Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 172 Summon the Nightmare

A title that is only too apt for my reality right now. I spent the past two weeks trying to avoid getting sick over my vacation, and then my first weekend back home I'm attacked with a sudden severe sore throat that makes it hard to even swallow. It blew my precious weekend, but at least I feel a bit better for the double I've scheduled myself into today. At least I'm not intermittently spitting in the sink to avoid swallowing. That's always a plus.

Enjoyable for your hate-boner, maybe. I still happen to be in enough pain to be in constant discomfort.

Yami brags that Marik's moves are too weak to take his life point and makes a phony apology for it, as a guy who is about to make an ass of himself is wont to do. Marik says that his last turn was just to test the waters, pebbles and ripples and all that, all to measure Yami's skills. Yami protests that a move such as that wouldn't be big enough to even make a ripple, but Marik chuckles. He launches into a heavy metaphor in which duelists are vessels and strategy is water, taking the shape of the vessel/duelist, bottom visible if the vessel/duelist is shallow.

I bet you there's a nice framed copy of a masters degree in armchair philosophy from the University of Marik's Ass hanging right above his mantle. But he thinks it's all good though, because he praises Yami on how he lives up to the rumors of his skill and depth.

Yami just glares. Meanwhile, Marik is exploring deeper than ever into the vast landscape of Metaphor World.

I hope he left a trail of breadcrumbs. Otherwise he could get lost.

Come to think of it, that might not be so bad...

Damn all the bad luck, though, because he's back in reality again after a short pause to show his 3300 life points as opposed to Yami's full 4000. He shouts at Yami that the duel should continue, and Yami agrees, because he's probably just as sure as I am that Marik's lofty pretentious banter would have made for a very BAD chapter. He draws a card and takes a look at it, to see that it's the many-starred Buster Blader. He plans to summon another monster on this turn and then sacrifice it along with Gazelle to summon Buster. Seems like a plan that could EASILY be thwarted, but he's the star player, so whatevz.

He introduces Marik to Beta the Magnet Warrior, popping out of its card face like a magnet-themed Astro Boy. Yami wastes no time in declaring his battle phase and has Gazelle destroy the Worm Drake. Gazelle strikes, Worm Drake bites it, and Marik bows his head as his points go down by another 100. Yami ends his turn with that, comfortable in the knowledge that Marik has not one monster on his side to defend him. While Yami thinks he has the upper hand, Marik smirks from behind the placid face of his doll, silently gloating over how Yami is the one being cornered.

Marik declares his turn and has his puppet draw a card, promising to show Yami how water-like his strategy is according to his former metaphor. A metaphor that apparently uses the malleability of water to form shields and swords. Yeah. Alright. The doll chooses a card that he holds out to Yami, with Marik announcing that it holds the power he's musing about. I guess we can assume he was saying all that other stuff out loud too, otherwise this would be really confusing.

I unconsciously crossed my legs upon seeing the last panel there. Read into that what you will. I certainly did.

Yami looks just as horrified as I am at the slime machine, but when he calls it that, all I can really think of is all those fun slime recipes online. Marik explains that the machine produces one slime every turn, which sounds like a fine deal for someone selling all their creative slimes on Etsy. The drawback, of course, is that Marik isn't able to summon any other monsters while the machine is there popping out all the slimes.

It sputters and putts, and Yami gapes at it, realizing the plan must be to produce enough of these slimy jams to sacrifice them for a max level monster. Marik confirms that it requires 3 sacrifices to summon a 10-star god card, which can lead to only one conclusion for Yami.

Yami decides that his only choice is to defeat Marik before he can get that god card in the game. The smug Marik is convinced it's far too late now that his combo has begun, though, calling the advent of Slifer inevitable at this point. He indeed has it in his hand now, and it will only take three more turns for it to make its debut.

Drawing a card, Yami shouts that it's his turn. He announces the sacrifice of both his current monsters, and Marik waits with some interest to see what Yami is summoning. He doesn't look too terribly happy when it arrives, though.

Buster splatters the little slime creature with ease using its "Destructive Sword Flash" move, but Yami's victorious grin had having swatted it is short-lived. He notices the jam begins to reform while Marik chuckles. The scattered droplets pull themselves back into their former shape, Marik explaining that this is the power of REVIVAL Jam. Maybe should have seen that coming.

