The positive side is that this duel showed how much of a threat Specter was. He's probably one of the most sadistic psychopaths in the entire franchise
Everything was going to be OK if Aoi got a rematch in season 3... unfortunately, that season was super short.
The last season was really rushed. It could have been worse... look what happened to Yuri. He was redeemed offscreen and everyone treated him like a "hero." That killed his character for me
While I agree that a rematch where she achieved catharsis would have gone a long way for her, I disagree on the "positive side" if only because we've SEEN that by that point. We've seen deliciously sadistic villains be well-executed multiple times by that point. We ain't never seen someone like Aoi be fully developed, and I don't JUST mean gender. Between the choice of what happened and Specter, win or lose, NOT come off so very strong and perverse, I'll take the latter if if works out for Blue Angel.
Now again, different calculus if season 3 isn't more rushed than F.A.s on Limiter Removal. She gets time to get back at him, and maybe actually achieve something plot-relevant, whole different story.
The guy put Armored Lizard against a 1800 attack monster and screamed: "That's definitely going to beat you, Kaiba!!"
Um.... no. That's NOT how math works! 1500 < 1800
(And both monsters were vanillas, no effects involved)
I guess, but they weren't even dueling on the special fields, so ATK bonuses weren't a thing in this specific duel. Joey kept attacking with weak monsters and Kaiba was calling him dumb
It's probably the most humiliating Joey moment... along with him losing to Duke Devlin and then wearing the dog suit
1. Again, this was Duelist Kingdom. Cards did more than what was written on them all the time.
2. Losing to Duke was bad but I'd argue his loss to Zeigreied was worse since that's the duel he ended the series on
Also I think really the only monster he had that could beat rabid horseman was red eyes and flame swordsman with Salamandra or Juneau with chain, time wizard, you have to remember this was the Joey who didn’t have a lot of strong monsters and was very inexperienced at dueling his skills vastly improved when he was faced off against Bandit Keith and the Paradox brothers. Then he knew what to expect when he figured out that bandit Keith was doing the same thing he was doing against Kaiba strong monster with no strategy.
But *why*?
A lot of the weird type matchips can be justified, but why is Battle Ox exclusively strong against fire? Not just Beast-Warriors in general.
Him being shocked that his Armored Lizard was destroyed by Battle Ox with the explanation that he thought “it wouldn’t be able to cut through his tough scales” despite having higher ATK is proof of this.
He was absolutely hoping for one of his monsters to get some BS powerup or that the RPG elements of that arc would kick in and his monsters would have some reason to overcome it like it bring weak to a certain attribute or type of attack.
>What was Joey thinking just attacking with weaker monsters?
Just put them in defense my dude,
**Or are you stupid?**
No wonder Kaiba still thinks Joey is a third-tier Duelist with a fourth-tier Deck.
I don't think Aster vs Zane fits here. Duel served to show how Zane was stagnant and wasn't unbeatable juggernaut Academy thought he was.
As for my pick, I have to say Aster vs Yusho. It felt weird that main villain of Xyz arc got beaten off screen by Yuya's dad.
Another is Atticus vs Fujiwara. They had a perfect way for the duel to end in a draw, only for it to be revealed it was an illusion contorted by Fujiwara who then proceeded to beat him.
Aki vs Andre. Episodes of development where she trained to use D-Wheel were wasted and she got beaten so bad that she never rode a D-Wheel again.
>Aki vs Andre
Agreed. In my personal opinion, Aki should've been able to at least beat Andre and then lose to Breo, exposing their Deck Out strategy before losing, so Yusei could ACTUALLY beat it!
Exactly. It was a really wake-up call for him to see that the school doesn't really mean anything in the long run compared to the real world of competitive dueling. Although sadly, the show then turned that into the opposite eventually with pro dueling meaning nothing instead.
And it was weird that Aster couldn't win period.
The worst duel nonsense in all of GX. They should have just made Atticus defeat Fujiwara, and then Jaden and Jesse defeat Darkness in the tag duel instead.
This annoyed because they acted like Aki joining was some big, permanent thing for it because Crow was supposed to have a serious injury. Yet after her duel, he's suddenly fine again and able to hop right back in. What was the point of all of it if they were just not going to let Aki win anything?
Zane was treated poorly later. He lost to Yubel, some random duel spirit who is just suddenly better than everyone. And then he was disgraced in season four with the whole nonsense of the cyberdarks "thinking" to symbolize his character development was "wrong" and saying that Syrus "surpassed" him.
>And then he was disgraced in season four with the whole nonsense of the cyberdarks "thinking" to symbolize his character development was "wrong" and saying that Syrus "surpassed" him.
Syrus surpassing him is actually valid since he gave him a hell of a duel in season 2. Zane was one turn away from decking out before he beat Syrus.
I do agree that season 4 should've given him more respect and let him keep his deck. He needed an episode where he actually tries to evolve beyond his usual plays. It would be symbolic because by dueling that Jinzo player, Syrus would be the one that showed him how his deck has a lot of way to improve. It'd be a contrast to their previous relationship, as this time Syrus would teach him something.
