A man dies in a car crash and finds himself reincarnated as Ren Campell in the world of his favorite series, Yugioh. He quickly decides that saving the world would be too much work and that the main characters pretty much have it covered. He’d rather live a relaxing life as a background character. Unfortunately he quickly discovers that he wasn’t the only one reincarnated, and that the other person isn’t content with staying in the background like him.
Staying in the Background is a Yu-Gi-Oh! GX self insert fanfic by Emblemfan1. It can be found here
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Staying in the Background contains examples of:
- Adaptational Jerkass: In canon, Harrington Rosewood was simply a low key jerk. In this story, he’s an unrepentant Slimeball.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- Atticus wasn't possessed by Nightshroud like he was in the anime. Instead, it was a girl named Eve Pechman. This makes it unclear if Atticus is even alive.
- Eve is assumed by Ren to be reincarnated like him. However, he's also aware of the possibility that she could be a person from this world whose life changed thanks to his and Logan's existence changing things. The fact that she has amnesia means he's not going to get answers about her right away.
- Boring, but Practical: Sadie's runs a stall/burn deck, as she simply wants to win duels as quickly as possible and isn't interested in the spectacle of summoning big monsters to attack her opponent.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Ren and Logan tend to get on each other's case over how they've been living in the GX world, and tend to be right regardless of who is on the giving and receiving ends. Ren is right when he points out that Logan acts selfishly and is more concerned about living out his personal power fantasy with no regards for how it impacts others. Logan is right when he points out how that if Ren didn't want to be involved in canon, he shouldn't have applied to Duel Academy in the first place. He's also more willing to accept the fact that things are different from the anime's canon, and that it's futile to try and railroad the plot back to what they remember from the anime.
- Brilliant, but Lazy:
- Ren is a highly intelligent and skilled duelist, but his aversion to standing out results in him avoiding duels or simply not trying to win. When he actually starts trying he becomes good enough to beat Jaden in a duel.
- Sadie dislikes dueling, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t good at it. The first time we see her duel, she beats Chazz in 7 turns.
- Chekhov's Gun: Before he heads to Duel Academy, Ren’s parents give him several cards. Several chapters later one of those cards, Dark Paladin, becomes instrumental in winning his duel against the Nightshroud.
- Commonality Connection: A rare one sided case. Ren quickly strikes up a friendship with Sadie because he views her as a fellow background character.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Logan defeats Crowler in a single turn.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Ren and Logan both deconstruct self insert characters, with each representing opposite extremes when it comes to self inserts.
- Ren embodies the self inserts who just stay in the background without directly interfering in the plot. He simply wants to enjoy his new life and watch the main characters grow while letting The Stations of the Canon play out. However his Obsessively Normal mindset has left him without personal aspirations and belief that he is a background character blinds him to the fact that his actions have unintended consequences.
- Logan embodies the stereotypical power fantasy self inserts. He wants to railroad the plot in order to make things better while fulfilling his own fantasies. However not only does this attitude result in him coming off as a jerk, but even the most well intentioned of his plans are self centered and he fails to consider the long term consequences if said plans actually succeed.
- In the more general sense, both of them deconstruct the very idea of a person entering a fictional world. Despite having lived in their new world for years, both still consider the world to be fictional on some level and tend to view the people around them as characters.
- Disc-One Nuke: Thanks to his father being a card designer, Logan is able to get a near complete Lightsworn deck which, as Ren puts it, is one of the most overpowered archetypes of this time period.
- Foil: Ren and Logan. Both of their previous lives were bleak and one of their only escapes was through the Yugioh series and are ecstatic to reincarnated into its world, however their life goals are polar opposites. Ren simply wants to enjoy his new life and stay uninvolved as possible with the canon plot, but gets pulled into it despite trying not to. Logan wants to insert himself into the plot to fulfill his hero fantasy and fix several of the problems in the world, but his reckless schemes tend to backfire.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Ren actually met Dimitri at a junior tournament prior to enrolling. Ren doesn’t remember because he never directly interacted with him during it, but he apparently left a lasting impression on Dimitri.
