Predictions and Observations:
Rook Takes Knight

Episode Aired: May 14, 2011
This Post Posted: May 20, 2011

I wrote last week about the rules regarding switching new duelists onto a riding team. To me it seems that as they are currently someone could take advantage. We all know that the WRGP teams are keeping close tabs on the other teams they think will be a threat, and that every card played in these duels is on record. That means by the time we reach the bracket, all the teams know a little bit about each other at least; they've seen each other duel before, and unless the same person wins all their matches early, like Andre had been doing for Team Unicorn or like Sherry has done so far for her team, they'll have seen multiple people on the team duel. Which brings me to why the team switch-in rules might even be too lenient, for all they've worked in our favor so far. Any team that's keeping an eye on Team 5D's will have a bit rougher a time of it, as they have four duelists to keep track of-- Yusei, Jack, Akiza, and Crow-- and therefore they've seen less of each one. If Crow had been nicer to his shoulder, they might even have been trying to keep tabs on five if they'd been studying us since the practice laps. In theory, a team could take advantage of the rules by switching in entirely different people every match; there's got to be some sort of limit. The question is, will the other teams stop sabotaging us before we hit it, or will anyone else exploit this rule when they *don't* need it the way our team did.

So now Crow ignores Jack when Jack tries to pull him over for a pit stop. I can't help but feel kinda like Jack had that coming for ignoring it when the rest of the team tried to pull *him* over against Team Unicorn. Which brings me to the point that so far Team 5D's riders have always ignored their pit stops. Yeah, I understand the heat of the moment, but to me that represents sort of a disconnect for them, that the rider on the track doesn't accept the will of the team; they might wanna work on that. I wonder when one of them *will* take a pit stop when told to?

We saw Jack shouting from the booth as Crow rode past. Does Team 5D's have helmet radios yet? We saw Team Unicorn with them; are they actually legal, and if so can we get some headsets already?

I'm noticing how Crow stops swerving out of the way of Hook's hook and starts jumping instead. Clearly his ultimate goal was to expose this whole scheme to those watching the duel, though I think the jumps might also have been easier to manage with his limited driving capability; I noticed he went out of control less on the jumps than on the swerves. Now, here's where I ask why Crow wanted to expose the scheme rather than just shut it down. He could've destroyed Hook and ended the duel without drawing Hook into the open. Crow's flying runner has got to be one of very few ways *to* draw out Hook, and I can't help but feel like this was one of the reasons Crow was the one in this duel. And, I guess it's kind of a silly question, where the *ref* is after Crow blatantly exposes that foul play?

I always love to look up the meanings of Blackwing names; they're all named after winds. A northerly etesian wind is so regularly felt around the Mediterranean in summer that its name is from the Greek "etos", "year". Similar wind patterns can be found in climates characterized by dry summers and rainy winters, also called etesian climates. I think the Koppen system classifies them Cs, which is described as Mediterranean-ish and also occurs here in California, in Chile, in South Africa, and in southwestern Australia. Incidentally, we also covered *this* in Geography class. Special thanks to the Britannica Online Encyclopedia's entry on "etesian wind" for most of this, and of course special thanks to my Geography professor.

I found this exchange interesting: "Huh! You know you can't *win*, so you're beefing up your defense!" "What kinda duelist d'you think I am?!" Crow's insulted at the implication that he would summon a monster like Black-Winged Dragon to cower with, or that he would give up on turning it around.

Trudge's reaction to the duel, and to Crow's dueling, seems to be getting emphasized here. I wonder what we're working up to, and if Trudge will be asking for Crow's help or otherwise putting that information, that Crow sure can duel and Black-Winged Dragon is scary when it's angry, to use soon.

Okay, so a duelist *can* relay out before his lifepoints are gone, but if that happens the rest of his lifepoints remaining are thrown out. Now my new question there is, if the reason for the pit stop is a thirty-second fix, like perhaps reaching in and removing whatever got stuck in Jack's air intake, will the rider still have to switch out if a pit stop is taken, or can they go back out once the problem's fixed?

Relay changeover is a great time to observe team dynamic, I'm noticing. Within the pressure of a duel, it's usually the only time we see a team react all together to what has happened so far, where we see how well they support each other or don't. Moreover, it usually happens right after one of them has lost. Notice how mean Nicholas is to Herman there; it makes me notice more the relay changeovers we saw from Teams 5D's and Unicorn and how the team's camaraderie was reinforced and exemplified as opposed to the rancor we saw on Team Catastrophe's switchover. From now on, when a team switches riders, I'm paying close attention to what gets said or done.

So, since Jack swapped in after Crow and Nicholas swapped in after Herman, that means the teams' full planned lineups were Crow, Jack, Yusei and Herman, Nicholas, and their third teammate who has no name. I'd already predicted this would end with Jack vs. Nicholas, but for that reason I thought they might be third in their respective lineups.

