Yu-Gi-Oh! (anime): Difference between revisions

[[File:ygo.jpg|frame|The Pharaoh [left] and Yugi.]]

 

 

 

This second series is probably the reason why you are reading this, since it was the [[Adaptation First|one who made the series popular as it today]].

There's a huge amount of video games based on this series, the most famous of which is ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction|Yu-Gi-Oh Reshef of Destruction]]''. It spawned a movie called ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light|The Pyramid of Light]]''. Yugi and his alter ego return in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time|Yu-Gi-Oh Tenth Anniversary Movie]]'' that [[Bat Family Crossover|teams him up with Juudai and Yusei.]]

 

 

For the card game based on the manga and anime, see [[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh]].

{{tropelist}}

* [[Abandoned Warehouse]]: Bandit Kieth dueled Yugi in an abandoned warehouse that had its own Duel Monsters arena.

** This can be attributed to [[Executive Meddling]], as Kazuki Takahashi never got to flesh out the story with Seto and Kisara the way he wanted, and rebelling against the Pharaoh was probably intended to be a larger plot point for his story.

*** In the original version of the anime, Kaiba and Atem even [[Lampshade Hanging|point out]] that the duel was completely different from what they expected. Atem handwaves it, saying the memory world is probably not an accurate representation of what really took place.

* [[Absurdly High Stakes Game]]: Shadow Games and Duel Monsters. The world is frequently at stake.

* [[Abusive Parents]]: Gozaburo Kaiba, Marik and Isis's father.

* [[Aloof Big Brother]]: Seto Kaiba.

** Zigfried von Schroeder may as well count, too.

** ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction]]'' is this to the anime's season 4.

* [[Alternative Foreign Theme Song]]: As with all the anime that 4Kids dubs, the English opening is different from the Japanese opening. You can listen to it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp0W3LyUX0k&feature=related here].

** Excluding the Kaiba brothers, though. Their's seem normal enough, for a cereal bowl mullet and a black mop.

** Lampshaded in the Abridged Series:

'''Head Mook''': Attention, Duelists! My hair is now an internet phenomenon!" }}

** Technically, with 4 items to 3, there are more benign or beneficial cases - the necklace, the key, the scales and the puzzle against the eye, the ring and the rod.

* [[Art Shift]]: In the first episode. Once Yami defeats Kaiba and performs a mind crush on him, his face becomes less angular and his eyes gain pupils.

* [[Ascended Meme]]: The nicodouga phenomena relating to the "Enemy Controller" scenes from the Virtual Arc was referenced in a minigame on the Duel Terminal Arcade game. (See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=[[C Lud BL Sx 9 LQ]])

* [[Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance]]: Goes from mild (Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood have dinosaur and insect themed decks, respectively) to the truly tasteless ([[Fan Nickname|Zombie boy]] has an all zombie deck).

* [[A Villain Named Zrg]]: Zork

* [[Ax Crazy]]:

** Even our hero Yami Yugi can become [[Axe Crazy]] [[Bullying a Dragon|if]] [[Heroic BSOD|you]] [[Berserk Button|get]] [[Unstoppable Rage|him]] [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|mad]] [[What the Hell, Hero?|enough.]]

* [[Badass Adorable]]: Yugi, anyone?

** Joey as well who's arguably the most normal of the main duelists.

* [[Beam of Enlightenment]]: Any time one of the characters has a sudden revelation. Mostly when Yami figures out how to beat his opponents.

* [[The Bechdel Test]]: Despite having only one female character stay from the beginning to the end of the story, and having a maximum of 4 important female characters ever in the same scene (or season), it actually passes. But not by much.

