#also have a heartship ramble I wrote a few weeks ago but Idk if I'll ever post that one for now have this

[yugioh-why-not]

Yami Yugi and Atemu

I wonder how much Atemu knows. 

Would having his memory affect how he acted? I know things would have been different. Because Yami is not Atemu, he doesn’t even know who that is. The funny thing is at first he thought he was Yuugi because it’s the only thing that made sense to him. Then everyone told him he was the pharaoh. So he believed them. Never once did he really remember anything. 

He believes what he’s told because he knows no better. People praise him for the things that he does so they must be right. 

But Yuugi representing the pharaoh in appearance doesn’t mean Yami is the Pharaoh as shown with Ryou, Ryou and Thief kings appearances differ greatly and so do that of Yami Bakura and his former self Thief. Yami looks like Yuugi because it is the body he is possessing. Not because that’s how he looked in life. 

For all we know and I would doubt this is true but it’s shown no one even Thief knows how the battle was ended. Zorc merely knew they lost. He lost. Maybe Atemu summoned Holactie giving up his life to summon the gods and bring fourth a goddess. Maybe those were his Ka’s all along? And he died in battle but Zorc and Holactie were evenly matched. Or perhaps they didn’t even get to that point in the battle maybe Atemu was never destined to defeat Zorc but he was chosen by fate to have three Ka beasts within him so that he could help those he loves defeat the darkness instead. Sacrificing himself to seal the gods into tablets so that someone may call to them and have them merge to form Holactie. Maybe she wasn’t involved in the first show down cause no one knew how to summon her. The gods alone could not defeat Zorc, so Heba enraged with his loves death despite just being the page boy used the puzzle and the items to trap Zorc and Thief in the ring in turn trapping himself and as a fail safe left by Mahado in the ring and with Atemu’s sacrifice it sent out a power surge and wiped Heba’s memories/that or he forgot due to trauma of the entire day and Thief and Zorc’s because a burry mess fuelled by a rage that slowly looses its reason the longer the ring festers in their souls. Thus involving season 0 and earlier season 1 actions, Heba was still carrying a now unjustified rage because it wasn’t fair. He wanted justice just like Thief. He just didn’t know what for. Then he met Yuugi and I mean actually met him and they begun their time together. (Though if this was the case I’d love for Heba to be in Thief’s game and revive his memories then just stare at himself in the water tears pricked in his eyes, hugging his waist. ‘I always wanted to be in your arms. But not like this.’ Then Yuugi shows up behind him calling out and he jolts eyes filled with an unusual sensation of fear as he sees Yuugi approaching looking so warm. So happy to see him, thoughts race his mind whether Yuugi loves him or the idea of who they thought him to be. Everyone was so convinced he was the Pharaoh and he’d grown to love Yuugi as he had once and still did love Atemu but would Yuugi love him if he knew. He tries to play the role but he can’t lie to his partner and tells him. Perhaps I can’t remember if ‘Yami’ playing as Atemu in canon revived any memories but perhaps Heba was there too, their his memories too. Finding Atemu’s name didn’t help him but it released his first loves Ka’s so he could do what he was meant to do so in the first battle. Atemu whispering the Goddesses name in his ear. He wasn’t loosing Yuugi to this war too and summoned Holactie. Anyway, got slightly off topic. And even reviving his memories he wanted to finish what Atemu died to set in place. Since this is au enough I can continue with this plot how ever I please. Heba can realise that what Thief and himself fight for is the same. For the love of those they’ve lost. But he needs to end this dance of death for both of them so he defeats Thief without looking back. The final duel where he uses the God cards against Yuugi (from memory he does at least) he uses them to finally free his love from the shackles of destiny and they reunite in the after life or we fuck death and Yuugi can have Heba, Atemu and Anzu as life partners. That or Atemu stayed in the after life and dated Thief cause I like Casteshipping and Atemu can send Heba back to life because he knows that Heba also loves Yuugi too and he’s served him long enough it was time to live his own life and someday they’d all be together again and he knows no matter how long that takes Heba’s love for him will never fade and his won’t either type stuff IDK but Yuugi get’s two life partners at the very least, he just has too much love to give for just one). 

Long story short we don’t actually know who’s in that puzzle. I can’t remember any concrete proof it was the pharaoh. Maybe his name went down in history for something someone else did in his demise. Maybe it was a cover up. Thief wouldn’t know. He died first. Everyone else just believes the history that’s been handed down to them and the visions that the items present to them. Plus I think the Ishtar’s are pretty good Proof that they were all just acting on their own accords. (Mostly cause I don’t believe for a moment they consulted anyone before sprinting underground, maybe they thought to seperate the items as their awaited the Pharaohs and the Thief’s return and just took their two and fucked over millennium of their family members before Malik murdered the cult with his alternate personality because he realised it was fucked up. That was once again off topic…anyway.) For all we know the items were just manipulating everyone to get history right. And if the gods were Atemu and they were released the prophecies wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. The Pharaoh was laid to his final rest with the destined duel.

Anyway back on topic again…

If Atemu retained his memories saying he was the one in the puzzle, how much did he remember, does he know Thief dies before the battle ends, does he know why Thief’s so desperately fighting him that he’d defy life and death for it. Did Atemu like as Yami just believe the things he was told, growing up in the palace, raised by those around him and taught what they believed, would he side with them. He might of seen it as the greater good, the items were created to save the world to cause peace (beautifully discussed in a post I read a while back, that also mentioned that no one expected Atemu to sacrifice himself but he did, if I find if I’ll link it otherwise let me know if you find it). 

Would his time away from home, his time with Yuugi change his opinion, does he struggle at night whether to tell Yuugi everything he knows, would he doubt his past, he did what was right. He fought for justice, which is why Bakura angers him so much because he’s literally a ghost from his past, it’s clear that he’s different that he’s twisted and demented from the justice seeking Thief he once fought in his first life. He wants to move forward but he gets an unjustified rage seeing him because it forces him to admit that maybe the things he fought for, believed in was wrong. Because the thing was in memory world, Yuugi placed his faith in Atemu that he’d do what’s right and believed what he said was the right, they wanted to save the world and defeat Zorc. But Atemu even then showed no remorse for the lives taken to create the items, he looked the other way with no memories as he found out he just fought for what he had always known, that he was the hero and Thief was the villain and that was that, black and white. 

There’s no real way to say how the battle truly ended the first time, this was a reenactment that was shown to be one that neither Zorc nor Thief knew how it ended, how they were defeated. Why they were trapped in the items isn’t clear at all times, maybe Thief/Zorc fused into the ring as an escape before they lost and maybe Atemu knew they’d return and sealed himself in the puzzle to continue the battle. But what exactly happened to their memories? was it a condition that he couldn’t remember, a fail safe as to not jinx the battles end (especially on Thief’s side), but why were Bakura’s left in better nick then Atemu’s? was it Zorc’s doing or Diabound’s? or did Atemu realise at the end and turn against the Gods and side with Thief realising the wrongs they’d done to him and being their hero, they took his betrayal very fucking personally. Maybe he went to the puzzle to do things right this time but they broke his mind upon entering in hopes this time he wouldn’t sway in loyalties and in a time and place unrelating to his past with a version of Thief that was a fragment of who he once was just living off rage and a dark god whispering in his ear for millennium, fuzzy memories plague him and a rage he can’t settle when he sees Yami because he knows it’s Atemu or at least he believes it’s him at least. It frustrates him he doesn’t remember and he doesn’t remember Atemu joining his side. So he doesn’t try to share, he doesn’t want to say it, the element of surprise was on his side and it’s been 5000 years in the waiting he wanted to do it right but he likes to make Yami question things such as messing with him in their duel on the blimp, he wants Yami to work it out himself even though he knows he never will.

BTW, take all this with a grain of salt cause my mind was just like who the fuck is Yami Yuugi. And went on a distracted tangent. I was actually thinking about Ryou and Yami Bakura then thought about Thief and the differences between them and then Atemu and then Yami, I consider Yami and Atemu seperate beings and peoples regardless of who they are, I just like thinking about how little we know about the ancient peeps. And since I spent like 5 hours randomly obsessing about this I wanna share it -_- have fun!