Predictions and Observations:
The Reunion Duel

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What can I say? We get so used to everyone being after Yusei, being enemies before they're friends. It's heartwarming to see Yusei back on his home turf with his best buds.

Daedalus Bridge-- what a great name for it. This myth I *do* know: to the Ancient Greeks, Daedalus was a brilliant inventor, the same one who built the famous Cretan Labyrinth, home of the Minotaur. When he was done, so he wouldn't reveal the Labyrinth's secrets, King Minos of Crete locked up Daedalus and his son Icarus in a high tower. Daedalus, being a incredible engineer, fashioned each of them a pair of wings out of feathers and wax that they could use to fly to freedom. He warned Icarus to fly neither to high, lest the wax on his wings melt, nor too low, because the feathers might get wet, but Icarus was carried away in the joy of flight, flew too high, and plunged into the sea. Daedalus flew on to freedom alone.
Since we saw Crow's hideout last episode, we know what bridge he's talking about. We didn't see whether this bridge was the unfinished one, but we saw the other end of the unfinished one from across the sea when Yusei spoke with Goodwin, and I'd say it's a likely possibility.
Imprisoned in the Satellite, brilliant engineers like Yusei, Crow, Jack, and who knows what few others nevertheless fight for the Satellite's freedom, stealing cards for the kids and protecting the blameless from being bullied by Security. With their ingenuity and intelligence, they don't need the bridge to be complete. Crow, whose turf is right beneath the bridge, even literally parallels the myth, with his flying runner. But we've also seen Crow's disregard for caution, and Yusei also suggests to us that Crow's kind of a rash little kid ("*Someone* has to babysit you, Crow!"); could he also parallel Icarus? I hope not, I'm really starting to like Crow. Either way, the Daedalus Bridge near Crow's hideout makes a rather inspiring arc upward, the suggestion of a flight to freedom.

I saw End of Storm in Crow's hand! End of Storm was originally played by Jack in the Blast From the Past duel, his final card, countered by Yusei's winning Meteor Stream. Hunter later played it and said Yusei might recognize it, because he heard that Yusei has a history with Jack. Jack drew it in his opening hand of the Fortune Cup Finale match, as Yusei drew Meteor Stream at the top, and he planned to finish the duel with End of Storm but Yusei decided not to use Meteor Stream because Jack might be expecting it after their last match. In the end, though, Jack starts off a big chain reaction by playing End of Storm, to which Yusei counters with Stardust's self-sacrificing ability, then Jack plays Sneak Exploder, Yusei brings back Stardust and activates Meteor Stream, Jack comes back with Crimson Fire, Yusei counters with Shining Silver Force. Then Jack's turn is over and Yusei launches the final attack of the duel. Why, I wonder, does Crow also have it in his deck? Considering the pattern, does Yusei also wield End of Storm?

Crow likes to say that "birds of a feather flock together"; in addition to this reflecting his cards, meeting him we also begin to see the camaraderie among turbo-duelists in the Satellite, and the statement could not be more apt.

But, but, but, wasn't Jack's arm broken or something? It's been, what, two days? How did he heal so quickly? Signer power? *Did* he heal, or is he taking chances with his health pretending to be tough?

Mina and Trudge are "Weevil and Rex"ing it, it would appear. Later on in the original series, Weevil and Rex end up following people around in a similar manner, acting as some comic relief as they get themselves into trouble. Most particularly I'm referring to the early episodes of Waking the Dragons, in which they stow away in Yugi's group's luggage, and end up freezing, hungry, and desperate for a bathroom, getting bounced around the luggage compartment sharing a smelly gym bag; then Yugi's crowd notices the bag isn't theirs, completely oblivious, and Weevil and Rex are carted to the lost-and-found after all that. Then there was the time they bluffed their way into the KaibaCorp Grand Championship by stealing Fortune Salim's bathrobe...and the time they tried to steal the Egyptian God Cards and ended up running into Yami Bakura holding a gym bag that happened to have three Millennium Items in it...

What a line: "I *hate* fun."

I suppose a turbo-duelist like Jack *would* find amusement parks a snore. He probably does faster, more dangerous things on his runner than anything there.

I think Crow is voiced by Christopher C. Adams, aka Pete Cappella, who voices both Jaden and Jesse.

