Yugioh - Yuugi MutouxYami no Yuugi

[lediz.livejournal.com]

Yugioh! - Yuugi Mutou x Yami no Yuugi
Title I'll give all of my memories to be with you - Puzzleshipping at its canon
Fandom Yugioh!
Author lediz
Spoilers The majority of the Yuugiou: Duel Monsters anime and Yugioh manga.
Credits Images taken from kokoro no naka and Yugioh images. Manga scans from janime and Yugioh! Volume 5. Thanks to jkateel , hales731 , obabscribbler  and all the others who helped (and put up with) me for this essay.

NOTES Yugioh! is not like most anime in that manga-to-anime-to-dub makes small changes that don’t affect anything. The changes from Yugioh! to Yuugiou: Duel Monsters to YuGiOh! are kind of huge. This doesn’t necessarily make one better than the others, but my personal preference is not with the English dub. I figure the characters and relationships change too much to really consider them the same. So my essay will revolve around the Japanese Yuugi Mutou and Yami no Yuugi, mainly using Yuugiou: Duel Monsters as example.

DISCLAIMER The Yugioh! manga and Japanese anime have finished. In both of them, the relationship between Yuugi and Yami was left... vague, and Yami moved onto the afterlife. Obviously, the pairing is not canon. Despite many people believing it to be as canon as ‘shounen-ai’ can be in this particularly genre, I know it's not. I'm purely ranting about how and why I can enjoy the pairing in all its fanon glory.

GLOSSARY
Puzzleshipping – the title of the Yami/Yuugi pairing
Yuugi - the name of the main character of Yugioh!, is a rarely used word for ‘game’ or ‘amusement’. These days, the Japanese--especially in this particular series--tend to use the English word, but the pun remains.
Yami no Yuugi - simply put, means ‘Yuugi of Darkness’. This was Yami’s original title. The Japanese fandom shortened his name to ‘Yami’, and it was picked up for the dub (though it has since been ignored), and gets used in almost all fanon as his casual name.
Aibou - The Japanese Yami calls Yuugi this. It can be translated as anything from ‘partner’ to ‘loved one’ (though that would require a different kanji spelling), but it doesn’t have a good English translation. The best I can do is ‘someone you need and depend on’.

YUUGIOU: DUEL MONSTERS
Believe it or not, Yugioh! was not supposed to be about a card game. It was simply because the fan response was so huge to what had been just a one-off appearance that the series gradually began to revolve around it. Naturally, though, because it is what it is, the anime I will be using always did revolve around it, and a lot of character relationships are built through their ‘Duels’.
As such, I have to draw attention to one major difference between the original anime (Yuugiou: Duel Monsters) and dub (YuGiOh!). While the dub portrays Yugi as fairly weak and dependent on Yami, the anime makes an issue of Yuugi’s strength, and shows Yami to depend on Yuugi when fighting his duels and otherwise generally function. It’s a minor point in the overall series, I believe it makes a large difference in their relationship, will be making reference to it, and so to avoid getting my head bitten off by dub fans, it's gotta be said before we start.

Yugioh! Puzzleshipping
"I'll give you all my memories, because I always want to be with you..."

What are we talking about, now?

Yugioh! is the world-famous creation of Kazuki Takahashi, though not everybody knows the same version of it, as there are now nine different Yugioh out there (the original manga, Yugioh the animated series, Yuugiou: Duel Monsters the second animated series, YuGiOh! the dubbed anime, YuGiOh: Uncut, the more liberal dub, Yugioh! the card game, Yugioh: GX, Yugioh R and Yugioh Hero). The original manga began in Shounen Jump in 1997, finished in early 2004, after 38 volumes, and began three whole new spin off series.

The story revolves around the growth of its two main characters, Yuugi Mutou and the Pharaoh Atemu, who spent the vast majority of the series as a nameless spirit living in Yuugi’s overbearing necklace, the Millenium Puzzle. While the background of the story delves into Egyptian mythology and the struggle between light and darkness, the theme has always been about friendship and trust.

