Tristan Taylor


 * Honda redirects here, for the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Stardust Accelerator character, see: Honda (WC09).

Tristan Taylor, known as Hiroto Honda in the manga and Japanese version, is in class 1-B at Domino High School and a friend of Yugi, Joey, and Téa.

Personality
In the Japanese version, Honda tends to omit honorifics just like his friend Jonouchi does.

Tristan plays few of the games that Yugi plays, and does not play Duel Monsters that often. He along with Téa are often supportive of their friends.

In middle-school, Tristan developed a strong friendship bond with Joey.

In the manga, Honda is a sharpshooter. He said that when he was a kid, he could shoot a 100-yen piece with a BB gun from 50 feet.

In the first series anime, Honda is the head of the clean-up committee at school and often overdramatically cites his duty while doing things, which causes him to annoy his friends. Jounouchi often teases his about this, and calls him a 'janitor reject'.

In the first series anime, He has a major crush on Miho Nosaka. Whenever he feels like not doing something or going somewhere, and Miho wants to go or do something, Honda will eagerly change his mind and do what Miho wants to do.

Design


Tristan's character design was overseen by Kazuki Takahashi. His usual outfit from the second series anime consists of a long brown coat with a raised collar, a white buttoned shirt underneath and black jeans. His brown hair is arranged such that a large portion spikes out from the front of his head.

Manga one-shots
Honda together with Jonouchi bully Yugi at school. Togther they take the unsolved Millennium Puzzle from Yugi and start teasing him. Anzu Mazaki arrives and tells them off, causing the two boys to flee.

Honda develops a crush on Miho Nosaka. As his infatuation gets to him, he lets Jonouchi know. Despite Honda's wishes, Jonouchi tells Yugi and asks him for help. Yugi suggests that they browse his family's store for a present. Yugi's grandfather suggests a love letter jigsaw puzzle. Honda could write a love letter to Miho on it, for her to assemble when she receives it. Jonouchi laughs at the idea of Honda doing something like that. However Honda thinks it's perfect and buys it. Having never sent a love letter before, he gets Yugi to write one and threatens him, should Miho not like it.

The next day at school, the teacher Ms. Chono finds the puzzle on Miho's desk and confiscates it. As she finds out it's a love letter, she offers the sender a chance to confess or face expulsion. Although owning up would still result in expulsion. Jonouchi claims to have sent it, so Honda can still have a chance with Miho. Yugi and Honda also claim they sent it. Chono continues the puzzle to find out who really sent it and plans to punish the others for lying. Dark Yugi emerges and turns the puzzle into a Shadow Game; as Chono continues to complete the puzzle, she feels the pain she is inflicting on others. The makeup on her face begins to crack up, revealing her true ugly self. Chono flees the room, sparing the boys any trouble.

After the incident, Honda plucks up the courage to ask Miho out directly, but she rejects him. Yugi and Jonouchi then treat him to a hamburger to cheer him up. Since then Honda becomes good friends with Yugi.

Honda accompanies Jonouchi when he buys new top of the range shoes at the Junky Scorpion. Honda doesn't see how such a fuss can be made out of shoes and tries to talk Jonouchi out of taking the store owner's test of putting his foot into a shoe, believed to have a scorpion in it. After leaving the shop, Honda, Jonouchi and Yugi are attacked from behind, by a gang who steal Jonouchi's shoes. They track down the gang afterwards. Jonouchi and Honda beat up the gang, who tell them they were paid by the store owner. Dark Yugi plays a game with the store owner, resulting in Yugi returning to Jonouchi and Honda with the shoes, unaware of how he got them back.

Death-T
As a favor to his sister, Honda takes his nephew Johji to the KaibaLand. Here he meets and Yugi and Jonouchi and assists them in Death-T.

They meet Anzu at the start of Death-T 1, who had been hired at KaibaLand. Honda gets her to mind Johji, while he takes part in the first game, the Stardust Shootout. Using his sharpshooting skills, Honda takes charge. Since Kaiba rigged the game, Yugi and his friends laser guns were duds. But the staff were unaware Anzu was their friend, so she had been given a functional gun. Using her gun and hiding Johji on his back, Honda is able to take out the remaining opposition. In exchange for Johji's help, Honda had promised him a bath with Anzu, which she blatantly refuses.

Honda gets trapped in the Death-T 3 stage, after his coat gets caught under a falling block. After Dark Yugi rescues Mokuba Kaiba, from Seto Kaiba's artificial Penalty Game, Mokuba repays him, by saving Honda.

Honda arrives to cheer Yugi on in Death-T 5.

