Predictions and Observations:
The Art of the Duel

Jaden seems to be having real trouble finding opponents. That's probably one of the reasons Sheppard arranged this tournament to begin with; students like Jaden need a challenge, and few other students want to try their luck against the best duelists in the school. But where are the *real* pros? Where are the true duelists who want a challenge as much as Jaden does? Come on! This tournament can't be entirely pointless! So far, even KCGC had more to say for itself, and people often call *that* one the useless tournament!

The only Broadway-actor-turned-duelist in the world, huh? What about Vivian Wong? Maybe she acted in movies? Either way, she's been introduced as a "supermodel-turned-actress-turned-kung-fu-master-turned-duelist". Interestingly enough, she, Jean-Claude Magnum, and this guy Orlando all have something in common: they all duel with ninjas, samurai, and the like. Kind of a strange similarity, really, but I suppose it has to do with Japanese culture; it would be the equivalent of famous American actors dueling with cowboys, or pilgrims, or other trademarks of our history which they might commonly portray, which is somewhat plausible.

This guy in full costume and face paint starts raving at him, and Jaden exclaims, "I gotta duel this guy!" Jaden apparently follows the same rules Joey does for dueling: 1, never refuse a challenge, and 2, seek out weird, crazy opponents (paraphrased; man, I'd like a closer look at that episode...sigh...)!

"If you spend the whole duel worrying about the end, you miss all the fun!" That's a great way to put it! That definitely goes in the Great Log of Jadenisms that will someday be started, possibly even by me. Moreover, Kaibaman's lesson to him stuck, and stuck well, and we probably don't have to worry about Jaden freaking out over the stakes too much for quite a while. Which is good; that was one of the major things, it seems to me, that led to Zane's downfall.

Crowler and Bonaparte have a blog?

In order to take the stage, a monster must be in attack mode; that has a certain truth to it. It's like dueling: if you challenge someone, you have to put yourself out there, not cower. It's the same when you walk onto stage; stand proud and do it all the way, it's not like you have much to fear until after the fact, or go home.

Duelist on the Roof and Deck Side Story. Takeoffs, obviously, on Fiddler on the Roof and West Side Story, and I have to wonder if he's just joking around or if the dueling world has these musicals; if so, if I were there, I'd be right there in line; for those, and Dark Magician Girl the Musical (remember that dream Tea had...?)!

Shizuka the Heavenly Dancer: "Shizuka", if memory serves, is Serenity's Japanese name.

"I guess the secret of my success is... not thinking." Interesting, that. Zane said much the same thing last year (Tag Team Trial), or at least, Syrus imagined him as saying that, when he asked what the difference was between using a card and playing it: "It takes a moment of pure clarity, when you see dueling on a different level; a higher level. All the angles, all the moves. You won't think ; you'll just act." I think he may have been talking about the same thing; in fact, I'd bet on it. And I agree, for my own experiences performing: if you think too much about what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong, you'll do way worse. That's why I practice so extensively: when I get onstage, that material had *better* be as natural as breathing, because I won't have time to think about it!

"Recite your final lines!" That's the acting version of using your cards instead of playing them. "Recite"? At your level? *Please*, Orlando, catch up with "amateurs" like me or shut up!

Art *is* fun! And fun is art! If you have fun and do your best, your audience will know. For example, I was recently in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a nonstop action rock-opera set in the ancient Middle East that nevertheless has a western number, an Elvis number, a French number, and a calypso number, and can easily be played with a huge cast and only a few girls, which we did with about a dozen actors, only two of them male, and me, at the ripe old age of fifteen and a half, as the oldest there other than our directors. We performed on a dinky, rickety stage made with plastic extensions that only had one way into the green room: right through the center of the back wall. Our sound equipment was pathetic at best, and I sang most of the time entirely unmiked. We performed with music from a CD that reminded me of some guy in a basement with a sound synthesizer. There were no vocal harmonies, and very little choreography at all. Despite all this, the show was not even remotely a disappointment, and I wished it would never end. What our cast lacked in professionalism or spiffiness, we made up for in spirit and determination. Every single one of us was out there giving our all, I knew it, and our audience did, too. We had quite a packed house both nights, and everyone I talked to considered it a wonderful performance.

