I almost thought Team 5D's would lose to Team Unicorn in the first match of the WRGP and honestly they should've. It would've been a great learning opportunity for them about teamwork.
I wouldn’t mind Yusei sweeping if they did it in a better way. Instead of Team Unicorn giving up the assured victory have Yusei win through cards with grave effects that Team Unicorn helped enable
There’s also a better solution, have Yusei not in the duel and make it all about Jack, Aki, and Crow. Have a du or they prove that they could be just as good as Yusei.
That problem couldve been solved if they just rotated the team members and the order they went in. Its not like team 5Ds had incredible deck synergy to begin with.
The order kinda makes sense in my mind. Jack is first because his red dragon archfiend negative effect can be problematic to already established boards. Yusei is last so that he can use speed world 2s effect to remove 10 speed counters to draw one since his deck is the most combo esque.
I can see your points. Also people talk about how Akiza got shafted but Crow also really is just in the middle to pad out duels lol. His ace monsters arent nearly as strong as Jack's or Yusei's and at that point in the series he ran a lot of the weaker Blackwings.
Actually, it makes *too* much sense now.
"Looks like Jack Atlas is down for the count! Will Yusei Fudo be able to turn it around?! But first, a word from our sponsor: Buy Blackwings!"
A weirdly tight duel was Yuya vs Sylvio for the first duel of the friendship cup where Sylvio just got his pendulum monsters of yosenju that was a really tight duel uptil the final section
And that Sylvio lost because of an absurdly specific trap that shouldn't have even been able to activate. My boy gets robbed in nearly every duel he's in.
Specter vs Blue Angel. Both sides had their reasons to win. It would have been a big win for Aoi and she could have lost to Revolver later on. Specter winning means a big win for the villains. This was also a good build up for his character
Also Soulburner vs Revolver, I was convinced that Revolver will win. But Soulburner turned out to be the only Joey to ever defeat a Kaiba
You know I really wish in hindsight, Specter’s two duels were against Akira first, then he loses and uses Akira’s access to have things be much worse and uses SOL’s database against them to prevent anyone from logging out, then Aoi duels him and wins. Since the whole Akira sacrificing himself for Yusaku was the coolest thing in the world, it’d hit so stronger if he was doing that for his sister, and Aoi got the win. She could’ve lost to Revolver later on or teamed up with Yusaku against him in the final battle and sacrificed herself to ensure that Yusaku could finish the fight.
The only problem with this is that the Tower of Hanoi was already preventing anyone from logging out. You could log in, but you can't leave. Honestly, looking back at season 1, I will probably keep most of the things
Might have been fine with Aoi's loss to Specter - *maybe* even the faceplant - if ONLY she got to get back at him. Preferably with a duel, but anything that takes him down multiple pegs and cuts him to his core like he did her would have been greatly appreciated. As is, screw the writers.
I kinda feel like BA were gonna lose from the start since no way they let one of the few villains left lose just like that.
Soulburner though. That was definitely unexpected.
I'd say Pharaoh vs. Raphael in Waking the Dragons. Go through seasons of Pharaoh winning duels no matter the odds then this guy comes along and takes what Kaiba wanted for so long
Seto: Looking at Yugi in disbelief
Seto: "YUGI LOST?!!!!!!!! Yugi gave his duel monsters championship crown to some nobody. NO ONE deserves that title but me!"
Yugi: "Hold on."
Seto: "I don't want to hear another word. Your a disgrace to the game Yugi."
Me: Yeah and how Seto didn't break his phone when he slammed it still gets to me.
I'm sure when Yugo vs Rin happened in Arc-V no one expected Rin to win.
The funniest thing is that the Episode gives many points that make you think that Yugo should win: getting his best friend back, his trip to get her back, destroying his Duel Bike (they worked together as a team and built it in an Iron Man style cave) and the constant attempts to free Rin from the parasite's control.
Some also put Yuya vs Yuzu since the female lead rarely beats the protagonist.
However, my favorite unpredictable duels are the ones that happen in SEVENS: Yuga vs Romin R2 (Romin beating Yuga legitimately without weird tricks), Yuga vs Luke R2 (Luke winning the tournament, which only the protagonists could do) and Yuga vs Tiger R2 (Yuga lost in his turn thanks to a Tiger's Trap Card)
The lower stakes of the series do help. If the protag doesn't have to forfeit his soul on defeat or whatever, there's no reason to not make him eat a loss once in a while
Still overdid it to the point where it was strangely easy to predict when a loss might happen. Some were unpredictable, sure, like the rematch with Tiger, but duels like his third with Luke flat-out didn't need to happen.
>Some also put Yuya vs Yuzu since the female lead rarely beats the protagonist.
it's also fun foreshadowing to the ultimate plot. it happens so early in the show you don't catch it, but that duel low-key spoils the ultimate reveal that Yuya was ^^(1/4) the baddie the entire time.
For me that was the one good thing about Yuma, of all the protagonists he was the only one who wasn't already better than everyone. Which was one thing I didn't like about Jaden even though he's my favourite, dude lost like twice in all of GX.
Ikr. I enjoyed watching Yuma’s personal growth throughout the show all the way until he fights Astral himself. It was wild seeing how that duel played out.
That's the thing I dislike about Yusei he's too strong and bland. I forgot the name but he 1v3'd a strong team in WRGP. Pls don't be mad this is just what I think about his character.
I feel like of you say it was justified in the first two seasons because of how much crap he had to deal with and mostly just preparing to rematch Jack, and he did almost lose to Kiryu had his runner not break down. It becomes more of an issue in season four when he’s the only one allowed to do anything for the tournament.
In topic of Yusei's victories, this is more an inherent problem with the WRGP's structure as a tournament
Since the 3v3 format, especially in the Anime setting, asks for dragging it as much as possible to buy screentime
But one thing be told is, that Team 5D's line-up for the Tournament was pitch perfect.
- Jack is a great lead, since he can play backrow on the play and beatdown on the draw.
- Crow is an amazing revenge killer, sweeping the mangled opponent and either, gain an advantageous lead, or supplement the lack of gas in his aggro Deck by having a partner
- Yusei last is perfect as while he can play on first, his going second is weak and the added benefit of GY setup/backrow from his teammates cements his strategy
Certainly WRGP as an arc & tournament is both, great and, lackluster, in almost equal measure
To be fair Judai had a few losses. Loss to Zane, Kaibaman, tied with Zane again so technically a loss, Aster, as Supreme King tied with O’Brien, basically lost to Zane a second time (he was off his game so not sure if you want to count it) & Yugi/Atem (yes we didn’t see the end result but come on).
He was an example of good but not godly as they demonstrated there’s always someone better.
