Roleplay / Nothing Is Sacred

Nothing Is Sacred is a quest written by Arkanian set in the Duel Monsters era of Yu-Gi-Oh!. The quest focuses on Stella Atlas, a teenage girl who, during a friendly duel at an archaeological dig, accidentally awakened a powerful ancient force: the Sacred Beasts. With their great strength weakened by their slumber, Stella is tasked by the Monarchs with the quest to be Hamon's Chosen and assist in its rise to power so that her wish may be granted.

Nothing Is Sacred provides examples of:

A-M

• The Ace: This is what Saffira, Queen of Dragons, effectively becomes once she is acquired. Saffira's attack and defense are among the highest in Stella's deck, her effect has a wide variety of different abilities that give her unmatched utility, and her ritual spell gives her one-time protection against either card or battle-based destruction. Stella will almost always summon Saffira as soon as she can over any other ritual monster as both her short and long-term benefits are simply too good to pass up.
• Adaptational Intelligence: A minor case but professional duelists tend to not immediately dismiss low-level monsters or ones they don't know as weak or harmless. Rex immediately sees Saffira's value when he learns that she lets Stella draw two cards and Bandit Keith treats Stella more seriously after learning that she uses Mystic Tomatoes to thin her deck and he himself does the same.
• All for Nothing: The match against Pete Coppermine lasted so long that the majority of voters decided to commit all their resources to attacking in an effort to finally bring the duel to a close. This led to Stella's second defeat in the quest with the author stating that the duel would have ended in the same update regardless of whether Stella played things aggressively or not.
• Always Someone Better:
  • After following up on a lead given by the Archfiend Emperor, Stella is forced to participate in a duel in order to infiltrate Doma. Once the duel has begun, her opponent gleefully brags about how special he is, the number of people he's killed, and how close he is to fully mastering his card. Stella puts a quick and satisfying end to his gloating by effortlessly drawing and summoning the Seal of Orichalcos, showing complete mastery of the card her foe was still struggling with while shattering her opponent's field spell, entirely disrupting his playstyle, and triggering his Villainous Breakdown all in one move.
  • Since Mobius, Thestalos, and Zaborg were able to conduct a thorough search for the most powerful candidates possible before selecting a representative, each of their candidates is significantly more gifted in at least one area than the first set of Chosen.
    • Mobius' Chosen is such a powerful duelist that it is hypothesized that they could only be defeated if they were forced to face a minimum of four of the world's best duelists at once.
    • Zaborg's Chosen is so mystically gifted that the very idea of Stella besting them outside of a duel sends Nadia into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
    • Thestalos' Chosen isn't as powerful as either of the above Chosen in their area of expertise, but Pegasus' Millennium Eye and custom cards still make him an incredibly fearsome opponent in either field.
• Amplifier Artifact: In addition to giving Stella the ability to suppress her emotions her Shadow Charm also allows her more effectively channel her spiritual energies, making it easier for her to manifest her cards outside of combat.
• Animal Eye Spy: Camula, Zaborg's chosen, has a number of bats as her familiars and uses them to spy on Stella, examining her cards and strategies to better prepare herself for when they battle for Hamon.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Stella delivers a powerful one to Camula when they complain that they would have won had they had a complete picture of all the cards in Stella's deck.
  Stella: Are you really such a pathetic duelist that you can’t win if you don’t know every card in your opponent’s deck?
• Ascended Extra:
  • Abidos III who in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX was little more than a Villain of the Week, in the quest, he's awakened early by the Monarchs to be one of their champions, and becomes a major character as Stella's magic teacher with whom she shares a Friendly Rivalry. He also has his own character arc about truly becoming the great duelist his propaganda claimed him to be.
  • Camula has not only been made a member of the Chosen, she's specifically Zaborg's Chosen, which places her in direct opposition to Stella for ownership of Hamon.
• Bargain with Heaven: Stella has struck a bargain with the Monarchs, the rulers of the spirit world, to restore Hamon to his full power in exchange for a wish.
• The Beastmaster: Sanders makes use of a Beast-Warrior deck that seems to put focus on negating his opponent's attacks while increasing his own monsters' damage. Stella makes mention of the fact that she expected someone like him to make use of a soldier themed deck, but he refutes her, stating that what he desires in his monsters is ferocity.
• Birds of a Feather: Stella gets along surprisingly well with Rex Raptor of all people. Both are abrasive but ultimately decent kids who are rather unlucky and are both stuck with archetypes that are rather lacking in their era (Rituals and Dinosaurs respectively). Rex's desire to have Pegasus make more dinosaur cards actually has her have a moment of sympathy for him.
• Bond One-Liner: Stella gives a potent one after subjecting Zaborg's Chosen to a perfect OTK in their duel for Hamon.
  Stella: I am not a placeholder. I am not a weak little girl. I have a place in this world, Camula, and you will not take it from me.
• Bonus Stage: The initial idea behind attending the Duelist Kingdom tournament was that doing so would allow for Stella to accumulate a large amount of DP by facing various competitors in duels without having to actually risk her life. This idea gets debunked halfway through the tournament when Camula appears and challenges Stella for ownership of Hamon, which then leads to the reveal that Abidos' soul has been stolen by Thestalos Chosen candidate, which is later followed by Stella having to face Bandit Keith in a rematch while almost held at gunpoint.
  Stella: [Duelist Kingdom] is a good place to fight a lot of strong duelists who want to win, without… Without putting my life or soul on the line or whatever.
• Bonus Stage Collectibles: During the Duelist Kingdom tournament, two of the Legendary Planet cards are hidden in separate locations somewhere on the island. Unfortunately, Stella is unable to devote any time searching for them due to all of her efforts being devoted to discovering the identity and location of the duelist who stole Abidos' soul.
• Born Unlucky: Stella has generally poor luck when it comes to anything chance based, which somewhat extends to Duel Monsters. She almost never gets any good usable card from packs and she never wins the opening coin toss to go first. Her luck is so consistently terrible, that Imori was obsessed with Stella's supernaturally deficient luck. Yugi mentions that she puts too much focus on her fear of getting bad cards instead of focusing on what she wants. She heeds his advice and attains some fantastic cards, but she still had to expend some of her soul's energy in order to do so.
• Broken Bird: Stella is cynical about the state of the world, stoic in the face of almost any danger, and truly and deeply emotionally dysfunctional due to: her Dark and Troubled Past, a lack of any competent support network growing up, and the forced state of Emotion Suppression that she suffered through for the majority of her life.
• Broken Pedestal: Doriado used to greatly admire the Elemental Lords. Her faith in them was absolutely shattered, however, when said lords bent knee to the Monarchs, with Doriado stating that if they truly were embodiments of the elements, then they would have never kneeled to another regardless of their strength.
• Call to Adventure: What Sarina Kumar effectively gives Stella when they first meet, charging her with a duty to save both the Spirit World and the human world while promising a wish of her choice should she succeed.
