Puzzleshipping

"I don't care if I never find my memories. I want to be with you forever..."

- Yami admitting his feelings regarding staying with Yugi.

"Me too... Me too... Forever... Y-You can have my memories... So..."

- Yugi crying in response, agreeing.

Puzzleshipping is the slash ship between Yami Yugi and Yugi Mutou from the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom.

Duel Monsters (2000) Anime
It is revealed through flashbacks that Yugi received the Millennium Puzzle through his grandfather, Sugoroku Muto (Soloman in the English-dubbed anime), from a trip in Egypt. Yugi solves the Millennium Puzzle in his room one evening and he is blessed with the luck of the Millennium Puzzle and also the spirit that resides within it, Pharaoh Atem's soul, in the form of Yami Yugi.

Initially in the anime, Yugi and Yami do not appear to understand eachother's presence and both refer to eachother as the same person. This is evident when Yami appears to duel in place of Yugi to rescue Yugi's grandfather, from Seto Kaiba's capture. Yami assumes Yugi's place as his alter-ego for the very earliest part of the series and Yami continues referring to Yugi's deck, friends, family, and even goals, as his own.

Though Yami's condition of causes him to forget his name and past, he shares a deep and close relationship with Yugi. Yami tries his best to protect Yugi whenever they encounter a dangerous threat; taking over Yugi's body to battle his foes. Even when Yugi did not know of his existence at the beginning of the series, Yami strove to rescue Yugi's grandfather from Seto Kaiba and then Maximillion Pegasus whom he also deems as his grandfather, and would save Yugi's friends should they were in danger. After Yugi became aware of Yami's existence, the two began working together in either protecting the world from evil, or finding Yami's lost memories, all which further developed Yami's connection with Yugi more. Yami has even said he cherishes Yugi more than his own life.

After finding out about the spirit, Yugi was afraid of him, but eventually grew to accept this revelation as well as Yami himself. As Yugi began to grow, becoming stronger he still remained in Yami's shadow. After the warehouse fire, Yugi is shown to be afraid of losing Yami. On Episode 52 of the Japanese-dub of the anime, after the warehouse fire, Yugi asks about who or what Yami is. Yami admits he doesn't know who or what he is, but he has a calling for finding his memories. Yugi interrupts Yami several times to get him to stop insinuating that they must separate for good in order to find Yami's memories. Yami goes quiet and admits that he wants to stay with Yugi forever as opposed to finding his memories. Yugi cries and tells Yami he is willing to give his own memories to him, but also offers his help in finding Yami's memories again, even though it meant they would one day be separated.

In the 4Kids English-dub of the anime, this scene is heavily altered and instead of the two speaking of wanting to be with eachother forever, Yami and Yugi have a discussion about the next villain that they are going to face and their knowledge of the Millennium Artifacts. Yami reassures Yugi's abilities as a duelist in this scene and tells him he is able to face anything thrown at his way because of his courage. Yugi continues to doubt himself but the 4Kids English-dub Yami reassures him once again that together, the both of them are powerful.

Yugi was heartbroken as he watched Yami using the Seal of the Orichalcos, but when he lost and was about to lose his soul, Yugi sacrificed himself to save his closest friend who for the 1st time seen in the series cried.

Amongst his complete obedience to Yugi, Yami would sometimes risk his link with him over the duels that he is on verge of loss. As while Yami strongly refuses to put Yugi's life at risk and always believes in his decisions, Yami's pride and refusal of losing would sometimes ricochet him from listening to Yugi, as seen in his duel against Kaiba for the second time in "Duelist Kingdom" arc, and against Rafael in "Waking the Dragons" arc, where he would go to any scale to avoid losing the duel. In the latter duel, however, Yami showed a great grief for losing Yugi because of his arrogance, and was vastly influenced by the loss of his partner to the point of losing faith in himself. When Weevil Underwood joked that he ripped the card containing Yugi's soul in his duel against Yami, Yami became very angry about that, and used his "Berserker Soul" magic card to launch continuous attacks at him until he draws a magic or trap card. Although Yami won the duel, he continued to attack Weevil mercilessly until Téa stopped him.

When Yami encountered Yugi in the Stone Wilderness, he explained to Yugi how sorry he was for his actions that lead to seal him. But Yugi, who was trying to pull Yami together, told him that he (Yami) only cares about himself so he does not care what happens to him as long as he has the power, and forced him into a duel. Although Yami refused to attack Yugi at first, fearing that losing the duel would mean that he would never be able to rescue Yugi and stop Doma, he reluctantly countered Yugi's final attack in order to win. The outcome of the fight against Yugi affected Yami very emotionally to the point of fainting, but he promised him that he would save him no matter what it takes.

