Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 305 Ruler of Shadows!!

Is that where all these armies of nightmares are coming from? I'm having the weirdest dreams these days, and I was really starting to wonder where they were all coming from. That oil-monster eating my whole house while I'm coughing uncontrollably as a Russian accent speaks from on high about how it's definitely not thin air and it can blow all the buildings down can't POSSIBLY have anything to do with current events. It's gotta be that Ruler of Shadows invading my head. It better call off its dogs, or I'll be forced to take drastic action. Like beating my chest ineffectively at the Shadow Ruler and threatening to shoot some anonymous missiles into it or something.

Seriously, though, I support Ukraine, and fuck Putin with a rusty chainsaw for putting them through this with all those flimsy excuses. 

If only condemning REAL egomaniacal freaks were so simple. Where's a Ra god-monster and the help of a mystic spiral twin spirit to summon it when you need them?

As Diabound burns, the priests and guards below pointing it out and watching, thief!Bakura screams in agony on his perch. Priest Seto seems to have recovered enough to put a smile on his face while he muses on how the fire of the sun god will burn right through thief!Bakura's very soul, leaving nothing but ashes to scatter in Hell. He's still on his shitty poetry, I see. But it's not exactly WRONG, either - thief!Bakura is certainly screaming like his very soul is being incinerated. 

Ding-dong, the... thief is dead! I hope there's no curtain behind which could be lurking a few, shall we say, hitches.

Kalim looks admiringly up at the burning sun god, a city-dweller among his fellows crows about the light being Ra's blessing, and Shada contemplates the great pharaoh, not looking quite as happy as the others. He hasn't recovered enough, I guess. The giant bird-lion emits bright rays from every cranny of its shiny body, and Yami denies any involvement in this spectacle, claiming it did all the work. But also he turns and gives credit to his grinning partner, for giving him strength when he was on his last legs. And his other friends, pumping their fists and smiling, congratulating him for getting the damn thing done. I guess he DOES see them? Is this going to be an issue like the whole speech/thought bubbles? 

Yami seems a little taken aback by the name they're using to address him, though.

Or, maybe, you "will" be called Yuugi, if we want to refer to this world by its content's temporal placement. Even though this isn't ACTUALLY the past. I don't know, KT managed to make me confused about what fucking TENSE to use in his story. 

Eyes watery, Honda lunges forward with a finger pointed at his own face, asking if Yami can REALLY see them. Like REALLY tell where they are. Yami assures him that he can see him, and Honda sniffs in response, giving the impression he's holding back tears. Yami also acknowledges Yuugi, Jonouchi giving a thumbs-up, and Anzu in turn. The latter also has tears brimming in her eyes as she silently thinks that she knew all along that Yami wouldn't forget his friends. I can't really call that bluff, seeing as how her thoughts on this adventure have been some of the least explored thus far. 

Jonouchi says he hardly recognized Yami all dressed up as royalty and riding a horse. Yami admits he had no idea what was going on when he first came to this world, not knowing why he was the pharaoh or what was up with the Millennium Items. After a little while, though, he claims he came to understand the position he was in and his duty to protect his country. And the status quo that comes with it, no doubt. Yuugi in turn tells him how they couldn't touch or talk to anyone in this world when they first showed up, given that this is YAMI'S memory world. This is something that seems to alarm Yami, referring to this as a world of memory.

I'm hoping we get a look at the people surrounding Yami at the moment - they are probz HELLA confused by his talking to himself. 

Anzu reminds him that while he's "Yuugi" to them (or one of the two), he had a different name 3,000 years in the past that is hidden somewhere in this world. Yami appears quietly touched by them being willing to jump into a weird yester-world with which they are completely unfamiliar to find his name for him, which... yeah, fair, that's pretty crazy. Jonouchi insists that Yami not worry, and assures him that they'll find his name, no problem, in characteristically boisterous style. Yami responds with an almost disbelieving regard for them all. He's just so overwhelmed, but he'll be alright - it's the default state in this place.

