Yu-Gi-Oh! GX/Headscratchers


 * How much physical damage/pain do the "holograms" cause? It's a big deal for the cards to do "real" damage in the Shadow Games, so the holograms can't be THAT damaging (that, and the game wouldn't be so widespread if it was physically dangerous). We also know they normally can't do (much) physical damage to surroundings, because it's a plot point for them to do so in the "Inter-dimension detention" sub-arc. Yet in many, many episodes they are shown to either inflict minor/short-term physical pain on their opponent, and/or interact with and affect the physical world in minor ways. Monster punches knocking people over. Rapidly-fading slash marks from attacks. The almost omnipresent smoke cloud from a powerful attack. The equally omnipresent screaming from loss of life points. The early-season duel on the boats between Alexis/Asuka and Jaden/Judai making a lot of waves. The fact that Jaden/Judai sees it as noteworthy that Zane doesn't react to his attacks. I know Rule of Cool, but is there an in-universe explanation?
 * I suppose it could be the fact that when the "game" was originally played, it was even more Serious Business, as it was played with soul energy as a form of mortal combat. The much Lighter and Softer in-universe remake "Duel Monsters" often inadvertently draws on more of its parent game than it meant to (explaining its status as a Weirdness Magnet and the duel spirits). Is it possible that direct attacks and losing life-points are equivalent to a very weak attack on the player's soul, and that explains the brief pain? Because of both the difference in the players' intent, and the difference in the game itself, attacks are weakened to do no permanent damage and inflict much less pain. This could also explain why duel monster holograms can physically interact with players (knocking over etc). And why duelling takes physical stamina (it is implied to in various arcs).


 * Okay, so season 1 establishes that Ryo and Asuka were close friends (and in the original Asuka admits that she viewed him as an older brother) Asuka is also one of the few people who ever gets to see Ryo smile...so what the hell is with the rest of the series? In season 2, Ryo turns into Hell Kaiser. Asuka is brainwashed for most of the season so she has a bit of an excuse for not caring about him during that season (I'll let his duel with Sho also slide since it occurred one episode after she came back to her senses and was probably sorting out her life in that episode) And then I don't think they ever had a chance to meet during Season 3 due to all the craziness. But then what the hell is with Season 4? There is no immediate threat and Ryo is in the hospital and seemingly back to his old self. ...So was it that difficult for the writers of the show to animate even one frame of Asuka (or Fubuki for that matter) interacting with Ryo? What happened to that close friendship they had in Season 1? It seems way too out of character for Asuka to not spare a single thought for her surrogate brother.
 * On a similar note to the above, did none of Ryo's friends even contact him after he lost to Edo? It seems like he was just completely abandoned by episode 65, and that just doesn't make sense, especially from Fubuki, Asuka or Sho. You'd think he'd be a little further from the Despair Event Horizon if he had a hint of moral support.
 * In GX, we find out that there was a massive war between humans... and vampires. That's right, vampires. And this is apparently never put in the history books and nearly no one knows about it despite it taking place only a few hundred years ago.
 * Maybe the vampires only existed in Romania, and nobody cares about Romanian history.
 * Remember also that the only evidence this war ever happened at all is that the alleged vampiress Carmilla told her (coincidentally human) opponents that it did.
 * And who says it's not in the history books? Not that the students at Duel Academy learn any history not directly related to Duel Monsters...
 * Don't forget that usually, history is written by the winners. The vampires lost the war, and if the humans wanted to, they could just say "Let's never talk about it again." And thus, vampires are erased from existence.
 * In the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh GX, why won't they let us see Yugi's eyes? It's already dead obvious to anyone who has seen even one episode of the original series that it's him, did they think we wouldn't notice? The same goes for Kaiba in later episodes. And why does Yugi look and sound exactly like Atem?
 * Yugi looked like Atem to represent his aging and maturity. I don't know the rest.
 * Attempt at being mysterious, maybe?
 * We actually do get to see Kaiba's face during the Society of Light arc.
 * I heard somewhere that they didn't show Yugi's eyes because the only "proper" hairstyle they could come up with to show his maturity was that of Atem's, and they didn't want to give fans the impression that Atem was still around and inhabiting Yugi's body full-time.
 * Well that plan certainly backfired. By hiding Yugi's eyes they hid the only part of his body which told us inexplicably which Yugi it was (okay there was his height and some slight hair modifications to take into account, but twenty years of aging and a stylist could've taken care of that). Now they've probably got people coming up with Fan Fiction explanations for why Atem is still hanging around twenty years later after he supposedly "died".
 * That would have happened no matter what.
 * True...
 * What bugs me about that meeting, wouldn't Jaden recognize the face of the guy who was the first person to hold the very title Jaden wants to claim?
 * He did, and he expressly stated that He got Winged Kuriboh from the king himself.
 * Why do the people in this series take a children's card game so seriously?
 * Because they're all idiots with nothing better to do.
 * You would too, if you discover that some magical artifact can make the monsters in the cards be real (and not just holo images) and you could potentially conquer the world with them.
 * That doesn't explain everybody else in the world though. Even with awesome holographic technology, I don't see Magic tournaments being broadcast over whole walls of outdoor screens, or champions being recognized on sight by casual players.
 * No, but you do see duelling matches broadcasted on television and on extremely large screens in cities. Hell they turned a whole city into one giant battle-playground for this very purpose. The game is taken seriously because, at that time and place, it's popular and serious enough (with enough technology behind it) to be considered a sport and a form of entertainment.
