Predictions and Observations:
The Wicked Spirit and French Twist I

Episodes Aired: October 9, 2010
This Post Posted: October 15, 2010

What were those titles? The Wicked Spirit and French Twist I?? I got those titles off YouTube; the TV listings never put 'em up. I may yet find out at a later date that they're entirely wrong. But they seem to fit.

THE WICKED SPIRIT

Too old for ghost stories? Not Crow! Remember his *last* ghost story, about a certain bridge?

Unlike the Spirit World, this is *not a friendly forest*. I guess there are different spirits who live here? But they *are* dueling spirits in some sense because Haley's cards destroyed the trees attacking Luna and Claire manifested herself physically with the basis of a card. So, my question remains: why would the spirits of this forest threaten Luna of all people? Don't her duel spirit powers and connections with the Spirit World count for anything around here? Wouldn't this forest extend her every courtesy as she's a fairly serious power in their sister spirit world? Are spirit worlds aware that they aren't the only spirit worlds? Wouldn't the spirits of this forest still sense that Luna can talk to duel spirits?

Then again, it seems to me that this spirit world was somewhat in a state of desperation. For some reason it needed this thing between Claire and Haley resolved, needed them reunited and balance restored, to the point that people who wander in the forest fall into trances and get lost and end up at this house; I have a feeling the forest kept trying to get someone there who could fix this, who could make it turn out differently. It may be that it was willing to risk endangering or angering a power like Luna because it was that desperate for her aid.

Incidentally, the position of the sun makes Yusei, Jack, and Crow's front door more or less southwest-facing, and their garage entrance southeast.

Wow, is that Luna crushing a little bit on Haley right there? How she had nothing to worry about if he would protect her? Luna seems to be getting to that age, doesn't she?

We're seeing a pattern of brothers protective, sisters intuitive. We've seen this pattern before with the twins; Leo makes a lot of noise and tries his best to protect Luna, but he really needs to pay closer attention to her because she knows what's going on, she's in-tune with all that, and he isn't. We saw a radical example of that same pattern with super-protective Haley who somehow never figured out what Claire already had a long time ago.

It seems we always end up with these sorts of situations when the twins duel. For starters, they always get the heavy stuff, it's *insane*. Second and most importantly, though, Leo always gets mistaken for the stronger power between the two of them, when usually whatever it is is actually interested in Luna. In this case, I think the forest spirits were hoping Luna would defeat Haley and resolve this whole thing; I think they sensed that she was a powerful duelist, a Signer, and probably that she had spirit-world-related powers. But of course, since she's a girl, Haley didn't even see her as a threat and protected her instead. I'll talk about common assumptions about males and females in this canon later on, after I've started talking about our other mistaken gender this week. Meanwhile Leo, who, unless he's dueling for Luna, is not the best duelist ever, gets seen as trouble.

"*You* have a *machine deck*?!" Why is Haley so surprised? Did he once have a machine deck, too, before he got to the point his is now, best represented by zombie cards?

I have a feeling the dub canon skated over the significance of all the dolls. Right now, what I'm inferring is that, like the dolls, Claire and Luna were sheltered and protected, kept on a "shelf", safe and out of the way. We've seen Haley follow the pattern of not only casting intruders like Leo and Yusei as his foes, but also casting people like Luna as people he has to protect-- note how when he speaks to Luna in the foyer, he says that he'll protect Luna just like he's been protecting Claire. This may not necessarily be because Luna's a girl and Yusei and Leo were guys-- I'm not even getting into that right now, but I will later on in this post. We've seen where Haley's "wicked spirits" have been ending up, in the room Yusei found a few doors down from Claire's; is it possible that the doll collection in Claire's room is similar? I'd call it more than a coincidence that Haley and Claire can definitely identify with Leo and Luna, and vice versa; have the rest of the "wicked spirits" who have come to call also been thus identifiable with this situation, meaning girls to save as well as boys to do the saving? What I'm driving at here is, is it possible that if Leo had lost, Luna would've somehow become one of those dolls? Is that the significance?

The card Sleepy Beauty depicts a zombie protectively holding a doll. Haley's zombie cards, and Claire embodied as a doll. We barely saw this card-- it got sent to the graveyard early-- but I noticed it.

