Predictions and Observations:
Generation neXt

Hang on—how on Earth are there any Ras left in the school? Magnetic Personality showed, entirely and completely, that Bastion was all that was left of Ra and then he lost. No more Ras should be anywhere in the school. No Obelisks, either, except for a couple we know, so who the heck was that dueling Bastion? I notice, also, that Atticus, Jasmine, and Mindy, sitting behind Jaden and pals during the tournament’s announcement, are still Obelisks, not Light-heads.

Apparently Crowler’s a fondue aficionado.

Professionals, did they say? Who? I can think of a few…dozen…Yugi? Kaiba? Joey? Mai? Mako? Espa? Leon? Rebecca? Bakura (now evil-spirit-free!)? Grandpa Moto? Prof. Hawkins? Duke? Vivian Wong and the rest of the KCGC weirdoes? Weevil? Rex? Bonz, Syd, and Zigor? The Paradox Brothers? And not pros, what about North Academy, Blair, Alister, Rafael, Valon, the Ishtar sibs…

You’d think people would know by now that Syrus is no pushover. What about that duel with Missy (Duel Academy’s own Weevil) back at beginning of the year?

Weren’t that guy’s cards familiar? Yup, I was right—we’ve seen that move before! Syrus’ opponent made the exact same play as the DuelTek computer in the KaibaDome, back at the start of KCGC: he sacrificed Berserk Gorilla to summon Jinzo. For one thing, it’s the start of the next big tournament, and for another, perhaps, it draws a subtle parallel between Syrus and Yugi. I’ve noticed before that they have similar-shaped eyes. Syrus is going to *need* to be about as good as Yugi, in order to duel some sense into that brother of his. Because I just *know* it’s going to be Sy who duels him. After all this tension building up? Count on it! It’s gonna be Sy!

The prince guy… what was his name again? Prince Ojin (OH-jinn), Sartorius called him? How does he know Sartorius, or perhaps how does Sartorius know him? It’s fair to say that they *had* met beforehand. He’s a monarch of the Misgarth/Mizgarth (etc..) Kingdom, which doesn’t actually exist (unlike California or Death Valley or India…), which is a small monarchy that just launched a mysterious satellite into orbit. This argues that the Mizgarth Kingdom is either very powerful (unlikely, considering it’s the *small* Kingdom of Mizgarth), very crafty, or some combination. Thinking in terms of world diplomacy, such things as launching satellites are very tetchy business; if a more powerful country thinks there’s a chance you could use it to harm it, it’ll shoot it out of the sky and bomb you or something. It’s safe to say the world knows and that the satellite’s purpose is an issue. I’m surprised it ever got into orbit. *sigh*. It’s a plot device, I suppose; deal with it.

I love how Sheppard dealt with Sartorius. Little seems to scare him these days- not either of the Bad Guys of the Semester, which I’m sorry to say Zane probably qualifies for at this point. I think, along with the majority of sane Duel Academy (that is to say, what’s left of it), that with Sheppard back, things are looking up. What *does* Sheppard think of the White Dorm, though? If he’s worried or fazed at all, he’s not showing it. He even comments about it when he addresses the students.

Couple things bugged me about Bastion’s dueling style; for one, Bastion had Water Dragon on the field and sacrificed it, when he could have destroyed all of his opponent’s monsters with it! Why else would a lava-covered battleground have powered them up, if not because they’re fire-whathaveyou and thus Bastion’s Water Dragon could destroy them automatically like he did in Formula for Success? Then he summoned Litmus Doom Swordsman and then sacrificed him almost immediately to summon something else—why summon him in the first place, then?

So what happened—Crowler promoted himSELF? Is that why he was so nervous? Because to me it would seem that if Sheppard came back, they wouldn’t be worried: “Hi, Sheppard! What brings you back to the school that you used to run but now I run it instead?” No harm done. Did Sheppard just wander off at the end of the year? Where’s Kaiba and why isn’t and wasn’t he stepping in on any of this? Since Sheppard would have had to ask the owner of the school if he could host a tournament there, and that’s Kaiba, who’s also a pro duelist, and Sheppard said he invited every one of the pro duelists he met, does that mean that Kaiba’s in the tournament by definition?

