Here’s the third episode of the new series!
One year after the conclusion of Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium, co-Emperors Yu-Gi-Oh and Seto still struggle to recreate their once glorious empire. A decision from Yu-Gi-Oh’s past has now come back to haunt them. Now it is up to the still-new emperors deal with the choices of their past in order to build a stronger future for their empire.
This episode had several purposes. One was to draw in fans of the original series who wanted to see Yugi and his time frame. Another was for those who like to read duels. The third was to show that Chronicles of Yugoha wasn’t limited simply to stories that are set in Yugoha itself. Making this episode come second was done purposely. The contrast between the sci-fi/action-heavy plot of the first chapter with the more traditional fantasy/card game-based plot of the second was meant to demonstrate the wide range of topics and themes that can be covered by this new series.
An interesting note is on the deck of the episode’s antagonist. The Nameless/Nameless Entity deck was actually a left over deck concept from Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium. There are many fun/crazy deck ideas that I wanted to work into Millennium, but wasn’t able to by the time the series ended. I particularly upset by not being able to do the Nameless deck, because the idea of having a deck based around the manipulation of names just seemed like such a great and fun idea to me. I’d love for cards like that to exist in the real card game. That’s the reason that it was the first deck I created for the Chronicles of Yugoha.
Warning! The following review contains minor spoilers for the Dark Side of Dimensions
As I expressed before, I am so happy to finally be writing this series. It took a lot to get me to this point, but I’m finally here. And as it was the Dark Side of Dimensions that inspired me to finally begin this series, it only seemed fitting to have the first chapter tie into the movie. When I left the theater after watching the movie, my head was abuzz with ways I could tie it in with Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium. The most obvious point was that Kaiba’s special Duel Disk easily could have been a prototype for the Duel Gauntlet, it even replaced the traditional physical deck of cards with a virtual version and connected straight to the users mind. Looks like Kaiba may have been 5,000 years ahead of his time. Anyways, one of things that intrigued me the most was the Plana. Despite being so important to the plot of them movie, we were left knowing so very little of it. All we knew was it was some sort of magical power that could be used to change reality itself. I realized while watching the movie that the Yugohans were no strangers to reality altering powers, as Versal, their greatest god/creation had the very same powers. And of course, it has been a trend so far that what is traditionally considered magic in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh is actually forgotten Yugohan technology, so the Plana would be the same. One of the most interesting things about the Plana, at least in my mind, was that it seemed to exist as a network between all of the students of Shadi. The Plana linked them together, and as a whole they would manipulate reality. I quickly realized how reminiscent of a computer network this was. That’s what the inspiration was for making the source of the Plana a system of quantum computers linked to a network of human (or Yugohan, in this case) minds. Of course, the Plana we see in this chapter is not yet exactly what we see in the movie. Among other things, this chapter did not have any hint of Diva’s “Millennium Cube.” I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what else Yugoha has in store for the Plana. On one last movie-related note, I also wanted to point out a potentially missed character trait, the character Shadu was meant to be the Yugohan incarnation of Shadi and Shada, hence the name and similar descriptions. This was done because of Shadi’s link to the Plana.
Spoilers end here.
Aside from just connect to the movie, this chapter was designed to serve as a crux for much the following series. It served as an introduction to Yugoha for new readers and a reintroduction for returning readers. It brought in several familiar faces from Millennium, such as Thoth and Xenox, showing both of them as they were before we knew them 16 years later, during the Yugohan Civil War. In both cases they had yet to reach their true potential, but were well on their way. This chapter also served as a basis for the series, as it was our first in-depth look at Yugohan life, especially before the war.
Surprise! It has been nearly exactly a year since I released the last episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium, and ever since then I’ve been planning and debating with myself about a new series known as Chronicles of Yugoha. The idea for the series first came to my head when I was still writing the second to last season of Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium. It would allow me to write something even once I completed Millennium. However, I then started Cosmic Quest, and decided that writing that was more important than starting a new series. Ever since then I have debated back and forth with myself on whether or not to write this series. There have been times, such as around the Yu-Gi-Oh! 20th anniversary last September where I got really close to deciding I had to do it. But I would always back down because I felt I was too busy to take on two stories. In all honesty, I probably am too busy to write two stories, so I can’t promise episodes for The Chronicles of Yugoha will come out all that often, but I figured something was better than nothing. What put me over the edge in the end was seeing the movie Dark Side of Dimensions. That movie was absolutely great, and it made me realize that if I didn’t write Chronicles of Yugoha now, that I never would. So here I am.
