- The bridge that was built to try and connect Satellite and Neo Domino City was known as the Daedalus Bridge. In a Greek myth Daedalus, along with his son Icarus tried to escape a prison on an island by making wings out of wax and feathers and flying away. However, while they were in the air, Icarus flew too close to the sun, his wings melted and he fell down into the sea. Now, who else do we know that flew too close to the sun and fell?
- Adding to this Fridge Brillance - Yusei didn't set out to unite Satellite and the City when he went to get his Stardust back. It just happened as a result of his status as a protagonist. During the Duel with Z-One Yusei's flying on his D-Wheel. Once he saves the day he's flying back from the direction of rising sun. Yusei didn't set out to be like Icarus, and as a result symbolically did what Icarus could not.
- So in the second season, everyone is running around trying to earn money with odd jobs, which at first made me wonder "what the heck happened to Jack's money from season one". Sure he lost his sponsors but he still should have had money left over. That's how they paid to build that bridge, they used up all of Jack's money!
- A realisation that makes Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds about ten times more heartwarming. The concept of "family" in Satellite is the same as the concept among Gargoyles. In a world where survival is such an uncertain thing and the likelihood of parents not outliving their offspring's childhood is high, blood ties get disregarded. It's just not a viable way for their society to function, so they don't form bonds based on blood any more than gargoyles care about whose biological offspring their clan's hatchlings are. Circumstances have forced "families" to form in other ways, or no one would survive. People like Martha, Pearson, and Crow aren't just Parental Substitutes — they're parents.
- Early in 5Ds, Rex Godwin says something to the effect that he'll make any sacrifice necessary to save the world. At the time it seemed like the "sacrifice" he referred to was Satellite, but thinking back on that line after the Dark Signer arc, it becomes clear that he was talking about sacrificing the entire planet.
- On a similar note, one may wonder why Z-One would trigger Zero Reverse by telling Rudger to look into the old Momentum, knowing that it would release the Dark Signers/Earthbound Immortals, who had a 50-50 shot of destroying the world, which is what Z-One wanted to prevent. Rex, all the while, is encouraging the Signers to defeat the Dark Signers, and then he becomes one himself, wanting to destroy the world and build a new one. Why would Z-One allow this? Rex was seen talking to a shadowy figure long before becoming a Dark Signer, just like the one that talked to Rudger. What if this figure was also Z-One, and Rex's plan to recreate the world was just another of Z-One's attempts to save the ruined future? This theory becomes more likely when Z-One's backstory is given in 149, and his computer with the research on Yusei only lists five Earthbound Gods, not seven, which suggests that Rex never became a Dark Signer in Z-One's timeline.
- Which, in turn, touches on another interesting point; the earliest shown changes by Yliaster take place at the time of Momentum's development, and they once mention Yliaster having orchestrated Zero Reverse. In the original timeline, if Zero Reverse didn't happen, it's possible that Satellite and the City were separated by a different means (perhaps an actual tectonic shift, like they covered the accident up with - either that, or Satellite was simply a disadvantaged area of the city) which also released the Earthbound Gods. However, if Zero Reverse didn't happen, it's entirely possible that Rudger didn't turn evil (however, he may have died in an unrelated way, to allow for the same Signers in the previous timeline), and therefore Rex didn't lose him to the ministrations of fate, meaning that his loneliness wouldn't have driven him to look into the myth of the Signers. Boom; two Dark Signers gone.
- On a similar note, one may wonder why Z-One would trigger Zero Reverse by telling Rudger to look into the old Momentum, knowing that it would release the Dark Signers/Earthbound Immortals, who had a 50-50 shot of destroying the world, which is what Z-One wanted to prevent. Rex, all the while, is encouraging the Signers to defeat the Dark Signers, and then he becomes one himself, wanting to destroy the world and build a new one. Why would Z-One allow this? Rex was seen talking to a shadowy figure long before becoming a Dark Signer, just like the one that talked to Rudger. What if this figure was also Z-One, and Rex's plan to recreate the world was just another of Z-One's attempts to save the ruined future? This theory becomes more likely when Z-One's backstory is given in 149, and his computer with the research on Yusei only lists five Earthbound Gods, not seven, which suggests that Rex never became a Dark Signer in Z-One's timeline.
