Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.27-31 Part 4 ( Battle Royale )

Now starting the transition from volume duelist 20 to 21 (27 to 28 in Japanese print), It's about the battle royale happening to decide the matchup of the semi-finals, so I will focus on "true duelist" subject and it's influence on Jounouchi's character development plus slightly on Dark Yugi, Kaiba very little...this post will be a little big.


Plot Summary:

The judge starts explaining the rules of this battle royale and how influences the order of the matches and the matchups, basically if the player uses good strategy, they can choose the opponent they wish to fight.

There is a lot of back and forth in the battle royale, Kaiba focusing on attacking Yami Marik and Jounouchi so he can fight with Dark Yugi first before Yami Marik (because of Ra god card), Yami Marik is somewhat indifferent but will focus on Dark Yugi due to main Marik have wanted to kill him for so long, Dark Yugi is Jounouchi but displays in an overprotective manner, while Jounouchi is facing a dilemma between his promise with Dark Yugi/Yugi and saving Mai, through Kaiba provocations to Jounouchi and Dark Yugi, Jounouchi made his decision on focusing Yami Marik.
When Dark Yugi sees Jounouchi at a disadvantage, he feels undecided who to attack in order to keep his promise with Jounouchi until Jounouchi himself interrupts and tells him what he have learned so far and convince Dark Yugi to attack him and is aware he is the one who is at the most disadvantageous situation, with this it goes on Yami Marik going first in the gondola, then Jounouchi who sacrificed himself to be second to climb the gondola, lastly Kaiba and Dark Yugi.



Key Points:

I'm a little surprised that Anzu didn't notice, but Honda is unusual to say such a sharp fact, I can assume he understands about the overall on the subject of competitions, also he is quite right because the other two, Kaiba and Yami Marik will help Dark Yugi since Dark Yugi tends to be the centre of attention and interest among competitors and also the competitor can choose who they want to duel with or choose an opponent who they have a better chance of winning, so it's pretty much a big mind game as Honda says.

 

Jounouchi feels he is in a dilemma to choose between his first opponent to be Dark Yugi in order to keep his promise and Yami Marik to save Mai, to me is a bit difficult to understand why is a dilemma, because the two mentioned burdens doesn't hold the same weight, I would be okay if it did hold similar weights, but the truth, in this case, it doesn't, someone's life to save ( be it a friend or a stranger ) should be top priority over a promise with a friend...someone will unintentionally "help" cast away Jounouchi's doubts...


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Kaiba can be inconsistent sometimes due to his prideful personality, his pride can make him very narrow-minded to a fault and weakness, Kaiba development has this problematic pattern because of his prideful, arrogant and overconfident traits, he is very opinionated too, when he makes a step forward, he takes 3 steps backwards, for example his views on Jounouchi is a good example of this, tends to be inconsistent, he already thought to himself that he became a decent duelist but now demote Jounouchi into solely "deadbeat" again and not even "deadbeat duelist" anymore, he is being very stubborn to not acknowledge Jounouchi...

 

Dark Yugi in this moment is being very reflective and is not because he is in doubt but merely considering his options, according to his own development and personality is not hard to guess who is his top priority opponent right now...

He is favouring Jounouchi, he does tend to favour loved ones most of the time before, however at Dark Yugi's current stage of development, it's every single time basing from his insanely caring, protective and soft personality when comes to his friends and you see he can't ignore anymore how Kaiba sees Jounouchi too.

Kaiba is extremely single-minded to a point of obsession and recklessness, he gives this kind of treatment so far to only Gozaburo Kaiba and Dark Yugi, not healthy, but why so obsessed and what drives him to this point...?

 

Kaiba is good at provoking Jounouchi, it's more simply put is that Jounouchi is very easy to provoke, but we have to admit Kaiba is being a bit mean here, he is right about Jounouchi needing Dark Yugi's protection, especially in this situation, it's easy to tell Dark Yugi is playing favourites, it doesn't fool Kaiba and he knows of their promise between friends to duel (probably caught some of the conversation when they entered the battle ship), he is basically saying he is a low-level player who was just lucky to get this far, when the readers know very well is not the case, except in his duel against Rishid (we have to admit that was luck...) and he is indirectly claiming Dark Yugi sees Jounouchi this way as well by playing against Jounouchi first.

Also look at the transition of his eyes from clear thinking to...

 

Kaiba into clouded mind mode...
Kaiba is going a little far, but two things is right, Jounouchi is the one who is at the most disadvantageous situation in the battle royale and overall, furthermore, no matter who is his opponent at this current stage of battle city, the other three semi-finalists have god cards while Jounouchi doesn't have one, the rest of what he said is wrong, Jounouchi doesn't lack skill, just lacks some experience (remember he gained a good amount of experience, but still not enough even though he is getting closer to the advanced level) since he is still evolving, we have to admit Kaiba, Dark Yugi and Yami Marik has much more experience than Jounouchi, they played since they were  young, Yami Marik based on Marik's experience is around 4 or more years of experience, Kaiba and Yugi are veteran gamers overall since they played games when they were very young, Dark Yugi's must have his gaming instincts from when he was alive intact (how Dark Yugi knew about egyptian games and knew about shell games (which existed since ancient Egypt times) while Yugi didn't so we can assume in the time Dark Yugi was alive, he was a veteran too), Jounouchi just started one year ago in games and Magic and Wizards, so Jounouchi's experience is still fresh in the gaming field... and the other thing is that Dark Yugi is playing favourites and Kaiba is indirectly pointing to Dark Yugi about favouritism.

