Was Jaden About To Defeat Yugi? [Yugioh GX Finale] 

I love my boy JayJay, but for his own mental health I'd rather have him lose this duel. For so long he couldn't afford to lose a duel, or the world would be damned. By losing a duel and seeing that nothing bad happened and nothing of value was lost, he can finally relax and enjoy dueling again.

Yugi: is in genuine trouble Atem: yo Yugi watch this Atem: cheats out slifer Yugi: PHAROH WE TALKED ABOUT THIS

Just as a fun fact: In Duel Links, if you use Jaden Yubel against Yami Yugi and lose, Jaden will say the same phrase that he said at the end of GX, so... Technically that could explain how the duel ended

Yugi: "You're a duelist, aren't you?" Jaden: "Yep, I'm going to try out for the Academy." Yugi: "Hehe, you don't say." Yugi already met Jaden and had to set him on the path to meet him in the past. It also explains how Jaden bumped into him. He *knew* that Jaden would come, so he came to greet him

Added bonus: Slifer Red was the dorm Jaden was in for three years, so the final shot of the duel is Jaden's ace attacking a monster that represents his time at DA.

It's pretty much implied that Chazz showed up and beat them both.

Althought we never see the conclusion of the duel, I love how it "ends" just because of how simbolic it is. During the entire series, Slifer Reds are underestimated and considered as inferiors by the rest of the Duel Academy. However, in this final duel, Jaden faces Slifer itself and sees how immensely powerful he is (let's not forget that, in the original series's final duel of Yugi vs Atem, Slifer is the key for defeating the other two gods).

I feel like Jaden lost, but it was so close and against God cards that it just felt like a victory because of the knowledge and character gained.

On Yugi's turn, Yugi activates his skill: Destiny Draw! Looking through his entire deck and picking anything he wants and adds it to his hand!

Yugi has been known to be a staller. Magical hats + Sword of Revealing Light . Yata Yata Yata. Summon Obelisk + Ra.. Believe me, Yugi Muto is a hustler, he stacked cards amazingly

According to the the trivia page of Slifer on the wiki, a possible set of effects for the anime Slifer would not include the rule of coming back to the graveyard at the end of the turn, but that Slifer it is only affected by spells for one turn. Therefore, because Slifer was revived with a trap, not a spell, then it would have stayed on the field at the end of the turn. This would also explain why Slifer stayed on the field during the ceremonial duel, because it was summoned with a trap (Summoning Clock).

I feel like Jaden lost. He's vague about it, but when a character - especially an anime character - says "I'm going to get stronger and fight you again...!" It's pretty much always after a loss. Plus, his facial expression doesn't exactly read as "I just won a card game between friends," it looks more like he's thinking "I need to get better and set the standard higher for myself." I think the main reason Yugi kinda yeeted Jaden into a pocket dimension wasn't necessarily because he was in his prime at that point in time, which I'm somewhat uncertain of what that would mean, but like...hm... Think of it like this: he wanted Jaden to go back to dueling for fun. So he prolly wanted a duel that had ridiculous scaling, yeah? A duel that'd be comparable to a rollercoaster. One that would have it's own twists and turns, which it absolutely does. I mean, this is prolly one of the duels in Yugioh that have the most debates centered around it. I'm going to phrase this kinda stupidly, but; my speculation is that after he lost to Yugi, Jaden went back to the present and Yugi told'im "YOU'RE the protag now!!" Jaden says, "Awesome...!!!" ...and then his series ends. Sounds perfect to me. Also, uh-... It's really funny for me to imagine an abridged series that gets to this ending and shows Jaden saying he'll get stronger, he'll challenge him again and that he'll never give up! Then he says some shit like, _"...Also...where the fuck am I...?"_

So Yami just shows up to steal Yugi's game, after Yugi has done all the work, and claims that he's the "real" duel... Ego of Kaiba proportions.

I think Jaden loses the duel but that doesn’t mean he’s lost everything. The point of this duel was to heavily emphasize the fact that he regained his love for dueling which is why the full duel wasn’t shown, because it didn’t matter all that mattered was character development for Jaden. I would however, love to see the duel in a movie or something.

