History Awesome / YuGiOh5Ds

* Episode 102: It's been established that Yusei has been struggling to find a way to deal with the Meklords that can absorb Synchro Monsters. This episode is where it seems that he's worked out a solution, using a ''Fusion Summon'' to use his own Synchro Monsters to form Draco-Equiste. Not only is it a complete mindblow to everyone in the series and a lot of fans, since nobody ever expected him to do that, but the use of [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic both versions of Yusei Battle]] (the first when bringing Junk Warrior out, and the 2nd when performing the fusion) is just the cherry on top.

* Episode 73: A psycho on, for lack of a better description, a giant spiked bulldozer, crashes a party and barrels toward Aki. Yusei panics. Without the slightest trace of flinching, Aki uses her powers to summon Black Rose Dragon and send the guy through a window.

* In episode 25, demanding to know whats going on once and for all, Yusei decides to confront Godwin. However, his way is blocked by two guards. Now if this were Yugi or Jaden in this situation, they'd challenge the guards to a duel in order to get past. However, since this is the older and significantly more well built (read as: Badass Yusei, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNsAhyZLovI&feature=related he just goes Street Fighter on them instead.]] Sure the 4kids dub added a few flashes in it to attempt to censor the scene, but it was done so badly, it was kept mainly intact even there. Unintentional [=CMoA=] for them, too. :)

* After getting destroyed by Andore, JACK ATLAS, injured and bleeding after taking a brutal fall off his bike, claws with every last ounce of strength in his body to get the Wheel of Fortune to the finish line so he can baton pass to Aki. Stay amazing, Mr. Atlus.
** He ends up seriously injured because of that, of course. Except that he then ignores his injury during Yusei's duel and shows up saying that if he could endure all that, so could Yusei, [[DareToBeBadass basically challenging Yusei to be as badass as he is.]] And, if you think about it, there's a subtle one: similar injuries have put both Crow and Akisa out of commission, forcing them to skip duels, however Jack Atlas just recovers from that without any lasting consequences. He's just made of Badassium.

* Team Unicorn in general is this, full stop. First, there's Andore, more than capable of wiping out teams of opponents on his own, and actually managed to beat JACK and Aki on his own, halving Yusei's life points before losing. Then we have Breo and Jean, two good duelist in their own with impressive skills. But what makes the team truly shine is their perfect teamwork and ability to plan. They are one of the two teams in the whole tournament to really use teamwork to win the duel (in the rare occurence Andore doesn't just win it on his own, I mean), perfectly executing a strategy that might sacrifice individual success to guarantee a victory in the long run. And, unlike team Tayou, it isn't even a one-trick horse: each of them has a completely unique playstyle that mixes perfectly with the other two, so that they can assist providing each a different threat, and they don't merely repeat the same thing in every situation, they tailor it to their opponent. They also know that mind games aren't limited to the playfield, and effectively start playing team 5Ds ''days'' before the actual match. In the end, team 5D couldn't even get a straight win against them, in the final turn Jean would have won just by passing, since Yusei didn't have any card left in his deck, they only lost because they willingly sacrificed a sure victory for a more fun and risky conclusion. Bonus point to Jean, that would have still sacrificed his enjoyment for his teammates and only took the risk after they went out of their way to encourage him to do so. Doubles as heartwarming, showing how much they care for each other. On top of that, they are completely BadassNormal: no dragons, no gods, no powers, even the cards they use are not that rare or unique by themselves, they are just ''that'' good with strategy and teamwork.

* Team Taiyou's on-screen duel cements their status as even bigger {{Badass Normal}}s than Team Unicorn. They come from the slums with just a janky Duel Runner, a deck full of terrible Normal Monsters and similarly poor Spells and Traps from the game's early days to their name, and on top of that more or less decided to particpate on a whim. Yet, they've managed to defeat two teams (admittedly with a BoringButPractical strategy) to get to square off against the protagonists, and somehow overcome waves of robot Turbo Duelists offscreen ableit with their Duel Runner damaged. While Team [=5D's=] breaks through their stall strategy by destroying Holding-Hands Majin, they unveil their true win condition: to ''summon'' Zushin, a feat which (thanks to Zushin's horrible summoning condition of keeping a Level 1 Normal Monster alive for 10 of their turns) had never been done before, ''ever'', despite every man and his mother owning one (Rua notes that he has several). The crowd's attitude takes a full 180, going from booing them for their bland strategy to unanimously cheering for them for making history. With their near-unstoppable true Ace Monster, they manage to back Yusei into a corner such that he's forced to pull out Shooting Star Dragon to clinch victory. To a long-time player, seeing Team Taiyou duel evokes the feeling of taking on an optimized competitive deck using a deck slapped together from stray cards and whatever one can scrounge up... and still performing astoundingly well.

