Thoughts&Observations | Mangá Vol.34 Part 2/3 (Riding Battle Between The Thief and The Pharaoh)

Tehehe, woohoo, 2nd part of the 3rd volume of Memory World, I like this phase a lot in Dark Yugi's character development, it's very nice, I look forward to reach my favourite moment in this part of the volume...


Plot Summary:

Dark Yugi riding in his horse summoning Slifer The Sky Dragon after thief Bakura with his Ka, leaving the palace with Ka riding battle starting...the gang at the entrance of the palace sleeping are awoken by the noise thief Bakura makes and see Dark Yugi leaving the palace riding on his horse, they recognise him straight away and they try to catch up to him...
While the Riding Battle is happening, it is a pretty fierce fight, since when they leave the palace, they are still in the city, because thief Bakura with his Ka can't defeat a God, so he uses a very low tactic to weaken the pharaoh by using his Ka to attack the citizens and Dark Yugi uses the God Slifer to shield the citizens from thief Bakura's Ka attack, this keeps going until they are on the outskirts of the city, from here are attempts to outsmart each other but because Dark Yugi is weakened for shielding his citizens, thief Bakura is at a bigger advantage even with the help of the priests that caught to them, they still struggle fighting against thief Bakura...when Dark Yugi feels he is about to lose this fight, his friends arrives...


Key Points:

 

I love that panel of him riding the horse, it is from different perspective from the last post I mentioned, but is such a nicely drawn one, I have to mention, once again the horse really stands out to me...
This is when thief Bakura begins his smart tactic but still pretty low...thief Bakura has come up with something planned in this moment to defeat Dark Yugi by his thought:

"That's right, pharaoh...follow me to your doom!"

He says things as if he can see the future like what he said to priest Akhenaden...in this moment too...what could make it to be the case...I wonder...


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So the gang were sleeping at the entrance waiting for a chance to enter the palace to see Dark Yugi or Dark Yugi to leave the palace...well that's all they could do for the time being since they didn't have any lead yet to where could be Dark Yugi's lost name, the noise that the guards make informing each other about thief Bakura and pharaoh wake up the gang, Yugi's reaction is quite amusing because what he first says is 

"The pharaoh!?!?" but his first thought was "Bakura...?!"

Probably because hearing pharaoh was a reflex knowing Dark Yugi is a deceased pharaoh, but "Bakura" name is more of a pending thought relating to Yami Bakura and Ryou Bakura in here, but more towards Yami Bakura, the spirit sealed in the millenium ring of how he was in ancient time, he presumes.

 

They recognised him right away, what I find interesting is their expressions and what they say on the panel on the right...It's very amusing...Anzu is by "Yugi" and Jounouchi is pretty interesting...

"He's dressed like a king, but there's no mistake!! that's Yugi!!"

Three of the gang in the panel are blushing a little seeing Dark Yugi dressed as pharaoh, they must have thought he looked great in his pharaoh outfit (it's true), both of them blushed before and kinda due to his good looks as well (Anzu and Jounouchi in Death-T and even Yugi in the first volume of Memory World, I didn't put those parts panels because it would fill too much), I guess they kinda of admire it (there is people that actually admire someone's good looks from aesthetic perspective, but Anzu we know well she was attracted to him), but I also find that Jounouchi seen Dark Yugi in pharaoh outfit and describe it as "dressed like a king" pretty interesting, there is only small differences plus that he remembers he is a deceased pharaoh and being a king's title and ruler in Egypt and good eye to note what he was wearing was royal clothes), interesting to see only Honda isn't blushing, he is a bit slower at reacting to quick-paced events.

 

Thief Bakura very low tactic yet smart to weaken Dark Yugi, by taking advantage of Dark Yugi/pharaoh's protective nature, it shows thief Bakura shows that he does acknowledge this personality as one of his strengths but like every strength has it's own weakness as is what is about to show to the readers...

"For a better world, for the good of the people! that's your creed, isn't it pharaoh?"

Thief Bakura's thought about the pharaoh's ethic and sense of justice, the "good of the people" are the innocent and defenceless people and his stance and will to stand up to protect his subjects (as he did with the priests and tries to do for his people)...

While Dark Yugi is getting more involved and inside his role as pharaoh, ruler of Egypt, we can easily picture that he would be the kind of leader to chose to be in the front lines to protect his kingdom as we see here (as there is leaders choosing to be on the front lines to conquer) instead to be in back sitting in the throne knowing nothing really what is going on outside the palace/castle.

 

I have to say, it may not look like it, but this scene alone of Dark Yugi shows a nice development, he became so much more protectively selfless, when we reach this scene, the last time he did a selfless act like this, shielding others from an terrible attack that could give certain death, it was in Battle City Ship at the end of the duel Mai VS Yami Marik , by that time he would go this far for friends and here we see for his people and his kingdom, because he also feels is his responsibility.

I had to highlight it, it's the cover of one of the chapters in the part of this volume, it's gorgeous, I love it so much just as much at the first key point and last key points from previous post , T-T, that's not fair, too many beautifully drawn panels, art-wise, I love Memory World Arc art in panels the most (story wise too), again the horse really stands out to me blend in with the outskirts of the city, view of the city from the top of pathway of a hill...

 

Not only is he seeing his role as pharaoh as not being just a responsibility but duty as well, then there is this interesting conversation, the way thief Bakura is phrasing...

