Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.12-15 Part 8 (Dark Yugi VS Mai)

Once again, summary of the duel only this time, because this duel is so important for Dark Yugi and Mai character development, so is just summary first then I'll get into the details.

Update (2109/2018): This is one of my favourite duels but also one of those I consider most important, I added 2 or 3 new key points and expanded some others.



Plot Summary:


We left off in the night before the fateful duels, the new day arrives, Yugi preparing himself, his grampa and him have an important talk and advice directly to Yugi only, Yugi's friends come to his room to pick him up to accompany him for the first duel of the day, Dark Yugi comes out once Yugi put on his millenium puzzle (someone is very eager...), they arrive at the duel arena, friends and the finalists who aren't playing yet go to the stands, the players who will be playing the first duel sit in their seats, Mai being an experienced duelist and card gamer in general, she was able to sense Dark Yugi wasn't focused on the opponent in front of him, the duel starts, from the beginning Mai starts dominating since Dark Yugi is being overconfident and arrogant and unfocused in the duel and doing mistakes which isn't like him when he is paying attention, Mai feeling a bit disappointed at him, she tells Dark Yugi why he is making so many mistakes, he keeps denying.
 The duel starts becoming almost hopeless, Jounouchi expresses his surprise how Mai come to be so good, Mai then reveals what she learnt from her defeat against Jounouchi, Dark Yugi and friends were deeply impressed by Mai's answers specially her own answer to the riddle Jounouchi gave it to her as she did given during the duel to Dark Yugi, once Dark Yugi finds his own answer, he learns something about himself he was unaware of, once he understands and overcomes it, Dark Yugi focus is back on track.
 The duel was on the same level this time around, Dark Yugi with some creative thinking, Dark Yugi when was about to win, Mai surrenders due to her love for her Harpies monsters not wanting to seeing get hurt, Dark Yugi surprised and expresses his gratitude to Mai cause of what he learnt in this duel with her, the first duel in the finals ends with Dark Yugi, Mai gives her final advices to him.




Key Points:

 

This time around Sugoroku is talking directly at Yugi with his advices, he knows there is "two Yugis", but he knows more than he is letting in which will be noted later in the series (the prologue of the Memory World story arc), other interesting points about Sugoroku Mutou who has long life experience as in games, he speaks wisely to Yugi and Dark Yugi (it kinda seems that Sugoroku sees the spirit of a nameless pharaoh as his grandson as well, I think it's cute :3 ), what he says about pride is very interesting, he also sees pride as a negative trait, to be honest I think he is right, in fact coincides how I view pride.

Sugoroku expression he uses for advice about God of duelists, we know this part is just an expression, but still bugs me a little, it is to make it simpler to explain his knowledge on games and life, because it can be applicable to life regarding your attitude and choices affects certain matters like in this case the Duel Monsters (called originally in the japanese manga "Magic and Wizards") and some touch of Karma wisdom.

 I think he is right, depending on the angle you see, it's true, cheaters is confined in a desperate cycle almost impossible to get out until it crashes (like creating a snowball rolling adding more and getting bigger until it breaks against a wall or tree, yeah, I can be pretty harsh), "cowards who fear defeat", afraid of moving on and keep trying even if you fail at something or lose a game or contest or competition or battle, "the arrogant drowning in their own powers", those are people blind to their own weaknesses, vulnerabilities and should be more down to earth who bases their confidence and self-worth on their skills and talents.

"Yugi...you don't know this, but I think you balance your other self's heart...When the other you becomes overconfident in his abilities, and loses his true heart...His sense of justice...That is when you must help, Yugi, that is when your heart is needed!"

It shows he is aware of being 2 entities to recognize their different traits like this, Dark Yugi obvious sense of justice and Yugi having a strong sense of morality and being far more down to earth than Dark Yugi, Yugi's grampa knows Yugi's strength better than anybody (after all was under his influence Yugi love for games).

 If you read the whole manga or watched the whole anime, even though knowing about the spirit of the millenium puzzle being a pharaoh, why at this time and further refers to him as "the other Yugi"?

