Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's/Awesome

Yusei Fudo

• Many the fan of the card game had their squee moment when Yusei used cards that were old as dirt but never yet seen on the anime to defeat nosehair-flicking cheattastic Takasu (Armstrong in the dub). I was kind of jumping in my chair when he used Exiled Force.
  • Given the events of Episode 35, let's hope he didn't give it back...
• In episode 25, demanding to know whats going on once and for all, Yusei decides to confront Godwin. However, his way is blocked by two guards. Now if this were Yugi or Jaden in this situation, they'd challenge the guards to a duel in order to get past. However, since this is the older and significantly more well built (read as: Badass) Yusei, he just goes Street Fighter on them instead. Sure the 4kids dub added a few flashes in it to attempt to censor the scene, but it was done so badly, it was kept mainly intact even there. Unintentional CMoA for them, too. :)
  • This Troper couldn't have been the only one who re-watched the scene right after they saw it just so they could shout "SHORYUKEN!"
• Yusei pointing out Godwin's hypocrisy then proceeding to summon Savior Star Dragon. The clincher is that he then proceeds not only to take out both Wiraqocha Rasca and the rest of Godwin's Life Points, but then drive Savior Star, powered by the Crimson Dragon, into the King of the Underworld and blasts off its face. Made even more awesome in the flashback in episode 79 which adds Yusei Battle to it.
  • Even the card draw to start the turn was badass. On top of Yusei's cry of "Ore no...TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!", the moment he pulls it, the screen switches to the Speed Counter stats, and show his hitting the maximum of 12. The climax of this battle is put figuratively and literally into overdrive.
• One Turn Three Kill.
• When Yusei outsmarts Sherry and summons Turbo Warrior, twice.
• When Yusei proves he can read a card better than Rudger:

Rudger: Earthbound God Uru has 3000 ATK Points! Stardust Dragon is too weak to beat-
Yusei: Stardust Dragon, attack him directly!

Rudger: What!?

Yusei: Earthbound Gods can't be attacked, so I can attack you instead!

