#who I can't believe is canon to Yugioh lol

[likeabxrdinflight]

YGO ask here: Have you ever noticed that there is an interesting scale of contrast between Yugi, Bakura and Marik in relation to their ''other selves''?

I noticed Puzzleshipping represents the positive end of the spectrum, with Yugi and Atem's relationship being benefitial to each other in a supportive way as they both grow as people with their bond.

Meanwhile, Bakura and Yami Bakura are in the middle spectrum, as the later does protect his host, however he's also much more controlling and abusive, only protecting the former purely out of self preservation.

And in the other end of the spectrum there's Marik and Yami Marik, with both violently fighting for control with no cooperation it all, there can only be one.

I just found this contrast really interesting and I can't believe I only noticed it recently.

This thrills me, I still love Yugioh so much lol

You're definitely not the only one that's noticed it, though I'd argue Marik and Yami Marik are something of an exception to the rule given that Yami Marik is not a disembodied spirit haunting the Millennium Rod but a legitimate alternate personality of Marik himself. It's not outright stated in canon, but it's very heavily implied that Marik has Dissociative Identity Disorder, so it's a very different situation to Yugi/Atem and Bakura/Yami Bakura. The relationship between Marik and Yami Marik is fundamentally different, as Marik is both unaware of Yami Marik's presence for the majority of the story, and Yami Marik only exists as an extension of Marik's anger and trauma. Because he exists to hold all of that anger, he's a violently dangerous personality. He's a separate individual, but still connected to Marik and his history and trauma. I do think Yami Marik sees himself as the stronger personality and the one who deserves to have control of their body because he still sees Marik as the weak, scared child that he was at the time of Yami Marik's creation- and that is unacceptable to Yami Marik. I think he thinks that if he kills off the original Marik (and Atem and anyone else who gets in his way), then that represents some kind of victory over their shared past.

I've written before about why I think Yugioh's depiction of DID is pretty problematic, but that's a separate issue. Still I recommend checking that out if you're interested in more of my thoughts about Marik and Yami Marik.

Yugi and Atem only get explicitly paralleled with this toxic dynamic during the final duel between Atem and Yami Marik, and the differences between them are clear- Atem and Yugi constantly worry for and try to protect each other, and the two Mariks don't care if the other dies at all. And actively try to kill each other lol.

But the Bakuras and Yugi/Atem's relationships definitely function as a contrast to each other and I think it was a real misstep of the story to not explore that further. The Bakuras barely interact with each other in either the manga or anime. We see Yami Bakura actively intervening to protect Bakura once, and it was only because the life of their shared body was in danger. I think there's maybe one other time we see them directly interacting, and it's in the opening of season five and Bakura is obviously distressed and scared of Yami Bakura. At pretty much every other point in the story, Yami Bakura seems to treat Bakura as incidental. He cares for Bakura in so far as he needs Bakura's body, and that kind of seems to be the beginning and the end of it from his point of view.

From Bakura's side of that dynamic, we barely see anything. Bakura is one of the most criminally underutilized characters in the entire story and it really shows in that we just don't have a strong sense of how he feels about Yami Bakura's presence. He seems to be attached to the Millennium Ring and yet also seems to fear it. That thing keeps getting yeeted from him and yet he always seems to find it again. Why? How? The story never answers these questions, and never seems interested in exploring why Bakura might want the Ring (and Yami Bakura) with him despite all the horrors. This relationship could have been so compelling, it could have been this toxic, co-dependent push-pull between them, but alas. I think it comes across as a neutral dynamic because the story ignored that it never should have been a neutral dynamic in the first place.

