One point Manjoume has over Kaiba: at least _he_ could have actually won that last one they had, and only lost because he gave up due to business shenanigans.
@@devilgirl7054Yu-Gi-Oh is a Japanese product, and there are some changes in translation. Sometimes they keep the original Japanese names, this is usually if the name is commonly known to or easy to pronounce for a western audience like Misawa or Yuki. But Manjoume is just slightly too unfamiliar to western audiences and isn't really able to be anglicised like Judai to Jaden
Lightning "beating" Revolver only to get absorbed by Bohman 5 seconds later wasn't to disrespect Revolver, but to further emphasize Lightning's core character trait: His pride. Lightning did all this shit because he refused to acknowledge that he was the sole defect among the Ignis, and he already prolonged the duel by threatening to hold Jin hostage. To Lightning, losing to an "inferior human" is unforgivable, and he went as far as to cheat to avoid that. Twice.
I was sad because I was looking forward to more photon support and I was like Cipher Soldier got an archetype 😂 At least he was treated better than Aster that didn't get a single win in Arc V.
@@ventusace9054 Ciphers, if anything, are more of a complimentry force to Photons than a true standalone. I use a Cipher/Photon hybrid deck in Duel Links as my main when I play, and that's where the archetype truly becomes nasty. It's not meant to standalone as an archetype, it's meant to give more options for Photons imo
@kirbstagoontheaxolotl That is nice that Cipher can work along side Photons but if they were actually photon cards that would make them alot better since they would be able to take advantage of the old cards and the new cards would have more options. Like if Twin Raptor was a photon instead of a cipher it would have so many options and that can be said about pretty much any cipher card. So while nice they can supplement phontons, but if they actually were photons they would make the Archetype as a whole much more viable (during that time).
At the risk of sounding like I have bad taste, I really liked what Varis/Revolver brought to VRAINS, and I was a little surprised by his evaluation. That he had 2 draws against Playmaker puts them kind of close in skill, and you could interpret his duel against Soulburner as an intended loss as part of his "atonement." Topologic Bomber Dragon (with Borreload Savage) probably would have won the game instead of going for Zeroboros. I liked his role in the story; he stopped the Lost Incident, has pretty well-written reasons for working against Playmaker, and undergoes a bit of growth as he warms up to Ai - and I liked that he didn't doubt Playmaker's ability to defeat Ai, only his willingness. I did like both Varis/Revolver and VRAINS, though, so maybe that's what's speaking - but it's hard to distinguish "I like these qualities" and "These are good qualities" when there's no rule confirming what "good" is and when we tend to like things that are good. I haven't seen much of SEVENS or Go Rush, but I do hear the characters are written really well, and I really want to give them a watch.
I mean, in all fairness to Revolver/Varis, he was the only guy to even Tie against Playmaker. That makes him a Top 3 duelist in VRAINS if we accept the premise that Soulburner ranks higher than him because he won that last duel, despite not having dueled against Playmaker directly. Yeah, he got clowned on by Playmaker, but EVERYONE got clowned on by Playmaker. VRAINS doing a VRAINS, I guess.
@@Talguy21Incorrect on one point; Bohman got a tie in his 3rd duel against Playmaker (it was the duel in which Bohman debuted a Link-4 Hydradrive and the whole "God rolls the die" mechanic).
Revolver and Playmaker is not close at all in skill. Playmaker beat him 2 times, while Revolver can only draw against him. He extra linked, floodgated, Gumblar, and mirror force'd Playmaker and he still LOSE.
You have it all wrong about Kaiba. Yugi is HIS rival. Yugi, stripped him of his title and has always beaten him to the point he has become an obsession or a pinnacle for Kaiba to overcome. The duality of the 2 characters is one you seemed to have overlooked as well as what they represent.
I was thinking about this exactly when I saw he wasn’t too high lol. However I feel that Atem is a true rival to Kaiba because they are opposites of each other throughout the series. Their dynamic is what makes the rivalry so beloved. Kaiba is someone who disregards anything to do with the past whether it be a past reincarnation or his rough upbringings as a child. He looks toward the future and improves upon it through his dreams like creating the first duel disk and building a duel academy. Atem on the other hand is the complete opposite during the series. His entire journey with Yugi was rediscovering his past life and finish his mission that should’ve been done centuries ago And I guess you could say little Yugi is the middle ground of the two, being the one who best both of them in the end as the current king of games.🤷♂️
I have to disagree on some points like Jack being just a guy after the Dark Signer arc which I think it's wrong. Yes he was acting goofy but only when he wasn't dueling. This is actually naturally because now he has the whole squad to hang out with so showing a funnier side of him was actually nice. Then he also got another short mini arc in the form of obtaining double tuning making us remind he's still that man. Then in that Aporia duel, he was giving all that speech about hope and trusting your friends, and finally, his last duel againts Yusei was the cherry on top. Not only he put up a strong fight on his own and congratulated Yusei for his incredible win. Jack didn't become a somebody but only grew more after the Dark Signer. As for Revolver, it feels like they didn't focus on his dueling performance but rather his personal character which I thought they did excellent. Every time he was on screen, the scene was his, rather he won or lost a duel. We also learn that he was a man who was willing to change when he decided to co-operate with the good guys. By the time his final duel of the series kicked in, I was convinced Revolver had an inner conflict. Yes, he still wanted the AIs gone but more than that, he wanted to settle things with his path, and his duel with Soulburner was the perfect stuff for that. Even tho he put on a good fight, it was clear that Revolver didn't intend to win that fight because the whole point was to make Soulburner move forward which he succeeded on. Soulburner may have won that duel but both were the true winners in the end because they could finally move away from their pasts and look up to a new future. Revolver is def one of my fav YGO chars of all time up there with Ryoga from ZEXAL and Jack too (which I felt I didn't give enough credits)
Revolver was a good duelist arguably the second best rival at dueling but yusaku never lost and he had the least plot armor out of all mc so he is the strongest mc
That’s the problem, making Yusaku be too good means he can’t have good rivals. Making your character too good is 99% of the time a bad thing, especially if you plan to give them a rival or expect tension.
I dont fully disagree with what you said about Revolver not being a good rival but we gotta remember that Playmaker never lost a single duel in the anime, I blame the plot more than the rival
@@kingworldadventuresEpisode 12 was quite honestly the perfect chance for Playmaker to take an L. Revolver thwarted damn near every attack thrown his way on that last turn and even forced Decode Talker to hit the GY multiple times in that duel. It would also give Playmaker a good reason to get better, because him being that overpowered from the get-go is just a big red flag. Even Yusei wasn't THAT strong since he took a few legit Ls.
Something also hilarious is that Yuya was a member of the Lancers, with Reiji being the leader Yuya was not only weaker than Reiji for a time, he was Reiji's actual subordinate. That is crazy for a Yugioh MC
Im surprised you didnt mention kaiba vs yugi in the pyramid of light movie. Im not sure if you count that, but kaiba was literally about to win before the duel got highjacked, and on top of that, some writing shenanigans was done when the duel was being scripted, and blue eyes shining dragon should have had enough attack for game. But i guess for the sake of the story they had to ignore paladin of white dragon being in the graveyard. It doesn't save him as a rival, but i feel like that counts as a fair win.
You know what that is a really, really good point that I should have mentioned but didn't count it since the move wasn't cannon but on screen in some way, shape and form Kaiba was going to beat Yugi.
Idc what people say I liked Vrains. Also the duel against Soulburner was great character development for both characters and while felt a little odd in its placement in the story it was a fantastic duel.
I feel like theres more to rivalry than just wins and losses a rivalry helps the protagonist change and vice versa and most of the rivals especially Kaiba Chazz and Jack they helped they helped each other grow
I think Yuma and Shark are a much better example of both the hero/rival helping each other and going through character arcs from the beginning straight to the end of the series
In all fairness, if we look at the first speed duel with Revolver vs Playmaker, Revolver wins. He had Topologic out and sweeps main monster zones when something is summoned next to a link monster's link. Playmaker just got Firewall Dragon with his skill, which requires co-links to work. At this point, Revolver was playing it safe in case Playmaker got something usable, but jumped the gun
Sorry, but I dont see fair compare Manjoume to Kaiba or Kaito when he`s clearly the "Joey" archetype. I mean, Yu Gi Oh doesnt work with a "rival" like Pokemon does. Yu Gi Oh works with trios (Yugi - Kaiba - Joey archetypes) that repeat some patterns in the first six series (DM with Zexal, GX with Arc V and 5Ds with Vrains). The main trio in GX is Judai (Jaden) - Ryo (Zane) - Manjoume (Chazz). Maybe Edo/ Aster could be the Kaiba instead of Zane (cause Zane`s screentime drops pretty much after season 1, and Edo is the chara they took to Arc V), but Manjoume is the Joey for sure (you could see a lot of narrative paralelism between Chazz and Joeys`s relationship with the MC, his character arc, rol in the series, etc). In fact, Manjoume is pretty much the same that Sawatari`s in Arc V (cause they both are the Joeys of those series). Im not saying Chazz/ Manjoume isnt a rival to Jaden, only that his archetype cant compare to Kaiba, Atlas or Kaito, who are clearly the "Kaibas" from his series. Joey is pretty much a rival to Yugi too (the same Shark with Yuma, or Sawatari to Yuya; Soulburner and Crow work differently in that sense).
Kaiba is not an archetype. Kaiba always had a grudge against Atem, while seeing Yugi as worthless. Manjoume, nor Kaiser nor Jack are like this. Manjoume's entire thing is about how he believed himself to be great and when proven wrong he was humiliated by everyone and left to die and he overcame everyone's expectations. He earned his respect but because he wont let go of how he was before he still is ridiculed. Its basically a grown kid with a chip on his shoulder he wont let go. The other "rivals" are not like that. They are each unique.
@@davidhernandezgil5599 Kaito isn't the rival though. Ryouga is. Most Zexal merch involves Yuma and Shark, duel Opera which mainly takes place between rivals has Shark vs Yuma and not Yuma vs Kite. Even the Japanese VA's call each other their rival on tweets.
Definitely gonna have to disagree with how Jack is in the second half. Throughout the first half Yusei stimulates change in Jack Atlas by defeating him which is what leads to his character development. Which is the entire point of Yusei and why i think he's awesome. You already know Jack also stimulated growth in Yusei and is what led to him being able to face Kiryu so i don't need to say much Then in the second half during the Meklord Arc when Yusei tries to win without Synchro monsters Jack crushes that idea by dueling against him and basically said that there's no point in continuing because he'd win easily. This is what motivates Yusei to find a way to beat the meklords which is what led to Accel Synchro. Even throughout the second half the main losses that Jack takes are during the WRGP because he's always the guy that goes first and has to take on the team until he manages to beat all three or he loses. During the Red Nova Arc after he loses to the boy possessed by Red Nova this stimulates even more growth allowing him to encase the devil itself into a card to keep up with Yusei. And finally in the second last episode we see him beat tons of duelists that Yusei struggled against with ease in order to challenge Yusei one last time. I agree with the fact that the Carly thing was dumb but that and the money thing is irrelevant to the main rivalry and in terms of rivalry and W/L ratios he had the highest of all thw rivals and he definitely stimulated the most growth in a protagonist than any other. The main reason 5DS even happened were because of the actions of Jack stealing stardust. It's to that reason why I don't consider Jack to be a failure of a rival at all and me personally i find him to be the best rival in terms of just how much he's a contrast to Yusei but that's subjective and you're free to think how you want. Just wanted to say why I disagreed have a nice day.
The crazy part is Jack in the end of 5ds (after the final duel with Yusei), I believe that Jack was actually portrayed to be the true Main Character of 5ds. I mean, all of the flashbacks were pretty much connected to him Crow, Aki and Rua. He loses to Yusei which indicates that the show isn’t really over until HE achieves his goal. We haven’t heard from Yusei after that because his story is over, Jack’s is only beginning.
Very good video! Here I have an idea for the next Yu-Gi-Oh video discussion: "Which Yu-Gi-Oh series has the best/worst cast of Secondary Characters?" Some criteria to evaluate this: - The way the series uses its Secondary Characters. - See if these Secondary Characters are recurring in the series (even in small/minor roles) - The number of Duels that these Secondary Characters have. - The Episodes (or Character Arc) dedicated to these Secondary Characters. - How these Secondary Characters influence/affect the Main Cast (or the plot) It would be an interesting topic to analyze and it would not be bad to highlight between 3 to 5 Characters that support why this cast of Secondary Characters are better or worse than others.
That is actually a good idea. It might take a while but something I can definitely tackle especially since the series that use secondary characters well do it pretty well and the ones that don't, really, really fail at.it. I am sure everyone knows my choice for last place for this list lol.
