Aporia

Aporia is the true and combined form of the antagonists of the World Racing Grand Prix, the Three Pure Nobles: Jakob, Primo and Lester. Aporia comes from an apocalyptic future world, which he sees as a failure by humans. He is determined to change history in order to protect the world and to ensure it will never be destroyed by humanity's errors. He is the main antagonist for the World Racing Grand Prix and a minor antagonist in the Ark Cradle arc.

Appearance


Unlike the other survivors of the apocalyptic future, his cyborg form didn't resemble his real form at all. Instead, his embodiment Lester was the one who resembled Aporia the most, because Primo had a bald spot in his hair and a scar on his eye that the adult Aporia didn't have, and Jakob was a lot taller and far more muscular than the old Aporia.

Aporia's chest resembles the chest of "Meklord Astro Mekanikle".

Personality
When Aporia first fought Team 5D's, he stated that he was an embodiment of despair because of what he had suffered in the original future. However, after fighting so many times against the Signers, Aporia's personality transformed. His first shift in personality was through the claim that he felt neither hope or despair, and that the only thing he needed were machines. Afterwards, he had gotten to the point where he believed the human heart was a useless thing and that because of its existence, mistakes and the eventual despair were created. During his second duel against Jack, Leo and Luna, he became briefly unstable, first by remaining in cold logic and mostly emotionless after he easily took out a majority of his opponents' Life Points, but later burst into fear and despair when things were turned in his opponents' favor while trying to deny he felt any despair. Jack points out what he feels wasn't despair, but hope. Aporia realizes this and admits it after losing. After this loss, Aporia stated to Team 5D's that the true reason he had continued to live even after suffering for so long, was that because he himself never lost hope, believing that it could be found within the depth of despair: effectively fighting for the very hope he had deemed futile.

Abilities
Aporia's body is an android much like his counterparts with the qualities of the real person. Just like Jakob, and Primo, Aporia can fuse with his Duel Runner. He can even use the ring fused to his back as his duel disk much like Lester. Aporia can also combine with his Field Spell "Fortissimo the Moving Fortress" in the same manner. He is also capable of materialize his own cards that can damage the environment around him.

Aporia is later shown to be telepathic, following his conversation with Z-one after being brought aboard the Ark Cradle. His Duel Disk was able to give the Yusei Go the power of flight temporarily for his Duel against Z-one.

Etymology
The name "Aporia" comes from the Greek word "ἀπορία", which literally means question or wonder and is used in philosophy to refer to a philosophical puzzle or state of puzzlement, and, in rhetoric, a rhetorically useful expression of doubt. Additionally, "Aporia" was a Greek mythological deity personifying difficulty, perplexity, powerlessness, and want of means.

It may also derive from another Greek word "απόρροια", which literally means result. Due to the fact that in Japanese, "l" may be pronounced as "r" ("Rua"/"Ruca" or "Lua"/"Luca"), the name may derive from the Greek word "απώλεια" (it is pronounced "apólia"), which actually means loss (metaphorically it also means death). The name could represent the state of "Aporia" after losing all people that loved him and he loved back, and eventually the loss of his hope.

Childhood
As the world was evolving at an ever-increasing rate, the human race became dependent on the Ener-D system and Synchro Summons, which were the gears that accelerated the spin of the Ener-D system. But as the people became more greedy and selfish, the Ener-D system reacted to this by spinning faster and faster, and eventually, the speed became uncontrollable.

At the same time, an invasion of Meklord Emperors were set upon the world, and the world was sent to ruin after the invasion. All lifeforms in the world had been vanquished by the subsequent Meklord Emperor invasion.

As a child, Aporia, along with his mother and father, was chased by a Meklord Emperor Granel. The Meklord Emperor fired a beam at them, killing his parents and leaving Aporia alive. He regarded the loss of the people that loved him as one of three major despairs in his life. His hair turned prematurely gray some time between this incident and before he reached his adulthood.

Adulthood
At some point in his life, Aporia met and fell in love with a fellow freedom fighter named Eurea, whom he fought the Meklord Emperors with.

The pair attempted to ambush a Meklord Emperor Granel using rocket launchers. However, the Meklord Emperor retaliated by blowing up half the building they were shooting from, taking Aporia's lover with it. Aporia regarded the loss of the one he loved as the second of three major despairs in his life.

Old age
The Ener-D eventually changed and spun in the opposite direction, sparking a global disaster that eventually wiped out the majority of mankind. In his old age, Aporia found himself alone and believed himself to be the only survivor. Aporia regarded the sentiment of "having nobody left to love" as the third of the three major despairs of his life.

Aporia soon discovered he wasn't the only survivor when he met Antinomy, Paradox, and Z-one. Being the last survivors on Earth, the four of them formed Yliaster with the mission to create a better future.

The four survivors attempted to dispose of the core power of Ener-D, the source that had wiped out the world before. They performed countless experiments in an attempt to find a solution to restore the world to its former state. However, as time passed, Antinomy and Paradox died to old age and Z-one became more mechanical. Aporia considered himself to be the only one left alive.

Aporia was placed in a capsule as he neared the end of his life. He asked Z-one to do whatever it took to prevent their future from ever occurring, and insisted that Z-one split him into three embodiments based on the three despairs of his life.

