This video exceeded my expectations. The Yu-Gi-Oh -story I never knew I wanted. Makes Mai's character more fresh and developed but also resurrects season 4 for me. Nice work man!
@@MultiversalStudiosone question how do you explaine you need to have egipan roots to use the puzzle only reason Yugi was able to use it its bc he was desendent of atems
Her entire story of going from vain and self absorbed to havign a kind side and everything, i feel could literall be whole manga series on it's own. She has such a great growth in the series.
@@tensai_kodai agreed. I didn't like the way they did her character. And I ESPECIALLY didn't like what they did with her in the last season. In my opinion, it would've been a lot better if they had her actually apologize to Joey, Yugi, and the rest of their friends and have her become their friend again rather than just having her being alone and out of the picture. She also SHOULD'VE been with them in the final duel between Yugi and Atem not just because so she could see how strong Yugi has become, but also because so she could have some closure from her experience with Marik, since she would see him and he would probably apologize to her for the pain and trauma that his Yami self put her through. Ultimately, she deserved SO much better.
@@RinTheRebel I mean, what if they're fully aware of that but made the comment anyway because it's funny? _To each their own brand of humor, of course, but yeah, had to say it_
@@MultiversalStudios I always understood it that Dark Magician Girl was always meant to be boosted with additional cards, like her true potential was more than just raw strength. Which would be a good analogy of Téa's skills, more than what you first see.
This would have been the real deal! Mai is one of my most favourite characters and I am so saddened and frustrated that the creators just left her after the “Orichalcos arc”Merci beaucoup for making this awesome video! 💖
Thank you!!! And I know right!!! I really thought they did a great job with her character development in orichalcos arc, if they continued with it, it would have been awesome! 100% agree 💯
My what if theory about Mai was that she was Atem's older sister in her past life and was reborn in Yugi's timeline to assist the Pharaoh in saving Ancient Egypt, but her memories got locked away. She unlocks them bit by bit. First at dueling kingdom she feels some connection to Yugi, but can't explain it. After losing her battle with Marik, she is locked in her mind palace that is like a labyrinth(like Atem's millennium puzzle). Yami Yugi/Atem saves her from there, but while there she starts recalling some memories of their Father. She just doesn't know who he is yet. (Also, Yami Yugi doesn't remember anything about his past, so he doesn't know she is his sister.) During the Orichalcos arc, Dartz tells her that she was an Egyptian princess and that her throne was stolen from her by the spirit in Yugi's puzzle, who destroyed her home in the past and that together they should stop him by locking away his soul. (He projects the images from the past in a way that she believes it) She remembers that she was sent to this timeline to save her home, so she agrees to help Dartz. After Yami Yugi defeats Dartz, Mai realizes that she was wrong and starts questioning all the memories she started to remember and distances herself from everyone. Only when Yami Yugi is taken back to the past does she fully recall who she was and is taken back in time. This is where she helps her brother Atem fight Bakura. After Atem saves everyone, he goes back to Yugi's timeline for the final duel and Mai is there watching. Atem's spirit goes to sleep, but Mai stays, because she like Kaiba is the reincarnated version of Atem's sister.
There seems to be a love chemistry connection between Mai & Joey. Additionally, Joey's sister Serenity do idolizes Mai. Besides in the duel of Serenity vs. the Big 5: Nezbit, we saw Serenity's card selection does have a lot of potential with that Female Warrior & Fairy Deck (where Serenity's Warrior cards are inspired by Joey's Warrior cards). Would have been great if Serenity dueled more. It was also rumored that Mai would become a mentor to Joey's sister: Serenity Wheeler. In fact, friends of mine did created stories of our own about Serenity & Mai, where Mai would train & mentor Serenity to boost Serenity's Female Warrior & Fairy Deck.
I love this so much this is much better than what we got in the actual series. Mai is my favorite character in the series and it's such a shame the creators gave no crap about her character.
you worked so hard and crafted a great "what if" that hits the right beats while being a unique tale. Yet~ i still picture it with LittleKuriboh's voice acting and humor. That abridged series is just so burned into my brain.
I've wondered what original Yugioh would be like if remade with the newer cards they have today. There's plenty of Blue/Red Eyes, Black Luster, Magnet Warriors, etc. There are so many upgraded versions too of Gaia the Fierce Knight, Summoned Skull, Insect Queen, Legendary Fisherman, the list goes on!