* [[OneHitKill One Turn Three Kill]].
** Context: In the Crash Town arc, Yusei once went up against three lackeys at once. He destroyed them in a single turn using Nitro Warrior.

--> '''Yusei''': Earthbound Gods can't be attacked, so I can attack you instead!
** It should be noted that the Earthbound Gods do NOT work this way in the real card game; if the only monster your opponent controls is Uru, you simply can't attack at all (unless your monster can attack directly anyways.) Then again, that interpretation would make an even more one-sided duel than it does in real life, given that the Gods are a lot harder to destroy in the anime...
*** This deserves some explanation... Legendary Fisherman, a card that Mako used against Joey ''way'' back in YGO Duel Monsters and that was subsequently released in RealLife was initially ruled so that you ''could'' attack your opponent directly if they controlled Umi and their only face-up monster was Legendary Fisherman. When the Jibakushin came out, the effect was re-queried and determined that it did, in fact, prevent direct attacks (Legendary Fisherman's ruling was also revised accordingly).
* Episode 102: The first time Yusei performs a ''Fusion'' Summon, fusing his two most famous monsters (Stardust Dragon and Junk Warrior) to form Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste. Not only is it a complete mindblow to everyone in the series and a lot of fans, since nobody ever expected him to do that, but the use of [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic both versions of Yusei Battle]] (the first when bringing Junk Warrior out, and the 2nd when performing the fusion) is just the cherry on top.
** During the same duel, Yusei has zero cards in his deck and Jean could just end his turn to win the duel. However, Yusei animates Jean to attack his monster in defense position just by looking at him. Then Yusei disgard his Stronghold Guardian to increase the DEF of his monster and wins the duel thanks to the battle damage. That's right. Yusei wins a duel because his monster has more DEF than the opponent's monster ATK.

* Yusei's victory over Harald of Team Ragnarok. As insurance if Yusei pulls out a comeback, Harald uses a card called "Gjallarhorn", which after three turns destroys all his monsters and inflicts their ATK as damage, a total of 10,800 in this case. On the third turn though, seeing Yusei pull out Shooting Star Dragon from nothing in one turn, he starts worrying Yusei has a Set card that can stop "Gjallarhorn". To make sure of his victory Harald uses "Odin's Eye" to see what Yusei's face-down cards are, but Yusei counters with "Trick Mirror", negating Odin's Eye and keeping his other face-down concealed. Terrified Yusei really does have something to stop "Gjallarhorn" that he was stopping him from seeing, Harald goes for the attack to end the duel quicker. Turns out Yusei really was bluffing -- his face-down card is "Zero Force", which saps the ATK of Harald's monsters to 0. The turn ends, Harald's monsters self-destruct by his own card effect, and thanks to Zero Force their combined ATK that Yusei takes as damage is a whopping '''0'''. On his next turn Yusei's Shooting Star Dragon returns to the field and he attacks for the win.
* Savior Star and Shooting Star batallions to wipe out multiple cards. The CGI is amazing. Oh. My. GOD.
* Episode 148: Having received his friends Signer Dragons, Yusei begins the duel against Zone by summoning Black Feather and Red Demon's right after summoning five monsters in his first turn; with Crow and Jack delivering the Synchro Speech with him. Aki does the same when he pulls out Black Rose. Then he damages Zone and the resulting mood leads to pretty much everyone left in the area chanting his name with the first glimmer of hope that the Ark Cradle may not obliterate them and their city.
* Episode 149: During Z-One's turn, Yusei draws five cards that allow him to Synchro Summon Ancient Fairy Dragon.
* Episode 150: Just the whole damn thing. Having summoned all of his friends dragons one after another as the above begins and almost falling to his death. Then his father comes back from the dead briefly just to bitchslap Yusei back to his senses. Then Yusei pulls out his biggest CMOA by using Life Stream to summon the other four Signer Dragons that aren't Stardust and ride through the atmosphere, whilst everyone watching calls his name and pours their hearts into what they're watching. He passes through and into freaking space, combines the powers of his friends Birthmarks and turns GOLD. With the five dragons on his field, he quintuple Synchro Summons Shooting Quaser Dragon and heads back to face down ZONE.
* Following from the above, the Episode 151 carries on the HotBlooded awesomeness; Yusei fights on wiith Shooting Quasar Dragon, using each of his friends' dragons whenever it's helpful - they chip in when it comes to their turn - to take on Zone's Time Machine God force. Through Clustering Wishes, he then pours the powers of each dragon into Stardust to whack it up to a massive 23,000 and proceeds to smash Zone's Gods one by one. After having a montage of everyone whose meeting with him and his friends has affected them in some way, streams of light pour in from across the globe and light up Neo-Domino as Yusei calls out his final attack with Stardust in the most HotBlooded scream he has and obliterates the rest of Zone's lifepoints.

