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1! All spoilers for ''Anime/YuGiOh: Duel Monsters'' are unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned!
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6[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yugioh_gxs1v1dvd_f.jpg]]
7[[caption-width-right:350:"Generation next!"]]
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12->''"Get your game on!"''
13
14Ten years after ''Anime/YuGiOh'', ''Duel Monsters'' has skyrocketed in popularity all around the world, to the point where [[SeriousBusiness dueling is a professional spectator sport of equal importance to politics and the economy]]. Like other athletes, duelists start training at a young age, and a good place to start is Seto Kaiba's boarding school, Duel Academy, a high school where kids come to learn how to duel with dreams of [[ToBeAMaster becoming the next King of Games]].
15
16Not only that, but the game [[DuelsDecideEverything has also gained more importance in dealing with the structure of the universe itself]]. There are now some Mon-like counter-parts to the cards called ''Duel Spirits'' and a ''Spirit World'' where these spirits live. Under these circumstances, new {{Big Bad}}s appear every now and then trying to TakeOverTheWorld by making use of these powers.
17
18''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX'' is the story of a group of Duel Academy's students thwarting the plans of these new threats while dealing with the dueling school in general. It particularly focuses on Jaden Yuki, a [[AlmightyJanitor Slifer Red student]] who happens to be TheHero, and his friends and rivals.
19
20The anime seasons are as follows:
21* Season 1, Part 1 (Duel Academy arc): Jaden has sucessfully enroll into Duel Academy and enjoys his adventures with friends and allies he befriends with. However, Dr. Crowler attempts to get Jaden expelled (ever since the latter defeated the former in the first episode). Meanwhile, Chazz Princeton, TheRival for Jaden, ends up dropout from Duel Academy (because he is defeated by Jaden and later Baston) and transfers to North Academy. After becoming their best student and obtaining the Armed Dragon deck, Chazz becomes stronger than last time as he wants his revenge on Jaden.
22* Season 1, Part 2 (Seven Stars arc (Japanese dub)/Shadow Riders arc (English dub)): It's revealed that the school was built over the hiding place of three powerful, {{Evil Counterpart}}s of the Egyptian God cards and that its purpose is to raise students strong enough to defend them (the gate sealing the cards can only be opened if its 7 keys are won in a duel). Naturally, Jaden and co. are entrusted to guard said keys from the HiddenAgendaVillain's henchmen.
23* Season 2 (Society of Light arc): Sartorius, possessed by the [[EldritchAbomination Light of Ruin]], comes to the school to [[{{Brainwashing}} recruit]] members for his {{cult}}, the Society of Light. Jaden meets his AntiHero counterpart, Aster Phoenix, whose best friend and manager Sartorius uses to brainwash his victims by putting a DefeatMeansFriendship spell on Aster's deck.
24* Season 3 (Dimension World arc): When things starts to get... strange as the show heads down a slow but steady path from lighthearted comedy to nightmare fuel levels of disturbing, angst, and creepiness. Jaden becomes close friends with Jesse Anderson when students from Duel Academy branches around the world come to compete in a tournament. When an unknown HiddenAgendaVillain's actions get Jesse TrappedInAnotherWorld, Jaden becomes dangerously obsessed with finding him. His journey eventually leads to: the apparent deaths of all of his friends, the discovery of his SuperpoweredEvilSide and the past life of his {{Reincarnation}}, and meeting Yubel, a horrifying card he had as a child that harmed anyone who defeated him, prompting him to launch them into space. Now they're back and not too happy about that. [Episode 156 is the only episode of this season that never received an English dub.]
25* Season 4 (Darkness arc): Each character's individual ComingOfAgeStory as they choose careers and carve paths for themselves (For example: Chazz wants to make a name for himself in the Pro League without relying on his family's fame or fortune, and Alexis has to choose if she'll accept a job as a teacher in America...) is interwoven with an AssimilationPlot executed by the personification of all despair and inner darkness, and the resolution of the mystery of Atticus' EnemyWithin introduced in Season 1. [This season never received an English dub.]
26
27Season by season, as {{Story Arc}}s pass, the cast grows, as different students graduate or arrive and villains are defeated and replaced. The [[Manga/YuGiOhGX manga]], which came [[AnimeFirst after the anime]], uses the same characters and the same setting but includes none of the arcs covered in the anime.
28
29The anime has a very [[PostModernism Post-Modern]] tone, blending elements of GamingAndSportsAnimeAndManga, MindScrew, and DeconstructorFleet. The absurdity of the SeriousBusiness of Duel Monsters is taken up a notch, with entire educational and athletic industries centered around the game. Meanwhile, the plot has serious, painful, and traumatic psychological effects on everyone involved, particularly Jaden, whose psyche collapses under the pressure, power and responsibility he's burdened with. "[[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries I've lost a card game! I have no reason to live!]]" suddenly isn't funny anymore, as it can metaphorically become a CareerEndingInjury, or cause you to literally lose your life. In short, it's a very self-aware GenreBusting series that plays some tropes absurdly straight and others painfully realistically.
30
31The dub is available on [[http://www.hulu.com/yu-gi-oh-gx Hulu]], [[https://www.amazon.com/Yu-Gi-Oh-GX/dp/B07KMNPTLW Amazon Prime Video]] and for free on [[http://www.yugioh.com/ yugioh.com.]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/c/yugioh The Official Yu-Gi-Oh! YouTube Channel]].
32
33It was followed by ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds''. Jaden also appears in the ''Anime/YuGiOhBondsBeyondTime'' movie that [[BatFamilyCrossover teams him up with Yugi and Yusei]].
34
35'''''All spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''''
36
37----
38!!This show provides examples of:
39[[foldercontrol]]
40
41[[folder:A - D]]
42* AcademyOfAdventure: Duel Academy is built on a private volcanic island, the teachers are all famous to some degree (Crowler having a legendary deck, for instance), it frequently hosts tournaments, there are supernatural artifacts hidden in its depths and effectively lacks parental supervision.
43* TheAce: Several of them. Jaden appears to be this until AlwaysSomeoneBetter kicks in and Kaiser Ryo - aka the Ace of the Academy - beats him. And then Kaiser is beaten by the Ace of the pro-league, Edo Phoenix. This trope ultimately gets [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructed]].
44* AdaptationalGenderIdentity: Yubel is depicted as hermaphroditic in the Japanese version, but in a couple of dubs, they are referred as a female.
45* AdultsAreUseless: In Season 3 the students resign themselves to the fact that the remaining teachers have mentally lost it and won't be of any help. Chancellor Sheppard is a deconstruction, as constantly burdening his students with the task of defending the ArtifactOfDoom and saving the world causes him a great deal of inner anguish.
46* AerithAndBob: Mainly due to dub name change, you find normal names like "Jaden" and "Blair" next to names like Pegasus, Viper and an odd Japanese surname.
47* AlienAnimals: The Neo Spacians are clearly based on real-life creatures.
48* AllAmazonsWantHercules: Tania duels Bastion because she's absolutely smitten with him and wants to get hitched. For a while, at any rate...
49* AlmostDeadGuy: Zane in Season 3 searching for a WorthyOpponent to duel [[MilesToGoBeforeISleep before he dies from his heart trouble.]]
50* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: As per series standard, the dubbed version has different openings than the original.
51* AlwaysSomeoneBetter:
52** Zane Truesdale to Jaden, being the first duelist to defeat him as well as the best duelist at the academy until he leaves.
53** Aster Phoenix becomes the first duelist to defeat Zane, as well as defeat Jaden.
54** Many of the exchange students in Season 3 are strong enough duelists to give the protagonists a hard time. Adrian and Jim defeat Chazz and Hassleberry respectively, and Jesse and Axel manage to give Jaden a good duel. Jesse could have even won his duel [[IdiotBall if he didn't cut Amethyst Cat's attack points in half in his last turn]] and Axel willingly lost because he was told to hold back by Viper.
55* AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield: Neo Space looks like a collection of swirling colours with no ground or walls.
56* AmbiguousEnding: The ending leaves out the rest of the duel between Jaden and [[spoiler:Yugi after Yami took over and summoned Slifer with Neos appearing to attack it, symbolizing that the true fight only just begun]]. Not helping the matter are the words that Jaden says afterwards including that he will one day will catch up to him, which implies he lost the duel, only for him to say his catchphrase, which he only says after he wins a duel.
57* AmoralAttorney: X, a one-shot Duelist who faced Jaden, is recharacterized from a simple pro Duelist to Sartorius's attorney in the dub. He retains his ObviouslyEvil looks and mannerisms, Aster mentions he landed his last opponent seven years for "[[SeriousBusiness disorderly Dueling]]," and his duel with Jaden is framed as a KangarooCourt with him penalizing Jaden for doing anything.
58* AndTheAdventureContinues: Jaden ends the last episode with [[KnightErrant him starting a new journey to help those who]] might require his [[ISeeDeadPeople abilities to connect with spirits]].
59* AnotherDimension: In Season 3, Duel Academy is transported to another dimension inhabited by duel monsters because of Yubel. Later, the cast visits another dimension to search for Jesse who was left behind previously. In total there were 12 dimensions stated to exist.
60* AntiHero: Aster Phoenix was designed to be the AntiHero to Jaden's IdealHero, using a Destiny Hero deck that countered Jaden's Elemental Hero one. It's even lampshaded when Aster jokingly notes that they (he and Zane Truesdale) are heroes too, but they're ''Dark'' heroes. Right before killing the {{mooks}} they were threatening for information.
61* AntiHeroTeam: Aster and Zane during the Dimension World arc in Season 3. Axel joins them to [[StormingTheCastle attack the Supreme King's castle.]]
62* AnyoneCanDie: Several characters are killed in duels in Season 3, but are later revealed to be TrappedInAnotherWorld [[SubvertedTrope instead and return to Duel Academy at the end of the season.]]
63* ApocalypseCult: The Society of Light's true purpose is to bring forth the Light of Destruction and destroy the world. The dub tries to downplay this by making them want to mind control the world, though they don’t really shy away from the destructive imagery to hide anything.
64* ArtifactOfDoom
65** The Phantom Demons/Sacred Beasts in Season 1.
66** The "Super Polymerization" card is this in the third season. It first appeared as a blank card being used by Brron with hopes of summoning it by using all of Jaden's friends as sacrifices, but he's missing a sacrifice and can't complete the ritual to create it. Jaden acquires it after defeating Brron, [[SplitPersonalityTakeover with the Supreme King taking control of him]] and completing it, who would go on defeating countless duelists [[KickTheDog including Jim and Axel who also fell victim to it.]] Jaden, [[HeroicBSOD after much turmoil]], is able to use this card to purify Rainbow Dragon and [[DemonicPossession free Jesse from Yubel's control]], [[BatmanGambit but lost this card to Yubel who intended to steal it at that moment.]] In their final duel, [[OmnicidalManiac Yubel attempted to fuse all 12 dimensions to destroy reality]], but [[FusionDance Jaden was able to thwart their strategy and instead fuse himself and Yubel to end the conflict.]]
67* ArtisticLicenseSpace: Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin apparently hails from Jupiter's moon Io, which in real life is a volcanic world.
68* AscendedExtra:
69** Blair originally appears as one-off character in Season 1, faking her identity to get into Duel Academy so she could meet Zane. She returns in Season 3 as an legitimate student, making her a recurring cast member.
70** Compared to the original series, much, much more emphasis is placed upon [[FusionDance Fusion Monsters]] as a mechanic in this series. In addition to it being Jaden's main strategy, almost every major character and most side characters use a Fusion Monster at least ''once'' during the series, contrasting to how Fusion Monsters sparingly came up in the original series.
71* AscendedMeme: Kaibaman's hammy enough to be [[OneSceneWonder a memorable character despite only appearing in one episode]]. His BadassBoast for his Blue-Eyes [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF4MnKQxTWo as he declares the finishing attacks]] for his Duel are ripe for memes on Niconico Douga. Years later, the Japanese version of the real-life card [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/The_Ultimate_Creature_of_Destruction The Ultimate Beast of Destruction]] directly quotes him in its name.
72* AssholeVictim:
73** Dr. Collector, the prisoner dueling against DD.
74** DD himself becomes one shortly afterwards when his ship explodes.
75** Mad Dog, the sadistic Underground duelist who drives Zane's FreakOut. And [[NoKillLikeOverkill pays dearly for it]].
76* AssimilationPlot: The third season includes the literal fusion of ''twelve'' dimensions. The fourth season also features this; anyone oppressed enough by their dreams would be absorbed by the darkness and turn into Trueman.
77* AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance: Chumley, and several other guest of the week duelists have appearances that match their deck themes.
78%%* AutobotsRockOut: Makes up a lot of the soundtrack of the English dub.
79* AwesomeButImpractical: Quite a lot of the duel disks in the third season, including The Supreme King's (which spins like a buzzsaw), Jesse's (which appears to be ... made of giant razorblades), and Yubel's (which is actually an extension of their arm). The question many a cosplayer has moaned over is: How do you actually ''build and use'' any of these?
80* BackFromTheDead: Most of the cast at the end of Season 3, since DeathIsCheap. The same occurs in the end of Season 4 as well, this time on a global scale.
81* BackToBackBadasses: [[BadassAdorable Syrus]] and Hassleberry after they [[RivalsTeamUp settle their differences]] and start working as a team against Frost and Thunder. Hassleberry does another one with Axel as they hold the line against Duel Ghouls long enough for Jesse and Zane to open a portal to deliver the "Rainbow Dragon" card.
82* BackstoryInvader: In Season 4 the characters are shown instantly treating the previously unknown Yusuke Fujiwara like he's one of the TrueCompanions all along — because he's hypnotized them into thinking so. Too bad his magic doesn't work on Judai. It doesn't work on Fubuki, too, because Fubuki knew Fujiwara before hand.
83* BadassBiker: Sartorius on a Yamaha is pretty damn epic. Then Jaden tries it and crashes it a few episodes later.
84* BadassLongcoat: Several characters wear long coats as part of their school uniforms, as do a couple of villains.
