Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.20-26 Part 16 (Kaiba VS Ishizu)

This post will be mostly standard size, I am still covering volume duelist 19 (volume 26 in japanese print)
There will be a bit of duel focus, but more towards Ishizu and Kaiba character development plus the plot progressing and a bit of the lore of Yu-Gi-Oh!.


Plot Summary:

The duel looks like is Kaiba in the lead but then in the end due to Ishizu's millenium tauk and special kind of strategy which makes it hard for the player to predict, since isn't visible, Kaiba uses deck destruction combo, however is later revealed being a trap by Ishizu which makes Kaiba's and Ishizu's decks and graveyards switching positions, putting Kaiba be the one in huge trouble almost feeling discouraged but Dark Yugi gives some encouragement and somehow he turn it around by succeeding in summoning Obelisk even though was sneakily encouraged by Ishizu with a trap spelled on Obelisk once it would attack, it would destroy itself together with Kaiba life points, when Kaiba was about to launch an attack while having an sharp intuition something very bad will happen if he attacks with Obelisk...Millenium Rod acted on it's own glowing and gives to the one truly chosen by the Rod, Kaiba, a out of body experience by seeing a memory of the millenium Rod that is connected to Kaiba, he sees a man in egyptian clothes on his knees holding a woman in his arms and feeling strangely sad, as if sensing the defeat that is coming if he attacks with Obelisk, suggesting to summon and attack with Blue Eyes, Kaiba trusts this vision and follows it's suggestion, he summons Blue-Eyes White Dragon, shocking everyone, specially Ishizu since it wasn't in her future vision shown by the millenium Tauk.
Kaiba changed the future by a hair with a little help from the memory of the millenium Rod and won the duel and Ishizu accepting her defeat gracefully and tells Kaiba she learnt something from her defeat and the duel itself.



Key Points:

Anzu knowing how powerful millenium items and real they are due to their experience with them, Jounouchi has the funniest reaction to what Anzu said, it's somewhat relatable, we have moments of this kind of indecisions when comes to plans and investments.

Dark Yugi knows Millenium Tauk is real due to his neew enemy has the last millenium item prediction and is very well aware that Millenium Items are powerful magical artefacts that is best to keep vigilant...
Mokuba's reaction, is a bit curious, due to his experience being in a soul prison from Pegasus's Millenium Eye and the penalty game by Dark Yugi from the millenium puzzle, watched the rest of the duel in person of Yami Marik VS Mai, so we see he is vigilant and conscious Kaiba is fighting someone with a Millenium Item while analysing the Ra Card.

Since Ishizu always wear most of the duel a neutral expression and has a formal, calm and composed posture,  making it hard to guess what is she planning and her dueling style is unusual too, being that at first she really doesn't reveal it right off the bat her style, making it harder to predict and guess, she is a player you have to be careful from the beginning, you see from Kaiba and Dark Yugi reactions that she has the qualities of a player who is hard to decipher.

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Yami Marik who have watched the duels between Marik and Ishizu, he knows her style well, but the memory that it shows these panels, you see they were a bit older and still living in the undergound, a reader and spectator wonders when they left and go to separate ways, the same can be said with Ishizu at this time was already wielding the Millenium Tauk, so it wasn't too long ago for a difference of a few years.

The fact Yami Marik acknowledges that is a tough deck and she can be quite a scary player, speaks a lot for how skilled she is, which is a very advanced and highly skilled player with her neutral and composed posture makes it very hard to beat.

 

Dark Yugi was faster to realise than most the moment Jounouchi made the observation of Ishizu situation and the word graveyard, I would even dare to speculate faster than Yami Marik, Yami Marik has the advantage because he watched how Ishizu plays many times, while Dark Yugi for a first time watching her play, it was fairly quick heeding her style by being Marik's sister and a tomb guardian and there is more...

