Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's



""Riding Duel, that's the duel that evolved in the world of speed. There are those who risk their lives and bear legendary birthmarks. People called them... 5Ds!"

- Opening Narration from episode 104 onwards

The third series under the mass-marketed, card game-oriented Yu-Gi-Oh! banner features a dystopian setting wherein the ubiquitous card game has become a way of life in the hierarchical society of Neo Domino City. With advances in technology, dueling has evolved into a popular spectator sport known as "Riding Duels/Turbo Duels". Such duels are conducted astride specially-equipped motorbikes known as "D-Wheels/Duel Runners". However, traditional-style standing duels are still conducted just as often.

The show presents a juxtaposition between the technologically-advanced Neo Domino City and "Satellite" - the common name for the now-derelict location of the original series. Satellite is where all of Neo Domino's trash goes - both literal and human. Two years before the start of the series, protagonist and Satellite resident Yusei Fudo constructed his own white Duel Runner. In a flashback, Yusei lost a duel to his friend Jack Atlas, who took Yusei's Duel Runner and ace monster (Stardust Dragon) and escaped to Neo Domino City. Jack has subsequently been established as "King of Riding Duels/Master of Faster", with the help of his own ace monster (Red Demon's Dragon) as well as the backing of the mysterious Rex Go(o)dwin. After building a new red D-Wheel/Duel Runner, Yusei makes his way to Neo Domino to duel Jack and retrieve his ace monster. Meanwhile, other events bring Yusei to the enduring attention of Neo Domino Security officer, Tetsuo Ushio/Trudge.

Much like the original series, 5Ds is based on an ancient mythos which inevitably lends its power to the current generation core cast. In this particular case the focus is on the Nazca lines which are seen throughout the show, on the title cards, and worked into the clothing of some of the characters. As the show progresses, Godwin reveals to Jack the existence and lore of the Signers - five chosen duelists who each bear a Mark of the Crimson Dragon. Jack was born with the Crimson Dragon's wings on his right forearm. Tenzen Yanagi reveals the same lore to Yusei who. Aki Izayoi/Akiza Izinski and Ruka/Luna. The fifth/original Signer was revealed to be. Following  the Marks shuffle and   becomes the new fifth Signer.

The first true enemies to the Signers. Dark Signers are unfortunate duelists who, on the brink of physical death, swear revenge against another individual. Their souls then become host to an Earthbound Immortal (Jibakushin) and they become living corpses bent on destruction. The Dark Signers each wield an individual God card that, to summon, requires. True Dark Signers are distinguished by their small pupils and black sclera as well as the purple geoglyphs on their right arms in the shape of their individual God: one of the major figures of the Nazca Lines (the Spider, the Monkey, the Lizard, the "Spaceman/Astronaut" Giant, the Hummingbird, ).

First mentioned by Rex Godwin early in the series, they are an ancient group of people focused on correcting history for the greater good, no matter what the cost. In the first season, they aided Godwin in the search for the Signers. In the second season,. In the third season, three members: Jose, Placido and Luciano appear and call themselves "The Three Emperors of Yliaster". They exhibit the ability to alter the future to small extents (allowing them to enter the World Riding Grand Prix by taking the place of another group) and claim they led by a God.

5Ds takes place in a stratified society based on a modified caste system determined by birth. This results in the worst on-screen treatment of a Yu-Gi-Oh protagonist to date. Because he is Satellite-born, Yusei is tagged, jailed and generally discriminated against. Jack is also Satellite-born but hasn't suffered the same discrimination and mistrust as Yusei because Godwin has kept his origins a secret from the public. Godwin uses this to his advantage and threatens Jack's reputation as a way of keeping him obedient.

In the tradition of Yu-Gi-Oh GX, 5Ds is an Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo. Rumors were abound concerning what "5Ds" actually stands for, such as the odd mis-named titles "Five Duel Scoop" and "Five Dimensions". Episode 96 confirms that it is a contraction of "five dragons", in reference to the five Signers and their dragons, which are needed to summon the Crimson Dragon.

Depending on who you ask, there are either three to five seasons (Episodes 1-26, which include the Prison Arc and the Fortune Cup, as the first season; episodes 27-64, or the Dark Signer Arc, as the second; episodes 65 to 103 as season three, 104 to 137 as the fourth, and 138 to 154 counting as a fifth) or two seasons (consolidating the entire 1-64 stretch as the first Story Arc and 65 and beyond as a second.) There is merit to all definitions, but the most common on this page is the three/five-season model.

The series also has an AU manga and several video games.

Colloquial address in the fan community tends to differentiate the four series of the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise along this dimension: 5Ds, GX, Zexal and DM (or Duel Monsters, in reference to the original series).

Yusei appears in the Yu-Gi-Oh Tenth Anniversary Movie that teams him up with Yugi and Judai/Jaden.

Watch it on Toonzaki here. Contains most to-date dubbed episodes and about half of the series subtitled.

In March 2011, 4Kids lost the license to the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise due to TV Tokyo and NAS not being paid royalties as well as 4Kids selling the DVD rights to FUNimation without permission from the aforementioned parties. However, the dispute was apparently somehow resolved, as 4Kids eventually licensed Zexal. What this means for the 5D's dub and if it will finish (as the dub was nearing the final arc) remains to be seen at the moment.

Has a Drinking Game.

Please remember to use the YMMV tab for subjective tropes.

'''Please use the original (Japanese) names when adding or editing a Trope on this page. (Aki instead of Akiza, Kiryu instead of Kalin, Rua instead of Leo, etc), we have the Dub Name Change trope to cover changes in localization.'''

A-D
"Jack: You don't think working makes a guy a loser, do you? Aki: I've completely mellowed out, but it's okay!! Rua and Ruka: I-I'm secretly hoping, but... Crow: This one's a good pack. you can say it's overpowered, good or a fake, I don't care."
 * The Abridged Series: Several.
 * Acquired Situational Narcissism: The central plot of the first twenty-six episodes.
 * Action Hero: Yusei briefly goes Street Fighter on a couple of guards in one episode. Jack also seems to have a penchant for beating people up.
 * Actor Allusion: Thinking back to when Yusei ordered milk at a bar, guess who else did the same in the music video of RUN&GUN's "Believe"?
 * Aerith and Bob: Philosophical concepts used as given names (Aporia, Antinomy)
 * A Friend in Need: Yusei to Aki. Also, Yusei to Kiryu, and Jack to Carly.
 * All Bikers Are Hells Angels: Ushio's deck in the third arc has a number of "Hellway"-themed cards in addition to his old feudal Japanese themed ones, which sport designs like a demonic rider on a motorcycle.
 * All There in the Manual: The official website revealed that the waitress who has a crush on Jack is named Stephanie before the show did.
 * One of the DVD sets reveals the names of some of the other characters' D-Wheels, such as Delta Eagle (Dark Glass/), Bloody Kiss (Aki), and Terrible Omens aka T-666 (Placido).
 * Additionally, the tenth anniversary book of the entire franchise says that
 * ZONE's time is  in the future... according to director Katsumi Ono's Twitter.
 * His Twitter account reveals other interesting tidbits, such as the fact that  and to go along with that
 * All Your Powers Combined:
 * Elaborating:
 * Almost Kiss: At least once with Carly during her Jack fantasies..
 * Alternate Universe: The manga version of Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds is set in an alternate universe from the anime.
 * Alternative Foreign Theme Song: In the 4Kids dub
 * Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Speed World.
 * The Speed World 2 card used in the WRGP Arc removes this function, sadly.
 * Ambiguously Brown: Rudger, who has no discernible ethnic background, is always depicted with a medium to dark brown skin tone. This may be an attempt to skirt Godwin's Law given Rudger's blond hair, blue eyes and decidedly German name, or simply to provide an interesting visual contrast with his younger brother and obscure his familial relationship until he reveals it himself in episode 46.
 * You can always say Rudger is darker than his brother because Rudger is more of the Adventure Archaeologist and did the field work while Rex is more of a introverted Magnificent Bastard Non-Action Guy.
 * There's also the fact that human flesh discolours post-mortem as decomposition sets in. Considering Rudger is the first of the new Dark Signers, and he apparently continued to decay after reviving, this could explain it.
 * Amusement Park of Doom: Aki's Dark Signer battle with Misty takes place in one of those. Complete with creepy hall of mirrors.
 * It seems to be an abandoned Kaiba Land. And why would the Lizard control tower be built right near an amusement park (or vice-versa?)
 * Ancient Conspiracy: Yliaster of course.
 * Anguished Declaration of Love:
 * Animation Bump: A handful of episodes all have extra detail, polish, gleam, and are generally of higher quality than the rest of the series. All of these episodes were produced via an animation director named Kenichi Hara and even earning a Fan Nickname among the fandom; Haranimation.
 * Compare Savior Star Dragon and its summoning in 128 with every other episode featuring it. AWESOME.
 * No Bill Go joined the franchise with his animating epsiode 136. The animation wasn't half bad at all.
 * Shuuji Maruyama, the series's character designer, did not animate an episode until the final one. The result? Pure awesome.
 * Anime Hair: Yusei competes directly with Yugi for the weirdest hair out of the three series protagonists, earning him a Fan Nickname for it: "Crabhead".
 * Possibly lampshaded in 116 in which Jaeger has to use haircurlers to keep his hair upright.
 * Anime First: While the original Yu-Gi-Oh! (and now ZeXal too) had a manga before the anime, 5D's took the GX route and did not get one until over a year after the anime premiered.
 * Anti-Villain:
 * Apathetic Citizens: Neo Domino Citizens display shades of this. They don't bat an eye at Yusei's Accel Synchro techniques for one. When the city is on the verge of destruction, they get distracted by Yusei's duel with Big Bad Z-ONE even though their lives are in danger. It's not until the MC starts commentating the match (endangering his life in the process) that everyone else continues evacuating the city.
 * This seems to be a Zig-Zagging Trope at times, almost to the point of Depending on the Writer. When Jack uses Scar-Red Nova Dragon for the first time in the W.R.G.P. against Team Ragnorak, everybody is wooed by it. The MC even comments on the symbolism of Scar-Red Nova Dragon (a card partially derived from a Peruvian Devil) going up against Thor (a Nordic God). In addition, when Aporia appears in his true form for the first time, the W.R.G.P. spectactors are quick to evacuate the stadium.
 * Apron Matron: Martha in Season 2, Zola in Season 3.
 * Arc Welding: A first for the franchise, and done pretty well.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: breaks into the trio's garage, steals their new engine program, and eats Jack's ramen. How dastardly.
 * Artifact Title: In the anime,
 * Artificial Human:
 * Artificial Limbs:
 * Art Shift: During the puzzle and simulated riding duel from episodes 80 and 115, respectively, everything becomes Super-Deformed for some reason. Cue Chibi renditions of Bruno, Jeager, Aki, Crow, Jack, and Yusei.
 * Ascended Extra: Ushio is the same Ushio who was Yami Yugi's very first opponent, making him around 30-40 years old in this series.
 * Ascended Meme: 4Kids put up a poll on Facebook to give the show a new slogan. Guess what they chose?
 * Card games on Motorcycles?
 * Yusei had been dubbed Crabhead by the fans ever since his character design was revealed. It finally came full circle in Tag Force 5 in which a certain shop owner asks the player how he feels about crustaceans.
 * The Tag Force 5 shop owner is full of Shout Outs to the fans. Highlighting a character's pack reveals the WMG and other things about them.
 * Card games on Motorcycles?
 * Yusei had been dubbed Crabhead by the fans ever since his character design was revealed. It finally came full circle in Tag Force 5 in which a certain shop owner asks the player how he feels about crustaceans.
 * The Tag Force 5 shop owner is full of Shout Outs to the fans. Highlighting a character's pack reveals the WMG and other things about them.

"(Harald, to summon Polar God Sacred Emperor Odin) The all-seeing and all-powerful king who rules the heavens circling the North Star. Now, show your might that reigns over the Gods of Asgard! Synchro Summon! He who rules the world ordained by the Gods! The Highest God, Polar God Sacred Emperor Odin!"
 * Many fans dubbed certain duels seen in episode 26 and 62~64 as rainbow road duels. Cue episode 138
 * There was also a number who guessed the next series would move into space as a joke.
 * Goes one step further when
 * Awesome but Impractical: Several D-Wheels, namely Yusei, Crow, and Jack's. Yusei's throttle is a hand accelerator instead of a hand brake. Further, while Crow's bike can do awesome things like flying and auto-correcting, the wings are actually too short to keep him airborne as depicted in the show (It was also pointed out that ). Meanwhile, although mono-wheels do actually exist, Jack's D-wheel does not appear to have a moving wheel that actually touches the ground - the entire thing is covered in the outer casing.
 * Dark Glass's D-Wheel is probably the worst in this regard. It's basically a thin talon with a large rear wheel with two smaller ones just below the seat, which aren't shown touching the road at all. Short of defying gravity, how on earth does that thing stay balanced?!
 * The gun duel disks in the Crashtown arc qualify, since they don't actually shoot bullets.
 * The Savior Dragons also count, because they can only be summoned if the Duelist who needs one has the power of the whole Crimson Dragon to summon the Savior Dragon tuner card. Not to mention they're useless in comparison to the new 'Clear Mind' and 'Burning Soul' synchro summons Yusei and Jack have obtained.
 * Ax Crazy: Aki and Kiryu, until Yusei uses The Power of Friendship on them.
 * Divine, too, for that matter.
 * Back From the Dead: The Dark Signers, and not in a good way.
 * A promotional book for the 10th anniversary movie revealed that
 * Badass Adorable: The twins: Ruka and Rua.
 * Badass Abnormal: The Signers.
 * Badass Biker: Obviously.
 * Badass Creed: The Synchro Summon phrases, overlaps with Calling Your Attacks below.
 * Here's an exceptionally cool one from the most recent episodes:
 * Here's an exceptionally cool one from the most recent episodes:


