I believe the final episode was handled quite poorly by 4Kids.  They still somewhat kept the mood but it just didn't seem like the final episode.  First off, they just HAD to pull the same crap they do every episode, with the altering of the Thousand Knives animation to be all glowy and the removal of anything and everything Japanese with generic 4Kids music.  There were also the usual minor cuts, and dialogue changes.  If this is all 4Kids had done, I would not have minded at all, however I was quite bothered with the extremely large cut at the end- the entire epilogue was completely removed.

I will not go into enormous detail as my colleagues Alan Tse and Mr. J have a lot to say about this horrible edit, but basically in the dub they ended with Joey saying he wants one of Yugi's sappy speeches and to satisfy him, Yugi gives one of his sappy speeches!  That's it.  4Kids began dubbing this show in freaking 2001 and this is how it ends.  I'm sure the reason to remove it was completely political, as the company has a completely-dub produced crap drama called Capsule Monsters out and if they had kept the epilogue people would think the adventures of Yuugi-tachi were completely over, which, in Japan at least, they are.  In the anime.  Let me explain.  Yuugiou R is a very popular continuation of the original Yuugiou manga, and it goes into detail Yuugi-tachi's adventures after Battle City and before Noa Saga.  Did the anime producers neglect to give a wildly popular series a proper send-off for monetary purposes due to this manga?  Absolutely not.  This just goes to show the appreciation the producers had for this great series.  

Anyway, this marks the end of the line for 4Kids and the mutilation of the show.  Capsule Monsters and GX will not be compared on this site as GX is inferior to the original and Capsule Monsters is a dub creation.  Now, my fellow colleagues Alan Tse and Mr. J have a few words on the final episode and its mutilation.  Gentlemen, take it away!

Personally, I found the ending of the English dub to be quite anticlimactic. It wasn't because of the usual edits like making the knives look like laser or using generic music throughout the ending. What really bugged me was how they handled the final, final scene, that last thing that we see. I think that such a long and epic series such as this one deserves a fitting final scene. After all, concluding scenes are what the fans will remember the most when they think back on their favorite show, what they attribute as their final memory of a series that entertained them so much, so the people in charge better not mess up that final scene and turn it into some anticlimactic rush job that leaves a sour taste in the mouths of viewers expecting something more. Yet, I think that's just what 4Kids has done. Take the moment of silence outside the collapsed tomb. I guess 4Kids just HAD to insert dialogue here with yet another attempt at funny dialogue exchange and failing miserably. Sure, they've been doing this all the time, but considering that this is THE LAST scene, you would think that they could've had the will power and decency to resist just this one last time, but nope. They had to make Joey express how he thought the end of their journey should have been more glamorous with fireworks and sappy music, and asking Yugi for one of his "wrap-up speeches," and Yugi giving said wrap-up speech, and thus satisfying Joey. The end. What a lame ending to this five-year long series, and it annoys me to think that THIS is what fans of the dub will think of when they think back to the finale of this show. In the Japanese version, the epic climax of the Duel Monsters series had really stirring music and a moment of silence as the cast looked upon the collapsed tomb that is the resting place of the Millennium Items and their dear friend. Then we are treated to a different ending sequence, though still with the ending song "EYE'S" playing. We see final scenes for the characters like Yugi and rest flying back home and meeting the Rebecca with her grandfather and Shizuka at the airport, Haga and Ryuzaki getting in another fight, the von Schroiders having a meeting with Pegasus which looked like it ended well, Yuka sailing and meeting Espa Roba with his brothers, and... a rather puzzling one with Mai and Vivian dueling with the Meikyuu brothers on the Great Wall of China. Anyway, once that was over, we see a short epilogue of sorts. We see Sugoroku's game shop and Yugi coming out, bidding his grandfather goodbye and catching up with and greeting his friends. We can hear Yugi's thoughts here, as he ponders on how this isn't the tale of just the pharaoh, but a tale of the both of them, that story that concluded in the light, and how their own story was just beginning*, we see him and his three friends walking off to school together with the word "Fin" appearing in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. A rather simple yet "pretty" ending, if you ask me, and a scene that I enjoy looking back on when I reminisce on this five-year series. *but don't quote me on this; my Japanese is still rather rusty Again, I think that such a long and epic series such as this one deserves a fitting final scene with fitting dialogue, the final things that people most recall from a memorable show or a movie once it is over. Of course, fans of the English dub have to go without seeing the original ending or epilogue, and settle for that scene outside the tomb with Joey asking for a cheesy wrap-up speech and Yugi going "Well, sometimes the end of one adventure is the beginning of another!" and Joey going "Ah, much better!" Actually, now that I think about it, isn't that 4Kids-produced spin-off show called Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monster supposed to air pretty soon from now? When dub Yugi was referring to that new adventure, was it 4Kids' way of making it seem like he was referring to this one? In that sense, it was like they used this final Duel Monsters scene and edited it with the intension of turning it into some opportunity to hype their next show, and denying fans a proper ending in the process. This alone already makes me a bit bitter towards 4Kids and their Capsule Monsters. Now, I haven't watched any episodes of Capsule Monsters yet, so I won't say if it sucks or not. I'm just saying that if 4Kids purposely raped the ending of Duel Monsters so that they make it function as some small Capsule Monsters hype promotion, then it wound up having the opposite effect for me. Yeah, sorry if that "two cents" was really a long two cents, but I really wanted to express all that. Besides, you should be used to my long-windedness by now!

I thought the last episode of Duel Monsters was kind of upsetting because the Pharaoh left.  One reason why this is upsetting is that the GX series is for a younger audience and I wanted to see if they would make a Yu-Gi-Oh series for Teens ( One that 4 Kids could not get their hands on).  I was annoyed how they added dialogue at the end of the episode where Kaiba called them geeks and Jonouchi was talking about a saying or having fireworks for the end ( something like that).  The worst thing 4Kids had done at the end of the episode was get rid of the epilogue ( however at the last scene makes up for it with Yugi talking about that one story leads to another).  This is unforgivable for what 4 Kids had done and I think that all Yu-Gi-Oh series should be redubbed and owned by a different company.  I mean even FUNimation could take over and redub it ( it's not that I am against Funimation or anything like that but any dubbing company that has dubbed anime towards Teens (such as FUNimation doing a great job on FMA by the way))  can do a much better job than 4Kids can.  The bottom line is that 4Kids never should have gotten other anime and only stick with Poke'mon because that was the only anime that they actually did a decent job on the dub ( and the when it comes to 4Kids, they add too many stupid puns and they do a half-a$$ job on the dub because the dubbed voices usually sound bad).