I'm just saying that sustained grudges don't really work. Remember, the family that revenges together... never actually revenges together, because someone is always gone in order to justify the revenge. And they're not coming back regardless. Sorry.
Jonouchi looks like he's about to shit his pants while regarding the terrifying scorpion monster, which is totally understandable. Meanwhile, Rishid characterizes Selket as the card in the box's, Ra's, guardian. Whether this is out loud or not is unclear, but Jonouchi is too busy contemplating his doom to notice anyway, in my opinion. He knows he doesn't have a lot of life points left, only 50, to be exact, and he's pretty damn sure he doesn't have anything that can defeat such a strong monster. Still, he ruminates helplessly on what to do.
The spectators are alarmed and losing hope, Honda asking Yami if there's any possible way for Jonouchi to beat this guy. Yami acknowledges that the monsters Jonouchi currently has out can't defeat Selket, grinding his teeth anxiously. Furthermore, in Jonouchi's upcoming turn, the Swords of Revealing Light are going to disappear, so if Jonouchi doesn't do something then, his monsters are going to be royally fucked.
SOMEONE isn't quite up to speed on what's going on though. Shizuka calls out for her brother not to worry and attack that monster. Incredulous, he tells her not to say stupid things, because just LOOK at that scorpion. Mai doesn't pay this exchange any attention despite her normal advocacy for Shizuka, because she's busy asking Yami a question: just what IS in that box, since Selket is its guardian? Yami says he was thinking about just that himself. Mai lets a guess about what it could be trail as Yami thinks of a god card.
Cut to Marik, staring at the duel with his arms crossed. Unlike in the last chapter, I'm pretty certain that the sentence Rishid is thinking is a telepathic communication, because it is a direct question about why Marik put the god card in his deck. Marik answers that Rishid is his shadow and double, so he HAS to have a god card to complete the illusion of being a doppelganger. Rishid seems to have some indescribable criticism of the card sitting in the shrine box, so Marik articulates it for him. It is ALSO a double, a mere copy. Big surprise there, given that he runs an operation making illegal copies of rare cards.
Still, Rishid looks mighty uncomfortable with this information. Marik rambles on about the Ghouls' ability to make tons of copies of the Ra card, and that the genuine article is with him, of course. Rishid continues to look like he is REALLY not okay with this, brows drawn down, "gogogo" sound effects and everything. Marik tells him not to worry, claiming that the copy of the god card brings about different PUNISHMENTS for different users. PUNISHMENTS? And for some reasons Rishid should NOT worry about this??
Marik, let me try to explain this to your totally unempathetic ass - people generally don't want to be punished, especially for actions they were forced into by an authority. It's not a fun time. Just, for two seconds, could you maybe imagine yourself in such a situation and imagine how unfair that would seem? No? Of course not.
No, he just launches into a detailed description of the results of some experiments the Ghouls conducted in using these copy god cards. Some of them went mad, some became "vegetables", some of them out-and-out DIED. He assumes all of this is because of the god's anger, but he doesn't really know for sure. Great, I'm sure Rishid is really glad to know he's yet another guinea pig for you to fuck with.
All this aside, though, he says they did realize ONE thing at the end of all this
After a moment of contemplative silence, staring down at his Duel Disk, Rishid closes his eyes and offers a demure apology to Marik. When he snaps them open again, he asserts he can win this duel without the potentially damaging assistance of fake Ra. Good on you, man! No need to follow orders that are dangerous and harmful so
Not that I or my family have any personal experience with that, or anything. *Ahem*
Anyway, Rishid ends his turn, and for good measure, reminds Jonouchi that the Swords of Revealing Light are at this point going away. Jonouchi groans at the disappearing swords, which leave all of his monsters without their glittering barrier. Yami and Mai freak out, the former calling Jonouchi's name, the latter echoing Honda's question earlier about there being any possible way to defeat Selket. Jonouchi draws a card in response, noting with horror that this new card is neither a high-level monster or a magic card that can return a card from the graveyard.
So, without any other option, he puts all his monsters into defense, even though the cards already were turned on their sides. Oops. Well, I guess the only actual action Jonouchi is taking here is ending his turn. Rishid says it's his turn, and Jonouchi maintains his pants-shitting expression, Jinzo highlighted behind him. As the visual indicated, Rishid orders Selket to attack Jinzo. Its claws shoot out to seize Jinzo by the arms.
