Between My Brother and Me: Difference between revisions

** May's empathy? She understands their problems, but it also makes her divided as whether or not the Swordsmen can be forgiven for hurting her.

** Mokuba's clairvoyance? He can sense the darkness if it's close by, but it also makes him more susceptible into becoming evil.

* [[Blond Guys Are Evil]]: If their name is Raphael, this fits him.

* [[Blood-Splattered Innocents]]: Inverted. May gets splattered in blood, {{spoiler|but she's covered in her own blood after getting a vicious beatdown by the Swordsmen.}}

* [[Body Motifs]]: Whenever something's wrong with May, the character will always hold onto her wrist. Raphael grabbed onto it {{spoiler|when he kidnapped her}} and Kaiba does it {{spoiler|to help heal the wounds on her arms}}. May herself grasps them in worry, [[Lampshade Hanging|somewhat knowing that things turn out bad when they're grabbed.]]

* [[Bond One-Liner]]: Max delivers one to {{spoiler|Bandit Keith after landing the final blow.}}

{{quote|Max: It's curtain call for you, {{spoiler|Bandit Keith.}} I win.}}

* [[Brainy Brunette]]: May is able to pick up the game of Duel Monsters well, and her [[Indy Ploy|improvised run]] in chapter 18 shows how far she's come.

* [[Break the Badass]]: Subverted with May. She's not really a badass as she is just a good duelist, {{spoiler|but is still badass enough that the Swordsmen just want to hack her to pieces and kill her by explosion}}

* [[Cassandra Truth]]: Raphael is unable to convince his fellow Swordsmen that {{spoiler|May is this supposed savior he met on an island called, "Guardian of the Sea." It gets worse when May knows who he means--her ancestor--but Raphael is too stubborn to believe it.}}

* [[Catch a Falling Star]]: May's Altaria saves her from a nasty death {{spoiler|after an explosion knocks her off the Paradius building}}.

* [[Cerebus Syndrome]]: Subverted; the season was dark already...but then we added many of the below tropes...

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: May and Max are picking out booster packs and sharing cards. {{spoiler|The cards they have will appear later on and help them in duels.}}

** Remember the tag that Norman gave Max? {{spoiler|It's a wishing tag, and it grants Kaiba the title of Regent of Wisdom when Max loses his soul.}}

** The card necklaces May and Max make in episode 7? {{spoiler|May uses hers in Wrath of a Goddess. Max doesn't use his but it's given to Mai to fend the Orichalcos Soldiers coming her way.}}

* [[Children Are Innocent]]: {{spoiler|Hara, May's 5,000 year old Ancient Egypt ancestor, does not know the difference between 'like' and 'love'. When Rael, Raphael's 5,000 year old Ancient Egypt ancestor, asks if she had feelings for him, Hara answered that she liked both Rael and Atem. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|All it did was cause their reincarnates to go through a vicious cycle...]]}}

* [[Cold Sniper]]: Penumbral Gunner, {{spoiler|a Dark Monster said to represent Alister}} is described as this. He's also part cyborg.

* [[Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are]]: Valon uses this when he's searching for May in Paradius.

* [[Complete Monster]]: The Swordsmen of the Orichalcos are this for various reasons.

* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: May utilizes two types of decks: a Gravekeeper's deck, and a deck that's comprised of most Dark monsters. She's also a good person and Goddess of Joy... {{spoiler|most of the time, anyway}}.

* [[The Dark Side]]: {{spoiler|May unfortunately givers herself to the Orichalcos because she needed the strength to continue after her vicious pummeling. Subverted because she forces the Orichalcos out of her, if only temporary. Once she gets trapped, she gives in and unleashes her dark side.}}

* [[Dead Little Sister]]: Inverted with Raphael. His start was his disbelief in the Guardian of the Sea dying. {{spoiler|If his flashbacks are to be believed, his ancestor treated May's ancestor as a sister...or probably even more.}}

** [[Deconstruction Crossover]]: The characters aren't getting along, and are not opening up to each other (Yugi and the others don't tell about Battle City, May and Max can't tell about Atem and his past), Pokemon are being subjected to monsters and power far worse than Team Rocket can do to them, and the characters are dealing with a world that will ''literally'' kill them without guilt.

** [[Deconstruction Fic]]: This talks about what would happen if Dartz wanted his Swordsmen to attack people outside dueling, their mental states and how people would react to this whole ordeal.