 * We take football, baseball, basketball, and most spectator sports just as seriously for no obviously clearer reasons. We have footballers earning millions of dollars a year and news articles about celebrities being dumped in jungles. It's not a children's card game in their world; it's a professional spectator sport. I guess that's what becomes of your world when virtual technology becomes that advanced.
 * Yeah, but in one episode of GX (At least in the english dub) Chaz's brothers gives Duel Monsters equal importance alongside politics and business. Dueling as a professional spectator sport equivalent to football? I can work with that. But I don't really think Dan Marino was at any point equivalent to Bill Gates or the freaking President (Or most lesser businessmen or politicians)
 * One WMG says that GX takes place in the modern roman empire, with Dueling taking the place of the fights of the gladiatorial fights - something that really was that important.
 * You might be surprised by the kind of things that people think are as important as politics... And I guess also that the card game seems to require a lot of smarts to play really well... anyone with the brains to be a champion at duel monsters probably has other enviable talents.
 * Look at it this way: You're a politician. Your brother is a successful, well liked businessman and your other brother is a top tier YGOverse equivalent of a pro athlete. Or, you're a businessman and your first brother is a well liked politician and your other brother is a successful athlete equivalent. Combine that with the fact that Chazz's pro career would bring about plenty of extra money and you have the potential for excellent press, with the Princeton name as a synonym for quality, excellence, and strength.
 * GX adds a few more explanations. Duel Monsters attracts people with psychic powers, so being on top would get you a lot of respect from a powerful group. Its also shown that negotiations can be based on duels, so having the toughest one on staff would give you a big advantage. Basically, they want Chaz to be the muscle of the operation.
 * But because it's a card game, it's also a franchise, which would just make it another part of the business world.
 * I suspect it might have started with the obsession Kaiba has for the game; in the battle city arc a number of non-gamers are unaware of the event until they find the roads blocked, and they all tend to treat the entire thing as being rather silly. Judging from the size of the reservation list at Kaiba's theme park and given the exceptional rarity of most good cards, the fad might have first spread horizontally to other corporate executives and people of power as a status symbol, gaining interest in the general media due to the hologram arenas that turned it from a children's card game into a spectacular event. The only reason someone like Yugi has a comparatively rare and powerful deck is because his grandfather got into the game before it became so popular and demand had risen. Even though the duel disk system brought the holograms to the masses, duel monsters remains the sport of kings. By becoming the top duelist, not only would Chazz have become a major figure in entertainment, he would have had an inroad to plenty of important figures. Given the position duel monsters took for resolving conflicts and the propensity of players to make very large wagers, this would have allowed him to aid in his brothers schemes.
 * It being the "sport of kings" makes sense when you look at it in context of it's importance in ancient Egypt, where only the powerful and educated could weild their Kas around like nunchukas.
 * Because the show takes place in an alternate-universe Korea where Duel Monsters takes the place of Starcraft.
 * Here's how it went: Seto Kaiba is like a teatoatalling Tony Stark that enjoys playing games. One day, he picks up a new Collectible Card Game called Duel Monsters. He decides to enhance this game by using Hard Light to make holograms of the pictures on the cards pop out. Now Clash of the Titans is playing out on screen, and all other sports are boring by comparison.
 * The point is that just like football (soccer) is the main sport of Spain, Brazil, Mexico, etc. to the point that all others are rarely talk about, Deal Monsters became that for Japan and later the whole world, it's not just a sport, it's the main sport, all other mayor sports have fallen into to a level of popularity equal to polo and cricket, it's still around, they show it on the sports channel but most people don't care that much. Imagine being a politician or businessman and that your brother is Tiger Woods, but in a world where Golf is 10 times bigger than any other sport.
 * Meta WMG explanation attempt- With all the deconstructions of usual Shonen and Gaming Anime tropes, especially with the order the series goes in, it gives the feel that GX takes place in a Crap Saccharine World. Showing just how much the world has come to revolve around what is, to The Everyman, just a children's card game helps show just how far the world has fallen, to consider a card game of equal importance to politics and economics, and also helps to set up the deconstructions of the second and third season.
 * What did happen in the Abandoned Dorm? Did it have something to do with the Shadow Charms and the Sacred Beasts? And why was Fubuki the only one out of the countless missing students to be chosen to become a Shadow Rider?
 * Answer: Fubuki was the only one that managed to defeat the Gravekeeper.
 * Wait, I thought it was stated Banner lead the students to the Abandoned Dorm for whatever Kagemaru wanted to do with them, not the ruins that he lead Judai and the gang to.
 * My understanding is thus: The Assassins needed a team of good duelists. Banner (I can't spell his Japanese name) led many impressive students to the Abandoned Dorm, and the only one to survive the ordeal, test, or whatever they did to them, and come out alive (albeit brainwashed) was Fubuki. Sometime before that, I don't know how, but he had dueled the Gravekeeper, made friends with Sarah, and won the pendant. This victory showed Banner he was a good candidate.
 * Answers so far provided by Season 4: Kagemaru used the students he kidnapped as guinea pigs(?), and Fubuki only survived by using the power of Darkness in the mask Fujiwara left behind when he died. The fact that the possessor of Darkness' Soul Jar was chosen for the experiment was just a coincidence.
 * What was so dangerous about the Cyberdark Legacy? We never see any ill side effects whenever Hell Kaiser Ryo uses it. There is his growing heart problem, but that was attributed to the shock collars he used in his duels... Or was it?
 * Who designs cards that do that? If you didn't know about it.
