Yuugi ruminates on the fact that Pegasus's Millenium Eye allows him to read opponents' minds as he peers over the banister, and wonders if Kaiba can beat Pegasus's power. Well, that's supposed to be the point of that Duel Disk, right? Evening the playing field a bit?
Jonouchi pisses and moans about how he wants both Kaiba and Pegasus to lose, but since the tournament will be ruined if Pegasus eats it, he wants to see Kaiba lose even more. It probably has something to do with the fact that Kaiba kept calling Jonouchi a loser and a deadbeat, too. Yuugi, on the other hand, doesn't want Kaiba to lose, though he knows he has to beat Pegasus in order to save his grandfather. Looking at Kaiba's serious expression, he just doesn't want Kaiba to lose. Fat chance of getting what you want in THIS match, boy.
Pegasus draws Kaiba's attention to the fact that the finalists for the tournament have arrived to watch their match, and Kaiba looks up to see Yuugi as well.
Pegasus thinks that Kaiba seems destined to fight him in addition to Yuugi. He says this like a man who DIDN'T fuck around with these two kids' lives in order for them to want to kick his ass. Pegasus wants to start their match, but Kaiba demands to know where Mokuba is first. Pegasus declines to answer the question, but assures Kaiba that he'll see his little brother soon enough. Over an inexplicable long panel featuring what looks like a throne, Pegasus proposes they get right to the means of their duel. His feeling is that Kaiba brought a contraption called a Duel Disk with him, which surprises Kaiba, but only mildly.
Kaiba kneels down and snaps open his briefcase, pulling out one of the disks and telling Pegasus that they duel with this, or nothing at all.
Pegasus puts back on a smirk when he proposes that they can duel with the disks if he's allowed a proxy to wield it for him. This does NOT please Kaiba, but Pegasus assures him that he'll be making all the moves, so he's still the opponent Kaiba wants to face. But Pegasus, you're forgetting he's seen you fight through a "proxy" before, and that didn't turn out too well for Keith, did it? Kaiba INSISTS that Pegasus use the disk himself and face him head on. Pegasus, however, knows basic gaming strategy says you should never fight on your opponents terms, and dueling with the disk wouldn't be in his favor.
He continues to smirk at Kaiba, thinking that his mind games have only just begun.
Kaiba calls out Mokuba's name again, but Mokuba's eyes remain listless and him unresponsive. Yuugi also yells Mokuba's name, while Anzu wonders just what the heck is wrong with him to be so zombie-like. One of the Secret Service Servants stands between Kaiba and Pegasus, presumably in case Kaiba decides to drop the card games and go straight for Pegasus's throat, and Kaiba demands to know what Pegasus did to his brother.
Pegasus holds up a card with Mokuba's picture on it, labeled Soul Prison, Mokuba clinging to bars he's trapped behind and everything. Pegasus claims that the reason Mokuba isn't talking is because his soul is sealed in the card, which has Kaiba's eyes bugging in disbelief. He's probably remembering that traumatic time Yami did something similar to HIM. Pegasus says that Mokuba's body is only a shell right now, with enough volition to obey his warden's commands. He tells Kaiba that he'll free Mokuba from the card if Kaiba can beat him.
Sweating, gritting his teeth, and surrounded with spectral fire, Kaiba curses Pegasus. Yuugi gives us an unneeded recap of Mokuba being trapped by Pegasus's powers from his position at the banister. Thanks a ton, Yuugi. Mokuba is holding the Duel Disk, next we see him, with Pegasus laying a hand on his shoulder and nominating HIM to throw it for his master if Kaiba continues to insist on using it.
Kaiba stares, sweating as he realizes that Pegasus is asking him to fight Mokuba, which is one thing he is NOT willing to do. Why, Kaiba? This is only a card game, and the toy doesn't HURT anyone. Still, Kaiba grinds his teeth and sweats, in a huge dilemma over nothing. Pegasus holds back up that Soul Prison card and offers to duel Kaiba the way he originally intended instead.
Pegasus tells Kaiba they'll be using standard rules for the game, asking if he agrees, but getting no answer. Regardless, Pegasus instructs Kaiba to prepare his deck. Yuugi shouts at Kaiba to look out, because Pegasus has a Dragon Capture Jar, which draws Kaiba's alarmed gaze out of the corner of his eye. Yuugi silently bids Kaiba to choose his cards carefully, because even the Blue Eyes White Dragon is powerless against that jar.
Jonouchi asks Yuugi why he's bothering to give Kaiba advice, and Yuugi answers that he has to. Since Kaiba is fighting to get back Mokuba, he can't lose. Jonouchi stares, muttering Yuugi's name again. Meanwhile, Kaiba mentally promises not to forget Yuugi's advice, but he still plans to beat Pegasus with a certain card.
Kaiba slams his shuffled deck down on the table, surrounded by spectral fire again as he stares across the table at a strangely subdued-looking Pegasus. Yuugi tells him to be careful yet again.
