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…

Episodes 134-136 Review

Let me start off by telling you how unreal it was writing these episodes. These were some of the very first episodes I planned for the series, and I’ve been constantly revising, adding to, and fine tuning my plans. Those years of planning culminated in these three episodes. One of my biggest disappointments with the original series was that the final battle wasn’t a duel, but, well, a battle. With dueling being the center-point of the franchise, Atem really should have defeated Zorc in a duel, at least that’s what I think. And as I think that, I made it a reality here. Ottiuk’s deck, the Hydra Heads, actually comes from back when I would come up with random deck ideas for fun and have imaginary duels in my mind. The Hydra Head deck was always one of my favorites. As soon as I decided to write Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium, I knew that the final duel had to have the main villain using them.

Another aspect of the cards used in the duel is the infinite ATK monsters used in the first turn. I got one review about it, and I’m assuming that others realized this as well, but Horackhty and the Knight of Destiny were nothing like their real-world counterparts. This was a case of me taking the liberty of being a writer of an anime-esque series. I worked under the assumption that Horackhty was given its game-winning effect to be a more realistic version of an infinite ATK monster, as it would be awkward to say the least to make an actual monster with infinite ATK. As for the Knight of Destiny, I don’t care if the printed card was called Timaeus the Knight of Destiny, Yugi never once calls it that in the show, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s name is simply the Knight of Destiny.

One final thing to talk about was the goal of these episodes. When I started this series, I had to very different plot points in motion. There was the plot focused on Chaos and the Balance, and their was the Yugoha plot. Sure, there was some interaction between the two plots, but for the most part, they were completely separate. This episode finally firmly established the important link between the two. The other purpose was to give an origin story to Duel Monsters. A simple glance at the original series would tell you that Ancient Egyptian Shadow Games were the origin. The problem is that through out all of the Yu-Gi-Oh series, we see that ancient cultures beyond just Egypt had their own forms of Shadow Games. A closer look suggests that Atlantis was the true origin. After the War of Atlantis, Ironheart’s monster army was scattered across the world, and this could have lead later societies to discover Duel Monsters. However, even closer looks suggest that even this isn’t the whole story. Both GX and Zexal suggest that Duel Monsters is more that just a game played on Earth, it is a fundamental concept across the Universe (or universes in Zexal’s case). Then of course my Yugoha story line outright shows that Duel Monsters exists beyond Earth. So I created an origin story linked to Yugoha. Yugoha created the Monster Spirit World, and countless other cultures over the millennia discovered it, and tapped into its power.

Until next time, duel on!

Episode 109 Review

The major point of interest of this episode was Amaterasu’s deck. I’ve always been of the opinion that modern Yu-Gi-Oh is really all about archetypes, and yet even up through Zexal, most characters don’t use true archetypes. Most characters seem to use decks based off of vaguely related monsters and/or themes. Normally, I do archetypes instead. Actually, every single character up until this point has used an archetype-based deck. Amaterasu is my first character not to. I already new that Amaterasu’s deck would be based off of a lock-down strategy of some kind, as to go with the theme of alternative decks for the Hand of Order. I realized that in the real game, most lock-downs come from unrelated cards that happen to work together. I figured I should replicate that here. In order to add to the realism, I made it my goal to utilize as many real-world cards as possible.

Until next time, duel on!

Regarding Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal and the Chaos Draw

I’ve been behind lately in watching the English episodes of Zexal. The episodes I watched over the weekend have brought it to my attention that Zexal is referring to something known as the “Power of Chaos” and specifically, a Chaos Draw that allows its user to draw a specific card. I would like to point out that my story started to delve in to these concepts before Zexal did, even in Japan, and as such my concepts are not copies of Zexal’s. Maybe some day I’ll have to write an independent story that will reconcile and link the two different concepts of Chaos.

Until next time, duel on!

Episode 79 Review

While the last episode was the season premiere, this episode set the tone for the season, and this is only the beginning of the invasion to come. I’ll admit it, I am a supporter of the Ancient Astronaut Theory (for those who don’t know, it claims the thousands of years ago aliens came to Earth and their due to their advanced technology, humans thought that they were gods), and I’m basically invoking that theory in saying the the New Yugohans left behind Vanguards in the form of ancient monuments. I also have to admit, when making the character of Zant, I did borrow a little bit from Zexal, primarily from the character of Mizar (He has a dragon that is part of two archetypes, one of them being shared with Kite’s dragon). I couldn’t help myself, I thought it was too good of a chance to pass up, not to mention, it allowed me to reference the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, which happens to be my favorite card (explains some things about the Legend of Chaos, doesn’t it?).

Until next time, duel on!