Monster World
Honda, along with Yugi, Anzu and Jonouchi (and Miho in the first series anime) visit Ryo Bakura, to play Monster World. However, Bakura gets possessed by Dark Bakura, who turns the game into a Shadow Game.

Honda gets trapped in his piece, a magic gunman. His friends also get trapped inside pieces, while Dark Yugi leads them as the player. On their first encounter with the Dark Master Zorc, Honda manages to shoot off one of his arms off. On a later encounter, Honda attacks Zorc, who has been weakened by the White Wizard Bakura, causing Zorc to turn into his final form.

After the game, Honda and his friends are returned to normal.

First series anime
Honda's crush on Miho spans the series. Here he is not Jonouchi's crony, but a rejected candidate for class president and junior custodian. He is not entirely in favor of how Jonouchi treats Yugi and even tells him off at times.

When Miho is suspected of "dating for pay", along with Anzu, Honda follows them both after school to find out what is going on. He discovers both girls are working at Burger World, even though part time jobs are against school rules. Although Honda is strict on enforcing school rules, his crush on Miho gets the better of him. He keeps quiet about the girls and also gets a job there himself, so he support Miho's shopping desires. After hearing that a convict is in the restaurant, Honda assists in searching for him. After Anzu is taken hostage, by Jiro, Honda is forced to lie on the floor, missing Anzu getting saved. Afterwards he and the girls quit their jobs at Burger Word, but Honda and Miho get new jobs at a noodle shop.

Honda is invited with the rest of Yugi's friends to Kaiba's mansion. He mocks Jonouchi for being jealous of Kaiba, but also becomes envious of how Kaiba's wealth easily earns Miho's affection. Honda then takes up Duel Monsters in the hopes of beating Kaiba. The next day at school, he defeats Jonouchi in Duel Monsters. Kaiba then enters the room and asks Yugi if he can see his Grandfather's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" card again. Honda and Jonouchi both notice Kaiba switches the card for a fake, before returning it to Yugi. They both confront Kaiba on the roof afterwards over this. However both of them get beaten-up by Kaiba's goons.

Honda gets up early to wait in line to but a D-Shock watch for Miho. When he needs a break to use the toilet, Yugi holds his place in the queue. As Yugi purchases the last copy, Shotaro Akaboshi attempts to steal it from him, but Honda arrives in time to stop him. Akaboshi manages to steal the watch from Honda later, while Honda isn't paying attention. At the arcade when Miho arrives to collect the watch, Honda discovers it's missing and strips down to his underwear while searching his clothes for it. Miho then slaps him and runs off crying. Honda stays at the arcade, searching for the watch until he is asked to leave. Dark Yugi suspects Akaboshi and wins the watch back in a Shadow Game. Honda is glad to see the watch returned to Miho and two days later, he offers to wait in line to buy her perfume.

Unlike in the manga, Honda is present when Shadi tests Yugi. He replaces Professor Yoshimori's role. Using the Millennium Key, Shadi redecorates Honda's soul room, brainwashing him to attack his friends. He chases Miho and Jonouchi around the school, until Jonouchi touches the Millennium Key off him, returning him to normal.

Honda trains a Digital Pet in order to win the prize holiday in an upcoming tournament for Miho. He takes a couple of days off school to train the pet, describing his absence as maternal leave. He returns to school, right after Kujirada's pet Devil Master eats Anzu and Jonouchi's pets. Honda then links his pet, Super Strawberry to Devil Master to battle. Super Strawberry sweeps away Devil Master, defeating it.

Afterwards Honda finds a letter from Kujiara, saying Miho has been kidnapped. Honda locates Kujirada, but finds him badly beaten and learns Kujirada had been manipulated by Haiyama. Honda gets whipped by Haiyama, as he attempts to rescue Miho. While he's unconconscious, Dark Yugi defeats Haiyama in a Digital Pet duel.

Duelist Kingdom
Tristan and Téa sneak onto the boat to the Duelist Kingdom. In the manga, Bakura accompanies them. They save Yugi and Joey, by throwing them a rope ladder, after Joey attempted to recover Yugi's "Exodia" cards, that Weevil Underwood had thrown overboard.

During the preliminaries, he cheers Yugi and Joey on from the sidelines of their Duels.

Tristan attacks Kemo, after seeing him grab a young boy. Kemo avoids being injured and recaptures the boy, explaining that he was to be evited for losing his Star Chips.

