A Treatise on the Dynamic Between Yugi and Atem

This treatise is in response to some posts I've seen which say that Yugi was always strong on his own and never actually needed Atem/Yami no Yugi in his life and that the Pharaoh was little more than a parasite who used Yugi to gain his own ends while not benefiting Yugi at all. This is not meant in any way as a slam against Yugi, who is my second favorite character to Atem. It is merely to show how Yugi and Atem affected each other and that they both needed each other and benefited greatly from knowing and interacting with each other.

Pharaoh Atem

As we all know, 3,000 years ago, Atem sealed his soul, along with Zorc and the Thief King, into the Millennium Puzzle and Ring respectively and used his name as the key to lock everything away in a last ditch attempt to save the ancient world.

The Egyptian view of the soul was that it was broken into different components, such as the ren (name), ba (personality), ka (vital spark), akh (light) and sheut (shadow). This is evidenced by Atem’s own words.

“The light (akh) within my soul will be inherited by another who is worthy.” 

Now, this leads me to an interesting thought. Those who have read the Millennium Arc will remember the flashback showing how Sugoroku obtained the Puzzle from Atem’s tomb. I won’t go into an exhaustive recap, but basically Sugoroku ends up being shot in the back by one of the men he’s traveling with and is dangling from the edge of a bridge, about to fall into the darkness, when… 

“I’ve been waiting for you, Shimon.”

If Atem was sealed away in the Puzzle and lost all his memories, then who is that guy, who obviously remembers his vizier from Ancient Egypt? My theory is that this is the light of Atem’s soul that would be passed onto the other who was worthy. Who would that be? 

Mutou Yugi

Not much of a pharaoh's reincarnation, is he?

Thanks to Atem’s intervention, Sugoroku survived and was able to smuggle the Millennium Puzzle out of Egypt. The decades passed with Sugoroku marrying and raising his son. Eventually, Sugoroku’s son married and had his own son. I wonder if, when Sugoroku laid eyes on the child, he remembered what had transpired in the Pharaoh’s tomb those many years ago. 

The evidence to me points to Yugi being the reincarnation of the akh, the part of Atem’s soul that held his love and kindness. The akh also held Atem’s memories and knew what was about to transpire, which is why he saved Sugoroku, so that the reincarnation of his vizier would be able to eventually bring about the birth of the one he would reincarnate into. 

When we first meet Yugi, he is very quiet, kindhearted and very vulnerable to bullying due to the fact that he won’t stick up for himself. It’s as though his kindness is unchecked by any sort of sense of self-worth. 

Honda and Jou start out as bullies.

Kindness, unchecked by self-worth, is a weakness, the person being little more than a doormat at best, a martyr at worst. Yugi’s own kindness was a liability to him, as evidenced by him letting Ushio beat him up to save the two boys who had bullied him earlier. While some might admire this behavior, I see this as bordering self-destructive.

Is this kid right in the head?

Guess not.

So basically, we have Yugi, who is all goodness and light, bordering on being a selfless martyr. Now, let’s check out his twin and polar opposite.

Yami no Yugi/Mou Hitori no Yugi

Yugi, before he's had his morning coffee.

Eventually, we get to the part where Yugi assembles the Puzzle and sets Yami no Yugi free. Well, just by looking at him, it’s obvious he’s a pretty malevolent entity, at least toward those who harm Yugi and those Yugi holds dear. 

Penalty game! Greed, the Illusion of Avarice!

Yami no Yugi thinks nothing of driving people to insanity, blinding them, or even blowing them up if they “trespass in his soul.” 

These are the dark actions of a dark soul, unchecked by any sense of kindness or morality. If the light of Atem’s soul was reincarnated as Yugi, his dark half, or sheut, was what was sealed inside the Puzzle, with no memories of who he was, only 3,000 years of darkness and isolation. 

Yin and Yang

When Yugi solved the Puzzle and he and Yami no Yugi started interacting with each other and dueling together, slowly but surely, each one started to affect the other. At first, the transformation is mostly apparent in Yami no Yugi, who begins to change from a malevolent entity into someone with a bit more mercy and compassion. It happens slowly at first and there are definitely some starts and fits in his transformation, but it does happen.

