I still maintain that Sawatari got cheated out of a win against Zarc. Throughout the show, Yuya preaches the value of dueling for fun and making sure everyone has a good time. Zarc is, in many ways, a mirror of that - he refuses to let anyone else enjoy the duel, negating and preventing plays left and right. He's in it to win it and for no other reason. How appropriate would it have been for him to get defeated by someone who lost every duel in the show and stuck around despite that? It's really quite astounding how ARC-V manages to waste every good idea from its first season. All in service of a climax that takes an hour to establish "He's invincible", then shows us four cards that say "Make him vincible".
Definitely agree with your last point there, but had Sylvio defeated him following lose every duel, would it not have made Zarc come across as even more of a joke than he's already being made out to be? Thanks for your comment!
@@tay-yugioh Eh, it's not like this is some DBZ-powerscaling type of situation. Yu-Gi-Oh has always had this idea at its core where victory doesn't come from strictly being better. It comes from certainty, faith and conviction in your own ideals. You know, heart of the cards and all that! I think in a world where Yugi is allowed to beat the Pharaoh, it makes sense that Sawatari should be allowed to beat Zarc.
@@tay-yugioh That's entirely fair. I already liked Sawatari as a character to begin with - the way he started out trying various different Decks before settling on something that really worked for him was something I found very relatable. Ah, well. I think Zarc's duel is just generally frustrating - there are so many ways it could've ended in a satisfying way, yet they settled on "Deus Ex Machina that effectively kills off the female cast".
In my opinion, the mark of a well done rival character depends on both their relationship with the main character but also if they feel like a protagonist in their own right. This is exactly why Kaiba remains iconic and why Jack is so loved. Personally its a tie between them as they have very similar qualities, its just that they each excel in slightly different areas. Every other character, again just for me, either didn't got the screentime they deserved, the writting botched them hard or they simply didn't have personal enough of a connection with the main protagonist to be considered a rival Special shoutout to Kite for being I think the only rival character to never actually *lose* a game to the protagonist.
You mention Kaito despite Shark having: 1. More screentime 2. Stronger connection to the protagonist 3. One of the most complex character arcs in the YGO franchise Tears how the dub slandered Shark in the final arc. Because of the dub so many people don't rate him
@fxzzy__ I don't know what you mean about the dub slandering Shark's name. I've only watched the dub, and do still consider Shark as a proper rival to Yuma alongside Kite. If anything, maybe Shark could be a representation of an early Jounouchi with a bit more edge. Still a rival though.
Welcome back Tenma! Yeah, I’m really sorry it took so long! I wanted a break but it got way out of hand and after a while the motivation left but it’s back in full force now and I’m already nearly done with scripts for a few more videos so we are well a truly back lmao
Declan is such an interesting character that it's really hard for me to actually appreciate him as a rival. I really love the D/D/D archetype as has so many unique qualities to its gameplay and strategies. However I rather find his personality boring? He has the persona and skills as a duelist that makes him great. Plus he wants to fight back against his father's organization to protect the four dimensions while pushing the protagonist yuya to be his best despite the conflict at hand. But even with all that there's something missing about Declan. And that's something could have been explored more in the anime and the manga flushed them out a little bit better. But even still he just felt kind of bland in terms of his own motivation or his inner struggles he faces. He's in a similar situation as revolver he's he's in the middle of being a really good rival but there's something that's lacking.
@@jazlegend2479 In the Tron arc, Shark is capable of Chaos XyZ summoning. Something that only those with connections to Astral or Barian could do. Then in season 2 Durbe was obsessed with Shark. And it was stated multiple times that Vector killed Nash and Merag and the only reason they put up with him is sheer desperation. And that in the exact same time that happened the accident that almost killed Shark and Rio occurred. As well as Tron's obsession to turn Shark into a weapon and Quattro's attack on Rio. Who also has supernatural soothsaying powers like Merag did.
If people are shocked at the plot twist it means the writers did there job, and if you were able to figure it, that also means the writers did a good job at setting it up
@@aliastheabnormalAnything Season 2 onward I can see as legitimate foreshadowing. His Season 1 Chaos XYZ summoning might work retroactively, but at least in the moment it couldve just been him being able to unlock more power from his Number due to just how ANGY he was. Heck, him unlocking Shark Drak Veiss was part of Tron/Vetrix's plan so he could absorb his power on his way to Dr. Faker. And I doubt that Tron somehow knew that Shark was secretly Barian all along, just that Shark's history with IV/Quattro provided a nice bed of ANGY to be able to further grow his Number, as opposed to most duelists who are stuck with those base forms.
