Alexis Rhodes

Alexis Rhodes, known as Asuka Tenjouin in the Japanese version, is a strong female duelist from the Obelisk Blue dormitory at Duel Academy as well as one of Jaden's closest friends.

Etymology
Her family name has been written as "Tenjoin," "Tenjouin," and "Tenjyoin" in Roman characters. Her given name in the Japanese version means "Tomorrow's Fragrance". Her English name means "helper" or "defender".

Design


Alexis' character design was overseen by Kenichi Hara. Her usual outfit consists of the standard female Obelisk Blue uniform, complete with an optional pair of fingerless gloves. Her blonde hair is sporadically arranged, with a large portion trailing the upper part of the nape of her neck. She carries an Academy-issued Duel Disk on her left arm. During her senior year, she carries a duel disk with Blue trim representing the Obelisk Blue/Female dorm on her left arm.

Biography
Alexis Rhodes, along with Zane Truesdale and Chazz Princeton, is one of the top students at the Academy. She is regarded as the "Madonna" and Queen of Obelisk Blue, yet she does not follow the crowd nor does she regard herself as better than other people like many of her Obelisk peers.

Alexis first meets Jaden when she watches his midnight duel against Chazz in the Obelisk Blue dormitory. Security arrives just as the duel is about to end, forcing them to stop the duel and leave. Alexis talks to Jaden afterwards saying she believed Chazz would have won, but Jaden reveals his next draw as "Monster Reborn" which would have let him win. Alexis is shocked and becomes interested in knowing more about Jaden's dueling skills.

In attempt to get Jaden expelled, Dr. Crowler plants a fake love note in Jaden's locker from Alexis to meet her at the Obelisk Blue female dorm, which is illegal for males to enter. Syrus Truesdale stumbles upon the note instead and heads to the female dorm, but is discovered by Alexis and her friends. Alexis and her friends correct Syrus that the letter was sent to Jaden, even though it was a fake letter in the first place. Alexis decides to use the situation to test Jaden's dueling skills by holding Syrus captive unless he agreed to duel her. She also threatens to expel both of them for crossing into the female dorm if they lost. Jaden wins but Alexis reveals in her thoughts that she never would have had them expelled anyways if she did win, because she felt the school year would be much more interesting with them.

When Jaden, Syrus and Chumley Huffington go to investigate the Abandoned Dorm at Duel Academy, they meet Alexis there searching for her missing older brother, Atticus. Alexis enters the dorm by herself but gets kidnapped by Crowler's hired mercenary, Titan. Titan claims to have sent her to the Shadow Realm and Jaden could only save her by beating Titan in a duel. However, Jaden would also get sent to the Shadow Realm if he lost. Jaden wins and frees Alexis. He also offers her his help in finding Atticus, but he leaves before she replies.

After this event, Crowler threatens to expel Jaden and Syrus for visiting the abandoned dorm unless they can beat two extremely difficult duel opponents (the Paradox Brothers) in a tag duel. Alexis offers to take Syrus' place because she was there too and Syrus has little confidence in his dueling skills, but it is refused. She still aids Jaden in preparing Syrus for the tag duel and trying to help him believe in himself.

Alexis soon begins to become good friends with Jaden and Syrus after they win the tag duel. She begins to accompany them on occasion during their adventures. However, she still continues spending much of her time searching for clues regarding Atticus' disappearance, with the help of Zane. When Chancellor Sheppard reveals the Shadow Riders' plot to take over the world using the seven Spirit Keys, Alexis is one of the seven chosen to hold the Spirit Keys along with Jaden, Dr. Crowler, Professor Banner, Zane Truesdale, Bastion Misawa and Chazz. While the seven begin defending their keys against the Shadow Riders, Jaden becomes involved in a duel with a figure known as Nightshroud. Nightshroud turns out to be Atticus brainwashed after Jaden defeats him, but his memories are gone. Alexis thus searches for a way to recover them and is offered a chance to duel Titan in return for Atticus' memories being restored. She ultimately wins and restores them.