Claire specifically says that Haley's been so focused on protecting her, he's been unable to accept reality. He didn't realize how he, himself, had become the 'wicked spirit'. Is it possible we'll see Leo running the risk of doing the same thing, getting blinded by his own imperative to protect Luna? I think it's likely.

FRENCH TWIST I

A 'french twist' is a kind of bun. It's also probably the one of the only ways LeBlanc's hair could actually have fit under that helmet...

I thought of a quote when I saw that truck: "I feel it-- dragon power!! It's flowing through my body like some sort of super sports drink!!" (ep#36)

Check out those masks on the thugs with sticks-- red, yellow, and green. Imagine that. Aren't those the three colors we associate with the new Directors-General? I wonder, is this mopheaded kidnapper guy and his organization yet another "replaceable part" of their scheme?

The phrase tête-à-tête, borrowed from French, means literally "head-to-head".

I'm working on reading the subtext in Yusei's conversation with the individual behind the kidnap attempt, via the TV screen in the back of the truck. What does this tell us, besides what actually gets said?
- The kidnapper makes a point of insinuating that they intend for Yusei to be uncomfortable, with the sarcasm about the mint on his pillow. This is a suggestion that they would just love to make Yusei even more uncomfortable if he gives them a reason to, therefore an implied threat already.
- The kidnapper introduces himself as a representative of a group, not an individual acting alone: "we're" just a nice bunch of citizens, and "we" employ a few rough types. However, when he's talking about the Prix, he speaks in the singular first person: "I'm" putting together a team, and you will be on "my" team whether you like it or not. But talking about "our" psychiatrist, he switches back to the plural. What is this organization, and where does he fit into it?
- I'm surprised that Yusei mentioned Jack and Crow by name. I have a feeling this was for the benefit of people just joining us this episode, but I think it was slightly uncharacteristic. Yusei has a lot of experience with being hunted down and imprisoned; he grew up a duelist in the Satellite when it was illegal, and he's been to the Facility. A practice that seemed to me to be fairly universal in the Satellite back in the day, is that you don't tell people your name or the name of anyone close to you unless you're fairly good friends. Nevertheless it stands, so what does this tell us about Yusei right now? That he's still a little out-of-it? That six quiet months have put him off his guard? That for some reason he *wants* the kidnapper to know who his teammates are, or thinks that they already know-- they already know his name and how to reach his home to contact him with a fake job offer, right?-- so it's a moot point?
- When Yusei asks to be let out of the truck, the kidnapper laughs, a reaction which takes Yusei by surprise. I don't think Yusei was expecting a yes, but I think he was expecting the kidnapper to be provoked into getting more serious about spelling out what he wants in response to Yusei doing so by clearly stating that *he* wants to be let out of the truck. He just pushed the conversation one way, so he expected the kidnapper to push back. The kidnapper responding by laughing in his face is not a good thing to Yusei; it tells him the kidnapper sees no need to push back. It tells him that the kidnapper considers the idea of letting him go, or having him escape, to be laughable-- which means he thinks there's no chance it's gonna happen.
- The kidnapper reacted strongly to being accused of "jokes", even though he's answered Yusei's every question with sarcasm and levity. Not a well-balanced person, indeed. And Yusei knows full well that, whatever happens next, having this person in charge of his fate is a bad situation all by itself.

Social justice and family values. What does it tell us about the political scene in New Domino that these are the two 'virtues' the kidnapper chooses to sarcastically claim? Is he just being sarcastic, or does his organization actually support either of those things? I can definitely see a platform of social justice being just about universally embraced in New Domino's current political atmosphere, because we're seeing it reflected in all the new construction, most of it rebuilding and building anew in the Satellite. They could not finance or support a project that massive in a society like this without most of the population wholeheartedly behind it. 'Family values' is more debatable and we don't have much evidence to support any New Dominoan position on it either way. I could believe that New Domino goes for family values because it's experiencing an influx of orphans into its population with the integration of the Satellite, and a lot of people are seeking family of some kind or another, are seeking to band together in groups in response to a rapidly-changing environment.

