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Chaos Effect

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Chaos Effect is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Self-Insert Fic by Mr. Chaos, mostly known for his A Song of Metal and Marvels series.

When a shrewd, crude, but goodhearted 30-year-old awakens in Domino City as a 22-year-old man named Edwin Chaos, he initially wants nothing to do with it. But as he's presented with a ticket to Duelist Kingdom in lieu of his in-universe uncle, who can't go due to a broken leg, he decides to accept the call. He initially plans to ensure canon plays out. With Chaos added to the mix, that option quickly goes out the window.

It can be read on FanFiction.net and Archive of Our Own.

Several spin-offs have been produced of this world:

  • Edwin In Hell, concerning an alternate universe where Edwin dies and ends up in Hazbin Hotel.
  • Chaos Wars, dealing with the Chaoses of the Multiverse teaming up.
  • Edwin In Lux: A Chaos Effect Mystery, a crossover with Lucifer (2016).


Chaos Effect provides examples of:

    open/close all folders 
    Tropes A — H 
  • Above Good and Evil: Selene fancies herself this, as a goddess.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: When Noah expresses his belief that Joey and Seto are friends, Joey doubles over in laughter.
  • Adaptation Deviation: You could fill up an entire page just talking about the individual characters' changes, never mind the butterflies to the world at large.
  • Adaptation Expansion: A fair bit of worldbuilding in this story:
    • Tristan's family is well-known for being the best furniture makers in Domino City, and Téa's family has a long history of police service.
    • Noah's Arc introduces several new Deck Masters:
      • Joey uses Gambler of Legend, with the ability of "The Turn and The River": Pay 1,000 Life Points to force both players to draw 2 cards. He uses this ability in tandem with Arcana Triumph Joker to win his Duel.
      • AI Aria, Nezbitt's champion and Joey's opponent, uses Red-Eyes Black Dragon, with the ability of "Black Dragon Forge": Pay 1,000 Life Points to activate 1 "Red-Eyes" Spell or Trap card from your Deck.
      • AI Nate, Gansley's champion and Koyo's opponent, uses Virtual World Dragon - Longlong. Its ability, Blue Screen, can negate any effect Koyo activates twice per turn, with the second time costing 500 Life Points.
      • Koyo uses Elemental HERO Gaia, which lets him Fusion Summon a FIRE, LIGHT, or EARTH monster by shuffling its materials from the Graveyard into the Deck. Then he exploits the rules of the system to change his Deck Master to Elemental HERO Nova Master, whose ability "Burnbright" lets him pay any amount of Life Points to weaken an opponent's monster by that same amount.
      • AI Vencent, Crump's champion and Selene's opponent, uses Lightray Madoor. Its ability, Ice Capsule, allows him to revive a monster from his Graveyard by paying 500 Life Points, though there may be some restrictions.
      • Selene uses Maiden of the Moonlight, which has two effects. One grants her 200 Life Points during each of her End Phases. The other, The Cost of Destruction, allows her to treat any monster's destruction by card effect as battle destruction instead.
      • AI Cassie, Leichter's champion and Pegasus's opponent, uses Dragunity Remus. Its effect was never used in the Duel, though Word of God says it would allow her to sacrifice a Dragunity Monster to bring a copy of Dragon Ravine to her hand from her Deck or Graveyard.
      • Pegasus uses Dark Rabbit with the effect "Lucky Rabbit's Foot", which allows Pegasus to roll a die once per turn and boost his Life Points by 1,000 if it lands on 5 or 6.
      • AI Martin, one of Johnson's champions and Téa's opponent, uses Noble Knight - Artorigus. Though its effect is never shown before it's traded out for a stronger form, Sacred Noble Knight of King Artorigus, who shows two effects. The first allows him to equip Noble Arms Excaliburn as soon as he's summoned to the Field. The second activates if he's destroyed while equipped with Gwenhwyfar, Queen of Noble Arms: A Queen's Betrayal summons Ignoble Knight of High Laundsallyn from the Extra Deck to replace him as Deck Master. Though the latter shows no effects before he too is destroyed.
      • Téa uses The Agent of Judgment - Saturn, who has two effects. “Ring of Grace” allows her to protect any monster she controls from destruction once per turn at the cost of that monster not being able to attack. And “Lord of the Harvest” allows her to gain 600 Life Points during the End Phase if a Field Spell Card is in play.
      • AI Caesar, Johnson's other champion and Tristan's opponent, uses Fire King Avatar Arvata. Its ability, Rains of Destruction, destroys all monsters on one side of the Field but gives their owner 500 Life Points per destroyed monster.
      • Tristan uses Commander Covington. Its ability, Network Connection, boosts the power of all Machina monsters by 100 for every Machine on his Field and in his Graveyard.
      • Mokuba uses Blizzed, Defender of the Ice Barrier. It has two abilities: Message From the Ice Barrier, allows him to play two Ice Barrier monsters from his Deck during his opponent's turn if he controls no monsters, and the other ability lets him draw a card at the end of the opponent's turn.
      • Noah, after having his planned Deck confiscated by Gozaburo, uses Sacred Arch-Airknight Parshath. It has two abilities. One allows it to add a Parshath card from the Deck to the hand. The other, The Three Sacred Treasures, grants it immunity to card effects and attacks and allows it to attack directly while on the Field, so long as Noah controls at least one Spell or Trap card.
      • Edwin, in the final battle against Gozaburo, can choose any monster that the hologram tech can recreate, including the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Its effect, the only one changed from the original anime, allows him to discard 2 cards to boost the Attack Points of any monster he controls by 3,000.
      • Gozaburo uses Exodia Necross. In addition to its TCG effects of immunity to destruction and gaining 500 ATK every turn, it also gains 500 ATK for every piece of Exodia in the Graveyard. And that's not even its Deck Master ability; that would be "Break the Seal". When Exodia Necross has ATK of 10,000 or more, Gozaburo can add the five pieces of Exodia to his hand from anywhere in his possession, ending the Duel immediately.
  • Adaptational Jerkass:
    • While Mrs. Wheeler in canon left Joey with his alcoholic and abusive father, the reason for why was never stated but implied to be related to her divorcing his father, and even though their relationship was tense she was shown to love Joey and Serenity in the present day. Here, she not only directly abandons Joey to his father due to physically resembling his father too much for her, Serenity realizes she effectively kidnapped her as a kid while leaving Joey behind, and subjected to her to emotional abuse as she grew up by trying to turn Serenity into her "pretty little princess" while calling her "broken" when she nearly went blind.
    • Mrs. Muto was a present figure in Yugi's life in canon and did live with him and Solomon, its just most of her scenes weren't kept in the English Dub. Here, she abandoned Yugi to Solomon to raise on his own and completely left Yugi's life, Seto thinking to himself that she's such a deadbeat she may as well be dead when it comes to Yugi's life.
  • Adapted Out: Many characters and/or Duels from are mentioned rather than shown, or at most, skimmed over.
    • Throughout the Duelist Kingdom arc, the only Duels given full attention are the ones where Edwin is involved, and aside from taking Yugi's place against Ghost Kaiba, intervening as Endymion against Yami Bakura, and tag-teaming with Yugi against PaniK and Renard, the Duels in Duelist Kingdom are essentially identical to canon for the main tournament. Then, in the finals, Edwin takes Bandit Keith's place and defeats Joey (while actively trying to lose) and then Duels Yugi for the championship match, which he barely loses. All of the other Duels are in the background at best.
    • Between Duelist Kingdom and Battle City, the story skims over the Duel against Rebecca Hawkins and Yugi's Duel against the possessed Bandit Keith. And due to Pegasus's fate varying slightly from the anime in this story, Duke isn't antagonistic toward the gang; he matches Joey in Dungeon Dice Monsters and plans to match Yugi at a later date purely to hype up the game.
