Predictions and Observations:
The Super Genius and
Get With the Program I

Episodes Aired: November 13, 2010
This Post Posted: November 19, 2010

Yusei's already gone that fast before, the night he dueled Visor, and that was with his old engine. Why is a new engine necessary? Then again, a slipstream effect or something may have let Visor essentially pull Yusei along for the ride without Yusei's engine being up to producing that speed by itself.

Why did Yusei and Jack suspect the free food, even coming from their friends? I think this says something about what kind of friendship this is; Jack and Yusei are wary because they think Trudge and Mina want a favor, which suggests that they get asked for help like this a lot. This is understandable because the guys are powerful, capable, and do want to help people. We've seen them step up on their own time to defend the helpless and fight bad guys, and we've seen how hard it is for them to turn their backs on the fights worth fighting. It's understandable that when Mina and Trudge run into a situation that's a bit too much for them, they turn to these three. It's especially understandable when we consider that Trudge and Mina are probably still in a minority in Security-- most of the PSB does the Directors' bidding rather than anything very productive or good for the city as a whole.

I think Crow *didn't* suspect the free food possibly because he grew up on the street more than Jack and Yusei did, and from a younger age; that's my best guess at this point. For Crow, any way you can get your basic needs met, you don't wait around for someone to change their mind about it.

I love how Trudge and Mina cleared their throats in perfect unison; I think that's a mannerism Trudge has picked up from Mina.

Here's where I talk about our new character, Bruno. For starters, it's kind of wild that we just said the Enforcers are back, and a fourth guy suddenly shows up and joins their group. Gotta say, the Enforcers sure are masters of irony sometimes... ("Guess we fight *ourselves* now!", ep#34...) Second thing, let's talk about Bruno's mysterious amnesia. Like when Yusei got amnesia, apparently Bruno still remembers that which comes most naturally to him-- dueling and engineering. He also, apparently, remembers something at least about Professor Fudo, because he comments that "You really are your father's son"; it's possible that Bruno knows about planetary particles and their famous discoverer from his training in engineering, and that's why he said that, but somehow I doubt it. And moreover Bruno still remembered that tidbit even though he has amnesia and isn't too sure of his own name. I don't think Bruno's old enough to have worked with Professor Fudo on any engineering; he'd have to be in his mid-thirties and he seems more like Yusei's age or a bit older. He might have met Professor Fudo as a kid, if anything. For now, I am thinking of Bruno as what he declared himself to be: "Think of me as one more piece of machinery joining up to make sure everything's working right!" He's no Signer, but he can support them and seems like a pretty good guy. At first glance, I like him.

However, I'm also thinking about that same Martha-ism with regard to Bruno: don't trust a free windfall. Crow doesn't question an opportunity he feels is scarce-- like free food--, and what is another engineer of similar caliber, but that same sort of scarce opportunity for Yusei? In other words, isn't it a bit *convenient* that they meet Bruno now of all times, when Yusei's been struggling with engine designs for months and needs to figure them out in order to start learning to accel synchro summon and be ready for the next Ghost? Isn't it also convenient that Bruno is so *completely* the person to help Yusei out with this? And that he has a few interesting hints to drop about Professor Fudo, whom we know Yusei naturally wants to know more about. And, isn't it convenient that Primo knew exactly when to have Lezar steal this program? We've seen the Directors manipulate perception and minds before; is it possible that Primo is behind Bruno's amnesia because he intended all along for Yusei and Bruno to meet, become friends, and collaborate on this so he could steal it and use it instead? Now, I do not think that Bruno himself is a turncoat, nor that he is secretly Jacob or Lester; at worst, I think he's being used or manipulated because all of this seems just way too convenient.

Now, my strongest point on the side of Bruno being a so-called Trojan horse, and the one that started me thinking about this, hasn't even been made yet. Here's the clincher. When Bruno solved the duel puzzle, he did so by removing a gear from Stronghold the Moving Fortress-- its weakness was that "no single piece could function without the others in place". That quote I just used is from when Yusei and Bruno compare Yusei's engine design to the bond shared by the five Signers. Will Bruno somehow end up doing, or attempting to do, the same thing to the Signers, removing one and using that weakness to destroy the rest? Is he being manipulated by someone else who will try it, or who will use him to try it?

We're increasingly seeing, though, that Primo's style is robot-based; I'm not so sure that erasing Bruno's mind, leaving or even adding certain convenient details (emphasis on planetary particles), and seeing to it that he crosses paths with Yusei would be the kind of strategy Primo would favor. Is it possible that Jacob or Lester started this then Primo sort of hijacked the scheme by stealing the program? Whoever's behind this, if anyone, clearly needed both Yusei and Bruno's talents combined, probably few others would do, and they needed both to be none the wiser.

