Genie of the Puzzle

Fanfiction
Title:	Genie of the Puzzle
Author(s):	DaakuKitsune
Date(s):	Oct 14, 2005 to Nov 22, 2006
Length:	11,150 words
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Yu-Gi-Oh!
Relationship(s):
External Links:	The fanfic on Fanfiction.Net
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Genie of the Puzzle is a Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfic written by DaakuKitsune, focusing on the Puzzleshipping ship and published from October 2005 to November 2006. It became infamous for having one of the earliest uses of the 'UwU' emoticon on the Author's Notes of the 6th chapter.

The summary for the fanfic reads:

Yuugi was a normal boy. Well, as normal as whoever spends 8 years working on a single puzzle. But, yeah, anyway, he finally finishes the puzzle and meets Yami Atemu. Genie of the Puzzle. He's used to getting what he wants, and he wants Yuugi.

The use of 'UwU'

In the Author's notes for chapter 6, Mutual Attraction, the writer apologizes for how long it took to publish it, saying:

Wheee! Sarah/ryoulover4ever was my 200th reviewer! I'm sorry this took so long! -/smacks self/- Again, feel free to throw squids and fish at me. UwU I deserve it, I know. This is just a filler to prove I'm not dead.

Things start getting interesting next chapter! xD

For a while it was believed this was the first time anyone had used the 'UwU' emoticon on the internet, but since then a earlier example from the year 2000 was found on the furry art site VCL (Vixen Controlled Library), by an artist called Ghislain Deslierres .

In a video about the origins and uses of UwU, Youtuber Strange Æons talked to someone claiming to be DaakuKitsune, where they explained how the emoticon was already used commonly on anime chat channels at the time, meaning they did not create it themselves, and how it was just an more cute and "anime" version of some popular emoticons of the time, like kaomojis.

Since the 'UwU' ended up becoming a very popular meme in the 2010s thanks to Tumblr and it's association with furries, this made the fanfic a big point of interest, being cited by sites like Wikipedia and Dictionary.com; Posts about the origins of the meme also became very popular on sites like Tumblr and Reddit.

Reviews

As of 2024, the fanfic has over 500 reviews on Fanfiction.Net, with the big majority of them being normal comments about the story:

[A. Reader]

I normally don't leave reviews because I'm a little shy but I really really liked your story. I think the plot development is good and its a good mix of interesting and funny. I really hope you continue it, if you do I am looking forward to it. Thank for such an entertaining story.

P.S. this is one of the only incomplete stories I have ever read, but the summary sounded too interesting to pass up

However, after 2016 you start to see people commenting about the fanfic's use of UwU, with reactions including meme and spam of the UwU, people angry at the writer for allegedly creating the emoticon, and some genuine enjoyment of the fic regardless of it's legacy.

[Guest]

Here it is. The first proven use of UwU ...

I knew it would probably be a fanfic of some kind, but a yugioh one? Pleasantly surprised. I'm not into yaoi, nor the idea of yugi and yami being romantically/otherwise involved, so I didn't read the fic. But, I do applaud you for prefacing your chapters by informing your readers of what certain words mean, instead of assuming they'd know. :)

[Guest]

Please come back, face the things yyu have created, YOU ARE UWU, FACE THE CONSQUENSCES

[Casper]

Came here for the UwU like the rest but got smacked in the face with how much I miss Puzzleshipping instead. Thank you for posting this, it's a goddamn classic. Hope you're doing well!

[Guest]

THERE IT IS BOYS

THE FIRST RECORDED USE OF UWU