I'm disgusted that you ranked the greatest rival of all time- possibly even the second-greatest duelist of all time (after Joey Wheeler), THE Chazz Princeton, so low on this list, to say nothing of your underestimation of Ojamas.
Revolver is my GOAT. I like many of the rivals, but he embodies all the aspects I like perfectly. Him and Yuma are the pinnacle of the franchise for me.
Can’t agree with the Yuma take personally but I got ripped to shreds on my last video because of that lmao, Revolver is awesome, though! Still feel like I need to do a couple re-watches of Vrains to fully appreciate him.
Seto is the best rival. He doesn’t let anything get in the way of his goal to beat the pharaoh. He even went into the afterlife just for the opportunity to duel his rival.
@@tay-yugioh It doesn’t matter if he never beats Yami. Seto Kaiba is still a great rival and his personality makes him an entertaining character. He plays a significant role in the franchise and the cards he uses are very cool and iconic. Seto was very persistent and determined to beat Yami no matter the cost and no matter how many times he loses, he always returns for a rematch. You can’t help but admire his unwavering desire to become the best duelist.
He's kinda just there after dungeon dice monster arc, he's cool, and has a decent backstory, but he's not a real duelist, his main game he plays against yugi in the manga is DDM
Jack isn’t just a great rival for Yusei, he also was probably Yuya’s best rival. He lead to far more growth for Yuya than Sawatori or Reiji. I also think Gong worked better as a rival for Yuya that Sawatori especially with their final duel (I know he’s the best friend character)
Anime Chazz is a really good character, but I think he fails as a rival in that outside of early season 1, Chazz never really pushes Jaden to his limits, which is a quality I personally rate high in a Yugioh rival. Manga Chazz however is up there with Jack Atlas and Seto Kaiba.
My Yu-Gi-Oh rivals from worse to best 10. Seto Kaiba 9. Chazz Princeton 8. Luke Kallister 7. Shark 6. Varis (Revolver) 5. Declan Akeba 4. Aster Phoenix 3. Kite Tenjo 2. Zane Truesdale 1. Jack Atlas Funny we have the same #1 both for the protagonists and the rivals lol Jaden and Jack are the GOATs
@@tay-yugioh if it was easy to find the episodes of the show on the internet, I would have recommended to hear him, but you can find the show only in English and in Japanese.
From what I've heard he the disbelief of the magic is a dub thing in the sub dude just doesn't care Side note: i'm alr with jack being #1 and kaiba being #2 although i feel they're interchangeable but that makes it better for #1 and #2
Yeah Jack and Kaiba definitely could’ve swapped but I couldn’t help but feel when I originally drafted up the list that Kaiba only sat in 1st for nostalgia reasons.
I cans ee you dont see a bunch of rush duel, who is fine:V I dont will talk about Luke like ''NOOO HES AWESOME'' yada yada I just wanna point the rival of Go rush, Zuwijo Zir Velgear, he is so badas In some point of anime, he give live to monsters, and you know what he made? Simple, ATTACK THE CHARACTERS SCREW THE RULES, I HAVE A NUCLEAR BOMB
In all fairness, I actually didn’t mind him on screen, funnily enough I quite like everyone on this list, I just didn’t think he deserved to be above the others
Kaito should be above Zhane. Hard to say as a Zhane fan myself but I had a bit more sympathy for Kaito after I read Zexal manga and well Zhane was a jerk to Syiris in his dark phase
I love Zane and Kite but I think Zane’s character and direction as a whole is what pipped Kite to 3rd place for me, wouldn’t have a problem if they swapped though!
