Intro – To start off my article I have a few quotes I would like to use. “Just because you have to grow up doesn’t mean you can’t still love things that you loved as a kid or when you were younger”. “Don’t just be inspired by others; be inspired by what others make”. “You’d be surprised how much a character that a person created can do for someone”. (Please note these are quotes are ones that I thought of.) As you probably guessed it from my quotes my article is about characters that have inspired me, ones who have done that this year. I have meet lots of different and new characters this year throughout all of the things I love, but the eleven that I’m about to talk about are the ones who have inspired me the most this year. As you will see these characters have made me want to do things I have never done before and never would have if I hadn’t been introduced to them. If there’s something I like the most about movies, video games, stories, TV shows, and anime it would have to be the characters that make these things up. People in are world spend lots of time on these characters and even the characters that are not the major ones they still seem to spend lots of time creating these characters too. At times it almost makes these characters seem real because of how much life the creators of them breathe life into them. Of course you and I know they aren’t real, but it’s still ok to wish they were. I mean no one told us we couldn’t wish for them to be real, did they? No and that’s why we still can and they can still inspire us as well. This is going to be a long article and that’s why I broke it up into sections. There is a section for each character. Some characters you may know inside out, others you know some information and some you have never heard of before in your life until now, so please read on and if it takes you days then ok. Maybe even you’ll be inspired by one or all of these characters. WARNING! There are spoilers in terms of information about the characters and spoilers about their stories and stories from the media they come from. Please read at your own risk!
Phantom R/ Raphael - Probably the first character this year that inspired me would have to be a character named Raphael, but everyone knows him as Phantom R. Yes my user name is named after this character. He comes from a Rhythm, adventure game that was done by Sega the company that’s famous for their Sonic the hedgehog games. Now if you don’t know who Sonic the hedgehog is and his games then I’ll have to tell you about him some other time. The game that Phantom R comes from is called Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure for the Nintendo 3ds. I have seen a walkthrough for the game and it’s an amazing game and the story and the characters are quite different compared to other games I have seen or played. If you want a challenge this games gives you that, but back to Phantom R. First let me tell you a little background information about Phantom R and this might help you understand why he has inspired me. Raphael is an 18 year old student boy who lives in Paris, France. He leads a double life as a thief at night with his dog named Fondue. As a thief he’s known as Phantom R. He steals valuable artwork, but returns them a few days later. You see Phantom R is a different kind of thief. While some may think he’s bad and yes he does steal stuff, there are some times were he has been seen to help people and be kind. I don’t consider him your average thief who’s all bad. Now this is a rhythm game for a reason. Pretty most of what you do during this game is rhythm challenges. Now if you have a good sense of rhythm these challenges can be easy, but if you don’t you will find them challenging. I have a good sense of rhythm because I listen to music a lot, but they are still tough because you also need skills to get the right moves down at the right time. Rhythm is important in this game and Phantom R has a good sense rhythm and this is because he takes this from his mother who was a ballet dancer. His good sense of rhythm is something that he uses through his life, but it’s especially helpful when he’s Phantom R. Since you know that the lesson that I believe Phantom R/ Raphael has shown me is “Let the rhythm of life guide you”. Rhythm seems to help Raphael in all he does and he has shown me that rhythm is all around us and us in our daily lives. I realized this when I looked at one of the things I love the most and that’s music. I listen to music every day. It helps me with lots of things. To be focused on what I’m doing, to experience my emotions, helps me feel better, calms me down and many more things. When I saw how important rhythm was to Raphael I wondered what it would be like if music was not in my life. Trust me that vision wasn’t a vision I wanted to see, but it made me realize how important music is to me because without it part of my life would be boring and I’m sure Raphael would feel the same way about rhythm. He made me realize and inspired me to “Let the rhythm of life guide me” or in my case “the music of life guide me”. Just like he’ll continue to let rhythm guide him, I’ll continue to let music guide me because I like to say “The show must go on”, but Phantom R would say “It’s Showtime”.
Natural Harmonia Gropius or N (as everyone calls him.) – N probably has to be out of all of the characters that I got introduced this year the one that has made me want to do lots of things and inspired me a lot. Of course for those of you who don’t know who this amazing character is you are in luck because I happen to be N’s biggest fan and I know pretty much everything there’s to know about him. Let me fill you in. Since his appearance in the Pokémon anime is a little different than in the games I’m going to tell you about him based on his anime appearance. For those of you who don’t know what Pokémon are I can tell you about it later because it would take lots of paragraphs to explain it. Now back to N, he’s a young man who has a special connection with Pokémon. He can hear a Pokémon’s inner voice. This allows him to help Pokémon that are hurt or inquired. He can also connect his heart with the heart of a Pokémon’s. This allows him to call upon Pokémon to help him. Compared to other trainers he does own a Pokémon of his own and there are reasons for this. It’s because of how he grew up and saw the world. He was kept in a big mansion and wasn’t allowed to see the outside world. This was because of a man named Ghetsis, who’s the leader of Team Plasma. You see Team Plasma is the evil team of the Unova region who are trying to use the power of Reshiram, which is a legendary Pokémon and said to be very powerful to rule the Unova region and the world. Ghetsis realized when N was young that N had a gift and that gift is the one I was talking about early, where he can hear the inner voices of Pokémon. Ghetsis knew that this gift of N’s would be helpful in helping Team Plasma achieve their goal. That’s exactly what Ghetsis did to N and N’s companions Anthea and Concordia. The way that Team Plasma treated Pokémon compared to the rest of the world made N think that all people mistreat Pokémon, so this is why he considers Pokémon to be his friends and dislikes people. His view is that Pokémon should live in peace away from people, but you see his view changed a little when he meet Ash Ketchum and saw how Ash and his Pokémon got along. This made him realize that Pokémon can truly live in peace with people, but before he changed his view about people and Pokémon it seemed like no one really liked his view about people and Pokémon, but you see N stood by his view because of how he stood by his view showed me that “Even when everyone around you doesn’t like your view about something, stick by your view”. You see for me my view and opinion about a lot of things is always different. I’m the odd one out and don’t follow the crowd. Sometimes I would look at why people in the crowd went with the answer or view that they did and wonder why I choose the one I choose, because little to no people would choose the view I choose. It made me feel lonely and that no one else really cares about the view I have, but then I meet N from Pokémon and that changed. Watching N stand by his view about people and Pokémon amazed me and couldn’t believe after the fact that most people really didn’t like his view that he stood by it, but it made me realize that I had to do the same thing. Now days I stick by view or answer and even if most people don’t like my view I support my view 100%. To finish up about N I would like to take a quote from him. “Reshiram is bigger than life itself to me…”. This is just part of the quote, but this is the part of the quote that’s the most important. He’s showing how important Reshiram is to him and because this he would do anything to protect and help Reshiram. The same can be said for my views. My views are so important to me that I’ll stand by them and protect them no matter what. N has shown me that you should stick by what you believe in, because it’s your view about something in the world.
