Jakob

Jakob, known as Jose in the Japanese version, is a character in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.

He is one of Aporia's three embodiments of despair and the Three Emperors of Yliaster, along with Lester and Primo. His master plan is to erase one of what Yliaster believes to be one of history's greatest mistakes: Ener-D. The attempt is ties to completing what the three emperors refer to as the Infinity Circuit.

Likewise the other embodiments, along with Paradox and Bruno, Jakob is a left-handed duelist.

Design
Jakob is the largest member both in height and mass of the three emperors. Although no official height has been given, Jakob is over seven feet tall, and has massive arms, as seen when Sherry was able to wrap her entire body around one of his arms. As the oldest Emperor of Yliaster, Jakob has wrinkled skin, most notably under his eyes, and a long, father-time style gray beard that reaches all the way down to his waist. In addition to the beard, Jakob has an overgrown right eyebrow that covers his right eye, and his left eye is yellow. Other than the beard and the eyebrow, Jakob does not have any other hair on his head.

Like the other emperors, Jakob primarily wears white, has a white cloak and hood, and a red gem on his head. Unlike the other emperors though, Jakob's gem is above his right eye instead of between his eyes. He also has a gray patch with an Infinity symbol on his face, but unlike Lester and Primo, Jakob's patch covers his nose and mouth similar to a gas mask, which muffles his voice.

Jakob's color variation other than the white is a dark golden orange, as seen on his pants, front, and the shoulder pads that pin his cloak. Jakob wears black gloves, metal arm bands and black boots. His pants, which are the golden orange and white, are loose around his feet, and underneath Jakob wears black boots. The white cloak that Jakob wears covers a white armor shell over his chest, back, and shoulders, which on the front bears an infinity symbol similar to that of the Machine Emperors. However, rather than a glowing green core, Jakob's symbol is shut. Directly underneath the symbol on the chest, Jakob's abdomen unfolds to reveal a duel disk is built onto him.

Personality
Jakob acts as the group's superior and is the wisest of the trio. He moves slowly and methodically, planning each move carefully, and holding a great deal of patience to both complete his plan, and dealing with obstacles in his path. Especially when it comes to Primo, who has not always been in agreement with Jakob and has attempted to thwart Jakob's plans so that he can go forward with his own. Jakob though is not all calm, showing great distaste for humanity as he sees them as arrogant, shortsighted, and in constant need of Yliaster's help to stay on God's path to avoid destruction. He holds a cold attitude towards those he's harmed, such as Sherry LeBlanc, justifying her parents murder and his lacking memory of why Yliaster did it as just another correction in history.

Jakob reflects on himself through observing his own teammates, thinking back to when he was younger while watching Lester duel Luna and Leo, and how he outgrew Primo's brash arrogance when planning the Diablo Riding Roid Army.

During his duel with Jack, Jakob showed a great amount of ruthlessness when he activated Speed Spell - Take Over and grabbed hold of Jack's Duel Runner and then pushed Jack, and Jack's Duel Runner, away after explaining the Speed Spell's effect.

Origin
In a future, where most of humanity is wiped out by what was believed to be Ener-D, Aporia was one of the few human survivors. He and the other survivors, Vizor, ZONE and Paradox worked on a way to restore the world to the way it once was. Shortly before Aporia died, he requested that ZONE split him into three incarnations based on the three major despairs of his life.

ZONE complied and the three embodiments of despair, Lester, Primo and Jakob were created and sent to the past. Jakob was the embodiment of the despair Aporia suffered after having no one left to love.

Pre World Racing Grand Prix
Jakob appeared alongside Primo and Lester when Primo acquired his Machine Emperor Wisel Infinity. Jakob noted that they did not have to do anything for the tablet to arrive on its own, and pondered on whether that means that all the tablets will just show up on their own. When Security arrived to investigate the site, he recognized Lazar, and comments that they were supposed to meet Lazar earlier, but he they had stood him up to come and retrieve the tablet. Jakob stood quietly as Primo and Lester explained to Lazar who they were and that they were the new directors to replace Rex Goodwin.

