Predictions and Observations:
Rah! Rah! Ra!

Ah, remember Battle City, when being attacked by Obelisk left you mangled (Lumis and Umbra; they weren't wearing those masks when they challenged Yugi and Kaiba the first time in Legendary Fisherman I); being attacked by Slifer...well, actually Yugi was pretty careful who he used Slifer on, for good reason; and being attacked by Ra left you nine-tenths dead? Jaden withstood... what, three or four attacks from Ra? He wasn't even tired! I can only think that Ra itself spared Jaden, either because Jaden is a chosen duelist or because it wanted Jaden to win for obvious reasons; or that the less-powerful copy they kept was a LOT less powerful. I can actually believe both. In Battle City, I have a feeling that Ra could not spare anyone it attacked (Atem, who defended Joey and Mai in Mind Game III, would certainly have been spared if Ra could have done so, for one), because Marik was a valid wielder of the card; he could read the writing, he had the birthright, and so on. Therefore, it had to obey him and do its best, so to speak. Franz, however, although he somehow made Ra obey (more on that later), could not force Ra to do its best. Therefore, Ra chose to attack Jaden with as little power behind it as possible. It's also possible that that copy was weaker.

How could Franz read the writing? I guess everyone kinda knows the chant now, everyone who's seen Battle City or works on these cards. Back in the day, the only people who could say the chant were those who could read it themselves...

So the Egyptian God Cards were destroyed? But what about The King of Copycats I (Syrus:) "The deck's not going on tour with the Egyptian God Cards, but *will* have... all of the other favorites!" I had wondered, since they were in Atem's deck and Atem walked through the portal, if they were then removed from the face of the Earth, which might be what they meant, but I was thinking, "well, Yugi still has Dark Magician, of course...it's a plot device...deal with it...".

Why did Pegasus tell Jaden about some duel a long time ago in which someone was shadow-realmmed for using a false Egyptian God? Why not just tell about when that happened in Battle City? Both duelists struck by lightning... one, the one who played it, unconscious from then until toward the end of the last duel...

Of *course* Jaden knows about the Egyptian Gods! They *are* what the school Dorms are named after!

How on Earth would that silly card Franz made have *worked*?! The reason Ra will only work for certain people is ancient dark magic beyond modern comprehension, or just because that's what Ra's spirit chooses. How on Earth would a card made with paper and ink stand up to that?! If Ra couldn't overpower that card, you wouldn't need that in the first place because Ra would have to be summoned when its card is played. Since it can refuse to be summoned if the summoner is unworthy, none of the summoner's other cards are about to change that, unless they're as powerful as Ra! Either this guy's not your average card designer, or this is a ridiculous impossibility!

Then again, come to think of it, how would Industrial Illusions have made a less-powerful duplicate if Pegasus no longer had the Millennium Eye? If, in fact, there were no Millennium Items anymore, which there weren't? And if they tried to make any Egyptian God Cards, powerful or not, the Egyptian Gods would have taken offense and every Industrial Illusions employee who tried it would start seeing things and getting struck by lightning and stuff! Remember when Shadi told Yugi about the creation of the Egyptian God Cards, back in Battle City?

So it seems more likely than not that this is an absolute impossibility, so I guess it's a plot device and I should deal with it. Moving on.

Pegasus also saw Yugi in Jaden. Coincidence? Three guesses! That makes Grandpa, Pegasus… who next? Kaiba? Joey or Yugi's other friends? Someone else who knows him well who doesn't come to mind? For the record, Pegasus does know Yugi pretty well; they may not have been friends for a good portion of it, but even through that part, Pegasus' most fascinating characteristic as a villain, which I'll admit the Millennium Eye was to no small part responsible for, was that he understood those he manipulated very well.

Chumley's voice is a bit different, but other than that, it's pretty much the same old Chumley.

That was sure nice of Pegasus to give Franz his job back. He's come a ways too. I think that he looks for the right things in card designers and the cards they design; ingenuity, but mostly the Heart, which should be alive and well in the cards not just because duelists play them with heart but also because they're designed with heart. That's why Chumley's grilled cheese card went over far better than Franz's power card.

Aster's dad was a game designer. That was my first inclination, that this had something to do with him. Could it still? After all, Industrial Illusions' game designers have been brought into the 'focus' here; our attention has been called to that aspect of this whole thing.

Hang on, it's day 2 and Jaden hasn't dueled? Then he'd be disqualified! Then again, all he said was that nobody had challenged him yet; maybe he had to just walk up to someone and challenge them?

