History Characters / YuGiOhGXMajorVillains

The first of the Shadow Riders. Although he appears to be Alexis' lost brother Atticus, he was possessed by the entity known as Darkness before the series began.

* SimpleYetAwesome: His strategy with Red-Eyes Black dragon involves either overwhelming through brute force or burning out the opponent's life points quickly. In a 4000-LP duel, getting hit with a Inferno Fire Blast spell card to shave off 2400 life points is nasty. He's also revealed in season 4 to have Red Eyes Burn, a card that burns both players for a Red-Eyes's attack power, which is again, 2400. Between that, Spear Dragon's piercing attacks, and other nasty tricks exclusive to dragon types, it's not hard to imagine him as a quick-kill player.

The second of the Shadow Riders. A vampire who seeks the Sacred Beasts cards to resurrect her extinct race.

The third of the Shadow Riders. An Amazon warrioress who doesn't seem interested in the Sacred Beasts cards as much as finding a WorthyOpponent she can duel with.

The fourth of the Shadow Riders. Pretends to be a detective who assists the heroes in hiding their keys so he and his accomplices can easily steal them, and is actually the spirit of the card of the same name granted life by his dark item.

The fifth of the Shadow Riders. An ancient Pharaoh who is said to have never lost a duel in his time.

The sixth of the Shadow Riders. Originally hired by Crowler to get rid of Jaden, he was possessed during their duel and forced to become one of the Shadow Riders in exchange for not losing his soul.

* PetTheDog: Despite his resentment for his younger brother, when he falls ill, Adrian has the opportunity to let him die and retake his place as heir to the Gecko family, knowing he could’ve saved him. But Adrian ultimately does the right thing, and saves his life, even staying by him to make sure he’s ok.

* AdaptationalWimp:

* StrongAndSkilled: Unlike other villains who either have a simple strategy and overpowered cards, Yubel is a skilled duelist who knows the strengths of their cards and even when getting overpowered cards such as the Sacred Beasts, they doesn't rely on them and just sees them as another strategy of their deck.

Voiced by: Creator/HiromiTsuru (Japanese, female voice), Creator/HisaoEgawa (Japanese, male voice), Creator/CassandraLeeMorris (English, ''GX''), Eileen Stevens (English, ''Anime/YuGiOhBondsBeyondTime''), and Alyson Leigh Rosenfield (English, ''Duel Links'').

* ImTakingHerHomeWithMe: A sinister example as he tells Asuka that if she losses their duel he will claim and take her to the dark realm he came back from.

* NonIndicativeName: Despite continuing to use an Archfiend deck in his duel against Alexis, his new Archfiend cards are now Warrior Type monsters instead of the normal Fiend Type.

* GenreSavvy: He's perfectly aware that Judai can make a miraculous comeback even when he has an overwhelming advantage over him. When Judai starts making a comeback during their duel and Light Barrier ends upside down (which means it's deactivated for that turn) Saiou starts to worry if he can actually survive that turn enough for Light Barrier to activate again. Bear in mind he has the 3100 attack point The World out while Judai only has the 1600 attack point Sparkman on his field and just a few cards on his hand. [[ProperlyParanoid He's right to be afraid]] given that Judai manages in one combo to bring out Neos while destroying The World thanks to Hero Counterattack and bring out Glow Neos on his turn to destroy Light Barrier before it becomes a problem again.

** Satorious also bears more than a passing resemblance to Dio Brando/DIO from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure; specifically from Part 3: Stardust Crusaders. Aside from looking similar, both are charismatic cult leaders whose bodies are possessed by evil, with a tendency to ham it up when excited, as well as a Tarot theme and a strong belief in destiny. Aptly, Creator/TakehitoKoyasu who voices Sartorius would go on to voice DIO in the animated adaptation of Stardust Crusaders, making the reference recursive.

* MedicalHorror: The surgery that turned Yubel into a Duel Monster, implied to have involved getting all their skin peeled off and replaced with a dragon's hide. ''[[SkipTheAnaesthetic Unanaesthetised]].''

* PlayingWithSyringes: A rare voluntary example. The surgery that turned Yubel into their powerful current form is implied to have been horrific.

* NoNonsenseNemesis: In both of his duels with Judai, he employs a strategy that practically doesn't let him do anything and gives him an overwhelming advantage while at it (The Light Barrier in the first duel and implanting The Fool in his deck for the second one) because he is aware of Judai's strenght and capacity for miraculous comebacks...and he's right to fear it. He's arguably the least cocky villain in the series.

