How Would You Fix Yu-Gi-Oh?

[Papasmurf]

We know that while YGO has a lot of neat ideas like Millennium Items that contain the key to the netherworld and souls of a nameless Pharaoh and the ultimate evil, etc., its main value at this point is for memes and a funny abridged series, only really watchable and enjoyable with nostalgia glasses or when taking off your normal adult range of critiques for some of the more absurd overdramatizations of card games on the show. Which plot points/plot structures would you change to make it a better product?

For the opening arc, I wouldn't change much but would allude to the struggles between Pharaoh Atem and his court as they opposed Thief King Bakura, Zorc and their allies, as well as imply the significance of the three God cards in the first chapter so the "Duel Monsters is mega ultra important and tied to ancient Egypt!!" bullshit doesn't just come out of left field in the Duelist Kingdom arc. I'd also have Yugi and Joey play Duel Monsters as early as chapter 2, with Yugi saying he feels a particular connection to his grandfather's Dark Magician card (as it isn't his yet at this point) when defeating Joey with it. I'd also cut out a lot of the pointless evildoer of the week chapters that don't result in any character development, and write Atem's uncertainty over his blank memory into the manga much earlier, such as when he saved Anzu from that rapist pervert, with him flashing back briefly to Mana (the spellcaster who wielded DMG) when rescuing Anzu. I'd also add in a duel between Yugi and Joey at the start of the two-part Kaiba chapter where Joey reveals he's been secretly reading the Duel Monsters rule book and challenges Yugi to a duel in Super Expert/Battle City rules, managing to summon Gilford before being tooled by Yugi's Monster Reborn. The reason for this fix obviously being that Ra requiring 3 tributes to normal summon, yet tributes not even being a requirement to play an Egyptian God until Battle City is laughable when considering Pegasus himself played with the 2000 LP and no tributes rules in Duelist Kingdom. I'd also change Kaiba's introduction so that he is something of a celebrity in the school for being the best Duelist in Domino City as well as a likely candidate for the next national championship, and I'd have his KaibaCorp lackeys make a copy of Sugoroku's BEWD card so the "I was president of a big shot company" bullshit doesn't come out of nowhere for the Death-T rematch.

Afterwards, I'd change the Shadi mini-arc so that he mentions the Nameless Pharaoh while inside Yami Yugi's soul room, as well as have him bow his head down in defeat, cryptically calling Yugi "King" as a cocktease so the revelation that he was the Nameless Pharaoh in BC is still shocking to him.

The Death-T arc can go mostly the same, except I'd have Kaiba blatantly cheat a lot less (like only giving fake ray guns to Yugi and co. and having them fight seasoned gunmen lmao), as well as show hesitation before putting Mokuba through the "Experience of Death" penalty game to imply he was still redeemable. I'd also have Kaiba revive Sagi the Dark Clown using a trap card that brings it back with 1000 extra attack or something when Yugi defeats it more easily than he expected, so that Trap cards don't come out of nowhere in the DK arc and so that Atem struggling so long with a mere 1800 ATK monster when he has such balls that he didn't cower in front of an armed death row convict isn't as laughable.

I'd then delete basically all the chapters leading up to the Monster World shadow game between Yami Yugi and Yami Bakura since they were all fucking worthless, especially the chapters where Yugi "upped the shadow level from 1 to 3" or some bullshit to win a Monster Fighter toy game as well as that faggoty "yo-yo" chapter that honestly needn't exist. To fix the plot hole of Yami Bakura wanting the Puzzle yet not wanting it at all in their rematch in Battle City because Yugi was valuable as the carrier of the Millennium Puzzle until Bakura opened the door with his unwitting assistance, I'd have Yami Bakura regain part of his ancient memories through his item syncing with the Puzzle where Zorc's spirit is sealed in, through which he saw glimpses of his past life thief self stealing the Puzzle 3000 years ago in ancient Egypt, causing him to surmise that this was his agenda since ancient times.

