Yubel (character)

Yubel is the primary antagonist of the Dimension World arc of the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime. A maleficent Duel Monster whose card was in Jaden Yuki's possession when he was a child, Yubel was deranged and manipulative, exploiting various individuals to accomplish her machinations. She is later redeemed after Jaden fuses with Yubel, reuniting them forever. Since then she acts as Jaden's partner similar to Yugi's relationship with the Pharaoh and Yuma's relationship with Astral.

Appearance
Yubel's appearance can easily be described as demonic. Her most noticeable features are her sickly-pink skin, large black wings, heterochromic eyes, which look similar to Dartz's while under control of the Orichalcos and a third vertically placed eye. Yubel's clothing is bizarre; one of her legs is completely covered, the other is mostly exposed. Her hair is somewhat reminiscent of Yami Marik and Yami Bakura, each contributing to one half. She also has blue lips and pointed teeth resembling those of Camula. Her entire appearance can easily be described as made up of opposites.

One side (in the original version) is distinctly female, with a covered breast and a rounded hip. The other looks more masculine with a pectoral muscle, no breast, and a harder, less rounded hip; in addition, it is oddly the "masculine" side which is paired with Yubel's original hair and eye color in the past life.

Her Duel Disk is an extension of her arm that grows out when she Duels. Her appearance symbolizes her duality, although the English dub overlooks this. Unlike the card's art, there is no additional gray clothing over the torso. In the English dub her top half is covered in black to look less revealing and more female, and in later episodes her chest is redrawn to have two breasts instead of one, but aside from that she looks exactly like she did in the original. When she was a human she had light blue hair with turquoise eyes and tanned skin and she was said to be beautiful.

Personality
After being sent into space, she was exposed to the Light of Destruction which took over her mind. In the Japanese version, Yubel is not only evil and deranged, but also quite psychopathic. She knows how to manipulate others to do what she wants by playing on their innermost feelings and hidden desires. Staying true to her villainous nature, she doesn't bind herself by her word: although she made a pact with Viper to bring back his son, Pierce, Yubel instead merely changed his memories so that he thought his son had never died. Yubel also throws away allies that she deems as useless as seen with Viper and Marcel, and brutally punishes those who betray her. In addition to the above, she is also quite emotionally sadistic, often enjoying picking at the insecurities of others for the above reasons or her own enjoyment and crushing/trivializing their hopes and ideals after she attempts to bond with her opponents. Despite how much she mocks her opponents, she is actually capable of sincerely respecting them, though it's overshadowed by how much she enjoys their suffering. This is missing from the dub; she no longer cares how much suffering her opponent endures and does not respect them (in Zane's case, on several occasions she mocked his heart condition).

Yubel's ambition was to keep Jaden all to herself, and is willing to harm anyone that gets between her and Jaden. In fact, all of her plans revolve around getting Jaden, even taking control of the Duel Spirit dimensions was only something that she wanted so she could have a world with Jaden. Despite her outspoken love for Jaden, Yubel has no qualms about hurting him to accomplish her goals or bend him to her will. Initially, Yubel made comments that Jaden "belongs" to her (essentially claiming him like he's her property), although she stopped making them after her reappearance for unknown reasons. Yubel also doesn't care how dangerous the situations she manipulates Jaden into are (possibility of him dying during the Survival Duels, his journey into the second alternate dimension, etc.), because she always assumes (albeit correctly) that Jaden will survive. Yubel has further been shown to have an enormously warped and sadomasochistic view of love: because love, in part, is sharing feelings, both joy and suffering, Yubel therefore legitimizes Jaden's suffering as "true love". Yubel feels she has suffered greatly due to her time in space and the crash into the Earth that caused her to lose most of her body, and desires to share that suffering with Jaden. To that end, she goes out her way to make him suffer the same fate.

To that end, she also openly welcomes Jaden's insults and defiance, seeing the pain she suffers as Jaden expressing his "love". She also claims that life isn't worth living without that person that one loves the most, actually shedding a tear at the thought. However, she appears unable to understand any other form of love, and dismisses any relationships in which joy and suffering are not mutual as immaterial. The reason Yubel acquired her twisted concept of love was that during her time in space, she at first felt that Jaden had discarded her, but later came to believe making suffer by sending into space was done out love, likely due to coming in contact with The Light of Destruction. In the dub, she instead sees this as betrayal. She is quoted as saying to Jaden "I was your best friend. Your guardian. Your avenger. And how did you repay me? By letting them get their hands on me. You let them send me away. But destiny had other plans, and they brought me back to you." Also of note is that in the dub, she did eventually realize that Jaden had put her through such pain to make her more powerful, and wanted to do the same to Jaden, but still resented how he had done it.