I think it's because he knows how attached Yugi is to the millenium puzzle since Yugi has this belief it was for completing the puzzle he got his wish of having a "true friend" became true, he knew he wouldn't be ready yet and trust his grandson to figure out and be ready on his own.



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I like the inner monologue from Mai seeing Dark Yugi as her ideal duelist, which expresses the kind of duelist she wishes to become and also as someone who reflects what a true duelist is and worthy rival to reach the heights she wishes to in, Kaiba sees Dark Yugi in similar fashion.

This part is right before the first turn starts, it's obvious Dark Yugi is full on his overconfidence and arrogance but there is something else missing noted by Mai for Dark Yugi putting the cart before the horse with Pegasus literally instead of focusing in the present battle, another note mentally she makes, the game isn't easy if your're not focusing in your opponent,  there is games and video games requires your full attention because your brain is already gathering and processing different kinds of informations when there is an opponent, army or boss battles, I learnt this the hard way (when playing a Yu-Gi-Oh! video game and talking to my friend at the same time, not for the same reasons as him, his is much harsher because he's stubborn and blind about something of him).

 

But there is other things, Dark Yugi arrogant attitude, irritation and impatience to duel with Pegasus  is rude, lacking respect towards your opponent in not properly focusing in your opponent, I think for someone like Dark Yugi's intelligence and at least be a bit aware of  a duelist potential and skills or he might have a short-term memory loss problem for forgetting she got 16 stars chips, he was a bit naive and underestimating Mai way too much (it gets on my nerves) to even presume she may use aroma tactics and think she is no match for him, it's a big mistake underestimating someone, specially when is your opponent or enemy...Mai-san, you're right, he is, even his friends are noticing.

 

I think the first part of this dialogue is important, the fact Mai noticed this and he doesn't, remember what I wrote in the beginning of this post about what Sugoroku told Yugi about arrogance? Arrogant and overconfident characters and people are much slower to realize their flaws besides it can be useful sometimes, it can be a huge weakness, the fact she realized what was going on with his head and seems to be first than him and the others says a lot about how much is he paying attention to the duel 😒, to continue with this dialogue...

  

I actually liked Mai calling him an arrogant boy, I think is funny and like how blunt she can be, despite her little playful and provocative demeanour, she is very honest and sharp, when she calls out on someone, she is sharp when speaks up, we even have the confirmation of Pegasus who can read minds and adding Dark Yugi has no chance of beating (let's see how long Pegasus will keep that up), Dark Yugi still gets more irritated (can't admit the truth and feels nervous about Pegasus, tch tch, feeling nervous about a strong opponent is normal, it's not a weakness, just a natural responsive emotions to pressure, it's nothing to be really ashamed of), keep denying, I find interesting Mai's response...

  

It's amazing when she speaks the truth is so spot on, for someone who is 23-24 years old, she already has a different level of maturity than the others, more life experience as well, but she brings up interesting points here such:

 "So now you're trying to intimidate me...Aggressive men are weak. All that anger and machismo is just a bluff to hide their weakness. I'm dead on, aren't I?"

The fact in the her lines in the panels the words "intimidate", "weak", "bluff" and "weakness", it's not only to emphasize one of Dark Yugi weaknesses and make him realize and overcome it but also from the author's view about aggression, intimidation and machismo is a way to hide your weakness and in a way speaks indirectly of maybe knowing or not knowing about toxic masculinity, Mai may mention men and machismo in particular, deeply means society in general through her, we were raised believing anger, violence, aggression, extreme and intimidation means showing strength, when deep down they are excuses to hide your weaknesses and I would add is plainly unreasonable.

And lastly is truly to provoke him in trying to bring Dark Yugi duelist capacity to the fullest to challenge him and herself as a duelist and trying to help him to be more focused in the duel even Anzu is noticing this.

  

This is for Mai characterization, Mai coming up with her own answer to the riddle "something you can show but you can't see" and thinking friendship being Jounouchi's answer to the riddle as cliché (so funny), implies she is a person with a mind of her own, she has an inquisitive mind, smart and the message "I came up with my own answer!" indicates the answer to this riddle can be different to each person since each individual is different, it's also hinting to one of her conclusions about the riddle, a cool detail to notice about her consideration to this element of the riddle.

