Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.27-31 Part 7 (Dark Yugi VS Kaiba Part 1/2)

As it insinuates in the title, this duel will be covered in two posts, because the events it happens during this duel is huge, last time I did with a duel of this scale was Dark Yugi and Yugi VS Pegasus (the difference is it was all in one post, back then I did say to myself, next time something like this happens, it will be in two parts), so there.
This duel is pretty long, the entire duel could fit in one volume if it could, but in this duel, the transition to the next volume comes in part two...that's how long it is...so we will be staying yet in Volume duelist 22 (Volume 29 in japanese print).
It took long to publish, lots of interventions...

Plot Summary:

After the little talk, Kaiba finding the site for their "ultimate duel" is too drab, so he activates a virtual stage, then they start their duel with lot of back and forth by testing each other and see who will be summoning their god cards first...When their god card are both in the field, it can be seen from the distance inside the battle ship of how huge these monsters cards are in size, Ishizu is watching while being at Rishid's side, Honda noticing, he grabs Jounouchi and holds him and puts him on angle so Jounouchi head is facing the window, in case he wakes up and sees this, as this happens, the ECG moved a little...
While Dark Yugi and Kaiba are in a position when both god cards are equal in power and attack at the same time making a huge blast and with this the Millenium Rod starts glowing on it's own plus the Millenium Puzzle, so Kaiba and Dark Yugi have an out of body experience, watching a memory of the pharaoh and the priest, almost everything looks destroyed, you see a priest looking a lot like Kaiba speaking to the Pharaoh, who looks almost exactly as Dark Yugi and both start summoning their ace monsters from the stone slabs, the vision ends, both of them are back with shocked expressions while holding their breaths from the intense experience, emphasising the importance of their duel was always meant to happen.



Key Points:

 

Kaiba really loves to go big...specially when it comes to his rival, created a virtual stage just dedicated to their duel to decide who will be "the ultimate duelist" -.-", good grief with this guy but serves to show how hyped he is for this duel in particular, so the site of the top of the duel tower is only too drab for their duel...not for others, his standards are so ridiculous...
It's clear to see where he sought inspiration, based in Rome Colosseum on the gladiators times.

Dark Yugi is getting hyped as well, figuratively thinking as what represents sword and shield, I do mostly agree, until it reaches pride, my usual problem with pride, well they are very intense characters when it comes to convictions and competition...(Kaiba is mostly intense in general).


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Yami Marik being an overconfident individual, even main Marik is the same, Main Marik is now finally learning some humility, even though Yami Marik skills are elite (above advanced level), his mindset is also "elite" for many reasons besides his skill, being chosen and connected to the millenium items and able to summon Ra, he is being pretty cocky and full of himself, for him wanting to go watch their duel, he does consider them as elite duelists (in skill they are, Kaiba has full elitist mindset, even Dark Yugi has a little plus Yami Bakura) - he isn't the only one in this duel, of course there is Kaiba, but he is full of himself all the time, the only time where he was hesitant was against Ishizu...but I'm referring to another fine example, but in a way that really pisses me off sometimes...I'll approach it soon.

It's natural Yami Marik would want to watch it, they're pretty much at the top when it comes to discuss who is the most skilled (I would include Yugi).

After re-reading I noticed something I didn't before consider in depth, it's the "virtual crowd" in the Sky Coliseum Virtual Stage that were screaming in support "Kaiba! Kaiba!", when I watched in the anime and manga by the first times, I didn't care at the time, but now I see this scene differently, I can't help but find a little sad and pitiful, as if isn't satisfied with just his little brother and is a virtual crowd, in order to feed his ego with these make-believe crowd supporting him, deep down he actually feel alone but refuses to admit it due to his prideful personality? when there was someone who was always by his side with unwavering loyalty towards him, Mokuba, he seems to frequently forget that when he is fighting...it's just kinda sad, honestly.

 

This is the scene that really irks me with Dark Yugi! 💢 What the heck!? While Dark Yugi is vividly remembering it was Yugi who used the card exchange and showing his own hand and he refers the moment to himself...:

"The card I used in my duel with Jounouchi...The card that won back  his friendship!"

