History YMMV / YuGiOhGx

** Many dramatic episodes and scenes get utterly ruined by the dub's voices and dialogue, but Episode 65 may be the worst. An absolutely [[NightmareFuel nightmarish]] duel full of ElectricTorture, Zane's DespairEventHorizon, the resulting FreakOut... and an opponent with a ridiculous Creator/MikeTyson caricature for a voice.

* WTHCastingAgency: This was mainly back when the show first aired, but Matthew Labyorteaux caught quite a lot of flak for his performance as Jaden Yuki in the English dub. While he wasn't considered a miscast by any means necessary, his [[TotallyRadical radical]] mannerisms were what he got criticized for due to them killing the mood of very serious moments. For example, in Season 3 when Jaden duels Brron, Mad King of Dark World, Jaden becomes consumed by anger and rage which allows the Supreme King to awaken inside of him, and yet even though Jaden is meant to sound like he's angry and full of rage from watching his friends vanish, he stills speaks in his radical mannerisms which end up making the duel hard to take seriously.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Chazz across the series. He starts off as a JerkJock before undergoing CharacterDevelopment into a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, at which point he spends the rest of the series as a ButtMonkey, which is usually treated as deserved due to his extreme arrogance and his condescending, snarky attitude towards Jaden and his friends. However, Chazz is genuinely a talented and skilled duelist who repeatedly proves he can keep up with the Academy's best when his opponent isn't [[InvincibleHero Jaden]], he never really does anything that could be considered villainous or evil,[[note]]He ''does'' throw Bastion's cards into the water, but this is at a time when he's under massive pressure from his brothers and facing expulsion if he can't beat Misawa, so it was an act of desperation.[[/note]] and some would say that his treatment of Judai is not unwarranted, given that Jaden repeatedly humiliates him in dueling despite being an IdiotHero. The result is that a character we're supposed to laugh at for being so ineffectual and arrogant, comes off as pitiable because he deserves better than what the show lets him be. [[spoiler:He ''finally'' gets [[ThrowTheDogABone thrown a bone]] in Season 4, when he publicly defeats Aster Phoenix and earns major chops in the Pro Leagues, ensuring he'll probably have a good career when he graduates.]]

* BaseBreakingCharacter:
** Jaden's happy-go-lucky nature is entertaining to some and annoying to others. The dub doesn't help by making him TotallyRadical. Conversely, his more brooding portrayal toward the end of the series is either a reasonable progression from all the crap he's been through or makes him unpleasant to watch. His anime deck of superheroes has its fans as an expansive protagonist archetype, but catches flak for excessive growth and subpar performance, ''especially'' the Neo Spacians.
** Jesse is either a fun parallel to Jaden who forms an endearingly close bond, or a bland sink for too much of Season 3's focus.

** Shepard. He is ''supposed'' to be the ReasonableAuthorityFigure of Academia but his [[AdultsAreUseless uselessness]], HorribleJudgeOfCharacter, and [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom potentially disastrous]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero (and stupid) actions]] have made him the worst character in ''GX''. Even some fans outright admit to preferring the likes of Crowler and Bonaparte[[note]]Often intended as HateSink characters.[[/note]] to him. This is not helped by the fact that Crowler and Bonaparte gained tons of character development through the series, which caused them to grow past their flaws and become better people while Shepard lacked any kind of focus or development like them. Even when they were straight-up villains, Crowler and Bonaparte were at least entertainingly evil.

* SweetnessAversion: Episode 20 with Blair's Maiden in Love deck is absolutely sickening, with the titular monster being a very cutesy girl who gets hitched on first sight with Jaden's Elemental Heroes. This might've been intentional, since even the characters in-universe are a bit overwhelmed by it (except [[PerverseSexualLust Syrus]]).