I like the end of GX so much for the ending. It’s left vague and it’s done on purpose. It’s the reason it’s so good. And it’s a fantastic duel overall too. The final cinematic shot is also a great symbol for jaden. It’s his ace going against the mascot for the dorm that housed him for three years. Symbolic of his end at the academy and onto new paths

Much as I love this duel, just imagine getting to see a grown-up Yugi dueling on his own now. It’d be sick.

Yugi: "Do I beat Jaden at the end of GX?" Yusei: "Well duh" Jaden: "Hey spoilers!!" Yusei: "It's not a spoiler if it's obvious"

When you realize Atem is "meta" spelled backwards.

The ending to the GX series is actually deep. Basically... Jaden was turned into an adrenalin junkie due to him basically only playing and literally gambling with his life. How could dueling regularly match that sort of thrill/terror?

Judai said at the end, "I'll become much stronger and when the time comes .." he'll try his hand at that duel again. If he lost (which I assume he did based on what he says), it gives him something to shoot for, something to look forward to. If he won, what good would it do? He said all that mattered was he had fun and that was the point.

Jaden winning with Winged kuriboh would be poetic in a way, defeating Yugi with the card he himself gave to Jaden in the future.

Id most definitely argue that Jaden lost the duel. Cause he kept winning over and over again and lost the fun he had, the best way for him to regain the fun is for him to lose. This gives Jaden new heights to strive for, and a new path for his dueling journey to surpass the person who finally beat him.

Assuming Jaden ends his turn and Slifer goes back, the resources don't look that great for Atem. And since we don't see the end, we can only imagine what might have happened. However, there is a card Atem hasn't used yet which I imagine would be the card on top of the deck: Pot of Greed.

Option 1 jaden lost and takes it in his stride as a breakthrough that he can enjoy the game again after all he has been through, option 2 he wins and seeing one of his idols accept the loss with a smile on his face he realises you don't have to win them all

Everyone else: BuT WhAT dOEs POt oF GreED dO!? Me, an intellectual: Struggling to comprehend how negate attack works*

I think Jaden loses this duel from purely a narrative standpoint. He has spent the last 3 years with life or death duels, and pretty much every duel in year 3 fit that category, he couldn't lose, or else. Not only does this duel get him to love duel monsters again, I think he lost in the past to help remind him that 99% of the time, losing is okay. I think this duel helped him with what I assume to be trauma from the past year of consistently saying, "I can't lose this or I lose my friends/life/only chance at...etc.

14:15 Yugi is in fact able to do this. Dark Renewal in the TCG might specify the summoning of a DARK Spellcaster, but the anime version's effect just says "Spellcaster", so yeah changing it to "Divine Beast" is indeed enough to summon Slifer.

I always find myself coming back to this video, because it breaks down one of my favorite duels in such a great way. Excellent job on the video

"Everyone plays their cards face up in defense" Yuma's Gogogo Golem wants to have a word

Neither won the duel was interrupted by Yusei after he comes out of a portal and says he needs them because something is coming Bonds beyond time 2

These videos are so great 🤩

Honestly, his ending walk-off really only makes sense if he lost. Because it means his journey isn't over yet and he still has more to learn and grow from. Which would be nice because he had a feeling of stagnation in the final season. This gives him purpose again.

I mean i wouldnt say its yugi in his prime, id say his prime is the fated duel when he beat atem, as he curbstomped the god cards.

Remember how yami could call what card he was gonna draw, by changing destiny or something like that, yeah my money is on yugi

This is just like in _Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin_ when in order to be able to fully use the Vampire Killer whip, Johnathan Morris had to defeat the soul of the last and strongest person to wield the whip (being Richter Belmont). The battle isn't so much a victory per say, but more of an acceptance of equals. Johnathan proves himself just as powerful as Richter and is thereby the Whip's rightful heir. Same with Yugi and Jaden here. To be the King of Games, Jaden has to compete against the last individual to hold that title (being Yugi/Atem). The match isn't so much about victory per say, but rather an acceptance as equals. Jaden proves himself to be just as powerful as Yugi and is thereby the rightful next King of Games.