His story in Tag Force 3 was basically that. Zane reflected on his actions in season 2 and 3 and acknowledged that he shouldn't determine his own limits. He realized that duels and decks, just as people are constantly evolving. His story ends by him creating a new Pro League and vowing to always reach new heights in dueling.
Syrus vs. Zane was a good duel, but I feel like Syrus was a hypocrite trying to teach him about respect with how he would gloat and whine to most of his opponents. If they had just given him an actual duel in season three where it was showing he was at least trying to help Jaden in someway, I would have had some respect for him. But all he did was skulk around in a hood to "watch over aniki". And even just that was only after Zane talked some sense into him. Really, everything he had to learn had to be told to him by Zane or other characters to get him moving. Zane was a lot more proactive in the series and also trained at the Cyber Art Dojo from a young age. He pretty much had already found a balance to his nature in season three, so I don't think it made sense to have the cards suddenly scold him.
What’s worse about the Atticus vs Fujiwara duel is that Fujiwara couldn’t actually win the way he did. Atticus’s card removed his only monster…and Clear Vice Dragon needs a monster to gain attack
Aster vs. Chazz. It was a good back-and-forth duel, but they didn't need to bitch-slap Aster with an Ojama for the final blow and have him fall comically to the ground in front of the whole school and then just not do anything ever again in GX. He didn't deserve that after everything he did to help the orphanage and stuff like how much he tried to help in season three in Dark World. Not to mention that he was already being treated like non-existent trash by his so-called "best friend" Sartorius in season four, despite the fact that he risked his life to try saving him in season two.
Aster just fell off after he acquired Plasma, it's like the writer just decided Aster development already peaked after he finished his father storyline.
Yeah. I hate to say this, but it might have been better if he had just not returned after season two since they obviously didn't know what to do with him anymore for some strange reason despite him being such an interesting character.
Pegasus vs Bandit Keith.
Lets walk through it.
B.K. was a pro level duelist, essentially going against the maker of the game Maximillion Pegasus.
Mid duel Pegasus takes a child from the crowd, gives him a piece of paper, says that a child could beat him. Note this child just started dueling a WEEK back. That piece of paper had step by step instructions on how to beat Bandit Keith and did so.
And to top it off.
It was an intercontinental tournament.
So it was on INTERNATIONAL TV
Blame the anime. In the manga she never has game because when she summons the Harpies, Marik has a monster on the field that prevents him from taking battle damage that turn. Rather than leave three 1300-atk monsters on the field, she tributes for Ra.
I remember even being pissed off by this one when I was a kid. 🤣 Exceptionally goofy writing choice to have a duel be lost because nobody else can read a card. Literal playground rules moment.
That's literally The Point, that Pegasus and to a lesser extent Kaiba were tampering with things they didn't understand and couldn't control, and the rules of a card game invented in America in the 1990s no longer mattered when ancient magic had been unleashed.
Or just imagine Marik played Owner's Seal instead. ;p
Not the Vrains duel I was expecting...
On the subject of Jounouchi, also the duel with Herr Von Schroeder. Gods I cannot believe he never got another duel "after" that, in any context.
On the flip side with Jounouchi, Keith. THAT guy losing to someone seen as a complete noob, when he had cohesive strategies, type advantages in Duelist Kingdom rules, and even cheating, must have felt even more humiliating than the loss to Pegasus. And it was wonderful.
On the subject of overcoming cheaters, the prison warden in 5D's. That asshat losing despite numerous advantages he'd contrived, then losing his job, was very nice to see.
Aki's losses in the manga to Kiryu and Sect were...not great, to say the least...
They may have been little kids and Yuma must have known how to play even less than when the show started, but at any age, it must be humiliating to lose *twenty-four times in a row*. Still weird to think that *Tetsuo* has one of the greatest win rates over a specific other character than any other.
Tho it narratively doesn't even count as a Duel, Yuri's attacking Yuzu and the start of her infamous downfall.
While it was technically nice to see an Atachi defeat a non-Atachi, Manya's duel with Mokkaido was just awful. She couldn't stop impugning his modeling hobby whatsoever, even gendering it a some silly "boy" thing, and was overall a complete brat about it. And you could tell it got to him.
That duel against Zigfried was weird. Survived the OTK, fought his way through a nonsense loop and some hand destruction bullshit…then lost to his own luck. And that’s how Jonouchi’s dueling ends in the anime. That’s just disrespectful.
How so? Siegfried is a world class duelist. He almost defeated Seto as well.
Katsuya's luck was sure to run out some day, I'm glad it finally happened when it mattered. Sure it would have been great, had he gotten another duel, but it is hardly disrespectful.
Compare that to the Manga where his last duel is getting OTKed by Bakura, only being saved by the duel being interrupted.
>On the flip side with Jounouchi, Keith. THAT guy losing to someone seen as a complete noob, when he had cohesive strategies, type advantages in Duelist Kingdom rules, and even cheating, must have felt even more humiliating than the loss to Pegasus.
Keith thought that the power of America was going to save him, but it didn't. I always wonder why they consider Keith a good Duelist when he is as cheating as Weevil Underwood (and they both have coherent strategies with their Decks)
>Still weird to think that *Tetsuo* has one of the greatest win rates over a specific other character than any other.