• Cards of Power: All duel monster cards serve as a link to their counterpart in the spiritual world. After a bit of training, Stella gains the ability to manifest some of her cards outside of duels, with her Shadow Charm making such a task easier when used in conjunction with any card that depicts a physical object, such as Swords of Revealing Light or Pot of Greed.
• Cast from Experience Points: Battling powerful opponents is the only way for Stella to gain DP. She can use said DP to acquire powerful cards, materialize cards she already owns, or perform a Destiny Draw. Stella prefers to only use DP to acquire new cards since that usually provides her the most long-term benefit, but if something truly valuable is at stake, then she is perfectly willing to expend a large amount of her spiritual energy to decisively destroy her foe. Camula find this out the hard way.
• Challenge Seeker: Stella is this by necessity. Stella's spiritual energy doesn't recharge naturally and she has to expend said energy any time she purchases a card, manifests a card, or makes use of Destiny Draw. She can only regain spiritual energy by offering pain through the Sacred Offering of Wind, or by besting worthy opponents in a duel. She gets drastically less energy if she is defeated by a worthy duelist and attains no energy at all by defeating weak foes.
• Chekhov's Gun: Contract with the Abyss. Numerous characters remark on the strangeness of the card with most commenting on the fact that they've never heard of such a ritual or that they are intrigued by the strange energy it exudes. Stella herself tries to think about the card as little as possible, attempts to ignore its appearance when it's put into play, and desperately avoids looking at the name written on the corner of the card. It's later revealed that she attained the Contract through a deal with the Dark King of the Abyss. A deal she has no memory of and whose details remain a mystery to her.
• The Chooser of the One: Each of the Monarchs is able to choose their own candidate to awaken the power of one of the three Sacred Beasts. Stella and Banner received something of a bye as each of them were present when the cards were awakened, and Abidos was picked for his known connection to the Sacred Beasts, but the last three Chosen were picked after a great deal of time and preparation.
• Cold Ham: Stella lives by a constant need to be stoic and for emotional control, in spite of that her internal narration can be rather grandiose which tends to slip out in duels making her come off as rather dramatic in spite of her desire to be an Emotionless Girl.
• Cool Boat: Abidos is in possession of an enchanted ancient Egyptian vessel. His ship is capable of flight and he uses it to traverse the skies of the physical and spiritual worlds with Stella often hitching a ride.
• Combat Pragmatist: Camula is perfectly willing to play dirty in order to win; she posts a number of her familiars around the Offering Site so that they can trail her primary opponent, gathers as much information on said opponent as she can before confronting them, casts a sleeping spell on Sarina to prevent her from interfering, and, should she still lose in spite of all her preparation, she is perfectly willing to physically attack her opponent and overpower them after the duel.
• The Corruption: Just like in the original series, the Seal of Orichalcos is shown to have a malignant influence on its user's psyche, forcibly stoking the rage and the darker parts of the duelist's soul to make them more willing to do its bidding. The emotional suppression granted by Stella's Shadow Charm allows her to counter the Seal's negative influences, with Raiza mentioning that she may be the ideal candidate to infiltrate Doma.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Stella was the supplier of such in her duel against Mai Valentine. Her opponent was able to effortlessly defeat all other challengers and is implied to have begun to make use of Destiny Draw, but Stella utterly crushed them in a single update. She made use of Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy the only card they had that could have stopped Saffira which forced them to overcommit in an effort to destroy the Queen of Dragons, but that failed and then forced them to desperately stall in hopes of drawing something that could improve their situation. They did not, and their life points were quickly reduced to zero with the only damage Stella took in the entire match being from an unintentional misplay on the QM's part.
  • Camula thought she had full knowledge of every powerful card in Stella's deck and that her preparations to challenge Raiza's Chosen were entirely sufficient. Unfortunately for them, they didn't account for Stella's willingness to hold nothing back when Hamon itself is on the line as Stella immediately resorts to using her Destiny Draw to acquire the most powerful card in her deck, one that the last vampire has absolutely no knowledge of, before using it and Mystical Space Typhoon to clear her opponent's front and backrow, paving the way for Stella's flawless OTK.
• Cursed with Awesome: Stella's Ba is static and doesn't restore itself naturally, which greatly restricts the amount of magic she can perform as well as the number of cards she may purchase. Fortunately, her abnormal Ba can also be bolstered by dueling strong opponents, which is not the case for other duelists. Dueling against a large amount of powerful enemies in quick succession allows Stella to immensely increase the amount of spiritual energy in her possession at a rate well beyond what other duelists could hope to achieve.
• Cute Monster Girl: Nadia, one of Stella's duel spirits and the Archfiend Heiress.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Going to a card shop. Yes, really. Thanks to her Born Unlucky status, it is literally impossible for Stella to naturally attain good cards from your standard purchasable pack. The only way she can draw something worthwhile from a pack is if she literally expends part of her soul's energy to form a connection between the human and spirit world in search of what she desires. Unfortunately, this leaves a trail of mystical energy that can be traced directly back to Stella. Stella can draw some amazing cards by making use of this ability, such as Raigeki, Mirror Force, or Monster Reborn, but she also risks drawing the attention of some very unsavory individuals. The first time she unconciously made use of this ability to construct her deck before the start of the quest, she drew the attention of the Dark King of the Abyss.
• Dark and Troubled Past: While her past hasn't been explicitly shown, various hints throughout the quest imply that whatever happened served as Stella's Cynicism Catalyst. Whatever happened in her past, it made Imori interested in her and eventually cause Stella to quit the Occult Club because of his hounding.
• Deadpan Snarker: Winda. Aside from Stella herself, she constantly talks down to everyone she works with, though that’s not to say her complaints usually aren’t valid.
• Deal with the Devil:
  • Prior to the quest's start, Stella unintentionally made one with the Dark King of the Abyss. She was so desperate to get usable cards for her deck that she accidentally reached out to the spirit world and unknowingly struck a bargain. Stella's memory of said deal seems to have been deliberately altered.
  • She makes another one with the Archfiends after her trip to the Underworld goes awry. In exchange to being allowed to leave, she has to collect an Orichalcos Stone and will be given access to purchase cards from an Archfiend contact in the Spirit World... Of course, if she fails to live up to her end of the bargain she loses her soul.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Stella and Abidos relationship began on acrimonious terms which eventually led to a duel, but after Stella defeated the revived pharaoh and allowed him to keep his Sacred Beast despite the duel's wager, the two became significantly closer as friends.
• Deflector Shields: Hymn of Light, the Ritual Spell Stella attained when she acquired Saffira, has a secondary ability that allows it to be removed from the graveyard to negate the destruction of a Ritual Monster Stella controls. Dual Terminals depict this ability as a ring of kaleidoscopic light that springs forth in front of Stella's monster while preventing it from harm.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: As Stella's friendship with Abidos grows she begins to inadvertently let her guard down and acts far more casual around him.
