Yu-Gi-Oh! Theory: How Monster Spirits are Manufactured

[@claydolmaster2644]

This could also explain why the card game is the way it is in the anime. It’s much harder to print tons of copies tier 0 decks when duel spirits are involved. It also explains why new cards are so important and rare compared to the irl game. Since it must take a much longer time to make a new card in the anime since it would require much more than printing cardboard

[@theunknownshadowish]

Not so much only certain cards in the human realm had duel spirits

[@Starmag99]

@@theunknownshadowish All cards have spirits, we see that clearly both literally and through the themes. Most of them just don't bother actually showing themselves in the way that Winged Kuriboh or the Ojamas do.

[@thegayghost872]

The real heart of the cards was the black magic we found along the way

[@Dragon66898]

I’m stealing that for later use

[@DragoSonicMile]

"Gosh dang it! I knew that girl's friendship speeches were going to kill me one day!"

[@afrodarkwaver]

I don’t want to go to hell I wake up at 3-4 am in yugioh not even on master duel

[@_racoon_7778]

Kaiba:GODDAMMIT I KNEW THAT GIRLS FRIENDSHIP SPEECHES WILL KILL ME SOMEDAY!!!

[@jeniskindof]

Yeah pretty much....

[@jenerix5257]

One thing that always caught my attention in Arc-V is that, when Yuzu and Gongenzaka decide to train Fusion and Synchro summoning respectively, that's seen as a personal choice based on their interactions with characters that know those methods. It's certainly not "Melodious is a Fusion archetype" or "Superheavy is a Synchro archetype". We can infer that those archetypes evolved in those directions because their users trained that way, and that certain monsters within them evolved to be tuners or self-fusers as a result. In 5Ds, we see a stone tablet that will eventually become Shooting Star Dragon. Zexal has Shining Draw and I think Sevens talks mentions how Yuga got the Sevens Road support cards through luck/fate/something like that. Combined with how Zexal talks about 'Chaos' as a fundamentally human power for change and evolution, how the original monsters were pulled out of the minds of criminals, and the Neo-Spacians created when Judai's designs were given form by cosmic energy... I see duel spirits as human imagination given substance by magic. In GX, Pegasus is continuing to recruit card designers and is able to turn Chumley's prize-winning design into a functioning card. This is clearly a case of the card coming before the spirit and, if the card can shape the spirit, it makes sense that it does so by exposing the design to the collective imagination (and subconscious magic) of Yugioh players everywhere. That's how the modern spirits are born. While there's clearly some secret that makes cards suitable vessels to accumulate this energy (or to serve as suitable vessels for ancient powerful spirits that shape the card to suit them), I don't think that's fundamentally digital. The ancient Egyptians were able to do it with stone and the series generally treat regular magic as something that exists in the background so it's probably just plain magic. The reason duelists always use a digital interface for the modern cards, even during full on shadow duels, is probably to do with conservation of energy. Imbuing a hologram with a semblance of life is presumably much easier than manifesting the spirits from scratch.

[@TheDeadGunslinger]

Chumleys card was a Field Spell, based on an actual location he had been, Pegasus just harnessed the essence of that location.

[@jenerix5257]

@TheDeadGunslinger Good point. There's enough explanation for Ayers Rock Sunrise without my theory. I think it still makes sense without that specific example, though.

[@NGamer_S]

I think that makes perfect sense. I mean, if the original monsters were all human souls - doesn't that follow that every new human soul should correspond to a new monster?

[@BurstFlare]

@@NGamer_S No, the monsters *resided* in human souls, they weren't the souls themselves. And it could just be that the process of sealing monsters residing in human souls was lost to time and is no longer practiced, with the cards Pegasus made with the Millennium Eye being monsters already sealed into tablets, and instead entirely new monsters were made through programming and imbuing magic into them, like SpellCommander claims in this video. But I do think Jenerix has a point about the archetypes evolving based on their user's training.

[@commonviewer2488]

Yuya evolved his entire deck into Pendulums from strong desire mid-duel Edit: Thanks for the correction

[@hiitsalex6780]

I always thought that those Duel Spirits were always there since the beginning. As Humanity and technology grew, those powerful and advanced Duel Monster spirits start appearing more on Earth.

[@whambamduel]

Some definitely were, but others had to have been manufactured-- and in the anime, we know that some monsters are directly manufactured by certain characters, such as Pegasus creating the Toon cards and the Relinquished series, and Seto Kaiba creating Kaibaman.

[@BurstFlare]

@@whambamduel Let's not forget the Neo-Spacians. Those were literally Jaden's own designs shot into space.

[@ijkxjdc]

A lot of this also makes sense when you remember that in the manga/season 0, Kaiba only made the solid vision system because he wanted to copy the feeling of the shadow games and since he was the reincarnation of Priest Seto, he inadvertently recreated the DiaDhank his past self used to use.

[@Atou_Mahogany]

So Yu-Gi-Oh! monsters come into existence thanks to technology, the same way that the Demon Summoning Program works in the Shin Megami Tensei games? Neat.

[@st4pps]

Even caused the end if the world too XD

[@dominondsdsd]

OMG, this is so right. We even have in Zexal Law and Chaos alligment with Astral and Barian worlds.