Honestly, I'd love a self destruct button draw. Just because he pulled that against Zane who was Jaden's first big rival and it had a similar theme (though smaller scale) with Jaden not playing his usual way and through the duel rediscovering himself.

To me it was simplier: Jaden really attacked Slifer and that's when he lost. Because that duel wasn't about winning as Jaden's previous duels were (causing him to become numb on playing). So, he simply brawled out with a *real* god, held by the real King, no matter the result; and that was the "ultimate moment" as Jaden himself stated.

Yugi draws a single Exodia card and wins. "But Yugi doesn't have Exodia or even the number of pieces in hand to win." Heart of the Cards, bitch.

My interpretation of this is that the duel not only stopped for us viewers, but for Yugi and Jaden too so that this duel never really ended

I just found your channel and I must say that I love this type of analysis and content. Very entertaining greetings from Mx

Jaden regained his passion for dueling for fun, so in a sense he still won, even if he lost.

I kind of favor Yugi at this point too. It just makes more narrative sense for Jaden to lose. If he wins, he has accomplished the highest dueling achievement possible, but the purpose of the duel is to return his love of dueling. The most powerful way of doing that would be for him to lose, so he still has goals to strive for. It also thematically fits with him no longer needing to duel to survive. I actually think he straight up did attack into Slifer because he had already gotten what he needed from that duel and was ready to return to the present having regained what he had lost.

Jaden and Yugi either draw, or Jaden loses. Jaden is supposed to symbolize fun in dueling (imo) So having him lose, he can learn that being defeated isn’t going to ruin his life or kill him like he is used to. It’s really a beautiful moment

The shot of "Epic Joey" at the beginning. Already labeled "Best Moment!" 🤣😝

Why can't rival characters ever do something like this

Jaden this is why you dont play 60 different cards in your deck

Could you possibly do a video on whether Atem could've beat Yugi in their final duel? I think it'd be interesting to see your opinion on how the duel could've gone differently.

I find it really interesting you considered Yugi of the past, with the 3 Egyptian god cards and Atemu by his side, to be his prime. I mean, granted, he doesn't have the god cards anymore in present gx, which were powerful assets to his deck for sure, but the older Yugi of present gx was, after all, the one who managed to defeat Atemu with the 3 god cards in the ceremonial duel on his own. So Yugi proved to be even stronger than Atemu and deserved the title of "king of games". Despite being down 3 of his strongest cards, I personally think that his greater amount of experience and strategic knowledge would have made adult Yugi an even more dangerous opponent. Now, I would have loved to see THAT duel! Great video though, your detailed insights were so helpful and entertaining! I've always been curious about this specific duel and not knowing the outcome has irked me for years. Your video helped me scratch that itch :D

The anime really focused on Yugi only using Slifer even though he had all 3 god cards to give another connection to Jaden due to him being a Slifer Red student

Man, season 4 of GX is one of the greatest seasons in all of Yu-Gi-Oh!.

TGS Anime: "(Archfiend of Gilfer is) The only graveyard effect monster in Yugi's deck." Electromagnetic Turtle: "Dude, uncool. 😢" Also, can confirm that Contact Out can negate Magic Cylinders. My own duel had Hela, Generaider Boss of Doom and Alghoul Mazera on my side, Mazera attacked, opponent uses Magic Cylinder, I activate Hela's quick effect to tribute Mazera and swap for a graveyard zombie monster, and the result was that Magic Cylinder fizzled. Cool trick.

I was just rewatching this video, because I love to rewatch your Dual Analysis videos, and I just realized there was a moment when Jaden could have won the Duel and had a perfect game. When he summoned Sparkman, he could have Equipped it with Impact Flip, then after it destroyed Alpha Yugio would have been forced to send the top card of his Deck to GY, which would have been Gaia, then on his next turn he would have drawn his Beast of Gilford, which he couldn't summon, so he'd have to end his turn, then next turn Jaden would bust out Bladeedge and attack directly with both it and Sparkman for game and he'd win, without losing any of his LP.