In episode 154, it is revealed that Yubel was paranoid to those she believe was stand in the way of her love, including the "Neo-Spacians" along with Jaden's friends (in particular, Jesse Anderson, which was part of her reasoning for possessing him), in her inconsiderable belief that they have "taken my place" and have "stolen Jaden from me". Yubel also believes that the supposed "deaths" of most of Jaden's friends and manipulating his "Neo-Spacians" in harming Jaden with Yubel's effect, then destroying them mercilessly, is her way of payback, claiming that "My love for you is greater than theirs". Ironically enough, what Yubel does to those she feels animosity towards is far less harmful then how she torments Jaden. In the Japanese version, she explicitly says that she believes that the love that Jaden's past life gave her now belongs to Jesse.

In the dub, Yubel's personality underwent some major changes. All references to Yubel's "love" for Jaden were omitted and replaced by her childish desire to "play" with him. She also states that she wants Jaden to pay for "discarding her". This would indicates that her goal is to punish Jaden for her being banished into space, although this animosity isn't seen in the original version. However, she seems still to have some possessive feelings towards him, and may still try to reclaim him as her own. It's unclear, however, especially in earlier episodes Yubel showed her possessive feelings towards Jaden, but starting during his Duel with Viper she then switched to show hate for him. Also, Yubel acted extremely childish at first, after Jaden's Duel with Viper it started acting for more fiendish, and intelligent. Yubel also takes Jaden more lightly then in the original (when he went to Duel when she was possessing Marcel, she was surprised he made it, while in the original she expected him to make it). All masculine aspects of her appearance were edited out as well, and both in the past life and the present life, she was given an excessively feminine voice as opposed to her voice in the original. The simplification of her motives may be due to the disturbing possible implications of Yubel's associating physical and emotional pain with love, often interpreted understandably as sadomasochism. Yubel hasn't shown to be as sadistic as she was in the Japanese version and only seems to enjoy tormenting Jaden. In the version she also uses the term "destiny" several times, suggesting the Light has had a similar effect on her it did in Sartorius, at least in terms of influencing the belief that all is predetermined (in the original version, she never displayed any signs of this and was merely shown to be insane).

Towards the end of the series, Yubel's spirit appears on various occasion, and its noticeable that her personality has changed once all hatred towards Jaden and all influence from the Light of Destruction is gone, taking a more supportive role by lending her power to him. Particularly seen when Jaden is Dueling against Nightshroud, as Yubel's spirit appears to support him. Though at first she objects and sorts of mocks Jaden for how the Duel has commenced, as well as that comment made by him stating that he was alone, Yubel counters that idea made by Nightshroud, telling Jaden that isn't true as her spirit is always with him (being that their souls are fused together). She again boosts up his confidence when Nightshroud destroys "Neos Wiseman", thus telling him to remove her card from the game to bring back "Neos". As Jaden hesitates doing this, Yubel though telling him that he will now have to fight alone, thus convinces him to believe in his own power, and that also she's confident that he will defeat Darkness.

The reason behind her sudden change in personality can likely be linked to Jaden holding the power of The Gentle Darkness. In the movie Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time, Paradox referred to Jaden as a "Duelist with ability to control the spirits". Thus, whether or not Jaden realized it, his power might have been able to calm Yubel's soul.

She is also present for Jaden's Duel with Yugi Muto. Yubel tells Jaden that she is impressed and that recognizes Yugi as being the True King of Duelists, as Yugi is able to sense her spirit. With the Duel advancing with him struggling as he's facing an formidable opponent, Yubel makes Jaden notice his shaking hand asking then if he is scared. As he questions this too, Yubel quickly denies this, telling him that she knows of his true feelings and emotions at the time.