With the Duelist Kingdom arc, the sheer amount of focus given to and the seriousness with which Duel Monsters is treated is inevitable when the whole manga turned to a giant card game tournament, so I'd just fix the main issues that conflict with Yami Yugi and Kaiba's characterizations early on, like Yami Yugi not giving Haga/Weevil a penalty game for throwing his grandfather's Exodia cards in the ocean despite having done so to villains who did less to him and his friends. I'd also have Yugi turning down Atem's help for less serious duels like the one with Ryota/Mako so his development having come full circle by Memory World feels more earned, and I'd cut that "cards have heart and a bond with their owner" bullshit that happened during Yugi's duel with the Ventriloquist/fake Kaiba (anime) and just have Yugi win by resurrecting Dark Magician and using Magic Cylinder to deplete the Ventriloquist's life points instead of him suddenly having MAD RESPECT for Kaiba despite him ripping up his grandfather's key card and hospitalizing him and having tried to kill him and his friends over 4 times

I'd also make Yami Bakura's change to a less direct and confrontational antagonist at this point more natural by having the Ring sync with the Puzzle yet again, allowing Bakura to gain his memories of the Millennium Stone so he now knows that having the Puzzle immediately isn't a priority to receive the power of darkness. I'd also add a line by Bandit Keith saying that Duel Monsters skyrocketed in popularity once Kaiba's televised Duel with Yugi in Death-T was broadcast worldwide, to the point that being top-ranked Duelist in the Kingdom is a greater honor than any Olympic medal - so that characters treating winning a card game tournament as if it was worth killing over is somewhat justified. I'd also make Yugi's duel with Kaiba prior to entering Pegasus' castle at least follows TCG rules a little more to the letter as "melting Ultimate Blue-Eyes from the inside by fusing a mammoth to it" strategy was extra autistic even for DK standards. Everything can go mostly the same after that, except I'd have normal Yugi play for most of the duel with Mai to explain why Yugi was hesitating so much and letting Mai control the pace of the duel, since Yugi was clearly more distraught than Yami Yugi after nearly making Kaiba kill himself over a card game

I'd then add a shot of Shadi's spirit (rendered invisible) bearing witness to the scene where Yami Bakura murdered Pegasus for the Millennium Eye to further foreshadow their ties that go way back.

For the pre-Battle City events, I'd take the manga's depiction of the Otogi/Clown mini-arc, except that Otogi would help Jonouchi in rescuing Yugi to explain him being let in as a member of the group so easily after what he and his dad pulled. And I'd have duel logs from then on match the anime's version so autistic bullshit like Kaiba summoning Obelisk and Joey summoning Red-Eyes with no tributes on a Battle City Duel Disk doesn't stand.

I'll go into how I'll fix the Battle City and Memory World arcs in the next post. Feel free to share your ideas on fixing Yu-Gi-Oh.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

i thought that some of the early chapters focusing on jounouchi & his past were good for his character. like the 1 with the gang or something, that also gave a glimpse into jounouchi’s family life (his father) & maybe why he hang around with the gang & so-on, since that’s even sort-of a thing in-real-life, where sometimes children who come from a troubled family might bully other ppl i think. even-tho that’s sad there was never shown more to that. i thought that was interesting.

as for the millennium-items. i think there is an interview where the creator says something like the millennium-items “attract” each-other, which i think he says explains why pegasus was chosen by the millennium-eye, so he could make the card-game (since he was a good artist or something & could draw cards) & after that was done & bakura defeated him his role was done or something & he died. that’s what i think the creator said, which might explain why in the end all millennium-items were collected for the final arc. so maybe the millennium-items also manipulate ppl.

 

[Papasmurf]

i thought that some of the early chapters focusing on jounouchi & his past were good for his character. like the 1 with the gang or something, that also gave a glimpse into jounouchi’s family life (his father) & maybe why he hang around with the gang & so-on, since that’s even sort-of a thing in-real-life, where sometimes children who come from a troubled family might bully other ppl i think. even-tho that’s sad there was never shown more to that. i thought that was interesting.