 * Badass Grandpa: Rudger, and possibly
 * Jose has been laying low for most of the W.R.G.P. arc, but the fourth OP seems to indicate that he is, in fact, the most powerful member of the Infinity Trio. This trope is proven in episode 110. When Sherry tries to crush him with her D-Wheel, Jose easily catches it with one hand. The old guy then punches another one with enough force to send it flying and make it explode.
 * Just in case anybody still doubted him, episode 132 saw Jose
 * Badass Longcoat: Jack is the requisite long-coat wearer for the series, though he also spends a good deal of time in his riding suit.
 * Kiryu acquired one prior to episode 86.
 * One of his monsters, Infernity Death Gunman, also qualifies for this trope.
 * Badass Nickname: Several. The King of Riding Duels for Jack, The Shooting Star of Satellite for Yusei, Black Rose Witch for Aki's season one persona, Crow the Bullet for Crow and Shinigami for Kiryu.
 * Badass Normal: Rua somewhat qualifies, considering he pretty much did most of the work in
 * Mizoguchi counts as this too.
 * Bad Future: Hoo boy,
 * Bad Guy Bar: The bar Yusei must go to in episode 11, and the bar Ramon is seen in 86 qualifies.
 * Bait and Switch Credits: Not as a whole, but there was one tiny bit in the 2nd version of the Dark Signer Arc opening, when it showed  facing off in a Ground Duel. As anyone who actually saw the Duel will know, this wasn't the case.
 * Despite being shown in silhouette alongside Wisel and Skiel in the third opening, Jose's Machine Emperor (Grannel) never shows up during the episodes it plays for. In addition, the last shot depicts Yusei, Crow and Jack wearing WRGP outfits, Aki and Ruka dressed in cheerleader uniforms and Rua with a blue outfit on. It noticeably doesn't acknowledge  And best of all, none of the main characters even wear the outfits pictured!
 * The fourth opening and ending songs depict  although it wasn't entirely clear at the time. It doesn't appear at all during the fourth opening and ending songs' run, and only appears during the run of the fifth and final opening and ending songs, which actually
 * Bar Code Tattoo: The yellow markers on a person's face, nicknamed Criminal Markers, indicate their arrest and incarceration by Security at some point.
 * Bare Your Midriff: Noticeable feature of Dark Signer outfit, as well as Kiryu's.
 * Bat Family Crossover: Yusei costars in a crossover special, a 10th anniversary movie for the whole franchise, that teams him up with Yugi and Judai/Jaden.
 * Beautiful All Along: Carly without her glasses of course!!
 * Beat Still My Heart: When a Dark Signer summons their Jibakushin (or Earthbound God), a disembodied heart materializes, and starts to beat as it absorbs souls from the Geoglyph.
 * Some of the Jibakushin support in the TCG features this heart as well.
 * Berserk Button: As seen by Crow, when all of the children get sacrificed by the Earthbound God thing.
 * Slandering Jack's title of king, such as addressing him as "Former King", certainly counts as this.
 * Berserker Tears: Many times.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Despite her mellowed attitude after making amends with her parents, Aki's subtle Yandere moments and the fact she can control her powers these days make for a terrifying prospect indeed. Episode 73, anyone?
 * Let's not forgot about.
 * Beyond the Impossible: This can be said for the whole franchise but 5Ds in particular takes everything Up to Eleven with ridiculousness that makes the other series look positively dull in comparison. Card Games on Motorcycles aside, that is the least interesting thing when compared to evil Nazca Lines deities rampaging through the city, Old Western standoffs with guns that turn into Duel Disks, robots playing card games on Motorcycles and proceeding to fuse with their motorcycles, card games on motorcycles IN A SIMULATION OF SPACE around a sun which explodes into a supernova, creating a Black Hole, or a giant flying machine man with a huge deck and detached Robot Hands playing a children's card game with a man riding a FLYING motorcycle with red phoenix wings who goes Beyond The Impossible in-universe by achieving a mental condition and performing a technique that doesn't exist (not even 200 years later in an advanced future) and actually flying into outer space (and still breathing) to summon his greatest ace monster while a giant, floating citadel from the future drops slowly towards the ground. That's not even a quarter of the over the top stuff that this series has to offer.
 * At the end of the series, in a 'normal' Riding Duel like the last duel between Yusei and Jack, a friendly duel with no one's life on the line, Yusei rides alongside walls, dodges huge air fans, and jumps an incredibly large pool of liquid magma without missing a beat or fear of death when he didn't even have to. The very last shot of the series is of Yusei riding his motorcycle into the sky (except now it CAN'T fly.) Even when the show tries to be tame, it's still wildly over the top.
 * Big Brother Instinct: Although Yusei's protective of all his friends, it's the . Slightly subverted in that they're not actually related.
 * Crow counts, too: in Episode 32 he tells Yusei he would die for the kids he takes care of, and in Episode 51, . Still unrelated by blood, but they call him "Crow-niichan," or "Big brother Crow," so it's close enough for government work.
 * In another odd example, Ruka actually asks for the protection of her twin brother Rua when they go to Satellite. Rua certainly delivers.
 * Rua's distrust of when he gets close to his sister is the impetus of episode 77.
 * At the conclusion of the Crashtown arc, Kiryu appears to have adopted a couple of kids after . Same children also refer to him using the honorific used for older brothers.
 * Big Damn Heroes: When a group of kids are about to be sacrificed to Rudger's Earthbound God and Yusei can't do anything about it, Jack comes barreling over a pile of debris to save them, belittling the Earthbound God all the while.
 * At the end of the Crashtown arc, just as the bad guys start saying Screw The Rules, I Have Hostages, Jack and Crow show up outta frickin' nowhere with the police in tow. The result is the (temporary) rebirth of Team Satisfaction.
 * Dark Glass in Episode 107, saving Yusei from the Diablo.
 * The MC pulls this in episode 148, staying behind in  in order to commentate on the Card Games on FLYING Motorcycles so the civillians who understandably wanted to watch could continue running for their lives while still knowing what's going on.
 * Big No:
 * It's sad.
 * Episode 46, when and again when
 * Also, in 142 when
 * Big Ol' Eyebrows
 * Big OMG: Crow gets one of these in his duel with Jaeger. Complete with Engrish.
 * Non-canon example: the reaction to
 * Biker Babe: Sherry LeBlanc, who even has long Hair of Gold to fully maximize the Samus Is a Girl moment.
 * Bittersweet Ending: The World has been saved, and Team 5Ds goes their separate ways. But Aki says they'll see each other again.
 * Black Cloak: All of the Dark Signers wear one. Kiryu donned one himself when he started to go psycho even before that.
 * Aki, in her Black Rose Witch persona (although she only wears it onscreen twice).
 * Black Eyes of Crazy: The Dark Signers.
 * Blasphemous Boast: Rex who claimed to be the ultimate god, with both the Signer and Dark Signer powers within him.
 * Blessed with Suck: The Signers, who can and do summon a powerful plot device that destroys everything.
 * Aki's particular brand of suck, psychic materialization, actually comes in handy when she, Yusei and Sherry are in danger of being crushed by a falling truck, again when she's about to be run over by a marauding steamroller-cum-D-Wheel (What else is there to do but dragon-smash it?) and again when she
 * Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Jack, Yusei, and Crow, respectively.
 * Bodyguard Crush: Mikage's crush on Jack.
 * Body Horror:
 * Book Ends: The first opening shows Yusei and Jack in a riding duel with Junk Warrior opposing against Red Demon's Dragon.
 * Yusei having a long talk with Ushio also counts, as they previously exchanged ideologies in the first episode.
 * Boom! Headshot!: This + Ramming Always Works = How
 * Bowdlerise: Dear God, the English Dub...
 * Family-Friendly Firearms: The sound of bullets being fired will often be changed to sound more like lasers. Sometimes bullets will be recolored as well.
 * Episode 25 recolors the Mook's guns green, which is at least better than making them invisible.
 * Never Say "Die" is in full effect, which makes watching the Dark Signer arc a real treat, especially since the villains are people who died with hate in their hearts. Episode 70 was an especially blatant case, as it has all the trappings of a "put long-dead spirits to rest" story, but 4Kids claims they've just gone to play with their forest spirit friends and can come back anytime they want. Episodes 94 and 95 are also pretty bad, upgrading a (non-supernatural) card's threat from reasonable in this series (the special effects are too realistic and cause actual, possibly lethal damage) to ridiculous (causes real damage and can send victims to the netherworld.)
 * Episode 1 rewrites the plot to have it so that Jack set Rally up in an elaborate plot to take a chip for Yusei's D-Wheel. It may seem like Jack is changed to be more malicious, but this was done all to simply ignore the fact that Rally just stole the chip in the Japanese version where Jack was not involved at all.
 * In the episode where they explain how Jack got Stardust Dragon from Yusei, the scene where in the Japanese version he knocks out Rally by Vulcan Neck Pinching him is changed so that he... kind of sticks something in his neck that makes a beeping sound, I guess. It looks he he pressed a button and turned him off somehow.
 * It's kind of subtle, but the dub doesn't make Satellite out to be as much of a gritty and depressing hellhole as the Japanese version does (including cutting out Ushio's "Satellite scum" slurs). But hey, this is a kid's show, right?
 * Several episodes edit out the blood when people get injured, no matter how little it is. Yusei's rather obvious injury in episode 35 with a large piece of sharpanel sticking out of his gut is also changed to him having an internal injury... or something.
 * Various forms of torture are cut out or downplayed, including Yusei receiving his criminal marker in episode 6 (from a laser causing him to collapse in pain is to a harmless spray instead that he asks if it's "supposed to tickle"), Takasu shocking Yusei to see if his Dragon Birthmark would reveal itself (omitted), and video of a kid in the Arcadia movement in episode 42 (from being electrocuted to generating the electricity itself - ignoring the fact that the kid is clearly in pain), and Kiryu receiving his criminal marker and getting beaten up in jail (episode 55, also omitted).
 * Aki's cleavage is erased. (Her skirt is lengthened and her garters are usually erased as well) Aside from the editing often being inconsistent between shots, it was poorly done at times (Why does Aki have shading from cleavage when she doesn't even have cleavage?!) This edit becomes especially Egregious after Aki dons her cleavage-errific riding suit for the first time in episode 75. Misty's (huge) and Angela's (not quite as huge) cleavage is likewise censored, and scantily-clad Duel Spirits like Ruka's Sunny Pixie are covered up.
 * The flames, (as in, on fire) that make up the geoglyphs where battles with Dark Signer battles are held are referred to as mist instead. Which seems kind of strange in episode 34 when Yusei is thrown in to the "mist" and starts howling in pain (I guess it's scalding like a steam geyser?). Of course, it helps these flames are already colored purple. The "purple mist" resurfaces much later, in the flashbacks from episodes 94 and 95, where Crow investigates a friend's murder disappearance.
 * On a related note, Episode 44 omits a scene where the Dark Signers' Fog of Doom vaporizes everyone in Satellite This edit seems a little strange because it explains
 * All the references to the Goodwins' severed arms in the Dark Signer arc are cut. Rudger only removed his Dragon Birthmark (the rest of the arm is digitally edited out), and Rex's mechanical arm is implied to only be a gauntlet over his real arm that helps transfer the mark. And of course, Rex never lost his own arm riding off the Daedalus Bridge.
 * as the former dies is changed around for the dub.  In the English Dub, footage is awkwardly moved around so that
 * Episode 59 removes 's mutual Love Confession to leave their relationship on a more platonic level. Then again, this may be because later episodes have a Running Gag of an estrogen brigade fighting over him, which wouldn't work so well if one of the girls was his official love interest.
 * The scene where
 * The Crash Town arc, full-stop. Kiryu's Death Seeker attitude is replaced with a Because Destiny Says So one (somewhat, as he's still obsessed with punishing himself), the shock collars that electrocute the miners have their shocks removed (so it looks like the collars are strangling them), and the gun-themed monsters are of course edited to look different, and in Gatling Ogre's case, removed entirely (the footage of it attacking Ramon is obviously removed to the point of paining the viewer). And, in true Never Say "Die" fashion, the "graveyard" where the dead miners have their Duel Disks thrown is revised as memorials to their lost freedom, and . Particularly bad is the climax of the duel with Lotten--in the original Japanese Kiryu turned Lotten's effect damage back at him and tricked him into destroying himself, while in the English version, due to the gun monsters present in said climax, the entire sequence is removed, and Kalin just hands Lotten over to security deciding he's too much of a coward to be defeated in a fair duel. The only thing that isn't edited in this arc, surprisingly, are the gun-shaped Duel Disks.
 * Episode 108 cuts out a few instances of falling glass, which considering no one is actually shown getting hurt, is somewhat silly, and 109 cuts out . Consequently,  . And what the hell happened to the song the Clear Mind!?!
 * Episode 110 cuts out Jose ripping Sherry's shirt slightly as she charges at him.
 * Oh, and did we mention this is after we condensed this section to save space?
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: The Dark Signers.
 * Another Dark Signer example is that, if their respective god is displeased with their performance, said god will actually possess the Dark Signer.
 * Break the Cutie: Hi there, Granted, saying
 * Breather Episodes: The W.R.G.P. arc has often been lighter in tone than the Fortune Cup or Dark Signer arcs, even including a few Filler episodes.
 * Broken Pedestal:
 * Brother-Sister Incest: Some of Ruka and Rua's interactions suggest this.
 * Brother-Sister Team: Rua/Ruka.
 * Butt Monkey: Ushio in the first season.
 * It helps that he never actually wins a duel in the entire series.
 * Season 3 appears to have Bruno taking his place with the poor guy getting punched in the face multiple times by Jack, run over by a mob of police officers, knocked out by Placido, and attacked by a very angry Sherry in highheels.
 * Calling Your Attacks: This is Yu-Gi-Oh, so practically every monster attack has to be screamed to the heavens (for some monsters it ends up being different every time), and even a fair few EFFECTS have names. New to 5D's, it overlaps with Badass Creed and Catch Phrase with just about everyone spouting a short phrase for their Synchro Summoning. See the quote section for the list of chants.
 * Came Back Wrong: Type 3: All of the Dark Signers.
 * Can't Catch Up: Aki and Ruka are the only Signers not to receive an upgrade of sorts during the series run. Yusei and Jack acquire THREE different upgrades of their respective dragons.
 * also get their own dragons once they become Signers, but considering Aki and Ruka already had their dragons at this point, the "upgrade" status is arguably not on the same tier.
 * Card Games: On Motorcycles! Of course, there are also a few games not played on motorcycles.
 * Cast Full of Pretty Boys: You were already thinking this.
 * Catch Phrase
 * Catch a Falling Star: In Episode 64,
 * Cat Fight: A three-way between Mikage, Carly, and Stephanie.
 * Character Development: Among the main cast, Jack and Aki are the most prominent, the former eventually seeing the error of his ways and going from a haughty jerk to a haughty Jerk with a Heart of Gold, while the latter managed to make peace with her two major sources of angst and mellowed out, though there is some debate over how well that was handled.
 * Special mention goes to Ushio. When he first appeared in the original manga he was a loser who was sure to get nowhere in life, and started out in 5Ds as a one-note, one-shot baddie. But after hanging around with the good guys and seeing life from the other side, he did a Heel Face Turn, pledged to protect the reunited cities of Satellite and Neo Domino, and is now a permanent member of the supporting cast. The trope reaches it's natural conclusion when Ushio and Yusei end up having a very friendly heart to heart talk about what Yusei will do at the end of the series, a very stark contrast to the first episode where Ushio calls him trash and seeks to bring him down for riding a D-Wheel.
 * And Rua. He starts off an naive kid who admires Jack and cried whenever he lost a duel. Across the second season, he deluded himself with a want to be the final Signer, only for that to get smashed by Divine. He begins to grow up and realises the seriousness of the situation, going with the Signers although it pains him that he can't do anything to help his sister, then throws himself into a duel against Demak so she won't have to fight (despite numerous claims from Demak that a non-Signer can't win). Partway into the third season, he gets a chance to prove himself again,  Did I mention he used to cry when he'd lose a duel?
 * Chekhov's Gun: The unnamed fifth dragon was referenced and seen a few times early in the Dark Signer arc, disappearing into obscurity. And that seemed to be cemented when  made its appearance and was thought to be the fifth dragon by other Signers. However, now scenes in the opening and ending sequences show six dragons, implying the original fifth dragon isn't forgotten yet..
 * Additionally, 'Road of the King', the documentary made about Jack first seen back in episode 29 reappears in episode 124.
 * The(incomplete) Daedalus Bridge counts as this.
 * Chewing the Scenery: Luciano duels with all the grace of Brian Blessed.
 * Also Jack.
 * Chick Magnet: Jack. He's got no less than three women vying for his love and affection.
 * Chosen One: Both the Signers and Dark Signers.
 * Let's not forget Team Ragnarok who has the Rune eyes.
 * Christmas Cake: Rex Godwin and Martha.
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder:
 * Breo's girlfriend, who dumped him as soon as he lost a duel, then hit on the winner.
 * Chronic Hero Syndrome: Yusei
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Jin Himuro and Tenzen Yanagi haven't been mentioned ever since the episode where the Signers all enter Satellite to battle the Dark Signers, and Rally, Blitz, Nervin, and Taka are never heard from again after You'd think they'd stop existed once the series moved on.averted near the end of the series. However, this was averted near the end of the series. In episode 150 and again in 151, during his final battle with  Yusei briefly remembers all the people depending on him, and all 6 of the people mentioned above are included. Rally, Blitz, Nervin, and Taka also make a quick cameo in the final episode, watching in awe as Yusei speeds by in his final Riding Duel with Jack. They even get a speaking role!
 * Coat, Hat, Mask: Divine in episode 60.
 * Colony Drop: It may not be as big or coming from space, but
 * Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Played around with a bit. Yusei wears a darker outfit, Jack wears pretty much all white, Aki's red, etc... the Dark Signers and their Earthbound God cards are color coded in individual colors of the rainbow.
 * More specifically with the Dark Signers: Kiryu is blue, Carly is orange, Misty is green, Rudger is red, and that one other guy is some other color.
 * Purple, wasn't it?
 * Demak (Jibakushin Cusillu) was yellow, and Bommer (Jibakushin Chacu Challhua) was indigo, and (Jibakushin Wiraquocha Rasca) was violet.
 * Combat Breakdown: In the dub version of the Crashtown finale. As has happened before, things have hit the fan and the violence started getting physical, but for once it didn't get the duel back on track. (This was because 4Kids wanted to feature Lotten's gun monsters as little as possible.)
 * Combat Commentator: Pretty much every episode with dueling has somebody commenting from the sidelines. Special mention goes to the entirely-played-straight Master of Ceremonies in the Fortune Cup and his "Everybody listen!"
 * In fact, the MC decides to stay behind and commentate Yusei's duel with ZONE rather than flee the impending Colony Drop!
 * Combat Stilettos: Placido's boots. It's aptly earned him the Fan Nickname "Bitchboots."
 * Justified; their design allows Placido's feet to.
 * Combining Mecha: The Machine Emperors. Wisel, Skiel, and Grannel are made up of five different monsters and can mix and match other monsters to gain new effects. It's not even limited to their own type, either, as Placido swipes a few of Skiel's cards from Luciano to power up Wisel.
 * Compressed Hair: Pretty much everyone who ever wears a helmet in this show.
 * Conspicuous CG: Frequently, when a D-Wheel is used, it and its rider are CGI. This is really, really jarring, especially after you've just seen the low anime framerate cause the drawn D-Wheel to jerk onto the track in a rapid series of 1-metre hops. Jack's and Yusei's dragons are also frequently shown in CGI. Though as the series has gone on, this has gotten progressively less jarring, so Your Mileage May Vary.
 * Conspicuous Trenchcoat: Divine. Could also count as Badass Longcoat.
 * Contest Winner Cameo: Yusei's Drill Synchron and Drill Warrior, Aki's Splendid Rose, Jack's borrowed Demon Chaos King, Ruka's Rose Bird, and Rua's Deformer Cleanen are all winning fan-created designs.
 * Continuity Nod: Familiar locations from the original series [especially the docks] are shown in a decrepit state as part of Satellite. The dub also makes several references to elements from past series.
 * Special mention goes to a shot of Yusei from the first ending, START, which was re-used in the English dub opening Hyper Drive.. In said shot, Yusei comes out of a side-street and rides down a wider street on his D-wheel. Why a special mention? Because not only is this street in the original series, Marik rides his own motorcycle down it.
 * The Ark Cradle has two of these that references past events of 5D's. One is Z-one sitting on top of pile of junk similar to Yusei in the first opening  And the other is the Tragic Keepsake from.
 * Surprisingly, episode 146 references and has scenes from the movie, with Z-one explaining Paradox and Yusei acknowledging that he had gone back in time to stop him.
 * Yusei's final duel with Jack retraces a number of locations from his early duels with Ushio. And there is an area that resembles where the first duel of the manga took place.
 * From episode 14 of the English dub: "Hey is that Joey Wheeler?" "Naw, man, it's his cousin Jesse Wheeler."
 * Cool Bike: The D-Wheels.
 * Monowheel Mayhem: Jack Atlas's Wheel of Fortune and Dark Glass's Delta Eagle to an extent.
 * Crow's can (briefly) fly, and Bommer's/Greiger's resembles a dragster more than a bike.
 * Cool Big Sis: Rua literally refers to Aki as "Big Sis Aki".
 * Cool but Inefficient: Holographic phones look awesome, but let's get real: they'd make having private phone conversations absolutely impossible. An in-show example comes from the Crow-vs-Jaeger duel in 43/44: although Jaeger makes no secret of the fact that he's cheating by looking up information on Crow's deck during the duel, Crow gets a heads-up on what Jaeger thinks he will do because the holographic computer Jaeger is using has a screen that's also readable from the other side. Whoops.
 * The guns that turn into Duel Disks that Yusei and Kiryu use when they go to Crashtown. Looks awesome, but the system to determine who gets the first turn (the person who draws and puts on their disk first goes first) would be almost impossible to actually utilize, and in their "gun" form, the disks don't actually perform any of the tasks of a real gun.
 * Cooldown Hug: Aki and Divine; also, Aki and her dad.
 * Interestingly, Stardust Dragon seems to do this to Black Rose Dragon at the end of Yusei and Aki's first duel.
 * Cool Mask: Aki's Black Rose mask.
 * Cool Shades: Dark Glass (a.k.a. Bruno/Antinomy,) obviously wears dark glasses.
 * Bruno wears Cool Shades in one episode.
 * Cool Sword: Placido's sword doubles as his Duel Disk, and can create some kind of inter-dimensional portal.
 * Costume Copycat:
 * Credits Montage: Episode 151 has one of
 * Cross-Dressing Voices: Both Rua and Luciano are voiced by women.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
 * Cue the Sun: Happens right after the final fight in the Dark Signer final.
 * And again
 * Cute Little Fangs: Crow, especially noticeable when animated by Kenichi Hara.
 * Aporia has them too, buuuut...
 * Cut Short: In the same fashion as GX. The dub tried to create a satisfying ending with the Arc Cradle disappearing after Aporia was defeated. But by not airing season 5, it leaves an awful lot of questions unanswered.
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul:
 * Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You: Ain't that right Yusei?
 * Darker and Edgier: Geez, what happened to lighthearted Kuriboh's and tournaments? Noo, you have frightening Earthbound Gods, Criminal Marks getting lasered onto your face painfully, the Dark Signers, dead people who came back to life because of hatred in their hearts, Dark Signers, and severed arms.
 * At the beginning of the series, everyone in the main cast is either an orphan or is estranged from their parents (This situation gets better by the end of the series, though.) The main character formerly lived in a friggin' slum, for Pete's sake.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Three of the Five-Man Band fit this: Jack commands Red Dragon Archfiend (Red Demon's Dragon), and later powers that up by bringing an Earthbound Immortal to heel to create (Scar-) Red Nova Dragon. Crow plays a deck of Dark-attribute Ravens and Crows and a Toothy Bird Dark dragon. Aki is a reformed Dark Magical Girl who commands Black Rose Dragon, whose effect wrecks the field when used. All three dragons and their users are heroic.
 * The Crimson Dragon could count too. A red and black spirit creature with skeletal wings, with similar origins to the Earthbound Immortals. It's the Big Good of the series.
 * Dark Magical Girl: Aki fits the trope completely until the end of the Dark Signer arc.
 * Darkskinned Blonde: Patty.
 * Death Is Cheap: Especially if you have a Deus Ex Machina on your side.
 * Death Is Dramatic:
 * Played with concerning
 * Played straight with Antinomy,
 * Dead Line News: Happens to Angela when Wiraqocha Rasca is summoned..
 * Defeat Means Friendship: A little bit different from the norm, as the intial focus is repairing old, broken friendships. Played pretty straight with Himuro, though tweaked a bit with Aki in that it took two defeats and a bunch of Yusei's battle therapy to bring her around. Team Unicorn is an extreme example, as well as Team Ragnarok.
 * Death Seeker:
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: Aki started out as a person who had shut herself off to everyone. But after Yusei duels her twice and uses his Warrior Therapist skills, she warms up.
 * Demonic Possession: Rudger's spiders can do this,
 * Demoted to Extra: Sadly many of the characters in season three have fallen victim to this.
 * Doubles as Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, because many characters have simply not appeared or been mentioned at all.
 * Despair Event Horizon: Aporia had a particularly bad past, he crossed this three times. Shouting DESPAIR at the main characters is practically his catch phrase now. Observe.
 * Destination Defenestration: How Divine
 * Deus Ex Machina: The Saviour Dragons (Yusei's Savior Star Dragon and Jack's Savior Demons' Dragon.) Mainly because they require a specific Tuner monster (Salvation Dragon - Savior Dragon) which the Crimson Dragon can add on top of a Signer's deck at its discretion. In other words, Yusei and Jack are using a card that they don't even have in their decks. It doesn't help that both monsters are very powerful... although the real life card game attempted to balance this out a bit by banishing them from the field at the end of every turn.
 * Died in Your Arms Tonight:  The third one happens to be sprinkled with Ho Yay Shoujo sparkles.
 * Did Not Do the Research: While the series is very good about avoiding this, there is a notable one in episode 111 - Yusei and Jack go to  and among the things we find out there's   which is all well and fine until it turns out
 * Episode 112 seems to indicate
 * Did You Just Make Cthulhu Your Bitch?: Jack faces off against the "Crimson Devil", and
 * Digital Piracy Is Evil: 4Kids and NAS are pretty thorough in the removal of any Yu-Gi-Oh! media on Youtube.
 * Disc One Final Boss -
 * Disguised in Drag: Preteen fraternal twin Rua dresses as his sister in order to take her place in the Fortune Cup.
 * Disney Death:
 * Divide by Zero: "Zero Reverse", where an Ener-D/Momentum reactor begins to spin the wrong way, causing an Apocalypse How.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Jack's Scar-Red Nova Dragon (a card derived from a Peruvian Devil) battling against Thor (a Nordic God). The M.C. even lampshades this.
 * Unintentional given the target audience but episode 145 brings us
 * Do Not Call Me Paul: When Dark Glass reveals his identity, Yusei keeps calling him
 * Doomed Hometown: The vision at the end of the Fortune Cup arc makes Satellite out to be this.
 * Also  hometown, to a point.
 * The Dragon: Kiryu Kyosuke. Extra points for having the kana for "dragon," "ryu," actually in his name.
 * Dramatic Shattering: Happens during Aki's rematch with Misty when a couple of mirrors around her are smashed.
 * Driving Test Smashers: When Aki goes to get her Turbo Duel license. Actually, outside of a bit of sabotage from the other testees, the "smashing" (a duel with Ushio) is part of the test.
 * Dual-Wielding: Jack's Twin Breaker/Twin-Sword Maruader and Crimson Blader monsters.
 * Dub Induced Plot Hole: There are two big ones, both of which, interestingly, work as foreshadowing:, and
 * The dub bizarrely cuts out the intro scene of episode 26, leaving fans to wonder where Yusei's Junk Warrior went, how his LP got reduced to 1900 and where Jack's 3 facedown cards came from.
 * Crow says in a one-off joke from the English version of episode 44 that Jaeger's monsters remind him of his fifth birthday party. This is impossible, since episode 52 reveals that Crow grew up alone on the streets; orphaned because of Zero Reverse, and had no friends until he was pretty clearly older than five. Oops.
 * Speaking of Zero Reverse, WHO caused it, exactly? Dub seems to imply that did, but then contradicts itself and says it was, just like the Japanese version - before skipping back to it being  again.
 * Because 4kids skipped the episodes after Placido and Yusei's all the way to Team Ragnarok's exposition episode, dub fans are left to wonder how At least the Hulu subs are currently doing the missing episodes.
 * Skipping over the Ark Cradle, means that  Zone will just remain a mystery as well.
 * Dub Name Change: Almost everyone and everything. But like Yugi and Kaiba's in DM, Yusei and Jack's names were unchanged. (With the exception of one 'u' in Yusei being left out, much like Yugi.)
 * Aki Izayoi -> Akiza Izinski
 * Brave -> Brodor
 * Carly Nagisa -> Carly Carmine
 * Demak -> Devack
 * Divine -> Sayer
 * Harald -> Halldor
 * Jaeger -> Lazar
 * Jose -> Jakob
 * Kyosuke Kiryu -> Kalin Kessler
 * Lucciano -> Lester
 * Mizoguchi -> Elsworth
 * Misty Lola -> Misty Tredwell
 * Placido -> Primo
 * Rua -> Leo (not to be confused with Zora's son Leo from Season 3)
 * Ruka -> Luna
 * Rex Godwin -> Rex Goodwin
 * Rudger Godwin -> Roman Goodwin
 * Mikage Sakari -> Mina Simington
 * Tetsu Ushio -> Tetsu Trudge
 * Minor characters:
 * Akutsu -> Zigzig | Bommer -> Greiger | Blitz -> Nervin | Mukuro Enjo -> Hunter Pace | Jill de Lancebeaux -> Randsborg | Jin Himuro -> Bolt Tanner | Leo -> Lyndon | Nerve -> Blitz | Saiga -> Blister | Taka -> Tank | Takasu -> Armstrong | Tenpei -> Dexter | Uryu > Lenny
 * and many more.
 * Monsters, though it's not really their fault as the TCG people at Konami changed the names officially for the Western release. Listed below are some examples, though the name changes are far too many to list.
 * Red Daemon's Dragon -> Red Dragon Archfiend
 * Savior Star Dragon -> Majestic Star Dragon
 * Road Runner -> Sonic Chick (Most likely done to avoid copyright infringements with Looney Tunes' Road Runner.)
 * Deformers -> Morphtronics
 * Black Feathers -> Blackwings
 * Earthbound God (Jibakushin) -> Earthbound Immortal
 * Machine Emperor (Kikoutei) -> Meklord Emperor
 * Polar Gods -> The Aesir
 * Road Warrior was called "Road Fighter" in its three English dub appearances (in epsiodes 45, 46 and 106) despite the fact that it retains its Japanese name of Road Warrior in the TCG. It is speculated that this was done was to avoid copyright troubles with the 1981 film Mad Max 2, released in America as The Road Warrior.
 * A weird inversion of this trope occured as well. The monster cards "Tuningware" and "Fortress Warrior" keep their Japanese names of "Tuning Supporter" and "Massive Warrior" (respectively) in the English dub, ignoring their TCG names.
 * Terminology:
 * D-Wheel -> Duel Runner
 * Riding Duel -> Turbo Duel
 * Momentum -> Ener-D
 * Duel of Fortune Cup -> shortened to "Fortune Cup"
 * M.I.D.S. -> R.D.D. (Reactor Research Divison)
 * Underworld -> Netherworld
 * Team Satisfaction -> The Enforcers
 * Public Security Maintenance Bureau -> Sector Security
 * Dragon Birthmark -> Mark of the Dragon
 * Duel of Darkness -> Shadow Duel
 * World Riding Duel Grand Prix -> World Racing Grand Prix (Notably, as the Japanese version often omits the 'Duel', both names have the same acronym)
 * Riding Roid -> Duelbot
 * Ark Cradle -> Divine Temple (unconfirmed, but episode 106 and related episodes appear to suggest this)
 * Dub Text: Perhaps most evident in Episode 31, where Carly tells Jack to "get back to the hotel" instead of telling him he can't be out on his own when he's barely healed.
 * Also from Episode 31: "You have any good ideas?" "Just one, but if this don't work out, maybe we should get a room in Security tonight!" (Yusei and Crow, respectively.) This line has absolutely nothing to do with the original Japanese, where Yusei simply asks Crow if he's all right after taking a direct hit from their opponents.
 * The dub of Episode 72 plays up Sherry's duel with Yusei as a kind of metaphor for sex. Aki's musings over Yusei's interactions with Sherry also sound like jealousy.
 * Episode 93 has Trudge ask "Yusei, would it be okay if [Bruno] shacked up at your place just a little bit longer?"
 * In episode 99, when Jack is being carted off to the hospital after his crash, Yusei tells Mikage, Carly, and Stephanie that Jack may need mouth-to-mouth, much to their delight. Please note that this was deifinitely not in the Japanese version, and that although Jack crashed, he was still talking just fine.
 * There are also many, many non-sexual examples of this trope, far too many to list.
 * Duels Decide Everything: It is Yu-Gi-Oh after all.
 * DVD Bonus Content: The DVDs (Japan only) contain concept character sketches and the final DVD is slated to have more scenes added to the final episode.
 * Dysfunction Junction: Not as bad as some other works, and more often than not played for laughs.
 * Dystopia: And I quote: "The only available utopia is Neo Domino City."
 * Though by the time the third season starts, things have greatly improved due to the efforts of the cast.
 * Dub Text: Perhaps most evident in Episode 31, where Carly tells Jack to "get back to the hotel" instead of telling him he can't be out on his own when he's barely healed.
 * Also from Episode 31: "You have any good ideas?" "Just one, but if this don't work out, maybe we should get a room in Security tonight!" (Yusei and Crow, respectively.) This line has absolutely nothing to do with the original Japanese, where Yusei simply asks Crow if he's all right after taking a direct hit from their opponents.
 * The dub of Episode 72 plays up Sherry's duel with Yusei as a kind of metaphor for sex. Aki's musings over Yusei's interactions with Sherry also sound like jealousy.
 * Episode 93 has Trudge ask "Yusei, would it be okay if [Bruno] shacked up at your place just a little bit longer?"
 * In episode 99, when Jack is being carted off to the hospital after his crash, Yusei tells Mikage, Carly, and Stephanie that Jack may need mouth-to-mouth, much to their delight. Please note that this was deifinitely not in the Japanese version, and that although Jack crashed, he was still talking just fine.
 * There are also many, many non-sexual examples of this trope, far too many to list.
 * Duels Decide Everything: It is Yu-Gi-Oh after all.
 * DVD Bonus Content: The DVDs (Japan only) contain concept character sketches and the final DVD is slated to have more scenes added to the final episode.
 * Dysfunction Junction: Not as bad as some other works, and more often than not played for laughs.
 * Dystopia: And I quote: "The only available utopia is Neo Domino City."
 * Though by the time the third season starts, things have greatly improved due to the efforts of the cast.

