I'm not saying that this situation isn't the worst and most coercive of all, because it totally is, but calling this THE unwanted duel is a bit like calling the fish at Applebee's THE thing to avoid on the menu. Ideally, you'd avoid the whole menu. And the building.
Jonouchi wears a sick grin while he tells Yami that he can't run away; he has to fight and then die. In that order. Yami begs JONOUCHI to fight, though I doubt he means himself. Maybe the translators should have stuck an "it" on the end of that sentence. Might have prevented a doubletake or two.
Anyway, Mokuba stands in shock next to his placid brother, and asks Seto what's going on, because Jonouchi's acting super weird, yo. Kaiba of course answers this question like he's lecturing Yami again, insisting that a duelist must be ready to crush ALL challengers regardless of friendship status, and refusing to accept this truth of the nature of battle will stagnate all progress. This coming from the dude who took several chapters to figure out teamwork. By Kaiba's analysis, the only way for Yami to win is for him to let go of sentimentality, friendship and notions of unity and just fucking FIGHT. Kaiba is impatient to see what Yami will do.
Yami tries to reason with Jonouchi - he says he wants them to duel in Battle City from the bottom of his heart, but he wants them to face each other as true duelists, with their prides on the line rather than their lives. Never mind the fact that Jonouchi isn't even doing this on his own fucking terms at this point. He's frowning now, but doesn't say anything, prompting Yami to yell at him, asking him to remember the promise he made. Indeed, Jonouchi had vowed to become a true duelist in the tournament, and wanted Yami to duel him when that time came. Yami tells the brainwashed Jonouchi that those words touched him, and speculates that the whole reason he got this far in the tournament is so that he could keep that promise with Jonouchi. Awww, how sweet and totally, completely untrue!
Jonouchi continues to stare wordlessly at Yami while he tries to make him wake up to the fact that it's Marik's manipulation that has set up this battle, and it's not the one they were supposed to have through their own wills. Still silent, Jonouchi turns around sharply.
Yami's heart hammers and he sweats, growling over his lack of power. As Jonouchi puts distance between them, Yami is startled by a familiar voice telling him it's useless. He can't talk himself out of this one because Jonouchi is his puppet now, emotions controlled by the voice's hatred. Yami looks around demanding to know where Marik is. He's not actually around, but he's got a mouthpiece in the form of Anzu, whom he brings forward just as dead-eyed as Jonouchi. Yami is despaired to know that Anzu is being controlled by Marik too, and that's not even the half of it.
Marik has Anzu hold up a capsule pill for Yami to see, while he tells Yami that it's full of deadly poison. He teases that he could make her swallow it and die in seconds with a single thought, asking if Yami wants to see. Anzu opens her mouth just enough to hold the pill between her teeth, and Yami lunges a hand forward, yelling at her to stop. Marik makes like he's going to make Anzu swallow the capsule for a moment longer until he lets out a laugh and asks if Yami was scared, as if the whole thing is a joke. Then he does yet another about-face when he tells Yami to stop moaning and duel Jonouchi, or Anzu really WILL be made to swallow the pill.
Yami growls at this scum holding his friends' wills hostage, but Anzu is already walking away, and telling him that Jonouchi is waiting at their arena of death. Geez, ANOTHER arena of death? Anyone else getting a little tired of these? Looks like Yami is more terrified than annoyed, though, which... y'know, fair.
Yami seems rather alarmed to note that the handcuffs are attached to chains strung up to the top of an anchor hanging above. The magic that attached them apparently left no time for him to observe the apparatus around them. Only he's totally observing the apparatus around them in the page above. Okay.
Jonouchi confirms what Yami sees, and says that the anchor weighs 300 kilograms, and even helpfully converts that into more than 600 pounds for us backwards Americans still not on board with the metric system yet. Thanks, guy! Jonouchi goes on to explain that the bomb (because of course there's a bomb) is programmed to their life points, meaning that when either of their life points reach zero, the anchor will fall in a mere 15 seconds. Why 15 seconds? Because the plot undoubtedly requires some deliberation on the part of our heroes at that point, but not too much.
