Yubel (character)

Yubel (ユベル, Yuberu) is the primary antagonist of the third season. An evil hermaphrodic Duel Monster (female in the dub) whose card was in Jaden's possession when he was a little kid, Yubel is deranged and manipulative, mainly aligning itself with others to accomplish its goals.

It first acts through Professor Viper and Marcel, being supposedly defeated by Jaden and his new ally, Jesse, after showing itself. However, behind the scenes it orchestrates the events that led to Jaden's descent into darkness and later returns as the final antagonist of the season, using the power of the "Super Fusion" card to unite all twelve Duel Spirit dimensions together and reign over them with Jaden at its side.

Character Appearance
Yubel's appearance can easily be described as demonic. Its most noticeable features are its sickly-pink skin, large black wings, and third vertically placed eye. Its clothing is bizarre; one of its legs is completely covered, the other is mostly exposed. Its hair somewhat reminiscent Yami Bakura's, but one half is white and the other is dark blue. This is all based on another anime character who was, like Yubel, female on the right and male on the left. Its duel disk is actually and extension of its arm that grows out when it duels. Some of its appearance is likely meant to symbolize that its hermaphrodic in the Japanese version, the rest probably just make it look evil. In the dub her top half is covered in black to look less revealing and more female, but aside from that it looks exactly like it did the origninal.

Character Biography
Yubel is the mastermind behind the Survival Duels and the creation of the Martin Empire. At first, it was a spirit that dwelled in an adolescent girl named Yubel. It was told about the events that she would set in motion and to help protect its spirit was removed in front of its close friend, a boy who resembled Jaden. The spirit bids a sad farewell to the boy, telling him that it would protect him forever. The boy promised to only love Yubel because of its devotion to him. Eventually, Yubel's spirit is made into a card by Industrial Illusions.

The card was eventually found by Jaden's father and after seeing Jaden who resembled its dead friend (it and Jaden said that Jaden had the spirit of the boy that was its friend), it grew obsessed with the boy and intended to keep him to itself. During that time it caused anybody that Jaden duel fall under a mysterious illness that resulted in them being hospitalized, 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 it 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 after it put an but the card absorbed power from the Light of Destruction (something that it actually meant to help its friend fight against, and being exposed to the Light caused Yubel go insane), and the craft crash landed back to Earth, resulting in the near-complete destruction of its body upon re-entry into the planet's atmosphere.

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 Viper. Tricking Viper into helping it with the promise of restoring his adopted son Pierce to life, Yubel coerced him into creating the Bio-Bands and Survival Duels, absorbing the duel energy produced by them so it could reform its shattered body, and eventually taking back Jaden. In the English Dub, Yubel's goals appears to consist more of making Jaden suffer for "discarding" it, although it appears to want to take him for its own as well.

After Viper was defeated by Jaden, Yubel killed him because it had no further use for him. It then transported Duel Academy into another dimension. Yubel then possessed Marcel, and turned the students of the displaced faculty of onto duel-obsessed zombies to help fuel its restoration, and eventually securing the Sacred Beast cards. Yubel then challenged Jaden to a duel, threatening to "dispose" of the duel zombies if he turned the challenge down, and saying it would send everybody back home if Jaden won (although it had no intention of keeping its 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 discards Marcel upon achieving full physical form, no longer needing him (it actually displayed a dislike for Marcel in the dub, saying "I'm sick of this lump of flesh (referring to Marcel)"). Yubel nearly wins the duel using “Armitael, Phantasm of Chaos”, 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 Spirits universe, possessing Jesse to continue its mission to destroy those who dare separate it from Jaden while it simultaneously tries to unite all twelve Duel Spirit dimensions together with the Super Fusion card so it may reign over them with Jaden at its side. Meanwhile, Yubel also orchestrated the events that led to Jaden's descent into darkness in order for it has Jaden understand its cruel ideology of "real love" and to complete the card necessary for its plan, "Super Fusion". The sacrifices for the completion of the card are held in an alternate dimension which in Chazz Princeton's word, resembles hell. When first reappears in Jesse's body, it duels and defeats Zane, whom willingly challenged it. After the duel it returned to its palace to recovered its strength (it had exhausted itself during its duel with Zane), but finds that Adrian Gecko turned against it in attempt to unite the twelve dimensions under his rule, however, Yubel defeats him as well, and regains its strength from the darkness in Ecko's soul. 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 before taking over. Jaden manages to release Jesse from Yubel's influence, but Yubel manages to force the duel to draw and take the Super Fusion. Jaden later duels with Yubel in order to settle the problems between him and it once and for all. During the duel, Yubel eventually realizes that Jaden would never accept its idea of love, and that he hated it for the suffering it caused him and his friends. It then gives up its goal of ruling the duel spirit dimensions with Jaden, and instead decides to destroy the dimensions along with Jaden.