• Description Cut: Used to sum up Stella's fourth Duelist Kingdom match.
  If the other two here – and the two up on the arena, as well – are unwilling to duel this guy, maybe he’ll be a worthwhile challenge.
  ***
  He’s not a worthwhile challenge.
• Desperation Attack: The Sacred Offering of Wind spell card turns any duel into a shadow game, one in which the duelists are inflicted with actual pain when they take damage with said pain then being transformed into spiritual energy for Stella. The more spiritual energy she has, the more powerful the card she can bring forth through Destiny Draw, giving her a better chance of turning the tables after having suffered a major attack.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Camula used her familiars to spy upon Stella during her time in the Duelist Kingdom tournament. As such, she was confident that she knew of every play Stella might make, and thought herself fully prepared to challenge Raiza's Chosen for ownership of Hamon. Unfortunately for the other Chosen, the one card Stella never played in Duelist Kingdom is also the one card that ensures the vampire's defeat: Brain Control.
  • Keith was confident in activating his Gatling Dragon's Steel Rain against Stella as he had three monsters on the field, his monster's ability completely bypasses the effect of Mystic Tomato, and no spell or trap card ever printed would be able to negate the action. Unfortunately for Keith, Stella recently attained the first copy of Destruction Jammer in existence from Meisei, and this one card allows her to entirely turn the tables against her opponent.
• The Dog Bites Back: During his time as a squire, Zalborg was greatly mistreated by the previous Monarch of Light, Kuraz. Kuraz suspected that Zalborg was plotting to kill and replace him just as his last squire had attempted, and so treated his newest squire with an irrational level of cruelty, even torturing Zalborg's companions for information on any nonexistent plot that may be aimed against him. When Zalborg discovered Kuraz actions, he finally snapped and killed his former master.
• Dramatic Irony: Stella knew Imori was a creep but she decides to save his soul from being devoured by dragons figuring that as bad as he was, he's not awful enough to deserve such a fate. A manga reader will know that Imori's fate was his own fault and completely deserved.
• Duels Decide Everything: This is somewhat Justified. When a physical battle breaks out between two spirit duelists, it's possible for one of said duelists to force the confrontation to change into a duel. How severely the stakes of said confrontation are enforced varies, but the loser always suffers some level of shock regardless. There are ways to get around this restriction, however, such as by confronting someone in the physical world rather than the Spirit World. Nadia makes mention of how lucky they are that Camula is willing to duel Stella for Hamon, seeing as how Zaborg's Chosen is, mystically speaking, incredibly powerful.
• Emotion Suppression:
  • Stella naturally exists in a state of suppressed emotion due to the crippled nature of her soul. The first time this state is removed, she immediately begins panicking due to being overwhelmed by the plethora of new sensations she is suddenly experiencing.
  • Stella can force this on herself through the use of her Shadow Charm. It is shown to even undo the effects that the Seal of Orichalcos has on her emotional state.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Zigzagged. Sanders is one of Pegasus' Eliminators and revels in being a Drill Sergeant Nasty lording his authority over other duelists but he is appalled when he sees Keith trying to rip one of Stella's cards out of spite and immediately moves to save the card. The reason he is so digusted, however, is because Sanders considers Keith blatantly breaking the rules in front of him to be a challenge to Sanders' authority as an Eliminator, something he absolutely can't stand.
• Evil Knockoff: Stella is tasked by the Simorgh to confront a "very not-good bird" that has taken up residence in an underground location nearby. Stella goes to do so, and, when she finds the beast, she is confronted by an enigmatic entity hiding in the shadows. The being hates Stella, has memories of her life up to the point where she first purchased her cards, and her deck is a dark reflection of Stella's own. She is the first opponent Stella faces to defeat her in a duel.
• Experience Penalty: Not only does Stella earn no DP from lackluster opponents, her making quick work of strong opponents actually decreases the amount of DP they give as a reward with a OTK giving Stella as much DP from winning as she otherwise would from losing.
• Experience Points: Stella receives DP, or "Duel Points", each time she duels against a powerful opponent, or makes use of the Sacred Offering of Wind in a duel; she can use said DP to purchase cards, manifest cards, or perform a Destiny Draw. She can also receive ODP, or "Offering Duel Points", by sacrificing powerful objects at the Offering site; said ODP can be used to strengthen either Hamon or the Sacred Offering of Wind spell card.
• Feathered Dragons: Saffira, Queen of Dragons is the first dragon Stella adds to her deck, as well as the first non-Dark ritual monster she acquires.
• Fictional Disability: A duelist's spiritual energy, their Ba, is supposed to restore itself over time, living and breathing alongside its user. Stella's spiritual energy is static, incapable of restoring itself naturally with its low amount forcing her to constantly undergo Emotion Suppression. This means that she has to be extremely frugal with spiritual expenditures, but this also allows her to grow her Ba in alternative methods that others do not have access to, such as through challenging duels.
• First Time Feeling: Stella goes through this immediately after her duel with Abidos. Since Diminished Presence only affects her when her Ba is weak, Stella defeating the formerly undefeated pharaoh caused her soul to expand more than it ever had before, overwhelming her spiritual limitations and allowing her to truly experience the world around her for the first time. She finds it absolutely overwhelming and quickly resorts to using her Shadow Charm to suppress the sensations when she is feeling overwhelmed.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Stella visits the Simorgh, the winged-beast mentions that Stella had been being watched through the eyes of a number of "little, flitty things, connected to something or someone far away". Then, at Duelist Kingdom, Pete Coppermine says that a bat flew in front of him and startled him out of his tree. Later, Stella overhears a nurse at the medical center receiving a call on a number of contestants who have had half the blood drained from their bodies. The source of all of these events is Camula, Zaborg's chosen who is seeking to take Hamon for herself.
  • Arkanian wrote an interlude from the perspective of Prediction Princess Tarotrei giving readers a glimpse of a number of different possible futures. The vast majority of said visions are completely indecipherable at the time that the interlude was posted, but the last one foreshadowed that Abidos would soon be defeated by the other Chosen of Uria and that said Chosen wields the power of one of the Legendary Planets.
• A Friend in Need: Stella does everything in her power to hunt down the duelist who defeated Abidos with full knowledge that the person who did such a thing is terrifyingly powerful and wields one of the Legendary Planets.
• Friendly Rivalry: After their initial duel, Stella and Abidos seem to view each other as friends who just so happen to also be competing against each other to empower their own Sacred Beasts. Abidos is perfectly happy to go out of his way to ferry Stella across the Spirit World while giving her lessons on all things mystical, and Stella readily abandons her goals for Duelist Kingdom to better aid Abidos when she discovers that his soul has been taken.
• Gimmick Level: These come in two variations:
  • Many duels that take place in the Spirit World do so with the aid of a Deck Master, one of their monsters that is able to provide a unique benefit to them throughout the Duel. Three of Stella's are known: Meisei can negate an opponent's card effect by discarding a card of the same type, Senju can mimic the effect of a ritual spell from the deck, and Magician can mimic any spell from the deck but only on the turn it is ritual summoned.
