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The Memory
World:
Okay, let's see if I can present this spoiler with some semblance of
coherency, shall we? I'll try my best, I promise... It would
probably help if you've read the Zoku
Necrophadisu spoiler.
The Maze
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The Memory World is basically the Ancient
Egyptian arc of the series. Yugi and Co enter Yami's soul maze in hopes of finding the "true
door" (door leads to the Memory World) with the help of Bobasa and
the Ankh. If
you dunno who Bobasa is, he's basically Shadi's henchman. Looks like
a walking, talking, dark-skinned balloon and he's charged with the
safekeeping of all seven Items.
I think it's the same door that Shadi was looking for
at the end of Duelist Kingdom and it's the door that Yami B's
looking for now (in search of that "Pharaoh's power" Malik
mentioned). |
He's one step
behind Yugi's gang, ready to hitch a ride when they finally uncover
the right door. (**insert patented evil laugh #223**) ...Not that
they have much luck in the beginning.
There's a funny little scene where Jou
draws a little smiley-face on one of the doors of Yami's soul-maze
so he can keep track of which doors they've checked. The rest of the
gang comments that only Jou would draw graffiti on other people's
souls. ^_____^ There's an equally funny doujinshi where Yami
B. comes in after and draws Yugi's hairstyle on the smiley-face.
Anyway, they do eventually find "The True Door" (**cue
trumpet music**) just by clearing their minds and
concentrating or something. @_@
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If I understood correctly, the other doors
were all false leads... none of them would've lead to the
Memory World... The Maze is actually supposed to shift according to
the insecurities of the invaders. Yugi figures out that the more lost
and hopeless the group feels, the worse the traps become.
Bobasa goes on to mention something
about the Puzzle's power being connected to unity and Yugi and
Co. pile their hands together and wish reeeaally hard to see
Yami (Ah, memories of the very first duel against Kaiba with
the cheesy happy-face Tea scribbled on their hands). Lo and
behold, The Door appears! |
FYI, one of the other rooms that were not monster/trap filled
contained a more recent memory: Duelist Kingdom. Seto perched on top of
castle ramparts, asking Yami if he's willing to risk Seto's life in
order to win (what happened to all the Kuriboh?!). Yugi has a near breakdown at the reminder.
The
Relation to Zoku Necrophadisu?
The Puzzle seems to contain all of Yami's
memories (most of them sealed) but if Zoku Necrophadisu was in fact
trapped in the Puzzle too, then his
memories had to be stored somewhere in the Puzzle as well, ne?
Maybe... just maybe... we can get a little
philosophical and think of it this way: History as we know it is based on
perception. The usual clich� states that the victor (of war)
gets to write history in their favor, whether they're actually in the right
or wrong, and then we have to accept that history as fact. So, this war is between two sets of biased memories stored
in the puzzle.
Theory: A person's memories are kinda like
the essence of someone. If Yami gets killed in this
memory world, i.e. if Zoku's biased perception of the past is
carried out and overwhelms Yami's memory, I'm thinking the Puzzle will accept the dominant
memory as truth and make it happen. The losing memory/persona
would be pushed out/erased, essentially killing the loser. The remaining
persona would then be left sole owner of the Puzzle, giving him the
powers of the Pharaoh: the ability to shape history as he sees fit.
Did that make sense to everyone?
The modern characters are the wild-card.
They're the variable that could tip the scale in favor of
Yami or Necrophadisu. I get the impression that there's been a
3000/5000 year stalemate between the two spirits and that the
present-time cast are
just what's needed to determine a winner once and for all. Necrophadisu gets Yami Bakura to
work for him, and Yami gets Yugi and Co.
We get a sense of just how important Yugi
and Co. can be when Yami and Thief Bakura face off in one of their
numerous show-downs. Yugi comes in at the last moment and gives Yami
just enough strength to kill Thief Bakura (yes, I said
"kill". I'm
pretty sure throwing up blood and then collapsing over your horse
with a creepy blank-eyed stare qualifies as being dead).
Yami Bakura
(modern one) upon seeing this, says something interesting...
Basically, to paraphrase... "Dammit, this wasn't supposed to
happen. You were supposed to get rid of the pharaoh tonight!" O_o
Alarm bells! Is that true? Yami B. doesn't
seem to have lost his memories like Yami has, so you'd think he'd
know what he's talking about... x_x
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In any
case, Yami B. doesn't seem too concerned. Right after that, he goes off
and says something like: "Oh well, Necrophadisu's on the
move."
Apparently he was right not to worry. Thief Bakura, true to form, gets resurrected
(hands up, how many people saw that coming?). Necrophadisu, it seems, has the ability to rewind the Memory World
(**Snicker** I can just imagine him sitting on a couch with a remote
control and clicking away... Ffw! Rew! Slow mo!). So Necrophadisu does his
rewind thing and stops just before Yugi can reach Yami. He says that
Yugi's presence was an unforeseen interference that should never
have occurred (which is probably true). Then Yami B.
intercepts the modern-time cast to ensure that they stay away.
Without backup this time around,
Yami loses!
....No, Yami doesn't die... he just gets
thrown off a cliff and gets his Puzzle stolen (baka pharaoh! Now
Thief Bakura's got the Puzzle and the Ring!). Priest Shadi's there
to bear witness, but he's pretty much useless and just stands there
on the other side of the chasm yelling as Bakura stomps all over
Yami's fingers in the patented villain "you're clinging to the
edge of a cliff with one hand so I'll remove all your fingers one by
one until you fall to your doom" ploy.
Conclusion
There are three timelines to be aware of:
Zoku's memory, Yami's memory and the "Real" memory.
The Real memory doesn't play much of a
role, except when it comes to things like "Yami got sealed in
the Puzzle"... We know for sure it happened because... he's in
the Puzzle. Otherwise, we have no idea what really happened
in AE time. The bits and pieces of so-called history being acted out
in the AE arc are mere memories and are subject to bias. Doesn't
help that we shift frequently between one memory to another. The
Real memory is mostly acknowledged in the RPG
aspect of the arc.
We're not sure if the things Necrophadisu
says will happen actually did happen. As for Yami's
memory... he's reacting to events as they play out (and so far, it
seems like he's playing right into Necrophadisu's hands x_x).
Alternatively, you can think about it like
this: they're writing history as they go, so what happens, happened.
Take everything at face value.
Makes for the interesting possibility for
paradox though, especially with Yugi and Yami Bakura floating
around. I get the impression the whole reason they even need
to have a memory war in the first place is because both Yami and
Necrophadisu were sealed in the Puzzle, thereby creating a
stalemate. Maybe this time around Yami won't be sealed in the
Puzzle... in which case the Memory War would never have
happened and... Yami would have never met Yugi?
P.S. Kinda puts what I'm saying into perspective too, doesn't it?
'Cause I'm telling you how I read the AE arc so far and then
you have to interpret what I say... which leaves a gap for possible
misunderstandings. @_@
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