85* BattleAgainstTheSunset: The anime exclusive card [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/One-on-One_Fight One-on-One Fight]] (played by Dox in the first season) has its artwork depict a sword duel that takes place during a sunset, their bodies covered in shadow against an orange background.
86* BeginWithAFinisher:
87** Prince Ojin's playstyle is built around this, using Satellite Cannon and turbo-charging its ATK so that he can obliterate the opponent in a single attack. He attempts this on Sartorius, who blocks the attack and then uses his own cards to turn Ojin's monster on its controller, defeating him ''without taking a turn''.
88** Doctor Collector versus DD. The Doctor uses a clever combo involving banishment-based cards to bring out five strong Spellcasters on his first turn, creating a field that will block all attacks, give him a sizeable amount of offense, and burn the opponent considerably with each turn, complete with a strong Trap for insurance. DD brings out Plasma—we don't see the resolution, but it's clear he won immediately after.
89** When Edo fights DD, Edo brings out his own ace monster, Dogma, which is immediately consumed by Plasma on the next turn, [[TheWorfEffect showing he'll be in for a rough match.]]
90* BettyAndVeronica:
91** At first, Asuka is the nice, soft-spoken Betty who CannotSpitItOut and Rei is the flirty, loud-spoken Veronica to Judai's Archie.
92** After [[HoYay Johan]] is introduced however, Rei is put out of the picture, and he becomes the mysterious new transfer student Veronica, still to Asuka's Betty.
93* BeYourself: A common theme in the show is to always use your own deck and never someone else's. Examples include Dimitri using Yugi's deck in Season 1, Syrus attempting to master Zane's deck in Season 4, and later on Chazz, Alexis and Syrus pass up a chance to win a copy of the King of Games' deck in favor of their own.
94* BecauseDestinySaysSo: [[ArcVillain Sartorius]] in Season 2 is a fortune teller and very loyal to his craft. He even uses fortune telling to tell how his luck based deck will land his coin tosses. His sister also has the same mindset.
95* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: Zane in the underground duels in Season 2 is forced into an underground ring where everyone duels with shock collars. He eventually decides to screw honour and pulls a FaceHeelTurn.
96* BetterThanABareBulb: The dub is made of it due to the dialogue transforming the setting into a WorldOfSnark, especially in the later seasons where the borderline GagDub kicked in. Syrus and Adrian, in particular, are responsible for a number of borderline fourth-wall-breaking observations (or just plain BreakingTheFourthWall in Syrus's case).
97* {{BFS}}: In the second episode of Season 2, one character plays Gilford the Legend and equips him with four different swords, each of which gradually increase the size of Gilford's already largish sword. Ultimately the sword ends up about five to six times as long as he is tall. Heavily lampshaded in the English dub.
98* BigBadWannabe: Chazz's brothers, which is lampshaded by Kaiba in the dub after they lose to Chazz in the duel for ownership of Duel Academy -- while Chazz was using a deck whose monsters only had 500 or less attack points.
99-->'''Kaiba''': Of course he won. [[DidYouActuallyBelieve Did you really think I would give Duel Academy to [his brothers]?]] They have a lot to learn about world domination...
100* BigBallOfViolence: Overabused by obscuring monsters with a cloud of smoke when they are destroyed, though as a result the animation is significantly less OffModel than its predecessor's later seasons.
101* BigBrotherInstinct: Zane with Syrus, and occasionally [[InvertedTrope Syrus with Zane]] in later seasons (a rare brother-brother example).
102* BlackKnight: The Supreme King, complete with black armor. There is also an entire kingdom that follows this trope in Season 3.
103* BlamingTheTools: Alice is a duel spirit whose original owner blamed his losing streak on his deck rather than his own skill. The English dub lampshades this by having one of his friends sarcastically remark "yeah, blame it on the card, real mature."
104* BondCreatures: Some characters have spirit partners, which can be very helpful to a person.
105* BookEnds: Jaden's adventure in Duel Academy started by meeting Yugi, the King of Games himself, and giving him the ''Winged Kuriboh'' card. It ended with Jaden going back in time and dueling Yugi himself as his true ''Graduation Duel''. Jaden lost, but not before realizing that the whole point of the duel was to return his lost passion for dueling.
106** Jaden's final duel with Yugi is very similar to the season 1 finale with Jaden being a different duelist and him facing off a blue clad duelist considered the best who helps him find his way.
107** Jaden defeats Crowler the same way he did at the Entrance Exam.
108* BrainwashedAndCrazy: In season 1, it turns out Atticus was being controlled by the entity that would make him Nightshroud, one of the Shadow Riders. In season 2, the Society of Light is populated by Sartorius brainwashing most of Duel Academy's students.
109* BrainwashResidue: After being freed from the Society of Light's mind control, members no longer had memory of ever being brainwashed.
110* BreakTheCutie: Jaden, Syrus, Alexis... After CerebusSyndrome kicks in there is hardly any character who is ''not'' broken by the events.
111** The duel with Brron is a huge version of this. Jaden breaks and it does not turn out well for Brron.
112* BreakTheHaughty: Chazz, Zane and Aster all go through this to some degree. All are {{Expy}}ies of Seto Kaiba. This is not a coincidence.
113* BreakingTheFourthWall: Much more so than [[Anime/YuGiOh its predecessor]], especially in the English dub's third season, where Syrus and a few others do this.
114** In one example, the new professor is organizing a system where students' grades will depend on them dueling one another over and over again.
115--->'''Syrus''':"Oh, man. Something's not right about this."
116--->'''Hassleberry''':"What gave that away -- the maniacal laugh or the creepy music?"
117** In the first episode of Season 3, Jaden has a bunch of flashbacks to make sure the audience is caught up.
118--->'''Jaden''': "Man, I could sit here and have flashbacks all day!"
119** In one episode in Season 3, Jaden asks Syrus to go find some water, for some reason, while Jaden duels against someone. After the duel, Jaden says the water isn't needed anyway, to which Syrus just says "Aw man. And I've been carrying that water for three whole episodes."
120** "The sooner I beat you, the less bad dialogue I have to hear."
121*** "And speaking of walking clichés..."
122** "Man, was that a weird episode."
123** At one point, Jaden sings the show's theme song.
124* BrightIsNotGood: Not just the dorm colors; in defiance of the "black = evil" trend in media, members of the Society of Light all wear white, probably because of the "White = Death" trend in the East. The West may also see all-white as related to madness and/or zealotry, two qualities in which the Society of Light is not lacking.
125* BrokenAesop:
126** The copycat duelist Dimitri stole Yugi's deck and challenged Jaden to a duel with it. He lost, but allegedly it was because he didn't put any heart into his deck. This plot carries an argument against "netdecking" -- i.e. [[PossessionImpliesMastery copying a tournament-winning decklist]] off the Internet instead of building your own -- since ''owning'' a strong Deck doesn't mean you can ''play'' it well. However, Dimitri made very few misplays with Yugi's Deck despite having claimed it for one night, as he's put up a fight that's even recognized as impressive in-universe. Despite not having the heart of the cards, Dimitri was sure using it effectively enough to strengthen the argument ''for'' netdecking.
127** In one episode, Jaden battles Kaibaman, in a duel with apparently high stakes. He loses and is admonished that it's just a game, and it's not like it's a matter of life or death -- a valuable lesson for kids in RealLife. Except that, throughout the series (as well the other Franchise/YuGiOh anime series), dueling really is SeriousBusiness, and the stakes really are very high, including life or death.
128** In Jaden's duel against Damon/Taira Taizan, a duelist obsessed with perfecting his drawing skills (as in the anime, drawing cards from your deck is a skill you can train on instead of just simply being lucky), Jaden insists Damon should enjoy the duel instead of obsessing about his draws since no matter what, you won't always draw what you need to win. He says that and immediately proceeds to draw Elemental Hero Avian that was shuffled previously into his deck, fuse it, and win thanks to the effect of Elemental Hero Flame Wingman. [[UniqueProtagonistAsset Maybe he should have said that only protagonists will always draw what they need to win?]].
129** In the 2-part season 1 finale, Jaden duels Zane as the latter is leaving Duel Academy. Since Zane has only one loss to his name (against Camula, where he threw the duel for Syrus's sake), Jaden's nervous and carefully plays around Zane's threats. Zane is irritated, saying that Jaden is losing because he's overthinking things and isn't [[DontThinkFeel dueling with his heart]]. However, Jaden's made some smart decisions when "dueling with his head", and only ends up on the back foot due to factors he couldn't know or control. And even when Jaden DOES use his heart, the duel ends in a draw.
130** In Syrus and Hassleberry's double duel against Frost and Thunder, Syrus and Hassleberry have to work as a team to defeat the brothers, who get into a fight about strategy (with Frost focused on victory Thunder focused on teamwork). The intended moral is that sometimes, people should put aside their difference to overcome obstacles. However, the problem isn't that Hassleberry and Syrus are in conflict with each other, aside from a few remarks about their own field. In fact, the problem is that they want to work together, but need to figure out how (they couldn't see each other's hands at first, as they could only attack the opponent in front of them). Ultimately, they're able to see each other's hands through the reflections of the owner's cards, [[YankTheDogsChain but by then it was already too late and they ended up getting defeated anyway.]] Even worse, Frost manages to win by BETRAYING Thunder so that everyone lost the duel except himself.
131* TheCasanova: Atticus. He even has a little blue book. In one of the last episodes of Season 1, Chazz tries to be this. The English version of the episode is even named "Chazz-anova". He subsequently fails at beating Alexis in a duel and thus (through some strange logic that doesn't even apply in most anime) fails to win her heart. Instead, he loses while having all the Spirit Keys in his possession and thus lets the Sacred Beasts/Phantom Demons free.
132* CainAndAbel: Chazz and his brothers. Also a non-sibling related example with Jaden and Jesse. Yusuke Fujiwara tries to tempt Jesse to defeat Jaden, so Jesse can be the best and he proceeds to attack Jaden. Subverted because it was all an act and both Jesse and Jaden reveal they don't carry any ill will in trying to outdo each other in dueling.
133* CardGames: It wouldn't be a ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' show without Duel Monsters being involved and it being the cornerstone of the world, with Duel Academy being a school revolving around the game.
134* CerebusRollercoaster: The series' tone is very inconsistent, hand-in-hand with it being an IndecisiveParody. Light-hearted school antics are often followed up with dark, serious high-stakes threats, which then revert back to light-hearted after. For example, episodes 12 through 17 are, in order: a duel between Chazz and Bastion that gets Chazz expelled and serves as Bastion's introductory episode as a duelist; Jaden dueling a cybernetically enhanced dueling monkey that escaped [=KaibaCorp=]; a story about the duel spirit of Jinzo haunting a group of students that unwittingly summoned him in the real world; a duel between Jaden and a tennis player who is infatuated with Alexis; Crowler has Jaden and his friends investigate a mysterious "duel giant" who is stealing the cards of his defeated opponents; and an episode about a student that went to live in the wilderness and became a Tarzan-wannabe to get in touch with his instincts and hone his drawing skills. By Season 3, the show finally settles as "serious" for the rest of its run, with only a few moments of lightheartedness.
135* CharacterCatchphrase:
136** Lampshaded in the dub at least, during Aster and Jaden's third duel, when the former summons Destiny Hero Dogma, Jaden's [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo scooby gang]] reacts with shock, saying things like "Aww, man!" (Syrus), "Great Scott!!" (Bastion), and "Sam Hill!!" (Tyranno). Then Alexis asks why she doesn't have a catchphrase.
137** "Great Scott!!" isn't Bastion's catchphrase, but it is ''a'' catchphrase. One of his more common phrases is "Good show."
138** In terms of actual character catchphrases, in the English dub, Jaden Yuki says "That's game" upon winning, and "Get your game on!" whenever he's about to start a duel. In the Japanese original, Judai has the GratuitousEnglish phrase "Gotcha!" which is said when he wins a duel. [[spoiler:In season 4, after he beats Chronos, the whole school gets in on his catchphrase by yelling and doing the same gesture he usually does to the professor]].
139** Chazz Princeton has "Chazz it up" in the English dub of the anime, along with "you go bye-bye." The Japanese version has one that is a bit more complicated, where he hypes up the crowd by shouting "ichi, jū, hyaku, sen, Manjōme-sandā!" which translated into English is "one, ten, hundred, thousand, Manjome Thunder!" This chant is entirely based on [[GoroawaseNumber number wordplay and puns from Jun Manjome's name]].
140* CharacterDevelopment: More or less everyone gets some character development, but most noticeable are Jaden's, Syrus', and Chazz's development.
141* CharacterFocus: Switches from Jaden's friends to the [[ForeignExchangeStudent four new Transfer Students]] in Season 3.
142* CharacterWitness: On the day of an important exam, the Duel Academy's card shop got a shipment of newly released cards; but Professor Crowler got there first and bought them all. Then he gave them all to Chazz, and said he would manipulate the match-ups in the field exam so that he and Jaden were opponents, hoping Jaden would not only fail, but be humiliated. Meanwhile, Jaden overslept, and while running to class, met an old lady struggling with her stalled truck. Knowing he'd be late anyway, he stopped to help her with it. Later, when he finally got to the card store, he found out she owned the place, and saved one of the new packs of cards for him; Jaden was actually able to win the duel against Chazz with it, gaining a promotion. (Which he turned down.)
143* ChasteHero: Jaden. Debatable as to whether he's oblivious or uninterested.
144* ChekhovsBoomerang: The Sacred Beasts were the main SealedEvilInACan for the first season, but after they were sealed away they never made a return... until the third season, when a Yubel-possessed Marcel forcibly unseals and uses them. After Yubel's defeat, the fate of the Sacred Beasts is never mentioned again.
145* ChekhovsVolcano: {{Averted|Trope}}. The volcano is featured prominently in far-off shots and is the site of several duels. But it never erupts.
146* ChekhovMIA: Atticus, Alexis's missing brother, gets rescued in the midpoint of the first season.
147* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Jaden, who naturally saves people via dueling.
148* ClassTrip: To Domino City in Season 2 for a handful of episodes, where the academy students visit the iconic sites of the first ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' series.
149* ClipShow: Episodes 66, 105, and 156.
