Predictions and Observations:
The Dark Scorpions

It’s official: a duelist other than Jaden has defeated a Shadow Rider. You go, Chazz! Chazz it up! Chazz it up! Chazz it up! Chazz it up!

Chazz’s deck: Fiend’s Sanctuary, Ojama-based, and Armed Dragons: All laden with meaning and symbolism. Yes, they are! To begin with, my jaw dropped when Chazz led with Fiend’s Sanctuary, the same card that Kaiba gave Yugi right before his final duel with Marik, the one card that could defeat the Winged Dragon of Ra. I’ve been drawing parallels between Yugi and Kaiba and Jaden and Chazz, and this sort of touches on that, but I don’t think that there’s any intended symbolism here, because Jaden, while cheering for him, is not a factor in the duel or a major part of what’s going on when Chazz steps up to duel. Now, next, I noticed that Chazz’s deck was stacked with cards to make use of the three Ojamas. I think they’re starting to grow on him. They’re his main duel spirits, and it’s awesome that he’s accepted that and built his deck to use them to their fullest. I’m impressed, especially considering that it’s Chazz! Lastly, the Armed Dragons, North Academy’s best monsters given to him for the School Duel, are still in his deck, representative, *I* interpret, of his time spent there, the friends he made, and the lessons he learned.

Atticus’ condition- Why can he not remember? Prolonged, inexperienced Shadow Realm exposure adversely affecting the brain? Was it the mask? How did he remember Camula’s power of all things, but not much else? Could it be that the medallion piece was shielding his mind from the pressure of prolonged Shadow realm exposure, but he decided that Jaden needed it more? That after he handed it over he forgot? Is the amnesia permanent? I doubt it, because let’s face it, Atticus, from what we know of him so far, is way too interesting a character to be left, as it were, untapped.
Yazmin? When will we hear from her? After all, she did tell Jaden to tell the other medallion-carrier, whom we now know as Atticus, (quoted, Grave Risk II) “Tell him Yazmin’s still in the other world but I haven’t forgotten him, and that I believe that one day we will meet again.” I brought it up because Atticus is back and on his feet again.

But wasn’t Fonda Fontaine the school nurse?
And speaking of which, if the Dark Scorpions had been planning to steal the keys all along, it wouldn’t have been hard if Mina were the nurse. After all, Jaden was in the school infirmary unable to duel a bedsheet for a matter of days, as was Alexis, who would have had to sleep sometime despite her constant vigil over Atticus. If Mina had wanted the keys, she could have snuck in and taken those two. Then again, perhaps, as Shadow Riders, they weren’t called up yet and so they stood aside for their fellow Shadow Riders. After all, the Shadow Riders do seem to be appearing one by one, separately (I’m considering these guys collectively one Shadow Rider if any at all (see below) because they had only one shadow charm and all dueled and fell together). Also, perhaps she knew that if two of the keykeepers’ keys went missing the keykeepers would have time to respond to the threat, whereas they grabbed all the keys at the same time here, making it so that, had they known about the dueling requirement, there would have been no time to stop them.

The Dark Scorpions’ names and abilities- a rare and useless bit of trivia, painstakingly jotted down for your enjoyment:
Don Zaloug (spelling’s anyone’s guess; dawn-zuh-LOOG)- “the boss”, posed as a detective, carried a shadow charm and was apparently a shadow rider. His special ability, activated after he attacks (maybe it’s one of those “whenever he wins a battle” deals…), sends a random card in the opponent’s hand to the grave.
Gorg- the big guy who seems to be missing an eye. Not very bright, posed as the school janitor. His special ability, activated the same as Zaloug’s, returns a monster on the opponent’s field to the top of their deck.
Mina the Thorn- the only lady of the Dark Scorpions’ band. She posed as the school nurse, and her special ability, activated the same way as her comrades’, allows her duelist to add one card with “Dark Scorpions” in its name from the graveyard to his or her hand.
Cliff the Trap Remover- the Dark Scorpion with the knife. He pretended to be the security guard, and his ability (activated the same way of course) sends the top two cards on the opponent’s deck to the graveyard.
Jake the Young- As his name suggests, the kid of the Dark Scorpion group. He masqueraded as C.K., a dim Slifer Red student, and his ability (also when he attacks) returns a card on the opponent’s field to their hand.

As strange as the circumstances were under which it occurred this episode, they were onto something. I’ll reiterate what I’ve said before, that hiding the keys would be a very wise move, because as Zaloug said, the Shadow Riders would just have to find them to find the key. Therefore, if they found the key but didn’t find the duelist, then they couldn’t do a thing. However, If they found the duelist, it wouldn’t matter, because either way the key disappears to the gate if they lose a duel to a Shadow Rider. Therefore, I suppose it really doesn’t matter, unless the keys themselves give off signals that Shadow Riders can pick up on and follow to their victim. Then again, the keys also warn their keykeepers of danger, like Banner’s, Bastion’s, Zane’s, and Chazz’s did the night Jaden dueled Nightshroud/Atticus.

The Ojama Brothers were actually more valid as witnesses than they thought—in School Duel II, Jaden was able to see Ojama Yellow. Therefore, the same should be true now, and Jaden would be able to second Chazz’s accusation and lend it support. Suspension of disbelief on our part, I suppose.

Mina the Thorn carried a rose whip, a favorite equip spell of Mai’s. Probably doesn’t mean anything, but who knows?

The duel either kept moving around campus, or we can place some things based on shots of background. When it’s panned out, the duel is shown to be occurring in front of and slightly crooked of parallel to the main building. At Don Zaloug’s back and to his right was the Bridge, and at Chazz’s back was the Slifer dorm. It’s confusing, but one of these days I’ll figure out some sort of map of Duel Academy! (attempts to do it right now) From an aerial view, I can spot the volcano, of course (one wonders why build a school so close to an active volcano- now we know: to protect the Sacred Beast cards!); the Pier (Zane’s favorite haunt), the Main Building; the hot springs (though I’ve just realized that they wouldn’t have returned to their dorm across the bridge as they did); and what may possibly be the lake near the Obelisk girls’ dorm. I cannot, however, see any of the dorms themselves, nor the ruins to the north, to name a few things that aren’t visible. The dorms’ absence is the most strange—and annoying. I guess I’ll just have to draw a map myself one of these days, as one of my many ep-guiding projects. Brace yourselves; my art skill isn’t the greatest…

The Dark Scorpions: Shadow Rider(s), or just stupid? How could duel spirits be shadow riders? And how could they possibly *not* have known about the fact that you had to defeat a keykeeper in a duel? If these goons weren’t shadow riders (they neither confirmed nor denied Chazz’ calling them so), then the keykeepers may soon have one more *real* Shadow Rider on their hands than they bargained for.

Duel Spirits play a larger role in GX. Most definitely. It’s a theme echoed in Yu-Gi-Oh, but it’s truly a theme in GX, and it’s part of GX’s own identity that sets it apart from its original.

The Dark Scorpions’ summoning: Kaiba-man duplicates, Gravekeeper Chief and Jinzo disappear as duelist and reappear as monster, and the Dork- I mean- Dark Scorpions… walk onto the field. Pathetic.

Chazz shows trust in the Ojamas by placing them as his ‘eyes and ears.’ As I said, rock on! Chazz it up!

So, tomorrow’s episode is A Lying Legend! Who’s lying? Yugi? Kaiba? Another ‘legend?’ Or is there a story, a legend, that’s false? Is it another copycat duelist? The return of Dimitri and his weird scarf? Less than 24 hours from now, we will know!

That’s about it! Good night! -Clio