** Mokuba's time to shine was in his first Orichalcos duel. For someone who's never dueled before this story, he {{spoiler|stands up to his opponent--Alister--gives him an amazing speech--and prompts that he will take the direct attack of 11,000 attack points and smile at his face while doing so, determined to make sure that the his loss would not be in vain.}}

* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: Deconstructed. What turns out to be a blessing in disguise {{spoiler|A fake Winged Dragon of Ra winds up into May and Max's hands}}, actually becomes a horrible thing as it unravels everything that came before and after it. Because of this, {{spoiler|May gets horribly beaten and chased for having the real Ra in her possession.}}

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: A minor complaint came from a reviewer who noticed the author misread the instructions for 'Fires of Doomsday'. The author didn't know that if the card was used, the duelist couldn't summon any other monster that turn.

* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: {{spoiler|Valon, did you just punch out an Egyptian God?!}}

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: {{spoiler|Shadow inflicts punishment to Valon this way. Valon also does this when he punches and attacks May for winning against Mai in an Orichalcos duel. Shadow's punishment involves calling out the names of the Armor cards in Valon's deck, while Valon feels pain the particular area. After she goes through every monster, she stabs his heart with a dagger...a dagger that takes people into their worst fears.}}

* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: Oh boy... May, Max and Mokuba have their work cut out for them.

* [[Easily Forgiven]]: Deconstructed. The story talks about how much it would take to actually forgive people of their crimes. May has the most trouble, seeing as she's been {{spoiler|sliced, hacked, punched and broken by the Swordsmen who were brainwashed. She's having trouble on whether it was truly their fault or not.}}

* [[Foreshadowing]]: May falls off of the scaffolding of a building in chapter 4 by Raphael. In "Wrath of a Goddess"--14 chapters later-- {{spoiler|the same thing happens, except there's an explosion this time. In both times, her Altaria saves her from becoming a bloody pulp.}}

* [[Four Is Death]]: All over the place. Many of May's Dark Monsters are Level Four, she has four main duels {{spoiler|before the explosion at Paradius}}, Max won four duels-- {{spoiler|the fifth duel had him lose his soul}}--Mokuba has also won four duels {{spoiler|before he lost all of his monsters and Khonsu four chapters later}}, {{spoiler|four duels with revived Orichalcos warriors appear between chapters 24 and 28 (four chapters}}, etc.

* [[Fridge Brilliance]]: This may seem like a [[Deus Ex Machina|unlikely event]] but May being saved by a Swablu evolved into Altaria isn't coincidence. It's been said in the Pokemon series that Pokemon are closer to nature than humans, and thus can sense when bad weather is coming. Two days after May's fall, there's news spreading all over the world of unexplained weather patterns. Plus, May and Max's dreams about Manaphy and Jirachi missing must've affected the world in a matter. The Altaria and Swablu arriving in Domino could justify them trying to get to safety before bad weather struck.

** Why is May written so well as a duelist? It's because she's adapting from her days as a Pokemon Coordinator. Coordinators are shown to be creative, analytical and quick on their feet; traits that duelists need to carry. This is how she's able to win and use effect moves in her duels.

** May and Mokuba hit it off very well, that's because of their ancestors right? Well note that Moka was a Vessel for Khonsu, the Moon God and Hara had relations to the Nile. When you recall that a Moon controls the tides of the ocean (water) it makes more sense!

** May can somewhat understand the problems of the Swordsmen, why can't she do it to Mai? Because she has nothing about her. It was never stated in the story that May learned about Mai's past, and since Mai is trying to forget it, it couldn't be that much of a stress that she has no idea how to react.

** Although that's if she only has Gravekeeper's. Her main deck is much more [[Jack of All Trades|balanced]] that she can use its diversity to fight back.

* [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]]: Happens in the second half of the story. {{spoiler|People who were defeated in Orichalcos duels return, their eyes glowing green to symbolize the Orichalcos taking control}}

* [[Go Out with a Smile]]: Mokuba does this in chapter 24... {{spoiler|He gets better.}}. Deconstructed because he doesn't realize how his going out is affecting people who care about him, and tearfully cries an "I'm sorry" after it's all over.

