Predictions and Observations:
Dark Signs IV

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I woke up Saturday morning and found myself thinking of the Luna quote: "something bad is going to happen, isn't it." Creepy, huh?

"You mean let's-take-over-Satellite Kalin?" "I thought they locked him up and threw away the key!" Making it canon that Kalin was 'locked up', that he went to the Facility.

As we neared the end of the duel, everything that I subtly felt I'd been forgetting came together. I remember thinking as soon as Yusei played Shard of Hope that it would be forgotten until his final big play, in which it would be instrumental. Then I forgot to mention it entirely. The other thing I'd forgotten was that Hundred Eye Dragon was only one powerful monster and he summoned it as readily as Yusei would summon Junk Warrior; we had yet to see his big gun, and we had yet to see what made him the *Giant* Dark Signer.

One of the things I really noticed about the final moves of this duel is that Yusei closely paralleled the end of the Fortune Cup Finale duel. He synchro-summoned Stardust with Hyper Synchron, and Final Attack, the speed spell he was trying to play at the end here, was the card that ended that duel.
When else has this happened? The other instance of a similar situation that I can recall is the end of For the Sake of Syrus. Jaden ended his duel with Chazz a few episodes ago (Raring to Go) with Transcendent Wings and Winged Kuriboh. He was trying to hold out for one more turn to use the same play against Zane, and Zane finished him off before he got the chance. I think, similarly, Jaden wasn't up to *Zane's* level yet. By the end of the year, Zane thinks that he is, and that he's grown that much stronger, and chooses him for the Grad Match.
I think what this is telling us is that Yusei's level of skill right now, the same one he had in the Fortune Cup, is no longer sufficient for this fight; this will be a block to overcome, I predict, when Yusei gets back into the fight.

Yusei forced Kalin to draw because it would make his strategy null and void, and also because it's a key difference between the new Kalin and the old one: Kalin used to hate having an empty hand.

Nervin was right about Yusei's facedown Scrapiron Scarecrow. Good to know who can do stuff like that. It reminds me of Kaiba's predicting Yugi's Mirror Force in A Duel With Dartz, or of Yugi's anticipating Atem's Monster Reborn at the end of the Final Duel.

Shard of Hope. The signature card of the duel. I note two things. First, its effect, allowing the duelist to play a trap straight from their hand, reminds me of the effect of having three Blackwings on the field, and their slogan is 'birds of a feather flock together.' Second, Shard of Hope was one of the only recognizable cards among the decks Rally, Blitz, Tank, and Nervin scattered to distract the thugs, associating that card with them, too.

Listen to Jack when he says that the worst mistake Yusei could make would be thinking it's over; as the old adage goes, a duel's not over until the last card's played.

Let's talk about the Earthbound Immortal, Kogopakapou. Ah, things with funny names that are no laughing matter. Kogopakapou, Kokopakapou, Kogopacapoo, there are a million different possible spellings, including Ccapac Apu, which is the only way I've seen it spelled. Actually, I'll go with that spelling, for the heck of it, since the spelling fits the culture. Ccapac Apu. So, all we've really seen is that it's super-powerful, really big, immune to monster abilities (like Stardust's) and traps (like Scrapiron Scarecrow), and would have pummeled Yusei into the ground. Only cards as powerful as Egyptian Gods are that immune to other cards. We've got ourselves a trump card. It happens so often that we end up with a card that comes out of nowhere and ends the first duel we see it in-- Full Armor Gravitation, Ride of the Valkyries, Flying Fortress Skyfire, and Superpolymerization are four that come to mind. They've built up suspense by making an example, as it were. I also note here that the demons Goodwin spoke of, the forces of darkness, are trapped in the earth and aren't dead yet when they were last seen five thousand years (!) ago, making them 'earthbound immortals' too.

Mass soul-sacrificing to summon monsters? That's just not nice. When's the last time we saw something like that? This also may put a damper on things; the Signers put people in danger if they duel, but more danger if they don't. If they even start a duel, they need to make it count and end it as soon as possible. Unless of course the sacrificed come back if they defeat the Dark Signers. Do they?

"How come Goodwin didn't warn me about *this* guy?" Well, Goodwin isn't omniscient (as far as we know), but since Yusei asked it, the question stands. And Goodwin says he underestimated the Dark Signers; well, how strong did he *think* they'd be?

Well, I was right about it being an interrupt. If the duel had a decisive winner, either Yusei would've gotten 'realmmed or Kalin would have become just another day, another baddie. By letting both escape more or less intact, they draw it out.

Reminds me a bit of A Blast; if it had gone on a moment longer, Yusei would've lost. Coincidence? Maybe not. Yusei knows he would've lost, and I predict that might eat at him some, not unlike knowing he would've lost to Yusei was eating Jack. Jack just had his title and fans at stake-- Yusei risks the safety of the entire Satellite, all of his friends, and even the whole world, knowing that he's already lost once.

