Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.37 Part 3/3 (The Pharaoh's Lost Name)

Woohoo! Third and last part of volume 6 of Memory World and penultimate volume of the manga series and what nice way to end this volume, the title holds the clue. 😏
The PC problem still little news in how is going to be (the technician will see if replacing with another hard disk will work...since then nothing...)...which is a shame because I wasn't able to do something for this post specifically, I may do it later when I get a chance, the E3 is coming up (this portable 2GB RAM can't read live streams well at all, too many interruptions), I hope I can see the ones I'm interested the most to watch somehow at least...but more importantly, I hope my PC problem is solved before the end of June, so it can be on time for the reformulation and reorganisations of the early posts.


Plot Summary:

Vizier Siamun sucessfully summoning Exodia, it does resist for a little awhile to be sliced in half by Zorc, then there is a conversation between Zorc and the pharaoh, which also reveals what Zorc is...
As the priests, Mana, the pharaoh and Hasan resisting to his attacks and when the pharaoh is last on his knees, a group flying are approaching, the gang is arriving to the rescue, when they arrive, they stand in front of Dark Yugi on a protective stance, for awhile the gang fight against Zorc and they resist well Zorc's powerful attacks but their own attacks against Zorc doesn't do much damage and as Hasan is almost being destroyed and almost fading while revealing the face behind the mask of someone very familiar saying the only way to defeat him is with the pharaoh lost name, the gang tells they have found it but is on hieroglyphs and they can't read it, Hasan hints that they just have to transcribe or find a way for the pharaoh to see it...following this advice, Anzu notices Dark Yugi was still holding the cartouche necklace she has given him and she asks the gang to think of the hieroglyphs holding the pharaoh's name with the cartouche...
The hieroglyphs holding the pharaoh's lost name were successfully transcribed to Dark Yugi's cartouche necklace, Dark Yugi proclaimed his true name with this through Yugi's deck, Dark Yugi is able to summon the three gods and fuse them into becoming "The Creator God of Light, Horakhty", who defeated Zorc Necrophades.



Key Points:

It's really saddening and kinda touching that Dark Yugi did go run to Siamun, remember he did grow up with Siamun look over him when he was still a prince, Dark Yugi must have seen him like a grandfather he never had a chance to bond with (when he was born, his father was already a pharaoh meaning his grandfather from his father side was already deceased), but I still hold a theory that Siamun was Dark Yugi's grandfather from his mother side, remember high ranked officials are usually members of the royal family or few generations behind in royal family and there are cases the pharaoh or the prince didn't knew, if we look at their eyes, they are quite similar the size and the pupils (the shape of his eye is definitely from his father, the facial shape is mixed with father and mother, and the nose from his mother).



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As Dark Yugi have learn to become more resilient and more determined in not giving up, then Zorc starts his boring speech that seems to be made of limited vocabulary:

"I am the dark! What do you see after you throw your lives to the darkness...? Do you see anything other than your own foolishness and regret? You mortals fear the dark...but it rules you...you are powerless to the shadows!"

😪*yawns* 😒that was unbelievably boring, I don't agree mostly what he just said, for starters whose he refers "throwing your lives to the darkness" and then only seeing regret and realize their foolishness? Is he speaking of people who die being darkness ahead of them or those who committed sacrifices for power and later regretting it or both, in that case he is half right and wrong, because every individual is different and course of life isn't the same then what would await ahead of them is different, the way he sees darkness is also limited...no surprise there.

His claim about mortals fearing the dark as if applies to every mortal, that's very rude and ignorant, it doesn't apply to everyone, what about blind people who live their lives normally for most time when they all see is the dark or just shadows? his logic is flawed 😑 besides even those who aren't blind, when the electricity is down they can turn a candle or smartphone or a lantern, even the people who fear the dark find ways to turn around, so no the dark doesn't truly rule anyone unless the individual let it be the case....so no one is really "powerless to the shadows" as he claims.

Dark Yugi argues...

"That's not true! The soul in this body is the light of life! It will never go out! I believe that!"

