Number 10: Dark Illumiknight [Anime]

[TheycallmeBrick]

 

[spoiler=]Xyz|DARK|Warrior|2400 ATK| 2400 DEF

3 Level 4 monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; send 1 card from your hand to the Graveyard, and if you do, draw 1 card.[/spoiler]

 

[Image done by me. I tried.]

So, a Fake Number that has the exact same stats and abilities as its Original.

How could this be improved if it were ever to see a release? I'm thinking an additional effect that would allow it to Special Summon itself when you Xyz Summon a Rank 4 "Number" monster, using a Material from that same monster. That's just me, though.

 

But anyway, discuss.

[evilfusion]

Ideally, by not being released.

 

Do I really have to drag out my rant about how stupid the Fake Numbers subplot was? And that's not even considering the stupid twist that Numbers 1-4 were Fake and that the "real" Numbers 1-4 turned out to be entirely different cards with different effects...and that they all had the same effect as each other.

[Expelsword]

There were way larger problems with ZeXal.

Like Yuma not deviating his strategy at all, ever.

 

Or Astral using TWO of the 100 Numbers he had at his disposal

TWO

 

2

 

T-W-O

 

T

 

W

 

O

 

When it was explicitly stated multiple times that the reason he would be a challenge is that he had ALL of them.

 

tl;dr - Yusei for best protagonist.

[~British Soul~]

Ideally, by not being released.

This.

 

Do I really have to drag out my rant about how stupid the Fake Numbers subplot was? And that's not even considering the stupid twist that Numbers 1-4 were Fake and that the "real" Numbers 1-4 turned out to be entirely different cards with different effects...and that they all had the same effect as each other.

I agree, the fake Number subplot was incredibly stupid and literally everyone preferred the fake Numbers 1-4 to the real ones.

[evilfusion]

This.

 

I agree, the fake Number subplot was incredibly stupid and literally everyone preferred the fake Numbers 1-4 to the real ones.

 

That's because Numbers 1-4 had somewhat creative effects, even if the inspirations were questionable.

 

Number 1 was a Rank 8 for 3 Materials, 3000 ATK, and when Summoned, you send a card from the opponent's Extra Deck to the Grave. Then you can steal "Numbers" from the opponent's Graveyard as Material. And by detaching 1, you kill a card and burn if it was a monster. (C15 actually uses this effect).

 

Number 2 was a Rank 2 for 3 Materials. Its actual effect was a bit weird, with confusion counters and such, and it kind of relied on the opponent being completely oblivious to its effect.

 

Number 3 was a Rank 3 for 2 Materials. It could negate a monster's effect by detaching, and gain 500 DEF. When switched to ATK position, it swapped ATK and DEF.

 

Number 4 was a Rank 4 for 2 (WATER?) Materials. It could costlessly kill WATER monsters and burn. If it died, it Summoned monsters with the exact same effect from the Graveyard or Extra Deck equal to your Materials when it died and attached those Materials. Thematically, it made sense with immortal jellyfish or something.

 

"Real" Numbers 1-4 were all 1000 ATK Rank 1s. By detaching 1 after it battled, you doubled the ATK of all of them. They only were threatening because Numeron Network cheats.

[Expelsword]

And while we're on the subject, Z-ONE is still most OP deck.

[~British Soul~]

That's because Numbers 1-4 had somewhat creative effects, even if the inspirations were questionable.

 

Number 1 was a Rank 8 for 3 Materials, 3000 ATK, and when Summoned, you send a card from the opponent's Extra Deck to the Grave. Then you can steal "Numbers" from the opponent's Graveyard as Material. And by detaching 1, you kill a card and burn if it was a monster. (C15 actually uses this effect).

 

Number 2 was a Rank 2 for 3 Materials. Its actual effect was a bit weird, with confusion counters and such, and it kind of relied on the opponent being completely oblivious to its effect.

 

Number 3 was a Rank 3 for 2 Materials. It could negate a monster's effect by detaching, and gain 500 DEF. When switched to ATK position, it swapped ATK and DEF.

