Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 229 Blue Memories

Awww, are we having a bitter reminiscence in this one? I have them in spades, everything from lost friends to moments of failure, and my backstory isn't even particularly tragic. Both of our duelists in this mini-arc have revealed or hinted at memories that are better described as black than blue, but what the hell. I could use a milder shock than the ones we've been getting. Maybe it'll help put the heavier stuff into perspective.

Bring on the... mild sadness. I guess.

Looks more like jacked rage from this angle, though. And I do mean JACKED.

Why yes, Obelisk DOES even lift. And it's got itself a not-too-shabby attack strength of 4000 to match its exposed gritting teeth and gums. Other!Marik identifies the god card Kaiba has with awe, which I guess means he never got the chance to try it out before big sister Ishizu swiped it. Jonouchi is in full-blown terror, cold sweat and all, at the incredible appearance of Obelisk. Yami has a less severe expression, which could be because he's questioning if this god's attack will make Ishizu lose. Barely.

Kaiba, with 50 life points less than Ishizu, tells her to prepare herself. No doubt he's convinced this will make up the difference and then some, and he wouldn't be wrong for thinking so. Still, Ishizu doesn't look to be reacting with anything but staunch determination. When Kaiba announces the beginning of his turn, Ishizu silently encourages him to attack her. Her face down bomb might have gone to the graveyard after her turn, but it happens to be an invisible trap now, still attached to one of Kaiba's sacrifices. Its effect was activated when it was put on the field, and that effect transferred from the sacrificed monster to the new one, even though it's this giant hulking column of godliness. Ishizu anticipates that the monster destroyed by this trap will also wipe out Kaiba's life points, sending him sprawled into defeat, and the trap activates the moment Obelisk attacks. She just can't stop restating that Kaiba will lose when all the above comes to pass, just like her Millennium Necklace said. It's almost as if she's trying WAY too hard to convince someone of this, herself or the audience. Why bother? It's not like a big twist is coming up or anything.

Kaiba glares across the platform at Ishizu, noting that she has neither face down card nor monster on her side, so he's bound to win for sure. So he offers Ishizu a last-ditch chance to surrender, because he's not in the habit of going easy on enemies, even if they're women.

Ishizu of course remains silent, because that's probably the dumbest shit she's heard today. Kaiba scoffs, determines he only needs his god card's power, and none of the rest of the stuff in his hand, including his precious Blue Eyes White Dragon. What, Sinatra isn't good enough for you now that you've got your shiny new toy? Fuck you, Kaiba.

He smirks creepily at Ishizu, sweatdrop lingering on his face, assuring her he's coming. Ewwwww. What is it with this guy and TMI?

Anzu looks around at Yami and asks if this means there's no possible way Ishizu can win. He doesn't answer, intent upon spectating, so Anzu reflects upon the obvious fact that Yami wants Kaiba to win and wonders WHY. Fair question, considering what an asshole that guy is. Anzu recalls all the reasons why Ishizu's prediction of Kaiba losing should be taken seriously, from her foretelling Yami's memory quest to a Millennium Item holder coming to fight them to the synchronicity of their visit to the museum and the start of Battle City. She compares Yami's stop in this tournament on his way to uncover his past and Kaiba closing the book on his own past to try and get to his future. Both of them appear to be fighting so desperately to recover things they've lost.

Yami is lost in his own thoughts too, wondering if Obelisk's attack will really beat Ishizu. He's also getting hung up on the fact that Ishizu's necklace said Kaiba would lose. Yami has a bad feeling, and is pretty sure that Kaiba has the same intuition.

What gave it away?

Maybe it's the fact he's just standing there doing nothing except look nervous? I don't know.

On the other side of the platform, we've got to get other!Marik's perspective on this situation too. I'm totally NOT a little tired of all the internal monologues everyone insists on having right now in lieu of plot progression. Nope. Other!Marik characterizes Ishizu as a bit scary with a mental chuckle, knowing that things are going to go "bang" when Kaiba attacks. He says he sees the winner, then turns away from the platform and takes out his Millennium Rod to peer at it oddly. Apparently, the original Marik wants to find out the answers in the Millennium Tablet, and the relationship between Kaiba and said rod. But other!Marik is convinced that these questions will remain unanswered, what with Kaiba going bye-bye in this duel, and he starts to walk away. But he stops when the rod begins to spark and emit a thick aura, looking down at it with an incredulous expression.

Meanwhile, Kaiba seems to have found his gloating voice again, sadly. He gestures out in front of himself and commands his god to go forth and use its massive fists to shatter Ishizu's future. Ishizu doesn't so much as flinch, Yami silently repeats Kaiba's name with uneasiness, and the Millennium Rod continues to freak out. Other!Marik is looking more alarmed than anything now.

