History Woolseyism / YuGiOh

* The dub changed the creation of the Millennium Artifacts from 3,000 years to 5,000 years before. Assuming the series takes place around TheNineties and the TurnOfTheMillennium, this places the creation of the Millennium Items with the actual first dynasties ''of'' Ancient Egypt. While 3,000 years places them more within the "New Kingdom". While still very old by modern times, the dub makes it seem as if the Millennium Items have actually been around for roughly all of Egypt's "life".

* In the Orichalcos Arc, the dub had Dartz be responsible for the Knights' transformation into the Legendary Dragons. Which is significantly more of an explanation than the original gave, where Dartz didn't even know about their "true form". It makes the Legend of Heart summon look even more poignant as Dartz has a minor VillainousBreakdown over the three heroes he locked away thousands of years ago escaping just as he was about to achieve his triumph.

* Para and Dox's whole rhyming and finishing each others sentences shtick was something that was not present during the original version where they just spoke normally, the changes helped make them considerably more interesting (and gave the Abridged Series fodder for even more jokes, including an instance where [[GotMeDoingIt Yugi and his friends start rhyming as well]]).

* In the dub version of episode 28 of Duelist Kingdom, Pegasus plans to send Tea, Tristan, and Bakura to the Shadow Realm after they learn his secrets, explaining that the dueling rituals they discovered channel the magic of the Shadow Realm, every soul sent there increases the power of his Millennium Eye, and he needs Bakura's Ring as well as the other Items in order to have the power of life over death, so Yami Bakura stops him before harm can come to the others or his host. In the Japanese version of the same episode, Pegasus demonstrated his mind-reading powers before Yami Bakura stopped him, with no explanation for the ancient duel rituals or the cult in his basement. The same episode has Yugi's grandpa and the Kaiba brothers, pleading with Yugi to stop Pegasus for the world's sake, since his powers would be amplified even further with the Puzzle, and with ''all'' the Items he could unleash Armageddon (it's hinted that it would be by ''accident'', which is true to canon as putting all seven Items together at this point would resurrect Zorc the Dark One). The original had Grandpa tell Yugi he was in pain and to rescue him quickly, which doesn't explain the Kaiba brothers' presence in the vision or have the same sense of urgency.
* During Yugi's duel with Mai in the original version, Yugi's mind was only focused on dueling Pegasus, causing him to become cocky and not take Mai seriously. In the dub, Yugi is holding back Yami because he's still traumatized by Yami nearly killing Kaiba in the last duel and isn't sure he can trust the spirit. The dub also foreshadows the fate of Pegasus's wife by having him give an internal monologue about it, which his VA Darren Dunstan delivers excellently. In the original version it was a filler conversation between Yugi's friends and Bakura.

* In the duel where Yami Yugi battles a Rare Hunter with all five pieces of Exodia the Forbidden One, his Exodia cards are all fakes in the original, while in the dub they're real cards marked with invisible ink so that he can scan them with special contact lenses to see when he's about to draw a piece. While using fake cards is certainly illegal and amoral, using marked cards is a far more serious violation; this also patches up a later plot hole where it is stated that fake cards won't work in [=KaibaCorp=] duel disks anyway. Also, this change is more in-line with the manga, as the Rare Hunter used real cards marked with invisible ink instead of fake cards in his duel against Yami Yugi.

* The name of Ra's hidden and last effect is changed to "Point-to-Point Transfer", which is a much less ambiguous then the original's "One Turn Kill". Not to mention the term "One Turn Kill" is also used for any move or play that allows the player to win in a single turn. Also Ra's "One Turn Kill" only truly lived up to its name in Yami Marik's duel against Yami Bakura, while in all other uses the opponent was able to survive.

%%Needs more explanation * Kaiba's reaction to losing to Yugi in the Battle City Finals is somewhat less immature and slightly more dignified in the dub than it was in the Japanese anime.

* In the same match, the dub replaces Yami Yugi shouting "MONSTAH CARDO" with Creator/DanGreen's glorious poison-tipped snark. ([[LargeHam "THIS JUST ISN'T YOUR DAY!"]])

* A minor point in the duel between Joey and Odion. Odion seals the Winged Dragon of Ra in the ark on his Temple of the Kings card, then tributes Mystical Beast Serket and pays half his Life Points to summon Ra, and all of Serket's ATK points transfer to Ra. The dub makes it sound like this is an effect of Temple of the Kings, circumventing the need to tribute three monsters to summon Ra and powering it up another way since it has no Tributes to gain ATK from.[[note]]This also retroactively reflects how Temple of the Kings was adapted to the card game itself, giving the player a free Special Summon by Tributing Serket (though it can't be used on Ra since Ra can't be Special Summoned by most effects).[[/note]] The Japanese anime (and the original manga as well) instead treat this like a normal Tribute Summon, with Serket acting as three Tributes since it had previously destroyed and absorbed three of Jounochi's monsters. Aside from this rule being ridiculous, it begs the question of what the point was to seal Ra in Temple of the Kings and why Rishid has to pay half his Life Points to summon it, when he could have just kept it in his hand and Tribute Summoned it normally.