150* CloningSplitsAttributes: When Belowski's Mokey-Mokey King is defeated, it turns into three regular Mokey-Mokeys. (Sort of. Technically, Belowski special summons them from his Graveyard using the monster's card effect, but the [[HardLight Solid Vision]] system "animates" it as an Asteroid Monster.)
151* ClubStub: A small storyline of Season 2 revolves around the Slifer Red dorm being in danger of demolition with only Jaden and his friends there to defend it.
152* ColorCodedForYourConvenience:
153** The students' ranks are seperated by colour: Slifer Red (lowest), Ra Yellow (middle) and Obelisk Blue (highest).
154** The Society of Light invokes this trope in their attempt to defy it; they wear white in order to show how they do not follow the school system.
155** An interesting incidence of color-coding with a bit of FridgeBrilliance: there are two boys in GX, and only two, with brown hair and brown eyes (Jaden and Atticus). Jaden has light brown hair/eyes, and is the embodiment of the [[TheSacredDarkness Gentle Darkness (of creation)]]. Atticus' hair and eyes are dark, and in the first and last seasons, he appears as the Darkness of Nihility, which goes around destroying things.
156* ColorCodedStones: The anime has the Crystal Beasts, a group of monsters that are based on the following Gemstones:
157** Ruby Carbuncle: Red
158** Amber Mammoth: Orange
159** Topaz Tiger: Yellow
160** Emerald Tortoise: Green
161** Sapphire Pegasus: Blue
162** Cobalt Eagle: Indigo
163** Amethyst Cat: Violet
164* CombatCommentator: It's ''Yu-Gi-Oh'', so ''someone'' has to be there on the sidelines to make sure the audience didn't miss anything. In some Season 4 duels where there's nobody left alive to commentate, the duelist currently representing the protagonist's side of the fight will serve as his own commentator.
165* CombiningMecha: XYZ-Dragon Cannon returns in this series, with additions VW- Tiger Catapult, and both can combine into VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon.
166* ComesGreatResponsibility: Inverted, as Mr. Stein observes—Jaden's great responsibility gave him great power, since those who see him as an AllLovingHero want to help him.
167* CometOfDoom: One provides the light of Dark World and heralds [[spoiler: the fulfillment of Jim's prophecy.]]
168* ContinuityCameo: Several of the original series characters, among them Pegasus, Kaiba, the Paradox Brothers, and Yugi's grandfather. Also, Yugi himself in the first episode, although his face isn't seen.
169** Then Yugi shows up again both as his faceless older self and his younger self as Jaden's last opponent of the series.
170** In Season 1, Jinzo and Dark Magician Girl, regular monsters that were popular in the original series, appear in one-shot episodes as duelists. Dark Magician Girl is carefree and just looking for fun, but Jinzo is a soul-eating villain and the first sign to Jaden that not all Duel Spirits are benevolent.
171* ContinuityNod:
172** The series' first tag duel is played against the Paradox Brothers, who were also the opponents in the first tag duel featured in Duel Monsters. In Season 2, Syrus and Hassleberry tag duel two opponents on top of the same building that Yugi and Kaiba did in the original, and in Season 4, the dock Jaden and Jesse meet on in Domino is the one Yugi and Joey dueled on in Battle City of the original series. Then there's the various nostalgic appearances of Dark Magician and other signature monsters of the Duel Monsters characters, including a replica being offered as a prize in Season 4.
173** Then there's the second episode, where Syrus speculates that maybe he and Jaden were destined to meet, with them being reincarnations of an [[Anime/YuGiOh ancient Egyptian pharaoh and his loyal priest, Seto]]. Jaden considers the whole scenario to be ridiculous. [[HilariousInHindsight He's later on proven half-right in that Jaden really is a reincarnation of a royal figure.]]
174** The duel against Dimitri has him copy Yugi's deck and mannerisms. Throughout the duel, tracks from the previous anime series are used. Dimitri even refers to Spells as "Magic Cards", an antiquated term from the game's early days.
175** In Season 4, Axel's list of Trueman's victims include numerous characters from the original Toei anime.
176* CooldownHug: At the end of the Jaden vs. Yubel duel, the pair embrace as Yubel's BrainwashedAndCrazy finally comes to an end.
177* CosmicHorrorStory: Has elements of this with 2 major villains.
178** [[EldritchAbomination The Light of Destruction]] a malevolent celestial entity. Scientific evidence suggests for billions of years a white hole released a mysterious energy and when it reached Earth it caused several calamities such as dictatorships and wars. Season 2 largely revolves around [[DemonicPossession Sartorius being possessed by the Light]], and later attempting to use a KillSat to wipe out humanity. In Season 3, Yubel was also AxCrazy because they came into contact with the Light. Although a flashback reveals that [[TheChosenOne Jaden is the reincarnation of the Supreme King]] who holds the power of the [[TheSacredDarkness Gentle Darkness]] to extinguish the Light.
179** [[EldritchAbomination Darkness]] a being aware of the origin of the universe who controls the [[LotusEaterMachine World of Darkness]]. According to Darkness, the World of Darkness existed before life on Earth and is the polar opposite of life although it is not death. [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil It exists as long as darkness exists in the hearts of people, causing Darkness to manifest in the first place.]] People are brought into the World of Darkness when they succumb to the darkness in their hearts. Once there a person is tortured constantly by being forced to live visions of their dreams being crushed until they give up on their individuality. Whoever is sent there is erased from the memory of others.
180* CueTheSun: The end of The Supreme King's reign and after Jaden vs. Darkness.
181* {{Cult}}: The Society of Light.
182* CurbStompBattle: Two of Jaden's three (four if including Yugi) losses fit the bill.
183** His first duel against Zane lasts only six turns, and the only time Jaden had the upper hand in the duel was taken away by Zane immediately.
184** When Jaden duels Kaibaman, Kaibaman defeats him with hardly any difficulty, losing only 600 life points during the entire duel.
185* CuteMachines: Syrus' Vehicroids.
186* DadTheVeteran: Axel's father.
187* DarkerAndEdgier: Seasons 3 and 4, compared to the first two seasons.
188* DarkIsNotEvil: Jaden's SuperpoweredEvilSide is actually supposed to be the "gentle darkness" and in reality might not have been that bad of a guy if Jaden hadn't crossed the DespairEventHorizon.
189** Atticus uses a Red-Eyes Black Dragon deck and can use his Darkness Mask (which is ''very'' evil) to explore his opponent's mind. He's otherwise a good guy, but EvilIsNotAToy.
190* DarkIsEvil: Darkness/Nightshroud, on the other hand is most definitely ''not'' the above, and ''holy shit'' how.
191* TheDarkSide: Jaden's SuperPoweredEvilSide convinces Jaden that the only way to defeat evil is to become evil himself. Considering being good did nothing that season but get his friends killed and his taking of all of {{The Reason You Suck Speech}}es to heart, Jaden gives in, and a SplitPersonalityTakeOver ensues.
192* DeathIsCheap: Hello, all you people who sent Jaden over the DespairEventHorizon halfway through Season 3. Good to know you were all just trapped in another dimension (albeit a hellish one).
193* DeathIsDramatic: Season 3. At least until you find out DeathIsCheap.
194* DeconstructedTrope: Hoo boy. The show started the deconstruction long before CerebusSyndrome came in.
195** Alexis/Asuka is a self-aware MsFanservice and absolutely loathes it because she wants other people to notice her for her skills and hard work rather than her looks. She also more or less fails to achieve this due to circumstances both in and outside of her control, such as facing off against opponents that so vastly outclass her that she can't do much against them, or just being so utterly overshadowed by Jaden/Judai that she struggles to stand out.
196** The Principal falls under AdultsAreUseless. He is aware of this and the few times he tries to avert this trope, he fails. This causes him a great deal of inner anguish.
197** ParentalAbandonment is deconstructed by Jaden. His parents have always been very busy with work, so in their absence with nobody to look after he, he keeps inviting all sorts of people to his house, including significantly older ones (fortunately, his guests turned out not to be dangerous but this could have gone ''really'' wrong), and a {{Yandere}} Duel Monster spirit who put all those guests into a coma.
198** The way the Society of Light [[MoreThanMindControl recruits their members]] is seen as a reversal to the standard DefeatMeansFriendship plot point of the original series, while Jaden's HeroicBSOD in Season 3 is a more realistic look at what would happen to a person's psyche if they were forced to play a card game for the fate of the world and/or their friends' lives.
199** Each and every [[TheAce Ace]] in the show becomes a BrokenAce.
200*** Jaden, who is a near InvincibleHero, ends up shouldering too much responsibility, finds himself in a situation beyond his control while unwilling to accept help, and eventually reaches the DespairEventHorizon. In season 4, while still technically the best duelist around - and he knows it - he has lost all love for it, his humour, and is afraid to form or maintain personal relationships.
201*** Jaden's insistence to keep saving the day and his NoOneGetsLeftBehind mindset devolve into a dangerous obsession that indirectly drags in the rest of his friends into a lot of suffering, because he's incapable of seeing their needs and abilities or realizing they're not just going to stand back while he puts himself in danger.
202*** When the Kaiser, who was the best in the Duel Academy by a mile, went pro, he found out he was a NormalFishInATinyPond, and kept losing. Eventually he was pushed to underground duels, where his "manager" broke him and turned him into a BloodKnight.
203*** Phoenix became a dueling champion specifically to find clues behind his father's death/disappearance, as the man used to design duel monsters. Duelling is largerly a means to an end.
204** As Chazz displays, trying to make your own name while your super rich family opposes you is far from the easiest thing in the world. He is left without possessions or resources, and even after he beats his family members and the people they hire in duels, he still lives under their shadow.
205** Alexis deconstructs PatientChildhoodLoveInterest; she never dared to admit her feelings for Jaden to herself, much less to ''him''. By the time she does realize she has feelings, he is already part of an OfficialCouple.
206** SpotlightStealingSquad is deconstructed, as Jaden's quick friendship with the new arrivals puts ever increasing strain in his relationship with all his old friends.
207** HardWorkHardlyWorks is also deconstructed with Jaden. Sure, he is a BookDumb carefree guy who is very talented at dueling. That on its own is not a bad thing; the problem is that this tactic works ''only for Jaden''. As a particularly disgruntled professor points out, all other students picked up on Jaden being the best while doing no studying whatsoever, and decided to copy his attitude even though they themselves do not have the kind of talent that Jaden does. It's shown in a flashback that attendance for certain classes has dropped to zero. The teacher basically accuses Jaden of causing the drop in dedication from everybody else.
208** InvincibleHero is also deconstructed through Jaden, as his friends start treating him as a CrutchCharacter, and not just in terms of duelling. As is demonstrated ''very early'' in Season 3, Jaden's friends turn to him for answers to their personal problems (such as Syrus wondering if he should participate in Professor Viper's duels or not), and Jaden doesn't have an answer because ''his'' focus is to have fun duelling. As Jaden points out, they are different people and what works for him doesn't work for them. Yet Syrus still treats it as a betrayal of his trust.
209* DeconReconSwitch: The fourth season starts with Jaden a changed person from the BreakTheCutie events of the previous season, and he appears a much more cynical person for it. As the season ends however, his previous optimistic traits return as he's determined to convince everyone trapped in the World of Darkness they can move past their doubts of either past mistakes or the fear of the future in his duel with [[BigBad Darkness]]. Finally at the very end with his duel with Yugi, after 2 seasons of life and death duels, [[RuleOfFun he rediscovers his passion for dueling again.]]
210* DemonicPossession: The Light of Destruction possessed Sartorius during the whole second season. Yubel possesses Marcel and Jesse in Season 3.
211* DemotedToExtra: Bastion who, again?
212** The Sacred Beasts become less powerful and less important as the series goes on, eventually just being forgotten about completely.
213* DenserAndWackier: It's quick downward spiral into DarkerAndEdgier territory in later seasons aside, the first several episodes of the series can get ''really freaking weird'', especially in comparison to the original series. Not only are some of the duelists Jaden duels ''very'' quirky in nature, at one point, he even ends up dueling a ''literal dueling monkey!'' While it ''does'' start to take itself more seriously later on, it can be a ''bit'' hard to press through at points because of it.
214* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment:
215** Drillago's attack name is ''Drilling Drill''. In addition, there's a trap card called ''Entry Forbidden! No Entry!''. The dub shortened this to ''No Entry!'', which was actually a well-received change.
216** Then there's the card ''Mirai Yūgō - Future Fusion'', which translates into ''Future Fusion - Future Fusion''. Naturally, it was shortened to ''Future Fusion'' in the dub.
217* {{Deprogram}}: In Season 2, Jaden saves both Chazz and Alexis from being brainwashed by the Society of Light by defeating them in duels. Chazz deprograms the entire white dorm at the end of the season. [[NotBrainwashed Subverted with Zane that season.]]
218* DespairEventHorizon: Jaden, from about midway through his duel with Brron. Also, Zane in Episode 65.
219* DestructionEqualsOffSwitch: Hassleberry learns (slightly too late) that technology does not work this way in the climax of the Society of Light arc.
220* {{Determinator}}: Several duelists in the show. Notably Jaden, Zane, Jim, etc.
221* DeusExMachina: In true ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' fashion, you get duels being settled by the MagicPokerEquation when the hero, who's on the back foot, turns things around with a single miracle draw. Philosopher's Stone - Sabatiel might be the most obvious, as it's only around to help Jaden get past the Sacred Beasts and then disappears.
222* DidYouActuallyBelieve: A rare ''heroic'' example. Upon learning that Chazz defeated his brother Slade with a deck filled with monsters of 500 or less attack points, Seto Kaiba (the man who proposed the duel in lieu of a complete buyout like the Princeton brothers had originally proposed and accepted the handicap on Chazz's behalf) is completely unsurprised. He then says this trope verbatim, admitting he never had any intentions of selling Duel Academy and only allowed them the opportunity to teach the brothers a lesson.
223* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: Jaden sings the English intro song in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzD6xABYR6s#t=6m58s episode 35]].
224* DigitalBikini: Done very obviously in Episode 4 when several of the girls are in a hot tub. Even without the obvious edit, nothing even remotely suggestive would have been visible.
