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The Last Four Humans on Earth
Z-one
Z-one
"I am Z-one, the last survivor on Earth."
Voiced by: Hideo Ishikawa (Japanese), Marc Thompson (English)
A mysterious mechanical being that dwells within a cyberspace area, that has connections with Bruno and the Yliaster Trio (and possibly Yusei). It was first seen when Yusei, Sherry, and Bruno were brought to its world by the power of the 'Z-One' card. It later provided Yusei with a card with which to complete an Accel Synchro, after he achieved the state of mind necessary to use it.
It is later revealed that Z-One is the last known survivor of the destroyed future. Along with Bruno, Aporia, and Paradox, he had tried to find a way of undoing the destruction, but his allies eventually died of old age. When Aporia was on his deathbed, Z-One promised him that he would do everything he could to change the future.
He uses a Time Machine God/Timelord deck that focuses on controlling the game with a series of Level 10 Fairy monsters that have various devastating effects if they successfully attack or are attacked.
- Achilles' Heel: Z-One's Time Machine God Deck may be a Superpower Lottery, but ironically his ultimate Time Machine God, Sephiron, is less indestructible than the lesser Time Machine Gods note, enabling Yusei to beat him when he managed to rise Stardust Dragon's ATK higher than it and continuously attack it until he had no other Time Machine Gods to sacrifice.
- All for Nothing: In an extremely cruel plot twist, Duel Links reveals that because multiverse theory is canon to the franchise, all of Z-One's efforts to avert the fate of his timeline were meaningless, because his timeline is already set in stone on a linear path and is merely one of many timelines within the realm of possibility, meaning its destruction at the hands of the Machine Emperors is inevitable and cannot be changed. Not only that, but by attempting to change the outcome of his own timeline by "correcting" the past, he ended up creating the 5Ds timeline by causing Zero Reverse to occur much earlier, setting into motion the bright future he wanted, but cannot have himself.
- The story does mitigate this a bit by having Yusei suggest, like he does in the anime, that Z-One’s scheme did serve to warn humanity of their mistakes so they could be prepared and prevent them from ever occurring, implying that Z-One’s interference has prevented even the possibility of his original doomed timeline existing. What’s more, the nature of Duel Links has allowed not only Z-One, but the other leaders of Iliaster, to live if only virtually and see the hopefully bright future that Team 5D’s and humanity will lead—albeit with a rather ominous warning that they will return should humanity stray down the wrong path again.
- Ascended Fanboy: A variation. Z-One is a Yusei fanboy, to the point that he decided to become Yusei in order the save the world. Then he becomes Yusei's archenemy.
- Big Bad: He is this for 5D’s as a whole via a Cosmic Retcon that makes him the true overall cause of the series' problems.
- Blatant Lies: Yusei refuses to buy Z-one's claim that he is Yusei from the future. Thus, Z-one instead elaborates on how he came to be Yusei.
- Broken Faceplate: His mask is cracked when Yusei manages to inflict some damage on him in their duel, and breaks away to reveal that his face is identical to Yusei's. The rest breaks away after Yusei deals the final blow and the device keeping Z-One alive shuts down, leaving him very little time left.
- Costume Copycat: He changes his own face to look like Yusei's in an attempt to bring people hope.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Effortlessly defeats Aporia while keeping his LP intact, after Aporia's self-milling strategy backfires hard.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: A flashback shows that a machine implanted in his head was damaged when he went through his Despair Event Horizon, which might have contributed to his extremism.
- Cyborg: Considering he's an old man, it's probably a life support system.
- Dead Person Impersonation: He underwent surgery to become Yusei long after Yusei himself had passed away. He even crammed data into a metal plate that he had attached to his head.
- Despair Event Horizon: He may not have run over the line three times, but his crossing was no less painful. Having tried to make himself Yusei, he was given a Hope Spot when it seemed he had discovered a way for people to get to safety without being slaughtered by the Machine Emperors. That all came crashing down when he didn't have enough time to reach out to everybody on the planet, so the Machine Emperors went berserk and killed crowds of people quickly; people fell calling out for "Yusei" to help them and Z-One could do nothing. When he realised that even with Yusei's form, he was as helpless as anyone else, he gave up on that plan and decided to work on a Plan B.
- Dramatic Unmask: Part of his mask is destroyed during his duel, showing that he has the same face as Yusei.
- Faux Shadow: Despite the many hints, some more subtle than others, he is not Yusei from a Bad Future, rather just a normal man who assumed Yusei's appearance.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Appears to Sherry alone in the form of her father, though he doesn't try to deceive her and almost immediately tells her he is not really her father, and that she sees him as such because that is what she desperately wants to see, having lost her father as a child.
- Four Is Death: All over the place. His name is four letters long, he is the fourth major antagonist in the series (starting with Goodwin, Paradox, and Aporia, all of whom were made possible through his actions), and he is also the fourth and final one of those major antagonists who canonically dies.
- Giant Hands of Doom: Z-One's mechanical arms and hands are so huge that even the cards he uses are too large to be played on a conventional Duel Disk.