In the anime, during an argument between him and Joey, Tristan accidentally reveals that he has been making several attempts to construct a Deck of his own, with one of his cards being "Lava Battleguard". In the English dub, Joey reveals that Tristan's monster and his "Swamp Battleguard" could be related. Tristan lends Joey the card, before Mai Valentine forces Joey into a Duel with Rex Raptor for revenge. The greatly helps Joey in the Duel. Joey compares how the Battleguards work together, to himself and Tristan.

In the anime, after the gang meet-up with Bakura. Yami Bakura traps Yugi, Téa, Tristan and Bakura's souls in Duel Monster cards and duels Yami Yugi. Tristan is Summoned after Yami Yugi plays "Cyber Commander". He is destroyed by Bakura's "White Magical Hat" in the first attack and sent to the Graveyard. He is returned to the field when Yami Yugi plays "Monster Reborn". When Yugi is Summoned as the "Dark Magician", for the first time in the second anime series, Tristan learns there are two Yugis. After Yami Yugi ends the Shadow Game, everyone apart from Yugi and Bakura, believed the game was just a dream.

As Yugi and Joey are about to enter the Duelist Kingdom finals, Kemo refuses Tristan, Téa and Bakura are refuses entry as they aren't finalists. In the manga Jonouchi (Joey) knocks out Saruwatari (Kemo) to let the others in. In the anime, Mai distracts Kemo.

In the manga the day before the finals, Tristan asks Yugi to try and save the Kaiba brothers, remembering how Mokuba saved him during Death-T.

Tristan suspected Pegasus of cheating against Kaiba. The night before the finals, he, Téa and Bakura inspected the area, where the Pegasus and Kaiba dueled. They noticed a beam of light was entering the room through a hole in the wall. After peering through the hole, they found there was a tower that could have been used to spy on Kaiba's hand with the aid of a telescope. The group infiltrated the tower and found the portrait of Cecelia Pegasus. Pegasus confronted the intruders and, using his Millennium Eye, transported them to another chamber, where some occult activity took place. As Pegasus attempted to use his Millennium Eye on them, Yami Bakura countered with the Millennium Ring. Yami Bakura then transported Tristan, Téa and Bakura back to their rooms, causing them to forget the events of this night.

Tristan cheered for Yugi and Joey from the sidelies during the final rounds.

When Yugi dueled Pegasus, Tristan took time to search Pegasus castle to find Mokuba's body. He hides inside a suit of armor, while sneaking around the dungeons. He accidentally opened a secret passageway after tripping and grabbing a gargoyle to prevent himself falling over completely. Tristan takes out the man guarding Mokuba's cell, by shoving a helmet from another suit of armor on his head. He takes the guard's key and unlocks Mokuba's cell, which sets off a security alarm. Tristan removed the armor and carried Mokuba on his back.

On his way out, Tristan is confronted by two of Pegasus' goons. Yami Bakura appears and uses "Chain Energy" to create real chains of energy, which tie-up the goons. Tristan and Bakura make their escape before the chains dissipate. Tristan is unaware of Yami Bakura's existance and thinks this is the regular Bakura. He asks Bakura how he did that, but Bakura insists they focus on escaping right now The two boys get cornered by guards, but Bakura fends them off by Summoning Duel Monsters from his cards. Tristan realizes this isn't the same Bakura he knows recognizes him as the evil spirit that trapped them in a Shadow Game.

Yami Bakura reveals that he's searching for a new host, since regular Bakura has betrayed him in the past. He demands Tristan to hand over Mokuba's soulless body, threatening to set more monsters on Tristan if he doesn't. Yami Bakura advises Tristan to do as he says, as he will get what he wants either way. Tristan pretends to go along with this, but chucks Mokuba's body at Bakura and then attacks him, knocking him out. Tristan takes back Mokuba and looks at the Millennium Ring. Understanding this to be the source of Bakura's evil half, he picks it up and tosses it out of the castle, far into the forest below them.

Tristan returns to Yugi and Pegasus' Duel with Mokuba and Bakura's bodies. He sees that Yugi and Pegasus are now playing a Shadow Game and explains what happened with Yami Bakura to Joey and Téa.

Joey, Téa and Tristan are unable to see the Duel, as its surrounded by a strange dark matter, but they have a feeling something bad has happened to Yugi. Tristan tries running into the darkness, but immediatly comes out the other side.

After Bakura wakes up, Tristan explains how the Ring was making him act weird, so he threw it away.

After the tournament, Tristan and his friends are taken home by Seto Kaiba.