- Card games on motorcycles. How stupid is that? Well, when you think about it, it's actually not that silly; the motorcycles (along with most everything else in Neo Domino City) are powered by Ener-D. Ener-D has recently been revealed to be duel energy. So, in essence, fitting vehicles with the ability to duel on them is like fitting them with their own self-powered generator.
- Lets be honest, the series was teasing biker duelists since Yugi's day. Combining the two was just the next logical step.
- The initial four Signer Dragons all reflect the character of their user. Stardust Dragon sacrifices itself to protect other cards from destruction and then returns to the field, in the same way Yusei is always putting himself at risk for the sake of his friends, and in his duels constantly gets pounded but gets back up to keep fighting. Red Dragon Archfiend destroys all the opponent's defense monsters when it destroys one of them, and destroys its owner's monsters that didn't attack, reflecting Jack's ruthlessness, devotion to power, and the betrayal of his friends to succeed. Black Rose Dragon destroys all cards on the field and saps the attack of enemy monsters to zero, representing Akiza's initial character traits, namely her borderline Omnicidal Maniac tendencies and love of causing pain and suffering. Ancient Fairy Dragon allows the special summoning of monsters and recycling of Field spell cards, reflecting Luna's bond with duel monster spirits and their world. Black-Winged Dragon symbolizes Crow's Parental Substitute status, but the effect to not only undo Black-Winged Dragon's ATK loss, but deal damage to the opponent and weaken their monsters while he's at it is a clear nod to his The Trickster status.
- Red Dragon Archfiend also fits in another way when you look at the original name (Red Demon's Dragon) while keeping in mind that Jack was actually from Satellite the whole time, not from Neo Domino City like Godwin told him.
- The fifth dragon becomes a lot clearer once Rua/Leo becomes the next Signer, as well as its connection. Rua/Leo, multiple times, puts himself on the line to help others, even at risk to himself, fitting with Life Stream Dragon's previous form, Power Tool Dragon, effectively being the former on life support. And Life Stream Dragon's healing effect and effect damage protection fits well too, given how often Rua/Leo fights to protect Ruka/Luna.
- Yusei and Jack's evolutions of their dragons also reflect their character growth. Starting with Red Nova Dragon, it represents Jack's Character Development where in while Red Dragon Archfiend punishes those who don't follow him into battle, Red Nova Dragon is empowered by his tuners and must be summoned by at least 2 tuners, showing his renewed value in his friends as well as his new goal to be a true king of Turbo Duels, a champion to the people. Shooting Star Dragon is the culmination of Yusei's attempts to push himself and go beyond his limits, but at the same time, never forgetting how he got there. This is represented with Shooting Star Dragon's ability to attack equal to the number of tuners he reveals off the top five cards of his deck, showing his faith in his cards and his friends that they will guide him to a better future. Beyond that, Shooting Quasar Dragon, especially the way they summon it in the anime, represents Team 5D's as a whole, their bonds always connected no matter where they go, each pushing each other forward to tomorrow.
- Bruno has no eyeshine. Usually, when a character has no eyeshine, it means either they're background and the artist was being lazy, or that their "spark of life," as one might call it, has gone out. Considering that Bruno is a robot this makes perfect sense.
- Re-watch the scene in GX when Darkness shows Judai a vision of the future after you've watched 5Ds and seen Z-One's apocalyptic world. Seem familiar?
- More Fridge Hilarious, but if you look at the way Jose mounts his Duel Runner, in order to do so without revealing he's a cyborg he'd have to either sit in it backwards or lie down like on a toboggan.
- In the card game, Rex's two ace monsters were changed to both require a specific Tuner monster, and any amount of non-Tuner monsters whose levels total 5. This makes them something of an Evil Counterpart to Yusei's Warrior Synchro monsters.
- Individually, Yusei's monsters are weak to the point of derision, but Yusei uses them as a Synchro version of a weeny-rush deck.note
- Yusei's known in the fandom for being the first Yu-hero to have never turned evil or been possessed by evil at some point prior to Yusaku, along the lines of Orichalcos Yugi, Supreme King Jaden, Dark Zexal Yuma and Astral, and Berserk Yuya/ZARC-possessed Yuya. There are some possible reasons for this.
- Most if not all of these characters suffered from in-series loss of allies or friends to death or evil, which factored into all but Yami Yugi's brief dip into evil. While Jack did betray Yusei, it occurred pre series, and long before Yusei could have any special powers to corrupt him around.