- A God Am I: The Three Emperors and Antinomy have referred to him as a 'God of Destiny', and he says this to Yusei at the start of their battle:Z-One: "Yusei Fudo, though you may have come this far with the intention to cut open the future with your own power... everything has merely traveled along the rails that I have laid out. To you, I am the equivalent of a God. [...] In order to change the future, Zero Reverse was caused and your lives were changed dramatically. You were orphaned, living in Satellite, and then rose up to the challenges in the WRGP. However, that victory was only a means to call out the Ark Cradle. [...] Do you understand? The meaning of me being your God? And if a God decides to take a path of destruction, then no one shall defy it."
- God Is Evil: He compares himself to God and is, if Knight Templar-ish, definitely evil.
- Grandpa God: He's an old man that certainly fancies himself a god.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The man behind Zero Reverse and the entire Yliaster organization, and thus likely this show's answer to Zorc Necrophades and the Light of Destruction.
- Heroic Sacrifice: While Yusei's heading to the Momentum core of the Ark Cradle, Z-One, having just been beaten, grabs his D-Wheel and tosses it away, contributing to Yusei's getting out Just in Time and Z-One smashing himself into the core.
- Hope Spot: He deliberately invokes this trope in his duel with Aporia, who staked his strategy on drawing Afterglow from his deck (while deliberately depleting his deck to facilitate this), and using its effect to inflict 4000 damage to Z-One to win. Z-One thus decides to humor Aporia by opting to Summon Lazion, a monster with 0 ATK, when he could have easily chosen to Summon a monster with at least 500 ATK to deplete Aporia's remaining LP. Z-One then uses Lazion's effect to return every card in Aporia's Graveyard to his Deck, and then challenges the latter to pull off a miracle by drawing Afterglow under these circumstances. Aporia fails to do so and loses the duel as a result, leading Z-One to dismiss the notion of believing in hope and miracles as fallacious.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: The reason he so thoroughly trounced Aporia in their duel is because the latter believed that Metaion was his ace monster and had no idea that there were even other Time Machine Gods in existence. Z-One simply decided to play along with this and did nothing to dissaude that notion. As such, Aporia tailored his deck to getting around Metaion and was thoroughly blindsided when Z-One decided to Summon Lazion and use its effect to completely disrupt his strategy.
- Just a Machine: His view on the androids he made using the memories of his deceased friends.
- Lack of Empathy: Has lost all hope in humanity and decides to exterminate Neo Domino City rather than to trust the people solve the problem by themselves.
- Last of His Kind: Following the deaths of his friends, he is the last human alive.
- The Man Behind the Man: Directly behind Aporia and Paradox, and through Yliaster is behind the Godwin Brothers and the first Zero Reverse that split the city apart. Thus, pretty much every major disaster and villain can be traced back to him.
- Man in the Machine: His monsters also fit this trope, seeing as how those are angels inside the armor.
- Meaningful Name: "Z" is the last letter of the alphabet, and "one" can also be read as "1". He is figuratively and literally the last one, being the last surviving human of his timeline. His mannerisms and story, however, make it a rather tragic play on "Omega" and "Alpha", with "Z" being Omegaa and "One" being Alpha. Alpha and Omega represent the beginning and the end, but in Z-one's case it's a twisted but also true reversal of the concept, which corresponds to an allegory for death: the end is a return to the beginning, sometimes one thing must die or be destroyed in order for something new to be born or created. Z-one's world has come to an end, and he is desperate to create a new beginning for it. But what he doesn't realize is that he must end for the new beginning to occur, that beginning being a new future created by Team 5Ds. His appearance in Duel Links makes this symbolism much more prominent, by revealing through the existence of the multiverse that nothing he did would have prevented the end of his own timeline, meaning the only true way forward is for him to let history run its course so that Team 5Ds can build the future he wanted and correct humanity's mistakes their way.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: While things luckily didn't go exactly as he planned, his actions did alert the people of the present that a Bad Future was just around the corner, giving them a chance to fix things.
- Plot Twist: One of the most infamous in the entire franchise. After being hyped as a dark Yusei from the Bad Future, it instead turned out he was a random scientist who altered himself to look like Yusei.
- Shout-Out: Possibly to the Truth. He claims to be 'the one who knows the truth' and offers to tell Sherry the truth in exchange for her accepting her fate being changed.
- Stable Time Loop: Z-one wanted to prevent Zero Reverse from occurring in his own timeline, so he went back to the past and caused Zero Reverse himself much earlier, resulting in the entire plot of the series.
- Super Power Lottery: His deck. Trap cards that can be activated directly from the hand. Any deck would get a big boost with just one of them, imagine a dozen or more! All of his monsters are totally indestructible and do varying types and levels of effect damage. One of them, Sandaion, does 4000 points of damage at the end of the Battle Phase, and that's not even his ace monster.
- Tarot Motifs: The four Hand-Traps he's used are based on the first four Major Arcana.
- Villain's Dying Grace: Sacrifices himself in Yusei's stead to stop the Ark Cradle so that the latter won't have to give up his own life.
- Walking Spoiler: His ultimate motives, the fact that he is the true main antagonist, and the Red Herring plot twist surrounding his identity makes it very hard to talk about him.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He's trying to prevent a worse future by destroying Domino City.
- White Void Room: He resides in one of these.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Thanks to crossing the Despair Event Horizon.
- Your Days Are Numbered: He knows he doesn't have very long left to live.
Paradox
Paradox
"I've come from the future, to rid the cause of my suffering!"