  • Just like in the original series, Duelist Kingdom's rules are...weird.^Examples Card text translates into actual effects, Fissure can't kill flying monsters, but it can change field types, dragons (save for Red-Eyes who is impertinent) can't attack Saffira, the Queen of Dragons, and field spells do far more than their effects indicate with Wasteland weakening monsters who can't stand the heat and Yami hiding its users entire hand and field from view.
  • Stella's Labyrinth Duel against Para and Dox is more of a board game than a duel with players having to navigate their monsters through the Labyrinth to reach their opponents Life Points and each monster only able to advance a number of spaces equal to its level. In addition, a number of unique abilities fitting for the Labyrinth playstyle are given to particularly noteworthy monsters so as to allow them to better work in the new format.
• The Gloves Come Off: Even when her life or soul are potentially on the line, Stella still tries to refrain from performing any action that would drain her unnaturally limited Ba as doing so would limit what actions she'll be able to take in the future, but she will absolutely do so if the situation is appropriately dire.
  • When Zaborg's Chosen appears and challenges her for ownership of Hamon Stella immediately expends the majority of her soul's energy to draw the most powerful card in her deck before subjecting her opponent to a flawless OTK.
  • When she discovers that Abidos' soul has been taken, Stella makes free use of her limited energy to fully manifest monsters in the physical world for the first time in order to better help her investigate the identity of her friend's opponent so as to more easily save Abidos' life.
  • When having to face Bandit Keith in a rematch turned Shadow Game, Stella is once more forced to draw Brain Control in order to regain control of the field, but even that hardly slows her opponent down at all.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Keith plays Mystic Plasma Zone to buff his Dark Scorpions and Dark Machines. This play largely backfires on him since Stella's deck also uses a lot of Dark monsters and ends up turning her Beast of Talwar into a 2900 ATK juggernaut that he can't get rid of without Barrel Dragon or Blast Sphere.
• Holy Burns Evil: It's implied that Camula, the last vampire, is incapable of laying her hands upon The Bible.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • Each Monarch is able to choose one individual to assist in the resurrection of a Sacred Beast. Zaborg's chosen? Marik Ishtar. The deranged megalomaniac allowed for Sarina to finish her proposal before immediately attempting to put the young girl under his thrall and demanding she give the other Shadow Charms to him. Zaborg interfered in time to save both Sarina and the Shadow Charms, but his erstwhile chosen will almost certainly interfere with Stella's quest in the future.
  • Zaborg's next Chosen arguably isn't much better. While Camula doesn't try to mind control Sarina as her predecessor did, she still casts a spell of forced sleep on the medium and attempts to assault another Chosen after having lost to them in a duel.
• Hypocrite:
  • After losing to Stella, Bandit Keith immediately declares that she must have cheated in order to beat him; one of the QMs would later reveal that Keith slipped Barrel Dragon into his hand from his wristband.
  • After being subjected to a brutal One Turn Kill, Camula accuses Stella of having cheated on the grounds that Raiza's Chosen must have known that their duels were being observed and deliberately fed her misinformation, not seeming to realize that stalking your opponent to find information on their playstyle is far closer to cheating than deliberately feeding said stalker misinformation would be.
• I Never Told You My Name: The fact that Camula knows Stella's full name, and not Sarina's mispronunciation of it, is the first thing that clues her in to the fact that she's been being stalked for some time.
• Improperly Paranoid: Kuraz, the Light Monarch. In the past, Kuraz was betrayed by one of his squires. The squire in question was dealt with, but their actions deeply tainted Kuraz's relationship with his next squire. The Light Monarch grew increasingly suspicious of his servant till his paranoia eventually grew so out of control that he interrogated and killed several of his squire's companions for information on how his squire was conspiring against him. While said squire was entirely innocent, Kuraz suspicions became self-fulfilling as said squire snapped once he found out what Kuraz had done and killed the Light Monarch in a rage.
• Karmic Death: One of Stella's opponents bragged to her about the numerous people he had killed in his quest for power while mocking her naivety when asked if he had any remorse for his actions. Stella immediately decides to stop holding back and her foe quickly finds the tables turned against him before being killed by the very same card he had used to claim so many lives.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: It's implied that the Dark King of the Abyss did something to Stella that forced her to forget all details of the deal she made with him.
• Last-Second Chance: Stella tries to give this to Caleb during her Doma initiation duel, asking if he truly has no remorse for the sixteen people he's knowingly and willfully killed. When her opponent lambasts her while stating that the power he wields elevates him above the rest of the human trash, Stella rips the Seal of Orichalcos from her deck, summons it to the field, and uses it to permanently put an end to her opponent.
• Leitmotif: Final Answer serves as a fitting theme for Stella as well as for Shadow Stella.
• Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: The Site of Ascension, a mountaintop upon which Sauravis once attained enlightenment, is one of the most Light-aligned locations in the spirit world. Doriado had studied said site for years in order to find a way to call forth Sauravis, but made very little progress in her endeavor until she introduced a small amount of darkness to the setting. The addition of darkness added a contrasting element to the site, revealing new information on the site's workings and finally allowing Doriado to make tangible progress in her quest.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • Subverted. Camula argues that no one explicitly told her that a spell of enforced sleep placed upon Sarina would count as interfering with the contest's Medium, but Ehther immediately rebukes her stating that the only reason it was not explicitly stated was because it was assumed to be obvious and that the Chosen's ignorance will not stop her from bein harshly punished for her actions.
  • Played straight when Abidos is defeated and his Sacred Beast taken. The perpetrator of the incident was Thestalos' candidate, but since the candidate has not yet accepted Thestalos' proposal, he is technically not bound by the rules of the other Chosen at the time. This means that he is perfectly capable of permanently hindering the abilities of another Chosen without facing any repercussions from the Monarchs.
• Loose Lips: Camula both intentionally and unintentionally makes a number of oblique statements to Stella when the two finally meet, such as the fact that she knows Stella's name, is aware of her reliance on Ritual Monsters, and that she hasn't seen Stella use Brain Control in any of her previous duels. This clues Stella in to the fact that Camula is the one who had her familiars trailing her when she visited the Simorgh and has had one of them following her through the entire duration of Duelist Kingdom.
• Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Once per duel, Stella can expend a portion of her spiritual energy in order to designate the exact card she will draw next. The amount of spiritual energy expended increases based on the strength or utility of the card desired.
• Magikarp Power:
  • Immediately after attaining Hamon, the monster's card was entirely lacking in any detail, including attack and defense, making it completely unplayable. After the first offering is given, Hamon becomes a 2500 attack, 2000 defense beatstick summonable through any single spell, with additional benefits given after every subsequent offering.