Legendary Heroes
In the anime, Tristan and his friends agree to help Mokuba rescue Kaiba, after Kaiba got trapped into a virtual world, by the Big Five. There are 3 remaining pods into the virtual world. Mokuba and Yugi take two, while Joey and Tristan argue over who gets the other one. Tristan eventually stays behind with Téa to work to controls.

To pass the time, he tries talking about his first crush and his essay about his dream of being a pilot. In the English version, he tries showing Téa his facial hair. Téa shows no interest in any of those. After hearing people outside, they barricade the door.

They manage to hold off the guards, until Mokuba, Yugi and Joey return with Kaiba.

Battle City
In the anime, after Yugi's Duel with Keith, who was possessed by Marik Ishtar, Joey and Tristan break down the door into the burning building. Keith rushes out and Joey and Tristan go inside to rescue Yugi. Yugi refuses to leave without his Millennium Puzzle, which is stuck to a wall, by a needle-like beam jammed into its chain. Tristan grabs Yugi's Deck from the Duel arena. He then returns to help Joey free the Puzzle. He and Joey push a pipe through the hole on the beam and use it as a lever to remove the beam.

After Joey goes missing, shortly before his sister, Serenity's eye operation, Tristan scanned the streets on his motorbike searching for him. (Cut from the English anime,) Honda (Tristan) found Jonouchi on the beach. Jonouchi was moping about losing his card "Red-Eyes Black Dragon", to a Ghoul and feels unworthy to face Shizuka (Serenity). Honda punches Jonouchi and reminds him how Shizuka needs him. After talking sense into Jonouchi, he takes him to the hospital to see Shizuka.

Tristan developed a crush on Serenity. Shortly before the Battle City tournament, he visited her in the hospital and impressed her by lying that he is the one who taught Joey what he knows about dueling. Joey made a phonecall to the hospital and was enraged to hear that Tristan is with Serenity and the lies he told her.

Tristan visited Serenity again after the tournament starts. He brought a laptop, so he could keep her updated on how Joey's doing in the tournament. He forgets how to turn on the laptop and has a nurse set it up. Although Joey was losing, Tristan couldn't break it to Serenity and lied about Joey's performance.

When the nurse returned to take Serenity's temperature, Tristan stepped out of the room and made a call to Téa. He got her to pass a message on to Joey; that Serenity believes in him and he's not to give-up.

When Tristan returned to Serenity's room, she reveals that the nurse told her that Joey is losing and makes Tristan promise to keep her truthfully informed on Joey's Duel, so she can support him when needed. The two of them celebrate after Joey wins. Before Tristan left, Serenity asked him to take her to the tournament the day her bandages are removed from her eyes, so the first thing she can see is her brother dueling. Tristan agreed.

Tristan met-up with Téa, Grandpa and Mokuba. They explained that Yugi has been missing and they've managed to track his location. They manage to catch Yugi, just after he defeats Arkana.

Téa and Tristan agreed to meet-up with Yugi the next day. However, Tristan takes time to flirt with Serenity on the phone, causing them to be late and miss Yugi. Grandpa decides to help them find Yugi.

While searching for Yugi, they spotted Joey chasing a kid who stole his Duel Disk. Tristan lept in front of the boy and grabbed him, ensuring Joey got the Duel Disk back. The boy lied that he had stolen it because Weevil Underwood stole his own Deck. he secretly took it to sneak "Parasite Paracide" into Joey's Deck.

The boy takes them to where he saw Weevil. Shortly afterwards Weevil shows up and Tristan prepares to beat him up for taking the boy's cards. However, Joey insists that he duel Weevil. Tristan advises Joey to be cautious and cheers for Joey from the sideline of the Duel.

Hasty to have Jonouchi qualify for the finals, Tristan tried talking Joey into dueling a participant he could easily beat, but Joey's pride was too strong to get into the finals the easy way.

Tristan, Téa and Grandpa accompany Joey to the aquarium, where Joey faces Mako Tsunami.

After Joey defeats Mako and qualifies for the finals, he needs someone to collect Serenity. Much to Joey's distress, Tristan eagerly volunteers and takes off before Joey can stop him.

Tristan takes Serenity to the tournament by train. On the way they talk about Joey, Tristan tells her some of the rules of Duel Monsters and buys her lunch. After they arrive in Domino City, Tristan calls Téa to find out where Joey is, but gets no answer, as she has been captured by the Rare Hunters.

As they walked down the street, a group of Rare Hunters surrounded them. Tristan gets Serenity to climb on his back and runs from the hunters. The Rare Hunters manage to surround them again, so Tristan lets Serenity down so he can fight them. He manages to take care of two of the Hunters, but the third grabs Serenity. As Tristan goes to save her, one of the two he just attacks, punches him onto the ground. The two of them are saved by Duke Devlin, who fires dice at the Rare Hunters.