Voiced by: Atsushi Tamura (Japanese), Sean Schemmel (English, 5Ds & Bonds Beyond Time), Andy Manjuck (English, Duel Links)
The main antagonist of the movie Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time who comes from a destroyed future. Believing Duel Monsters to be the cause, he traveled back in time to kill Pegasus before he could create the game, requiring the main protagonists of the three series to team up to stop him.
It is later shown that he was part of a group of survivors including himself, Aporia, Antinomy, and Z-One, who sought to change the future. However, he, Aporia, and Antinomy eventually succumbed to old age and died, leaving only Z-One left. The Paradox we see for most of the film is an android replica, created by Z-one based on Paradox's younger appearance and given the memories of the original human Paradox.
He uses a Sin/Malefic deck, focused on banishing monsters to summon their twisted forms, with his ace being Malefic Truth Dragon.
- Adaptation Expansion: In Duel Links, Paradox is somehow brought back from the dead within that world, seemingly unaware of the fact that he has died, and tries to recreate the events of his debut movie. However, since Duel Links takes place after the main story events of 5Ds but before the time skip, we as the audience now have the full context behind his backstory, and these elements are able to flesh him out more as a character than both the show and the movie were able to give him. He even gets special event interactions with the rest of the cast who he never met, and all of them try to convince him not to destroy the future like they did with the other Yliaster members. He even gets interactions with those whose dragons he stole from, and even Pegasus, who completely blows his mind when he reveals one of the big plot twists about Duel Links itself.
- All Your Powers Combined: His deck is composed of Sin monsters which, except for his three own cards, are evil, corrupted versions of the ace cards of friends and allies of Yugi, Judai and Yusei. They include Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Jonouchi's Red-Eyes Black Dragon, Kaiser and Sho's Cyber End Dragon, Johan's Rainbow Dragon, and Yusei's own Stardust Dragon.
- Anti-Villain: Like Aporia and Z-One, he's trying to prevent a Bad Future. Although he acts much more maliciously than them.
- Ax-Crazy: In contrast to his three stoic friends.
- Badass Biker: A D-Wheeler who travels through time with his D-Wheel, and steals dragons while riding it in the middle of a duel.
- Badass Bookworm: He is a scientist first and foremost, even though his Dueling style is sheer brute force rather than taking an analytical approach.
- Big Bad: Of Bonds Beyond Time as his attempts to stop Duel Monsters from ever spreading in popularity make him clash with the four heroes of Duel Monsters, GX and 5D's. For 5D's as a whole, he's actually The Brute of Yliaster serving under Z-one.
- The Brute: He prefers simple beatdown strategies and has powerful cards, but isn't as skilled as Z-one's other androids.
- Cool Bike: It can transform into a flying machine and also travels through time. It has a similar design to Dark Glass' D-Wheel, which foreshadows their connection.
- Cool Mask: He wears a white and black mask resembling his Sin theme. It actually doesn't conceal his identity, since nobody knows him to begin with.
- Curtains Match the Window: He has yellow eyes to his blond hair.
- Evil Brit: In Bonds Beyond Time, Sean Schemmel did voice him with somewhat of a British accent, but compared to later roles such as Goku Black, Paradox's is much more subdued. In Duel Links, Andy Manjuck's voice work makes the accent much more prominent, almost as though it were an homage to Schemmel's Xenoverse-era take on Goku Black.
- Evil Laugh: Does this sometimes, despite his claims to have a noble goal.
- Filler Villain: Averted. Despite being a movie villain, he is also a canon character of the series.
- Fusion Dance: When he summons Sin Truth Dragon, he combines with it in a manner similar to that of Yami Marik and Ra.
- High-Class Glass: His older self, as shown in Episode 135, wears a monocle.
- Irony: Meta-example. Despite being a movie villain named Paradox, he is canon.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He is a handsome man with really long hair.
- Make Wrong What Once Went Right: How the protagonists view his goal.
- Malevolent Masked Man: His mask has the Sin theme. Is this Obviously Evil enough?
- Meaningful Name: Paradox, referring to a self contradictory proposition, reflecting several aspects of his character:
- His goal is to travel back in time and destroy the game of Duel Monsters using the very same game, a textbook case of the Grandfather Paradox.
- Despite claiming to be a noble goal, he has traits of being a Card-Carrying Villain, up to and including using monsters with Sin/Malefic in their name. There's also what he announces when summoning Malefic Paradox Dragon, particularly in the dub:"Witness how the darkness pools together to create pure evil. I Synchro Summon Malefic Paradox Dragon!"
- The fact he uses a Synchro Monster, given how vehemently against them Yliaster is.
- In Duel Links, he discusses with Z-one how he wants to see where their future leads, but also doesn't want to get in the way of Z-one's attempts to change the timeline, even lampshading his own contradictory goals.
- His Duel Links card rewards reflect this as well as they include two cards (Megamorph and Imprudent Intrusion) that are great at fighting Raid Bosses. Paradox himself was first unlockable in an event where he was a Raid Boss.
- The Needs of the Many: His attack on Domino City killed a bunch of people, but what's their sacrifice compared to the entire human race?
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: It is never shown how he stole Cyber End Dragon, Rainbow Dragon, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and Red-Eyes Black Dragon.
- Our Dragons Are Different: All his Sin monsters are dragons, except for Parallel Gear. (Also Cyber-End Dragon technically, as it's a Machine-Type).
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: How he views his goal.