- Due to the loss of magical elements in the series following the cult scare between season 1 and 2, magical elements in the series were diminished, particularly cult elements, and elements vaguely magical like did not return to the franchise in full for a long while. This absence made it harder for Yusei to have a believable fall from grace.
- Most of the other Yutagonists were normal people who were thrusted into dangerous events over the course of the series. They were not prepared for their harshness and reacted badly to them at certain points. Yusei unlike the others had a rough childhood as a orphan in the slums, so he was more tolerant to the dark parts of the world(s).
- If one counts the Supreme King half of Jaden as an alternate personality, Yusei is the only protagonist to go through the entire series without another person bound to them in some way or another. These personalities and people are generally responsible for the dark modes either by possession or corruption (Yami Yugi played the Seal of Orichalcos, Astral was the one who fell into darkness and possessed Yuma for Dark Zexal, and the Zarc Fragment was present in Yuya from the start and did possess him at a few points), which by lacking Yusei did not have an avenue for corruption. While similarly 'never went evil' Yusaku had a partner, said partner could not take over him like Astral could and when said partner become an antagonist he left instead of using Yusaku's body.
- One thing that all of the Dark Signers had was Dark Synchro monsters, which usually took the form of whatever their deck was based around or what is fitting for their deck (Zeman, Hundred Eyes Dragon, Quilla, etc, etc) and they were described as "guardians of the underworld". Carly and Misty were the only ones without Dark Synchro monsters, but even then they still have monsters with death motifs. Carly's Fortune Fairies were turned into the Fortune Ladies, who all had dark robes and their staffs ended with a scythe, which fit typical depictions of the Grim Reaper. Misty had the Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings, who is based on a story that ends in death and can revive itself by destroying a continuous spell in the game, essentially coming back from death.
- Carly gets a Dark Synchro in Duel Links in the form of Fortune Lady Every.
- Of all the cards Team Taiyou brought from the earliest days of Yu-Gi-Oh, Dragon Capture Jar seems like the oddest choice. After all, plenty of duelists at the tournament wouldn't have a dragon in sight. However given Team 5Ds is well known for having Dragon Aces, they likely slipped it in specifically to deal with them.
- The fact that most of the damage inducing trap cards they use like Attack and Receive, Power Throw, and Fools Dice are used by Taro, the last duelist, is a way to accelerate their burn strategy if Zushin isn't summonable. Compare to the defense boosting and damage healing traps that Yoshizo and Jinbei have whose effects on the team are a lot more passive.
- Zushin is also a way to easily work around the Magic Poker Equation. Unlike other ace cards like the Emperor Cores, Zushin is extremely common, and each of them are likely carrying three of them in each deck. As decks in the anime are generally at 40, they are able to maximize the odds of drawing it without supernatural powers.
- In relay races, which the WRGP is based on, the typical strategy is to have the second-fastest start to set the pace, the third and fourth fastest to maintain their position or pull ahead, and finally the fastest to finish strong. This is the strategy implemented by Team 5Ds as Jack starts off with strong power cards to take out as many players as he can, Crow follows up with his swarming tactics and strong Synchro monsters to chip away the remaining players, then Yusei finishes with his ability to use all of his teammate's cards in conjunction with his own to make a strong finish. This also includes Aki on bench who fills in Crow's position which she can use Black Rose Dragon to reset the situation and re-establish an advantage.
- It's also the set up used by other teams in the WRGP. Andore and Dragan started with Power Decks (or feinted the use of one in Andore's case), with Breo and Brave using more tricky cards like Crow. Meanwhile Harold and Jean operate much like Yusei for the finishing blow and use of their predecessors cards as needed. The Yliaster team plays a variant of this, with Luciano going first with a focus on setting up Skiel as fast as possible, Placido playing a more technical approach, capitalizing on the setup Luciano provided to enable him to hybridize Wisel with Skiel for unorthodox combination effects, and then Jose, like Harold and Jean, as their anchor.
- Even Team Taiyo, whose three decks are all geared towards a very specific strategy, works like this. As listed above Yoshizo and Jinbei probably have passive decks which are designed to stall out opponents, in addition, Yoshizo probably has more Level 1 monsters than the other two since he's meant to start their strategy. Meanwhile, they both attempt to collect 4 Speed Counters to burn out their opponents while playing defense. Also stated above, Taro, if they haven't been able to summon Zushin by then, will burn out their opponents with direct damage.
