Aster Phoenix

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Aster Phoenix (Ed Phoenix)
Appears in	Yu-Gi-Oh! (Duel Monsters) GX
Debut	Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Episode 53
Birthday	Unknown
Deck	Hero
Sign	Unknown
Age	15 at debut; currently 16
Height	Unknown
Weight	Unknown
Blood type	Unknown
Favorite food	Beef fillet
Least favorite food	Unknown
Status at debut	Athletic legend (skiing, skydiving, skysurfing, surfing); Ph.D. in two unmentioned subjects; protégé duelist
Relations	Father (Deceased) Legal guardian: The D (DD; deceased)
Seiyū	Akira Ishida (Older) Asako Yoshida (Younger)
Voice actor(s)	Pete Zarustica

Aster Phoenix, known in Japan as Ed Phoenix (エド・フェニックス, Edo Fenikkusu^?); also Edo Phoenix, is a fictional character in the anime series Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX in Japan). His name is meant to be a pun in Japanese, as phoenixes were commonly depicted in art during the Edo period of Japan. In the English version, Aster is voiced by Pete Zarustica, while Akira Ishida (older) and Asako Yoshida (younger) take the role in the Japanese version.

A professional duelist firmly believing in destiny, Aster is introduced during the series' second season as a new rival to Jaden, similar in the cards he uses, but differing vastly in his code of ethics and sense of justice.

[edit] Character design

Aster's design incorporates multiple layers of clothing and a wide range of expressions. Depicted here is the duelist in full regalia from front, side, and rear alongside views of his head from different angles.

Aster's character design was overseen by Kenichi Hara.^[1] His usual outfit consists of silver formal wear with button-up sleeves, a black shirt underneath with matching shoes, and a loosely-fitting necktie. His grey hair is sectioned in two layers, his bangs forming one layer and the rest the other. His blue eyes are positioned between the layer closest to his face. He carries an Academy-issued Duel Disk on his left hand.

[edit] Fictional character biography

For years, Aster has been searching for the person responsible for the kidnapping (murder in the Japanese version) of his father (a card designer for Industrial Illusions) and theft of a single card when he was younger, intent on becoming the greatest duelist in order to rid the world of crime.^[2] From this event, Aster received the true monsters of his deck, the Destiny Heroes (also known as the "D-Series," and abbreviated as "D-Hero" in the Japanese version), which were his father's legacy, left to him so that he could pursue justice, or so he believed.

He first met Jaden Yuki (Judai Yuki) at Duel Academy (Duel Academia) at the beginning of the second year, enrolling as a new student. At that time, he opened several packs of cards in order to quickly build a deck for use against Jaden. As per his manager, Sartorius' (Takuma Saiou) prediction, he loses the match, but goes on to defeat Zane Truesdale (Ryo Marufuji) in the Duel Pro League using his own Elemental Hero monsters.^[3] He subsequently challenges Jaden to another Duel, and unbeknownst to Aster, Sartorius sneaks a portion of his spiritual energy into his deck prior to the Duel in order to claim Jaden's fate, but ends up temporarily blinding him to his cards instead due to the boy's power to defy his prediction.

After a conversation with the converted Chazz Princeton (Jun Manjoume), and a third Duel with Jaden, in which he is defeated, Aster begins to question whether or not Sartorius is in fact using him for his own gain, as he had no knowledge of the Society of Light. Later conquering Sarina (Mizuchi Saiou) in a duel with Jaden, he learned of a Hero card shown to Sartorius years prior that made him start acting with evil intentions. Aster believed that this was the Destiny Hero stolen from his father, and his suspicions are later confirmed, as the "Ultimate Destiny Card" surfaced as a carrier of the Light of Destruction that caused both Sartorius and his legal guardian, The D, to develop split personalities, and the former to plot world domination.

