It’s really frustrating when you are a writer and an artist and you realize that the story you want to tell is best told in neither of the two mediums you CAN execute… but a secret third, evil one (animation)
If Megumi and Geto together represesent the black yin, then their respective counterparts Yuji and Gojo both embody the white yang. Thus, Yuji and Gojo as mentor and student are two characters who are very similiar in nature. Rather than passive, feminine, yin standing in the shadows they both are active, masculine yang standing in the light. More on the foiling between Yuji and Gojo underneath the cut.
Can you please talk about the religious undertones to Kaiba and Atem’s dynamic? In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh was believed to be the embodiment of the god Horus. So historically speaking, Atem is a god in human form and Kaiba being a nonbeliever in the manga and the 4Kids dub contrasts that and him being the reincarnation of a priest complements (not compliments) that too! In Dark Side of Dimensions, Kaiba duels the A.I. Atem in a church out of all places! As @shitatemdoes put it, “And Kaiba, subconsciously, still feels the need to praise his former king - now turned god.”
The religious undertones on their own aren't all that interesting and compelling to me. DSOD + the manga use religious undertones to tell a story about faith, and specifically having faith in your friends.
Kaiba being a high priest in his past life does not matter to him. It's not why he pursues Atem across time and space--he pursues Atem for a whole barrel of reasons, but not really because his past life was a high priest. As for all of the things that drive Kaiba's actions and his character, it is like, bottom of the list. When Isis is begging Kaiba to help at the end of Battle City, his past life's friendship with Atem has literally nothing to do with his decision.
What is key to remember here is that his relationship with Atem in the manga is defined (in part) by questioning the nature, the value, and the power of friendship: what does it mean to be friends? What happens if that friendship is tested in fatal ways? Are we friends? Is the power of friendship real? Can you prove it? In Battle City, when Kaiba throws Devil's Sanctuary to Atem, he is asking Atem to prove that they are friends: "do you trust me enough to take this card, sight unseen?" And Atem puts it in his deck, saying "yes, I do. I trust you to help me win. You are my rival AND my friend."
Arguably, the real divine power in Yugioh is not an Ancient Egyptian god, but friendship--as represented by Atem and his bonds with others. At the end of Dark Side of Dimensions, Kaiba sacrifices himself against Diva in a bid to summon Atem. The track that plays when Atem shows up with Mahaad is called "Advent of God," so the religious undertone is pretty explicit, but the point of this whole scene is that Kaiba, after years of rejecting and challenging the concept, throws himself into his faith in the power of friendship--the faith that his friendship with Atem was real and meaningful, and that Atem WILL pull through to save him and Yuugi. We could argue that Kaiba is putting his faith in Atem's friendship with Yuugi specifically but the point remains that Kaiba finally believes in what Atem tried to tell him all along: friendship is real, it has power, and it WILL save you.
Like, "Kaiba, as an ex high-priest, wants to worship Atem, as a pharaoh" is an interpretation that runs the risk of undermining Kaiba's truly lovely character arc, and also runs counter to some of the facts of canon and Ancient Egypt: Priest Set became Pharaoh after Atem, so he is also divine god-king. The religious undertones acquire real meaning and add depth to the characters when we think of Atem as a god of friendship, and Kaiba as a non-believer in friendship who eventually comes to believe (and believe to the point of self-sacrifice).
As for dueling Atem in a church, umm Kaiba is standing in the chancel of the church waiting for Atem to walk down the aisle and then he gives a speech with all the things he likes about Atem and vows that their duel is about to evolve... semiotically speaking that's a wedding <3 <3 <3
I think Kaiba being an omega makes way more sense than being an alpha, bc that’s exactly what Kaiba would want us to think. Exploring him as an alpha just reduces him to a flat masculine stereotype when he’s way more than that. Writing him as an omega enriches the layered character he already is
this is not intended as a faithful interpretation of the original work, by which I mean that no I'm not implying mr Takahashi was shaping his characters around psychoanalysis lol
but even though it's all headcanon, I'm trying to stick as closely as canon as possible
initially I thought of making this into a fic, but it turns out expressing concepts like this through narration is rather complicated, so I'm leaving the ideas here instead haha it's mostly for the fun of exploring this chain of ideas
I'm not past Duelist Kingdom yet in the manga, so that's the limit of this analysis but if it stands to the rest of the story I'll write more about it in the future
Freud’s theory of repetition compulsion:
Freud initially theorized human psyche was driven by the pleasure principle, aka the desire to remain in a calm state without exaltation, but eventually had to confront the contradiction he observed in actual patients: PTSD survivors, like war veterans and such, would dream of their traumatic episodes repetitively. Such painful repetitions of trauma could not be provoked by the pleasure principle, so where did it come from?
This contradiction led him to propose an opposite concept to the life drive (eros) which influenced the pleasure principle: the death drive (thanatos), which didn’t necessarily imply the seeking of death itself, but instead destructive and harmful impulses directed inwardly towards the self or outwardly towards others.
Individuals who experienced trauma would subconsciously re-enact painful patterns in an attempt to master it, to fix or overcome the turmoil it caused, but would always remain unresolved and thus would turn into a self inflicted punishment.
Eventually, the compulsive repetition would also integrate the narrative around it into the individual’s identity: a person who concluded they are unlovable due to past trauma will hold this belief in regards to all future relationships. Like being trapped in a self imposed fate of sorts.
Kaiba:
Gozaburo’s suicide is what triggers the repetition compulsion.
