The cards Playmaker draws from the Data Storm tend to have symbolic meanings during the duels he gets them. However they all have one thing in common. None of the monsters that Playmaker acquired through Storm Access have an effect that forcefully remove cards such as destruction, sent to the GY or even banishing with only the ability closest to it being able to return cards to the opponents hands which is more pacifistic in comparison. This symbolizes Playmaker's inability to truly hurt other people despite his vengeful spirit. Notably the Code Talkers whose effects do involve tributing monsters (Decode and Powercode) both were obtained at points where his and Ai's relationship was at its roughest: at the beginning and when Faust hinted that Ai was hiding things from him while Vector Square Archfiend was obtained when Playmaker was going to steal some unpleasant information.
Decode Talker: To "Decode" is to reveal. Playmaker used Decode Talker to reveal Cracking Dragon's weakness, as well as revealed Playmaker's Skill. Being a Dark attribute monster likely references the fact Playmaker isn't a hero as sparkling pure as say, Yuma or Judai.
Link Bumper: Playmaker admitted to enjoying his duel with Go, and the "bumping" is his desire to not let the duel end too soon. Also as one of his few duels not directly tied to his past frustrations and thus being less serious or emotionally important to him, Link Bumper has the lowest Link Rating of the Link Monsters attained by Playmaker in the first season via Storm Access.
Encode Talker: To encode is to place within. Blue Angel's duel disk had a virus inside it, causing her freak out. Encode Talker being LIGHT could be a reference to purifications. Being a Light-monster, it was put into use for a fully heroic act, specifically taking down an infected Blue Angel.
Firewall Dragon: Firewalls defend against viruses. The Knights of Hanoi are trying to destroy a virtual reality, like how viruses destroy computer data. The Knights of Hanoi also had a cure for a virus on ransom in the duel.
Excode Talker: In computing X is used to represent closing a window, shutting down the program. Excode Talker shut down Emma's strategy.
Vector Square Archfiend: Vector Square looks far more demonic and evil despite being a Cyberse. Yusaku is attempting to gather information from ten years ago, and this card could possibly mean that information isn't pleasant. Being the only Season 1 monster gotten with storm access to not be used again also shows how since getting V.S.A. Yusaku had displayed stronger moral convictions and bonds and is thus farther from V.S.A..
Powercode Talker: Powering through code involves forcing things to work, regardless of the system used, as is often the case with programs on the uniform lacking computer. Powercode Talker is the only Code Talker that doesn't specify a type of monster, be it effect or Cyberse, to summon it (Though unlike them it requires three monsters, not 2+). Powercode was summoned at a point where Yusaku only had non-effect, non-Cyberse monsters in play.
Transcode Talker: Transcode looks more supportive and heroic than previous Decodes. This card was gained when Ai selflessly sacrificed part of himself to help Playmaker.
Shootingcode Talker: Shootingcode is needed to shoot through the opening of the defense his opponent set up. It's also fitting that the Code Talker with a bow debuts in a duel against an opponent whose name is pronounced Bowman.
Clock Spartoi: Spartoi refers to the Spartans, a warlike people and his opponent, Blood Shepherd, used a lot of military terms in his duel. It has a Link Rating of 2, because like Go, Blood Shepherd wasn't a Knight of Hanoi or a member of the faction that stole Jin.
Cyberse Quantum Dragon: This is the first monster he acquired through Neo Storm Access and is a Synchro Monster. When Synchro Monsters were first introduced, they were meant as an advancement of the game just like how Cyberse Quantum is shown to be the advancement of Storm Access's upgrade.
Firewall Xceed Dragon: Xceed Dragon is a Xyz Monster which represents space. In Playmaker's second duel against GO, Revolver said that the only way for Go to win was to duel beyond expectations. This card shows that Playmaker is Xceeding everyone's expectations by using yet another new summoning method whose theme shows that Playmaker has no limits like space. Given how bad a state Go was in, a graveyard revival effect was also fairly appropriate to get him to be the person he once was again.
A point about the two above: Bohman is about creating a future via his ultimate techno-lifeform thing, and Synchro Monsters are often characterized by striving forward and evolving. Bohman does this. Meanwhile the past obsessed Go got beaten by a monster linked to the past and is lore wise said to be made of anti-matter. Go at this point is the opposite of his season 1 self.
A notable trend in his season 2 summoning methods is the cards being obtained boosting Playmaker's deck versus becoming its strength. He already had Cyberse Clock Dragon and Cyberse Synchron prior to obtaining Clock Spartoi and Cyberse Quantum Dragon. It is not hard to see this as a reflection of the more supportive partnership of Playmaker and Ai, versus season 1 where the relationship was not as even.
In contrast every card Revolver acquires through Storm Access do have an effect that destroy or forcefully remove other cards including his own and that effect activates whenever a monster is summoned next to its Link Marker. This shows Revolver's need to sever the connection with people close to him (like Vaira and Faust) in order to achieve his goals which is the destruction of the Ignis. The fact the effect also apply to his own cards shows his path to self-destruction as a person bound to his past and fate. All the monsters also have a higher Link Rating or ATK, this is Revolver's 'proof' that the Ignis are conceited for an Artificial Intelligence and that humans are able to improve the Skill.
Topologic Bomber Dragon's effect destroys all the monsters in the Main Monster Zone. This presents his desire to destroy the enemy that stand in his way.
Topologic Trisbaena's effect allows it to remove Spell and Trap cards and the field. This represents him removing the obstacles of his plan which at the time was Ghost Girl trying to prevent the Tower of Hanoi's activation.
Related to the above Link Bumper point Revolver attained the Topologic Monster with a lower Link Rating in his battle against Ghost Girl, who Revolver sees as far less dangerous or serious a bout than his clashes with Playmaker. The second time he used the monster on screen was against Blood Shepherd, who Revolver was more or less demonstrating a point to than fully dueling. Being Ghost Girl's older half brother also makes it a bit fitting on top of it all.
Topologic Gumblar Dragon's effect forces you and your opponent to discard cards from their hand. This represents Revolver's need to discard his future or something very important (like The three lieutenants of the Knights of Hanoi who are like family to him and his father) in order to fulfill his father's goals.
When Bohman uses Storm Access every card he gets are monsters from the Hydradrive archetype which fit his deck's archetype.
Trident Hydradrive Lord: This card is a LINK-3 Link Monster with 2300 ATK just like Playmaker's Code Talkers. This shows Bohman's believe that he is the real Yusaku Fujiki and that Playmaker is a fake that stole his body.
Rousing Hydradrive Monarch: This Link monster has an effect that requires it's controller to roll a dice to determine the activation. In the same duel he also reveals that Ai has Instinct which is something that the other Ignis lack. The dice effect and it's reliance on luck could represent Bohman trying out his own instinct instead of logic just like Ai and Playmaker.
