Update: Scratch that, it makes a very confusing introduction o.o, I have been starting to make updates my analysis posts about the Duelist Kingdom Arc to restructure it into the same structure as Battle City Arc and Memory World Arc.
Plot Summary:
They arrived the Duelist Kingdom island, they walk a little and participants and the gang in front of a castle gate and at the castle's balcony to welcome them and explain the rules of the tournament in a very "battle royale" fashion around the island and the time limit of the tournament is two days (48 hours) and the contestants who have less than 10 stars can't go to the finals.
After the rules been explained, the gang explores a little of the island for Dark Yugi follow Haga's trail and Haga challenges Dark Yugi to a duel, he accepts by betting his only one star and his life as Haga betting his two stars, the duel at first takes initial lead on Haga, but the moment he turn the tables, the back and forth starts between Haga and Dark Yugi, it's not only the gang watching being the first duel, the other contestants are watching too and among them is Mai Kujaku as a commentator for the gang being a more experienced duelist...the duel ends with Dark Yugi's victory and Haga having lost both his two stars is the first to leave the island.
Key Points:
Dark Yugi worried about Jounouchi in possibly getting a cold and apologising, so sweet and is not often we see him doing so, even Jounouchi was kinda moved because he responded with "Aww, this is nothing!" and he is right about what ticks him off in throwing Yugi's cards (more technically Yugi's granpa, specially being Exodia, I would feel so bad and irritated, because it was of someone close 😖).
Regarding what Dark said to him and now thinking that he will taking him down first, he means in literal sense, he is determined in putting Haga out of the tournament first.
Then Pegasus starts announcing the rules of the tournament, he mentions they have to use official licensed cards of the game, I find it interesting and then advices the other duelists if they aren't satisfied with their decks, they trade with one and another...
It was a very high risk to begin with just from Dark Yugi giving away one of his star chips, which implied that they would have to use it in some way, with these conditions explained, Dark Yugi and Jounouchi have to win their very first battles, but then when we think Dark Yugi giving one star to Jounouchi of his own accord to give him a fighting chance, it's only logical and fair having these kind of conditions.
After Pegasus, explains the rules, and mentions the battlefield it's around the island, "battle royale" style, being around the island, Dark Yugi starts questioning by what meant by that, from a participant's perspective since a card game tournament just need a room filled with tables and not around a huge area such an island for a TCG Tournament and quickly comes to the conclusion is related to the new rules, this proves his quick thinking, I wouldn't call just quick thinking that he does.
On the subject about the rules, Pegasus says there is a time limit to be 48 hours, in other words two days and to enter the castle, the participant must have 10 stars and moving to the semi-finals.
But one can keep wondering with this many contestants, is it two days even enough? I don't think it is, from how treated his contestants of not even providing a sleeping bag and force Yugi into this tournament, something fishy going on, the tournament won't be that smoothly as Pegasus make it sound and is more to say about how much of a awful tournament host he is...
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When Dark Yugi catches up to Haga, he says this to him:
"heh heh...At least you have the courage to face me!"
It's impressive that he can be cocky and cheesy at the same time 😑 (I mean it in bad way but also humouring), but he isn't the only on, most contestants are like that, even Haga is no exception but Haga's overconfidence and conceitedness is of a early teen, he is 13/14 at this time, then he claims that if he defeats Dark Yugi first, the rest will be easy...that's called naivety, even in terms of strategy, though previously he thought that Yugi or Dark Yugi without Exodia would be make Dark Yugi easy to win, if that were the case why challenging against Dark Yugi first, it must be because he wants to take out the best first when is considerably weaker and other reasons...
It's interesting to note that Pegasus is using the "battle boxes" that we saw in Death-T for this tournament, how curious...
So Dark Yugi stakes his star chip and his life (Yugi's life in this case) while Haga stakes both his star chips, that's a little overboard, he is risking Yugi's body... even though is dramatic (Dark Yugi could bet his rarest cards, I'm pretty sure in this tournament value as much, Black Magician and Summoned Skull together with his only star chip would have made more sense, but oh well), but I guess is a dramatic way to show how serious he is of taking out first Haga and overconfidence, of course, even Haga is surprised by Dark Yugis' dramatic bet as a "new twist".
