Personal feelings on a certain matter. May offend people.
(Source: daretodrainmedry)
I can’t stand this anymore.
Dear ZEXAL fandom,
I know you love to complain that Yuma has no characterization other than being an idiot. I must apologize for what I say next, but you are wrong. You are so wrong you thought you were right, but in reality you broke logic and made it cry about how wrong you are.
Fuck you,
xepi
Alright, theoretical people (or the choir, I’m not picky about my audience), ready your eyes I’m about to lay down a character analysis.
Yuma is a thirteen year-old suffering from depression and low self-esteem. He utilizes avoidance as a coping mechanism. His primary stressors are losing his parents and being bullied at a young age. Evidence of these stressors can be found in episode 1, 19, and 24.
Episode 1 shows that without the Emperor’s Key, the embodiment of his avoidance (kattobing), he’s downright miserable. Low mood, irritability, incapable of doing everyday activities. Episode 19 presents Yuma being bullied with warning signs of it effecting him negatively, such as a desire to avoid school. In episode 24 Astral straight up confirms that Yuma is depressed.
People love to point out that Yuma is completely unaware of his actions in regards to others like Astral or while he’s dueling, and use this as an example of being a flat character. That makes absolutely no sense to me! Regardless I’ve got a great argument for that! It’s a little known fact about Yuma: HE’S THIRTEEN. Of course he is the center of his world. Of course other people don’t matter to him. Of course he’s going to make stupid mistakes. Why? Because being thirteen means he’s on the cusp of developing a sense that his actions have consequences.
When you’re thirteen you don’t think “if I jump off this roof I’m going to break my leg.” No, you think “I can do anything! I’m going to jump off this roof and nothing is going to break. It’s gonna be awesome.”
This ties into how argumentative he is with Astral, too. It’s not just for comedic relief. He’s acting like any other adolescent thrust into having responsibilities they don’t want. He argues, he ignores it, he throws a tantrum.
Let me break down this another way: Yuma must take care of a whole other person, someone whose very life depends on him. That’s honestly a really, really heavy responsibility for a middle school student. And it literally came out of no where after Yuma punched a door.
Then there’s that whole YUMA DOESN’T EVEN DEVELOP AS A CHARACTER BLUH BLUH BLUH. To which I’m just like, what are you even on?
Yuma’s primary character development in season one hinges on the fact his self-esteem is absolute shit. This culminates in the first episode of season two, episode 26:
KOTORI: Now you can fulfill your promise to your dad, your promise to become Duel Champion.
YUMA: Yep!
ASTRAL: Yuma. You have to win this. A tournament of this magnitude will most likely have participants with Numbers. If we can recover those Numbers…
YUMA: You’re right, since your memories would return. But get this, Astral. I’m not too obsessed about winning this tournament.
ASTRAL: What do you mean by that? But that contradicts the promise you made to your father.
YUMA: I’ve been trying to figure this out. What is Dueling to me? Ever since you showed up, I’ve gone from a constant loser to defeating strong opponents. And it was when I dueled Shark and Kaito that I felt the agony of defeat for the first time. Whatever happens, I will never dislike dueling. But it’s true that dueling for me has nothing to do with winning and losing. I can’t describe it well… But to me, I bond when dueling.
ASTRAL: Bond…I went ahead and italicized the important detail about this exchange. If Yuma thought positively about himself before Astral showed up, he would not have called himself a loser. In fact, this conversation wouldn’t even happen. Think about any time he argues with Astral, it’s never “shut up, that’s not true!” It’s always “shut up, I know that already!” Yuma never, ever denies the fact that he’s a loser.
In episode 3, he says that losing is a positive thing. But in 10 he shows his true feelings: he doesn’t want to be a loser. He wasn’t being honest with himself when he continuously told himself that he’s okay with losing.
His low self-esteem is due to never accomplishing anything, but his greatest strength is that he is capable of losing. This nexus of his character, it’s what makes him interesting.
As the story progresses he begins to drop his avoidance methods. Kattobing stops being a crutch. It starts to take on something more real to him as he begins to move away from his parent’s ideals. He’s not interested in dueling just to become a Duel Champion anymore.
Fuck, when did it become 5:45 AM. More to come later.