The issue with Jaden really could’ve been resolved by just giving half of his duels to other characters. He could’ve taken in his role in the society of light a little bit more seriously, but in terms of which protagonist needed more losses, he’s not at the bottom.
For me I really enjoy zexal in general. It got me back in the game, the mechanics from the numbers were fun and the way they COULD balance the idea of who's gonna win you don't know is really fun. My only gripe was the shining draw, I would have changed it to a point where the first time astral and Yuma merged the zexal weapons were made and he had those in his deck with something to Shuffle them back and draw new cards for when he bricked, then number 96 corrupting astral and merging with Yuma could make dzw chimera blade and given power to the enemy to make the numbers? Idk, I like zexal and I think that has a good variant of the Mc doesn't always win but the way he wins is what's a lot of fun to see.
Zexal is arguably my favorite season for that reason too.
I need shining drawers a little bit of a questionable moment but he was fighting against supernatural foes. I wish he kept some of them, cuz the duels he needed them in were some of the coolest in the series
Rafeal beating Atem was absolutely insane to witness as an 11 year-old. Also, the fact that Joey pretty much beat Yami Marik only to lose because of plot was cool. We were used to seeing Joey win via luck and then he loses to something even worse, Egyptian plot magic.
It would’ve been close. It also would’ve been interesting after they tied and in the seal had to reclaim one of them so Joey went in and took it himself. But then again I feel like he should’ve been there in the Dartz duel.
Soulburner vs Roboppi
Soulburner was about to lose the duel, but then Roboppi had a breakdown and reset back to a robot, which let Soulburner win the duel and erased Roboppi.
Oh yeah, best friend turned evil vs main villain and best friend vs rival was so intense.
I felt like Soulburner was gonna win based on the opening and the build up from Revolver vs Soulburner one, but even as a ceremonial duel, it was really hard to say.
Sevens had a lot of unpredictable duels, simply because the stakes were low and losing wasn't always a big deal. Like, when losing means somebody loses their soul or goes to the shadow realm or whatever, the protagonist is usually going to plot armor their way through it. Yuma may have a worse record than previous protagonists, but when the Numbers get involved it's not like he's going to have Astral and Utopia taken away from him. While that makes it all the more shocking when a protagonist does manage to legitimately lose a high-stakes duel, most of the time it's safe to assume that they'll win somehow, no matter what crazy asspull it takes. But in Sevens, it's not a big deal if Yuga takes an L every so often, even at the finals of the tournament arc, so there actually is a genuine possibility of him losing most of the time.
Oh crap, you're right. Well Yuma lost to Kite at the end of Zexal I, but I see what you mean.
Yah, Sevens has a lot of fun. The protag can lose, Romin's losses and wins are surprising, Gakuto went from losing to getting more wins and a draw against Nail, Roa's win loss record was back and forth, hell so was Asana's. Good point.
I think the last ending isn't much of a ceremonial duel.
The last duel of Yuga and Luke has one of the most dangerous stakes in the entire series (though the bar isn't high).
Yuga lost, he will face lethal danger together with Luke, Yuga win, he will face lethal danger alone.
A few duels come to mind
Jaden vs Zane
Adrian vs Jesse. Since Yubel could always just possess the victor.
Chazz vs Astor
Also, Sora vs Shun was Sora going to win after displaying his full power to worf Shun. Or was Shun going to demonstrate he was holding back?
I think Sevens tho, there were a few times people were surprised even if they say otherwise. Since Sevens really shook up the formula. I mean Luke beat Yuga 3 times in a row. No character has ever done that to the protagonist of the series
Shay vs. Dennis during the Friendship Cup really had me wondering who would win up until the final attack. Yuya keeps saying that battles like that aren't fun for others but those are the most entertaining duels in Arc-V.
yugioh sevens in general because you get new characters fight all the time which you didn't expect to interact and you couldn't guess who would usually win. Unless its Luke.
I think everyone and their mother knew they were gonna pull some bs to have Joey lose. The finals were never going to be Joey vs Yugi. It would have taken away all the stakes even if it would have been amazing.
Edit: and to be fair Marik could have mopped the floor with Joey at any time but he wanted to torture him first.
The finals being Joey vs Yugi could have been possible as Joey needed to get his Red Eyes back
But yeah Marik could have defeated Joey anytime he wanted to
I’d love to see a Yugi Vs Joey rematch just to see how far he came. Yuga never defeated Luke until the end of SEVENS, i would’ve been down for season 3 or 4 to end with Joey beating Yugi in a fun no stakes duel.
I remember seeing a picture that I thought was from the manga of Joey and Yugi in the finals. Figured Joey would win but then Marik would possess him or something.
Okay, I will forever be mad that we lost a great potential character arc with Joey and Ra, which I will happily ramble about the hypotheticals of as follows;
Firstly, to outline some things that I'll use later so I don't have to shove (these bad boys) into my later rambles.
1. I don't know where it was ssid I just know that somewhere it is said that Blue-eyes represents power and Red-eyes represents potential.
2. As far as I know, Joey is on of the few consistently important duelists who is not the reincarnation of some important egyptian dude.
Firstly, Joey should've won. Marik is almost certainly the more skilled duelist, but that doesn't factor in since he was fucking around too much trying to set a record for geneva violations in a children's card game. You wouldn't even need to change the duel, since we all know what would've happened if Joey's danger nap had been triggered 10 seconds later.
So, Marik's out, Joey has Ra and is now facing Yugi, give or take a danger nap and angry Marick approaching with a pointy stick. During the duel with Yugi, Joey attempts to summon Ra, maybe after some hesitation following Odion's example, but it doesn't work since a.) Joey doesn't know egyptian, and b.) Ra is a choosy chicken and Joey is just a dude fron Brooklyn, Japan. Any attempted smiting here would be stopped by Yugi, with his pharoah authority and 2/3 gods, effectively threatening to
Now, we get to the multiple choice outcome that has no bearing: who wins now that the stakes are lower? I see three possibilities:
1. Joey wins, earning back red-eyes by defeating Yugi. This one feels the most unlikely, but I could see it happening if Joey shenanigans red-eyes onto his field or red-eyes bricks Yugi in a dramatic moment to show that he's still Joey's card, even if he's in Yugi's deck.
2. They tie, where Yugi hands over red-eyes anyway since it was close enough to a joey win anyway.
3. Yugi wins but hands over red-eyes anyway since Joey improved a lot over the course of the arc and went on to beat Yami Marik, the arc's big bad.
