Predictions and Observations:
Keeping a Promise II

Episode Aired: March 5, 2011
This Post Posted: March 11, 2011

Coming up in this post:
- Why everyone keeps saying "Blackwing Dragon"
- Card symbolism, naturally
- The unifying theme behind all 5D's backstabbing
- How on Earth did Pearson *do* that?

Yusei notes that Crow's going to need to "mix it up more, especially since he's dueling an old friend." I simply note that if anyone knows what he's talking about concerning throwing down in high-stakes hardcore duels with people who used to be one's closest friends...

One thing I'd meant to write on last week was the line "Let's just say I had to make sure what I was doing was right." Why was Crow unsure on that point? Was it that betting something you don't actually have is an iffy gray area and all?

Okay, so Crow and Trudge and Mina only had a picture of it... I thought they were handling the actual card, recovered from the scene, but if Bolton has it, clearly they weren't. Okay. I'd wondered already though why Trudge and Mina let Crow hang onto that.

It seems to me a foregone conclusion that Crow was already going to get what he wanted out of the duel, "Because in a duel, the truth always comes out!"

A word about pronunciation. We've been hearing people say "Blackwing Dragon", and last week that's even what I was writing. The correct name is "Black-Winged Dragon", and I don't think it's having the wrong name that's causing the incorrect naming in dialogue; it's difficulty with the repeated "d" between "Winged" and "Dragon", such that many speakers, primarily Bolton, here are slurring the two "d" sounds that are right next to each other, skipping the glottal stop, and saying what can be approximately spelled "Black-Wing' Dragon".

This is the section of the post in which I talk about individual cards played in the duel, starting with Bolton's White Warriors and Crow's Blackwings, and ending with a discussion of comparison and contrast between Crimson Mefist and BWD.

Considering Bolton's Cards (not incl. Crimson Mefist), I'm noticing especially the effect of Sacred Arrow, and how it punishes a duelist for having lost a monster-- in duel symbolism, it makes losing a friend hurt even more and favors those who have no friends or who only have strong friends that don't get crushed. I do not understand why Snow's weapon is a rope dart. Finally, I note, ironically: Domino is no place for precipitation-- haven't we learned that by now?

Crow's playing a few new Blackwings. Some research is in order.
Kochi is a city in India. Um... huh? Okay, after a bit of Googling, I gather... "Kochi" is Japanese for "east wind" or "spring wind", and it's also the name of a location in Japan with some meteorological distinction; there's a weather station there, and they get some interesting data, apparently. Spring is usually considered the 'daybreak' of the year.
Jetstream the Blue Sky is a bit easier... ridiculously easy, in fact. I studied the jet streams in class on Tuesday. I'm not even kidding. My Geography class is studying wind patterns and we're about to have the midterm of doom next week. But studying winds on a week with a serious Blackwing duel... is really a lot of fun. So, here's the scoop with jet streams. They happen mainly at four latitudes-- 60 North at the polar front, 30 North at the Subtropical High, 30 South at the other Subtropical High, and 60 South at the other Polar Front. At these latitudes, there's a sharp contrast in temperature between the air above and the air below, so the air wants to move from high pressure to low very quickly. The quicker something moves, the more the Coriolis Effect causes it to deflect to the side, which means this fast-moving wind gets deflected so much it's blowing parallel to the pressure front, not moving toward it anymore-- forming the high-altitude, fast-moving column of air called a jet stream. Like all weather, these are milder in the southern hemisphere than in the north because there's less land, which translates to less difference in temperature. Jet streams aren't consistent all the way around, and they go in a funky wave pattern called Rossby Waves. You know, I think I might actually survive this midterm after all.

So, Crimson Mefist. I'm noticing, in the foreboding camera shots we get of Crimson Mefist, that there's some fear there; this is the card that took down his hero, and Crow is scared. Secondly, I'm noticing that once Bolton summoned Crimson Mefist, his strategy altered such that the rest of his cards were just fodder, so to speak; the one other monster he summoned, he sacrificed immediately to power up Crimson Mefist. I'm also noticing that Crimson Mefist's ability burns the opponent for every card on their field; another card that does this, that I'm thinking of, is "Speed Spell - The End of the Storm", which was a really important card during the Fortune Cup (starting with A Blast of course) as representing the whole stronger-without-friends thing Jack had going. Crimson Mefist favors those who are stronger without friends, and burns those with lots of them, like Crow and his together-flocking Blackwings. I'm also noting that Crimson Mefist is a synchro monster; not a dark synchro, a synchro monster that comes from the exact same tuning that will bring out any Signer dragon (except AFD, because she's L7 instead). There is a lot of variety in synchros, and the line blurs; Bolton, Sayer, and Armstrong-- to name two more unsavory characters whom we've seen do a straight-up synchro-summon-- are nasty pieces of work, sometimes even nastier than the so-called bad guys (pretty sure we were rooting for Carly and then Misty against Sayer, huh?), but they're still part of the humanity we're out to defend from evil magic. Lastly, I'm also noting use of the word 'crimson'; Mefist doesn't get to use that word, it's already *taken*, by something way friendlier and way more powerful! I'm joking around, but I mean it; that's a pretty strong juxtaposition, and in 5D's we've found that red is sort of a Signer color.