@@ConstantinDOSSOU-vy1zoBest for sure. That series utilizes secondary characters VERY well. Take, for example, the Arclight brothers. Even after the feud between their family and Dr. Faker was settled, they come back and play a pivotal role in the battle against the Barians later on in the series.
I'm glad to hear that someone says Kaiba and Jack didn't make it better than Chazz. They both may be more badass than him (bc he's a comic relief), but just as rivals they never successfuy defeated the protagonist ON SCREEN. Because something important of Jack and Yusei is that that duel where Jack defeated Yusei happened off screen AND previous to the beginning of the story. I think Yusei victory is diluted for that, because we never saw him lose and we didn't feel that frustration, so I never felt that victory as a deserved success or as an overcome obstacle. We didn't see him fall, so his stand up was week for me. And from that, Jack never won again. Now Kite, I see him now with different eyes. He was actually a great rival. Working as a motivation for the protagonist, which is what a rival should be for. Plus, thank you for not using Shark, Shark as Nash was not a rival, he was the villain. Yuma and Kite compited for the numbers, that's rivalry, Yuma fought Nash because Nash wanted to attack the Astral World, that's a villain. And with Reiji, I feel they fell into the meaningless victories here. First he forfeited, then he won, then he lost, so for me is almost a tie, or at least a not so clear rivalry although they actually had rivalry potential, but in the end they were allys most of the time with no reason to compete. I don't know, this is a bit tasteless for me. And Revolver... More meaningless victories. They have a very good rivalry here, as with Kite and Yuma they have opposite objectives, but they were afraid to make Playmaker lose, so his victories are meaningless 😕
I don't really agree with the win/loss count being used that heavy for comparing. Using Beyblade, I'd say Kiyoa is a great rival even though he's never beaten Ginjka outside of a Free for All.
Well, in the case of Yu-Gi-Oh, the issue of win/loss has been put into debate especially with the case of Yuma and Yuga. - Yuma is known for losing often in the beginning (even having many defeats off-screen) and that he never beat Kaito cleanly in a Duel. - Yuga is known for being the MC that loses the most in Yu-Gi-Oh against any type of Duelists: antagonists, best friends, female characters, etc. Either way, they are both good characters in their own way and in what they contribute to their series.
@@brunosanto3488you're describing precisely why many don't considered them as good characters to begin with and the biggest flaw with wanting to make good secondary characters at the expense of the protagonist, which you know, is the one we are supposed to be rooting for.
@@Sickness4daThickness I fucking love Yuma Tsukumo He has faults, and he didn't start out perfect. None of us start out perfect, we all go through a learning curve, and the fact we were able to watch Yuma's immense growth throughout ZEXAL is extremely inspiring, because he shows us that we can improve ourselves too, and that it's okay to be bad at first. His flaws are what make him great. He's honestly an amazing MC. Yuma isn't just the dude that fixes everything for everyone, but he still feels like a main character. He's not the strongest just because he's the Yu-boy, but we see him grow throughout all of ZEXAL and the end result of his growth is so satisfying to see, with help from the amazing characters Kaito and Shark. Still, Kaito is actively stronger than him, from beginning to the end, and that's amazing and so refreshing to see amidst Yusaku and Yusei who just made their entire respective series' about themselves. His extreme dedication to helping someone is admirable. His Kattobingu spirit, taking on challenges without fear and having the courage to take a step forward, is also very important in modern society and very inspiring. Just watching his overzealous nature makes me feel pumped to drive forward!! And there's so much depth to his character. For example, as we see from the Yuma vs III duel, Yuma puts on a mask like Yusei. Behind his joyful nature, he was scared of what his friends thought about him. That's actually why he was so stubborn during the beginning and didn't listen to Astral, he wanted to prove his own worth to his friends. By the end of the series, we see him regain the ability to smile and have fun during duels, like Judai, after all the pain and suffering he went through. Like Yugi, he beats his mentor/partner, again displaying the immense growth he went over the course of the show. Although ZEXAL did the partner thing MUCH better than DM did, as we could actually see Yuma and Astral's relationship change as the series went on.
I agree like for Jaden and Chazz they're both going after the same goal being the next king of games,being the next gen of Yugi and Kaiba by the dorms they were in,also they've helped each other grow. Jaden showed Chazz that were still kids let's have fun and Chazz gave Jaden a sense of responsibility and if you look at how they act and the EOS you see how their rivalry goes past just wins and losses
@Sickness4daThickness That's what i like about yuma he starts off bad but works his way up. My issue with yugioh DM 5ds abd Vrains were how terrified they were of the MC losing (minus the dartz stuff) just kills all tension and leads to bs
One point about Shark vs Kaito: Kaito has the "rival spirit" (same as Kaiba, Jack, Reiji...) but, in fact, he is only Yuma's rival during ZeXal 1. In the other hand, Shark is Yuma's rival during the entire serie, especially when we have the Barian vs Astral plot, with Kaito losing screen time (and motivation for both Kaito and Yuma continue to be rivals), and with Shark even being the only one side by side of Yuma during the final duel against Don Thousand. Of course the only Shark's 3000 ATK monster is Abyss Supra, which he barely used, but Kaito totally lost his rivalry with Yuma in ZeXal 2 and Shark was the only rival to sustain even in the final scene of the anime just like Manjoume did in GX
Yeah. It's been awhile since I've seen Zexal, but Kite had a presence when he was introduced but became more and more part of the friend group. While Shark was his Day 1 opponent that carried on throughout
The only complaint i got with yugi and kaiba is that Yugi basically has plot armor agaisnt the man due to the god damn millennium puzzle which is basically help yugi pull the right card in time of need or when his backed up to the corner
Pretty much. Kaiba being a "bad" rival isn't his fault. It's the fault of Takahashi, who for some reason thought having "Plot Armor" be the MC's canonical superpower was a good idea.
@@HunterStiles651wdym ‘Kaiba being a bad rival isn’t his fault. It’s the fault of Takahashi’ What the fuck does that even mean?? Of course it’s the writer’s fault if their character is poorly written, it’s not like the character has a mind of their own lmfao 😭
After Yugi beats Atem he still washes Kaiba in every conceivable situation. With no hax. And that's coming from someone who really enjoys Kaiba as a character.
@@xapath3tic well yea in the movie and they only battle once which yes kaiba does see yugi as a very powerful rival instead of wanted him to turn in the pharaoh like their previous battles
@@HunterStiles651i mean, that’s always the writer’s fault. That’s the only way we can really evaluate how good/bad a character is, because ultimately they’re all written by people. It’s never a character’s fault.
For Jack and Carly situation, I can forgive that one. She was planned to have bigger role with Jack, but there's RL situation happened with Carly's VA (where she joined a cult) and the studio had to booted her out from the series, and due to the cult has been on the news as well, they need to end the Dark Signer Arc earlier than they planned. This caused the remaining script for the rest of the series to get rewritten, and Carly as a character is relegated from 'Part of the Main Cast' to a background character. It's unfortunate, but it can't be helped.
Dude that’s literally a rumor. There’s no evidence for it. Every single video about 5ds someone says this. It’s not proven and I doubt its true. If anything, despite the dubs many many faults its good the dub wrote out the romance thing altogether. It made his character consistent all the way to the end.
@@minixlemonade2335 The heck you mean rumor when the 'cult' situation is literally on the News back then? Just google Li-Mei Chiang (She's Carly first VA) and the Roma Sophie Cult (ロマゾフィー協会) where Carly VA did admit the allegation and arrested. As for "5D's Changing Direction", there is an Official Artbook for 5D's showing the 5th Signer and it's not Crow, but an unknown character. So there definitely a change in planned plot somewhere down the line.
@@minixlemonade2335 her (li mei chiang, carly's previous seiyuu) being in a cult is rumors, but it's true that she was willing to leave the industry when the criminal investigations for said cult was happening, which then lead to her leaving carly as a seiyuu and replaced like way later by another one, and after the whole fiasco she only had like 2 or so roles in anything and pretty much went radio silent
@@minixlemonade2335 can't post links and stuff here but essentially the jp wikipedia of her does say that she was pretty much a victim of the whole fiasco rather than being an outright member
im glad that you didn't count Revolver vs Soulburner round 1 because that really is an unfair judgement against Revolver especially when his hand could have one shotted Soulburner if he was actually serious. His only play in that duel was to let Soulburner vent it all out because he knows that there's no point in winning that duel. If Revolver does win that duel, Flame would be terminated which progresses the Hanoi's goals (it would be 2 ignises gone at that point) but it would affect the partnership that Revolver is after especially when he needs allies in taking down Lightning's faction.
While I agree Luke is an interesting character at some points, I do think as a rival he doesn't work quite as well as you mentioned. Luke acts as a mirror to Yuga because Luke isn't smart but is a good duelist while Yuga is a decent duelist he is a much better scientist, however the issue I want to point out is that Luke is too set up as a powerhouse duelist, unlike characters such as Yusaku and Yusei who are technically undefeated we know they had loses such as Yusaku when he was still a kid and Yusei having lost to jack before. Luke is not the case, Yusei and Yusaku got that dueling record through a lot of hard work in do or die scenarios against extremely dangerous opponents, but Luke just wandered into it without putting in the work or risking the danger. I give credit he did put himself in danger during the series but in those moments you wouldn't expect him to lose because Sevens structure wouldn't allow for something like that to happen.
Yusei also lost to Kiryu and who says the Hallmark of a strong duelist needs to be one who is built up on danger? Most duels in GX were casual with low stakes but that wouldn't make Judai/Jaden any less talented. Luke may not have faced do or die moments like Yusei but he had duels with stakes regardless of them not being world ending so him winning was still of the up most importance and he always triumphed and shown to be a reliable and capable duelist. If anything Luke loosing would be more acceptable since the stakes were lower but still won and never needed a dues ex machina like storm access or protagonist power up moments via the crimson dragon but always won through his own skill and deck construction methods. I don't think anything should be taken from him because he wasn't built on dangerous duels which is not the bench mark of what constitutes a powerhouse player.
On Kaiba: His blackmail win is more about his character arc and way less about Yugi, he was desperate to save Mokuba and forced into the duel, and also thought he could beat Pegasus because the latter relies on some form of mind reading to win. Kaiba at this point developed the first duel disk prototype, and the cards that appear in solid vision obscure your face. Basically, Pegasus using the Eye is unbeatable and the only hope to beat him is to use the duel disk, that assessment was 100% correct, but Pegasus threatens Kaiba into a normal duel using Mokuba, and Yugi has FRIENDS and switcheroo shenanigans so things played out the way they did. Overall yeah Kaiba is an amazing character but not thaat much of a rival
This was surprisingly a fun ranking to watch. Going in I just thought it'd be "Kaiba was the one with the most presence + nostalgia so best rival" but no. It felt like you objectively looked through what a good rival would be and ranked them. Can't wait to see your other stuff!
"Revolver lost to Soulburner in a duel we didn't need" I don't necessarely disagree that Revolver is not a good rival but this just proves you did not understand that duel
I guess I will have to defend my case on how the situation with Soul Burner overcoming trauma and Playmaker showing resolve to not show pity on Ai could have been handled far better in a Vrains discussion vid and in a way that both doesn't require Revolver to take an L and can build better growth between Playmaker and Soul Burner as well. But that is a long vid for another day. There is a lot to unpack with Vrains unfortunately.
Revolver absolutely deserved and needed to be beaten by Soulburner. If not for Soulburner overcoming the trauma of his parents dying - then for the fact that Revolver was an arrogant stinking bastard who pretended to be better than and above Soulburner whilst continuingly mocking him and defending the actions of his own monstrous father.
@@ventusace9054Revolver lost the duel, but he did what he set out to do and that was help Soulburner overcome his trauma. Soulburner even says "You never wanted the letter, did you?", meaning that was his full intention from the start. So Revolver got the moral victory in not only helping Soulburner but also Soulburner not blaming him for his father's sins, which is what Revolver has been feeling through the whole show. Could it have been better? Yes. All of season 3 could have been handled much better. But for what it was, the duels were enjoyable and I'd say Revolver vs Soulburner was amazing.
@@ventusace9054the Revolver vs Soulburner duel was built up since season 2. Besides, you put way too much emphasis on whether a character wins or loses, it's not that important. Revolver taking an L isn't bad writing.
