Plot Summary:
The duel starts tough on Jounouchi due to Rishid unusual trap strategy, many times Jounouchi almost falls down but credited by his fighting spirit and emotional support from his friends and sister, he stands up again and keep fighting and moving forward, which reminds Rishid of his past and then...
We begin to dive into the Ishtar family backstory starting with Rishid, who was abandoned close to a well and the Ishtar couple decided to adopt him, the couple were trying to have a male baby, so he could become the heir of the main family of the tomb guardians, Rishid overheard it when he was 4 years old, one year later they had a daughter and they named her Ishizu (Rishid would be 5 years old), and Marik were born 4 years later (Rishid would be 9 years old), this is when it gets dark, there is special ceremony to the heir of the main family when reaches his 10th birthday, the father passes down the other half of the special conditions to restore the "pharaoh's memories" on his son's back and at a terrible cost, with a knife burning hot so it could leave permanent scars, after is done, Marik asks Rishid who should hate and is shocked seeing Rishid did something similar on his face to bear and share Marik's pain on himself, which somehow cheered Marik up to seal his hatred and swear allegiance to Ishtar family...
After the flashback is over the duel goes on without Jounouchi giving up even if he is in a pinch and in a situation where he can't get out of it, as Jounouchi realizes something important about Rishid, due to Rishid playing with dignity and fairly, Jounouchi sees through that Rishid isn't the real Marik, so Rishid to keep properly pretending to be "Marik", he is forced to summon the fake Ra god card, then a terrible accident happens, because the god cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! lore aren't normal cards being very powerful spirits in shape of a card and to a point they chose their wielders in a very selective manner, so the original from the real Marik's deck summons powerful lightning that hits both players in the field and they stay unconscious, Yami Marik is unleashed...
The referee states the first to stand up is the winner, Jounouchi while unconscious is having a dream at school with his friends and even Kaiba appears, it seems he was preparing for a tournament, trips in the floor and his friends help him get up and Jounouchi stands up and awakes as he wins the match then he goes to Rishid who is still unconscious, tries to wake him up and asks for his real name and ask around who is the real Marik, then Yami Marik reveals himself and there is some revelations he makes...
Key Points:
Even though I find this scene very funny (Jounouchi's expression while his fighting spirit is flaming hot is hilarious), but Honda gives an interesting mention about Jounouchi's fighting experience, when his fighting spirit reaches this point and that he never lost a fight when he was this pumped however as Honda stated, fistfight isn't the same as duel, he knows in TCG you need luck, intuition, experience and wits to win.
I find this scene interesting about Yugi and Mai discussing the duel, it's not often, usually is with Ryou or Anzu or Dark Yugi, so this is a first, what they say about trap cards is mostly correct and is a bit of an overstatement, trap cards are bit scary and can turn the tables quickly and is good at putting seeds of doubt on the opponent judgement and intuition but to a point it loses the will to fight, that's giving too much credit to this type of card, it's powerful and bit scary, but soon or later you have to make your opponent activate it or negate or destroy it.
You can see Shizuka see his brother for inspiration and knows he does his best when is for those he cares about (I think Dark Yugi was a influence on this regard), and finally she says "Even if...you can't win...I don't want to see you give up..." and then Mai snaps him out of it...she is such a good friend, good at calling someone out and honest when it needs to be. :)
To some extent Jounouchi's right to get his Red-Eyes back, even so to beat isn't really the case, we could say "to fight", the main reason he wants to duel against Dark Yugi is not just to get his card back, but a promise which was mentioned some posts ago, to have their duel and show what they have learned from Battle City, as Dark Yugi shows up by Yugi's side listening to what Jounouchi is saying to Rishid with attention about their promised duel, the duel he deeply cares about it and looks forward the most.
I'll say when Dark Yugi asks politely if he can speak, it's a change, he usually just took over and that was it, it shows huge amounts of respect for Yugi increasing and also becoming less rude as well...
What Dark Yugi is thinking is quite right or mostly right if don't don't count the cheesiness, the card you draw being unseen and is mostly luck, faith in your luck and deck as a will to keep fighting and being open to new possibilities that it might bring and thinks that's the true strength of a duelist, it shows huge growth on this matter from Dark Yugi's part (the same applies to Jounouchi), in Duelist Kingdom days in this post (right at the beginning of the post) , he previously thought it was the desperation to win as the source of strength in every player, but even as a player he is growing of how he sees the real drive and strength behind every active player.
Dark Yugi and Jounouchi himself acknowledging Battle City given him lots of experience and given a chance to also strengthen his deck which made him a stronger player.
I think is so fascinating that now when Yugi comments about the card "ark in the temple" that is worried and same for Dark Yugi and his reaction to his comment...
"So you noticed too..."