Drew – It was a good thing that I got caught up on watching Pokémon this year (Watching seasons 3 – 9 and because of that I have seen all of the episodes of the Pokémon anime that exist right now.) because two of the characters from the seasons I watched inspired me. The first I would like to talk about it is Drew. You see Drew is what they call a Pokémon Coordinator. For those who don’t know what a Pokémon Coordinator is you may think they are the same as a Pokémon trainer. That’s not entirely true. Sure Coordinators raise there Pokémon, but they work more on the beauty and appearance of their Pokémon and there Pokémon’s moves. They show off their work by entering contests that are held all over curtain regions and if a Coordinator wins they get a ribbon by getting five of these they can go to the Grand Festival and if they win there they get a trophy and are called top Coordinator. Now to tell you about Drew. He’s May’s rival in the advanced generation part of the Pokémon anime. Drew is interesting and when it comes to talking about someone’s performance with their Pokémon he tends to be pretty critical, especially May’s performance with her Pokémon. He’s also known to give May’s Pokémon a Rose instead of May because does that because he sees how great her Pokémon’s performance was and he fails to see how hard both May and her Pokémon work. Although as May gets better as a Coordinator Drew starts to understand, but doesn’t fully understand until May beats him during a Contest battle during one of the Grand Festival that both of them entered. He starts to appreciate both May and her Pokémon’s accomplishments. You see “You should appreciate other people’s accomplishments”. This is the lesson Drew showed me and this is also how he inspired me. I’m usually in my own little world doing stuff myself these days and people who know me best will tell you that it’s tough to get me to go outside and walk or even go somewhere besides staying in my house, so it’s no wonder that I don’t get the chance or should I say give myself the chance to appreciate other people’s accomplishments. This has changed as living with my house mates at the house I have being living at during my stay near the collage I go to has given me this chance and I have done it lots of times and you know what it feels good. Drew has inspired me to get myself out there more in the world, so I can continue to do this. I truly understand now how Drew feels when he gives May and her Pokémon compliments about the hard work they have done.
Harley – Out of all of the characters I’m going to talk about Harley is by far the weirdest and craziest one, so you might think, why do I like a character like him? I have my reasons and hopefully when I’m done telling you about Harley and how he has inspired me you might understand why I like him. First I need to tell you about this crazy character. Like Drew, Harley comes from the world of Pokémon, the anime to be exact. See Harley is another one of May’s rivals. Compared to Drew Harley goes much further with his contest performances and battles with his Pokémon. He uses lots of dirty tactics to win and finds pleasure in humiliating his opponent. Why would I like someone who plays dirty? That’s not the reason I like him. I like him because of his personality and that’s the reason I like any character for that matter. If I had to describe Harley’s personality I would say he is wild, crazy, sneaky and a tad mysterious. Funny thing is I’m all of these things too. Yep I’m exactly like Harley in terms of personality. If there is one thing this crazy character has shown me it’s that “It’s ok to be totally wild and crazy”. At times I can be downright crazy and yes I get it seems like 10 tons of eyes staring at me or ever one looks at me as if I am crazy. They might even walk away. Back then you probably guessed how that made me feel: bad. It tried my hardest to not be that way, but no matter what I did it would always happen to me. I would get a repeat of people thinking I’m crazy and walking away. How was I supposed to make friends or talk to people if this happened? This is where Harley’s lesson and inspiration comes in. Once I watched Harley in the anime and found this lesson and inspiration I realized I can’t change the fact that I’m a pretty wild and crazy person. It’s part of who I am and without it I wouldn’t be me. While Harley’s lesson and inspiration may not be the one that has changed my life a ton like the other character I’m talking about his lesson is an important one and now I know “It’s ok to be totally wild and crazy”.
Bakura – Yes for those of you who don’t know I’m now a Yu-Gi-Oh fan, but only of the anime. I like the card game, but I’ll probably only own some of the seasons on DVD and not any of the cards and if I did own some of the cards it would be the favorite cards of some of my favorite characters. Speaking of favorite Yu-Gi-Oh characters Bakura here happens to be my 2nd favorite. Let me tell you some things about him that you should know. While Bakura is a very kind person and cares very much for his friends, there’s a secret that he has. Bakura has an item known as the Millennium Ring and this ring holds an evil spirit. This spirit needs a person to be able to do things or as the spirit says a vessel. That’s where Bakura comes in. You see he’s the vessel that lets this spirit do what it needs to do. This happens by the spirit completely taking over Bakura’s body. It’s not his fault that this happens because one his father got the Millennium Ring when he was traveling and gave it to Bakura. His father didn’t know that there was an evil spirit in the ring that would completely take over his son’s body. Two since they say that Bakura is weak the evil spirit completely suppresses Bakura’s soul when he takes over. This doesn’t mean that Bakura is completely weak. There’s one time in the anime where Bakura fought back against the spirit and I remember it well. It was one of my favorite moments in the anime. Bakura was running away from something and you could hear some kind of voice and an evil one. He found a church that he thought that he would be safe in. You can tell who the voice is from because as Bakura is running he says “This can’t be happening, not again”. This implies that he knows who the voice comes from and he would be right because it comes from the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring, but the thing is Bakura doesn’t have the ring around his neck or in his possession. After the evil spirits voice had a little talk with Bakura about the mission they still had to do the evil spirit was going to take over Bakura’s body again to complete its mission. Of course Bakura having been used as a vessel for this spirit for the whole Yu-Gi-Oh original series of the anime wasn’t going to let this spirit just use him again. Like he said “You can’t force me”. Now Bakura tries to fight against the evil spirit and this time instead of the evil spirit completely taking over right away Bakura fights back. The evil spirit did take over, but at least Bakura had a fighting chance this time. He wasn’t going to just sit by and let this evil spirit use his body as a vessel for it, so that it can complete its evil mission. Through Bakura’s struggle he showed me that “Don’t let other people control what you do”. This is a lesson that is important to me and inspires me. My parents think that they can control my life all that time. I mean they are starting to let go and realize that I need to start doing things on my own and become an independent person. Each day I feel like I’m getting closer and closer to achieving that goal. They can tell me right from wrong and what is better for me. I take in everything they say, but what they need to realize is that I need to make my own chooses and create my own destiny and achieve my own dreams. Seeing the way Bakura tried fighting against that evil spirit made me realize that I need to start taking more charge of my chooses and start creating my own destiny and path to go on in life. If there’s one thing you can learn from Bakura it’s like I said “Don’t let other people control what you do” because you don’t want someone controlling your life or in Bakura’s case an evil spirit. Good thing that wouldn’t happen to us, because I would feel really bad if that happened and the same time I feel bad for him and I am sure you would too.
Yami Bakura – It’s kind of strange you may think that I would learn something from this character. He’s known as Yami Bakura, but is also referred to as the evil spirit of the Millennium ring. That’s right and he is my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh character. You may be thinking, how could I learn something from his kind of character and how can he inspire me? Trust me he has inspired me. Let me tell you more info to understand him better. If you read the above section about Bakura and the references I made to the evil spirit of the ring. Instead of repeating myself I’ll add some more on. Like what’s his goal and what does he happen to gain from this goal of his? His goal is to collect what are known as the Millennium items. There are seven of these items and if he can get all of them and bring them together in a certain stop then he’ll be able to awaken the ultimate dark being and rule the world. Yes it’s another rule the world type of villain, but the steps he needs to take to get there aren’t easy. The thing is though he does anything to complete his goal and if there’s something I can learn from him that can be considered good it would be “Never let anything stop you from completing your mission”. I’m going to refer to mission in my case as a goal. Probably my biggest goal right now is that I want to become an actress. Sure it’s going to be fun to be someone else and act in movies, but there’s more to it. It’s not easy to become an actress. It takes lots of hard work and you need lots of experience. Sure I have lots of knowledge about the field, but what I really need is experience and without that I won’t get noticed and become a great actress. That is why I’m trying to work hard at it. I may not have a lot of experience now, but I hope to gain more in the future. While people keep telling me how demanding this job can be and what I’m getting myself into I don’t let anything stop me from achieving this goal of becoming an actress. By achieving this goal I can make some of my dreams come true. It’s not going to easy, but the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring has shown to “Never let anything stop you from completing your mission” and that it’s never easy to achieve your mission or goal, so yes I can learn from and be inspired by a character who is evil, but be inspired in a good way not a bad way.
