Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 176 God Falls!?

Is that a bad or a good thing? I've been conditioned, pretty well in this particular instance, to favor opposition to a god, but what would it actually mean when this god loses? Will the sky fall? Will the world be cast into darkness? Will brother kill brother, humanity roll their eyes in madness? Will they start willingly taking poison and ignoring their own and others' well-beings in order to issue a grand cry of loneliness and impotence to the empty cosmos?

Because a lot of that doesn't sound too terribly different from what occurs on a regular basis. If we're being honest.

Marik looks like he might lose it in classic fashion before the fall of his god too. His faith seems awfully easy to shatter.

Yami holds up his hand, claiming he's just drawn the card he needs for his infinite combo. Marik grits his teeth at the mention of the phrase, and I'm inclined to follow suit. I'm reminded of my childhood, in which my friends and I would insult each other to "infinity" and "DOUBLE infinity" and "TRIPLE infinity" because we were stupid and didn't know it. These clowns are significantly older than I was then, though, so it's like they're regressing back into an infantile state by using the word in increasingly inappropriate ways.

You could call it an... INFINITE REGRESSION.

... I'm funny you know.

But I seem to be wrong about Marik's faith being easily shattered. He starts laughing through his doll, unironically questioning Yami's use of "infinite" and also claiming he said that it was beyond the limits of god. He asks if Yami is out of his mind, because there's nothing greater than the god cards, and even offers to show Yami that fact right now. Marik reminds Yami of his permanent spell card, Card of Safe Return, which works across the field. This of course means that Yami's resurrection of Buster Blader allows Marik to draw three new cards. Yami just frowns and glares wordlessly.

Marik giggles with glee while he rubs it in Yami's face that his doll is drawing three new cards thanks to Buster Blader, with each card meaning...

13,000 is undoubtedly the luckiest number. Slifer blasts Buster with a lightning loogie to the face, and Yami encourages it to hold on. That little mouth only deals 2000 points of damage, and since Buster has 3100, it won't die from it. Marik chuckles at Buster Blader clinging to life, with attack points reduced to 1100. He asks Yami if he still intends to attack Slifer with that pitiful number, and offers to let him switch Buster to defense if he wants. So kind.

Of course, Yami is offended by such a suggestion to HIM of all people and declares he's attacking anyway, prompting Marik to wonder just what in the hell he's planning. He's actually starting to sweat a bit.

Back on top of the retaining wall, oh hey, look at that, the Kaiba brothers are still hanging out. I kind of forgot they existed for a sec. Mokuba is gaping at the spectacle below while Seto is just chillin' with his arms crossed. While little Mokuba just can't figure out where Yami is going with this, the elder Kaiba just continues to think at Yami that nothing is infinite, not even god, and the illusion can be broken. He's certain the duel will be decided on this turn.

I half-expect to see a tumbleweed rolling across the foreground.

Yami shouts that his battle phase is beginning, and Marik grins, eagerly anticipating how Yami will apparently be dead before he even knows what happened. Buster Blader lunges to attack Slifer at Yami's command, swinging its sword right down on the dragon's double-mouthed head. Yami grits his teeth nervously, Mokuba is sure that Yami's cards just aren't strong enough, and Marik laughs and laughs. He asks Yami how many times he can make the same mistake, presumptively saying that Buster Blader can't even touch a god. Then he activates his permanent trap.

Predictably, Marik's Revival Jam obeys its Jam Defender instructions and goes to take Buster Blader's hit for Slifer. I'm sure it would have done so even without Marik's incessant screaming at it to. Mokuba is in a permanent state of gawking at this point, now agape at the fact that the Jam intercepted the blow and was split in two. Marik is so inquisitive today, wondering out loud if Yami forgot about his Revival Jam and its self-sacrifice/resurrection combo ensuring that Yami can't even touch the god card; not that it could be defeated if Yami managed even that.

Though Yami couldn't, he does manage a smirk, the first in a while. He says he didn't forget and knew that Marik would "jam" his attack. No, no, NO, Yami, this is MY review, and I'm the only one who gets to make lame puns. You take that shit BACK.

As Marik's face falls in shock, Yami informs him that he's been waiting for this moment. He pulls one of the cards from his hand, what he calls his key card, and slaps it down.

Marik may be stunned above, but not quite for the reason he should be. He begins to giggle, then all-out guffaw at Yami. He finally stops to apologize to Yami, and tell him that Brain Control won't work on a god. And yet having a CARD that controls the god's essence is plenty fair, I guess. Yami is glaring again, but he sure as hell isn't sweating.

The doll points and voices Marik's order on Slifer to attack Buster, and Slifer opens its mouth to comply. Smirking yet again, Yami asks Marik who said he used Brain Control on Slifer. Marik looks a bit dumbfounded when Yami begins to reveal the card he REALLY meant to control. It's Revival Jam, of course, which reforms on Yami's side of the duel. Marik gapes in disbelief at this choice, but Yami encourages him to take his cue and draw three new cards as per the conditions of his Card of Safe Return.

For once, Marik remains quiet as he glares in suspicion at Yami. He doesn't really get it yet, thinking that Yami is only helping him by making his hand bigger. Now, of course, Slifer has 16,000 attack points, but before it can attack, Revival Jam has returned back to the field as one of Yami's monsters again. Yami points, reminding Marik that this activates Slifer's automatic attack function. Marik issues a set of curse-masking symbols while Slifer summons its Lightning Shot at Revival Jam.

The Jam blows up, and Marik knows only too well what this means - that it will just come back again. It reforms, and Yami prompts Marik's doll to draw three more cards again, still pointing, like some kind of RUDE PERSON. Sorry, I'm still salty about that infringement on my pun turf earlier.

So, Marik's doll does exactly that, and Marik growls with growing rage in the background.

I would say Marik still can't grasp the metaphorical nature of this "infinite" term, but he's at least figured out that his deck will soon be gone as his doll draws yet another three cards. Yami confirms this by saying that when a player no longer has a card to draw, they can't keep playing.

Sorry Yami, Kaiba already called that Bingo. Maybe next time you'll speak up sooner.

Oh well, I guess winning this card game is a bit more important in context than a Bingo round.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? This ending for the duel was very satisfying for exactly the reasons I have discussed in previous reviews, but also one more. Yami COULDN'T defeat Slifer. The only way he could managed to win the duel was to make Slifer use up its resources, which is clever, but not exactly a defeat someone might brag about. It was a technicality that Yami exploited in the rules of the game, not a weakness of the monster or player themselves.

It puts into perspective just how powerful these god cards are, if Yami was on the ropes for so long and only managed to slip away through a crack in the rules. In a way, the ease with which he wins most of his other games, and about which I endlessly grouse, helped drive home the point here a little bit better; If YAMI barely got through this duel with a win, anyone else facing the god cards doesn't have much hope.

Still, this chapter did show us the return of Yami's arrogant smirk, and it was even more grating than it was before. I don't think anyone who had to have KAIBA hint to them about what the limits of the term "infinity" should have the right to look so smug.

The murder-grin, on the other hand... I miss the murder-grin.