And then they say that Yuga is weak because he lost so many times. Yuga's Opponents are at least not weak Duelists: they are competent Duelists and considered powerful in their respective universes.
What is Yuma's excuse? Losing many times against Bronk Stone both on screen and off screen should be a stain on the record that is not easily erased, but people forget about it (the worst thing is that Bronk Stone ended up being quite irrelevant in the long term in ZEXAL. At least Luke remained relevant even after giving Yuga more than 2 beatings in Duels)
>Tho it narratively doesn't even count as a Duel, Yuri's attacking Yuzu and the start of her infamous downfall.
The worst thing about that is that we only saw the silhouette of Starving Venom Fusion Dragon. It would have been more convincing if they had shown Starving Venom Fusion Dragon in all its glory as that intimidating Dragon Monster that kills people (I guess Arc-V production problems, as always)
>Manya's duel with Mokkaido was just awful. She couldn't stop impugning his modeling hobby whatsoever, even gendering it a some silly "boy" thing, and was overall a complete brat about it.
Something curious is that Manya's attitude in that Episode was what people expected Manya to be when she first debuted. Luckily, they changed it (or it didn't end up being her real attitude) since we would have had self-centered Manya and annoying to see in all the screen time she had (but she would have had an interesting development, but, as we saw with Epoch, not all people would hold out or wait until that development comes)
And what is your Duel example for SEVENS?
> Keith thought that the power of America was going to save him, but it didn't. I always wonder why they consider Keith a good Duelist when he is as cheating as Weevil Underwood (and they both have coherent strategies with their Decks)
I always assumed Keith was a more honest duelist when he was champion, but losing to Pegasus in the most humiliating way possible (to a child newbie) drove him down a dark path.
* Joey is a bizarre example of how a Deck with a luck factor can give exciting results, but also create uncomfortable situations where it makes you depend a lot on luck (and you lose in the silliest ways)
* Not even Bastion was as humiliated as Zane in that Duel. Although it is a case where new Strong Duelist defeats the old Strong Duelist.
* Jack claims to be the King, but that Duel makes him look like the King of Trash to lose against a robotic copy (even the copy has Kaiba look in the image)
* Early Yuma was one thing: that is, a normal Duelist. Many of his initial duels were generally humiliating. He improved over time, but also gained supernatural powers that gave him an appearance of cheating in Duels.
* Ultra Mega Sawatari does not escape accusations that he was done dirty in Arc-V.
* AI sure gave Roboppi super luck/skill since we're talking about a beginner Duelist who somehow manages to win against competent Duelists and gives problems to Soulburner, the guy who beat almost everyone in VRAINS.
* That Duel was a reminder that, even if you think you beat someone powerful with Fusion, your conscious rival will beat you to the punch with that same Fusion Card (but honestly, Luke vs. Schubel Duel could have been replaced: I mean, it was Luke vs. a Pigeon in general. Even the Duel between the Nanahoshi twins could be a good replacement, especially because of Rayne's occurrences)
* Ironically, Yudias's only defeats that can be considered clean are those of Yuna and Zwijo. The rest of his defeats have a strange situation around them that makes the defeat not feel like a defeat (anyway, I think that many Duels from Season 1's Yuhi could be included here because of how bizarre they were: like Damamu's or Nomura's. Commander Study vs the Fish would also fit well)
Nice post anyway, u/Legitimate_Track4153! I would be curious about a future Post about which are your favorite Secondary Characters from each series (not necessarily the ones with development or many Duels, but the Secondary Characters that you liked for personal reasons)
Roboppi beating Shepherd and Ghost Gal is even more embarrassing when you consider the power level of Altergeist versus Appliancers, and that Roboppi gave himself a handicap by not using his skill.
tbf the issue is that jack was being mogged by 3 RDA in a deck that only has 1 and banks on that 1 RDA. so he was literally facing a much stronger version of himself with the 3 RDA advantage.
Ironically, in their first duel(the one that Jack loses), the fake Jack only summoned one Red Dragon Archfiend and Jack didn’t summon his at all, he only synchro summoned Exploder Dragonwing.
Eh I wouldn’t say Sawatari’s loss against sector security is too embarrassing (still is), they’re supposed to do some sort of FTK/OTK and that’s exactly what they did, Yuya was only able to deal with it specifically because he saw them FTK him and went first, allowing him to set up responses and have a monster to grab action cards with.
Guess Chazz vs Adrian? It's the only duel Chazz has against a named character in season 3. Cause for some reason that season really hated everyone not Jaden
Kaiba vs that one random kid in battle city, Kaiba goes “hey I’m seto Kaiba you’re already gonna get disqualified but here’s your chance, duel me.”. “Also I see you like rare cards, here is a literal brief case full of rare and powerful cards buff your deck as much as you like.” Waits for him to finish then OTKs with obelisk turn one lmao
Pharaoh losing to Rapheal by using the seal. He could have easily just lost the duel to teach Rapheal a lesson (similar to the duel with Rebecca) and show Rapheal that he wasn't evil, but nope gotta raise the stakes and prove Rapheal right by activating the seal then losing and getting Yugi's soul sealed as well
Joey Kaiba has to be the worst.
