Predictions and Observations:
J-Dawg and T-Bone

Were those virtua-pods?! They sure looked like it to *me*! Wouldn’t put it past the bad guys to do that—Jaden has to go into a virtual world filled with unknown perils to get them back!

I recall that Frost and Thunder played those Monarch monsters; apparently each of them had one that matched his element. When Blaze was “mirrored”, his Monarch card ended up in T-Bone’s deck, and when T-Bone saw it, he thought of Blaze. Moreover, he also had Frost’s and Thunder’s Monarch cards in his deck, so he sort of represented his fallen comrades. I wonder if the four of them weren’t somehow duel spirits themselves, sort of, or had some mystical connection to their respective Monarch cards?

“Does he possess the same spirit as Yugi?” Jaden? I think that Yugi would definitely find a kindred spirit and a good friend in Jaden, and that they feel similarly about several things, such as what dueling is really all about.

Poor Atticus… He really cares about Lex, but she doesn’t notice anymore. This Light-magic is heavy-duty; you barely notice that something’s wrong aside from the fact that they’re acting strange and dressing in all white, and so far every attempt to wake them up has met with failure. They’ve even seen their friends be in some danger without batting an eye. This is serious.

*There’s* the rest of the Slifer dorm! Now if only we can find Jasmine, Mindy, and a Ra or two, we’ll be in business! Perhaps they came by a different boat? Then again, imagining Jaden, Syrus, Hassleberry, Bastion, Aster, Crowler, Bonaparte, and the entire White Dorm crammed onto one boat, which they’d have to be for this theory to fly, I’d have to doubt whether they’d so much as manage to leave the harbor without some sort of war breaking out.

One similarity between rare hunters and element boys—a single defeat and it’s adios! So far none of the element boys have been anything more than throwaway opponents, one-episode wonders.

Forget Sartorius—worry about Serena!
Or Sarina? It matches (same three letters…). Yeah, actually I like that spelling better, because it relates the two in more than their extremely creepy eyes.

Jaden can talk to anyone, was the thought that occurred to me. He’s never afraid to say what needs to be said and makes friends even with the person he’s dueling with for his friends’ fate, his own fate, and against his opponent’s soul. The stakes could barely be higher, and yet Jaden did his best to make friends with T-Bone, to support him and help him short of doing anything that would be letting him win. Jaden loves to duel, and loves it when his opponents are enjoying the duel too! Half the fun is helping people and making new friends.
Come to think of it, that may be some of what grandpa meant. It just came to me one day that if someone were to ask Yugi what the best part of being the champion is, I’m almost sure he would say that it’s making new friends, because as the champion so many people would seek him out, and he would get to meet them all.
I believe it was Chazz who said once, “leave it to Jaden to pep-talk the bad guy!”

It’s so funny- I almost decided to use a slang dictionary to decipher what was said half the time, but this post would’ve never gone out! I confess that I’m not much with the rap culture, but whatevs-- I like duel slang better!

The parallels keep coming! There aren’t as decisive parallels drawn (for all I know I’m hallucinating all these parallels), but there are some. For instance, just like Yugi before him, during this duel Jaden learned that his friends were being targeted. Before he heard it here, they could’ve been lost around town or something, but he actually discovered here that they were being captured and used as bait to ensnare him. Also, there was someone watching, almost detached but not quite, from the hillside above: Aster. That I found interesting, because that saw him stepping symbolistically into Kaiba’s shoes. I think that that fits somewhat, because I think that Aster is actually starting to care about Jaden, and really doesn’t want to admit it! Moreover, he’s finding himself in the same boat with Jaden, as Kaiba did shortly before Double Duel (it’s going backward and forward, all at once!), because he’s been told to come to Kaibaland, too. Moreover, another relation between Thunder and Frost and Lumis and Umbra is that one survived the duel (as in was conscious at the end of it)—Frost and Lumis—and one did not—Thunder and Umbra. However their master (Sarina or Marik) ended up destroying the one that survived anyway because they had failed her/him.

T-Bone reminded me of Lorenzo in that just when they had decided to be friends with Jaden the bad guy (Sarina or her brother, respectively) wiped ‘em out, and so much for that.

So, uh, why is Chazz there again? I had been wondering, before he said he had been sent to bring Sarina, if Sartorius had sent him there to learn from her how to put the power Sartorius sought him out for to use, and control monster spirits. After, all, calling up that storm she sure could!

It seems that as tarot cards are Sartorius’ medium of destiny-telling, Sarina scrys. Scrying is when a mage/sorcerer/ess/whathaveyou employs power to see images in a mirror, bowl of water, or anything reflective (isn’t it lucky I read so many fantasy books?). In this case, the Mirror of Duality is Sarina’s scrying tool. She was watching the duel through a mirror. As the Wheel of Fate has come to be seen as Sartorius’ symbol, the card that represents his plot, that represents when he’s exercising power, the Mirror or other mirrors appeared when Sarina was employing her magic, such as when she took out Thunder, Frost, Blaze, and eventually T-Bone, and when she spoke to Jaden, Aster, and the others at the end and a bunch of mirrors appeared in midair.