Funny thing about this duel is that Code Change could’ve been used to summon Obnoxious Celtic Guard instead but Atem really wanted to show Judai respect.

Imagine thousand kniving a goddamn bubbleman

There is one scenario where it would have ended in a draw, the same card he used when Zane chained Battle Fusion to his Battle Fusion.

I love the analysis of this duel, valid points for both sides and very open to both sides not favoring one over the other. However I would like to just point some things out. Since this is the anime, Slifer has a lot more effects and basically no drawbacks. In the anime slifers second ability actually also reduces defense points and when a god card is summoned no monster can activate an effect. Just thought I’d mention it, amazing video overall mate! Well done!

"Yugi, I'll become much stronger and until that time comes... Thank you, Yugi! Gotcha! That was a fun duel." Jaden lost and that's okay. He spent season 3 and 4 knee deep in death duels with life of his friends on the line. Once a hobby that he greatly loved turned into obligation with failure not being an option. He suffered from PTSD and clearly dueled like his life dependent on it in the last season. Yugi reaching out to him and awakening the long lost feeling of enjoying the game just for the sake of it worked much better for his character and the story than a victory ever could. Jaden was frustrated throughout the duel that Yugi managed to respond to his move, but as time went by his frustration turned into pure child-like glee. He lost, but in the end that clearly wasn't important to him since he loved that he got an opportunity to duel his childhood idol.

But present Yugi would have been the one who defeated even Atem right? So hypothetically, he may not be the most powerful Yugi, but he could be the most skilled.

The battle is symbolic in every sense. But taking into account all the power of both duelists it can go either way. Also while Yugi/Atem have the 3 egyptian gods, Jaden "The Supreme King" has "Super Polymerization" and can be able to strip Yugi of an egyptian god and fuse it maybe with Neos for possibly sick "Egyptian God Neos". Still it's great that we were able to get that brief encounter after it was hinted when he dueled Dimitri and also having them both at the 1st episode.

I started watching GX about a week ago I think and I really like it!

They did us dirty by not releasing the GX movie 🥺

Official Real Ending: Team Rocket shows up and steals Yugi's and Jaden's Deck, however, one card was unaffected by thievery. As team rocket attempted to flee, Yugi's Silfer attacked Team Rockets' balloon and sent them blasting off again. As the cards rained down, both Yugi and Jaden agreed the duel could not continue as the playing state has been altered. Yes, I did more research than TGS Anime did. Don't look at me like that.

This was a great video, I haven't watched Yu Gi Oh in a long time, nor did I know some of these facts. Thank you for your passionate love of the game. Great Channel.

this video really reminded me of my love for the show bro thank you.

My guy, you are awesome when it comes to the analytical side of Yu-Gi-Oh and should play off of that. You are also the only one who does the deep dive research needed to piece together the story of the cards. You are starting to turn out more content which is awesome because when you do turn out content it's always quality. Cheers mate

Here's another idea for one of these Yu-Gi-Oh Analysis video, and it might be the most difficult one; the unseen duel between Yugi and Joey at the end of the Battle City Tournament.

Love the symbolism of Jaden (a slifer red) facing slifer

Perfect video, good vibes 👌

Yugi didn't choose obelisk the tormentor to add to hand by the effect of jaden's magic card because it said "add three MONSTERS from deck..." and obelisk is not a monster... it's a GOD!

I love this type of duel analysis. Breaking down duels and the thought process behind the duelists is an awesome concept. This video got me to sub to you, definitely should make more like this.

I gotta “Um, actually” at about 7:00 here. There used to be a character in this iteration of the anime who sets a flip effect monster: Chumley (Des Koala). So, stopping flip effects can matter, albeit very rarely.