** Blair Flannigan. After being re-introduced at the end of Season 2 and seeming set to join the main cast as a second female protagonist, she spends the first half of Season 3 just being Marcel's friend and doing nothing of importance, doesn't appear at all in the second half of the season, and in Season 4 got a prominent role in just two episodes that otherwise focus on Jaden and Alexis.
** Early in Season 2, we learn that Edo Phoenix is looking for the man who killed (or kidnapped, in the dub) his father. Said man turns out to be DD, the world champion of Duel Monsters and his adoptive father, who's been stealing the souls of duelists (including Edo’s father) using the power of the Light of Destruction for ten years without anyone discovering him. Unfortunately, both the audience and Edo learn most of this in the same episode that he's introduced. He's defeated (and presumably killed) in the very next episode, reducing him to a mere agent of the season's BigBad when his dueling ability, his heinous crimes, and his relationship to Edo could have made him a very effective [[EvilAllAlong twist villain]].
** Mr. Shroud. He is singlehandedly responsible for Zane's Heel turn, is such a shady character with a pretty great debut, that viewers might be interested to see where the story of him managing Zane goes. All we really get besides the initial victory of Dark Zane over Mad Dog are two squash match that are breezed past when Zane returns to the pros. In between this, the pair actually don't appear for eighteen episodes, and after the second above win, Zane promptly fires Shroud. He swears some vengeance on Zane, but we never see him again. Wasted potential is probably putting it midly in the case of Mr. Shroud.
** Where is Yubel during the twenty episode absence after possessing Jesse but before confronting Jaden?

** At the end of season 3, it's implied that Jaden and Yubel are off to [[spoiler: kick the Light of Destruction's ectoplasmic patuckus at its source to extinguish it for good]], but this epic battle and fulfilment of Jaden's destiny [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome isn't actually shown to us]].

* ToughActToFollow: Most fans will widely agree that the ''GX'' manga was easily the best after the original, and subsequent manga haven't lived up to the bar that it set. The ''Arc-V'' manga came close to toppling it, unfortunately its ending broke the fanbase even more then the anime ending.

* VindicatedByHistory: ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'' and ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'''s issues put this series in a much better light, and people in the west look at it much more fondly than they used to. Jaden has also been looked more favorably on, especially with his relationships with Yubel and Jesse, both of whom he loves dearly. It got to the point that most players of ''VideoGame/YuGiOhDuelLinks'' were excited rather than annoyed by the update that added the GX characters alongside the original series characters.
** The third and fourth season were given a rather mixed reception when they were first airing, mostly for being such a massive tonal shift from the prior seasons and making a number of characters DemotedToExtra (not helped by the dub really having no idea how to handle them). Today, they're regarded as the series's GrowingTheBeard moment, and the thing to watch the series for.

* WTHCastingAgency: This was mainly back when the show first aired, but Matthew Labyorteaux caught quite a lot of flak for his performance as Jaden Yuki in the English dub. While he wasn't considered a miscast by any means necessary, his [[TotallyRadical radical]] mannerisms were what he got criticized for due to them killing the mood of very serious moments. For example, in Season 3 when Jaden duels Brron, Mad King of Dark World, Jaden becomes consumed by anger and rage which allows the Supreme King to awaken inside of him, and yet even though Jaden is meant to sound like he's angry and full of rage from watching his friends vanish, he stills speaks in his radical mannerisms which ends up making the duel hard to take seriously.

** In Season 2, the dub keeps Aster's father's fate a mystery until the final confrontation between Aster and his stepfather. In the original, Aster knows he's dead from the beginning, but in the dub he disappears the same night he was robbed of his best card, and Aster searches for him for the majority of the season. This ultimately ''adds'' to the horror when it's revealed his soul has been swallowed by D-HERO Plasma, and the [[NightmareFuel nightmarish sequence]] that results is completely unedited.

** The D, in the Japanese named "DD" for "Destiny Duelist". The dub established "The D" was an alias and gave him the proper name "Kyle Jables", take from Kyle Gass and Jack Black of ''Music/TenaciousD''. Appropriate, since one of the [=D-HEROes=] is named Captain Tenacious.

** Youtuber [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mFNNVFGSfk#t=7m45s MegaCapitalG]] argues that Syrus's DubPersonalityChange makes him a more likeable character compared to the original Japanese. He's snarkier and more prone to throwing zingers like the other dudes he hangs out with, giving him additional charm on top of being a shy nerd [[OvershadowedByAwesome overshadowed by his big brother.]]

** Shepard. He is ''supposed'' to be the ReasonableAuthorityFigure of Academia but his [[AdultsAreUseless uselessness]], HorribleJudgeOfCharacter, and [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom potentially disastrous]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero (and stupid) actions]] have made him the worst character in ''GX''. Even some fans outright admit to preferring the likes of Crowler and Bonaparte[[note]]Often intended as HateSink characters.[[/note]] to him. This is not helped by the fact that Crowler and Bonaparte gained tons of character development through the series, which caused them to grow past their flaws and become better people while Shepard lacked any kind of focus or development like them.