- Shoulders of Doom: Part of his outfit.
- A Sinister Clue: He is left-handed, which foreshadows his connection with Yliaster.
- Spikes of Villainy: On his arm wrists.
- Theme Naming: Like Aporia and Antinomy, Paradox's name refers to a logical fallacy.
- Time Travel: He travels back in time to kill Pegasus before he could create Duel Monsters.
- Unskilled, but Strong: His Sin deck is extremely powerful, capable of instantly calling forth powerful high-level Monsters without any real cost. This is counteracted by the fact that Paradox tends to make rather novice mistakes in his duel against Yugi, Judai, and Yusei. He wastes his Sin Force Trap Card when attempting to protect Paradox Dragon from Yugi's monster-stealing spell, without waiting for Yugi to mention that he was instead targeting his stolen Stardust Dragon. During his last turn, he has his dragons attack the Dark Magician Girl and Elemental HERO Neos that the protagonists have in Defense Position instead of the Dark Magician or Stardust Dragon in Attack Position (which would have dealt enough damage to them to have taken the protagonists all out in one fell swoop), which leaves them alive with enough Life Points to give them enough room to make a counterattack and defeat them, albeit the protagonists already have Dark Spiral Force and Neos Spiral Force set.
- Unusual Eyebrows: His red right eyebrow has an impossible design.
- Watching the Sunset: One of his flashbacks shows him watching the sunset of the destroyed Earth.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: His goal is to save the world.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Like Aporia and Z-One, he crossed the Despair Event Horizon and is trying to prevent a worse fate for humanity. Duel Links fleshes this side of him out more, depicting him as being driven to single-minded desperation and willing to execute his plan no matter the cost (although, as in the movie, if he is defeated he'll start to question whether he was wrong).
Antinomy
"Dark Glass"/Antinomy/Johnny/Bruno
"Witness my Accel Synchro!"
Voiced by: Hiroki Tanaka (Japanese), Justin Badger (English)
Antinomy was one of the last four humans from Z-One's time. At the time he met Z-One he was a glorious D-Wheeler named Johnny, and they became friends after Z-One saved his life from the Machine Emperors. After the original Antinomy died of old age, Z-One sent an android clone of him to the past to overlook Yusei and make him stronger. Uses a "Tech Genus/TG" deck focused on spamming Synchro Monsters.For his tropes see the Team 5Ds page.
Aporia
Aporia
"My name is Aporia, the guardian of despair."
Voiced by: Masakazu Nemoto (Japanese), Jamal Najum Khan (English)
The true combined form of the Emperors (who are based on three different stages in his life), revealed in the WRGP final. Aporia is one of the few survivors in the destroyed future.
As a child, he lost his parents during the Machine Emperors' invasion, and later fought in the war against them where he lost his lover as well. After civilization was destroyed by Momentum going out of control, he wandered the world in despair, desperately looking for any other survivors.
Eventually he found Z-One, Bruno/Antinomy, and Paradox, and together they searched for a way to undo the destruction. However, Bruno/Antinomy and Paradox died of old age, and Aporia soon followed. Before dying he spoke to Z-One of the three despairs he had felt when alive, and entrusted the task of putting the future right to him.
He uses a combined Machine Emperor/Meklord anti-Synchro deck with extensive burn and field control effects. His trump cards are Machine Imperial God Machinicle Infinity Cubic/Meklord Astro Mekanikle and Machine Imperial God Dragon Asterisk/Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk.
- All Your Powers Combined: Since he's the combined form of the Emperors, he naturally has all of their cards, not that it helps him against Z-One.
- Anti-Villain: His goal to erase Neo Domino City will kill everyone. But the sheer hell he went through in the war between the Machine Emperors and Humans, and the despair he felt through it all, can't help but give him immense sympathy points. Surprisingly, none of these qualities appeared in the emperors of Yliaster outside of Lucciano and Placido's reactions to Jose's vision of their timeline.
- Back from the Dead: Let's see. Z-One initially revived him as an android. Then, he is reconstructed and returns good as new after losing to Yusei and exploding. Then, he loses to Jack, Lua, and Luca, and appears to die then. But, he returns again to challenge Z-One, although after losing that duel he dies for real. This is not even counting Placido, one of his three embodiments who returns good-as-new after being torn in half by Shooting Star Dragon.
- Broken Bird: A gender flipped example. He is orphaned at a young age, lost his lover in the battlefield as a young adult, and spent his years as an old man wandering endlessly around a barren wasteland. It's no wonder that the three Emperors embody all the three despairs of Aporia's life.
- Catchphrase: Uses the word "despair" about as much as Kiryu uses "satisfaction".
- Climax Boss: Of the 4Kids dub.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: After the grueling amount of effort it took for the heroes to beat him, he is easily and brutally defeated by Z-One without dealing any lifepoint damage. But it makes sense, since Aporia's deck is tailored toward countering Synchro Monsters which Yusei and co. use, but Z-One doesn't.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Appeared to be the leader of Yliaster, but he is later revealed to be this when the Ark Cradle descends.
- Despair Event Horizon: Crossed it three times. In the end of his original life, Z-One gave life to three beings that represent each of his despair — Placido (as a result of losing his lover), Lucciano (the embodiment of his life as an orphaned child), and Jose (in his old age where he endlessly wandered the post-apocalyptic Earth before meeting Z-One).