* [[Book Ends]]: For Yami Bakura's involvement in the overall story, anyways. Both the first and last games the Pharaoh plays against him are RPGs with the souls of his friends at risk

** For a straighter example, Yugi's winning card in the last duel of the series is Golden Sarcophagus; it's [[Lampshade Hanging|pointed out]] that the card looks just like the box the Millennium Puzzle was in, {{spoiler|[[Invoked Trope|and that the box that brought Yugi and the pharaoh together would be the very thing to bring them apart.]]}}

* [[Break the Haughty]]: Kaiba gets this a lot.

** Cheap shots. If they took him on head-to-head, no dice.

* [[Cock Fight]]: Tristan and Duke, over Serenity.

* [[Collectible Card Game]]: DURP DURP.

* [[Cooking Duel]]: Figuratively speaking. The series often stakes the lives of its characters, or even the fate of the world, on a game of Duel Monsters.

* [[Cool Big Sis]]: Mai Kujaku.

** The Winged Dragon of Ra versus basically anything. Except for Bakura's [[Critical Failure]] attempt at using it.

** The first Kaiba/Pegasus battle is one of these as soon as Toon World is played. Later Kaiba smartened up.

** Valon defeats Rebecca and Duke on his second turn.

* [[Cut and Paste Translation]]: Most infamously the [[Never Say "Die"|Shadow Realm]] concept.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Later in the 4Kids dub, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrsdzQ1E0c0 Bakura is quite good] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awv8pPgA7Qo at this.]

** Forget Bakura, Kaiba has been this consistently during the entire show.

Seto: "Thanks for nothing." }}

** An even better one:

** Don't forget this gem from the Grand Championship arc:

** One of his better ones from the Waking The Dragons arc:

'''Kaiba:''' Nah. As the president of a major company, I have to do that every day. }}

** And then we have Dartz.

 

* [[Death by Childbirth]]: Marik's mother.

* [[Debt Detester]]: Kaiba claims that Tea helping Mokuba escape from the Rare Hunters is the only reason he's helping Yugi find his friends. Then he uses it as his reason for saving Tea's life. Considering all the times he makes a point of explaining how he's only "helping" the gang out of selfish reasons, it's pretty clear that it's only a shield for his [[Hidden Heart of Gold]].

** To an extent, Mokuba Kaiba and Marik Ishtar also.

** And [[Averted Trope|averted hard]] with Seto Kaiba.

* [[Defrosting Ice Queen]]: Mai Kujaku/Valentine for the first few arcs, and then heads back to Arctic levels during most of Season 4 due to her [[Face Heel Turn]].

** Kaiba may count as a male example, at least in the Japanese version. He becomes more amiable and less openly insulting towards the others.

* [[Did You Think I Can't Feel?]]

* [[Do Not Adjust Your Set]]: Kaiba uses this to announce the Battle City Tournament.

* [[Dub Name Change]]: The dub was done by [[4Kids! Entertainment]], after all. Some card names were also changed, for example, Black Magician being renamed to Dark Magician (and the same for the card's female counterpart, Black Magician Girl to Dark Magician Girl) and its corresponding attack card, Black Magic, being renamed to Dark Magic Attack.

* [[Dude, Where's My Respect?]]: Joey says this almost word for word upon hearing that Kaiba refused to invite him into the Battle City tournament even though he was the runner up in Duelist Kingdom.

** [[Lampshaded]] in Duel Academy's school pledge.

* [[Dysfunction Junction]]: Several characters experienced a tragic and/or depressing event in their life, especially the villains.

* [[Ear Worm]]: The Japanese openings and endings. The biggest offender is Rakuen from season 3.

* [[Easily Forgiven]]: The Kaiba brothers, Pegasus, Malik.

** Averted in the first anime series, though, where the Kaiba brothers are anything but easily forgiven.

* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: A lot of the cards, like "Red-Eyes Black Dragon," "Man-Eating Treasure Chest" and "Dark Magician," just to name a few.

** Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes upon the [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Giant_Turtle_Who_Feeds_on_Flames Giant Turtle Who Feeds On Flames]!