And get this: between Yami's feet is a box displaying a counter for Jonouchi's life points, and vice-versa for Jonouchi, because a key to each player's cuff is inside and will be revealed when the opposite player's points reach zero. I seem to be seeing double here - didn't Pandora pull this crap, or have I just had a few too many? Anyway, Jonouchi says that once a box opens, the player has 15 seconds to unlock their cuff before the anchor sinks to the bottom of the bay. Yami grits his teeth at the hanging anchor, knowing the implication that the loser will be dragged into the sea. Jonouchi chuckles, joking that one of them is going down. Literally.
Yami refuses to give his consent for such a dangerous match, yelling that he doesn't want to kill Jonouchi. Marik don't give a fuck, though, telling Yami through Anzu (still gripping the dangerous pill between her teeth, so I guess Marik's voice is just emanating from her throat or something...?) that there is no escape from this. The explosives have already been activated, ready to explode in 40 minutes regardless of whether a winner emerges, and that will mean the both of them will drown. Yami just grits his teeth and sweats, otherwise helpless. Marik taunts him with the one option afforded him to save his friend; Yami has to throw the match and die. Yami's hackles are up and he vows never to forgive Marik for this. Well, you won't have long to hold the grudge if this plays out in Marik's favor...
But, instead of actually doing anything, like Mokuba suggests, Kaiba continues to stare at the scene in utter horror. He's in disbelief that Marik's control is strong enough to incite such a sick duel, and claims that even at his WORST, he could never have done such a thing.
Kaiba, are you joking? Are you kidding me right now?
But, since Kaiba has decided to grow a conscience at the last possible second, he decides that someone having to DIE for him to get an answer to his little wager with Yami earlier is too high of a price to pay. He declares that he's going to rescue them. Fuckin' seriously. Just says it out loud like he's just announced to the world that he's going to be a superhero.
And it bites him in the ass, too, because not one second after he lunges forward to do his charitable part in making sure his acquaintances don't die horribly, he freezes at the sound of a voice behind him telling him to hold it. That voice belongs to a nameless Rare Hunter who has pressed a knife to Mokuba's throat and Mokuba calls out to him in distress. Kaiba whirls around and shout's Mokuba's name too, but the guy who has Mokuba in a headlock with the blade pointed in his face warns Kaiba not to make a move, unless he wants to... goodness... "feed the fishes" too. Someone kill me. Kaiba is frozen, growling in impotence, and the chuckling Rare Hunter easily restrains the weakly kicking Mokuba.
Meanwhile, possessed!Jonouchi casually tells Yami that while he doesn't give a whit if his opponent drowns, he doesn't really want to go diving for Slifer either. Possessed!Jonouchi requests that Yami take the card out of his deck, so Yami takes his utility card belt off, assuring him that it's inside one of the pouches. He snaps it open to bring out another card that he considers even more important right now.
Showing the face of Slifer is enough for Yami to avoid being accused of funny business, but possessed!Jonouchi DOES command him to drop the belt on the deck between them, as the victor will take the spoils. Yami complies, tossing the belt out of his reach. Seeing this through Jonouchi's eyes has Marik pleased that the setup is going so well, and demands that Jonouchi kill Yami some more. You know, just in case he didn't quite get the message the first few hundred times Marik repeated it.
The next two panels show the life points of first a sweating Yami, worrying about Jonouchi, and a smiling Jonouchi who instructs Yami to shuffle his own deck.
But Yami's gotten too NOBLE to fuck around with that shit now, hasn't he?
Possessed!Jonouchi asks what's taking this guy so long, telling him to hurry up and summon something already. Yami wordlessly draws a card from his hand, staring a possessed!Jonouchi the entire time. He plays Baphomet in defense, then ends his turn without the usual flourish. Possessed!Jonouchi doesn't appear to care that Yami is in no mood for theatrics, though, and draws a card after announcing his turn, grinning the whole way. He chuckles and asks if Yami is ready for this, but doesn't really give Yami a chance to answer.