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He remembers the despair of losing his parents and lover, as shown by how Lucciano and Placido reacted to Jose showing Team 5D's a vision of their timeline. He also sees Z-One as a friend rather than just his boss, which is why he still sympathizes with Z-one even after he challenges the latter on Team 5D's behalf.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Due to the despair he experienced in his human life, he can no longer recognize hope even when he's feeling it, at least until Jack spells it out for him.
- Final Boss: Of the 4Kids dub of 5D's, due to that dub skipping the last seventeen episodes.
- Fusion Dance: He's the result of one.
- Heel–Face Turn: Makes one in Episode 146, and promptly challenges Z-One, his own friend, to a duel for the sake of Team 5D's. He's aiming to show Z-One the hope he has discovered.
- Hope Springs Eternal: Comes to believe this after losing to Jack, Lua, and Luca, which triggers his aforementioned Heel–Face Turn.
- Irony:
- He duels Jack, Lua, and Luca at the same time, and loses to them. Those three were once defeated by Jose and Lucciano respectively.
- In his Duel with Z-One, the last card he draws, the one directly responsible for making him lose, is Machine Emperor Granel Infinity.
- Also, just this line from the dub. The trick is that the 'ending' of the dub is actually seventeen episodes before the actual conclusion of 5D's.
Aporia: "I can assure you that the ending is worth the wait." - Kick the Dog: One very memorable one to Lua after laying waste to Luca and Jack in one turn, nearly defeating them.Aporia: "Young boy, this is despair." (shot of Lua in tears) "Turn end."
- Large and in Charge: He is the true form of the three Emperors, and just like Jose, he's so big that his cards look tiny in comparison. Even his D-Wheel resembles a giant car more than a motorcycle. Though in his human life, his height and build was average.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After all of his Hope Crusher actions against Yusei and Lua, Z-One crushes his hopes during their final duel.
- Light Is Not Good: His appearance is somewhat angelical, wearing all white, and with boosters on his back that sort of look like wings.
- Made of Explodium: Explodes magnificently after his defeat at the hands of Yusei.
- Meaningful Name: Aporia, referring to the confusion caused by multiple pieces of evidence supporting different answers, reflecting his nature as three different takes on the same person.
- One-Hit Kill: Averted. He employs a self-milling strategy in his Duel against Z-one with intention to guarantee that he draws Afterglow during the Draw Phase and deplete all of Z-one's LP in one go, but it backfires on Aporia hard after his Graveyard is shuffled back into his Deck and doesn't draw the card he needs.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Just merely being fused together causes him to give off Red Storm Clouds, and causes lightning to strike everywhere in the whole city.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: From Placido.
- Redemption Equals Death: After being defeated by Jack, Lua, and Luca, he has a Heel–Face Turn and duels Z-One to stop him. He loses and dies, but before his death, he gives his last power to Yusei's D-Wheel so that Yusei can duel Z-One.
- Rule of Three: Everywhere. Three embodiments, three despairs, three Machine Emperors, three Machine Imperial Soldiers. He duels three times (and also loses three times). Granel screws him over three times; first by killing his parents, second by killing 'the one he loved', and the third time when he draws it at the end of his Duel with Z-One, costing him the game and his life.
- Theme Naming: Like Paradox and Antinomy, Aporia's name refers to a logical fallacy.
- Uncatty Resemblance: His first ace monster Machine Imperial God Machinicle Infinity Cubic (Meklord Astro Mekanikle) bears a strong resemblance to him in build and color scheme. Additionally, he summoned it by combining the cores of the three original Emperors, much like he himself is a combination of the three Emperors of Yliaster.
- Unusual Eyebrows: Absolutely.
- Villainous Breakdown: Has one when he finally realizes Yusei is about to defeat him. Has a bigger one after Lua becomes a Signer, and things go downhill very quickly for him.
- Walking the Earth: Before meeting Z-One, Paradox, and Antinomy, an aged Aporia spent his life wandering endlessly around the ravaged Earth. And this ordeal is what inspired the conception of Jose.
- Walking Spoiler: The fact that the Emperors of Yliaster are one person is a pretty big reveal.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He intends to destroy a city and its millions of inhabitants, yes, but in doing so he will avoid The End of the World as We Know It.
- Wham Line: "The three of us are one. My name is Aporia."
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Thanks to him repeatedly crossed the Despair Event Horizon.
- The Worf Effect: He loses all three of his duels, despite being a very threatening duelist who consistently can push his opponents to the brink of defeat- in his second match, he deliberately handicaps himself in a 3v1 against Jack and the twins and still comes within a few hundred life points of wiping them out. Just like Placido. Let's face it, his duel with Z-One consists of him being curb-stomped by his boss' cards just to hype Z-One up for the Duel with Yusei.
The Three Emperors of Yliaster
As a whole
From left to right: Lucciano, Jose and Placido.
A mysterious trio from Yliaster who succeed Godwin as the Head of the Bureau, and the main antagonists of the third arc. Initially not much is known about them, but they apparently intend to use the power of the duelists competing in the WRGP to complete a "circuit" with which they can discover the 'location of god' and attain an even greater power. Their main goal, however, is to change the future by destroying Neo Domino City.
During Team 5D's confrontation with them in the W.R.G.P, it is revealed that they are, in fact, the same being divided into three, each of them representing a period of despair in the life of a man called Aporia.
