History: (I apologise if these links cause any confusion—the wikia prioritises dub names over original names.) ~ here & here ~
Appearance: Slightly petite for his age, Michael is roughly 160cm. He's somewhat shorter than his eldest brother was at the same age. Though, to be fair, his brother is ridiculously tall. Michael also takes after his father less than his brothers. He's slight and more on the lithe side, so an educated guess at his weight would put him at around 45kg. He has short, two-toned pink hair, with a lighter rose on top and a burnished maroon beneath. Three sections of whorled bangs frame his rather large, rather expressive green eyes. In general, Michael tends towards brighter tones and colours in his choice of clothing. In a word, he's cute.
Personality: Michael is a well-natured, well-mannered, and well-meaning young man. He's the youngest brother of the Arclight siblings and, as could be expected, he exhibits several symptoms of being the last-born. It is fairly obvious that he is the favourite child. Even when he and his brothers were much younger, he would be given gifts when his brothers were not. (Incidentally, these gifts would be cards related to things that their father was researching. These cards would become Michael's favourites, and so he is greatly influenced what by his father devoted his life to.) This favouritism caused some tension with his older brother Thomas—the middle child—but it's easy to see that any strife this may have caused, did not cause serious physical altercations or engender ill-feelings between the brothers. If anything Thomas' jealousy has subliminated over the years into part of his nuanced inferiority complex but, as for Michael, he does not naturally hold grudges for things done against him. (For things done against his family, however—that is a more complicated matter.) He is also nothing but loyal, loving, and protective of his brothers. In fact he cherishes time spent with them and derives pleasure from doing things for them. Though that isn't to say that he isn't above manipulating them from time to time. He knows that he can, and that they will let him. As such, he's not used to being told no. This of course causes problems.
Other tell-tale signs of being the baby of the family he displays include being slightly spoilt, being sensitive to others in the extreme, being slightly touchy-feeling (tactile), being eager to please, being a bit of a show-off, being used to being afforded some respect, and being more highly favoured. Michael is afforded more respect than Thomas by both their older brother, Chris, and their father, Tron. He does not gloat about being considered more reliable than Thomas, but that does not mean that being treated in such a way does not go to his head. He takes his role in the family's mission very seriously, but then this is also due to his dutiful nature.
The thing is, Michael is extremely easy to manipulate in the right circumstances. Tron takes advantage of this when he needs to have Yuuma removed from the field to ensure that his plans are secure. At this time Tron is no longer the father figure Michael recalls from his memories—Tron used to be Byron Arclight, a highly intelligent, highly respected, and highly successful scientist who worked with physics and different dimension theories. Byron was partners with a man named Dr Faker, for whom Michael's brother Christopher was also working as an assistant. Eventually Dr Faker sacrificed the lives of Byron and Yuuma's father in order to gain access to an alternate dimension known as the Barian realm, from whence he acquired the power to save the life of his youngest son, Haruto. This act orphaned Michael and his brothers. Chris attempted to find his father while Michael and Thomas were sent to stay in an orphanage. When Chris was unable to find their father, he left Heartland with his brothers.
That was until their father miraculously reappeared—or at least someone like him did. What they got back in their lives was not their father Byron, but a child-like man named Tron. Because Byron had fallen into the cracks between the dimensions, he had roamed there and been transformed into a diminutive figure with no sense of compunction. The only thing Tron says he can feel is the need for revenge, though he cannot feel hate or rage, not in anyway that matters. He needs his sons to feel these emotions for him.
So this is where Michael's sensitivity comes into play. Michael is fiercely loyal and protective of his family, and when Tron declares that their mission is revenge against Dr Faker, Michael really takes that message to heart. At one point he declares that he has no capacity for anything other than revenge, that all he can feel is hate. He says this even as he is in the midst of crying after breaking down and realising that his family is no longer what it once was, and it isn't how he wants it to be. He is convinced that the only way to save his family and make them happy again is to defeat Yuuma and sacrifice Dr Faker's son, Haruto. And though he is firmly convicted about doing anything necessary for the family's cause, at times he seems hesitant or to be having moral qualms. After witnessing Yuuma's duelling first hand, Michael grows interested in Yuuma. Unlike his brothers, he senses that something is different between what drives Yuuma, and what drives them. And what is different is, is their motivation—they are all fighting to protect something dear, but their methods are very much different. That is, Yuuma would not hurt someone for the sake of his mission. Michael is able to realise this, and he accepts that Yuuma would never fight for revenge, and he admires Yuuma, but in the end he remains loyal to his family and his goal to save them, and so challenges Yuuma to a duel. He is touched by Yuuma, but he is also willing to sacrifice him on the alter of his family's (and his own) ambition, if that is what it comes to. This also reflects Michael's more internalised, sensing, and holistic nature. When confronted with something that is making him anxious or doubtful, Michael will observe, engage, reflect, and then draw conclusions. However, that does not mean that he will always take things to their logical conclusion in a meaningful, insightful, and honest way. He may admit consequences, but he may not face them. This is a sign of his immaturity (and, let's be fair, his age!)
