Primo

Placido is one of the Three Emperors of Yliaster and one of the primary antagonists in the World Riding Grand Prix arc of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. As one of the Three Emperors, he is working on completing the Infinity Circuit. He defected from Yliaster though to attempt to force the Circuit with his own strength by attacking the WRGP preliminaries with the Diablo Riding Roid Army. Yusei Fudo though thwarted the invasion by defeating Placido, and after being repaired started supporting José's plan by joining Team New World. Placido is one of the few left-handed duelists in Yu-Gi-Oh, along with Paradox, Lucciano, and Bruno.

Design
Placido is a man that is appears to be the middle man between José and Lucciano in terns of appearance. He is between their height, and while not old, he is not a child or a teenager either. Under his hood, Placido has red eyes, is pale, has wild and spiky gray hair except for a small bald spot just above his the patch over his eye. Underneath his left eye, Placido has a scar that runs down his cheek. More mysterious though is that underneath his clothes, Placido is mechanical. It is unknown what parts of him could be human.

About average height, Placido, like the other emperors of Yliaster, wears primarily white. He has a gray patch (his covers his right eye) and has a green circuitry-filled gem on the middle of his forehead; it's actually off-center towards the left. Also, he has a white hood as well, but unlike the other emperors, Placido's hood has decorative gray lightning bolts that point backwards like horns. In addition, the other color that Placido primarily wears besides white is black, excluding his gray armor, which covers his shoulders, runs down his back, and has armor plates on both sides of his waists. The piece of armor that runs down his back opens up to reveal a series of ports, which attach to tubes on his D-wheel. His armor on his waist also holds up a white cloak that Placido uses to cover his legs, which are also covered by the thigh high white boots he wears. On his arms, Placido wears arm length black and white arm bands that also have red gems on them.

The most unique aspect of Placido though is his sword, which he keeps at by his right waist (because he's left-handed). Gold with an infinity symbol added between the hilt and the blade, the sword serves to create portals, as a duel disk, and as the key that allows Placido to combine with his Duel Runner: the T-666 Terrible Omen.

After Placido returned from his defeat in 5D's - Episode 117, Placido has a new red mark underneath his left eye painted on, and in 5D's 119, it was also revealed that Placido has a similar red mark to the left of his scar going down his cheek.

The only time that Placido has significantly changed his appearance though is when he went undercover as Lucciano's butler. Although he still had red eyes, his scar, gem, bald spot and patch were all gone, and instead of his usual Yliaster outfit, he wore a black suit with a red ascot. Instead of having wild gray hair, he had short, black hair slicked back.

Personality
Placido's most noticeable quality is strong sense of pride. Taking the assignment of fixing the future serious, Placido worked with all his intelligence to get the job done. However, Placido's pride also leads him to taking actions too far, leading to arrogance, disrespect, impatience, and being short tempered. Of the negative qualities though, disrespect is the most noticeable. Placido refused to follow José or his commands because one of the premises of the plan was that the three emperors, including Placido, were not strong enough to complete the Infinity Circuit on their own. He also disdains humanity as a whole because their unnecessary evolution has created a catastrophic future, and even goes as far to take his rage out on what he believes to be the symbol of that future: Synchro Monsters.

Placido is also short tempered, being easily offended by Lucciano's jeers and threatening Lazar with a sword whenever he steps out of line. Yusei Fudo angers Placido more than anyone though because he interfered with Ghost, Team Five D's thwarting of Hidden Knight -Hook- (which resulted in Placido attacking with the Diablo), and later Yusei received a tablet from Yliaster's God.

One of the more unique aspects of Placido's personality is his adherence to determinism, or the belief that actions are pre-destined to take place. This view feeds his disdain for humanity because he believes that even if humanity wanted to change, they were poisoned with a destiny that humanity could never possibly overcome. Feeling above this poisoned destiny, Placido feels no shame in putting lives in danger or threatening to destroy an entire city because humanity is doomed either way.