Thats so true! I feel like maybe it wont be as entertaining because the new cards have longer effects and it probably wont be as fun to watch! But i would love to see the new support involved in Yugioh anime! We kinda saw some in the new yugioh movie! and that was pretty cool!
@@MultiversalStudios They would have to be used in moderation at the start, and new cards slowly introduced. Maybe the card spirits would gain power from their duelists, giving a bit more credibility to the Heart of the Cards. Though, some decks may best be avoided. Mai Valentine's newer Harpies would take up most of the duel and be hard to deal with. She might have to use Amazoness instead.
@@commonviewer2488 yeah exactly! And on the other hand I feel like some cards like the new legendary fisherman cards for Mako would be be super cool to see! And would make sense with his story 👌 so yeah it's a really good point!
This one was definitely intriguing! I didn't give Mai much credit when I used to watch YugiOh. She always seemed a bit self absorbed. Probably need to watch it again!
If they were to make another one of the "older" style games, where there's BS rules thrown in to better mimic the anime, I would love for more AU style stuff like this.
I know it's been almost two years so I don't know if you still check the comments on older videos, but I always enjoy seeing Mai get more love! I know it gets said in basically every other conversation about her across the internet, it sometimes feels like, but she really did not get the screen time she deserved. 😔 Despite the limited screentime, she is literally one of my favorite characters of all time, and I maaaayyyy be sort of... working on developing my own story idea that is basically "what if Mai was the main protagonist" but more just taking base personalities, motivations, dynamics, etc and reimagining them into a new original setting, ahaha,,, (Though in my concept, my Mai-inspired character does still join the evil cult, and it's a story about villain protagonists, so a very different spin lol.) As far as thoughts on yours- (This is gonna get into analyzing the original too and I'm so sorry for the length, I just love excuses to talk about season 4 ajiwjgiawjg.) I particularly enjoyed the level of attention you put into callbacks to earlier parts of the series! I feel like you might have relied a bit heavily on it (though again I know this video is pretty old now), but it still showed a lot of dedication to researching the source, and the fact that many things didn't work the same way they did the first time was very good. I do have trouble seeing the initial setup, because... I'm not certain from this if you've seen the season subbed or not, but a lot of it was extremely different than the dub. But basing my impressions on both, Mai isolated herself from Joey and the others _on purpose_ after Battle City. "Your friendship is too bright for me," she told him, and proceeded to never once reach out no matter how hard she was struggling. I feel like if Joey found her when she was at her lowest point, he wouldn't be able to "save her", partly because Mai would do everything in her power to avoid letting him see her "weakness" and partly because Mai was struggling with feelings of not being Strong Enough to _protect herself_ long before Valon found her. To me, it feels like Mai, as a grown woman in her mid 20s, both felt guilty about "burdening" these happy high schoolers with bright futures with her problems, and started getting scared after a lifetime of being self-sufficient and then nearly dying shortly after starting to rely on anyone else for anything. People talk about her "resetting" character development a lot, but I thought that was a perfectly valid reaction. It isn't physically possible to _always_ be there for someone else, and if Mai had always been okay when she was looking out for only herself, and then suddenly couldn't protect herself and had to have her friends save her the first time she ever had friends to do so? I'd get scared too. What would happen the first time she ran into weird magic like that and no one was there to help, if she wasn't strong enough to do it herself? She was having PTSD nightmares, and whole panic attacks when she lost, terrified ANY loss would lead to reliving her trauma with Yami Marik. (Seen most when she lost to Valon and when she started losing her head and physically shaking when things looked rough the first time against Joey.) There's also a whole thing in the sub that the dub removed entirely about how it wasn't even JUST a fear of loss and loneliness Mai was struggling with, but a desire to feel Good Enough that she didn't know how to actually satisfy. She had _always_ been willing to do a lot to win, and yeah that's part of why people say "reset", but it's... more than just basic competitiveness or desire for rewards, and that's like 80% of her dynamic with Valon in the sub. During that scene in the desert before dueling Duke and Rebecca, where the dub just has Valon being pushy about "come on please date me" and outright guilt tripping her about "saving" her, in the SUB, it's... a very poignant speech just calmly stating observation about how Mai hungers for victory like a vampire hungers for blood. She does everything she can to win, but is never satisfied, always