I stumbled into Yugioh by accident, having never been particularly impressed by the few dubbed episodes I had seen until I spent a sleepless night watching a marathon on mute. Without the dialogue to confuse me, I noticed a few strange instances in the show, and went online to find out more. A failed experiment and 32 badly subtitled episodes later, I was hooked.

A little disturbed by the fandom, especially the Yuugi/Yami fans who all seemed so insistant that their pairing was canon, it took me a while to join in, but the more episodes I watched, and more manga I read, the more I fell in love with the story, and then the pairing. Yuugi and Yami were not, I discovered, the same person and their relationship was so deep and meaningful, despite their tactile distance, that I had to learn more, until one day I realised that I was obsessed.

I am not a very good fangirl, as I quite enjoy the fact that my pairing isn’t defined canon, and I actually quite like the female love interest (most of the time), but I enjoy the subtleties of the canon relationship and see constant hints of my pairing in the anime, which I hope to explain here.

And the pairing?

THE SPIRIT


Full Name: The Nameless Pharaoh Atemu (his name and overall existence were struck from Egyptian records)
AKA: Yami no Yuugi/The other Yuugi, Mou hitori no boku/The other me, Namonaki Faro/Nameless Pharaoh, Ouji/Prince, Yuugi, Yami (first by Japanese fandom and then English dub), Faro/Pharaoh, and a variety of terms that can usually be translated as ‘son of a bitch’.
Age: It’s never specified or even guessed at. He died a young pharaoh, but considering the time that could mean anything under the age of thirty, and was locked in a puzzle for around three thousand years.
Family: Father Pharaoh Akunumkanon, Uncle Priest Akunadin, Cousin Priest Seto.

Although Atemu’s father was a just king, he ordered the creation of seven mystical objects, the Millenium Items, in order to defend his besieged country. It was not until later that he discovered they came from dark forces, and had required the sacrifice of an entire village to be made. The dark origins of the Millenium Items’ power was kept secret until the day of Atemu’s coronation, when the sole survivor of the sacrificed village began a plot to resurrect the evil that was supposed to come along with the Millenium Items. Now pharaoh, Atemu knew the only way to protect his kingdom was to lock himself, the survivor and the dark power away in the Millenium Items. Three thousand years passed, Atemu becoming more and more imbedded in dark power and forgetting all his memories, until the greatest of the Millenium Items—the Millenium Puzzle—was solved and the darkness was once again released into the world.
Due to the fact that he has no memory, Yami can be forgiven if he occasionally seems like he has no personality, either. His personality changes completely over the course of the story, going from an insane, uncontrollable gambler to the benevolent pharaoh he once was. For the majority of his time with Yuugi, however, he is what his character profile title would paint him as: Darkness. He is self righteous, arrogant, hypocritical and cold. He trusts very few people and has literally killed for the sake of his pride. Despite this, or maybe because of it, he is fiercely loyal to his friends and those he calls his partners. He is also violently protective of Yuugi, who is the only person he allows to see his softer, more playful side. Occasionally given to bouts of self-doubt, he only has to look to Yuugi for a quiet cheer before returning to his often quite literal "I can beat god" persona. He also has a very cruel sense of humour, which he tends to use only in taunting his opponents or teasing Yuugi.

THE BOY


Full Name: Yuugi Mutou
AKA: Aibou, Mou hitori no ore/The other me, Mou hitori no Yuugi/The other Yuugi (though usually left ignored by his friends when Yami is in control), Yugi Motou (the dub’s punny name translates to Original Yuugi), and a variety of terms that range from Chibi-chan (an insulting term for someone short) to Darling to Vessel.
Age: 16 through 17 over the course of the series.
Family: Grandfather Sugoroku Mutou, Mother (unnamed), and Father (who remains conspicuously absent. On a ‘business trip overseas’ according to Takahashi’s on the spot answer).

