Yami has his mind set on ONE goal, and that's to get the Black Luster Soldier out there. Before he does that, though, he and Mai have to glare at each other from across the table so the audience can stare at their life stats displayed during this interlude. Also, so Jonouchi can cheer that Yami now has the opportunity to turn the tables, and Anzu can comment on how strong Mai's monsters are, playing devil's advocate.
Examining the pet dragon Mai has on her side of the table, Yami knows that it gets stronger with every harpy that's in play, so he'll have no chance of winning if he can't beat it. Mai gets a little tired of the staring match they're playing and reminds him that he doesn't have a monster in play so he should get on with it. Yami agrees, putting down the Kuriboh card and ending his turn. At the sight of the little floating fuzzball, Mai is taken aback, then covers her mouth as she lets out a snort questioning what the fuck it even is. She bursts out laughing when she sees the wimpy Kuriboh striking a fighting pose, provoked by those ridiculous pheromones.
Suddenly, she gets SUPER pissed as she asks if Yami really wants to play that, because once the swords of light are gone, Kuriboh is going to die too. Yami says that he put Kuriboh in his deck because he believes in it, out of the thousands of cards he COULD have chosen to put in its place. He calls it a piece of the puzzle of victory, and Mai says she just doesn't understand the nerve of him for putting such a weak card in his deck to begin with, but she doesn't dwell on that for long. Mai begins her turn with the knowledge that she can't attack or be attacked for three turns, drawing one card and ending her turn. She declares that the swords only have two turns left now, and so does Yami.
Yami pauses to look at his hand while the pet dragon across from him roars. He can't summon the soldier with the cards he has, because he's missing a critical piece. He prays as he announces his turn and draws a new card that this is the one he needs, but it turns out to be Monster Reborn instead. Mai allows herself a mental chuckle as she silently admits she has no idea what Yami's plan is, but is sure he won't get another miracle.
Jonouchi thinks it's obvious from Yami's glare that he's got a plan, so Mai's big talk is all kinds of faulty. Anzu also says Yami HAS to have something up his sleeve. Pegasus continues to look down on the duel from his throne, seeing straight through Yami's skull to look at his scheme involving that Black Luster Soldier. He wonders if Yami can draw the one key card he needs in order to do it, though.
Mai draws a card as she says it's her turn, and this card happens to be another Harpy Lady, which has Mai totally stoked. This means that once those swords of light are gone and she plays her new harpy, that'll be four of them in all and her pet dragon will gain another 300 attack points, bringing it to a grand total of 3200. She assumes this means she can't lose, but she obviously hasn't been paying very close attention to Yami and his mojo.
She reminds Yami that the swords only last for one more turn and that he should get ready, because it's his move.
Pegasus is floored, wondering if Yami WILLED the card of destiny to come to him. Yami plays it totally cool, putting one card down face down and playing Griffor before ending his turn. Mai can't figure out what Yami is thinking playing another low-stats monster in attack, but her dwelling on the subject is limited once again. She chuckles as the swords surrounding her monsters disappear on this turn just as she's been saying consistently every turn for three turns. According to her, once she plays that next harpy, it's all over for Yami.
Primed with a shot of Gaia facing a three harpies and a dragon, Mai tells Yami that this is it, and she wants to see what he managed to do with the three turns he bought himself. Smirking, Yami answers that he's gathered all the pieces of his victory. Mai looks shocked.
Yami reveals his face down card, Black Luster Ritual, inspiring Mai to gape as two cauldrons appear on the table. Yami says this is the beginning of the dark ritual, putting Kuriboh and Griffor up for sacrifice in those cauldrons. Mai is suddenly well aware of why Yami included such weak monsters in his deck, but it's far too late. Now these innocent monsters have to lose their souls, one to the light and one to the darkness, spiraling down into each pot. Apparently, this opens the gateway to chaos between light and dark right in front of Gaia, both elements swirling together like they're coming out of a soft-serve machine.
Mai's points are reduced to 750 as she laments the loss of her dragon, in just one blow from that chaos empowered knight. Even Jonouchi is amazed, wanting to know where that came from. Chaos, duh. Yami sits glaring around one side of the luster soldier, not even looking smug.
Pegasus is convinced the duel is over, because he can sense Mai is losing her will to keep it going. She's looking at the three harpies she has on her side of the table, and they look back, actually appearing kind of frightened. I didn't know these holograms could do math, but it looks like they've noticed there's a difference between their 2100 points and the Black Luster Soldier's 3000.
Mai hangs her head, realizing that all it took was just one turn. If she had been able to play her next Harpy Lady before the Black Luster Soldier had been put in the game, she would have won hands down. She doesn't have any way to beat it now, holding up her now useless harpy card with despair, and silently admitting that Yami will win next turn no matter what.