Eventually, Yubel's obsession with Jaden is finally explained in full: they both were originally nobles of a distant land in their past life, with Jaden (then Haou) destined to become the Supreme King and defeat the Light of Destruction. However, Haou was yet too young to fully come into his role, and thus needed a protector until he came of age; Yubel offered itself to become that protector, and underwent an extremely painful transformation into the Duel Monster it would eventually become, gaining the eternal love and admiration of its charge. When they were eventually reborn (Haou as Jaden, and Yubel as a Duel Monsters card), Yubel recognized the spirit of its friend and charge within Jaden, and remembering its duties and the promise of love from him, fiercely protected Jaden from any and all perceived threats, which unfortunately included any threats to their friendship (most likely because Haou promised to only love Yubel). Jaden is eventually able to forgive the creature and, foiling its plan to destroy all the dimensions, fuses his soul with Yubel's, which Yubel willingly took part when it was purged of the Light of Destruction's influence in process, and reuniting it with Haou for all time. Yubel, it willingly fused with it before either of them could end the duel (Jaden never actually defeated Yubel in any of his duels with it, making the only antagonist in Yu-Gi-Oh or Yu-Gi-Oh GX that wasn't defeated by the protagonist as well as one the few opponents Jaden never defeated).



Yubel demonstrates many powers through its appearances. It can possess anyone with inner turmoil and manifest itself through an avatar of energy. It can also render itself invisible to others, even to those who can see Duel Spirits, although Duel Spirits themselves can see it. Yubel is able to warp reality as seen with the snakes that prevent Jaden's comrades from helping during his duel with Viper, but after absorbing massive amounts of Duel energy, it is able to warp reality to a much greater extent, although the ability itself is mostly limited to the effect of the card which Yubel uses to focus its reality warping ability. Yubel can also teleport itself and others as it teleported Duel Academy to an alternate dimension. It's briefly hinted it might have a degree of super-strength when it tossed Marcel at Blair, only using one arm to do so. It also has the ability to bestow its power onto others as evidenced in the fight between Viper and Adrian, although the same ability can also be used to control others as shown with the "Duel Zombies".

Lastly, it has the ability of seeing the darkness of a person's heart, and tempting one to do its bidding by playing off an individual's desires. This ability is a necessity as Yubel derives its power mainly from the darkness of others. Adrian also demonstrated these numerous abilities when he was temporarily imbued with a portion of Yubel's power, which was given to him while she was controlling Jesse. After Yubel has its soul fused with Jaden, Jaden gained access to its powers. However, because Yubel implied most its power came from the Light of Destruction (which was removed from it when it fused with Jaden), Jaden most likely won't have the same powers that Yubel did.

Personality
Yubel is not only evil and deranged, but also quite psychopathic. It knows how to manipulate others to do what it wants by playing on their innermost feelings and hidden desires. Staying true to its villainous nature, it doesn't bound itself by its word: although it made a deal 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 it deems as useless as seen with Viper and Marcel, and brutally punishes those who betray it. In addition to the above, it is also quite emotionally sadistic, often enjoying picking at the insecurities of others for the above reasons or its own enjoyment and crushing/trivializing their hopes and ideals after it attempts to bond with its opponents. Despite how much it mocks it opponents, it is actually capable sincerely respecting its opponents, though it's overshadowed by how much it enjoys their suffering.

