Predictions and Observations:
Not Playing With a Full Deck

The E-Heroes are back! When the Neo-spacians were down, the E-Heroes backed them up and gave Jaden the victory. That’s the first time we’ve really seen them out in force, but it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know that they’re still there in strength whenever Jaden needs them, even in his new deck.

Mime Control, Courtroom Chaos, and Sinister Secrets, of course (saw this coming, huh?)! It reminded me of Mime Control because of Jaden’s play to use an opponent’s card combination of trap/spell cards and monster abilities in order to deplete the opponent’s deck, causing him to lose, just like Yugi did to Strings/Marik. Actually I believe that’s the only other instance that someone has lost by being unable to draw a card; let me know if I’m wrong. (For the record, Champion vs. Creator doesn’t count—Kaiba lost there because he had no moves left to play; all of his monsters besides Saggi were crushed by the card virus (pun intended), apparently.) However, another duel came pretty darn close—Sinister Secrets, Yugi vs. Leon. Jaden also employed a strategy used here: he used the fact that he had no cards in his deck to play his strategy at the end there, like Yugi destroyed the Golden Castle of Stromberg by ending up with only one card left in his deck, which couldn’t be split in half, making it impossible for him to send half of his deck to the graveyard. And then there’s Courtroom Chaos—the only other dueling lawyer we’ve seen! It’s so funny, I was just realizing that, and saying, “now all we need is for him to…” almost as if on cue, X described his opening move, Card Destruction, as “clearing the courtroom”! Moreover, later one of X’s monster effects cleared the field and dealt deck damage for each monster removed, also drawing parallels to Clear the Courtroom!

Aster! Dude! I’m actually starting to like you! May I simply note that today was the first time Aster has been seen anywhere near a duel in a spectator capacity rather than as one of the combatants. It was also the first time he showed any feeling toward Jaden besides enmity or the grudging respect at the end of Homecoming Duel. He went to that cave and he watched because he cared about Jaden, which is big. He also made astute observations regarding Jaden’s style, which I found pleasantly surprising to find that he’d noticed. One that stuck out at me was, “…and for someone like Jaden, who has a strong connection with his cards, (losing most of your deck) can be devastating!”

I was thinking about character lines today (usually one of the first lines a character says that signals what kind of person this is), considering there were a whole mess of them in The Next King of Games. X’s, it struck me, was this, when he spotted a blooming flower by the side of the road: “Well, well, well. A young blossom. So full of potential. And so easy to destroy! Say your prayers! (he stomps the flower with his fancy shoe) Jaden you’re next!” Not only was my first impression that this guy’s trouble, it was that he’s not exactly “playing with a full deck.”

The Reaper of Souls (a.k.a. Death, most likely, was upright, which signifies change, a new direction. Sartorius said that it foretold Jaden’s defeat, which is understandable because that would mean a turn of the tide. However, I wonder if it’s really that Jaden is immune to destiny or simply that no one can read his because it’s protected by the power of Neo-space. What I mean is, is Sartorius sure he was reading regarding Jaden and that it didn’t mean something else? For one, consistent with today’s apparent theme of new beginnings for *me* at least, today was a real landmark, a turning point albeit a quiet one, in Aster’s role as a character in GX, which I’ve already written about above.

Another Jadenism to throw at us: “There’s no better party than a duel!” For Jaden, that’s definitely true.

That map Jaden was reading didn’t look like Duel Academy to me. Why was it topographical? Why did it have a lightning bolt across half of it?

The Jadenism. “The duel’s not over until the last card’s played” was said *again* today. I think I’ll just start calling it “*The* Jadenism”. And I still haven’t found the episode yet, darn it!

So go be a pastry chef already and leave us alone!

I noted that there’s a shade of the same issue that arose for Jaden in his first duel with Aster, in A New Breed of Hero I and II: X was getting rid of Jaden’s cards right and left, forcing a lot of moves with special abilities and continuous traps and spells, in short, micromanaging the duel so Jaden could hardly make a move that he chose, just like Aster did. I notice this wasn’t mentioned.

