Yu-Gi-Oh Conspiracy Theory - Crow's Death in Dark Signers Arc 

I think Leo was supposed to be Greiger’s opponent in the Satellite and not Crow. I think this is also originally where Leo was going to get his Signer Dragon in Life Stream Dragon. Life Stream Dragon’s main effect pretty well counters Greiger’s Reactors and Earthbound Immortal. Greiger’s deck is all about burn, and in the anime, Life Stream Dragon resets your lifepoints back to the starting point of 4000. Yes, we saw Leo duel against Devack while Luna was in the Spirit Realm, but Luna technically won that duel. Leo did most of the work and Luna came back from the Spirit Realm to reclaim Ancient Fairy Dragon and deliver the final blow. In the Dark Signer Arc we never got to see Leo have that big moment and I think that would’ve happened when he dueled Dark Signer Greiger in a Fortune Cup rematch. Leo dueling Greiger in the Satellite instead of Crow also would’ve been a great time to show Leo’s growth throughout the show to that point. From getting trounced by Greiger in the Fortune Cup, going card for card with Devack and almost beating him, to finally defeating Greiger when it mattered the most and finally proving his abilities as a duelist. Had Leo dueled Greiger in the Satellite instead of Crow, I can see a moment happening where Luna tries to jump in and save him only for him to tell her to stay out of it, as the duel is something he has to do on his own.

There is one last thing i want to add Both Yusei and Aki already dueled their respective dark signer opponent before they head together to the sattelite, and Rua dueled Bommer before in the grand prix so you’d think Bommer’s opponent would be Leo as they already have a connection to each other but nope, instead he duels a guy he just met who’s suppossed to be dead

Honestly, I'm not even mad. Crow is a great character, it just sucks that they put Aki aside for that.

I'm almost positive Greiger was shown being freed from Security by Devak during the fall of the Arcadia Building. This was 5 episodes even before the mist came and killed everyone

I think Crow was meant to be a recurring supporting character: either to bring trouble or support the main group (sort of like Manabu in some ways for a recent comparison). However, something changed in the production of 5Ds that made Crow become more than a secondary character and even bring a retcon to the story that 5Ds set out from the beginning of the series. While there are "justifications" for saying that Aki(za) was going to lose her relevance as 5Ds progressed, that doesn't explain why they left out the twins (Leo and Luna) after the Dark Signer Arc. I think that is a sign that a character has been built with a story in mind, but that, outside of that story, he/she is not a relevant character since they don't know what to do with him/her if he/she were in all the Episodes.

Great vid! I just rewatched this arc and this is definitely my favourite Yu-Gi-Oh conspiracy as all signs point to it being true. I also strongly believe Crow was meant to be a Dark Signer as his boss monster (Armor Master) has lines on him resembeling the Dark Signer's look and his entire deck is themed around dark Winged-Beasts which lines perfectly with the condor Earthbound Immortal. His "death" also happened with him shouting that he won't die in a place like satellite, and dying with resentment and hatred is needed to become a Dark Signer. You could also see that in the duel between Rua and Demak the writers were setting up Power Tool Dragon for something as his armor started to break but it ended up leading to nothing. There are just too much things pointing to this conspiracy being true. I LOVE this arc but I can't stop thinking about what could have been. Just imagine Rua VS Dark Signer Bommer as a revenge match for the fortune cup, only this time Rua IS a signer or Crow being a dark signer with a twisted way to take revenge on the city for what satellite had to endure. It just writes itself.

The only problem I have with the "dark signer crow" theory is that the assumption is that crow was supposed to be the final villain of the dark signers arc, even though that doesn't really make a lot of sense. I think that what would've made more sense would have been to make roman the final boss of the arc. There were already a lot of signs that pointed to roman being the final boss of the arc. The thing that introduces the dark signers is when yusei and jack see the vision of the spider mark during the duel in the fortune cup. Roman is the one who possesses people with his spiders (which are the first conflicts any characters have with dark signer type characters) and he turned greiger into a dark signer. Roman's also the one who really set the plot in motion by causing the ener-D reactor to go critical, releasing the earthbound immortals. And he also has a personal beef with Yusei not only because of his history with Yusei's father, but also because roman basically killed yusei's friends and mother figure. So make Roman the final villain, have crow die when he gets engulfed in the smoke, giving him the condor sign. Have greiger duel leo, and that's how leo gets life stream dragon and becomes a signer (another comment pointed out that leo having a rematch with greiger would work really well because greiger's deck is based around burn and life stream dragon is based around life point restoration) and have yusei duel against crow. Or maybe even have yusei and jack team up to beat crow. Having the two of them team up to save their friend would be really good moment for the both of them. I love the dark signers arc as it is, but it's pretty clear that (much like 5ds as a whole) poor planning holds it back in some areas. And I (much like many fans) would really like to know what the initial plan for the dark signers arc was, because it's pretty clear that there were some substantial changes along the way

