Forget the "ancient" duel; have you ever heard of the dueling craze of the late 1700's to early 1800's? Men throughout the Americas and Europe drawing firearms on each other left and right; it seemed at the time to be a weird, deadly FAD. The book Six Frigates by Ian W. Toll (phenomenal book about early American naval development, would recommend) lists a few honest-to-goodness examples of why duels were fought in the U.S. Navy; entering the wardroom wearing a hat, spilling water on a letter, an argument about whether a bottle was green or black. Famous naval hero Stephen Decatur and his friend were just teasing one another and, because bystanders mistook the jests as genuine insults, this lead to a sequential duel between said friend and the many bystanders who demanded one. Decatur was his second, and had to prop up his injured and bleeding friend's pistol arm before the dumbass challenge was finally called off. This isn't even to mention the most famous example of American dueling dipshittery - Alexander Hamilton being shot dead by Aaron Burr in Weehawken.
Man, the more things change, the more they stay the same, am I right?
Wait... they're running damn DRILLS?
I mean, perfectly logical, but it seems exceedingly strange to me that I'm reading a comic about ancient Egyptian gym class...
Yami sits on his throne while Siamun addressed the phalanx of priests standing in front of him - he asks if they're ready to split into two teams of three, each team having three stones, essentially one per person. Yami sits with his arms crossed, glaring critically ahead, Siamun laying out more rules about summoning one monster each, either from the shrine or their own ka. As the priests split into two lines facing one another quietly, Siamun says that the team that defeats the other's monsters first wins.
Everybody watch out for the psycho on the center right, okay? He's real shady.
Said psycho summons his spirit ka, Duos, which is an eyeless monstrosity with a dark base and white armor/decorative contouring embellishments. Also kind of looks like he has a big ass sword, but the weapon is a little obscure in the next panel. Next, Shada holds out his key and calls forth a monster from a slab called Zerua, an eagle-headed-and-winged buff dude. On the other side of the aisle, we have Mahado summoning Magus of Illusion and Isis bringing out Spiria, who I'm pleasantly surprised to see again. Still pretty certain that Spiria won't make much of a plot difference, but KT still has time to change my mind.
Siamun plays the sportscaster role, yammering about Akhenaden's team having two monster ka, Duos from Priest Seto and Zerua from Shada. He also says that Mahado's team has two personal spirits, resulting in not one of their slabs being used in the initial summoning. I'm a little confused because Priest Seto's dialog made it seem like Duos was his own personal ka too, but perhaps his proto-Kaiba flair for the dramatic exaggerated the relationship a bit, I dunno. Anyway, Siamun says that if he knows Kalim, the dude has a trap monster hiding in one of those unused slabs on his side.
He definitely WOULDN'T destroy random people on the street, though, so don't read too much into that when it happens later on guys.
Mahado asks if Priest Seto has forgotten the power of the Magus, to which Priest Seto reacts with mild dopey surprise. It kind of looks like he took a hit off a joint a moment ago and temporarily forgot where he is. Anyway, the Magus comes at him with a command to use Spell-Binding Phantasm on the enemy, but Priest Seto scoffs that it won't be that easy for Mahado. Meanwhile, Akhenaden chooses this very moment to summon a ka too - Dark Ushebti, which looks not so strangely familiar. Should have been summoned by Shada to make the nostalgia that much more potent, in my opinion.
In any case, this irritates Mahado because the Ushebti will take Duos's place, and Priest Seto takes it upon himself to exposit on how the Ushebti are sacrificial substitutes, therefore it absorbs the attack meant for Duos. Indeed, the Spell-Binding Phantasm locks onto the Ushebti, and Priest Seto calls for Duos to resume attack. Suppose he was on pause for the moment. But Isis declares that she's not going to let this happen. Spiria waves its hand and produces a Rainbow Barrier, exactly what it says on the tin, its special power per Isis. Priest Seto gets all upset that he can't get to them for the barrier wall in the way, while Siamun chuckles about Mahado's side having good teamwork, reiterating that they use special abilities to block Priest Seto every time he tries to crush them with pure force.
Shada insists that he'll handle this, and proceeds to commands Zerua to use its power, Dispell Magic. Isis is in shock that Zerua cancelled her rainbow spell, as the pleasant light diffusion is destroyed right in front of Duos.