This is one of the new key points I'm adding in this update, I find Mai's inner monologue very amusing that she has her own conclusion and perception of Jounouchi's capacity about how he survived the duels in Duelist Kingdom and what makes it more amusing is her noticing Dark Yugi can be quite dense when it comes to his ego and pride blinding him about certain aspects within the individual which what is hinting at...

Pegasus's acknowledgement of Mai's skills as a duelist, I find it cool, even him isn't easily impressed also noting and confirming Dark Yugi's doubts...it is to let the reader know she is giving everything she got and she is indeed very skilled to the point of putting him into a corner, he also underestimate her before the duel began but then again it was on the first turn she went all out...he realised his mistake two turns late (which is bad...specially on someone on Dark Yugi's level is a terrible mistake).

  

It hurts me a little that even these 2 (Anzu and Jounouchi) underestimated her in this duel because she was facing Dark Yugi, I really don't like when someone underestimate others, no matter who is it. C'mon she's very smart and strong as well and got 16 stars chips! honestly! It gets annoying sometimes! 😠

When she explained her own answer, what she says here left a deep impression in me (still does) because is very true, you can't see your real self, being something you show by your own conscience, thoughts, interpretation, perception, your emotions, your feelings, your beliefs, convictions, ethics, your choices,your actions, decisions, responses to every circumstances and attitudes and how these elements are connected to representing your true self and how honest are you to yourself and others, it shows how deep and complex is being an entity of your own, being yourself, your sense of self.

I love his understanding and shocked expression of Dark Yugi, the panel may be saying "real self!!" but his expression says more such as "I didn't think of it that way and makes perfect sense", these words leaves a very deep impression in him more than you think about himself, there is more...
Mai being someone who is very independent, very individualistic since she was always alone, she matures faster, she has a strong sense of thinking for herself and see things outside the box, the evolution of her style, shows she has that kind of capacity...

  

You read from Mai's wise words how much she learned just from one duel with Jounouchi, she became so much wiser, nice character development, what's amazing about her conclusion after her defeat from Jounouchi of how much it coincides what Sugoroku said directly to Dark Yugi (which explains his reactions to her words), she is explaining to the readers what Sugoroku really meant and there is still a bit more to it...
Mai's words made him think and reflecting on himself if he had the courage to lose or being prepared to lose...
Another detail to this key point in this update I wish to add, it's Mai's observation about Jounouchi's strengths, one of Jounouchi's main strengths is resilience, because the weakness she is speaking of isn't friendship but the fact Jounouchi being a beginner and an inexperienced player went this far as one of the final four, Jounouchi knew he was the weakest, beginner and inexperienced player in the tournament but he didn't let this weakness hold him back and kept moving forward with the emotional support from his friends and driving motivation in helping his sister, looking back, Jounouchi always lost to Yugi but that didn't discouraging him to stop playing the card game which is why he was able to recover fairly quickly from his duel against Kaiba.

  

This part is kinda hard for me to explain, it's a little hard to understand, I think I get it, Dark Yugi didn't want to think about it because didn't want to face it, face what? then he answers to us being his weakness and Yugi's strength of not being afraid to lose made up for his weakness, the fact he needed Yugi's strength, Yugi's strength (do I sense a bit of rivalry from you towards Yugi, Dark Yugi?).
What is the you can show but you can't see, I think it refers to is their strength combined meaning something else, so I can explain this better...
Updated version: Dark Yugi didn't want to admit that Yugi had more courage than him to do the right thing and that inevitably Yugi's heart was stronger than his due to his pride and big ego receiving a huge blow, now that I finished through to the end of the manga series, we can confirm, this is when created a certain kind of rivalry from Dark Yugi towards Yugi, it wasn't exactly in a sense as a duelist yet but in terms of individual strength of heart.

