Predictions and Observations:
The Demon

Sure glad there’s a few more days before the next episode in a way, because I have some real obsessing to do over this one!

Was Zane off his game? My answer is a resounding *yes!* I can support that answer, too: I felt that Zane was suffering from something similar to Jaden’s affliction in Back to Duel. It’s something we all kind of need to figure out, the state of mind of having advanced to a new level. It tends to throw one off, trying to get a grip on one’s identity anew now that outwardly it’s changed. I noticed that many taunts that Zane would have shrugged off in his Duel Academy days got to him; I’ve never seen anyone manage to provoke him like that. I think Syrus noticed, too—he mentioned that he’d never seen Zane act like that. Also, I realized, Zane wasn’t having fun. I don’t have the slightest idea why; is it even possible that the pressure was getting to him?
“ You didn’t take into account the facedown, and you didn’t take into account Power Bond’s adverse special effect! Sure you may know how to use a card, but there’s more to dueling than just that!” Sad but true-sdale (to make a pun on a pun) that Zane’s own words to Syrus when he intercepted Syrus’ grade-school duel could apply to him in this duel also.

Y’know, Jaden, if you went to class (like Bastion mentioned), you’d probably know by now about your heroes. Speaking of which, one way classes could be made a lot more useful is if they had class time to work on their decks, getting advice and assistance from teachers and other strong duelists.

Why did Phoenix use Heroes? Is this why he challenged Jaden and intentionally threw it? To be able to know Jaden’s strategy and copy it to throw his imminent opponents off? According to those commentators, this is a brand new deck, so I guess I can’t postulate that it’s one heck of a crazy coincidence—or one heck of a fate even—that they happened to have the same kind of deck before they even met. I do think it’s very symbolic, however, that Jaden and Phoenix share a bunch of cards but what they do with them differs greatly. Hang on—could that be symbolic of a discovery in the future that Jaden and Phoenix are—I dunno, like two sides of the same coin? What a disturbing thought. For another theory, what if Phoenix is a copycat duelist who actually plays well? I noticed that he was “throwing down facedowns” and “kickin’ it Polymerization-style,” two things Jaden might also have said. I also noticed, though, that Aster’s Elemental Heroes looked darker and more foreboding than Jaden’s heroes. It reminded me of something I wrote about a year ago in the KCGC predictions, in Sinister Secrets II and III, regarding how cards are coded for use in dueling: “It seems that each card is distinctive, because Yugi’s Dark Magician Girl shows some personality when she’s on the field this time around, and Leon admires her as Yugi’s Dark Magician Girl, rather than any other, so it would seem that each is unique.” I think, similarly, that Jaden’s Elemental Heroes and Aster’s are quite different. This means that what I wrote about the two Dark Magicians in that post, even though that situation was a shadow game, is probably proven, too: monsters seem to be less or more frightening and dark depending on who wields them and how, even in entirely holographic duels like this one. Now, the question is—will the pattern continue? When Aster duels Jaden are we going to see any Cyber Dragons, or has he settled on mimicking Jaden?

Ah, the Kaibadome—brings back memories, and really creates the sense that after graduation our heroes join the ranks of the elite, now new and exciting because we know a lot of the people there but haven’t seen them in, for them, years. Also, I noticed that the phrase “history has been made here in the Kaibadome” was used, which reminded me of KCGC (One Step Ahead): “…The winner of this bout is bound to make a splash, when he faces Yugi Moto for the championship crown! That’s right, folks—history could be made in the next few hours if his coveted title changes hands here in the Kaibadome!” Also, looks a bit different from how we remember it—the main floor isn’t as huge anymore, and for whatever reason they painted it green!

What will Zane do, now that he’s the only one who knows the identity of the Demon? Will he go to the authorities with what he knows? Somehow, I doubt it, because they probably wouldn’t believe him; he just lost to this guy, and they don’t know him well enough to know he wouldn’t frame Aster for revenge. I find it more likely that he’ll contact the Duel Academy crowd, especially Jaden, and warn them about this; it’ll probably be no secret when Aster returns to Duel Academy.

Why is Aster being the Demon? Sartorius called it juvenile games. How unbecoming of a league champion, to go around bullying losers on the street for kicks late at night in a crazy costume!

Who was Zane’s sponsor dude? Is Zane going to be in major trouble for losing? Man, I sure hope not.
Is this the end of Zane’s pro career? The commentators said so, shortly before the match ended. That would really be awful—barely out of school four months, and his career as a major duelist is down the tubes even though he’s still an amazing duelist.

As of this year, we seem to be hearing more about life after Duel Academy and the Pro Leagues. Part of moving closer to graduating: I got a lecture on future careers last year, which I hated with a fiery passion, but anyway. It’s the same sorta thing: *we* start preparing for college or for entering the work force ( I could learn to hate that phrase), and young duelists begin to pay attention to the pro leagues.

There was a passing mention of Kaiba and Yugi. Gotta mention stuff like that.

For some reason, I was able to guess what Sy was telling Bastion and Jaden right along with. It was a bit scary.

Pharaoh’s still hanging onto Professor Banner’s spirit, but apparently hasn’t absorbed it or anything; the spirit itself is still kickin’ around and wants out! But why? Is there some way Banner can come back? Or does the spirit want to escape to sail off into the wild blue yonder like most spirits after they die?

