Predictions and Observations:
Friend or Fiend?

I notice episode names with question marks, just because it means that I can’t put the whole file name. The last one was “Obelisk White?”

“I wonder what it’s trying to keep in.” Jim was also the one who said this. I ask, the comet, perhaps? Jim knows more about this world than he’s telling, even before they walk through the door.

“What’s to look at? This place is a dump, and it smells like one, too.” Trust the Chazz to notice something like that.

I just realized that Jaden’s opponent last episode reminded me of Valon, from Waking the Dragons. Vaguely similar appearance, aside from the wings, which actually recall Joey’s Aura Armor from that duel, and he also switched sides by the end of the duel, and asked his opponent to do what he realized too late needed to be done.

“Oh, he’s here. I feel it in my gut.” And Jaden was completely right. Was it wishful thinking that happened to be right, or do Jaden and Jesse actually have some sort of psychic connection? Wouldn’t put it past them, actually.

New place. Do we call just this realm (with the ruins and the fiends) Dark World, or this whole dimension, including Tania’s realm, Dark World?

Axel continues to be a main player, because he’s as skilled with uncertain situations as he is with actual dueling, or maybe even more so. He *has* been, in a way, ‘protecting them all’, in teamwork with Jaden. Jaden’s the natural leader and duelist, but Axel’s the one with the plans and the action-ready initiative to immediately step up; when someone disappears or goes haring off, Axel is the first to follow, because he knows that they might need backup. I also note in this post that Jaden is reluctant to let anyone be a team with him because it might endanger them, so I find this particularly interesting. Within that theme, it would have seemed more likely that Jaden would try to discourage Axel joining him in chasing Kyle, but instead he communicated why he thought catching up would be worth attempting. This speaks of an unusual dynamic with regard to Axel, that I’m still trying to get a real handle on.

“So it’s almost time. I didn’t think it would be this quick.” Almost time for what? For a moment, I thought that the comet did to Jim what the negative energy vibes did to Shirley. What’s going? Is this foreshadowing that something’s going to happen to Jim? And how would he know? And what could Jim have to do with a dimension like this? “I’m pretty sure I don’t like it here either.” He said, immediately after Syrus mentioned that he was uncomfortable. I think Jim knows exactly what’s going on, though we sure don’t.

“*Which* teacher was always messing that saying up? Professor Stein?” Well, Stein would need to embrace that philosophy, because I seem to recall that he asked some fairly stupid questions.

Kyle’s duel disk accidentally activated? How does *that* work? This could be a clue. I guess I could imagine Kaiba creating some sort of gyro system that activates a duel disk if it’s moved a certain way; when Kyle held it up to protect himself, the duel disk would have “thought” it was being brandished, and activated. But that wouldn’t work. How many times have we seen Jaden and everyone running here and there with duel disks on? The duel disks would accidentally activate more than they were activated intentionally! Maybe the duel disks are designed to respond to the pulse in the arm they’re attached to, and, like Jaden, they can tell when a duel’s brewing… or when someone’s scared silly. Go figure. Well, this from the guy who was making smelly holograms ten years ago, so I’d believe anything.

Jaden won’t let anyone else duel; he couldn’t stop them from coming, but the “No! I’ve already involved Jesse in this; I’m not going to involve you guys, too!” is still there. He’s going to need to get over it; he can’t do this alone.
“It’s like he’s dueling like his life depended on it.” Alexis SPECIFICALLY noted this, which means it’s important. It’s increasingly clear that something’s eating Jaden, and that something is the same something that started this whole adventure. He doesn’t want anyone to team up with him, because look what happened last time. He’s just lucky that his friends are as stubborn about helping him as he is about protecting them. “He’s doing it because he looks out for his friends. They *all* do.”

The big red guy. One ‘r’ or two? Oh, decisions, decisions…And while we’re at it, I’m also debating with myself “Sir Freid” and “Sir Freed”. When in doubt, go with the captions, I suppose. They do come in handy.

Warriors and everyone else- the social structure in this realm. Scarr assumed, looking at their group that Axel (the one who was glaring daggers and getting ready for a fight) was the leader of the group, being a warrior, and for the rest of them to have spent time in this world before Scarr found them, Axel must have led and protected them. It says something about how the humans that came there before (Sir Freed, Kyle, and company) and their strategy and society. Scarr and the others also seem interested in the warriors for some other purpose; they aren’t destroying, they’re capturing, even though the primary benefit this gives is leaving the meeker villagers, the women and children, defenseless and leaderless. But they’re eliminating the “weaker” people (sending them to the stars) and capturing, hording, the “stronger” people. For what end? It seems a bad move to concentrate all the strong people they’re oppressing in one place; they may have a rebellion on their hands. What motive could exist for them to make such a move as this?

And is Zure or whomever he reports to this “Supreme King”? What about Yubel? When we meet the head honcho evil around here, would we even know it if it walked up and slapped us in the face?

Keep the last duel in mind. Scarr, Zure, and their buddies may be under the control of something else, and the pattern persists of one “oppressing” group being pitted against an “oppressed” one that was sent from somewhere else, and Jaden and the others coming in on the side of the oppressed. Could be they’re all getting played, oppressors and oppressed alike, and Jaden and the others are being led to some other purpose. If they win this battle, only to find that Jesse isn’t there, I submit that they’re being led into a trap and Jesse is the bait, because they’ll journey onward in their search and, running into such a scenario again, will resolve it, and so forth, as long as whatever larger force in power here wants them to, and straight into a trap.

Kyle’s sister mentioned the Eye of Zurr. Is that a fancy name for the light of the comet? Or there’s a “Zure, Knight of Dark World” in that list of cards I found (a couple paragraphs down). The guys chasing Lars (that’s what Sir Freed called the dad) mentioned that Zure would be pleased.

Justi-break was the card Lars (the dad) played. It seems to be a bit of a double-edged sword, so to speak. Wanted to take them down with him, I guess.

“Have you been sent here, same as us?” Another group that was “sent” here from somewhere else. Are Sir Freed, Kyle, and the others there duel spirits or human? Which was Tania? Where do these guys come from, and when?

“We must track down defeated Scarr.” But… if he was defeated, then they already know where he is: the stars. Then again, they don’t know Scarr was defeated in a duel, so I guess they think they might find him lying around somewhere shamefully beaten to a pulp.

The Cursed Fiends of Darkworld. That rings a bell. I’m looking at a list of cards, and a fair number of cards are “of Dark World”, including a card called Scarr. Pictures not available, I’m afraid. Here’s all the cards that I’m finding: Gateway to Dark World; Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World; Kahkki, Guerrilla of Dark World; Green, Tactician of Dark World; Dark World Dealings; Renge, Gatekeeper of Dark World; Zure, Knight of Dark World; Beiige, Knight of Dark World; Broww, Huntsman of Dark World; Brron, Mad King of Dark World; Sillva, Warlord of Dark World; Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World; Scarr, Scout of Dark World; Dark World Lightning; Darkworld Thorns.

“My mom always told me never to go into secret, underground caves with strangers wearing suits of armor.” Apparently it doesn’t apply to trenchcoats. Or Zane wasn’t listening.

I’m not so sure I trust Sir Freed. Anyone might be bitter or tense—the last knight standing and all, in charge of keeping everyone safe—but just something about him kinda bugs me. I get this crazy feeling that he’s going to betray Jaden and company.

So. Questions abound. Is it really Jesse, or some other unfamiliar person? This individual was described as a boy who was not a villager, and who was a stranger to Lars. Might be Zane or Aster, or even Adrian. If it *is* Jesse, is he okay? Why has he not dueled his way out of there yet? How did he get transported from the dusty dimension to here? Is the great whatever playing *him* somehow, also?

Jaden and Alexis. This is not an “I hope you know what you’re doing, Jaden” moment. Well, actually it is in that Alexis is worried about Jaden. Could they still become a couple?

How did people who still fight with plate armor and swords get duel disks? I’m going to hypothesize, they come from somewhere that isn’t present-day Earth. Could they have come from another time period on Earth and gotten duel disks from somewhere once they’d gotten there? Is this another of those worlds where travelers can conjure (“Pork chops and applesauce…pork chops and applesauce… great! We can *fly*, but we can’t get a decent meal!”)? Do these guys come from yet another dimension (hey, duel monsters are real. Makes it vastly more likely that inhabitants of other dimensions have a similar knowledge of them), and sort of combine swords and sorcery (summoning monsters)?

White shirt, blue vest. Note that Jaden is black shirt, red jacket. Jaden seems to highlight with this description harmonious opposites: black and white, red and blue. But Jaden and Jesse are such a team because they’re so much alike, not because they’re very different…

Lose a friend?! What, this skull-guy’s about to pull an Illusion Gate on us?! That would really stink. Are we talking Jesse *is* there, as a hostage, because Zure and his cronies already know what they’re there for? Or is this about Jim?

I wrote a poem. I’m on a roll. Enjoy!
High above the cold night air
Shines the harbinger on high,
Soars the lamp that lights despair
And, burning, meets my widening eye
And searing light fast-strikes me there,
My fright-bound soul lets out a cry.
I knew ‘twould come; that I could bear,
But not how quickly time would fly.

I came up with the craziest idea this morning in Chemistry. Hard classes seem to cause the strangest epiphanies; half of my best poetry was composed while trying not to fall asleep in math, as was my one successful song. Anyway, this morning my crazy thought was, “it’s a magic blue rock—wait—this is familiar.” Followed by “no way”, “OMG”, and “this could get extremely nasty”. What if the comet *is* an Orichalcos stone? That would actually be really scary in a cool way and really cool in a scary way. There was no canon saga darker, and it all really came out. It lacked the certain epicness of Duelist Kingdom and the grandeur and, again, epicness of Battle City, but it was just as dramatic and intense. It was my first brand new season, and I followed it as a new ep-guider and a high school freshman. It will always have a place in my heart.
If it were, how is it connected to Jim? If it were, that would mean it’s power searching for someone to corrupt and, I think, finding it in the form of the Cursed Fiends who won’t patrol without it. Is that, I wonder, their curse? That they’re at the capricious mercy of a magical comet?

Okay, next episode is… Dueling With the Dark Army. Are we talking ‘with’ as in ‘with’ or as in ‘against’? All of them at once? Will each of Jaden’s crowd take on a couple? ‘Til we find out… -Clio