That sounds contradicting, I guess is the cheesy words make it sound like that,  the reasons why it sounds contradicting is that the soul is the self that never dies while life has to do with the vessel, the body that will die, even though is not exactly clear but it might be if he used more technical terms, but it would get more complicated explanation, so what he is trying to say about the soul being the light of life is that the self even in the face of darkness or in death, the free will, capacity to think for yourself, take decisions and have their own principles into actions, free agency, consciousness is the individual own light (not of light and darkness), it doesn't disappear and being the light of life is that life itself is the representation of positive and negative energy (light and dark, good and evil, good and bad moments, happiness and sadness, etc), being up to us to make it worth living and even when you die you keep moving forward in awareness and consciousness of the individual that doesn't die, I think is what he meant from the time when the pharaoh about to seal himself and Zorc and now with Dark Yugi even being the soul of the deceased pharaoh in keep fighting until the end, I think that is what he meant, it shows huge growth in his part despite talking in a cheesy manner, he is mostly right (at least shows that he now knows nothing is black and white), it's just a little contradicting.

We can confirm with what Dark Yugi says here:

"Even if this body is destroyed...the light of my soul will pass to someone else! My soul will go on and on...until you are conquered at last!"

It's pretty much what I wrote above with more additional meanings that explains the past (when he sealed his soul to pass down his will to someone), present (Yugi being the one who solve the puzzle and inherit his will) and the future (ceremonial duel and dark side of dimensions) expect me to bring this up frequently in the last volume and the Dark Side of Dimensions movie, everything is connected...it is impressive line here, did the author thought this much ahead or was it when he started to make drafts in Dark Yugi being the soul of a deceased pharaoh?! I wonder 😕

 

I don't buy everything he is saying, Zorc is quite a vain and conceited villain with tendencies of mixing truths with lies, ignorance and overlooking things because of how conceited he is and I don't buy his claim in being an "evil god", the concept of god is on different standards, brawn power alone is not one of them 😒 and what he says here shows holes and reveals what kind of being he truly is...

"Fool! Haven't you figure out...? It is humans who give me power! Shadows are born in the human heart! In the midst of light, the only way for men to know themselves is to turn to the darkness and their own shadow! Without my shadows, you would be mere drones, never questioning the meaning of your existence...The never-ending wars and slaughter among men...They are instincts of mankind, the regular adjustments needed to sustain life! With my power I will create a world of eternal darkness! I'll give you foolish mortals an endless hell!! Ghahaha!"

This gonna get long and tough to explain it 😫, for starters he said is humans who give him power and shadows are born in the human heart and those mentioned shadows are his shadows, in general it doesn't make much sense because if these "shadows" are born from the human heart, then couldn't be his originally or rooted in him, besides he says humans give power, so it comes from something separate from himself that is given to him from humans that being the shadows born from the human heart, but looking at the sequential order, we can conclude he derives people's darkness.

When looking at it's patterns and traits from Zorc and Yami Bakura (the Zorc in modern age) mixed personality features of thief Bakura, Akhenaden and very likely the predecessor of millennium ring of priest Mahado, looking around, it seems all connected to the millennium ring (thief Bakura who wielded it, Akhenaden who had his millennium eye with parasite mind implemented from the millennium ring, priest Mahado predecessor who was also one of the magicians who created the millennium items), as if it had it's hosts to derive darkness from these individuals and isn't it convenient the fact one of the millennium ring abilities is to detect "other people's darkness" as if attracted to it and funny enough another ability called "parasite mind"? Mahado had to use lots of heka to keep the darkness of his predecessor that millennium ring absorded and prevent himself to not be taken as next host, with all of these connections, it reveals the true nature of Zorc Necrophades, he is not an "evil god", by how he works in patterns and process like a parasite and Zorc is also clearly a spirit being, so it makes him a parasite spirit.

