History YMMV / YuGiOhVRAINS

* MagnificentBastard: "[[TheCracker Revolver]]", real name Ryoken Kogami, is the leader of [[Characters/YuGiOhVRAINSKnightsOfHanoi the Knights of Hanoi]] one of Link VRAINS' best duelists. After his father, Dr. Kiyoshi Kogami was put on life support, Revolver swore to eliminate the Ignis in his name, believing their existence to be a threat to humanity. Combining new cards with older Trap Cards, Revolver holds his own against several opponents, only losing through foul play or his opponents being even better. After being defeated by Yusaku Fujiki in the climax of season 1, he returns to form an EnemyMine with the heroes and sets his sights on [[ArcVillain Bohman]]'s faction. During his duel with Soulburner, he gives him advice on how to move on from his trauma and faces his eventual defeat with dignity. In the end, Revolver and the Knights of Hanoi [[HeelFaceTurn reform]] and decide to safeguard Link VRAINS, with him giving Yusaku a card to use in the final battle.

* LoveToHate: Lightning. MagnificentBastard, AwesomeEgo, and a ColdHam megalomaniac willing to enslave humanity all rolled into one small Ignis body that it makes him a more compelling antagonist than Bohman. Fans now love to [[MemeticMutation blame Lightning]] for every little thing that happened in the franchise, from plots from the previous shows up to ''[[UpToEleven cards being put on the ban lists.]]''

** Kengo Dojun[=/=]Blood Shepherd is ridiculously edgy, but also played completely straight and a MagnificentBastard. His intro in particular is a case of this. Taken UpToEleven by the dub, where his voice is edgy as well in comparison to the more subdued Japanese version.

* AntiClimaxBoss: The Commanders of the Knights of Hanoi go down pretty quickly after they're introduced, failing to win a single duel against the protagonists and preventing a look at their plan to accomplish their goals ''without'' [[spoiler:destroying LINK VRAINS]], leaving Revolver and [[spoiler:Spectre]] to do the heavy lifting for the villains for the rest of the season. Even more egregious was Baira and Faust's defeat of an army of AI Duelists in a ridiculous timeframe, particularly since Faust went down in a single episode as opposed to either of his fellows.

** Bohman and Windy can somehow use their Skills in the middle of a Master Duel, with little explanation as to how other than Windy's claim that he has greater control over the wind due to his element. [[spoiler:However Queen's duel against Ai may give this a simple explanation. They cheated.]]

** After ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' purists cried foul at the format switching to Speed Duels, it was revealed that the old dueling style, known as Master Duels, would still be in effect for ground-based dueling. Episode 10 confirms the first Master duel in the show, and they remain in use for more pivotal duels.

* BadassDecay: Spectre used to be a dangerous individual, fellow Hanoi Project victim alongside [[TheAce Playmaker]], and TheDragon to [[TheRival Revolver]] during the Tower of Hanoi arc, defeating Kitamura, Blue Angel and coming close to defeating Playmaker. In Season 2 though, he's explicitly said to be the weakest of the team that goes to Mirror LINK VRAINS despite becoming capable of Extra Linking[[note]]and implying that Blue Maiden has surpassed him given her presence[[/note]] and gets defeated by Lightning, and in Season 3 he's defeated by Ai offscreen alongside Faust in due to a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot as his seiyuu was unavailable for recording at the time. That being said, he's only this trope as a Dueling example goes; his mind games remain very much intact.
* BaseBreakingCharacter: Takeru Homura, aka Soulburner, the {{Deuteragonist}} starting in Season 2. Some like him for being a fun, interesting addition to the cast and another Lost Incident victim for the show to explore, being another person for Yusaku to talk to after criticisms of the first season’s lack of character interactions, and for his arc surrounding his guilt over his parent’s dying while looking for him when he was kidnapped. Others dislike his introduction involving him beating Aoi and Go, who (at least at the time for Go) were popular characters, find him faking his fear of ghosts in his duel against Blood Shepherd because he had already gotten over it after a quick pep talk months ago to be cheap and a major AssPull, and accuse him of being a SpotlightStealingSquad because of his [[Creator/YukiKaji popular voice actor]] and cards. While his duel against Revolver near the end of the series and the conclusion to his arc is generally well-liked, debates are still heated over whether it was enough to save his character or if it was much too late for him. He's often compared to Crow Hogan from ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'', another BaseBreakingCharacter, due to both using Decks that were powerful in the real game, but were introduced late into their respective series.

** [[spoiler: Due to it being implied he was murdered by Windy,]] little is known about Windy’s Origin, creating lots of room for fanfic writers to explore what his life and personality may be like.

** In fanfictions, Windy's unnamed origin is usually named after terms for wind like Zephyr or Kaze as a nod to his Ignis' attribute[[note]]Zephyr means West Wind in Greek, and Kaze is wind in Japanese[[/note]]. He's usually depicted with a brash or mischievous attitude like Windy itself.

* GrowingTheBeard: While the second season's first half started with an interesting premise, it suffered from several problems such as several characters being thrown out of focus in favor Soulburner & Playmaker who made a good chunk of the cast seem like fodder as well as slow pacing to the main arc. Come the second half, the focus on Playmaker and Soulburner has been toned down, each of the neglected characters were given their own storylines such as Go [[spoiler:implanting an AI chip in his brain to get stronger]], Aoi [[spoiler:befriending Aqua and getting stronger as Blue Maiden]], Ghost Girl & Blood Shepherd's relationship and Revolver reuniting the Hanoi to destroy the Ignis, in addition to improving the pacing substantially. In addition, the duels were far better received up until the Mirror LINK VRAINS duels, which are quite contentious.

