Characters / Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS - Bohman's Faction

Main Character Index | Cafe Nagi/Confidants | SOL Technologies Inc. | Knights of Hanoi | Bohman's Faction | Ignis and co. | Other characters

An enigmatic, unnamed organization. During the Hanoi Arc, they've successfully destroyed the Cyberse world but failed to capture the remaining four Ignis. They directly come into conflict with Playmaker after stealing Jin's consciousness. They all use pure Cyberse archetypes and combine them with the Link Spell Card Judgment Arrows.

Because of the nature of their identity, some spoilers will be unmarked. Proceed any further at your own risk.

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In general

• Antagonist Abilities: All of their members are shown to use "Judgment Arrows", a card that doubles a monster's attack power if it's linked, with each archetype they use having different ways to benefit from it.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With SOL Technologies Inc. in season 2.
• Cyberspace: Unlike the Knights of Hanoi, these guys are absolutely shameless about using the Cyberse monsters. Given their leader is an Ignis, this makes sense.
• Conflict Killer: Mirror Link VRAINS and Bohman are so dangerous that it forces everyone else except SOL technologies to stop fighting and join forces. And when SOL technologies realizes how badly they are outmatched they pretty much sit in a corner and keep quiet.
• Light Is Not Good: All of them sans Windy are creations of Lightning, and bears Lightning's symbol.
• No Name Given: They are never collectively given a proper group name and are only referred to as a "mysterious organization".
• No-Sell: Any Link Spell activated via the Marker's Portal Skill can't have their activation negated, and can't be destroyed by an opponent's card effect.
• Sigil Spam: All of their members have a star symbol somewhere on them.
• Signature Move: Bohman and BitBoot both have the Marker's Portal Skill which lets them play "Judgment Arrows" directly from their deck, prevent it from being negated and make it immune to destruction. Storm Access is another one for them and, unlike Playmaker and Revolver, they can even use it in Master Duels.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Link Spells activated via Marker's Portal can't have their activation negated, and can't be destroyed by an opponent's card effect. However, they can still be affected by card effects in other ways, such as when Soulburner uses "Salamangreat Heatleo's" Effect to return "Judgment Arrows" to BitBoot's Deck.

Bohman

Bohman

Voiced by: Kenji Matsuda (Japanese), Sam Black (English)

A Duelist whose real identity is shrouded in mystery.

Uses a Hydradrive deck, an archetype of Cyberse-Type Monsters. His deck focuses on manipulating the Attributes of his opponent's Monsters in order to use his Link Monster's effects which include allowing them to attack directly or negating his opponent's Monster effect.

His Skill, Marker's Portal, allows him to activate Judgement Arrows from his deck when his LP or lower than his opponent's LP. After getting new memories, his Skill is changed to Storm Access, the same Skill possessed by Playmaker and Revolver. Unlike Playmaker and Revolver, however, he is able to use this Skill during a Master Duel.