Now hold on, isn't the way a person duels supposed to reveal who they really are? Where's Bruno's deck? We've already sort of glimpsed his strategical style, which does tell us an interesting thing or two-- did it tell *him* anything interesting? What *can* cause Bruno to remember who he is and what happened to him?

I don't think the 'real conversation' comment was really meant that way. When it comes to engines, Yusei *can't* have a 'real conversation' with Jack; some things he understands about engines even fly over *Crow's* head, and Crow *has* built his own runner from scratch and therefore is no engineering amateur. Yusei's trying to figure out how to do things with engines even he himself doesn't know how to do, let alone Jack or Crow, and he's finally found someone who can teach him a few new tricks.

So, one trend I'm noticing lately is that Yusei's been running into people who can take him to the next level, can outmatch him at his strongest talents: Visor showed him some turbo-dueling he'd never seen before, and now Bruno's helping him sharpen up his engineering and programming. We're being shown that Yusei is a true duelist, by the criterium Crow mentioned in the first episode of the season: "a true duelist... is always training and getting better." This first part of this season is a lot about training, raising your game, trying something new, and venturing to the next level.

This is the section where I go on and on about Yusei's engine design and planetary particles.

As I understand it, this is what we already know. Duel energy comes from serious, hard-core, high-energy duels, and we've known about it since GX or before; Ener-D is the term we use for duel energy that can be used to generate electricity. Duel energy is energy, but it's not part of the physical world, and therefore can't be used for electricity unless something can bridge the gap; that something is planetary particles, which I like to call the holy grail of substance dualism**. Professor Fudo's discovery of and work with planetary particles led to the construction of the original Ener-D Reactor in what is now the Satellite Sector, twenty years and seven months ago.

**Substance dualism in a nutshell. In a lot of metaphysical philosophies, one of the big problems philosophers keep running into is that there's no real causal relationship between material and immaterial worlds. If we say humans have minds or souls, and minds or souls are not just brain chemistry, neurons firing, or whathaveyou, then we must ask how something that doesn't occupy any space, have any mass, that isn't detectable physically, like a mind or soul, can cause things to happen with something that *is* physical and material, like one's brain and body. Since in our world we've yet to find a substance that is both material and immaterial at once, that can bridge that gap, we remain chasing our tails in the whimsical circles we philosophers so enjoy. Planetary particles *are*, by definition, something that bridges that gap-- like I said, the holy grail of substance dualism.

Since Zigzix was monitoring the Fortune Cup for Ener-D, we can also conclude, and add to our body of knowledge, that all Signers produce Ener-D naturally when they duel hard, the way most people produce duel energy only; that means that Signers essentially have built-in planetary particles, or are the equivalent themselves. This material-immaterial duality property of Signers explains a lot, including how the twins bridge the gap between the immaterial Spirit World and their own, and how Akiza's thoughts become real in the form of her psychic powers. Both are translations of material to immaterial and back, probably facilitated by their intrinsic planetary particle properties.

Yusei designed the new engine based on the concept of planetary particles? Or *using* planetary particles? A runner engine that uses planetary particles would be especially interesting; wouldn't that mean that it generates its own fuel, because it gains energy from the duel it facilitates which generates more duel energy, more Ener-D, and more fuel for the runner? In theory, then, couldn't a turbo-duel on a runner thus fueled go on forever if the duelists are willing and the road doesn't end?

Most of the Ener-D and planetary particle engineering we've seen thus far seems to involve a lot of spinning and gears. Lately I've been learning in physics class that the aim of most power plants is actually to boil water, which spins turbines, which generates electricity, through Faraday's Law, by moving a coil of wire in and out of a magnetic field. I wonder if Ener-D works this same way, as fuel to boil water and spin turbines, or if an Ener-D power plant needs to be designed much differently. Is Ener-D itself electricity, and does such a plant just need to apply the planetary particles, transmute it from duel energy, and contain, store, and distribute it properly? These are the sorts of questions we'll probably never, ever know the answer to, much like the myriad questions demanded by Lezar's eye makeup, but a gal can dream, right?

"Yusei" means "planetary", huh? Cool! Now... well, let's not even get into the fact that Roman says Fudo discovered planetary particles *twenty* years ago and Zero Reverse was *seventeen* years ago, and that during Zero Reverse Yusei was definitely in the vicinity of one year old, which chronologically hints... oh, never mind...

