Predictions and Observations:
Magna Chum Laude

Wow, I sure do have a lot to say today, including some speculation about how we first knew Crowler and Chumley, two characters who, to begin with, weren’t too friendly to Jaden and Syrus.

I guess I was right on both counts- it was about Chumley, and he found that with the support of his chums, he never duels alone.

You guessed it- Crowler! We’ve been seeing a different side of him, both here, and in his duel with Camula, that makes me wonder. It’s true that he cares that Duel Academy does well, and disapproves-of-borderline-hates students who don’t apply themselves, goof off, and make Duel Academy look bad. I had kept wondering if it was a change of heart, or if we had misjudged Crowler from the start. It’s like Jaden said, Crowler can get his game on (ugh, why do I suddenly feel the urge to rinse my mouth out?)! I had wondered after The Next King of Games why Crowler, a department chair of techniques at Duel Academy, dueled badly enough to lose to a brand new student. Is it even remotely possible that he was going easy? No, considering A Duel in Love, The Shadow Duelist, etc, I guess not. However, he seems to have learned something since then. I think I can finally begin to understand why he might be, essentially, Sheppard’s vice-principal, second-in-command. For one, Sheppard’s pretty easygoing most of the time, and Crowler’s really, really not, so between them they manage to not be too lenient, nor too strict. As a matter of fact, they have almost polarly opposite beliefs on plenty of things, making it so they balance each other out a bit. However, contrary to before, Crowler is not unfair, or rather can be fair and even better than fair. For one, he led Chumley to believe that he was doing the extremely unreasonable thing of forcing him to beat the head teacher in the school in a duel in order to graduate; but actually, this was simply a test of something far more important than simple win-or-lose, and I’m very proud of Crowler for doing that, because I think that it helped Chumley grow as a duelist. I hadn’t thought that Crowler was capable of such a convincing ruse, nor did I think that he was capable of actually understanding what’s important in dueling. Then again, he probably was testing skill as well as heart, but to me it seemed more like Crowler was saying that Chumley passed because he got his game on in a major way, as it were.

Chumley’s story: What if Chumley pulled a Chazz? I mean, he ran away from Duel Academy after yet another hard loss, like Chazz did, and when he did he found something that made him keep going, in his case the sunrise at Ayers Rock. So I’d imagine that it played out thus. Through his first year or more at Duel Academy (because we’ve now determined that all upperclassmen wear white because logic dictates that Alexis is a sophomore not a junior), maybe Chumley was a higher-level student, like an Obelisk or a Ra. This might fit especially well considering his dad’s attitude, perhaps placing Chumley in duel prep school and having him enter the Academy as an Obelisk the way Chazz and his cronies did. However, because Chumley was more of an artist than a duelist, he lost some major exams and perhaps got demoted to Ra or even Slifer, or was about to be. This was when he ran away from Duel Academy, after his second defeat and therefore going into his third year, if my theories about this are right and it’s these major exams at the end of the year he flunked, rather than the smaller ones when they first arrived at Duel Academy. This also explains Chumley’s underhanded academic competitiveness (like when he tried to convince Syrus to let Jaden sleep through those exams) as well as his initial insecurity I’d been observing. Assuming that Duel Academy runs on a normal school year, then Chumley’s second failed exams would have been June of the year before Jaden and Syrus arrived. Therefore, if Chumley ran away after his second failed exam, then that means that he ran away that summer, saw the Ayers Rock sunrise, and recently returned. Now when Jaden and Syrus first arrived, Chumley was the only occupant of the room they were assigned, perhaps suggesting either that Chumley’s roommate(s) graduated, or that he had been recently and therefore separately and independently placed, because everyone else was already kinda settled in in their dorm rooms. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Chumley had returned a couple weeks before, and therefore was still re-assimilating back into the school (alone in a room while they were still trying to place him and all) with nothing but bitter memories. That explains very well this important quote: “Duh, like how the whole color thing works? *That’s* more important than anything. Ya got three different kinds a’ students here- Obelisk Blue students, Ra Yellow students, and Slifer Red students. Now the Blues are the highest-ranked students. Some kids’re Blue ‘cause a’ grades, others through connections. The Yellows are second-highest, mostly younger students with lots a’ potential. Then, there’re us- the Red Wonders…As in, “I wonder how flunkies like us ever got this far,” maybe! Yeah, sorry, but we’re bottom of the barrel here. Duelin’ duds.” This, though informative, was quite negative, and I think that it would make a lot of sense how resentful Chumley might be if he had just been demoted back to Slifer (from whatever rank he was before he left) like Chazz was.