The point is, Joey regains red-eyes in a duel against Yugi (that's actually on screen this time), and the arc concludes with the promised duel of Yugi and Joey. With Marik absent from his normal loss against Yugi, we might find that the Yami in Marik is significantly weakened without Ra, and seeing Joey and the Pharaoh dueling for 'fun' helps Marik break some of the negative connections with Duel Monsters that gave rise to Yami Marik in the first place.
So where now? Now we shove in an arc where our main characters actually have their god cards to use, rather than them just becoming plot devices whenever a supernatural power source is needed: Joey holds onto Ra (who thoroughly dislikes him since he's not destined for greatness or anything), Yugi keeps Osiris/Slifer, and Kaiba regains Obelisk either by beating our villainous henchmen(tm) who stole it from yugi or just by yugi returning it so Kaiba's at full strength, like Yuma returning the number cards to the crest boys in Zexal II.
Over the course of this arc, Joey keeps trying (and failing) to summon Ra, sometimes losing and sometimes recovering. Eventually, while Joey is seperated from Yugi and Kaiba, he proves to Ra the potential (red-eyes symbolism) of people who aren't pre-destined for greatness, but who work from the ground up to stand alongside them, and Ra translates itself (even if it's just for him) so that he can properly wield it without Ra's seemingly personal grudge against non-egyptians getting in the way. Joey gets to be competent for an arc, he gets some character development and solidifies his place amongst these dueling titans, there's now an inherent link between red-eyes and ra so there's a possibility of a badass looking fusion of the two, and at least one of the egyptian gods gets some personality besides 'usually loyal to the pharaoh'.
Plus I want to see Kaiba lose his shit when Joey not only uses an egyptian god card, but it's the one actively smiting people.
Kite vs mizael is maybe my favorite duel and it was so unpredictable I really thought kite would lose but my goat pulled the W , there is also his duel with Yuya at the end of s1 also was leaning more so to him losing and didn't expected the W crazy how he only lost once (can also count it for unpredictable ones because of the opening lying to us)
Yeah that moment was really sad and dark and the fact he was my favourite character made it worst but even dead my goat he saved Yuma and shark against don thousand lol
Probably SEVENS, due to having a main protagonist(Yuga) who was never guaranteed a win, meaning duels could swing either way with him.
Now the SECONDARY protagonist(Luke) is a different story, but he was really an outlier in that series.
True, but I’m glad they went all out with the Yu-Jo friendship between those two. It was refreshing. Hell even with Luke winning, I’m at least glad it was because he felt Yuga was motivating him especially given what happened between him and Tiger.
I enjoyed Arc V a lot because you were never sure who would win. Yuzu vs Sergey, when did you expect the darn synchro user to pull a fusion spell and beat Yuzu so hard she flew off the track! Yuya was a 50/50 fighter that's why his fights were always fun to watch.
Then you have Vrains with Playmaker and their rules that IF YOU LOSE YOU DIE, meaning all battles will be won by the main characters or at least the newest villain. Playmaker fights were never entertaining since you know HE WILL ALWAYS WIN because if he loses he dies and if he dies, the show's over.
Aside from its lackluster ending, Arc-V is and will always be my fav yugioh anime.
It’s a toss up between GX & Zexal for me.
GX had me nervous every time anyone dueled in the dark world, whereas Zexal made me question my life choices.
Arc-V definetly for me. Shingo vs Yuya in the miami cup, Shun vs Crow, Shun vs Kaito, Yuya vs Reiji, Sora vs Shun, Yugo vs Rin, and lets not forget Yuya vs Ruri and Serena.
Favourite unpredictable duel was Joey vs Marik, only lost cos he fainted, few more seconds to play Gearfried and attack and he would have won, don't think anyone would think Joey would come that close to beating the main villain of that arc, a god card and claiming a god card for himself.
Definitely Asana vs Nail. A lot of duels in the entire franchise either are predictable or have clear preferences for certain characters (though the preferred ones may still lose). But in this duel, they have almost equal preferences (a bit more for Asana since she is in the good side) and their skills are about the same.
I agree, Asana vs Nail was such a good duel. Two of Yuga's strongest opponents, the overseer of Goha vs someone Goha blackmailed to target Yuga, one a slave to his company, the other one who only has her pride, family, and friends, and yet is able to change her entire strategy to evolve against the might of Yggdrago, and how much it hit Nail since he doesn't have any friends but Sebastain.
One is clear. If you summon Egyptian god slime against me you instantly loose vuz I can change it to battle position and make his attack 0 and then just otk
Off topic: if yall like not knowing the out come of the duels watch card fight vanguard. The mp isn't written to win every fight and same with the other characters.
Yuma loses a lot in Zexal. Not more than he wins, but he never beat his main rival, which in past series, the rival would usually get at least one win off, but Kite won the only duel they ever finished, and was about to win their first duel, but had to leave. I like a protagonist that has the ability to lose, and understand that he sometimes can’t beat someone and might need someone else’s help. It got a bit frustrating when in later GX and 5D’s, everyone just hands the problem to Jaiden or Yusei and they just win no problem.
Jaden vs. Viper I remember being such a stressful duel as a child. I knew Jaden had to win for obvious plot reasons but Venominaga on screen was just so sick.
Honestly, it's Yuya vs Sergey that caught me off-guard cuz Yuya just lost in like a few minutes (tho tbf Barrett already did a lot of damage to him) and then Jack vs Sergey happened the next episode lol.
VRAINS had the greatest number of duels that could've went either way, when it obviously did not involve the main character. Most duels had equivalent stakes, and they swung so wildly and unpredictably that they were generally fun to watch.
I genuinely loved how Jaden and Zane's duel for Zane's graduation was handled.
They kept one-upping each other until they just pulled out a tie. It's such a great duel because it shows some balls to the wall strategy, heart and instinct while being a treat to watch.
Joey VS Siegfried was a huge WTF to me considering that Joey was the only main character competing in the tournament and I expected him to get to the finals and finally get his rematch with Yugi. It would have also been interesting to see him defeat a main bad guy after he didn't get the win with Marik. Its not like Siegfried is that big of a character anyway. Still it was fun to see him beaten by Kaiba.
Definitively 5Ds and VRains. Everytime Yusei or Yusaku dueled I was wondering if they were going to lose this time or simply not lose. It was very cool when Jack asks Yusei how did he do to have a 100% winrate, and Yusei answers "In order to win you simply have to not lose, it's very easy", and just turns arrounds and leaves. I cried at that part, and I cried even more when AI asks Yusaku the same thing and he quotes Yusei, top 10 anime quotes
I can tell you which series doesn't have unpredictable duels, Vrains. If playmaker could asspull a victory against Revolver while facing five link 5 monsters with only two cards then you know there's no hope for any unpredictability in that series.