** A meme known as "[[WebOriginal/VirginVsChad The Virgin and The Chad]]" became popular years after the anime, which compares a loser character to a "cool," usually JerkJock character. Chazz Princeton's self-given nickname is "The Chazz," [[https://www.reddit.com/r/DuelLinks/comments/7lq3jx/oc_meme_the_virgin_vs_the_chazz/ making GX an easy target for the meme.]] Ironically, his ButtMonkey status and inability to win over Alexis means he can also fit in "The Virgin" category.

** We're not quite done with Dimitri just yet. He's known as a copycat duelist and before (and after) stealing Yugi's deck, which was pointed out but that's not the lesson they were trying to teach, he tries to copy decks off of strong duelists but fails to win. The idea is that he's supposed to make his own deck and win that way. But why wouldn't he try to base his deck off of a strong duelist, after all it wins for a reason. This is even mirrored in real life as nearly everyone copies competative decks in one way or another, and even casually, some decks are sold off of the sole premise that a character on the show uses it. If anything else, it's more that the decks Dimitri makes are incompatible with his natural style rather than anything wrong with the deck itself and he fails to refine it to both fit with his own style and to minimize the decks' weaknesses.
** During Jaden's duel with Zane at the end of Season 1, he repeatedly complains and insults Jaden for dueling with his head and not his heart, and Jaden is frustrated that this kind of dueling isn't working for him and Zane keeps outplaying him. Then Jaden stops the duel to have a snack and starts feeling like himself again, and is able to do much better. Thing is, Jaden actually ''was'' dueling well and even survived a hit from a Power Bond-summoned Cyber End Dragon, it's just that Zane happened to have the cards to counter Jaden's plays. Besides, a quick card count shows that by the time Jaden stops the duel for his snack, his hand is empty except for two cards he just drew, and he has only drawn two monster cards and one Fusion card since the duel began, so he has used up every card he has and was making the best plays he could. Apparently drawing a brick hand and figuring out ways to make it work means that you're "overthinking things".

** Jaden is this throughout Season 3. He's presented with a FatalFlaw of which his motive for being a duelist is selfish as he duels more for the enjoyment of it rather than for anything responsible such as saving lives and helping people, to which Viper, Yubel, and even his own friends call him out on it. The thing is, dueling to save people, and pretty much helping people in general, is what Jaden has been doing ''throughout the entire series'', and has made it clear that he's more concerned about helping people than enjoying a duel when lives are on the line. In other words, Jaden's motive for being a duelist just for the enjoyment is due to the fact that outside of saving the world and helping people, he's never had a reason to duel that doesn't involve having fun.

** Jaden, due to being the main character and rather good looking. Even though he doesn't know [[ObliviousToLove what a fiancée is]].

** Sartorius is the head of the [[{{Cult}} Society of Light]], corrupted to evil by the Light of Destruction. Born with the power to see the future, he seeks out promising duelists with the power to defy fate and turn them to his cause so they can't stand in his way and derail his plans. He does this through a combination of lectures and brainwashing, telling his victims that only he can help them get what they want, convincing them they ''[[MoreThanMindControl want]]'' to join the Society. Through these methods he takes over the top dorm of Duel Academy, makes all of its students his loyal followers, and plans to use a KillSat to destroy the world ([[{{Bowdlerise}} mind control humanity]] in the English dub) in the name of cleansing, purifying light. Collected, affable, soft-spoken, and using his prediction powers to stay ahead of the game, Sartorius proves himself the most charismatic and intelligent enemy Jaden and his friends ever face.
** Yubel is a demonic Duel Spirit and the mastermind behind the seeming main villain of Season 3, Professor Viper. Making a deal with Viper to revive his dead son in exchange for gathering Duel Energy to regenerate her body, they dispose of Viper and transport Duel Academy to another dimension to continue their plans themself, possessing the body of student Marcel as a host. They orchestrates Jaden's horrific TraumaCongaLine in order to awaken his dormant alter-ego, the Supreme King, so Jaden can complete the Super Polymerization card which they take it for themself and use it to fuse the twelve dimensions into one. Why? Because [[ReincarnationRomance they were in love with Jaden's alter-ego in his past life]], and they will do anything to rule over the multiverse with Jaden and keep him all to themself again. Yubel is what happens when a love sick StalkerWithACrush decides to conquer all they see in the name of proving their love to someone.