Michael is also the only one in the Arclight family who shows concern for Haruto when Haruto is being harmed by Tron (though he does not stop Tron from hurting the boy, again giving a greater weight to what his family needs, versus what his conscious needs.) All the while Michael feels isolated, lonely, and lost despite having regained his family but he does not vocalise this. All of this only comes out when he breaks down later on. But for now it's worth noting how far down the hole Michael will drive himself for the sake of his family, of his own volition. It's remarkable how far he will go in order to obtain what he wants, which is to have back his happy, normal family that's proud of him.
In order to bring about the conditions to defeat Yuuma, Michael willingly undergoes an excruciating procedure to obtain a new power. His father also gives him two cards which will help him obtain victory, though victory with them would most likely come at the cost of his very own soul. At first Michael does not hesitate to use such dangerous tools for the sake of his family. In fact he becomes downright cruel and callous and almost capricious—becoming much like his brother Thomas—when it comes down to defeating Yuuma. He tears down him bit by bit. He alters his memories, literally steals his self-confidence, apparently kills Yuuma's partner Astral, and separates Yuuma from his group of friends. Michael also abuses beloved cards he received from his father before his father changed. All the while Michael laughs manically; the deconstruction he's engaging in could be said to be giving him a sense of sadistic satisfaction.
But this is not quite the case. What happens is that Michael is overwhelmed by his loneliness and sorrow and, under the influence of the powers he has been given, he becomes not submerged, but he snaps. Though he's usually collected, conscientious, and a sweetheart, between the pressure from his family, the pressure he puts on himself, and Yuuma's insisting on being able “to understand” him, the darkness, bitterness, resentment, and jealousy in him break out.
It's interesting that much of what Michael takes away from Yuuma are things that Michael himself lacks: friends, unwavering self-confidence and a sense of security, his support system, etc. He's also willing to sacrifice things he used to value to get what he wants. What he's doing, is engaging in essentially a mighty, violent catharsis because he's a spoilt child who's—among other things jealous—of Yuuma, for having what he regards as an “easy life” compared to his own. This jealousy is tied up with a discomfort with himself that Michael doesn't actually admit to having, but it's fairly evident in an earlier episode. He begins crying when seated at Yuuma's family's table because he's so touched by the familial atmosphere. His own family is not like this—and yet this is exactly how he wishes that they could be once more. This is what cements Michael's conviction to take Yuuma on in a duel even though Michael knows that duelling for revenge and hurting Haruto are not good. He makes his decision, he will do what needs to be done to get what he wants. Then during their duel, Yuuma rubs Michael raw by insisting that he can understand him through duelling. This kind of attitude must strike Michael as flippant, dismissive, and enraging. For someone who's spoilt and not happy with himself because he can't have something, it's just too much.
It sets him over the edge.
And so over the course of their duel Michael works through his rage. At the end, Michael is severely worn down by using the powers given to him, and he reverts back to his default self. He's unwilling to hurt Yuuma and his friends any longer. Michael loses the duel and, before falling into a coma, he declares that Yuuma is his first real friend and beseeches Yuuma to save his family. During their duel it seems that Michael is displaying confidence but, what it really is, is that's he's carried away by a hideous abandon that he's finally allowed himself. It's not until after the duel, and his family is returned to something like normalcy, that Michael is able to finally cultivate a healthy sense of self-confidence. It's also clear from this experience with Yuuma that Michael thinks of himself as a protector.
This marks a major turning point for Michael as a character: for the first time he's looking outside of his family for help. And, not only is he trusting someone outside of his family for the first time, he's also allowing responsibility to fall elsewhere, at least for a while. Otherwise Michael is prone to taking a wealth of responsibility onto himself. When his brothers Thomas and Chris get into a squabble, he tries to keep the peace between them. Later on, when he appears again to help Yuuma, he feels a strong sense of duty towards his friend. He also feels responsible for what he did to Astral, and wishes to repay that debt. Though he smiles often and easily, he can become quite serious!
