Mai talks about the Cyber Bondage making her Harpy Lady stronger than ever, and that combined with the Mirror Wall renders Yami without a snowball's chance in hell.
Can we pause to talk about the fact that this equipment is called "Cyber Bondage"? Pegasus creates the cards and the art for them right? I'm a little disturbed that this came out of his head. He doesn't strike me as much of a BDSM type of dude, so thinking about it is sort of skeeving me out. And I wanted to share that with readers because misery loves company. You're welcome.
Back to the game, where Mai is giggling at Yami for falling into her trap and underestimating her. Yami growls and grumbles about this woman in his head, while Mai tells him it's his turn and that he'd better not waste it. He draws a card, looks at it, and is stoked that he drew Summoned Skull. I'm stoked too, because that has fast become my favorite card in this game. It's just so badass! And it can easily overcome the harpy's 1800 attack points, as Yami observes. Careful, boy. Remember what happened the last time you thought like that.
Too bad about that short-term memory loss, though. Yami wants Mai to watch him show her she's no match for him. Across from him, Mai judges by his expression that he drew a good card and urges him to come at her bro, because her trap is still waiting for him. Yami plays a card face down and then slaps down the Skull Demon.
The Mirror Wall is back, making the Summoned Skull attack its own reflection and halve its own attack points. It's down to 1250 points, driving home the SHOCKING reality that this is in fact a PERMANENT trap for Yami. Mai winks at him, telling him he should have read the fine print.
Yami wastes a panel explaining that normal trap cards are discarded after a turn, but there are exceptions. Well no shit, we can SEE that. Mai holds up her trap while praising it as one of the RAREST kinds, a permanent thorn in the side of her opponent, appearing as long as it's on the table and Yami calls out an attack. Yami is appalled, because this means that all his monsters are as good as useless.
Jonouchi asks Yami what's the matter, because I guess he can't hear what he and Mai are saying. But after Anzu calls Yami's name as well, he clarifies that there's something wrong with Yami's fighting style, because he's attacking without thinking and playing way too fast. It's not like Yami to fall for the same trick twice. Anzu thinks it's almost as if Yami is impatient, though in the next panel he looks more constipated than anything else.
Mai hangs her head mockingly and talks about what a disappointment it is that THIS is the skill level of the great duelist she's been waiting to face. Yami growls as Mai looks back up, saying that the moment Yami sat down, she saw him being crushed by an invisible pressure. This statement shocks Yami, and he gapes at Mai while she continues. She claims that two duelists facing one another can usually feel an aura of battle, whatever that means, but all she feels from Yami at the moment is irritation, and blurts that he must be thinking about fighting Pegasus instead.
Whoops. Looks like Yami got caught in the dueling equivalent of shouting someone else's name during climax. He's certainly LOOKING like he's in that awkward position of thinking of how to explain who "Pablo" is. Mai pisses about how he thinks she's not even worth his attention, and how he's such an arrogant boy, thinking he had her beat before the duel even began. With his mind running in circles thinking of Pegasus, Mai accuses Yami of being distracted by the thought of Pegasus watching their duel. That has a rather voyeuristic tone to it...
Yami wonders if he really IS nervous because of Pegasus, while Pegasus leers down at him from his throne above.
Pegasus himself is silently saying that Mai is correct, because he can see into Yami's mind and answers that unspoken question plaguing him in the negative. Nope, Yami has no chance of beating Pegasus. Yami growls again and shouts at Mai to say whatever she wants AFTER she manages to beat him. Until then, they should get on with their duel already.
Mai is unimpressed with his new effort to intimidate her, saying that aggressiveness and machismo are only bluffs that men use to hide their weakness. She claims to be dead-on, which isn't a bad estimation considering how Yami is now growling at her to shut up. Totally hit a nerve there, for sure. She continues to bait him, laughing about how this is exactly why he fell into her trap.
Jonouchi yells at Yami not to listen to this provocative talk, and to howl if he's a man. Do men howl? I thought that was wolves... Oh well. Anzu suddenly has an epiphany that Mai might be trying to provoke his duelist ability that Yami has lost sight of instead of his defeat. Yami can only growl some more at Mai while she thinks it looks like he's woken up a bit, so she's ready to REALLY fight. She wants him to forget about the pressure of dueling Pegasus she can see his sharp eyes and his readiness to murder the opponent in front of him.
Sure you want to be MURDERED, Mai?
She shouts that the real fight begins now, and Yami yells back to bring it on, because he WILL win. This is more like what she had been waiting for, because if he doesn't give it his all, there's no point in beating him.
Mai draws a card as she states that it's her turn, and wonders if she should attack the Skull Demon at half its power on this round. Yami's glaring at her from across the table, and she decides she's worried about the face down card he played earlier being a trap besides. Instead of siccing her harpy on him, she plays Harpy's Feather Duster, much to Yami's surprise. She internally apologizes to Yami for getting rid of his mystery card.
Yami holds up the card, showing her that it was Spell-Binding Circle, which would have trapped HER if she had attacked. He compliments her on her good read of him, and puts his card in the "graveyard". Mai says she's a cautious player whom Yami should try to emulate with a little chuckle. Yami shouts that it's his turn, and he draws a card dramatically rather than letting himself be provoked by her trash-talk.
He reminds himself that as long as Mai's mirror is on the table, it will pop up whenever he attacks, which essentially cuts off that option for him. Yami switched the Skull Demon to defense, following up this move by playing the Feral Imp in defense as well. Mai questions whether there's any way for Yami to win if he can't attack, but doesn't dwell on this, as it's her turn now. She pulls another equipment card from her hand, an Electro-Whip which gives Yami even more reason to grind his teeth. He wonders if she's just going to keep powering up Harpy Lady while hiding behind the Mirror Wall. It's working, isn't it?
It's Mai's turn again and she draws a card accordingly. Looking at this card, she smirks, welcoming it to her hand. She tells Yami that her harpy combo is only 70% complete with this new card, but it looks like it'll be enough to beat him. Mai shouts that she's playing the harpies' ultimate servant, the pet dragon that has Yami squirming already.
Mai calls the dragon a "cutie" while introducing it as a well-trained pet. Whatever you say. She commands it to kill the demon with an attack she calls "Saint Fire Giga". Is that anything like Saint Elmo's Fire, by any chance? It takes out my favorite Skull Demon and I am a saddie. Yami, on the other hand, is just shocked and gaping.
In the wake of the attack, Mai tells Yami that there's something he's lost sight of, something you can show but you can't see.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I was a little conflicted over this one because a good portion of it was just Mai heckling Yami, and I'm not a big fan of characters just sitting and talking without much else happening in between. I find it difficult to concentrate in a visual medium such as comics when there isn't action happening while the characters are speaking to one another, so I was kind of bored by the scene. I would have preferred to have this happening over the course of a few turns, rather than between them.
That said, I DID appreciate the content of the conversation. It was a reflection on Yami's current insecurities backed up by the visual metaphor of the mirror wall reflecting his rash actions. I feel like this is the principle reason Mai was made into an older woman, in addition to her using sexual awareness of herself as a distracting factor, of course. She's also WISER than most of the people she's playing, and in a fundamentally female way. Mai has a lot of experience dealing with blustering overly-aggressive meatheads who think they can intimidate her into submission. ALL WOMEN DO, and we also all eventually come to realize that these guys are covering for their own insecurities in various situations. It's such a default for men to fall into when they're trying to regain control and confidence that it can be invisible to them.
So Mai drawing attention to it, as well as calling out Yami's insecurities about facing Pegasus in plain terms is very important, because identification of a problem is the first step to solving it. Yami's defensive mode isn't his REAL dueling spirit, and unless Mai helped Yami to realize this, she wasn't going to see that real spirit or be able to say she faced him with true sportsmanship, win or lose.
But she's also trying to tell him something else here, being a bit more coy about this particular detail. She wants him to figure it out, and has reformulated his own riddle in order to help him realize it on his own. I wonder what it is...
There is some weird sexual tension in this duel, and that's without even taking the BDSM harpies into consideration.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's because they both have their jackets off, they're all cozy, giving each other EYES... I don't know, there's a lot of things in this manga that have a vaguely sensual bent, and I can't quite put my finger on it.
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