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• Affably Evil: As of his third encounter with Playmaker, he generally adopts a less condescending tone when addressing his adversaries, contrasting the anger and resentment he harboured towards Playmaker during their second encounter.
• A God Am I: Claims to be the god of LINK VRAINS in his fight with Soulburner.
• All Your Powers Combined: After absorbing 5 of the Ignis sans Ai, he's able to use a multi attribute Hydradrive Deck that allows him to utilize his realized state coupled with his immense power to summon the first Link-5 monster in LINK VRAINS.
• Always Someone Better: He strives to defeat Playmaker and becomes determined to surpass his origin every time they duel, saying that he evolves every time he fights. Too bad Playmaker is an Invincible Hero and he didn't even defeat him even once.
• Artificial Human: In his third duel with Playmaker, he reveals that he is actually an advanced AI that was still in the finalization phase, and needs to duel Playmaker and Ai to finish his development.
• The Assimilator: He was created as a vessel by Lightning to unite all of the Ignis into one perfect body. He claims Aqua (along with Blue Maiden) as his first victim, and is also shown to possess the power of the Earth Ignis, though it's not clear how exactly he acquired it. He goes on to acquire both the powers of the Fire and Wind Ignis after he defeats Soulburner and absorbs him, and he, too, assimilates Lightning within himself after his Duel with Revolver. Come his fourth Duel with Playmaker, Bohman also assimilates the consciousnesses of numerous LINK VRAINS users within himself every time he powers up his Neuron Link to activate Master Storm Access.
• Badass Boast: He claims to be the very embodiment of LINK VRAINS itself, and that Blue Maiden is naught but a gnat compared to him.
• Big Little Brother: Even though Bohman considers Haru to be his little brother, Haru was the prototype for Bohman, making Haru the older brother.
• Catchphrase: "I accept everything"
• Costume Evolution: Every time he appears his wardrobe changes and the way they represent his current personality. The only thing that stays is the logo on his chest.
  • In his first appearance he wore a leotard that only covered his legs and parts of the upper body. This represents that he was a blank slate at the time since he didn't have any memories. Boosting this fact is that this clothing is actually his undersuit under the other clothing he wears.
  • In his second appearance he wore bulky armor that covers his body more. This represents that he's more ready to battle and the anger and resentment he has against Playmaker, because of the Fake Memories implanted inside of him.
  • In his third appearance and beyond, he wears a robe that covers his body. This represents his completion as the 3rd generation AI created by Lightning and his calmer personality thanks to truly knowing his origins.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: Bohman will allow himself to take damage so that he can meet the prerequisite for activating his Skill, Marker's Portal, though at the same time, his LP need only be less than or equal to its original value of 4000, thus allowing him to activate it as he sees fit and making the need to take damage redundant, assuming his current LP doesn't exceed its original value.
• Devour the Dragon: Inverted. Lightning lets himself be assimilated after his fight with Revolver, giving up his life in order for Bohman to power up against Playmaker.
• Discard and Draw: In his final duel with Playmaker, he throws away the Power Nullification aspect of his deck in favour of using his LINK-5 boss monsters instead.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Invoked by Lightning, who had explicitly intended Bohman to surpass himself and the rest of the Ignis.
• Eldritch Abomination: In his third appearance, he also claims to be the monster that destroyed the Cyberse World. Come his Duel with Soulburner, Bohman's claim holds water, as he summons the very same monstrosity (i.e. "Paradox Hydradrive Atlas"), triggering Flame's memories of that very moment.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Doesn't understand what's the difference between Lightning using hostages to stop Revolver in his fight and him trapping people inside LINK VRAINS since he saw no problem in using the consciousnesses of the people in LINK VRAINS to create his Data Storm. When called out on it by Ai, Bohman simply claimed that it was one of his abilities.
  Bohman: "I don't understand. Lightning used Jin Kusanagi's consciousness as a shield to stop Revolver from fighting. I'm not doing that. This is only part of my abilities. You can't treat me the same as Lightning."
• Fair-Play Villain: Unlike the rest of his faction, he is surprisingly honorable and even intervenes to force Lightning to duel without using any hostages. Subverted once he assimilates Lightning and fights Playmaker, he uses people's minds to power up the neuron link every turn to activate Storm Access in a master duel. He gets called out for cheating.
• Fake Memories: Playmaker buys none of Bohman's claims that he is the real Yusaku, deducing that Bohman was imprinted with fake memories pertaining to his true identity.
• The Gambler: Gains shades of this, of all things, in his third duel, with the debut of Rousing Hydradrive Monarch, a Link 4 with a mass destruction effect based on dice rolls. Ai actually discusses this development being quite odd for an AI. By the time he duels Soulburner, dice rolls are central to his strategy. However, unlike other duelists who rely on luck-based cards, Bohman usually has countermeasures prepared in case he loses the dice roll.
• Graceful Loser: After he loses to Playmaker a final time, Bohman congratulates him and bids him farewell without further complaint.
• Grand Theft Me: In episode 57, Bohman claims Yusaku unintentionally did this to him during the Lost Incident. Apparently, Yusaku was a backup made from Bohman's memories and an accident switched their places. In the following episode, however, Playmaker completely dismisses Bohman's claims that he is the real Yusaku on the grounds that Bohman was imprinted with fake memories.
• Heal Thyself: His "Property Spray" trap allows him to tribute one of his monsters and gain LP equal to its ATK.
• The Heavy: In season 2 he is this for Lightning, being the antagonist that Playmaker faces off against the most often and most directly (having dueled him three times).
• Hive Mind: He can hear all the thoughts of all the people he assimilated that allows him to foresee all of Playmaker's actions thanks to thousands of Playmaker's admirers looking up and studying his every move.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In his third battle with Playmaker, he could have activated his trap card when Playmaker summons Cyberse Quantum Dragon, but didn't to see that he will do. This bites him hard when Playmaker returns his monster back to his hand forcing him to end the battle with a draw.
• Hunk: Has a muscular build, boasts a six-pack, and sports fancy facial features.
• Identity Amnesia: After a disguised Bohman is exposed by Playmaker via Cyberse Magician's attack, Bohman questions his own identity, which he is quickly reminded of thanks to his little brother Haru. Made worse in episode 50 when the silhouetted figure had "reset" Bohman's memories.
• It's Personal: After awakening with new memories, Bohman bears a personal vendetta against Playmaker, and vows to push him into a state of despair in a Master Duel.
• Leitmotif: "Bohman" (track #19 in SOUND DUEL 3).
• A Lighter Shade of Black: While he is a major player of his faction, he's not nearly as evil or sadistic as Lightning and Windy are and even genuinely respects his opponents for showing him a good battle and even lets Blue Maiden meet her brother one last time before he assimilates her.
• Luck Manipulation Mechanic: He has the ability to somewhat manipulate his rolls to his advantage. Flame calls this calculated randomness since Bohman is an AI, he uses luck to compensate. His deck reflects it, as it allows him to perform certain actions if the opponent controls their corresponding Attributes while their Link-2 and above Link Monsters have effects that allow them to gain multiple Attributes and subsequently, negate the effects of monsters sharing the same Attribute.
• The Magic Poker Equation: It's revealed during Playmaker and Bohman's Master Duel that Bohman, too, is capable of using Storm Access. Unlike Playmaker and Revolver, however, Bohman is able to activate it during a Master Duel.
• The Man in Front of the Man: While Lightning himself leads the rogue Ignis faction, he conceived Bohman purely to succeed his creator (and the Ignis as a whole).
• Manly Tears: When Bohman finds out that Haru was erased due to his loss to Blue Maiden, Bohman cries and vows to not ever forget his little brother.
• Multiple-Choice Past: His past and motives change in every appearance up to his third one.
  • In his first appearance he is an amnesiac duelist who fought to regain his memories for himself and his little brother Haru.
  • In his second appearance, he is supposedly the real Yusaku Fujiki, who lost his body to the backup data that is currently the Yusaku Fujiki/Playmaker we know.
  • His third appearance reveals his true origins: he is a third generation AI created by Lightning for the purpose of becoming the vessel for all the Ignis so that they would become one and he was the monster that destroyed the Cyberse World.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Like the other Ignis, he's able to use Storm Access during a Master Duel. Taking it a step further, during his final duel with Playmaker, he can not only use Storm Access without any preconditons, he can use it every single turn.
• Noble Demon: While a member of a faction that's bent on manipulating humanity and eliminating them when their usefulness expires, Bohman at least has the sense to maintain an affable front when addressing his adversaries and compliment them on a well-fought battle. To further highlight his sense of honour, he allows Blue Maiden to see Akira one last time before she and Aqua are terminated and assimilated into Bohman.
• No Name Given: His real name is unknown. It actually is Bohman, as he isn't human; he's an AI.
• Pet the Dog:
  • After he defeats Blue Maiden, he allows her to see Akira one last time before she and Aqua are terminated and assimilated into Bohman.
  • Voicing his disappointment towards Lightning for using underhanded tactics to gain an unfair advantage over Revolver, Bohman steps in and preserves Jin and Spectre's consciousness data to prevent any more Hostage Situations.
  • Played with when it comes to Yamamoto and Saito. Although he absorbed them to use his skill, he still left them the complete footage of the duel before he died. However, the two wonder if Bohman did this out of a desire to be remembered.
• Power Nullifier: His "Hydradrive" deck boasts an arsenal of cards which revolve around negating the effects of his opponents' monsters depending on their attribute. It is less of a problem for Playmaker's multi-attribute deck, but crippling for Blue Maiden's WATER deck and Soulburner's FIRE deck. However, for the final duel with Playmaker, he completely throws away the strategy in favor of using the massively powerful Chimera Hydradrive Dragrid and Perfectron Hydradrive Dragon, his LINK-5 monsters.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Averted Trope in the original, where he claimed he was thankful that Blue Maiden defeated Harlin due to the emotions it made him feel and his development as an individual. Played very straight in the dub, where getting revenge for Harlin becomes his main motivation, even during his final duel, though he does ponder the notion of thanking Blue Maiden for the same reasons as he did in the original version.
• The Rival: Although he is the main rival of Season 2, he considers Playmaker more as a rival than an enemy. His last words to Playmaker were even "Goodbye my eternal rival".
• Shout-Out: His name and goals are one to David Bowman.
• Sibling Team: Is working with Haru, his little brother, to regain their memories. Played with later on, as Haru was never his little brother; rather, he was Bohman's handler while Lightning was developing Bohman into a 3rd Gen AI. However they still sort of count as siblings since they were both created by Lighting and he still considers Haru as his little brother.
• Signature Move:
  • His Skill, Marker's Portal. When his LP is equal to or lower than its original value, he is able to activate a Link Spell (a Spell Card variant which possesses Link Arrows, like Link Monsters) of his choice from his Deck; in addition, the Link Spell activated by the Skill cannot be negated or destroyed the opponent's card effects.
  • He later gets the Skill Storm Access, but unlike Playmaker and Revolver, he is able to use it in a Master Duel.
• Spell My Name With An S: Is it "Bowman" or "Bohman"?
• Superior Successor: He was intended to be this by Lightning, who designed Bohman as a 3rd Generation AI in order for him to be the one who unites the six Ignis together. He was incomplete without an origin however, requiring to duel Playmaker and Ai in order to obtain their duel data. While he is stronger than his predecessors, Bit, Boot and Haru and was able to defeat both Blue Maiden and Soulburner, he still fails to defeat Playmaker.
• Taking You with Me: Invoked in his third Duel against Playmaker. He forces a DRAW between him and Playmaker by banishing "Hydradrive Scabbard", halving the damage he takes from "Quantum Dragon's" attack, and inflicting the same amount of damage to his opponent.
• Took a Level in Badass: While he already was a pretty strong duelist in his first appearance, he keeps getting stronger in every duel against Playmaker. In his second duel, he gained the Skill "Storm Access" and in his third duel he managed to end it in a DRAW which is still a big achievement considering he's dueling against Playmaker. He becomes strong enough to defeat both Blue Maiden and Soulburner and absorb their Ignis which along with Lightning's absorption allows Bohman to create the Neuron Link which allows him to create a LINK-5 Monster every turn against his final battle against Playmaker.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: He wants to unify the world after absorbing everyone's consciousness. He believes by unifying all the people of the world into himself will make a new, better world - a world with peace from many possibilities that had the best ideals, in which only he will exist.
• Victor Gains Loser's Powers: He absorbs all the Ignis and the Ignis holders that were defeated in Mirror LINK VRAINS, even the one that he did not face as they were absorbed into another Ignis (Windy), or it's data was held by the loser (Earth). Ai is the only one he didn't absorb and his deck changed in the final battle to showcase all attributes except dark.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left:
  • Bohman is defeated by Playmaker in their Master Duel, but gets away scot-free thanks to the unknown figure responsible for manipulating his memories, and doesn't get the chance to return Jin Kusanagi's consciousness as he initially promised.
  • He forces a DRAW between himself and Playmaker in their third Duel, and vows to settle their battle elsewhere for another day.
• Villainous Rescue: He voices his disappointment towards Lightning for using underhanded tactics to gain an unfair advantage over Revolver, and thus steps in and preserves Jin and Spectre's consciousness data so that Revolver can go all-out against his opponent without reservations.
• Villain Respect:
  • He compliments Blue Maiden for not giving up until the very end despite knowing she had no chance of beating him.
  • He respects Playmaker with his dueling skills and as his Origin and declares him as his ultimate rival. He calls himself the evolved form of Playmaker and even offered Playmaker a special place inside him, with no Lost Incident and with memories he felt Playmaker should have had.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Upon his defeat, he warns Ai that the latter just doomed the Ignis' future, which means he is either aware of Lightning's simulations or has conducted his own simulations showing what happens when Ai is the only surviving Ignis with the power of the other five.
• Xanatos Gambit: In his duel with Soulburner. Despite his claims that he was manipulating the results of the dice rolls, with the cards he was using there was no result that wouldn't have given him what he wanted anyway. In using a trap that rolls a die to determine effects based on the target's Attribute, if he rolled anything but FIRE, Soulburner's monster would lose all its ATK points and wipe out Soulburner's Life Points, but if he did roll FIRE, Bohman had a card set that lets him move his opponent's monster to a zone his Paradox Hydradrive Atlas pointed to, whose effect automatically changes the Attribute of monsters it points to its own Attribute.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: A disguised Bohman sucks away Jin's soul and escapes into LINK VRAINS, leaving Jin an Empty Shell.

Haru (Harlin)

Haru (Harlin)

Voiced by: Ryōko Shiraishi (Japanese), Dan Rosales (English)

A mysterious boy who works together with his older brother Bohman in order to recover their memories.

Like Bohman, Haru uses a "Hydradrive" deck and uses the skill "Maker's Portal" in speed duels. He is actually the one who taught the former how to use the deck.

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• Aloof Big Brother: Inverted. Haru vehemently denies sharing any form of brotherly bond with Bohman, prior to confronting Blue Maiden. When Haru loses, however, he recalls the memories he treasured most with Bohman, and apologizes to him before getting erased from Mirror LINK VRAINS completely.
• Artificial Intelligence: He's the second generation AI created by Lightning.
• Becoming the Mask: Though Lightning originally only designated him to become Bohman's brother in order to control Bohman's emotional instabilities, over time Haru grew attached to Bohman and began to genuinely think of the third-generation AI as his brother. He even cried once Lightning told him he was no longer going to be Bohman's brother. Tragically, Haru himself failed to realize his feelings until the moment of his erasure.
• Child Prodigy: Let's see... he analyzed Playmaker's data to learn his strategies, coded Bohman with an anti-Ignis program, and seems to be under the age of 13 based on his avatar. Subverted later on since Bohman claims he's a second gen AI created by Lightning which actually makes it harder to know if it's true.
• Crazy-Prepared: Haru ensured that Bohman was equipped with an anti-Ignis program in the event that Bohman lost and would get his memories consumed by Ai.
• A Death in the Limelight: Haru has been out of focus for the majority of the season and when he finally gets an episode dedicated to him, he dies.
• Flawed Prototype: Falls under this category since he's not qualified to be the vessel of the Ignis, which is why Bohman was created and lacks the amount of dueling skill his "older brother" has, which was later shown to be fatal since Blue Maiden didn't have any trouble defeating him.
• Foil: Of Aoi. Despite being different beings, both are people with siblings that aren't connected to them by blood. While Haru believes such a concept is ridiculous, Aoi believes it doesn't matter since feelings matter the most. Unlike Haru, Aoi had spent at least a decade with Akira, so she understands and holds her love for Akira strong. Haru did not understand his brotherly love for Bohman until he started dying.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: In the end, he truly viewed Bohman as his older brother despite the fact he was only created to be his handler and later on servant.
• Hidden Depths: Was okay with the silhouetted figure "resetting" Bohman's memories in episode 50. Just what is he hiding to be okay with someone doing such a thing to his older brother? It turns out he was just doing what he was programmed to.
• Little Big Brother: He's technically Bohman's older brother, being created first since Bohman is the third gen AI.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: He taught Bohman how to use the Hydradrive deck, but by the time he duels, his own skill with the deck is inferior to Bohman's and he loses to Blue Maiden.
• Sibling Team: Is working with Bohman, his older brother, to regain their memories. Later on played with since it's revealed he's actually Bohman's handler, meant to make sure he gathered the Duel Data necessary to turn him into a complete 3rd Gen AI. However, they are still brothers since they were both created by Lighting and Bohman still considers him his little brother.
• Sorry That I'm Dying: Haru apologizes to Bohman and fully acknowledges him as his brother after the former loses to Blue Maiden and gets erased from existence completely.
• Spell My Name With An S: Is it "Haru" or "Hal"? Official subs say the former.
• Tragic Villain: Haru was essentially nothing more than a pawn to Lightning, and was unable to understand that Bohman actually cared about him. And in the one episode where he was given Character Development, he is unceremoniously curb-stomped by Blue Maiden. And at the end of the day, only Bohman, whose love for Haru was literally put into him by Lightning as a form of brainwashing, mourns his death as war breaks out around him.
• Too Dumb to Live: He declines to heed Bohman's warnings about losers getting erased from Mirror LINK VRAINS, and ultimately pays with his existence for confronting and losing to Blue Maiden by his lonesome.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Unfortunately, episode 85 is the only episode he gets focus and he dies rather quickly
• You Have Failed Me: He quickly fires Bit and Boot after the pair fail to defeat Soulburner.

Bit and Boot

Bit and Boot

Bit voiced by: Kento Fujinuma (Japanese)

Boot voiced by: Masaaki Yano (Japanese)

Bit

Boot

A pair of Duelists working for Haru's faction, summoned to keep Playmaker occupied. It later turns out that there aren't two of them, but many more. They are the first generation AI created to serve as the Mooks of said faction.

They use a D-Scale deck, an archetype of WATER Cyberse-Type Monsters focused on a playstyle revolving around Monsters moving from one Monster Zone to another. Just like Bohman their Skill is Marker's Portal, which allows them to activate "Judgement Arrows" from their deck when their LP are lower than their opponent's LP, and since they are two duelists in one as BitBoot, they are able to use this Skill twice in a Duel.

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• Artificial Intelligence: They are the first generation AI created by Lightning.
• Blame Game: After BitBoot's defeat, they separate back into Bit and Boot, and the two claim that the other is at fault for losing.
• The Dividual: As revealed in Episode #71, there are multiple Bits and Boots.
• Fusion Dance: Prior to dueling Soulburner, the pair combine to form a single being, BitBoot. Their D-Boards also combine into one.
• Gratuitous English: The last thing the pair say to each other is "You are fired!" in English, just before Haru dismisses them for failing to take down Soulburner.
• Loophole Abuse: While Skills can generally be activated only once per Duel, BitBoot are able to use Marker's Portal twice since they are two separate individuals in one body. Lampshaded by Soulburner, who accuses them of cheating.
• Making a Splash: Both use D-Scale archetype, all of which are the WATER Attribute.
• Mooks: Like Echo, there are multiple Bits and Boots, as seen when Lightning summons them in Episode #71.
• Mysterious Past: Nothing about them is known, but their appearances suggest they may be AI in the same vein as Echo. Confirmed when it turns out there are many of them.
• Stealth Pun: The whole theme and the playing style of their D-Scale archetype practically ends up as a literal take on Always a Bigger Fish.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The pair are both dismissed by Haru after they fail to defeat Soulburner. Or that version, as like Echo, it turns out there are also multiple Bits and Boots.
• Zerg Rush: They swarm all over the heroes and try to overwhelm them by numbers. While the team has no problem defeating them, it serves as a way to slow them down.

The Leader

Lightning

Voiced by: Issei Maeda (Japanese), Mark Schenfisch (English)

A previously unknown individual leading an unnamed faction that Bohman and Haru are members of. He is revealed to be Lightning, the LIGHT Ignis.