• • It should be noted that the Earthbound Gods do NOT work this way in the real card game; if the only monster your opponent controls is Uru, you simply can't attack at all (unless your monster can attack directly anyways.) Then again, that interpretation would make an even more one-sided duel than it does in real life, given that the Gods are a lot harder to destroy in the anime...
    • This deserves some explanation... Legendary Fisherman, a card that Mako used against Joey way back in YGO Duel Monsters and that was subsequently released in Real Life was initially ruled so that you could attack your opponent directly if they controlled Umi and their only face-up monster was Legendary Fisherman. When the Jibakushin came out, the effect was re-queried and determined that it did, in fact, prevent direct attacks (Legendary Fisherman's ruling was also revised accordingly).
• The first time Yusei performs a Fusion Summon, fusing his two most famous monsters (Stardust Dragon and Junk Warrior) to form Surging Dragon Knight Dragonquites. Not only is it a complete mindblow to everyone in the series and a lot of fans, since nobody ever expected him to do that, but the use of both versions of Yusei Battle (the first when bringing Junk Warrior out, and the 2nd when performing the fusion) is just the cherry on top.
• This troper wants to know how the very first episode escapes mention. Not only does Yusei show that the "card games on motorbikes" idea mocked by The Abridged Series is workable (and, in fact, quite awesome!), but when he performs the anime's first Synchro Summon...Junk Warrior's entrance just commands you to cheer.
• In episode 70, Luna is being held hostage inside a house by a ghost who has been making people disappear, and Leo goes to duel this ghost to save his sister. Yusei barely appears at all in the episode, but after hearing about Luna disappearing, he goes to find her. When he arrives in front of the house where Leo and the ghost are dueling, Leo says he will hold the ghost off while Yusei saves his sister. How does Yusei accomplish this? He drives right through the middle of the duel and breaks down the front door with his duel runner.
• Episode 110, Yusei successfully pulls off Accel Synchro and summons, Summoning Shooting Star Dragon. He then reveals its effect: he reveals the top five cards of his deck, and Shooting Star Dragon can attack once for each Tuner monster he reveals. Cue the other four members of the main Five-Man Band around the city looking at their glowing Signer marks and cheering Yusei on. Yusei draws, revealing Tuner monsters one by one as the five Signer marks light up in sequence on his back with overlaid shots of his friends. As he draws the fifth Tuner, the lines of the mark's body draw out a circle, and the camera pulls back to reveal the full mark of the Crimson Dragon lit up. Placido has just enough time to go "Oh Crap! This Cannot Be!!" before Yusei orders Shooting Star Dragon to attack five times, destroying the Machine Emperor piece by piece and giving Placido a serious case of Critical Existence Failure as his motorcycle blows up underneath him. And while all this is going on, the background music starts out low and quiet and grows faster and louder with every draw.
• Ep 122 is an even bigger one, where Yusei uses Shooting Star dragon to beat Sleeping Giant Thud, a monster said to rival the 3 Egyptian god cards. All with Clear Mind playing in the background a second time.
• The way he defeats Harald of Team Ragnarok.
  • You mean stuffing an Idiot Ball down his throat with Plot-ekinesis?
    • Not really. He successfully used Harald's own tricks against him. Given that Yusei prevented him from seeing his set card, he really left Harald to question what that set card was that was so worth protecting. He decided he had to win there and then, in case said set card would stop Gjallarhorn from working.
      • So at what point does "Yusei using his own tricks against him" somehow explain "Tyr's effect suddenly not working for no reason at all?"
        • Harald activated the Eye of Odin, negating the effects of his three Polar Gods to see Yuusei's set card (Zero Force). He then chains Tyr's effect to Eye of Odin, tributing Tyr to stop their effects from being negated. That means at this point, he would've been able to see the set card, Thor's effect would've made Shooting Star Dragon's effect useless and Odin's effect would've made the Polar Gods unable to be affected by Zero Force anyway. Then, at the end of the turn, Yuusei would've taken 10,000+ damage. Basically, Yuusei would've been inescapably screwed. But he gums up the works by chaining Trick Mirror to Tyr's effect. He used The Eye of Odin's effect as his own, negating the effects of all three Polar Gods. Tyr had already been tributed at a lower link in the chain, so it couldn't protect the Gods from another effect higher up on the chain, and Eye of Odin couldn't see Yuusei's set card, because the God's effects were negated by Trick Mirror, so Harald had no way to pay the cost for Eye of Odin. Harald was reasonably flustered that Yuusei had broken his move so easily, no doubt thought that the set card was something to reflect Gallahorn's damage and went to go beat Shooting Star Dragon's face in before Yuusei could activate it (reasonable enough logic since about two rounds earlier, Yuusei very nearly beat Jean with a card named 'Reflect Barrier' that reflects any effect damage to the opposing player). It was an uncharacteristically complicated chain of events for 5D's, but that's about as close as I can come to figuring it out. Basically, Yuusei used a combination of extremely good timing and his opponent's own overconfidence to escape an unwinniable situation.
          • Actually, with a little thought about alternate possibilities, it becomes clear that Yusei did drop Harald the Idiot Ball. You see, Harald could simply have activated Odin's effect, rendering the Polar Gods immune to Yusei's Traps (and his Magic Cards, but that's irrelevant). Then he could've used Thor's effect to negate Shooting Star Dragon's and absorb them (for some reason Shooting Star Dragon reverts to its real life effect here and can't chain its jump-out-attack-negate effect to anything but an attack, which is strange since next Duel it jumps back to its anime effect). All Harald had to do then was attack Shooting Star Dragon with Thor or Odin for the win, since Yusei has 200 Life Points. The Gods are immune to Traps due to Odin, if one of Yusei's Traps would deal enough damage to win the Duel Loki's effect can negate that, and if Gjallarhorn is still needed and would happen to be destroyed, thanks to its absorbed effects, Thor can negate any card effect which destroys something once a turn. So had Harald done this, which was perfectly reasonable, Yusei could never have pulled his Trick Mirror-Shooting Star Dragon-Zero Force thing. Idiot Ball, Harald. Made worse since he used to be in the military, you'd think he'd know well how he could win with the least risk.
            • Which is probably why he decided to make sure what Yuusei's facedown was; it's pretty much a given that he'd at least glanced at some of Yuusei's duels before the match, which would tell quite a bit of how often Yuusei pulls out completely out-of-the-fricking-blue turnarounds against opponents who are too sure of their own win to bother noticing what Yuusei's doing over on the other side of the track (like, say, the duel against Team Taiyo immediately before). Harald had no way of knowing that Trick Mirror wasn't actually a miracle "negate-the-effects-of-all-DIVINE-type-monsters-and-destroy-them" card ex machina, so sacrificing some safety for assurance was actually the most logical course of action for someone like Harald, who wins by anticipating the moves of other players, but doesn't have a magical psychological card-sense like Andore. Which, of course, was exactly what Yuusei was waiting for.
• Savior Star and Shooting Star batallions to wipe out multiple cards. The CGI is amazing. Oh. My. GOD.
• Episode 148: Having received his friends Signer Dragons, Yusei begins the duel against Zone by summoning Black Feather and Red Demons in one turn; with Crow and Jack delivering the Synchro Speech with him. Aki does the same when he pulls out Black Rose. Then he damages Zone and the resulting mood leads to pretty much everyone left in the area chanting his name with the first glimmer of hope that the Ark Cradle may not obliterate them and their city.
• Episode 150. Just the whole damn thing. Having summoned all of his friends dragons one after another as the above begins and almost falling to his death. Then his father comes back from the dead briefly just to bitchslap Yusei back to his senses. Then Yusei pulls out his biggest CMOA by using Life Stream to summon the other four Signer Dragons that aren't Stardust and ride through the atmosphere, whilst everyone watching calls his name and pours their hearts into what they're watching. He passes through and into freaking space, combines the powers of his friends Birthmarks and turns GOLD. With the five dragons on his field, he quintuple Synchro Summons Shooting Quaser Dragon and heads back to face down ZONE.
• Following from the above, the Episode 151 carries on the Hot-Blooded awesomeness; Yusei fights on wiith Shooting Quasar Dragon, using each of his friends' dragons whenever it's helpful - they chip in when it comes to their turn - to take on Zone's Time Machine God force. Through Clustering Wishes, he then pours the powers of each dragon into Stardust to whack it up to a massive 23,000 and proceeds to smash Zone's Gods one by one. After having a montage of everyone whose meeting with him and his friends has affected them in some way, streams of light pour in from across the globe and light up Neo-Domino as Yusei calls out his final attack with Stardust in the most Hot-Blooded scream he has and obliterates the rest of Zone's lifepoints.
• Episode 1&154: Yusei ending the first and last duels of the series with the same monster:Junk Warrior.