Across this whole video you focus so much on win ratios, I agree they matter in the context of rivals because they appear threatning but saying Revolver doesn't work as an antagonist and doesn't push Playmaker to his limits just because he loses is insane to me
I'm glad someone finally said it zane doesn't really feel like the rival especially after season 1 were he legit does not interact with jaden until the small part s3
I have a few things to say about this. I don't think that Revolver is a bad rival because he loses to Playmaker even when he completed his strategy, because this is more like a Playmaker can't lose problem of the writing and not really about Revolver specifically. (Also Playmaker like fights to the death every time, so HE CAN'T LOSE. So it is more about the stakes that are high as hell that Revolver just falls short) On that note, I think Revolver is a great rival, because he is the opposite of Playmaker in everything: 1) Revolver focuses on the past and Playmaker on the future 2) Revolver thinks Ai should be deleted and Playmaker thinks that they can live peacefully with them 3) That is a bit of a stretch, but Revolver's deck is mostly about disrupting the opponent which in a sense could be a metaphor for dragging them down with him, whereas Playmaker deck focuses on powering up his own monsters so he rises to the top. 4) Revolver is the first ever to Synchro summon and that just makes Playmaker have to compete with him on the other summoning mechanics because MORE MECHANICS = STRONGER DUELIST supposedly (Playmaker's Ritual is a main deck monster, so in yugioh lore it doesn't hold that much value in comparison to an extra deck one) Also, Revolver serves as rival of sorts to almost everyone if you think about it. He is the necessary evil that exists in order to push everyone forward like Soulburner, Aoi, Go, Ghost Girl, Zaizen and even Ai. He doesn't do that good of a job with them like he does with Playmaker and Soulburner, but he still plays a major role to their development since they then strive to become better.
But Luke is not the Rival, he is best friend, and the common characteristics of a best friend are present in him, while Roa is the actual Rival and possesses the characteristics of Rivals.
Tbh manga chazz is just soooo boring the only he has over anime was he actually won a duek against jaden but he doesn't really much character after that
Thank you so very much and trust me I will definitely be doing a video on the best and worst villains. It is a. Ideo I have been really wanting to do for a while.
Shark had more of a case since he came in first and was a Barian opposed to Yuma for almost the entire series but Zexal you could go either way. I like Kaito more
I would say that in Duel Monsters, Bakura is more like a rival due to him and Yugi having the same goal but for different reasons, and they have a pretty similar skill level/play style. For GX obviously Zane would have been the better rival, and I would argue that he is since Jaden was working hard to surpass him and yet never truly beat him in a duel even once. Chazz was mostly just there as either comedic relief or even a pretty decent duel.
Bakura was the overarching antagonist of DM, he's not the rival at all. That'd be like pegging Frieza as Goku's rival instead of Vegeta. Hell Kaiser was definitely the character in GX that bore the most resemblance to Kaiba, therefore people tend to point to him as the main rival more often, but I disagree. Kaiser and Judai don't really have a rival relationship, Kaiser was always just definitively better than Judai, and neither of them ever felt an overwhelming compulsion to one-up the other. Manjoume was obsessed with beating Judai at some points which I think makes him closer to the archetypal shounen rival. 🤷♀
The rush animes definitely knows hkw to use most of the characters either by comedic effect and serious moments, luke is a goofy kid but god what a powerhouse on a duel, and zwijo has his silly moments (the duel with yuamu over a tea set is the best example) and he still manages to be a very important and serious character
@@ventusace9054 (SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO WATCH GO RUSH, I GUESS?) Given the summaries of the following Episodes, I think it's understandable why Zwijo doesn't appear in GO RUSH's Season 3 Poster. How are you going to put a character who is destined to die on a Poster? Sure, he may be revived later, but it doesn't take away from the fact that he will have a "Kaito" style farewell and it is very possible that he will leave with a high honor/badass after finishing GO RUSH's Season 2.
And let's be real, the title of "friendly rival" in Arc-V needs to go to Yuzu and not Kurosaki, since she has the same path of Yuya but she does it in a different way (and, yeah, it sucks that she never duel after the Synchro Dimension but that doesn't mean that Yuzu is not the main friendly rival of Yuya, especially when we understand the Zarc and Ray lore u.u)
I think that you should not label Revolver a rival. Revolver is not particularly a "rival" in the true sense of the term. Vrains doesn't follow usual shonen motives regarding the character's roles. Playmaker is a protagonist but he doesn't really have the traits of a shonen protagonist, he isn't kind, has to learn to care for others throughout the series and at the end of the day he is mostly driven by vengeance during the first season. Vrains themes are about how each character tied to the lost incident experienced such a traumatic event. Yusaku is driven by vengeance to claim the time he lost, Soulburner became afraid of dueling and couldn't get past this event, Spectre found a purpose despite his twisted mentality, Kusanagi's brother was so severely affected he never spoke again and as for Revolver it is guilt despite being a child during this incident. Revolver is only interested in Yusaku because he feels responsible for the incident that ruined the lives of the latter and Soulburner, Spectre and Kusanagi's brother. And that is why he deeply respects them. Even though he loses his first master duel with the appearance of Firewall Dragon, the character nonetheless remains established as strong (remember that playmaker remains an elite duelist too), on several occasions he has beaten other characters in the cast or forced ties proving his skills. Even his last duel against Soulburner shows all the empathy he has for him by trying to save him. This first duel is there to establish Revolver as an honorable antagonist understanding the main character's motivations and accepting the conflict that will unfold. He also refrains from revealing Yusaku's identity to his father, taking on the burden of history on his shoulders. He plays an antagonist role for the first season and thereafter there is nothing of a rivalry between Yusaku and him, Revolver is a driving character of the plot who pursues his objectives with honor and duty. I would consider the Gore as Playmaker's rival more than Revolver as Revolver was his enemy and no longer is. Edit: now that I think about it Revolver is a bit similar to Z-one in a sense that they have a strong burden, acknowledge the protagonist's motivation but go through radical methods to fix history.
While I agree regarding Jack, he had his moments in part 2 of 5ds. Most notably, he does some offscreen training and gives Yusei the toughest duel of his life in the finale
I love Revolver as a character but man did I wish they made him more capable, man if anything Playmaker is a better Rival to Revolver than Revolver is to Playmaker. I wish they would've gotten more duels too since somehow bohman got more then they did together... Revolver was done so dirty too, he had no reason to lose to Lightning. PM's and Revolvers goals are practically aligned by this point have them team up to duel bohman or something (did they forget about seizing a new future together or something) and it just waters him down so much. I completely agree with your takes here
1. Kaito🎉 2. Luke 🎉 3. Declan🎉 4. Jack Atlas 5. Revolver 6. Seto Kaiba 7. Chazz I haven't watched Yu-Gi-Oh Go Rush so it's only from DM to Sevens, sorry.😅
The duel was Yuma on his own against Kaito, which is why no Zexal form as well so Yuma didn't hold back but wanted to win with his own strength and without Astral he didn't win. Granted with Zexal form they didn't beat Kaito before but knows what would have happened a second time around.
To give Kaiba and Jack some props, i always felt like they were the respective #2's of their series, aside from final arc villains Like, I never expected them to ever beat the MC, but I always thought they had the closest chance and they always put on a great show when trying I will also say that they embody the idea of power very well. Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Red Nova Dragon certainly felt stronger than Dark Magician of Chaos and Shooting Star Dragon Same goes to Revolver. Like, who else is supposed to reasonably contest the MC's? Joey? Crow? Maybe Soulburner?
Personally I think Luke might be the best BECAUSE Spoiler Alert: of his single loss in the series being when it mattered the most, that none of his other results mattered when he couldn't win when he needed to and it messed him up, that's a really strong character moment that most other rivals don't even come close to hitting for both him and Yuga And I know this video was before then but the fact that Zwijo goes out beating Yudias and fulfilling what he had wanted to do from the beginning of the show is powerful
Kaiba should be ranked higher considering that he was about to beat Yugi in the "Pyramid of Light" movie. And i bet the creator forgot about that. Plus he definitely pushed Yugi in their battle city duel
Where would tou pur Yuuhi on the Rival Scale if you dont mind my asking, because i feel Yuuhi and Zwijo are both equally capable of essentially being Yuudias' main rival?
I can't say I would rank him in a rival category because he is more of a companion character like Joey, Syrus or Crow in my opinion and the only rival like aspect I got from them was in the tournament which was very short in scale with just them wanting to face one another but not enough for me to consider him and Zwijo interchangeable rivals that way I could with Kaito and Shark.
@@ventusace9054 that's fair, I never really thought of that because I thought of them as more friendly rivals who push each other's but yeah that does fit a more companion archetype
Chazz and Zane were both Jaden’s rival my guy not Jesse. They even said for Yugioh gx they wanted to switch it up a lil bit and give the protagonist more than 1 rival. So what they do, they took Kaiba and split him into 2 different personalities enter chazz n Zane. And come on cyber dragons are clearly the machine version of blue-eyes🤦🏽♂️. Cyber End is clearly blue eyes ultimate. hell Zane even has a similar outfit to kaiba.
I'll only say one thing, kaiba may have not been a good rival... but c'mon man that battle city arc with obelisk vs slifer was epic af and one of the times where yugi truly felt challenged against someone
My biggest problem with Kaiba was his lack of development. After what happened in Duelist Kingdom I’d expect him to become substantially less of a Douchebag.
2:14 - To be fair, he is up against The King of Games, who literally wills the right cards to be drawn. Moreover, I don't think a rival's purpose is to win, but to push the protagonist to be their best. Kaiba did make Yugi/Pharaoh struggle in their duels and put them in situations where growth (not just regarding the game) was had. I think that makes him at least a decent rival. 3:25 - You probably heard it from someone else by now, but Kaiba does not consider this win to be legitimate and emphasizes that he wants a proper rematch later on to prove himself. It's just that he believed he had to do this for the sake of his brother.
manga-wise (including stuff before death-t), yugi believed he needed to get stronger to defeat a seto who believes in the heart of the cards after six months off-screen, yugi proceeds to lose exodia just as he's going to duelist kingdom the fake seto basically is proof of the gap between seto and yugi...to an extent before joey faces bonz, seto steamrolls him and yugi theorizes he has the heart of the cards now after a lot of experiences, seto proves his strength to yugi and forces him to break his limits (as battle city makes clear for both), but his weak heart made him accept the L once his plan failed of course they all get loads stronger later, but this is to put the scaling into perspective but yes, the big issue with seto kaiba (ignoring the meta of the card game not really being developed irl nor as the start) would be more plot relevance than anything else, because marik existing kinda forces him out of the finals one way or another, whereas a lot of the other rivals down the road are at least more relevant as an active threat in the physical world
I will be honest, I forgot Reiji was even a rival because he had so little presents as a rival but more as a commander. At the time, Yuya and he had to duel one last time, it felt shoehorned and at that point I dropped Arc V because how bad the finale was against Zarc. Reiji was complete fodder to Zarc and probably couldn't even match Yuri, so I felt kinda pointless to have them duel. Similary, I feel Kaito and Yuma didn't have to duel after Nasch was defeated. Kaito had good showing and proved himself, but you don't need to watch any more of Zexal to assume that Yuma could beat him now. Regarding Manjoume, the funny thing is, there was one duel he lost on purpose against Judai, when he was dueling as the character Ojamanjoume. But I still feel as a rival he is disappointing, mainly because Judai is a character who cannot have a 'rival' due to how special he is. And you cannot just add Yugi or someone with unique special powers that can keep challenging him throughout the story, I guess. I am glad he defeated Edo Phoenix.
Don’t agree with what you said about revolver just because he lost the first duel doesn’t mean he’s not a threat after all he beat everyone else and really came close to winning in the season 1 finale
Another issue comparing yugioh rivals to Pokémon is Pokémon didn’t have the same stakes. Ash can lose with no real consequences most of the time while in yugioh if Kaiba wins the world ends almost every occasion
I honestly think it doesn't make sense to think Kaito is the main rival and not Shark. Shark/Nash has had 6 duels with yuma, whereas Kaito has only had 3 with Yuma. Kaito also only really felt like a proper rival to Yuma in ZEXAL I. Shark had duels with Yuma throughout ZEXAL I and II, not to mention he is literally the final antagonist of the series. Yuma and Nash are also meant to be foils to each other during the Barian Emperor Onslaught Arc. They hold heavy burdens of fate. Nasch is fighting to save Barian World, whilst Yuma is fighting to save all the worlds, as he doesn't want to sacrifice anyone for the future. And this difference in ideology is what leads Yuma to win. That's not to say Kaito isn't a bad rival. He is an amazing rival. But I think Shark is the main rival against Yuma. superb video though, love how you've actually seen all all 8 shows
Kaito will always be the main rival for me and Shark will be the best friend because they both share similar traits with kaiba and joey (Main rival and best friend of the original series). I do understand that Nasch was the last Barian standing and he faced Yuma more times but Kaito was a challenge Yuma never beat and he has all the swagger of a Kaiba. It's like being the Char clone of a Gundam series.
