Predictions and Observations:
Clash At Crash Town I and II

Episodes Aired: December 18, 2010
This Post Posted: December 27, 2010

So now they're forcing the goons in red bandannas to turn on each other? That's pretty twisted. It means they can't even trust each other, despite the fact that some of them have stayed on the same side even when they threw down their duel disks as Radleys and became Malcolms. It's things like this that make me wonder, is there also a 'law of the land' that there *must* be a duel at dusk every day, and the loser gets sent to the mines? Ergo, Barb and Lotten had to contrive a situation in which that was still so, even though both Malcolm and Radley have been disposed of since the last dusk duel and the usual reason for the dusk duels was taken out along with them?

When Lotten speaks to the kids, he really emphasizes learning to "live with the hand you've been dealt". For starters, he wasn't planning to have to put his money where his mouth was. So far, the hands he's been dealt, in all his duels really, have been pretty good to him; he's gotten Gatling Ogre and all five spells or traps every time. So it's easy for him to say that everyone should just take what they get. On the other hand, he *does* put his money where his mouth is because he *does* let Barb stop the duel in his name, claiming his authority, and kinda stands there rather wimpily before going with it and pulling out his shock blaster. He accepts what happens to him; he doesn't try to stand up to the odds the way Yusei, Kalin, and the kids do.

I've got a lot of notes scribbled down about things that happened in these episodes, like Kalin's pointing out that the red bandannas outnumber Lotten and Barb, but all I really have to say about them is that watching Kalin mess with those two, and inspire everyone else, is just so much fun and so, so satisfying. Even Yusei is a little uncertain for all he holds his own with Effect Failer, but Kalin's strategy thrives on Lotten's tricks and even though Lotten's supposed to be so tough and manly, Kalin out-guts-es him in the first move and in the end exposes him for nothing but a cowardly bully. I think one reason this happens is because Kalin's been through hell, quite literally, and even brought a bit of it back with him; the likes of Lotten can't scare him.

Kalin makes the exact same entrance he did before. You'd think he'd have changed his tune, if you'll pardon the pun. But in a certain way, it fits, because the scene he walks into still sees him the same way it did before; all eyes turn to him, the kids cheer, and the thugs take a surreptitious step or two backward. The difference is his own intention here, and how much more he notices his own impact on the situation.

By dueling with Infernity Zero's effect for lifepoints, Kalin entirely places his faith in something outside himself, his monster. Even when it seems there is no life left in him, he now knows, having been through this, that he can find that life again in those around him.

"You are one creepy little punk; you know that, right?" That *was* pretty creepy... but *awesome*... and we start to see Kalin's cards become how he thrives as a duelist, shaking people up and doing what they call impossible, rather than a sign that he's fallen far, no longer has any use for friends, yadda yadda. I'm reminded of the first time we saw Kalin's cardless strategies in action, and Yusei was recalling how the only thing Kalin used to hate "worse than a *losing* hand, (was) an empty one" (ep#34); when Kalin discarded his last card, our reaction was one of horror-- a confirmation that the Kalin Yusei once knew is gone. It's still true; Kalin has, albeit the hard way, grown out of being that brash, fearless teenager who loved to fight just for the sake of it. But now we finally come around to his having grown stronger and wiser, fighting for what really matters and really owning who he is now. And I think he has a lot of fun creeping out his opponents, too.

The Dark Signers all had a theme of returning from the grave; one of the prereq's for same, was, apparently, a near-death experience. But how fitting it was that we were first introduced to what it meant to be a Dark Signer, by Kalin. We start to see now that, even when he duels with regular synchros, that theme of returning from the grave is kinda who he is anyway.

