sad reminder Zarc was a hyper-empathic man with the ability to speak with the Duel Monster spirits who genuinely and sincerely wanted to make people smile
only to be corrupted by the masses sadism for more dangerous and more exciting duels, encouraging him to go on even as people were physically injured as a result of his duels because it made them happy, convincing him it was a good thing because it made them smile, exploiting and twisting his desires to make them smile to satisfy themselves with other people’s pain until Zarc was convinced that the destruction of humanity is what the human race earnestly wanted
The final duel against him has him say that ‘his soul was roused’ and that he wanted to take his revenge, but in the context of all of Arc-V, Zarc only ever really emerged when either the Yu Boys were together or Yuya was in some form of danger. All noticeable instances of Zarc appearing are when Yuya is in a stressful, dangerous situation where the only escape is winning. His duels with Isao Kachidoki and the Obelisk Force and when he was literally being shocked to death bc of Rogets helmet are all situations where Zarc takes over and forces a win for Yuya because they were just like the violent action duels of the Original Dimension. The duel against BB reinforces the point where Yuya starts to drift off personality wise from Zarc but
Can you imagine? Zarc was sleeping peacefully within Yuya for 14 years, then when Yuya is forced to think “I just need to win” out of pure desperation against Ishijima, Zarc re emerges. Then he trys to continue sleeping, and then the other Yu Boys show up. And then Isao’s duel happens, along with the Obelisk Force appearing. Suddenly Yuya(and by extension Zarc) is put into so many stressful scenarios where they can only think “I just need to win” and try to survive
And that probably infuriated Zarc. He, who was made a monster by the people around him, having to watch his own reincarnation go through the same thing. No wonder he was ready to destroy every dimension, because each and every one tried to hurt him again in the same way. Im not saying Zarc had any sort of special care for Yuya, but having to watch what was essentially himself almost turn multiple times the same way he originally did must have been sad
i mean he calls Yuya his fragment/avatar so actually yeah he’s very much seeing Yuya as either himself or an extension of himself and the fact that the yuu boys tend to synch up when one or more of them are in some sort of Awakened state (such as when Yuya was being electrocuted), added to the fact that together all 4 of them ARE him, then yeah you can assume pretty easily he felt all of that pain…
imagine waking up, after having vowed to destroy the people who pushed him into madness, to a world that seems to just keep pushing him for more. like damn havent they had enough
🔥 There is beauty in destruction🔥 