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Blair Flannigan, known as Rei Saotome (早乙女 (さおとめ) レイ Saotome Rei) in the Japanese version, is an underage student and the only girl in the Slifer Red dorm. Initially a minor character appearing in a stand-alone episode during the first season, Blair joins the central cast at the beginning of the third after proving her worth as a Duelist.


Design[]

Voice/Mannerisms[]

In the dub, Blair takes on a Brooklyn accent beginning with her reappearance at the second season's conclusion (though she seems to lose it later on). During her Duel with Chazz she also made some egg puns ("that's no yoke", "eggcelent"). In the original, she refers to herself with "boku," a word for "I" typically spoken by young males, though its use by females is not unheard of. Though in the Tag Duel against Jaden and Alexis, when speaking to Jaden, Blair called herself "watashi", a significantly more formal personal pronoun that females often use. She did this in order to show her respect to Jaden, since she has a crush on him. She also refers to Marcel (Martin) as "Marty" in the original. She has the tendency to make references to the fact that she is a Maiden in Love.

Appearance[]

When she was first introduced, she wore a standard Slifer Red jacket and boots with gray pants ending at the ankles. To hide her hair she disguised herself as a boy, she then wore a clip with both a large hat and an orange bandanna. When Blair returned near the end of season 2, she was once again disguised, since she still used her bandanna and wore a kabuki mask. She now wore a sleeveless orange shirt under a dark blue and aqua version of the Obelisk Blue jacket with blue jeans and lilac boots. Starting from season 3, Blair's main outfit consists of her orange shirt, a Slifer vest, black shorts with a slanted brown belt, black socks that went slightly above her knees and newly designed Slifer boots. She continued to wear this outfit even after she became an Obelisk.

Personality[]

In the first season, Blair was a shy, love-struck but highly intelligent young girl. She had an insane crush on Zane, but switched to a crush on Jaden by the end of her first episode. She has aced perfectly on all her entry exams and was almost ranked to Ra Yellow.

When she returned near the end of season 2, she kept her crush on Jaden but grew up greatly became much more developed, much more mature and even developed a sort of leadership role as evidenced when she's Marcel's boss of some sort. She was also willing to work with Hassleberry to get photos for the yearbook.

Etymology[]

Her original Japanese name, "Rei" means "bell" or "lovely". It could be an allusion to the series "Neon Genesis Evangelion", a series in which the primary female protagonists were named Rei and Asuka. Her last name, "Saotome," means "fast maiden". It could also be a reference to the popular martial-arts romance manga "Ranma 1/2," which featured a gender-switching protagonist named Ranma Saotome. This is relevant since she first appeared in the GX anime disguised as a boy. Her English name, "Blair," means "plain" or "field."

Biography[]

Seven Stars[]

Rei1season

Blair as she appears in Season 1, disguised as a boy and when her identity was revealed.

Blair is a transfer student who enters Duel Academy during her first year disguised as a boy. She is placed in the Slifer Red dormitory, and guided by Jaden Yuki, Syrus Truesdale, and Chumley Huffington. Behind her guise, Blair intended to get closer to Zane Truesdale, with whom she was in love. While sneaking around Zane's room in Obelisk Blue, she is caught by Jaden, who discovers her secret and pursues her on the matter late at night after the confrontation. The two Duel, and although Blair is defeated, she finally has the opportunity to meet with Zane. He is flattered by her affections, but turns her down, telling her to go home. Being a fifth-grade elementary student (second grade in the English dub), she is forced to leave the school on the technicality that she is too young to stay. As she departs, her feelings shift from Zane to Jaden, much to the latter's horror.

Society of Light[]

Rei 2ndseason

Blair as she appears in Season 2, masked and unmasked.

During the second year, Blair returns near the end of the Genex Tournament beating Unknown Duelists and challenges Zane following his "rebirth," as Hell Kaiser, but he declines, and she instead Duels with Chazz Princeton to claim the champion title of the tournament and officially enter Slifer Red. Although she uses a Mystic deck and overwhelming improvement in her skills that allow her to push him into a corner, Chazz is able to claim victory in the end by using his Ojama Yellow's direct attack making him the champion of the tournament.

At that time, an integral part of Blair's personality becomes clearer. Her love interests are constantly changing, as evidenced by her brief admiration of Chazz, but that was due of Chazz saying the same lines as Jaden, whom she still has a crush on.

Dimension World[]

Even though she lost to Chazz, Blair is admitted to Slifer Red, and becomes a member of the central cast at the beginning of the third year. She serves as Marcel Bonaparte's boss during that time, but she has to force him to obey lots. She commandeers Chazz's room, forcing him to bunk with Jaden. During the opening ceremony, she recites the academy pledge and winks at Jaden causing Alexis to feel jealous. During the school's first survival duel she watches Jaden and Jesse's Duel and gets annoyed when she finds out Jesse does not have "Rainbow Dragon" in his deck. Later on, she is shown with Marcel during the party Adrian Gecko threw at the Obelisk Blue dorm and duels Marcel, though they both get injured afterwards.

