Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 249 Phoenix Rising!

From my perspective, it just looks like a raging fireball growing ever larger on the horizon. The year of hindsight started with a bang, and now EVERYTHING seems to be on fire. Once the inferno burns everything to ashes, I could see something being reborn from them, but right now? I don't know if there's much else to do but flee the flames. Or maybe roast some marshmallows and hotdogs over it like a campfire, depending on your level of insulation from the destruction, of course.

When the phoenix DOES rise, though, I'm not sure there will be any sheltering from it. Phoenixes are alive and have INTENT.

See? What did I say? EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE. Even gods apparently.

In horrified astonishment, Jonouchi stares open-mouthed, wondering just what the hell this thing is. He sees it's QUITE different from the Ra that defeated Mai, made of fire, still growing and changing. Other!Marik gropes the air, eyes wild and deranged, declaring that this is the final form of Ra, culminating in the final moments for Jonouchi on the earth. Boy is getting SMOTE today for sure.

While Mokuba gapes in awe of how cool the light show is, Kaiba contemplates this last form of Ra's, noting the fact that the ancient Egyptians sometimes worshiped their sun god as a bird, the mighty phoenix. This guy pulls the strangest information from his ass at the weirdest times, I swear. Honda and Shizuka call out to Jonouchi in warning, as though seeing a great big flaming bird in front of him is not GUARANTEED to get and hold Jonouchi's attention. Though he sweats profusely, gritting his teeth, he seems to question the supposed inevitability of his loss. Yami yells his name uselessly, while he worries about how everything they know about Ra so far should mean that the god card should have zero in attack strength right now, but other!Marik wasn't leaving any doubt that he's defeated Jonouchi this turn. Watching Ra's gaping, burning beak, Yami wonders if this means this thing has yet more terrifying hidden powers.

I don't know, Yami, perhaps there's a preponderance of evidence pointing to this conclusion, or maybe I'm just not believing hard enough in the FUCKING CARDS. You know I have that same exact problem with going where the evidence leads against the assurance that magical free markets will solve all problems ever. Funny that.

Other!Marik once again says that he never thought he would have to show the true face of Ra to someone like Jonouchi, because he's just GOT to imply Jonouchi isn't worthy of the honor at least once more. He turns to Yami, calling out to him and Kaiba, declaring one of them will face him in the final duel. They glare at him silently as he tells them that it's thanks to Jonouchi that they both get a little bit of a preview of what's to come, and suggests that they send him off with a big round of applause. Other!Marik bids them to make it loud, though, so Jonouchi can hear them in hell. Oddly badass for a guy who spent the past several chapters striking me as little more than a vaguely threatening goofball. Jonouchi sweats and grinds his teeth at other!Marik.

The weirdness continues with Yami's stoic scoff, like his friend ISN'T about to get a fireball to the face, or at the very least the guy threatening his friend with such treatment isn't giggling like a stoner about his plans. Arms crossed, Kaiba admits Jonouchi hasn't done half bad for a deadbeat duelist, and that Jonouchi NOW had his respect. I DON'T BELIEVE YOU, KAIBA. Douchebag will forget he even thought such a thing the moment he wants to act superior.

Oh please don't, Jonouchi. He doesn't need an EXCUSE to explain all this OP bullshit again. The tired reiteration is coming anyway, just let him run his overactive mouth by himself.

But no, Jonouchi has to point out that Ra should have zero attack strength without sacrifices. Ugh, how many times does this need to be said?? Jonouchi claims that even if Ra is a god, it's no match for his Gilford. Other!Marik starts his retort by telling Jonouchi to be quiet and wait for death. That's real hilarious coming from a guy who couldn't shut his gab if his life depended on it. He assures Jonouchi that he'll soon be wandering through hell with Ra's special thrid power burned into his soul for eternity, supposedly the most painful of sensations. I think I sprained my eyes rolling them so hard.

Jonouchi dwells on the remaining mystery of this special power, until other!Marik tells him point blank that if 1000 life points are paid, Ra incinerates all monsters on the field regardless of attack points. Jonouchi seems blown away by the implication that this could take out Gilford the Lightning. Can't imagine other!Marik would have brought Ra out there if it couldn't handle the job, dear. But by the next panel, he's pointing at other!Marik in belligerent defiance. Acknowledging the barest fact that other!Marik can take his monsters, he insists that other!Marik can't defeat him on this turn, and his life points will have to be pried from his cold dead fingers. Jonouchi realizes that this is an action that other!Marik is fully prepared to take out of the realm of metaphor and place squarely in reality like he's performing feng shui, right? Mai is living proof of that.

For now.

Other!Marik smugly mocks Jonouchi's poor memory, reminding him that this is a shadow game, son. Jonouchi genuinely looks like he'd completely forgotten his actual shit was on the line, and it's hilarious, I'm not going to lie. Other!Marik recites the rules to Jonouchi, that his monsters' pain will be his own, therefore Ra's fire trick will incinerate his mind as well as the body of Gilford, crushing his mental resistance, meaning death and defeat regardless if Jonouchi has life points remaining. Sounds a LOT like you're admitting out loud to kneecapping your opponent to avoid having to actually beat him by the rules of the game, other!Marik. Fuck, you'd think that would be against the rules or something.

Jonouchi clenches his jaw, no doubt to hold in the scream of utter horror welling up in him. I know I'm doing that, over the fact that none of the people in charge of this tournament are willing to say it's not okay to murder competitors. But we all should be used to this lawless bullshit by now, huh? Other!Marik bids Jonouchi to watch as the phoenix rises for him alone to lead him down the path of darkness. His deranged grin tells me all I need to know about whether he cares if he made ANY kind of sense there. He doesn't, otherwise he might be at least a little embarrassed.

Yami pulls a full 180 from his previous near-indifference and screams Jonouchi's name in pure panic. Shizuka calls out to her big brother as well, Honda demands that he DARE not lose, and Anzu tells him to hang in there impotently. On the other side of all this, Kaiba wears a goofy little smile as he looks directly into what he just explained to the audience is the GOD OF THE LITERAL FUCKING SUN, calling it beautiful. There's no beauty like burned retinas, friends.

Amazingly, it takes the creepily-eager other!Marik until this very moment to command his god incarnate to take his 1000 life points and channel them into the attack to burn Gilford with the fires of hell. That would be be flames of the sun, dude. I swear, this isn't an Egyptian god so much as an elder god causing a rash of insanity to spread in everyone beholding right now. Wouldn't THAT be a twist? Ra rises up, as the title foretold, and shines down on a terrified Jonouchi. He's also in disbelief, thinking that if he loses now, he'll never see Mai and Yuugi/Yami again. A blinding flash erupts from the platform, and I do mean it ERUPTS.

As Gilford is swallowed by the flames, Jonouchi screams in agony, pupils mere pinpricks in his wide, terrified eyes. Shizuka covers her eyes, crying out at Jonouchi but unable to watch his pain. Yami and Anzu stare, though, Anzu's hand clutching her no-doubt gaping mouth. Other!Marik laughs maniacally, yelling Jonouchi to burn until the last of his life is incinerated. Jonouchi hugs himself, teetering on unsteady feet. As other!Marik continues to yuk it up, we see that though Jonouchi has ceased screaming, his mouth remains open wide, cheeks stretched gaunt in his silent anguish. Gilford burns in a pillar of fire behind him, and eventually disappears without a trace in the heart of the flames. Yami worries that if this goes on, the pain will shatter Jonouchi's mind, as if that wasn't the whole point as pontificated by our psychopath-of-the-day up on the platform.

Jonouchi collapses to his knees, making a sound halfway between a retch and a gurgle. Other!Marik's laughter dies down and he tells Ra that this is plenty burnination for now, asking it to return. Its pillar of fire disperses out and it sinks back down to other!Marik's side as he claims he can see what's left of Jonouchi's soul going to heaven with all the virtual smoke. Or, rather, it's foggy outline of Jonouchi through the din. Once the picture becomes clearer, the grin drops from other!Marik's face.

Hooray! He BARELY made it! Why are we celebrating this before beating the shit out of other!Marik again?