This duel was weird. Well, maybe not so weird. I know the two officers' speed counter was the same because they were in the same vehicle, and perhaps it was just kinda hard to see that Yusei's and Crow's speed counters were also one in the same. Even though the cut-screen was misleading, Yusei and Crow shared one set of lifepoints, as did the officers. So, our first tag-duel, then. I was right about being able to tag-duel with two separate runners on the same team, not just the side-car style we saw in The Take Back.

I recall writing not long ago that in a turbo-duel you either chase or get chased. Here, we saw an exception: Yusei and Crow were riding side-by-side.

I've noticed that "tickle" seems to be slang/euphemism for pain among the seedier classes of the City, and in the Satellite of course. Crow says in this episode that "It takes more than a little tickle to rattle *this* guy!" after getting attacked. Armstrong also mentioned about the shock generators that, "Every time you take lifepoint damage, that chain'll sorta give you a little tickle." Is this the same sense in which Yusei meant, "Is it supposed to tickle?" when he got marked? On the subject of getting marked, I noticed that Crow scratched (*tickled*) his cheek when saying that he, too, has a knack for ticking off Security, the same way Rally and Nervin indicated Rally's mark (criminal mark, not magic mark) in "On Your Mark...". Could that gesture, specific to markers, also be indicative of the marking process, which we've heard "tickles"?

We've seen several non-Signers synchro-summon monsters, even though tuning is the opposite of dark tuning and only Dark Signers can dark-tune, as far as we know. Here's noting another occasion of a non-Signer synchro-summoning a monster: Crow's gale the Whirlwind is a tuner monster, it appears, and Blackwing Armor Master is a synchro monster. Other non-Signers who synchro-summon include Trudge, Armstrong, Crow, and probably others. I'm getting close to having everything transcribed and accessible, but I still have a few episodes to go. Greiger might have a synchro monster I don't know about.

Seems as good a time as any to talk about Gate Blockers, which we now recognize as the standard deck and strategy for a Security goon. On one hand, Gate Blocker is a nigh-impenetrable wall that hampers and imprisons, limits, the opponent. But in addition, strong defense like that is pretty darn, well, defensive. I found myself asking: with all that defense, what is Security so afraid of? They are the face of the City's prejudice against satellites, and what is that but fear? By attacking straight-out, by making moves that are unique and different and far more powerful, a duelist leaves himself vulnerable to understanding his opponent, vulnerable to being a better duelist that way. We've seen Trudge duel with other cards, and I do think he's beginning to see Yusei as more than a common criminal. By playing moves that are both defensive and predictable, Security locks itself into a view that those it hunts are less than human, just criminals, and defends itself from thinking differently even if evidence is presented. However, nobody can duel and expect to win like that; by being bigoted, Security dooms itself to failure in the arena.

The little kid who recognized Jack struck me. Even when Jack himself told him that he was someone else, the little kid saw through it. This kid saw past all the lies that Jack told himself and the rest of the world; when Jack's fakey New Domino exterior has fallen away, he still sees a champion.

Angela once again represents the common consensus about what journalism should be, in contrast to Carly's departure from it. It's the Duelist Kingdom of investigative journalism!

Like Chazz before him, Jack's conscience seems to have taken the form of Yusei. And Jack imagined Yusei in-character; despite his fear, deep down he knows that Yusei would forgive him.