    • In Battle City, however, almost every canon matchup is butterflied away, and most that aren't are still significantly different from canon for one reason or another. The only exception is the tag team of Yugi and Kaiba against Lumis and Umbra, which though offscreen seems to go more or less the same as in canon.
    • In Noah's Arc, the Big Five choose digital champions to fight for them rather than Dueling themselves. Still, their chosen champions do still mirror their strategies: Nezbitt favoring overwhelming Attack Points and burn tactics, Gansley punishing the opponent for any move they make, Crump favoring weaker WATER monsters, Leichter favoring overwhelming Attack Points and restriction tactics, and Johnson abusing the Virtual World's technology to cheat.
  • All for Nothing: In Chapter 123, when Kaiba finally catches up to Mokuba, both of them having been trapped in mechanical dog bodies, Seto makes it clear who he is, assuming his brother's been running the whole time due to the panic of their transformed states and not recognizing Seto. It then turns out that Noah had tricked Seto; he had been chasing a robot, which crumbles to pieces, and the real Mokuba has been sequestered elsewhere with Noah all along.
  • Alternate Self: Edwin and his friends have multiple adventures involving The Multiverse, so they keep meeting other versions of themselves, some of them wildly different.
  • And I Must Scream:
    • Edwin's fate in Kaiba's virtual world: he can't eat or sleep, and time moves much more slowly. So, as a trade-off for all his grinding, he's left a bit unhinged and very, very ready to return to the real world. Taken to an extreme in Chapter 116, when he's trapped in Noah's virtual world and thrust into an empty area cut off from the rest of the world, and informed that the time dilation is also amplified, with seconds outside being years inside. Though he's given a reprieve when the Chaos Wars begin, and afterward, realizes how to destroy the dome.
    • Kaiba avoided this because he couldn't grind if he wanted to, so he simply kept using the sleep function to skip forward eight hours at a time. So, for him, it was only a matter of minutes.
    • Johnson's punishment by Noah for breaking the rules of his virtual world tournament is to be robbed completely of his senses, leaving him alive but blind, deaf, and mute forever.
    • Gozaburo also suffers this after his defeat at Edwin's hands: Edwin uses the Millennium Key to lock him out of the non-vital functions of his robotic body, leaving him alive, all his senses perfectly active, but completely paralyzed and doomed to sink to the bottom of the ocean with the fortress, where he'll remain for the rest of his immortal life.
  • April Fools' Plot: Alongside the Halloween and Christmas filler arcs, Mr. Chaos includes specials centered around April Fool's Day whenever it comes around in real life. These tend to be less cohesive stories and more collections of one-shot scenes, with many of them written by Mr. Chaos's friends. Also, a Running Gag is that Edwin and Mai tend to avoid the plot by staying in their room and having sex all day, though it's becoming a less viable option with each special.
    • The first special is mainly Slice of Life-like scenes, including Joey getting speech lessons from Dr. Harry Heggins, Yugi and Kaiba getting pizza while they wait for an arcade to open, and the first in-depth look at many of the Kaiba Crew.
    • The second special is What If? scenes, showcasing various ways that the plot could have unfolded differently with a little extra help. The likelihood of these ranges from someone stealing Slifer from Strings' Duel Disk hidden in the bushes and giving it to Joey, to Crump defeating Pegasus using an audit and then adopting the gang, to Mokuba summoning his secret bodyguard to save him from Pegasus...that being Godzilla.
    • The third special is another What If? collection, with the premise being, "What if the plot revolved around games other than Duel Monsters?" The scenes run the gamut from generic stuff like Gacha Games and dodgeball to specific games like Pandemic and the Digimon Card Game to other game-based series like Squid Game and the Wacky Races. Oh, and Edwin and Selene are visited by the latter's parents, Hyperion and Theia.
  • Ascended Extra: Several characters get more limelight thanks to Edwin's intervention, and similarly, several characters that barely ever Dueled became formidable competitors in their own right:
    • Edwin actively talks Rex Raptor out of the downward spiral that had him on equal grounds with Weevil, and he becomes a pretty decent guy, as well as remaining a solid Duelist, even making it to the second round of Battle City.
    • Mokuba grows close to Edwin as the latter protects him throughout Duelist Kingdom, and later gets his own Deck, the Ice Barrier archetype.
    • Even ignoring the whole goddess aspect, Mai remained closer to the group, showcasing more of a personality, and grew into a warmer person.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Edwin has two. First, do not badmouth Edwin's deceased mother, and on the same subject, do not talk flippantly about the cruel realities of loss and death. Second, do not hurt or threaten children.
    • Selene does not take kindly to anyone getting between her and Endymion, and is quick to threaten death or worse on anyone who tries.
    • Yami Yugi drops into Tranquil Fury whenever anyone threatens or demeans his friends, especially Yugi.
  • Blind Without 'Em: Edwin mentions in Chapter 5 that he can't see more than six inches in front of his right eye without his glasses.
  • Break the Haughty: Back-to-back examples in Chapter 111, with Seto mocking (Yami) Ishizu's foretelling powers as either a hoax or useless without her necklace. She, in turn, mocks him for hiding behind the moniker of Seto Kaiba when his birth name was Seto Shinryu, his birth parents not the most wealthy people before they passed away. Although he shrugs this one off.
    • And Chapter 112 takes it even further: not only does Yami Ishizu defeat Kaiba with Obelisk by sacrificing his own Blue-Eyes White Dragon monsters to summon it, after the Duel is over, Yami Ishizu claims his first Blue-Eyes White Dragon by the ante rule...and tears it in half before his eyes.
    Yami Ishizu: I have no need for such weak things.
  • Break Them by Talking: In Chapter 4, when Mokuba reveals his identity to Yugi, Edwin pulls this trope on him by explaining what happened to Seto:
    Edwin: I am Edwin Chaos. And your brother would be very disappointed in you.
    Mokuba: Shut up! You don't know a thing about my brother! He left because of Yugi! Because he didn't know who he was anymore after losing to him!
    Edwin: No. Mokuba you didn't understand him.
    Mokuba: How would you know, you weren't there!
    Edwin: But I am a big brother. I know what it's like to care for someone. So believe me when I tell you Kaiba didn't leave because he lost to Yugi.
    Mokuba: He said—
    Edwin: That he didn't know who he was anymore. But I don't think it has anything to do with Yugi. I think it has to do with him. Seto Kaiba became the man he is through cunning, not cruelty. He took over Kaibacorp by convincing the Big 5 that he was the best option when compared to your stepfather. And then he decided to do away with the war divisions and turn Kaibacorp into something that made people happy, rather than bringing them pain. Think about that… and then think about what he did to Yugi's grandpa. He forced an old man to duel him purely because he wanted to control the final Blue Eyes White Dragon in existence. Never mind that Solomon Moto had retired from dueling. Your brother put him in the hospital and then tore that card up! After he already had it! He could have locked it away where no one would ever find it but he maliciously tore it up in front of Yugi. That wasn't cunning! That was cruel! That wasn't Seto. That was Gozaburo.
    Mokuba: (tearing up) No… that-
    Edwin: Your brother didn't know who he was anymore because he realized he was turning into the man he hated the most in the world. So he went off to find himself, to remember how he had become Seto Kaiba. And if that Seto, the one who got you two out of that orphanage, saw you right now using a stolen deck to fulfill a half-thought out scheme… he'd be ashamed of you.
    Mokuba: (forfeits the Duel)
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Edwin alludes to this in Chapter 2, when he confronts Weevil for throwing Yugi's Exodia cards overboard and Weevil doesn't know why Edwin's upset with him.