Windy's first usage of Storm Access lets him create Stormridership Bahamut Bomber. His second use results in Stormriderflagship Bahamut Bomber... Custom. This reflects Windy's childish attitude, instead of trying to get a new monster or something to compliment Bahamut Bomber, he just creates a new, upgraded Bomber. It also reflects the Ignis' lack of creativity.
Other
During the Knights of Hanoi attack on the Cyberse, they imprisoned all of the Ignis AIs except for the purple one. Each of the AIs has a distinct look and color, red, yellow, orange, blue, green, and purple. At first this seems to be an easy way to tell them apart... until you remember that Monsters in the Duel Monsters game (with the exception of the Egyptian God Cards) are one of six attributes, with each attribute associated with a color: DARK (purple), EARTH (orange), FIRE (red), LIGHT (yellow), WATER (blue), and WIND (green). The purple Ignis's comment on how the others don't like him suddenly makes a little more sense.
Duels during data storms being restricted to Speed Duels could be because the systems can't handle Master Duels when it's currently being flooded with an influx of data, making Speed Duels all the system can handle.
To add on the above thought, notice how when there's no Data Storm around, the duelists always defaults to Master Duels.
After an entire season of "but you'll still take battle damage" in Arc-V, one might think it odd that the Knight of Hanoi brought up the fact that Cracking Dragon cannot be destroyed by battle just before he was about to lose, as that effect will not change the outcome of the duel. A major purpose of Cracking Dragon however is its use as a weapon of terror outside of duels, as it deletes anything it comes into contact with. By destroying it by battle, Yusaku has put it out of commission, if only temporarily.
Plus by clearly stating its weakness to the world via their broadcasted duel the Cracking Dragon now has a exploitable weakness that everyone knows about. Yusaku might not care much, but he is giving people hope of countering it by showing people how.
Yusaku's Duel Disk uses physical cards unlike the latest duel Disks, which use digital cards. If Yusaku were to ever have his account deleted, he wouldn't actually lose any of his cards since they're physical objects rather than digital objects. Just one more benefit of using outdated tech for a hacker like Yusaku.
His deck isn't the only thing that's old fashioned, he uses cards that share a type instead of an archetype for his deck, just like how most decks and villains of the day were made before Archetypes got card specific support.
His physical cards might also be how the Knights of Hanoi haven't managed to 'destroy' them like the rest of their type. In real life digital properties are much easier to remove from circulation (like a licensed game whose rights have expired), while their physical versions are still available for purchase (if without the online features).
The bright colors and simple shapes of the Orphanage he looks after also resemble the style of Arc-V more than anything shown in VRAINS so far.
His style maybe last generation, but compared to other entertainment duelists, he can switch tactics from entertaining to brutal without going nuts or breaking himself. Why? Simply because going darker is a part of wrestling entertainment, not him abandoning his ideals .
The fact that Yusaku's school focuses on computers explains why he's there despite it being a fancy school and him having little money. Considering his skills as a hacker, it's fairly likely Yusaku got in on scholarship, and a school that focuses on computing would be more likely to give full scholarships to students based on computing skills than an ordinary prep school.
In episode 6, Aoi mentions that she's had false friends who only get close to her to try to get a job at SOL Tech. SOL Tech is a technology-based company, so it makes sense for students whose specialties are in technology to want a job there specifically. It also explains why Aoi is there — nepotism is very common in Japanese businesses, but in turn it reflects very, very badly upon the entire family if one of them is unfit for their job. Maybe someone is grooming her for a position in SOL Tech.
It can be deduced that each character's avatars in LINK VRAINS are indicative of each of their personalities.
Yusaku's Playmaker avatar is a very simply two colored spiked hair with a cyber suit. Not only does it help show his simplicity, but the design itself is not hard to recreate as shown when Playmaker had to reveal himself to the public against the Knights of Hanoi and there were dozens of Playmaker clones running around in LINK VRAINS. Thus as a hacker, if he needed to change accounts, it wouldn't be hard to make an identical avatar.
Go Onizuka's avatar is a point for point recreation of his real life self. As a wrestling style celebrity, he needs to be known on and off the VRAINS, especially considering the orphanages he visits. It's also noted that to lure other duelists like Playmaker or the Knights of Hanoi that he would change his avatar, much like how a wrestler will change gimmicks or even their character.
Go's season 2 avatar is much more militaristic and has virtually no flare to it whatsoever, showing that he's given up on his entertainment dueling to hunt down Playmaker as a mercenary.
Aoi's Blue Angel avatar is a pop idol, similar to an internet celebrity. It is also shown that Blue Angel's personality is more outgoing as opposed to Aoi's more subdued personality in real life and Blue Angel can be seen as Aoi's real self.
It could also be who she wants to be. After all Aoi in real life is fairly unremarkable looking (she doesn't have an odd hair color, like most major Yu-Gi-Oh characters, nor the attractive features in plainer hair colored female characters like Asuka and Anzu. If you didn't know better, she looks a lot more like a secondary or background character than even Kotori. As Blue Angel, she has the odd hair color and the looks of a major character.
Her season 2 avatar maintains a lot of the color scheme of her Blue Angel persona, but physically looks MUCH closer in appearance to who she really is. The name change to Blue Girl, combined with this, could be her trying to be more honest with who she is while still keeping attributes of her old persona. In addition, she has some inspiration from Ghost Girl as the design of her outfit borrows elements from her with the obvious difference being the blue and white color scheme. In addition, her look, confirmed by her cards such as Trickstar Band Sweet Guitar and skill Trickstar Gig, give her a more mature rock idol vibe, an upgrade of the cutesy pop idol.
Her change to Blue Maiden shows a major development to her character. While the heart charms on her outfit changed to droplets due to her teaming up with Aqua, the remainder of her outfit signifies her willingness to fight for Miyu as she describes her outfit change as her battle mode, similar to a magical girl.
Revolver's avatar doesn't have visible pupils. Given how he dislikes the nature of lying that he believes LINK VRAINS causes and how eyes are often windows of truth/the soul, his eyes are lacking as to represent this.
Revolver's season 2 avatar isn't too much different than before, just a much more free flowing coat, hair that matches his real life self and just a different design without changing the core color scheme. But the most significant change is his visor which actually shows his face and eyes. His resolve hasn't changed, but his attitude about completing his mission has.
Emma's Ghost Girl avatar is very similar to Playmaker's in which it's a simple design only switching her lavender hair for grey and giving her a mask, obvious choices being a hacker and a mercenary. It also highlights her more playful nature playing up her more mysterious aspects making her somewhat of a tease as well.
Ghost Girl's Season 2 outfit is a less mysterious outfit trading in the catsuit and mask for a smaller, more streamlined outfit and a scarf and gloves. That being said, it ups her playfulness as it now highlights her more desirable features.
