Predictions and Observations:
Return to the Spirit World II

Episode Aired: January 17, 2009
This Post Posted: January 23, 2009

Should've known Yusei would step in! What's the point of having him out there, plotwise, since he didn't end up interfering with the duel? For one, he saw Luna's Sign, which could be very important. For another, his catching Luna when she fainted and carrying her off the field painted a sharp contrast to the Prof, who had no friends to come to his aid.

It was mentioned that Luna was very lonely, so the world of the duel spirits held a lot of allure for her. To be honest, that made me kinda nervous. A lonely duelist is easy to prey on. It's how Mai joined the Soul Collectors, why Marcel was an appealing host for Yubel, and why Leon shoved aside his own ideals to help Zigfried. Loneliness is kind of a warning sign in the dueling world. Then again, when Yugi put together the Millennium Puzzle he wished only for a true friend, and see how that turned out.

Luna's the all-important chosen one when it comes to the Spirit World, but Leo, too, has an important role to play. In this case, Leo gave her the strength and support to fulfill her promise, and before, Leo helped her find her way back to the real world. We really get to see how Leo and Luna are a team. Leo, may I postulate, helps to tether Luna to the non-spirit world, and gives her the strength to exist in both; we see that, for one, in the form of her continuing to duel and even making a small comeback with Sunlight Unicorn, even though she has no conscious knowledge of fighting back.

Is the Professor the only "evil force" trying to invade the spirit world? Could he do all that by himself? Well, him and whoever has Ancient Fairy Dragon. But is that all?

Hey-- magically-appearing duel disks, just like in the Ancient Past! I wonder if Luna can fly? Or turn things into pork chops and applesauce?

I think the Prof's mind isn't really up to going to the spirit world. Could explain why by the end of the duel he is apparently insane.

As soon as Luna starts fighting back, the seemingly random creature chasing her is revealed to be the Prof's monster, and it becomes something she can fight.

Neither competitor will be moving on, because it was a tie! Well isn't that convenient. What would have happened if it weren't, in terms of the bracket, which was neatly stacked in powers of two without an extra person throwing a wrench in the works? I guess we'll never know. Isn't that convenient?

A few questions: who Sealed Ancient Fairy Dragon, where are they, how did they, and, if taking AFD away from her proper wielder seals her, then would that mean that Jack Sealed Stardust not too long ago?

How much of what was said in the Spirit World was out loud? Did the Prof just tell Goodwin he would have betrayed him? Will there be repercussions?

Once Luna stepped up and took it to the Prof, I noticed that she had a pattern of destroying her own lifepoints, placing the importance of protecting her monsters and destroying his lifepoints ahead of her own symbolic safety. If she hadn't been sure of her moves, she could easily have left herself open to get blown away, and such a strategy could only work once she was sure of herself. But the Professor used a bit of the same, and he was the one who said that some sacrifices must be made to ensure victory. The difference is, Luna wasn't fighting for victory, she was fighting for something more important.

"Then you're no better than he is!" Luna pleaded when Ancient Fairy Dragon went to crush the Prof, and even blew away her own lifepoints to keep it from happening. Luna defends not only the Spirit World's safety, but its innocence, the sanctuary of a three-year-old girl.

Even though she made the promise when she was three, even though she didn't think she could keep it, I think that Luna would have disappointed herself by backing down. The overwhelming thing I got that Luna was fighting for was honoring her word and her promise.

I think the tableau of Yusei carrying Luna off the field is somehow significant. I get the sense that this is a small reiteration of Leo's reminding Yusei of Rally; Luna probably does, too. But more than that, Yusei just found out that Luna's a Signer, and he'll know that that means she could attract as much trouble as he has with his Sign so far, which includes being persecuted in the Facility, mysteriously released, and then blackmailed into a tournament. I wouldn't be surprised if Yusei is kind of worried about Luna at this point.

Why did Leo and Luna bounce back so quickly after fainting like that? My guess is, they lost consciousness probably because it's quite a taxing mental exercise to travel to and from the Spirit World, but their energy wasn't sapped, so once they woke up they were fine.

I was going back through the early GX Year 3 posts for minutiae I hadn't considered around fainting duels, and I realized that in some ways this duel reminds me of Trapper Keeper; "With great cards, comes even greater responsibility."

"Oberon's Prank", I think I heard, was the name of Luna's final card there, the one that reduced both of their lifepoints to zero. Speaking of Shakespeare. Oberon is the mythical fairy king, best known as a character in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"; in the play, a romantic comedy, Oberon disagrees with his queen, Titania, and seeks to play a prank on her, but love spells being accidentally put on the wrong people turn this simple prank into a hilarious mess fit for a romantic comedy. In the end, the spells are removed, everyone ends up with the person they actually loved in the first place, and the guy who ended up with the head of a donkey got turned back to normal. All decided that it was a bizarre dream. Well, I think it's safe to say that Oberon's prank in that sense cut two ways, so I'd call this a fitting effect for a card of that name. As a fun sidenote, the apparent forerunner of Oberon (according to Wiki) was also part of the Nibelung myth, upon which most of Zigfried's cards were based.

So-- Luna is *officially* a Signer... Goodwin and Jack saw it, Yusei saw it, even the D-Tector picked it up.
What revealed the Sign? We didn't actually see it appear. I'd have to guess that it's either when she saw Ancient Fairy Dragon, when she remembered that promise, or when she heard Leo.
What *does* happen now? Will she be brought to the Director? Will Yusei have some important information for her? To me it seems that we now have a bit of a mad dash; Luna is a Signer, but also a vulnerable eleven-year-old (mostly canon) girl, and easy to manipulate. I predicted that Yusei would put together the pieces and realize that Goodwin was after Signers once the first Sign was exposed, which it just was, and I stand by that. It won't take him long to realize that he knows of four Signers in one nine-person tournament, and the odds are sizeable against it being a coincidence. Question is, will he figure it out in time to keep Luna far away from Goodwin, and even if he does figure it out, will he be able to keep Goodwin from getting to Luna? But even without figuring out that the tournament is just a front for Signer-hunting, Yusei knows that Luna's a Signer; he has enough experience being one to know that it's dangerous and if Luna doesn't understand that certain people might be very interested in that mark on her arm and isn't wary of that, she's easy pickings.

I've realized, from contemplating this situation, a key difference between Yusei and Jack. I get the sense that, even if the two of them were on the same page with the matter of Signers (which they aren't, because Jack heard it from Goodwin and Yusei from Yunagi), Yusei would have done the exact same thing, which was go to the arena and try to help Luna. Even if Goodwin told him the increasingly-unbelievable blather about his own role in all this (the oath to the magic glue), Yusei would still tell him to find a better way to go about it than this. Jack, however, seems to keep quiet on the matter. Does he feel that the ends justify even such means as these, the likes of which haven't been seen in any tournament we know of since Battle City itself? How blindly does he trust Goodwin? Jack's the one who takes to heart the 'saving-the-world' aspect of it all (which is an interesting switcharound because he's the Kaiba of 5D's), but I get the sense that that's because Jack's the showoff. Yusei is more down-to-earth. He doesn't know about 'save the world', but he doesn't think twice before defending anyone around him who needs his help, just because it's what he does.

Second Round Showdown I is the next episode. Yusei vs. Greiger? Akiza vs. Koda? We'll find out soon! -Clio

READ A TRANSCRIPT OF THIS EPISODE HERE