* OneHitKill: Or more accurately, a [[PressStartToGameOver zero hit kill]]. He defeats Prince Ojin during the Prince’s turn, using a monster effect to negate the damage and a series of quick play spells to win the duel.

** Satorious also bears more than a passing resemblance to Dio Brando/DIO from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure; specifically from Part 3: Stardust Crusaders. Aside from looking similar, both are charismatic cult leaders whose bodies are possessed by evil, with a tendency to ham it up when excited as well as a Tarot theme and a strong belief in destiny. Aptly, Creator/TakehitoKoyasu who voices Sartorius would go on to voice DIO in the animated adaptation of Stardust Crusaders, making the reference recursive.

* FreudianExcuse: He lived his childhood orphaned in poverty, and was saved by chance by the head of the Garam Finance to potentially become their heir...until Sid was born, resulting in all of Amon's training and effort going into just becoming their personal agent instead. This is why he is driven to create a world void of poverty and unfairness and gain power for himself rather than for another.

** Yubel's namesake card in ''GX'' has an AttackReflector effect that triggers ''any'' time they enter battle, so they can just throw themselves at the enemy to deal damage. They abuse this every chance they get. The real-life trading card game of the monster card is mostly the same, except for one difference: it requires the opponent to declare an attack on ''them'' to activate their AttackReflector effect. Damage calculation is subtly different too, the anime version reflects battle damage taken, rather than dealing the opposing monster's ATK like the real-life version, so high DEF monsters are also fair targets.

* StrongButUnskilled: In his final duel, Darkness's main strategy is simply to let his powerful Darkness traps do most of the work in bringing down Judai as well as summon powerful beatsticks to harass Judai. Whenever Darkness can't use his traps properly, he struggles alot more. Even his strongest monster is reduced to being little more than a massive beatstick once Judai permanently bricks his strategy since its main effect relies on said traps.

* InvincibleVillain: Due to his ability to see the future and his Arcana Force monsters always have their effects go the way he wants them to at the right time, he never loses for most of the season. One duel he manages to negate a first turn kill and turns it against his opponent, winning before his own turn ever begins. When facing Aster, Sartorius just skips the part where his Arcana Force monsters effects are left to chance and automatically makes them trigger their positive effects, and when that isn't enough against Destiny Hero Plasma, he turns out to have a ludicrously strong ace monster up his sleeve.

* Hypocrite: Yubel often mocks their opponents when they summon a 0 attack point (or 1 attack point) monster, treating them as idiots for doing so...this is coming from a 0 attack point monster themselves.

* BodyHorror: The surgery that turned Yubel into a Duel Monster, implied to have involved having their skin peeled off and replaced with a dragon's hide. ''Unanaesthetised.''

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Yubel wants to hurt Jaden, but this is because in their insanity, they believe sharing pain is a way of expressing love. When they discover Amon doesn't feel a thing after sacrificing Echo, Yubel is ''disgusted''. They point out that despite Amon's utopian goals, he's putting the burden of sacrifice all on his loved one, making him a case of AllTakeAndNoGive.

** To elaborate, Jaden wanted to expose them to [[DarkIsNotEvil the gentle darkness]] to curb their psychopathic tendencies towards anyone who upset him. When they instead suffered painful exposure to the [[LightIsNotGood Light of Destruction]], they assumed that this was Jaden's intent, and unwilling to believe that Jaden would ever bring harm to them without good intentions.

* GenreSavvy: He's perfectly aware that Judai can make a miraculous comeback even when he has an overwhelming advantage over him. When Judai starts making a comeback during their duel and Light Barrier ends upside down (which means it's deactivated for that turn) Saiou starts to worry that if he can actually survive that turn enough for Light Barrier to activate again. Bear in mind he has the 3100 attack point The World on his field while Judai only has the 1600 attack point Sparkman on his field and just a few cards on his hand. [[ProperlyParanoid He was right to be afraid]] given that Judai manages in one combo to bring out Neos while destroying The World thanks to Hero Counterattack and bring out Glow Neos on his turn to destroy Light Barrier before it becomes a problem again.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Showing a vision of Jaden of his future in the middle of their duel was meant to demoralize him, however, the vision he shows Jaden has the opposite effect because it explicitly shows Jaden ''alive'' in another dimension, which means he won't die due to the satellite and thus he will win their duel. What's worse is that by Saiou's own logic, he's going against the very same fate he believes so much if he does win, so not even he himself believes what he is saying.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: I'm showing a vision of Judai of his future in the middle of their duel was meant to demoralize him, however, the vision he showed Judai of his death had the opposite effect since it meant he wouldn't die due to the satellite and thus meant he would won their duel, it just motivated Judai more to defy his fate and keep fighting.
** What's worse is that by Saiou's own logic, he's going against the very same fate he believes so much if he does win, so not even himself believes what he is saying.