@@moonshadow0078I always hate it when people compare ZEXAL characters to DM characters (Shark/Joey and Kaito/Kaiba), because it’s fucking annoying (no offence). Shark and Kaito are both much better, more complexly written characters than their DM ‘counterparts’, and are only similar to them on a surface level. It’s genuinely an insult to their characters if they’re equated to Joey/Kaiba. So stop it. ‘Kaito was more of a challenge’. Yeah, but he literally only dueled Yuma in ZEXAL I. How is that a consistent rivalry? Their rivalry barely exists in ZEXAL II, it’s there, just barely. Shark was also a very good competitor to Yuma. He beat Yuma once, should have beat him in the WDC arc but purposefully lost because of Tron/Vetrix shenanigans, then again would have beat him in their final duel if not for Yuma’s unexpected moment of philosophical action. That’s 3/6 of their duels. All throughout ZEXAL I and II And again, no offence, but I don’t give a fuck about ‘swagger of Kaiba’ lol. Kaito is his own character, he doesn’t need to be compared to Kaiba as if Kaiba is some role model/pedestal for all the rivals after him…
@@fxzzy__ @fxzzy__ @fxzzy__ wow, don't get all riled up because I compared characters. These characters aren't taking offense to me comparing them to other characters they are clearly inspired by. There is no "insult" it just bothers you. Obviously they are their own characters. Honestly tho from the looks of it Zexal and GX have always been the series where the "main rival" is heavily debated. TO ME kaito will always be THE Zexal rival because of said reasons in my other post. Yes, as a rivalry Shark and Yuma are better than Kaito and Yuma. But "the" rival character??? Kaito hands down. And yes, Kaito has that "Aura" (for lack of a better term), the same one that Kaiba, Jack, Reiji, and Revolver have. If you don't give a fuck that's cool. That's just my opinion.
"Ventus Ace, why is that you have come to despise ranking videos?" "It is because of the realization that what lies beyond tier lists is that we can no longer understand them: the characters we knew" "It is that part of you, Ventus, that I have always despised!" "It's that part of you... Everything about you... That I daisuki!" 😮😮😮 MARUDE SHINKIROOOOOOOO
I'm not gonna Luke annoyed the hell out of me but boy was a best bud I had ever seen since Joey, and honestly I hate dub Luke as he's annoying as heck and Japanese Luke is a goof but a powerful duelist to back up his skills
yeah, but after season 2, zwijo became just the guy who just servers to exposed the plot. His rivaly with yuudias was the only interesting thing that made me watch go rush. They both wanted to stop the wars, but their metodhs were so different that creatd a real conflict.
However... Isn't this the same thing that Kaito and Revolver went through? Both were rivals initially defined by the rivalry with the MC, but later they became important characters for the plot, leaving aside the rivalry that existed with the MC. Jack is similar: he was a tough rival during the first half of 5Ds, but that rivalry with Yusei became a friendship or mutual companionship between the two (who did not Duel again until later, but it was not because of rivalry but rather as friendship)
Kaiba for me because he is like that jerk we don't want to listen too but we know we have to because he speaks the truth. The only reason i feel kaiba lost to yugi is because yugi cheats like crazy. if it was more life like kaiba would mop the floor with yugi because yugi wouldn't have the bullshit selling slogan "heart of the cards" as a plot armor. imagine getting the shit smacked out of you even at kaibas level by bullshit like that! I can relate to kaiba because my greatest accomplishments in life are over shadowed by stupid shit my brother does.
‘If it was more life like’ Okay but it isn’t. The reality is Yugi mopped the floor with Kaiba every time with 0 difficulty. That isn’t a rivalry 😭 LMAO, bro thinks he’s Kaiba because his brother is better than him. Get off the Internet and relax for a bit. Learn to be a good person. If your brother is exceeding in something be happy for him, don’t cry like a bitch. Just focus on improving yourself. Ain’t no way you’re telling me you relate to Kaiba because of that 💀💀
@@XOTICXPATRIATE Kaiba would mop the floor with Yugi by having the more expensive cards rather than actually being skilled if Yugi didn't have the millennium puzzle.
I respect your points but I gotta defend my man Manjoume. GX characters get a bad rap(and they do deserve it), but at many times it is due to bad writing and also a misunderstanding at the story being told. Manjoume as a rival is not what was expected of characters like Kaiba, but Manjoume defied all expectations of his peers since he was supposed to be a bully, someone who is talented but who wanted to always push others down, till he got knocked down, and he was left out hung to dry. Its messed up, because he was kicked out, almost dies, survives the frozen land he arrived to, just to then rule DA North and come back for revenge. Even though he loses he is acknowledged as actually talented and not a snobby cheat. He actually gained so much respect points they take him back into DA, he KEEPS the prized cards from DA North and then rolls on like one of the top threats of DA. People worship and fear him, something only ever done by Judai, Kenzan, and Fubuki if you want to count the worship. He is used too much for jokes that is true but such a personality isnt really worthy of having spotlight but he still takes it. He was the main one converting DA into the society of light, he also was the main person to beat and convert back the society of light members back to normal, he also won the genex tournament, and before you say "But JuDaI bEaT HiM" Manjoume was winning the duel and like Edo said, sometimes there is monster out there worth destroying more than the duel in front of you. It was his way of saying FU to Saio and the powers from the light of destruction. He also has special powers which makes him a much better duelist than many others in the main cast. His whole story about dueling his brother is a great bit of story of how false expectations from others who have influence on you can drive you insane and still he put his brothers in his place while being the youngest, it was also great way showing why keeps the ojamas out of all the weak duel monster spirits he's vowed to protect, they are like him and his two brothers, behind the glamour and presence they're just annoying but they are always together, with ojama yellow being him, its because thats why he always gets mad and insults himself, to me he is just too real. And he was the only one out the senior gang to walk out of DA with fame and contracts for the pro league because of his duel with Edo. To me it's a scenario like how people bash Yamcha for being the weakest in DBZ/Super, but again comparing to gods and dimension rulers, being being part of that circle and technically stronger than those out of that circle is pretty good to me. In the whole rival dueling side yeah he is bad and only had 2 duels that he could have won against Judai, but still I would put him as a solid either B or A rank rival because he stands on business. He made it without his family's money, or help, focuses on what matters most: fried shrimp.
I honestly think Kaito should be above Reiji. He just works better as a rival because during the first season if he got his way Yuma couldn't get his, which makes him a really good rival. Where Reiji wants essentially exactly what Yuya wants.
The order I presented the rivals was by series order not particularly not by ranking. So the video doesn't present Reiji higher than Kaito that is just the order of the series from 1-8.
I’ll say this about this about chazz. The manga version of him (the true version imo) butchered everybody other than Zane. In the anime, despite probably being one of the most talented deck builders and having good moments. He and revolver pretty much got thrown in the same category of dealing with a protagonist who’s nearly unbeatable. Albeit revolver is more like who chazz is in the manga, he didn’t become comic relief. But I wanted to point out that parallel. Seems to be a problem in yugioh
As much as I love Kaito, he does have a flaw as a rival. The rivalry is just kind of dropped midway through the series. While Yuma surely surpasses Kaito by the end of the series, we never get that payoff. The character is fine, but the storytelling could be better. Also, Mizael isn't the strongest Barian. Nasch was stronger.
You can tell Jack is the best, hes implying it the entire time in the background despite all of his hate for 5Ds. But in all seriousness this is a good video, I find Luke to be an annoying character but his skill as a Duelist was always top notch making him a goal that Yuga had to surpass to becomes King of Duels. Kaiba was always written well as a character but I feel him and Yugi should have been more on equal footing, but Atem was basically just a god who would always win no matter what.
The analogy on kiaba is so wrong yu-gi beat him by hax where the pharo can litterally pull whatever cars he needs from his deck so the fact that he could keep up vs someone with cheat mode on is testament to his abbilites also he should have won the duelest kingdome duel yugi hod nonway to beat blue eyes uktimate dragon and had to again cheat by fusing mammoth graveyard with it to apparntly decay ultimate dragon he bullshit his way through that kaiba had won thatvwhatever way you spin it
rivals are competitors. you don't have to be enemies to be rivals lol. I think Yuma and Shark's rivalry is amazing, they duel multiple times in ZEXAL and witnessing their growth is amazing.
@@themarshian5124 just one of the many quotes from yuma and shark "even though we gave our all together to beat don thousand, me and my BEST FRIEND are schredding each other in this duel"
@@slewdry8233 he says the same thing with kite, many times, not a reliable point, then theres the fact THE ONLY PERSON yuma played a card specifically named "Rival's unite." against shark, not kite, in the semifinals as if it was yugi & kaiba again. yuma neither calls either of them his rival in the entire series which is why there's this confusion, but the card still stands.
1) Unpopular opinion, but I don't like Seto Kaiba. He looks like Christopher Robin going through phase and his attitude is pure garbage. Loud buffoon who didn't believe in supernatural even if it would kick him in his butt. Also he wasn't that great of a duelist. He loose a lot and couldn't realise potential of some cards. For example Kuriboh, negating attack was really good in early Yu-Gi-Oh, because stats weren't that high. 2) Jack Atlas was great character. In later episodes he shifted from rival to friend and ally, but still was great. Sadly he didn't have much victories of his own. Jack was used in similar way to Vegeta. By defiting him new enemy shows how strong he is 3) Akaba Reiji for me was quite forgetable. He didn't duel a lot, had no real victories and was insignificant to the story.
Kaiba is the best rival and here's why. He was fighting yugi aka the strobe yugioh character in the history of yugioh. Why is that? Because the man could literally re write the rules of yugioh to bend to his own whim whenever he wants. How are you gonna bet I guy who hits zero life points and you're like "haha I win yugi the duel is over" and he's just like "nah imma do my own thing" gets infinity life points and than he destroys the moon for lots. We can't blame kaiba for that. He was just fighting yugioh god
Terrible argument. It’s like saying ‘the bad writing was done on purpose so it’s good writing!!’ Their ‘rivalry’ is the equivalent of the weakest man on Earth repeatedly attempting to fight the strongest man on Earth but getting absolutely pummelled every time. Sorry to break it to you, but that isn’t a rivalry 😭 And if you think that bullshit is the best rivalry, you HAVE NOT seen all/most of the other YGO shows….
I really didn't like Luke it was overused in the entire series and only thinking why didn't make him the mc instead of yuga? I really hate Luke's personality
One point Manjoume has over Kaiba: at least _he_ could have actually won that last one they had, and only lost because he gave up due to business shenanigans.
Who is Manjoune??
@@devilgirl7054 Chazz Japanese name
@@jjasuka
What do you mean!!!
@@devilgirl7054Yu-Gi-Oh is a Japanese product, and there are some changes in translation.
Sometimes they keep the original Japanese names, this is usually if the name is commonly known to or easy to pronounce for a western audience like Misawa or Yuki. But Manjoume is just slightly too unfamiliar to western audiences and isn't really able to be anglicised like Judai to Jaden
@@obtuse186
What are you typing about??
Lightning "beating" Revolver only to get absorbed by Bohman 5 seconds later wasn't to disrespect Revolver, but to further emphasize Lightning's core character trait: His pride. Lightning did all this shit because he refused to acknowledge that he was the sole defect among the Ignis, and he already prolonged the duel by threatening to hold Jin hostage. To Lightning, losing to an "inferior human" is unforgivable, and he went as far as to cheat to avoid that. Twice.
To be fair with Kite losing in Arc V. He was using Ciphers
Kaito barely had a deck in ARC-V lol. Bro got done dirty, ZEXAL Kaito stomps so hard
I was sad because I was looking forward to more photon support and I was like Cipher Soldier got an archetype 😂
At least he was treated better than Aster that didn't get a single win in Arc V.
@@ventusace9054 Ciphers, if anything, are more of a complimentry force to Photons than a true standalone. I use a Cipher/Photon hybrid deck in Duel Links as my main when I play, and that's where the archetype truly becomes nasty. It's not meant to standalone as an archetype, it's meant to give more options for Photons imo
@kirbstagoontheaxolotl That is nice that Cipher can work along side Photons but if they were actually photon cards that would make them alot better since they would be able to take advantage of the old cards and the new cards would have more options. Like if Twin Raptor was a photon instead of a cipher it would have so many options and that can be said about pretty much any cipher card. So while nice they can supplement phontons, but if they actually were photons they would make the Archetype as a whole much more viable (during that time).
They purposely nerfed and simultaneously buffed Kite and Jack in ARC V
At the risk of sounding like I have bad taste, I really liked what Varis/Revolver brought to VRAINS, and I was a little surprised by his evaluation. That he had 2 draws against Playmaker puts them kind of close in skill, and you could interpret his duel against Soulburner as an intended loss as part of his "atonement." Topologic Bomber Dragon (with Borreload Savage) probably would have won the game instead of going for Zeroboros.
I liked his role in the story; he stopped the Lost Incident, has pretty well-written reasons for working against Playmaker, and undergoes a bit of growth as he warms up to Ai - and I liked that he didn't doubt Playmaker's ability to defeat Ai, only his willingness.
