Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.12-15 Part 3 (Dark Yugi&Jounouchi VS Meikyu Brothers)

Okay, I'll try a different textual structure about Thoughts&Observations of the manga, I write a summary of an event, in this post will be about the tag duel I mention in the title, then the highlights of the event I'm writing, lastly will be me bring up points which caught my attention, this one will be a little difficult to me at the end of the summary, I still have some hard time to understand (the aftermath of the duel, how Dark Yugi outsmart the Meikyu Brothers).

(Update | 21/08/2018: This one took some time, because there was so few key points..., it will happen the same in the next two key points).


Plot Summary:

The duel starts, Meikyu brothers start to summon Labyrinth Wall to create a labyrinth to change the field, how many steps a monster can take is according to their star levels, before one of the Meikyu ends his first turn, he explains other conditions to this duel, even if they win, they would have to chose one of the doors and forcing on a riddle, Jounouchi being naive, he thinks it's mimic one other riddle about a villager and traveller, Dark Yugi explains to him the difference between the riddle Jounouchi mentioned and the one done by Meikyu Brothers is different and suspicious, it's not by asking questions but get through the Meikyu Brothers labyrinth of words which trying to push to a dead end, it's a mind game.
 The tag duel goes through a lot of trials to Jounouchi and Dark Yugi, but making it obvious how Jounouchi has grown, he does makes nice moves which I will highlight, Dark Yugi as usual he makes splendid moves where it showcases his capacity of thinking ahead of his opponent, he made 2 of my favourite combos of his, the Twins make interesting moves but summon 3 special summons that can only be revealed when all 3 are face-up but also our duelists takes their time to reach the end without some obstacles, when the twins finally complete the pieces, they summon 3 monsters, Sanga of the Thunder, Kazejin and Suijin, together making Gate Guardian, the process to defeat these 3 monsters is slow, they take down Suijin first to finish the other 2 since they're fused as well with Black Skull Dragon with a magic card Ryoku to power up the monster.
The duel ended but the mind game hasn't, I will have a hard time to explain this part, Meikyu Brothers keep fooling around to confuse the group, Dark Yugi is paying close attention to the twins, while the others are searching for a possible third door, while doing so, Ryou Bakura listen to the voice of the spirit of the Millenium Ring, Dark Bakura, it seems he was slowly reaching him, it did, so Ryou and Yami Bakura has a telepathic talk, also claiming being a thief, he persuades Ryou Bakura to take over to help his friends, the search ends (they had 5 minutes).
Here is the hard part, Dark Yugi saves them with some of his "mentalist" skills with some help from Yami Bakura distracting them, Dark Yugi was surprised by Ryou Bakura knowing it, he may pay closer attention to him after this event, once they get out, they find both door lead to the same path, Jounouchi is pissed at this, they finally reach the exit of the tunnel.
I'll end it here!
What a big plot summary -.-", I thought would be shorter than this...I even dismissed most details...good grief.


Key Points:

 

"The Meikyu brothers...If we can't beat them, we'll be trapped in this dungeon until Pegasus decides to let us out...which could be never! Everyone's life rides on this match!"

Even in Dark Yugi's inner monologue from his past experiences with player killers that reveals he has gotten used to Pegasus low tactics in this tournament that he ends up having a rather cynical view, which might as well be true, that is to show this tournament was rigged from the beginning.
Jounouchi understandably being still a beginner, he feels a different pressure from Dark Yugi, he has to actively supporting and helping Dark Yugi who is a much more skilled player, he can't let himself be a burden or holding Dark Yugi's back with everyone at stake, he has no choice but to catch up to his moves with the rule if one player from a tag team is the first to lose his LP, the tag team loses the duel automatically...
I find it cool that the number of spaces that a monsters card can walk in labyrinth depends on the number of stars (in other words, the monster card LV), the twins makes the statement even if they win there is another riddle they have to solve in choosing one of the two doors..., both the title names would look too suspiciously obvious such Kyu being "the door of the palace" and Mei as "The door of deception".



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The clue they had given is in form of a riddle when Jounouchi rightfully ask it since winning a duel isn't even enough, irritatingly, but the kind of riddle they give is different of what Jounouchi remembers of when the brothers say one is always telling the truth and the other always tells lies...but going for Jounouchi first....