Is it just a wacky coincidence that X’s build and hair reminded me of Banner’s?

This is the first time we’ve seen that card-count meter. The GX folks like to be nifty and animate their meters.

It’s kind of interesting the general theme of conflict in this duel, which is a major one: X insisted that dueling is hard work, that if you treat it as a game you get schooled. Jaden proved him wrong, obviously. It’s an integral part of the philosophy of the Yu-Gi-Ohverse in general, that theme of treating even things that are deadly serious as if they were a game, a puzzle to be solved. I don’t mean you shouldn’t take them seriously, I mean that if you take them too seriously you’re sunk. Moreover, if it’s a game, as Yugi always says, then it must have a solution. Some may argue that the view of life as a game is too optimistic to be practical, or even an ideal that cannot be achieved, but I differ. It may be unachievable, but the only way to find out is to strive for it and make our lives better in the process. As for overoptimistic, all it really means is not to sweat the small stuff, to use a common phrase, or even the big stuff: take it and keep going because it’s not over yet, and it’s never over until the last card’s played. There’s always a chance to make a comeback, to find a solution to any problem. One good example, though I’m kinda sad to say it, is Zane. Dueling was fun to him, until he started having to win in order to make a living. Then the pressure was on for Zane; it wasn’t just great to win, he *had* to win; losing wasn’t an option, and it wasn’t just because of pride or anything. There was, for lack of a better term, a fear element there, to be perfect or to be thrown out with the trash. Certainly nothing to laugh about! However, the game itself hadn’t changed; it was still just another duel! But Zane lost that sense because the stakes were higher overall. It takes incredible, pretty much phenomenal, will and love of the game in order to really love a duel just as much whether it be for your next meal, whether it’s for a grade, whether it’s for the fate of Mankind past present and future, or whether it’s just chillin’ out with the crew in the schoolyard throwing down in the last fifteen minutes of recess for fun. It’s not easy, and life’s not easy, I’ll grant that. However, it’s the same deal: in order to be both enjoyed and prosperous, life requires that same passion, that same will to fight on and even more importantly to *love* it, not just survive it, no matter how hard it gets and no matter what the stakes are. That’s my philosophy, anyway.
Mind you, I’m not giving up on Zane—he’s just off his game!

May I take a second to note that today is the one-year anniversary of The Next King of Games? I have the urge to reminisce, so skip if you like, but I hope to make this both poignant and amusing. Exactly one year ago today, we first discovered this show and these characters, and, though I can only speak for myself, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who wondered whether they could find a place in my heart beside Yugi and his world. I worried, would it be the same? How would it be different? What can I glean from what has happened in GX as to what will happen in Yu-Gi-Oh? The first time I saw the title, “The Next King of Games”, I seem to recall a certain stunned paralysis at the thought of anyone replacing Yugi at the top. However, while I still think that Jaden’s not quite ready to dethrone the King of Games, he’s certainly found a place in my heart, along with his friends and even a few of his enemies. I always say that Jaden is the only person who’s ever made me need to look up “enthusiasm” in a thesaurus in order to describe him. While the characters and general atmosphere have changed, the heart of the show has remained, powerful and true. For the sake of reminiscing, these were my first impressions of the characters we know so well today, recorded for all time in my Predictions post of the first ever GX episode:
“ Let’s see, a rundown of the new characters (meaning everyone):

Jaden Yuki, the main character- That *is* some confidence and enthusiasm there. Nothing upsets Jaden, or so it seems. It that respect he reminded me of Joey. But don’t get me wrong, Jaden’s a new character entirely. I can’t quite place it, but he seems quite different from anyone we’ve met before. They all do, really. I felt completely clueless watching Yu-Gi-Oh! for the first time in a whole year. I forgot how weird it feels. He does seem destined for something; for one the series begins with him defeating the undefeatable, like Yugi before him. And his Winged Kuriboh coos at him. That’s a weird-prophetic-super-magic thing. Also, you have to admit, Jaden is a bit, well, oblivious. He was running late to the exam, and the more and more Crowler gets angry, Jaden thinks, for instance, look at him tremble! I must really be impressing him! Of course, this could all be cheerful banter and let us know moreover that we haven’t seen anything yet.

