Overworld/In-Duel Interactions (GX Tier 2) - Tag Force Special Re-Translation Update!
(Project Announcement Post)
Dang, hit the image cap with this one lol
After a long *checks notes* 1.5 months since finalizing my GX 135-137 subs--and I didn't plan on going over the month I usually give myself between releases to work on this lol oops--the overworld text and in-duel stripe textlines for GX's Tier 2 characters are all done! Given my love for GX (as evidenced here), I definitely wanted to give it some extra love here and get everything looking spiffy and accurate, and as there are more characters for its Tier 2 than DM had, it did take a bit longer (we'll see how it goes with 5D's and ZEXAL's Tier 2s).
So, as of now:
Overworld text for GX's Tier 2 characters--Shou, Rei, Kenzan, Ed, Johan, Saiou, Mizuchi, Napoleon, Amon, Jim, O'Brien, Chronos, Fubuki, Junko, Momoe, Judai Kagurazaka, Seiko, Mrs. Tome, Ayukawa, Titan, Daitokuji, Camula, Hayato, Yubel, and Fujiwara *deep breath*--is all done! This puts the Story Mode text file's progress at about 68% done; next will be the OW text for 5D's, ZEXAL, and ARC-V's Tier 2 characters; the remaining Tier 3 characters across each series world; the Tournament-related text; and miscellaneous stuff like the Duel Statues, I'm sure.
Their corresponding in-duel "stripe" textlines are done, as well, which puts us at about 33% of the stripe lines being done. As mentioned in the DM Tier 2 update, the characters that are also in Duel Links and/or Duel Terminal will have new lines for cards in their decks that they have voicelines there for which will be used in the Deluxe version, though as I went through their in-duel lines, I realized how much of them were just copy/pasted from TF3, without any updates for cards that they have in their decks in TFSP. Wanting to give them a bit more love and put them up to par with the other casts (and after the OK from my project colleague), some characters will have an extra few new textlines in the base game for cards that are in all three of their decks and/or are of some value to them, like was done with Yugi and Mirror Force (for example, Shou [who only originally had lines for Power Bond and summoning/attacking with Steam Gyroid per his lines in TF3] will now have a few more lines for things like Vehicroid Connection Zone, Shield Crush, No Entry!!, Steamroid/Gyroid, Drillroid, Stealth Union, and Barbaroid [as a unique manga card of his] in the base game, while he'll have more lines in the Deluxe version for stuff he only has in one or two of his decks that he'll also have DL voicelines for); I probably won't need to do this with the 5D's cast, as I'm sure TF4-6 gave them a fair share of ace cards, but we'll see. (Also, fun fact: Kagurazaka's lines were 99% [heh] copy/pasted from Judai's, with the only difference being his "Gotcho!" replacing Judai's "Gotcha!" in his victory line, lol [is a bit of a pity he doesn't get his own sprite here].) (Also, as more "copy/paste" proof, how does Titan still have his lines for Daemon's Matador and Skull Archfiend of Lightning when neither are in any of his default decks??)
I'll also be maintaining hope that more of the cast gets added to DL, since I'm currently limited to their TF3 and/or occasional DT voicelines to incorporate into the Deluxe version (and as such, while I'll be undoing the duplicate default "I Special-Summon!" everyone has for Synchro/Xyz/Pendulum-Summoning as I did with the Meikyuu Brothers for the base game, I'll likely need to reincorporate that for the Deluxe due to the voiceline shortage). But for now, I've drafted up the voicelines I'm planning to include for everyone, along with notes about lines I'll rip from the show or how I'll edit together some lines as needed to get close to their TFSP lines where I can. I'm also exploring the game code some to see if, for multiple-choice effects, I can move the character textline display to after an effect is selected in the Deluxe, which I think DL does; I'm hoping this would let me implement two effect text/voicelines depending on which one is activated (so for example, Johan's "I activate Rainbow Dragon's effect!" can include "Rainbow Overdrive!!" only if it's the ATK-gain effect).
