Predictions and Observations:
A Blast From the Past II

Episode Aired: October 11, 2008
This Post Posted: October 17, 2008

The dynamic here is just so interesting, enchanting. I can't keep my mind off trying to understand Yusei and Jack. They're as fiery rivals as Yugi and Kaiba, and yet, I find that, all insults and tension understood, I still think of them as friends, because despite hard feelings, they hold each other in very high esteem. We've already seen Jack's lesson become a key component in Yusei's dueling style: "But I've never relied on *just one card* before, and I don't plan on starting now." (Quoted from "On Your Mark...". Continuity glitch. Apparently he has, because Jack's lesson was to rely on his whole deck, but the point is that he doesn't, and Jack is the reason Yusei duels the way he does. That's serious.) and it obviously really hurt when Jack betrayed them; Blitz showed us how much by berating Tank and Nervin for even mentioning Jack around Yusei in "On Your Mark...". Jack, in turn, doesn't want to be thinking about the Satellite at all but ends up thinking about Yusei anyway in "Creepy Crawlies". Yusei is such an amazing figure to Rally and his other friends, a duelist in the Satellite and someone who never gives up even when most satellites have resigned themselves to the trash heap, but Jack, as a rival, a duelist, and an equal, can see Yusei's faults as clearly as his strengths. He's called Yusei a "dreamer" and "always thinking", someone who "never could let go of anything". But he also noted in this duel that Yusei never was much of a fighter, and got bullied a lot without fighting back, and moreover, that Yusei was still acting like that scared little kid in facing him (more on that later; I'm picking that apart!). Even now, Jack gives Yusei good advice that he may not necessarily want to hear.
I'm venturing out of the realm of even inductive logic here into sketchy guesswork and gut feeling. By now, my bias is fairly clearly spelled out. I've noticed that the character dynamic becomes more interesting, three-dimensional, and vibrant with each show, this being no exception. I mean no insult, of course, to the original, which always will have a place in all of our hearts, but I believe our canon has evolved right along with the game. I can't put my finger on what I'm picking up on, but I can start to see this falling-out shaping the characters; what were these two like before Jack headed for the city? I imagine them as an incredibly formidable team. It seems to me that when Jack headed for the city, Yusei shouldered a burden that he used to be able to share. I imagine that there would be little they couldn't handle if they could only trust each other again. I imagine, considering Yusei's comment that he wanted Jack to see the duelist he'd become, that Yusei looked up to Jack. Yusei being so stubborn, I find it hard to believe that Yusei gave up on Jack being his friend again and having everything work out the way he really wanted it to, even though he knew he should let it go. Expanding on Jack's comment about playground bullies, I imagine, compared with the situation now, that Yusei would get angry with them, hold grudges, and be more than capable of paying them back, but he would still pull punches. Jack characterized Yusei as "always thinking", and loves the crowds of fans; I see the two of them as a team in which Jack puts a confident and undaunted face on Yusei's cunning strategy, playing off each other's strengths.

This is the paragraph about the "scared little kid" comment Jack made, or at least everything about it that hasn't already been said somewhere else in the post. For one, this comment suggests that either there's education in the Satellite or that Yusei and Jack were once cityfolk. By the way, I know the term for cityfolk is "chosen", but the connotation of that gives me the heebie-jeebies, so I'll use it sparingly.

The cross-back, where Jack turns around and goes back past Yusei. Aside from being beautifully dramatic, what is a cross-back for?

The Security button on Jack's runner, the button that calls Security, was probably not part of the initial design. I say that, of course, because it was initially designed somewhere where the last thing you want to do is attract Security's attention.

"Jack: Always thinkin', aren'tcha, Yusei?
Yusei: It's what I do best!"
This quote stuck out at me not only because it's another iteration of Yusei's character, along with "you always were a dreamer" and the scared little kid comment, but also because it's what Yusei himself says he's best at. It reminded me of another quote, from The Next King of Games:
"Jaden: From the looks of things, you just might be the second-best duelist here!
...
Bastion: Hold on! If I'm second-best, who's first?
Jaden: Yours truly-- it's what I'm best at!"

Remote Revenge has the same effect as Mirror Force, one of Yugi's favorite traps. What's the difference? If there is none, why not just say Mirror Force, aside from Jack's assertion from that that Yusei has a thing for revenge? Or all the crazies like me who would go bouncing off the walls and making parallels if Yusei played Mirror Force? Well, it's the strategic equivalent, so they can't fool me-- parallels!

"You have a thing for revenge, don't you?" Does he? Or is he just acting the scared little kid who wants the bullies to play nice but doesn't want to hurt anyone? Worth keeping an eye on the theme of revenge, especially since revenge duels don't pay.

It's worth mentioning, especially since, like in the Final Duel with the gold box, a character even mentions the symbolic significance of a card: "Hey, does that remind you of another situation, Yusei? Think about it-- this is like how I had to step on you in order to escape the Satellite!" But when Jack tried to bring Stardust Dragon back, to take advantage of it once he had "stepped on" it, Yusei turned that problem into an advatage with Harmonia Mirror.
I noticed that Jack's runner and Yusei's dragon are both white, and Yusei's runner and Jack's dragon are both red. Coincidence? No way!