** Fans often cite Decode Talker as Yusaku's ace monster over Firewall Dragon due to its higher number of appearances. Come Season 2, and Decode Talker only had a brief cameo taking out a [[{{Mook}} BitBoot]][[note]]forty episodes since Season 1 ended[[/note]] before finally reappearing in episode 92 in full, while Firewall Dragon had appeared twice before then, albeit used to [=OTK=] a fodder Duelist the first time and [[spoiler:received an alternate form in Firewall eXceed Dragon]] and an upgrade in the [[spoiler:Link-5 Firewall Dragon Darkfluid]].

* LostInMediasRes: Some viewers found the series confusing and difficult to follow in the first twenty episodes, both because nobody outright explains Link Summoning works, and because it's clear that the audience knows ''far'' less about the plot than the main character does.
* LoveToHate: Lightning. MagnificentBastard, AwesomeEgo, and a ColdHam megalomaniac willing to enslave humanity all rolled to one small Ignis body that it makes him a more compelling antagonist than Bohman. Fans now love to [[MemeticMutation blame Lightning]] for every little thing that happened in the franchise, from plots from the previous shows up to ''[[UpToEleven cards being put on the ban lists.]]''

** Revolver gets a lot of ButtMonkey and/or ComicallySerious moments in fan comics. It doesn't help that his Win-Loss record isn't the best and [[spoiler:he never even beats Playmaker or Soulburner.]]
** In the series itself, GO has started to become this. Despite being billed as the top duelist in LINK VRAINS, he's only won once, against Dr. Genome. To his credit, his other opponents have been [[InvincibleHero Yusaku]], [[TheRival Revolver]], and the newcomer Soulburner. However, in the case of the last one, GO had just undergone a radical character change, even opting to swap for a completely different deck, and it still failed to amount to anything. Keeping in with that, his second deck, the Dinowrestlers. They're still well-liked but endlessly mocked for being inferior to the self-replacing Goukis. [[spoiler:It's later deconstructed since his lack of victories is what caused his inferiority complex and FaceHeelTurn which caused him to become a BountyHunter and his loss against Soulburner was one of the reasons why he took part in a deadly experiment at the cost of his health just so that he can win again. He won against Earth after undergoing that experiment and is confident that he will never lose ever again after becoming one with an AI, [[AllForNothing and even that didn't amount to anything after Go lost to Playmaker in their rematch despite having the duel stacked in his favor, making everything he has done to this point an utter waste.]]]]

* NeverLiveItDown: Even though she was able to [[TakeALevelInBadass take many levels of badassery]] in the show and able to go toe-to-toe with the BigBad, Spectre defeating Aoi in such a way that has she literally [[FacePlant lands on her face]] is the moment that fans will often bring up when talking about her.

* RootingForTheEmpire: People that are saddened by Earth's demise in Season 2 by the hands of SOL Technologies will be cheering for [[spoiler:a rogue Ai]] during his duels against Queen and Go Onizuka in Season 3.

** Few will argue Playmaker acquiring the old summoning methods to be a bad thing at all, but his eschewing of Firewall Dragon (bar a duel against a fodder duelist) and the code Talkers (save Shootingcode Talker, which got DemotedToExtra) in Season 2 in favor of those cards have not been well-received. Firewall Dragon is at least considered understandable due to its powerful effects and notoriety in the [=TCG/OCG=], and yet ironically has had more appearances in Season 2, including a notable appearance in Playmaker's second duel with Go alongside [[spoiler:its Xyz counterpart, "Firewall eXceed Dragon"]]. The code Talkers themselves only appeared in Playmaker's final two duel.

** The fact that unlike the previous ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' series, this series does away with the mysticism that characters had to deal with interfering with their normal lives.[[note]]''DM'' had ancient spirits, Millennium Items and memories of Egypt, ''GX'' had the Light of Destruction, Sacred Beasts and Darkness manifested in corporeal form, ''5D's'' had the Crimson Dragon, Dark Signers, and future robotic abominations, ''ZEXAL'' had the Astral and Barian Worlds, Number Monsters, and the Numeron Code, and ''ARC-V'' had the dimensional war, dimensional counterparts and a god-like dragon monster threatening apocalypse.[[/note]] Instead this show focuses almost entirely the world of the internet, with traces of the Matrix thrown in; logging into the network, whatever happens to you in the net affects your real body, etc. Not to mention the more realistic takes on people (kidnapping, PTSD, humans vs AI, etc.) Some fans miss the actual magic involved that gave life to these cards and drives the plot.

** Haru gets this as he is portrayed as a sneaky character but gets less focus every time he appears and the only episode where he does get focus, he [[spoiler:loses and dies.]]