Voice/Mannerisms
In the Japanese version, Yubel is voiced by Hisao Egawa and Hiromi Tsuru. Her two voices alternate evenly, though Yubel tends to use the female voice when speaking to or about Jaden. Occasionally she uses both voices, usually when its switching from one voice to another. She's been referred to as both a "he" and a "she" in the Japanese version, although she usually identifies herself with male pronouns such as "boku". Yubel's American voice actress, Priscilla Everett, portrays Yubel with only a single (androgynous though somewhat identifiably female) voice prior to fully revealing herself. Additionally, Yubel's English voice is given childish mannerisms and electronic effects that reflect her own childish nature: Yubel's initial behavior in the version is that of a spoiled brat determined to get her own way and remove those who oppose her. However, later on she behaves in a more adult manner, especially after first shedding Marcel. When possessing others (in both versions), her victims voice isn't changed (although her host's voice sounds more serious), though she sometimes uses one of her own voices in the Japanese version, while the English version she randomly uses an altered version of her host's voice. (Marcel lost his French accent, and Jesse's Southern accent was weakened, and sometimes they used the same vocal effect as Yubel). She still uses her own voice when possessing others, but she does it far less than in the Japanese version (whenever she speaks using her own voice in the version, her host body glows purple.). It's also worth noting that in the English version, Yubel often talks in scenes where she says nothing in the Japanese version. Yubel's past life incarnate is voiced by Hiromi Tsuru in Japan.

Abilities
From within her card, Yubel can cause harm to others in a manner similar to the card's effect.

In spirit form, Yubel demonstrates many supernatural powers through her appearances. She can possess anyone with inner darkness in their heart and manifest herself through an avatar made out of energy. Yubel is able to materialize and manipulate Duel Monster card effects as seen with the snakes that prevent Jaden's comrades from helping during his Duel with Thelonious Viper, but after absorbing massive amounts of energy, she is able to focus this ability to a much greater extent, like summoning real monsters to distract Jaden and his friends or using the "Polymerization" card to fuse three students with Duel Monster spirits.

Yubel can also teleport herself and others, as she teleported the whole Duel Academy to an alternate dimension. She also has the ability to share her power with others, signified by their left arm having scales on them, as evidenced with Viper and Adrian. This gift gives them strength and supernatural abilities, just less potent than hers. She can also control others, as shown with the "Duel Ghouls". Lastly, she has the ability to peer into the mind and memories of others, and by extent, see the darkness of a person's heart, and tempting a person to do her bidding by exploiting that individual's desires. This ability is a necessity as Yubel derives her power mainly from the darkness of others.

As for her lesser-known abilities, she can also use telekinesis to immobilize a person, like she did to Adrian in Viper's base. She can also alter minds and memories. Yubel also has a degree of super-strength when she threw Marcel at Blair, using only one arm. She is also capable of wielding the Sacred Beast cards despite their negative effects on Duel Spirits.

After Yubel has her soul fused with Jaden, he also obtains access to her abilities. However, because Yubel implied most of it came from The Light of Destruction, which was purged from her when she fused with Jaden, he may not possess the same power level than before.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time, even though being still fused with Jaden, she is seen using her powers separately from him. She projected an energy blast in order to scare away people gathered at Domino City Plaza.

History
Yubel is the mastermind behind the Survival Duels and the creation of the Martin Empire. An unknown amount of time ago, Yubel and the boy who would become The Supreme King lived in unnamed kingdom. The King informed Yubel that a certain individual held the power of the Gentle Darkness, and that he needed a guardian to watch over him until he grew to adulthood and could control his power. Yubel volunteered to be that guardian, and was transformed from a human into the form she is most commonly seen in, referred to as a dragon. Jaden's ancestor swore that he would love her and only her after that transformation. In the modern era, Yubel's spirit is made into a card by Industrial Illusions.

The card was eventually found by Jaden's father and since Jaden was the reincarnation of the person she swore to protect, and whom she remembered loved her and whom she loved, Yubel guarded him once again. Yubel wished to guard Jaden from any and all perceived threats, which unfortunately included any threats to their friendship.

During that time she caused anybody that Jaden Dueled to fall into a coma, including an acquaintance of Jaden's named Osamu. This caused other people view Jaden as cursed and became too scared to Duel him. Under Jaden's request (hoping that she would gain the "powers of justice" that "Elemental Hero Neos" would eventually gain, in hopes that it would correct whatever was wrong with Yubel's soul), Yubel was sent into outer space by KaibaCorp in a separate satellite from his contest-winning card designs, the Neo-Spacians, but the card absorbed power from what she described as "a darker form of energy" than Neos, which made her powerful but caused her extreme pain (in the Japanese version, it was The Light of Destruction, something that she actually meant to help her friend fight against, and being exposed to the Light caused Yubel to go insane).

