Thread: Judai's Favorite Cards

This is a very interesting interpretation, I'm glad you made the thread about this!

Yubel is a hermaphrodite strongly focused on the female gender. It's a stretch, but Flamewingman CAN be seen as the opposite.

It could be? Flame Wingman is the fusion of a female and a male monster, yet it looks more masculine in its features.

Also, it is interesting that Judai would pick Flame Wingman as his new favorite card. As far as I know, Judai was tormented by Yubel after he had her shot off to space to make her more powerful, and went under brainwashing afterwards. Could Judai picking Flame Wingman be seen as having a very faint memory of Yubel, or at least what Yubel was like?

Could be a subconscious choice, and actually give the reason as to why he plays E-Heroes, which the anime neglected to give us.

Oh yes, that would make sense! "Hey, I like this card very much, I think I'll base my deck around it!".

Weren't E-Heroes selected because Takahashi is a fan of American comics? Although I liked how they played up the "Elemental" part with Daitokuji/Amnael's duel and the whole Alchemy parallel.

That and Takahashi wanted to find a way to emphasize the "Next Generation" aspect of GX. I was thinking of something a little more on the character's emotional scale, like in the manga with Koyo.

This is very interesting! I never noticed all these similarities. That's true until the appareance of the Neo Spacians, Flame Wingman had been very often used by Judai.

And yes, that's could be the reason why Judai use Hero. He feel guilty to have sent Yubel in the space, to have forsaken him/her because of his/her powers and the Heroes represents the exact opposite of this way to act: they save always others, they will never reject a friend.

Flame Wingman being more masculine and Yubel more feminine is also another way to oppose them. But in same time, they are complementaries of each other. Like a couple somewhere but I don't know If it is really the appropriate word.

It's very interesting how Flame Wingman has had a [subconscious] impact on the anime itself, kudos to you Ragna for finding the connection

@ Arynis, interestingly enough, you brought up the fact that despite Flame Wingman's fusion materials, it has more masculine features than feminine. The same can be said for Phoenix Enforcer, however as I look into the card art for both of them, I can't help but see that (as Ragna stated) Flame Wingman is angelic-looking (partly due to the wings), whereas Phoenix Enforcer seems to look like a Fallen Angel (the amount of black on Phoenix's Body leads me to think so).

It's also interesting how Flame Wingman looks beastly while Phoenix Enforcer looks human (I have no idea what this means, it could be the notion of the medieval times, where humans believed that they were God's perfect creation).

This is a neat observation that you've brought up Ragna (:

Originally Posted by Allana

This is very interesting! I never noticed all these similarities. That's true until the appareance of the Neo Spacians, Flame Wingman had been very often used by Judai.

Even after the introduction of the Neospacians, Judai continues to call Flame Wingman his favorite card... Did he ever say that in season four when he got Yubel back?

I'm fairly sure he still cites Flame Wingman as his favorite card during his duel with Yugi.

I don't remember of this mention in season four but I saw it there a moment.

Originally Posted by cheesedude

I'm fairly sure he still cites Flame Wingman as his favorite card during his duel with Yugi.

I don't saw it in the subs but perhaps they wasn't 100% accurate.

I never really looked at FW and Yubel as having any relation. Though the thought is interesting. It's pretty clear to me Neos took FW's ace card slot from him. Since Neos completely stole the show after he showed up.

I agree that Flame Wingman was intended to be what Dark Magician was for Yugi, but then again, there's only so much you can do witha 6 star monster with only 2100 points. Plus, since Jaden dueled in almost every episode of Season 1, the Creators had probably exhausted all their creative ideas for his original Elemental Hero Deck. So they had to bring in the Neo Spacians and Elemental Hero Neos to keep things fresh and Jaden's deck new and interesting. But when you think about it, Neos gave the writers 10x as many possibilities and new cards to sell, new plots to work with.

Originally Posted by Featherman

Plus, since Jaden dueled in almost every episode of Season 1, the Creators had probably exhausted all their creative ideas for his original Elemental Hero Deck. So they had to bring in the Neo Spacians and Elemental Hero Neos to keep things fresh and Jaden's deck new and interesting. But when you think about it, Neos gave the writers 10x as many possibilities and new cards to sell, new plots to work with.

I disagree entirely. There were plenty of E-Hero combinations that they hadn't used. Bladedge had only two fusions by the end of the series. There was a lot they could have done.

Originally Posted by Featherman

I agree that Flame Wingman was intended to be what Dark Magician was for Yugi, but then again, there's only so much you can do witha 6 star monster with only 2100 points. Plus, since Jaden dueled in almost every episode of Season 1, the Creators had probably exhausted all their creative ideas for his original Elemental Hero Deck. So they had to bring in the Neo Spacians and Elemental Hero Neos to keep things fresh and Jaden's deck new and interesting. But when you think about it, Neos gave the writers 10x as many possibilities and new cards to sell, new plots to work with.

