pharaohsparklefists:

Episode 103, part 3: an ~icy~ reunion!

While the Kaiba brothers are tramping grumpily through memory lane and Anzu is embroiled in literally one of the worst duels ever, where are the main characters?

Still stuck in the maze of darkness! Yami thinks he’s figured it out, but instead of just telling Yugi his idea, he gets all mentor-y and ~guides~ Yugi to the same conclusion…

It’s super adorable that they both assume that Noah is going to play them fair. Like, for all they know, the reason they haven’t gotten anywhere isn’t because they haven’t figured out the trick, it’s just because Noah’s a dick

Dickishness or not, they figure out they have to defeat an escalating series of doors (i don’t fuckin know) and it appears to work.

SUPER. ADORABLE.

So they start to actually progress, and Yugi, at least, can hear Anzu calling for help. It’s probably not actually her, or it’s a “recording” of shouting she did earlier, because, as badly as her duel is going, she is not, to her credit, randomly screaming Yugi’s name at intervals throughout. At least, not on screen.

Confusingly for everyone, Anzu calls both Yugi and The Other Yugi just “Yugi” to their face (probably the most polite move), so even though she’s calling his name, Yugi has misgivings, which Yami senses but doesn’t quite read. He asks, instead, what’s up, and Yugi smoothly assuages Yami’s concerns…

lol, jk, he totally fumbles

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Yugi isn’t sure if Anzu’s calling for him or for Yami or just generally for redemption from the penguiny hell to which she has been condemned, so he, of course, assumes that she couldn’t possibly want him. Possibly because, had Yugi been condemned to a penguiny hell, he would want to call on Yami to save him, so he assumes Anzu would do the same.

Consumed by fretful self-doubt, Yugi rashly underestimates a door, leading to some very adorkable protective!Yami

Yugi’s attack is soundly rebounded from the door, leaving Yami an opportunity to be a show-off

yeah yeah, easy for you to say now that some kind of reflective force has acted as a barrier to the attack

Completely incapable of doing anything without there being an elaborate edifice of card game rules in place to bolster them against the chaos of an uncaring universe, Yugi and Yami have decided, based on literally no information, that they have to discard any card they defeat a door with to the card graveyard, and also that they can only use cards in the order they draw them in. Let me reiterate that at no point is this restriction stipulated by Noah or the situation, or even implied. They just decided it themselves in their own semi-shared consciousness. They have done this because they crave the moment when it will all come down to this last draw as a mewling babe craves her mothers milk

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS LAST DRAW! CAN YUGI DEFEAT THIS … fuckin door?

… honestly not what I was expecting. I guess Yugi and Yami decided to take this opportunity to try out some B-list Monsters. 

Anyway, the door is defeated and sent to the Shadow Realm and Yugi races to reach Anzu but is brought up short

SHORT, geddit? cause he’s SHORT.

In our absence, how is the duel going for Anzu?

…. could be better.

I often question whether any thought whatsoever has been put into the ratio of remaining Life Points to expanse of the body consumed / vanished / frozen / whatever flavour of the day. This is one of those times. I have no conclusions.

Yugi is despondent but Yami is stoic

That’s sweet!

There’s only ONE CARD that can save Anzu now and IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS LAST DRAW

DAMMIT ANZU I THOUGHT YOU WERE GETTING THE HANG OF THIS STUPID GAME! ONE MUST NEVER DOUBT THE POWERS OF CHEAPLY WROUGHT NARRATIVE SUSPENSE THE HEART OF THE CARDS

for indeed, sure enough!

See, now that’s an ability that actually reflects the character of the character associated with the card!

Then for some ill-explored reason…

I mean this is super cool – HASHTAG PUN INTENDED – and all

and I fucking love Dark Magician (and the way Yami hovers just cause he can)

and like DAMN YEAH #DREAMTEAM #SLAY

but would it have been too much to ask to just have DMG call on the powers of her fallen comrades and thereby just won the duel? Proving the misogynist Penguinfucker totally wrong for underestimating her and Anzu? Because he says DMG can’t beat him without DM, and literally says she’s not scary or powerful cause she’s a girl monster, and then the writers idea of a stirring rebuttal is to … have DM show up to help her? So instead of being like “WHAT! IMPOSSIBLE! I NEVER THOUGHT I COULD LOSE TO A GIRL BUT I UNEQUIVOCALLY HAVE BEEN PROVEN WRONG!!” he just says

Which, yeah, she didn’t. And it was a poor choice, and it was a deliberate writing decision to have Anzu fuck up like that and then #happyending be rescued by her male friend and his male-coded monster. And Anzu fought the whole highly exasperating duel by herself, with DMG, but because they swoop in at the last possible second, Yugi still gets this welcome:

well at least he has the decency to look embarrassed!

h e l p