That chapter developed Jonouchi/Joey's character, so I have no problems with it being kept in. I just found a good 40-50% of the weekly evildoer of the week formula prior to Monster World tiresome and pointless.

as for the millennium-items. i think there is an interview where the creator says something like the millennium-items “attract” each-other, which i think he says explains why pegasus was chosen by the millennium-eye, so he could make the card-game (since he was a good artist or something & could draw cards) & after that was done & bakura defeated him his role was done or something & he died. that’s what i think the creator said, which might explain why in the end all millennium-items were collected for the final arc. so maybe the millennium-items also manipulate ppl.

The Millennium Items do attract each other (as stated by Shadi in the manga), but while I do agree Pegasus was manipulated to a degree by the evil will inside his Eye (and plan to go into detail as to how I would change Yami Marik's full awakening by tying his origins to the Millennium Items in my Battle City rewrite), the idea of Yami Bakura being completely hellbent on getting even one more item in his introduction, yet preferring to let Yugi live on as the holder of the Millennium Puzzle by the time he next met and spoke to Yugi was autistic and contradictory garbage

 

[Fantastische Hure]

maybe yami bakura had to do that for wtvr reason that might have been for him. he did play the dark rpg against yugi after-all in the very end

 

[Fantastische Hure]

also why did marik's father (he at-least sort-of looked like him) have an ancient-egypt counter-part, but more important characters like jounouchi or marik didn't (iirc)? is there an answer for that (if any1 has & wants to answer)?

 

[Papasmurf]

maybe yami bakura had to do that for wtvr reason that might have been for him. he did play the dark rpg against yugi after-all in the very end

In the pre-Duelist Kingdom events, Yami Bakura played the Monster World RPG so he could steal Yugi's Puzzle. In the Dark RPG his objective was to win the game to kill Atem/Yami Yugi, as well as let Zorc free in the real world by obtaining Atem's hidden name. This was the reason why Bakura kept Yugi alive so long when it would've been easy to dispatch of regular Yugi and steal his puzzle like he did with Pegasus' eye. Hardly identical situations.

also why did marik's father (he at-least sort-of looked like him) have an ancient-egypt counter-part, but more important characters like jounouchi or marik didn't (iirc)? is there an answer for that (if any1 has & wants to answer)?

I don't think Marik's father was explicitly stated to have an Egyptian counterpart in the past, in fact Isis, Shada and Shimon all resembled a character in the present but weren't openly stated to be pre-incarnations outright in the manga. Jonouchi not having an ancient Egyptian counterpart makes sense when he was just a street thug with a heart of gold prior to Duelist Kingdom, and was never implied to be chosen by a Millennium Item or an Egyptian God. As for Marik... Idk. Maybe the author thought Seto (Kaiba) and Bakura both having Egyptian counterparts in the ancient past alongside like 3 of the 6 priests in the Pharaoh's court resemble a present day character was enough as it is.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

kaiba was just a random rich person in his introduction

i jst looked-up & i saw a theory that marik could be that marik's father look-alike, jst an older version, but iirc ishizu said she felt nostalgic or something when she saw black-magician but marik didn't say anything so i don't knw.

 

[Papasmurf]

The only characters who have been completely confirmed to resemble an ancient Egyptian character heavily would be Seto Kaiba, Sugoroku Mutou, Ryo Bakura, Ishizu, (possibly) Shadi and Kaiba's butler Daimon. Marik's father looks like Akhenaden a little bit, but they held different items (Marik's crazy papa held the Rod and Tauk, Akhenaden held the Eye) and their voice actors are different in the anime as well.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

is daimon > jounouchi in importance then?!?!?!

 

[Papasmurf]

is daimon > jounouchi in importance then?!?!?!

The author fucking put Curse of Dragon in the King's Memories arc but didn't write any sort of origin story for the Red-Eyes

 

[Fantastische Hure]

on a side-note, wot do u think abt the game forbidden-memories? the game released quite some-time before the series even went to millennium-world (i think battle-city jst started when the game was released), yet the game seems to sort-of predict the millennium-world arc. from designs & every-thing, at-least. i don't knw so much abt the story-mode & so-on.

i think the game had to have been in development before battle-city even began & the pharaoh information was revealed, do u think kazuki takahashi helped with the game?

if u can & want to answer.