If you remember on the post Dark Yugi challenged Otogi , Dark Yugi was excited he noticed the problem of "Otogi's game" being a shell game, while this time is more thoughtfully, which means he is paying much more attention to Yugi with caution as a player and bit more as a rival as well.
This is a courageous moment for him and for his sister Shizuka, it's to show even if the situation looks grim and he might fail, so he is gaining courage to keep moving forward, which is important, many times we want to give up because we're afraid to fail or failed many times, but you won't overcome trials if you give up and stop trying to improve...but not giving up even if you fail many times and learning from it is what makes you keep moving forward and improving plus making yourself stronger than before.
Rishid remembers it was 25 years ago when they found him, so he is currently 25 years old while Ishizu was born 5 years later since they had adopted Rishid, which means Ishizu is 20 years old...
As you can see in the panels the main family of the tomb guardians lived underground, lacking in light, it was a family who were very conservative and isolated from the world with the duty to protect two Millenium items and the special conditions to retrieve pharaoh's memories, what I find the most intriguing is why solely Millenium Rod and Millenium Tauk and why these aren't in the tablet of the pharaoh memories with the others?
Millenium Puzzle, you can easily assume it was in a separated place like these two millenium items, since it was originally inside a box in pieces and in the pharaoh tomb previously mentioned in the first volume by Sugoroku, further confirming the spirit inside is the pharaoh, which only adds more mystery to Dark Yugi's past...
Millenium Puzzle, you can easily assume it was in a separated place like these two millenium items, since it was originally inside a box in pieces and in the pharaoh tomb previously mentioned in the first volume by Sugoroku, further confirming the spirit inside is the pharaoh, which only adds more mystery to Dark Yugi's past...
Rishid was 9 years old by the time Marik was born, so Rishid was almost one year to become heir if they didn't get to have a boy, however when Marik was born, their mother died by giving birth to Marik, since Rishid is 9 years older than Marik and he is 25, which means Marik is technically 16 years old in the events of Battle City...still a teen...
Marik informing Rishid that the ritual performed on the heir to create permanent scars with the secrets of King's Memories at 10 years old...onto a child, so is extremely painful, so Marik understandably asks for help from Rishid to take his place, while he agrees but however...
It does seem Ishtar father didn't liked Rishid much and Rishid who in his first 4 years was almost raised like a son, probably who treated him best was the mother, I suspect since the mother of the Ishtar siblings died, father started to treat him and act differently, when the siblings always saw him like part of the family...Rishid always wanted to be acknowledged as a son by their father, but since he is 9 years older than Marik would imply a son not of Ishtar family blood would be the heir, which seems unthinkable and unacceptable to Ishtar father, so he treats Rishid as a servant.
I have to say, the rite of the tomb guardians is quite cruel, you see Ishizu hiding behind the pillar praying for her little brother, it's no wonder Marik ended up so messed up, even though after I finish my analysis of the manga, I will make posts about the differences between the japanese anime version with manga, this scene is cut in the english dub version, while in the japanese version has this scene but is portrayed a little different, because the manga version is quite violent, so in the anime is portrayed in shadows of a candle in the wall...
One thing is for sure, the manga itself is slightly darker than the anime, when the manga shows it's dark tones of the story, it can be quite violent...many say the first early volumes were the darkest ones and the best ones, to be honest I disagree with the "most" and "better", even in the card games phase of the story, there are moments it can get very dark as the early volumes or worse, this scene for example is much darker than the early volumes, Takahashi-sensei has a tendency for these kind of tones.
When Marik asks:
"Rishid...Who...Who do I hate for this? Tell me..."
You can see he is trying with big effort hold back his hatred for who did this to him or who created this ritual to begin with, you see is not rooted in pharaoh spirit...but more by the traditions of his clan deep down...
Then sees Rishid did similar thing but on his face to swear alliance to the family Ishtar, Rishid does feels deeply sorry for Marik, probably thinks the rite of the tomb guardians is way too cruel of ritual to make to a child of 10 years old go through...Marik was quite shocked by it...and...
At first glance, it looks cold in this scene, but he is crying as he is laughing, it's like a mix of satisfaction of someone sharing a part of his pain and moved by the gesture at the same time, his mind is in such a chaotic state and unstable...but there is more to it, that's when it ends this backstory moment, it will continue when we reach the end of the semi-finals...
Mai is quite right and so is Dark Yugi, when he thinks of Jounouchi as a player recognising a worthy opponent when he is about to lose, it means he found an opponent not just to go all out but he admires and respects with codes of conduct, good sportsmanship, Jounouchi wouldn't mind losing to someone who plays with dignity and ethic and he is willing to not giving up the match just to continue fighting against someone like him, it shows Dark Yugi's growth how he sees being a "true duelist" and so is for Jounouchi.