Getting that psychopathic look in his smirking face, Priest Seto thanks Shada for getting rid of the Rainbow Barrier, and offers to return the favor. Duos proceeds to slice Zerua in half at the waist, because Priest Seto has to re-establish how much of a dick he is, of course. Shada grinds his teeth over the betrayal (and loss of mana, I'm sure), and Mahado is in disbelief that Priest Seto has destroyed his own team's monster. Priest Seto grins in grim delight, explaining that sacrificing an ally doubles Duos's power. This is starting to seem strangely "card-game" structured at this point...
Anyway, Priest Seto has Duos slice up the Ushebti as well, just to triple Duos's attack force, because what's a little overkill among friends?
This is why no one wants to play board games with this asshole.
Kaiba's stepfather gave him a complex that equated losing with DEATH; what's this trashfire's excuse, exactly?
As if he needed to emphasize how much of a bag of dicks he is any more than he already has, Priest Seto starts berating Mahado for how weak his ka is and how he should be ashamed trying to protect the pharaoh's tomb with such a dud. While Mahado is kneeling to try and recover from the massive wollop he just got from the guy no less. Mahado looks nothing like Rodney Dangerfield, but he ain't getting NO respect over there, I tell ya.
Kalim addresses Mr. Sore Winner, admitting his side lost, but asking what the value is in winning when you have to sacrifice your allies to do so. Priest Seto bows his head, but he's anything but humble when he says war isn't won by the number of soldiers or the number of words. But generally they're not won by ONE GUY cannibalizing his fellow soldiers either, sooooo... Priest Seto tells Kalim he doesn't want to hear shit from him until he becomes a better opponent. At least he didn't tell Kalim to collect 10,000 cards.
Priest Seto has dropped his mic and is sauntering off with Kalim's glare at his back when Yami calls to him. He pauses, and Yami says that a battle strategy that relies on strength can reveal some unforeseen weaknesses, at which claim Priest Seto grins and asks if it's so. Yami asserts that true power would never mean hurting allies, FRIENDS, and here we go again, folks. Priest Seto asks for the REAL definition of power, then, showing an alarming amount of smarm to his god-emperor here. I mean, the sarcasm is THICK when he suggests, as presumptuous as it may be of him, that he'd appreciate some instruction from the great pharaoh, and asks if they could duel on the spot. SHIT, dude!
Siamun barks that Priest Seto insults the pharaoh, but Yami stands up and accepts the challenge, triggering Siamun's protest. Yami just walks right on past him, though, reiterating that they should totally fight. Priest Seto says he'll enjoy seeing the power of the gods, but Yami replies that he has no intention of summoning any of THOSE, which seems to surprise Priest Seto. As they take their places across from one another, Yami declares one tablet will be all he needs. Priest Seto, appearing downright DELIGHTED, asks if Yami is sure he doesn't want to use a god against the Duos. Yami says with a smile that Priest Seto doesn't need to hold back. Even in this context, they are so. Fucking. GAY.
Priest Seto wastes no time in summoning Duos again, as Siamun and Akhenaden clutch their pearls on the sidelines. Yami announces he's chosen a ka, and a familiar furball image begins to emerge on the tablet he gestures to behind him. Something Isis feels the need to emphasize in words, for some reason. We all know how this works by now, lady, no need for commentary.
It's not like you're making it difficult for him, are you? Hell, you're not even making it difficult for ME.
Grinding his teeth, Priest Seto resolves to use his power to destroy the slab before this little joke can even be summoned. He has Duos stab the tablet with its Aura Crush attack, shattering the stone and giving Priest Seto a grin as well as a feeling of momentary accomplishment. But Yami is smiling too, asking if he's really sure he did it. While the tone fragments fall around him, Priest Seto is shocked to see that every piece seems to adopting the whole image of the ka.
Yami gloats that this ka has a special ability to multiply when its slab is broken, and if one attacks it without thinking they lose. With this, Yami summons all his little creatures now, and a multitude of Kuribohs burst from their individual bits of rock.
Not to put too fine a point on it or anything...
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It seemed to revolve around solidifying how ruthless and calculating Priest Seto is, which strikes me with intense deja vu. It's like KT hit the "reset" button on Kaiba's character. This would be the time and place to do it; this setup seems to be ideal for going back and combing back through a character's development. But at the same time, there seems to be very little that's NEW happening here so far, so little that the callbacks to the beginning of the manga were a bit heavy-handed. There's still time, so I'm not exactly worried yet, but it does have me wincing that I feel as though I've read this all before already.
Even more so when I can see Yami gearing up to make his appeals for proto-Kaiba's friendship yet again. Slight yikes. Only slight, but it's there.