** [=4Kids'=] attempts to invoke NeverSayDie reach truly ludicrous levels in Season 3, when defeated Duelists are "sent to the stars", and characters repeatedly use the phrase verbatim as a threat. There are any number of other things they could have gone with, including the old stand-by "send them to the Shadow Realm", but they chose that one. To be fair, it turned out nobody was actually dying.

* NeverLiveItDown: Jaden/Judai, as the Supreme King, committing genocide.

** Dimitri, especially in the dub. He may only have two episodes and is a minor character who never appears again, but the usage of the original series themes and cards, the genuinely good Duel he gives Jaden, and of course Creator/MarcThompson's NarmCharm impersonation of Creator/DanGreen's LargeHam voice acting, make Dimitri far more memorable than a lot of other characters with larger roles.

** The Egyptian Gods. Ra appears during a single Season Two episode in a well-enjoyed (if wasted) subplot that highlights it as less of a tool of destruction that it was previously, while the patron of Jaden/Judai's dorm, Slifer/Osiris, appears when it is [[spoiler:summoned by Yami Yugi during the final episode]].

** Yubel too. At the time of their introduction, Yubel was a BaseBreakingCharacter ''at best'', especially in the eyes of [[AmericansHateTingle American viewers]]. However, since the release of ''[[Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL ZEXAL]]'' and ''[[Anime/YuGiOhArcV ARC-V]]'', fans have started to take more interest in their character and relationship with Judai. Yubel has also gotten a slow but steady popularity boost over the years, if fanart on Pixiv is anything to go by. Being a canonically intersex character [[spoiler:who's Judai's [[OfficialCouple official]] LoveInterest]] doesn't hurt a bit.

** Shepard. He is ''supposed'' to be the ReasonableAuthorityFigure of Academia but his [[AdultsAreUseless uselessness]], HorribleJudgeOfCharacter, and [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom potentially disastrous]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero (and stupid) actions]] have made him the worst character in ''GX''. Even some fans outright admit to preferring the likes of Crowler and Bonaparte[[note]]Often intended as HateSink characters.[[/note]] to him.

* SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing: Episode 18 and 19 with Dimitri, the copycat Duelist. In the original, Dimitri is just himself and only decides he ''is'' Yugi towards the end of the Duel, but in the dub Dimitri acts like he's Yugi all along. What ''really'' sells the episode though is the absolutely {{Narm|Charm}}tastic impersonation of Dan Green's Yami Yugi that Marc Thompson delivers, taking Green's LargeHam, cranking it up, and giving a few lighthearted jabs at his mannerisms and catchphrases. The dub also re-uses parts of the original dub soundtrack as further nostalgia fuel when Dimitri makes his moves. Taken even further in the german version, where Dimitri is actually voiced by the Pharaoh's original voice actor in the parts where he impersonates him.

** Despite having a prior episode of build-up as "the ultimate D card" and being a fusion of his two strongest monsters, Aster's Destiny End Dragoon hits the field at the end of the turn, does nothing, is KO'd the next turn and Chazz then defeats Aster with Ojama Yellow. What's particularly jarring is that the Dragoon has a powerful effect to destroy an opponent's monster without battling and inflict its ATK as damage, which would have ended Chazz right then and there, yet due to plot contrivances, Aster doesn't go for it immediately when he can, instead fusing it when it's too late to use its effect.[[note]]The anime adds a restriction where it can only use its effect when no other monster attacked that turn, in contrast to the real-life card where that condition only affects itself.[[/note]]

