Ziggy, why are you so sure about TKB being right all the time and that his people were demonized by the βclassist royaltyβ? I havenβt read the manga, but as Iβve seen, we seem to have no clue about Bakura being right and the Kul Elna people being demonized due to being low class. Who knows, maybe they were truly evil and deserved it? Can you please explain? π
Sorry for replying this late. Iβm gonna add some manga panels (read right to left) to explain better.
The answer is simple: because no one is just evil.
Letβs start by saying first and foremost: massacring an entire village, whether itβs mainly composed of criminals or not, is always wrong and unjustifiable. Period.
This is also the reason why Atem is so shocked when he finds out about it and why Akhenaden (and also his Pharaoh brother Akhenamkhanen) kept it a secret in the first place. Cause itβs bad. Period.
Now letβs go back to the narrative:
Forget everything you ever saw in the anime (both sub and dub) because Memory World/Season 5 just doesnβt make sense there - and most events were changed/removed from how they were in the manga to make the βgood guysβ appear better (to name a few examples: the soldiers sent by Akhenaden being somehow brainwashed to do the massacre, Diabound being sealed in some random hidden tablet underground and not coming directly from TKBβs soul, the golden duel disks you have to wear to summon the KAs instead of just using the Items, Thief King being the whole time possessed by Yami Bakura that in the anime is literally just Zorc so he doesnβt care abt his revenge, Atem saying a bunch of few more sympathetic lines he never said in canon, all if not most lines from TKB being completely removed, etc.) All these things donβt make sense if you follow the manga narrative and in fact,Β they donβt happen.
Akhenden does the massacre because in order to create the Millennium Items 99 human sacrifices were required. He could have chosen anyone. Volunteers, some form of βmartyrsβ ready to die to protect their Pharaoh, the fuck do I know... but what he did was a clear massacre aimed at a poor village βof thievesβ that the palace people always despised because of their history:Β
Akhenaden: βHear Me! We ride for the village of Kul Elna in the Valley of The Kings!β
Soldier 1: βKul Elna Village...?! The place called the ββVillage of Thievesββ?β
Solder 2: βThereβs nothing there but grave robbers! They were descended from the Royal tomb builders, but they went bad. Why are we going there...?β
The village of Kul Elna seems to be based on the real-life ancient city βDeir el-Medinaβ since it was a city of βgrave robbers descended from Royal tomb buildersβ, just like Kul Elna.
Itβs even mentioned in the wiki:
Here is an interesting article about grave robbers in Deir el-Medina, and itβs said that the city was literally called, like, βa city of robbersβ for how organised and common it was for them to rob the royal graves in the Valley of the Kings. It was a city that has been originally created by the Royals to house the artisans and tomb builders that laboured for the Royals near the Valley of the Kings. It also makes sense (and itβs also written in the article) how these thieves knew best how to rob the tombs because they build them themselves.
Extracts from the article:
βTomb Robbers were usually the very workers who constructed them were able to plan their thefts so as to bypass the main security features to gain access to the tomb itself.β
β...inflation and delay of rations made it extremely harder for the villagers to live, leaving them to rob the tombs they once built to keep themselves and their family alive.β
Akhenaden targeted that village on purpose. He specifically targeted Kul Elna BECAUSE THEY WERE GRAVE ROBBERS and it was convenient to kill them. They were βjust grave robbersβ and were thereby not loyal to the Pharaoh. If you think about the fact that robbing a Royal tomb used to be one of the biggest capital crimes back then, it also explains it. So Akhenadenβs thoughts on the matter were practically βkilling two birds with one stoneβ.
In the anime the guards/soldiers were in someway βhypnotisedβ to follow Akhenadenβs order which is bullshit and how the hell can he perform such magic all of a sudden duh? . In the manga they enjoyed doing the massacre completely lucid:
Soldier: βHeh heh... you thieves... As punishment for robbing graves... you bastards will become a part of the treasure!β
99 people were sacrificed and used in the ritual (as seen above in the panel: theyβve been melted with gold), but many more were killed and left to die.
As you can see, bodies were left to rot among the ruins, even if they werenβt used for the sacrifice. Akhenaden made sure to exterminate any living proof of the village - also to keep it a secret and let it be forgotten in history.
Whether itβs cause he hid well, or maybe his mother made sure that he was well protected, or maybe he happened to have been in the right place at the right time - we donβt know. But destiny wanted him to be alive. To live and tell the tale and to finally take his well-deserved revenge.
Everyone else but him died. Other kids, just like him, died too. How in the world were they all βjust evilβ???How could an innocent kid like him even be evil, to begin with??? And Bakura is the only character through the whole story that speaks out about it:
Transcript:Β βOut of lust for power, your Royal Family used Shadow Alchemy to create the seven Millennium Items! There was only a small price... the lives of every man, woman and child in this village!β
Transcript: βThatβs what I want! To get revenge for the dark past you tried to hide... the birth of the Millennium Items!!β
Transcript: βββFreedom? Peace?ββ Donβt make me laugh... The Millennium Items are made of good and evil... theyβre like a double-edged sword.β
Of course, he believes in the good of the items as well, considering they are literally made out of his innocent people.
Through his whole journey, he grew stronger and he informed himself. He knew what he was talking about. And they removed EVERYTHING he says in the manga from the anime because....... honestly I donβt know why ?? but I believe itβs cause he just slapped too hard with his statements and would have made everyone understand that the villain of the story turns out to be the actual victim of the situation.
But ig thatβs too deep for Konami standards Β Β―\_(γ)_/Β―
Transcript: βThe rich and powerful love to talk about βjustice!β The right to punish those you fear... to kill those you hate... and call it execution, not murder! Is that really justice? Or is it evil? What you really fear is your enemyβs idea of justice!β
I say Bakura was right because there is nothing that can excuse such an atrocious act. Thereβs no justice in seeing the slaughter of everything you ever knew and all the people you ever loved for the sake of creating weapons used against people like that and just sit back and do nothing about it.Β
Bakura was alive for a reason. He stayed alive for a very long time. Even after his death as Thief King Bakura, his soul clung to stay alive as Yami Bakura, at the cost of fusing with a demon, for over 3000 years. And he made sure to give them hell. :))
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