The three of them continue to look for Joey. Thinking he might be in the finals, they decide to ask duelists, who may have qualified for the finals, where the finals are on. Unsuccessful, Tristan returns to Duke and Serenity, disguisted to find Duke used the time to flirt with Serenity.

The Rare Hunters reappear, so the group split into two; Duke takes Serenity to safety, while Tristan takes care of the Hunters. Tristan beats-up the three of them and demands to know the location of his fiends. he learns they're at Domino Pier, before Mai's car pulls-up, with herself, Duke and Serenity inside. Tristan gets inside and has Mai take them to the pier.

The group arrive at the pier, where they find Joey, possessed by Marik is dueling Yugi. In the manga, they arrived seconds after the Duel ended. In the anime, they arrived in the middle of it. In the anime, Tristan pulls Yugi out of the water after the Duel.

After the Duel, while Joey is feeling ashamed of himself, Tristan reminds him how he has fought hard for Serenity.

Mai takes the group by car to the location of the finals. Tristan and the other non-finalists are initially refused entry on the blimp, where the quarter-finals are to take place, but Mokuba allows them on.

Much to Joey's annoyance, Tristan, Téa and Duke crashed in Joey's room on the blimp. Tristan planned to impress Serenity with the romantic view from the window, but was beaten to it, by Duke. Tristan apologised to Joey for ruining his chance for quality time with his sister, but said he had to take this room, as he didn't want to disturb Yugi, who would be preparing for the finals. Joey reminds Tristan that he's a finalist too, but thanks him for taking Serenity to the tournament.

Tristan watches Yugi's Duel with Yami Bakura. In the anime he was suprised to see Bakura had the Millennium Ring back, after he had thrown it away during Duelist Kingdom. In the manga, he already knew Bakura had the Ring. Tristan tells Duke off for doubting Yugi during the Duel. When Yugi is forced to either attack Ryo Bakura, who is in weak form or be disqualified, Tristan and Joey try entering the field to help. However Joey gets threatened with disqualification, so Tristan and Duke end up restraining Joey.

Yami Bakura took control of Ryo once again and let Yugi attack him. Bakura still ended-up injured, so Tristan carried his body back to his room and tried to talk Kaiba into landing the blimp later. Afterwards, he notices Bakura's Ring is gone again.

Tristan was disguisted by Duke flattering Serenity about her speech to Kaiba to make an emergency stop for Bakura. He dragged Duke away from her in order to search for the Millennium Ring. They searched the top of the blimp where the Duel was held, but started fighting over Serenity. As a result they end up hanging over the edge of the blimp. Tristan held Duke with one hand, the blimp with the other and called for help. Shadi appears and helps them both up. After taking a moment of relief, Tristan looked up to thank their rescuer, only to find he had disappeared.

Honda cheers for Joey during his Duel with Odion Ishtar, who they initially believe to be Marik. After both Duelists are rendered unconcious after being struck by lightning, Tristan trys to run to Joey's assistance, but Roland doesn't allow it. Tristan runs to congratulate Joey, after he is decalred the winner as he stood-up first. Joey later tells Tristan and his other friends that he had a dream, involving them that helped him stand-up during the Duel.

Tristan cheers for Mai during her Duel with Marik. He witnesses her lose and suffer a Penalty Game.

Virtual World
In an anime only arc, the Battle City blimp gets sucked into a mechanical fortress in the sea, by Noah Kaiba. Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Téa, Serentiy, Duke, Kaiba, Mokuba and two of Kaiba's guards emerge from the blimp. Noah instructs them to go straight ahead, but points his weapons at Kaiba's guards ordering them to stay back as they aren't duelists. Duke points out that Tristan doesn't duel either, but Tristan hushes him. Joey advises Serenity to turn back, but Tristan supports Serenity's argument to come with them, reminding Joey that Marik is still on the blimp.

They are greeted by a projection of the Big Five, who explain that they got trapped in the Virtual World, after they failed to trap Kaiba there, during the Legendary Heroes game. For that they hate Yugi and his friends for helping Kaiba. Having Kaiba as a common enemy, Noah uploaded their minds into his computer system. Using an altered form of Duel Monsters, they plan to face the gang in order to claim possession of their bodies, so that they may exist in the real world.

The group are then transported to a virtual jungle, where they are given a demonstration of the Deck Master rules. The Big Five then seperate the gang, by making holes appear under them. After Serenity falls through a hole, Duke and Tristan run to help her, but fall through a hole together.

