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vegetafan72 · 3 years ago

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Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds: Thoughts on the Series

Intro:

So, I recently finished watching Yugioh 5Ds for the first time and ya’ll… I’m just… I loved it so much. I’ve seen most of DM and Zexal, but 5Ds is my favorite for sure. Everything about it came together in a way that just made me fall and fall hard for it, way more than I was expecting to. I wanted to rant about my thoughts on it now that I’ve finished it (because I don’t want to let go [but I still have Arc-V and Bonds Beyond Time so I know I have more 5Ds content coming]).

*SPOILERS* I’ll be talking about the entirety of 5Ds here so SPOILERS for the whole series! *SPOILERS*

Fortune Cup

Oddly enough, I’m realizing I remember very little about this first season now that I am talking about it. It's not that I didn’t like it; I definitely did! I think it’s just that so much has happened since then that it feels like the stuff that happened here was eons ago. Still, I do remember some things. I liked the atmosphere right off the bat. It was dark, sad and tense and I really wanted to see Yusei evade the cops, get to Satellite, and get back at Jack. When they got to duel and The Crimson Dragon showed up, I was intrigued further. Also, that roar the dragon does? I adore that sound; it's cool and haunting.

And then Yusei went to prison, got branded, and was practically tortured… Yeah, I wasn't expecting that in a Yugioh series! I’ve seen DM, so I know Yugioh can get randomly dark, but I never thought I’d see it get this dark! And this is the one where they play the children’s card game on motorcycles? That was the moment I realized that 5Ds was maybe going to be a little more adult than I’d thought.

I also loved the mystery surrounding Rex Godwin and I kept going back and forth. He seemed obviously evil, but was he actually? He for sure was manipulating Jack and it was cool seeing the King’s trust in him wavering and how he was reacting to it.

We also get introduced to Aki and Divine/ Sayer, the latter of which I would very much like to push off a cliff. I think Aki’s design is very pretty, I love her plant themed deck, and I get the feeling she’s the best female love-interest/ side character in all of Yugioh. I wanted Yusei to connect with her and save her from Divine.

Yusei winning the Fortune Cup was expected, but still satisfying, but ultimately, I was more interested in finding out what Godwin was up to and where the Signer thing was going.

Dark Signers

The Fortune Cup was a good start, but things really kicked off in The Dark Signers arc. Suddenly, there’s this shadowy organization with mind-controlling elements, an ancient legend about The Crimson Dragon and Earthbound Immortals, and a rush to defeat The Dark Signers before they destroy Satellite, Neo Domino, and pretty much the whole world. Way bigger stakes, way more interesting.

We get introduced to many new characters in the arc, the most important being Crow, who claimed my heart immediately. We also get Carly, Kiryu/ Kalin, Rutger, and Misty to name a few. All of them were great new additions to the cast (except Devak, we really got nothing about him. He just served as an obstacle for Lua and Luca).

Crow was a fantastic addition to the cast. No one can tell me otherwise. I’m aware that he was meant to be a Dark Signer (trust me, with how much I love this show, I researched to learn about it so there’s some behind the scenes things that I know), but I’m so happy that didn’t happen. Having him be a supporting good team member who eventually earned the favor of the Crimson Dragon just worked a lot better for me. After all, what would have turned him evil? Anyway, his scrappy, tough personality was a lot of fun. During the duel between Rutger and Yusei, the encouragement he gave Yusei after finding out he sort of blamed himself for Crow’s and Jack’s parents’ deaths was a phenomenal moment for both of them.

I loved Jack’s character development in this arc. The relationship he got with Carly was cute. She helped him figure out what to do with himself after losing his title to Yusei. From then on, he actually shows more care for others. When he witnesses Yusei’s duel with Kiryu, he’s desperate to help and frustrated that he can’t, especially after Yusei crashes and he can’t even check on him. We get to see that Jack actually has a heart and it was wonderful to see. The emotional turmoil it went through when he later thought Carly died and then found out she was a Dark Signer was also great. That duel between them was heartbreaking, but their willingness to die in place of the other really sold the feelings they had for each other as true love.

