Saturday 29 March 2014

Magic Monsters Dominions and Destiny: On Location

I've wanted to do this for a while - this is a little visual guide to some of the locations featured in Magic Monsters Dominions and Destiny.


Big Ben
Chapters 16, 17 and 18
"I'm seeing it," Rebecca said grimly, pointing at the minute hand of the clock tower, which hung like a Sword of Damocles above the duellist's heads. "They'd better rescue him fast, because this duel just got put on a time limit!"

It's hard to photograph Big Ben from the outside, due to the tight security around the Houses of Parliament. But what an epic space for a duel!


Hungerford Bridge/Golden Jubilee Bridges
Chapters 16, 17 and 18
The steady flow of people crossing the bridge had ceased abruptly, leaving the footpath completely deserted save for Mai and Yugi. Eyes narrowed, Mai cast her gaze along the bridge, and saw nobody. And yet she was positive that this was it – their challenger had arrived. But where?

The white bits of the bridge are the walkways, and that line of green that you can see up there covers the train track. Good luck, Mai!


The British Museum
Chapter 19
A sandy coloured monolith of stone, surrounded by a fierce looking black gate, with brightly coloured posters flying from it. Around the corner of the street, was the front entrance of the building, with large pillars dominating the steps and sides, and a large entrance area between it and the gate, which was deserted of any life at this time of evening.

I love the BM. Museums are cool.



The Egyptian Exhibit
Chapter 19

In the middle of the room was a bench, with cases lining both walls, filled with knick knacks, broken tablets and chunks of pottery detailing Egyptian beliefs on life after death. 

Cases filled the room, with stone carvings and statues leering out at anyone who came to stare. Highly decorated boxes were displayed alongside a model of an Egyptian rowing boat. And entire wall was dedicated to a tutorial on the embalming process, the cartoonish figures looking oddly grotesque in the darkness.

Again, the BM is cool. Second photo is where the sarcophagi are taken from, the first is where Marik does his little trick with the mummies.



The Great Court
Chapter 19

A huge room with a smaller circular reading room inside it, topped with a domed glass ceiling, through which the moon illuminated the shadows on the walls...Wrapped around the reading room was a giant staircase, whose walls were engraved with names of people who had contributed to the museum, and which gave Yugi the odd feeling that he had just walked into a tomb with hieroglyphs all over it.

The darker half was not looking at them, but Yugi knew that he was perfectly aware of his audience. He was nowhere near the two sarcophagi, instead he lay on his back on the top of the staircase wall, some fifteen feet above them. One arm was tucked behind his head, and the other was casually pointing through the dome at the sky, drawing images in the stars that only he could see.

The Great Court is hard to photograph for obvious reasons. It's huge. First picture is a general view from the entrance looking off to the right. Second picture is the same place looking off to the left. If you went through those pillars on the second picture, you'd be directed to the Egyptian sculpture rooms. Marik is lazily flopped on the wall of that staircase (which is wide enough to rest on - I checked).