Characters with wasted potential

[Dread Kaiser]

DM:

Bakura (in the anime, obviously). His lack of participation in every filler arc was disappointing.

Rebecca in the DOMA arc, too, I wish she had done a bit more (but she was the highlight of the KC Grand Prix, so there's that).

GX:
Asuka's slowly dwindling role.

Misawa was a particular disappointment to me. He honestly reminded me of MYSELF when I used to Duel with my friends in middle and high school. Starting the game far before when the game started so to speak. I once "helped" a friend with his deck, then showed up the next day with a deck specifically designed to counter what I told him. Yeah, I was a dick when I was a kid. So I wanted more Misawa. Always.

I would say Sho as well, but they actually pulled off something fairly unique with him in season 3 - they developed him and the development was explicitly NOT tied to Dueling at all.

All of the foreign champions except Johan could have done with more screentime (even though they were eating the screentime of the original cast), but what we got from each of them was good. Amon is a particular favorite.

5D's:
Aki, Ruka and Rua, obviously. Particularly Ruka. Oh, and Sherry. These are some of the worst offenders in the franchise.

ZEXAL:
Rio sticks out to me here, such a good debut for her and then basically nothing after that. Definitely suffered from "too many characters" syndrome. I would have liked to see more from Gauche too, but his role in the story was pretty much done, so I appreciate that they didn't keep shoehorning him in (bar the Legendary Numbers arc duel, but that was a fairly-well done shoehorn).

Plus the entire Numbers Club. Cathy was an early favorite of mine, it was very disappointing she dropped off the radar except for crush on Yuma. I honestly liked Tokunosuke's character too. I'm more neutral towards class rep and Tetsuo, but they weren't bad characters by any means.

Also Durbe. And despite all this, ZEXAL had enough other interesting characters that did get screentime that I can't complain too much.

I dunno how I even forgot about Misawa til now....

That and V. didn't get to do much unlike his brothers. as a villain his role was....keeping IV in line. and not much else.
then his duel was "I know everything you gonna do" crap, but unlike End of Fortune Cup-Jack he didn't demonstrate it very well since his game amounted to "hide behind Dyson sphere with a themed 7Tools down". Whatever happened to those hell-themed cards he used on that stupid duel coaster?
Then got eaten by Neo Galaxy eyes, the one monster he really SHOULD have seen coming, given he watch it take out both III and IV

I DID like his duel against Mizar though. THAT was well done and didn't suffer from the usual issues I had with Zexal Duels

[MystikX]

Honestly, when it comes to character development for side-characters, they need to do the Vanguard route, and do what VG did with Izaki. Dude got more development in a single episode than the main character got in the entire series. And that was 120 episodes into the series!

[Zarkiel]

Astral. Total wasted potential. He's set up as a dueling genius, but the first time we see him duel, he's terrified of his opponent. However, about 80 episodes later he duel 96 and had him set up for defeat right from the start. and in the end, can summon 5 different utopias in like 1 turn. They should of had him duel more rather than backseat for yuma in my opinion.

[Mystic TimeKeeper]

Honestly, when it comes to character development for side-characters, they need to do the Vanguard route, and do what VG did with Izaki. Dude got more development in a single episode than the main character got in the entire series. And that was 120 episodes into the series!

For a moment I had to think really hard, then I remembered who and what you were talking about and I say Yes! That's the way to develop a side character.

And Sherry was really a sad story, she was progressing so well then she disappears until the end of the season, at least the handicap duel was awesome.

[Dread Kaiser]

Astral. Total wasted potential. He's set up as a dueling genius, but the first time we see him duel, he's terrified of his opponent. However, about 80 episodes later he duel 96 and had him set up for defeat right from the start. and in the end, can summon 5 different utopias in like 1 turn. They should of had him duel more rather than backseat for yuma in my opinion.

To be fair, Kaito DID nearly kill him earlier and he was basically directing Yumas moves in that duel so by extent Kaito beat HIM. He also may or may not have had all of his skill intact due to the memory thing.

in the end he was taking over for Don K as BS final boss. it DOES make you wonder where the shit his deck was all this time though.

"Funny story, I had this ultra BS in my back pocket the whole series"
--Astral

[Cheesedude]

I just assume that gaining all the Numbers unlocked his full power, letting him use and/or create other powerful cards, too.

I mean look what happens to Vector's Deck once he merges with Don Thousand. Then Nasch's Deck suddenly has the same sort of Chaos support once he takes Thousand's Numbers. Same deal here, I think.

That, or the Astral and Barian Worlds both have their own CAC Machines.

[Dread Kaiser]

I just assume that gaining all the Numbers unlocked his full power, letting him use and/or create other powerful cards, too.

I mean look what happens to Vector's Deck once he merges with Don Thousand. Then Nasch's Deck suddenly has the same sort of Chaos support once he takes Thousand's Numbers. Same deal here, I think.

That, or the Astral and Barian Worlds both have their own CAC Machines.

Basically, things make more sense when you think of their cards/decks as Techniques from DBZ, they just learn new ones, no need to think any harder on it.

[Cheesedude]

I mean, yeah. Its explicitly shown that way in-universe numerous times, too. You can practice your drawing skills to make them better. Tarzan guy did it so much his other dueling skills atrophied.

Anything that can't be chalked up to "lol, I bought new cards" or "superpowers gave me this" should probably just be assumed to be the latter.

[iNfiniTe Se7eNz]

Izayoi Aki is probably the first one that comes to mind for me because I loved so many attributes about her and then she got blown off completely and then swept under the rug. But in all honestly, I feel like Yu-Gi-Oh! anime as a franchise is all wasted potential, because the writers like to just pull crap all the time. Pretty much anyone not the main character is sidelined to an unnecessary extent.

[Mystic TimeKeeper]

Izayoi Aki is probably the first one that comes to mind for me because I loved so many attributes about her and then she got blown off completely and then swept under the rug. But in all honestly, I feel like Yu-Gi-Oh! anime as a franchise is all wasted potential, because the writers like to just pull crap all the time. Pretty much anyone not the main character is sidelined to an unnecessary extent.

And even then our favourite spotlight stealer Crow basically doomed the obviously important female lead Izayoi Aki into obscurity (Dennis was on the way of doing it but thankfully Shun fixed that soon enough).