[@Zetact_]

Something else to bring up is that in Vrains the Ignis are directly named after the Greek theft of fire myth which covers the obvious implication that it is attempting to reach a modern day understanding of the supernatural via technological progress and tapping into the mental connection with Duel Monsters. And something else that was a part of Vrains sort of supernatural influence is very small and likely unintentional but the game "Tower of Hanoi" that the SOL Technologies' project was named after was marketed using a fabricated mythology that a far more complicated version of the toy was where it came from, as part of a project by monks that would signal the end of the universe. What's more important than the meaning is probably just that the toy was using a supernatural element that was fabricated. And it might be a bit of a stretch but SOL Technologies itself may be a mythological reference. See, Sol is, as you may guess from the name, a solar deity, specifically a Roman solar deity (Lightning's Roman deck?) and what's fascinating about Sol is that certain emperors in the 3rd century tried massively to inflate the prestige of Sol. He was, on a relative scale, not as prominent within the Roman myths (Apollo was the far more famous and popular sun deity) but he had a huge push kind of late in Rome's history. Why is that? Well, it's not uncommon among history buffs to have recognized that many of the traits of Sol that are sourced to these later cults were ones that attempted to expand the role of the god as more of a "central deity," as the prime divinity within the Roman pantheon. Some even distinguish between the "old Sol" and the "new Sol" by calling only the new one "Sol Invictus." And the reason is obvious: many pagans were recognizing the growth of Christianity, and so Sol was expanded as an attempt to take on aspects that were causing the growth of Christianity and retain a pagan root. We categorically know this to be the case, as the holiday celebrating Sol Invictus instituted in 274 was purposely made December 25 so it could compete with Christmas (no, it was not the other way around, Christmas was an established holiday among Christians well before Sol Invictus, it merely was not a STATE holiday because Christians were still a minority being persecuted at that time). So how is this relevant? Well, look at how it relates to SOL Technologies: the name just happens to be shared with a figure from an old mythology, who was reworked in his lore with deliberate and inorganic additions, as an attempt to hold onto cultural hegemony against a changing religious landscape. With the context of the Ignis and how it may relate to Duel Monster spirits, it kinda... Fits.

[@gatosorprendido5279]

8:07 is this how people were able to make fusion cards out of nowhere in duelist kingdom? Use the polimerization card which triggers the merging of the actual spirits in the cards creating a new never before seen creature.

[@whisperingbardasmr6569]

It also explains how Jaden fused Neos with a synchro monster.

[@EthanKironus8067]

Don't forget how Seto hacked Aigami's magic with his tech in DSoD. That's another notch under the belt for your theory here.

[@mackansw]

I think another theory could be that the card spirits comes from human souls. Thats not really a theory thats more or less confirmed from the shadow games but i think that when a card designer works on and designs a card they pour part of their soul/energy into their design and thats the spark that give them a card spirit. Kind of like an artists pours themself in their artwork. This kind of works for vrains aswell as despite his different proccess he still pours energy into making them, as dose everyone who programs the cards. This also could work for ancient egypt as back then the millenium items where used to extract and capture spirits but the items never created the monsters/spells, they only manipulated them. The monsters where already in the souls meaning that maybe just maybe they could be inprinted willingly like say into a design rather then having to be forcefully extracted by a millenium item. This would mean that card spirits have existed as long as humans have and would continue to emerge aslong as there are humans. And as humans evolve and becomes more futuristic so dose the card spirits as they reflect the future desingers

[@AnonEcho98]

About that whole "Artist pours themselves into the artwork" bit? Yeah, that's kinda the basis for the whole R.A Project in Yugioh R. However, I wouldn't go as far as to say that every card spirit comes from human souls. Namely, Archetypes.

[@Starmag99]

Some card spirits certainly do come from human souls, but Duel Monsters predates humanity by exactly the age of the universe. So those cards which came before humanity probably can't have come from any human souls inside the universe itself.

[@MrMetal-xe8lg]

What's always been so fascinating to me is that the idea of 'cards which depict and contain otherworldly beings' is a universal constant in the Yugioh continuity, as if the concept comes as naturally to all civilizations as 'creation myths involving godlike beings dictating everyday phenomena' in our world. I know that's a thing among other hobby anime like Beyblade or whatnot, but it's still really neat imo.

[@PURPLE_G0J0]

YES!! You don’t know how much I look forward to your uploads. Easily my favorite YuGi-Tuber

[@SpellCommander91]

That genuinely means a lot! Thank you!

[@ShadowEclipex]

I am not sure I would go and say cards are effectively digital programs/storage systems in themselves, but more digital information is just a more modern way to interface with the spirits that are connected to the card. Or later on even give birth to new monsters spirits. I don't think they type of power matters when it comes to creating new Spirits, as long as it is sufficiently powerful. We have seen spirits made from Ancient black Magics through Artifacts, Mystical Meteorites (Oricalcos), Cosmic Radiation (Neospacians), Ener-D (Synchro Monsters), Chaos Energy (Xyz Monsters), Digital energy through the Cyberstorms (Link Monsters). Sometimes even a Duelist's sheer willpower could be enough to create new monsters like with Pendulum Monsters.

[@whambamduel]

Fascinating theory. And an excellent title for the video to boot : ) I imagine after having extracted all of the original monsters from their Stone Tablets to make the first monsters of the Trading Card Game, when faced with the need to make new monsters, Pegasus must have had to use his Millennium Eye to the fullest of its capabilities -- to literally "look" past the surface of what a monster is, and examine them to their very core. The very fact that these monsters and what they are made of happened to be a task that was so easy to replicate is fascinating to me. I think the very first monster spirits that Pegasus must have manufactured not only *could have* been the Toon monsters, but simply *HAD TO BE* his toon monsters. Unlike most modern archetypes, which are established by cards recognizing a certain string of text within the name of another card, Toon monsters have their own super-type, just like Flip monsters or Spirit monsters. This means that Pegasus was able to create his own string of data that contained all of the identity information that makes up Toons, and attach them to copies of pre-existing monsters, such as the Red Archery Girl, Ryu-Ran, and Blue-Eyes! I imagine spell cards like Mimicat (or at least Mimicat's anime version), or Comic Hand simply contain that same string of Toon data that allowed Pegasus to turn his opponent's monsters, like Summoned Skull or Ancient Gear Golem into Toons right on the spot. After Duelist Kingdom, though, I think that is when Pegasus (at least in the anime) simply retired, and I think what let him do that was likely him deciding to sell off all of his trade secrets to the Kaiba Corporation, who became the new prime manufacturer of Duel Monsters cards. Even though Pyramid of Light isn't exactly canon, we can see that Pegasus is retired, even though, canonically speaking, he's only in his mid-twenties! He must have sold all of his trade secrets to Kaibacorp for a fortune.