I'd think Shining Flare was more his 'ace', seeing as it was 2500 and all, at least from the first season. And there were a ton more combination they could have used. I had always wished they'd make something with Necro-Blade making an Evil Blade Edge, or Wild-Spark to make a Punk Rocker or something. Maybe even Clay-Wild as some kinda native guy with a giant wall around him... <.<
Unfortunately though they went Neos crazy once he got a hold of it. The only E-Heroes that came out that weren't Neos after Neos showed up were Vice and Darkbright. Who both had rather under whelming strength in the first (And only for Vice) duel they showed up in... Neos was way over done, having 13 fusions in the series... Most of which being retarded...

The Ace having 2500 ATK wasn't a trend until Neos showed up to make it a trend. Flame Wingman was his original ace.

Originally Posted by Ragna

The Ace having 2500 ATK wasn't a trend until Neos showed up to make it a trend. Flame Wingman was his original ace.

I'll agree with that. I'm sure some of the writers had a 'spark of brilliance', or so they'll claim, and created Neos to capitalize on DMs Stats and fame. Not sure how well they did on that note... I still think the only good things Neos is attached to are Alius, Knight, and Divine. Not that Knight isn't making me reconsider playing Neos himself.

I know there were many more potential fusions they could have made, but I'm talking about his actual DECK itself as it already was, without them making new cards for it. A funny little bit supporting this comes from episode 57 after Jaden beats Bastion in a practice duel with Shining Flare Wingman Misawa says he's really gotten better since dueling the Kaiser, and Jaden says he's been improving, but feels like his "deck needs some new stages to it." So a new deck TYPE rather than some random fusion monsters that might not have been that interesting. I personally think a newseries of monsters with a new ace is a much better idea than mixing all the random E Heroes together. Some have the potential to be really great, but I wouldn't want a Burstinatrix-Necroshade or a Bladedge-Bubbleman, etc being the new thing for Jaden's deck.

If by new thing for his deck, he definitely went with something 'new' with his Neo Spacian junk... I've noticed on the YGO Wiki his first season deck also had only E-Hero and E-Hero specific support mostly. Then he suddenly started putting in random little monster's here and there, that he often only used once or twice... Was kinda interesting, though I wish he'd had brought out new E-Heroes like when he had Prisma show up out of left field. After season one, the only new e-heroes were Neos and Prisma, as far as his main deck went... Season two he introduced the spacians... Then the third and fourth seasons only got a few new random monsters and nothing really to support the other stuff...
*Chuckles* On a side note him going evil did give him an entire new spin on his deck with the Evil Heres, and the manga had him try out the Masked Heroes for three duels... Until the writers gave up, or at least he seemed to realize he couldn't beat the final boss with those junky Masked fools. XD

Some of the "random little monsters" were actually quite good. Like Card Trooper. I didn't care for Card Ejector or Miracle Flipper, or Magic Striker, but they had the potential to make more efficient support monsters for the Neo Spacians. I have yet to finish reading the GX Manga so I don't know too much about his deck in that area other than Koyo's Nature E-Hero Deck.

Originally Posted by Featherman

Some of the "random little monsters" were actually quite good. Like Card Trooper. I didn't care for Card Ejector or Miracle Flipper, or Magic Striker, but they had the potential to make more efficient support monsters for the Neo Spacians. I have yet to finish reading the GX Manga so I don't know too much about his deck in that area other than Koyo's Nature E-Hero Deck.

Don't forget about dandy, necro guardna, honest, thunder king rai-oh, and some people can find use in some of his other pesky little buggers.

Judai's random monster thing sorted of started with Dark Catapulter, though. But yeah, the other seasons really mixed in a lot. Personally, I liked Card Trooper and Necro Gardna. quite a lot.

As far as the manga goes, it was cut short due to ZEXAL. If it hadn't been, Judai likely would have had at least three or four more Duels with his Masked Heroes, so they would have been much more impactful. The Duel with Trag would have been the much-anticipated return of the E-Heroes after a whole arc of M-Heroes.

I don't remember but did Judai ever use Thunder King Rai Oh?

I think his favorite cards are Neos, Winged Kuriboh, Flame Wingman and Yubel, cards he had a special connection to in one way or another. He drew Neos himself, Yubel was his favorite card from childhood and he shared a past life with it, Winged Kuriboh was his spirit partner throughout the series and was given to him by Yugi, and Flame Wingman was a personal choice.

His least favorite cards are probably Super Polymerization (due to what he did to get it) and the Evil Heroes (if he still has them).

Originally Posted by Featherman

I don't remember but did Judai ever use Thunder King Rai Oh?

He used it in his Manga Nature Hero deck, specifically in Chapter 20-21 against Seika and her Snakes.