I felt really pissed of Dark Yugi taking credit to himself from what Yugi did, what makes it worse, he is not saying to Kaiba or anything, he is thinking this to himself, just because he shares the name and the body, doesn't mean they share the same consciousness, in fact, if you look back in this post, Dark Yugi was only watching and implied even Dark Yugi wouldn't be this bold... , it was Yugi's decision in using "Exchange" not yours! 😠 I love his character and his arc, but sometimes... he usually annoys me the most when is related to him slightly discarding Yugi or underestimating Yugi. Kaiba's reaction to it, above he knows is the card "exchange" is coming, now the aftermath of Dark Yugi activating "Exchange":

Tch! 😒 Dark Yugi, you inherited Jounouchi and your so called partner Yugi spirits as duelists, but you're right a part of Jounouchi's spirit, since wasn't only him, for remembering in image with Yugi, he is slightly admitting to himself that inherited  a part of Yugi as well, it is always by his side recently since the the fight against Pegasus.

As for Kaiba's reaction seeing the card activated, if anyone have watched Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Side of Dimensions, it isn't difficult to guess what he is thinking in this moment, it's the same in the movie when he dueled against Yugi (it irritated me as well), Kaiba isn't following with the same mindset and perceiving the same way as Dark Yugi at seeing this card, Kaiba knows full well it wasn't Dark Yugi decision in using the card but Yugi, not only because he finds the card itself as annoying but when certain moves is against him or he saw someone using as standing out, he is someone who takes it personally these kind of things, to him feels slightly beaten by Yugi (since the "Exchange" move from this mentioned duel was bolder than himself and his rival and more...which will be explored in more detail when comes the time to analyse the movie).

 

The initiation of testing each other's will to fight, despite both being very competitive, but their competitive mindset is slightly different, Kaiba's case is like he states above, he is very driven to win no matter what the circumstances himself and his opponent is in and prideful, Dark Yugi, tends to second guess at first (by his nature being a bit indecisive), but by knowing Kaiba well, being very driven and single-minded, for that he decides to not back down from what Kaiba has prepared for him...

 

Now is Dark Yugi turn testing Kaiba's will, Kaiba is slightly hesitating, last time he was hesitating and second guessing himself was with Ishizu (this speaks a great deal of Ishizu's skill, even though she cheated a little, I only say little, because it can only predict what Kaiba is going to do by the cards he plays in one single line of the future and not able to see other alternatives futures and every card he had, for example, unlike millenium eye, it could see through everything - the deck and the mind of his opponent, while Millenium Tauk has it's own limitations as I stated), Dark Yugi competitive mindset is more with his ego and cockiness by being provocatively smug, Kaiba's response is funny, he does "hmph" a lot, usually holds specific meaning related to his prideful trait, it's a way of him expressing acknowledgement and irritation at the same time, but he has less problems in being decisive than Dark Yugi, I guess for being driven and strong determination in achieving his goals to not let idles thoughts get in his way.

I want to touch on these panels is that Ishizu is watching the duel from afar by looking out for Rishid just in case Yami Marik isn't watching their duel and searching for Rishid to kill him, in the break before this duel, Ishizu was with the gang because of Jounouchi's conditions, it was probably after Dark Yugi left, she left as well, this room is probably hers to keep Rishid safe, so that you need her  participant card to enter...

 

The Yugi she means is Dark Yugi, of course, she is thinking if he doesn't win this duel, his memories will be lost forever and she adds:

"To open that door...You need the power of the three god cards..."

We know what "that door" she is referring too...the one in front of the tablet of the pharaoh lost memories, the one that takes to afterlife when first mentioned in Pegasus's bakstory , it's pretty much foreshadowing something more... *cough*Ceremonial Duel*cough*, the same for Yami Marik being a test, since Dark Yugi needs Ra The Sun Dragon to have all three, they are all trials ahead to test him, but I don't think is just to test for the sake of testing, it's for him to learn and grow, preparing himself for the end of this road as spirit of the millenium puzzle to spirit of the pharaoh with his memories recovered.

 

Both the gang seeing from the medical room with the god cards of Dark Yugi and Kaiba getting ready to clash, all of them being very impressed, but Jounouchi still in coma, Honda getting excited with this feels the need to hold Jounouchi to face the window in order to attempt waking him up, when this happens, the ECG moved a little, the doctor is shocked ( since the rates of people surviving from a clinical death is low), I really find this case of Jounouchi clinical death very interesting with his NDE, it will come back again being approached in the next post.

 

Now this time will focus many key points from this scene and in particular, as we see the collide of the gods awakened something within two peculiar millenium items, the Millenium Rod starts glowing again, as Dark Yugi and Kaiba are travelling through something, probably the inside of the memories of the millenium items...you see isn't just the Millenium Rod anymore, the Millenium Puzzle too, what they'll be seing is connected to them and being relevant, Yami Marik gets worried seeing his millenium item acting on it's own...

