Alexis Rhodes, known as Asuka Tenjoin in the Japanese version, is a strong female Duelist from the Obelisk Blue dormitory at Duel Academy as well as one of Jaden's closest friends. She usually serves as the only female protagonist in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, though Blair begins having a slight role as well near the end of the series which is further proven by Alexis' downplayed role in darker seasons.
An alternate universe version of Alexis appears in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.
When she was young, she used to duel her brother but normally lost. "Swing of Memories" was used to represent her relationship with her brother. As she grew up, she met Pierre the Gambler. She and the class treated him like family, though he showed his true colors, as he loved gambling. Tired of this, she taught him how to play Duel Monsters and beat him. Being in love with her, he stole her mother's scarf, and used Duel Monsters to gamble as well. Shortly afterwards, Alexis and Atticus Rhodes attended Duel Academy together. Shortly after he disappeared, she tried doing anything she could to find him, but had no luck, resulting in her keeping Atticus' disappearance a secret for a while.
Alexis Rhodes, along with Zane Truesdale and Chazz Princeton, became one of the top students at the Academy. She is regarded as the "Madonna" and "Queen of Obelisk Blue", yet she does not follow the crowd nor does she regard herself as better than other people like many of her Obelisk peers, though she does show some respect for them (like during her duel with Chazz).
Alexis and Zane first see Jaden beat Dr. Crowler at the entrance exams and are intrigued by his skills. She first meets Jaden when she watches his midnight Duel against Chazz in the Obelisk Blue dormitory. Security arrives just as the Duel is about to end, forcing them to stop the Duel and leave. Alexis talks to Jaden afterwards saying she believed it could have gone either way, but Jaden reveals his next draw as "Monster Reborn" which would have let him win. Alexis is shocked and becomes interested in knowing more about Jaden's Dueling skills.
In attempt to get Jaden expelled, Dr. Crowler plants a fake love note in Jaden's locker from Alexis to meet her at the Obelisk Blue female dorm, which is illegal for males to enter. Syrus Truesdale stumbles upon the note instead and heads to the female dorm hoping to become an item with Alexis believing she loved him, but is discovered by Alexis and her friends. Alexis and her friends correct Syrus that the letter was sent to Jaden, even though it was a fake letter in the first place. Alexis decides to use the situation to test Jaden's Dueling skills by holding Syrus captive unless he agreed to Duel her. She also threatens to expel both of them for crossing into the female dorm if they lost. She puts up a good fight, but in the end Jaden wins but Alexis reveals in her thoughts that she never would have had them expelled anyways if she did win, because she felt the school year would be much more interesting with them, much to Jasmine]s dismay.
When Jaden, Syrus and Chumley Huffington go to investigate the Abandoned Dorm at Duel Academy, they meet Alexis there searching for her missing older brother, Atticus. Alexis enters the dorm by herself but gets kidnapped by Crowler's hired mercenary, Titan. In the dub, he claims he sent her to the Shadow Realm. Jaden wins and frees Alexis. He also offers her his help in finding Atticus, but he leaves before she replies.
After this event, Crowler threatens to expel Jaden and Syrus for visiting the abandoned dorm unless they can beat two extremely difficult Duel opponents in a Tag Duel. Alexis offers to take Syrus' place because she was there too and Syrus has little confidence in his Dueling skills, but it is refused. She still aids Jaden in preparing Syrus for the Tag Duel and trying to help him believe in himself.
Alexis soon begins to become good friends with Jaden and Syrus after they win the Tag Duel. She begins to accompany them on occasion during their adventures, showing more signs of interest in Jaden. She is also there watching along side Jaden's friends cheering him on during his duels. At one point she becomes the object of affection to Harrington Rosewood much to her dismay. After Jaden beat him in a duel he agreed to be Alexis' fiance. However Jaden didn't know what it meant until Alexis told him it meant friend for now.
However, she still continues spending much of her time searching for clues regarding Atticus' disappearance, with the help of Zane. When Chancellor Sheppard reveals the Shadow Riders' plot to take over the world using the seven Spirit Keys, Alexis is one of the seven chosen to hold the Spirit Keys along with Jaden, Dr. Crowler, Professor Banner, Zane Truesdale, Bastion Misawa and Chazz.
While the seven begin defending their keys against the Shadow Riders, Jaden becomes involved in a Duel with a figure known as Nightshroud. Alexis suspects that Jaden would be the first Key Keeper to duel against the Shadow Riders. Nightshroud turns out to be Atticus brainwashed after Jaden defeats him, but his memories are gone. Alexis thus searches for a way to recover them and is offered a chance to Duel Titan in return for Atticus' memories being restored. During the duel, she starts to give in to the fact that she may never get Atticus back to normal again, though with Atticus' strong words of courage, she ultimately wins and restores them.