Love the "Sonnenuntergang" instrumental in the background at the start

I'm still in the yugi winning camp. It shows that jaiden has more to learn despite all he went through and its better than just him getting the crown and the show being over

TGS anime, would you consider doing duel breakdowns like this but for duels that we see completed as well? I love the detail and explainations and some games get really confusing with duel action taking the front focus and not game mechanics. Yugi Vs. Dartz still confuses me at multiple stages, and yes I know that it's a filler arc full of ridiculous shenanigans and when you get to infinity points logic is gone. I'm confused too as to why the knights attack the main shinurous monster to weaken it but then Yugi uses mirror force anyways but also only takes small amounts of life point damage attacked the biggest beat stick ever to that point

Another thing about impact flip is that if Jaden equipped it to Sparkman when he attacked Alpha it would of caused Yugi to mill Gaia and be forced to draw Gilfer forcing Yugi to pass and then Jaden draws blade edge use necro grave effect to summon it and then he attacks Yugi for game.

Personally I think if The Duel have been allowed to play to completion we would find Our Heroes ending in a draw with perfectly choreographed coup-de-grace moves that can only happen in the show

A few minor corrections yugi has 3 GY effects in his deck, not 1. The 3 being: Eletrical manteic turtle , beast of Glifer and ( techincally ) Ra 2ndly jaden could not of summoned his neo's fusion in defense mode as slifer's second mouth effect takes 2000 from whatever postion it was summoned in and Since the fusion has 2000 defense points, it would of been destroyed meaning he would of had to summon it in attack mode if he decided to do your play you suggested meaning if we assume he top decks monster reborn he lost using this play. basically he would of either had to summon flare neos purely to get monsters off the field so he wouldn't lose summoning it in defense mode, or summoned it in attack and pray.

Heres what happened, Yugi was about to draw but Jaden gets run over by Yusei who came to play a card game.

13:13 that's true. There's this one time when i play master duel. I chain mirror force to my magic cylinder. After the monster get destroyed, my opponent didn't get any damage after the magic cylinder resolve.

Hypothesis: Yugi giving Jaden the Winged Kurinoh is evidence that he won

Jaden regain his love of dueling while with yugi I am hoping jaden wins.

Something about Yugi's unblinking eyes during some of the scenes here always bothered me. Maybe it is because his are rounded and bigger than Jaden's (and a decent number of GX characters).

Thank you so much for catching that the play to negate Magical Cylinder was 100% legal specifically because its a card that targets. It also won’t work against Blue-Eyes Chaos MAX for the same reason (I learned that the hard way).

I love your channels so cool and I like how you explain all of the Yugioh series and stuff and thank you💯😫💯💯💯💯💯💯

To me the fact that Jaden looks at the sky after the duel and says "I will get stronger" tells me that he lost. Also "successor" does not always mean someone becoming better than the former. It just means he takes over the title, as in maybe Yugi had a wife and some kids and retired...

Please do more of these. It's really fun to relive old duels like this

From a pure analysis POV, this duel is actually 50-50 in terms of how it could end.

Yugi has another card that has a graveyard effect. His electromagnetic Turtle. Although this is a card he seems to randomly side in and out

I do have to say...very underrated Yu-Gi-Oh! moment in the franchise. Yugi and Jaden - who have become so used to dueling for the fate of the world and all took a look at themselves and just...laughed. Honestly a really heartwarming moment that I think a lot of us missed out on initially. I'd argue that scene is in my top three moments in the franchise. Gotta be honest, tugged at my heartstrings to see my boys laughing and having fun.

Let's be real the card Yugi would draw would be pot of greed though I'm not sure what it does...

I believe it would be a draw, with both realizing they just used their last cards after the kiribo ordeal tou suggested, only forgetting because of how much fun they were having, which is actually the best way to end it in all honesty, as it both keeps the ambiguity of who's better, doesn't involve exodia, and would really drive home the point of the duel, with both losing because of a simple mistake regarding how much fun they were having.

9:56 You could say that he's turned into a real *Wiseman*

Imagine Yugi playing against a modern deck lmao

I think, given the words Jaiden says after the duel cliffhanger, it implies that he lost, as he says he'll get stronger and challenge him again. I can be wrong, just what I got from the feel of the mood in the final scene.