E-H
"Rally: We've had enough of your BULL-!"
 * Easy Amnesia: The English dub of episode 13, when Yusei meets Rua and Ruka. It only lasts for one episode. Guess how he gets it back.
 * Lampshaded for several episodes, with Rua nicknaming Yusei "Mr. Amnesia Man."
 * Eldritch Abomination: Jibakushin/Earthbound Gods.
 * Electric Torture: The first part of Yusei's stay in Neo-Domino, starting with his imprisonment and ending when he breaks his D-wheel out of Security, is absolutely full of this. How did that kid not suffer permanent brain damage?
 * The dub DID give him amnesia as stated above, though. That counts, right?
 * Elemental Powers: The Signer Dragons and their attributes.
 * Blow You Away: Yusei's Stardust Dragon
 * Casting a Shadow: Jack's Red Daemons' Dragon
 * Dishing Out Dirt:
 * Light'Em Up: Ruka's Ancient Fairy Dragon
 * Making a Splash: The only attribute not represented by a Signer Dragon.
 * Playing with Fire: Aki's Black Rose Dragon
 * Emergency Impersonation:
 * Empathic Weapon: The duel spirits in Ruka's deck qualifies
 * Engineered Public Confession: The cause of  death.
 * Engrish: Mormetn!
 * Say it with me, folks: "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMENTUM!"
 * Daice!
 * More recently, "It Is Luquiring." Nobody has any idea what this means. AT ALL.
 * This troper's guess would have to be along the lines of "Acquiring Fingerprint", but even then it would make that "It Is Acquiring".
 * "Signer," which is routinely pronounced "shiguna" in the show. Apparently someone didn't realize the G is silent?
 * Probably the same person who didn't realize that the last E in Catastrophe ISN'T silent.
 * Or who didn't realize that It's name is "Hidden Knight Hook", not "Hidden Knight F** k".
 * Well, to be fair, f- and h- sounds apparently have the same phonetic base in Japanese.
 * Ore no TARN!
 * Well Come to Crash Town!
 * ONE TAAN SREE KILL.
 * Episode 87 gives us a saloon with the wonderful name of "The Classy Ass".
 * On at least one occasion, Jack's ace monster has been identified on Yusei's data-visor as "Red Damon's Doragon".
 * Jack's film from episode 29, Road of the King, returned in episode 124, titled LORD of the King...
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones:.
 * Jaeger might not be evil, but he's certainly not good, unless his family is concerned. He'll work for the villain, break into your home, steal your cup ramen, and cackle like an evil maniac, but he loves his wife and son more then anything.
 * Even the Guys Want Him: Jack and Yusei.
 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: Demak's deck, the yellow monkey Earthbound God, and the monkeys running around in skirts in the Duel Monsters Spirit World.
 * Everything's Better with Rainbows: Momentum in general, some special effects during the duels. The Dark Signers are Colour-Coded for Your Convenience in the seven colours of the rainbow.
 * After summoning the three polar gods in a non-duel Team Ragnorok activated the spell card "The Rainbow Bridge Bifrost" (not to be confused with with the card "Rainbow Bridge Bifrost", without the "The") to get Yusei and co up to the Arc Cradle. Unlike Z-ONE, this card actually has no other practical use.
 * Everything's Better with Samurai: The archetype of Mizoguchi's Bushido deck, complete with seppukku-themed trap card.
 * Everything's Better with Sparkles: Stardust Dragon, The Saviour Dragons, along with some special effects.
 * Cute Kitten: Subverted.
 * Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In episode 133, Jose cannot understand why Crow would lose prematurely in their duel in order to give Yusei a greater chance at victory by summoning Blackfeather Dragon.
 * Evil Costume Switch:
 * Evil Hand: Rudger's right arm (with his Dark Signer birthmark) just before he decides to, and we all saw how well THAT turned out...
 * Evil Laugh: Kiryu, Jaeger, Divine and  all have one.
 * Let's not forget
 * Episode 65 gives us Ghost's evil laugh, and most hammily of all, Lucciano.
 * In episode 76, Jack has one of these after he punches the guy whose life he just saved.
 * Episode 132 gives us a quick one from Jose.
 * Evil Pays Better: Subverted.
 * Evil Redhead: Divine and Luciano.
 * Evil Twin:  Technically, it's an
 * Evolving Credits: After the group goes off to confront the Dark Signers, the intro sequence adds scenes of Jack and Aki facing off against their opponents, as well as reanimating Rua and Ruka simultaneously summoning their dragons, and replacing Yusei's Turret Warrior attacking one of Kiryu's monsters with another of his monsters attacking Rudger's Earthbound God.
 * In the third arc, after their respective introductions, Sherry and Dark Glass/ are shown without their helmets in the opening.
 * Also, after Wisel and Skiel were used, they were shown in full-colour as opposed to being silhouettes. Grannel joined them in ep 110 (sadly spoiling its big reveal at the end of the episode).
 * Expository Hairstyle Change: Kiryu qualifies as he.
 * Aki's hair has also grown longer, as has Mikage's.
 * Aki's change to a plain hairband in the final episodes' Time Skip, as she no longer needs the metal thing to control her powers.
 * Expy: Sly is a mini version of Manjoume from Yu-Gi-Oh GX.
 * Bommer is a good guy version of Bandit Keith. He tries to the kill the Big Bad, has a Machine deck and is later resurrected in a twisted way.
 * Heitmann is a throwback to Chronos De Medici, in both attitude and the deck he plays (Ancient/Antique Gears, which were used by Chronos against Juudai during his entrance exam duel). They're even played by the same voice actor in the dubs.
 * Bruno bears a rather stunning physical resemblance to Johan Andersen, also from GX, and develops a similar relationship with The Hero (that being, Ho Yay Love At First Sight).
 * Jack's overall attitude and dress make him look like Kaiba given a blonde Anime Hair makeover.
 * Sherry could be a Gender Flipped version of Edo Phoenix, being a Badass Well-Intentioned Extremist out to avenge her parents' murder.
 * Brave could be an expy of Crow from the same series, having many character traits in common.
 * To the point where it seems like they're actually twins Separated at Birth.
 * So is it just me that thinks that Aki looks like a certain terrorist mecha pilot with longer bangs.
 * Eyes of Gold: Kiryu, who lives up to the trope by.
 * Divine and Harald as well.
 * Face Heel Turn: Pretty much every single one of the Dark Signers.
 * who says if Yusei despite her warning he'll die when he does, she'll kill him herself and accepts that she is essentially the Signers' enemy.
 * False Start: Ushio is smitten with his lovely co-worker Mikage, but the moment he chose to make his feelings known to her unfortunately turned out to be the moment when she was having a rather intense conversation with Jack Atlas, which made it clear that she was in love with him. But in season three they are seen working together now as a pair.
 * Family-Unfriendly Death:
 * Femme Fatale:
 * Fighting Your Friend: Yusei vs Kiryu (this happens three times in fact), Jack vs, Yusei vs and.
 * First-Name Basis: During their second duel, Yusei calls Aki by her given name to grab her attention.
 * Which makes sense, as in Japan, you only ever refer to someone by their first name only(That is, without the suffixes such as -san, -chan, -kun, etc.) if you're an incredibly close personal friend or a lover. Doing so otherwise is usually considered disrespectful.
 * Fiery Redhead: Aki. Sort of. Crow too, except he's male instead of female.
 * First Episode Spoiler: Jack originally coming from Satellite is revealed right off the bat in the series.
 * Five-Man Band: Hell. They even bothered to call the show Five Ds.
 * The Hero: Yusei
 * The Lancer: Jack
 * The Big Guy/: Crow, although there is technically NOTHING BIG about Crow. In fact, he is the most vertically challenged among the members of Team 5D's, excluding the twins (who are only children). Unless you count his BIG Mouth. And his BIG Ego.
 * The Smart Guy: Bruno in season 3
 * The Chick: Ruka and Aki
 * Tagalong Kid/: Rua
 * Five-Bad Band: For the Dark Signer arc we have...
 * The Big Bad: Rudger
 * The Dragon: Kiryu
 * The Brute: Demak and
 * The Dark Chick: Misty and
 * The Sixth Ranger Traitor:
 * Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Rua is the foolish one and Ruka is the responsible one.
 * Forgotten Childhood Friend: Rudger and Kiryu.
 * Foreshadowing: Though not particularly subtle or anything.
 * A slightly more subtle version appears in the second ending sequence, when At first it looks grossly out of place, but then...
 * Not to mention
 * In the second OP and ED,
 * In some places,.
 * Godwin's shirt.
 * Godwin's podium in Episode 15 (1st episode of the Fortune Cup).
 * When Godwin shows Jack the resting place of the Jibakushin, the Nazca Lines, is it any coincidence that the camera focuses on the Hummingbird Geoglyph?
 * When Godwin explains the Dark Signers to Yusei in Episode 30, there is a shot of the Condor Geoglyph.
 * Bruno's love of playing with cats where he was found
 * Jose stated once in an early season 3 episode that Luciano reminded him of his younger self
 * While it was stated that Paradox, the villain of the 10th anniversary film, would have his origins revealed in the series, nothing else was known about him. Then again, when you compare his outfit and motorcycle to the outfits of the Three Emperors and Primo's motorcycle, it was obvious that there was at least some connection between them. Lo and behold, The Reveal after the WRGP...
 * Freeze-Frame Bonus: Z-One's computer screen in 149 shows how Yusei's future would have turned out without Yliaster's interference. Among the things it mentioned is a card called Cosmic Blazar Dragon, the Delta Accel Synchro evolution of Stardust Dragon never shown in the actual story.
 * Other stuff mentioned is tournaments he won, and how he was actually the one who invented Accel and Delta Accel Synchro summoning.
 * "Friend or Idol?" Decision: Yusei had to make this one. Dueling Jack/stopping Jack from leaving on his D-Wheel or saving Rally's life. Guess what he choses?
 * Friendship Moment: Since friendship is one of its main themes, its no surprise this happens a lot.
 * The king of this trope is pretty much the entire last episode, where it's so heartwarming that you might burn up from the friendly love.
 * Fun with Acronyms:
 * Futuristic Superhighway: Duel Monsters has become so ingrained into society that there are entire separate lanes built onto highways for people who want to play card games on motorcycles.
 * Gambit Roulette:
 * Gatling Good: Lotten's deck theme, most prominent with Gatling Ogre, which is capable of dealing 4000 Life Points of damage at once with it's effect.
 * Gecko Ending: The dub removes everything after the end of Yusei's duel against the Three Emperors of Yliaster, eliminating the Arc Cradle storyline.
 * Genre Shift: Most of the show takes place in a futuristic city. Then the Crash Town arc gives us a town heavily stylized after The Wild West.
 * Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Used by Jack to get Yusei back into fighting form.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: This one shot of Sherry's chest in episode 93 seems rather detailed for a show solely about a children's card game, but the conveniently placed buttons really are the icing on the cake...
 * In the dub
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: This one shot of Sherry's chest in episode 93 seems rather detailed for a show solely about a children's card game, but the conveniently placed buttons really are the icing on the cake...
 * In the dub
 * In the dub