Duke and Tristan end up in a long hallway. After spending a while running down it, looking for Serenity, they conclude that the hall must loop infinitly. Since there's no exit, Tristan grabs an axe from a suit of armor and belts the wall hoping to create an exit. Duke gets another axe and assists him. Together they cut through the wall and end up on a balcony, high above the ground.

Tristan hears Serenity scream below and leaps down to tackle the Mad Sword Beast, that's chasing her. He covers the dinosuar's eyes and causes it to charge into a lake.

Tristan catches a cold from the lake and gets in a fight with Duke, who accuses him of spreading germs.

The trio take a while to analyze the situation. Serenity says she's not afraid, since they've got Tristan, who she believes taught Joey everything he knows about Duel Monsters. Tristan covers Duke's mouth to stop him telling her otherwise.

The group reach a door standing alone in the meadow. After opening it, they wind up in a hanger, similar to the place where the blimp landed. They are confronted by Nesbitt, who has taken the form of Robotic Knight. Nesbitt plans to Duel them one by one, starting with Serenity, but after much debate ends up facing the three of them at once.

Each of them construct a Deck and pick a Deck Master. Tristan selects "Super Roboyarou" as his Deck Master.

Duke and Tristan spend the first two turns, trying to correct Serenity's mistakes. Tristan Summons weak monsters in Attack Mode to draw Nesbitt's attacks to him rather than Serenity. After pumping his new Deck Master, "Perfect Machine King" to high ATK, Nesbitt attacks one of Serenity's monsters, but Tristan uses his Deck Master, "Super Roboyarou", to take the attack. He also uses its Deck Master effect to Set 1 card, raising its ATK to 2200. "Perfect Machine King" destroys "Super Roboyarou", defeating Tristan.

Tristan confesses to Serenity that he lied about teaching Joey how to play and that he isn't a great duelist himself, before he is dropped through a trap door. His mind gets digitalized, while his body is placed in a holding area.

Duke talks Serenity into continuing the Duel. Serenity manages to Summon "St. Joan", which is powered by Tristan's remaining monster, "Command Angel". Duke uses his "Strike Ninja's" Deck Master effect to activate Tristan's face-down card, "Rare Metal Soul", which raises "St. Joan's" ATK high enough to defeat Nesbitt's Deck Master, winning them the Duel.

Despite losing Nesbitt takes Duke's body, while Tristan wakes up in a warehouse in the body of a robot monkey.

Monkey Tristan freaks out after seeing himself in a mirror. He leaves the warehouse and spots, Nesbitt, who is using his body and attacking Kaiba with a kendo stick. Tristan leaps on the imposter's face, saving Kaiba. The imposter kidnapps Mokuba and takes off on a motorbike, followed by Kaiba. Tristan is unable to speak properly, so he cannot tell his friends who he is. Serenity however convinces the group that the monkey can be trusted, since it saved Kaiba.

After that Tristan, much to his pleasure, spends most of his time carried by Serenity. While speaking fondly of her, Tristan accidentally hits a switch on his body, allowing him to speak properly and let everyone hear what he was saying. Although he was acting like Tristan, the group were still unsure it was him.

Tristan, Joey, Serenity and Duke are encountered by the four remaining members of the Big Five, who attempt to steal more bodies. The gang try make their escape in a truck, driven by Joey. However the truck overturns and the four close in on them. While they argue over who gets which body, Noah appears and tells the four off for acting so dishonorably behind his back. Since Nesbitt didn't rightfully win Tristan's body, he tells the five to share Tristan's body and defeat Yugi.

Tristan watches Yugi and Joey duel the Big Five together to win his body back. Although Yugi and Joey win, the Big Five make another attempt to steal the gang's bodies. Noah appears once more and sends them away with Tristan's body.

Since Noah designed Tristan's monkey body, Duke suggest they search it for clues. After pushing buttons and activating a few unwanted functions, one of them opens a virtual door to KaibaLand. As the group enter the park, Tristan involuntary turns on them and a set of guns emerge from his hands. He warns them not to enter, but Yugi and Joey knock him aside, returning him to normal.

The gang enter a subway. Since Tristan is so anxious to get his body back, they take a handcar, rather than wait for a train. After the car spins out of control, the group end up in a lava arena, where Kaiba is dueling Noah.

Shortly after Yugi continues to Duel Noah in place of Kaiba, Noah introduces a rule, where each turn, he turns one of Yugi's friends to statues. Eventually monkey Tristan becomes such a victim. After all his friends have been turned to stone, Yugi imagines they are at his side and each of them gives him a card drawn from "Card of Sanctity's" effect. After Yugi wins, the group are unpetrified.

