Episodes 137-140 Review

Wow…this is really it. Even several days later, I’m still having trouble excepting it.

Anyways, it should be obvious to most that, just as most of the structure of this series was based upon that of the original series, so too was the finale arc. In the original series, the finale of the season took place when Atem battled and defeated Zorc, and then the finale of the series was Yugi’s ceremonial duel with Atem. Similarly, the battle with Ottiuk was meant to be treated as the season finale, and then the extra duel, Yu-Gi-Oh vs. Seto, was meant to be the series finale. As a child, I always remembered thinking that Kaiba got treated a little unfairly in the final season of the show. Ge barely did anything important at all. When he suggested that it should be him who faces Atem in the ceremonial duel, I actually agreed with him. He was Atem’s greatest rival, and it would tie up the series nicely, as the first episode was Yugi/Atem dueling with Kaiba (That being said, I do realize why it had to be Yugi, but still…). When I started thinking of my plot, I realized that not only could I put things right, but it would work out perfectly for the story if I did. This also, at least in my mind, helped make up for the fact that the incarnations of Prince Seto had little to do during the final duel with Ottiuk. This helped remind the reader that they’re important too.

The first episode was designed to be Yuni’s finale, as it was his final appearance in the series. It was all about tying up loose ends. The whole thing with his grandpa is actually something I’ve had planned since the beginning. I’ve always portrayed him as a carefree man that will let Yuni do anything he wants and be happy, as long as he has his recliner chair and a holovision. On the surface, this was an excuse for why Yuni could go off on a moment’s notice to save the world without his grandpa caring, but I figured that it would be more interesting in the end if there actually was a reason for this. As for Ma’at, it has been my intention all along to have him end up as the Lord of Chaos. His entire character arc had been leading up to that one discussion the two of them had.

On to the duel itself. There was a purposeful duality to this duel. Yu-Gi-Oh was using a deck based on Evolution Summoning, the newest way to summon a monster, while Seto was using a Tribute Summon deck, the most classic way (save straight up Normal Summoning) to summon a monster. Yu-Gi-Oh’s deck also served another purpose. It allowed me to showcase my original intentions for Evolution Monsters. My original concept was that Evolution was fairly versatile, and that the Evolution Base could vary, and the effect and/or power of the Evolution Monster would vary depending on the Evolution Base used. In order to best write duels though, I ended up focusing more on Evolution Monsters with set Evolution Base requirements. The Stellamancer deck was a way to better showcase my original idea.

I have always seen Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium as being a potential grand finale for the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise as a whole. Because of that, I knew it had to end with a bang. The previous record for highest finite Attack Points ever achieved was done in Zexal, during Yuma’s duel with Don Thousand. He managed to boost Utopia up to 204,000 ATK. I decided that not only did I want to break that record, but I wanted to smash it. Hence we have two monster with over a million Attack Points battling it out in the end. Being the end of the franchise is also the inspiration behind Yu-Gi-Oh’s final line, a quote of Yugi’s final line in the original series. It’s also worth pointing out that the mention of fireworks occurring at the end of the speech is actual an joke. Right before Yugi says his final line, Joey asks in disbelief if this is really how it ends. Kaiba then asks sarcastically, “What were you expecting? Fireworks?” So, I decided to make fireworks happen.

And that concludes the final episode review Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium. With that said though, don’t think this website is dead. I have some plans for the future, so stay tuned. Also, the Episode Guide, Yu-Gi-Oh! Timeline, and Card Database/Reader’s Companion pages have all reached their final form.