I did like both Varis/Revolver and VRAINS, though, so maybe that's what's speaking - but it's hard to distinguish "I like these qualities" and "These are good qualities" when there's no rule confirming what "good" is and when we tend to like things that are good.
I haven't seen much of SEVENS or Go Rush, but I do hear the characters are written really well, and I really want to give them a watch.
I mean, in all fairness to Revolver/Varis, he was the only guy to even Tie against Playmaker. That makes him a Top 3 duelist in VRAINS if we accept the premise that Soulburner ranks higher than him because he won that last duel, despite not having dueled against Playmaker directly. Yeah, he got clowned on by Playmaker, but EVERYONE got clowned on by Playmaker. VRAINS doing a VRAINS, I guess.
The difference is good character and good rival. Rev is probably the best character is Vrains, but his role as a rival is pretty bad.
@@Talguy21Incorrect on one point; Bohman got a tie in his 3rd duel against Playmaker (it was the duel in which Bohman debuted a Link-4 Hydradrive and the whole "God rolls the die" mechanic).
@@cameraredeye3115 Fair enough- been a bit since I watched VRAINS.
Revolver and Playmaker is not close at all in skill. Playmaker beat him 2 times, while Revolver can only draw against him. He extra linked, floodgated, Gumblar, and mirror force'd Playmaker and he still LOSE.
You have it all wrong about Kaiba. Yugi is HIS rival. Yugi, stripped him of his title and has always beaten him to the point he has become an obsession or a pinnacle for Kaiba to overcome. The duality of the 2 characters is one you seemed to have overlooked as well as what they represent.
I was thinking about this exactly when I saw he wasn’t too high lol.
However I feel that Atem is a true rival to Kaiba because they are opposites of each other throughout the series.
Their dynamic is what makes the rivalry so beloved.
Kaiba is someone who disregards anything to do with the past whether it be a past reincarnation or his rough upbringings as a child. He looks toward the future and improves upon it through his dreams like creating the first duel disk and building a duel academy.
Atem on the other hand is the complete opposite during the series. His entire journey with Yugi was rediscovering his past life and finish his mission that should’ve been done centuries ago
And I guess you could say little Yugi is the middle ground of the two, being the one who best both of them in the end as the current king of games.🤷♂️
@@doge6384 I strongly like this dualism you talked about, with Yugi "Past" and Kaiba "Future" 🔥
I have to disagree on some points like Jack being just a guy after the Dark Signer arc which I think it's wrong. Yes he was acting goofy but only when he wasn't dueling. This is actually naturally because now he has the whole squad to hang out with so showing a funnier side of him was actually nice. Then he also got another short mini arc in the form of obtaining double tuning making us remind he's still that man. Then in that Aporia duel, he was giving all that speech about hope and trusting your friends, and finally, his last duel againts Yusei was the cherry on top. Not only he put up a strong fight on his own and congratulated Yusei for his incredible win. Jack didn't become a somebody but only grew more after the Dark Signer. As for Revolver, it feels like they didn't focus on his dueling performance but rather his personal character which I thought they did excellent. Every time he was on screen, the scene was his, rather he won or lost a duel. We also learn that he was a man who was willing to change when he decided to co-operate with the good guys. By the time his final duel of the series kicked in, I was convinced Revolver had an inner conflict. Yes, he still wanted the AIs gone but more than that, he wanted to settle things with his path, and his duel with Soulburner was the perfect stuff for that. Even tho he put on a good fight, it was clear that Revolver didn't intend to win that fight because the whole point was to make Soulburner move forward which he succeeded on. Soulburner may have won that duel but both were the true winners in the end because they could finally move away from their pasts and look up to a new future. Revolver is def one of my fav YGO chars of all time up there with Ryoga from ZEXAL and Jack too (which I felt I didn't give enough credits)
Yeah i think everyone agree that Rev is a great character, just a terrible rival.
Revolver was a good duelist arguably the second best rival at dueling but yusaku never lost and he had the least plot armor out of all mc so he is the strongest mc
That’s the problem, making Yusaku be too good means he can’t have good rivals. Making your character too good is 99% of the time a bad thing, especially if you plan to give them a rival or expect tension.
I dont fully disagree with what you said about Revolver not being a good rival but we gotta remember that Playmaker never lost a single duel in the anime, I blame the plot more than the rival
Facts
They should’ve had a revolver win to really make yusei have a character arc or sum
@@kingworldadventuresEpisode 12 was quite honestly the perfect chance for Playmaker to take an L. Revolver thwarted damn near every attack thrown his way on that last turn and even forced Decode Talker to hit the GY multiple times in that duel.
It would also give Playmaker a good reason to get better, because him being that overpowered from the get-go is just a big red flag. Even Yusei wasn't THAT strong since he took a few legit Ls.
Something also hilarious is that Yuya was a member of the Lancers, with Reiji being the leader
Yuya was not only weaker than Reiji for a time, he was Reiji's actual subordinate. That is crazy for a Yugioh MC
We need more Rivals that can match or even surpase the main character like Kite, Declan and Luke.
Im surprised you didnt mention kaiba vs yugi in the pyramid of light movie. Im not sure if you count that, but kaiba was literally about to win before the duel got highjacked, and on top of that, some writing shenanigans was done when the duel was being scripted, and blue eyes shining dragon should have had enough attack for game. But i guess for the sake of the story they had to ignore paladin of white dragon being in the graveyard. It doesn't save him as a rival, but i feel like that counts as a fair win.
You know what that is a really, really good point that I should have mentioned but didn't count it since the move wasn't cannon but on screen in some way, shape and form Kaiba was going to beat Yugi.
Idc what people say I liked Vrains. Also the duel against Soulburner was great character development for both characters and while felt a little odd in its placement in the story it was a fantastic duel.
I feel like theres more to rivalry than just wins and losses a rivalry helps the protagonist change and vice versa and most of the rivals especially Kaiba Chazz and Jack they helped they helped each other grow
I think Yuma and Shark are a much better example of both the hero/rival helping each other and going through character arcs from the beginning straight to the end of the series
@@fxzzy__ they are I won't disagree
In all fairness, if we look at the first speed duel with Revolver vs Playmaker, Revolver wins. He had Topologic out and sweeps main monster zones when something is summoned next to a link monster's link. Playmaker just got Firewall Dragon with his skill, which requires co-links to work. At this point, Revolver was playing it safe in case Playmaker got something usable, but jumped the gun
Sorry, but I dont see fair compare Manjoume to Kaiba or Kaito when he`s clearly the "Joey" archetype. I mean, Yu Gi Oh doesnt work with a "rival" like Pokemon does. Yu Gi Oh works with trios (Yugi - Kaiba - Joey archetypes) that repeat some patterns in the first six series (DM with Zexal, GX with Arc V and 5Ds with Vrains). The main trio in GX is Judai (Jaden) - Ryo (Zane) - Manjoume (Chazz). Maybe Edo/ Aster could be the Kaiba instead of Zane (cause Zane`s screentime drops pretty much after season 1, and Edo is the chara they took to Arc V), but Manjoume is the Joey for sure (you could see a lot of narrative paralelism between Chazz and Joeys`s relationship with the MC, his character arc, rol in the series, etc). In fact, Manjoume is pretty much the same that Sawatari`s in Arc V (cause they both are the Joeys of those series).
Im not saying Chazz/ Manjoume isnt a rival to Jaden, only that his archetype cant compare to Kaiba, Atlas or Kaito, who are clearly the "Kaibas" from his series. Joey is pretty much a rival to Yugi too (the same Shark with Yuma, or Sawatari to Yuya; Soulburner and Crow work differently in that sense).
you should read GX manga, Manjoume is the rival there and he was even more like the 2nd protagonist of the series
@@Aldini_to GX manga isnt like DM manga. GX manga is like an alternative spin off (GX anime is the base basically, like 5Ds, Zexal, Arc V...).
Kaiba is not an archetype. Kaiba always had a grudge against Atem, while seeing Yugi as worthless. Manjoume, nor Kaiser nor Jack are like this. Manjoume's entire thing is about how he believed himself to be great and when proven wrong he was humiliated by everyone and left to die and he overcame everyone's expectations. He earned his respect but because he wont let go of how he was before he still is ridiculed. Its basically a grown kid with a chip on his shoulder he wont let go. The other "rivals" are not like that. They are each unique.
@@davidhernandezgil5599 Kaito isn't the rival though. Ryouga is.
Most Zexal merch involves Yuma and Shark, duel Opera which mainly takes place between rivals has Shark vs Yuma and not Yuma vs Kite. Even the Japanese VA's call each other their rival on tweets.
Definitely gonna have to disagree with how Jack is in the second half. Throughout the first half Yusei stimulates change in Jack Atlas by defeating him which is what leads to his character development. Which is the entire point of Yusei and why i think he's awesome. You already know Jack also stimulated growth in Yusei and is what led to him being able to face Kiryu so i don't need to say much
Then in the second half during the Meklord Arc when Yusei tries to win without Synchro monsters Jack crushes that idea by dueling against him and basically said that there's no point in continuing because he'd win easily. This is what motivates Yusei to find a way to beat the meklords which is what led to Accel Synchro.
Even throughout the second half the main losses that Jack takes are during the WRGP because he's always the guy that goes first and has to take on the team until he manages to beat all three or he loses. During the Red Nova Arc after he loses to the boy possessed by Red Nova this stimulates even more growth allowing him to encase the devil itself into a card to keep up with Yusei.
And finally in the second last episode we see him beat tons of duelists that Yusei struggled against with ease in order to challenge Yusei one last time. I agree with the fact that the Carly thing was dumb but that and the money thing is irrelevant to the main rivalry and in terms of rivalry and W/L ratios he had the highest of all thw rivals and he definitely stimulated the most growth in a protagonist than any other. The main reason 5DS even happened were because of the actions of Jack stealing stardust.
It's to that reason why I don't consider Jack to be a failure of a rival at all and me personally i find him to be the best rival in terms of just how much he's a contrast to Yusei but that's subjective and you're free to think how you want. Just wanted to say why I disagreed have a nice day.
The crazy part is Jack in the end of 5ds (after the final duel with Yusei), I believe that Jack was actually portrayed to be the true Main Character of 5ds. I mean, all of the flashbacks were pretty much connected to him Crow, Aki and Rua. He loses to Yusei which indicates that the show isn’t really over until HE achieves his goal. We haven’t heard from Yusei after that because his story is over, Jack’s is only beginning.
Very good video! Here I have an idea for the next Yu-Gi-Oh video discussion:
"Which Yu-Gi-Oh series has the best/worst cast of Secondary Characters?"
Some criteria to evaluate this:
- The way the series uses its Secondary Characters.
- See if these Secondary Characters are recurring in the series (even in small/minor roles)
- The number of Duels that these Secondary Characters have.
- The Episodes (or Character Arc) dedicated to these Secondary Characters.
- How these Secondary Characters influence/affect the Main Cast (or the plot)
It would be an interesting topic to analyze and it would not be bad to highlight between 3 to 5 Characters that support why this cast of Secondary Characters are better or worse than others.
ZEXAL easily imo
That is actually a good idea. It might take a while but something I can definitely tackle especially since the series that use secondary characters well do it pretty well and the ones that don't, really, really fail at.it. I am sure everyone knows my choice for last place for this list lol.
@@fxzzy__ zexal for the best or the worst ?
@@ConstantinDOSSOU-vy1zo best
@@ConstantinDOSSOU-vy1zoBest for sure. That series utilizes secondary characters VERY well.
Take, for example, the Arclight brothers. Even after the feud between their family and Dr. Faker was settled, they come back and play a pivotal role in the battle against the Barians later on in the series.
I'm glad to hear that someone says Kaiba and Jack didn't make it better than Chazz. They both may be more badass than him (bc he's a comic relief), but just as rivals they never successfuy defeated the protagonist ON SCREEN. Because something important of Jack and Yusei is that that duel where Jack defeated Yusei happened off screen AND previous to the beginning of the story. I think Yusei victory is diluted for that, because we never saw him lose and we didn't feel that frustration, so I never felt that victory as a deserved success or as an overcome obstacle. We didn't see him fall, so his stand up was week for me. And from that, Jack never won again.
Now Kite, I see him now with different eyes. He was actually a great rival. Working as a motivation for the protagonist, which is what a rival should be for. Plus, thank you for not using Shark, Shark as Nash was not a rival, he was the villain. Yuma and Kite compited for the numbers, that's rivalry, Yuma fought Nash because Nash wanted to attack the Astral World, that's a villain.
And with Reiji, I feel they fell into the meaningless victories here. First he forfeited, then he won, then he lost, so for me is almost a tie, or at least a not so clear rivalry although they actually had rivalry potential, but in the end they were allys most of the time with no reason to compete. I don't know, this is a bit tasteless for me.