At the World Racing Grand Prix opening party, Jakob, Primo and Lester all watched the celebration from a back room. He argued with Primo, claiming that they don't have enough strength to complete their task themselves and need to use the WRGP to draw all those who have the necessary power. On their screen, they saw Dobocle try to crash the party to Jakob's annoyance, but through it he managed to see that Akiza Izinski possessed psychic powers as she fought Dobocle. Primo chased after the intruder and caused Dobocle to crash, leading everyone to believe a Ghost was responsible. Afterwards they saw Yusei Fudo dueling Vizor, but didn't see Vizor perform his Accel Synchro Summon because the process jammed the feed. The Three Emperors took interest in the Duel after seeing it had completed one of the tracks on the Infinity Circuit.

Jakob, along with Lester and Primo watched Yusei and Akiza's Turbo Duel from their true base of operations. The Duel didn't add any tracks to the Infinity Circuit, but Jakob had faith that his plan would ultimately succeed through the WRGP. Primo reminded him that the Crimson Dragon is a potential threat to the plan and proposed that he defeat Yusei in a Duel to take "Stardust Dragon" to effectively cut off the Crimson Dragon's head. Jakob didn't comment as they interrupted by the arrival of Lester's tablet.

Jakob watched Lester spending time with Luna, while undercover as a Duel Academy student. After Lester revealed himself, Jakob and Primo watched Lester's from their thrones when he challenged Luna and Leo to a Turbo Duel at the same time. Jakob and Primo discussed whether Lester was getting ahead of himself by Summoning "Machine Emperor Skiel Infinity", but Jakob replied that children are just that way and he remembers acting like that during his own childhood. They continued to watch, taking interest when Luna Summoned "Ancient Fairy Dragon" are were surprised when the Crimson Dragon appeared and saved Leo's life and the Duel Monster Spirits saved Luna as Lester defeated her. Following the duel, the Emperors erased Lester's presence as a transfer student from history, removed his mansion and any memory of him except from those immune to falsification of history.

Primo took matters into his own hands and defected from Jakob's plan to build the Diablo Riding Roid army and steal a Duel Runner program that Yusei and Bruno had been working on. Jakob contacted Primo and protested that his plan would be ruined if Primo carried on like this, but Primo responded that he couldn't care less about Jakob's plan and and cut off their connection.

Lester said that Primo was just immature and added that Jakob was once like that as well. Jakob claimed to have outgrown that and forgotten Primo's sort of attitude a long time ago. They figured that Primo planned on using the Riding Roids to complete the circuit rather than the Signers. Lester didn't think the defection mattered since they were all still trying to activate the circuit, but Jakob thought it was a waste of time to change plans when they were so close to completing them. Lester got excited upon realizing that when the circuit worked he would end up just like Primo and Jakob, and he didn't ever want to get that old.

Primo tried to ruin Jakob's plan by attempting to kill three of the Signers: Yusei Fudo, Jack Atlas, and Crow Hogan, by blowing up the factory he had used to make the Riding Roid Army, but they all managed to escape.

After Primo brought his Riding Roid army online, Jakob attempted to show Primo that the original plan was not flawed. he orchestrated the appearance of an imposter of Jack Atlas to gauge the power of the Crimson Dragon in an attempt to activate more of the Infinity Circuit. The impostor framed the real Jack for crashing Turbo Duelists. Yliaster then broke Jack out of his cell, knowing that he would attempt to clear his name and set up a Duel between him and the impostor. The impostor won, causing Jack to fall into the ocean. Rather than leave him die, Jakob ordered to have Jack brought to a cave where he was forced to watch the impostor go around ruining his name. Primo thought they should get rid of Jack, since he had already lost to his impostor once, but Jakob insisted that his connection to the Crimson Dragon could become a problem, and they couldn't risk it interfering. Jack broke free from his virtual cell, took his Duel Runner, and chased down the impostor. The two Jacks dueled again, and this time Jack won, causing the imposter to disintegrate. Lester and Primo considered the loss a waste of time at first, but as Jakob planned the Duel activated another track on the Infinity Circuit. Following the Duel Yliaster removed the cave where Jack was held captive and erased traces of their involvement from history.

World Racing Grand Prix commences
Sherry LeBlanc and Elsworth attacked a Sector Security building and forced an evacuation. When it came to the attention of the Three Emperors, who were considered head of Security, Primo blamed Lazar because he had abandoned his post. However Lazar was of no interest to Jakob, who also thought the situation at Security was trivial compared to their current plans. Unbeknownst to them, Sherry, Bruno, and Yusei met ZONE for the first time that day through Sherry's Z-ONE card.