Much of Yuugi’s character evolved from the fact he was alone for most of his life. Growing up, he only had one friend, Anzu Mazaki, who was usually off spending time with someone else. He’s a little strange, as almost every main character has commented at least once, and completely obsessed with games, especially puzzles. He solved the Millenium Puzzle, believing it would grant his wish of gaining true friends, and began to be possessed by Yami, quickly immersing him in a world of dark magic. Until the very end of the manga, he remains stubborn in the belief that he would never have made any friends without the puzzle, despite the hell it made of his life.
Yuugi is quiet. He is always polite, modest to the point of being self-depreciating, and is a bit of a pushover. He also tends toward the martyristic, which works quite well because there an awful lot of people that want to hurt him. In the beginning of the manga, he didn’t have much experience with social situations, and in public would tend to act much younger and excitable than he really was. However, the more he came to trust himself and his friends, the quieter and more mature he became. This is actually a problem, because he hides behind Yami, and it leads even his best friends to think he’s far weaker than he really is, thinking many of his good points to belong to the spirit. Yuugi is naïve and far too trusting, believing in the good in people even after they’ve tried to kill him several times. However, considering that all of his friends have hurt him at least emotionally, that could be construed as a good thing. He is always kind and a little too emotional, but a combination of naivete and strength will always keep him going, even after he’s dead and souless.

So, why ’ship it?

In the Fandom…

I could go through all every single point of the series, mentioning looks and moments and minor dialogue that hints there is something more to Yami’s relationship with Yuugi than is necessarily let on. I will next. But since the Yugioh fandom is slightly different to most, I feel that is the best place to start.

The series of Yugioh is often referred to as a breeding ground for slash/shounen-ai. The majority of its characters are male and several of them are, to be perfectly honest, pretty. Many of the main characters (epecially Yami) favour leather, belts, chains, and bare midriffs. Yuugi has occasionally been likened to a girl even in the manga, and his animators often don’t help the accusation any. Yami in particular tends to ‘sashay’ when he walks, and has a habit of standing with one hand on his jutting hip. Not that it realistically means anything, but it’s enough for some fans to get excited.

Online fandoms are also a little ridiculous in that they will literally take any two characters and just put them together, even if they have never spoken in the series. Yugioh is no exception, as the ‘shipping list’ will show you. However, the possibility of Yami/Yuugi is quite high, and I personally believe it’s probably second of all possible canon, after Jounouchi/Mai and tied with Yuugi/Anzu, especially considering romance is rarely given any place but comedic backstory in Yugioh.

Since it is so nearly-canon, those that go into the ‘why pair them’ often turn to the series itself to explain it. One particular fanon-theory was regularly supported throughout most of the series, and by Kazuki Takahashi himself, until the very final arc of the series – The Ceremonial Duel.

The theory uses the Ancient Egyptian theory of the soul: the ankh. Upon death, the ankh is separated into two halves, a ka (the spiritual side) and the ba (the human side). Supposedly, the two halves remeet in the afterlife and continue on to the next plain. In Yugioh, however, Pharaoh Atemu sealed his spirit into the Millenium Puzzle, beginning the fanon soulmate theory.

In this theory, Yuugi and Yami are quite literally soul mates. When Pharaoh Atemu sealed his spirit—his ka—into the Millenium Puzzle, his ba was left to reincarnate. It did so until it eventually became Yuugi Mutou, who solved the Millenium Puzzle, thereby rejoining with its other half.

This theory is well liked because it not only explains why they look so similar but also why Yuugi was ‘the chosen one’ – the only one who could possibly solve the Millenium Puzzle. Also, throughout the manga and series, there is constant reference to the idea that the true power of the puzzle can only come out when Yuugi and Yami join as one. As a final rounding off of the theory, Kazuki Takahashi himself has always said that he believed Yuugi and Yami to just be two sides of the same person, which fans declare to be the same as when people describe their lovers as their other half.

Naturally, there are other theories, none of which are substantiated so well, but they do exist. The greatest annoyance to all of them is the fact that for all its reincarnations and past lives and moments of fate, Yugioh never once clearly defines exactly what Yuugi is in terms of the Millenium Items.