  • The Sacred Offering of Wind was originally a continuous spell card with no given effect. Once played, it allowed Stella to attain additional DP from battling her opponent, but gave no other mechanical benefit. After being strengthened, it can now be substituted for any draw at no DP cost, and allows Stella to substitute her next draw with Hamon at the cost of 1000 Life Points.
• Mana: Humans and duel monsters both possess spiritual energy. A human's is referred to as a Ba, while a monster's is referred to as a Ka. Stella possesses a Ba, but her spiritual energy's strength is represented by how much DP she has.
• Meaningful Rename: A monster is given a new name when they are raised to the position of Monarch. This helps perpetuate the idea that the Monarchs are invincible as no one knows where such a powerful monster came from when a new one is appointed.
• Money for Nothing: Star Chips are somewhat used as a form of Practical Currency in Duelist Kingdom. You can obtain entry into the tournament finals by obtaining ten, of course, but you can also acquire lodging on the island by wagering one Star Chip against an eliminator and can even exchange Star Chips to purchase packs at a card shop in an effort to better optimize one's deck. Since Stella wants to avoid the attention of Maximillion Pegasus, already packed plenty of supplies for an overnight stay, and would have to make use of her Dangerous Forbidden Technique if she wanted to acquire anything remotely decent from a pack, the sole use she acquires from her chips is in wagering them against others to obtain worthwhile duels.
• Mugging the Monster: Caleb, the duelist Stella was paid to face after the museum exhibition, gleefully informed Stella that she had unwittingly joined in a duel to the death, that she was going to be the seventeenth soul he would claim that night, and that there was absolutely nothing Stella could do to change her fate. Unfortunately for Caleb, Stella is intimately familiar with the concept of a Shadow Game and quickly turns the tables upon her foe before having his soul ripped from his body.

N-Z

• Near-Villain Victory:
  • Stella came extremely close to defeat during the initiation duel against Caleb. Her opponent's field spell in conjunction with their compounding burn effects and control-centered deck allowed them a decisive lead during the duel's first half. It is only by drawing and playing the Seal of Orichalcos that Stella is able to disrupt her opponent's playstyle and eventually secure a win, but she still came within one-hundred life points of losing the duel and perhaps her soul.
  • Stella's duel against Bandit Keith very nearly ended in her loss. Keith set a monster face down expecting Stella to attack it with her buffed up Beast of Talwar, but, because her last defeat was brought about by her being reckless, Stella manages to pick up on his gambit and attacks with the weaker Archfiend Heiress. This alone would have saved her from defeat at the hands of Keith's Blast Sphere, but she also activated her final copy of Good Goblin Housekeeping, allowing her to draw into Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Keith's trump while leaving him wide open for the advent of Hamon.
• Nerf: While infiltrating Caius's territory to secure the bridge to the human world, Stella is forced to duel against a Thousand-Eyes Idol that plays a ritual deck centered around summoning Relinquished. The Relinquished Stella faces has the same abilities as the one used by Maximilian Pegasus: it can have multiple monsters equipped at a time, has an attack equal to that of all equipped monsters, can't be destroyed while a monster is equipped to it, and its opponent takes all battle damage from battles involving Relinquished. Once Relinquished becomes a purchasable option at the Aviary, though, it's just the standard card without any of the above listed abilities. This is Justified in-story by Raiza's men explaining that the monster Stella fought was an advanced version recently created by a special unique ritual, one that the Sonic Aviary has no knowledge of and is unable to replicate.
• The Neutral Zone: There are several locations in the Spirit World whose existence benefits all the Monarchs:
  • The Offering Sites are meant to be approached only by their respective Chosen with guards and regulations in place to make sure that no Chosen interact with each other while at said sites.
  • The Spirit World Bridge in Cauis' territory is considered a valuable resource, so much so that its use is heavily regulated to prevent the occurrence of any confrontations over said site.
• New Skill as Reward: After defeating Abidos in a duel, Stella decided not to take her opponent's Sacred Beast and instead requested for the revived pharaoh to teach her in the ways of magic.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In her duel against Pete Coppermine, Stella's opponent forces her to reshuffle her hand in order to prevent her from summoning one of her ritual monsters. This entirely backfires on Coppermine as Stella not only redraws the monster he was trying to get rid of in the first place, but also draws even more powerful cards than she previously held, effectively improving her situation in every way.
• No-Sell: During her duel against Para and Dox, the opposing brothers attempt to cast Shadow Spell upon Stella's Magician to put a stop to Stella's explosive play. Unfortunately for them, they are battling under the Duelist Kingdom ruleset, and their spell of shadows proves entirely ineffectual against the Magician of Black Chaos.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Caleb completely loses his shit when Stella plays the Seal of Orichalcos.
  • Stella rightfully has this response when her inner darkness summons Demise, Agent of Armageddon who proceeds to easily destroy Hamon and win the duel.
  • Camula's panic continually rises over the course of Stella's first turn as their backrow is destroyed, their only monster is dealt with through the one card in Stella's deck that they had no knowledge of, and a variety of powerful monsters are successfully summoned by her opponent that are fully capable of decimating all of Camula's life points.
• Olympus Mons: In this continuity, the Sacred Beasts aren't merely knockoffs of the Egyptian God Cards, but actual Divine-Beasts that were worshipped as gods by the Ancient Egyptians.
• One-Hit Kill: Stella delivers a perfect one to Zaborg's Chosen, making use of the one card in her deck that Camula had no knowledge of to utterly defeat her foe.
• Only in It for the Money: Para and Dox could hand Abidos' deck over to Stella as she clearly knows the owner of said item, but they refuse to do so unless she can defeat them in a duel as it is literally their job to eliminate duelists and they are given a monetary bonus for every Star Chip they attain.
• Optional Boss: Should she wish to attain his card, Stella will have to challenge her patron and defeat him in a duel. Her patron being Raiza, the Storm Monarch makes such a thing an incredibly difficult task with Word Of God stating that Stella is in no way ready to face the Monarch.
• Otherworldly Communication Failure: After Stella attains Abidos's deck, she questions the Gadgets on the identity of a duelist they previously battled against as well as the details of one of the cards they played. Unfortunately, said spirits are only able to communicate through a series of clicking noises that none of those present can easily interpret. Meisei then provides the Gadgets with writing utensils for them to convey their message through...only for each of the three machines to reveal themselves to be a Terrible Artist, forcing the group to undergo an impromptu round of Pictionary to discover that their last opponent had shoulder length hair and used a card that was originally a crown that now has at least two limbs.
• Out-Gambitted:
  • Stella is justifiably suspicious in her duel against Bandit Keith when her opponent says he will summon one of his Dark Scorpions in defense position before confidently setting it facedown with no backrow to protect it against her Beast of Talwar. Stella makes sure to attack the facedown monster with Archfiend Heiress rather than Talwar which pays off when the set monster is revealed to be Blast Sphere. She also counters Keith's play by making use of her final copy of Good Goblin Housekeeping which allows her to draw into Mystical Space Typhoon, entirely upsetting her opponent's strategy and leaving him wide open for Hamon.