I think the first big step in this transition is during Duelist Kingdom, when Yugi duels against Kaiba for entrance into Pegasus’ castle. We all know what happens here. The point is, Yugi sees what his Other is about to do and his so horrified by it, that he’s able to summon enough strength to force the spirit to stop short of murdering someone. 

Other Me, don't!

Although this is an important first step in Yugi’s journey toward greater strength, he still has a long way to go and is painfully aware of this, as evidenced in his conversation with Anzu after they get into Pegasus’ castle and Yugi gets punched out by Bandit Keith during an altercation in the hallway.

Another great leap in Yugi and his Other’s character development is the first time they truly work together as a team in the duel against Pegasus. Yami no Yugi is struggling against Pegasus’ Mind Scan, which allows Pegasus to see what cards he has in his hand. Yugi calls out to Yami no Yugi and is overjoyed when his Other finally answers his call. Yugi offers to switch minds back and forth with Yami no Yugi, thus confounding the Mind Scan. 

Seeing his toons defeated, Pegasus uses the Millennium Eye to turn the duel into a dark game, an oppressive atmosphere that only Millennium Item masters can withstand. Yugi shows great courage in dueling in a shadow game. However, at this stage, he is still young and very vulnerable and can’t last long in the oppressive environment, thus forcing Yami no Yugi to take over. Before he passes out, Yugi leaves a facedown card that neither Yami no Yugi nor Pegasus has seen. Yami no Yugi becomes a witness to the power of unity when their friends are able to project their spirits into the shadow game and block Pegasus’ Mind Scan.

I think the first time Yami no Yugi learns to acknowledge kindness as a strength is when Yugi duels Jounouchi at the pier during Battle City. Earlier in the duel, Yami no Yugi struggles to drag Jou’s mind out of the darkness, but is unsuccessful. Seeing Yami no Yugi’s distress at how things are going, Yugi offers to intervene. Jou begins attacking Yugi with illegal direct attack cards, hitting him without mercy. Seeing that Yugi is in trouble, Yami no Yugi makes to take over again. However, unlike in Duelist Kingdom, Yugi is determined to finish the entire duel on his own. In a move that may be considered brave or foolhardy, Yugi removes the Puzzle, thus relegating Yami no Yugi to the side lines and continues on his own. Yugi is able to drag Jou’s spirit out of Malik’s possession through the power of kindness alone, relying on his longstanding friendship with the blond to reach him. 

By the time we reach the duels on Kaiba's blimp, Yami no Yugi is much more merciful than he once was. He refuses to continue his duel against Yami no Bakura when he switches and shows Bakura Ryou suffering in the shadow game. He only continues once the dark entity takes over again. 

We see this again during the final duel with Marik, when the vessels are separated from their Others and are erased bit by bit with each hit to the Other's life points. Yami no Yugi refuses to continue the duel because Malik is about to be destroyed due to the hit on Marik’s life points. 

Had something like this happened in the previous arcs, I wonder if Yami no Yugi would have hesitated or if he would have plowed through Bakura and Malik to seize that all important victory. 

During the Millennium Arc, we see Pharaoh Atem appalled when Bakura’s Diabound attacks innocent citizens during his first battle with Atem. Now what I wonder is, is this how the ancient Pharaoh was, or if this is still Yami no Yugi with Yugi's purifying influence on his soul. 

And of course, we see Yugi’s growth to strength in the Millennium Arc when he duels Bakura in the crypt so he can find Yami no Yugi’s true name.

It’s good to see that Yugi has gained enough strength to be able to duel on his own. No doubt Yami no Yugi would be proud if he could see Yugi dueling right now. Where I differ with other fans is that I don’t believe Yugi would have been able to handle this on his own if it had happened way back in the early manga/Season Zero days. Yugi gained strength gradually through his interactions with Atem, just as Atem learned to be kind and merciful through his interaction with Yugi.

Conclusion

Through their two year journey together and in each of their duels, Yugi and Atem were both able to gain something from the other until they were whole enough to go their separate ways. This was evidenced in the Ceremonial Duel when Atem was able to lose gracefully to Yugi, who had matured enough as a duelist to be able to create a whole new deck and even defeat Atem's Osiris.

In the beginning, Atem and Yugi were both incomplete souls, each possessing something the other lacked. Through their cooperation and close bond, two souls were made whole.