The guy on the videoscreen mentioned this psychiatrist. That felt like a bit too much foreshadowing to be something we never hear about again. May I briefly note that 5D's hates its psychologists; first the Professor, then Commander Koda, now this. The guy on the video (*man*, he needs a name, I'm getting really sick of calling him that) said that this psychiatrist has "a fascinating way with people's minds, although he's a bit of a *control freak*, if ya know what I mean." Mind control, is the implication I think. Well, we've seen psychics in this show; genuine mind control is not out of the realm of the plausible. In any case, this does not sound like fun, and I have the most unsettling feeling we haven't heard the last of it.

So, WRGP's getting closer with everyone starting to really get down to business picking teams. I bet pretty soon we'll start hearing about other teams forming up; right now, the only team we know the composition of is Yusei, Jack, and Crow. Now we know *of* another team-- the kidnapper guy's that wishes it had Yusei.

Well, we all know how oblivious Jack can be when it comes to romance ("Of course you do, but we're talking about Carly right now." ep#45, *Epic* facepalm...), so I'm slightly surprised he managed to pick up on why this particular crisis was making Akiza just a little bit crazy.

We got a lot of location names handed to us in this episode: Oil-Slick Alley, Pier Twenty-Three, Blue Hill Ave, the Crescent Valley district, and Irving (a street, but we don't know whether it's "Street", "Road", "Avenue", etc). Why did Crow ask Jack to check Oil-Slick Alley and Pier Twenty-Three? Are those places Yusei would be likely to hang out? And if so, why?

So, as I understand it: Crow is a fried chicken delivery guy, Yusei does odd mechanical jobs, and Jack is probably still unemployed. I just realized that Crow's new sweatshirt is his work uniform; that exceedingly unstylish helmet he wears with those goggles has the same logo.

Would Jack really have a better vocabulary than city-educated Akiza? I mean, she dropped out, but school in the Satellite is largely continuity-weird hearsay. Then again, I'd imagine Jack knows his fight-related vocabulary pretty well; if the Enforcers ever threatened to 'cobble' the Ambulators, I could see them having some trouble ever living it down.

Yeah, what *was* Jack about to say?

Why doesn't Mina call in *her* Security goons? We actually *do* know a thing or two about how Security prioritizes missing person cases, from our experience with the Arcadia Movement. Carly and Misty expressed the opinion that, in the absence of Arcadia having "some serious dirt on one of the higher-ups running the city", Security would conduct a full investigation in the case of even one missing person (ep#37). So, once they know that Yusei's in fact been kidnapped, wouldn't Mina be calling out *her* goons to join the search as soon as she hears about that message Crow got? Mina's Sector Chief; of course she's got goons.

The anonymous Crescent Valley tipoff specifically told Mina and Akiza to intercept that truck *before it reaches its destination.* Why was it important to anonymous tipoff guy that they intercept Yusei before he even reached wherever he was being taken? What does he know that we don't?

"Controlling my powers is not an issue anymore." Woot! Gotta admit, Akiza bashing up the truck with Rose Tentacles right there is pretty awesome to watch. Looks like she's definitely been practicing her control over the last six months; she's totally confident in her powers now.

The guys who kidnapped Yusei said they were going to implement "Plan D", "the if-we-can't-have-him-nobody-can plan". Would that make this Plan C, and does that mean we've already gone through Plans A and B? I'm imagining goons trying to jump out at Yusei at weird moments over the last few weeks and landing flat on their faces somewhere in the background with Yusei continuing whatever he was doing, entirely oblivious...

There went Akiza's duel disk-- *and her deck*... by the way... Is that a continuity blip (i.e. we never find out how she got it back but of *course* she didn't lose it for good) or a major upset?

The kidnap-- real or fakeout? I'm pretty sure it was real. If those guys were in league with LeBlanc and staging one big fakeout, we wouldn't have seen them decide the way they did to get rid of Yusei. The guy who spoke to Yusei on camera was concerned that Yusei had seen his face; if they were in league with LeBlanc, they would not have tried to kill him, only to give him a good scare, and that guy would not have been worried that Yusei saw his face and could potentially identify him later, because LeBlanc was not intending to make an enemy of Yusei at all, merely to initiate a good mostly-friendly rivalry.