Zane’s fresh out of Duel Academy, probably about eighteen. If he kept getting called old, how old’s Aster? Also, you’d think that the majority of pro duelists would be older than them; apparently turning pro is graduating with honors at Duel Academy, more or less; therefore, the youngest are seventeen or eighteen, depending on the grading system, over which there’s a fair bit of confusion in this corner. It seems blatantly apparent that Aster never went to Duel Academy, and therefore reached that level on his own, the old-fashioned way. Therefore he could be any age. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s no *younger* than fourteen.

Double Pot of Greed again—how many times can I call it Fate? It happens way too often, don’t you agree? If it’s *not* Fate, the coincidences are staggering or some loony must be running around stacking major duelists’ decks that way for fun or something.

Speaking of fate, what about Phoenix and Sartorius? What’s the big plan? One I came up with today: is Phoenix getting fed up with Sartorius’ orders?

How does that spaz beat you? Because he’s the ultimate spaz, Chazz!

Destruction of Destiny; destroying what he would have drawn definitely makes it that. Also, where Aster’s concerned, everything is “of destiny.”

I was surprised how hard Zane took that defeat. Sure it was unexpected, but I bet that if he hadn’t been off his game, he would have told Aster good game, because it would’ve been one.

Why did Aster use up his Spark Blaster like that? Was it just to get Zane’s goat by getting a laugh from the crowd at Cyber Dragon’s expense? If it hadn’t gotten a rise out of Zane at all, if he had ignored it, it would have looked like a rather foolish move: Aster gave up a strategic advantage, the ability to pull a Submarineroid/Spear Dragon/whathaveyou, and attack then switch immediately to defense and escape any damage, or an even better use for Spark Blaster, just to make the giant dragon do a dance.

New duel vocab: when two monsters with equal strength battle and both are destroyed, Hassleberry called it a “wash.” Kinda makes sense, because such a clash would destroy them both and in most cases clear the field.

I looked at my recording of Field of Screams II to see which card Zane tossed to play his Trap Jammer (it was Photon Generator Unit, which would have summoned Cyber Laser Dragon in exchange for two Cyber Dragons, but since at that point, sad to say, Zane was having trouble getting *any* on the field and keeping them there, I can understand why he tossed it out.), and I was actually surprised to see Syrus in a red blazer and Chumley standing there. Man, we’ll look back and last year will be a distant memory…

Unless I’m much mistaken, Bonaparte is slowly shoving Crowler out and taking over the school. That’s a bit disconcerting. Though, on the bright side, that puts Crowler back on our side against this insanity.

Not very superstitious, is Zane? Right there, it was weird, but he reminded me a bit of Kaiba.

Zane said that he preferred to walk home, especially before a big match. I’m reminded of how he always could be found out on the pier back at Duel Academy late at night.

Canon spelling for Aster’s name, by the way: it was spelled out on screen.

Speaking of names, I discovered that “sartorius” and “sartorial” are actual words; the sartorius is a long, flat muscle, the longest in the human body, found on the inside of the tibia, which assists in bending the hip or knee joint and in rotating the thigh outward. Who knew? Sartorial means (naturally) of or pertaining to said muscle, or it also means—get this—having to do with tailors. Go figure. Researched from Dictionary.com.

We finally saw Sartorius’ eyes—creepy.

Both Zane and Aster were using Academy duel disks, even though Duel Academy is far away; what gives?

First Bastion duel of the year—kind of. Looks like he still has some equations to scrawl out. The next painting party, I’ll bet, with Chazz, Alexis, and Hassleberry all hanging around with Jaden most of the time, will be even wilder.

Man, Phoenix is a weird character. In spite of all I understand about past characters, this guy just baffles me somehow. I’m not even really sure if he’s supposed to be the big bad guy (though it seems kinda obvious, given the circumstances); maybe what scares me so much is that all of the best duelists in the GX crowd seem to get inexplicably off their game when up against him.

Wow—I was actually rather, well, stunned, by how much of the episode was spent off-campus and in the actual world (the Shadow Realm does not exactly count as off-campus, nor does the sea surrounding Duel Academy). There haven’t even been that many *scenes* off-campus that I can think of: The Next King of Games, naturally, was all off-campus; there was that scene at the beginning of The Shadow Duelist I, where he creams that guy in the street very similarly to how Aster did (man, it’s not safe for amateur duelists to walk the streets late at night anymore…); The New Chazz was entirely off-campus, but still on *a* duel school’s campus (you’d be amazed how different school is from real life; every summer I have to figure out again who exactly I am); in School Duel I and II we see crowds watching the duel at huge TV screens; the very beginning of Doomsday Duel I is off-campus; Get Yarr Game On happened mostly off-campus. My point is, for the most part the action’s been at Duel Academy, but now that some people we know from there have left, we follow them too. I don’t feel quite so confined to the Academy’s shores anymore.

That’s all for now. I’m pretty sure I goofed and forgot something, but—yeah. Next Monday’s new episode is A New Breed of Hero I (I wonder what that could be about?) Good night for the week! –Clio