Predictions and Observations:
The Take Back II

Episode Aired: November 29, 2008
This Post Posted: December 5, 2008

So the facedowns aren't voice-activated, as I thought they might be in GX from Adrian's quip about facedowns in "Head in the Clouds II", “Easy. I call out their names dramatically, and they just pop up.” Yusei had to reach down and press that button, which method we recognize from Battle City days. Either that, or since the runner was impounded, Yusei managed to break most of the authorization restrictions, but the runner doesn't respond to his voice for the time being.

Aw, man! Blister has an excuse! And here we thought he'd had a change of heart! But it makes sense that he'd need to make sure that Yusei succeeded to maintain his reputation. But he'd already washed his hands of it earlier as it were: "Look man, I did everything I could, but the odds are still against you." Ha! No pass, Blister, nice try! We know you didn't have to come there!

"Atlas, Phoenix, Truesdale"!?!? Wahooooo! Let the record stand: first canon mention of characters from a previous series!!!! But-- Truesdale? What's a Truesdale doing in the pro league? Depending on what they're talking about and what's canon, that could mean a lot of different things. One, Zane Truesdale's pro career was extremely painful and short, and it suggests a narrower time gap than anyone, I think, had imagined, if when they think of the pro league they still think of him, but a wider one if in doing so they think that's a good thing. Scenario 2, since the last 25 episodes of GX are not dub canon, the argument could be made that in this particular canon Syrus went pro. Scenario 3, which I don't really like, is that the new pro league Sho and Ryo planned to found in the final 25 fell through and Sho, or Syrus since this is the dub canon, is the "Truesdale" in the pro league. Scenario 4, the Truesdale bros. succeeded with their new pro league and therefore they ARE the pro league. And scenario 5, this is far enough in the future that it's possible that the "Truesdale" and "Phoenix" referred to here are descendents of the ones we know from GX. That would be kinda fun.

"Blister, can't you see that your friend Arrow never wanted to hurt you?... Sometimes friends, do some stupid things, huh?" Blister and Arrow discussion, part the second. I guess the part of that we really didn't hear is that Blister was planning to go pro and Arrow wasn't too happy about it. But what was the 'stupid' thing Yusei referred to-- was it that Arrow seemed to be throwing the duel there? Did he intend to or was he just off his game? I think, though, Yusei may have been speaking even more generally than that; Blister and Arrow got into a fight and each has a thing or two they may not have forgiven the other one for, Blister did a few things he regrets and Arrow probably has a few things he regrets too. But it doesn't mean they aren't friends; it means they did a few stupid things and they have those to forgive.
But, lest we forget, this draws parallels even more closely to Yusei and Jack. And the big question is, if and when Yusei notices the similarity of the situation, if he will take his own excellent advice. It hit particularly close in Blister's remark that Yusei's friends probably "hang out with you only because they want something from you", when we discovered in their duel that Jack took advantage of Yusei's helping him like a true friend would to steal the white runner from him. I was also struck by Blister's comment, "Nobody's good forever"; until I saw this duel play out, it seemed to me that Yusei and Jack may be some kind of exception to the 'friendship prevails' rule of the YGOverse, and my thoughts of this situation often took the shape of a phrase like that. Now, however, that we have an ideological naysayer, it's on, and I'm not worried at all. I note that, once again, Blister's comments did seem to hit a bit too close to home for Yusei, bacause we saw a little bit of a reaction.

Blister reminded me this episode of what I wrote earlier about how spectators would probably have to be moving pretty fast themselves to catch the action. Here we had our first such spectator, and to me it seems like such a spectator is very close to the action indeed and has abilities any other spectator doesn't; only a spectator on a runner can do the turbo-dueling equivalent of getting in the middle of a duel, such as Joey and then Atem did in Mind Game, or Valon did in My Freaky Valentine. A turbo-duel creates a wall between the duelists and most spectators because before now, without any spectators on runners themselves, the spectators have only been able to watch, not affect, the duel.

"Wow. He sure doesn't like YOU." I like how Blister represents a perspective unaware of all the history between Yusei and Trudge; it reminds us that now we understand these characters and this is old news to us.

