"Any card—so long as it exists—has a power that is needed."

wolfy1298:

More season zero redraws because I’m sad and they make me happy

likeabxrdinflight:

something about pegasus using a shadow games against atem, when previously he had pretty much been the only one dealing out painful consequences and challenging people to these games, hits different for him. in the manga/season 0 canon, he’s already undergone a lot of character development by the time duelist kingdom comes around. but even during duelist kingdom, you still do see him using penalty games on particularly nasty foes.

so it’s noteworthy that after duelist kingdom, you never see atem use a penalty game ever again. he never initiates a shadow game ever again. unfortunately, I don’t think the anime does a very good job elaborating on why this is. if you only watch the duel monsters anime, it’s easy to assume it was just a plot point that got dropped. but if you’ve read the manga, you’ll know there’s some missing moments that shed light on it:

This is not in the anime, but atem was going to punish pegasus. he was going to inflict a penalty game on him like he had done for all the other “bad guys” that had threatened yugi and his friends. but then pegasus tells atem his backstory. there’s no diary like in the anime. just pegasus. and it’s sympathetic, it’s tragic…and atem doesn’t do it.

in the manga canon, everyone has been aware of atem’s existence as “the other yugi” for some time now, since death-t (or monster world in bakura’s case), and they know about his shadow powers too. so unlike in the anime, in the manga canon everyone was expecting pegasus to get a penalty game- after all, they’ve seen atem do it to people who deserved it far less than pegasus did. but anzu (best girl) figures it out right away:

atem takes what pegasus says to heart. if the power of the millennium items- the shadow games, the ability to inflict penalty games- truly is evil, then he has been using that evil power all this time too. so what does that say about him? even if he was acting in the name of justice, even if he was trying to protect yugi and his friends, if the methods he was using were evil all this time, then does that make him evil as well? is he the “evil intelligence” that pegasus refers to?

this is what opens up all of atem’s questions about who he really is- it’s not just a question of identity, it’s a question of whether or not he’s truly some kind of evil entity. but regardless of the answer to that question, atem makes a deliberate choice here. if the powers of the millennium items really are evil, then he will choose not to be.

and he never initiates a shadow game again.

carmypen:

A man of swords and talents.

9-9-9-11-deactivated20221016:

遊戯王より、真崎杏子。

monsterhugger:

anzu: hey I had a lot of fun dancing!

atem, normal: my soul is trapped in a puzzle. I should have died 3,000 years ago. i don’t belong here but I don’t want to leave

sbd-laytall: