Predictions and Observations:
Soul Solutions and
When Nordic Gods Attack

Episodes Aired: c. July 9 and July 16, 2011
This Post Posted: July 23, 2011

Well, funny story. Looks like ep#125 did show *somewhere* 'cause I found it online this morning. And it's not called When Nordic Gods Attack. It's called Soul Solutions. So what's showing at 11:30? Probably ep#126. Meaning I'll be doing a two-episode post this week. Sorry about that, folks; I do my best to be on top of all this.

Dragen speaks of Thor as a God Card. I know this'll feel like stating the obvious, it felt that way a bit to me too, but I think this is an attempt to reopen the archetype previously occupied only by the Egyptian God Cards. If that is the case, destiny and even bloodline may have something to do with their inheritance; it's possible that not just anyone can read their card text (we do know Haldor reads runes); and we've already seen that there's also some real damage associated with these cards. Apparently the Nordic God Cards *weren't* made by any card company, so I'm not asking whether anyone got smited for it like what happened with the EG's; I wonder, would the Egyptian Gods have appeared on their own when they deemed it the right time, and it wasn't the creation of their cards they were angry at Pegasus about, but rather his rushing the timing of their appearance?

Mjollnir! I was kinda wondering if we'd see that. Mjollnir (Myolnir, Mjolnir, Miollnir, etc, spelling wacky) is Thor's very famous hammer. It can hit anything it's thrown at *and come back*, like a boomerang. It was made by the same dwarves who made Odin's spear, Gungnir, and I seem to recall the gods craftily stiffed them on payment again (they do that).

Real damage? Well, *there's* a difference; Signs don't do that...

The Ragnaroks are trying to get 'it' to appear? The Divine Temple, perhaps? A duel like this would sure juice up the Circuit; is that their intention? To hasten their great battle? After all, in the Norse mythos, no one could *wait* for Ragnarok, in a certain way-- the best of the gods is freed from Hel; the great powers get it all out on the field, so to speak (not unlike Jack and Dragen did); the valiant are truly expressed as heroes; and in the end they make the world a better place. We all know that the best duels in YGO are the ones that might end the world; the Norse sorta had that notion too. If Team Ragnarok's trying to hasten the final battle, it sort of tallies with what I wrote earlier about their being untested as world-savers; they want to be *the ones*, and prove themselves worthy of the powers they've been given.

First glimpse of the Directors since the skip. They seem much the same, Lester at any rate. Primo seems very quiet. Primo? Are you in there?

Jack drew End of the Storm! Interesting! That was a bit of a curveball for me-- I've always thought of that card as representing the 'old Jack'-- until I thought for a second about how it was used: like it was just any old speed spell. Jack could've done the same thing with any other speed spell. And at the time he drew it, playing it, if he could have, would have hurt him more than it would've hurt Dragen. That says to me that he's become a very different person, and perhaps even reclaimed that card as just another useful strategy, as it were.

Descending Lost Star? That's a Yusei card! Red Nova's emphasis on tuners is also a theme that carries over to Yusei and to Shooting Star Dragon.

Double Tune? Red Nova Dragon? I think we missed something in the skip on this one, but I did know Jack was going for something bigger than RDA. Is this Jack's equivalent of an Accel Synchro, or is it even worth comparing them?

This is the first time Jack has asked for the other Signers' support, that I've seen. I'd been glimpsing that Jack does a lot of growing in the missing twelve episodes; I think we're seeing all that in action now.

I'm noticing in Jack's play at the end that he shows himself willing to sacrifice what looks good-- Red Nova Dragon-- for the sake of what's important to him-- that is, winning the duel even by 'downgrading' to Red Dragon Archfiend again. Then he sacrifices Red Dragon Archfiend along with a tuner, and resurrects Red Nova stronger than ever. To me it demonstrates that Jack is far more powerful than he knows, if he can find the freedom to put aside the pride and dignity blather, what looks good, and act on what's really important to him. But we all knew that already.

Jack is glowing, knows he's glowing, and knows why. I think this is another thing we would understand if we weren't elsewhere for eps#111-122.

