Predictions and Observations:
Pro-Dueling

It’s another rhymer! And an even creepier one! For future reference this guy’s name is Mathmatica. My first inclination was that if Bastion weren’t evil and brainwashed at the moment, he and Mathmatica would probably get along famously; Bastion would actually have someone to talk attack point quantum mechanics and stuff with!

Oh, *that*’s fair! Even Crowler and Bonaparte deserve better! C’mon, Sheppard, we thought you were a nice guy!

Students who can beat professionals are few and far between. Sheppard should be proud that *some* of his pupils, only beginners as pro duelists go, are holding their own against seasoned champions! So what if most of them aren’t quite there yet?

What about alumni? I wonder how many of the pros that are making Duel Academy look bad are Duel Academy graduates? If it’s a good number, then what’s the matter? It just shows that Duel Academy students reach that level, but haven’t yet. This is a school; the people there are still learning, and Sheppard was right to start this tournament because it’s an amazing learning experience for his students.

Sartorius- too *dangerous*? What’s dangerous about mind-controlling the world, aside from the obvious danger to everyone else? What don’t we know? Meanwhile, I note that the Light’s hold on Sartorius is weakening some as well. Either that or it’s the first time we’ve gotten to hear any such thoughts.

The redhead who works for Prince Ojin—I *knew* we’d see her again! We still don’t know her name or anything about her, though, except that she’s truly loyal and has a good head on her shoulders; not just any flunky would put up a fight over something that was against her boss’s wellbeing, not to mention the world’s.

Hey, it’s Damon!! And Belowski!! And Jasmine and Mindy are actually doing something! But where, speaking of minor folks and one-episode-wonder cameos, are Blair, Briar, Beauregard, Harrison Rosewood, Tory and his loony friends who summon evil spirits with bath candles for fun, Chumley’s hot-sauce-crazy dad, Foster and the North Academy guys, Yazmin (someone remember to tell Atticus!! Come on!!), or the Admiral? And where, and in what guise, is Dimitri!?! We could all use a good laugh! Wheeler the Monkey, by the way, already got his once-a-year cameo: “Ya don’t get it, *do* you, slacker?! You’re losing your *mind*! Ah-ah-ah!! Well, what’s left of it anyway; enjoy the flashback, *loser*!!”

Elroy Prescott?? Him, the Maitre d’ (imagine the little up-arrow, shift-6, on top of the “i”; I didn’t even know how to spell or use that word before now-- nothing like a new episode to teach you a new word! It’s short, by the way, for maitre d’hotel (imagine a little up-arrow on the “o” also), which means literally “master of the hall”), and the math guy (Mathmatica) get added to *next* year’s list of obscure cameos!

“Back when I was a blue, it meant something!” Burn! Oh, and by the way, I think it may be fitting at this point in time to remember that Alexis originally challenged Chazz and lost to the society when she stepped up to defend her Dorm against being taken over. Perhaps it will be her loyalty to her Dorm and her classmates that ends up undoing the Society’s grip. That is, I believe, why she challenged the Maitre d’ in the first place—Jasmine and Mindy’s defeat gave the Maitre d’ cause to scorn their Dorm and even their gender. Alexis could also have been out to prove that girls can duel. Alexis called them a disgrace, but would not let it stand so even though she’s no longer part of Obelisk Blue; that argues that some part of her still is.

Is this wishful thinking on Chazz’s part, or is Alexis really fighting the Light’s sway? Part of her doesn’t want to play White Veil, he said, and I’d have to agree. Chazz would also know better than anyone what it’s like to be under the Light’s control, and what it looks like when someone starts to fight.

White Veil (Vale? Doubt it, but maybe…) is clearly a card that Sartorius gave her, and I think it may be Alexis’ equivalent of that card Chazz played against Alexis in their duel that turned his Armed Dragon white.

Well that was an interesting ep… For some reason, it seemed a bit surreal. Perhaps it’s because it’s uncommon for an episode to jump around between folks so much. Usually it focuses on one thing at a time, though I can think of notable exceptions.