When Franz lost, three medals fell to the ground. This seemed a clear indicator that Jaden now has three medals, for crazies like me who keep track. However, the tournament was suspended at that point (because of all this), so does Jaden get to keep them?

The people in that flashback of Pegasus' to when someone played a false Egyptian God Card looked like rare hunters. Then again, a lot of shadow-realmmy folks have worn that sort of costume, including the chanting guys in the visions shown by the Millennium Necklace in The Past is Prologue.

Pegasus knows about monster spirits? I guess I shouldn't be TOO surprised...

Since I did this last time the chant was different (The Final Duel I), I have to note that this chant is the bare essentials, register my astonishment that it was enough to pass, and say that this guy summons Ra with even less reverence or flair than Yami Marik, if that's possible. Same words as Marik's chant, abbreviated, actually.

Why did Franz get a veiny face? I'd guess it was showing that he'd gone completely 'round the twist. The other veiny faces that come presently to mind are Yami Marik and, oddly enough, Professor Banner. I think that Franz' situation could be set down to totally-evil-psycho-crazy, like Yami Marik's, rather than worn-and-decrepit-thanks-to-a-weird-disease-and-so-on like Professor Banner.

Franz combined with Ra, like Yami Marik's done on a fair few occasions (but he didn't leave an eye on the field...), when he transferred his lifepoints to it, but when Jaden passed his lifepoints to Ra, he didn't. I guess it's a choice, and Jaden's respect for Ra was content in letting Ra strike the final attack on its own. In that move, it was implied that while Franz had coerced Ra to serve him, Jaden was determined to serve Ra instead. It's safe to say that Jaden's as starstruck as he was when facing Yugi's deck, and the comparison is actually quite fitting, considering that in both cases Jaden has to fight them to get them back from those to whom they do not rightfully belong.

"So as we used to say, it's your move!" Ouch! That came out of nowhere! If that hadn't come from the antagonist, I would be deeply wounded! For one, it asserted that the time of the past generation of duelists, Yugi's generation, was O-V-E-R, over. For another, I'm reminded of what Yugi said to Atem in The Final Duel IV, in fact the last thing he ever said to Atem: "Like we always say, it's your move!"

Not much to cover on The Dueling Monkey (by the way, I goofed in the reporting and we're down to one per week again. I freaked when I saw that only one recorded before I checked the listings and saw Trial By Red-Eyes on for next week!), maybe just because I'm very familiar with it. I vividly recall that this was the episode I tried to ep-guide from a DVD, which, by the way, bad idea; it can't rewind and fast-forward in small or precise enough increments to be worth much at all. I have my theories, which play a small role in the Great Duelist Kingdom Quiz, that Tristan was angry at Joey not only because he was being stupid (to Tristan's way of thinking) but because his stupidity was endangering Serenity, and it seems likely, considering that Joey and Tristan have been friends for a long, long time, that Tristan has already met Serenity at one time or another and the crush that becomes apparent in Battle City is well underway.
I'd also like to observe that this is the first episode that Tristan gets the voice we're most familiar with. According to my source (TV.com, which inspires me with its inadequacy, and isn't worth much as a source, but it's better than nothing) for the first ten episodes, he was voiced by Sam Regal, who also voiced Arkana in First Round Battle City and Rex in seasons 1-3, that is to say (I think), Duelist Kingdom and Battle City. We're more familiar with Frank Frankson, who voiced Tristan for the rest of the series, and Capsule Monsters, and who also voiced Tory from GX's A Spirit Summoned and Damon from GX's Nature of the Draw.
Joey seems to be in a weird mood during this episode. Maybe it's just me, but he seems really tense; might just be that Rex and Mai were getting to him in a major way.
Rex says that "even three-year-olds know better than to defend on their first move" in this episode, so whenever an expert has done that, it's caught my eye. Plenty of good duelists have defended on their first move, and often won. I think Rex was just trying to rattle Joey.
I believe that this episode is the only time Tristan calls Yugi "Yuge".
There aren't many episodes that have Tristan in the spotlight, but this is one of them.

That's all for now, folks. Next week is Trial By Red-Eyes and there is no GX, again. Eyes on the listings, and why must they continually torment us? I'll have to post separately if I want to post on Trial By Red-Eyes, meaning that I'll need to do a small overhaul on my site in the coming year. By the way, for those who have seen my site, I can't update it from home because I can only connect to the server and all that jazz at school, and since I didn't get a chance to post that bit of warning on my site I can at least post it here, and for those who haven't seen it yet, I've been working hard and, though there's still plenty to do, I'm very proud of it. Fell free to stop by anytime: http://205.155.30.76/~webdesign/s12/. That's it; Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! -Clio