Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 217 Awakened Darkness!

Sometimes you WISH for darkness to awaken, especially when the light destroying something beautiful. I'm talking, of course, about the burning of the cathedral Notre Dame, which shocked me right to my core. This building was at the root of an historical preservation movement that had never been seen before, and the irony of its spire going down in flames in the midst of renovation was acute. I'm still a little heartbroken, but I can take at least a little solace in the news that a lot of the priceless artifacts within were saved, as well as the famous rose window, even if a lot of the stained glass was lost.

Anything salvageable of Marik might not be so lucky as the treasures in Notre Dame, though, since the only person present who seems to know what's going on with him only spends a few moments mumbling about a dark personality he has to keep from taking out before passing out entirely. All while Marik is clutching his head and groaning. With Rishid out cold, there might not be anything left by the time he regains his senses.

Funny, his hair does ACTUALLY give the impression that fire is engulfing his head. Quite the opposite of darkness, but I'm no stranger to mixing my metaphors.

As Rishid lays on his face, his clouded head conjures the image of two cloaked figures, one tall and one short, holding hands with one another. The tall figure turns to reveal the face of Rishid's adoptive father in profile, looking on him with disdain. The vision says that the fact he can't control god is proof that he doesn't share the blood of the clan. Well, damn, you'd think if your clan was so great at controlling gods then you wouldn't have had such a hard time getting a son in the first place, huh? Speaking of sons, that's who the shorter figure is beside the father, a baby Marik, who looks back at Rishid with concern as he's led forward into the dark background.

Suddenly, Jonouchi's name comes up, and we see a circle of heads against a ceiling backdrop yelling Jonouchi's name, all of his friends. Some of them look angry, some of them look worried, some of them look friendly or even confused, but they all have one thing in common - they're annoying. Jonouchi has his head pillowed on his arms, snoring away, but the shouting gets to him and he opens his eyes a crack. He's actually sitting at a desk in school, ringed by the peanut gallery. Jonouchi lifts his head and yawns as Anzu yells at him that it's time to turn in the papers, and Honda yells at him for sleeping through an entire afternoon's classes. What classes? Have you ever caught a single soul TEACHING in this accursed place?

Watch, this is how Jonouchi realizes that he's a fictional character in a fictional universe. Headcanon.

Now Yuugi is yelling at Jonouchi for forgetting that a Duel Monsters tournament is happening after school. THIS is what gets his attention, crossing his eyes and gritting his teeth in a peculiar expression of sudden, acute alertness. He grabs his bag while Anzu, looking much friendlier now, suggests that he's going to do his best again today. He ignores her comment, riffling through the bag to confirm that his cards and Duel Disk are at the ready. Honda criticizes him for the bag only containing his lunchbox and duel- paraphernalia, but Jonouchi snaps that a true duelist's needs are very simple. "Simple" seems to be synonymous with "unprepared for any of life's other necessities or responsibilities" here.

Jonouchi seems to sense the person in the back of the room behind him, wearing a white outfit and a Duel Disk as he walks toward the door. On his way out, Kaiba smirks at Jonouchi and calls him a trash duelist. Spoken like a true child CEO of a company who had to grow up unnaturally fast. Jonouchi shouts in offense and moves to confront Kaiba, but Yuugi implores him to fight Kaiba in a DUEL rather than a physical confrontation. He is of course right, because we wouldn't want this little dream of Jonouchi's to turn into one of those nightmares where you punch too slow and light to do any damage to your laughing opponent.

Those are the WORST.

Anyway, Jonouchi vows once more that he WILL defeat Kaiba, but then realizes in a panic that there is no time for affirmations. He fumbles with his cards and they spill all over the floor, and he dives to pick them up, calling for his friends to wait as he mumbles about his clumsy mistake. Said friends are already headed for the door, though, and are pretty annoyed at how slow he is, especially Anzu. She has serious mood swings in Jonouchi's brain. She, Yuugi and Honda return to help him pick up the cards, Yuugi insisting they have to hurry and get to the tournament.