Okay, so the tournament rules—a good thing to have on hand
- The medals are Gx’s answer to locator cards or star chips, and each duelist starts with one. No duelist may enter or duel without one.
- Duelists wager their entire collections of medals to win others’ entire collections, making it a one-loss-and-you’re-out tournament.
- Duelists must accept their first challenge (ever, or each day?)
- You must duel at least once per day
- We don’t know the prize, nor has it been mentioned at all, except to say that last time it was a kiss from Ms. Dorothy!
Since every single competitor must duel once per day (that’s going to be mighty hard to enforce, unless they’ve got tabs on the duel disks, which could work…), it’s logical that by the end of the first day of the tournament about half the students will be eliminated. If those pros don’t arrive soon, poor Jaden’s going to have to settle for challenging a student or be disqualified. Come on, Jaden! Take on a Light-head or twenty! Make ‘em wager the White Dorm! Get ‘em back to normal! Lol. It’s not going to be that simple, and I know it. *sigh*.

“…Because I truly believe that you are as good as they (some of the most talented duelists in the world) are.” Is it any wonder Sheppard’s such a popular Chancellor and a good teacher with faith like this in his students? Rock on, dude!

Why did Sartorius seem so depressed right there when the White Dorm was gathered and he was playing piano? It might have to do with the tournament and it might not.

Confidence, Sy—you DO duel big, and you have for a long time now!

By the way, does Sy always read the news, or is there perhaps a reason he’s been especially tuned into the events of the outside world (like, say, the pro league?)?

What the heck did Sartorius do to Jaden right there? He froze him in place or something, and from the look on Jaden’s face, it wasn’t too pleasant a feeling. I didn’t know he could do that, I don’t think!

Who’s commissioner of this darn tournament? Jaden’s claim to duel the Prince was valid, and there’s got to be someone who enforces these things! KaibaCorp owns duel Academy— step in, Mokuba, and show ‘em how it’s done!

Hey, look! It’s another familiar card from KCGC! Hi, Goddess Skuld! Mischief of the Time Goddess was played a couple times (Zigfried played it, then Kaiba “borrowed” it and played it right back, I think) in the One Step Ahead duel.

Sartorius has mind control technology?!?! This is too darn easy! Unless he’s no great shakes with technology (flashy…blinky…lights…), the only people left with minds will be, say, Jaden (because he’s the hero and because it’s not like anything *else* has a chance at his mind with the Neo-space doing its thing so why would this), Joey (because his mind is incredibly resistant to control of any kind; I love to ramble about this), and… uh… Hassleberry (dino DNA), Zane (he’s already lost his mind…)… um… that’s about everyone *I* can think of. The Millennium Items might have helped guard against this, but, well… Though experience with shadow games, which require a strong mind, might offer some protection, adding most of the Battle City finalists (not Bakura because he wasn’t himself; possibly Mai, if it taught her how to withstand it in addition to nearly destroying her mind, body, and soul), Pegasus… yeah. It’s a bad scenario, but the main thing I’m wondering is, how is this not going to be a ridiculously simple almost-victory for the bad guys?

Nobody’s been attacked from orbit since Noah’s Virtual World, and then it was plausible! How on Earth do they make holoprojectors *do* that?!

Ace of Sword is:
Upright: Beginning of a victory, ability to love and hate with ardor, a valiant leader may be born
Reverse: Caution when trying to use power to gain an ending, obstacles, tyranny
--- http://www.themysticeye.com/info/tarotcardm.htm
When stopped upright, this allowed Sartorius to pick a monster on Prince Ojin’s side of the field and make him lose points equal to its attack—a “beginning of a victory” indeed, and the end of one, too!

Nice win, Sartorius—leave it to Jaden to pep-talk the bad guy!

That redhead in Prince Ojin’s entourage, the one carrying the suitcase—she seems to have something left unsaid about her, namely why she felt more strongly about protecting the satellite and doing the smart thing than about obeying the prince, when most entourages wouldn’t really care. Will we see more of her?

I’m thinking, for terminology’s sake, of calling the show GX and this tournament Gx when referring to them in shorthand. A heads-up for people who like to understand what on Earth I’m talking about.