Now that he's switched out, ice pack and ibuprofen for Crow? I hope?

Look closely at the summoning sequence on Power Giant; there's a shadow of a giant hand. The similarity between that particular hand and another one we all know very, very well from several flashbacks, is staggering; I think someone's trying to remind us of Ccapac Apu here. Which is slightly odd. In a way. But not entirely so. Nicholas was going for a one-turn takedown that was made possible through counting the rest of the cards he drew; very similar to Lawton's Gatling Ogre takedown. And, the 'moral' of the duel, so to speak, was similar; those who hurt people and cheat to gain the upper hand aren't worthy of the term duelist, nor anything that comes with it, be it even a defeat. Wonder if we'll be hearing from Kalin soon?

The only monster played by Jack in this duel (well, he discarded Dread Dragon) was Power Giant, a new one, and its ability essentially said that those who battle full-out are defended by doing so; the consequences imposed by cheaters fall by the wayside one way or another. When it battles, it can negate all countereffect damage.

Yusei's been wondering how Team Catastrophe got all these power cards, whether that means they're more powerful and important than we know. No, they just have big friends who want Team 5D's in a world of hurt, but he's on the right track, sorta.

Jack makes a pretty powerful statement about true duelists here. I always like to keep track of those. I'd say, certainly, he's saying that a true duelist is someone with the guts to let the results of a duel be binding; no cheating or getting around the stakes. It's someone who plays the game the way it's meant to be played, and would only ever want to win honestly, by being the better person with the better strategy. Coercion and cheating are ways around having to be the better person.

Jack tells Nicholas to play honorably or "go home-- and leave the dueling to the duelists!" It reminds me of what I was writing a few weeks ago about "pro duelist" being the new "fireman-slash-astronaut-slash-ninja"; what everyone wanted to grow up to be. Therefore, we see a lot more people trying to be something they're not by dueling. Jack says here that there is something besides having a deck and using it, even, that makes someone truly a duelist, and then there are those who might be better off going home.

And, my last question, will Catastrophe change their ways? I think there may be hope for them.

We thought all our WRGP duels would be seven-ep marathons? Man, I almost blinked and missed that one!

Think the track might need some repairs after this duel. It really is a miracle the Kaibadome hasn't banned any of the Signers from dueling there yet; guess the ticket sales sure do make up for it.

Sherry wondered if shadow cards are the link between random trouble and Iliaster. Again, spookily accurate paranoid guesses. And, I wonder if Sherry's mystery card is some ilk of shadow card, considering the excitement we've seen from it so far.

The third Catastrophe duelist never even *got* a name. Dang, that's annoying.

And Primo's melodrama knows no bounds: he may as well have said, 'Fly, my pretties, fly!!' So we're actually doing this 'army of ghosts' thing now? I'd kinda wondered where they were all hiding. And, yeesh, Primo sure can hissy-fit. Why is he throwing such a tantrum over this? Was he really seriously pinning his hopes on Team Catastrophe being anything more than a bump in the road? I guess, that second shadow card, Doom's Ray, was an attempt to put Jack out of action permanently, which tallies with Primo's previous attempts to do more than nudge the Signers into being better batteries, so he'd planned on going from five Signers to four at least and got thwarted there.

So, what now? Apparently we'll be spending next episode at least, maybe longer, getting chased all over the tracks by swarms of duel robots. Will we actually duel any of them? Will they all have Meklord Emperors? Will they all have shadow cards? Will they go after anyone *not* on a runner? Will they go after any of our kick-a turbo-duelists currently on the casualty list, like Crow, Akiza, Jean, or Andre? What is their programmed goal, just raise chaos? Duel people into crashes? Rev their engines loud late at night? Crash into things and freak people out? What kind of chaos are we talking? What are their targets? What are their chaos-driven goals? Where are they going first?

That building from which the Ghosts are pouring out into the city-- I swear, I know that building! I've seen it somewhere before! It's driving me crazy!

Will Lester bother telling Jacob or just sit back and enjoy the show? Will Jacob notice and *can* he call them off or destroy them? Will Primo and Jacob finally throw down already, and will we get to watch (I hope, I hope!)?

By the way, the first uploader prize went to AnimeRatio.com last week and again this week-- within a few hours! I'm so glad I found this site!

This weekend's new episode is Primo's Plan I. Sounds like Primo himself may finally become known to the Signers; right now all they've seen is his cards and people he pulls strings with. I wonder if Nicholas or Bruno will mention where they've seen him before?? Well, 'til tomorrow, everyone, I'm signing off. Good night. -Clio

READ A TRANSCRIPT OF ROOK TAKES KNIGHT