Hey Sam you shine a great light in the Yugioh community with these duel analysis. I love the technical aspects yes, but you also go into a lot of details relating to the story, like calling Noah a hypocrite which I didn't pick up on in the dub. It's also hilarious pointing out the stupidly hyper specific effects used in the anime, like most of zexal's cards. Just pointing out the absurdity of these cards and the combos they pull off. It's a different kind of magic than watching the duel. It's like a creator's commentary for these duels and how they're scripted. You do good work man and very fun work at that. There are probably a billion duels on your list to cover, and I know Vrains is probably the biggest headache as even the guy who scripted Soul Burner's duels said it was tough due to how good an archetype Salamengreat was, and how to make it struggle. I'd say the main one from Vrains I'd want to see would be their ceromonial duel, Soulburner vs Revolver. Either that or Yusei vs Jack in their final duel, just cause of that iconic combo at the end.

I'd love to have seen jaden get out Wiseman neos and then finally divine neos. But yugi/atem manages to get the egypuan gods back and summon them all, with the duel being won by playing horakhty. You could even have yugi refer back to his first 'real' challenging duel against kaiba and how he won by getting all 5 pieces of the puzzle, like now he has all 4 pieces for the instant win. Idk it's not the best ending but would be kind of cool.

So counting out all the cards drawn and played until the duel is cut short, Yugi and Jaden both have already gone through half their decks. Yugi has drawn 21 cards already and Jaden has drawn 28, not counting his Fusion Monsters since they came from the Fusion deck. We already know for certain that Yugi has all 3 God cards in his deck at the start of the duel and since he has the Ritual Monster version of Black Luster Soldier we can assume he has Black Luster Ritual and he has Valkyrion and Alpha so the other Magnet Warriors should also be in his deck. So we know for certain 25 cards out of his 40 card deck and since he has the God cards we can MAYBE be generous and say we know 28 because a common strategy Yugi uses to summon the God cards is to bring out King, Queen, and Jack's Knight. Over on Jaden's side, let's assume he wouldn't go in without all the other Neo-Spacians since this Duel doesn't happen too long after the Duel with Darkness so we can add all of those Monsters and Yubel. After those cards however it's purely speculation, he could have the Winged Kuriboh LV monsters and Transcendent Wings and that's 2 or 3 cards, or since he had a single support card like Spark Blaster he could have Bubble Blaster and Bubble Shuffle but we just don't know. Either way, we know 33 of Jaden's cards if we're to assume he brought in the other Neo-Spacians and Yubel. Technically Jaden should only have 7 cards left to speculate on you say and Yugi 12, EXCEPT if we're being VERY generous and give the artists the benefit of the doubt here, when Subspace Battle is activated we can see what's left of both Duelist's decks when they pick their 3 Monsters, and counting each card tells us that Yugi and Jaden are playing a 41 and 43 card deck respectively. So we know that Yugi has 13 cards and Jaden has 10 that we can only guess are in their decks, but we can say that comparatively Yugi has a small advantage of getting cards he wants since he has 2 less cards than Jaden. So honestly, in my opinion, I want Jaden to win but I really think Yugi would still win this. Yugi has just a tiny edge over Jaden when it comes to card advantage with just 1 extra card rather than 3 and when I think about it, I feel compared to Jaden that those 13 cards he has could be a lot more suited to his strategy of bringing the God cards out for a fast win while the 10 Jaden has could just be anything considering how often, including this Duel, he uses one off cards that never get played again.

My dream duel has always been Joey vs Jaden. Battle of the underdogs.

I'm not sure if they even had a plan for the final episode when they created episode 1's title, as awe-inspiring as that would be. I doubt show-making is like that. But yeah. Based on the duel, they intended for it to be inconclusive.... & so it is. Anyway, neat analysis! Thanks for uploading!

is cool how the theme of this battle with all the idea of jaiden remember how is play for fun is the same used in season 1 kaibamam vs jaide