field, for Yugi to attack. Whether Yuya is aware of this or not is never revealed, and the turn before he could pull it of if it he were, he loses.
- Warrior Therapist:
- Invoked. The reason why Yugi and Yuya duel in “Coming Right Back” is for Yugi to serve as one to Yuya, apparently that is the best way for Yuya to get a message from someone other then his Father.
- Jaden also tries to invoke this in “Dark Fusion” but it doesn't work out so well.
- Xanatos Gambit: While Duels Decide Everything, often, the outcome of the duel may not matter, at least not when Absurdly High-Stakes Game is adverted. Instead, what happen during the duel may be what a certain party needs to happen. Once that happens, win or lose, that duelist got what they wanted.
- You Just Had to Say It: Syrus tends to say this when someone goes off Tempting Fate... even if Fate decided to ignore the temptation.
