The parallel between Atem and Yugi meeting for the first time + Bakura and Ryou meeting for the first time, along with the contrasting outcomes of said meetings, is something to behold.
YUGI: This is… the other me… This is our first time meeting…
ATEM: Yes! You threw yourself into the game to fight with your friends! That courage brought us together!
Little Yugi’s blush! He’s so happy! Atem is so proud of him! This marks the start of mutual trust between the two.
Meanwhile,
BAKURA: Y-You’re…! Bakura Ryou!!
RYOU: I don’t want to lose any more friends!! Even if that means my heart shatters!
Ryou acts on that same courage (throws himself into the game to fight along with the others), and it brings the Bakuras together, albeit more turbulently and more angrily. This marks the day Bakura learns not to underestimate his host because if given the reason to do so, Ryou can and will destroy them no matter the cost. Is that why Bakura pushed Ryou down deeper into his heart? To the point that when Ryou re-emerges, he has no recollection of anything?
As an addendum, Atem alludes to the fact that spirits within the Millennium Items die along with its holders.
“If my other heart dies, so does mine.”
All of that to say two things:
- I wish Yugi and Ryou were better friends, considering that they’re both Item bearers! What a wasted opportunity!
- And I wish we saw more of the Bakuras talking and their relationship in general! A potential for a push-pull dynamic where even the readers wouldn’t know where the line is drawn between them because they’re both crafty!
And these two things further lead to thoughts of disappointment due to the lack of an actual role given to Ryou (and his absence in general) during the Memory World arc, which we’ll get to once I get to it during my JP reread.
tldr: these four are very fascinating and very cute 🤭 I wouldve loved a spin-off of them literally doing whatever