Meanwhile, asshole!Bakura is floating over the scene, but he doesn't look too pleased this time. He scoffs, glaring down his nose, as he fumes over Yami's friends meddling and altering the real course of events. He zooms in record time over to where thief!Bakura is lying sprawled and bleeding from the mouth over his poor horse. His eyes are still wide, but he might very well be dead here. Growling, asshole!Bakura insists thief!Bakura can't die here, and that this isn't how it's all supposed to go down. Tonight, thief!Bakura was supposed to defeat the pharaoh, and asshole!Bakura asks sardonically if he can do ANYTHING right. Man, I've verbally abused myself before, but this is some NEXT LEVEL shit right here. He eventually cools his balls, though, telling thief!Bakura not to worry, because High Priest of the Shadows Necrophades is about to make his move now. An ominous cryptic statement, and made over a panel showing the Shrine of Wedju...

Ugh! I hate it! I hate it so much!

Perfectly articulated Mrs. White, thank you. 

Corpse!Akhenaden says he's Akhenaden himself, with a slightly more rotted body. NBD. Akhenaden is very distressed by this weird zombie's self-identification with him, though. To put it another way, corpse!Akhenaden revises his statement to say that he was born from the evil in Akhenaden's heart - essentially he's Akhenaden after he made a contract with the shadows that changed his physical form. So far I'm not seeing much difference between this and how a ka monster has been established to form, so is that what this dude is?

Akhenaden gets stuck on the mention of a contract with the shadows. Meanwhile, corpse!Akhenaden launches into a soliloquy, beginning with an assertion that a person's fate  isn't determined by a person's birth status, but the course of their life. Tell that to systems of low social and economic mobility, bro, including your own. He says some are humble, some are ambitious, and good and evil are two sides of the same coin. Corpse!Akhenaden tells his less-gross counterpart that we all walk the same road, but at the end of that road, he opened the door to the shadows - this was both their fates, apparently. Okay, so he's literally just DEAD Akhenaden, not a ka monster. Right?

Akhenaden tries to weakly deny this, asking his own corpse if he's suggesting that HE puts all the Millennium Items in the stone slab and makes a pact with dark powers. Corpse!Akhenaden replies that it's just the past for him, only the facts that preceded him. But he implores Akhenaden to listen because he's got some important information to relay:

Well that explains SOME of the scenes that Yami wasn't there for. But what about the ones that Akhenaden wasn't there for either??

Akhenaden reacts about as shocked as can be expected of someone who learns the hypothetical "living in a simulation" question is absolutely accurate. He's gaping and speechless, allowing corpse!Akhenaden to continue rambling on about how he remembers what happened in the past, how things really went down. He asserts that Akhenaden WILL become the high priest of the shadows, conquer the palace, and gather a monster army from the stone slabs. All of this is depicted in what I assume is corpse!Akhenaden's recollection of the event - a pyramid hanging upside down from the sky is in there too, which is definitely not unsettling. 

Corpse!Akhenaden goes on to tell Akhenaden that he'll work together with the restless dead of Kul Elna in a final battle against the pharaoh and his priests. But wait, didn't asshole!Bakura say that the original iteration of the events dictated the pharaoh was defeated by this point already? I'm more confused than ever, and Akhenaden isn't faring much better, attempting to reject this as reality with a trembling horrified expression. 

But corpse!Akhenaden just keeps going. He says that after all this, the pharaoh would give his life to seal his soul and corpse!Akhenaden's too into the Millennium Puzzle.

Nice touch, that.

Corpse!Akhenaden tells the other one that 3,000 years have passed in the shadows, and in the modern world a young man solved the puzzle, allowing the pharaoh to use that boy's body to walk the earth once more/collect the god cards needed to recreate the world he'd forgotten. Yuugi's hands surround the puzzle he put together in the panel, and the god cards float around them, just so the reader gets all the imagery in one go. When corpse!Akhenaden reiterates that this world they currently occupy is just in the Millennium Puzzle, Akhenaden... well he just continues to look horrified and confused turning the concept over in his mind. It's mostly just a shadowy world showing through an opaque pyramid shape, from what I can see. Thematic.

