Corruption and Scandal in the OG Yugioh-verse

[Lheticus]

So, I was originally just going to talk about this on Facebook, but it ended up being such a breathtaking rant that I couldn't resist sharing it with you all. Read, enjoy, respond:

So, I've been watching the OG Yugioh again properly for the first time since I believe I was a teenager and...holy ****. I knew that in more recent Yugioh series, the biggest tournaments shown have always been rife with corruption, but for some reason I thought it was more of a development in those, as in it was added later sort of. But man, oh man.

Even discounting that the rules for Duel Monsters were ABSOLUTELY WACKY back then, Duelist Kingdom STILL absolutely takes the cake on corruption. Let's count the infractions:

0) Allows a competitor who was not, in point of fact, invited to this invitational tournament to compete. This one to me is ambiguous though--the fact that Pegasus' package included two Star Chips and two Finals Qualification Cards in every package suggests that maybe it was intended that each invited competitor could bring one guest, a Duel Monsters buddy to play with them, but that Yugi was the only one to willingly take the tournament point disadvantage.

1) HOWEVER, they also didn't even bat an eye at the kids who don't have dueling gloves except to say "oh hey, you don't have dueling gloves" literally once and it's never brought up again. In spite of the fact that they clearly stowed away on the ship that took the competitors there in the first place. Which is, don'tcha know, ILLEGAL. Maybe don't press charges to minors but Pegasus had every opportunity to throw the Peanut Gallery out of his island on their ears and he DIDN'T DO IT.

2) A top level competitor admits, in full earshot of several spectators including at least one actually legal on-screen one, that they stole a copy of the new tournament rules to sneak a peek. Absolutely nothing is done about this, not even a minor infraction.

3) Another competitor marks her cards--LITERALLY ALL OF HER CARDS--with perfume. Not only is not a single damn thing done, she eventually makes it to the finals of the tournament!

4) Another competitor--and I at least assume a minor--is permitted to carry a deadly weapon on his person and threaten fellow competitors with it.

5) At least one and possibly even more duelists have their tournament points STOLEN, with one in particular being eliminated from the tournament without actually having played the damn game--that he took an ENTIRE boat ride to do, remember, EVEN ONCE. This is where I REALLY started to go metaphorically cross-eyed. This is the equivalent of if people were playing Monopoly, they take a bathroom break, then when everyone's out of the room, someone comes back, takes all of one of the player's money and properties and puts them with their own stuff, then when confronted with the fact that CLEARLY their stuff was stolen, everyone just goes "well, you don't have any money left, so you're bankrupt, so you're out."

6) A card loses its stats according to the electronics being used to play the game, not by any effect in the game, but because the electronics were tampered with. The duel continues as though the monster had been destroyed legitimately.

7) After catching said tournament point thief, a TOURNAMENT OFFICIAL KNOCKS THE TOURNAMENT POINTS INTO THE WATER where apparently they are irretrievable, including two of Yugi's who was still eligible to compete even with out. Pegasus, you owe our spiky hair boy 2 Star Chips for failure to control your PET GORILLA!

8) Next match shown allows for a mid-game ante side bet (I'm at least pretty sure this is ALSO illegal but I do admit that Joey vs. Rex was one of the more mild duels to go on on that island)

9) Employs an "Eliminator" to interfere with the contestants, gives him the capability to falsely imprison tournament participants and LITERALLY KILL THEM WITH FIRE. Pegasus was LUCKY Yugi obliterated him, he got rid of Pegasus' evidence FOR him--having your employee commit 1st degree attempted murder is not going to lighten the amount of scandal your tournament SHOULD have caused to your company. Also can we talk about the fact that Yami Yugi/(Spoilars) ****ING MURDERED A FULL GROWN-ASS MAN?!

This is all in the first 15 episodes of the show. I've only watched the first 15 episodes of the show so far. And there's already been enough scandal to rock even the wealthiest of corporations. If Microsoft threw a Halo tournament this bad, there would be no more Microsoft. And, while I haven't rewatched for specifics yet, I KNOW IT GETS EVEN WORSE.

However, as a takeaway from this, I would love, love, LOVE to see a card game anime deconstruct the sort of shenanigans that go on in the average on-screen Yugioh tournament.