"Leo: Do you feel like a third wheel? Luna: This isn't a date, Leo. (By the end, she admits that, yeah, it's a date.)"
 * Giant Spider: Jibakushin Uru, a big damn spider. Also the larger, bullet-proof version of Rudger's regular spiders.
 * Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: How did it take this long for this trope to get on here? Crow and Jack both - and more recently, Ruka.
 * Although not precisely a pointer finger, Yusei has a habit of throwing his hand forward in a gesture similar to the traditional pointed-finger pose.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: Ghost.
 * Jack in 153. Epically so.
 * A God Am I: Z-One to a degree as well, as he feels  as well as his Temporal Machine God deck based on the Sephirot of Judaism.
 * Godwin's Law: Played for a joke in the fandom, then
 * Going for the Big Scoop: Has Carly written all over it.
 * Gorgeous Gorgon:, even one of her monsters has the word "gorgon" in its name
 * Gonna Fly Now Montage: Jack has one in episode 152 before his duel against Yusei, where he takes down
 * Gratuitous English: Most of the characters in the show have English/Western names, in spite of the show taking place in Japan.
 * The main characters' "ace monsters" all have names in English, as do many others.
 * When Yusei is in a Riding Duel and his opponent summons, the information from that opponent's card is shown inside his visor - in English.
 * Several, though not all, information holoscreens are in English - Yusei's prison record and the duelist information screen Ghost pulls up on him are two examples.
 * The majority of monster attacks are called in English.
 * In keeping with the English swearing in DM, Crow lets loose a rather impassioned "OH MY GOD" in Episode 44.
 * The Japanese for "card" is never used, in spite of 5Ds being about a card game; instead, the characters use the Japanese pronounciation "kaado" from the English "card."
 * Although the English "game" is usually used, there's an interesting subverted example in that the actual Japanese "yugi" has been used once or twice (not in reference to the first King of Games).
 * Most signs and advertisements in the show are in English, even if they're total nonsense (apparently somewhere in NDC is a business called "SHEEP").
 * The few legible records for the Arcadia movement are in English.
 * The name of the research group that built Momentum, "MIDS," is both in English and has an English acronym.
 * EVERYBODY LISTEN!!!
 * Mooooooooooooooooooooomentum!
 * Ore no TURN!
 * Gratuitous Spanish: Team Unicorn is actually hinted being from Spain, showing flashbacks of signs in Spanish and Andore even says 'Gracias' at one point.
 * Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Rather, gravity ceases to apply the moment a character gets on a motorbike.
 * It should not have taken several minutes to fall down a three story elevator shaft. Right, episode 12?
 * They did talk a lot.
 * In Episode 64, there should not have been nearly enough time for the Savior Star Dragon to catch both Crow and Jack before they hit the water.
 * Great Escape: The half of Episode 6.
 * Gun Twirling: Yusei does this to his revolver-shaped duel disk in the Crashtown arc. But since the gun can't shoot bullets safety isn't an issue.
 * Half-Identical Twins: Rua and Ruka.
 * Ham-to-Ham Combat: Jaeger versus Crow. My god.
 * I believe you actually mean "HO MAH GAAAAAAAAAWD!!!"
 * Hands-On Approach: A little when Yusei takes Aki rollerskating as part of Turbo Duel training. Lampshaded in the English dub:
 * I believe you actually mean "HO MAH GAAAAAAAAAWD!!!"
 * Hands-On Approach: A little when Yusei takes Aki rollerskating as part of Turbo Duel training. Lampshaded in the English dub:


 * Hannibal Lecture: Placido gives one to Yusei, to prevent Yusei from achieving the Clear Mind necessary to Accel Synchro.
 * Half the Man He Used To Be:
 * Heart Is an Awesome Power: Thanks to some textbook Heroic Resolve in Episode 142, Rua Takes A Level In Badass and gets up after briefly dying at Aporia's hand to
 * Heel Face Turn: . Also at the end of episode 41.
 * All of the by episode 64. As they have now
 * Held Gaze:
 * Hell Gate: Old Momentum
 * Hero Antagonist: All of the teams in the W.R.G.P. that Team 5D's has faced except for Catastrophe and New World. Team Ragnarok even shares the same goals as Team 5D's but refuses to work with them because
 * Heroes Want Redheads: Not only is the closest thing Yusei has to a love interest a redhead (Aki), so is his best friend (Crow) . . . as well as the kid Yusei was kinda-sorta raising in the first two seasons (Rally).
 * Crow's a redhead who cares about a redhead - his littlest girl, with whom he seems to share a special bond, is redheaded in many shots.
 * Although she was more of a grudging heroine at the time, Aki seemed rather attached to her mentor, the redheaded character Divine.
 * It may be over now, but Ruka's first canon crush was on the redheaded villain Lucciano.
 * Heroic BSOD:
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Forced in episode 46, where
 * In episode 63,.
 * The end of episode 59.
 * Doesn't  count for anything?
 * in episode 142, knowing Aporia's "Level Cannon" Trap Card will deplete the rest of his LP (and kill him) for doing so.
 * He's Just Hiding: In-Universe. Crow is convinced that . Sure enough, only an episode later...
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Jack and Yusei; good buddies, and only that. Also, Crow and Yusei. And Kiryu and Yusei. Actually, every single male character and Yusei.
 * but mainly Team Satasfaction/The Enforcers
 * Special mention must go to the lampshading in episode 80, when Rua comments on the way Yusei and Bruno have taken to each other. Translations vary ("lovebirds," "married couple," etc.), but all agree that Ruka's response is to spazz on him and tell him the term he used should only be used for a man and woman. Clearly, they are just friends at first sight.
 * And Aki gets pissed off that scene becuase Yusei found a person that is as significantly important as her (or a D-Wheel upgrade more significantly important than her Physics homework). She even told off the twins (particularly Rua) for suggesting that she might be jealous of Bruno.
 * Hidden Eyes:
 * High Speed Battle
 * Honor Before Reason/Idiot Ball: After employing a strategy of Deck Destruction to reduce the size of Yusei's deck to 0, the last member of Team Unicorn loses because he allows Yusei to convince him that winning on such a technicality is dishonorable and  For those unfamiliar with the rules, all the opponent would have had to do was end his turn and Yusei would have lost due to the fact that he couldn't draw a card during his Draw Phase.
 * Hope Spot: When Yusei tries to Accel Synchro, but thanks to Placido's Hannibal Lecture, he loses his nerve, and the summoning fails.
 * Horned Hairdo: Andore of Team Unicorn has, what a shocker, a horn shaped bang of hair shooting up from his head.
 * Hot Scientist: Yusei's dad and
 * Hot Shonen Mom: Even if she only appears once in a photo, Mrs. Fudo doesn't look bad at all.
 * Sherry's mother also qualifies.
 * No love for Momma Izayoi?
 * Hot Shoujo Dad: Yusei's daddy, to a point.
 * HP to One / One-Hit Kill: This pretty much sums up.
 * Crow's powerful Black Feather/Blackwing deck accomplished a one-turn-kill in its first appearance in episode 30.
 * Let's not forget Yusei's One Turn Three Kill with Nitro Warrior and Arms Aid/Armory Arm.
 * Two words: Gatling Ogre.
 * Humongous Mecha: The Machine Emperors/Kikoutei
 * Hypnotize the Princess: Divine does this to Aki in episode 60. Ten words: "The entrance to the underworld is on the witch's island."
 * Two words: Gatling Ogre.
 * Humongous Mecha: The Machine Emperors/Kikoutei
 * Hypnotize the Princess: Divine does this to Aki in episode 60. Ten words: "The entrance to the underworld is on the witch's island."