THE DUELIST KINGDOM SECTION: Duel With a Ghoul and Give Up the Ghost
That was very interesting. Last time I saw these, I was new to the series and three years younger, but now that I actually understand what’s going on, I have a lot to say. The thing that strikes me most at the moment is that both of the Kaiba brothers gain some understanding of the Heart through this and show it, unquestionably. This is, without a doubt, one of the most concrete and undeniable times the Heart shows itself as more than a philosophy. Mokuba gradually came to be more and more on Yugi’s side, first because Yugi refused to believe that Kaiba was dead, no matter how much evidence was given. Mokuba came to believe in the Heart because to do so in that case would be to believe that his brother was still alive. He believed, whatever the reason, and it came true. This contributes in a large way to the respect and admiration Mokuba tends to show for Yugi in later episodes (Legendary Heroes I, in which when Mokuba’s in trouble, he turns to Yugi and his friends, and ESP Duelist I or II, in which Mokuba, trying to decide what to do about the Roba Brothers, realizes that Yugi, standing on a nearby rooftop, would have seen exactly what was going on, and decides to give the Roba bros. a second chance, because he knows that Yugi would do the same, come presently to mind). To Mokuba, it seemed that Yugi did the impossible, and to have someone like that so sure that Kaiba was alive gave Mokuba hope. Yugi, inwardly, wasn’t quite as confident, and I think that’s because he’s shown in the past that he can sense Kaiba (he knew Mokuba was somehow connected to Kaiba even before he knew who he was dueling), and the “impostor”, in a certain way, *is* technically a part of Kaiba, or was. I also found myself wondering how this connection between Yugi and Kaiba came to be; was it always there, because of destiny and all? Can Atem sense other people like this, too (he knew Pegasus was watching…)? Did it occur because when Atem opened Kaiba’s mind this connection was forged between them? I was also struck a lot by people’s motives in this episode, perhaps because those who usually would have rooted against Yugi, like Kaiba and Mokuba, were praying the most for his victory. This led Kaiba to intimate how much Yugi had impressed him, like when he insisted that Yugi was undefeatable. Kaiba couldn’t entirely trust Yugi to win, which is why he interfered, but then, he could afford no risks. What’s interesting is that later in Duelist Kingdom, Kaiba *must* trust Yugi, completely and entirely, namely when he backs to the edge of the tower, relying on Yugi’s not being able to attack him. Mokuba cheered for Yugi because Yugi’s victory would not only rescue him, but would be a blow against someone who not only pretended to be his brother, but also promised KaibaCorp to Pegasus, and insisted that Kaiba was dead. Joey, Tristan, and Tea took Mokuba’s side because Yugi did, and because they were on the same side now; they had no reason, really, to believe whether or not the Kaiba Yugi dueled was false, except that Yugi and Mokuba believed it. Another thing (*this* is getting lengthy, isn’t it!) we saw in this episode is a very different side of Kaiba. To me it seems almost like the two of us share that affinity with computers that lets programming and so forth become almost meditative. I’m a musical theater actress, and my head never stops playing with songs, except when I work on my web site (http://205.155.30.76/~webdesign/s12/index.html-- come see it! It’s rocking more and more every day!), or play video games, or even type. It’s a different medium from the rest of life, and requires a different state of mind. We saw Kaiba, for the first and one of the last times, in that state of mind, unconcerned about intimidating or impressing anyone, almost at his ease, only focused on what needed to be done, which, as long as you can figure out how to do it, and he did, is actually fun. I’d also like to observe that, unless Pegasus’ lackeys are bad with spelling names, the canon spelling, on Kaiba’s computer screen, was “Yugi Muto.” Hmph. I also noticed that this duel is a better parallel to the Name of the Game duel by a mile than Clash in the Coliseum! Right when Blue-Eyes was about to destroy Yugi at the false Kaiba’s command, the real Kaiba stopped it, just like when the same thing happened in the Ancient Past. It’s Blue-Eyes vs. Dark Magician, and the impostor, though an impostor, was also the person it claimed to be. Perhaps *this* was the actual parallel to the Tablet duel. This was the first time “Previously on Yu-Gi-Oh!…” was done the way we’ve become accustomed to (Duel With a Ghoul). I also noticed that the satellite was set to crash in California, somewhere along the coastline, I think, north of L.A. and south of San Francisco. That tallies with the location in Déjà Duel and My Freaky Valentine, and even explains how they manage to drive all the way to Death Valley in an afternoon. I had been imagining it as just about due east of San Francisco, roundabout Sacramento, but this makes more sense. It would also put Industrial Illusions right in my neck of the woods, even within an easy drive of where I live, which is hardly surprising, because this area is beautiful and prime real estate, and it’s not like Pegasus wouldn’t have the cash… This was the first time “Summon the Dragon” was played in the series. What did Yugi mean when he said that if anti-Kaiba attacked the right hat, he’d lose a lot more than the duel? Mokuba would be a prisoner, as per the stakes, but what else? Did he just mean that he will have let Kaiba down when Mokuba needed him most?

Next Week: Rah, Rah, Ra!, along with Duelist Kingdom’s The Dueling Monkey and Trial By Red-Eyes! What Ra? Where? Didn’t it get, oh, I don’t know, entirely dismantled by the White Dorm? They must be conjugating the imperfect subjunctive, though I didn’t know Duel Academy taught advanced Spanish. Well, I hope that this means people are returning to the Ra Dorm, as in *leaving* the White Dorm… ‘Til then! -Clio