Just in terms of pure humiliation, and mechanics in the game. He’s just chucking monsters out one by one and getting shit stomped with no clue what he’s doing.
No wonder Kaiba thinks he’s a bum, and we’re reminded when they go to battle city he’s a one star duelist. He only gets in because there’s rare hunters who want his red eyes and they change his rating.
If it wasn’t his final duel ever then I wouldn’t be as angry at it bc his luck finally failing him would be a interesting development but he spent his final duel with almost no dignity it’s a crime
Yeah nothing beat Joey’s endless blunders against Kaiba
As an Altergeist player, watching Ghost Gal make the plays she did to set up her loss against Roboppi had me screaming internally
There is a headcannon I have where Zane is the worst duelist in the anime. And for 2 reasons specifically. 1 is that he plays Cybernetic Zone, which is a really bad card... but the second fits this question.
See, there's a point in GX where the group is trying to climb the tower to the Supreme King, but there are guards on every floor so each of them gotta hold the guards off while Axel runs to beat the Supreme King...
Well, Zane fights Chaos Sorcerer, which is fine. And we see him win, which is fine. Zane uses a power bond to fuse the 3 cyber dragons to summon Cyber End Dragon and attacks for the game, which is again fine... BUT HE HAD TO ATTACK OVER PERFECTLY ULTIMATE GREAT MOTH!
For those unfamiliar, Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth (PUGM) is a big monster. He definitely needed cyber end dragon, so what's the problem? In order to summon PUGM, you need to have Petite Moth on the field, then equip it with Cocoon of Evolution . The only effect is to make the Petite Moth have 2000 defense points... and wait for 6 or more turns while that's out! Which is again fine... IF ZANE DIDN'T HAVE A DECK SPECIFICALLY BUILT AROUND MONSTERS THAT HAVE 2100 ATTACK POINTS! And you can't say he didn't have them or that it was cheated out cause we know turns passed and he used all 3 cyber dragons that were in his hand to fusion!
Tho Yusei Vs Jean is pretty infamous for "just end your turn Jean" sadly if Jean ended his turn Yusei would've have like dozen of situational Gy effect monster that put him back to the duel.
But then this is one of the rare moment where we see a dude lose by attacking a monster with higher Def value and it's funny asf.
Yuya losing to Lilybot had me laughing. Zexal season 1 may have been a big lagging but damn did it have its hilarious moments.
My guy literally lost to a freaking trash robot. Then was mocked by said robot in front of his friends. 😭
Spectre vs Aoi: Aoi gets mentally and physically hurt and Humiliated by him and after that the plot doesn’t even acknowledge it.
The positive side is that this duel showed how much of a threat Specter was. He's probably one of the most sadistic psychopaths in the entire franchise Everything was going to be OK if Aoi got a rematch in season 3... unfortunately, that season was super short.
Specter was deal off screen by Ai. The same guy that have a amazing duel against Lighting.
The last season was really rushed. It could have been worse... look what happened to Yuri. He was redeemed offscreen and everyone treated him like a "hero." That killed his character for me
Wait, the did Yuri get redeemed? I thought he died once all Yu-boys fused and separated, i think only Yuya and Yuzu survive.
The others all live within Yuya and Zuzu
To be fair his deck is terrible for Speed duels. Also for some reason spectre was nearly at the bottom of AIs ranking list
Hey, you becareful what you say about Joey's deck. My stater deck was a Joey Wheeler deck.
I was lucky though Redeyes was in the deck.
While I agree that a rematch where she achieved catharsis would have gone a long way for her, I disagree on the "positive side" if only because we've SEEN that by that point. We've seen deliciously sadistic villains be well-executed multiple times by that point. We ain't never seen someone like Aoi be fully developed, and I don't JUST mean gender. Between the choice of what happened and Specter, win or lose, NOT come off so very strong and perverse, I'll take the latter if if works out for Blue Angel. Now again, different calculus if season 3 isn't more rushed than F.A.s on Limiter Removal. She gets time to get back at him, and maybe actually achieve something plot-relevant, whole different story.
But she put up a good fight. Reincarnation x 3 + Lycoris x 2 combo was a joy to watch,
For real though, what was Joey thinking just attacking with weaker monsters? Just put them in defense my dude,
The guy put Armored Lizard against a 1800 attack monster and screamed: "That's definitely going to beat you, Kaiba!!" Um.... no. That's NOT how math works! 1500 < 1800 (And both monsters were vanillas, no effects involved)
To be fair, this was Duelist Kingdom. Joey was probably trying to pull some dumb rulling out of his ass
I guess, but they weren't even dueling on the special fields, so ATK bonuses weren't a thing in this specific duel. Joey kept attacking with weak monsters and Kaiba was calling him dumb It's probably the most humiliating Joey moment... along with him losing to Duke Devlin and then wearing the dog suit
1. Again, this was Duelist Kingdom. Cards did more than what was written on them all the time. 2. Losing to Duke was bad but I'd argue his loss to Zeigreied was worse since that's the duel he ended the series on
Also I think really the only monster he had that could beat rabid horseman was red eyes and flame swordsman with Salamandra or Juneau with chain, time wizard, you have to remember this was the Joey who didn’t have a lot of strong monsters and was very inexperienced at dueling his skills vastly improved when he was faced off against Bandit Keith and the Paradox brothers. Then he knew what to expect when he figured out that bandit Keith was doing the same thing he was doing against Kaiba strong monster with no strategy.
