#treasonshipping

By authority, I mean things like rules, morals, superego, or social consensus. Furthermore, the word here doesn’t have any negative connotation. Similarly, authority figure refers to those who, at some point or to some extent, provided 6s with guidelines/sense of morality, helped 6s integrate into society, served as examples, etc. 

6s’ relationship with authority is tied to their anxiety and need for security: they want to gain approval, support and protection from good authorities, while fear being controlled and harmed by bad ones. There’s a childhood theory that suggests that, if 6s grew up with good authority figures, they will likely try to replicate that pattern in their adult relationships, by seeking authority figures in their friends or spouses. On the other hand, if they were abused by authority figures in their childhood, they will likely project negative feelings/suspicion towards any authority figures later in life. 

Yusei also seems to display a subtle, unconscious attachment to authority figures. For instance, he easily internalizes correct values from people around him. He also picks up those parts that are correct/valuable in his enemies’ ideologies (“5ds has no real villain, except for Divine”). And it’s also not just on the intellectual level; Yusei actually empathizes with the antagonists, validates them, and respects them as people. 

Yusei also tends to lend trust a bit too readily to authority figures, as long as they don’t appear plain evil. Or we may say, he wants to trust them. We see this clearly with Antinomy. Yusei’s mind knows to wonder about Antinomy’s motive, but that doesn’t stop him from getting led by the nose. Even Rex Goodwin, who’s already under suspicion as head of city government, was given too much good faith regarding his accounts of the signer/dark-signer legend and promises to the Satellite. 

Using the aforementioned Enneagram theory, we may be able to explain Yusei’s attachment/trust/positivity towards authority as a carry-over of his positive experience with Martha, the lady who takes care of homeless children in the Satellite. Yusei, Jack and Crow are all raised by her. We may well say that Martha is Yusei’s early/primary source of ethics. When Yusei felt unable to confront a hate-filled Kiryu, or hesitant to reach out to a resentful Aki, it is again Martha’s guidance that he followed. On the other hand, Martha’s general approach seems more or less indulgent, especially towards the smaller kids (plus, she didn’t seem to have reproached Jack for his unethical conducts). It is reasonable to infer, that the good early example which Martha served is what breeds Yusei’s later unconscious positivity towards authority in general. 

It is interesting, then, to see similar patterns manifested in Yusei’s later relationship with Kiryu and with Antinomy. 

It’s clear how Yusei regards Antinomy, or how the writers [*] positioned Antinomy, as some sort of mentor. Both to forward the plot, and on a psychological level: One example is before the duel with Placido i.e. debut of shooting star dragon. Antinomy said: “it’s time to master accel synchro”. Then Yusei, who habitually worries about others and refuses to let others worry about himself, responds: “Am I able to do that?” To put this into perspective, the only other time he spontaneously and openly voices his inner worries/lack of confidence is at the very end against Z-one when he said to his father's [**] spirit “I’ve done my best…there’s no way out…I can’t do this anymore”. Another (more verbose) example can be found here. 

[*] I’m increasingly suspicious of the writers being familiar with the Enneagram system, as so many characters’ (e.g. Jack, Crow and Aki) arcs fit well with certain Enneagram types.  

[**] Side note: Antinomy also seems to know a lot about Yusei’s father, hence has a non-negligible influence on how Yusei constructs his father’s image (although occasionally Yusei can also directly access his father's spirit). This is somewhat significant, as Yusei's father is supposed to be Yusei’s conventional early authority figure.