 

Kaiba still slightly impressed by her bold front of seeing the future, the moment she reveals to Kaiba that he was the one who fell into her trap, "the trap of the grave keepers" (cool name!however bit long), by the mention of Kaiba hearing "grave keepers", he is shocked but with a very bad feeling about the meaning of this trap Ishizu speaks of...

 

It's rare of Kaiba making an expression of pure shock when is driven to a corner but little different from previous times (every duel he had against Dark Yugi so far at this point, Ishizu should feel honoured, not every player can put him in a corner like this), what makes the difference, his eyes aren't void, it's realising a big mistake he made in his judgement...he wasn't expecting this at all, this is probably why she didn't appeared until her match, she knows Kaiba's weakness and his methods in preparation to win, Kaiba didn't check all the participants entering the Battle City, not even after they left off in the Battle Ship, it means she knows well his mindset of "crushing his opponent regardless who the player is", if Kaiba did knew beforehand she would be in the semi-finals, he would be much more well prepared by then investigating her Duelist Profile, it was intentional of Ishizu seeing Kaiba's overconfidence and big ego leaves his guard down, making it vulnerable to make sneak and surprise attacks like these.

Dark Yugi thought "Unbelievable!", I enjoy seeing him impressed by others players skills besides Kaiba when just by watching, like with Yugi and learnt from it, Mai as well, Yami Bakura too, it's a nice change of pace when the powerhouse duelists like Kaiba and Dark Yugi admire and feeling impressed by others highly skilled and very closely on par with them or possibly better than them (*cough*Yugi*cough*), it gives character development to them too.

 

Kaiba not only is realising his mistake for misjudging her skills, the deep trouble he is in from analysing his current situation, but the most interesting part is his thought in the last panel:

"All my plans...are ruined!"

This tells a lot about Kaiba analytical mindset about his own cards, also his egocentric and selfish style, Kaiba has huge faith in his cards, cute, but the fact is a power deck with some deck destruction combos, he thinks with these kind of strategies, the duel will go his way, he believes having a power deck is what will allow him to dominate and control the flow of the duel, by his many experiences should've know better that it won't work on everyone...

The other part about him are "the plans", plans are connected to future objectives based one's individual decisions and expectations, makes Kaiba to be very single-minded to a fault, another is plans is somewhat similar to predicting the future, it's predicting your future are already decided by you and nothing will be in the way which is kinda ironic for him fighting against someone who can predict the future of the duel, if you're not practical and not being ready for possible changes, you'll feel frustrated and irritated like Kaiba is feeling in this moment (I find it funny, even though I know how it feels when your plans are ruined D:).

 

Anzu is quite right, if he knew Ishizu was one of the contestants he would be more prepared, she made her identity a mystery to the other contestants on purpose for this and predicted his moves and the tides of luck, which shouldn't be possible, since when it comes to luck there is too many variables and it's random, Kaiba being prideful and stubborn and glued to his ideals about fate and future, he doesn't give up easily and his stubbornness plays a part, in this case I'm with him, not 100% but close enough.

 

When Dark Yugi encouraged him to not give up, Dark Yugi also wants to duel against Kaiba, not just Jounouchi, Kaiba obviously against Dark Yugi (which is the main reason he is hosting this tournament, not just catch the Ghouls and the god cards), they're quite dramatic and intense about their rivalry, Kaiba is specially obsessive.

It's true what Ishizu said, this card only reveals when is already in the graveyard and the effect is activated, it's a dangerous card, I had this one in Yu-Gi-Oh! Online and in some Tag Force 5D's video games, it's a kind of card you have to pay attention to the facedown cards until one of them mysteriously disappears then you can guess is this card, one of the few that works like this, a readers wonders if Kaiba noticed this moment.

 In this panel is a spell card but in the anime and OCG is a trap card, which is weird, it could be editing mistake.