Valon – Valon is quite the character. I haven’t seen a character like him. One he has an awesome Australian accent, the best I have heard and he is quite the physical fighter when it comes to Duel Monsters. Instead of letting his monsters do all of the work and take all of the damage from his opponents monsters attack. Brave one he is to duel this way. Like Valon said to Joey during their duel “I learned at a young age to face my opponents head on”. This shows how strong and determined he is. This is probably not enough info about Valon to show you guys how he has inspired me. Since I have seen Valon in action recently let me tell you more. Valon at a young age was put in jail, because of a crime he did. While in jail Valon would fight with the other people there and this leads him to moving from prison cell to prison cell because of this. A guy (who to me looks like he runs the jail that Valon is certainly in when you see the flashback) tells Valon to use Duel Monster cards instead of his fist to fight. Yes Valon used the Seal of Orichalcos to defeat everyone he faced on the island where the prison was that was holding him. His skills were so good that a man named Dartz took interest in his skill and him and asked him to work for him and in return Valon wouldn’t have to be in prison anymore. Of course Valon accepted. The thing is though he was working for the main villain of season 4. Yeah, but when Valon meets Mai Valentine things changed a lot. He helped her get what she always wanted, which was power. As Mai carried out her missions under Dartz, Valon started to realize something. That all Mai wanted was to defeat Joey Wheeler in a duel, so that he would be out of her life and she could move on. Valon felt deeply about Mai and wanted to help her with this task, even though she didn’t want him to. He did anyway, so he challenged Joey to a duel. During their duel while Valon had a cause to fight for it is not what you think. He talked about how he was not fighting for Dartz and how he was fighting for himself. That selfish cause got the best of him. Even those both duelists put up a good duel Valon lost. After kneeling down in defeat Valon realized why Mai liked Joey so much and it was this: “I see why you like him so much. The guys got heart”. It’s kind of strange that Valon learned more from his defeat in that duel then probably anything else in his life. I’m sure he also learned this after being defeated in that duel: “You should never have to fight for yourself”. While I don’t actually fight and duel like Valon does I can be inspired by this. I am kind of a lonelier like Valon. I don’t do stuff with other people and I do stuff on my own terms. When Valon realized how he shouldn’t be a lonelier I did too. Sure I have started to more and more realize that, but it really hit me when he talked about why Mai liked Joey. Valon has made me want to stop being a lonelier and start wanting to be with people more because “You should never have to fight for yourself”.
Yami Yugi – Yami Yugi, Yami, Pharaoh, Yugi, and Yug. This character here has lots of names that he goes by, but while I’m talking about him I’ll call him Yami. Yes for those of you who know about the Yu-Gi-Oh anime he’s one of the main characters of the original Yu-Gi-Oh anime series. Some people may think yeah it’s obvious that you like the main character of the series because most people do. That may be true, but there’s a deeper meaning why I like Yami and why he has inspired me. I don’t just like him because he’s the main character. Plus realize that he is only 4th on my top 5 Yu-Gi-Oh characters list, remember I said how Yami Bakura is 1st, Bakura is 2nd and Valon is 3rd. For those who know about the original series of the anime, this is stuff you already know, but for those of you who don’t know this is your chance to learn about Yami. He is a 5,000 year old spirit (in the English dub.) that lives in the Millennium Puzzle. It’s another one of the Millennium items. I mentioned the Millennium items early when I talked about Yami Bakura, his mission and his Millennium item: the Millennium Ring. Since Yami is just a spirit he needs a body to be able to do stuff and that is where Yugi Muto comes in. Yugi Muto is the vessel that let’s Yami be able to exist in physical form by taking over Yugi’s body. Although unlike the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring that Bakura has Yami is a good spirit. When it comes to dueling Yami is almost never defeated, (There are a few times that he is.) but the times he has won compared to loss heavily out weight each other. Pretty much all of the duels he duels have high stakes. This makes him want to win more because he’s always dueling for a greater case and with a friend in mind. Plus it’s “The heart of the cards” as he calls it and his friends that fuel his spirit and allow him his victory in each duel he wins. From watching Yami duel there’s one thing I have learned “Even when the end seems near it’s not impossible”. Now for me it’s more of I think that there is no way I’m going to get this done, the odds seem against me, how can I figure this out without anyone’s help and many more situations like this continue to come to my mine and happen in my life. These days when I have those thoughts or things happen to me I know that it’s not impossible and that there’s a way and Yami has shown me that. He has also shown me that you shouldn’t let negative emotions, thoughts or actions solve your problem or your situation. This is just like when he was talking to one of his biggest rivals: Seto Kaiba. He talked to him after he defeated him in the Battle City Finals. He had this to say to Seto Kaiba about what drove him to his defeat: “You were fueled by your angry, your hate, your rage and finally your denial of your past. While I was fueled by courage, faith, destiny, friendship and the heart of the cards”. This showed me that giving up is not an opinion and that negative emotions and actions don’t get us anywhere. So “Even when the end seems near it’s not impossible” that is a lesson that Yami can teach you and that can inspired us all.
Marik Ishtar – Marik and I have a lot in common. He has an older sister, I have a younger brother; He hates being closed off from the outside world, I do this to myself, but feel bad because of this; and last he wants to gain Pharaoh’s power; I want to prove that I’m better than my brother at any video game he plays. We both truly do have a lot in common, so what does this have to do with something that Marik could teach me or how he could inspire. Let me explain each of the things I just told you about Marik to help you understand more about him. First he has an older sister named Ishizu Ishtar, plain and simple. He’s closed off from the outside world because his family are tomb keepers. What tomb keepers do is guard the Pharaoh of Egypt’s tomb until the Pharaoh himself returns. Now to the more complex point. Instead of serving the Pharaoh Marik wanted the Pharaoh’s power. He went to all kinds of lengths to try and get the Pharaoh’s power for himself because if he did he could be the Pharaoh and rule the world. His plans seemed to be working with all of the terrible things he did and the many people he used and put their lives in danger just so he could rule the world. Once Odion, his brother and protector was strike down by lighting and knocked unconscious. Marik’s evil side took over Marik’s body and his evil side was willing to go to even greater lengths to get the Pharaoh’s power. Marik realized his mistake and told Odion how sorry he was for all of the things he had done and the pain he put Odion through. His powerful words allowed Odion to wake up and just in time to give Marik the strength he needed to defeat his evil side. After Marik felt sorry for himself he accepted his destiny: To be a tomb keeper and protect the Pharaoh’s tomb. Even though Marik went through all of those horrible things in the end he learned this “Be careful what you want because it may not be the best for your destiny”. My story in lots of ways is related to this lesson or inspiration. Pretty much my whole life I have been into video games. Not just liking them, but also trying to play them too. My brother has too and even though he’s younger he has always been better at video games then me. I didn’t know why and still don’t know today, but it must be one of his skills or talents. While I was glad he had such a good talent I was always jealous of him because he was better than me at every video game I played no matter what I did he was always better. I realized some time ago that playing video games to try and be better than my brother is just not one of my talents. I realized that if I want to play games I should play them for pleasure or not at all. These days I really don’t play video games at all and most of the time I like the more media stuff about video games. Just like I realized this Marik realized that he should go back to Egypt is fulfill his destiny of being a tomb keeper. Both him and I realized that you should “Be careful what you want because it may not be the best for your destiny”.