 

[Papasmurf]

I don't think Takahashi was involved in production of the game (to any great extent) considering that Atem/Prince in that game was still light skinned similar to flashbacks of King Atem from early-mid Battle City, but considering that a character named Ishizu debuted in a Gameboy game of YGO before the actual Ishizu we see in the manga and anime, and the Red-Eyes debuted via the Toei anime movie before Takahashi gave it to Jonouchi in the manga, it's possible that it gave Takahashi some inspiration

 

[Fantastische Hure]

or maybe the other-way around i think. priest also seemed to have clothes that looked a-bit like kaiba's counter-part in the series i think. maybe like a proto-type idea of what he was going to do for the final arc, before he changed some things.

 

[Papasmurf]

As interesting of a case as the Forbidden Memories game is, do you have any input on what you'd do to fix the YuGiOh series if you were given the pen and paper?

 

[Fantastische Hure]

i don't think so right-now.

other than maybe changing some things like i said with important characters or cards (like you pointed-out i think)

 

[Papasmurf]

I have some time tomorrow, so I'll write the Battle City and Pharaoh's Memories arcs' rewrites then.

 

[Papasmurf]

For Battle City, there are a few things with the initial structure of the arc that I'd like to fix. Firstly, while Atem is indeed the main star of the Battle City arc, and the whole arc was a set-up to him regaining his memories and departing for the afterlife, I'd argue that Kaiba's role in the arc is at least just as important as Yugi's due to how he was the organizer of Battle City, and he arguably grew more from it than Atem who mostly just managed to shrug off the influence of and Akhenaden's presence in the Millennium Puzzle and became a fully compassionate person again rather than an anti-hero like he was in earlier arcs of the manga.

To address this, as well as the fact that Yugi/Atem's character dynamic with Kaiba changed completely to near-180 levels after Death-T despite Kaiba never having openly repented for his past actions, I would add a monologue chapter where Kaiba looks back on his past actions in the first 7 volumes of the manga, and how the old him would've never gone to such great lengths to infiltrate Pegasus' castle, risked his life for another human being, or accept Yugi and his friends as allies, however begrudgingly. This monologue chapter would take place after Ishizu calls him from the museum and mentions his ancient connection with Yugi, the ancient past, and the God cards over the phone, allowing the chapter to end on a foreboding note with Kaiba noting that the key to him moving onto his future lies beyond the doors of the Domino City Museum, and at the end of his current path lies Yugi's defeat at his hands - for only by defeating him in a fair duel can he overcome his demons and overcome the fact that he had to resort to cheap tricks to beat him in DK.

Afterwards, most of the early sections of the arc needn't really change, although in Jonouchi's duel with the Seeker, I would have Jonouchi requesting that they change back to Duelist Kingdom rules (intending to summon the Red-Eyes in his hand right away), which Seeker accepts because that'd only make it even easier to summon powerful defense monsters to stall with. Since Jonouchi later succeeds in things like reducing Rishid/Odion's life points to a sliver and nearly beating Yami Marik (regardless of how much he toyed with him), I'd also have Jonouchi whittling down the Seeker's life points to almost 0 before the Exodia combo defeats him.

Then the next day, when the Battle City tournament finally begins, I would make more major changes, albeit the structure of the overall arc would remain mostly the same regardless.

Firstly, I would greatly reduce the amount of card game merchandising that borders on idiocy in this arc like the retarded "chastity belt" that the Ghouls had for Kaiba or Jonouchi and Yugi calling their cards and Duel Disks their souls and that stupid shit, since while card games may be the focus of this manga, it really isn't like they're directly tied to saving the world in this arc (except in the dub), and I hate arcs like Noah and Doma where card games literally became life and death struggles that the world's fate is hinged on.

Additionally, because Seeker was the weakest Rare Hunter, I fail to see why Yugi would need to resort to summoning Atem to deal with him - and Yugi has a more personal connection to Jonouchi/Red Eyes than Atem does anyway, so Yugi would be the one to defeat him, with Atem only emerging after the Seeker is defeated and the Millennium Symbol pops up on his forehead - signaling that this is indeed a Millennium enemy. That way, Yugi's independence in the next arc can feel more earned, and Atem can still make the promise to Jonouchi to duel for the Red-Eyes when the latter has become a true Duelist.

