Was Atem About To Defeat Yugi? [Yugioh Duel Monsters Finale]

This was such a great duel. “Yugi, a champion doesn’t belong on his knees.” Man, what a great line

"Let's split the deck we've been using this whole time, and then fill in the gaps with other cards of our choosing" "Sure Pharaoh, that sounds great" "Excellent" grabs all 3 Egyptian gods "Now you can pick three :)"

I like to imagine Obelisk just choking the life out of Slifer while they’re all in the graveyard. “YOU JUST HAD TO KEEP SHOOTING AT THEM DIDN’T YOU YOU STUPID NOODLE!?!”

It's crazy how many times yugi pays half his life points in this duel. Very symbolic of how he feels about the duel.

I just realized something. Silent magician could be seen as a mirror of yugi. Always silent, bullied, and unsure of himself. But through “leveling up” or going on his journey with atem he becomes more confident, mature, and stronger as a person much like how as silent magician levels up she matures and could be seen having a more confident look on her face. It’s an interesting idea that I like

I was today’s years old when I realized that Yugi negated Monster Reborn to win the duel that sent Atem back to the afterlife... denying Atem’s rebirth. It’s a clever end to the duel.

knowing now how yu-gi-oh is, a 26 turn duel is pretty legendary. Can you imagine having a 26 turn duel today?

Atem's misplays are actually in character for him. Since the time he showed Yugi he was willing to let Kaiba die to win a duel back in Duelist Kingdom, he always played overcautiously, and for good reason. Think about it - the next time he overextended, he lost Yugi's soul in the Dartz arc. He held back as a habit, never launching an offensive that was anything more then what he thought he needed to stay just barely ahead.

While absent in the manga, it's Kaiba's confession that really gets me - and Joey's subsequent reaction. Kaiba: "Yugi may have fewer Life Points, but he somehow found a way to defeat all three Egyptian God Cards. I've never seen anything like it. I can see now that I was wrong about him. He truly is the King of Games." Joey: "SAY WHAT?! Am I goin' nuts or did Kaiba just admit that he was wrong?!?"

I loves the symbolism in yugi's deck so much. How the silent monsters show his growth personality wise during his journey. The gadgets showing his teamwork with his friends, how so many of his effects drain his life to protect his monsters (which I think is like all his life threatening fights to save his loved ones) ,even the whole gold sarcophagus play had a even deeper meaning with slifers original name being Osiris. Just thinking about it now gandora could be a reference to atem when he was in his indiscriminate mind crush days, a little bit of a stretch but kinda a neat thought. It's just a perfect representation of his growth from the meek little kid to a confident and strong person.

To anyone watching this (again) after July 6, 2022… It is with a heavy heart I tell you that anyone watching this should know that the creator of Duel Monsters, of Yu-Gi-Oh! as a card game, an anime, and so much more, has pass on. Never forget Kazuki Takahashi!! He gave us something amazing! A card game that’s able to stand alongside the other titans of card games and have just as many fans!! We will miss you, great Creator!!

That final thumbs up and the last panel of the manga showing Atem walking into the light always tugs at my heart strings

Misplays in the duel aside, I'm choosing to be of the belief that when Yugi & Atem were negotiating on which of their shared Deck's cards they'd each be taking for their own when constructing the Decks for the ritual duel, they couldn't come to an agreement on who got to take custody of Kuriboh and Kuriboh loved both of them too much to possibly choose between them, so they agreed to instead leave their adopted furball out of the this one.

One thing I wanted to add to this video is that as Atem was making his deck, he stated he need more power, if we look back at the entire series, it shows that it’s more important to have the right balance of cards that work together, Yugi had his deck built entirely around that, Atem mainly focused on power and not as much teamwork in his deck, which could also show that Yugi knows teamwork wins, not power!

Always thought it was ironic that Yugi's "Heart of the Cards" faith turned out to be him unintentionally cheating via the Millennium Puzzle.

I’ve always been obsessed with the intelligence of this duel. Yugi understood that Atem was a strategist and would always play chess when his opponents played checkers going for moves and effects that would hit them where it hurt the most when it was only critical to pick opponents apart piece by piece. Yugi used that against him FlAWLESSLY and that instantly made it my favorite duel period.

The fact that yugi predicting both atem AND kaiba would use monster reborn in this duel and dark side of dimensions only to end up negating both of them speaks SO loudly about the theme of those duels

“The souls of the dead must not linger in the world of the living.” Every meta deck ever: I’ll pretend to not hear it and just use the dead as a resource then

As a kid I always liked how the result is based on how well they knew each other with yugi knowing Atem would use monster reborn. I didn't realise the metaphor of negating monster reborn (makes more sense with it being called Resurrection of the dead) to show Atem he can now lay to rest.

This was a great video ☺️