-->'''Yusei''': (thinking to himself) "It'll take a miracle to save them now!"
-->(Jack appears)
-->'''Jack''': "So who here ordered a miracle?"
** Episode 76 just might have cemented his status as a MemeticBadass. He [[SaveTheVillain saved a guy's life]] to punch him and proceeded to beat about 20 or 30 people up. The fact that he beat them without any sign of effort means that he previously let them beat him up so he could place a tracking device on one of them JUST SO HE COULD FOLLOW THEM TO THEIR BASE AND FIGHT THE ENTIRE GANG (worth mentioning, he let them hit him on the head in said previous fight, not that it did them any good). Not only that, but he dueled against their leader to the death even though he demonstrated he didn't have to beat him in a duel. He did it all for fun. This leads us to a little bit of WildMassGuessing, as to whether JACK ATLAS is actually Batman. Batman is awesome. Therefore, JACK ATLAS is Batman on [[CrazyIsCool CRAZY]]! OF COURSE, it's all clear now!

---> '''Nicolas''': Why did you save me?
---> '''JACK ATLAS''': Isn't it obvious? '''YOU DON'T EVEN DESERVE TO DIE.''' Someone like you who doesn't trust his cards and uses the power of darkness, '''DOESN'T DESERVE TO DUEL.'''

* Rua, of all people, gets one in the Dark Signer arc as he goes up against one of the Dark Signers with full knowledge of what could happen -- Crow was mostly ignorant of the dangers -- despite not being a Signer himself while its Ruka who deals the finishing blow it was Rua's setup and deck that pulled it off.
** He also gets another moment in ep. 78 against Lucciano and his Machine Emperor Skiel Infinity. After Ruka had unknowingly walked right into his plan and practically given him Ancient Fairy Dragon, Rua makes what effectively amounts to the card game equivalent of a HeroicSacrifice just to get it back for her. Sure, they lose and he just about makes an ''actual'' Heroic Sacrifice, but ''boy'' does he royally piss Lucciano off in the process!
---> '''Rua''': I'll never let you have Ancient Fairy Dragon! I'm not a Signer, but Ruka, who has a Signer birthmark, is my pride and joy! And I'll protect Ancient Fairy Dragon, who is a symbol of that!