[@wakkaseta8351]

Considering Duel Monsters was a worldwide phenomenon and Pegasus himself already came from money, he probably wouldn't even need to sell off the trade secrets to be able to retire.

[@obvious_humor]

6:49 video tapes don’t store digital information, they store analog information such as light and sound. analog information on a tape can be digitized, but that’s not what a vhs player is doing (unless it has hdmi output)

[@secoreymcfarquhar9551]

I love your theories. They give a logical answer while retaining the sense of otherworldly awe like the shows!

[@j2minerblacksands881]

Just a reminder that the Duel Terminal World story/lore happens within a Duel Terminal machine, a entire world(s) with thousands of years of history happens on one lone machine. And while yes new spirits may be created from data, the world is a wide place and with the evidence of several civilizations all having magic that can lead into the modern game at the same time its reasonable to assume that every civilization had some sort of magic that could be used to call upon spirts. We known that there is the Duel-Monsters Spirtworld(s) exist, and it may be people unconsciously tapping into them when creating new cards, or that new spirits are being born all the time in the 'real world'/Anime World due to the heightened magic caused by playing Duel Monsters.

[@BurstFlare]

In other words, the ancient egyptians were actually extremely high-tech and just didn't realize it. Jokes aside, this makes a ton of sense. I just can't believe that I didn't notice it myself. *The signs were there, why didn't I see them?!*

[@dragonknight1560]

I can buy this but there could be a second method: The Spirit of said monster. Let's use... Hope/Utopia from Zexal. He's a piece of Astral's memory and yet he's wielded by Yuma by the connection to Astral. Or other Numbers like Shark Drake or non-Numbers like Galaxy-Eyes. Or even Ruka/Luna's monsters, they're all Spirit Monsters. You could say technology plays a part but so does the monster, having a result that maybe it's the monster manifesting into a card for its rightful owner to use. It also explains Zarc and his Dimension Dragons, or Yuma when summoning Enlightenment Paladin or Nirvana High Paladin. Heck, we have another proof; Yubel! Yubel is bound to always protect Haou's reincarnations so when it came to Judai/Jaden's turn, she was already a card he wielded as a kid (before you know, she was too strong or rather Judai's power even as a child was strong and cause real damage to happen similar to Aki and her Psychic powers). So it's also likely cards could also form through the Spirit as well.

[@Stinkoman87]

It's been my theory that the Numbers are the ka of the ones that first got them. (SHArk Knight is the ka of Nasch; Leviathan Dragon is the ka of Ryoga Kamishiro, whose body Nasch took over).

[@orvillewright9246]

I think it's the other way around. The data is just a new stone. 'Data' or information can be stored in stone talents and books. But most importantly, pictures. I think the cards are what carry the spirits, not Kiba's system. That's why in GX, then the Duel spirits are being drained, the card art disappears, and it's not the holograms glitching out. The electronic storage system is just how the spirits are manifested. Probably, the Card Makers talk to people, use electric versions of whatever the Millennium Items did, or just send something to the duel monsters spirit world, and then create the art, effect and hologram based on the monsters they find.

[@BurstFlare]

I don't think he ever implied that the spirits were in Kaiba's system, just that the system was what allowed the spirits to manifest. Besides, the Duel Disks are basically just portable Dueling Arenas, which it doesn't make any sense for the spirits to be held in Arenas that likely aren't even connected to the internet.

[@orvillewright9246]

@@BurstFlare That was my problem. I thought he was saying that the Duel Spirits were in the Data, rather than being manifested in the Data.

[@BurstFlare]

@@orvillewright9246 They are in the card's data. The cards themselves hold the data of the cards, not the Dueling Arenas/Duel Disks.

[@orvillewright9246]

@@BurstFlare I never mentioned the Dueling arena. I was saying the Duel Spirits are stored in their card images, and that they are not data.

[@BurstFlare]

@@orvillewright9246 I brought up the Dueling Arenas because Duel Disks are basically portable Dueling Arenas. So anything that applies to Duel Disks in this discussion also applies to Dueling Arenas. Okay, I kinda get where your coming from, but then there's the fact that the Dueling Arenas/Duel Disks have to be able to render the monster's *entire* appearance, and the images don't always have the entire appearance on them, plus they're not even facing the physical zone while being rendered. And on top of that, the protagonists make new cards a *lot* in the anime, but the Duel Disks still recognize those new cards, even the ones that were made *mid-duel,* and can render them properly, which means the data that's used to render those appearances *have* to be on the cards in order for it to work. Not to mention that the monsters, while rendered, have been shown to exert their own wills in a few instances, including, but not limited to, Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl talking to each other in the Duel of Yugi/Jaden/Yusei vs. Paradox and the Dimension Dragons calling out to each other. This means that the monsters *must* be inside the cards data, which is stored *on the cards themselves,* and are read by the Dueling Arenas/Duel Disks to manifest them.

[@skyfire001]

I heard a fan reading of the universe being that it is the thoughts and wills of people calling these spirits into exitance. The art of a monster is drawn. People imprint lore and ideas and feeling into it. And then the spirit is created for it. And now the card that is its avatar can be used to call it forth when magic allows. Or when the holder is spiritual aware and can see it. The spirit bound to the card itself as an anchor in our world. With out it they are pushed back over the line to theirs

[@adriansanmartin6258]

8:59 Great, now Yugioh cards are Digimon.

[@AnonEcho98]

Had the exact thought with this vid. XD

[@vgcrumbs]

This is a really fun headcanon!

[@BurstFlare]

This just occurred to me, but I think the data on the cards *is* directly editable. The existence of the Duel Monsters Spirit World and the fact that the Spirits of the cards can interact with the real world to a limited degree even without manifesting in physical form (mostly just with those with the ability to see them, but still), and are able to remember said interactions, suggests that the cards are capable of dynamically holding that monster's memories: memories that are constantly changing and growing, even while the monster is inside the card. But also, the cards themselves can be affected by outside influences, the two examples that come to mind being the Sacred Beasts absorbing energy from other Duel Monsters and how Z-ARC was able to transform cards into their Pendulum versions.