Just saying that aester never used the evil heros he used elemental heros and then shifted to destiny heros the supreme king jayden used the evil heros
Aster used destiny here's not evil heroes also destiny heroes are British heroes which symbolise darkness death and blsck justice while jaden s heroes are like the justice league and neos and his support are from space
@@Ldragoofficial98wasn’t more like he used alternative art versions of the e-hero and alternate fusion forms like phoenix enforcer and shining PE (but they were still e-heroes)
@jackspicer5261 altohugh aster phoenix used ph9enix w forces and shining phoenix enforcers thry were still elemental heires but they were never evil heroes.Evil heroes are a different archetype that is sub to the hero category used by the supreme king .The alternate art work for the vanilla her9es has nothing to do for thme being evil thry are the same monsters but drawn differently when it comes to being evil hero thier effects must change the name should change to evil hero as well.Because Zane never fought evil heroes and jaden faced aster and battled his elemental grows before Aster switched fulltime to destiny heroes
Honestly, I think Kaiba is kind of overrated. Kaiba is a bit of a flat character. He doesn’t really change for the majority of the show. He’s generally just an arrogant dick, only really changing in the very last episode when he sees Yugi defeat all three Egyptian Gods, realizing he is the only one who could defeat Atem. Jack actually goes through a very significant and VERY WELL DONE character arc, moving beyond being just a rival to a full on deuteragonist/secondary protagonist
That’s the beauty of opinions, we all have different ones, not going to go into too much detail though because I think the reply from Falcon covered my thoughts quite well.
Can you explain why what he stated is wrong lol, in terms of character growth and actually rivalry Jack is better him and Yusei are actually close in power. Heck the finale duel is literally between Yusei and Jack, Atem consistently is shown to be above Kabia, Atem defeated pretty much most of the villains that Kabia lost to, not to mention that Yugi was the one who can actually rival the Atem where Kabia even states he couldn't come up with a plan to deal with all god cards once the hit the field, I'm not saying Kabia is a bad rival but there's definitely better Duelist who can go for that title I would even say Katio is a better rival then Kabia given he never lost to Yuma/Astral
@@tay-yugioh No, the guy created the game itself from old stone tablets. (I'm not sure if he's done anything unhandled in the later half if anything at all)
I still maintain that Sawatari got cheated out of a win against Zarc. Throughout the show, Yuya preaches the value of dueling for fun and making sure everyone has a good time. Zarc is, in many ways, a mirror of that - he refuses to let anyone else enjoy the duel, negating and preventing plays left and right. He's in it to win it and for no other reason. How appropriate would it have been for him to get defeated by someone who lost every duel in the show and stuck around despite that?
It's really quite astounding how ARC-V manages to waste every good idea from its first season. All in service of a climax that takes an hour to establish "He's invincible", then shows us four cards that say "Make him vincible".
Definitely agree with your last point there, but had Sylvio defeated him following lose every duel, would it not have made Zarc come across as even more of a joke than he's already being made out to be? Thanks for your comment!
@@tay-yugioh Eh, it's not like this is some DBZ-powerscaling type of situation. Yu-Gi-Oh has always had this idea at its core where victory doesn't come from strictly being better. It comes from certainty, faith and conviction in your own ideals. You know, heart of the cards and all that! I think in a world where Yugi is allowed to beat the Pharaoh, it makes sense that Sawatari should be allowed to beat Zarc.
Yeah you make a good point, I still personally don’t think I’d enjoy it being solely Sylvio but I definitely see where you’re coming from now.
@@tay-yugioh That's entirely fair. I already liked Sawatari as a character to begin with - the way he started out trying various different Decks before settling on something that really worked for him was something I found very relatable.
Ah, well. I think Zarc's duel is just generally frustrating - there are so many ways it could've ended in a satisfying way, yet they settled on "Deus Ex Machina that effectively kills off the female cast".
Okay well we definitely agree on that lmfao
In my opinion, the mark of a well done rival character depends on both their relationship with the main character but also if they feel like a protagonist in their own right.
This is exactly why Kaiba remains iconic and why Jack is so loved. Personally its a tie between them as they have very similar qualities, its just that they each excel in slightly different areas.
Every other character, again just for me, either didn't got the screentime they deserved, the writting botched them hard or they simply didn't have personal enough of a connection with the main protagonist to be considered a rival
Special shoutout to Kite for being I think the only rival character to never actually *lose* a game to the protagonist.
You mention Kaito despite Shark having:
1. More screentime
2. Stronger connection to the protagonist
3. One of the most complex character arcs in the YGO franchise
Tears how the dub slandered Shark in the final arc. Because of the dub so many people don't rate him
@fxzzy__ I don't know what you mean about the dub slandering Shark's name. I've only watched the dub, and do still consider Shark as a proper rival to Yuma alongside Kite. If anything, maybe Shark could be a representation of an early Jounouchi with a bit more edge. Still a rival though.