Since the next few duels that Yugi/Atem face are pretty dangerous (with over the top consequences such as having legs chopped off or being dropped into the bottom of a building if losing a card game), I would have Atem take over for most of these duels, although I would still have Yugi face Pandora/Arkana initially, with Atem only emerging when Pandora is attacked by Atem's Dark Magician, to make sure that someone who resorts to cheating by cutting the edges of his own cards gets what he deserves. Still, Atem leaving Pandora to get his legs chopped off after he loses is a bit brutal even for Atem, so I would have Atem save him instead of Yugi, but I would also have Atem beating the shit out of the dazed Pandora with his Duel Disk to interrogate him about Marik. Of course, both Yugi and Atem listen in on this conversation as it foreshadows the encounter with the Doll/Strings.

For Jonouchi's duels, I wouldn't change much besides using the anime's duel log for his duel against Haga/Weevil, and having Gilford the Lightning make an appearance here when he deals with Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth - because the bullshit Graceful Dice move he used to defeat a monster that's so hard to summon (with a 3500 ATK to boot) was underwhelming. Everything else can go mostly the same, except that I'd again have Yugi deal with the Doll until Slifer makes its appearance, with Atem refusing to put Yugi in any more danger. Since the next few duels were pretty dangerous, I'd have Atem face Umbra and Lumis, although I would change the target of Kaiba's attack with Obelisk to Lumis instead because his field had that life point draining card out and not Umbra's, which means Atem would automatically lose at the end phase of Lumis' turn

Nothing much needs to change afterwards (since Yugi did do most of the dueling against brainwashed Jonouchi after all), except that I'd have Yami Bakura constantly challenge even defeated Duelists in Battle City and stealing their rarest cards, since him having such broken cards like Dark Necrofear/Destiny Board (which was way more broken in the manga than in the anime or TCG), on top of all the broken ass cards he used during Pharaoh's Memories is a bit hard to swallow when the regular Bakura isn't even a real Duelist. Of course, all of the victims would be sent to the Shadow Realm. [/4Kids]

From then on, nothing much more needs to change, except that up to this point I'd show more potential for redemption from Marik, since him being redeemed just because his dark side was dealt with despite him killing several Ghouls members by using them as lab rats to test the fake Ra, and forcing minions of his who failed to defeat Yugi to commit suicide (as he did with Pandora in the manga) is a bit too much even if he was hellbent on revenge. Unlike, say, Yukishiro Enishi from Kenshin, his hypocrisy in wanting to punish the Pharaoh for supposedly murdering his father, yet committing the same sin onto innocents himself isn't even properly addressed, so that definitely needs fixing.

The quarter-finals can stay mostly the same, although to have Rishid seem more competent in maintaining his disguise as Marik I'd have him insult Jonouchi for half the duel at least, until his comeback with Jinzo genuinely impresses him. Mai's duel with Yami Marik probably should follow the manga where Marik had a clear advantage (unlike in the anime where he seemed to only win thanks to Mai not knowing how to read Ra's hieratic text), although I would change the damage steps and such to fit the TCG rules better. I'd also follow the manga's duel logs on Yami Bakura vs. Yami Marik, except that I'd of course have Bakura summon the Puppet Master in defense mode since you can normal summon in defense mode in the anime. Who the fuck summons a monster with 0 attack points in attack mode when your LP isn't even 2000?

As for the semi-finals, not much needs to change, except that I'd have Yugi again be the one dueling for the placement duel, since it had zero stakes really and he shouldn't need Atem to baby him for a duel like that at this stage in the game. Atem would only take over upon seeing Jonouchi burn in fire thanks to Ra's Phoenix effect, after which his next duel with Kaiba can go mostly the same, except that when Atem talks about being disappointed with Kaiba's obsession with his hate for Gozaburo, I'd have Atem note how far Kaiba's come since his days of being a heartless monster during Death-T, before Atem rebukes Kaiba, since it seems at this point Takahashi is sweeping all the bullshit Kaiba was pulling in the early volumes of the manga under the rug to maintain his status as Yugi's rival.