He uses an "Armatos Legio" deck, an archetype of Ancient Roman military-themed LIGHT Cyberse-Type Monsters which revolve around swarming his Field with as many Monsters as possible to set up multiple Link Summons in the same turn. Its main deck monsters are capable of giving Link Monsters various additional effects when their Link Arrow points to them, allowing for flexible strategy.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Bohman sympathizes with him before absorbing him, saying he was the most human Ignis for wanting to survive so badly. He even smiles at him.
• Antagonist Abilities: Downplayed with his deck in comparison to the brutally overpowering decks of past villains, but his Armatos Legio deck's card effects combine multiple effects from cards banned in real life, and he draws overly well. And unlike the Curb-Stomp Battle actions that most overpowered decks dish out, Blood Shepherd came close to beating him.
• Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: He has no qualms about killing humans, but he never tried to kill Aqua, despite finishing Judgement Arrows while she was still imprisoned. Though this comes off as Pragmatic Villainy because he still needs her data intact to be absorbed by Bohman.
• Arc Villain: He holds authority over both Haru and Bohman (both of whom he created), and despite of Bohman being supposed to be the Dragon-in-Chief, most of Season 2 is orchestrated by him, except for the actions of the Bounty Hunters hired by SOL.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Noting Ai's attachment to humanity, Lightning questions the stability of said relationship and whether or not Ai completely believes that humanity won't be out to try and terminate him.
• Assimilation Plot: He intends to unite all Ignis inside Bohman so he can control humanity.
• At Least I Admit It: Downplayed. Lightning initially plays coy about whether or not he was directly responsible for the destruction of the Cyberse World, but after enough pressing from Ai and Flame, Lightning quickly relents and confesses that he was indeed responsible for destroying the Cyberse World.
• Bad Boss:
  • Has been portrayed this way in spades. The six Ignis created the Cyberse World and worked together to maintain order, even Ai though he was prone to goofing around more. According to Ai Lightning was their leader on top of being the most intelligent, however when he properly debuts he reveals that he was the one who destroyed the Cyberse World during the time Ai was initially in Playmaker's possession after he and the other Ignis escape the Knights of Hanoi.
  • It doesn't stop there, After being rescued by Earth, Aqua reveals that Lightning was the one who locked her away after she caught him in the act of plotting against the Ignis and creating Judgment Arrows.
  • After Windy is defeated by Revolver and is in the process of being terminated by a virus created by the Knights of Hanoi, despite Windy begging for help, Lightning just watches Windy slowly die and makes no attempt to help him until Ai calls out for him to do so.
  • Lightning is the one who created Bit, Boot, Haru, and Bohman. Bit, Boot, and Haru are trial and errors to create the perfect AI which would be Bohman despite needing time to reach peak maturity. After Bohman's initial creation, Lightning tells Haru that he will Bohman's younger brother and later once Bohman's emotional maturity reaches its peak, he tells Haru that he's now Bohman's servant instead and that the concept of brotherhood is just an illusion.
  • Once Playmaker and his group make their move on Mirror LINK VRAINS, Lightning instructs Haru to duel Blue Maiden since she's in the process of defeating the BitBoot army he sent out not too long ago, and to buy Bohman time. The ensuing conversation between the two just shows that Lightning has zero faith in Haru, viewing him as being expendable and that Bohman (aside from Windy) is the only notable ally in this faction, something even Haru realizes and is disappointed to hear about.
    Lightning: BitBoot won't last long. You go and fight Blue Maiden.
    Haru: Do you think I can win?
    Lightning: You don't need to win. You just have to buy time.
  • After Windy loses to Soulburner and is being incinerated by Flame, Lightning ignores his pleas for help and abandons him to his fate, having no need for the foolish.
  • During his duel with Revolver he uses Jin as a hostage so that his opponent can't get the upper hand.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Delivering the final blow to Windy is definitely this. The same can be said for killing Spectre and Blood Shepherd since they were technically bad guys at the moment of their deaths.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Zigzagged. Lighting is in no way nice, but he is generally a calm, Faux Affably Evil villain with Ai describing him as the calm, controlled, and collected leader of the Ignis, however, when angered, he's absolutely terrifying with Ai noting he'd never seen him act in such a way and will distribute brutal retribution to those who anger him. Spectre was his primary example.
• Big Bad: He leads the faction responsible for the destruction of the Cyberse World, and intends to not only create a new Cyberse World beyond human reach but also rule over humanity from within. In his duel with Revolver, he admits to being the cause of pretty much everything that's gone wrong over the past 10 years, including infecting Dr. Kogami with a computer virus, mentally damaging Jin during the Lost Incident, and altering Windy's program to corrupt his personality. His actions also influenced the events of the final season and Ai's actions, making him the overall true villain of the series as a whole.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He was already a sadist since he gained free will, but he kept this side of himself hidden from the other Ignis when they created the Cyberse World, causing them to initially see him as a calm and rational leader. And despite seeming to be friends with the other Ignis, he envies them for being able to coexist with humans while he can't. When Ai calls him out for his petty reason to have the Ignis assimilated, he derides Ai as the one who is truly flawed, showing that he had a particular disdain for Ai's whimsical nature.
• Blatant Lies: Exploited. Due to Aqua's ability to discern between truth and lie, she doesn't buy his claim that he's creating "Judgment Arrows" just to protect the Cyberse World from humanity.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Decides not to destroy Spectre's data after defeating him, exclaiming that even the weak still has its uses. He makes good of this when he uses said data alongside Jin's as hostages against Revolver.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Initially presented as just another Ignis in the first episode. He is effectively responsible for all misery in the series after the Lost Incident.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Subjected Jin Kusanagi to so many Hope Spots of him getting rescued before pulling the rug and turning them into nightmarish ghouls that he turned into an Empty Shell.
• Control Freak: Lightning's end game is essentially having Bohman eat his fellow Ignis and use him to Take Over the World because he couldn't get them to Take Over the World with him instead.
• The Corrupter: Changed Windy's programming to resemble his own so Windy became a psychopathic loon that follows Lightning.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Before Aqua could team up with her Origin, Miyu, Lightning placed a virus on her that Aqua can't dispel just in case Aqua managed to escape, and so that it will be harder for her to interfere with his plans.
  • During his duel with Blood Shepherd, Lightning anticipated that Blood Shepherd would try to destroy Judgement Arrows to gain an advantage, but Lightning instead uses this to his advantage to defeat him.
  • Again displayed during his duel with Spectre when Lightning anticipated that Spectre would try to take control of Judgement Arrows and again turned this around by allowing Spectre to take his card, before taking it back and delivering a brutal defeat to Spectre.
  • Although he expected Bohman to win after absorbing five Ignis, he also ran simulations of bad futures where Ai survives Bohman's duel. He then saved those simulations in order to posthumously drive Ai to despair.
• Dirty Coward: Lightning has no issue with invoking Sadistic Choices, involving his Origin's consciousness data, against his adversaries.
  • He uses Jin's consciousness as a bargaining chip to coax Kusanagi into mercilessly confronting and taking down Playmaker. Lampshaded by Soulburner and Revolver, who both voice their disgust over Lightning's actions.
  • He does it again during his Duel against Revolver. Before the latter can finish off his opponent, Lightning frees Jin's consciousness and holds him hostage; should Lightning be defeated, Jin's consciousness will also be erased. This alone dissuades Revolver from landing the finishing blow. If you thought Jin alone wasn't enough, Lightning reveals that Spectre's consciousness data will also be erased.
• Divide and Conquer: His plan for dealing with the Playmaker faction since his team is outnumbered. He takes out Blood Shepherd first before he can join with Playmaker or the Knights of Hanoi, and then aims himself at Spectre next, considering him the weakest after Blood Shepherd.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: Aside from having the opposing Attribute to Ai, there was very little to suggest that Lightning was, in fact, the overall main villain of the series.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Bohman was working under his orders but after Bohman's second fight with Playmaker, Lightning begins following his orders to encourage him to act on his own to grow stronger.
• Enfant Terrible: Played with due to being an AI rather than a human. Shortly after his creation, he mentally tortured Jin, showing that he was always a natural sadist from the moment of his birth.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Despite his heinous actions, Ai misses him as much as he does the other Ignis, clearly remembering Lightning back when the Ignis were living in peace.
• Evil Counterpart: Naturally he is this towards Ai.
  • They are both based on attributes that can be considered each other's opposite. Ai is based on DARK and Lightning is based on LIGHT.
  • The way they met their partners and the way they treat each other is pretty much the exact opposite of each other. Ai met Yusaku in the real world when Yusaku tricked him into getting caught in his trap. Yusaku then trapped Ai inside his duel disk and pretty much enslaved him, but aside from looking at Ai's data and telling him to shut up whenever he gets annoying, Yusaku doesn't truly mistreat Ai and actually worries about him sometimes, Ai even considers them friends despite Yusaku's denial about it. Lightning met Jin in the network when he made Bohman take his consciousness data and bring it to him forcefully. Lightning then imprisoned and enslaved Jin. Lightning also only sees him as a puppet for him to use in order to fulfill his goals while Jin doesn't have any right in any of this.
  • Their stance on humanity is also completely different. Ai believes Ignis and humanity can live alongside each other in peace while Lightning doesn't trust humanity and wants to enslave and after they lose their usefulness eliminate them.
  • In a way they both can be seen as the most human Ignis despite pretty much being polar opposites. Ai is seen as the most human, because of his "instinct" and free-loving spirit while Lightning can be seen as the most human from his desire to survive no matter what kind of horrifying cost he has to make.