Progress with the on-the-side character list bio translations I've been doing on my commutes has me now going through the ZEXAL Tier 2 ones, and I just wrapped up a draft for Gauche's the other day.
Sorta buried the lede some, but I've also uncensored Yubel's bustup (close-up) sprite by applying the edit I did for TheBeard's Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution re-translation project, editing it a little for blending due to the shrinking involved on the edit layer itself in Photoshop (original sprite for comparison). I've also applied the edit to their OW sprite, and I'll also be applying the uncensoring edit I did for Mai's sprite; for Aki, I think I'll just need to swap in her sprite file from TF4 (unclear why they felt the need to censor them in TFSP, even when it wasn't going to be localized, as it turns out lol [though the Yubel edit goes back to TF3]).
So I think that'll just about do it for this round of translation; hopefully things look promising! Going to start shifting back to GX and work on finalizing 138-140 to make up some ground (and it being the start of the Supreme King arc, I've been itching to get to revisiting it). Stay tuned!
This post is response to my friend @seventhdoctor's post right here, speculating on why Yubel has such particular hangups about kings. Yes, this is another Yu-Gi-Oh GX post. We'll be talking about season 3 of Yu-Gi-Oh GX under the cut, in particular the famous Judai becomes the supreme king twist.
Wait, Jaden does WHAT in Season 3?
So for some context on those who haven't seen season 3 of Yu-Gi-Oh GX (in which case why are you even here?), the antagonist for the entire season is a duel spirit named Yubel.
Yubel was happy go lucky protagonist Judai's favorite card growing up and spirit partner, before Yubel got too overprotective and started putting the children who defeated Judai in duels into comas. When the other kids started avoiding Yubel, Judai decided to put Yubel on an experimental kaiba corp satellite and launch him into space hoping exposure to cosmic radiation would help fix whatever was wrong with Yubel.
However, Yubel was blasted with the wrong kind of cosmic space rays and instead was exposed to the evil light of destruction, and endured ten years of torture before crashing back down to earth. In the meantime Judai had forgotten about Yubel's existence entirely because of an experimental memory erasure procedure done on him by his parents. Learning of this, that they were forgotten after being forced to endure all that pain by the person they loved the most understandably caused Yubel to snap and make this everyone else's problems.
Yubel spends the entirety of season 3 manipulating things behind the scenes to make way for their reunion with Judai. Along the way, they transport Judai and his friends to another dimmension, awaken Judai's memories of his past life causing the "supreme king" persona to take control, and also tempt Amon Garam into becoming their pawn with the power of exodia.
It's right before their long awaited reunion with Judai that Yubel has one final duel with Amon Garam, a duel from which a lot of Yubel's characterization can be inferred from the remarks they make towards Amon. Yubel takes a particular interest in seeing what makes Amon tick, and then using their knowledge of the inner workings of his mind to take him apart piece by piece.
This is noteworthy because usually Yubel does not care about anyone who's name doesn't rhyme with Shmaden Shmuki. To say that Yubel only has eyes for Judai is an understatement considering their whole plan is to fuse the twelve dimmensions together to make a world for just the two of them. Yubel treats all of their other pawns as disposable, Cobra and Marcel barely register to Yubel, but not only does Yubel go out of their way to tear Amon down, they tear him down for BEING A KING.
Which has always felt a bit strange to me, that Yubel would have a grudge against kings because not only is their entire identity tied up in knighthood, particularly being a knight in service to a king. As in a past life Yubel was once a normal child and friend to the prince, but decided to sacrifice their body to become a terrible dragon with impenetrable scales so they could protect that young boy as they grew into adulthood and became the supreme king and wielder of a force called the gentle darkness. They gave up their humanity, and personhood up in service of a king, and so their entire identity that they are Judai's one and only loving guardian.
One of their form names even translates to "Abominable Knight."