The Three Emperors briefly appeared on the opening day of the World Racing Grand Prix and watched some of the first round matches, including Team 5D's match against Team Unicorn. The first round of the WRGP completed more tracks in the Infinity Circuit. Jakob explained that the participants' Duelist power was going to change the future.

Unbeknown to Jakob, Primo made another attempt to take out the Signers by giving Team Catastrophe Cards of Darkness, which they used to crash Turbo Duelists. Team Catastrophe lost to Team 5D's, but Primo decided to put his plan into full motion and unleashed the Diablo.

Lester figured out Primo's plan, but didn't report it to Jakob. Instead he pointed out that relying on the Turbo Duels to produce the Infinity Circuit was taking a long time, but Jakob reminded him that they need Ener-D, and therefore Turbo Duelists, to complete the circuit. The result would reveal ZONE's location, bringing his shrine to New Domino City. Lester pointed out the Infinity Circuit was big enough to cover New Domino, so its completion would destroy the city when the castle arrived. Jakob considered that to be a trivial sacrifice to save the future.

Jakob suddenly saw the Diablo attacking the WRGP on a monitor. Lester informed him that they were Primo's Riding Roids. Jakob contacted Primo through his eyepatch. Primo retorted that Jakob's way was weak and explained that by forcing everyone to duel, the Circuit would surface much faster. Jakob insisted that forcing the fight would not bring out a person's inner potential and a true circuit would never be completed that way. Primo cut the transmission after Lester pointed out that Yusei was ruining his plan again.

Jakob was alarmed when a tablet crashed outside of New Domino City, but found it was not his, but Yusei's. Jakob realized this meant that Yusei had made contact with ZONE. Jakob managed to contact Primo to warn him that Yusei had received a tablet from ZONE and advised him to return because there was no guarantee that he could win. Primo was enraged that Jakob believed that he might lose, cut the connection, and combined with his Terrible Omen to fight Yusei.

Jakob and Lester watched Primo and Yusei duel from their thrones. Lester couldn't accept that Yusei received a tablet from ZONE, believing that the tablets were supposed to only be entrusted to them to restore history to its proper path, but Jakob told him to be quiet and watch when he realized that ZONE willed this fight. Yusei achieved Clear Mind and Summoned the card from his tablet, "Shooting Star Dragon". Jakob wondered if the fate assigned by ZONE was starting to escape their grasp and if the power of humans was coming before them. He cautioned that they needed to be even more careful now. Primo lost, but the Duel completed a large area of the circuit. Jakob explained that they will still need more Signer power to complete the circuit though.

Yusei tried to approach Primo after the Duel, but Jakob used telekinesis to lift Primo's remains from the highway to the top of the monument in the middle, where he and Lester were. After Jack, Crow, and Bruno arrived, Jakob called it ironic that they should meet at the symbol of the unification between Satellite and New Domino City. Crow asked if they were responsible for the Ghost attacks, and Jack demanded to know who they are. Jakob obliged and told them their names, as well as introducing themselves as the Three Emperors of Yliaster. Lester objected to Jakob calling himself the leader, but after receiving an angry look, Lester introduced himself as the sub-leader and Primo as the number one junior lackey. Yusei asked why they were causing such a commotion. Seeing nothing Yusei could do to stop it, Jakob said that it was their goal was to change the future. Jack objected that they decide there own future. Lester mocked Jack saying that if he was doing such a fine job, they wouldn't have come out. Jakob agreed and explained that Yliaster is an organization crafted by their God whose job it is to set the course of history back on track. Their organization has been around since prehistoric times and reached all across Earth, he says and no matter how humanity tried to change the future, they couldn't grasp the whole picture. Crow won't believe that every important person could be in Yliaster's pocket, and Jakob agreed with him because the power of the world was instead set up like a food chain or a pyramid, with Yliaster controlling people from the top. In exchange for providing those at the top with benefits, Yliaster was allowed to guide history.

