John

John is a character from Legendhiro's Yu-Gi-Oh! DF. John is very clearly the main character. He is often the character that the others turn to, and he defeats a greater share of the enemies than anyone else. John is kind, heroic and responsible, but you might not realize it at first. John can also be immature and a joker. This is because John has a dark side locked deep within him, and he worries that if he stops laughing, it will get out. John is in love with fellow Duel Force member Karen. He is a skilled martial artist, with a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
John's favorite monster/Spirit Monster is The Fiend Megacyber. This is because both are dark warriors who heroically fight against the darkness.
== Personality/Mannerisms ==
John goofs off. A lot. But he's smart. He knows when not to goof off, and when he's needed, he can step up like no one else. He's a great leader because he's good at making decisions. He's brave and honorable. His only real negative qualities are his pride, and his inability to acknowledge his emotions. These may not seem like serious flaws, but in reality, there are few that are worse.
== Story ==
John is often the focal point of the story. The books are almost entirely told by him, and he plays a bigger part in events than any other individual character.
=== Gather the Duel Force ===
In the first story arch, John is randomly selected to create and lead a four person Team Duel team to compete against Team Beatdown, the team assembled by the regional champion Christopher Johnson, in an exhibition match celebrating the opening of the local Industrial Illusions Game Center. Against all odds, John and his team win their duel, catching the eye of Game Center sponsor Maxamillion J. Pegasus. Pegasus invites John and his team, consisting of himself, his sister Sarah, his cousin Jen, and his best friend Tucker, to Duelist Kingdom to test their skills. The four think that it is only an invitation to participate in a game and agree to go, but as the tests draw near, John wonders if Pegasus' warnings of impending doom might be true.
On the island Duelist Kingdom, Pegasus pits John and his team against a skilled Duel Robot, equipped with four decks based on the four decks used by the finalists in the Duelist Kingdom tournament. John faces off against a "Balance Deck" based on Yugi Muto's deck, using brand new cards which Pegasus made specifically for the event. John defeats the Duel Robot by using a move that Pegasus says compares even to the ones used by the King of Games. After the tests, Pegasus informs John and his team of the legend of the Forgotten Duelist and the Duelist's Souls, informing them that it is their destiny to release the Twelve Souls from their tomb in the Burial of the Souls. Afterward, John and his companions will gain control of four of the Souls while the other eight seek out their wielders. He also tells John that it is he who will attract and lead the Twelve Soul Wielders. Pegasus warns John and his friends of another group that wants the Souls; the Duelists of the Order of the Divine Cards. He knows that three members of this organization have been sent to take the Souls before the Duel Force can. Despite certain reservations, John makes the decision, for his team, to take what Pegasus has told them seriously.
Funded by Pegasus, John and his team make their way to Egypt. Before they even board their plane, the Duel Force is met by three members of the Order; Karen, the task force leader, Lawrence, the muscle, and Monty, the brains. The Duel Force is defeated. The Order members warn the members of the Duel Force that if they continue to search for the Burial of the Souls, they will be attacked again, and that the next time will be fatal. This, however, only serves to strengthen the Duel Force's resolve.
In Egypt, John duels Odion Ishtar, winning him as a guide to the Burial, which is thought to be cursed, and is therefore avoided by the locals. Later, John convinces Tucker to go hunting with him for new cards for the Duel Force's decks, and John is present when Tuckers wins several. This allows the members of the Duel Force to increase the power of their decks considerably.
Odion leads the Duel Force to the Burial of the Souls. The four manage to unlock the Burial, but before they can enter, they are attacked again by the Order. But this time, with some help from their destined Souls, John and his team-mates defeat the Order. They go into the Burial and release the other eight Souls into the world to find their bearers. John also meets a spirit who claims to be a guardian of the Burial, a living manifestation of the ancient Forgotten Duelist's power, who lives in John's Soul of Darkness. John agrees to let this spirit share his body, and in exchange the spirit, called Hiro, will assist John in his task of uniting the twelve Soul Bearers.
=== Reign of the Reaper ===
A mysterious Duelist named Max appears, using his powerful Spirit Reaper deck to steal Jen and Tucker's strongest cards. John and Sarah duel Max to get the cards back, betting their Duelist's Souls of Darkness and Water. John, however, is barely able to fight. He and Sarah narrowly defeat Max, and Max retreats for the time being. Soon after, John saves a Duelist named Rocky from some thugs sent by the Order. Rocky is discovered to be the bearer of the Soul of Earth.