When Sarina said “such a waste of power,” I think she was referring to the fact that T-Bone and Blaze just made their exit using their powers rather than walking or anything. Once they lie defeated, she’ll claim their power (like she has), and put it to good use!

Looks like Grandpa’s still looking for his bandanna. He found one quick enough in the world of Capsule Monsters where he couldn’t possibly have, and yet not here where he ran and got a basketload of burgers for hungry Slifers but couldn’t even stop by the game shop and grab one? It’s nitpicky, but it bugs me. I think that, specifically when we’ve rarely seen him with his hair out before it’s meant to signal that we’re not in Kansas anymore, as it were; this is Domino, but this is GX-era Domino. It’s very different.

“Chin up—so your friends got captured by an evil psychopath who’s plotting world domination. Not to worry—that happened to me several times!” This guy raised *Yugi*-- he’s no stranger to this sort of thing, and he’s ready to help! Dueling on an empty stomach is nobody’s friend (especially not Jaden’s, at least when he’s not entirely revved up) and I doubt Jaden would have bothered to eat unless someone offered him food; he had other things on his mind.

“It’s quite competitive, you know. Yugi thought so too! Y’know what he used to say? I forget, but the point is he liked it!” Interesting. This is the first we’ve heard of Yugi’s opinion regarding Duel Academy, or anything connecting the two at all. So why did Yugi approve of the competitive and difficult testing? This would also sort of include the Dorm system. Why would Yugi approve of something that is so divisive, that puts up so many barriers between students? Is it because the true duelists among them wouldn’t give a hoot, and would duel anyone from any Dorm, and maybe some other students would get a clue? But it makes no sense—why so much dividing, when “great duels spark great and lasting friendships, because the cards are about heart”? But maybe that’s just it—the essence of dueling as it’s known in the Yugiohverse is that it’s very competitive, but yet while supposedly dividing two opponents it brings them together, because both enjoy the conflict and revel in matching wits, hearts, and wills. Similarly, the three Dorms, like their namesakes, are in constant conflict, but together they complete the school. In a school of duelists, it’s actually part of the fun to banter, bicker, and, well, duel. Maybe that explains it. And as for the entrance exams, the fierce competition for admittance not only raises the stakes to the point that it’s a great duel, win or lose. I suppose that’s a way Yugi would approve of the constant conflict, competition, and elitism at Duel Academy.

Homunculus, homunculus… I know that word… Ah, yes:
“ What does homunculus mean? Earlier Banner played Golden Homunculus, and now homunculus seems to be synonymous with clone. But here’s the definition paraphrased from Dictionary.com:
Homunculus(n): pl. “homunculi”- a miniature, but otherwise entirely formed, human being” –Predictions, Amnael’s Endgame II

For some reason sometimes T-Bone reminded me slightly of Mad Dog. Maybe it was just the grammar.

“Don’t you want to duel with your *own* power? Because otherwise what’s the point? You’ll never know how good you really are. Dueling’s about thinking on your feet and trusting yourself. But when you start relying on someone else to help you win, well guess what: forget the scoreboard—because you’ve already lost! Whenever *I* duel, it’s for *real*, T-Bone!” (Grandpa: “That’s exactly what Yugi would say!”) Yeah, I’d say that Yugi would certainly agree with that, and (though maybe not in those exact words) that he and Jaden have very similar views of what dueling means, and grandpa shares most of those views too; Yugi learned about the Heart from *him*.

That’s *Flare* Scarab, folks, not *Flame*! You’re the writers-- *please* get it right!

Gift of the Martyr. Depending on your interpretation of “Martyr”, that’s some interesting symbolism; T-Bone was the last of his friends, and as his four Monarchs show, his fallen comrades contributed to his strength with their loss. That’s one interpretation of a “gift of the martyr” on the other side of the field as well!

A fire attack finished T-Bone off, and Blaze was Mirrored at the beginning of the duel. Seems to kinda click, but I can’t quite place it.

Another Jadenism: “Sometimes losing a duel is the best way to win!”

Aster said “It’s her!” He’s met Sarina before.

Hang on—were the four elemental Monarchs the duel spirits guarding the city? I think they might have been!!

So, ‘fraid we’re in rerun land again (nooooooo…!). I’ll watch the listings carefully as always and let folks know when I know anything about the next new episode! In the meantime, my next load of predictions will be regarding Capsule Monsters’ Red-Eyes Black Curse! ‘Til then, that’s game! (see? Duel slang’s better!) –Clio