the game he and bakura played in the memory arc was not what happened in the past

New Theory (It might be old but… who knows. I’m just going to ramble all the same)

The Millennium Puzzle was originally one solid piece. It was called the Pendent not the Puzzle. It was one solid upside down pyramid shape when forged and appeared was given to Atem’s father. Thus there was no need to solve it and gain power over all other items. It just innately came with it and was the centerpiece of the tablet. Even when Atem’s father plead to the gods to not pass down the blame to his son, they did not grant forgiveness and Atem inherited the blame with the former king’s passing.

Upon Atem’s end he was cursed when he was hidden away into the Pendent and as part of that punishment, the Pendent was split apart and became unique pieces that were split apart and sealed away in a box that was later hidden. A box no one was meant to find let alone be able to begin to solve the newly made Puzzle.

The seal on the box now containing the puzzle was poorly translated and was actually a warning against putting it together. The dark power within it and the wish Solomon babbled on about to Yugi was meant to detour anyone from putting it together. However, upon solving it, the dark spirit would be freed and grant one wish not to dissimilar to a Monkey’s Paw deal. However Yugi’s pure wish for friends did not work as Yami/Atem expected it to. Yugi’s friends he obtained were instead turned around and became good as well as kind to him and in the process befriended the old spirit and changed him from a cruel overlord of old into someone new altogether.

…I need to revisit this and word it better but to me this explains my idea of Atem having been a cruel and evil pharaoh and how the Puzzle became to be and his memories lost… As well as why he was so keen on murdering people so freely upon being released and not letting Yugi remember what happened when his crimes took place. As well as why Bakura/Zorc had potential to actually be not the villain everyone saw him as but a victim who wanted justice in the way crimes of old were meant to be handled. An eye for an eye, a hand for a hand…