* [[Expy]]: The original manga has "Chopman" working in Death-T 2. He's basically Leatherface, but he did some Jasonesque stuff.

* [[Extra Eyes]]: Pegasus' Thousand-Eyes Restrict.

* [[Fairytale Wedding Dress]]: In a fantasy sequence in the first anime.

* [[Fake Brit]]: Bakura in the dub.

* [[Fetal Position Rebirth]]: Yami Yugi at the end of the Orichalcos Arc.

* [[Field Power Effect]]: Various boosting and nerfing cards, as well as terrain.

* [[Fighting Series]]: Using a children's card game.

* [[Filler Arc]]: Virtual World, DOMA, and Kaibacorp Grand Prix.

** Kaiba hilariously lampshades this directly after the Virtual World Arc, directly after they've all narrowly escaped with their lives.

* [[Filler Villain]]: Dartz, Noah, Gozaburo, and Zigfried von Schroder.

* [[Five-Bad Band]]: The Big Five, Dartz and his men. You could also make a case for Pegasus' Player Killers if you wanted.

** [[The Sixth Ranger]] - Bakura

* [[Flanderization]]: Kaiba's rude tendencies in the dub. Compare:

Japanese!Kaiba: "One day, I will invite you [to Kaiba Land]." }}

dub!Bakura: "I don't care." }}

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: {{spoiler|The whole reason Thief King Bakura tries to take over the world in the first place is because he saw the Kul Elna massacre first-hand and was its only survivor.}}

* [[Fun Size]]: Yugi Mutoh and Yami.

* [[Gag Dub]]: ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'', [[The Abridged Series]]' [[Trope Maker]].

* [[Genki Girl]]: Mana, whose introduction consisted of jumping out of a vase to glomp the pharaoh.

* [[Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!]]: Yami gets one of these from Joey in the form of a punch to the face.

* [[Girls Love Stuffed Animals]]: Rebecca had a teddy bear that she regularly spoke to in her first appearance. By the time she reappears in the Doma arc however, she's ditched the [[Tastes Like Diabetes|"cutesy little girl"]] angle, and Teddy is nowhere to be seen.

** Yugi's grandpa owns a trading card/game shop and Kaiba is rich. The second season has the rule that a loser must hand over their rarest card after they lose, with Joey's (formerly Rex Raptor's) Red Eyes Black Dragon being a significant plot point. Joey often uses cards he received from winning, such as Jinzo.

*** Possibly an Aversion of a Subversion (maybe?). Unlike in real life, where serious players usually have 2 or more decks at once for a [[Collectable Card Game]], all the characters in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' have only 1 deck that they retool constantly. That being said, those retoolings might as well count as entirely separate decks unto themselves.

** Most of the cards have names in [[Gratuitous English]] too; Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Blue-Eyes White Dragon are completely unchanged from the Japanese version.

* [[Hacker Cave]]: Owned by Seto Kaiba.

* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: During every single duel against a major rival.

* [[Hard Work Hardly Works]]: Yugi plays it straight, Joey/Jounouchi actually earns his wings through hard work.

* [[Homage]]: The card game was originally intended as a homage to ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'', of which Takahashi is a fan.

* [[Hostage for McGuffin]]: So much so (especially with Kaiba's little brother Mokuba) that [http://www.dailymotion.com/littlekuriboh/ LittleKuriboh]'s [[Gag Dub]] of the show has an entire running gag built around it.

* [[Hot-Blooded]]: Jou/Joey.

** Bakura, especially as Thief King Bakura in season five. He makes the most arrogant pronoun ever (Ore-sama) sound good in constant use, and... 'ORE-SAMA NO TURN!'

* [[Hybrid Overkill Avoidance]]: Usually averted, but played straight in the first tournament when Yugi fused his Mammoth Graveyard to Kaiba's Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon to slowly weaken it.

* [[I Am Your Opponent]]: Used a few times by Yugi.