After this, she meets her old "friend" Pierre, who decides to duel him in order to get back her mother's scarf. He was able to gain the upper hand due to his monsters effects, which involved flipping a coin. Alexis realized that if it wasn't for his Second Coin Toss, he would've lost everytime, and then was able to win thanks to Cyber Prima's effect. Pierre revealed that the whole reason why he did this was because he loved Alexis.
Along with Chazz, Alexis loses her Duel against the final Shadow Rider, Amnael. As a consequence, she is sent to an alternate dimension along with the others who lost where she remains unconscious. Jaden manages to free them by finally defeating Amnael, returning them to Earth.
Chazz comes out about his infatuation with Alexis after Jaden defeats Amnael. Atticus helps Chazz with his crush and he steals all seven spirit keys in order to force Alexis to Duel with him. Although Chazz plays suggestive cards such as "Hidden Wish" and "Love Letter" to show her how much he cares, Alexis wins in the end, stating that she cannot return his feelings, because she's "in love with Dueling". In this Duel Alexis introduces her "Cyber Angel" series, which she uses to defeat Chazz. Due to Chazz stealing the keys they awaken Kagemaru the leader of the shadow riders. Jaden beats him and life returns to normal. She watches Chumley Huffington duel Crowler and seems impressed by his dueling than watches Jaden and Zane duel although their match ends in a tie.
Chazz's crush on Alexis continues throughout the series, although after having his free will sapped by Sartorius, his interest fades, until he is rescued by Jaden and returned to his former self.
At the beginning of season two, she joins Jaden's friends to watch him duel Aster Phoenix seeming impressed by Aster's skills. She later decides to move into the Slifer Red dorm with Jaden, Syrus, Chazz and Tyranno Hassleberry because Dr. Crowler begins constantly pressuring her into becoming a pop star Duelist with Atticus. So Atticus challenges her to a duel, where if she loses, she and Atticus will become a pop singing group named "Bro-bro and Sissy", if she wins, they will stop pressuring her to become a pop star. She wins, and show cases all of her "Cyber Angels" series. After she tells Atticus to "let go of his dream".
This soon changes when Chazz becomes brainwashed into the Society of Light by Sartorius. Chazz begins Dueling Obelisk Blues to brainwash them into following Sartorius as well, and succeeds by using his powerful "White Veil" card that Sartorius gave him. Thus, Alexis feels it's her responsibility as an Obelisk Blue to Duel Chazz and win against him so she could restore him as well as the other Obelisk Blues back to normal, despite Atticus' warnings. During the duel, she starts doubting her dueling skills because Chazz is outsmarting all of her moves and guesses, thus meeting the same fate as her fellow elites.
Although she remains brainwashed by Sartorius for the majority of season two watching Jaden duel members of the cult, she finally begins to show some resistance by refusing to play the "White Veil" card given to her by Sartorius during her Duel against Maitre' D in the Genex Tournament. During that Duel, Chazz, Syrus and Jaden also point out that she is standing up for Obelisk Blues despite that she was now under Sartorious' control in the Society of Light, perhaps suggesting she was trying to break free. Additionally, she vaguely begins to remember the times when she and Jaden were friends when Sartorius orders her to Duel Jaden for his satellite key. However, Sartorius notices this and thus strips Alexis of her mind completely, rendering her a lifeless and empty puppet.
During her Duel with Jaden to get the key for Sartorius, Jaden tries to break Sartorius' control on her and remind her of their friendship by playing cards that Atticus and Chazz would often use. However, she does not listen to anything Jaden tries convincing her of because her mind was completely stripped by Sartorius, thus she had no memories either. Jaden still manages to win which restores her mind back to normal. Upon being returned, she has no memory of ever entering the Society of Light or being brainwashed but notices that she and Jaden were in a Duel. When she asks Jaden who won, he says she definitely did.
Alexis spent the rest of the Genex Tournament recovering from her brainwashing. She eventually got better and joined Sryus and Hassleberry in watching Jaden duel Prince Ojin and beating him. She later witnessed Chazz win the tournament and defeating the rest of the Society of Light: she did, however, point out Chazz having lost to Jaden but he managed to convince her that Duel didn't count as no medals were exchanged. She soon witnessed Blair Flannigan return and challenge Chazz for the last Genex medal she had.(here, it was most evident her brainwashing had taken its toll on her as she tried to remind Chazz who Blair was, forgetting that Blair came to Duel Academy long after Chazz left). Chazz soon beat Blair, though Alexis commented on how close she was to winning and how much she had improved.
