i learned that a depressed Manchester teen used several fake online personas to convince his best friend to murder him, and after surviving the attack, he became the first person in UK history to be charged with inciting their own murder (x)
The basic themes Yugioh sets up are:
- Losing isn’t death, so it’s okay to fail sometimes
- You should accept help from your friends and let them lean on you in return
- It’s important to go on existing, even if it’s hard
- People deserve the chance to grow and change
- Friendship is stronger than anything
…And then the Ceremonial Duel manages to spit on every single one of them.
Counter Argument?
- Atem was already dead. And trapped in an object of dark magic that he needed to be freed from. He accepted his final defeat with a smile.
- He did rely on his friends. Especially Yugi. He couldn’t be free without their help.
- He does still exist; in the Afterlife. It’s hard being separated from your friends even if that’s what’s best for him. And it’s not like he’ll never see them again? (The afterlife is literally canon-confirmed. Also, isn’t it a part of Egyptian Mythology that they can come and go to visit and check up on their friends and family?)
- Atem did grow and change. He went from a vengeful spirit that was willing to Win At All Costs, to being able to accept defeat with grace and who tried to figure out alternate ways out when lives were on the line.
- They’re still friends. Even though they’re apart. Not even Death can change that.
The Ceremonial Duel is painful, but I don’t think it necessarily spits on the themes of the story.
I read those reasons (particularly Atem being dead) as reasons the ending was a necessary evil, but the fact still remains that, in light of the messages @zombiekaiba gave (which are basically word-for-word pulled from Rishid’s message at the end of Battle City, a much longer and frankly in my opinion better written arc), the ending we got should have been a tragedy. Instead it’s presented as a natural and all-things-considered easy to swallow end point. …And obviously, I and many have issues with that. And honestly, my presumption is simply that Takahashi couldn’t write what I would perceive as an emotionally sincere ending of what that plot set-up called for. It would certainly not be a traditional shounen series ending.
But, to sum up: Yes, Atem is dead. Likely why he had to leave…although why we’re stopping at THAT line in this universe of much magic, I don’t know.
He certainly relied on his friends, but the story still ended on a note hyper-fixating on the differences between the protagonists and showcasing them as rivals and Yuugi as strong enough to stand alone, which I honestly think was rather unnecessary due to the earlier part of the arc, and it would have been so much better to end the story on a note of Unity rather than Contrast. Given the overall arc of the story.
And while there was much leaning and such, the last chapters were screaming STAND ON YOUR OWN over and over.
The ‘existing’ I think the op (maybe I should have let @zombiekaiba answer this!) was referring to Rishid talking to Malik about not giving up. I.e. living on despite everything screaming you should let your life end.
And…. well, I don’t know what Takahashi intends with his design of the Afterlife (apparently it’s a legit different dimension!) but everything I know about Egyptian mythology says Japanese cremating would = no involvement in an Egyptian Afterlife. And it’s hard for me at least to imagine most of the group co-existing with a paradise of that image.
But, if you read it is as compatible, then cool. A lot of that would be very much up to interpretation.
Which goes back to, clearly people have very strong, very contrasting feelings about the ending of the series… but I think we can trust that we all have a good grasp of the material at this point, and why things went down the way they went down. And I don’t have any issue with other people considering it a good ending.
But I don’t, and I hope that’s okay, too.
Oh man I just read a translation of the Yugioh novel (specifically the original story part of it) (link) and it’s bonkers. But in a way that’s mostly in line with the early manga.
Cliff notes version of all the good stuff in there minus the card games:
- Apparently Yugi wins so easily against his friends that he actually rigs his deck to make the battles more difficult
- We get to see some interactions between Yugi and his Grandpa at the game shop. Apparently Grandpa lures Yugi into buying things with his allowance. “Thanks, come again!” “I live here!”
- Yugi got both the Time Wizard and Baby Dragon from a musty old Gen 1 booster pack in the shop’s storage room
- This story is set between Death-T and Duelist Kingdom, and Dark Yugi gets drawn into a duel with Kaiba, which is weird, as he’s supposed to be comatose.
- Sorry did I say “Dark Yugi” I meant “the King of Games”, because that’s how this character is exclusively addressed. Seems like this was written before any of the spirit of the puzzle stuff had come up.
- There’s a neat bit where (regular) Yugi is disappointed that Kaiba doesn’t consider him a rival, and he gets a bit nostalgic for their duel.
- Magic & Wizards has a lot of house rules other than the field mechanic. This duel uses “Bingo”, which lets you call a card in your opponent’s deck and if you’re correct, force them to remove it from play.
- Kaiba’s moved on to a new trump card, the Automatic Giant.
- Based on this,
- Or at least it looks like it, but then Mokuba rushes in with the real Kaiba, who’s still catatonic.
- Yeah, that’s right, the Kaiba he’s dueling is actually “Cyber Kaiba” a KaibaCorp supercomputer with a robot body that the board of directors implanted with Kaiba’s memories to manage their international trade holdings while Kaiba is AWOL
- But it just wants to duel because it’s Kaiba
- The King of Games (ugh) wins with the Time Wizard combo, plus a unique card called the Unknown Egg which is actually kind of cool. It’s an urban legend a la Exodia. The gimmick is that its stats are determined by three cards of your choice, but after the creature hatches once the card has to be destroyed forever.
- Dark Yugi gets momentarily sentimental about this.
- Anyway you didn’t think this wasn’t a shadow game, did you? Of course it was. And if you’re wondering what penalty game he can use against a computer…
- The penalty game. Is just. An explosion.
- Kaiba momentarily stirs from his coma to destroy the computer’s memory banks. No imitations accepted.
- Yugi doesn’t see this, but he does have a strange vision of a future duel where he gets to face Kaiba again. This is framed as a positive thing and not one of the most important, doubt-casting, confidence-breaking moments for both of him.
Anyway 10/10, really good fanfic, could have been five pages shorter if they stopped listing the life point count.
EXCUSE ME, THERE WAS A NOVEL?!!
“The rich and powerful love to talk about justice. The right to punish those you fear… to kill those you hate… And call it execution, not murder!
Is that really justice? Or it is evil?
No one can truly draw the line between just and unjust, good and evil. What you REALLY fear is your enemy’s idea of justice.”
Thief King Bakura really Did That, huh?