 * More than likely, it's a combination of something in the cards themselves, and the holographic system used for duels. Destroying them might release whatever is wrong with the cards in a far more dangerous way, like explosive barrels in most video games
 * Again, Pegasus, fruit juice, you do the math.
 * I always laughed at that because wine IS fruit juice - it's only the fermentation process that makes it into 'The World's Finest' juice.
 * After Fubuki returns from the Shadow Realm/Hell/whatever, why didn't anyone try to rescue everyone else who had gone along on that fateful field trip?
 * They are probably dead.
 * Episode 159. O'Brien informs us that after Juudai defeated Kagemaru, all of those students were released, with the exception of Fujiwara.
 * If Ryo was the top student, why wasn't he chosen to go along?
 * Maybe he was next on the list, but they fulfilled their quota.
 * Yeah, but if he's the top student, you'd think he was at the top of the list.
 * He wasn't screwed up enough (yet) for Darkness to mess with his mind? Fubuki's involvement seems to be an accident stemming from his friendship with Fujiwara.
 * Well, he wasn't the best before...
 * Why did Tyranno wait until after Judai gave his satellite key to Takuma to save Edo? The way things went, he could easily have done it earlier.
 * He assumed that his aniki (big bro) had a plan to deal with the situation.
 * What would happen if a fat, ugly, small-breasted girl applied to Duel Academia and passed her entrance exams with flying colours?
 * She'd be in Obelisk Blue and not be made into a main character. Seriously, we hardly ever see any of the other students, unless the anime makes a plot point for a main character to duel them or get them into trouble.
 * What are you talking about? Ugly people are never good at Duel Monsters unless they're possessed, cheating, or not actually good in the first place.
 * Why has nobody complained about how sexist and inappropriately small the Duel Academia's girls' uniforms are?
 * Because this applies to about 95% of female school uniforms in anime? Really, it is unexpected to see uniform skirts with a realistic length.
 * They're probably based on the "sailor outfits" of Japanese boarding schools, which are stereotypically depicted in anime as being sexist and inappropriately small.
 * But in the manga, there were some American Duel Academy students visiting them to participate in a tourney, and the girl's uniform was just as small and revealing as Asuka's...
 * Maybe it was just how she wore the uniform, and other uniforms from the American school had longer skirts?
 * Because you've never seen a sailor uniform before. They are not stereotypically depicted, and not even Japanese. My great Grandmother used to wear one when she was a schoolgirl, because that was the trend back then. Japan is just the only country that still has them (to the best of my knowledge).
 * Why are all but three of the girls in Duel Academia in the Obelisk Blue dorm?
 * It's the only dorm big enough to have both male and female necessities.
 * All female students are in Blue. Except Rei, who specifically demanded to be placed in Red. And she upgrades to Blue later anyway.
 * Why does nobody try to make Manjyome or Edo wear their uniforms?
 * Because they're rich.
 * Why does Ryo keep wearing his uniform after he graduates until his Face Heel Turn?
 * He makes some very minor adjustments to it after graduating, but it's clearly just done to avoid having to redesign anything before said Face Heel Turn. The commonly accepted explanation is that it was a symbol of his status as top of the academy. The second-most commonly accepted explanation is that no one gives a rat's ass.
 * Okay, so it's been established that Judai and Yubel But where does Johan fit into this? When they first meet at the beginning of the season, they both mention that the other seems familiar, like they met each other before, and unlike the Abandoned Dorm saga (which may finally be explained next season), I doubt that they'd just make it a throwaway line, especially when Yubel . Something tells me that Johan is still majorly significant in the Yubel/Jaden mystery, but I'll be damned if I can figure out how.
 * Yubel likes to screw with people. Since Johan was stuck in the Duel Spirit dimension already, he was just the most convenient person she could use to mess with Judai.
 * I personally still think that Johan is Yubel's reincarnation, like Judai is Haou's. It makes sense, in some weird, twisted way. (Mostly because Johan has almost no backstory, and enough weird occurences during his appearances to make one suspect there must be something, at least)
 * Given YGO's history of people who are, well, more than one person, it seems entirely possible that Yubel and Johan are both Yubel's reincarnation. Somehow.
 * Okay, in Season 1, Manjyome graciously demonstrates North Academy policy of placing new students via gauntlet duels with the entire student body. He comes out on top of them all, technically making him the top student there (until he leaves). In Season 3, we learn that Johan is from North Academy. So...does that mean that Manjyome beat Johan as part of the gauntlet duel? Or was Johan out on leave at the time?
 * Manjyome fought those duels during his first year, Johan came to Duel Academia in his third. Maybe Johan didn't start attending North Academia until a year ago, a year after his North Academia duel gauntlet.
 * I got the impression that to become an Overseas Champ, you needed to be the top duelist in your respective school for a long while, and a single year isn't that long to build up that kind of reputation.
 * It is if you're The Ace.
 * Maybe Johan initially became the top student at the German branch of Duel Academia, and transferred to North Academy after Manjyome left.
 * Or he was off getting the Gem Beasts at that tournament. Or at some tournament in general, since he obviously did take part in them. Bet he was pissed he missed the school duel.
 * Is is just me, or have the other main characters not been netdecked to hell and back (which they should have been), some of these are understandable (includeing cards that there are only 4 of), but seriously, what about everyone else.
 * I think they dealt with that when Jaden dueled Dimitri; Duel Monsters is such Serious Business, that it's considered in bad form to copy someone's deck card for card. As someone explained to me, having a better and closer familial and emotional connection to one's deck greatly increases your chances of drawing what you need at any given moment, in that world, so if you don't have the same "heart of the cards" that the person you're ripping off has for the deck, you can't duel that effectively with it.