Okay, so Industrial Illusions is still up and running, and is still run by Pegasus who seems to be doing just fine. Man, my hilarious reaction- I was watching the first time around and Pegasus’ appearance caught me completely by surprise!

I think that Duel Academy might be near Australia, and hence Ayers Rock. My reasoning- Chumley probably made it all the way there on his own, no mean feat for a high-schooler. I very much doubt that he would have gone home or anywhere else first. For one, he said he had run away from Duel Academy, and for another, his dad would’ve probably shipped him right back. So Chumley made it all the way there, which argues that Duel Academy is off the coast of Australia. However, refuting, Duel Academy is in a temperate enough region that it snowed there in A Spirit Summoned. I was thinking maybe it was closer to the south pole, say, south of the Tropic of Capricorn, which, incidentally, passes right through Australia. However, due to non-canon logic that since this show originated in Japan, Duel Academy is probably an island closer to there, that would put Australia pretty far away, but not entirely impossible. Perhaps it’s a Japanese island pretty far south but north of the Tropic of Cancer, placing it near enough to Australia to give Chumley some chance to make it there and back on his own, but also near enough to the frozen north to get Chazz to North Academy, which might quite possibly be somewhere on the coast of Siberia?
But here’s another crazy theory to bop around: what if Chumley’s family lives in Australia, and so Chumley went home for summer vacation, and that’s when he ran away? That would make it quite possible. This would also negate my whole theory about his pulling a Chazz, because he would have returned before anyone at Duel Academy would have taken him off the roster. Therefore, it just means he was demoted after losing his last promotion exam, and is therefore bitter about it even though he decided to give it one more shot.

Come on, Jaden, don’t let finals getcha down! We all know by now that your attitude gives you power- it’s just another fun duel, and the world’s not even at stake!

Wow- Syrus just beat Jaden in a duel! Jaden must’ve really been feeling lousy about these exams- I mean, he just lost to *Syrus,* for cryin’ out loud! No offense, Sy, but gimme a break, Jaden just saved the world- there’s no way he’ll lose some dumb exam match after taking on the three most powerful cards on the island and winning-well, *almost* on his own…

So the Ra headmaster teaches some kind of dueling-oriented art class. Actually, that makes some sense. It gets students to really pay attention to and think about and care about the cards, by having a class to do just that in portraying them yourself. I think Syrus’ picture was of Dark Magician Girl.

So these finals are more serious than the ones in Making the Grade, I’m perceiving.

Jaden never duels alone because he has his friends, and also because he has the duel spirits themselves, I’ll bet!

I wonder how Pegasus and Chumley will get on? I note that they already share a common interest, painting, and a different love of the cards than that of a championship duelist such as Yugi, Kaiba, Joey, or Jaden. Not to diminish either side, but it’s simply different. When Pegasus visited Egypt all those years ago, what he saw inspired and moved him to bring what he saw, the creatures, myths and legends he found, to life. When the card contest came to Duel Academy, Chumley knew what scene, what feeling, should be a card, and chose the Ayers Rock sunrise. Chumley speaks to his cards (“Look, it’s not you, it’s me. I just can’t keep you in my deck anymore.” –Chumley, working on his deck in For the Sake of Syrus) and he’s said that they speak to him also. Pegasus, I believe I may be correct in saying, was genuinely furious when Kaiba was able to ensnare and destroy Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon, because cartoons were so important to him as fun, innocent, lovable, and free. I actually think that Chumley and Pegasus may get along quite nicely, and for all we know, Chumley could fill Pegasus’ shoes one day, who knows?

Chumley said he’d come back. I bet we haven’t seen the last of him! Come to think of it, this is the first time anyone of Duel Academy has actually, truly, for good, gone out into the real world with their skills. I have a feeling that this will forge a connection with the world outside Duel Academy’s shores, and bring the rest of the dueling world more into the picture.

Chumley graduated. Does that mean that he was at the school for the usual length of time (namely, for a high school, four years)? Or did he graduate early because Sheppard and Crowler authorized it? If so, then that means one of two things: Chumley was a senior (that is to say, in his last year in high school at the age of about eighteen or nineteen, which doesn’t seem too realistic to me), OR, Zane and quite possibly Atticus are about to graduate! Aieee!

Graduation Match I will be the next episode, tomorrow afternoon! Who’s graduating? I can’t wait! Is it just a promotion, or an actual graduation? Until we find out, good night! -Clio