Das Abscheulich Ritter = The Abominable Knight
Das Extremer Traurig Drachen = The Extremely Sorrowful Dragon
Yubel is a knight reincarnated from thousands of years ago who lived their live in service of a king, and gave up their body to become an inpenetrable shield for that king. Even in their next lifetime they still define themselves as Judai's one and only protector. Not only that, but they deliberately went out of their way to awaken Judai's memories of the Supreme King. So why, after going to all the trouble to do that does Yubel seem to loathe kings so much they need to make Amon into a punching bag and a target of mockery to cope?
What does "The King" mean to Yubel?
and furthermore
What does "The King" mean in Yu-Gi-Oh GX?
MASCULINITY AND TAROT
Toxic masculinity in MY Trading Card Game? Say it ain't so.
Joking aside, one of the first answers to this question is that Yubel loathes Amon so much and Amon's desire to be king, because of the ways in which Amon reminds them of Judai. Before Amon came to challenge Yubel, he gained his power not by his own merit but by sacrificing the woman he loved to Exodia. You can draw multiple parallels in between the two situations, this could have either reminded Yubel of Judai deciding to send Yubel away to space, or it could have just reminded Yubel of the original sacrifice of their body they made for the young supreme king.
Either way, Yubel seems to carry some unprocessed resentment towards the fact that at the end of the day, no matter how much Echo loved Amon in the end she was disposable. They weren't equals, because in the end Echo's loyalty and devotion to a king means that the king, being a king, will always be fundamentally above her. Echo may love and pledge herself in service of a king, but even if that king loves her back and appreciates her, the mere fact that he is a king makes it impossible to be equals.
That is the loose thread that Yubel decides to pull at when trying to unravel Amon after all, that no matter how much he may claim to love Echo and remember her sacrifice, that they weren't equals in their suffering.
Yubel: "I get it now, you weren't in love with echo. No, you may have loved her just enough to clear the conditions in place for you to control exodia, but you didn't truly love each other. You were only unfairly hurting her while you would stay unharmed... You wouldn't suffer. You won't be in pain."
Amon: "Stop beating around the bush. What are you getting at?"
Yubel: "I've been hurt. I've suffered. I've been in pain. And that's why I'm having Judai go through those same feelings. That could be what it means for us to love!"
(Yugioh GX, Episode 150).
I've already covered a lot of the projection angle in another post though, so I'm going to focus on the king as a symbol of masculine authority. This is where I'm turning to tarot for a quick example of what I mean. Yu-Gi-Oh GX! employs a lot of tarot symbolism in season 2 and while "The Emperor" never gets mentioned by name, there's still a few nods to it.
The emperor, fourth of the major arcana, is traditionally depicted as a man sitting on his throne with a mountain range in the background signifying he is backed by a solid foundation but resistant to making any changes unless he deems it necessary. This is the card of masculine authority, the card of mars, ares, the card of law and order and the card of inflexible rules and regulations.
"For each child its parents are archetypes. Not just the mother, and father, but Mother and Father. Because our mothers give us life and feed us and shelter us we tend to see them as figures of love and mercy [...] but the father, especially in traditional times... remained more remote, and therefore a figure of severity. It was the father who bore the authority and thus became the judge, and the father who taught the rules of society and then demanded obedience" (Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom pg 49).
There are plenty of figures of masculine authority in season 3. There's Cobra, a war veteran who is revealed to be an abusive authority figure when he begins draining the duel energy of all of his students for his own machinations. He is also revealed to be a father trying to bring his lost son from the dead. There is the father from Judai's past life, the then reigning king who fits the appearance of a traditional masculine authority figure, a muscular bearded bearded man in a crown. He talks the "young and handsome' Yubel into giving up his body and subjecting himself to a painful surgery in order to undergo a transformation to protect the young prince who would become Haou.
This could easily be seen as an abuse of his authority the way that Cobra abused his, considering how young Yubel is when he decided on this life altering action. There's also Amon's father the head of the Garam Corporation, who adopted young Among and raised him as heir only to carelessly toss him aside the moment that his biological son was born.
There's also Hell Kaiser, Sho's abusive older brother Ryo who had a meltdown and became obsessed with power after suffering several losses in the pro-leagues. An obsession which led him to shock his brother over and over again with electrodes until his brother lost consciousness. Considering Kaiser is german for emperor, you could even say that Kaiser Ryo is another king that Yubel killed much like Amon as a warmup for his duel with Judai.
None of these figures are particularly healthy figures of masculinity, and Ryo in particular isn't a good role model to Sho. In Yu-Gi-Oh GX season 3, a king doesn't seem like a very good thing to be, and yet we have Amon and Judai both being pushed down, and then willingly walking the path of kinghood. Yu-Gi-Oh GX spells out the rigidity, and the dominating tyranny of the king as a figure of masculine authority and yet both Amon and Judai desire to be kings because they desire the power that comes along with it. In spite of all of the oppressive king figures in their lives, they see becoming king as a way of gaining control something which they have never had.
"In order to defeat evil, one must become evil..."
(Yu Gi Oh GX, Episode 136).
Amon becomes the king believing that he can use his absolute authority to build a kingdom in another dimmension where the poverty he grew up under doesn't exist, and all people are equal. Judai after losing all of his friends to a ritual as sacrifices to become super polymerization, decides that the only way to prevent himself from losing everything else, is to use the power of the supreme king to finish super polymerization and bring the entire dimmension to its heel.
"In Rome, the concept of law versus chaos was carried to the point wher stability, or 'law and order' to use the modern term became virtues themselves. No progress can be made in conditions of anarhcy, bad laws need to be changed but first the law must be obeyed. Any other approach can destroy society. The romans saw it more concreetly as a personal figure of The emperor, who they described as the father to all of his people.
The emperor's best aspects he indicates the stability of a just society that allows its members to pursue their personal needs and development. The natural world is chaotic, without some kind of social structure we could each spend all our lives fighting to survive.
(Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom pg 50).
Both are children who have either never had control or have had control ripped away from them, Amon was an orphan who had no control over the circumstances to which he was born, and would have starved to death if not for the whim of the Garam syndicate patriarch. The same father that abandoned him on another whim when he had a biological son despite working him hard to become the ideal heir until that point. Judai had control ripped away from him over and over again as Yubel suddenly appeared to uproot his entire life, first by teleporting the entire school to another dimmension, and then when Johan disappeared sacrificing himself for Judai.
You could say Yubel's fate is something Judai had little control over either, because while he's the one who made the decision to send Yubel away, he was just a child, and he was helpless when Yubel was tortured by the light of destruction to do anything other than watch in his dreams. Judai also was not the one to make the decision to forget about Yubel, his parents made it for him.
Amon and Judai are reminded by their circumstances again and again what helpless children they are, and their response is to try to take control through violence and domination like a king. Their desire for stability ends up with them tyrannizing all those who are weaker than them. More specifically, once becoming masculine figures of authority they harm a feminine figure in their lives. This is where I reference toxic masculinity, because soon after becoming these masculine kings they use their powers to violently abuse the feminine.
Amon's is obivous in his decision to sacrifice echo, and while after the fact Amon seemed appreciative of Echo's sacrifice, during it he was cold, and callously ignored all of her screams of pain as exodia squeezed her to death.
Similiarly, Judai awakens the power of the supreme king to use in a duel against Yubel. Yubel remarks that Judai after using the supreme king is acting differently.
Yubel: "I'm so flattered. So this is your love."
Judai: "You're still going on about that? Right now, I'm brimming with anger for you. And now, I'm going to use the power of the Supreme King you've awakened to wipe you off the face of the universe!"
Yubel: "My Judai would never become so cruel."
Judai: "We can't protect what matters to us by being kind."
In other words, despite the fact that Yubel deliberately pushed Judai down the path of becoming supreme king, when Judai starts actnig like the Supreme King and pointing that aggression towards them Yubel expresses displeasure. When Judai starts legitimately trying to hurt them, Yubel who's entire delusion is based around the fact that every time Judai hurts them it's a sign of love for them slowly begins breaking down.
I mention Yubel as a feminine figure her because in tarot and in alchemy, the masculine has a symbolic feminine counterpart. In tarot it would be the empress, in alchemy the lunar queen to the solar king. In this case femininity doesn't =/= female necessarily. Femininity is just the complementary force of masculinity, like yin is to yang. Judai is the son, fire, air, and Yubel is femininity, earth, water. Judai is the gentle darkness, and Yubel is corrupted by the light of destruction the two of them represent a balance between opposing forces. However, when Judai embraces the power of the supreme king the two are thrown out of balance because Judai is using the power of the supreme king to try to kill Yubel.
When the Emperor is in reverse, the stability the card is supposed to represent can quickly turn into an oppressive authority figure. Without the empress to balance them out, the emperor becomes rigid and unyielding.
"Even at its best, however, the emperor remains limited. Over the spontaneity of the Empress, he has laid a network of repression. If the Rider pack Emperor is drawn as old and stiff, dressed in iron representing the sterility of a life rigidly governed by rules. The river which flowed so powerfully through the Empress's garden has here become a thin stream, barely able to penetrate a lifeless desert."
(Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom pg 51).
In both cases Amon and Judai also derived their power from the sacrifice of a feminine figure. Amon was only given Exodia's powers because of Echo's willing sacrifice he never would have achieved them on his own and yet he stands alone as king, only paying lip-service to the fact that he intends to honor her memory. The young prince Judai in another lifetime was protected by the sacrifice of Yubel until he grew into adulthood. Whereas in this life, the only reason that Judai became aware of his role as the supreme king and the power it contained was entirely because of Yubel's machinations nudging him to awaken his memories. If it weren't for Yubel, then Judai would have remained ignorant of the past.
Yet once they become kings both Amon and Judai are quick to forget the sacrifices of those who put them on the throne in the first place.
If anything it seems that "The King" or "The emperor" in Yu Gi Oh Gx is a symbol of a false maturity. Amon and Judai becoming the king is a failure to grow up, because they are both imitating the abusive masculine figures they've born witness to in their own life, instead of growing up into men on their own terms.
"As the middle card in the first line of the Major Aracana, the Emperor represents a crucial test. in the process of growing up it is indeed the rules of society that many people find most difficult to surmount. We must absorb these rules, as well as our society's traditions and beliefs, then go beyond them to find a personal code of conduct."
(Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom pg 52).
THE DECAPITATION OF THE KING / ALCHEMY
I made a much longer post on Yu-Gi-Oh GX and Alchemy, but another possible answer to why Yubel hates kings is that symbolically, the king must symbolically die and be reborn for Judai's personal development. The king is dead, long live the king.
Now, if you want to know the specifics of Alchemy you can read the post I linked above. In order to not repeat myself I'm going to take a slightly different tack, Judai is not the king. The supreme King is one of two things, one a position of authority belonging to the weilder of the gentle darkness, and two the young prince who swore eternal love to Yubel in his past life and presumably grew up to be the Supreme King.
Neither of these are Judai Yuki himself. The latter is a person he was in a past life, someone he may share memories with but is not him. The former is a role that he plays. The weilder of the gentle darkness is a role. The king is a position of authority and power. They are things Judai is, but they don't say anything about him personally.
To tie into the point I made above, when Judai and Amon become false kings, they throw away a great deal of their personality in order to try to embody this perfect king. Yubel, even refers to Amon as an empty king. After all, Amon's identity is being the friend/lover of Echo, the big brother and protector of Sid, and an agent of the Garam conglomerate and he throws all of these things away in a bid to become king. What is left of Amon at that point, except for the role of king? He has no identity anymore, except for his desire for power to be king.
Judai similiarly, shows almost none of his former personality the two time we see him fully embrace the power of Supreme King. He remarks to O'brien that love is worthless, and he acts so heartless in regards to Yubel that even Yubel remarks that he's acting differently.