** Outside of Yusaku, Takeru, and technically Ryoken, the Lost Incident victims get little in the way of focus during the series. While Spectre gets the most out of the remaining four, it's only as TheDragon to Ryoken, with his status as a Lost Incident victim being largely superficial. Jin is mainly Kusanagi's motivation in Season 1, then largely a LivingMacguffin in Season 2. Miyu serves little purpose outside of giving Aoi a reason to be involved in the Ignis Warfare arc and Aqua a reason to partner with Aoi. Finally, Windy's origin is KilledOffscreen with little to go on about him, only being killed to highlight how depraved Windy is [[spoiler:after Lightning warped his programming]]. Any potential relationships they could have had with their Ignis or how they dealt with their trauma is likewise unexplored, the only exception being Jin's trauma causing him to become an EmptyShell.

** Many are disappointed that Aoi wasn't able to duel Spectre again after her humiliating defeat in the first season. It would have been a great way to showcase her strength as it's implied she has surpassed him after transforming into Blue Maiden. Likewise, Playmaker and Revolver didn't have a rematch after their fourth battle when it was teased so many times in the show they would clash again, as Revolver battled Soulburner instead.

* MagnificentBastard: [[TheCracker Revolver]], real name Ryoken Kogami, is the leader of [[Characters/YuGiOhVRAINSKnightsOfHanoi the Knights of Hanoi]] one of Link VRAINS' best duelists. After his father, Dr. Kiyoshi Kogami was put on life support, Revolver swore to eliminate the Ignis in his name, believing their existence to be a threat to humanity. Combining new cards with older Trap Cards, Revolver holds his own against several opponents, only losing through foul play or his opponents being even better. After being defeated by Yusaku Fujiki in the climax of season 1, he returns to form an EnemyMine with the heroes and sets his sights on [[ArcVillain Bohman's]] faction. During his duel with Soulburner, he gives him advice on how to move on from his trauma and faces his eventual defeat with dignity. In the end, Revolver and the Knights of Hanoi [[HeelFaceTurn reform]] and decide to safeguard Link VRAINS, with him giving Yusaku a card to use in the final battle.

* MagnificentBastard: [[TheCracker Revolver]], real name Ryoken Kogami, is the leader of [[Characters/YuGiOhVRAINSKnightsOfHanoi the Knights of Hanoi]] one of Link VRAINS' best duelists. After his father, Dr. Kiyoshi Kogami was put on life support, Revolver swore to eliminate the Ignis in his name, believing their existence to be a threat to humanity. Combining new cards with older Trap Cards, Revolver holds his own against several opponents, only losing through foul play or his opponents being even better. After being defeated by Yusaku Fujiki in the climax of season 1, he returns to form an EnemyMine with the heroes and sets his sights on [[ArcVillain Bohman's]] faction. During his duel with Soulburner, he gives him advice on how to move on from his trauma and faces his eventual defeat with dignity. In the end, Revolver and the Knights of Hanoi [[HeelFaceTurn reform]] and decide to safeguard Link VRAINS, with him giving Yusaku a card to use in the final battle.

* ArcFatigue: The second season suffers badly from this. The pacing for the season was rather poor for most of it. The first half of the season took way too long to properly introduce the plot and while the second half improved pacing, it felt as some duels were way too long or not as long as they should. Also not helping matters was the entire season using the same opening "Go Forward", but as with the previous season, yet unlike previous series, it didn't even bother to update the visuals despite them being very outdated halfway through the season.[[note]]To name a few examples, Revolver's new Avatar, Blue Maiden, Bohman's second and third outfits, and any of the other Ignis are all absent.[[/note]]

** Bohman and Windy can somehow use their Skills in the middle of a Master Duel, with little explanation as to how. [[spoiler:However Queen's duel against Ai may give this a simple explanation. They cheated.]]

** The result of [[spoiler:Revolver vs. Lightning. Lightning opted to go for a DRAW result, but as Revolver gets turned into data, Lightning manages to survive with 1 LP remaining by holding onto one piece of Jin's consciousness data.]]

** Soulburner's [[spoiler: Burning Draw card (not the skill) only works if he controls no cards and if there is a link monster on his opponent's field, which isn't possible as Zeroboros banished every card on the field. It would have been a dead draw for Soulburner if it weren't for Topologic Zeroboros coming back to the field on his turn, giving him the chance to use the card and [[TheMagicPokerEquation draw 4 cards to win the duel.]]]]

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Takeru Homura, aka Soulburner, the {{Deuteragonist}} starting in Season 2. Some like him for being a fun, interesting addition to the cast and another Lost Incident victim for the show to explore, being another person for Yusaku to talk to after criticisms of the first season’s lack of character interactions, and for his arc surrounding his guilt over his parent’s dying while looking for him when he was kidnapped. However, on the other side, there are those that dislike his introduction involving beating Aoi and Go, who [[TheScrappy (at least at the time for Go)]] were popular characters, find him faking his fear of ghosts in his duel against Blood Shepherd because he had already gotten over it after a quick pep talk months ago to be cheap and a major AssPull, and accuse him of being a SpotlightStealingSquad because of his [[Creator/YukiKaji popular voice actor]] and cards. While his duel against Revolver near the end of the series and the conclusion to his arc is generally well-liked, debates are still heated over whether it was enough to save his character or if it was much too late for him. He's often compared to Crow Hogan from YuGiOh5Ds, another BaseBreakingCharacter, in which the story pushed him into the spotlight due to how popular Crow's Blackwings were, in this case, his Salamangreats were heavily featured during a good chunk of the first half of Season 2.

** Some fans have doubts about ''VRAINS'' based on its use and introduction of the controversial new rules brought on by Link Summoning, while others are excited for the series due to its VR theme and interesting character and story potential.

* GrowingTheBeard: While the second season's first half started with an interesting premise, it suffered from several problems such as several characters being thrown out of focus in favor Soulburner & Playmaker who made a good chunk of the cast seem like fodder as well as slow pacing to the main arc. Come the second half, the focus on Playmaker and Soulburner has been toned down, each of the neglected characters were given their own storylines such as Go [[spoiler:implanting an AI chip in his brain to get stronger]], Aoi [[spoiler:befriending Aqua and getting stronger as Blue Maiden]], Ghost Girl & Blood Shepherd's relationship and Revolver reuniting the Hanoi to destroy the Ignis, in addition to improving the pacing substantially. In addition, the duels were far better received up until the final two.

* ItsShortSoItSucks: The third season and to a greater extent, ''VRAINS'' as a whole, gets this for being the shortest season and series in ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' history. To give a comparison, Duel Monsters lasted 224 episodes, ''GX'' 180, ''5D's'' 154, ''ZEXAL'' 146, & [=ARC=]-V 148. ''VRAINS'' only has 120 episodes, and Season 3 is only 18 episodes. Not only is that strange considering the anime typically takes 3 years to finish, but there were also a lot of plots and characters that still needed development. This caused many to view the series as rushed for the seventh anime to avoid the well-known production issues that plagued it.

* ItWasHisSled: Revolver's use of [[spoiler:Mirror Force]] has become pretty well-known given the nature of the twist.

* LostInMediasRes: Some viewers find the series confusing and difficult to follow. Both because nobody outright explains how speed duels or Link Summoning works, and because it's clear that the audience knows ''far'' less about the plot than the main character does.
* LoveToHate: Lightning. MagnificentBastard, AwesomeEgo, and a ColdHam megalomaniac willing to enslave humanity all rolled to one small Ignis body that it makes him a more compelling antagonist than Bohman. Fans now love to [[MemeticMutation blame Lightning]] for every little thing that happened in the franchise, from plots from the previous shows up to ''[[UpToEleven cards being put in the ban lists.]]''

** Firewall Dragon, due to being rarely used despite being Yusaku's alleged ace monster and [[spoiler:only being used as a Link Material to summon Decode Talker in the finale of the first season]]. Hilariously, Firewall Dragon has been banned in both formats due to its power.

** Due to being an EmptyShell, Jin Kusanagi is seen by many as just about a single step away from JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope.

** Many viewers decry Windy and Bohman for using Storm Access in a master duel. However the skill only just gives them a new Extra Deck monster in the middle of a duel, which is not something new to the franchise with the earliest example being [[Anime/YuGiOhGX Aster being allowed to put Destiny End Dragoon during duel against Chazz]], not to mention an even earlier non-Extra Deck Monster example being [[Anime/YuGiOh Yami adding The Eye of Timaeus to his hand (after drawing a card in his Draw Phase) upon it being given to him in his duel against an Orichalcos Soldier]] and that's before it became a staple to the franchise. However the stark difference is unlike those examples is that Windy and Bohman were actually called out by the characters in-universe for cheating.

* SoOkayItsAverage: Pretty much the general consensus of the fanbase compared to the [[Anime/YuGiOhArcV previous series]]. Fans noticed that the show played their tropes safe and done away with the whole mystic angle of the franchise, lots of wasted character and story potential with only a few high moments in the series.

** SOL Technology, or the higher-ups Bishop, Rook, and Knight specifically, are shown to be an OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness hunting down the Ignis for their own gain and slowly set up to be a CorruptCorporateExecutive with their involvement with the Lost Incident. [[spoiler:Ai closed SOL Technology and opened LINK VRAINS for free and they're implied to be fired.]]

** The concept of Charisma Duelists. It's similar to ''[[Anime/YuGiOhArcV ARC-V's]]'' entertainment duelists only it happens on hoverboards and without action cards. Only 2 charisma duelists are introduced (Go Onizuka and Blue Angel) and while they did have some good entertainment duels in the first season, it was quickly forgotten as the story got DarkerAndEdgier and the two moved away from their entertainment personas.
** There was focus on Blood Shepherd's investigation on why SOL Technology is hunting down the Ignis and his dialogue with Akira suggested they were creating their own Ignis [[note]] It's hinted to be the Divine attribute, the only card attribute that's not an Ignis.[[/note]], which caused Blood Shepherd to quit and go solo. Unfortunately, nothing came out of this subplot as Queen was easily dispatched by Ai and Roboppy who took over SOL Tech.

** Many are disappointed that Aoi wasn't able to duel Spectre again after her humiliating defeat in the first season. It would have been a great way to showcase her strength as it's implied she has surpassed him after transforming to Blue Maiden. Likewise, Playmaker and Revolver didn't have a rematch after their fourth battle when it's teased so many times in the show they will clash again as Revolver battled Soulburner instead.