The real Yu-Gi-Oh! catchphrase and main quote "What you can show...but you can't see..." (it can hold many different answers), in this case is the opponent real self in comparison to the real enemy, when he said:
"When winning or losing didn't matter...It's like...I saw something I couldn't see before..."
It was a moment of clarity, after this panel mentioned, wondering why he didn't figure out sooner due to the heat of the battle/moment, he states what he feels about Marik but...
As Jounouchi continue expressing himself about how this match that made those bad feelings he speak of disappeared, notice how he mentions Marik in third person, he had already figure it out and reveals that his opponent isn't Marik because his opponent played so fair...and is way too different from Marik who brainwashed him.
Not just the strategy, so is in character behaviour, Marik was vicious and sick, while this man (Rishid) doesn't show any Marik's traits and no ill intentions or hatred or thoughts of revenge because he doesn't have since he isn't Marik...it's that obvious but they only noticed this through a duel watching him from close however if wasn't for Jounouchi noticing and point out, they wouldn't heed...*sigh*, but I'll give credit to Dark Yugi suspect "Namu" being possibly Marik, since he only have been hiding so far...
As a way to prove Rishid is "Marik", Rishid is forced to summon fake god card Ra when he doesn't agree because he doesn't think he is worthy and afraid to anger the gods for using a fake god card, Marik reveals to readers he can't brainwash Rishid but can get his thoughts to Rishid, in other words, talk telepathically with him, even though Marik isn't mind control or brainwashing Rishid but he is definitely manipulating by pushing the right buttons where is most sensitive to Rishid...
Marik is insistent to carry with his plan not just in an effort to leave Dark Yugi and Yugi guard down but also in order to try to solve the mystery of Kaiba connection to the millenium Rod and the past of Dark Yugi from the ancient mural, yet he could still try solve the mystery without hiding like he is doing, since Kaiba is very hard to approach to begin with, if Kaiba was remotely interested in the millenium items, he would be the rightful wielder of the Millenium Rod as proof in the ancient mural.
Marik will start to pay the price for his actions based on conceitedness, overconfidence and arrogance and of course, revenge...
Rishid...you can tell he knows his true hatred doesn't come from really the pharaoh spirit as Marik believes, the source was from what I pointed above and somewhere else which was what Rishid was holding it back and not just him knows about this true hatred Marik feels...at the end of the semi-finals, I will approach it..., the moment Rishid lost consciousness...
That's when it gets really dangerous and serious, Yami Marik, Marik's dark side or split personality that was developed...first time revealed to the readers...while most of the spectators are focusing on Jounouchi and Rishid being unconscious, they can't notice what's behind them...
Kaiba's reaction to Jounouchi's victory is funny, Kaiba getting to realize the Ra he saw wasn't the real thing but a conterfeit god card as he starts to understand what happened...
Jounouchi as soon as he gains awareness to what was going on, he did go straight to Rishid to see if he was okay, it's easy to tell that not only respected and admired the man pretending to be Marik but also liked him as seeing he is fundamentally a very good person...
I find this scene kind of adorable because it wasn't just Jounouchi who was worried about this mysterious man well-being as he was respected, admired and acknowledged it was good person not just by Jounouchi, the others being Mai, Honda, Shizuka and Dark Yugi...
I like this scene a lot, you can see from the panels he really didn't believe he was Marik even after the fake Ra summoning, he wants to know the real name of the man who he sees as a true duelist and a very honourable one at that that he came to admire and respect very highly and also realises that this man is bad at playing the "bad guy"...geez about time...
Now for the other interesting point is when Rishid asks Dark Yugi to stop "that Man's other", in other words the dark side of the real Marik, now you see Dark Yugi was surprised but understanding the situation at the same time since Marik wields the millenium rod and is told that the millenium items have evil intelligence, but is it truly the same case with Marik like Yugi and Ryou...?
The first reveal of Yami Marik as a character, you can see is much more unstable than the original Marik and even this "other marik" is different from "other yugi" and even "other bakura", it's nature is different...
Their reactions are very amusing, Dark Yugi is with an alarmed expression, Jounouchi is angry while Kaiba...is difficult to describe, watchful or vigilant is more accurate, Yami Marik captured their attention in a instant and also he emits sort of a scary and creepy aura as well...It's a very cool scene too.
Yami Marik revealing the differences between the original Marik and Dark Marik and says in a way that it implies in essence they're the same, what's intriguing is one is afraid of the dark and the other loves it and when Rishid is around, Yami Marik is hidden, at this time we would think is because there might be an evil spirit in the millenium rod like the millenium ring...
This scene is also quite interesting, the way Yami Marik emphasises to Kaiba his connection to the millenium items...Kaiba reaction as being "What...?", he knows what is referring to, he is no fool, the ancient mural, he can be stubborn all he wants but deep down he knows is connected somehow...
See ya Next Post!
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