Duke Devlin – You haven’t seen it all in the world of characters until you meet Duke Devlin. What I mean by this is that he’s an interesting character to say the least. When I saw Duke in his first Yu-Gi-Oh episode I thought he was a pretty cool guy. A guy, who could do tricks with dice, owns a game shop and created Dungeon Dice Monsters game. A game that is almost as popular as Duel Monsters. You have to admit he sounds like an awesome guy and this is what I thought, wrong. He was a complete jerk to Yugi and his friends. Why after Joey, one of Yugi’s friends lost to Duke in a duel he made Joey where a dog suit and act like a dog and Duke was his master. This was going to happen for a week, but Yami was determined to do something about it and he did. Yami challenged Duke to a game of Dungeon Dice Monsters. Even during their dice game Duke was a complete jerk, but this time it was Yami’s turn to feel Duke’s rude, mean and nasty comments. While Yami tried to help him see that Duke didn’t have to be that way it was no use. Duke kept being a mean jerk. Good thing Yami beat Duke at his own game, that is exactly what Yami needed to one get Joey out of that dog suit and two show Duke that he didn’t have to be a mean, nasty and a jerk. Yami and Yugi gave Duke something valuable that day: friendship. Duke couldn’t understand how after all he did to Yugi and his friends how Yugi could just forgive him and call him his friends, but Duke did become one of Yugi’s friends and good thing too because Duke in many of the future episodes helped Yugi and his friends in many situations. The reason why Duke’s game Dungeon Dice Monster became as popular as it was is because he never gave up on his idea. Which leads me to this: “Never give up on your idea because you should find a way to show the world your idea”. This is what Duke has shown me in terms of inspiration. Let me show you how this applies to me. As most of you know I have found a new drawing technique that helps. (As for exactly how it works I’ll have to tell you guys some other time. Just ask me) I have been drawing my whole life, but never really liked my work. Although everyone around me has liked my work I myself have not, until I came upon this technique. It has helped me to draw lots of pictures. I have done a little over 20. (As of the time I posted this article.) I wanted to find a way to show other people my technique. This chance came to me when I had to do a final project for one of my college classes. It took a little bit of convincing to have my professor let me do this, but after emailing him back and forth I convinced him. I had to go to a craft fair as part of my project and teach people my technique. I had a wonderful time at this craft fair. Not only did I teach some people about my technique, but I got comments about my drawings, things to think about and meet other people who knew people who loved to draw a similar way to me. You see Duke really showed me that “Never give up on your idea because you should find a way to show the world your idea”, so thank you Duke. I think as for about Duke and what he has shown me. As Duke said to Yugi and his friends as he was parting ways with them at the end of season 3 “Got places to go, People to see and dice to roll”.
Yugi Muto - Yugi has to be one of the bravest, shortest and kindest heroes I have ever seen in an anime. These are the three things I’m going to use to tell you guys about Yugi. Starting with bravest and there are many times when Yugi was this. When the Millennium Puzzle got scattered he picked up the pieces and wasn’t just going to leave the chain that was holding the Millennium Puzzle hanging from a dueling platform thing in a building that was on fire. No he stayed there and put the puzzle back together. He was willing to do anything to save Yami, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. He even stood by his puzzle and his friends Joey and Tristan couldn’t get him to leave. Good thing Joey and Tristan found a way to get the puzzle off of the dueling platform and save Yugi. Another time would be when he was dueling against his friend Joey, who was being mind controlled by Marik Ishtar and his Millennium Rod. The stakes were pretty high as the losing duelist would unlock a box which has a key in it to unlock the shackles that around that duelist feet and the other duelist would be dragged to the bottom of the sea. Yugi directed the last attack at himself, so that he could save his friend Joey. Don’t worry it all worked out in the end and Joey and Yugi were both safe. For me though one of the most heart pounding and bravest things I think Yugi did is what happened after Yami dueled a guy named Rafael. Yami lost and it was beyond terrible. Yami was about to lose his soul to the Seal of Orichalcos. Yugi steps in and lets the seal take his soul instead. You can see why I found this act of bravery to be the best. It all worked out in the end though. On him being short, let’s just say pretty much all of the other characters in the series are taller than him. As for the kind part Yugi has done this a lot. He supports his friends; helps others who are in trouble, and many other things. One of the kindest things he did is tell Yami this: “You may have had to fight this evil alone 5,000 years ago, but this time you don’t have to do it alone”. If there is something you can take from what Yugi said it’s this: “Remember one thing: You are never alone”. That is true in many ways. I have friends like Yami and Yugi, but the thing is my two best friends live far away and hardly ever talk to me anymore. It makes me feel like I’m alone and it seems like for me that is a good thing. You would ask, why do you like being alone? It’s interesting because I have found so many things that I want to do in my free time or a few things that take up most of my free time that it seems like I don’t give time to spend with anyone. I realized that who can I show my stories to, who can I talk to about the latest video games and stuff related to my favorite animes, who can I talk to about new things that happen to me, who can I show my drawings to and the list goes on and on. It made me realize that I need to start getting myself out there in the world and make some new friends, so that I can share stuff and info with them. It’s like I have a hold in my heart, a big one that needs to be filled. Yugi showed me that I’m never alone, because there are people out there who can become my new friends and then that hole in my heart will be filled and I will know how Yugi feels when he’s with his friends. I truly will because I just have to “Remember one thing: that I’m never alone”.
End – Congratulations if you made it this far. That’s because you read pretty much the whole article and the first thing I want to do to wrap things up is thank you for reading the whole article. I worked on this article for about two weeks and these are the results. I’m sure after reading this article you have learned some new things about these characters and have been inspired by some or all of them. I wanted to do this article because it showed me how far I have come this year and made me think what these characters truly have done for me and how they have changed me because each and every one of them has. I know this is going be a repeat, but since the article is so long I thought I would re-remind you of the inspiration each character has given me. Starting with the rhythm smooth Phantom R/Raphael. He showed me “Let the rhythm of life guide you”. N inspiration really truly helped to see “Even when everyone around you doesn’t like your view about something stick by your view”. Drew truly learned just as much as I did. Both of us learned “You should appreciate other people’s accomplishments”. O Harley how you showed me how to really be myself. That “It’s ok to be totally wild and crazy”. Bakura you really helped me with one of toughest things that I deal with in my day to day live and that is “Don’t let other people control what you do”. Yami Bakura while you are a down right evil person you showed me something that is good instead bad. That “Never let anything stop you from completing your mission”. Valon you probably learned more than I did from your inspiration, but I sure did learn a lot and that is “You should never have to fight for yourself”. Marik it’s a good thing that things turned out the way they did for you and that through it all both you and I realized to “Be careful what you want because it may not be the best for your destiny”. Duke you are a great person for remembering this “Never give up on your idea because you should find a way to show the world your idea”. Yami both you and Yugi showed me probably the two most important things I learned and am inspired by and those are “Even when the end seems near it’s not impossible” and “Remember one thing: You are never alone”. Each of these characters has touched my hearts in these and many other ways, but these are the main ones. Now I must go and so must each of these characters. Phantom R says “Shows over folks” and Raphael is going to move on with his life as he continues to look for his father. N along with Anthea and Concordia his companions are on their journey to better understand how people and Pokémon live together. Drew and Harley are going to continue to be in Pokémon contests to become even better coordinators. Bakura can now live a normal life now that Yami Bakura and the Millennium Ring are gone. Since Valon has been freed from the Orichalcos he can start a new life. Now that Marik’s job as a tomb keeper is done he can figure out what is next for him. Duke can continue to improve his Dungeon Dice Monsters game. Yami’s spirit can live in peace now. Last Yugi can live the life of a normal kid now knowing that because of Yami he now has friends and that Yami will always be his friend. Now that each character has gone their separate ways it is time I do the same. The good thing is “Don’t be sad because this journey has ended be happy because your greatest journey is yet to come”. That is true for most of these characters and myself included. Another quote I thought of and my greatest journey is probably yet to come.
