To add to the GX side of this theory, if Kaiba isn’t around to be the mad laughing genius who wants to teach the aliens to duel, Yubel would never be sent into space and hit with the Light of Destruction. That also means Jaden would never enter the contest and create the Neos Spacians, so he’d likely end up playing either pure Heroes. If the manga had been written synonymously, we could’ve also gotten Masked/Omni Heroes in the anime. If we got the Supreme King arc without Yubel, the Omni Heroes would be fantastic Super Poly targets!
I think that also because duel academy was paid for by kaiba it's likely that it would never have existed. While it's possible that Jaden could be a pro duelist regardless, I think the entirety of GX would probably not happen aside from maybe the society of light doing some stuff lol.
@@thabluetails Or hey, maybe if SchroederCorp opened Duel Academy instead, maybe they base it out of Europe (given Zigfried’s whole Valkyrie thing and dub voice). Since Jesse/Johan is Scandinavian in the original Japanese version, he could be the protag instead lol
sounds like a bit the abridged series would do lol Kaiba: you thought I was bluffing Yugi? Later loser! Yugi: do a flip on the way down! Kaiba jumps *CRACK* Kaiba: SON OF A *BLEEP* I GROSSLY MISJUDGED THE HEIGHT OF THAT FALL!!! Joey: Nyehh i wonder if he's okay? Kaiba: I HAVE SEVERELY BROKEN BOTH MY LEGS! I NEED AN AMBULANCE! Joey: oh you hear that guys he needs a WAHHMBULANCE Yugi: hahaha good one Joey.
Maybe if Seto Kaiba died Mokuba would step up to take over for his brother. Duelist Kingdom would end with Mokuba getting his soul back only to find out his brother isn't waiting for him instead Yugi has to expain Kaiba's death to him. I trusted you Yugi, you killed my brother you always hated him he was right about you... Mokuba would take Kaiba's Deck and would be the new CEO of Kaiba Corp. Mokuba's goal from that point on would be to avenge his brother's death by defeating his murderer and rival Yugi. Mokuba would change a lot he woud train relentlessly to become as good a Duelist as his brother he would study the game and his brother's Duels intensely until his deck and play style resembled Seto's. The loss of his brother combined with the seeming betrayal of his trust by Yugi and his harsh up bringing in the orphanage and by Gozaburo would make Mokuba extremely ruthless in business and Dueling. The spirit of Seto Kaiba might stay behind in his Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards with Mokuba having a spirit of his own to guide his plays and decisions pushing his brother forward. It would give a dark twist to the Kaibaman card.
@@customcardguy alternate history yugioh is fun imagine if Bandit Keith threw Exodia into the ocean he would truly be the ultimate cheater. They rush to tell Kemo and the security guys but they just tell Yugi and Joey that's not possible because Bandit Keith wasn't invited or maybe they cant tell security because they might ask if Joey was invited. I wonder if Pegasus had a factory or industrial area somewhere on the island for machines or if he disliked Keith so much that he didn't give his monster type a field maybe because their resistance to magic was already OP.
I love the idea of Marik thinking Ishizu still has Obelisk and being shocked when he can't find it in her deck. I kind of wish we could have gotten that moment even in the original version of the show. I don't know if you're looking for more ideas for "What if?" videos, but if you are, here are some ideas that I think would be interesting. *What if Marik was in the Virtual World?* The virtual world arc basically put Battle City on pause and Marik was left on his own in the real world to fiddle his thumbs. I was always curious what the Virtual World arc would be like with Marik there. He could have a temporary truce with Yugi to get to the real world and then resume their feud, he could align with Noah to take down Kaiba and Yugi together, or he could be a complete wildcard who's just causing trouble for both sides. *What if Joey died in Battle City?* Battle City goes the same way it did until the semifinals where Joey's duel with Marik doesn't just put him into a coma, it kills him. I think it would actually be fairly easy to write him out of most of the Post-Battle-City arcs, but it would be harder to rewrite the Orichalcos arc. Plus, there's the matter of how this would affect Yugi and the gang emotionally. *What if Atem beat Rafael in their first duel?* Now Yugi doesn't lose his soul, Atem still has the Seal of Orichalcos in his deck, and he doesn't immediately learn the consequences of using the card. I think Atem likely takes a "fight fire with fire" mentality where he still wants to take Dartz down but plans on doing so with the Seal. This would also create a long-term rift between Yugi and Atem that we haven't seen before, not even from Atem almost killing Kaiba at Duelists Kingdom.
Actually dropping a video this Sunday related to the last suggestion, except it's what if the Orichalcos took Atem instead of Yugi. But thank you for providing suggestions, will keep them in mind for the future!
If season 4 is canon, Atem probably would’ve lost to Raphael and Yugi wouldn’t help him, which leads to the resurrection of the Great Leviathan and destruction of the world.
This is a very interesting hypothetical to consider, making for much darker undertones to the series while also giving Mai a much more dignified role. That being said, as much as Kaiba may have believed there would be no other way to save his brother, and that he wouldn't be able to live with himself knowing that Mokuba is gone forever due to his ineptitude, it would be frustrating to go the whole rest of the series knowing it was all for nothing as Mokuba was able to be saved after all. The only other reason I could think of as to why he would kill himself would be due to his sheer pride and not wanting to live in a world where yugi was able to save his brother whereas he himself was not, but that kind of pride seems quite overdramatic, even for Kaiba, but at the same time I wouldn't write it off completely either.
You bring up a great point. It would've been all for not if he kills himself, then Yugi saves Mokuba anyways. Just another reason why keeping him around made more sense.
Very fun thought experiment and some good stuff in general! I think my one major change is that I would sub out Mako for Bandit Keith. As Keith has been shattered by a penalty game before (and potentially controlled by the Rare Hunters), him having an arc where he AGAIN is looking for revenge against the arc's main villain (Marik for controlling him) and since he has a penchant for somehow surviving Pegasus' hand-gun magic regardless of continuity, I think it allows for a better contrast of a character for Mai to go up against, and it lets us have someone who can constantly belittle Joey in the same way Kaiba would. Which then leads neatly into Pyramid of Light where Keith can be a proper instigator and give Mai and Joey someone to beat up. Plus I feel bad that Mako gets punched in the face by Obelisk instead of someone who deserves it much more! But a really fun and engrossing take all the same, REALLY appreciate the amount of development Mokuba gets here!
That's a good idea! Bandit Keith vs Mai is essentially the "what if DK finals" duel, although I think having him lose (or die) to Marik would be the best way to wrap his character up. And good point on keeping a bully for Joey around lol, always good comic relief.
I really like this premise and how thorough you were in looking at all the ways Kaiba’s absence would affect the plot. I had my own idea for how the show could change. It’s not nearly as well thought out, but I figured I’d share it anyway. I’d make Mokuba Yugi’s new rival. He would learn about the cause of Seto’s death as soon as possible, become jaded, swear vengeance on Yugi, start using Seto’s deck in his honor, and maybe even go by the name “Kaiba” since it’s a last name. He’d challenge Yugi to a duel immediately after Duelists Kingdom. He’s not skilled enough to use his brother’s deck properly yet, so Yugi would win easily (not even needing help from the Pharaoh). This just makes Mokuba more bitter and Yugi sees it as a hollow victory. Ishizu gives Mokuba Obelisk and encourages him to start the Battle City tournament. She pitches this as a way to get revenge on Yugi. She knows this won’t happen since she can see the future, but also knows this lie is the best way to Motivate Mokuba. We then get scenes of Mokuba dueling a computer like Kaiba did, but instead of doing it to test Obelisk’s power, he does it to hone his own skill. He’s still unable to win, but it would be clear he’s improved since his duel with Yugi. When he’s confronted by the Battle City bully, Mokuba wouldn’t have anyone to defend him and would duel the bully himself. This would be his first win and would be both cathartic and ominous. Mokuba would get a sense of bloodlust from winning his first duel, especially against someone who mistreated him. At the “elite eight” things would stay the same, except now Mokuba duels Bakura and Yugi duels Ishizu. Mokuba’s duel with Bakura would go almost just like Yugi’s did, except when Bakura changes to his weaker self, Mokuba has no problem attacking with his God card. Yugi and his friends would beg him not to attack, even comparing this to Yugi’s attack that killed Kaiba, but it would be to no avail. We’d either have Bakura go in a coma like Joey, or Yami Bakura would take over to protect his body again, but now at the last second. Yugi’s duel with Ishizu would be a light hearted break to the Battle City arc. Ishizu would want Yugi to win, but she doesn’t throw the duel because her millennium necklace tells her she’ll lose it anyway. This results in a fun duel where both sides give their all and openly praise each other’s skill. For the Virtual world arc, they could just change Noah’s backstory so he wants revenge on both Mokuba and Kaiba, and he could create a holographic duplicate of Kaiba to shake Mokuba’s confidence and make him lose their duel. At the Battle City Semifinals. Yugi’s duel with Mokuba goes the same way as it did with Kaiba, except now the Egypt flashbacks cause Mokuba to learn about Yugi’s two personalities. After his loss, he has a more complicated relationship with the main cast. He forgives Yugi, but still resents the Pharaoh. For the Orichalcos Arc, things go the same up to the duel with Dartz, when he summons the four “Mirror Knights”. Mokuba and the Pharaoh agree on wanting to spare Yugi, Joey, and Mai, but disagree about Pegasus. Mokuba wants to attack him due to his actions at Duelists Kingdom, but the Pharaoh talks him out of it by going on a speech about how toxic revenge can be, which leads to talking about how much he regrets what he did to Kaiba. This is enough to make Mokuba finally forgive the Pharaoh. The duel proceeds as it did originally, and Mokuba now becomes one of the gang, going back to his old self. Mokuba would be pretty similar to Kaiba in my version, so anything I didn’t mention can pretty much stay the same.