Throughout the Crash Town arc, we've seen a lot of the same monsters from Yusei: Quickdraw Synchron, Nitro Warrior-- because what would a western be without six-shooters and dynamite, really-- Max Warrior is also no surprise because that's a card in Yusei's arsenal whose ability reminds me of the old Kalin and the story of the Enforcers' fall. Now let's talk about Yusei's new monster, Justice Bringer; offhand, the name makes me wonder if this might not be another of Yusei's cards that metaphorically mirrors Kalin, because Kalin spends our time in Crash Town in a constant quest for justice-- in one sense or another-- and has declared that "justice has a name and a face". Justice Bringer negates an opponent's special-summoned monster abilities during that opponent's turn. That would confer an advantage on monsters who made it onto the field the hard way over monsters who did not; it's only of use to its wielder when its wielder is not in the spotlight, not in much control of what's happening on the field right now; and make it such that monsters affected by its effect are face value, nothing to worry about but points. Metaphorically, it favors those who have walked a hard road to get where they are, champions those who are not initiating the action and defends them from those who are, and exposes the shallowest side of those it afflicts. I think like this all the time now; it kinda freaks me out sometimes. I'd say, in a way, Justice Bringer represents this battle especially; both Kalin and this town have had a rough time, a lot of painful history to overcome; we're cheering for the side that champions those in the mines, who have given up on life: "To *anyone* who's been kicked around and made to feel small-- I'm here to help you rise up and fight back!", against the revolving door of powerful individuals who have been calling the shots and renaming the town every night for the rest of this arc; and we do see that once they no longer have their usual tricks to hide behind-- Lotten's heavy artillery/manly bluster, Barb's reliance on her relationship with the man in charge-- they're nothing but scared little cheaters and bullies.

Why *is* Lotten after Kalin? Why is it more personal? If I had to guess, I'd say it's because Kalin is the one championing the kids, miners, and bandannas; if Lotten wants to get rid of the hope beginning to grow and threaten his power, Kalin is definitely his target. So really, it's because Kalin scares him. And Kalin makes an effort to keep that the case, because the more he scares Lotten, the more he inspires everyone else.

Lotten makes a careful distinction between "punks" like Kalin and Yusei, and "men" like himself. If we weren't clued in yet, Lotten's spelling out for us how he wins in life and what justifies it all for him. If I'd been just a shade more sane a week or two ago, I may have remembered to actually mention in writing that even as Lotten overemphasizes how *manly* he is, it's what he hides behind; it's something he seems to feel he has to constantly prove. We start to get hints of that the moment we meet him. All I'll say about his dueling style is that I'm pretty sure Freud would have plenty to say about it that I won't because I keep this post PG-- but even that definitely emphasizes his preoccupation with that "manly" self-image.

Now, other than the big guns, from Lotten, we see Ambush Tokens and that Card of Burial Magic. In a certain way, I guess, those make sense; they're cards that represent superstition about death, contrasting Kalin's theme of death and returning from the grave.

Let's talk about the visual and dramatic use of whips in these episodes. Especially since we very, very rarely see anything as violent as a whip or someone getting hit with one in this show, the use of whips in Crash Town really made me sit up and pay attention. Which was, of course, the point.
Barb first uses her whip to both manipulate; it is her instrument for making those two guys turn on each other, and she retracts it the second that purpose is accomplished. Next, Lotten uses his whip to foil Yusei's big entrance on his runner, to bring him down to earth, so to speak, and make him appear less of a hero. The use of a whip in these episodes is always a very important, abrupt sort of punctuation-- the best example of this is when Barb cracks her whip to interrupt the duel. She next enforces her decision to stop the duel by threatening West and Niko with the whip. Lastly, she threatens the kids with the whip again when she's dragging them away (and gets stopped by Jack). Whips and shock blasters, definitely very strong indications of the uses of force that make Lotten unfit even to lose.

At the point she stops the duel, Barb is pretty scared. Remember, this whole time she has gotten her way with "flowers, not threats". Whoever seemed to be in power-- first Yusei when we thought this would be easy, then Malcolm, then Lotten-- so went Barb. When Lotten starts to lose, and Barb has no one left to charm after him who can keep her in power, we see her really get nasty. Notice also how she herself claims no authority, even though technically she owns the deed to the town and Lotten only got it through her, and even though she's the one with the whip-- she claims Lotten's authority as though it's her own, but *always* calls it Lotten's authority. Barb relies on her flowers, on charming the right powerful males into giving her power by proxy; she makes threats only when pushed to it, and isn't very good at it or very convincing.