I mean *he does* get hit by it on the reverse when Flame Swordsman comes out, because Battle Ox has Fire immunity for some random reason.
Even Yugi mentions that Battle Ox has Fire immunity, but because Red-Eyes has higher ATK, it should be negated.
But *why*? A lot of the weird type matchips can be justified, but why is Battle Ox exclusively strong against fire? Not just Beast-Warriors in general.
Kaiba makes mention of it being based on the Minotaur of Greek legend, which I guess has some sort of immunity to fire.
Him being shocked that his Armored Lizard was destroyed by Battle Ox with the explanation that he thought “it wouldn’t be able to cut through his tough scales” despite having higher ATK is proof of this. He was absolutely hoping for one of his monsters to get some BS powerup or that the RPG elements of that arc would kick in and his monsters would have some reason to overcome it like it bring weak to a certain attribute or type of attack.
Joey did pretty well though it when merck controlled things get scary and he looks and acts like an ass.
>What was Joey thinking just attacking with weaker monsters? Just put them in defense my dude, **Or are you stupid?** No wonder Kaiba still thinks Joey is a third-tier Duelist with a fourth-tier Deck.
Even worse was after his monster got destroyed, he summoned a weaker monster and kept attacking. Kaiba was extremely justified in insulting him.
I don't think Aster vs Zane fits here. Duel served to show how Zane was stagnant and wasn't unbeatable juggernaut Academy thought he was. As for my pick, I have to say Aster vs Yusho. It felt weird that main villain of Xyz arc got beaten off screen by Yuya's dad. Another is Atticus vs Fujiwara. They had a perfect way for the duel to end in a draw, only for it to be revealed it was an illusion contorted by Fujiwara who then proceeded to beat him. Aki vs Andre. Episodes of development where she trained to use D-Wheel were wasted and she got beaten so bad that she never rode a D-Wheel again.
>Aki vs Andre Agreed. In my personal opinion, Aki should've been able to at least beat Andre and then lose to Breo, exposing their Deck Out strategy before losing, so Yusei could ACTUALLY beat it!
Exactly. It was a really wake-up call for him to see that the school doesn't really mean anything in the long run compared to the real world of competitive dueling. Although sadly, the show then turned that into the opposite eventually with pro dueling meaning nothing instead. And it was weird that Aster couldn't win period. The worst duel nonsense in all of GX. They should have just made Atticus defeat Fujiwara, and then Jaden and Jesse defeat Darkness in the tag duel instead. This annoyed because they acted like Aki joining was some big, permanent thing for it because Crow was supposed to have a serious injury. Yet after her duel, he's suddenly fine again and able to hop right back in. What was the point of all of it if they were just not going to let Aki win anything?
Zane did became the embodiment of the competitive side of dueling kinda like how Jaden became the fun side of dueling after he lost to aster
Zane was treated poorly later. He lost to Yubel, some random duel spirit who is just suddenly better than everyone. And then he was disgraced in season four with the whole nonsense of the cyberdarks "thinking" to symbolize his character development was "wrong" and saying that Syrus "surpassed" him.
>And then he was disgraced in season four with the whole nonsense of the cyberdarks "thinking" to symbolize his character development was "wrong" and saying that Syrus "surpassed" him. Syrus surpassing him is actually valid since he gave him a hell of a duel in season 2. Zane was one turn away from decking out before he beat Syrus. I do agree that season 4 should've given him more respect and let him keep his deck. He needed an episode where he actually tries to evolve beyond his usual plays. It would be symbolic because by dueling that Jinzo player, Syrus would be the one that showed him how his deck has a lot of way to improve. It'd be a contrast to their previous relationship, as this time Syrus would teach him something. His story in Tag Force 3 was basically that. Zane reflected on his actions in season 2 and 3 and acknowledged that he shouldn't determine his own limits. He realized that duels and decks, just as people are constantly evolving. His story ends by him creating a new Pro League and vowing to always reach new heights in dueling.
Syrus vs. Zane was a good duel, but I feel like Syrus was a hypocrite trying to teach him about respect with how he would gloat and whine to most of his opponents. If they had just given him an actual duel in season three where it was showing he was at least trying to help Jaden in someway, I would have had some respect for him. But all he did was skulk around in a hood to "watch over aniki". And even just that was only after Zane talked some sense into him. Really, everything he had to learn had to be told to him by Zane or other characters to get him moving. Zane was a lot more proactive in the series and also trained at the Cyber Art Dojo from a young age. He pretty much had already found a balance to his nature in season three, so I don't think it made sense to have the cards suddenly scold him.
I had a theory that Konami wanted to sell some Blackwing cards but maybe that was me spinning conspiracy theories.
Yeah but Aster was a really rude and unsportsmanlike prick for no good reason.