Lonely Brave/Brave Max is a bulky, over-designed, armor-like suit with a large B in the chestplate and includes a helmet with a visor and a D-Board on his back. This shows his obvious desire to become a hero of LINK VRAINS much like Playmaker. The D-Board is there for speed duels, but his inexperience shows in this regard as every other duelist will just spawn one when they need it.
A poster on Naoki's wall of his avatar shows that it isn't a D-Board, but a shield. This still fits his character, because it shows his desire to protect LINK VRAINS, but it also shows he's scared to face against enemies like the Knights of Hanoi and wants to hide behind something that can protect him.
Akira's avatar is similar as Go Onizuka in that it's a point for point recreation of his real life self. Considering he was a high ranking official of SOL Tech who sometimes must log into LINK VRAINS, it is likely that his avatar is exactly the same as his real life self so that his colleagues and workers can recognize him while he is in LINK VRAINS. This symbolizes just how much focus he puts on his work, to the point where he neglect Aoi at times.
Soulburner's more outgoing personality is shown through his outfit which has a flame motif on both his design and his color scheme. This also contrasts Playmaker's avatar, while Playmaker's outfit is subdued expressing his more introverted personality, Soulburner's is expressive and bright.
Playstyle-wise, Yusaku does not rely too much on his supposed ace monster Firewall Dragon as opposed to other protagonists. It makes sense as he has no real connection to the card itself and the monster itself is not important plot-wise, Dark Magician is implied to be Mahad, Neos was a monster Judai created, Stardust Dragon is one of the Signer Dragons, Utopia is a Number Card, and Odd-Eyes is a Dimension Dragon. Firewall Dragon was simply a monster that Yusaku simply pulled out of the Data Storm, and like his deck, is just another weapon for his revenge. Proven in the season finale when Yusaku is willing to use Firewall Dragon solely as fodder to fuel Zero Extra Link and later Decode Talker.
Yusaku has an odd relationship with his cards compared to other Yu-tagonists. While he does have a connection to the Cyberse cards, it isn't as tied to the heart as a shared desire. Both Yusaku and the Cyberse were harmed by groups titled 'Hanoi', and as such while the cards and Yusaku do work together, it isn't a deep connection of hearts like others. Notably while you'd see characters like Yugi and Yuya declare 'this is the exact card I needed', Yusaku will note that the card he gets 'is sufficient/will do'.
It's also likely because unlike the previous monsters his deck isn't built around summoning it: Firewall is a Link-4 monster while most of Yusaku's combos are designed for Link-3 or lower monsters. Yusaku doesn't have the ease of fitting it into his deck the way protagonists like Yusei and Yuma could with their aces, while there isn't an impetuous for him to alter his strategy in a way that suits it like Juudai implementing the Neo-Spacians to support Neos or Yuya adapting to Pendulum Summoning to get out his high level Odd-Eyes faster.
Fittingly for a man whose deck is based around triangles and the number 3, it takes three episodes for Playmaker to defeat Akira.
Akira's name also has "Aki" (きら) in it, a word that in Japan can mean "Autumn/Fall". Which is often considered as the 3rd season in a year.
The name Akira contains 3 syllables: A-ki-ra.
Why does Baira have a Giant Germ card in her deck despite the overall mummy/virus theme? Well what spreads viruses but germs? Plus the famous Virus card, Crush Card Virus, requires a 1000 or weaker dark monster to spread it, and that is what Giant Germ is quite good at.
Or it's because Giant Germ's name in the OCG is Giant Virus.
The reveal that the individual Knights of Hanoi don't use the same deck certainly helps explain why they are a problem: as changing deck types are mentioned in VRAINS and Baira herself mentioned she could figure out how to counter Blue Angel because her deck was 'too popular', the average LINK VRAINS Duelist can't simply shift their decks to counter a uniform play style. In a previous series, if duelists were having issues with mooks like Sector Security or the Obelisk Force, they could take note and play cards meant to counter their play style (for example playing anti-Machine cards to counter the Obelisk Force's Ancient Gears). Here there is no uniform answer, even if, as the above fridge of Yusaku vs Cracking Dragon noted, they can see how to defeat individual Hanoi members.
That being said, there was an incident that an army of AI Duelists were able to defeat a large chunk of Hanoi members, until Baira and Faust took out the remaining AI Duelists. In addition, Revolver has noted that many recent recruits for the Knight of Hanoi were often common thugs. Thus while they may play different decks, the mindset of the low level members can't be too different from one another.
Faust using an insect type deck to seal off Playmaker's Link Summoning is reminiscent of computer bugs that can crash computer program(s), which Playmaker's Cyberse deck comprises of.
Kitamura's incompetence is put into a hilarious and telling light when he faced off against Spectre when his offer of alliance was declined. Spectre uses a stall deck based on replenishing his life points after attacks and effect damage. So Kitamura managed to lose that quickly.....to a stall deck.
Compared to the other duelists in the VRAINS series, Yusaku uses a lot fewer duplicates of his cards in his deck, with only Bitron running multiple copies. Given the statements about Cyberse being nearly extinct, Yusaku likely doesn't have enough of them to run multiple copies like GO, Blue Angel, and Revolver can, among everyone else including Naoki Shima. Meanwhile, while Ai and other Ignis are able to make new cards, and one can infer that Ai could thus make Yusaku more copies of Cyberse Gadget or Backup Secretary, Ai doesn't because Ai, as often noted, is quite lazy.
Revolver's use of Mirror Force makes a lot more sense when you recall that with Link Monsters being so commonly used, it would be particularly effective against them since they can't exist in Defense Position at all, and are always vulnerable to it.
Speed Duels in the New LINK VRAINS are specifically designed not to be as dangerous as before with many safety measures in case a duelist gets knocked off and the data storm itself is a lot more steady with more freedom. SOL Technologies definitely wants to popularize Speed Duels to sell more product and obviously couldn't due to the dangers of the sport. With the three month down time, this allowed them to implement these safety features to help improve these previous issues.
It's also possible that New LINK VRAINS encourages Speed Dueling and buying D-Boards, because in the New LINK VRAINS there are many floating islands instead of a city like in the old LINK VRAINS and one of the ways to get to the other islands is by flying there on a D-Board without needing to worry about the earlier dangers.
With the reveal of Shootingcode Talker, there now exists a way to Extra Link using the Code Talkers (Starting from Encode to Transcode to Powercode, then Excode, then Shootingcode to fill the second Extra Zone). The only one that doesn't fit into this set up: Decode Talker, the Dark Code Talker. And the Dark Ignis, as well as the human whose mind was used to make him (Yusaku), are not particularly group players.
Decode Talker also only has effects that benefit itself and require sacrificing your other monsters; it's the most selfish of the 6. The second most selfish? Powercode Talker, which also has a diagonal arrow, and an effect that requires sacrificing your own monsters, but it also has side arrows (so you can co-link with it, in the right configuration) and an effect that benefits everything. It's also the FIRE Code Talker, which is why Soulburner gets along with Playmaker as much as he does.