* AudienceAlienatingEra: Gets hit with this on both sides of the franchise's fanbase.
** For fans of the show, ''GX'' is LighterAndSofter than ''Duel Monsters'', and (for its first two seasons, anyway) is more of a SliceOfLife show with major overarcing plotlines de-emphasized in favor of MonsterOfTheWeek-type plots (and when overarcing storylines ''do'' occur, the antagonists associated with them are often still MonsterOfTheWeek-types that are defeated in one episode). Its cast is also polarizing, as several of them seem to be interesting and have potential for storylines, but are sidelined most of the time. Then there's Jaden, who is ''extremely'' divisive (among Western audiences anyway) for being as big a contrast to Yami Yugi as could be imagined.
** For fans of the card game, the ''GX'' era had boosters packed with support for Jaden's Elemental Heroes and Neo-Spacians, which didn't even approach being close to a competitive archetype (at the time; later support saw them bounce back a bit). Most of the other anime archetypes that got pushed (Vehicroids, Cyber Girls, Cyberdarks, Arcana Force, Venom) weren't that good either, and the non-anime archetypes coming out also weren't very good, or were more cards "themed" around an idea than something resembling a cohesive archetype. While there were some things of note (Cyber Dragons, Six Samurai, Dark World, Lightsworns, Gladiator Beasts), most of them couldn't compete with the Chaos and Monarch decks that had dominated the end of the ''Duel Monsters'' era. This overall meant that the metagame stagnated and cookie cutter decks became prolific, and new boosters tended to have lots of junk in them that would never see play.

** Yubel tends to be subjected to this, due to being quite a BaseBreakingCharacter and the fact that they got to become an OfficialCouple with Jaden like that, no {{Foreshadowing}}, no ShipTease, not much anything.

** Yubel is in a category all on their own since their AmbiguousGender meanas they can easily appeal to every gender and orientation.

** A franchise-wide one that is quite prominent for this series; should one use the Japanese names for the characters, or their [[DubNameChange 4Kids names]]? No matter which names you use, there will be some people who berate you for it, even in this very wiki.
* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: Upon their introduction, Yubel was a major BaseBreakingCharacter at best ([[AmericansHateTingle especially in America]]); between the highly inconsistent 4kids dub, mixed reviews of the third season in general, and some fans claiming that Yubel "got in the way" of more popular ships, there were ''a lot'' of complaints. But the years have been kind to them, and today, Yubel's usually considered one of the best villains in the entire franchise, with their competence, well-developed personality, creepiness, and interesting relationship with Judai/Jaden often being cited. [[FanficFuel The potential inherent]] in their HeelFaceTurn and their canon intersex gender don't hurt either, especially due to gender conventions being a hot topic in TheNewTens.

* FanPreferredCouple: Many fans either prefer Judai/Asuka (aka "Fiancéshipping") on the het side, or Judai/Manjoume (aka "GX Rivalshipping") and Judai/Johan (aka "Spiritshipping") on the slash side.

** Yubel is a demonic Duel Spirit and the mastermind behind the seeming main villain of Season 3, Professor Viper. Making a deal with Viper to revive his dead son in exchange for gathering Duel Energy to regenerate her body, they dispose of Viper and transport Duel Academy to another dimension to continue their plans themself, possessing the body of student Marcel as a host. They orchestrates Jaden's horrific TraumaCongaLine in order to awaken his dormant alter-ego, the Supreme King, so Jaden can complete the Super Polymerization card which they take it for themself and use it to fuse the twelve dimensions into one.

** Yubel too. At the time of their introduction, Yubel was a BaseBreakingCharacter ''at best'', especially in the eyes of [[AmericansHateTingle American viewers]].

** Samejima/Shepard. He is ''supposed'' to be the ReasonableAuthorityFigure of Academia but his [[AdultsAreUseless uselessness]], HorribleJudgeOfCharacter, and [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom potentially disastrous]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero (and stupid) actions]] have made him the worst character in ''GX''. Even some fans outright admit to preferring the likes of Cronos/Crowler and Napoleon/Bonaparte[[note]]Often intended as HateSink characters.[[/note]] to him.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Manjoume/Chazz across the series. He starts off as a JerkJock before undergoing CharacterDevelopment into a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, at which point he spends the rest of the series as a ButtMonkey, which is usually treated as deserved due to his extreme arrogance and his condescending, snarky attitude towards Judai/Jaden and his friends. However, Manjoume is genuinely a talented and skilled duelist who repeatedly proves he can keep up with the Academy's best when his opponent isn't [[InvincibleHero Judai]], he never really does anything that could be considered villainous or evil,[[note]]He ''does'' throw Bastion's cards into the water, but this is at a time when he's under massive pressure from his brothers and facing expulsion if he can't beat Misawa, so it was an act of desperation.[[/note]] and some would say that his treatment of Judai is not unwarranted, given that Judai repeatedly humiliates him in dueling despite being an IdiotHero. The result is that a character we're supposed to laugh at for being so ineffectual and arrogant, comes off as pitiable because he deserves better than what the show lets him be. [[spoiler:He ''finally'' gets [[ThrowTheDogABone thrown a bone]] in Season 4, when he publicly defeats Edo/Aster Phoenix and earns major chops in the Pro Leagues, ensuring he'll probably have a good career when he graduates.]]

