Predictions and Observations:
The Synchro Solution and Acceleration

Episodes Aired: October 23, 2010
This Post Posted: October 29, 2010

There's a billboard around the gala that says 2021-- does that mean we actually have a canon year for the WRGP, the *only canon year ever in the entire 500-or-so-episode canon?!?!* This makes the inter-series, intra-canon time gaps (between YGO and GX, and between GX and 5D's) much, *much* narrower, if we assume that the YGO canon is based on the planet Earth and its civilization, which, since our ancient Egyptian history doesn't include the Shadow Games, we can't, exactly. What I'm saying is that for our current theoretical gaps to coexist with the WRGP happening in only 2021, Battle City would've taken place sometime perhaps in the 1980's at least, some would say as early as the 1920's. GX is fairly definitely ten years after that. What I'm saying is, 2021 is fairly absurd as a date for the WRGP, but if we see this again, you know what I'll do if the canon says 'jump'...

"Why did you let him go?" Well, why did *you*? Why didn't Akiza try to stop Yusei, if she's so worried? Why leave it up to Jack and Crow?

Why *did* Visor challenge Yusei to race before the duel began? For starters, if Visor hadn't led Yusei to discover that level of speed, Yusei wouldn't have known what he was seeing when Visor pulled out the accel synchro summon. Secondly, Visor was testing Yusei's determination and nerve, Yusei's willingness to learn; to follow wherever Visor led him. he'd been watching him and he thought he'd found the right person to teach this to, but we already know some of the risk he took to teach Yusei. More on that later.

At the beginning of this season we saw Yusei defend the potential of tuning and synchro monsters, against Heitman for one, and demonstrate the versatility of a tuning strategy. Now Visor represents the next level of that same intention and ability, that belief in tuning and what it represents; we see him pull a synchro-summon out of his hand and surprise people just like Yusei did.

During this duel, both duelists take the role of the Ghost. Visor demands from Yusei that he face his fears, and a few times goads that Yusei will have to try harder than that to beat the Ghost; though he's Yusei's opponent, he makes it clear that Yusei's real challenge here is learning what he needs to defeat the Ghost. Yusei himself takes the role of the Ghost when he plays "Speed Spell - Synchro Diffusion", a speed spell with the effect of Machine Emperor Wisel, to get Visor to show him the Synchro Solution by thwarting it.

Miracle's Wake again? It's not like Yusei to play the same trap card twice. This time, though, it didn't tell him anything much about TG Blade Blaster.

I confess, I like Visor. I've got a good feeling about this guy. It takes a major player to teach Yusei some new tricks, to be a mentor figure to him. He's definitely got the same sort of style as Yusei, but at a higher level; check out all those special-summons and abilities to get tuning material on the field. However, assuming he didn't throw outright to keep his secrets for now, assuming that if Yusei's attack had destroyed Blade Blaster that would've been far worse that taking a loss, he still ended up in a position of having to throw. He has greater ability for now, but I think Yusei has greater potential and will eventually outmatch Visor, for reals; but for right now, clearly Yusei has a lot to learn. Visor has already said they'll duel again; I bet, though, that he'll wait until Yusei has figured out as much as he can first.

Why is Visor dueling from behind a mask? His identity, as we know him, *is* that mask; we call him by the name Visor. I bet, when we find out who he really is, we'll also see him duel full-out.

Why throw the duel? Why did he throw himself in front of his monster like that? We've seen it happen before, but only one other time I can think of someone sacrificed lifepoints for his monsters to the point of throwing. And that was Grappling With a Guardian III. My first notion is, are accel synchro monsters somehow more real-- as in, if Yusei had managed to destroy Blade Blaster, would it have actually harmed Visor's monster permanently? Did Visor remove Blade Blaster from play because if the duel had continued something would've been revealed that Yusei wasn't ready for, or that the wrong people would've seen? I guess the big question is, *did* Visor throw himself in front of his monster to save it, or did he merely throw the duel in order to end it *by* taking the hit?

Why does Visor help Yusei? Who is he working for, or against? I'd be willing to bet it was no accident that the spectators' screens went nuts; it was how Visor hid from the D's-G-- and the wielder of Machine Emperor Wisel-- that Yusei has just been taught the accel synchro summon. If I had to guess, he's working against *them*. The guy with the sword already seems to express the knowledge that Yusei could mean trouble for him; Visor's concealing that he just gave Yusei the weapon he needs to defeat Machine Emperor Wisel protects Yusei until he's got it down-- keeps Security from showing up on his doorstep for no legally defensible reason, for instance-- as well as makes it more likely that they'll ultimately succeed against it. Now, why does Visor continue to call the threat Yusei is preparing to face "the Ghost", when he probably is doing this because he knows who's really behind all this?

