I like to think that time travel in 5Ds is purposefully broken because Illiaster actually broke time in the most literal sense. The fact that changing time not creating a new timeline instead of rewriting the current one probably made Z-one to overload the timeline to the point that he can actually splinter into multiple timelines. But this just caused dozens of inconsistencies across the first three shows.

To be fair, Duel Links basically confirms that Yugioh as a series exists as a multiverse. We know this because Paradox, Aporia and Z-One have an interaction in that game where they realise that there are different parallel histories that were, most likely, caused by THEIR time travel shenanigans.

The big tip off being an interaction where Paradox can talk to Pegasus and realise that he comes from a universe where he died after having the Millennium Eye removed by Bakura.
Which obviously made no sense to Paradox as Pegasus is still alive in the anime's version of events.

The final antagonists of 5Ds, after discussing this, then resolve to , effectively, wait to see how things play out and whether these different futures show any promise.

I like the idea that Yliastor WAS trying to change history for 3000 years, but with every attempt to change history… history would fight back.

Time doesn’t like to be changed, It tries to keep the status quo.

Paradox's plan is stupider for more reasons than what was described in the video. A lot of the major threats in the overall show are actual gods and monstrous spirits. Some of which were explicitly SEALED within stone tablets to prevent them from causing more destruction than if they were simply within the souls of humans. Without the sealing technique, these monsters would have torn apart the world, and we wouldn't be here. But because things went awry, the monsters started coming back. Disregarding the fact that it's filler, the Waking the Dragons arc showed that these spirits would come back, and without the game itself, there would be no way to combat them without some otherworldly power. The Earthbound Immortals are the same deal. Actual real-life spirits that were sealed into the Nazca Lines. They would have escaped too. So by sealing them within cards, they not only are much easier to combat, but they are also much easier to study. Scientists would have no real frame of reference as to whether or not a god is benevolent or malevolent until they are unleashed. So by putting them into cards, they are not only more easier to control, but a regular person on the street would have a fighting chance against them. The Asier cards are benevolent, but we wouldn't know that until they were put into cards. Putting things into cards means that they can be used for good or for evil. So Paradox going back in time to stop the game altogether basically screws everything over. Yami Marik terrorizes the world with the Millennium Rod, the Light of Destruction goes on a rampage, and the Earthbound Immortals wreck whatever's left of the world.

Theres something you miss, one of the Goodwin brothers actually had both a signer and dark signer mark, and the dark signer mark was slowly corrupted him, and he might have become a dark signer in the original timeline and killed yusei father and mother to actually awaken his earthbound

The oddest implication of this to me is that one of the two Yugis ran away instead of standing to face Paradox

Personally, I believe the explanation to how Yugi knew to give Jaden Winged Kuriboh when they first met in ep.1 of GX is all thanks to the Paradox duel. The Yugi we see in the beginning of GX is the same Yugi that dueled against Paradox with Jaden and Yusei all grown up. When Yugi saw Jaden running towards the duel academy exams, he recognized him as the same guy who dueled alongside him all those years ago, but younger. and so Yugi basically decided to give Jaden his winged Kuriboh to set him on the path to become that same duelist he knew from the Paradox duel. And thanks to it, by extension entirety of GX (and 5Ds) anime series as we know them ARE the future of the timeline that came from Yusei, Jaden and Yugi defeating Paradox in the BBT movie. This way, Yugi had always ended up meeting up Jaden and Yusei during his (DM) time period, thus setting the rest of the YGO anime timeline.

The timeline in which the BBT movie duel did not happen is the GX and 5Ds MANGA timelines. In the GX manga, Jaden had never stumble across Yugi, but rather a different manga original dude, who also ends up giving Jaden Winged Kuriboh. So Jaden is always destined to get WK, it's just that it's not Yugi who he necessarily gets it from. Following it, with the changes to the GX timeline the 5Ds timeline changes as well to a universe were the time traveling Illiaster stuff never happened, and instead it kept up to it's Dark Signers cult ways.

And fittingly, there are no 2 Yugis left behind after the Paradox duel, at least not in the same timeline. Since the timeline in YGO (as it was explained in 5ds) always keeps 'fixing' itself around the latest time changing events, 1 Yugi would get "erased" out of existence depending on the results of the duel. Meaning the Yugi who didn't duel Paradox would be removed out of the BBT/ DM-5Ds anime timeline, and go to exist in a universe were the GX and 5Ds stories went in their manga direction instead. The Yugi who did duel Paradox would end up to be our DM anime Yugi, who woudl free the spirit of the Pharaoh, only to meet Jaden running late to the duel academy exams 10 years later.

About your criticisms about time travel in the series:  

1. "Why did Yliaster go with the plan that they did when they had 3000 years?"