* [[I Have Your Wife]]: Used by various villains throughout the series. The target is usually Mokuba, who is kidnapped a grand total of 15 times.

* [[I Just Want to Have Friends]]: When Yugi first completes the puzzle, he makes a wish on it to have some true friends.

* [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight]]: Yugi has one of these with Joey/Jounouchi when Marik takes control of him.

* [[Ill Girl]]: Shizuka/Serenity.

* [[In the End You Are on Your Own]]

* [[Indy Escape]]: [[Subverted]] during Duelist Kingdom. The boulder in question was just a balloon with a speaker in it.

* [[Ineffectual Loner]]: Seto Kaiba.

** I guess there's a reason why we never see Yugi and Seto play chess. King of games or not, but you can't use the heart of the chess piece to win a game. And there are no power ups (other then promoting pawns, which isn't too hard to see coming) or convenient special abilities.

** Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood were in a tournament championship facing each other right before the Duelist Kingdom arc. Yet from then on out they never pose much of a threat to, well, pretty much anyone, effectively becoming recurring joke characters who sure don't look like champions of any level of tournament.

* [[Invincible Incompetent]]: Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler) perpetually comes from behind to win. Granted, everyone does this, but Joey never seems to be picked as a favorite to win anything, despite several finals showings.

* [[Ironic Echo]]: In season one, Kaiba threatens that he'll fall from the castle's battlement if Yugi wins the duel, so Yugi forfeits in fear that Yami would finish Kaiba off.. In season five, Yugi again faces the decision of defeating his opponent in a duel to kill him. In this case, the opponent is {{spoiler|Yami}}. Yugi hesitates on finishing the duel, but carries it out, as this time, the reason is {{spoiler|to send Yami to the afterlife}}.

* [[It Meant Something to Me]]

* [[Jerkass]]: Kaiba.

** Bandit Keith is a bigger one. He and his [[Mooks]] trapped Yugi and the gang in a cave, and he also stole Jounouchi's Glory of the King's Hand card while he was sleeping.

* [[Joker Jury]]: In the dub version of the Virtual World arc, Johnson, whose Deckmaster and appearance is that of Judge Man, claims he is putting Joey on trial for gambling.

** He then proceeds to make every trial joke imaginable.

** And within that anime, the KC Grand Prix. A [[Breather Episode|breather arc]] with a campy villain whose crime is [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|not mine-rape, not soul-stealing, but hacking into Kaiba's computer system.]]

* [[The Load]]: Mokuba. Serenity. Also Tea and Tristan, who were pretty much just around to provide moral support ([[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded multiple times]]).

* [[Love Makes You Evil]]: Pegasus' motive. Also Akunadin to some extent.

* [[Love Martyr]]: Odion.

* [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]: Akunadin and Priest Seto in the Memory World Arc.

* [[Lull Destruction]]

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Happens for a couple of characters, particularly the (ancient) Egyptian ones:

** If Marik's name were [[Spell My Name with an "S"|transliterated]] differently when moving into the English dub, it would be the Arabic name [http://www.behindthename.com/name/malik Malik] (or "ملك" in Arabic), which is based on the words for "king" or "possessor" in the Arabic language. Incidentally, Marik [[Body Snatcher|possesses]] several people and [[Take Over the World|wants to be the pharaoh/king of Egypt/the world]] as a [[Big Bad]].

** Shadi's name is only a phoneme different from the ancient Egyptian word ''[http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/shabti.html shabti]''. ''Shabti'' are figurines placed in tombs among funerary goods so they can be servants to the tomb's owner in the afterlife. Using representative figurines replaced killing [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|actual]] [[Human Sacrifice|servants]] for this sole purpose. Shadi guards the Millennium Items' original resting place and {{spoiler|[[Dead All Along|turns out to be just a ghost]] since Yami Bakura had killed him 5,000 years ago when he was one of Atem's priests.}} And like Malik's and Rashid's names, the name "Shadi" is also [http://www.behindthename.com/name/shadi-1 Arabic] in origin, [[Shown Their Work|reflecting]] that all these characters come from modern Egypt where Arabic is the official language.

