Yami has the fist grasping his deck thrust out at Pegasus as he emerges from a door in front of him, which is kind of hilarious in how dramatic a gesture it is.
Pegasus starts to commend the prodigal Yami for surviving his stupid fake kingdom to face him, tacking a "boy" onto the end of his name like usual. Yami demands a promise from Pegasus to release Sugoroku's soul if he wins their duel, before it begins, of course. Pegasus doesn't pause in agreeing to the deal, but Yami wants to add the release of the Kaiba brothers' souls into it as well. This perplexes Pegasus, who thought that Kaiba was Yami's enemy and doesn't understand why Yami would want to save someone like that. Yami just says that right now, Pegasus is his only enemy. Internally, though, he's determined to keep the promise he made to Mokuba that he'd see his brother again.
Reaching into his jacket, Pegasus mutters that he sees this promise nonetheless, inexplicably bewildering Yami. He can read minds, Yami! Seriously, can you remove your head from your ass?? Pegasus pulls the cards he sealed Kaiba and Mokuba into from an inner pocket, showing them to Yami while he vows to release them from the prison of lost souls IF Yami can beat him. He gestures to the table and pleads with him to sit, now that all promises have been accounted for.
Honda shouts that the match is finally starting, and Jonouchi says he can almost see their fighting spirits clashing. I'm pretty sure that's just the spectral fire KT likes to draw around them, dude. Because they can't see the action from their position beneath the raised stage, Jonouchi suggests they go upstairs and Honda agrees. They all rush to make it upstairs before anything happens, Bakura asking whether Yami will be alright against the power of mind-reading of the Millennium Eye. Jonouchi tells him not to be stupid, because Yami's not going to lose. Jonouchi is convinced Yami will be the REAL king of the island once he kicks Pegasus's ass. Whatever you say, Jonouchi.
They reach to banister to find Yami and Pegasus sitting across from one another, Croquet standing off to the side.
Croquet tells Yami to show him the two cards that show he has the right to duel Pegasus, and Yami holds them up and names them as the right and left honors. Croquet takes them to examine them more closely, and I'm wondering if he was supposed to do that with the others. Oh well, he thanks Yami for them, and explains that in the event of the current king's defeat, Yami will be given the monetary compensation promised. Croquet formally asks Pegasus if he understands this, to which Pegasus barks an "of course". He DID organize this damn tournament and made up the rules, didn't he?
Yami glances off to where he can see his friends at the banister out of the corner of his eye, Jonouchi glaring back and thinking it's all up to Yami now. Pegasus gets Yami's attention again by asking him if he knows why the Honor of the King's Left Hand card doesn't have a picture on it. Yami smugly replies that he knows the picture will emerge if he loses, and his soul is sealed inside, wearing a smirk and crossed arms like it's no big deal. Pegasus says he's right and praises him on his courage in facing the challenge though he knows what he might lose. Courage isn't the word I would use here, but...
Honda stutters in disbelief while Jonouchi is flabbergasted that Yami would challenge Pegasus knowing that he'll end up like Kaiba if he loses. Jonouchi is horrified that Yami has put his soul on the line for this. As Yami stares stoically ahead, Anzu silently pleads with Yami not to lose, because that means she'll lose something too, and couldn't bear it. Way to make this all about you, Anzu.
Yami informs Pegasus that he doesn't intend to become part of the duelist king's card collection. No one ever INTENDS for these things to happen, Yami. It's going to take a lot more than that to make sure it doesn't, like a PLAN that you didn't bother to come up with! Pegasus smirks at him, probably because he knows how unprepared this little snot is for what's about to hit him.
The Big Five that I almost forgot was watching from their creepy tinted observation window say they're putting their trust in Pegasus to defeat Yami so they can sign Kaiba Corp over to him like they promised. You'd think THIS would be the chapter named for all the promises brought up in it...
With his back to Yami across the table, Croquet appears to be revealing to Pegasus that they scanned Mokuba's stomach to produce a 3D image of the key he swallowed and will produce a copy from the model very soon. I can't tell if this is a telepathic communication between them because Croquet knows Pegasus can read his thoughts, or if it's just another switching of usage on this particular bubble that only USUALLY designates thoughts. Pegasus thinks that all the pieces are all in piece, and all that's left is to win this last duel.
