YMMV / Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc V: Pendulum's Fifth Swing

• Ensemble Dark Horse: In canon, Ray Akaba was seen like this by a few people. Fans of the story were absolutely shocked and thrilled to see her included in the story alongside Zarc.
• Epileptic Trees: Just as Yami Marik is about to be defeated by a very pissed off Zarc, he sees an illusion of a dragon with yellow eyes covered in blue fire. With the inclusion of a character that's heavily implied to be Ren, a character from the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V manga, many readers have begun to suspect that the dragon Yami Marik saw was Genesis Omega Dragon.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Zarc's portrayal in the fanfic in general. Thanks to his amnesia and Yuya's influence, he undergoes Adaptational Heroism and is an overall pleasant person, even becoming a sort of teacher to Yuya while wanting to follow the ideology of You Show Duel School-making everyone smile, as he originally wanted to do before he went postal. Granted, some lingering parts of old "Demon Duelist" self still linger, but it's still nice to get to know the person Zarc could have been for ourselves.
  • Ray's inclusion into the Akaba family and the for-want-of-a-nails she causes, one of which being Reira having a much happier disposition as we see in Scale 12.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • During the rematch between Yuzu and Masumi in episode 29, Sora made a comment on how the outcome will be different since he was the one who taught Yuzu the mechanics of Fusion Summoning. When Masumi calls him out on this, he merely dismisses her and tells her that LDS and its Fusion course isn't as great as she thinks it is. Then, in anger by this, she immediately wants to duel HIM, which then causes Sora to lament what a waste of time it would be, since he'll end up hurting her confidence even more. Cue their duel in Scale 7, and you can guess what happens for Masumi when she duels against him.
  • Scale 10 introduces Entermate King Odd-Eyes Dragon, a Ritual-Pendulum monster and the first of its kind. As fate would have it, however, Konami revealed Odd-Eyes Pendulumgraph Dragon, the first-ever Ritual-Pendulum monster in the OCG.
• Nightmare Fuel: Aside from the terrifying moments involving people being turned into cards and the very real threat of dying in a duel, the Rare Hunters mini-arc brings to mind the horror elements from the original YGO manga.
  • In Scale 14 and Scale 15, the Rare Hunters don't just threaten physical violence, they're wholly willing to do it over dueling. Case in point in Scale 15 where Yuzu is kidnapped, Gongenzaka fights a bunch of people wielding actual weapons and one of Houjou's lackeys attempts to knock Sawatari out with a taser.
  • Scale 16 one-ups the previous chapters by showing the lengths the leader of the Rare Hunters is willing to go. To start, he kidnaps Shuzo and all but burns You Show Duel School to the ground while dueling Sora, leaving him hospitalized. And when Yuya and co. find him, they see Shuzo suspended over a shark tank. The platform the leader is standing on is also designed so that only two people can stand on it. If more than two people are on it, they'll be swimming with the sharks.
    • Halfway through the duel in Scale 16, it quickly becomes clear that, despite Solid Vision not being used, some monsters attacks actual deal damage to Zarc. With the revelation that Zarc's dueling Yami Marik, and the final line in the first half of Scale 16, it becomes clear that Zarc's not participating in a duel so much as he is a Shadow Game.
      Yami Marik: The Shadow Realm awaits you!
  • Near the tail end of the duel in Scale 16, readers are treated to Zarc's Heroic Second Wind...only it's not what they're hoping for. Why? Because he's reverted to his Demon Duelist mindset. What makes this even worse is the effect it has on Zarc's fragment. The moment Zarc reverts to his former personality, he causes all four of them to enter an Awakened state and mutter "We will become one." If that isn't bad enough, Zarc has his own Synchronization with the Dragon Boys in the form of Resonance Mode, which not only has him take their skills and abilities and make them his own, but it also has the potential of making the Supreme King Dragon himself revive in full. Is it any wonder why Ray's having a Freak Out?
• Shocking Moments:
  • The duel with Yuzu and Yaiba. Yuzu showing off Ritual Summoning was one thing, but Yaiba demonstrating Xyz Summoning? No one saw that coming!
  • Scale 10's climactic conclusion. Absolutely no one expected to see Yuya summons the first-ever Ritual-Pendulum, much less the Good Counterpart to Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon — Entermate King Odd-Eyes Dragon.
  • Scale 11. Show of hands, who would have expected Shun, the man who despises Fusion with a passion, to Fusion Summon?
• Unexpected Character:
  • Ray's inclusion in the story was shocking enough, but Joey making an appearance as a new student of You Show? Nobody saw that coming, especially since they're from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series pre-GX.
  • Scale 15 takes the surprising reveal at the end of Scale 13 up a notch by introducing another character from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series: Marik Ishtar, who is the Big Bad of the Rare Hunters mini-arc. Even moreso when Word of God confirms in Scale 16 it's the original Yami Marik, who is somehow Back from the Dead and is inhabiting the Standard Dimension's version of Marik.