* {{Expy}}: Of Marik, including the loss of control over his body, his soul siding with someone else (Marik with Bakura, Sartorius with Aster) to fight the being now possessing his body, and a sister who presses the protagonists into saving him. Satorious is also the closest Yu-Gi-Oh! character of the entire franchise that is simllar to Dio Brando/DIO from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure; specifically from Part 3: Stardust Crusaders.

* GenreSavvy: He's perfectly aware that Judai can make a miraculous comeback even when he has an overwhelming advantage over him. When Judai starts making a comeback during their duel and Light Barrier ends upside down (which means it's deactivated for that turn) Saiou starts to worry that if he can actually survive that turn enough for Light Barrier to activate again. Bear in mind he has the 3100 attack point The World on his field while Judai only has the 1600 attack point Sparkman on his field and just a few cards on his hand. [[ProperlyParanoid He was right to be afraid]] given that Judai manages in one combo to bring out Neos while destroying The World thanks to Hero Counterattack and bring out Glow Neos in his turn to destroy Light Barrier before it became a problem again.

* StrongButUnskilled: In his final duel, Darkness's main strategy is simply to let his powerful Darkness traps do most of the work in bringing down Judai as well as summon powerful beatsticks to harass Judai. Whenever Darkness can't use his traps properly, he struggles alot more.

* GenreSavvy: He's perfectly aware that Judai can make a miraculous comeback even when he has an overwhelming advantage over him. When Judai starts making a comeback during their duel and Light Barrier ends upside down (which means it's deactivated for that turn) Saiou starts to worry that if he can actually survive that turn enough for Light Barrier to activate again. Bear in mind he has the 3100 attack point The World on his field while Judai only has the 1600 attack point Sparkman on his field and just a few cards on his hand. He was right to be afraid given that Judai manages in one combo to bring out Neos while destroying The World thanks to Hero Counterattack and bring out Glow Neos in his turn to destroy Light Barrier before it became a problem again.

* Didn'tThinkThisThrough: I'm showing a vision of Judai of his future in the middle of their duel was meant to demoralize him, however, the vision he showed Judai of his death had the opposite effect since it meant he wouldn't die due to the satellite and thus meant he would won their duel, it just motivated Judai more to defy his fate and keep fighting.

* No-NonsenseNemesis: In both of his duels with Judai, he employs a strategy that practically doesn't let him do anything and gives him an overwhelming advantage while at it (The Light Barrier in the first duel and implanting The Fool in his deck for the second one) because he is aware of Judai's strenght and capacity for miraculous comebacks...and he's right to fear it. He's arguably the least cocky villain in the series.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: Yubel is prone to this. while they're a good duelist they tend to greatly underestimate their opponents (Johan, Hell Kaiser Ryo, Amon and Judai to some extent), even mocking whenever they summon a 0 attack point monster [[Hypocrite even if theyre one themselves]], Predictable this blows up in their face constantly and caused them to nearly lose several times.

* SunkCostFallacy: Deconstructed. He's able to prevent himself from generating any darkness by telling himself that Echo's sacrifice is for the sake of his utopia, allowing him to remain focused on dueling Yubel as a twisted way to honor that sacrifice. However, Echo herself harbored darkness, either from being a HesitantSacrifice or from being zealous enough for Amon's cause to hate Yubel.

!!Darkness (Possessed Atticus)

* MalevolentMaskedMan: He's possessed by Darkness. He wears a mask. The rest should fall into place from there.

* DidntSeeThatComing: Although he came close to assembling Exodia near the end of his match against Yubel, he's completely blindsided when they summon their own monster card for the first time and, having never seen it in action before, he's completely unprepared to deal with its AttackReflector agility which ultimately costs him the duel and his life.