All three Directors-General had very interesting reactions to this duel. The short guy, whom we now know as Lester, had the most superficial reaction: "what a waste of time". He sees no reason that a duelist would sacrifice himself for his monster, which in turn suggests to me that he's an individual who never would and cards are a power thing to him, merely a tool.
The huge one with the wild facial hair, whom I call Mask currently, seems to already have some notion what's going on, apparently even more than we do. Whatever he thinks it is, is he right? Do we need to worry about him enlightening the other Directors-General, or will he keep them in the dark because he's trying to conceal that he's actually scheming for himself? He says that dueling itself has just entered a "new... but old" age. Wouldn't be the first time. How long ago does the accel synchro hail from, and how did they ever go fast enough on those rough stone or perhaps bronze wheels?
And, Sword's just a bit on-edge, isn't he. He's thinking in terms of the next time Yusei faces Machine Emperor Wisel, and he's scared that Visor just taught Yusei the secret to beating it. We also seem to find out here that Yusei gave him a bit of a scare by even managing to beat Wisel with Majestic Star Dragon.

How *will* Yusei master the Synchro Solution? What will he do now? For starters, he'll probably be practicing and getting comfortable with going that fast. As for the other component, he'll need the right cards: synchro-tuner and accel synchro monsters. Can normal synchro monsters be accel synchro-summoned? As in, if he had the right synchro tuner monster could he bust out Stardust with an accel synchro summon?

I've been noticing the pendant Akiza wears, particularly since she even wore it with her evening dress at the gala. She did not, however, wear it with her turbo-dueling suit; she had a collar-style necklace with a place for a pendant, but nothing on it. I wonder why, or if, that pendant is important to her, and if we'll ever find out.

So we're finally finding out what sort of bureaucratic infrastructure is in place to regulate turbo-dueling, because we see how Akiza goes about getting her license. Was any of this in existence six months ago, when no one seemed to turbo-duel except pros, cops, and outlaws? Actually, we know for a fact that it *was*, because Yusei was charged in court with "turbo-dueling without a license", as a footnote to his being in the city illegally. How were turbo-dueling satellites like Yusei and Crow able to get their licenses when the city and satellite integrated? Did they have to go through the same process just as a formality?

Wow, for the first time we're seeing not just a dearth of female duelists but some hostility over gender between duelists. This is pretty much unprecedented; these guys give Akiza a hard time *specifically because she's a girl*. Now, let's be clear; there's been a long-standing gender bias in dueling. Mai says in Duelist Kingdom that she already has eight stars because opponents were flocking toward her because they "think that by dueling a *chick* they'll score some easy stars!" (ep#11) Leo cites that "Everyone knows that boys duel better than girls do. It's actually a scientific fact." (ep#36) This typically means a female duelist has to be among the best if she wants to be taken seriously, and even then sometimes she isn't; take the flashback in "My Freaky Valentine I", when spectators mistakenly decide that Mai is "not... one of the greats, like Kaiba or that Yugi kid... those guys could duel *circles* around us, but this *Valentine* girl, she's just not in their league." However, this is the first time a male duelist has actually walked up to a female duelist and said "you can't take it because you're a girl."

Over these two episodes especially, it seems we, too, are getting a turbo-duel education; we're seeing a lot of examples of how to ride and how *not* to ride. So overall it seems to me that mastery of turbo-dueling is a lot about knowing when to relax and when not to. For instance, Akiza's first hurdle was that tricky curve she kept wiping out on, before she figured out how to slow down going into it, take it at the proper angle, make sure she has enough traction, speed up going out of it, and most importantly, to let herself *drift*, which she really has to work hard at, which Yusei emphasizes even further in teaching her how to drift backwards. Yusei calls out at one point while she's working on this that she's "pushing too hard"; he says multiple times that she needs to "trust (herself) and let go".
At a much higher riding level, Yusei is also learning a few new tricks, from Visor. He *does* take those curves at a speed no amateur would dream of, let alone attempt and fail at, and we see him struggle, but pull it out because he already has the technique of executing a turn that Akiza was just learning, and he already knows how to trust his reflexes and stay relaxed. Visor has a different turbo-dueling lesson for Yusei; he keeps telling him to push harder, to step it up. More than once he pushes Yusei nearly to his limit then calls that feat nowhere near enough. He wants to make it crystal clear to both of them that Yusei is absolutely determined to learn what Visor has to teach him. Visor put himself out there to teach Yusei this; he risked cards he'd give the last of his lifepoints to protect, and he risked running afoul of those who would not want Yusei to learn this, such as the so-called Ghost, who nearly saw him pull off that accel synchro summon. If Yusei wasn't entirely ready, or willing, Visor wasn't about to waste his time.