He derives from people's darkness to make him stronger but needed hosts, the hosts being the ones I mentioned and what made him so powerful was to the predecessor of priest Mahado, his darkness was powerful enough to put a wielder in flames if not gifted of powerful heka as Mahado mentioned, the endless hatred of thief Bakura that shaped a powerful Ka that could only be defeated by the egyptian gods, Akhenaden's darkness regarding his envy, bitterness and ambitions related to his brother being the pharaoh accumulated over the years plus the mass murder he committed, lastly as it should count, the darkness of the human lives used as sacrifices to create the millennium items.

Even in Dark Side of Dimensions there is evidence of such...(it also seems Mahado knew about this during the whole time since he became a fully-fledged sorcerer...then promoted to priesthood, very impressive, he knew very well what he was doing when he fused the Ba with his Ka).

I'm not over yet with Zorc, now on with his "philosophy" and "perception of humans" , he is wrong about many things there, for starters the questioning of the individual about their own existence doesn't come from "his shadows" that he absorbed, it's not the individual darkness but natural questions about awareness of their conscience, free will, the night sky thinking of the universe and their own place in it, nature, then it comes the morality (good and evil) and learning it that it isn't black and white, regarding humans knowing themselves is seeing their own shadows, that depends, basing on how each individual face their reality in their life (life experiences can be similar or different depending on how they face their reality), as for the wars and slaughter, yeah, sure, but what about the solutions and inventions that hasn't to do with slaughter and wars or anything negative or not even positive but neutral such some discoveries in science, internet, amusement parks, entertainment, art, maths, I could go on, nothing is black and white, no exceptions.

Not even Zorc, he claims he is the dark from absorbing darkness that's not even his own to make himself powerful, but yet he is still an entity with it's own light from his free will and choices in how he wishes to function and being strongly negative inclined based on his own selfishness and ego, I don't know if he is ignorant or believing in his own lie.

 

I give lots of credit to his determination in not giving up the fight until his Ba is gone which shows Dark Yugi immense growth but his cheesy words in the beginning that we see on the panel, but why make it sound black and white when he knows isn't the case...? 😫 In general it means fight for the fallen who were also fighting for a better future, I don't think it was necessary to be worded so cheesy, oh well, he does have that kind of tendency, it's part of his heroic personality trait...

I remember when I read it the first time being very moved and very excited, it still does in my re-readings, it's also a very important scene, it's like a closure in a way, when looking at the beginning to this point, it has always been Dark Yugi to protect and save Yugi and the gang, they always needed to rely on him very often, now this moment and circumstances is the opposite, Dark Yugi is the one being protected by his friends and also this time Dark Yugi has to rely on them, it shows their growth as well in standing on their own and independence, I love how is their time taking a protective stance in front of Dark Yugi, it's like closing a circle, plus how the panel was drawn is very cool 😎, of course, Dark Yugi quickly recognises Yugi, his host, due to him being last on his strength, it's slower to absorb what is happening...
It's also one of my most favourite scenes in the manga series too 😊.

 

Continuing this scene, it's so nice to see them taking charge and in the panel ensemble on the right, he is so moved that they came to save and protect him, he has no words but means other things...

"My partner...all of you...You came...for me..."

As I mentioned in the last post that Dark Yugi hold on to hope and faith they have survived and left for safety but instead is so moved that they came for him instead but he is not surprised, he is just glad they survived and moved by their gesture in protecting him this time as he tries to speak to warn them that Zorc is very strong, as Anzu noticed how badly wounded Dark Yugi is, she notices that even in the world of memory he still has the necklace cartouche she has given him...she is a bit surprised.

 

Besides Zorc's boring manner of speaking in wrongly perceiving these people who just appeared aren't memories from 3000 years ago but the new memories and Jounouchi correcting him:

"You jerk! We're not memories...we're the real thing!! We're his friends!!"

I find it so funny in how Jounouchi corrects him, it's sounds like the tone "Stop acting like you know everything when you don't!", which is true, he does have tendency to act as such when there is lots of holes in what he says and claims, his "wisdom"...it is to show that even the gang doesn't think he is what he claims as they figure out on their own Yami Bakura is Zorc...
It's also cool to see Yugi after his duel against Yami Bakura shadow spy, his confidence as grow a little more in this scene saying to Zorc who was being conceited "You think so, huh? Why don't you just fight us and see!!", but did his self-esteem problems has been completely gone?