Jack invokes a combination of the sky and the earth, the way Akiza also did recently; "Let the spirit of the earth intertwine with the essence of the sky!" (ep#99) For Jack, I hear that invoking for the earth the magma, the fire and brimstone, the heat beneath the surface of the earth, and also the symbolic idea of an underworld (like Hades or Niflheim, or of course Hell); and for the sky, the heat of stars and suns, as Red Nova's name suggests.

"Leyding, the Curse of Fenrir" is the official name I found on Yugioh Wikia for Raging Sacred Curse. As I understand it, Konami translates the cards but 4Kids translates the anime separately... or something... Ha. And I did find the myth I was looking for, though, talking about Leyding. This is from my big red mythology tome, Mythology: The Illustrated Anthology of Myth and Storytelling, general editor C. Scott Middleton. One of Loki's offspring, as I've said in previous posts, was the huge, vicious wolf Fenrir, who was destined to kill Odin himself at Ragnarok. As a pup Fenrir (or Fenris) was easy enough to control, but he grew large enough that the gods were afraid of him, and decided he needed some sort of restraint. First, they tried a fetter called Laeding (which is the one for which this card is named) and Fenrir broke that one without much trouble. Next they tried a stronger fetter called Dromi; he broke that one too. Finally, the dwarves made a fetter called Gleipnir, which took the deceptive form of a soft, silky ribbon. The problem was actually shackling Fenrir with it, because, as one might imagine, he didn't trust them and would fight. Fenrir insisted that one of the gods place his or her hand in his mouth-- as a guarantee they weren't trying to trick him. Only Tyr, god of war, was brave enough to offer his hand and bind Fenrir-- and he got his hand bitten off for it. But Fenrir would remain bound until Ragnarok, when he would, of course, break free and play his role in the final battle. We've seen Leyding; I wonder, will we see Dromi or Gleipnir from Broder or Haldor later on, trying to put a crimp in our style?

"It would seem that you and I are not all that different." I think that's going to be the ultimate punchline of this duel, really. Jack and Dragen *do* have a lot in common; as I said before, if Jack found himself in Dragen's position, he would probably feel the same way and do the same thing that Dragen was. Or at least I think I said that. Maybe I just thought it. Anyway, Jack has plenty in common with Dragen, Yusei and Haldor have a lot in common also, and we're seeing more and more what Broder and Crow share between them. That these teams understand how much they have in common is important; you don't entrust the saving of the world to just anyone. Plus, in a tournament like this, with the bad guys in the final match, for all they know the Ragnaroks would be throwing Team 5D's to the wolves by letting them past. They think that this is their fight and they're the only ones with half a prayer; unless we prove otherwise, that we're just as dedicated, just as talented, and just as powerful, of course they'll try to stop us from reaching the final match for the exact same reason we'd try to stop *them*-- to save them from a very dangerous fight that's bound to end in tragedy.

"The Trickster", huh? Yup, sounds about right. I was wondering how this was going to be played; Loki is a complex and often misunderstood character in myth. He's often characterized as the god of evil, mischief, destruction, you know. The Announcer also hinted at "transformation cards", which we haven't seen yet but don't think I've forgotten that tidbit, which also fit with the persona of Loki, an accomplished shapeshifter, who once took the form of a mare and gave birth to a colt as that mare.

"Never run around thinking that you're equal to a god!" Wise words. I'm noting that Broder says that his *team* says that; not just him. Why would Dragen also be characterized as saying that? Why would Haldor? I'll be on the lookout for that; I don't think we really have an answer for that one yet.

We see two team changeovers here. As I said earlier, the relay changeovers are juicy moments for examining team dynamic. When Dragen and Broder switch out, Dragen expresses confidence in his teammate, and Broder relies by praising the situation Dragen left in place for him-- that's a solid team dynamic right there. These guys know the lessons about teamwork that we got from Team Unicorn, and at the present moment the foundations of their team are solid. Since things did sour between Loki and the Aesir when he took his pranks too far, I can't confidently predict that they'll stay that way, but that ominous precedent is the only reason that I *wouldn't* predict such a thing. As for Jack and Crow, their team just had an unpleasant surprise; I doubt Jack had planned to stay in for much longer, but he's leaving an empty home field opposite a Nordic God that lands real damage to Crow, which is not nearly so nice. They express concern for each other's safety-- Crow asks if Jack's okay, and Jack warns Crow about the real attacks and warns him to watch his back. Sure, Crow's always nagging about their imaginary rent (ep#67, ep#69) and Jack's always stealing Crow's cereal (ep#84), but they're teammates when it counts, and it's gonna count here.

