Predictions and Observations:
Primal Instinct

What a wacky coincidence. While I was watching this I was preparing for my Saturday night show (I had to be there and ready at 5:30), specifically eating a good meal that included plenty of protein and carbs so I’d last the night. But, Axel, it’s already nighttime; why not just hit the sack? Was there something more Axel needed to get done that evening? Or as another idea, was it just a matter of Axel not being comfortable being that tired?

I wonder what Axel thinks is responsible for this sudden fatigue, since he doesn’t seem to suspect Viper?
Wait, this is the most run-down Axel has ever felt after a duel, and he’s been at West Academy this whole time? Continuity goof or hint that this *isn’t* what happened at West?

“Why does everyone think out loud at this place?” Just an occupational hazard of having a lot that you’re thinking about at once; I often talk to myself just because it keeps by train of thought from jumping around as much and makes what I’m thinking about hard to forget later. I’m kidding—it’s probably just a little joke to have Gecko make that observation, but yeah. Come to think of it, Axel would be more than likely to think out loud for that same reason, because as we saw during his duel with Jaden, he does an awful lot of thinking. I was writing down quotes from those episodes, and most of the quotes by Axel were not out loud, they were thought.

Gecko knows all about this. I had a feeling he might, because he’s here spying on Viper. He probably knows a bit more about what Viper did to West Academy (besides their statistics going through the roof), and sees the same thing happening here. What can I say? I feel like this is too easy, that all the pieces are falling into place for us too quickly and either there’s something we’re still missing here or I’ve started jumping to conclusions a lot more than usual. I’ve also noticed that so far each of the new students has a different piece of this puzzle so far. Gecko knows that Viper’s trouble and what the fainting means; Jim Cook knows about the strange vibrations, and noticed that the bio-bands may be responsible for the sudden exhaustion; Axel, having been in league with Viper, probably knows a fair bit, among which being that his job was to push Jaden to his very limit; Jesse noticed that Jaden always seems to be in the crosshairs of some evil plot, and is starting to wonder about all this, and also knows both the other transfers and Jaden’s crowd pretty well by now—he’s the bridge, sorta. As a final note, I wonder if Gecko knows that Jaden got drained even worse, and if he’d realize what *that* means.

Axel’s rooming in Obelisk, too, I noticed.

We’re probably going to be seeing a lot more of Fontaine and the hospital. Then again, the last time I said that (Field of Screams, of course), nobody else fainted and it lightened up in a hurry.

I have no personal experience with hospital food, but apparently in the Yugiohverse, the consensus is that it’s really, really good! This reminded me of Mystery Duelist II, when Yugi got Joey and Tristan to stop fighting in a hurry by threatening not to share his hospital food.

So Jaden recovered pretty fast? Was he just there overnight, or what? I’d imagine that a good night’s sleep and some food would be all he’d need in the short term. I’m not sure if it’ll do anything (aside from cause a bit of trouble) useful to keep him from doing anything too strenuous for a few weeks. He may be all better; he seems back to normal. It’s possible that his energy reserves are still building back up.

“We’re used to babysitting for Jaden by now.” Why do I have a feeling that Blair and Alexis will both be following Jaden around trying to keep him from overexerting? This could get interesting. And by the way, it’s clear that they both care about him and that they mean well.
By the way, on this same note, I wanted to say that Jaden needs levelheaded people like his friends looking out for him; he’s good with the saving the world and duels as if it’s breathing, but almost as important are his friends who watch his back. What prompted me to say this was Syrus’ quote: “Hold on, guys. Did you forget what’s going on here? The weird energy waves? (sigh) Of course you did. You’re exactly alike.” *Syrus* remembered all of it, and that’s an important thing for him to do that nobody else will.

Syrus is in yellow, now. I’m sure there are reasons. And I’m equally sure that we will never, ever learn why exactly Syrus couldn’t keep an eye on Jaden in a blue blazer as well as he could in any other.