I never expected Crow to have as much importance as he eventually did when I was watching the show subbed as a teen, I always got the vibe he'd be somewhat of a gag character like Hassleberry or Bastion.

Not sure if this counts, but... What do you think of Zane's heel turn being randomly ended in Season 3 from everything to him getting rid of Mr Shroud almost instantly, to Zane never dueling Jaden after his duel against Syrus?

I'm probably gonna get flooded with comments detracting this, but I can see how Crow should've been a Dark Signer based on the final duel between Yusei Jack and Crow vs Godwin. The duel felt clunky and very repetitive for Godwin while the protagonists just played cards and said "trust me bro". Even Godwin's Synchros Sun Dragon Inti and Moon Dragon Quilla felt like they were meant for Crow; the sun dragon light attribute represents Crow's life of trying to raise the children, the dark attribute to represent the darkness of Satellite/becoming a signer. But even the Earthbound Immortal used "Wiraqocha Rasca" is a Winged Beast Dark Attribute monster. Gee, I wonder who uses Winged Beasts that are Dark Attributes? (Even the potential combo of Rasca's effect + Armor Master (anime) Wedge Counters sounds like an op endgame strategy for Yusei to overcome.) But jokes aside, the cards and how they flow fit Crow, especially since the main strategy of Blackwings both in the anime and irl are about flexibility in summoning and always keeping the field replenished while oppressing your opponent. Crow has synchro summoned by raising/lowering levels, summoned w/ one card, synchro using a synchro, even synchro summoned with monsters from the grave. The cards of Godwin SCREAMS Crow and his battle styles given by the writers.

Crow pulled an Indiana Jones. 😂

Crow was definitely changed. Aki was the third shown various times while leo was gonna join up and get his dragon as we see in the anime and flashback before they changed it to black wing. That's the only problems i have with 5ds signer arc but what we got out of it was still pretty epic overall and made sense crow would help at the end ws aki wasn't a driver yet.

@Yugioh Everything I loved the video! I was also here to let you know I found a dubbing error I thought you would like you know about. In Yugioh VRAINS Season 2 episode 18 (compare to Episode 64 in Subbed) at 15:29 Playmaker performs the link summon of Gaia Saber, The Lightning Shadow. He lists off the correct conditions and the right link animation goes off however Playmaker’s voice over says “I summon Link 2” not Link 3. I don’t know if you knew this already but thought it funny as I have been making my way through the dubbing of my favorite Yugioh series. Have a great day everyone!

I remember watching 5Ds as it aired and noticed how Crow always seemed to have really weird moments of being absent in certain scenes where he should be in with the other characters; I personally wonder if some of these scenes were animated BEFORE it was decided that Crow survived (or would be present for these scenes). The one that stands out the most is when Yusei is battling Rudgar, Crow is absent from Luna's protection but is still fairly close to the duel and likely within the Geoglyth's area of effect (doesn't even make sense for him to wonder off while going down or that nobody would notice or care that this happened) but he is somehow fine and is even able to give Yusei a big pep talk during this scene? Always thought that that was weird.

His va sure loves to play dying characters Next theory the arc v timelines and what actually is happening

Very interesting Dylan! I always wondered how Crow survived when everyone else didn't. Even by anime standards, it makes virtually no sense that he just somehow pops out a refrigerator and is fine.

This is just my take, but since as others have mentioned below Bomber was set up before he appeared, and his grudge against Goodwin started all the way back in the grand prix, I think Crow was always meant to *eventually* become a Signer... but Leo was supposed to do it first. Leo had dueled, and lost to, Bomber before, the dragon Luna dreamt about was Leo's dragon... Crow still has history and was friends with Yusei as a kid, and more of Crow's backstory and dragon show up in season 2. So I think its less he got amped up and more Leo got pushed down.