Blair and Marcel at Adrian's party

Blair and Marcel at Adrian Gecko's party.

When Duel Academy gets sent to the alternate dimension after Jaden's duel with Thelonious Viper, she gets attacked by Yubel when she gets near Marcel and comes down with a mysterious illness. Jaden, Jesse Anderson, Axel Brodie, Jim Crocodile Cook, and Adrian Gecko get medicine from a submarine that Bastion Misawa saw. She gets healed by this medicine soon after. After recovering she later sees the Yubel-possessed Marcel Dueling Jaden and Jesse. She shows that she cares for Marcel when she demands the spirit release him, which it does and then throws Marcel at her (Yubel willingly left Marcel because she didn't need him anymore). She later watches over Marcel, glad that he is safe. Blair later joins the Duel Academy students to see if everybody made it back from the alternate dimension.

Darkness[]

At the start of the fourth season, she gets promoted to Obelisk Blue, but she still wears her red jacket. She is also shown to become friends with Jasmine and Mindy. She and Hassleberry were also in charge of getting photos for the yearbook. Later on, Blair is teamed up with Tyranno Hassleberry in a Tag-Team Duel tournament. After beating Jasmine and Mindy, and their unknown Obelisk Blue male partners they duel the pair of Jaden and Alexis Rhodes, during which she decides to take advantage of Alexis' frustration with Jaden and switches partners (wanting to be on the same team as Jaden because of her crush on him), allowing her to team up with Jaden. Jaden seemed to work much better with Blair than with Alexis. When Alexis noticed that Jaden had gone back to enjoying Duels, she switched back, much to Blair's chagrin, and frustration. She then lost the Duel making Jaden and Alexis the winners of the tournament. Later, she and Hassleberry told Jaden about Vellian Crowler's harsh teaching methods. Jaden helps solve the problem by beating Crowler in a Duel much to Blair's joy. While Jaden heads off to Domino City during Trueman's attack, she and the rest of Jaden's friends get concerned. Each of them has dueled at least ten people today as part of the Graduation Duels, but none of them can remember who they dueled, nor locate their names on Duel Academy's roster - which appears much smaller than it should. They can all remember there being more students, but nothing about them. It is assumed she was later absorbed into the World of Darkness and was revived when Jaden defeated Nightshroud. She returned upon Nightshroud's defeat and runs to Jaden to give him a hug. Afterward, she attended the graduation party with the third years. As Crowler feels sad about the graduating class leaving, Hassleberry tells Crowler that he and Blair will still be around to keep him company which Blair confirms.

Other appearances[]

Tag Force[]

In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force, Blair initially appears in room 102 of the Slifer Red dorm. Three items belonging to her can be obtained from three other characters. When all three items are returned to her, she gives up her disguise and can be found outside the Slifer Red dorm, but only during class hours.

Tag Force 2[]

Blair appears as a Slifer Red Student. She's one of the main story characters.

Tag Force 3[]

Blair-GX06-Blue

Blair in Obelisk Blue in Tag Force 3.

Blair appears Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 3 as a Slifer Red student. An Obelisk Blue version of her can also be unlocked. She is one of the main story characters.

Deck[]

Blair's initial deck is a Love deck focusing on "Maiden in Love", using it to take control of enemy monsters and turn them against their user. She further uses support for the Maiden like "Cupid's Kiss" and "Happy Marriage" to optimize this strategy.

During the Genex Tournament, Blair uses a Mystic deck. The deck's full mechanics are not explored, but it seems to revolve around summoning monsters by the effect of "Mystic Egg" and using "Mystic Revolution" to evolve them into powerful high-level forms.

In Season 4, Blair uses a Token deck, relying on summoning Monster Tokens.

Love Deck[]


Mystic Deck[]


Token Deck[]


Duels[]

Opponent(s) Episode(s) Outcome
Duel Academy examiner 20 (mentioned) Win (off-screen)
Jaden Yuki 20 Lose
Genex Tournament Duelists 102 Win (off-screen)
Chazz Princeton 103-104 Lose
Marcel Bonaparte 111-112 Not shown
Jasmine and Obelisk Blue male 161 Win (with Tyranno Hassleberry)
Mindy and Obelisk Blue male 161 Win (with Tyranno Hassleberry)
Jaden Yuki and Alexis Rhodes 162 Lose (with Tyranno Hassleberry)
10 Duel Academy students 171 Not shown

Trivia[]

  • She has been the runner up in every tournament she participated in.

References[]

Notes[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 This card can be seen in her hand in episode 20.
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