225** Being an attractive female monster with {{Stripperiffic}} outfit, Elemental Hero Burstinatrix also [[https://i1.wp.com/gamehorizon.gr/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Capture33.png suffered from this]]. And not only does her outfit get censored, her previously big and round breasts get smaller and flatter as well.
226* DisappearsIntoLight: Anyone who "dies" in Season 3's second alternate dimension.
227* DisneyDeath: Done with several characters in Season 3.
228* DittoFighter: One-time opponent Dimitri is known for copying other Duelists' Decks and mannerisms. The episodes featuring him make an implied statement of "[[PossessionImpliesMastery netdecking]]" -- the practice of copying a tournament-winning Deck in hopes of earning easy victories.
229* DoingInTheScientist: After extended use of dueling using shock-collars, Zane develops heart problems. Initially explained as overuse of the shock collars, this reason was done away with in favor of the [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique dark power of his deck]], which [[DeceptiveDisciple he stole from his mentor]].
230* DoItYourselfThemeTune: The second ED, "Wake Up Your Heart", is performed by Judai's VA, Creator/{{KENN}}, alongside his band The [=NaB's=].
231* DontExplainTheJoke: In the dub, while [[TheClimax Jaden is dueling Sartorius]], Jaden not only tells an incredibly lame joke, but he explains it immediately afterwards, making it even less funny than it already was. It seems [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment 4kids]] was aware of this, as Aster points out the failness of the joke immediately after.
232-->'''Jaden''': You said ''I'' was the puppet, but it looks like ''you're'' the dummy. Get it? Puppet, dummy?
233-->'''Syrus''': Oh, yeah. Good one, J.
234-->'''Aster''': A joke's not funny when you have to explain it.
235* DoubleEntendre: Most people, when they summon a monster, say "I summon (insert monster's name here)". Jesse, on the other hand, does things like "Rainbow Dragon! COME OUT!" (And yes: "come out" means in Japanese exactly what it means in English).
236* DoubleStandard: All girls who enter Duel Academy are placed in the luxurious Obelisk Blue regardless of talent, wealth or connections. Whereas a boy who lacks those same things can find himself living in the shed they call the Slifer dorm. It can take years of hard work for a boy to reach the same level of living standard the girls get automatically on entry.
237* DragonsVersusKnights: The main protagonist Jaden uses a deck of Warrior-type monsters called the Elemental Heroes while two of his rivals use dragons; Chazz uses the Armed Dragon as one of the archetypes in his deck while Zhane uses Cyber Dragons, Machine-type monsters with dragon appearances. In the manga, Chazz uses a Dragon-type focused deck.
238* DubInducedPlotHole: Blair may have passed for eight years old in the first season, but not in the second.
239* DubNameChange: Being dubbed by 4KidsEntertainment, nearly every character. For exceptions, we have Jim "Crocodile" Cook, the distinctly Japanese-sounding villain Kagemaru, and his underlings Camula, Abidos, Titan and Amnael. Princess Rose, Prince Ojin, Yubel, The Alien of Light, Alice, Doctor Collector and The Supreme King also retain their original names (in Supreme King Juudai's case, the perceived "name change" is actually just a translation, with the word "Haou" meaning "Supreme King"). Though Americanization runs rampant, there are some odd cases of ''reverse'' Americanization such as Jim's crocodile Karen becoming Shirley and Sara becoming Yasmin. To avoid confusion since both names for a given character may pop up, here's a list.
240** Juudai Yuki > Jaden Yuki
241** Sho Marufuji > Syrus Truesdale
242** Hayato Maeda > Chumley Huffington
243** Asuka Tenjoin > Alexis Rhodes
244** Jun Manjoume > Chazz Princeton
245** Daichi Misawa > Bastion Misawa
246** Daitokuji-sensei > Professor Lyman Banner
247** Ryo Marufuji > Zane Truesdale
248** Fubuki Tenjoin > Atticus Rhodes
249** Edo/Ed Phoenix > Aster Phoenix
250** Tyranno Kenzan > Tyranno Hassleberry
251** Cronos de Medici > Vellian Crowler
252** Rei Saotome > Blair Flannigan
253** Johan Andersen > Jesse Anderson
254** Austin O'Brien > Axel Brodie
255** Amon Garam > Adrian Gecko
256** Debuted in Season 1:
257*** Prinicipal Samejima > Chancellor Sheppard | Emi Ayukawa > Fonda Fontaine | Momoe and Junko > Mindy and Jasmine | Tome-san > Ms. Dorothy | Kumazo Maeda > Mr. Huffington | Chosaku and Shoji Manjoume > Slade and Jagger Princeton | SAL > Wheeler | Takadera > Torrey | Ayanokouji Mitsuro > Harrington Rosewood | Ohara and Kohara > Brier and Beauregard | Taira Taizan > Damon | Kagurazaka > Dimitri | Kousuke Kunisaki > Gerard | Mokeo Motegi > Belowski | Yuri Edogawa > Czar | Principal Ichinose > Chancellor Foster | Sara > Yasmin | Taniya > Tania | Anacis > Admiral | Darkness > Nightshroud | Mitsuo > Pierre
258** Debuted in Season 2:
259*** Takuma Saiou > Sartorius | Napoleon > Jean-Louis Bonaparte | Houzan Gokaido > Reginald van Howell III | Ran Kouchou > Missy | Kabayama > Sarytr | Monkey Saruyama > Mr. Shroud | Inukai > Mad Dog | Gin Ryusei > Lorenzo | X > Howard X Miller | Kourimaru > Frost | Ikazuchimaru > Thunder | Honomaru > Blaze | Iwamaru > T-Bone | Mizuchi Saiou > Sarina | Kabukid > Orlando | Tsugio Kanda > Bob Banter | Frantz > Franz | Sombre Guerro > Elroy Prescott | Sommelier Parker > Maitre'D | Tachibana Ikaku > Lucien Grimley | Albert Zweinstein > Eisenstein | DD > The D
260** Debuted in Season 3: Professor Cobra > Professor Thelonius Viper | Karen > Shirley | Professor Kouji Satou > Mr. Stein | Geise Hunt > Trapper | Rick > Pierce | Martin Kanou > Marcel Bonaparte
261** Monster spirits also receive names changes, though most of them were made into TCG cards with name changes first..
262*** Hane Kuribo > Winged Kuriboh | Android - Psycho Shocker > Jinzo | Ally of Justice - Kaibaman > Kaibaman | Birdman > Harpie's Brother | Devil Dozer > Doom Dozer | Skull Bishop > Skull Knight | Sea God's Priestess > Maiden of the Aqua
263* DubPersonalityChange: This happens a lot with the English dub. Some examples include, but aren't limited to:
264** Reginald, an Obelisk Blue student Chazz duels in early season 2, is one of the most blatant examples, despite only appearing in one episode. In the Japanese version, he respects Chazz despite being demoted to Slifer Red, and is honored to be dueling him. He thinks something must be wrong with the school instead of Chazz for him to be in Slifer Red. In the dub, he's the typical SmugSnake like most of the other Obelisk Blue students, and looks down on Chazz because of his rank.
265** In episode 35, after Chazz beats his brother Slade in a duel, Slade and Jagger's reactions differ between versions. In the English dub, they claim they'll be back to get their revenge, and are upset that the duel made Chazz look like a hero for the academy, implying they don't accept Chazz. In the Japanese version, Jagger considers getting revenge for the loss, only for Slade to convince him to let it go, pointing out how much Chazz has grown up, implying they actually respect Chazz for stopping them.
266** Mad Dog, the underground duelist Zane duels in episode 65, is a tough no-nonsense man with a deep voice in the Japanese version. The English dub makes him a {{Manchild}} with his speech patterns, as well as a high-pitched voice that sounds like Mike Tyson.
267* DubText: Syrus gets it worst. "Jaden, I want you to be my shipmate!" and "Jaden's my best friend! He's my hero! He's the hot fudge on the sundae that is my life!"
268* DuelsDecideEverything: Naturally. Everyone duels, even when they have little to no reason to.
269** At one point Jaden agrees to a duel where the stakes are whoever wins becomes Alexis' fiancée, even though A: Alexis didn't agree to this at all, and B: Jaden doesn't even know what a fiancée is!
270** In season 2, the BigBad gains control over a KillSat after beating its owner in a duel! Said BigBad subverts this trope when he refuses to duel Jaden because he's already got what he needs. It's DoubleSubverted when circumstances force into a duel anyway.
271* TheDulcineaEffect: Aster enters a plot important duel to the death with Adrian to save Echo from him in Season 3. This even confuses him, not just the viewers.
272%%* DumbIsGood
273* DustbinSchool: The Slifer Red dorm, where the weakest students are.
274* DysfunctionJunction: Most of the villains have a FreudianExcuse, and don't get started on Jaden himself.
275[[/folder]]
276
277[[folder:E - H]]
278* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Being the first proper anime spin-off of the ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' franchise, GX stands out in a lot of ways compared to subsequent series.
279** Of all the lead protagonists, Jaden stands out due to how relatively ''plain'' he looks compared to other Yu-Gi-Oh series protagonist. Even though he has AnimeHair, it's nowhere ''near'' as crazy as every other protagonists, and seems downright ''normal'' compared to some of the hair styles in ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL''. Also, while every protagonist has "Yu" in their name, Jaden stands out as the only one without "Yu" in his first name, and it instead being his last name. He's also the only protagonist to be hit with DubNameChange.
280** ''GX'' by far has the most amount of connections to the original ''Anime/YuGiOh'' anime, to the point where many characters from the first anime appear here. Even though ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' is still set in the same continuity, GX by ''far'' has way more {{Call Back}}s and in some cases what could be considered direct sequels to certain episodes of the original anime. It even caps off with [[spoiler:Jaden dueling Yugi and the Pharaoh in the final episode.]]
281** While every spin-off has a Kaiba expy of their own, it's usually limited to one rival character. GX has three characters serving as Kaiba expies in the form of Chazz, Zane, and Aster, who each have different aspects of Kaiba's character.
282** With every spin-off, a new summoning mechanic would be introduced. While GX did put emphasis on fusion summoning, that mechanic already existed in the game beforehand. Also, while there were characters like Jaden whose deck relied heavily on Fusion Summoning, there were a lot of major characters whose decks either barely used the mechanic, or never fusion summoned at all. While there were other spin-offs that didn't rely entirely on their unique mechanic, they usally made a plot point about why people don't use that summoning method, whereas GX doesn't try to explain why some people didn't use Fusions. ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' had the Yliaster members who used the Meklords, and while they weren't Synchro monsters, they were designed with the intent to counter Synchros. ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' didn't have everyone use Pendulum Summoning because [[spoiler:there were multiple dimensions that each had their own summoning mechanic, but didn't have access to the other ones]].
283* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: After going through hell and becoming a BrokenBird, Jaden is able to recover his love of dueling through a friendly battle with none other than Yugi Motou himself. Though he loses, Jaden walks away from the duel pleased with the result, and ends the series by continuing on his path, but this time with a calm smile on his face.]]
284* EEqualsMCHammer: Bastion scrawls a lot of equations and formulas on his room's walls and on his baseball bat to keep track of his work on formulating his decks, especially when [[TechnicianVersusPerformer he's determining the formula to beat Jaden]]. Unless he's crunching a lot of numbers to optimize his odds, he's investing a lot more effort than it normally does to build a Deck. These formulas also appear on his own cards and help him identify them when he discovers that his deck is tossed into the ocean.
285* EgomaniacHunter: Trapper the spirit hunter in Season 3.
286* ElaborateUniversityHigh: Duel Academy
287* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Oops, that's the end of the ''universe''.
288* EmpathicWeapon: Any monster card known to have a spirit. Actually, all the cards, period, although only some Duelists are sufficiently in touch with theirs for this to apply.
289* EnemiesWithDeath: TheGrimReaper appears in one episode where a Duelist made a DealWithTheDevil with him to get supernatural draw luck. Jaden naturally had to Duel that person, putting this trope into effect by proxy.
290* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Jaden/Judai has quite a bunch of male admirers, from Sho and Kenzan with the whole "aniki" business, Johan who appears in season 3 and acts as if they have been married for a long time, even Manjoume at times. female, half-male]] Yubel in the end. But it's not surprising considering the show only has two female characters that even begin to qualify as "main characters."
291* EverythingsBetterWithRainbows: Jesse and his Rainbow Dragon—no, just Jesse's deck in its entirety.
292* EverythingsDeaderWithZombies: Duel Ghouls in season 3.
293* EvilCounterpart: Elemental Heroes/Evil Heroes, Gem Beasts/Advanced Gem Beasts, Cyber End Dragon/Cyberdark Dragon, Egyptian Gods/Sacred Beasts. Need we go on?
294* EvilCostumeSwitch: Zane after his FreakOut, Jaden while he is in the [[SuperPoweredEvilSide Supreme King]] armor, and Jesse after his possession by Yubel. Atticus has a pretty wicked trench when he's busy being Darkness.
295* EvilerThanThou: Yubel vs. Adrian in Season 3.
296* EvilIsNotAToy: Ask Fujiwara, Atticus and Zane. The former two played with evil and ended up with the same SuperpoweredEvilSide, while the latter used a [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique dangerous forbidden deck]] that gave him a ''fatal heart condition''.
297* EvilHand: Yubel somehow alters or transplants their own arm onto Viper, Marcel and Adrian as a sign of their power.
298* EvilOverlord: The Supreme King and Brron the Mad King.
299* EvolvingCredits: In the original, the credits in the first part of Season 3 featured Jaden recalling events from previous seasons as he stands back-to-back with Jesse. The latter part of the season after Jesse's disappearance features Jaden recalling his memories of Jesse, standing back-to-back with a ghostly, transparent Jesse.
300* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: In the past, Jaden actually had ears. You know, that you could see.
301* {{Expospeak}}: As in the original series, for the benefit of viewers, duelists have to describe the effects every time they play a card, even one they've already played... sometimes against the same opponent or even in the same episode! Not surprisingly, the dubbed version uses LampshadeHanging, with the opponent frequently responding, "Thanks, but actually, I already knew that!", or some variant thereof.