- Big Bad Triumvirate: Later deposed in favor of a single villain and their true form Aporia.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: Jose is big, Placido is thin, and Lucciano is short.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: They have "erased" so many people throughout the years that they can't recall any specifics, such as Sherry's parents.
- Despair Event Horizon: Each of them represent the three different times Aporia crossed it.
- Lucciano represents the time when he lost his parents.
- Placido represents the time when he lost the one he loved.
- Jose represents the time when he was the only person left alive (actually one of the last four people alive), slowly driven mad by the loneliness.
- Subverted when Aporia loses to Yusei. He believes this to be his "fourth despair", but after losing to Jack, Lua, and Luca he realizes that what he's feeling isn't despair, but hope.
- Dub Name Change: They are called Primo (Placido), Lester (Lucciano), and Jakob (Jose) in the dub, disrupting the Theme Naming the Japanese version employed (the Three Tenors
). - Eyepatch of Power: Sorta. Lucciano and Placido have metal plates with the Infinity symbol on them covering one of their eyes. Placido's covers his right eye while Lucciano's covers his left eye.
- Freudian Trio: Lucciano is the Id, being immature and overtly emotional. Placido is the Ego, prone to going rogue and doing his own thing simply because he wants to. Jose is the Superego, far more restrained and focusing on their objective rather than acting on his impulses.
- Fusion Dance: Jose and Placido can merge with their D-Wheels. It's also how Aporia was created. Even their D-Wheels and D-Board combine to a single D-Wheel when Aporia appears, following with him fusing with it.
- In the Hood: They wear white hoods most of the time.
- Knight Templar: They're trying to prevent a worse catastrophe.
- Knights of Cerebus: The WRGP arc is a lot darker when they're around.
- Master of Disguise: Both Lucciano and Placido do this to trick Lua and Luca.
- Major Injury Underreaction: After losing to Shooting Star Dragon for the first time, Placido is Half the Man He Used to Be. Jose and Lucciano don't see this as a big deal. Justified, since all of them are androids.
- A Million Is a Statistic: What's one city compared to the entire world?
- Numerological Motif: Infinity. Their ace monsters have an infinity sign appended onto the ends of their names in the original, and have a lemniscate pattern around their "eyes".
- Power Crystal: They each have one of these on their forehead.
- Robotic Reveal: Turns out Placido is an android with the compatibility to merge with his D-Wheel. Lucciano and Jose are later revealed to be the same.
- Shout-Out: The trio are the resident Sinister Minister wearing white clothing with hoods, which makes them appear to be the Yu-Gi-Oh! version of the Gorgom High Priests.
- Theme Naming:
- The three of them are named after the Three Tenors: Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and the late Luciano Pavarotti.
- Aporia breaks the theme but is part of another one with his peers, referring to a logical fallacy.
- Time Travel: They can rewrite history to a certain extent due to this, such as erasing Momentum Express and Lucciano's time at Duel Academy, and inserting themselves into the W.R.G.P.
- You Can't Fight Fate:
- They fiercely believe in this, and Placido even compares the humans' struggle to survive to the dance of worker bees. They don't dance because they want to, but because it is their role written by fate itself. Just to punch in some extra symbolism, the bee's dance describes the Infinity symbol.
- Jose also reveals that it's their task to make sure history stays on a predetermined course. As such they have a bone to pick with Yusei, because the discovery of Momentum by his father jacked up everything.
- You Have Failed Me: They erase Clark from history after his failed attempt to dispose of Yusei.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: They leave Jeager and Team Catastrophe to die without blinking an eye once they stop being useful.
Placido (Primo)
Placido (Primo)
"Bow before my Meklord, humans!"
Voiced by: Masakazu Nemoto (Japanese), Jason Griffith (English)
The emperor who received the first Machine Emperor, Wisel. He gives his deck to the original Ghost to let him assault D-Wheelers, until Yusei defeats Ghost. Since then, Placido develops a grudge towards Yusei and he starts to develop his own plan to complete the circuit. He sends an army of Ghosts, the Diablo, to attack the participants of the WRGP, but his plan is foiled when Yusei discovered the power of Accel Synchro, defeating Placido during their duel. After he erased Clark Smith, Placido and his fellow emperors enter the WRGP as Team New World.
Placido represents Aporia's despair of the time he lost his lover. He uses an anti-Synchro deck built around Machine Emperor Wisel.
- Arch-Enemy: Placido feels Yusei is his, for defeating the first Ghost. Yusei doesn't even know he exists until Placido confronts him directly.
- Berserk Button: He gets annoyed when his fellow Emperors suggest that he might not be able to defeat Yusei.
- Cool Sword: It also doubles as his Duel Disk. He can plug it into his D-Wheel in order to fuse with it.
- Defeat Means Respect: Although he still has a grudge against Yusei, he becomes somewhat more respectful after losing to the latter's Shooting Star Dragon, since he fully expects Yusei to be able to defeat Jose's Granel.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Appear to have this reaction to Yusei even just showing concern over his having been ripped in half.
- Facial Markings: After being repaired, he has red markings on the left side of his face.
- Gratuitous Italian: Placido's upgraded form is called Placido Ripresa, with Ripresa being Italian for "recovery".
- Half the Man He Used to Be: He certainly came off worse for wear after his duel with Yusei. He's an android, so fortunately for him he gets better.
