Believe it or not, the most important part of this episode was probably not the time travel, but the exposition before it. The part where Cosmo explained how Yu-Gi-Oh and Seto came to be reincarnated. That explanation is the very reason for the existence of Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium. The first seeds of an idea for the series came to me back when I first watched the Waking the Dragons arc (which was only a couple of years ago, since I never saw it or the Dawn of the Duel arc as a child). When the Legendary Dragons where revealed to actually be knights who look like Yugi, Kaiba, and Joey, that got me thinking. Timaeus existed 10,000 years ago, and Atem existed 5,000 years ago (since I watch the English version, not the Japanese). That means that Timaeus existed 5,000 years before Atem. This seemed like too big of a coincidence. The original series never explained why there just happened to be yet another incarnation of Yugi and Kaiba, before even Ancient Egypt. So years later, I decided to take a crack at explaining this odd coincidence, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium was born. Speaking of the origin of the series, originally, the story arc we’re in now included no time travel at all. It would have just been duels with each of the incarnations. Time travel allows for a much better plot though. It’s also worth noting that this is the first time I’ve ever done more than one episode without a duel in it in a row. Of course, Yu-Gi-Oh is all about dueling, but the story I’m telling now require less dueling than normal (don’t worry though, there will be more dueling than there was in Dawn of the Duel).
Until next time, duel on!
Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium The Official Website 