The summoning conditions for Decode and Powercode Talkers do not discriminate the monster types required to summon them, reflecting on Ai and Flame's desire for coexistence while Encode and Excode Talker require Cyberse monsters to summon them, showing how Lightning and Windy believe in Ignis supremacy.
Yusaku's using Ritual Summoning in the aftermath of the Season 1 final could possibly be as a result of being Extra Linked and wanting a different way of summoning strong monsters should he be Extra Linked again.
Related to the above point, Yusaku's point about 'not recognizing Bowman's Cyberse monsters' suggests that he is familiar with most if not all the Cyberse. It suggests that Yusaku had Cyberse Magician and Cynet Ritual before they appeared. It's possible Yusaku has a large pool of Cyberse Monsters and Cyberse support cards in reserve and uses them to alter his deck as needed. His increased amount of LP manipulating cards were likely added into his deck in larger amounts following gaining Storm Access, while it is possible the lack of such cards in his first Season 2 duel could be due to not having Ai and thus Storm Access (and not having time to switch his deck with those cards), and that in later duels he'll reincorporate them now that Ai is back.
Note that the second duel Yusaku did in fact have a card that lowered his LP.
Also the background of Ritual Monsters are blue, the same color as the background of Link Monster, though Link monsters have the Hexagonal design on the background along with the blue.
With the reveal of his fusion support cards give another reason why Yusaku might not have used said method in the first season: he only got a search monster for Cynet Fusion because of Storm Access. Without it being searchable it would risk being a dead draw he couldn't bring to his hand with a combo. Season 2 likely warranted a deck renovation that had him decide to make use of it despite the risk.
Monster Reincarnation being in Soulburner's deck is a reference to his 'Reincarnation Link Summons'. In addition, the card works well with Salamangreat Meer's effect, as being returned to the hand would trigger the card and special summon itself. With the reveal of Salamagreat Pyro Phoenix, we get to see what Soulburner was probably aiming to summon with that combo.
Ai tends to refer to monsters as being more alive, referring to them as 'scary', 'friend of the scary dragon', 'mommy', etc. A mere comedy trope, or a reference to how Cyberse world is filled with living, breathing Cyberse monsters like Linkuriboh. While it isn't entirely clear if the Cyberse monsters there are duel spirits or artificial lifeforms, Ai is used to them being just as alive as him.
Go's personality shift in the second season is a pretty stark contrast with how outgoing and charitable in the first season, and after having lost several times while having, in his own view, a secondary spotlight to Playmaker, his reasons also seem fairly petty. However, given that he's based on a wrestler, it could be seen as him being unsatisfied with the idea that he's become a jobber, being sidelined and used to promote a newcomer.
His new persona of a bounty hunter also brings to mind a certain wrestling group that also had three people.
Ghost Girl isn't terrified of Blood Shepherd because of how ruthless he is, but because he used her true name to call her, and not only that, but also seemed fairly close. Meaning that they probably know each other, but she doesn't have any idea on who he is. Considering how important secrecy and trust are in her field, her reaction is understandable. Akira, however, is a public figure who doesn't try to conceal his virtual avatar, doesn't have the same issue, and that's why he's not as scared of him.
Playmaker and Soulburner’s usage of Ritual Summoning and not any other kind of summoning method makes sense considering that their decks focus on swarming the field with Link Monsters, and having Fusion, Synchro, etc would limit their options somewhat by reducing the number of Link Monsters in their Extra Decks. Ritual Monsters on the other hand is in the Main Deck, allowing for another way to summon powerful monsters in case they find themselves in a situation where they can’t Link Summon.
The question of if the extra deck limit applies to the anime game is one that has never been answered, but Ritual Summoning also has the benefit of using cards in the hand (or graveyard in Soulburner's case) instead of the field. The summoning also doesn't interfere with the extra deck zone or link arrows that their decks revolve around.
Usually, around the Season 2 arcs or around that time is when all of the counters to that series' summoning type or an alternative version of the summoning type occurs. One can say that Playmaker was Genre Savvy enough to include alternative summoning methods to go around these problems he might start seeing.
A point to Kogami's fears about the Ignis: their monster type, the Cyberse, was shown capable of not only mastering three additional summoning methods in Fusion, Ritual, and Synchro, but also create cards for them that support them fairly integrally (With Cyberse Witch, Clock Spartoi, Clock Lizard, and Wicckid). As card games are how everything is settled in the Yu-Gi-Oh series, something that can create that is dangerous.
Also notably Cyberse monsters tend to resemble previous types of monsters, with Cyberse monsters resembling and acting like Warrior, Dragon, Fairy, Spellcaster, Machine, Insect, Rock, Winged Beast, Zombie, Beast, Fish, and Fiend type monsters: basically they were already replacing things even before some of them decided to replace humanity. Given, again, how much card games affect everything it would be enough to make one wonder...
It is commonly said that Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonists win by pulling aces out of nowhere. Yusaku's skill takes that literally and had him quite literally create the winning card at a moment's notice.
Why didn't Aoi change her deck like Go did in Season 2. It's because Aoi wants to grow herself as a person and her Trickstar deck changing will be a showcase of her change without throwing away her current self. Go on the other hand threw away his life and reputation as an entertainer in order to go forward and also threw away his Gouki deck, because that was the deck he used as an entertainer.
Aoi added Fusion summoning capabilities to her deck, allowing her to improve her burn strategy and also apply more offensive pressure. These steps would have helped in the battle with Spectre. Meanwhile Go's deck changed up as a response to the issues his duel with Revolver had him face, including an ace monster that cannot trigger Mirror Force and more options with defense than the Gouki's possessed.
By the time Aoi does change up her deck's theme, it ultimately reflects her bond with Aqua going with her Marincess cards rather than her own Trickstars. It should also be noted that her Marincess monsters more resemble magical girls, the role she now takes upon herself. Go, on the other hand, had Earth forcefully implanted into his deck using his monsters and the AI as tools for his fight against Playmaker.
It makes sense that Phoenix Gearfried is Takeru's Ace Monster in his old deck, beside the obvious fire-theme and that the phoenix represents rebirth which the backstory shows as Takeru's rebirth into Soulburner. It also is a Gemini Monster. Gemini Monsters are Monsters that need to be Gemini Summoned note Gemini Summon is basically a Normal Summon when they are face-up on the field in order to use their effects which is similar to his Reincarnation Link Summon and can be seen as a precursor of it.
Despair from the Dark is a Zombie type monster primarily used in the GX era previously. That is to say, it's a ghost from the past in more than just the character sense for Soulburner.
Data Storms being able to always create a 'card of win everything' for the user can be looked at as part of the programming. The Data Storms originate from Cyberse World Data, where the Ignis created the Cyberse monsters. The program that accesses the 'Storm Access' Skill applies that same creation format specifically for a card that can win in the scenario presented to it. Monsters that physically appear in the storm are given effects, while non-seen monsters maybe created more full-cloth.