After they gather them all up again, Jonouchi is back in his seat, shuffling through them nervously. Honda asks if any were lost, but Jonouchi can only give him a non-committal noise in return while he peers at them. His friends are headed for the door again, Honda and Yuugi calling back for him to hurry up and that the tournament is about to start. For the first time since waking up from his dream-snooze, he appears somewhat confident, and agrees to leave with them. He jumps out of his seat, excited to get started, running for his smiling buddies.

He is so confused, lol!

Yami shout's Jonouchi's name, and Jonouchi peers over at him through still bleary-looking eyes, not quite fully conscious, and giving a questioning stare. He identifies Yami and all of his other friends slowly, and recalls that he's in Battle City. Mai calls him an idiot and asks if he's still asleep, which seems to confuse him a bit more. When he looks forward again, though, seeing Rishid laying face down on the platform and wondering why he's gone down, he starts to remember that when Ra was summoned, it attacked both of them.

Moar Cards Guy steps out in front of the spectators and announces that the duel is over, with Jonouchi being the winner. Again, Jonouchi is just totally confused by this, but his friends cheer, his sister congratulating him on being able to stand his ass up in time. Pretty low bar to clear, but I'll take it. Kaiba isn't exactly happy about it, however. He thinks this wasn't a very good duel, what with Jonouchi's by-default win. But ultimately he's more concerned with how Ra's less-than-solid-looking form opened up the heavens and attacked both players. It was almost as if the sky rained down anger in addition to its crazy winds. And just like that, this musing leads Kaiba to ponder if the Ra card Rishid used was a fake.

Don't know how that follows, but way to jump to the correct conclusion, boyo!

Because Jonouchi is the only person with any fucking COMPASSION right now, he runs to Rishid's side, turning him over to hold him up and demand that Rishid hang in there. Turns out that Rishid's latest pass-out was more like a fake-out, because this dipshit is still awake. His eyes are open, even if they're just slits. He and Jonouchi remain speechless for a moment, until he chokes out Jonouchi's name. He admits that he's grateful for the opportunity to duel Jonouchi, and Jonouchi returns the sentiment, calling him a real duelist as his friends run to join him on the platform.

Like in American Gods? I love Neil Gaiman!

Rishid gestures weakly to Yami, pleading with him to stop "that other". Yami looks unduly shocked by this request, considering he doesn't know what the fuck Rishid is talking about yet. Jonouchi screams at Rishid to hang on, though he's gone limp. I can't tell if it's another fake-out or not, to be honest. Jonouchi keeps holding onto his new buddy, certain that Rishid wasn't brainwashed. He twists around, demanding to know where the real Marik is, the one who made this other guy pretend to be him. Well which is it, Jonouchi? Do you think Rishid was brainwashed or not? You can't have it both ways.

Not that it matters, because "Namu" has stepped onto the platform as well, hanging his head in shadow. When he raises it, he claims that Rishid IS Marik, but just the shadow.

Are you... trying to argue you DIDN'T lie when you said Rishid was you? Because I'm pretty sure that bullshit wouldn't hold up in a court of law. Not when your "shadow" is a solid human being with his own SSN.

Yami's hair blows into his teeth as he clenches them in response, but he looks a bit too appalled to notice. Jonouchi is in disbelief, insisting that this CAN'T be the guy who brainwashes folks. Who knows why he's so resistant this fact, considering HE was the one whose instincts were in high gear when they first met back up with "Namu" at the blimp. You'd think Jonouchi of all people would be at least a little vindicated.

And Kaiba, of course, has no thought on "Namu" lying about his identity, pretending someone else was him, and manipulating everyone else for no discernible reason. No, Kaiba's only thought in this moment is that Marik is the one who has the god card Ra. One-track mind, this boy.