And they say dead men tell no tales, but they never met corpse!Akhenaden, apparently, because he's STILL flapping his mummified gums. He's taken out a mask as he continues rambling about how he and the pharaoh have kind of merged to create this memory world. Corpse!Akhenaden puts on the mask as he says he can be reborn in the modern world if his memories gain control. So there's a struggle for dominance between these memories too? Is there a part of this that isn't overly convoluted? With is mask in place, basically a shallow white bowl with a hole cut in to feature the Millennium Eye behind it, corpse!Akhenaden raises a clawed hand to declare his plan to kill the pharaoh and trap his soul/memories forever. The original Akhenaden stares with jaw locked and remaining eye bulging. 

Suddenly, asshole!Bakura appears kneeling on the floor beside corpse!Akhenaden, head bowed. Is... he WORKING for this literal dead body???? Corpse!Akhenaden hums at him, and asshole!Bakura lifts his head to report that thief!Bakura has been defeated, a fail that was allowed by Yami's friends messing around after sneaking into the Memory World. I'm not sure I would call the leap of faith they did "sneaking", but I guess I can let asshole!Bakura have his incompetent projection. It seems to be the only thing that lets him keep the final shred of his dignity here. 

Corpse!Akhenaden tells him not to worry; he says he was about to give the pharaoh his regards anyway...

And we thought Diabound hovering over the city was bad. At least corpse!Akhenaden had the decency to cover his corpse face before he projected himself up there, though. It's the little blessings. 

Unlike Yami's friends, corpse!Akhenaden is clearly visible to everyone - someone on the ground tells them all to look at the sky. I guess Ra must have beat it earlier, because it looks pretty dark again. Yuugi wonders out loud what the hell that thing is while Yami just stares tensely at the looming figure. Corpse!Akhenaden claims it's been a rather long time since he and the pharaoh have seen each other, and acknowledges that Yami doesn't remember him anyway. So he introduces himself to everyone as Zorc Necrophades and the ruler of this Memory World. Doesn't roll off the tongue any easier than MY name for him, but I suppose I can start using THAT instead...

ZN says he's the ruler of the Shadows who controls the hands of time, future and past. This is the guy from the title, but Yami's grinding teeth speaks more to his STRESS than it does EXCITEMENT. ZN lectures Yami about his friends' interference warping these memories, even defeating HIS Bakura, a declaration that further shocks Yami and Yuugi in their already stunned silence. Refusing to let thief!Bakura die yet, he sarcastically opines the pity that is the breakup of Yami and Yuugi's joyous reunion. 

Take Two incoming.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? This one gave me quite a bit of trouble. While the fact that Yami's memories aren't the only ones informing the shape of this world makes sense, but just like we've been shown scenes where Yami wasn't present, we've also been shown scenes where Akhenaden wasn't present too. Since Bakura seems to be working pretty intimately with Zorc Necrophades, and he was ALSO trapped within one of the Millennium Items, it might be possible that his memories are also mixed in there, but this hasn't been explicitly stated. Or, since ZN separates his identity to a degree from Akhenaden's, perhaps that little incident where Akhenaden makes his shadow contract, he's fused with all those Kul Elna restless spirits/shadow influences into a new conglomerate being that has multiple different perspectives at once? I don't know, it's somewhat opaque. That's not necessarily bad, as highlighting some unknowns can enhance the horror of the situation, but I don't get the impression that it's particularly intentional. 

But I'm somewhat intrigued here by the parallels between how ZN describes his own coming about through the evil in Akhenaden's heart, and how ka monsters are said to form. I'm still mulling over the question of whether he's actually a product of this process, but with a little external help from the Millennium Items/shadow-somethings. I like the idea, but I don't think I have enough of a hold on what ZN was talking about in this chapter to really figure it out. If it truly IS meant to be as hazy an issue as it comes across, perhaps I'll never really know, but I might be okay with that. 

And I guess Yami was supposed to be just ALMOST killed in this previous battle rather than ACTUALLY killed? Because otherwise, I don't see how what asshole!Bakura and ZN were saying could possibly be compatible. I suppose asshole!Bakura merely said "defeat" rather than "kill", so I probably just internalized the wrong conclusion. 

All that aside, all these multiple versions of everybody running around is starting to do my head in. Yami and Bakura and now Akhenaden? I'm so ridiculously glad Kaiba didn't find his way into this little trip or I'd be having a straight aneurysm.