He appears more calm on the next page, though he's still gritting his teeth and sweating. The jack in the box giggles at him while he groans, and he hangs his head. He still has life points, but since he ran out of cards, he lost. Pegasus patronizingly calls Kaiba smart, and he should know therefore what stakes are being played for, here. Uh, duh dude. Considering he's said goodbye to Yuugi, I'd say he's well aware of what he's about to lose.
Because Kaiba's not talking, though, Pegasus elaborates that losers in HIS game lose everything that they hold dear and even more than that; their souls. Kaiba growls as Pegasus holds up a card much like the one featuring Mokuba, except without a person behind the bars. Pegasus says he's been saving this Soul Prison just for Kaiba, so he can join in on his brother's fate.
Yuugi shouts Kaiba's name while the light that just burst from his chest swirls into the face of the card held in Pegasus's hand. It magically shows Kaiba behind its painted bars now, in profile view and hanging his head, looking stoic and resigned. Pegasus confirms that Kaiba's soul is now sealed in the card, doomed to walk in darkness for all eternity. Kaiba's body is hunched in its chair, his eyes staring and glassy. Aw man! He just got OUT of a coma, and now he's in ANOTHER one?
Guys, someone order him a "True Love's Kiss", because that shit seemed to work for the actual Sleeping Beauty.
Pegasus holds Kaiba and Mokuba's cards right next to each other, saying that they're so close, but they may as well be universes apart. He snarks that if they could have gone to heaven, they at least would have gotten to see each other again. It's amazing to me how good this man feels having stolen the souls of two boys and isolating them from each other.
Jonouchi grits his teeth as he observes Kaiba has been put in a card too. Very astute, young man. Yuugi stutters Kaiba's name, watching him being hauled off the stage. His teeth clench too, and he reiterates how Kaiba was risking his life in a duel to get Mokuba back, wanting to save someone close to him, and that making him no different than he and Jonouchi.
Pegasus stands up to praise for taking care of Kaiba from the shadowy Big Five in their observation window. They tell him all he has to do is beat Yuugi, and they'll sell him Kaiba Corp as planned. Pegasus assures them that there isn't a person alive that can beat him at cards.
Well joke's on you, fool, because Yami ISN'T alive! LOLZ
Pegasus appears to be considering this, because he thinks that the power of the Millennium Puzzle may reside in Yuugi, but it's powerless against the Millennium Eye. A flash of something grabs Pegasus's attention from above, and he looks up to see the Millennium Puzzle shining from around Yuugi's neck above. It looks like Yami has come back out, due to his narrowed eye design being visible even when his eyes are closed. A third Eye of Horus glows upon his forehead as well while Pegasus stares in surprise.
"Don't you know I'm the only one who gets to fuck around with people using magical ancient Egyptian artifacts? Don't be selfish, Pegasus!"
Pegasus wears a smirk when he identifies the OTHER Yuugi, and Yami promises to defeat him. Jonouchi lets out an exclamation like Yami's anger as at all surprising. Haven't you picked up on his annoying self-righteousness by NOW, kid?
Pegasus is super happy that Yami gives a shit, but reminds him that he'll have to win the tournament to earn the right to fight the king. Yami is well aware of that, thanks, but he warns Pegasus to get ready, because he won't be satisfied until he gets to destroy him. Pegasus just chuckles, then announces that the finals will take place tomorrow in the very arena in which he's still standing after having stolen Kaiba's soul there. Out of the four duelists, only one will face him in a duel.
A Secret Service Servant holds up the two cards that were included in the original invitation Yuugi was showing off in the beginning, saying that they needed at least one of them to duel, and would be disqualified if they don't have them. Yami reaches into his jacket and pulls them out, identifying them as the Honor of the King's Right Hand, and Honor of the Kings Left Hand. Jonouchi stares down at them too with a horrified look, because his lack of formal participant status means he didn't get them.
Yeah, isn't it funny that HALF the finalists here were able to get in without invitation? Seems like Pegasus's Secret Service Servants were only doing their jobs HALF the time, huh?
Sure enough, Keith is looking at Yami's cards from afar too, cursing the fact that he snuck his way into the tournament without knowing that official duelists were given them. He decides quickly that he needs to find a way of getting his hands on one.
Pegasus gives his "fair" duelists a lackluster wave as he makes his exit, saying he'll meet them back there tomorrow. Jonouchi, Yami and Anzu all glare at him as he leaves. Mai starts walking away now too, saying that they're all enemies now and the time for friendship is over. She DOES wish a perplexed Jonouchi good luck on her way out, though. Yami looks back down at his cards.
While Jonouchi continues to freak about how he can't win without one of those precious cards, Yami ponders the Honor of the Kings Left Hand card and why it doesn't have text or a picture. He looks like he's had a revelation, working out that the four players entering the finals and the one that wins will get two honors in either hand, the prize money and presumably the right to duel Pegasus after everyone else is beaten.