  • During her rematch against Bandit Keith, Stella finds herself in a tight situation with very little Life Points, no monsters on her field and no cards in her backrow while her opponent controls an incredibly powerful monster and has over 4000 Life Points. Stella confidently sets one monster and one card before ending her turn. Keith knows that Stella has three cards in hand and correctly guesses that she's assembling the cards necessary to summon her Magician. He also knows that Stella plays Mystic Tomato, so he sets an additional monster to protect his dragon and activates Steel Rain. This is exactly what Stella was hoping for as her set monster was a bluff to force Keith to activate his monster's ability so that she could destroy it with Destruction Jammer. After Stella successfully summons her Magician on her following turn, Keith tries to achieve a comeback by setting a monster facedown. Stella, once more reading her opponent like an open book, refuses to attack Keith's card until she can safely disarm it, causing her opponent to pull a gun after his last shot at victory fails.
• Outside-Context Problem:
  • Even after being clued in to the existence of magic, Bandit Keith still has no idea that the cards they are playing with are actually mediums that bridge the gap between our world and the Spirit World and are each connected to either spiritual monsters or the phenomena they create. As such, he has no idea that those who have access to said Spirit World also have access to cards unprinted by Industrial Illusions, such as Destruction Jammer.
  • After successfully gaining entrance to Pegasus's castle, Stella had absolutely no way of knowing that her host had been replaced with a Time Traveller from the future who commands a number of manifested and powerful monsters.
• Overshadowed by Awesome:
  • Chakra, one of Stella's first ritual monsters, has an attack greater than Red-Eyes Black Dragon, but its lack of effect and the even higher attack values of some of Stella's other ritual monsters make it arguably the least useful ritual monster in Stella's deck.
  • Magician of Black Chaos has found itself frequently overshadowed as the quest has progressed. Magician has the highest attack of all of Stella's Monsters, but he falls short in terms of utility. Like Chakra above, Magician in a non-effect monster, but where Chakra at least has its own ritual spell, Magician is forced to make use of either Contract with the Abyss or Advanced Ritual Art. This means that not only must Magician always be summoned through an exact amount of tributes, but he also can't make full use of what is arguably Stella's best ritual support card: Transonic Bird. Arkanian has mentioned that he has thought of a way to rectify this in the future.
• Painting the Medium:
  • Invisitext is often used in order to conceal certain things from initial readers, such as the Magician of Black Chaos speech, Stella's subconscious thoughts, and the Duelist Kingdom's terminals programmed operations.
  • The dark reflection present in Dark Simorgh's cave speaks in a different font than the rest of the characters to reflect her alien nature. When she is angered during the Duelist Kingdom tournament, Nadia's speech changes to the exact same font.
• Paper Talisman: Meisei makes heavy use of Ofuda, giving him a lot of utility outside of duels. Stella tries to make some of her own, but both the material requirements and the creation process are extremely exacting, and Meisei still has to do all the heavy lifting when it's time to capture Izanagi.
• Patchwork Fic: The quest takes place at the same time that the original series does, but it incorporates a number of characters from: GX, such as the Sacred Beasts, the Legendary Planets, Lyman Banner, Abidos, Sarina, and Camula; R, such as Pete Coppermine, Dupre Scott, and Yakko Tenma; and even Arc-V in the form of Sanders.
• Pet the Dog: Stella may be a Snark Knight, but she always displays a great amount of compassion for Sarina. She pays for the girl's travel when she can, physically accompanies her when she is able, asks the Monarchs about her wellbeing, and shows concern for her when she might be overtaxing herself. Since Sarina grew up with only her brother to care for her, she's not quite sure how to handle the honest care Stella tends to shower upon her.
• Place of Power: The Offering Site is a location of great significance to the three Sacred Beasts wherein a powerful enough offering given upon one of the altars can be used to partially restore said beasts to the former strength.
• Post-Game Retaliation: Camula tried to physically attack Stella after being subjected to a humiliating defeat at the hands of the other Chosen. She fails due to Ehther's intervention.
  Camula:The laws of the Chosen forbid me from doing anything to you that would permanently harm your ability to gather power from Hamon, but it does not forbid me from taking anything else.
• Power Up Letdown: Downplayed. When Camula appears and challenges Stella for ownership of Hamon, Stella agrees to duel against Zaborg's Chosen under the stipulation that they offer up cards of equal value to Hamon should they lose. These terms are accepted and, while facing against a mystically superior opponent with near complete knowledge of her deck, Stella uses the majority of of her soul's energy to Destiny Draw her strongest card before utterly annihilating her foe. As a reward for her victory, Stella received one copy of Call of the Haunted and three Skull Dice. That's right, in exchange for wagering the most important card in her deck that she has risked her life and soul to empower, Stella received a revival card that is objectively worse than Monster Reborn and three chance-based traps that minorly alter an opponent's monster's stats. The cards are all useable, mind you, they just aren't as narratively valuable as Hamon.
• Practical Currency: One of the Duelist Kingdom eliminators sets up a card shop on the docks selling new packs in exchange for Star Chips. Since eliminators are paid in part for the number of Star Chips they bring in, this allows for the eliminator in question to make a large profit while also giving the tournament participants a chance to adjust their decks to better suit Duelist Kingdom's ruleset.
• Privileged Rival: As they were selected after a great deal of time and weren't picked to make sure that each Sacred Beast would have a wielder as quickly as possible, the last three Chosen are significantly more prepared for their tasks than the first set. Sarina implies that each member of said group is incredibly powerful, an idea that Nadia partially confirms when Stella meets Zaborg's Chosen and which Thestalos' Chosen reinforces when they defeat Abidos and take both his Sacred Beast and his soul.
• Quest for a Wish: The premise of the story. The first of the Monarch's chosen to fully restore their Sacred Beast will be given enough power to fulfill any one wish they may desire. Stella's wish should she win? To take over the world.
• The Quiet One: Senju, while technically knowledgeable on a wide variety of subjects, doesn't always speak up when said knowledge becomes relevant and instead allows for Stella to ask her own questions as a type of learning experience.
• Rage Quit: After his dragon is destroyed and the effect of his Blast Sphere is neutralized, Bandit Keith decides that the best option available to him is to pull a gun on Stella while accusing her of cheating. Unfortunately for him, Shadow Games tend to take issue with their rules being violated, as the former number one soon discovers.
• Randomized Damage Attack: Just like in the original series, Bandit Keith's Signature Mon, Barrel Dragon, takes inspiration from Russian Roulette with each of its barrels spinning and destroying one monster if two of the three barrels successfully fire off a shot. In the match where Keith uses it against Stella, Barrel Dragon's effect literally failed to proc every time it was used. Having somewhat learned from his previous mistake by the time of their rematch, Keith makes use of the less RNG-dependent Gatling Dragon instead. The first time its ability is used, literally all three of its weapons misfire; the second time, however...
