It's fitting that I should be covering this chapter around when I'll be celebrating the spring equinox, starting from when all of us in the northern hemisphere will be inheriting A LOT of light over the next few months. It's not as if I'm NOT looking forward to it, because I am so tired of being cold all the time. I just need to do a lot of work in the garden, even more than last year. I have these plans to transfer some herbs to a nice little herb spiral, but I'm still very unsure of where to put it - my yard is surrounded by trees, so there's not really ANYWHERE in it that gets sun most of the day. I also have to construct my last planter and figure out where to put THAT too, so I'm just generally behind on planning for the spring and summer months.
Not that gardening isn't the furthest thing from these characters' minds at the moment...
Priest Seto kneels on their strangely intact dueling platform surrounded by rubble, in front of a blank tablet that once held the white dragon, wondering where the fuck he even IS. Atem calls out to him from across the way, and Priest Seto looks up in alarm at the pharaoh, and it starts to come back to him how his father chose to die, dragging his soul along for the ride into the shadows. A vision of Kisara's backlit peaceful face appears to him again, and he identifies her as his savior from the shadows.
You know, for how similar I'm meant to view Priest Seto is to Kaiba, I can't help but get a little caught up in the most bizarrely glaring differences. If it were Kaiba in Priest Seto's position here, he DEFINITELY would be smacking that offered hand away.
Priest Seto and Atem stand facing each other, but they're really looking at the rubble as far as the eye can see all around them. Priest Seto comments on how the darkness has faded, but left deep wounds in the now calmed earth. Atem remains silent as Priest Seto goes on about how many lives they've lost and how they have to keep a light for the fallen in their hearts, while working to build a new future. Hopefully those hearts are looking a little less like fucking PRISONS to these guys, at least. Otherwise that new future's going to seem a little bleak when all is said and done.
Atem glares down at his palm for a second, though it's not clear why. Afterwards, he looks up at Priest Seto and asks him to grant him the favor of inheriting the throne and becoming the new pharaoh. Priest Seto gapes in shock at the request, having to ask Atem to repeat himself, a sweatdrop at his temple. You mean to tell me that Akhenaden didn't even HAVE to permanently scar Priest Seto in order to get his stupid fucking wish??? Priest Seto starts demanding that Atem duel him again here and now, then, because he can only become pharaoh when he's defeated Atem, apparently. Ugh, men always have to make shit so complicated.
Atem grasps the string looped around his neck in his fist and softly asserts that he does NOT have the kind of time it takes to do a whole new duel for the throne.
The absolutely ABSURD level of trauma Priest Seto has to have after all of this...
And to add to the frustration, Atem starts going on about sealing Zorc Necrophades's and his own soul into the Millennium Puzzle 3000 years before, and the ending of the conflict is different now, but his body was lost beyond this point so he doesn't have any memories after this. Predictably, Priest Seto just kinda gapes in alarm, silently pondering the pharaoh. Probably not any wiser in the "what's going on?" department, unfortunately.
Atem appears to have pulled the Millennium Puzzle from around his neck, and is indicating that it didn't have to be shattered to defeat Zorc this time. He holds it out to Priest Seto and tells him it's the symbol of the pharaoh, demanding he take it. Atem commands Priest Seto to become the pharaoh in his stead restore peace to the land most of all, but also to... ahem, "make Egypt great again". I guess this "make x great again" phrase wasn't pegged as the fascist dogwhistle that it is today, to be fair. And I would wear a purple MEGA hat LONG before I'd so much as touch a red MAGA hat with a ten foot pole, so...
Priest Seto goes ahead and takes the Millennium Puzzle, but it doesn't look like he's really got full command over that decision. He's just operating out of shock at this point, jaw still slack with astonishment. Just before Atem disappears completely, he says he's counting on Priest Seto. Then he's gone in one final wisp of smoke. Priest Seto looks down at the puzzle in his hand, then up at the ruined kingdom he's inherited.
Goooooooooooood luck.
I kinda wish we could have seen asshole!Bakura completely implode before poor regular-sized Bakura passed out on the table.
A beam of light emits from the top of Yuugi's head, signaling his transformation, and when he opens his eyes again they're sharp and angular. Atem is back to sharing a body with Yuugi once more. Roomies! Anzu starts to say Yuugi's name, but Jonouchi blurts out Atem's name before she can get past the first syllable. Atem grins wide, addressing them all with joy that they got back, and gets confirmation back at just the same level of happiness.
Something catches Atem's eye and he glances off to the side where the coffins are still sitting all in a row, though empty now. He hangs his head, reflecting on how his friends' souls were trapped in the memory world while he was playing a shadow game with asshole!Bakura. He thanks his lucky stars that they all made it out of there okay.
Yuugi appears in his mind and welcomes him back, to which Atem responds with even greater joy than before. Suddenly, Yuugi's expression gets serious as he recalls that they found Atem's real name on this adventure, adding that asshole!Bakura tricked them into the shadow game so he could find the great power that names, rather this specific name, affords. They both look across the table at the still passed-out regular-sized Bakura. KT missed a golden opportunity to draw a little line of drool out of the corner of his mouth. For comedy purposes.
The group rounds the table to at last go check up on the poor guy, asking his unconscious form if he's okay. Honda assures everyone that it's all good, and he's just out cold. I don't know, guys, I'd still be getting him to the doctor ASAP if I were in their position. Jonouchi reaches for the Millennium Ring that is half-buried in the sand within the diorama, plucking it out of there as if it HASN'T been housing a malevolent spirit this entire time. No hesitation touching that thing whatsoever? Really?
But he turns to Atem and hands it straight over, saying it's best if HE hangs onto it. Atem glares at the artifact, thinking about how it housed all that evil for 3000 years, and he has to seal it away again to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. HOLD UP, WAIT, Atem STILL has to seal it back up? They didn't get rid of that asshole entirely with this? Dammit, should have known!!
Anyway, Anzu and Jonouchi have turned to the sarcophagus propped up behind the unconscious Bakura, Anzu telling them to take a look at it. Though Jonouchi is creeped out by it, he does look closely at it too.
The group's moving right along again, examining the diorama and its ruined little buildings. Jonouchi muses on how the temples and structures are all just rubble now, expressing some disbelief that they were actually IN there. Honda eagerly points out where the palace used to be, and Atem gazes at the spot thinking of Priest Seto. He's sure Priest Seto and the other survivors have a long hard road ahead, but he's also certain that they'll build a new world from the ruins, the light of their souls being passed through the generations.
Uhm, I seem to recall that this was a GAME world, and that the little people in there weren't actually the folks from the past and they're just projections from the memories in the puzzle...?
Regardless, Atem thinks he can absolutely see it now, the light of glory that shines so brilliantly. It's a vision of Priest Seto standing with his own battery of priests in a line behind him, arm raised to a crowd of cheering people below the elaborate balcony on which he's standing. Life goes on, I suppose.
Atem sees the puzzle also half-buried in the diorama sand, him and Yuugi both regarding it while the latter thinks at the former that it's almost time. Atem agrees, then pulls the puzzle from the diorama, looping its chain around his neck.
Too bad the trip isn't for pleasure.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? A fairly quick wrap-up, but not unsatisfying for the most part. Priest Seto kinda got shafted at the end there - as usual, he was just not given any time whatsoever to process what was happening. But at the same time it was just a little funny. Poor guy just gets the craziest shit dumped on him in some of his most vulnerable moments and no one sticks around long enough to take some of the burden off. It was probably just me, but after Atem disappeared on him, I got some major "well, this may as well happen" vibes off his expression, lol.
The group examining every point of the "game room" at the end there was understandable, since I too would be more than a LITTLE curious about all the weird details of the place in which I'd been unconscious for the last few hours. It was done a bit awkwardly, though, coming across as almost systematic in some places in order to give Atem his final thoughts on each matter. It didn't flow in a natural way, for the most part, so I found myself anticipating the next stop on the tour the moment the one before started.
And there are a couple of things that I don't think were tied up all that well, as I probably expressed above. It's still not quite clear just WHAT asshole!Bakura is, and therefore I'm not certain why a seal on the Millennium Ring is necessary. Thief!Bakura appeared to be using the ability of the artifact to put a piece of his soul into stuff BEFORE Zorc came out. Also, thief!Bakura just seemed to be a pawn in the larger game that asshole!Bakura was playing before, and he was taken out the moment that he wasn't needed anymore, so I very much doubt that it's just HIS measly soul-piece still taking up residence in there at this point. How many pieces of asshole!Bakura are in there, and would he be capable of starting up another Zorc resurrection plan with so many pieces of him obliterated by his LAST attempt? I'm supposing that such a chance at further chaos might be what Atem is guarding against, but I would have appreciated it being worded more in that vein, just to clarify.
Then there's Atem's fantasy of the game world continuing on through several generations as the real one might, which is kind of supported by the couple of panels that follow Atem's disappearance from it. It doesn't just collapse and end after he leaves, which has some interesting implications. Since the autonomy of the NPCs was established already, I get the impression that asshole!Bakura has created some sort of pocket dimension that continues to exist after the game based on Atem's memories is over. Asshole!Bakura ALSO established that this little game dimension is outside of time and reality, its inhabitants removed entirely from the cycle of reincarnation, and their souls going to oblivion after death in this world. Pretty dark consequences to asshole!Bakura's plan, even though Atem and company were ultimately able to defeat him and get back to their reality. I hate to know what might happen if they disassemble that diorama!
Also, can we talk about how completely callous these kids are toward regular-sized Bakura? Poor kid has been suffering under the tyranny of asshole!Bakura this whole time, has been put out more than once over all this nonsense, worked to the bone, and his own so-called friends just wave off his unconsciousness as though it's not the direct result of serious trauma? I mean, just because the guy LOOKS like the main antagonist doesn't mean that he hasn't been as much of a victim of that shit as the rest of them.
Maybe his fan club should come in and bear him out of there instead. I'm still quite put off by the concept, but at least THEY would be a little more concerned for the dude's health!