The story behind Kiryu was a bit of a shock for me. Technically, my first experience with 5Ds was the DS game, Over the Nexus. The storyline of that game is very different from the anime, but basically the Dark Signers weren’t a thing and Team Satisfaction/ The Enforcers never broke up. That was what I was used to: a much happier storyline for them. Here, Kiryu went crazy, bombed a building, possibly killed someone (don’t remember if he actually killed him or just severely injured him), and then died in prison. Once again, 5Ds blindsided me by being as dark as possible. Both duels between him and Yusei were tense to watch, especially after the first one where Yusei literally almost died from a shard of glass in his gut and, after surviving, was really scared of facing Kiryu again. Jack snapping Yusei out of fear was a great moment for them though. It showed how their relationship was still rocky but it was healing.

Aki and Misty’s duel was so tense, mostly because freaking Divine was somehow alive. It was bad enough to have him back, but then he mind-controls Aki? Also he was the one to actually kill Misty’s little brother? Seriously, Divine is despicable. I’m so happy Yusei tricked him into revealing his deeds to Misty and he got swallowed up by her Earthbound Immortal. In my opinion, he is dead (I don’t care if it was confirmed he survived and was arrested. Prison is too good for him).

Devak’s duel against Lua while Luca went into the spirit world to save Ancient Fairy Dragon… yeah, that was the weakest part for me. I just wasn’t interested, sadly. I kinda just wanted Luca to duel Devak herself; the whole plot point of needing to free the dragon from the stone just seemed unnecessary for me. I think it would have been better for Lua and Luca to team up against Devak in the duel and maybe Ancient Fairy Dragon could have just been awakened by Luca’s desperate pleas/ desire to save her brother after he loses almost all his life points protecting her. That would have felt more compelling to me.

That final duel, Rex Godwin vs. Yusei, Jack, and Crow, was epic. I love that they each got moments to shine, especially when the Signer marks moved around so Crow could get his. My one gripe is that Aki, Lua, and Luca didn’t join in the duel, but I know they couldn’t. Aki didn’t have a D-Wheel and Lua and Luca were too young to drive; besides, protecting the city with their dragons was important too. It just would have felt like the Signers properly came together to defeat Rex if they had all dueled, but for what we got, it was still great.

WRGP

Oof, the writing really took a dive, huh? At least, that’s what everyone tends to say and, while I agree with the writing being awful when it comes to Iliaster and their backstory, I think the rest of the season is pretty solid. Yep, I think people are a little harsh when they talk about this season, at least from some of the things I’ve seen people say. The season does start with a string of filler episodes and, while some are definitely better than others, I don’t think any of them were terrible. They were harmless and cute off-shoot stories with characters we’d grown to love. If the cast is strong enough and you like the characters, you won’t be too bothered by little adventures that simply exist for the heck of it.

Aki’s powers disappearing is something I agree with the fandom on. It was random, didn’t make any sense, and only served to make it easier to keep her sidelined. It's a real shame; I only remember her dueling twice throughout the whole season, once while taking Crow’s spot on Team 5Ds and once in a tag duel with Crow against Sherry. She was such a badass before, but it really did just turn into a ‘girl who watches the main guy do everything and pines for him’ (That’s not me bashing Faithshipping btw. I love Yusei and Aki together).

I’ve only seen a few people saying that Kiryu got screwed/ deserved a better send off, but I literally can’t think of a more perfect one then the one he got. The whole Crash Town saga was fantastic. There were some great duels, twists and turns, an actual death, and Kiryu adopting two kids. I think it's somewhat believable that after being resurrected, Kiryu would go off on his own and possibly be depressed and suicidal. He felt bad after coming to his senses and realizing everything he’d done to his friends and innocent people was wrong. Him finding a new reason to live in Nico and West and rebuilding Crash Town was fantastic. And that finale where Crow and Jack showed up to help, effectively bringing the gang back together one last time? I was screaming and crying out of pure joy. There was no better way to wrap up Kiryu’s character arc. Not one.

