Did Anyone Other Than Yugi Clutch Wins Against Villains?

[@WolfLink370]

Something that went unmentioned, in the Battle City Arc... Kaiba did have another two very minor assists as well, in the very final fight against Marik. He not only gave Yugi Fiends Sanctuary before the duel began... which Yugi then used to counter the Ra OTK strategy, but also... when the referee called out Yugi for his Destiny Draw into the blind playing of it... Kaiba also spoke up and vouched for him, preventing him from being potentially disqualified.

[@janehrahan5116]

kaiba: magic is allowed explicitly because it makes me more chad when I beat them while they use it.

[@l.n.3372]

​@@janehrahan5116 Kaiba: magic is allowed when it benefits me against Ishizu

[@williamfalls]

Kaiba: Magic is allowed, because I said so. And that's law, because I have money.

[@eeefe972]

How would the ref even know about that I don't belive u

[@Maelodas]

Kaiba: My favorite Candy is M&M=Money and Magic.

[@alphabrother6823]

If you ask me, although considered filler, Joey is the unsung hero of the Waking the Dragons arc. He defeated Rex, Valon, freed Mai, and Hermos was what gave Yugi the win against Dreadscythe and partially against Dartz, while only losing to a dice roll while barely being able to stand. IMO, he did better than any other character in that arc

[@Realdeal958]

Also his only real loss in that arc is one where he was too tired. Both Yugi and Kaiba got legit losses that arc.

[@BigDaddyRich69]

True,wish they kept that same Joey in Grand champ arc,he finally seemed like 3rd best duelist.

[@l.n.3372]

​@Realdeal958 Did Kaiba legit lose in season 4? He drew against Allister. He beat Allister. He "lost" against Dartz because it's required by law that Kaiba cannot ever defeat a main villain lmao. But isn't that better? To ONLY lose to the main villain? Kaiba always loses to the main villain of every arc (Pegasus, Noah, Dartz). The only times that Kaiba doesn't lose to the main villains are: Marik (whom he never fought directly) and Siegfried (Kaiba scored the win).

[@Realdeal958]

@@l.n.3372 yeah I was referring to Dartz lol but that is his only loss in that arc which is actually not that bad. And I don't mean that as a jab against Kaiba or anything, he absolutely put in work in Season 4. But if you don't count filler he's only lost to Yugi and Pegasus canonically.

[@l.n.3372]

@Realdeal958 Honestly, Kaiba and Joey carried us thru season 4 lmao. It was so good for their character development. Atem, by contrast, went absolutely backwards in his character development. I am one of those who prefers Yugioh anime to the manga so trust me, I am fine with the filler ^^

[@briansilva3344]

!!!!!!In the duelist Kingdom Arc, Tristan did Rescued Mokuba’s body and dealt with Yami Bakura. it wasn’t in a card game. But if Bakura succeeded, he would’ve had control over a Kaiba brother for the rest of the series, causing issues down the line.

[@shadexvii3975]

True, but iirc, that was only in the anime. It didn’t occur in the manga at all

[@The_Sharktocrab]

​@@shadexvii3975 is that relevant to this discussion about the anime?

[@shadexvii3975]

@@The_Sharktocrab fair point. I guess in my head the whole did anyone other than Yugi beat main antagonist thing seemed like it applied to both

[@The_Sharktocrab]

@@shadexvii3975 maybe you're right but I'm under the impression that we're just concerned with the show. There are whole seasons that aren't in the Manga so, ya know

[@TheGreatSalsaMan]

Kaiba defeated Siegfried, even though that wasnt cannon in a filler arc I consider that a win since Kaiba isn’t THE main character. And the way he won was LEGENDARY. Funny how filler arcs actually give decent characterization to the side characters in Yu-Gi-Oh.

[@wall6587]

That was legendary indeed. The way he predicted that he would use 4 spells, draw the cards he needed, and calc that he just had enough life points for the win was protagonist level luck and skill

[@Yojimbo16]

Kaiba: "There's nothing I can't afford!"

[@l.n.3372]

I just wish that duel had better art Dx it was such a great duel

[@jamesmaass8163]

Yah the KC Grand Prix has the best duels but worst plot.

[@AceTrainerLupi]

A lot of memorable scenes actually comes from fillers. 100 life points vs 10000 life points comeback vs Noah, THAT Joey's face he pulled in the first Waking the Dragons duel vs Mai, Berserker Soul, "It should've been me" meme, Atem's loss vs Raphael, Joey vs Valon, "infinite + 1 attack points" vs Dartz, Joey vs Grandpa Muto where Joey 400 IQ outed the ancient dragon and Goblin Attack Force dealing the funniest final blow in the series, Kaiba vs Siegfried, obviously and as a cool addition, Rebecca vs Vivian where Rebecca actually played like a "modern" Yugioh player (even mentioning chains)

[@bennu547]

Joey was robbed in his duel with Marik. I will forever stand on that hill that Joey deserved that win so much

[@da_001]

Fact

[@WDinATX]

That’s kinda what happens when your opponent literally uses supernatural powers to kill you in a card game tournament, yeah.

[@DarthPyrusTheVirus]

Deserved? Maybe, that's up to you. But robbed? Not really. That'd be Odion.

[@Keir-dq8gt]

Honestly I think Joey Winning, getting Ra, and Marik using both Ras sheer power and Mai being held held in the Shadow realm to mentally torment Joey into regaining control and puppeting him against Yugi would have upped the stakes so much, thinking the villains beaten only for him to swoop in and have Joey in his clutches. Plus imagine even further it being Joeys soul on the line not "Good Mariks" when Yugi and Marik duel, Yugi forced to not hurt Joey.

[@Alduinhead]

@Keir-dq8gt We don't have to imagine it becuase that already happened earlier in the arc

[@cartledgej]

rafael didnt get defeated off screen by dartz, he showed up during yugi and kaiba's duel against him, dartz reveals that he was behind everything and rafael falls back to darkness, causing him to lose his soul

[@TGSAnime]

Damn your right, I completely miss remembered! Thanks for the correction 😁

[@acemaison2834]

@@TGSAnimewas gonna say that too and it happens cause remembering all this lore can be a bit much

[@SonicSaltyStryker]

PWANKED

[@l.n.3372]

I'll be honest, I was always meh about that plot point. I felt like Raphael not losing his soul when he lost the duel was BS because every other person who lost a duel involving the seal would lose their soul. To make it be "defeating the darkness in your heart will allow you to keep your soul" felt so cheap. But then, when Raphael got angry at Dartz and his own darkness returns, and THEN Raphael lost his soul, I actually thought that sent a weird message, too. Because everybody who didn't play the seal and lost the duel had no darkness. Joey didn't play the seal, he lost to Mai, he lost his soul. Joey had no darkness: he practically sacrifices himself for Mai. So why should someone with no darkness lose their soul? Similarly, Mai lost that darkness when she saw Joey sacrifice himself for her. So why didn't the seal break and not take Joey's soul away? It felt like Raphael is just cheap BS to be different.

[@tarikkash4282]

@@TGSAnime You should cover the spinoffs! That would be really great!