Definitely a cool theory. If I recall correctly, you're reborn as a Dark Signer if you also have some sort of vengeance to fulfill - I wonder what Crow's would've been if he had turned into a Dark Signer after perishing in the dark mist. Another interesting 5D's theory to look at could be whether Z-one was "intended" to actually be Yusei's future counterpart.

Why no Fire Dragon? Why backpedal on Z-ONE being an alternate-future Yusei? The "Kotori must be in EVERY episode" theory. Yuya v. Yugo? Why the forgotten chess pieces? Why Goha Yuga dropped like he was?

Here’s a conspiracy theory video that could be a future video: the mystery towards the Mole for VRAINS. Who is this person who seems to be the inside to help Aoi’s brother?

I feel the show would of been better if Crow just died and never become a main character, because the moment he became a main character in the show it was when the quality of the show story went down quite a bit and crow just drags things down with most of his mediocre episodes that could of been better used to develop and give Akiza, Leo and Luna characters time to shine in the show so how I see it was one of the biggest mistake the writers have made by making Crow a main character

All your points are completely valid, expect for one thing. The Blackwing archetype released as 5Ds was airing, and the whole season finished production before it started airing, this is how all media works. Are you telling me that Blackwings became the most popular archetype ever in 21 days and they said "Scrap all the animation! We´re spend the entire week reanimating the next 20 episodes!"? This whole thing gets even weirder when you consider all the points that you brought up. Maybe they were trying to get us to think Crow was gonna be a Dark Signer, so then people would make RU-vid videos and Reddit threads about it, thus getting Konami free publicity.

This is definitely a classic theory from this series. I honestly didn’t even think about the black mist and how it killed people almost instantly. But I do now believe that the popularity of the Blackwings ruined the perfect chance for Rua’s arc to come full circle. One theory I always had since the final arcs of ZEXAL is Yuma being related to Don Thousand because Don Thousand looks like an adult Yuma with his hair down and gold instead of black. Sure, Astral and Yuma are revealed to be one and the same and Number 96 being from Don Thousand, but we have no information on how that one non-Number part of Astral (Yuma) had not been discovered by Don Thousand the moment he was born or how he came to be born on Earth to begin with. How did they even get to Earth, and wouldn’t Yuma bear more resemblance to Astral if only 96 was the piece of Don Thousand? Do you think that maybe Yuma was supposed to be Don Thousand and they changed it because they went halfway into the final arc “This sunshine boy can’t possibly the incarnation of something so evil!”?

Wait so does that mean that originally theyd planned to have Leo become signer 5 after Rex loses the right? And hed have gained Lifestream Dragon THAT much earlier? Man, they really must have changed a LOT about the finale if thats what theyd planned to do before they suddenly got told to make Crow a more important character just a few episodes before said finale...

here is the thing about crow which is very interesting, because I do believe that crow was supposed to be the main villain of the dark signer's arc. he showed up, was a cool guy to yusei, and tied to his backstory. rex godwin eventually became the villain of the dark signers arc BUT i actually think he was supposed to be the main villain of the entire show. there was so much build up to him but him being the main villain of the dark signers arc seemed rushed. having godwin be the final villain of the entire series and having crow as the final villain of the dark signers arc that can eventually return to being human and join the team makes better sense. BUT there is another reason why i think crow would of been the dark signer leader. when it was godwin he used an earthbound immortal called wiraqocha rasca which was a condor, I.E. a big flipping bird that would of been perfect for crow. the other earthbound immortals were based on the spider, hummingbird, monkey, lizard, giant and killer whale. with this in mind we can see there is already a bird in the hummingbird so godwin also having a bird means either they just wanted another bird or they planned the bird for crow and then put godwin as the main villain. the condor does not fit godwin like it fits crow, and furthermore there are better nazca line picks for godwin if he was intended to be the leader. if godwin was always going to be the final dark signer then he should of been given the dog or snail to make himself different, or probably the biggest missed opportunity in the entire show, give him the tree. IMAGINE rex summons the tree and it just takes up most of the city then yusei and rex have a riding duel ONTOP of the tree so they are going around tree branches and doing jumps. do you know how cool that sounds?

This is honestly so trippy to see that crow survived that mist, that shouldn't have been possible. Thinking about these conspiracy theories are so fascinating to hear and I always love thinking about 'what if' in these ideas, the endless possibilities really get me going. Great video, my man, can't wait to see more from this series! :)

If he did turn into a Dark Signer, would his deck then turn from "Blackwing" to "Darkwing"?