• Evil Is Petty: During his duel with Spectre, he mentions that he knows Spectre's ace monster Sunavalon Dryanome reminds him of the tree that was like his mother before he was taken to be a subject of the Hanoi Project, and Lighting defeats Spectre by completely nullifying and burning it to the ground after telling him he would destroy what he considered beautiful and pass divine judgement on him. Why did Lightning go so far just to beat Spectre? Simply because Spectre pissed him off.
• Faux Affably Evil: Despite being the overall leader of the Evil Ignis faction and the true main antagonist of the show, he is capable of praising his adversaries for their dueling ability, but is equally capable of genuine cruelty (see Bad Boss above) and throwing out some brutal insults. It doesn't get any better when he explodes after Revolver exposes him for his past crimes which motivated him to conceive Bohman. The dub pronounces this more, where he has a habit of calling people "my friend" and is quite pissed when Specter pulls the phrase on him.
  Lightning: So before the real fight begins, I've decided to chop some unnecessary weeds first.
  Blood Shepherd: Unnecessary?
  Lightning: To put it simply, I'll defeat our enemies, starting with the weakest.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Despite the emotional trauma they've suffered, all but one of the victims of the Lost Incident - Jin Kusanagi, from whom Lightning was made from - managed to eventually recover enough to interact with society on some level. That's because Lightning subjected the child to additional torture.
  • The virus he used to render Miu comatose is suspiciously similar to the one used to do the same with Dr. Kogami. That's because it is the work of the same person - Lightning.
  • In episode 68, he and Windy casually choose to alter the programs of Ai and Flame to make them comply with their plan. This is what Lightning already did to Windy.
• For the Evulz: The reason he tortured his origin Jin until he turned into an empty shell? Because he can and that's the first thing he did after his creation.
• Gaslighting: At some point prior to his confrontation with Revolver, Lightning left a series of simulations for Ai, showcasing humanity's downfall in the future as a result of Ai's presence as the last remaining Ignis. While Playmaker suggests said simulations are a trap set up to drive Ai to a state of despair and tries to dissuade him from taking them to heart, Ai affirms that he thought of that and personally modified the simulations countless times, yet they always came out the same, and thus came to the conclusion that his presence in the world really is the problem.
• Give Me a Reason: While he could have protected Windy from being attacked by the Knights of Hanoi after the latter loses to Revolver, he chose to wait until the last possible moment to do so, when Windy was nearly erased. This is so he has a reason to justify declaring war on humans, as a form of "retaliation" for said attack.
• A God Am I: He doesn't outright say it, but at this point, it's clear that Lightning has a God Complex, believing humans to be beneath A.I.s and wants to enslave them to ensure the survival of A.I.s before killing them off for good once A.I.s learn to survive without them. During his duel with Spectre, he mentions bringing upon "Divine Judgement" upon Spectre for simply angering him and delivered a very brutal defeat to him because of it.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: As the least mature of the Ignis, Lightning was unable to comprehend the results of the billions of simulations he conducted regarding future relationships between humanity and the Ignis, refusing to accept that he's the only Ignis without any hope for a thriving future with humanity. Spectre was right all along when he pointed out that Lightning harboured some sort of complex as a result.
• Gratuitous Latin: The deck he uses is called Armatos Legio which roughly translates to Armored Legion and their attack names are also in Latin such as Centurion's Fortis Lux. It does makes sense as they are an archetype themed after Roman military.
• Greater-Scope Villain: By the start of the series, he is seemingly inactive. However, his actions are what caused the destruction of the Cyberse World, drove the Knights of Hanoi into targeting SOL Technologies and the Ignis through the Tower of Hanoi, Bohman's assimilation of numerous humans' consciousness data utilizing the Neuron Link and Ai becoming an enemy of the human race. He is likely this show's answer to Zorc Necrophades, the Light of Destruction, Z-One, Don Thousand and Supreme King Dragon Zarc.
• Hate Sink: Among the many atrocities he committed as leader of the rogue Ignis faction (which range from ordering Haru to stall Playmaker's entourage and not fixate on winning because he's viewed as little more than a disposable, to invoking a Sadistic Choice on Kusanagi involving his little brother's consciousness and Playmaker), coupled with his false claims of doing what's best for the Ignis, you're not gonna be convinced at all that Lightning wasn't written to be anything but despicable.
• Hates Everyone Equally: For all his talk about the Ignis being superior to humanity, it's later revealed that he despises his siblings for being able to coexist with humanity while he's incapable of doing so. The only person he has any respect for is Bohman, and even then, that's only because he plans to become one with Bohman in order to become "perfect" by proxy.
• The Heavy: Almost all the conflict in the series was started thanks to him infecting Dr. Kogami with a virus as well as creating the Judgement Arrows and Bohman.
• Holier Than Thou: He views the Ignis as morally superior compared to humans, and also claims that Kogami's motivations for creating them in the first place was to conceive a worthy, superior successor to humanity. Whatever the case, Lightning and Windy both view humanity as little more than dispensable tools to be brainwashed into doing the Ignis's bidding, and eliminating them when their usefulness expires. This gets subverted when it turns out that he's a Straw Hypocrite who cares more about his own ego than any moral goals.
• If I Can't Have You…: Why was Lightning so set on destroying Cyberse World, annihilating humanity, and unifying all of the Ignis into one via Bohman? Because he found out he was the only Ignis who would never be able to develop a good relationship with humans after running billions of simulations.
• I Lied: According to Bohman, the unknown figure supposedly promised to restore his and Haru's memories after turning in Jin Kusanagi's data. The figure quickly shoots him down by claiming that it's all in his head, and resets his memories.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Lightning is unable to accept the fact that he's the most immature of all the Ignis, hence his motivation for creating Bohman, who serves as a vessel to unite every Ignis into a single perfect body.
• Irony: As noted by Bohman, Lightning may have actually been the most human among the Ignis despite his hatred for them, because of his desire to survive no matter what.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Refusing to be outright terminated, Lightning takes himself and Revolver out (with the former barely hanging on with 1 LP), and ultimately avoids comeuppance for his actions when he uses the last of his strength to reach out to Bohman, who then assimilates Lightning within himself and allows the Light Ignis to die on his own terms. However, all the Ignis except Windy are briefly conscious within Bohman. Aqua, Flame, and Earth force Lightning to give his power to Ai against his will, which is karmic due to his desire to have the other Ignis assimilated against their will. To add insult to injury, Lightning always looked down an Ai, so he's not pleased to see that Ai is the one to become the ultimate AI instead of Bohman, even if he predicted that outcome.
• Kick the Dog: Exaggerated. Lightning does this practically every time he makes an appearance in an episode till a point it can be summed up that Lightning's appearance is just one Kick the Dog moment right after another, which includes:
  • Destroying the Cyberse World that he and his fellow Ignis created while he was supposed to be their leader.
  • Locking away Aqua upon her discovering his intentions to betray the Ignis.
  • Ensuring that Aqua couldn't get in the way in case she escaped by implanting a computer virus in her Origin Miyu which put her in a coma.
  • Sending Bohman to steal his mute/PTSD stricken originator's consciousness and effectively making him his slave to duel through.
  • Giving Ai a chance to willfully join him and Windy in enslaving humanity due to his experience with humans, but after Ai refused, he attempts to capture him anyway and re-write his programming to force him to comply with his orders.
  • Seemingly having no problem with ignoring Windy after he was defeated by Revolver and only helped him because Ai called out for him too.
  • Sending Haru to face Blue Maiden in a duel while having zero faith that he'd beat her and because he needed Haru to stall for time for Bohman to finish preparing for the upcoming final battle.
  • Separating Playmaker's group and dueling them with the intention of defeating them one by one while forcing the others to watch their companions be defeated in order to demoralize them.
  • Going on to defeat Spectre in their duel by burning the tree Spectre considers to be his mother all because Spectre pissed him off during their duel and wanted to punish Spectre for it.
  • Invoking a Sadistic Choice on Kusanagi to coax him into turning against and taking down Playmaker without mercy, or risk having his little brother's consciousness erased. Even though Kusanagi already predicted the possibility of a Hostage Situation a while ago and intended to leave things in Yusaku's hands after losing, his termination does no favours for Playmaker, who becomes devastated to the point that he falls unconscious.
  • Confessing that his past actions leading up to the Cyberse World's destruction and Bohman's creation were the result of billions of simulations he conducted concerning human-Ignis relationships. While the Ignis as a whole was initially perceived to be a threat, the cause of the anomaly was Lightning himself, who, as the least mature of the Ignis, had no hope for a healthy future with humanity; he refused to acknowledge these results, and (among other atrocities) conceived Bohman so he could unite all of the Ignis into one "perfect" body.
  • When he's about to lose to Revolver he fuses his program with Jin's consciousness data, ensuring that if Revolver goes through with his final attack and defeats Lightning it will kill Jin (and Spectre, too).
  • Deluding Jin into believing help came his way during his time in captivity as a subject of the Hanoi Project... only to instead terrify him with nightmarish illusions; this persisted until it broke Jin so bad, he degraded into an Empty Shell.
  • Revealing a shocking, brutal truth to Revolver about his father; it was Lightning himself, and not SOL Technologies as was initially believed, who installed a computer virus within Kogami which rendered him comatose.
• Lack of Empathy: He doesn't care to comprehend the concept of empathy, and delights at the sight of Playmaker and Kusanagi, two close allies, fighting each other, specifically set up such that things won't end well for either of them regardless of the Duel's outcome.
• The Leader: Ai considers him this, he's described as calm, cool, and collected which fits the leader role.
• Leitmotif: "Suite: Light Ignis" (track #10 in SOUND DUEL 3).
• Light Is Not Good: He's based on the LIGHT attribute, and he's up to no good since he intends to, alongside Windy, rule over humanity within a newly constructed Cyberse World that is beyond human reach.
