#jackatlas

Oh Jack's a good one. This now means I got half the rivals done in day 1, yay me!

Why I like them/why I don’t

Jack to me is the writers fully realizing how they want to handle the Kaiba Rival archetype as a singular character. If Edo, Manjoume and Ryo were all a shared trial run across GX, Jack is the finished prototype. He's one of the few rivals I think is fully allowed to embrace how Kaiba wasn't just an antagonist, he was an actively malicious person when we meet him in the manga, willing to do anything for power and glory. Jack in contrast to the GX Rivals, is allowed to be like that, which especially stands out after Manjoume was just a school bully. He steals Yusei's ace, straps Rally to a boat and betrays all of his friends to get out of the Satellite and escape his past, and it doesn't really eat at him that he did this until Yusei reappears and makes him face his sins by stripping his mantle of King away from him in front of the whole city.

I love his arc especially after Carly basically beats him over the head to be a better person, which has notable effects on how Jack talks to people afterwards and pays off with him trying to save her in turn when she's a Dark Signer. It gives Jack a really profound arc that visibly moves him and changes his perspective on why he fights, allowing him to fight Godwin with Yusei and Crow not just as allies, but as reforged friends.

And then he's made very silly and that's when Jack becomes the best character in the entire fucking show. No joke, I love how Jack is made a silly idiot in the fluff episodes, it really expands his character and helps make a lot of the domestic slice of life stuff land. (maybe that's what Arc-V Jack was missing)

What I like about their appearance

I love that his riding suit is much more sophisticated and sleek than Yusei and Crow's gear. I read once that an analysis of Jack's clothes indicates that Neo Domino racer suits were made to more resemble F1 racers and their suits, while Satelite characters like Crow and Yusei more resemble traditional bike racer gear with the bigger emphasis on leather and crash pads.

I love his stupid bike too, that you wouldn't be able to see out of unless you were a madman like Jack.

Do I prefer their dub names or original names?

Same in both languages. Performance wise, I think I'd have to give it to the Japanese, but Ted Lewis does great as Jack- incomprehensible accent and all, and he's very charming in the role, but holy crap Takanori Hoshino leaves no crumbs in his wake. He gives Jack the full emotional range across his arc, and his "ORE NO TUUUUUUUURN" cry is always legendary.

OTP

It's Scoop. Come on, no contest here, they're basically as canon as this franchise can let them be by the time of Dark Signers. They're very adorable together and I do wish Carly got to be more involved in Jack's slice of life episodes because seeing them contrast would have been everything.

NOTP

Don't really have one.

OT3

Even if I don't think a lot of Jack and Crow's chemistry beyond them being the team's comic relief, I think that the boys all live together in a single shared living space for the entire second half of the show writes the doujins for me.

Favourite card they use

RDA would be cheating (shoutout to Scarlight though, I have a Royal of that in Master DUel), so I'll just say Vision Resonator is very cute.

Favourite moment they were in

It's really gotta be either Jack fighting Dark Signer Carly, or him facing the Crimson Devil to seize the power of Red Nova Dragon for himself. I'm also fond of him blowing up the garage that one time and his job-hunting montage. Jack in general benefits the most I think from the slice of life episodes post-Dark Signers.

Least favourite moment

Did we really need Jack to duel Yuya again near the end of Arc-V? It's not even like Jack gets a Level 12 Synchro out of it or anything to show his own journey. I'm a bit colder on Arc-V Jack.

Would I fuck, marry or kill them

Carly tired killing him, it didn't stick, and then I like to imagine she put a ring on it as a result, so he's unfortunately spoken for.