At this point Dylan should write his own fan alternative dark signer arc with crow as a dark signer and leo getting his mark/life stream earlier

I am gonna make a video about this conspiracy but... The influence of some 5Ds fans between the showrunners in the Arc-V anime helped to ruin the show. Let me explain: Scarlight was not meant to be in the Arc-V main booster series (you can see that Jack is the ONLY one to get a cover in Arc-V main series, every other booster only have the Yu boys' monsters on the cover). Also, the Odd-Eyes Arcray Dragon plot (merge the Dimensional Dragons with the 4 nature cards into one) was meant to be real since the middle of the show but it was discarded due to lack of time wasted in the Synchro Dimension. So, Z-ARC was not supposed to be in the main booster series as well and the Odd-Eyes Venom and Odd-Eyes Wing would be in the cover of the main series (Nirvana High Paladin only exists because of these 5Ds fans between the showrunners). This is my conspiracy theory and I think it is pretty solid due to these points :v

The fridge is so strong that can save you from death

The major counterpoint for this id say is that Devack is shown capturing Bommer from Security during the Carly vs Divine and Aki Vs Misty round 1 episodes, so they were clearly planning Bommer to do something with him, tho it couldve been to have Lua fight him and awaken then?

Crow stealing Yusei’s D-Wheel sounds like Jack at the beginning of the show

Aki wouldn't be in the duel because it was a turbo duel. So it'd be just Yusei & Jack VS Crow. Aki would still get sidelined.

I got for a theory: was yugi supposed to defend his title as game master even after the battle city tournament?

Imagine if Crow was the Dark Signer Leo had to face, and Leo’s Signer Mark, which was supposed to be the Head, or Tail if Yusei gets the Head, instead gets the Heart Sign and uses it to save Crow from dying after losing the Duel. And then to redeem himself, he goes on to duel with Yusei and Jack against Rex in the final battle, and earns the Tail Mark, making CROW the Sixth Signer (in order of obtaining his mark). Thoughts?

This theory sounds about right I assumed he came back because Deva lost and all the spirits were free and I assumed that crow soul was one apart of Diva earthbound so when he lost Crow came back

Crow just pulled off DSoD Kaiba lmao

My theory is that the crimson dragon realised that Leo was not a good duelist and then he saw Crow otk 3 people at the same time he said "Man that is kinda cool" and then he just made him a signer. By the end of 5ds i bet the dragon was having a panic attack because Leo almost ruins the duel against aporia but then he made a good play, gave him a signer mark and Life stream dragon.

Here’s the thing it’s hard to say if crow dying and coming back as a dark signer is really hard to buy because he had no reason to hate any other signers on like every other dark signers

Crow was definitely supposed to be the final dark signer. I mean look at Goodwin's earthbound immortal. It looks like a Phoenix/Bird. This was probably supposed to be Crow's earthbound monster.

I always thought crow was supposed to be a dark signer and use the hummingbird earthbound, most of the earthbound immortals colors match the duelist and hummingbird matches crows

I've heard one Idea was Leo and Luna wouldn't of had the split duel againest Devak, Luna would have just dueled him by herself and after she won Greiger would had shown up as a dark signer, Luna would be to tired to have another duel so Leo steps up to duel him to protect his sister and gaining his dragon in the duel. While the Leo vs Greiger duel is happening Yusei would drive to help after seeing the whale mark in the sky, and Crow would have under the same mind control Trugde was under when he dueled Jack would have duel Yusei to slow him down.

Great theory. In my opinion, Leo should have became the 5th Signer and got his Life Stream Dragon at the beginning of the show and Dark Signer arc instead of Crow. Even though the staff changed alot for the Dark Signer arc and Crow in 5Ds, it was still a great series and Crow was a top-notch duelist for 5Ds

Considering that Goodwin Earthbound Immortal was a bird, he dueled while standing and didnt use a single spell during a Speed Duel, it does feel like Crow would have been the final antagonist. I mean, how is hiding a fridge supposed to help? Its not a bomb! Not to mention how his inclusion in the final duel seemed odd. Yes, it was a Riding Duel, but i think Crow was the only one who used Speed Spells, so why not make it a Master Duel and include Aki? But when you think about Crow being the final opponent, it would have made sense story wise, especially when you consider his two opponents were Yusei and Jack, two characters that werre opposite of one another and slowly worked together.