Jack Atlas

• Episode 46: Two kids are about to be killed by the Earthbound God. Yusei and Aki are trapped by the flames of the duel. JACK ATLAS comes out of the top of a freaking building with his motorcycle, shouting "You earthbound gods aren't so great!" and then proceeding to save the kids. JACK ATLAS, you are so awesome your name must be typed in all caps.
  • Episode 76 just might have cemented his status as a Memetic Badass. He saved a guy's life to punch him and proceeded to beat about 20 or 30 people up. The fact that he beat them without any sign of effort means that he previously let them beat him up so he could place a tracking device on one of them JUST SO HE COULD FOLLOW THEM TO THEIR BASE AND FIGHT THE ENTIRE GANG. Not only that, but he dueled against their leader to the death even though he demonstrated he didn't have to beat him in a duel. He did it all for fun. This leads us to a little bit of Wild Mass Guessing, as to whether JACK ATLAS is actually Batman. Batman is awesome. Therefore, JACK ATLAS is Batman on CRAZY! OF COURSE, it's all clear now!
• Episode 84 gave him a rematch against his Evil Twin. His doppelganger manages to summon THREE RED DEMONS DRAGONS in one turn. JACK ATLAS one ups him by summoning Savior Demons Dragon and giving it 7000 ATK Points.
• Rejecting the Lotus Eater Machine fantasy in Turn 58 with a card called "Change Destiny." So no, it's not better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.
• Ignoring Godwin's guilt-trip Hannibal Lecture during the Final Battle by playing the Love Redeems card (just an expression).
• After getting destroyed by Andore, JACK ATLAS, injured and bleeding after taking a brutal fall off his bike, claws with every last ounce of strength in his body to get the Wheel of Fortune to the finish line so he can baton pass to Aki. Stay amazing, Mr. Atlus.
• His duel vs Nicolas is made of win. First of all, he wins in a single turn. Second of all, he endures the pain of the darkness card, and rides a motorcycle out of an explosion while saving his opponent and shouting I, JACK ATLAS, will not lose to the power of darkness. Then just to finish off, he gives off this speech to Nicolas:

