Yami Yuugi

Yami Yuugi, also known as Dark Yuugi and Pharaoh Atem, is one of the main characters from the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise.

Together with Yuugi he holds the title "King of Games" (King of Duelists in Japanese version), by winning in the Duelist Kingdom, Battle City, Grand Championship and Battle City V2 (in GX anime) tournaments.

After Yuugi Muto solved the Millennium Puzzle, Yami Yuugi resided in Yuugi's body and would take possession of it when Yugi or his friends were in danger. After Yuugi became fully aware of Yami's existence, Yuugi could voluntarily give control of his body to the Pharaoh; occasionally before one would give control to the other, they would, as souls in the mind of the one controlling Yuugi's body, converse with each other, usually about their options of what to do when in difficult situations.

Appearance
As he exists in Yuugi's body, his appearance is largely the same as Yuugi's, although many alterations are made when Yami takes control, such as his eyes. However, Yami Yuugi has a more mature appearance, being taller in stature and having a deeper voice in the dub. In the Japanese version, though, very little change can be detected in Yuugi and Yami Yuugi's voice. His eyes are also narrower with a more intense, determined gaze. He also appears more muscular.

Yami Yuugi's hair features multiple layers including long blond crocked, pointy locks for his fringe. Unlike Yuugi, some of the blond locks jut upwards. The rest of his hair features five large spikes colored black with red (with a hint of magenta) rims all along the edges. The spikes were loose and free flowing at the beginning of the manga, but over time became stiffer.

In many illustrations Yami Yuugi is depicted having purple eyes like Yuugi. But in some of the cover pictures of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, he is depicted having aqua green colored eyes.

At the beginning of the series, his outfit consists of the standard male Domino High uniform complete with a closed buckled collar and a large set of Ankh cufflinks on his sleeves, which weren't present when Yuugi was in control. Underneath the male Domino High uniform he wears a dark blue or purple leather jacket with gold-studded buttons, replaced by a simple dark grey singlet during Battle City Tournament story arc. It is also noted that his uniform becomes a darker shade of blue when Yami Yuugi assumes control. Also, during Duelist Kingdom, Yuugi's blue and white sneakers would turn into solid blue boot-like shoes when Yami takes control. The Ankhs were later removed. Unlike Yuugi, Yami Yuugi sometimes wears the jacket as a cape, which could be because of actually wearing one when he was Pharaoh.

He wears the Millennium Puzzle on a brown leather rope around his neck. The leather rope is later replaced with a chain.

When he played Dungeon Dice Monsters against Duke Devlin, he wears a dark-gray long-sleeved shirt, a sleeveless vest, dark blue pants and black shoes.

When he and Téa took a day together to find out about the Millennium Puzzle, he wore black linen and several pieces of wrist-chains, to match the Millennium Puzzle's chain.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters, Yami wears a different attire of a violet jacket and jeans. He also wears the Capsule Shooter on his left arm. In episode 4, he gains Duel armor that allows him to become one with one of his capsule monsters.

Personality
In the early manga, Dark Yuugi starts out as an merciless vigilante. He emerges to deal justice to people who trespass the souls of Yuugi and his friends. Although his acts are righteous, he lives up to his namesake of Dark; his Penalty Game punishments are usually very brutal. Later, while living inside Yuugi's body, he seems to become more of a caring, nice and friendly disposition, even though he always had that in him, and the friendship of Yugi's friends had helped it be revealed to others. Yami is a strong, powerful and skilled Pharaoh. He attempts to balance darkness and evil in his use of the Shadow Magic from his Millennium Item. Unlike Yami Bakura and Yami Marik, he never uses it for personal gain, instead preferring to help others in need, and to inflict punishment only on people who have severely wronged innocents.

He is slightly reserved, as he doesn't reveal his existence to Yuugi or his friends. At first Yuugi feared Yami Yuugi, but after Yuugi admits to thinking "another Yuugi" exists inside him, his friends become aware of his existence and accepted him as a friend. Even before, Yami is extremely protective of Yugi.

Yami's pride is his greatest strength and weakness. Initially he refuses to lose games, without considering the consequences. This has caused him to almost kill Seto Kaiba by attacking his monster while he stood on a ledge and the shockwaves could cause him to fall if Yuugi chose to win the Duel (in the Japanese version, Kaiba threatened to commit suicide should he lose). Yuugi holds him back from such acts at times, but he is not always successful. Yuugi becomes afraid to let Yami out for a while, because of the harm he could cause. During his Duel with Rafael, Yami, albeit with great hesitation, eventually ignored Yuugi's objections and used the Seal of Orichalcos rather than lose. Ironically, it was this action and Yami's subsequent corrupt actions during the Duel would lead to one of his few defeats and the capture of Yuugi's soul by Dartz. Yami expressed great grief and guilt following the battle due to Yuugi's willingly suffering, which were because of Yami's actions. However, he was able to conquer and purge the darkness within himself; which also eradicating the malignant influence of the Orichalcos that remains within him. Learning how to lose became an essential aspect of Yami's journey, which he is tested in the Ceremonial Battle.

Yami is also wise and intelligent. He knows all the rules and details of how the game is played, as well as those of all games. He also knows several special game techniques, such as the Double Hit dice roll technique, which, when two dice are used and the one with the weak spin stops first, lets him make the dice that's already spinning hit the one that isn't, allowing him to change its number, which is done by bumping the field with a body part, e.g the elbow.

Despite being an ancient Pharaoh, Yami is very quick to learning and utilizing modern technology. He, despite initial shock, was able to quickly grasp the concept of holographic technology, how Dueling Arenas and field Power Bonuses worked, was able to use the Dungeon Dice Monsters Help computer to quickly formulate strategies, and was able to use Duel Disks flawlessly on the first try. Yami is also capable of translating the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, figuring out the riddles or clues and what they mean.

Through Yuugi and his friends, Yami Yuugi learns the values and powers of friendship and unity. After seeing Yuugi overcome Marik in his Duel with Joey, who has been possessed, Yami thinks to himself, he learned something from Yuugi; that in kindness lies the greatest strength of all; one day Yuugi will surpass him in every way.

In the Japanese anime, Yami often refers to Yuugi as "Aibou" (Partner) although there have been instances where he also refers to Yuugi as Other Me, although being more prideful than Yuugi he uses "ore" as such he would call Yuugi "Mou hitori no ore".

Trivia

 * Kazuki Takahashi was a fan of Tim Burton's 1990 movie Edward Scissorhands and decided that his main characters Yami Yuugi and Yuugi respectively should also have a leather bondage-theme clothing beneath his usual school uniform similar to that worn by the Burton's protagonist.
 * In addition, this clothing theme also inspired the design for Magician of Black Chaos.
 * He and Yami Bakura have many similarities. They were both ancient spirits sealed in a Millennium Item for over 3,000 years. Also, both their past selves (in Yami Bakura's case it's Thief King Bakura, whereas in Yami's case it's Pharaoh Atem) are their modern-day hosts' ancient Egyptian past incarnates. Not only that, but in the final season of the anime, they both entered the bodies of their ancient selves. Also, both of their modern-day hosts are shy, meek game-loving high-school freshmen.
 * Yuugi Muto, Seto Kaiba and Rafael are the only Duelists to defeat Yami Yuugi in a Duel. However the defeats by Kaiba and Rafael were caused by Yami Yuugi being mentally unstable (Yuugi and Yami Yuugi couldn't agree on an approach to win the Duel with Kaiba since he threatened to jump/slip off a building if he lost his match, while during the Duel with Rafael, Yami Yuugi was under the influence of "The Seal of Orichalcos").