Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 234 Darkness vs. Darkness!!

Ah, a title that is an accurate description of my life right now... in a literal sort of way. My husband and I are currently sheltering in a studio apartment free of charge while the apartment we were actually promised is being slowly reassembled with an all new set of fixtures and carpet. Since my husband works in the dead of a night shift, he has to sleep during the day, and that means the blinds stay tightly closed, the lights stay off, and I stay in a permanent din all the way up until he leaves for his shift at 20:00 hours.

I call the daytime darkness of the apartment Bakura, because I can always decide NOT to dwell in it by fucking off outside for a few hours. I call the nighttime darkness Marik, because I can't escape, and I'm all alone to boot.

I hope this duel doesn't determine which one wins in my actual life, because I think I have an idea as to how this will play out. :(

Evilsplainer Marik over here, thinking he needs to explain something to asshole!Bakura that asshole!Bakura has clearly demonstrated his own mastery of earlier in the evening. Sure, it wasn't as... threatening as other!Marik's own presentation, but he wasn't exactly fumbling through it. Even if he DID lose.

Though it's asshole!Bakura's prior loss that has me nodding along with other!Marik when he says that this game of darkness will be asshole!Bakura's end. Guy hasn't inspired a lot of confidence as of late. Or ever. Doesn't stop him from being cocky when he tells other!Marik to stop talking crap before he's buried in darkness. Asshole!Bakura must not have noticed that the guy he's talking to has already immersed himself in compounded darkness, so I very much doubt this is a threat to him.

Other!Marik recalls that asshole!Bakura was sleeping in bed, knocked out by Yami's god attack, when the duel between Mai and himself was happening. This means that asshole!Bakura doesn't know the powers of Ra, so other!Marik is pretty sure he can EASILY defeat the asshole with his god card, and this certainty puts a smug smirk on his face. But asshole!Bakura has a smirk to rival the best, because he knows other!Marik is Ra's owner, and the original Marik has become his partner. He looks in his periphery, where the specter of Marik is glaring forward, toward his douchebag alter-ego. It's pretty clear how the original Marik is useful to him now, even if he wasn't confirming that he knows all about other!Marik's death now, and it was part of their deal. In his head, I suppose. As usual, it's not really possible to know what's being said aloud and silently.

In a double secret twist, smug other!Marik knows that his other self's consciousness is hanging with asshole!Bakura now, but he changed the original Marik's deck when he took control. So, now, even if Marik knows the effects of the god card Ra, he doesn't know how to counter the new strategy in the new deck. You guys got all that?

Yeah, THAT expression is familiar. I see it in the mirror every time I cover this manga on the blog.

Also, appropriate.

Other!Marik shouts at asshole!Bakura that they should start, but asshole!Bakura bids him to wait. He jabs a thumb over his shoulder where the Regular-Sized-Marik is hanging, wanting to say something. Asshole!Bakura seems rather annoyed by how troublesome this is, but he's willing to just let Marik ask whatever it is he desires. How generous of him. Other!Marik asks what his less-edgy self wants to get off his chest, and Marik begins by characterizing other!Marik as the essence of evil he created. Other!Marik is amused by this, wondering what the big deal is, because feeding on Marik's inner darkness WOULD make him that evil's creation. You are what you eat, as they say. Marik mentions that it must have been too bad to have been sealed by Rishid, but other!Marik buts in to claim their heart has lightened now thanks to him, and laughs that Marik should thank him for it. Yeeeeaaaaah, binging on that dark, dark chocolate cake of darkness isn't making you any lighter, I can tell you that for nothing. Whether metaphorical or literal, you're going to put on some POUNDS if you keep gorging yourself.

Marik pushes right on through the interruption and lets his other self know that he heard tell through his Millennium Rod manipulation of others - specifically through Anzu, he listened to Ishizu's tale of terrible woe about the Ishtars. He repeats the shocking end of the story in an accusatory way, that other!Marik is the one who killed the douchey dad. Other!Marik protests that the two of them are two minds in one body, and Marik shouldn't talk about it as if he's wholly separate from the issue, encouraging him to admit that it was HIMSELF who killed his father.