This episode seems to have been a lot about Yusei's runner itself. This is part of my ongoing conversation about how a duelist's gear has come to play a larger and larger role, becoming as much a symbol and medium of expression as one's deck. It's something else a duelist must trust when he or she enters the arena, and right here we also saw Yusei's runner come through for him in a pinch-- by breaking. We know Yusei's runner is quite hardy; we've seen it live through two encounters with the Crimson Dragon, a fall down an elevator shaft, crashing through a solid concrete wall, an air drop, and an entire tournament (not in that order) before it needed any serious sort of repairs. Yusei's runner, Kalin, is not 'crummy'. On the contrary, not only can Yusei rely on it through just about anything, it even *breaks down* at the best possible moment! If Yusei had lost, officially, he would have been 'realmmed or the Dark Signer equivalent. But his runner saved him, and it has just as much heart in it as his cards, being built from the parts his friends scrounged together. His friends put so much of their heart in this runner that they'd give up their clothes and their entire dueling decks before they'd let anyone take so much as a bolt from it. No wonder it saved him.

I want to also note that we got a bit more of a glimpse of when and how the red runner was built. The way Rally, Blitz, Tank, and Nervin talked about it, it sounded like they brought Yusei the parts without ever being asked to; I wonder, was their scrounging all those parts an attempt to cheer up Yusei after Jack stole the white runner?

I'm a bit surprised that a runner breakdown constitutes an interrupt while there are also fainting forfeits. Perhaps in a tournament setting, this would've been a forfeit to Kalin, because a tournament must have a winner to get to the next round, but apparently in the conventional medium of dueling, where the only ref is the duel disks, runner breakdown constitutes an interrupt, not a forfeit.

Here we see the gap: the space between the level Yusei is at now and the level he'll need to be at to beat Kalin when next they meet. It's said that when you get better at something, sometimes you actually get better at the skill itself, and sometimes you improve at seeing where you still have room to grow. Seeing that gap after the bar gets raised is painful, and that's what we're seeing here. It's even worse when the stakes are so high. The rest of the story arc, I predict, will be about overcoming that gap, and we'll know that Yusei has when he beats Kalin next time. Yusei nearly lost playing at his best, playing at the level that won him the Fortune Cup; he's going to need to find more strength within himself, and keep raising his game, to win this.

In the meantime, Kalin represents that daunting gap, and assumes a psychological and narrative importance beyond that of just any Dark Signer. He just said that Yusei can't save the Satellite and can't save himself, and the proof's always in the cards. It will take a strong will and a whole lot of faith not to fear that Kalin's right, and therefore fear that there's no way to save the Satellite and Yusei is powerless. Not to fear the possibility of losing to him again, which is a popular fallacy personified in GX's "The Fear Factor". In short, to have the faith that he *can* get to the point that he'll beat Kalin and he just wasn't there yet, and he can do it before Kalin and his new buddies destroy the world.

Jack wants to go after Kalin, is upset at the concept of just letting him escape after that. How come? Is he thinking as a Signer: Kalin's dangerous and needs to be stopped before someone else gets hurt -- as a duelist: Kalin needs to get taken down a notch or twenty and he's just scampering away -- or, for the first time in a while, as Yusei's best friend who wants to make Kalin regret that? My sister also voiced the very shrewd opinion that Jack hates not being able to do anything.

Just as a quick one-liner, we learned from Nervin that there are still gangs in the Satellite that have formed since the days of the Enforcers.

Not that this isn't so so sweet, but *why* couldn't they just hide the runner somewhere? I guess they didn't even want to risk it.

Outcast Alley, Ripper Row, the Knotting District, and Martha's house, four new locations we know about in the Satellite.

Do the thugs of outcast alley seem kinda zombielike to you? But at least these are a *different* kind of "zombies who don't agree with your point of view". I also counted ten marks similar to Yusei's and seven other different marks. I think I'll just call that kind of mark the Satellite Special.

We also got a couple new anecdotes from the past to add to an already-lengthy list: Tank's jellybeans and Nervin's energy cell.

Nervin needed an energy cell "for a project"; what kind of project? It sounds like Nervin's a bit of an engineer himself.

There don't seem to be too many actual houses in the Satellite; Martha's place is a notable exception. Who is Martha? She's the first adult of the Satellite we've met by name, for one, prompting several interesting questions regarding City-Satellite formation chronology. Based on gut instinct, I see her as kind of a motherly figure; the Satellite seems to have mostly been a town of orphans, so kids there find role models and sources of wisdom where they can. Actually, I made the connection to Crow, and how he looks after a gaggle of little kids, and during Jack's Enforcers flashback we saw him playing cards with a bunch of younger kids, too. Was Martha the equivalent of Crow to Yusei and his friends? Is she simply a friendly person in the Satellite who helps those who come to her in need?