This is when the discussion about the new rules starts, Haga thinking he had the upper hand the whole time, when he thinks it would be too late for Dark Yugi to do anything about it, he reveals that he got a special preview about the new rules for this tournament related to the landscape hologram on the table, in Dark Yugi's thoughts isn't surprised but what in how he responds sounds surprised, he might pretend, because anyone would notice this once a person would sit down to begin with, which implies since his thoughts isn't surprised, it means he must have guessed the new rules, possibly?
Then Haga reveals about the rules of "field power source" that depending on the landscape increases ATK and DEF points and in this particular landscape there is 20% wasteland and 80% forest..., the questions is why Dark Yugi thinks the insect monster and his mammoth should be on equal footing in terms of power...as he understood why Haga led him to the woods to somewhere where Haga's cards would gain huge advantage, he is confident Dark Yugi can't win against him, Dark Yugi starts laughing, this is an habit Dark Yugi takes this habit during this duel and is very amusing as to real reason as to why...
Here we have the real reason why wanted to take out Yugi first, it's not just because he thinks this way the tournament would become easier, it's if Dark Yugi played against other contestant first, he would have learned the new rules and much more ready to duel against Haga and led him to where he could gain advantage.
As Haga observed to himself that Dark Yugi's monster also gained "field power source" from the 20% of wasteland, but here is a curious thought, if there is 80% of forest and 20% of wasteland and insects are inclined towards forest, wouldn't they be stronger than the Mammoth Graveyard? Because outside of these new rules, Killer Bee (Haga's card) and Mammoth Graveyard (Dark Yugi's card) are on equal power but with the powerfield source, wouldn't be Killer Bee more powerful? Unless there is other rules besides field power source to increase attack and defense on monsters (which later reveals the insect cards have 80% of the advantage, they are mostly protected and can take the first initiative in attacking by such advantage...).
Dark Yugi tells he did realised this rule from the moment he sat down this table...
Haga is quite angry about how Dark Yugi quickly figure out (it was his own mistake thinking his only winning card was Exodia and thinking it would be easier without seeing his strengths for himself, there is someone who plays much smarter than him in this aspect in this tournament), as Dark Yugi is about to start how he figure out was based on questioning Pegasus's decision of holding a card game tournament on a island when it could be just inside a room of a building and as he say, the moment he saw the landscape hologram on the table, found the answer, it shows he has amazing powers of perception, he is not the only character who can be this perceptive...as Dark Yugi continues explaining...
This explanation implies that so far he knows this rule while suspecting other hidden rules regarding the "micro-climate" that he has yet to test it and figure them out himself...
Haga's self-talk pretty much confirms to the readers that there is other rules that Dark Yugi doesn't know, it's true, Dark Yugi knows there is other rules but feels confident he will get there without Haga realising that he did...
It's a heated duel in many ways, Yugi and Dark Yugi being fast learners (though Yugi is unconscious of his quick learning capability while Dark Yugi is aware of his own), so there is many back and forth and tables being turned from both sides.
During this duel, Dark Yugi arrogance appears plenty of times and how he is more to the offensive tactics, even though Haga is arrogant too, interesting enough to notice, many times in these kinds of mangás, many times characters act arrogant even if they are the main characters, some are honestly arrogant, others are righteous arrogant (Dark Yugi in this case), sneaky arrogant, theatrically arrogant, jerkly arrogant - they are but in a naive way, I always found arrogance an naive trait and a bit narrow-minded (no offence), for how they act and say, it's very naive, naive about their skills and their capacities, blindly believe in their importance, superiority, skills and capacities are superior to others, they tend to be also quite dramatic.
Look at Dark Yugi's claim saying Insector Haga is the weakest of the island, I have to disagree, he is smart, skilled, has good strategies and combos, because he is in early teens, Haga is hasty in executing his strategies, it lacks maturity, while Dark Yugi himself tends to get distracted with his overconfidence sometimes and in consequence, he takes huge blow (specially his ego) from his opponent for not paying proper amount of attention sometimes towards his adversaries (he is also a teenager...but the kind of age when you think you're old enough knowing everything and among other things).
After Dark Yugi taken a lead, even though as Mai suddenly appears and wisely comments he only took a small lead and is too early to get cocky because in one turn you can turn the tables, as much for victory and defeat, from what we can tell, she is an experienced duelist, they only could know this unless they are very experienced, we can notice many times in the progress, you can see she speaks from experience, she is pretty much right.
At this point, the duelist who has the most solid and matured confidence is Mai, she is about 24 years old, from the looks of it, the few adults participants, one can help but wonder how such a gorgeous woman, an adult being this well experienced in games, the interesting stuff as to why is revealed later regarding her background.