302* {{Expy}}: A bunch of them for characters from the original series:
303** Jaden seems to display a blend of Joey's personality and Yugi's dueling skills. Téa's view on friendship also comes up occasionally, but to a lesser degree.
304** Zane, like Seto Kaiba, is an AloofBigBrother with a deck built around three Light-attribute dragons and an ace monster that results from fusing them. Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Cyber End Dragon even have similar ATK points. By extension, one could make the argument that his frequently-endangered little brother Syrus is a Mokuba expy, at least in Season 1.
305** Chazz is another Kaiba expy, mostly in how he dresses, talks, and some identical dueling strategies. He's also from a filthy rich family with massive influence in politics and business, which is a plot point in Season 1 when his brothers try to use him to get a foothold in the dueling industry.
306** Aster is a ''third'' expy of Kaiba, displayed by his role as one of Jaden's [[TheRival rivals]], superior attitude, and [[DisappearedDad major parental]] [[FreudianExcuse issues]]. The fact that all three characters go through some form of BreakTheHaughty cannot be a coincidence.
307** Jesse, who is, quite undeniably, an {{Expy}} of Jaden!
308--->"I feel like we've met this kid before."
309--->"[[LampshadeHanging That's because he's just Jaden with a southern accent.]]"
310*** Jesse also looks a bit like [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Nagisa Kaworu]], and serves a similar role (shows up late in the show, befriends the main character immediately and then later turns against the protagonist). The main difference is that Jesse didn't turn against Jaden in the first episode he appeared in.
311*** Likewise, Jaden himself looks a very little bit like Ikari Shinji, the protagonist of Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion.
312*** It doesn't stop there. The two girls in the story who have crushes on Jaden are named [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Asuka and Rei]] in the original Japanese version. %% Don't change these names to their English version here, we're explicitly talking about their Japanese names.
313** Alexis: fills Téa's role for Jaden, but duels and acts more like Mai. [[RunningGag Also, looks like Kaiba.]]
314** Also worth noting is the fact that [[DemotedToExtra hey-wasn't-he-a-main-character-once]] Bastion Misawa has a couple things in common with Ryo Bakura, including getting British accents and keeping their original (and distinctly Japanese-sounding) last names in the dub.
315** Blair: Rebecca.
316* EyeDentityGiveaway: Judai/Jaden's eyes are normally a shade of brown, but whenever his SuperpoweredEvilSide is in control, his eyes become SupernaturalGoldEyes.
317* FairyCompanion: Winged Kuriboh.
318* FakeUltimateHero: Abidos III is built up as being "the unbeatable God of Dueling." As it turns out, the reason he was "unbeatable" was because his servants kept jobbing to him because he was the Pharaoh. (It's stated that they never once tried to destroy the First, Second, or Third Sarcophagi, even though that trio of cards is easily the biggest weakness of Abidos's strategy.) Consequently, he's one of the only characters that Jaden was able to beat with nothing but Normal Elemental Heroes.
319* FashionableAsymmetry:
320** Elemental Hero Burstinatrix has an outfit that is rather reserved on her left side and just downright {{Stripperiffic}} on her right side.
321** [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/File:Yubel-DULI.png Yubel]], whose asymmetry is to symbolize that they are a hermaphrodite monster, with their right side having the female boobs covered and shorter pants with smoother knee and thigh, complete with eyelashes on their right eye, while their left side has the male chest left bare, no eyelashes on the left eye and more muscular left leg. It can be a FridgeBrilliance if you know a saying in Asia that is "female on the right, male on the left", which means Yubel's design is based on that saying.
322* FightingYourFriend: [[DemonicPossession Yubel uses Jesse's body]] in a duel against Jaden.
323* FictionalSport: The Pro League for Dueling. A circle of the highest ranking duelists in the world featured in a mainstream sport like any other real life sport. It is the goal of many Duel Academy students to one day compete in the Pro League. Known pro duelists include Aster Phoenix, Zane later becomes one, and Chazz himself in Season 4 tries to become a pro duelist.
324* FirstNameBasis: Syrus/Sho begins calling Jaden/Judai his given name, rather than [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseHonorifics "Aniki"]] after he loses faith in him during Season 3. He reverts back to "Aniki" in Season 4.
325* FlippingTheTable: There is a card called "[[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Flipping_the_Table Flipping the Table]]". In one episode, used by Chumley's father who (in the Japanese version, at least) was a substantial drunkard and owns a sake company (in the dub, he just owns a hot sauce company). When played, a giant table does invariably appear and Chumley's father does overturn it fairly violently.
326* {{Foreshadowing}}: It's all over the place. Very much so that it '''truly''' deserves it's own page.
327* ForeignExchangeStudent: In Season 3, four new champion duelists from different branches of Duel Academy show up.
328* FreakOut: Zane Truesdale, triggering a FaceHeelTurn.
329* FreezeFrameBonus: Common with cards, where a pause and a good eye will reveal a lot. Pause while Lucien Grimley is discarding cards, for instance, and you'll see he also plays Mystic Tomato, Big Eye, Magical Stone Excavation, Reload, and Exchange of the Spirit, among other cards, all of which make sense in his deck.
330* FreudianExcuse: Quite a lot of them.
331* FrothyMugsOfWater: Hot sauce is serious business. This is, of course, the dub; in the original, it was explicitly sake.
332* FunWithAcronyms: The dueling monkey SAL: "Super Animal Lerning [''sic'']". Also a pun on saru (Japanese for monkey).
333* FusionDance: Fusion summons are the primary gimmick of this series; While they were present in the original ''Duel Monsters'' anime, they are far more common and central to the playstyle of characters in this series.
334** Jaden's Elemental Hero Fusion monsters and several other characters using Fusion monsters as their main strategy.
335* GagDub: Several episodes in early Season 3 tread into this territory with a script not unlike that of [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries the abridged series]], although seasons 1 and 2 also had their fair share of humour.
336** Highlighted in [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2bml9_is-littlekuriboh-writing-for-yu-gi_fun this]] collection of clips. Yes, that's the real dub's dialog, not an Abridged version.
337* GeckoEnding: The English dub ends one episode short of the end of Season 3 and insinuates that Jaden sacrificed himself to stop Yubel.
338* GenreBusting: GamingAndSportsAnimeAndManga + MindScrew + TakeThat, ''Anime/YuGiOh''
339* GenreShift: After the initial arc of season 3, the series suddenly becomes about [[TrappedInAnotherWorld surviving in a hostile alternate world]], fighting real monsters and trying to find a way back.
340* TheGift: A recurring theme is that the better someone is at Duel Monsters, the more painful their fall will be.
341* GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger: Jaden's trademark catchphrase is the English word "Gotcha!" accompanied by pointing with his index and middle finger. In the dub, it's "That's game!"
342* GoneHorriblyRight: Bronn wanted to break Jaden's spirit. He woke up the Supreme King.
343* GoodIsBoring: In-universe example in Season 2. Zane realizes, during his DespairEventHorizon, that [[HonorBeforeReason respecting others]] has gotten him nothing and decides to make a FaceHeelTurn.
344* GoryDiscretionShot: When the [[EvilOverlord Supreme King]] {{ki|ckTheDog}}lls [[NiceGuy Jim]] [[IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight in their duel]], only his duel disk was left of him. Previous and later episodes displayed hundreds of duel disks left all over the place as a result of completing his [[ArtifactOfDoom Super Polymerization card]].
345* GottaCatchThemAll: Jesse, searching for Rainbow Dragon.
346* GraduateFromTheStory: Jaden and the rest of the main cast graduated from Duel Academy at the end of the series, with Alexis giving the graduation speech. There was also a graduation ball after the ceremony that Jaden did not attend in order to get packing and leave early.
347** Zane and Chumley graduate from Duel Academy at the end of Season 1, due to them being being older than the rest of the cast. Unusually for this trope, Zane remains a prominent character throughout the rest of the series despite his graduation.
348* GratuitousEnglish: Jim 'Crocodile' Cook provides enough of it to cover everyone. Judai in the Japanese dub also has one as his catchphrase, "Gotcha!"
349** There's plenty in the first Season 1 opening as well.
350* GratuitousGerman: The names of Yubel's second and third forms. The name "Yubel" itself can be traced to the German word "übel" ([[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast meaning "evil"]]).
351* GratuitousItalian: Cronos de Medici.
352* GratuitousFrench: Bonaparte and Marcel.
353* GreedMakesYouDumb: Pegasus invokes this during his 1v2 duel against Crowler and Bonaparte, who have challenged Pegasus to a duel where they will receive a job at his company if they win; Pegasus sets a stipulation saying that if they win, the one who has more Life Points remaining will receive a better position at his company, hoping to turn them against one another. Crowler doesn't take the bait, but Bonaparte does and starts attacking Crowler to lower his Life Points, causing Crowler to respond in kind. As a result, they end up not getting jobs at Pegasus's company because they wasted cards that could have used on Pegasus on each other.
354* GrowingUpSucks: In Season 4, most of the students, especially the graduating ones, have to grapple with what they want to do with their lives going into adulthood.
355* GunsAkimbo: The art for Don Zaloog shows him with a pair of pistols.
356* {{Hammerspace}}: Sartorius gets a particularly absurd use of this before his Duel against Chazz, pulling ''a table'' out of nowhere to play his cards on.
357* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Jaden, who [[BookDumb fails almost every test]] but is still regarded as one of if not ''the'' top duelists at the school. It's implied he fails the tests solely because he falls asleep during them. He's repeatedly established as being an incredible duelist, but hopelessly BookDumb.
358* HatePlague: Given to Syrus, Atticus, Alexis, Hassleberry and Chazz toward Jaden temporarily in Season 3.
359* HermeticMagic: Amnael's Emerald Tablet which he used to trap Atticus', Chazz's and Alexis' souls as well as Sartorius' Tarot deck. Then there's Fujiwara's ritual to summon Darkness, resulting in the Abandoned Dorm.
360* HeroicBSOD: Jaden suffers through [[strike:an epic one]] a few epic ones in Season 3 after Jesse is kidnapped and after his SplitPersonalityTakeover.
361* HeroicRematch: Jaden gets a rematch with Aster after losing to him the first time and acquiring his new Neo Space Deck.
362* TheHeroDies: Subverted in the last episode of Season 3 when Jaden's friends, except Syrus, believe he may never return after his supposed HeroicSacrifice, but he does.
363* HeroicSafeMode: After dueling with the fate of the world at stake several times over, Jaden's a little worn out by Season 4, as he starts playing for quick and complete victories even when the stakes are considerably lower.
364* HeroicSacrifice: Several characters in Season 3.
365* HesBack:
366** Chazz after his stint at the North Academy in Season 1, after getting his snobbishness thoroughly broken down.
367** Jaden after his trip to Neo Space in Season 2, his return at the end of Season 3, and [[RuleOfFun rediscovering his passion for dueling]] in the duel with Yugi in the last episode.
368* HeterosexualLifePartners: Jaden and Jesse, Jaden and Syrus.
369* HeyThatsMyLine: Exact words said by Jaden in episode 67. Finally having made his way back to Duel Academy, Jaden walks in on Aster and Alexis about to duel and Aster says "get your game on."
370* HiddenAgendaVillain: Yubel and Kagemaru
371* HiddenDepths
372** Cronos is actually a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who grows to appreciate Jaden over the course of Season 1 and as shown in his duel against Camilla, is very protective of his students.
373** Alexis at first only appears as a skilled and beautiful duelist, but she has lingering issues over her brother's disappearance.
374* HideYourGays: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the third season, where two separate people (three, if you count Syrus ranting about Jesse in the previews) assume Jaden may have an interest in guys, to the point where Yubel possesses Jesse in an attempt to make Jaden surrender to them. The actual ship that's most hinted never happens (that we know of), but Jaden ends up with someone who's half-male anyway. There really isn't any smoke without fire in this case.
375** Special mention goes to an absolutely trope-smashing line from Axel in Episode 139: "Jim, was there... anything between you and Jaden?"
376** And another from Yubel, talking to Jaden about Jesse, in Episode 154.
377* HorseOfADifferentColor: In the Dark World, Aster and Zane are shown riding bipedal dinosaur-like monsters.
378* HostageForMcGuffin: Sartorius holds Aster hostage, threatening to kill him if Jaden doesn't hand over the KillSat keys. Jaden, in what's probably his most {{idiot|Hero}}ic [[TooDumbToLive moment]] ever hands them over, then challenges Sartorius to a duel. Which the villain declines, until outside forces (Neos) force him to duel.
379** Earlier, a villain holds Syrus hostage, causing [[AloofBigBrother Zane]] to lose so that Syrus' soul is spared.
380* HotForStudent: Nurse Fontaine for Atticus. She is seen alongside most of the female students in Atticus' rabid fangirl cheering section. The first ''Tag Force'' game expands on this. Fontaine will only agree to be the player's partner if they bring her Atticus' autograph.
381* HypocriticalHumor:
382--> '''Syrus:''' Woah! It [the monkey] talks?
383--> '''Scientist:''' Please! That would be completely unrealistic. His helmet reads his mind and talks for him.
384** Also, in Season 2 when Crowler and Bonaparte duel, Crowler comments that he's "such a dramatic little man", even though Crowler and pretty much everyone else in the series, is just as much of a LargeHam as he is.
385[[/folder]]
386
387[[folder:I - P]]
388* IdiotHero: Jaden, to a T. This trope applies well in his case only up to the halfway mark of Season 3, when his deconstruction begins in earnest. By the time Season 4 rolls around, he can be described as an interesting combination of AllLovingHero and the IneffectualLoner--in the sense that while he still cares for his close ones, he makes efforts to distance himself somewhat from them in order to allow them their own growth, away from his influence. During this time, most of his interventions are generally marginal and only meant to nudge the other person in the right direction, not whip them around in what fashion Jaden sincerely (but also selfishly) wanted them to take.
389* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight:
390** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Zane in Season 2; his friends at first refuse to accept he simply [[FreakOut snapped]] and [[FaceHeelTurn the vicious "Hell Kaiser" persona]] is part of the obsession with victory he needed to survive in the Underground. They assume he's BrainwashedAndCrazy (like every other character that season) as opposed to just plain crazy.