[@mikebottomlesspitdunham2954]

Don't forget that before the Tag Duel you mentioned, Seto FTKed Loomis and Umbra in an earlier Tag Duel where one of them set Mirror Force and Seto summoned Lord of D., used two Flutes of Summoning Dragon, and summoned Obelisk before using his ability and ending the Duel.

[@darksideofevil13]

OTK, it was his second turn, but yeah. Unless FTK also applies to the first turn you're allowed to attack?

[@realname2883]

@@darksideofevil13 FTK is the very first turn of the duel, and an OTK is I believe one turn where you send your opponent from 8k LP to 0.

[@mikebottomlesspitdunham2954]

@@darksideofevil13 it was his first turn I believe, as Yugi/Atem hadn't had a turn.

[@darksideofevil13]

@@mikebottomlesspitdunham2954 I recall Kaiba went first, then Lumis and Umbra got to go, then Yugi, then Kaiba finished them off. I thought you couldn't attack on the very first turn.

[@mikebottomlesspitdunham2954]

@darksideofevil13 nah, I might be misremembering, but I don’t recall Atem ever getting a single turn in. I'll look it up though.

[@StareachValcin]

To be fair, Yugi's friends did help in the final duel with Pegasus by preventing him from further reading Atem's mind when Yugi was no longer able to continue the duel. Also, while Tristan did lose in the duel against Nesbitt, Serenity and Duke did win the duel by destroying Nesbitt's deck master. Also, considering that Atem needed the support of his friends, as well as Seto Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragons to defeat Noah, I'd say that Atem didn't win entirely on his own. Plus, Rafael wasn't taken out by Dartz offscreen. We saw it happen.

[@BrandonScott-mi5pz]

EXCELLENT TGS ANIME WORK.

[@treashtyl89]

@@BrandonScott-mi5pz i say he always miss tings in each video i think he needs to do fallow up and correction videos

[@cloudkitt]

While I just said in a comment above that I appreciate that YGO Duel Monsters maintains some mysticism around Shadow Duels outside the strict rules of the game...the friends blocking Pegasus at the end did always feel cheap to me in a way that Joey not being able to maintain his self against Marik didn't, haha.

[@mystery8820]

@@StareachValcin Dartz took out Raph. Why? Because pwanked.

[@StareachValcin]

@@cloudkitt I honestly didn't see Yugi's friends blocking Pegasus from reading Atem's mind as cheap. Just a showcase of their strong bond.

[@masterripper5409]

Fun fact: In the Waking The Dragons arc duel of Duke and Rebecca vs Valon, that duel is the only one in the arc where The Seal Of Orichalcos was never activated.

[@Zhortac]

Thankfully for them, Valon's ego kicked in, since he told them he didn't need it to win, when they got worried about him using it lol

[@guitarbass22]

It should have been 1 of 2, since the Pharoah didn’t need it against Rafael the first time. So he loses the dual against Rafael. Big deal. YGOTAS really hit the nail on the head with how they made the Pharoah act in that one because it made 0 sense to me otherwise. 🤣🤣🤣

[@shadexvii3975]

@@guitarbass22didn’t TGS’ coverage of that duel prove Yugi did need it to win, he just didn’t use it how he should have?

[@Yojimbo16]

@@shadexvii3975 Yeah, he could have won only if he had set the Seal first before activating Card of Sanctity to draw into Catapult Turtle one turn earlier and just use its effect to tribute his boosted monsters to burn Raphael for Game.

[@lebenskaputt]

​@@shadexvii3975He proved he couldn't have won without the Seal. But he also mentioned that there were no stakes involved in that duel. He could have taken a loss like a man and move on.

[@Quest373]

In Duelist Kingdom Kaiba hacked the system during Yugi's duel with Ghost Kaiba to allow Yugi to defeat Blue-Eyes.

[@shadexvii3975]

True, though in the manga it just sorta…disappeared for no explained reason as a representative of Kaiba’s soul

[@friendmaker9210]

This is what I was thinking!!!

[@cloudkitt]

@@shadexvii3975 Oof, that's much less satisfying 😅

[@NikkyElso]

I remember that one, Yugi 100% would have lost that duel if Kaiba didn't cheat on his behalf

[@V0LS]

yea, Kaiba anime clutch is real

[@jamesturner6979]

If there is one change in the anime from the manga that I did not like, it was making it so Atem beats Duke Devlin in the Dungeon Dice Monsters match. In the manga, Duke's father separates Yugi from the Puzzle so he has to win on his own merit with only a pep talk from Yami Bakura to help him. It was really cool as it set the seeds for Yugi's future independence from Atem and came full circle when Yugi defeated Yami Bakura in a similar situation. But for some reason, the anime ripped out the father subplot and and made Pegasus' "disappearance" (since the anime didn't kill him) the reason for Duke's revenge which was dumb and they really had to humiliate Joey in that match.

[@guitarbass22]

There’s also the change at the end of the series where Kaiba does not see Yugi beat Atem, which is the canon “Dark Side of Dimensions” follows. Honestly watching that movie I was so confused as to Kaiba’s motivation until it was explained to me that in the manga he didn’t see the ceremonial dual. Then I had my “Ohhhhh” moment. 🤣🤣

[@shadexvii3975]

Devil’s board game being the game that Solomon moto and Duke’s dad played is probably why. Devil as a term would probably have gotten into weird/not so likely to get approved territory.

[@lebenskaputt]

​@@guitarbass22Kaiba watching Yami pass to the afterlife and doesn't even bat an eye, even admits Yugi is the real King of Games. Few years later, Kaiba inventing time travel in order to settle the score with Atem.

[@ceramicfiber1720]

Kaiba was actually a huge clutch for Yugi during the Dartz duel. For 1, he needed Kaiba's Critias but the major clutch was Kaiba using Mirror Force Dragon to nuke the field since Atem was unwilling to deal with the Mirror Knights

[@thadjarvis9514]

Joey is sweating rn

[@chocolover1998]

Nah joey dead

[@foxw00d]

Joey did once with armor cards & took the L for mia.

[@ern1609]

More like punching the air

[@thadjarvis9514]

Totally thought the video was gonna mean lucky wins at all lol

[@SirStanleytheStumbler]

Why? He beat at least one of the big 5. The lawyer Johnson.

[@gldni17]

A few minor side notes: The first virtual world/RPG mini arc is won by Yugi and Kaiba together against the Big Five, Yugi solos Duke in Dungeon Dice Monsters, and in Capsule Monsters, all 5 members of the party win together against Alexander the Great. I think that covers everything from the non-card game mini-arcs. XP

[@live22morrow]

Yugi beating Duke in DDM was only in the manga. In the anime version, it's Yami who plays him. Parts of the manga version of the Dungeon Dice storyline were then retooled into the Yugi vs Keith duel, which was anime only.

[@darklanternstudios7691]

@@live22morrow I'll say, as good as DDM was in the anime, the Manga version would have been so cool to see done. Get why they didn't, but it would have been entertaining.

[@brunosanto3488]

SEVENS and GO RUSH have been curious cases in terms of facing/defeating their antagonists/villains in Duels. - In SEVENS, Luke (the Best Friend/Main Rival) had the opportunity to defeat a major antagonist/villain using another Duelist's Deck. - There was also an occasion where an antagonist/villain possessed a Duelist and faced the antagonist/villain at that time, defeating him. - Likewise, the Final Boss of SEVENS was defeated thanks to Teamwork (since it was a 7 vs 7 confrontation in general terms) - In GO RUSH, Yudias (the MC) needed extra help to defeat an antagonist/villain. This extra help came from a Female Character and then a Special Guest. - Likewise, Yudias acted as the enemy to defeat on two occasions. On both occasions, a group of Duelists joined together to defeat him. - On one occasion, an antagonist/villain had to replace Yudias in order to defeat the current antagonist/villain. Of course, each antagonist/villain comes with a group of minions that must be defeated. In SEVENS, these minions defeated or were defeated by the Main Cast. In GO RUSH, the minions were defeated by recurring Supporting Characters (in some cases, the minions were Characters that were already known or were previously introduced)

[@meganmartin3373]

If you're going to say that Yugi is a side character, then I think the duel against the brainwashed Joey in the Battle City arc should probably count. If I recall, Yugi handled that entire duel on his own, even giving away the Millennium Puzzle at one point (and so the Pharaoh couldn't possibly intervene), and while he did ultimately lose the duel (before it became a draw), he did succeed in freeing Joey from Marik's influence-meaning Marik, the main villain, was down a pawn. Also, in the Millennium World arc, the ultimate decisive move that allowed the Pharaoh to defeat Zorc was fusing the three God Cards together, which could only be accomplished by reciting the Pharaoh's true name. A name that he only received because Yugi and his friends tracked it down and brought it to him. It was not a duel or a direct confrontation against the main villains, but if they _hadn't_ done this then the villain would have won, so I think it should count.

[@CharlesABelair]

It is easily forgotten as it is not a duel, but Yugi, Tristan, Joey and Tea also clutch in finding the Pharaoh's true name, which he cannot find himself. Revealing it to him unlocks all of his memories and the power to call on the Goddess Holactie.

[@anonluxor470]

You when you think about this is another example of the differences between kaiba and Yugi When the villain is using technology kaiba is usually the one who wins but when it comes to magic it's always Yugi

[@ked49]

Unless kiaba had magic(one duel)

[@da_001]

Yugi calling out Gandora to *NUKE* Bakura is the RAWEST SH1T EVER! That look on bakuras face as he got blasted with all those Lazerbeams, MAGNIFIQUE!!!!

[@Yojimbo16]

And it didn't even do any damage. lol

[@TotalEvo7]

He even got terrified at the mention of Gandora, and I quote "Not that!!!" when Yugi summoned it, implying that it could've been a potential threat in the initial timeline, or he had prior experience with the Dragon of Destruction that wasn't great.

[@masterripper5409]

I love how every side character has their own iconic and cool duels.

[@The_True_J]

2:34 and 2:48 according to Kaiba's understanding of the reasons a person would surrender, Tia is the absolute best duelist in the world as she is never actually defeated, and Mai had no possible way to defeat her.

[@roninwarriorsfan]

DM: Seto Kaiba beat Gozaburo Kaiba in the virtual world arc

[@weedragonauts4729]

9:02 he did mention it

[@l.n.3372]

Gozaburo is arguably the evil villain of virtual world but Noah is the primary arc villain and Kaiba lost cuz Noah cheats.

[@weedragonauts4729]

@@l.n.3372 ironically cheats after scolding the other guy in the Big 5 for cheating

[@l.n.3372]

@weedragonauts4729 Noah is a douche lol. I hated him so much when I was like 10 and I first watched Yugioh xDD In hindsight tho, I like Noah a lot more than the season 4 filler arc villains. Mainly cuz I'm first and foremost a Kaiba fan and I love virtual world for all its flaws haha

[@charlie8907]

Joey beat Marik in that duel. I will always be upset about that loss

[@steampunkfox4932]

Same in my eyes Joey won

[@chaudspieler]

Same here! That made me so mad when it first aired and it STILL UPSETS ME!!

[@WDinATX]

Joey won the duel but lost the Shadow Game. Straight up, the only reason Marik “won” is that he literally used supernatural powers to kill Joey and it’s actually impressive that he thought he could beat Yugi despite not having the unfair advantage of being the only one with a Millennium Item. Joey was dueling without his ace and in a situation where it’d be near-impossible to properly focus but *still* definitively beat Marik at Duel Monsters. How could Yugi have possibly lost?

[@Zhortac]

Joey lost to the plot in that duel

[@Bluebedo]

Just goes to show Odion is better than Marik. Odion absolutely crushed Joey and was cheated out of his win by Marik. Later Joey's about to show Marik why you shouldn't play with your food only to be cheated out of his win by the plot not letting him be above Kaiba in the final rankings.

[@Tuxedoggo]

Honestly, the Battle City Finals are so full of asterisks, you could argue both Mai and Joey should’ve clutched to beat Marik. Joey should’ve lost to Odion so he probably shouldn’t’ve been in a position to duel Marik, but he won that duel in every sense but name. Mai also succeeded where Bakura failed, summoned Ra properly with monsters that have attack points. It was only because Marik added playground rules to the card that she lost. Marik really is kind of a trash duelist who to this day still doesn’t have an archetype or cohesive card retrains that aren’t just Egyptian God Slime. Kaiba also should’ve clutched to beat Noah, but only Yugi’s allowed to win the duels where the opponent plays the human shield game.

[@digiing1992]

In a hypothetical where Jonouichi loses against Rishid (Odion), all that would have most likely happened is that Rishid could go up against everyone in the following duel. Because unless Rishid is able to rig the Battle Royal just like Jonouichi did in the series, with him being after Yami Marik and all, then Rishid could have ended up dueling against anyone there.

[@JackWitt-g9p]

My favorite thing about GX is its deconstruction of this trope. The first two seasons play it painfully straight and then Season 3 tears it apart because Jaden being used to having to do everything is why he has no faith in his friends' ability to handle the problems.

[@armedweiss5531]

Which directly results in everyone getting those emotion orbs inside them and becoming sacrifices for Brron's attempt at spawning Super Poly into existence. Which results in Jaden becoming the Supreme King

[@JackWitt-g9p]

@@armedweiss5531 Which results in Jaden being a mass murderer which results in PTSD which results in Jaden having to watch Zane die which results in having to save Jesse by himself again which leads to a duel with Yubel where he ends up permanently fused with her. Is it any wonder that in Season 4 he is mostly detached from everyone and focused almost solely on the fight with Trueman and Nightshroud.

[@pn2294]

The problem is that the writers don’t really care to prove him wrong That’s why he’s even worse in Season 4

[@JackWitt-g9p]

@@pn2294 The whole point is to prove him right. Even in Season 2 we see signs of GX being a deconstructive work of the original's themes.

[@King_Kong_Song]

12:00 Raphael actually gets on-screened by Dartz. Overcoming his anger protected him from the seal, so Dartz just makes him angry, then the seal takes his soul.

[@DOW1100]

Yugi setting Black Magic Ritual and passing out, only for Atem to carry over and beat Pegasus is the Number 1 assist in the entire franchise

[@JunkoEnoshima.]

