Predictions and Observations:
Head in the Clouds II

“As opposed to Chazz, who never had his cool to begin with.” I beg to differ. Chazz can be the ultimate in cool when he wants to be. How he deals with duel spirits comes to mind. By dispatching the Ojamas as sentries, he’s often two steps ahead of the game. Chazz seems to just not waste energy marveling that he talks to invisible things or deciding whether duel spirits are real or not; he just makes use of it.
Or did Jesse just mean in *this* duel? Because with that, I may have to agree.

The peanut gallery in this match sure has a lot to say about Chazz as they know him: “(The Ojamas) are (his favorite monsters). But they have this love-hate thing. / He *hates* his monsters? Sheesh. That boy’s got some issues.” “Yeah, haven’t you noticed? Chazz spends the majority of his time thinking of ways to prove he’s cooler than everyone else. He even made up his own cheer.” “…As opposed to Chazz, who never had his cool to begin with.” “Can you blame him? He found someone who’s more spoiled than he is, and he can’t stand it!”

Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, everyone-but-Syrus. And why was Syrus of all people the one who was sure Chazz was going to pull it out?

Jesse seems to already know that Adrian’s pretty tough. They would have met on the boat, most likely. I noticed that Jesse was the only passenger of the “S.S. Dull and Boring” that Adrian didn’t mention when first we met him, except to say that Jim and Shirley were the ‘normal ones’!

“What do you see when you look at the clouds, Chazz? To some, clouds are just particles of moisture in the atmosphere…well, not to me. ‘Cause when I look at a clouds, I see the world’s most powerful force.” – Why are clouds so important to Adrian? Is it because he was stranded out in the desert that time with only clouds to watch and his imagination for company? I have to wonder, since he considers clouds so powerful… there aren’t rainstorms in the desert very often, but when they do hit, they’re pretty big, or so I’ve been taught. Is there something else that happened out there? Like a huge storm? Remember: “When it comes down to man against the natural world, Mother Nature always wins.”

“Talk is cheap, like you.” Ouch! And may I note that Chazz has also used such an insult on many occasions and is the only other character in the GX crowd whom I would readily associate with making those insults?

I'm not sure, but I think maybe Chazz was at a bit of a disadvantage because clouds are moisture in the air, which isn't good for machines, and produce lightning, which is also not good for machines.

“You had everything handed to you, while I earned my deck!” Seems to sum up Chazz’s opinion of Gecko going into this duel. I’m still confused about whether Chazz challenged Gecko because he felt his role as the most spoiled Duel Academy student was in jeopardy, because it seems to me that if that were so he would have spent more time trying to prove that he was *more* spoiled than Gecko was. Instead, he seemed to be bragging that he wasn’t as spoiled as Gecko because he worked hard (both his butt and the rest of him) while Gecko had everything handed to him. To me it seems that Chazz was trying to prove that he was cooler than Gecko because he *wasn’t* the most spoiled kid at the school anymore. And I can kinda get that, too, I guess. I’m trying to come up with a single, coherent reason why Chazz started this duel and coming up blank, which may be why he lost. Whatever it is, they were right that Chazz was getting pretty worked up about it.

“Easy. I call out their names dramatically, and they just pop up.” In the Battle City days, I do seem to remember there being some little buttons on the edge of the wrist-part of the duel disk that you press to activate cards. However, wouldn’t put it past Kaiba to actually make voice-activation work. If my theories about chronology are right, he’s certainly had plenty of time to. Let’s see, voice recognition is tricky, but one of the established practices in dueling (it’s even in the rules) is to call out your cards in a loud, clear voice, so odds are in favor of calling it out working. The duel disks already need to recognize specific cards in order to project the right picture, so it would be plausible to add voice recognition to have specific cards react. This would also work for attacks, which may explain a lot but not enough to say how the monster knows what the duelist means if they say anything except “attack”, which they do, more often than not. As an even crazier theory, what if it’s not words the duel disks respond to, but gestures? That would also be fairly easy to set up, similar to how some electronics are made so that they can tell which direction they’re turned in and react accordingly. Seems like that would be awfully chancy, though. Maybe it’s some combination. And by the way, is there anything Gecko says that isn’t smashing the fourth wall down around our ears?

