one of the most fun things about prideshipping for me personally is it takes kaiba's "fuck fate, fuck destiny, nothing is set in stone and everything can be changed" attitude and extends it to atem, who never gets a chance to question whether or not going to the afterlife is what he REALLY wants. he accepts his fate at the end of the ceremonial duel quite gracefully but being a gracious loser does not mean this is what he wanted -- even yuugi says "if i were him, i wouldn't want to be separated from my friends and go on alone... i feel his sorrow and pain"
kaiba does this for isis in their duel in battle city by changing the future she saw in her tauk. your destiny CAN be changed, you are NOT a slave to fate. so Kaiba barreling into aaru in a blaze of glory to challenge atem like "hey just checking: what do you REALLY want? has anyone ever given you the choice before? to decide your destiny on your own? to live a life on your own terms?" is so rich and juicy for the way it opens up avenues of conflict and tension and catharsis... what have we allowed because we assumed it was inevitable? what if it wasn't? if atem could choose, what would he choose? how would he choose to live? who would he choose to become? what does it mean to come back?
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