The First in Action
Placido first appeared alongside his fellow emperors, José and Lucciano when a tablet crashed outside of New Domino City. Placido was pleased that the tablet belonged to him, and used the opportunity to tell José and Lucciano that they would not get a chance to fight because he do it all. Lucciano grumbled at the prospect, but José commented that he was just glad that the tablets would come to them. But then Sector Security arrived on the scene, including Lazar. José recognized Lazar as the Yliaster operative they were suppose to meet earlier, and Placido is glad because he needs they're help moving the tablet. But Lazar does not recognize them and demands to know who they are, ordering them to clear the scene. Placido though returns the disrespect by pulling his sword and pointing at Lazar's face. Lucciano explains that they're the new directors of Sector Security, and realizing his error, Lazar immediately apologized and complies with Placido's commands. While on site, Placido immediately decided that he would need to test out his new monster.

So to test out his new monster, Placido stole a prototype Riding Roid from Sector Security and took direct control of it and loaded it with his own deck. Placido then began attacking Turbo Duelists at night with the Riding Roid, and the Roid became known as Ghost. After about a week of attacks, Sector Security started hunting for Ghost, and eventually Trudge was found by Ghost, but Trudge lost in a brutal match and crashed. Yusei Fudo, Jack Atlas, and Crow Hogan immediately set out to hunt down Ghost, and Yusei eventually was eventually approached by Ghost. They engaged in a Turbo Duel, which Placido quickly took the upper hand by tricking Yusei into destroying Wise Core, allowing Ghost to summon Machine Emperor Wisel Infinity, and then pushed Yusei into a corner by using Wisel's central effect to absorb Stardust Dragon. Here, Placido revealed through Ghost that he believed Synchro Monsters to be a waste of human evolution, one that he intended to remove from human history. Yusei was confused, but Ghost did not give Yusei a lot of time to think on the matter when he played Wisel Attack 3. Yusei held off Wisel for a couple of turns with Scrap-Iron Scarecrow, but eventually Placido started bypassing it with the trap Battle Return. Yusei was going to lose, but then then he got a last minute help from the Crimson Dragon, allowing him to play Majestic Star Dragon, and Yusei won.

Following the match, Ghost wrecked, but Placido appeared at the crash site before anyone else, retrieved his deck, and glancing at Majestic Star Dragon, promised that this would not be the last time they faced each other.

An Evening to Remember
Placido later reappeared at the WRGP opening dinner with Lucciano and Jose. The three of them remained behind the scenes of the dinner though, watching the guests from a back room. Placido did not understand Jose's plan to use the WRGP participants to fulfill their goals of completing the Infinity Circuit because Placido thought their own strength was enough to force the Circuit to completion. Jose though disagreed, arguing that their strength was not enough, and they needed the participants to complete it. Placido looked away to hide his disgust at the idea that they needed to rely on humanity to complete their work.

The evening though continued, and the party was crashed by Bokuru, who started running his Duel Runner through the party because he thought that Turbo Duels were not meant to be displayed for mere entertainment. Placido at first saw this as the party finally getting entertaining, but after Akiza Izinski chased Bokuru off with her powers as a Psychic Duelist, Placido was disappointed in Sector Security's inability to catch up to Bokuru. So Placido took it upon himself to go after Bokuru and set out on his T-666:Terrible Omen. As he streaked passed Security, since his Terrible Omen was not registered in the Sector Security database, Security concluded that the unidentified duelist was the return of Ghost. Placido meanwhile caught up to Bokuru and challenged him to a turbo duel, and Placido summoned Machine Emperor Wisel Infinity and attacked ruthlessly, ignoring Bokuru's pleas to stop, until he crashed Bokuru into a wall.

Placido returned to Lucciano and Jose following his victory over Bokuru, but when he arrived, a Turbo duel was brought to all three of their attentions. Placido immediately recognized Yusei Fudo because he had defeated Machine Emperor Wisel the first time, but no one recognized the opponent, an unidentified turbo duelist. Placido watched the turbo duel and in the middle of the match, the video feed was lost when the unidentified duelist caused a bright flash of light, which made it impossible to see. None of the emperors saw what happened, but after the feed was restored, they continued watching the match until the unidentified duelist threw the match. Lucciano commented that the whole duel was a waste of time, but Jose realized it was not because the duel had completed a circuit on the Infinity Circuit. This immediately alarmed Placido, who wondered what had happened in that light.

