Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 269 Card of Fate!!

Ever draw the "Devil" card in a Tarot reading and think, "Yeah, thanks for the heads-up on something I already figured out"? I've developed a lot of bad habits in the past year, one of which is slacking off on my various projects, despite the ample time I've had to work on them, and it's become all the worse in the last few weeks. It's like I'm about to graduate from 2020, and I'm having a lot of trouble summoning the amount of fucks necessary to get anything done that I want to before the 1st of January. If I manage to put this out by the end of the month, I'll be VERY surprised. 

Now that we have a nice neat recap for other!Marik's previous bout of bullshittery, Yami repeats the frustrated thought that Ra is going to be revived again on the next turn. But other!Marik, veering into a different tactic for more shock-value, helpfully reminds Yami that he has the chance to draw one more card before that happens. Yami stares at other!Marik over his Duel Disk, who goads him with speculations about whether this last chance card will keep him alive a little longer or bury him in darkness. 

Yami looks down at the Duel Disk on his arm now, a somewhat fearful expression on his face. Other!Marik urges him to draw that card gleefully, chuckling. Below the platform, Kaiba glares up at Yami, knowing that unless he draws one crucial card, it's all over on the next turn. Jonouchi, forever hunched in frustration, curses over how Yami doesn't have any defensive monsters, and it's over if he has to take another attack from Ra. This confuses Honda, who says he thought that the god phoenix effect only had to do with monsters and not players. Jonouchi says that he hears Ra has yet ANOTHER power, though, and someone else expresses just that level of disbelief too. How many hidden powers does this card have?? As many as it needs to keep the tension up, apparently. Jonouchi says that if his hunch is correct, it's probably a power that will give Ra attack points so it can damage the opponent with its quick attack.

... Or Anzu is saying it, since the speech bubble is sort of pointing at her. As much as I would love for her to start putting more solid input into her contributions to the peanut gallery, I feel like this is a bit much for her character, so I'm going with Jonouchi instead. Plus, the next panel features Jonouchi wondering if there's a way to overcome this hypothetical power, not suggesting it was someone else's idea, so my assumption of credit tracks. Anyway, he says something generic about Yami having to win, as all of them do. 

Back on the platform, after a short pause for another establishing shot taking account of everything out on the field, other!Marik says he has something interesting to show Yami. Shocked, Yami watches other!Marik reach under his cowl/robe thing as he asks if Yami hasn't noticed that one of his buddies is missing. Fair question, considering Yami was the one who put him in the medical wing, and didn't really make an effort to visit him after that. 

Did they even KNOW Bakura was gone? I genuinely can't recall if anyone was ever asking after him when he disappeared.

Man, Bakura don't get NO respect, not even from me. 

Other!Marik says that this ring is his spoil of war, and sticks his tongue out to lick it like he does EVERYTHING at this point. Then he says that their friend has probably been completely consumed by "the darkness" (TM) by this point with a little chuckle. Yami mentally freaks a little, in disbelief over the disappearance of the guy he couldn't have given two shits about a few minutes ago. Other!Marik recalls asshole!Bakura bracing against the fiery blast from Ra while gritting his teeth in futility, which makes the present other!Marik guffaw. He tells Yami to wait until the next turn, because he'll show him the power that sent asshole!Bakura to Hell. 

Yami growls at this baiting, thinking on Mai and Bakura's mild faces in his memory. He decides NOT to forgive other!Marik for hurting his friends, as though he was contemplating doing that before. If he was, I'm glad he reconsidered, because that guy's been acting like a douchebag ever since regular-sized-Marik lost control. Other!Marik either thinks or says that there's nothing Yami can do except draw his final card and despair. As usual, it's a bit difficult to tell. 

Not to be too sympathetic to other!Marik here, but I'm getting a little impatient too, if I'm being honest. This ain't the Matrix, Yami ain't Neo, and KT ain't the Wachowski sisters slowing down the action for more dynamic and visually stimulating shots. 

Unfortunately, Yami is contemplating the deck in his Duel Disk all the HARDER now, thinking it's destiny given form, that he can see the back of the next card, but he can't see what it is that awaits him. He wonders hopefully that it's maybe, just maybe, the card Kaiba gave him before the start of the match. Or, threw at him in a tizzy, anyway. After this comforting thought, he thinks in this case, he'll stake his future on this card, that he AT LAST begins to draw. 

Not sure what about Yami drawing this card indicated such a conclusion, but okay Ishizu. She probz knows what she's talking about right?

Yami swings his arm out, holding the new card away from him with his eyes closed. His eyes remain closed as his slaps it on his Duel Disk, playing it face down before ending his turn. Talk about blind faith. Even Honda is grinding his teeth in disbelief over the fact that Yami didn't even LOOK at the card before playing it, Jonouchi or Anzu wondering aloud if he CAN even play it without knowing what it is. Won't HE be embarrassed when the card turns out to be a monster. 

Oh, who am I kidding? KT wouldn't DARE humiliate Yami like that. He can't be wrong; he's YAMI.

Other!Marik interprets this very iffy move as Yami being unwilling to look his defeat in the face, which isn't an illogical conclusion. Mokuba asks his brother if that was HIS card Yami played, but Seto is speechless as he stares up at Yami, who confidently declares it's other!Marik's turn. Other!Marik glares in response, but Kaiba is in a state of shock, sweatdropping. For some reason he's just FLOORED that it's as if Yami knew what he drew without seeing it, like Yami hasn't pulled similar crap before. To be fair, though, I'm not sure at this point if he's done so in full view of Kaiba, so maybe this is a first for him. He wonders if Yami could have... done something, but dismisses the thought as impossible before he can finish it. 

Enabler.

Other!Marik follows Yami's announcement of his turn with a repeat of the sentiment, and a silent vow not to let Yami get away with the rule violation. According to other!Marik, the punishment for rule-breaking of this magnitude is dying screaming in pain. Not that he needed an excuse to want that to happen before. I guess this is just another twig on that flaming desire. 

Pulling a card from his hand, other!Marik yells that this is it, predictably holding out Monster Reborn for its second play in the match. Yami grits his teeth, bracing for what's to come. Other!Marik slaps his reborn monster on his Duel Disk, "as surely as the sun rises", as he puts it. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, a real divine prophet YOU are, kid. YAWN.

But it turns out that's not exactly what he means. Parts of him start to disappear in a flash of virtual steam as he laughs it up, and Yami stares in disbelief. He's just having the time of his life turning to digital vapor, I guess, because the laughter continues into the next panel, until he gains control of his funny bone long enough to offer to show the presumably curious Yami what Ra's final power is. Yami, understandably, is still a bit stuck on the fact that other!Marik is VANISHING before his eyes. Everyone on the ground is just confused, one of them demanding to know what the hell is happening up there with all the creepy steam, and another calling Yami's name. 

Other!Marik's disappeared parts start to reform in a strangely hunched, leaning form. He declares he will join with god. 

When religious folks talk about deceased loved ones going to God, I don't think this is what they have in mind, under normal circumstances.

Yami continues to stare in shock at other!Marik's merged form with Ra. Kaiba also wears an expression of horror as he recounts in his head what he learned this means from the Hieratic on the card: the player leaves one life point while giving the rest to Ra as its attack points. A more classical kind of sacrifice, to be sure. But that's apparently not all. Other!Marik announces that he's also sacrificing the other monsters he has out in the field, so Ra can also absorb THEIR attack points, which makes makes them stronger than ever. Ra shrieks in Yami's direction, a whopping 4699 points. Yami clenches his jaw, and likely his buttocks, at this number, one to which his 3300 life points pales considerably. 

Honda has read the writing on the wall - he yells that if this direct attack succeeds, Yami's dead. Jonouchi asks what Yami is going to do in a panic. Mokuba trails in his assessment of how Yami's chances look, while his elder brother stares speechlessly. Seto Kaiba does wonder at Yami if this is really the end, though. Yami and he wear similar determined, dignified glares now. 

Other!Marik warns Yami ironically to brace himself, because his blood will be boiled to steam. It's how everybody is going right now, so I'd say that's fitting. But when other!Marik begins to call out Ra's attack, Yami interrupts him to reveal his face down card. You know, that one he didn't even look at? What a shock, it actually IS Devil's Sanctuary, the card Kaiba threw at him before this duel's start. Not only does Kaiba freeze in alarm at this, but other!Marik repeats the name of the card in disbelief. Meanwhile, Kaiba puzzles over how Yami knew that was his card. 

A wild alchemical circle has appeared! It better be super fucking effective.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It's got most of KT's regular issues; snail-pacing to cover just one-two turns, unclear speech/thought bubbles, and awkward forced narrative decisions so that his main character can get away with things he shouldn't. Though it wasn't established that there was a rule against playing a card blindly like Yami did, it makes sense that a player REALLY shouldn't do that. It might be a card that can't be played a certain way, so it's just an illogical move. So it makes sense for Moar Cards Guy to call foul on that play. 

But Kaiba having to rebuke Moar Cards Guy for it bisects his reaction to Yami playing the card - he's shocked, then coolly defensive of the move, then shocked again. It's very dissonant, and breaks up the flow of a chapter already suffering from the reduced pace so everyone and their grandmother can say their piece. It would have been much better for the writing if Yami had just LOOKED at the card, and the audience wasn't shown what it was to preserve the element of surprise. As it stands, I'm not surprised by the card's reveal, just a little annoyed. 

Although it IS intriguing that Yami doesn't know what this card even does yet. He didn't have time to study up on its use before the duel, so he's going into this blind anyway, and in a far more interesting way than the manufactured one KT tried to do before its activation. It's a mystery that I'm really looking forward seeing unfold in the next chapter, because it developed in a natural way. Besides, Yami not knowing what ANY card does is rather shocking to me, since he always gives off the vibe of knowing just about everything there is to know about this game. It's a headcanon of mine that he spends his ample time holed up in the Millennium Puzzle when Yuugi is driving their shared body just thinking on his strategies and the various cards that can be used. I suppose it's silly of me to assume he's heard of every card EVER, but it's just... how he's framed, lol!

I'm also a fan of how other!Marik fused right into Ra's head like he did, because it's just another one of those fun things that KT did with design that I can't help get the impression that he had an absolute blast putting it on paper. It's just fun to LOOK at, even if I'm a little confused about the logistics of it. There was an indication at the beginning of the duel that no one outside of the match could really see the illusions other!Marik was conjuring with his shadow game, but here it's not clear whether or not anyone is seeing his fusion with Ra. No one comments specifically that they do, but the amount of shock and awe that the transformation garners gives that impression. 

All in all, it was an okay chapter by the end. I'm pretty satisfied with how this final (finally!) special ability has manifested, because it's living up to the hype well. The next chapter should be interesting, at the very least, and I'm looking forward to it, just like moving on to the next year. 

I hope everyone reading this has a happy new year, and that 2021 treats you so much better than 2020 did, because you deserve it! Thank you for spending another year with me, no matter how difficult it was!