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I will post my opinions first in a form format, so you can either choose to copy and use the format, or make up your own.

Basic Opinion/What You Answered in the Poll: I dislike Yami no Yuugi.
Why You Hold That Opinion: [SPOILER WARNING] I definitely don't hate the guy, and even dislike seems a bit strong. I mostly just don't care for him, and he bothers me oftentimes. We spoke earlier in the Yuugi thread that good characters often just seem too perfect. What bothers me about Yami no Yuugi though, isn't that he seems perfect, but that everyone seems to think he's perfect.
So many of the characters have their lives revolve around the guy. They obsess with him, whether it's helping him regain his memories, helping him win duels, learning from/admiring him, trying to kill him, trying to defeat him in a duel, trying to get revenge on him... everything revolves around Yami no Yuugi. The guy who doesn't remember anything, and just kicks a** at games because he can. At least at first.
The man definitely redeems himself when he is pulled into games of darkness and has to fight to save others, but at the same time, many of his motivations are still selfish. He put so many people in danger during Battle City and the Egypt Arc. Even though his friends pretty much forced their way into the danger, and he regretted it a lot, the plot never stopped revolving around him, and people continued to endanger themselves for him.
So I suppose it's not so much Yami no Yuugi's personality that makes me dislike him. Don't care for his subtle arrogance, as if he acts as if his smirking during victory is noble, and he can be retarded/a jerk sometimes, like when he was dueling Raphael, but overall he's an okay guy. But sometimes it just feels like he's that character that the plot is always circling around, and he never seems to do much to try and stop it.
Favorite Characters to Pair With: Mutou Yuugi, Jounouchi Katsuya, Mahaado, Yami no Bakura, Raphael.
Rating of Favoriteness: ninety-second favorite.

He's my favourite character.

J/k

The thing that annoys me most about him is that the plot seems to be all too happy to do a 180, just so that he can be totally right.

The best example I can think of is the ancient Egypt arc. Why couldn't we have the conflict we were promised? We were supposed to be seeing a man who has lost literally everything against a man who can't let his behaviour continue becuse he's endangering people. That's an interesting, mature conflict, but it swaps around so that the world will be destoyed if the designated good guys don't win. And the big bad even treats TK badly, so you've no reason not to be on Yami Yugi's side, even if you thought TK had a point. And it was this guy who turns evil who massacred Kul Elna, and he's got a reason to be against Yami too. Yay Yami, boo hiss everyone else.

Battle City is the same. Malik starts out as someone bitter at his treatment for the sake of the Pharaoh, and it was building up to a conflict that would have been about when it's okay to be angry, and when it's time to man up and get over it. But then he just has to be taken over by an inhuman monster, and suddenly the original Malik is on Yami Yugi's side! And isn't he really, really nice all of a sudden? That's because he's on the right side now and you can't agree with Yami unless you're a nice person. And he realises that none of what happened was Yami's fault, so don't blame him for anything.

That's what annoys me the most. I know that this is a children's anime, but still, you see the glimpses of what it could have been if it hadn't just made it too easy for this character to be in the right. It veers towards shades of grey and then then panics and fixes this. And that winds me up

I know that this isn't a character flaw of Yami's, but seeing as it's him who benefits from it, he's who I vent my annoyance at.

He started out as a frightening character who goes to ridiculous lengths to punish evildoers. There's so much more that could have been done with that. I still feel that he becomes a good guy far too easily. He doesn't lose his arrogance, but he's got no reason to because he's never wrong. Seeing how he started as a character, why couldn't he have done things when Pharaoh that had left consequences behind him that had to be dealt with? Why did it have to be the earlier generation that had ordered the creation of the Items, and his father who took the blame, conveniently leaving him clean as a whistle? Why does the plot insist on making him blameless? It may make it obvious that he is in the right, but it doesn't make an interesting or likeable character.

More to come later if I think of anything, I have to shoot off now. The arrogance thing was covered pretty well by you guys anyway.

It's fair to say that he can't control it.

However, the author can, and looking at it as a written work, it just comes across as weak writing to me. Stacking it so that it favours one character so much shouldn't really be necessary. I know that he's supposed to be the hero, and I wouldn't expect him to be an evil puppy-kicking b*****d or anything, but I just don't like how it promises interesting conflicts and then shys away to make him look better.

