Predictions and Observations:
Hearts are Wild

The first thing I did- being the nut that I am- was to attempt to translate the French. It wasn’t easy: I finally figured out that I could look on the captions, and to do that I needed to mute the TV so they came on, because apparently my remote control had lost contact with its menu button. Anyway, I transcribed the following and translated it online:
Chumley’s comment at the end: “La coeur a ses raisons” – “The heart has its reasons.” (le COH ah SAY ray ZON)
Something Pierre says to Alexis at the end: “Je suis desole”—apparently “Je suis” means “I am”, and I bet if I had the right spelling it would say “I’m sorry,” which is what he said right after. I thought it was something he called Alexis because the last part sounded like “soleil”, one of the few words of French I know, which means “sun.” here it is; “Je suis désolé” – what a difference accents make in French as well as Spanish! Hope that’s legible, accents tend to go psycho on these posts.
“Nom de voyage,” the card he handed Crowler—literally, “Name of voyage,” but if I had to guess I’d say calling card or the name itself is his pseudonym (which means an author’s pen-name but it’s the same sort of thing), his “traveling name,” perhaps.
“(Sand Gambler brings a) je ne sais quoi”—“I do not know what” Huh. Maybe he means like ‘it’s so incredible who knows what’ll happen’?
The rest is pretty self-explanitory, a “Oui” (yes) here, an “Au contraire” (on the contrary) there, but I translated the main ones. By the way, Jaden, “bon voyage” does seem to be French, but “sayonara” seems to be Malay (according to Google), and I can’t seem to locate a Malay-to-English translator.

La Coeur a ses raisons: The Heart has its reasons. The context: Alexis refuses Pierre’s offer to come with him, and Jaden and Syrus are commenting how harsh that must be, when Chumley says this. What was Chumley saying with this phrase? For one, I’d like to note that every time I type out ‘Coeur’ in that context, Word automatically capitalizes it, and when I type the Heart capitalized, I mean the Heart of the Cards. Therefore, in a bizarre coincidence, this might mean the Heart has its reasons, meaning the Heart of the Cards. That’s one meaning, but a more conventional one is that Alexis’ heart has its reasons. She has a whole bunch of guys out there who *like* her (Chazz, Harrison Rosewood, Pierre…), but she stated in Courting Alexis that she’s not interested in a boyfriend right now. How come? And when will she be? I’ve noticed she’s been slipping up about how much she likes Jaden lately, most particularly this episode when she couldn’t work up the nerve to say to Jaden something to the effect of, “If you ever need someone to talk to” or something to that effect. They’re so cute together! And if that’s what Chumley was saying, then points to him for perceptivity!

I get it now! Sheppard’s office has an automatic door, so when people were coming to spy, it sensed them and opened but they had already hid.

“Hearts are Wild”- the name refers to other card games because to have a suit be “wild” is a card term (I don’t know any games that have wild cards except maybe UNO, but yeah), and we have a gambler of such games showing up at Duel Academy. Moreover, hearts are wild in that Pierre fell in love with the girl who beat him. Hearts are wild in that Alexis let slip her affection for Jaden again, and there was a whole part of the episode with just the two of them. Hearts are wild in that Alexis was furious that Pierre used her favorite game, the game she puts her heart into, that she taught him, to rob people.

I swear that the first time around of watching the episode, when Jaden’s sitting alone on the hillside and Alexis shows up, I heard Winged Kuriboh coo. I went back and watched that part a bunch of times but never heard it again.

How often do students spy upon Chancellor Sheppard’s office? And why was it only Slifers? If I had to guess, I’d say that Pierre landed near the Slifer dorm and walked up past it to the main building. Jaden wouldn’t have gone all that far from Slifer dorm just to be alone. So the Slifers saw this strange guy heading up to the main building, and decided to investigate. Sounds plausible to me.

The return of the Disciplinary Action Squad; and just in time for my starting to ep-guide Duel and Unusual Punishment, too!

Another hint about the relationship between Crowler and Chancellor Sheppard. Or at least the first one I’ve really picked up on. This one is either a coincidence, like they were discussing, oh, students’ performance levels and struggles in a completely untelling and normal interaction, but Crowler’s being at Sheppard’s side in this way kind of strikes me that Crowler’s more Sheppard’s right-hand man, assisting him with who knows what planning for running Duel Academy.

“Don’t want to make Dark Magician Girl jealous, now, do ya?” I love that—maybe just because it’s a reference to a past event! Does this mean that Syrus and Dark Magician Girl are now a couple?

I have my doubts about that coin’s fairness for one, just for the sake of argument because Pierre would have had a motive to cheat and the immaturity to as well. I also wanted to note that Pierre had to tell which was heads and which, tails, meaning that that coin must be somehow different from normal currency Alexis would be familiar with. And yet we’ve seen such a coin before: in Freeze Play, Yugi tested a door with one (which was definitely a good idea…) If I had to guess, I’d say that that type of coin is specifically for the point of tossing a coin, which would be a common occurrence in a game such as Duel Monsters or any of the games Pierre plays. Therefore, gamers like Yugi and Pierre have a special coin that isn’t money and can be kept conveniently for the purpose.

We actually know quite a bit more about Alexis’ youth than about anyone else’s now, considering how much we learned back in A Reason to Win, and how much we learned now. For one, we know that the school she went to with Pierre, at least, was not the “Duel Prep School” Chazz and his thugs used to speak of, because Alexis taught Pierre to duel, and if he had come to a duel monsters school not knowing the first thing about Duel Monsters, there would have been trouble.

I had kept wondering why Alexis always used Doble Passe, such a costly card. Today it actually occurred to me that she changes an attack that will damage her lifepoints a small amount and destroy her monster, into an attack that will damage her lifepoints a lot, her opponent’s almost as much, and allow her to keep her monster. That actually sounds like and okay tradeoff. Especially if, like back in her duel with Jaden, her monster gets more points when it attacks directly! Anyway, it’s not as bad a move as I thought.

Alexis says the classic “It comes down to this” and plays Scapegoats: a couple entirely random parallels drawn to the Original.

Lex’s intimidation tactics kick into high gear there at the last coin toss; she faces uncertainty without fear, whereas Pierre usually gambles when he’s sure he’ll win.

Sand Gambler looks like Pierre.

“Luck is a loser’s excuse!” Good to keep in mind, that Alexis absolutely doesn’t believe in luck.

First an amazing artist, now speaking fluent French- Chumley must have had one interesting education! I’m all curious about *his* childhood, now!

That’s all, folks! Sorry it took so long again! This is the last new GX for a while (they’re taunting us, I swear!). I’ll check the listings, but I don’t believe there are any new episodes in sight. Nope, GX reruns all the way up through the 17th, but at least I’ll get to check up on some of the stuff I wasn’t able to double-check before (I should really keep a list; I don’t remember what they were!). No new Yu-Gi-Oh! as of Saturday, March 11, and the listings don’t reach to the Saturday after that. As always, I’ll keep an eye out and let folks know! -Clio