Along with the other spirit key keepers except Jaden, Alexis loses her duel against the final Shadow Rider, Amnael. As a consequence, she is sent to an alternate dimension along with the others who lost where she remains unconscious. Jaden manages to free them by finally defeating Amnael, returning them to Earth.

Chazz comes out about his infatuation with Alexis after Jaden defeats Amnael. Atticus helps Chazz with his crush and he steals all seven spirit keys in order to force Alexis to duel with him. Although Chazz plays suggestive cards such as "Hidden Wish" and "Love Letter" to show her how much he cares, Alexis wins in the end, stating that she cannot return his feelings, because she's "in love with dueling". In this duel Alexis introduces her "Cyber Angel" series. Chazz's crush on Alexis continues throughout the series, although after having his free will sapped by Sartorius, his interest fades, until he is rescued by Jaden and returned to his former self.

At the beginning of season two, Alexis decides to move into the Slifer Red dorm with Jaden, Syrus, Chazz and Tyranno Hassleberry because Dr. Crowler begins constantly pressuring her into becoming a pop star duelist with Atticus. This soon changes when Chazz becomes brainwashed into The Society of Light by Sartorius. Chazz begins dueling Obelisk Blues to brainwash them into following Sartorius as well, and succeeds by using his powerful "White Veil" card that Sartorius gave him. Thus, Alexis feels it's her responsibility as an Obelisk Blue to duel Chazz and win against him so she could restore him as well as the other Obelisk Blues back to normal, despite Atticus' warnings. She fails, however, and meets the same fate as her fellow elites.

Although she remains brainwashed by Sartorius for the majority of season two, she finally begins to show some resistance by refusing to play the "White Veil" card given to her by Sartorius during her duel against Maitre' D in the Genex Tournament. During that duel, Chazz, Syrus and Jaden (who are watching) also point out that she is standing up for Obelisk Blues despite that she was now under Sartorious' control in the Society of Light, perhaps suggesting she was trying to break free. Additionally, she vaguely begins to remember the times when she and Jaden were friends when Sartorius orders her to duel Jaden for his satellite key. However, Sartorius notices this and thus strips Alexis of her mind completely, rendering her a lifeless and empty puppet.

During her duel with Jaden to get the key for Sartorius, Jaden tries to break Sartorius' control on her and remind her of their friendship by playing cards that Atticus and Chazz would often use ("Swing of Memories" and "Ojama Black", respectively). However, she does not listen to anything Jaden tries convincing her of because her mind was completely stripped by Sartorius, thus she had no memories either. Jaden still manages to win which restores her mind back to normal. Upon being returned, she has no memory of ever entering the Society of Light or being brainwashed but notices that she and Jaden were in a duel. She asks Jaden who won and Jaden lies saying she did, most likely because Jaden felt bad for her after all she had been through.

During season three, Alexis accompanies Jaden, Syrus, Axel Brodie, Jim Crocodile Cook, Jesse Anderson and Hassleberry in solving the mystery behind the new professor, Viper's, new bio bands that appear to be sucking the energy from dueling students. When Viper finally collects enough energy to transport Duel Academy to a different dimension, she aids Jaden, Axel, Bastion, Jim, Jesse and Hassleberry in fending off the rest of the school, who have been transformed by Yubel into Duel Ghouls

Yubel is eventually driven from Marcel and the school returned to Duel Academy island but Jesse was left behind. Alexis joins Atticus, Jaden, Chazz, Bastion, Jim, Axel, Hassleberry and Syrus in finding him by going through a dimensional warp, but are transported to a different dimension than before this time. Jaden desperately searches for Jesse after arriving, regardless of the village elder whom they meet's warning not to search at night but to wait for day, as night is when the evil duel monster spirits strike. The others feel it is their responsibility as a team to follow him as well. However, Jaden becomes so obsessed with finding Jesse that he doesn't notice when Alexis, Atticus, Chazz and Hassleberry all fall behind. The four begin to think that Jaden doesn't care about them anymore and decide not to follow. They are eventually captured by Brron, Mad King of Dark World, and sacrificed by him to create the "Super Polymerization" card. Before Alexis is sacrificed, she sadly says "I thought we were friends. Guess not. It's sad to know that..."

