Predictions and Observations:
A Duel in Love

What we learned this time around:
-Students are already expected to know dueling by textbook; they are expected to be familiar with the terms. This is true even for new guys like Syrus, not just returning students like Alexis.
-Syrus’ last name is Truesdale
-Crowler, in saying “One of my Obelisk Blues,” along with being at the Obelisk party last time, implies that he is the headmaster of Obelisk Blue.
-The girls’ Obelisk Blue RA is Fonda Fontaine, also the gym teacher. To me she seems like a bit of an airhead.
-Prof. Lyman Banner, whom we already know as the Slifer Red RA, teaches more obscure and even a bit unnatural dueling techniques. He has a cat named Pharaoh.
-There are lots of those little boats (we saw at least four or five around, and they weren’t all from the Obelisk girls’ little harbor there; Syrus and Jaden each came in one), so it seems that that’s a major form of transportation around campus.
-It seems that each House has their own dorm and that central building with all the domes and all three colors is where classes are held. That makes sense.
-It seems that all of the students are in one class together, because Alexis, clearly a continuing student and an advanced one, is in the same class with Jaden and Syrus.
-Either that, or the student body is separated randomly into classes comprised of students of all ranks, allowing older students to impart knowledge and practice their skills with newer ones.

What would endless classes on Duel Monsters entail? My theory is that, for instance, Alexis’ recital there is probably a pretty standard one. Duel Monsters is not the hardest game ever to learn, so I would imagine that most of their classwork is repetition like that, because it’s important, as we’ve seen, to be very aware of all options and technicalities. Therefore, information like that is drilled into the duel trainees to make it as natural as breathing, and they can call on their knowledge, even under pressure.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a class on psychology and composure under pressure. Or psychology at least. Composure under pressure is I guess something picked up from duels themselves. But psychology, as Mai puts it in one of my favorite quotes of all time, is half the game. It’s *very* important for duelists to understand how to read opponents and to get under their skin. It’s equally important to be able to counteract such tactics, to keep a poker face and stay cool under pressure. Now there’s one class Jaden would be good at, because he scares people just by being a Slifer and confident.
I have to wonder about this school hierarchy; this organization of students by proficiency really bugs me (then I’ve had some real fun with school standards in the past so it might just be me). It seems like the system works that those recognized by being in higher levels get better, and those ignored in Slifer are passed over and get worse, when really Slifers should just be getting more help and improving. For this I wonder about Chancellor Sheppard. He seems like a nice guy, he’s not a flunky-hater like Crowler or he wouldn’t have been concerned that Crowler give everyone their shot. Then again he could be waiting for a wonder-kid to show up, as a lot of the greatest duelists just came out of the blue. Yugi would have seemed far too much of a pushover, far too gentle, to really be considered a good duelist until he defeated Kaiba and later Pegasus. Joey, as we all know, was awful before Duelist Kingdom, and by the end he was able to give Yugi an amazing match. He learned from the tournament’s pressure and Yugi’s help, but no academy would have given him the chance to possibly learn through the pressure there. Gems are found in the most unlikely of places, a fact I have a feeling Sheppard knows well. Anyway, Sheppard seems to be a pretty okay guy. So what’s the deal? Could he report to yet another person who *is* an elitist snob? I note that he wears red. This could be some subtle symbolism or foreshadowing.

Crowler is really determined to get rid of Jaden, but I can’t believe he’s the department head of dueling techniques with plans as lame as that one. Jaden had a point about anyone insulting him insulting Crowler. How does Crowler get away with being so biased?

I wonder if Banner will talk at all about the Heart of the Cards? He did say they might seem a bit unnatural. But ‘duel alchemy’… any guesses as to what that could be? Alchemy is the transformation of other metals into gold, traditionally defined, so what could DUEL alchemy be?

I wanted to also note that the Houses’ being named after the Egyptian God Cards also implies what I said before, that Yugi’s story has become common knowledge and legend.
I also wanted to say from the last one (but temporarily forgot when I sent it) that we finally found one thing that upsets Jaden more than anything else: the most angry we’ve seen him was when he couldn’t finish his duel with Chazz. Jaden loves to duel, plain and simple. He loves it when he wins, he loves it when he loses. He loves to have a strong opponent that gives him a real match. He knows just as well as, say, Yugi does that the most important part of dueling is to have fun, and is in fact living proof of that. He unnerves and disquiets his opponents just by taking them on with a huge and entirely sincere smile no matter how bad the odds. Not only that, but he doesn’t get discouraged or even think about quitting.

Did you notice that one of Alexis’ friends was played by the same person who plays Serenity? She sounds just like her.

Alexis: As an Obelisk through grades (and possibly connections because she seems to be very popular), Alexis’ dueling style was very strategic rather than instinctive or from the heart. She is also very good, though, at faking everyone out; she got Jaden and Syrus to believe that she would turn them in, and her two girlfriends there as well, when in reality she admits to herself that she would never have turned them in. I have the feeling that she’s less of a pushover than she showed though. Take for instance her use of Doble Passé: She lost only 200 less lifepoints than Jaden did! I suppose to her advantage it in addition saved her monster from destruction, but I think that she wanted Jaden to win. Her heart wasn’t in beating Jaden, because then her girlfriends wouldn’t think twice about reporting Jaden and Syrus even if she herself wouldn’t have. If honor didn’t insist she keep her word, and her two friends keep theirs, then they would have turned Jaden and Syrus in no matter what Alexis did. Plus, she said earlier that Jaden is cool, if he has the talent to back up his lip, and Alexis, because she’s falling for Jaden, wants to believe that he does, and therefore may have used the duel to convince herself, whether Jaden actually could have or not. It’s only a theory. I find it interesting, and a mark of Alexis’ popularity and desirability, that Crowler chose her to be the fake sender of the love letter to Jaden. Either that, or Crowler’s more perceptive than he looks and realizes that there’s something between Alexis and Jaden, but don’t count on that.
And I think her friend is entirely right that Alexis is falling for Jaden; I wonder what this disapproving friend of hers will do about it? Tell someone else? Spread it all over the school? Call Alexis out about it? I wonder if she’ll keep it quiet?
It seems that Syrus also likes Alexis. Either that or it’s just a case of ‘you like me, so I like you.’

That’s all for now, though I probably missed something. Do write back and argue, please? -Clio