391** Played straight with Jaden in Season 3, when Jim and Axel duel the Supreme King trying to turn him back to normal.
392* IncestSubtext: Not ''technically'' canon, but Atticus does enjoy trying to force his sister into the most revealing clothes he can find. A LOT. And she's also his date to the graduation banquet in episode 179, complete with matching costumes--even though it's well-established he's [[TheCasanova popular enough with the ladies to have asked anyone in the school]].
393* InconsistentSpelling: Johan Anderson's name in Japanese has been spelt three different ways officially: Johan Andersen, Johan Anderson, or Johann Anderson, with all three having been used in official Japanese merchandise or materials. All three are technically correct spellings, varied by country ("Andersen" is Danish/Norwegian, while "Anderson" is Swedish/English, with "Johann" being the German variation on the Scandinavian "Johan"). On top of that, Johan's name in the Japanese version is written with the katakana ヨハン, with the "ヨ" character being "Yo" instead of "Jo" (ジョ), leading to many instances where Japanese fans write his name as "Yohan", even though "Johan" is the official spelling.
394* IndecisiveParody: The series is this to ''Duel Monsters''. There's a lot of LampshadeHanging and MetaFiction on the tropes that defined the series, numerous characters are blatant [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of someone from the previous series, and storylines and character arcs can have direct parallels drawn. However, later seasons increasingly shifted from parodying ''Duel Monsters'' to deconstructing it, with [[OvershadowedByAwesome secondary characters being aware they're overshadowed by the hero]], TheRival being aware of his BadassDecay and trying to turn himself around, and the stresses of deciding the fate of his friends through a card game and discovering he has a past life and a secret destiny triggers a BreakTheCutie in the protagonist when it's too much for him. That said, it's hard to draw the line between what is meant to be parody and what is meant to be deconstruction, as the series' overall tone is a CerebusRollercoaster between serious drama and light-hearted comedy, and it is inconsistent on when it is clearly parodying tropes, deconstructing them, or playing them straight.
395** SelfParody: With the ''dub'' however, it's the writers were deliberately trying to make ''GX'' more goofy and silly than ''Duel Monsters''. As [[Funny/YuGiOhGX the CMoF page will demonstrate]], the dialogue in some episodes would not sound out of place in ''Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series'', and 4Kids is known to be aware of the parody's existence so this may well have been on purpose. This is ''especially'' prominent with Season 3 where there's the occasional meta joke, like Syrus complaining he's seen as "just the goofy sidekick who would never have an idea of how to move the plot along."
396* InvincibleHero: Jaden, who loses three times and achieves just as ''many'' [[MutualKill draws]] out of his '''73 duels''' throughout the whole series (not counting his third duel against Zane, which Jaden would have lost had the latter not had a conveniently-timed flare-up of his heart condition). Ironically becomes one of the reasons for his fall to TheDarkSide.
397* IJustWantToBeNormal: Jaden gets rather tired of having the responsibility of saving the universe from evil. He just wants to play a card game. He eventually accepts that he isn't normal and decides that's not so bad after all, since it means he can actually help other people for a change, instead of being a selfish brat.
398* InvisibleToNormals: Duel Spirits, though the definition of "normal" in this case isn't ever really clarified beyond "[[ShapedLikeItself not able to see Duel Spirits]]".
399* IrritationIsTheSincerestFormOfFlattery: Dimitri does this with at least three different people (Crowler, Yugi, and Jaden), starting with vocal impersonations and culminating in full-on cosplay. And it's especially irritating when it's your deck he's copying. [[PlayedForLaughs Or when he gets your catch phrase wrong.]]
400* [[ISeeDeadPeople I See Duel Monster Spirits]]: Several characters can see and interact with Duel Monster Spirits, and in the different dimensions everyone can.
401* ItsAllMyFault: Almost Jaden's mantra for the middle part of Season 3 after Jesse's disappearance and the supposed deaths of some of his other friends.
402* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Professor Vellian Crowler, Jaden's worst enemy of the (mostly) non-lethal variety. Multiple early episodes centered around Crowler trying to get Jaden expelled for the extremely petty reason that Jaden beat him in a duel, even going far enough as to hire what amounts to a duel hitman to get rid of Jaden. Turns out he honestly cares about and is protective of his students, even Jaden eventually.
403* JustJokingJustification: Jesse's fake summoning of Rainbow Dragon in Episode 106. For the cast, his seeming mockery of something that is SeriousBusiness is enough to cause shouting, anger, and general uproar. Jesse even lampshades it by giving a large grin and announcing that he's "just kidding".
404* JustSmileAndNod: Used word for word in the dub with a character's delusions that he's actually Yugi since he stole his deck.
405* KarmaHoudini:
406** Kagemaru. He wasn't possessed or controlled by anything. He made all of his own choices out of not wanting to die and what happened to him? Nothing. No punishment except the old age he already suffered from.
407** The underground promoter who triggered Zane's DespairEventHorizon and FreakOut by duping him into a Duel laced with ElectricTorture, and is implied to have done the same for a number of other people? He gets absolutely no punishment other than Zane declaring that he doesn't need the guy anymore, which doesn't amount to anything.
408* KickTheDog: Zane's defeat of Syrus after the former's FreakOut. This was meant to dissuade fans of Zane from viewing him as a DracoInLeatherPants. It didn't work.
409* KidsVersusAdults: In Season 1, the Duel Academy students vs. the 7 Shadow Riders, who were all adults.
410* KillSat: Prince Ojin holds the control keys to one, and loses it to Sartorius in a Duel.
411* KirkSummation: Seemingly every episode of Season 2, to the point where they ultimately [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] it when Jaden rolled it out against the BigBad.
412* TheKnightsWhoSaySquee: When Jaden meets Yugi again in the final episodes, he is nearly awestruck. At this point, Jaden had saved the world four times and could probably destroy it himself if he felt like it. But then again... it's frickin' ''Yugi!''
413* KnightTemplar: Sartorius, who believes he's doing the right thing in bringing humanity "into the light".
414* KryptoniteFactor: Destiny Hero - Plasma/Bloo-D, when paired with D - Force (a card that puts itself on top of the owner's deck to enable Plasma's effects), is nearly invincible, negating all of the opponent's monster effects while becoming immune to their Spells and Traps. Aster defeats it using Destiny Hero - Dark Angel, a monster whose primary effect is to discard itself and put itself on top of the opponent's deck, an effect specifically designed by his late father to counter Plasma by shutting off D - Force and rendering it vulnerable.
415* KudzuPlot: There are quite a lot of plot elements that get left unresolved, most notably [[RedHerringTwist the Abandoned Dorm]]. Or maybe they [[MindScrew were resolved]].
416** One that stands out is way back in Season 2 during the battles against Shadow Riders, Bastion obtains a card that Contains a Duel Spirit, but it holds no significance after that scene.
417* LampshadeHanging: The show is set 10 years after the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, but when we finally see Kaiba, his character art is exactly the same. Sartorius possessed by the Light Of Destruction meets him and remarks "It's true, you haven't aged in years".
418* LaserBlade: The "Elemental Sword" card, which depending on your point of view, was either thankfully or unfortunately used only twice.
419* LightIsNotGood: The [[{{Cult}} Society of Light]] and the [[EldritchAbomination Light of Ruin]]. The Neo-Spacians emphasize the fact that regardless of good or evil intentions, it's really bad for either Light or Dark to completely destroy the other.
420* LimitedWardrobe: Even if the students who wear uniforms are considered exceptions, there are still: characters who ''aren't'' students, like teachers, who wear the same clothes; students like Chazz and Aster who ''don't'' wear uniforms but still wear the same clothes; and students, like Zane, who graduate but continue to wear their uniform!
421** Lampshaded by Aster, who actually has a whole closet full of clothes. They're just all identical.
422** Chazz wears the same clothes: it's made fairly plain that his black North Academy uniform is the only one he has. And he never washes it. Ew.
423** Jesse has one main outfit, a modification of the Obelisk Blue uniform ... which he wears before coming to Duel Academy, and possibly even before starting at North Academy (which has a different uniform to begin with).
424* LiteralGenie: Yubel, who grants Professor Viper's wish of being reunited with his son after he fails to complete his end of the bargain... by killing him. Overlaps with YouHaveFailedMe, but it's doubtful Yubel would have spared him either way.
425* MacGuffin: The keys to release the Sacred Beasts in Season 1 and the 2 Satellite Keys for the KillSat in Season 2.
426* MagicalQueer: Ignore the gay bit, and Atticus IS this trope. And if you want to HaveAGayOldTime, you could argue the title ''still'' fits him pretty well.
427* MagicSkirt: In spite of their incredible shortness. This would be the girls' uniform, by the way.
428* TheMagicPokerEquation: This is apparently not only an inherent magic power some have, but a skill you can ''learn'', and more than one duelist sold their soul to a Duel Monsters spirit to gain this power.
429** Adrian gets a special mention for his ridiculous starting hand in his last duel with Yubel: four Exodia parts and an alternate win condition that he can use to complete Exodia anyway if he loses them, which he does.
430** In particular, Bastion Misawa’s apparently CALCULATED said equation; but prefers to rely on his own dueling skills.
431* TheMagnificentSevenSamurai: A villainous example in Season 1, the 7 Shadow Riders sent to Duel Academy to acquire the [[MacGuffin keys]] to release the Sacred Beasts. Played straight with the 7 students and teachers chosen to defend them.
432* MaleGaze: Surprisingly for a shounen anime, a lot of '''male''' bodies are on the receiving end of this. Though Asuka may have a prominent bust, not only is there plenty of chest in the series, but most of the ass shots in this series are male, with most of those on male monsters. And then some of '''those''' are on [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom animalistic male monsters...]]
433* ManipulatingTheOpponentsDeck: Jaden at one point duels the pro-duelist Howard X Miller, whose name is even a pun on 'mill'. As his name suggests, his deck revolves around using Monster Register to force his opponent to discard cards each turn while stalling with spell and trap cards.
434* MarkOfTheBeast: Syrus, to an extent, in Season 3 representing his doubt of Jaden.
435* MassTeleportation: Yubel teleports the entire Duel Academy to a different dimension in Season 3.
436* MeaningfulName: An interesting example is Juudai's (Jaden's Japanese) given name. The kanji it's rendered with translate as "teenager," but a different set of kanji with the same pronunciation mean "warrior"--reflecting first his personality in the first portion of canon, and then the role he takes later on as the universe's defender. (And the fact that his signature monsters are Warrior-Types.)
437** The dub gives Chazz and Alexis university-themed surnames. Princeton is an Ivy League school commonly stereotyped as snobbish, while Rhodes refers to the Rhodes Scholarship for studying in Oxford, the most prestigious scholarship in the world.
438* MentorOccupationalHazard: Lyman Banner, though he became Jaden's SpiritAdvisor after he died.
439* MerchandiseDriven: To a point even fans of the original series complained. Jaden's deck uses an archetype built entirely around fusion, so in any given match, Jaden is likely to either introduce a new Elemental Hero, or just fuse a different combination of Heroes to make one. While Yugi has only had 2 of his cards be cover cards (shown on the packaging, and usually one of the rarer cards in the set) in a booster pack, Jaden has had 5.
440* MindControlEyes: Yusuke Fujiwara
441* MindScrew: Most of Season 4.
442* MomentKiller: Jaden/Alexis shippers were dealt a hard blow in the fourth season.
443* MurderTheHypotenuse: A variation. Yubel doesn't ''murder'' Jesse, they just possess him.
444* {{Mukokuseki}}: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with Axel, who at least gets an attempt at actual black features.
445* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Jaden, after being freed from his SuperPoweredEvilSide, still has the memories of the atrocities he's committed and is initially terrified of trying to Fusion Summon.
446* MyGreatestFailure: Jaden, as part of his Deconstruction as TheAce.
447* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Professor Cobra/Viper. Lampshaded in the dub.
448* {{Necromantic}}: Professor Viper's motive for working with Yubel is a chance to revive his dead son.
449* NestedMouths: Uria and Saint Dragon have different forms of this.
450* NeverSayDie: The dubbed version of Season 3 replaces all references to death with awkward-sounding term "sent to the stars", though death was still heavily implied. They also kept all implications of Zane's fatal heart condition, surprisingly. This was probably helped by the fact that none of Jaden's actual friends were really dead anyway. Adrian, Echo, and anyone else who Jaden didn't care for? They're dead...
451** Zane does actually die; his heart actually stops. But he just reappears in Season 4 alive but still with his fatal heart condition, with [[UnexplainedRecovery no explanation given]] as to how he's alive even though we clearly saw him die in the previous season.
452* NextTierPowerUp: Jaden's Neos Deck in Season 2, his powers as The Supreme King in Season 3, and his merger with Yubel. Zane's Cyberdarks also count.
453* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Brron believes that he can defeat Jaden by killing off his friends and causing him to lose all hope. [[SuperPoweredEvilSide This doesn't work out too well]].
454* NoManOfWomanBorn: Adrian's ace card in the later part of season 3, Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord, can't be destroyed by battle and is unaffected by the opponent's card effects, making it extremely hard to deal with. Keyword here is "the opponent's" - Yubel unveils a second effect of Armityle that shifts control of it to Adrian's field for one turn before banishing everything, meaning it's no longer "the opponent's" card when the removal effect goes off and thus defeats Exodius.
455* NormalFishInATinyPond: Played With when Zane starts Pro-dueling in season 2; In Duel Academy, he was the undisputed best duelist, with Jaden ''barely'' etching out a tie during his graduation duel, and had it not been for his opponent cheating he would have easily taken care of most Shadow Riders as well. Once Zane joins the big leagues, he at first continues his winning streak, but once he comes face-to-face with Aster Phoenix- the fourth best duelist in the world, and the absolute best currently still active- he suffers a humiliating defeat that shatters his confidence and causes him to ''believe'' he never was anything but this trope, resulting in a major losing streak that drops him from major to minor leagues and eventually forces him to make a living in underground dueling. It's then subverted when he has an ephiphany (of sorts) in said underground ring, reinvents himself, and quickly becomes one of the best duelists around again.