 

I have been noticing, the glowing eye seems to mean when the millenium item power is activated fully whether being inside someone memory or a shadow game full on, Dark Yugi is usually when he puts penalty game on someone or when the powers of the item is very active or in this case inside a memory of his own memories like this, I say this because at the top of the sky in this vision you see what it looks like a pyramid upside down and clouds swirling around it, but in the terrain you see buildings, more likely the palace destroyed with pyramids behind the destroyed palace, Kaiba is the most shocked, since this is pretty much OBE (Out of Body Experience and this is the second time, he doesn't have a rest with this), we can conclude this is in fact inside the Pharaoh's memories, one wonders what happened for the Pharaoh's palace to be in this state...

 

This part is slightly hard to interpret of what the priest is saying to his king (the Pharaoh), despite of what he is saying contradicts lots of things, we have seen the image of the memory of the priest holding a woman in his arm in front of the stone slab of Blue-Eyes White Dragon who was very sad while in this case, he is acting different...

"Your Divine Right...Your Millenium Items...were worthless against the power of darkness and I...The High Priest of Darkness conquered heaven and earth with his evil power...I am also your enemy... now and forever...with my Millenium Rod and my Dragon...I'll say it again...I will never side with you...but neither will my pride allow me to surrender to darkness..."

These are the lines where there is a lot of contradictions (underlined), the priest itself claiming that his evil power and darkness conquered the world but then says his pride won't let him succumb to darkness...well the fact that you claim being the high priest of darkness and evil power, that means you did succumb to it already...

According to these contradictions(what is underlined) and what we know of it, we can assume many things, he could be controlled by someone or misguided, if you have watched the anime (japanese, preferably) his past or read the full manga, we know what it is... going even deeper

 

The last phrases before the duel starting from the priest:

"All I want is one thing...to defeat you with my own hands. My Dragon whose roar shakes the heavens... will wipe out your magician once and for all"

At first in this time of the story, you would think is rivalry, but later in the Memory World arc, it's revealed that isn't really the case...

 

The pharaoh for the first time talking chanting his summon on Black Magician, he mentions stones of Wedju ( or Wadjet, goddess that protects the kings), I found this tidbit interesting, the reactions from Dark Yugi shocked but immediately questioning if this scene is part of his memories, who is giving the scene the benefit of doubt, while Kaiba is shocked however recognizing his Blue-Eyes White Dragon...

 

Immediately this happens, they recognised the scene as the stone slab in the Domino Museum, in the last panel of the image on left, it further focus on the millenium puzzle, implying this is one of Pharaoh's lost memories and then they come back to their body (Dark Yugi comes back to Yugi's body), you can see what is swirling around them is what's left from the clash between the gods, in order words, the god cards are in their respective graveyards.

 

In the first pack of panel in this key point, the shocked expression and deep breaths, it's clear it was an intense experience for them, Yami Marik is growing more concerned, the funny and curious thing he says is:

 "The Millenium Rod somehow awakened their memories..."

It's not just the Pharaoh soul inside Yugi's body, but also implying Kaiba being reincarnation of the priest, the stone slab, Kaiba being able to read Ra's secret powers in hieratic text plus Kaiba's first vision and this one already implies, but it isn't fully confirmed yet...

 

As they're standing while holding deep breaths due to the vision they just had, they're also analysing the vision and the situation, Kaiba slowly admitting to himself about these visions are memories of something that really happen, but he is still struggling to fully believe is the case.

 

While Kaiba is struggling in believing it, Dark Yugi had no difficulty in not just believing it, he is certain it is one of his memories, what I find curious when he is certain Kaiba was there but he thought "...he was there too!", it could be mentioning as the priest or Kaiba himself seeing the vision too or both.
As for Kaiba thinking they don't need the gods in the battle anymore, says a lot, first is pretty much pointless now their god cards are in the graveyards and even special summoning them with monster reborn, they couldn't attack, so is up to their ace cards from now on.

The last key point, due to their strong rivalry they believe this duel is fate (when there is more to it), for starters for seeing each other as fated rivals and goes back from Dark Yugi's past, in a sense Kaiba coming from this rivalry towards Dark Yugi is what is slowly making him believe in the reincarnation and fate to some extent...
The last part of this duel is coming...

See Ya Next Post!