[✐fan essay] “Brands” Companion Essay: Cultural Crossroads and Malik's Clothing

[made_in_wonder]

Let's talk about Malik's clothes. I'd post pictures, but the computer my scanner works with is acting up, and if you don't know what Malik looks like I have no idea how you found this journal. (Stick around, however. By all means.)

Comments

[arostine]

MALIK ESSAY! *noms

[made_in_wonder]

First off, thanks for reading and responding! :D I hope you enjoyed it.

In the manga as Malik's hugging his dad's corpse, all weepy and bloody (and already wondering "who did this to you") one of the earrings does fall off, at least. Somehow. -_-; But yeah, if it's the same pair then he did take at least one off of his father before leaving to use in his own ears.

I definitely see there being a control-factor to the way Malik dresses - to everything he does, basically. He's been nominally in control his whole life (as the heir, someone v. important, which is a role he ingrains) but it's not until he gets aboveground that he's really in charge and I can only see the difficulties in founding an organization of the size and infamy of the Ghouls in that little time, so young, as heightening the control obsession. He has to be cautious and things have to go just as he planned them, or else stuff could fall apart really easily early on. And that translates to the impression he wants to make physically. I also wonder if there's a bit of

[made_in_wonder]

Hmm...I'm pretty sure Rishid's cloak is the wrong cut, unfortunately. IIRC he doesn't have a cape-portion, just a hooded robe with sleeves, and Yami Malik's cape looks like it has neither sleeves nor a hood....fun fact: he leaves a dead doctor with a cut-up back in rishid's room in the manga when he goes to fight mai

Oh, I highly doubt Malik feels any specific connection to the people of modern Egypt - heck, he considers himself the most different from everyone else as not only a tombkeeper, but an Ishtar and the heir besides (which is why it's so cool that part of what Rishid says to inspire him in the BC final is "the fate of every human being", which can be interpreted all kinds of fun ways). And thank you for mentioning a real need on his part to start seeing people as people even after Battle City; I find it also really interesting that he never seems to express actual remorse for anything but killing his father. He doesn't understand why Yuugi would want to save him after everything he's done, but afterwards he mostly tells the