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Ehther the Heavenly Monarch has, so far, portrayed herself as a fairly reasonable figure. She ruled in Zaborg's favor when he was unjustly mistreated by the previous Light Monarch, Kuraz, and directly took action to punish Camula when they broke the rules of the contest by placing a spell of enforced sleep upon Sarina.
• Rescue Arc: This is what the latter half of the Duelist Kingdom tournament essentially turns into after Stella discovers that Abidos' soul has been taken.
• The Rival: Stella's rivalry with Granmarg's Chosen, Abidos, is fairly friendly, but her rivalry with Zaborg's Chosen is not. The latter's insistence on speaking down to Stella when they first meet serves to immediately sour their relationship, something that is only worsened when Stella humiliates Camula in their duel with the last vampire then physically assaulting Stella afterwards in retaliation.
• Saving the World: A number of prophets and oracles have predicted a great disaster approaching that will ravage the Spirit World. In an effort to mitigate said disaster, the Monarchs decided to aid in the revival of the Sacred Beasts in an effort to create an additional safeguard in protecting their world.
• Second Place Is for Winners: There are technically three prizes in the Duelist Kingdom tournament. The winner of the tournament is entitled to three million yen as a cash prize. Should they seek an even greater reward, they can instead challenge Pegasus himself to a duel and be given anything they desire should they emerge victorious. What most contestants don't know, save for the top two finishers in the American finals, is that the tournament actually has a secret alternative reward hidden on the island for the contestants to find: two Legendary Planet cards. Since Stella has little interest in the prize money and plans on avoiding Pegasus if at all possible, the hidden reward is easily the best option for her.
• Selective Obliviousness: Stella's greatest flaw. She clearly has a lot of emotional baggage, fears showing emotions or weakness or even feeling said emotions, quickly begins using her Shadow charm to suppress any emotion she doesn't like, and her solution to anything that hints to or implies that she has problems is to stubbornly ignore it.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • During her first duel with Dr. Banner, Stella asks the man if he was ever in possession of a Red-Eyes Black Dragon after he mentions that he used to only play rare and powerful dragon monsters. Later, during her battle with Rex Raptor, Stella is shocked when her opponent declares that he will summon his Red-Eyes Black Dragon and seems to act like she's never heard of the monster before.
  • Sanders presided over Stella's first duel against Bandit Keith, during which she summoned Magician of Black Chaos, Beast of Talwar and Hamon. During Stella's duel against Sanders, however, the Eliminator verbally observes that Stella "drew both [her] big boss monsters" after she managed to summon both Saffira and Hamon, seemingly forgetting that he's seen her use a monster stronger than either of those summoned with Stella even emphatically stating that her deck has another trump while referencing her Magician.
• Signature Mon:
  • Stella has a number of duel spirits in her retinue, but her ace monster is the Magician of Black Chaos.
  • After having participated in a half-dozen duels in Duelist Kingdom, Eliminators begin to recognize Saffira and are aware of her (known) abilities due to Stella's tendency to summon the Queen of Dragons as quickly as possible due to the monster's powerful effects and high stat spread.
• Simple, yet Awesome: Hamon before its evolution past level 6 but after its initial strengthening. As a level 6 monster, Hamon required only a single spell as tribute to summon it, but it still had the second highest attack of all Stella's monsters. As there is no set limit on the number of spells you can place per turn, this made Hamon easier to summon than any of Stella's ritual monsters while being more powerful than all but one of them to boot. Further upgrades for Hamon were treated with some delicacy as advancing the Sacred Beast to level 7 would increase the tribute requirements, making Hamon somewhat Awesome, but Impractical.
• Smug Snake: Camula has good reason to be smug in her duel against Stella. Zaborg's Chosen is not only much older and more mystically powerful than her opponent, she also has near complete knowledge of her opponent's deck and typical playstyle thanks to observing Stella through a number of familiars. The one thing she absolutely did not prepare for, however, is for Stella to employ the full might of her Destiny Draw to attain the most powerful card in her deck before subjecting Camula to the quest's first One Turn Kill.
• Smug Super: Saffira has a high opinion of herself declaring that Stella's deck will be objectively better with a dragon—namely her—in it. She's completely right. Saffira's array of effects and ritual massively improve Stella's draw power, consistency, and survivability.
• The Snark Knight: Stella greets practically any situation she finds herself in with an appreciable amount of sass. While under the effects of the Seal of Orichalcos she readily admits that the majority of humanity is absolute trash, and that she counts herself among said majority. She finishes her conclusion by stating that the very least she can do to make the world a better place is to remove at least a portion of the garbage polluting it.
• Sore Loser:
  • After his loss, Bandit Keith tries to tear one of Stella's cards in half as retaliation and would have succeeded if Sanders hadn't made use of his whip and Stella hadn't both tackled and grappled the former champion.
  • Camula does not take being completely defeated by Stella in the span of a single turn very well and attempts to physically harm her afterwards. Luckily, a Monarch-possessed Sarina intervenes.
  • Forcefully subverted by Sanders. Although the man is naturally prone to violence and overreaction, he's also a man of discipline. After literally ramming his head into the duel terminal to get a hold of himself, he awards Stella the proper amount of Star Chips while allowing her to leave unmolested after her victory.
• Spirit Advisor: All of Stella's duel spirits technically count seeing as no one in the human world can see them, but the trope most fittingly describes Magician of Black Chaos. As a ritual monster, Magician can only be perceived by Stella or while in the presence of dark energy. He cares for Stella and regularly gives her advice, even if it usually falls on (somewhat literally) deaf ears. He also seems to know some of the specifics of the deal Stella made earlier in her life, but keeps the details of said bargain close to his chest.
• Spirit World: A large portion of the quest takes place in the world of spirits, with the revival of the Sacred Beasts being brought about in order to save both the human and spirit world from an oncoming disaster.
• Stalker without a Crush: Camula had a number of her familiars staked around the Offering site and used them to stalk Stella for an indeterminate amount of time before her visit with the Simorgh. They also used them to trail contestants in the Duelist Kingdom tournament in hopes of finding other Chosen that may be participating.
• Summoning Ritual: Stella's deck revolves around ritual summoning highly powerful or highly versatile monsters to the field and using them to overwhelm her opponent. Now that she's found a way to physically manifest her cards outside of duels, her rituals are no longer bound by the limits of spirit duels and shadow games.
• Superior Successor: The Monarchs wished for each of the Sacred Beasts to have a wielder as quickly as possible, so they picked the first three Chosen hastily with two of said Chosen being present when the cards awakened and the third having a well-known connection to the beasts. The second set of Chosen, however were able to be selected with significantly more time and care, and Sarina considers them to be exceedingly dangerous and terrifying individuals.
• Suspect Is Hatless: Due to suffering from an Otherworldly Communication Failure, all the Gadgets are able to tell Stella about the duelist who defeated Abidos is that they have somewhere around shoulder-length hair and use a card that used to be a crown that also has a minimum of two unspecified limbs.