Nicolas: Why did you save me?
JACK ATLAS: Isn't it obvious? YOU DON'T EVEN DESERVE TO DIE. Someone like you who doesn't trust his cards and uses the power of darkness, DOESN'T DESERVE TO DUEL.

• Episode 113. JACK ATLAS shows the Crimson Devil's familiar that he is capable of other strategies than just brute force and when the Crimson Devil shows itself, he awakens his 'Burning Soul' and seals the Crimson Devil's power to create Scar-Red Nova Dragon. He stole the power of an Earthbound God.
  • The most powerful of them, to boot. Remember, according to its description in 112, the Crimson Devil fought, and nearly defeated, the Crimson Dragon by itself, effectively making it more powerful than all of the other Earthbound Gods combined.
  • Not only does his hand catch fire but when he Synchro Summons Scar-Red Nova Dragon the Tuning Rings catch fire as well!
• Jack beating both Lucciano and Placido in the WRGP. The machine emperors kept trying to absorb Scar Red Nova Dragon but it just keeps using its remove from play effect to evade the synchro stealing effect.
  • Somewhat negated because they were losing on purpose.

Crow Hogan

• His D-Wheel has wings. Awesome Establishing Character Moment.
• Refusing to let Yusei pull This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself shortly after they reunite.
• Episode 63 when he flies off the Wiraqocha Rasca geoglyph and slams into the monster belonging to Godwin, his former idol and inspiration as the legendary D-Wheeler.
  • Apparently he's awesome enough to be made a Signer, which I suppose is both a testament and a slap to his (former) Badass Normal credentials.
• His duel with Bolger, whom he just found out is actually the one who murdered his father-figure years ago, is so awesome, it earns him his Signer Dragon.
• Fighting through the pain of his injured shoulder to utterly pwn Herrman and his Hidden Knight Hook.

Aki Izayoi/ Akiza Izinski

• Using Rose Tentacles on Yusei. This troper immediately fell in love with Aki after that.
• Saving Yusei twice in Episodes 71/72, first by using her powers to break him out of the trailer, and then by summoning the real Stardust Dragon to stop them from being crushed to death at the end of the duel with Sherry.
• Episode 73: A psycho on, for lack of a better description, a giant spiked bulldozer, crashes a party and barrels toward Aki. Yusei panics. Without the slightest trace of flinching, Aki uses her powers to summon Black Rose Dragon and send the guy through a window.
• Summoning Stardust Dragon to turn the tide of battle against Team Unicorn. Complete with summon speech. Cue collective "Holy Shit" moment by the main cast.
• Episode 109: Aki saved that girl Haruka and showed that she doesn't need psychic powers to be a hero.
• Her Shut UP, Hannibal attitude during the duel with Sherry in Episode 140.