Okay, this is the Chronology section. There were a lot of mentions of chronology in this episode, the most pertinent by far being Jack's stating that the Big Flashback happened "two years ago". So let's see here. I'm going to compile a sum-total timeline, and try to make this all make sense. Where I don't know, I'll guess, and make it clear that it's just a guess.
Terminology
"B.F." is the abbreviation I'll use below to refer to the events of the Big Flashback in "The Fortune Cup Finale I" (#25), in which Jack betrays Yusei (and Rally) and leaves the Satellite. "OYM" is an abbreviation for the first episode, "On Your Mark, Get Set, DUEL!", which at this point is about a month previous to the present.
Discussion
First of all, Alex's having had a run-in with Tanner before getting thrown in the Hive four years ago officially cannot have happened, because Tanner got trounced off the turbo-duel circuit by the champion Jack, which can't have happened more than two years ago, and hadn't been to the Facility because he wasn't marked. Therefore:
1. Before (2)-- Jack and Yusei's last duel, flashbacked in "Creepy Crawlies" (#2), in which Jack defeats Yusei's Junk Warrior with Shadow Spell and Mad Archfiend, and afterward tells Yusei what he doesn't want to hear: that his deck lacks balance and he could be so much stronger by relying on every card in his deck.
2. Before (2)-- During this time also (since in the pertinent flashbacks Jack is present), Yusei completes his first duel runner and (I guess) tests the holographic system by summoning Stardust Dragon. This is when Blitz screams himself hoarse.
3. "Months" before the B.F.-- Jack and Yusei have a big fight or falling-out of some kind that results in Jack finding new territory and the two of them entirely parting ways. Both refuse to tell Rally any of the details. Blitz, Tank, and Nervin also sever ties with Jack, but Rally tries to remain friends with both. This is one of two possible events Yusei could be referring to in saying that Jack 'double-crossed his best friend and then scurried away in the middle of the night', because Jack left the Satellite in the B.F. at only seven p.m. and the sky was still light.
4. Two years ago-- The B.F.-- Rally mentions that "Yusei just finished building this awesome new duel runner, it's looking *really* sweet!", suggesting that perhaps the first one was not all that good and he started over from scratch. This is the white runner, the one that Jack steals from Yusei and (with some modification) rides on the circuit. If this *is* the same one from (2), Yusei's been fine-tuning it and in this, one of many test-runs already including (2), is going for records now.
5. Two years ago-- The B.F.-- Jack steals Stardust and the white runner and leaves the Satellite.
6. After (5) and before (12) or anything else-- Jack replaces Hunter Pace as the turbo-duel champion
7. Before (12) and after (6)-- Tanner makes a run for the championship and loses to the champion, Jack
8. Some time before (13) and after (7)-- Tanner is arrested and sent to the Facility.
9. After (8) and before (13)-- Alex has a run-in with Tanner, gets locked in the laundry room, and subsequently sent to the Hive for starting a food fight. This was at the most about two years previous to the present, not four, and Alex must have been either exaggerating or time-traveling.
10. After (5) and before (12)-- This is guesswork, but the occurrence mentioned in A Blast I, in which Yusei and his Junk Warrior saved Jack from Security but it was just a plot to get Jack closer to Yusei's runner, doesn't fit anywhere, considering the events of the B.F., except sometime during the two years inbetween. Therefore, I hypothesize that Jack returned to the Satellite at some point as a plant, and staged a chase with Security to get Yusei to 'rescue' him, banking on Yusei's remaining hope that the events of the B.F. were some sort of misunderstanding. In doing so, Jack found out for sure that Yusei was a threat-- he was not broken, and was building a runner to come find him in the City ("the whole thing was a setup to get me closer to your runner"). Then Jack got to dash Yusei's dreams again by leaving him in no doubt that it was he who stole Stardust, on purpose ("that dragon card of yours was an added bonus!"), and then leaving again. This is the second possible niche for Yusei's "scurry away in the middle of the night" remark. As a result of this, it's possible either that Jack got worried about Yusei coming after him and this is when Security started chasing Yusei and Rally; or that this is when Yusei became completely bent on going after Jack, the way we saw him in the first episodes, or both. Two years seems a pretty long time to be obsessively working on a runner and a plan to get to New Domino, so it's possible that this occurrence reopened those wounds. I was surprised that Yusei hadn't seen his friend Crow in such a long time; not since "last year"-- to me it suggests that Yusei was withdrawing from his friends and just focusing on going after Jack.
11. Before (12)-- Crow falls out of touch with Yusei and his friends, because they didn't know about his runner (which he completed "last year") and he *did* know about Yusei's grievance with Jack.
12. After (11) and 3-11 months ("last year") before (12)-- Crow finishes his duel runner. Depends which month it is; if it happened in December and it's now January or February you probably wouldn't say "last year".
12. Events of "On Your Mark, Get Set, DUEL!"
13. Indeterminate, but not lengthy, time after (12)-- events of "Creepy Crawlies" through "A Blast From the Past II"
14. "A coupla weeks" after (13)-- Yusei tells Blister that his runner was impounded 'a coupla weeks ago'. Starting here, the days are one-after-the-other, and I'm calling the day Yusei went to Bootleg and ran into Blister "Day 1"
Day 1-- Yusei goes to Bootleg, orders some milk, and meets Blister. Blister hacks the City and adds Yusei as an employee at the Impound Center.
Day 2-- In the morning Blister tells Yusei about his fateful last ride with Arrow. Yusei infiltrates the Impound Center and "The Take Back" duel happens late that night.
Day 3-- Yusei wakes up in Leo and Luna's apartment. This is probably the next day because Trudge has probably not been out there a whole day already. Yusei duels Leo, and that night he sneaks out and runs into Trudge, is invited by Lezar to the Fortune Cup, and Blister offers him a room to live in until the Fortune Cup.
Day 4-- The twins wake up and find Yusei gone, and Leo and Dex go in search of the Black Rose. Yusei works on his runner and Tanner and Yunagi get out of the Facility and join Yusei and Blister. Jack gives Yusei Stardust back for the tournament. That evening Blister catches a work boat to the Satellite and Yusei and company first encounter the Black Rose.
Day 5-- First day of the Fortune Cup. Opening ceremony, Leo vs. Greiger, Akiza vs. Ransborg, Yusei vs. Hunter, Koda vs. Professor, and Losers' Bracket: Luna vs. Professor. That night Leo breaks into Greiger's garage, and Blister arrives in the Satellite and finds Yusei's hideout abandoned and ransacked.
Day 6-- Second day of the Fortune Cup. Yusei vs. Greiger, Akiza vs. Commander Koda, Final: Yusei vs. Akiza, and Finale: Yusei vs. Jack. Jack breaks his arm. After that, Jack is rushed to the hospital, Yusei runs from the press, and that night Yusei duels his first Dark Signer.
Day 7-- Yusei returns to Blister's hideout early in the morning and spends most of the day researching spider symbols. Carly spends the day in Security custody. Rally and Nervin run into an unfriendly crowd of zombies. Angela writes a mean article about Yusei. "Atlas Rising" premieres that evening, a little after Jack wakes up, and Jack and Carly duel Dark-Signer-Trudge that night. Yusei teams up with Trudge and gets a conversation with Goodwin. Crow pulls a card heist from an impound center.
Day 8-- Yusei is still talking with Goodwin. Early in the morning as they speak, Luna is experiencing the topic of their conversation in a vivid nightmare. Crow returns to the Satellite and gives the cards he stole to the kids. Trudge wakes up in the hospital and he and Mina track Jack and Carly to that hotel. Jack tells Mina to take a hike. Ouch ouch. Jack and Carly go to that amusement park, and Jack takes off his sling. Yusei is air-dropped into the Satellite and meets up with Crow and his friends. This brings us up to the present.
As a final note, Rally and Nervin ran into the zombies yesterday, so the adventure last week that Rally referred to this episode must be getting kidnapped by Goodwin's thugs and put in that box. That happened before the evening of Day 5, because they were gone before Blister got there, making it look, to me, like the Fortune Cup was over a weekend. Makes sense.

