Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 310 The White Dragon Awakes!

SOME kind of dragon has awoken, for sure. Facing the overturn of Roe v. Wade here in the United States, an uproar has risen on multiple fronts. Not only did we have the expected protests and rallies in just about every city in this country, but plenty of general anger around the anemic response of the establishment. You've got a lot of the Republicans grousing about, ironically, the privacy of the fucking supreme court being violated with the leak (all when the leak was likely done by one of their own to lock in the five votes to overturn Roe v. Wade). Then you've got Democrats, namely Biden, saying there's nothing to do but vote for pro-choice representation in order for wombed-voters to hang on to their right to bodily autonomy, like he's using his Republican colleagues as a loaded gun to "persuade" people to continue to vote for them in the midterms. Yes, American politics really ARE this fucked up, in case you were in any doubt. At this point, we've entirely abandoned the pretense that we are a democracy. The metaphor is dead. 

And here I am, praying to every god who will listen, that this is the last straw, and we don't stop agitating.

I have a nasty feeling that this chapter is going to be INFURIATINGLY relevant.

Though she's clearly curious as to what it means that she has a god, she doesn't ask when she turns to Priest Seto. Instead, she thanks him for saving her and offers him her eternal gratitude, bowing her head. He asks what her name is, and she answers that she's called Kisara. At last, she has an identity! Everyone's getting names now, glorious! Priest Seto ponders her name and how she's the one who has the white dragon, wondering how much untapped power she has inside her. 

Much like the priests after they sat down, Kisara only NOW seems to notice the massive floating monsters fighting just off to her left - her peripheral vision wasn't working, but her hearing made up for it at a roar from one monster. She recoils, asking Priest Seto where he's had her brought, what this place is, in a panic. Gebelk informs her that this is an underground prison, more specifically the arena where the monsters in men's hearts have free reign. 

As he giggles over this, Kisara is in utter horror over the concept of these monsters and their ongoing battle just a short distance away, which suggests that she really has no clue there's something in her heart too. Gebelk asks why she's so surprised anyway, suggesting that she HAS to know she's got a ka in her soul too. She questions this "ka" term, insisting that there's nothing like that inside her, and Priest Seto is in mild disbelief that she doesn't know about her own ka. He lectures her on how all living things have energy that normal people can't see, and some can give their energy physical form with the power of their soul, called "ba" by folks like him and "monsters" by folks like her. You know, ignorant twits (/s). Priest Seto tells Kisara that she has this power as well. 

WHO says this? The one guy who saw it? Shada? Seriously, this is a pretty shaky "they".

Gebelk turns to Priest Seto and suggests they get on with testing the extent of the woman's power right now, by making her fight in the arena with the prisoners. His gummy smile surpasses the creepy murder grin of Yami way back in the beginning of the manga, and that's saying something. Kisara and Priest Seto are alarmed by this suggestion, the former considerably MORE SO, obviously. Gebelk raises his hand as if preaching and says that she will involuntarily summon her ka when she's scared out of her wits, a prediction that should NOT be a surprise to anyone who listened to this guy wax poetic about his process of elimination before. Still, Priest Seto leans half out of his seat, demanding to know if Gebelk is SURE, because he thinks that if Kisara doesn't even know what a ka is, it's unclear how she's supposed to control the thing. Gebelk doesn't actually explain how, just insists that it should be a simple matter for her to defeat the ka of a mere criminal if she really has a godlike ka. Priest Seto protests that she might DIE, because he still hasn't grasped how this freak doesn't CARE yet. 

Not that Priest Seto cares much more, of course. He's only concerned about the pretty girl's life, as opposed to those of the ENTIRE population of prisoners in this nightmareish gulag. 

Akhenaden sides with Gebelk, agreeing that they should test the power of this god ka. Priest Seto gives Akhenaden a horrified look, reminiscent of the one Akhenaden gave him when he was talking about torturing guys to build up their ka. The tables sure have turned, haven't they? Akhenaden reminds Priest Seto that the palace is wide open to attack and they have no gods to protect them without the pharaoh. He insists that they need to make a NEW god as soon as possible, listing anarchy, death and destruction as the consequences if they don't. Oh no, not ANARCHY...

Priest Seto stares, slack-jawed, observing some sort of passion in Akhenaden's eyes that he can't identify. He also finds himself completely unable to talk back or argue, and he has no idea why. Meanwhile, Akhenaden is silently DEMANDING that Priest Seto become a vessel of the gods. It's pretty intense. 

While Priest Seto is still silent, Akhenaden orders the guards to put the woman into the arena. A couple of them grab Kisara with an affirmative, and Priest Seto quietly gives her the obvious advice to get ready, addressing her by name as the least kindness he can offer her. A gang-plank unfolds and extends to slap down on the rickety walkways of the arena, and the guards shove her onto it, ordering her to get going. 

Yeah, I'd shit my pants and die. I'll admit it.

The two prisoners, long and lanky, short and stocky, both panting, look over at Kisara with bewilderment until the latter suddenly realizes she's a girl. L&L wonders out loud if she's a prisoner too, but S&S expresses his lack of care for the matter. He reasons, without the slightest irony, that if she's in there, it means they can do whatever they want to her, then suggests they take a little break from hacking away at each other. 

Kisara recoils in fear as their monsters turn and approach her, their masters laughing. Gebelk also giggles gleefully while Priest Seto growls in frustration. Gebelk reiterates his prediction that she'll unconsciously summon her ka when she's flooded with fear, and her desire to live will make that ka strong. The monsters start for Kisara, and she just stares at them, even as Priest Seto silently demands that she whip out that god of hers NOW.

