My Dark King

"My Dark King" is a Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Alternate Universe Fic. It leads off from the halfway point of Jack's duel with Carly as a Dark Signer with one very simple question; "What if Jack had lost that duel, died, and fulfilled Carly's vision, becoming a Dark Signer?" From that one change, events go drastically differently, mostly in ways that aren't good. Yusei ends up not being around to help Aki in her duel with Misty and instead gets severely injured by a load of falling debris, Crow nearly winds up with his face beaten in by a Brainwashed and Crazy Aki, and then the King of the Underworld gets involved and everything just starts falling straight into Hell. Literally! Suffice it to say, this is one fic that takes the already kind of Darker and Edgier plot of the Dark Signer arc and ramps it straight Up to Eleven.

The story is currently being written by Masterdramon, and is 15 chapters in. It can be read here. The story's greatest strengths are its familiarity with and respect towards the entirety of the Yu-Gi-Oh! canon, its expert ability to flesh out and develop minor characters, and juggling a lot of viewpoints at once, not to mention just being really damn well-written.

It's worth noting that the author has also written three one-shots that fit neatly into the same "universe", The Devil and the Star, a story about Takuma Saiou from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX founding the Arcadia Movement and how it was taken from him by Divine, Second Sun, a story elaborating on Rex Goodwin's past and Heroes of Justice, a story about a young Sherry Leblanc meeting Edo Phoenix. The former two work perfectly well as standalones, not having to read "My Dark King" to really get them and not having to read them to get the main story, but "Heroes of Justice" at least pretty much requires having read "The Devil and the Star" first. More recently, he's also added an ongoing miniseries running alongside the main story: I Am Become Death, a series of short drabbles featuring each of the original seven Dark Signers.

The author can be reached directly for comments/questions/criticisms on his Formspring [dead link] account, which is now regularly supplemented with in-character accounts for the various characters in the story.