To the end of the series, Yami and Yugi continued to support each other with all the strength they got, sharing their both sad and happy moments together. When Yugi won the Ceremonial Duel against Yami, Yugi proclaimed that he was still not ready and strong to leave Yami. Yami, however, said otherwise, and remarked that while he is leaving Yugi for good, the gift of kindness Yugi has given him, and the gift of courage he has given to Yugi will bind them together. After winning the Ceremonial Battle, Yugi was upset to see him go, claiming that he was weak and wasn't ready. Yami, proud of him, tells him otherwise, and as he steps through the door to the afterlife, Yugi gives him a thumbs up, now ready to go on his own.

Duelist Kingdom
Yami assumes that Yugi's grandfather and friends is his, and wants to pursue Pegasus to rescue his (Yugi's) grandfather. He ends up on Pegasus' Duelist Kingdom Island in a competition to win back the card that contain Yugi's grandpa's soul. In Episode 13 of the series, Yami Bakura attempts to seize Yugi's Millennium Puzzle by trapping their party in Duel Monsters Cards. Yami Yugi ends up facing Yami Bakura in a Shadow Duel. At this time, Yugi is turned into the Dark Magician card and gets to meet Yami Yugi for the first time. In the Japanese-dub, Yugi was aware of Yami's existence and the two of them agreed now is not the time to keep secrets. In the English-dub, Yugi was unaware of Yami's existence until that time, though he said he often heard a powerful voice coming from the Millennium Puzzle when he dueled. Yugi informed his friends of Yami's existence during this Shadow Game stating, that he is the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle and apologized for not telling them before. In the dub, Yugi admitted to having felt Yami's presence while he dueled and felt they could trust him. Yami managed to win the Duel, with the help of Bakura betraying Yami Bakura, returning everyone to normal.

Later on in the story, as the party approaches Pegasus' castle, they run into Seto Kaiba blocking them from continuing into the castle. Yugi is forced to into a duel with Kaiba using his new Duel Disk technology. Yami takes control and faces Kaiba in the duel. Later in the duel, Kaiba threaten his life to win by standing on a ledge so which the impact of Yami's next attack will cause him to fall to his death, however, if Yami did not attack then, he would lose the opportunity to rescue Yugi's grandpa. Yami hesitates and in the English-dub, Yugi spoke to Yami, telling him not to do it. Yami contemplated, but in the end decided to attack. Téa ran to Yugi insisting that this is not like him and calls for the ordinary Yugi to come out. Yugi took control in time to cancel the move. He fell to his knees and cried, shocked by what he had almost done.

Now fully aware of the other Yugi's existence, Yugi admitted it to his friends, telling them that he is afraid of Yami and consequently afraid to duel. After Kaiba left, Yugi continued to mope, unresponsive to his friends and their convincing him to continue dueling again. Yugi recovers from his depression, but is still wary of Yami.

The Yugis and the rest of their party makes it into Pegasus' Castle. Yugi dreams of hearing his grandfather's voice that night, telling him that the key to dueling would be to trust in and cooperate with the spirit that resides in his Millennium Puzzle.

Afterward, Yugi must face more players to continue in the tournament in order to duel Pegasus and take not only his grandpa's soul back, but now Kaiba and Mokuba's. Yugi faced Mai in the first duel of the finals. Yami gives little effort to the Duel, as he was worried about facing Pegasus. In the English-dub, Yugi refused to let Yami duel and also refused any help from him, fearing how he may harm their opponent. This resulted in Yugi playing poorly. Mai gives encouraging words to Yugi, and in the English-dub, she insists that it is okay to trust another side of yourself when you need it. The advice from Mai returned the Yugis to the top of their game and allowed them to turn the duel around and emerge with a win.

A while after that, Yugi faces Pegasus. The two struggle with Pegasus initially, despite knowing how Pegasus is able to read minds with his Millennium Eye. With their Millennium Puzzle at stake, they meet up in their soulrooms to have a brief on a new strategy. Pegasus used his Millennium Eye to read Yami's mind during the Duel, but Yugi had an idea about countering Pegasus's powers by the risky strategy of having him and Yami switch minds each time they played a face-down card, thus preventing Pegasus from reading their strategy while running the risk that one of them would attempt something that would hinder the other's plans. Yami tells Yugi that this plan is a good one, and that he believes in the both of them and trusts in Yugi's abilities to continue with it. The two of them install this plan and slowly begin winning the duel. They tease Pegasus, knowing that he is cheating and failing at reading their minds.