Phantom R/ Raphael - Probably the first character this year that inspired me would have to be a character named Raphael, but everyone knows him as Phantom R. Yes my user name is named after this character. He comes from a Rhythm, adventure game that was done by Sega the company that’s famous for their Sonic the hedgehog games. Now if you don’t know who Sonic the hedgehog is and his games then I’ll have to tell you about him some other time. The game that Phantom R comes from is called Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure for the Nintendo 3ds. I have seen a walkthrough for the game and it’s an amazing game and the story and the characters are quite different compared to other games I have seen or played. If you want a challenge this games gives you that, but back to Phantom R. First let me tell you a little background information about Phantom R and this might help you understand why he has inspired me. Raphael is an 18 year old student boy who lives in Paris, France. He leads a double life as a thief at night with his dog named Fondue. As a thief he’s known as Phantom R. He steals valuable artwork, but returns them a few days later. You see Phantom R is a different kind of thief. While some may think he’s bad and yes he does steal stuff, there are some times were he has been seen to help people and be kind. I don’t consider him your average thief who’s all bad. Now this is a rhythm game for a reason. Pretty most of what you do during this game is rhythm challenges. Now if you have a good sense of rhythm these challenges can be easy, but if you don’t you will find them challenging. I have a good sense of rhythm because I listen to music a lot, but they are still tough because you also need skills to get the right moves down at the right time. Rhythm is important in this game and Phantom R has a good sense rhythm and this is because he takes this from his mother who was a ballet dancer. His good sense of rhythm is something that he uses through his life, but it’s especially helpful when he’s Phantom R. Since you know that the lesson that I believe Phantom R/ Raphael has shown me is “Let the rhythm of life guide you”. Rhythm seems to help Raphael in all he does and he has shown me that rhythm is all around us and us in our daily lives. I realized this when I looked at one of the things I love the most and that’s music. I listen to music every day. It helps me with lots of things. To be focused on what I’m doing, to experience my emotions, helps me feel better, calms me down and many more things. When I saw how important rhythm was to Raphael I wondered what it would be like if music was not in my life. Trust me that vision wasn’t a vision I wanted to see, but it made me realize how important music is to me because without it part of my life would be boring and I’m sure Raphael would feel the same way about rhythm. He made me realize and inspired me to “Let the rhythm of life guide me” or in my case “the music of life guide me”. Just like he’ll continue to let rhythm guide him, I’ll continue to let music guide me because I like to say “The show must go on”, but Phantom R would say “It’s Showtime”.
Natural Harmonia Gropius or N (as everyone calls him.) – N probably has to be out of all of the characters that I got introduced this year the one that has made me want to do lots of things and inspired me a lot. Of course for those of you who don’t know who this amazing character is you are in luck because I happen to be N’s biggest fan and I know pretty much everything there’s to know about him. Let me fill you in. Since his appearance in the Pokémon anime is a little different than in the games I’m going to tell you about him based on his anime appearance. For those of you who don’t know what Pokémon are I can tell you about it later because it would take lots of paragraphs to explain it. Now back to N, he’s a young man who has a special connection with Pokémon. He can hear a Pokémon’s inner voice. This allows him to help Pokémon that are hurt or inquired. He can also connect his heart with the heart of a Pokémon’s. This allows him to call upon Pokémon to help him. Compared to other trainers he does own a Pokémon of his own and there are reasons for this. It’s because of how he grew up and saw the world. He was kept in a big mansion and wasn’t allowed to see the outside world. This was because of a man named Ghetsis, who’s the leader of Team Plasma. You see Team Plasma is the evil team of the Unova region who are trying to use the power of Reshiram, which is a legendary Pokémon and said to be very powerful to rule the Unova region and the world. Ghetsis realized when N was young that N had a gift and that gift is the one I was talking about early, where he can hear the inner voices of Pokémon. Ghetsis knew that this gift of N’s would be helpful in helping Team Plasma achieve their goal. That’s exactly what Ghetsis did to N and N’s companions Anthea and Concordia. The way that Team Plasma treated Pokémon compared to the rest of the world made N think that all people mistreat Pokémon, so this is why he considers Pokémon to be his friends and dislikes people. His view is that Pokémon should live in peace away from people, but you see his view changed a little when he meet Ash Ketchum and saw how Ash and his Pokémon got along. This made him realize that Pokémon can truly live in peace with people, but before he changed his view about people and Pokémon it seemed like no one really liked his view about people and Pokémon, but you see N stood by his view because of how he stood by his view showed me that “Even when everyone around you doesn’t like your view about something, stick by your view”. You see for me my view and opinion about a lot of things is always different. I’m the odd one out and don’t follow the crowd. Sometimes I would look at why people in the crowd went with the answer or view that they did and wonder why I choose the one I choose, because little to no people would choose the view I choose. It made me feel lonely and that no one else really cares about the view I have, but then I meet N from Pokémon and that changed. Watching N stand by his view about people and Pokémon amazed me and couldn’t believe after the fact that most people really didn’t like his view that he stood by it, but it made me realize that I had to do the same thing. Now days I stick by view or answer and even if most people don’t like my view I support my view 100%. To finish up about N I would like to take a quote from him. “Reshiram is bigger than life itself to me…”. This is just part of the quote, but this is the part of the quote that’s the most important. He’s showing how important Reshiram is to him and because this he would do anything to protect and help Reshiram. The same can be said for my views. My views are so important to me that I’ll stand by them and protect them no matter what. N has shown me that you should stick by what you believe in, because it’s your view about something in the world.
Drew – It was a good thing that I got caught up on watching Pokémon this year (Watching seasons 3 – 9 and because of that I have seen all of the episodes of the Pokémon anime that exist right now.) because two of the characters from the seasons I watched inspired me. The first I would like to talk about it is Drew. You see Drew is what they call a Pokémon Coordinator. For those who don’t know what a Pokémon Coordinator is you may think they are the same as a Pokémon trainer. That’s not entirely true. Sure Coordinators raise there Pokémon, but they work more on the beauty and appearance of their Pokémon and there Pokémon’s moves. They show off their work by entering contests that are held all over curtain regions and if a Coordinator wins they get a ribbon by getting five of these they can go to the Grand Festival and if they win there they get a trophy and are called top Coordinator. Now to tell you about Drew. He’s May’s rival in the advanced generation part of the Pokémon anime. Drew is interesting and when it comes to talking about someone’s performance with their Pokémon he tends to be pretty critical, especially May’s performance with her Pokémon. He’s also known to give May’s Pokémon a Rose instead of May because does that because he sees how great her Pokémon’s performance was and he fails to see how hard both May and her Pokémon work. Although as May gets better as a Coordinator Drew starts to understand, but doesn’t fully understand until May beats him during a Contest battle during one of the Grand Festival that both of them entered. He starts to appreciate both May and her Pokémon’s accomplishments. You see “You should appreciate other people’s accomplishments”. This is the lesson Drew showed me and this is also how he inspired me. I’m usually in my own little world doing stuff myself these days and people who know me best will tell you that it’s tough to get me to go outside and walk or even go somewhere besides staying in my house, so it’s no wonder that I don’t get the chance or should I say give myself the chance to appreciate other people’s accomplishments. This has changed as living with my house mates at the house I have being living at during my stay near the collage I go to has given me this chance and I have done it lots of times and you know what it feels good. Drew has inspired me to get myself out there more in the world, so I can continue to do this. I truly understand now how Drew feels when he gives May and her Pokémon compliments about the hard work they have done.
