Well, in the 5th video, I was trying to 2d past the doll...but the damn thing kept starting its movements and reducing my distance. In 4, I had been watching the guy play and he hadn't actually done a single parry loop in any of those games, so...I don't think he knew how to do that, really.
One of the things I had read on...somewhere, I forget, was that on magnetized opponents, j.D is great for pulling them in, as well as being an anti-air move. And that if you use it at the apex of your jump instead of when you're still rising, that you'll get the magnetized pull without actually pulling it off, which works into a 2D which is enough to pull a character full-screen.
As for the challenge stuff...well...I'm kinda stuck on 5, really (The midair stuff just kills me, really). Barely managed to get past 4... Though, I do believe that the Hazama video was the most skilled person I had played against that day. Ragna and Carl were, well, just video-fodder really. Besides, I'm still trying to figure out where Quick Wake-ups apply in real fights anyways.
EDIT: Though, what in those videos did I do right? Just so I can look back and figure out which is my instincts I should not try to ignore.