** "Yugi" means "game"

*** Yami means dark or shadow, which means that "Yami Yugi" means "Shadow Game."

** Yami's real name {{spoiler|Atem is a variation on Atum, as in Atum-Ra. The creator god, the god of the sun, the first king of the gods, the first pharaoh, etc. Oh, and he apparently had a Winged Dragon, too.}}

* [[Mind Rape]]:

* [[Morality Pet]]: Mokuba Kaiba.

* [[More Than Mind Control]]: Dartz in Season 4.

* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Mai Valentine and Dark Magician Girl.

* [[Multicolored Hair]]: Yugi, and his grandfather.

** "Card games are serious business."

** Dramatically animated belt clipping-on sequence?

* [[My Little Panzer]]: Duel Monsters is such a safe game for little kids, isn't it?

** [[Subverted]]: By itself, the game is perfectly safe; it's the duelists like the Ghouls that add in their own, more dangerous, rules or invoke the dark magic of the Millennium Items that make it so [[Department of Redundancy Department|dangerous]].

* [[Necessary Fail]]

* [[Never Say "Die"]]: In the English dub, at least.

** Except for Episode 8 where Kaiba tells Pegasus' men he'd rather die than be captured and promptly leaps to his supposed death, which is mentioned in the next episode where Yugi duels Kaiba's "corpse".

*** Maybe. Maybe not. Anyone who reads Nietzche and truly understands his philosophy would know how to be the [[Ubermensch]], a character that some would think is a villian, but can be a hero (think Batman).

* [[No Kill Like Overkill]]: Numerous times, characters will pointlessly weaken themselves in order to boost their monsters powers or completely clear the field before delivering a final blow so that not only do their opponents life points drop to 0, but all their monsters are gone too. This being in situation where they could save themselves the trouble and just attack outright and win.

* [[Noble Demon]]: Seto Kaiba.

* [[Non-Human Undead]]: In the first tournament, Yugi defeats Kaiba's Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon by fusing his Mammoth Graveyard into it... which, because both are incompatible types, slowly weakens the resulting fusion and will cause it's eventual death. After this, the rule is never referenced again.

** Another example are Bonz's monsters brought back from the grave.

* [[Not a Date]]: Anzu/Tea goes on one of these with the Pharaoh.

* [[Obvious Trap]]: The point of Odion's deck is to focus on laying tons of trap cards and then wait for the opponent to spring them. Thing is, he makes the point to play almost no monsters thereby leaving him wide open to attack except for his traps, which you ''know'' will protect him, he's not stupid. Unless you pack an insane amount of spell/trap destruction or run an unorthodox deck theme, you're gonna have to attack him sooner or later, and when you do, he'll be ready to turn it back on you. Joey found this out the hard way.

** Joey and Mai later learn Marik also plays a lot of traps, which are even more brutal and painful than anything Odion used.

** Besides the specific duelists, quite often the characters [[Genre Savvy|know the opponent has a dangerous trap waiting]], but they acknowledge if they want to win they either need to find a way around it, or trigger it and hope they can come back from whatever it does.

* [[Off-Model]]: Several moments. These actually make some of the more threatening characters ''even scarier''.

* [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]]: Yugi vs. Jonouchi immediately after Battle City, even if we know Joey won (he was battling Yugi for his Red-Eyes and is shown to have gotten it back). Both mediums skip this.

* [[Older Is Better]]: The older your magic, the better it is.

* [[Older Than They Look]]: Yugi.

* [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You]]: To the point where Kaiba stalks Yugi for an entire episode in Season Zero because he suspects someone ''else'' is trying to defeat him in a duel.