I-M

 * I Am Not Left-Handed
 * I Am Not Pretty: During Yusei and Aki's first duel, Yusei calls Aki beautiful, but she denies it, though this only happens in the dub.
 * Idiot Ball: A minor example, from Yusei of all people. In his second battle with Andore, the latter has revived Thunder Unicorn during Yuesi's Battle Phase because of an [anime-only] special ability. It would have been Removed From Play at the end of the Battle Phase. So what does Yusei do? Waste his own monster, Max Warrior, in order to defeat Thunder Unicorn instead of simply not attacking and letting it suffer from its own effect.
 * Justified, as Andore's deck generally revovles around removing monsters from play and re-summoning them from the Removed From Play zone.
 * I Have a Family: When faced with sudden death in 82, Jaeger pulls out a photograph of his wife and kid, who both look exactly like him.
 * I Kiss Your Hand: Jack does this to his adopted mother, Martha.
 * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Jack and
 * I'm Going for a Closer Look: Said by many people throughout the series.
 * More notably, Crow.
 * Immortal Hero: Yusei, Jack and Crow are regulars. Kiryu also has his moments in Crashtown.
 * Intentional Engrish for Funny
 * In Episode 14, Leo tells Tenpei that Yusei has "cusmatised" his Duel Disk. He repeatedly mispronounces it, in spite of being repeatedly told that the word he wants is "customised."
 * Crow's guilty, too: in Episode 32, while telling the story of the Daedalus Bridge, two of his orphaned boys start picking on one of his girls. To stop them, he tells them "you guys lack a little something called 'delivery' around a girl's feelings," only to have the wind taken out of his sails when Blitz points out that Crow means "delicacy."
 * And as of episode 86, "Wan Tahn, Sree Keel" is starting to gain popularity.
 * Invincible Hero: Subverted in that the Signers didn't get a fair victory against the Dark Signers until
 * Worth noting that the first one to fall,, is defeated about 25 episodes (the first season was 26 episodes long) after the Dark Signer arc actually began.
 * Crow . Though that's because he plays Black Feathers/Blackwings.
 * Played straight in season three, Yusei has taken apart of the majority of the duels and has yet to lose any of them. Most noticeable in.
 * Jack Atlas never lost a duel in the two or so years he was King, making it an in-universe example.
 * Improbable Hairstyle: It's Yu-Gi-Oh. What do you think?
 * Possibly Lampshaded in the PSP Game Tag Force 4, if you give Yusei Hair Gel, he actually states that he will use it sometime.
 * Impossibly Cool Clothes: Almost everyone. Particularly Divine in episode 36. Someone has to tell that guy he's not Brittanian.
 * Then there's Jack's hilariously ornate outfit in episode 73. Makes him look like something out of a modern day Dumas.
 * Incendiary Exponent: When Jack uses his 'Burning Soul' powers for the first time, not only does his hand catch fire but when he Synchro Summons, the Tuning Rings catch fire as well.
 * In the Name of the Moon: Almost all duelists invoke this as a little introductory speech for their synchro monsters.
 * Instant Runes: Whenever a true Dark Signer duels, the Nazca Line geoglyph corresponding to their birthmark appears. When a possessed person ("Shadow Drone" in the English dub) duels, a generic circle of fire appears.
 * Interrupted Suicide:
 * Intrepid Reporter: Carly, but also one of the more developed characters in the show.
 * Too bad she can never hold on to a scoop, though.
 * Invisible to Normals: Team Catastrophe was able to get away with their blatant cheating because Muggles can't see Hidden Knight Hook slashing at their opponents' tires.
 * The was like this at first, until it appeared for real in episode 137. Before then, Carly, despite being a Muggle, could see it by touching Jack, a Signer.
 * It's All My Fault: In episode 57, a distressed and tearful Yusei blames his father, and ultimately himself, for causing Zero Reverse, and indirectly, the deaths of Jack's and Crow's parents. While it's true that it was
 * Occurs in Episode 65 when Crow turns down Ushio's request for help in arresting Ghost. As a result, Ushio confronts Ghost himself and gets seriously injured. Crow is quite upset about this, but he perks up after Yusei decides that the three of them should hunt Ghost down.
 * It's Personal: In episode 78, Luciano finds out that when you mess with one of the twins, the other one will open a can on you. (Or, at least, attempt to, but considering he had them pretty much in a no-win situation...)
 * It Will Never Catch On
 * Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: Yusei pulls one of these to get into Security's Impound Centre and get his D-Wheel back towards the beginning of the series.
 * Jerkass Facade: Ushio acts like his old asshole self during his Riding Duel with Aki in an attempt to show how unforgiving they can be.
 * Jesus Taboo: Savior Star Dragon is renamed Majestic Star Dragon in the English dub; likewise with Savior Daemons' Dragon becoming Majestic Red Dragon and the Earthbound Gods being re-named the Earthbound Immortals. Godwin also became Goodwin, which is rather silly considering that Godwin is a real Anglo-Saxon name that's been around for a thousand years.
 * The Polar Gods have been re-named "the Aesir" for the English-speaking World. However, this, like the Savior Dragons, this was a real life TCG name change that 4Kids mainly followed for consistency. The 4Kids preview of the Team 5Ds/Team Ragnarok battle does not stray away from addressing the Aesir as the Nordic Gods that they are. Although with 5Ds airing alongside the original Yu-Gi-Oh! and the Egyptian Gods, censorship at this point would be silly, to say the least.
 * Just Like Robin Hood: Crow, who steals Security's cards to give to his orphans.
 * Karmic Death: Afterwards
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: For the dub version, since 4kids lost the license to it. Thanks in part to no DVD dubbed releases outside of a few Australian DVDs and the online streaming episodes at Toonzai and Hulu that may be removed.
 * Kick the Dog: Seriously, Jack. You could have just asked Yusei for Stardust Dragon. He would've certainly given it to you!
 * Godwin refuses to evacuate Satellite, despite the whole prophetic vision that, so that Yusei is forced to defeat the Dark Signers, if only to save everyone in town. Remember, this is our Mentor character.
 * To be fair: he also does it to protect the people of Neo Domino It's still hardly idealistic, but rather a choice of the lesser evil.
 * Then he convinces Aki that it's all good. Then there are the experiments he performed on individuals with psychic potential. He does get what's coming to him, though.
 * Even the fourth wall isn't immune to a dog-kick: The ending credits (5th version) do this to Aki. Sure, she may not have been as prominent in the team as the others, but did they have to be so blunt as to slap "Benchwarmer" on her!?
 * Kill the Ones You Love:
 * Large Ham: Most certainly Crow, who's just brimming with bravado. When he and Jaeger eventually duel, they spend most of it trying to out-ham the other.
 * Jack also qualifies for this trope - as he says in the very first episode, "The King's duels must be entertainment for all!"
 * These days, Jack basically is only Large Ham. He's always on the go, ATLAS PUNCHING people, poking his nose in all sorts of episode-filler crime, buying very expensive coffee and AVENGING CUPS OF RAMEN.
 * And  turns this up to eleven.
 * With his brief ascension to godhood, previous personality has gone out the window.
 * Akutsu/Zigzix definitely qualifies with all his shouting and... twirling.
 * Aki's father, Hideo, now qualifies after waving a giant flag back and forth in the stands of the WRGP.
 * Brave definitely qualifies, considering his '"Oh noes my life points!!!--just kidding lol" acts and that he rides his D-Wheel STANDING UP half the time, even through battle damage almost-wipeouts. Along with all his other dramatics.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia:
 * Last Episode Theme Reprise: The final episode features the opening theme for the last season.
 * Last of His Kind:
 * The title of episode 146 is 'The Last Human: ZONE'.
 * Last Request:
 * Latex Space Suit: While not a spacesuit, Jack's riding outfit is unnecessarily form-fitting.
 * While also not a spacesuit, Aki's riding suit is also rather form-fitting, which is lampshaded when she comments on how strange the whole thing feels.
 * Placido seems to wear a pretty tight coverall as well. Not sure if it really is a spacesuit.
 * Letting Her Hair Down: Inverted with Aki; when her Power Limiter hairband falls out and lets her bangs down, it's because she's upset and unable to control herself.
 * Sherry at the very end Episode 71. and onward. Until the moment when she lets her hair out of her helmet, her duel with Yusei is deadly serious - but from that point forward, she's taken on a slightly playful air, but Sherry's default mode still seems to be deadly serious.
 * Lighter and Softer: Compared to the Dark Signer Arc, the W.R.G.P. Arc seems to be shaping up to be this. Your Mileage May Vary.
 * Its been subverted more recently lately, as much of the lighter and softer elements were a facade for what might be disaster far worse than Old Momentum, or what tried to accomplish. Episode 117 supports this.
 * Definitely {{Subverted|Trope]] with {{spoiler|The Ark Cradle and the ruining future.}}
 * Limited Wardrobe: Yusei's the worst in this trope. To date, his core outfit (the black shirt with jeans) has not changed at all, and the only variations have been his Team Satisfaction vest, jacket, and {{spoiler|poncho}}.
 * Jack however, subverts this and probably has more outfits than the rest of the main cast combined by now.
 * Crow also subverts in S3 by actually having clothing changes that make some moderate amount of sense (a work jacket, riding gloves, and helmet while he's delivering things; pajamas in the middle of the night, unlike the entire rest of the cast; a riding suit for the WRGP), although many of these are just accessory changes (e.g. swapping out his vest for a jacket while at work).
 * Yusei finally gets a brand new outfit in his riding suit for the WRGP...and it's based off of his normal outfit.
 * Yusei does get a new outfit, as do Aki, Crow, probably the twins {{spoiler|after the Time Skip in the last 3 episodes.}} Although it looks like Jack doesn't.
 * Lonely At the Top: Episode 25: "The Lonely King, Jack Atlas"
 * Episode 64: {{spoiler|Rex reveals that he acted as he did because his life since Zero Reverse has been one of complete loneliness, and that he believes loneliness is an inescapable part of life.}}
 * Loss of Identity: {{spoiler|As part of Z-One's plan, Antinomy/Dark Glass loses his memory and joins Team 5Ds, having been found by the Public Security Maintenance Bureau and branded "Bruno".}}
 * {{spoiler|Z-One does this to himself, to make himself into a perfect copy of Yusei}}
 * Lotus Eater Machine: {{spoiler|Carly does this to Jack during their duel, putting Jack in a world where they are the rulers of a world gone to hell, after he lost their duel and became a Dark Signer, but snapped out of it once he realized the Carly he knew would never be that evil.}}
 * Love Makes You Evil: {{spoiler|The possibility of a future with Jack is what caused Carly to slip into her Dark Signer persona for a second time.}}
 * Lull Destruction: The English version of course, many times over. It just wouldn't be a 4Kids dub without it.
 * Made of Iron: Yusei has crashed, been tasered, stabbed, beaten with vines, slammed into the ground... the list goes on. And yet, he consistently shakes it off and keeps going.
 * How does one survives a {{spoiler|close-range dynamite explosion AND a free-fall down a steep canyon?}}
 * In episode 12, Yusei and Ushio fall down an elevator shaft for over a minute and land safely at the bottom with no forward momentum.
 * Jack has taken several D-wheel spills that should have snapped his neck in two. Slightly subverted in that two instances of this land him {{spoiler|in the hospital}}, and  {{spoiler|one puts him out of commission for the rest of a tag duel}}.
 * Crow claims to break a couple of ribs in Episode 52 after a nasty fall, but they healed pretty quick, seeing as he never mentions it again, nor does he appear to suffer any pain at all after the initial comment.
 * Averted though when he wipes out in episode 97 and actually breaks his arm. Although he is able to briefly battle Team Castrophoe in episodes 104 and 105, other than that, he is pretty much out of comission for over 15 episodes afterward. ** In episode 12, Yusei and Ushio fall down an elevator shaft for over a minute and land safely at the bottom with no forward momentum.
 * Completely averted with Aki; one bad spill on her D-Wheel puts her in a coma.
 * Mad Scientist: Akutsu {{spoiler|and Rudger}}
 * Made of Explodium: {{spoiler|Aporia explodes magnificently after his first defeat and crashes into the ocean.}}
 * Magical Land: Ruka can travel to and fro there. In this case, it would be the Spirit World.
 * The Magic Goes Away: [[spoiler:With the city permanently safe, and the main characters all having one last goodbye on the road, the Crimson Dragon removes the birthmarks and flies away, it's duty fulfilled.
 * Magic Skirt: Sherry's skirt in episode 93. How this thing was able to cover anything during her fighting sequence, the world will never know.
 * Magikarp Power: Sleeping Giant Thud is an incredibly powerful monster, but his crippling summoning conditions turned him into an "useless card" as judged by the masses. {{spoiler|In the anime, Team Taiyou are the only ones who ever managed to actually summon Thud}}.
 * Major Injury Underreaction: In the dubbed version of episode 6 Yusei is {{spoiler|branded with a criminal marking}}, he only remarks with "Is this supposed to tickle?" While the original Japanese version had him screaming.
 * Although the English version makes the laser into a spray of sorts whereas the Japanese version had the laser burn the marker onto his face, plain and simple.
 * Manipulative Bastard: Divine.
 * Manly Tears: Jack Atlas is the only character in fiction who can make crying over the beauty of Cup Ramen bringing people together through tough times,seem manly.
 * Mark of the Beast: Dark Signers, who are handily identified by their red facial markings and purple birthmarks. The Signers too, if you count the Crimson Dragon as a beast, except there are no facial markings and the birthmarks are red.
 * Marth Debuted in Smash Bros: In America, Reverse of Arcadia, one of the video games that roughly follows the entire Dark Signer arc was released before the last four episodes of said arc were dubbed. This spoils {{spoiler|Divine's second death, Rex becoming a dual Signer, and the entire DS finale}} for dub watchers. Oops.
 * Not to mention the {{spoiler|Heart birthmark}}, which {{spoiler|Rua}} would receive over a year later in Episode 142.
 * Master of Disguise: Luciano and Placido have demonstrated the ability to create illusions through unknown means in order to impersonate others or otherwise change their appearances.
 * Subverted by Carly in the second season; although she tries to disguise herself as both a nurse and a cleaning lady, she's easily recognizable. Her attempt at disguising Jack in Episode 31 is a hilarious failure, too.
 * Meaningful Name: Take your pick.
 * Yusei's name is derived from the Planetary Particle (Yusei Ryushi) his father discovered. Like the Planetary Particle which connected every other particle, Professor Fudo wished his son to a person able to connect people through bonds - and that's exactly what he turned out to be.
 * {{spoiler|Rex' full name, "Rex Godwin," means "the king who is the friend of gods." In Episode 62 Rex announces his intention to use the power of both the light and dark gods to become the "ultimate god" and bring an end to the Signer/Dark Signer war.}}
 * Every. Earthbound. God/Immortal. Is named after a figure in Peruvian myth or history (with the possible but not certain exception of Chacu Challhua).
 * Ready to have your mind blown? Godwin uses Sun Dragon Inti (Inti being the Incan god of the sun) and Moon Dragon Quilla (Quilla being the Incan goddess of the moon, and Inti's wife). They have a son named Manco Capac (Earthbound God Ccapac Apu). The TCG stretches this further with Apocatequil, the Incan god of Thunder, and Supay, the Incan god of Death.
 * What about Fire Ant Ascator?
 * Azcatl (the Japanese name of Ascator) is "ant" in Nahuatl.
 * The ultimate of the Earthbound God is Wiraqocha Rasca, considered the most important Incan deity. {{spoiler|And Godwin uses it, keeping in line with his Inca theme.}}
 * In a case of Shown Their Work, chaku is the Quechua (traditional Andean language) word for "hunting" while challwa is the word for "fish". "Chaku Challwa" is literally "Hunting Fish" or, as a stretch, "Killer Whale". Chacu Challhua is the Earthbound God/Earthbound Immortal for the Killer Whale geoglyph.
 * Izayoi Aki roughly means '(the moon on) the sixteenth night of autumn'. This is the time during which the rites of power for the Sumerian Lady of Roses are carried out, and Aki's theme is roses.
 * Bommer's dub name, "Greiger" or, rather, "Krieger," means "Warrior" in German.
 * Many of the characters with Western names have names startlingly fit to their roles: Martha means "lady of the house," Jaeger is German for "hunter," and Jack is a diminutive of John, which means "God is gracious" - with his mentor's surname meaning "friend of God."
 * The name for "Jack" may stand for the classic playing card also known as a "knave", which is quite a clever choice, considering his title.
 * Jack's name has potentially up to three meanings, actually - it's also a medieval name meaning, simply, "man," with Carly's name meaning "woman."
 * The Emperors of Yliaster - Jose, Placido, and Luciano - are named after The Three Tenors. Is it too much to hope they'll sing?
 * Someone on Janime Forums pointed out that Crow's full name as given in the third season ending, "Crow Hogan," may be a play on words from the important Japanese historical figure Minamoto no Yoshitsune, who had a title that romanizes as "Hogan". According to legend, Yoshitsune was trained in swordmanship by a Tengu, a Japanese crow-demon.
 * Crow's orphans have names in the credits, and his girls' names (Hikari and Kokoro, "light" and "heart" in Japanese) fit the pattern as well - with "my heart" and "light of my life" being English phrases for the thing a person holds most dear, something that certainly holds true with Crow and his kids.
 * Sherry LeBlanc's name means "darling white one" in French. Sherry is French, has pale blonde hair and a white riding suit... and she's certainly caught Yusei's eye, with the poor boy having nightmares about her taunting him for having poor dueling skills.
 * Rua's English dub name (Leo) suddenly makes a lot more sense when he and the lion spirit Regulus simultaneously attack the Ape King in different planes. (Regulus is the brightest star of the constellation Leo the Lion.)
 * {{spoiler|Bruno's real name Antinomy, means logical paradox, showing how he has to turn against his friends.}}
 * Mecha-Mooks: {{spoiler|The Riding Roid army known as the Diablo}}
 * Meddling Parents: Martha is a Meddling Adoptive Parent, pulling on ears for emphasis.
 * Aki's dad, Izayoi Hideo, by pretty much telling her to attach herself to Yusei as her new daddy figure while she's in Satellite.
 * Meganekko: Carly {{spoiler|before her The Glasses Gotta Go and Face Heel Turn moments. Her old glasses still have some relevance later.}}
 * {{spoiler|She gets them back after being revived.}}
 * Megaton Punch: One of the ways Red Daemons' Dragon attacks.
 * Melting Pot Nomenclature: Characters from the same city will have names ranging from Kyosuke Kiryu, Aki Izayoi, and Tetsu Ushio to Jack Atlas, Rex Godwin, and Martha. Perfect example is Carly Nagisa, with one Euro name and one Japanese name.
 * Merchandise-Driven: This show exists mainly to promote a card game.
 * Me's a Crowd: 2 words: {{spoiler|STARDUST MIRAGE.}}
 * As it turns out, {{spoiler|the Yliaster Trinity falls under this trope as well, as they are actually 3 aspects of the same entity, Aporia.}}
 * Mind Control Eyes: Ruka wears these a few times while under spells.
 * Mind Rape: Ruka's duel with Professor Frank. It's accomplished with psychology themed cards, no less.
 * The Profiler's Duel, perhaps?
 * GOLDEN. BRIDGES. THROUGH. TIME.
 * You mean the RAINBOW ROAD DUEL?
 * Mind rape spiders, anyone?
 * Malevolent purple smoke in the mouth?
 * Mind Screw: The end of Episode 93. To elaborate: {{spoiler|Yusei, Bruno (who's been revealed to the audience as being a Ridiculously Human Robot), and Sherry get sucked into some sort of electronic plane where they're scanned by Z-One (at the time, just a mysterious figure) before getting spat back out quite a distance from where they were originally.}}
 * {{spoiler|Yusei's journey to Z-One's world qualifies.}}
 * {{spoiler|The Ark Cradle arc is being considered as this.}}
 * Minor Injury Overreaction: In the English version of episode 52, after the second time Crow tries to make heavy bits of surrounding infrastructure fall on and crush {{spoiler|Bommer rides out of the murk declaring that Crow has scratched the paint job on Bommer's D-Wheel, and that Crow will "pay"}}.
 * More dub hilarity: In Episode 35, Yusei gets surgery after his D-Wheel turns over and part of it breaks off, lodging in his abdomen. In the dub this scene is not cut, but the metal fragment has been airbrushed out, and we are left with the sight of Martha and Dr. Schmidt in surgical masks while a bare-chested, untouched Yusei grimaces on a surgical table because of "heavy bruising on the left side."
 * Ironically enough the dub inverts this trope in episode 6, see Major Injury Underreaction above.
 * One of the earliest examples, the end of episode 5. After all the Crimson Dragon disappears and Yusei and Jack come up from the wreckage. In the Japanese version, Yusei winces and looks at his arm, which is glowing with the Dragon Tail Birthmark. Silently, he pulls his glove up and his sleeve down to reveal that yes, it is coming from his arm. In the dub however, he's screaming his head off in pain from the burning on his arm. Completely opposite from the Major Injury Underreaction example in the following episode previously mentioned.
 * Mirror Match: {{spoiler|Jack's duel against a robot clone of himself with the exact same deck, including three Red Daemons' Dragons}}
 * Mukokuseki: Does anyone in this show actually look Japanese?
 * Monster Clown: Jaeger, assisted by his use of a clown-themed deck. Edge of the Uncanny Valley, indeed.
 * His wife and child have the exact same appearance as he does.
 * More Dakka: Shooting Star Dragon has an effect that falls along these lines, as Yusei proves when he uses said effect against Placido. By checking the top 5 cards of his deck, Shooting Star gets a number of attacks equal to the number of Tuners among them. The number of Tuners he reveals? FIVE. DAKKADAKKADAKKADAKKADEAD.
 * Two words: Gatling Ogre.
 * Mr. Exposition: Rex Godwin, to a point of his expositions gaining a Fan Nickname: Rexpositions. {{spoiler|Averted later on when he becomes a Dark Signer.}}
 * Bommer fits this role during the Crimson Devil mini-arc.
 * Mr. Fixit: Yusei has built 3 D-Wheels comepletely out of salvaged parts from Satellite: The first one (White) was created after seeing one on TV. After Jack stole it in his bid at escaping Satellite, He created the second and current (Red) one (which is apprently named Yusei Go). The third one was a prototype for Aki's Bloody Kiss, but Jack and Crow helped with that one. Not only that, but he also reverse engineered Rua's D-Board after being told about it overnight.
 * After the Dark Signers arc, this appears to be his trade.
 * Mundane Made Awesome: In the World Championship games, you can set any card in your deck to be your "Key Card". Doing this does... Nothing, except add some nice effects when you use that card. Problem is, it can be ANY card. So, thunderbolts fall, and the whole field gets dark as you summon your ultimate card, the most destructive thing in the entire game: Kuriboh. Setting a card in your deck as a key card does have a small purpose: A small bonus in Dual Points whenever the card is used in a match.
 * My Horse Is a Motorbike: Inverted in the manga, in which the Skeleton Knight uses a horse instead of the motorcycles that everyone else uses while dueling.
 * My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Every time a Signer is in danger/summoning his ace dragon/dueling against a Dark Signer, all the other Signers are able to feel it through their birthmarks.
 * Mythology Gag: Lots.
 * The two main characters (Yusei and Jack) having ace monsters with 2500 ATK and 3000 ATK respectively (mirroring Yugi and Kaiba aces).
 * Yusei's name containing a "Yu" to go along with Yugi of the original series and Judai Yuki of GX.
 * Aki sharing a name that starts with the letter A like the other main female characters, Anzu and Asuka.
 * Jack wearing a jacket with huge coatails like Kaiba's post Duelist Kingdom wear.
 * A duelist that appears in episode 14 looks suspiciously like Jounouchi Katsuya/Joey Wheeler of the original series. [[Lampshade Hanging Lampshaded in the dub, where the duelist is Jonouchi's cousin and has the same voice.
 * A random screen in the first episode list duelists that Jack defeated during his reign as King, and their names are all parodies of characters' names from the original series.
 * Jack's seiyuu voiced Honest in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Jack's "Savior Demon Dragon" card has an effect similar to Honest's card form.
 * {{spoiler|Like Yugi, Yusei has an alternative self but its inverted. His alternative self is from the distant future and is the Big Bad. Until said Big Bad turns out not to be Yusei, but you know....}}
 * Yusei calling out Z-ONE for not caring about his friends, and Z-ONE reminding him that {{spoiler|Aporia and Antinomy (as well as Paradox)}} were only {{spoiler|Androids with their memories, but not the real ones, who had already died}} is very similar to Yami Bakura and Yami Yugi's discussion during the Memory Arc, where Yami Bakura reminds him that the characters in the game aren't the real people (who had, obviously, died several centuries prior to the begining of the series, only given form due to Yami's memories.
 * The two main characters (Yusei and Jack) having ace monsters with 2500 ATK and 3000 ATK respectively (mirroring Yugi and Kaiba aces).
 * Yusei's name containing a "Yu" to go along with Yugi of the original series and Judai Yuki of GX.
 * Aki sharing a name that starts with the letter A like the other main female characters, Anzu and Asuka.
 * Jack wearing a jacket with huge coatails like Kaiba's post Duelist Kingdom wear.
 * A duelist that appears in episode 14 looks suspiciously like Jounouchi Katsuya/Joey Wheeler of the original series. [[Lampshade Hanging Lampshaded in the dub, where the duelist is Jonouchi's cousin and has the same voice.
 * A random screen in the first episode list duelists that Jack defeated during his reign as King, and their names are all parodies of characters' names from the original series.
 * Jack's seiyuu voiced Honest in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Jack's "Savior Demon Dragon" card has an effect similar to Honest's card form.
 * {{spoiler|Like Yugi, Yusei has an alternative self but its inverted. His alternative self is from the distant future and is the Big Bad. Until said Big Bad turns out not to be Yusei, but you know....}}
 * Yusei calling out Z-ONE for not caring about his friends, and Z-ONE reminding him that {{spoiler|Aporia and Antinomy (as well as Paradox)}} were only {{spoiler|Androids with their memories, but not the real ones, who had already died}} is very similar to Yami Bakura and Yami Yugi's discussion during the Memory Arc, where Yami Bakura reminds him that the characters in the game aren't the real people (who had, obviously, died several centuries prior to the begining of the series, only given form due to Yami's memories.

