The Society of Light
From Yu-Gi-Oh!
Contents |
[edit] Character design
[edit] History
On the surface, the goal of Sartorius and his organization appears to be world domination starting with Duel Academy by expanding their syndicate, but Sartorius evidently wishes to put his stalled fate back into motion through the powers of Jaden and Aster. His ultimate goal is to put an end to the "age of darkness" by destroying the planet to restore balance to its imperfect state, and create the world or on a greater scale, the universe anew. Members are brainwashed into the Society's fold by losing to Sartorius or one of his representatives in a duel, using Sartorius' own mystical powers of fate-prediction and his talent for pushing an opponent's buttons to make them lose faith in their own lives and convince them that joining the Society is a much more preferable alternative.
Duelists reined into the Society in this manner are usually very devoted to its goals, and have a deep obsession with the color white because of the fact that they were brainwashed upon their defeat. Essentially, the truth of their obedience is clouded behind the Society, Sartorius, and the lies they are told; they often outright reject or even forget parts of their pre-Society past the more they're in it, and ex-members often can't remember anything that they did in the Society beyond the duel that forced them into it, after they're broken free. Only those with incredibly strong wills or those under the influence of outside forces can escape the Society's hold, and at its basic level, Sartorius' mind control is not necessarily absolute; with some duelists, aspects of their old personalities can shine through on occasion, though this can be rectified should Sartorius exercise more strength in using his powers. The signature card used by the highest ranking members is White Veil, which represents their belief in the "light of truth."
Shortly after the second year begins, Chazz is defeated by Sartorius and coerced into joining the organization. From then on, he serves as means of converting the remaining top Obelisk Blue students, and by episode 70, most of them are defeated and have "seen the light." In protest, Alexis duels with Chazz, only to become a member herself upon her loss.
During the field trip to Domino City, Sartorius confronts Seto Kaiba and requests the use of KaibaLand. Once his request is granted, Jaden and Aster are lured into the virtual world by his sister, Sarina. Upon learning of their victory, Sartorius suddenly becomes more interested in leading them towards their respective dooms. As his sister alludes (states explicitly in the Japanese version), the universe's threat lies in the Wheel of Fate (Wheel of Fortune), a metaphor for both Sartorius' destiny and the weapon of mass destruction he would later obtain.
In episode 82, Chazz begins recruiting top students of Ra Yellow for the Society of Light, which leads Bastion to challenge Sartorius to a duel. Sartorius sends Chazz in place of himself, and Bastion allows himself to be defeated in order to become a member of the organization. Two episodes later, under Sartorius' request, Chancellor Sheppard invites Prince Ojin of the Misgarth kingdom to participate in the Genex tournament. Sartorius thus acquires the control switch for the most dangerous mind-control satellite known to the world, Misgarth (S.O.R.A. in the Japanese version; ソーラ, Sōra), along with the two keys for its activation, by defeating him in a duel. To prevent his evil side from instigating world destruction, Sartorius eventually approaches Jaden and Aster, giving them the keys. In response, his evil personality assigns more dueling assassins to win the keys back, but is unsuccessful.
In episode 97, Pegasus reveals the origins of the Society of Light. In the dark recesses of space, several hundreds of millions of years ago, a white hole released the dark matter of a black hole, as well as a great energy known as the Surge of Light (光の波動, Hikari no Hadō), which bombarded the Earth throughout the course of history, propagating wars, disasters, crimes, and dictatorships. The "Ultimate D-Card" created by Aster's father was corrupted by such energy, and caused both Sartorius and Pro League king, The D, to develop split personalities. Because of its infectious properties that rival the powers of the Egyptian God Cards and Sacred Beast Cards , as well as his concern that Aster will be harmed should it ever arrive in his hands, Pegasus wishes to seal the card away before it brings an end to the world.
In episode 100, Aster breaks into Obelisk Blue looking for Sartorius, and finds him waiting in the Society of Light's private duel field, the Great White Temple (ホワイト大神殿, Howaito Dai Shinden). Intending to keep his promise of saving Sartorius from his destiny of becoming a destroyer, Aster considers relinquishing his key to Misgarth, but is persuaded by Jaden to do otherwise. Recognizing the present Sartorius as an impostor posing as his dearest friend, he wagers the key in a duel, but is quickly overwhelmed by the persona calling itself the Light of Destruction.
Following Aster's defeat, Jaden takes his place to determine the fate of the world by dueling Sartorius. While the battle is taking place, Chazz successfully reverts all of the Society of Light's members back to their former selves with the assistance of a group of Obelisk Blue students, thereby releasing Duel Academy from the Society's grip. Having obtained both keys due to a blunder on Jaden's part, Sartorius takes complete control of Ojin and orders him to the fire the mind-control satellite. Although it does cause some damage to the planet's surface, Sarina hacks into Misgarth's programming to disable it, allowing both Elemental Hero Neos and Tyranno Hassleberry (Tyranno Kenzan) to destroy the satellite. Shortly afterwards, Jaden defeats Sartorius, and the Light of Destruction is sealed away forever.