Rishid acknowledges that this killing was rather frightening, and says it's Selket's special effect. Jonouchi repeats the term in alarm and disbelief, so Rishid elaborates that when Selket swallows a monster like that, it takes on half of the devoured monster's attack points. Jonouchi is in even more shock and disbelief after the explanation, as Selket's attack updates to a whopping 3700 and it seems to stand up, growing an eye on a stalk from the middle of its head. Jonouchi stands horrified by this transformation, both in power and physical appearance.
While Honda reiterates the terrible fact that Selket has the ability to absorb attack power in question form, Mai shouts at Jonouchi to take that thing down before it becomes too powerful. Mai, I don't know if you noticed, but Selket now has 3700 attack points. I think one could argue that it's ALREADY too powerful. Yami has nothing to say except Jonouchi's name in distress. Again.
Jonouchi draws another new card at the beginning of his next turn, which also turns out to be a dud. Sweating and hunched, Jonouchi is sure this is the end, unable to do a thing this turn as well. He ends his turn, and again, Selket comes to absorb the powers of another of Jonouchi's monster's with an attack of which the translator can't decipher the name. Selket stuffs the Legendary Fisherman's killer whale down its gullet, as it holds the little man in its claw.
Groaning again, Jonouchi apologizes to a mental image of Ryota for dragging his precious card into this. Once more, the spectators crow from the sidelines, calling his name and demanding that he believe in the next card he draws. Poor Shizuka, tears in her eyes, buries her face in her hands for an inability to watch this massacre any longer.
But when Jonouchi looks over and sees this, he shouts at her not to run away and keep her eyes firmly on him. She pulls her fingers down so she can look at Jonouchi again, to see him admit that in truth he might lose. Still, he implores her to watch him all the way until the conclusion. She begins to put down her hands, wiping away a tear as she goes, while Jonouchi tells her not to run back to the dark when she's only just found the light of courage. After a pause, Shizuka nods with determination.
Rishid is watching too, as Jonouchi gives his sister a thumbs-up. He ponders one of the phrases Jonouchi used, light found in darkness. Get ready for a sprawling flashback, my friends.
He begins an extremely abbreviated history of his time with his adoptive family, starting from when he was four laying on a slab-like bed, overhearing a conversation between his parents about the family's destiny. This destiny apparently include the two Millennium Items that were sleeping in the darkness with them, displayed as the necklace now worn by Ishizu and the rod now wielded by Marik.
What Rishid picked up from the conversation about this was the patriarch planning to perform a particular ritual on Rishid at 10 years old, if his wife didn't have a male son by that time. Mysterious rituals aside, it seems pretty flexible of him, and a little progressive to consider his adoptive kid as his. Still, the silence Rishid's dad exhibits after his declaration seems... a little sulky? I don't know. Little Rishid thinks about this ritual with some curiosity.
A year after this event, a baby girl is born, which apparently affected his parents greatly, despite how it's never discussed how exactly. Instead the next panel deals with four years after THAT, when his mother died giving birth to a new son, Marik. We're treated to an image of perpetually-cloaked daddy holding baby Marik up to the light pouring down from the open well. He looks like a pretty happy baby too, smiling as his dad cradles his biological son and the one who bears the blood of his clan. There goes that mildly progressive attitude, I guess.
The translator is unsure of their translation of the descriptor of baby Marik as "dark's counterpart" surpassing time, but there's not much time to dwell on what this means, because we just plow straight ahead with this flashback to where younger Marik reads in what looks like a small library, Rishid holding a book himself as he stands off to the side. Marik snaps his book shut and asks Rishid if he knows about the ritual. Rishid answers that he doesn't, prompting Marik to ask in turn if he's seen their father's back.
Unsurprisingly, Marik is not looking forward to it when he turns ten, because that is an insane thing to do to a ten-year-old, what the actual FUCK? Cradling his head in one hand while pounding the table with his other fist, Marik expresses his fears about how painful it'll be, and how that pain would last about a month. He wonders aloud why he has to suffer, and the answer is clear - misery loves company.
Marik turns a pointing finger toward Rishid and suggests HE should take the ritual instead, since his job is to take care of his younger brother. Rishid doesn't appear to answer, but Marik claims that the matter is settled, because it would make Rishid an actual member of the clan. Then, as if only NOW he seems to give a shit what Rishid thinks about this proposal, Marik asks him. Rishid remains silent, with a straight face.