- I Hate Past Me: Well, more like "I Have No Respect for Past Me", seeing as he'll even steal from Lucciano.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: In the final round of the WRGP, Placido uses Lucciano's facedown cards to defeat Jack and get another chance to duel Yusei, despite how those cards were supposed to be saved for Jose. Although Placido eventually relents when Jose calls him out, he still hopes Yusei will push Jose far enough to force the three emperors to fuse, allowing him to duel Yusei by proxy.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: This is later carried over by Aporia.
- Revenge Before Reason: Placido is so obsessed with killing Yusei that Jose and Lucciano are worried that he'll screw up their plans.
- Spanner in the Works: Had Placido not messed with Antinomy, the latter would have not become Bruno and would have remained as an Z-One's ally and Team 5D's enemy and Bruno would have never taught Yusei Delta Accel Synchro or would have inspired him to surpass it.
- Spiky Hair: Pretty common in this series.
- Technopath: To a certain extent. Justified in that he's an android.
- Villainous Breakdown: Suffers a massive, prolonged one in Duel Links. Even after re-merging into Aporia, Placido still "exists" as an "echo of the past". When Paradox arrives, Placido receives memories from the past, realizing he's just a robot created by Paradox and causing him to Go Mad from the Revelation. Z-ONE's arrival makes it worse, as Placido isn't supposed to exist anymore by that point so he just ends up reduced to a stuttering wreck, unable to speak even a word to the man behind his creation. His defeat quote sums it up nicely."This isn't right! This is impossible! NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE! THE WHOLE WORLD DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!"
- Vocal Evolution: In the English dub of 5Ds, Jason Griffith uses the same voice he used for Shadow the Hedgehog. In Duel Links, his performance is a lot closer to that of the original Japanese version's take on the character, making him much more bombastic and older.
- The Worf Effect: In contrast to his fellow emperors, Placido never defeats a Signer; though he does lose his last duel on purpose. His losing streak seems to be carried over by Aporia.
Lucciano (Lester)
Lucciano (Lester)
Voiced by: Hitomi Yoshida (Japanese), Tom Wayland (English)
The second emperor to receive his Machine Emperor, Skiel. Lucciano infiltrates the Duel Academia to test Luca's strength. Soon he challenges Luca to a Riding Duel, with Lua joining in to help his sister. Despite Lucciano defeating both of them, he fails to kill them due to the Crimson Dragon and Luca's Duel Monsters spirits saving them. Along with his fellow emperors, he participates in the WRGP as a member of Team New World.
Lucciano represents Aporia's despair of the time when he lost his parents. He uses an anti-Synchro deck built around Machine Emperor Skiel.
- The Bad Guy Wins: He defeats Luca and Lua in their Riding Duel.
- Chick Magnet: As a transfer student he's pretty popular with the girls, especially Luca.
- Evil Laugh: Lucciano has a laugh very similar to Jeager's, only much crazier... and hungrier.
- Evil Redhead: Since he's modeled after Aporia's childhood, he has red hair. He also happens to be the craziest of the three.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Inverted. While it's justified that he hasn't got a deep voice due to being a kid, his evil voice is higher and shrill in comparison to his nice-guy voice.
- Fore Head Of Doom: His forehead is rather big.
- Giggling Villain: Holy crap.
- Gratuitous English: "Bye, bye!"
- The Hyena: There are very few scenes where he isn't letting out some shrill laughter.
- Large Ham: Even BRIAN BLESSED would tell the kid to tone down.
- Laughing Mad: Does this when Jose reveals a vision of the future, which causes him to relive the moment of his parent's death. It makes his constant giggling a lot more tragic in hindsight.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: What the female elementary school students think about him.
- Near-Villain Victory: A weird example. Despite the fact that he does defeat Lua and Luca, both of them are protected by Plot Armour when they are supposed to die.
- New Transfer Student: Disguises himself as a transfer student in Episode 77.
- Princely Young Man: As his transfer student disguise. He even has Placido as his butler.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Despite winning aganist Lua and Luca, he leaves pissed as his goal was to capture Ancient Fairy Dragon.
- Rollerblade Good: Lucciano wears rollerblades for no reason. He uses a D-Board which is invented by himself. For some reason he's allowed to participate in the WRGP with it instead of using a D-Wheel.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: He's certainly got the passionate part of it down, and the Duel Academia girls think he's very attractive.
- Spell My Name With An S: His name is spelled with two Cs in the anime. Some fans spell his name with only one C.
Jose (Jakob)
Jose (Jakob)
Voiced by: Takayuki Sugo (Japanese), Matt Hoverman (English)
The final emperor to receive his Machine Emperor, Granel. As the leader of three, he keeps the other two to stick with their main plan. Together with his fellow emperors, they participate in the WRGP as Team New World.
Jose represents Aporia's despair of the time when he was the only living (four) human(s) of the lonely world. He uses an anti-Synchro deck built around Machine Emperor Granel.
- Bad Boss: Downplayed. While he doesn't deliberately mistreat the other emperors, he shows both his team and Team 5D's a vision of the future in order to convince the latter team of Yliaster's cause, despite how his allies don't want to relive their traumas.
- Bald of Evil: He doesn't have a hair on his head, but it grows long everywhere else. His bald head could also reflect his wise character in comparison to the other evil emperors.