N-R

 * Name's the Same: Kiryu shares the same name as a certain mecha monster built upon 1954 Godzilla's bones.
 * Near Villain Victory: It's Yu-Gi-Oh, what did you expect? Subverted when Crow wipes the floor with a handful of Security Officers in about one turn.
 * This gets infuriating when Yusei manages to win against.
 * To be fair, he's won many of his duels like that. Mostly in the first few episodes.
 * Quite a few season three's duels are turning out this way. But special mention to
 * The all-time franchise champion of this has to go to the Team Unicorn duel.
 * Nerfed:, titled as the strongest Earthbound God is actually one of the most useless Eartbounds cards in real life and part of this is due to its signature HP to One effect removed.
 * The TCG does this to many cards whose anime effects might be construed as "over powered", such as Black Rose Dragon, Scar-Red Nova Dragon, or Polar God Thor, although rarely it will be inverted, such as with Blue Rose Dragon.
 * Nerd Glasses: Worn by Carly
 * She has them back when and   though.
 * Never Found the Body:
 * Never Trust a Trailer: The preview for episode 151 shows Yusei removing Stardust Dragon/Buster from his graveyard. That card previously only appeared in the non-canon OVA. When 151 aired, the card was nowhere to be seen.
 * Dub only, their preview for 123 makes the episode appear action packed, when in fact its a exposition episode to explain the backstories of Team Ragnarok.
 * New Neo City: Literally subverted as both the "new" and the "old" city are inhabited locations in the show.
 * New Powers as the Plot Demands:
 * Nice Hat: Saiga's cowboy hat, as well as Jack's feathered hat in 73.
 * Not exactly a hat, but you have to give Crow props for his incredibly geeky work helmet and goggles in Season Three.
 * It's cute.
 * Ninja Log: Jaeger pulls this trick when Crow tries to lasso him in episode 43.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Card games. On. MOTORBIKES.
 * At one point they are falling down an elevator shaft while STILL PLAYING THE GAME!
 * that's why D-Wheels have autopilot.
 * No Body Left Behind: Happens to anyone defeated in a Shadow Duel. And the too while being incinerated.
 * No Export for You: All episodes which haven't yet aired in English, thanks to 4Kids losing the rights. The OVA as well, but since it only shows off the buster/assault modes of Stardust and Red Demon's and is not plot or character important we aren't missing much.
 * Season 5 has been cancelled, and some episodes of season 4 are only available subbed for Americans.
 * No Hugging, No Kissing: Sure, Jack and Carly hugged, but what about Aki and Yusei?
 * No One Could Survive That: Many times characters, such as Yusei, have been thrown from their bikes and lived.
 * of the Arcadia Movement headquarters
 * After, Kiryu and Yusei's  . Barely a moment later they get back up on their feet as if nothing happened.
 * Norse Mythology: Ep 117 introduces 3 new synchro God monsters that are based on the 3 strongest gods of Norse mythology, Thor, Loki, and Odin, repectively. In ep 118
 * Not a Date: Rua and Ruka discuss whether Yusei and Aki's trip to the rollerblading rink counts as one or not, but by the end both decide that it is indeed a date.
 * Not Distracted by the Sexy: When Breo's girlfriend dumped him and hit on Jean, he tells her to get lost, being Genre Savvy enough to know that she'll just dump him when he loses a duel.
 * Yeah... THAT'S why
 * Not Quite Dead: Played straight many times over.
 * Obviously Evil: When your team is named Catastrophe and your MO is to literally bump off the competition, you aren't even trying.
 * Of Corsets Sexy: Aki.
 * Odd Friendship: Jack/Yusei. Actually, any of the characters and Yusei.
 * Office Lady: Mikage
 * Official Couple: Jack and Carly's relationship gets sufficiently fleshed out to be considered canon - especially during
 * Unfortunately
 * Off-Model: Rua's duel with Divine definitely qualifies as this. Not only lacking major quality (which 5Ds is generally praised for), but the off models of Divine's Psychic-Type cards, which were considered much lower quality, and only passingly resemble their card counterparts. The main whiplash to this episode comes from the fact it immediately follows the gorgeous eye-feast fans were treated to during the first Kiryu vs Yusei duel.
 * Episodes 43 and 44. Crow's markers . . . kind of . . . resemble his actual character design. Sort of. It doesn't help that his eyebrows are the wrong colour and that his under-eye markers are occasionally drawn in a single piece in these episodes. (Yusei gets scary caterpillar eyebrows and chipmunk cheeks in these episodes, too.)
 * The Crashtown Arc has block-headed background people, among other off-model contingencies.
 * The third ending had a scrolling shot that was redrawn after several episodes. While this is usually done to improve the art and correct instances of Off-Model, the characters actually looked worse post-redraw, and Yusei even inexplicably lost his Duel Disk, leaving his bare arm cocked at an odd angle.
 * That version of the third ending came in just one episode after it debuted. As far as the animation is concerned, the only character that came out of the sequence better looking is Ancient Fairy Dragon, who was redrawn completly so she didn't look scary. Luca on the other hand... A comparison of both versions can be found here.
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Every single freaking duel Sherry had in the WRGP. Namely beating teams of three with only two riders, and heavily implied to beat all of them on her own.
 * One of the off-screen duels during the Fortune Cup was a dueling psychologist with a Freudian Complex Deck against a profiler who specifically creates his Decks to play with the minds of his opponents. Granted, the former was required to lose on purpose as part of Goodwin's plan, but it still would have been cool to see..
 * Oh Crap: Whenever an Earthbound God is summoned, particularly if the character is on the receiving end.
 * Yusei gets one when he realizes that Breo is using a.
 * Placido gets one after Yusei
 * That is not an Oh Crap moment. That is a flat-out OH shit moment. His face says it all.
 * Doesn't help any that he has this coming after him!
 * Team 5D's all suffer this when they told that
 * Then another (and it wouldn't be surprising the entire population watching joined in) when
 * Ominous Floating Castle: The Arc Cradle,
 * One-Winged Angel:
 * Another one in episode 107 when.
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Signers versus their respective Dark Signer emotional counterparts.
 * "On the Next Episode of..." Catchphrase: Whenever a Riding Duel is going to happen/sudden gets serious, the main character involved (Usually Yusei) shouts "Riding Duel, Acceleration!"
 * Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Jack's Australian accent in the dub.
 * Orphan's Plot Trinket: Practically everyone from Satellite. But especially Yusei.
 * Otaku: Carly, glasses-wearing stereotype aside, when it's shown that she collects Duel Monsters figures. She pulls a figure of the Black Magician Girl from her bag and trades it (to the otaku owner of an otaku-oriented shop) for documents about the Arcadia Movement.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: To the extent that the title logo dragon is the physical embodiment of a pre-Incan pseudo-pagan star god.
 * Out-of-Character Moment: Jack in the beginning of episode 115. Hoo boy.
 * Out-of-Clothes Experience: Yusei invokes this in episode 109.
 * Out of Focus: Rather unfortunate, but since Yusei has a large number of friends, they can't all feature at once. A lot of his friends from Season 1 (Yanagi, Himuro, Rally, Nerve, and Blitz, etc) haven't turned up at all in Season 3.
 * Out of Order: In the dub's airing on the CW, the CW skipped over the episodes 36-41. Therefore the dub watchers missed out on . Since they skipped over many important plot twists and details, many viewers were left confused.
 * Of course, anyone with access to YouTube could easily watch them, and 4Kids did air these episodes on their website.
 * They did it again by skipping over episodes 111-122 straight to Team 5D's duel with Ragnarok, leaving confusion as to how Team 5D's made it to the semi finals,.
 * Outlaw Town: Crash Town
 * Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Although Rex Godwin has gray hair throughout most of the show, flashbacks that show him as a young man depict him with dark brown/black hair and pale skin.
 * Papa Wolf: Crow goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge when he returns after the appearance of the Dark Signers' evil fog to find out the kids he's taken in have all vanished.
 * Parental Abandonment: Excluding Aki's parents, every single character has either dead, missing, or offscreen parents.
 * Parental Substitute: Yusei, Crow and Jack sees Martha as their foster mother. Crow himself becomes a Parental Substitute for some children.
 * Pass the Popcorn: In the English dub of episode 23, Jack and Godwin watch Yusei get pounded by Aki when Jeager/Lazar makes the comment "I'll get the popcorn" during the Fortune Cup. Doubles as Lull Destruction because he didn't speak during that scene in the Japanese version
 * Plot Armor: Yusei and Kiryu must have been wearing a heavy set of them when dynamite exploded near them and they fell about three stories into a steep canyon... only to get up and stand within minutes.
 * Plot-Based Face Obfuscation: Occurs when Crow tells the legend of the Daedalus Bridge, and during a flashback to  past.
 * Also near the end of season two. Who IS that guy Jaeger keeps talking to, anyway?
 * In the third-season opening, there are three monsters shown in silhouette. Two of those monsters have been used to date in the show, and after each is used, it becomes full-colour.
 * The third one is still shadowed out when the OPs change halfway into the season. About six episode or so later, it's revealed in full color.
 * In another slight subversion, Sherry's helmet is on for the first seven or so episodes, until it's "removed" for Episode 72 onward.
 * Plot-Driven Breakdown:
 * Plot Induced Stupidity: End your damn turn, Jean! End your turn! ...NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
 * Yusei falls victim to the same thing in that episode.
 * Pointy Ears: Rex, Rudger and... Crow, curiously enough.
 * Post Script Season: Season three is turning into one of these.
 * Power Incontinence: Shown with Aki, as she is unable to control her psychic duelist powers
 * Power Limiter: Aki's hairband supposedly holds back her psychic powers.
 * and that ridiculous-looking thing really needed an explanation
 * The Power of Friendship: It's all over this show. It's also Yusei's ability to join people together and make them friends that creates one of the biggest plot points in the first two seasons.
 * Power Tattoo: Each of the Signers has a part of the Crimson Dragon sealed within them as a Dragon's Birthmark on their arm. The Dark Signers have a mark corresponding to their respective Nazca geoglyph.
 * Power Trio: Yusei, Jack, and Aki, according to Godwin. As well as.
 * The third opening focuses heavily on Yusei, Jack, and Crow in a pair of three, as well as Aki and the twins as another three.
 * Powerup Full-Color Change: Occurs when
 * Psychic Powers: Possessed by psychic duelists, the Signers (particularly Aki and Ruka), and the Dark Signers.
 * Purple Eyes: Jack Atlas and Sly.
 * Put on a Bus:
 * Bommer and his younger siblings return for a few episodes.
 * Many of the reoccuring characters from the past two seasons have yet to make an appearance in season three.
 * Railing Kill: The boss of the final team in Satellite tried to get rid of Yuusei using this method.
 * Ramming Always Works: How the Saviors and the  attack, and how Savior Star Dragon uses its secondary effect (field destruction).
 * Rapunzel Hair: Sherry's hair is this in one scene of the fifth ending.
 * Readings Are Off the Scale: Yusei vs. ZONE.
 * Recap Episode: There are three so far sprinkled throughout the series, though each of them do introduce or foreshadow new plot threads.
 * Reconstruction: Returns to playing tropes straight that were deconstructed in Yu-Gi-Oh GX.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: Actually inverted; the first time Yusei and Jack duel in Episode 5; when the Crimson Dragon appears, both Yusei's and Jack's eyes turn red and glowy. Of course, nothing of the sort ever happens again.
 * Redemption Demotion:
 * Redemption Equals Death:
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning:.
 * Redheaded Hero: Crow and Aki. Subverted in Aki's case in that she's female, not male.
 * Red Herring Twist: A lot of next-episode previews are guilty of this, for example
 * Red Right Hand: is identifiable by its gray outfit and D-Wheel,, and red eyes.
 * Red Shirt: Demak. Even though he wears yellow, he's given little to no Backstory, and is only there so that Ruka and Rua can duel him and reclaim Ancient Fairy Dragon.
 * Reincarnation: Not only is Jack Atlas a badass on his own, . No wonder he's always so Hot-Blooded.
 * Remember the New Guy?: Crow and Kiyru started as this. Kiryu got a lot of development and, until recently, Crow had little to none until the third season.
 * The Remnant: Mukuro Enjo.
 * Reset Button:
 * Or maybe not, since
 * Revision: Crow, Kiryu and Team Satisfaction. They aren't mentioned in season one at all, yet it doesn't contradict Yusei and Jack's backstories.
 * Ridiculously-Human Robots: is capable of sleeping, eating, emotions even bleeding at one point and you wouldn't think he is a robot until you saw his focus episodes and backstory.
 * It's also subverted with . He doesn't look human at all, but he's displayed quite human emotions. He reverts back to a stoic voice and stance in his duel with  only to go back to being emotional in the middle of the duel.
 * Rival Turned Evil:
 * This actually happens to  a few times.
 * Robotic Reveal: First occured with  after he caught a spike that flew off Bommer's D-Wheel, showing his robot arm
 * Later on, after crashes, Crow touches its shoulder, causing its arm to fall off.
 * Placido. D-Wheel.  That is all.
 * Unrobotic Reveal:
 * Rollerblade Good: It's pretty hard to notice, but Luciano is actually wearing blue rollerblades on his feet. He also introduces the D-Board, a special kind of skateboard that allows children to partake in watered-down, presumably (in theory) safer versions of Riding Duels.
 * In episode 75, Yusei takes Aki to a roller-skating rink to teach her to find her center of balance. According to Yusei, learning to skate will somehow help Aki learn to ride a D-wheel.
 * Might be justified, since motorcycle riding and rollerblading both require a lot of balance to do well.
 * Rule of Cool: Anytime someone gets on a motorcycle, physics tend to take a backseat.
 * Rule of Symbolism:
 * Ridiculously-Human Robots: is capable of sleeping, eating, emotions even bleeding at one point and you wouldn't think he is a robot until you saw his focus episodes and backstory.
 * It's also subverted with . He doesn't look human at all, but he's displayed quite human emotions. He reverts back to a stoic voice and stance in his duel with  only to go back to being emotional in the middle of the duel.
 * Rival Turned Evil:
 * This actually happens to  a few times.
 * Robotic Reveal: First occured with  after he caught a spike that flew off Bommer's D-Wheel, showing his robot arm
 * Later on, after crashes, Crow touches its shoulder, causing its arm to fall off.
 * Placido. D-Wheel.  That is all.
 * Unrobotic Reveal:
 * Rollerblade Good: It's pretty hard to notice, but Luciano is actually wearing blue rollerblades on his feet. He also introduces the D-Board, a special kind of skateboard that allows children to partake in watered-down, presumably (in theory) safer versions of Riding Duels.
 * In episode 75, Yusei takes Aki to a roller-skating rink to teach her to find her center of balance. According to Yusei, learning to skate will somehow help Aki learn to ride a D-wheel.
 * Might be justified, since motorcycle riding and rollerblading both require a lot of balance to do well.
 * Rule of Cool: Anytime someone gets on a motorcycle, physics tend to take a backseat.
 * Rule of Symbolism:
 * Rule of Symbolism:

S-U
"Leo: If I go with you I'll just end up standing on the sideline like a dork going "Hurray! Go Luna! Show those Dark Signers how to duel!" Luna: You're right that is pretty lame."
 * Samus Is a Girl: Sherry, the helmeted D-Wheeler in the third season.
 * Say My Name
 * It doesn't help that  It's the most powerful example, but by far the only; Aki did the same to Divine when Arcadia began to collapse, Rua to Ruka while he duelled Demak , Yusei to Kiryu (twice in one episode) during their second duel and Jack to Carly as she   There are also several occasions with lower volumes.
 * Scarf of Asskicking: Several of Yusei's cards wear scarves, most notably Junk Warrior.
 * Scary Black Man: Demak and Takasu. But especially Takasu.
 * Scary Shiny Glasses: Averted, as the only glasses-sporting character loses them, resulting in The Glasses Gotta Go.
 * She gets them back in Season Three.
 * School of Hard Knocks: Duel Academia is shown to still be around in season 3
 * Screw Destiny: Jack doesn't believe in destiny, and this is lampshaded by his card Change Destiny.
 * In Episode 58, Crow's statement to Yusei that he doesn't believe destiny is responsible for all that's happened, and that "if I had any destiny, it was in meeting you!" (an alternate translation of this line is "my only destiny was meeting you.")
 * Screwed By Network Collapse: While the original Japanese airings avoid this, getting the same timeslot and never going on hiatus currently in its run, the dubbed American airings aren't so lucky. First appearing on the CW Saturday morning block, it's timeslots constantly changed around, airing as early as 7am or as late as almost noon. It also went on hiatuses often, and refusing to air certain episodes due to content. Finally CW stopped airing it since DM proved to get better ratings. 5D's did a Channel Hop to Cartoon Network, but its problems haven't ended yet. Now episodes air at 8am on weekdays, a time when most of target audience is attending school. New episodes update randomly and one must check the 4kids website to find the latest episodes. Oh and streaming episodes are only available for Americans.
 * Now that 8AM timeslot is reserved for reruns for Pokémon. Back to the CW.
 * Due to a major lawsuit filed by TV Tokyo and Nihon Ad Systems for a debt exceeding $4.5 million, 4Kids had to stop the dubbing process in its tracks and file bankruptcy. It's a rare, wild case where a network didn't exactly screw the program- they lost the rights and resources to air it.
 * Serious Business: As per the course, though there are a good number of characters who don't play the game to somewhat offset this.
 * Shaggy Dog Story: Let's face it: While the second season at least sort of solved its problems via quick-sketch conclusions, the end of the first season left a lot of major questions never answered.
 * Also,
 * Sheathe Your Sword: The Yusei/Himuro duel.
 * She's All Grown Up: Ruka in the final episode's flash-forward opening. When she takes off the motorcycle helmet, four guys stop, stare, and blush.
 * Ship Tease: Episode 75 is an exercise in this between Yusei and Aki, culminating in the scene at the rollerblading rink -- which is blatant enough for Rua and Ruka to hang lampshades the whole way through.
 * Another example is a certain shot, sporting Yusei and Aki holding hands amidst a forest looking up to a shiny dragon flying above them, from the recent ending "Future Colors".
 * Episode 154, full stop.
 * Prepare for an onslaught of Die for Our Ship enthusiasts to make heads or tails of this.
 * Shout-Out: Numerous. Other than the nods to previous series, there are apparent nods to, among many, many other things, The DC Universe, Sailor Moon, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Trigun, Eyeshield 21 and even (hold your breath) Real Life.
 * Rua's Deformer cards are pretty blatant shout-outs to Transformers.
 * Rua uses alot of cards with references to popular childrens anime as a base. Deformer Chakkan is pretty obviously a reference to "Golden Warrior Gold Lightan".
 * In an interesting example, there have been several one-shot characters whose designs are clearly taken from the Toei Yu-Gi-Oh! series, the 1998, 27-episode "Yu-Gi-Oh: Shadow Games" (commonly known in fandom as "Season Zero").
 * Of all things, GaoGaiGar seems to be getting its fair share of Shout Outs.
 * In the dub episode with FAKE!JACK, before REAL!JACK(ok I'll stop now) used his last attack, he says "It's time for the real Jack Atlas to stand up"
 * Older Than They Think. The origin is an old game show To Tell The Truth, which Eminem was referencing.
 * Heck, there's even a reference to Mobile Suit Gundam 00. The design of Seven Swords Warrior is very similar to the 00 Raiser's design, except without the main-section of the 0 Raiser (the part where Saji usually sits with the Red Haro). Its name alone is a reference to both Exia and 00 Raiser's upgrades (though the latter only appeared in the manga sidestories): the Seven Swords System. Seven Swords Warrior seems, however, to be using a mix between Exia's swords and 00 Raiser's swords, most notably Exia's two extra physical swords and the 00 Raiser's GN Buster Sword II.
 * Speaking of Gundam, Katsumi Ono (the director of 5D's) has said that came from G-Gundam's hyper mode.
 * Showdown At High Noon: A variation of version B for this trope is present in episode 86. Instead of high noon, it's held at sunset and this being a Card Games show, they play Duel Monsters instead.
 * Shonen Hair: Crabhead, I mean Yusei being the most obvious example.
 * and even though he's an adult, Jin/Bolt gives him a run for his money with his thorny, Statue of Liberty sea urchin look.
 * Shonen Upgrade: Yusei and Jack's  and their season 3 abilities.
 * Sixth Ranger:
 * Slap-On-The-Wrist Nuke: Bruno
 * Smooch of Victory: An... interesting variation occurs with old man Yanagi and main character Yusei.
 * Smug Snake: Jean of Team Unicorn, constantly smirking about how Team 5D's is playing right into their hands.
 * However, seeing how the anime has been hyping up his skills (Mostly how highly Breo thinks of him and his flashback in episode 100), maybe he does have a reason for being smug.
 * Sparkling Stream of Tears: Invoked at the start of Episode 47.
 * Crow in Episode 83. This time, it's over.
 * Zola and Leo in Episode 85.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": The vast majority of the cast is subjected to this, though the twins (Rua and Ruka, Lua and Luka, Leo and Luna, etc.) get it by far the worst. In-show spellings don't help, seeing as some of them are inconsistent (Bommer/Bomber) and others take real names and make gibberish of them (Luciano's name, in-show, is incorrectly spelled as "Lucciano").
 * It doesn't help at all with the twins case that 4kids was going to rename Rua with his sister's name for the English dub.
 * An interesting example: in-show, Crow's name is pronounced and spelled as "Crow," and the katakana used romanize as "kurou." However, on the TvTokyo website, his name is shown in URLs as "Claw" (which, oddly enough, has a nearly identical katakana representation to "Crow" despite being pronounced totally differently in English)
 * Spirit World: Ruka's power allows her to communicate with various Duel Monster spirits, most notably the lion Regulus, her signature dragon, and her cute fluffy pet Kurribon.
 * Spoiler Opening: The first opening and ending spoils . Averted in the second and third opening and endings, but the fourth opening spoilers   The fifth opening reveals   The fourth opening does it again by revealing  in the episode it appears, before it actually shows up
 * Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Most obvious example is Yuusei in season three. He has at least twice as many duels as any other characters in the cast and is constantly hogging screentime away from other character that some of them (the twins) are reduced to almost background character status.
 * The Stoic: Yusei has about four or five facial expressions, and about three different tones of voice.
 * And as of episode 86, Kiryu has become this.
 * Stop Having Fun Guys: Team Unicorn in the WRGP, mostly intentional as they seem to be a Take That to the "always win" attitude of many tourney-going Real Life players and the concept of the metagame in general. Ironically though, it's when Jean starts having fun that they end up losing.
 * Stripperiffic: Dark Signer outfit could qualify.
 * Super Window Jump: Crow does this during his debut. In the Team Satisfaction flashbacks, Yuusei does it to get into a building rather than out.
 * Super-Powered Evil Side: Every single one of the Dark Signers.
 * Tagalong Kid: Rua, to an extent.
 * Take My Hand: In addition to examples from the Japanese series, the American dub features Trudge actually saying this outright to Martha not once but twice in Episode 46.
 * Take That: In episode 43, Rua and Lua Leo and Luna give one of these against the peanut gallery, the group of the hero's friends that are always standing on the sidelines cheering them on.
 * Super Window Jump: Crow does this during his debut. In the Team Satisfaction flashbacks, Yuusei does it to get into a building rather than out.
 * Super-Powered Evil Side: Every single one of the Dark Signers.
 * Tagalong Kid: Rua, to an extent.
 * Take My Hand: In addition to examples from the Japanese series, the American dub features Trudge actually saying this outright to Martha not once but twice in Episode 46.
 * Take That: In episode 43, Rua and Lua Leo and Luna give one of these against the peanut gallery, the group of the hero's friends that are always standing on the sidelines cheering them on.