[edit] Notable Members
- Sartorius - As the puppet leader of the insidious cult, he is controlled by the Light of Destruction to do its dirty work.
- Chazz Princeton - A brash duelist carrying feelings of inferiority, Sartorius uses these feelings to convince Chazz to join him. During his time as a member, Chazz serves as Sartorius' main enforcer.
- Alexis Rhodes - A young female duelist who led the resistance effort against the mass conversion of the Obelisk Blue dorms, after being defeated by a converted Chazz Princeton, she finally joins the Society of Light. However unlike Chazz she isn't as devoted to making others "see the light" and still has pride as an Obelisk Blue as shown in "Pro-Dueling" until she is stripped of her free will by Sartorius in Episode 93.
- Bastion Misawa - A cool and calculating duelist who yearns for attention and praise for his talents, like Chazz, Sartorius uses these feelings to convince Bastion to join him.
[edit] Howard X Miller
See Howard X Miller.
[edit] Alien of Light
In the English dubs, it's voiced by Wayne Grayson while Takahiro Hirano takes the part in the Japanese version.
It plays a Different Dimension Deck, primarily centered around Candelato, the Beast of Light. Although the card prevents its controller from drawing any additional cards during the Draw Phase, the Alien of Light takes advantage of its simple summoning conditions as a means of brute force.
[edit] Bob Banter
Bob leaves a message in a chat room seeking romantic advice for when confronting someone out of your league. Syrus shows this to Jaden who mistakenly interprets it as someone seeking dueling advice and as says that all he must do is have confidence in himself. The truth is, Bob holds strong feelings for Alexis and is saddened by the fact that she considers him uninteresting. (In the Japanese version, she forgets his name, calling him various other wrong names such as "Akihabara-kun" and "Ueno-kun", both of which are places in Tokyo.)
Nonetheless, after seeing Jaden's advice, Bob seeks out Alexis to express his love and bumps into Jaden, Syrus and Hassleberry on the way. When Alexis appears she forces Jaden and Bob into a duel. Similar to the stakes of Jaden's other duels with a Society of Light member, if he loses, he must join the organization.
Because his deck quizzes the opponent, Chazz thinks Bob has found Jaden’s weakness by forcing him into having to use his mind. However, after many rounds of difficult questions and tasks, Jaden manages to win, to the disappointment of Alexis and Chazz. From the duel Bob realizes Jaden is the one who replied to the message. Because Alexis still disregards him as nobody, he begs for more advice from Jaden, who flees from him claiming to be a dueling expert not a romance expert. (In the Japanese version, he calls Jaden, "Aniki!" which translates into "big brother".)
Bob makes a cameo, appearing at the graduation ceremony during episode 179. He is voiced by Darren Dunstan in the dub.
Bob's name as well as his character in the English version is a pun on the name of Bob Barker. While dueling he takes on the voice of a game show host and uses common game show jargon, referencing numerous existing game shows including The Price is Right, Press Your Luck, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. The game panel itself is similar to the game show Jeopardy!. However, this display disappears when Bob is losing or worried.
Bob plays a Game Show Deck, which sets up the duel as a game show, with Bob as the host. The majority of his monsters possess abilities that activate when they are flipped face-up, causing effect damage to opponent if he is unable to answer a posed question correctly, or inflicting damage to himself if he does answer correctly. Once his "Quiz Panels" are depleted, the Summoning of "Quizzer Panel 9" allows Bob to return all of them to his Deck for another round.
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[edit] Lorenzo
His name in the original version means "silver meteor" when translated in Japanese order.
In the English dub, he speaks with the accent of an Italian mafia member who uses stereotypical Sopranos phrases such as "Bada-bing!" and "Forgetta 'bout it!" He is voiced by Anthony Salerno, while Kazuhiro Shindou takes the role in the Japanese version.
Lorenzo plays a Boss Rush Deck. With the effect of "Boss Rush", Lorenzo is able to continuously summon B.E.S. monsters as they are destroyed, causing extra damage with "Cyber Summon Blaster". The flaw of this strategy, however, is that he is no longer able to summon in any other manner as long as Boss Rush remains in play. The concept of Lorenzo's cards is derived from the Konami video game series, Gradius, wherein a common element is a boss marathon consisting of about five bosses near the end of the game without any breaks between bosses.
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[edit] The Light Brigade
- Main article: The Light Brigade