** Fusion Monsters were expected to appear in the series at one point given the booster name "Soul Fusion" (which comes after Cybernetic Horizon). On the other hand, however, it was Playmaker, and not Soulburner as people anticipated (due to the "Soul" in the booster name), who reintroduces the Extra Deck Summoning method in the second half of his Duel against Blood Shepherd, where he Fusion Summon "Cyberse Clock Dragon". Blue Girl and Soulburner, too, both follow suit in their Duel two episodes later, Fusion Summoning "Trickstar Band Sweet Guitar" and "Salamangreat Violet Chimera", respectively.
** Xyz Monsters were also expected to appear since the summoning methods before it was already used, but no one expected the Xyz Monster, Firewall eXceed Dragon, to be a counterpart and support to Firewall Dragon especially since Firewall Dragon is not only severely OutOfFocus for an ace monster of TheProtagonist, but is also banned in both formats[[note]]"Firewall Dragon" was banned in the TCG on December 2018, and January 2019 in the OCG[[/note]].

** Flame's LargeHam speech about the meaning of his name would've been lost in translation, leading to the English dub turning his name into a representation of a [[FunWithAcronyms acronym.]]

** The high-end Ignis plot point is removed when Blood Shepherd confronts Akira in the dub, instead, it's changed into creating a new batch of more advanced AI. This also ties to season 3 when [[spoiler:SOL Tech introduces the [=SOLtis=] bots.]]

** Bohman is either an interesting take on an AI villain created to unify the Ignis and take over the world, or a tool that cannot find a consistent character and constantly cheats during his duels.

* MagnificentBastard: Lightning is the true mastermind behind the entire plot. During the Lost Incident he mentally tortured his then 6 years old Origin Jin Kusanagi, and made him the EmptyShell he is today, then he implanted a computer virus on his creator Dr.Kogami and made him think SOL was responsible for putting him comatose, avoiding punishment. Years later he destroyed his homeworld using Bohman to prevent himself from being suspected and rewrote the pure Windy's program and forced him to become his loyal ally. After imprisoning Aqua he implanted a computer virus on her Origin Miyu so that the former can't join forces with her, he then stole Jin's consciousness and turned him into a lifeless puppet and uses him as a meat shield whenever he is in a disadvantage situation. Even after being on death's door from his duel with Revolver, Lightning was able to empower Bohman, his creation, [[HeadsIWinTailsYouLose which grants him a desirable outcome despite his condition]].

** In addition, Link Monsters, the primary Extra Deck monsters for this season, are not fully utilized in Speed Duels (3 markers on a Link monster do not point to anything while in the Extra Monster Zone as Speed Duels remove the left and right most Main Monster Zone) and are shown to be popular in-universe because of the fast pace and dangerous element that Speed Duels present.

** Contributing to Takeru's status as a BaseBreakingCharacter is his victory over the two major characters of Season 1, Go and Aoi. Some feel that they both deserved their losses for holding the JerkassBall and showing needless aggression toward the protagonists in their attempts to obtain the Ignis. Others felt that the losses just hammer in how unimportant everyone other than him and Playmaker are in the big scheme of things.

* LoveToHate: Lightning. MagnificentBastard, AwesomeEgo, and a ColdHam megalomaniac willing to enslave humanity all rolled to one small Ignis body that it makes him a compelling antagonist more than Bohman. Fans now love to [[MemeticMutation blame Lightning]] for every little thing that happened in the franchise, from plots from the previous shows up to ''[[UpToEleven cards being put in the ban lists.]]''

* SignatureScene: Season 2: [[spoiler:Earth's absolutely ''tear-jerking'' death.]]
* SoOkayItsAverage: Pretty much the general consensus of the fanbase compared to the [[Anime/YuGiOhArcV previous series]] as fans noticed that they played their tropes safe and done away with the whole mystic angle of the franchise, lots of wasted character and story potential with only a few high moments in the series.

** SOL Technologies Inc. themselves are InUniverse a major mystery, in spite of seemingly coming of as a typical CorruptCorporateExecutive den. This is thanks to the fact that there is practically no backstory to any of their higher-ups. We only get insight on the members from the middle and the bottom of their hierarchy, leaving everything about them up to debate and speculation.
** Windy's partner became a hot topic after it was revealed Windy caused him to [[spoiler:be a part of a car accident, but it was not revealed if he actually died. It was also never stated when it happened causing people to link the car accident to other accidents such as the death of Akira's and Aoi's parents or the accident Kengo Dojun/Blood Shepherd and his mother were a part of since they were all caused by traffic accidents. Some even went as far as to theorize that Kengo is Windy's partner just like with Aoi above, because the accident that happened to him is similar to what Windy did and because all of his Drone monsters are WIND Attribute. Episode 88 disproves this theory, for Windy's origin is finally revealed briefly in a flashback and he's a teenager around Yusaku's age who seemed to have moved on from his trauma for he had friends]].

* FanPreferredCouple: While Yusaku x Aoi is not a disliked ship, Yusaku x Ryoken, Yusaku x Ai and Yusaku x Takeru are more popular in the fandom. It help that all males are [[{{Bishounen}}really pretty boys]] and have a lot of HoYay with each other.

* GrowingTheBeard: While the second season's first half started with an interesting premise, it suffered from several problems such as several characters being thrown out of focus in favor Soulburner & Playmaker who made a good chunk of the cast seem like fodder as well as slow pacing to the main arc. Come the second half, the focus on Playmaker and Soulburner has been toned down, each of the neglected characters were given their own story lines such as Go [[spoiler:implanting an AI chip in his brain to get stronger]], Aoi [[spoiler:befriending Aqua and getting stronger as Blue Maiden]], Ghost Girl & Blood Shepherd's relationship and Revolver reuniting the Hanoi to destroy the Ignis, in addition to improving the pacing substantially. In addition, the duels were far better received up until the final two.