* [[Graceful Loser]]: {{spoiler|Those who have been revived by the Orichalcos and come to their senses, become this. They thank their opponents from freeing them from the influence of the Orichalcos and begged them to finish them off.}}

* [[Hates Being Touched]]: Subverted with May. She'll accept a hug, but she freezes when someone grabs her wrist.

* [[Healing Hands]]: If this is to go by, Max can temporary stop pain caused by sensing darkness, and May could be able to heal souls of upset emotions. We're not sure about Mokuba though.

* [[Huge Guy, Tiny Girl]]: Either Raphael--or Kaiba--being the huge guy, and May being the tiny girl.

* [[Hurting Hero]]: May was a cheerful Pokemon Coordinator, Max was a cheerful kid with lots of knowledge, and Mokuba was the younger brother of a CEO before chapter 17 happened. Then when that was resolved {{spoiler|May becomes scarred with a dark spirit inside her, Max loses his soul and Mokuba has basically lost most of his powers...all in one day.}}

* [[Imaginary Friend]]: Deconstructed. Atem notes that he and the others were so real to May, that she was willing to use a ritual--at age ''7'' to make them become rela. Said ritual involved cutting her arms and using her blood. No wonder the mom didn't like it. One has to wonder what May's mental state was at the time.

* [[Improvised Weapon]]: May will utilize Duel Monster Cards to get the heck out any situation she's in.

* [[Indy Ploy]]: May's attempt {{spoiler|to escape Paradius. All she does is keep running and summon Duel Monster cards to stall the Swordsmen from capturing her.}}

* [[Infant Immortality]]: Averted. May, Max and Mokuba are targeted by the big bad and each have suffered various wounds for children their age.

** What's even worse is that May and Mokuba's ancesetors died when they were young (at ages 10 and 7 respectively)

* [[Innocence Lost]]: May, Max and Mokuba go through hell in one single week, seeing destruction and darkness everywhere.

* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Inverted. Atem knows the names of the Chosen, but he always refers to them by their titles. This commonly occurs to May as he always calls her 'Goddess of Joy' instead of her real name. And even if he doesn't state their names, he'll call Max 'your brother' to May.

* [[Instant Expert]]: Averted. Since the chosen only got their powers recently--and are being chased by madmen wherever they go--they never get the chance to actually train their abilities.

* [[It Got Worse]]: It did starting at around the end of the chapter entitled 'The Wrath of a Goddess.'

* [[It's All My Fault]]: Poor, poor May. In trying to stop Leviathan from being destroyed, she caused a LOT of problems.

* [[Jack of All Trades]]: Out of the three chosen, this is Max. Although he has the most Magic cards, he balances this out with the effects of his monsters and traps to keep opponents at bay.

* [[Kick Them While They Are Down]]: Valon does this to May. Why? {{spoiler|Because she dueled Mai under the Orichalcos and defeated her, thus Mai's soul was sealed away.}}

* [[Kill the Ones You Love]]: According to May, her ancestor died {{spoiler|because Atem killed her with a stab to the heart. Granted, this was because he was corrupted by a dark evil in his heart, but it still counts.}}

* [[Knife Nut]]: Raphael has his trusty knife hidden in his boot--which was cut from the 4Kids dub--which he'll use to kill anyone in his path {{spoiler|and stab/slice a girl to pieces.}}

** {{spoiler|Shadow keeps a dagger on her.}}

* [[Lightning Bruiser]]: In terms of dueling, this is Mokuba. His strongest monster has 4,000 Attack Points, but his diversity in Monster cards makes sure that he doesn't have to rely on him too often. The downside is that he's not that great when it comes to using Trap cards.

* [[Love Makes You Evil]]: Raphael goes into this in the story. Instead of deciding that the world needs to be cleansed, he wants it to be cleansed AND makes sure the love of his life is with him. {{spoiler|Has it been mentioned that the love of his life is only 10?}}

* [[Mad Oracle]]: Subverted. Jouno isn't particularly mad, just quiet. However, since we haven't heard about his past, one can assume that just because he's silent, it doesn't mean he hasn't been traumatized.

* [[May-December Romance]]: Deconstructed. Raphael is at least in his 20's, and May is 10 years old. Raphael is obsessed with her only because she ''looks'' like his supposed savior. May, naturally, doesn't understand what is going on and is freaked out at the whole idea. Still, it doesn't stop Raphael from continuing to pursue a lover at least half his age.

