Shadow Game

A Shadow Game, or Yami no Game (literally "Game of Darkness" or "Dark Game") as it is known in the original Japanese, in the manga Yu-Gi-Oh! and the two anime series, the first series Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (internationally simply known as Yu-Gi-Oh!), is a contest generally between two people that involves a harsh penalty for the loser. Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. In Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories is revealed that Nitemare created the Shadow Games. In some versions of the Yu-Gi-Oh! story, the shadow games are games played given that the loser or someone who attempts to cheat suffers a harsh penalty, such as being killed, losing his or her vision, and/or losing his or her soul, an illusion forced upon the loser, etc. In others, the shadow games involve releasing monsters from stone tablets, and was played by Egyptian Pharaohs, with the fate of the world at stake. The Shadow Games are held in the Shadow Realm in the 4Kids English dub of the anime. In the anime, it is stated that the Egyptians first allowed the Shadow Games. Using various means of sorcery, they send themselves into an alternate dimension where their duel would not be interrupted, and where cheating is strictly forbidden, punishable by death. In the Shadow Games, the sorcerors' skills would be tested by seeing how powerful of monsters they can summon, and how powerful a spell they can cast to power up their monsters. The power of the monsters could best be harnessed by the Millennium Items. Created for the purpose of defending Egypt, they were put into the possession of the Pharaoh and his six priests. However, Dark Bakura wishes to steal the Items all for himself, and tries to take the Items, both in Ancient Egypt and in the modern world. To do so, Bakura must play shadow games. Generally the rules of each "Shadow Game" would change based on the contestants in it. For example, when Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the original Japanese) duels Yugi Mutou, summoning monsters and having them destroyed would drain the souls of the duelists. Moreover, the Shadow Games can commence only after the challenger makes certain rules that do not give anybody an advantage, but can test the stamina of the duelists as well as the duelists' skills. For example, Marik cannot simply say that all his monsters get an additional 10,000 attack points, but can state that the destruction of monsters erases memory or drains life energy. In the modern world, the possesor of a millennium item can challenge another person to a shadow game, and if the other person loses, the loser is subjected to a certain power of the item against their will. However, the challenge need not be accepted. Clever challengers will attempt to entice the other person into accepting the challenge by offering a reward if they win; in the English anime, the Shadow Realm would ensure the promised reward is given. The Millennium Puzzle can temporarily force foolproof illusions onto people involving any sense if they are defeated in a shadow game. The Millennium Ring and Millennium Eye have been used to steal souls of losers and imprison them. All shadow games are possible for the person challenged to win. In the English anime, the Shadow Realm takes care of seeing to that, even if the challenger tries to rig the game. A well chosen shadow game is difficult for the challenger to lose if the challenger takes advantage of knowledge about the other player's character flaws and/or weaknesses. A clever challenger wil set the rules of the shadow game in such a way that unless the person overcomes the character flaw or weakness, they will lose, and there is a lot of flexibility in setting the rules. And the average victim is unaware of the fact that they are being tested that way, so they tend to fall right into the trap set by the challenger. An example is the duel between Marik Ishtar and Mai Valentine, when each time they lose a monster, they lose a memory of a friend. This preys on Mai's fear of being alone, but while this stipulation also applies to Marik, he doesn't care, as he prefers to be alone. In this way, the rules of the Shadow Game affect both players, but only one of the players suffers from such rules. In the English anime, even random events are often rigged by the challenger in the shadow realm, but that never makes it impossible for the challengee to win. Examples of how many Shadow Games in the manga could have been won: In the silence game, the powers of the Dark World kept the delicately balanced headphone plug from falling for an unusually long time, giving Sozoji an adrenaline rush to make his heartbeat louder. If he had thought to turn down the microphone's volume, he would have won. In griddle ice hockey, if Goro Inogashira had not hit the puck so hard, the Puck would not have broken, and the bomb would have ended up on Yugi's side. In the Duel Monsters (Magic and Wizards) shadow game, had Seto Kaiba not cheated to bring out the Blue Eyes White Dragon, he would have topdecked the remaining card that would have allowed him to win against all odds. Both players topdecked good cards, and the dark world set it all up to bring out the test of Kaiba's character, which Kaiba failed miserably. The die in the dice game would not have cracked if the ZTV Director had not thrown it so hard. Dark Yugi's rolling a six was a rigged random event which he used to get an opportunity to taunt the guy and ensure he was angry at having to roll when it was not required. If the director simply refuses to roll, then Dark Yugi would have rolled for him, again giving the cracked die result. For the possessor of a millennium item, some of the randomness influencing properties spill over into the real world at times. In every game of capsule monster chess Yugi played, a win was possible with his lousy monster set, and Yugi wins in Kaiba's high-tech shadow game simulation.