Not so fast, Ishizu. Give Kaiba a minute, he's distracted by turning all photo-negative on the next page. Other!Marik is still questioning with increasing horror why his rod is glowing. Either he shouldn't have dropped it in that vat of nuclear waste, or it's trying REALLY hard to say something. Maybe something to do with Obelisk not attacking? Ishizu is experiencing her own horror at this pause in play, as well as Yami, who thinks Kaiba stopped the attack.

I think he might be too busy hallucinating to be the one pulling these strings.

Shit, this trip must be super bad if it includes Ms. Fridge.

Back in reality, Kaiba is doubled over, clutching his head, groaning. He withdraws his shaking hand from his temple slightly as he tries to identify the image that flashed in front of him for a moment, and the overwhelming sadness he now feels in his heart. It's not mild! It's not mild at all! He at least knows that the big-ass tablet up there resembles the Blue Eyes.

Ishizu stands in utter shock at the frozen attack, wondering why. Other!Marik forms a hypothesis as he watches the light from the Millennium Rod die down; could it be that Kaiba's memories are sealed in the rod?

Yami stares at Kaiba with concern as Kaiba looks at his palm and groans some more. He then looks down at his other hand and the cards in it, particularly the Blue Eyes White Dragon sitting at the front. His face is downright agonized at first, then he decides he trusts the light, and the memories that he hallucinated from that big tablet he saw in the museum, which he has claimed as his own now. Wild-eyed and gaping, Kaiba rips a card from his hand and prepares to summon that Blue Eyes.

Ishizu insists that there's absolutely no other option in sweaty disbelief, but Kaiba has re-adopted his cool glare as he assures her that there IS. He activates a magic card from his hand called Silent Rebirth, which brings back one of his monsters, but it's unclear to me which one. I keep track of the appearance of very few of them, and there's no translation of the monster's name. Doesn't matter anyway, because Kaiba states that he needs two sacrifices to summon his Blue Eyes White Dragon, and one of them is undoubtedly the one that was just brought back.

Ishizu thinks that it CAN'T be, but there is only one other monster on the field at the moment, and Kaiba looks like a lunatic as he confirms her impossible suspicions.

I guess we can all get up off our knees now? Good, okay.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? The drag, especially in the beginning, was REAL. That we had to know so many different opinions before the plot could move forward was a real time waster, and it showed. It's obvious that KT wanted to end the chapter on the powerful note of Kaiba sacrificing his god card to summon the less-godly Blue Eyes White Dragon, and I understand why, but his methods of stalling for time were also obvious, in a painful way. It couldn't be more clear that he had nothing else to fill the pages with except the peanut gallery commentary, and that's a little disappointing.

Not just because it was clunky from the standpoint of pacing, but also because Kaiba's hesitation is completely understandable in the first half of the chapter. In addition to that vague bad feeling Yami cites, there was also ample reason for Kaiba to be suspicious of Ishizu's lack of reaction to her impending loss. Sure, she's been mostly quiet throughout the duel, but if anything was going to evoke some emotion from her, it would be having the god card summoned in opposition to her. Instead, Kaiba got nothing, and that's worthy of a side-eye.

Kaiba's long hesitation here makes sense, but I can't think of a way to make that interesting and not drag either. The sampling of opinion from spectators may have been the best way to do it, even if it's not very good at all. It's a shame, really, because I thought the fact that we DIDN'T get into Kaiba's head during his pause was actually great. KT let Kaiba's face do pretty much all the talking, and that's all we needed. I kind of wish that would happen more often, and not just with Kaiba. Even if he IS the most obnoxious. AND the one who gets most of the stalling for time because of how dramatic he is.

Perhaps more of the chapter could have been spent on the working of the Millennium Items in play here, or, more specifically, introduced a little interaction between the rod and the necklace. Not only do we learn here that the necklace is fallible, but that the items can have agendas, because they're opposing here. It might have been illuminating (heh, puns) to explore, even a little, what the necklace actually DOES if it can be wrong about "fate" and the future, as well as how deep the manipulations on the two items' subjects go. It seems clear to me at this point that the sibling artifacts are working over everybody involved to impose a result, and it's also been stated before that they all have a certain kind of will, even if it's not a full-blown spirit like in the puzzle or the ring. Is it all to a vague end, or are the items at odds with one another?

We're left with questions here too, one of which is what this recovered memory in Kaiba means. I don't really want to get to that discussion before its time, because we'll cross that bridge when its been built in its full context, but I will say that we've had a backstory lady introduced as dead before, and she didn't get a ton of fleshing out upon her part's debut. I don't hold out a lot of hope that this one will be much different.

The second question is whether that secret bomb trap Ishizu laid in the god card still applies when it's sacrificed as well? Is it still active in the monster summoned with its host as a sacrifice like the first time, or is the trap moot now that it's once removed? I'm guessing the latter, but I don't know why that would be. Other than convenience to the plot, of course.