Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal/Headscratchers

The "Black Mist" memory.

• When Astral recovers "Number 96: Black Mist", he has a memory of a planet blowing up and states quite explicitly that it's a memory of Earth being destroyed. Assuming that Yuma and friends are residing on planet Earth (and we've been given no reason to assume otherwise), how can Astral have a memory of something happening when it quite obviously never did?
  • He might either "remember" the future (thus making the "memory" a warning about a possible future Earthshattering Kaboom) or the event of the memory happened in a parallel universe (meaning that the planet destroyed was indeed Earth but not the same Earth Yuma and friends live on).
  • Spelled out pretty clearly in ep. 37 if Black Mist is to be believed. Astral is to destroy Earth, which is why he had memories of an earth-shattering kaboom from perhaps mission planning? Who knows.

Number 7 - Lucky Stripe

• According to the anime, all known owners of Number 7 - Lucky Stripe became rich and famous while they had ownership of the card. The card also had widespread rumors about its luck-granting abilities (enough so that it would be featured in a museum, and that someone would try to steal it), as well as rumors about a means to counter that luck. But... How long had Lucky Stripe been in the world at that point? Episode 32 couldn't possibly have taken place more than a few months since Yuma released the Numbers into the world.
  • Given just how big Duel Monsters is, it's likely the card's legend spread fast thought the rumor mill and presumibly passed through a good number of rich owners who'd pay just about anything to have a card that's A) Rummored to bring it's owners fantastic luck, and B) Sure to be coveted by their friends, and a card taht powerful would defintily be coveted by a museum. The fact only numbers can defeat numbers would make it just that more powerful and allow it to get incredibly famous in just a few months.
  • As for the holders getting rich part, the card does grant the holder insane amounts of luck. When you are lucky enough to roll dozens of die landing on sixes every time it won't take you that long to get rich from gambling.

Episode 2.

• How did Astral know that Gagaga Magician was Yuma's graveyard? He was never around to see it destroyed.
  • The Graveyard can be viewed any time. Astral probably took a look at it.

Yuma's Complete and Total Failure as a Dueling Protagonist.

• In every other series, even if the main character knew what to do, they were still willing and able to accept help and fight strongly in return. Yuma is the exact opposite; he has no skill or tactical thought to dueling whatsoever, and refuses to take help. The 'right' move he made in Episode 1 was a total fluke, and he keeps being saved by high-powered ability overlay cards. I feel really bad for Astral.
  • Oh, and just to stop the obvious? Why not debate what I say? Its pretty clear that Yuma's abilities as a duelist are far less and is rather infuriating to people who watched 5Ds. If you disagree, why?
  • Yuma is coming into the series as some one learning the game, if you'll notice, he DOES get better over time, hell, he was able to stand up to two duelists at a time for awhile without Astral's help. Granted he's alot less skilled then previous protagonists.
    • And he would have lost that duel if Astral hadn't shown up to explain to him how to use the cards he had to win. Furthermore, Yuma entered the series as someone who'd been dueling since he was about 5 or so and practically lives for the game. The problem is that he doesn't learn from his defeats, he just throws himself at the problem in the exact same way as before.
  • As for not wanting help, it makes sense. If he always has people telling him what to do, he won't grow as a person and learn to stand up for himself. So while he might need help in emergencies, he should also learn to do things by himself.
    • But he doesn't grow as a person on his own; he will duel against Tetsuo dozens of times in any given episode and lose every single time without figuring out what he's doing wrong. The only time he experiences any growth is when he cooperates with Astral, and even then his lessons generally don't stick for more than a few episodes.
    • Yuma's an awkward combination of Aesop Amnesia and Idiot Hero. Just count the number of times he's forgotten a Plot Coupon (I think it's about four times after Episode 51), and what makes it annoying is precisely that he never seems to learn his lesson even after he's already forgotten the Plot Coupon two or three times before. There's also the issue of Informed Ability where we're supposed to believe Astral and Yuma have bonded enough to use the ZeXal Power. Funnily enough, that 'bond' is very rarely evident.
  • I'm watching the series, and aside from a few minor slip-ups, I actually do see him growing and developing more as a character. He certainly has more devlopment than Jaden or Yugi at this point.

Life Point Damage

Why is it that, whenever they sustain life point damage, the characters always get blasted towards the ground? Isn't that a little extreme even for this franchise?

• Dramatic effect. There's some mild justification in duels where a Number(s) is summoned, Word of God has stated that Numbers interact weirdly with the AR technology, causing real damage. No excuse for non-Number duels though.

Shark's disqualification

Isn't it a little extreme for the dueling league to banish Shark for life just because he peeked at one card? The fact that the cards were left right in the open and in plain sight makes it hard not to see them. If anything, the other duelist is at fault for purposelly leaving his deck unattended. And anyone could abuse this rule by leaving their cards anywhere, just to make their opponent see them.

• Furthermore, Shark was facing IV in the FINALS! By any reasonable logic, Shark would have already been familiar with the contents of IV's deck by virtue of him using it in plain view several times before, so Shark doesn't even have a good reason to peek at IV's cards in the first place.
  • To add to the pile, the one card Shark peeked at, Mirror Force one of the most powerful cards in the entire game a card you should assume every deck has just because of how Overpowered it is. How does the thought process of any player who can win with one more attack be anything other "Oh he played a card face down, I should destroy it with a card in my hand and attack to win this turn, even if its not a trap I still win."

Acid Golem

Anyone else find this monster to be ridiculously broken? Kite just happens to expect Shark's strategy and lets him have this monster. But Acid Golem's drawbacks are just too over the top to be realistic. I know this series has a problem with characters always having to happen the right cards at the right time, but come on.