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Michael Arclight (III) | Yu-gi-oh! ZeXal | Reserved
~ here & here ~
Appearance: Slightly petite for his age, Michael is roughly 160cm. He's somewhat shorter than his eldest brother was at the same age. Though, to be fair, his brother is ridiculously tall. Michael also takes after his father less than his brothers. He's slight and more on the lithe side, so an educated guess at his weight would put him at around 45kg. He has short, two-toned pink hair, with a lighter rose on top and a burnished maroon beneath. Three sections of whorled bangs frame his rather large, rather expressive green eyes. In general, Michael tends towards brighter tones and colours in his choice of clothing. In a word, he's cute.
Personality: Michael is a well-natured, well-mannered, and well-meaning young man. He's the youngest brother of the Arclight siblings and, as could be expected, he exhibits several symptoms of being the last-born. It is fairly obvious that he is the favourite child. Even when he and his brothers were much younger, he would be given gifts when his brothers were not. (Incidentally, these gifts would be cards related to things that their father was researching. These cards would become Michael's favourites, and so he is greatly influenced what by his father devoted his life to.) This favouritism caused some tension with his older brother Thomas—the middle child—but it's easy to see that any strife this may have caused, did not cause serious physical altercations or engender ill-feelings between the brothers. If anything Thomas' jealousy has subliminated over the years into part of his nuanced inferiority complex but, as for Michael, he does not naturally hold grudges for things done against him. (For things done against his family, however—that is a more complicated matter.) He is also nothing but loyal, loving, and protective of his brothers. In fact he cherishes time spent with them and derives pleasure from doing things for them. Though that isn't to say that he isn't above manipulating them from time to time. He knows that he can, and that they will let him. As such, he's not used to being told no. This of course causes problems.
Other tell-tale signs of being the baby of the family he displays include being slightly spoilt, being sensitive to others in the extreme, being slightly touchy-feeling (tactile), being eager to please, being a bit of a show-off, being used to being afforded some respect, and being more highly favoured. Michael is afforded more respect than Thomas by both their older brother, Chris, and their father, Tron. He does not gloat about being considered more reliable than Thomas, but that does not mean that being treated in such a way does not go to his head. He takes his role in the family's mission very seriously, but then this is also due to his dutiful nature.
The thing is, Michael is extremely easy to manipulate in the right circumstances. Tron takes advantage of this when he needs to have Yuuma removed from the field to ensure that his plans are secure. At this time Tron is no longer the father figure Michael recalls from his memories—Tron used to be Byron Arclight, a highly intelligent, highly respected, and highly successful scientist who worked with physics and different dimension theories. Byron was partners with a man named Dr Faker, for whom Michael's brother Christopher was also working as an assistant. Eventually Dr Faker sacrificed the lives of Byron and Yuuma's father in order to gain access to an alternate dimension known as the Barian realm, from whence he acquired the power to save the life of his youngest son, Haruto. This act orphaned Michael and his brothers. Chris attempted to find his father while Michael and Thomas were sent to stay in an orphanage. When Chris was unable to find their father, he left Heartland with his brothers.
That was until their father miraculously reappeared—or at least someone like him did. What they got back in their lives was not their father Byron, but a child-like man named Tron. Because Byron had fallen into the cracks between the dimensions, he had roamed there and been transformed into a diminutive figure with no sense of compunction. The only thing Tron says he can feel is the need for revenge, though he cannot feel hate or rage, not in anyway that matters. He needs his sons to feel these emotions for him.
So this is where Michael's sensitivity comes into play. Michael is fiercely loyal and protective of his family, and when Tron declares that their mission is revenge against Dr Faker, Michael really takes that message to heart. At one point he declares that he has no capacity for anything other than revenge, that all he can feel is hate. He says this even as he is in the midst of crying after breaking down and realising that his family is no longer what it once was, and it isn't how he wants it to be. He is convinced that the only way to save his family and make them happy again is to defeat Yuuma and sacrifice Dr Faker's son, Haruto. And though he is firmly convicted about doing anything necessary for the family's cause, at times he seems hesitant or to be having moral qualms. After witnessing Yuuma's duelling first hand, Michael grows interested in Yuuma. Unlike his brothers, he senses that something is different between what drives Yuuma, and what drives them. And what is different is, is their motivation—they are all fighting to protect something dear, but their methods are very much different. That is, Yuuma would not hurt someone for the sake of his mission. Michael is able to realise this, and he accepts that Yuuma would never fight for revenge, and he admires Yuuma, but in the end he remains loyal to his family and his goal to save them, and so challenges Yuuma to a duel. He is touched by Yuuma, but he is also willing to sacrifice him on the alter of his family's (and his own) ambition, if that is what it comes to. This also reflects Michael's more internalised, sensing, and holistic nature. When confronted with something that is making him anxious or doubtful, Michael will observe, engage, reflect, and then draw conclusions. However, that does not mean that he will always take things to their logical conclusion in a meaningful, insightful, and honest way. He may admit consequences, but he may not face them. This is a sign of his immaturity (and, let's be fair, his age!)