Blue Angel's victory over Baira has more symbolism than Blue Angel beating the one that was responsible for her coma. Trickstar Bella Madonna's Flower Motif is the belladonna, which it shared with Dark Angel. Blue Angel succeeded with the same flower that caused her problem in the first place, and belladonna flowers can be used for poison, or medical purposes, as she did so against a Deadly Doctor.
Despite the Code Talkers being important ace monsters to Playmaker in Season 1, he abstains from using them aside from Shootingcode Talker in Season 2 in favor of other summoning methods. If the Code Talkers represent the Ignis, this would foreshadow his conflict with them later on, as they shared a common enemy in Season 1: The Knights of Hanoi.
Another reason for at least the lack of use of Shootingcode, and the absence of Powercode, Excode, and Transcode in the season is Bohman himself: the first layer of Bohman's strategies involve attacking directly when his opponent has a matching type on hand. Without Ai having given Yusaku Linkuriboh, he'd have lost to that combo due to his use of a Wind-attribute monster in Elphase. In the later duels Yusaku had with Bohman he very rarely left non Wind/Fire/Water/Earth attribute monsters on the field whenever possible (the one time he did with Update Jammer he had Linkuriboh on the field as well, allowing him a counter), making four of the Code Talkers actually dangerous to use against Bohman, and reflexively this has been in play with his other duels. It's possible he might have even taken them out of his deck to prevent Bohman using a card effect to forcefully special summon one of those attributed monsters out (while keeping weaker monsters of those types, like Link Devotee and Flame Administrator, because he has more options to link chain out of them than he does with the higher link Code Talkers.)
Hydradrive is a perfectly fitting deck for Bohman. First off in computing terms, "drive" is used to refer to devices able to store data, or more specifically, the mechanism in those devices that allows for reading and writing said data. Bohman's basically had his drive wiped and new data uploaded each time he appears. The Hydra part of it refers to his intended purpose housing all of the Ignis within himself like a beast with multiple heads.
The "hydra" part could also refer to the part of the hydra myth that if you cut off one head another grows to replace it, just like how Bohman keeps coming back after being defeated. Each body is like the Hydra's heads but the code behind him is the body (his backup from which he can be rebooted).
The effects also are based off of knowing what attribute your opponent's monsters have, and notably, there are non that affect LIGHT or DARK monsters. the two Ignis that have been seen dueling so far, as well as the partner to the FIRE Ignis, all have a single attribute deck, while the partner for the DARK Ignis uses many different attributes.
For as very different as the two are, Spectre and Earth actually are fairly similar. Both of them are primarily characterized by their devotion/affection/desire to protect a single thing. For Spectre, it's his tree. For Earth it's Aqua. The difference between them primarily comes from the fact that Spectre lost that center pole and very much went off the deep end as a result, while Earth was successful up until the end. Even their decks are similar - they're both focused around protecting a card that reminds them of that thing they care about, which gives increasing power to their other monsters as the duel goes.
While it's weird that Blood Shepherd didn't try to deceive Ghost Girl or Revolver with his AI. It makes sense when you consider how much they know about him since he worked with Ghost Girl and are siblings while Revolver found a lot of information about him. This causes Blood Shepherd to know he can't deceive them with his AI and as a professional he decided not to bother using something that doesn't even work.
He also used AI's deception to punish the trust in them. Not only neither Ghost Girl nor Revolver have sentient AI companions, unlike Playmaker and Soulburner, but Revolver is specifically out to fight A.I.s, so even without the extensive research would be just useless extra work trying to punish a flaw they don't have.
By the time he fights Blood Shepherd, Ryoken/Revolver has made a name for himself by using Duel Monsters era traps to defeat his opponents. This fits both in real life and in universe as while new cards continuously come out, many old but powerful cards are overlooked. They also address popular metagame issues similar to how many used the relatively mediocre Anti-Spell Fragrance Trap Card to counter Pendulum Monstersnote Anti-Spell Fragrance forces players to set Spell Cards before they can use it. Pendulum Monsters are considered Spell Cards when used in the Pendulum Zone and because the Pendulum Scale must be established face-up, Pendulum Monsters cannot be used in the Pendulum Zone and thus the player cannot use Pendulum Summoning. In Ryoken's case, he uses Mirror Force to directly counter the currently popular Link Monsters, Magic Cylinder in case someone manages to overpower his strong monsters, and Imperial Order to counter the Ignis' Link Spells.
In addition, going with the themes of hackers and computers, Ryoken using these kinds of trap cards is like Playmaker using his older duel disk, utilizing old tech to get around new tech. In this case, using simple but strong card versus more recent cards that can be powerful but situational.
How come only Ai knows about Neo Storm Access while even Windy, the WIND Ignis, can't use it. It's because the skill represents Ai being able to find what's is hidden in the darkness of the data storm.
It could even be tied to the point Revolver brings up about the Ignis lacking imagination. The Ignis are continuously surprised by the use of non-Link summoning methods, as if the idea of using them never occurred to them (even as it is clear they know what Ritual/Fusion/Synchro summoning is). Ai meanwhile isn't surprised by them at all, perhaps all of his interaction with Yusaku gave him imagination.
Maybe Ai had imagination all along? There must have been some reason why Lightning chose to base Bohman of Ai and Playmaker instead of any other Ignis. And from the way Ai phrased his explanations of the skill and hid parts of the skill. It's quite likely that Ai either created or modified Neo Storm Access from Windy's original ability and did it behind everyone's back with the full intent of using it as a weapon against Lightning.
Due to the lower number of characters in this series compared to previous ones, bar Cyberse there is only a single major character with a monster type. Each of them fits fairly well with their character.
Blue Angel uses Fairies, which compliment her magical girl theme and air of a little sister heroine. She notably gets upgrades in her appearance over time, much like different magical girl transformations. Magical girls also tend to be less destructive than most protagonists, bar Nanoha's friendship beams, and her deck is self-admitted to not be particularly strong in raw attack power.
Ghost Girl uses Spellcasters, which are a more mysterious theme than magical girls and reflect her more ambiguous actions at several points. Compared to Blue Angel, they also play a bit more to her being more akin to a Hot Witch than a magical girl (not that her monsters are attractive, but she certainly is.) There may also be a bit of a play on the Squishy Wizard trope, as she's normally taken out in a few turns but always shows a fair amount of power and technique in those few turns.
Akira uses Fiend monsters, and he himself works for an antagonistic faction. However he's also a noble demon among them, as he's not as heartless or nuts as the rest of his coworkers all seem to be.
Two of Akira's main cards are Tindangle Angel and Tindangle Hound, which have the power to protect each other. This is symbolic of his relationship with his sister in more than one way. The names reference their respective roles, Angel being Aoi's role as Blue Angel and Hound being a reference to how Akira serves a master and has little freedom to do as he pleases initially, essentially making him SOL's lapdog. It also references how Akira tries to keep Aoi safe from danger, while Aoi tries to protect her brother a few times.
