Editing Mai Valentine (section)

== Personality ==
At the beginning of the series, '''Mai Valentine''' is portrayed as a self-absorbed woman focused on prize money, personal satisfaction, and power. She is arrogant, prideful of her Dueling skills, and often uses her beauty to manipulate others. For instance, she seduces Rex Raptor into giving up his luxury room on the cruise to Duelist Kingdom by offering him a kiss if he could beat her in a Duel, and later manipulates him into Dueling Joey Wheeler as revenge for Joey defeating her earlier.

Mai is initially convinced she does not need friends and feels a deep sense of loneliness, believing that her "Harpie Lady" cards are the closest she will ever have to companions. However, her selfish and solitary attitude begins to change after she meets [[Yugi Muto]] and his friends, [[Joey Wheeler|Joey Wheeler,]] [[Téa Gardner]], and [[Tristan Taylor]]. After Yugi wins back her Star Chips from Panik, she starts to see them as friends and helps them in their endeavors, such as offering Yugi her extra Star Chips and giving Joey her entry card for the finals after his was stolen.

Mai's feelings of loneliness resurface when she faces Marik Ishtar in the Battle City finals. During their duel, Marik traps her in a Shadow Game where she loses memories of her friends each time her monsters are destroyed. She is eventually defeated and left trapped in the Shadow Realm, feeling increasingly isolated and miserable until Yugi defeats Marik and frees her.

Following her release from the Shadow Realm, Mai feels disconnected from her friends and becomes more lonely and empty. Unable to cope with her trauma, she joins [[Dartz]] and his quest for power, turning against her former friends. Eventually, Joey helps her return to her old self, restoring her confidence and pride as a Duelist. However, despite recovering, she struggles to face her friends after what she has done.

In the Japanese version, Mai often speaks informally, omitting honorifics, except when addressing Anzu and Shizuka as "-chan." She uses the informal term "anta," a contraction of the more formal "anata" (akin to "honey" in English), and refers to herself using "atakushi," an older, more elegant form of self-reference.