Yubel's main goal is to keep Jaden to itself, and it harms anyone that gets between it and Jaden. In fact, all of its plans revolve around getting Jaden, even taking control of the Duel Spirit dimensions was only something that it wanted so it could have a world with Jaden. Despite its outspoken love for Jaden, Yubel has no qualms about hurting Jaden to accomplish its goals or bend him to its will. Initially, Yubel made comments that Jaden "belongs" to it (essentially claiming him like he's its property), although it stopped making them after its reappearance for unknown reasons. Yubel also doesn't care how dangerous the situations it manipulates Jaden into are (possibility of him dieing during the Survival Duels, his journey into the second alternate dimension, ect), because it always assumes (correctly actually) 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 it has suffered greatly due to its time in space and the crash into the Earth that caused it to lose most of its body, and desires to share that suffering with Jaden. To that end, it goes out its way to make him suffer.

To that end, it also openly welcomes Jaden's insults and defiance, seeing the pain it suffers as Jaden expressing his "love". Its also claims that life isn't worth living without that person that one loves the most, actually shedding a tear at the thought. However, it 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 got its twisted concept of love was that during its time in space, it at first felt that Jaden had discarded it, 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, the 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."

Especially in Episode 154, it is for revealed Yubel bears hatred towards the Neo-Spacians, along with Jaden's friends (in particular, Jesse Anderson), in its 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 it feels animosity towards is far less harmful then how it torments Jaden.

In the English Dub, Yubel's personality underwent some major changes. All references to Yubel's "love" for Jaden have been omitted thus far, replaced by its childish desire to "play" with him. It also states that it wants Jaden to pay for "discarding it". This would indicates that its goal is to punish Jaden for its being banished into space, although this animosity isn't seen in the original version. However, it seems still to have some possessive feelings towards him, and may still try to reclaim him as its own. It's unclear, however, especially in earlier episodes Yubel showed it's possessive feelings towards Jaden, but starting during his duel with Viper it 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 orignal (when he went to duel when it was possessing Marcel, it was surprised he made it, while in the original it expected him to make it). The simplification of its motives is likely due to the disturbing possible implications of Yubel's associating physical and emotional pain with love. Yubel hasn't shown to be as sadistic as it was in the Japanese version and only seems to enjoy tormenting Jaden. In the dub she also uses the term "destiny" several times, suggesting the Light has had a similar effect on her it did in Sartorius (in the original version, it never displayed any signs of this and was merely shown to insane, not controlled).

Voice/Mannerisms
In the Japanese version, Yubel is voiced by Hisao Egawa and Hiromi Tsuru. Its two voices alternate evenly, though Yubel tends to use the female voice when speaking to or about Jaden. Occasionally it uses both voices, usually when its switching from one voice to another. It's been referred to as both a "he" and a "she" in the Japanese version, although it usually identifies itself with male pronouns. Yubel's American voice actress, Priscilla Everett, who also voices Alexis, portrays Yubel with only a single (androgynous though presumably female) voice. Additionally, Yubel's English voice is given childish mannerisms and electronic effects that reflect its own childish nature: Yubel's initial behavior in the dub is that of a spoiled brat determined to get its own way and remove those who oppose it. However, later on it behaves in a more adult manner, especially after first shedding Marcel. This maybe a direct result of the Light taking over her train of thought, since she has gone from the voice of a confused child to that of a hardened teenage girl. When possessing others (in both versions), its victims voice isn't changed (although its host's voice sounds more serious), though it sometimes uses one its own voices in the Japanese version, while the English Dub it randomly uses an altered version of its host's voice.(Marcel lost his French accent, and sometimes had the same vocal effect as Yubel) It still uses its own voice when possessing others, but it does it far less then in the Japanese version (whenever it speaks using its own voice in the dub, its host body glows blue).

Deck
Yubel plays a Flower/Fiend Deck, focused on the summoning of its own card and its several upgraded forms.

The cards in this listing are the cards it actually plays in anime. Other series cards may be missing from this listing because it doesn't play them. However, we may be able to assume that it has them in her decks. Those missing series cards are Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, Uria, Lord of Searing Flames, Armitael, Phantasm of Chaos, and others played by Jesse and Marcel when their bodies are possessed by it.

While controlling Marcel, Yubel plays with an Exodia Deck against Adrian. While against Jaden and Jesse, she uses the Sacred Beasts in a deck based around bringing them out to Summon Armitael.

Also, when Yubel is controlling Jesse, it still uses the Sacred Beasts in a deck based around cards that duplicate themselves to quickly Summon the Sacred Beasts. As well as an Advanced Crystal Beasts Deck that it creates by tainting Jesse's true deck.