Now, before I end my big section about planetary particles and Yusei's nifty engine design, I want to talk all about Yusei's comparison of the planetary particle engine design to himself and the other Signers. I've already talked about the Signers' apparent similar properties to planetary particles themselves; for the record, Roman also connected the bond between the Signers to planetary particles: when he first explained the concept, he stated that "Kind of like how the Mark of the Crimson Dragon has united you and your little friends, a planetary particle brings *other* unlike particles together." (ep#57) Here, Yusei and Bruno specifically say that his engine is like the Signers because "no single piece could function without the other in place." Now, that description actually sent up a few red flags for me; he implied, but didn't say, that they function well together. What he actually said is that when they *aren't* together, they *don't* function, which, in terms of flat-out logic, is exactly the opposite. Look, practically, if you're undertaking something serious, you want to know that if you come down with a horrible case of the hack-and-sneeze plague, you've got a few fail-safes and the rest of your team can carry on without you 'til you get back in the game; Bruno's statement claims that this isn't true of the Signers, which is a weakness in terms of teamwork. This statement is especially ominous in light of how alienated the other Signers feel because Yusei's been ignoring them for days and working on this program with Bruno.

This is the first we've heard about Yusei's particular strengths and weaknesses as an engineer; apparently he's incredibly strong on the hardware, considering the praise Bruno had for his design, and Bruno's stronger on software, the programming.

Wow, she *is* jealous! And she can't squish *me* like a grape, so I'll take a moment longer to talk about this. Again, Akiza seems to be getting jealous of someone else, Bruno, connecting with a part of Yusei that she doesn't understand and can't relate to. Same thing happened when Yusei dueled Sherry; Akiza got jealous of the connection they shared as turbo-duelists. Wonder if now Akiza wants to learn to write code and build runner engines? Sooner or later she'll realize that Yusei can't ever know what it's like to be a psychic, either, and that's all perfectly okay, and it's okay to not have all of your interests in common. I really hope, and I'm knocking on wood as I say this, that she figures it out before she starts getting jealous of anyone who's been marked and sent to the Facility. But seriously though, in a way this makes a lot of sense. Yusei's got layers and he's a tricky guy to understand-- Jack and Crow were just talking about that last week-- and doubly so for Akiza because their backgrounds are so different; at least Jack and Crow *do* know what it's like to have grown up on the streets and lived with the social stigma of being a satellite. Let the record show that this does mean Yusei and Akiza's relationship is making progress. Last season, it was always Yusei reaching out to Akiza, coaxing her out of her shell, and now Akiza's becoming her own person enough that that's no longer a concern; they've reached the point where they don't always see eye-to-eye and sometimes have to work a little to figure out how to relate to each other and get along. Akiza's finding out that Yusei's human and sometimes he's totally oblivious or incomprehensible. Speaking from hardly any personal experience at all but hearsay, the former is often a complaint girls have about guys in relationships. Moreover, speaking from a lifetime of personal experience coming from a whole clan of 'em, both of those descriptions are notoriously true when it comes to engineers.

I think I've already said it, but I'll say it again, since Akiza wasn't the only one feeling ignored by Yusei this episode: If we're seeing the Signers get alienated from each other, we're seeing trouble waiting to happen.

Let's briefly talk about Crow's and Jack's approaches to the puzzle. To no one's surprise, Jack goes for the uber-aggressive and says something rather interesting about "real dueling"; kinda funny how that philosophy never seems to quite go out of style between Duelist Kingdom and now. I hadn't thought of Crow as the antithesis, though; he weakened the opponent where Jack strengthened his own monster. Both went for the head-on approach, which is fairly typical of most duelists. Yusei was particularly preoccupied with the facedown. That's what each of the three of them brought to Bruno's strategy, and Bruno added the final piece, which was taking out Green Gadget and weakening Stronghold.

Really quick, I'd like to say a word about gloves. The only time we've ever seen Lezar take off his gloves was when he went for that noodle cup; when he showed us his big weakness. When characters who wear gloves take them off, they're usually showing us more of their hand (in cardplaying terms) than usual-- so to speak. For Signers this is definitely so, because their gloves and sleeves keep just anyone from seeing their Signs. In this same paragraph, I note that Bruno wears no gloves, his hands and arms are bare, and to me that highlights that he's an open and honest individual, that at least he thinks that he is who he says he is.

Of all the people you'd think Security would manage to just happen to lose the fingerprint data for, Lezar would be at the top of my list. And what do you mean, no one's going to believe you that Lezar's up to something shady? Wouldn't that be like saying no one will believe you if you tell them that the ocean isn't thirsty?

