Sartorius (Yu-Gi-Oh! GX)

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Sartorius (Takuma Saiou)
Appears in	Yu-Gi-Oh! (Duel Monsters) GX
Debut	Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Episode 53
Birthday	Unknown
Deck	Tarot
Sign	Unknown
Age	17 (Approximate)
Height	Unknown
Weight	Unknown
Blood type	Unknown
Favorite food	Unknown
Least favorite food	Unknown
Status at debut	Leader of the Society of Light; Aster Phoenix's manager
Relations	Younger sister: Sarina (Mizuchi Saiou)
Seiyū	Takehito Koyasu (Older) Mayumi Yusa (Younger)
Voice actor(s)	Maddie Blaustein

Sartorius, known in Japan as Takuma Saiou (斎王琢磨, Saiō Takuma^?), 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 English, as "satori" denotes a "spiritual awakening". In the English version, Sartorius is voiced by Maddie Blaustein, while Takehito Koyasu (older) and Mayumi Yusa (younger) take the role in the Japanese version.

A fortune-teller with dual personalities under the influence of an alien force, Sartorius serves as the main antagonist of the series' second season, poised to remake the world in the image most befitting the extraterrestrial radiance within him.

[edit] Character design

Sartorius' design incorporates multiple layers of clothing and a wide range of expressions. Depicted here is the fortune-teller from front, side, and rear alongside views of his head from different angles.

Sartorius' character design was overseen by Kenichi Hara.^[1] His usual outfit consists of the standard Obelisk Blue uniform with a raised and buckled collar and matching cut-offs for his arms and legs. A deck box is strapped to his right leg, presumably to house his regular tarot deck. His blue hair is sectioned in two layers, the layer closest to his face a lighter shade of blue than the one behind it, which generally flows as a single unit. Directly above his nose is another section of hair, colored greyish white, and he also wears earrings and a pair of ornaments on either side of his forehead. He carries an Academy-issued Duel Disk on his left hand despite his initial preference of dueling on a table.

His natural complexion is flesh-tone, however, with his evil personality in dominance, his skin takes on a more pallid quality. Furthermore, his eyes are more sinister and glazed over by light. When completely corrupted by the Light of Destruction, his hair becomes wild, his face inhumanely twisted, and his teeth elongated.

[edit] Fictional character biography

As children, Sartorius and his sister Sarina (Mizuchi Saiou) were shunned and humiliated by others out of fear of their abilities to tell the future, and driven to run away from home. The siblings shared a close relationship which extended into adolescence, and Sartorius searched for hope of escaping his ruinous destiny in a young Aster Phoenix (Ed Phoenix). Fearing the corrupt "Ultimate Destiny Card," the to-be-Pro League king The D (DD) sought the kind and caring Sartorius for guidance, but accidentally imbued him with the will of a dangerous alien energy known as the Dark Light / Light of Destruction (光の波動 / 破滅の光, Hikari no Hadō / Hametsu no Hikari^?, known by the latter name and Surge of Light in the Japanese version), which had taken up residence in the card. This provoked (like it had in The D) an onset of dissociative identity disorder, forcing Sartorius to contend with a dominant evil persona. The card would disappear from his possession shortly thereafter.

Sartorius formed a cult known as the Society of Light to worship the Light of Destruction, and keeping close ties with Aster, became his manager. On the surface, Sartorius and his organization aimed towards world domination starting with Duel Academy (Duel Academia) via expansion of their syndicate, but the man's gravest concerns lied in putting his stalled Wheel of Fate (a metaphor for his fate) back into motion through the powers of Jaden Yuki (Judai Yuki) and Aster as means of overcoming his destructive future. Although this goal was always on his mind, he was pushed towards an ultimate motive of eradicating the "age of darkness" that had befallen the planet by blanketing the globe in light. In the English version, he planned to control the minds of the Earth's inhabitants, making them forget about things like corruption, greed and violence, while in the Japanese version he planned to destroy the Earth instead, killing all its inhabitants to restore balance to its imperfect state. Only then could the world (or on a greater scale, the universe) be created anew. Sartorius would himself be placed in Obelisk Blue as a first-year (third-year in the Japanese version) transfer student.^[2]

Sartorius selects Prince Ojin as his first opponent in the GX tournament, wishing to obtain the satellite technology of the prince's country.^[3] He predicted that the Duel would end before his first turn came, while his opponent believed that he would be the one to claim victory in one turn. Playing only three cards during his opponent's first turn, Sartorius zeroed Ojin's Life Points. He thus earned the title of the first duelist in the history of the anime to have ever beaten his opponent in zero turns. With Ojin's defeat, the wealthy duelist obediently relinquishes the briefcase containing the control switch for his mind control satellite (the laser satellite Sora in the Japanese version), and the two keys for its activation.