"h-hehheh... Now do you see? Even the Royal Power of the Pharaoh is nothing before me! Whether they're men or gods, all lives are in my hands!"

The way he speaks of "royal power", he keeps emphasising words related to "royalty", he means by royalty in general and main target being the main royal, the pharaoh, he says "royal power of the pharaoh", it means he knows that the highest ranked officers are commonly members of the royal family or nobles (they also have royal line but from longer generations even in ancient Egypt - noble hereditaries) and that royal power isn't just reduced to the main authority(the pharaoh), this shows his strong grudge against royalty, it also means he knows the person who did the terrible massacre in the village of Kul Elna had royal blood, very close to the former king...we all know who am I referring to.

"Let me tell you why, «Great Pharaoh»...The blood on my hands...this thirst for death...is the will of the millenium items."

This also pretty interesting as well, thief Bakura is hinting at something, the blood in his hands is priest Akhenaden blood...but currently Dark Yugi doesn't know that blood in thief Bakura's hands is of priest Akhenaden, he is hinting that this person's blood in his hands is connected to the will of the millenium items wanting his death and creation of the items...and on royalty too since is linked to it's creation... he is mostly telling the truth about this will of the millenium items, there is reasons for being of this nature, that I will write about it when we get to the next volume...

Here is curious claims from thief Bakura:

"The thieves of Kul Elna sealed within the millenium items speak to me from the depths of hell!

The one who gathers all seven millenium items will granted the shadow power and will rule the world! H-Ha ha ha!"

The first line of his claim was hinting what was so terrible that happened to the village of Kul Elna to be in ruins, from the looks of it, they played a role in the creation of the millenium items and sealed in the items, implies there were sacrifices and also he can talk to them as he implies in his conversation with priest Akhenaden , but at this time Dark Yugi may be listening but isn't thinking right now in detail by what he means since he is focused on something, that is to defeat him to protect his kingdom (since the danger is too great) but in the end they reach an impasse...

 

I want to mention, I may not much into detail on this, Priest Kalim does have a good idea in acting as decoy to make it easier to locate thief Bakura's Ka and then everyone would attack, even Dark Yugi thinks the same but sadly didn't worked that well due to the millenium ring he can summon 2 Ka...Dark Yugi worried about his priests struggle and is already thinking of something.
Considering the pharaoh is weakened, priest Shada is very worried about his well being, as I have mentioned before, Priest Shada is very loyal to the pharaoh but he was kinda manipulated and planned by Priest Seto, he also feels guilty and responsible about omitting a detail regarding the Ka-Hunt to the pharaoh, he tries to make amends in giving advice and begs the pharaoh to rest since he is very injured...

 

I love this scene, it's not often we see Dark Yugi getting stubborn, as I noted before, he is feeling more involved in his role and job as the pharaoh, besides his caring and protective nature, when it comes to responsibility and duty are matters he takes it very seriously, when it came to act as spirit guardian/protector of his host and the friends of his host (later became friends and closest loved ones), even when he was alive we can tell he was always this way from the beginning, these are some of his strongest of personality traits.

I love Dark Yugi's answer to priest Shada claiming the pharaoh is the living embodiment of a god and a metaphor of Sun God Ra who gives people hope and his existence give hope...

"I'm not a god...And I'll never...I'll never forgive him for trying to put out the lights of this world!"

Seeing Dark Yugi expressing humility, it's not often, he has been growing and even more since he arrived the world of memory while keeping his driven strong sense of justice, him never forgiving thief Bakura for trying to kill innocent lives, people can interpret as ruthless, he was more ruthless than this but compared to the other millenium items wielders, he is much softer in comparison, he is when he feels it needs to be when those he feels charge of protecting is in danger, it wasn't ever to protect himself or punish someone as avenger (Shadi) or for revenge (Marik) or for power (Yami Bakura) or to cheat (Pegasus and Ishizu) or full madness (Yami Marik), his ruthless side would come also to fight even for someone's honour that he started to consider as friend (Mai's honour in Duelist Kingdom against Player Killer "Darkness").

As to why he says "I'm not a god", this moment of humility, shows his growth and character development, by this time he acknowledges his flaws and qualities, he is well aware of his big ego and prideful trait being a problem sometimes for him among other flaws, specially his flaws which took some time to notice himself but doesn't let take away his ethics of not turning a blind eye to injustice...

 

Despite how injured himself and his Ka is, he is still willing selfless protection as much as the priests do for him, he does for his people (am I over-complimenting him?) and being stubborn about it too to using himself as decoy, since he is "reviving" his memories, it means he was already selfless to an extent when coming to protect others, I'm starting to think he was like this probably since the beginning of the series but I will leave this for other time when this project is finished to touch on in more detail.

 

I love these drawn panels, I really appreciate them, sometimes I stand there by just looking almost mesmerised, I really like Takahashi-sensei art style (my issue is female characters design overall, oh well).
We see these moments of Dark Yugi when it comes to self-doubt, in this case is quite understandable, his current state can't summon Ra (inspired by what priest Shada said above being the pharaoh), as he is thinking, all his strength he has left is gone, but yet isn't willing to give up and at the moment he needed the most he hears very familiars voices...

He looks to where those familiar voices coming from, he sees his friends, you can see is taking awhile to sinking in for how they are here while recognising them, because he is severely injured so is taking awhile absorbing all this....

See Ya Next Post!