Genome of the Knights of Hanoi also uses Fiend-type monsters with an animal theme, referencing scientific use of lab animals and how that is considered amoral by many. Note that Genome is probably the most outwardly wicked of the three Hanoi knights.
Go uses Warriors, which fits his more combative focus and theme. They also always replenish themselves when destroyed, fitting his theme of dramatic comebacks and stage performances.
His later changes to Dinosaurs is him retaining his combat focus, but dropping his theatrics. They also, as they are featherless, foreshadowing he himself becoming 'a man made monster' akin to the Jurassic Park dinosaurs as described by Alan Grant in Jurassic Park III.
Naoki uses Beasts, fitting the potential power of his deck let down by his own lack of intelligence. He also focuses on using monkeys, fitting his Butt-Monkey status.
Revolver uses Dragons, a raw and destructive archetype befitting his rival status as well as a danger to all around him. The fact that Dragons can also be beneficial hints at how his goal has a point. Notably he's also The Dragon to his own father.
Faust uses insects, which are also used in science but less controversially than test animals. He also mainly uses tokens, representing how quickly insects reproduce and how they are generally seen as lesser than animals. Fittingly, he's the most anti-villain among his knight colleagues.
Baira uses Zombie monsters, which in science represent dead bodies uses in scientific experimentation. She also created a virus that puts people's bodies into a state between life and death, much like a shambling zombie.
Spectre uses Plant-type monsters, which focus on an entire ecosystem of monsters focused on a single center plant, connecting them all with roots and branches. His deck still works fine if you cut a branch or root, but kill the tree and all comes crashing down.
Blood Shepherd uses Machines, which focus on his robotic focus and his own status as a cyborg (due to his replacement arm). He also is ruthless like a machine.
Yusaku not using only a single Archetype could also reflect how, at least initially, he doesn't really get along with anyone, nor does he intend to. After a few duels with Ai as his partner, he slowly opens up more and more, and his deck starts to be built more around Code Talkers, although he still doesn't really use any Archetype as such (neither Yugi nor Yusei used archetypes either, and coincidentally, their respective shows also start out darker than the ones where the protagonist uses Archetypes).
Similar to how Pendulum Monsters in Arc-V, Link Monsters are supplement other summoning methods, especially the use of different summons in season 2
Spectre stated that his "mother" (Sunavalon) will always protect him from harm. So it makes sense that Sunavalon only started to be destroyed the moment he used her to attack instead of defense.
It is often a question where the protagonists get their support cards for the ace monsters they get by special circumstances, like Yuma's Number or Hope support cards he isn't shown shining drawing. The only protagonist before Vrains to have a reasonable explanation is Yuya, whose major ally was the card producing Leo Corporation on top of his protagonist 'create cards on the fly' powers. Yusaku's Code Talker and Firewall support cards, however, do have a source he could have been tapping since early in the season: Ai. The Ignis can create archetypes, meaning that Ai likely created cards like Recoded Alive and Firewall Guardian for Yusaku's use.
Note that both Talkback Lancer and Firewall Guardian are DARK attribute, which is either Ai's specialty or the only one he can make. This also applies to the cards that help out most of his non-link boss monsters: Cyberse Clock Dragon and Clock Lizard are dark as well, as are Cyberse Wickkid and Cyberse Synchron.
Also note Soulburner's confusion at what an Xyz monster is when Playmaker used it, and then declares 'his new stage' and Xyz summons against Windy. Flame likely created the card for him after the duel.
Bohman had more reasons than just 'seeing the possibility' to not use Rousing's effect immediately. While he got the right roll the first time, it would still be a gamble to try and get light attribute to get the Cynet tokens. By waiting he ended up with two possible attributes to land on to disrupt Playmaker: Dark and Light. Cyberse Wicckid got in the way regardless, but it was the right call to make.
Why did Lightning see Spectre as the weakest? His deck is a stall deck, which has problems if it cannot set up. Lightning taking the first turn alone proves the problems that can come up compared to the duels Specter had with Blue Angel and Playmaker. Spectre's a good duelist for being able to be offensive in stall, but he's still using a less optimal deck compared to the others. Also unlike them Spectre's deck has evolved the least, because while his mass Link Summoning is impressive, it still falls short in terms of power when compared to the other Extra Deck Summoning methods which the other characters use.
Despite Spectre claiming that his and Lightning's deck are similar, the duel proves it to be untrue, since Lightning shows how well his engine can work even without his ace card while Spectre's deck immediately collapses after losing it. Fittingly, his deck revolving around one specific card enabling his other monsters' effects and breaking when it gets destroyed makes him similar to Earth in playing style. However, despite having the same structure the two decks are otherwise the opposite: Earth has an aggressive deck, his core card is a gift, represents his connection to someone else and the other monsters are dedicated to protect it, while Spectre has a stall deck, his core card is unique and represents his isolation, and it's the one working to protect the other monster; just like Earth and Spectre are different despite the latter being the former's Origin.
It's quite noticeable that Yusaku always uses Linkuriboh against Bohman and that Linkuriboh will always be used to foil Bohman's attempts at victory. Considering Ai's close personal connection to it and that Linkuriboh also wants vengeance against Bohman for the destruction of its home. It could be said that Yusaku knowingly uses Linkuriboh for those exact reasons since it also has the right to execute revenge just like he did.
Unlike the previous series, there have been no Tournament Arc in Vrains as : Yusaku has no reason to enter one. He doesn't need to for his memories, his family, or his school, he doesn't have a team, neither S.O.L, the Ignis, or the Knights of Hanoi are trying to get people together for their own benefit, no ones scouting him, and he doesn't have to go fight Jack Atlas for some reason.
Why would Aoi be willing to change her deck up as Blue Maiden, let alone to a type that everyone knew would be at an disadvantage against Bohman? Because her Trickstar deck was already well known: Bohman and co could easily study up on it and plan around it. She was going to have that problem no matter what she did, and she decided that unfamiliarity was a more powerful weapon than type advantage.
While not shown to be obtained from Storm Access, Extended Decode Talker is summoned with a similar effect and has a similar name to a card gained by Storm Access. It's possible Yusaku at some point specifically grinded for Storm Access cards to increase his deck's effectiveness, though other than Extended Decode Talker is is not clear which of his cards he obtained by doing this.
Accesscode Talker?
This is also possibly the source of Bohman's Cubic Lord from his duel with Blue Maiden, who was summoned in a similar manner.
Lightning preventing Windy from having a rematch against Revolver makes sense when you think about it in light of his goal. After all, if Windy were to lose to Revolver, the latter would not hesitate to erase him on the spot which would be bad news for Lightning since his plan is to unite all of the Ignis as one through Bohman.