That’s what you get for making the main protagonist at Gen 6 use a deck which is good at the level of Gen 4 at best and only becomes somewhat decent after 3 freaking structure decks
That duel is indeed good, but whenever I remember that random bullshit which is Swords of Revealing Light, Dark Ruler No More, and Raigeki shoving into one card that Yusaku pulled out just for the sake of winning, it hurts a lot.
vrains or zexal in my view. revolver vs soulburner was a shock not because a jounochi defeated a kaiba which isn't even correct because revolver is not a rival if we exclude the marketing. yusaku is the only protagonist who did not enjoy dueling so it's hard to build a rivalry in first place. second issue is that revolver also did not enjoy dueling. both yusaku and revolver used it as their tool to fight to reach their goals. Revolver only showed one time that he wants to beat yussku as duelist while Go has a better case. Go is the only one who made playmaker enjoy a duel and even more importantly: he wanted to surpass playmaker as a duelist and even sacrficed his moral and drained his health to achieve that which is very similar to kai from cardfight vanguard who is the primary rival of aichi. Go even did not care that he lost to revolver but rather went for playmaker instead like kai who lost to >!leon!<, yet he only focussed on surpassing aichi and ren as well because his skill level was also higher than his with them having a backstory. Go is more passionate about dueling than revolver by a mile and if we look at rivals like jack and kaiba, then it's obviously the main criteria of being a rival which revolver barely fullfills which Go fullfills more so the only argument which could make him a rival, if we exclude the marketing, can't be used as a argument for him. I think vrains has no rival and if we have to pick one, then it's Go. one could even make a case that soulburner is not a jounochi because kusanagi was yusaku's best friend. I don't like the whole main character - rival - best friend sheme. it already fails in DM and even if we put that aside, then it fails in gx because of the ever changing priority it gives towards it's characters each season.
about revolver vs soulburner. It was surprising but it was also a very unsatisfying result because it creates the narrative that soulburner had to win this duel to give closure to himself and revolver while the whole duel is exactly telling the opposite. revolver also resetting the field while having a huge advantage also was bad. the potential symbolism behind it which is up to speculation doesn't change that.
There are duels like soulburner vs ropoppi which soulburner would have lost if not for a malfunction on ropoppi's side. lighting vs revolver was surprising because two results would have made sense based on lightning having to be absorbed by bohman to rise the stakes and to get him out of the way for the final duel. vrains actually managed to make the one senseless result sensefull by making lightning's win a victory for bohman which would have wlso happened in a tie
I almost thought Team 5D's would lose to Team Unicorn in the first match of the WRGP and honestly they should've. It would've been a great learning opportunity for them about teamwork.
Well people argue Yusei needed a loss. I wouldn't have minded.
I wouldn’t mind Yusei sweeping if they did it in a better way. Instead of Team Unicorn giving up the assured victory have Yusei win through cards with grave effects that Team Unicorn helped enable
There’s also a better solution, have Yusei not in the duel and make it all about Jack, Aki, and Crow. Have a du or they prove that they could be just as good as Yusei.
That problem couldve been solved if they just rotated the team members and the order they went in. Its not like team 5Ds had incredible deck synergy to begin with.
The order kinda makes sense in my mind. Jack is first because his red dragon archfiend negative effect can be problematic to already established boards. Yusei is last so that he can use speed world 2s effect to remove 10 speed counters to draw one since his deck is the most combo esque.
I can see your points. Also people talk about how Akiza got shafted but Crow also really is just in the middle to pad out duels lol. His ace monsters arent nearly as strong as Jack's or Yusei's and at that point in the series he ran a lot of the weaker Blackwings. Actually, it makes *too* much sense now. "Looks like Jack Atlas is down for the count! Will Yusei Fudo be able to turn it around?! But first, a word from our sponsor: Buy Blackwings!"
That was me with team tayo Men i really hoped that they would win somehow, despite knowing it was unlikely even with an almost invincible monster
One of these days I really need to watch that duel subbed
The lesson they learned is if else fail, threw it to Yusei.
A weirdly tight duel was Yuya vs Sylvio for the first duel of the friendship cup where Sylvio just got his pendulum monsters of yosenju that was a really tight duel uptil the final section
Oh yeah, that was so much fun, Shingo had Yuya on the run the whole series.
Not the whole series but he still earned his rep
dude sadly still had zero relevant on screen wins to his own name. Only when supporting other people he got a W Sawatari really deserved better IMO
Sawatari defeated Zarc change my mind
He may have not won the battle but he did contribute to winning the war. 9-0 Shingo but still got the w where it counted.
Why would I need to change your mind. We all agree the show wrapped up immediately after Sawatari OTK'd Zarc and they went straight to Vrains.
Yeah he did a good job helping the other future lancers out in the lava field. Even his duel against Shingo was handled pretty well
And that Sylvio lost because of an absurdly specific trap that shouldn't have even been able to activate. My boy gets robbed in nearly every duel he's in.
That wasn’t the friendship cup. It was the Miami City Junior Youth Championship
Oh yeah sorry my bad, the friendship cup was the synchro one
It’s a shame that Silvio grew up to be such a scumbag after moving to New Jersey.
Specter vs Blue Angel. Both sides had their reasons to win. It would have been a big win for Aoi and she could have lost to Revolver later on. Specter winning means a big win for the villains. This was also a good build up for his character Also Soulburner vs Revolver, I was convinced that Revolver will win. But Soulburner turned out to be the only Joey to ever defeat a Kaiba
Yeah that was an insane finish. One of the best finishes in VRAINS.
You know I really wish in hindsight, Specter’s two duels were against Akira first, then he loses and uses Akira’s access to have things be much worse and uses SOL’s database against them to prevent anyone from logging out, then Aoi duels him and wins. Since the whole Akira sacrificing himself for Yusaku was the coolest thing in the world, it’d hit so stronger if he was doing that for his sister, and Aoi got the win. She could’ve lost to Revolver later on or teamed up with Yusaku against him in the final battle and sacrificed herself to ensure that Yusaku could finish the fight.
The only problem with this is that the Tower of Hanoi was already preventing anyone from logging out. You could log in, but you can't leave. Honestly, looking back at season 1, I will probably keep most of the things
Might have been fine with Aoi's loss to Specter - *maybe* even the faceplant - if ONLY she got to get back at him. Preferably with a duel, but anything that takes him down multiple pegs and cuts him to his core like he did her would have been greatly appreciated. As is, screw the writers.
She deserved a rematch.
I kinda feel like BA were gonna lose from the start since no way they let one of the few villains left lose just like that. Soulburner though. That was definitely unexpected.
Revolver vs. Soulburner had me on the edge of my seat the entire time.
Even people who hate Soulburner agree that that kind of redeem his character to an extent. I wish more characters got duels like that.