Yes, as usual with these sorts of things (alchemy, tarot, precious stones…), I’ve done some homework. Climatology is the branch of weather science that considers change in climate over long periods of time, such as a trend I’ve been hearing about on the news lately that, even beyond global warming, the western U.S. climate goes in cycles of drought, and is moving into a drought part of the cycle. People worry that there may be very, very nasty squabbling over water around here within a couple decades. But I’m digressing. My point is, climatology doesn’t so much predict clouds and next week’s weather as it does the sort of thing I just mentioned. Perhaps Adrian means meteorology, which is the more common weather science that tells whether it’ll rain tomorrow. Or maybe this is some other foreshadowing. Climatology seems even more concerned with changes in the atmosphere that affect all that. So maybe Adrian was just saying that the changes he was causing in the atmosphere, namely his clouds, would (if Chazz had the lesson in climatology Adrian said he should) be worrying because they foretell worse weather to come in the duel—and I don’t mean the non-holographic clouds blocking out the moon. So, anyway—the branch of meteorology that concerns itself with clouds is called nephology (it’s a very uncommonly-used term, and, by the way, not to be confused with nephrology, like my spell-checker did, which studies kidneys). It’s a bit lengthy to explain all the different classifications of clouds (it’s all on Wiki, and a pretty nice article, too-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud), but cumulonimbus clouds, like Nimbus Man, *are* known for nasty storms. (article and really nice picture here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulonimbus_cloud) To form, they need lots of moisture, a mass of warm and unstable air, and a source of energy that lifts the warm air quickly upwards. They mainly do form near coastlines, or other areas that have a source of energy like the sea breezes that push the air upwards. What sets them apart from cumulus congestus clouds, from which they form, is that their tops are frozen ice particles, which tend to fall, competing with the upward momentum that formed the cloud and causing lightning. Cumulonimbus clouds often resemble mushroom clouds.

Adrian used the phrase ‘Taken by storm’. Things like that just stick out at me. Speaking of, other duelists that mess with the weather are Frost and Thunder, Sarina, Noah, and, in a way, everyone who ever wields a Millennium Item.

Clouds vs. thunder. Enough said.

Gecko says that Chazz has ‘A real knack for stating the obvious’. I’m trying to think if this, like all of the quotes about Chazz from the peanut gallery, is quite true. Like I said, a lot is said about Chazz in general in this episode. I can’t think of any times when Chazz notably states the obvious.

“I took down the Shadow Riders and the Society of Light by myself!” Uh, to set the record straight, no. Was Chazz just kinda caught up in the moment, there?

“I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this.” Why not, Gecko? Because it was a very risky move? Or some other reason…? Speaking of which, he seemed awfully confident that he would draw what he needed. It reminded me, actually, of that move Kaiba played at the end of Clash in the Coliseum, in which both duelists had to toss out their entire decks except for three cards they chose from them. Gecko went way beyond that with this—he threw out *only* his own deck, and drew three cards *randomly* to keep! However, the advantage he would have had, I suppose, was that he wouldn’t have to anticipate which three cards out of Chazz’s whole deck he would choose to keep, and Chazz didn't get the chance to pick cards for any sort of counterstrategy. Still, tremendously risky, so either Gecko’s got some major guts or he had a plan or a way out. Actually, he pulled a stunt that would be similar in its combination of guts and strategy by getting into this duel. Putting most of the school on the line along with himself took some guts, because even though he knew that Viper had to spare them to keep his operation under wraps (they’re *still* completely conked out, and it amazes me that Viper’s lasted this long…), he was still depending on Viper to do what he was supposed to. If I want to be entirely random, which, I suppose, I do, I could say that the reason it took guts was because he’s putting his life in the hands of his enemy and counting on his enemy to back down, and then I could relate it to Face Off. Then it starts getting crazy. I’ll just stop before this goes completely out the window and make a mental note to keep an eye on this interesting trend, that is to say that I keep drawing parallels between Gecko and conflicts between Yugi and Kaiba. I have no idea why I do, but I’ll keep an eye out and this may at least give me some grasp on Gecko’s character.