 

His own answer to the riddle was resolve (meaning: 1.settle or find a solution to (a problem or contentious matter); 2. decide firmly on a course of action.), to keep going forward and decisive on the action to take also acknowledging and accept the risk of losing through Yugi's strength, to help not lose sight of his sense of justice and heart (Dark Yugi may be arrogant sometimes but is good natured) and his resolve will be tested in this duel, also develops a stronger bond between a host and spirit just a tiny bit more.
Dark Yugi says he's proud he got to fight her and he's back on track, it means he won't forget what he learnt in this duel with Mai...(he really doesn't 😊).
You can tell Jounouchi and Anzu was able to tell the huge difference from when Dark Yugi was impatient and in doubt to the point that clouded his judgement and once he cleared up his mind after some reflection, he was back but more focused and determined.

   

You can tell the difference when he is focused, calm and composed that he can pull it off bluffs like this, even Mai after him revealing it was a bluff, we can see Mai is not someone to be fooled by any bluff as we have seen from her (she says so herself), we have to remember he could have lost if he didn't played the bluff so well, Duel Monsters/Magic and Wizards is also a psychological battle testing your judgement, intuition with the facedown cards and your opponent expressions...

 

I want to mention this a little, it's something happens when Dark Yugi faces very strong opponents, he makes the Destiny Draw (ability to draw a card at the moment he needs it but it only happens in crucial situations), it happens a lot when he faces Kaiba, the ventriloquist, now Mai (which means Mai is a very strong duelist), Jounouchi has it as well, from how I see it, Yugi and Kaiba has a natural good luck draw (very rare of them to need destiny draw), even Pegasus sensed the Destiny Draw at this moment, the characters who uses the most are Dark Yugi and Jounouchi, it's also often seen in the spin-off series.

 

It's really unfair for Mai when looking at YGO narrative manga history of her overall, this time was understandable and she is very skilled, Dark Yugi struggle a lot, even if Dark Yugi didn't underestimated her, he would still be cornered the way he was in this duel because of the flow of the duel but would have performed better in the beginning if he didn't underestimated her, we know she has more victory scores than losses, but those wins were "off-panels", while her only losses were "on-panels", also because she wasn't a female lead, which is a rather frequent problem in YGO series and it's spin-offs, when it does it right is only few sometimes...in comparison to the male characters, it's a very annoying pattern 😒, to many ygo fans including myself, all share a small beacon of hope pipe dream, a female character protagonist of a ygo series, but since Yu-Gi-Oh! is shounen, specially when it comes to female character being a protagonist in a shounen tends to turn into "echi" or sexualise them or is +18 heavy themes...that's why I haven't been into shounen as often as I have been before and go more to shoujos or graphic novels or webcomics that exists outside of Japan...

Lastly I find very moving of how much she loves her Harpy Ladies monsters cards, it's clear she has a very special attachment to them for her to surrender so she wouldn't her favourite cards being defeated...

His expression of gratitude and even more to his opponent who he considers a friend and rival says a lot on his character development, even Mai was a bit surprised and moved, it can be noted he is more humble and less arrogant, this duel deeply affected him not just as a duelist but as an entity of his own, learning more about his own self, in my opinion and interpretation is one of the most important duels to him.

Here is some advices she gives to Dark Yugi and her thoughts about putting a bold front, they're valuable truths and tips...

  

I really like their rivalry bond, it's a healthy one, the importance they give to pride may be a little annoying to me but at least they have more self-control to the point it is a respectful and honourable rivals and at the same time friends.
What Mai says here can be applicable to life as well, not just games:

"Yugi...There are two ways of losing! A loss where everything truly ends...And a loss which is just a step on the road to victory. I will become stronger from this loss!"

When we think about it, it is also a matter of attitude how you take a loss or failure or mistakes, you chose between to keep going and moving forward or give up and not moving on, it's not something to be ashamed of, in fact I think you learn more from it because it teaches how to become better,they are always a step to become stronger as much is becoming wiser, still learning, we have to remember is an experience in life, every experience we have counts to build and shape our own self.

I also like to mention Mai makes putting a bold front to cover your weakness is also weakness, we have noted in the early duel from Dark Yugi, to me pride does serve to hide your weakness, vulnerabilities as well.

See ya next post!