Wow, way to just give away the possible resolution right there in the title, chapter. Although, Shield and Sword really does fit the profile of most twist endings to these duels - a simple card that has unexpected twist effects in certain situations. And given it's a card that has been well-established in the series so far, I would be pretty excited to see it pop up as the unlikely hero of this duel. It would feel like another good payoff for a setup in a previous arc, and you know how much I like my setups and payoffs.
But having them frontloaded like this? Not so much.
Or rather, it's here to sit back and read the paper while it patiently awaits the rules to ALLOW for it to take Yami away. Lawful Evil.
Yami clenches his jaw, reiterating to the audience himself that he can't touch other!Marik with God Slime in the way. But after a moment, he realizes that his REAL problem is the split personality of Marik. He knows that if he defeats other!Marik, the original recipe dies too; a bit of a leash on his drive to win, understandably.
While Yami contemplates these unpalatable circumstances, other!Marik yells at Yami that it's still his turn, calling Yami a fool in the process. Yami thought his day couldn't be any worse? Other!Marik is here to prove him wrong! He sets a face down card, then plays a monster in defense - some sort of pot-bellied lizard with scythe arms and a multi-eyed head that looks vaguely like it was modeled off a spider. He calls this new abomination Granadora, and it gives him a boost of 1000 points just for inviting him. Must have mistaken the duel for a pot luck, but at least it didn't carry in tuna casserole or something.
Other!Marik ends his turn here, thinking on his next turn, when the Phoenix will set Obelisk on fire, and takes away Yami's last god, as well as his last chance of winning.
He sure does look enthused, doesn't he?
Honda yells some superficial encouragement to Yami from below the platform, pointing out that if Yami doesn't do something on THIS turn, other!Marik with summon Ra on the next. Jonouchi looks frustrated, convinced that something is wrong, because he's observed that it's as if Yami is pulling his punches. He wonders aloud what's the matter, if he even wants to win. Anzu, still wide-eyed and staring blankly due to sustained possession by Regular-Sized Marik, suggests there's something they're not seeing; this isn't an ordinary duel.
Jonouchi looks around at her in alarm, realizing that Marik is talking through Anzu again, as Ishizu puts her hands on Anzu's arm in affection for her brother squatting inside her like she's a dilapidated storefront the owner doesn't pay any attention to. Marik says, creepily, that this duel is the ultimate Shadow Game (TM), to which Jonouchi responds with horrified disbelief. Marik doesn't really address this emotional outburst, continuing on to explain that both players have human sacrifices, Yuugi being one, and he himself being the other. Jonouchi is practically screaming in Anzu's ear when he demands clarification that Yuugi is a sacrifice, so if she doesn't wake up with tinnitus, it'll be a damn miracle.
Again, Marik just kind of ignores Jonouchi, and keeps rolling along with his explanation: when one of the players reaches zero life points, the sacrifice will fall into darkness. Jonouchi has progressed into teeth-grinding worry, wondering what kind of duel this is. If he had been listening rather than shouting, he might have heard that part of Marik's reminder to the audience of what's going on atop the stage. As it stands, he's just silently insists that Yuugi not die.
To answer this question, Marik, all you really have to do is take a look at the old inner mirror and ask yourself what seeking an eye for an eye did for YOU.
Not much? Yeah, that's why.
Yuugi demands Yami listen to him, then repeats what Yami has already been thinking this entire time: their real enemy is OTHER!Marik, and there has to be a way they can beat the evil perverted side so the real Marik can live. I love my little cinnamon roll Yuugi, but damn if he isn't several hundred steps behind at this point. Yami is aware of the inconvenient fact that normal Marik is the one who will die if other!Marik's points are reduced to zero, thank you very much, but he's really grinding his teeth over how he's supposed to fight other!Marik. Yuugi looks like he has a bit of an epiphany, thinking there may be a way after all. I thought that was his position during this whole discussion, but let's just pretend that he was the nay-sayer for that line to make sense for a second.
He suggests that perhaps other!Marik's weakness is related to Ra's special ability, which gains him a shocked Pikachu face from Yami. Yuugi explains that one of the three special powers Ra has is the player's ability to fuse with it, but even a god monster is still just a monster, and its fusion with the player makes the player a monster as well. Is there some sort of moral commentary being espoused through these nonsensical mechanics here or...
NAH.
Yami thanks his dear partner for his input and draws a new card with the new hope that there may well be a way for everyone but other!Marik to pull through this. Yuugi nods with determination.
Yami plays a face down card, and summons Gazelle (looking just as opposite of a gazelle as ever) in defense, and ends his turn. Other!Marik jumps at the opportunity to remind Yami that the giant eyeball archer gets to attack at the end of his turn, commanding Bowganian to release its crossbow of pain. Unlike the Holding Pen of Pain, it kind of has to be painful. Yami takes the arrow in the chest, groaning in agony as his life points go down to 700.
While more of Yuugi disappears in wisps of smoke, he calls for Yami's attention again, who observes his near oblivion with some panic. Yuugi insists that Yami can defeat other!Marik's evil heart, and urges him to do so. Quickly as he can, I'm sure. Yami begs Yuugi not to disappear.
Other!Marik laughs it up about this being his last turn, while we get a zoomed out shot of all the shit these two have filled the platform with. A fake and real Obelisk towering over everything, with TWO additional monsters on both sides. It's pretty crowded up there. Kaiba glares thoughtfully up at this mess, knowing that other!Marik is going to re-summon Ra on this turn, and wondering if Yami has any way to stop him. Jonouchi clenches his jaw in anxiety over Yami/Yuugi's situation. Possessed!Anzu and Ishizu both just... stare.
