#scandalshipping

Priest Seto's headpiece looks similar to the Khepresh, known as the "war crown" that pharaohs would wear during military operations. However, it became the default crown during Akenaten's reign (Tutankhamun's father).

Even the earlier design in the Tablet of Lost Memories resembles the artistic depictions of the crown in the Amarna period (Akhenaten's time), just with additional decorations.

Takahashi based Atem's backstory on the life of Tutankhamun, yet his priest is the one wearing the royal crown characteristic of the ruler of his time. Atem's father wears something closer to the Khat:

In the first flashback Kaiba has of his past life in chapter 229 of the first edition, the design also resembles the attire Akhenaten chose to be depicted with (guy was remarkable for altering the whole aesthetics of royal depictions in his time):

This creative choice certainly foreshadows priest Seto's eventual ascend to pharaoh after Atem seals himself and Zorc in the puzzle, but if Seto is the one wearing the pharaoh crown, then what do we make out of Atem's own crown that's different from that of his father?

At first I assumed it was related to the winged sun disk, a symbol directly related to the god Horus and his victory over Set, except the sun disk is replaced with an eye (also alluring to the eye of Horus symbol) and without the cobras representing the wadjet:

But it also has a striking resemblance to the Vulture Crown, worn by women and especially by queens (female pharaohs wear the proper pharaoh crowns), specifically in the first flashback Kaiba and Yamiyu have during their battle city duel in chapter 257 where Atem's crown design sports a bird (falcon?) head on top of the eye. The regular crown just has the wings turned upwards, but in the earlier depiction the resemblance is even more striking as Atem's hair seems to emulate the wings turned downwards:

So Prideship have matching king and queen crowns? haha

But wait, there's more!

Following symbolism in ancient Egyptian art, three things stand out in the Tablet of Lost Memories: dimension, position, and gesture.

1. Two opposite figures together, such as two character with complete opposite philosophies of life like Atem's ideals of unity and Kaiba's individualistic values who wear king and queen crowns, or two characters with narrative ties to the gods Horus and Set known to represent each side of Egypt (upper and lower) which they even go to war with each other for:

The phenomenon of duality pervades Egyptian culture and is at the heart of the essential differences between two parts of a given pair, Egyptian thought may stress their complementary nature as way of expressing the essential unity of existence through the alignment and harmonization of opposites. Thus, while duality can symbolize opposite forces or conditions, it may just as well suggest the exact opposite in stressing different aspects of a single, united whole.

2. The two figures depicted each with a foot forward and a raised arm with an open palm:

A foot forward is reserved as a symbol of authority and power, so when a figure with a "lower rank" is represented before a god or the pharaoh, only the powerful figure will have the foot forward (even in depictions of king and queen together, only the king has his foot forward). In the Tablet of Lost Memories however, both figures have their foot forward, symbolizing perhaps that their power is shared?

On the other hand (lol), there is a wide variety of hand gestures coded into ancient Egyptian art, each with their own meaning depending on context and figures depicted. While this specific hand gesture in the Tablet of Lost Memories could even be interpreted as a hostile gesture, it is also gesture for worship, devotion or protection:

The basic attitude of praise or supplication which is frequently seen in representation of Egyptians before their king or before the gods involves the holding up of one or both arms to about shoulder level with the palm facing toward the object of praise and the thumb shown below the hand.

3. And lastly, the equal size of the two figures. Priest Seto (and subsequently, Kaiba) is taller than Atem for quite a lot, yet the figures in the tablet are roughly the same height:

While the relative size of objects is rarely of symbolic significance in modern works of art using visual perspective, in ancient Egyptian art the opposite is true. In Egyptian sculpture and two-dimensional works, differences of scale rarely reflect visual reality. As in many other ancient cultures, the size of objects and figures is more often a result of the principle of relative importance, and hierarchic scaling - showing gods and kings depicted larger than lesser beings - was used from the earliest dynastic period.

Through this, we can infer the two figures are depicted as complementary sides of a greater whole, equal in power and devoted to each other ♡

Also let's just take a moment to appreciate how natural the tablet looks next to other depictions of king and queen facing each other:

In the depiction of Amenhotep I and his queen Ahmose-Nefertari the two are represented the same size, while in the depiction of Tutankhamun and his queen Ankhesenamun, Tutankhamun is represented with the same hand gesture Seto and Atem are making to each other (he's even holding a staff like Seto!).

Interpreting ancient Egyptian art isn't as straight-forward as matching a single meaning to an element in the piece, though, context and historical background matter and can change every small aspect of the final interpretation. For example, the meaning of the Tablet of Lost Memories was implied at first to be a depiction of Atem and Priest Seto's battle, a hostile interpretation that can be drawn using the same symbols I analyzed here. And yet, we already know the meaning of the tablet, because it was told to us directly in chapter 263:

The tablet contains a poem by the grief-stricken Priest Seto to his late historian will say they were friend, the pharaoh Atem:

We can also attribute this symbolism to random coincidences and the alteration of ancient Egyptian designs to (borderline orientalist - those pants 😭) mistakes instead of creative choices...

But should we? Even if a special illustrator was brought in for chapter 13 where the characters visit an ancient Egypt exposition, wouldn't mr Takahashi have become at least a bit familiar with ancient Egyptian art?

Up to you!

👉 Source of the quotes used in the analysis:

Symbol & Magic in Ancient Egyptian Art by Richard H. Wilkinson

As an extra:

PRIEST Seto and Atem are cousins, KAIBA Seto and Atem are not cousins

they're also not the same person, they may look smilar but their Kaiba's neither an incarnation of priest Seto(we see him in the afterlife at the en of teh series) or related to him

And yes, Kaiba is priest Seto's counterpart but NOT as Atem's cousin but as his RIVAL

i have concepts of a ship

This ship has so many different names that I don't know which one is the most common. So I am going with the one that best depicts the image I decided to draw for it.

Seto and Atem weren't aware they were cousins for a very long time; Seto had just as much right to the throne as Atem had, maybe more because of his age, which Seto's father thought would bring a scandal to the palace, so he kept it hidden from everyone. Seto became one of Atem's most loyal priests, even though his methods for protecting the country were not the cleanest. After Atem's death, instead of following Atem's order and ensuring he was completely erased from history, he made sure there was just enough evidence that he existed to give the broken soul called Yami enough clues to figure out who and what he was before he became a spirit.

Atem, on the other hand, respected Seto, but I don't think he liked Seto that much. Not with how he spoke to Mahad, who is the closest Atem has to an older brother. He doesn't trust him completely either, but that could be me misreading the expression in the manga. When Atem became a lost soul, he forgot everything about Seto, but somehow the two souls still found each other across time and space.

"You're lost in your mind again," the priest said, his warm breath tickling his face, "Worried about that fake king?"

"I..."

He didn't know what to answer. He didn't even know who he was talking about. All his focus was elsewhere; he couldn't think, he felt everything too intensely. He was experiencing violent emotions in their intensity, like he had never felt before when sharing a body with Yuugi.

The priest's hands were large, rough—working hands, but they moved with unexpected delicacy, tracing the contours of Yami's collarbone before sliding down his chest. His skin burned where the man touched him, every nerve alight with something deeper than lust—an ache of recognition, of longing buried so deep he hadn’t realized it existed until now. His breath hitched, and he swallowed hard, fighting the heat pooling low in his stomach.