• Take Over the World: Stella's main goal is to be the first to restore the power of her Sacred Beast and wish for the power to rule the world...so that she can actually enact some meaningful change and improvement, thereby saving it from the crapsack status she believes it's found itself in.
• Tempting Fate: While walking to the weather station with Sarina, Stella explains how her Ba does not regenerate naturally and how "[Duelist Kingdom] is a good place to fight a lot of strong duelists who want to win, without […] putting my life or soul on the line or whatever". Soon after she says this, she runs into Camula, Zaborg's chosen, who has already assaulted several duelists on the island and wishes to challenge Stella for her ownership of Hamon.
• Terrible Artist: The Gadgets. Since the monsters are incapable of human speech, they have to resort to drawings to convey their message, but are so hopelessly inept that all they can convey is that their last opponent had shoulder length hair and used a monster that had at least two limbs.
• Time Travel: Mobius' Chosen is Eve, the primary antagonist of the Yu-Gi-Oh Arc V manga. She wields a number of powerful cards gathered from the various eras along with futuristic tech that allows her to partially manifest monsters in the material world.
• Too Clever by Half: Camula was confident that she could easily challenge and win a duel against Stella for ownership of Hamon after having secretly observed all of her matches in Duelist Kingdom. Her confidence comes back to bite her when she wagers four cards against Stella's ante of Hamon only for Raiza's Chosen to completely annihilate her with the one card in Stella's deck that the last vampire had no knowledge of.
• Took a Level in Badass: Bandit Keith poses a significantly greater challenge to Stella in their second duel than he did in their first. While he was certainly no slouch when they first dueled, the modifications he made to his deck that shifted it from a "Dark Scorpion" theme to a fusion deck allowed for the former world champ to almost immediately put and keep Stella on the backfoot through the majority of their match. He even forced her to Destiny Draw Brain Control on her second turn just to remain in the game.
• Tournament Arc: Stella and Abidos both infiltrate the Duelist Kingdom tournament through means of Abidos' flying ship. Both duelists aren't actually interested in winning the tournament since they wish to avoid Pegasus, they are just taking part for the challenge.
• Transplant: Sanders is a villain from the Fusion Dimension from the sequel series Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V but an alternate version of him appears in the original universe as one of Pegasus' eliminators at Duelist Kingdom similar to how previous heroes appeared in Arc-V.
• Underestimating Badassery: The first set of Chosen were picked quickly so that work could immediately begin on empowering the Sacred Beasts, but the second set were selected after a great deal of time and consideration had been given. Camula takes this to mean that the first set of Chosen aren't particularly powerful, and, after observing several of Stella's matches over the course of a day, confidently wagers a number of their own cards against Stella in a duel for Hamon. They are left entirely speechless when Stella, who has so far been dueling solely to empower her soul, holds absolutely nothing back and subsequently subjects Zaborg's Chosen to a quick and humiliating defeat.
• Utility Party Member: Sealmaster Meisei's main role. Meisei's attack is pitiful and his Talismans are difficult to utilize in-game, but outside of duels he's able to give helpful advice on magical matters, create charms to protect Stella, and assist her from the spirit world, allowing her to successfully restrain Izanagi. His Deckmaster ability is also purely utilitarian and allows him to negate any card effect at the cost of discarding the same type of card.
• Weakened by the Light: After Zaborg's Chosen breaks the contest's rules, Ehther the Heavely Monarch uses a bright beam of light to dispel Camula's magic and painfully injure the last vampire.
• What You Are in the Dark: Stella used to be part of Domino High's Occult Research Club. She was forced to resign after the information on her supernaturally bad luck became known and her clubmate Imori refused to stop harassing her for more details on the mechanics of her ability. Once she's returned from Egypt, she finds Imori in a coma with his soul trapped in a magical jar, one that would greatly empower Hamon. Despite knowing that Imori's fate is likely one of his own making and the fact that none of her monsters seem to care whether or not she helps her classmate, Stella still goes out of her way to save her former clubmate, even going so far as to put herself at risk to do so.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Raiza is the Monarch with the most romanticized view of both the Sacred Beasts and the Monarchs as a whole. The Storm Monarch fully believes that the Beasts are a largely benevolent group that would refuse to lend their power to someone who wishes to unleash destruction upon the world. He also seems fully unaware of the fact that a large number of monsters view the Monarchs not as benevolent rulers that unite the Spirit World, but as conquerors that forcefully seized territory before subjecting said land's denizens to their authority.
• With My Dying Breath, I Summon You: Two of Stella's monsters are capable of calling forth additional monsters upon their death: Archfiend Heiress and Mystic Tomato. These two cards play off each other rather well as Mystic Tomato can call forth Archfiend Heiress (or an additional Mystic Tomato if further stalling is necessary) who can in turn bring any Archfiend to hand, namely her bodyguard, the Beast of Talwar, who will readily avenge their Heiress on the following turn.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: Over time, Stella's deck has drifted away from its darkness-based origins to a more light and dark centered deck. The majority of her ritual monsters are still Dark attribute due to the versatility of Contract with the Abyss, but she's finally incorporated another ritual attribute with Saffira and she's been pursuing information on Sauravis (as well as Contract with the Abyss's light counterpart, Sprite's Blessing) for some time.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Upon a Monarch's death, the title of Monarch will usually be passed down to the late Monarch's squire. Although it is highly uncommon, there have been past cases wherein a squire will attempt to kill their lord to attain the title. One of Kuraz's earlier squires attempted such a thing and failed, but the suspicion caused by the act led to Kurag mistreating his next squire, who eventually snapped and killed his abusive master before being granted the title of Monarch of Light as well as a new name, Zalborg, to mark his change in station.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Or, more accurately, your Pharaoh. Every time Stella seems to have found a promising lead on the identity and location of the duelist who stole Abidos' soul, a new obstacle is put in her path. You know the location of Abidos' deck? You must fight a pair of Eliminators in order to obtain it. You've obtained the deck and can now question the duel monsters for information on the identity of the person you're searching for? The spirits in question are incapable of clearly conversing with humans. You have a number of drawing utensils on hand with which the spirits can illustrate what happened? They're very poor artists. You've infiltrated and attained access to the central server upon which Abidos' battle's duel information is stored? The information was erased. You've successfully gathered the requisite Star Chips and gained entry into the castle while also confronting a duelist who exactly matches the description of your suspect? Only one of the Gadgets thinks he's the perpetrator while the other two are certain that it was someone else.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: After training with Abidos in the proper usage of her Ka, Stella has gained the ability to, if she so desires, steal the souls of her defeated opponents. She is forced to make use of this ability when she enters into a rematch against an armed Bandit Keith. Stella successfully claims the soul of her opponent, but returns it to his body a short while later after having relieved the man of both his firearm and his remaining Star Chips.

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