Yami is shocked when Mai lays her hand over her deck, the sign of surrender. She says she doesn't want to see her harpies injured, which I guess I can understand if they're capable of actually looking at the player like they feel fear. The holograms disappear back into her deck with virtual wisps of smoke, and she stands, admitting her defeat out loud.
After hanging his head a moment, Yami looks up at Mai to thank her. She appears shocked by this, and he explains that she showed him that he was about to lose sight of that thing you can show but you can't see. If you can't see it, you never had sight of it in the first place, but whatever, semantics... Mai says that there's no such thing as an invincible duelist, because no matter how hard they try to hide it, they all have weaknesses. As she's walking away, she repeats the riddle and thinks that even putting up a bold front can be a weakness.
Before Mai completely leaves the stage, she calls out to Yami that there are two ways of losing. Yami looks at her curiously as she lists those ways out; one in which everything is lost and the other which is only a step on the journey to victory.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I am SO glad it ended this duel. The match seemed so much longer than the others, even the one with the Meikyu brothers, and I'm pretty sure that one was technically longer. There was just something about it that dragged, pacing-wise, and I'm not certain what it was. It could have been the relatively low stakes, or how long it took Yami to get to the final move after he'd regained his focus, or it could have been how long it took that focus to come back itself...
I think it came down to me being impatient for this to be over, much like Yami was at the beginning, which is a level of irony I don't think was intended. I found myself both impressed with Mai and how great she was as an instigator of greater inner awareness for Yami, and annoyed with her because of how much she was being made to draw attention to her gender. I was also torn between whether or not I SHOULD have been irritated by this, because at the very least it's a step up from how she might have been treated as a character at the BEGINNING of the manga.
Regardless, her role in the duel slowed everything down to a crawl, which at least stopped with this chapter. This installment had a much better pace than the other ones did, and it ended on a very good note, too. I enjoyed seeing Yami thank Mai for her help, here, because he needed to be humbled by someone at some point, especially before he let his ego get in the way of facing Pegasus. His fear of losing and impatience would have only made the situation worse, and the realization that Yuugi is his balance will no doubt be important to defeating Pegasus later on.
Besides, boy needed to realize he's not infallible. Mai took him down a peg, and for that, I'm grateful. You go girl.
I'm not sure if it's an intentional running gag, but I love how every time Atem summons Kuriboh, it pisses off whomever he's playing against. Every time. Without fail. Hilarious. Ironically, in the TCG, Kuriboh actually has a decent effect!
ReplyDeleteI don't recall Atem ever playing Griffor in the anime, which is true for a number of monsters that he and Kaiba have. I wonder why they were cut out. Weird.
Also, Joey raises a good point: where DID Black Luster Soldier come from? Had Yugi had that card in his deck this whole time? Did he trade for the card on the cruiser to get something to replace the gap of losing his Exodia pieces? Why do we never see it before now? Why do we never see it again?! Same with the ritual he's going to use later against Pegasus!
Ritual Monsters were pretty garbage in the TCG on launch since they were more trouble than they were worth to activate in order to get out the monster you needed. They got buffs and changes over the years to make them better, though the original ones like BLS are still pretty bad. That said, BLS has a mini-archetype of better monsters, which includes Black Luster Solider - Envoy of the Beginning, a card that is obscenely powerful. Basically it's easier to get out, has the same stats, and has the effect of being able to either attack twice per turn or just straight up delete one of your opponent's monsters from the field. It can use either of these effects every turn. Pretty wild!
I love how angry Kuriboh makes everyone too - they just assume they're being disrespected and not taken seriously when it's played, and not only is it just really funny, but it highlights how preoccupied they are with the big flashy powerful cards instead of playing creatively.
DeleteI can't personally think of a reason why Griffor wouldn't be included in the anime either. Seems to me that there's nothing necessarily wrong with it, but maybe they wanted to put another more popular card in its place for branding sake.
Black Luster Soldier appeared out of thin air by the magical power of... friendship? Love of grandpa? KT sure hung a lampshade on that one!
No doubt the original card game had some kinks to work out mechanics-wise. KT is no game designer, it's clear, so there's just a lot of stuff he's written in the comic that doesn't make any sense for a balanced game, especially one that needs to expand and grow if it's going to endure in the market. It sounds like, from what you've told me, that they succeeded pretty well in this department.
Also, you should only be able to have three of any monster in your deck, so Mai definitely shouldn't have four Harpie Ladies. That being said, the three she has on the board are treated as one monster called Harpie Lady Sisters in the TCG.
ReplyDeleteBut in that case, the dragon should only be getting an extra 300 ATK...
I HAD heard about the "only three of one kind at a time" rule while playing Duel Links myself, but yeah, early game mechanics in the manga... iffy, lol!
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