It's later discovered by Bastion that they are not dead, but simply transported to an alternate, lifeless and cold dimension. Jaden would still be able to rescue them if he defeats Yubel in a duel. Jaden instead decides to make up for all the wrongs he did, to Yubel and his friends, by fusing his spirit with Yubel's so they could be together again. This consequently restored the dimensions' balance to normal, freeing his friends.

During the fourth season, Alexis finds Jaden' s new and more serious personality to be troubling and alienated, especially when he tried interrogating information from Atticus despite Atticus' troubled state in the hospital. She especially gets mad when Jaden forces her injured brother into a duel with the Nightshroud mask on, until she discovers it was Atticus' idea. In general, Alexis and Jaden's friendship seems to have grown apart in season four. Alexis once tries to make amends with him, saying they're still friends despite what happened in the alternate dimension, also inviting him to the Duel Academy party. Jaden simply says he may go then walks away.

At the party, Alexis begins to doubt that Jaden will ever come as time goes by, and also that things will ever be right between them again. As she is about to leave, Jaden finally shows up, and Hassleberry pairs them as a tag duel for the tag duel tournament assuming they chose each other. Though they win all of their duels, Alexis begins to get mad because Jaden continues to ignore her cards and only thinks of his own. During the final tag duel against Blair Flannigan and Hassleberry, Alexis agrees to switch partners and become Hassleberry's partner when Blaire plays "Partner Change" because she continues getting more frustrated with Jaden's disregard to her feelings and cards. Alexis eventually decides to destroy Partner Change and become Jaden's partner again after Jaden compliments Alexis. Alexis uses Jaden and her cards combined to finally win the tag duel. Afterwards, Jaden and Alexis have a talk alone, repairing their friendship.

Later, Trueman begins to invade Duel Academy and send the duelists he defeats into the World of Darkness. Alexis is one of the last students standing, along with Atticus and her two friends. She is eventually dueled and defeated too. In the World of Darkness, Alexis greatly begins to doubt her abilities in her teaching career at Duel Academy. The students continue to mock her and insist on how awful of a teacher she is. Like the other students, she eventually becomes completely swallowed up in the darkness of her thoughts, until Jaden's words of light inspire her and return her to Duel Academy.

At the Graduation Ceremony, she gave a heart warming speech at Graduation about how no matter how tough something is, we can always overcome it with friends by our side. During the party, she, Jesse and Axel have a conversation outside, confident that they will see Jaden again.

Manga
Alexis' manga-counterpart is the same as her anime-counterpart in terms of ranking, strength, and motivation. She longs to be viewed as a duelist by her fellow peers, rather than simply a female, and goes out of her way to take Seika Kohinata's place in a duel against Jaden. Though she loses, she still becomes Miss Duel Academia, as Seika withdraws from the competition, feeling unable to accept the title after seeing how much acclaim Alexis won for her duel. Alexis participates in the tournament hosted at Duel Academy. She fights Reggie MacKenzie in the preliminaries and loses. She later duels David Rabb in the finals; while she is frustrated by the loss, she sees it as an opportunity to motivate herself to become a better duelist.

She and Bastion Misawa battle Jesse Anderson and Adrian Gecko in a tag duel. They manage to win, much to Adrian's annoyance.

Voice/Mannerisms
Alexis is generally very confident, brave and strong willed. She has many times put herself in danger to help her friends. She does have strong confidence in her dueling skills, but she does not act vain about it unlike Chazz and Aster, and sometimes Jaden. Alexis also tends to act more quiet and reserved than Jaden's other friends. Despite all the unfortunate circumstances that happen to her throughout the show (such as being kidnapped and "losing her soul" to Titan, being brainwashed into the Society of Light, being lost in Titan's darkness and nearly drowning after getting kidnapped by Viper) she continues to stay alongside Jaden and the others in defeating sinister forces.