    Edwin: Is it sad that you've screwed over so many people that you have no idea why I might be mad? Because I think it's sad.
  • Butt-Monkey: Weevil was this in canon, and this story, if anything, only shoves him lower. Edwin curb-stomps him out of Battle City and destroys his Duel Disk as soon as the tournament begins, and a flash forward to the GX era shows him ravaging for food in a dumpster.
  • Canon Welding: While the story is largely based on the anime, several manga elements appear.
    • Pegasus mentions his adopted twin sons Yako and Gekko from Yu-Gi-Oh! R at one point in Duelist Kingdom. Later, in Noah's Arc, he also mentions Depre and Richie, his other two sons from the same arc.
    • The fic is confirmed to be spanning the events of both GX and 5D's, so numerous characters and plot details end up showing up here.
      • Among the many duelists listed to receive new decks at the end of Duelist Kingdom are Samuel Sheppard and Vellian Crowler, the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of Duel Academy respectively. Both of them also participate in Battle City, the former facing Edwin with his Cyber Deck and the latter facing Joey with his Ancient Gear Deck.
      • One of the artists Pegasus has Edwin interviewed is Nick Phoenix, Aster Phoenix's father. Edwin takes the opportunity to instruct Nick to contact him immediately if he decides to design a Warrior archetype, wanting to prevent Aster from becoming an orphan by aiding in creating the Destiny HEROes and protecting Nick from The D.
      • Koyo Hibiki, who gave Jaden his Elemental HERO Deck and Winged Kuriboh in the manga, joins the core cast in Battle City by befriending Joey (and soon wanting to get closer than that). In the anime, of course, it was Yugi who gave Jaden Winged Kuriboh.
      • Rex Raptor makes mention of a cousin named "Tyranno" who had an accident during a fossil dig, an obvious nod to major supporting character Tyranno Hassleberry.
  • Chekhov's Gun: In Chapter 121, Kaiba reflects on how there were actually six Blue-Eyes White Dragons in existence, but two of them had disappeared long ago. And of those two, one was implied to have been in the hands of a wealthy family who perished in a shipwreck. Said family is almost certainly Raphael's, meaning that Waking the Dragons may have a very interesting payoff for this...
  • Christmas Creep: Commented on in the fourth Christmas Filler Arc, where Edwin ponders on the prevalence of this and states his surprise that they didn't end up doing Christmas before Halloween this year.
  • Christmas Episode: The story has two-part Christmas Filler Arcs whenever the holiday season arrives in real life, which tend to pop up in the middle of ongoing arcs. This always gets lampshaded by Edwin, who is annoyed to find himself dropped into the filler without warning, but he's still happy to go along with the holiday spirit (and then right back to annoyed when hijinks ensue).
    • The first one, coming right before the Duelist Kingdom finals, sees Edwin being challenged to a duel by Santa Claus, who is possessed by the spirit of the Millennium Crown and enraged at Edwin not buying into the commercialist aspects of Christmas.
    • The second one, coming early on in the Battle City arc, sees Edwin's friends choosing to postpone Christmas celebrations to celebrate Edwin's birthday instead (as it falls on the 25th and is usually overlooked for Christmas), only for the party to be crashed by the Millennium Crown, which is now possessing Frosty the Snowman and is out for revenge.
    • The third one, interrupting the Battle City Finals, is a Die Hard parody wherein the KaibaCorp office Christmas party is attacked by the adult Peanuts gang. Further complicating matters is that when Edwin manages to contact the Domino City Police, they decide that the best course of action is to follow "Die Hard Protocols", forcing Edwin to go through the motions of the movie no matter the lack of logic.
    • The fourth one, later on during the Battle City Finals, sees the heroes dragged into the plot of a Hallmark movie, having to win a talent show in order to save the house that Yugi's grandpa just inherited in the small town the plot takes place. Meanwhile, Kaiba and Marik get dragged into romance plots, and Yami Bakura tries to explain the meaning of Christmas to someone he just met.
    • The fifth one, coming in the middle of Noah's arc, is the first one that spans only one chapter. It has the Grinch recruiting Edwin, Yugi, and the rest of the gang to defeat a Balrog that Santa's coal-mining dwarves dug up...except Edwin insists that they never bring it up again, and thus, the chapter skips over it and instead focuses on Weevil Underwood, who's run through a parody of It's a Wonderful Life where he sees how much better everyone's lives would have been if he had never existed.
  • Cliffhanger:
    • Chapter 5 ends with Yuri Gardner, Téa's older sister and a police officer, calling her parents when she finds out what's going on in Duelist Kingdom and that Téa is on the island.
    • Chapter 6 ends with the Pharaoh reflecting that in the face of the goddess Selene's claim that Edwin belongs to her, he, the Pharaoh, can no longer consider Edwin an ally.
    • Chapter 8 ends with Edwin panicking about the fact that Mai is undeniably crushing on him.
    • Chapter 11 ends with Shadi appearing and using the Millennium Key to enter Edwin's mind.
    • Chapter 12 ends with Edwin arriving at Pegasus's castle, expecting to be the last one there and thus be excluded from the finals. In fact, he's the first, giving him an automatic $3 million and a shot at Pegasus.
    • Chapter 42 ends with Yugi and Edwin entering Arkana’s trap…and finding that Arkana is inexplicably absent, with a female magician in his place.
    • Chapter 85 ends with Ishizu, just as Odion was getting her on the backfoot, activating a card that allows her to play Obelisk the Tormentor, which she infiltrated Kaiba's safe to retrieve. After all, she never gave him the card to keep; only to borrow.
    • Chapter 96 ends with Yami Ishizu berating Yugi for hindering the Pharaoh by hesitating to play the God Card, followed by touching the puzzle. The following chapter reveals the effect of this: she trapped Yugi in a Lotus-Eater Machine within the puzzle.
    • Chapter 98 ends with Edwin stopping breathing when Yami Ishizu stabs him with a spear in the mind world.
    • Chapter 121 ends with Koyo threatening Gansley if he dares to try harming Joey, in the process admitting that he's crushing on him. The thing is, Noah and Joey are right there, invisible to the Duelists, and they hear everything.
    • Chapter 129 ends with a massive Wham Line between Mokuba and Noah:
    Mokuba: Noah...it has been 6 years since Gozaburo adopted us.
    (Beat)
    Noah: (whispering) ...I've only been in the Virtual World for 4 years.
    • Chapter 142 ends its second-to-last section with Mokuba stepping up to challenge Noah for the right to leave the Virtual World with a body.
    • Chapter 144 ends with Edwin coming to a disturbing conclusion, which Gozaburo confirms: It's not just that Noah was snubbed by Gozaburo in favor of Seto, as in canon. It's not just that the accident that put Noah in the Virtual World was a False Memory that Gozaburo implanted. No, the big reveal here is that Gozaburo's plan to pull a Grand Theft Me to escape the Virtual World in starting a new life? It was the only reason Noah was even born.
    • Chapter 146 ends with Edwin and company escaping the Virtual World, only to be stopped by Gozaburo's endgame: a ten-foot state-of-the-art android body into which his mind has been downloaded, which proceeds to challenge Edwin to a Duel.
    • Chapter 147 ends with Edwin beginning his Duel to the death against Gozaburo. Or, more specifically, revealing his Deck Master for the Duel: the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the symbol of the one man who had beaten him and his dreams before.
    • Chapter 149 ends with Gozaburo summoning his Deck Master, who is not only invincible but will also allow Gozaburo to instantly win the game if it survives on the Field long enough.