Croquet announces that the final match of Duelist Kingdom will now commence, with both opponents silently contemplate their decks in front of them. He tells them to cut and shuffle each others' cards, and they push their respective cards toward each other to trade. The next few panels show them shuffling, Yami glaring at Pegasus as he does so as Pegasus has his eyes closed, and then trading back.
Pegasus is convinced Yami can't beat him for his Millennium Eye powers, but Yami is just thinking that he will and must win. Once both have drawn all their cards, Yami declares it's his turn, placing a face down card and playing Beaver Warrior in defense. Pegasus has his eyes closed again when the little Beaver creature's hologram appears on the table, and Yami wonders what it is that Pegasus can see. His hand? His face down card? Pegasus's eyes open once more and he chuckles, causing Yami some teeth-grinding stress.
It's Pegasus's turn, and he uses it to play a face down card too, as well as...
Millennium Eye peeking through his curtain of hair, Pegasus wonders if Yami thinks he doesn't know that the face down card on Yami's side is Horn of the Unicorn, or that Yami will equip Beaver Warrior with it to attack him on the next turn. I guess Yami IS completely in the dark, because he's thinking his face down card is even more powerful against a water monster and it should work. Again, Yami, you REALLY need to pull your head from your ass, because obvious trap is obvious.
Yami is ready to get on with making the dumbest mistake ever (that won't hurt his chances of winning in the end, though), and switches his Beaver Warrior to attack as well as flipping over his Horn of the Unicorn. It's mounted on the beaver's forehead and turns its sword into an electric sword, according to Yami, bringing its attack up by 700. Yami commands it to attack the mermaid archer, and the beaver launches itself toward the clam shell she's peeking from.
Pegasus informs Yami of his mistake as he turns over the face down card he played, much to Yami's alarm. It's Mermaid's Tear, which at activation encloses Beaver Warrior in a drop of water. Pegasus snarks that it's not so smart to use electricity under water, and the beaver will be shocked by its own sword, reducing its attack points again. The Beaver's face as it's shocked is kind of making me feel bad for it...
Pegasus chuckles again, face shadowed and evil-looking. Anzu is amazed that it's almost as though Pegasus KNEW Yami was going to do it, and Jonouchi asks if it was the magic eye. Wow, you kids are especially dense today, aren't you? Yami growls while he thinks that Pegasus CAN read his mind. I wish I could slap him upside his stupid head. Yami questions how he can stand up to the indisputable ruler and creator of the cards who has the power of the Millennium eye. I don't know, Yami. Maybe you should have spared a thought for that a while ago?
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It was PAINFUL. It was a manufactured and fake solution to the real problem of tension in the segment. Yami has seen plenty of evidence before the moment he started dueling with Pegasus that Pegasus knows his opponent's plays and cards. There was no reason for him to test it, and there was no reason for him to be so shocked when a too-good-to-be-true setup backed by a mysterious face down card turned out to be a fucking trap.
And no, THIS does not have me convinced that I was wrong in my previous assessment of Yami's lack of fallibility. It only convinces me that KT realized just how irritatingly arrogant and unflawed Yami appeared in the last chapter, and ended up over-correcting for it by writing him making a mistake he should have known better than to make after his duel with Mai. In that match, Jonouchi aptly pointed out that there was something wrong with Yami rushing into an attack without thinking, because he's usually more calculating than that. Well here he is, doing it again, and it makes me question if he's absorbed ANY of the lessons from that duel at all.
I will give this chapter ONE thing, though. I think it's at least good that Yami has finally realized how big of a problem this mind-reading power of Pegasus's is for him. I only hope that he shows some remorse for being so flippant about it before, because that would REALLY be an indication that he fucked up.
The anime does give Pegasus a motivation of wanting the Millennium Puzzle. Same with Marik later on. I'm not really sure why, but I guess the writers didn't like the idea of Yugi being a small cog in the machine as far as Duelist Kingdom was concerned. Marik, though, is particularly odd because he specifically has a beef with Atem. Did they really need to tack the Puzzle motivation on there?
ReplyDeletePegasus making anti-climactic first moves is the best part, though. He comes across as so non-threatening. At first.
And yeah, I don't know why Atem and Pals are continually surprised that Pegasus can read minds after multiple examples of Pegasus reading minds.
Dude is so successful in being disarming. He's just the best at convincing people he's just a bumbling weirdo, despite how often he's revealed he's NOT. How does he DO it???
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