#neonspecs

The black choker, the gravity defying jacket, the necklace-like accessory, is Yuya Sakaki ripping of Yugi Moto’s character design?

Stop.

It’s been said over and over in the internet. I’d like to agree, except that I wouldn’t be using the term “ripping off”, more like “similar”. 

I say they’re similar because there might be a reason behind it. The ARC-V franchise has been nothing but foreshadowing, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this was another one of their mind games.

Let’s go back a bit, there has been four mentioned dimensions: Standard, Synchro, Xyz and Fusion.

Heartland was clearly based of Yuma’s city, Heartland, from Zexal. From the tower, down to the elevated highways. I admit that there are major changes from the one on Zexal, but it’s still Heartland. The creators called it Heartland. Was it because they ran out of ideas, of names to call the place that they just had to started referencing past locations? Nah.

The series is currently in the Synchro ARC, so it’s not that hard to find similarities between The City, and Neo Domino of 5D’s. The Tops and Commons status system, the Friendship Cup, the D-Wheels, the same 5D’s introduction to Riding Duels, the presence of Jack Atlas and Crow Hogan. Was it because the creators ran out of ideas for new characters that they just had to start dragging past ones into ARC-V? Nah.

Duel Academy’s probably has the biggest difference among the three. It was a boarding high school back in GX, but if children as young as Sora and Yuri (assuming that the latter is 14, the same age as Yuya), then who knows what the actual fuck is going on in there. But there’s Obelisk Force, the students walking in Yellow, Selena’s Red jacket - they still kept the ranking system. It’s still a school in the middle of Ra-knows-where, with Professor-student relationships. Was is because the creators ran out of ideas for antagonist hideouts that they just had to remodel Duel Academy for it? Nah.

Then there’s Maiami City, and the most unfamiliar, location-wise. We’re bombarded with new characters, places and the only thing that looks faintly familiar is Yuya’s character design. That is, before you realize that the Leo Corporation is just a Kaiba Corp. knock off.

Just look at the size of that shit. Duel Monsters confirmed?

Now that the episode hype has sort of washed off, I think it’s time for some real talk.

None of Yuri’s actions so far explain why he would be fucking pissed at Yugo (or Selena, but I really doubt that - the way I see it, when Yugo stared at him, he stares back at him). If anything, it should be Yugo giving him the death glare for stealing Rin from him.

He looked like he was enjoying himself when he was plotting

to take “Ruri”,

when he kidnapped Rin

... or when he attempted to bring Yuzu into the Academy.

Needless to ask, what made him so mad? He usually keeps his arrogant facade.

Here’s another thing: Yuri being in Synchro would mean the professor sending him in to do some mission (more likely to bring Yuzu and Selena into the Academy). If so, since Yuzu was kept “hidden” by Tsukikage, Selena was the easiest one to track. My guess is that he was plotting to take Selena after her duel with Yugo and was on standby,and was probably forced into watching the duel to keep an eye on the Fusion girl. I’m not exactly sure when he started watching, but he watched it regardless.

So here’s my thought: Yuri is mad at Yugo because of Selena. 

Whether it was because he taught her bullshit that wasn’t supposed to be taught to Academy students (relying on luck and having fun while dueling), Selena loosing or something else entirely, their interaction struck a nerve. We know he was there somewhere in the middle of the duel until the end (when Yugo was looking weirdly at Selena after they shook hands), if ever the guy wasn’t there to see what Yugo attempted to do at the start.

Think about it, when he kidnapped Rin and saw Yugo for a brief moment, he didn’t give two shits that the guy looked like him because he was there on a mission. The same reaction went when Dennis told him that he looked a lot like Yuya in season two.

This isn’t one of those “Dem Yugo, why u gotta touch the bae” joke anymore, this is literally something serious that could develop Yuri’s character.

I’m standing by my thought that Yuto must have overlayed with Yuya, and that recently, Yugo synchronized with him.

Zuzu ( “Yuzu” ) / Lulu ( “Ruri” )

—and saw a replica of what happened to the Xyz Dimension. 

The LDS students could have attempted to protect their dimension, but these duelists from the Academy are trained for war.