THOMAS QUATTRO IV ARCLIGHT YOU SKRUNKLY SMELLY PROBLEMATIC FAV
Why I like them/why I don’t
Oh make no mistake I adore IV. He's one of those characters I can chew on for a few weeks and approach from a few angles, either him being this broken mess of a person who commits atrocities for his father's love and has a horrible breakdown, or someone who's embraced that a part of him just likes to hurt people and honest to God, valid my liege, sometimes you do just wanna feed someone to Giant Grider legs first and record their screams.
That Duel Links explicitly shows that his fanbase WANTS him to be a freak, so he embraces it as a kayfabe act, was so funny to me.
What I like about their appearance
That red and yellow hair mix is so cool. I love his scar and I really enjoy the mixing of white and yellow in his uniform.
Do I prefer their dub names or original names?
I like Quattro as a name and I will use it, usually I default to Thomas or Quattro when I talk about him (yes I understand the point of the Roman Numerals as that Tron is violently dehumanizing his sons, but counterpoint is Quattro sounds cool so Dub W to Vetrix). I tend to headcanon that Quattro is a name he uses as a callsign when Dueling.
As for voice performances, Yoshimasa Hosoya just dominates. Michael Smith does OK, but Hosoya just leaves ZERO crumbs.
Gotta be Hellshark. I love ships where I can't tell if they want to kill each other or kiss each other and Ryoga just bounces off Thomas so well, they're always a delight to have on screen together.
Rio/Thomas is also up there just for the potential of their interactions and like, how you get them from "Sorry I lit you on fire" to a relationship at all, like that's a wild ride to take.
I would really rather not imagine Thomas romancing anyone in Yuga's age group.
I don't mean this in an incest way but I think the Kamishiros should be allowed to share Thomas between them like two dogs sharing a squeaky toy on different days. Like Rio gets the weekends and Ryoga gets Monday to Thursday.
I mean that in a way that implies as much destruction on Thomas you think two dogs sharing a squeaky toy would entail. :)
Number 40/Heaven's Strings is genuinely such a good design and it sucks how absolutely terrible its effect is.
I do like how his usage of Leo and C88 means Thomas has been given the gimmick (ha) of having alternate win conditions between those two and his 2024 support wave basically being custom-made to FTK.
Puppet Shark though may be a stealth favorite just for like, how custom-made that is to set off fireworks in the eyes of Hellshark fans.
Favourite moment they were in
Watching his duel with Tetsuo and Todoroki live for the first time was such a wild ride, just seeing him go absolutely apeshit. There's a reason people generally say Zexal begins to get really good when the Arclights join the cast and Thomas's debut episode is why.
Also just for the sheer insanity of it as background lore, that he SET RIO ON FIRE.
Final mention has to go to his duel with Nasch where he goes the distance in trying to bring Ryoga back and does insanely well- he does something like 10,000 damage! I think it's a compliment to the duel writers that Thomas makes pre-support Gimmick Puppet look as cool as he does.
Less a least favorite moment and more the lack of a moment, but how in the ever-living hell did we go all of Zexal without letting Rio confront Thomas over being set on fire by him? It took until Duel Links added Rio in TWENTY-TWENTY-TWO for them to meet on-screen!
Would I fuck, marry or kill them
There are places my dick takes me that I wouldn't go with a gun, and Thomas is one of those places.
I don't think I'd survive any of those options to be honest.