  • Cool Starship: The Broken Symmetry from the Chaos Contract arc. Commissioned by Edna and built by Des sometime after the Into the Chaosverse arc, she uses it to traverse the multiverse, looking for a way home and problems to solve along the way.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Edwin thinks things through thoroughly, and while things don't always go how he plans, he usually has enough resources to withstand it.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Pegasus, in most things, is this. Most people tend to fall for it, to their peril, including the Big Five.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Usually, there aren't any outright slaughters from one Duelist to another. But there are exceptions. For example, in Chapter 68, Mai defeats Jean Claude Magnum in a single turn.
  • Dark and Troubled Past:
    • It's not exactly clear what happened to Renard, but it's known that he lost many people he cared about dearly. And beneath the gentlemanly exterior is an experienced torturer and killer, whose tattoos indicate he has performed beyond forgiveness.
    • Solomon Muto has an abundance of skeletons in his closet, and it's stated that many people worldwide are indebted to him for something or another, living in fear of the day he'll collect.
  • Didn't Think This Through:
    • As Edwin lampshades more than once, he and Mai seem to be the only Duelists who bother bringing any camping supplies for Duelist Kingdom.
    • Edwin points this out to Mai in Chapter 6 concerning her aroma strategy, referring to what Pegasus did to Bandit Keith as an example of what could have happened to her.
  • Dramatic Irony: Chapter 53 starts with Serenity being escorted to her physical therapy by a male nurse with a calming voice, who gives his name as Rishid. Those familiar with the Japanese version of Yu-Gi-Oh! will recognize that that's Odion's original name and that Serenity is being kidnapped.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • The author wrote the interaction between Edwin and Mai in the first chapter in an attempt to sink any ships between them before they could form. Yet the two end up falling for each other before the end of the first arc.
    • The author plotted at the end of Chapter 2 of potentially turning on Yugi and company when it suited his purposes, not believing he'd fit in with their gang. Yet while he's not part of their inner circle, and sometimes borders on Token Evil Teammate, he's still a good friend.
  • Engineered Public Confession: Accidentally done in Chapter 121, when Koyo, unaware that Joey is watching invisibly with Noah, admits his crush on him while threatening Gansley.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Noah is disgusted by Gansley's homophobia, stating that he judges people on intelligence, not sexuality. It's mentioned that Gozaburo was the same way: as a ruthless businessman, he doesn't care about anything that doesn't hurt his bottom line.
  • Evil Counterpart: Abundant in the Dark Reflections arc. For the prominent ones:
    • Joey had his arrogance turned up to eleven, along with the revolting backstory of not only raping his sister, but doing so frequently. That is revealed shortly before said sister murders him for losing a Shadow Game to her.
    • Serenity, here a skilled Duelist with the Evil Eye archetype to match the duplicate Millennium Eye she wears, is a ruthless servant of the evil king of Domino who relishes in ripping people's souls out. But setting her sights on Edwin proves to be a fatal mistake.
    • Yuri Gardner here is the Chief of Police, someone who hardened her heart against the corruption and decided she may as well be at the top. She is everything that the good Yuri hates and fears, and this encounter plays another huge part in how she ends up joining Edwin.
    • Aiden Order, Edwin's own counterpart, is the technologically savvy and smooth-talking right-hand man of the evil king who specializes in turning people into loyal servants but expert Duelists to suit the king's ends. In reality, he's always been The Starscream, and his mind-altering powers came from the Millennium Rod.
    • The evil king of Domino? Solomon Muto. After Yugi did most of the work solving the Millennium Puzzle, Solomon fitted the last piece himself, then used his newfound powers to kill both Yugi and the Pharaoh and take over the city, fueling himself with the sacrifices of countless souls and producing duplicate Millennium Items for others to fight for him with. He sees value in others only to the extent that they can fulfill his wishes. While largely an Idle Rich, he wields the Danger! cards with great skill when he chooses to dirty his own hands.
  • Exact Words: The key to Gozaburo's defeat in Chapter 150. Exodia Necross cannot be destroyed by any means, and being a Deck Master, it can't be returned to his hand or Deck either...but it can still be banished.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
    • In Chapter 4, Edwin is reflecting on how he needs to not interfere in canon, how he needs to not make it to the finals, not stop certain Duelists from being kicked off the island, and not stop Mokuba from being locked in a dungeon and having his soul stolen. As soon as he reviews that last point, his conscience slaps him and he rushes off to save Mokuba before that can happen. Word of God says that this actually happened on both sides of the fourth wall.
    • In Chapter 97, Yami Ishizu is facing torturous interrogation by Renard in retaliation for trapping Yugi, not the Pharaoh, in a Lotus-Eater Machine. After half an hour of stubbornly resisting, Yami Ishizu realizes that not once during the process did he ask how to free Yugi, and makes the connection that Renard was just a distraction so Edwin and the gang could use the Millennium Key to undo it. And she immediately uses her own Item's powers to pursue them.
  • Face Fault: In Chapter 4:
    Joey: But there is no reason to worry about it because you have the brilliant mind of Joey Wheeler on the case and I always get my man!
    (Yugi, Téa, Tristan, and Edwin face-fault)
  • Flat-Earth Atheist: Kaiba refuses to believe in magic. The truth repeatedly stares him naked in the face, and he always finds an excuse to dismiss it. Though he has no issue believing in theoretical concepts with an actual scientific basis, like the multiverse theory.
  • Flat "What": Mai's response in Chapter 1 after he defeats a card shop owner in a first blood Duel by playing Sparks on his first turn.
  • Forced to Watch: Mokuba in Chapter 124 is revealed to be in a cell in Noah's control room, able to see everyone but unable to do anything to help them...except start psychologically attacking Noah.
  • Forced Transformation: In Chapter 115, it's revealed that Noah has trapped Seto Kaiba in the body of Mecha-Dog Marron, similar to how Tristan became an Acrobat Monkey after losing to Nezbitt in canon. The similarities only grow when Serenity finds the Marron body cute and winds up clutching it to her chest for the rest of their time there. When they return to the real world, Seto shows no intention of ever telling anyone where he was.
  • Forgiveness: In Chapter 99, Edwin forgives Yami Ishizu for trying to kill him and briefly succeeding; the Near-Death Experience put a lot of things into perspective for Edwin, and he accepts that Yami Ishizu is ultimately just sick and in need of a cure, which he plans to help with.
  • Gender Flip: One of Edwin's alternate universe counterparts, Edna, is from a universe where everyone's gender is reversed from what it is in the story's primary universe.
  • Genre Savvy: A cutaway gag reveals that Edwin's friends have taken to reading This Very Wiki to keep up with his constant Lampshade Hanging.
  • Gilligan Cut: When Kipling Chaos gives Edwin his own Deck to use in the tournament, encouraging him to win with it:
    Edwin: I do know at the very least that with this deck... this amazing, powerful deck... I have a shot.
    (scene break)
    Narration: The deck sucked.
  • Godzilla Threshold: When Solomon and Duke reach out to the Kaiba Crew from the submarine fortress, warning them that Marik Ishtar is about to break into the room that holds Gozaburo's secret stash of world-destroying weapons, Vencent's response is to try locating Gozaburo's Kill Code...which will shut down the entire fortress, killing everyone aboard.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Edwin's forcibly censored swearing for the Duelist Kingdom saga, much to his chagrin.
  • Halloween Episode: As with Christmas, the story uses two-part Filler Arcs that pop up whenever Halloween approaches in real life, interrupting the story for their sake, to the annoyance of Edwin.
    • The first one is right before Battle City, wherein a self-righteous superhero fanboy named Parker decides to punish society for its fascination with villains by causing everyone who dresses up as one to become their costume so he can beat them up by transforming into heroes to fight them. Edwin is not at all impressed with this and tricks him into becoming Lord Zedd so that Edwin and several others can become Power Rangers to kick his ass.
