Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 235 Consuming Darkness!!

I'll tell you what, consuming darkness was starting to sound pretty good to me a few days ago. When I wasn't able to set up necessary utilities and insurance on my move-in date, due to it being on a SATURDAY, my husband and I had to shelter in a hotel room for the rest of the weekend, unable to enjoy ourselves because of the overwhelming feeling of being trolled by two different apartment complexes. We finally got moved in on Tuesday, minutes before our movers arrived to present us with a lot of belongings that were broken because the ones who took them in the first place didn't pack them in the crates with any sort of care. I've been wary of broken glass every time I've cracked open a box, which hasn't been as often as I'd have liked, because a job I start on Monday requires errands to fill out all kinds of paperwork and waiting an hour and a half to pee in a cup so they can make sure I'm not on drugs.

All of this accumulates into a profound exhaustion and the need to lay down and slip into a long, comfy coma.

This looks like a much slower, more terrifying version of that, though, so asshole!Bakura can have it.

And after the initial shock above, and the explanation from other!Marik that this darkness game causes the loser's body to be consumed by darkness, one life point at a time, asshole!Bakura seems to accept this condition with grace. Or a smug smirk anyway. He even calls the person's fate of fusing with darkness when their life points reach zero "interesting". A bit of an understatement, but he's not exactly wrong.

Other!Marik questions who will disappear first, as the momentary avatar to voice the overarching tension of the duel (or the dramatic irony in knowing EXACTLY who will disappear first), then invites asshole!Bakura to continue the fight with him. An overhead picture is given of them facing one another on top of the blimp, then other!Marik reminds asshole!Bakura that it's his turn. Despite his little grin earlier, he's grimacing in his profile portrait featuring his 3500 life points, as opposed to other!Marik's sadistic smile and intact points. He must have realized this isn't the best start for him.

He draws a card, glances at it, and slips it into his hand as other!Marik warns him to be careful what card he picks, because what kinds of cards he has aren't unknown. It does cross asshole!Bakura's mind that his Ouija Board and Necrofia cards are going to be pretty useless against other!Marik, so he wrinkles his nose and resolves to use his other tactic that other!Marik hasn't seen yet. Meanwhile, other!Marik silently anticipates asshole!Bakura's move, convinced that Ra will be the card that takes his measly life.

Asshole!Bakura notes the one card other!Marik has on his side of the platform and reminds himself that if other!Marik already has his god card in hand, he'll need three sacrifices to summon it. It's at this point that regular-sized Marik pops up over his shoulder to tell him not to fear the god card, likely scaring the piss out of him in the process. He turns to the regular Marik and instead of barking at him not to sneak, asks what he means. Fair, because it's probably impossible not to sneak when you're an incorporeal shred of soul/consciousness. Marik tells asshole!Bakura to listen carefully, because there IS a way to seal Ra, something that seems to shock the shit right out of asshole!Bakura, that's for sure.

Other!Marik starts getting a bit impatient and gets on their cases about all their incessant planning, claims that struggling is also planning (whatever that means) and demands they hurry up and decide. They still take a scant panel, and though there are no speech bubbles to speak of, I have to assume that they've spoken, because asshole!Bakura is grinning in the next one and expressing how stoked he is to be able to fight in the specific way Marik described, since it would allow him to use the full power of his deck. Hold up now, what's this? KT WITHHOLDING information from the audience to build tension? That's a brand new trick!

Asshole!Bakura giggles, reminding Marik that if his information wins the game, his body will be obliterated. Marik responds dispassionately that this doesn't matter and urges asshole!Bakura to sic 'im. Other!Marik glares at them and wonders what it is they're planning, while asshole!Bakura declares it's his turn. It looks like he draws a card too, and I hope he doesn't, because he just did?

Pretty straightforward. Looking at his hand, other!Marik is a bit put out by the fact that he hasn't drawn his god card yet. He resolves instead to use a magic card to get the thing in his hand instead, and activates one called "Coins from Heaven" to do the job. The appearance of the card blows asshole!Bakura right out of the water, as so many things seem to do at the moment, while he's instructed to draw a card along with his opponent. Other!Marik finds after looking at his new card that again there is no god card. It's pretty clear to asshole!Bakura across the way that other!Marik is disappointed, and chuckles about it.

The chuckle evolves into a full-blown laugh when he asks other!Marik if he's REALLY so desperate to draw his god card. I mean, the thing CAN end the game in one fell swoop, so no doubt he would really fucking like it. It's asshole!Bakura's turn to shock and alarm everyone else when he says that he'll use a magic card to fulfill other!Marik's wish. Awwww! It's good to see enemies being so civil to one another! Asshole!Bakura reveals one of the face down cards he just set, "Dark Tutor". Other!Marik looks aghast, wondering if it can be, and asshole!Bakura confirms that it indeed can. He is ABSOLUTELY going to add the god card sitting somewhere in the middle of other!Marik's deck to other!Marik's hand instead.

You don't see THAT baffled look on his face too often. It's way better than his regular sneer and I'm kind of relishing it. He even makes a sick kind of groan when he looks at the god card he pulled from his deck as per the surprise card's instructions. He clearly does not have a good feeling about this. His vague dread seems to solidify into a realization about asshole!Bakura's other face down card, and again, asshole!Bakura confirms his suspicions. He activates that face down card.