That doesn’t stop fanfiction writers coming up with their own stories, of course.

In the Canon…

Yuugi and Yami have a difficult relationship to describe. Even from the beginning things were confusing, as Yami knew full well of Yuugi’s existence, but not only did he hide from Yuugi’s notice, he also preferred everyone to believe he was Yuugi. Even after the secret is out and they know and occasionally interact with one another, the two personalities clash. Yuugi is a martyr, Yami is a killer. By all rights, the two should not be able to peacefully coexist in the same vicinity, let alone the same body. They occasionally have to fight to maintain control over the other, but that, believe it or not, is the reason they work so well together.

In the beginning, Yami is wild, sadistic and reactionary. Playing the part of a dark avenger, he feeds off Yuugi’s anger and sadness, causing pain, insanity and/or humiliation to whoever made Yuugi feel that way. It is very small, but even these actions give hint to the eventual relationship between the two: Yuugi may not know it, but Yami is already fighting to protect him from literally anything that might cause him pain. There is no particular reason for this, though much later in the series it is suggested that like his opposite—Yami Bakura—he was merely doing it because it was his duty to protect his host body, like paying rent to a landlord. However, this theory does not hold up so well, as although Bakura does do that, its only when his host is in real mortal danger, rather than offended. Yami fights and attacks as soon as Yuugi begins to feel even the slightest stirrings of anger.

But that is not the only time he will fight. Their relationship as we know it does not even really begin until Yami chooses to fight his archrival Seto Kaiba for little reason other than he can. At the final round, all Yami has to do is call his attack to win, but before he can do so, Kaiba declares that he will kill himself if he loses. He is not bluffing, but Yami believes a loss or surrender would be a far greater sacrifice than just letting Kaiba kill himself. Luckily for Kaiba, Yuugi splits from Yami and forcibly takes back control in time to stop the attack and surrender. This foreshadows onto his next duel, in which Yami is faced with the very real possibility of defeat. His opponent uses his arrogance against him, and quickly becomes frustrated with how easily she is winning. She demands he wake up to himself, using the phrase ‘what can be shown but not seen’ to tell him he is weak without the strength to admit defeat. Although it is not necessarily what she had in mind, Yami does wake up, realising that Yuugi could possibly be stronger than him and that he does need Yuugi’s help and support.

The moment seems small and insignificant, but it best shows the way their relationship works. While it is always Yami that fights the battles, makes the sweeping statements and encourages the group, it is Yuugi that helps him to do all of that. Not just by continuing to wear the puzzle and therefore allow himself to be possessed, but Yuugi is always there behind Yami, encouraging and reassuring him. To quote Yami himself: "I’ve never felt fear in a duel before. That’s because you were always there, you were always supporting me." Without Yuugi’s support or at least Yuugi in mind, he will always lose his duels. The duel against Mai Kujaku is the first example, though he gained Yuugi’s help before the end, and the Ceremonial Duel that quote is from is another. But the greatest example is the fan-favourite Doma arc.

Doma could very well be a Puzzleshipping essay on its own. It has a painfully melodramatic premise, with both the human world and world of Duel Monsters at risk, and the wall between the two crumbling. Yami and Yuugi are naturally charged with saving it. However, like all Yuugiou: Duel Monsters arcs, this must be done with duels, and the risk this time is that they are not only playing against people that accept and use their own darkness as strength, but the loser of each duel will have his soul taken. Things go badly enough at first, until Yami is given the opportunity to use the same power as their enemies. Knowing Yami’s darkness is too strong for him to control the way the opponent does, Yuugi begs him not to accept it, even trying to physically hold him back. Already part way controlled by his fear, anger and arrogance, Yami ignores his pleading and takes the power, not even noticing that it has sealed Yuugi away from him until long after the event. Without Yuugi’s support and guidance, Yami loses himself to his darkness. The end result is that his soul is almost stolen, until Yuugi finds his way back in time to shove him out of the way, thereby taking his place. Despite what Yami has done, his final words are nothing but the quiet assurance "I believe in you".