What ‘truth’ is Viper trying to uncover about Gecko?

“Careful, Axel. You don’t want to end up like your father, now, do you? He was a good soldier, too. Well, until he forgot his place.” I was right! Something *did* happen to Axel’s dad. But what? And why? And so on? Viper knows, and I have a feeling that’s because he was somehow involved. I have a feeling, since it’s such a central part of Axel’s character and, I’m fairly sure, the relationship between Axel and Viper, that we haven’t heard the last of this and by the end of this year it will all be made clear.

It occurs to me that Axel trains for duels by putting himself in danger and then escaping. How very convenient for this situation, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he did manage to escape that little cell and spy within Viper’s lair, giving him more pieces of this puzzle.
Unless he got hurt. That was quite a fall. Even if he did get hurt, he’d also probably know a fair amount of field medicine.

By the way, I know I’ve said it before, but these four transfer students are absolute mines of information about this problem, one way or another. This adventure will depend on Jaden and company’s befriending them. Then again, this is *Jaden* we’re talking about. I’m not too worried. He makes friends with just about everything that breathes (and all of the incorporeal things that technically, I suppose, don’t).

Thought so! Bonaparte knows Marcel. Now, the obvious question: what is their relationship?

“Our worst fears have come true!” Bonaparte said. What did he mean by that? What was/were he/they fearing, exactly?

Noooooooo! Not again!!!!! Hasn’t anybody bothered to tell him that students are collapsing all over the place?! (It seems to be common knowledge.) Where could Sheppard possibly have gone at a time like this?!? And for how long? And guess what—unless Crowler and Bonaparte grow a bit more backbone, the one who’s actually been left in charge of things is Viper himself. Is Sheppard organizing another tournament? Is he going after Zane again? The note says “Due to an unexpected event, I had to leave. Good luck.” Question one—what’s the ‘unexpected event’? Question two—couldn’t Sheppard have been a bit more specific in the note about who was in charge?! Is it already established that Crowler is his second-in-command and if Sheppard has to leave suddenly (which has happened once before) they already know that Crowler’s supposed to take over? Either way, if we’re going to see Crowler have to keep everyone, including Viper, in line, I would prefer if he at least had something to point to that gives him that authority. Interestingly enough, considering how worried Bonaparte seems to be about Marcel, I wouldn’t be surprised if *he* were the one who grew a spine and took charge, pulling Crowler along with him. He has a vested interest in keeping all of this under control, and we’ve already seen that with Crowler in charge, as his second, Bonaparte also wields a lot of power, and he wanted the survival duels to stop before and now that feeling can only be heightened. Since authority technically rests with them, if Crowler and Bonaparte put their foot down, Viper will either have to obey or get even sneakier.

It occurs to me that Jaden, Syrus, Jesse, and Alexis are the only people who saw any of this. Everyone else who knows what went on the previous night and why over half the school is completely conked out is either unconscious themselves or the perpetrator. Since Gecko was the one who got all the duels rolling, I wouldn’t be surprised if nobody conscious knows what all these people were dueling for or why. And where’s the Jewel Disk?

In all this mayhem and confusion, will anyone notice that Axel’s gone missing? I wouldn’t be too surprised if, in filling out the resulting paperwork from all this, someone noticed, ‘hey, wait a second. He isn’t unconscious and he isn’t in class. Hmmm…’

Almost in spite of myself, I keep saying ‘Adrian’ now. I have no idea why. He’s not a total creep, but he’s not on our side yet either.

Friends 'Til the End I & II, June 2007

Okay, that's all for now. Sorry for the atrocious lateness, but at least there will be a sharp decrease in the amount of half-bakedness because I figured out that I can color-code the paragraphs I'm not done with yet. It's not even funny how crazy this week has been, and it only gets crazier. If anyone out there happens to be in the Santa Cruz, CA area, don't miss Sweet Charity at the end of July; these dances are something else, and the pain in my poor legs and feet will prove it. Anyway, on Saturday the 7th, we've got Friends 'Til the End III, but no new GX on the horizon yet. That's all for now, folks! -Clio