Always of interest who calls her Barb and who calls her Barbara. The guy with the spiky hair that she was making duel called her Barb: "You're booting us outta the gang? That ain't right, Barb!" So it seems to me that, in addressing her, the name Barb is more formal and less familiar than the name Barbara; no way that guy would've pushed it by calling her a familiar nickname in that line. The other interesting instance of this was that Yusei still called her Barbara, when she threatened the kids and he was trying to reason with her or something. The use of that name definitely indicates that he was trying to reach out to her, appeal to the part of her that didn't want to hurt the kids; if it was there. I wonder how convinced Yusei is, since he didn't see *everything* we did when it comes to Barb, even now, of what an evil witch Barb is. Again, I use the W in that word because I'm keeping this post PG, though another letter there would be a far more appropriate term for her.

We're starting to see all the town's nameless randoms become real characters, sort of. By now, I use the term "red bandanna" or just "bandanna" as a term for a goon wearing one; now we see these guys take those bandannas off, and start expressing their humanity. Going back through other episodes, I realize that we've seen the same guys play different roles throughout this; the two guys working on the sign, and the two Barb nearly forced into dueling each other, are four out of the seven unnamed guys originally from the Radley Bunch. It'd be really interesting to give each of these "red bandannas" names, go back through this, and note where we see them. But I don't have the time to do that this week; maybe once this post goes out.

And, speaking of nameless randoms, the super-creepy coffin cart driver gets a line! That's his only line, right there. We still never really got any exposition as to who those guys are, where their authority comes from, and so forth; they're the guys who drive the cart.

This is where I take a moment to talk about the other female character in Crash Town-- Niko. If you just go through her lines, a lot of times she's agreeing with West, when she speaks up. There are a couple specific moments that are Niko-centric. First, she re-initiates the conversation foreshadowed earlier, about the idea of freeing their dad from the mines, by West and Kalin. Next, she apologizes to Kalin for having gotten all of them noticed; to me that's a moment when Kalin notices someone feeling bad and apologizing for something no one else blames them for-- much like he's been doing. Next time Niko says more than a few words, she's putting her foot down that their dad is escaping too. And of course, Niko's biggest moment is when she refuses to let go of Kalin's hand, drawing strong parallels back to the Battle of Downtown (more on that later). And then, her big speech this episode: "We're counting on you-- the *whole town* is counting on you to prove there's still hope for us all!" I guess my point is that Niko is very much a fosterer of unity and hope, a voice advocating for friendship and togetherness; a Tea character. It's not that I don't love Tea, or Niko, it's just Niko wasn't much of a character in her own right; similarly it took Tea some time to develop depth and it was never all that noticeable or essential. As I've enjoyed working backstage, supporting my friends and savoring how very proud I am of them all, I've begun to understand Tea better than I ever had before. But I'm digressing. I can see how the story would be just slightly different, how the balance would be off, without Niko, but I'd love to see Niko become as faceted, as layered, as Barb got; when it comes to character development, nice girls finish last. I wonder if Niko, inspired like her brother by Kalin's example, dreams of becoming a duelist? She's got spunk, it's quieter than her brother's even though she's clearly the elder; still telling us plenty about gender norms in the YGOverse... but I love it anyway...

Does Crow's voice sound different and extra-weird to anyone else? Did he change voice actors?

No fist-bumps here; we seem to have thumbs-ups now instead, used in the same way. When Crow and Jack join the fight, each one exchanges a thumbs-up with Yusei, who returns it; when Yusei tells Kalin to borrow his runner, he gives Kalin a thumbs-up, but Kalin doesn't return it; before they leave, Kalin gives the other three a thumbs-up and all three return it. An expression of familiarity, of being on the same team. But it's a different team now; all these guys have grown up a lot since their old team, and they aren't the same team anymore, they're something new; but their bonds remain. But the fist-bump days are gone.

"I only lay a hand on a woman, if she lays *hers* on a *child*!" Well, *there's* a statement of YGOverse chivalry for ya. Fun predicate logic sentence, too. Good thing to remember about Jack, also, that this is his stated policy.

So Yusei didn't leave a note or anything when he left town? Among my first thoughts was: sounds like a recipe for making Akiza angry to *me*...

