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

the-kings-of-games:

I think it’s okay that neither Yūsei nor Yūsaku never lost a duel too, and there’s different reasons why.

For Yūsei, he has never lost a Turbo duel, but he did lose one standing duel: in that flashback with Jack. Some might not count it, but I think that it was important because it implies that when Yūsei doesn’t have a goal, he can lose. He loses when he isn’t driven by anything, especially to someone who is driven by a goal or ambition such as Jack who believed he was meant for bigger things. He developed a relationship with his cards in a way Yūsei hadn’t yet, so it was Jack who taught Yūsei that dueling isn’t just about strong monster or spells or traps but that every card counts. That defeat, amongst other things, is what helped push Yūsei, and so getting mad at anyone who calls a card useless becomes one of the principles of his character. (I really love the Duel Academy episode!) Unlike Yūgi/Atem and Jaden, Yūsei actually lost to his rival, and so he learned from his defeat and ulitmately becomes better.

Adding onto that, Yūsei barely started Turbo dueling at the time where the show began, and two years had passed since Jack’s betrayal. During those two years, he probably began to realize what Jack meant, especially since cards were hard to come by in the Satelite, and because he wanted to get back Stardust Dragon and beat Jack, Yūsei now has a drive. At that point, everything he does to progress the plot is driven by the desire to protect his friends, i.e. Goodwin threatening the safety of Rally and co. He actually just wanted to go back to the Satelite and his friends. Then he learns about the end of the world, and the safety of everyone then drives him, especially after learning that it was his father who “caused” Reverse Zero. This fact adds a desire for forgiveness as one of his drives.

Ulitmately, in the end, he saves the world, not once but twice, but the thing to remember is that from the moment he made it out of the Satelite, Yūsei is constantly supported by his friends. If you watched enough YGO, or shōnen, when your friends cheer, you’re more likely to win, lmao; however, because of the WRGP (mainly), his friends also support him by being a part of his duels. 5D’s probably has the most tag team duels out of all the YGO series, so a lot of Yūsei’s wins are partly because of his friends, especially Jack and Crow because the WRGP is a team tournament.

Yeah, it might be ridiculous that Yūsei won all his duels, but the idea is to focus on the plot because duels are meant to build around it, not the other way around. Like, Yūsei losing a duel would be mean additional storyline to pick him back up, which would be nice but that kind of already happened because of aforementioned defeat by Jack. And Yūsei not losing any duels, I think, really shows how strong his principles are because they never failed him most of all. His deck always falls through for him, and he’s surrounded by people who care for and love him. I think it’s really just adds to his character rather than take away from it, but this is coming from someone who doesn’t play TCG so take it as you will.

As for Yūsaku, I think the issues come from the fact that VRAINS has no fillers and there wasn’t enough time/support(?) for the show to show him getting back on his horse. (Kind of like Yūsei, he already went through this part during his time in the Lost Incident.) VRAINS immediately went from one arc to another, and every duel is pretty much winner takes all. Yūsaku literally couldn’t lose because there’s no back to square one for him (and Ai); VRAINS is the one YGO series that show that death/defeat is permanent. The plot itself didn’t allow much opportunities for defeat, not if you want it to continue, especially with less run time than the any other YGO series. Yūsaku had to be undefeated because there wasn’t enough time for him to be another way, if that makes any sense.

Long post, but this was an interesting thing to bring up so thanks! ^^ For me, Yūsei’s already hot for just riding a motorcycle while Yūsaku is absolutely adorable and makes me want to hug him all the time. I hope you like my response! ❤️ @goakizaizinski