History Fridge / YugiOh

* Part of the reason for the name of "Xyz" monsters is that the game mechanics for them involve stacking multiple cards on top of one another, thus adding a Z axis to the existing X and Y axes of the playing field. It may also be a reference to the previously-existing fusion monster, "XYZ Dragon Cannon", which depicted its component monsters (you guessed it) stacked on top of one another. By extension, this also explains people not reacting to special, one-of-a-kind cards. We, the audience, know that Stardust Dragon has magical properties stemming from being a piece of an ancient god, but his opponents, unless they know as well, just assume it's a rare Synchro Monster they've never seen before. As long as the Duel Disk accepts it's a legitimate card, they just roll with it. (Same with the Zexal Weapons; as far as the audience to the WDC finals knew, they were just a lucky topdeck, and not literally made on the spot.)

* one thing that I think is kind of messed up, out of the original, pre rush duel series, the arc v cast were just Middle schoolers, besides maybe Reiji, while the classic, GX , Zexal and Vrains casts were high schoolers and most of the 5d's cast were young adults, besides the twins, who were either middle or high-schollers, but they had adults with them, that is right, we had, in arc V middle schoolers fighting in war zones
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* Pagasus's villain song "Face up, Face down" has him tell the listener to play their strongest card. His star cards, Relinquished and Thousand Eyes Restrict, gain the attack points of the monster they equip. Of course he would want you to summon your strongest monster!

** It can symbolize Atem’s pride. Atem’s pride was strong during the beginning of Battle City and as such, he wears his coat as a cape more often, especially in the Manga. His pride is also what partially fuels his actions during his duel with the possessed Joey. It is only when Yugi switches in and appeals to Joey emotionally and not as a duelist, that Joey breaks free of the mind control. This is after Atem’s CoatCape was forced off by possessed Joey. It is only after Atem puts down his pride that he and Yugi are able to free Joey from his mind controlled. Fittingly, Atem stops wearing his CoatCape as often, especially not during duels.
** Yugi is almost never shown wearing his coat as a cape and in the Manga, any opportunity where he would be wearing a CoatCape while Atem is in control of his body, either Yugi loses it by having it fall off as in the case with duel with Pandora in the Manga, or Atem has lost his CoatCape. This is because the coat cape represents Atem, not him.

* More apparent in the Manga because Atem [[TheCoatsAreOff throws off his coat cape very often]], only keeping it on for the battle against the Mask duo in the Manga, it’s very fitting that he gets it blown off in his duel with a possessed Joey and only during that duel. Atem throwing off his coat represents him having to take a duel seriously or represents him dueling someone who he is more serious about. During the duel, Atem attempts to stall because he wants to find out how to stop the duel. By having his cape forced off, Atem symbolically is forced to take the duel seriously. On a humorous note, Atem probably realized that he could lose his coat cape during a duel, so he opted to stop wearing it like a cape. Although he doesn’t take much direct damage in his duel with Bakura on the blimp, that would have been a bad time to lose his coat. The anime creates from FridgeLogic during his duel with the possessed Joey by having his coat dramatically be blown off and towards the ocean, nowhere in sight afterwards, while in the Manga, it simply falls to the side of the arena. For the former, it must have been a pain for Yugi to get back his coat if it fell into the ocean.

** In that regard, Weevil and Rex can be considered the counterpart to the [[ThePowerOfFriendship themes of friendship]] that is so prevalent in the series, showing what happens when you are influenced by friends who are not good for you, who can bring out your darker qualities even if you're otherwise a relatively upstanding person.

* People have wondered why Rex Raptor is so frequently lumped together with Weevil as being a malicious wannabe bad guy despite his manga counterpart being nowhere near as bad, and despite his earlier showings portraying him as being at worst a bit of a jerk, but otherwise a regular rough guy. The answer is ''because'' of his affiliation with Weevil Underwood. It's pretty telling that the only time he ever does anything remotely malicious or cruel is ''only'' whenever he's around Weevil, and his better (or at least more justified moments) are when he's far away from the guy. [[ToxicFriendInfluence Weevil is a toxic influence]], and frankly seems to bring out the worst in him.

** And why would Rex hang out with Weevil even in spite of just how much the latter brings out the worst in him? Because Rex is stuck in the past like Weevil. [[JadedWashout Both of them are fixated on their glory days as champion-level duelists]], and their inability to let go of past grudges (Weevil) and past failures (Rex) has resulted in them not only stagnating, but falling into bad habits and behaviors that only ensure that they'll remain there.

