So! Over the last few turns, Kaiba’s been having a rough time…
But he’s started to hallucinate vividly and shout at his own trading cards and that’s rattled Isis, although not for the reason you’d think (“he’s gone mad”) and more because…
She didn’t foresee this madness and that freaks her out. This duel was supposed to play out exactly as she foresaw it, as everything in her life has so far.
But Seto Fucking Kaiba cares not for fate, destiny, the immutable future, other people’s opinions, social conventions, or the sanctity of God themself!
He straight-up kills God to manifest…
“my all-time favourite trading card!”
The absolute Drama of this moment, folks, he almost makes you forget you’re watching a teenager playing a CCG, truly he has a gift for oration. #SetoKaibaforPresident
And Isis doesn’t know how to deal with this
I don’t think it even matters to her whether she wins or loses now, this is the moment that Kaiba proves his point. Willpower is stronger than destiny and the visions of the Necklace are just “probable” visions that can be altered by someone determined enough.
Isis never even considered this: this is why she didn’t fight against Malik’s actions once he ignored her warnings. She didn’t realise someone could change the future so when Malik started down this path and she started seeing visions of his future, she thought they were inevitable.
“did I throw God in the rubbish to satisfy my deep-rooted obsession with maybe fucking a dragon? I DIDN’T THINK SO!!!1!”
I guess the “bomb” Isis planted in Obelisk only survives one sacrifice? Cause she put it in her Monster, then it transferred to Obelisk when her Monster was sacrified to summon Obelisk. Wouldn’t it be funny if it then transferred to Blue Eyes when Obelisk was sacrificed to summon Blue Eyes? Seto loses but Isis still learns the lesson. Seto cancels the finals to challenge Yami to a duel. Isis, high on victory, punches Yami Malik in the nose. Mokuba turns the blimp around and everyone heads back to Domino kind of awkwardly. Good times.
Isis, delighted that she was right about Seto and wrong about the future, peaces out…
And probably would have happily conceded defeat (I don’t think she cares whether the bomb is in Blue Eyes or not) but Kaiba has LESS THAN NO CHILL AT ALL TIMES
Don’t let the blue/white colour coding of his character deceive you; it’s not ice, it’s white-hot fire. And questionable poetic rants.
BOOM!
So Seto Kaiba reaches the semi-finals of his own tournament!
CUTE
ALSO CUTE
… wait is there an engraved future for people who don’t duel? Honestly “duelists are the only people who can control the future” is a sentiment I wouldn’t be surprised to hear was (a) Yami’s philosophy or (b) the actual canon of this fuckin show.
But Yami’s also intrigued by the way the Millennium Rod triggered Seto’s break with reality and change of heart about Obelisk.
and he ponders Kaiba’s potential link to all this Pharaoh shit while imagining Kaiba’s giant face hovering over him
Isis asks how Kaiba defeated her / the future defined by ancient and powerful magic, and Kaiba, being 105% Guaranteed Seto Kaiba at all times, says
“I love my dragons more than I love the gods themselves, life, or the universe” #ifyoulovedragonssomuchwhydon’tyoufuckone
Isis tells him he may have handed her a defeat, but she’s leaving this duel smiling because he gave her something more, something very precious
[Kaiba panics offscreen as the conversation turns from dueling and spitting in the face of god, to human emotions]
“You’re fucking telling me?”
Seriously, it’s such an important lesson and one that Kaiba, of all characters, deserves to embody. It’s so easy for stories that use fate / destiny / fortune-telling to accidentally or intentionally give people, including kids, the idea that stuff that happens is meant to happen, that their future is out in front somewhere waiting to happen one particular way, that they have no control over their life. So it’s brilliant to have a story where destiny and telling the future are so important, but that takes the time to have a powerful and mostly-sympathetic character not only point out, but definitively PROVE, that some things may be inevitable but the future is what you make it.
That’s something both the characters and the viewers need to hear.
I like the way this is phrased: Isis has recognised that Kaiba has changed this future, but she doesn’t actually quite believe that the future is unknown yet. She would like to believe in it, but she’s thought of the future as destined for her whole life, destiny is such a big part of her heritage, her culture, her philosophy, her world-view, how she’s made sense of everything awful that’s happened to her clan and her family, it’s everything she’s known since she was a tiny child. You don’t just turn that off because some arrogant teenage boy unexpectedly won a card game. But with Malik the way he is, the idea of defying fate, although so antithetical to her experience and personal philosophy, is something that gives her hope.
Although Kaiba also proves that just because you work towards something, doesn’t mean you get it…
“Um we’re stuck on the SAME BLIMP, asshole, how are we supposed to avoid one another?”
But Seto Fucking Kaiba cares not for fate, destiny, the immutable future, other people’s opinions, social conventions, or the sanctity of God themself!
These clowns are literally writing their own circus music at this point.
Like, they’re here trying to claim that I’m making all this shit up and that Bucky didn’t really do anything and that this is all fake.
But like, even THAT falls flat. They say they have evidence, then don’t provide it….then they claim that it’s me….and the part that is tragic and hilarious at the same time is…
If you’re here, and you think someone is literally faking something about THIS serious of a subject online, IF you had any fucking empathy, you’d be pissed.
Like this isn’t something people should think of “faking”. This shit is extremely triggering and traumatizing. You don’t fake this shit. And what’s funny is they LITERALLY could have tried to paint me as the bad guy by going “OMG MACK HOW DARE YOU FAKE SUCH A SERIOUS SUBJECT HOW COULD YOU?” but they couldn’t even DO that.
Because doing that means you have to think about other people and have some FUCKING empathy.
Not to mention on their shitty posts where they’re literally just liking and reblogging THEMSELVES it’s super obvious that a majority of the people liking and reblogging are in fact…sock accounts. And if you even look at the content of WHAT they reblog, it’s similar. Like…
The anons type the same fucking way too! Prose that obviously indicates someone who cannot speak good english. Akward punctuation like adding an extra space or two before a question mark. Not seperating “no one” with a space. It’s literally fucking obvious. And the fact that they’re wasting their time literally trying to legitimize themselves is SO sad.
Like it’s literally just sock accounts, a few paywallers who pay attention to the socks I guess…and then like…maybe 3-4 actually real people who somehow believe shit like this based on little to no proof and speculation.
They’re even here like “my account is 7 years old I can’t be a sock” like….bitch….there’s literal marketplaces where people sell aged social media and gaming accounts to people who want to look legit. You think that isn’t a thing? Trust me. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen black markets in some other gaming communities. I’m a veteran of that shit. Miss me with that excuse.
The harrassment has gotta stop. And sadly these folks are NOT going to stop until the community rallies together and does something, or they manage to kill somebody and receive the full LEGAL consequences of their actions. Because that is what they have shown they are willing to do. Because they have $$$$$ in the game and we all know what crazy shit people will do for money.