Lezar's an interesting character in these episodes. Who'd have thought that his big weakness is junk food? Anyway, mostly I want to talk about how he candidly grumbled that he liked Goodwin better than the new Directors, and he seems to feel under-appreciated (because he asked Primo to pay him). Why did Lezar like Goodwin's shady errands better? How did Goodwin reward him, or how did he give Lezar tasks that he preferred? What about the new Directors is rubbing him the wrong way, so to speak? And will we see Lezar eventually turn *against* the Directors?

I'm fairly certain the line "You dare *yawn in my presence*?!?!" is what we are coming to know as classic Primo. Since this whole thing is apparently *his* scheme, and *his* lair, we're learning a thing or two about him. Lezar guesses that Primo might be "late again", suggesting Primo is habitually tardy; that's a random little tidbit, and I wonder if we'll ever hear about it again or if it'll be important.

First, I want to talk about Primo's lair, the big, huge factory. Right now, it's mostly dark; it lights up as we become familiar with small parts of it, but we glimpse huge, mysterious sections of darkness, of otherworldly machines, and of quiet, menacing emptiness. A factory this huge would require a bustling army of workers-- but doesn't. It would require plenty of light to keep anyone from tripping or running into all the machinery-- but it doesn't. It would be very productive, some machine somewhere always making something new-- but they sit silent. And yet, the factory is not dead and quiet, because Primo monitors every inch of it and causes doors to lock explorers in, appears out of nowhere and awakens its deadliest traps with a wave of his hand. Clearly Primo rules this factory, and it is his place specifically, distinct from the big blue room with the lights and the three thrones that he shares with Lester and Jacob. I predict that we'll see this factory again, and we'll see its myriad dark factory floors lit up when we really start figuring out who this Primo guy is and what he's after. Right now, I especially comtrast the setting of Primo's big, dark factory with the guys' bright, friendly, humble little garage in Zora's basement.

This makes it even more apparent that Primo seems to have a real thing for working through robots. Not sure why yet.

Whoa, check out the mind-crushing headache action. What's all that about? Can the other D's-G do that? Can they do it to anyone or only to certain people, and why is Bruno one of those people? Is Bruno okay? Will it, ironically, trigger recall?

So, what's the big picture here? Why did Primo want this program for his duel bots, and does that also mean he's behind Bruno's amnesia and orchestrated Yusei and Bruno meeting and creating this program? Apparently the other Directors know nothing about this; does Primo want to one-up *them*, or is he working only against the Signers by unleashing this army of Ghosts? Or is he just causing mayhem for the fun and/or profit of it?

The obvious questions: what next with the army of Ghosts? Can we stop them early or will we really see the streets of New Domino crowd up with so many Ghosts you can't cross the street without turbo-dueling for your life a couple dozen times? Since Primo wanted it so badly, you bet that it matters that they're running on Yusei and Bruno's program, but how *will it* matter, and how will these Ghosts be different from the one Ghost we saw before? Is it even possible that a program like that, coded from the heart, will backfire on Primo's evil plan? Heart of the Code? Will each and every one of them be dueling with Machine Emperor Wisel? Isn't there some sort of shadow-realm-will-smite-you-unwritten-rule-of-dueling regarding counterfeiting cards like Wisel that insanely? Maybe it's only Ra that gets its sunbeams in a bunch if you play a fake of it... but wouldn't a card like Wisel care too?

No, no, before you start dueling, Yusei, ask Lezar where the program is, who has it, and while you're at it what cards that person duels with!! While you have Lezar trapped in one place!

