#decoding ygo

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Egyptian Ka vs Yu-Gi-Oh! Ka and Atem’s appearance in DSoD

In Yu-Gi-Oh! Millenium World, we are introduced to the ancient egyptian notion of ka. However, the ygo ka is very different from the Egyptian belief.

In Ancient Egypt, the ka is portrayed as a person’s doppelgänger. [In that sense, Atem could be Yuugi’s ka or Yuugi could be seen as Atem’s ka].

Khnum, creating the pharaoh and his ka as identical twins.

In life, the ka is invisible. It’s an element of a person’s being that was given to him by his father and that he shares with his father and forefathers.  The transmission of the ka from parent to child, from creator to creation allows the process of birth. Without a ka you cannot ‘create’.

The one who creates lives through his creation because he transferred his ka into his creation.

In death, the ka is the doppelgänger a person left of himself on earth. Therefore, the ka is the statue/portrait a person left of himself in order to receive offerings.

Even though, it was probably unintended on K. Takahashi’s part, I believe it’s still interesting to understand Yuugi and Atem as sharing the same ka, either because Atem is Yuugi’s ancestor or because Atem ‘made’ Yuugi king of games (or both). Therefore, Atem still lives through Yuugi, allowing his come back in DSoD.

Yuugi’s features, so similar to Atem, could also be explained by Yuugi being Atem’s ka or because he inherited Atem’s ka.

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Priest Seto’s right to the throne

In Yu-Gi-Oh! Millenium World, Atem’s legitimacy to rule is questioned by Aknadin who claims that Seto should be king instead of Atem. Aknadin argues that Priest Seto is of royal blood (as Atem’s cousin) and therefore has a right to the throne.

However, from an ancient egyptian perspective, Seto is not of royal blood and has no more right to be king than Mahad or any of the other priests.

The rules that dictated who could be king and who was part of the royal family were quite different in pharaonic Egypt than what prevails nowadays in modern monarchies.

In Ancient Egypt, the legitimacy to be king derives from the fact that your father was a king. The preference always goes to the children of the latest king to have ruled. So in Yu-Gi-Oh!, only two characters are eligible to be king: Atem and Aknadin as both had a father who ruled Egypt, although Atem is the favoured one out of the two since he is the son of Aknamkanon who ruled last.

From this perspective, Priest Seto is completely out of the line of succession since his father (Aknadin) has never been king. For this same reason, he cannot even be considered a prince of royal blood.

Thus, Atem’s most probable heir, until he had a child of his own, was Aknadin. As Aknadin dies before Atem, that leaves Atem and/or his courtiers to designate a successor. As we all know, Atem chooses Seto which then and only then makes Priest Seto legitimate as pharaoh.

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Atem’s earrings

Egyptian art never show pharaohs wearing earrings. In a more broader context, egyptian reliefs don’t show grown adult egyptian men wearing earrings either (with a few rare exceptions).

However, as stated by Kazuki Takahashi, Atem was inspired a lot from Tutankhamun and his treasure; and beautiful earrings were found in Tutankhamun’s tomb, revealing that he might had actually worn earrings at some point in his life.

But looking more carefully at egyptian reliefs, one can see that on some rare occasions little boys or child-kings are pictured wearing earrings as opposed to adult men that did not (which might explain why child-king Tutankhamun had so many earrings).

Pharaoh Ramesses II depicted as a child-king and wearing earrings, Louvre Museum.

Ramesses II as an adult king without earrings, Turin Museum.

Therefore, earrings when worn by males were worn during childhood and they were mostly a symbol of youth. I’m sure at 16, Atem shouldn’t be wearing earrings anymore but I guess we can still view him as a child-king.

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Yu-gi-oh! egyptian headdresses

In Yu-Gi-Oh! Millenium World, we come across various ancient egyptian characters wearing different headdresses. For these, Kazuki Takahashi let his imagination loose although we can see egyptian influence in some designs.

First, egyptian headdresses are used by gods, kings, and royal women, not by the general population who had either wigs (mostly richer, wealthier people) or their natural hair.