And Revolver... More meaningless victories. They have a very good rivalry here, as with Kite and Yuma they have opposite objectives, but they were afraid to make Playmaker lose, so his victories are meaningless 😕
Good to talk up Zuwijo; does NOT get enough credit.
I don't really agree with the win/loss count being used that heavy for comparing. Using Beyblade, I'd say Kiyoa is a great rival even though he's never beaten Ginjka outside of a Free for All.
Well, in the case of Yu-Gi-Oh, the issue of win/loss has been put into debate especially with the case of Yuma and Yuga.
- Yuma is known for losing often in the beginning (even having many defeats off-screen) and that he never beat Kaito cleanly in a Duel.
- Yuga is known for being the MC that loses the most in Yu-Gi-Oh against any type of Duelists: antagonists, best friends, female characters, etc.
Either way, they are both good characters in their own way and in what they contribute to their series.
@@brunosanto3488you're describing precisely why many don't considered them as good characters to begin with and the biggest flaw with wanting to make good secondary characters at the expense of the protagonist, which you know, is the one we are supposed to be rooting for.
@@Sickness4daThickness I fucking love Yuma Tsukumo
He has faults, and he didn't start out perfect. None of us start out perfect, we all go through a learning curve, and the fact we were able to watch Yuma's immense growth throughout ZEXAL is extremely inspiring, because he shows us that we can improve ourselves too, and that it's okay to be bad at first. His flaws are what make him great.
He's honestly an amazing MC. Yuma isn't just the dude that fixes everything for everyone, but he still feels like a main character. He's not the strongest just because he's the Yu-boy, but we see him grow throughout all of ZEXAL and the end result of his growth is so satisfying to see, with help from the amazing characters Kaito and Shark. Still, Kaito is actively stronger than him, from beginning to the end, and that's amazing and so refreshing to see amidst Yusaku and Yusei who just made their entire respective series' about themselves. His extreme dedication to helping someone is admirable. His Kattobingu spirit, taking on challenges without fear and having the courage to take a step forward, is also very important in modern society and very inspiring. Just watching his overzealous nature makes me feel pumped to drive forward!!
And there's so much depth to his character. For example, as we see from the Yuma vs III duel, Yuma puts on a mask like Yusei. Behind his joyful nature, he was scared of what his friends thought about him. That's actually why he was so stubborn during the beginning and didn't listen to Astral, he wanted to prove his own worth to his friends. By the end of the series, we see him regain the ability to smile and have fun during duels, like Judai, after all the pain and suffering he went through. Like Yugi, he beats his mentor/partner, again displaying the immense growth he went over the course of the show. Although ZEXAL did the partner thing MUCH better than DM did, as we could actually see Yuma and Astral's relationship change as the series went on.
I agree like for Jaden and Chazz they're both going after the same goal being the next king of games,being the next gen of Yugi and Kaiba by the dorms they were in,also they've helped each other grow. Jaden showed Chazz that were still kids let's have fun and Chazz gave Jaden a sense of responsibility and if you look at how they act and the EOS you see how their rivalry goes past just wins and losses
@Sickness4daThickness That's what i like about yuma he starts off bad but works his way up. My issue with yugioh DM 5ds abd Vrains were how terrified they were of the MC losing (minus the dartz stuff) just kills all tension and leads to bs
One point about Shark vs Kaito: Kaito has the "rival spirit" (same as Kaiba, Jack, Reiji...) but, in fact, he is only Yuma's rival during ZeXal 1. In the other hand, Shark is Yuma's rival during the entire serie, especially when we have the Barian vs Astral plot, with Kaito losing screen time (and motivation for both Kaito and Yuma continue to be rivals), and with Shark even being the only one side by side of Yuma during the final duel against Don Thousand. Of course the only Shark's 3000 ATK monster is Abyss Supra, which he barely used, but Kaito totally lost his rivalry with Yuma in ZeXal 2 and Shark was the only rival to sustain even in the final scene of the anime just like Manjoume did in GX
Yeah. It's been awhile since I've seen Zexal, but Kite had a presence when he was introduced but became more and more part of the friend group. While Shark was his Day 1 opponent that carried on throughout
The only complaint i got with yugi and kaiba is that Yugi basically has plot armor agaisnt the man due to the god damn millennium puzzle which is basically help yugi pull the right card in time of need or when his backed up to the corner
Pretty much. Kaiba being a "bad" rival isn't his fault. It's the fault of Takahashi, who for some reason thought having "Plot Armor" be the MC's canonical superpower was a good idea.
@@HunterStiles651wdym ‘Kaiba being a bad rival isn’t his fault. It’s the fault of Takahashi’
What the fuck does that even mean?? Of course it’s the writer’s fault if their character is poorly written, it’s not like the character has a mind of their own lmfao 😭
After Yugi beats Atem he still washes Kaiba in every conceivable situation. With no hax. And that's coming from someone who really enjoys Kaiba as a character.
@@xapath3tic well yea in the movie and they only battle once which yes kaiba does see yugi as a very powerful rival instead of wanted him to turn in the pharaoh like their previous battles
@@HunterStiles651i mean, that’s always the writer’s fault. That’s the only way we can really evaluate how good/bad a character is, because ultimately they’re all written by people. It’s never a character’s fault.
For Jack and Carly situation, I can forgive that one. She was planned to have bigger role with Jack, but there's RL situation happened with Carly's VA (where she joined a cult) and the studio had to booted her out from the series, and due to the cult has been on the news as well, they need to end the Dark Signer Arc earlier than they planned. This caused the remaining script for the rest of the series to get rewritten, and Carly as a character is relegated from 'Part of the Main Cast' to a background character.
It's unfortunate, but it can't be helped.
Dude that’s literally a rumor. There’s no evidence for it. Every single video about 5ds someone says this. It’s not proven and I doubt its true.
If anything, despite the dubs many many faults its good the dub wrote out the romance thing altogether. It made his character consistent all the way to the end.
@@minixlemonade2335 The heck you mean rumor when the 'cult' situation is literally on the News back then? Just google Li-Mei Chiang (She's Carly first VA) and the Roma Sophie Cult (ロマゾフィー協会) where Carly VA did admit the allegation and arrested.
As for "5D's Changing Direction", there is an Official Artbook for 5D's showing the 5th Signer and it's not Crow, but an unknown character. So there definitely a change in planned plot somewhere down the line.
@@minixlemonade2335 her (li mei chiang, carly's previous seiyuu) being in a cult is rumors, but it's true that she was willing to leave the industry when the criminal investigations for said cult was happening, which then lead to her leaving carly as a seiyuu and replaced like way later by another one, and after the whole fiasco she only had like 2 or so roles in anything and pretty much went radio silent
@@AlmondChocolate-b1j It's Japanese culture. They do not like being shamed. That could be anything. Any chance you have a source on that btw?
@@minixlemonade2335 can't post links and stuff here but essentially the jp wikipedia of her does say that she was pretty much a victim of the whole fiasco rather than being an outright member
Kaiba's only lost to Atem, pegasus, Noah, Dartz and Diva AKA the protagonist and final bosses.
im glad that you didn't count Revolver vs Soulburner round 1 because that really is an unfair judgement against Revolver especially when his hand could have one shotted Soulburner if he was actually serious. His only play in that duel was to let Soulburner vent it all out because he knows that there's no point in winning that duel. If Revolver does win that duel, Flame would be terminated which progresses the Hanoi's goals (it would be 2 ignises gone at that point) but it would affect the partnership that Revolver is after especially when he needs allies in taking down Lightning's faction.
While I agree Luke is an interesting character at some points, I do think as a rival he doesn't work quite as well as you mentioned. Luke acts as a mirror to Yuga because Luke isn't smart but is a good duelist while Yuga is a decent duelist he is a much better scientist, however the issue I want to point out is that Luke is too set up as a powerhouse duelist, unlike characters such as Yusaku and Yusei who are technically undefeated we know they had loses such as Yusaku when he was still a kid and Yusei having lost to jack before. Luke is not the case, Yusei and Yusaku got that dueling record through a lot of hard work in do or die scenarios against extremely dangerous opponents, but Luke just wandered into it without putting in the work or risking the danger.
I give credit he did put himself in danger during the series but in those moments you wouldn't expect him to lose because Sevens structure wouldn't allow for something like that to happen.
Yusei also lost to Kiryu and who says the Hallmark of a strong duelist needs to be one who is built up on danger? Most duels in GX were casual with low stakes but that wouldn't make Judai/Jaden any less talented. Luke may not have faced do or die moments like Yusei but he had duels with stakes regardless of them not being world ending so him winning was still of the up most importance and he always triumphed and shown to be a reliable and capable duelist. If anything Luke loosing would be more acceptable since the stakes were lower but still won and never needed a dues ex machina like storm access or protagonist power up moments via the crimson dragon but always won through his own skill and deck construction methods. I don't think anything should be taken from him because he wasn't built on dangerous duels which is not the bench mark of what constitutes a powerhouse player.
On Kaiba: His blackmail win is more about his character arc and way less about Yugi, he was desperate to save Mokuba and forced into the duel, and also thought he could beat Pegasus because the latter relies on some form of mind reading to win. Kaiba at this point developed the first duel disk prototype, and the cards that appear in solid vision obscure your face. Basically, Pegasus using the Eye is unbeatable and the only hope to beat him is to use the duel disk, that assessment was 100% correct, but Pegasus threatens Kaiba into a normal duel using Mokuba, and Yugi has FRIENDS and switcheroo shenanigans so things played out the way they did.
Overall yeah Kaiba is an amazing character but not thaat much of a rival
This was surprisingly a fun ranking to watch. Going in I just thought it'd be "Kaiba was the one with the most presence + nostalgia so best rival" but no. It felt like you objectively looked through what a good rival would be and ranked them. Can't wait to see your other stuff!
Yeah I really like that. I know it’s the Internet but when I see yugiboomers just babbling about how DM everything is the best it gets on my nerves
"Revolver lost to Soulburner in a duel we didn't need" I don't necessarely disagree that Revolver is not a good rival but this just proves you did not understand that duel
I guess I will have to defend my case on how the situation with Soul Burner overcoming trauma and Playmaker showing resolve to not show pity on Ai could have been handled far better in a Vrains discussion vid and in a way that both doesn't require Revolver to take an L and can build better growth between Playmaker and Soul Burner as well. But that is a long vid for another day. There is a lot to unpack with Vrains unfortunately.
Revolver absolutely deserved and needed to be beaten by Soulburner. If not for Soulburner overcoming the trauma of his parents dying - then for the fact that Revolver was an arrogant stinking bastard who pretended to be better than and above Soulburner whilst continuingly mocking him and defending the actions of his own monstrous father.
@@ventusace9054Revolver lost the duel, but he did what he set out to do and that was help Soulburner overcome his trauma. Soulburner even says "You never wanted the letter, did you?", meaning that was his full intention from the start. So Revolver got the moral victory in not only helping Soulburner but also Soulburner not blaming him for his father's sins, which is what Revolver has been feeling through the whole show.
Could it have been better? Yes. All of season 3 could have been handled much better. But for what it was, the duels were enjoyable and I'd say Revolver vs Soulburner was amazing.
@@ventusace9054the Revolver vs Soulburner duel was built up since season 2. Besides, you put way too much emphasis on whether a character wins or loses, it's not that important. Revolver taking an L isn't bad writing.
Across this whole video you focus so much on win ratios, I agree they matter in the context of rivals because they appear threatning but saying Revolver doesn't work as an antagonist and doesn't push Playmaker to his limits just because he loses is insane to me
I'm glad someone finally said it zane doesn't really feel like the rival especially after season 1 were he legit does not interact with jaden until the small part s3
The yugi kaiba thing a goku vegeta thing it’s a rivalry where the protag makes the rival grow because well plot armor is insane
Ngl I skipped Sevens and GO Rush not because I dislike them but because I didn't watch them yet so I don't want spoilers lmao
Zwijo and Luke are PEAK rivals, they genuinely push the protagonists of their series to th3 brink
I have a few things to say about this.
I don't think that Revolver is a bad rival because he loses to Playmaker even when he completed his strategy, because this is more like a Playmaker can't lose problem of the writing and not really about Revolver specifically. (Also Playmaker like fights to the death every time, so HE CAN'T LOSE. So it is more about the stakes that are high as hell that Revolver just falls short)
On that note, I think Revolver is a great rival, because he is the opposite of Playmaker in everything:
1) Revolver focuses on the past and Playmaker on the future
2) Revolver thinks Ai should be deleted and Playmaker thinks that they can live peacefully with them
3) That is a bit of a stretch, but Revolver's deck is mostly about disrupting the opponent which in a sense could be a metaphor for dragging them down with him, whereas Playmaker deck focuses on powering up his own monsters so he rises to the top.
