| “ | Yusei Fudo, though you may have come this far with the intention to cut open the future with your own power... everything has merely traveled along the rails that I have laid out. To you, I am the equivalent of a God. [...] In order to change the future, Zero Reverse was caused and your lives were changed dramatically. You were orphaned, living in Satellite, and then rose up to the challenges in the WRGP. However, that victory was only a means to call out the Ark Cradle. [...] Do you understand? The meaning of me being your God? And if a God decides to take a path of destruction, then no one shall defy it. | „ |
| ~ Z-one to Yusei at the start of their duel. |
Z-one (pronounced Zone) is the overarching antagonist of the third installment of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, serving as the main antagonist of the final arc of the third season and the overarching antagonist of the movie Bonds Beyond Time. He is a scientist who hails from a post-apocalyptic future where humanity was wiped out by the Meklord Emperors. Z-one, alongside Aporia, Antinomy, and Paradox, traveled back in time to alter history and prevent said future from happening by any means necessary, even if it came at the cost of innocent lives. Z-one is responsible for many of the events prior to the series, including the founding of Yliaster and the Zero Reverse incident.
He was voiced by Hideo Ishikawa in Japanese and Marc Thompson in English.
Biography[]
Z-one's mask is broken, revealing Yusei's face.
Z-one was a scientist from a time in which humanity used Ener-D to control and accelerate their own evolution, but did so with greedy and selfish desires. Eventually, their Ener-D went out of control, creating an army of Meklord Emperors to destroy the human race. Researching how to stop them, Z-one discovered a way to stop their power source: the Ener-D and the Planetary Gear that responded to people's hearts.
Realizing that he alone wouldn't be able to inspire others, Z-one researched into the life of Yusei Fudo, a legendary duelist who saved New Domino City long ago from the Dark Signers and the Earthbound Immortals. He then proceeded to perform a surgery on himself in order to take on Yusei's appearance, as well as implant a device into his head to make him think like him, he kept the device hidden by wearing a helmet at all times.
Unfortunately, while Z-one's actions did inspire people to help each other and caused the Meklord Emperors to stop attacking, he intervention came too late as Ener-D reached it's peak and proceeded to self-destruct alongside the Meklord Emperors, destroying society and leaving only a few survivors. Z-one survived, however, though the device in his head was now broken, and he lost faith in humanity.
Eventually, Z-one encountered three other survivors; Antimony, Aporia, and Paradox. Together, the four men spent many years researching ways to restore mankind and undo the destruction that Ener-D caused. Unfortunately, they grew old while doing so, and Antimony, Aporia, and Paradox eventually died, while Z-one connected himself to a device that would prolong his life, leaving him as the endling of humanity.
Before dying, each of Z-one's comrades wished for Z-one to use their power to change the past, Z-one fulfilled their wishes by creating androids with the appearance and memories of his fallen comrades albeit in their younger forms. Aporia's android was an exception, as he had requested to instead be recreated as three separate androids each representing a different stage in his life. Although Z-one respected the androids and treated them as his friends, he still saw them as nothing but replicas of the real survivors; it is implied that the androids were also aware that they were fake substitutes, nonetheless they were fiercely loyal to Z-one, even seeing him as a god.
Z-one instructed all the androids to travel back in time to prevent the creation of Ener-D by whatever means necessary, with each of them having their own schemes to change the past.
The android modeled after Paradox planned to kill Maximillion Pegasus, in order to wipe the Duel Monsters card game from existence and thus prevent Ener-D from being created since it drew energy from the spirits of the monsters in the game. He stole some of the best cards in history to use in his plan, but thanks to the intervention of the Crimson Dragon, he was stopped by the combined efforts of Yusei, Jaden, and Yugi.
Meanwhile, the androids of Antimony and Aporia travelled back to the time of Yusei Fudo; while Antimony was meant to help Yusei in his growth so that he would discover a way to fix the catastrophic flaw in the Ener-D's design that would eventually lead to mankind's extermination in the future, the three androids that represent Aporia was sent back in time to complete the Grand Design, which would open a time rift large enough to bring the Divine Temple, Z-one's headquarters built from the ruins of New Domino and Satellite, crashing into New Domino City; this would result in a Zero Reverse that would completely destroy New Domino City and everything within a thirty mile radius. In doing so, Z-one would take countless lives, but would also destroy all traces if Ener-D in Yusei's time, thus preventing his future from ever occurring. Antinomy's plans contradicted Aporia's own schemes, causing him to become conflicted whether he should continue to follow Z-one's wishes or remain by Yusei's side multiple times.
Personality[]
At his core, Z-one is a lonely, bitter, disillusioned and pessimistic old man. From his time a scientist, he buried himself in his work to discover a way to stop Ener-D and the Planetary Particles from going out of control. Z-one eventually became obssessed with Yusei Fudo upon learning about how the latter saved New Domino City from disaster, to the point of changing his appearance and personality to resemble the legendary duelist. He succeeded in changing his personality to closer resmble Yusei's and became more at ease when his efforts to inspire others appeared to be successful; this only lasted for a short period of time before Ener-D self-destructed and wiped out the human race. Afterwards, Z-one became disillusioned and concluded that it was impossbile to save people from their own demise, losing all hope in changing people's ways.
Upon meeting his fellow survivors, Aporia, Antimony and Paradox, Z-one became determined to prevent his future from occuring by any means necessary, eventually planning to destroy New Domino City in the past and destroy all traces of Ener-D. When his friends eventually died of old age, Z-one once again became lonely and independant. Despite this, he was capable of being affable and was close to his subordinates, speaking in a friendly manner to Aporia and Sherry LeBlanc and also supporting them with various enhancements, though this attitude was discarded when they both betrayed him.
During his Duel with Yusei, Z-one expressed his pessimism by telling Yusei that he could not save everyone, as he had tried and failed to do so as Yusei in his future, and tried to destroy Yusei's optimism and beliefs. Upon his defeat, he initally claimed that it was pointless to form bonds with his comrades and that he was better off fighting alone, but at the same time admitted that he was tired. Upon realising the error of his ways, Z-one was filled with guilt and remorse for his actions, realising that he had been blinded by his own insanity. Realising that Yusei intended to sacrifice himself to save New Domino City, Z-one decided to take his place to allow Yusie to create a new future. In his final moments, Z-one wished that in the future Yusei would create, he would be able to meet Aporia, Antimony and Paradox again.
Deck[]
Z-one uses a "Timelord" deck, consisting of the eponymous Fairy-type Monsters, with his signature card and most powerful monster being "Sephylon, the Ultimate Timelord". The deck uses a Burn/Bounce play style, inflicting effect damage on his opponents while his Monsters return to his hand after their use. His "Timelords" are all Level 10 monsters, so Z-one uses the effects of the continuous Traps "Empty Machine", "Infinite Machine" and "Infinite Light" to summon them enmasse without the need of tributes and allow them to remain on the field instead returning to his hand. The "Timelords" are based on the ten attributes of the Tree of Life, the mystic symbol used in the Kabbalah, known as the Sephirot, with "Sephylon" representing the Sephirot itself. Z-one also uses a series if Tarot-themed Trap cards that are activated from his hand instead of face down on the field with the exception to continuous Traps. In his apocalyptic future, Z-one used "Shooting Star Dragon" while impersonating Yusei Fudo.
Despite dueling in both Ground and Turbo Duels, Z-one only ever uses one deck.
Trivia[]
- Z-one never tried more kind and persuasive methods with the use of time travel as its implied he didn't have enough lifespan left.
- Z-one is best known by Yu-Gi-Oh! fans for not actually being a future version of Yusei himself as many predicted, instead being an unnamed scientist who impersonated Yusei's identity.
- The order in which he sent the androids of his friends back in time was with Paradox first, Aporia second and Antinomy third.
- His future (and existence by extension) was nearly nullified by Nightshroud by banishing humanity to the World of Darkness until Jaden Yuki defeated him. So, in a way, Z-one succeeds Nightshroud.
- Z-one is a major antagonist in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise to redeem themselves, which is unique as most villains faced at the end of a franchise remain unrepentant and are subsequently destroyed.
- From a chronological perspective, Z-one is the last villain faced in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! (and its sequels) anime timeline.
[]
 Villains
| ||
|
Yu-Gi-Oh! Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens Yu-Gi-Oh! Go rush Manga Only Card Games Video Games | ||