 * Why did Saiou lose his power to see the future after Judai freed him from the Light of Ruin if he had his powers long before DD and the Light of Ruin came into his life?
 * I don't think he actually lost his powers, he just decided to stop using them.
 * Well, in Turn 171, Saiou's suffering from a classic case of Always Need What You Gave Up Syndrome. He admits that even though for so long, he just wanted to be normal, now he misses having so much power, and he feels guilty because he thinks he could have somehow protected Mizuchi if he still had it. Maybe the Light of Ruin foresaw this and took Saiou's divination powers with it when it left his body just to spite him.
 * Why did Saiou lose his precognitive powers after having the personification of evil ripped out of his brain? I think he didn't; the shock of of the Light of Ruin getting ripped out just keeps him from being able to use them willfully and Saiou only assumes that they're gone.
 * About GX Season 4: Just... what the heck is going on here???
 * No one knows, actually; the working theory is that whatever plot the fourth season was supposed to have was forced to be condensed into a half-season because Judai's voice actor demanded more money than the producers were willing to shill out or something; Darkness wasn't meant to be the final Big Bad, all of the loose ends in the series were supposed to be tied up, etc. Because of the condensing and rush job to get the series ended so Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's could start meant that the very plot that was to be condensed was sacrificed, hence why nothing makes sense in it.
 * It makes sense to me.
 * But Darkness wasn't involved in the Abandoned Dorm incident; he was stuck in Fubuki when the incident happened. Kagemaru was the mastermind behind the incident. Hell, that was the only thing that was actually revealed about what really happened at the Abandoned Dorm; Darkness had nothing to do with it until Fubuki was forced to invoke the spirit to survive the incident. Hence, since the Abandoned Dorm plot was not resolved in any way, shape, or form, unless a Deus Ex Machina pops up in the last episodes to prove otherwise, all we have is Trueman molesting little kids to make everyone on earth disappear, Fujiwara going insane due to some incident in his past, and a minor villain from the first season suddenly popping up as the Big Bad of the final season.
 * Yes he was.
 * But neither Darkness' summoning nor Fubuki's possession and subsequent "giving in" to the spirit caused the students to vanish (and, more importantly, it was Professor Banner and Kagemaru that set up the students disappearing, in the first place, and if Fubuki, the host of Darkness at the time, was one of the victims, to the point where he had to allow Darkness to possess him to survive, then it's nigh-impossible that Darkness was involved in any way with Kagemaru's and Banner's plan), which is what the Abandoned Dorm incident is all about; what happened to the missing students, and why did they disappear? Until Darkness comes out and says that he was the cause of the vanishings during his final duel with Judai (and it'll have to be at that time, since the duel between Jaden and Darkness-possessed Fubuki didn't explain that part), there is absolutely no evidence that substantiates that Darkness was in any way involved with Kagemaru, the disappearance of the students, or the Sacred Beast plot other than surviving the incident and becoming one of the Seven Star Assassins. In other words, there is still no official word on what happened during the Abandoned Dorm incident, other than the fact that Darkness was not involved in it, and it's looking doubtful that we ever will find out.
 * Was it ever stated that Kagemaru was behind it? I saw it as the two evil plots intersecting, with Kage/Banner taking advantage of Darkness's scheme to further their own. You could be right, and it could just be a Mind Screw, and with all the cues this season seems to be taking from Evangelion (the preview for the next episode, in particular, gave me heavy End Of vibes), that's a distinct possibility.
 * Yes it was; when Fubuki's memory was restored to him after Asuka's duel with Titan, he remembered that Banner was the one who lured the students to the Dorm during the incident, and during Banner's duel with Judai, he admitted to doing that on orders from Kagemaru (in fact, before he decided to duel Fubuki to find out what the deal was with Darkness, he tried to force info about what happened to the missing kids out of Banner, and had O'Brien research Kagemaru about the same thing; both confirm that Darkness wasn't involved in the students' disappearance or their plans for the students afterwards, other than being a Seven Star Assassin; they didn't even know how Fubuki became Darkness' host. Thus, there's no way Darkness was involved in the Abandoned Dorm incident. All in all, Darkness and the Abandoned Dorm incident are mutually exclusive.
 * So Kagemaru kidnapped a bunch of kids, tried turning them into Assassins, but the process killed them all, except Fubuki, who used Darkness' power (obtained in an unrelated incident with Fujiwara) to save himself. But he was trapped by his new Super-Powered Evil Side until his duel with Judai in Season 1. I never bought Saiou's and Kagemaru's claims that their respective evil plots in Seasons 1 and 2 were all part of Darkness' ultimate plan that came to fruition in Season 4.
 * Why wasn't Jaden been promoted to a higher dorm? What with saving the world several times and all... you'd think they'd have to make a new dorm just to cover his skill level. All his friends have moved up, so he has no excuse for remaining in the red dorm.
 * Sameshima (Sheppard) has already tried, numerous times. Jaden's just not interested, for some stupid reason.
 * He is promoted to Ra Yellow in Season 1 after beating Manjyome, but decides to stay in Slifer Red because that's where most of his friends are. After that, it seems to be a case of supporting the underdog.
 * The real reason, however, is so that the series can have an underdog hero who is associated with Yugi's Egyptian God card.