Lua finally gets to be a Signer in the arc! I was so happy for him, sucked that he literally had to die for it to happen. Seriously, anyone realize that while watching? Jack, Lua, and Luca all had devices on their chests that would send needles into their hearts if they’re life points dropped to zero, killing them. Lua’s life points dropped to zero and stayed there for a while before he gained some more. Those needles should still have punctured his heart and killed him for hitting zero, meaning his Signer mark appearing/ the Crimson Dragon choosing him, resurrected him. Again, dark stuff. Still, I’m happy he finally got to be one after all that obvious foreshadowing. Would have really sucked if they kept all those hints in there and then he never got to be one.

Ugh, alright, let’s talk about Iliaster. The time travel stuff was just plain ridiculous. I mean, I wouldn’t have minded it had their reason for coming back been worthwhile, but it didn’t even make sense. They said Synchro Summoning caused their future to be destroyed/ people’s greed corrupted Moment, but really it was the freaking Meklord robots Moment created in response to it. If they just had Moment not programmed to make killer robots, there wouldn’t have been a problem. Synchro Summoning had nothing to do with it. I couldn’t take them seriously because I was either raging about how their logic made no sense or laughing at the silliness of them combining with their D-Wheels. It’s a Motorman: half-man, half-motorcycle! So freaking dumb. At least it picked up a bit when they went to Ark Cradle. The duels they had up there were great and the final one between Yusei and Z-one was really epic.

But I know I can’t talk about Z-one without going over the thing I know everyone says: Z-one should have been Yusei. I… agree but I also don’t. Besides, he kind of was Yusei… but he also definitely wasn’t. Ok, it's confusing, sue me! I’m still processing how I feel about it. I like the idea of Z-one being Yusei simply because it provides so much angst and emotional turmoil for our protagonist. But if it was actually him, then they legitimately were able to resurrect him in the future and how in the world was that possible? I’m sure they could have given some bullcrap reason and, if time travel is possible, then why not raising people from the dead. But if that was something they could do, why didn’t they just resurrect humanity in their own time period after they were wiped out? They didn’t even need to bother with the past, just rebuild humanity from scratch. Argh, you see how Z-one being Yusei opens a whole can of worms? You see why I’m torn? Honestly, I’m not sure which is the better option. I think they both have their flaws, but I think I’m alright with the route they went down. It was weird for them to build up Z-one being Yusei so much only to have it be some nameless scientist, but I can see how it works. He couldn’t permanently change things for the better because he only embodied Yusei to a certain extent. He looked like him, sounded and spoke like him, and got some of Yusei’s personality traits, but he didn’t have his Signer mark, therefore no extra power from the Crimson Dragon and his own personality was mixed with Yusei’s. That’s why he gets a God complex and comes to the decision that Neo Domino City must be destroyed in the past. That’s something Yusei would never do; no matter how bad things got, he would never think that killing innocents would be the answer. So, I give the writers a bit of slack here. I think they made it work. It’s just my opinion though; feel free to think it would have worked better if Z-one was actually Yusei.

I thought the final episodes showing the team grown up by a few years and coming to turning points in their lives were excellent. It was realistic that things could eventually force them to go their separate ways and it was sweet that they weren’t sure what to do because they were thinking about how everyone else would react. But of course Yusei handled it like a champ and he showed them that it was ok to go where they wanted if it would make them happy. Their bond wouldn’t break even if they were apart. Sure it was sad to see the team split up, but it wasn’t like they’d never see each other again. Besides, they could always call, email, or send letters to each other so it's not like they couldn’t communicate when they were separated. That one particular moment when we see teenager Lua and Luca? Luca had grown into such a pretty young lady and Lua was an up-and-coming turbo duelist? I had tears in my eyes, feeling like a proud mother. I was proud of all of them for achieving their dreams. It was a bittersweet ending done right.