Now, what to say about Black-Winged Dragon? Among my first reactions were, 'hey look, it's a built-in Trust Guardian ability. No wonder Crow liked that card.' Not quite, of course, but extremely close, and BWD is *strongest* when it has suffered and endured. The black wings that give it its name are concealed from view; at first glance, whoever named the card needs to get their eyes checked. Crow, also, is more than he appears; he was the one who became a Signer through fighting as one, and I'm sure many who meet him have trouble looking past the criminal record on his face. He bluffs readily, and despite the fact that, of his close friends, he's kinda the clown, he feels and cares deeply, and he's faced a lot of adversity. As a final note, I'm noticing, especially right at the end of the duel there, that Black-Winged Dragon does sort of resemble Pearson; it's the texture of its hair. That's kind of sweet.

Wow, Black-Winged Dragon *was* hidden in the runner and that was the weird piece. How on earth...? Is it even worth *asking* how Pearson did that, or what he intended? Did he think Crow would find it and use it right away? What was he expecting? *Was* it waiting for the right moment? 'Cause if it was, that would hint that somehow Pearson knew that Crow would be a Signer before anyone else saw it coming, that's for sure. Then again, Black-Winged Dragon was a card that also had an affinity with Pearson, and it's a powerful card; it wouldn't be too far-fetched for Pearson to have had some sense, because he was the kind of guy who has a strong connection with is cards, that Black-Winged Dragon had a connection to Crow and was meant for Crow eventually.

So, I confess I accidentally stumbled onto a subbed recording and found out that this not-dead-but-dead is permanent, in the original Japanese anyway. For the record, in the dub, it's still possible Pearson may come back.

Okay, what is with this pattern of how friendships go bad in 5D's? At this point it's bordering on mass psychosis over multiple generations and independent locations, it's *wild*. I mean, it started with Zero Reverse-- "We can't knowingly put the city in danger in the name of progress"-- and so far, we've seen it happen, with variations, several times.
Typically in a close-knit pair of friends, one person will insist on moving forward at any cost and the other will favor staying back and taking care of those around them above all. We've got a theme going, a dichotomy between being ambitious for your own future and maintaining the status quo to safeguard the future of those you care about. Of course, we all know by now that it's all about the future in 5D's, and this is a big conflict in how we approach the future. What's more important-- to find or make the best opportunity you can and do whatever it takes, or to hold out because sticking together and not going it alone is more important? Blister and Arrow split over this same question; so did Yusei and Jack, when Jack forced Yusei to choose between proving himself ambitious or protecting Rally. Stardust and Archfiend themselves represent this dichotomy: Archfiend aggressively elbows aside all contenders and scorns those who hesitate, and Stardust sacrifices itself for the future and is strongest when vulnerable, when defending others.
This same struggle and dichotomy was even present in the collapse of the Enforcers, when Crow walked because he cared about the kids more; and Kalin picked a fight with Security in the ultimate gesture of willful ambition, but also did it because he believed it would bring them back to the good old days and bring them back together, united by a common fight; then Yusei doing the opposite, sacrificing himself for his friends, which was still walking away from them, which turned out to have the same end result as betraying them outright.
Pearson and Bolton fought that night over the same exact issue: Pearson rejected the business deal because he valued the kids' future, and their all sticking together and being safe, more. He is the Professor Fudo, Arrow, or Yusei of the story, to Bolton's Roman, Blister, or Jack. Ultimately it comes down to fear of the future; it takes a lot of courage to hold out for the business deal that will include the kids too, to wait for the opportunity to reunite the City and Satellite and seek freedom for everyone, and to know that, even if you don't know how yet, you will find a way to make it happen. It's so much safer, and easier, to grab the first chance that looks halfway decent, to grab onto your future for dear life and whatever you do don't let go. Knowing as much we do of Jack's history, I think we can all understand more or less why Bolton did it; it doesn't make it any less horrible or tragic, but Bolton wasn't the only one who made that decision, he just made it with Crimson Mefist in his hand.