Harmonia Mirror. I did a bit of mythology research, especially since I ran across, believe it or not, another reference to Harmonia within less than five hours. Harmonia was an Ancient Greek demigoddess (they had a lot of those, ya know), who's known for her necklace, an accessory that brought misfortune on anyone who owned it. After being a wedding present at her wedding to Cadmus, it was handed down through generations, stolen, etc. by several people and evidently brought all of them misfortune. Harmonia's "opposite" was Eris, goddess of chaos and dischord, and her Roman counterpart was Concordia, from whose name we get the word "concord". From Harmonia's name probably sprouts the word "harmony", and you get the idea. I specifically googled "harmonia" and "mirror", and came up with Yu-Gi-Oh! sites. Harmonia as mythology knew her had no mirror to speak of, but where does the card get its name? A mirror itself is symblic of vanity (such as looking in a mirror with that beautiful and cursed necklace) and also of duality, because a mirror's reflection is the objective glimpse one gets of oneself from a distance, but it only represents one dimension: how one looks. To many, the evidence of our eyes is the most valid we have; if we looked in the mirror and saw someone else, would we trust our mind to tell us we are ourselves, or our eyes? A mirror also reflects equal to what it receives, such as the connotation of Mirror Force and Mirror Wall. What I hear in the symbolism of the card Harmonia Mirror is that the Stardust Dragon looking in the mirror is Jack's, but the image looking back is Yusei's Stardust Dragon. And in that moment, they are one in the same. Similarly, I feel that Yusei and Jack still look at each other and see a friend, before remembering that they're enemies now.

It WAS their last duel, the one we saw. It's canon that it was their last duel.

On the Silver Contrails screen when the computer announced its effect, the guy popped out of the card. Will we come to recognize him?

Okay, the big question this week of course is, what WAS that thing, why did it appear, and why did Goodwin look so pleased about it?
First of all, with our knowledge of dimensional portals from GX (handy, that this comes right in the midst of all that), it's probable that the energy from the duel, and possibly from this generator, caused that whatever-it-was to appear. That the generator generated more power from this until it blew itself out suggests that it was somehow connected TO the dimensional rift and got power secondhand from it opening, meaning that it the duel not only opened a dimensional portal, but generated enough power to blow out the entire New Domino power grid. Hey, here's a crazy idea-- what if New Domino City is powered by duel energy from the stadium duels? Or, alternately, Jack mentioned that the runners were going 200mph faster than their last duel, and we know from Yusei's spedometer during the Pipe Dreams duel that about 50mph less is more standard. What if, since it's canon that the city power grid also powers the duel runners, they sort of fed off each other; the generator made the runners go faster, which raised the excitement of the duel and generated more duel energy, which in turn fed into the generator... and somehow the dimensional portal fed off of the energy generated by both? What were the circumstances under which Jack got the mark on his arm? Did Goodwin intentionally create circumstances under which this was likely to occur? If so, why?

Either very confident or very foolish, or maybe a little bit of both. I'd call that accurate.

An interrupt. One heck of an interrupt, but an interrupt. What was End of Storm, and what trap was Yusei about to play? Will Yusei or Jack (or both) be gunning for a rematch?

The thing on Yusei's arm. Will it keep glowing? Will it settle down to look like a tattoo, like the one on Jack's arm we saw at the beginning of Creepy Crawlies?What does it do, what does it have to do with the huge dragony thingy, and what's important about the person with that mark on their arm?

What does it mean to Jack that Yusei has a glowy-mark too? What's going through his head besides "it's not just me"?

Yusei asks Jack as a friend what's going on. He's too scared to be angry or suspicious.

The Social Maintenence department, huh? Creepy. Let's find the guy who came up with that one and shove him down the stairs. Seriously. This is totalitarian. It's like having the Dai Lee to protect the culture of the city in Avatar's Ba Sing Se.

Did they just wreck the Kaibadome?

Is Yusei marked and, since he's getting arrested, is he about to be?

By the way, I'm starting to have some terminology mixups with the marks Yusei and Jack have on their arms and the marks as in "If THEY saw you, they'll track us down and mark us all." Just a heads-up. I will say "glowy-marked" for the former, for now. Crude, but effective. I'm reminded of the Dorms-and-years nightmare toward the beginning of GX.

Will Yusei have to build himself yet another runner?

Jack still has Stardust Dragon, or does he? Did Yusei get the card with Harmonia Mirror, or just the dragon for that duel?

"The secret of five dragons" is a line from one of the failed theme songs. I think we will soon find out what that's all about. Where are the other three?

This is the first time we see Yusei's hand or arm; he's worn gloves this entire time. Thought it was worth noting.