too preoccupied with where to get the next hit, because every victory is _hollow_ when she has nothing to win _for._ Mai denies it, but we see a flashback that doesn't match her words, showing he's absolutely right. Valon says he can tell because unlike their teammates or the protagonists, she doesn't have a cause. He recognizes it in her because he was exactly the same way, feeling like he had to keep winning to have a reason to live, until finding purpose _in her._ The full extent of him expressing a desire to date her in the entire subbed season is "Mai. Be mine" in the middle of this. He goes on to say he wants to fight for her from then on, and would even take on Dartz himself if she asked him to. (Unlike in the dub, where Mai tells him to take a hint and rejects him, she is quieter, never rejects him, and then asks if he could defeat _her,_ giving him pause. Then she watches him duel and looks scared at the end and runs away _from that too_ before they can actually have their duel lol. But yeah.) But so all that is like.... Mai's ultimate "redemption" in the canon version was twofold. One part was from feeling deeply understood by Valon, even if he ultimately always put himself first, like refusing to let her take over the duel vs Joey because (unlike the dub where it was played as a ship war thing and him being possessive of her) _he was having too much fun_ and refused to give that up _even for Mai._ (Though I do wonder if that wasn't an active benefit to someone like Mai, who used strangers but always tried to avoid burdening others once she was fond of them, knowing that one of the people she'd grown close to absolutely _wouldn't_ bend over backwards for her sake unless it was what he also wanted.) The other part was from Joey getting through to her just how much their friendship meant to him and the lengths he'd really go to in order to mak her see that, but even that was only doable through dueling and seeing that he was willing to push himself through physical pain. And even after all that, she... _still_ ran away in the end, AGAIN, STILL set in the idea that she needed to "become worthy" of being close to other people... but... at least now having a goal of coming back someday, instead of just wanting to stay on her own... :( So given all of that, I'm not..... really sold on the idea that Joey just finding her when she's upset and saying "hey come hang out with us again" would have done anything but make her insist everything was fine, make up an excuse as to why she "looked" upset, and run away as soon as she could. [sobs...] **All that said though...** If I overlook the "how she got here again" part, I do absolutely LOVE everything about the idea of Mai eventually coming into her own strength and starting healing more by seeing through experience that fighting to protect her friends was infinitely more fulfilling than any other battles she'd won, and by realizing that protecting each other is a two-way street, so she shouldn't feel guilty accepting help. I was a little skeptic that it felt like the video wasn't quite pulling through with the idea of Mai being "the" protag _instead of_ Yugi as opposed to being a co-protag alongside Yugi, but you got there in the end, and it was a very nice touch to have Joey and Mai replace the Kaiba and Atem battle after Kaiba attempted to go solo and fell. I'm also not sure if it was your intention, but the fact that Kaiba in canon tried to fight Dartz solo and Atem had to be like "no we'll do it together" makes me imagine Mai not just accepting Kaiba calling her inferior like "well I guess there's no changing his mind" but more as a bitter "okay then, if that's how you're gonna be, let's SEE you back up that big talk, tough guy." Just spitefully standing back and watching him fail and then succeeding herself after would be SO FUNNY to me and I would love to imagine her afterward teasing him about it occasionally for _years_ lmao. All in all, a very enjoyable video that was clearly made with a lot of love.
Hi! I just want to say I read all of this comment and it was a beautiful one! I really feel like u truly understand mai as a character and I learnt so much from this comment 😍 Thank you for ur kind words about my video and more importantly the honest criticism regarding the weak points in the video, to answer ur question I did base this on the Dub version on the anime, however I recently have watched the subbed and I understand how different it is! I really like ur perspective on things, so if you do ever want to work on a project together I would love to have ur refreshing take on things 😊
@@MultiversalStudios I'M SOBBING??? Of course I HOPED you'd see it and take it well, but I'm usually a "hope for the best / expect the worst" type of person, so I sort of assumed you just wouldn't see or might take the critique as too negative even with my efforts to begin and end with positives. I didn't at all expect such a positive reaction so quickly! Character and plot analysis is an overwhelming passion of mine, as is writing in general (even if I do that less because Effort lol), and I'd always be delighted to talk more about any fandoms we share if you want! (I should look at more of your videos, too.) Would you like... 🤔 idk... an email or my Discord or...? A preferred social media maybe?
@@WyrdFayth I actually read all my comments for real! And plus I think when people comment you can always tell the intention of the person regardless if its negative or not 😊 and I can tell ur really passionate!! Well I do have a discord server, I would love for u to join as I am always looking for anime fans (especially yugioh) its on my about page, but you can also have my private discord, whatever works for you haha
I am so hooked on your videos. Awesome work, man! Keep up the fantastic work! Edit: I forgot to add this part the moment when I posted the comment 😂 So, I basically forgot to add: What If Tea was the protagonist. I think it might make for an interesting theory :)
Depends, Bakura's arc would be rather different. Bakura joins Duelist Kingdom due to Yami Bakura wanting to get Yugi and Pegasus' Millenium Items. Yami Bakura tries to have Yugi and his friends killed/sent to the Shadow Realm (lol) and is defeated. Bakura is temporarily free of the Ring's spirit and replaces Bandit Keith in the semi-finals. Loses to Joey and watches the finals. The Ring returns and forces Bakura to kill Pegasus.
@@MultiversalStudios I was sooooo sad during that collab dude I didn’t get anything other than Mai and Tea, feels bad. Forgot to say great video! The new story you came up with fits well with the overall theme of DM and sound plausible enough to be true in an alternate universe
Mai honestly how interesting I don't think I would have expected it to go this way... Hmm that puts a smile on my face that Tea... ... I can't tell if that's from the little one or from the dub it's... Ey YO! The HARPY! ... What an end.
I am not sure if you take suggestions when it comes to these what if yugioh videos you do but if you do, I was wondering could you do a what if of the other yugioh series with some of the other characters from those series being made the main character
@@MultiversalStudios ok that's to good to hear because I do have a recommendation on another yugioh series that you can do a what if video's about the yugioh series I was thinking you could do a what if on yugioh 5ds and maybe the characters you could do the what if they were main characters video about is Leo, Luna or Akiza
I listen to a story about myself into when you put her near darts darts in the show was after the farewell so I think he did something wrong here he was he would challenge me to do right away with all his pals and share the pharaoh could remind her about his friendship but I think it that’s not a brown putting her near darts actually but I’m not sure what will happen actually you should I say what will happen if Joey real or was there instead of mine but this is weird but I do love it how you explain why what happened happy birthday without the mailing a puzzle
Better yet what is bakura was the protagonist and the pharaoh atem was really the villian who lied about everything . Let’s not forget the kul elna massacre. Even dartz alluded how evil the pharaoh really was
@@DaLadyKaiba not exactly, Yami brought justice to the people who hurt his friends in season 0, but he did it by creating deadly punishment games, however not all punishment games cause death (e.g Kaibas Punishment game when he stole the blue eyes). So Yami is not exactly evil but in my opinion he is giving justice in an unnecessary and brutal way.
she should have taken joey's dragon after their battle and been the third one to duel with seto and yami yugi but nooooo the writers had to do her dirty again and then forget about her character like your version of the story a lot only part is seto thinking her an inferior duelist because he gave her an invitation to duelist kingdom and she was on the list for the kc grand prix hosted by kaiba corp I think kaiba respected her a little at least
maybe it has to do with evil being a part of life that can't be removed that easily, for example, you can't have light without shadow, you can't have yin without yang. I think evil can't be removed Since good can't exist without evil, one can't exist without the other. ( this sounds pretty cheesy lmao )
Oh PS I forgot if Joey Wheeler if it’s in the alternate universe category am I was in find a date with a farewell date for the chalice my Valentines to the door wide awake alternate universe category the state am I like the only real errs that’s funny now will not be dumb enough to get this your workout goes by I have no clue how powerful is darts and if they will be the same storyline like a really join instead like you know but then again jelly regular he’s not an idiot he’s the type of person that would challenge somebody into a door For kids had its case for two people punching each other if you saw the armor battle with those two characters putting armor on his head like excuse for girls to punch etc.
Ok either use the American 4kids entertainment dub or the Japanese version because the the American dub always censored a lot of things and always mistranslation the dialogue Some dialogue didn’t sync to what character said while other dialogue did In order to understand Mai we did to know all of her backstory *even the ones they censored*
I've wondered what original Yugioh would be like if remade with the newer cards they have today. There's plenty of Blue/Red Eyes, Black Luster, Magnet Warriors, etc. There are so many upgraded versions too of Gaia the Fierce Knight, Summoned Skull, Insect Queen, Legendary Fisherman, the list goes on!