Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 283 The Six Chosen Priests

Sounds like some kind of reality TV concept, like The Bachelor or Big Brother or something. I'm picturing men in religious regalia giving interviews to a camera and getting into catfights with fellow faith leaders in a big extravagant mansion. Just imagine: robed dudes participating in campy game-show competitions and throwing shade at their fellow clergymen. A nun delivering the news of one of them being voted out of the church. Presenting a lucky winner every week with a fetish or cross-stitched quote. 

... I think I might watch that. 

I realize that's not where THIS blinding and hectic scene is going, but I don't know, what I described above might come across as less traumatic. Yami appears to be falling into a dark well of hieroglyphics, and he's got his mouth wide open in a silent scream, because that shit looks absolutely TERRIFYING. 

The flash from the stone tablet subsides in the museum, but everyone continues to hold their arms up over their eyes for a beat longer. Just in case the artifact decides to try to blind them again. Groaning and squinting, they slowly lower their hands, Jonouchi muttering that there was a bright light for a moment and Honda asking just what the hell happened. Suddenly, Jonouchi catches sight of Yuugi still on all fours on the floor, and shouts to him in alarm. They all crowd around him, Anzu inquiring after how he is, but he remains quiet, his face shadowed, holding up his Millennium Puzzle. 

Yup, that expression means EXACTLY what you think it does. Yuugi confirms with tears welling in his eyes that his other self is indeed gone. While Jonouchi and Honda yell in disbelief and for confirmation that Yami is gone, hunching over him in a threatening intimidating way, Yuugi squeezes his eyes shut and cringes. He twists around to explain that Yami is neither in the puzzle nor in his heart, and he doesn't know where he is. 

Anzu is in silent, wide-eyed shock, and behind Bakura's vacant empty expression is asshole!Bakura freaking out a little about Yami being gone. All of them maintain an awkward silence, only broken by Jonouchi's sad "no way". Yuugi hangs his head over the puzzle, holding it to his face as he cries. He questions where Yami is, moaning in his sudden anguish. 

Bobasa steps up to remind them of that World of Memory he mentioned earlier? And how Yami went there? Everyone in this room has the memory of a damn goldfish, judging by how they react with mystified alarm at the term. Bobasa puts on his own poop-face, preparing to further extrapolate:

Doesn't sound too different than a bad trip at the hypno-therapist's, honestly. 

Yami now sits hunched on a throne elevated behind a line of robed individuals, some of them bowing their heads. He looks like he's snoozing before he's approached by short-ish figure softly trying to get his attention. Yami's eyes flutter open as the man clears his throat behind a cloth hanging over his nose and mouth. Not quite as familiar as the masks we're wearing nowadays, but enough for me to be salty about it without thinking. I have been thoroughly corrupted by pandemic times. 

Snapping to attention, eyes wide, Yami asks in confusion where he is. The masked man at his side in turn asks what the great pharaoh is saying, chastising him in the statement that he must always be acting with the dignity befitting a living representation of the gods. This man labels falling asleep on the throne as quite the shameful thing. 

This all goes straight over Yami's head, because he seems to recognize this man as Yuugi's grandfather and addresses him as such with surprise. The man stutters in alarm, identifying himself instead as the pharaoh's vizier, Siamun Muran. Oh the dramatic irony! He insists he's never been called by any other name, repeating "grandpa" as if it is quite the mystifying, if not insulting, term. Who knows? Maybe he's just objecting to the elderly connotations. 

Yami stares, a little flushed and a LOT confused, judging by how he turns the name "Siamun" over in his head. He then looks at the robed folks standing in front of him and wonders what the hell is going on. 

Yami, I don't know why you're having trouble wrapping your brain around this. You didn't have a single problem with people referring to you as a pharaoh when you were living in Yuugi's head, but now that you're dressed for the title it's too much?? 

Some shirtless guy kneels in front of Yami and line of robed people alike, though addresses only the pharaoh, declaring that it is time. Yami grits his teeth, panicked in his complete ignorance of the situation. He leans toward his vizier, having to correct himself and call the man Siamun rather than "grandpa" again, as he whispers a hurried question about what's going on here. Siamun is mystified by Yami's confusion, recoiling and asking what he could possibly mean. So Yami repeats his question, much to Siamun's alarm. 

Or, Yami MEANS to repeat the question, only to cut himself off when he notices the one thing all the robed people have in common and blurts that they have Millennium Items. Siamun is speechless, side-eyeing Yami a moment, before he explains that these are the six priests chosen by the items and they're about to begin the royal court. You know, like he's talking to a fucking MORON. Siamun concludes that the pharaoh must be VERY tired, which is probably the NICE version of what he thinks of what's going on here. 

Yami just latches on to that statement that these are priests chosen by the Millennium Items, staring agape at them. Until the shirtless kneeling guy asks the great pharaoh if they may open the court now, and Yami stutters out an affirmative, prompting the shirtless guy to shout for a prisoner to be brought out. He's a pretty big dude in nothing but a plain skirt at the waist, who's asking for the guards on either side of him to wait as they bark at him where to go and stand. Shirtless Guy announces that the prisoner was caught trying to enter the previous pharaoh's tomb. 

