Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 220 The Duelist Who Won't Give In!!

Admirable, but sometimes giving in may be the better option. Just like being the "lone duelist" has some rather sad implications attached to it, refusing to give up in a situation that is literally causing severe pain and hallucinations can easily be a really bad decision. If I saw that I was bleeding in the middle of a game, real or not, I would be noping the fuck off to a hospital. Then again, I don't have much pride in the games I play, since I just mess around with them for fun.

Also, Marik doesn't seem like he would be willing to let her leave at this point, if at any. In a recap of Marik's last attack on Mai's Amazon last chapter, as she's coming to a shocked realization that not only is she in pain but also appears to be leaking from the look of the red splatter on her hand, Marik reiterates that because the duelists in this game are linked to their monsters, when the latter gets hurt, the former does as well.

Yup, he's definitely committed to both of them remaining right where they are until one of them keels over.

Mai falls to her knees as she holds a hand to her chest, which appears uninjured in this panel, as her life points dial down to 3600. Honda asks why Mai is acting so weird, and Jonouchi clearly read the script, because he blurts that it's ALMOST AS IF she got attacked just like her monster. Then he yells at her not to give up and go crazy just because she lost a couple hundred points. Easy for the guy who won by default on a reserve of only 50 points in the last match to say.

She's not listening anyway, completely engrossed in staring at what appears to her to be her bloodstained palm. Marik giggles about how Mai's cheerleaders can't see what's going on with her, the visions the attack on her monster caused. He's planning to make it all the worse, thinking that this is just the beginning of his intent to utterly destroy this woman. Why? My guess is because he's a grade-A piece of shit.

The one voice that breaks through Mai's stupor is Yami's, who shouts at her not to let Marik's illusions distract her. She looks over at him in surprise, then back down at her hand, wondering if the blood and pain really aren't real at all. Yami explains that the game of darkness is one of mental struggle, where the player's worst fears are shown them in an attempt to make them lose psychologically. Mai focuses on the word "fear", eyes wide, as Jonouchi and Anzu call out encouragement to her with determined looks. Yami urges her to keep whatever light is inside her shining.

Huh. She got over THAT fairly quickly.

What I thought was a strangely ugly panel layout on the next page was actually the page accidentally folded over upon the time of scanning, so after Mai draws a card and Jonouchi keeps piling on the encouragement as she turns it around to show Marik, I don't know what it is. From what little I can see of the bottom panel of the page, it might be another Amazon, different from the last. At least I can be certain she lays a face down card to end her turn, though.

After a moment of taking stock of both monsters attached by umbilical cord to their respective duelists, Marik says with his signature high-as-pie-in-the-sky face that it's his turn. Mai is certain that she'll be able to use her Amazoness to attack the Executioner, and that Marik won't know what hit him with her face down card. I wouldn't be so sure, if I were her. Just because Marik looks like the world bores the shit out of him as he glances at his newly-drawn card doesn't mean he can't summon the energy for more terrifying illusions. Still, Mai thinks she has this in the bag, because her face down card is not a trap, but the Amazoness's ability. Hoooooow does that follow? I guess she has to justify the purchase of her supplementary special effect Amazoness card somehow. It probably wasn't cheap.

She lays out her plan thus: once her Amazoness is sent to the graveyard due to an attack, she can pay 1000 life points to choose a card from Marik's deck, a deck she narrows her eyes at like it insulted her mother as she imagines the god card she intends to take from it at the end of this effort. I would wish her all the luck in the world if I thought she needed it against Marik, the serial failure.

He's still in good spirits, though, looking up and smiling at her after perusing his hand. He wants to tell her once again that the pain isn't JUST illusion, but I'm not certain he does, because we still have the issue of indistinct speech bubbles paired with imprecise scanlation editing. Regardless, we get a look at both players with their monsters plugged into them like charging cables, then Marik starting to announce what card he's playing.

The inquisitors of old would have been WILD about this device. Mai is shocked that Marik would order an attack on her monster from something that only has 500 attack points, and just as shocked when the grand torture crown flies over and sits itself neatly upon the Amazoness's head. She's not the only one - Jonouchi is amazed that the vice actually made it onto the Amazoness, and Anzu wonders why it's not dead already with just 500 points. One reason is probably that a pair of thumbscrews in an elaborate setup probably isn't ALIVE to begin with.

A tense-looking Yami suggests that this might be the condition of a hidden special ability. Marik affirms that in three turns that the vice won't do a thing to the Amazoness, but when it attacks, it's a doozy.

Does grinding temple pressure not COUNT as doing anything to Mai or her monster? I guess it doesn't, because Marik's explanation of a slow squeeze on the Amazoness's head over three turns definitely carries the color of NBD to him. On that third turn, though, the stylish headwear will drill straight into its head with the screws, which is not NBD for sure, so speed is a factor in his definition. At least that's what it seems until Marik demands that Mai has to feel what the Amazoness is feeling right now, too.

