[gets A New Mutual] I Look Forward To Working With You

⭐️Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds friendship is magic :)

You guys aren’t gonna believe this

i forgot about school dress codes but they kind of stopped going to school when they're dueling...

SO ARE WE GONNA TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT JACK ATLAS PUNCHES YUSEI RIGHT AFTER HE'S RECOVERING FROM SURGERY AFTER HIS FIGHT WITH KALIN. RIGHT IN THE GUT. WHERE HE HAD SURGERY.

fields of mistria doodles from instagram ✨

Someone had to do the season 0 version

Based on a meme

⭐️[ Trainer Yusei ]⭐️

Yusei a selfless trainer ready to protect his friends! What fate lies ahead for the future? 👀

Okay thank you !! 💕

Anyways the reason has to do with the fact that I think Atem and Ryou have very introverted, internalizing personalities.

In the usual yugi and atem dynamic, they have a Thing going on where Yugi is proactive to solve problems and deal with life in general while Atem is reactive and defends his host against perceived threats. This is a contrast against the Bakurae dynamic, where Ryou is reactive (and often responds to threats by sticking to past ways or retreating from life) while Yami B is proactive and spends much of the series setting different events into motion.

What this means is that in the usual pairings, Yugi and Atem set each other off, while Ryou and Bakura manage to stay mostly out of each others way in canon interactions after the arc they're introduced in. However, this is because their personalities diffuse each other.

If we were to put Atem and Ryou together, they would probably personally get along very well, but it wouldn't be anything close to the friendly, trusting partnership between the Yugis, probably closer to a kind of codependent parasitic relationship where ironically, Ryou would be the parasite.

I've mentioned it before, but Atem has a very deeply-seated need to provide for the people he cares for, likely a leftover trait from his time as royalty. He would probably run himself ragged trying to fix everything that made Ryou uncomfortable, since unlike Yugi, Ryou has no real stake in improving things - he seems to have an almost pathological need to have things stay the same, from writing letters to his dead sister like she's still alive to keeping the same cursed artifact/demon around his neck despite the obvious benefits of getting rid of the Evil Necklace That Kills All Your Friends.

That last point brings me to my next point, which is that Ryou is an incredibly lonely person who seems to have a hard time connecting with people (or, more likely, he has a hard time believing someone would actually like him, since from what we see in the series proper, most of his friends enjoy his company and actually wish he spent more time with them). It is unsurprising that he might keep the Ring around, especially if Yami B isn't actively trying to harm him; he's kind of like that shitty girlfriend you get because you figure dating an asshat is better than dating nobody.

If Ryou got a hold of the Millennium Puzzle, he wouldn't let that shit go for anything. Atem would literally be a friend that couldn't leave him, no matter what, which isn't to say that I think he would treat Atem badly - quite the opposite, I think they would be and are good friends - but there is a strong chance of him taking on Atem as his *only* friend. I think there would be a strong feedback loop of "Ryou relies on Atem for Thing -> Atem does thing for Ryou, preventing Ryou from having that experience and growing -> Ryou feels grateful for him averting anxiety and praises Atem -> Atem gets it in his head that this is Good and he is being a Good Host -> Atem is now willing to do more things for Ryou -> rinse and repeat." Genuinely I think Ryou might just end up retracting into their mind palace, if the two were left long enough (that would be a fun fic to write)

Also, what this means is that Ryou would never be able to go through with the Ceremonial Duel or even Millennium World - maybe not even Battle City. A lot of what Yugi did throughout the series was to try and help the Pharoah develop a sense of distinct identity (helping himself along the way, but not out of selfishness: what helps Atem helps Yugi and vice versa). Ryou would... probably be less into that. He would want to help Atem, but in his mind, a lot of these would be less 'helping Atem' and more 'taking Atem away from me, the person who cares about him and is giving him shelter and a friend to play with forever and ever and ever and ever and - " etc.

The Pharoah is no help here either, because if we're starting out with early manga Yami Yugi, a host to him is basically a cozy warm meat cave that needs to be protected from the dangers outside so you can nest inside. If we take his later Battle City characterization into account, then there is a chance he would try and discover his identity on his own (however, it is worth he did this with Anzu's pushing, so if Ryou hasn't formed a connection with her, we would need a separate inciting factor). This would probably only drive a wedge in between him and Ryou, though, if not outside influence was there to help mediate the conversation (Atem and Ryou go to couples therapy arc!)

Anyways this all goes to say that while I don't think Atem could 'handle' Ryou, I certainly think that he would have a much different life as his partner.

"wow, shads, it's almost as if you like me or something~"

"i will drop you, hedgehog."

I miss Starshipping.