** During Season 1, people had speculated GO was a Lost Incident victim, similar to how people thought Aoi was, since Earth looked quite similar to him. Although the theory has been disproven due to Earth being [[spoiler:Spectre's Ignis]], in episode 81 [[spoiler:Go is now shown to be fused with Earth's decomplied data. So, the theory about them being partners became true in a terrifying way]].

* ItsShortSoItSucks: The third season and to a greater extent, ''VRAINS'' as a whole, gets this for being the shortest season and series in ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' history. To give a comparison, Duel Monsters lasted 224 episodes, ''GX'' 180, ''5D's'' 154, ''ZEXAL'' 146, & [=ARC=]-V 148. ''VRAINS'' only has 120 episodes, and Season 3 is only 18 episodes. Not only is that strange considering the anime typically takes 3 years to finish, there was a lot of plots and characters that still needed development. This caused many to view the series as rushed for the seventh anime to avoid the well-known production issues that plagued it.

* JerkassWoobie: Yusaku comes off as an antisocial jerk willing to do anything to get the information he needs, and will eliminate anyone who gets in his way. All of this though stems from the incident 10 years ago [[spoiler:where he was kidnapped and held hostage for an unknown period time and forced to duel AI duelists if he wanted to eat. Every time he lost, [[ElectricTorture he was electrocuted severely]] and denied food until he won again. Several times he nearly gave up only for a mysterious voice—confirmed to be an eight-year-old Revolver in episode 43—to teach him his "three things" habit as a method of survival. By time he was rescued, the kidnappers had already lost their use for him, and left him with a severe case of PTSD that exists to this day. [[BrokenBird No matter how much he wanted to interact with others, no matter how much therapy he received, Yusaku was plagued with nightmares and mental illnesses-induced stress attacks]]. Now he vows to get {{Revenge}} on those who ruined his life, and knows the path he walks is one of darkness, one he doesn't want to drag others on.]] And this is only at the ''start'' of the series.
* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Yusaku continues the trend of the main protagonists being this. He has already been shipped with [[RescueRomance Aoi]], [[MissFanservice Emma]], [[RudeHeroNiceSidekick Shoichi]], [[BirdsOfAFeather Jin]] and [[ScrewYourself his Playmaker persona]], but '''especially''' [[RedOniBlueOni A]][[LoveConfession i]] and [[IWillFindYou Ryo]][[FoeRomanceSubtext ken]]. Just minutes after he was revealed, [[{{Megane}} Takeru]] [[{{Foil}} Homura]] [[OnlineAlias a.k.a.]] [[PlayingWithFire Soulburner]] was added to the list and when he isn't shipped with Yusaku in a more traditional manner, FanArt either portrays him as a ThirdWheel or uses him to form an {{OT3}} by adding him to almost any of the previous listed pairings, most often ones being Yusaku x Ryoken x Takeru and even Yusaku x Jin x Takeru.

* MagnificentBastard: Lightning is the true mastermind behind the entire plot. During the Lost Incident he mentally tortured his then 6 years old Origin Jin Kusanagi, and made him the EmptyShell he is today, then he implanted a computer virus on his creator Dr.Kogami and made him think SOL was responsible for putting him comatose, avoiding punishment. Years later he destroyed his home world using Bohman to prevent himself from being suspected and rewrote the pure Windy's program and forced him to become his loyal ally. After imprisoning Aqua he implanted a computer virus on her Origin Miyu so that the former can't join forces with her, he then stole Jin's consciousness and turned him into lifeless puppet and uses him as a meat shield whenever he is in a disadvantage situation. Even after being on death's door from his duel with Revolver, Lightning was able to empower Bohman, his creation, [[HeadsIWinTailsYouLose which grants him a desirable outcome despite his condition]].

** Topologina Nabee, an apparently non-existent card that Ai thought Pandor would use. Ai even claims that she would have won had she used it, despite not knowing if it exists. The fandom have since jokingly hyped it up as the ultimate card.

** Continuing the tradition of crazy anime hair in the franchise, Yusaku's is often associated with that of a wisteria. Bonus points considering the fact that "fujiki" is Japanese for "wisteria tree", too.

** Revolver gets a lot of ButtMonkey and/or ComicallySerious moments in fan comics.
** In the series itself, GO has started to become this. Despite being billed as the top duelist in LINK VRAINS, he's only won once, against Dr. Genome. To his credit, his other opponents have been [[InvincibleHero Yusaku]], [[TheRival Revolver]], and the newcomer Soulburner. However, in the case of the last one, GO had just undergone a radical character change, even opting to swap for a completely different deck, and it still failed to amount to anything. Keeping in with that, his second deck, the Dinowrestlers. They're still well-liked, but endlessly mocked for being inferior to the self-replacing Goukis. [[spoiler:It's later deconstructed since his lack of victories is what caused his inferiority complex and FaceHeelTurn which caused him to become a BountyHunter and his loss against Soulburner was one of the reasons why he took part in a deadly experiment at the cost of his health just so that he can win again. He won against Earth after undergoing that experiment and is confident that he will never lose ever again after becoming one with an AI, [[AllForNothing and even that didn't amount to anything after Go lost to Playmaker in their rematch despite having the duel stacked in his favor, making everything he has done to this point an utter waste.]]]]

