Villains Wiki

Hi. This is Thesecret1070. I am an admin of this site. Edit as much as you wish, but one little thing... If you are going to edit a lot, then make yourself a user and login. Other than that, enjoy Villains Wiki!!!

READ MORE

Villains Wiki
Advertisement

I am Darkness. The Truth of the other world.
~ Nightshroud

Nightshroud or Darkness in Japanese is the main antagonist of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. He is an evil spirit that has the ability to possess human beings. He was also one of the seven Shadow Riders. He is a minor antagonist in the first and second season, but he later returns as the main antagonist in the fourth season.

In his true form, he was voiced by Hozumi Gōda. While possessing Atticus Rhodes, he was voiced by Kōji Yusa in Japanese and Jason Griffith in English. While possessing Yusuke Fujiwara, he was voiced by Makoto Naruse.

Appearance[]

Nightshroud's character design was overseen by Kenichi Hara. While possessing a host, Nightshroud wears a tight-fitting overcoat with raised shoulders and waistline and gold and green trimmings.

His dark dragon mask, similar to that worn by his signature monster "Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon", is completely black with the exception of its blue eye-pieces and a red stone in the center of the forehead. In this incarnation, the bangs closest to his face are positioned in front of the mask.

Immediately before Yusuke's fall, Nightshroud's energy form is glimpsed as an immaterial spirit, with a body swathed in black smoke. He has two long, gangly arms ending in claws, and no legs. His true form is a cloaked skeleton with glowing blue eyes resembling a Grim Reaper. He wears grey and red robes with gold trim, and has a dragon-shaped skull for a head with horns at the back of it, with the same shape as the mask his previous hosts wore. In this form he does not use a Duel Disk - instead, he grows five wings, each serving as one Monster Card Zone and one Spell and Trap Card Zone apiece. His cards materialize directly into his hands - his Deck is unseen.

Personality[]

Nightshroud is a calm individual with the belief that individuality, hope, and bonds are what bring about people's suffering. He believes himself to be a "savior" and that complete peace can be brought into people through complete nullification (giving people no hope or despair). Nightshroud rarely loses his composure in conversations or Duels unless he is tricked or caught off-guard, especially if it relates to darkness within people. He sees people as beings that will eventually enter his world, but sees people with Duel Monster Spirits inside them as "foreign objects" that must be eliminated.

When individuals show fortitude against Nightshroud by using hope and bonds, he will become determined to use anything he has to destroy all hope and bonds that people have within themselves and give himself a better advantage such as using illusions to trick his opponents, using any darkness they have against them, or using his opponent's Duel Partners against them.

According to himself, Nightshroud follows the logic and truth of the world and thus has no actual desires. His ultimate goal is to bring humanity into his World of Darkness as salvation, reasoning that a lack of any hope or despair will cause their suffering to end.

Biography[]

Nightshroud was the first of the Shadow Riders to challenge the "keykeepers" and therefore the first to lose. His shadow charm was the mask that he was wearing to conceal his face. He duels Jaden in the first night, right after Jaden was told about the Shadow Riders. He uses a "Red-Eyes Deck" which revolves around summoning "Red-Eyes Black Dragon". When Nightshroud is defeated, it turns out he is a spirit that took control of Atticus, Alexis long-lost brother.

During the Genex tournament, Atticus duels Zane Truesdale, and Nightshroud starts taking him over again, however, Zane finishes the duel before Nightshroud can take control over Atticus again.

Deck[]

Nightshroud plays several decks over the course of the series. While possessing Atticus Rhodes, he plays a "Red-Eyes" Deck, focusing on summoning his signature monsters, "Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon" and "Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon" and powering them up via various means. He also uses various Dragon-type monsters with disruptive effects, such as "Spear Dragon" and "Mirage Dragon".