* Episode 142 sees Rua [[TookALevelInBadass taking quite a level in badass]], refusing to give up against Aporia. His resolve leads to the Crimson Dragon [[TheSixthRanger recognising him as a Signer]]. Then, shortly afterwards, he uses the newly created Birthmark to ''finally'' summon the original 5th Dragon, Life Stream Dragon.
** The lead-up to this is awesome too: He singlehandedly rescues Jack from being taken out by Aporia and weakens his trump card, Asterisk enough to survive after provoking Aporia as a result. And when his turn comes up, he proceeds to not only summon two of his Deformer monsters but he also manages to bring out both Power Tool Dragon for himself and Ancient Fairy Dragon for Ruka. Since he has 100 life point left, the massive damage would have majorly overkilled him (while also keeping Ruka from being hit since [[LoopholeAbuse it was Rua who summoned her Dragon]]) and it did... but Deformer Lighton, which he summoned to the field earlier that turn, brings his life points back to 100 with its effect. In other words, he took a gamble in order to bring out two high level synchro monsters for free, cheating death in the process (as Lighton's effect was a 50/50 chance). He '''earned''' that Signer Mark.
*** Life Stream Dragon as a whole ends up being [[KryptoniteFactor a massive]] [[SpannerInTheWorks middle finger]] to Aporia's game plan and mindset. For the former, its effect not only brings everyone back to 2000 Life Points (which has the side effect of rescuing a despairing Ruka from death by heartbreak after Rua's near-death) but also negates effect damage, meaning Aporia's Level Cannon and Asterisk can no longer force them to play passive. For the latter... well, just look at the summon chant.

* Episode 86. Kiryu. Harmonica. Awesomeness ensues. He proceeds to have a few more in every episode in the arc afterwards.
* Episode 90. Who knew a minor character's last moments could be so awesome?

---> '''Andore''': The reason we don't ''care '' that you managed to destroy ''Speed Spell-The End Of Storm,'' is because Breo doesn't ''need '' it. Stardust Dragon is no threat to his deck.
---> '''Yusei''': OhCrap, Breo's using a Deck Destruction Deck!

* Team Taiyou's on-screen duel cements their status as even bigger {{Badass Normal}}s than Team Unicorn. They come from the slums with just a janky Duel Runner, a deck full of terrible Normal Monsters and similarly poor Spells and Traps from the game's early days to their name, and on top of that more or less decided to particpate on a whim. Yet, they've managed to defeat two teams (admittedly with a BoringButPractical strategy) to get to square off against the protagonists, and somehow overcome waves of robot Turbo Duelists offscreen ableit with their Duel Runner damaged. And when they face Team [=5D's=], who were supposedly able to break through their strategy by destroying Holding-Hands Majin. However much to Yusei's shock the team remains calm at their predicament. Then their plot unfolds and managing to ''summon'' Zushin, a feat which (thanks to Zushin's horrible summoning condition of keeping a Level 1 Normal Monster alive for 10 of their turns) had never been done before, ''ever'', despite every man and his mother owning one (Rua notes that he has several). The crowd takes a full 180, going from booing them for their bland strategy to unanimously cheering for them for making history. With their near-unstoppable true Ace Monster, they manage to back Yusei into a corner such that he's forced to pull out Shooting Star Dragon to clinch victory. To a long-time player, seeing Team Taiyou duel evokes the feeling of taking on an optimized competitive deck using a deck slapped together from stray cards and whatever one can scrounge up... and still performing astoundingly well.

* Team Taiyou managing to ''summon'' Zushin, a feat which (thanks to Zushin's horrible summoning condition) had never been done before, ''ever'', despite every man and his mother owning one (Rua notes that he has several). The crowd takes a full 180, going from booing them for their bland strategy to unanimously cheering for them for making history.
** Team Taiyou's on-screen duel cements their status as {{Badass Normal}}s. They come from the slums with just a janky Duel Runner and a deck full of terrible Normal Monsters and similarly poor Spells and Traps from the game's early days to their name. Yet, they've managed to defeat two teams (admittedly with a BoringButPractical strategy) to get to square off against the protagonists, and somehow overcome waves of robot Turbo Duelists offscreen. And when they face Team [=5D's=] their strategy unfolds and manages to back Yusei into a corner such that he's forced to pull out Shooting Star Dragon to clinch victory. To a long-time player, seeing Team Taiyou duel evokes the feeling of taking on an optimized competitive deck using a deck slapped together from stray cards and whatever one can scrounge up... and still performing astoundingly well.

* Team Taiyou managing to ''summon'' Zushin, a feat which (thanks to Zushin's horrible summoning condition) had never been done before, ''ever'', despite every man and his mother owning one (Rua notes that he has several).
** Team Taiyou in general just gushes this due their status as a team of normals. They are a very poor team with nothing but weak Monsters, no Extra Deck, very poor Traps and Spells, and a very beat up motorcycle. This team forced Yusei to summon Shooting Star Dragon to defeat them, that's how much they pushed Team 5Ds. And think about it too, before they lost to Team 5D's, they had to have defeated another team to get to where they were.
** Another team? They probably had to defeat ''two'' other teams, and they survived an onslaught of crazy robot bikers.

