Predictions and Observations:
Duel Monsters Spirit Day

So it was a spirit day about duel monsters, or a day in honor of duel spirits, or something. A bit of both, really. It seems to be set in maybe March or April, just as a flat-out guess because all I know is that the school year isn’t over yet and Winter Break was back in A Spirit Summoned. It’s possible, probable even, that they have no Summer Vacation, and I should really explain the conclusions I’ve come to with that so I will later on, but yeah, I have a feeling that Duel Monsters Spirit Day is a Duel Academy event that takes place sometime in mid-spring.

Well, I’ll say this: I came up with a bunch of great Halloween costume ideas! I watched some parts frame-by-frame, and these were the costumes I saw and recognized (of course, I probably am not entirely right because I have more interest in the characters than the cards):
- Alexis, Jasmine, and Mindy as the three Harpy Lady sisters
- Jaden as a combination of, well, the only thing I recognized were Celtic Guardian’s cape and shoulder things.
- Chazz as XYZ Dragon Cannon
- A giant Winged Kuriboh- does Jaden have a huge fan?
- Guardian Dreadscythe of all things- it took me a while to place that one, because I definitely wasn’t expecting it!
- Red-Eyes, or possibly Lord of the Red, which is a suit of armor made to look like Red-Eyes
- Gravekeeper’s Curse
- That hot-sauce-angel guy with the white suit and feathery wings
-Vampire Lord (as in, Camula’s monster…)
-Marauding Captain??

I also noticed that Bastion dressed up as some sort of unidentified tiger monster, not a known card of his deck, continuing on the metaphor witnessed in Formula for Success, with Bastion as a tiger and Jaden representing a dragon, and repeated again, probably, in Duel Distractions I and II. I wonder what this means? The suspense is killing us! Either way, though, I liked the whiskers.

But, Syrus, what about Thunder Nyan-Nyan (Nian-Nian?)? These card crushes are such a weird phenomenon…

Wow, Chumley’s quite the artist! Those posters are amazing!

A big question for sure: Why has Banner gone missing? Is it possible that he knew they were onto him? That he ran for it? What if the seventh and final Shadow Rider got to him? Where’s Pharaoh, though? Banner wouldn’t have had a chance to bring his cat along if he had been kidnapped or Shadow-realmmed. But Pharaoh’s no ordinary cat; what if he followed Banner even if he were taken by force? Who’s managing the Slifer Dorm in Banner’s absence? One of the proctors from the exams, maybe? We saw them around. I wonder if Sheppard, seeing as he foreshadowingly *is* wearing a red duel blazer, will end up being the head of Slifer?

Well, Ms. Dorothy *is* Ms. Duel Academy; I’m sure Sheppard and Foster would heartily approve of her playing Dark Magician Girl…( tries to keep from laughing, fails miserably)

Wow, those costumes are amazing! Then again, I suppose for such a huge event, the card shop probably stocks a huge and good-quality selection.

“Purple hair and pointy ears,” huh, Chazz? Interesting taste in girls, to say the least. I’ll keep that in mind…lol

Chazz still seems to have a bit of a crush on Alexis. Then again, I guess a lot of people do *cough*Harrison Rosewood*cough*.

I like to keep track of these sorts of things; from their casual mention, I’m going to guess for now that Atticus and Alexis’ parents are pretty much happily married, since Atticus teased about showing photos of Alexis as Harpie Lady to mom and dad, with no hesitation in mentioning both of them together. Of course, that’s a complete guess but it’s what I’m going with for now. Also to keep in the back of my mind: Alexis and Atticus have an Uncle Doug, Aunt Gail (Gayle?), and Cousin Alanna (Alana, Alawna, Allana, Allanna…?)

I noticed that the only thing different about Dark Magician Girl’s costume from the original was a Millennium symbol on the pendant on her dress. I wonder why that was there? I’m pretty sure I would have noticed it before now if the original had one, and I wouldn’t have noticed it now when this one did.

Something seemed subtly different about Dark Magician Girl, some part of her presence. For one thing, she seemed to exist solely to flirt with the crowd, and we’ve seen Dark Magician Girl act cute, but also she means business in a non-flirty way. I found myself comparing her to Mana, because before we were able to tell that she had a connection to Dark Magician Girl, and we’ve seen Mana as a character rather than just every so often as a monster. For one thing, this Dark Magician Girl wasn’t quite as klutzy as the one we’ve come to know.

Chazz seems mostly immune to Dark Magician Girl’s charms, except for when he enthusiastically invites her to duel.

Jaden actually let the criticism of his costume get to him! I couldn’t believe it! He gets that every day for his red duel blazer anyway!

Smart of Chazz, to look for Pharaoh. After all, Banner’s hardly ever apart from Pharaoh, and even if they found Pharaoh alone, they could tell by looking at him if Banner’s in trouble.

The last time Fire Sorcerer was played—if memory serves—was when Tea played it in Freeze Play, back during Virtual World, when her deck master was… Dark Magician Girl. This coincidence points to a possible connection between Dark Magician Girl and Fire Sorcerer.

“It was my understanding that only the King of Games Yugi Moto possessed the Dark Magician Girl.” Wow, I had no idea she was so rare in this version; that makes her rarer than Blue-Eyes! I wonder how that happened? Yugi certainly wouldn’t have done what Kaiba did to the fourth Blue-Eyes in The Heart of the Cards! This statement also directly, flat-out states, rather than simply hints, that Yugi is still the King of Games, the world champion.
But while we’re at it, I wanted to bring up an interesting point. “King of Games” was originally the title awarded to Duelist Kingdom’s champion, if he beat Pegasus. One reason to win was for the prestige. Following Duelist Kingdom, Yugi naturally received this title. Because Yugi was the winner of Duelist Kingdom and always will be because it’s past now, he will therefore technically always be the King of Games. However, the title has become synonymous with ‘World Champion,’ because of the timing of Yugi’s receiving it and length of time he has held it. Therefore, Bastion’s statement there could in theory be interpreted as nothing new, that it’s possible Yugi is no longer world champion but will still always be King of Games, but I doubt it. For one, in “Welcome to Duel Academy,” an episode I’ve been focusing on recently, one of Chazz’s thugs (the one without the accent) says of Chazz, “He’s gonna be the next King of Games! The best duelist in the world!” Therefore, the two have become synonymous.

Alexis let something slip there: Jaden was a bit bummed about being the bad guy for defeating Dark Magician Girl, and Alexis says, “Sometimes the girls *like* the bad guys,” then adds quickly, “Or so I’ve heard.” They’re so cute.

When Dark Magician Girl evaporated into the sky, a little pink glimmer went up from Syrus, too. Probably a bit of symbolism there, too.

Okay, so tomorrow is “Hearts are Wild.” For one thing, there’s card terms, because in some games (slip my mind) a certain kind of card or a certain suit is wild, meaning any card belonging to that group is a wild card. So there’s that meaning, and I also have a feeling there might be some romance in this episode! And if not romance, duel energy, and getting your heart in the game! ‘Til then, that’s all, folks! -Clio