Sherry and Elsworth then arrive at the monument, and Sherry demanded to know if they were responsible for her parents death. Jakob though blew the question off, saying that he can't be bothered with remembering everyone that has faded away as a result of correcting history. Sherry then declared she would make him remember. Riding up the curve of the monument, Sherry launched her Duel Runner so that it was angled to land on Jakob. Aiming to crush Jakob, Sherry declared that now is the time for revenge, but Jakob just commented that it was useless. He caught her Duel Runner with one hand, told her that her immature antics wouldn't work, and threw the duel runner off off the monument and into the ocean, almost taking Sherry with it. Elsworth came up the other side, and while Lester deflects his attack with Primo's sword, Jakob destroyed Elsworth's Duel Runner with a back-handed punch.

Jakob continued, using the attack to explain that humans are full of stupidity and arrogance, calling the human imagination and repeated collapse the cause of history's negative change. He explained that from the shadows, the strength of Yliaster has always been involved to put humanity on the path of righteousness whenever humanity chose the path of foolishness. He then explained that no matter how they try to modify history, there was an unavoidable future coming. He addressed Yusei, telling him that when his father Dr. Fudo created Ener-D, he created an immeasurable mistake in history. Yliaster tried to use Roman Goodwin to make Ener-D disappear through Zero Reverse, but it failed. So now Yliaster is making a new revision to history to overcome the situation. Jakob explained that they were going to erase all of New Domino City. Jack, Crow, and Yusei are in disbelief, but Lester told them that they're welcome to believe what they want to believe, and tells Yusei his curse hasn't ended yet.

Sherry though told Yliaster that she wouldn't let them do that and charged at Jakob once again. Jakob though dodged her attack, punched her with a left cross, and grabbed her by her collar. Jakob told Sherry that to challenge an emperor like this made her a disgrace to real duelists. Sherry, though ripped her collar, freed from Jakob's grasp and wrapped around his left arm, telling him that she was taking his arm with him as she tried to break it off. Jakob just wondered if there was any end to the foolishness and lifted Sherry over his head with just that arm. He told her to join her parents and threw her off of the monument. Elsworth jumped off the monument after her and used a parachute in his Duel Disk so that they could land. Yusei then asked Lester and Jakob what they meant by erasing New Domino City, but Jakob told them they must come to the WRGP in order to find out, adding that they would be participating in the main round. Jack was stunned, but Jakob responded by telling them that the WRGP would answer everything.

Another meteor fell from outer space as Jakob realized that his tablet has finally arrived. Jack was confused, but Lester pointed straight up. Jack, Crow, and Yusei tried to run, but they realized it's too late to go anywhere. Jakob stopped the tablet with his telekinesis, and Yusei recognizes the tablet as one like the one that had Shooting Star Dragon. Jakob extracted the monster from it, and the tablet shattered. A duel disk unfolded from Jakob's stomach, and he put the five cards on there to summon Machine Emperor Grannel Infinity. Jakob tells Team 5D's that if they wanted the truth then they needed to keep winning the WRGP. He lifted Primo with his telekinesis and told Lester that they were leaving. Lester wondered if there was still any use for Primo, made a portal with his sword, and they left with Jakob bidding Team 5D's farewell. Once they left, power was restored to the city from when Primo attacked, and Grannel faded away.

New history
Jakob left Team 5D's alone, letting them do as they want. However, he was later contacted by Clark Smith, the President of one of Yliaster's shell company's: Momentum Express Development Organization. Clark explained that Yusei Fudo, Sherry LeBlanc, and a third guy infiltrated his company to steal information on Yliaster, so he had disposed of them by firing them into an unstable wormhole using the Infinity Device. Jakob was not happy and decided that Momentum Express was no longer a needed organization. Clark begged for his life, but before Jakob could erase him from history, Primo returned to his throne and said that it is already done, telling Clark that he no longer exists.

The ensuing change in history caused a white shockwave to spread across the world, one which Team 5D's, Lazar, Bruno, and Elsworth were protected from because of the Crimson Dragon, and Team Ragnarok was protected from because of their Polar Gods. The result was that Momentum Express was erased from existence, and Sherry LeBlanc was kicked from the WRGP and replaced with Yliaster's new team: Team New World. As a result of entering the WRGP as Team New World, the Three Emperors of Yliaster forfeited the knowledge that they had ever taken the position as Directors of Sector Security. A loophole that Lazar took advantage of to fill the seat himself..