 * So...can we finally say with surety that Judai and Johan are a couple, now? I mean, now that Asuka has finally given up on her pursuit of O Godly E-Hero Duelist, and Sho has tempered his UST for Judai in light of his brother's recent brush with (near) death, Johan's the only one who has an obvious crush on him, a crush that's obviously reciprocated. I mean, look at their triangle duel with Fujiwara; Fujiwara tries to turn the two against each other, and they do get in a few licks on each other...then they laugh it off, like it was some kind of male bonding.
 * After rewatching this and the mini-arc of Johan's possession by Yubel, I'd say Juudai and Johan are pretty borderline, if not the most overt Ho Yay in the series. Though given the whole Stalker with a Crush issue with Yubel, I fear it's really a threesome.
 * I was disappointed that best-best friend role suddenly switched from Sho to Johan. It would have been unheard of for someone to take Joey's place in Yugi's story. I guess it was so Sho could realize his dream of stepping out of the sidekick role and stop living in the hero's shadow.
 * There ain't nothin' gay about it, no no no. It's GUY LOVE BETWEEN TWO GUUUUUUUYYYYS....
 * What the eff happened to Amon, Cobra, and Satou? Why didn't they come back after Yubel was defeated? I get that Misawa stayed behind to have little Amazon babies, but these three didn't have anything they'd want to stay in the Duel Spirit Dimension. Also, where did Ryo come from? He just washed up. I know I'm in the minority when I say Season 4 was decent, but where are they?
 * Cobra and Satou are dead. Ryo, by all laws of reason, should be dead, but I guess he was spared by Contractual Immortality. No clue about Amon.
 * Amon was the only one to die permanently in the Dark World. I think it has something to do with Yubel absorbing his darkness of the heart when he died. Or maybe Judai didn't feel like bringing him back when he brought everyone else back at the end of the season.
 * The only ones we saw come back were the ones that were specifically close to Juudai, so Yubel had a reason to save and torture them. Juudai did not especially like or care about Amon and Ekou (he scarcely knew who Ekou * was* ) so Yubel wouldn't have bothered to save them. Therefore, they didn't come back.
 * I always figured that Amon and Ekou were the only ones to actually die in the other dimension, hence why they didn't come back. Ekou got eaten by Exodia, and then Amon got eaten by Yubel. Everyone else (even Hell Kaiser!) only got booted out into another dimension. The reason Ryo was presumed dead was that the instant he reappeared on Earth some passerby found him, saw that he wasn't really breathing, and managed to get him instantly into a hospital, hence why people didn't know Ryo was actually still alive for a while.
 * I heard (read in the Yu-Gi-Oh Wiki) that there was an official press release for episode 157 (At least for the US Dub) that indicated that (at least) Amon (Adrian) survived and was on the boat departing Duel Academy.
 * Yeah right, the US dub. If they can't shoehorn a line about a character who is obviously dead, surviving off screen, they hold a press conference about it.
 * Why didn't Darkness pop up to save Fubuki when he 'died' in the third season? When Fubuki got caught by Daitoukuji and had all the shadow-whatever done to him, Darkness popped out and saved his life. So why, when he was about to be sacrificed in Brron's duel, didn't Darkness pop out and save his life?
 * Because he didn't die. Even in the original Japanese version, everyone who "died" in Season 3 was really trapped in a Hell-like dimension, from which they were released as soon as Judai defeated Yubel and restored all dimensions to their original state(?). Fubuki may be able to use his Mask of Power to save himself from death, but not from being trapped another dimension.
 * Why do a lot of people on TV Tropes think Fubuki is gay?
 * I've never seen evidence of this, but probably the same reason people see any character as gay/straight/whatever. Shipping.
 * And even then, why did he run off into a convenient desert with a demon hermaphrodite, a cat, and a dead schoolteacher? Doesn't Judai have a Cosmic Horror menacing the embodiments of his favorite card game to fight? Makes him seem sort of irresponsible, don't you think?
 * The Light (and Darkness) can manifest anywhere, any time, in anyone. By going out to the world to help people with his powers (his stated goal) he is fighting both the Light of Ruin and the Darkness of Nihility. It's not one battle. It's an ongoing war.
 * This troper has his suspicions...
 * He just defeated said Cosmic Horror. He had no one left to fight. The rest of the above circumstances are still ridiculous, though; I mean, how many deserts are there in Japan?
 * No, not Darkness, the Light of Destruction. He beat the bit that was in Saiou, but there definitely seems to be more of it.
 * Forgive me, for my knowledge of everything post-season 1 is lacking (will be better), but from what I know, couldn't Jaden be right there in one of the Duel Monsters dimensions, hunting for the rest of the Light of Destruction?
 * No, because the Light of Destruction doesn't come from the a Duel Monster dimension, it comes from a white hole in outer space.
 * So, Pharaoh and Banner went with Jaden. Why is it that? I think Jaden has learned everything he needs to know about life in the 180 episode run, and I'm not sure if he knows how to take care of a cat.
 * Because Daitoukuji likes Juudai and still wants to hang out with him? And frankly...you never learn everything you need to know. In fact, that's kind of a minor plot point. You can always evolve and learn something new.
 * So I guess Juudai's dueling style being similar to alchemy, Daitokuji's interest and profession, can spark up a friendship?
 * Is there some connection between Darkness and the Light of Ruin? Which one was Haou prophesied to defeat?
 * "I've just had a killer idea". Prophecies being the tricky bastards that they are, what if "Haou" was actually prophesised to defeat Saiou and after that all bets were off? So by the time Judai actually became Haou, the prophecy had already been fulfilled?
