I'm still covering volume duelist 19 (26 in japanese print), but will be the last post about these 7 volumes I have been covering, after this post I will be covering the last 5 volumes duelist and is primarily about the finals of Battle City (then after will be the very tough and exciting for me to write about, Millenium World/Memory World Story Arc).
I find quite surprising how much I had to write about this one volume, but volume duelist 20 will be similar with 3 posts to cover, then at the end of volume duelist 20 will have a duel transition between 2 volumes again and the following volumes until volume duelist 24 (volume 31 in japanese print).
Plot Summary:
The previous post ended with Kaiba's victory and Ishizu learning from her defeat, since the last duel of the semi-finals is over, they will have a break and to sleep, while the Battle Ship taking them to their next destination, the gang decides to check up on Mai, when they reach the entrance of Mai's room, Ishizu appears to them asking if she could join them since Yami Marik left her in critical condition, there is discussion about the events in the semi-finals, driving Ishizu to tell the tragic story of her family from her perspective...
It begins with Ishizu explaining some of the traditions of the heir of the main family of the tomb guardians in protecting the location of pharaoh's memories and the millenium items, one of them being the heir can't go to the outside world, forced to live underneath until is presented to the pharaoh about the location on his back...
One year after the rite of the tomb guardians, the 11 year old Marik begs Ishizu authorisation to accompany him to the outside world for a small amount of time behind their father's back, Rishid support Marik in effort to convince her that he will look out for in preventing their father to discover their walk in the town close by...they finally persuade her.
The plan in the beginning seems to be working, Marik and Ishizu are walking around town, Ishizu is still concerned that their father might discover and feels is time for them to go and they meet a mysterious man whose name they don't know with Ankh necklace and wearing a turban (Shadi), he speaks to them like a prophet about the fate of the tomb guardians...Ishizu recognising this man has a millenium item and knows about the tomb guardians, Marik being still a child is curious and sharp about the man, she starts worrying in panic, she tries hurry them up to go home...
When they arrive at home, Ishizu finds in the entrance there was trap planted to let their father know if they disobeyed them...Ishizu grows more worried and scared and finds Rishid has been taken with Marik's room in a mess, they find their father harshly and physically torture Rishid in attempt to the death as punishment and tells his children they will be punished after he is done with Rishid...
When their father thinks he has killed Rishid (when he lost consciousness), Yami Marik comes out and says thanks for getting rid of Rishid, picks up the millenium Rod, refusing to obey his father, uses the Rod power to imobilize his father and then his sister Ishizu and Yami Marik kills their father, when he puts their father's skin back (where it has also the same scars as Marik has on his back) over Rishid's back, Rishid starts to wake up, Yami Marik retreats back to Marik, Marik not conscious of his split personality doesn't know what happened and he is shocked seeing his father dead and the mysterious man (Shadi) appears again and claiming that it was the soul of the pharaoh who drove to his death...
Key Points:
Ishizu is picturing who is the most likely to save her brother, if you look at the panel at how she is displaying a image of who she thinks can save her brother, from small to bigger chances, she thinks Dark Yugi is the most likely to save him, I find interesting that she emphasises Jounouchi a little more than Kaiba, probably due to them being more good-natured than Kaiba, she can only pray and put faith in them.
Kaiba may act reserved, he is reserved in some aspects but he is very expressive of his ideals and his competitive trait, Dark Yugi on the other hand, he is very reserved, rarely takes initiative unless necessary or deeply wishes for something (when is touched on his sense of justice, protective nature or wishes to duel against someone very much such as Kaiba, Jounouchi and Mai - remember he wished her best to win to her before her match, it's extremely rare for him to go to the person and say this), this scene may look like they're fated rivals, Kaiba is the one who sees this way more strongly and single-mindedly, he wants to fight Dark Yugi only, while Dark Yugi is more evolved in this part, he sees Jounouchi and Mai as rivals, friendly rivals, he hopes for Kaiba to be the same way, bit by bit he is seeing Yugi as rival too, similar way he has with Kaiba.