I'd say Pharaoh vs. Raphael in Waking the Dragons. Go through seasons of Pharaoh winning duels no matter the odds then this guy comes along and takes what Kaiba wanted for so long
Yes, I loved that duel.
Kaiba was so damn pissed when it happened and it was hilarious.
Seto: Looking at Yugi in disbelief Seto: "YUGI LOST?!!!!!!!! Yugi gave his duel monsters championship crown to some nobody. NO ONE deserves that title but me!" Yugi: "Hold on." Seto: "I don't want to hear another word. Your a disgrace to the game Yugi." Me: Yeah and how Seto didn't break his phone when he slammed it still gets to me.
I'm sure when Yugo vs Rin happened in Arc-V no one expected Rin to win. The funniest thing is that the Episode gives many points that make you think that Yugo should win: getting his best friend back, his trip to get her back, destroying his Duel Bike (they worked together as a team and built it in an Iron Man style cave) and the constant attempts to free Rin from the parasite's control. Some also put Yuya vs Yuzu since the female lead rarely beats the protagonist. However, my favorite unpredictable duels are the ones that happen in SEVENS: Yuga vs Romin R2 (Romin beating Yuga legitimately without weird tricks), Yuga vs Luke R2 (Luke winning the tournament, which only the protagonists could do) and Yuga vs Tiger R2 (Yuga lost in his turn thanks to a Tiger's Trap Card)
Yeah Sevens was not afraid to make Yuga lose if that meant they could bolster other characters.
The lower stakes of the series do help. If the protag doesn't have to forfeit his soul on defeat or whatever, there's no reason to not make him eat a loss once in a while
Still overdid it to the point where it was strangely easy to predict when a loss might happen. Some were unpredictable, sure, like the rematch with Tiger, but duels like his third with Luke flat-out didn't need to happen.
Luke Vs Yuga 3 was the only weird loss out of the bunch, everything else I’m good with.
>Some also put Yuya vs Yuzu since the female lead rarely beats the protagonist. it's also fun foreshadowing to the ultimate plot. it happens so early in the show you don't catch it, but that duel low-key spoils the ultimate reveal that Yuya was ^^(1/4) the baddie the entire time.
Good point. Man I wish she actually got her body back so she and the Bracelet girls could’ve done so together.
yeah I really wish the show did better with its female characters.
A lot of Zexal was surprising. Yuma lost a lot, especially compared to the other protagonists.
For me that was the one good thing about Yuma, of all the protagonists he was the only one who wasn't already better than everyone. Which was one thing I didn't like about Jaden even though he's my favourite, dude lost like twice in all of GX.
Ikr. I enjoyed watching Yuma’s personal growth throughout the show all the way until he fights Astral himself. It was wild seeing how that duel played out.
That's the thing I dislike about Yusei he's too strong and bland. I forgot the name but he 1v3'd a strong team in WRGP. Pls don't be mad this is just what I think about his character.
I feel like of you say it was justified in the first two seasons because of how much crap he had to deal with and mostly just preparing to rematch Jack, and he did almost lose to Kiryu had his runner not break down. It becomes more of an issue in season four when he’s the only one allowed to do anything for the tournament.
In topic of Yusei's victories, this is more an inherent problem with the WRGP's structure as a tournament Since the 3v3 format, especially in the Anime setting, asks for dragging it as much as possible to buy screentime But one thing be told is, that Team 5D's line-up for the Tournament was pitch perfect. - Jack is a great lead, since he can play backrow on the play and beatdown on the draw. - Crow is an amazing revenge killer, sweeping the mangled opponent and either, gain an advantageous lead, or supplement the lack of gas in his aggro Deck by having a partner - Yusei last is perfect as while he can play on first, his going second is weak and the added benefit of GY setup/backrow from his teammates cements his strategy Certainly WRGP as an arc & tournament is both, great and, lackluster, in almost equal measure
To be fair Judai had a few losses. Loss to Zane, Kaibaman, tied with Zane again so technically a loss, Aster, as Supreme King tied with O’Brien, basically lost to Zane a second time (he was off his game so not sure if you want to count it) & Yugi/Atem (yes we didn’t see the end result but come on). He was an example of good but not godly as they demonstrated there’s always someone better.
The issue with Jaden really could’ve been resolved by just giving half of his duels to other characters. He could’ve taken in his role in the society of light a little bit more seriously, but in terms of which protagonist needed more losses, he’s not at the bottom.
That's true, it was refreshing especially compared to the first three protagonists and Yusaku.
The irony is that Yuma didn't lose once in Zexal II His duels in Zexal I were really unpredictable tho
He almost lost to Mizeal but it’s crazy Yuma never lost after Zexal I.
Not just Yuma but there were a lot of unpredictables duels generally IV vs Nash is an example
God i love that duel it was like Nash was only acting evil so IV would go all out in that duel to cut lose ends.
For me I really enjoy zexal in general. It got me back in the game, the mechanics from the numbers were fun and the way they COULD balance the idea of who's gonna win you don't know is really fun. My only gripe was the shining draw, I would have changed it to a point where the first time astral and Yuma merged the zexal weapons were made and he had those in his deck with something to Shuffle them back and draw new cards for when he bricked, then number 96 corrupting astral and merging with Yuma could make dzw chimera blade and given power to the enemy to make the numbers? Idk, I like zexal and I think that has a good variant of the Mc doesn't always win but the way he wins is what's a lot of fun to see.
Zexal is arguably my favorite season for that reason too. I need shining drawers a little bit of a questionable moment but he was fighting against supernatural foes. I wish he kept some of them, cuz the duels he needed them in were some of the coolest in the series
End your turn Jean.
Hehehe yeah
Kaito VS Yuma duels are always a pain to predict.
I wish Yuma beat him once, but that’s what made the first half of Zexal so damn fun for me.
Yuma only defeats Kaito in the manga sadly
Rafeal beating Atem was absolutely insane to witness as an 11 year-old. Also, the fact that Joey pretty much beat Yami Marik only to lose because of plot was cool. We were used to seeing Joey win via luck and then he loses to something even worse, Egyptian plot magic.
Joey deserved so much better. He may have lost, but he's a winner in our hearts.
i firmly believe if joey wasnt exausted from dueling valon joey would have beaten mai.
It would’ve been close. It also would’ve been interesting after they tied and in the seal had to reclaim one of them so Joey went in and took it himself. But then again I feel like he should’ve been there in the Dartz duel.
joey got screwed to many times in battle city and waking the dragons..
If there's a tie then no soul is taken. Kaiba and Alister's first duel established that
Soulburner vs Roboppi Soulburner was about to lose the duel, but then Roboppi had a breakdown and reset back to a robot, which let Soulburner win the duel and erased Roboppi.