 * Darkness is presumably the destructive side of Darkness, as opposed to Haou/Judai's Darkness of Justice. Essentially, he's the 'Dark' equivalent to the Light of Ruin, wanting Instrumentality instead of just erasing everything.
 * GX, third season: The 'bio-belts'. It becomes clear pretty early on that these things are dangerous to their wearers and that Viper/Cobra is a villain using them for some nefarious purpose rather than a proper teacher...and yet nobody seems to as much as think of simply taking them off? What am I missing here?
 * They were called 'Dis-belts' in the original japanese, and I remember some line about it being impossible to remove them. My memory's a little fuzzy though, so I may be wrong.
 * They can't be removed. And presumably no one wanted to use a chainsaw and risk chopping their arms off. Judai and the others dueled to try to save their friends' life, while the rest of the school had no real way to know what was draining them.
 * In the Japanese version Johan actually does try to take his off (offscreen) in episode 114. He's the one who starts yelling at Chronos and Napoleon, saying "unless I cut off my arm, it won't come off!"
 * GX, Seven Stars arc: Why did Asuka not recognise Fubuki? The mask doesn't cover that much of his face, his hairstyle is exactly the same as it was in the pictures that we see of pre-possessed Fubuki and this troper honestly doubts that she'd never seen his deck before he vanished, so the Red-Eyes obsession must have rung some bells...
 * I thought that the Red-Eyes deck was Darkness's, and Fubuki's deck was the one he used in the duel against Asuka in Season 2. But still, the idea that she couldn't recognise him wearing such a small mask is a bit weird.
 * Part of its Mask of Power. Its later appearances show its no ordinary mask.
 * The Red-Eyes deck is indeed Darkness' deck and not Fubuki's. (Although, Fubuki decided to use it later.) Also, keep in mind that during the duel, they were in the middle of a volcano with giant lava serpents around them, and Darkness spends all his time with fire behind him. Those are not ideal conditions to recognize someone's face.
 * GX, Episode 119: In the dub version, during his duel with Viper, Jaden at one point is clearly seen discarding Ojama Yellow to power up Card Trooper. What the hell is Ojama Yellow doing in Jaden's deck? That's the equivalent of Yugi whipping out Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Did they change the artwork for the dub version? Is this part of the ongoing Mind Screw of Season 3? Some kind of in-joke to drive the fanboys crazy? I have no clue. If it's only in the dub version, that might explain a few things.
 * It's a completely random dub edit that makes no sense. Of course, this creates an additional Dub Induced Plot Hole on top of the obvious question of where Ojama Yellow came from; in the original, the card is Elemental Hero Necroshade. Recall that Necroshade's effect activates when it is in the Graveyard, and is used later in that episode. Now, if it was Ojama Yellow that was milled instead of Necroshade, then how on earth did Necroshade get there?
 * GX: Obelisk Blue outranks Ra Yellow. What? Is this just Kaiba's influence, being all "My Egyptian God Card is better than yours, and because it's written on the front f this university, it must be true so there"? (Theoretically, Ra is most powerful, and practically, assuming you aren't the awakened reincarnation of someone with magic sight, Slifer is most powerful. Obelisk... Really only the most powerful if used in a game between novices.)
 * Yes, that is purely because of Kaiba's ego, which shouldn't surprise anyone.
 * Kaiba knows Ra is superior to his God Card because of the analysis he had his computer run during the finals of the Battle City Tournament, which stated that even a duelist with Obelisk, Slifer, and Fiend Sanctuary has only a 20% chance of defeating Ra (Obelisk and Slifer alone only grant the challenger a 3% chance of success). So yeah, it's because of his ego. Obelisk is associated with him, and he is the best, ergo Obelisk Blue should outrank all the other dorms.
 * The way I saw it was that Yugi (who has Osiris) is a commoner/lower-class person. Kaiba (who has Obelisk), on the other hand, is an upper-class person. Ra Yellow being in the middle is probably reference to how Yugi and Kaiba dueled each other in order to see who would receive Ra; in other words, Ra being in the middle symbolizes where their goals meet.
 * It always bugged me that in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, when Misawa appears in the Duel Spirit Dimension, he's messy and unkempt. However, even though his sideburns are long enough to be indistinguishable from the rest of his hair, he's clean-shaven. If he was gone long enough for his hair to get that long, he should have at least some Perma-Stubble, especially since it wouldn't make any logical sense for him to conveniently have brought along shaving cream, a razor, and a mirror when he was suddenly warped across dimensions. Plus, in seasons 1 and 2, he already had fairly large sideburns, showing he's definitely old enough to grow facial hair...
 * Not everyone has the beard gene. Some people never grow one. Especially the ones who think a beard would be awesome, while there are people who would do anything to get rid of it, and it just keeps coming back. Life's unfair like that... What were we talking about again?
 * Is this troper the only one to notice that the theme to Yu-Gi-Oh GX sounds almost exactly like Blink-182's "Dammit"? Every time he plays the song in Rock Band, the similarity to the GX theme bugs him to no end (and of course, he likes to insert "get your game on" into the vocals for the lulz).


 * In Turn 97/8, just why did the Light of Ruin suddenly decide to duel Edo at that time? Did it somehow sense that Edo was closing in on its trail? Had it been 10 years to the day since Edo and DD made that promise to duel when Edo grew up? Besides vastly narrowing down his suspect pool and deciding to demand some answers from Saiou about his mysterious customer several years ago, Edo didn't do anything that would instantly make him a threat, and nothing changed for DD that would suddenly give him a reason to want to Brainwash or kill Edo at that time, either. What prompted DD/the Light of Ruin to duel Edo?