[@jebVlogs556]

*Spellcommander91* I don't think the newer monster cards, spell or traps are technically new. Like you pointed out😅☝️,they were digitally reformated through the same or similar process pegasus did. The cards and what they can only do or expanded upon can only do original stuff(a creator of the card can rename a card monster and what it does but only cause now you are summoning a creature that "hasn't been known to be summoned or was long forgotten even amongst their own lore within the now digital spiritual grind.) Yes rules can be created,broken or bent but only within the confines of the grid(spiritual or digital it doesn't matter) it applies and here we are..

[@IBW_3000]

I actually once made a fictional AU based on this idea called Yugioh Spirits. In this world, you have decks and archetypes. Decks are pre-printed cards whose abilities are set in stone. Archetypes however are cards that start off completely blank (like Yusei’s Shooting Star Dragon), but as you keep on dueling, their effects continuously evolve and they eventually gain new ones based on the duelist and what they’ve been through; was that effect a hard once per turn in episode 1? Well it might just be a soft once per turn the next episode. Decks and Archetypes cannot exist in the same stack, which is a point of conflict in the world.

[@somerandomfan2096]

I have a Theory That The Kaibaman Duel Monster Spirit Was Actually Seto Kaiba!! Dueling Jaden!!

[@davidmacarthur705]

Polimerization, could then be the Data combining to create something new, which would explain how it feels like they just created entirely new monsters out of nowhere when fusing. Maybe they actually were

[@skypaladin9878]

Every artist can tell you they put a piece of themselves into their work, which Im sure is part of the process

[@shyoss2671]

I love your theories, you're always so capable of looking inside the mechanics of yugioh and connecting It to the Characters,im so Happy you're back

[@Xeno-The-Wanderer]

GX plays a lot into the energy aspect seen later on and we even see a card be made on the spot from beginning to end. Rainbow Dragon's creation seems it only needed the image to be taken and printed as there wasn't an aspect of programming least shown. It's possible Pegasus' device already charged it with the proper energy, maybe it was a blank card that already had the effects preprogrammed only needing the image to create the proper new spirit. What I found interesting is that the process of getting the card to them was the first instance of Duel Energy being able to be harnessed for scientific purposes being able to cause interdimensional travel. makes me wonder if Eisenstein created some thesis' regarding that and eventually contributed to the Momentum/Ener-D reactor. Yubel might be inadvertently responsible for 5D's and forward

[@wakkaseta8351]

Didn't they need something from the tablet itself to finish making the card?

[@Tomouryu]

I’m trying to be a web dev. Where can I get one of these millenium items so I can send my future clients to the shadow realms? 😂😂😂

[@MightySuki]

OMG IMAGEN IF TCG CARDS HAD CHIP IN THEM LIKE YOU SAID AND THEN YOU CAN UPDATE YOUR MONSTER OR SELECT PREVIOUS VERSION OF THE CARD. I NEVER TOUGHT ABOUT THAT THIS WAY 😮

[@blakematthews6374]

Really cool video, but VHS isn’t digital, it’s all analog.

[@SuperNickid]

Analog can also save digital stuff also, example used by Nintendo of Japan, and it was only used in Japan version of the NES, casette tape data storage and that was the only to save the game because that was before the family computer disk system, and the family computer disk system used flopy disk that is also analog that store digital information. For the US the casette tap data storage was for the commador 64 the old console before Nintendo and the only way to save programing back the game, instead of writting 6 hours of code everytime you want to play that game. And the casette tap data storage was also analog. Remember when there was dial up internet and you can't used the phone when someone is using the internet, but if someone at that time accidentally used the phone while your using the dial-up internet, the one with the phone would heard loud creepy sound, and that is also what happen if you play a digital storage analog casette tap in a normal casette tape player for music.

[@Schwig]

The one issue I see with this is that the Kaiba Corp Duel Fields and Duel Disks came after the game rose to prominence. We see this in the first season of DM where Bandit Keith played his famous game against Pegasus and the audience kid in paper without holograms. Part of the initial reveal of the Duel Arenas during Duelist Kingdom came from the fact that most of the contestants had never seen more than one in a given location, leading us to believe that the technology was newer and not yet widespread. I have trouble believing Pegasus had that much forward planning, unless the eye gave him some future knowledge of the game's success. There would have to be at least one set release cycle that would not be compatible with the Duel Field technology, so unless they was extremely generous and offered to replace existing cards our man Pegasus is a more shrewd businessman than we give him credit for.

[@wakkaseta8351]

It's sort of an adaptation plot hole, but Duel Arenas are the anime version of Kaiba's Duel Boxes, which he specifically based on the penalty game Yami Yugi inflicted on him after their first duel.

[@Schwig]

@wakkaseta8351 ok? That doesn't change the fact that they came along after the game of Duel Monsters rose in popularity. Pegasus wouldn't have had the forethought to embed microchips into the cards without the Eye or maybe a run-in with the Necklace telling him to.

[@RogerVenn]

So basically like the Demon Summoning Program in Shin Megami Tensei. I wonder if that was part of the inspiration. Since Demon Fusion is also a huge part in SMT, being the first type of Extra Deck mechanic in Yugioh.

[@TheMax107]

You always will be my favorite KZbinr

[@crystalbreaker947]

2 theories. #1: Both Duel Monsters and Pokemon are Technically DIGIMON. #2: If we take out Japan out of the equation (for obvious reasons), each Yu-Gi-Oh Protagonist would have different nationalities. I.g.: Yugi Egyptian. Judai Persian, Yusei Peruvian, Yuma Chinese, Yuya American, Yusaku Korean. (In relation to the overall lore of each seris and the cultural references or settings)

[@Starmag99]

3:40 Small nitpick, but it wasn't an accident. While the dub has Kaiba saying the teach aliens how to duel thing, the sub has him making very clear that they're harnessing (what we find out is) the gentle darkness on purpose. From episode 62: "The chosen designs will be turned into cards, placed in a time capsule, and launched into space. For this grand-scale project, to create new duel cards by subjecting them to the tides of the cosmos, we require the unfettered imaginations of young people."