Now, I haven't forgotten about the moment *after* Broder rides out. Haldor knows just completing the duel has given Dragen freedom, even though now Dragen can no longer say he would've won. His personal pride is hurting, but as he said to Jack, he did everything he could to make victory possible for his *team*, because he believes in their cause. I think Dragen's going to be just fine.

Yay nestlings flag! Are the Nestlings here alone? Probably not. That means Martha or Blister or somebody is probably also in the stands rooting for us-- right?

"You know him, you love him..." So the crowd knows and loves Crow by now? 'Cause Catastrophe was the first time the WRGP crowd had ever seen him before.

So it seems that, much as Jack and Dragen found a lot in common, this duel is Trickster vs. Trickster. Crow's first weapon is a bluff; he is definitely a trickster. And I believe the mythology supports that as well-- not so sure about Norse, in which ravens are sacred to Odin, mostly carrion birds, but I'm positive other canons revere crows as tricksters. The myth of Raven stealing the sun comes to mind, a story from the Pacific Northwest. Anyway-- and I'll look for those-- much as we saw whether Jack could out-fight Dragen in competitive spirit, let's see if Crow can out-trick Broder. If not, though-- Yusei's fairly tricky. But we're here to see if, duelist for duelist, and team for team, we measure up to Team Ragnarok or they measure up to us in terms of world-saving ability. Which brings me to the next thing I want to say about this-- next round we'll find out if Yusei is wise-world-saving-warlock enough to take on Haldor and the Father of Incantation.

New Blackwing: Calima the Haze. The Calima is what it's called when dust from a Saharan dust storm gets blown out over the Atlantic, often to the Canary Islands (hence the Spanish name Calima), sometimes as far as Puerto Rico. The fine particles of sand in the air coat every surface in a layer of reddish-brown dust, and when viewed from space, it does look like a haze. All this is courtesy of Wikipedia's article on the Saharan Air Layer.

Golden Apples. I found myself thinking of the Hesperides and wondering if we'd strayed a bit too far south, but no, there are golden apples in Norse mythology. As a matter of fact, the golden apples from the upper boughs of Yggdrasil are what make the gods godly and keep them eternally young and buff and all. And they can only be picked by the purest of heart, which lets all of the gods out of picking them themselves because these gods have all compromised themselves at one time or another-- all except Iduna, the pure, innocent goddess who tends the apples. Now, funny story, this one time Loki ended up in a spot of trouble with some giants, sure you can imagine, and in exchange for letting him go, he promised them Iduna and her golden apples of godly might. So he had to deliver and lure Iduna outside the gods' walls so they could capture her. Loki, after all, wasn't technically a god and didn't need the apples-- no skin off his nose. So the gods got weak and the giants were getting ready to break some heads, and even Loki did not want the giants to take over the world, so he went to the Aesir and came clean. However, he had a plan to remedy the situation, and they had no alternative but to go along. Freyja loaned him her falcon cape, allowing him to turn into a bird and fly. Loki flew to where Iduna was imprisoned, and used his shapeshifting powers to change her into a nut, so he could carry her back to Asgard. The master giant, also a shapeshifter, chased the falcon and his hut in the form of a big black eagle, but Loki made it over the Asgard walls, Iduna harvested up a basket of fruit and made the gods strong again, and they dealt with the giant who had just been unfortunate enough to fly over their walls. Problem solved. This myth is from Gods of the Runes, credited later on, and to me is a fine example of what I mentioned earlier, about how Loki pushes the envelope with the other gods, sometimes a bit too far, then fixes it. Except, of course, for the case of Baldur, which is when everything really went south between Loki and everybody else (even the mistletoe); I keep wondering, will Broder have a "death of Baldur" moment sometime coming up, because it's one of those things that foretells the end of the world and it's an important part of the Norse canon? Another thing this represents to me is, well, I'm looking for where Broder's kids fit into the symbology, and this myth is an example of Loki protecting the pure and innocent; well, eventually.