Maybe I'm being unfair, and the problems I'm seeing were simply attempts to escalate the plot though.

*sniff* I just love how mature you're all being about this discussion! You guys are great YUU*GI*OU fans... if this had been a topic back in the Janime forums, there would've been flame wars galore.
Anyway, back on topic, I very much agree with all of you guys. Yami no Yuugi was way more interesting at the beginning of the manga, and it seemed strange when he was just suddenly... good. Like it almost seemed to merge his life way more with Yuugi's, so that they shared the same values and loved ones... and it just happened so suddenly once Yuugi realized his other self's existence. It could've been more interesting if they at least through a mini plot in there to explain the sudden change, like the darkness of the Sennen Puzzle had corrupted the soul of the pharaoh, and Yuugi's light had dissolved that corruption. Kind of lame and cliche, but at least it would've been something.
Honestly Morgey, I had never considered your point before, about how the plot goes out of its way to make him the good guy. As much as I loved Yami no Malik, it always bothered me how Malik suddenly changed completely once his dark half took over. Although Yami no Malik was a very interesting way to show the consequences of Malik's past, and his relationship with Rishid, not to mention he was a fun villain himself, he did not need to be a device to clean up Malik's conflicts right away. The plot would've been far more interesting if Yami no Yuugi then had two villains to stand up to, one with somewhat justifiable means, and the other who simply love darkness.
And Zork... he was just boring. Thief King Bakura was a much more believable villain, especially since he seemed to project some of the personality of the original Bakura Ryou. I know tons of fans have roleplayed or written about Bakura being someone dark, messed up, evil, or insane on his own accord, without being possessed by his dark half. After all, it's always the quiet ones...
Not to mention Zork's whole manifestation creating Yami no Bakura got overly-confusing for some of the fans, and many still believe that Yami no Bakura is the same personality as the Thief King, sealed into an item like Atem.
But I digress. After Morgey's point, I now feel like I understand my dislike for Yami no Yuugi a little better. While I also agree with Nightfure that we can't exactly blame him for it, at the same time, he continues to fight with confident arrogance, always believing he's right, in the end corrupting his own self by being too perfect, and not seeing the reasonings behind what villains do what they do.
As much as people complain about filler, you do have to give the Doma saga credit that it actually made Yami no Yuugi more believable by when he let the Seal of Orichalcos corrupt him, took the soul of his own other half through his mistake, and regretted and hated himself for what he did. It didn't last long, of course, but that moment I respected Yami no Yuugi more than I had in the entire series, when he regretted a mistake.

You know, these discussion boards were an awesome idea. o-o
Being able to read everyone's views is not only fun, but it also is helping me to understand more about my own feelings for certain characters as well as understanding the characters themselves.
Not to mention that it's fun to have a mature debate about the characters. x3

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm looking forward to future character discussion threads. ^-^

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I agree about the Doma saga. It did feel more believable. The way that things didn't quite go according to plan gave it a realistic unpredictability (Well... As realistic as an anime like that can get. XD) and I was actually relieved that everything wasn't going as planned like it normally did. ._.; It was sort of a refreshing change.
Also, it was interesting to see a little bit of character development in Yami no Yuugi. Yuugi was the one that was developing through the series, but I think Yami no Yuugi only had several real "character developing" moments. =/ (I can only remember two moments, but there's probably more than that, right? D=) That's another reason why I'm not so fond of him. xD;

Oooh, I'm enjoying these threads, too! whee The only thing is that I'm not able to get on much anymore, and then you all post a billion times XD but it's fun to have discussions like this!

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Going back to what.... Morgey (or maybe Ketz...), I think, said about Doma... maybe the reason I like Yami no Yuugi so much (or at least don't dislike him...) is that all I remember from when I used to watch Yuugioh as a little kid was the Doma arc... that's probably the Yami no Yuugi that I think of when I think of him... the one who has consequences to his actions and stuff...

But yeah, the other arrogant characters DO seem more loveable then YY. It'll be fun to get to those discussions 3nodding

Yay, main villain coverage XD

I started watching Yuugioh sometime in season 1, but only when it came on on Saturday mornings on the kids WB... I only remember season 4 the best, but it would explain why I like Yami no Yuugi XP