** Not to mention the hissy fit Kaiba throws upon learning Yugi has 'allowed' someone else to defeat him in Season 4.

* [[Orgasmically Delicious]]: Bakura's steak, [http://kokorononaka.net/FAQ/v23-143s.jpg in the manga]. In the anime it was more [[Crazy Consumption]].

* [[Orphanage of Fear]]: According to Kaiba, at least.

** Mai Valentine: [[Megan Hollingshead]] --> Bella Hudson.

** Mokuba Kaiba: Tara Jayne --> Caroline Lawson.

* [[Overtook the Manga]]

* [[Panty Shot]]: Joey and Tristan randomly lifting up Tea's skirt in class and yelling "Panty tank!"

* [[Pinball Scoring]]: Every card in the anime does base damage/bonuses/etc in increments of 100; the actual card game has a handful that have 50s.

** In the Duelist Kingdom season, there were a few duels where damage/bonuses were calculated by percentages of other stats, creating some odd prime numbers. From Battle City on, most all the numbers ended in even 0's.

** A few monsters have ATK or DEF stats that aren't divisible by 50. Castle of Dark Illusions has 920 ATK and 1930 DEF, Reaper of the Cards has 1380 ATK and 1930 DEF, King of Yamimakai has 2000 ATK and 1530 DEF, and Seven-Armed Fiend has 666 ATK and 666 DEF (1000/1000 in the Dub).

* [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse]]: Yugi.

* [[Plot Tumor]]: The ultimate one, possibly. Originally, the manga ''was not about any specific game'', much less a single card game. He's supposed to be the King of Game'''s'''.

** Lampshaded in The Abridged Series. Yugi is just referred to as "The King Of Card Games".

** To be fair, after the point where the [[Plot Tumor]] hits, the card game is only played during Duelist Kingdom saga, the Battle City saga, and the Ceremonial Battle. In the manga, the Dungeon Dice Monsters saga and the Pharaoh's Memory saga are almost completely devoid of Duel Monsters. It's much more prevalent in the second series anime, where even flashbacks to chapters where the card game ''wasn't even introduced yet'' in the manga were altered to involve cards. This also doesn't stop every other related spin-offs from focusing exclusively on the card game after the original manga ended.

* [[Power Levels]]

* [[Power Makes Your Hair Grow]]: When Yugi, Bakura and Marik become possessed by the spirits of the Millennium Items (or in Marik's case {{spoiler|his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]]}}, their hair gets even more ridiculous than usual.

* [[The Power of Friendship]]: Prior to the card game [[Plot Tumor]], this was going to be the main theme of the series. It still has a fairly strong presence. Occasionally to the point of [[Narm]].

** [[Word of God]] says that it was the intended main theme the whole way through. The card game [[Plot Tumor]] just created alot of [[Misaimed Fandom]], that's all.

* [[Pragmatic Adaptation]]: Many actually ''prefer'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDdUg-5_K2s the English opening] for the darker and more mythical feel it gives the series, as opposed to the J-Pop opening of the Japanese ones, not to mention the sheer [[Narm Charm]] of "It's time to D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-DUEL!"

* [[Princesses Rule]]: Princess Adina, ruler of Simlow, in Kaiba's virtual world.

* [[Rapid-Fire Typing]]: Seto Kaiba often utilizes this whenever he's operating or hacking into a computer.

** Parodied in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series]]'':

'''Kaiba''': That's because I learned how to [[Hollywood Hacking|hack]] by watching old episodes of ''[[Star Trek]]''! }}

* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Kaiba, most notably.

*** Tea, of all people, turns out to be surprisingly good at these, although she doesn't give them often. She gives one to Kaiba at Duelist Kingdom, although it's more of a "the reason Yugi is better than you" speech. Then there's the time she let Johnny Steppes have it for running away when his duel with Yami got too difficult.

* [[Recap Episode]]

* [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]: Hey, did [[Shrinking Violet|Yugi's]] irises just turn red? [[Super-Powered Evil Side|Better start running.]]