So he decided to ask the source and set out after the duelist. Placido quickly caught up with him and wanted to know what he had just done, but the turbo duelist answered him that he had come to stop them. Placido was shocked that he knew who they were, and demanded to know exactly who he was. The duelist refused to answer, which was an answer that Placido did not like. The unidentified duelist then told him that he would make sure they were undone by the Accel Synchro Summon, which bewildered Placido. Before he could try to get anymore information out of the duelist, the duelist rammed Placido because he was about to run over a kitten in the middle of the road, and as a result, the mysterious duelist lost control of his duel runner and crashed off a cliff and into the ocean. Placido then just shrugged the matter off, assuming the guy to be dead.

Being Lucciano's Butler
Following the WRGP dinner, the three emperors went to their thrones and monitored the duel lanes from there. Following Akiza Izinski passing her Turbo Dueling Exams, Placido watched Yusei turbo duel with her. However, the duel was not activating circuits on the Infinity Circuit, so Lucciano called the duel a bore, but José figured that when the time came, the Signers would fulfill their purpose in his plan. Placido though interrupted José, asking him if he was so certain. Jose did not know what Placido was talking about, so Placido clarified that the Crimson Dragon still posed a threat, adding it's what ruined Rex Goodwin's plans, and it could be the undoing of their plans.

Lucciano asked Placido what he intended to do about it, to which Placido responded that he would duel Yusei Fudo, defeat him, and then take Stardust Dragon from him. Lucciano though just laughed at the idea, pointing out it was ridiculous. Placido became apprehensive as Lucciano pointed out that Placido had already lost to Yusei once; a fact that angered Placido, but the issue was dropped because Lucciano's tablet arrived. Lucciano cheered that he knew that Placido could not have been enough to complete their plans on their own, a statement that just got a grunt from Placido.

After Lucciano obtained his tablet and went undercover as a student at Duel Academy, Placido helped Lucciano by disguising himself as Lucciano's butler. When Lucciano brought Luna to his mansion, Placido was waiting in the foyer, and obliged to Lucciano's request for refreshments. As he made his way to get the refreshments though, he noticed Leo climbing over the front gate, and commented to himself that it looked like they would have one more guest. However, he ignored Leo for the most part and instead went about preparing the refreshments. When Placido walked out to the courtyard to deliver the drinks to Lucciano and Luna, he noticed that Leo was making his way off the property.

Placido brought the drinks down as Luna practiced using her new Duel Board. Lucciano at first asked about Leo's whereabouts, to which Placido responded that he thought that the extra guest had left. So Lucciano went on to apologize for making Placido be his butler, but Placido responded that he did not mind. He was curious to see the Signer's power for himself as well, a comment that made Lucciano chuckle.

Placido then spent the rest of Lucciano's test watching him duel against Leo and Luna from his throne along with José. Placido commented that Lucciano was acting immature after he summoned Machine Emperor Skiel Infinity, but José just responded that he was being a child. As the duel came to a close, Placido and José were shocked to see Leo be saved by the Crimson dragon after Lucciano defeated him, and was stunned when Luna was saved from death by the Duel Spirits. Following Lucciano's victory though, all traces of Lucciano were removed from the timeline, including the house and Placido as a butler.

Building Up a Brute Force
After Lucciano finished testing Leo and Luna, Placido started preparing his own surprise for the WRGP. Tired of and offended by José's plan of waiting for humanity and the Signers to complete the Infinity Circuit, Placido hatched his own plan to complete the Circuit. But in order to complete it, he needed a program that Yusei Fudo and Bruno had just finished. So his tasked Lazar with procuring the program from them by any means necessary. Lazar successfully broke into their shop and stole the program, but in the middle of the theft, Lazar made the mistake of leaving a fingerprint on a wrapper of ramen he ate because he was hungry.

After obtaining the program, Lazar contacted Placido over the holophone the next afternoon to inform Placido that he obtained the program. Placido asked if he had done anything that would expose his actions, and Lazar assured Placido that he left no evidence behind. Placido liked the answer, so he ordered Lazar to bring the program to him immediately. Stunned, Lazar asked if he meant him personally, and angered by the question, Placido pulled his sword on Lazar over the phone, telling him that was obvious, and repeated for him to bring the program immediately. Intimidated, Lazar obliged and left for the factory.