During season three, Alexis accompanies Jaden, Syrus, Axel Brodie, Jim Crocodile Cook, Jesse Anderson and Hassleberry in solving the mystery behind the new professor, Thelonious Viper's new bio bands that appear to be sucking the energy from Dueling students. When Viper finally collects enough energy to transport Duel Academy to a different dimension, she aids Jaden, Axel, Bastion, Blair, Jim, Jesse and Hassleberry in fending off the rest of the school, who have been transformed by Yubel into Duel Ghouls though there are times where she needs to be rescued by Jaden.
Yubel is eventually driven from Marcel and the school returned to Duel Academy island but Jesse was left behind. Alexis joins Atticus, Jaden, Chazz, Bastion, Jim, Axel, Hassleberry and Syrus in finding him by going through a dimensional warp, but are transported to a different dimension than before this time. Jaden desperately searches for Jesse after arriving, regardless of the village elder whom they meet's warning not to search at night but to wait for day, as night is when the evil Duel Monster Spirits strike. The others feel it is their responsibility as a team to follow him as well.
However, Jaden becomes so obsessed with finding Jesse that he doesn't notice when Alexis, Atticus, Chazz and Hassleberry all fall behind. The four begin to think that Jaden doesn't care about them anymore and decide not to follow. They are eventually captured by Brron, Mad King of Dark World, and sacrificed by him to create the "Super Polymerization" card. Before Alexis is sacrificed, she sadly says while her emotions are amplified by the spell on her "I thought we were friends. Guess not. It's sad to know that..."
It is later discovered by Bastion that they are not dead, but simply transported to an alternate, lifeless and cold dimension. Jaden would still be able to rescue them if he defeats Yubel in a Duel. Jaden instead decides to make up for all the wrongs he did, to Yubel and his friends, by fusing his spirit with Yubel's so they could be together again. This consequently restored the dimensions' balance to normal, releasing his friends.
During the fourth season, Alexis finds Jaden's new and serious personality to be abrasive and sullen, especially when he tried interrogating Atticus despite her brother's troubled state in the hospital, and claims Jaden had changed. She especially gets mad when Jaden coerces her injured brother into a Duel using the Nightshroud mask, until she discovers it was Atticus' idea. In general, Alexis and Jaden's friendship seems to have become strained in season four. Alexis once tries to make amends with him, saying they are still friends despite what occurred in the alternate dimension, also inviting him to the Duel Academy party. Jaden simply says he may go ("only if I want to") then walks away.
At the party, Alexis begins to doubt that Jaden will ever come as time goes by, and also that things will ever be right between them again. As she is about to leave, Jaden finally shows up, and Hassleberry pairs them as a Tag Duel for the Tag Duel tournament assuming they chose each other. Though they win all of their Duels, Alexis begins to get angry because Jaden continues to ignore her cards and only thinks of his own.
During the final Tag Duel against Blair and Hassleberry, Alexis agrees to switch partners and become Hassleberry's partner when Blair plays "Partner Change", due to Jaden's disregard for her feelings and cards. Alexis eventually decides to destroy "Partner Change" and become Jaden's partner again after Jaden refers to their first duel and shows that he's now listening. Alexis uses their cards together to win the Tag Duel. Afterwards, Jaden and Alexis have a talk alone, repairing their friendship. Alexis also startss to tell Jaden how she feels about him, but decides to keep it to herself. It is also through this last duel with Jaden that Alexis makes up her mind to study abroad at the Duel College in North America.
Later, a mysterious duelist, who refers to himself as "Trueman" begins to invade Duel Academy and sends the Duelists he defeats into the World of Darkness. Alexis is one of the last students standing, along with Atticus, Mindy and Jasmine. She is eventually Dueled and defeated too, and she and her deck are engulfed in darkness just as Jaden arrives.
In the World of Darkness, Alexis greatly begins to doubt her abilities in her teaching career at Duel Academy. She has nightmares where the students continue to mock her and insist on how awful of a teacher she is while refusing to attend her classes. Like the other students, she eventually becomes completely consumed by the darkness of her thoughts, until Jaden's words inspire her and return her to Duel Academy after telling her "students" about him.
At the Graduation Ceremony, she gave a heart warming speech at Graduation about how no matter how tough something is, we can always overcome it with friends by our side. During the party, she, Jesse and Axel have a conversation outside, confident that they will see Jaden again. She is likely now teaching, as she stated that as everyone will move on, she will not be left behind, allowing herself to move on from the past and heading towards the future.
In the Legacy of Chris Thorndyke, she is in a relationship with Jaden Yuki and usually uses her Cyber Girls Deck at times.
And she is reprised by Priscilla Everett in the English dub and Sanae Kobayashi in the Japanese dub.