Michael is also the only one in the Arclight family who shows concern for Haruto when Haruto is being harmed by Tron (though he does not stop Tron from hurting the boy, again giving a greater weight to what his family needs, versus what his conscious needs.) All the while Michael feels isolated, lonely, and lost despite having regained his family but he does not vocalise this. All of this only comes out when he breaks down later on. But for now it's worth noting how far down the hole Michael will drive himself for the sake of his family, of his own volition. It's remarkable how far he will go in order to obtain what he wants, which is to have back his happy, normal family that's proud of him.
In order to bring about the conditions to defeat Yuuma, Michael willingly undergoes an excruciating procedure to obtain a new power. His father also gives him two cards which will help him obtain victory, though victory with them would most likely come at the cost of his very own soul. At first Michael does not hesitate to use such dangerous tools for the sake of his family. In fact he becomes downright cruel and callous and almost capricious—becoming much like his brother Thomas—when it comes down to defeating Yuuma. He tears down him bit by bit. He alters his memories, literally steals his self-confidence, apparently kills Yuuma's partner Astral, and separates Yuuma from his group of friends. Michael also abuses beloved cards he received from his father before his father changed. All the while Michael laughs manically; the deconstruction he's engaging in could be said to be giving him a sense of sadistic satisfaction.
But this is not quite the case. What happens is that Michael is overwhelmed by his loneliness and sorrow and, under the influence of the powers he has been given, he becomes not submerged, but he snaps. Though he's usually collected, conscientious, and a sweetheart, between the pressure from his family, the pressure he puts on himself, and Yuuma's insisting on being able “to understand” him, the darkness, bitterness, resentment, and jealousy in him break out.
It's interesting that much of what Michael takes away from Yuuma are things that Michael himself lacks: friends, unwavering self-confidence and a sense of security, his support system, etc. He's also willing to sacrifice things he used to value to get what he wants. What he's doing, is engaging in essentially a mighty, violent catharsis because he's a spoilt child who's—among other things jealous—of Yuuma, for having what he regards as an “easy life” compared to his own. This jealousy is tied up with a discomfort with himself that Michael doesn't actually admit to having, but it's fairly evident in an earlier episode. He begins crying when seated at Yuuma's family's table because he's so touched by the familial atmosphere. His own family is not like this—and yet this is exactly how he wishes that they could be once more. This is what cements Michael's conviction to take Yuuma on in a duel even though Michael knows that duelling for revenge and hurting Haruto are not good. He makes his decision, he will do what needs to be done to get what he wants. Then during their duel, Yuuma rubs Michael raw by insisting that he can understand him through duelling. This kind of attitude must strike Michael as flippant, dismissive, and enraging. For someone who's spoilt and not happy with himself because he can't have something, it's just too much.
It sets him over the edge.
And so over the course of their duel Michael works through his rage. At the end, Michael is severely worn down by using the powers given to him, and he reverts back to his default self. He's unwilling to hurt Yuuma and his friends any longer. Michael loses the duel and, before falling into a coma, he declares that Yuuma is his first real friend and beseeches Yuuma to save his family. During their duel it seems that Michael is displaying confidence but, what it really is, is that's he's carried away by a hideous abandon that he's finally allowed himself. It's not until after the duel, and his family is returned to something like normalcy, that Michael is able to finally cultivate a healthy sense of self-confidence. It's also clear from this experience with Yuuma that Michael thinks of himself as a protector.
This marks a major turning point for Michael as a character: for the first time he's looking outside of his family for help. And, not only is he trusting someone outside of his family for the first time, he's also allowing responsibility to fall elsewhere, at least for a while. Otherwise Michael is prone to taking a wealth of responsibility onto himself. When his brothers Thomas and Chris get into a squabble, he tries to keep the peace between them. Later on, when he appears again to help Yuuma, he feels a strong sense of duty towards his friend. He also feels responsible for what he did to Astral, and wishes to repay that debt. Though he smiles often and easily, he can become quite serious!