When Lazar arrived, Placido was not pleased because Lazar had been late, calling him a stupid clown. Lazar apologized because he had been chased by rats, but since he'd given them the slip, there was nothing to worry about. Lazar handed the program over to Placido, who was pleased because Lazar had done well for a clown. He told Lazar he did good work, and Lazar was pleased, boasting that even as vice-director of Sector Security, he wouldn't have left something like this to one of his subordinates because of the risk of exposing Placido. So he personally took the program.

Lazar then asked in exchange for snatching the program, could he know. Placido asked if Lazar could know what, and Lazar responded that he wanted to know what Placido intended to do with the stolen program. Placido responded by pulling his sword and pointing it at Lazar's nose. Placido added that it was of no concern to Lazar, and it would be safer if he didn't know. The tense moment was interrupted by Placido being alerted that Yusei Fudo and Bruno had infiltrated the factory. Lazar, mortified as Placido called him an idiot for being followed, excused himself and saluting Placido, ran out of the control room. Placido turned his attention to Yusei and Bruno, realizing that they had come to get their program back. So Placido walked to the keyboard, and waving his hand over it, triggered the alarm and activated the security doors.

Yusei however managed to get past the lockdown door before it shut, so Placido went to the basement. Knowing that all that was left for him to do their was install the program, Placido went to a Guard Robot, telling it to bid him the time he needed to finish his work. Then extending his left hand out, he shot an electrical charge that brought the Guard Robot online. The robot immediately traveled to Yusei, who was trying to interrogate Lazar, and once the robot confirmed Yusei's identity, it sealed the corridor and told Yusei that he could not through until he accepted its challenge to duel and defeated him.

Placido though, had returned to the control room, where he commented to himself that the Guard Robot was perfect to stall Yusei because it had been programmed with knowledge and strategies to counter Yusei's duel history, strategies, and Yusei Fudo's Decks. Placido then noticed Bruno come to the building security's attention because he had approached a locked door, leading to the Diablo's storeroom, and was picking it. Placido was getting ready to install the program, but he did not want any intruders, so he teleported to the doorway and told Bruno he should not have come there. Bruno was reacted to Placido with a deja vu feeling, which also gave him a headache, but the moment was short-lived as Placido punched Bruno in the gut, knocking him unconscious. He commented that no one would get in his way.

Placido then proceeded to the terminal in the room, declaring that he would give the Diablo new life with the best programs available. So he plugged in the stolen program and as the program started giving life to the Diablo, Placido commented to himself that with the greatest riding roids being born, Yusei needed to enjoy the time he had left. So Placido continued watching the duel as the program uploaded to the entire Diablo. Minutes later, as Placido enjoyed Yusei's struggle with the Guard Robot, José contacted Placido, asking him what he thought he was doing. Placido responded that he was executing a plan of his own and asked José to stop monitoring him. José though responded that if Placido proceeded as he planned, then his own plans would go to waste. Placido just told José he didn't give a damn about his plans and hung up on him. After hanging up on José, Placido noticed that the download was complete, so he ordered the Diablo to awaken. The Diablo came online and started riding out of the factory.

Placido returned to the control room as the last of the Diablo left the factory. With them gone, Placido commented that time was up, and turning his attention to Yusei's duel with the Guard Robot, commented that he was not as soft-hearted as José. When he noticed that Yusei's friends were there, he commented that it was perfect. And saying that he could not leave any evidence of the factory behind, Placido put his hand over the keyboard and triggered the ten minute self-destruct sequence. Placido commented that the Signers and their dragons would be annihilated here. And with that comment, Placido drew his sword, cut a open a portal with it, and left the factory. Placido's plans to kill the Signers though did not work as everyone was able to escape before the explosion.

Framing Jack Atlas
Following Placido bringing the Diablo online, Jose devised his own plan to activate more circuits along the Infinity Circuit, partly as an attempt to show Placido his plan would not be a waste and to have all three of them work together. So the Three Emperors sent an Imposter Jack Atlas to create trouble. Placido's part of the plan was the creation of the Impostor, which was an android programmed to be a malicious Jack. Once it was set loose, the real Jack Atlas soon pursued the impostor in hopes of clearing his name. Jack though failed and was thrown into the ocean, where he was captured by Illiaster and kept in a cell where he watched his Impostor continue to attack.