You're missing one big thing though: in order to become a Dark Signer you gotta have a grudge against someone. Rudger has a grudge against Yusei's dad. Kiryu has a grudge against Yusei. Misty has a grudge against Aki. Carly has a grudge against Divine. Bomber has a grudge against Godwin. Crow doesn't have a grudge against anyone before that episode.

If we look at the ending view with the scrap heap the signers are on top and all dark signers under them. I would say it counts where the feet are, Crow is above Rex but below Leo and Luna and Crow is also looking down. A interesting aspect: Since the book says that he seems to be one who would steal Yuseis D-Wheel maybe that is the reason why Yusei vs Roman was standing duel? Because Crow stole Yuseis D-Wheel? And about the signer dragons: All signer dragons have a different attribute except Red Demons Dragon and Black Feather Dragon - both are Dark! It's clear for me that Crow was supposed to be a Dark Signer.

While Crow's role and prominence in the 5D's story was obviously changed I don't think he was ever really intended to become a Dark Signer and I don't think it would have been a good idea if he did become one because 1. He doesn't really have anyone that he seeks revenge on, unlike the other Dark Signers 2. Crow turning evil wouldn't really be all that impactful because was just barely introduced and 3. Having an old friend of Yusei's turn evil would just be retreading the same ground as Kiryu

Imagine kalin and crow vs yusei and Jack in a turbo tag duel

Yeah, Godwin was an obvious villain from the start. The missing arm was revealed before we even knew what a dark signer was. So I can't see Crow being the final villain. I definitely buy the idea he was supposed to take Bommers spot as a dark signer though.

I think a big question you didn't include in this discussion is "What Crow's Earthbound Immortal would've been?" I can't see it having been the whale one, "Chacu Challhua". That just doesn't fit him as a character or the theme of his deck very much.

Hey Dylan ! Hope you're gonna like this theory cause I find it truly insane and it comes from one of my friends, so all credit to them for all the thoughts they put into this. So it's about Astral in Zexal and how he was supposed to be nothing more than a weapon for his world. Starting from his name, Astral, being just the one of his world, as if he had no identity other than being from that world. If you were to create the perfect duelist, what would you give them ? Hands, to grab the cards and a body to be visible and fight (Kinda too bad no one on Earth can see him). Intellect, great analysis capacities, a strategic and rational mind, no more than that. And that's exactly what he is when we meet him for the first time, cold and boringly rational. He just remembers his name and how to duel and needs nothing more to survive. Speaking of surviving, notice how he didn't even fear death. He, of course, couldn't die because it would mean failing his mission but that doesn't mean he feared death. As he and Yuma gather the Numbers, we're supposed to be revealed his past. But it never happened. What did we see exactly ? How he was born - from what seems to be a bubble - and that he went at war against Don Thousand. We didn't see a moment of childhood, a glimpse of his world, a happy memory, nothing. Why ? Because he actually doesn't have a life outside of being a weapon. And a disposable one, at that considering that Eliphas was ready to kill him when he judged him incapable of finishing his mission because his heart was "stained". Stained by what ? All the emotions he learnt to have by evolving on Earth and by Black Mist's chaos. Last but not least, his design itself ressembles nothing like people from his world. He's completely deprived of sexual characteristics and doesn't wear clothes to hide them. By that, I mean that Ena is seemingly feminine by her breast and dress, Eliphas wears an armor that covers him completely and the astral people we see are all covered. All but one, the one nobody should consider as being part of the astral people if Astral is indeed a weapon. I think more people deserve to know that theory because it just makes so much sense and once you've heard about it, you kinda can't unsee it ? So I'd really be so happy to have your thoughts on this, if not a whole video where you present it to us ! 👋