Mokuba certainly would have a number of ways to be rewritten in the event of Seto's death, and I think your way is really good. Especially the part about him learning of Yugi's 2 personalities and how that impacts his relationship with Yugi/Atem. The Orichalcos bit is a nice touch as well.
I believe that Seto was not bluffing. 1. Mokuba at that point meant the Universe to him, maybe if Kisara was also reincarnated Mokuba's importance to Seto would have been lessened. 2. Gozaboro despite being abusive was still the biggest influence on Seto as seen with his loner nature and belief as a well rounded businessman. That brings me to 3. Gozaboro's final lesson for Seto was "to lose is to die." and that's a lesson Seto took an interest in memorizing, and to illustrate his final lesson, what did Gozaboro do? Jump through a window.
Two theories, Kaiba never truly died as a body was never found and he decided to live a different life. Second, he becomes the Kazuma to Aqua in Konosuba, just imagining the interactions between Kaiba and Aqua would be interesting.
Huh, this could've been an interesting watch. Mako in the finals of Battle City is an interesting twist and Mai becoming a competent character would've been nice to see. However, I suppose she'd have to have a bit of a change to her story, now being linked to the past. Otherwise, I don't think she could control Obelisk. Younger me would be pretty sad though. Was a huge fan of Kaiba and his cards when I was a kid.
I didn't change the make up of any character in this hypothetical, so Mokuba, as is, isn't a skilled enough gamer to challenge Yugi as a rival. That said, using this juncture to turn him into a villain role would make sense too.
@@customcardguy I liked your interpretation of Mokuba actually not holding it against Yugi because of the kindness Yugi and friends showed him and helping him learn that Kaiba loved him in the end.
16:00 better timeline Mai duels Marik and defeats him with an Obelisk Marik had no idea she had since she kept it a secret up until the point. Joey duels Yugi and Joey wins Then Joey beats Mai using Slifer and using a Sixth Sense card Ishizu gave him before the finals because her necklace said he would win and joey would give the gods back to the pharaoh. Sixth sense lets you roll a dice and pick 2 numbers, if you get 1 of those 2 numbers you get to draw that many cards. He gets a 6 and draws 6 cards increasing slifer by +6000 atk causing him to win the duel. Then Joey trades the 3 god cards for Red-eyes shocking Mokuba that he would trade 3 god cards for just red eyes.
That would definitely be something if both the lead antagonist and protagonist lost in the semis lol. But the way you script the duel between Mai and Joey is perfect, as is trading the 3 god cards to get Red-Eyes back.
The cliff hanger for that episode was the very first episode of yugioh i watched and i came back the next week wondering if he was going to jump, then i just watched the next few episodes wondering what was going on to make him wanna fall off a building, then i was hooked.
Harpie Magician: Dark Magician Girl + Any "Harpie" Monster Gains 300 Attack for every "Dark Magician" and "Harpie" monster in the graveyard. (Quick Effect) You can destroy all spell and trap cards your opponent currently controls. Atk: 2650 Def: 2400
Super interesting what if but if that was the true path of the series it would have been really jarring to have Kaiba’s influence still effecting so much of the story.
Interesting point. Kaiba has the power (dragons/machine), Yugi has the magic (spellcasters), and Joey has the fighting spirit (warriors). So that gets lost if Kaiba is replaced with Mai.
I think that Yami Marik would have sent his elder sister into the Shadow Realm instead of outright killing her, as Yami Marik absolutely loves to mess with and then torture people that he has Duels with.
The shadow realm is the censored version of killing. But I get what you mean. While Marik is definitely the kind of person to torture, he did nearly kill his sister the first time his dark self surfaced. I think given the darker nature of the manga, killing Ishizu would've made a lot of sense.
@customcardguy The shadow realm is used to censor killing, but it's just another name for Hell and people can be sent there and return without dying. He could have done to her something similar to what he did to Mai, Bakura, and his original self so that she would slowly be devoured, body and soul, by the Darkness (which is just another name for Zork).
@@XJ0461C hmm, that wasn't my understanding. I don't think anyone "sent to hell" ever came back (see Bonz). Mai was trapped in her soul room in the manga, which the dub changed to shadow realm (so in neither case did she die). Bakura's is more intricate because a piece of himself exists in the puzzle, so Marik wasn't able to fully kill him.
@customcardguy Yes but Ryo's physical body did still disappear into Darkness until Dark Malik was beaten. Darkness is just a manifestation of Zork as he points out himself and until Dark Bakura frees him, he resides in Hell. Mai would be dead had the torture concluded and her soul would have gone to Hell. The hints that it's all the same place come from Dark Malik himself, who after Dark Bakura proclaims he originates from the Darkness says he plans on taming it. He then later tells Atem before their final duel that he will open the gates of Hell and unleash Darkness upon the entire world, something that would require opening the door to the Underworld with all seven items. That is why he took the Ring from Dark Bakura, he would have then taken the rest from Atem.
So I thought about this video while at work since it was pretty interesting and thought of a change that might be better for for one character. I think Rex should be the one who gets promoted to 8th duelist for battle city instead of Mako and you have someone else lose to Espa Roba. While Mako makes a lot of sense strength wise, I think putting Rex in that spot is more interesting because of the History he has with Mai and that he is already thinking about later he can beat Joey as well to make up for duelist kingdom. His presences also helps fill in a bit of being a Rival to Joey since Mai is Yugi's main rival and no Kaiba around. It would also make his role in waking the dragons a bit more proper as he has more of a grudge now against Joey and Mai for his lack of success and can sort of combine part of Mai's original slot with his original slot in having Mai duel him and get a draw and then having the Joey duel play out normally. The battle City Mai vs Rex duel would also have an interesting Dynamic in that Rex probably would just use a lot of brute force and powerful monsters or plays with less thought while Mai has the God that is quite physically imposing but she uses strategy to utilize it's power effectively With this it frees Mako up to now have a duel with Yugi or Mai before for a locator card. I want to say it should go to Yugi as a call back to how they both had reasons for why they duel in duelist Kingdom but it wasn't personal unlike most of the other duels Yugi had then. I also then alternatively you could have him duel my to build up more for her being Yugi's rival now and possibly could be a way to show off Mai having Fiend's Sanctuary as she added new cards to help summon Obelisk and puts them to use summoning harpie's pet dragon as well. Then she can give Yugi that card as well for his Duel vs Marik as a way for her to help defeat him.
All good points! I prefer Mako, like you said, because I think he's a better duelist. Rex and Weevil are also tied at the hip, so having 1 make the finals and not the other sort of diminishes their collective grief of being relegated to nothings (a top 8 finish in Battle City is still worth something at least). But where Rex over Mako makes a lot of sense is the tension. Mako and Mai don't have a history, so that duel is really just about revealing to everyone that Mai has Obelisk. With Rex, we get the added flavor of their history.
I think the outside of the meta narrative, if this were to actually happen in the Yu-Gi-Oh world then I don't think it would go past duelist Kingdom. The reason I say this is because Yugi became really disillusioned with the Pharaoh when the Pharaoh wanted to kill kaiba. If he actually went through with it I don't think it's very likely that Yugi and the Pharaoh would have come to a reconciliation like they did in the original show, and if they did it would have come later. I'm not sure if yugi could ever forgive the Pharaoh for actually killing kaiba. This would lead to Yugi losing against Mai from being too distracted. Joey would have to take the mantle of defeating Pegasus but I don't think he's quite a good enough duelist to beat Pegasus at this stage. It took the Pharaoh everything he had to beat him in a duel, and wild Joey at this point has come into his own he' s not quite on that higher level yet. Thus pegasus would win and revive his lover... Not that it would matter for a very long since bakura would swoop in and take his millennium eye, and reviving zorc with the millennium items like he originally planned, plunging the world into an era of darkness. Pretty damn horrible outcome lol.
Yeah but that makes for a less interesting video 😅 For real though, I see what you're saying. My only objections are that Yugi still knows his Grandpa's soul is on the line. And Yugi is likely aware of the penalty games Atem has inflicted on folks (at least from the point onward from when he stopped blacking out during Atem taking over). So he's at least come to terms with partnering with a guy who is cruel compared to himself.
@@customcardguy Yeah I agree your vid is much more exciting that a 5 min explanation of a horrible timeline lol. I think you have a point on Yugi knows about the penalty games. Though the difference is that in Yugi's mind those people deserved it and Kaiba did not. I feel like a reconciliation could still happen but it would be harder than in the original story. Yugi it was about to lose the duel against mai before Atem stepped in so I think he would have lost if there was any more animosity between them.