* [[Reincarnation]]: Gets rather complicated. {{spoiler|It is ''heavily'' implied that Yugi is the other half of Atem that ''didn't'' get sealed into the puzzle and just sort of floated around until it was born again. Common [[Epileptic Trees]] is that [[Nice Guy|Ryou]] is something similar in regards to the ancient [[Big Bad]] Thief King Bakura (who more complicatedly never did a bad deed until being controlled by Zorc, a completely separate being). Seto (with Set) and Ishizu (with Isis) are straighter examples.}}

** It's ''slightly'' less complicated if you look at the Ancient Egyptian concept of soul. One of the key pieces being the "ren" or name implies Kazuki may have done this on ''purpose''.

* [[Road Sign Reversal]]: The Marik-brainwashed Bandit Keith has set up arrows to lure Yugi into a trap. Yami Bakura flips the arrows around so Yugi's friends can't follow.

* [[Rousseau Was Right]]: Numerous bad guys including {{spoiler|Dartz and his biker henchmen, Marik Ishtar, Pegasus etc}} all seem hopelessly callous and evil only to eventually prove to be good at heart, whether by exorcism of an evil side or simple persuasion, usually by Yugi or Pharaoh. Seto Kaiba is also routinely obnoxious and cold yet occasionally proves to have a compassionate side, which is usually related to his love for his little brother Mokuba.

* [[Rule 34]]: Usually done with [[Black Magician Girl|Dark Magician Girl]], Tea/Anzu, and Mai, but other instances exist.

** Most notable is what the Crump v. Tea duel in the Virtual World arc spawned.

* [[Sadly Mythtaken]]: An Ancient Egyptian card game, for starters...

* [[Screw Destiny]]: It's revealed in the final arc that one of the Millennium Puzzle's abilities is to "alter fate", which in the context of the Duel Monsters, allows him to change the card he's going to draw as long as he believes it will happen hard enough, rendering every past example of Yugi drawing the exact card he needed by "Believing in the heart of the cards" more than just good luck.

* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|Screw The Rules, I Have Money!]]: The [[Gag Dub]] is the [[Trope Namer]].

** Occurs within the series itself. Kaiba does it, of course. Pegasus, however, even makes special cards that never go into circulation just so that it gives him an advantage.

**** That's because, for some weird reason, Pegasus used the real-life version of the Toon cards, which possess so many drawbacks and so little support that no serious player would be caught dead using them. .

***** It's because you have to use life points to summon them, when really you could just use the normal versions instead.

* [[Stronger with Age]]: The Baby Dragon to Thousand Dragon age up.

* [[Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome]]: Season 4 turns Mai Valentine into an angst-ridden member of a villainous biker gang. It turns out she was tricked into [[Heel Face Brainwashing]] by Dartz.

** Because he's an American! And Americans always wear sunglasses!

*** In America!

*** Actually, he didn't duel through the tape. The tape was enchanted to pull Yugi into a Shadow Game, where the actual Pegasus was waiting. The recording only made the announcement and activated the spell. Straighter in the manga where Yugi doesn't get pulled anywhere (unless the whole living room with his friends and Grandpa got pulled in too and it wasn't noted in any way).

* [[Tattooed Crook]]: [[Big Bad]] Marik Ishtar has a large tattoo covering his back and he is the leader of his own criminal organization. [[Inverted Trope|However]], it was his reception of the tattoo that had originally caused him to turn to evil, not the other way around with him getting the tattoo after turning evil. The tattoo was carved into his back in the Japanese version, though it’s similar, and the dub changes it to a tattoo.

* [[Theme Deck]]: Trope Namer

* [[There Are No Therapists]]: Several characters would be better off with professional help. Most notably the villains.

* [[They Were Holding You Back]]: Dartz' recruitment method.

* [[Third Eye]]: The card "Goddess with the Third Eye", and most Millennium Item holders when using their item.