This will prove difficult, my problem when comes to select images and panels for this is when a chapter ends in a certain way and the next chapter starts the way the previous chapter ended, but tends to be a little different and adding continuation of the aftermath, so is complicated, the ending of chapter "Duel 171" it ended Kaiba reading the hieroglyphs that he could read as he could with plain japanese, the rest is pretty much the same as this scene and the other difference is the scene above is extended...
The fact Kaiba could read it without even learn it, it is mysterious, he read the writing in the language he is most familiar with, which is japanese, even though when he looks with more attention, he sees it is really written in ancient language, then he remembers what Yami Marik said being written in hieratic text and the chosen ones can read with their hearts even if they never learned the language, seeing this for himself is shocking to him not only by the Ra's power but also the fact he can read it...
Now Kaiba is driven to a corner in accepting his connection to the millenium items and the memories these artefacts contains, he just doesn't know how to react to these recent revelations it was shown and informed to him, if you look at the panel when he thinks...
"Was it a memory...?"
It seems he doesn't think is his own memory but of somebody else that it was triggered by something, he doesn't know it yet that it came from the millenium rod and his Blue-Eyes, probably suspicious that it might be connected to the Blue Eyes mostly regarding the vision memory he saw.
What isn't known to Shizuka, originally duels aren't like this normally even inside the lore of Yu-Gi-Oh!, it's unfortunate to her seeing the duels for the first time when there is supernatural involved, the only closest normal duel without anyone getting hurt in these semi-finals was Ishizu and Kaiba and she didn't watched it (Only Anzu, Jounouchi and Dark Yugi/Yugi were the ones watching), she was at Mai's side.
As Shizuka speaks what she is feeling about these recent events, Ishizu intervenes by giving advice and a inconvenient truth:
"We should never look away from anything. Both today and thousand years ago...Our world is full of conflict and pain. That is a fact of existence."
She is telling the truth and an advice that is very hard to take, it's an important advice and lesson, but takes time and is difficult to learn plus to understand why we should not look away from anything...she speaks from experience...remember she is 20 years old, she is more matured than all of them, I would even dare more than Mai (even though Mai is 24 years old), because she grew up in conditions where she was forced to mature faster than most, being a tomb guardian and all.
You see Yugi paying very close attention to Ishizu with every word she says (I wonder when Dark Yugi and Yugi switched...), since he is very sharp, he can tell every word she says holds a deep significance linked to her past, traditions and history of the tomb guardians, he feels he needs to know...
Besides her informing about the one goal of the tomb guardians they dedicated to in protecting the millenium items, she says...
Besides her informing about the one goal of the tomb guardians they dedicated to in protecting the millenium items, she says...
"But you see young girl...Even if the world is full of sadness...There are those who reach out with open arms in hopes of merely catching a glimpse of it... In the hopes of being part of that world, sorrows and all..."
Shizuka's reaction to her words and sad expression she wears is interesting because is telling she is observant of others, must have heeded she must have a very difficult and sad past...
Now as for what Ishizu said, well you can see for the reader she is referring to the conditions tomb guardians go through to fullfill their goal, if you look back into Rishid's backstory and the quote above hints to the fact they lived underneath...also implying that despite of what the tomb guardians went through, some of them tried to have hopes and dreams and trying to keep somehow positive...even if was of small amount...
Yugi asks Ishizu why Marik wanted to kill them (I wouldn't say his dark side, because Yami Marik says he has no needs or revenge, he wants to destroy everything besides himself), he asks her, he must have seen she is a very good person and probably thought she would be willing to tell the story behind Marik's hatred and quest for revenge...
Ishizu seems to be only willing to tell Yugi because he is the vessel of the pharaoh, she rightfully thinks Yugi has the right to know what made Marik in this unstable mental state...