By the way, as a point of interest I looked up the word 'wingman'; we've heard it in GX a couple times before and I always wondered about it. To name one, Syrus asks Jaden in "School Duel II", when they're about to present Ms. Duel Academy to give the winning Chancellor a kiss, "Be my wingman, okay?" Anyway, it's technically a flight term that means a pilot whose plane is positioned behind and to the outside (on the wing) of the leading aircraft. In this universe, I think it's safe to say that 'wingman' is more slangily used to mean the one who's got your back. And in this case the term was used somewhat literally-- if duel runners had wings. Maybe that's the next spinoff.

Final Countdown-- wasn't that one of Bob "Game Show" Banter's three special ways to win a duel? I went and looked it up-- Exodia, Forbidden Board, and Final Countdown. But Final Countdown isn't an auto-win like Exodia or Forbidden Board... unless that's what happens when you send FIVE facedowns to the grave. But then again, you couldn't, because then you'd have nowhere to put the Final Countdown Card. Unless you play the Seal of Orichalcos, which gives you twice the number of zones, and now this discussion is just getting silly.

"If your goal is to make that guy even angrier..." No, Blister, that's just a perk. But it does occur to me that Trudge is just about the only person we've seen Yusei really have a lot of fun messing with; in most duels, he's a bit more serious. Trudge sees Yusei quite differently from anyone else; he's still remembering a little kid from the Re-Education Center, and still just seeing a wild street delinquent, nothing special. Yusei, i think, has some fun obliging this image.

Diesel fumes? But we already know that *electricity* powers "whoa-oa, turbo-duels!" (A Blast From the Past I). Did Zigzix just mean the stadium, instead of the runners themselves? And if so, how on Earth is Yusei's runner not out of fuel by now after two other duels in addition to this one, and why did the Impound Center leave any fuel in it when that would only serve the purposes of someone trying to steal it?

Luna felt it coming-- who is she? As a matter of fact, they're both shown in the opening sequence, alongside Yusei, Jack, and the Signs. Are they two of the remaining three unknown Signers? And what are the odds that out of five Signers, four are in Domino? They also seem to happen in pairs; Yusei and Jack, both from the Satellite, and now Luna and her twin, both from New Domino.

Y'know it occurs to me that when the last dueling *roach* finally kicks off, KaibaCorp will still be around...

How long since the falling-out between Blister and Arrow? "ATLAS, Phoenix, Truesdale"; Blister wouldn't list 'Atlas' unless Jack was a pro by then. He never mentions how long ago except to say that it was really long ago. From the look of the flashbacks, I'd say four years is still reasonable, which is our current estimate as of Tanner's getting beat out of the pro league by Jack and already being in the Facility in time for the laundry room incident Alex described, that happened before he got thrown in the Hive and left, four years ago. Isn't this fun?

This is the second time Trudge has dissed Yusei's math, and this time Yusei himself also mentioned that if his math was right, that damage added up to Trudge losing, at the end there. Yusei is a brilliant-enough engineer and programmer that he's made at least one duel runner from recycled scrap metal, and that runner is the best runner in the pro league. Of COURSE his math is good!

Cheating is a fairly extreme action in this universe; practically to the point of snapping. Intentional, last-ditch-desperate effort like that to keep the consequences of the duel from occurring? I think of the end of the Panik Attack duel; the end of the Face Off duel; the end of the Keith's Machinations duel; Lights, Camera, Duel!; and so on. This shows us Trudge is getting increasingly desperate and if Yusei keeps evading him (which ya know he will) there's no telling what Trudge might end up being pushed to do.

Well, that's all I got. Next episode is "A Duel To Remember". The thing that stuck out at me about this episode title is that remembering is a bit of a theme in 5D's; I mentioned it when most of the initial exposition took the form of reminders in the first episode. In addition, several duels have been around discussing a particular incident in the past: "On Your Mark..." had Yusei and Trudge discussing Yusei and Rally's time at the Re-Education Center, "Creepy Crawlies" was in part about Yusei remembering what he learned from the duel he lost to Jack, "A Blast From the Past" saw Jack and Yusei talking about the time Jack was being chased by Security and Yusei saved him with Junk Warrior but Jack was already planning to betray him (or so he said), and now this duel was about what happened between Blister and Arrow. 'Til then! -Clio

READ A TRANSCRIPT OF THIS EPISODE HERE