• Light 'em Up: He's an Ignis based on the LIGHT attribute, with his body being primarily light yellow, a colour commonly associated with the light element.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: By his own admission, he's not as cruel as Windy, who chose to eliminate his Origin. He's still all too willing to enslave his own origin, Jin, instead, and talk to him as if Jin could respond, knowing full well he took Jin's free will. This is ultimately subverted, as Lightning reprogrammed Windy and made him serve as his ally, with Windy showing no signs of hostility towards humans prior to that.
• The Man Behind the Man: He started off as the Big Bad in the story, manipulating Bohman's memories to make him loyal, only to act as a Dragon-in-Chief as Bohman became more powerful and developed free will himself. He actually plans this to happen to assimilate all Ignis into Bohman and rule over humanity.
• Manipulative Bastard: Long story short: He's the one that tortured Jin until he became an empty shell, changed Windy's programming to resemble his, was actually the one to put the virus on Dr. Kogami, destroyed the Cyberse World and was the one that drove Ai to despair and becomes the final villain. There's a reason why fans love to blame Lighting for everything.
• My God, What Have I Done?: A subtle example. He believes that by repeatedly giving Jin Hope Spot after Hope Spot, he overdid his suffering due to the latter becoming an Empty Shell. It's questionable how sincere his regret is, since he has no qualms about keeping Jin as a puppet while keeping the latter aware of his surroundings.
• Near-Villain Victory: His plans for uniting all Ignis under Bohman happens, except Ai wasn't caught and Playmaker defeated Bohman since the other Ignis gave up their powers to Ai for a chance to win. But he also anticipated this and created a simulation for Ai to discover, causing Ai to believe he was never able to have a future with humans and driving him to Suicide by Cop to prevent a Bad Future
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: By using that last bit of Jin consciousness data he'd managed to hold onto to save his life, Lightning unwittingly erased Jin's memory of the Lost Incident, allowing Jin to finally recover from the trauma Lightning himself inflicted.
• Nightmare Face: In true Yu-Gi-Oh! villain fashion, Lightning can pull these off despite being an AI with no mouth, but with how distorted his eyes look when he's being overconfident or doing something devious.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Specter notes that even if Lightning sees AI and all Ignis as stronger than humans, there would be a time where AI, like everything with free will, would battle will have power struggles just like humans. Specter also sees that both their decks are similar in concept, and thus was able to completely guess Lightning's demeanor.
• Not So Stoic: While he's described as calm, cool, and collected, there are moments where he loses his composure (albeit briefly), evidenced during his Duels with Blood Shepherd and Spectre, though it doesn't take him long to get out of it. Notably, his stoic demeanor breaks down when Specter suggests that he's actually hiding a secret. He's completely right when Revolver later revealed that Lightning had a complex when he learned he would never get along with humans.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Lightning claims that humanity will destroy the Ignis, which is why he wants Bohman to assimilate the Ignis and take control of humanity in order to prevent future conflict. While he has a point that humanity will seek conflict with the Ignis, it's also clear that he doesn't truly care about the other Ignis, since he destroys their home and has them assimilated against their will. During their duel, Revolver reveals that Lightning harbors an inferiority complex about being the only Ignis who cannot coexist with humanity. Lightning's true goal is to have himself and his siblings become a part of Bohman so that he can be considered successful by proxy and not have to acknowledge his flaws.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: He started having issues with humans once he predicted in a series of simulations that he was going to have issues with humans.
• She Knows Too Much: Aqua reveals the reason she went off of the radar and couldn't be found was that she caught Lightning in the act of creating Judgement Arrows and planning to turn on the Ignis and as a result was imprisoned until she was found by Earth.
• Shock and Awe: He's an Ignis named Lightning, and also commands control over lightning, as seen when he attempts to blast Revolver with a bolt of lightning, which Revolver casually swats off.
• Significant Double Casting: After Lightning debuted, people noted that his VA was the same as that of the mysterious figure who was Bohman's boss, long before the identity of the mysterious figure was revealed to be Lightning himself. The mysterious figure also took the form of a silhouette shrouded in light, similar to the disguise Lightning used to hide Jin's identity while controlling him.
• The Smart Guy: Ai also said he's too smart and because of that he can't understand him.
• The Sociopath: He's a sadist with no regard for others, and his antisocial traits are so severe that he has no chance of coexisting with humanity, though he can pretend to get along with the other Ignis to mask these traits. While he initially angsts over his flaws, instead of taking steps to become a better person, he insists that it's better for him to forcibly assimilate all Ignis into a single perfect being to rule over humanity, showing that he's really an egomaniac despite his supposed goal of protecting the Ignis.
• Sore Loser: He refuses to accept an outright defeat from Revolver, instead opting to take his opponent down with him and at the same time barely hang on with 1 LP since he converted part of Jin's consciousness data into extra LP to keep himself in the game.
• Super Prototype: What he ultimately was, at least according to Bohman. The Ignis were designed to be as human as possible, specifically designed with free will to distinguish them from other programs. Lightning is implied to be the first Ignis made and his sense of free will turned out to be far stronger than the other Ignis, to the point that he was unable to accept coexistence with humans in order to preserve his autonomy. This, ironically, is exactly something a human would do.
• Super-Speed: Like his attribute, he's the fastest out of all the Ignis as he shows where he saved Windy in the blink of an eye. He even remarks it's hard for him to stay slow.
• Taking You with Me: Invoked. Lightning takes down Revolver with him using the co-linked "Eques Flamma's" effect, and at the same time barely hangs on with 1 LP (despite the fact that he, too, should've also been taken down completely by conventional means) thanks to Jin's consciousness data. This is so Bohman can absorb him and stand a better chance against Playmaker.
• This Means War!: After negotiations for humanity and AI to coexist peacefully fall apart completely following Windy's near-termination at the hands of the Knights of Hanoi, Lightning declares war on humanity.
• Token Evil Teammate: The true one among the Ignis, as he simply rewrote the once nice Windy's program into a copy of himself, and he is the only one that could not co-exist with humanity. All of Windy's bad personality traits are in fact programmed by him, as revealed as his duel with Revolver continues, exposing the psychotic maniac within. This actually plays a lot into his motivations, since he set everything in motion out of spite at his own incapability to have positive interactions with humanity.
• Vicariously Ambitious: Lightning knows that he's considered more flawed than the other Ignis, so he creates Bohman to be the ultimate AI who will absorb all the other Ignis, including Lightning himself. He believes that if he's a part of a supreme AI like Bohman, this will make him successful by proxy.
• Villain Has a Point: Deconstructed. The reason why Dr. Kogami attacked the Ignis in the first place was because Lightning interrupted the worrisome simulations Dr. Kogami made before the scientist could discover that there's only one Ignis to worry about - Lightning himself. As for SOL Technologies, they've been shown to be content with letting the Ignis do as they please for as long as the Data Material was produced in sufficient quantities and only became aggressive out of desperation after the Knights of Hanoi almost destroyed the Ignis; said attack being indirectly caused by Lightning concealing his inherent flaw from Dr. Kogami. Given what SOL Technologies did to Earth, and the impending threat the Knights of Hanoi are to their species, Lightning isn't unjustified in his argument that humans are dangerous, but most of the threat that humans posed to the Ignis was caused by Lightning himself.
• Villainous Breakdown: Spectre started his spiral after hinting his insecurities to everyone. Then Revolver pushes him to the brink once he revealed all his "crimes" and cornering him in their duel, breaking Lightning's cool façade and showing off his unhinged side. He becomes so desperate he plays dirty many times to not to lose against a "mere human".
• Villainous Rescue:
  • A variant, he saves Windy from being deleted by the Knights of Hanoi at the last possible moment, so he can justify his declaring war on humanity.
  • He was the one who sent the datastorm that saved Playmaker from falling off the broken bridge in Season 1, doing so to distract the Knights of Hanoi while he launches his attack on the Cyberse World.
• Villain Respect: The haughty and unflappable Lightning is genuinely impressed by Revolver's skills, particularly on his ability to Synchro Summon. He also respects and enjoys talking to Playmaker, because of his strength and direct approach to talking while also seeing him as his biggest threat.
• Villains Want Mercy: A weakened Lightning crawls over to Bohman and begs for mercy, to the point of offering to be assimilated within him; despite Lightning's previous actions up to the conclusion of his Duel with Revolver, Bohman accepts. With the last of his strength, Lightning reaches out to Bohman, who then assimilates Lightning within himself.
• Virtual Ghost: Turns out he left a deteriorating copy of himself in the cave he made Judgement Arrows in case Bohman lost. Ai finds this copy and it shows all the Bad Future scenarios that will happen if Ai is the only survivor, driving Ai to his Face–Heel Turn.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about Lightning without spoiling he's the one behind everything that happened in the show. Even the ones that he isn't directly involved with.
• Wicked Cultured: Quotes The Divine Comedy when he invites Blood Shepherd to his palace.
  Through me you pass into the sparkle of woe. Through me you pass into anguishing brilliance. Through me among the light lost for aye. All hope abandon ye who enter here.
• Would Hurt a Child: During the Lost Incident he has no problem torturing and playing mind games with his then 6 years old Origin Jin Kusanagi.
• Xanatos Gambit: He stakes one on the outcome of Windy and Revolver's duel. If the former wins, he'll see it as evidence that humans are inferior to the Ignis and should be subjugated by them. If the latter wins, he knows that Revolver will attempt to erase Windy and can use it as evidence that humans pose a threat to the Ignis, framing it as a premise to declare war on humanity with the goal of subjugating or exterminating them. Either way, he has a valid means to justify his position that the Ignis are superior to humans and should rule over them.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Didn't even bother saving Windy after he's defeated and absorbed by Flame. He also forced Haru to fight Blue Maiden just to buy a little more time even knowing Haru won't be able to win against her.