If we look into detail, only Marik and their father wasn't allowed to contact with the outside world due to being the heir and the leader of the main family of the tomb guardians, even though the rest of the member of the tomb guardians could go outside, well, they would have to get food somewhere, probably some of them would have a job in the outside world for the basic needs...
The event Ishizu reveals was 5 years ago, one year after the ritual Marik went through, at this time Marik was 11, Ishizu was 15 and Rishid was 20 years old...
Remember this is Ishizu's perspective, the fact there is a mention of a scene like this where she doesn't appear but must have heard these things often at Rishid from her father probably like how during Ishizu was behind a pillar when her little brother went through the ritual praying for him, it means she felt compassion, sadness and love for both Marik and Rishid as family but because of her father sees Rishid this way mixed with hatred for Rishid had been close of 1 year to being his heir and putting him in a position as a servant where he felt sorry for him for being abandoned, it seems he didn't even allowed the Ishtar siblings see Rishid as their sibling from quoting this:
"Don't think that because you carved that, you are a son of the Ishtar family! You're a servant..."
It implies he almost saw him as a son before Marik was born and at the same time he wanted to be a biological son to be the heir, it felt convenient seeing him as a servant, to do the chores and to not think he almost made him his son officially, however the carving Rishid made on his own face reminds him of that even though he knows is proof of his loyalty to the Ishtar family.
Behind their father back, they treated Rishid like an older brother, they wished Rishid to be acknowledged by their father as part of the family as seen in Rishid's backstory again.
This is from a picture he is seeing in a magazine with a picture of a motorcycle, when he enters the town, he was fascinated by it and then this picture, he becomes specially fascinated by this vehicle Ishizu explained (which shows she goes outside and learn a few things when goes shopping for their basic needs) and says while looking at the picture with sadness, because the heir living underneath with no contact to the outside world passed down to generation to other generation, Marik thinks he won't ever get the chance to ride a motorcycle...the unfortunate thing is they will go through a tragic event for the family that will give this kind of chance to him...
Shadi, once again, he appears at important turn of events to those connected to the Millenium Items or who will be future wielders of them, we don't know who he exactly is, the strange part in this scene is how he knows what will happen if he doesn't wield the millenium tauk to see the future and knows they're connected to them and what he says to them is very curious too...
"The time is nigh...When the pharaoh soul will be resurrected. Tomb guardians...Your fate has caught up to you. Soon, blood will spill upon blood, and tragedy will tear your clan apart...This is the will of the pharaoh..."
He knew what would happen but how he did it, it's a mystery, I have some theories but will only be explored only when we reach the Memory World and Dark Side of Dimensions, it can't be from millenium Ankh, that is not it's ability but see through someone soul, which is strange...
Another detail to keep in mind as to why he says that the role of the tomb guardians and their roles is coming to a close, Yugi and Marik are of the same age, Yugi at this time was already in efforts of trying to solve the millenium puzzle, it took 8 years to make a progress, once he did made progress when his intellect was more evolved and focused on the puzzle itself, took 2 days, when Yugi started, he was around 7 years old, at this time was 4 years after Yugi started to work on the puzzle, Shadi knew at this time for saying this, someone already had the puzzle, but seems to not have known where and who was it, since between Egypt and Japan is a huge distance.
Another factor he mentions saying the pharaoh soul will be resurrected, it's more of a way of expression and the circumstances, because the spirit wasn't dead since is of someone who was already deceased, since the pharaoh soul was in pieces of the millenium puzzle, once completed became whole again as spirit without his memories.
Last point in this section of panels is all of this happening is "the will of the pharaoh...", the strange thing about it, is it how it could be, at this time he was in pieces of the millenium puzzle, they're tomb guardians, these traditions must have been created after the pharaoh of the puzzle died by the pharaoh after Dark Yugi's life as a pharaoh. who was it...? I have theories that the main family of the tomb guardians are connected to it, those who protected the Millenium Tauk and Rod...(it will be saved again in Memory World and small hint in the Finals)...