Epsiodes 68 and 69 Review

***Spoiler Alert***

The second time that Yuni faced Ma’at (third if you can’t when Yugi dueled him), but the first time that he’s faced him as the Lord of Chaos. Ma’at is meant to be the “second rival” of Yuni. Aside from Seto, he is the only person to beat Yuni (well, sort of…) so this duel meant a lot more than any random duel with Yuni. In this duel, we began to see why Order is not the perfect thing that Ma’at makes it out be, but it is in fact something that can corrupt its users. While the first episode was more of a free flowing, randomized duel, the second episode featured more of a structured and controlled duel. I normally prefer not to use structured duels (I always mock Zexal for using them), but I thought that just this time it might be appropriate. One last note of interest. In case you don’t remember or didn’t read it, in an earlier post I said that the story of the First Lord of Chaos was based off of an early Yu-Gi-Oh story that I made. Since I was young when I made that, it was a self-insert story, so when I’m describing the first Lord of Chaos in the vision, I’m actually describing an anime version of myself.

***End Spoiler***

Until next time, duel on!

A Note on the Supreme Chaos Deity

As you all saw in the previous episode, the Supreme Chaos Deity – Ruler of Eternity is the ultimate card of Chaos, and meant to be a balance point between the two Envoys. Believe it or not, there are already two cards in the Yu-Gi-Oh universe that could potentially fit that category. Let’s take a look at them, and see why I didn’t use them.

Name: Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of Twilight

Effect: Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Cannot be Special Summoned, unless you have an equal number of LIGHT and DARK monsters in your Graveyard. Must be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing all LIGHT or all DARK monsters from your Graveyard, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. While face-up on the field, this card is also LIGHT-Attribute. When this card is Special Summoned: You can activate 1 of these effects, depending on the Attribute of the monster(s) banished for its Special Summon. You cannot conduct your Battle Phase during the turn you activate this effect. ● LIGHT: Target 1 monster on the field; banish that target face-up. ● DARK: Banish 1 random card from your opponent’s hand, face-down, until your opponent’s End Phase.

This card came out several months ago in Japan, and has yet to make an appearance in America. Initially, I was happy to see a new Chaos card, especially one that stayed true to my vision of Chaos. But that soon went away. It is my opinion that this card was made to profit off of the extreme popularity of the Envoy of the Beginning (Which I completely resent). In the end, this card is nothing but a watered down version of the original.

Pros: Since it is called the Envoy of Twilight, it counts as both a Light and a Dark monster, and its effect revolves around Light and Dark monsters, it can be seen as a balance between the two Envoys of Chaos.

Cons: It favors Light by being a new Black Luster Soldier, and its effect deals with only Light or Dark, not both. Also, it’s effect is fairly (b)lack luster (pun intended), and in the end, it isn’t any more powerful than either of the Envoys.

Name: Chaos End Ruler – Ruler of the Beginning and End

Effect: Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 LIGHT Warrior-Type and 1 DARK Fiend-Type monster from your Graveyard. Cards and effects cannot be activated in response to this card’s Special Summon. You can pay 1000 Life Points; banish all cards your opponent controls and all cards in their hand and Graveyard, then inflict 500 damage to your opponent for each card banished by this effect.

This card appeared in episode 11 of Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal. It was the center of a plot to steal the ultimate deck (Which is surprising to find that it’s not Yugi’s deck, but a Chaos deck. Hmm…I wonder what that means.). This card was seen for only a split second, but thanks to the fact that cards actually have text in the Japanese anime, we are able to know what its effect is.

Pros: It is without a doubt more powerful than either of the Envoys. In fact, since its Chaos Emperor Dragon-like effect also banishes, that makes it similar to Black Luster Soldier’s effect as well. Its name also infers a combination of Light and Dark. The effect that stops cards from responding to its summon, allows it to share an effect with the Egyptian God Cards.

Cons: Its summoning requires a Light Warrior (Such as Black Luster Soldier), and a Dark Fiend (Like…well um, not like Chaos Emperor Dragon), which I personally find very strange. I personally do not like its name, why does it have to have end and ruler in its name twice?

So as you can see, despite having two already existing cards to choose from, why I made my own.

Until next time, duel on!

Episode 52: Duel of Dualism Part 2

Episode 52 is now out. Read it here!

Yuni and Apep continue their fight with the Chaos Emperor Dragon and the Black Luster Soldier. There is a reason that these are two of the most infamous cards of all time, can Yuni and Apep beat them?

On a side note, the review on episode 51 will come later, along with the review for episode 52.

Also, check out the new section, the Yu-Gi-Oh! Timeline. In addition to mentioning events from Millennium, it will mention events from the original show, GX, 5D’s, and Zexal.

Until next time, duel on!