Dimension World
After an indeterminate amount of time in isolation, Yubel's capsule returned to Earth, though the shock of reentry destroyed all but a single forearm of Yubel's body, which was eventually found by Thelonious Viper. Tricking Viper into helping her with the promise of restoring his adopted son Pierce to life, Yubel coerced him into creating the Bio-Bands and Survival Duels, absorbing the energy produced by them so she could reform her shattered body, and eventually take back Jaden. In the English version, Yubel's goals appear to be far more widespread; they consist, of making Jaden suffer for "discarding" her, protecting him from everyone and everything until he needs to defeat a great evil, and she appears to want to take him for her own as well.

After Viper was defeated by Jaden, Yubel tricked him into believing his son was alive, making Viper fall off the arena because she had no further use for him (In the English version this is cut out, instead she grabs his face and destroys him out right with her Devil Arm). She then transported Duel Academy into another dimension. Yubel then possessed Marcel Bonaparte, and turned the students of the displaced faculty into Duel-obsessed zombies (known as Duel Ghouls in the dub) to help fuel her restoration, and eventually securing the Sacred Beasts and making a deal with Adrian Gecko. Yubel then challenged Jaden to a Duel, threatening to dispose of the Duel Ghoul if he turned the challenge down, and saying she would send everybody back home if Jaden won (although she had no intention of keeping her word). Jaden then faced the Yubel-possessed Marcel, but the Duel was going badly for Jaden until Jesse showed up. Late in the Duel, Yubel leaves Marcel's body, having gained enough energy to fully restore her body. Yubel nearly wins the Duel using "Chaos Phantasm Armityle", but is stopped by Jesse's "Rainbow Dragon" card. The monsters battling results in an explosion that consumes both Jesse and Yubel, although it's later shown that they both survived.

Yubel later reappears in the Duel Monsters Spirit World, possessing Jesse to continue her mission to destroy those who dare separate it from Jaden while she simultaneously tries to unite all twelve Duel Spirit dimensions together with the "Super Polymerization" card so she may reign over them with Jaden at her side (in the English version she states she wants to unite the entire universe so that none feels the pain and loneliness Jaden made her feel). Meanwhile, Yubel also orchestrated the events that led to Jaden's descent into darkness as The Supreme King in order for Jaden to understand her cruel ideology of love and to complete the card necessary for her plan, "Super Polymerization".

When first reappears in Jesse's body, she Duels and defeats Zane Truesdale, whom willingly challenged her. After the Duel she returned to her palace to recover her strength (she had exhausted herself during her Duel with Zane), but finds that Adrian Gecko turned against her in attempt to unite the twelve dimensions under his rule. Yubel succeeds in defeating him as well by turning the spirit of Echo against him using her own power, regaining her energy as well as killing Adrian (this is changed to "sent to the stars" in the dub, though death is still heavily implied). When Jaden finally Duels Yubel to save Jesse, it is revealed that Yubel actually removed Jesse's soul from his body and placed him inside the "Rainbow Dragon" card before taking over. Jaden manages to release Jesse from Yubel's influence, but Yubel manages to force the Duel to a draw using "Thousand Buster" and takes the "Super Polymerization" necessary for the completion of her plans with "Last Trick". Jaden later Duels with Yubel in order to settle the problems between him and her once and for all. By the end of the Duel, Yubel realizes that Jaden would never accept her love, and that he hated her for the suffering she caused him and his friends. She then gives up her goal of ruling the Duel spirit dimensions with Jaden, and instead decides to destroy the dimensions along with Jaden. In the English version she never abandons her ultimate goals.

Jaden is eventually able to forgive Yubel and vows to her he will love her for all time. He proceeds to fuse their souls using "Super Polymerization", ending the Duel and binding them together for all time.

Darkness
Yubel is seen during the opening of the Darkness arc near Jaden, and it's later revealed that she actually still existed as an individual. Eventually, it's revealed that Jaden does have Yubel's card in his Deck during the Darkness arc when he Dueled Nightshroud.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time
In Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time, Yubel appears in her spirit form while Jaden is being told of Paradox's plot to eliminate Maximillion Pegasus by Yusei Fudo. After recruiting Yugi and going back thirty minutes before Paradox would attack Pegasus at the party he is to attend, Yubel uses her powers to scare away the other patrons before either Pegasus or Paradox would arrive. Before Jaden Duels Paradox with Yugi and Yusei, his eyes glow and Yubel's spirit appears behind him. She also assists him during the Duel. Later she returns to her own time with Jaden. Her personality is more calm than it was before she fused with Jaden.

Decks
Yubel uses a number of Decks in the anime.