Marik says that no matter what Yami does, the slime won't die, making attacking it as futile as attacking a pool of water. Again with this water crap... Yami reiterates that it can regenerate, a little slower on the uptake than usual, and Marik mocks him. He asks if he didn't already tell Yami that it was a shapeless invincible shield, making Yami's monsters unable to touch him. Not sure what the above expression of shock and upset on Marik's face is about then, but oh well.

Yami isn't looking too good for his close-up in the next panel, but Marik isn't too concerned with his comfort. He says it's back to him again, and has his doll draw a new card for him. He commands the machine to birth a brand new slime to join his first, and it's shot out of the gurgling hole like a cannonball. Yami sweats, looking at the slime with some apprehension while desperately thinking that he has to defeat the machine before it puts another one of the little bastards out there.

Marik admits that the little baby slimes produced by the breeding machine are weak at 500 points a pop, and since they're apparently born in attack position, Yami could do a shit ton of damage by attacking them. So, Marik's puppet throws down a card to prevent that scenario playing a spell card.

So nice they named it thrice!

Marik cites the strength of the cage as the reason they won't be able to attack each other for three turns, and Yami begins to panic at the notion that Marik will use the turns to generate more slimes. Marik confirms that his goal during this little down-period he's created is to build up his forces. He activates the machine again so it pops out yet another Jam. Wait, didn't he have to wait until his turn in order to do that? I mean, I know Yami can't attack or anything, but he can still draw a card at least. No?

I guess not, because Marik says that by his next turn he'll have all the monsters he needs anyway. Yami is seriously freaking out from behind the bars of his cage, knowing that Marik has his god card and will summon it shortly. As he's looks helplessly on, Marik asks through his doll how Yami feels in his cage, whether it's humiliation, despair or sorrow. He snarls at Yami that this is how he's felt his entire life, enduring the narrow fate of the Tomb Guardians. Marik perks up when he considers what kind of freedom his revenge will get him. Yeah, it's just SO invigorating getting to make those insignificant decisions regarding where all your ever decreasing disposable income is going to go month to month, only to have to allocate all of it to medical or financial emergencies that were ultimately not your fault anyway.

You're going to LOVE it in the "free" world Marik. Totally.

I don't think Yami is listening. He's instead insisting that he can't lose, let Yuugi die, or let his memories fall into obscurity forever. Maybe he's drawing a card here as well, but I'm not sure because they usually call out when they do that. I certainly hope he did, though, because Marik's machine has again popped out a little baby slime. Now that he has three, he destroys his machine, sacrifices the babies (I'm beginning to understand why there was a little bit of a moral panic around games like this in the nineties...), and tells Yami not to turn away from his bloody ritual. He introduces SLIFER.

... Awesome.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It almost seemed somewhat rushed toward the end, compared to KT's long-standing habit of milking every moment of the duel for any tension he can squeeze out of those teats. He instead opted to skip Yami's useless turns altogether, only paying him attention to focus on his panicking. I think it's a good move, ultimately, because it doesn't drag the chapter at all, but it's just a tad strange given how we're used to him writing these types of scenes. I actually hope this is the start of a new trend for him, because he's trained us to expect certain things that he should be well on his way to growing past as a storyteller. I only hope we can be retrained. You know what they say about old dogs.

I find it a little hilarious how naïve Marik appears about what his little revenge will afford him. He thinks it will solve all his problems, and it's given him a sever case of that "grass is always greener" syndrome. I know we'll never see how "freedom" is treating him by the end of the manga, because his motivation isn't really a main focus for us. Still, it would be funny to see him griping to Ishizu that all this financial and social independence was just not what he thought it would be in the end.

Finally, I have to express my happiness that Yami is FINALLY, BLISSFULLY, getting a taste of what it means to really be caught off-guard. In Duelist Kingdom, his distress came not with having no way of countering his opponent's moves, although that would have been difficult in and of itself. It stemmed from Pegasus knowing every move he was about to make. In this situation, however, Yami is free to strategize, but Marik was able to restrict his moves in a way that no other opponent has been able to do before. That is REAL nervousness on his face, not the product of his mind being manipulated or peered into. He is trapped entirely within the confines of the match and game, and it's scaring the hell out of him.

Thank you, KT, for restoring some conflict back to your main character and giving me a reason to CARE again. This duel will be a shit ton more interesting than most of Yami's, that's for sure.