Now-- this tells us something about the WRGP tournament and what the stakes might be, that it not only brings out the power-hungry loonies but incites them to under-the-table blackmail and kidnapping to put together the best team. Just *what* is up for grabs in this tournament, that someone powerful enough to pull off an operation like this still wants it that badly? I mean, clearly these people have power, money, and cards; what big prize could they possibly hope to gain from the tournament, that's worth a great big kidnap operation, that they don't already have? Prestige? Cred? One-of-a-kind, uber-powerful, next-generation-Egyptian-God type cards?

Of course, I'm sure Yusei will be well aware, once he has a moment to catch his breath, that these guys will probably try again. After all, he saw that guy's face and could point him out to Security; they'll try to keep him quiet, and they'll try to make good on their threats so they don't lose face if anyone finds out. In addition, we got some foreshadowing on these guys and their organization; in particular, Yusei was threatened with a visit to a certain psychiatrist. We may yet find out what the heck that guy was talking about. Also keep in mind that they definitely know the identities of Yusei's other teammates, and they'll probably be able to figure out who just rescued him once they put their resources to finding out. *Yusei* might not *be* the person they go after next, and if that's the case it may mean they're smarter than I think they are, because that's how they'll *actually* get anywhere in the attempt of coercing Yusei.

As far as I can readily recall, we haven't seen all that much rough stuff before a tournament with regards to who's on whose side. I think the formation of multiple-person teams would bring more of that out of the woodwork, because while certain groups of duelists (Rare Hunters, for example) have been in cahoots during tournaments before, on the field it was still every duelist for him- or herself. Therefore, we've seen a lot more behind-the-scenes deals, ways to manipulate individual duelists personally after the tournament starts. In other words, in the WRGP duelists publicly declare their loyalties when they form teams; if this guy gets Yusei to sign up on his team, unlike most tournaments, Yusei is no longer nominally a free agent, and whatever else he does, he's still stuck with the rest of his team.

In addition, we've seen a few duelists get quietly *replaced* before, but we haven't seen a top contender get bullied about and threatened before a tournament like this. Something occurs to me: if a high-profile top contender gets messed around before a big tournament, its host loses face because it says something about tournament security and also about how the tournament tolerates cheating and foul play. If *anyone* does, it says something about tournament security, but if a famous duelist gets messed with before a big tournament, everyone knows the tournament's not safe and not only decided by the cards. Kaiba would never, *ever* have tolerated such a thing; he made a big deal of his contests being decided by the duelists' merit alone. Few will probably hear about this because Yusei seems to keep a ridiculously low profile as (hello!) champion turbo-duelist in New Domino, a title that meant the world to us six months ago.

Okay, this is *fascinating*-- just *how many* different parties are playing capture the flag with Yusei in this episode? Okay, at this point, here's my best guess as to what the heck just happened, based on the evidence we have, point by point.
The guy Yusei spoke to in the truck, with the messy red-brown hair and the sarcasm, has Yusei kidnapped by thugs in his employ so Yusei can be frightened or persuaded into dueling in the WRGP on behalf of his backing organization, whatever it may be. This we pretty much know. We also know that this guy, or his associates, know Yusei's name and know of his ability as a duelist; and that they also know how to contact his home and that he does odd mechanical jobs around town, because they trapped him by contacting him with a fake job. We also know that if he didn't know about Yusei's current teammates, Jack and Crow, before, he does now because Yusei just told him. However, Akiza showing up to help Yusei took these guys by surprise; clearly they aren't all *that* aware of who Yusei's friends are. Right now, my most pressing question about these guys-- besides the obvious 'who are they, what do they want, will they keep trying'-- are why they also kidnapped Yusei's runner along with him *and kept it where he could get it*.
Next I'm going to talk about the person who called Akiza and Mina with the anonymous tipoff that the truck carrying Yusei was in the Crescent Valley district. That alone indicates to us that this person either can *hack* Security or *is* Security, because he contacts them on Mina's private Security channel. I think the voice sounds similar to the voicemail message Crow spoke of, but I could be totally off-base with that one. Clearly, though, someone else *does* know who Yusei's friends are, and is trying to help them rescue Yusei-- or at least, I correct myself, *sabotage the other guy*. If I had to guess, the anonymous tipoff guy is trying to sabotage the kidnap attempt, and thus the WRGP-power-grab attempt, without the sabotage being traced back to him; if Yusei's friends *just happen* to show up and rescue Yusei, that's just tough luck for mophead-- right? If I had to guess, I'd say this is the same guy we saw later on watching from afar right before the duel started, with the runner, binoculars, and the Rafael-style sideburns? But I could also be totally off-base on *that* one. I'm also wondering whether he gave the same tipoff to Jack, Crow, or just to Mina and Akiza, if so why, and whether he intended the communications to stay jammed, and if so how come. In other words, why single out Mina and Akiza to save Yusei?
So. Mophead has Yusei kidnapped to coerce him to enter the WRGP on his team, Sideburns sabotages Mophead by anonymously tipping off Yusei's friends exactly where to find him. Are any of the Directors-General behind any of this, or are we looking at independent behind-the-scenes tournament shenanigans?