[@Ked7]

It could be both(aliens do learn to duel)

[@multivewer]

To quote princess bubblegum from adventure Time "magic is just science we don't yet understand"

[@rabbitcorp.103]

Please do a theory on the shadow charms

[@creepypuppetspresents5605]

Anime continuity, excluding Vrains : I think all monsters exist across the YGO multiverse, and can be summoned by a card the monster approves of. Developing a monster card must be about making it suitable. This is why the Winged Dragon of Ra tried to kill Odion when he played the fake card. If a monster spirit wants to get involved badly enough, it can manifest a card for itself like we saw with Red Nova Dragon in 5D's. *Vrains* : Maybe it works the same as the other continuities, but magic doesn't appear to exist in this continuity, so we shouldn't take stuff from this continuity too seriously as explaining the general process. *Manga* (and also sort of the anime, season 0): The Millennium items have reality warping abilities. Yami Bakura brings a DnD game to life. In season 0, Atem brings a knockoff Digimon game to life (though that could have been an illusion). I don't think they need to come from the spirit world in the same way. Atem's first shadow game against Kaiba, that introduced Duel Monsters, heavily implied that the monsters were either illusions or warped realities created by Atem. Them being spirits was a retcon in Duelist Kingdom and beyond.

[@wakkaseta8351]

If a Monster Spirit could be digitized, edited, and replicated that easily, that would mean all the fake copies of Ra that the Rare Hunters made are just as real as the one Pegasus made, seeing as Odion's copy wasn't flagged by Kaibacorp's systems the moment he targeted it with Temple of the Kings.

[@deusimp1304]

I gotta admit I like this explanation. Mine was kind of different. I thought about the books that inspired shin megami tensei. In the books, there's a moment when it's explained that technology and magic have similar laws and ways of work. So I thougt considering a lot of worlds exist where the spirit monsters live, maybe new cards were something like other spirits being summoned. That would imply the duel disk is capable of summoning spirits, that would explain some characters creating new cards, that would be just summoning rhe spirits to this realm and making them cards. About Vrains, I thougth the world at that point would be quite more technologycal and spiritual in the same time. But I guess I was wrong. Fun to think about it though

[@SpellCommander91]

That's a really interesting thought! I'm glad you enjoyed the theory.

[@KaneLivesInDeath]

4:30 You're forgetting Zexal, where Yuma can literally generate new cards out of nothing but the energy he uses when performing the Shining Draw.

[@ShadowEclipex]

I would say that those cards might be generated through Chaos Energy or something similar since that was the major focus during Zexal.

[@SuperNickid]

What you said his not truth. The card it is in the main deck, shining draw just make it appear on the top of the deck, instead of the protagonist loseing and the series end too soon. Maybe the only one that can manifest in yugioh zexal are the Chaos Number version into the extra deck, and keep in mind they are playing in augmented reality, so instead of virtual reality, they see the virtual field in the real world only while using the single eye glass. Only curse card in Yugioh Zexal cause what happen virtually to happen for real. And keep in mind since they are in some of virtual setting the rules can change.

[@ShadowEclipex]

@@SuperNickid Could of sworn there was a couple times where Shining Draw made a whole new card.

[@Ked7]

@@SuperNickidthat is blatantly false, Yuma had zero of those “weapon” cards. And he straight up changed a card. Unless you mean that a physical card did exist in which case, no duh. He used his internal chaos to rewrite the card data to harness a new monster.

[@Ked7]

@@ShadowEclipexevery time. Except the physical cards already existed as something else before.

[@noir4180]

Well duel energy/shadow magic is drawn from a person or living beings, in most cases and I do agree with basically all your points, but also think that the cards act as basically a cast, you use dueling as a much as the pro dyelists do then eventually one or two cards will have had enough energy put inside them that a new being forms. Like the two dark magicians the red one might at first be a bunch of 1’s and 0’s and a visual overhaul of the Default Dark Magician, its personality what we could gleam of it is different to Mahad

[@VoidtoScream]

I always love your theories and the scientific approach magic! This works really well as a base line but my next thought is the level of sentience the card spirits have. In GX and even up to 5Ds many of the cards are still ancient or would only be in the first few generations of manipulation, but in zexal and beyond i'd wager it'd be harder to keep that sentient spark. My theory there is the spirit also builds off the duelist in the same way the ingis were built, contributing to the spirit and giving the last shove into a true card spirit.

[@ajdinimsirovic2757]

The way I thought of it is that most of them exist before card form. Some them didn't exist before, most Fusions and Synchros didn't, XYZ is tricky since it seems that those exist in another university and by overlaying two monsters so call them. Some were artificialy created from Chaos, the Seven Over Houndred Numbers, any Chaos Numbers and Chaos being essentially just emotions and life force can be used to power up monsters that already exist, that is where the evolutions and pretty much all of the Heavenly/Dimension Dragons seem to evolve with that principle. Also it was a missed opportunity in Arc-V to not explain the Dragons, they were interconnected with the Summoning Methods with their names referencing them and their primary colour being if that cards border colour. It would be cool if they were the first of their method or anything really. Also i think that the Darkness from Gx referenced Chaos and Cosmic, the powers in Zexal, with Darkness=Chaos and Cosmic=Light, at the very least that is what his explanation sounds like

[@Stinkoman87]

I believe the dimensional dragons were called the first of their kinds. They appeared before Zarc, and taught him how to summon them. Then he was said to be the pioneer of fusion, Synchro, and xyz summoning.

[@spartanmagnus9176]

A slight plot hole in yugioh is explaining why new data is not artificially created to create broken cards. I’m sure Obelisk Force or the military would want to create broken cards with insanely powerful effects. Considering that solid vision essentially creates real life monsters wouldn’t warring parties just create better cards to make sure that their side wins.