Honestly, for me, I kinda feel Duke would fit the rival role for Yugi perfectly if you just tweak 1 aspect of his story. That being, you have it that he's not only a genius game designer but also was a prominent Duelist who perhaps was a top Duelist before being defeated by Kaiba. You have it in the dungeon dice mini arc that not only does Duke want to fight Yugi to reveal him as a cheat for defeating Pegasus, but also because since Yugi beat Kaiba, and then Kaiba suddenly "disappeared", he has no way to get his revenge on Kaiba so he also throws that anger towards Yugi since he's the person who last defeated Kaiba. The dungeon dice arc ends as usual, but now we've established a relationship and rivalry between Yugi and Duke. Battle City now involves Duke as a challenger, maybe he's working together with Kaiba Corp and Mokuba to better perfect the hologram tech for his game, and Mokuba decides it would be good publicity for them both if Duke took part in BC. Ishizu approaches Duke because Duke now takes Kaiba's place in having a connection to Egypt, and gives him Obelisk, which I feel kinda fits Duke perfectly given his ace monster is Orgoth. From there Battle City goes on as normal until the end where Marik reveals the truth about Kaiba's death to everyone, where Mokuba is torn between forgiving Yugi and damning him, and Duke also questions his resolve towards Yugi, before the two ultimately forgive him as Duke understands Kaiba's personality, and Mokuba understood his brother gave his life trying to save him.
If yugioh R and the Pyramid of light movie had a combined story even with Kaiba alive the story could work very well like for instance Yako starts exploring egyptian ruins for a way to revive Pegasus only to discover the egyptian lord of the dead anubis in the pyramid of light who says there is away to revive him but he would need to have a body for him to be revived in and alot of energy would be needed but he must defeat the Pharaoh (not realizing Anubis is using Yako for his own revival) So Yako agrees and while Anubis questions if he can do it Yako mentions he can as he possess the Jashin/Evil God cards cards design to counter the egyptian gods anubis lends Yako the dark powers of the pyramid of light so he can easily use them without any drawbacks. Yako did research in duel energy decides to hire the card professors as a means to gather the energy for project and he takes over Kaiba Corp in domino for its solid vision system to help his project progress which gets Kaiba's attention and draws him into the conflict as he considers pulling out the secret Card Pegasus made ie Blue Eyes Shining Dragon and since Anzu would be kidnapped which gets Yugi and the pharaoh to come so we now have a few movie duels to the point after the pharaoh and Yako duel and the power of the gods clash which then gives us Kaiba Atem and Joey to team up in a similar way to the battle with the great Leviathan only for the shining Dragon to destroy anubis with Dark magician saving Yako in the end.
Yugi's reaction was more so out of ethics and fear that he couldn't control the spirit of the puzzle. Yugi's also a pretty sensitive guy, so even an enemy dying in a card game is too drastic for him.
With Kaiba being gone, Mokuba would obv take over control of Kaiba corp. Seto would of written down all his future plans, and Mokuba would of found them. Mokuba would of needed help getting everything up and running, so he decides to collab with Schroeder corp, where in the Schroeder corp gets 50% of the profit shares...or some better "In universe" % of the shares. Zigfried - however - would fill in the roll of anything that would have to do with seto, with him no longer being here, which would obv push Mokuba back to being this 'damsel in distress' once again. BUT since Zigfried obv needs Mokuba alive (So he can one day rule Kaiba Corp) he does his best every time to save Mokba, while keeping this air about him that he's this changed man, and cares about Mokuba.
I can just imagine Téa being upset because she couldn't do the one thing she's good at and that's a friendship speech in this What-If, don't worry Téa you might get a chance to do one, maybe
I think a more interesting way to do Gx would instead have been to make Mokuba have become a duelist, having taken his brother’s old blue eyes cards and built his own deck before starting dual Academy. I always felt throughout GX that they were leading up to Kiba being the big villain and that never happened but imagine mokuba ending up being the villain who creates dual Academy to collect enough dual spirit energy to try and bring his brother back after being tricked by darkness/nightshroud into believing he could use his dark magic to bring seto back if mokuba helped him enter our world.
I think a storyline like that would've made for a good replacement for Virtual World. GX likely wanted to separate itself from the original series, with only minor callbacks to throw a bone to the older fans.
@@customcardguy yeah I feel it was something they might have wanted to do cause I feel there were some hints and stuff. I always thought gx was building to Kaiba seeking a way to bring back the pharoh something they later did in dsod. I really think originally gx was going to end with Kaiba trying to use the dark magic of the sacred beast cards and space energy to open a gateway to atem, Jaden would defeat him before he could walk through the gate, then winged kuribo would lead him into the gate where the final dual with him and atem would take place, but somewhere after the society of light arc they pivoted to a separated ending with no huge ties to the og series, and later reused this idea as the plot for dsod.
Implications of Kaiba's death for 5d's: -no moment/ener-d -no synchro summons -no zero reverse -yusei grows up with his dad -no satelite, no second class citizens, no exploitation -no need for the police state so no central deffense department or whatever it's called -godwin brothers stay happy -earthbound immortals stay underground -crimson dragon never has to show up -no signers (?) -no global societal downfall caused by card games on motorcycles -z-one, aporia, paradox and bruno live normal lives and never go back in time -no illiaster so sherry's parents are still alive and kicking -jack and crow wouldn't get orphaned And most important thing of all: - no carding and driving Really fascinating how kaiba alone brought about pretty much every single plot point of 5ds and how much tragedy could have been avoided if he had died or chilled somewhat.
I often think of this scenario but with my valentine. When she rides her motorcycle off that ledge in the shopping mall or corporate building. I imagine her bike just smashing to bits as soon as it hits like it would in real life and her being like ahhhhhhhhhh ughhhhh,while everyone els is like wtf why did she ride her bike off that ledge it's like 3 or 4 stories
Considering that Seto was my least favorite character in the original series. I would of probably either not cared or been happy if Seto died in Duelist Kingdom.
Didn't Seto Kaiba order one or more of his Minons to kidnap and then beat-up Yugi Moto's Grandpa? And just how does Yami Marik know that Yami Yugi was partially responsible for Seto Kaiba's death too?
Everybody wakes up the next morning and the main threat is gone xD That is an interesting one though. It woulda really raised Yami Bakura's intimidation factor if he was the one to kill the other 2 leading villains (Pegasus and Marik).
I suppose the makeshift rules compensate for the fact that most monsters at this point in time were vanillas. It's basically just giving everything an effect that just happens to not be on the card text.
I don't think you payed attention to Season 1 then to Kaiba creating Battle City. The rules changed because of Kaiba as it was meant to be for the God cards with Kaiba not knowing.
@@fruitybluieblue098 that's an in-universe explanation. The actual reason is because Takahashi created the manga before the game, so in the manga, the rules are different, especially in Duelist Kingdom. Even in Battle City, you have those DK-esque rules like Jinzo being impervious to Time Wizard or activating Time Wizard as a spell.
I overall disagree with the decision to look at what would happen from a narrative perspective like needing a new rival character, especially after the buildup of justifying Kaiba's death through in-universe logic.
A rival isn't necessary, but these types of series do tend to have one, however big or small a role that rivalry plays in the overall plot. Mai also fills the role of the 3rd person in the trio.
Just one problem...though, since you're going with manga canon, you forgot Pegasus killed Bandit Keith after he cheated and then tried to rob him in Duelist Kingdom. No, biggie though, you could just do the same thing that happened with Duke and have him hear about the death on the news and assume it was Yugi.
There is an "alternative" answer to what would happen if Kaiba dies in Pegasus Tower... and it is almost quinda answered.... in a mangá..... YU-GI-OH R!!!! But of course... not exactly battle city would happen.. With Kaiba Corp kinda with no safe hands... Mokuba would go nuts! AND PROBABLY WITH SOME MANY SCARS FOR LIFE!! Like:... + HAVING SCHROODER TRYING TO TAKE THE CO! + HABING YAMI BAKURA TRYING TO TAKE THE CO! + HAVING DARTZ HACKING THE HOLOGRAM SYSTEM INTO ZEXAL' SOLID SYSTEM AND TRYING TO TAKE THE CO! + HAVING TEMMA AND HIS BROTHERS TAKING THE COMPANY!(YEP! THEY SUCCEDED!) With Kaiba's gone, the Co is unsafe and Mokuba even doh he is capable of running, he can only defend, not attack... yet... so they should make the next arc being this coming of age/trauma before some major event like Marik trying to take care of Atem by using the Rare Hunters. Since Mokuba was being taken as hostage in the manga/anime, again... they need to do a "calm before the storm" episodes since in the manga... MOKUBA IS A BITCH from beggining to end, but in the anime he is just annoying but more reliable to ask for help... so its is kinda difficult really... they could let Mokuba being a bastard and manipulate Yugi&friends(as in the manga I believe he also made this too) against the new treat or having him go for them to help... like in most Filler arcs funnily enough. *EDIT AFTER SEEING YOUR BATTLE CITY REIMAGINED!* I would let the last bit, the confession, a little different... that Mokuba wouldn't trust ATEM but only Yugi, since y'know... all the past trangressions... even doh Mokuba is pretty much a rotten egg as well. Mokuba let the match continue but in the end... he may resolves to revenge against Atem and have the villains who wants to take revenge against the Pharaoh more easier... like Yami Bakura manipulating Mokuba to help him get the puzzle to seal away Atem to the Beyond(where HE'LL NEEEEEVER BEEN SEEN AGAIN!YEP! HE WILL BE DEAD! NO RETURN! BELIEVE IT!)
I would LOOOOVE a Redemption arc for Mokuba in the Dark Side of Dimensions and have total trust for Yugi and Yugi being his co-worker trying to develop new things
Aren’t the only people who can properly wield a God Card those connected to Ancient Egypt? Or am I remembering that bit of God card lore wrong? Also, if the Marik v Yugi duel is the same, how’d he get Fiend’s Sanctuary if not from Kaiba?