This debunks me entirely about this whole production being to either defang the best duelists of the Satellite or take them from the Satellite, to maintain the status quo. Goodwin focused on Yusei and Jack and ignored others like Crow. Then again, back a few years ago Crow was no turbo-duelist, or at least didn't have a runner of his own, and I get the impression that he's a few years younger than Yusei and Jack. He may not have been perceived as a threat.

I watch the episode and then this post is where I get carried away with myself in all the different directions I can think of. I just can't get out of my head the concept of a group of close friends, including Yusei, Jack, and Crow, growing up in the Satellite, dueling with each other, tinkering with trash and somehow contriving to build a runner, encouraging each other as they attempt to master absurdly dangerous runner tricks without running into *too* many solid objects, almost getting caught by Security a dozen times and laughing about it later. I get the impression that Yusei, while possibly the best engineer in the Satellite, was a team with his duelist friends-- Jack and Crow and possibly others: getting the right parts, figuring out how to ride it, testing how fast it can go and whether it can function in a turbo-duel (since they only had one runner, they must've intentionally provoked Security into starting a duel!), inventing tricks and probably studying the ones on TV. Figuring out how to make a duel runner, with hardly any example to go off of, took pure genius and lots of persistence. It occurs to me that, between Yusei's teaming up with Crow and Jack's flashback at the end there, we're catching our first glimpses of something I've been waiting to see for a long time-- what life was like when Jack and Yusei were best friends. And along with that we also get the hope that soon they will be again; Yusei no longer blames Jack, and Jack has realized how much his old life meant to him.