You know, I'm gonna say it: I think Crow surviving and becoming a good guy was worth it. No, I don't like how Aki and Leo got shafted (mostly) until the last arc of the show, but Crow's writing after coming back was worth them scrapping the original plans. What I would've done to keep both Crow and Leo relevant is still give Crow the fight against Bommer, and move Black-Winged Dragon's origin story to that episode, while making Devack just a bit harder and longer. Make Luna join in the Duel and about to be defeated, and Leo's persistence brings out Life Stream Dragon, keeping both alive and allowing them to reverse the duel on Devack. "But how would Crow survive"? Simple: BWD keeps him alive. If anything, BWD's effect of absorbing effect damage and turning back on its foes makes some logical sense as to why Crow could still be around, and fits in well with his character arc. No, its not clean, as Crow pretty definitively should've died in episode 41 or so. Like, dude should be flat out dust and echoes until the signers beat Godwin and bring everyone back. But I still think that Crow adds a lot to the cast of 5D's and the overall plot points should've been kept. I don't think at least in S2 Aki has any less of a story being told because of Crow's existence, so I don't think he'd take away from that. If anything, during the WRGP arc I'd have Team 5D's lose the fight against Team Unicorn, and then Aki brings out a comeback duel in a loser's-bracket styled qualifier that allows Team 5D's to progress (potentially VS Sherry's team, that would've been an amazing duel) to the finals. I'd probably do it by having Team Unicorn get taken out of the fight by Team Catastrophe and a special match be held to see who progresses to the finals.

I think the original plan was for Bomber and Lua to have their rematch. Lifestream directly counters Bomber's burn strategy, and as for why Crow got bumped up...I mean, my guess is, since Lifestream is a tuner synchro, maybe Konami and the writers were having a back and forth on whether they'd have it on LS or not, they couldnt decide in time so they amped Crow up

good to see you back dylan. glad that your surgery went well.

I do believe this to be the case and ill also make the argument that crow was indeed a dark signer in the anime we got. In Z-ones timeline. Ive been rewatching 5ds as of late and something stuck out to me during one of Z-ones flashbacks, the historical records of the dark signer events that made Yusei a hero, show nothing of Rex Godwin or his earthbound immortal. Its just deadass not present at all. Given that we also know lifestream dragon was the original 5th signer dragon that battled the king of the underworld, ive come to the conclusion that Yliastser are the in universe reason that ks responsible for this change via their meddling.

Here's my 5Ds conspiracy theory for you: Red Nova being a Earthbound Immortal. When you think about it, we saw all of the Earthbound Immortal monsters appearing in the anime, but not Red Nova. In fact, we never had a card for him right after 5Ds ended

I think certain parts of the theory are right but not others I thibk it goes without saying that Crow was meant to die and others have already pointed out how Life Stream Dragon was probably meant to be summoned in the duel against Bommer/Grieger. Akiza, Jack, Yusei and Luna all had a Dark Signer who was their personal failing and Grieger was clearly meant to be Leo's. That leaves the two "bosses" the goodwins and theres no part of me thar belives Rex Goodwin wasnt always meant to be the big bad. I think Crow became a popular enough character in the writing team that his death and signer status were changed but I think he was never meant to be a Dark Signer. Edit: especially since the manner that Crow gets his dragon is weird, it's just IN his bike after the Dark Signer arc

Not to mention crow and rally in tag force 4 are complete monsters in that game

I've hated Blackwings since 2009. Crow being shoehorned into the spotlight with his useless chicken at the expense of Rua was just salt on the wound.

Dark Signer!Crow has some pretty cool potential to be an Au. Don’t think it would have happened in canon but fun to think about. Now I will say that Crow being the fifth Signer came out of nowhere when it was clearly meant to be Rua but I wouldn’t honestly mind it if Crow did eventually became a Signer. I remember seeing 5DS for the first time and thinking that maybe Rua will be the next Signer before I even know who Crow was. Thanks to spoilers though, I now know who was the fifth Signer

Don’t forget, the sludge monster summoned by Rex during the duel heading for the city looks like corrupted black winged dragon

Honestly I definitely can agree on this theory it wouldn’t surprise me if crow did die it’s crazy none of the 5ds cast died I’m talking about the main characters not side characters like Carly and misty

Well, I think peronsallly bomber was supposed to be Rua’s opponent. They dueled already, so we have the rematch storyline here, and bombers thing is to deal burn damage (and destroy). What does life stream dragon do? Block effect damage. Who else would rua duel? Ruka would’ve gotten to duel dvack on her own, and if rua would’ve been a signer he wouldn’t have shared a duel. It didn’t just push rua to the side, but aki and ruka too

I agree it is sus. But i really like crow and my favorite deck is blackwings so im glad ge got to have a more significant role in the show.