456* NotBrainwashed: Atticus brings back Nightshroud and his Red-Eyes deck in an attempt to perform a IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight on Dark Zane. To his surprise, Zane's not under any form of mind control unlike almost everyone else.
457* NoBodyLeftBehind: Anyone who dies in Season 3 get returned to the real world perfectly fine once the conflict is resolved.
458* OfficialCouple: Adrian and Echo are the first characters in the franchise to outright profess love for each other.
459* OhCrap:
460** Jaden's reaction upon realizing he's dueling Birdman to the death in the alternate dimension and that the pain is real. One fansub renders it as "Shit, I'm going to die".
461** We're explicitly shown the moment when O'Brien realises his fatal mistake against Trueman just a second too late.
462* OldBeggarTest: After Chazz left Duel Academy in disgust after a second humiliating loss to Bastion, he ended up shipwrecked and near North Academy, Duel Academy's rival school, which was situated in an arctic tundra. He was told by a disheveled man by the door that they wouldn't let anyone in without a full deck of 40 cards, and there were cards hidden around the area; he himself had found 39, but was too exhausted to keep looking. Because the man refuses to sell them, Chazz goes out and searches for his own, finding forty of them; but when he fears the man might freeze to death, he gives him one so he can go in (fibbing and saying he has 41). When the man goes in, Chazz wonders what he's going to do now; and suddenly he sees another card, which later becomes essential to winning a duel later in the episode. He later finds out that this was a SecretTestOfCharacter; the guy was North Academy's chancellor.
463* OmnicidalManiac: The Light of Destruction is this by default and tried to use a KillSat to destroy the planet in Season 2. Yubel tries to destroy the 12 dimensions in Season 3.
464* OnlyICanKillHim: This is lampshaded repeatedly in Season 3, where other characters step in when Jaden tries to duel Mooks and remind him that he has to save his strength to face the person pulling the strings.
465* [[OneHitKill One Turn Kill]]: Sartorius against Ojin in Season 2. Actually, he won before his first turn, causing Bastion to declare it a "Zero Turn Kill". Chazz pulls off a more traditional example against a zombie student in Season 3 ([[ImplacableMan not that it helped]]).
466* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: "Kaiser" Ryo Marufuji, whose first name is barely ever mentioned. Not so in the dub, where Zane simply goes by his real name.
467* OurSpiritsAreDifferent: The Duel Monster Spirits.
468* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The Duel Zombies (Duel Ghouls in the dub) in Season 3 as a result of duelists losing their duel energy from the bio bands. Those turned into Duel Ghouls include Chazz, Syrus, Fonda Fontaine, Crowler, Bonaparte, and the majority of Duel Academy when the school is sent to the different dimension by Yubel.
469* PapaWolf: Of all people, Crowler slips into this during one arc. He instantly steps in to duel a vampiric enemy saying something alone the lines of "What kind of teacher would I be if I allowed my students to be harmed?" Despite losing, it was still one of the few truly good things he does in the series.
470* PaperThinDisguise: There was apparently a sale at the generic gray cloak shop during Season 3. Alexis also fails to recognize her brother in Season 1, despite his only disguise being a mask.
471* ParentalAbandonment: Chumley's father is the only one we ever see or hear mentioned in the series; the other closest thing to a parental unit the main cast has is Chazz's much older (and politically and industrially successful) brothers. In fact, it was Jaden's ParentalAbandonment that gave rise to the seeds of his obsession with dueling.
472* PerverseSexualLust: Used in Season 1, where Syrus is shown to love Dark Magician Girl this way. It's played for laughs.
473* PhlebotinumBreakdown: Sartorius fails at brainwashing Jaden. Instead, he loses the ability to see Duel Monster spirits and his cards. He gets better.
474* PlatonicLifePartners: Zane and Alexis in Season 1.
475* PlotDetour: Several times. Averted in Season 3.
476* PoorPredictableRock: Several characters often make use of the same strategies over and over again, and when the time comes their predictability isn't forgiven. But what the series really makes interesting is the subversion of this trope when a character experiences CharacterDevelopment and throws their old strategies out the window. When Sheppard dueled Zane to "save him", he used Cyber End Dragon against Zane himself, thinking Zane would reclaim his favorite monster, but that simply lead to ShootTheDog. A [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed Chazz]] dueled Alexis, he revealed his own hand and used his normal cards in unorthodox methods to achieve a win, even though Alexis had a plan for every scenario. What does the [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Supreme King]] duel with, even though everyone knows Jaden's deck? New Evil Hero monsters...
477* PortalPool: Used once to allow Jaden to duel Kaibaman.
478* PressStartToGameOver: Sartorius achieves a zero turn kill against Prince Ojin by using cards that can be activated from the hand during the opponent's turn to win before his own first turn ever begins.
479* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: The storyline of Season 3 is about Jaden going from AllLovingHero to EvilOverlord because of the Deconstruction of LeeroyJenkins, up to mid season. Then he experiences a HeroicBSOD for the second half that leads to MustMakeAmends to save everyone from [[BigBad Yubel]].
480* PunnyName: Copious amounts in the dub, though the original isn't devoid of it. Including most episode titles.
481** One such name is "Howard X Miller"-- a reference to "milling," a strategy in trading card games wherein you win by making your opponent run out of available cards. Guess what kind of deck he plays.
482** Yubel's name may be a Japanese pronunciation of the German "juwel" (pronounced "you-vell," with b/v pronounced the same in Japanese), meaning "jewel" or "gem".
483*** Also consider that Yubel's name can be related back to both "Jubel", meaning "happy", and "Übel", meaning evil. "Happiness from evil"...?
484* PurposelyOverpowered: Camula's Illusion Gate. Like Raigeki, it destroys all monsters on the opponent's side of the field, but it also allows the user to steal one of the destroyed monsters to their side of the field. Its only cost is external to the game in a way similar to The Seal of Orichalcos: it requires the user to offer a soul, which gets claimed if they win, but if they lose, the user's soul is taken instead. The only reason the card exists is as a DiabolusExMachina to force Zane to lose with a SadisticChoice between his soul or Syrus's.
485* PutOnABus: Chumley leaves to work at Industrial Illusions at the end of the first season (cameoing in Season 2); Bastion leaving to work on a theory in Season 2 (returning in Season 3, only to get PutOnABus [[BackForTheDead again]]). Possibly even Atticus between Season 2 and 3 (returns with no explanation after Duel Academy is transported back from the alternate dimension in episode 131, only to be 'killed' off). The Foreign Champions return to their schools in Season 4.
486** TheBusCameBack: Axel and Jesse return to help against [[BigBad Darkness]].
487* {{Putto}}: "[[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Cupid_Kiss Cupid's Kiss]]" is an equip spell-card used by Blair Flannigan in her duel against Jaden in Episode 20. The card is equipped onto "Maiden of Love", protecting the monster from being destroyed but still allows battle damage. The effect of this card then activates, allowing Blair to take control of "Avian". Later "Maiden in Love" attacks "Elemental HERO Sparkman". Due to the effect of "Maiden in Love", it is not destroyed, but Blair still takes Battle Damage. The effect of this card then activates, allowing Blair to take control of "Sparkman". The card itself is just an illustration of a blond-haired winged-cherub wearing white gauze for pants and wielding a bow with a heart-shaped arrow.
488[[/folder]]
489
490[[folder:R - S]]
491* RealLifeWritesThePlot:
492** When Dimitri banishes a LIGHT and a DARK monster from his Graveyard, Bastion recalls the Envoys which can be Summoned this way. He mentions that Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End is so strong that it was forbidden from tournament play, and it certainly ''was'' banned in real life at the time.
493** Pot of Greed was used during nearly every episode of the first two seasons. Then it was banned in real life in 2006 and has been ever since, and the duelists in the show stopped using it too.
494** The same can be said for Graceful Charity, another staple card. After Episode 132 it isn’t used anymore because the card became Forbidden in the real game and has been ever since 2007. Interestingly, its final use aired AFTER it became forbidden in both English and Japanese.
495** Metamorphosis was also banned in 2007. Its final use was in episode 80; its final appearance was episode 116.
496** Mirage of Nightmare has been banned since 2005. Its final use in the anime was in episode 30. In Japan, it aired one month after it was banned in the OCG and the very month it got banned in the TCG.
497* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Jaden gets his share of these having to do with his lack of serious motivation, first from Aster, then Sartorius, then constantly in Season 3 until he goes over the edge. His duel with Brron is full of them, mostly from his friends.
498* RecapEpisode: A total of three episodes are recap episodes.
499* RedHerringTwist: The Abandoned Dorm, though it was [[MindScrew partially resolved]].
500* RedShirt: Most of Duel Academy in Season 3.
501* {{Reincarnation}}: Jaden gets a glimpse of his past life.
502* ResetButton: The end of Season 3.
503* RescueArc: The latter half of Season 3 is concerned with the characters trying to find Jesse in the different dimension.
504* RetGone: Part of Darkness' AssimilationPlot.
505* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Winged Kuriboh and Ruby Carbuncle, among others.
506* RivalsTeamUp: Jaden and Aster in Season 2, and Jaden and Jesse in Season 3 and 4.
507* RunningGag: In the Japanese version, people forgetting Bastion's in the room, which becomes a big sore point for him in the second season.
508%%* SapientCetaceans: Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin.
509* SatelliteFamilyMember: Jun Manjoume/Chazz Princeton's older brothers, who look to control the world with their family's finances and influence, with Jun being poised to do so using Duel Monsters. They however only make these appearances during Jun's character arcs in Season 1, where he is trying to step out of their shadows. After the first season, the antagonistic brothers are never seen again, as Jun grows to become a respected duelist in his own right without needing his family's influence.
510* SaveOurStudents: Jaden does for Duel Academy in Season 4, and the rest of the world apparently.
511* SecretlyDying: Zane in Season 3 from all the underground duels the previous season. (Except it was later revealed to be the work of his evil deck instead of the ElectricTorture.)
512* ScrewDestiny: Jaden and co. greatly oppose the destiny that Sartorius has envisioned in season 2.
513* SculptedPhysique: The various machine/organic fused mons.
514* SendInTheSearchTeam: Jaden and friends go to the different dimension to search for Jesse who was left behind.
515%%* SensualSpandex: Elemental Hero Burstinatrix.
516* SeriousBusiness: It's ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'', so this is a given. But even then, "Attack Point Quantum Mechanics?"
517* ShootTheDog: When Aster's about to win their duel, DD reveals that his monster has his father's soul trapped inside, trying to scare him out of attacking. Partly because his father asks him to free him, and partly since he's the AntiHero, it doesn't work, and Aster attacks.
518* ShoutOut: Every single Elemental Hero Jaden uses is based off of a comic book superhero (with Elemental Hero Neos being based off of Manga/{{Guyver}} as the only exception), while almost every single Destiny Hero is based off of a British hero (or, in some cases, hero/villain -- Destiny Hero Double [[strike:{{Du|bNameChange}}de]] Guy, for example, is notably based off of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde).
519** Similarly, Syrus' Solidroid monster ''Super Vehicroid Stealth Union'' is a clear reference to ''Anime/GaoGaiGar''.
520** The Supreme King's outfit, is quite similiar to Lelouch's Zero Outfit in ''Anime/CodeGeass''. The color scheme and the cowl that goes with it is too similar to be a coincidence.
521** Ruby Carbuncle is based on the Carbuncle summon from the Franchise/FinalFantasy series.
522** There are a ''lot'' of similarities between GX Season 3 and a Super Nintendo game called ''VideoGame/IllusionOfGaia''. Just a few of them (listing them all could take a page all its own!):
523*** General Freed > Freedan, the Dark Knight (whose armour resembles The Supreme King's)
524*** The Light of Destruction makes Yubel evil > The Light of Ruin turns men into twisted creatures, reflecting the darkness in their hearts.
525*** Jaden and Yubel fusing in Season 3 and going to fight the Light > Kara, the "Light Knight," and Will, the "Dark Knight," fuse together to fight the Comet of Destruction that brings the Light of Ruin.
526*** The Supreme King and Jaden are actually the same person > Will and Freedan are actually the same person.
527*** Jaden and Jesse can see spirits -> Will and Kara (who swears she feels like she met Will before) can see spirits.
528*** The Jeweler Gem has a special gift for "the chosen one" who collects all 50 Red Jewels.
529*** The location for Jaden vs. Yubel strongly resembles the battlefield for the Fused Knight/Shadow vs. Dark Gaia (the embodiment of the Light of Ruin).
530*** Dark Gaia and Light Gaia both bear a resemblance to Yubel.
531*** One of Supreme King Jaden's strongest monsters is out-right called "E-HERO ''Dark Gaia''".
532*** In the first save point (all save points appear to be in outer space): "Only the chosen one of Darkness can see this space."
533*** There's a mysterious character--the only one with no backstory, as it happens--named "The Jeweler Gem."
534*** The game begins and ends in a school classroom.
535*** The character "Lilly" resembles Jesse in appearance.
536*** Some settings in the Freejia/Diamond Mine section of the game strongly resemble settings in Dark World.
537*** Other settings in Freejia resemble the street Jesse's on in the flashback with Tom.
538** Vampire Camula is a walking ShoutOut to ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}''. Plus, she sort of looks like [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Morrigan]].
539*** Camula's name is only a few letters away from Carmilla.
540*** She has a card called Hellvania that causes [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} a look-alike of a certain castle to appear]].
541*** And, if you want to prod more shout outs out of her, some of the names of her monsters' attacks include [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood "Rondo of Death"]] and "Bloody Spiral."
542** Asuka's foil is named [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Rei]]. Also she disguised herself as a boy with last name being [[Manga/RanmaOneHalf Saotome]].
543** During Season 3 of the dubbed version, there's a duel with a teacher named Mr. Stein [[Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff who talks in complete monotone]].
544** In Episode 4 of the English dub, when Jaden is helping out a women whose car has broken down, he says, "Never fear, [[WesternAnimation/UnderDog Jaden's]] here!"
545*** When she asks him if he's from the auto club, he replies, "Don't let the [[Film/RebelWithoutACause red jacket]] fool you. I'm just your average good deed dude".
546** In the dub we get Destiny Hero: [[Music/TenaciousD Captain Tenacious]].
