Bonds Beyond Tiramasu

And another question, exactly how long was Judai supreme king?

I mean by the time we meet him he has complete head-to-toe custom made to fit fancy armor, he‘s ammassed a huge army, made a name for himself as a feared king, committed a mass genocide of thousands of duelists, conquered nearly the entire dimension—

Season three started at the start of the crew’s third year, and season four is on the end of that year. However, the first half of 3 doesn’t seem to last as long as one would think. Perhaps a month or two before the dis-duels are uncovered as part of Cobra’s plot, not even two weeks spent in the other dimension... The first episode of season four sets the timeline at one week after the last episode of season three, so...

Just how long was Judai’s conscious locked away while the supreme king wrought havoc all over the other dimension?

Here’s another thought, does anyone else find it kind of messed up that even after losing the orbs of darkness placed on them just before Judai’s fight with Brron Judai’s friends still claimed he willingly sacrificed them during the duel?

Don’t get me wrong, Judai makes a lot of mistakes leading up to his becoming supreme king, but he definitely did not intentionally sacrifice them.

Starting the duel in itself was a huge mistake on Judai’s part, there’s no excusing that, but once he realizes what he started and sees what happens to Manjome he starts desperately stalling to figure out a way to stop it. He couldn’t surrender without dying, and even if he could he’d still lose his friends if he did, which was something they themselves pointed out; they were shouting at him to win and save them. He couldn’t attack until he got rid of the magic card Brron was using to sacrifice his friends, so he puts Avian in defense position instead. Stall until he gets his key card, right? His tactic was very obvious to see.

And it was also incredibly obvious to see that Brron was the one who caused the rest of his friends to get sacrificed. He activates a series of trap cards, one to give Judai two tokens and one to force all three monsters to attack. Judai is actively shouting at them and pleading with them not to attack.

Judai’s actions in the beginning of the second trip to the other dimension are definite rash mistakes and blind moves that can’t be excused and most definitely put him and his friends in danger, but— and maybe it’s something I’m not seeing or understanding correctly —it kinda always seemed wrong to me that they claimed he willingly sacrificed them at that part.

I haven’t done a single drawing for these three yet and the one post I did discussing Judai blew up still so uhm

Hi

I’m a gx nerd and I might have some fanfics in the works so uh

Should I post those here

Can we talk about the fact that when The Fool spread darkness to one of Judai’s cards in season 4, the specific card it infected was polymerization

This is the same exact card that held all of Judai’s trauma from when he was possessed by the supreme king’s power in season 3– to the point where he had to stop using it because the memories it brought on was making him physically sick. When he finally used it against Johan!Yubel, he had to fight off being physically sick from the trauma it unlocked.

When season 4 rolls around we learn that the adversary Darkness is essentially the negative emotions, the anxiety depression and all of that that people carry with them, and that it can infect duelists’ cards if they associate them with negative emotions. Judai’s deck is fine at first because he has a strong bond with his deck and the spirits, as well as protection via Yubel’s soul fused with his own, but when Saio snuck the darkness infected Fool into his deck the one card that it affected was the one card that was shown to carry his past trauma. And once again, it ends up making him physically sick to carry with him to the point of nearly collapsing.

This probably seems very obvious, but this means that Judai’s darkness is 100% the fear of losing himself again. And if you ask me, it hints at the possibility that he very well could lose control of the gentle darkness power he holds and become the supreme king again. In fact it may be Yubel themself that prevents this, as at the start of the final duel against true Darkness, Judai’s eyes(full of rage and hatred no doubt) turn the supreme king’s golden color before Yubel’s multi chromatic eye color.

I had a final point but I lost it but I’ll just leave off with this being one of the reasons why Judai is and will always be my favorite yugioh protagonist. His character development is just. Some of the most extensive I’ve seen in the franchise so far, and is actually very relatable to me.