Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 228 Obelisk Destroyed?!

Well why not? I'm sure it's not the first time an obelisk has been destroyed. I can't really find any specific examples, since most research seems to be much more interested in the ones still standing, but researchers do say there were some that are no longer around. Probably due to changes in political power or invasions or carelessness. You know, inevitable nonsense. The ones we still have are recent constructions or painstakingly preserved, so the things seem pretty precarious in their existence. Long-lasting, but not forever, and definitely easy to topple.

I'm just saying it's not as impossible as the title is making it out to be.

... What? What does that even mean? You kids and your ill-defined confused terms...

Ishizu says with a bit more enthusiasm than usual that it's her turn to attack, finally getting into the spirit of the thing. She orders Zolga forward to attack Kaiba's gremlin, calling out the attack Destructive Winds, which looks a lot like some wind blades from another comic altogether that slices that gremlin right up. When the digital dust settles, Kaiba's arm remains defensively raised next to his face, and he's looking a little nauseated at the destruction of his monster. Perhaps this promise of meeting Yami down the road is a little more difficult to keep than he initially thought.

And Ishizu isn't even done. She commands Kelbek to directly attack Kaiba, and just when he's lowered his arm! Kelbek rushes forward, Kaiba leaning away instinctively, but the thing doesn't touch him. It fires a weird beam from its eye - resembling the Millennium Eye closely - straight at his gut. His arm is back up too late, and he lets out a groan, braced on bent knees. He curses his lost points, now that he's down to 1350.

Finally, Ishizu places a face down card and ends her turn on a reserved note. Kaiba speculates that this face down card might be another one that forces him to discard something he just drew, like the previous virus card. How many times can I fit the word "card" into a sentence? I don't know, but I don't really want to find out either. Kaiba tries to steel himself, because even though he knows it's a trap, he has to keep going, if he's going to show Ishizu his true colors with Obelisk later. Honey, I'm pretty sure she's already seen your true colors a million times over. Everyone has. You aren't exactly shy.

Ishizu just stares at him, waiting, so he begins his turn with a declaration, and a draw. The moment he does so, Ishizu reveals that face down card, Negate, yet again. Once more, Kaiba is forced to talk to the hand with the pentacle drawn on its palm and grumble about how he was right. He just HATES being right all the damn time. Jonouchi decides now is the time to recap for the audience the fact that Ishizu switched up Kaiba's graveyard and deck, how she completely controlled what was in that graveyard before it was the deck, and how Kaiba has now fallen into an inescapable trap. I would advise Jonouchi NOT to say this to Kaiba's face, but I'm thoroughly convinced that Jonouchi could knock Kaiba flat on his ass with the barest minimum of effort so, you know, recommendation reversed.

Why do I feel like she's talking about more than Kaiba's prospects in this duel? Must be the forlorn look she's giving him there.

While they both stand silent and pondering, Kaiba considers the Soul Exchange card in his hand that will sacrifice all the monsters on the field when it's activated. He counts the two monsters on either side of her, and plans on the next turn, the moment there are three over there, to summon Obelisk. Ishizu's 1400 life points are shown, but her expression isn't readable here. Kaiba puts his all-important card face down on his Duel Disk.

Ishizu is certain that this must be Soul Exchange, not least of all because she knows EVERYTHING already. No, I am not going to let her live this down. Kaiba gives her his own unreadable expression across the way. She thinks this duel is going to end in the next turn, but not the way he wanted it to. Okay, we get it, you've got mystical magical premonitions on your side. Gracious, do you have to remind us every five seconds?

Kaiba ends his turn, worrying Jonouchi about the lack of monsters protecting him on his side. Jonouchi thinks when Ishizu attacks on the next turn, it's going to be all over for Kaiba. Yami must have had himself a premonition on par with Ishizu's, though, because he also instantly thinks Kaiba's card must be Soul Exchange. He assumes that Ishizu must also know this, without even trying to explain how he came to the conclusion. I choose to think it's because Kaiba is painfully predictable.

Ishizu starts her turn, putting a card of her own face down on her Duel Disk. This must not be the move he thought she would make, because he questions it in his head. Her silent dialog says that this is the last and biggest trap he'll fall into; triggering the face down card Explosive Sacrificial Embrace. Sounds like the kind of intimate that will take your head clean off.

It's a bomb that was planted on one of her monsters the moment she placed it.

That will be one hell of an explosion, with the added bonus that the attack points of the god demolished will be deducted from Kaiba's life points. He'll be in the red, which is somewhere Kaiba with his business acumen should never be. Also, according to the panel in which he's sprawled in defeat, he'll get hit in the gut again with the shrapnel, because he's not abused in his starving stomach nearly enough, apparently. Ishizu anticipates this image becoming reality with a sharp glare forward.

She summons a little eye-thing, which follows the established pattern of looking an awful lot like it belongs with the Millennium Items. No word from the translator on the name of this thing, though. I guess it doesn't matter, because Kaiba is quick to observe she's got three monsters out now. He yells out the activation of his face down card.

Virtual wind spirals around each of Ishizu's monsters as Kaiba helps himself to the use of her monsters, thank you very much. He's wearing his full smug again as he pulls Obelisk from his hand and offers to let Ishizu see god.

Impressive as this big guy is, Ishizu greets it with an inclined head and a soft end to her turn. She thinks that once Obelisk has been activated, Kaiba is finished. Everyone else has... different feelings.

Looks like SOMEONE got back his amusement at the destruction of others. Without intervention of the millennium variety, it might turn into hard irony real fast.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Kaiba isn't the best poster boy for perseverance in the face of adversity, I've realized. Sure, like I said, his likability is up when he's low, but his lows are far above most everybody else's. He's just got too much advantage to really be much of an inspiration, even when his deck has been reduced to six mostly useless cards.

I'm far more interested in Ishizu's attitude by this point, because her little show of emotion during the one turn was enough to really contrast how reserved she's really been. Yes, I'm sure some of that is just the dignity of being an older, more mature person than most who are playing in the tournament (everyone in the world if she's serious about how long she personally has been on watch for the Millennium Items). Some of it is also probably having replayed this whole scene in her head countless times and now it's like a movie she's seen a million times, all the surprises gone. Still, some of her expressions in this chapter also suggest an unease at what she's doing. Not only has she been regretful about how she's essentially cheating to get her way here, but she also seems a bit guilty when she thinks all the light has been cut out for Kaiba's prospects. She's not giddy or pleasured by the impossible situation she's put Kaiba into, like other!Marik would be. She feels remorse. She doesn't want to be doing this, and it shows.

Her attitude reflects back on Kaiba in a strange manner. She's aware of his connection to the Millennium Items and his role in this whole weird story, but we as an audience are still not fully savvy to it. She may be feeling more uncomfortable about how she's interrupting this conjunction of magic items and their favorite people, but from this side, for a moment, her expressions almost paint Kaiba as a regular kid trying to have boisterous fun, and she's robbing him of it.

How weird a picture is THAT?