Discussion YMMV / YugiOh

It's been a while since I read the manga, but I think it was said that Bakura died when his body was eaten by the darkness, in the manga Mai would die if she wasn't rescued in 24 hours, and Joey flat-out died in both versions. (Episode 128 is called "Jonouchi Dies!")

Manga Mokuba: So Jonouchi's alive then!

Manga Kaiba: Hmph! He should've stayed dead...

The Shadow Realm in general has become such a part of the lore that the video games and other licensed products include it, usually in reference to the Mariks. Yami Marik's goal in the original was to bring about a World of Darkness, which works with the Shadow Realm lore well, and EVERY game that mentions Marik's backstory says he sent his father to the Shadow Realm... where he died. (Capsule Monster Coliseum also has Bakura threaten to send you there out of boredom if you idle when winning against him, 7 Trials to Glory has a Shadow Realm dungeon where evil duelists hang out, Nightmare Troubadour has Yami Yugi warn you that if you lose a Shadow Game your soul will be consumed by the Shadow Realm, and Yu-Gi-Oh Online had both Yami Bakura and Yami Marik mention it when summoning signature cards.)

As for the Kaibas, they were about power and flaunting power at their worst, wanting to lord their superiority over others—Gozaburo in particular was a control freak. IIRC the virtual world's limited amount of interaction—from NP Cs and also when Gozaburo stopped caring about ti and abandoned Noah in favor of Seto—drove Noah towards madness, jealousy and resentment of Seto in particular. In the dub Gozaburo also mentions wanting to reprogram Seto's mind to serve him. "Then you'll obey my commands just like the rest of the world!"

"How does ruling the world make more sense then destroying it?"

To quote TAS, "what's the point in wanting to destroy the world? What do you gain from it?" It only works if we presume the Kaibas have gone insane since their digitization, which is possibly and likely given their behavior and what became of Gozaburo, but it isn't made explicit. On the other hand, wanting to digitize all of mankind and rule over them as king of the virtual world makes sense, because you control all of mankind, you rule everyone's mind.

lalalei handled the Shadow Realm response well enough.

Yes, the Shadow Realm developed into what is essentially a core part of Yugioh. But the thing is, that doesn't matter. They never made it to develop into a core part of Yugioh. They made it for censorship. They didnt know it would develop like that. And it's fairly inconsistent as well. Bakura disappears while Mai and Jonouchi's bodies remain? That's because different punishments happened to them. None of them died. Bakura was swallowed by darkness but came back because Marik was defeated in less than 24 hours. Mai was trapped in her own mind and came back because Marik was defeated in less than 24 hours. Jonouchi nearly died, but never actually did die. And the Shadow Realm death traps in Battle City are more awkward then the original, where the death traps were more simple.

And there is a good explanation as to why they would want to destroy the world: to prove themselves. Gozuburo makes weapons, and he's got a belt load of nukes with him. So he would want to cast them on humanity to prove that he is powerful. Gozuburo was never about control, he was about his weapons. And Noah was his son, who was jealous of Seto. He developed the weapons in the virtual world to prove that he was superior as Gozuburo's biological son to Seto and his focus on games. He would do it to defeat Seto. And his loneliness was what compelled him to try to escape the virtual world in another person's body, not take everyone else in. That part was in the dub as well. So they do gain something: proof that they are strong. And they have 3% of the population to flaunt over.

I've seen people who were like 'wait, the Shadow Realm WASN'T in the original?' before, mostly in relation to Bakura's shadow game with Yami Marik. i think of all the 'deaths' that one was the hardest to swallow in terms of coming back.

But that was because that the dub didn't change anything about that. The same thing happened to Bakura in all versions really. The dub just has a different name.

What I'm saying is that the dub had just as much justification as the original.

I see! ^^ I'll let things be then. (I'll just copy the deleted stuff into a word document XD)

Consulted with a mod and submitting this re-worded entry for consideration

• In the original Japanese version of the Virtual World arc, Noah's research was on how to use Kaiba Corps' weaponry to kill most of humanity, leaving 3% of the population alive. Then when Noah failed to defeat Seto in their duel, Gozaburo revealed his intent to put Noah's plan into motion. The dub changes this to Noah's research being on ways to expand the virtual world's capabilities by networking it to other computers around the world, and Gozaburo intends to use this research to digitize all of humanity and rule over them in the virtual world as a God-Emperor. This change from wanting to destroy the world for no real reason but that they can, to intending to trap mankind in the virtual world to rule over them, gives Gozaburo a much more logical goal to pursue, and the change in Noah's research also makes him more sympathetic, which was the intent with his character all along.

Actually, it still doesn't apply because according to further research, that's not actually their goal. Noah said that the weapons had the potential to destroy 97% of the world population within 30 days, but wasn't actually going to use them. Noah just wanted to get out of the Virtual World. Gozaburo wanted to use the weapons on world leaders only, allowing him to take over the world.

Okay, in that case fair enough.