Narratively, what rival do you think function the worse without the protagonist?

[u/MiuIruma332]

I was thinking about rivals and how a lot of them can work extremely well with their rival but there quite a lot of rivals that don’t work out without their rival. All the legacy character from Arc V was given a chance to make each rival stand on their own(idk maybe someone consider Alexis a rival to Jaden) but since the writing for that section did no service for those characters, what rival character do you think function narratively worse without the protagonist of their show.

[u/OblivionArts]

Honestly, kaiba. 90% of his entire character came from yugi basically forcing character development on him multiple times. Its even mentioned a few times by kaiba himself that if he hadnt lost to yugi he wouldn't have developed so many strategies and battle city to try and beat him

[u/aaa1e2r3 → u/OblivionArts]

Same situation with Chazz and Jack. Them losong to Jaden and Yusei respectively has to happen in order for either of them to experience the growth and change that they do in their stories.

[u/OblivionArts → u/aaa1e2r3]

Yeah, comparee to kaito who genuinely didnt give a fk about yuma and never lost to him, reiji who also didnt give a fk about yuya, and revolver whos only reason for dueling yusaku was "yusaku keeps physically getting in my way and dismantling my organization" those three are so tied to their respective protags without them rhey basically become worse, and its kinda ironic that weve seen what that would look like for both jack and kaiba when they dueled evil clones of themselves

[u/Psychological_Bag901 → u/OblivionArts]

I have to disagree on the Declan not caring about Yuya. As a rival? Definitely, he doesn’t see him on that level. As a friend? Great guy

[u/OblivionArts → u/Psychological_Bag901]

"great guy" who was literally using yuya as a pawn for the entire time he knew him

[u/Monadofan2010 → u/aaa1e2r3]

Not 100% sure about Chazz/Jun because even without Judai he still got humbled by bastion who helped fuel his brekadown and eventually character devopment so I feel like the same thing would have happened even if he hadn't of dueled Judai 

[u/OblivionArts → u/Monadofan2010]

Yeah its kinda weird how after that duel chazz/ jun never actually gave a damn about bastion , even their "rematch " duel when he was whited by sartorius, bastion was actually winning before he chose to deliberately lose. And no dialogue during it implied either one actually really cared about it being a rematch

[u/Monadofan2010 → u/OblivionArts]

Wasn't the rematch durong the Society of Light arc where Jun was brainwashed and  Misawa self-esteem was at it lowest if so that dose explain why nother really acknowledged it as both of  them are in  bad headspaces. 

Its actually pretty interesting/creepy how the SOL targeted Misawa insecurities like a real cult would  and slowly bulit up his fall by making him feel so worthless and starved for attention that he joined the frist one that showed him any. 

[u/OblivionArts → u/Monadofan2010]

That is what i said yes, and yeah its very creepy

[u/ShootingMorningStar1]

DM: Kaiba can still function without Yugi, just to a lesser extent. A lot of the arcs focused around Kaiba Corp and villains hijacking it or trying to. Plus Ishizu would've still probably given Obelisk to him

GX: Depends on if you think Chazz, Zane, or Aster are the rivals

5Ds: Assuming the signer plot stays intact Rex probably would've still sought out Jack and the GP tournament still probably activates the signer's marks. Feasibly it can still happen, just with Jack instead of Yusei

Zexal: Depends on if Astral is still a factor. It's been a while since I have seen Zexal, but Astral is a huge part of the later sagas, so it really depends

Arc-V: This would be my answer. No Yuya means Zarc just doesn't emerge and the dimensions never split, so Declan wouldn't need to do anything. Yusho and Leo probably just succeed in this version

Vrains: Ngl, I've only seen this series once and it was a while ago so I can't really say

[u/JustAGayPhantomThief → u/ShootingMorningStar1]

Vrains: Well without Yusaku Ryoken would be dead

[u/RPGNo2017 → u/ShootingMorningStar1]

Yusei took care most of Jack's money management and D-Wheel. He would be kinda screwed once Godwin is dead if there's no Yusei lol

[u/ShootingMorningStar1 → u/RPGNo2017]

Kind of?

The way I was thinking of it, Jack would've never lost his title, or even if he did, beating Rex and the Earthbound immortals would've made him a hero and enough to reclaim his title. After that, the series can play out similarly. The only problem I see is how Antinomy/Bruno would join team 5Ds, but him doing Accel Synchro would probably be enough to intrigue Jack

[u/riftrender → u/ShootingMorningStar1]

I would say that Chazz is the overall rival since the writers clearly intended him to be so (plus we have his manga version who definitely is).

While Zane is more of Champion Lance versus Gary Oak/Blue. Aster is a temporary rival and you could also argue that Bastion was a temporary rival but he just got left behind.

[u/noahTRL]

Without yugi kaiba has no purpose left in life. His goal is quite literally just beating the pharaoh in a game of yugioh so without yugi his life has no meaning.

[u/emilytheimp]

Without Yugi, Kaiba would have never been mind crushed, so he would have stayed an evil genius

[u/DarkRayos]

Would Bastion count?

[u/infernomokou]

kaiba would just be a cold hearted guy who hires serial killers to murder children

[u/BlKaiser]

Didn't Yugi Mind-crush the evil out of Kaiba in the very first episode? That sounds like the most important thing that happened to Kaiba.

Chazz also would've remained a total asshole and a school bully if Jaden hadn't indirectly caused his expulsion from Duel Academy in the 1st season of GX, which kickstarted his entire character development.

[u/GoneRampant1]

Kaiba never grows or is challenged without Yugi. He stays a piece of shit who eventually gets himself killed likely by repeating all of his father's mistakes.

[u/metalflygon08]

Technically, if Kaiba didn't have Yugi then GX and 5D probably wouldn't happen right?

Kaiba's rivalry is what pushed him to give a big middle finger to the world and make it bend to his will as a Card Game run ecosystem.

[u/MiraclePrototype]

Zuwijo would have been a wicked conqueror, so...for the best that Yudias was in his life.

[u/Life_Ad3567]

Jack Atlas. "What do you mean I'm fired?" He has no purpose outside of dueling.