You see by the first panel in this section, Yugi and Jounouchi shocked expressions while Shizuka is apprehensive, Yugi, we know in the following panels heeded immediately it was Shadi by the description, same for Dark Yugi, however due to Jounouchi expression must have noticed as well it was Shadi too, since isn't a first time he heard of him and have saw him before and have heard Pegasus's backstory...
Dark Yugi reaction, you can see he was listening to the story attentively, Shadi's mention made a reaction for letting the readers know he is listening to the story, since there is occasions he didn't knew about something like the newspaper article about Ishizu, as for his conclusions about Shadi appearance in Ishtar family backstory, his reasoning is spot on, recognising Shadi must have some special connection to millenium items and his own past...
Dark Yugi reaction, you can see he was listening to the story attentively, Shadi's mention made a reaction for letting the readers know he is listening to the story, since there is occasions he didn't knew about something like the newspaper article about Ishizu, as for his conclusions about Shadi appearance in Ishtar family backstory, his reasoning is spot on, recognising Shadi must have some special connection to millenium items and his own past...
Marik is suspicious the Ankh the man was wearing is a millenium item for noticing the similarities with the ones their family protect...
Ishizu was a pretty sharp young one, she noticed it was obvious the Ankh the man was wearing is a millenium item, she was curious for what he said, knowing they were tomb guardians and having a millenium item...even the readers or who watched isn't sure who he is...
Once again, the manga series goes dark again, it happens occasionally, Ishizu when she found the trap their father set up in case they disobeyed him, the anime (japanese and original version) is a little different in this scene, the way Ishtar father is torturing Rishid is the same way made on the heir to put glyphs on the back, with a knife burning hot and pass through the skin, it's violent, very violent...
Ishtar father is punishing Rishid with torture to death intentionally, as you see he is taking pleasure with it as if he has been holding back all this time and taking the chance to "get rid of Rishid" who was almost officially a son and also telling he will give the same punishment to his children except maybe not to death, when you think about it, for all his lifetime living underneath and never went to the outside world made him this twisted, I don't think this is really for punishment's sake but taking revenge since he followed and suffered from the customs and it's laws of the tomb guardians strictly and hold back his wishes to go to the outside world and discovering his own son went to with the help of Ishizu and Rishid behind his back and trying to deceive him, so he snapped...
It's possible he had intentions to torture his children to death, so he didn't had to go through the traditions anymore and living in the outside world and not his children, or not to the death as lesson to not ever disobey him and fear him.
It's clear, Marik deeply cares for Rishid and attempts to stop his father in killing Rishid, when their father says:
"Now take a good look...at the pain you gave him!"
One would think he is referring to Marik only, it seems is also to Ishizu but specially Marik, it shows their father is very well aware about their deep care for Rishid like a family and making them see Rishid's death, after he did his attack while thinking Rishid was dead, when he just lost consciousness and tells Marik now he is next, right after that, it's when his split personality is about to awaken and to come out...
If we think about it it, Ishtar father is pretty much the main source of creating Marik's hatred since he was the one who implemented the glyphs on his back, caused the trauma and the same for the traditions of the tomb guardians forced upon him, from how we look at scenes with him, he wasn't really a caring father, his children respected him because he was their father and same for love for him being their father...
When Marik was trying to keep his main self, you see his father is noticing something is strange with him as if trying to hold something back...Yami Marik comes out, he is still confused because he reveals to have a different personality from the son he knows, it's fascinating that Yami Marik was interested in the millenium rod and it's powers...the way his father phrases that he is forbidden to touch the millenium items, you can tell he himself never touched them (hence he used a dagger or knife burning hot to torture and punish, otherwise he would have used the millenium rod to do so).
Now some of the strangest parts, it's how Yami Marik who never touched them neither their father, he knew already how to use it so quickly and knew there was a knife inside it, from what I gathered about the millenium items at the start, you just don't know how to use it right off the bat, it takes a bit of time (except for the spirits resided within, like Yami Bakura and Dark Yugi).
