Predictions and Observations:
Fight To the Finish Line

Episode Aired: August 6, 2011
This Post Posted: August 13, 2011

Several separate factors have been counting down to the final turn, the "Ragnarok" of the duel: Monster Chain, Gjallarhorn, Halldor's use of Gleipner for the Jormungandr/Fenrir combo. And once all of the countdowns have expired, after which the duel should be over by everyone's reckoning, Yusei's moment is the one right after. In a certain way he's transcended the end of the world, been the first to fall (by sacrificing Shooting Star Dragon earlier) and ended up the last one standing because when Yusei makes sacrifices he comes back stronger than ever. He survived the fall of the gods. Both Wave Rebound and Gjallarhorn were strategies that relied on dealing damage for all the Nordic Gods' attack points. In the end, Yusei won by making the Nordic Gods' attack points 0, and by having Shooting Star Dragon return from the grave the same way a Nordic God would. Is Shooting Star Dragon Baldr in this equation, who would return from the underworld and survive Ragnarok to become the new king of the gods? After all, Stardust seems to inspire a lot of feelings of awe and beauty, plus there's the whole righteous-death-and-resurrection thing going.

"Halldor's never lost once Gjallarhorn's been thrown." This line stood out at me because Dragen's saying that Halldor is in his element when the end of the world is nigh. This fits with all I've been speculating about with regard to how Halldor's just a bit in love with the idea of being the chosen ones.

Halldor on a runner is just weird, by the way. It's this thought I've been having for a while without writing it down. It brings out a very different side of this character. Let me explain. I've always been fascinated by how different duel equipment creates a different spatial feel to a duel, and in turn characterizes a different type of duelist. The invention of the duel disk was most remarkable because it took away the 'box' around a duel, the boundary between duelists, spectators, and the duel itself, that embodied dueling up to that point, causing the idea of dueling to appeal to and suit duelists you'd probably never find at a chess table. Halldor, however, is a duelist one can certainly picture at a chess table, and he even says so. I get the sense that, like Pegasus and Zigfried did in the original series, Halldor would choose an arena console over a duel disk. Goodwin, I think, would've been another such, and the whole turbo-dueling-while-standing-still arrangement really worked for him. But no such thing for Halldor, and seeing him as a rider is sort of an interesting dissonance. We see him lose his cool, so to speak. In that sort of dichotomy, I see how Odin is god of both scholarly wisdom and death by spear at the same time.

Yusei's been called 'predictable' before now; to me it seems here he's taking advantage of how predictable Halldor thinks he is to slip in just enough twists to make it count. He keeps Halldor thinking he's predictable, but isn't predictable enough for Halldor to counter his strategy. Let's hope we see more of this sort of bluff from Yusei against anyone else who thinks he's as predictable as he seems. Yusei's trying to make use of Halldor's belief in knowing everything about the future; his blind side, so to speak. Odin gained lofty wisdom by sacrificing how well he could see what's right in front of him.

Jormungandr the Nordic Serpent is also known as the Midgard Serpent, the snake that's big enough to wrap around the whole world, Thor's archenemy who's destined to be slain by Thor at Ragnarok and then in turn slay Thor, who dies from his poisonous bite. Jormungandr is one of three offspring from a pairing of Loki with this giantess, Angrboda; the other two are Hel, half-decayed goddess of the underworld, and of course Fenrir. And I've already written a whole bunch in this post about him, because, Halldor, while we're predicting cards, I saw *Gleipnir* coming a mile (or fifty) away. Now, Halldor seems to be casting Yusei in the role of Ragnarok's villains. At the end of the world Fenrir will finally break the one shackle fashioned that ever restrained him, Gleipnir; and Jormungandr the World Snake will swim for the shores of Midgard, causing the kind of tidal waves Zero Reverse did. Like I said, Jormungandr is destined to be Thor's bane, and Fenrir is fated to kill Odin himself.

Tyr, of course, is a warrior god whose most famous myth concerns Fenrir; he was the one brave enough to let Fenrir bite his hand off in order to shackle him. I mentioned him already.

"If I lose, at least I'll know I did everything I could to win!" "That's the way failures speak." Another quote for the ages on the idea of accepting defeat gracefully. Now I'm remembering all the blather I had about the value of defeat back when we fought Team Unicorn, off Andre's assertion that team dueling is "something where the joys of dueling can be shared, and that helps heal the stings of defeat." (ep#100) It seems Team Ragnarok could learn a thing or two about losing even from Team Unicorn; then again, up 'til now they seem to be undefeated (except when someone cheated) and they've gotten used to the idea that their winning is a matter of world-saving proportions. This is hitting them like it's the end of the world-- or rather, like it is and they can't stop it. Luckily for them, there's someone else who can, but that's still gotta hurt.

Well, Team Ragnarok looks like they *will* be accepting defeat gracefully. And by gracefully I mean not gracefully at all. Wonder if they'll just have a few nasty words or I'll they'll be a real pain about it? I wonder if they'll try to go around the tournament to get their reckoning with Team NW first? I don't think so; they lost and they're upset about it, but they admit that they failed-- they don't contest the outcome or that Yusei outdueled them. They might be a pain about it, though. Or they may just need a moment to realize that saving the world is more important than who actually does it and really what Team 5D's just won is a whole lot more trouble and strife than most people would willingly accept, let alone fight an epic six-episode slugfest over with opponents who can't even lose like true duelists.

What next? Are we going straight into it with TNW? Do we have any loose ends to take care of? Akiza's powers, perhaps? Or Bruno's multiple personalities? Or Sly-- wasn't he supposed to be trying to steal Stardust at some point? Maybe we'll be hearing from Sherry? Or Professor Fudo even, while we're speculating? Has Primo, er, *requested* his deck and sword back from Lester yet, and has Jacob deigned to clean up what's left of either one once that's over? What are the Ragnaroks up to next? Are the Unicorns out of the hospital yet? Or have the Catastrophes managed to get a clue? Have the Taiyous gone home yet or are they still in town? What about the guys who like to throw trucks off cliffs-- did they ever actually form that team? How's Lezar doing as the only Director-General yet who isn't trying to take over/destroy the world? And then there's the alternate timelines we're fairly sure exist by now... meaning technically some of these loose ends may have been conveniently time-wedgied away.

This Saturday's episode is listed as new, but no title is currently listed-- just like this week's was, really. Anyway, if it's really new it'll be ep#130, and I'll post on it as usual. 'Til then, everyone! -Clio

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