Leo & Luna

• Leo, of all people, gets one in the Dark Signer arc as he goes up against one of the Dark Signers with full knowledge of what could happen -- Crow was mostly ignorant of the dangers -- despite not being a Signer himself while its Ruka who deals the finishing blow it was Leo's setup and deck that pulled it off.
  • He also gets another moment in ep. 78 against Luciano and his Machine Emperor Skiel Infinity. After Luna had unknowingly walked right into his plan and practically given him Ancient Fairy Dragon, Leo makes what effectively amounts to the card game equivalent of a Heroic Sacrifice just to get it back for her. Sure, they lose and he just about makes an actual Heroic Sacrifice, but boy does he royally piss Luciano off in the process!

Leo: I'll never let you have Ancient Fairy Dragon! I'm not a Signer, but Luna, who has a Signer birthmark, is my pride and joy! And I'll protect Ancient Fairy Dragon, who is a symbol of that!

• Episode 142 sees Leo taking quite a level in badass, refusing to give up against Aporia. His resolve leads to the Crimson Dragon recognising him as a Signer. Then, shortly afterwards, he uses the newly created Birthmark to finally summon the original 5th Dragon, Life Stream Dragon.
• In episode 138, Luna jumping from Akiza's motercycle to Yusei's while they were moving at high speed.

Other

• The climax of the Dark Signer Arc in Episode 64. Other than one small bit of it, it was a brilliant end to a brilliant season.
• This troper is SERIOUSLY surprised that no one has listed the scene from the 5D's OVA episode, "Evolving Duel! Stardust Vs Red Demons". Both Jack and Yusei have powered up their dragons to their /Buster Modes (/Assault Mode). Several attacks have been made, and both Jack and Yusei have used cards to power up their monsters, leaving the two dragons with equal attack points. What follows this is quite possibly one of the most EPIC clashes in the entire series, as Stardust and Red Demons attack each other, violently clashing as the battle leads them INTO SPACE. And when it's all said and done, the two monsters fall back into the stadium with an earth-shaking explosion to top it all off. But don't just take my word for it, watch it yourself!
  • The part in the duel where Yusei plays the "Jump Guard" card, then literally jumps his bike into the sky, twice.
• Episode 86. Kiryu. Harmonica. Awesomeness ensues. He proceeds to have a few more in every episode in the arc afterwards.
• Episode 90. Who knew a minor character's last moments could be so awesome?
• Episode 91. Yusei and Kiryu beating Lotten's One-Hit Kill again and again. Do not forget that Kiryu's doing this without any Lifepoints at all.
  • This troper was pretty much stunned when Lotten delivered said One-Hit Kill, even though I anticipated it from Lotten getting a ten-card starting hand. And then I pretty much cheered when Kiryu got back up and delivered a line which to this day just says 'AWESOME' to me, to the point I forgot that Crashtown was a filler arc, I honestly didn't care it wasn't part of the overarching plot. Said line:

Kiryu: I told you, I'm a God of Death. Gods of Death don't die.

• • Okay. Yusei and Kalin are thrown into a tight spot during their duel with Lotten. Guess who shows up? Crow. And how's he known? By throwing one of his cards down, blocking the attack. Before the duo can even celebrate, JACK ATLAS shows up, bringing the police force with him. Finally, the Enforcers all stand together as one. Tell me that's not awesome.
• In that same episode, when Kiryu chased down Lotten after he made his escape then beat him in a duel, the dub actually changed this, so instead of Kallen dueling Lotten after catching up to him, he simply turned him into the authorities telling him that he (Lotten) has already forfeited his pride as a duelist by running away and that he doesn't deserve to finish his duel. It was actually awesome in its own way
• The opening of Episode 93 serves to show that Sherry is a girl you do not want to mess with. Not because she'll beat you in a duel but because she'll knock all your Mooks unconscious and throw you off a balcony.
• Nearly all of Episode 99, including Jack pushing his busted up D-Wheel back into the pit area with every last bit of strength he has, and Aki summoning Stardust Dragon, summoning speech and all.
• Episode 100. When Yusei realizes how royally screwed he is, and how Crazy Prepared Team Unicorn is.

