Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 275 One Point of Life!

Once again: what a mood. I've frequently felt like I'm running on one point of life during the past year, and now that there seems to be the most distant pinprick of light at the end of this long tunnel, I'm really TAXING that last point while sprinting toward it. It's all adrenaline now - I'm running on fumes. I don't know what's going to happen if I manage to reach the light, whether I'll just collapse into a Kaiba-esque broken brain coma for 6 months to a year, or if the light is even real. All I know is that I'm already exhausted, and have been so for an entire revolution around the sun. 

Yami, I'm begging you man, if you're GOING to do it, just finish me off already. Have mercy.

This is it! The beginning of the end! Yeet me into the Shadow Realm, Obelisk!

Kaiba reiterates what's happening here - Yami is activating Obelisk's special ability by offering two sacrifices before other!Marik attacks, wiping out all the opponent's monsters. Definitely clears it up for any new readers to stumble on this story in the store. He does wonder if this will work on Ra, though, which is fair. Ra does seem to dodge just about everything thrown at him, and there's no reason to think any trick will really stick at this poin-

Wait. 

Wait wait wait. Is this happening? Is this FUCKING happening right now????

... If you hear something that sounds like a distant scream of frustrated anguish, that's me. Hell, you'll probably hear a second one as other!Marik's bulging eyes are overlaid with his revelation that this is it - infinite attack points. How many times must I rant about how infinity isn't a number in recaps about this fucking manga??? I cannot stress enough just how much this infuriates me. 

I'm going to move on before I give myself an aneurysm or something. Yami tells other!Marik to take THIS new and improved god-fist to the face. 

Sorry? I'm still seething about the misuse of the continued misuse of mathematical terms to be concerned with this bullshit. Can you wait until I've had time to finish malfunctioning over the PRIOR bullshit before you throw some NEW bullshit at me KT? Please???

As the slowest attack in the world heads toward Ra/other!Marik, Kaiba thinks on other!Marik's life points being increased by 1000 by the Soul Taker card. He adds the attack points of the sacrificed monsters to those life points, and the sum comes out to 4899 on Ra's attack. It's rearing back and roaring, like it's preparing to do its own attack in the meantime. I guess Kaiba did his calculations out loud, to my ETERNAL surprise, for Jonouchi asserts with a raised fist that it doesn't matter HOW many attack points Ra has because Obelisk has infinite attack. This sends me into yet another angry tirade that I will not repeat here; I don't want to waste YOUR time too, dear reader. 

Other!Marik grins sadistically as he thinks that they'll see about his efforts not mattering. He will keep this duel/arc on his shoddy life-support system of circular play style as long as he possibly can, dammit! Indeed, Obelisk's impact attack diverts to either side of Ra like it's surrounded by an invisible shield. Yami gapes in disblief that he didn't hurt other!Marik at ALL, and other!Marik claims that this is because even gods know their betters. Apparently, because Ra is the highest rank of all the god cards, Obelisk's powers are useless against it. So, Ra gets off without a scratch against an objectively more powerful opponent because of a flimsy HIERARCHY?

Yeah, that checks out. 

Yami growls in frustration, but there's some genuine fear in his face now. Jonouchi and company down below, including the still possessed Anzu, stare open-mouthed and horror-stricken at the scene above. And yet, it's not the original Marik who explains through Anzu that Obelisk's attack points go back to normal when its special attack ends - it's JONOUCHI. Did he get a good look at the text on that card by looking over Kaiba's shoulder while he was admiring it or something? 

Anyway, other!Marik declares his Surprise Attack from the Darkness again, shouting that this is the end for Yami. Meanwhile, Rishid has limped onto the scene unnoticed below the platform, just in time to see other!Marik laughing it up above. He mumbles Marik's name, as other!Marik commands Yami to die, calling him a dried-up mummy and a pathetic ghost. He has clearly lost the last of his shit, but at the same time, I'm appreciative of how much hilarious resentment he stuffed into those insults. It's glorious. 

I'm having a hard time believing ANYONE is going to win this duel at this point. Are we certain we haven't ALL lost a shadow game and now are sitting in hell watching the eternal duel of doom?

As expected. the next panel has Yami smiling like he didn't just have a terrified expression a couple of pages ago, asking other!Marik if he's SURE. If only the word "sure" had a similar mnemonic device as the word "assume", because when other!Marik's incomplete falls, he does kinda look like an ass. Yami reveals the face down card Dimension Magic, and other!Marik is just utterly flabbergasted by this. Probably because he too has forgotten if Yami even set out another face down card, just as I have. There's just been so much going on, forgive me. 