While observing Jack Atlas, Placido asked why they had not disposed of him, but Jose responded that Jack was connected to the Crimson Dragon so he did not want to risk its interference. Lucciano just commented on the matter that after forging Jack Atlas's deck, which was a pain, the Crimson Dragon would be their problem if it did interfere. In a short time though, Jack escaped from the cave he was being held in and went after his Impostor again, only this time he won and obliterated the impostor. Placido commented that with the impostor's defeat, it looked like Jose's plan had been a waste of time. Lucciano at first agreed with Placido, but when the resulting duel completed another circuit on the Circuit, Lucciano and Jose were pleased with the result. Placido though just sat in his throne.

The WRGP Begins
Sometime later, Sherry LeBlanc and Mizoguchi took over the Sector Security building, which was brought to the Three Emperor's attention once the building was forced into lock down. Lucciano found the situation amusing, but Placido was disappointed. He blamed Lazar, who had abandoned his post after almost being killed in the factory, for the breach at Sector Security. José though told both of them to dismiss the trivial matter because they were far too busy to deal with it. Unbeknownst to Placido and the other Emperor's though, Sherry, Bruno, and Yusei Fudo all encountered ZONE through Sherry's Z-ONE spell card.

Sometime during this period, Placido also set in motion another attempt to thwart Jose's plan at the WRGP by circulating Cards of Darkness to Team Catastrophe. Placido appeared before Hermann, causing him to crash, but following the crash, Placido offered Nicolas the card Hidden Knight -Hook-. He promised them that as long as they used that card, they would not be confined to their lives of poverty, and they would win all their duels. And to top it all, he tempted them with the prospect that it could lead them to be King. The prospect of King grabbed all three of their attentions.

Nicolas responded that using Cards of Darkness sounded interesting, but Hermann and Hans were both skeptical about using the card. Hans wondered if they should really be using a card like that while Hermann pointed out that "Card of Darkness" sounded like bad news; Hermann added that Placido gave him the creeps, but when he glanced back at where he stood, Placido had already teleported away.

When the WRGP did begin, Placido watched the first round of matches with Lucciano and José from his throne, including Team Five D's match against Team Unicorn. The resulting matches led to numerous circuits along the Infinity Circuit to be completed. Lucciano was amazed by the gradual completion, while Jose commented that once the Circuit was complete, the future would change. Placido though silently watched, still offended by Jose's approach.

Catastrophic Intentions
With Team Catastrophe facing Team Five D's, Placido personally watched the match from the roof of the Duel Stadium. As he watched both teams prepare to start the race, Lucciano appeared behind Placido, telling him he knew that something was off about Team Catastrophe's duels. Placido was apprehensive at first, but then Lucciano claimed that he was not responsible for anything Placido did all on his own, regardless of what Jose did when ever he found out. Placido just responded that the geezer has been dragging his feet when it comes to the WRGP, so Placido decided to do things his own way. Lucciano just wished Placido luck as the starting horn sounded.

Placido watched the duel between Hermann and Crow with silent intent up until Crow defeated Hermann and took out Hidden Knight -Hook- permanently. Lucciano taunted Placido with how his plan was looking to be a wash, but Placido just continued watching the match as Jack Atlas and Nicolas dueled. Nicolas quickly revealed that he had received another card of darkness from Placido along with Hidden Knight -Hook-: Doom's Ray. Nicolas played the card to force a draw and crash Jack, but Nicolas quickly found out that he was not immune to his own card of Darkness. Jack Atlas saved himself with his Power Giant, and also saved Nicolas as well, but when Nicolas's Duel Runner was destroyed and Team 5D's declared the winners and a guaranteed spot in the Top Eight spot, Lucciano declared Placido's plan an official wash and asked him for his opinion on why his plans always failed, but Placido left before Lucciano could even notice.

The Diablo is Unleashed
Placido left the Duel Stadium and went to a large warehouse where he released the Diablo Riding Roid Army. Standing on a roof, he pointed at New Domino City and ordered the army to descend the city into chaos.