Thus, among Atem’s courtiers, only Shadah and Karim are close to Ancient Egyptian traditions.

Shadah has his hair shaven which is typical of Egyptian priest of the New Kingdom and later periods.

Karim wears a mid-length wig which is fine. But he also wears a gold headban around his head which looks more or less like the seshed crown worn by kings and royal women.

Karim, a seshed crown found at Dra Abu el-Naga (~1650 bc), elite Egyptians with no headban for the male (tomb of Ramose, 18th dynasty)

Mahad wears a veil to cover his long hair. Egyptian males didn’t grow their hair long and didn’t cover them either. Mahad also wears a little sundisk between two cow horns which is the typical headwear of the goddess Hathor, also worn by queens...

Mahad is actually Atem’s queen. We’ve finally figured it out XD.

Mahad, statue of Hathor with the sun between her horns, Turin Museum.

Seto wears a blue headdress which could be inspired by the pharaohs’ khepresh crown (even though the shape is all wrong). He also wears a snake-uraeus on his forehead which is the king’s most sacred symbol. Only the king and a few royal women are aloud to wear it.

Seto wants power, we all know that XD.

Khepresh crown and Priest Seto

Isis covers her hair under a veil (that she shouldn't have) and also wears the head of a falcon on her forehead with its ‘wings’ surrounding her face. This is probably inspired by another of the queen's headwear: a vulture with its wings spread around the face.

The vulture headdress is usually associated with motherhood so Isis could be, in fact, Atem’s mum XD. Or the mother to his children...

Priestess Isis and queen Ahmes-Nefertari, Louvre Museum

Atem’s ‘crown’ is designed after the eye of Udjat wich is an egyptian symbol for protection. It is especially worn among the commoners in jewels (necklaces, bracelets...). It isn’t specific to royalty and never used on crowns.

All in all, Atem’s court has got their headwear all mingled up.

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Millenium Items (Part 3/3) : The Millenium Puzzle

Throughout the yu-gi-oh! manga and anime, we are introduced to the different millenium items and their dark powers. From what I’ve gathered, all seven items share similar dark and defensive powers (see part 1 and 2) as well as having one unique ability.

The powers of most millenium items are well defined during the anime and manga. A lot of the items give their bearer knowledge on other people’s intentions, thoughts and personnalities, giving them access to other people’s secrets and feelings.

In this category, we have the eye (which let Pegasus read the mind, thoughts and strategies of his opponents), the scale (which allowed Shadih to detect whether someone was lying or telling the truth), the key (which gave Shadih access to people’s soul room and gain knowledge on their personality) and the necklace (which gave Isis insight on someone’s past and future).

Other items have the power to mind control people: Malik’s rod by implanting false memories into people’s mind and Shadih’s key by accessing other’s soul room and altering their tastes, dreams and knowledge.

And last, the ring is able to lead its bearer to the place, person or item of his choice. Bakura has used this ability several times to get out of mazes or find other items.

But what is the millenium puzzle’s unique ability?

Most powers used by Yami Yuugi are actually powers that all seven items can perform. What magic that he used is actually specific to him and his puzzle? He does say at some point that his puzzle has the power of unity but what does that mean exactly?

First, we know since the beginning of the manga that the puzzle grants its holder one wish. Yuugi assembled the puzzle twice in his lifetime and both his wishes came true: the first time he became friends with Jonouchi, the second time he was able to put together the puzzle in minutes so that he could meet with his other self one last time.

This ability of the puzzle is powerful enough for malevolent people to want to get their hands on it. However, the millenium eye has the same ability. In the manga, both Pegasus and Aknadin are able to make a wish upon the eye. Pegasus asks to see his dead fiancée and Aknadin wants his son Seto to become king. Therefore granting a wish to its holder cannot be the puzzle's true power.

On the other hand, we also know that all four holder of the puzzle that we know of have been kings: Aknamkanon, Atem and Seto were pharaohs and Yuugi is the king of games.