    • The second one occurs before the Battle City finals, as Parker escapes prison to take revenge. He does this by teleporting them into an old horror movie and transforming them into classic movie monsters, expecting this to drive them to evil acts and somehow convince them that his views are right. Naturally, this doesn't happen, as the only one who acts remotely evil is Edwin (and that's only because he's the Invisible Man and the invisibility is driving him insane), and he quickly scares Parker enough that he undoes the transformation.
    • The third one occurs during the Battle City finals, with Edwin and the others crossing paths with Mystery Inc. when the latter visit Japan, and they end up dealing with a ghost haunting an apple orchard. It's mentioned that Parker was bribed not to cause any trouble.
    • The fourth one occurs while Edwin is otherwise occupied (Edwin in Lux), and thus Téa is the unwilling audience as Rod Serling leads the audience through parodies of Time Enough At Last and Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.
    • The fifth one occurs later in the Battle City finals, with the gang inexplicably traveling to meet Joey's Uncle Burt for a Halloween Party in his hometown. That being Burt Gummer in Perfection, Nevada. The first half of the special ends with El Blanco somehow eating the Pharaoh, and the second half revolves around saving him.
  • Heel Realization:
    • Edwin dislikes Pegasus's actions, but he also knows about Cecilia and who Pegasus really is. With Pegasus watching and listening to everything on the island, Edwin starts him down this path long before he reaches the castle.
    • The Pharaoh has this as well. When Yugi finally confronts him about his unfair treatment of Edwin, forcing him to confront the issue, the Pharaoh realizes that it's his subconscious remembering his clash with Endymion in Ancient Egypt. Upon realizing that, and that Edwin has nothing to do with it, the Pharaoh actively tries to be more respectful.
    Tropes I — Z 
  • I Heard That: In Chapter 98, when Joey mentions a dish called the "Joey Special":
    Edwin: What do you want to guess that the Joey Special is just two pizzas?
    Téa: (snickers)
    Joey: I heard that, Ed! And I'll have ya know the Joey Special is a pizza taco!
  • I Lied: Edwin. Frequently and unapologetically. Even though it's only ever to bad guys, Atem still takes offense.
  • Imagination-Based Superpower: The Millennium Items run on the logic that the mind is the only limit.
    • The Millennium Ring is the first to show this, giving its user the ability to open portals to other worlds. This could be the realm of Duel Monsters, as Yami Bakura shows, or anywhere in the multiverse, as Edna Chaos shows.
    • The Millennium Key acquires this next, thanks to Yami Bakura giving Edwin the idea. From that point on, Edwin can turn any door into a portal to any other door, anywhere in the world.
    • The Millennium Necklace allows the user to see the past and future. Ishizu expands on this to gain power over memories, such as her Yami form imprisoning Yugi in a false memory.
    • The Millennium Puzzle goes without seeing this for a long time, and it's not until Yami Ishizu traps Yugi in a Lotus-Eater Machine, as mentioned above, that the Pharaoh finally takes Edwin's advice to jailbreak the Puzzle. And he concludes that the Millennium Puzzle has the power to solve any puzzle. Or, in other words, answer any question, overcome any trial, uplift or break anyone around him, as long as he has all of the necessary pieces. As is appropriate for The Hero, it's possibly the most broken of the powers.
  • Immune to Mind Control: As well as mind reading. Canon shows that the Millennium Key lets its users enter others' minds. In this story, even before jailbreaking the item, Edwin uses it to lock his own mind to protect himself from Pegasus and Marik, making it impervious to anyone except the keeper of the Key.
    • After returning to Earth-2, he does the same to Yuri. Téa and Tristan also consent to it after some time to recover from the trip, and he also does it to Renard and Mai. He does it to his uncle while the man is asleep, having no intention of dragging him into the mess.
    • He also gives it to Joey after the latter's first encounter with Marik (via the Rare Hunter).
    • Yugi and the Pharaoh prove leery about it for the longest time, but late in Battle City, after Edwin's near-death freeing Yugi from Yami Ishizu's Lotus-Eater Machine, they finally let Edwin lock their minds, too.
  • Insistent Terminology:
    • Edwin is adamant that fizzy soft drinks are pop, not soda.
    • In the third Halloween arc, the Pharaoh repeatedly denies that he's a ghost, stating that he's a spirit and there's a difference.
  • Irony: In Chapter 145, the third April Fool's special, Edwin offhandedly remarks that his worst nightmare would be if he decided to write a One Piece fic, calling it the anime equivalent to The Lord of the Rings in terms of characters and backstories. The irony comes from the fact that this is shortly after Mr. Chaos began writing Concerning Straw Hats, in which Bilbo Baggins joins the Straw Hat Pirates.
  • Irrational Hatred: By the time of the Battle City finals, Kaiba admits to himself that his dislike of Joey is essentially this, as the Character Development that the latter has undergone has eliminated most of the legitimate reasons Kaiba might have for hating him, and now he seems to keep it going purely on inertia.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: In Chapter 4, while Kemo is being more forceful than necessary with a Duelist that had his chips and Deck stolen, his reasoning isn't entirely unfair:
    Kemo: Listen, you know how many different excuses we've heard so far from people who lost all their Star Chips? They hid them, they must have fell out of their dueling glove, a bird took them, my opponent cheated… we've had 12 duelists eliminated so far and half of them used lame excuses like that. We don't have time to investigate all of them.
  • Karma Houdini: Edwin mentally lampshades this in Chapter 2, how characters in that world seemed to be able to get away with anything.
  • Kill It with Fire: When Edwin pulls a Big Damn Heroes in Chapter 60, he invokes a Shadow Game against Marik where each must choose a champion to fight. Marik chooses one of his hunters. Edwin, meanwhile, chooses fire, using the Millennium Key to turn every nearby door into a portal to a blast furnace, and burning all of the Rare Hunters alive.
  • Kryptonite Factor: For all that the gods are real and walk the Earth, one thing from canon is this to them, rendering them utterly powerless: the Seal of Orichalcos, which Gozaburo has carved into his android body as a shield.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In Chapter 121, Joey, who had been referencing This Very Wiki, mentions how cartoons tend to introduce padding in the form of characters chatting and interacting to make the actual fights take longer. You know, the very way that Chapter 121 has a total of two turns in the Duel.
  • Like Brother and Sister:
    • Edwin establishes this relationship with Edna Chaos, his Distaff Counterpart from Earth-3.
    • Later, Téa also admits to seeing Edwin as the brother she never had.
  • Lotus-Eater Machine: At the end of Chapter 95, Yami Ishizu confronts the Pharaoh and Yugi about the latter failing to play Slifer the Sky Dragon, potentially compromising the entire world as a result. Chapter 96 reveals that, fed up with the perceived weakness, Yami Ishizu used their powers to imprison Yugi's mind in one of these, deep inside the Millennium Puzzle, where he can't be reached and won't be an obstacle to the Pharaoh. With difficulty, Edwin, the Pharaoh, and the rest of the gang manage to break it over the next three chapters.
  • Massive Multiplayer Crossover:
  • Medium Awareness:
    • Due to his self-insert status, Edwin can notice the sudden shift in things when Filler Arcs happen, even as everyone else just goes along with it.
    • Those who have close relationships with Edwin slowly become cognizant of it themselves, starting with Mai (his girlfriend), then Téa (adopted siblings), and later Renard and Yuri (bodyguards).
    • When put in a perilous death trap by Leichter, Serenity's emotions peak so much that she becomes cognizant of how they've experienced filler arcs multiple times now and realizes she's a manga character. And a side character at that.
  • Mental World: The story actively explores the real-life concept of "mind palaces." Yugi makes one in Chapter 7 to finally speak with the Pharaoh (sooner than in canon) and Edwin is shown to have built one as well. And, of course, the Millennium Key allows its wielder to enter these places.
  • Mirror Universe: There's an arc set in-between Duelist Kingdom and Battle City, where Edwin, Tristan, Tea, and Yuri are sucked into a morality-flipped universe, where everything has a punk dystopian aesthetic and Solomon Moto rules Domino City with an iron fist. Edwin, being Genre Savvy, takes the time to educate the others on this trope and its variations when helping them adjust to what's happened to them.
  • Morph Weapon: First appearing in the Into the Chaosverse arc, empathic memory metal is a substance created by the Chaos and Seto Kaiba from Earth-99 that morphs into whatever form the wearer desires. The dimension-hopping Chaos of Earth-3, Edna, has several in her lair, and Edwin unapologetically pockets several of them for himself and his friends.
  • Musical Episode: The prologue to Battle City is a musical episode, much to Edwin's annoyance, as his position of being someone from outside the Yu-Gi-Oh universe means that he's the only one totally aware of the sudden music and singing when no one else is.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Part of Pegasus's Heel Realization in Chapter 15; he'd second-guessed some of his actions to that point, but when Edwin points out how Cecelia would feel about his actions, he sees the answer with the Millennium Eye:
    He saw Cecelia finally returned to him... only to twist away, sobbing at what the world had been forced to endure for their second chance. She fled from him, repulsed like the Bride from Frankenstein's monster...
  • Named In The Adaptation: A few.
    • The Rare Hunter with the counterfeit Exodia Deck is named 'Ogden Winniehammer' in this story. They remark it's no wonder he just went by 'Rare Hunter.'
    • The thief that Weevil bribed in canon to slip Parasite Paracide into Joey's Deck is given the name Benny, and Yuri—former police officer that she is—recognizes him as a well-known and thoroughly unrepentant petty thief. Emphasis on 'petty,' as his heists are only pocket change or items of comparable value unless someone else hires him for a job.
  • Narrative Profanity Filter: Edwin is incapable of cursing despite his best efforts, leading to many hilarious substitutes. He finally breaks the censor in Chapter 24.
  • Noble Demon: Pegasus, pre-Heel-Face Turn. Though a ruthless Duelist and strategist, in Chapter 2, he sympathizes with Joey's plight for Serenity, and also intends to deal with Weevil personally if he makes it to the castle when he hears what he did to Yugi's Exodia cards.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • Edwin's uncle, Kipling Chaos, somehow broke his leg after slipping on a candy bar wrapper shortly before the start of the story.
    • In Chapter 6, while glossing over the gang conversing around a campfire, Edwin talks about how he had a rule named after him at the University of Michigan barring students from doing anything they wanted for a senior project after he did a mock Mission Statement for a brothel.
    • In Chapter 8, Pegasus offhandedly remarks that he went through "a dreadful Metal phase as a teen."
    • In Part 2 of the first Christmas special, Edwin mentions bad experiences with turkey gravy between high school and the time his grandmother tried to darken the gravy with coffee.
    • In Chapter 125, while musing on how people can be both mad and sane, Selene recalls a week where Endymion had tried pottery...
  • Off the Rails: It turns out that Pegasus has already created Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum, and Link Monsters and has all of the Decks locked up in the depths of his castle, though he's not planning to release them to the world yet. At the end of Duelist Kingdom, as Edwin appropriates some of the Decks for himself, he accidentally triggers an automated system to release all of the others throughout the world, catapulting the gameplay forward by several generations.
  • Oh, Crap!: Abundant.
    • Edwin's first spoken line in the story when he realizes he's become a Self-Insert.
  • Oh, No... Not Again!: Aria in Chapter 115. When Vencent says that someone is attempting a hostile takeover of KaibaCorp, she complains about it being the third time that year, with Martin pointing out that Edwin's successful attempt makes four.
  • Original Character: Several.
    • Yuri Gardner is Téa's older half-sister from their father's first marriage. First appearing as a straight-laced detective of the Domino City Police, the blatant corruption in the place eventually drives her out; she ends up re-embracing her preferred Goth attire and becomes Mai's bodyguard. Her Deck focuses on the Dark World archetype.
    • Renard Volpe is a European Champion Duelist with skills that even Kaiba acknowledges. An affable gentleman with a love of pirate fiction (yes, that means One Piece), clear morals, and mastery of the Fur Hire archetype, he first appears as one of Pegasus's Eliminators and later is hired to be Edwin's full-time bodyguard.
    • An entire cast of OCs work at KaibaCorp or Industrial Illusions, mainly serving as tertiary background characters, based on the author's close friends. Prominent examples include Aria Potts, a younger woman and KC's lead beta tester; Cassie Garnett, Pegasus's protégé and head of lore at I2; and Martin Fielder, head of KC's legal department and one of the few employees willing and able to refuse something to Seto.
  • Police Are Useless: With the fact that law enforcement never played a role in canon (excluding Season 0), the author justifies this here by citing that the Domino City Police Department is useless at best and criminally corrupt at worst, leaning heavily toward the latter. It's explicit in a later chapter that nobody bothers calling the police because there's a significant chance they'll make things worse instead of better.
  • Put on a Bus: Edwin, Yugi, and the Pharaoh exit the story for eight chapters at the end of Chapter 119, with the author's notes stating it's meant to give the other characters more of a spotlight.
  • Railroading: Much to Edwin's, and later anyone else who has become meta aware, frustrations, the holiday filler arcs regularly employ this to force the cast into following the plot, no matter how much they might want to. The only means any of them have found themselves able to avoid a filler arc is Edwin and Mai deciding to stay in their apartment and spend the day having sex.
    • The third Christmas arc sees Edwin stuck in a Die Hard parody cast as John McClain and the villains comprised of the Peanuts gang. Not wanting anything to do with it, Edwin tries going back into the bathroom to get his hoodie and shoes, but finds it refuses to open even to the Millennium Key. He then tries sending out a mass email to anyone in the armed forces enticing them to come to Kaibacorp to get sexual favors from supermodels, only for another email to instantly be generated that states they will be male supermodels that will want to talk about their feelings and for the emails to be detected by Linus. Edwin even tries calling the Domino City Police hoping Police Are Useless won't be in effect this time, only to learn they have a "Die Hard" protocol they have to follow that causes them to reenact the police parts of the movie.
    • The fourth Christmas arc has Edwin belatedly realize they're stuck in a Hallmark Movie. Once more not wanting to deal with that, he tries to rush out the city limits only to find a massive wall sealing them in that not even his new lightsaber can cut through. Out of sheer desperation he begins repeatedly trying to punch the wall in the hopes the spot he punches will eventually break apart and he can flee, Mai, Renard, and Yuri deciding to leave him be rather than drag him back. The three eventually check on him trying more and more insane ways to break the wall and having an Epic Fail each time until he's forced to rejoin the plot.
      Yuri: He tried Gleipnir for a while… then morphed and attacked it with his Power Staff…
      Renard: My favorite was when he tried to glue a door to the wall in order to make a portal. He slammed into the wall like he was the Coyote.
      Mai: And now?
      Renard: He's on his last option. [Cue Edwin screaming as he tries to pole vault over the wall and crashes into it face first]
  • “The Reason You Suck” Speech: Edwin gives these out frequently, such as one to Yugi in Chapter 6 about how he's coddling Joey too much, not helping him grow.