A word about the Light’s power. At first I had thought that the Light was some of the most powerful stuff we’d yet discovered. However, seeing this, I’m beginning to think that it’s not more or less powerful than what we’ve seen in the past in the original (the Millennium Rod…), just different. It has some surprising strengths including invulnerability to most usual cures for mind control, such as doing things that normally you would struggle against, because your mind isn’t just subdued, it’s also tricked into thinking that it’s doing the right thing. Chazz wanted to bring Alexis into the white dorm at the time, for the same reason that he now wants to free her from it. However, this tricking has a fatal flaw, that it’s possible to see through it and weaken the grip substantially. Shadow magic, the way I see it, has more brute strength to it, gripping one’s mind tightly with power and essentially shutting it down mostly. It has a very strong hold, but the one controlled may begin to fight once they realize that they’re hurting someone or something they care about. The Light isn’t as powerful, but makes up for that in strategy, not shutting down the mind but fooling it into considering that which serves the Light’s purpose to be the right thing (and sometimes turning the person a bit loopy in the process), regardless of what other consequences such actions may have. Could Zane’s situation be similar? After all, he also genuinely thinks that he has found the right thing, the best thing to do. Cyber End Dragon, Sheppard, Atticus, all three would have been plenty to at least rock shadow-magic’s grip on him, if that was it. It’s possible that either more is needed or they’ll have to wait for the real Zane to go, “hey, wait a minute…”; Syrus’ chances of getting through to him through the usual mind-control cures (and if the others weren’t enough, Syrus sure would be!) are probably quite slim, however if he starts to come around in the middle of their duel, say, that could shake it loose entirely. He fell shortly after Chazz did, and since Chazz was the first to wake up with Alexis soon following, I think that it’s sort of a matter of a span of time because the Light folks are proceeding in order, so any day now, if my theory is right, hopefully Zane’ll start to come around. By the way, as for the Orichalcos, I believe it was similar, but also worked through trickery more than power; it would probably have helped that the stone provided most of the power and therefore the spell itself might not have had to be very strong.

Should’ve known that they’d balance the heavy-duty shadow-dueling from yesterday with some fluffier stuff today.

The title- in Japanese, it was "The Pride of Duel Academy" which I consider quite fitting, with Duel Academy’s reputation at stake, Alexis scorning her former friends’ defense of Obelisk Blue, and some of Duel Academy’s oddest, brightest students taking on some pros. I’m not sure about our title, though, aside from the fact that people duel pros.

DOUBLE TROUBLE DUEL II-III

“Movie event”—EXCUSE me?!?! I can’t have heard right. They couldn’t possibly be so shameless as to resort to something like THAT. “Watch it now because we’re never showing it again!” that’s really nice, guys—drop dead!

I’d meant to mention this before now, but I hadn’t noticed the last time I watched Duelist Kingdom that Kaiba and Mokuba canonly say that their parents died; seeing Battle City I was in some doubt. Nice to have that cleared up.

“You do know no one takes Pegasus by surprise? He probably already knows you’re here, somehow.” Gee, I wonder how? Foreshadowing, foreshadowing…

Atem senses something ancient and evil in the boxes? Just how common *are* the Trinity? There can’t be *too* many cards that have real, radar-registering power of their own!

Why wouldn’t anyone adopt Mokie? The way it was told, plenty of folks wanted to adopt Seto because he was so intelligent; Mokuba’s smart (sometimes smarter than his big brother), and a really nice kid—I could see plenty of people wanting to adopt him. I suppose it was more a matter of taking the both of them at once; adopting two kids is quite a big commitment!

Kaiba’s presence *wasn’t* in the plan?! What was this grand plan of Pegasus’? He only tells us what it wasn’t; he didn’t expect Kaiba to help Yugi against the impostor, and he wasn’t planning on Kaiba making it to Mokuba, though he tells Kaiba that he knew nothing could keep him from his brother for long. The only hint he gives as to what it *might* be is that he has plans for Kaiba’s technical knowledge, but I don’t remember anything occurring that would have made use of them.

Okay, that’s it. I’ll be posting this now then heading home and starting my next post immediately; things should be getting back to normal now… -Clio