Yubel (character)

Yubel 「ユベル, Yuberu」 is the primary antagonist of the third season of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. An evil Duel Monster whose card was in Jaden's possession when he was a little kid, Yubel is deranged and manipulative, mainly aligning herself with others to accomplish her goals.

She first acts through Professor Viper and Marcel, being supposedly defeated by Jaden and his new ally, Jesse, after showing herself. However, behind the scenes she 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 Polymerization" card to unite all twelve Duel Spirit dimensions together and reign over them with Jaden at her side.

Character Appearance
Yubel's appearance can easily be described as demonic. Her most noticeable features are her sickly-pink skin, large black wings, and third vertically placed eye. Her clothing is bizarre; one of her legs is completely covered, the other is mostly exposed. Her hair somewhat reminiscent of Yami Marik and Yami Bakura, each contributing to one half. Her Duel Disk is actually an extension of her arm that grows out when she duels. Some of her appearance is likely meant to symbolize that she's hermaphroditic in the Japanese version, the rest probably just make her look evil. Unlike the card's art, there is no additional gray clothing over the torso. In the dub her top half is covered in black to look less revealing and more female, but aside from that she looks exactly like she did the original.

Character biography
Yubel is the mastermind behind the Survival Duels and the creation of the Martin Empire. At first, she was a spirit that dwelt in an adolescent girl named Yubel. She was told about the events that she would set in motion and to help protect her spirit was removed in front of her close friend, a boy who resembled Jaden. The spirit bids a sad farewell to the boy, telling him that she would protect him forever. The boy promised to only love Yubel because of her 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 her dead friend (she and Jaden said that Jaden had the spirit of the boy that was her friend), it grew obsessed with the boy and intended to keep him to itself. During that time she 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 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, but the card absorbed power from the Light of Destruction (something that she actually meant to help her friend fight against) and being exposed to the Light caused Yubel go insane. The craft crash landed back to Earth, resulting in the near-complete destruction of her 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 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 duel energy produced by them so she 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" her, although she appears to want to take him for her own as well.

After Viper was defeated by Jaden, Yubel killed him because she had no further use for him. She 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 her 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 she would send everybody back home if Jaden won (although she 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 (she 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 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. Meanwhile, Yubel also orchestrated the events that led to Jaden's descent into darkness in order for Jaden to understand her cruel ideology of "real love" and to complete the card necessary for her plan, "Super Polymerization". 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, she duels and defeats Zane, whom willingly challenged her. After the duel she returned to its 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, however, Yubel defeats him as well, and regains her strength from the darkness in Gecko'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 Polymerization". Jaden later duels with Yubel in order to settle the problems between him and her once and for all. During the duel, Yubel eventually realizes that Jaden would never accept her idea of 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.

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 herself to become that protector, and underwent an extremely painful transformation into the Duel Monster she would eventually become, gaining the eternal love and admiration of her charge. When they were eventually reborn (Haou as Jaden, and Yubel as a Duel Monsters card), Yubel recognized the spirit of her friend and charge within Jaden, and remembering her 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 Yubel and, foiling her plan to destroy all the dimensions, fuses his soul with Yubel's, which she willingly took part when she was purged of the insanity caused by the Light of Destruction in process, and reuniting it with Haou for all time. Note that Jaden willingly fused with Yubel before either of them could end the duel (Jaden never actually defeated Yubel in any of his duels with her, making her 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 her appearances. She can possess anyone with inner turmoil and manifest herself through an avatar of energy. She can also render herself invisible to others, even to those who can see Duel Spirits, although Duel Spirits themselves can see her. 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, she 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 her reality warping ability. Yubel can also teleport herself and others as she teleported Duel Academy to an alternate dimension. It's briefly hinted she might have a degree of super-strength when she tossed Marcel at Blair, only using one arm to do so. She also has the ability to bestow her 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, she has the ability of seeing the darkness of a person's heart, and tempting one to do her bidding by playing off an individual's desires. This ability is a necessity as Yubel derives her 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 her soul fused with Jaden, Jaden gained access to her powers. However, because Yubel implied most her power came from the Light of Destruction (which was removed from her when she fused with Jaden), Jaden most likely won't have the same powers that Yubel did. Yubel is seen during the opening of the fourth season near Jaden, but the significance that has to plot (if any) is unknown. Eventually, it's revealed that Jaden does have Yubel's card in his deck during the fourth season.

Personality
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 its villainous nature, she doesn't bound herself by its word: although she 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 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 it mocks her opponents, she is actually capable sincerely respecting them, though it's overshadowed by how much she enjoys their suffering.

Yubel's main goal is to keep Jaden to herself, and she harms 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 Jaden 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 dieing during the Survival Duels, his journey into the second alternate dimension, etc.), because she 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 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.

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 got 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."

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 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 English Dub, Yubel's personality underwent some major changes. All references to Yubel's "love" for Jaden have been omitted thus far, 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). The simplification of her 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 she 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, 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).

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two versions is Yubel's mental status. In the original version, s/he was shown to be a psychopath, behaving in outward hatred toward alomst everyone while displaying her "love" toward Jaden. In the dub, her complete disregard of the harm she does, in addition to her hatred and possessive feelings toward Jaden, make her closer to a sociopath.

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. Yubel's American voice actress, Priscilla Everett, who also voices Alexis, portrays Yubel with only a single (androgynous though presumably 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 dub 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. 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), 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 Dub she randomly uses an altered version of her host's voice.(Marcel lost his French accent, and sometimes had 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 dub, her host body glows blue). It's also worth noting that in the dub, Yubel often talks in scenes where she says nothing in the Japanese version.

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

The cards in this listing are the cards she actually plays in anime. Other series cards may be missing from this listing because she doesn't play them. However, we may be able to assume that she 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 her.

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, she 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 she creates by tainting Jesse's true deck.