Oh… the rain has finally arrived…
Seriously glad to see another upload from you Tay.
Welcome back Tenma!
Yeah, I’m really sorry it took so long! I wanted a break but it got way out of hand and after a while the motivation left but it’s back in full force now and I’m already nearly done with scripts for a few more videos so we are well a truly back lmao
Bro, no joke, I commented on your last video yesterday. I’m so happy that you uploaded!
Yeah I did see it, man! Thanks for the continued support even when I didn’t deserve it lmao!
@@tay-yugiohNah, you deserve it, I love the content. I love the variety of ygo content you do.
jack atlas is the best
I clearly agree!
Kite deserves to be higher he was a way better duelist than the others only losing one duel and was one of the reasons people kept watching the anime
I did really like Kite, he could’ve definitely shifted up one but I don’t think I could’ve had him breaking my top 3!
Did you watch the dub btw?
He also had way less duels than the others.
Love the new thumbnail designs
Glad you like them!
I love Kiba, but Jack became my favorite. There really isnt a wrong answer with the rivals they're all at least kinda fun.
For sure! Its like I mentioned in the video, pretty much anyone in the top 10 could’ve been #1
WHAT A LOVELY VIDEO TAY!
WHAT A LOVELY COMMENT KIRBEY!
Sylvio managed to somehow be even more of a joke than Chazz 😂😂
Genuine shock
Declan is such an interesting character that it's really hard for me to actually appreciate him as a rival. I really love the D/D/D archetype as has so many unique qualities to its gameplay and strategies.
However I rather find his personality boring? He has the persona and skills as a duelist that makes him great. Plus he wants to fight back against his father's organization to protect the four dimensions while pushing the protagonist yuya to be his best despite the conflict at hand.
But even with all that there's something missing about Declan. And that's something could have been explored more in the anime and the manga flushed them out a little bit better. But even still he just felt kind of bland in terms of his own motivation or his inner struggles he faces. He's in a similar situation as revolver he's he's in the middle of being a really good rival but there's something that's lacking.
I can't believe anyone was shocked about Shark being a Barian. It was set up since season 1. And i deduced the plot twist with considerable ease.
I was young and stupid man, now I’m just old and stupid. It’s not easy to notice these things all the time lmfao
Wait can you explain the hints of them setting up that he was a barian? Cuz even now I don’t see it
@@jazlegend2479 In the Tron arc, Shark is capable of Chaos XyZ summoning. Something that only those with connections to Astral or Barian could do. Then in season 2 Durbe was obsessed with Shark. And it was stated multiple times that Vector killed Nash and Merag and the only reason they put up with him is sheer desperation. And that in the exact same time that happened the accident that almost killed Shark and Rio occurred. As well as Tron's obsession to turn Shark into a weapon and Quattro's attack on Rio. Who also has supernatural soothsaying powers like Merag did.
If people are shocked at the plot twist it means the writers did there job, and if you were able to figure it, that also means the writers did a good job at setting it up
@@aliastheabnormalAnything Season 2 onward I can see as legitimate foreshadowing. His Season 1 Chaos XYZ summoning might work retroactively, but at least in the moment it couldve just been him being able to unlock more power from his Number due to just how ANGY he was. Heck, him unlocking Shark Drak Veiss was part of Tron/Vetrix's plan so he could absorb his power on his way to Dr. Faker. And I doubt that Tron somehow knew that Shark was secretly Barian all along, just that Shark's history with IV/Quattro provided a nice bed of ANGY to be able to further grow his Number, as opposed to most duelists who are stuck with those base forms.
I'm disgusted that you ranked the greatest rival of all time- possibly even the second-greatest duelist of all time (after Joey Wheeler), THE Chazz Princeton, so low on this list, to say nothing of your underestimation of Ojamas.
Hey, I love Ojamas, how dare you question me
Revolver is my GOAT.
I like many of the rivals, but he embodies all the aspects I like perfectly.
Him and Yuma are the pinnacle of the franchise for me.
Can’t agree with the Yuma take personally but I got ripped to shreds on my last video because of that lmao, Revolver is awesome, though! Still feel like I need to do a couple re-watches of Vrains to fully appreciate him.