Next panel is a random shot of their underground ruins, overlaid with a shocked and outraged quote questioning Rishid's desire to do the ritual. Head bowed to his becloaked father, he affirms his request, asking to be the one to protect the clan's secrets. His father asks if Marik put him up to this, but Rishid lies and says it was his idea. The response is a somewhat disgusted statement that Rishid is but a servant. Rishid presses on, expressing a want to be able to call his father his father after this ritual is complete.
Daddy-sama isn't very happy with this suggestion and demands that Rishid stop this nonsense, disabusing him of any ambition to be the clan's inheritor. He warns Rishid that if he keeps talking about this clan's secrets like he's entitled to them, Daddy-sama's going to cut out his tongue and kill him.
You know, I thought giving his father that name was a funny little BDSM joke, but it suddenly became a LOT less funny. Rishid's expression here is half-shocked and half-devastated.
Not to expand on the misery here, but the next panel depicts baby!Marik with his bare back exposed to someone heating a knife in a torch flame. The panels afterward are pretty explicit, so I'll only say they also show Marik biting down on something, crying, sweating, and moaning with pain. I'll leave out the actual torture, though. As it's happening, Rishid sits outside the door and holds up his own glowing knife as he considers his little brother.
When it's all over, a heavily bandaged Marik hunches out of the room to where Rishid sits in the dark, asking to be told, for some reason, who to hate. He forgets the weird question when he catches full sight of Rishid's face, eyes wide.
Marik is absolutely horrified by the sight, but Rishid states his purpose in this; he can't take away Marik's pain, but he CAN use his own ritual to declare his allegiance to his brother and the clan.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? There wasn't much by way of the duel that wasn't par for the course, so those parts came across as a little boring in comparison with the interaction, past and present, between Rishid and Marik. There was a LOT to unpack with these, despite how little content there actually was, which is a little impressive to be honest. Rishid just really blew through his early life in order for KT to fit everything into the chapter, making the detail sparse. And yet, the lack of detail just added to the horror of the thing.
Because the three characters, Rishid, Marik and their father, represent three very distinct aspects of the same abuse. Obviously, the father was put through the ringer when he was young, in order to continue the tradition of the family, which is just plain violence. It was likely started in an attempt to show that the successor was worthy or strong, but it continued in a perverse desire to inflict the same misery on the younger generation that the older generation had to go through as an expression of trauma. A lot of families and institutions have "rituals" like these that supposedly show strength and build character, but all it really does is allow the once abused to justify it by continuing the cycle, pretending it's necessary to become a patriarch, to become a man. If it doesn't happen to the next generation, then it didn't have to happen to the previous, and then it starts being a source of regret rather than pride.
This is why you see so many older men decrying the "pussification" of young men these days. It's also why Marik comes out of the experience asking who he should hate, because he doesn't want to hate his father for just making him do the same thing that happened when his father was a child too. His father before him had to do it too, so someone else outside of the cycle of violence must be benefiting from it. But Marik also never seemed to move past his unempathetic isolated childhood, either, so his ideas of what is right and wrong are a bit on the simple side. The only other kids he grew up with were his sister and a "servant" that was supposed to protect him. That "servant" lived in his important shadow ever since he was born, as Marik points out above, both laughing and crying. Both their purposes, Marik to be the bearer of the pharaoh's history, Rishid to be his servant, are tragic and comic at the same time. It's absurd and devastating that the two of them should have to suffer so much just to show a bunch of scars, the manifestation of their bonds by pain.
So the goal here is to break those bonds, introduce the trauma to the source of it instead of on the next generation. Marik's goal here, and by extension Rishid's, is now pretty clear: they can only be free of their abuse by inflicting it on the very guy who started the cycle in the first place. But, this of course, just continues the cycle. As said above, it's just a justification of all the pain they suffered if they can inflict it on someone else. It's no longer senseless if they can introduce someone else to it and call it
The wheel keeps turning-turning, folks.
In a manga full of extraordinarily asshole-ish people, Hank Ishtar (he has no official name, so I'm just going to use the one from the abridged series) stands out as a COMPLETE garbage fire of a human being. The guy has genuinely no redeeming qualities whatsoever, aside from being loyal in his duty to Atem I guess.
ReplyDeleteEven that ONE redeemable quality you mentioned is something much more akin to cult-like obsession than genuine loyalty. So, yeah, dude is like a dumpster aflame.
DeleteStill, it IS rather gruesome what happened to him... *shiver*