[@therobloxmonkey6704]

I have a theory about Psychic Duelists. What if psychic duelists are in reality duelists that are born with the same shadow magic and abilities that Egyptian Magicians as well as other ancient societies wielded long ago (this could be due to the psychics being distant descendants of the magicians and that interacting with the game of Duel Monsters unlocked the dormant magic within them). I feel like that is a good topic for a theory: Who are the psychic duelists, how did they get their powers and how they could be connected to the ancient magicians and priests of ancient civilizations that utilized the same shadow magic. 1/14/2025: I recalled in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga that there is a concept called Ka and Ba, which justifies how magicians can summon and monsters and cast spells. The disadvantage is that I'm not caught up on Millenium World saga of the original series, but I plan on investigating this niche power system in order to find any similarities with the powers of psychic duelists.

[@adamclapp896]

I like this theory!

[@thegamedevcave]

Love this theory, it all adds up but man, decompiling a computer program that you know what it does it hard enough, imagine having to sift through all the nonesense of something that you dont even know what it really makes to figure it out. I guess that really does explain the fact that in yu-gi-oh it takes a lot of RND to create new cards for any set eh?

[@Hugo-Leonardo]

It's a crime you did not cite Dsod and duel links

[@Prf_X]

I once made a upgrade of Raging Flame Sprite for YGOPRO with a hand/gy count based atk boost and used Slifer & another card's effect codes to do it So I can see using card data to make new cards Also small point DM was out for a few years before Kaiba made the holograms system as we see Kaiba at 10-12-ish with DM cards and was 16-20-ish when making the deal with Pegasus to be the only system running DM cards

[@ShadowFox10587O]

Every good children's card game starts with a black magic blood sacrifice to create some magic items

[@dominondsdsd]

So cards are created by sumoning spirits/ghosts and converting them to "card file". Cool. Also sometimes, if you have enough energy, you can make custom spell cards, like rank up magic in Zexal.

[@FruityGroovy]

I think this theory could also work with his retrains are created; you're basically editing the code of one spirit into a different form. Take Red-Eyes Black Fullmetal Dragon and tye recently revealed Red-Eyes Metal Claws Dragon. Visually, they are extremely similar to their base counterparts, Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon and Red-Eyes Black Dragon respectively. However, rhey both have one keu difference from them; they have Dragon Nails equipped to them by default. To me, this means that the fundamental codes of both REBMD and REBD were copied, and infused with the code that came from the Dragon Nails card. This could lso explain some other cards, like Meteor Dragon being infused with the code of Red-Eyes to become Meteor Dragon Red-Eyes Impact, or the code of Meteor Dragon being infused into the data of regular Red-Eyes to become Red-Eyes Black Meteor Dragon

[@wavewingman5993]

As always, your fervid overanalysis of Yu-Gi-Oh is both entertaining and thought-provoking. Your theories have opened discussions on many aspects of the Yu-Gi-Oh universe, but this topic always felt like a key piece that was missing trom the bigger picture. We can accept that a dragon cried the universe into existence with a single card, or the idea that millions of dollars worth of R&D is needed to develop a single, powerful card, but the question of "Yeah, but how tho?" was always one that went unanswered. I have a feeling that this theory is going to be foundational for a lot of future videos.

[@commonviewer2488]

What are robots if not golems?

[@patrickswasey5301]

Still waiting for the video on how Yugi and duelists in general scale to other characters based on their feats outside of duels. As for this video, I agree on some points but I feel interdimensional energy plays a factor. In GX, its said that Winged Kuriboh and the other Duel Spirits can interact with their hosts without being summoned because the island has a thinner barrier between dimensions than the rest of the world and Arc V describes Solid Visions as creating an entire virtual dimension before monsters can even be summoned. So maybe the high-tech of the cards involves acting as a gateway to other realms to use their energy and power.

[@orvillewright9246]

In this case, the tech just is magic.

[@cherrycreamsoda4253]

I like to look at duel monsters cards like how software developers work in our world - you gotta design your card, figure out its stats, level, if it has an effect, if it’s an extra deck card, main deck card, is it a normal or effect monster, etc etc, and then you gotta test with a duel disk - is it compatible? does a duel disk need a software update for it to be compatible and work properly? In short, it’s a long profess

[@DanielAbimbola-w4q]

Thanks so much for this video cause it's a question I've always had that had no explanation

[@SpellCommander91]

You're very welcome! Thanks for watching!

[@fakeo]

didnt kaiba put micro chips into the cards after his 1st shadow game in the manga? that how the holo systems work. also we're talking about a guy who disbelieves in magic to the point of denial so i doubt he would entertain the thought. as for the tape... i'm not going over the list of horror movies with that trope but i think it stems from the superstition of how cameras can trap a soul in a photo. which makes me think "what if its the image?" when Pegasus had the god cards made everyone else on the dev team got pharaoh's cursed because they made an accurate depiction of them, kinda like how Bill Cipher can look out of any image of himself. isnt Vrains the finished product of the Neurons vr syster from the DSOD prequel manga? if so then all human emotions & data are clashing & mashing against each other creating new monsters like a digital metaverse from the persona games.

[@thedothackerkeyblademaster]

Kaiba not believing in magic is a dub change. In the subs, he knows for a fact that magic is real, he just believes that if magic can do something, then technology should be able to do it too.

[@WhiteRaven696]

An interesting point is that your theory seems to be backed up by the anime during the Grand Championship arc with the "Golden Castle of Stromberg" card. Zigfried von Schroeder mentions going into Kaibacorp's database and messing with the card's data not only to make it legal, but to mess with its effects AND embed it with a computer virus.

[@SpellCommander91]

Oooh, that's a good point! I wish I'd thought of that one.

[@cipper12]

With every theory video we are ever nearing the gemini dimension

[@Dragon66898]

I always imagined the monster spirits were born from humans like in the ancient past. With the machines types, I believe that the collective belief/imagination of the concepts of machines created the various different styles of machine monsters. As seen in 5Ds where psychic type monsters were first shown, I believe psychic monsters began to appear because full on psychics became real, I mean some of the characters from GX could be considered psychic themselves. In short, I believe that in the animes/mangas that the monster spirits are born either from the soul/spirit of a human or the collective belief in concepts that form those monsters with Cyberse type being an outlier due to them being only able to be made by the ignis based A.I.s do to their unique data construct off of human minds.