After Noah finds out, Gozaburo Kaiba had been using him, he tries to help everyone escape the virtual world. He takes them to a virtual Domino City. Here Duke, Serenity and Tristan are chased by the Rare Hunters again. After a flash, they reappear back in the plaza with the others.

Tristan belives they shouldn't have trusted Noah. The gang try to come up with a plan, but Gozaburo sets monsters on them.

Noah double-crossed the gang and steals Mokuba's body to escape to the real world, where he organizes a missile attack to destroy the fortress, including the servers for the virtual world. After having a change of heart, he contacts the group and explains that they must get out out quickly before the virtual world is destroyed.

Noah tells them to go the arcade. Téa, Serenity and Tristan get to the arcade first, while Yugi, Duke and Joey fight off more of Gozaburo's monsters. Noah directs the to the stage, which transports their consciousness back to the real world. They wake up in their pods back in the real world and are shortly afterwards followed by Joey and Duke.

The five of them go to Noah, who is still using Mokuba's body to help free Yugi, Kaiba and Mokuba escape. They leave things in his hands and get back the Battle City blimp.

Yugi, Kaiba and Mokuba escape soon and Duke, Joey and Tristan help them get onto the moving blimp, as they leave Noah's fortress, before it gets destroyed.

Battle City finals
The Battle City blimp lands on the "Alcatraz" island. Tristan, along with Téa and Duke watch the battle royale to determine who faces who in the finals, where they offer support to Yugi and Joey.

After it's decided that Joey will be dueling Marik next, Tristan quickly volunteers to tell Serentity, but Mokuba phones the blimp instead. Tristan joins Yugi, Téa and Duke to support Joey in his Duel. After Joey is rendered unconscious due to the pain he took from The Winged Dragon of Ra's blast, he is declared the loser. The group then rush to his assistance. Tristan seizes Joey by the shoulders and starts shaking him, ordering him to wake up. When Joey is taken KaibaCorp's doctors, Tristan drops to his knees and cries, begging to doctor to save Joey. He freaks out and grabs the doctor by the shirt, after the doctor says there's nothing he can do. After calming down, Tristan says he know's Joey is doing whatever it takes to wake up.

Tristan stays on the blimp with Joey, while Yugi faces Kaiba in the semi-finals. He tries to help Mokuba arrange an emergency helicopter for Joey. He returns to Joey's bedside to inform Duke and Serenity about the helicopter. The group are able to see Yugi and Kaiba's Gods cards battle through the window of the blimp. Tristan lifts up Joey and takes him over to the window, telling Joey that Yugi's in trouble and needs his help. Joey manages to wake up. Tristan weeps and tells him off for making them worry.

Tristan and the others go up the tower to watch the rest of Yugi and Kaiba's Duel. After that he supports Joey, during a third place play off, between him and Kaiba. Following Joey's defeat they proceed to watch Yugi face Marik in the final.

After Yugi wins, Kaiba announces that he's going to blow-up the tower in 1 hour. Tristan accuses him of being a sore loser for "trashing the place" after losing. The group proceeds to the blimp, to leave the island, where they find Mai and Bakura have woken up. After realizing the Kaiba brothers aren't there, Tristan joins the party to search for them.

Unable to find the Kaibas they return to the blimp, whose engines are failing. Instead they take the emergency helicopter that had came for Joey. They escape the island, as it explodes and see the Kaibas escaping in the Blue-Eyes jet.

Back at Domino City, Tristan, Joey, Yugi, Téa, Serenity and Bakura say goodbye as they part ways with the Ishtars, Mai and Duke. Tristan gets mad after Duke gives Serenity his phone number and later slips Serenity his too.

Waking the Dragons
This arc occurs only in the anime. Yugi, Téa, Joey and Tristan go the museum in order to recover Yami Yugi's memories. As Yugi holds the Egyptian God cards, something holds him back. The group hear a scream and dash outside, finding a large number of living Duel Monsters in the city.

After Yugi's God cards get stolen by Dartz henchmen, Tristan watches Yugi duel and defeat Grerimo, who is using the soul sealing card "The Seal of Orichalcos".

Afterwards they meet Rebecca Hawkins, who takes them to her grandfather Arthur. Tristan is initially skeptical of Arthur's talk of a seperate dimension, where real Duel Monsters exist.