Another thing this scenes proves the Yami Marik didn't come from a millenium item, but according to what we have seen about the nature of the millenium items, they can attract and affect people's mind just by being close to one or even wielding one, if it holds a sealed spirit, the spirit can talk to the person touching it like Dark Yugi able to temporarily talk to Jounouchi giving the solution to save Jounouchi, Yugi and himself from the fire, Pegasus was deeply affected, whoever wielded the Millenium Ring would die (like the thief who was attracted to it and tried to steal it and died for wielding one) except for Ryou Bakura, remember the ancient artefacts collector who wanted the millenium puzzle, Ryuji's father trying to solve the puzzle almost going to labyrinth of darkness, there is countless examples, I suspect the Millenium Rod somehow affected the family, specially the father and Marik, while Ishizu and Rishid is obvious they weren't affected...
Here is a part of this scene that is curious, at the start when Ishizu tries to call out Marik, Yami Marik tells her to stay out of this, and put her immobilised, at the beginning it was only his father and not the sister, after he immobilised Ishizu, he was immobilising two people at the same time, one can wonder if Yami Marik had any intention to kill his sister but he had with their father, so I'm not sure, I suppose he did since this split personality desires to destroy, but is also curious he choses his father to kill first, it must be from the hatred Marik has been holding back for so long...
Seeing their father's reaction and about to be killed at his own son hands, at this time he must have realised he made a big mistake and starting to feel conscious he is part of who created this other personality...it was too late.
This must have been a very traumatic experience for Ishizu, seeing her father's death and even more shocking being her little brother killing their father and getting to know for the first time his split personality.
Now going into detail about how their father died, as gory as it is, if we look at the shadows depicting Yami Marik killing his own father,you see Ishtar father is with his hands tied up to a pillar, an adult who would be stronger than a child, with the millenium rod power to imobilize a person, he can do that without a problem, now the gruesome part, what he did killing his father was removing the skin's back portion that showed the location of the lost memories of the pharaoh, it's horrible, but it shows where the source of hatred comes from, the rite of the tomb guardians, of who forced and implemented on him the traditions for being the heir of the Tomb Guardians Clan...and put over Rishid's back, as a symbol he wanted Rishid to take his place and at the same time sadistically having pity and satisfied with his death...this gesture has a lot of chaotic meanings...
The moment Yami Marik sees Rishid gaining conscious, he is about to kill him, but can't take control for much longer that the original Marik comes back, as is pretty well known, some people with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) can not remember at the beginning when the other personality took over, the fact that Marik was always afraid of the dark even though most of his childhood was living in the dark underneath with only candles and lamps, while Yami Marik loves it, which might mean, Marik maybe he was slightly aware of the existence of his split personality for some time until this time now that Yami Marik is taking over, he is fully aware...when Marik looks around in order to try to understand what happened...
Last section of panels, the main Marik is shocked and sad for his father's death and in a bloody state too, then Shadi appears to say a blatant lie like that, he gets on my nerves many times...
One thing is for sure, the heir being stuck underground and never going to the outside world, it's almost impossible to accomplish the goal of the Ishtar Family unless they go outside, it was kinda necessary and besides Yami Marik killing their father, well prevented from being very close to death themselves by their own father, so is complicated...
In literal sense, what Shadi says is a lie, but in a metaphorical sense, he refers to "guarding the memories of the pharaoh" and it's traditions (since memories kinda represents one's identity) is what drove him to his death... (since it's traditions hindered from fulfilling it's duty completely), this tragic event was a drastic measure of fate if you will, the roles of each millenium items were starting to take on it's roles, since at this time Yugi was already trying to solve the Millenium Puzzle, it's like the fate of the millenium items was set in motion faster.
This scene explains his misinterpretation of what led Marik to seek revenge on the pharaoh soul and the host.
It's been a huge post... See Ya Next Post!
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