 

When comes to riddles, I prefer giving you self-explanatory scans, I'm just bad with riddles and I don't like them either, from the panels and dialogues between, we can see it reveals Jounouchi's naiveté about it, also I want to say I have seen recently (few months ago) of a riddle similar to this one in guessing which one is lying and who is telling the truth through the brothers and the riddle is in a video game of puzzles and riddles (Professor Layton and The Curious Village, Puzzle 029: The Five Suspects, the difference is that the brothers are both liars... when in this one of 5 suspects, only one is telling truth for real...).

 

Dark Yugi on the other hand has a different interpretation about their riddle to the "honest town" riddle...that being the "honest town" riddle was about a traveller asking one person while the riddle presented by the brothers is asking to two people and the other is a small flaw about the honest town is that the person in question you ask may take you to the wrong road intentionally... while Dark Yugi keeps his guard up, he's also cautious to a intellectual level, he can see flaws on the riddle itself, he is even careful with his words as well not just with his enemies, to observe them and read their behaviours but friends as well with different intentions - not to observe them, but to protect them, but his protective nature will appear often in the future, it shows that for Dark Yugi takes time to trust someone.

 

Jounouchi is playing a bit more cautiously and focused that he makes a wise move, I think there is some influence in playing board RPGs with the gang and video games, since this field in this tag duel is like a mix of a card game RPG with TCG, there is some experience of his own from other board games implies, Dark Yugi is a little impressed but more towards happy as proud of his friend's progress, even Jounouchi is starting to think ahead hoping Dark Yugi would guess his strategy...

The gang on the other hand...they are underestimating Jounouchi, such lack of faith, Honda out of these three (Honda, Ryou and Anzu) is the one who least underestimate him, Dark Yugi is paying close attention to his progress plus as it hints on the panels ensemble on the right, Dark Yugi good at thinking ahead and reading people, he more or less knows already Jounouchi's strategy, that a lot of teamwork will be at play here.

 

What I like about this tag duel the most is the amazing and noticeable growth on Jounouchi dueling, I think one of the reasons or makes him inspired to perform so well, is not just his sister but also Dark Yugi, it seems Dark Yugi inspires others to always give their best or explore to their fullest potential in duels (Yugi included - Ceremonial Duel, DDM, duel against Bakura in Memory World), while Yugi's kindness is a big influence on others being a better person.

The gang was very impressed, happy to witness his progress, it took them long enough, the duel of Jounouchi against Ryuzaki was the first time because he worked on his own about the Time Wizard, but since they haven't seen his duel against Kozuka where he started to bloom and get the hang of it, this is one of the fruits of his progress, he taking to account not just board games experience he took playing with Yugi and the gang....that's not all...

The other thing I like about this manga series is the RPGs references, some of them are recognizable from video games, but most of them from board games, like this panels ensemble, such dungeon crawling RPG where flying creatures can't fly in dungeons, it's best handled with ground units which at the same time reminds us of tactical RPGs with the limited number spaces they can walk, the funny thing is that Jounouchi will keep forgetting this special rule in dungeons or should I say the next time he faces a "dungeon" (spoiler alert: Shadow RPG in Memory World Arc).

 

This is probably one of my favourite Jounouchi moves in the series and so in this duel, it puts into play Jounouchi's kind of intelligence (naturalist, kinesthetic, spacial intelligence), capacity to quickly adjust to his surroundings, Jounouchi has street smarts which is something Dark Yugi and Yugi doesn't have as much since they're more tactical, it shows too that Jounouchi is becoming more aware of his own strengths and weaknesses that he can use to his favor, which sometimes can turn out unpredictable...

The gang and Dark Yugi change of expressions from initially questioning Jounouchi's for making Flame Swordsman out of the magical hat just to make a cool combo of using a magic card "salamender" on the sword and follow the trail created by the worm and destroy the worm to Dark Yugi being amazed (it's not often we see it in a positive way) as for the gang...

Their opponents were shocked and starting to get a bit panicked, the gang gets excited, Dark Yugi is happy and impressed, but take a look at Jounouchi's expression in the middle panel, feeling very content that his plan he came up on his own worked, which many of us can relate 😃.