* Yusei confronting Sayer about how he used the Arcadia Movement to manipulate Akiza and others to his own end, and after Sayer brags about how he [[spoiler: got rid of Misty's younger brother Topi]] Yusei reveals that he turned on the live feed of his duel disk, exposing the truth to Misty and leading her to [[spoiler: use her Earthbound Immortal to devour Sayer]].
* Yusei [[ShutUpHannibal pointing out]] [[spoiler: Godwin's]] hypocrisy then proceeding to summon Savior Star Dragon. The clincher is that he then proceeds not only to take out both Wiraqocha Rasca and the rest of [[spoiler: Godwin's]] Life Points, but then [[spoiler: drive Savior Star, powered by the Crimson Dragon, into the [[EldritchAbomination King of the Underworld]] and blasts off its face.]] Made even more awesome in the flashback in episode 79 which adds [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Yusei Battle to it]].

* Yusei's victory over Harald of Team Ragnarok. [[spoiler:As insurance if Yusei pulls out a comeback, Harald uses a card called "Gjallarhorn", which after three turns destroys all his monsters and inflicts their ATK as damage, a total of 10,800 in this case. On the third turn though, seeing Yusei pull out Shooting Star Dragon from nothing in one turn, he starts worrying Yusei has a Set card that can stop "Gjallarhorn". To make sure of his victory Harald uses "Odin's Eye" to see what Yusei's face-down cards are, but Yusei counters with "Trick Mirror", negating Odin's Eye and keeping his other face-down concealed. Terrified Yusei really does have something to stop "Gjallarhorn" that he was stopping him from seeing, Harald goes for the attack to end the duel quicker. Turns out Yusei really was bluffing -- his face-down card is "Zero Force", which saps the ATK of Harald's monsters to 0. The turn ends, Harald's monsters self-destruct by his own card effect, and thanks to Zero Force their combined ATK that Yusei takes as damage is a whopping '''0'''. On his next turn Yusei's Shooting Star Dragon returns to the field and he attacks for the win.]]

* Episode 148: Having received his friends Signer Dragons, Yusei begins the duel against Zone [[spoiler:by summoning Black Feather and Red Demon's right after summoning five monsters in his first turn; with Crow and Jack delivering the Synchro Speech with him. Aki does the same when he pulls out Black Rose. Then he damages Zone and the resulting mood leads to pretty much everyone left in the area chanting his name with the first glimmer of hope that the Ark Cradle may not obliterate them and their city.]]

* Episode 150: Just the whole damn thing. Having summoned all of his friends dragons one after another as the above begins and [[spoiler:almost falling to his death. Then his father comes back from the dead briefly just to bitchslap Yusei back to his senses. Then Yusei pulls out his biggest CMOA by using Life Stream to summon the other four Signer Dragons that aren't Stardust and ride through the atmosphere, whilst everyone watching calls his name and pours their hearts into what they're watching. He passes through and into freaking space, combines the powers of his friends Birthmarks and turns GOLD. With the five dragons on his field, he quintuple Synchro Summons Shooting Quaser Dragon and heads back to face down ZONE.]]
* Following from the above, the Episode 151 carries on the HotBlooded awesomeness; [[spoiler: Yusei fights on wiith Shooting Quasar Dragon, using each of his friends' dragons whenever it's helpful - they chip in when it comes to their turn - to take on Zone's Time Machine God force. Through Clustering Wishes, he then pours the powers of each dragon into Stardust to whack it up to a massive 23,000 and proceeds to smash Zone's Gods one by one. After having a montage of everyone whose meeting with him and his friends has affected them in some way, streams of light pour in from across the globe and light up Neo-Domino as Yusei calls out his final attack with Stardust in the most HotBlooded scream he has and obliterates the rest of Zone's lifepoints.]]
* Episode 153 & 154: Yusei ending the first and last duels of the series with the same monster: [[spoiler:Junk Warrior]].
** ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' makes it even better. [[spoiler:The alternate universe's Jack uses a variant of Red Dragon Archfiend called Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend, with a crippled right arm. WordOfGod says that design choice came from Junk Warrior's final clash with Red Dragon Archfiend. In other words, Junk Warrior [[HitYouSoHardYourXWillFeelIt hit it so hard a parallel universe version of it felt it.]]]]