One correction: Yugi would NOT have dueled against Ziegfried and Leon back to back. The entire tournament was for the final winner to duel Yugi so had Kaiba lost then Leon and Ziegfried would have had a duel to decide who goes to duel Yugi. So Kaiba’s contribution was making sure Leon was the one facing Yugi by eliminating Ziegfried before he could have a duel with Leon

[@guitarbass22]

He had already disqualified Zigfried from the tournament and the dual was just to “give the audience a show,” or was a dual of pride on both their parts. It was always going to be Leon facing off against Yugi.

[@JunkoEnoshima.]

@@guitarbass22 Dunno if that is an original sub thing or if i am misremembering but as a dub watcher for DM i remember that if Ziegfried beat Kaiba he would not have be disqualified. The duel was basically for Kaiba disqualifying Ziegfried, Ziegfried saying that Kaiba is afraid he would win the tournament so Kaiba giving him a chance to prove he has what it takes by dueling him first. Had Kaiba lost Leon vs Ziegfried would have happened

[@lebenskaputt]

Why didn't Zigfried play that card earlier against someone who couldn't deal with it though? Like Joey or Rex&Weevil? That way he would have had nothing stopping his virus. Also, he broadcasted himself live sabotaging his rival and being proud of it. For a businessman, that has to be the worst bad publicity ever.

[@bladersmosh]

Does Tristan infiltrating Pegasus’s castle to get Mokuba’s body and in way temporarily stop Yami Bakura getting his body count too? It’s not massive but it was a helpful out of duel contribution.

[@Yojimbo16]

It didn't happen in the manga so that entire bit was filler, and it caused that plothole where Tristian knocks out Bakura, throws the Millennium Ring out the window, and at the end of the Yugi Vs Pegasus Duel, Bakura has the ring back with no explanation.

[@l.n.3372]

​@@Yojimbo16 Why is that a plot hole? We see millennium item holders pull off BS every season. Also it's canon to the anime. And if we discuss the anime, then it's relevant. People need to stop acting like the manga was always better. It wasn't. The manga was a mess at times.

[@Yojimbo16]

@@l.n.3372 I'm not saying the manga is better, I'm just pointing out how anime adaptations would add completely new scenes that would create a plot hole later down the line. One example I can think of was in Dragon Ball Z where Bulma's Dad created the spaceship for Goku to go to Namek and he said it was reverse-engineered from the Saiyan Pod that brought Goku to Earth as a baby, however, there was a filler episode where Piccolo destroyed it when it created a full moon projection to turn Gohan into a Great Ape and go on a rampage.

[@l.n.3372]

@Yojimbo16 But my first sentence was that it's not a plot hole because we see millennium item holders do BS shenanigans every single arc/season. The items themselves are plot devices used to further the plot in whichever way the creator required it. How else can you explain why Pegasus suddenly can't see thru Atem mind anymore when Yugi's 3 friends put their hands together and think of him xDD surely the millennium eye doesn't stop working cuz friendship activated :P On a more serious example tho: the millennium rod clearly recognized Kaiba. Yet when Pegasus saw the stone tablets, why didn't he realize that Kaiba was connected to BEWD from the stone tablet? It's kinda bizarre that the eye works against Kaiba when you'd think Kaiba should be immune. Unless Kaiba needed the rod to give him magic protection and the rod obviously wasn't in duelist kingdom.

[@DAVALOSLUIS]

@@l.n.3372Dark Bakura/Zorc always comes back though. •Tristan knocks out Bakura throws the ring: He comes back • Dark Marik kills Dark Bakura in a shadow game where the losers literally have their soul damned/eaten in hell: He comes back (by sealing a piece of himself in the Puzzle, no other item user can do this) • Yugi kills him after Memories of Pharaoh: Zorc comes back in DSOD and corrupts Aigami.

[@ConcernedGenius]

Some other people have mentioned Kaiba giving Yugi Fiend Sanctuary for help with his win against Marik but I give Kaiba more credit on his team duel with Dartz. Sure the Pharaoh has to finish the job; but halfway through Dartz summons the mirror knights who have Yugi and friends inside them. Kaiba basically solos for that part of the duel while the Pharaoh essentially passes for... one or two turns? So the Pharaoh kinda sandbags Kaiba here a bit in my opinion.

[@ToniBingi]

Rafael wasn't off-screened. He lost to Yugi but was spared by overcoming his darkness at the last second. He then interrupted Yugi & Kaiba's duel against Dartz, and was claimed due to Dartz re-awakening his darkness (by telling him the truth about his family's death). It wasn't a duel, and it happened on screen. So no, it was only Mai that got off-screened. I still think they should have given us a Mai vs Rafael duel, and just have Yugi and the gang come in right at the end when Mai gets taken by the seal. That would hqve been a good setup for Yugi to then immediately challenge Rafael then and there. Would have been a lot more satisfying.

[@shokocontane594]

This is exactly why Yugioh SEVENS was so peak for me even if a lot of people called it a step back due to the targeted audience being children and thus making the theme less mature. SEVENS did its cast justice and not just your typical "protags and audiences". Throughout the series, everyone got their chance to shine, even side characters who you'd normally think were just a one-of who appeared in one single episode and never to be seen again. Not only that, some of them were even given the spotlight to shine in a heroic light. Like, who would have thought that Bakuro (or whatever the hell the dub calls him. Seriously? Scoop Pitman???), the 'bad guy' in one early episode, would be the one to go against Hunter in a later ep when Luke was right there as well. Man, the way SEVENS handled the casts was so peak.

[@brunosanto3488]

GO RUSH does what SEVENS does, but much better in my opinion. - On many occasions, the Protagonist needs outside help from other Characters to win some Duels. - In fact, several henchmen/antagonists are defeated by the already introduced Supporting Characters or Antagonists. - The Side Characters shine here as they contribute a lot to the plot and help the Main Cast (the Female Supporting Cast really shines in GO RUSH) - Most of the conflicts in GO RUSH always involve other already introduced Characters: either as allies or as enemies (which allows for diversity and for several Characters to shine)

[@buddyzilla4557]

You can argue that Joey and Mia did help here as they eliminated the other duelists and some strong ones too. Joey fid take out both Rex and Bandit Kieth so they didnt wind up a threat to Yugi. The anime gets a little more vague since they had Joey duel Yugi, but if you go by the manga where he just concedes to his fiend, he actually helped Yugi skip an entire level of the tourney. The youghest one at that. Further it prevented Pegaus from getitng to witness Yugis deck on display one more time in prep for their battle. I think anime Joey did still contribute in this way but manga Joey ABDOLUTLEY asisted his bug by taking on a lot of the work. He was just an extra entry and eliminator of Yugis competotion without risk to Yugi being knocked out himself.

[@overseerpjoe9477]

I think you could argue that Joey dueling Atem in the anime was also a help, since it gave him a low-stakes, fun duel. No matter which one of them won, they both got what they wanted since Joey needed the Right Hand and Yugi/Atem needed the Left.

[@derektom14]

A small correction, I think: had Kaiba not interfered to duel Sigfried, the finals of the tournament would have been Sigfried versus Leon, and Yugi would duel the winner of that duel. There was no scenario in which Yugi would have to duel both of them.