While everyone is in awe of Jonouchi's survival, for better or worse, Jonouchi himself looks up and finds Yami standing across the platform instead of the menacing other!Marik. Hallucination!Yami wears an easy smile, and Jonouchi stutters his name in dazed confusion. His vision tells him that this is the final match between the two of them, but Jonouchi is still having a little trouble grasping the concept of the finals. It takes him a moment to come to the conclusion that he withstood other!Marik's attack, and on the next turn Monster Reborn stopped working on Ra, so it returned to the graveyard. Hallucination!Yami says that this is correct, and lays out the next turn in which Jonouchi summons Gearfried the Iron Knight and defeats other!Marik. Jonouchi's face lights up as he seems to recall this sequence of events.

KT, if you think you can distract me from how you stripped Jonouchi of the dignity you built for him in the last chapter by breaking my little fragile heart in this one...

... You're right.

Meanwhile, other!Marik just stands in utter shock staring at Jonouchi still balancing on his knees across the platform, refusing to lay down and die. Sweating, jaw locked in a permanent grind, he thinks this can't possibly be real and wonders if this means Jonouchi's willpower is stronger than an actual god's. I mean, it's easy to have more willpower than a god when that god is regularly ordered around by an edgy little twerp.

Jonouchi mutters that it's his turn, and his friends are in a joyous uproar. His sister cries that he did it with tears in her eyes, Honda pumps a fist in the air, Anzu explains with excitement that since Ra is gone then the moment Jonouchi attacks other!Marik, he wins. Yami grins with silent elation. Kaiba looks absolutely FLOORED, in similar disbelief that Jonouchi beat a god to other!Marik, except without the barely suppressed rage. All Yami can think is that Jonouchi is a fucking hero. That he is.

Half-conscious, Jonouchi murmurs narration for his draw, thinking about Yuugi/Yami as he does so. He glances at the new card, and lets out a small scoff, because it really is Gearfried the Iron Knight just like Yami said. For how many fake psychics Jonouchi faced in the past, turns out he was the REAL psychic all along! He moves painfully slow to lay the card on his Duel Disk, his non-hallucinatory friends on the sidelines blurred heavily in his view. He stutters his play of Gearfried, wearing a little disoriented smile, thinking he's won. But his summon trails even as Gearfried appears beside him, and he wanders into exhausted silence.

And so concludes the most bloated vehicle for a character exit I have ever seen.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I'm hesitant to say that this one made up for the previous one's disregard of Jonouchi's skill and growth, I can't deny that it was every bit as spectacular as he deserved. KT's art was so rich here; the expression and pose of all the characters were evocative and real, making it easy to practically FEEL everything, from Ra's flames right down to the emotional roller-coaster of all the bystanders. There was a little too much dialog, especially in the beginning of the chapter, but even THAT was toned down from its usual high levels in the rest of the manga so far, so I'm not complaining. Despite the fact that it was one of those chapters that was composed solely of one long, drawn-out turn, it didn't seem like it. The emotional weight carried it.

I was going to criticize how derivative of Jonouchi's duel with Rishid the vision in this one appeared, how it was too similar to the dream he had that prompted his stand. But thinking on it, there's more poetic parallel there than a lack of creativity, even if I think it was still a little on the nose. In Jonouchi's dream at the end of his duel with Rishid, the childish content as a motivator indicated a still naive mindset, the result of relatively low stakes in his journey. He dreams of an innocent past where he's hanging out with friends and his only care is running off to the next tournament. His hallucination of Yami in this chapter is more focused on the only thing he has left to look forward to, fulfilling his promise. Right before Ra turned the platform into an inferno, Jonouchi's one concern was never being able to see Mai or Yuugi again, and was thus given the motivation to withstand as much of the blow as he could, just so he could conjure a vision in his half-fried brain helping him to cope with the agony. He may have fallen at the end, the opposite of how he came out of his duel with Rishid, but his LIFE was saved by his will to be able to see his friends again, and that's the kind of will a god would never understand.

Besides, it's absolutely CERTAIN that he would have one if he had the energy to command an attack, and that's just badass.

It's interesting how Jonouchi's vision of Yami told him the key to his unfulfilled victory, and it turned out to be prophetic. I still sometimes think back on my suspicions that there's some part of Jonouchi in the Millennium Puzzle that helped to shape their bond later, and this just brings it back in force. I don't think it will ever be CONFIRMED whether or not I'm full of it over this hypothesis, but it never stops being entertaining to wonder about.