** Cyberse Quantum Dragon is often mocked for its terrible track record in the series. Of all extra deck monster in Yusaku's deck, it was the only one who never won a duel, failing to win the duel of its debut, as it ends on a draw. A fact made more jarring by the fact that [[spoiler:Yusaku went undefeated for the entire series and said draw being the only two time, and the last time Yusaku DOES NOT win]] making its inability to secure a win even more jarring. Cyberse Quantum Dragon would later get summoned in both season 2 and season 3 finale, got its effect nulified and does nothing of note.

*** The true reason for his enacting a war on humanity being due to a InferioritySuperiorityComplex.
** Queen has two possible points in the same episode. [[spoiler:Either when she continues to green light the AI chip experiment on Go despite the effects its having on him for the sake of money, or when she orders the [[CruelAndUnusualDeath termination]] of Earth, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman ignoring his cries that he is alive.]]]]

** Playmaker Fusion Summons "Cyberse Clock Dragon" in episode 54. ''Fusion Summoned'', just when it seemed like Link Monsters would be the only Extra Deck monsters featured in the ''VRAINS'' anime. To top it all off, he managed to [[UpToEleven raise "Cyberse Clock Dragon's" ATK to]] ''[[UpToEleven 7500]]'' and subsequently take out Blood Shepherd.

** Few will argue Playmaker acquiring the old summoning methods to be a bad thing at all, but his eschewing of Firewall Dragon (bar a duel against a fodder duelist) and the code Talkers (save Shootingcode Talker, which got DemotedToExtra) in Season 2 in favor of those cards has not been well-received. Firewall Dragon is at least considered understandable due to its powerful effects and notoriety in the [=TCG/OCG=], and yet ironically has had more appearances in Season 2, including a notable appearance in Playmaker's second duel with Go alongside [[spoiler:its Xyz counterpart, "Firewall eXceed Dragon"]]. The code Talkers themselves only appeared in Playmaker's final two duel.

** The fact that unlike the previous ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' series, this series does away with the mysticism that characters had to deal with interfering with their normal lives.[[note]]''DM'' had ancient spirits, Millennium Items and memories of Egypt, ''GX'' had the Light of Destruction, Sacred Beasts and Darkness manifested in corporeal form, ''5D's'' had the Crimson Dragon, Dark Signers and future robotic abominations, ''ZEXAL'' had the Astral and Barian Worlds, Number Monsters, and the Numeron Code, and ''ARC-V'' had the dimensional war, dimensional counterparts and a god-like dragon monster threatening apocalypse.[[/note]] Instead this show focuses almost entirely the world of the internet, with traces of the Matrix thrown in; logging into the network, whatever happens to you in the net affects your real body, etc. Not to mention the more realistic takes on people (kidnapping, PTSD, humans vs AI, etc.) Some fans miss the actual magic involved that gave life to these cards and drives the plot.

** The Hanoi Commanders are heavily underutilized, only getting one important duel and barely any focus for the rest of the series. Special mention goes to Faust who unlike the other 2, only gets one episode to duel with hardly any build up.

** Season 3 has Ai duel GO in retalation for what GO did to Earth...ignoring the fact that ''Specter'' is Earth's origin and should've been the one facing off the latter or Ai should've acknowledge Specter in someway. (Then again, Specter's Seiyuu was unavailable at the time).

** Fusion Monsters were expected to appear in the series at one point given the booster name "Soul Fusion" (which comes after Cybernetic Horizon). On the other hand, however, it was Playmaker, and not Soulburner as people anticipated (due to the "Soul" in the booster name), who reintroduces the Extra Deck Summoning method in the second half of his Duel against Blood Shepherd, where he Fusion Summons "Cyberse Clock Dragon". Blue Girl and Soulburner, too, both follow suit in their Duel two episodes later, Fusion Summoning "Trickstar Band Sweet Guitar" and "Salamangreat Violet Chimera", respectively.
** Xyz Monsters were also expected to appear since the summoning methods before it were already used, but no one expected the Xyz Monster, Firewall eXceed Dragon, to be a counterpart and support to Firewall Dragon especially since Firewall Dragon is not only severely OutOfFocus for an ace monster of TheProtagonist, but is also banned in both formats[[note]]"Firewall Dragon" was banned in the TCG on December 2018, and January 2019 in the OCG[[/note]].

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Since Episode 14, the quality of the animation has shown remarkable improvement. Episode 39 in particular features absolutely beautiful animation.

** Aoi lost her parents at a relatively young age and was forced to constantly move from one place to another with her brother, suffered from what looked to be anxiety and depression throughout Season 1, been brainwashed by the Knights of Hanoi and put into a coma, and been ''brutally'' defeated by Spectre, the one responsible for putting her in a coma in episode 34, which ended with her landing face first into the ground and put into ''another'' coma. Season 2 isn't any easier on her, as she has to deal with learning that her childhood friend Miyu was a victim of the Incident, and though she forms a partnership with [[spoiler:Aqua, she loses her pretty quickly and is quite horrified by the loss]]. And then in Season 3, rather than losing while Akira is ForcedToWatch again, [[spoiler:Ai specifically spares her after he defeats her and Akira and tells her that he'll make her feel the pain he's feeling before erasing Akira in front of her]].
** Takeru was a Lost Incident victim as well, and similarly to Yusaku, never really recovered until before his entry to the series. ''Unlike'' Yusaku however, he also wound up with PTSD from a certain monster and had to deal with the loss of his parents. He largely snaps out of this thanks to Flame, but meeting Revolver puts him on the path of revenge and then [[spoiler:he loses Flame at the climax of the second season]]. His arc in the third season has him deal with the trauma of having argued with his parents the last time he saw them and his leftover grudge against Revolver, in addition to being blamed for [[spoiler:Flame's death]] by Roboppi.

