"Any card—so long as it exists—has a power that is needed."

zeravmeta:

Thanks for reading! though credit where credit is due the post I think youre talking abt specifically wasnt mine but i have talked abt ygo meta before.

Judai’s character is really good and a lot of it stems from the fact that he’s actually an incredibly sensitive person who crumbles under expectations because he’s desperate to be liked. You’ll notice that he treats Duel Monsters the game as more of a game than most other characters throughout the entirety of the ygo franchise but GX goes the extra mile to be like “actually these are life and death situations and also the cards are alive and always watcting watching always watching always judging-”. Suddenly the game he played to try and connect with others became far more serious and you’ll notice that in season 1 we actually get a whole bunch of plots surrounding how judais win streak is actively ruining the lives of other people, and it continues to snowball all the way to season 3 when the whole thing with the dark world starts and the supreme king awakens within him. A whole bunch of duels within GX also go out of their way to remind Judai to not be afraid of losing and that he should enjoy Duel Monsters as a game, which gives him confidence throughout all up until it’s directly his actions that causes the deaths of his friends and makes him give into the darkness inside himself as a way to escape. 

There’s also his relationship with Yubel and how they serve as both a parallel to Judai and the other half of his character. Judai as a child could sense duel monster spirits but didn’t really understand that they were alive, and all he knew is that bad things kept happening each time he used Yubel, because Yubel was incredibly protective of Judai and directly caused Judais intense fear of isolation. When Yubel comes back during s2-3, they throw those feelings of isolation directly into his face because they posit to him that despite fearing being discarded, Judai just as easily discarded them away because they were inconvenient (of course there was the Light of Destruction pushing along events to become more extreme).

Judai character arc ultimately I would say is about accepting and overcoming the trials that come but without losing his optimism. We see Judai heavily depressed throughout the series, which is why multiple times throughout we have characters reminding him to have fun with the game that he loves so much. I would heavily recommend watching the rest of GX and doing it with the sub because the dub makes things waaaay more lighthearted and season 4 was never dubbed. Many of Judais misconceptions comes more from how when GX was dubbed it was still in that era of dubbing that straight up changed characters and plot just to make it more digestible and kid friendly. Watching the dub is fun, dont get me wrong, but GX as a narrative should be experienced with the sub.