Also, several foes that Yuugi had to confront wanted his puzzle to become king in his place (see Otogi's father, Malik, Aknadin and even Seto in DSoD says that the one who completes the puzzle will be king). It can therefore be suggested that the puzzle has to go to a king and/or make his owner a king.

A king has usually a lot of power and influence over others and have powerful allies as well as powerful foes. Yami Yuugi once says to Shadih (in the manga) that the power of his puzzle is about union and Shadih also said that the items were attracted to each other.

What if the items are actually attracted towards the puzzle / towards the king that has the power to assemble them into one powerful force as did Aknamkanon with his court.

In the story, every millenium item holder eventually became Yuugi's ally: Shadih (who gives his life to save Atem), Bakura Ryou (who is fully part of the gang in DSoD), Isis and Malik (who both gave their item to Atem), Pegasus (who expressed regret to Yami Yuugi in the manga).

This power could also extend to other people without millenium items as Yami Yuugi is often able to reach his friends through his puzzle to get them back on his side when they were mind controlled, lost or kidnapped. In the anime, he disrupts several shadow games to get back Ryou who is under the control of Bakura (ep. 13), to talk to Mai during her duel against Malik. In the manga, he finds Jonouchi who had been forced to duel against Bonz (thanks to @thesilentduelist who pointed this to me).

We could thus understand the power of union in this manner: the owner of the puzzle becomes a king who gets the ability to unite his allies and their powers in order to create 'miracles', kind of like he created Horakhty by uniting the egyptian gods. 

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Atem and Tutankhamun

Kazuki Takahashi was inspired by Tutankhamun for Atem’s character. So I thought I’d do a list of things that both these kings have in common.

a) Both are 18th dynasty pharaohs (Isis confirms this for Atem in manga and in the japanese version of the anime, ep.52).

b) Both are child-kings. King Tut is believed to have become king aroung the age of 8 (give or take a few years) whereas Atem could have become king when he was 11 (depending on how you understand the manga). In chapt. 36 of Millenium World, Mahad says that after he became a priest to the ring, he sensed the evil within it and informed King Aknamkanon, causing him to fall ill and die. As it is also said previously in the manga that Mahad became priest 5 years prior, that would make Atem 11 at the time his father died.

c) Both died in their teen years. King Tut ruled 9 years and a half, making him aroung 18 at his death (again, give or take a few years) and Atem sadly sacrificed himself at 16, after 5 years on the throne. Both of them were burried in the Valley of the Kings.

d) Both had their name erased from monuments and history although the reason for that differs greatly for them both. King Tut suffered the backlash from his father’s, Akhenaten, chaotic rule and was erased from history along with the rest of his close family. Atem, on the other hand, ordered his name to be erased in order to protect his country from the evil god Zork.

e) Both died without an heir and opened the way for a new dynasty to take its place on the throne. Not long after King Tut died, ruled pharaoh Sethy I of the 19th dynasty. As for Atem, he was succeeded by his cousin Seto.

f) Both their mothers’ identities are shrouded in mystery. In truth, we now know more about King Tut’s mother but at the time yu-gi-oh was peing published nothing was known of her and the same goes for Atem’s mother. King Tut’s mother, as revealed by dna, was his father’s sister. So Atem’s mum could be Aknamkanon’s sister.

g) Both had to deal with the mess their father left them and both inherited a kingdom in turmoil. King Tut had to deny his father’s beliefs in the Aten, shifting back to Egypt’s many gods. Atem had to deal with Bakura and the creation of the Millenium Items.

h) Both their father had unique personalities. Akhenaten, although he probably wasn’t truly like that, is often depicted as a peaceful man, who was against war and obsessed with the Aten (the sun-god). Aknamkanon was also described in that maner in the manga, as a good man who believed in justice and who refused to wage war against his enemies.

All in all, Atem and King Tut share so much in common that King Tut’s story could be used as a guideline to know more about Atem’s rule and family.