 

Number 4 was a Rank 4 for 2 (WATER?) Materials. It could costlessly kill WATER monsters and burn. If it died, it Summoned monsters with the exact same effect from the Graveyard or Extra Deck equal to your Materials when it died and attached those Materials. Thematically, it made sense with immortal jellyfish or something.

 

"Real" Numbers 1-4 were all 1000 ATK Rank 1s. By detaching 1 after it battled, you doubled the ATK of all of them. They only were threatening because Numeron Network cheats.

It was liek they gave no thought to the effects of the real Numbers 1-4 at all.

 

Of course I agree, fake 1-4 were creative with their effects.

Fake Number 4 did require 2 level 4 WATERs (I just checked) also it summoned another Xyz as well as itself (with the same effect and stats ofc)

[evilfusion]

And my original rant about Fake Numbers was that it was dumb to make them with the same effects as their counterparts, because it's just...pointless. However, if they had actually developed and explored the concept better, it could have been more interesting, such as Fake Number users with Fake counterparts to already collected Numbers.

 

But it raised too much uncertainty. The moment fake numbers were revealed, it cast every Number played after that into doubt. When Alito used No.80, we were all immediately suspicious whether it was a Fake Number. The issue was more prominent with Numbers 1-4 because Don Thousand gave them to Vector, and Vector distributed them among the Barian assassins. Once they were revealed to be fake, we didn't know whether the Numbers Don Thousand had were fake from the start, or whether he had the real Numbers and created fakes from them. Or if ANYONE had the real Numbers.

 

That subplot being "cleared up" in the Don Thousand Duel just made it worse, since the real Numbers ended up being essentially 4 copies of the same card, just with different names. And since even now, all the Numbers haven't been revealed, it begs the question why they bothered showcasing 4 fake Numbers in the first place.

[Neochu-H]

And my original rant about Fake Numbers was that it was dumb to make them with the same effects as their counterparts, because it's just...pointless. However, if they had actually developed and explored the concept better, it could have been more interesting, such as Fake Number users with Fake counterparts to already collected Numbers.

 

But it raised too much uncertainty. The moment fake numbers were revealed, it cast every Number played after that into doubt. When Alito used No.80, we were all immediately suspicious whether it was a Fake Number. The issue was more prominent with Numbers 1-4 because Don Thousand gave them to Vector, and Vector distributed them among the Barian assassins. Once they were revealed to be fake, we didn't know whether the Numbers Don Thousand had were fake from the start, or whether he had the real Numbers and created fakes from them. Or if ANYONE had the real Numbers.

 

That subplot being "cleared up" in the Don Thousand Duel just made it worse, since the real Numbers ended up being essentially 4 copies of the same card, just with different names. And since even now, all the Numbers haven't been revealed, it begs the question why they bothered showcasing 4 fake Numbers in the first place.

 

that pretty much sums up everything about zexal

[Toffee.]

It's actually somewhat better then it's original version, seeing as how draw then send, instead of drawing then shuffling back in. So really, this one speeds your deck up.

.....

'Cept it's still Illumiknight.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

It's actually somewhat better then it's original version, seeing as how draw then send, instead of drawing then shuffling back in. So really, this one speeds your deck up.

.....

'Cept it's still Illumiknight.

 

Think you are confused with Goldrat...

[Greiga]

They should make it 3 Level 4 DARK monsters and remove the "send 1 card" part so it's literally a random drawing Xyz.

[Jord200]

That and Don Thousand was flat out cheating at times. The Fake Numbers hurt Zexal heavily. While I was glad the Fake 1-4 weren't the real ones, because they fit there owners TOO well, the effort they put into the real ones is non-existant. The least the could have done is given them the same effects, and bull-crapped something for Number 4.

[heraldry_lord]

That and Don Thousand was flat out cheating at times. The Fake Numbers hurt Zexal heavily. While I was glad the Fake 1-4 weren't the real ones, because they fit there owners TOO well, the effort they put into the real ones is non-existant. The least the could have done is given them the same effects, and bull-crapped something for Number 4.