  • Reincarnation: With the exception of Troy, all of the Chaos Crew are the reincarnations of a single divine family, all of them lacking their Past-Life Memories and causing Amnesiac Dissonance: Edwin is the mortal reincarnation of Endymion, Mai is the mortal personality of Selene's reincarnation, Yuri is the reincarnation of Hela, and Renard is the reincarnation of Fenrir. Selene is initially the only one consciously aware of this, being awake inside of Mai the entire time as a split personality.
  • Running Gag: From Chapters 6 to 9, people remarking on the fact that Edwin is wearing his pajamas. Something fully reasonable for the middle of the night.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: Briefly in Chapter 6, Edwin does this to Rex, who immediately clams up.
  • Sequel Hook: Chapter 100 gives two of these: one ten years in the future for GX, when Edwin is headmaster of Duel Academy and Mai, his wife, is a professor there; and one ninety-six years in the future for 5Ds, where Edwin and Mai are still alive and well and are Akiza's parents.
  • Shout-Out: Enough to justify its own page.
    • In Chapter 1, Edwin compares the pajamas he wakes up in to the sort that some schmuck would be wearing when Bugs Bunny pops in wishing he'd turned left at Albuquerque. He also compares them to Scrooge McDuck.
    • In Chapter 2, as part of his intimidation of Weevil, he references Lord Varys as he mentions that he has "little birds that sing sweet songs to me."
    • At the end of Chapter 2, Edwin quotes the Survivor motto, "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast" as he forms an alliance with Yugi and Joey. The author's notes elaborate that Edwin chose that particular motto on purpose.
      Author's Notes: Sometimes alliances work… and sometimes you have to shatter them at the right moment.

      As I warned with the description... this isn't me replacing Yugi as the lead or becoming his new best friend. This is what happens when you take a habitiual liar and schemer and put them in a world ripe for plotting and plans. And that doesn't always mean you get a white knight.
    • Chapter 3 has Edwin comparing Pegasus to Kingpin when he worries about the man going through his mind, finding he was from another world, and obsessing on that world having a living version of Cecilia he could claim.
    • Edwin compares one-off Original Character Alto Stratus's appearance to a Flying-Type Gym Leader and voice to Christian Bale.
    • In Chapter 4:
      • Edwin reflects sardonically on what other game someone could be talking about when Yugi asks if someone was challenged to a Duel. Edwin's thoughts then wander to Hikaru no Go.
      • Edwin compares the standoff when Mokuba confronts the gang to West Side Story.
      • Edwin makes several allusions to Pennywise while Dueling against the Mimic of Doom, a.k.a. "Ghost Kaiba." He also calls him Edward Cullen at one point, and when his disguise shatters, he mentally refers to him as the lovechild of Dilbert's boss and Bozo the Clown.
      • When Edwin activates Endymion's effect, he mentions that his magician is "no mere conjurer of cheap tricks."
      • When seething at the Pharaoh's hypocrisy when it comes to judgmental behavior, Edwin compares him to Helen Lovejoy.
      • When Edwin shakes Fake Kaiba by revealing he knows his true form, he compares the Mimic to Hannibal King.
      • Edwin quotes the 11th Doctor while intimidating the Mimic of Doom, bluffing and boasting about his knowledge: "Secrets that must never be told, knowledge that must never be spoken... knowledge that would make parasite gods bleed."
    • In Chapter 5:
      • Renard quotes one of the most famous passages from T. E. Lawrence, which Edwin joins in on:
      Renard: For you see...all men dream. But not equally. Those who dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity.
      Edwin: But the dreamers of the day... are dangerous men. For they may act their dream with open eyes. To make it possible.
      Both: This... I did.
      • After leaving Renard, Edwin finally realizes that his outfit was the same as Don Karnage.
    • In Chapter 6, Edwin compares (Yami) Bakura's politeness to a scorpion asking a frog for a ride across the river.
    • In Chapter 7:
      • He quotes Sherlock Holmes to Joey. The reference is lost.
      Edwin: Facts, details, information... I can't make bricks without clay.
      • He confronts Yami Bakura with Doctor Strange's line, "Dormammu, I've come to bargain!" Preceded by him saying I Always Wanted to Say That.
      • In response to Yami Bakura's mad cackling after the above, Edwin reflects that Yami Bakura is at least smarter than Ultron. Shortly thereafter, he calls him Palpatine.
    • In Chapter 15, Edwin says the following about Kaiba participating in Duelist Kingdom:
    Edwin: Surprised he was smart enough to do that. I assumed he’d just stand at the gate and demand you duel him, hoping to wear you down like he was King Arthur and you were some Frenchmen with floppy hands.
    • Starting in Chapter 70, the Battle City Finals are hosted by CCN members "Mark Jeice" and "Scott Burter", the two being references to abridged versions of Jeice and Burter and how they acted as commentators during Recoome's "wrestling match" with Vegeta, Gohan, and Krillin. The same chapter has them joined by "Card Expert Curtis Guldo", and Chapter 82 sees them joined by "Card Insider Christopher Recoome", references to fellow Ginyu Force members Guldo and Recoome.
    • In Chapter 144, Yugi references a story he'd heard in school, The Cask of Amontillado, as he reflects on dark, irrational thoughts in his nightmares about the Pharaoh pulling a Grand Theft Me, stemming from the earlier days.
    • A couple in Chapter 146. First, when Edwin responds to Gozaburo mocking him for trying to embrace a Thou Shalt Not Kill mindset:
    Edwin: …yeah, I'm trying to live up to that. But to quote someone FAR more threatening than you? You'd be surprised what you can live through.
    • Then later:
    Joey: I just don't get it, man! Why is Noah still fightin' us like this?
    Edwin: [It's] like tipping over a vending machine. It doesn't go over with one push. You have to rock it back and forth.
    Pegasus: (frowning) Did you steal that from Seinfeld?"
    Edwin: Oh, THAT reference you get!
    • In Chapter 147, after Selene finds that she can't, after all, literally walk all over Gozaburo's android body because it's imbued with the Seal of Orichalcos:
    Selene: (to Edwin) We need to leave. We need to leave and then nuke this place from space... only way to be sure.
    Edwin: ...I love the fact that you are quoting Aliens.
    • In Chapter 149, as Gozaburo is summoning Iron Exodia, the Forbidden Sacrilege, the closing lines of The Second Coming flash into Edwin's mind.
    • In Chapter 150:
      • Edwin repeats the line "You'd be surprised what you can live through" three times across the course of the chapter, twice concerning his own experiences and once concerning Gozaburo's Fate Worse than Death, the latter of which everyone is too unnerved to ask about.
      • Edwin references Silence in the Library by name while realizing how he can save Noah.
    • Chapter 153 sees the crew of the 118 Firehouse having moved to Domino City and trying to get Umbra down from the position he was stuck in after his duel with Seto and the Pharaoh, Hen mentioning that Athena was called in to clean up Domino's Police Department following the exposure of its corruption.
  • Signature Move: Edwin's ace monster and the keystone of his main strategies is established in Chapter 1: Endymion the Master Magician. It's later shown that he was Endymion in a past life. Later, however, he branches out into other Decks.
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: Edwin. To his chagrin, he's censored by the 4Kids dub for a large part of the story.
  • The Starscream: Kemo, one of Pegasus's prominent bad guys in Duelist Kingdom, turns out to be this. In the final part of the arc, seeing things from his perspective reveals that he had every intention of ultimately taking over KaibaCorp himself after Pegasus was done, seeing him as a fool that he could manipulate however he needed to.