4) Revolver is the first ever to Synchro summon and that just makes Playmaker have to compete with him on the other summoning mechanics because MORE MECHANICS = STRONGER DUELIST supposedly (Playmaker's Ritual is a main deck monster, so in yugioh lore it doesn't hold that much value in comparison to an extra deck one)
Also, Revolver serves as rival of sorts to almost everyone if you think about it. He is the necessary evil that exists in order to push everyone forward like Soulburner, Aoi, Go, Ghost Girl, Zaizen and even Ai. He doesn't do that good of a job with them like he does with Playmaker and Soulburner, but he still plays a major role to their development since they then strive to become better.
You should make a video for all the Protagonists.
But Luke is not the Rival, he is best friend, and the common characteristics of a best friend are present in him, while Roa is the actual Rival and possesses the characteristics of Rivals.
But I'm glad you put the Rush series on the list
I agree.
Tbh manga chazz is just soooo boring the only he has over anime was he actually won a duek against jaden but he doesn't really much character after that
Dude I love your videos, your personal opinions are on the mic, 🔥🔥 please do more like villains
Thank you so very much and trust me I will definitely be doing a video on the best and worst villains. It is a. Ideo I have been really wanting to do for a while.
Shark had more of a case since he came in first and was a Barian opposed to Yuma for almost the entire series but Zexal you could go either way. I like Kaito more
I would say that in Duel Monsters, Bakura is more like a rival due to him and Yugi having the same goal but for different reasons, and they have a pretty similar skill level/play style. For GX obviously Zane would have been the better rival, and I would argue that he is since Jaden was working hard to surpass him and yet never truly beat him in a duel even once. Chazz was mostly just there as either comedic relief or even a pretty decent duel.
Bakura was the overarching antagonist of DM, he's not the rival at all. That'd be like pegging Frieza as Goku's rival instead of Vegeta. Hell Kaiser was definitely the character in GX that bore the most resemblance to Kaiba, therefore people tend to point to him as the main rival more often, but I disagree. Kaiser and Judai don't really have a rival relationship, Kaiser was always just definitively better than Judai, and neither of them ever felt an overwhelming compulsion to one-up the other. Manjoume was obsessed with beating Judai at some points which I think makes him closer to the archetypal shounen rival. 🤷♀
The rush animes definitely knows hkw to use most of the characters either by comedic effect and serious moments, luke is a goofy kid but god what a powerhouse on a duel, and zwijo has his silly moments (the duel with yuamu over a tea set is the best example) and he still manages to be a very important and serious character
Putting all the least liked series’s rivals in the good category certainly is a hot take, but i 100% agree lol. Good video
Zwijo was really cool and badass
And let's hope he stays that way untill the series ends.
@@ventusace9054 (SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO WATCH GO RUSH, I GUESS?)
Given the summaries of the following Episodes, I think it's understandable why Zwijo doesn't appear in GO RUSH's Season 3 Poster. How are you going to put a character who is destined to die on a Poster?
Sure, he may be revived later, but it doesn't take away from the fact that he will have a "Kaito" style farewell and it is very possible that he will leave with a high honor/badass after finishing GO RUSH's Season 2.
Next video: Best and Worst Best Friend?
And let's be real, the title of "friendly rival" in Arc-V needs to go to Yuzu and not Kurosaki, since she has the same path of Yuya but she does it in a different way (and, yeah, it sucks that she never duel after the Synchro Dimension but that doesn't mean that Yuzu is not the main friendly rival of Yuya, especially when we understand the Zarc and Ray lore u.u)
Best is either Johan or Kiryu, worst is a take your pick of the numbers club.
I think that you should not label Revolver a rival. Revolver is not particularly a "rival" in the true sense of the term. Vrains doesn't follow usual shonen motives regarding the character's roles. Playmaker is a protagonist but he doesn't really have the traits of a shonen protagonist, he isn't kind, has to learn to care for others throughout the series and at the end of the day he is mostly driven by vengeance during the first season. Vrains themes are about how each character tied to the lost incident experienced such a traumatic event. Yusaku is driven by vengeance to claim the time he lost, Soulburner became afraid of dueling and couldn't get past this event, Spectre found a purpose despite his twisted mentality, Kusanagi's brother was so severely affected he never spoke again and as for Revolver it is guilt despite being a child during this incident. Revolver is only interested in Yusaku because he feels responsible for the incident that ruined the lives of the latter and Soulburner, Spectre and Kusanagi's brother. And that is why he deeply respects them. Even though he loses his first master duel with the appearance of Firewall Dragon, the character nonetheless remains established as strong (remember that playmaker remains an elite duelist too), on several occasions he has beaten other characters in the cast or forced ties proving his skills. Even his last duel against Soulburner shows all the empathy he has for him by trying to save him. This first duel is there to establish Revolver as an honorable antagonist understanding the main character's motivations and accepting the conflict that will unfold. He also refrains from revealing Yusaku's identity to his father, taking on the burden of history on his shoulders. He plays an antagonist role for the first season and thereafter there is nothing of a rivalry between Yusaku and him, Revolver is a driving character of the plot who pursues his objectives with honor and duty.
I would consider the Gore as Playmaker's rival more than Revolver as Revolver was his enemy and no longer is.
Edit: now that I think about it Revolver is a bit similar to Z-one in a sense that they have a strong burden, acknowledge the protagonist's motivation but go through radical methods to fix history.
Its nice to see someone who has watched all of the Yugioh anime.🎉🎉🎉
While I agree regarding Jack, he had his moments in part 2 of 5ds. Most notably, he does some offscreen training and gives Yusei the toughest duel of his life in the finale
I love Revolver as a character but man did I wish they made him more capable, man if anything Playmaker is a better Rival to Revolver than Revolver is to Playmaker. I wish they would've gotten more duels too since somehow bohman got more then they did together... Revolver was done so dirty too, he had no reason to lose to Lightning. PM's and Revolvers goals are practically aligned by this point have them team up to duel bohman or something (did they forget about seizing a new future together or something) and it just waters him down so much.
I completely agree with your takes here
I’ve never seen rush, but I just wish they would bring rush to the tcg region. It’s not on any of our platforms except like crunchyroll
0:38 that explains it🤯
Alright you convinced me with your argument on Luke being the rival. And hey four out of four so it’s an even score
1. Kaito🎉
2. Luke 🎉
3. Declan🎉
4. Jack Atlas
5. Revolver
6. Seto Kaiba
7. Chazz
I haven't watched Yu-Gi-Oh Go Rush so it's only from DM to Sevens, sorry.😅
Hey can you make a channel for these tcg anime Vanguard, Buddyfight, Duel Masters and Battle Spirit
Kaiba only was about to lose in duelist kingdom cause Yugi pulled the biggest cheat in all of duelist kingdom
Not really, cause the rules of duelist Kingdom were basically Dangeons and dragons rules
Yuma held back against kite in thier second duel by not using his Zexal transformation.
The duel was Yuma on his own against Kaito, which is why no Zexal form as well so Yuma didn't hold back but wanted to win with his own strength and without Astral he didn't win. Granted with Zexal form they didn't beat Kaito before but knows what would have happened a second time around.
@@ventusace9054 OK then. If you put it that way.
@@ventusace9054in the sub it's explained. They were in an area where zexal form can't be used
To give Kaiba and Jack some props, i always felt like they were the respective #2's of their series, aside from final arc villains
Like, I never expected them to ever beat the MC, but I always thought they had the closest chance and they always put on a great show when trying
I will also say that they embody the idea of power very well. Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Red Nova Dragon certainly felt stronger than Dark Magician of Chaos and Shooting Star Dragon
Same goes to Revolver. Like, who else is supposed to reasonably contest the MC's? Joey? Crow? Maybe Soulburner?
Personally I think Luke might be the best BECAUSE
Spoiler Alert:
of his single loss in the series being when it mattered the most, that none of his other results mattered when he couldn't win when he needed to and it messed him up, that's a really strong character moment that most other rivals don't even come close to hitting for both him and Yuga
And I know this video was before then but the fact that Zwijo goes out beating Yudias and fulfilling what he had wanted to do from the beginning of the show is powerful
Kaiba should be ranked higher considering that he was about to beat Yugi in the "Pyramid of Light" movie. And i bet the creator forgot about that. Plus he definitely pushed Yugi in their battle city duel
Where would tou pur Yuuhi on the Rival Scale if you dont mind my asking, because i feel Yuuhi and Zwijo are both equally capable of essentially being Yuudias' main rival?
I can't say I would rank him in a rival category because he is more of a companion character like Joey, Syrus or Crow in my opinion and the only rival like aspect I got from them was in the tournament which was very short in scale with just them wanting to face one another but not enough for me to consider him and Zwijo interchangeable rivals that way I could with Kaito and Shark.
@@ventusace9054 that's fair, I never really thought of that because I thought of them as more friendly rivals who push each other's but yeah that does fit a more companion archetype
Kaiba and Revolver are the best and the most powerful rivals!
Chazz and Zane were both Jaden’s rival my guy not Jesse. They even said for Yugioh gx they wanted to switch it up a lil bit and give the protagonist more than 1 rival. So what they do, they took Kaiba and split him into 2 different personalities enter chazz n Zane. And come on cyber dragons are clearly the machine version of blue-eyes🤦🏽♂️. Cyber End is clearly blue eyes ultimate. hell Zane even has a similar outfit to kaiba.
Honestly I do Yu-Gi-Oh fanfiction and I just gotta use Phaser, Luke and Zwijo I just wish I knew how to use their decks
In my head cannon Kaiba kicked the pharaohs ass in the afterlife duel in the movie.
I'll only say one thing, kaiba may have not been a good rival... but c'mon man that battle city arc with obelisk vs slifer was epic af and one of the times where yugi truly felt challenged against someone
My biggest problem with Kaiba was his lack of development. After what happened in Duelist Kingdom I’d expect him to become substantially less of a Douchebag.
Maybe Revolver should have beaten playmaker and gave the cure to him instead.
Bruv youve convinced me. Im gonna watch Yugioh 7. My question is Dub or Sub?
I will miss Zwijo
I will say the main problem with revolver is was playmaker being too powerfull.
Chazz it up.
2:14 - To be fair, he is up against The King of Games, who literally wills the right cards to be drawn. Moreover, I don't think a rival's purpose is to win, but to push the protagonist to be their best. Kaiba did make Yugi/Pharaoh struggle in their duels and put them in situations where growth (not just regarding the game) was had. I think that makes him at least a decent rival.
3:25 - You probably heard it from someone else by now, but Kaiba does not consider this win to be legitimate and emphasizes that he wants a proper rematch later on to prove himself. It's just that he believed he had to do this for the sake of his brother.
manga-wise (including stuff before death-t), yugi believed he needed to get stronger to defeat a seto who believes in the heart of the cards
after six months off-screen, yugi proceeds to lose exodia just as he's going to duelist kingdom
the fake seto basically is proof of the gap between seto and yugi...to an extent
before joey faces bonz, seto steamrolls him and yugi theorizes he has the heart of the cards now
after a lot of experiences, seto proves his strength to yugi and forces him to break his limits (as battle city makes clear for both), but his weak heart made him accept the L once his plan failed
of course they all get loads stronger later, but this is to put the scaling into perspective
but yes, the big issue with seto kaiba (ignoring the meta of the card game not really being developed irl nor as the start) would be more plot relevance than anything else, because marik existing kinda forces him out of the finals one way or another, whereas a lot of the other rivals down the road are at least more relevant as an active threat in the physical world
I will be honest, I forgot Reiji was even a rival because he had so little presents as a rival but more as a commander. At the time, Yuya and he had to duel one last time, it felt shoehorned and at that point I dropped Arc V because how bad the finale was against Zarc. Reiji was complete fodder to Zarc and probably couldn't even match Yuri, so I felt kinda pointless to have them duel.
Similary, I feel Kaito and Yuma didn't have to duel after Nasch was defeated. Kaito had good showing and proved himself, but you don't need to watch any more of Zexal to assume that Yuma could beat him now.
Regarding Manjoume, the funny thing is, there was one duel he lost on purpose against Judai, when he was dueling as the character Ojamanjoume. But I still feel as a rival he is disappointing, mainly because Judai is a character who cannot have a 'rival' due to how special he is. And you cannot just add Yugi or someone with unique special powers that can keep challenging him throughout the story, I guess. I am glad he defeated Edo Phoenix.
Don’t agree with what you said about revolver just because he lost the first duel doesn’t mean he’s not a threat after all he beat everyone else and really came close to winning in the season 1 finale
Zwijo had quite the impact in the latest episode.
Another issue comparing yugioh rivals to Pokémon is Pokémon didn’t have the same stakes. Ash can lose with no real consequences most of the time while in yugioh if Kaiba wins the world ends almost every occasion
Never let bro cook again.
me, who wasn't paying attention to almost all of them: "who?"