Later, John duels his mother's apprentice, Kimi Hakashi. Kimi reveals that she is the bearer of the Soul of Light, and accuses John of having changed his deck for the worst, because he's afraid of the Order. When John loses, he realizes that Kimi is right. He changes his deck again, getting it right, preparing to duel Max one final time. It isn't much later that Rocky, Kimi and Amanda are forced to fight Lawrence, Monty and Karen. When the Duel Force wins again, the leader of the Order, a mysterious figure known as Yami, appears to kill the three Order members as punishment. John saves them, and it's revealed that Yami has been manipulating their minds. John invites them to join his team, and Karen, Monty and Lawrence receive the Souls of Imagination, Knowledge and Power.
It isn't long before John discovers that Max has kidnapped his mom. John meets Max in battle to rescue her. After a lengthy battle with Max, John is victorious. Yami appears again, this time meaning to take Max's life. Again John stands up for his enemy, showing Max how to stand up to Yami himself. Yami is repelled again. It is revealed that Max had been an unwilling follower of Yami. Max receives the Soul of Life, which gives him power over fear.
=== Special #1: The Ancient Cards ===
John duels a mysterious Duelist named Ned, who possesses a powerful deck of "Ancient" themed cards. Later, he is informed by Pegasus that a specific Duelist and his monster, Ancient Dragon of Life, will be needed to save the world very soon. John seeks out this Duelist to warn him of what is to come, but is unsuccessful. His search is interrupted by John's rival Christopher. Christopher wants to duel, but the duel is cut short when John and Christopher both are attacked and defeated by the ancient enemy of the Ancient Dragon of Life; the Divine Spirit Dracon.
=== The Dark Duel Force ===
John mysteriously falls into a coma. He is pulled into the back of his own mind where he must defeat the mysterious spirit Millennium Keeper, restoring balance to his Soul, unlocking a new power, and waking himself up before his friends all have their spirits stolen by the Dark Duel Force and sent to Yami. John wakes up just in time to find his friends all defeated, and only the leader of the Dark Duel Force, the terrifying Archfiend Ruler, left standing. John defeats Archfiend Ruler and follows his spirit back to Yami.
Yami's identity is revealed. He is actually the dark side of the Battle City Duelist Marik Ishtar. Yami Marik seeks to use the powers of the Souls to cast an ancient Spell that will give him back his body, while letting him keep all of the frightening power that he accumulated while in his noncorporeal state. John discovers the power of the Soul of Chaos, the evolved form of the Soul of Dakness. John uses this power to defeats Yami Marik, even after Marik summon the Egyptian God monster Sky Dragon of Osiris (Slifer the Sky Dragon), stolen from Industrial Illusions. John wins the God card, kills Yami Marik, and releases all of the spirits that Marik had accumulated, including those belonging to the Dark Duel Force.
=== Terror of Blackheart ===
John is possessed by Blackheart, the dark side of the Forgotten Duelist. He is freed when Karen and the others succeed in reviving the Duelist, who defeats Blackheart once and for all. Because Blackheart had secured the remaining two God cards from their burial place in Yami Marik's former headquarters and added them to his deck, John now possesses them.
=== Kaiba Corp Invitational Tournament ===
John competes in the Second Kaiba Corporation Grand Championship. He defeats a powerful Duelist named Evo in the first round. He is later confronted by Dark Duel Force member War Ruler, who reveals himself and fellow Dark Duel Force member Guardian Ruler as Marcus and Raphael. He claims that they are undercover agents of the secret society The Duelists Elite, which fights the Order. Marcus claims that Exodus, an Exodia deck user who beat Marcus in the first round, is a rogue Order member who means to use the power of Exodius, the Ultimate Forbidden God to seize control of the world. John uses the powers of the Soul of Darkness to read Marcus' mind and confirm that he's telling the truth. John uses the three Gods to defeat Exodus, and then kills him with the power of a Penalty Game.
John goes on to face his rival Christopher Johnson. The duel comes down to John's favorite card, The Fiend Megacyber, and Christopher's favorite card, Frost and Flame Dragon. John is victorious, going on to the finals to face the King of Games, Yugi Muto. John wins, but only because Yugi's Legendary Dragon cards, which have returned to Earth to fight a great evil, surrender to John's God cards. They know that John will be the one to face this rising evil, and they mean to help. They need Yugi to lose so that they can be passed to John. Because of the unusual circumstances of his victory, John does not take Yugi's title King of Games, even though he is temporarily elevated to World Championship status.