[Ramza00]

This is why you aim your dragon at the ring of levitation that supports the castle of corruption, darkness, and scandal. This way the castle of corruption, darkness, and scandal will destroy all the monsters

[Traab]

Too be fair, wasnt the entire tournament just a massive setup for yugi and kaiba by pegasus and thus not really one he was taking seriously? Also, didnt pegasus basically make up an entire deck of cards for himself? I seem to recall the toonworld thing was brand new and yugi was forced to figure out its strengths and weaknesses as he went rather than already knowing them because he studied the cards available to everyone beforehand like any responsible competitor does. Yeah fairness was like, 15th on his list of priorities. 14th being "order more dapper suits"

[Lheticus]

Too be fair, wasnt the entire tournament just a massive setup for yugi and kaiba by pegasus and thus not really one he was taking seriously? Also, didnt pegasus basically make up an entire deck of cards for himself? I seem to recall the toonworld thing was brand new and yugi was forced to figure out its strengths and weaknesses as he went rather than already knowing them because he studied the cards available to everyone beforehand like any responsible competitor does. Yeah fairness was like, 15th on his list of priorities. 14th being "order more dapper suits"

And 13th being "Make sure not to miss my nightly 'Funny Bunny' binge-watching session." XD And yeah, like I said, it gets muuuuuuch worse even from there. The only thing I truly question is how he avoided major scandal for his company in order for it to be still there, thriving, and with him still in control by the time of GX.

[Lord Raziere]

However, as a takeaway from this, I would love, love, LOVE to see a card game anime deconstruct the sort of shenanigans that go on in the average on-screen Yugioh tournament.

Cool, good thing to want. problem is, its a side thing. you got to have a core to start with and that kind of thing your talking about is just orbiting something more central.

you want a fair tournament where people are held responsible for their actions, but first we got to ask more questions: why would giant hologram card games be so important for everyone to take so seriously in the first place? Why build this whole set up? why not just solve your problems with say, good ol' violence? we have to take care of that first.

Enter the Anti-Harm Fields! Magical technology that protects people across the world in a way so that no one can harm each other through regular means. warfare simply becomes impractical or impossible, don't focus on the details of this too much.

and Earth's nations need some other way of resolving conflicts and thus turn to the obvious G Gundam-esque solution: replace fighting with card games and make all of Earth, the battleground.

next we need a protagonist. how about for once we based the card game on actual card game strategies. the protagonist should obviously be a control deck. Why? because aggro decks would finish everything too early, while combo decks would be long and dramatic but get predictable because the solution would always be "maximize card draw, summon exodia, win". with a control deck, the protagonist can draw out the battle for best amount of drama and suspense while having to come up with new solutions for every threat the opponent throws at them and the entire show will be about the protagonist figuring out the foes strategy in their head and trying to disrupt it.
Their friends of course will be an aggro decker who faces challenges that are more about beating multiple opponents fast rather than one opponent playing well and a combo decker who comes up with a new combo deck every once in a while.

every season would be about a single broken meta-defining card that would serve as the pseudo-BBEG or the villains tool that everyone uses in various ways, a recurring card foe that the protagonist would have to foil each time due to how powerful it is, because all his opponents would have it. there would also be episodes where certain cards being banned would force the protagonists to re-make their entire deck or something and having to adapt to the new meta.

and of course at least one tournament would be draft or something like to make sure they can't use their usual pre-built decks and have to make use of suboptimal cards they are dealt with to advance.

I have no idea if any of these have already been done in other card game anime and I don't particularly care, thats just what I came up with.

[Man on Fire]

Also can we talk about the fact that Yami Yugi/(Spoilars) ****ING MURDERED A FULL GROWN-ASS MAN?!

I mean, this isn't first time for him, so...

[The Glyphstone]

I mean, this isn't first time for him, so...

Did the first manga series ever get an anime? Yami's a vicious sadistic serial killer in that one...

[Kitten Champion]

I like the bit in TFS's video with Yugi/Yami confronting Cell in that waiting time before the final act with the Cell Games, where he challenges him - as always - to a children's card game to save the planet. It's just Cell pointing out how Yami keeps using cards that have been tournament illegal for literal years.

[Tvtyrant]

Cool, good thing to want. problem is, its a side thing. you got to have a core to start with and that kind of thing your talking about is just orbiting something more central.

you want a fair tournament where people are held responsible for their actions, but first we got to ask more questions: why would giant hologram card games be so important for everyone to take so seriously in the first place? Why build this whole set up? why not just solve your problems with say, good ol' violence? we have to take care of that first.