* [[Mental World]]: Playing with the soul room idea, Mokuba has his own. Mokuba's soul room is pretty plain, but covered with stuffed animals, representing not only his innocence, but also his loneliness.

* [[Mistaken Message]]: Hara confused 'like' for 'love'... {{spoiler|cut to about 5 millennia and that's being taken the same way with Raphael and May.}}

* [[Moral Event Horizon]]: Where do we begin?

* [[Outrun the Fireball]]: May has to outrun one she made. {{spoiler|She summoned Exploder Dragon to deal with Raphael's Guardian Ceal. The results? An explosion May is running away from BEFORE it starts and her escaping just in time.}}

* [[Plucky Girl]]: May embodies this trope until her trauma after Wrath of a Goddess. Then she gets it back, but the following chapters are slowly making her break.

* [[Prophet Eyes]]: Khonsu has them to represent his powers of the moon. Mokuba also wears them whenever he lets Khonsu take control.

* [[Psychic Powers]]: Jouno has precognition, and Raphael has some type of postcognition, May shows signs of empathy, and Mokuba has bits of clairvoyance in him. The Chosen have bits of telepathy by communicating with their Duel Monster spirits. Unfortunately, they aren't sunshine and buttercups as the [[Blessed with Suck]] trope tells us.

* [[Secret Keeper]]: May, Max and Mokuba were promised not to tell Yami about his past. If they get questioned about it, people start to suspect something is wrong.

** It's also deconstructed; they aren't the only ones with the secret. May has to constantly ask what exactly happened in Battle City and never gets an answer. The secrets slowly cause them to not trust in one another.

* [[Shout-Out]]: The story has some of these.

** Two of them are based on the film ''[[The Iron Giant]]''. First is {{spoiler|Alister's strongest Duel Monster which is described to look like the titular giant but also has red eyes and powerful weapons. The second is Mokuba's speech toward Alister which states, "You are who you choose to be."}}

* [[Stalker with a Crush]]: Raphael, AGAIN. {{spoiler|And again with Shadow.}}

* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]: In "Wrath of a Goddess", there are five sets of explosions all based on Duel Monster cards.

* [[Tears of Joy]]: When May finds out {{spoiler|Manaphy is alive}} these are shed.

* [[Tears of Remorse]]: Mokuba sheds these once he realizes that {{spoiler|by winning an Orichalcos duel against Alister, Alister's soul is sealed away. It gets even more heartbreaking when one realizes that he originally was going to lose the duel from a direct attack.}}

* [[Three Amigos]]: May, Max and Mokuba.

* [[Throwing Down the Gauntlet]]: Before May challenges {{spoiler|Mai}} to a duel, she decides it's best to prove that she wants out of the place she's in {{spoiler|Paradius}} by unleashing all 6 of her Pokemon to kick everyone's asses.

* [[Two Guys and a Girl]]: May, being the girl and Max and Mokuba are the guys.

* [[Unfortunate Implications]]: Raphael is obsessed over a ten year old girl. One word can describe this situation...

* [[Wham! Episode]]: Wrath of a Goddess and Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt are contenders for this.

* [[White Magic]]: Max can heal--somewhat--and Mokuba's title is 'Defender of the King', hinting that he can create barriers or use defensive magic.

* [[Would Hurt a Child]]: They would. There were actually threats made by Alister that the Swordsmen would hurt Max {{spoiler|if May didn't return the Winged Dragon of Ra to them}}. It should also be noted that Alister gets to duel a Kaiba {{spoiler|and plans to destroy said Kaiba with a monster 11,000 attack points. Said monster attacks with lasers and missiles.}}

** It gets worse. Max's first duel was {{spoiler|against Arkana. The kid goes through a direct attack that hits him for around 5100 damage. Then he gets attacked by ectoplasm; he's only 7.}}

** What about Ancient Egypt? Hara and Moka were killed at very young ages.

* [[Yank the Dog's Chain]]: May's safe from harm, that's awesome! {{spoiler|She's gonna see if Kaiba's won his duel and...wait...who's choking her?!}}

* [[You Said You Would Let Them Go]]: Inverted. {{spoiler|After May finishes her duel against Mai, she asks Dartz to release Yugi's soul as part of the deal. Dartz says he can't because May NEVER made a deal in question. She only asked for a way out.}}