Agreed. I actually think it shows an inherent characteristic of the respective fanbase - GX being catered to most kids and edgelord cybermaniacs while offering a plethora of diversified characters (it is character-driven as well) while 5ds is supposed to entice a community of media/visual enthusiasts who has a respectable knowledge when it comes to narratives and plot-driven progression in a story
Not well written? Edo Phoenix blew all the other characters out of the park. He is a prodigy who lived in the adult world outside of their little Duel Academia world, took down way more duelists professionally on a regular basis, and took his losses like a man.
Edo was a scrub limp prick kid with adult experiences but never grew up to proper maturity because he was obsessed with his dad's death. He lost to a guy who runs elemental heroes. Doesn't matter if he beat J once, still lost to someone who uses spark blaster/bubble shuffle/specific conditional plot device cards.
The yugioh creators always went for their hero magic/heart of the cards nonsense by making the main characters like Yugi and Jaden win almost everything just to advance the story while pretending that true longtime professionals like Edo Phoenix and Seto Kaiba (who had been winning tournaments since they were children) were not as good.
If I'd have to name a few GX characters with character development, I'd pick Crowler, Axel Brodie, maybe s3-4 Jaden. The rest are either cheerleaders or comedic characters or characters that tried to make relevance but hardly made any impact to the story.
Character development only happened in GX Season 4, yes the season that never got a dub. You could see the main characters struggling with different individual issues and how they made pass it.
Apart from S4, the first 3 seasons gave us next to zero character development.
And Edo did move on from his father's death. He wouldn't have been able to go through with defeating his adoptive father, who tried to stop him from attacking by showing him that Mr. Phoenix was trapped inside one of his monsters, if he hadn't. And I didn't see Edo going on about missing his dad after that, which is saying something since it can't be easy to live with after that.
Talks about maturity.
Tries to boycott other people's business.
Asks for nerfs all the time because never wins in the game.
And can't handle the true.
Very Mature if you ask me.
I actually kinda like Adrian in GX, one of my personal favs in GX. He was a minor character but with a clear/distorted goal. Kinda disappointed that he never made an appearance again, not even a cameo.
My issue with Aster is that he was portrayed as an anti-hero, a rival, a strong character. However after his win against Jaden, he hardly had any relevance to the story. Like we could remove him out of the later story and it would still make sense.
Adrian/Amon was kind of interesting with his backstory and how he became tempted to gain power. But he crossed the line for me when he hit Echo (4 kids may have censored that scene, idk), sacrificed her soul, and tried to 🔥 Aster. And then they never showed what happened to Adrian. Was he just stuck in the other world, or did he die?
I did not like that either. So much could have been done with him. If it were up to me, they could have made a whole other alternate version of GX with Edo as the main hero starting out as a student in Obelisk Blue.
Kalin, huh? I have not gotten that far into 5Ds yet and no one will surpass Edo for me. But from what I have read about him I can understand that opinion.
Here's my quick go-through of my problems with GX characters:
Chazz - Portrayed as the GX Kaiba, ended up as the GX Rex/Weevil
Alexis - Only here because we need a female lead
Bastion - Scraped half way through the show. What about that Fire Dragon that was showed in the opening?
Aster - Pretty much useless since the Alt. Dimension arc
Hussleberry - Who?
Sounds pretty accurate, unfortunately. The worst part: Ryo and Edo barely being in season 3 and then just being thrown in season four for two episodes for fanservice because the writers probably felt that their main storylines had run their course and they didn't know what else to do with them.
Axel - Somehow this cameo character made bigger impact than Chazz and Alexis
Jim - Useless
Adrian - Smart punk, has a clear goal to achieve. Failed and was removed from the show
Atticus - Irrelevant but at least he gave us new Red Eyes support
Chumley - How did he even made it into Duel Academy?