And Marik doesn't argue. He says it's true that the tragedy can be traced back to the darkness in his heart, and bows his head to wonder how he could do something like this to his father, eyes squeezed shut. Asshole!Bakura, living up to his name, smirks and says that he's "sympathetic" with Marik for killing his own father. I would tell him to keep his trap shut if he's going to act like this is a joke, but I'm kind of curious about this line and the meaning of the word "sympathetic" here. I should go back to Bakura's first appearance and see if there's an indication that his father is dead. Or perhaps the spirit in the ring is referring to history a bit further back?

Moving right along, Marik mumbles about five years ago, recalling what that piece of shit Shadi said about the pharaoh's soul leading his father down this dead-end road. He says he had interpreted the stranger's words to mean that the PHARAOH had killed his father. Pretty sure that was by design and NOT an accident, because Shadi's shittiness knows no bounds, but...

Asshole!Bakura looks shocked, and even though Marik never mentions a name, he properly identifies Shadi right away.

That's the face of an asshole who knows another asshole when he hears about one.

Anyway, other!Marik tells actual Marik to get on with what he wants to say, and Marik replies that he's determined to kill other!Marik as an apology to his poor douchey father. Other!Marik scoffs, and does that whole "come at me bro" offensive pose, encouraging Marik to go ahead and try. So the spectral Marik demands that asshole!Bakura get his ass going, even as asshole!Bakura is still standing in stunned silence at his own revelation. He snaps out of it to bark at Marik not to order him around, but Marik promises to guide him through all the necessary tactics.

But before he does so, asshole!Bakura wants Marik's word that in exchange for protecting "Baldie's" (Rishid's) life in the event of defeating the ones against Marik, asshole!Bakura wants the Millennium Rod and the secrets on Marik's back. Cut-and-dry, and surprising that this wasn't hammered out before other!Marik waltzed onto the scene to get his murder on. After all, asshole!Bakura WAS already protecting Rishid in the last chapter. Regardless, asshole!Bakura ponders the power of darkness he can get if he collects all seven items, but he knows he can't open the door to that power if he can't understand the "words". Assuming that means the ones on Marik's back, but don't quote me on it. For all I know, there are words on the Millennium Items themselves that no one bothered to mention before.

Switching gears, in addition to the aforementioned terms, asshole!Bakura asks if it's okay that the body other!Marik now occupies be burned to ash. That would be a total deal-breaker for me, but Marik says that's a-okay, no hesitation. Alright, I guess he's leaning right into his overwhelming guilt at learning the truth of his father's death. Asshole!Bakura grins and says he's glad to hear that, assured and ready to burn the shit out of other!Marik. I half-expect him to just take out a lighter and a can of gasoline. Other!Marik doesn't share my worries, because he's grinning too, threatening to send asshole!Bakura to the darkness. It's like a couple of demons damning each other to Hell. You're both already here, ya dinguses.

Far simpler than the rules to most of the games in this comic.

For some unknown reason, asshole!Bakura seems uncertain about the "body and soul consumed" part of the rule. I thought he already intuited it, considering he was convinced he would have to burn other!Marik. Unless... he was just going to do that because he wanted to. And here I was thinking the guy was the more innocuous of our two villains.

Other!Marik promises that soon asshole!Bakura will understand. Their duel in the dark begins with a traditional display of 4000 life points each next to their smug mugs. Asshole!Bakura announces he's drawing first and does so with gusto, as is ALSO tradition. He smiles at his new card, considering it lucky to get such a strong trap card right off the bat. Other!Marik smirks at him, thinking he's already got asshole!Bakura figured out, or at least his card structure, whatever that means. Asshole!Bakura shouts that he's starting, places one card face down, and plays "Goblin Zombie" in attack. With this, he ends his turn, and other!Marik looks just tickled as he wonders if asshole!Bakura really grasps that this is a game of darkness between Millennium Item holders. Well, go ahead and show us what that really means, bro. What's the hold-up? I have a schedule to keep, you know.