Yami says Dimension Magic lets him sacrifice two monsters, of his OWN this time, while sacrificial whirlwinds surround Obelisk and Gazelle. Other!Marik is now in disbelief that Yami would be sacrificing his GOD, even though he's just demonstrated that the thing isn't really worth much out there on the field right now. May as well, based on that alone. Other!Marik is still extremely distressed by this prospect, though, this evasion tactic by sacrificing Ra's targets - what he calls "Sacrifice Escape". However, he finds the silver lining and his grin again in the next panel when he reminds Yami that his last god card is dead. 

Yami's rebuttal is, of course, that he has his friends/trusted comrades whom he has carried in his cards throughout all his duels. It helps that they physically follow him around like a litter of puppies through the whole thing too, I'm guessing. Other!Marik isn't listening, really. He's been distracted by a shape forming in the digital smoke. 

When Yami said he had his friends, did he REALLY mean he had his funny little cartoon magic card people?

Jonouchi cheers that Yami dodged Ra's attack and brought out his two best magicians, all in one swift movement. Kaiba snickers, seemingly understanding that Obelisk was just a decoy now. It's clear the time for questioning Yami's dueling wisdom has passed, abruptly and without much cause. After all, there's EVERY reason to believe that this ol' switcheroo will work where all the other clever moves before failed, right? 

Yami yells at other!Marik that the tables have turned, and that when his master and disciple magicians join forces, they can destroy any one monster. A condition that came out of left field like a bat outta Hell, but resolution is near and we gotta wrap this shit up. Yami says their target for monster destruction is other!Marik and Ra's fused form, to which other!Marik reacts with a dismayed growl, and then speechlessness. I love it when he stops talking. It's like music to my eyes, just like that saying definitely goes.

But it's short-lived. Other!Marik is grinning again in an instant, bidding him not to forget that destroying Ra will leave him with a single life point, which will kill the original recipe Marik. Yami's the one with his jaw clenched and stressing out now, wondering if other!Marik is truly saying that he can't save regular-sized Marik even if he leaves the one life point. Marik himself, as a single eye floating there in "sacrifice space" is kinda just... staring. Resigned. Other!Marik encourages Yami with psychotic glee to try it if he's prepared to KILL Marik, claiming that his ego will be permanently broken and will be always dominated by his dark side if Yami injures him THAT bad. So, not KILL him, but turn him into something of a mental vegetable? And is it worth it to point out that other!Marik has done WORSE to regular-sized Marik, so I kinda have a hard time believing that this could possibly compare? Maybe it's the straw that breaks the camel's back, I don't know...

Yami growls in frustration, and Yuugi suggests that Marik doesn't have the willpower to go on living with just the one life point - I'm supposing he's speaking from the position of a fellow "sacrifice" in this situation, because quite frankly, I don't have the mental space to add yet another question about how characters could possibly know these things they assert in this chapter. We'll just roll with it. Yuugi begs Yami not to do it; they have to come up with another plan. This just delights other!Marik, who's convinced he can't lose as long as he has his hostage sacrifice. 

It's about damn time. Rishid, honey, please bring some sense back into this chapter. Or, failing that, at least tell other!Marik to go straight to Hell.

Other!Marik dashes my hopes that he'll fuck off now right off the bat, when he sneers at Rishid, asking sardonically if he's really still alive and comparing his toughness to a scarab beetle's. He claims he's too strong for Rishid to push into original recipe Marik's subconscious anymore, and I am so far beyond fuming at this point, it's killing me. He just doesn't. Shut. UP. Rishid pants in response, apparently still catching his breath from the grueling trip up there. Relatable. As other!Marik watches this, he zeroes in on Rishid's DIY guardian tattoo, spitting that it's vile carving. He says that his other self's psyche is in a fragile state, and he has neither the strength to speak or live. Regular sized Marik seems to agree through his single eye's downcast look. 