Aside from saving Yami’s soul, this seems to do more harm than good. Without his ‘soul’, ‘strength’ and aibou, Yami collapses. Only literally at first, until Jounouchi sighs out in relief that he is fine, and Yami tells them that he is not fine at all. He then falls to his knees in tears, screaming to the skies for his aibou. This is even more significant to Puzzleshipping than it might seem. While Yami regularly displays anger, he almost never allows anyone to see his fear or sadness. Through an earlier arc, three of his friends—including his closest friend Jounouchi—had been hurt, with very little chance of recovery, but the most he did was punch a wall. Here, Yami not only falls apart, but over the next few episodes he goes into a state of shock. Never showing any real emotion beyond self-hatred and apathy, he feels and begins to act fairly useless. He no longer thinks they can defeat their enemy, and he all but ignores anyone who tries to tell him things will work out alright. This is not because he has lost a friend – he has lost Yuugi.

Then, as if it were not obvious enough that he needs Yuugi back, another opponent arises, pulling dirty stunts in an attempt to defeat the already weak pharaoh. He even goes so far as to make Yami believe he has destroyed all chance of having Yuugi’s soul returned. When he discovers it was just a ‘joke’, Yami does not just get angry, as he would for another friend. He attacks with a cold violence we have never yet seen from him, even after the opponent has had his soul taken and is nothing more than an empty shell. Eventually Anzu has to physically hold him back, but he breaks free to haul the soulless body up off the ground, screaming for it tell him where his aibou is.

Eventually, Yami is taken to the ‘Desert of Rocks’, where he can meet a form of Yuugi’s spirit. The risk is that once they have entered the desert, only the strong can leave. Yami brushes off the danger, and literally runs into the desert, only to be confronted by a cold and abrupt version of his aibou, who scoffs at even the most heartfelt words.

                        Yuugi: Why are you here?
                        Yami: I… No matter what, I wanted to be with you.
                        Yuugi: Wanted to be with me? This empty shell of me?
                        Yami: Aibou… I don’t understand myself, I don’t know what’s right, or what’s wrong. When you’re with me, I judge things naturally… but your warmth and concern are gone from me now… If I keep fighting, it’ll only hurt people.

But Yuugi just snaps at Yami to stop complaining, and challenges him to another duel, in which Yuugi uses the time to yell at him, accusing him of being weak, and an arrogant coward. Other opponents have done this in the past, but each accusation cuts this time, until Yami ends up begging Yuugi to stop, not wanting to fight anymore.

After the duel is over, Yami does something he has never done before and pulls Yuugi onto his lap, holding him close as Yuugi tells him "you have to believe in us, believe in your partners," and that he will always be with him. Though Yuugi disappears, leaving the pharaoh in tears and screaming, the promise is enough. While the others have tried everything to bring Yami back to normal, talking, yelling and even punching him, Yami has ignored them all. It is only Yuugi that he believes when he is told everything will be fine.

Despite the ending of Doma including a scene that has Yuugi and Yami walk off with their arms around one another, Puzzleshippers are still left unsatisfied, as their reunion is cut short in lieu of further impending doom. However, if nothing else, it proves their relationship is strong, and often dependent. Yami is the hero of this series, but every hero in every story needs a supposedly weaker person, one he always protects, but who will always protect and support him in return. In Cowboy Bebop, Spike had Julia, Sailor Moon had Tuxedo Mask, Buffy had Riley, even the old super-heroes like Superman had their Lois Lane… The only difference is that in this one, the relationship is completely unspoken.

The fact is, Yami does not think of Yuugi as part of his group of friends. He speaks and acts differently around him, calls his friends ‘nakama’ (a casual translation of colleague or friend) while Yuugi is only ever his aibou, and even verbally separates him from the others by always calling out to him separately, even if Yuugi is in the back of the group and has not spoken yet. Yami’s side of Puzzleshipping is easy to see.