Marik says his shadow is useless now, a guy whose existence meant that he couldn't show himself. Yeah, go ahead and blame Rishid for your stupid, useless plan. Unless he's not talking about the plan at all. He goes on to say that the actor who will be playing his shadow now will be the understudy - the OTHER Marik, a guy whose methods are weak and personality will bring disaster. Poor casting choice. Opening night is going to be a riot. Literally.

Yami's eyes widen in shock as he realizes Marik is saying he ALSO has another personality. I know, right? I was hard pressed to identify even ONE personality in there. Now he's telling me there's two? Pshaw. #2Marik (Get it? Because he's a shit.) says that his other personality is predisposed to fear the dark, but he LOVES darkness. All the while his edges blur as though he's vibrating, because nothing gets a guy off harder talking about how much he loves darkness.

Then he says some nonsense about the opposite of a shadow being the shadow, which is not the binary I learned in school. Regardless of what this cryptic statement means, one thing is clear to #2Marik despite Rishid's loss; the people who can control the god cards are the ones connected to the Millennium Items. Kaiba is the first to call bullshit on this assertion, saying that he doesn't give two shits about the Millennium Items, but he can still control Obelisk. #2Marik chuckles, and informs Kaiba that he too has Millennium memories. Kaiba acts like he doesn't understand what #2Marik is talking about, as if he WASN'T presented this idea by Ishizu way back at the beginning of the arc.

The again, he nearly threw a full tantrum back then, so I guess #2Marik should count himself lucky that Kaiba isn't being a toddler about it this time.

Yami, you didn't even NEED Ishizu to suggest that Kaiba was the one on the tablet when YOU first saw it, so what's your excuse for this surprise? I swear, it's no wonder he needs to go on a quest to find his pharaoh memories when he can't even remember his own thoughts regarding a stone tablet THREE DAYS AGO.

Meanwhile, the blimp keeps chugging along, with our "eighth duelist" still hanging out inside her room. I wonder if SHE remembers her first meeting with the yahoos over her head. She's aware of one thing at least; Marik's real darkness has awakened. Her excuse for not lifting a finger to prevent this from happening? That there's no deviating from the fated path, and they're all just headed into the future with no light or hope. Sister of the fucking year, I tell you.

Marik's forehead glows with the eye etched onto it..

Man, he's been hitting the drugs SUPER hard today.

I would say that #2Marik doesn't have control of the blimp, but the guy who DOES isn't ever going to turn that thing around for anything, let alone to stick it to a shitbird with ironic rebellion. Let's face it.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The dream was a refreshingly cute way to get Jonouchi to stand up. It gave us just a little bit of a break from the anxiety of the moment, and it reconnected us to the beginning of the series with the imagery and setting. Putting them all back in the classroom, Kaiba back in his Death-T clothing, is a reminiscence that puts how far we've come back in perspective and fosters this nostalgic feeling that suggests in the back of our mind of innocence lost. Not just Jonouchi, but ALL of them are so deep in this nightmare revenge plot of Marik's, that the past and where they started almost seems like it was always a dream, right before you wake up to the brutality and cruelty of a reality in which people can give you a lot more trouble than mere inconvenience. It's a vivid image.

Also, the dream was done really well. I've always struggled writing dreams, either making them too surreal and goofy, or too boring and subtle. I think KT strikes a good balance with the dream scene that makes it seem like a dream that someone could actually have. I think we're all familiar with the dream where we have to be somewhere, but for some reason we can just never get there. Classic. And of course the fact that he's kind of rooted to his desk seat or the floor the entire time until he finally stands up was a really good vehicle to get the ball rolling on Jonouchi's actual standing.

Unfortunately, the second half of the chapter mostly irritated me, because there's several instances of the characters just out-and-out forgetting things that should have been easy for them to remember. It draws some attention to the likely fact that KT probably forgot what happened way back when the arc began. Understandable, given all of this has been drawn out far longer for the publishing schedule than the time that's passed in the story. Still, its written down. You can just... go back and look, bro.