=== Special #2: The Looming Threat ===
John is struck comatose yet again, this time on his first date with Karen. This time his must face his own dark half. He defeats his dark side, but he soon finds himself face to face with the most powerful dark creature ever to live; Dark Divine Dragon. Karen throws herself into John's mind and rescues him. The two return to the outside world, the Dark Divine Dragon close behind. John combines the power of the three Gods and the three Legendary Dragons with his Soul Monster Great Maju Garzett, creating a monster with even greater power than Dark Divine Dragon. Dark Divine Dragon is destroyed, but his escape from the Shadows, using John as a conduit, leaves behind a thread of darkness which the Dark John can use to further pull his way toward the forefront of John's mind.
=== The Great Duel Force Tournament ===
John decides to disband the Duel Force, and he agrees to give the team a sendoff by using some of his Grand Championship winnings to book a day at the stadium of the newly opened Kaibaland in Columbus, Ohio. His entire team, Christopher, John's apprentice Jenna, John's mom, and Hiro, inhabiting a magically conjured body will all compete in a tournament. John defeats strong rivals including Karen, Rocky and Tucker, and moves on to fight Hiro in the final round. After a lengthy duel, Hiro is defeated. Hiro, who knew that his remaining time was short, disappears. Though it is unknown for certain what happens to him, John believes that Hiro has moved on to the next life.
After the tournament, John is about to confess his love to Karen when he is asked to Seto Kaiba's office. He is invited by both Kaiba and his associate Pegasus to attend the newly completed Duel Academy, as a means of drawing American Duelists to the school, which does not yet have an American branch. He agrees under the condition that Karen can accompany him and enroll in the card design program, since her dream is to work with Pegasus designing cards.
John learns that Tucker's irresponsible father spent Tucker's college fund. He gives his remaining Grand Championship prize, a very large sum of money, to Tucker, allowing Tucker to go to college and move on with his life.
== The Soul of Darkness/Chaos ==
Soul Quality: Balance
Soul Monster: Great Maju Garzett
The Soul of Darkness is normally the most powerful of the Twelve Souls, though its powers can be exceeded by Karen's Soul of Imagination at times. The Soul of Darkness grants its wielder the power to shape and control darkness itself. It also grants its wielder the power to see and travel to anywhere that is touched by darkness, including the hearts and minds of others. It is likely that the wielder of the Soul of Darkness can also control the minds of others, as the powers of the Soul of Darkness seem to resemble to powers of the evil entity Blackheart, and Blackheart had this power. The wielder of the Soul of Darkness can also summon up the Dark Duel Disk, which can separate into a sword and a small shield.
The Soul of Darkness can evolve into the Soul of Chaos when it is in balance with its wielder. The Soul of Chaos grants the additional power to control forces greater than the wielder, even a force like fate itself. This power is difficult to achieve, much like the full power of Karen's Soul of Imagination.
== Deck ==
John uses variations of his original dark deck, supplemented by remove from play cards and Chaos cards.
=== Gather the Duel Force ===
John uses several cards here that would be considered weaker than average, but he uses them in very effective ways.
=== Reign of the Reaper ===
John uses two different decks in this book. One is an imbalanced deck with many random cards. The other is an early form of his later Different Dimension/Chaos deck.
Some cards listed were not shown:
=== Special #1: The Ancient Cards ===
John is not the focus of the special, so not much of his deck is shown here.
=== The Dark Duel Force ===
John's deck continues to take shape.
=== Terror of Blackheart ===
All that we see of John's deck in Terror of Blackheart is what Blackheart plays against Karen early on in the story. Afterward, Blackheart changes John's deck. At that moment, the deck stopped being John's
=== Kaiba Corp Invitational Tournament ===
This version of John's deck is, more or less, the version that he will use from now on. It is the first to feature his "Magnet Monster" combo.
=== Special #2: The Looming Threat ===
A limited view of an alternate version of John's deck. He also summons the Egyptian Gods, the three Legendary Dragons, and Great Maju Garzett during the special, but he does so outside of a duel. Still, it can be assumed that these cards are a part of his deck at the time.
=== The Great Duel Force Tournament ===
The last version of John's deck to be featured in Yu-Gi-Oh! DF.
==Yu-Gi-Oh! DA==
After the conclusion of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Force, John and Karen move on to the newly opened Duel Academy in the spinoff book Yu-Gi-Oh! DA (Duel Academy). John has been made overconfident by his victory over Hiro and by how easily he seems to outshine his fellow students. Many of the conflicts in this book stem in some way from this overconfidence and its affect on his blossoming relationship with Karen.