It may not be entirely clear what Marik thinks is actually an action counting as an attack or not, but with Mai standing there screaming with hands on either side of her head, I'd say SHE considers it VERY much an attack. Yami calls out Mai's name in panic as a dense Jonouchi asks why what's happening to the monster is affecting her so much. He was focused on something else when Yami mentioned that whole "illusion" thing RIGHT NEXT TO HIM, I suppose. Maybe pondering his dreams excluding hot older women. He shouts at Mai not to give up again.

As Marik laughs his ass off and Mai screams, Yami is just a bit concerned that her heart has been captured by Marik's darkness. He trails a worried thought about what will happen to Mai if this whole debacle continues, and a third Eye of Horus shines in the center of his forehead much like it is on Marik's. Yami demands Marik stop the duel, but Marik lazily says that he knows the game of darkness can't be stopped. When he wins, Mai will die, and that's all there is to it, apparently. Yeah... don't count on it, bro.

Yami looks like he's about to tear Marik's throat out if he manages to pry apart his grinding jaws. Marik isn't threatened by this, though, in fact encouraging Yami to keep up that rage - they'll compare the immensity of their respective angers when their own Millennium Duel (TM) comes along, and Marik is betting his is going to be more impressive. All Yami can think is that he cannot forgive Marik.

Meanwhile, Mai is doubled over, trying to regain some control over her reaction. Yami calls to her, but she forces out a request for him to just stop, because this is HER battle.

Besides, what's a little pain to a lady? We endure that shit every month for the peace of mind of not being pregnant.

Mai reveals her face down card, Hand of Burial, which wipes the smirk off Marik's face and makes him look slightly annoyed. When Mai explains that this card is going to let her send a monster to the graveyard, Marik shoots down the notion of the Vice being put on a bus, because it can't be moved in its current position. I'm guessing because it's hugging its new victim's head too hard to be removed or something.

But Mai scoffs and asks who suggested she was going to use Hand of Burial on HIS monster. Marik's look of annoyance grows when she announces the monster she chooses for the sacrifice is her own. A giant hand with nails that need clipping phases through the floor below and seizes the Amazoness's legs, pulling it down to the figurative underworld and out of the Vice's grip. Marik mutters about her sending her own monster to death. To be fair, the Amazoness didn't look too terribly torn up about it - being spared horrific torture is probably a bonus.

Mai confirms that she has indeed killed her own monster, in order to take advantage of Amazoness's special ability, Chain of Death. Again, Marik is looking a bit annoyed, but it does little to negate his perpetually stoned face. He isn't affected by much. Not even this:

You gotta admit, it is refreshing not to see a brat throwing a tantrum over getting a taste of his own cult-built-around-stealing-trading-cards medicine. It's almost as if he *gasp* knew it was a possibility!

Well I'll be god-damned and go to hell, he even looks like he's somewhat appreciative of it! Albeit in a dazed kind of way.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I have some mixed feelings about what's going on here, because it still feels like KT is hopping between attitudes while trying to kind of merge them. One moment, Mai is thanking Yami and company for their support and help with seeing that the things happening aren't entirely real, and the next moment she's telling Yami to butt out of her business. It's a little discordant the way it's written here, and I'm not sure if that's KT's doing or the scanlator, but there's some conflict and it's a little awkward.

However, I know what the aim of this is, despite the iffy presentation. Yami informing Mai of the illusory nature of the game was just that; INFORMATION. It wasn't a value judgment on what she should be doing and whether this is good for her to be doing in the first place. His later comments to Marik WERE value judgments, though. He was trying to get the whole thing to stop, and since he hadn't been successful in appealing Mai at the beginning, he was turning to Marik to demand HE stop the game. That's the core difference between her being grateful to Yami when he pointed out her injury was illusion, something she could move past to keep fighting, and his desperate bids for everything to end. The moment Yami started insisting the duel had to stop, that's when his "help" was infringing on her will. He's not being supportive here, he's being patronizing and deciding he knows better than Mai about whether she should continue fighting, and she's fully within her right to tell him to fuck off and let her keep going no matter what happens. She's a duelist, and that's what she's going to do, whether it's good for her or not. He doesn't get to make that decision for her.

Not that I don't understand Yami's concern. He tried the same shit with Yuugi back when Jonouchi was brainwashed, because his worry that he would lose someone close to him was valid. But when it comes down to it, there's no stopping people from doing what they feel they have to do. All you can really do was what Jonouchi was doing the whole chapter - shrug your shoulders and continue supporting the hell out of the people you love, despite not personally understanding why they're doing this at all. 

Why does all this sound so familiar? It's not like this little side-plot of a woman asking a guy to respect her autonomy in a tricky situation has been a feature in the news la - OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH...