Predictions and Observations:
Win Mr. Stein's Duel II

“He woke me up to the truth.” If I had a dime for every time I heard a minor villain say that…

“…The do-nothings that pollute this school and tarnish her very name…” I feel like every year someone has to complain that Duel Academy, specifically Slifer Red, is full of slackers that are making the school look bad. It’s becoming a theme, and I don’t like it, one way or another. Perhaps it’s just because it hits too close to home. To begin with, school is there to prepare us for life, and everyone has a different way of living life, so it’s up to them to decide what they want from school and get it. It should be none of the school’s concern what graduates end up doing next, because it’s not the school’s decision nor is it their problem. For instance, my school is sorta known for being slacker-ish, and I feel like the administration is acting like they have something to prove. A couple years ago, the school newspaper ran an article that told where that year’s graduating class were planning to go to college. Almost half of those interviewed were going to Cabrillo, a local community college. The article added at the bottom that some high percentage of those were planning to transfer to a four-year college from there. I’m planning to start at Cabrillo after I graduate, just to get a handle on this huge change in my life and get used to how college works; it’s one of the top junior colleges in the state, and everyone I know praises it (besides, their theater is to *die* for!). I feel like, even though I’m an intelligent human being choosing the course of action that is the wisest and will serve me best, my school is ashamed of me, and it’s difficult to keep pursuing my choice. Duel Academy, though very highly esteemed as a school, has a similar problem, sorta, and maybe it’s just par for the course. I do really hate to bring up Zane as an example again (I don’t have many favorite characters, but the Truesdales definitely have a place in my heart. He’s going to come back one of these days better than ever—count on it!), but it’s a pretty specific analogy and I almost have to wonder if it’s on purpose that GX gives this message: those that a school looks down upon may only seem slackers because they choose the smartest course of action, while some blindly follow the system to the top and find, when they get there, that they can’t take it. We all know that when Jaden gets to the Pros, the change of scene, stage lights, roaring crowds, and high stakes could only rev him up, never throw him off.

*How* does Viper know all this about Stein’s history? He played this same game, almost, with Axel, regarding his dad (“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.”). At first I thought he had a history and had known Axel’s dad or something, but there’s no way he could’ve known this whole crazy story of a failed dueling career due to cramming! Can the guy read minds or something?!

By the way, in that flashback: It’s the D!

The way Viper speaks to and describes Stein reminds me of Crowler: he cares deeply about the school, its students, and its image, and was once a great duelist himself (Crowler needs to get out of the classroom more, because he’s just forgotten how great it is!).

By the way, the way Viper puts it, it seems to me that Stein would teach quite differently than he does. Before it had just seemed to me like he was a slightly obsessed guy on a trivia rampage (which can be quite fun for those who like that sort of thing…like me…), not a serious duelist. If he cherished dreams that his students could go on to be pros, why not impart them that in his subject that would help them? Teach them of all of the inspiring and uplifting and amazing duels that make me devote much of my free time to a project that is akin to that of a Yu-Gi-Ohverse historian. Teach them about the dueling greats that we’ve all come to love, and what makes them so great! Moreover, the point of studying history (besides being an escape for those of us who like to know obscure things) is that we realize how past triumphs and failures came about, learn about mistakes so we can avoid repeating them, and how they shaped the world we live in today. I suppose the real problem is that most of duel history is either extremely recent or very very ancient, or, yes, some combination of the two (lol). And most of it, the average person, even the average historian, would not know about. Then again, somehow they do, so I’ll just stop trying to guess what anybody knows or doesn’t know about all the crazy adventures in the original. If there’s one lesson young aspiring duelists can take from duel history that will serve them well in the pro league, it’s that anything’s possible and that the best duelists are the ones who never give up and never stop having fun.

“If you could have dinner with any Egyptian Pharaoh…” What sort of question is *that*? Actually, Jaden would probably have said Abidos III, because he’s actually met him before…

“Common” house pet? I wouldn’t exactly call Pharaoh that. He does, after all, track just about anything, be it students or evil magic, and he’s ingested his former owner’s spirit. He even has a vacuum-robot that looks like him! For cryin’ out loud!