@@tay-yugioh it's fine, I get why people don't like him, even if I happen to think he is the best.
Hope you enjoy the Vrains rewatch. 👍
Goat
Duck
Babe wake up, new Tay video just dropped
Oh stop it you
Seto is the best rival. He doesn’t let anything get in the way of his goal to beat the pharaoh. He even went into the afterlife just for the opportunity to duel his rival.
I hear your point but I raise you, he never succeeded.
@@tay-yugioh It doesn’t matter if he never beats Yami. Seto Kaiba is still a great rival and his personality makes him an entertaining character.
He plays a significant role in the franchise and the cards he uses are very cool and iconic. Seto was very persistent and determined to beat Yami no matter the cost and no matter how many times he loses, he always returns for a rematch.
You can’t help but admire his unwavering desire to become the best duelist.
They dropped the ball with Duke.
Well clearly, he didn’t even make the list
He's kinda just there after dungeon dice monster arc, he's cool, and has a decent backstory, but he's not a real duelist, his main game he plays against yugi in the manga is DDM
Jack isn’t just a great rival for Yusei, he also was probably Yuya’s best rival. He lead to far more growth for Yuya than Sawatori or Reiji. I also think Gong worked better as a rival for Yuya that Sawatori especially with their final duel (I know he’s the best friend character)
Yeah I definitely should’ve mentioned that, completely skipped my mind!
Anime Chazz is a really good character, but I think he fails as a rival in that outside of early season 1, Chazz never really pushes Jaden to his limits, which is a quality I personally rate high in a Yugioh rival.
Manga Chazz however is up there with Jack Atlas and Seto Kaiba.
Yuga had 4 rivals. They were actually intetesting
1. Kaiba
2. Jack
3. Kite
4. Zane
5. Varis
6. Declan
7. Shark
8. Chazz
9. Aster
10. Luke
11. Sylvyo
My Yu-Gi-Oh rivals from worse to best
10. Seto Kaiba
9. Chazz Princeton
8. Luke Kallister
7. Shark
6. Varis (Revolver)
5. Declan Akeba
4. Aster Phoenix
3. Kite Tenjo
2. Zane Truesdale
1. Jack Atlas
Funny we have the same #1 both for the protagonists and the rivals lol Jaden and Jack are the GOATs
8:48 I never liked him, but the only thing I like about him is his Israeli voice actor in 5’Ds, I wish he had the same one in arc-v.
We all have different opinions on characters and that’s all good, never knew his VA was Israeli though, that’s cool!
@@tay-yugioh if it was easy to find the episodes of the show on the internet, I would have recommended to hear him, but you can find the show only in English and in Japanese.
I’ll try have a little hunt and look around, definitely sounds interesting. Thanks man!
@@tay-yugioh I’m a woman, but ok, if you’ll succeed in finding the show in Hebrew, let me know if you liked his voice or not.
@@ThePersephoneDiggen Really sorry! Reading the comments through TH-cam studio so the profile picture is tiny, my mistake.
Waiting to see who the Yuma of this video is
100% Shark or Varis
L opinion Shark is one of the best written characters in all of YGO
We get it you like GX
Yuh gi oh is tuff
From what I've heard he the disbelief of the magic is a dub thing in the sub dude just doesn't care
Side note: i'm alr with jack being #1 and kaiba being #2 although i feel they're interchangeable but that makes it better for #1 and #2
Yeah Jack and Kaiba definitely could’ve swapped but I couldn’t help but feel when I originally drafted up the list that Kaiba only sat in 1st for nostalgia reasons.
@tay-yugioh not wrong with nostalgia. It hits hard
I cans ee you dont see a bunch of rush duel, who is fine:V
I dont will talk about Luke like ''NOOO HES AWESOME'' yada yada
I just wanna point the rival of Go rush, Zuwijo Zir Velgear, he is so badas
In some point of anime, he give live to monsters, and you know what he made? Simple, ATTACK THE CHARACTERS
SCREW THE RULES, I HAVE A NUCLEAR BOMB
It’s definitely a show that knowledge could do with some polishing on
Zane The Best For Me
He’s my favourite character of all the shows! Sadly I just didn’t think he made the top spot as a rival specifically
Look, I like Kaiba, but he's a bit overrated.