Yami visualizes Pegasus on a throne, in the end holding both of the honor cards in his hand with the LEFT Hand card containing a trapped soul of the loser to bolster his status as king. Seriously, whatever happened to marking royalty with fucking crowns, Pegasus? That's a shit-ton easier and a lot less of a douchey thing to mark yourself with.Yami continues to stare at the card until he declares to Jonouchi that they HAVE to make it to the final round.
Jonouchi haltingly agrees, but he reminds Yami that he doesn't have a card that will qualify him for the finals. In turn, Yami reminds him that they split star chips between them in order for both of them to participate in the first part of the tournament.
After a pause, Jonouchi says he's cool with this, but wonders aloud what will happen if they're matched up in the first round. Yami replies that they'll just have to go up against each other, and an alarmed Jonouchi looks pretty surprised that Yami is so cavalier about this. That's either because he's always had a more healthy attitude about competition between friends than either Kaiba or Mai, OR because he read the script and isn't worried about that happening, knowing it won't.
He acknowledges that Pegasus's eye is troublesome and he doesn't have a perfect solution, but that's not going to stop him from crushing that son of a bitch. Jonouchi is stoked at more of Yami's unbeatable spirit, just before Mr. Croquet interrupts their conversation to ask them to follow him. He informs them that a dinner party has been arranged for them, and as he's guiding them, Jonouchi shouts that he's stoked because of how famished he is.
They follow Croquet down a staircase and into a dining room wherein a long table is already set and Mai has already sat down, greeting them as she puts a napkin in her lap. Jonouchi drools at the nice spread of food he sees there, and is more than fine with letting Pegasus feed him tonight. I don't know, man, remember the last time an enemy invited you to dinner? Hands on her hips and looking disgruntled, mutters about how this is the first time they've been fed properly on the island.
Yami is shocked when he sees something up on the wall.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I know I keep harping on about Yami inflicting penalty games on Kaiba in the past, but I'm just bothered by the fact that the manga isn't ACKNOWLEDGING this. I would be perfectly fine with this as a flaw in the character, something that he had to recognize and accept as bad behavior on his part, but it's not like that at all. No one even SEES the parallel between what Pegasus has done to Kaiba now and what Yami has done to Kaiba in the past, acting like the former is wrong and the latter is right for no really EXPLORED reason. I suppose it could be said that Kaiba DESERVED that treatment way back when, because he wasn't fighting for anything except his wounded pride, given what Yuugi said about Kaiba not being any different than them this time around. Still, it bears exploring what right Yami has to fuck with peoples' heads the way he does, regardless of what bad things Kaiba or anyone else has done to him. If we're going to say that PEGASUS doesn't have a right to do it, we need to ask ourselves what right YAMI has to do it too, and if it's really that much different.
That's why Shadi's portrait being revealed to the main characters in this chapter is so important. Here's another guy who carelessly entered people's heads without their permission, toying with their autonomy and traumatizing them with his fiddling. The tools with which this is done, the Millennium Items, seem to give the wielders a sense of justification, like they feel they're entitled to do this to others on the basis of justice. Or, at least, half of them seem to. The spirit of the ring is just a dick. We'll see if Pegasus fits the justice mold later on.
All in all, I'm hoping there's a deeper exploration of what justice actually IS later on, and what it means to be a balanced judge of it. How does one decide what punishments are fair, and what even DESERVES punishment? And most of all, when one inevitably FUCKS UP in the judgement of an individual, how do you take responsibility for that? Because frankly, I'm still waiting for Yami to even realize that he was part of Kaiba's descent into madness after that first penalty game. Will that ever happen?
Signs point to no.
I'd almost say that the reason two cards were sent out is because you present one to Pegasus at the end: either a demand for prize money or a demand for a Shadow Duel against the creator of the game. Basically a pick your poison kind of deal, though the money doesn't seem to have a downside.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm pretty sure that Yugi was offered the prize money even after beating Pegasus, so I don't know what the fuck!
Also, this section in the anime between Kaiba's duel to the duel between Atem and Mai is really REALLY terrible!
I think that was the reason on paper, and it makes sense, but I also think it's MORE of an excuse to bring Jonouchi into the fold, so that he can compete where he wouldn't have qualified before. I shouldn't complain, since I'm GLAD Jonouchi was able to play in this arc, as he's my favorite by far, but getting both two cards AND two chips was a bit too convenient for me not to roll my eyes at, lol!
DeleteAnd you're right, since Yami got that money anyway, the KIND of card it was didn't seem to matter! I'm honestly surprised Pegasus's staff didn't just split the prize among themselves and disappear. Glad they didn't, for Shizuka's sake, but still surprised.