Seto feels guilty about it, and compulsively recreates the scenario of exerting power over another individual in order to confront and overpower this guilt, which he subconsciously expects to get rid of. This is how he ends up going down a downward path, as the narrative of his trauma wraps itself over his own personality: he is one who seeks to dominate and overpower those weaker than him as well as those stronger. (The root cause of the issue, his guilt, remains hidden in his subconscious). His pursuit of opponents he deems worthy works as a slow flirtation with self-destruction, directing the death drive outwardly.
Kaiba thus traps himself in the fate of the eternal challenger.
Atem:
Pharaohs in ancient Egypt were meant to uphold the principle of Ma’at, the universal order, and as Atem failed to do so, even with his memories wiped, the guilt remains persistent in his subconscious after Yugi completes the puzzle. The uncertainty he left his nation in subconsciously pushes him to seek instances where he can perform an act of justice, not only punishing those he considers morally lacking, but laying the ground for him to prove himself each time with the shadow games. The feeling of guilt is never satiated though, no matter how many times he tries.
Atem thus traps himself in the fate of the eternal judge.
Through the plot:
Both of them use duels as the stage where the compulsion is performed as well as the ritual that allows temporary relief for the repetition of their trauma.
Their first confrontation marks the moment Kaiba’s compulsion is challenged: if Kaiba’s identity is stripped of its power, what remains is the guilt underneath he cannot face. So the compulsion puts up resistance and intensifies.
It fractures Seto's perception of himself so deeply he has nightmares about it, his subconscious now also punishing him for disturbing the narrative that would let him escape from his guilt.
The experience doesn’t stand out for Yami, save for his recognition of Kaiba’s abilities as a duelist, he’s just one more of the many Yami has faced.
Yami instead starts subtly questioning his own compulsion after his confrontation with Mokuba. In the back of his mind, he acknowledges that Mokuba’s motivations were not bound to a self-serving goal, like those he had punished before for pursuing monetary gain or power, instead he acted on his desire to avenge and please his older brother.
When he faces Mokuba again the night prior to Death T, he doesn’t punish him for poisoning Jonouchi, he just lets him deal with the natural consequences of his actions. And after their new duel he doesn’t punish Mokuba either for taking part in a game meant to kill Yugi and his friends. He actually saves him from the punishment Seto wanted to inflict on him.
If Seto was only acting on the desire to take revenge on Yugi, he would have no problem sparing his own brother, which means there’s something deeper around defeat that’s driving his madness.
Yami for the first time is confronted with a warped reflection of his very own compulsion: regardless of the reasoning behind Seto’s disapproval for defeat, it’s something he considers deserving of punishment, just like Yami uses his sense of justice to do the same.
Punishment would not make Mokuba into a better duelist. Likewise, it would not teach him to desire less the respect and affection of his brother. Revenge on behalf of another who’s been hurt may not be a fault easily categorized into broad judgments of good and evil.
While they were trapped in the cube of Death T 3, Jonouchi reminds Yugi of the resentful feelings he held against him and his theft of the puzzle piece, admitting that his actions were motivated by self hatred. Had Yami been around then, he’d have punished this friend and never looked back again, robbing him of the chance to do better and grow a bond with Yugi.
Motivations behind every individual are complex, more than Yami had ever cared to consider. Instead of punishment, Yugi had extended a hand and inspired his friends to change his ways by themselves.
When Yami defeats Seto this time, he decides to put this new perspective to the test by giving him a chance at saving himself. If Seto succeeds and comes back a better person, it can break Yami’s cycle of repetition by proving that Ma’at can be upheld through other means than punitive violence. Rather than eradicating evil that’s loose in the world, there may be a chance it can be prevented.
As Yami and Yugi start to communicate via feelings, Yugi senses his anxiety and desperation for an answer, so he visits Kaiba in the hospital, redirecting the guilt that could add on to the compulsion into an act of care.
During Duelist Kingdom, Yami is in a position where he hasn’t proven that this challenge he forced on Kaiba was the right choice at all, so his compulsion remains active —though he’s focusing it on reaching Pegasus and helping Yugi’s grandfather, which is why he spares most opponents on the way to the castle. Except when the Kaiba puppet points out his guilt about Kaiba’s condition, it exposes the entirety of his conflicted inner turmoil.
Though it is questioned whether Kaiba's resentment against Yami persist, ultimately his soul protects him at the last minute.
This is the moment Kaiba awakens from his coma, finally rebuilding himself. Which would make...? Yami an essential part of him. Ig you squint and believe in true love.
And Yami finds an unshakable faith in Kaiba as well
Eventually, Seto comes back, but only fulfilling half of the expectations, as he seems to be the same person as before. It doesn’t prove anything to Yami, except that there’s room for nuance.
Kaiba claims his motivation to defeat pegasus is to regain control of the company he acquired by pushing his father into suicide. Despite the guilt, this company is what Kaiba has built with his bare hands, it's part of his identity.
Yami also insists his rightful motivations will prevail
They both recognize their reflection in each other, understanding the intensity of their motivations to engage with their own compulsions, which morph into more controlled drives for self advancement, but remain at the core of who they are still.
I moved into my college apartment and I finally fulfilled my childhood wish of getting a lava lamp to work (the lamp unintentionally coordinates with Gandora)
I wonder what kind of story Takahashi would have created if there was no pressure/incentive to stick with the card game. If it were possible, I would really love to see an alternate version of Yugioh where it was just about games.
In a perfect world I would love to not only have a manga compliant reboot, but an entire retelling without the card game pivot.
Thanks for the reblogs. But yeah sometimes I think the reason (and I say this lovingly) yugioh is so mid at times BECAUSE of the duel monsters pivot. I think when any piece of art has too much profit incentive intertwined in it, it makes it worse because corporate interest is antithetical to artistic expression.
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