Pegasus and Kaiba begin drawing their hands after a call to begin, Pegasus looking at his cards, but Kaiba glaring at Pegasus. The page gives us a nice panel detailing the rules, I guess just in case someone new pops in to see what this nonsense is all about. Pegasus declares that he'll go first, pauses a moment to choose a card, which is Toon Alligator in defense. While the cartoon appears on the table with its little arms crossed, Pegasus also plays a card face down to end his turn.
Kaiba wonders if Pegasus's low level monster in defense is standing in front of a spell or trap as he calls out that it's his turn now. He already has a Blue Eyes White Dragon and could open the duel with a full-on assault, but he doesn't know if that Dragon Capture Jar is already in Pegasus's hand. Kaiba sees that Pegasus is looking down and to the side, not even meeting his glare. He slides a face down card onto the table as well, and follows up this monster with playing Rude Kaiser in attack, commanding it to attack the alligator.
He says his turn is all over. Sweating and keeping his hand at his temple with a hopeless look, he wonders what he's going to do facing a monster with attack stats of 1800. He perks right up when he sees a card that can beat it, a Parrot Dragon that he sets down and tells to do its best. Kaiba tells Pegasus to hold up while he activates his face down spell card, much to Pegasus's over-acted alarm. The card is Mesmeric Control, which reduces the parrot's attack by 800 points and also appears to put its hologram straight to sleep.
At Kaiba's command, the Rude Kaiser punches the shit out of the sleeping parrot and defeats it, reducing Pegasus's life points to 1400 while he moans dramatically. Kaiba glowers, wondering if Pegasus is taking this duel seriously at all. Yuugi knows first hand what Pegasus is doing - pretending to be bad at the game to bring down Kaiba's guard and lay out a trap.
Pegasus himself mentally chuckles as he thinks that his lost 600 points should be enough of a handicap, and looks back up at Kaiba, smirking. He knows all the cards in Kaiba's hand, having read his mind. Kaiba draws a card as he announces that it's his turn, and speculates that perhaps his hunch that Pegasus doesn't have the Dragon Capture Jar is correct. If that's the case, he figures it's safe to play his dragon buddy, which he begins to draw from his hand. Pegasus yells at him to stop.
Kaiba freezes, gritting his teeth as Pegasus tells him not to show the card he's about to play, because it's about to be subject to the face down card Pegasus laid down earlier. Kaiba blanches at the trap, which happens to be the Prophecy card. It allows Pegasus to predict whether the attack points on Kaiba's card are more, less or equal to 2000 points, rewarding him with that card if his prediction happens to be correct. His guess is that the card has MORE that 2000 points, because it's a dragon we all know only too well.
Gaping, Kaiba wonders how he could possibly have known, until he recalls with shock that Pegasus can see through his hand. OR, you're so goddamn predictable in the fact that every strategy you use revolves around the Blue Eyes White Dragon, and it's a safe guess.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Jonouchi is supposed to be the character the audience identifies as the stupid one, but I think Kaiba is SO much more dense than him. Seriously, Kaiba is meant to be the boy genius, the one who is inventive enough to come up with a machine that will counteract Pegasus's mind-reading powers, and the one who self-reportedly will do ANYTHING to win and is proud of it.
Yet he's inconsistent with this image. His brother would have been less injured by wielding the Duel Disk than Kaiba's death simulation back in Death-T, but Kaiba REFUSES to go through with his plan of using the contraption. This appears to be both an indication to those watching that Kaiba HAS actually changed quite a bit (in answer to Yuugi's question the previous night about whether Kaiba had changed at all), and a major backpedal in Kaiba's resolve. The thing to remember here is that the last thing Kaiba remembers before his trip to Duelist Kingdom is Death-T. His mistreatment of Mokuba is still fresh in his mind, no doubt, and its root in his effort to push Mokuba away so he could cease to care. Now Kaiba isn't denying he cares anymore, and any antagonism toward Mokuba would probably recall that horribly fresh memory of doing so.
So, he's already dropped the "anything goes" philosophy of winning he lectured Jonouchi about before. And he's also refusing to learn from his last match against Yami, about the adaptation that makes his grand opponent so very successful in his game. He still insists on using that damn Blue Eyes White Dragon in every strategy he dreams up, and won't even consider looking to any other card for a path to victory.
He's become that loser that he was only too happy to tease Jonouchi for being a few chapters ago.
A recap of the rules isn't unwarranted here, I think, given that the last two duels have had entirely new rules for the Labyrinth and Kaiba's Duel Disk.
ReplyDeletePegasus intentionally overacting is the funniest thing. He's not convincing at all and isn't even trying to be. He's such a sarcastic little shit and is doing it purely because he knows that's the kind of thing a nerd like Kaiba, who gets pissy about dumb things like Yugi using Kuriboh, would hate.
The Big 5 isn't here in the anime, for some reason. Which is weird, because the anime makes TWO filler arcs where-in they are major villains!
That's an entirely fair point. If I had been reading these chapters as they came out, and not one after the other for this blog, I suppose I might have needed a little reminding myself.
DeletePegasus not taking the game seriously just to get under Kaiba's entirely-too-serious skin is my vibe right now, lol!
I vaguely recall the Big Five being in an arc about a VR video game... man, I just really need to watch the show again. It's been a minute.
That's the plot of both arcs involving them. xD
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