[@SenpaiYGO]

Another theory? You've got my attention, sir!

[@orvillewright9246]

Also, using the digitized spells of Pegasus, could they not just seal away new monsters created from the human heart, or just take a picture and summon them that way?

[@TMek42]

surprised you didnt bring up when Kaiba hacked Impersonator of Death's (Ghost Kaiba) BEWD to weaken it when in the IoD v Yugi duel

[@sandyjourneys]

Fun video as always with your theory's.

[@TCase1197]

What season in 5d’s does it show the siner dragons and crimson dragon being in south america around the same time as the Egyptian stuff and the ragnarok Nordic gods origins?

[@JohnMendez-u8d]

This is why i pay for internet!

[@HenshinFanatic]

In ZeXal (and GX season 4) it's been stated as fact that the whole of existence came from a card. In ZeXal they call it the Numeron Code.

[@Avain_Sielu]

The Chip within the Cards reminds me of something If they ever did a Reboot of the TCG or another Subseries like Rush, I wish they would put NFC Chips into the Cards. Basicly making them readable by some Duel Disk or Duel Arena like Accesory that Shows Anime like Animations on a PC Screen or in AR This would also help to fight the Problem with dying Tournament Stores Like mine doesn't have that extra Room anymore but we play Online which would be better with such a Feature

[@tomcurl8034]

The easiest method to make a card would be to have an understanding of the corresponding spirit first and then create an artistic interpretation to channel it into the game however, it isn’t easy though not impossible to travel to the world of the spirits over the spirits to travel here

[@StainlessGhs]

I still have the duelist kingdom vhs tapes

[@jeremyberner5164]

Good video

[@KimixDJ]

You are the best!!!

[@ShamdenSmuki]

I literally made a video talking about this.......wow great explanation though i like your ideas regarding the topic

[@SpellCommander91]

Send me your video! I wanna see!

[@LunaProtege]

I can imagine someone making an algorithm to convert any data one can think of into a viable monster spirit... Imagine taking the sum total of someone's social media data, government records, and even the data on their personal computer and photos of themselves and their home... And turning THAT into a card... Or, perhaps... Creating a data amalgam, which is then extrapolated into an entire deck.

[@RuneRelations]

As far the anime goes the only other problem is the “Out of Nowhere” Monsters of people just inventing cards on the fly. I generally just chalk it up to Shonen Fighting Spirit logic most days of the week and leave it at that.

[@vanesslifeygo]

I wonder how this plays into the anime's error/unfinished cards. like the one used to hold yuya in place before he fuses with yuri

[@orangedragoon2773]

Honey wake up, new Yu-Gi-Oh lore just dropped

[@Harrison-p9r]

can we please have decklist for villians to and when will yusei vs yuma come out

[@Matter_Of_Fact]

Solid

[@jeniskindof]

They use Black magic to summon monsters and to power the toaster in Yu-Gi-Oh? Shit that's pretty metal

[@fernansanchez6331]

We actually saw how Rainbow Dragon card was created on Yugioh GX

[@juancarlosparejaosorio5342]

Teoría: los monstruos normales son data incompleta , por eso existen cartas mágicas y de trampa que representan las habilidades de un monstruo normal , son los datos faltantes.

[@coolgoku810]

So how does this explain the monster spirits that were in people during the pharaoh's days in ancient Egypt. Like Kiara and her blue eyes

[@irB0N3S]

no wait, so why are these corporations spending so much to develop magical monster prisons rather than cheap paper? 99% of their customer base aren't playing shadow games

[@marcluu2433]

If you are doing a video on pendulum summon please explain to me why Zarc inventing them lead to no changes when he had his rematch with Ray Akaba in Arc V.

[@romanfrancis1232]

Yuya played a card called “Smile Universe” that turned Zarc’s Pendulums into normal monsters, which invalidated the advantage Pendulum gave him against Ray/the En Cards.

[@Sychoshadows]

I’m genuinely so curious about the creation of the show and cards IRL. The extent of knowledge about niche sciences, religion, literature and even pop culture that’s put into this property that’s supposed to be for kids is insane. They know adults play but the deep connections you make in your videos goes even beyond that. The idea of some guy is deep diving religion and time travel to make the anime is hilarious too.

[@majesticgothitelle1802]

Good things my machine have soul

[@kingofgamez_9695]

Can u make a video on the orginal timeline of yugioh 5ds next?

[@buddyzilla4557]