  • Surprise Incest: Discussed. Renard and Yuri take poorly to the idea they are both reincarnations of the siblings Hela and Fenrir, partly because they had plenty of casual sex before learning that, as well as secretly displayed attraction towards Edwin and Mai who they would now recognize as the reincarnations of their parents. This is one of the reasons why Renard opts to believe that even if they are the reincarnations, That Man Is Dead is in effect and they are their own individuals first and foremost.
  • Take a Third Option: In Chapter 7, during the Duel against Yami Bakura, Edwin points out that rather than playing the Ring Spirit's game, they can simply stop playing until he forfeits. Because, after all, this is a Shadow Game with no time limit, and unlike Yugi, Yami Bakura has been actively ignoring his physical needs. How long can that last with the added pressure of the dark magic? Edwin's goading gets so bad that he tricks Yami Bakura into making an illegal move, causing him to lose the Duel by default.
  • Tempting Fate: Happens to Pegasus in chapter 128 while facing off against AI Cassie.
    Pegasus: (thinking) Synchro focused...Bringing out bigger and more powerful monsters, which is pretty standard for most decks. But its done fast, especially if she is able to get out-
    AI Cassie: And next I think it is only proper that I have the correct field for such a battle. After all, what is a lord without his manor? A duke without his estate? So I activate the field spell Dragon Ravine!
    Pegasus: (thinking) —that. If she gets out that.
  • This Cannot Be!: Noah all but panics when Mokuba tells him that Gozaburo adopted Seto and him six years prior. Why? Because Noah has been in the virtual world for only four years.
  • Touché: From Chapter 20:
    Mai: Pegasus and those Toon monsters are pretty impressive—
    Edwin: Not really. Destroy the book and you can take out his entire strategy.
    Mai: (chuckles) Not everyone has Endymion, Edwin.
    Edwin: Harpie's Feather Duster.
    Mai: Touché.
  • Trauma Button: Edwin nearly spirals into a panic attack at the start of the Virtual World Arc, due to flashbacks to the living hell that was his time trapped in Kaiba's virtual world.
  • True Companions: Edwin establishes this rapport with Mai, Renard, and Yuri.
  • Wham Episode:
    • Chapter 86: The end result of Ishizu's Duel against Odion? When she wins using Obelisk the Tormentor, Odion is knocked out hard, which results in Yami Marik emerging. But it also results in Yami Ishizu emerging, born from the conflict of her duty to the Pharaoh at all costs and her refusal to sacrifice her brother.
    • Chapter 112: Kaiba loses to Yami Ishizu, putting him out of the tournament before the semi-finals can begin. And for even longer-reaching consequences, Ishizu claims Kaiba's first Blue-Eyes White Dragon by the ante rule...and tears it in half.
    • Chapter 152: A few massive things here, with the least impactful of them being that Mai proposes to Edwin, and he accepts. We also have Odion waking up early, and above all else, Edwin bonding with the Millennium Ring...and shortly thereafter, melting it down and reforging its core into an engagement ring for Mai, making her the new bearer of its power. That seems like enough of a wham on its own, but no, there's one more thing: the rest of the gold is still there, prime for reforging into new Millennium Items.
  • Wham Line: In Chapter 137, when discussing Gozaburo Kaiba and his newly uncovered efforts to become immortal:
    Yami Ishizu: Tell me... who do you think told Maximillion Pegasus that the answer to returning his wife to the world of the living was [in] Egypt?
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: In Chapter 99, during his brief time dead and in limbo, Edwin receives a brief speech in this vein from the one person whose word he values above any other: his late mother. That person tells him that he has always been an angel, and he was the one who refused to see it. Edwin takes it to heart, and when he returns, he's quick to tell everyone that the "Guardian Devil" is dead.
  • You Shall Not Pass!: For the brief period that Edwin is dead, Brom Bones bars anyone on the other side from claiming his soul, allowing him to return to his body. This includes briefly fending off another avatar of death.
    Tropes in "Edwin in Hell" (Spoilers for main fic unmarked) 
  • Adaptation Deviation: While the exact hierarchy of Heaven isn't fully established yet, by all indications Sera is depicted as the leader of Heaven, fitting with the hinting her full name is "Seraphiel", one of the seven Judges of Heaven and leader of the Seraphim in Abrahamic text, the only one above her shown to be the Speaker of God. Here, Adam makes mention of the "archangels" being an issue while talking with Sera about their plans in private, suggesting they are of significant enough authority to be an issue when by all rights Adam reports directly to Sera, and Adam himself being an archangel.
  • Adaptation Species Change: Aria in the original fic was, by all accounts, a normal human just with some eccentricities and a monster kink. Here, she's a hellhound originally from the same orphanage as Loona before aging out and now living on Earth.
  • Adaptational Jerkass: This version of Seto lacks the humanizing aspects of his main fic version and is a purely callous and self-centered asshole. He has No Sympathy for the people grieving Edwin's death while caring more about Battle City being cancelled, had Mokuba sedated when his attempt at "consoling" him failed to work, and his "care" for Mokuba is ruthlessly deconstructed by Pegasus as Seto using Mokuba as a Living Emotional Crutch and emotionally abusing him in the process. All of this makes it much easier to stomach I.M.P trying to assassinate him throughout the story since he now falls more in line with their usual targets.
  • Adaptational Personality Change: Sera in her home series is defined by her being a Dirty Coward, her condoning the exterminations and allowing Adam and Lute's zealotry to occur being out of fear Hell would uprise against Heaven, but is otherwise shown to have good intentions and be genuinely kind outside of that, being genuinely remorseful when faced with irrefutable proof redemption is possible and refusing to go along with Lute's zealotry. Here, she's more akin to a manipulative politician in her attempting to target specific parts of Hell with the exterminations, and mentally admits that, had doing so not caused Lucifer to ask questions, she would have gladly absconded with Charlie the day she was born so she could be raised to take Lucifer's place amidst the angels. Emily also recounts to herself how Sera here is a Control Freak with a bad temper, Emily needing to keep her head down when Sera is in one of her moods so she doesn't get the brunt of Sera's anger.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Velvette of the Vee's was the member that received the least focus in Season 1 of canon. Here, she has a larger presence and is treated as a love interest to Edwin.
    • Cecelia Pegasus has an actual presence outside of being Maximillion's motivation, meeting Edwin after initially believing Maximillion had come to Hell due to Edwin's jewelry being called the "Millennium Eye", and introducing Duel Monsters to Hell.
    • Aria takes a much more prominent role here after she learned Edwin died, going to Hell to find him and becoming part of his "pack".
  • Easy Road to Hell: Cecelia was in Heaven initially, but after she was briefly brought back to Earth thanks to Maximillion trying to revive her, she was booted out of Heaven due to being "tainted" by the Millennium Eye's magic, landing her in Hell through no fault of her own.
  • Everyone's Baby Sister: Aria is a precious member of Kaibacorp to everyone but Seto himself, and all of the staff are willing to do anything for her. So when Seto coldly tells her Edwin died and to get over it causing her to cry, everyone present gives Seto a Death Glare and moves to reveal they're carrying weapons, Moose even threatening to shove his broom up Seto's ass if he sees him again that day while denying him use of the elevator. Seto is so stunned at his staff so brazenly threatening him he can't even bring himself to fire them.
  • Forgotten First Meeting: Loona actually met Edwin prior to his coming down to Hell, specifically having met him when he was alive while attending a birthday party for their mutual friend: Aria.
  • Point of Divergence: The main point that caused this spinoff to occur was that, when Ishizu stabbed Edwin and killed him, Edwin didn't meet his mother and get a chance to return to life, his soul instead getting damned to the Hellaverse.
  • Shout-Out: When stopping Crimson from cutting him off mid-“The Reason You Suck” Speech, Edwin compares himself to Tarn, while lampshading that Crimson likely won't get the reference he's making.

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