Enter the Anti-Harm Fields! Magical technology that protects people across the world in a way so that no one can harm each other through regular means. warfare simply becomes impractical or impossible, don't focus on the details of this too much.

and Earth's nations need some other way of resolving conflicts and thus turn to the obvious G Gundam-esque solution: replace fighting with card games and make all of Earth, the battleground.

next we need a protagonist. how about for once we based the card game on actual card game strategies. the protagonist should obviously be a control deck. Why? because aggro decks would finish everything too early, while combo decks would be long and dramatic but get predictable because the solution would always be "maximize card draw, summon exodia, win". with a control deck, the protagonist can draw out the battle for best amount of drama and suspense while having to come up with new solutions for every threat the opponent throws at them and the entire show will be about the protagonist figuring out the foes strategy in their head and trying to disrupt it.
Their friends of course will be an aggro decker who faces challenges that are more about beating multiple opponents fast rather than one opponent playing well and a combo decker who comes up with a new combo deck every once in a while.

every season would be about a single broken meta-defining card that would serve as the pseudo-BBEG or the villains tool that everyone uses in various ways, a recurring card foe that the protagonist would have to foil each time due to how powerful it is, because all his opponents would have it. there would also be episodes where certain cards being banned would force the protagonists to re-make their entire deck or something and having to adapt to the new meta.

and of course at least one tournament would be draft or something like to make sure they can't use their usual pre-built decks and have to make use of suboptimal cards they are dealt with to advance.

I have no idea if any of these have already been done in other card game anime and I don't particularly care, thats just what I came up with.

You could do it fairly easily if we crib off of Ready Player 1.

The world was dominated by a MEGACORPORATION that OWNS EVERYTHING. This is the base setting of a lot of anime anyway. The CEO/founder was a huge nerd who loved the card game, and he banks everything on a world wide tournament for who is going to inherit his fortune. Every major city has a throne, and you have to rank up by collecting pogs through games to challenge the current king. Once you are king you have the option of moving on to the next city and relinquishing the kingdom back to the old king or remaining king.

CEO knew that other rich people would install kings in order to try to block people from taking on the world and getting his money, which is why the system works that way. Each city has its own ban list so some cards are missing and more are added as the protag goes from city to city. Some cities are ruled by Gangers, kids who keep the throne of their city to keep the corporate stooges out of power and allow ronins (the kids who want the big throne) to win. Some of these are local gangers, others are part of a group called Pendragon who want to install Gangers in all of the cities and keep the corporations out of the running entirely. They go from city to city as a group to install a king there, collecting pogs as a group and donating them to the appointed Knight (Pendragon Ganger.)

[Thanqol]

However, as a takeaway from this, I would love, love, LOVE to see a card game anime deconstruct the sort of shenanigans that go on in the average on-screen Yugioh tournament.

Kakegurui has you covered.

[Traab]

And 13th being "Make sure not to miss my nightly 'Funny Bunny' binge-watching session." XD And yeah, like I said, it gets muuuuuuch worse even from there. The only thing I truly question is how he avoided major scandal for his company in order for it to be still there, thriving, and with him still in control by the time of GX.

Well duel monster tournament was a privately run thing with experimental rules and tech. Any problems could be brushed off easily enough with that. Pegasus, the guy who created the game, wants to have a test run with new rules, new holographic tech, etc, so he invites a ton of known duelists to take part and give it a workout. So a lot of the issues could be brushed off like that. In addition, how much of the tournament was broadcast to anyone but pegasus? I honestly cant recall if it was televised or not. So aside from dealing with a few angry duelists I doubt he had much trouble riding out any waves from it.

[Lheticus]

You could do it fairly easily if we crib off of Ready Player 1.

The world was dominated by a MEGACORPORATION that OWNS EVERYTHING. This is the base setting of a lot of anime anyway. The CEO/founder was a huge nerd who loved the card game, and he banks everything on a world wide tournament for who is going to inherit his fortune. Every major city has a throne, and you have to rank up by collecting pogs through games to challenge the current king. Once you are king you have the option of moving on to the next city and relinquishing the kingdom back to the old king or remaining king.