Syrus, the little blue-haired kid Jaden meets- You have to wonder how he won his duel. I’m serious, the other guy, um, Bastion, is explaining the *rules* to him right and left during Jaden’s duel. If Syrus didn’t know that if a monster in attack mode is destroyed, the difference between the attacking monster’s attack points and the monster destroyed’s attack points is deducted from the destroyed monster’s duelist’s lifepoints…well, that’s like, the first thing you learn about dueling! I understand that this was probably a plot device to explain the game to newcomers and make Bastion look like the expert duelist they say he is, but doing it that way was kind of a putdown to Syrus.

Bastion Misawa, the highest-scoring applicant on the written exam- I like Bastion. He was the guy who beat the proctor with that Ring of Destruction move. Reminds me a bit of Bakura; maybe it’s just the accent. Nah, they served the same role at one time or another; Bakura was the voice of what’s going on, explaining the duel, I recall, in Best of Friends, Best of Duelists in particular, similar to how Bastion explains the action to Syrus and the new guys watching at home. Bastion, it seems, duels by technicality and logic rather than by heart or instinct. Either that, or we haven’t seen him in action yet. He does look, though, like a guy who will be no pushover.

Dr. Vellian Crowler, Dept. Chair of Techniques at Duel Academy- An evil weirdo. I do think that it was funny that people keep calling him Mrs., and Jaden calls him a mascot.
I would like to note that Crowler said something to the effect of, you new rookie duelists, I forget how *attached* you are to your cards. I don’t know if anyone caught it, but Crowler just dissed a bunch of the world’s top duelists (a lot of whom we’ve met before: Joey, Leon, Kaiba -yes, Kaiba!-, Rafael, Mai, Pegasus, Grandpa Moto, Hawkins, come to think of it, just about everyone!), most importantly Yugi. Not only “How dare he, this means war!” but also, “Get with the program, loser!” It’s a well-known fact, we know by now, that among the top-ranked duelists, the ones who triumph are those who care for their cards and put their hearts into the game. It really made me wonder where our familiar faces are when the next generation of duelists is being taught by creepazoids like this. Surely these promising students should be taught by the best duelists who will teach? How did they get stuck with Crowler?
On the other hand, Crowler seems to really care that the school be rid of “talentless flunkies,” enough to duel Jaden personally. In this sense, it seems, he is, under the scariness, devoted to the Academy. Of course, this could have been just to vent frustration over his boss, Chancellor, um, Sheppard. He doesn’t seem to much like Sheppard.
One must wonder how he became a teacher, the main teacher it seems, dueling like that.

Alexis, the Academy girl student in the blue- She seems nice enough. Don’t know much about her yet.

Zane, Alexis’ friend- Seems like kind of a dork. Don’t know much about him, but seems like a snob. I note he didn’t seem too happy when Alexis praised Jaden’s talent.

Chazz Princeton- To give some idea, he has a couple dumb cronies with him. He seems like a bully. No, scratch that: it’s screamed in our ear, RIVAL ALERT! He says that he and his pals are so much more ready for the Duel Academy, and those losers will find out the hard way what they’ve gotten themselves into- the Chazz Princeton way! He called Bastion lousy, though, so I don’t think he’s a very good judge of his opponents. He’ll find soon enough, to his annoyance, that these guys are no pushovers. He seems to be a fan of Crowler- he looked livid when Jaden beat Crowler, and said there’s no way a rookie could have beaten Crowler. Come to think of it, that’s something he has in common- besides the hair- with Zane; they’re both elitist snobs and they both think Crowler’s cool. Chazz just wishes Crowler treated the other second-rate duelists (déjà vu: we’ve heard this term used quite a bit before! A connection?) this way.”
Man, at some of those sentences I laughed out loud! We’ve come so far in just a year!

Okay, tomorrow’s episode (sorry for the mixup yesterday, by the way) is Source of Strength! Whose? What is it? Is it good strength or is it evil strength? We shall see! Good night! -Clio