Eh I mean he coulda just had Fiend's Sanctuary to begin with, or gotten it from Mai, who'd be more willing to help him defeat Marik. As for the lore, I'm not sure how concrete it is that you need a connection to Ancient Egypt to control a god card. The issue only ever comes up for Mai because she can't release Ra from its sphere, but for Obelisk and Slifer, the requirement is less definitive. Anime-wise, Gurimo controls Obelisk, although you could argue that's the power of the Orichalcos. But regardless of existing lore, we're living in a world of hypotheticals so that lore could change, or we could give Mai an ancient connection.
@@customcardguy I could've sworn Marik said something akin to Kaiba being able to control Obelisk was due to his connection to the past, and Kaiba responded something akin to "Oh please, I can control Obelisk because I'm an expert duelist". Also, the whole deal with Ra in GX, where that dude needed that special field spell, Mound of the Bound Creator, to control Ra. Though your solutions would probably work. Maybe have Mai's ancestor be one of the Pharoah's guardians (the ones who possessed the Millennium Items in that Ancient Egypt Arc, I mean)
@customcardguy - When a God card is played, the original, your duel disk becomes electricfid where maybe if you don't have any connection to them, you will be put out in a coma or worse killed. Pegasus have explained why he couldn't wield their power at all.
@@fruitybluieblue098 is there a part where they specifically mention the "connection" part? I didn't see that in the manga. Only thing that came up a couple of times is if the god deems a duelist worthy.
OK so after watching this again. Kaiba already won the duel. Yugi summons Celtic guardian, attacks weak ultimate dragon. Then kaiba resurrected his blue eyes. So at that point kaiba can just attack and win. But to prove a point on how ruthless you need to be to beat Pegasus, he forces yugi to make a choice. Yugi can't do it, then kaiba just does what he should have when he brought back his blue eyes. So yeah kaiba won the duel fairly.
The rules were weird then. I think it's along the lines of not being able to attack because the head of Blue-Eyes is part of a Fusion monster, so it can't attack the turn it's summoned.
I think enemy would make more sense than rival. If Mokuba views Yugi as the reason for Kaiba's suicide, then Mokuba would seek revenge in a capacity more fitting for his talents. To that end, Mokuba isn't a duelist, which is why I didn't consider him in the rival role.
@@Burn_up_worldHe played the capsule monster game (and lost to Yugi twice despite cheating both times). But he never dueled in Duel Monsters outside of the one vs Yugi in Duelist Kingdom, where he got smacked.
@@customcardguy i know but still it be an interesting point of view seeing a weak mokuba to a formidable duelist. And to give him a deck she would probably run his brother deck along with the ritual monster (the burger ritual monster) he would be at least a bit better than duelist kingdom
I disagree that it couldn't be Bakura, and I think it makes more sense than Mai because of the Millennium Ring. That means you would have to break up their friendship and they would have to become clearer enemies. But Bakura is cleverly designed to be powerful but not too memorable, but more so as time goes on. You could just promote that to main antagonist energy, it's almost like he's a 2nd string antagonist for Yugi, and Yami Bakura would be the only character ruthless enough whose there the whole time to push Yugi/group amidst reckoning with losing Kaiba. so long story short, it's actually Bakura.
Just seems difficult to delineate between Yami and regular Bakura because Yami can take control at any moment. We never see regular Bakura duel, so can't even say how good of a duelist he is.
@@customcardguyso there's a very weird way of writing Bakura in the show; whenever "they" see him, they're always very amicable towards him, but then inevitably Yami Bakura comes out and for lack of better words, "does some f**k sh*t". The whole thing is nonsensical tbh. Sure he's their friend, but his presence also puts them in danger most of the time their around him, especially, and they only ever dance around the subject. What if the show was rewritten so that every time the group encountered Bakura, Yami Bakura was already active and assumed to be so. Then the big subplot could just be freeing Bakura from the hold of the Millenium Ring once and for all, kind of like how Marik needs to be freed from his darker self. Then a bigger focal point of the millenium items could be the risk they pose on their users and make Yami Yugi even more ambiguous, and possibly give the duel with Rafael a darker perspective. And you wouldn't have to change much, from DK, plus you would have the payoff of freeing Bakura near the end of the series and he really needs a better boss monster during BC so giving him Obelisk and having Yugi overcome that could be a much stronger duel. Just posing for fun 🤷🏽♂
The colloquial term for the original manga/pre-Duelist Kingdom arcs. Anywho, recurring doesn't =/= rival material. Rex and Weevil are both far outclassed by Yugi in dueling skill, so they don't make good rivals. Bakura is the overarching villain of the entire series, so having him take the role of villain and rival doesn't work.
The same holograms that throw people around during duels lol, but yeah this is where the manga/sub anime makes more sense that Kaiba jumps instead of being knocked over by the hologram shockwaves.
The series would’ve been better for it. Kaiba is pathetic for threatening suicide if he doesn’t win. That’s the ultimate ******* move. Trash character.
Mai can't ever use a God card. She wouldn't be able to handle their power and in fact the God card would be anger just as what happened to Pegasus. Ishizu's warning to Kaiba about Oblisk power isn't a joke as she knows what they're capable of because they're not just cards.
I didn't come across any definitive proof that Mai couldn't wield a god card, other than Ra. If we cross series, Mai is lauded as a legendary duelist along with Yugi, Kaiba, and Joey, so it's at least arguable that she's "worthy" enough to wield one. Whether or not you agree is fine, but I didn't see anything in the manga that was concrete. But also this is a major hypothetical, so some of the lore may be stretched.
You make a good point there about the manga which is the original before the anime version. I will have to watch the Sub version, maybe the Dub censorship this part about the God cards as Dub always changes the Sub. Because honestly Jaden did use Ra as he is worthy enough to use Ra and a very strong duelist.
Kaiba was convinced Yugi had no shot at Pegasus. And the only reason he thought he himself had a shot was because he was going to try and make Pegasus duel with his duel disk. So with those options out the window, Kaiba would think there's no hope. That said, no I don't think he jumps anyways. He'd find another way into the castle.
![Mario Kart Wii | FULL GAME [Wii 4K]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/iplONmjbei0/mqdefault.jpg)
Mokuba: Where's my brother?
Yami Yugi: I'm your brother now!
Kaiba: if you don't let me win I'll jump!!
Yugi: do a flip on your way down then.
I literally heard this comment of the funny version I saw on TH-cam😂
To add to the GX side of this theory, if Kaiba isn’t around to be the mad laughing genius who wants to teach the aliens to duel, Yubel would never be sent into space and hit with the Light of Destruction. That also means Jaden would never enter the contest and create the Neos Spacians, so he’d likely end up playing either pure Heroes. If the manga had been written synonymously, we could’ve also gotten Masked/Omni Heroes in the anime. If we got the Supreme King arc without Yubel, the Omni Heroes would be fantastic Super Poly targets!
I think that also because duel academy was paid for by kaiba it's likely that it would never have existed. While it's possible that Jaden could be a pro duelist regardless, I think the entirety of GX would probably not happen aside from maybe the society of light doing some stuff lol.
@@thabluetails Or hey, maybe if SchroederCorp opened Duel Academy instead, maybe they base it out of Europe (given Zigfried’s whole Valkyrie thing and dub voice). Since Jesse/Johan is Scandinavian in the original Japanese version, he could be the protag instead lol
@@Tuxedoggo Yeah! I think that would be pretty cool. GX as we know it would be completely different though!
Imagine Kaiba stepped off and just broke his legs, leading to Pegasus embarrassingly getting an ambulance for him
The embarrassment would be real😂
sounds like a bit the abridged series would do lol
Kaiba: you thought I was bluffing Yugi? Later loser!
Yugi: do a flip on the way down!
Kaiba jumps
*CRACK*
Kaiba: SON OF A *BLEEP* I GROSSLY MISJUDGED THE HEIGHT OF THAT FALL!!!
Joey: Nyehh i wonder if he's okay?
Kaiba: I HAVE SEVERELY BROKEN BOTH MY LEGS! I NEED AN AMBULANCE!
Joey: oh you hear that guys he needs a WAHHMBULANCE
Yugi: hahaha good one Joey.
If Kaiba died at DK then he wouldn't have a ghost of a chance at organizing battle city.
Who is Dk???
@@devilgirl7054 Duelist Kingdom
Alternatively, he would ONLY have a ghost of a chance of organizing Battle City.
😂😂
@@customcardguy because this time, He IS a ghost!
Maybe if Seto Kaiba died Mokuba would step up to take over for his brother. Duelist Kingdom would end with Mokuba getting his soul back only to find out his brother isn't waiting for him instead Yugi has to expain Kaiba's death to him.
I trusted you Yugi, you killed my brother you always hated him he was right about you... Mokuba would take Kaiba's Deck and would be the new CEO of Kaiba Corp. Mokuba's goal from that point on would be to avenge his brother's death by defeating his murderer and rival Yugi. Mokuba would change a lot he woud train relentlessly to become as good a Duelist as his brother he would study the game and his brother's Duels intensely until his deck and play style resembled Seto's. The loss of his brother combined with the seeming betrayal of his trust by Yugi and his harsh up bringing in the orphanage and by Gozaburo would make Mokuba extremely ruthless in business and Dueling. The spirit of Seto Kaiba might stay behind in his Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards with Mokuba having a spirit of his own to guide his plays and decisions pushing his brother forward. It would give a dark twist to the Kaibaman card.
