Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 290 The Quest for the Name

You said it, title. Naming even the most minor of characters has been a trial for me lately while writing. I go online to look up five or six lists of baby names to pick out things that are thematically appropriate, but when I plug them into my manuscript they don't seem to fit. Even when I'm somewhat okay with them, my alpha and beta readers don't seem pleased with them, and when they tell me why, it starts to bother me a bit too. Had that problem with the name "Hillary" recently, which now gives me a mental itch whenever I put it to paper, and I have to repeat my mantra to myself not to get hung up on this when there's actual WRITING to do.

I just want to have something to call my characters, but it feels like I have to trek over the mountain to the Forest of the Fairies to pluck a name they've stolen from a less-deserving creature from the Identity Tree and make the long journey home... only to realize it isn't the right one anyway when I sit back at my desk. 

Pick one and try it out? The process of elimination is a long one, but I haven't figured out a more reliable method of going through MY overwhelming number of choices. Jonouchi agrees with me; he holds up a fist as he resolves that they'll just have to open all of them, Honda echoing the sentiment while slamming his own fist into his opposite palm. 

Jonouchi turns to a door near Yuugi, announcing that his sixth sense tells him that it's this one. Though Yuugi says he has a BAD feeling about it, Jonouchi charges the door with a declaration of intention, kicking it in violently. He steps into thin air above MORE staircases and doors to nowhere, realizing in shock his mistake too late and exclaiming as he topples over the edge. He's able to grab hold of the threshold to the door, calling out for help, Yuugi and Anzu looking up to find that he's been "portal'd" right above them. Yuugi yells up to him and Anzu wonders how in the world he got up there.

Bobasa and Yuugi each take an arm and haul Jonouchi up out of the doorway, the latter asking if he's okay while the former warns a squeaking Jonouchi that there are traps behind every door and to be careful. Jonouchi asks indignantly why he didn't mention this SOONER, no thought to whether Bobasa had any TIME to do so before he was kicking down doors. Honda reflects absently on how this place is like a different dimension. There's overall acknowledgment that it's too dangerous to split up since one of them would never find their way out of the maze if they were to get lost, BUT it would also take forever for them to check all the doors as a group. 

Anzu hesitantly says to Yuugi that, while it's just a feeling she has, she thinks HE'S the only one who will be able to find the True Door (TM), given that he's the closest both in proximity and mentally with Yami. Yuugi affirms this notion, in an almost cheerful manner, but this seems to make Anzu more morose. She mopes silently about being unable to do anything but wander around in the labyrinth of Yami's soul, apologizing remotely to him. She's got the classic "everything is my responsibility and  fault" disease we're all brought up with these days; relatable. 

Yuugi turns to Bobasa with a question, which Bobasa encourages. Yuugi prefaces his inquiry by saying that they came here to find Yami and follow him into the Memory World, with is affirmed by Bobasa, so Yuugi asks if they can really have an effect on things if these are memories of the past. He worries about getting there and not being able to do anything but watch, and the uncertainty that Yami will even be able to see them in the context of the memories, not having existed back then so not existing in this particular set of memories either. A fair concern, but Bobasa just gives him a sharp look until Yuugi insists that they MUST have a role to play if they're going there - he asks what they're actually supposed to DO once they get to Memory World. 

So, this isn't just a "moral support" deal after all, huh?

This is crazy shocking to Yuugi, who gapes at this "lost name" phrase, because this is yet another thing that we're going to pretend we haven't actually discussed before. Anzu asks if this means Yami's REAL name, and Bobasa explains that his name vanished from his memories when Yami sealed his soul into the Millennium Puzzle. Apparently, NO ONE in the Memory World knows this name, not even Yami, and it's not even on the King-List in the temples. This prompts Jonouchi to ask how they're supposed to find something that's not there, Honda agreeing that it's a bit of a bonkers expectation for them to uncover a piece of information that doesn't exist, but Bobasa says that it's still possible the name is somewhere in his subconscious instead. Yuugi contemplates Yami's true name, or the phrase at least.

Anzu looks like she has an epiphany here about this, as she remembers how she handed Yami the cartouche pendant before they all... collapsed into a coma, lets be honest. What her epiphany is, or if there even is one, really, is not revealed. Bobasa says that the pharaoh's name is the keyword to open the door to the the afterworld. Can't just get in there with ANY name, apparently.