- Notably in the post Dark Signers era, Crow is the designated butt monkey of the group. While it seems like a dynamic thing, let us not forget that Crow was not originally intended to be a main character per the writers, and got that way because of how popular Blackwings were. Perhaps the fans were not the only ones annoyed by his upswing?
- Of the Yliaster members seen dueling, only two of them were shown using Synchro monsters: the hired and thus less directly tied Bommer/Geiger, and the leader Rex when he became a Dark Signer. A simple thing on the surface. However when you also remember the anti-Synchro Three Emperors were messing with time and taking over Yliaster, it's not hard to see there being an older timeline where there were Synchro monsters being used by these duelists. Heck, we may be seeing the altered timeline while the signers have clear memories to the contrary when it comes to the use of Synchro monsters.
- People often claim that Aki comes off as less competent after her full turn to good and uses less complex strategies. What they seem to forget however is that most of her later duels were Turbo Duels, which she was not only learning to do at the time, but also cut her off from the bulk of spell cards she previously used in her deck. That's going to throw her game off a bit in a way that, while recoverable over time, will create issues in the short term.
- In addition to that, her later duel with Misty is not only against a lockdown strategy that gets started on turn one, but also against a deck that benefits from field spells. Black Rose Garden would help her opponent out, without even factoring in Rose Tokens being used to summon Misty's Earthbound Immortal.
- Some fans wondered why Yusei needed to find Accel Synchro when he already had Savior Star Dragon. But watching the Yusei vs. Placido duel, it becomes apparent that Placido had already found a way to counter Savior Star. Savior Star Dragon can negate one monster effect per turn, but stealing the Skiel Carrier cards gave Placido two lines of defense (Wisel Guard 3 and Skiel Carrier 5). Savior Star would negate one, bounce off of the other, and get absorbed the next turn. Game over. Jury's still out on Turbo Warrior, though.
- Z-ONE is the first franchise Big Bad to have a ludicrously broken deck, and this is because, as the last man on Earth, any counterfeit card he makes is legal by default, since there is no authority to state otherwise. So he made all his cards Purposefully Overpowered to all but ensure a win.
- When Yusei and Jack deal with bodyguards with their fists instead of their decks, you could say that they are decking them.
- Late in the series, Aki's psychic powers also gives her a healing factor and at the same time able to heal her allies. And it makes perfect sense at the end of the series that she would go on to become a doctor.
- As the lead characters, Yusei and Jack would have two archetypes of recognizable tuner monsters, Synchrons and Resonators respectively. In real life, they also represent two definitions of the word tuning. Yusei and the Synchrons refer to performance tuning, optimizing machines through adjustments, which gel with Yusei's mechanical knowledge. Jack and the Resonators refer to musical tuning, calibrating tone and pitch, which while Jack isn't a singer or an instrumentalist, he fancies himself as a performer, and through his use of Fiend type monsters, the Resonator's tuning fork can be seen as a bell welcoming strong demonic monsters.
- Jack's and Carly's duel is the only Signer vs. Dark Signer duel with nobody around to watch or try to intervene. This not only makes Jack's situation more suspenseful because he truly is on his own, but makes their interaction feel a lot more intimate and personal — appropriate for a duel that's all about romantic feelings.
- Remember Joey's cousin from the street duels? The fact that he looks exactly like Joey implies that he is the same age that Joey was in the original series, which allows us to guess at how much time has passed since then. Joey was sixteen in the original series (according to the Yu-Gi-Oh Wikia anyway.) If Joey's cousin wasn't born yet in the original series (which might be assumed from the fact that Joey never mentioned him), that would mean that fewer than sixteen years have passed since the original city. In other words, the Yu-Gi-Oh world went from a reasonably peaceful place to a socially-stratified world defined by a grossly unequal caste system, complete with a police force whose sole purpose seems to be maintaining the oppression of the lower caste, in fewer than sixteen years. Suddenly that throwaway gag involving Joey's doppelganger doesn't seem so funny anymore.
- Considering Ushio is still alive...
- It's worse, GX was 10 years after DM, and everything was still cool. So that means everything went to shit in less than SIX.