This is the part where I talk about Rally, Blitz, Tank, and Nervin, because this episode is a lot about them. First of all, WOW! The magnitude of the action, giving up their dueling decks to save Yusei's runner! I just haven't the words. Giving up their clothes was reaching the point of hyperbole, and I think we also needed some comic relief, but giving up their decks, in this show where decks represent and symbolize so much... that's big.
The other really interesting thing I want to mention is what Kalin had to say about Yusei's friends, the *only* thing he said: "I just hope for *your* sake that you never have to feel the stinging pain of their betrayal!" Was Kalin merely reminding us that Yusei's a traitor and he betrayed his friend, etc. etc., or is this some sort of foreshadowing? In this episode in particular we saw just how loyal Rally, Blitz, Tank, and Nervin are, almost in contrast to Kalin's words. I don't even want to think it, but I'll put it out there: are we going to see that change?

We're seeing a lot of Crow's serious side here, after Yusei got hurt. Not only are we all made presently aware the gravity of the situation and how dangerous the Dark Signers are, but right now, as it is, until Yusei recovers, Crow is our only line of defense, and the Dark Signers may well show up to try and finish Yusei off. Though I don't think Kalin will, because he had the chance earlier and made a confidence-smashing speech instead.

Did this just happen? Just to be clear and up-front, this is one of those things that's kind of hard to absorb. I'm almost still waiting for it to hit me, even after I've looked at it from every angle I can imagine.

We seem to be having a injury-heavy season; first Jack's broken arm, now this.

Well, they're being vague, and it's too be expected. There's probably an actual wound in the original version and the original-version purists are probably squawking outrageously, but 4Kids seems to draw the line at anyone bleeding. Well, we work with what's in front of us; what you see is what you get and no matter how they squawk, the episode is what it is. Yusei was talking after he fell ("My gut!"), so I think his helmet protected his head pretty darn well; the helmet was scratched, but not even dented. For the purposes of our canon, since we don't see anything the damage must be internal. Bruising means broken blood vessels near the surface of the skin, so we're probably looking at some internal bleeding.

What's medicine like in the Satellite? It's something we're probably going to find out. The doctor who was working with Martha seemed to be a stranger to Crow and company, so perhaps he just happened to be visiting Martha. Or maybe he's just, as we like to say, 'a plot device, deal with it.' Without much actual medical practice in the Satellite, or modern medicine, they probably manage as best they can: stop any bleeding, keep everything as clean as possible, lots of rest, and possibly, hopefully, herbs.

And of course, the real struggle will be keeping Yusei from trying to get up and duel again too soon. Think Jaden in Field of Screams. Yusei would be every bit as difficult, I predict, especially considering the fact that without him out there, the Dark Signers have the run of the Satellite and a good opportunity to find more people to fuel monsters like Ccapac Apu. With Yusei out of the fight, everyone's in a lot more danger, unless another Signer shows up in the Satellite and joins in (it could happen...). Like I said earlier, this also means that Crow and perhaps Blister are the only thing standing between the Dark Signers and Yusei, not to mention the only thing protecting his friends. Yusei won't want to ask anyone else to take the risk of defending him, even when he's too weak to fight.

I'd heard about this on the boards. They said it was big, and speculated how 4Kids might be planning to make it work in the dub canon. I asked them to stop, before I actually started waiting for the shoe to drop. I also am hearing that we might be skipping a few episodes coming up. Not sure if it's true, but we'll see how it goes.

I met someone who was in a motorcycle accident, just a few days before the episode showed. It kinda creeps me out, the serendipity of it all. I was working away on my post, it being late in the week and me not being done yet, but this person struck up a conversation with me at the bus stop. We talked about learning to write with your left hand; his right side had been paralyzed by the accident. I'm pretty sure that Yusei's going to be okay, but man, I can't wait 'til he is, or at least until we know he's going to be, for sure.

What next? I'm pretty sure Yusei's going to be okay, but how long it takes him to heal is anyone's guess. After that, there's also some emotional healing, in terms of confidence and in terms of pretty much having lost his best friend all over again.

As of this post, I'm starting a new cards section. New cards played in this episode are:
Yusei- Level Warrior [300///]-- when summoned against monsters to an empty field, can be summoned as L4
Yusei- Miracle Locus, trap-- forces opponent to draw once, powers up a monster on own field by 1000 atk, and gives that same monster a second attack in the same turn.
Yusei- Synchro Destructor, trap-- deals damage to opponent equal to half the attack points of their destroyed monster, and then deals the same amount of damage again if the destroyed monster was a synchro monster
Kalin- Damage Translation, trap-- halves the damage taken from a card effect, and summons one ghost token for each lifepoint hit that it softened during the end phase of the turn
Kalin- Earthbound Immortal Ccapac Apu [3000///dark]-- immune to the effects of Scrapiron Scarecrow and Stardust Dragon. All we really know in terms of specifics is that it's big, it's nasty, and it's very hard to stop.

Well, that's all, except... what's the next episode? Alright, I found it: it's called "The Signs of Time". 'Til then, everybody! -Clio

READ A TRANSCRIPT OF THIS EPISODE HERE