After Alexis lost her duel to Chazz and was brainwashed into joining the Society of Light, her personality changed dramatically. She became extremely rude and insulting towards Jaden and the others, also becoming very arrogant.

Many fans believe that Alexis has a crush on Jaden. This is truer of the English version; in the original, Asuka does not entertain romantic interest towards anyone, which leads to her brother's repeated attempts to get her to notice someone. But in season 4, it is revealed that Alexis does have secret feelings for Jaden. This starts in episode 161 when she's seen thinking about him, and more strongly indicated in the next episode on two accessions. The first is when she's clearly frustrated with Jaden getting along with Blair during the pair duel, and later after she tells him about her decision based on his influence; she just says she was glad she met him, but has a lot of trouble assembling her words, and blushes while she's speaking.

In the dub, Alexis' affections toward Jaden can be traced as early on as episode 3. Her dormmate, Jasmine wondered if Alexis was "falling for that Slifer", the "Slifer" being referred to as Jaden. Alexis consistently will respond to another female showing interest in Jaden. For example, in episode 106 when Blair give Jaden a flirty wink, she is clearly not pleased. Similarly, in dubbed episode 37, Chazz remarks that Tania might be Jaden's "type" after all. Alexis then vehemently denies this, retorting, "...no way Jaden would ever date that thing". The notion is furthered when Jaden and Syrus duel the Paradox Brothers. Alexis tells Bastion that she "is happy that Jaden gets to stay at the Academy." Bastion corrects her by assuming that she meant Jaden and Syrus, and presumably figures out that Alexis has a crush on Jaden when Alexis tries to change the subject. A similar situation also ensues when Mindy, Alexis' good friend and roommate, exclaims that she would never let a Slifer Red stay on campus. In episode 15, things take a turn when Harrington Rosewood challenges Jaden to a duel with the prize of being Alexis' fiancé. Despite Jaden winning the duel, his naiveté allows Alexis to downplay the role to one of friendship in the English version, stating, "...it means friendship, at least for now, big guy."; in the Japanese version, Asuka instead calls Judai an idiot for not knowing the definition of the word "fiancé". Another example of Alexis' affection towards Jaden is in episode 42 after Jaden wins against the Dark Magician Girl. Everyone else is mad at Jaden for winning and Jaden says "It's not easy being the bad guy." Alexis then replies "Aw, sometimes the girls like the bad guys," but then quickly tries to cover it up. In addition, after Jaden nearly gets "sent to the stars" after his duel with a duel monster spirit in the alternate dimension, Alexis later confronts him personally and is mad at him for unnecessarily putting himself at risk of dying. However, while Alexis is controlled by Sartorius she shows a great deal of dislike for Jaden, referring to him as a "dork" and "loser" multiple times.

In the manga, Alexis doesn't display any particular romantic feelings for Jaden, but is the object of Bastion Misawa's affections. Throughout the manga, Bastion shows a lot of interest in Alexis, becoming extremely fidgety and often nervous when she is around. He is noted as being shy with Alexis, and lacks the courage to ask her for her cell phone number. Alexis is also possibly more flirtatious in the manga, since Syrus Truesdale is quoted as calling her a "siren."

Alexis also has a minor rivalry with Seika Kohinata, a third year Obelisk Blue student, since the two are participants for the "Miss Duel Academia" contest, and later, the Duel Academia Tournament.

Deck
Alexis plays a "Cyber Girl" Deck including female monsters based on dance related sports. She later upgrades this to include the "Cyber Angel" series.

During the time she is included with The Society of Light, she used a "White Night" Deck.

In the manga, Alexis uses an ice-themed Deck, based on the distribution of Ice Counters.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Spirit Caller she uses a Dancing Blade Deck.