I find this particular scene of Kaiba very curious, at this time he had succeeded in summoning his god card, you know what happens to someone when is hit by a god card, even in solid vision you get a bit hurt (against Mask of Darkness and Slifer on Bakura -but he was seriously injured), Kaiba in effort to be a gentleman is an unusual sight to behold 😁, he probably thinks women are physically weak or those who not wearing something practical or simply because is hitting in her face and it doesn't look good, but for someone who is about "crushing his enemies" regardless of gender (he wasn't  worried about the contestants who needed medical care (Mai, Rishid and Bakura, both were hit by god cards) and Mokuba shown concern), why open an exception this time around of giving the option to his opponent to surrender so to not be hit by a god card?
Even though I ship these two, I know very well there is nothing romantic between them, Kaiba is committed to his company and rivalry, however it could be a bit of influence from Dark Yugi when they fought against the Masked Ghouls, when he was about to hit the Mask of Light, or could it be since he feels somewhat grateful to her for giving him the Obelisk?

 I think it has to do with the mix of both, but then again there is this silent refusal to walk away reply of Ishizu with a calm and collected expression to Kaiba's suggestion to her of surrendering and his reaction to it, you can see he is suspicious of something and he looks at his situation, it seems there is nothing standing on his way to victory, so he is confident at the same time...

As expected from Anzu, not only is she smart about reading the situation in general about the power of the millenium tauk, she is also emotionally clever to be able to perceive the general picture from the perspective of Dark Yugi and Kaiba about their rivalry and to guide the readers to help understand their perspectives, I can't help but find sometimes she tends to be overlooked by how understanding and emotionally clever she is by many readers, I did the same before with her, but as I read more of the manga and re-read it often, I came to appreciate more her character and came to understand her character development better as well.

 

Dark Yugi having a bad feeling is from what he watched her duel, in her always calm and composed demeanour and predicting Kaiba would lose, it means she is waiting for the right time to turn the tables, like the trap of grave keepers combo, it looked like Ishizu was doomed and turn around as if she was waiting for that specific moment of the duel, this very situation is the same, from the surface it looks like she is driven to a corner but the reader and Yami Marik knows is the other way around, Kaiba feels the same way, he sees from her serious and calm expression and not flinching from a Obelisk god card presence (we know players flinch at the sight of a god card, even the most courageous ones), Dark Yugi and Kaiba sees she has something up her sleeve, it's unusual seeing Kaiba being this cautious and more carefully observing his opponent expressions which is something he doesn't do often since players like Ishizu's posture is hard to decipher, it's an important lesson for him too.

 

This part is very intriguing even for me, the moment Kaiba is about to launch an attack, the millenium Rod acts on it's own and shows clearly in the panels, Kaiba is having an out of body experience, it shows Kaiba is the true wielder of the Millenium Rod and who is connected most than Marik and Yami Marik, the panel clearly gives off the vibe that his mind is being transported to somewhere else, what he sees is the ancient mural from the museum, as he goes deeper into it...

 

The images Kaiba is seeing at this point of the story is fascinating, there is an important element to it and explains Kaiba's special connection to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the particular image he sees being a man holding a woman in his arms and the Milleniumm Rod in front of a stone slab of the Blue-Eyes and Kaiba is feeling strangely sad at the sight of this vision and from the outsider perspective he is just standing there and seems is feeling bad or having a headache and Ishizu makes her first surprised expression...

The "his memory" Yami Marik refers is probably "The White Beast Handler" from the ancient mural Kaiba is connected to, for the reasons why Kaiba is so strongly connected to the Blue-Eyes and the Millenium Rod and this mysterious man from Dark Yugi's past, how Kaiba has access to it is a pending mystery, most can assume he is the reincarnation of this priest millenium rod wielder, however it can be similar as to how Yugi's mind and pharaoh soul's mind are connected through the Millenium Puzzle, Kaiba's case could be through his Blue-Eyes card and the Millenium Rod plus the Ancient Mural...it's between these possibilities, I vote for the latter.