Jonouchi and Seto is really more of a true rivalry. Seto is a wall that Jonouchi needs to overcome and he has no crutch to help.
I honestly think it doesn't make sense to think Kaito is the main rival and not Shark.
Shark/Nash has had 6 duels with yuma, whereas Kaito has only had 3 with Yuma. Kaito also only really felt like a proper rival to Yuma in ZEXAL I. Shark had duels with Yuma throughout ZEXAL I and II, not to mention he is literally the final antagonist of the series.
Yuma and Nash are also meant to be foils to each other during the Barian Emperor Onslaught Arc. They hold heavy burdens of fate. Nasch is fighting to save Barian World, whilst Yuma is fighting to save all the worlds, as he doesn't want to sacrifice anyone for the future. And this difference in ideology is what leads Yuma to win.
That's not to say Kaito isn't a bad rival. He is an amazing rival. But I think Shark is the main rival against Yuma.
superb video though, love how you've actually seen all all 8 shows
Kaito will always be the main rival for me and Shark will be the best friend because they both share similar traits with kaiba and joey (Main rival and best friend of the original series). I do understand that Nasch was the last Barian standing and he faced Yuma more times but Kaito was a challenge Yuma never beat and he has all the swagger of a Kaiba. It's like being the Char clone of a Gundam series.
@@moonshadow0078I always hate it when people compare ZEXAL characters to DM characters (Shark/Joey and Kaito/Kaiba), because it’s fucking annoying (no offence).
Shark and Kaito are both much better, more complexly written characters than their DM ‘counterparts’, and are only similar to them on a surface level. It’s genuinely an insult to their characters if they’re equated to Joey/Kaiba. So stop it.
‘Kaito was more of a challenge’. Yeah, but he literally only dueled Yuma in ZEXAL I. How is that a consistent rivalry? Their rivalry barely exists in ZEXAL II, it’s there, just barely.
Shark was also a very good competitor to Yuma. He beat Yuma once, should have beat him in the WDC arc but purposefully lost because of Tron/Vetrix shenanigans, then again would have beat him in their final duel if not for Yuma’s unexpected moment of philosophical action. That’s 3/6 of their duels. All throughout ZEXAL I and II
And again, no offence, but I don’t give a fuck about ‘swagger of Kaiba’ lol. Kaito is his own character, he doesn’t need to be compared to Kaiba as if Kaiba is some role model/pedestal for all the rivals after him…
Konami definitely thinks shark is the rival, their accounts literally retweeted masuda toshiki saying my rival
@@fxzzy__ @fxzzy__ @fxzzy__ wow, don't get all riled up because I compared characters. These characters aren't taking offense to me comparing them to other characters they are clearly inspired by. There is no "insult" it just bothers you. Obviously they are their own characters.
Honestly tho from the looks of it Zexal and GX have always been the series where the "main rival" is heavily debated. TO ME kaito will always be THE Zexal rival because of said reasons in my other post. Yes, as a rivalry Shark and Yuma are better than Kaito and Yuma. But "the" rival character??? Kaito hands down.
And yes, Kaito has that "Aura" (for lack of a better term), the same one that Kaiba, Jack, Reiji, and Revolver have. If you don't give a fuck that's cool. That's just my opinion.
@@moonshadow0078 My bad lol, i was in a bad mood last night, forgive me
"Ventus Ace, why is that you have come to despise ranking videos?"
"It is because of the realization that what lies beyond tier lists is that we can no longer understand them: the characters we knew"
"It is that part of you, Ventus, that I have always despised!"
"It's that part of you... Everything about you... That I daisuki!"
😮😮😮
MARUDE SHINKIROOOOOOOO
I'm not gonna Luke annoyed the hell out of me but boy was a best bud I had ever seen since Joey, and honestly I hate dub Luke as he's annoying as heck and Japanese Luke is a goof but a powerful duelist to back up his skills
yeah, but after season 2, zwijo became just the guy who just servers to exposed the plot. His rivaly with yuudias was the only interesting thing that made me watch go rush. They both wanted to stop the wars, but their metodhs were so different that creatd a real conflict.
However... Isn't this the same thing that Kaito and Revolver went through? Both were rivals initially defined by the rivalry with the MC, but later they became important characters for the plot, leaving aside the rivalry that existed with the MC.
Jack is similar: he was a tough rival during the first half of 5Ds, but that rivalry with Yusei became a friendship or mutual companionship between the two (who did not Duel again until later, but it was not because of rivalry but rather as friendship)
Kaiba for me because he is like that jerk we don't want to listen too but we know we have to because he speaks the truth. The only reason i feel kaiba lost to yugi is because yugi cheats like crazy. if it was more life like kaiba would mop the floor with yugi because yugi wouldn't have the bullshit selling slogan "heart of the cards" as a plot armor. imagine getting the shit smacked out of you even at kaibas level by bullshit like that! I can relate to kaiba because my greatest accomplishments in life are over shadowed by stupid shit my brother does.
‘If it was more life like’
Okay but it isn’t. The reality is Yugi mopped the floor with Kaiba every time with 0 difficulty. That isn’t a rivalry 😭
LMAO, bro thinks he’s Kaiba because his brother is better than him. Get off the Internet and relax for a bit. Learn to be a good person. If your brother is exceeding in something be happy for him, don’t cry like a bitch. Just focus on improving yourself. Ain’t no way you’re telling me you relate to Kaiba because of that 💀💀
@@fxzzy__ yes I suppose so you're correct but still that damn plot armor
Almost every character in Yu-Gi-Oh f****** cheated . Who really cares.. the original will always be the best..
@@XOTICXPATRIATE Kaiba would mop the floor with Yugi by having the more expensive cards rather than actually being skilled if Yugi didn't have the millennium puzzle.
@@Honest_Mids_Masher or that dumb as plot armor. We both know how that stupid shit works. But I completely agree with you on that.
I respect your points but I gotta defend my man Manjoume. GX characters get a bad rap(and they do deserve it), but at many times it is due to bad writing and also a misunderstanding at the story being told. Manjoume as a rival is not what was expected of characters like Kaiba, but Manjoume defied all expectations of his peers since he was supposed to be a bully, someone who is talented but who wanted to always push others down, till he got knocked down, and he was left out hung to dry. Its messed up, because he was kicked out, almost dies, survives the frozen land he arrived to, just to then rule DA North and come back for revenge. Even though he loses he is acknowledged as actually talented and not a snobby cheat. He actually gained so much respect points they take him back into DA, he KEEPS the prized cards from DA North and then rolls on like one of the top threats of DA. People worship and fear him, something only ever done by Judai, Kenzan, and Fubuki if you want to count the worship. He is used too much for jokes that is true but such a personality isnt really worthy of having spotlight but he still takes it. He was the main one converting DA into the society of light, he also was the main person to beat and convert back the society of light members back to normal, he also won the genex tournament, and before you say "But JuDaI bEaT HiM" Manjoume was winning the duel and like Edo said, sometimes there is monster out there worth destroying more than the duel in front of you. It was his way of saying FU to Saio and the powers from the light of destruction. He also has special powers which makes him a much better duelist than many others in the main cast. His whole story about dueling his brother is a great bit of story of how false expectations from others who have influence on you can drive you insane and still he put his brothers in his place while being the youngest, it was also great way showing why keeps the ojamas out of all the weak duel monster spirits he's vowed to protect, they are like him and his two brothers, behind the glamour and presence they're just annoying but they are always together, with ojama yellow being him, its because thats why he always gets mad and insults himself, to me he is just too real. And he was the only one out the senior gang to walk out of DA with fame and contracts for the pro league because of his duel with Edo. To me it's a scenario like how people bash Yamcha for being the weakest in DBZ/Super, but again comparing to gods and dimension rulers, being being part of that circle and technically stronger than those out of that circle is pretty good to me. In the whole rival dueling side yeah he is bad and only had 2 duels that he could have won against Judai, but still I would put him as a solid either B or A rank rival because he stands on business. He made it without his family's money, or help, focuses on what matters most: fried shrimp.
I honestly think Kaito should be above Reiji. He just works better as a rival because during the first season if he got his way Yuma couldn't get his, which makes him a really good rival. Where Reiji wants essentially exactly what Yuya wants.
The order I presented the rivals was by series order not particularly not by ranking. So the video doesn't present Reiji higher than Kaito that is just the order of the series from 1-8.
@@ventusace9054 oh I see, my bad
I’ll say this about this about chazz. The manga version of him (the true version imo) butchered everybody other than Zane. In the anime, despite probably being one of the most talented deck builders and having good moments. He and revolver pretty much got thrown in the same category of dealing with a protagonist who’s nearly unbeatable. Albeit revolver is more like who chazz is in the manga, he didn’t become comic relief. But I wanted to point out that parallel. Seems to be a problem in yugioh
If you wanted to make a good joke character, Luke should have been what Chazz wasn't, but as a rival, Luke still fits perfectly.
As much as I love Kaito, he does have a flaw as a rival. The rivalry is just kind of dropped midway through the series. While Yuma surely surpasses Kaito by the end of the series, we never get that payoff. The character is fine, but the storytelling could be better.
Also, Mizael isn't the strongest Barian. Nasch was stronger.
Kaiba was so good that gx took him and split him into 2 mfs
I would disagree kaiba pushes atem and atem push kaiba.
You can tell Jack is the best, hes implying it the entire time in the background despite all of his hate for 5Ds. But in all seriousness this is a good video, I find Luke to be an annoying character but his skill as a Duelist was always top notch making him a goal that Yuga had to surpass to becomes King of Duels. Kaiba was always written well as a character but I feel him and Yugi should have been more on equal footing, but Atem was basically just a god who would always win no matter what.
I’m sure you saw the correlation that all good rivals faced off against shit main characters
The analogy on kiaba is so wrong yu-gi beat him by hax where the pharo can litterally pull whatever cars he needs from his deck so the fact that he could keep up vs someone with cheat mode on is testament to his abbilites also he should have won the duelest kingdome duel yugi hod nonway to beat blue eyes uktimate dragon and had to again cheat by fusing mammoth graveyard with it to apparntly decay ultimate dragon he bullshit his way through that kaiba had won thatvwhatever way you spin it
shark ain't yumas rival, he's his best friend
rivals are competitors. you don't have to be enemies to be rivals lol. I think Yuma and Shark's rivalry is amazing, they duel multiple times in ZEXAL and witnessing their growth is amazing.
Nah, Konami has made it clear shark is the rival
@@themarshian5124 just one of the many quotes from yuma and shark "even though we gave our all together to beat don thousand, me and my BEST FRIEND are schredding each other in this duel"
@@slewdry8233 he says the same thing with kite, many times, not a reliable point, then theres the fact THE ONLY PERSON yuma played a card specifically named "Rival's unite." against shark, not kite, in the semifinals as if it was yugi & kaiba again.
yuma neither calls either of them his rival in the entire series which is why there's this confusion, but the card still stands.
@@slewdry8233 didn't I just tell you friends can be rivals.... 😭
Kaiba's ego conquers all
Guess what, they don’t.
1) Unpopular opinion, but I don't like Seto Kaiba. He looks like Christopher Robin going through phase and his attitude is pure garbage. Loud buffoon who didn't believe in supernatural even if it would kick him in his butt. Also he wasn't that great of a duelist. He loose a lot and couldn't realise potential of some cards. For example Kuriboh, negating attack was really good in early Yu-Gi-Oh, because stats weren't that high.
2) Jack Atlas was great character. In later episodes he shifted from rival to friend and ally, but still was great. Sadly he didn't have much victories of his own. Jack was used in similar way to Vegeta. By defiting him new enemy shows how strong he is
3) Akaba Reiji for me was quite forgetable. He didn't duel a lot, had no real victories and was insignificant to the story.
Kaiba is the best rival and here's why. He was fighting yugi aka the strobe yugioh character in the history of yugioh. Why is that? Because the man could literally re write the rules of yugioh to bend to his own whim whenever he wants. How are you gonna bet I guy who hits zero life points and you're like "haha I win yugi the duel is over" and he's just like "nah imma do my own thing" gets infinity life points and than he destroys the moon for lots. We can't blame kaiba for that. He was just fighting yugioh god
Terrible argument. It’s like saying ‘the bad writing was done on purpose so it’s good writing!!’
Their ‘rivalry’ is the equivalent of the weakest man on Earth repeatedly attempting to fight the strongest man on Earth but getting absolutely pummelled every time.
Sorry to break it to you, but that isn’t a rivalry 😭
And if you think that bullshit is the best rivalry, you HAVE NOT seen all/most of the other YGO shows….
I really didn't like Luke it was overused in the entire series and only thinking why didn't make him the mc instead of yuga? I really hate Luke's personality