When I saw that episode I was freaking out about that. The whole chosen new signer and signer dragon thing made me confused

Random Fridges > Plot Armor

The fact the final earthbound immortal is a bird tells me everything i need, black winged dragon maybe was his dark synchro

I’ve really never understood the insane hatred some people have for Crow. He’s not my favorite 5Ds character or anything but… he’s pretty cool, there’s nothing wrong with him. I really don’t see anything that egregious about his character that warrants some people writing whole paragraphs of text on Reddit about how he completely ruined the series.

Not sure if this counts as a conspiracy, but I heard that there was supposed to be a GX movie, which was later cancelled and replaced with the Domino City arc

I'm conspiracy theory is that Yugi and/or Pharoah gave Joey Time Wizard at the beginning of Duelist Kingdom cause he knew it would synergize well with baby Dragon and become a go to strategy but that Time Wizard worked better with Dark Magician and he did this to eventually knock Joey out of the tournament

Where's the redit thread that debunks crow being a dark signer

next conspiracy theory i've been peddling for a while: the light of destruction was never actually defeated in gx, so 5ds is the future where it won in the end while zexal was the opposite. remember that darkness, not the LOD, was the final boss and how he foreshadowed all the other yugiohs? there is so much i could say about this

Wiraqocha Rasca, the final Earthbound Immortal, was a giant black-winged monster. Thats all I'm gonna say.

Looks at Goodwin's Earthbound Immortal... A Giant Dark WingBeast Monster that takes the form of a large Carrion Bird Crow uses a Deck made almost exclusively out of Dark WingedBeast Monsters... Coincidence... I THINK NOT!

My favorite ygo conspiracy: arc v ending.

Even looking at that "fridge" it looks like it was edited in like 4kids censorship Great theory Crow should have died, him living had negative effects on 2 of the main characters

I can believe crow was meant to die and become a dark signer but i feel there big bad is a bit of a stretch, theres no denying leo and luna got screwed over in this show though

One thing I don't think I notice a lot of people talking about in regards to if Crow was actually the final villain in the Dark Signers arc, is...what's the final duel gonna be like then? Obviously Crow, Jack and Yusei would be in it, but who takes Crow's spot on the signer's side? Nobody else has a D-Wheel except Trudge (and you are not telling me he is dueling in the final duel), Rua and Ruka don't get their D-Boards until next season from Luciano. Part of me theorized potentially Rua duels as the third member and just rides like off to the side of Jack's D-Wheel, kinda like how the twins were hanging when they were all riding with Jack to the second Yusei Gear in the final arc. And that he gets knocked off from Rasca's effect making him unable to continue, if that kind of plan kept in action. Rua could end up getting the signer mark here, or as people have mentioned, against Bomber, I could see it happening either way. Could be more theories as well if anyone has any. Oh yeah also interesting fun fact: Life Stream Dragon doesn't stop Rasca's effect in the anime, setting a player's LP to a value isn't actually effect damage.

Crow and Kalin as dark reflections to Yusei and Jack would’ve been awesome we could have even had a team Satisfaction tag duel

If he’s the dark signer boss where would that put the Godwin brothers and how would it change the zero reverse tragedy ?

i do believe he was supposed to be a dark signer but not the final boss. but in my head cannon i make the reason for the change the Iliaster time shenanigans

I am glad he is still around and kicking

the fridge thing reminds me of the ending to Sasukes fight with Dadara in Naruto Shippuden

I have a very special one I always people talking about how Anna was supposed to be the main girl in zexal but kotomi got her place instead because of voice actor company and became she play the game But I never saw any source on this

Arc-V has a ton of conspiracy theories like the Zarc design and Synchro arc stalling. Vrains definitely had some dropped plot points regarding Queen and the SOL Tech "traitor" that could be expanded on as well .

I do believe that Leo's story was changed as well. He already had what looked like a Signer Dragon in the form of Power Tool Dragon yet said dragon was never counted as being part of the "Signer Dragons" and there was no foreshadowing to it evolving into Life Stream. For all we know Life Stream was supposed to be Crow's dragon yet it got swapped for Black Feather thanks to how good Crow's archetype was.