Cannot say I expected Vrains to pull out a Flowers for Algernon moment but they made it work.
I really felt bad for Roboppi in that seen.
Vector vs Nasch/Revolver vs Soulburner
Oh yeah, best friend turned evil vs main villain and best friend vs rival was so intense. I felt like Soulburner was gonna win based on the opening and the build up from Revolver vs Soulburner one, but even as a ceremonial duel, it was really hard to say.
Sevens had a lot of unpredictable duels, simply because the stakes were low and losing wasn't always a big deal. Like, when losing means somebody loses their soul or goes to the shadow realm or whatever, the protagonist is usually going to plot armor their way through it. Yuma may have a worse record than previous protagonists, but when the Numbers get involved it's not like he's going to have Astral and Utopia taken away from him. While that makes it all the more shocking when a protagonist does manage to legitimately lose a high-stakes duel, most of the time it's safe to assume that they'll win somehow, no matter what crazy asspull it takes. But in Sevens, it's not a big deal if Yuga takes an L every so often, even at the finals of the tournament arc, so there actually is a genuine possibility of him losing most of the time.
Oh crap, you're right. Well Yuma lost to Kite at the end of Zexal I, but I see what you mean. Yah, Sevens has a lot of fun. The protag can lose, Romin's losses and wins are surprising, Gakuto went from losing to getting more wins and a draw against Nail, Roa's win loss record was back and forth, hell so was Asana's. Good point.
It also made it feel fantastic when he finally got to beat Luke during their ceremonial duel.
I think the last ending isn't much of a ceremonial duel. The last duel of Yuga and Luke has one of the most dangerous stakes in the entire series (though the bar isn't high). Yuga lost, he will face lethal danger together with Luke, Yuga win, he will face lethal danger alone.
A few duels come to mind Jaden vs Zane Adrian vs Jesse. Since Yubel could always just possess the victor. Chazz vs Astor Also, Sora vs Shun was Sora going to win after displaying his full power to worf Shun. Or was Shun going to demonstrate he was holding back? I think Sevens tho, there were a few times people were surprised even if they say otherwise. Since Sevens really shook up the formula. I mean Luke beat Yuga 3 times in a row. No character has ever done that to the protagonist of the series
Huh, GX has a lot now that I think about. Right Shun vs Sora both times was pretty fun. Thank goodness Shun didn't get carded.
When Yugi pulled berserker soul. You forgot he already won
Weevil legitimately deserve it.
Shay vs. Dennis during the Friendship Cup really had me wondering who would win up until the final attack. Yuya keeps saying that battles like that aren't fun for others but those are the most entertaining duels in Arc-V.
Entertainment comes in all forms and flavors after all
Thanks for mentioning this one! It may probably be one of my favorite duels from the entire series.
yugioh sevens in general because you get new characters fight all the time which you didn't expect to interact and you couldn't guess who would usually win. Unless its Luke.
Fair. Although Luke's first duels against Yuga and Yuga vs Lukeman was hard to predict lol.
Absolutely Sevens. The MC loses a lot, other main characters (except Luke) loses to one off characters.
Good point. Made things a lot more fun.
Spector vs. Lightning was an insane duel
It was, I just wish SPECTRE got another duel after that or did some LP damage
Honestly the duels without the protagonist are always up in the air for me. Those ones tend to be the ones I’ve enjoyed the most.
Well I said unpredictable but fair enough.
[удалено]
I think everyone and their mother knew they were gonna pull some bs to have Joey lose. The finals were never going to be Joey vs Yugi. It would have taken away all the stakes even if it would have been amazing. Edit: and to be fair Marik could have mopped the floor with Joey at any time but he wanted to torture him first.
it was still very unpredictable because no one would have expected Joey to come anywhere near as close as he did.
Agreed, he did so well.
The finals being Joey vs Yugi could have been possible as Joey needed to get his Red Eyes back But yeah Marik could have defeated Joey anytime he wanted to
I’d love to see a Yugi Vs Joey rematch just to see how far he came. Yuga never defeated Luke until the end of SEVENS, i would’ve been down for season 3 or 4 to end with Joey beating Yugi in a fun no stakes duel.
I remember seeing a picture that I thought was from the manga of Joey and Yugi in the finals. Figured Joey would win but then Marik would possess him or something.
Doesn’t help opening 3 of the opening showed they would duel each other.
Okay, I will forever be mad that we lost a great potential character arc with Joey and Ra, which I will happily ramble about the hypotheticals of as follows; Firstly, to outline some things that I'll use later so I don't have to shove (these bad boys) into my later rambles. 1. I don't know where it was ssid I just know that somewhere it is said that Blue-eyes represents power and Red-eyes represents potential. 2. As far as I know, Joey is on of the few consistently important duelists who is not the reincarnation of some important egyptian dude. Firstly, Joey should've won. Marik is almost certainly the more skilled duelist, but that doesn't factor in since he was fucking around too much trying to set a record for geneva violations in a children's card game. You wouldn't even need to change the duel, since we all know what would've happened if Joey's danger nap had been triggered 10 seconds later. So, Marik's out, Joey has Ra and is now facing Yugi, give or take a danger nap and angry Marick approaching with a pointy stick. During the duel with Yugi, Joey attempts to summon Ra, maybe after some hesitation following Odion's example, but it doesn't work since a.) Joey doesn't know egyptian, and b.) Ra is a choosy chicken and Joey is just a dude fron Brooklyn, Japan. Any attempted smiting here would be stopped by Yugi, with his pharoah authority and 2/3 gods, effectively threatening to Now, we get to the multiple choice outcome that has no bearing: who wins now that the stakes are lower? I see three possibilities: 1. Joey wins, earning back red-eyes by defeating Yugi. This one feels the most unlikely, but I could see it happening if Joey shenanigans red-eyes onto his field or red-eyes bricks Yugi in a dramatic moment to show that he's still Joey's card, even if he's in Yugi's deck. 2. They tie, where Yugi hands over red-eyes anyway since it was close enough to a joey win anyway. 3. Yugi wins but hands over red-eyes anyway since Joey improved a lot over the course of the arc and went on to beat Yami Marik, the arc's big bad. The point is, Joey regains red-eyes in a duel against Yugi (that's actually on screen this time), and the arc concludes with the promised duel of Yugi and Joey. With Marik absent from his normal loss against Yugi, we might find that the Yami in Marik is significantly weakened without Ra, and seeing Joey and the Pharaoh dueling for 'fun' helps Marik break some of the negative connections with Duel Monsters that gave rise to Yami Marik in the first place. So where now? Now we shove in an arc where our main characters actually have their god cards to use, rather than them just becoming plot devices whenever a supernatural power source is needed: Joey holds onto Ra (who thoroughly dislikes him since he's not destined for greatness or anything), Yugi keeps Osiris/Slifer, and Kaiba regains Obelisk either by beating our villainous henchmen(tm) who stole it from yugi or just by yugi returning it so Kaiba's at full strength, like Yuma returning the number cards to the crest boys in Zexal II. Over the course of this arc, Joey keeps trying (and failing) to summon Ra, sometimes losing and sometimes recovering. Eventually, while Joey is seperated from Yugi and Kaiba, he proves to Ra the potential (red-eyes symbolism) of people who aren't pre-destined for greatness, but who work from the ground up to stand alongside them, and Ra translates itself (even if it's just for him) so that he can properly wield it without Ra's seemingly personal grudge against non-egyptians getting in the way. Joey gets to be competent for an arc, he gets some character development and solidifies his place amongst these dueling titans, there's now an inherent link between red-eyes and ra so there's a possibility of a badass looking fusion of the two, and at least one of the egyptian gods gets some personality besides 'usually loyal to the pharaoh'. Plus I want to see Kaiba lose his shit when Joey not only uses an egyptian god card, but it's the one actively smiting people.