No surprises there - valuing your own life is somewhat impacted by whether others do too, and so far, there's been only ONE guy who has "kind of" shown any concern for whether or not she dies.

Speaking of, that one guy summons Duos and directs it out toward the arena, in front of Kisara. He fairly DEMANDS to know why she won't summon the white dragon as he runs to put himself in front of her as well. She doesn't answer, seeming a bit dazed at her latest near miss at death. Priest Seto yells at the prisoners to knock it off, Gebelk and Akhenaden calling out to him in alarm. L&L chuckles about a priest having joined them, S&S relishing the opportunity to repay him for all the shit they've been through. And now they're speaking MY language! Target the bourgeois establishment religion pampered fucknut! Bring that oppressive piece of shit DOWN!

Priest Seto glares at the prisoners, Kisara just staring in shock behind him. L&L has taken note that the woman can't control her ka, and suggests to his ally of convenience that they might have a shot if it's just two against one. The prisoners send their monsters at them again, yelling a command to die. Priest Seto grabs Kisara's wrist, thinking he has no choice but to abandon his plans to let these scum live, since he has no choice. I don't know if I would be labeling the guys who were forced to fight each other in there as the "scum" in this situation, dude. They might be super shitty, but the only reason they're here in the first place is because you wanted to figure out ways to train up nasty ka...

Oh, don't get your boxers in a twist, Akhenaden. His new crush might have suicidal tendencies, but your son doesn't.

See? He's... well, he's hanging from the Millennium Rod barely hooked onto the chain there, so maybe he's not FINE, but he's ALIVE at least.

Priest Seto looks down to urge Kisara to hang in there, asking if she's alright. She doesn't answer, head bowed and eyes closed, and Priest Seto concludes with a mild scoff that she's fainted. What makes this all the worse is that S&S is bragging from above - suspended from a thick gluey stretch of web-material, chuckling that it was a close call, but his ka can luckily spin spider threads. It seems to have been suspended in air as well, presumably by the same trick. S&S thrusts his thumb toward it and invites Priest Seto to look what happened to his ka as well.

Duos has been bound up and cocooned as well, at the business end of the nightmare-fanged caterpillar monster. Priest Seto groans about this setback of Duos being captured, and it's about to get worse. That fanged circular mouth is descending toward him down the chain, ignoring his ka for a bit meatier of a meal. Priest Seto clenches his teeth, bracing to be eaten, but the dangling Kisara below starts to thrum with a strange energy. 

She's still out cold, so it's not by conscious decision when a winged light bursts from her body. S&S holds up an arm in front of his face to block out the brilliance, wondering what it is. Priest Seto and Akhenaden stare in shock, and Gebelk is agape with alarm, what he was waiting for now manifesting before his eyes. 

Well... That's a CHOICE. 

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I find myself more and more these days making interpretations that I'm pretty sure were not intended by the authors of these stories. In this case, I'm pretty sure that Kisara's bowed head and resignation to death was meant to be considered noble, but I'm tempted to look at it as surrender to the repeated attempts of a cruel world to get rid of her. This is a woman who came into the city from the desert, dehydrated and weak, and begging for water. We don't know where she came from before, but the implication is that she was cast out for the same reason she was rejected by the city-dwellers - her appearance makes the superstitious a bit nervous. When a person has a rickety or nonexistent support system and is acutely aware that a good number of people would prefer they don't exist, they value their lives less. There's less fighting spirit, less will to live, so Gebelk's certainty that these qualities would bring out her ka was a big miscalculation. This lady had no opportunity to develop a defiance and violent assertion of existence like these big, strong, MALE prisoners did; they didn't start out with a very VISIBLE disadvantage that other people could dismiss them over from the beginning. They were able to blend into and function in society ENOUGH that they developed a sense of their place in it and believe that they had some kind of value, enough to try to sustain themselves with crime (if they were arrested in good faith, of course). Kisara, on the other hand, is not known to have committed any crime, and depends upon the generosity of others in order to sustain her. When your very existence is a crime, you don't really feel like you're ALLOWED to sustain yourself.

But, as annoyingly serendipitous as this is with the subject matter of the cold open, I feel like the above is a generous interpretation in the end. The framing suggests that she's meant to be feminine and demure first and foremost, rather than an active participant in her power. I'm reminded strongly of Cyndia with her excessive bows, who was stuffed in the fridge so that Pegasus could have man-pain motivation to be the Duelist Kingdom antagonist. This seems to be a recreation of THAT dynamic, except now we get to SEE the plot device not playing an active role in her fate. Hell, Kisara HAS to be unconscious, the very definition of inactive, in order for the story to happen. That kind of deliberate disempowerment of a female character is so blatant and forced that I think KT deserves an award for how hard he had to try to make sure Kisara is as passive as possible despite being vessel to an EXTREMELY powerful force. It would genuinely have been easier for KT to have given Kisara an active role in about a dozen different scenarios I can think of off the top of my head. But, I suppose if he did any of THOSE, she couldn't have been a personality-less walking ka tablet that Priest Seto can redeem himself of his prior cruelty through saving over and over again. It frankly underestimates how interesting BOTH characters can be by squishing them into these insultingly stereotypical hetero roles. How boring. 

ON THE OTHER HAND... Obviously by this point, the pressure is mounting on KT to wrap this story up. He's stressed, he's unwell, possibly coughing up blood by this point, and simply exhausted because he has so much to do that he can't sleep. I can imagine someone in that situation, writing this character, wistfully wishing that he could sleep and all his shit would get done ANYWAY. I'm not saying that Kisara is a vicarious wish-fulfillment character written by a man who was also at the time the vessel to something far more powerful than himself that his employers were exploiting for their own gain...

... But it's interesting to think about.