As the gang cheer up for Jounouchi and Dark Yugi, Ryou thinking now is the last challenge to go to enter the Pegasus castle and inside his inner thoughts regarding his desire to know more about the millennium items seems to be making the Millennium Ring stronger...Ryou starts to get worried about it...

 

I have to say is pretty low of these twins, it would only be fair to open if the twins were both beaten at the same time, but they're intentionally making their riddle separate from the door that they still have to chose which door, it's indeed very irritating even the gang, specially Anzu and Honda, you can see all of them sense something feels shady about this riddle, which is why Dark Yugi and Jounouchi attempted defeated them at the same time...but this is to prove that if they really even played fair on this one, we assume it won't be in the riddle.

  

I usually like manga where is written and expresses the character thinking process, it's always interesting to me, the character train of thought, he is very observant and considers there is 4 possibilities (1st:Mei or 2nd:Kyu being one of the right ones, or 3rd:both being right or 4th:both being wrong but with hidden passageway), his method is by observing their expression since supposedly should be 50-50 chance and yet they were quite confident which comes to his conclusion between these 4 possibilities.
It seems Jounouchi isn't good with riddles either...I don't censor him...I'm not good at them either, it's always so misleading that makes me go in circles and I hate that (which is why I hate a mathematic problem in a test, ugh, those are the worst).

 

Here is the plot point I want to bring up, this is when Yami Bakura is regaining control over Ryou Bakura and his own strength over the Ring, this is an important event in the main story, it reveals some info about Yami Bakura claiming he was thief, he is a spirit of a thief or is it really as he claims...?
Also a character trait of Ryou Bakura...he can be easily persuaded specially when it comes to his friends safety, from here on out Yami Bakura will be the one moving the main story instead of Shadi for 2 story arcs but all Millenium items wielders will always have a connection to Shadi somehow as we along the story, there is no exceptions.
But after this, Ryou will have very little character development until Dark Side of Dimensions...😞

 

I don't have much to say about this part in particular, but the main reasons is because of how the panels and perspective were drawn when Dark Yugi has his fingers over two coins, it's such a nice panel shot.

The scene in itself, when Dark Yugi says:

"...Now...the coin I leave in my hand...will show which door I'm going to choose! Are you ready?"

You can tell these words are a bit misleading, one can presume and the way he does this is too, he says the hand that stays still on the coin is the door he chooses, the coin from where he takes off the hand isn't the one he chooses, the one Dark Yugi takes off his hand is the Kyu so the twins automatically assume the other one with the hand is the Mei door (the one he chooses), but Dark Yugi doesn't say anything as if waiting for the right moment, then as Yami Bakura takes over, you can tell is an act when he says it is the wrong door, Yami Bakura being Yami Bakura who knew tricks to control the dices for tabletop RPG, he must have known what Dark Yugi was trying to do...

It also implies something that Dark Yugi as if taking note, because he was surprised...as a bit out of character even Anzu found it a bit strange...

 

It's just as he and Dark Yugi said, the twins pretty much give everything away by their expressions acting extremely confident Dark Yugi would get it wrong when it should supposedly and 50-50 case as he concluded not having a right answer since the twins finished explanation by Yami Bakura, the twins decide which door is correct, there is more to this conclusion of his...
The twins quickly assume, the hand over the coin is the "Mei" door, as for the readers depends whether they can tell a con-artist trick or not...here he shows which was under...

 

Dark Yugi is surprised by Ryou finding the twins trap, not thinking Ryou isn't smart but can be considered naive thinking, he can't help but wonder that he half suspect it was Yami Bakura taking over Ryou helping Dark Yugi by distracting the twins for a little with the "shouting", Dark Yugi was able to trade to the other side of the coin with Kyu character, so he can be a con-artist if he wants to, he will cheat a little if the situation requires so, he is careful with his words to catch their enemies off guard.
By the way, this won't be the only time when Yami Bakura will assist Dark Yugi.
Dark Yugi was impressed by "Ryou Bakura" but still not fully aware Yami Bakura has already taken over, I think he will get suspicious of it from here.

After Dark Yugi solved the riddle as they leave the Maze room, proved one of his hunches were right, both doors are right, the twins were cheating and deceiving.

I find it funny is Jounouchi's reaction and punches the "Mei" door, after finding out that both doors were right because it lead to the exit, I would be pissed too, as I have said, I don't like riddles, specially misleading ones.

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