* [[spoiler: After getting destroyed by Andore, JACK ATLAS, injured and bleeding after taking a brutal fall off his bike, claws with every last ounce of strength in his body to get the Wheel of Fortune to the finish line so he can baton pass to Aki.]] Stay amazing, Mr. Atlus.

* His duel vs Nicolas is made of win. First of all, he [[spoiler: wins in a single turn]]. Second of all, he [[spoiler: endures the pain of the darkness card, and rides a motorcycle out of an explosion while saving his opponent and shouting '''I, JACK ATLAS, will not lose to the power of darkness''']]. Then just to finish off, he gives off this speech to Nicolas:
---> '''Nicolas''':[[spoiler: Why did you save me?]]
---> '''JACK ATLAS''':[[spoiler: Isn't it obvious? '''YOU DON'T EVEN DESERVE TO DIE.''' Someone like you who doesn't trust his cards and uses the power of darkness, '''DOESN'T DESERVE TO DUEL.''']]

* Episode 63 when he [[spoiler: flies off the Wiraqocha Rasca geoglyph and [[HeroicSacrifice slams into the monster belonging to Godwin]], his former idol and inspiration as the legendary D-Wheeler]].
** [[spoiler:Apparently he's awesome enough to be made a Signer, which I suppose is both a testament and a slap to his (former) BadAssNormal credentials.]]

* [[spoiler: Summoning Stardust Dragon to turn the tide of battle against Team Unicorn. Complete with summon speech.]] Cue collective "Holy Shit" moment by the main cast.
** Then proceeding to put one over on Team Unicorn by tricking them into wasting 4 Speed Counters ''and'' putting the previously-destroyed [[spoiler: Stardust Dragon]] back on the field for Yusei to use (since her paying her last 800 LP meant she was out). Even her opponent respected how awesome that move was.

** He also gets another moment in ep. 78 against Lucciano and his Machine Emperor Skiel Infinity. After Ruka had unknowingly walked right into his plan and practically given him Ancient Fairy Dragon, Rua makes what effectively amounts to the card game equivalent of a HeroicSacrifice just to get it back for her. [[spoiler: Sure, they lose and he just about makes an ''actual'' Heroic Sacrifice, but ''boy'' does he royally piss Lucciano off in the process!]]

* Misty gets one when she [[spoiler: commands her Earthbound Immortal to devour [[AssholeVictim Sayer]] as revenge for what he did to her younger brother, needless to say he deserved it big time]]

* Nearly all of Episode 99, including Jack pushing [[spoiler: his busted up D-Wheel back into the pit area with every last bit of strength he has]], and [[spoiler: Aki summoning Stardust Dragon, summoning speech and all.]]

---> [[spoiler: '''Andore''': The reason we don't ''care '' that you managed to destroy ''Speed Spell-The End Of Storm,'' is because Breo doesn't ''need '' it. Stardust Dragon is no threat to his deck.]]
---> [[spoiler: '''Yusei''': OhCrap, Breo's using a Deck Destruction Deck!]]