Several of the Code Talker monsters play similarly to their Ignis's dueling styles. Of the Ignis who have dueled personally:
Excode Talker focuses on disrupting what the opponent is able to play via blocking destruction and monster zones. Windy uses a deck with disruption and control tactics.
Encode Talker uses its effect to protect monsters linked to itself and negate damage, which Lightning manages with his Armatos Legio monsters.
Transcode Talker revives Link Monsters to its link to power them up and give them some protection, the same strategy Earth uses Crystal Heart for.
Decode Talker has the most selfish effect of all 6, with its effect sacrificing other monster as fodder to power itself up. Ai's new @Ignister deck features main deck monsters who are only good as fodders for multiple Extra Deck summoning.
The order where they show the Ignis' potential futures with humans is in the order on how their interactions with humans went. Ai is first, because he was the one who interacted with humanity and his Origin first, Flame is second because he met his Origin after Ai, Aqua is third because of her partnership with Blue Maiden, Earth is fourth because he was still undecided in his stance against humanity, Windy is fifth because he injured/killed his Origin as a result of Lightning's corruption and Lightning is last because he's the only Ignis who truly hates humanity and is unable to form positive relations with them.
It actually makes sense that Lightning was the one who put Dr. Kogami in a coma, because no one at SOL Technologies is skilled enough to create a virus that even Revolver or any member of the Knights of Hanoi is able to solve which is shown when Blood Shepherd/Kengo Dojun is their most skilled hacker who they in turn hired.
Ai and Roboppi's human forms have been noted to look pretty similar to Bohman and Haru. This makes sense when you remember Ai's status as Brilliant, but Lazy; instead of making brand new bodies, he might've just reused Bohman and Haru's avatars and edited them.
Queen's first appearance in person and not as a giant chess piece is her lounging around in a bikini. Her deck type is the seductive Allure Queen.
The effects absorbing the Ignis has on Bohman's deck.
During his duel with Soulburner, Bohman suddenly starts using a few trap cards from the hand. The last Ignis he absorbed at the time was Aqua, along with Blue Maiden. Blue Maiden's deck uses multiple handtraps.
Him summoning Perfectron Hydradrive Dragon involves using his single Link-5 Chimera Hydradrive Dragrid to do so. The last Ignis Bohman had absorbed was Flame, along with Soulburner. Perfectron's summoning is extremely similar to Soulburner's signature Reincarnation Link Summon.
Pandor uses the Topologic monsters Revolver gained is very fitting: Revolver declared using them against Playmaker as 'fighting poison with poison', and Pandor is a A.I used to fight other A.I's, aka a poison fighting poison.
The bee theme her cards have may also refer to her status as a 'domesticated' A.I, while Ai is a comparative wild bee.
Pandor is noted to give Ai several chances to give back half of SOL's key data and end their duel. When Ai questions Pandor's motive as an Ignis hunter, she replies that she lacks the protocol to terminate him if he gave back the Key Data as it would prove that humans and AI can coexist. While this may seem like a design flaw, it may be intentional on Revolver's part in order to test Ai, as he may actually have some hope that Ai can peacefully coexist with humanity. The aftermath of the Ai vs Zaizen siblings seem to punctuate this when Revolver declares that he will no longer hesitate to terminate Ai.
Ai's Kick the Dog moment towards Aoi in episode 111 seems randomly cruel, even for him post-Face–Heel Turn. However, looking at the triva tab for her duel with Bohman, it's noted she made two misplays at the end of the duel that prevented her from continuing. note Not summoning back Crystal Heart (Meaning Tesseract couldn't attack again) or sending Crystal Heart to the graveyard while summoning Crowntail in defense mode could've kept her in the duel. It's possible that Ai blames her for Aqua's death, at least on some level, which explains the Cruel Mercy treatment he gave her.
Then again, Ai probably has a lot of sympathy for Aoi knowing how much she's had to go through in the duration of the series. But considering his actions in hindsight and the fact that he had to take out Akira for his plan to work, he probably invoked the trope on purpose to play up his role as the bad guy.
A bit of a pattern between the @Ignister Extra Deck and Ritual monsters, and their opponents:
Ai always used Dark Templar @Ignister in all his duels, kind of like Playmaker used to play Decode Talker fairly often.
Againist Queen, the one who was supposed to be the Big Bad of this season, he used Light Dragon @Ignister and Wind Pegasus @Ignister. Lightning and Windy were the Big Bads of the previous season
The next is Fire Phoenix @Ignister when he used his copies to fight at the same time Playmaker, Revolver, and (most notably) Soulburner, Flame's partner
Then it was the turn of Earth Golem @Ignister against Go Onizuka, the same person that in the previous season had a chip with Earth's data planted in the brain
Lastly it's the turn of Water Dragon @Ignister, used to win against Akira and Blue Maiden, Aqua's partner during the last season
Appropriately, the @Ignisters also follow the order of the Code Talkers in terms of debut. First is the DARK member (Decode/Dark Templar), followed by the LIGHT and WIND members (Encode and Excode/Light Dragon and Wind Pegasus). The next one to show up is the FIRE monster (Powercode/Fire Phoenix). Then, EARTH (Transcode/Earth Golem) and after that, WATER. (Shootingcode/Water Leviathan) The only difference is that Wind Pegasus appeared before Light Dragon, but in the same duel.
Roboppi's inability to handle Ai's upgrade is actually foreshadowed in the main type of their deck. Proper artificial intelligences, such as the Ignis and Pandor, use Cyberse-type decks. Roboppi, however, uses a Machine-type deck, reflecting how they're less advanced then true AI and thus aren't able to handle the program that gives them sentience.
Why did Yusaku join Yusei in the 'never turned evil' club? Fairly simple reason really: beyond the fact that there wasn't any magic or mystical elements around to corrupt him, such cases always involved the partner of a protagonist or otherwise another element to their being/soul/etc. Yami Yugi used the Seal of Orichalcos, Yubel helped set up the events of the Supreme King, Astral instigated Dark Zexal, and it was Zarc who caused berserk modes. Ai couldn't possess Yusaku in a similar manner, and when Ai moved into the role of antagonist in season 3 he left and got his own body instead of wearing Yusaku's or something.
Yusaku doesn't start doing the traditional Yugioh summoning chants until Season 2. Makes sense, as in Season 1 he was too focused on Revenge to bother coming up with any.
He also does 'a lot' of Link Summons, and doesn't have all day. He only rarely summons Ritual, Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz monsters, though, so he can put in the time to do it for them.
The Ignises reflect the qualities the lost incident kids didn't find in themselves and projects their wishes and hopes.
Takeru had a fight with his parents and lost his temper before he ran away, not thinking things through which led to him getting kidnapped.
Flame is very collected, calm and thinks things through.
Miyu lied to her mother about her wedding ring and thus her friendship to Aoi ended, which she regrets and wants to apologize for, looking forward to meeting her again.