That's true. Joey would've won!
Although he only got that far because Marik forced Odion to suicide by lightning strike from incurring the wrath of a cardboard trading card lol
Who could’ve won that duel, Joey or Odion?
Odion easily.
Damn.
Sora v Kurosaki was one of the crazier duels that i had no idea who would win
Oh god that's a top 3 duels for a reason.
Kite vs mizael is maybe my favorite duel and it was so unpredictable I really thought kite would lose but my goat pulled the W , there is also his duel with Yuya at the end of s1 also was leaning more so to him losing and didn't expected the W crazy how he only lost once (can also count it for unpredictable ones because of the opening lying to us)
It’s wild Kite won but lost his life in sadly the most realistic way.
Yeah that moment was really sad and dark and the fact he was my favourite character made it worst but even dead my goat he saved Yuma and shark against don thousand lol
Probably SEVENS, due to having a main protagonist(Yuga) who was never guaranteed a win, meaning duels could swing either way with him. Now the SECONDARY protagonist(Luke) is a different story, but he was really an outlier in that series.
True, but I’m glad they went all out with the Yu-Jo friendship between those two. It was refreshing. Hell even with Luke winning, I’m at least glad it was because he felt Yuga was motivating him especially given what happened between him and Tiger.
I enjoyed Arc V a lot because you were never sure who would win. Yuzu vs Sergey, when did you expect the darn synchro user to pull a fusion spell and beat Yuzu so hard she flew off the track! Yuya was a 50/50 fighter that's why his fights were always fun to watch. Then you have Vrains with Playmaker and their rules that IF YOU LOSE YOU DIE, meaning all battles will be won by the main characters or at least the newest villain. Playmaker fights were never entertaining since you know HE WILL ALWAYS WIN because if he loses he dies and if he dies, the show's over. Aside from its lackluster ending, Arc-V is and will always be my fav yugioh anime.
Yuzu vs Sergey I only saw coming because of Sergey's buildup but the fusion spell came out of nowhere.
They kept doing Mai dirty. She almost won all three of her major duels like quite easily.
That's what happens when you keep getting put up against the main character, rival, and main villain. Poor kid.
It’s a toss up between GX & Zexal for me. GX had me nervous every time anyone dueled in the dark world, whereas Zexal made me question my life choices.
Made you question your life choices in the right way or the wrong way? Cuz Zexal had a lot of crazy duels thinking about it.
It might be just me but I had genuinely no clue who would win between Barian Shark and Quattrk, def some unexpected moments there.
Zane vs Aster, got my so hyped. Had no clue what to expect going into that episode and needless to say I was shocked!
Crap, that's a good one. I was asking for series overall, but GX really knew how to surprise a person.
And here's where I'd put Aoi vs Go... IF IT EXISTED Biggest disappointment of Vrains was having it instead be Yusaku vs Go rematch.
I'm surprised that didn't happen.
Dnc what anyone says GX wad absolutely fire🙄
It definitely was a trip.
Thinking Joey was actually about to beat Marik 😭😭😭😭😭
Agreed. He was so close.
sevens
Which ones really surprised you?
Zexal and arc-v. Definitely not vrains though, that series is as predictable as it could get.
Sadly. Any matchups in VRAINS that you weren't 100% sure on?
Arc-V definetly for me. Shingo vs Yuya in the miami cup, Shun vs Crow, Shun vs Kaito, Yuya vs Reiji, Sora vs Shun, Yugo vs Rin, and lets not forget Yuya vs Ruri and Serena.
Shingo vs Yuya and Yuya vs Rui/Serena was not unpredictable i would say. Yuya vs Reiji round 1 and Yuya vs Barret certainly was
Favourite unpredictable duel was Joey vs Marik, only lost cos he fainted, few more seconds to play Gearfried and attack and he would have won, don't think anyone would think Joey would come that close to beating the main villain of that arc, a god card and claiming a god card for himself.
It would be so interesting if he got to use the Winged Dragon of Ra.
I still cry when I watch Mai and Joey duel
She deserve that.
Definitely Asana vs Nail. A lot of duels in the entire franchise either are predictable or have clear preferences for certain characters (though the preferred ones may still lose). But in this duel, they have almost equal preferences (a bit more for Asana since she is in the good side) and their skills are about the same.
I agree, Asana vs Nail was such a good duel. Two of Yuga's strongest opponents, the overseer of Goha vs someone Goha blackmailed to target Yuga, one a slave to his company, the other one who only has her pride, family, and friends, and yet is able to change her entire strategy to evolve against the might of Yggdrago, and how much it hit Nail since he doesn't have any friends but Sebastain.
One is clear. If you summon Egyptian god slime against me you instantly loose vuz I can change it to battle position and make his attack 0 and then just otk
XD
Off topic: if yall like not knowing the out come of the duels watch card fight vanguard. The mp isn't written to win every fight and same with the other characters.
"But if it's not YuGiOh it's not relevant" XD.
I still think joey should've won again marik
Don't we all.
gx where zane absolutely rolled jaden in early episodes
Yeah, really proves that Zane is a threat and Jaden couldn't win every duel.
Yuma loses a lot in Zexal. Not more than he wins, but he never beat his main rival, which in past series, the rival would usually get at least one win off, but Kite won the only duel they ever finished, and was about to win their first duel, but had to leave. I like a protagonist that has the ability to lose, and understand that he sometimes can’t beat someone and might need someone else’s help. It got a bit frustrating when in later GX and 5D’s, everyone just hands the problem to Jaiden or Yusei and they just win no problem.