* Team Unicorn in general is this, full stop. First, there's Andore, more than capable of wiping out teams of opponents on his own, [[spoiler: and actually managed to beat JACK and Aki on his own, halving Yusei's life points before losing]]. Then we have Breo and Jean, two good duelist in their own with impressive skills. But what makes the team truly shine is their perfect teamwork and ability to plan. They are one of the two teams in the whole tournament to really use teamwork to win the duel (in the rare occurence Andore doesn't just win it on his own, I mean), perfectly executing a strategy that might sacrifice individual success to guarantee a victory in the long run. And, unlike team Tayou, it isn't even a one-trick horse: each of them has a completely unique playstyle that mixes perfectly with the other two, so that they can assist providing each a different threat, and they don't merely repeat the same thing in every situation, they tailor it to their opponent. They also know that mind games aren't limited to the playfield, and effectively start playing team 5Ds ''days'' before the actual match. [[spoiler: In the end, team 5D couldn't even get a straight win against them, in the final turn Jean would have won just by passing, since Yusei didn't have any card left in his deck, they only lost because they willingly sacrificed a sure victory for a more fun and risky conclusion. Bonus point to Jean, that would have still sacrificed his enjoyment for his teammates and only took the risk after they went out of their way to encourage him to do so. Doubles as heartwarming, showing how much they care for each other.]] On top of that, they are completely BadassNormal: no dragons, no gods, no powers, even the cards they use are not that rare or unique by themselves, they are just ''that'' good with strategy and teamwork.
** In turn, every time someone manages to take them by surprise is equally awesome. The two most notable cases would be [[spoiler: Aki summoning Stardust Dragon]] and [[spoiler: Yusei ''fusing'' Stardust Dragon and Junk Warrior.]]

* The beginning of Episode 107 with [[spoiler: Bruno regaining his memory and transforming into Dark Glass]] [[BigDamnHeroes in time to save Yusei from the Diablo]]. Then with Placido leaping off a building and onto his speeding bike in order to face Yusei personally.
* Episode 111. [[spoiler: Bommer's little bro Max]] pwns JACK ATLAS!
** [[spoiler: Of course, it gets revealed later that the one fighting JACK ATLAS wasn't his brother but the Crimson Devil, whom JACK ATLAS promptly destroys two episodes later.]]

* Team Taiyou managing to ''summon'' [[spoiler: Zushin, a feat which (thanks to Zushin's horrible summoning condition) had never been done before, ''ever'', despite every man and his mother owning one (Rua notes that he has several)]].
** Team Taiyou in general just gushes this due their status as a team of normals. They are a very poor team with nothing but weak Monsters, no Extra Deck, very poor Traps and Spells, and a very beat up motorcycle. This team forced Yusei [[spoiler: to summon Shooting Star Dragon]] to defeat them, that's how much they pushed Team 5Ds. And think about it too, before they lost to Team 5D's, they had to have defeated another team to get to where they were.

* Jose's first (and last) move during his duel against Jack. [[spoiler:He starts off by ''running'' after Jack's D-Wheel on the track (while this was just to dock with his car-like D-Wheel, it was no less awesome nonetheless), and then he unveils Granel for the first time through a TransformationSequence of its own, revealing it to be a unique Machine Emperor whose ATK is equal to Jose's Life Points. He then springs the trap that Lucciano and Placido had laid out earlier, by playing a card to absorb all the Life Points that they had put into Infinity Death Machine. Now with both his Life Points and Granel's ATK at 12,000, Jose makes short work of Jack, using Granel's effects to immobilize Scar-Red Nova Dragon, absorb it, and take down all of Jack's Life Points in one move.]]
* Aporia’s utter Technology Porn Transformation Sequence as [[spoiler: first, Primo, Lester, and Jakob decide enough is enough and combine together into Aporia, their ''original form.'' Even their Duel Runners get in on the action and combine together, before Aporia ''combines with that'' and proceeds to nearly defeat Yusei and destroy the city with his Meklord Astro Mekanikle. Pure coolness.]]
* Antinomy [[spoiler: performing a Delta Accel Synchro, causing the nearby star to explode in a supernova.]]

* The MC's actions in episode 148, namely [[spoiler: staying behind to provide commentary on the duel between Yusei and Z-one, so everyone who's watching can run while still knowing what's going on. Note that this is putting himself at risk of dying from the incoming Arc Cradle]].
* [[spoiler:ZONE's DyingMomentOfAwesome when he flings himself into the Momentum core to stop the Ark Cradle.]]

** Episode 76 just might have cemented his status as a MemeticBadass. He [[SaveTheVillain saved a guy's life]] to punch him and proceeded to beat about 20 or 30 people up. The fact that he beat them without any sign of effort means that he previously let them beat him up so he could place a tracking device on one of them JUST SO HE COULD FOLLOW THEM TO THEIR BASE AND FIGHT THE ENTIRE GANG (worth mentioning, he let them hit him on the head in said previous fight, not that it did them any good). Not only that, but he dueled against their leader to the death even though he demonstrated he didn't have to beat him in a duel. He did it all for fun. This leads us to a little bit of WildMassGuessing, as to whether JACK ATLAS is actually Batman. Batman is awesome. Therefore, JACK ATLAS is Batman on [[CrazyAwesome CRAZY]]! OF COURSE, it's all clear now!