 

Wasn't that the original idea of the Numbers though (apart from being Astral's memory pieces)?  They change themselves to suit their owners?  Don Thousand could have easily taken the real Numbers 1 to 4, altered their forms to match the assassins they were being handed to, and that would be that.

 

I agree that it's weird that they put so much effort in the Fake Numbers 1 to 4 (distinct and relatively creative effects and themes, and sealed forms to boot), but the real ones were pretty lazy by comparison (they all have pretty meh art, their effects are all the same, and they're all useless without Numeron Direct and Numeron Network, with Number 1 Ekam being the only somewhat distinct one by having a Chaos form).  The only other thing that irritates me in the anime now Number-wise was C5 never having his base form shown.

 

 

 

There were way larger problems with ZeXal.

Like Yuma not deviating his strategy at all, ever.

 

Or Astral using TWO of the 100 Numbers he had at his disposal

TWO

 

2

 

T-W-O

 

T

 

W

 

O

 

When it was explicitly stated multiple times that the reason he would be a challenge is that he had ALL of them.

 

tl;dr - Yusei for best protagonist.

 

To be fair, the duel might have suffered more than it did if Astral went full-****** with the Numbers.  Still, it would have nice to see him use Numbers that we hadn't seen before that (apart from Hope Dragun of course).

[Bahamut - Envoy of the End]

The fake Numbers thing could have been so easily cleared up simply because of the use of Dak Illumiknight, in that although the versions used by Heartland and his gang were also fakes, they and all the million fakes were based upon and had the same effects as the real Astral Numbers. So they could claim 1-4 as fake Numbers, but release them anyway with maybe slightly different names and pics to suit. That's what I had assumed the point of Dark Illumiknight to be.

 

But noooo... Don Thousand had to be seen to use Numbers 1-4 as well, as Number 1 is a huge deal. When they could so easily have had 3 parts to those monsters and done 97-99 if they had to insist on the Numbers being really 'significant ones', and got a few more out of the way.

 

I'm glad I gave up on Zexal at the end of the fifth arc/pre-Barian invasion.

[Jord200]

Yeah, Zexal had a LOT of missed potential. Towards the end, it seemed like they didn't even care. They just wanted to finish it ASAP, and start Arc V.

[Bahamut - Envoy of the End]

Yeah, Zexal had a LOT of missed potential. Towards the end, it seemed like they didn't even care. They just wanted to finish it ASAP, and start Arc V.

 

To be fair: When you get towards the end which is such a difficult thing to do right anyway, after you've been telling the story for so long, your motivation can naturally fade over time. Especially if figures are low and the audience doesn't seem to express much care in it either. Of course it affects you...

 

*glares at a certain section* Cough. AHEM! :angry:

[EPTinYugi]

The fake Numbers thing could have been so easily cleared up simply because of the use of Dak Illumiknight, in that although the versions used by Heartland and his gang were also fakes, they and all the million fakes were based upon and had the same effects as the real Astral Numbers. So they could claim 1-4 as fake Numbers, but release them anyway with maybe slightly different names and pics to suit. That's what I had assumed the point of Dark Illumiknight to be.

With the fake numbers: did they all disappear when Don was beaten, did they disappear before that happen, or are they still around, because that would mean trouble for Yuma and the gang but creates a kind of epilogue of Yuma without astral battling to stop the forces of the evil Fake Numbers. The Fake Numbers at least created a story help for Fanfiction with fan numbers.

[Sleepy]

Overall ZeXal's writers didn't quite know how to go about things.

 

They thought they were actually doing a good job at introducing family values and portraying families well in ZeXal 1. It was just the typical cheap stereotypical scenario where kid lives with no parents around. The mom is further proof of Yugioh's phobia to making females important (as if Kotori wasn't enough). How did she go missing? We got Kazuma's back-story and flashbacks of encouraging Yuma with a made-up words and speeches about... uhh.. manliness? but what about the mother? She was in the Astral world wearing nothing but a bedsheet tied on her shouler. What's up with that?