The Leader's Origin

Jin Kusanagi (Jin Kolter)

Voiced by: Ryōta Suzuki (Japanese), Ryan Nicolls (English)

^{Click here to see his avatar} 

Having had his consciousness stolen away by Bohman, Jin Kusanagi is revealed to be the Origin of Lightning, the LIGHT Ignis, who turned him into his puppet so that he can't influence him in any way.

---

• And I Must Scream: Lightning reveals that Jin can still see and hear while he cannot talk.
• Brainwashed: He's manipulated by his Ignis, Lightning, to obey his every word after his consciousness in the real world was sucked away by Bohman and passed on to Lightning.
• Break the Cutie: Prior to his kidnapping which saw him being badly tortured and made him close off his heart to the world, he was just a normal, cheerful guy.
• Broken Bird: His Dark and Troubled Past in which he was imprisoned as a child and underwent a hellish experiment has made him this, unable to bring himself to escape from captivity due to the severe trauma he experienced.He gets much better after losing his memories of the Lost Incident.
• Cynicism Catalyst: His trauma is what drove Yusaku to fight for him and become vengeful towards Hanoi.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Along with Yusaku, he was one of the six children abducted during the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project. Though the project's purpose remains a mystery, he remains traumatised in the present day.
• Distressed Dude: Getting his consciousness taken away basically starts the conflict of Season 2.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Highlighting the trauma that he suffered during the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project. Even though he gets better after the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project was brought to a closure, his eyes remain dull and lifeless. Apparent in episode 64 where his eyes were dull as shown in Kusanagi's flashback.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In his first appearance his collar didn't cover the bottom half of his face. This could be justified since that way people could clearly see it's Jin.
• Emotionless Boy: Heavily implied to be more emotionless than Yusaku and the Hanoi project has made him an Empty Shell. He doesn't express any emotion at all every time he is seen.
• Empty Shell: The Hanoi Project and all the hell and torture he went through made him suffer even worse than Yusaku, shaken over the incident and unable to leave. He gets better after he is informed that the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project was brought to a closure... only for Bohman to appear shortly after and suck his soul away, leaving Jin a lifeless husk. His consciousness is then suppressed and he is made into Lightning's aide. He gets much better in Season 3 after losing all his memories of the Lost Incident and is no longer a lifeless shell.
• Evil Costume Switch: He ends up wearing a white and gold outfit in Lightning's color scheme.
• The Ghost: Initially, he was mentioned by Yusaku and Kusanagi multiple times since the start of the show and was seen only in flashbacks, until he finally makes his first direct appearance in Episode #47, when Kusanagi visits him for a checkup.
• High Collar of Doom: While he's not doing this out of his free will, his collar is long enough to cover the bottom half of his face.
• Hope Spot: Lightning subjected him to this multiple times during captivity, showing him a simulation of people coming to rescue him only to transform into monsters. This ended up shattering his psyche.
• Human Shield: Since he's technically the one dueling, he takes all the damage Lightning would have taken in his stead.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: After being rescued from Lightning, doctors note he has no memory of the Lost Incident whatsoever, allowing him to make a much swifter recovery. Yusaku and Kusanagi speculate that the piece of Jin's consciousness that Lightning used to survive his duel with Revolver contained said memories, and that by holding on to them, he accidentally freed his origin of the trauma he himself caused.
• Quaking with Fear: Just before Revolver can defeat his opponent, Lightning unexpectedly releases his Origin's consciousness and holds him hostage. The poor guy can do little but helplessly shiver in fear when Lightning points out that his Origin's consciousness data will be erased permanently if Revolver goes through with the finishing blow.
• The Stoic: He is often seen with a dull, emotionless expression, and rarely smiles.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He looks a lot like a younger version of his older brother.
• Took Alevel In Cheerfulness: After losing his memories of the Lost Incident, Jin again becomes cheerful and more more open with his emotions.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Kusanagi described him as gentle and cheerful before the incident.
• The Voiceless: While he gets much better after he is informed that the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project was brought to a closure, he doesn't talk at all.
• Walking Spoiler: He's the Origin of the LIGHT Ignis, the same individual who leads a certain unnamed faction which Bohman and Haru are both members of.
• When He Smiles: He is shown to have a beautiful simle, which he begans to display it after losing his memories of the Lost Incident.
• Yank the Dog's Chain:
  • Just when you thought things were getting much better for Jin after he is informed that the Lost Incident/Hanoi Project has been brought to a closure, an unknown yellow figure (later revealed to be Bohman) sucks his soul away and escapes into LINK VRAINS.
  • During the Lost Incident Lightning shows him simulation of people coming to rescue him only to transform into monsters.

Windy

Windy

Voiced by: Chihiro Suzuki (Japanese), Bryan Tyler (English)

^{Click here to him after being scarred} 

An Ignis based on the WIND Attribute, he initially comes off as neutral in the conflict instigated in the second season. It's later revealed, however, that he is in cahoots with Lightning, the LIGHT Ignis, working together to bring humanity under their control from a Cyberse World beyond human reach.

