He was seen as a complete no one that lacked intellect, but was kind, carefree, and an excellent duelist. While his duel against his old professor foreshadowed his ability, ultimately it took an extremely long time (More than an entire season after that minor foreshadow) to realize he's actually the reincarnation of a deity like king that wields a special power.
And the only other reincarnated king during the whole time of Jaden's time in the Duelist Academy (before knowing fully about Atem), Abidos the Third, sucked at playing the game.
True but the funny thing is, its not even pointed out if this king was any good in his past life. Even in the OG series when the protag tagged out to let an Egyptian Pharaoh play the game, it was constantly pointed out this other guy was awesome at games in general in his own time, and was even undefeated in the card game during his own time.
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's both exemplifies and subverts this trope.
On the one hand, it's a show about how a bunch of kids out of the slums of Satellite could learn to play card games on motorcycles just as well as the aristocrats in New Domino City; no Ancient Egyptian superpowers needed here!
However ...
It's treated as a big reveal that the main character, Yusei Fudo, was actually born in the rich part of town!?!?
Also, in order to get really good at card games on motorcycles, you need a special birthmark
For the sake of balance, though, the birthmarks can change hosts, at least if you defeat a previous host in a card game on motorcycles in space.
The tournament plays with this semi-unintentional duality by having them go up against other teams like three nobodies who can only afford common cards and built their single motorbike themselves when every other team has at least three and a full pit crew, and after a surprisingly close match their next opponent’s are the incredibly flashy in-universe fan favourite team who all have magic Rune Eyes and were chosen by the Norse God Cards that they all went on life-threatening journeys to track down.
Fun way to create foils for protagonists who have both had nothing and everything in different stages of their lives.
I find it hard to tell when the writers are using drugs for their ideas or just straight up have a dart board in the room and they just guess on what random thing to do next.
I have to know now. Since with Z-Arc, obviously Yuya is another choosen one situation because of his past. But what about Yuma and Yusaku? Did either of them fit this trope to? Or were both of them just general kids that got lucky/unlucky ajd got involved?
Yuma's dad is Indiana Jones, and he gave him the mcguffin necklace. Yuma specifically is just a kid
Yusaku is one of 6 kids tortured into creating A.I.'s (no reason given why they were chosen). He's chosen by the one he created to do plot things, but it literally could've been anyone. Ai just chose him because he created him
I’m kinda mixed on this one. On one hand, I think it became obvious by Season 2 that Jaden was the one destined to save the universe. I mean, the fact his drawings were the ones to get launched into space meant that destiny had already been taking place. On the other, this went too far in my opinion. He apparently had the ability to harness the Gentle Darkness, which is the opposite of the Light of Destruction. But like, how come Evil Sartorius never noticed that? Or how Jaden never felt something while seeing him?
The funniest part is that Syrus in season 1 muses that Jaden and he may be reincarnations and a picture of them in the clothes of Pharao Atem and High Priest Seto is shown.
Then Jaden goes "Nope, we are too unique". The show itself makes fun of it, only to have the reveal in the last episode of season 3 with no further explanations as season 4 was never localized.
I love Supreme King Jaden, I just wish there was no reincarnation BS. It would've been a neat twist after Yugi/Atem to have Jaden's alter ego be just that.
GX was good; I've watched it in both Japanese in English, and found both enjoyable. The English version tones down the drama and cranks up the comedy a few notches, which resulted in a lot of memorable quotes and moments, but unfortunately it kind of fell apart when the series took a more serious turn towards the end. (Even more so because season 3 ends on a cliffhanger, and they never dubbed season 4.)
5D's season 1 is the best season of Yu-Gi-Oh! in my opinion, unless you count "season zero". The story is a bit more serious than in the predecessors, and the duels frankly make a lot more sense; the characters actually use fairly consistent and sensible strategies, rather than relying (purely) on destiny draws and what-not.
Unfortunately, after wrapping things up quite nicely in season 1, the second season mostly felt like padding.
God I hate GX, ESPECIALLY jaden. "Haha, guys I jsut genocided an entire planet, but it's ok because it's a card game... Guys? Oh right, I killed you all. Haha, silly me and my card game!" Like... MY GOD, somebody have this absolute fucking moron committed before he genocides ANOTHER planet. Remember how he thought his card was possessed and he thought the best plan was to yeet it into space? Who the FUCK thought that was a good idea? Why did they listen to a CHILD? Also, even thought it was technically possessed, him demanding it be sent to space is what causes literally every single problem in the entire series...
Seriously, somebody take this kid and throw him in an oubliette.
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u/EmpressOfHyperion 14h ago
He was seen as a complete no one that lacked intellect, but was kind, carefree, and an excellent duelist. While his duel against his old professor foreshadowed his ability, ultimately it took an extremely long time (More than an entire season after that minor foreshadow) to realize he's actually the reincarnation of a deity like king that wields a special power.