Embodiments of Despair
Keeping his word, Z-one split Aporia's being into three android-like embodiments of despair, Lester, Primo and Jakob, who were sent back in time. The three of them became the Three Pure Nobles and used their power of falsification of history to alter the current events in time, including having themselves enrolled into the World Racing Grand Prix as Team New World. Team New World faced Team 5D's in the final event of the tournament. When both teams were down to their last duelist, Yusei Fudo destroyed Jakob's "Meklord Emperor Granel" with "Shooting Star Dragon". The three embodiments then combined back into Aporia again.

World Racing Grand Prix Final
Aporia took over Yusei and Jakob's Duel and proceeded to Summon his "Meklord Astro Mekanikle", overwhelming Yusei and putting him at a severe disadvantage. Aporia showed Team 5D's the future world from which he had come and explained that he was going to remove New Domino City from history to prevent it from happening. However Yusei refused to believe that humans were the reason that the future world had been destroyed, and continued to fight on. Yusei managed to Summon "Red Nova Dragon", "Black-Winged Dragon" and "Shooting Star Dragon" and use them to defeat Aporia. Contrary to what Aporia had expected, the Grand Design was completed despite his loss and the Divine Temple began to descend on New Domino.

Z-one managed to recover Aporia's mechanical body and took it to the Divine Temple, where his human body still resided. Z-one informed him of the Divine Temple's appearance over New Domino despite the loss. Z-one explained that an outside interference has caused the future to change. Z-one asked if Aporia was willing to try to change the future again, only for him to respond that he would do anything. Aporia felt much obliged, as he regarded Z-one as his eternal friend. Tools then began to repair Aporia's mechanical body.

Divine Temple
With his repairs fully completed, Aporia now stands protecting the second Gear where he is challenged by Jack, Leo, and Luna. In a 3-on-1 duel, they are forcibly equipped with machines that inflict real damage. After Summoning "Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk" and his "Meklord Army" monsters and finally by activating several Burning cards, Aporia reduces Jack and Luna's Life Points to 700 and 100 respectively. Leo begins crying and Aporia simply ends his turn after explaining to Leo that what he is feeling is true despair. However, Jack shows Leo how to never give into despair and keep believing in hope. After doing so, Jack's Life Points are reduced to 100, but Leo begins acting as Jack and Luna's shield. Leo ends up dying from the damage, but Ancient Fairy Dragon explains that she needs him to protect Luna and revives him through the effect of "Morphtronic Lantron". Leo is then revived as a Signer, and Aporia watches helplessly as Leo summons "Life Stream Dragon". Through its effect, Luna, Jack and Leo's Life Points become 2000 and further effect damage is negated.

When Aporia realizes he is about to lose, he wonders if it's because he feels despair. Jack explains to him that fighting to protect Z-one makes Aporia feel hope, not despair. Jack's attack reduces Aporia's life to 0. As the field surrounding them collapses, Jack, Leo and Luna escape. Aporia then begins falling to his "death", with a smile on his face and notes that he feels no pain, only hope.

However, he later reappears at the center gear to Team 5D's showing he had survived the fall and challenges Z-one in an effort to show him there is still hope in the future. Before the duels begins, Aporia reveals to Leo that witnessing the hope the Signer had on their duel, made him realize the bonds within Team 5D's, as well as Leo's own personal growth, is the same hope Aporia himself had been searching for so long. That same hope being the reason he will fight against Z-one. However, he is finally outsmarted by Z-one. Ironically, he is defeated when the card he draws is not "Afterglow", as he'd hoped, but the monster that caused all of the despair in his life, "Meklord Emperor Granel". Before he dies, however, he fuses his Duel Disk with Yusei's Duel Runner, giving it the power to fly, for the final Duel between Yusei and Z-one.

Later, when Yusei battles Z-one, Yusei thinks of all of his friends and allies, and Aporia is seen right before Bruno. Afterwards, in order to stop the Ark Cradle from falling onto New Domino City, Yusei decides to throw himself and his duel runner, with an Ener-D reactor within it, into the Ark Cradle's reactor. However, Z-one stops Yusei and sacrifices himself instead. Before Z-one dies, he wishes to still meet Aporia in the future.

Z-one
Aporia holds great respect for Z-one, and considers him his true friend. After Z-one agreed to separate him into 3 embodiements of despair, Aporia said he knew Z-one would save the future Things took a turn however after losing to Jack, Luna and Leo, as he tried to convince him to leave the future in Team 5D's hands. During his fight with Z-one, Aporia tried to show Z-one hope by drawing "Afterglow", but was ultimately defeated due to not drawing it.

Deck
Aporia uses a "Meklord" Deck, focused around a combination of "Fortissimo the Mobile Fortress", "Level Cannon" and "Lock-On Laser" to inflict large amounts of Effect Damage. He also utilizes cards such as "Damage Boost" to punish anti-Burning severely. During his Duel with Z-one, Aporia uses the "Meklord Emperors" in an attempted One Turn Kill strategy with "Afterglow", also using cards such as "Chaos Blast" and "Future Destruction" to hurry the process up further.