The big thing worth talking about this week is that Yusei's forgiven Jack and Jack has realized that the championship wasn't worth what he did, and has found the courage to start over and try again. It's so important, and yet I think I've already said everything there is to be said in my previous posts, and all I have to say right now is 'it's about time, and hip, hip, hooray!' It'll be interesting to see how and when they make up, what they need to say to have this matter be over and done with.

One of my favorite units in senior-year English in high school was Campbell's Hero's Journey, which most story arcs do seem to follow in one way or another. I predicted that Yusei would return to the Satellite, and I was right. In the midst of a new adventure, we're seeing a wrap-up of the old. He's confronted Jack, his greatest demon so far, and truly won, in realizing that it wasn't worth it to hold a grudge and thus kill all possibility of being best friends again. He's returned the Satellite more powerful than when he left, by all accounts. Crow even says that Yusei's a lot better duelist than he used to be.

(Note: With the benefit of web media, I can include the map above with the following paragraph. Special thanks to Google Maps and WikiMedia.)
So I've been wrapping my mind around New Domino geography; I think that, further inland beyond the ocean we've seen separating the City and Satellite, the bay over which the unfinished bridge would have been built, is the big crack in the ground caused by the meltdown, the one that Crow flew over. I envision New Domino being originally somewhat like San Francisco, a city built on and around a bay. Since I can't include a drawing with this post, I'm looking at an aerial map of San Francisco and I'll try to explain what I mean. First of all, the distance would be significantly scaled down. New Domino is not as big as the entire Bay Area. If San Francisco proper is New Domino City and Oakland is the Satellite, then the Kaibadome might be between Chinatown and Hunters Point. Jack's apartment would also be somewhere along that coast of the City. Heading south we get into the Narrows of New Domino, the bad part of town, in Burlingame and San Mateo, just barely better than the Satellite itself. Where the water stops in Domino, the big huge crack begins, effectively separating the two areas and splitting San Jose right down the middle. Crow's impound center was probably somewhere in Sunnyvale or Cupertino, and he soared across the fissure to Milpitas. I would place the location of the first Ener-D reactor, based on the fallout, perhaps a bit north of Milpitas but south of Fremont-- right on the Satellite side of the crack, destroying the surrounding area, cutting the Oakland area off from New Domino by land, and sparing the part of New Domino that continued to prosper. The Oakland area would also have been spared, which might explain why both Yusei, who looks across the bay, not the crack, to New Domino, and Crow, whose hideout is right below the bridge, live there, where the infrastructure is still neglected and stagnated, but not demolished. As for the unfinished bridge, it could be anywhere on the bay, but I theorize that it makes the most sense to have it be about where the highway 80 bridge is, farthest away from the land route to the other side of the bay. As for the Facility, I'd place it somewhere heading toward the Narrows or out of town, on the New Domino side of the crack. Inland of Half Moon Bay or perhaps in Cupertino. Maybe Stanford University.
Since Crow flew across the crack into the sunrise, I hypothesize that the crack runs North-South, with the Satellite on the eastern side and the City on the western. But Jack also watched the sunset in this episode as he looked out across the bay toward the Satellite. Though that tower had a pretty panoramic view; you could easily see both the Satellite and the sunset even if the Satellite's in the east.

Crow is yet another duelist who knew Yusei before we did, along with Jack and Trudge. I thought it was worth mentioning, but that's all I've got to say.

What's next? Jack's going to the Satellite; how will he get there, and will this tell us more about New Domino's geography? Will he bring Carly, and will Mina and Trudge keep tailing them? If Jack *doesn't* bring Carly, will Mina and Trudge keep tailing him or give Carly a hard time? Jack's going back to the Satellite, but he doesn't know that Yusei's already there. Will he try to find Yusei in Domino first? Will he not be expecting to run into Yusei? Did Rally, Blister, Nervin, Blitz, and Tank make it to Crow's hideout safely, and will Yusei and Crow soon join them? How will Yusei go about bringing down the Dark Signers? And, we need all Signers on the front line, and we've already got another one serendipitously making his way there. When will Luna, Akiza, and maybe even Goodwin join them in the Satellite, and how? We're approaching another night, and if the past two are any indication, Luna, Akiza, or Goodwin is probably about to get a visit from a weirdo with a glowing spider on their arm.

The next episode is Dark Signs I. Nice pun. Doesn't tell us much about what's happening next. 'Til then! -Clio

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