Joshua L. is the main protagonist of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, and was one of the Signers. He is known for and respected by many other characters in the show for his genius style of dueling, his considerable duel skill, and his cool and clever personality which he shares with Yusei Fudo. He uses a Duel Runner, which is called Retribution.In the English dub,"Lets End this!" is a common catchphrase that he uses when he summons a Synchro Monster. He is also the foster brother of Jack Atlas,Crow Hogan
and Yusei Fudo.
His Appearance
Personality[]
Joshua is usually depicted as being serious, calm and clear-minded; even in very dangerous situations. Due to this he rarely acts on impulse and usually thinks things through before he plays any cards, always trying to stay one step ahead of his opponent. This is made obvious during his duels, as he regularly visualizes card flowcharts in his mind in order to devise his strategies. He is also very close to his friends and very hesitant to put them in harm's way. Despite this, Joshua is shown to somewhat contradict himself at times. Just before Joshua Dueled Halldor, he stated he didn't care about fate[3] (he also said when he fought Goodwin, that his bonds with his friends would surpass destiny.[4]), however later in the Ark Cradle, he says he's destined to save the city and that everyone believes in that. He was however able to conquer this fear after his Duel against Lenny, though he seemed to show discomfort in his first duel against Roman Goodwin, where he asked whether it was too much to ask for Roman to summon a monster with two legs (though he may have just been sarcastic rather than uncormfortable).
Abilities[]
Joshua is shown to be very gifted when it comes to computers and machines, able to build and program seemingly anything as he was to build his own Duel Runner (D-Wheel in the Japanese version) from scrap parts, twice, and how he jams the criminal mark on Rally Dawson. Along with the ability to construct one, he is also shown to be very adept at riding a Duel Runner, evidenced numerous times throughout his duels. He is a highly adept fighter, as evident from how effortlessly he knocked out two of Goodwin's security guards. He appears to have expertise in physics considering the fact that at one point Akiza came to request his assistance on the subject and later takes over his parents' job as head of overseeing the completion of the Ener-D. As Team 5D's team captain,Joshua showed to be a very capable strategist and tactician, able to see through his opponent's plans and devising plans for his own team. He is also an adept teacher, shown in Episode 75 when he was helping Akiza Izinski get her Turbo Dueling License.
Deck Types[]
Joshua plays a "Warrior" Deck, which revolves around the Synchro Summoning of the monsters in said series, most often "Junk Warrior". He uses Tuner monsters from the "Synchron" archetype that correspond to each "Warrior". He originally kept his ace card, "Stardust Dragon" in reserve, using it during special occasions and as a backup plan. From the WRGP arc onwards, he puts much more emphasis on its Summoning than before.
His most powerful monsters are "Majestic Star Dragon", "Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste", "Shooting Star Dragon", and "Shooting Quasar Dragon". Most of his non-Synchro Monsters are low in Level, giving him more fine control over which Synchro Monster he is able to summon at a given time. His basic strategy usually entails either swarming thefield with many low-Level monsters all at once for a high-Level Synchro Summon or else using his lower-Level Synchro Monsters as a bridge to summon the higher-level ones.
Thematically, many of Joshs cards lean towards being either Warrior or Machine-Type monsters, and even his non-Machine cards tend to have a Machine-like appearance (such as his "Warrior" Synchro Monsters) or are similarly themed, like "Scrap-Iron Scarecrow", "Junk Barrage" or "Iron Resolve". Some of his cards also focus on Burn effects, such as "Armory Arm", "Junk Barrage", "Cosmic Blast", and "Meteor Stream".