I agree that’s why he’s not on top! But, can’t deny how important he is to the whole franchise all the same.
It sucks for sylvio, I like sylvio, he's not the best duelist, but what he makes up in cards, he makes up in style which his goal as a dueltainer
In all fairness, I actually didn’t mind him on screen, funnily enough I quite like everyone on this list, I just didn’t think he deserved to be above the others
My apologies good sir, 1st place is Kaiba, 2nd is Zane and Jack Atlas is 3rd.
To be honest I don’t hate this either, the top 3 could’ve gone in order for me.
Kaito should be above Zhane. Hard to say as a Zhane fan myself but I had a bit more sympathy for Kaito after I read Zexal manga and well Zhane was a jerk to Syiris in his dark phase
I love Zane and Kite but I think Zane’s character and direction as a whole is what pipped Kite to 3rd place for me, wouldn’t have a problem if they swapped though!
Just saying that aester never used the evil heros he used elemental heros and then shifted to destiny heros the supreme king jayden used the evil heros
Chazz should've been higher. None can chazz it anywhere close to his level.
He does Chazz it up the wazoo
Imagine making a 10 minute video about being wrong
Thanks for watching!
true lol
Aster used destiny here's not evil heroes also destiny heroes are British heroes which symbolise darkness death and blsck justice while jaden s heroes are like the justice league and neos and his support are from space
Well he used both, we saw him start with the evil hero’s before revealing the Destiny Hero’s.
@tay-yugioh no he didn't watch the series again.Jafen used evil heroes when he was the supreme king
@@tay-yugioh aster used elemental heroes and mostly destiny heroes
@@Ldragoofficial98wasn’t more like he used alternative art versions of the e-hero and alternate fusion forms like phoenix enforcer and shining PE (but they were still e-heroes)
@jackspicer5261 altohugh aster phoenix used ph9enix w forces and shining phoenix enforcers thry were still elemental heires but they were never evil heroes.Evil heroes are a different archetype that is sub to the hero category used by the supreme king .The alternate art work for the vanilla her9es has nothing to do for thme being evil thry are the same monsters but drawn differently when it comes to being evil hero thier effects must change the name should change to evil hero as well.Because Zane never fought evil heroes and jaden faced aster and battled his elemental grows before Aster switched fulltime to destiny heroes
Where is Go onizuka?
Honestly, I didn’t really consider him when thinking of rivals, but he could’ve been included as well. I’d probably of had him below Shark.
Chazz is far too low
Couldn’t put him much higher considering who he was below, but everyone’s going to have different opinions!
Jack Atlas is great, but Kiba is the only correct choice for #1. I know it's just your opinion, but your opinion is wrong.
Honestly, I think Kaiba is kind of overrated. Kaiba is a bit of a flat character. He doesn’t really change for the majority of the show. He’s generally just an arrogant dick, only really changing in the very last episode when he sees Yugi defeat all three Egyptian Gods, realizing he is the only one who could defeat Atem. Jack actually goes through a very significant and VERY WELL DONE character arc, moving beyond being just a rival to a full on deuteragonist/secondary protagonist
That’s the beauty of opinions, we all have different ones, not going to go into too much detail though because I think the reply from Falcon covered my thoughts quite well.
Can you explain why what he stated is wrong lol, in terms of character growth and actually rivalry Jack is better him and Yusei are actually close in power. Heck the finale duel is literally between Yusei and Jack, Atem consistently is shown to be above Kabia, Atem defeated pretty much most of the villains that Kabia lost to, not to mention that Yugi was the one who can actually rival the Atem where Kabia even states he couldn't come up with a plan to deal with all god cards once the hit the field, I'm not saying Kabia is a bad rival but there's definitely better Duelist who can go for that title I would even say Katio is a better rival then Kabia given he never lost to Yuma/Astral
Kite made a being that doesn't know emotions feel fear
you have not paid attention to his story then
Kaiba would have landed a lot lower on my list because he creates his own cards to win and then still thinks he's actually good😒
Do you hate Pegasus then, as well?!
@@tay-yugioh No, the guy created the game itself from old stone tablets.
(I'm not sure if he's done anything unhandled in the later half if anything at all)
Love Jack but he isnt a better character than Kaiba
Different strokes for different folks!