Duel on, always…

Episode 120 Review

And now the story turns to Ancient Egypt, the focus of the original series. It was a whole new world when compared to Atlantis in more ways then one. When it came to writing about Atlantis, I was just using vague story cues, and essentially writing my own story otherwise. Egypt on the other hand is a much more established place, with a much more established story. The choice to put my story in alternate timeline was not one I arrived at lightly. I really wanted to put my story in the same timeline we see in the original series, the problem is, the first episode of the Dawn of the Duel arc shows the first day that Atem became pharaoh, and the final episode shows him disappearing right before Priest Seto’s eyes. So essentially, if I wanted to write a story about Atem being Pharaoh, it would have to take place in the middle of Dawn of the Duel, and that would never work. So instead, I came up with the idea of using an alternate timeline. I have another reason too, but I’ll leave that as a surprise. The only major thing I added so far to the Egyptian story was my addition of the new High Priests. Mana was an obvious choice to hold the Millennium Ring, since she was Mahad’s student. The other ones were not so easy. I decided that at least one of them needed to be an incarnation of an already known character. I contemplated using Joey, as he is one of the few main characters from the original series to not have an Egyptian version, but decided that I didn’t need to do that. I eventually settled on using Ma’at, as he needed an incarnation besides Thoth. Also, it made perfect sense, as the Millennium Scale is based off of the Scale of Ma’at, the owner of which is Ma’at’s namesake. The name Isfet is actually based off of the opposing concept of Ma’at. While Ma’at is Order, Isfet is Chaos. I felt it was poetic considering recent events. The other High Priests are all named after various Egyptian gods.

Until next time, duel on!

Episode 114 Review

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!

Episodes 105-107 Review

Sorry it’s been so long, writing the movie took quite a while.

These episodes were obviously inspired by the finale of Season 4 of original Yu-Gi-Oh, the duel with Dartz, just as this season was based off of that season. It’s always bugged me that in those episodes that it’s Yugi and Kaiba fighting Dartz. They spent the entire season building up Yugi, Kaiba, and Joey as being the three heroes, and yet Joey gets completely ignored. I made sure not to make the same mistake. Perhaps the biggest take out from these episodes were the new Yugohan Lord(s), and the new effect to Another Hope. When I initially planned the series, Versal was to appear back in season 3, just as Ra did in the original series, but I just couldn’t think of a way to make it work. Once I decided that season 4 would be based on an alien invasion, I thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to introduce Versal. Empyrean was another odd case. Obviously it is inspired by Horakhty, which didn’t appear until the series finale of the original series. I needed a replacement for the Knight of Destiny and had different plans for the finale, so I decided it would be best to premier Empyrean here.

Episodes 101 and 102 Review

Some say that to be a good author, you must first quote Shakespeare. For those who don’t know, the line Et Tu Brute comes from Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar. In the play, Caesar is assassinated by his best friend, Marcus Brutus (the namesake of Brutus Marc), at which point Caesar says to him “Et tu Brute?” In the play, Brutus did as he did because he was convinced it was the best for Rome by his fellow conspirator, Cassius. Since I first decided on the name for Brutus’ character, I knew that I had to have an episode where Brutus was taken over by means of some form of mind control and duel Yuni, in a similar vein to the time that Marik took control over Joey. I also knew that Yuni’s last line before almost losing would have to be “Then fall, Yuni” (as Casar’s last words were “Then fall, Caesar”). Initially, this episode was to take place back during Season 2, like the episode that inspired it was. I soon decided that Season 4 needed more content, and that if I was to use aliens for that season (which was all I had planned at the time), it would be interesting if the aliens abducted Brutus and experimented on him. I eventually came up with the idea of Mind Partners and decided that it was the perfect way for them to take over Brutus. With that, the modern incarnation of these episodes were born.

Until next time, duel on!

Cyber-Techs in Real Life!?

You may not know this, but Yuni’s signature monsters, the Cyber-Techs, actually exist in real life! That’s right there is card called Cyber-Tech Alligator.

This card was used by Joey Wheeler in one of his duels with Mai Valentine. It may not seem that similar to the futuristic Cyber-Techs used by Yuni, but it does fit the basic requirements, since it is a cyborg. When I first created the Cyber-Tech archetype, I didn’t even know that this card existed. It wasn’t until later on that I learned of this card. Who knows, maybe some day Yuni will use this card in a duel. If you want to get your hands on a copy of the only Cyber-Tech monster to exist in real life, then grab yourself a Legendary Collector’s Set: Joey’s World, coming out Friday, October 11, the most recent set to print Cyber-Tech Alligator.

Until next time, duel on!