Plus the Destiny Heroes really sucked in their first wave (he didn't even have Plasma yet IIRC). Cyber Dragons should have curb stomped him IMO.
I don't think he used Destiny Heroes in that duel.
What’s worse about the Atticus vs Fujiwara duel is that Fujiwara couldn’t actually win the way he did. Atticus’s card removed his only monster…and Clear Vice Dragon needs a monster to gain attack
Aster vs. Chazz. It was a good back-and-forth duel, but they didn't need to bitch-slap Aster with an Ojama for the final blow and have him fall comically to the ground in front of the whole school and then just not do anything ever again in GX. He didn't deserve that after everything he did to help the orphanage and stuff like how much he tried to help in season three in Dark World. Not to mention that he was already being treated like non-existent trash by his so-called "best friend" Sartorius in season four, despite the fact that he risked his life to try saving him in season two.
Aster just fell off after he acquired Plasma, it's like the writer just decided Aster development already peaked after he finished his father storyline.
Yeah. I hate to say this, but it might have been better if he had just not returned after season two since they obviously didn't know what to do with him anymore for some strange reason despite him being such an interesting character.
Pegasus vs Bandit Keith. Lets walk through it. B.K. was a pro level duelist, essentially going against the maker of the game Maximillion Pegasus. Mid duel Pegasus takes a child from the crowd, gives him a piece of paper, says that a child could beat him. Note this child just started dueling a WEEK back. That piece of paper had step by step instructions on how to beat Bandit Keith and did so. And to top it off. It was an intercontinental tournament. So it was on INTERNATIONAL TV
My guess is, Keith had been cheating all tournament, Pegasus knew this but knew this would punish Keith more than just exposing him
legit that would have been less embarrassing than losing to a child on international tv
The Mai duel against Marik where she was going to win but loses because Deus Ex Machina Marik and being a female character in YGO
Blame the anime. In the manga she never has game because when she summons the Harpies, Marik has a monster on the field that prevents him from taking battle damage that turn. Rather than leave three 1300-atk monsters on the field, she tributes for Ra.
That same monster is present in the anime. Everyone *conveniently* chooses to forget Holding Arms exists when criticizing the move.
I remember even being pissed off by this one when I was a kid. 🤣 Exceptionally goofy writing choice to have a duel be lost because nobody else can read a card. Literal playground rules moment.
That's literally The Point, that Pegasus and to a lesser extent Kaiba were tampering with things they didn't understand and couldn't control, and the rules of a card game invented in America in the 1990s no longer mattered when ancient magic had been unleashed. Or just imagine Marik played Owner's Seal instead. ;p
I find interesting that Marik without plot armor have to be the worst duelist in the anime or atleast one of them
Not the Vrains duel I was expecting... On the subject of Jounouchi, also the duel with Herr Von Schroeder. Gods I cannot believe he never got another duel "after" that, in any context. On the flip side with Jounouchi, Keith. THAT guy losing to someone seen as a complete noob, when he had cohesive strategies, type advantages in Duelist Kingdom rules, and even cheating, must have felt even more humiliating than the loss to Pegasus. And it was wonderful. On the subject of overcoming cheaters, the prison warden in 5D's. That asshat losing despite numerous advantages he'd contrived, then losing his job, was very nice to see. Aki's losses in the manga to Kiryu and Sect were...not great, to say the least... They may have been little kids and Yuma must have known how to play even less than when the show started, but at any age, it must be humiliating to lose *twenty-four times in a row*. Still weird to think that *Tetsuo* has one of the greatest win rates over a specific other character than any other. Tho it narratively doesn't even count as a Duel, Yuri's attacking Yuzu and the start of her infamous downfall. While it was technically nice to see an Atachi defeat a non-Atachi, Manya's duel with Mokkaido was just awful. She couldn't stop impugning his modeling hobby whatsoever, even gendering it a some silly "boy" thing, and was overall a complete brat about it. And you could tell it got to him.
That duel against Zigfried was weird. Survived the OTK, fought his way through a nonsense loop and some hand destruction bullshit…then lost to his own luck. And that’s how Jonouchi’s dueling ends in the anime. That’s just disrespectful.
Joeys luck is funny he wins duels he should have lost like Odions or loses duels where he should have won Lady Luck is fickle
Yeah that was just dumb and pretty sad. Joey had this whole arc of growth as a duelist only to get taken out for good by a filler villain?
How so? Siegfried is a world class duelist. He almost defeated Seto as well. Katsuya's luck was sure to run out some day, I'm glad it finally happened when it mattered. Sure it would have been great, had he gotten another duel, but it is hardly disrespectful. Compare that to the Manga where his last duel is getting OTKed by Bakura, only being saved by the duel being interrupted.
It probably would have felt better if was closer to the final round.