Other!Marik states that it's his turn.

Drills. Of course it's drills. Why wouldn't it be fucking drills?

That trap asshole!Bakura activated, though? It's a doozy. Called "Earthbound Counterattack", other!Marik seems unimpressed by the lack of anything happening at first, but then asshole!Bakura tells him to look down. When he does, he finds himself standing between the jaws of a wrinkled ghoul's head, gums littered with sharp teeth sticking out at plenty of odd angles. It's like that reveal in Wizard People Dear Reader when Harry Potter finally sees under Queerman's turban.

Me too, Harry. Me too.

Asshole!Bakura describes this tactic as using a weak monster as bait to activate his trap. Not sure he NEEDED to explain that, because it's probably one of the most basic moves in this game EVER, but if it makes him feel clever, he can gloat away. Other!Marik looks down at his hand and groans, knowing he can't stop his weird drill-monster's attack, so it keeps heading straight for the Goblin Zombie. As it does, asshole!Bakura justifies that his useless monster being attacked is okay, because his deck is structured around sending his monsters to the graveyard just to activate their special abilities. It's almost as if he has an audience to explain this to or something. :)

Drillago jabs the goblin with its many drill limbs, and Goblin Zombie bursts into a wispy cloud of dissipating holographic smoke. Asshole!Bakura is practically orgasming as he reveals that his eternal trap's effect activates with his monster's destruction, and demands that the Earthbound Counterattack chomp down on other!Marik. Other!Marik looks down his nose at the ghoul's jaws around him, like it's just a muddy dog brushing past him on the street or something. The jaws begin to close on other!Marik's legs.

But other!Marik just smiles at asshole!Bakura and tells him it's just too bad. Asshole!Bakura is flabbergasted as other!Marik activates his own card to remove traps in his way. He bids it take away the Earthbound Counterattack, and it's swept off by a cleansing whirlwind around other!Marik. Asshole!Bakura glares, resentful that other!Marik thought to put a card like that in his deck. Now it's other!Marik's turn to tell asshole!Bakura to look down, at his own body.

Ha! Good one!

Other!Marik wears an orgasming expression much like asshole!Bakura's, explaining that the attack he launched had taken some of asshole!Bakura's points. He says that losing life points in this dark game means the consumption of your body by darkness. Literally.

Man, that left arm of Bakura's just isn't going to get a break, is it?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I wasn't looking forward to covering it, because I thought it was a tad unnecessary. In a tournament full to the brim with duels of which we all kind of know the outcome, I'd grown weary of watching them turn out the way I'd predicted. I know that the journey is the destination, and the interesting part of these isn't who wins but HOW it happens, but it gets a little old sometimes.

That said, KT does always make up for this in PART by keeping the stakes pretty high, and keeps up that helpful momentum here. I complained a little at the end of the previous chapter that I wished I knew a little more about asshole!Bakura's motivations, and we get some of that here. It seems that asshole!Bakura has a sense he won't be able to negotiate with the wild card that is other!Marik, so he's hedging his bets on the more reasonable between the Mariks, in the hopes that the regular one will give him the item and information he needs. Even though the regular Marik isn't the one in control of either his body or the Millennium Rod right now, he'd be far more willing to listen to a proposal once he gets back ownership of both, so it makes sense for asshole!Bakura to lean more toward the original Marik.

KT has also given us a bit of a catch-22 too, in the form of the price for playing this game of darkness. I KNOW other!Marik has to win this duel, because if he doesn't, it derails the entire climax of the arc. But other!Marik winning means that asshole!Bakura loses his body, the one he cared enough to save in his duel against Yami with a loss, and that means his OVERALL antagonism is lost in the story as well as his ultimate clash with Yami AFTER the tournament. I refuse to believe that KT's pet villain, who is continuously reintroduced to plot and plan, will just bow out before he has a chance to pay off. I'm curious to see how he loses, and yet retains his body.

Because I'm not worried about his soul. He's like Marik, sticking it here and there so he'll always keep popping back up no matter how many times he's not-so-subtly told to fuck off and stay that way.

Asshole.