Except I hear the incoming complaints of fellow Faithshippers. I know another big issue people have with 5Ds�� ending is that Aki doesn’t confess her feelings to Yusei before she leaves. She was definitely going to before changing her mind last second. They hold hands, but there’s no kiss and she leaves. This is an absolute tragedy and insult to Faithshippers or, at least, that’s how they act. I, as a Faithshipper, think it was fine. Yes, I am ok without Aki or Yusei confessing. Why? Because you don’t need to outright say you love someone for them to know you love them! Watch that scene again, really watch it. Aki starts her confession, but switches to saying that she’s just happy she met Yusei. He seems surprised, as if he wasn’t expecting her to say that (because perhaps even he was expecting a confession), but he smiles, comes up to her, and takes her hand in his. He tells her to keep smiling because no one in the world had a more beautiful smile than her (which can I say, is a damn smooth line that you don’t say to someone you just think of as a friend). They stare at each other, not speaking, and in the reflection of their eyes is the vision of the other. It’s as if they are each other’s entire world. Only then does Aki leave. But, looking through that scene with that lens, doesn’t it make you see the love was clearly there? We know it, but Yusei and Aki knew it too. The words ‘I love you’ didn’t need to be spoken; they already knew how they felt about each other. But not speaking those words, not closing the distance for a kiss or even an intimate embrace, was better because Aki was leaving. They didn’t know when they’d see each other again and why dump that emotional baggage and make it so hard on themselves? With how it was done, they knew each other’s feelings, but hadn’t made it too difficult to deal with. They knew it was better to wait until they could be together properly; that would be the moment where their ‘I love you’s’ would be spoken. Honestly, I’m very pleased with their ending. It was a much better ending then Scoopshipping, where Carly got dumped with Jack’s other love interests and called a distraction when in the Dark Signers arc, he said she was the woman he loved. Yeah, Faithshippers? We have no reason to complain. Us Scoopshippers? We were done dirty.

Yusei Fudo

I wanna talk about personal thoughts on the characters themselves too and of course we must start with Yusei. I knew he was a more stoic character and I was a little worried it would make him boring, but thankfully, he never was. He was serious and tense, but given his situation, it made sense. He still had a good heart and was really good with kids which we see whenever he’d interact with Rally, Lua or Luca. He was a bit self-sacrificing too, considering how he blamed himself for Zero Reverse because his father built it, how he was fully willing to die to save everyone else from Arc Cradle, and how he convinced everyone to leave Neo Domino to follow their dreams even though he actually didn’t want them to go. I tend to be self-sacrificing too so I really related to him. I loved seeing him overcome obstacles, eventually achieving his dream of uniting Satellite and Neo Domino. I think he either relaxed enough to be more expressive, the artists got good at making subtle changes to his face, or I just got really good at reading him because he seemed to emote a lot more during the WRGP arc. Whatever the case, I loved seeing him get more expressive and he was practically all smiles at the end. He was a great main character and has beaten Yami Yugi for my favorite protagonist.

Jack Atlas

Oh, I was so worried about Jack just being Seto Kaiba 2.0. They dress similarly, have bad attitudes, heck, they’re even both super tall. I absolutely hate Kaiba so I was expecting to hate Jack, but I figured I’d see what happened before I decided how I’d feel about him. Sure enough, during the Fortune Cup, he seemed pretty much like just another Kaiba. Though at least with Kaiba, he had one person he cared about: Mokuba. Jack only cared about himself, his fame, and his title so he was even worse. However, he had a turning point with Carly where he decided to live like a real King, aka not be a jerk. From then on, he started freely caring about others. Yusei, Crow, Carly, Lua, Luca, Aki; he started to show concern for them properly and getting to see that there was a softie under all that gruff exterior… well, it made me melt. I became a huge Jack Atlas fan; literally the first fic I’ve written for 5Ds is a bunch of snippets of Jack being a big brother to Yusei and Crow because I adore that dynamic for them. Jack is my second favorite character of all of Yugioh now and I’m blown away by how much I ended up loving him. A very pleasant surprise.

Crow Hogan

My beloved. Sweet birb boi. Short king. Scrappy trash gremlin. Best dad. I adore Crow with all my heart. Unfortunately, there seems to be quite a few people who don’t like him to which I say: you’re entitled to your trash opinion like I am entitled to love my trash boi so don’t even talk to me. Seriously, I don’t want anyone trying to convince me that Crow is a bad character. You will never succeed so don’t start. I’m so happy Blackwings became so popular because it gave Crow the time to shine as the great supporting character he is. I love his loud and funny personality, how fiercely loyal he is to his friends, and how great of a dad he is to the orphans. I just can’t imagine how you wouldn’t fall in love with him. I could be here all freaking day so I’ll move on.

