History Fridge / YuGiOh5Ds

* Z-ONE is the first franchise BigBad to have a ludicrously overpowered 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 PurposefullyOverpowered to all but ensure a win.

* 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 OmnicidalManiac 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 ParentalSubstitute status, but the effect to not only undo Black-Winged Dragon's ATK loss, but deal damage to the opponent while he's at it is a clear nod to his TheTrickster status.

* 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 OmnicidalManiac 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. Life Stream Dragon's effect to restore and protect the life points of the player and their allies is a pretty good reflection of Leo's desire to protect Luna above all else.

* 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 Speed 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.

** 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 [[spoiler:''Yusei's flying on his D-Wheel'']]. Once he saves the day [[spoiler:''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.'']]

* 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 [[spoiler:''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 [[spoiler: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; [[spoiler: two Dark Signers]] gone.

** 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 [[spoiler:actually from Satellite the whole time, not from Neo Domino City like Godwin told him.]]
** The fifth dragon becomes a lot clearer once [[spoiler:Rua/Leo becomes the next Signer]], as well as its connection. [[spoiler: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.]]
* 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 [[spoiler:Bruno is a robot]] this makes ''perfect sense''.

* More Fridge Hillarious, but if you look at the way Jose mounts his Duel Runner, in order to do so without revealing he's a [[spoiler: cyborg]] he'd have to either ''sit in it backwards'' or ''lie down like on a toboggan''.

** 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.

** 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.
* Akiza's initial streak of irresponsibility and self-destruction. Given the series, it's expected that she dueled and then there was the fact that Sayer was telling her that she shouldn't be afraid to duel or to hurt people. BUUUT... Before she met Sayer, who was the one stoking her into dueling? NOBODY. Even after discovering her powers, she persisted and even enrolled in a dueling school, KNOWING people were going to get hurt and was somehow surprised by the reactions of others. Her parents let her go to Duel Academy under the assumption that another psychic could help her, despite the fact that there's already a cult of psychics who do nothing BUT hurt people. I guess it never occurred to any parties involved to just tell Akiza to "stop dueling," or at least duel analog so that the cards couldn't take form. It would have also made for a fun twist; a signer who has to duel but abstains because it puts her opponents' actual lives in danger. Instead it's: "I'm sad because people get mad at me when I hurt them"; THEN HOW ABOUT YOU STOP HURTING THEM?!

** 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.

** 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.

* 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? Such things are not unheard of in writing: Waspinator of Beast Wars was not liked by the writers at first, which is the source of his butt monkey status (that, unlike Crow, actually won him the hearts of fans and writer alike).
* Of the Iliaster members seen dueling, from Randsborg to Koda to Clark Smith, only two of them were shown using Synchro monsters: the hired and thus less directly tied Boomer/Geiger, and Rex when he goes nuts. A simple thing on the surface, given that duelists as minor as them using the extra deck methods were not common until Zexal. However when you also remember the anti-Synchro Three Emperors were messing with time and taking over Iliaster, it's not hard to see there being an older timeline where there were Synchro monsters being used by these duelists. Heck, [[MindScrew 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. In her defense let us not forget that a bulk of her later duels were speed 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 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, hero dead, town destroyed, roll credits. Jury's still out on Turbo Warrior, though.

** 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)...

* 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 Iliaster wants them ''gone''. It seems natural that the synchros stay captured if the duelist loses or [[AndIMustScream worse]].

* 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 now how to do at the time. Even if Akiza did manage to beat Yusei, she wouldn't have been able to duel Jack.

** 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 ZONE - [[spoiler:''Yusei's flying on his D-Wheel'']]. Once he saves the day [[spoiler:''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 sponsers but he still should have had money left over. Then it dawned on me. THAT'S how they paid to build that bridge, they used up all of Jack's money!
* I recently had an epiphany that made ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' about ten times more heartwarming. The realization was: the concept of "family" in Satellite is the same as the concept among WesternAnimation/{{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 Substitute}}s -- they're ''parents''.

** On a similar note, I was wondering 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? But then I realized something. 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 was almost cemented in my mind when [[spoiler: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 I think they once mention Yliaster having orchestrated Zero Reverse (if I'm wrong, please correct me on that point). 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; [[spoiler: two Dark Signers]] gone.
* 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) is 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.

* 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 OmnicidalManiac 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.
** Life Stream Dragon's effect to restore and protect the life points of the player and their allies is a pretty good reflection of Leo's desire to protect Luna above all else.

* Here's one people do not seem to have noticed. All this plot armor, which becomes especially evident against Team Unicorn (but also affects other duels, which are interrupted before their obvious finish, like the one against Sherry)? It is because Signers cannot lose against non-Signers (or people with similar powers, like Team Ragnarok or Yliaster, anyways), so it is actually justified, even if it is somewhat unsatisfactory, and creates no plot hole or idiot ball, just the orders of fate.

* 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]]An archetype that relies on special summoning and combining low-level monsters to overwhelm an opponent with more powerful monsters. Hitherto, it was used by exactly one anime character precisely because it isn't flashy.[[/note]]

* 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, etcetc) 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.

** 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 effect on the team is a lot more passive.

** It is 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.

* Of the Iliaster members seen dueling, from Randsborg to Koda to Clark Smith, only two of them were shown using Synchro monsters: the hired and thus less directly tied Boomer/Geiger, and Rex when he goes nuts. A simple thing on the surface, given that duelists as minor as them using the extra deck methods were not common until Zexal. However when you also remember the anti-Synchro three emperor tenors were messing with time and taking over Iliaster, it is not hard to see there being an older timeline where there were Synchro monsters being used by these duelists. Heck, [[MindScrew 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 came off as less competent after her full turn to good and used less complex strategies. In her defense let us not forget that a bulk of her later duels were speed duels, which she was not only learning to do at the time, but also cut her off from the bulk of spell cards she used in her deck. That is 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 was not only against a lockdown strategy that got started turn one, but also against a deck that benefited from field spells. Black Rose Garden would help her opponent out, without even factoring in rose tokens being used to summon earthbound immortals.

** 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 looked 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 in 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.

* 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 is mentioned the synchro summoning style is what caused things to hit the fan and want them ''gone''. It seems natural that the synchros stay captured if the duelist loses or [[AndIMustScream worse]].

** And then Yusei destroyed Wisel, with Goyo Guardian in it. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Way to go Yusei]].