Why is this such a travesty? Asshole!Bakura explains that Ra's attack and defense points depend on those of its three sacrifices, and that's its weakness. Even if other!Marik manages to resurrect the god with a magic card, its attack power is zero without sacrifices, and therefore has become useless once sent to the graveyard. Ooooh, tough break for other!Marik, and is even tougher with his knowledge that magic cards only work one turn for god cards, meaning it would just disappear after one turn anyway, even if it HAD the points to justify the move. He stares closely at the god card in his hand, possibly drawing out the goodbye in his head, as asshole!Bakura demands he discard his whole hand, gesturing at him with his intact arm and grinning the whole time.

Because he's convinced that this is the perfect combo. The more cards in the graveyard, the more powerful his deck's performance, after all. How appropriate for a guy who gets off on gore and death. He slaps his own hand into the graveyard with a jovial command for those dead souls to await their turn in their graves. Other!Marik is much more subdued when discarding his hand, groaning some more. But while asshole!Bakura draws more cards, he rambles about how there needs to be danger in his move as well, a little price to be paid for the magic to take effect, the number of cards subtracted from his life points.

Worth it is one thing, but you seem to be taking overt pleasure in the disappearance of your body, my dude. What's THAT about?

Other!Marik ends his turn sullenly, and asshole!Bakura starts his with a little smile. He places yet another card face down and uses his monster already out and ready as a sacrifice to summon up in a whirl of virtual wind "Controller of Dead Spirits Puppet Master". It looks a bit like a zombie jester, with a whole bunch of rings on its bony fingers as it reaches toward other!Marik. At least there's only one of them, and it's not clawing its way up from the ground. And no one is trying to solve a riddle.

Asshole!Bakura must have recognized Shadi from that book he wrote. You know, the one asshole!Bakura is taking a leaf from here.

Other!Marik doesn't seem to give too much of a hoot about the zombie jester, as much as he does the special ability it supposedly has. Asshole!Bakura confirms that when his Puppet Master is summoned to the field, its special ability is activated.

Yeah, your definition of "cute" is an awfully funny one, asshole!Bakura. As is his definition of fun, because he's laughing hardcore at a slice of his leg now disappearing as well. I'm not the only one who's just not getting the joke, because other!Marik glares at him with exasperation - he still hasn't lost a single life point, and asshole!Bakura just keeps hemorrhaging the, so the only one who is getting hurt by this genius strategy is him.

And yet, asshole!Bakura is confident that as soon as his special summons can attack on the next turn (unable to attack on this one), other!Marik's life points will be reduced to nothing immediately. Licking his lips, asshole!Bakura reminds other!Marik that it's his turn now. Other!Marik looks down at his cards, mumbling about his turn, faced with a whole wall of monsters on asshole!Bakura's side of the platform. How in the HELL did KT make me feel bad for this jerkwad??

As asshole!Bakura chuckles that he's gonna win for sure, other!Marik draws a new card with determination. Upon looking at it, it's his turn to laugh. And boy does he laugh. Looking annoyed, asshole!Bakura asks what it is that's so funny, and other!Marik responds that it's his one-turn-kill. Asshole!Bakura makes a confused noise, so other!Marik elaborates that in this turn, he will die. Again, he is taken aback.

ANOTHER one? I guess they're not gods for nothing...

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? As I mentioned above, the imagery of asshole!Bakura's deck and moves seem to closely resemble the weighing of the heart games Shadi imposed upon Yami early on in the manga. I don't know if this is intentional, but I kind of like it. There's a subtle link implied through the similarities, a bit of extra something to add onto asshole!Bakura's recognition of Marik's description. It gives me a little hope that there might be a meaningful interaction between the two later, in either flashback form or real time.

I also really like that we got to just see asshole!Bakura's strategy play out instead of being TOLD about it. This manga has a lot of issues with giving away so much more than it needs to as soon as its able, part of the general problem with not relying on the pictures to tell their fair share of the story, but more specifically it has given us access to all heads all at once, which cuts out a lot of suspense as well as the audience ability to empathize with a certain character. In this chapter, we were invited to empathize with other!Marik rather than asshole!Bakura, simply due to the fact that we had restricted access to asshole!Bakura's head, and much more to other!Marik's. An ODD choice of character for us to cozy up to mentally, but somewhat exciting, because his horrible deeds don't warrant much empathy. Ballsy of KT, but I think it works out.

Until we learned he had an ace up his sleeve the whole time, with his overpowered god card having all the more power than anyone should be allowed in this game. It reminds me a bit of those times, especially in Duelist Kingdom, when Yami's thoughts as well as expression would indicate he was fucked, and then he'd pull something out of his ass as though he could have done it all along. Very frustrating, and indicative of KT's epiphany rather than the character's.

That said, I'm pretty stoked about how fast this duel is going. I think I said before that this match-up wasn't really something I was interested in seeing, and even seemed like it didn't necessarily HAVE to happen. I guess I can thank Ra's no doubt bullshit special ability for the timely wrap-up, at least.