By the way, there's a familiar shadowed figure hanging out behind one of the brick walls of the labyrinth eavesdropping on this conversation. One with a stripey shirt, fluffy pale hair, and a sneaky smile. 

Yuugi and Anzu are in awe over the concept over a door to the afterworld, it seems, as Bobasa tells them in excess seriousness that this is the final trial of the one who solved the Millennium Puzzle. 

Why look yourself in the abundant time you've had to do so since you've been here when there's a whole group of kids who will do the work for you in a fraction of the time?

And asshole!Bakura isn't the only one kicking back. Yami gets a little leisure time after his scrape with thief!Bakura, which he uses to stare out over his city from a palace balcony at twilight. Siamun walks up behind him as he broods to tell him that the former pharaoh will be placed back in his proper tomb after the funerary rites. The priests accompany him, one of which is Mahado, who hangs his head in frustrated silence at first. Then he kneels and starts self-flagellating, claiming he's to blame because his ineptitude cause the pharaoh's tomb to be defiled in the first place. He's expecting some punishment, but Yami just turns to ask that he please ensure that his father is placed back where he belongs with respect. After a moment of confusion mixed with his residual frustration, Mahado bows his head again and promises upon his life.

While atoning for dishonoring a corpse by making yourself one is a nice sentiment on its face, I feel like it makes twice the number of corpses their needs to be in this situation. 

Siamun turns to Mahado and says that the former pharaoh gave the Millennium Items to the priests to judge and punish the wicked who threaten the order of the world, not to mislay the punishment on those he'd placed his trust. Yeah! You're supposed to police those poor people outside the palace, not yourselves! Mahado doesn't respond, just stares at the floor. 

Better hope that legacy is closer to your limited vision than thief!Bakura's then. 

Out the door and across the way, at the Shrine of Wedju, someone asks if there's any news of thief!Bakura's whereabouts. They get a negative, so the speaker says they have to extend the search area, listing the areas like the city, gorge and desert over a shot of the walls covered in giant stone slabs containing monsters. There's a minor close-up on some random tablets as the speaker suggests Kul Elna as well, since thief!Bakura mentioned it as a base of some sort. More like a hometown, but that's neither here nor there. The speaker wants it to be impossible to get through a net this wide. 

Funny that this conversation is being held away from most of the people covered by it? Suspicious almost?

Akhenaden says they both know that all of them would have bitten the dust if Yami hadn't been able to summon the god. Priest Seto stares sternly up at the crown jewels in their extensive tablet collection, the gods, the summoned form of the one he saw earlier standing out in his mind in particular. Out loud, Priest Seto complains that the monsters in the shrine aren't exactly the strongest, mere parasites pulled from the souls of sinners. He rants about weak hearts, weak monsters, general weakness... he's just kind of disdainful overall. 

Reminding Priest Seto that thief!Bakura is a sinner as well, Akhenaden asks an open-ended question about how that evil ka got so strong. He says it must have to do with the strength of thief!Bakura's hatred, trailing Priest Seto's name on the end as though the statement is somewhat personal. Priest Seto keeps glaring, of course. 

Fair and just actions don't GENERALLY produce bottomless hatred, so you'll forgive me for being skeptical that all this Millennium Item business is on the u-and-up.

And yet he's parroting the same story in the next panel, claiming that the Millennium Items were meant to be holy relics/beacons of peace in the world. He does manage to admit that there's a secret evil side to the items that thief!Bakura seems to know about, though. THIS is what gets a reaction from Priest Seto, who asks in disbelief if the nonsense about the items opening a door to the afterworld, contract of darkness with an evil god, is actually true. Akhenaden doesn't really answer; he just barks that they can't let the Millennium Items fall into thief!Bakura's hands, that it would be the fall of the kingdom. 

Priest Seto says he has an idea, and Akhenaden falls silent to listen. Assuming there must be people in the city whose kas have hidden abilities, Priest Seto curls his fist up and proposes they round up the folks who look promising, develop their ka to turn them into powerful weapons. What do they call it when you nab people off the street and force them to train as soldiers for a war that doesn't benefit them?