Aki Izayoi

Again, I loved her design and she was super cool during the first two seasons. The introduction of psychic duelists was awesome; it was a great concept to have people who made damage real from their monsters (although they always acted like it was real before anyway, so I kind of thought there was actual damage already?). Anyway, seeing her emotional issues and Yusei helping her through it was wonderful. I was glad to see her rekindle her relationship with her parents, become a turbo duelist, and become happy. I just wish they’d given her a bit more to do in the final season.

Lua and Luca/ Rua and Ruca/ Leo and Luna

I wasn’t feeling them for a long time. They seemed like the token kids; like they were there simply to be the bright balls of innocence to distract children watching the show from all the dark content. I think they were a little one-note. Lua was centered on protecting Luca all the time, although he at least had a desire to be stronger for himself too, but again, it was mostly for Luca. Luca was pretty much just there; I think she only ever dueled three times in the whole show. I wish she was stronger or became stronger over time, but she actually got weaker. Still, I must have gotten attached to them at some point because I never wanted them to get hurt, was worried whenever they were, and felt so happy to see them grown up at the end.

Yaeger/ Lazar

I freaking hate clowns. Yaeger’s whole slimy, sneaky right-hand man schtick in the first two seasons made me really hate him. He was such a little sleazeball. And then the WRGP arc came and we found out he had a wife and son he was trying to protect from Iliaster, a sad backstory of growing up poor and making money to send to his parents, and having him go through character development to become brave enough to stand with the heroes against Iliaster. Say what you will about the third season’s writing, but the writers really gave Yaeger some serious love. For me, if you give a character good development, I’ll end up loving them and, amazingly, they got me loving that little Freeza clown. I would never have thought I’d care about a freaking freak like him, but here we are.

Ushio/ Trudge

Nice to see a character from the original series again (although this opens up the discussion of whether Yugi and the others are alive too, to which I say: I have no idea but I believe they are, just that they aren’t in Neo Domino or Satellite). Ushio was your standard minor antagonist for a while and I figured he’d stay that way, maybe fading into obscurity/ become irrelevant and stop showing up, but he was a constant presence throughout the show. He warms up to the heroes in the Dark Signers arc and continues to help them through the rest of the show. Heck, the last person Yusei talks to at the end is Ushio. He ended up being a pretty good minor supporting character; I enjoyed seeing him interact with the heroes.

Carly

She is such a dorky clutz, how can you not love her? As a fellow dorky, glasses-wearing writer, I can relate to her a lot. I was really enjoying the cute romance she had with Jack, before freaking Divine literally murdered her. But at least I got to enjoy the angst afterwards. However, there was no more enjoyment to be had with Carly after the Dark Signers arc was over because she was mostly kept out of the show. I know why they did it since I researched about the show and found out about her voice actress being in a cult, but that was the actress. The character shouldn’t have had to pay for something that had nothing to do with her. (Carly did use her deck to read her fortune but you can easily fix that by just not having her do it anymore or even by having her not duel anymore at all). Basically, she was a great character before she got turned into one of Jack’s fangirls and nothing more.

Sherry

Boy, she was so cool when she first showed up. She seemed like such a badass and she pretty much was, until the Ark Cradle stuff. When Z-One convinces her to side with him and she duels against Crow and Aki… yeah, I stopped really liking her then. I don’t know. I just felt like she should have been smart enough to know better, but instead she flip flops around with her allegiances. Like most of the time, she’s hardcore against Iliaster, then gets convinced rather easily to side with them, then is convinced in one duel to switch back. Sherry seemed too tough and determined to end up being so wishy-washy, so I felt disappointed with her by the end. I also don’t see why people ship her with Crow? They had one duel and she tried using his kids against him. I felt like there was more shipping potential for her with Yusei or Aki before Crow.

And that’s it! That’s all I have to say (except I didn’t touch on ships other than Faithshipping and Scoopshipping but I’ll talk about that in a separate post). I adored 5Ds so much and I’m already looking forward to rewatching the series after I finish Arc-V (which is already such a fun/traumatizing ride that I’m also enjoying) and Vrains and possibly Zexal. Anyway, fellow 5Ds fans, PLEASE message me! I’d love to talk more about this show so feel free to message me about characters, ships, AUs, headcanons, whatever!

#yugioh 5ds #thoughts on a series #5ds

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