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⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Ryou Bakura
Age:16
Canon:Yu-gi-oh
Canon Point: End of Season Zero

Background:
Here

Personality:
From the first glance, Ryou Bakura is a bit socially awkward. His way of speaking is very polite and formal. (The dub characterized this by giving him a British accent.) Though with an evil spirit that tosses anyone who even looks at him wrong into a veritable hell and then seals away the souls of the people that he does like into doll figurines, it makes sense why he's avoided interaction with other people. Despite sharing a passion for games with Yugi Moto, he seems reluctant to participate in them. When he breaks down and reveals to Yugi's group that all of his previous friends have fallen into comas after playing with him, he tells them it's best if they have nothing to do with him. He didn't know about his darker half at that time, but he did feel unlucky and cursed.It's caused him to transfer schools often. And he didn't want the few people who didn't ostracize him for it to get hurt. Shutting people out was not only a survival trait but a means of keeping other people safe.

Another likely reason why he was awkward around people at first, was because he was in a state of grief. Both his mother and younger sister are deceased and his father is often away on business. He seems to cope with his loss by writing letters to his younger sister and leaving them on her grave. He lives by himself and doesn't seem to have any sort of family unit.

Ryou doesn't get angry in the sense that he rages or yells. His is more of a quiet and determined type of anger.There is a calm and serious sort of resolve there when he protects the people he considers to be his friends. He stopped his darker half both when the thief sealed his friends in the Monster World figurines in season zero and during the Duelist Kingdom when they were sealed into their favorite cards. Both times he stepped in to save his friends even if it meant it could cost his own life. He used the last strength of his soul to shatter the dice that the spirit possessing his body was using. In the Duelist Kingdom he would have allowed Atem to use a finishing move on him while controlled the thief's monster had Atem not used his puzzle to switch Bakura's place with his dark half's. Even with his more violent counterpart raging at him he just looks on with serene sort fire as if to say ' do your worst, I'll do whatever it takes to throw your plans off the rails and you can't stop me.'

Despite the evil of the entity that shares his soul, Ryou Bakura seems to be one of the inherently good people in the series. In the Monster World RPG, the character that was his avatar was a sort of a White Knight/Paladin, which is symbolic of a heroic character. That this character is an extension of his soul and also freely gave its life to restore his the original Ryou Bakura's says a lot about him. Ryou's casual willingness to sacrifice himself could mean two things: he's very brave or he has a very unhealthy lack of regard for his own life. I believe it's a combination. He's struggling day to day to live normally despite having a malicious entity that he can't seem to get rid of without having some sort of breakdown; the reason he doesn't mind, protecting his friends at his own safety's expense is because he's been able to hold on to so precious few of them. After Yugi's duel with Kaiba (where Atem nearly killed the young CEO,) we see Ryou with his hands on Yugi's shoulders in an almost protective display. This is a typically compassionate gesture. Ryou would understand better than anyone why Yugi would be so horrified at the idea of Atem willing to go against his will like that.

He's a very talented artist and seems to have carved and painted all the game pieces for his Monster World tabletop game as well as being capable of making dioramas. At the end of the Monster World Arc, he shows Yugi and the gang a small one that he made of them fighting together in the monster world to defeat dark Bakura. This also echoes that having a normal life with close friends is what he desires deep down.

Despite not participating in games, he does seem to have a well-rounded understanding of them. He's intelligent enough to follow Atem's strategies at least as well as characters like Kaiba and he's often the one tasked with explaining things or narrating the battles for the other characters watching on the sides. He could be one of the best strategists in the series- but because he doesn't risk it, it's hard to be sure.

I believe the reason that Ryou doesn't worry too much about being with this particular group of friends, aside from the fact that Atem has put a stop to his darker self twice, is that when lost in Duelist Kingdom's tunnels, the spirit in his ring actually helps them all by leading them out. It's a little naive, but perhaps he really did hope his other half had turned over a new leaf. Though when the thief tries to take control of him again, Ryou seems on to the fact that he is going to be used for something sinister and tries to evade his control by ducking into a church. Despite putting up a defiant effort to stay in control, he gets taken over again.

One of Ryou's worst moments was when Bobosa told him that he couldn't enter the memory world with the others to go and help Atem because of the darkness in his soul. That darkness, of course, was his other self. Not only would it bother someone with Ryou's morals to be needled with the idea that he has some dark tainting him , but it severed him from the group in which he gets a sense of purpose and his place with other people. After all, he hasn't been able to belong to a group of people like that in a long time.

Abilities:
Though we never see Bakura actually use his occult deck, probably for the same reasons he quit tabletop rpg, he seems to have as thorough an understanding of Duel Monsters as characters that play it regularly like Yugi and Kaiba and is often the one narrating or explaining the exchanges to the rest of their circle of friends.

He can also carve out detailed figurines and build game pieces and gaming boards.

The occult deck consists of many fiend monsters. It contains, Dark Necrofear,Dark Sanctuary,Dark Door and Spirit of the Silent as well as the Destiny Board. This strategy works by hindering the opponents use of their monsters while using the Destiny Board to spell out a message that will destroy them.

Other:
It's debatable whether the Occult Deck is actually his or Dark Bakura's. If it's not his, then he probably can't get rid of it anymore than he can get rid of the Sennnen Ring.
It is a head canon of mine that Ryou Bakura was a bit into the occult - he's already a geek being into tabletop games and such - though his enthusiasm probably waned after meeting the spirit in the ring. It is never actually verified in canon though and since we can't be sure during Battle City when Dark Bakura is speaking or not, it's hard to say.

His favorite food is supposedly cream puffs.
His favorite card is the Change of Heart.
In the anime he has a British accent due to his formal way of speaking.

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