Wow, my first question about that robot is, how does it figure? I mean, I've got my own sort of parameters for what a typical Yusei duel looks like, and the robot's predictions seem to more or less tally, save a few. For starters, the robot states that the probability of Yusei's accepting the terms of the duel is 100%. Factors might include that if there is another way out, Yusei doesn't see it; that someone else is also trapped along with him (even if that someone else is Lezar); that Yusei has a certain motivation to get out (and find his program); that Yusei's dueled for way sillier reasons; and that Yusei has a thing for freedom and doesn't like having limited options in the first place. The robot states that the probability of Yusei initiating a synchro-summon on the first turn is 45%; pretty low, but I agree. Usually Yusei's M.O., when he goes first, is to play a defensive monster that'll last until or summon something that will last until his next turn (Shield Wing, Shield Warrior, Bicular...). Notice that he didn't follow that pattern here, and did bust out a synchro-summon on his first turn when he went first, which is unusual for him. Clearly he's in a hurry to get this over and done with so he can get out of here. It'll typically be when Yusei plays second that he'll bust out a synchro-summon on the first turn, and I think he prefers to go second; so I can believe that the statistic is a bit less than half the time. However, we are more used to Speed Warrior leads, when Yusei plays second, because Yusei duels so many hotheads who want to go first. I first noted that Jack was the exception, that Yusei starts out aggressively against everyone but Jack, but I now revise this to say that Jack's smart enough and experienced enough with dueling Yusei to insist on Yusei going first because he knows that Yusei has that preference. Next, the robot states that the best strategy to use against Yusei's early synchro-summon is to neutralize his high-level monsters, and responds with "Level Limit - Area B", knowing that the probability of Yusei next moving to get around its effect by summoning a low-level monster is 98%. The latter is understandable because, as duelists go, Yusei relies on his low-level monsters and a card like Area B would seem almost to his advantage. His first thought wouldn't be to destroy it, because it's far easier for him than most to go with it and work around it. Note also that the robot banks on Yusei's prolific use of traps with the "Counter Force" thing, and puts the freeze on his special-summons, which hurts both his synchro-summoning ability and also how easily he can get the rest of his low-level monsters on the field because he's used to summoning them as synchro-summoning material and summoning multiple monsters per turn. Even Yusei admits that this machine has anticipated him perfectly-- or maybe he's bluffing.

Now, I actually get an opportunity to talk determinism a bit here. Don't worry, I won't go on forever. Turns out I was wrong about determinism being the same thing as fate. It's not. Determinism is actually a philosophy Yusei agrees with: "life is a long series of chain reactions" (ep#57). Determinism is the concept that every event has something that caused it. Therefore, the argument can be easily made, there is no free will because whatever you may choose to do, there are factors, antecedent causes, including what you already believe about free will, that caused you to do that. This seems to be the concept behind this robot; that it knows what causes Yusei to react a certain way, and therefore can predict how Yusei will react and counter him in advance. If Yusei wins this, it will be because he confounded it by pulling out something that defies prediction, or it will be because the robot's method of prediction, or the information by which it predicts, is incomplete and imperfect.

This isn't the first time Yusei's been called predictable; Kalin also complained that he'd seen all of Yusei's moves before. Lester also called the twins predictable when he dueled them. Let's face it, good guys are more predictable than bad guys, because there are more different and sundry ways to destroy something than to protect it.

The robot goes on Yusei's previous record, just like-- you saw this coming, huh?-- Lezar did when he dueled Crow. I wonder if watching this duel will change Lezar's dueling philosophy at all?

Okay, since I have a soapbox, however travel-size it may be, I'd like to say a word about YouTube, copyright infringement, and all that jazz. 4Kids, if you're reading this-- this is for you. The uploaders of YouTube who upload episodes of this show have always been decorous and respectful; they put copyright disclaimers on everything they do. They are my heroes. May I simply say that hunting them down and pulling them offline, and watching for them to put up the next new episode (right along with those of us who wait with our mouse pointer on the reload button every Saturday) and pulling it down as soon as it goes up, are not nice. In fact they're very mean. So is taking all of your own recordings down off your official YouTube Shows channel on November 30th, and you completely lost me on that one; and now I'm pretty sure you're just evil. I was so happy when those went up, and you're still putting up new ones even while you take most of them down; what gives? You confound and frustrate me profoundly; but so what else is new. Toonzaki is awesome, and we really like that it's up, and it sure works better than your last episode-streaming website. I do use it regularly, because it is the one online authority for which recording is absolutely complete; YouTube recordings sometimes leave things out, and I want my episode transcripts to be comprehensive. But the YouTube uploaders do get the episodes up online for those who can't see them faster than you do, so put up the episodes faster and we'll watch them on Toonzaki instead; we just want the episode everyone else can get just by watching TV. Save yourself the trouble of pulling them down off YouTube, and just put them up first. And in any case, leave us alone; the YouTubers do not make any profit, they do this only for entertainment purposes, and they neither intend nor perpetrate copyright infringement. You make the show, but in some sense it's also ours because we love it and long after you stop caring about it it will still be in our hearts and we want to know it's not going anywhere.

OKay, next episodes are Get With the Program II and Will the Real Jack Atlas Please Stand Up I. No, really. Maybe we'll finally meet Carly's cousin Ralph. Kidding. Ghosts pretending to be Signers and framing them? That would be wacky. Next week! - Clio

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