As Team New World, Jakob and the other Emperors swept their quarter-finals match and were projected to be the finalist of their bracket. They watched intently as the other matches produce more circuits in the Circuit, including the match where Team Taiyo summoned Sleeping Giant Thud against Team 5D's. The resulting matched provide enough Circuits for the Spiral building to appear in the sky over New Domino.

The following day, Team New World won their second match with ease, securing their position as a World Racing Grand Prix finalist. To pass the time, they watched their opponent's match: Team Five D's versus Team Ragnarok. They were observing the duel, and Lester was finding amusement out of Dragan putting Jack Atlas into a tight situation, but the emperors were astounded when Jack summoned Red Nova Dragon because it was a card that none of them recognized.

World Racing Grand Prix final
After Primo lost to Jack, Jakob took over and started running on the duel lane to later merge with his Duel Runner. He also made it so that real damage would be felt in the duel. When the duel resumed, he quickly summoned "Grand Core" and used "Bomb Blast" (left over by Primo) to destroy it to summon "Machine Emperor Grannel Infinity". Next, he then destroyed "Infinite Spirit Machine" and use its counters to increase his life points, strengthening Grannel's attack to 12,000. Using his Machine Emperor's effects he defeated Jack and stole Red Nova Dragon, increasing its attack points to 15,500. His second opponent was Crow. Jakob beat him quite easily. After Crow's plan - to summon "Blackwing - Aurora the Northern Lights" and use its effect - failed, he used the stolen "Red Nova Dragon" to deplete Crow's LP. The turn after, he defeated Crow thanks to "Red Nova Dragon" and "Machine Emperor Grannel Infinity". However, Crow realised he couldn't win, so he gave all he had in order to Synchro Summon his "Black-Winged Dragon", leaving it for Yusei. With that, Yusei became Jakob's next opponent.

The duel progresses, Yusei gaining the upper hand summoning "Stardust Dragon" with the help of Crow's cards. Jakob then shows Yusei the future, the chaos brought upon by Synchro Monsters, summoning thousands of Machine Emperors destroying various cities. Jakob was a frail, elderly survivor who made his way to New Domino City, saddened by the destruction wrought upon the world. After seeing the future Yusei cannot believe the future he had seen and continues dueling him, summoning Shooting Star Dragon, destroying Grannel successfully. But soon afterwards he along with Primo and Lester combine into Aporia, ready to duel Yusei.

Power
As the leader of the Three Emperors of Yliaster, Jakob has immense power, but it is difficult to gauge because he mostly works behind the scenes. His largest demonstration of his power was seen in episode 110, when he uses telekinesis to move Primo and stop his stone tablet, as well as possessing superhuman strength, as seen when he easily defeated Sherry in a fight using only one arm at a time, and threw her motorcycle into the ocean and destroyed Elsworth's. His Duel Disk unfolds from the hidden compartment built into his abdomen (which was also shown in Episode 110, when he reveals Machine Emperor Grannel Infinity by activating his Duel Coat). Something that Jakob also did was run as fast as the Duel Runner, yet it could be seen that he had combustion coming out of his feet, maybe to speed himself as he ran. Just Like Lester and Primo he is able to inflict real damage when he duels.

Like Primo, Jakob also has the ability to fuse with his Duel Runner, which is similar to Grannel Carrier. With Jakob fused with his runner, the two are similar to Machine Emperor Grannel Infinity, when it is fully assembled.

Anime
Jakob plays an Infinity Deck revolving around his Machine Emperor Grannel Infinity using multiple monster pieces. His Machine Emperor is the largest of the first three. It is shown that Grannel can upgrade just like the other two can, but to what extent is unknown.

Tag Force 5
Jakob's first Deck is called "Funeral" (葬送, Sousou). A funeral is a ceremony to honor a recently deceased person.

His second Deck is called "Psalms" (詩篇, Shihen). Its name comes from the book of Psalms from the bible.

His third Deck is called "Carnival" ( 謝肉祭(しゃにくさい), Shanikusai). Carnival is a Christian festival which takes place before Lent.

His fourth Deck is called "From the New World" (新世界より, Shinsekai Yori). "From the New World" is the name of a symphony by Antonín Dvořák.