Certainly a worthwhile origin story. Also like how you loop in the Kaibaman card into it.
@@customcardguy alternate history yugioh is fun imagine if Bandit Keith threw Exodia into the ocean he would truly be the ultimate cheater. They rush to tell Kemo and the security guys but they just tell Yugi and Joey that's not possible because Bandit Keith wasn't invited or maybe they cant tell security because they might ask if Joey was invited. I wonder if Pegasus had a factory or industrial area somewhere on the island for machines or if he disliked Keith so much that he didn't give his monster type a field maybe because their resistance to magic was already OP.
Mai being Yugi's rival?
That would mean change the shipping scene.
Rivals with benefits??
@@customcardguyno doubt 😂
I love the idea of Marik thinking Ishizu still has Obelisk and being shocked when he can't find it in her deck. I kind of wish we could have gotten that moment even in the original version of the show. I don't know if you're looking for more ideas for "What if?" videos, but if you are, here are some ideas that I think would be interesting.
*What if Marik was in the Virtual World?*
The virtual world arc basically put Battle City on pause and Marik was left on his own in the real world to fiddle his thumbs. I was always curious what the Virtual World arc would be like with Marik there. He could have a temporary truce with Yugi to get to the real world and then resume their feud, he could align with Noah to take down Kaiba and Yugi together, or he could be a complete wildcard who's just causing trouble for both sides.
*What if Joey died in Battle City?*
Battle City goes the same way it did until the semifinals where Joey's duel with Marik doesn't just put him into a coma, it kills him. I think it would actually be fairly easy to write him out of most of the Post-Battle-City arcs, but it would be harder to rewrite the Orichalcos arc. Plus, there's the matter of how this would affect Yugi and the gang emotionally.
*What if Atem beat Rafael in their first duel?*
Now Yugi doesn't lose his soul, Atem still has the Seal of Orichalcos in his deck, and he doesn't immediately learn the consequences of using the card. I think Atem likely takes a "fight fire with fire" mentality where he still wants to take Dartz down but plans on doing so with the Seal. This would also create a long-term rift between Yugi and Atem that we haven't seen before, not even from Atem almost killing Kaiba at Duelists Kingdom.
Actually dropping a video this Sunday related to the last suggestion, except it's what if the Orichalcos took Atem instead of Yugi. But thank you for providing suggestions, will keep them in mind for the future!
Alternate title: What if Atem kept his season 0 personality.
😆 to be fair, Atem opted not to kill him twice in season 0
If season 4 is canon, Atem probably would’ve lost to Raphael and Yugi wouldn’t help him, which leads to the resurrection of the Great Leviathan and destruction of the world.
@@customcardguywhat song did you use 19 minutes into the video?
@@Matt_the_rebellion Desert Caravan by Aaron Kenny. It's in the TH-cam Audio Library
Atem did choose to kill Kaiba though, Yugi just stopped him.
This is a very interesting hypothetical to consider, making for much darker undertones to the series while also giving Mai a much more dignified role. That being said, as much as Kaiba may have believed there would be no other way to save his brother, and that he wouldn't be able to live with himself knowing that Mokuba is gone forever due to his ineptitude, it would be frustrating to go the whole rest of the series knowing it was all for nothing as Mokuba was able to be saved after all. The only other reason I could think of as to why he would kill himself would be due to his sheer pride and not wanting to live in a world where yugi was able to save his brother whereas he himself was not, but that kind of pride seems quite overdramatic, even for Kaiba, but at the same time I wouldn't write it off completely either.
You bring up a great point. It would've been all for not if he kills himself, then Yugi saves Mokuba anyways. Just another reason why keeping him around made more sense.
Mokuba actually is resentful at Yugi and is given the millennium eye by Bakura to seek revenge on Yugi
Very fun thought experiment and some good stuff in general! I think my one major change is that I would sub out Mako for Bandit Keith. As Keith has been shattered by a penalty game before (and potentially controlled by the Rare Hunters), him having an arc where he AGAIN is looking for revenge against the arc's main villain (Marik for controlling him) and since he has a penchant for somehow surviving Pegasus' hand-gun magic regardless of continuity, I think it allows for a better contrast of a character for Mai to go up against, and it lets us have someone who can constantly belittle Joey in the same way Kaiba would. Which then leads neatly into Pyramid of Light where Keith can be a proper instigator and give Mai and Joey someone to beat up.
Plus I feel bad that Mako gets punched in the face by Obelisk instead of someone who deserves it much more! But a really fun and engrossing take all the same, REALLY appreciate the amount of development Mokuba gets here!
Interesting idea. I suggested sub out Mako for Rex but Keith is a good one as well.
That's a good idea! Bandit Keith vs Mai is essentially the "what if DK finals" duel, although I think having him lose (or die) to Marik would be the best way to wrap his character up. And good point on keeping a bully for Joey around lol, always good comic relief.
I really like this premise and how thorough you were in looking at all the ways Kaiba’s absence would affect the plot. I had my own idea for how the show could change. It’s not nearly as well thought out, but I figured I’d share it anyway.
I’d make Mokuba Yugi’s new rival. He would learn about the cause of Seto’s death as soon as possible, become jaded, swear vengeance on Yugi, start using Seto’s deck in his honor, and maybe even go by the name “Kaiba” since it’s a last name.
He’d challenge Yugi to a duel immediately after Duelists Kingdom. He’s not skilled enough to use his brother’s deck properly yet, so Yugi would win easily (not even needing help from the Pharaoh). This just makes Mokuba more bitter and Yugi sees it as a hollow victory.
Ishizu gives Mokuba Obelisk and encourages him to start the Battle City tournament. She pitches this as a way to get revenge on Yugi. She knows this won’t happen since she can see the future, but also knows this lie is the best way to Motivate Mokuba.
We then get scenes of Mokuba dueling a computer like Kaiba did, but instead of doing it to test Obelisk’s power, he does it to hone his own skill. He’s still unable to win, but it would be clear he’s improved since his duel with Yugi.
When he’s confronted by the Battle City bully, Mokuba wouldn’t have anyone to defend him and would duel the bully himself. This would be his first win and would be both cathartic and ominous. Mokuba would get a sense of bloodlust from winning his first duel, especially against someone who mistreated him.
At the “elite eight” things would stay the same, except now Mokuba duels Bakura and Yugi duels Ishizu.
Mokuba’s duel with Bakura would go almost just like Yugi’s did, except when Bakura changes to his weaker self, Mokuba has no problem attacking with his God card. Yugi and his friends would beg him not to attack, even comparing this to Yugi’s attack that killed Kaiba, but it would be to no avail. We’d either have Bakura go in a coma like Joey, or Yami Bakura would take over to protect his body again, but now at the last second.
Yugi’s duel with Ishizu would be a light hearted break to the Battle City arc. Ishizu would want Yugi to win, but she doesn’t throw the duel because her millennium necklace tells her she’ll lose it anyway. This results in a fun duel where both sides give their all and openly praise each other’s skill.
For the Virtual world arc, they could just change Noah’s backstory so he wants revenge on both Mokuba and Kaiba, and he could create a holographic duplicate of Kaiba to shake Mokuba’s confidence and make him lose their duel.
At the Battle City Semifinals. Yugi’s duel with Mokuba goes the same way as it did with Kaiba, except now the Egypt flashbacks cause Mokuba to learn about Yugi’s two personalities. After his loss, he has a more complicated relationship with the main cast. He forgives Yugi, but still resents the Pharaoh.
For the Orichalcos Arc, things go the same up to the duel with Dartz, when he summons the four “Mirror Knights”. Mokuba and the Pharaoh agree on wanting to spare Yugi, Joey, and Mai, but disagree about Pegasus. Mokuba wants to attack him due to his actions at Duelists Kingdom, but the Pharaoh talks him out of it by going on a speech about how toxic revenge can be, which leads to talking about how much he regrets what he did to Kaiba. This is enough to make Mokuba finally forgive the Pharaoh. The duel proceeds as it did originally, and Mokuba now becomes one of the gang, going back to his old self.
Mokuba would be pretty similar to Kaiba in my version, so anything I didn’t mention can pretty much stay the same.
Mokuba certainly would have a number of ways to be rewritten in the event of Seto's death, and I think your way is really good. Especially the part about him learning of Yugi's 2 personalities and how that impacts his relationship with Yugi/Atem. The Orichalcos bit is a nice touch as well.
I believe that Seto was not bluffing.
1. Mokuba at that point meant the Universe to him, maybe if Kisara was also reincarnated Mokuba's importance to Seto would have been lessened.
2. Gozaboro despite being abusive was still the biggest influence on Seto as seen with his loner nature and belief as a well rounded businessman. That brings me to
3. Gozaboro's final lesson for Seto was "to lose is to die." and that's a lesson Seto took an interest in memorizing, and to illustrate his final lesson, what did Gozaboro do? Jump through a window.
Fair points!
Two theories, Kaiba never truly died as a body was never found and he decided to live a different life. Second, he becomes the Kazuma to Aqua in Konosuba, just imagining the interactions between Kaiba and Aqua would be interesting.