Harley – Out of all of the characters I’m going to talk about Harley is by far the weirdest and craziest one, so you might think, why do I like a character like him? I have my reasons and hopefully when I’m done telling you about Harley and how he has inspired me you might understand why I like him. First I need to tell you about this crazy character. Like Drew, Harley comes from the world of Pokémon, the anime to be exact. See Harley is another one of May’s rivals. Compared to Drew Harley goes much further with his contest performances and battles with his Pokémon. He uses lots of dirty tactics to win and finds pleasure in humiliating his opponent. Why would I like someone who plays dirty? That’s not the reason I like him. I like him because of his personality and that’s the reason I like any character for that matter. If I had to describe Harley’s personality I would say he is wild, crazy, sneaky and a tad mysterious. Funny thing is I’m all of these things too. Yep I’m exactly like Harley in terms of personality. If there is one thing this crazy character has shown me it’s that “It’s ok to be totally wild and crazy”. At times I can be downright crazy and yes I get it seems like 10 tons of eyes staring at me or ever one looks at me as if I am crazy. They might even walk away. Back then you probably guessed how that made me feel: bad. It tried my hardest to not be that way, but no matter what I did it would always happen to me. I would get a repeat of people thinking I’m crazy and walking away. How was I supposed to make friends or talk to people if this happened? This is where Harley’s lesson and inspiration comes in. Once I watched Harley in the anime and found this lesson and inspiration I realized I can’t change the fact that I’m a pretty wild and crazy person. It’s part of who I am and without it I wouldn’t be me. While Harley’s lesson and inspiration may not be the one that has changed my life a ton like the other character I’m talking about his lesson is an important one and now I know “It’s ok to be totally wild and crazy”.
Bakura – Yes for those of you who don’t know I’m now a Yu-Gi-Oh fan, but only of the anime. I like the card game, but I’ll probably only own some of the seasons on DVD and not any of the cards and if I did own some of the cards it would be the favorite cards of some of my favorite characters. Speaking of favorite Yu-Gi-Oh characters Bakura here happens to be my 2nd favorite. Let me tell you some things about him that you should know. While Bakura is a very kind person and cares very much for his friends, there’s a secret that he has. Bakura has an item known as the Millennium Ring and this ring holds an evil spirit. This spirit needs a person to be able to do things or as the spirit says a vessel. That’s where Bakura comes in. You see he’s the vessel that lets this spirit do what it needs to do. This happens by the spirit completely taking over Bakura’s body. It’s not his fault that this happens because one his father got the Millennium Ring when he was traveling and gave it to Bakura. His father didn’t know that there was an evil spirit in the ring that would completely take over his son’s body. Two since they say that Bakura is weak the evil spirit completely suppresses Bakura’s soul when he takes over. This doesn’t mean that Bakura is completely weak. There’s one time in the anime where Bakura fought back against the spirit and I remember it well. It was one of my favorite moments in the anime. Bakura was running away from something and you could hear some kind of voice and an evil one. He found a church that he thought that he would be safe in. You can tell who the voice is from because as Bakura is running he says “This can’t be happening, not again”. This implies that he knows who the voice comes from and he would be right because it comes from the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring, but the thing is Bakura doesn’t have the ring around his neck or in his possession. After the evil spirits voice had a little talk with Bakura about the mission they still had to do the evil spirit was going to take over Bakura’s body again to complete its mission. Of course Bakura having been used as a vessel for this spirit for the whole Yu-Gi-Oh original series of the anime wasn’t going to let this spirit just use him again. Like he said “You can’t force me”. Now Bakura tries to fight against the evil spirit and this time instead of the evil spirit completely taking over right away Bakura fights back. The evil spirit did take over, but at least Bakura had a fighting chance this time. He wasn’t going to just sit by and let this evil spirit use his body as a vessel for it, so that it can complete its evil mission. Through Bakura’s struggle he showed me that “Don’t let other people control what you do”. This is a lesson that is important to me and inspires me. My parents think that they can control my life all that time. I mean they are starting to let go and realize that I need to start doing things on my own and become an independent person. Each day I feel like I’m getting closer and closer to achieving that goal. They can tell me right from wrong and what is better for me. I take in everything they say, but what they need to realize is that I need to make my own chooses and create my own destiny and achieve my own dreams. Seeing the way Bakura tried fighting against that evil spirit made me realize that I need to start taking more charge of my chooses and start creating my own destiny and path to go on in life. If there’s one thing you can learn from Bakura it’s like I said “Don’t let other people control what you do” because you don’t want someone controlling your life or in Bakura’s case an evil spirit. Good thing that wouldn’t happen to us, because I would feel really bad if that happened and the same time I feel bad for him and I am sure you would too.
Yami Bakura – It’s kind of strange you may think that I would learn something from this character. He’s known as Yami Bakura, but is also referred to as the evil spirit of the Millennium ring. That’s right and he is my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh character. You may be thinking, how could I learn something from his kind of character and how can he inspire me? Trust me he has inspired me. Let me tell you more info to understand him better. If you read the above section about Bakura and the references I made to the evil spirit of the ring. Instead of repeating myself I’ll add some more on. Like what’s his goal and what does he happen to gain from this goal of his? His goal is to collect what are known as the Millennium items. There are seven of these items and if he can get all of them and bring them together in a certain stop then he’ll be able to awaken the ultimate dark being and rule the world. Yes it’s another rule the world type of villain, but the steps he needs to take to get there aren’t easy. The thing is though he does anything to complete his goal and if there’s something I can learn from him that can be considered good it would be “Never let anything stop you from completing your mission”. I’m going to refer to mission in my case as a goal. Probably my biggest goal right now is that I want to become an actress. Sure it’s going to be fun to be someone else and act in movies, but there’s more to it. It’s not easy to become an actress. It takes lots of hard work and you need lots of experience. Sure I have lots of knowledge about the field, but what I really need is experience and without that I won’t get noticed and become a great actress. That is why I’m trying to work hard at it. I may not have a lot of experience now, but I hope to gain more in the future. While people keep telling me how demanding this job can be and what I’m getting myself into I don’t let anything stop me from achieving this goal of becoming an actress. By achieving this goal I can make some of my dreams come true. It’s not going to easy, but the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring has shown to “Never let anything stop you from completing your mission” and that it’s never easy to achieve your mission or goal, so yes I can learn from and be inspired by a character who is evil, but be inspired in a good way not a bad way.