Awfully big coincidence that Mademoiselle LeBlanc just happened to be in the neighborhood when this all went down, though. She may not have had Yusei kidnapped, but we may yet find out she's in cahoots with someone else who was tuned into this quiet little high-speed chase drama. Is it possible *she* was trying to break Yusei out of there instead but Akiza got there first? Is it possible that she had been getting ready to make her move and bait Yusei into a challenge for a while, and she finally found her moment? Is it not also possible she got tipped off by the same guy who tipped off Mina and Akiza to the location of Yusei's truck?

But seriously, I think it tells us something about LeBlanc that at the point she challenges him and tells him he has to accept or he'll blow up, she hasn't seen enough demonstration of Yusei's "courage under fire" yet. The guy just jumped his runner out of a moving truck, before it went over a cliff, with a passenger riding double who had never ridden a duel runner before. To have been at that place at that time, she must know what his day has been like so far, and yet she picks this exact moment to toy with him just a bit more.

LeBlanc just hacked Yusei's runner, by the way; Yusei sure didn't put it in duel mode himself. Delightful. I think it's fair to say that runner-hacking is mainstream now and just about anyone with any programming skill at all can do it.

Check out the little mini-arguments between Yusei and Akiza! That's new. Sure, they've disagreed before, but usually before now that was Yusei dueling Akiza down when her powers got out of control. This is them actually approaching the situation differently and disagreeing. We see Yusei get slightly angry at her, probably for putting herself in danger, because later on he argues from the position we've seen him take before where he'll risk himself but no one else; he says she's already put herself in enough danger for him. Akiza argues for letting the situation play out and finding out who's behind it, which is probably what Yusei would've done himself if she hadn't shown up. We may see this same conflict between them arise again in the future, where Yusei wants Akiza out of danger and Akiza refuses to leave him to it alone, and both of them are pretty stubborn.

Role of women in these episodes-- We're seeing some major riffing on the 'damsel-in-distress' theme.
We get a lot of "girls must be defended and protected" in The Wicked Spirit. At one point Luna even begins to raise a protest that she can duel, she can fight, and gets a door slammed in her face. However, we discover later that, the whole time, the girls (and Yusei) have been using their heads while the guys were too busy jumping to conclusions and getting into fights over said conclusions.
Then we get French Twist I, which, hello girl power. One of my questions is still why the anonymous tipoff hacker guy singled out Mina and Akiza for his tipoff that Yusei was in Crescent Valley, which he seems to have done. We've got Akiza bashing open trucks and saving the day, which is freakin' awesome. We've got Akiza getting into arguments with Yusei, which is definitely a new thing for us. And we've got a female turbo-duelist who's definitely got Yusei's attention as a contender.

It seems that Akiza has discovered the thrill of turbo-dueling. I've been very slightly exposed to spoilers on this one though I didn't know the 'when'. Akiza's discovering that turbo-dueling can be fun, in addition to the competition for Yusei's attention that she's bound to have with LeBlanc-- whom Yusei has already termed "a *real* turbo-duelist"-- all spells very clearly to me that we're about to see Akiza learn to turbo-duel.

During the duel, Yusei and Akiza were both tuned-in enough to the duel to notice the chemistry. I was intrigued at how each one noticed a different part of that. Akiza noticed that Yusei and LeBlanc were matching moves and predicting each other perfectly, almost as though they have some prior connection. I wonder if she's right, somehow, and if so, how on Earth? Yusei noted that he got an entirely different 'vibe' off of this duelist than from the people who kidnapped him and inferred that she was working solo and also that he could go so far as to trust her about not blowing up. I was particularly intrigued that Yusei's assessment seemed more intuitive than Akiza's.