** Yubel is EasilyForgiven by Jaden once he learns that they sacrificed their human form. However, Yubel was a bad person (demon?) to an extreme degree; even before unintended exposure to the Light of Destruction warped their mind, they drove Jaden’s childhood friends away by making them ill [[DisproportionateRetribution just for beating Jaden in causal duels]]. Yubel would proceed to put Jaden [[TraumaCongaLine through hell]] as part of their twisted perception.

** Yubel gets shunted off to the side a lot in the English-speaking fandom, but they (and their relationship with Jaden) appear fairly popular in Japanese fan art. Part of this is likely because their complex motivation was degraded from a sadomasochistic view of love to just being a PsychopathicManchild in the dub.

* BrokenBase:
** Yubel being PutOnABus for most of Season 4. Some say good riddance to them, others want to explore their and Jaden's relationship with each other more.
*** Also, anything concerning their gender. Most fans play it safe by referring to them with gender-neutral pronouns, but there are many others who were introduced to them by 4Kids who call them a "her" at all times, which the fans who prefer he/him pronouns aren't happy about, and vice versa.

** Yubel tends to be subjected to this, due to being quite a BaseBreakingCharacter and the fact that [[AmbiguousGender they]] just... got Judai like that, no {{Foreshadowing}}, no ShipTease, not much anything.

** [[AmbiguousGender Yubel]] is in a category all on their own since they can easily appeal to every gender and orientation.

* FanPreferredCouple: Many fans either prefer Judai/Asuka (aka "Fiancéshipping") on the het side, or Judai/Manjoume (aka "GX Rivalshipping") and Judai/Johan (aka "Spiritshipping") on the slash side. Judai and Yubel also have shipping moments as well. It also helps that despite just becoming an item with Judai, Yubel was PutOnABus for most of season 4 and when they appear again such as the [[Anime/YuGiOhBondsBeyondTime BBT movie]], they don't really act particularly lovey-dovey with him, but more like a spirit advisor as the Gem Beasts do for Johan, so it's easier for fans to overlook their canon status and focus on other couples.

** Yubel is a demonic Duel Spirit and the mastermind behind the seeming main villain of Season 3, Professor Viper. Making a deal with Viper to revive his dead son in exchange for gathering Duel Energy to regenerate her body, they dispose of Viper and transport Duel Academy to another dimension to continue their plans themself, possessing the body of student Marcel as a host. They orchestrates Jaden's horrific TraumaCongaLine in order to awaken his dormant alter-ego, the Supreme King, so Jaden can complete the Super Polymerization card which they take it for themself and use it to fuse the twelve dimensions into one. Why? Because [[ReincarnationRomance they were in love with Jaden's alter-ego in his past life]], and they will do anything to rule over the multiverse with Jaden and keep him all to themself again. Yubel is what happens when a love sick StalkerWithACrush decides to conquer all they see in the name of proving their love to someone.

** Yubel too. At the time of their introduction, Yubel was a BaseBreakingCharacter ''at best'', especially in the eyes of [[AmericansHateTingle American viewers]]. However, since the release of ''[[Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL ZEXAL]]'' and ''[[Anime/YuGiOhArcV ARC-V]]'', fans have started to take more interest in their character and relationship with Judai. Yubel has also gotten a slow but steady popularity boost over the years, if fanart on Pixiv is anything to go by. Being a canonically intersex character [[spoiler:and Judai's [[OfficialCouple official]] LoveInterest]] doesn't hurt a bit.

** Where is Yubel during the twenty episode absence after possessing Jesse but before confronting Jaden?

** Yubel is EasilyForgiven by Jaden once he learns that they sacrificed their human form for the sake of his previous incarnation, who in turn promised his eternal love. However, Yubel was a {{Yandere}} to an extreme degree; even before unintended exposure to the Light of Destruction warped their mind, they drove Jaden’s childhood friends away by making them ill [[DisproportionateRetribution just for beating Jaden in causal duels]]. Yubel would proceed to put Jaden [[TraumaCongaLine through hell]] as part of their twisted perception that love means shared suffering, and ultimately tries to erase all of existence so Jaden will have absolutely nothing else, but still ends up with the eternal bond with Jaden that they always wanted.