Valon – Valon is quite the character. I haven’t seen a character like him. One he has an awesome Australian accent, the best I have heard and he is quite the physical fighter when it comes to Duel Monsters. Instead of letting his monsters do all of the work and take all of the damage from his opponents monsters attack. Brave one he is to duel this way. Like Valon said to Joey during their duel “I learned at a young age to face my opponents head on”. This shows how strong and determined he is. This is probably not enough info about Valon to show you guys how he has inspired me. Since I have seen Valon in action recently let me tell you more. Valon at a young age was put in jail, because of a crime he did. While in jail Valon would fight with the other people there and this leads him to moving from prison cell to prison cell because of this. A guy (who to me looks like he runs the jail that Valon is certainly in when you see the flashback) tells Valon to use Duel Monster cards instead of his fist to fight. Yes Valon used the Seal of Orichalcos to defeat everyone he faced on the island where the prison was that was holding him. His skills were so good that a man named Dartz took interest in his skill and him and asked him to work for him and in return Valon wouldn’t have to be in prison anymore. Of course Valon accepted. The thing is though he was working for the main villain of season 4. Yeah, but when Valon meets Mai Valentine things changed a lot. He helped her get what she always wanted, which was power. As Mai carried out her missions under Dartz, Valon started to realize something. That all Mai wanted was to defeat Joey Wheeler in a duel, so that he would be out of her life and she could move on. Valon felt deeply about Mai and wanted to help her with this task, even though she didn’t want him to. He did anyway, so he challenged Joey to a duel. During their duel while Valon had a cause to fight for it is not what you think. He talked about how he was not fighting for Dartz and how he was fighting for himself. That selfish cause got the best of him. Even those both duelists put up a good duel Valon lost. After kneeling down in defeat Valon realized why Mai liked Joey so much and it was this: “I see why you like him so much. The guys got heart”. It’s kind of strange that Valon learned more from his defeat in that duel then probably anything else in his life. I’m sure he also learned this after being defeated in that duel: “You should never have to fight for yourself”. While I don’t actually fight and duel like Valon does I can be inspired by this. I am kind of a lonelier like Valon. I don’t do stuff with other people and I do stuff on my own terms. When Valon realized how he shouldn’t be a lonelier I did too. Sure I have started to more and more realize that, but it really hit me when he talked about why Mai liked Joey. Valon has made me want to stop being a lonelier and start wanting to be with people more because “You should never have to fight for yourself”.
Yami Yugi – Yami Yugi, Yami, Pharaoh, Yugi, and Yug. This character here has lots of names that he goes by, but while I’m talking about him I’ll call him Yami. Yes for those of you who know about the Yu-Gi-Oh anime he’s one of the main characters of the original Yu-Gi-Oh anime series. Some people may think yeah it’s obvious that you like the main character of the series because most people do. That may be true, but there’s a deeper meaning why I like Yami and why he has inspired me. I don’t just like him because he’s the main character. Plus realize that he is only 4th on my top 5 Yu-Gi-Oh characters list, remember I said how Yami Bakura is 1st, Bakura is 2nd and Valon is 3rd. For those who know about the original series of the anime, this is stuff you already know, but for those of you who don’t know this is your chance to learn about Yami. He is a 5,000 year old spirit (in the English dub.) that lives in the Millennium Puzzle. It’s another one of the Millennium items. I mentioned the Millennium items early when I talked about Yami Bakura, his mission and his Millennium item: the Millennium Ring. Since Yami is just a spirit he needs a body to be able to do stuff and that is where Yugi Muto comes in. Yugi Muto is the vessel that let’s Yami be able to exist in physical form by taking over Yugi’s body. Although unlike the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring that Bakura has Yami is a good spirit. When it comes to dueling Yami is almost never defeated, (There are a few times that he is.) but the times he has won compared to loss heavily out weight each other. Pretty much all of the duels he duels have high stakes. This makes him want to win more because he’s always dueling for a greater case and with a friend in mind. Plus it’s “The heart of the cards” as he calls it and his friends that fuel his spirit and allow him his victory in each duel he wins. From watching Yami duel there’s one thing I have learned “Even when the end seems near it’s not impossible”. Now for me it’s more of I think that there is no way I’m going to get this done, the odds seem against me, how can I figure this out without anyone’s help and many more situations like this continue to come to my mine and happen in my life. These days when I have those thoughts or things happen to me I know that it’s not impossible and that there’s a way and Yami has shown me that. He has also shown me that you shouldn’t let negative emotions, thoughts or actions solve your problem or your situation. This is just like when he was talking to one of his biggest rivals: Seto Kaiba. He talked to him after he defeated him in the Battle City Finals. He had this to say to Seto Kaiba about what drove him to his defeat: “You were fueled by your angry, your hate, your rage and finally your denial of your past. While I was fueled by courage, faith, destiny, friendship and the heart of the cards”. This showed me that giving up is not an opinion and that negative emotions and actions don’t get us anywhere. So “Even when the end seems near it’s not impossible” that is a lesson that Yami can teach you and that can inspired us all.
Marik Ishtar – Marik and I have a lot in common. He has an older sister, I have a younger brother; He hates being closed off from the outside world, I do this to myself, but feel bad because of this; and last he wants to gain Pharaoh’s power; I want to prove that I’m better than my brother at any video game he plays. We both truly do have a lot in common, so what does this have to do with something that Marik could teach me or how he could inspire. Let me explain each of the things I just told you about Marik to help you understand more about him. First he has an older sister named Ishizu Ishtar, plain and simple. He’s closed off from the outside world because his family are tomb keepers. What tomb keepers do is guard the Pharaoh of Egypt’s tomb until the Pharaoh himself returns. Now to the more complex point. Instead of serving the Pharaoh Marik wanted the Pharaoh’s power. He went to all kinds of lengths to try and get the Pharaoh’s power for himself because if he did he could be the Pharaoh and rule the world. His plans seemed to be working with all of the terrible things he did and the many people he used and put their lives in danger just so he could rule the world. Once Odion, his brother and protector was strike down by lighting and knocked unconscious. Marik’s evil side took over Marik’s body and his evil side was willing to go to even greater lengths to get the Pharaoh’s power. Marik realized his mistake and told Odion how sorry he was for all of the things he had done and the pain he put Odion through. His powerful words allowed Odion to wake up and just in time to give Marik the strength he needed to defeat his evil side. After Marik felt sorry for himself he accepted his destiny: To be a tomb keeper and protect the Pharaoh’s tomb. Even though Marik went through all of those horrible things in the end he learned this “Be careful what you want because it may not be the best for your destiny”. My story in lots of ways is related to this lesson or inspiration. Pretty much my whole life I have been into video games. Not just liking them, but also trying to play them too. My brother has too and even though he’s younger he has always been better at video games then me. I didn’t know why and still don’t know today, but it must be one of his skills or talents. While I was glad he had such a good talent I was always jealous of him because he was better than me at every video game I played no matter what I did he was always better. I realized some time ago that playing video games to try and be better than my brother is just not one of my talents. I realized that if I want to play games I should play them for pleasure or not at all. These days I really don’t play video games at all and most of the time I like the more media stuff about video games. Just like I realized this Marik realized that he should go back to Egypt is fulfill his destiny of being a tomb keeper. Both him and I realized that you should “Be careful what you want because it may not be the best for your destiny”.