The running gag with Kuriboh making everyone irrationally angry never stops being funny.
ReplyDeleteI love it - it’s like Kuriboh is a stark reminder to whatever asshole-of-the-week Yami is dueling that they can stop taking themselves so seriously any moment now and try not to be such a fucking buzzkill, and said asshole just gets MOAR MAD about it, lol!
DeleteWell, I just learned a new word - phalanx! Just in time as I'm reviewing for the general GRE too! :^)
ReplyDeleteDude, it is serendipitous that you mentioned Rodney Dangerfield. Like, I had a conversation with my mom about him the other day and my friend sent me some clips from Back to School. XD
As for the actual chapter itself, it's hilarious how much Kuriboh pisses off and/or bewilders everyone when summoned. Like whose soul was Kuriboh taken from? How did that extraction process go down? Kuriboh IS a dark fiend type monster in the actual card game, so I guess we can presume it to be a demon Ka in all fairness but it doesn't really look like an "evil" spirit. I don't know, then again looks can be deceiving. Maybe Kuriboh belonged to the soul of some guy that committed some kind of fraud based on whatever kind of economy they had in Ancient Egypt?
In fact, maybe some Ka in the Shrine of Wedju aren't actually "evil" but rather were extracted as retribution to anyone that challenged the power and authority of the ruling class. It's pretty clear that the whole story of the Millennium Items and how "evil" Ka are born is nothing more than a convenient narrative for those in power already, based on the existence of thief!Bakura and Diabound. What's more, the priests have no problem utilizing the Ka of the Shrine of Wedju for their own power, Ka that by their own description are "born from the souls of sinners" which seems a tad hypocritical for priests that effectively claim having special chosen righteous souls.
In real life, it has always been the purview of those in power to establish themselves as the ultimate moral authority in order to exploit and control the masses, labeling anyone that challenges their authority as evil. That was true of the real Ancient Egypt, as it was a convenient narrative that the pharaohs were gods and the priests were the gods' emissaries to ensure their power over the population, and it's true today as well with how our obscenely wealthy and powerful figures run stories in our news outlets that are pro-war and highly critical of any progressive economic or social agendas that would benefit marginalized populations as well as the wider population as a whole.
Of course, since this is a manga, Atem actually is chosen by the gods and is not a mortal so he really does have a divine right to the throne and power he wields, which ties into how irritatingly self-righteous and infallible KT makes Atem. Still, I do like that KT does try to imply that there are darker shades here and the story of the Millennium Items and their justice isn't all that it's cracked up to be and that someone is definitely lying somewhere in all of this.
As much as I love the Stand-esque Ka battles, I am sad we don't see Yami and the priests playing games like Astragali (like Yami mentioned back in chapter 2 in the dice game against the ZTV Director) or Senet. Shadi, bag of rotting dicks that he is, does mention that the priests used the shadow games to punish the wicked like tomb robbers and while I guess one can consider the Ka battles to be shadow games, I had always expected more actual gaming to take place in this arc. Heck, there aren't even the brutal insanity-inducing penalty games of yore, just the brutal 7 years of hard slave labor subjected to the tomb robbers after NOT playing a shadown game. :^( It would have been cool to have at least a few chapters of a sinner being forced to play ancient games and when they lose, THEN have their Ka extracted. I understand KT was on limited time though, so I can't fault him for that.
The GX manga actually has some Kuriboh lore!
DeletePhalanx is a delightful word and I jump at every chance I can to use it! I’m so glad to spread the good vocabulary whenever I can, haha! And good luck on that test; I took it a while ago and I BARELY got the score I wanted. It’s a DOOZY.
DeleteI think we might be needing to get out of each other’s heads right now, because while I’m mentioning Rodney Dangerfield serendipitously, you’ve just written a perfect synopsis of my thoughts on the chapter and its surrounding content in this post - 100% would not change a thing. I absolutely think it’s a bit dissonant for KT to appear to be commenting on how the power system is biased in favor of the privileged and against marginalized peoples in society, hinting that it might be a mere system of control and retribution instead of justice, AND have his protagonist ACTUALLY have legitimacy of rulership through divine right. If we’re meant to question the system and whether it is really an accurate understanding/interpretation of justice, then it logically follows that we should be questioning Yami’s legitimacy as ruler as well, since he’s a product of that system. But since Yami has been justified in the narrative this whole time, without much challenge to whether he has any ROOM to be as self-righteous as he’s become, and he’s been CONFIRMED at the end of the last arc/beginning of this one to be supported by the gods… It’s very difficult to reconcile if you think about it for a bit.
