Predictions and Observations:
The Hands of Justice II

Hassleberry said that an old battle injury was bothering him. I don’t think we knew about any such. It was his left leg, I think, so pretty sure he wasn’t referring to the dinosaur bone in his leg. Anyway, it probably would have been a bit tougher than a normal human leg.

Chazz seems to have switched to playing those B-Trons. Where on Earth are the Armed Dragons and the V-Z vehicle thingies? We saw the Ojamas of course, but in my opinion the duel’s still young, and Blair had better watch her back once the real strength of Chazz’s deck starts coming out to play.

What’s up with Blair’s accent? Who’s voicing her now, and is it the same person?

Blair and her costly strategies; even though the Maiden seems to have taken a hike (either that, or she’s coming up), some things don’t change. I remember a particular quote from The Maiden in Love: “Sure it cost me some lifepoints, but it’s about to cost *you* a lot more!”

Hey…Aster’s okay…! How did that happen? Well, that gives Syrus something to do (I guess…*sulk sulk* everyone else gets to duel and run around and save the world…). It’s odd to see just one spectator, and I’d had this feeling that something had to happen to give Syrus something to do or someone to talk to. I thought he was going to get a world-saving duel of his own, but that’s because I’m a bit of an optimist.

Cup of Ace, a tarot dueling card. I won’t look it up, but Cups are the Earth-element suit. Just kidding—I just looked it up: Cups usually represent “love, happiness, fertility, and beauty”, and the ace of cups upright represents the beginning of such things, while reverse indicates refusal to accept things that come from the heart or egotism. I’m not sure whether it was upright or reverse, and I can’t check from where I’m finishing off writing this (a study period in the school library has so many uses…).

Jaden wasn’t putting up much of a fight to begin with…think the Barrier and Satellite are affecting him, too? Probably so; his deck isn’t all that is tapped into Neo-Space. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that barrier had been draining him, too.

The weirdest part is that the vision Sartorius gave Jaden to bring him down actually revved him up, and he really started dueling. How come? I think it has something to do with Jaden’s “chosen one” status and the fact that he “has the power to extinguish the light” and the power to defy and change destiny. He may not have realized it, he’d probably never admit it (interesting point, that: there aren’t many things that Jaden’s unwilling to accept, but he’s pretty insistent on destiny being a myth), but I think that what happened was that when Jaden saw the vision, he was shocked at the time, but when he got back, his subconscious mind essentially commanded the world, “that’s not going to happen.” Since he’s the chosen one and can defy and change destiny and all that, destiny obeyed, and at that moment, Jaden suddenly knew that that vision of the future was not true. No more uncertainty, no banter of telling the future or being spooky can faze him, because he knows better than Sartorius the workings of destiny, and that isn’t happening.

“If that vision were true, then you wouldn’t be here dueling me.” What does Jaden mean? That Sartorius wouldn’t want the world like that? How come? Sartorius *couldn’t* make the world like that? Who knows whether he could or not?

Sartorius’ predictions started going wrong after Jaden saw that vision. See the paragraph above on that, but also I think that his changing the eventual future, as he apparently did, threw Sartorius off.

“You know Jay—he loves giving this speech.” Leave it to Jaden to pep-talk the bad guy!

The Jadenism again, it should be noted, and maybe another couple to add in that little speech of his.

They pulled a Clash in the Coliseum on us!! We’ve been cliffhangered! No, even better: if a normal “to be continued” is a cliffhanger, this is having already fallen off the cliff, hovering a few feet above the ground. Jaden’s announced the final attack; the two-parter’s over, and we all know that it’s going to end the duel. It’s like the last attack of Clash in the Coliseum!

Alexis said that Blair had just graduated Elementary school. She *does* look that age, but how did she manage that in less than a year, unless this *hasn’t* been less than a year?

Here follows an extremely bizarre and confusing chronology theory:
Hang on—what if I’m entirely dumb and this whole time I’ve been thinking that it’s only one year at Duel Academy per each of our years when it actually isn’t? That would explain how Blair could have finished grade school when she only (in my previous theories) would have been in third grade by now, without her skipping all those grades (she’s definitely bright enough to, and precocious enough to try it…), and how Zane, a “third-year Obelisk Blue” as of the beginning of the first season graduated without it being a three-year school. My magic realization just now: what if each season is equivalent to *two* years? That would mean that, we can probably divide it practically down the middle between Grave Risk II and Doomsday Duel I. It would actually scan; winter break was in A Spirit Summoned, which was the fourteenth episode. That means that the School Duel occurred in late spring or early summer of Jaden’s freshman year, and that Blair, who was in second grade in, oh, say, mid-Spring of that year would be in (counts) fifth grade this year, which is a whole lot closer to what Alexis said and what seems to be so about Blair now (she’s taller, her voice isn’t as squeaky…). This would also fit because no one Jaden knew was graduating his freshman year; Zane was a Junior, and then he graduated at the end of Jaden’s sophomore year. Similarly, there were no people Jaden was especially familiar with in the first half of this, if Alexis and Atticus were sophomores to Jaden’s freshman (Note that Atticus would have been held back some on account of missing so much school when he was in the Shadow Realm; if he had been, say, going on junior in Jaden’s freshman year, that would mean that he’d get held back to sophomore but that he’d also be closer age group and good friends with Zane). Therefore, if this latest crazy theory holds, Alexis and Atticus will graduate at the end of this year, and Jaden, Syrus, and Chazz, among others, will graduate halfway through next year. Insane, huh? So let’s see: I feel like creating some sort of timeline…
Semester 1 (The Next King of Games – Grave Risk II)
Jaden- freshman
Syrus- freshman
Chazz- freshman
Bastion- freshman
Alexis- sophomore
(Atticus)- junior*
Zane- junior
Chumley- junior
Blair- second grade
*Hang on—this would put Atticus in the same year as Zane, which doesn’t work because then he’d be held back as a junior and would have graduated a couple weeks ago (circa the start of the tournament). Maybe that amnesia wasn’t just about who he was, and maybe it didn’t entirely go away? Then again, actually, counting with this new system, he missed almost two years, placing him at least one year back probably. That makes a bit more sense. But no, hang on—counting with this new system, he’d more likely
Semester 2
Jaden- sophomore
Syrus- sophomore
Chazz- sophomore
Bastion- sophomore
Alexis- junior
(Atticus)- sophomore
Aack! I’m confusing myself! What’s my name again? Most of the above is wrong, though I don’t want to take the chance of deleting something that might actually be useful at some point in the future and at this point I’m too confused to tell the difference. In theory, actually, Alexis would have just graduated (because she began the show as a sophomore), as would have Atticus by now, one way or another, and Jaden, Syrus, and Chazz and everybody would be about to graduate right now. Maybe this year was slowed down for more detail or the last one was speeded up or something arcane like that? Or maybe I should just give it up?

This afternoon is Future Changes, and I didn’t actually look up the next one but I’ll have it somewhere in the next few posts. That’s all, folks! -Clio