* Many of the later Cyber Dragon cards have GratuitousGerman in their card names (e.g. Zwei, Drei, Nachster, and so on). Their user in the anime, Ryo Marufuji, was nicknamed "Kaiser". Now, [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany which country was ruled by a Kaiser again?]]

[[folder: Yu-Gi-Oh!]]

[[folder: In General]]
* In the second anime series, the Egyptian God Cards are so powerful, it takes another card of similar strength (most likely another Egyptian God) or a strategy capable of exploiting their weaknesses to overcome them. By GX, Jaden with his Season 2 deck was able to defeat Ra, the most powerful of the Egyptian Gods. By 5D's, Zushin the Sleeping Giant, a being claimed to be on par with the Egyptian Gods, is also an extremely common card (albeit one that has a ''ridiculously'' hard summon requirement). It may seem weird the strongest cards in Duel Monsters are quickly losing relevance to the game, but it makes sense. After knowing the dangers of the Egyptian Gods, Pegasus and possibly Kaiba would naturally encourage the selling of progressively stronger cards in the game so other Duelists can defend themselves just in case another super-card is used to hurt them. This becomes [[LampshadedTrope Lampshaded]] in the [[SpinOff Gaiden Manga]] ''Yu-Gi-Oh! R'' Where the ''Wicked God'' cards were deliberately created as a countermeasure against the ''Egyptian Gods'', albeit with specific effects for each ones effects tailored to counteract each individual god's effects.
* You'll get a lot of this, about the series' concepts in general, if you do a little bit of study on ancient Egypt. For example, the ancient Egyptian concept of duality; that nothing can exist without its [[SuperPoweredEvilSide equal but opposite double.]] Also makes sense for the finale- naturally the only way for the Pharaoh to defeat Bakura and the creature of darkness he summoned was for him and Yugi to work together to summon Horakty, a deity of light. Once Zorc was destroyed, The Pharaoh had to pass on because his opposite (Bakura) was no longer around.

* Seto loves his Blue-Eyes White Dragons. Makes sense he'd have blue eyes and a draconic-looking white coat.
* The new Field Spell rules, which allow both players to control a Field Spell Card at a time rather than only one, have a basis in the original anime - specifically, it makes it closer to the Duelist Kingdom field rules, where multiple types of field could be on the board at once. But instead of applying the field's effects per card zone, it just applies both field effects across the whole field (because, as Konami became well aware, rules that result in the positioning of monsters mattering don't work very well since most people don't actually keep track of that).
* Many of the later Cyber Dragon cards have GratuitousGerman in their card names (e.g. Zwei, Drei, Nachster, and so on). Their user in the anime, Ryo Marufuji, was nicknamed "Kaiser". Now, [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany which country was ruled by a Kaiser again?]]

* People have wondered why Rex Raptor is so frequently lumped together with Weevil as being a malicious wannabe bad guy despite his manga counterpart being nowhere near as bad, and despite his earlier showings portraying him as being at worst a bit of a jerk, but otherwise a regular rough guy. The answer is ''because'' of his affiliation with Weevil Underwood. It's pretty telling that the only time he ever does anything remotely malicious or cruel is ''only'' whenever he's around Weevil, and his better (or at least more justified moments) are when he's far away from the guy. [[ToxicFriendInfluenceWeevil is a toxic influence]], and frankly seems to bring out the worst in him.

* Yami Marik using Joyful Doom against Bakura seems really situational, but it's for a situation that could come back to haunt him had he not prepared for it, which he probably learned from his Duel with Mai, the situation being the opponent [[HoistByHisOwnPetard trying to steal Ra from him and defeat him with it]]. While it didn't work when Mai tried it, it would've worked if Yugi or Kaiba had done the same thing due to their connections to the Millennium Items. Kaiba shows later on that he has Lullaby of Obedience, which he tried to use to steal Osiris[=/=]Slifer from Yugi. Also, due to the death-match Marik set up with Yugi and Jounouchi, Marik already knows Yugi has Exchange in his Deck, meaning it is within the realm of possibility for the two of them to just use those cards to steal Ra from him and make it a CurbStompBattle unless he has a countermeasure (Joyful Doom). It's also important to note that Yugi didn't know about Ra's other powers in advance, so for all he knew Ra was just a beatstick that depended on the power of the monsters sacrificed to summon it. Marik's Duel with Jounouchi was the first time he saw God Phoenix, and he didn't see Marik Duel Bakura, so he didn't see One Turn Kill until the middle of their Duel. Marik also isn't as tech-savvy as Kaiba due to his upbringing away from modern society, so he probably didn't think that Kaiba could use satellite technology to scan Ra and read the ancient text to learn its other powers, and thought Kaiba was just as in the dark about Ra's hidden powers as Yugi was.