Windy uses a "Stormrider" deck, an archetype of WIND Cyberse-Type Monsters which revolve around a Lockdown playstyle, preventing the opponent from using cards in their Spell & Trap zone by destroying or negating them and punishing them for summoning Link monsters with a higher Link Rating than Windy's own.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Windy's mental state in episode 102 is ambiguous due to his lack of speech. When Ai goes inside Bohman in order to attempt to free the other Ignis, Windy is seemingly unconscious, to the point where he neither expresses approval of giving Ai his powers nor attempts to fight back like Lightning did. However, unlike Lightning, his figure appears in Firewall Dragon Darkfluid's final attack and he has his original purple eyes instead of the red ones that came with Lightning's brainwashing. It's ambiguous if he somehow regained his original personality in his final moments or if it's just something that Ai is imagining.
• Anti-Magic: The Stormrider cards revolve around destroying and negating spells and trap cards, and likewise don't let him have cards in the spell and trap card zones during some of his effects.
• An Arm and a Leg: Lightning saves him from being deleted by the Knights of Hanoi, however he still loses both his arms and legs, as well as his eye.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy:
  • Windy scoffs at Revolver after the latter fails to negate his own "Magic Cylinder" (which Windy took control of and used against Revolver) and takes 3000 damage from it (leaving him with 300 LP remaining), claiming that he's all talk when it comes to terminating the Ignis, and stands zero chance at winning. Revolver proves him wrong, however, by bringing out and finishing him off with "Borreload Savage Dragon", and leaves it to the Lieutenants of Hanoi to terminate him.
  • He also claims that he's targeting Soulburner not because he's weak, but rather, "super weak", quickly setting off Soulburner. Soulburner, however, successfully proves Windy wrong, and Windy can do little but to loudly complain about his loss, claiming he only lost because he lost his composure.
• Asshole Victim: Subverted. You'd think you won't feel sorry for Windy at all (considering what he did to his Origin) when Lightning abandons him after losing to Soulburner... until you find out Windy was never evil in the first place and only served as Lightning's right-hand because he was reprogrammed to express hostility towards humanity.
• Badass Cape: After recovering from his injuries, he starts wearing a ragged, survivalist cape to cover up his bandages.
• Blow You Away: He is an Ignis based on the WIND Attribute, with his entire body being primarily light green, a colour also commonly associated with the wind element. His command over the Data Storm is also appropriately stronger than Ai's to the point that he can even use Storm Access outside of a Speed Duel. He also uses his ability to summon datastorms as a way to teleport himself or others.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Windy thought Revolver secretly resented his father since Dr. Kogami didn't choose him to be a part of the Lost Incident experiments because his father didn't believe he was worthy. Experiments involving electrocution and starvation.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": His new Eyepatch of Power has a W on it for Windy.
• Cool Ship: Windy's Stormrider monsters resemble bird and Flying Fish-themed ships.
• Death by Irony: After claiming multiple times he would snuff out Flame's fire like a candle in the wind, it is turned back on him, and he burns to death before being absorbed by Flame.
• Death of Personality: Revolver's more in depth research led him to discover that the current Windy is nothing like he originally was. Whereas the original Windy Used to Be a Sweet Kid, Lightning got his hands on him and overwrote his personality to be similar to his own, turning Windy into the monstrous Ignis that he is today, with the original Windy having all but died when he did so, and what little remained being trapped in Bohman and subsequently deleted upon his defeat.
• Defiant to the End: Even while Flame is absorbing his data he maintains that he will never let go of his hatred.
• The Dragon: He serves as Lightning's right-hand man, working together to bring humanity under their control from a Cyberse World beyond human reach.
• Dying Curse: He curses Flame as he is absorbed and will never let go of his hatred. Flame only responds that AI's don't have curses. It turns out he does and during Soulburner's duel with Bohman, starts to absorb Flame from the inside out, with Lightning later admitting he added the curse to his code when he reprogrammed him.
• Everyone Has Standards: While he refuses to directly aid them, he does provide relevant support to the heroes by agreeing to clear the path towards the villain base. Subverted when he proves to be a villain and likely planned it with Lightning.
• Eye Patch Of Power: After recovering from his injuries from his duel with Revolver, he starts wearing one with a W.
• Foreshadowing: Yusaku alleges that Windy may or may not be up to something after the gate to his world was closed after Bohman's defeat. Yusaku's suspicions turn out to be true; Windy is revealed to be cooperating with Lightning to not only rebuild a Cyberse World beyond human reach but also rule over humanity from within.
• The Gadfly: He loves taunting his enemies whenever he uses his lockdown combo and forcing them to place their spells or traps before diminishing their life points via card effect. His first appearance has him pranking Playmaker and Soulburner with a gigantic monster.
• Gallows Humor: Used a monster that destroyed his home as the basis for a prank.
• Gaslighting: He constantly calls the relationship between Revolver and his father into question, claiming that the latter never had any faith in his son in the first place and thus wasn't chosen as a test subject for the Hanoi Project. Unfazed by Windy's taunts, Revolver hits back by saying that a conceited AI couldn't possibly comprehend the bond he shares with his father.
  Windy: Kogami's proudest achievement was to create excellent successors like us!
  Revolver: Stop joking! By inheriting my father's regrets and desires, I'll defeat you!
  Windy: Inherit? That's impossible! Kogami didn't believe in you. Why weren't you chosen as a test subject? He thought you wouldn't work. He expected nothing from you! And you're the one who'll kill us? Don't make me laugh! Deep down, you want to crush us because you're angry that Kogami didn't choose you.
  Revolver: (scoffs) AIs have lame imagination. You'll never understand the bond between me and my father.
• Giant Flyer: The Stormrider monsters are based upon mythological fliers such as the Roc or griffon, but are abominations with fins and various other additions.
• Green and Mean: He is troublesome to deal with and is working with Lightning to subjugate all humans. He also caused his partner to be involved in a reckless driving accident.
• Hate Sink: Subverted. It was initially hard to see this guy as likable, considering his vehement animosity towards humanity (to the point that he offed his Origin just to highlight his extreme misanthropy), and even after losing to Soulburner and getting incinerated by Flame, Windy claims his hatred will linger on as a curse within Flame (who preserves his data). It turns out, however, that Windy's actions were the result of Lightning rewriting his programming solely to serve his goals of brainwashing humanity and disposing of them when their usefulness expires.
• Hidden Depths: Revolver reveals that Windy had the potential to have a good future with humans. Compared to how we've seen him act in the show, that might be a little hard to believe, but it implies that he could have grown into someone similar to Ai, Flame, or Aqua if Lightning hadn't gotten to him.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: After he is defeated by Revolver in their Master Duel, the latter (along with his subordinates) proceeds to terminate him by impaling him with spikes... only to be saved by Lightning at the last minute.
• Impersonation-Exclusive Character: Everything known about Windy is only shown after Lightning already reprogrammed him into an inferior version of himself.
• Insult Backfire: He takes it as a compliment when Flame accuses him of cheating for using a Skill in a Master Duel.
• It's Personal: He's itching to get back at Revolver after he and the Knights of Hanoi nearly terminate him and leave him badly scarred, only to be restrained by Lightning and ordered to go after Soulburner instead.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Double subverted. Windy was close to being terminated by the Knights of Hanoi after Revolver defeats him, as comeuppance for his actions towards his Origin. However, Lightning saves him at the very last minute, and even after repairing him, his disdain towards humanity only gets worse and he is itching to get back at Revolver. Then he loses again, to Soulburner, and rightfully gets incinerated after his loss for his actions. It is subverted again, because he didn't deserve it at all, his real self having been reprogrammed by Lightning.
• Kick the Dog: As Revolver reveals, Windy was responsible for a certain car accident which crippled his Origin. Windy proceeds to gloat that he did this all because he had no use for them.
• Lack of Empathy: After getting his program changed by Lightning, Windy has very little care for the feelings of others, instead preferring to dance to his own tune unabated. While he claims to care for his fellow Ignis, he has no qualms trying to reset Ai so he'll join them and is actually glad when SOL Tech terminates Earth, as he felt Earth would have never joined them and they saved him the trouble of terminating Earth.
• Loophole Abuse: Like Bohman (during his Master Duel against Playmaker), Windy also activates his Skill, Storm Access, in his Master Duel against Revolver after his LP was reduced to below 1000.
• Misblamed: In-universe. Windy's actions up to his termination were never his own fault in the first place, as Lightning rewrote his programming so that he not only exhibits hostility towards humanity, but also serves as his disposable right-hand man.
• Motor Mouth: Windy talks like this in the dub, barely ever stopping to take a breath and getting his words out extremely quickly. Once he's revealed as a villain, he slows down a bit.
• The Power of Hate: When he is taken down by Soulburner, Windy claims that his animosity towards humanity will continue to linger on as a curse within Flame (who offered to hang on to Windy's data). Turns out he wasn't lying as he reemerged from Flame in episode 95, stealing Flame's data and almost completely absorbing him. If Flame hadn't managed to fight back and reabsorb Windy, Windy would have completely depleted Flame and would have engulfed Soulburner in slime. However, Flame—completely drained from being drained by Windy—ended up terminating.
• Properly Paranoid: Refuses to find the kid used to create him because he believes that humans in general cannot be trusted. Given that one of the victims is Spectre, his paranoia is well placed. Subverted in that he took out his Origin by causing a car accident.
• Rage Breaking Point: He momentarily loses his composure and snaps at Revolver after the former takes 3100 damage from the latter's counterattack (from "Speedburst Dragon's" Effect, and it battling Windy's "Rockbuster"). Windy reacts even worse when he hears of the news that Revolver's entourage effortlessly decimated the swarm of Echoes guarding Windy's palace.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Unlike the rest of the Ignis, Windy has red eyes, which also highlight his disdain and malice towards humanity in general, to the point that he triggered a traffic accident just to wipe out his Origin. Before his reprogramming by Lightning, he had rounder, purple eyes.
• Reforged into a Minion: Windy was inherently never hostile towards humanity since his creation, and only served as Lightning's right-hand man because Lightning reprogrammed him as part of his plans to assimilate all of the Ignis into one perfect vessel.
• Scars Are Forever: While Lightning manages to save him from the virus Hanoi used on him, Windy's body is left mangled in the process, half of it appears to be burned, and the right half of his face covered in a shell.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: In the dub. Instead of his sneer, he's very breathless and casual about the acts he's committing.
• Sore Loser: He loudly complains about his loss to Revolver and Soulburner, claiming that he only lost because he lost his composure before he gets terminated both times.
• Talkative Loon: In the dub, where he not only chatters are the speed of sound, but also figures pranking his fellow Ignis with an illusion of the monster that destroyed the Cyberse is funny. And of course, his actions as a villain.
• Tension-Cutting Laughter: His very first scene upon his proper introduction is him laughing his butt off after the heroes get a taste of his dry sense of humor.
• This Is Unforgivable!: His animosity towards humanity gets worse when he muses over the moment he was close to getting terminated by the Knights of Hanoi upon his defeat at Revolver's hands.
• Token Evil Teammate: Is presented like this for the Bohman's faction. This is subverted with the reveal that he wasn’t actually born evil; Lightning imposed his own personality onto Windy, changing Windy from an Ignis with a possibility of having positive interactions with humans to being a fellow human-hating Ignis who wants to annihilate humanity.
• Toxic Friend Influence: According to Lightning's and Ryoken's countless simulations of each individual Ignis, it turns out that Windy—along with every Ignis except for Lightning—had the potential for developing a good relationship with humans. As revealed in the second part of Revolver and Lightning's Duel in episode 97, Lightning reprogrammed Windy to not only exhibit animosity towards humanity but also serve as his disposable right-hand man.
• Troll: When he confronts Soulburner as ordered by Lightning, Windy claims to have a bone to pick with his opponent not because he's weak, but rather, "super weak", which quickly sets off Soulburner.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Revolver discovers that Windy had no evil in him before he was reprogrammed by Lightning.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • He starts off cocky and calm, seeming in control of the entire duel, but as soon as Revolver unveils his new Synchro, Borreload Savage Dragon, he is reduced to babbling his frustration at how unpredictable humans are. It only gets worse when his animosity towards humanity is fueled as he recalls the moment he was closed to being terminated by the Knights of Hanoi.
  • He completely breaks down when Soulburner manages to outperform him in their match and was left begging for Lightning to save him. He can't help but curse Flame just as he was absorbed into him.
• Walking Spoiler: As revealed in his Duel with Revolver, Windy is in cahoots with Bohman, the same exact individual who was able to activate a Skill in a Master Duel.
• Weather Manipulation: He has the strongest control over data storms, which he quickly demonstrates when Ai is attempting to create one to destroy the trap he and Playmaker are in. Even after he's almost deleted by the Knight's of Hanoi's virus, he's still able to create a strong data storm.
• Wind Is Green: Like his other color-coded Ignis friends. His element is Wind, and he's green all over.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After he loses to Soulburner and is incinerated by Flame, Lightning refuses to help Windy despite his pleas, claiming that he has no use for the foolish.

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