Huh, this could've been an interesting watch. Mako in the finals of Battle City is an interesting twist and Mai becoming a competent character would've been nice to see. However, I suppose she'd have to have a bit of a change to her story, now being linked to the past. Otherwise, I don't think she could control Obelisk. Younger me would be pretty sad though. Was a huge fan of Kaiba and his cards when I was a kid.
Love this vid , definitely looking forward to more like it
Thank you! Excited to make more in the future
@@customcardguykeep up the amazing job
@17:40 you brought it upon yourself, we need the Harpie Lady and DM Girl fusion
It could even be called Harpie Magician, don't know what the atk/def would be or the effect, someone with more creativity can cover that part
@@ElvhenRogue The effect would have to be something to do with Spell/Trap destruction/negation as as that's what each girl is known for.
Literally great idea. I hope you blow up and are stuck making these amazing topics forever lol
Would make for a great talking point during interviews.
Plot twist: Kaiba is the one interviewing me.
If yugi kept exodia the whole series would just be atem drawing exodia😂
Dude.... this is better than the actual Battle City we got 😊.
I didn't think of Mai being the rival at all, the first character I thought of who could become Yugi's rival would be Mokuba
I didn't change the make up of any character in this hypothetical, so Mokuba, as is, isn't a skilled enough gamer to challenge Yugi as a rival.
That said, using this juncture to turn him into a villain role would make sense too.
@@customcardguy I liked your interpretation of Mokuba actually not holding it against Yugi because of the kindness Yugi and friends showed him and helping him learn that Kaiba loved him in the end.
Immediately laughed and then clicked on the video when I read the thumbnail
Good good, will tell youtube analytics my thumbnails are working
16:00 better timeline
Mai duels Marik and defeats him with an Obelisk Marik had no idea she had since she kept it a secret up until the point.
Joey duels Yugi and Joey wins
Then Joey beats Mai using Slifer and using a Sixth Sense card Ishizu gave him before the finals because her necklace said he would win and joey would give the gods back to the pharaoh.
Sixth sense lets you roll a dice and pick 2 numbers, if you get 1 of those 2 numbers you get to draw that many cards. He gets a 6 and draws 6 cards increasing slifer by +6000 atk causing him to win the duel.
Then Joey trades the 3 god cards for Red-eyes shocking Mokuba that he would trade 3 god cards for just red eyes.
That would definitely be something if both the lead antagonist and protagonist lost in the semis lol. But the way you script the duel between Mai and Joey is perfect, as is trading the 3 god cards to get Red-Eyes back.
I think Mokuba could of fit the new rival well, Mokuba takes up his brothers deck for revenge
Cyborg Kaiba
The cliff hanger for that episode was the very first episode of yugioh i watched and i came back the next week wondering if he was going to jump, then i just watched the next few episodes wondering what was going on to make him wanna fall off a building, then i was hooked.
Harpie Magician:
Dark Magician Girl + Any "Harpie" Monster
Gains 300 Attack for every "Dark Magician" and "Harpie" monster in the graveyard. (Quick Effect) You can destroy all spell and trap cards your opponent currently controls.
Atk: 2650 Def: 2400
The Orichalcos laughs at your S/T destruction.
I thought of that name, couldn't think of an effect or atk/def though, you have a good concept that I think could work
Super interesting what if but if that was the true path of the series it would have been really jarring to have Kaiba’s influence still effecting so much of the story.
The trio of Yugi, Mai and Joey would mean we get a lot of human monsters. Maybe Joey should run a beast deck or Yugi should run a fiend deck.
Interesting point. Kaiba has the power (dragons/machine), Yugi has the magic (spellcasters), and Joey has the fighting spirit (warriors). So that gets lost if Kaiba is replaced with Mai.
Mokuba: You killed my brother, but sure. Let's do a tag team.
I think that Yami Marik would have sent his elder sister into the Shadow Realm instead of outright killing her, as Yami Marik absolutely loves to mess with and then torture people that he has Duels with.
The shadow realm is the censored version of killing. But I get what you mean. While Marik is definitely the kind of person to torture, he did nearly kill his sister the first time his dark self surfaced. I think given the darker nature of the manga, killing Ishizu would've made a lot of sense.
@customcardguy The shadow realm is used to censor killing, but it's just another name for Hell and people can be sent there and return without dying. He could have done to her something similar to what he did to Mai, Bakura, and his original self so that she would slowly be devoured, body and soul, by the Darkness (which is just another name for Zork).
@@XJ0461C hmm, that wasn't my understanding. I don't think anyone "sent to hell" ever came back (see Bonz). Mai was trapped in her soul room in the manga, which the dub changed to shadow realm (so in neither case did she die). Bakura's is more intricate because a piece of himself exists in the puzzle, so Marik wasn't able to fully kill him.
@customcardguy Yes but Ryo's physical body did still disappear into Darkness until Dark Malik was beaten. Darkness is just a manifestation of Zork as he points out himself and until Dark Bakura frees him, he resides in Hell. Mai would be dead had the torture concluded and her soul would have gone to Hell. The hints that it's all the same place come from Dark Malik himself, who after Dark Bakura proclaims he originates from the Darkness says he plans on taming it. He then later tells Atem before their final duel that he will open the gates of Hell and unleash Darkness upon the entire world, something that would require opening the door to the Underworld with all seven items. That is why he took the Ring from Dark Bakura, he would have then taken the rest from Atem.
So I thought about this video while at work since it was pretty interesting and thought of a change that might be better for for one character. I think Rex should be the one who gets promoted to 8th duelist for battle city instead of Mako and you have someone else lose to Espa Roba. While Mako makes a lot of sense strength wise, I think putting Rex in that spot is more interesting because of the History he has with Mai and that he is already thinking about later he can beat Joey as well to make up for duelist kingdom. His presences also helps fill in a bit of being a Rival to Joey since Mai is Yugi's main rival and no Kaiba around. It would also make his role in waking the dragons a bit more proper as he has more of a grudge now against Joey and Mai for his lack of success and can sort of combine part of Mai's original slot with his original slot in having Mai duel him and get a draw and then having the Joey duel play out normally. The battle City Mai vs Rex duel would also have an interesting Dynamic in that Rex probably would just use a lot of brute force and powerful monsters or plays with less thought while Mai has the God that is quite physically imposing but she uses strategy to utilize it's power effectively
With this it frees Mako up to now have a duel with Yugi or Mai before for a locator card. I want to say it should go to Yugi as a call back to how they both had reasons for why they duel in duelist Kingdom but it wasn't personal unlike most of the other duels Yugi had then. I also then alternatively you could have him duel my to build up more for her being Yugi's rival now and possibly could be a way to show off Mai having Fiend's Sanctuary as she added new cards to help summon Obelisk and puts them to use summoning harpie's pet dragon as well. Then she can give Yugi that card as well for his Duel vs Marik as a way for her to help defeat him.
All good points! I prefer Mako, like you said, because I think he's a better duelist. Rex and Weevil are also tied at the hip, so having 1 make the finals and not the other sort of diminishes their collective grief of being relegated to nothings (a top 8 finish in Battle City is still worth something at least).
But where Rex over Mako makes a lot of sense is the tension. Mako and Mai don't have a history, so that duel is really just about revealing to everyone that Mai has Obelisk. With Rex, we get the added flavor of their history.
GENIUS
I think the outside of the meta narrative, if this were to actually happen in the Yu-Gi-Oh world then I don't think it would go past duelist Kingdom.
The reason I say this is because Yugi became really disillusioned with the Pharaoh when the Pharaoh wanted to kill kaiba. If he actually went through with it I don't think it's very likely that Yugi and the Pharaoh would have come to a reconciliation like they did in the original show, and if they did it would have come later. I'm not sure if yugi could ever forgive the Pharaoh for actually killing kaiba. This would lead to Yugi losing against Mai from being too distracted.
Joey would have to take the mantle of defeating Pegasus but I don't think he's quite a good enough duelist to beat Pegasus at this stage. It took the Pharaoh everything he had to beat him in a duel, and wild Joey at this point has come into his own he' s not quite on that higher level yet. Thus pegasus would win and revive his lover... Not that it would matter for a very long since bakura would swoop in and take his millennium eye, and reviving zorc with the millennium items like he originally planned, plunging the world into an era of darkness. Pretty damn horrible outcome lol.
Yeah but that makes for a less interesting video 😅
For real though, I see what you're saying. My only objections are that Yugi still knows his Grandpa's soul is on the line. And Yugi is likely aware of the penalty games Atem has inflicted on folks (at least from the point onward from when he stopped blacking out during Atem taking over). So he's at least come to terms with partnering with a guy who is cruel compared to himself.
@@customcardguy
Yeah I agree your vid is much more exciting that a 5 min explanation of a horrible timeline lol.
I think you have a point on Yugi knows about the penalty games. Though the difference is that in Yugi's mind those people deserved it and Kaiba did not. I feel like a reconciliation could still happen but it would be harder than in the original story. Yugi it was about to lose the duel against mai before Atem stepped in so I think he would have lost if there was any more animosity between them.
Kaiba: Yugi if I don't win this duel I'll have nothing to live for so imma jump of this cliff and die
Yugi: do it no balls
Honestly, for me, I kinda feel Duke would fit the rival role for Yugi perfectly if you just tweak 1 aspect of his story. That being, you have it that he's not only a genius game designer but also was a prominent Duelist who perhaps was a top Duelist before being defeated by Kaiba. You have it in the dungeon dice mini arc that not only does Duke want to fight Yugi to reveal him as a cheat for defeating Pegasus, but also because since Yugi beat Kaiba, and then Kaiba suddenly "disappeared", he has no way to get his revenge on Kaiba so he also throws that anger towards Yugi since he's the person who last defeated Kaiba. The dungeon dice arc ends as usual, but now we've established a relationship and rivalry between Yugi and Duke.