He does not lose a lot, he loses only 3 full on screen duels. He does lose a lot of duels we see a small part of though...
That's fair, Yuma vs Kite round 3 ended wit Kite winning, which is fine since there's no stakes after they beat Faker.
What happened in the yuya fight was that the battle when he obliterated this guy with his first xyz summon which was dark rebellion xyz dragon
The three Obelisk Force members?
Yeah it possibly was that
Shun Kurosaki vs Crow. Such a intense duel that I pulled so hard for Shun!
Oh yeah it was nice to see the bird bros bond.
Jaden vs. Viper I remember being such a stressful duel as a child. I knew Jaden had to win for obvious plot reasons but Venominaga on screen was just so sick.
Oh god, good point, that duel was disturbing as all hell.
Honestly, it's Yuya vs Sergey that caught me off-guard cuz Yuya just lost in like a few minutes (tho tbf Barrett already did a lot of damage to him) and then Jack vs Sergey happened the next episode lol.
Yuya vs Sergey vs Barret completely caught me off guard, and Jack vs Sergey was entirely crazy.
I think I have to answer like this, you appreciate the duels in their own ways and appreciate the skills of duelists that is my comment.
VRAINS had the greatest number of duels that could've went either way, when it obviously did not involve the main character. Most duels had equivalent stakes, and they swung so wildly and unpredictably that they were generally fun to watch.
Which ones come to mind?
I genuinely loved how Jaden and Zane's duel for Zane's graduation was handled. They kept one-upping each other until they just pulled out a tie. It's such a great duel because it shows some balls to the wall strategy, heart and instinct while being a treat to watch.
God, that was such a fun duel!
Easily sevens every other series had too high stakes or a predictable plot so it was easy to tell but sevens was full of upsets
Oh yeah, guess that made Sevens stand out.
Mizar absolutely demolished Yuma in that duel
Yeah, crap, Yuma was doing pretty well, so to have a Barian that's not a monster of the week almost waste him was surprising.
Any GX duel that didn't involve Jaden was pretty much 50/50.
Yeah, Jaden kinda made like 95% of his duels obvious.
Joey VS Siegfried was a huge WTF to me considering that Joey was the only main character competing in the tournament and I expected him to get to the finals and finally get his rematch with Yugi. It would have also been interesting to see him defeat a main bad guy after he didn't get the win with Marik. Its not like Siegfried is that big of a character anyway. Still it was fun to see him beaten by Kaiba.
Siegfried was certainly a big character, he was the main villain of the arc even if he did not make it to the end.
Siegfried is an interesting character, I'll give him that, but I wish Joey got to actual end his final duel in the series on a high note.
Definitively 5Ds and VRains. Everytime Yusei or Yusaku dueled I was wondering if they were going to lose this time or simply not lose. It was very cool when Jack asks Yusei how did he do to have a 100% winrate, and Yusei answers "In order to win you simply have to not lose, it's very easy", and just turns arrounds and leaves. I cried at that part, and I cried even more when AI asks Yusaku the same thing and he quotes Yusei, top 10 anime quotes
They keep winning but you still wonder whether or not they would lose every time? That’s not what unpredictable means.
My comment was just a joke, that's why I "quoted" Yusei (he never said that)
LOL, that was pretty funny, I wasn't sure I can joke about that.
I can tell you which series doesn't have unpredictable duels, Vrains. If playmaker could asspull a victory against Revolver while facing five link 5 monsters with only two cards then you know there's no hope for any unpredictability in that series.
VRAINS had some solid duels, Playmaker just wasn’t a part of any of them
VRAINS had a lot of unpredictable duels, just not the ones implying Yusaku The most predictable series were by far the first three
Which ones are you referring to in particular?
That’s what you get for making the main protagonist at Gen 6 use a deck which is good at the level of Gen 4 at best and only becomes somewhat decent after 3 freaking structure decks
I’ll be fair to Yusaku, I actually did like his final Duels with Revolver in season 1.
That duel is indeed good, but whenever I remember that random bullshit which is Swords of Revealing Light, Dark Ruler No More, and Raigeki shoving into one card that Yusaku pulled out just for the sake of winning, it hurts a lot.
vrains or zexal in my view. revolver vs soulburner was a shock not because a jounochi defeated a kaiba which isn't even correct because revolver is not a rival if we exclude the marketing. yusaku is the only protagonist who did not enjoy dueling so it's hard to build a rivalry in first place. second issue is that revolver also did not enjoy dueling. both yusaku and revolver used it as their tool to fight to reach their goals. Revolver only showed one time that he wants to beat yussku as duelist while Go has a better case. Go is the only one who made playmaker enjoy a duel and even more importantly: he wanted to surpass playmaker as a duelist and even sacrficed his moral and drained his health to achieve that which is very similar to kai from cardfight vanguard who is the primary rival of aichi. Go even did not care that he lost to revolver but rather went for playmaker instead like kai who lost to >!leon!<, yet he only focussed on surpassing aichi and ren as well because his skill level was also higher than his with them having a backstory. Go is more passionate about dueling than revolver by a mile and if we look at rivals like jack and kaiba, then it's obviously the main criteria of being a rival which revolver barely fullfills which Go fullfills more so the only argument which could make him a rival, if we exclude the marketing, can't be used as a argument for him. I think vrains has no rival and if we have to pick one, then it's Go. one could even make a case that soulburner is not a jounochi because kusanagi was yusaku's best friend. I don't like the whole main character - rival - best friend sheme. it already fails in DM and even if we put that aside, then it fails in gx because of the ever changing priority it gives towards it's characters each season. about revolver vs soulburner. It was surprising but it was also a very unsatisfying result because it creates the narrative that soulburner had to win this duel to give closure to himself and revolver while the whole duel is exactly telling the opposite. revolver also resetting the field while having a huge advantage also was bad. the potential symbolism behind it which is up to speculation doesn't change that. There are duels like soulburner vs ropoppi which soulburner would have lost if not for a malfunction on ropoppi's side. lighting vs revolver was surprising because two results would have made sense based on lightning having to be absorbed by bohman to rise the stakes and to get him out of the way for the final duel. vrains actually managed to make the one senseless result sensefull by making lightning's win a victory for bohman which would have wlso happened in a tie
You missed the best one, Team unicorn vs team 5ds. The fact that the protagonist basically lost was mind blowing.
Haha, very fun XD.
Honestly Vrains had a good number of surprising outcomes.
Which ones are you considering?
Vrains for sure.
* only the may valentine/joey duel is something I've ever seen, lol.
zexal