Haou: I don't fear being alone for in solitude lies the truth. None can pry into the darkness in the innermost depths of one's heart.
(Yu Gi Oh GX! Episode 143).
To summarize quickly, Alchemy is a process of refinement. Melting down base metals and refining them until they reach gold. Symbolically, it's a cycle of death and rebirth, where the death of the old self leads to a reborn self.
Judai already experiences several deaths and rebirths. Before the series began he died in his former lifetime and was reincarnated into the modern world alongside Yubel. He experiences another death when his heart falls into darkness and the Supreme King persona takes over. The Supreme King is supposedly killed by O'brien, only to be resurrected again in the duel against Yubel.
Judai is symbolically, the king. He is the solar king in alchemy terms.
Essentially, the two principles are as follows:
Red: sun, fire and air, sulfur, active, gold, hot and dry, heart or soul, male.
White: moon, water and earth, mercury, passive, silver, cool and damp, mind or spirit, female.
He is fire, he is the active protagonist of the story, his favorite monster is flame wingman, he is described by Sho as being like the sun, he is the king in ever sense of the word but the king is one of two substances that is going to be melted down to form the philosopher's stone. Judai is the king but the king is not who he is, because Judai's goal is not to become the king, but to become himself. In order to become the best version of himself, Judai has to let all the older versions of himself die in order to become a new, better version of himself. He has to keep walking forward on his journey of self-fulfillment instead of getting bogged down in the past.
The king is just one step of Judai's journey. The severing of the head of the king is the phase of the alchemical process that metaphorically represents the death of the old king, and the rebirth into something new.
Alchemy is violent, Solve et Coagula requires things to dissolve away before they can coagulate together again. Before the psyche can rebuild, it has to be ripped apart
The image itself is set in a city in a countryside, a man is holding a decapitated head severed from a body lying at his feet. Both Judai and Yubel experience a dismemberment at one point or another. In another classical alchemical text Lunar King and Queen experience this dismemberment together, in order to represent the violent union of opposites.
In freudian symbolism, the death of a father figure / a king is necessary for psychological development. In mythology which Jung used for the basis of many of his ideas, death is required for life.
"In freud's scheme of mental development and the rules of society become directly linked. The infant psyche demands constant satisfaction, aprticularly in desires for food from the mother. By interfering with the child's relationship to the mother, the father arouses the child's hostility... the urge to destroy the father however, cannot be consummated or recognized so the psyche, to reliev the terrible dilemna identifies itself with the father figure creating a new "super ego" as a guide for the self. [...] In ancient times when the Goddess reigned, the king performed a special function. new life can only come from death therefore, each winter, the Goddess's representative sacrificed the old king, very often dismembering him and planting pieces in the ground thereby mystically fertilizing the earth."
(Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom pg 49.)
Alchemy dictates that in order for Judai to become his fully realized self, both he and Yubel must let the past, and let the king die. This is especially true for Yubel, who clings the hardest to their past life with Judai, because in that life where they played the role of knight Judai could never throw them away the same way they did in this one.
However, trying to force Judai to become the king, to be the way he was in the past is actually the worst thing possible for Judai's development because Alchemy is all about accepting death so a rebirth can occur.
To bring another Yu-Gi-Oh anime in for a point of comparison, because Yu Gi Oh loves to recycle ideas, for Shark from Zexal who was also a king in his past life, the choice to prioritize his past life over his present one and become Nasch is one that has disastrous consequences.
IV: "That low. You let yourself fall that low. To let yourself become such a decrepit demon that your heart is beyond turning back?"
SHARK: "That's right. Very good, IV. Hate me as a barian. Use the death of your friends to enflame your hatred against me. By defeating you like that, I can bury all of my life as Kamishiro Ryoga."
(Zexal II, Episode 52).
After recalling his past life and deciding to live solely as a Barian, turning his back on all the friends he made as Ryouga. In two duels, against IV and against Yuma he completely refuses any hand they offer him and decides that his past life and his responsibilities as a barian emperor are the only thing that matters.