In order to prevent his evil side from instigating world destruction, Sartorius approaches Jaden and Aster, giving them the keys. Furious over the fact that his plans have been delayed, his evil personality sends duelist after duelist to contend with Jaden, but is unable to recover his key. He is eventually sought by Aster, who breaks into Obelisk Blue to find him in the Society of Light's private duel field. As Aster is about to give Sartorius his key to the satellite, Jaden intervenes and tells him its true purpose, prompting the boy to wager it in a Duel instead.^[4] Recognizing the present Sartorius as an impostor posing as his lost companion, he struggles against the Arcana Force monsters, who deny him control over his fate by stopping their own rotations in their master's favor. Although Aster makes a comeback with timely help from Sartorius' good-hearted alter ego, the Light of Destruction unleashes Arcana Force Extra - The Light Ruler to end the duel.

Afterwards, Sartorius and Jaden face one another to determine the fate of the world. Similar to the preceding match with Aster, the diviner's cards continue to stop their own rotations. Having obtained both keys to Sora due to a blunder on Jaden's part, Sartorius sends Ojin to arm the laser satellite while he keeps the boy distracted. With the combined efforts of Elemental Hero Neos, Tyranno, and the returning Sarina, the weapon is dispatched, and Jaden defeats Sartorius, sealing away the Light of Destruction. Finally free from his fate of ruin and the burden of seeing into the future, Sartorius thanks both Jaden and Aster for their kindness, and is reunited with his sister. The two are then transported to a KaibaCorp hospital to recuperate.

Sartorius wields supernatural powers, including the ability to insinuate his spiritual energy into inanimate objects (as he did with Aster's deck),^[5] as well as other people.^[6] He can also temporarily render others motionless either from a distance or with a single touch.^[2] His primary power, however, is seeing into the future with the aid of his tarot deck, a divination technique he shares with his sister, though she instead uses mirrors to channel her powers. He is also a master manipulator, able to say exactly what is needed to be said to get anyone he or his associates in the Society comes into contact with to do his bidding. In addition to these skills, Sartorius' "other self" displays a form of light-based telekinesis.^[7]

In the English version, Sartorius' voice is reminiscent of a young Hannibal Lecter, while his original series counterpart occasionally replaces certain Japanese words with anglicisms, the most common being his substitution of the words "shōkan" (召喚) and "hatsudō" (発動) with "play," an English equivalent to both "summon" and "activate," respectively.

[edit] Deck

Sartorius plays a Tarot deck, composed largely of Arcana Force monsters based on the Major Arcana, with Spells and Traps based on the Minor Arcana. His cards have the unique ability to appear in either upright (normal) or reversed (upside-down) positions, which dictates their effects. When activated, Sartorius' cards rotate, and it is up to the opponent to decide when to end the rotation, in turn deciding his/her own fate. The design of cards in the Arcana Force series has links to the Cthulhu Mythos. In the original version of the series, although the rotation of most of Saiou's cards determines their effects on-screen, the Japanese text on the cards themselves lists their abilities to be coin toss-activated.

To compensate for the excess of high-level monsters in his deck, Sartorius has a variety of ways to bypass negative repercussions. One of his most effective strategies involves Arcana Force III - The Empress and Arcana Force XVIII - The Moon, both of which provide him with an accelerated output of sacrifice fodder for such cards as his Arcana Force XXI - The World. While this may appear to be his most powerful card, capable of forcing opponents to skip entire turns, his greatest monster is in fact Arcana Force Extra - The Light Ruler, which is heralded by the "Three Pillars" (三本の柱, Sanbon no Hashira^?), a convergence of red, blue, and green columns of light. The Three Pillars reference the legend of the Tower of Hanoi, which states that the world will end given the completion of said puzzle. When mixed evenly, the aforementioned colors within the visible spectrum also form white light.

[edit] References