Andore: The reason we don't care that you managed to destroy Speed Spell-The End Of Storm, is because Breo doesn't need it. Stardust Dragon is no threat to his deck.
Yusei: Oh Crap, Breo's using a Deck Destruction Deck!

• • Also, when Breo resists the temptation to attack with his Voltic Bicorn, like the heroes expect him to do, and instead destroys it himself, activating its powerful effect.
• The baddies do it, too. After JACK baits the leader of Team Catastrophe into suiciding himself with one move (see JACK's entry above), Placido pulls Catastrophe (now down to one guy with all the Team's trump cards destroyed) from the tournament and initiates plan B. Cue the second-most horrifying three words ever spoken in the series: Battle Royale Mode, and a flood of Mecha-Mooks tearing apart the stadium and knocking every single competitor out of the tournament.
• The beginning of Episode 107 with Bruno regaining his memory and transforming into Dark Glass in time to save Yusei from the Diablo. Then with Placido leaping off a building and onto his speeding bike in order to face Yusei personally.
• Episode 111. Bommer's little bro Max pwns JACK ATLAS!
  • Of course, it gets revealed later that the one fighting JACK ATLAS wasn't his brother but the Crimson Devil, whom JACK ATLAS promptly destroys two episodes later.
• This troper would like to give the crew who hammered out the concept of Riding Duels a CMoA for making "card games on motorbikes" not only work, but be absolutely sweet.
• This troper has to give a CmoA to 4Kids of all people for keeping the guns used by Rex's bodyguards, changing only the sound effects a bit. Shows they've come a long way from the original series and their "invisible guns".
• Team Taiyou managing to summon Thud, a feat which (thanks to Thud's horrible summoning condition) had never been done before, ever, despite every man and his mother owning one (Rua notes that he has several).
• Team Ragnarok creating Rainbow Bridge Bifrost to allow Yusei and co. to reach the Ark Cradle. Accompanied by a brand new BGM crowned with awesome.
• Antinomy performing a Delta Accel Synchro, causing the nearby star to explode in a supernova.
• The MC's actions in episode 148, namely staying behind to provide commentary on the duel between Yusei and Z-one, so everyone who's watching can run while still knowing what's going on. Note that this is putting himself at risk of dying from the incoming Arc Cradle.
• ZONE's Dying Moment of Awesome when he flings himself into the Momentum core to stop the Ark Cradle.
• How has the final Duel between Yusei and Jack for the show's finale gone unmentioned? The WHOLE THING was one non-stop CMoA given the sheer nostalgia fuel of seeing some of their oldest cards revived, coupled with the reappearance of many characters, including Yusei's four friends from the first season who got Put on a Bus, and even a trip back into the factory where the very first Duel of 5D's took place. And it even had Yusei avoiding his usual 'Stardust/Savior Star/Shooting Star/Shooting Quasar spam' victory to beat Jack via Junk Warrior. Y'know, the Synchro he won the very first Duel of 5D's with?! It also serves as a Call Back to the very first opening, where Junk Warrior and Red Demon's went head-on. This time, though, Junk Warrior got to pwn Red Demon's via The Power of Friendship in its effect resulting in a Megaton Punch. It made this troper shed a tear for the sheer awesome of the whole thing.
• This entire page, and not one single mention of the fact that Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds has not one, but FOUR theme songs by MASAKI FREAKING ANDOH(of JAM Project), who is the most hot-blooded J-Pop/Rock singer to have ever lived: The 4th and 5th OP Themes (Believe in Nexus, Road to Tomorrow Going My Way!!), and two insert songs: The uncharacteristically mellow "Melody of Promises", and the already-mentioned "Clear Mind".
• Hyper Drive, the dub opening theme, is actually surprisingly awesome in its own way. The fact it was the chosen opening out of about eight 4Kids put up for a vote is an awesome moment for the opening, and then you actually hear it. We still to this day don't know who wrote and performed it, but whoever did it, I salute you for such a piece of awesome. Especially the last three lyrics, which are poetically neat:

See the sun arisin', fire in the sky, greatness thrusts itself into our lives.