What in the deck is a Malus token? All right, I looked up the word "malus" and why it might be associated with this trap, or represented as it is on screen. Malus is the genus for apples, in the family Rosaceae. It contains about thirty to thirty-five species, including Malus domestica, the kind we eat, along with various sorts of crababbles. Malus also is Latin for "mast" and is the name of a constellation that was later sort of glommed into another constellation. Apparently there's a whole history of how the constellations have been reorganized-- cool huh? There's also a business system of reinforcement called bonus-malus (good-bad), often used by insurance companies, in which someone may be given money (a bonus) if they earn it, but have to pay money if they do poorly. In this case, I guess, the malus Broder had in lifepoint loss turned into that token of the same amount.

New Blackwing: Brisote the Tailwind. I found a bunch of sites, including Wikipedia, with the same vague definition: Brisote is the name for the northeast trade wind when it blows stronger than usual on Cuba. The other thing I got when I googled Brisote is this card.

Nordic Relic Laevateinn. Okay, I looked it up. This is ranging into the obscure, but at least Wikipedia has a few interesting tidbits. It's a weapon, mentioned briefly in a translation of one of the poetic sagas from which we get most of our info on Norse mythology, the Edda. Apparently it wasn't in the original manuscript but was added in a canon amendment. I'm not really quite sure what happened there. Anyway, the name means, more or less, a synonym for sword, "damage twig" in Old Norse. Apparently this special weapon was made by Loki and at the moment it was mentioned, was in his possession in a chest secured with nine strong locks. Some have theorized that the "damage twig" is the mistletoe that would later kill Baldur, but others think this is far-fetched. All this from Wikipedia: Lævateinn.

"Only he would conjure up such a reckless strategy; Broder's playing games with gods." Yeah, the wielder of Loki sure would. And then everyone would get mad at him, then he'd be clever enough to keep everything from completely going to heck and thus keep out of trouble. That's generally Loki's style in the myths. Seems to me that this strategy does make very good use of the Nordic Gods' abilities, but it's sort of teasing them, destroying them himself just to bring them back, isn't it? Playing games with gods? There are some gods who would disapprove of that and call it, oh, blasphemous. Then again, if Dragen's not annoyed that Broder's treating his card that way, and he doesn't seem to, then seems to me it doesn't count and Thor's chill with it. There is a precedent; the Winged Dragon of Ra has been known to get its sunbeams in a bunch over certain things it considers blasphemous (such as counterfeits; or any paper copy of it at all, really), but apparently the ol' discard-it-on-purpose-then-bring-it-back-with-a-spell-for-one-turn-only trick, which is a common Ra strategy, does not make the list of things the Egyptian Gods take offense at. So perhaps Broder's strategy is just good trickery, not pushing the envelope on how much to annoy the gods-- though if it were the latter, the myth sure fits.

Now, in Act 4 we find out that this is not simply trickster vs. trickster-- it's nurturer vs. nurturer, which is kind of a weird combination. Crow and Broder have a spooky amount in common with each other if all this is true.

"Vengeance was within my reach" Um, Broder, good guys don't say things like that. Is that why Ragnarok will lose to us, because they're out for revenge? Is this going to be a vengeance-versus-actually-help split here? Or will it be because they underestimate us? For instance, Dragen changed his mind about Jack being a hack; will Broder change his mind about Crow being too weak to defend the kids? And will Haldor change his mind about Yusei's not being worth allying with in the struggle against Iliaster?

Is Broder's story as tricky as his game? In other words, he seems sincere about being in this for the kids-- but we know he's a tricky fellow, so forgive me if I hesitate to take him at his word that easily.

As soon as Broder started talking about who was behind it all... yeah, seriously, I want a T-shirt that says simply "I Blame Iliaster". They really are behind every possible bad thing ever, aren't they? And I say that humorously, because seeing absurd conspiracy theories proven right this many times is hilarious. Broder didn't even need to finish that sentence; he just had to say "guess who?"