"I have sought you out so that I might steal you for my own" in what *sense*? Of course, when faced with a female duelist who has that kind of duelist-to-duelist chemistry going already with Yusei and says she wants to steal him, we all jump to the obvious conclusion and I bet Akiza did too. The reason, however, that I think we're all probably jumping to the *right* conclusion is that we got told earlier this episode that Akiza was in love with Yusei-- not only in Jack's saying it, but in Akiza's big reaction to him saying it. If LeBlanc *does* mean to 'steal' Yusei in that sense, we would need to know that; if she just wants him for her WRGP team, which she might also, I suppose, we wouldn't need to know anything about Yusei and Akiza's relationship prior to Akiza getting some competition. Then again, LeBlanc could *still* mean it in a different sense and you'd better believe that Akiza will see this as a threat to her chances with Yusei no matter what LeBlanc really wants...

Why did LeBlanc conceal her identity? Did she think Yusei would take her more seriously if she led him to believe she was male until he'd gotten a sample of her ability as a duelist? Is she generally right about how society perceives female duelists differently?

LeBlanc's deck and style seems to be going on a theme of lady knights. Okay, I've spent entirely too much time internetting and come up with some really cool, mostly useless and trivial information on female warriors, the history of trousers, British titles of nobility, and so on. Heck, I've got nothing that directly parallels LeBlanc or her deck, but that was some cool reading and I may go back to it at a later point after we've seen more. For now, female knights speak a lot for themselves.
I also note that LeBlanc's deck emphasizes flowers, which is something she shares in common with Akiza, but with the same sort of fine distinction between them that reminds me of, to drag up ancient history, the duel between Jim and Hassleberry: fossils versus live dinosaurs. This was early third season of GX, when we were first getting to know the transfers. Akiza's flowers are wild, monsters in their own right; LeBlanc's flowers set her knights apart, but they are tame decorations.

So, what next? Will Akiza take this opportunity to hop off before the duel starts up again? Somehow I doubt it will even come up. I'm trying to think how Yusei or Akiza would respond to that particular statement of intention, and which one will be more piqued-- Akiza at the fact that she now has competition for Yusei, or Yusei at the idea that yet another party is trying to 'steal him for their own', which he's probably had enough of for one day.

Who Will Win? I doubt Yusei will lose, but somehow I don't think this duel will end as simply as LeBlanc just losing, either. I could be wrong. But I get the sense that a rivalry *will* be kindled between these two, which usually means that which one of them is better is still very much in contention. Tie? Interrupt? *Very very close* win? I get the sense the LeBlanc might just say, essentially, "Now that I've teased you a bit, we'll finish this in the WRGP", but she was enjoying this duel too, so I'm not so sure she'll *want* to end the duel without a winner, even if she might originally have planned to.

Right now, Yusei has one unknown facedown. LeBlanc has no cards facedown, but two traps in her hand that I haven't managed to ID. Right now, it's her turn-- right after her battle phase-- so she may still place either of those traps. I'm wondering why she's only placed one facedown per turn, just enough to head off Yusei's attacks. Yusei placed three facedowns on his first turn. Yusei's extensive use of trap cards is well-known, and I'm starting to think LeBlanc might also favor traps; we've seen the same number of them from her as from Yusei so far, and we know she has two more she hasn't even placed yet. Then again, *most* turbo-duelists make good use of traps; unlike spells, they don't have to change traps when they change decks from regular to turbo, so it's only natural that they rely more on their monsters and traps. I predict Yusei's third facedown is going to be forgotten until it ends the duel. It's one of those; it's a Shard of Hope in Dark Signs.

Alright, finally finishing this off. I had so much to write! That episode was so juicy! I can't wait for Saturday, even if I'll spend most of it building sets with a frantic lunch break spent on YouTube. Looks like our episodes tomorrow are "French Twist II" and "Synchro Straits". A strait is either a narrow passage of water, like the Strait of Gibraltar, or some difficulty, as in the phrase "dire straits". Okay, I really gotta close off this post and do some homework. 'Til next week, everybody! - Clio

READ A TRANSCRIPT OF THE WICKED SPIRIT

READ A TRANSCRIPT OF FRENCH TWIST I