The Crash Dance


Placido looks on in disbelief as Yusei proceeds to draw 4 tuners from his deck, his expression turning to horror as Yusei draws the fifth tuner Hyper Synchron. He comments that it's impossible for there to be a total of 5 attacks as Yusei commands Shooting Star Dragon to attack with Stardust Mirage.

Shooting Star dragon splits into 5 copies and each attack Machine Emperor in turn. Placido announces that the first attack is negated by Skiel carrier 5. Placido then announces that the second attack is blocked by Wisel Guard 3's effect, once per turn it is not destroyed in battle.

Yusei announces a third attack on Wisel guard 3, destroying it as Placido shields his face from the backlash. Yusei announces his fourth attack on Wisel attack 3, and Placido screams in pain as it is destroyed. Yusei announces his fifth and last attack on Skiel carrier, engulfing Placido in flames as it is destroyed. As Skiel carrier explodes, Placido is speechless, fumbling with his words in disbelief before the realization sets in that he is being done in by a human.

Placido screams as the remains of machine emperor falls on top of him and explodes, bringing his life points down to zero. The impact of the explosion sends him flying, and fused with his duel runner, Placido is carried along as it rolls along the ground at high speed. His upper body rips loose from the D wheel, and it is revealed that beneath his clothes is a metal shell filled with tubes and wires. Placido's body is mechanical.

His severed upper torso bounces along the ground several times becoming more fragmented each time. His left arm is severed, the cover to his deck holder is shattered, and his armor is scratched and broken.

Placido's sword and the torn up remains of his upper torso comes to a rest a good distance away from the rest of his body, still merged to his D-wheel. He looks dead.

Yusei pulls up on his D-wheel and quickly runs over to check on Placido. Asking his severed body if he is "Okay".

Placido doesn't respond, and Yusei draws back in horror as the fragments of Placido's body begin to rise in the air.

A voice tells Yusei not to worry about Placido, because sympathy from the loser would only damage his pride.

Returning with a Twisted Past
Placido later watches the duels between Team Taiyo and Team Five D's and the duel between Team Ragnarok and Team Five D's. Placido, along with Lucciano, seemed surprised by the appearance of Red Nova Dragon.

Powers
Placido's primary power is his ability to interact and manipulate machinery and electronics, also know as technopathy. His power allows him to control and monitor any number of robots, notably Ghost, the Guard Robot, and the Diablo. It also allows him to do these feats without ever typing or directly interacting with the machinery in question. The interaction is further exemplified in Episode 107, when Placido is able to interface directly into Duel Runner: the T-666 Terrible Omen. During the process, and also later when Placido is torn apart as a result of being defeated by Shooting Star Dragon, Placido shows that part of his secret to his ability as a technopath is that he is an android himself, although at this time there has been no revelation as to whether he has any human in him or was once human.

Also, like Lucciano, Placido is capable of making a duel inflict real damage to the players. Although not shown at first, this involves a white band of light that appears on the road shaped like an infinity symbol.

In addition to what Placido himself can do, his sword has additional powers that Placido or its wielder can use. Its most notable power is the ability to cut portals, allowing Placido to transverse great distances or move with ease similar to teleportation. His sword also serves as a key, as it is the trigger that allows Placido to combine and become one with his T-666. In addition, the hilt can split in half and produce a sheet of green light, allowing the sword to double as his Duel Disk.

In episode 108, Placido shows to at some extent control the weather as he releases a lightning storm onto Neo Domino City. The storm knocked out the power to the entire city, and later, Placido would take the storm one step further in another attempt to stop Yusei by having Wisel create a tornado.

Deck
Placido pilots the Wisel archetype consisting of Machine Emperor Wisel Infinity and its various pieces. His general strategy, like Lucciano is to summon all his Machine Emperor parts through the use of Wise Core.

This strategy would revolve around destroying Wise Core through card effects, with cards of his own or his opponents. He carries a hefty Trap lineup to protect his monsters and throw off the opponent's plays.

He was only briefly seen using the deck against Bokuru, but used the Riding Roid Ghost to test the deck in Turbo Duels with Trudge and Yusei Fudo.

During his duel with Yusei, he secretly sneaked some of Skiel's parts from Lucciano to power-up Wisel. Also, when the Skiel parts were used, they changed from blue to white. His deck was taken by Lucciano in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's - Episode 110.