- My rebuttal is: no significant change would have occurred otherwise.

To be able to change the past in a meaningful way, Z-ONE and Yliaster would have to be in positions of power and gain influence on what can and cannot happen whether it is politically, financially, or other. That is the reason why Yliaster as a secret organization exists in the first place. They have political and financial influence, and they can leverage that to make changes that matter.    

2. "Z-ONE and Yliaster created a paradox when they made the first Zero Reverse happen, leading to the Momentum reactors in their own time to detonate"

- Not exactly. Remember, in Z-ONE's timeline, Yusei was a legendary hero who fought against the Earthbound Gods and developed Accel Synchro. Rudger Godwin (Rex's brother) caused Zero Reverse because someone from Yliaster told him to do it. Likely what happened is that Yusei fought against the Dark Signers in the original timeline, but Z-ONE's interference caused Yusei and the other Signers to have their fight with their Dark counterparts much sooner in the main timeline than in the original one. The same thing occurred with Accel Synchro where Z-ONE sent Antinomy to teach Yusei how to Accel Synchro much sooner than when he was originally supposed to in the original timeline.  

Also remember that when Antinomy was trying to teach Yusei how to Accel Synchro in his Riding Duel with Placido, that the energy generated by Momentum was something that was used since ancient times. It was Yusei's father Dr. Fudo who rediscovered this energy, and when negative energy is generated, the Earthbound Gods would have used this energy to help in their resurrection. The Earthbound Gods would have been resurrected anyway even without Yliaster's interference, but Yliaster's actions made it so that the Earthbounds were resurrected sooner than when they supposed to in their original timeline.

3. "Why is Smashing Arc Cradle into Neo Domino City the best they could come up with to save the future?"

Remember how the apocalypse was triggered? Synchro Summoning + the Momentum reactor. Even in the first few episodes of the first season, they mentioned that Synchro Summoning causes the Momentum reactor to spin faster, thus generating more energy than normal. In Z-ONE's future, humanity organized an event where each person Synchro summons at the same time as each other in order to generate so much energy that it would at minimum meet the energy demands needed to advance their society at the rate that they wanted. This of course lead to the Zero Reverse incident on a global scale that lead to the apocalypse.

Z-ONE, Yliaster, and Paradox tried multiple approaches to save the future. When one failed, they took on a different approach each time:

Plan A of saving the future was halting the development of the Momentum reactor by causing Zero Reverse, making it so that the Momentum reactors in the future never existed in the first place. This didn't succeed as it only delayed the Reactor's development and a successful one was created in Neo Domino City in present day.  

Plan B of saving the future was getting rid of Synchro Summoning since it was the catalyst for the Momentum reactors of the future to spin out of control in the first place. This is why Team New World has such a deep hatred for Synchro Summoning. Since the Duel Monsters Card game was the basis for Synchro Summoning, Paradox was sent back in time to kill Pegasus so that the Duel Monsters Card game doesn't advance enough to the point where Synchros were introduced. Pegasus likely has involvement in the introduction of Synchros in the Duel Monsters Card Game since he is the creator, which is likely why Paradox chose that time period to assasinate him. The 3 protagonists of the Bonds Beyond Time movie foiled Paradox's mission however.

Plan C was Z-ONE sending Antinomy to Yusei so that Yusei would learn Accel Synchro at a much earlier point in time than when he was originally supposed to in Z-ONE's timeline. Z-ONE did this because he had faith that Yusei would be able to find the answer to save the future if Yusei learned about Accel Synchro at an earlier point in time.

Plan D - At some point, Z-ONE realized that he didn't have much time left to live. He knew that he wouldn't be able to live long enough to see if Plan C succeeded or to keep trying. Once he dies, humanity is doomed if Plan C fails because humanity is unaware of their ultimate fate in Z-ONE's future and wouldn't take the necessary precautions to prevent it from happening. Z-ONE couldn't risk humanity's survival by rolling the dice on Yusei or to keep trying any longer, which is why he took drastic measures with the plan to crash Arc Cradle into Neo Domino City as a last ditch effort to save humanity from extinction. Neo Domino City at that point in time has the only completed and working Momentum Reactor in the world. By ensuring its destruction as well as all traces on how to build it (research on its development likely being kept in the city itself since it isn't widespread throughout the world yet), Z-ONE hopes to wipe out the existence of the Momentum Reactor from the future so that the global scale Zero Reverse incident that caused humanity's extinction never happened in the first place.            


To me, the writing is actually solid. The pieces are all there. It's just a matter of putting it together like with Yusei's Junk deck.