- Beard of Evil: He's evil. He's got a long beard.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: That piece of hair sticking out from under Jose's hood? That's his eyebrow.
- Evil Sounds Deep: As the oldest of the three he has a deep and raspy voice, which sounds even more evil because of his mask.
- Genius Bruiser: He's the strongest and smartest of all three of Yliaster's agents. Episode 110 cements him as this when he easily defeats Sherry in a "fist" fight. Just in case anyone doubted his dueling prowess, in Episodes 132 and 133 he Curb Stomps Jack and takes out Crow without much trouble at all.
- Large and in Charge: Jose is the largest and most senior member of the group, and has referred to himself as the leader of the Three Emperors. In parallel to that, his Machine Emperor Granel also easily towers over both Wisel and Skiel.
- Mind over Matter: Used to retrieve Placido's remains and to stop a meteor (the tablet containing his Machine Emperor) midfall.
- Older and Wiser: Jose is the wise old hermit of the three Emperors, coming of as level-headed and pragmatic to balance Placido's impulsiveness and Lucciano's clownish antics. Considering that he is the embodiment of Aporia's elderly years wandering in an apocalyptic and distant future.
- Pragmatic Villainy: He chastises Placido for trying to complete the circuit by forcing the city into a battle royale, stating that this plan wouldn't complete it properly. Instead, Jose would rather take the slower but guaranteed approach of completing the WRGP tournament.
- Refuge in Audacity: Started his Riding Duel by running on the track. Too bad he fused with his D-Wheel shortly later.
- Super-Strength: Displayed this when he and Lucciano were attacked by Sherry and Mizoguchi; he's able to effortlessly lift Sherry's D-Wheel with one hand. With her on it.
- Shout-Out: Combined with the above, Jose is one to The Six Million Dollar Man of all things, having a similar style of Super-Speed and strength to said character.
Underlings
Ghost/The Diablos
Ghost
First Ghost Voiced by: Masahito Kawanago (Japanese), Jason Griffith (English)
The first Ghost uses Placido's deck. The Diablos use Ally of Justice decks.
- Bald of Evil: As seen in Tag Force 5, Ghost is bald underneath his helmet.
- Dark Is Evil: Ghost wears black, rides a black D-Wheel, and has a grey "skin".
- Evil Laugh: A rather creepy one thanks to its robotic voice.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Inverted. The first Ghost has a creepy high-pitched voice.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Justified, since the Ghosts are robots.
- Gratuitous Spanish: "Diablo" is Spanish for 'Devil'.
- Irony: Ghost's programmed personality was designed to express a hate for Synchro monsters. Its successor, the Diablos, use Ally of Justice cards, an archetype whose strongest monsters are Synchros.
- Mecha-Mooks: The Diablos are mass-produced Ghosts with the same evil personality.
- Robotic Reveal: After Yusei makes it crash and the lads come to help, Crow touches its shoulder and its arm falls off.
- Zerg Rush: The Diablos force people into Free For All Duels and then swarm them with monsters.
Fake Jack Atlas
Fake Jack Atlas
Voiced by: Takanori Hoshino (Japanese), Ted Lewis (English)
A robot created by the three emperors who is disguised as Jack. His personality is based of the time when Jack was the King, but Fake Jack is much more ruthless. Fake Jack has his own Wheel of Fortune and has the same deck as Jack, with the only difference being that Fake Jack has three Red Demon's Dragon. He commits several crimes on the highway and injures other D-Wheelers to hurt Jack's reputation, and to lure him out. Jack loses to him in their first match, but later he returns and destroys the imposter with Majestic Red Dragon.
He uses the same deck as the real Jack, but with three copies of Red Demon's Dragon and no Majestic Dragon or Majestic Red Dragon
- Badass Biker: Pretty much the only thing to describe his impossible maneuvers.
- Car Fu: What he does with his Wheel of Fortune.
- Dark Is Evil: He has the same color scheme as the real Jack, only darker.
- Evil Knockoff: To Jack. His personality is based on Jack from Season 1. (Jack even gives him a lengthy "The Reason You Suck" Speech on that to boot.)
- Evil Sounds Deep: Inverted in the dub, where his voice is higher than the real Jack.
- Imposter Forgot One Detail: Despite his darker color scheme, he's indistinguishable from the real Jack Atlas so long as he keeps his helmet on. His deck, on the other hand, contains multiple copies of the Red Demon's Dragon, which is impossible in-universe. This is what ultimately clears Jack.
- Jerkass: He's based on Pre-Character Development Jack after all.
- Large Ham: He is surprisingly a bit less hammy than the real Jack, but he's hammy enough to scare him.
- Malevolent Masked Men: He's always seen with his helmet on, which is justified to hide his red eyes and facial markings.
- Mirror Match: With Jack, of course.
- Non-Indicative Name: His three Red Demon's Dragons are purple, blue, and yellow instead of red.
- Oh, Crap!: He has one when the real Jack summons Savior Demon Dragon and boosts its ATK to 7000, since it’s enough to end the duel in one attack.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Fake Jack has red eyes instead of purple.
- Robotic Reveal: When his body is destroyed by Savior Demon Dragon.
- Rule of Three: He has three Red Demon's Dragons, which might be a nod to Kaiba's three Blue-Eyes White Dragons. However, his Red Demon's Dragons have different colors.