The most interesting thing the story ever does with the Bakuras dynamic is position them as a foil to Yugi and Atem for like, one chapter of the manga/one episode of the anime. But I do think it's interesting that Atem has a brief moment of fearing that he might be like Yami Bakura in some ways, using Yugi's body as his vessel.

no I didn't go find these screenshots just to highlight how good the puzzleshipping dynamic is why would you say that

But Yugi assures him like, immediately, that it's different because he knows that Atem is protecting him. Yugi understands implicitly that, while their situation is kind of similar in that the Bakuras also share a body, it's very different for one simple reason:

(It harms me physically how Atem is always visibly shocked whenever Yugi expresses even the slightest bit of affection towards him T_T)

Yugi makes it very clear that he wants to be there for Atem, and while he wants to get stronger for himself and for his friends, part of that drive to become stronger is for Atem too. There's a level of trust that, at this point in the story, Yugi extends to Atem effortlessly. He doesn't question their bond, even when Atem wonders how worthy of it he is.

What makes this hit so different is how earned that bond is when you look at the entire story, including the manga arcs/season 0. Because Atem didn't exactly start off as a particularly benevolent entity, and there legitimately was a time when Yugi was terrified of him and the things he was doing. It wasn't until Duelist Kingdom, after the duels with Kaiba and Pegasus, that they both really learned to work together and appreciate the aspects of each other that make up for the things they lack. Yugi's kindness softens Atem's sharper edges, and Atem's strength gives Yugi courage.

So anyways, I guess the most interesting thing about the parallel between the Bakuras and the Yugis is this little glimpse it gives us into Atem's fears about himself (that he really is some sort of evil entity and just a parasite to Yugi) and how much Yugi just doesn't buy into that at all, and won't let Atem dwell on that thought too much either.

and then season four happens

[millenniumringg]

5 for the fic ask (cornered obviously)

5.) What do you wish someone would ask you about [insert fic]? Answer it now!

Oh gee, this is really tough one but I think I came up with something that might be interesting? Here goes:

How did you come up with Bakura's character in Cornered?

Omg, wow, amazing question (lol)

Bakura is every serial killer in any detective drama ever. He is your worst nightmare, a murderer, a love-struck idiot... He is honestly so frustrating to write FJIEFHHF

Basically, I was really inspired by the show Dexter, not necessarily character-wise, but ... manipulation-wise..? That guy is so good at it I love when he goes into work and gives everyone donuts ... that's Bakura

Hannibal Lecter type genius... Well, almost. Bakura has weak spots that can cloud his judgment; I think he's an excellent planner but a horrible improviser.

Also, I want to add that after I completed Cornered I started watching Hannibal (rip) and I audibly gasped every time Hannibal did something Bakura-y (Cornered-wise, ofc.). Like. The MONEY, the cooking (minus the human flesh part), the obsession with a moody detective... I can't believe the hit series Hannibal time traveled, read Cornered: the yugioh AU fic, and made it into a show (lol)

I also just... kind of wanted to make him almost unstoppable yet ridiculous at the same time. He's scary, of course, he's awful, he's icky, he's freaking mean... But gosh, writing that? Writing out this stuck up guy trying to charm his way to innocence with a detective who KNOWS he's bad and has EXPERIENCED the bad was just too fun to pass up. How far would he go???? Ah...Fiction, man. This shit rocks. Anything goes!

Also, while a lot of Bakura's Cornered character strays from ygo canon, I think his manipulation, apathy, and patient temper do draw a lot from canon yami bakura. He was an obvious choice for me for this kind of character, heheh

Ok, sorry for the Bakura lore heheh, I just feel like I don't get to talk about him as much!

[mediocredoots]

Puzzleshipping for the ship?

001 | send me a ship and I will tell you:

when I started shipping it if I did: this one's definitely new for me cuz I never really spared it a thought tbh not that I disliked it or anything before I was just kinda indifferent about it. but that changed during my most recent rewatching of yugioh these past couple of months. Idk why it took me about the 100th time of watching the series to finally open my eyes to it but actually getting to the last season changed EVERYTHING lol

my thoughts: They run through my thoughts from time to time lol. I think we can all agree whether you strictly believe it's platonic or romantic that yugi came to love atem and vice versa. It's canon. atem got so attached to yugi that he would do anything to keep him safe. yugi is quite literally the light that shone through the darkness that had surrounded atem in the beginning then became the light to guide him the way to himself, his memories and finally his resting place. how fucking poetic is that!!

What makes me happy about them: Everything! Every interaction they had throughout the series. though I do love when Yugi has to take over whenever atem was going murder happy on some characters hfkjdsf

What makes me sad about them: the obvious...atem having to leave so he can finally rest in peace 🤧

things done in fanfic that annoys me: Hm I can't really think off the top of my head rn that's specific to them.

things I look for in fanfic: just general good vibes lol I'm not too picky with this pair I'll read just about anything of them tbh. i do enjoy atem being utterly in love with yugi and pinning to which yugi is sorta oblivious to it lol.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: hmm for atem maybe mahad. for yugi he gets along with so many people but if I had to choose probably ryou. two nerds just wanting to play games that got wrapped up into some magical egyptian nonsense 😂 

My happily ever after for them: Yugi winning the ceremonial duel as a draw and since it isn't a loss or a win atem gets his body back and gets to live on with his aibou physically this time around 🥺

who is the big spoon/little spoon: I think they both mix it up here and there depending their mood. Yugi seems like a big cuddler and heat seeker so he probably ends up being the big spoon more than often

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: games!! any kind! I feel yugi would take atem around a lot of world so they can experience different things together.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S5 Ep 21: Joey Takes A Snack at that Cray Sauce

Hey guys! The 17 yo cat with kidney disease I was out of town watching lived to see another week (she was a very good girl). Which means now I can get back to the good stuff. This episode is brought to you by the colors red and orange, and I hope you like this color, and I hope you like this after effects they CGId onto this volcano.

Anyways, they first have to do this familiar ledge fall, because, it’s Yugioh, and if there’s a bunch of lava, Tristan wants

in

that.

And then Joey decides...hey you know what? I’m gonna jet. And...it’s not the first time he’s pulled a wild card and been unpredictable, I mean none of us can really forget that time he decided to get murdered by Mai instead of going in a straight line towards the end boss last season, but this time it was kind of funny how it was hastily composed.

And off he goes, folks.

As he left, Tristan was like “Ya dummy!” and Tea was like “nono, we gotta encourage him--run Joey! You can do it! See? Now he’s gone.” and it’s like...Tea is either trying to kill Joey with her support or honestly thinks that’s good support and I can’t fully tell which she is.

(read more under the cut)

It’s at this point that Grandpa has the gall to say “Did any of you happen to catch the lore? I fell asleep during that part.” Just like my Dad when we watch any movie as a family.

Meanwhile, maybe 100 ft away from them, Joey is in mortal peril but it’s Joey, so he’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it.

In fact, this episode seems like it would have been a better arc if it stretched out more episodes because the Joey neglect happens so quickly and out of nowhere that it’s...less organic than your average children’s show. Honestly it’s kind of funny how fast the fall of Joey Wheeler happens this episode. And I think it could have been a fun interesting time if it was handled better but youknow...it’s crammed into one single episode and you’ll se what happens.

As Yugi ruminates a cool thing that would have been really interesting this season--like running into more rando’s from other periods of time than just Alexander--Tea looks across the lava highway and was like “found it.”

Back at the dragon situation, Joey starts opening his heart to this dragon and it’s like...did they originally intend for Seto Kaiba to be here? Because I guess Joey uses Red Eyes a lot, but I also skip a lot of the card games, so when I think “who likes the dragon card?” Joey is not the first one I think of.

That and like he got over his Atlantis dragon card like hella fast, right? Like totally already over that?

And also if you thought Joey would pull out his other dragon to try and communicate or get a hold of this dragon like...nah.

Back at the fort, these guys decided to ditch Joey to get to this sword at the top of a volcano to solve the riddle, and what follows is some weird ass canon.

As I’m pulling up my Google Doc with my deathcount on it, Tristan decides this is the time he won’t freakin die and turn into a robot monkey for 15 episodes.

And he makes a huge ass green dragon. You’d think this MASSIVE dragon would do more in this episode, but nah. Although he pulls out Massive Dragon, it’s like kind of worthless, so he mostly puts it back in his pocket.

And then Tea pulls this elf chick out and it’s freakin hilarious because look at her giant elf.

Like Tea is not a small person! Are Yugioh monsters all 12 ft tall???

Yugi is also all ham about fusing with his dude now. It knocked him out a couple episodes ago, but Yugi is so keen on destroying his body that he’s back in clown town. And like...took his Grandpa for a ride, I guess, although I’m pretty sure Summoned Skull has wings.

Course, Summoned Skulls insides are his outsides...and I dunno if you’d want Summoned Skull to give you a big hug and carry you around. Summoned Skull just seems like he’s sticky.

And, once they make it to the top of the volcano where the plot sword lives, we first have to visit this plot twist of the century.

YEAH.

OUT OF NOWHERE.

THIS EPISODE IS NOT LONG.

Aaaaaaand now Joey is going to try and kill everyone here. I did not skip anything, PS, Joey dipped off-screen.

PS, everyone’s reaction to “I will kill you!” was a whole lot of rolling their eyes at first being like “Joey, stawp.”

So, now that Joey’s randomly possessed by this dragon, we get a peek into what Joey’s brain zone looks like. It’s a whole lot of nothing in between his ears.

Consistent to S1 actually, when we had a bit of a Joey Brain Zone moment. It was a blank void there, too.

So apparently Joey decided, back when he was confessing his love to Red Eyes Black Dragon, that he would jump on it’s back to calm it down--and it just...fused with him. So...now he’s a dragon.

Sure, I guess. I mean...there’s really no limit on what a Duel monster can’t do, so I’ll allow it.

The team tries to just say “ah screw it” and pull up this sword themselves (you can kind of see it in this shot) and the sword just slurps into the dirt even more out of spite. Seeing that there’s a bit of a time limit, Grandpa pulls this one out of his back pocket.

Yo, Grandpa’s not even possessed. Hey, remember that time that Grandpa nearly died giving Arthur Hawkins the last of his water back in Egypt? Remember that?

Like uh, you can definitely tell this was made by a different team that may not have gotten that cue card. It may have been lost in the mail. Either way, kind of a hilarious heel turn on Grandpa’s personality here, although it does make logical sense to save most of the kids from sacrificing one kid. It’s just...that kid is Joey...so...that’s like his adopted Grandson, right?

So Yugi does something very on brand for Yugi and invades a brain.

And like...obviously Yami and Yugi would say no to this. They would never do this. Not after all the dozens and dozens of times they have sacrificed the world and everything for their best friends.

But...maybe just this one time we can kill Joey? As a treat?

So uh...Yami hella vaporizes Joey with his new powers. Luckily, Joey Wheeler has Shaggy Doo energy and just...he survives it for some reason. I don’t know why he isn’t dead, maybe because the dragon made him stronger? Eh, don’t do the math (on any part of this episode).

So Joey gets up and is like “I know the answer to the riddle!” As the sword kinda melts into the volcano and Gramps is like “Well we’re dead, actually, so no one cares!”

And Joey’s like “Look!” and he hops onto the back of the Red Eyes Black dragon and reveals this random thing:

Because it turns out, that the dragon was the real problem and not this volcano with a sword in it.

Which youknow...could have been cool if this episode wasn’t so many insane plot points so quickly. Kind of a lot of episode here. This episode could have been a whole season of a show.

Like how long was Joey Possessed by Marik in S2? Like 5 or 6 episodes? And you can see how much more successful it was at selling the story although it was a lot of the same themes and ideas. Pacing is important.

And then Joey passes out from the suit juice.

Which is when we get one more Alexander cameo, just kinda watching them leave and onto the next arc of their little journey.