I'm noticing how we keep seeing Bolton trying to get Crow to back down, to not 'make him' do something nasty to him, I think we can sort of glimpse how the duel that ended with Pearson getting netherworlded may have played out. Bolton also gave Pearson a chance to either back down or stop him. It reminds me of how Jack presented Yusei with the choice to either save Rally or stop him; he didn't have to, but he did.

So Bolton and Pearson almost certainly got offered this deal within a year of when Jack was approached by Lezar. That's quite a coincidence... I'm wondering, was this when more city businesses overall started to notice that there was untapped, relatively free talent in the Satellite for the taking? Were there more City-Satellite business deals in the works during this time as well? Is this era in the Satellite the result of a social shift in the City also?

I'm noticing that all this went down centered around two very powerful and rare cards: Black-Winged Dragon and Crimson Mefist. The same rift between Yusei and Jack was all about Stardust. It occurs to me that not very many people from the Satellite have access to cards like these, and their presence is associated with big events. All that one would have to do to cause some radical historical shift (still working on BBT post, by the way), to stir things up dramatically, would be to introduce another powerful card into the mix. Doesn't even really matter who they give it to, it'll stir something up and that something will be a big deal. Or so it seems to me. I wonder how many major events in YGOverse history wouldn't have happened if not for a certain specific card, and if I2's card designers get qualms about making any more of them, if they know how much their works act, not just as cards on a duel disk, but as catalysts of destiny.

So why did Crow's runner unlock Black-Winged Dragon *now*? The stars were right (multiple puns intended)? What *was* that automatic password Crow's runner keyed in, the asterisks? It must've had something to do with Crow's Sign; maybe Black-Winged Dragon unlocked *itself*. Gosh, I can't believe the opportunity missed if Yusei and Pearson never collaborated on an engineering project which apparently they didn't. They're duelist-engineers together.

After transcribing this episode, what really struck me is that Crow's plotline, whenever he's in the spotlight, is a tribute to and an embodiment of the high-flying heroes of the Old Satellite, the people he really looks up to and aspires to be like. I don't know where I'm going with this yet, but it goes to the root of who Crow is as a character, as a person, as a duelist, and as a hero. I can't quite put my finger on it. I can't express it in words. I'll get back to you about it.

So all this means Bolton doesn't get his loan. So a rather superficially nice company that, though founded in backstabbing, seems to, for the most part, be doing good things and providing good jobs for Domino's middle class goes under, and unemployment probably spikes. Uh, yay?

This is the first time Crow has caused his own arm to glow. We've seen it glow before when another Signer was dueling, but this is the first duel of Crow's in which his Sign has lit up. I can't help but feel that, in a certain way, he's taken a step more into his role as the fifth Signer.

So at this point they don't know that BWD is the fifth Signer Dragon, apparently. Jack only wondered if it *might* be. Wonder how long it'll take 'em to figure it out for sure? Now, wasn't the dragon we saw in the ancient battle a *different* dragon? I looked it up; yes, it was. Black-Winged Dragon was not the fifth dragon that fought alongside Stardust, Archfiend, BRD, and AFD against the Earthbound Immortals. I'm sure we will find out very soon why that is...? I hope?

The TV Listings don't say whether either of the two episodes tomorrow are new, or what they're called. If we do get a new episode, it will be episode 96, if we get two, it'll be episodes 96 and 97, I will post on them within the week, and undoubtedly we'll learn their names when we do. In the meantime, I am going to take a week longer on my movie post. I've been squeezing it in around episode posts and lots of homework (only some of which pertains directly to my posts) and lots and lots of tutoring students (I love 'em though), and taking my time with it because I don't need to worry about a sequel within the month. I *will* have this post up on my site and posted within the month, though-- March 31st and that's my new promise-- and have finished and uploaded a *provisional* transcript. It won't be up to my usual standard until the DVD comes out of course, but 'til then I have my limited sources, memory included.

As a final word, this morning I heard about the big earthquake. Here on the California coast a few boats got smashed, but it sounds like Zero Reverse and worse over there. I really don't know what else to say, but I've got to say something; my heart goes out to everyone on the other side of the Pacific today, and please know that all of us are praying for you, even those of us who don't really pray. I embrace a different side of our canon, fans of YGO in the original Japanese, but truly we're all united as a community of fellow fans. Please, everyone, be safe.

'Til next week, everyone! -Clio

READ A TRANSCRIPT OF KEEPING A PROMISE II HERE!