While possessing Yusuke Fujiwara, Nightshroud plays a "Clear" Deck, which focuses on using the Field Spell "Clear World" to cripple his opponent's monsters; his own monsters are immune to "Clear World's" effect, as they have no attribute when summoned onto the field, allowing him to overwhelm his opposition via a combination of special effects and brute force. The deck is symbolic to Nightshroud's philosophy of how individuality only leads to suffering, while nullifcation will relieve said suffering.

In his final duel against Jaden in his true form, Nightshorud plays a "Darkness" deck, where his signature and most powerful monster is "Darkness Neosphere". The deck focuses around the Field Spell "Darkness" and a long chain of Traps that it supports; by activating his "Zero" and "Infinity" cards, Nightshroud causes every other Trap to actviate, giving him a variety of effects to use against his opponent. His monsters possess effects that interfere with aspects of the Duel and allow him to ignore his Field Spell's negative effects, with "Darkness Neosphere" being able to control nearly the entire field.

Trivia[]

  • Due to poor writing with the continuity, Nightshroud being one of the Shadow Riders doesn't make any sense in retrospect; but the Abandoned Dorm plot thread needed wrapped up (with only 20 episodes slotted to Season 4) and Nightshroud and Atticus's connection to it was the only part confirmed in Season One.
  • The most likely reason he sought the power of the Sacred Beasts was to free himself of his host body and regain his full power.
  • He cannot banish people to the World of Darkness if they have some kind of mystic link. Jaden fused his soul to Yubel, while Kaiba is a reincarnation of a priest who used the Millennium Rod and Yugi once bore the Millennium Puzzle.
  • Nightshroud's conversation with Jaden seems to, in hindsight, foreshadow many plot points in future installments of the franchise:
    • When he describes the creation of the universe, he uses a single card as an analogy. He may have been referring to the Numerion Code, a card that supposedly created reality, a major plot point in Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal.
    • The horrible future Nightshroud prophesied was the Meklord Emperor Genocide; which was prevented thanks to its survivors time traveling to the past and inspiring Yusei Fudo to ensure the Ener-D wouldn't go out of control. This prophecy also has similarities to Z-ARC's attempt to plunge the world into Chaos (from Yu-G-Oh! ARC-V) and the potential apocalypse that Ai claimed to have witnessed in Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS. Therefore in retrospect, when all of this is taken together, it suggest that until the leaders of Illiaster made their move, prompting Yusei Fudo to create Fortune to prevent the creation of the Meklords in the confirmed franchise timeline (with ZEXAL, ARC-V, and VRAINS being nebulous) Nightshoud was indeed correct in his prophecy, adding to his motivations of bringing salvation to humanity through his World of Darkness.

Gallery[]

Navigation[]

           Yu-Gi-Oh logo Villains

Yu-Gi-Oh!
Dark Yugi | Shadi | Seto Kaiba | Mokuba Kaiba | Yami Bakura | Maximillion Pegasus | Croquet | Pegasus' Guards | Duke Devlin | Mr. Ishtar | Weevil Underwood | Rex Raptor | Paradox Brothers | Bandit Keith | Bonz | Zygor | Sid | Panik | Gozaburo Kaiba | Noah Kaiba | Hitotsu-Me Giants | Zigfried von Schroeder | Leon von Shroider | Imitator of Death | Witty Phantom| Reaper of the Cards | Thief King Bakura | Jinzo | Diabound | Zorc Necrophades
Rare Hunters
Marik Ishtar | Yami Marik | Odion Ishtar | Seeker | Arkana | Strings | Lumis and Umbra
Big Five
Gansley | Crump | Johnson | Nesbitt | Lector
Doma
Dartz | Rafael | Alister | Valon | Gurimo | Paradius | The Great Leviathan
Toei anime only
Aileen Rao | Kekeru Goyu | Tetsu Trudge
Movies
Anubis | Paradox | Diva