You are incorrect. It's a bit complicated with the original cannon having some level of replacement by anime filler. Initially they WERE just representations with holograms in the card game for the most part. Ka are more than just spirit beings but a manifested representation of the individual human's soul. This can only be accomplished by shadow magic, the majority of which was accomplished through Zorc's own soul manipulation powers granted to the millennium items. When a priest reported the Ka out of a person and sealed it in a tablet, it is still linked to that person. The benefit is that a person can control up to three Ka this way including their own. Ka are manifested through ones Ba or life evergy (basically Ki or Chi) and it takes same for every move a Ka does. If a Ka is injured, the person takes equivalent proportional damage, if it is killed, the person dies, if the person dies, the Ka disapates and if the person runs out of Ba the Ka disapates and the person dies. This means those ancient eqyptian Ka can't actually still be around. However, we know how they can appear to. Through shadow games and magic there are a few different versions of this. Yami tends to manifest hallucinations that individuals can see but are not there and can't cause real harm. Additionally, most millennium items wielders are putting their own soul on the line so in a similar case to what happened in Egypt they are simply using the cards as a template to manifest their ba into. Instead of creating a full reflection of their own or another's soul, they are essentially bringing these smaller ones to life. Bakura is the main perpetrator of this since he does this both inside and outside of duels. He contains a shard of Zorc's soul bonded to him however and we know this grants him the power to further split his soul and inplant it in people or objects to manifest/control them. He is a supernatural demon fueled by the evil of humanity however, so it makes sense he doesn't run out of Ba so easily in doing this. This is why he was able to overcome Exodia in ancient Egypt. Exodia as part of his own pact was a servant or soul splot of his own and could use a person's full Ba potential at once but still was limited by this where Zorc is not. Exceptions are magical sacrificing fusions. Magado and Ubel were both capable of conducting a magic ritual that sacrificed their mortal life to become one with their Ka and fuse into one "immortal" being. Originally this was just because Magado was naturally gifted with magic of his own but the Waking the Dragons filler Arc gave some further explanations that the later series really ran with. We know when a person dies in the YGO universe, their soul can move on but it splits. We see characters like Priest Seto, Mana and Shimon Muran awaiting Atem in the afterlife. This is despite each having a modern day reincarnation including Yugi. This is because a part of the souls identity moves on to that afterlife but another stays to become its own new version. Further, Seto Kaiba is a unique case as Pharoah Seto refused to move on and thus reincarnated more directly into his new form. This is what gave him his confused obsession of the BEWD and feeling of incompleteness. His vessel contains more of his past self than it normally should. In waking the dragons we see ANOTHER form of Mana that shouldn't exist..her Ka the Dark magician Girl. The difference is that this version seems detached from Mana and comes from the Duel Monster Dimension. In fact, many of the past Ka can be found here including the three atlantean knights of legend in dragon forms after their death. This was initially a way to add filler but quickly became the new way to have Ka but not just be ancient eqyptian manifestations using shadow magic. It seems the Ka part of ones soul goes specifically to a separate dimension after death as its own separate entity. These are what duel spirits are in this context. Under certain circumstances, they can cross over to our world or interact in other ways. When Mahado and Ubel fused to their own Ka to become Duel Spirits, they were sacrificing other aspects of their souls to pilot the version that would normally manifest in the duel dimension. This allows them to be near immortal and exist in our own world. Things get tricky because this new explaination was not the intent in many of the original arcs but has been wedged in. In most duels I do not feel it is true duel spirits being called forth but simply metaphorical representations used to symbolize the life energy of the duelist while playing. When Pegasus dueled Yami and Yugi, Yuhi quickly declined to near death because the shadow duel so sapped his Ba just existing in it and using it to play. I think a lot of what is happening on those are not true Ba at all but the powers of the items creating specific set ups and penalty games which we know they each can separately do, including the pendent/puzzle. These can still cause real hard as they are extensions of Zorc's magic being controlled by the wielders through the strength of their own Ba. An important thing to remember is that Pegasus COULD NOT BEING BACK CECILA. With all the rituals he conducted to power his Eye more and build his Ba strength, he still felt he needed a combination of more items and the solid image technology to bring her spirit back. He could see illusionary images of her in the afterlife but could not manifest her. This is key because it means he wouldn't be able to do this for dead Ka either. it's the same thing. He is simply using modern conveniences to more easily control the items magic for their purposes. The initial shadow duels were more primitive and used full soul manifestations. Pegasus realized by making a mock version, he could more safely play and make the rules into a complex game over what was essentially a super powered street brawl. Since his eye allowed him to see into the past, he was able to use those Ka as inspiration but they are long gone. Since the duel dimension aspect had yet to be thought up and we have no indication they were being brought over yet at this time we can assume it was not really them. This also explains the new ones. Pegasus van just make up whatever cards he wants and through shadow magic, bits of Ba can be infused. I think the exception are the cards he used in the later part of his duel against Yugi. This was still the case but also as close to a real Ka as we would see in modern day since so much of these represented Pegasus and his story. Dark Eyes Illusionist is clearly supposed to represent Pegasus after losing Cecila/at the begining of the anime. He has the dark mentality and is very much an illusionist in the persona he puts up. He also conducts his work through a company called industrial illusions that is secretly just a front for other ambitions. Finally it's effect of halting other monsters can be taken as freezing the souls of his victims or Cecilia's in his attempt to prevent it from being lost. This is the material used for Dark Illusion Ritual to make Relinquished or Sacrifice in the OCG. A dark ritual with sacrifice emphasized is conducted to turn the illusionist into a more powerful version. This version can capture in the souls of its victims and even fuse them to itself. This seems pretty obvious for what it means to Pegasus. This is him after the millennium eye has been implanted, trying to gain more power. Finally by fusing with Thousand Eyes Idol, it acends to a much more powerful and omnipotent version. This is what Pegasus hopes for in his duel with Yugi. An idol is a physical object of great or divine power channeled through it. The eye of Anubis tends to grave each millennium item and so it's clear the "idol" fusing with Relinquished is in fact the millennium items. Pegasus hopes by acquiring them, he can gain abilities even over death and bring his love back. I do not feel he was actually making his own Ka forms for that duel and they would appear like this if he manifested one, but it was the closest one could get in the card game manner he went about it. This is of course aside from the Egyptian gods and Blue Eyes since these really were Ka of Atem and Kaiba, or at least were used by them as such at some point. Kaiba's original Ka was Duos..which brings up the final point..the creative licencing. The representation of Duos in duel monsters is the Sword Stalker, but it clearly isn't the same as Priest Seto Duos. This is again because these are not the actual Ka but simply redraws of them Pegasus made thanks to his visions of the past. Not all are accurate and a lot don't have the same personality influence they did in ancient eqyptian. Saggi was the Ka of a weak and desperate thief. It was more a representation of how much the person even saw himself as a pathetic joke in their society than the true clown it was in the duel monsters game.

[@adrianroxas5343]

i have a request can u do all of the other characters in yhe anime series like gomg in the arc-v series or kite in the zexal series

[@mokeymokey1035]

Ingenious

[@BrontoSmilodon1]

Your thesis reminds of what was said in Gargoyles about energy is still energy ehether its made with magic or science

[@six_six7822]

This was a cuestion I had for about 6 years I whould ask myself how did the elemental, Cyber angel or roid monsters or hell even Archeritips get maid without the eye but using vrains logic was a good point or view just remixing monster asets to make new monsters is brillient

[@cephon6198]

Don't forget the wicked gods!