 * GX Season 3: Okay, so we have Sho, Manjoume (san-da!), Asuka, Kenzan, and Fubuki all acting COMPLETELY out of character due to being possessed by these magic orbs of Doubt, Anger, Sadness, Hate, and...whatever emo-tastic one Fubuki had. Having everyone minus Sho 'die' in front of him while cursing him out/blaming him for their deaths was a major push for Judai's mental breakdown, I know, and Sho telling him off to his face afterward didn't help. So why didn't anyone notice that these guys were acting so freaking out of character? Even after they get back to Duel Academy, Sho's the only one to look back on what happened and wonder 'Why did I say all those things?', and even he doesn't seem to give it much thought. We get nothing from everyone else - and then they have the audacity to wonder why Judai doesn't want to spend time with them after he comes back.
 * In Judai's case, he...probably didn't remember it too clearly, emotional breakdown and all. As for the others, they died right after. That tends to make you forget stuff/not want to dwell on it too much.
 * Said "emo-tastic" emotion was anguish. Though I'm not correcting it because "emo-tastic" is hilarious.
 * I had thought that orby things were the cause of said out-of character-actions. That being said, I don't find it to be all the out of character, considering Judai was simply being Judai. When he acts impulsive and idiotic in most situations, it's harmless. In this case, it was far from harmless. They were blaming Judai for good reason - it actually was his fault.
 * Not exactly Judai did specifically tell them not to follow him, because it would be dangerous. They chose to follow him anyway, despite the warning that Judai gave them. Judai is not their caretaker and should not be expected to look after them every time they get into trouble, especially considering the situation they were in. So at the end of the day we still can't blame for what happened to Kenzan, Manjoume, Fubuki, and Asuka because Judai its not Judai's duty to protect them all the time, and Judai actually warned them against following him. Judai's friends were basically putting him down for not protecting them when it wasn't his duty, an action which was in a way addressed in season 3 where Judai stayed away from them so would be able to learn how to deal with their problems on their own.
 * What exactly did Saruyama stand to gain from torturing Kaiser into a Freak-Out? Either convincing Ryo to hire him as some sort of manager or offering to be his new sponsor wouldn't require the measures he took in Turn 65. Did he get a reward for every duelist he tempted into the underground league? What was his motivation?
 * Presumably he got money out of it, and also the fact that Kaiser had been dueling like crap since his defeat, and if he managed to torture him back into form, then he could be manager to the brilliant return of a pro.
 * So, Obelisk Blue is supposed to be the best of the best, right? And Slifer Red is the worst? So why are there so few Slifer Reds and so many Obelisk Blues? Ra Yellow is sort of the in-between, so having more students in Ra Yellow is understandable.
 * Slifer Red is pretty much the house for drop outs, people who have the crappiest results, and people Crowler hates. Blue is actually just the one for those that are rich and went to the previous school. (Not sure where it was mentioned, but I distinctly remember that) Yellow is for those who have potential, but have just come in the school for the first time. Also, it's entirely possible that there are more Yellows than Blues, but we never see the inside of the Yellow Dorm, as far as I remember.
 * The dining hall is seen briefly in Season 1, when Misawa invites Judai and Sho to eat there. And I think Misawa's room was shown once or twice.
 * There is a prophecy that Judai will beat the Light of Ruin, correct? So why is Saiou possessed by the Light of Ruin trying to conform to and follow destiny, while Judai is fighting it? Wouldn't it be destiny for Judai to defeat Saiou?
 * I thought it being his destiny to do so was the whole point. Prophecy doesn't necessarily equal destiny.
 * Where did the rumor that Amon was not Killed Off for Real come from? He's not shown returning with the others, he's not shown sailing back to his own school with the others, and Sho doesn't mention him in his Opening Narration to the first episode of Season 4.
 * It was the Yu-Gi-Oh! wiki. The following line is still in his article right now: "The press release for episode 157 indicates that he survived and was on the boat departing Duel Academy. He presumably returned to East Academy". Where whoever edited that in got that information from, I have no idea. I looked around a bit more, and there's also Janime's summary, which mentions Amon.
 * The thing that bothers me? Episode 165. Manjoume was the King of North School in his first year. He was one of the keyholders who actually won against one of the Stars. He was the winner of the Genex tournament, and beat the entire school at least twice over in his second year - once to convert them all to see the Light, once to unconvert them all. His grades are awesome. He could be in Obelisk Blue if he wanted to, but he chose not to return - and by that point I'm pretty sure he had moved back there anyway. He is one of the top students in the school, if not THE top student. And yet you expect me to believe that out of the hundreds of sponsorship applications he sent out (judging by all of the letters), NONE of them accepted him? I could maybe see it if he'd only applied to two or three of the top sponsors in the world, but he's applied to lots of different places, and not one? Not even one of the somewhat lesser ones? I get that it was to set up that Manjoume had to become Edo's apprentice or whatever, but couldn't they have done that in a way that doesn't speak so low of his skills? Like, I don't know, an internship or the Japanese equivalent? (And don't get me started on the end of that episode's duel...)
 * You try succeeding with two of the world's most powerful CorruptCorporateExecutives who are also your brothers, holding a grudge for not letting them control your life.
 * Who said they still held a grudge? Manjoume said he wanted to succeed without their help, which would imply they were willing to give it. That doesn't make the situation less stupid, but it had nothing to do with his brothers still being mad at him. They realized back with his duel against Chosaku that he was right and they were wrong anyway. "Jun's grown up a lot more than we thought." [this troper is really, really sick of Manjoume Chosaku and Manjoume Shouji bashing. They're never going to be Brothers of the Year, but they're also not evil incarnate.]