For Mahado to come back, since Dark Yugi re-experiencing his memories can only summon based on his past real events, Yugi being his host, he can restart it by using the deck and duel disk based on the ancient egypt but with the version of modern age, but only the gang and Yami Bakura shadow spy can use it like this, Dark Yugi isn't aware yet he can do it too but under special reasons, as Yugi said before this moment that the deck Yugi is now using is their deck (Dark Yugi and Yugi of how they usually built together), Dark Yugi is kinda surprised that they can summon monsters in similar ways as they do but through the modern age version he knows so well.

 

It's how Zorc with his face and thinking in that limited vocabulary "the Ka are sealed into those pieces of paper...?!", it's hard taking bit seriously, but if we look at it, since the battle continued, we haven't see Yami Bakura and Dark Yugi talking in the table, it's possible Dark Yugi went inside his character, as for Yami Bakura we can't know for sure, since he does seem to have given information but it seems Zorc is acting independently, it's possible Yami Bakura is inside but not truly control him, it seems this Zorc only knows this is inside the world of memory and that's it, because Yami Bakura already knows this much but is strange we didn't get his reaction when is shown the gang survived if he is watching from the table...that's weird, hmmm, or playing as dark game master of the shadow RPG or inside Zorc and staying "in-character" of Zorc back in Ancient Egypt since Yami Bakura is Zorc himself? hmmm

I find interesting in how Mahado and Mana are moved, impressed and curious by the gang spiritual strength and determination in protecting the pharaoh, I think is cute 😊.

 

Hasan is shielding them to give time and advice which is not by the cards alone, he hints that their mission in finding the pharaoh's true name is the key to win this battle...Jounouchi confirms to them they had found it but they were hieroglyphs, so they couldn't read it, which makes sense and he adds since they couldn't read it, they made sure to memorize the characters of the hieroglyphs, which makes me wonder how long were they there according to the time gap between when they entered the room and when they were arriving? probably longer than we think, it's possible the room they entered were specially protected even if the royal tomb collapsed except the room with the pharaoh name? it's a  possibility, it's an interesting an advice Hasan makes to them, all they have is to find a way for Dark Yugi to see, the mask is starting to break, the face we start to see is very familiar...

Dark Yugi's reaction is also interesting in terms of process thought, he wasn't shocked or surprised, but that he just remembered that if they survived the collapse as they were about to enter the room with his name then it would mean they had found it...so how the gang will be able to make them see, huh? (it's one of the best parts of this scene in general 😉).

 

When the face behind the mask became visible to them as he was confirming to them that their quest is the key to victory, Yugi and Dark Yugi immediately recognized him as Shadi.

Now we have the reveal, it makes Shadi a more mysterious character, with his power of appearing and disappearing, we could get the sense he was connected to the millennium items somehow, now with this we know he is the spirit of the millennium tablet, but it doesn't really explain the appearing and disappearing because in the world of memory, he just flied around but in the physical/modern age world, how he moves around is different from as Hasan, here we see him disappearing.

Thanks to the Shadi shielding them they survived the attack to a point of impressing Zorc...

Yugi is trying to think up a solution in how they can transmit Dark Yugi's true name, even Dark Yugi is trying to think of something as well, there might be a reason why, a pharaoh name is inside a cartouche carved in it, it's hard to think up a place where wouldn't risk to be destroyed by Zorc (like the floor and rocks) and seems Yugi doesn't know of something and Dark Yugi didn't remember at the moment of the key for them to help him was always hanging on his neck...but guess who will think of a solution...

 

Then Anzu remembered the cartouche necklace that Dark Yugi still held even inside the world of memory, since the pharaoh name is inside a cartouche plus she must have noticed since they can visualize their decks and how duel disks to appear, maybe the same could be applied if they visualized the hieroglyphs of how they looked like (I don't have the other panel when she adds the "cartouche" word after when asks them to think of the hieroglyphs), this solution was very intelligent and resourceful, it also shows she understood well the lore of the world of memory too, not just Yugi and Yami Bakura (it's not only these three 😉), I also keep mention she is not only very intuitive and smart but also observant and resourceful.