 

This is one of my favourite scenes of this duel, this is actually a message from Kazuki Takahashi about subjects such as fate, destiny and predestination...:

Ishizu:
"No...You have to use Obelisk...You have no choice..."

Kaiba:
"No...I do."

This scene says a lot, even though Kaiba was a bit aided by the memory from the Millenium Rod, it shows that predicting the future and having this kind of power, specially predicting how the luck will flow, when luck is very random, remember being good at card games is not just skill, luck plays an important part, predicting would be way too imprecise, another thing, fate and power to predict the future doesn't control people choices and free will, only to see what is mostly likely to happen, where the probabilities is higher, I define destiny as consequences of our choices (not just mine, others as well, some people choices can have consequences that affect others).

Another interesting detail in the quotes above, when Ishizu is surprised that Kaiba won't attack her with Obelisk and claims he has no choice but to use Obelisk, you see when he replies no, there is suspicious thinking behind of the sort "so you really had a plan up your sleeve" while looking at her and suspected in this moment it's related to a card effect in the graveyard, since her deck style is connected to the keyword graveyard and then more firmly he says he does have a choice, becoming more conscious that is our choices and it's consequences and how we face them is what defines the future and destiny.

 

Another favourite moment, to be honest, I think this duel has the best Kaiba moments, to be honest, maybe it's why I like this duel so much, it's when he develops the most together with the duel against Pegasus, when you think about it, when is against Dark Yugi, his growth and development is small because it fuels what makes him more obsessive competitively and ego towards his rivalry which hinders further his development and growth, when he plays against different highly skilled players on his level or higher is when develops further more.

Writing about this scene in particular, from someone who was always so calm and collected to be so shocked about a move which wasn't in her predictions, you see when Kaiba asks while looking at Ishizu:

"Ishizu...Did my dragon exist in your so-called vision of the future...?"

Ishizu doesn't say anything and only wearing a shocked expression...

"No. It couldn't have. Because this is my future!!"

You can tell the way he asks and replies for Ishizu, translating her shocked expression, he confirmed to himself she really had something up her sleeve for Obelisk since she was so calm when he was about to attack with the Obelisk and now her expression is of shock for her millenium tauk didn't predict Obelisk being sacrificed to summon Blue-Eyes, it's a very cool scene, in how looking at your opponent carefully can change how you play and how you see your opponent play, the change of Ishizu's expression said most everything he needed to know.

Another note to take, Ishizu did accept her defeat gracefully with a smile, there is more about this little part...

 

I'm with Kaiba on this one, sometimes he speaks with wisdom, which is a rare occasion, even though I believe in the existence of an omniscient being, I do agree with Kaiba there is other matters we believe even deeper than other beings, it can be your own future, love (in general), friendship, bonds, a better future, your dreams, hopes, your own principles even your own self...

You see Kaiba acts differently and all quiet, probably thinking about his recent experience of the duel (specially the out of body experience), but also willing to listen with what she has to say, since she said she learned something from the duel,"The Light of Hope", even though I find the answer cheesy and corny, it still rings some truth about what I stated above about Kaiba saying believing in something deeper than gods.

 

This exchange of words between them is interesting, Ishizu said the Millenium Tauk only shown a future of darkness (obviously is connected to Yami Marik) and with this duel she learnt that maybe  the future can change and Kaiba brilliantly replies:

«Those who allow themselves to be chained by "future" or "fate"...will never see this light you talk about...»

Kaiba is very right, if you let yourselves being chained by "future or "fate", as if controlling you and your choices and life, then you become stuck in the same situation, you don't evolve and the problem will never be solved by following this kind of mindset (you're in similar situation yourself, Kaiba) and no moving forward.

However I disagree with the common perception of darkness as something overall negative in a black and white treatment, which tend to be easily overlooked that light and dark are one and the same, it's well known but tends to be discarded or omitted, there is positives in the darkness as much there is negatives in the light, since they're one and the same which means creating the grey and foggish area, the spectrum.

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