Now the adorable overprotective moment from Dark Yugi, remember how in some paragraphs above, Dark Yugi won't stand anymore for Kaiba insulting Jounouchi, whether he is present or not, he will speak up straight away in his defence:

"Kaiba! I won't allow you to insult him any further! Jounouchi is a true duelist! he survived battle city on his own!"

It's obvious Dark Yugi is getting really irritated with Kaiba when he insults Jounouchi, I don't censor him, I would get annoyed as well, the way Jounouchi responds to Kaiba's insults to him and Dark Yugi's defence speaks up that Jounouchi isn't a fan of being overly protected and also he knows Kaiba too well to not take him very seriously.

 Now as for the "true duelist" subject, well it is a very subjective topic of discussion, it goes well with the "true fan" debate in fan communities of games, books, series, movies, animated series, etc, I will have to touch upon this subject down below in more detail (not a fan but because is a constant theme and influential to some characters development, I will).

 

After Jounouchi says he will see Dark Yugi in the Finals, Dark Yugi starts pondering about Jounouchi's intention, he is suspecting his current goal is to fight Yami Marik...

Jounouchi feeling grateful for his provocation made him realise and organise his priorities, now saving Mai is his top priority.

Kaiba...-.-, for Kaiba acting like this now, it must be because his standards of what he considers a duelist has increased, that's the only explanation for this Jounouchi's demotion in his eyes because of the god cards, probably, he is way too hyped to fight Dark Yugi, while Dark Yugi feels cornered about respecting Jounouchi's decision and going Kaiba's way, it must be he is conscious of Kaiba having an obsessive rivalry with him, deep down thinks isn't healthy.

Dark Yugi describing to himself the situation of his opponents, I have to say but the way he describes Jounouchi's case, it's quite funny (I laugh so hard), it's unintentional humour from Dark Yugi's part but it is intentional from the author, even though is just a normal observation, because Jounouchi's position itself isn't funny because is a very relatable one, it's how obvious it is in comparison to the others contestants is what makes it funny, poor his luck.

It's a nice change of pace that is Honda making good observations about Dark Yugi and Anzu knowing Jounouchi current objective, she witnessed the info Yami Marik given that Mai has 24 hours to die when the others don't know any of this except for Anzu and Jounouchi about Mai's true condition.

 

Here is the subject I find rather tedious but have to approach from here on with four key points, when Jounouchi interrupts Yugi to say something very important and asks what is a true duelist, one would wonder by interrupting someone's turn is even something a true duelist would do, but since is something Jounouchi feels is important to say it right now before Dark Yugi makes a full decision who to attack, because Jounouchi is sensing and is aware of who he is going to attack...

Jounouchi explains his recently gained experience through the battle city made him learn and get closer to the answer to his question about being a true duelist...

 

Kaiba's reaction to this is funny, I wouldn't call it sob story but more of a cheesy and corny story...

When Jounouchi tells that his friends taught him about trust and not just the cards from Dark Yugi plus not giving up and same for the other duelists in learning more about his own weaknesses, furthermore about himself, from Mai learnt the importance of confidence in your strengths...

 

Jounouchi is now calling out on Dark Yugi about playing favourites, being too soft on him, Jounouchi is the kind of person who doesn't like people being soft on him or protect him based on his hardships of his daily life, but you know he is quite right of Dark Yugi playing favourites, at the same time not totally, probably because Dark Yugi doesn't want to put him in harm way because of Yami Marik's shadow game and isn't related to Jounouchi's skills as a duelist, however at this time it would be the best way what Jounouchi and Kaiba is thinking, Jounouchi is taking priority in saving Mai while Kaiba is the strategic approach, not because Dark Yugi is weaker in skill but seeing that Yami Marik has the most powerful god cards that not even Obelisk and Slifer come close, so he chooses another god card in order to increase his chances before fighting the most difficult one, Dark Yugi due to his protective nature in not putting a friend in harm's way or risking losing his friend from a shadow game prefers to fight the friend first while keeping his promise even if he knows strategically the best way would be what Kaiba is thinking.

Next is the very truth Jounouchi says here:

"If I was anyone else, you'd totally attack me! It's a basic strategy of this game to take down the weakest guys first! So don't waste your turn! Do It! Attack me!"

Jounouchi is very right if wasn't a friend, he would attack the person at the most disadvantageous situation, so it is a bit obvious Dark Yugi is playing favourites.

 

Here is the new promise they made and showing their strong friendly rivalry bond, the ones who introduced the card game and being a duelist (Yugi who introduced Jounouchi and Dark Yugi, Dark Yugi about becoming a duelist), Dark Yugi learned a little too, they understood and respect Jounouchi's choice in fighting Yami Marik except that they don't know why...

 

If you notice Jounouchi's eyes, the way is expressed and it's transition from his state of mind when he is super focused and his fighting spirit is very high between being "clear minded" is the same as Kaiba, the difference is Kaiba is more extreme while Jounouchi tends to be more balanced.

The matches have been decided, to be honest, it's the best order considering the current circumstances like I explained above...

 

C'mon Dark Yugi, it's not hard to guess, however as to why he did sacrifice himself to fight Yami Marik is still a good question but is not difficult to speculate after what Yami Marik has done to Mai, you should ask why he isn't telling you why he wants to fight Yami Marik and also he is worried as to why Jounouchi choosing Yami Marik, maybe deep down he has an idea but can't be sure yet, to the readers is obvious why he isn't telling Dark Yugi so that he wouldn't take the burden himself due to his protective and righteous nature, Jounouchi knows these traits of his very well, it's always nice to see his mindful side, which means he is slowly emotionally maturing too.

Yeah, Jounouchi, the match platform is boring and feels empty too.

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