But if we ignore the part of this narrative that is behind Yami as a legitimate judge and jury for real justice, I do like your speculation of the origins of Kuriboh. It does seem plausible that, in a system where priests are going around punishing people who fit a very loose and suspicious definition of “sinner”, that the little guy might be drawn out of a small-time petty criminal, or someone who didn’t do anything but question the system a little too loudly. Dark fiends don’t necessarily have to be “evil” in this particular context - hell, Yami himself resonates with a “dark” monster and his overall theme contrasted with Kaiba’s is a reversed polarity of light/dark corresponding to evil/good instead of the traditional good/evil. If that theme carries through, even with its imperfections, Kuriboh still makes sense in the long run. It’s just too bad that we don’t know precisely where it comes from, because it might have gone a long way to furthering our understanding of whether the priests are actually doing JUSTICE or if they’re succumbing to that darkness being brought out by the Millennium Items like thief!Bakura suggested.
And you have my full agreement on the point of wishing we had more variety in our shadow games too! A callback to those ones from the beginning that you specified would have been great to see, as well as some the more strange penalty games. I sorely miss all the different games we got to see before Duel Monsters took over, and I have no doubt KT could probably have come up with a couple more if he’d had the room. Egypt was an ancient superpower, so it’s not like it would have been unbelievable or anything for them to have a little cultural exchange with various other big ones at the time.
You’re right, though, probably just didn’t have the time to get all that in there. Or it was already too risky to deviate from the Duel Monsters template that had metastasized onto the whole narrative by this point.
Whoops I just realized I called Yami "Atem" here. XD Oh well, no biggie. You knew anyway, but still I wanted to keep in the spirit of the nomenclature of your blog. :^) I'll keep calling him Yami until we do finally get his real name in the manga.
ReplyDeleteAlso, maybe I should have dispersed some of the content of my comment to the previous chapter you covered, it would have been more appropriate given what was covered. I intended to go back and comment on the previous chapter you covered because you bring up really interesting points regarding the explicit way we get to see Priest Seto's brutality manifest as compared to modern Kaiba as well as the idea of the possibility of redemption for him and I wanted to speculate as to how proto-Kaiba became what he is. Given what's to come, I am already anticipating that you're going to justifiably be repulsed by proto-Kaiba even more than you already are in the future and so, more opportunities will emerge to discuss this in greater detail, so it may be better to wait.
Yeah, I wouldn't worry too terribly much about calling him Atem before the time has come. As you pointed out, I already know it, but also it's not much of a spoiler in a functional sense. Sure, I know his name, but do I remember what the knowledge of that does precisely, or how that affects the resolution of the plot in a tangible way? Nope. As long as we steer clear of THOSE kinds of spoilers, I think you're fine to call him by his true name. :)
DeleteOh yes, I have no doubt whatsoever that there will be ample opportunity to go over Priest Seto and his characterization, so no worries on where you want to put that discussion. It'll be a fun talk no matter where you choose to write it on the blog!
Yeah, it's been a while since I read the GX manga, but if memory serves, the priests used Winged Kuriboh to seal some of Tragoedia's power within it. I'm really fuzzy on the plot details so what I'm saying may be incorrect, but Tragoedia was trying to use the Planet series cards and Winged Kuriboh to basically restore his tablet and regain his power, I think. Even then though, and I could be totally wrong, the priests just kinda pulled Winged Kuriboh out of a tablet in the Shrine of Wedju, so presumably, it came from the soul of a "sinner" which is particularly weird because Winged Kuriboh was outright stated to be a good spirit! Winged Kuriboh's even a Light Fairy-Type monster in the actual card game to boot! I recall Tragoedia's evil power actually darkened Winged Kuriboh from white to brown/black in the manga, so I at least know I'm not wrong about Winged Kuriboh being a good spirit.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm assuming too much. It's possible that not every spirit in the Shrine of Wedju (not counting the gods) was taken from the soul of a sinner. We know that both Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes White Dragon don't come from any evil souls (well, we haven't gotten yet to a certain person but I won't spoil that) so I guess it's possible for other tablets in the shrine too. It's just that it was heavily implied that MOST of the the tablets were the result of extracting Ka from sinners and there aren't exactly a large number of priests as possible candidates for generating a proliferation of good Ka for the Shrine of Wedju.