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Vellian Crowler | Jean-Louis Bonaparte | Pierre the Gambler | Zane Truesdale | Society of Light | The Light Brigade | Alien of Light | Wheeler's Doctor | Wheeler | Lorenzo | Howard X Miller | Bob Banter | Battle Footballer | Axel Brodie | Gravekeeper's Chief | Aster Phoenix | Chazz Princeton | Jagger Princeton | Slade Princeton | Lucien Grimley | Grim Reaper | Mr. Stein | Marcel Bonaparte | Martin Empire | Blaze | Frost | Thunder | T-Bone | Dr. Eisenstein | Princess Rose | Prince Ojin | Brron | Zure | Duel Ghouls | Scarr | Goblin Elite Attack Force | Kozaky | Chaos Sorcerer | Mr. Shroud | Trueman | Dark World Army | Mad Dog | Makoto Inotsume | Sartorius Kumar | Sarina Kumar | The D | Light of Destruction | Thelonious Viper | Trapper | Adrian Gecko | Echo | Yubel | Supreme King | Guardian Baou | Skilled Dark Magician & Skilled White Magician | Three Masked Knights | Jinzo | Sacred Beasts | Franz | Mike | Yusuke Fujiwara | Sky Scout | Skull Knight
Shadow Riders
Kagemaru | Nightshroud | Camula | Tania | Don Zaloog and The Dark Scorpions | Abidos the Third | Titan | Amnael

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Rex Goodwin | Roman Goodwin | King of the Netherworld | Kalin Kessler | Devack | Greiger | Sayer | Professor Frank | Mr. Armstrong | Z-one | Don Piero | Lester | Primo | Jakob | Lazar | Aporia | Rudolph Heitmann | Carly Carmine | Misty Tredwell | Lawton | Barbara | Malcolm | Radley | Earthbound Immortals
Dark Signers
Rex Goodwin | Roman Goodwin | Devack | Greiger | Kalin Kessler | Misty Tredwell | Carly Carmine
Iliaster
Z-one | Aporia (Lester, Primo, Jakob) | Paradox | Antinomy
Manga only
Luna | Leo

Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Don Thousand | Dr. Faker | Mr. Heartland | Number 96 | Quattro | Nistro | Vetrix | Triad of Terror (Wolfsbane, Coyote, Jackal) | Scorch | Chills | Parker | Quinton | Trey | Erazor | Chironex | Scritch
Seven Barian Emperors
Vector | Reginald Kastle/Nash | Rio Kastle/Marin | Alito | Mizar | Dumon | Girag

Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V
Leo Akaba | The Doktor | Barrett | Yuri | Dennis Mcfield | Jean-Michel Roget | Sora Perse | Sergey Volkov | Lucas Swank | Z-ARC

Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains
Varis | Specter | Dr. Kogami | Faust | Baira | Dr. Genome | Pandor | Queen | Shepherd | Bohman | Harlin | Lightning | Windy | Roboppi | Ai
Knights of Hanoi
Varis | Specter | Dr. Kogami | Faust | Baira | Dr. Genome | Pandor

Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens
Otes | Mimi Imimi | Roa Kassidy | Nail Saionji | Asana Mutsuba | Galian Townsend | Schubel Quill | Yuo Goha | Yujin Goha | Yuka Goha | Yuran Goha | Yuga Goha
Goha Corporation
Otes | Mimi Imimi | Nail Saionji

Yu-Gi-Oh! Go rush
Zuwijo zir Velgear | Chupataro Kaburagi | Mitsuko Hiramori | Dinois Velgear | Rovian Kirishima | Yuna Goha | Muda Velgear | Yuna Goha | The☆Luge | The☆Providence | The☆Moikeda Mbembe| The☆Yeti Yukio | Yuu Hayashi | Tanabe | Quaidur Velgear | Dark Meister | Fukamura | Sabyuas | Bruyeas | Zeyet

Manga Only
Mr. Karita | Yako Tenma | Mr. Clown (Yu-Gi-Oh!) | Ahmet | Tragoedia

Card Games
The Lswarm | The Construct | Tierra | Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Video Games
Scott Irvine

Advertisement