He plays Raigeki, a spell card that destroys all monsters on the opposing side of the player, and possessed!Jonouchi declares Baphomet is hit by a lightning vortex, and virtual lighting fries it obediently. Yami raises an arm to shield his eyes from the flash of light, probably because they were so wide a moment ago when he heard the name of the card. Kaiba recognizes the name too, I guess trying to make up for how little attention he was paying before it started, and glares over his shoulder as much as he dares to turn his head to regard the lighting out of his periphery. He banned that card in this tournament, as well as other cards that dealt direct damage to players and monsters.
You planned the tournament around catching and beating the Rare Hunters/Ghouls and you're SURPRISED when they cheat?? This kid is hopeless.
Possessed!Jonouchi follows up he illegal move by summoning Alligator Sword.
Especially when Yami doubles over, his eyes wide and teeth grinding. Possessed!Jonouchi laughs, asking if Yami isn't so tough after all. However, in the next panel, Marik admits freely to himself that Yami couldn't be beaten by a deck full of ordinary cards. This is why he rebuilt Jonouchi's deck from the ground up, filling it with a slew of illegal cards printed by his own organization. He wonders at Yami what it must feel like to be killed by one's own best friend, chuckling all the time.
Yami takes his turn rather quickly this time, summoning Big Shield Guardna in defense and half crouching behind it. Possessed!Jonouchi draws a card, casually implying that Yami's big shielded wall monster isn't big enough protection. He reveals Hintotama, the fire ball Guardna can't protect against. Yami gapes at the new illegal card, just before it hits him like a bomb.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I was very reluctant for half the chapter to refer to Jonouchi as "possessed", and still am, if I'm being honest. Unlike with Anzu, Jonouchi doesn't seem to be a mere megaphone for Marik; he appears to be using his own voice in all of his panels. I don't know if the feeling I get is accurate here, but this impresses upon me a notion that Jonouchi is retaining a measure of autonomy over his body and actions, but it's his EMOTIONS that are being overridden by Marik. Marik's intense hatred is kind of eclipsing Jonouchi's friendship with Yami, and that's the driving force behind Jonouchi's behavior here.
But, that's far too long a tag to stick onto Jonouchi's name, and calling him "possessed" is just a bit easier.
In any case, I'm pretty impressed with the conflict here, because KT seems to have caught on to the fact that Yami's duels alone aren't good for sustaining tension on their own, because we know he's going to win SOMEHOW. I like that the tricky part here is that he's going to have to try to NOT win and NOT die at the same time. He has to find a way to drag out the duel until he can draw the Red Eyes, use it as some sort of emotional trigger for Jonouchi so that his feelings of friendship can come to the forefront again, and then get them both out of this nutzo situation without either of them kicking the bucket. This is the kind of balancing act that really turns pages, because success isn't predicated on winning here, which would have been a given. KT even threw in a few extra obstacles here with the banned cards, so he's not pulling any punches. This is the truest test Yami has faced as a character thus far, and it's really keeping me on the edge of my seat.
The only real issue I had with this one all comes from Kaiba. I understand we had to know that his hands were tied here, but his realization that this was an honest attempt on these kids' lives was way too late, and his commentary after the fact was a little irritating in that the things he was hearing shouldn't have come as much of a shock. Gee, the guy whose organization prints copies of cards and beats up kids for their rare cards and is also about to MURDER a couple of people has no regard for the rules of your tournament Kaiba? You don't saaaaaaay...
To play devil's advocate, there wasn't a segment of Death-T where Yugi had to murder his friends to progress. Probably because Kaiba hadn't thought of it at the time. But it was very much Yugi and Pals vs. Kaiba. Any deaths would have been caused by Kaiba's side, not Yugi himself.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I find it funny Raigeki is a banned card from this tournament, because I believe Kaiba has that card in his deck in a good number of the video games.
So he *could* be perfectly fine if the murder was attempted by Marik himself instead of pitting friends against one another?
DeleteYeah, that would be about par.
I'm covering a chapter currently that names another card that should probz be banned according to Jonouchi, but Kaiba doesn't even say anything about that one, so I assume he's just given up on the actual rules at that point. May as well not even bothered banning one of his own cards, lol!