I think Zero Reverse always happened.  In Zones OG timeline,  it happened accidentally. In the modified Illiaster timeline they made sure it happened to ensure Yusei would remain the same hero he was in their timeline.  Maybe their time meddling led to a period without Zero Reverse but the realized, without the separation of Neo Domino city, there was no hero Yusie for Zone to use as inspiration.

Also I feel like while Illiasters plans all see half baked, like why not kill Pegasus before he invents Duel Monsters,  I have to give them the benefit of the doubt that they are trying to walk a fine line of both savings the planet,  
while not erasing their original human existences.

Here's a random idea I got from this video...

What if the Time duplicate Yugi/Yami is the one who sends Jaden back in time in the GX final? Since that version of them would still have magical powers and what not. He could also be the one that appears in the first episode, since that Yugi had the deeper voice, and if DSoD is anything to go by, Yugi's voice doesn't seem to be getting any deeper by the time he's 16/17.

No idea how any of that would work and I'm sure there's a mountain of contradictions to prove me wrong... but it's still a fun possibility...

Still, great video as always!

I wish the thumbnail was a Time Thief one.

Question for the GX rewright: Will Jesse\Johan have cards like Rainbow Overdragon and the other rainbow dragon fusion?

In Zone's timeline the lord of the underworld's beef with the Crimson dragon would still happen

The thing with Carly's VA happened after the change in story. It's just a myth, that this was the reason for the change.

17:00~17:45 I just read a Reddit post by Meshleth that explained that the Iliaster tonal shift from cult to time travelers and the time travel plot itself, as well as Carly's shift from major character to gag character, actually happened way before all the cult stuff came to light. And they really researched it, with links to their findings. So... either this was purely a case of bad writing, or we're just not understanding something about the original timeline.

Considering atem is likely the Sungod or the god of light, that invented the Yugioh game, because he loved to play and being challanged would answer how yugi was able to send Jaden back in time and how he can manifest himself even though his soul went to the Afterlife. Thete is a whole Theory on that Claim, made by 'Serienreviewer on youtube. '

My interpretation of the plan of paradox is to slowly remove the pillars of History, taking  sets in motion a timeline without his signer dragon, taking cyber end and rainbow dragon effectively prevents both jaidens closest bond historically and one of his strongest rivals, the next step eliminating Pegasus serves to likely steal an important card from Pegasus (such as the duelist kingdom invitation) and then the plan is likely to go even further back to Egypt and steal both zorc and all of the Egyptian gods then go even further back and contain the oricalcos god, slowly removing the most powerful cards from history by taking them to before they existed and invalidating their existence of the shadow games as a hole (it also wouldn't surprise me if dark magician was the target to steal and remove from history making a blank card from (also jaidens Neos or winged kuriboh were likely a target before the crimson dragon intervened

The idea of 2 Yugis is fascinating, but maybe the time travel was recent enough that this Yugi just.. replaced the other Yugi? It sounds weird, but that's how I always rationalized it. I also like the idea that Illiaster gave Yugi the power to send Jaden back to duel young Yugi, although I have also heard the (admittedly lame) theory that the duel between yugi and Jaden at the end of GX was just a dream.

I try to think about time travel and fate in Yu-Gi-Oh in the same way that fate is viewed in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, which one of the properties that initially inspired Kazuki Takahashi to make Yu-Gi-Oh in the first place, so I feel like it's valid.

In JoJo, fate is an extremely tangible force that can be interacted with by certain abilities known as stands, but the short of it is that in JoJo, fate is a force that dictates very specific things to happen, regardless of any circumstances. No matter what-- if something is fated to happen, IT WILL HAPPEN. Perhaps, Pegasus was fated to create duel monsters no matter how Illiaster could have interfered (slightly unrelated side note, but in the Paradox unlock event in duel links, when dueling Paradox as Pegasus, Pegasus somewhat echoes the sentiment that even if he's gone, duel monsters will continue to thrive and evolve). Perhaps that would be why they had to wait until after he created the game, and certain events involving him occured, to try to kill him. It sounds dumb when I say it this way, but maybe their plan had no choice but to be a bad plan due to how fate operates. Additionally, it's entirely possible that Yusei was fated to go to the facility, get his mark (which Z-ONE immitates as well), and defeat the Dark Signers. I know it sounds like a bit of a cop-out, to just put it all on this vague force of "fate," but that's what makes it enjoyable for me, since it provides an (admittedly lazy-ish) answer to questions regarding continuity.

Wouldn’t the second Yugi just fade away, similar to Yusei’s timeline almost did? Yugi’s timeline doesn’t exist anymore since now Paradox never destroyed the city.

I mean technically everytime C107 used its effect is was time traveling, but also Kite was able to loop hole that thanks to Number 62's effect.