Enraged that the Yugis mind-shuffle plan is working, Pegasus transports the three of them into the Shadow Realm. Yugi is unable to maintain himself in the conditions of the Shadow Realm and is losing his own life energy at an exponential rate. Yami is hesitant to let Yugi endure this condition and warns Yugi to abandon the strategy altogether to keep him safe. Without their mind-shuffle strategy, their life points slowly deteriorate along with Yugi's spiritual energy. Yugi continues switching minds to keep facing Pegasus, but it is not enough. He eventually passes out in front of Yami due to exhaustion and this forces Yami to face Pegasus alone. Yami fully trusts Yugi's last face-down card and carries on through the duel with the power of Yugi and his friends' spiritual energy blocking Pegasus from reading Yami's mind. The Yugis win the duel and the both of them return from the Shadow Realm.

While leaving Pegasus' tower, Shadi notices Yugi's Millennium Puzzle and enters Yugi's mind using the Millennium Key. To Shadi's surprise he found two soul rooms; a comfortable, child-like playroom for Yugi and an ancient locked-away room for Yami. Shadi wound up in a Shadow Game with Yami, but was rescued by Yugi. Yugi informed Shadi that he doesn't believe his other self intends to harm him and asked Yami to release Shadi from the game. Yami's soul room is locked away to hint at his locked memories as Pharaoh Atem.

Later, after Kaiba, Mokuba, and Yugi's grandfather were all found to be safe and outside of their soul-card prisons, Yami Yugi congratulated Yugi on saving everyone. In the English-dub, Yugi pointed out that he doesn't even know Yami's name. Yami replies that he has been called many things such as Pharaoh, Yu-Gi-Oh and Yami. Yugi refered to him as Yami and says he is glad to call him his friend, while Yami says he is proud to be one.

Ceremonial Battle
After the party has hold of seven of the Millennium items and Yami's true name, it was decided that the Yami, now known as Pharaoh Atem, return to his world. Yami must now be defeated in a duel to prove he is worthy of returning to the afterlife, and he shall be dueled by none other than Yugi.

Joey and Kaiba both volunteer to face Yami in the battle, but Yugi insists that he shall battle Yami. Kaiba was skeptical of this, since he thought that Yugi would just be Dueling himself. He even grabbed Yugi by the throat and started yelling at him in a dramatic act of anger, but eventually stopped upon Yugi's determination. Yami leaves Yugi to think in private, as he constructs a Deck for the battle. Yugi does the same for Yami.

The party arrives at the Eye of Wdjat. Yami Yugi and Yugi split into two separate physical bodies and begin to Duel, with neither player holding back.

As the Duel continued, Yami's will was so strong and powerful he had actually influenced fate itself to draw exactly the card he needed at the right time. After a few turns, Yami Summons "Dark Magician", who Mahad takes on the form of to defend Yami. Because Yugi knows Yami so well, he deduced that Yami would attempt to ressurect one of his God Cards next. Yami tries to end the Duel, by reviving "Slifer the Sky Dragon" with "Monster Reborn", but Yugi predicted the move earlier and revealed the card he hid within "Gold Sarcophagus" was also "Monster Reborn", negating its effect.

Yami ends his turn, ready to admit defeat. Yugi hesitates to make his last attack, as he does not want Yami to leave. Yugi weeps and orders "Silent Magician" to directly attack Yami, bringing Yami's life points to zero and winning the duel.

Yugi realizes what winning the duel meant, and he falls on his knees and sobs in front of Yami. Yugi calls himself weak and said that he had always followed Yami, wanting to be as strong as him, crying over the fact that he can no longer follow in Yami's footsteps. However Yami says that Yugi has the strength of tenderness, which Yugi has also taught him. Yugi called Atem "the other me", but Atem said that he is no longer another Yugi and Yugi Muto is now himself and nobody else.

In the 4Kids 2004 dub, as Yugi wept, he said that he had been so focused on the Duel, he forgot what winning meant. However Atem said that Yugi has opened the door for him, so he can finally be at rest where he belongs and that they have fulfilled their destiny. Yugi says that he was going to miss Yami, but Yami says that they will never be truly apart as the gift of kindness Yugi has given him and the courage he has given Yugi will bind them forever.

The Eye of Wdjat glows on the wall. Yami tells it his true name, Atem, in order to open the gate to the afterlife. Yugi and the rest of his friends try to talk Yami out of leaving at first, but come to accept that he must go. Yami then says his farewells and enters the afterlife to join his ancient Egyptian friends, where he can finally rest in peace. Yugi said that he will never forget Atem. In the dub 4Kids 2004 dub, Yugi says, "It's like they always say: It's your move!" Referencing an iconic line that Yami often says during some of his duels against their formidable opponents.

Quotes
"So that is... The other me... This is the first time we've met... Yes! You put your life on the line to fight with your friends! That is the courage that brought us together!"