** Team Ragnarok's duel in general was awesome, given that they're the first duelists to use true God cards since the Egyptian Gods. The first time that Thor rises from the Graveyard is incredibly awesome: the sea splits in two and Thor ascends. It's awesome in both versions. Brave/Brodor in particular proves to be CrazyAwesome; first he takes out Scar-Red Nova Dragon by suiciding Thor and reviving it to take Jack out with it's effect. Then he completely reverses all of Crow's moves, including swarming the field with his Blackwings, attempting to return Thor to the extra deck and gain life points equal to its ATK, only for Brave to blow it up ''again''. And then he attempts to use what can only be described as Mirror Force on steroids, only for Brave to reveal that his God can negate the trap.

* In the first episode, not only does Yusei show that the "card games on motorcycles" idea mocked by TheAbridgedSeries is workable , but when he performs the anime's first Synchro Summon, Junk Warrior's entrance just ''commands'' you to cheer.

* Episode 122 is an even bigger one, where Yusei uses Shooting Star Dragon to beat Sleeping Giant Zushin , a monster said to rival the 3 Egyptian god cards. All with Clear Mind playing in the background a second time.

* Many the fan of the card game had their squee moment when Yusei used cards that were old as dirt but never yet seen on the anime to defeat nosehair-flicking cheattastic Takasu (Armstrong in the dub). I was kind of jumping in my chair when he used Exiled Force.

** Team Taiyou in general just gushes this due their status as a team of normals. They are a very poor team with nothing but weak Monsters, very poor Traps and Spells, and a very beat up motorcycle. And think about it too, before they lost to Team 5D's, they had to have defeated another team to get to where they were.

* ''4Kids'' of all people for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95WWlWKI2yA#t=05m20s keeping the guns used by Rex's bodyguards]], changing only [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHFGedRdzIM#t=02m35s the sound effects]] a bit. Shows they've come a long way from the original series and their "invisible guns".

* Yusei's victory over Harald of Team Ragnarok. [[spoiler:As insurance if Yusei pulls out a comeback, Harald uses a card called "Gjallarhorn", which after three turns destroys all his monsters and inflicts their ATK as damage, a total of 10,800 in this case. On the third turn though, seeing Yusei pull out Shooting Star Dragon from nothing in one turn, he starts worrying Yusei has a Set card that can stop "Gjallarhorn". To make sure of his victory Harald uses "Odin's Eye" to see what Yusei's face-down cards are, but Yusei counters with "Trick Mirror", negating Odin's Eye and keeping his other face-down concealed. Terrified Yusei really does have something to stop "Gjallarhorn" that he was stopping him from seeing, Harald goes for the attack to end the duel quicker. Turns out Yusei really was bluffing -- his face-down card is "Zero Force", which saps the ATK of Harald's monsters to 0. The turn ends, Harald's monsters self-destruct by his own card effect, and thanks to Zero Force their combined ATK that Yusei takes as damage is a whopping '''0'''. On his next turn Yusei's Shooting Star Dragon returns to the field and he attacks for the win.]] The move is also divisive though, due to arguments over if Harald falling for Yusei's bluff is a case of WrongGenreSavvy or someone throwing him an IdiotBall.

* Episode 91. Yusei and Kiryu beating Lotten's OneHitKill again and again, [[NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow without any Lifepoints at all]].

* In that same episode, when Kiryu chased down Lotten after he made his escape then beat him in a duel, the dub actually changed this, so instead of Kallen dueling Lotten after catching up to him, he simply turned him into the authorities telling him that [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech he (Lotten) has already forfeited his pride as a duelist by running away and that he doesn't deserve to finish his duel.]] It was actually awesome in its own way

* In episode 138, Ruka jumping from Aki's motorcycle to Yusei's ''while they were moving at high speed''.