Aqua can tell truths and lies apart, thus no betrayals come up in the cyberse world.
Jin looks up to his big brother and probably idolizes him a little bit, wanting to be like him.
Lightning is very intelligent, a natural leader and wants power/to be strong.
Spectre can't connect to other people and is feeling abandoned like an outsider. He was found under a tree when he was a baby. The difference between him and the other victims is, that he enjoyed his stay because he felt like he was part of something bigger. He connects with nature instead to feel protected.
Earth is neutral and devoted to nature as well, also socially awkward and wants to protect others, making him the connection to somebody Spectre could've related to and always wanted if they ever met.
He also finds this type of connection and purpose in the Knights of Hanoi and Revolver to some degree, but definitely shows interest in his Ignis.
Yusaku doesn't seem to have anybody who cared for him, as he never mentions anybody from his past and doesn't seem to have family either. He became extremely coldhearted after the incident, never showing his feelings. This is also reflected when Ryoken becomes his voice of hope and special person, so it's strongly implied that Yusaku never had anybody in his life other than that. Yusaku wanted nothing more than to be loved.
Ai is very open, clingy and giving. He is depicted as somebody who wants to give and receive a lot, being both the most selfless and selfish person at once, lying casually but being truly soft and tender at heart just with good intentions in mind. He is extremely devoted to other people and truly loves people. As seen in the final, his name is described as "to love people". With Ai admitting he loved Yusaku.
Ai is the personification of what it means to love people.
Appropriately, The Arrival Cyberse @Ignister has five link arrows pointing backwards... and one going forward. More importantly, it shares the same Link Rating as all 6 Code Talkers that are based on their Ignis.
During the final battle of the final duel in the series, we see Ai's @Ignister Dark Templar- the monster that represents himself in his own deck, battle Yusaku's Decode Talker- the monster that represents Ai in Yusaku's deck. This means that both figuratively and literally, the battle ended with Ai killing himself.
The last time the franchise spent a significant time in cyberspace was the Virtual World arc of the original Yu-Gi-Oh. There, in addition to regular cards, everyone also had a Deckmaster Ability, a special power that works with their deck. It seems Skills are a more refined version.
Yusaku uses exactly 15 extra deck cards in his duel with Ai: Decode Talker, Transcode Talker, Clock Spartoi, and Firewall Dragon Darkfluid being the Link Monsters of choice that had been created by Ai and Yusaku via Storm Access. Those four cards holding specific meanings to Yusaku and Ai's friendship.
Decode Talker: Their first card created together.
Transcode Talker: The card created by Ai 'atoning' for deceptions and the first time Ai came back to Yusaku after vanishing.
Clock Spartoi: The card used to defeat The Shepherd who believed that Ai were dangerous and needed to be controlled.
Darkfluid: A combination of the powers of Ai's friends and Yusaku's own monster that reminds Ai he still has one friend.
Fridge Horror
When Ai disconnected the Cyberse from the rest of the network, what happened to the other AIs that were trapped?
We get the answer later, and they are all fine. Unfortunately including the ones who are the villains of Season 2.
Yusaku no longer enjoys Dueling and mostly uses it as a weapon to fight the Knights of Hanoi. He's exactly the kind of person who needs the help of the previous protagonist, Yuya, the most and yet, will never meet him outside of non-canon specials.
Luckily his duel against GO shows that Yusaku is capable of enjoying dueling, but it's clear he's not going to stop using it as a weapon against the Knights of Hanoi.
He also gets better about his revenge issues, even if it isn't quite clear if he finds dueling to be fun yet.
After Aoi's brainwashing in Episode 7, one must wonder if any of the other Knights Of Hanoi joined that way.
If Yusaku didn't know that Aoi is Blue Angel, how long would she have been unconscious on the rooftop with no medical care?
We aren't told exactly who Yusaku's opponent were and it's assumed to be A.I.s. But what if the six abducted children were made to duel each other, starving the losers?
Who knows how long the Hanoi Project would have lasted if it had never been reported.
Dr. Kogami wasn't arrested, he was kidnapped by SOL Technologies, despite the police rescuing the children and putting them under witness protection. It means that SOL technologies has enough power and influence to work behind the police's back and pay them into looking the other way. It also means it's a good thing that Kogami's experiment was a rogue experiment, or the experiment would likely have never been stopped.
The Ignis are all revealed to have been made from the mental data of the Lost Incident duelists. That means one of the Ignis are based on Specter.
It's possible that because this was pre 'dead mommy tree' Specter, the Ignis might not have been made at peak crazy.
Also, the Ignis seem to be the opposite of how the people they were based on turned out: Ai was the slacker of the six, not developing much his part of Cyberse World, but also cares a lot about company (sacrificing himself for the other Ignis and treasuring his relationship with Yusaku), while Playmaker is a loner, but was the most proactive of the victims, being the one to hunt down the Knights of Aoi; and in the same way Flame has an ever bigger ego than Ai and looks down on others, while Soulburner looks up to numerous dueling. Not to mention that the Ignis seem to be really bad at dueling, while both Playmaker and Soulburner are both so far undefeated. If that's the pattern, Spectre's might being the sanest of the Ignis as shown with Earth who in turn is socially awkward, but very sane and intellectual.
Jin was attacked, because he is a victim of the Lost Incident. It was stated that the identities of the victims were strictly secure and coded, but the enemy still knew that Jin is a victim of it and stole his consciousness. This means that the new enemy probably knows about the identities of the all the victims including Yusaku and Takeru. Yes, the new enemy does know about the identities of all the origins, as Windy caused his victim to enter a car crash while Lightning attacks Aqua's origin Miyu in the real world before Aqua can make contact with her and imprisoned his own origin, Jin.
Someone can plant false memories in people at will. There's no way to be sure whose are the real ones.
So Blood Shepherd took a peek at Soulburner’s memories to search for his weakness, and in doing so may have learned his real life identity and people related to him, such as his grandparents and Kiku. Even if Takeru and Flame prevented him from looking further, with Blood Shepherd’s hacking ability, he can easily look up Takeru’s profile and from there, find out Playmaker’s real life identity and hunt them down in the real world.
With the merging of LINK VRAINS and Mirror LINK VRAINS. It's highly possible that anyone could die when they lose a duel. This could lead to some tragic events such as two kids having a duel just for fun only for the loser to get erased much to the other's shock.
Will defeating Bohman enough to bring back the consciousness of the people he absorbed? And even if it is, they will still have to leave with the trauma. Not to mention how people will feel unsafe in link Vrains and untrusting of their safety measures after that. Lo and Behold, 104 revealed that Link VRAINS was shut down possibly for good after the Ignis Warfare incident, forcing SOL Technologies to find a new source of income in the form of SOLtis.
, it's noted she made two misplays at the end of the duel that prevented her from continuing. note It's possible that Ai blames her for Aqua's death, at least on some level, which explains the Cruel Mercy treatment he gave her.