- Hate Sink: Harrington Rosewood. Not only is he a rude, arrogant, and condescending jerk to everyone we see him interact with, but within seconds of appearing its revealed that he cheated on Sadie when they were dating, laughs at her when she runs away crying after being around him digs up some bad memories, and goes on a brief rant that makes it clear that the only thing that important to him is his own personal pleasure.
- Helping Would Be Killstealing: As a human from the real world thrown into the world of an anime he watched, Ren refuses to get involved with canon events for fear of changing the timeline. The excuse he gives Logan is that getting involved with the canon cast could get in the way of their Character Development and hinder their personal growth.
- Heroic BSoD: Jaden has a brief one after he defeats Titan, resulting in the latter being consumed by shadows.
- Humble Goal: Ren’s only goal in his new life is to live a relaxing and fulfilling life. Deconstructed, as Ren eventually realizes that outside of that he has no real dreams or aspirations and ultimately has no idea what he wants to do with his life.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Even though Chazz has Light and Darkness Dragon, he still gets Ojama Yellow.
- Despite remaining an Obelisk, Chazz still decides to leave Duel Academy, as he’s grown disillusioned with the ranking system.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Logan starts out an arrogant snob focused on living out his power fantasy. But he is right when he points out that if Ren didn't want to be involved in the events of canon like he claims, then he shouldn't have applied to Duel Academy in the first place. Ren even admits in his narration that he has no excuse for this.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Weevil lies to Rex about the stakes of Ren’s Tag Duel, because he knew Rex would never agree to help otherwise. When Rex finds out, he’s so disgusted at Weevil’s desperate attempts to regain his reputation that he choses to cut ties with him completely.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Ren has one when he realizes that his detachment from the world around him and desire to make sure the plot stays on track has indirectly driven Dimitri into a Heroic BSoD.
- Poor, Predictable Rock:
- Logan relies so much on Judgment Dragon that he becomes easy to counter, regardless of how strong Lightsworns are compared to other cards from the GX era. Chazz is able to beat him because his playstyle had become so predictable, which convinces Logan to change his strategy.
- Part of the problem with Dimitri emulating the strategies of other duelists is that people know how to counter them, especially famous duelists like Yugi. Ren even points out that Yugi himself had to change up his strategies throughout the years because people knew what to expect and developed counters to his old strategies.
- Running Gag: Ren has to constantly explain that his deck isn’t based on Yugi’s, it just has some of his cards.
- Shadow Archetype: Harrington is set up as one to Logan, essentially being him without redeeming qualities or character development.
- Shout-Out: After Ren and Alexis summon Dark Paladin, Nightshroud cries: "It's over 10,000!"
- Sore Loser:
- Much like his canon self, Chazz does not take losing well.
- Logan goes livid over the possibility that Ren, who in his eyes is a no-name background character, was about to beat him before their Duel was ended prematurely.
- This Cannot Be!: This is Logan's reaction as he is about to lose to Chazz in the match to switch dorms.
- This Is Reality:
- After getting sick of all the crap he’s pulled, Ren punches Logan in the face and breaks down that the world they live in now isn’t fictional and he needs to stop treating it like it is. Logan ultimately accepts.
- Logan also gets one on Ren, pointing out how there have been so many deviations from canon that they can't just assume the future is set in stone or will go the same path as the anime.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Weevil was this for Rex, who Took a Level in Kindness and started improving as a person after cutting ties with him, as shown with how respectful he is towards Ren and Alexis during their tag duel. Meanwhile, Weevil spiraled downwards in the time between DM and GX and his behavior has gotten even worse throughout the years. Rex is also disgusted when he learns if the two of them won their tag duel, Ren would've been expelled. Weevil kept quiet about this because he knew Rex would never agree to the duel if he knew the stakes.
- Villain Takes an Interest: Nightshroud takes interest in Ren and Logan because they “linger with the stench of death”.
- Your Magic Is No Good Here: Downplayed. Logan explains that the people of the GX timeline seem completely incapable of grasping the concept of Synchro and XYZ summons, which really irritates him as it prevents him from having a complete Lightsworn deck.