* DesignatedHero: Zane is this in Episode 8. His approach to teaching Syrus about knowing when to use cards, particularly the Power Bond spell card, in the right way is on paper usually a good lesson that duelists should learn, and he's meant to come off as using ToughLove as his way of helping his brother. However, when it comes to wanting Syrus to actually succeed, Zane is rather apathetic and condescending towards him, to the point where even though he's clearly the cause of Syrus's self-confidence problems due to the [[AloofBigBrother lack of social support]], he openly states that Syrus doesn't belong at Duel Academy and that he should just drop out, and he brushes the cruelty of his comment off when [[WhatTheHellHero Jaden calls him out on it]] by saying "Because I know Syrus." Zane instead comes off as an abusive BigBrotherBully who is embarrassed by his brother's shortcomings as a duelist and tries to keep his distance from him.

** Jaden is this throughout Season 3. He's presented with a FatalFlaw of which his motive for being a duelist is selfish as he duels more for the enjoyment of it rather than for anything responsible such as saving lives and helping people, to which Viper, Yubel, and even his own friends call him out on it. The thing is, dueling to save people, and pretty much helping people in general, is what Jaden has been doing ''throughout the entire series'', and has made it clear that he's more concerned about helping people than enjoying a duel when lives are on the line. In other words, Jaden's motive for being a duelist just for the enjoyment is due to the fact that outside of saving the world and helping people, he's never had a reason to duel that doesn't involve having fun. Not to mention, before Chazz ends up being sacrificed, he gives Jaden TheReasonYouSuckSpeech when he sees him dueling Brron and thinks he's doing it just for the enjoyment instead of trying to help Chazz break free along with his friends after they've been taken as sacrifices for Brron's Wicked Rune cards as well as focusing on finding Jesse, except that saving lives and trying to find missing people has always progressed throughout the ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' franchise by dueling enemies and Jaden was only dueling Brron in the first place in order to find Jesse. The only times where Jaden is really in the wrong is when he recklessly rushes to find Jesse without letting his friends catch up with him, but none of that really has anything to do with Jaden being selfish for his reasons of being a duelist.

%%* SweetnessAversion: Episode 20 with Blair's Maiden in Love deck is absolutely sickening.

* ValuesDissonance: Dr. Crowler's portrayal as a stereotypical effeminate man really hasn't aged well in TheNewTens.

** Season 3: [[EvilOverlord Brron, Mad King of Dark World]], is the psychopathic dictator of the Spirit World. Brron is responsible for turning the Spirit World into a place of abject misery for its citizens and has any who defy him sent to [[PoWCamp internment camps]]. Any Duelists who Brron finds to be a threat to him are executed via having monsters released on them while Brron watches with glee. When [[Characters/YuGiOhGXJadenYuki Jaden Yuki]] enters the Spirit World, Brron attempts to [[TheCorrupter corrupt Jaden into evil]] by forcing him to sacrifice each of his friends. Even while dying, Brron spends his last moments [[MockingTheMourner gleefully mocking Jaden]] that his friends are now gone forever.

** Season 3: [[EvilOverlord Brron, Mad King of Dark World]], is the psychopathic dictator of the Spirit World. Brron is responsible for turning the Spirit World into a place of abject misery for its citizens and has any who defy him sent to [[PoWCamp internment camps]]. Any Duelists who Brron finds to be a threat to him are executed via having monsters released on them while Brron watches with glee. When [[Characters/YuGiOhGXJadenYuki Jaden Yuki]] enters the Spirit World, Brron attempts to [[TheCorrupter corrupt Jaden into evil]] by forcing him to sacrifice each of his friends. Even while dying, Brron spends his last moments gleefully mocking Jaden that his friends are now gone forever.