They sure did put a lot of eyeliner on Alexander the great, and, being real...he may have actually been wearing a hell ton of dope eyeliner when he was alive, so this could be historically accurate, for all we know. Those old marble statues used to be painted, after all. Maybe they had dope Yugioh eyeliner down to his cheekbones? One can wish.

And like if you ever get the time--seeing what those marble statues looked like with paint on it is so freakin goofy and fun, I love it. I love that for 600 years we thought those marble statues were supposed to be naked and white but it’s like, nah man--this guy’s just wearing a skin tight breast plate and when you paint it, it’s so garish it’s like a freakin clown outfit.

But anyway, that’s all for now! Hope y’all have a good weekend, and as always, here’s a link to read these in chrono order, if you just got here!

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

[readerinsertfanfiction]

Aaahhh hello!! I can't believe I found another blog with Yugioh reader inserts!! Would it be okay if I requested a little something with Yugi? Maybe Atem can tell that Yugi and the reader both have a crush on each other and he keeps doing subtle (or maybe even not so subtle) things to get them to admit their feels and start dating? I can see him trying to be a wingman but whether he's good at it is another question lol. Hope you like the idea, feel free to twist it to your liking all you want

A/N: Aaaaah, my first request! How do people do this? Of course you can request something. Yugi is adorable. This idea is adorable. I just read a fanfic where Yugi was the wingman for Yami/Atem so this will be like Yami/Atem returning the favour (wait, that was yours! LOL OH NOOOO THIS IS SO EMBARRASSING AND NERVE WRECKING NOW IreallylikedyourNotQuiteUnrequitedfic). 

It is short, but I hope you like it! 

Fandom: Yu-Gi-OhCharacter: Yugi Mutou (with some Yami Atem)

N.B: I went for the canon situation instead of an AU with Yami channelling ancient Egyptian customs in regards to love and courtship.

While Yami might not remember his past life and the customs belonging the man did know a thing or two about courtship. How much they applied in today’s society was a question, but he was willing to experiment so that he could learn.

“Pay a tribute to the parents,” the spirit said, arms crossed and face stern. He was serious, as serious as ever, which only made the whole suggestion worse on his poor partner.

“W-what?”

Yugi nearly spat out his water, but managed to gulp it down and followed it up with a coughing fit. What was the spirit saying all of a sudden? Patting his chest the boy gave Yami a look, confused and a little scared at what the suggestion alluded to.

“A tribute to [Name]’s parents,” Yami responded patiently explaining his thoughts. As if it was a given. “It is obvious you both like one another. It is only natural that you pay respect to the family for taking [Name] away,” the spirit continued in a matter-of-fact tone. While they shared a body Yami felt proud of his obviously longer (much longer) life experience. Though the young boy seemed to disagree.

“What?” the Mutou boy repeated once more. Shaking his head Yugi released a deep sigh at Yami wondering how he was to explain this. The spirit might be old and wise, but in no way knowledgeable in the complicated world of dating in the 21st century. Especially in regards to a young and clueless teen male. 

“Yami, no. I can’t do that. That’s not how it works— what do you mean ‘you both like one another’?”

The realisation set in belatedly. Yami’s suggestion that Yugi’s feelings for [Name] weren’t one-sided and unrequited set off a blush on the boy’s face who was confused on how to react to the news. Elated, for his feelings returned? Mortified, for Yami so casually mentioning marriage? Or wary, because it hadn’t come from her mouth but from a spirit with no body and memory of his own? Yugi wasn’t sure how to take or to hold himself at the moment, gasping for air as he tried to calm his racing heart.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Yami deadpanned, which only worsened the situation. “You like [Name] beyond friendship and [Name] likes you beyond friendship,” he set out to explain. Yugi was just glad he had abandoned his glass of water on the table, because he nearly dropped himself from his seat.

No, it hadn’t been obvious which was why Yugi was grasping around to collect himself mentally. [Name] liked him. [Name] liked Yugi as Yugi liked [Name] and Yami was trying to push them together by suggesting marriage. 

Yami was a lot, but he definitely had a lot to learn in regards to the modern ways.