And it gets worse: Priest Seto says that if ka can gain power from hatred, then they can torture these people. Even seems to consider it a plus that no one will stop them, since they're the highest authority beneath the pharaoh, and through a smirk says it should produce results. WOW, he just amped up the psycho vibes and it blew out the equipment, folks. THERE WAS NO "HITLER" SETTING ON THIS DIAL AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH THAT.

Thankfully, there's a voice of REASON in the room. Akhenaden calls him a madman for suggesting they use the pharaoh's resources for a manhunt, which is entirely too mild a term for it, but I'm not sure there's a term strong enough so I'll allow it. He also says that the pharaoh would NEVER let Priest Seto to abuse commoners like that, Priest Seto scowling.

But suddenly he has a grin on and chuckles that this isn't a manhunt, but a KA hunt. As if that makes the the torture he wants to inflict on human people any more palatable. He goes on to say that OF COURSE Yami would be forced to stop them if he knew about this plan, but Priest Seto argues that Yami doesn't need to know about it. The layers of awful settling here like shitty sediment... Priest Seto says that the pharaoh's ultimate political power comes from people worshiping him like a god, and the peace and stability of the world rests on his shoulders. But it's Priest Seto's (deranged) view that times like these call for the priests to become the pharaoh's shadow, protecting the royal house with shadow politics. 

Or shadow a shadow authoritarian fascist police state, anyway.

Akhenaden looks at him, no longer putting up an argument as Priest Seto promises to create a ka to surpass a god, if he wants.

Akhenaden, guardian of the Shrine of Wedju, I ask you... HOE DON'T DO IT.

Anyway, Yami is still standing out on the balcony, looking up at the sky, in which he sees the image of his modern friends in all their friendly friendliness. Lucky for them, he's brought memories of them with him into his memory world of the past in lieu of memories of this illusory past. It sounds complicated, and it IS. Yami thinks of Yuugi next, but instead of grasping the puzzle that connects them, he gropes for something ELSE hanging around his neck.

Rumpelstiltskin! 

No? Then I got nothing.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Not sure how useful the first part of the chapter was; other than reminding us that Yuugi and friends are still wandering around in Yami's labyrinthine soul-space and the details of why they're there, it serves little purpose. Not that I didn't appreciate the humorous primer with Jonouchi's antics to some more heavy content in the chapter, and the eerie illogical way the place behaves was pretty interesting, even if it's a little derivative. It was also somewhat fun seeing asshole!Bakura being his asshole-self, with the implication that he's just kind of been hanging out since he got here in the DDD saga waiting for Yuugi to show up. There was NO narrative resistance to Anzu's gut-feeling that Yuugi was the only one who could find the true door, so I'm guessing it's meant to be taken as reality, and that piece of asshole!Bakura wouldn't be able to find it even if he'd tried this whole time. 

But I kind of like the idea of him just bumming the whole time so he can dump the work on Yuugi when he arrives. Seems highly plausible for his character. 

It's also pretty within character for Priest Seto to suggest that they just round up people on the street and torture them to cultivate and harvest their hatred as monsters. This is the ancient Egyptian equivalent of Seto Kaiba's development of the dueling box way back in the Death-T arc - something I had to remind myself of because I was so alarmed by his scheming here at first. I think the difference here is that I'm more used to late-game Battle City Kaiba who had grown SOMETHING of a conscience by the time he fucked off, and that Kaiba's dueling box development was only IMPLIED back when we learned about it. We're getting the WHOLE PROCESS of Priest Seto's development of his ideas, so we're not glossing over context. And the context... ain't pretty. 

It's so ugly, in fact, that I don't know how one can get redemption from it with as little time as we have left. Even KAIBA isn't exactly a good person by the end of Battle City, and only just beginning to get in touch with some empathy, the end result of development over a couple hundred chapters/the benefit of some of his implied crimes being hidden in the background of dialog. Priest Seto's development is going to have to do a LOT of heavy lifting in order to elevate THIS villainy, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Assuming there's supposed to be redemption for proto-Kaiba in the first place. Maybe he's just supposed to be a precursor to Kaiba's default shittiness, I don't know. Time will tell, I guess.