===Part I: The Card Takers===
John and Karen witness a teenage duelist crush his test opponent during the Duel Academy entrance exam dueling portion and are very impressed. John later meets this Duelist, named Thomas, in one of his classes. Thomas tells John about a group of Duelists calling themselves the Card Takers who are seeking challenges by challenging fellow students to duels with their favorite cards as ante. John moves to face them. He claims to want to recover the cards lost to the Card Takers, and on some level he does, but he mostly is looking for a thrill.
John meets the Card Takers at night at the bridge to the dorm that would one day become Osiris (Slifer) Red. He discovers that the Takers are ex-Order members who heard that John was the one who defeated Yami Marik and freed them from Marik's influence. They engineered the entire situation with the anted cards in order to draw John into what they call a "real duel". John faces the first (weaker) of the two Card Taker members. He is overconfident and fails to take notice of his opponent's strategy. John loses, losing his The Fiend Megacyber to his opponent.
John is thrown into a retrospective depression. He skips classes the next day and is promptly forced into a Shadow Duel by a mysterious figure, who overwhelms him almost instantly. During the duel, John realizes his mistakes and manages to turn the duel around. He is then able to see that his opponent is really his old friend Max and that the Shadow Game is false. Max, having succeeded in snapping John out of his "funk" states that the debt created when John saved Max from Yami has been repayed, since John's deficiency could very easily have led to his death. Soon after, after Thomas loses his Flame Spirit Ignis to the Card Takers, attempting to recover John's lost card, John challenges the Card Takers to a rematch.
John defeats the Card Takers. They reveal that they had planned to return all of the cards they had won anyway, but John still doesn't like them.
===Part II: The Shadow===
John, now more serious about his life, and Karen meet a fangirl of John's, Gloria "Ria" Hernandez, at the quarterly Dueling Exams. Ria has a very obvious and flamboyant crush on John. She initially challenges Karen for John's affections, even when John reveals that he has no real interest in her. It isn't long before it is revealed that Karen and Ria have been paired off to duel. They agree to place stakes on the duel. If Karen wins, Ria must back off, but if Ria wins, she can sontinue to pursue John. Ria is defeated, and John invites her to join his circle of friends ("Try being my friend, not my fan"). Ria declines, but is later shown as part of John's group alongside Karen and Thomas. She also continues to pursue John, despite her bet with Karen. John does nothing to get her to stop, though to his credit, he does consistantly turn her down.
Meanwhile a mysterious force latches itself to a book and tricks two Duel Academy students into summoning it into our dimension. It begins absorbing/consuming Blue Dorm students in secret for their Duel Energy in order to increase its physical pressence in this dimension. Once it is strong enough to openly attack the dorm, John and Karen take notice. They move to confront the creature and discover that it has attacked Thomas and Ria and that only Thomas escaped. Because the creature has put up a barrier of shadows, only John is able to continue forward, taking with him a gift from Karen; a card made by her specifically for his deck.
John finds the creature, which he refers to as the Shadow, about to absorb Ria. John uses his shadow powers to save her and engages in a duel against the Shadow with his and Ria's lives on the line. He defeats and repells the Shadow using Karen's gift, The Fiend Omegacyber. He then goes to attend to the unconscious Ria. She awakens and kisses him, just as Karen enters. Karen is enraged, breaking things off with John and stating her plans to be given a seprate schedule from John the following year, as well as an intension to move to the Red Dorm.
John confronts Shappard and Kagemaru, the Headmaster and Head Professor of Duel Academy, after hearing from Thomas that Sheppard appeared during John's duel. Thomas had told John that Sheppard, Kagemaru and probably other professors knew that something evil might attack the school and did nothing to prevent it. John threatens them, but they explain that they never expected something so powerful to be attracted by the collection of Duel Energy from Duel Academy students. When John asks if they plan to shut down the school, the two instructors go on to explain that the school is necessary to teach the gifted few how to become stronger so that they can face things like the Shadow down the road. It is a necessary evil. John reluctantly agrees. John explains to the two older men that the Blue Dorm will aways be connected to the shadows, so they agree to declare the building off limits and expand the forest around it. This first Blue Dorm becomes the Abandoned Dorm featured heavily in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and the events here are why the dorm attracts dark energies later on in, that series.
During the confusion presented during the assignment of rooms for the remainder of the first year for all Blue students, John is able to beat Karen to changing his dorm/schedule. He also returns Karen's gift as part of a note explaining his intention to remove himself from Karen's life until he has gotten his life together. He doesn't reveal himself until the following year. It is unclear what he had been doing until then.