Aster decides to participate in the GX tournament with the goal of finding his father's assailant and the Ultimate Destiny Card, and upon discovering that The D is the culprit behind his father's disappearance, duels him aboard his yacht. The D tells him that he targeted his father because he was certain that obtaining the Ultimate Destiny Card would make him a successful duelist in the unforgiving Pro League. The night The D broke into the Phoenix household, he was caught by Aster's father, and the corrupted Destiny Card, sensing the evil in his heart, overpowered him and had him dispose of its creator.^[4] After the incident, The D took the role of Aster's guardian to avoid suspicion. This confession comes as a shock to the boy, who vows to take his former mentor down even at the cost of his own life. He is, however, faced with the very card that he sought to recover: Destiny Hero - Plasma (D-Hero Bloo-D in the Japanese version).

Despite being pushed into a corner by The D's formidable skills, Aster draws Destiny Hero - Dark Angel, a card specifically designed to combat the Ultimate Destiny Card, which was left to him by his father. Finally understanding its purpose, the duelist turns the tables on The D, but not before his opponent reveals one last terrifying fact: the souls of his victims remain trapped within Plasma's body. Aster's father emerges from the beast's wing and begs his son to pursue Light of Destruction's true avatar, Sartorius, as the entity that dwells within Plasma is no more than a "husk". Winning the Duel, his father's spirit at rest, Aster escapes via helicopter with the purified Ultimate Destiny Card, while The D is consumed by the flames of the resulting explosion.^[4]

Aster then breaks into the Obelisk Blue dormitory and corners Sartorius in the Society of Light's private duel field. As a child, he promised his friend that he would save him from his destiny of becoming a destroyer, but was not certain how he would do so when the time came. He considers giving up the key to the mind control satellite of the kingdom of Misgarth that was handed to him by Sartorius' good personality, but Jaden intervenes and tells him its true purpose. Recognizing the present Sartorius as an impostor posing as his lost companion, Aster wagers the key in a Duel. Fate within the battle is no longer under his control, however, as Sartorius' Arcana Force monsters stop their own rotations to put Aster in a difficult situation. Eventually, the good-hearted Sartorius appears before him, and the two offer one another support, but even their destiny-surpassing friendship is not enough to hold back defeat.^[5]

At the beginning of the third year, Aster stops by Duel Academy briefly to relay information he learned from Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford) regarding the Gem Beast cards of newcomer Johan Andersen. In the past, after winning a tournament sponsored by Industrial Illusions, Aster was told by Pegasus that the Gem Beasts had chosen Johan as their master while he was attending the European competition in which the boy was a participant. The awarding of the cards to him at the end of the tournament was thus unavoidable, regardless of how rare and valuable they were.

In the English version, Aster's speech is similar to that of a baseball player, while his original series counterpart replaces certain Japanese words with anglicisms, the most common being his substitution of the word "bochi" (墓地) with its English equivalent, "cemetery". In addition, he yells "Come on!" when summoning his monsters during duels.

Personality-wise, he is well-mannered with good intentions, but can often be blinded to the reality of a given situation due to his stubborn attitude and pessimistic outlook. He pursues his goals despite risks and overwhelming odds, and felt that the burden of avenging his father and reclaiming the Destiny Hero stolen from him was one to be shouldered alone. Because his father was taken from him while he was still young, he had a dependency on father figures such as Sartorius or The D. In some instances, this proved to be a weakness of Aster's, as the two men exploited him with mere words. Since his father's disappearance, Aster also held a fear of the state of his "time," afraid that he had not truly advanced anywhere as a person following the life-changing event.^[4] As such, the trust he places in his Destiny Heroes became symbolic of his desire to control his own future.

[edit] Deck

Aster originally played an Archlord deck constructed with cards from eight booster packs (largely featuring cards from the Ancient Sanctuary expansion of the actual card game). His true deck, however, is a Hero deck, composed of Elemental Heroes and Destiny Heroes. His Destiny Heroes (based on British anti-heroes) each possess abilities pertaining to time or the passage of time, ranging from the displacement of his opponent's monsters into the future to the revival of his monsters or halving of his opponent's Life Points within a turn. References to British culture are present throughout his deck, including mentions of the HMS Dreadnought, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the Palace of Westminster, and tea time.

[edit] References