In the finals, I guess things can go basically the same since there weren't really any OCG rules breaking plays in the duel except typical stuff like activating non-quick play spell cards on the opponent's turn, except that I'd have Yami Marik further cement his brutality by warning Atem that even if he were to switch places with Yugi when they lose the duel in order to avoid Yugi's soul being destroyed, he'd make sure Yugi follows him to the grave in the most brutal manner possible - Marik would brainwash Yugi to make him murder everybody else including his best friends, and then take great pleasure in dispelling the brainwashing and tearing him apart with the knife inside the Millennium Rod.

Then, we move onto the Millennium World/Pharaoh's Memories arc. Since this was probably the best written arc in the manga (although in the case of the anime, censorship, bad animation and weird directions like the shadow game taking place in some floating table in the sky that somehow dictates space-time continuums rather than just being a simulation of the capital of ancient Egypt completely ruined the arc), I'd have little to rewrite until Thief King Bakura's defeat. When Bakura loses, I'd have the possessed Akhenaden rescue Bakura by ambushing everybody else using his monster spirit rather than Yami Bakura discarding his past self, while sparing Seto for obvious reasons. However, I would also have Mana surviving thanks to Mahad/Dark Magician shielding her at the last second, and managing to heal Atem and the loyal members of his court to save them from death. The arc would then turn to a three-way battle between Bakura and Akhenaden, Atem and his subjects, and Priest Seto who later comes to betray the Pharaoh because Kisara would get caught in the crossfire between the Zorc-possessed Akhenaden and Atem's Winged Dragon of Ra (because Ra got too little screen time in the manga imo).

Basically, things would go as Takahashi detailed in the Bunkoban extras of the Yu-Gi-Oh! rerelease, where Seto comes to resent the Pharaoh and opposes him, but certainly doesn't ally himself with Akhenaden and Zorc. To make Yami Bakura's origins less vague than it was in the manga (where there was just one throwaway statement that many people missed about the Thief King's soul being part of the Millnnium Ring), Thief King Bakura would definitely seal his soul inside the Ring at the time of his death. Atem's duel with Priest Seto would go as it did in the flashback in Battle City, and I'd postpone 's full awakening until after that conflict has finished, where he can have an epic duel against Exodia and the three Gods thanks to a reformed Seto providing Atem with his Ba, allowing him to summon all three Gods. Zorc would still prevail, although as in the canon Yugi and his friends are able to teach Atem his true name after defeating Yami-Bakura's clone. Akhenaden would still possess Priest Seto to make him duel Atem I guess, although I'd have him being defeated in a team effort rather than Kisara pulling a deus ex machina to save a cornered Atem. Kisara's spirit cleansing Seto can still be the conflict's resolution, but I'd have it feel more like the final hurdle to overcome by having everyone defeat the god-like Blue-Eyes with teamwork (which is basically the main theme of the entire series).

Nothing much more to add, other than that I'd follow the anime's Duel logs for the final duel between Atem and Yugi, except that the Trap card Yugi uses to reflect Slifer's lightning blasts on Ra would have text specifying that it overrides the target's immunity to explain how Ra was destroyed by a lesser God's effect.

So with that, my rewrite of the latter half of the manga is complete. Feel free to post your own ideas on how to improve Yu-Gi-Oh.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

Jonouchi not having an ancient Egyptian counterpart makes sense when he was just a street thug with a heart of gold prior to Duelist Kingdom

from the mean streets of broolyn i think

but ye, i think i def. agree abt kaiba, his character jst seemed to be written like all the things prior didn't happen or he didn't do. kaiba was evil as they come i think.

 

[Papasmurf]

They still referenced earlier acts of Kaiba's after Duelist Kingdom, like when Jonouchi got mad that Kaiba built that "theme park of death" to kill Yugi and his friends in the Battle City quarter-finals arc.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

did they? i don't think i remember but that's 1 of the things where i think they seemingly just want kaiba to be seen as a rival who still is good after-all in the cards-era of the series, but if u look at the series prior to the card-game being the main driving-force of the story then i def. don't think so. i mean in some-ways he wasn't much better than some1 like pegasus. the anime makes that even worse by trying to present him as a hero or something i think.