Late into Duel Academy's second year, the Shadow returns, having slowly siphoned small amounts of Duel Energy from the students on the island until strong enough to instigate its full and complete emergence into our dimension. It is met in battle by Karen, Ria (who has reconciled with Karen), and eventual by a fearful and reluctant Thomas. They are unable to defeat the Shadow, and are saved by John, who has recovered the serious side of his personality lost since the end of Yu-Gi-Oh! DF. He again engages the Shadow in a Shadow Game, this time without his gift from Karen. When it becomes clear that Shadow is much more powerful now than it was before, it appears that John will lose, until his connection to Karen allows The Fiend Omegacyber to join back with his deck. He uses Omegacyber to defeat the Shadow's Neos Wiseman and win the duel. John penalizes the Shadow by trapping it in an eternally formless state, forcing it to observe the world it wished to rule forever without ever being able to be a part of it.
===Part III: Emergence of the Sacred Beasts===
John and Karen have renewed their relationship. John moves back up to the Blue Dorm, now Obelisk Blue Dorm. They think things are going well until the beginning of year three when they learn from Sheppard that a new threat is about to appear. Sheppard explains that after Maxamillion J. Pegasus created the God Cards he also created their foils, the Sacred Beasts. But the Beasts threatened to absorb all life from every monster and Duelist around it. A co-worker and friend of Pegasus, Kagemaru, had a unique power to seal the Beasts and offered to keep the Beasts bound in his deck until his death, taking the spirits of the Beasts with him. But Sheppard explains that the governing intelligence of the Beasts, their combined form Armityle, has eroded Kagemaru's control and seized his body and deck. Sheppard enlists John, along with Karen, Thomas and Ria, to help him fight Armityle and his three Sacred Beast forms/cards.
Armityle has not yet reached the point where he can summon himself into a duel, so he forms a plan to protect himself from John and Karen, the biggest threats to his emergence, until after his power has been fully realized. He awakens the dark side of former Card Taker Shin. Dark Shin cuts John and Karen off from the others. He uses a combination Wind/Dark Deck to defeat Karen and banish her to the Shadows with Armityle's power before he himself is banished by John. John moves on to face the Beasts and Armityle and break its spell, returning Karen, and finds that Sheppard, Thomas and Ria have all been defeated by Armityle at once.
John and Armityle face off in a Shadow Game that has the potential to deal real physical damage to the players, especial from the attacks of monsters as strong as the Sacred Beasts. John almost dies, especially after Armityle combines the Sacred Beasts to summon himself. But John manages to use Armityle's power against him. He penalizes Armityle by shattering the intelligence that Armityle holds dear and transforming him into a mindless beast. This is why Armityle must be summoned with a Spell card in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime, since he is no longer smart enough to summon himself.
The shock of the duel leaves Kagemaru injured and unable to continue as headmaster. John uses his powers to make Kagemaru forget the Beasts, and therefore any guilt he may feel, unaware that Kagemaru would discover the Beasts again several years later and seek their power in a bid to recover his youth. Kagemaru retires and names Sheppard headmaster. Sheppard commissions for the school, destroyed in the battle with the Beasts, to be rebuilt with a secret vault beneath it in which the Beasts can be safely sealed away.
===Part IV: A Duel of Fate===
John's fourth year begins. He and his friends are well known across the island as the heroes who saved Kagemaru and Sheppard from the "collapse of the Duel Academy building" the previous year. Pegasus appears at the school and offers Karen a job heading up his design department. He also gives Ria a place on a Duel Monsters team he is forming. He states that he needs one more duelist for his team and John and Thomas duel for that possition. John narrowly defeats Thomas, who has vastly improved, easily reaching John's level. Pegasus begins to give John the possition on his team, but John declines, stating that Thomas is more deserving. Moved by John's self-sacrifice, Pegasus allows both to become members of his team. John and his friends move on to their desired futures, which all look very bright.
===Deck (DA)===
John's deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Academy is a vastly upgraded version of his deck used at the end of DF. Though it is still too early at this point for Synchro Monsters to exist, John does use some strong cards from the current era of the Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG/TCG which would lend well to a Synchro version of the deck, should one ever appear. This deck contains the card made for him by Karen: The Fiend Omegacyber.
== Trivia ==
*Despite the fact that John is the main character, the author has said that John is rarely his favorite character. He and John are quite similar in terms of personality, and writing from John's perspective can get boring.
*The similarities between John and the author are mostly accidental, according to the author. Though, he will admit that some of them were on purpose.
*John is named after the author.
Category:Characters
Category:Males
Category:Fan Fiction