At last, Rishid works up the breath to speak, directly to Marik. He monologues for a minute about how the fate of the Tomb Guardians brought tragedy upon them, hatred and resentment, and that all created the evil heart that stands before them now. Other!Marik snaps at him to shut up, but Rishid keeps going, warning original recipe Marik that he's about to throw himself into the darkness of despair. I thought he was several steps beyond that point by now, but it is a nice little speech, so I suppose he can get away with that little error. Marik still looks a little hopeless, but Rishid's monologue reaches a climax when he shakes his fist in the air and yells that Marik must keep living, even if his path leads into darkness - it's the fate of not only the Tomb Guardians, but every human. 

The pretty words finally reaches Marik, whose single eye widens at the final phrasing. Other!Marik yells at Rishid that he told him to shut his trap, a double image of his face stretching out from him so he's hollering from it, but also clenching his jaw on his physical mug. He doubles over, clutching at his missing eye with clawed fingers while the rest of his expression remains panicked. Yuugi observes other!Marik is acting awfully strange, as if he hasn't been this WHOLE TIME, while Yami just stares at the spectacle with a vaguely disgusted face. Other!Marik grunts and his one eye rolls, bulging. 

Rishid has yet more to say: that it is not through death that people go into the light, because there is only light in LIFE. With that final proof that Rishid was actually LISTENING to his Victorian ghost boy form in that coma, Marik's single brow lowers over his eye in determination.

Why is other!Marik suddenly so concerned with HOW things are happening? Just sit back and get what you give, baby. 

Yami is shocked to see original recipe Marik's eye hanging out in other!Marik's creepy version of their face. Other!Marik continues grunting demanding that Marik stop, but Marik isn't paying any attention. Rather he's wondering if he's really evil and a monster, supposing that they'll find out with Yami's next attack. Yami gets the gist after a pause, thinking this is the moment of truth. He decides he's going to believe in Marik's one point of life (title-mention whaaaaaaat) and warns him that he's going for it. 

Yami points up at his magicians, bidding them to combine their power, and they produce a bright light at the point where their wands cross. Other!Marik lets out a growl of frustration, stretching backward away from the impending attack as regular-sized Marik thinks on Ishizu and Rishid. Fearful of the growing bright light before him, other!Marik grits his teeth.

... Do I dare hope this isn't another fake-out? 

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I have to start out by saying, so sorry for the digital scream, that the first half of this chapter was SO MOTHER-FUCKING POINTLESS. It was bad enough that Yami had to recycle his last move using a face down card to sacrifice two monsters to activate some heretofore unmentioned special ability of a couple of new monsters, but the fact that it was because Obelisk's attack wouldn't go through for the DUMBEST possible reason? A petty little hierarchy that only Obelisk seems to be subject to when a couple of REGULAR monsters were able to get away with the same thing just pages later? And while my objection to infinity attack points on Obelisk was rather small at first, all of this eventually had me questioning why gaining infinite attack points would be a necessity in the first place, if it can't even be used against the strongest monster in the game due to its programmed respect for authority. It's this ouroboros of narrative uselessness that exists for the sole purpose of filling space with redundant tension and I HATE it.

But Rishid dragging his ass up to the top of that tower to give Marik a speech inspiring him to regain some will was compelling. The implication that Rishid actually heard what Marik was saying at his bedside in the blimp was a nice touch, because it leads to the additional implication that Rishid rejects the notion that he's in Marik's shadow, as expressed by Marik in his bedside confession. Rishid's soliloquy compares Marik and their family to regular people, and states that their struggles aren't much different from those of others. His declaration that Marik needs to keep on keeping on just like everybody else puts Marik not only level with Ishizu and himself, but the whole world - it re contextualizes Marik's issues not as the fate of a special chosen one shouldering the heavy burden of a family legacy, but as the entirely human matter of surviving a dark depressing period. Putting it that way, it seems a lot more manageable, so it's no wonder this helps Marik regain the control necessary to ask for Yami's help in defeating the manifestation of his inner demons here. 

I also like how Marik's comment about seeing whether or not he's an evil monster. It's a throwback to Yami's own decision to explore those missing memories of his, even though it might lead to unpleasant revelations. Drawing this parallel between the hero and Marik was a great way for KT to solidify Marik's coming redemption, even though Marik still has a LOT to answer for. He may not be a monster, just a guy who only knows how to inflict his own abuse on others, but that doesn't mean he doesn't owe some SERIOUS apologies. 

As pleased as I am with the latter half of the chapter, I just think it should have been in the previous one. KT REALLY should have cut out the nonsense at the beginning of this thing and not doubled back in the home stretch. What a WASTE.