 * Taking You with Me:
 * Talking to the Dead: Crow does this apparently often, as he visits the grave of his mentor, Pearson, who was the original owner of his D-Wheel, the Black Bird, and his Black Feather deck.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Misty Lola.
 * Taste the Rainbow: Dark Signers. Seriously. They're even Colour-Coded for Your Convenience!
 * As are their Earthbound Gods.
 * The Signer Dragons, counting, formed an incomplete rainbow in season 2 (in a flashback, each one shoots a beam of a different color except orange).
 * Team Handstack: More of a Team Hand Bump, but Team 5Ds does this, especially in the last episode when they're affirming they'll always be connected, despite being apart from one another.
 * Played straight in episode 96, and again in episode 134, in a flashback depicting Yusei, Jack, and Crow.
 * Team Satisfaction also went down the Team Hand Bump way.
 * Technician Versus Performer: Jack vs. Yusei. Except that Jack, while being the perfectionist, is also a natural crowd-pleaser, and the two are arguably of equal skill.
 * Teleporters and Transporters: The three Yliaster members can teleport from point A to point B
 * Tentacle Rope: Aki's Rose Tentacles does this to Yusei.


 * Theme Music Power-Up: This applies to any main character. Usually the themes are either techno or hard rock.
 * Special mention goes to Shooting Star Dragon's theme, Clear Mind, sung by none other than Masaaki Endoh.
 * This Is Unforgivable!: Played straight quite a few times, the first major instance being Yusei saying it
 * In a more comedic example: JACK ATLAS WILL AVENGE HIS CUP RAMEN!
 * Three Plus Two: Yusei, Jack, Aki, and the twins. Except the twins actually get their own character development.
 * Throwing the Fight:
 * Time Skip:
 * Time Travel: The Infinity Device, which is capable of creating wormholes, useable for time travel. Illiaster intends to use the device to further their own schemes in.
 * Our Time Travel Is Different: The wormhole variety.
 * Title Drop: Team 5D's
 * To Hell and Back:
 * Together in Death:
 * Took a Level In Badass: Carly - who would have guessed that the Intrepid Reporter would have.
 * Too Soon:
 * Tournament Arc: Two, the Fortune Cup and the upcoming Grand Prix, both of which are backed by Yliaster.
 * Tragic Keepsake:
 * Oddly a similar instance of the above happens between Yusei and.
 * Transformation Sequence: Whenever someone starts a Riding Duel on the highway in the second season.
 * Misty and Carly get brief ones. Also the Yliaster Trio gets one each for . Finally Bruno gets one to
 * Triang Relations: Type III,
 * Trigger Phrase:
 * Tron Lines: Whenever a Synchro Summoning occurs.
 * True Companions: Yusei likes to bring this subject up a lot when referring to his circle of friends.
 * Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty: Team Catastrophe
 * Uncanny Family Resemblance: Yusei looks exactly like his father, Dr. Fudo, only with slightly less hair, and highlights.
 * Unnamed Parent: Common as it is, this actually isn't the case with Hideo, Setsuko and Tetsuzo. Yusei's father, however, is known only as Hakase/Doctor/Professor Fudo.
 * The Unpronounceable: The Earthbound Gods/Immortals: Uru, Cusillu, Ccapac Apu, Aslla Piscu, Ccarayhua, Chacu Challhua and Wiraqocha Rasca.
 * Unrealistic Black Hole:
 * The Un-Reveal: The "original" timeline of the series that Z-one comes from before he began messing with history apparently had Yusei pioneering Accel Synchro and Delta Accel Synchro with Shooting Star Dragon and "Cosmic Blazar Dragon", with no mention of Shooting Quasar Dragon. The actual card/monster was never seen, only a brief mention was made, but the speculation and rumors over it were rampant.
 * Urban Segregation: Played straight, with Neo Domino being the ritzy, upper class half of the city and Satellite a slum and a Dystopia.
 * Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty: Team Catastrophe
 * Uncanny Family Resemblance: Yusei looks exactly like his father, Dr. Fudo, only with slightly less hair, and highlights.
 * Unnamed Parent: Common as it is, this actually isn't the case with Hideo, Setsuko and Tetsuzo. Yusei's father, however, is known only as Hakase/Doctor/Professor Fudo.
 * The Unpronounceable: The Earthbound Gods/Immortals: Uru, Cusillu, Ccapac Apu, Aslla Piscu, Ccarayhua, Chacu Challhua and Wiraqocha Rasca.
 * Unrealistic Black Hole:
 * The Un-Reveal: The "original" timeline of the series that Z-one comes from before he began messing with history apparently had Yusei pioneering Accel Synchro and Delta Accel Synchro with Shooting Star Dragon and "Cosmic Blazar Dragon", with no mention of Shooting Quasar Dragon. The actual card/monster was never seen, only a brief mention was made, but the speculation and rumors over it were rampant.
 * Urban Segregation: Played straight, with Neo Domino being the ritzy, upper class half of the city and Satellite a slum and a Dystopia.

V-Z

 * The Very Definitely Final Dungeon:
 * Victoria's Secret Compartment: Sherry sneaks a card inside her breasts in episode 93. We're given a very good look at it.
 * Villainous Crossdresser: Jaeger
 * Villainous Breakdown: The series is a tad prone to this, but.
 * Jack when he finds out that
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Jack and Crow appear to be this in times of peace, with Jack's "holier than thou" attitude and Crow's loud sharp tongue, but it when comes down to it, they're the best of friends along with Yusei, who plays the middleman in their antics.
 * Also, Mikage, Carly, and Stephanie become this throughout Season Three.
 * Waistcoat of Style: Divine, natch.
 * Warrior Therapist: Yusei is more or less this trope given flesh.
 * Wasted Song: Many great tracks, Lamentation, Hopeless Battle, Sad End, Yusei's first synchro summon theme, Jack's second battle theme were never released on the Sound Duels. Even more insulting, Lamentation only plays thrice in the series run.
 * And for Melody of Promises, a vocal song made specificaly for 5D's... is played only once in the entire run.
 * Watching the Sunset: This happens in Episode 44 with Yusei and Aki on a balcony of Godwin's home, Ruka and Rua watching from inside and Jack on his own combining it with Sitting on the Roof.
 * Weak but Skilled: Ruka.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist:
 * fits this even better. They've killed so many people  throughout the many times of correcting history that they can't even remember specific persons anymore. They've also destroyed cities and even made minor revisions in hundreds of years to keep humanity from destroying itself.
 * The Western: The Crashtown Arc.
 * What Have I Done/WhatHaveIBecome: In quick succession.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: All of Yusei's non-Signer/main character friends from the beginning disappear before Season 3. Himuro and Yanagi were last seen waving the gang off as they made their way to Satellite, while Rally, Nerve, Taka and Blitz woke up after being released from Uru. Since then... they've appeared briefly in a flashback to Yusei's rematch with Rudger.
 * Then there's Sly, who had possible plotline going of stealing Stardust Dragon... only to be dropped after one episode.
 * What Could Have Been: The original fifth signer & his dragon.
 * Also Mukuro Enjo, who apparently was a teammate of Yusei and Aki and won the Pegasus J. Crawford Cup Trinidad Riding Duel Grand Prix with them in Z-One's original timeline!
 * In-universe. Z-one's computer terminal in Episode 149 lists information about Yusei and his friends that tease before he messed with the timeline, things went quite differently. Significant changes include only five Dark Signers, Yusei and Aki teaming with Mukuro Enjo/Hunting Pace to win a tournament, and Yusei having a new ace monster, "Cosmic Blazar Dragon".
 * Wham! Episode: A lot.
 * (25+ 26)
 * (34+ 35)
 * (38+ 39)
 * (57)
 * (62 through 64)
 * (107)
 * (134 through 135)
 * (137)
 * (144/5) Most of the Ark Cradle fits here, but these especially when
 * (148-150)
 * When Things Spin Science Happens: Momentum.
 * Where Are They Now? Epilogue: Played with, as the epilogue is actually three episodes long.
 * Where It All Began: In the last major duel of the series, Yusei and Jack start their duel at the exact same spot Jack stole Yusei's bike and Stardust Dragon, which started the whole plot of 5Ds into motion some three years prior. It's fitting as both a sort of Book Ends to the series, and a nice contrast to see how far both Yusei and Jack have come as people, friends, and as Duelists.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: In episode 2 of the dub, Yusei is said to have a fear of bugs. Ironic in that he later has to face a spider-based deck (to its credit, the dub actually shows a bit of continuity by having him afraid of the giant spiders Roman is summoning to the field).
 * We Have Reserves: Subverted..
 * White Gloves: Jack, Rex Godwin, and Jaeger.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: Kiryu and Placido.
 * With Friends Like These...: Jack and Yusei, season one.
 * Jack and Crow, season three.
 * Word of God: Lots of interesting details never shown in canon are only talked about in staff blogs and twitters. Here is a list of some of them.
 * The Worf Effect: Has happened to almost everyone at some point or another, main character or no.
 * Rua is an odd example, in that he isn't exceptionally strong. However, he did lose to Yusei, Bommer, Divine, and Luciano, and wth the exception of Yusei, everyone he lost to had their first on-screen duel against him.
 * Writing Around The Trademarks: An unusual example. The original name of Jack's duel runner was "Wheel of Fortune." Obviously, this was not legal to broadcast in America, so it was changed for the dub.
 * Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: In Episode 16 of the 4Kids dub, nearly all of Sir Randsborg's lines.
 * You Are Worth Hell: Deconstructed in Episode 58.
 * You Can't Fight Fate:
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Mikage, Kiryu, Aoyama, Takuya, and Dark Glass/Bruno all have blue hair.
 * In an interesting example, Ushio - who is usually believed to be the playground bully Ushio from the original manga/Toei series - has black hair in 5Ds, but blue-tinted black hair in the Toei series.
 * You Killed My Father: Sherry's driving motivation.
 * It could be applied to Yusei's drive to defeat Rudger which pushes him over the edge and has him chasing Rudger blindly after their first duel, desperate to duel him again in a very un-Yusei fashion.
 * Yuppie Couple: The hippie couple that pops up from time to time.
 * Zerg Rush: The Ghosts/Diablos both in dueling strategy and in the sheer number of duelists they sick on Yusei.
 * Yuppie Couple: The hippie couple that pops up from time to time.
 * Zerg Rush: The Ghosts/Diablos both in dueling strategy and in the sheer number of duelists they sick on Yusei.

The Video Games provide examples of:

 * Artificial Stupidity: The game's AI for Tag Force is very... hit or miss. This video shows a few examples.
 * The AI in Tag Force 5 is intelligent, but it is too strict in the priority of the moves they make, and they may walk into a knowingly bad move just because it's programmed to do something. For example, if your opponent adds Marshmallon to their hands the turn before, and the enemy sets that monster on your ally's turn, they will hit the Marshmallon, not thinking it's a Marshmallon.
 * Bad Export for You: Present in the Tag Force games, which removes the voiced content and has glitches not present in the Japanese version (such as in Tag Force 5 the Machine Emperor's summoning cinematics won't register in the photo gallery).
 * Cast Full of Pretty Boys: All of the TF only characters.
 * Boss in Mook Clothing : Starting from World Championship 2010 theres one Character usually stand out for being very tough to beat due to having a deck that is better than what you can get normally in the current state(since you face them usually early in the game). Mimi in 2010(have a card that cant be destroyed by battle, easily summoned, and have 4000 attack and relatively good Spell/Trap/Monster Line-up) and Minegishi in 2011(A Chaos DAD deck with good spell Trap Line-up that quality is on par of Tournament level deck)
 * Brainwashed and Crazy:  in Chapter 1 of WC 2010.   in Chapter 4.
 * But Thou Must!: "Don't touch the computer on your right. There's important data in it."
 * Continuity Nod: Many of the Hairstyles in World Championship resemble those of characters in the previous series.
 * Dating Sim: A mild version in the Tag Force games
 * Demoted to Extra: Crow in World Championship.
 * Also,
 * Dub Name Change: Inverted/Averted in WC 2011, who keeps Team Satisfaction and Team Ragnarok's names as is. The former were called by their dub name (The Enforcers) in WC 2010, and the latter hadn't appeared in the dub at the time of the game's release.
 * Face Heel Turn:  in Rudger's story in Tag Force 4
 * Fan Nickname: Game Sue and Hat Guy for the main character
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: It's supposed to be extremely difficult to construct a deck full of cards with any sort of power for those who live in the Satellite, but when you're actually playing not only does every person have a full deck, but they tend to be extremely powerful ones at that.
 * Gender Flip: WC 2011 has a
 * Good Morning, Crono: WC 2011 starts like this.
 * Most of the events in Tag Force as well
 * Hidden Eyes: The main character of Tag Force.
 * New Game+: Present in World Championship. After clearing the main storyline, you can start the game over with the same cards, recipes and character that you used in your previous playthrough.
 * Nintendo Hard: Your Mileage May Vary but its often difficult for those who aren't well versed in the game or without cheating devices, to get off the ground as the starting decks are crap and you must progress in the game a fair bit in order to unlock the packs with decent cards.
 * 2010 got better in that regards, in that you start the game with packs containing some useful synchros, and you can get a structure deck after the first few duels.
 * No Export for You: Tag Force 6 is heading this way, luckily there is a fanmade English patch in the works.
 * The Magic Poker Equation: Destiny Draws, which allow you to draw a card you need to get out of a tough situation.
 * Marth Debuted in Smash Bros:, as well as a few minor characters in early season 3. The same goes for Crashtown!Kiryu and Tag Force 5.
 * Old Save Bonus: You can port in recipes from Tag Force 3 to Tag Force 4 and the same goes for 4 to 5. And use UMD recognition for both games using the old Tag Forces to unlock cards and characters.
 * Puzzle Boss: The compact duels in both games.
 * Pragmatic Adaptation: WC 2009 and WC 2010 are simplified versions of the first two seasons of 5Ds, though the Dark Signer arc had a lot of twists and turns and the game still manages to include most of them. WC 2011 is even more pragmatic; most of the third season of 5Ds was a bunch of personal growth stories for side characters before Yliaster showed up, so instead they made up their own group of unique characters for the video game's protagonist.
 * Relationship Values: The heart system for Tag Force.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Crow and Kiryu in Chapter 2 WC 2010 go through one after.
 * Self-Insert Fic: The entire game plot of both World Championship games is essentially the same as the anime with your character inserted. Mostly averted with the WC 2011 game, which has you as a totally unrelated character from Crash Town with his/her own friends unique to the game.
 * Sequential Boss: The  in 2009. Four back to back duels and your Life Points carry over. Carried over in similar fashion for 2010 but thankfully they are Bonus Bosses.
 * The entire final chapter of 2011 is built on this.
 * Ship Tease: The ending of pretty much every single female character's storyline in the Tag Force games.
 * Stalker with a Crush: In Tag Force 5, Sherry mentions that she was living in your own apartment for quite some time, and that she can't sleep well at night because "She has no one to hold her".
 * Stealth Based Mission: At certain point in WC 2009, both your deck and D-Wheel are taken by Securities, so you have to sneak in the Securities Impound to get them back. Possibly doubles as That One Level. Carried over to 2010, but this time, it's only your deck.
 * Stupidity Is the Only Option: Chapter 2 of WC 11 is all about this. No, you can't refuse to help Lilie, and . And no, You can't avoid.
 * The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Any card that requires a coinflip will almost always turn out in the computer's favor.
 * Those Two Guys: Okita and Liquid in Reverse of Arcadia, West and Nico in Over the Nexus.
 * Three Amigos: The player, Toru and Misaki in WC 2011.
 * Video Games Always Spoil: In the English release, WC 2010 spoils the conclusion of the Dark Signer arc  and Aki learning how to ride a D-Wheel. It also (for both the Japanese and Americans) shows . Tag Force 5 manages to spoil a lot of things in season three for English players as well.
 * Tag Force 6 will reveal to dub watchers Zone's identity . It'll be the only way they learn due to the anime ending prematurely just before the Ark Cradle appears.
 * Wasted Song: This battle theme in 2010 only plays during the final boss's last form.
 * When She Smiles: Misaki in the 2011 ending.
 * Oh, when she smiles, indeed.
 * Wild Card: The player can be this in Tag Force, as he's not limited to using a specific type of deck.
 * Yandere: Dark Signer Misty in Tag Force 4.