I've been writing a bit of a fanfic this week, and it's always a nice way to explore my grasp of the characters and world, my less-logical imaginings and ideas of what exists just beyond the edges of purely canon. So this is where I address those nebulous ideas and put them down somewhere definite.
- I started out with what Blitz, Nervin, Tank, and Rally were up to in the Satellite while all this was going on. The monitor probably got out-of-range, or Yusei shut it off so it would be just him and Jack in that scene at the beginning of pt I.
- I included someone finally calling Rally "she"; at this point, it's not canon, and considering Mokuba, it doesn't pay to assume, but I'm leaning toward Rally being a girl. Still waiting for just that little bit of helpful dialogue...
- It occurred to me that Trudge would want payback, and it's implied, hinted, that Rally is marked.
- Bug boy needs a name. I couldn't find the nerve to give him one myself, since he's not mine to name, but he needs a name.
- I tried to spell out some things that were already said another way. Blitz says of the day Yusei first tested the white runner, "The future got a whole lot brighter, just seeing something like that could happen here in the Satellite."
- I like Blitz; I explored his character in one of these scenes: "You think (Yusei can beat Jack)?" "Blitz: I don't know. Not even sure I wanna, 'cause I'm scared the answer's gonna be no. I WANNA believe he can, that we aren't gonna be here the rest of our lives, but I wanna believe a lotta things, like that we didn't just get backstabbed by one of our own who got tired a' just wantin' to believe. I don't want my friends to get hurt just 'cause we got dreams."
- I called the Satellite "Old Domino" once in the fic. I do think those streets look familiar; it would be some very interesting symbolism if it IS true that the Satellite was Domino during Yugi's and Jaden's time. I also suggested an earthquake as the source of the city's destruction (the giant cracks in the pavement) and subsequent abandonment, why New Domino was built.
- I explored why and how Blitz, Tank, and Nervin work at the factory while Yusei and Rally don't. They're fugitives; they can't just go to work, which means they don't get paid for it which means Blitz, Tank, and Nervin manage to support all five of them. I also went off my theory that Satellites get paid directly in food and necessities; there doesn't seem to be much business or economic activity in the satellite. Anyway, if Blitz, Tank, and Nervin don't want to get marked or arrested, they have to keep it pretty quiet that they know where Yusei and Rally are or that they know them at all.
- Right now I'm leaning toward a theory that Jack's mark on his arm has something to do with his coming to the city, especially since Goodwin seems interested in this turn of events, and I'm even theorizing that Yusei is about to get a similar offer. He won't accept if his friends can't come, too. How interested in this thing on Yusei's arm IS Goodwin, and how much is he willing to offer to get Yusei on his side? Will he rely on the Facility to keep Yusei under his thumb, where he can keep an eye on that mark, and will that be a fatal act of hubris?
- I think Yusei's probably getting tired by now; during the day, he and Rally tested the runner, then they met bug boy and dueled him, then that night at midnight Yusei went for the tunnel and dueled Trudge, then right into a duel with Jack. Three duels, two of them at over 150 mph, emotional turmoil and otherworldly occurrence. Quite a day.
- The Kaibadome getting wrecked-- not sure if it did, but I decided to postulate that it took a beating, 'cause it looked kinda like it did-- gets mentioned a bunch. It kind of blows the whole duel out of proportion, gives it that larger-than-life feel; how many duels end up totaling the stadium? True, it wasn't their fault, but the truth is a lot stranger.
- Depending on how clever Yusei is with concealing his deck, the authorities don't have much of a case against him. The condition of the Kaibadome and the presence of a duel runner other than Jack's are circumstantial. I imagine that Trudge might be willing to accept a duel if it means giving the law something to prosecute besides being out-of-bounds. And if that happens it's a given that Yusei's going to walk.
- I just really like this exchange between Yusei and Trudge: "Sure you aren't (a duelist). And I just rode my runner up a one-way sewage pipe for fun last night." "Well, since you seem to think locking up innocent people's fun, who knows what other hobbies you have."
- I'm curious as to whether Jack really was already planning to leave when Yusei got him out of that run-in with Security, or whether Jack just said that because he knew it would get a reaction out of Yusei. Yusei brings up the incident with Trudge in this fic, and Trudge confirms that particular detail.
- I've got this little hunch that Goodwin's arm is marked too.
- I stuck in a made-up definition of overdrive, which has been mentioned a few times without enlightening us as to what it is; in this personal canon, it's a super-fast engine for a quick burst of speed during a duel.
I'm happy to make this fanfic available online if anyone wants to see it. No language or anything of course, since I try to keep it as much in the spirit of what it mimics as possible.

Happy belated birthday to GX, which began October 10th, 2005. I keep hearing it's suddenly ended, and I still have trouble believing that even 4Kids would have the audacity to end it like that, without telling us they were ending it or ending it at any sort of stopping place. We just got told Jaden's in the stars, for cryin' out loud! They can't seriously leave us like that!!

The next episode is "The Facility I" showing this Saturday, tomorrow. That's all for now! -Clio

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