Unfortunately, Yami is not the hard part of Puzzleshipping. Heartfelt confessions, his trust, his habit of touching Yuugi whenever he has a good excuse; the way he dresses, the way he walks, sits, stands; the fact that he is, without fail, always conspicuously absent when Yuugi is confronted with a girl (even to the point of scowling and disappearing when one is about to glomp him) – all these canon occurrences are easy (and often enjoyable for a Puzzleshipper) to add up to one thing: Yami likes Yuugi far more than he is given credit for. Yuugi, on the other hand, makes things difficult.

Being the self-depreciating martyr that he is, Yuugi would do anything for his friends. Because of that, the things he does for Yami can occasionally be brushed off as things he would do for anyone. In particular, the beginning of the second major arc of Yuugiou: Duel Monsters (it is only a minor arc in the manga, more to introduce a new character and show how close Yuugi and Yami have become) can be construed as either a hint or just what Yuugi would do for anyone in that situation. His puzzle stolen, Yuugi is forced to play a game to get it back. Although he agrees, the puzzle is eventually dismantled, and the building it and Yuugi are in bursts into flames. With the top of the puzzle nailed to an immovable spot, Yuugi has no way to get the pieces out, and he translates this to mean he will never see Yami again. Rather than save himself, Yuugi decides to stay in the fire and solve the puzzle, so he can see Yami "one last time". Jounouchi (and Honda, in the anime) begs Yuugi to leave it behind, but accepts the fact he won’t leave without it. Yuugi eventually does solve the puzzle, but not without getting burned and finally falling unconscious. What makes this different to his other self-sacrificing moments is that even unconscious he refuses to leave the puzzle behind, latching onto it so tightly that even bodily yanking Yuugi away won’t remove his hold. Usually he will allow himself to be rescued in some way or another, but as the manga comments, his bond with Yami is as "strong as a chain", and cannot be broken.

Of course, there are a few issues in the way of talking this too far up. Like the one seen in almost every manga series, though it usually warrants some kind of conflict, rather than the occasional comment it gets in Yugioh. From the very beginning, Yuugi has a crush on Anzu, his childhood friend. Although she has always tried to ignore Yuugi’s affection, one day Yami saves her life, unfortunately causing her to fall in love – but only with his voice, never having seen his face. Yami’s continuing actions cause her to watch Yuugi more closely in an attempt to see Yami, until she decides she actually likes them both. Though she does say she likes Yuugi just as much, she tends to focus more of her romantic attentions on Yami. Just wanting them to be happy, Yuugi accepts this, and assumes Yami feels the same way, leaving himself to be ‘just a friend’. No one ever bothers to correct him (though Yami teases Yuugi about making Anzu fall in love with him), but it quickly becomes obvious to see how wrong he is, at least in regard to Yami.

Fans of the Yami/Anzu pairing will often stop a Puzzleshipper at this point to ask, if that is the case, then why did Yami go on a date with Anzu? But the real canon quickly explains that. Yami never wanted to be on the date in the first place. To cheer him up, Yuugi set him up to go out with Anzu, never telling him exactly what was going on until it was too late for Yami to back out. It is true he went along with the ‘date’, but in the whole montage, Yami never seems to enjoy himself, except for a few moments where he’s buying cards. In fact, he spends a great deal of his time looking bored or frustrated, and somehow manages to bring Yuugi up in every single conversation. Unlike the two boys, Anzu never makes note of the triangle, just enjoying her time with Yami and becoming rather talented at jumping into jealousy over every girl to even smile at Yuugi.

The next issue is, of course, that while Yami thinks of Yuugi as his aibou, Yuugi only ever refers to Yami as "The other me", and only calls himself Yami’s ‘nakama’ (colleague or friend). Of course, that is not to say he does not have his Puzzleshipping moments. To be specific, after the aforementioned fire, Yuugi demands to know who Yami is, prompting a rather touching scene as Yami confesses he remembers nothing over his past.

                        Yami: All I know is that as long as you have the puzzle, I will be here.
                        Yuugi: No more…
                        Yami: So I will—
                        Yuugi: No more!
                        Yami stares, shocked at the outburst, then smiles.
                        Yami: Even if I don’t get my memories back, I always want to be with you.
                        Yuugi: Me too. Always! I’ll… I’ll give you all of my memories!
                        Yami steps forward, cupping his hands around Yuugi’s on the puzzle.
The symbolism of that scene can and has been interpreted several different ways. Personally, I believe it to be best interpreted as Yami’s way of returning what he felt after Yuugi stayed in the fire for him. The series often comments on why memories are important, describing them as necessary to allow a person to move forward, but here, both Yuugi and Yami are willing to give up their pasts for each other. This is understandable from Yami, who has no memories and therefore nothing to lose, but as terrible as his life was, Yuugi is still fond of his memories with his family, but Yami means so much more to him.

Like many of the bonds in Yugioh, Yuugi’s feelings for Yami are only really displayed in very small moments. Preferring to stay hidden in the background, a throwback to his days of being alone, Yuugi very rarely shows his strength. Except for fun, Yuugi does not duel unless the people he most cares about are on the line – his grandfather, his first real friend Jounouchi, and Yami. Of those three, Yami is the only person he will win for, and he will do it against all odds. This is probably most obvious in the second to last arc, in which, for the first time, Yuugi is completely alone with his friends, and forced to take the responsibility of leadership so the others never give up. Not only does he duel Yami Bakura—someone who has always given even Yami difficulty to defeat—but fights several real monsters, always reminding himself that it is all for Yami.

Regardless of how far the emotion goes, Yuugi and Yami do have a strong bond together, and it is occasionally commented that they complete one another. It, of course, remains impossible for canon, with too many factors—such as Yuugi’s ability to be completely oblivious to people that feel anything beyond friendship for him; Yami having to go on to the afterlife; and the fact that no matter how much all the characters wish it was otherwise, one of them is dead—keeping the two apart. However, canon can always be changed for the sake of fanon, which is why all Puzzleshippers love it so. Besides – there has to be some reason for all the chains and leather. And it does makes Duel Monsters that much more interesting…

Ficcage reccomendations:
Like most of Yugioh, really canon fanfiction is hard to find. But for your interest--
Perchance to Dream, by innominate
A Christmas Ritual, by Ceresi
Pernicious Incandescence, by SeraphEyes
Hikari, by Sailor Comet
Northward Pointing Compass, by Nicole Silverwolf
If the World Doesn't Want me, by Artist Josie
And some Fanfiction.net communities--
www.fanfiction.net/c2/6019/0/1/
www.fanfiction.net/c2/1995/0/1/

Comments

wow!!

[t-kitty.livejournal.com]

This was awesome!! I am a big YamiXYuugi fan (possiably the oldest >.< ) You explained this so well, better than I could ever do.

I can't stand the YamiXAnzu pairing, because it just doesen't go. I have watched the Japanese version of YGO and never saw any hint of Yami ever likeing Anzu, but so many people say there is. >.<

I hope you don't mind me linking this so other people can read this. I have a YamiXYugi DA site that I can put this on. I hope you don't mind. Heres the link www.YamiXYugi.deviantart.com

I am t-kitty! =^,,^=

Re: wow!!

[lediz.livejournal.com]

Thanks! You can link away - I'll just feel that much cooler for it!

I don't care what they say, I really do not see YamixAnzu working that well. But I think the whole close friendship, hetero and the fact he DID go on 'dates' with her are supposed to overlap all the glaring problems...

I believe I've visited your deviant site before, but I am most definitely going to go check it out again. Thanks!

Re: wow!!

[t-kitty.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks ^^ I have the link on the YamiXYugi page, and my DA page as well..and well cough cough I actually posted it on the comments page on the AtemuXAnzu site too >.< I will see what bashing I will get for that ^^

hehehe bad kitty bad lol