* [[Too Many Mouths]]: Slifer the Sky Dragon has two.

* [[Toon]]: Pegasus' Toon Monsters.

* [[Toon Town]]: Pegasus' Toon World.

* [[Tournament Arc]]: And how. The only arc two arcs that ''weren't'' tournaments were Waking the Dragons and Dawn of the Duel.

** Only with the second series anime, of course.

* [[Traintop Battle]]: Or blimp-top in this case. Played straight in Season 4.

** Also, in Season 5, a ferris wheel-top one.

* [[Trauma Conga Line]]: Happens several different times, to several different characters.

* [[Troubled but Cute]]: Early childhood Seto Kaiba. Also early childhood Malik.

* [[Truth in Television]]: Pegasus's Toon cards are said by Yugi to be kept out of circulation for being too powerful, but Pegasus is the creator of the game so he kept them for himself. The Seal of Orichalcos, a [[Game Breaker]] if there ever was one, exists in real life and is limited to a few copies that were used by members of Upper Deck's R&D department in a special tournament.

* [[Ungrateful Bastard]]: Kaiba, after several rescues from Yugi and co.

** He does show some limited thanks for Yugi, and only Yugi, at times, such as freeing him from Pegasus and the Big Five.

* [[Unstoppable Rage]]: Specifically, after Yugi's soul is taken by the Orichalchos, and Insector Haga ''[[Bullying a Dragon|taunts]]'' the now rather unstable Yami by tearing up a card in front of him after claiming it was Yugi's, just "[[Moral Event Horizon|as a joke]]", Yami... well, he goes totally and utterly apeshit, really. He defeats Haga using a card that grants extra attacks by drawing and discarding monsters, and then he continues bashing at him by trashing more monsters long after Haga's lifepoints have hit zero. He would've kept going too, if Anzu hadn't stopped him. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYx_sJRmgeY Here's the scene]... Not pretty.

* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]: Dartz.

* [[Vendor Trash]]: When the rules got more defined, a lot of the worse cards didn't have [[Deus Ex Machina]] powers anymore and were pruned. Though some of them got updated versions that are useful.

* [[Voice of the Legion]]: Marik.

** Also the [[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Steves]] under his control.

* [[We Can Rule Together]]: Noah makes this offer to Yugi in the Japanese version of episode 118, after Yugi managed a formidable counterattack and after Noah turned some of Yugi's Nakama to [[Taken for Granite|stone:]]

* [[Wham! Line]]: From episode 52:

* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: Gurimo from the first two episodes of the Waking the Dragons arc. Once he's finished being [[Mr. Exposition]]: everybody forgets about him, including his cohorts, even when all of the souls are being restored and only the battle is referenced briefly during Raphael's last fight, prior to his [[Heel Face Turn]]:

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Rebecca does this to Yami when his reckless use of the Seal of Orichalchos results in Yugi losing his soul. Heck, even WEEVIL does this effectively, pointing out that while he might be an asshole, at least he didn't knowingly endanger his friend simply to win.

* [[You Monster!]]: See the trope page quote.

* [[You Would Make a Great Model]]: Happens to Anzu/Tea, who is promised a chance to be a dancer like she's always wanted.

* [[Zerg Rush]]: At one point, Yugi uses Monster Multiply, which causes Kuriboh to multiply each turn, in conjunction with Kuriboh's special ability allows it to nullify the damage done by one enemy monster. Due to there being no limit on how many monsters can be summoned with one magic card in the anime's version of the game, this allows him to create a virtually impenetrable barrier of the little guys.

* [[Zettai Ryouiki]]: Rebecca Hawkins manages to pull off a grade-A in her initial appearance. Also, she's twelve years old.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Kids WB]]

[[Category:Shonen Demographic]]

[[Category:Saturday Morning Cartoon]]

[[Category:Anime]]

[[Category:Toonami]]

[[Category:4Kids! Entertainment]]