Jaden has to refrain from doing anything strenuous for two weeks. This could get interesting. For one thing, Fontaine mentioned that dueling fell into that category. Jaden, not duel for two weeks? He won’t last two days! And even if he were to attempt it, that rumor Jesse heard will most likely, I think, mean that more people will be challenging Jaden to duel because, well, one, it’s a sign of weakness that potential opponents will jump on, and two, they’ll want to see if it’s at all true.

‘Retiring for good’?!?! You’d think they’d know Jaden by now. Arguably (here I am tearing my hair out at the chronology), Jaden is a senior at this point. The other seniors have known him for three years as the Academy’s top duelist; the sophomores for two; and to the freshmen he’d be the equivalent of Zane-- the Academy’s resident champion for a long time; two years of Duel Academy alumni will remember well the Slifer Red who could always cream them and never, ever got tired of playing the game; the entire faculty (Viper excluded) knows him by now. You’d think that any rumor like that would immediately become a standing joke. Just how long was Jaden out? Just overnight? Who would have started it? Who would’ve known that it wasn’t just another night? Maybe some Slifers saw them leave and not come back, but… the only people who knew anything had happened to Jaden were Axel, Jesse, Syrus, Hassleberry, Viper, Fonda Fontaine, and Jaden himself. And none of them would accidentally have thought that Jaden was retiring. Therefore, I submit that Viper was the one who started that rumor, because I wouldn’t put it past him to make sure Jaden has a couple extra opponents nowadays.

So there are weird vibrations in the air? Jim said that usually there’s a balance between positive and negative, but now it’s unbalanced, causing animals, like Shirley, to react. I have several questions and several things this reminds me of. First question: too much positive or too much negative? There’s grounds for believing either: there may be too much positive because less of it is remaining inside the duelist that generated it and more is being transported elsewhere (namely, the lava lamp of doom), through the air, creating an overconcentration. It may be negative because this isn’t a friendly imbalance, it’s one that causes spontaneous uncontrolled aggression, and evil is negative, and so forth. Or, for another theory, it’s sucking duel energy, and most of these students duel to win, not to have fun, causing more negative energy to be absorbed than positive (though both work, I guess) and therefore more negative travels through the air. As a fourth theory, what if, say, Jaden’s still recovering from the draining, and although he’s on his feet again the energy that he usually spreads to his surroundings is missing. I find it a bit of a fragile claim that without that powerful positive influence the very life energy of the air of Academy Island is suffering, but it *could* be true—who knows? As a final theory, what if it’s not the draining causing the energy imbalance? I also wanted to say: (you saw this coming, didn’t you?) Would you like fries and ketchup with that? These energy imbalances may also affect Neo-space and duel spirits, and that’s reason enough for Jaden to take it to Viper (aside from everyone on the island fainting). Also, I thought of what Belowski said in Year 1 about “the yin and the yang” for some reason.

Jaden’s been wacked-out lately? Does Jesse just mean that Jaden fainted, or has something else strange been going on?

Why was Jim so eager to duel Hassleberry? “If I wanna tap into Hassleberry’s primitive energy…” he was thinking. How? Why? Will we ever know? It seemed kinda at the start of the duel that Jim had his own reasons for wanting to throw down.

There have been a lot of archaeological duelists over the years (considering the origin of the game, I wonder why!), but Jim seems to be more of a paleontologist. Dr. Moto and Prof. Hawkins and all them tended to duel with ancient ruins and cities and so forth.

“When I see a prehistoric monster the last thing I want to do is duel him!” But it’s better than a fistfight! Just like in ancient times, duels level the playing field.

Intro to Archaeological Dueling is another duel-school class. One of these days, I’ll make a list…

I think that Jim may want to be friends with Hassleberry by now, but I think Hassleberry may see Jim as a bit of a rival, still. What really struck me is that this duel was live dinosaurs vs. fossils, and the live dinosaurs aren’t too keen on being pals with the fossil aficionado. It may just have been the weird vibrations, though, that put Hassleberry especially on edge here.

“Did you know that dinosaurs aren’t technically extinct?” It’s true; birds and reptiles are their descendents. But also, one quote that this episode especially reminded me of was: “Guess again, pal—Dinos aren’t extinct! They live on, inside *me!*” (Source of Strength)

“Of course you did. You’re exactly alike.” They’re a bit different, but not when it comes to loving duels!