** Yusaku's CharacterDevelopment kicks in earlier and more gradually in the dub, whereas in the original version, he remains roughly static until his final duel with Revolver. He claims that he's also fighting for the allies he lost, specifies the effects that Varis's actions will have on the world as reason for stopping him, while still maintaining his desire for revenge, and his words to Ai when he finds out he [[spoiler:lied to him]] are far less harsh than in the original.

* ItsShortSoItSucks: The third season and to a greater extent, Vrains gets this for being the shortest season and series in Yu-Gi-Oh! history. To give a comparison, Duel Monsters lasted 224 episodes, GX 180, 5d's 154, Zexal 146, & Arc-V 148. Vrains has just been confirmed to only have 120 episodes meaning season 3 is only 18 episodes. Not only is that strange considering the anime typically takes 3 years to finish, there was a lot of plots and characters that still needed development. This caused many to view the series has become rushed for the seventh anime.

*** Him rewriting the once innocent [[spoiler:Windy]] into the monster he currently is for the sake of gaining an ally and made him [[spoiler:harm his own Origin]].
*** Mentally torturing Jin as a child, leaving him as the EmptyShell he is today.
*** His first chronological action of implanting the virus into Dr. Kogami and letting him believe it was [[spoiler:SOL Tech]] that was responsible, causing the Knights of Hanoi to target them in addition to the Ignis in the first place.

** Kengo Dojun[=/=]Blood Shepherd is ridiculously edgy, but also played completely straight and a MagnificentBastard. His intro in particular is a case of this.

* MagnificentBastard: Lightning is the true mastermind behind everyone's suffering. During the Lost Incident he mentally tortured his then 6 years old Origin Jin Kusanagi, and made him the EmptyShell he is today, then he implanted a computer virus on his creator Dr.Kogami and made him think SOL was responsible for putting him comatose. Years later he destroyed his home world and rewrote the pure Windy's program and forced him to become his ally. After imprisoning Aqua he implanted a computer virus on her Origin Miyu so that the former can't join forces with her, he then stole Jin's consciousness and turned him into lifeless puppet and uses him as a meat shield whenever he is in a disadvantage situation.

* MagnificentBastard: Lightning is the true mastermind behind everyone's suffering. [[KickTheDog|During the Lost Incident he mentally tortured his then 6 years old Origin Jin Kusanagi, and made him the EmptyShell he is today, then he implanted a computer virus on his creator Dr.Kogami and made him think SOL was responsible for putting him comatose. Years later he destroyed his home world and rewrote the pure Windy's program and forced him to become his ally. After imprisoning Aqua he implanted a computer virus on her Origin Miyu so that the former can't join forces with her, he then stole Jin's consciousness and turned him into lifeless puppet and uses him as a meat shield whenever he is in a disadvantage situation.]]

* MagnificentBastard: Three years prior to episode 53, Blood Shepherd used Ghost Girl and Akira Zaizen as decoys to take down a terroristic hacker by having them act at the count of three but not jumping in himself until he deemed it right. He also caught Playmaker off-guard by firing at Playmaker at the count of two even though he said he would give Playmaker until the count of three. [[spoiler:To top it all off, he made his AI—''a non-Ignis, non-free will AI which normally can only tell the truth''—lie to get Playmaker to summon Shootingcode Talker so he could seal it.]]

** Windy crossed it after its revealed what he did to the Lost Incident victim he was based on. [[spoiler:He hacked into the car the victim was driving and forced it into a heavy accident. Its not expressly said but the implication is the Lost Incident victim died, meaning Windy killed the person he was based on.]]
** And Lightning crossed it in a different way [[spoiler: instead of killing his partner, who turns out to be Jin, he had Bohman steal his consciousness data and transformed him into a [[AndIMustScream puppet]].]]

* NarmCharm: Kengo Dojun[=/=]Blood Shepherd is ridiculously edgy, but also played completely straight and a MagnificentBastard. His intro in particular is a case of this.
** Aoi's MagicalGirl style TransformationSequence into Blue Maiden [[spoiler: after teaming up with Aqua]], while considered a bit cheesy, it also considered awesome as it marks her transition to a full protagonist alongside Playmaker and Soulburner.

* MagnificentBastard: Three years prior to episode 53, Blood Shepard used Ghost Girl and Akira Zaizen as decoys to take down a terroristic hacker by having them act at the count of three but not jumping in himself until he deemed it right. He also caught Playmaker off-guard by firing at Playmaker at the count of two even though he said he would give Playmaker until the count of three. [[spoiler:To top it all off, he made his AI—''a non-Ignis, non-free will AI which normally can only tell the truth''—lie to get Playmaker to summon Shootingcode Talker so he could seal it.]]

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Like in ''ARC-V'', Duelists often feel the need to inform their opponent that they still take Battle Damage when their Monster isn't destroyed due to some card effect.