While at Yugi's house, with Téa and Joey, Yugi receives a tape from Industrial Illusions. Tristan suggests they chuck it out, as this is how Pegasus stole Yugi's Grandpa's soul. Since Pegasus no longer has the Millennium Eye, they agree to watch it. In the tape Pegasus invites Yugi to come to California, where he will explain the Duel Monsters phenomonum. Téa, Tristan and Joey insist on coming with Yugi. The next morning, they take a plane sent by Pegasus. After arriving in America they take Pegasus limousine through the city.

The limo stops at an abandoned gas station, where the driver deserts them. A group of bikers approach the limo. Although Tristan tries telling them they don't trouble and advises them to move on, the bikers don't leave. They are saved by Mai Valentine, who arrives on her own motorbike and assaults the bikers, before taking off herself. Tristan drives the limousine from there, escaping before the gas station explodes. The limousine overheats, stranding the group in the desert. They manage to thumb a lift in the back of a truck from there.

By the time they reach Industrial Illusions, Pegasus has been defeated by Mai, who along with Dartz other henchmen have taken over the building. The group get trapped inside while Joey is forced to Duel Mai, who is using "The Seal of Orichalcos".

With the Duel prematurely ended, the gang meet up with Kaiba and Duke. Dartz henchmen leave and the group go upstairs where they are greeted by a hologram of Pegasus, who tells them about Dartz motives.

Duke gives the group a lift in his car to Arthur Hawkins house.

After learning Yugi went off on his own during the night, Tristan, Joey and Duke go after him. They find him dueling Rafael. Yugi loses, causing the three guys to think he's lost his soul. They try to wake him up and find that Yugi's soul has been taken, while Yami Yugi's remains.

After Kaiba refused them a lift, Yami, Joey, Tristan and Téa take a train to Florida to face Dartz henchmen. After a while, Tristan notices all the other passengers have disappeared. While they investigate, the train splts in two, seperating Tristan and Joey from Yami and Téa.

After, Tristan and Joey's fraction of the train slows down and stops, they leave it and find Rex Raptor. Tristan watches Joey duel and defeat Rex, who was using "The Seal of Orichalcos". After carrying Rex's body through the desert, they see Kaiba's plane crash land, aided by the Legendary Dragons and meet-up with their friends at the scene.

Kaiba gives everyone a lift to Florida, where the group split up. Tristan and Téa go to alert the police. The police turn out to be possessed by the Orichalcos and set an Orichalcos Soldier on them. While running from the soldier, Joey passes them. Tristan advises Téa to go warn the others, while he stops Joey from running into the possessed folk.

Joey ignores Tristan's advice and the two get split up when Joey takes a motorbike to chase after Valon. Shortly afterwards, Tristan is confronted by Mai, demanding to know where Joey is. Tristan tells her that he went after Valon and blames her. With Mai now after Joey, Tristan admits defeat and is attacked by an Orichalcos Soldier. Tristan prepares to fight him, but is saved by Yami Yugi in the nick of time. Rebecca hacks into KaibaCorp's satellite, allowing her to find Joey's exact location using the signal from his Duel Disk. By the time Tristan, Téa and Yami Yugi find Joey he has already lost to Mai and find his soulless body lying with Valon's.

Tristan and Téa fall behind Yami Yugi on the way to Paradius' building, as they carry Joey, but meet with up with the Kaiba brothers. Once inside the building, they find Mai has lost her soul and Yami has started a Duel with Rafael..

Millennium World
Tristan's mind was taken over by Yami Bakura, but returned after Yugi defeats Bakura. He later watches Yugi and Atem's duel along with his friends cheering them both on.

Naming
In all of the Japanese versions and in the English-language versions of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga by Kazuki Takahashi, Tristan is known as Hiroto Honda.

In the English-language second series anime, the English-language video games, the English-language Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, and the English-language "ani-manga" of that movie, he is known as Tristan Taylor. In the English Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses video game, he is T. Tristan Grey.

In translated versions of the manga in Spanish, Indonesian, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian manga, he is known as Hiroto Honda. In the Brazilian Portuguese version of the manga he is known as Tristan Taylor. In the Spanish dubbed anime he is known as Tristán Taylor. In the dubbed anime of all of the other Indo-European languages he is known as Tristan Taylor. In the dubbed anime of the Arabic language, he is also known as Tristan Taylor (تريستن تَيلر).

Deck
Tristan's Deck is comprised mostly of militaristic cards. He Duels once during the first series anime, defeating Jonouchi. He duels once during the second series anime, in a three-on-one Duel against Nesbitt. Although Tristan loses, his teammates Serenity and Duke go on to win. He doesn't Duel in the manga.