[@ScionStorm1]

Ziggy would have thrown that duel against his brother quickly as possible to keep Stromburg a surprise for Leon's last duel.

[@lucascaldasdecarvalhoferre5757]

12:07 we need a video of this duel

[@briansilva3344]

We need cards from that duel to be made in the real world, somehow that is always a solution for getting our dual analyzed.

[@aaroncornerslicegaming]

Off the top of my head: Joey was about to call the winning attack against Marik until he was knocked unconscious by Marik using his Millennium Item to torture him. It was entirely possible that Joey could have won that Duel. Kaiba beat Joey so I think it would be safe to assume Kaiba could beat Marik in a Duel the only way Marik could win is if he could torture Kaiba in a shadow game, Kaiba always denies anything supernatural or magic so it would be hard to psyche him out and rememebr if Marik tries any funny business Kaiba could always use his authority to order him disqualified for cheating. For Marik to breat Kaiba he'd have to find a way to exploit Kaiba's love for his brother Mokuba. Kaiba beat Zigfried

[@andrewbost4490]

The only Yugioh series I can think of where non-protagonists actually clutch up is 5Ds and Zexal. At least in important duels. I haven’t seen Vrains really though.

[@pn2294]

Definitely not VRAINS

[@thegreatscribbles960]

​@@pn2294 ehhhh I kinda count revolver vs lightning but he cheated

[@brunosanto3488]

Arc-V had moments where it's not the MC who moves the plot or does things that help the story or another Character. SEVENS and GO RUSH are characterized by the fact that the Side Characters are quite useful for various things: more so in GO RUSH, where many Side Characters do more things compared to the MC that even impact the story. VRAINS, on the other hand, the only ones who do everything are the MC, the Best Friend and the Main Rival.

[@lebenskaputt]

In Zexal Vector being defeated by Nasch and not Yuma is huge. If it was Duel Monsters, Nasch would have died in the middle of that Duel and Yuma would have taken over. Also against Don Thousand Yuma and Nasch were literally 50-50 all the way. In DM, this is the equivalent of Kaiba and Yugi beating Dartz together.

[@denickart]

Tristan kinda stopped Bakura in Duelist Kingdom before he could take over Kaiba Corp

[@pn2294]

And got Yugi through Death-T

[@ValorBestBirb]

If we talk about the trope of the "Seal of Orichalcos" ark was, that the usage of the seal is the actual evil, Raphael winning against Atem was a sidecharakter beating up the King of Duels who turned evil

[@mystery8820]

Then Raph became a hypocrite. Oh wait, he was always a hypocrite.

[@cloudkitt]

Oh, I see. When *you* use the Seal of Orichalcos, everything's hunky-dory. But when *I* do it I'm just exposing my true nature as an inherently evil Egyptian Pharoah.

[@mystery8820]

@@cloudkitt Atem: Plans change? You spent all our last duel telling me what an awful person I was, simply because I was willing to get rid of all my monsters. How is this any different?

[@mystery8820]

@@cloudkitt One other thing, it can apply to Noah too. When Johnson cheats, Noah calls him out for it, but when he uses Mokuba as a meat shield, he totally allows it. Noah was a sore loser and he deserved what came to him afterwards, even losing his body before the arc began.

[@lodrik13]

I know it would take a shitton of work, but I'd love a "What if" series, as in "What if Battle City would've really ended up with Kaiba vs Marik and Yugi vs Odion in the Semi, could Kaiba have defeated Marik?"

[@DarthPyrusTheVirus]

Eh, Kaiba said himself he needed two Gods and FS to beat Ra. He'd have lost with just Obelisk.

[@ZentaYason]

In the video game the Sacred Cards the player character duels Yami Yugi in the semi finals which leads to Kaiba dueling Marik. Unfortunately Kaiba loses that duel and is comatose (or lost his soul?) afterwards

[@comfyghost]

3:19 technically this is filler. in the manga joey forfeited, meaning yugi not only didn't have to duel either him or keith, he didn't have to show off anymore of his strategy to pegasus …not really that it matters since pegasus was a mind reader, but it's the thought that counts.

[@Hellfire14]

You did miss other arcs. There was the first virtual reality arc where they originally took on the big 5. As well as the capsule monster arc where they took on Alexander the great.

[@jorgecarrillo1044]

For Dueliest Kingdom, at least on the manga side, Joey actually clinch several important victory. Mai, Bonz, the tag duel with the Paradox Brothers, and arguably most crucially, his victory over Bandit Keith (which I believe to be one of the most underrated duel of the entire franchise). That victory against Keith was important as it gave Yugi a straight shot at facing Pegasus since Joey immediately dropped out the tournament after the duel. Which helps since Yugi would be at full strength, without showing off more of his strategies to Pegasus. And more importantly, in strong showcase of character growth for Joey, he believe Yugi had the best chance of defeating Pegasus. Showing incredible faith and belief in his best buddy. But for the anime, yeah it could be argued that Joey got in the way (international or otherwise). Yeah, the older I get, the more I start to dislike that duel between Yugi and Joey at Duelist Kingdom….

[@RyanJSmith]

Interesting hypothetical for Kaiba vs Marik, we'd previously seen Seto still had some sway over the millennium rod, so out of duel shenanigans could have secured his win even more than Fiends Sanctuary already would have. If we make that the semi final, we then get Kaiba with his rod, Ra, Obelisk and mind slave Tea (I'm guessing that's how custody works I'm no expert on shadow games) facing off against Yugi. Alternatively the semis are unchanged, beats Yugi first, and now he has his rod, all three gods, is the winner of his own tournament and mind slave Tea until he leaves her behind to blow up because there's no way he'd let her in the Blue Eyes jet. Better ending for him than having to invent afterlife travel just to get even with a guy who possessed a child to play card games.

[@shadic4566]

Actually, with the Championship Arc, it would have been Siegfried vs. Leon instead as Yugi going back to back against the two brothers as he wasn't dueling anyone as the grand prize of the championship tournament was to duel The King of Games himself.

[@psychotictye-dyetrex1895]

Doing this for ZEXAL or VRAINS would be hilarious. Nobody other than MC doing shit there

[@buddyzilla4557]

4:15 -Tristin. Not part of a duel but Tristin genuinely put a lot of effort into helping Yugi. Sure his first attempt to prove Pegasus was cheating resulted in a mind wipe and thus not a whole lot but he later both saved Mokuba AND stopped Yami Bakura. Tristin was kind of an unsung hero with his side quests and while tea tagged along in the First, it was Tristin leading the plan in both. Plus, he regained hai memories and this helped them understnad what was going on after the battle with Pegasus finished. Tristin is probably one of the most proactive and qssisnting eide characters depaite barely ever duling and likely because of that.

[@saltyk9869]

Don’t forget that in the movie Bonds Beyond Time two other side characters named Jaden and Yusie helped Yugi beat the big bad. He even let Yusie get the final blow.

[@sonicfan20]

I think it's worth bringing up the manga version of Duelist Kingdom where Joey and Yugi didn't duel. Joey makes it clear that because he was only there to begin with because Yugi loaned him a star chip, he was fighting to help increase Yugi's chances of getting through the finals.