CEO knew that other rich people would install kings in order to try to block people from taking on the world and getting his money, which is why the system works that way. Each city has its own ban list so some cards are missing and more are added as the protag goes from city to city. Some cities are ruled by Gangers, kids who keep the throne of their city to keep the corporate stooges out of power and allow ronins (the kids who want the big throne) to win. Some of these are local gangers, others are part of a group called Pendragon who want to install Gangers in all of the cities and keep the corporations out of the running entirely. They go from city to city as a group to install a king there, collecting pogs as a group and donating them to the appointed Knight (Pendragon Ganger.)

...Holy moley this sounds awesome. I mean, originally I'd meant deconstructing it by actually having the card game company face real-world consequences but this would also work awesomely well.

Did the first manga series ever get an anime? Yami's a vicious sadistic serial killer in that one...

I was given to understand that "Season Zero" isn't fully canon to the rest of the anime series?

Kakegurui has you covered.

I've watched it, and I absolutely do enjoy it, but since all they do is really have nobody give a heck about whether people cheat or not and actually build their system around it being the responsibility of the players, not the officials, to keep cheating from altering the outcome of a gamble, it only gets about halfway there in this regard.

[LaZodiac]

Too be fair, wasnt the entire tournament just a massive setup for yugi and kaiba by pegasus and thus not really one he was taking seriously? Also, didnt pegasus basically make up an entire deck of cards for himself? I seem to recall the toonworld thing was brand new and yugi was forced to figure out its strengths and weaknesses as he went rather than already knowing them because he studied the cards available to everyone beforehand like any responsible competitor does. Yeah fairness was like, 15th on his list of priorities. 14th being "order more dapper suits"

He literally created the game, demoing new cards isn't illegal. Underhanded sure, but not illegal.

Did the first manga series ever get an anime? Yami's a vicious sadistic serial killer in that one...

Season Zero has a season. And a serial killer of people who deserve it mostly, so it's fine. And like he doesn't KILL them, just ruins their lives forever.

...Holy moley this sounds awesome. I mean, originally I'd meant deconstructing it by actually having the card game company face real-world consequences but this would also work awesomely well.

I was given to understand that "Season Zero" isn't fully canon to the rest of the anime series?

I've watched it, and I absolutely do enjoy it, but since all they do is really have nobody give a heck about whether people cheat or not and actually build their system around it being the responsibility of the players, not the officials, to keep cheating from altering the outcome of a gamble, it only gets about halfway there in this regard.

Season Zero is canon with the rest of the anime. It's only called Season Zero because the west never got it, it's season 1 of Yugioh proper and Duel Island is the second season.

[Traab]

He literally created the game, demoing new cards isn't illegal. Underhanded sure, but not illegal.



Season Zero has a season. And a serial killer of people who deserve it mostly, so it's fine. And like he doesn't KILL them, just ruins their lives forever.



Season Zero is canon with the rest of the anime. It's only called Season Zero because the west never got it, it's season 1 of Yugioh proper and Duel Island is the second season.

I never said it was illegal. Like you said its his game, and his tournament, its only illegal if he says it is. It was a freaking cheesy way to play though. Bad enough he gets to study yugi and his entire strategy/deck in advance by watching him duel everyone else first while yugi is left in the dark, but then to go, "Mwahaha! I have a card that changes all sorts of rules for how the game works you never heard of because I made it up this week!" Is cheaper than boxed wine at a dollar store.

[DodgerZero]

This is why you aim your dragon at the ring of levitation that supports the castle of corruption, darkness, and scandal. This way the castle of corruption, darkness, and scandal will destroy all the monsters

I give you 10pts. for this reference.

I have nothing else to add. This just made me laugh

[thoroughlyS]

Season Zero is canon with the rest of the anime. It's only called Season Zero because the west never got it, it's season 1 of Yugioh proper and Duel Island is the second season.

"Season Zero" doesn't actually share continuity with the series we're all familiar with. It was a completely separate series produced by Toei, before they lost the licensing. And there are several things in the Toei anime that don't line up with the anime produced by Studio Gallop. For example, Shadi and Bakura get introduced in both series, and there is a character named Miho which was added to the cast in the Toei anime*.

*She was in the original manga, but had a far smaller role, limited to a single chapter.

[Peelee]

The Mod on the Silver Mountain: I've never played the game, but I know the Chaos Necromancer card is forbidden here!