Duke Devlin – You haven’t seen it all in the world of characters until you meet Duke Devlin. What I mean by this is that he’s an interesting character to say the least. When I saw Duke in his first Yu-Gi-Oh episode I thought he was a pretty cool guy. A guy, who could do tricks with dice, owns a game shop and created Dungeon Dice Monsters game. A game that is almost as popular as Duel Monsters. You have to admit he sounds like an awesome guy and this is what I thought, wrong. He was a complete jerk to Yugi and his friends. Why after Joey, one of Yugi’s friends lost to Duke in a duel he made Joey where a dog suit and act like a dog and Duke was his master. This was going to happen for a week, but Yami was determined to do something about it and he did. Yami challenged Duke to a game of Dungeon Dice Monsters. Even during their dice game Duke was a complete jerk, but this time it was Yami’s turn to feel Duke’s rude, mean and nasty comments. While Yami tried to help him see that Duke didn’t have to be that way it was no use. Duke kept being a mean jerk. Good thing Yami beat Duke at his own game, that is exactly what Yami needed to one get Joey out of that dog suit and two show Duke that he didn’t have to be a mean, nasty and a jerk. Yami and Yugi gave Duke something valuable that day: friendship. Duke couldn’t understand how after all he did to Yugi and his friends how Yugi could just forgive him and call him his friends, but Duke did become one of Yugi’s friends and good thing too because Duke in many of the future episodes helped Yugi and his friends in many situations. The reason why Duke’s game Dungeon Dice Monster became as popular as it was is because he never gave up on his idea. Which leads me to this: “Never give up on your idea because you should find a way to show the world your idea”. This is what Duke has shown me in terms of inspiration. Let me show you how this applies to me. As most of you know I have found a new drawing technique that helps. (As for exactly how it works I’ll have to tell you guys some other time. Just ask me) I have been drawing my whole life, but never really liked my work. Although everyone around me has liked my work I myself have not, until I came upon this technique. It has helped me to draw lots of pictures. I have done a little over 20. (As of the time I posted this article.) I wanted to find a way to show other people my technique. This chance came to me when I had to do a final project for one of my college classes. It took a little bit of convincing to have my professor let me do this, but after emailing him back and forth I convinced him. I had to go to a craft fair as part of my project and teach people my technique. I had a wonderful time at this craft fair. Not only did I teach some people about my technique, but I got comments about my drawings, things to think about and meet other people who knew people who loved to draw a similar way to me. You see Duke really showed me that “Never give up on your idea because you should find a way to show the world your idea”, so thank you Duke. I think as for about Duke and what he has shown me. As Duke said to Yugi and his friends as he was parting ways with them at the end of season 3 “Got places to go, People to see and dice to roll”.
Yugi Muto - Yugi has to be one of the bravest, shortest and kindest heroes I have ever seen in an anime. These are the three things I’m going to use to tell you guys about Yugi. Starting with bravest and there are many times when Yugi was this. When the Millennium Puzzle got scattered he picked up the pieces and wasn’t just going to leave the chain that was holding the Millennium Puzzle hanging from a dueling platform thing in a building that was on fire. No he stayed there and put the puzzle back together. He was willing to do anything to save Yami, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. He even stood by his puzzle and his friends Joey and Tristan couldn’t get him to leave. Good thing Joey and Tristan found a way to get the puzzle off of the dueling platform and save Yugi. Another time would be when he was dueling against his friend Joey, who was being mind controlled by Marik Ishtar and his Millennium Rod. The stakes were pretty high as the losing duelist would unlock a box which has a key in it to unlock the shackles that around that duelist feet and the other duelist would be dragged to the bottom of the sea. Yugi directed the last attack at himself, so that he could save his friend Joey. Don’t worry it all worked out in the end and Joey and Yugi were both safe. For me though one of the most heart pounding and bravest things I think Yugi did is what happened after Yami dueled a guy named Rafael. Yami lost and it was beyond terrible. Yami was about to lose his soul to the Seal of Orichalcos. Yugi steps in and lets the seal take his soul instead. You can see why I found this act of bravery to be the best. It all worked out in the end though. On him being short, let’s just say pretty much all of the other characters in the series are taller than him. As for the kind part Yugi has done this a lot. He supports his friends; helps others who are in trouble, and many other things. One of the kindest things he did is tell Yami this: “You may have had to fight this evil alone 5,000 years ago, but this time you don’t have to do it alone”. If there is something you can take from what Yugi said it’s this: “Remember one thing: You are never alone”. That is true in many ways. I have friends like Yami and Yugi, but the thing is my two best friends live far away and hardly ever talk to me anymore. It makes me feel like I’m alone and it seems like for me that is a good thing. You would ask, why do you like being alone? It’s interesting because I have found so many things that I want to do in my free time or a few things that take up most of my free time that it seems like I don’t give time to spend with anyone. I realized that who can I show my stories to, who can I talk to about the latest video games and stuff related to my favorite animes, who can I talk to about new things that happen to me, who can I show my drawings to and the list goes on and on. It made me realize that I need to start getting myself out there in the world and make some new friends, so that I can share stuff and info with them. It’s like I have a hold in my heart, a big one that needs to be filled. Yugi showed me that I’m never alone, because there are people out there who can become my new friends and then that hole in my heart will be filled and I will know how Yugi feels when he’s with his friends. I truly will because I just have to “Remember one thing: that I’m never alone”.
End – Congratulations if you made it this far. That’s because you read pretty much the whole article and the first thing I want to do to wrap things up is thank you for reading the whole article. I worked on this article for about two weeks and these are the results. I’m sure after reading this article you have learned some new things about these characters and have been inspired by some or all of them. I wanted to do this article because it showed me how far I have come this year and made me think what these characters truly have done for me and how they have changed me because each and every one of them has. I know this is going be a repeat, but since the article is so long I thought I would re-remind you of the inspiration each character has given me. Starting with the rhythm smooth Phantom R/Raphael. He showed me “Let the rhythm of life guide you”. N inspiration really truly helped to see “Even when everyone around you doesn’t like your view about something stick by your view”. Drew truly learned just as much as I did. Both of us learned “You should appreciate other people’s accomplishments”. O Harley how you showed me how to really be myself. That “It’s ok to be totally wild and crazy”. Bakura you really helped me with one of toughest things that I deal with in my day to day live and that is “Don’t let other people control what you do”. Yami Bakura while you are a down right evil person you showed me something that is good instead bad. That “Never let anything stop you from completing your mission”. Valon you probably learned more than I did from your inspiration, but I sure did learn a lot and that is “You should never have to fight for yourself”. Marik it’s a good thing that things turned out the way they did for you and that through it all both you and I realized to “Be careful what you want because it may not be the best for your destiny”. Duke you are a great person for remembering this “Never give up on your idea because you should find a way to show the world your idea”. Yami both you and Yugi showed me probably the two most important things I learned and am inspired by and those are “Even when the end seems near it’s not impossible” and “Remember one thing: You are never alone”. Each of these characters has touched my hearts in these and many other ways, but these are the main ones. Now I must go and so must each of these characters. Phantom R says “Shows over folks” and Raphael is going to move on with his life as he continues to look for his father. N along with Anthea and Concordia his companions are on their journey to better understand how people and Pokémon live together. Drew and Harley are going to continue to be in Pokémon contests to become even better coordinators. Bakura can now live a normal life now that Yami Bakura and the Millennium Ring are gone. Since Valon has been freed from the Orichalcos he can start a new life. Now that Marik’s job as a tomb keeper is done he can figure out what is next for him. Duke can continue to improve his Dungeon Dice Monsters game. Yami’s spirit can live in peace now. Last Yugi can live the life of a normal kid now knowing that because of Yami he now has friends and that Yami will always be his friend. Now that each character has gone their separate ways it is time I do the same. The good thing is “Don’t be sad because this journey has ended be happy because your greatest journey is yet to come”. That is true for most of these characters and myself included. Another quote I thought of and my greatest journey is probably yet to come.