* In episode 16, Kaiba rudely dismisses Yugi's invitation to join his group and says he will go directly to Pegasus' castle to rescue Mokuba, causing Joey to be pissed and challenge him to a duel. In the Japanese version, Joey is pissed that Kaiba is trying to enter the castle without joining the tournament and collecting Star Chips. In the dub, Joey is pissed at Kaiba's rudeness, which makes Joey look less self-centered and less SkewedPriorities.

* When Noah defeats Kaiba in a duel through dishonest means. In the original Yami calls Noah out by stating that Kaiba could have at least ended the duel in a draw if he used Different Dimension Dragon instead of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, which he summoned through tributing the former in order to save Mokuba. The dub has Yami call Noah out on using Mokuba as a HumanShield and outright stating that Kaiba is true ''winner'' of the duel. This makes Yami statement against Noah more powerful and logical than the original. To further the point home, a part of Yami's statement was Noah's hypocrisy over resorting to this cheap method to win, when he (Noah) had called out The Big Five twice for breaking his (Noah's) agreements, as well as Johnson for cheating in his duel against Joey.

* The name of Ra's hidden and last effect is changed to "Point-to-Point Transfer", which is a much less ambiguous name unlike the original's "One Turn Kill".

* Though the duel with Lumis and Umbra may have been a very thin case of {{Bowdlerization}} and it was really obvious that the "Shadow Realm vortex" was simply glass that would shatter and cause the losers to fall to their doom, this does help to patch up one AdaptationInducedPlotHole, and it works because Umbra's parachute got caught on the way down. You could make the argument that he was "saved" from the Shadow Realm by that fortunate event. As for Lumis, back at the duel, Mask of Dispel was still on Yugi's side of the field while he (Yugi) was down to 500 LP. Had Lumis simply passed, Yugi would automatically lose the Duel during his Standby Phase thanks to Mask of Dispel's ability. (This wasn't an issue in the manga, as the Mask card did 300 LP of Burn damage and Yugi had 1100 LP left.) In the Japanese version, there's no explanation for why Lumis didn't simply pass, let Yugi fall to his doom, take an attack from Kaiba's Obelisk, then parachute down and steal Slifer the Sky Dragon off Yugi's corpse. With the ceiling now being a "Shadow Realm vortex", you can make the argument that Lumis surrendered because once Kaiba attacked him, he'd become a soulless zombie.

* When Noah defeats Kaiba in a duel through dishonest means. In the original Yami calls Noah out by stating that Kaiba could have at least ended the duel in a draw if he used Different Dimension Dragon instead of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, which he summoned through tributing the former in order to save Mokuba. The dub has Yami call Noah out on using Mokuba as a HumanShield with him outright stating that Kaiba is true ''winner'' of the duel. This makes Yami statement against Noah more powerful and logical than the original. To further the point home, a part of Yami's statement was Noah's hypocrisy over resorting to this cheap method to win, when he (Noah) had called out The Big Five twice for breaking his (Noah's) agreements, as well as Johnson for cheating in his duel against Joey.

* When Noah defeats Kaiba in a duel through dishonest means. In the original Yami calls Noah out by stating that Kaiba could have at least ended the duel in a draw if he used Different Dimension Dragon instead of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, which he summoned through tributing the former in order to save Mokuba. The dub has Yami state that Kaiba would have ''won'' the duel when right before delivering the finishing blow with Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon, Noah used Mokuba as a HumanShield. This makes Yami statement against Noah more powerful and logical than the original. To further the point home, a part of Yami's statement was Noah's hypocrisy over resorting to this cheap method to win, when he (Noah) had called out The Big Five twice for breaking his (Noah's) agreements, as well as Johnson for cheating in his duel against Joey.

* The dub, {{Bowdlerization}} aside, had its quota of Woolseyisms. The theme naming of Yugi and Jounouchi (Yu + Jou = ''Yujou'', which means "friendship" in Japanese) was retained with Yugi and Joey; the Mei and Kyuu brothers (Meikyuu = Maze) were changed to Para and Dox (Paradox); and so on. Many jokes of the original version, which relied heavily on Japanese puns and cultural references, were changed fittingly for the dub, especially in the first season.