Battle City now involves Duke as a challenger, maybe he's working together with Kaiba Corp and Mokuba to better perfect the hologram tech for his game, and Mokuba decides it would be good publicity for them both if Duke took part in BC. Ishizu approaches Duke because Duke now takes Kaiba's place in having a connection to Egypt, and gives him Obelisk, which I feel kinda fits Duke perfectly given his ace monster is Orgoth. From there Battle City goes on as normal until the end where Marik reveals the truth about Kaiba's death to everyone, where Mokuba is torn between forgiving Yugi and damning him, and Duke also questions his resolve towards Yugi, before the two ultimately forgive him as Duke understands Kaiba's personality, and Mokuba understood his brother gave his life trying to save him.
If yugioh R and the Pyramid of light movie had a combined story even with Kaiba alive the story could work very well like for instance Yako starts exploring egyptian ruins for a way to revive Pegasus only to discover the egyptian lord of the dead anubis in the pyramid of light who says there is away to revive him but he would need to have a body for him to be revived in and alot of energy would be needed but he must defeat the Pharaoh (not realizing Anubis is using Yako for his own revival) So Yako agrees and while Anubis questions if he can do it Yako mentions he can as he possess the Jashin/Evil God cards cards design to counter the egyptian gods anubis lends Yako the dark powers of the pyramid of light so he can easily use them without any drawbacks. Yako did research in duel energy decides to hire the card professors as a means to gather the energy for project and he takes over Kaiba Corp in domino for its solid vision system to help his project progress which gets Kaiba's attention and draws him into the conflict as he considers pulling out the secret Card Pegasus made ie Blue Eyes Shining Dragon and since Anzu would be kidnapped which gets Yugi and the pharaoh to come so we now have a few movie duels to the point after the pharaoh and Yako duel and the power of the gods clash which then gives us Kaiba Atem and Joey to team up in a similar way to the battle with the great Leviathan only for the shining Dragon to destroy anubis with Dark magician saving Yako in the end.
I love this version of pyramid of light 🤘
I doubt Yugi would mourn the same guy that mugged his grampa and stole/destroyed his prized posession
Yugi's reaction was more so out of ethics and fear that he couldn't control the spirit of the puzzle. Yugi's also a pretty sensitive guy, so even an enemy dying in a card game is too drastic for him.
With Kaiba being gone, Mokuba would obv take over control of Kaiba corp.
Seto would of written down all his future plans, and Mokuba would of found them.
Mokuba would of needed help getting everything up and running, so he decides to collab with Schroeder corp, where in the Schroeder corp gets 50% of the profit shares...or some better "In universe" % of the shares.
Zigfried - however - would fill in the roll of anything that would have to do with seto, with him no longer being here,
which would obv push Mokuba back to being this 'damsel in distress' once again.
BUT since Zigfried obv needs Mokuba alive (So he can one day rule Kaiba Corp) he does his best every time to save Mokba, while keeping this air about him that he's this changed man, and cares about Mokuba.
I can just imagine Téa being upset because she couldn't do the one thing she's good at and that's a friendship speech in this What-If, don't worry Téa you might get a chance to do one, maybe
Tea fans worry not, she gave the speech of her life to Mokuba.
@customcardguy they will be very happy to hear that hahaha
I think a more interesting way to do Gx would instead have been to make Mokuba have become a duelist, having taken his brother’s old blue eyes cards and built his own deck before starting dual Academy. I always felt throughout GX that they were leading up to Kiba being the big villain and that never happened but imagine mokuba ending up being the villain who creates dual Academy to collect enough dual spirit energy to try and bring his brother back after being tricked by darkness/nightshroud into believing he could use his dark magic to bring seto back if mokuba helped him enter our world.
I think a storyline like that would've made for a good replacement for Virtual World. GX likely wanted to separate itself from the original series, with only minor callbacks to throw a bone to the older fans.
@@customcardguy yeah I feel it was something they might have wanted to do cause I feel there were some hints and stuff. I always thought gx was building to Kaiba seeking a way to bring back the pharoh something they later did in dsod. I really think originally gx was going to end with Kaiba trying to use the dark magic of the sacred beast cards and space energy to open a gateway to atem, Jaden would defeat him before he could walk through the gate, then winged kuribo would lead him into the gate where the final dual with him and atem would take place, but somewhere after the society of light arc they pivoted to a separated ending with no huge ties to the og series, and later reused this idea as the plot for dsod.
What If in battle city Yami Ishizu was the main villain?
She would be way more competent as a villain than Marik. She was able to acquire henchman with actual guns!
Implications of Kaiba's death for 5d's:
-no moment/ener-d
-no synchro summons
-no zero reverse
-yusei grows up with his dad
-no satelite, no second class citizens, no exploitation
-no need for the police state so no central deffense department or whatever it's called
-godwin brothers stay happy
-earthbound immortals stay underground
-crimson dragon never has to show up
-no signers (?)
-no global societal downfall caused by card games on motorcycles
-z-one, aporia, paradox and bruno live normal lives and never go back in time
-no illiaster so sherry's parents are still alive and kicking
-jack and crow wouldn't get orphaned
And most important thing of all:
- no carding and driving
Really fascinating how kaiba alone brought about pretty much every single plot point of 5ds and how much tragedy could have been avoided if he had died or chilled somewhat.
Conclusion: billionaires have no right to exist
I often think of this scenario but with my valentine. When she rides her motorcycle off that ledge in the shopping mall or corporate building. I imagine her bike just smashing to bits as soon as it hits like it would in real life and her being like ahhhhhhhhhh ughhhhh,while everyone els is like wtf why did she ride her bike off that ledge it's like 3 or 4 stories
"What If Yu-Gi-Oh! Obeyed the Laws of Physics"
Dangit i wanted Yami Tristan
His voice gives him pharaonic strength
Considering that Seto was my least favorite character in the original series. I would of probably either not cared or been happy if Seto died in Duelist Kingdom.
Then the rest of the series would’ve been boring
Kaiba brought the humor to the show
Didn't Seto Kaiba order one or more of his Minons to kidnap and then beat-up Yugi Moto's Grandpa? And just how does Yami Marik know that Yami Yugi was partially responsible for Seto Kaiba's death too?
Bakura coulda given him the dirt during their brief partnership.
What If Bakura defeated Yami Marik?
Everybody wakes up the next morning and the main threat is gone xD
That is an interesting one though. It woulda really raised Yami Bakura's intimidation factor if he was the one to kill the other 2 leading villains (Pegasus and Marik).
Without Kaiba Judai would not have his Neos deck. In this continuity he should pick up the Masked Heroes
Manga wins again
So does yugi inherit the blues eyes dragons
They need to redo season 1 with actual rules of the game.
I suppose the makeshift rules compensate for the fact that most monsters at this point in time were vanillas. It's basically just giving everything an effect that just happens to not be on the card text.
I don't think you payed attention to Season 1 then to Kaiba creating Battle City. The rules changed because of Kaiba as it was meant to be for the God cards with Kaiba not knowing.
@@fruitybluieblue098 that's an in-universe explanation. The actual reason is because Takahashi created the manga before the game, so in the manga, the rules are different, especially in Duelist Kingdom. Even in Battle City, you have those DK-esque rules like Jinzo being impervious to Time Wizard or activating Time Wizard as a spell.
The great meme of the god card that he sacrifice God for blue eyes and only have mega chick for ra and silfer the ex producer for sky dragon
Then kiba little brother take the company
Oh yeah, He would be the next in line to take it over.
Well I think Alister could've gone with duelling Joey and Téa would duel Valon.
13:14
I SHOULD HAVE KNOEWN!!!!
YOU SHIP IT DAMMIT!!!!
What if molcaba takes over the blue eyes deck and try to Avenge his brother's death
Ok dude one question how is Mai able to even USE Obelisk The Tormentor?
Obelisk is a simp
I overall disagree with the decision to look at what would happen from a narrative perspective like needing a new rival character, especially after the buildup of justifying Kaiba's death through in-universe logic.
A rival isn't necessary, but these types of series do tend to have one, however big or small a role that rivalry plays in the overall plot. Mai also fills the role of the 3rd person in the trio.
Just one problem...though, since you're going with manga canon, you forgot Pegasus killed Bandit Keith after he cheated and then tried to rob him in Duelist Kingdom. No, biggie though, you could just do the same thing that happened with Duke and have him hear about the death on the news and assume it was Yugi.
There is an "alternative" answer to what would happen if Kaiba dies in Pegasus Tower... and it is almost quinda answered.... in a mangá..... YU-GI-OH R!!!!
But of course... not exactly battle city would happen..
With Kaiba Corp kinda with no safe hands... Mokuba would go nuts! AND PROBABLY WITH SOME MANY SCARS FOR LIFE!! Like:...
+ HAVING SCHROODER TRYING TO TAKE THE CO!
+ HABING YAMI BAKURA TRYING TO TAKE THE CO!
+ HAVING DARTZ HACKING THE HOLOGRAM SYSTEM INTO ZEXAL' SOLID SYSTEM AND TRYING TO TAKE THE CO!