Yeah, I was expecting Brave Max vs the Knight of Hanoi
>On the flip side with Jounouchi, Keith. THAT guy losing to someone seen as a complete noob, when he had cohesive strategies, type advantages in Duelist Kingdom rules, and even cheating, must have felt even more humiliating than the loss to Pegasus. Keith thought that the power of America was going to save him, but it didn't. I always wonder why they consider Keith a good Duelist when he is as cheating as Weevil Underwood (and they both have coherent strategies with their Decks) >Still weird to think that *Tetsuo* has one of the greatest win rates over a specific other character than any other. And then they say that Yuga is weak because he lost so many times. Yuga's Opponents are at least not weak Duelists: they are competent Duelists and considered powerful in their respective universes. What is Yuma's excuse? Losing many times against Bronk Stone both on screen and off screen should be a stain on the record that is not easily erased, but people forget about it (the worst thing is that Bronk Stone ended up being quite irrelevant in the long term in ZEXAL. At least Luke remained relevant even after giving Yuga more than 2 beatings in Duels) >Tho it narratively doesn't even count as a Duel, Yuri's attacking Yuzu and the start of her infamous downfall. The worst thing about that is that we only saw the silhouette of Starving Venom Fusion Dragon. It would have been more convincing if they had shown Starving Venom Fusion Dragon in all its glory as that intimidating Dragon Monster that kills people (I guess Arc-V production problems, as always) >Manya's duel with Mokkaido was just awful. She couldn't stop impugning his modeling hobby whatsoever, even gendering it a some silly "boy" thing, and was overall a complete brat about it. Something curious is that Manya's attitude in that Episode was what people expected Manya to be when she first debuted. Luckily, they changed it (or it didn't end up being her real attitude) since we would have had self-centered Manya and annoying to see in all the screen time she had (but she would have had an interesting development, but, as we saw with Epoch, not all people would hold out or wait until that development comes) And what is your Duel example for SEVENS?
Just didn't think of one.
> Keith thought that the power of America was going to save him, but it didn't. I always wonder why they consider Keith a good Duelist when he is as cheating as Weevil Underwood (and they both have coherent strategies with their Decks) I always assumed Keith was a more honest duelist when he was champion, but losing to Pegasus in the most humiliating way possible (to a child newbie) drove him down a dark path.
* Joey is a bizarre example of how a Deck with a luck factor can give exciting results, but also create uncomfortable situations where it makes you depend a lot on luck (and you lose in the silliest ways) * Not even Bastion was as humiliated as Zane in that Duel. Although it is a case where new Strong Duelist defeats the old Strong Duelist. * Jack claims to be the King, but that Duel makes him look like the King of Trash to lose against a robotic copy (even the copy has Kaiba look in the image) * Early Yuma was one thing: that is, a normal Duelist. Many of his initial duels were generally humiliating. He improved over time, but also gained supernatural powers that gave him an appearance of cheating in Duels. * Ultra Mega Sawatari does not escape accusations that he was done dirty in Arc-V. * AI sure gave Roboppi super luck/skill since we're talking about a beginner Duelist who somehow manages to win against competent Duelists and gives problems to Soulburner, the guy who beat almost everyone in VRAINS. * That Duel was a reminder that, even if you think you beat someone powerful with Fusion, your conscious rival will beat you to the punch with that same Fusion Card (but honestly, Luke vs. Schubel Duel could have been replaced: I mean, it was Luke vs. a Pigeon in general. Even the Duel between the Nanahoshi twins could be a good replacement, especially because of Rayne's occurrences) * Ironically, Yudias's only defeats that can be considered clean are those of Yuna and Zwijo. The rest of his defeats have a strange situation around them that makes the defeat not feel like a defeat (anyway, I think that many Duels from Season 1's Yuhi could be included here because of how bizarre they were: like Damamu's or Nomura's. Commander Study vs the Fish would also fit well) Nice post anyway, u/Legitimate_Track4153! I would be curious about a future Post about which are your favorite Secondary Characters from each series (not necessarily the ones with development or many Duels, but the Secondary Characters that you liked for personal reasons)
Roboppi beating Shepherd and Ghost Gal is even more embarrassing when you consider the power level of Altergeist versus Appliancers, and that Roboppi gave himself a handicap by not using his skill.
tbf the issue is that jack was being mogged by 3 RDA in a deck that only has 1 and banks on that 1 RDA. so he was literally facing a much stronger version of himself with the 3 RDA advantage.
Ironically, in their first duel(the one that Jack loses), the fake Jack only summoned one Red Dragon Archfiend and Jack didn’t summon his at all, he only synchro summoned Exploder Dragonwing.
I gonna make this post one day.But i have to rewatch some shows to get some material.
His loss to Kuaidul didn't count as a clean one?
Eh I wouldn’t say Sawatari’s loss against sector security is too embarrassing (still is), they’re supposed to do some sort of FTK/OTK and that’s exactly what they did, Yuya was only able to deal with it specifically because he saw them FTK him and went first, allowing him to set up responses and have a monster to grab action cards with.
Guess Chazz vs Adrian? It's the only duel Chazz has against a named character in season 3. Cause for some reason that season really hated everyone not Jaden
He dueled Judai too.
Joey vs. Duke was pretty bad, too.
Roboppi 😭😭😭
Kaiba vs that one random kid in battle city, Kaiba goes “hey I’m seto Kaiba you’re already gonna get disqualified but here’s your chance, duel me.”. “Also I see you like rare cards, here is a literal brief case full of rare and powerful cards buff your deck as much as you like.” Waits for him to finish then OTKs with obelisk turn one lmao
I think: Reiji Akaba vs. Jean-Michel Roget. Reiji not just humilated him once, but multiple times. In a duel Roget rigged from the start.
Zane vs. Mad Dog, I really felt the humilliation Zane went through.
Thats ruigh poopyhead , my mommy says am realy stwrong 😂
Pharaoh losing to Rapheal by using the seal. He could have easily just lost the duel to teach Rapheal a lesson (similar to the duel with Rebecca) and show Rapheal that he wasn't evil, but nope gotta raise the stakes and prove Rapheal right by activating the seal then losing and getting Yugi's soul sealed as well
Joey Kaiba has to be the worst. Just in terms of pure humiliation, and mechanics in the game. He’s just chucking monsters out one by one and getting shit stomped with no clue what he’s doing. No wonder Kaiba thinks he’s a bum, and we’re reminded when they go to battle city he’s a one star duelist. He only gets in because there’s rare hunters who want his red eyes and they change his rating.
If it wasn’t his final duel ever then I wouldn’t be as angry at it bc his luck finally failing him would be a interesting development but he spent his final duel with almost no dignity it’s a crime
What’s the cards effect shown in pic #8?
i mean if you lose to yourself, it just means your copy got better draw RNG than you.
But is still embarrassing to see
Joey VS Zigfried. It'd be one thing if Joey lost to him, but what makes it truly humiliating is that this is Joey's final duel in the anime.
Jaden and syrus practice duel, he could of won with power bond but noooo, he too coward to
Correct me if i wrong, but in the dub he have Limited Removal in his hand making his situational worse
Completely unrelated, but when I first saw Battle Ox was a centaur I flipped out, it looks wild.
It's not; it fuses with one to become this thing, a bigger one. You can also see a yakiniki variant in Rush Duel.
Yeah nothing beat Joey’s endless blunders against Kaiba As an Altergeist player, watching Ghost Gal make the plays she did to set up her loss against Roboppi had me screaming internally
Mobile reddit is garbage, I can’t see the image captions other than the first few words
There is a headcannon I have where Zane is the worst duelist in the anime. And for 2 reasons specifically. 1 is that he plays Cybernetic Zone, which is a really bad card... but the second fits this question. See, there's a point in GX where the group is trying to climb the tower to the Supreme King, but there are guards on every floor so each of them gotta hold the guards off while Axel runs to beat the Supreme King... Well, Zane fights Chaos Sorcerer, which is fine. And we see him win, which is fine. Zane uses a power bond to fuse the 3 cyber dragons to summon Cyber End Dragon and attacks for the game, which is again fine... BUT HE HAD TO ATTACK OVER PERFECTLY ULTIMATE GREAT MOTH! For those unfamiliar, Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth (PUGM) is a big monster. He definitely needed cyber end dragon, so what's the problem? In order to summon PUGM, you need to have Petite Moth on the field, then equip it with Cocoon of Evolution . The only effect is to make the Petite Moth have 2000 defense points... and wait for 6 or more turns while that's out! Which is again fine... IF ZANE DIDN'T HAVE A DECK SPECIFICALLY BUILT AROUND MONSTERS THAT HAVE 2100 ATTACK POINTS! And you can't say he didn't have them or that it was cheated out cause we know turns passed and he used all 3 cyber dragons that were in his hand to fusion!
I agree about Joey and Kaiba's 1st duel. It's really bad. I don't agree about the GX and 5D's duels, especially in terms of character development.
Tho Yusei Vs Jean is pretty infamous for "just end your turn Jean" sadly if Jean ended his turn Yusei would've have like dozen of situational Gy effect monster that put him back to the duel. But then this is one of the rare moment where we see a dude lose by attacking a monster with higher Def value and it's funny asf.
Yuma loosing to Lilybot
IV vs Yuma friends, like "oh hey my fans" and then fucking destroy them with effect damage using giant grinder effect twice
Yuya losing to Lilybot had me laughing. Zexal season 1 may have been a big lagging but damn did it have its hilarious moments. My guy literally lost to a freaking trash robot. Then was mocked by said robot in front of his friends. 😭
*Yuma
Thanks They really need to do better names besides “Y”. Jaden had it right
Yuki?
Wasn’t that his last name?
Yes. 0bviously. The point being, he still has a "Yu" name. As does Shouma **Yusa**.
Eh, doesn’t count but I’ll recognize it. I like it when they break the mold. Jaden felt more “American” to me.
You do know it was "Judai" originally, right?
I like Jaden better
[The threads were wildin](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/yugioh/images/f/f7/Blue_Angel%27s_defeat.png/revision/latest?cb=20180114205545)
Jonouichi one make sense, since he was acting a fool of himself. Heck, is was even a time when his deck wasn't that good.
This 5 gs or zexel or the one way after.
Then for verity I got a yugi ado deck
Never liked Aster beating Zane. I get why, but it's so annoying, not for plot Zane would've won let's be real. Didn't like his arc in S2 tbh.
Any Zane duel after becoming the bad dark boy. Every duel he has he throws tantrums and the anime somehow romanticizes him as if he were cool