Tropes used in My Dark King include:
  • Ascended Extra: And how. One of the story's defining traits is how it takes the most minor one-note characters of 5D's and completely fleshes them out.
  • Anyone Can Die: Divine, Goodwin, and like 90% of Neo-Domino City's population.
  • Backstory: TONS. Pretty much every 5D's minor character that doesn't die gets one.
  • Badass Nickname: "The High Ruler of Hell, Dark King."
  • Berserk Button: Jack's is trying to hurt Carly. Carly's is trying to hurt Jack. Shocker, I know. Divine learns this the hard way.
    • Carly also takes rather poorly to the news of Misty's death, eventually swearing revenge on Aki.
  • Blessed with Suck: The Dark Signers have massive power which they're able to tap into most easily by concentrating on their worst memories. It's about as good for their emotional state as you'd expect it to be.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: In Chapter 14, Yusei gets rather frustrated when Jack decides to interrupt their discussion of the present apocalypse to give him advice on his relationship with Aki.
  • Continuity Nod: Ushio is still secretly suffering from the effects of his Penalty Game when the story begins.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Barbara stays true to form, choking Lotten to death when he refuses the Reaper's offer. Hinted at with Wiraqocha Rasca, but It's managed to be a lot more subtle about it so far.
  • Darker and Edgier: The Dark Signer arc was already this for 5D's, this story ramps it up even further.
  • Disc One Final Boss: The latest chapter introduces a Bigger Bad. Apparently, everyone from Rex Goodwin to Z-One (except the protagonists) was just a pawn in his plan.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Placido, Lucciano and Jose show up just long enough for you to realize it's them, and then head off to watch the ensuing chaos from their pocket dimension.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Earthbound Gods, obviously. The King of the Underworld takes this to its logical extreme, eventually leading to An Eldritch Abomination fight between it and the Sangenma.
    • Chapter 15 takes it a step even further, positing that the King is in fact a member of an entire species of Eldritch Abominations, which also includes the already-deceased Zorc Necrophades, Leviathan, and Darkness from the previous two series.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Jack and Carly. Kind of the point.
  • Evil Counterpart: Amethyst Archdaemon's Dragon for Red Daemon's Dragon.
  • Evil Is Petty: When Divine realizes he's out of options and probably isn't going to survive the day, he resolves to just be as big a dick as possible before he bites the dust. You gotta respect the commitment, at least.
  • Evil Laugh: While Aki is dueling Misty, Divine notes that he hasn't had the opportunity for one in a while and, naturally, indulges himself.
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: Divine is punched so hard by Jack, his entire upper body is blown off.
  • Five-Bad Band: The Reaper makes one out of a bunch of minor villains from 5D's and DM.
  • For Want of a Nail: The entire story is caused by Carly's glasses not falling out of Jack's coat. It's later revealed that this was caused by Clark screwing around with time travel and making his shirt tighter to his chest so he wouldn't have to deal with the minor inconvenience of his own glasses falling out of his shirt when he put them there.
  • Gratuitous French: Used by Sherry. Mostly for swearing.
  • Half the Man He Used To Be: Divine, after Jack is through with him.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Yusei, Ushio, and Mikage have had to listen to these so far.
  • Happily Married: Asuka Tenjoin and Jun Manjoume
  • Heroic BSOD: Pretty much EVERY one of the Signers suffers this after they learn of Jack becoming a Dark Signer, Yusei far and away getting it the worst. A lot of their screentime in the following chapters up until now has just been them dealing with the emotional fallout of the events thus far.
  • In a Single Bound: Crow does his best Luigi impression in order to seal the last control tower in time.
  • Invincible Hero: Brutally subverted. The Signers have been getting their asses kicked up and down the street starting with Jack's death in the first chapter right up to Yusei getting his shit ruined by a pack of ravenous birds in Chapter 12, with no end in sight.
  • Karmic Death: No ambiguity regarding Divine's fate here. "Never mess with my queen", indeed.
  • Large Ham: Carly, Jack and Goodwin. Becoming a Dark Signer seems to give one a penchant for the dramatic, above all else. Not that Jack didn't already have a tendency for it.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: The story started out relatively small in scope, centering only on the Signers, Carly and Jack, but once The King of the Underworld razes Neo-Domino City, a bunch more people from all over the series get involved and the scope of the story starts rapidly expanding.
    • Indeed, as of Chapter 14, over one hundred characters with speaking parts have appeared in the story. Make of that what you will.
  • Lotus Eater Machine: Unfortunately for pretty much everybody but Carly, it worked this time.
  • Loyal Phlebotinum: Jack burns his hand touching his Red Demon's Dragon card after his transformation.
  • Made of Iron: Partially averted. Yusei, Crow and Ushio in particular can take a lickin' and keep on kickin', but especially in Yusei's case, it catches up with them the second the adrenaline stops flowing. But the Crimson Dragon is more than happy to provide some Healing Factor on occasion anyway.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Divine, natch. Aslla piscu gets in on it too. Wiraqocha Rasca tries and succeeds to an extent, but after a while Jack makes it clear that he's not one to be screwed around with.
  • More Than Mind Control: See Not Brainwashed.
  • Murderers Are Rapists: Averted in Divine's case. His sex with Aki is portrayed as being consensual, but it's not supposed to make him look like any less of a Manipulative Bastard. Aki is eventually revealed to be having nightmares that play it straight.
  • Not Brainwashed: Reversed in Chapter 14, when Yusei and the reader learn that "the real Jack" is actually in there somewhere and doesn't actually want to destroy the world.
  • Oh Crap: Any card-savvy readers in the audience will get a bit of this when they see Jack's Fallen deck.
  • One of Us: Yes, the writer is a Troper, and consistently sprinkles his rather lengthy Author's Notes with copious named tropes. He also visits this very page at least daily, and will will see anything you write here.
  • Purple Prose: The author admits to possibly having a bit too much Shakespeare in his background.
  • Relative Error: Sherry's situation with Mizoguchi is similar, as she notes "far too many idiots" have gotten the wrong idea about her relationship with her "legal guardian."
  • Screw Destiny: Subverted, in that Jack's attempt to do so fails. Double subverted later when Divine's predictions go awry and he notes that something way above his supernatural pay grade is screwing around with fate.
  • Shown Their Work: In a funny example, Jack notes that Goodwin is just using attack names when his monsters are forced to battle each other for the chance to flaunt his knowledge of Incan Mythology. The author also probably counts not just for the mythological references, but the references to quite old parts of canon and tying them into the 5D's world.
  • Sixth Ranger: Crow sorta becomes this, getting Jack's mark when he dies, then later when Goodwin bites it and Yusei gets the Dragon Head mark in line with canon, Ushio gets Yusei's old mark.
  • Squick: Invoked with Divine, and his...treatment of Aki.
  • Strange Bedfellows: Yusei tries to invoke this when Jack tells him both Aki and Carly are in danger, but Jack turns down the offer.
  • Super-Powered Evil Side: Jack, Carly and Goodwin, natch. The Reaper and his goon squad sort of count too.
  • Trigger Phrase: When Divine tries to use one on Aki after the first one wears off, she and Yusei beat the crap out of him until he agrees to stop. It's later revealed, much to Aki's chagrin, that he had implanted a 'lot' of them, and even after he's dead, they're good and stuck.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Goodwin gets one when Jack takes control of Wiraqocha Rasca and it goes without a fight.
  • Whip It Good: Barbara's gimmick, as per usual.
  • Wham! Line: "And as for a name...you can call me Judai Yuki."
  • Xanatos Roulette: Subverted. Goodwin's falls outside its ridiculously small margin of success, and he ends up having to try something else.
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