It's very interesting that this should surface at this point, with my two different plays about to perform. I wanted to take a moment to talk about the Heart of the Stage, which I do believe in; I'm not really sure if I believe it because I've been a Yu-Gi-Oh! fan for so long, or if it's the other way around. The hearts of everyone in the cast, and crew, and orchestra if there is one, and audience, and their interacting dynamic, make the show, just as one's own heart, one's opponent's, one's cards', and the spectators' hearts guide a duel. I care about any stage I've performed on as much as a duelist might value his or her cards; it breaks my heart that I heard they may tear down the stage at my middle school, where I really discovered theater, and where people had been performing since the dawn of time, just about. There are so many warrens and hideaways beneath the stage, and four or five or six different ways to enter it. I can close my eyes and remember how it looked when we prepared backstage before a show, me applying my makeup by the light of the last beam of sunlight somehow managing to shine in through the curtain. I can remember the ever-present whispering behind the main curtain, the constant shushing, and everyone sneaking forbidden peaks through said curtain. I can also remember the bright sunny mornings of Bugsy Malone, in which everyone would sit around eating licorice ropes and popcorn, and playing through the show CD, in which every single song had enthusiastic singers-along from all over the room, taking the stage as they pleased, often with a few other people jumping up as backup. Stage is not the stereotyped, melodramatic thing that frauds like Orlando make it seem. It's about teamwork, a common goal, and learning new skills. I do my best to perform with honor, supporting my cast-mates and putting my faith in them to do the same, and doing everything in my power to give our audience the show they came for!

Evil Spirit of the Ring-

"-Leave the young one out of this!
-Why should I? By simply destroying him, I defeat you as well! You're here to guide and protect him?!"
"A lesson your Little Yugi won't soon forget!"
These lines, along with Pegasus' line at the beginning of Match of the Millennium V, make it seem likely to me that before the whole deal with the Ancient Past was revealed, Atem, who would have woken up having no clue whatsoever where he was or what was going on, had taken it upon himself to help and guide Yugi, who definitely would have seemed to need it at the time, considering Tea's flashback at the beginning of Face Off I (Burgerpalooza and the mugger), plenty of other stuff that seems to have happened back then (I glanced at it, it's strange and confusing and not canon, so I left it alone), and the events early in the series, such as the duel with Kaiba (Yugi had reason to be on his guard; dueling Kaiba had left grandpa needing medical attention) and Pegasus' taking them to the shadow realm for the timed match. He may not have even known his own name, but Atem wouldn't have been one to stand idly by when someone needed his help, or when there was a duel to be won.

One of my favorite things to babble about and discuss with myself is the Change of Heart and why Bakura said that he relates most to it. I have to wonder if he was giving them a warning that the Spirit of the Ring wouldn't pick up; Yugi and Joey are duelists' why weren't they more suspicious when he picked a card that turns friends into foes? Indeed, I think Bakura relates most to that card, because if life were a duel, he would be constantly under its effect. Yugi and the others are his friends, but thanks to Yami Bakura, he has to keep doing nasty things to them.

"You want my help, you got my help!"- Joey may have no idea what's going on, but if Yugi needs his help, that's enough for him!

I can't help but remember the last time Atem and Yami Bakura faced off over a game board... I wonder if the Powers That Write knew where the characters introduced here would end up...? After all, this episode introduced the concept of Millennium Item spirits; it had been seen before that Yugi...changed...before a duel, and I can only imagine what wild and crazy speculation there must have been back then, but this is the first time that the circumstances prove that there are two Yugis, when one is on the field and the other is dueling.

Like the Reaper of the Cards posed a threat to Zorc...? I couldn't believe it when Yami Bakura screamed there at the end, and that's what makes me think that Yami Bakura was originally meant to be a short-term villain, and the Powers That Write Yu-Gi-Oh! didn't originally mean him to end up being one in the same with the creature who created the Shadow Realm itself. Then again, Yami Bakura found his way back from the Shadow Realm quickly enough even back then...back now..whatever!