The Nordic Alfar cards. I looked it up; according to Wikipedia, the term "Alfar" is synonymous with elves. Ljosalfar are light elves, as opposed to dark elves; both exist in the Norse canon. Svertalfar may be the same as dark elves, or may be another category slightly removed.

Broder's tag-teaming Thor and Loki here; that's also well-substantiated with myth.

Say, I've been thinking about Ragnarok these days, just sort of abstractly, and it occurs to me that the idea of a better world out of the end of the world, like Ragnarok, is something the Signers usually oppose. If Ragnarok *did* win this duel and move on to face New World, would they draw the same battle line the Signers would, in terms of what they're fighting for and against?

Hey, check it! I've got some research on runes, at long last. Right now I'm sitting in the fortunetelling section of my favorite used book store, and I've got a couple winners. Not sure if I'll buy them, but anyway, they've got some good info on the runes specifically and the myths generally.
Firstly, sources agree, Dragen's rune is Thurisaz, later Thurs, later Thyth. Its phonetic sound is "th" or "dh". It's still used in the Icelandic alphabet, and was used in the English alphabet in an alternate appearance, "Y", and still exists in phrases like "ye olde"-- that "Y" *is* supposed to be read "th", because it's there as a variation on this rune! Wild, huh? Anyway, it represents protection, defense, like a thorn gives to the plant it grows on. It also sometimes represents attack, and "the masculine creative energy in action". (p51) It also means, later on, "a giant whose power overcomes all resistance" (p70), and later still, it's symbolic of the thorn's ability "to resist attack without a fight". (p74) All that from [1] credited below. [1] and [2] also agree that Thurisaz is good luck, because Thor has the kind of luck that comes from being the good guy in a story with a happy ending (until Ragnarok, that is).
Haldor's rune is Ansuz, also As, Asc, Asa, or later Oss or Ansus. It makes the phonetic sound "aah", later "oh", and later still "ae" (as in cat). It is the rune of divine strength, magic, and the stability that strength brings, steady and reliable even in hard times; it represents the ash tree and the World Tree, Yggdrasil. (p51) Later, it represents a mouth, be that of a person or a river, and it represents also the power of words or songs, and represents Odin, father of magic. (p70) Later still, it represents human descent from the divine. (p74) All that from [1].
Now, Broder's rune is still a big MIA; I don't think it exists. Not as its own rune. Broder's rune is Ansuz, Haldor's rune, reversed; and in fortunetelling with runes, it's a lot like the cards, where a reversed object is saying the opposite, a malus instead of bonus (to borrow from earlier in the post)-- the power of speech used for evil, deceit, lies. That's from [2]. If Haldor really can read the runes in that book he was reading earlier, I wouldn't be surprised if he took one look into Broder's eyes and started watching his back, though if he is, he's hiding it well and apparently knows that for better or worse he probably needs Broder 'cause he's part of the destiny and all. But Broder's rune makes me nervous, as does his association with Loki. Master trickster, yes; savior of the innocent, actually, yes; outcast and misunderstood, yes; the very definition of shapeshifter, yes; but Loki ultimately took things too far and killed everybody's favorite god, then after getting eternally tormented for it, wound up leading the charge of evil at Ragnarok. The Aesir were reluctant to let Loki be one of them because he was so unpredictable, which led to bitterness. If Haldor's rightly watching his back and Broder knows it, that could crack these guys wide-open; after all, like cards like duelists, it's happened before.
[1] Complete Illustrated Guide To Runes by Nigel Pennick
[2] Gods of the Runes: The Divine Shapers of Fate by Frank Joseph

Okay, so this Saturday we're probably going to see the end of Crow vs. Broder, one way or another, and move on to Yusei vs. Haldor. The question is which one, Crow or Broder, will go down first, will Crow turn this moment around and what about the next one, and will he take Thor and/or Loki down with him or could Yusei be up against all three NG's at once, which would be downright unfair but not entirely surprising? Will Crow and Broder resolve their differences, is my other question, the way Dragen and Jack somewhat did?

Well, that's all for now, folks; I'll wrap this up before it gets too early in the morning. Next episode is "Tricking the Trickster". 'Til then, everyone! -Clio

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