** Season 3: [[EvilOverlord Brron, Mad King of Dark World]], is demented and sadistic, ruling the Spirit World as its vile dictator and being responsible for its deplorable state and the oppression of its denizens. His [[TheDragon right-hand man]], Zure, oversaw Brron's will, detaining anyone who defied him in [[PoWCamp internment camps]] while killing Duelists who could be threats to him. The executions occurred at his fortress and involved releasing monsters at disarmed Duelists while Brron himself and his minions watched the spectacle. After learning of [[Characters/YuGiOhGXJadenYuki Jaden Yuki]]'s presence in his domain, Brron orchestrated a plot that involved turning Jaden evil by [[HeroKiller sacrificing all of his friends]] one by one with his set of "Wicked Doctrine" cards to create the "Super Fusion" card. After his defeat, Brron, before dying, spitefully mocked Jaden by saying that he would never see his friends again.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: Aside from the surprisingly dark plot in the later series, such as Jaden undergoing a mental breakdown and undergoing a FaceHeelTurn, the English dub has some surprisingly innapropriate comedy, such as the Little Belowski (Mokeo Motegi), who was changed from merely being an incredibly sleepy and lazy individual to being all but outright stated to be a stoner, as well as the duel between Zane and Mad Dog being surprisingly darkly comedic, given that they didn't censor or remove any reference to the fact that Zane is in severe pain and literally being tortured while Mad Dog is given an incredibly high-pitched and squeaky voice as well as the mind of a toddler.

* SalvagedStory: Season 3 gave most of Jaden's friends fairly unflattering treatment, with most either becoming a Duel Zombie in the first alternate dimension or "dying" in the second, while giving far more attention to the transfer students (with [[SpotlightStealingSquad Jesse]] in particular receiving so much attention even when he wasn't around). Season 4 gave many of them more development and established their goals in life, while the transfer students were shipped back to their own schools for most of the season.

** A Season 1 episode features the one-shot character Mitsuo/Pierre, a gambler who uses cards that rely on coin tosses to trigger their effects, and uses Second Coin Toss to redo the toss if he fails to get the needed result. Alexis declares that the only reason he's winning the Duel with her is that he relies on Second Coin Toss to win his coin throws and without it he would have lost them all, and proceeds to destroy it then attack for the win when he gets his last toss wrong. We're supposed to see him as a cheater and a coward, but his strategy is perfectly valid and worked very well. The only reason he lost is that he didn't use his monster's effect to try and inflict 1000 damage to Alexis, if he had taken the risk and got it right, he would have won in just two turns.

* LowTierLetdown:
** Jaden's Elemental HERO cards are terrible -- their Main Deck monsters have subpar stats and subpar effects, if they have any at all. They have many situational support cards that only work on a single HERO card (and usually aren't that good anyway), and they are reliant on Fusion to get out their best cards, forcing the player to invest multiple cards of their own into one monster and demanding the player have the proper Fusion materials to get out the one they need. The OCG/TCG boosters were dominated by Elemental [=HEROes=] while ''GX'' aired, and no one took them seriously. It took the later releases of the manga [=HEROes=], who ''are'' actually viable and effective, to redeem the archetype among the fanbase.
** The Neo-Spacians took all the problems of the Elemental [=HEROes=] and made them worse while retaining none of their strengths; weak monsters with terrible stats and effects, the archetypes centers on a single core main deck monster being in play to summon their Fusions, and said Fusions only stick around for one turn before returning to the Extra Deck unless you have a specific Field Spell in play. No one has ''ever'' played a Neo-Spacian deck in any serious capacity (the closest thing to a viable Neos deck that existed was built around Rainbow Neos and avoided most of their support cards like the plague). Grand Mole and much later, Aqua Dolphin are the only cards of the series people remembered or cared about for being the only monsters they had that were worth using. It took well over a decade after the show's end for Konami to introduce Neos cards that made the archetype not completely terrible.
** The Cyberdarks. The series had only three main deck monsters that had terrible stats and bad effects, and their ability to power themselves up demanded players run a Dragon/Machine hybrid deck with a few specific Dragon-types. They also relied on a sub-par Fusion Monster that needed all three main deck monsters to summon, and just wasn't worth the investment. This made for a deck with very few monsters that were very weak and easily run over, and had nowhere near the power that the game-defining Cyber Dragons had. Like the Neo-Spacians, it took well over a decade for some cards like Cyberdark Cannon and Cyberdark Claw to help improve the power and consistency of the deck.

* ValuesDissonance: Dr. Crowler's portrayal as an effeminate man really hasn't aged well in TheNewTens.