+ HAVING TEMMA AND HIS BROTHERS TAKING THE COMPANY!(YEP! THEY SUCCEDED!)
With Kaiba's gone, the Co is unsafe and Mokuba even doh he is capable of running, he can only defend, not attack... yet... so they should make the next arc being this coming of age/trauma before some major event like Marik trying to take care of Atem by using the Rare Hunters. Since Mokuba was being taken as hostage in the manga/anime, again... they need to do a "calm before the storm" episodes since in the manga... MOKUBA IS A BITCH from beggining to end, but in the anime he is just annoying but more reliable to ask for help... so its is kinda difficult really... they could let Mokuba being a bastard and manipulate Yugi&friends(as in the manga I believe he also made this too) against the new treat or having him go for them to help... like in most Filler arcs funnily enough.
*EDIT AFTER SEEING YOUR BATTLE CITY REIMAGINED!*
I would let the last bit, the confession, a little different... that Mokuba wouldn't trust ATEM but only Yugi, since y'know... all the past trangressions... even doh Mokuba is pretty much a rotten egg as well.
Mokuba let the match continue but in the end... he may resolves to revenge against Atem and have the villains who wants to take revenge against the Pharaoh more easier... like Yami Bakura manipulating Mokuba to help him get the puzzle to seal away Atem to the Beyond(where HE'LL NEEEEEVER BEEN SEEN AGAIN!YEP! HE WILL BE DEAD! NO RETURN! BELIEVE IT!)
I would LOOOOVE a Redemption arc for Mokuba in the Dark Side of Dimensions and have total trust for Yugi and Yugi being his co-worker trying to develop new things
Aren’t the only people who can properly wield a God Card those connected to Ancient Egypt? Or am I remembering that bit of God card lore wrong?
Also, if the Marik v Yugi duel is the same, how’d he get Fiend’s Sanctuary if not from Kaiba?
Eh I mean he coulda just had Fiend's Sanctuary to begin with, or gotten it from Mai, who'd be more willing to help him defeat Marik.
As for the lore, I'm not sure how concrete it is that you need a connection to Ancient Egypt to control a god card. The issue only ever comes up for Mai because she can't release Ra from its sphere, but for Obelisk and Slifer, the requirement is less definitive. Anime-wise, Gurimo controls Obelisk, although you could argue that's the power of the Orichalcos. But regardless of existing lore, we're living in a world of hypotheticals so that lore could change, or we could give Mai an ancient connection.
@@customcardguy I could've sworn Marik said something akin to Kaiba being able to control Obelisk was due to his connection to the past, and Kaiba responded something akin to "Oh please, I can control Obelisk because I'm an expert duelist". Also, the whole deal with Ra in GX, where that dude needed that special field spell, Mound of the Bound Creator, to control Ra. Though your solutions would probably work. Maybe have Mai's ancestor be one of the Pharoah's guardians (the ones who possessed the Millennium Items in that Ancient Egypt Arc, I mean)
@customcardguy - When a God card is played, the original, your duel disk becomes electricfid where maybe if you don't have any connection to them, you will be put out in a coma or worse killed. Pegasus have explained why he couldn't wield their power at all.
@@fruitybluieblue098 is there a part where they specifically mention the "connection" part? I didn't see that in the manga. Only thing that came up a couple of times is if the god deems a duelist worthy.
OK so after watching this again. Kaiba already won the duel. Yugi summons Celtic guardian, attacks weak ultimate dragon. Then kaiba resurrected his blue eyes. So at that point kaiba can just attack and win. But to prove a point on how ruthless you need to be to beat Pegasus, he forces yugi to make a choice. Yugi can't do it, then kaiba just does what he should have when he brought back his blue eyes. So yeah kaiba won the duel fairly.
The rules were weird then. I think it's along the lines of not being able to attack because the head of Blue-Eyes is part of a Fusion monster, so it can't attack the turn it's summoned.
Mia can not will obelisk so she would have never be given that card
Everyone always asking what if Joey beat Marik and takes Ra, but what about what if Mai beat Marik and got Ra?
Assuming she can summon it, a Mai vs Joey duel woulda been fun to see if she has Ra.
Okay, a lot of people in this are very cool with Yugi killing Kaiba...
Pharaoh killed a lot of people in season 0 and no one bats an eye. But Kaiba willingly jumps off a castle and everyone loses their mind!
14:09 😂😂😂 this has no reason to be this funny
It's the crowning jewel of the video.
I would say mokuba can be his rival/ enemy in the what if
I think enemy would make more sense than rival. If Mokuba views Yugi as the reason for Kaiba's suicide, then Mokuba would seek revenge in a capacity more fitting for his talents. To that end, Mokuba isn't a duelist, which is why I didn't consider him in the rival role.
@@customcardguy yeah but in season zero he was a menace to yugi so even though in the duel monsters series he isnt a duelist in the season 0 he was
@@Burn_up_worldHe played the capsule monster game (and lost to Yugi twice despite cheating both times). But he never dueled in Duel Monsters outside of the one vs Yugi in Duelist Kingdom, where he got smacked.
@@customcardguy i know but still it be an interesting point of view seeing a weak mokuba to a formidable duelist. And to give him a deck she would probably run his brother deck along with the ritual monster (the burger ritual monster) he would be at least a bit better than duelist kingdom
I disagree that it couldn't be Bakura, and I think it makes more sense than Mai because of the Millennium Ring. That means you would have to break up their friendship and they would have to become clearer enemies. But Bakura is cleverly designed to be powerful but not too memorable, but more so as time goes on. You could just promote that to main antagonist energy, it's almost like he's a 2nd string antagonist for Yugi, and Yami Bakura would be the only character ruthless enough whose there the whole time to push Yugi/group amidst reckoning with losing Kaiba. so long story short, it's actually Bakura.
Just seems difficult to delineate between Yami and regular Bakura because Yami can take control at any moment. We never see regular Bakura duel, so can't even say how good of a duelist he is.
@@customcardguyso there's a very weird way of writing Bakura in the show; whenever "they" see him, they're always very amicable towards him, but then inevitably Yami Bakura comes out and for lack of better words, "does some f**k sh*t". The whole thing is nonsensical tbh. Sure he's their friend, but his presence also puts them in danger most of the time their around him, especially, and they only ever dance around the subject. What if the show was rewritten so that every time the group encountered Bakura, Yami Bakura was already active and assumed to be so. Then the big subplot could just be freeing Bakura from the hold of the Millenium Ring once and for all, kind of like how Marik needs to be freed from his darker self. Then a bigger focal point of the millenium items could be the risk they pose on their users and make Yami Yugi even more ambiguous, and possibly give the duel with Rafael a darker perspective. And you wouldn't have to change much, from DK, plus you would have the payoff of freeing Bakura near the end of the series and he really needs a better boss monster during BC so giving him Obelisk and having Yugi overcome that could be a much stronger duel. Just posing for fun 🤷🏽♂
What if Kaiba did this for his own selfishness but it was for his Brother.
What if Mokuba didn't exist
I mean he basically didn't
There would be no Yu-Gi-Oh lol no battle city
17:32 your welcome
Yugi would go to jail
There’s no such thing as season 0.😂 and weevil and Rex and bakura would make the most sense as rival characters bc they’re also reoccurring characters
The colloquial term for the original manga/pre-Duelist Kingdom arcs.
Anywho, recurring doesn't =/= rival material. Rex and Weevil are both far outclassed by Yugi in dueling skill, so they don't make good rivals. Bakura is the overarching villain of the entire series, so having him take the role of villain and rival doesn't work.
how tf would a hologram cause someone to fall
It doesn't Kaiba jumps
The same holograms that throw people around during duels lol, but yeah this is where the manga/sub anime makes more sense that Kaiba jumps instead of being knocked over by the hologram shockwaves.
The series would’ve been better for it.
Kaiba is pathetic for threatening suicide if he doesn’t win. That’s the ultimate ******* move.
Trash character.
Well then the show ends after Duelist kingdom
If kiba die then he would never sacrifice God for blue eyes white dragon and chànge Future
Love your vids. Also this fanfic msde me ship Mai and Ishizu a bit
Mai can't ever use a God card. She wouldn't be able to handle their power and in fact the God card would be anger just as what happened to Pegasus. Ishizu's warning to Kaiba about Oblisk power isn't a joke as she knows what they're capable of because they're not just cards.
I didn't come across any definitive proof that Mai couldn't wield a god card, other than Ra. If we cross series, Mai is lauded as a legendary duelist along with Yugi, Kaiba, and Joey, so it's at least arguable that she's "worthy" enough to wield one. Whether or not you agree is fine, but I didn't see anything in the manga that was concrete.
But also this is a major hypothetical, so some of the lore may be stretched.
You make a good point there about the manga which is the original before the anime version. I will have to watch the Sub version, maybe the Dub censorship this part about the God cards as Dub always changes the Sub. Because honestly Jaden did use Ra as he is worthy enough to use Ra and a very strong duelist.
obviously he wanst gonna do it bc mokuba was still a prisoner to pegasus no way hed le him rot in there
Kaiba was convinced Yugi had no shot at Pegasus. And the only reason he thought he himself had a shot was because he was going to try and make Pegasus duel with his duel disk. So with those options out the window, Kaiba would think there's no hope.
That said, no I don't think he jumps anyways. He'd find another way into the castle.