The sister is just there as the excuse for "we do show you how they get by without their parents to work and earn money" and she also drained any potential spotlight moments that that blue-haired "to summarize" kid could have had, ever (though I'd rather he wouldn't have existed to begin with, we don't need 2 characters for a function in so little demand).

 

The first 10 or so episodes were a mistake. I had fun watching them, but they were a mistake. You don't rush in to assemble a main crew like that. The characters entering need to be relevant for the story, and that can't be the case if you are gonna introduce bad guys afterwards that will actually become the helpful characters with back-story afterwards. I'm talking about III, which they weren't THAT useful arguably speaking, but they would have made for a much more respectable main crew, and I don't care if they'd take 30 episodes to just start showing them.

 

As part of the above statement,  ZeXal tried to follow fads from previous gens and ended up not knowing how to go about it. Shark was pretty much irrelevant compared to Kaito in ZeXal 1, other than some vague statements from Tron about him being important, but those aren't enough if the audience just gets confused and that doesn't get resolved within that series 1. Kaito ended up being the irrelevant one throughout most of ZeXal II, only forced here and there because "OMG Dragons will fight!!!" which frankly did I didn't care because it was like a side-quest to get a pretty trophy while the rest of the story was moving on the other side. They needed to carry around a definite rival all the way. In this case they alternated two (Shark and Kaito) because god forbids a Yugioh series not having a Kaiba-like roll shoved in throughout the time. If a character is no longer relevant, move on. I get that popularity of characters forced them to re-appear, but that's not a good thing. If the story could have had a better flow with Yuma just traveling the world on his own, let it. 

 

In fact, that would have been interesting, having Yuma just go on to explore like his father. No not in that weird spaceship, but an actual journey. That spaceship made it so that they could just effortlessly travel around the world and throughout dimensions and come back as if it had just been a trip to the grocery store. It made everything feel so tiny and casual. Not enough resolve to go out there and hunt the Numbers on your own? Get tournament arc to "gather all Numbers" and facilitate the MC's work instead? Meh.

 

The writers also wanted to portray that the show had hidden meanings and clever messages and plot points about "growth" through cards. Symbolism is left to interpretation though, and from what I've seen, Yuma's Shining Draw IS cheating. Vector's deck-out strategy, even if not morally correct outside the Duel, Yuma was just as bad when creating Numeron Force. That was BS, and it completely disowns the concept of "deck out and control your next draw" as a legit strategy by showcasing how it's fine to change that next draw if you are in a pinch. I don't care how shady Vector's strategy was outside the Duel, you got to cope with it and outbest this kind of situation to be an actual MC. Or you know, making "not carrying all your Numbers at all times" a legit strategy to allow Yuma to lose, because he DID deserve to lose.

 

Fake Numbers were just as weird.

They tried to showcase how fake Numbers are more or less equal to regular ones.

They also remind us how Numbers change depending on the desires of the owners.

But that is not consistent. How often do we see Numbers change themselves? Yuma's Big Eye is still the same as when the original owner had it, and Hope cannot change without Ranking up. It seems to me like once they get a first owner, they can't change anymore. 

That said:

Real Numbers 1-4 don't exist to me.

 

Or or or, maybe since Don Thousand is pretty much similar to Astral, is there any reason why he couldn't make his own Xyzs? The Astral World guy had those New Orders, Don Thousand did have 8 Numbers (counting Barians and his own). Why not just keep going and make it original?

[Jord200]

And why not just have Vector use REGULAR NUMBER 5 INSTEAD OF A CHAOS NUMBER FOR SOMETHING WE NEVER SEE.

[Greiga]

I assume Numbers take form based on the desires of whoever gets them first, so if they're stolen they don't change because the "Blank Number" has already become "a card based on a person's desire". Of course this makes no sense looking at Number 100 and the Legendary Numbers since they correspond with numbers that don't/shouldn't fit this (Over Hundreds).

 

There's some manga dude I read on the wiki where all his numbers stay blank until he needs to win because he has no desire outside of destruction.

 

My only problem with Shining Draw is why didn't Elpihas create a card to make Yuma just lose right there since Yuma couldn't do anything outside of sitting on Hope/Ray Victory.