 * The whole beginning of the "Zane leaves duel academy, fails epicly and goes EVIL" thing doesn't make sense to me, because of several bits of fridge logic.
 * 1) Why does someone fresh out of duel academy IMMEDIATELY get put against a high ranking tourney pro and expected to win or be laughed at and be a nobody?
 * Edo was the eleventh person that Ryou dueled and he'd won every single won of them. They weren't laughing because Ryou lost, they laughed because of what Edo was doing to Cyber Twin Dragon.
 * 2) How does Zane who completely curbstomped just about everyone he went up against, and get perfect grades, managed to draw with Jaden in his God Mode Sue phase (and Jaden having destroyed everyone he went up against, and was quickly wiped out by Zane the first time) manage to lose over and over again without even getting a single win? I mean if the duelists outside the school are 50 million times better, how does someone like Crowler have a job?
 * He wasn't losing because they were better, he lost because he couldn't get his head wrapped around how someone (Edo) who dueled without respect (the hallmark of Ryou's entire dueling philosophy at that point) could've beaten him, especially when Edo was younger than him. Ryou had too much of an ego at the time.
 * 3) Why does adding the cyber dorks to his deck suddenly make him go from losing to n00bs to being uber invincible again? Those cards are crap, and he barely beat Syrus with them.
 * Why is that Zane "powers up" his deck with Cyber dorks and Jaden "powers up" his deck with space furries, when these cards are weak as hell in real life and in the games Zane and Jaden become much easier when they use those deck?
 * Because real life =/= anime. Any card can be good in the anime, due to the plot device of the "bond" between duelist and deck. Bad decks work in the anime for the same reason Yugi always drew the card he needed. For that matter, they also have many overpowered anime-only cards to supplement the otherwise crappy support cards for each archetype. As for all of Zane's losses, he lost all confidence after his loss to Aster and seemed to more or less give up. Save for Camula, he had NEVER lost a single duel during his time at the academy. Essentially, he realized he was only a big fish in a small pond. I keep thinking of more to add to this. The fact that Syrus nearly beat Zane while he was using the Cyberdarks was not meant to insinuate that Zane was weak - it was meant to show that Syrus' skill was increasing, and that he was catching up to this brother, something that plays a role in Season 4.
 * Why does Don Zaloog sound like Christopher Walken? What on earth is the point?
 * Okay, how the hell did no-one intervene in the creation and deployment of a satelite that has the sole puspose of brainwashing every person on earth? There are no non-diabolical-villain uses for that sort of thing. They try to handwave it away by saying no-one knew what it was, but if such technology existed, any government would be hyper-paranoid about an orbital satelite that is extremely vague in its purpose, and just nuke it out of orbit. But even then, after the prince says it, it becomes common knowledge, and then weeks pass til Sartorious tries to use it.
 * Maybe Orgene won a duel that gave him the right to create it.
 * Okay, can someone please clarify this for me. Are Jaden and Yubel a couple? Because I've gotten many differing responses from my friends that watch the show.
 * In the Japanese version, the two admit their love for one another in their past lives. They really can't be a couple, since the now share the same body. But Yubel is placated and happy because she's now one with the Supreme King, which was exactly what she wanted in the first place.
 * What does sharing a body have to do with being a couple or not? Yubel is still a separate intelligence and a separate being. Juudai can manifest her solidly if he wants to (like he's done to Neos before) or she can do it herself (that's her power anyway) or they can go to one of the Duel Monster worlds and she can be solid there. Not to mention, Juudai also admitted he loved her in this life, which is the entire point of the fusion in the first place. He's keeping the vow he made of loving only her.
 * And in the English dub Yubel is female,(Both pre and post transformation) so even those that have a problem with Jesse&Jaden because it's Ho Yay can't say anything about them. Unfortunately they also changed her motives (far as I can tell) from love just to the sadistic, obsessive want to 'play' with Jaden, which is unfortunate because that made her even more psychopathic than in the original.
 * Season 3, the entire school is transported to a dimension where their cards are real, and the duel has realworld effects on them. They then start all losing energy, through losing life points or from lack of food. There are 43 different cards that are about food, why did no-one just summon, say, Marshmallon, and just eat it? As for losing life points, why not just have a series of duels focused on both parties just recovering life points, before ending with a mutual surrender?
 * Because any duels sucked away their energy. It wasn't losing life points, it was dueling in general that did it. And you're suggesting a form of cannibalism with that eating of Marshmallon. Those monsters are living, sentient creatures and would more than likely fight back against being made soup of the day. Even if a spell or trap created food, Yubel was still around and I'm quite sure she could've put a halt to that, since she needed them to be hungry and willing to do anything for food. It stirred up the darkness in their hearts and that was what *she* fed off of.
 * Marshmellon has teeth, (seen when it attacks), and it would defend itself. So yeah.
 * Marshmallon also is incapable of feeling pain and can instantly regenerate any damage it takes - hence its wall card status. It would have virtually no reason to defend itself, as it wouldn't take any damage or even feel anything from anyone eating it.
 * Why, in episode 10, did Jaden not use Sparkblaster to switch Defense Wall into attack position and then attack it with Sparkman? Defense Wall has 0 attack points.
 * Why did he attack Dark Guardian with Tempest even though it would have no effect and force him to sacrifice a card? Drama.
 * Actually, his attack was an attempt to send Cyrus a signal to play a certain way, which he did.