Predictions and Observations:
Second Round Showdown II
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Episode Aired: January 31, 2009
This Post Posted: February 6, 2009
Someone-- think it was everyone's favorite wacky announcer dude-- mentioned that Yusei would have to shift gears when he lost speed counters. That's interesting, and actually explains a bit more about how speed counters work and how they affect the speed at which a duelist can go while still allowing a duelist's runner to make a difference in the match. A runner engineer would probably work hard at, say, making all such gear-transitions as smooth as possible.
Tanner was talking about a game-changer, specifically "like Mirror Force". Why Mirror Force? And of course, Mirror Force is important in terms of precedent because it's one of Yugi's canon favorites; he said so when he played it against Pegasus in Match of the Millennium III. Tanner had it facedown at the end of his duel with Yusei but never got to activate it; maybe that's why Tanner suggested Mirror Force. And Yusei himself *has* played the strategic equivalent, a card called Remote Revenge.
I have the worst writers' block ever with Turbo Booster symbolism. I keep going off on tangents about the Reeducation Center, or Mokuba. But anyway, my point is that as soon as I saw Turbo Booster, I knew Yusei was going to win. Turbo Booster represents Rally, and how much Rally cares about Yusei in valuing his happiness over avoiding the risk associated with suspect-but-valuable runner hardware, and vice versa in Yusei's keeping Rally out of the stakes of his first (on-screen) duel with Trudge. It's so very sweet that I've been having the worst luck attempting to give it words on this Friday afternoon (this is what kept me). But we all know what I'm trying to say. Anyway, aside from that, there's also the fact that when Rally gave it to him is the last time he saw his friends. In that card is the memory of five minutes to midnight, before he ever saw the City. Even I've got a bit of nostalgia for that. And Rally wasn't the only one who wished him luck; Nervin couldn't stop worrying, and Blitz and Tank told him to go for it, to not look back or slow down for anything. But also, when Rally gave him that card, they mentioned Rally's dad, to whom the card originally belonged. Rally quoted to Yusei that her dad had always said, "you never know when you might need a boost." Rally passes that good wish her dad gave her, that hope that when she needed a boost she *would* have one, on to Yusei.
Like cross-backs, I'd imagine getting lapped is not bad strategically, but it's a nasty bit of psychology (which *is* half the game), to be able to lap your opponent. By the way, Yusei's definitely getting a run for his money in these matches, more so every time. I wonder if Akiza'll lap him twice before he manages to pull out a win?
Chariot Pile reminds me of the kite card in Lights, Camera, Duel; the first sign that something strange was going on was that when the duel was over, those big spiky things didn't disappear. But how did Greiger do that? Is it even worth asking? Perhaps they were built-in?
Why did Greiger feel the need to break into Goodwin's private office and search the computer right before the match? Was he acting on Yusei's warning that Goodwin's word couldn't be trusted?
Junk Syncron and Black Salvo have very similar special effects. This was only one of many parallels between Yusei and Greiger in this match.
I noticed an important difference between Yusei and Jack here. For the first time EVER, Yusei had the opportunity, and indeed was invited to, take a victory lap, the kind we've heard Jack and the pros talk about several different times: "You've had your fun, but it's time for my victory lap!"(OYM), "Guess you'll have to wait a bit longer to take your victory lap, huh, Tanner? Maybe NEXT time I'll actually TRY!"(Ouch, from The Facility II), "Looks like I'm halfway to my victory lap, doesn't it, Jack!" (Hunter, in Fire It Up!). But Yusei, unlike them, stops to make sure that his opponent is okay.
What about the special card? Did Greiger play it? Did he hold it back, wanting to win this in a way that didn't involve Goodwin? Will it ever come up again?
I think it's fairly canon now that the duelists are miked. And it seems to me Greiger messed with the sound system and somehow programmed it to keep his mic on and turn off the announcer's after the match. And he also hacked the screen, which by the way is now canonly called the Sphere (thanks for that, Lezar). I'd imagine everyone having some affinity with computers in a day and age when everyone grows up with them (smelly holograms thirty years ago minimum), but that can't have been easy; how much of an uber-hacker is Greiger?
"You haven't really thought this little revenge fantasy through, have you?" Was a line that came to mind here. Like Yusei when he went after Jack, I think that Greiger wasn't really thinking beyond getting even.
"Let him have his moment." And so it was: we'll remember this just as Greiger's big moment of the tournament, nothing lasting or game-changing. But why was Goodwin so sure that whatever Greiger did, whatever he revealed, it was nothing to be concerned about? How was he so confident that no one would believe Greiger? And, since we see Jack right after, who's hearing all of this, including that Lezar is worried about being incriminated, will he believe Greiger?
A testing ground? So basically Goodwin went to the source, to the original land of the star people, and set off huge blasts of energy to try to summon the Crimson Dragon? And he didn't evacuate the area or anything? How... Akhnadon... of him. And this wasn't even an alleged village of criminals or anything.
"You trust me to figure things out." Yusei told Greiger. It reminded me of a couple more things. For one, "You can start by trusting in me, and together, we will defeat Pegasus!" The other thing I thought of was the poem I wrote for Fighting For a Friend a few weeks ago, about how the winner assumes the burden of confronting the bad guys. Yusei now fights, not only for himself and his friends, but for Greiger.
Is Lezar okay? The picture was kinda fuzzy; did I really see lots of cuts on his face from all those glass shards?
What the heck just happened?! Goodwin caught that thing, with his hand, and we found out that the hand under the pretty white glove was not like most other hands. My first reaction: 'OMG! Goodwin's a robot!!!!' I think we'll just have to wait and see on this one. I wonder if Jack has some questions about that, and I wonder if he'll voice them or just add them to piecing all of this together. I wonder if Lezar already knew about it. I wonder if the audience saw that.
Didn't that big crash-in-midair-and-fall-twenty-or-so-feet-onto-hard-asphalt hurt? Is Yusei okay?
"The Profiler" is the next episode, and we're probably talking the Rose's semifinal match with random-Goodwin-flunky #4, Commander Koda. I've got Black Rose nails in honor of the occasion. I'm probably going to come up with something else to say as soon as I send this, but... 'Til then! -Clio
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