Jaden only attended one class, total, in the past month…? Wow. This means that he’s attending significantly less classes now than he did even as a freshman. Then again, one of the nice things about being a senior is that, if you so choose, you don’t have to sign up for all that many classes, and depending on whether Duel Academy’s three years or not, Jaden *is* a senior. If not, you start getting those perks as a junior, too.

“I never asked to be a role model”. You want to be the next King of Games, Jaden. Of course you did. This matter may be something Jaden has to overcome and deal with before hitting the Pros, and, to be honest, how many things like *that* are there? It also may be interesting to note that Syrus’ continually expressed desire to be the hero suggests that he *would* like to be a role model.

E-H Mariner’s a rare one. I don’t even remember the last time he was played.

“Your reign is over.” The specificness of the location (Kal’elna, meaning it must have been during Village of Vengeance) made me think I’d be able to find this reference, but nope. I ran a search for the phrase “reign is over” in my records from those five episodes, and I’ve got nothin’.

Okay, I did some reading from a scholarly-looking site (copyrighted and everything), and the Predynastic period of Egyptian history was from about 5,500 to 3,100 B.C.E. This was when Egyptian culture began to be recognizably specific to it; the Egyptians settled down and farmed, and toward the end of it the northern and southern halves of Egypt were first combined. It was also during this time that tombs (which until then had been made wherever was convenient, usually in a single “cemetery” somewhere in the village) moved further and further from dwellings, often to the very fringe of a village’s territory. Stein may be referring to the fact that the Pyramids came some time later.

Kind of an interesting conflict: Stein insists that with practice and perseverance you can master anything, while Jaden says that everyone has different strengths, and both are right. Jaden asks, if what Stein says is so, why Stein didn’t keep going pro, and Stein started giving excuses and, it seemed, all the things he had told himself were standing in the way of his dream.

The mall? How on Earth are they going to cut class and go to the mall, when they’re on an island miles out to sea that, as far as we know, has no mall? “Borrow” a speedboat?

Alexis, Jasmine, and Mindy like boots and miniskirts? Gee, we had no idea! Actually, we’ve never seen them in anything other than school uniforms, so we *did* have no idea. Apparently, their street clothes aren’t all that different from their duel blazers.

Give into your anger. I suppose Jaden would expend more energy that way, but it’s another of those ridiculously common villain phrases, so I almost have to wonder if the energy is the only reason Viper’s saying it.

It stuck out at me because we rarely get to know approximately how long a duel is. Jesse said here that they hadn’t seen Jaden in over an hour. That’s kinda the consensus, I guess, and I’m also drawing on Friends ‘Til the End on this one.

Jesse said that it looked like Syrus would need to step up and be the hero, just like he’s always wanted. Why? Did he have an idea about how to make the elevator move? Or did he see Jaden’s Hero Signal shining into the air from across the biodome?

This is pretty much every time we’ve seen him that Jim has been amazingly talented and confident in the face of serious danger that even most duelists would worry about. Somehow, I’m getting the feeling that it’s too good to be true or something, or at least that he must have some compensating weakness.

“I would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids.” Viper seems to like playing the stereotypical villain. *Why* nobody saw this coming but us…is, I suppose, the most ridiculous plot device known to man.

“King Kahmoudi” was mentioned, though who the heck he is I suppose we’ll never know.

Scar Knight is apparently Stein’s Card (with a capital C). It’s his Winged Kuriboh and/or Neos, Dark Magician, Blue-Eyes, Cyber End Dragon, Guardian Eatos, Ojama Yellow, Ruby Carbunkle, Des Koala, you get my drift. Even more interestingly, it appears to have changed along with his career and love of the game, and I confess that Eatos and Dreadscythe come to mind.

“He who sits on high has the farthest to fall.” I don’t remember *that* quote (supposedly said by Akhnadon way back when), nor can I find it in my records from back then.

“I’ve missed you so much, but soon you’ll be all mine again.” I knew it! When did they meet before?! Or…something?

Trapper Keeper is the next episode, this weekend, along with The Final Face Off II. Sorry these took so long, folks, and by the way (this is why I’m so busy), if you happen to be anywhere in the vicinity of Santa Cruz, CA, don’t miss Sweet Charity at the Louden Nelson Center the first two weekends of August. ‘Til Saturday! -Clio