- Given that we've been told Zero Reverse happened roughly 16-17 years before the main plot of 5Ds, Zero Reverse should've happened some time during the Battle City Tournament! Considering that during Zero Reverse, there was a quite fierce storm, and during the Battle City Tournament, there were some quite fierce storms too, every time Slifer or Ra showed up, there might be some truth to those claims...Though not a single building was destroyed during the Battle City Tournament (not counting Noah's island, since that was filler)...
- However, this might not be the case. First, "cousin" can mean a first cousin, or a second cousin, and maybe even removed by a generation or two. It is never stated how far in the family tree Jesse is from Joey, just that they are cousins. Second, Jesse does not resemble his relation too greatly, with the hair being the primary defining feature. Jesse's face is much more angular, and they have different eye colors. Joey and his family have the defining trait of brown eyes, while Jesse clearly has blue eyes. Potentially, due to the lack of any youthful softness like Joey's face, Jesse may also be older. Therefore, using a throwaway gag from the dub as a way to figure out how fast Neo Domino collapsed is much more difficult and implausible than it really is.
- However, at the very least, we can assume that Ushio was a former classmate of Yugi's since the name is the same and he looks like an older version of the guy from chapter 1 of the manga. He also looks to be middle-age, maybe around 50 or so. So 5Ds roughly took place 20 years or so after GX (and 30 after the original series). That means that Zero Reverse occurred soon after the end of GX, which certainly would give enough time for Synchro Monsters to be developed.
- It has been confirmed that he is the same Ushio, and he had to have been 16-18 years old in Yu-Gi-Oh! (manga begins in 1998), and considering that he was in Satellite Security at the start of 5Ds (something that would probably require someone to be no older than their mid-forties), Zero Reverse would have to have happened very soon after GX.
- After Arc V's reveal of the multiverse, we can simply assume that GX (Fusion Dimension) never occured in this timeline (Synchro Dimension), leaving plenty of time for Synchro Summon to be invented, Zero Reverse to occur, and Ushio to join the force.
- Not really. Bonds Beyond Time confirms that at least the first 3 series all take place in the same dimension, with the dimensions of the specific summoning mechanisms all separate from the main stories so far.
- He’s only said to be Joey’s cousin in the dub, while in the original, he’s just a random duelist with a resemblance to him, meaning there’s no relation between them.
- In the dub, the guy commands a monster to attack, and he has the same voice as Joey. I assumed the remark about Jesse Wheeler was sarcastic as in "Is that Joey Wheeler?" "Of course it's Joey Wheeler!"
- If Zero Reverse killed most of the population and destroyed most of Domino City, this means that it may have killed some of the characters form the original series and GX.
- Relating to the Machine Emperors/Meklords: It's heavily implied that if the duelist loses to any of them while their synchros are inside it, they're possibly gone for good. For instance, Ushio's synchro is never seen used again since Wisel's debut (implied to have been pulled in by its effect), Yusei and the twins are desperate to get their dragons back before their life points are gone, and it's mentioned the synchro summoning style is what caused things to hit the fan and Yliaster wants them gone. It seems natural that the synchros stay captured if the duelist loses or worse.
- Especially when you consider that most monsters are sentient in this franchise...
- Then Yusei destroys Wisel, with Goyo Guardian in it. Way to go Yusei.
- It’s just as likely that Yusei may have freed Goyo Guardian if he was trapped in there.
- The Bad Future of Zone and the others looks awfully similar to the one shown to Judai by Darkness/Nightshroud doesn't it? Another case of (retroactive?) foreshadowing perhaps.
Fridge Logic
- Akiza had managed to make it far into the first duel tournament she was in before losing to Yusei. However, the finals of the tournament are shown to be a Turbo Duel, which Akiza was not shown to know how to do at the time. Even if Akiza did manage to beat Yusei, she wouldn't have been able to duel Jack.
- It’s likely they would have done a Ground Duel instead, seeing as how there were several that took place, with each involving at least one character who, at the time, couldn’t Turbo Duel.
- Besides, the Fortune Cup is purposely rigged to bring together all of the Signers, Goodwin would have figured out how to make them duel one way or another.
- For a cast with plenty of one-of-a-kind monsters, to the point where a major plot point in the Fake Jack mini-arc is that no one else could possibly be committing these crimes because no one else has a Red Dragon Archfiend, these unique monsters sure have a lot of specific support cards.