I don't think I need to point out that crashing generally hurts a lot more than that. Then again, in real life no one would ever attempt turbo-dueling. Do not try this at home.

Well, a bit of shipping action is good for the soul. I was a bit surprised, though, that Sherry wasn't a so-called "elephant in the room" here; I thought Akiza was really worried that Yusei was all preoccupied with Sherry. Did she figure out over the first episode this week that it was actually the Synchro Solution he was thinking about? Does she still actually have anything to worry about from Sherry 'stealing' Yusei? I ask again, where does Yusei stand in all this; are both Sherry and Akiza still just friends to him?

I actually had some theories before this about Yusei's skating abilities, believe it or not. This was one of those things I'd daydream about when at the rink myself, just let my mind wander. It seems to me that if a pair of skates or a skateboard ever got thrown in New Domino City's trash, you'd better believe the Enforcers could skate because it would give them an edge against rival gangs. Something like that wouldn't even be all that hard for them to *make*, if they wanted to. Moreover, 'graceful' isn't generally a word that would describe most duelists, but just think of the balance, dexterity, and grace it must take to ride like Yusei does; that would definitely carry over and make him formidable on just about any set of wheels. I've even theorized that low-tech turbo-duels could be and probably have been played on skates; I think we've seen one conducted while running, back in the Battle of Downtown (ep#34), so why not skating?

Yusei, Jack, and Crow each specifically say what they did to upgrade Akiza's runner. Can we take this as an indication of what Yusei's and Crow's specialties are when it comes to runner mechanics? Why is Crow even better at deck interfaces and brakes than Yusei is? And, I kinda had a feeling, though I can't cite any evidence, that Jack was the one of these three who isn't much of a mechanic.

Don'tcha just love it when the canon decides to teach us some cool vocabulary? I admit "schadenfreude" was a new one for me.

Doesn't Trudge, as vice-chief and all, have anything more important and city-saving to do? I wonder if they couldn't *get* anyone lower-rank to proctor Akiza because she's a psychic duelist and an unstable fledgling turbo-psychic-duelist has got to be just about the scariest amateur opponent there is? I wonder if, since he's their friend, he was the only licensed proctor willing to take the risk and proctor her exam? Then again, Trudge seemed to be having a lot of fun helping newbie turbo-duelists make the final leap to being ready for a license; we see that he was dueling specifically with the intent of rattling her trap a bit, putting her under just the right amount of pressure, to make "sure that she can take it", as Jack put it. I could imagine him doing this as a hobby, when he needs the break from chasing down Ghosts and all.

Hey, Trudge has a new deck! Is this just the deck he uses to proctor these exams, or has he actually changed his lineup following his defeat at the hands of the Ghost?

Last season the first-person-to-take-the-first-curve-goes-first rule was verbally agreed upon by the duelists. By now, though, we see that it's become an unwritten rule, something everyone knows.

It occurs to me that we as an audience also got our first introduction to the world of turbo-dueling from Trudge, because his duel with Yusei was the first turbo-duel we saw all the way through.

"All the pieces are gathering on the board", huh, Sherry? I still maintain, and this supports, that Sherry may also have her eye on Akiza for her WRGP team.

Where are Akiza's folks? Since we actually know them and they're actually in town (as far as we know), why weren't they there to cheer her on?

This week is all about learning to handle a new level of pressure. Yusei is learning to endure the speed necessary to master the accel synchro; Akiza is learning to face the pressure a turbo-duel demands. And I am learning what it's like to assistant-stage-manage a full-scale musical with a shorthanded crew going into tech week. I didn't leave the theater until quarter to midnight last night, I didn't even finish what I was there to do, and there's plenty more where that came from. *Sigh*. It's times like this I need to remind myself how much I live for this, just like these guys live to duel. I remind myself that I'm the one person on the set with the script virtually memorized, and how much I've already done, and how lucky this show is to have me where I am now because I'm just getting warmed up in terms of how ready I'm ready to be for opening night. I've just got a good case of Duel Madness.

Alright, our next two episodes are: "Syd is Vicious" and "Dawn of the Duel Board". Okay... Millennium-World-themed skateboards...? Zombies or really old versions of zombie duelist sidekicks from Duelist Kingdom and Battle City? These episodes sound weird. New regulations for the tournament, 'duel board'?

Well, next week, everyone! - Clio

READ A TRANSCRIPT OF THE SYNCHRO SOLUTION

READ A TRANSCRIPT OF ACCELERATION