This is one of my favourites moments of the manga series as much as one of my fave Anzu's moments (she became slowly one of my most favourite characters, she is the kind of character that grows on you).

 

From what we look in the panel ensemble on the left, Dark Yugi sees his cartouche necklace starting to float around, he is with a puzzled look at first then notices the hieroglyphs starting to appear as the gang carves in it, as he quickly understood it, in the "!!" it does sound in a sense "Oh I see!they're carving in the cartouche necklace..." but it seems that only Anzu and Dark Yugi knew of the necklace cartouche, which explains why she asked the gang to visualize the hieorglyphs with the cartouche, so it could automatically go to the necklace cartouche (since in royal tombs, the pharaoh names are on cartouches, unfortunately I can't show it for now this part as an extra, PC problems are still not solved).

Also we have to remember that he already remembers how to read ancient egyptian texts as there was a panel of him reading the scrolls... We see him as if his inner fire has been ignited again seeing his chance to win the battle against Zorc, once the gang's task was done...

I love the last four panels above in this double spread, specially the panel when Dark Yugi picked the cartouche necklace, so cool, but was it really necessary? maybe to view his name more clearly to see it in front of him? it must be, then he hears his father again about the same advice when he fought against thief Bakura for the first time, it's similar in how it happened when he held the corpse of his father and when Jounouchi came in a moment of crisis in the duel against Kaiba, so what this could mean? could it be Dark Yugi can hear sometimes a spirit but only for a moment? hmmm

 

But it's not just so he could see his name with more clarity, it's so he can problaim it.
I find curious the order Dark Yugi mentions Yugi and his friends, he usually says "my partner/partner" first but this time the order is the other way around, probably because who had the solution and given the cartouche necklace which help them in carving his name and himself in getting finally his real name is the friend who came up with the solution to make him see his name (I'll get there in next post, it's a more appropriate time 😄), it's not because is the most important friend or person, but giving huge credit, since it was very helpful and a lifesaver for all of them...

 

Now I can finally start referring him as Atem and not Dark Yugi anymore, I was getting anxious, because I feel more comfortable by calling his real name, I'm one of the fans who chooses to refer him by Atem instead with Japanese pronunciation being Atemu, so I mention him by his name with no japanese pronunciation.

His friends reactions, it's sinking in his name for them, but it will take time because all this time they called Atem as Yugi and refer him as "the other Yugi", specially Yugi as "other self/me"...

As for his name, there was someone who did this really well on tumblr and now I can't find it but I remember to be related to Ra, but if you google, you can get bits and bits but says is related to Egyptian Mythology, there was one being a rather amusing result that describes well most of his personality traits , with few other traits that I don't think he holds, but not to take too seriously because I tried my name and only had a few things right and was mostly wrong xD.

 

Going deeper with the name Atem, it is strongly linked to this god above defeating Zorc, Horakhty - The Creator God of Light, to get the general idea of what and who is in egyptian mythology then by clicking here to read the article , according to the article is more or less in general what Atem mentions above (and I mentioned above), the union of gods, in the article is two, Ra and Osiris but then also adopted with three gods, but Obelisk doesn't seem included even though is also related to the name Atem too, it might be a reference to the third in the article mention with a different name, who knows...I don't understand much about mythologies (it has always been confusing to me, even more with it's history 😵), let's say in summary the name Atem is connected to all these important egyptian gods, did the author researched all of that when he start to make drafts of Dark Yugi being a soul of a deceased pharaoh? he must prepared his name when he introduced the egyptian gods back then, which explains why was so important to find the pharaoh's lost name to unite/fuse them into another one more powerful.
Atem also learned connecting to the event in summoning Ra and before the time reversal and Yugi summoning "Mahado" as Black/Dark Magician, he must have realised that he could "restart" the three gods summoning but through Yugi with their deck, very resourceful as always.

See Ya Next Post!