The big guy, missing a tooth, begins to shout in defense that he didn't steal anything and all the treasure was all gone before he even got there. Someone yells at him to shut it, reciting a prepared statement about how the resting place of a pharaoh is the territory of the gods, and anyone who sets foot in that sacred place will face the gods' judgment. While the prisoner gurgles in protest, Siamun says to Yami that there is no end to thieves who would rob royal tombs, and these sinners are judged by the seven holy items/six priests. Presumably by Yami too, even though Siamun leaves that part out of the equation. Yami wonders if the Millennium Items were originally for judging those sinners. 

As if to answer, the priests gather round the prisoner and announce that his crime will be judged by the items. The prisoner, though he looks tough, asks in a halting manner what they're going to do. High Priest Shada is called forth first, in lieu of an answer, and he looks to be the ancient counterpart to ShadI, so I expect to hate him just as much.

What is that, a frikken symbiote? How did Venom get into this dude's chest?

Shada declares that he detects the shadow of an evil "ka" in this guy's heart, just as he suspected. Drawing conclusions beforehand and confirming them through unverifiable means isn't exactly professional behavior in my book, but I also have the omnipotent understanding that this is legit in this particular universe, so I don't really have room to complain. A new guy who looks like Marik's dear old dad with the Millennium Eye installed according to factory instructions introduces himself as the High Priest Akhenaden, and states that he's going to use his item to reveal the true form of that ka Shada mentioned. The prisoner, who has fallen to his knees, throws his head back and wisps of smoke issue from his mouth, presumably at Akhenaden's direction with his arms thrown wide. Yami observes with shock that something is coming out of the prisoner's body. 

Siamun begins expositing that negative emotions like hatred and anger create monsters in men's souls, and that monster eventually takes over the man, causing them to commit crimes and break the divine order of Ma'at. They also increase their own power by creating more rage and sorrow, no doubt encouraging them to keep on walking down that road. Kind of convenient that shitty crime-monsters can be blamed on human universals like NEGATIVE EMOTIONS instead of institutional injustices like poverty. Rich aristocrats are just better at handling their crap, I guess. 

Nice cosmology being built here. 

Again, as if to answer his question, a perfectly rectangular stone slab rises on its own between two men standing with their arms crossed, almost twice as tall as they are. Someone shouts at Priest Seto to use his Millennium Rod to seal the monster ka roaring in front of them within the stone. Angular eyes shadowed beneath his elaborate headdress, because we're trying to set up the obvious as a surprise apparently, Priest Seto scoffs and determines that this low-level ka isn't even at the level of an amusement for the pharaoh. Who wasn't even tasked with handling it, so I'm not sure what he's talking about here.

Priest Seto walks up to the snarling monster with head held high, and holds out the rod to it, commanding this dark spirit of chaos to begone and enter the stone. The eye on the rod flashes and the monster begins to dissolve, screaming as Priest Seto directs the essence it's captured into the slab standing behind him. 

Yeah, again, you had people telling you he was here when you were hanging out in modern Japan. Why are you at ALL surprised?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Not a bad introduction to the way this version of ancient Egypt is supposed to work, and how the Millennium Items function in their natural habitat. It was strange that Yami was reacting with such surprise to information he should have been the least surprised by, and I think it was a tad heavy on exposition. While some of it wasn't avoidable, there was some that definitely was. I felt that Siamun spelled out a lot of things that we were seeing play out right then, so his dialog could have been pruned back a lot. Especially since he was already reluctant to offer explanations to Yami, understandably unnerved by the pharaoh asking questions he should already know the answers to. It was therefore a head-scratcher that he autonomously started offering up a detailed elaboration about the philosophy behind the priest's jobs, like he wasn't JUST weirded out about Yami asking what was going on a moment before.

And that philosophy is... hoo, boy. I understand that this is supposed to be a story that's for young-ish boys, adolescents who may not have a developed sense of social problems and what actually causes them, but that's no excuse to blame it all on bad emotions that form monsters in the soul! I think I've touched on this before, but negative emotions are normal, necessary, and sometimes JUSTIFIED, so it's rather frustrating to be seeing this story treating them like something that needs to be exorcised once they form an uncontrollable demon making you do bad immoral things. There's a weird combination of dismissing the material reasons for why someone might commit a crime like tomb-raiding, infantalization of the actor by dismissing their complicated emotional world that is not separate from the conditions under which it developed, and the notion that just having bad emotions MAKES ONE A BAD PERSON. Since Siamun didn't specify that the negative emotions creating this condition to the "ka" soul of a person is due to the improper dealings with these feelings, his explanation gives the impression that if one is to be essentially "good" one should also be free of negative emotions entirely, which... isn't a great message to send to immatures who are your primary audience and who might already be insecure about how they feel about certain things in their life and society. It often just ends up reinforcing really unjust status quos on the whole.

I'm just saying, if we want to overcome shitty conditions like the coming climate collapse and social justice issues, we should probably not discourage our youth from exploring and expressing the negative emotions that are going to arise from those conditions. Not that KT is solely at fault for this effect or anything, but we hardly need any more contributions to the problem, do we?