The Light at the End of the Tunnel-

I always find it interesting and very telling about Joey that he almost attacks Panik for pushing a girl (namely Mai), finding that inexcusable.

Both Yugi *and* Kaiba have a thing against bullies. Yugi says here that he's dealt with a lot of bullies, which is entirely believable considering how short he is for his age, not to mention how intelligent. And we've seen him deal with bullies before, both when Joey and Tristan were bugging him, and when some other bully decided to beat Joey and Tristan to a pulp. I'd imagine Kaiba dislikes bullies (I'm reminded of when he took on Zorc for that reason, lol) because Mokuba had his fair share and his big brother had to defend him, and also because of Kaiba's experiences with Gozaburo and the Big Five.

Pegasus promised a reward for eliminating Yugi. That's very strange, as are several other moves Pegasus has made so far, come to think about it. On the one hand, Pegasus quite clearly has his own motives for bringing Yugi there, which include his takeover of KaibaCorp and getting Yugi's Millennium Puzzle. However, for him to achieve those motives, he himself must face Yugi in a duel and win. However, it was also mentioned at a couple points during the Playoffs that Pegasus had another goal: when Kaiba challenges him for Mokuba's soul in Champion vs. Creator I, a pleased Pegasus notes to himself that so far Yugi has passed all of the tests he's been presented with. To leave so much up to Yugi argues that despite Pegasus' role of villain and plans to defeat Yugi, Pegasus has a huge amount of faith in Yugi's ability, and even wants to help it grow more: why else, believing as he obviously did that Yugi would overcome any obstacle Pegasus decided to throw at him, from insecure eliminators with flamethrowers to inflatable boulders, would Pegasus have bothered, if not to help Yugi grow even more as a duelist? Also in the Playoffs, in Match of the Millennium III, Pegasus mentions that Yugi has learned to use his Millennium Puzzle, which was exactly what Pegasus planned, because he aims to take it!
Come to think of it, has there ever been another instance where the wielder of a Millennium Item didn't know how to use it? For all we know, in that situation, the Millennium Item in question *can't* be won until the person who owns it knows what it is they wield. That would certainly give Pegasus a reason to send impossible obstacles against Yugi, in the hopes that it will put him under enough pressure to learn to consciously tap into the Puzzle's power. However, this doesn't tally with Yami Bakura's attempt in Trial By Red-Eyes and Evil Spirit of the Ring, unless either Yami Bakura was unaware of this relatively obscure requirement (unlikely), the rule doesn't apply when the wielder is Shadow-Realmmed or otherwise permanently taken out of action, or Yami Bakura was planning something else.

"Bye bye, birdies!" Panik said when he beat Mai. What *is* it with punning musicals this week?!

The shadows are really nicely drawn in this episode. I've been admiring them.

"True duelists fight with honor and respect, not the underhanded tactics of a poacher!" Slam! And as well-said as a Jadenism, too!

I've remarked on it before, and I will again; Yugi is once more completely astonishing Mai, doing what she considers the impossible. This is another major incident that figures in her learning to duel from the heart.

What about Dark Magician? Wouldn't he get an f.p.b. for being played at night? He'd have enough points to take out the Castle!

There was some Summon the Dragon in here, mostly right around what, in the abbreviated, would have been the song cue.

This duel is one of my favorite examples of absolute, all-out psychological warfare as a crucial element of dueling! It's like Mai says next episode: "Psychology is half the game!" I don't think there *is* a better example, in fact, aside from Pegasus' entire management of the proceedings, especially against the Kaiba brothers.

I think that's about it. Good luck to everyone else going back to school tomorrow (personally, the only thing I'm looking forward to is updating my website...), or any other time for that matter. Next week's episodes are as follows: Duelist Kingdom's Winning Through Intimidation and The Scars of Defeat, and GX's new Blinded By the Light I! D'ya think the Society's about to re-enter the plot again, mind-control satellite and all? Nah! That's all, folks! -Clio