However, because Shark refuses to let his past life die, he ends up making the exact same mistake of his past life. Just as in that life, his sister ends up sacrificing herself in order to try to defeat Vector and dying at Vector's hands. In both lifetimes Nasch uses his power as the king in order to try to protect everyone around him including his sister, only to end up the last one alive after his decision to wage war.
It's a character flaw that's present throughout all of Shark's arc, he wants to use power in order to protect his loved ones, but whenever they're hurt that desire to protect quickly turns to vengeance and anger instead. Shark much like supreme king judai relies on power as a way to fight against the chaos of the world and bring order, and just like Judai it's just a coping mechanism because Shark is unable to deal with the loss of his loved ones, in the past life, and in this one too. He becomes a barian emperor, and goes to war with all of humanity and the astral world because he wants to protect those he failed to protect in his past life, only to lose them again because he made the decision to go to war.
Shark doesn't let go of the past, and doesn't let his past self die and because of that he cannot learn from his mistakes. Rather than integrating his past self into his present self, he's just trying to pretend that everything is the same as it was in his previous lifetime, and because of that he doesn't learn from his mistakes in his past life.
This is symbolized by the way he loses the final duel against Yuma. Shark always chooses violence even when there are more peaceful means. When Yuma is dueling with him in that final duel, he keeps prolonging and prolonging because he wants to find a nonviolent solution. However, by that point all of the other barian emperors are dead and the only thing Shark has left is his responsibility as the last barian emperor. He duels Yuma and refuses any offers to sort things out peacefully, and in the last move of the duel Yuma negates an attack because he doesn't want to win against Shark. He doesn't want to put him down with violence, he wants to convince Shark with words that they can settle things peacefully. However, because of an affect of Shark's own card, he loses the duel, whereas he would have won if Yuma had just attacked.
Shark's failure to let the past die results in his character regression, because the king is not who he is, and it is not all he is. Pushing Judai into the role of Supreme King only brings his worst traits to the forefront, and symbolically causes him to stagnate as a character because Yubel is also refusing to let the past die. Yubel on some level however, seems to be aware of this.
THE LUNAR QUEEN / YUBEL
Now in a roundabout way I am finally at the stage where I answer my question, what does the king mean to Yubel? Why does Yubel push Judai and Amon into the role of becoming king, while at the same time mocking the king and becoming resentful when Judai starts to act like the supreme king that Yubel pushed him to be.
In the story Yubel represents Judai's opposite and equal force, but in the context of the story itself they are far from equals. Before the story began they much like Echo willingly threw away their life and their body to protect the boy they wanted to become king.
They offered their body up without expecting anything in return. When young prince Judai is troubled by their sacrifice they go out of their way to reassure him, that this is their duty.
However, the young prince steps out of the line of duty and pledges eternal love to Yubel in return for their sacrifice.
From that moment something changes, and the lines blur for Yubel. No longer are they acting out of selfless devotion to a prince (duty) but of love for a prince to promise to love them in return. Yubel the knight is devoted to the prince, that is the role they both fill. As long as they fulfill their roles, Yubel will not be thrown away because the prince needs Yubel to act as his shield. However, Yubel doesn't deserve Judai because he's the king, but because he's Judai. He serves Judai because of the love he has not for a king, but for Judai the person.
Yubel is however, socialized and raised to think of themselves as a knight serving a king. The only tool they have available to process their feelings, the way they see the world is tied up in this narrative of them existing for the sake of protecting someone else. All of their self worth is derived from their loyalty to Judai, because they gave up everything else. They are a horrible dragon with impenetrable skin, even if they wanted to, they couldn't have friends other than judai, they gave up their humanity to better serve as Judai's protector. It's not too different from Echo giving up her life to become Exodia. When they're reborn into the modern era, Judai is reborn again as a child, but Yubel is a duel spirit that can only be seen by and only interact with Judai and not understanding the rules of the modern world they try to protect Judai the way they did in their past life only to be seperated from Judai because of how overprotective they were being.