[@OxzhitAuom]

Joey: NAAA Tristan: ( Literally everything) Kiba: Screw the rules I have money Yugi Moto: Super special awesome chocolate cover fudge.

[@shobhandevasagayaum3276]

In the millennium arc in the manga exodia does kill the whole of zoc army saving all the soldiers from death (before exodia was summoned the army would comeback even when killed). So If the part of the manga counts then yeah

[@REALmikegordan]

In Duelist Kingdom, Kaiba hacked into the Duelist Kingdom Mainframe in an attempt to hack the duel between Yugi and Ghost Kaiba in an attempt to assist him. Joey offered to sacrifice himself to Yugi's activation of Horn of Heaven to take out Man-Eater Bug, only for Tea to flip face up, thus activating Magician of Faith's ability to recall Monster Reborn from the graveyard. Bakura used his Millenium Ring to help Yugi and company through the labyrinth to get to Para and Dox in the first place. And of course, Tristan attempted to rescue Kaiba and Mokuba on the off-chance that Pegasus may attempt to use either of them as leverage against Yugi, similar to what Pegasus attempted to do against Kaiba earlier with the prototype Duel Disks. Mai, Joey and Mokuba all played roles in the Monster World miniarc to deal with the threat of the Big Five while Tea and Tristan worked hard to keep Kimo and his goons from unplugging their pods and killing them. Also, Kaiba cooperates with Yugi by fusing Blue-Eyes Ultimate and Black Luster Soldier to take down the Five-Headed Dragon. In Battle City, Joey, Tea and Tristan helped rescue Yugi from the burning fire following his duel with Bandit Keith; Joey's duel with Seeker and nearly warning Yugi about Exodia was pretty much what helped plant the seed in Yugi's head that would eventually lead him to figuring out Seeker's strategy in the first place; Kaiba gave Yugi a pep talk during his duel with Strings that would eventually lead Yugi to realizing the key to defeating Slifer; Kaiba literally solo'd Lumis and Umbra the first time (bit of trivia: they were both meant to be generic Rare Hunters in the original manga; the anime literally made them one and the same); and don't forget the dozens of moving parts that pretty much leads to Yugi's entire friendship group contributing in some way to the Yugi vs. Joey duel that nearly ended both their lives. Finally, once Leon realized the brevity of what he had done upon activating Golden Castle of Strongberg, he agreed to continue to duel Yugi with the hope that the two of them would find a solution to help deal with both the illegal card and the virus that it unleashed. Yeah, Yugi contributed the bulk of the work, but Leon still needed to keep the duel going. If either one of them lost the duel before they could successfully remove the card, the virus would still remain in effect; it's why Leon couldn't just surrender, or why neither one of them could have gone straight for the finishing blow. Edit: A bit of trivia, but Seto Kaiba is the only duelist in the original anime to have dueled against every single main antagonist--those being Pegasus in Duelist Kingdom, Marik in Battle City (albeit during the four-way), Noah and Gozaburo in Virtual World, Dartz in Waking the Dragons, Siegfried von Schroeder during Kaiba Corps. Grand Prix, and Yami Bakura during Millenium World.

[@finaldarkfire]

Kaiba beating Yami Marik the Battle City Finals is actually more likely then you might think, considering that Fiend Sanctuary, the big counter to Marik's big OTK Ra combo is KAIBA's card. Not only that, but the ONLY reason Marik was able to survive Yugi using Fiend Sanctuary against his big attack was by using the De-Fusion he got FROM Yugi earlier via the use of Exchange. Meaning that in a hypothetical Kaiba vs. Marik duel where Kaiba is able to use Fiend Sanctuary to counter Marik's big Life-Point Supercharged Ra attack, Marik very likely could have no way out of it and loses right then and there.

[@urm0m69]

I think you might be wrong on something here... so basically, the anime and manga are 2 different timelines and what happens in filler arcs can't be considered non canon to the anime timeeline purely because of this unless they contradict future or prior arcs with no valid explanation

[@Karzikann]

the first reversal of this trope i can think of is in the original beyblade anime where Kai actually beats Brooklyn instead of Tyson being the one to win first, which I really liked

[@mathewmallon7208]

If you continue the series the protagonists are Gx: Jaden Yuki (the supreme king being Jaden does mess this up for the Darkworld arc) 5ds: Yusei Fudo Zecel Yuma (w Astrel) Arc v: Yuya sakaki (Yuya being part of Z-arc messes with the series finale)

[@Xhadp]

Doing this for Zexal and the standout is Kite due to his duel with Mizar which ends up with the key to the Numeron code and stopping Yuma from taking over which he repays back later on, Shark also could've intervened though but would've gotten utterly crushed. The other main character, Shark turns into Nasch so hard to call his victories clutch and Yuma has plot armor due to being tied to Utopia. Most of the outliter clutch duels anyways are in tandem.

[@SowaraAkther1]

With Yu Gi Oh GX: Well in Yu Gi Oh GX, we had Alexis and Chazz deal with 2 of the 7: Shadow Rider with Titan for Alexis and Chazz for The Dark Scorpions. Though Jaden still defeated 5 of them which sucks. Zane or Crowler could have defeated Camula and Bastion could have beaten Taniya. I think the real Shadow Rider, Jaden 100% should have faced should have been Banner. Maybe Darkshroud still since we didn't know he was Atticus at the time. I love my boy, but he took on too many people for his own good. Also Jaden and Sryus beat Paradox brothers so 50% assist from Syrus. Same with Aster in his tag duel with Jaden. And Jesse did assist Jaden I would say 3 times. 2 from his team up with Jaden ( Yubel and Fujiwara ) and another assist I would count is from Jesse cards: The Crystal Beast during the duel between Jesse (possessed) vs Jaden where they told him what he needed to do to get Jesse back. Maybe 4 times due to Jesse duelling on Jaden behalf with the Card Trapper as well but may not count due to Jaden being tired from his previous duel so could not physically duel. Then finally, the Paradox duel between Jaden , Yugi and Yusei. Edit one: Here a weird one but Neos and Hassleberry helped Jaden during his duel against Sariotus in which destroyed the satellite in which would have brainwashed the whole world to the Society of Light. And the Neos was summoned by Jaden and then told by Jaden to go attack the satellite. If I forgot any, I will continue to add them.

[@darksideofevil13]

This was my problem with GX. Why did they have to give Jaden a majority of the duels? It just robbed others of development. Alexis’s whole season one arc was around her brother. Why wasn't she the one to duel and free him?

[@artificerprime4154]

Axel tied with the Supreme King, which freed Jaden from the Supreme King's control with some help from Jim's Orichalcum eye. Jesse also assisted the entire school by dueling against Zane to get Rainbow Dragon into the desert dimension, since it was needed to get the school back to their own world. Frankly, the transfer students who weren't Adrian came in clutch pretty hard in Season 3, which overshadowed the existing main cast a bit too much imo.

[@PonyJammin]

I love that YGO is one of the few series where people love the "filler" seasons as much, if not more, than the "canon" seasons.