Jounouchi and Honda expresses despite of them agreeing with her in not just her looks (they also find her personality and confidence very attractive too) and they acknowledge she expressed strong valid points and of course as Jounouchi rightly states, he is confident Dark Yugi is going to win but thinks he shouldn't let down his guard.
Another extra note, she starts referring to Yugi or Dark Yugi as "Yugi-chan" during this time in front of them, I think she is mentioning is Yugi and not Dark Yugi because of two reasons, Yugi's cuteness and that he physically looks like a boy in elementary school...
Anzu is super angry and at first she doesn't want to admit she is right and even more with two of her friends being infatuated with her and the fact she is thinking the following...
"Yugi's going to duel her sometime..."
She doesn't want to admit Mai statements are right, this thought alone already shows that she suspects Mai is very experienced player and is best to duel against her later and her intuition is scarily spot on...😰 (Dark Yugi will duel against her but in the semi-finals).
Mai inner monologue is very cool to observe...
"That's it, Yugi...Show me all your tricks!"
She plays it smart, because she is more mature and wiser being a young adult, she doesn't rush and patient when she has to, she came to watch their duel to judge Dark Yugi's skills with her own eyes and the "Yugi" she refers to is Dark Yugi, she is paying attention and not just that.
It's funny in duelling many duelists/players always have the sad habit of insulting, even though I found it quite irritating sometimes and other times comical because of how cringy and cheesy it can be at times...
This exchange is actually pretty hilarious and to the coming Haga inner monogue, the mention of Dark Yugi's hairstyle (because looking at Yugi's hair in comparison to Dark Yugi, Dark Yugi's hair is bigger with more golden strands of hair) is very amusing and being outraged not just by defeating his army of insects but also Dark Yugi's cockiness (I find pretty funny his inner monologue in reference to Dark Yugi's cockiness "You're the one who talks big!", he is not wrong about it, that's for sure 😆, but does he realise that he talks big too? pfft).
Oh, Mai, sure the cheering sounds naive and annoying (it is kinda), but sometimes what you say can give inspiration to someone, even though some of their supportive comments can be a little cocky, sure Haga is a jerk, but doesn't mean you have the right to treat him lowly, sometimes even someone they respect, they can be a bit cocky and presumptuous and kinda rude, even Mai is presumptuous about her duel and life experience but that's more related to her backstory and how her past raised and influenced her as a person and views, but doesn't go around bragging, at least she is wiser and mature, she is just a little conceited, Anzu kinda quickly judges her at start for funny reasons (how she behaved with Yugi so familiarly(jealousy) and how easily guys were infatuated by her beauty) and her attitude.
The panels ensemble on the left, Dark Yugi pretty much learned around this time learned all the rules on his own that he could attack the "landscape" to change into a different "landscape" to work more to his advantage, he started to think ahead what Haga was going to do, it shows his resourcefulness which is one of Dark Yugi's defining dueling/fighting style traits.
The other part I want to emphasise is Dark Yugi's tendency to provoke his opponents (he seems to even enjoy it sometimes), his cocky laughs which have been irritating Haga a lot and Haga loses his patience in the panels ensemble on the right and is almost about to cry (I almost feel sorry for him, almost... 😏), but Dark Yugi really means it when he does his cocky laugh.
Dark Yugi wins against Haga with a smash combination of Magic Mist and Summoned Skull, such a smart move...and discovering other rules on his own he can use as weapon, creating a climatic condition to weaken his opponent's monster and power up his own monster at the same time, once again shows his resourcefulness, not just that, so is his tactical mind being much more refined and sophisticated than Haga once he knows all the rules.
The gang is happy with his victory, Mai is happy and impressed but for different reasons, it's a reaction of finding a worthy adversary, I like how Dark Yugi nonchalantly addresses Haga as if talking to a kid with "now, now..." and lastly commenting him to provoke him a little more as to a kid:
"So the first person to lose all his star chips is the champion of Japan...heh heh..."
And Haga's response, Dark Yugi is more or less treating him like a kid in his early teens (around 13/14), Dark Yugi doesn't often provoke his adversaries after a duel, it seems he enjoyed provoking him but as he evolves, he doesn't provoke as much as we here, it's after he takes important lessons, that his provocation becomes less frequent and only used as weapon.
Then he goes back to his stern demeanour while being rude, well it shows he is still angry about Haga throwing Sugoroku's Exodia cards to the ocean.
See Ya Next Post!
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