For me I think Crow's change was much more closer to swapping signer reveal with Lua, since while the very first showing of the Heart in Stardust Accelerator was just after 51 setting 6 signers by end fairly early it must have been in development for considerably longer than not just the mere weeks between Black Fog and Crow's return but much more around the time Crow himself was first introduced given what it covers. He would have also fit being last revealed as a main char being the last to be signer AND last to have Dragon show up in Flashback while being one of the few with Turbo Duel riding skills keeping him very relevant in general and in multiple duels to prepare reveal. So for me he was either meant to dip out for a while (since he really didn't meet condition to be Dark Signer if he died and also fit much more as lovable rogue at worst char) and be part of crew later, or still survive on latent Signer power against fog as foreshadowing (as active signer powers have protected from such stuff before) and either fight the least established Dark Signer in Demak of still being behind the rest like Lua was or if it was still 5 v 5 + Roman as final fight help Lua, setting him up as inspiration/mentor too linking to ending. With then the big change being the final Roman battle would be just Yusei and Jack to have it be the regular rivalry team up with expanding a duel for more time not being too hard to do of "add another jobber" or "add a few more filler turns". Since really big rewrites are pretty hard to do within a show of that size and time crunch when going by weeks (see how Opening spoilers often lock stuff in for anime even if made purely as anime) alongside how general directions for chars are fairly well set BUT swapping two characters in the same rough path to push the Older and cooler one to spotlight earlier isn't as hard. Really his push forward could have come from their basic plans for the future, knowing how long the show will run but going arc by arc in writing except certain big things that a big reveal to reward long term viewers or general goals like Lua becoming pro Turbo Duellist in distant finale, where Turbo Duel use is more important and he works better being set up faster compared to the kids, since affect one twins development affects both. The far stronger big change I think happened in 5Ds is Z-One actually being some future Yusei since it fits in quite a few ways and the different story of 5Ds manga treats Z-one as a possible Yusei future and the amount of work needed to change course is not just far easier than turning Crow evil but even easier than my theory of two signers swapping relevance to keep the perfect Yusei image. Though probably a much more background change in having a face reveal be something big but going back on initial idea just after finalising design quite a bit earlier in arc while having time to explain it away properly yet still being noticeably weird it occurs.

a theory could be why there are not protagonists in arcV, another could be why the Yusei from the Zone time line has a different dragon(Cosmic Blazar Dragon)

totally unrelated, but has anyone played the ghost girl event at duel links and ended up getting mind-blowed?

There is one thing that you missed Dylan. His Blackwings designs look VERY south america inspired and guess where the Nasca lines are located? Correct in south america. But thats not even the most important part here. In the final duel against Godwin the Underworld King that attacks the Signers summons some of his minions. Black birds that look EXACTLY like Crows Blackwing Monsters. I mean if Wiraqocha Rasca isnt a dead give away already, THIS is! Like you said Takahashis memos for Crow say something completly diffrent from what we see in the show. Im VERY sure that he wasnt even supossed to duel while Yusei is present before the black mist. His design, the prison markings on his face originally were supposed to be his dark signer markings. Because lets be honest for what reason would he have 2 prison markings? No other charackter has more than one.

I like to think the crimson dragon choose to evolve black-winged dragon into a signer dragon. So maybe crimson dragon also somehow granted some slight protection to crown in that moment as well.

im kinda in the middle with this one. like, yes i do believe crow was meant to die and become a dark signer, but i dont believe he was meant to be the boss or top dark signer.

Can't believe crow pulled an Indiana jones

Your archetype being popular in the OCG - The ULTIMATE plot armor. So much so that it made a very clear moment of death become null and void. It's blatant that Crow was never supposed to be a signer. They changed it mid-season.

If I recall, you had an older video talking about a Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal episode that got dropped. The superior 8 I believe

Here’s one that I like and is my personal head canon: When Zarc split into 4 people (Yuya, Yuri, Yuto and Yugo), he took the “best duelists” souls from each dimension into the Yu-boys, to make sure he is never defeated. Yuya = Yugi Yuri = Jaden/Yubel Yugo = Yusei Yuto = Yuma

I remember tha boy. 😅 When leo play against one of dark signer. What the heck.. ( dark signer monkey guy)😅😂😂😂

The best theory i heard was that the old writers were leaving and one of the new writers was a fan of crow. This explains why the cult stuff was removed and got replaced with saving the future time travel.

He was clearly supposed to be a minor antagonist/side character from the beginning but the popularity of his deck changed things, for the worse in my opinion. Him being the final boss of the arc is, honestly, nonsense. I don't know how people came to that conclusion, that would be like saying Keith would be the final boss of Duelist Kingdom.

They Indiana Jones-ed it?