547** After the Light Of Destruction is destroyed, Jaden's Duel Spirit Elemental Hero Neos tells Jaden to tell Hassleberry thanks for his help (as Hasselberry can't see or hear Neos). Hasselberry says, "tell your alien friend 'Nanu Nanu' right back at ya".
548** In the dubbed version, Abidos III has apparently traveled through [[Series/DoctorWho the Time Vortex]] to get to the academy in the 21st century, as he encourages Jaden to [[TimeyWimeyBall 'find a Time Vortex warping loophole']].
549** Rainbow Neos looks very similar to Anime/RahXephon.
550** The dub has various monsters be voiced with celebrity impressions. Crystal Beast Emerald Turtle is given a Woody Allen impersonation, for that, and as a nod to [[WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife another turtle who sounds like Woody Allen]].
551** Along with the Crystal Beasts, Don Zaloog of the Dark Scorpions is given a Creator/ChristopherWalken impression.
552** To list the other Crystal Beast dub impressions:
553*** Amber Mammoth is Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger.
554*** Amethyst Cat is [[Series/Batman1966 Julie Newmar, particularly her as CatWoman]].
555*** Sapphire Pegasus is Series/MrEd.
556*** Cobalt Eagle is [[Series/GetSmart Don]] [[WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget Adams]] [[WesternAnimation/TennesseeTuxedoAndHisTales who actually voiced another more flightless bird]].
557*** Topaz Tiger is Creator/SeanConnery.
558** In the English dub of Season 3 Episode 16. Bonaparte and Crowler spot [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} something up in the sky and argue over whether it's a bird or a plane.]]
559* SillyPrayer: One early episode begins with Sho praying to a poster of Osiris the Sky Dragon for good grades on an upcoming exam.
560* SlidingScaleOfFourthWallHardness: It [[NoFourthWall disappears]] during Season 3 of the dub. Thanks, Creator/LittleKuriboh!
561* SmurfettePrinciple: Out of the main(ish) characters, Alexis is the only female (see this page's picture).
562** This principle applies to the Elemental Heroes too--Burstinatrix is the only feminine monster out of them all.
563* SoLastSeason:
564** In early Season 2, Aster handily defeats Zane and Jaden. Noted because the grand finale duel was set between Zane's Cyber Dragon deck and Jaden's Elemental Hero deck, which Aster had them beat with his own newer Elemental/Destiny Heroes.
565** Subverted in Season 3 when the Sacred Beasts come back into the plot. Despite having acquired his Neos deck in Season 2 and rolling out more advanced cards that season, Jaden isn't confident facing the Sacred Beasts again without the plot device card that allowed him to triumph last time.
566** This is a [[FunnyBackgroundEvent sight gag]] in Season 1. In the episode where Chazz has to duel his brother with the condition that all his monsters have to have less than 500 ATK, he goes to build a new deck from a well of abandoned cards. One of them? [[GrailInTheGarbage Relinquished]], Pegasus's ace monster from the original series.
567* SoWhatDoWeDoNow: Jaden was probably wondering this a lot in Season 4 before Trueman showed up.
568* SparklingStreamOfTears: Yubel, during their duel with Jaden, when they ask how they're supposed to survive if he doesn't love them. They also cry facing Adrian.
569* SpecificallyNumberedGroup: The "[[GratuitousEnglish Seven Stars]] Assassins" consist of seven Duelists whose goal is to retrieve the seven Spirit Keys from their guardians. Although, the concept of each member of the Seven Stars facing each of the seven guardians is pretty much thrown away, as soon as multiple of the guardians keep losing to the best members of the Seven Stars. Three members of the Seven Stars and end up dueling multiple guardians individually, and three of the guardians also end up dueling multiple members of the Seven Stars (Judai defeats five of them himself). The fact that the seventh of the Seven Stars and the seventh guardian are the same person makes it even more complicated. Furthermore, while the group was form and assigned to retrieve the seven Spirit Keys, the reason was actually arbitrary, since they were just pawns used to generate enough Duel Energy to awaken the Sangenma, and the Spirit Keys were just an excuse to give the characters a reason to duel for, just as Kagemaru planned.
570* SpiritedCompetitor: Jaden. Zane also steps into this about halfway through Season 3 where before he had turned into something of a BloodKnight. [[SeriousBusiness With card games.]]
571* SpiritWorld: Referenced often enough and then becomes the main setting of Season 3.
572* SplitPersonalityTakeOver: Jaden, with his SuperPoweredEvilSide.
573* SpotlightStealingSquad: The [[ForeignExchangeStudent foreign champions]] in Season 3. The dub makes fun of this, mostly though Syrus, who is [[NoFourthWall aware]] he's been replaced as the second most important character by Jesse and is quite resentful of this fact.
574* SuperNaturalGoldEyes: The Supreme King has them and when Jaden taps into his power later on, his eyes shift to them.
575* SuperpoweredEvilSide: The Supreme King, to Jaden.
576[[/folder]]
577
578[[folder:T - Z]]
579* TakeAThirdOption: Jaden decides to fuse his soul with Yubel's to end the conflict in Season 3.
580* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Much like it predecessor and sequel series, ''GX'' is no stranger to the action being halted as the characters ponder on their strategy internally, explain a card they are using (even if the same card was played by other player five minutes ago and its effect is "Draw two cards"), or slow down their opponent's play. Sometimes the [[JustBetweenYouAndMe villains will take the opportunity to tell their life story and evil plans to the heroes during duels]]. Lampshaded by Aster Phoenix in the dub: "Is he gonna duel or stand there and ponder his purpose in life?"
581* TechnicianPerformerTeamUp: Series protagonist Jaden/Judai Yuki leans very highly towards the performer side in his dueling, who makes a big spectacle out of his duels and having fun. This contrasts him with Aster/Edo Phoenix, the professional rival duelist introduced in Season 2, who [[SeriousBusiness treats the game and his profession seriously]], having a rather technical dueling style that carries an efficient strategy in order to win. Late into the second season, the two are forced to compete in a TagTeam duel against Mizuchi Saiou/Sarina Kumar. While their two dueling strategies clash at first, the two are able to pull off a comeback thanks to Aster loosening up and allowing himself to have fun like Jaden, while also lending him one of his cards that end up being a critical part of their victory.
582* TechnicianVersusPerformer: There are plenty of technician duelists to contrast against Jaden, whose own dueling style is based on having fun and making a big spectacle and comeback. These include Bastion Misawa, Zane Truesdale, Aster Phoenix, along with several other VillainOfTheWeek duelists who employ technically sound strategies against Jaden. When Jaden tries dueling with a technical strategy against Zane in the first part of the Season 1 Finale, he ends up actually struggling to reconcile his playstyles, eventually leading to Jaden the usual way in the second part after a small revelation.
583* TemptingFate: Anyone who says "my victory has already been decided" has a 100% chance of losing by the time their next turn would have rolled around. This goes double if they use a card that takes effect on their next turn, or puts a specific card on top of their deck for them to draw next turn.
584* ThatWasntARequest:
585--> '''Adrian''': Come with me, Echo.
586--> '''Echo''': I don't want to go with you, you're scaring me.
587--> '''Adrian''': That wasn't a request!
588* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: If Crowler isn't the one who's trying to demolish the Slifer Red Dorm, you can be sure he'll defend it.
589* ThirstyDesert: Duel Academy is sent to another dimension with this setting in Season 3.
590* ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil: Zane Truesdale, after becoming Dark Zane, has been dueling with {{Shock Collar}}s since he was forced to use them in the underground dueling arena. After numerous duels with them, he's gotten used to wearing them and doesn't feel the same sort of excitement without them.
591* ThirdPersonPerson: If a character refers to Manjoume without the ''[[UsefulNotes/JapaneseHonorifics -san]]'' honorific, he's [[InsistentTerminology likely to correct them]] with "Manjoume-san da!" which, loosely translated, means "That's Manjoume-san to you!" This is retained in the dub, where Chazz insists to be called "The Chazz".
592** Also an instance of PunnyName, since his nickname in the Japanese show is "Manjoume Thunder," with "Thunder" being pronounced ''sandaa.''
593* TigerVersusDragon: Bastion and Jaden in Season 1.
594* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Everyone looks tiny next to Tania, even Bastion (who had a larger build than most of the other characters to begin with).
595* TournamentArc: The Genex Tournament in the second half of Season 2. Although this tournament isn't the highlight of the plot.
596* TrappedInAnotherWorld: In Season 3, it's revealed all of Jaden's friends believed to be dead were actually sent to another dimension by Yubel.
597* TrueCompanions: [[EtTuBrute Upon learning that he was used to brainwash members into the Society of Light]], [[WasItAllALie Aster questions Sartorius if their friendship was real or not]], and [[BecauseDestinySaysSo Sartorius responds that their meeting was predetermined by destiny and whatever purpose Aster served was exactly that]]. Later on, Aster attempts to save [[DemonicPossession Sartorius from the Light of Destruction]] and has a discussion with the real Sartorius, who apologizes for being a puppet of destiny and deceiving his OnlyFriend in hopes that he may one day save him from his demise, but Aster admits [[TrueCompanions he really does consider Sartorius a friend and does want to save him. Regardless of whatever Sartorius has done to setup their predetermined meeting, their friendship has been genuine the whole time.]]
598* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: Bastion reveals Jaden and the Supreme King are the same person.
599* TwoHalvesMakeAPlot: Jaden receives half a pendant from the Gravekeeper's Chief, and is told the other half was taken by another duelist long ago. Jaden finds out this is Alexis' brother Atticus, one of the Shadow Riders. When he defeats Atticus and claims the other half, he forms an amulet that protects him from the shadow powers of the subsequent Riders.
600* UncertainDoom: Zane's [[FreakOut last]] [[NoKillLikeOverkill move]] against Mad Dog generates a massive explosion and a very possibly lethal electric shock. Mad Dog gets [[BlownAcrossTheRoom blasted through]] the ''steel bars'' of the cage and lies on the ground, smoking. He does not move and is never seen again.
601* TheUnfought: The Super Polymerization card in Season 3 is involved in a lot of buildup as the villains intend to use it to Summon terrifying monsters, but the card's execution would be sabotaged to keep the payoff from being seen on-screen. Of note is "Colorless, Chaos King of Dark World," whose only revealed details are his Level and Materials, leaving players to theorize what he could have been until he was finally given form in the real-life card game many years later.
602* UseTheirOwnWeaponAgainstThem:
603** In Pegasus's Triangle Duel against Cronos/Crowler and Napoleon/Bonaparte, he uses a card called Comic Hand to take control of Cronos's Ancient Gear Golem, turning it into Toon Ancient Gear Golem. Then he uses Mimicat to copy Cronos's Ancient Gear Explosive. The Explosive takes out Napoleon and the Golem takes out Cronos.
604** Judai/Jaden inverts this in Season 2 against Pro Duelist X, who runs a Deck Destruction Deck by planting his Neo-Spacian Glow Moss on X's side of the Field. Its secondary (anime-only) effect allows him to Deck Out X instead.
605* VictoryIsBoring: In Season 2, Zane spends the season [[BloodKnight winning as many duels as possible simply because he only finds pleasure from winning duels.]] He later grows tired of the Genex tournament because there is no one there to provide a challenge. This sets him up for next season searching for a WorthyOpponent to provide the perfect duel.
606* VigilanteMan: Aster Phoenix in Season 2 to find his father's murderer who held the Ultimate D card.
607* TheVirus: The Light of Destruction. It starts out infecting the Ultimate D card, then affects The D and Sartorius through it, then Sartorius tries to spread it across the world, and that's before the reveal that it also found its way into Yubel.
608* VocalDissonance: At least in the English dub, Mad Dog (a muscular guy) has a high-pitched and childish voice.
609** Johan is voiced by a female seiyuu in the Japanese version, leading you to wonder why the animators thought that a tall and handsome character should have a feminine voice.
610** In episode 24 in the dub, Kyle, a student at North Academy, has the voice of an 8 year old.
611* WarriorTherapist: Jaden believes dueling can solve anything. ''Anything.'' [[SeriousBusiness He's often right]]... And the fact that he's often right [[DeconstructedTrope comes back to bite him in the ass]], painfully so.
612* WellIntentionedExtremist: Aster Phoenix, who goes to extremes to fight crime (through dueling) and find the culprit who killed his father.
613* WeNamedTheMonkeyJack: Actually, they named the monkey Wheeler. And you just ''know'' Kaiba had a say in that.
614* WingedUnicorn: Jesse's [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Crystal_Beast_Sapphire_Pegasus Sapphire Pegasus]].
615%%* WhamEpisode: Comes at about the half way point of Season 3.
616* WhoWouldBeStupidEnough
617--> --'''Axel:''' There's no way he'll attack head on.
618--> --'''Jaden:''' Battle! Featherman, direct attack!
619* TheWorfEffect: Chazz, thought not to the extent of his predecessor Kaiba.
620** When the exchange students from the other Duel Academies arrive, protagonists such as Hassleberry also get defeated to show the caliber of the overseas Duelists.
621* WorldOfSnark: The dub has much, ''much'' snarkier dialogue than the original. Especially noticeable in filler duels, where every other comment is bound to be sarcastic.
622* {{Yandere}}: Yubel is a particularly extreme example for Jaden, dragging an entire season's worth of characters and several alternate dimensions into it.
623* YeahShot: The second ending, Wake up your Heart, ends with one of these, showing Judai jumping alongside his Elemental Heroes ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Hero Kids]]). This was later turned into an actual card (sans Judai): [[http://yugipedia.com/wiki/Wake_Up_Your_Elemental_HERO Wake Up Your Elemental HERO]].
624* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Jaden convinces everyone trapped by [[BigBad Darkness]] to break free from the LotusEaterMachine by restoring their faith in themselves, while at the same time accepting his past mistakes as the Supreme King and moving on.
625* YouCantFightFate: This trope comes into play a lot in season 2, where Sartorius firmly believes that destiny can't be changed.
626* YouMeddlingKids: Said by Viper in episode 114 when his plan to blackmail Jaden into losing a duel with the threat of Alexis drowning gets foiled.
627[[/folder]]

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