"They look unstoppable!" Yeah, they sure do... says something that, even though they've been apart so long, those four even still look like they belong together as a team, look, as West put it, *unstoppable*. And I agree; in a certain way they *do* look like they belong together, even though all four of them look so different fro each other now, no longer with the matching vests. Their differences are harmonious, aesthetically and probably more than just that.

Remember how I noticed Kalin was borrowing several different runners and had no distinctive runner of his own? He even borrowed Yusei's! That definitely tells us something important! I believe Kalin is the only person other than Yusei to ride Yusei's runner alone. That's quite a distinction. Metaphorically, I guess, Kalin becomes Yusei, does what Yusei would do in bringing hope for the future back to this place and making sure the bullies get served.

I've been noticing some situational parallels to the original Enforcers flashbacks. The biggest one, of course, is when Kalin is flying behind the mine cart last week and Niko refuses to let go of his hand, just as Kalin did the same thing for Yusei during the Battle of Downtown (ep#34). Now I'm noticing how Kalin tackles Lotten to the ground and pins him there-- just as Yusei did to him, the night he got arrested (ep#34,ep#55). In a way, Kalin sees himself through someone else's eyes. I thought of another of these, but I forgot it; it'll probably smack me upside the head at the least likely moment.

We do flirt with things breaking out in real violence a lot in these seven episodes, and in the end of it we get a strong moral of why it *doesn't* work. Especially in this canon, but I'd say overall as well, forcing the situation and using your power to dominate others, rather than resolving it fairly, is the very definition of bullying, which we tie very closely to cheating. Not using your cards/words to resolve disagreements, or using them in an unfair, manipulative, or threatening fashion. One thing I'd be really interested in seeing, and I'll see if I can think of an example of this, is someone using violence for a justified cause and finding still that it doesn't fly. Now, our canon is often ridiculed for using duels in lieu of violence when it's obvious that usually no one would be content to settle these things with cards. We even make fun of ourselves for that. Here it *does* happen, and the honorable good guys win out anyway. Why? Because those who have to resort to violence instead of duel honorably show themselves the lesser. Now, we have seen more violence in this show than YGO and GX, definitely, from main characters and for good reason; for instance, we got plenty of demonstrations of Kalin's mean right hook last week. Why wouldn't that fall under the same heading, other than that we like Kalin? In other words, what *does* justify the use of violence, or of bending the rules? By extension, what justifies breaking the law-- which as former Enforcers and satellite duelists, our main characters also ask of us a lot. I don't have an answer right now, I guess; I'm working on it; but be it understood that Barb and Lotten's use of threats and violence doesn't fly, to the point that it makes Lotten unfit even to lose on the duel field.

Speaking of which, what an interesting thing for Kalin to do, to draw the line and refuse to continue the duel with Lotten because he's shown himself to be an unworthy opponent. Not too long ago, I'm pretty sure, Kalin wouldn't have been above slamming *anyone*, just for the fun of it. One thing that's changed is now he thinks before he fights, and he understands better now when the fight is over. Even more interesting, he appreciates even defeat as a privilege reserved for those honorable enough to have earned it; his defeat from Yusei as a Dark Signer was probably the most valuable thing Yusei could have done for him.

I note also that even though Kalin hated himself, he still sought to go down honorably in a duel; he didn't consider himself unworthy of that, and even thought it fitting. Or, he wanted to "truly lose, so I can truly suffer", and perhaps had learned that sometimes *not* losing, either by winning or by not dueling, can be far worse.

Someone warn Security about Barb; under no circumstances should an unsuspecting male be given the means to effect her release from the Facility, or we'll have her running around New Domino next. This would also make Barb the only female we know of to have been sent to the Facility thus far. Wonder what kind of facial mark you get for this?

What do we call this town now? I mean, it was Crash Town, briefly I suppose it was Sweetcake-Dewdrop-Ville (retching noise), and then it was Lottentown... so what do we call it now?

Well, we're in reruns, so I took a few days extra to relax over Christmas and start to try and kick this cold of mine. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Solstice, Happy Hanukkah (think that was a few weeks ago actually), Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Winter Break, and a very, very happy anything I managed to forget! 'Til next time, everybody! -Clio

READ A TRANSCRIPT OF CLASH AT CRASH TOWN I

READ A TRANSCRIPT OF CLASH AT CRASH TOWN II