[@phonepup06]

Yugi wouldn’t have to duel both Leon and Zig. Leon and Zig would’ve dueled if Kain’s didn’t step in. Zig would’ve lost to Leon and then given him Golden Castle still; this was his plan from the start

[@darksideofevil13]

Does Yugi’s friends preventing Pegasus from seeing Yugi’s cards count? Also you forgot Yugi’s duel against Rebecca. And the first Virtual World Arc after Duelist Kingdom.

[@lebenskaputt]

Those were one-off things. A single even started and ended, it didn't lead up to the defeat of any major villain/group

[@darksideofevil13]

@lebenskaputt It would have been good for him to give them a passing mention. Also depending how technical you want to get. Rebecca's grandfather ended her antagonism to Yugi and co at the end. Sort of an assist. And the first virtual world arc had Kaiba and Yugi working together to beat the big 5 the first time. Joey and Mai also helped alot.

[@justinalicea1590]

In the manga, Joey does the smart thing and does not duel Yugi for the winner position, meaning Joey does have a win against Bandit Keith that helps Yugi withoug Yugi's involvement. Also, Season 0/first manga has a lot of moments where the friend group helps Yugi succeed on their own: Joey takes out one guy in fatal laser tag, and Tristan takes out the other two with a clever plan. Tea uses her talent for rhythm to get them through a falling block trap, and a few other examples are in there.

[@mathewmallon7208]

For the grand championship arc you missed one, Mokuba Kaiba making the system backup after Joey vs Siegfried

[@wanderlustwarrior]

Hold on, Mai actually clutched up in the Duelist Kingdom Arc. TWICE. She got enough star chips to get Yugi to re-enter the tournament. She also gave Joey her card to keep him in the tournament after Keith stole the one Yugi gave him.

[@hal1385]

I think that topic is even more interesting for Yu-gi-oh GX since one of the overarching themes of the final two seasons is that Jaden gets so burnt out from having to deal with extreme threats that he forgets how to have fun while dueling and needs to be reminded by Yugi himself in the final episodes. I believe the Shadow Riders Arc was the only one with major assists (with Chazz and Alexis each beating one of the Shadow Riders) while Jaden almost singlehandedly beats the Society of Light, Yubel and Darkness with minor assistance from Aster, Jessie and Axel (for snapping him out of the Supreme King persona). Hassleberry did turn into a dinosaur and helped blow up a satellite at one point, too.

[@artificerprime4154]

In my personal opinion, Aster should have beaten Sartorius, and maybe have Jaden fight a more corporeal version of the Light of Destruction (his real enemy) instead. I just think it would have been way more fitting if Aster was the one to free his friend from the Light, and also have the irony of Plasma being the one to do it since it was Plasma that caused the Light to infect Sartorius in the first place. Also since it's no longer in Sartorius's body, the Light could be weakened in some way, which means that Sarina's prediction that both Aster and Jaden are the chosen ones would actually be meaningful.

[@masterchampionprotips]

Not sure if it was already mentioned or not, but Kaiba gave Yugi a major assist in the Duelist Kingdom Arc when he hacked the system to help defeat Evil Kaiba using his deck. I don't think Yugi would have beaten him without the help. I'm pretty sure the point was without Exodia, Yugi needed the help to win

[@themantyf1116]

If Odion had won the duel (which, let's be honest, he deserved) there is a chance Kaiba wouldn't have faced Marik at all. The placements were determined by the duel, and if Odium was in there he would have played according to Marik's wishes, which were to face Yugi as soon as possible. Kaiba wants all three God cards, so he would want to face Marik, but the most important thing to him is facing Yugi in the final, because that's his big duel. So a possibility would have been that Odium loses to Kaiba in the semi-finals, Yami Marik is awakened (because he would be still dormant), face Yugi, lost and found peace, and then Yugi would have faced Kaiba, have Kaiba's trap steal Ra, and probably have to use Ragnarok in that duel as well to win.

[@DSdemon767]

12:00 Rafael doesnt get off-screened. He breaks into the yugi/kaiba/dartz duel. Dartz enrages him by revealing all three henchmen ended up with Dartz because he caused their tragic events. Super pissed off Rafael reawakens his darkness and the seal takes him automatically.

[@supernicedude2972]

14:35 actually no. If Kaiba had lost to Zigfreid, Zigfreid would have been forced to fuel Leon next, as that was the original duel lined up before Kaiba jumped in. Then the winner of THAT duel would duel Yugi in the "reward" duel.

[@zexalbrony4799]

You could do this for the other series too. Could be fun. GX: Chazz(Manjome) and Alexis(Asuka) helped in season 1, each beating a Shadow Rider. Zane(Ryo) could have helped to but Camula cheated him in their match. Season 2 Aster(Edo) beats The D and helps Jaden beat Serena, and thats pretty much it Jaden(Judai) takes down all the other villains himself. Season 3 had a lot of players help out, Jesse(Joan) beat Trapper and one of the Mask of Silence, Jim beats the Mask of Anger and Kozaky, and tried but failed to beat the Supreme King but his Eye of Oricalcum did help Axel a little later, Axel(O'Brain) beats the Mask of Laughter, Skull-Knight, and ties with the Supreme King thus bringing Jaden back so he can later stop Yubel, and even Zane and Aster help by beating Chaos Sorrceror, Skilled White Magician, and Skilled Dark Magician, true those two Duels are mostly off-screen but those two still helped beat some bad guys. Season 4 Jesse helps a little against Yusaku and while he does lose he leaves his ace Monster for Jaden to use to win so he helped a bit. 5Ds: Leo(Rua), Luna(Ruka), Crow, Jack, and Akiza(Aki) all beat a Dark Signer in season 1 and while they do get taken out by Rex Crow and Jack do help a little so Yusei can win in the 3v1 match. Then because the World Rriding Tournament is a team tournament Akiza, Crow, and Jack all help a good bit get some wins or set the stage for a later win in season 2, following that Akiza and Crow beat Sherry, while Jack, Luna, and Leo beat Aporia. Zexal: Kite(Kaito) takes down Trey(III) and Quattro(IV) in a tag-team duel with some help from Yuma, Shark and Kite beat Quattro and Quinton(V), then the two help Yuma beat Faker in the 3v1 match and unlike Jack and Crow they don't get knocked out. Shark and Rio both beat a brainwashed student, Kite and Shark each beat a Nnumber Gurdian thus securing a Mytherian Number for the good guys, Trey, Quattro, and Quinton later all help Yuma, Shark, and Kite take down Heartland's Dueling Mercinaries in three 2v1 Duels, then when Alito(Arito) joins the good guys, while he loses to Girag(Giragu) he does free him from Don Thousands control and gets him to switch sides, Kite also beats Mizar(Miseal), and while he is technically an enemy at this time Shark still helps by taking down Vector and then tag-teaming with Yuma to stop Don Thousand. Arc V: In season 1 Shay(Shun) beats Sora, then later he, Moon Shadow, Celina(Serena), Sylvio(Shingo), and Gong al beat three Obelisk Force members, and Declan(Reiji) also beats Barrett, and Yugo takes down some Obelisk Force too. Then in season 2, Yugo betas Duel Chaser 227, Celina beats a Security Officer, Shay beats Dennis, Sora defects and helps Moon Shadow beat three Obelisk Force, Riley(Reira) beats Security Officers and Obelisk Force members, Crow beats some Security Officers, Jack (Arc V) beats Sergey, and lastly while Yuya deals with Jack; Declan, Shay, Sora, Choijiro, Moon Shadow, Gong, and Sylvio all beat members of Security. Finally in season 3, Alexis (Arc V) beats some Truent Officers, Shay helps Yuya beat the Tyler Sisters, and later Shay, Yuya, and Kite (Arc V) beat three members of Obelisk Force, then Kite gets solo wins against Dennis and Diana, Yugo beats Appolo, Shay beats Lulu(Ruri), we could also count Yusho beating Aster (Arc V) in that flashback which laid the ground work that Yuya used later to convert Aster to their side.

[@marwanabuharb2661]

Honestly, the millennium world arc has to go to the pharos friends because through out all and all this arc was not fully about duels, not to forget that monsters where getting summoned and fight with no life points but their energies, and in order for the pharo to beat the big baddie he needed to find his name atem to get the power needed, as well through the power of friendship atem did win against bakora but him using time reverse the series continues. All of that and with the help of literally every millennium holder except set's father all has been carrying atem the whole arc, and atem just gave the final blow.

[@Meanlucario]

5Ds is full of these if I remember correctly. That series is underrated.

[@alecmoriarty]

Kaiba is the man. He really orchestrates and helps out the most people from the background/sideline and gets like no credit. Especially for being the funniest character in the whole show

[@GreenDinoRanger]

In the manga, there was no Yugi vs Joey duel in the Duelist Kingdom finals. Joey forfeited so Yugi could immediately challenge Pegasus. Which reminds me, where's the retrain of Dark Sage, Konami?!

[@rainbowdragon168]

This could be an interesting question to answer with the other Yugioh shows. I would love to see it since I’m sure there’s moments where the side characters came in clutch in the other shows.

[@brettf5000]

If we are counting little Yugi beating Bandit Keith as an assist in season 2, and Joey as a 50% help vs Para and Dox in season 1, then I think little Yugi needs a shoutout for assisting in beating Pegasus in season 1. Without little Yugi, even Yami Yugi would have been in deep trouble against Pegasus in the final duel, and it was also little Yugi's idea to split their minds JUST before the Dark Magician is found in the Magical Hats

[@GaybrohamStinkton]

Yugi having two people inside of him is non canon media

[@lebenskaputt]

Very poor choice of words 😂

[@PolarityOfNeoSoulCity]

Wait, but in the manga, Joey actually recognized the need to stand down in the final match, and actually respectfully surrendered before they could even duel so Yugi could go straight to taking on Pegasus.

[@_SYDGAMING_]

You forgot to mention in duelist kingdom Yugi helped Atem by switching back and forward to stop Pegasus mind reading. If we're counting little Yugi as a side

[@gameboi_dan1125]

5:09 What did he say 😂

[@steampunkfox4932]

For the Duelist kingdom I feel like there were two story arks. Yugi trying to get his Grandfather’s soul back and Joey getting enough money for his sisters operation

[@ghen492]

You should turn this into a series and do it for all the series, Zexal and Arc V specifically would be the most interesting to look into with this

[@deathlord269]

This'll be fun to do in GX next, I remember people other than Jaden dealing w/ some of the Shadow riders if I'm remembering correctly, and for a bit of time, Jaden technically becomes a villain for a time. It's been a while since I've watched GX admittedly, but I remember the other characters being more useful, and I remember liking GX over the original because of it. (and the archtype that would essentially become my main deck for now 19 years, was introduced. The HERO archtype. )

[@Matt_Underwood]

Joey Wheeler became one of my favorite characters in the series, his growth in the series is way more impressive than Yugi's I believe. Sure he didn't win major tournaments, but Joey clutches out so many battles, it's insane

[@iamdemonlord251]

I consider Joey vs Marik as a win for Joey because he was literally about to win, it was because it was a shadow game that he lost, so it's a win in my eyes I also wish that Joey joined Yugi and Kaiba in the duel against Dartz, it would have been amazing to see a 3v1 with 3 of the best duelists, each having a legendary dragon on them, fighting together and potentially combining cards between Joey and Kaiba, we may have gotten Purple-Eyes Grey Dragon

[@Xbareeta]

I would argue Battle City finals has some help from Joey While he dueled Marik in order to save Mai it also means that Kaiba does not duel Marik. This means it is impossible for Marik to get to the finals with 2 Egyptian god cards. This allows Yugi to beat Kaiba and now face Marik with 2 Egyptian god cards instead of one

[@danielgorrill7037]

I would like to add, Joey's choice to go after Marik allowed yugi to get obelisk in his deck, pretty key to his final victory

[@pistincup352]

I wanna see you recreate the main character’s duel decks, (with anime cards included), and see who was the better duelist in all of Duel Monsters. Of course those who had more duels has more cards known to them, so it’ll be harder to know at the bare minimum 40 cards in someone’s deck. I also wanna know if Jaden can hypothetically win against Yugi when they first meet each other. Who fully knows, until someone is crazy enough to do all of the research and the anime draws

[@thefirespecialist9007]

I'll always wish that Joey and Kaiba put a few of their iconic cards in Yugis deck when he went up against Atem, so it would be like they all had that full circle moment and together, defeat Atem. Like Kaiba's 3 Blue Eyes, and the Ultimate Dragon, and Joey's Red Eyes AND Time Wizard, returning Time Wizard to Yugi since Ep. 5!

[@Gyorg-cs5dx]

This was an awesome video. I hope you do a video like this for the other series (at least up to Zexal) since the other ones do give more moments to the side characters. 5Ds first season is actually a great example of side characters essentially being a cast of main characters, as all of the Signers are needed to save the world.

[@jasonburrs3142]

This kind of makes me miss the original series. RIP Kazuki Takehashi. He left a treasure unto the world.

[@faereman]

In Duelist Kingdom, there's also the part where Kaiba straight up hacked the system to help Yugi win.

[@JohnLee-sw6sh]

In future videos like this, I hope you bring up when Declan beat Jean Michel Roget and Revolver almost beat Lightning. Those were awesome moments where the side characters didn't need the protagonists' help.

[@six-fingeredjimmy6977]

4:04 It's worth acknowledging that "Ghost Kaiba", who was a key part in Yugi's path to success, was beaten primarily by an assist from Kaiba. If he hadn't uploaded a virus to affect the duel then Yugi most likely wouldn't have been able to win with how it was going at the time.

[@DaitylSword]

I wish the grand championship arc would’ve given us the Yugi v Rebecca and Yugi v Joey rematches. Still have Zigfried get whacked by Kaiba though

[@DSdemon767]

Grand champion arc was a KC tournament where the winner duels yugi. Leon won the tournament and lost the Grand prize match

[@strongerthanever2039]

Ah yes, my favourite YuGiOh character - Yugi Clutch Mutou!

[@nate-rs8090]

Since it came up this video, what are the odds we could get an analysis of Little Yugi vs Bakura? I feel like that's one of the most overlooked duels in the first series..

[@briarbarfield5809]

Another point to make is that if it weren't for Joey winning red-eyes from Rex, then he and yugi most likely couldn't have beaten the paradox brothers.