Having given us enough of a pause to check in with the peanut gallery again, other!Marik draws a new card with the craziest gusto I've ever seen on anyone in this game. He looks at the card, and I'm sure someone familiar with this game can identify it, but I'm still a n00b, so its play will be all the more surprising for me. Joy. Whatever it is, it makes him laugh all the more, declaring that the darkness is his ally to the end and he's going to crush Yami with this card. Yami's heart pounds while other!Marik asks him if he's ready, warning him that he'll burn to death in one sweep of Ra's wings.
Well, at least it'll be a mercifully quick death.
Other!Marik reveals his face down card as Monster Reborn, surprising no one.
Dude constantly talks about how much he loves darkness, but he's always summoning the firebird god of the SUN over here. The symbolism is getting a bit confused here...
Ra rises up to hover over Obelisk and scream at it a bit, until other!Marik commands it to burn the other god to ashes. Then the flames rapidly descend upon Obelisk. Yami reveals HIS face down card too, while Obelisk is BURNS over his head. Other!Marik, cupping the air with clawed fingers and eyes/veins popping in pure insanity, insists that nothing Yami does will matter, Ra will obliterate any monster, even a god. Obelisk seems to fade in the crackling flames, and other!Marik begins to declare it dead... but that pop to his eyes takes on a new connotation when he realizes he has to reassess his impression of the situation.
Now I know why that damn card is banned in TCG. I'm sick of looking at it at this point.
It's a BIG reason for Yami's friend's to celebrate, though. Honda and Jonouchi both raise fists for Yami, the former saying he should have KNOWN Yami also had a Monster Reborn in his deck, and the latter explains with jubilation how Yami brought back Slifer in defense to take the attack from Ra. I'm actually glad for the narration of what's happening, because the above picture didn't really communicate it well, even if it was pretty dope. Slifer collapses in front of Obelisk, and Yami reiterates that the Obelisk standing tall and strong behind him is, in fact, unharmed. Yami takes a moment to seriously appreciate that he's escaped Ra's attack... this time. Kaiba giggles internally over Yami challenging Ra with Obelisk as a sword and Slifer as a shield.
Shows ME for making assumptions in the cold open!
Ra is sucked back into other!Marik's Duel Disk, going back to the graveyard, as other!Marik states. He spends a moment to slouch quietly, before chuckling darkly. Yami is disturbed by this amused reaction to his clever escape.
I don't know, do you think it's some sort of surprise attack? Because that's what I'm barely able to read on the card.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It focused, to its strength, on the balancing act Yami is performing in trying not to lose, but also trying not to win so he doesn't kill the original recipe Marik. I think re-framing this conflict around that in particular helped to bring the duel back into sharp relief with a very simple contrast; what Yami NEEDS to do, versus what he WANTS to do. The stark appearance that these two things are in opposition to each other not only ratchets up the tension by pulling the protagonist in two different (apparently) directions, but it also makes me really excited to know just what Yami's solution is. It was a great move for KT to withhold that information from us as the audience until later, because I'm just ITCHING to read that next chapter in order to find out what it is.
As frequent and egregious as KT's bad habits are in this manga, I can't help but appreciate that he somehow ALWAYS manages to put them aside when he needs to the most. It's one of the things that makes this story hold up so well over the years.
If Ra's effect is to destroy all monsters on the field, summoning a new monster wouldn't stop that!
ReplyDeleteDidn't think so, but I'm used to weird nonsensical exceptions to the rule for the sake of drama in this manga, lol!
DeleteI don't know what were the description of Ra's effect in the original Japanese manga (but some had translations putting TCG/OCG description even when it's not 100% accurate, like Magical Dimension's effect, when French translation does describe the Magicians combining their attacks, thus the monster like Ra is destroyed by battle), but it's quite an unspoken mechanic regarding the redirect attack/effects due to how it wasn't implemented in the TCG/OCG.
DeleteIt's clear if it's one-on-one interaction like Dark Magician having its attack redirected to Obelisk in Dark Yugi vs Kaiba's duel, but not fully clear yet if it's a monster newly summoned during an effect that hits multiple cards that it'd hit the only newly summoned monster or supposed to hit others.
I can kind of see why certain translations would put in TCG card descriptions, even if it's not quite accurate to what's going on, since by this point there would be a lot of their audience interested in the ACTUAL card game, and this would make for a great advertising strategy. But it does make for some confusion when trying to reconcile this with the story, which was NOT written by someone who has experience in creating balanced games, lol.
DeleteI don't know what the descriptions in the original Japanese were myself, but if anyone knows, feel free to comment!
Oh regarding Slifer becoming a shield to all monsters at once (if the effect is meant to destroy all monsters), TCG/OCG has similar interaction, in a card called Fake Trap (protects Trap Cards from being destroyed by destroying itself instead): https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Fake_Trap
DeleteIn its ruling page ( https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Card_Rulings:Fake_Trap ), it's mentioned that Fake Trap would protect any other Trap, and that only Fake Trap itself would be destroyed and not other Traps, if opponent uses cards like Heavy Storm (a card that can destroy all Spell and Traps on the field, in the anime used by Kaiba).
I disapprove of these kind of translations because it'd increase the false arguments of characters cheating, accusing them of that for the game not being the same as TCG/OCG, actually the manga should be viewed the story from from the context of the game in-universe, not the context of the TCG/OCG.
Talking about Takahashi, the manga rules are more restricting than the TCG/OCG, manga's Super Expert rules (Battle City) has players being limited in not only Normal Summon (1 per turn), but they also can only activate 1 Spell from hand per turn and set 1 Spell/Trap per turn. In the TCG only Normal Summon is limited, others you can do as much as you want.