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Atem’s birthday is supposed to be June 2nd (and not July 26th)

I've been seeing posts for years saying Atem’s birthday is July 26th so I decided to speak up because it's wrong xD. Obviously there was a huge misunderstanding about which calendar Kazuki Takahashi used to establish Atem's birthday.

First, note that Kazuki Takahashi only gave egyptian dates for his egyptian characters and no modern date. According to KT, Atem is born on the 19th day of the 3rd month of Shemu.

I. Which calendar was used for Atem’s birthday?

The Egyptians had several calendars throughout their history. The one Kazuki Takahashi used is the Ancient Egyptian civil calendar whereas the fans that tried to convert Atem’s birthday into a gregorian date used the Coptic calendar hence getting the wrong date.

The Coptic calendar was used in the Middle Ages by Christian Egyptians. Atem died milleniums before this calendar was even put to use...

The Ancient Egyptian civil calendar was slightly different from the Coptic one. http://www.lavia.org/english/archivo/EgyptianCalendarEN.html

It had no names for the months. Months were referred to by their number within the season. The seasons followed the Nile’s Flood Cycle: Akhet (flood) - Peret (germination) - Shemu (it literally means 'dry' or 'low water', it's also harvest time).

If you check the Nile's flooding cycle, you'll see that the flood comes about at the end of July (which means the end of July was during Akhet season whereas Atem was born during Shemu when there was no water).

II. How do we convert Atem’s birthday into a gregorian date?

Egyptologists have established the equivalences between our two calendars long ago. Of course, this is all very theoritical because the Ancient Egyptian civil calendar doesn’t have a leap year. So the exact equivalences made by Egyptologists are only real if we pretend that February 29th doesn’t exist xD.

Anyway, the important part is that Kazuki Takahashi used these equivalences. I’m sure of it because if we use the Ancient Egyptian civil calendar instead of the Coptic one, all the Egyptian characters have the same birthdays as their modern counterparts. Seth and Seto are both born on October 25th, for example.

If you check the link up above, you'll find that it says that the 1st month of Akhet is from July 19th to August 17th. It means that the 1st day of the 1st month of Akhet is July 19th, the 2nd day of the 1st month of Akhet is then July 20th, etc.

Go to Shemu season, check the 3rd month and count for yourself the 19th day. It falls on June 2nd. Interestingly enough, Yuugi's birthday is June 4th and you'll see below that all the Egyptian characters are linked to their modern counterpart.

July 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th were five extra days added in between the last day of the year and the first day of the new year.

Atem - June 2nd (Yuugi is June 4th) 19th day, 3rd month, Harvest

Shimon - Oct 5th (Sugoroku is October 4th) 19th day, 3rd month, Flood

Mahad - October 31st 15th day, 4th month, Flood

Isis - April 4th (Isis Ishtar is April 5th) 20th day, 1st month, Harvest

Karim - August 18th 1st day, 2nd month, Flood

Shadah - July 21st 3rd day, 1st month, Flood

Aknadin - February 12th 29th day, 3rd month, Germination

Seto - October 25th  (Kaiba is October 25th) 9th day, 4th month, Flood

Mana - September 20th 4th day, 3rd month, Flood

Bakura - September 1st (Ryou is September 2nd) 15th day, 2nd month, Flood

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Atem and the Egyptian Gods

I couldn’t help noticing that every time Atem encounters one of the God Cards or is facing one of them, he looks frozen in fear and downright terrified.

He actually says it himself twice (in chapters 114 and 196):

In other parts of the manga, where he doesn’t say anything, he looks awe-stricken (see when he sees Obelisk for the first time or during Mai’s duel).

In Ancient Egypt, an appropriate feeling to have when facing a god or a king was fear, awe and respect. During rituals, priests even said to the god’s statue: ‘fear of you is in my body, [...] your awe is throughout my body’ .

In these two panels, Atem is describing the same feeling and is therefore showing respect and proper behaviour to his gods. He is also telling us that he firmly believes in them. So we can assume Atem was a pious man. 

Even if at that time Atem didn’t have any memories, he could have been acting through his subconscious. Or maybe, the gods’ might have awaken a feeling that was deep within him.