The Jadenism was said again.

Gecko’s next, Viper said. How will that dissuade him from investigating or impair him in any way other than needing a nap immediately? Why is Viper targeting those who may find him out (like Jim, also), when draining them will probably only briefly delay them from doing so? This slightly worries me, in that it may be a signal that drain energy temporarily is not all the bio-bands do.

I note that the weird vibrations indirectly forced Jim into a duel, by causing Hassleberry to lose it, and Viper had said that he was next. How will Viper force Gecko into a duel?

I got bored at a party a couple nights ago, and I started listing and tallying things up. I thought that it may interest you guys to know that I was able to name tons more duels that included someone fainting or otherwise losing consciousness than I was able to count up duels that were tied, interrupted, or thrown on purpose. This tally is by no means complete, it’s off the top of my head, but I’ve got twenty-five faints, ten throws, six interrupts, and only two ties.

I’m trying to remember which poems I’ve shared, because I’ve recently written some ones I really like. By the way, I’m almost done with my School Duel ballad that I’ve been working on all year. For now, I’ll share this one, my most recent:
Can you see me standing here?
Do you know my face at all?
Will you feel me shed my fear
And for your sake stand proud and tall
And do what I could never do,
If I fought for just foolish pride.
I owe it to both me and you
To face the overwhelming tide
And find you where the shadows stay,
Where evil dwells and hope is gone.
Though this may be my final play,
I’d never run away—dream on!
No matter what, I’ll see you through.
How can I fail? I fight for you.

What the?! What the (insert your less-than-polite expression here) happened to Double Duel?! I emailed this to the guy in charge of 4Kids programming around noon on Saturday, once I figured out it wasn’t showing. It’s not quite as polite as the last one, but I’m not feeling quite as polite as the last one, because they already messed up, big time, and I am very, very angry!!!! I did try to stay somewhat mannerly, however, and get my point across without being offensive, though it was very, very hard. Here’s my email:
Dear Mr. Barnathan,
I would like to, as politely as possible, ask what on Earth happened to the Yu-Gi-Oh! movie event of Double Duel. I don’t want to be rude, nor should I, because you probably have a lot more to deal with than just one show, but I’m very upset that it was advertised and even though I did everything in my power not to miss it, I couldn’t find where or when and I didn’t catch it. I’m not even sure if it ended up showing at all. I checked all of the listings I could find, and I watched the entire Saturday block this morning. This *is*, according to you guys at 4Kids, the last time these episodes will air, and I am very, very angry that there was nothing I could do to keep this opportunity from passing me by. I’m sure that I’m not the only one who would like to courteously request that you show it again, tell us clearly when and how this time, and the next time there’s one of these events, please advertise more clearly. It seems very unfair to me that our last chances to see these episodes are so difficult to actually have, even if our show is not as popular as it once may have been. Thank you.
Clio
If anyone else would like to send their own email, the address is: dbarnathan@4kidsent.com.
This guy's Daniel Barnathan, the 4kids president of Ad Sales. Funny as it may sound, he's also in charge of programming (apparently). You'd think that'd have its own president, but whatevs.

Say whaaaaat?! Apparently a part of Double Duel (and apparently not the *first* part, though the listings’ episode summaries are a disgrace, and not multiple parts because it’s half an hour long) is showing next Saturday. What happened to the first part? And what happened to “movie event”? I’m so confused! Oh, and we’re in no-GX land again. I swear, they love to mess with us! If the present pattern holds, we should get the next one the weekend after next, which is June 9th. Yup, this has taken long enough to go out that the listings go that far ahead. The next episode is Head in the Clouds I. If the pattern holds, this duel will not be any longer than two episodes. And it’ll most likely include Adrian Gecko…hmmm…and unless he can evade Fontaine, Alexis, and Blair, Jaden probably will *not* be participating. However, trying to stop Jaden from dueling is not an easy thing to do, even if they’re right there. Anyway, that’s all, everybody! -Clio