Yubel thinks in these terms of chivalric knights and kings because it's all they know, but Yubel is also observant and intelligent and capable of deducing that while they need Judai, Judai doesn't necessarily need them in this lifetime. Yubel has elevated Judai to king, in order to have their place by his side as his knight again, however Yubel in this lifetime has noticed the power discrepancy between the king and the knight who protects them. The king might be grateful to the knight for their service the same way that Amon appreciates Echo's sacrifice, but no matter what the king and the knight will never be equals.
Which is why despite Yubel originally making this sacrifice to protect Judai, so he can grow up and become the supreme king, in Yubel's fantasies they don't really seem to care much about Judai's role as a chosen hero at all. In fact, if anything Yubel wants to stay away from the conflict between good and evil entirely.
When Yubel hears about Amon's dreams to build a utopia, he mocks the idea because a kingdom is supposed to be a place you share with you and your loved one. Yubel no longer cares about Judai's destined role about saving the universe from the light of destruction, they really only care about building a kingdom where the two of them can be together.
Yubel: "For me, it's something I'll build with Judai. That is a world. You could've built a world with the one you love too. A world for just the two of you."
(Yu Gi Oh GX ep. 151).
Yubel also can't let go of Judai's past life. Much like Nasch, Yubel wants to return to the past forever, instead of living in the present. Even though Yubel and Judai both reincarnated it's difficult for Yubel to accept the changes because unlike Judai they remember everything of the past, and in the past lifetime they were never thrown away and abandoned so carelessly like they were in this one.
Yubel was abandoned, thrown into space, and tortured so in all of their overtures at devotion and demands that Judai reciprocate their love, they are desperately, searching for a way to ensure they'll never be abandoned again. Yubel is working with an incorrect understanding of the world, if they devote all of themselves to Judai as a selfless knight and protector then Judai must return their love and keep them by their side. That was how it worked in the past life, that's how it's supposed to work between knights and kings.
Yubel can only see the world through this flawed interpretation. If Judai abandons them, and leaves them to be tortured in space then it was a test of their loyalty. Judai loves Yubel so much, he knew that Yubel would understand shooting him into space, and then cutting them off completely was a sign of love. That after putting him through trial after trial, he fully expected Yubel to understand his intentions and unite with him.
As warped and twisted as Yubel's delusions are, in them there is the reflection of Yubel's true desires. While Yubel makes overtures of making Judai into a king so they can go back to serving as his knife, their actual actions are to drag Judai down to their level. Yubel says over and over again, they want Judai to suffer as much as they did, not for revenge but so Judai and them can be equals in pain. Yubel notices how unfair it is that Echo was the only one who had to make sacrifices and suffer so Amon could be king, and then corrects that by tearing down Amon so he can finally be equals with Echo.
Yubel who despite seeming to want Judai to recall his past life and return to the way things were doesn't care about fighting the light of destruction, just building a kingdom where he and Judai live together. Yubel who, even when losing their mind and deciding to just fuse the twelve universes together and blow them up, still decides that they'll keep Judai asleep and watch over him forever. It's not about being Judai's guardian, it's not about making Judai king, it's not about fulfilling Judai's destiny, these are all just reasons, excuses really to be around Judai. Serving as Judai's protector means that Judai needs him and won't abandon him in this lifetime.
It is all about Judai, and Yubel's love for a person, and not a king.
Judai and Yubel are both attached to the past and refusing to grow and move on. Judai is overly attached to his childhood and does not want to grow up and face adult responsibilities. Much like Nasch, in favoring the past over the present Yubel is missing out on an opportunity to grow. They love Judai in this lifetime as he did in the last, but in this lifetime Yubel is too afraid of being abandoned again because he doesn't have the promise that Judai made him so they cling to the past.
It is only when Judai and Yubel decide to let go of the past at the same time, that both of them are able to grow. They both die and reincarnate one final time as a completely new being. Not only does Judai stop being the king, but Yubel stops being the knight, so they can be reborn together again in this lifetime.