- Yami first meeting during a Shadow Game with Yami Bakura, Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga Chapter [INSERT CHAPTER].

"How could you break my other heart!?"

- Yugi in response to the Millennium Puzzle shattering in the midst of the warehouse fire,Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga Chapter [INSERT CHAPTER].

"I'm sorry other me... I let them shatter your heart... Hold on... I'll solve the puzzle again... ... And I can tell you how sorry I am..."

- Yugi risking his life in the burning warehouse to save and apologize to Yami, Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga Chapter [INSERT CHAPTER].

"I can't leave the other me behind!! If this place burns down, the puzzle will be destroyed! I'll never see him again! ... Please... All of you... Let me stay here and make the puzzle... Let me see the other me for one last time!!"

- Yugi begging his friends to let him fix the puzzle and see Yami again, Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga Chapter [INSERT CHAPTER].

"I... I'm too weak... You were my hero... My goal... I wanted to be strong... Like you... That's all..."

- Yugi crying to Yami (Atem) after their final battle, Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga Chapter [INSERT CHAPTER].

"You're not weak... You've always had a power that no one else could beat... Partner... The power of kindness... That's what I learned from you."

- Yami comforting Yugi in response, Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga Chapter [INSERT CHAPTER].

"That's right.. I can't... Call you 'other me' anymore, can I..."

- Yugi getting used to Yami's new name.

"...! H-Hey... It's okay... I don't mind... You don't need to call me... [Atem]..."

- Yami (Atem) reassuring him about what he can be called, Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga Chapter [INSERT CHAPTER].

"Ever since Atem left, I haven't dueled together with anyone in forever... [Yugi proceeds to blush] ............ ...Oops, sorry! It's nothing you need to worry about."

- Yugi randomly blushing while bringing up dueling together with Atem (Yami), Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links game.

"I'm gonna miss you."

- Yugi after beating Atem in the Ceremonial Duel.

"You do realize we'll never truly be apart, right?"

- Yami (Atem) about to leave for the afterlife, Duel Links Game and Duel Monsters Anime.)

Fanon
Puzzleshipping is the most popular pairing in the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom. Yami and Yugi fall very well into the "soulmates" trope either platonically or romantically, which is why the popularity of this pairing is high. Throughout the series, they both share a bond with eachother that goes beyond friendship as it is seen that Yugi will and has risked his life several times for Yami, with Yami wholeheartedly agreeing that he would do the same. The way they are truly soulbonded

Although being the most popular pairing in the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom, Puzzleshipping has its controversies. Some fans argue that Yami and Yugi are exactly the same person, and some claim that their bond is strictly familial. With some adjustments on their communication in the 4Kids' English-dub, this causes more debate on the validity of their interactions being viewed in a romantic light, such as versions of Yami confessing that he would rather stay with Yugi forever than get his memory back in the Japanese-dub and the manga being shortened in the English-dub anime to a conversation about future threats.

Yugi and Yami are often colored differently in fanart to make them appear more distinct from eachother. Yugi's traditional red hair tips are often depicted as purplish and Yami's eyes are depicted as more red. Yami also tends to have darker skin, being depicted as Pharaoh Atem or mirroring his tanned skin.

On AO3, Puzzleshipping is the most written ship for both Yugi and Atem. It also the second most written ship in the Yu-Gi-Oh - All Media Types tag.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION

Trivia

 * The name "Puzzleshipping" is derived from the object of interest, the Millennium Puzzle, that connects Yami Yugi and Yugi Muto's souls together.
 * Another name for this ship is "Blindshipping" which specifically focuses on the relationship between Pharaoh Atem and Yugi Muto.
 * Yugi greatly resembles Yami; but whether he is a descendant of Yami or a reincarnation of his who can somehow exist in tandem with his past self is never quite explained. Later Yu-Gi-Oh! series confirm that different pieces of the soul can indeed reincarnate as separate people, but whether this applies to Yugi has never been confirmed, though many characters in the manga, anime, and even games acknowledge that Yami is a different "entity" from Yugi and often refer to them as such.
 * Yugi is called "aibou" ("partner") by Yami, emphasizing the respect Yami has for him as well as their closeness.
 * Yami Yugi mentions in the manga that the collar and leather belts are specifically Yugi’s choice of clothing, and not his. He himself thinks Yugi has poor fashion sense, and once tried to get him to put some chains on his arms after putting on the Puzzle.
 * One of the subtle visual differences between him and Yami Yugi is that Yugi has Tsurime Eyes. That being said, through Art Evolution circa The Dark Side of Dimensions, he has boderline Tsurime Eyes comparable to Yami during Duelist Kingdom, though large enough to still be Yugi's distinguishable Tareme Eyes.
 * They met in a bar in Berlin.