The concept of the series is that Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium left a whole lot of history behind in its lore, and the only way to truly explore that lore is through its own story. The Chronicles of Yugoha is what I like to call anachronistic, meaning in this case that it has no specific order. Every chapter will be its own self-contained story, and could take place before, after, or even during the time frame of the previous chapter. Of course, just because the name is Yugoha, doesn’t mean it will focus entirely on the Yugohan Empire. It will also explore concepts such as Chaos and Order, other civilizations such as the Tyrian Empire or the Precursors, and maybe even have some episodes that take place during the other Yu-Gi-Oh! series. What this series really is, is a grand celebration of the entire universe’s history, with a special focus on Yugoha, and the way it shaped it.
You can read the story here.
Also, keep your eyes out for updates and upgrades I have planned for this website. I hope to bring it up a bit in quality.
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…
These two episodes where meant to accomplish two things. First, it was to serve as tribute to Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium as a whole, being one of the final moments in the series before the finale arc. It did through all of the memories and flashbacks, taking us on a trip back through the series. Second, it was supposed to be the most “fanfictiony” episode of the series. I mean come on, it’s my own custom character up against the original character, it doesn’t get much more “fanfictiony” that that.
Before I started these episodes, I wanted to completely overhaul Yugi’s deck in order to give him more of a fighting chance against Yuni. I was going to give him a heavily Dark Magician-themed deck. However, as I wrote the duel, I found that I didn’t necessarily need to do that. Instead, I decided to use as many real (or anime) cards as possible, this also helped with that “fanfiction feeling” I was talking about earlier. Sure, I had to make a card here and there to make it all work out, such as the Magnetic Attraction to make summoning Valkyrion more feasible or a card to make it possible to summon Dark Sage without Time Wizard, but in the end I used mostly cards that Yugi had used, and I was proud of that.
The final two turns where Yuni and Yugi summoned their army of magicians has actually been in planning for a long time. It started off as an idea where Yuni got out all of his Cyber-Tech Magicians in a duel against Ottiuk, but them I decided that it would be even cooler to have Yugi do the same, and them face each other like this. For a while I wasn’t sure how I would ever get them to pull off the move without activating several drawing cards in one turn. Then I realized that using Yugi opened up the possibility of using the anime effect of Cards of Sanctity, the most ridiculous drawing card ever created. And with that, the turns became possible.
Until next time, duel on!
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!
And with this episode, just as it has for Earth, the beginning of the end has arrived for Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium. It was a fairly simple episode, so I really don’t have much to talk about. Back before I started writing, when the entire series was still in planning, this was one of the original episode ideas I came up with. Of course, back then it was completely different. Cosmo and Celestia had yet to be conceived, and the plot involved no space travel. Really, the only thing that stick was Otto beginning his master plan.
Until next time, duel on!
This may not have anything to do with Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium, but I just had to share.
That’s right, coming along with the release of Arc-V is the release of a new monster type, the Genryuu! Ryuu is Japanese for dragon, while gen roughly translates to legendary or mythic. These monsters appear to be dragons, but with an extra flare, making them mythical. Here’s an example:
This specific monster is part of the first ever Genryuu archetype, called the Dragonstars. It is not yet known how these cards will differ from normal dragons, and it is possible that the name Genryuu will not stick in America, but there are many possibilities. I just like dragons so much, this has me excited.
On a Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium note, after some consideration, I have decided how to introduce Pendulum Summoning and Monsters into my story. Sometime in the future (probably during the season break between Seasons 3 and 4) I will write a Pendulum Summoning special. This special episode will introduce the concept of Pendulum Summoning to the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium and thus explain why they have been absent so far. Who knows, I might also introduce the Genryuus there as well.
Until next time, duel on!
Introducing the official Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium Episode Guide. Just added to the list of pages at the top of the page, it features a complete list of all episodes, a link to them, and a quick summary of each. It makes finding an old episode to reread easier than ever! This list will be updated as new episodes are released.
Warning!: Read at your own risk, as the page does contain massive spoilers.
Until next time, duel on!
Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium The Official Website 