Predictions and Observations:
First Duel - Give Up the Ghost

First Duel | Attack From the Deep | Everything's Relative |
Duel With a Ghoul | Give Up the Ghost

First Duel
“ - …So get ready, ‘cause I challenge…you, Joey!
- Wha? You challenge me?!
- Do you have the guts to accept?”
I know First Duel a bit better, so there weren't quite so many surprises. One thing I did notice though is that we get our first view up close of Mai, so to speak, by which I mean, we know what she duels for, we know what she thinks about things. She fully becomes a character, as in, no longer just someone who is for them or against them for any old reason. The second thing I noticed was how much Mai was really getting to Joey. Amazing how little time it takes for Joey to become one of the best bluffers in the game ("…the *left* hand then?...Are you *suuure*?…*Reeeeeally* sure?" (Courtroom Chaos II) and the one I really thought of today: "So… is your harpy ready to dance?" (Fighting for a Friend IV)).
Speaking of people who are confounded at how quickly Joey became adept enough at Duel Monsters to be ranked professionally (like, for instance, Kaiba …), next week's episodes are Attack from the Deep (in which the gang end up eating Mako's lunch, because it beats munching on Tristan's survival handbook, and Yugi gets challenged to a duel for it) and Everything's Relative (the only episode in which Mokuba duels, and I mean ONLY! By the way, I just realized that these poor people seeing it for the first time get to wonder if Kaiba just jumped from a window into a frothy ocean full of sharp rocks and then somehow returned from the dead and came to Duelist Kingdom, just to duel Yugi in favor of Mokuba's continued captivity, for an entire week!)!
Note: Posted jointly with GX's Magnetic Personality

Attack From the Deep
“The mighty ocean commands respect, as do the creatures that inhabit it!”
I also noticed something I hadn’t before; something clicked between Yugi and Mako—Mako was the first duelist they came across who was also fighting for a loved one. Something clicked, when each realized why the other couldn’t let him win.
Note: Posted jointly with GX's Schooling the Master

Everything's Relative
“I don’t know what you did to my big brother when you dueled, Yugi, but ever since that defeat, he hasn’t been the same. He ran away ‘cause of you! And with him gone, Pegasus moved right in…”
Anyway, there was something I wanted to say about Mokuba that I forgot entirely that I might post at some later date. It was important, I think, and I can’t remember it! I also tried, and failed, to guess which Big Five was which; I get the feeling that they weren’t really expected to become characters at this point. I seem to recall that they were more easily distinguishable from one another in Legendary Heroes I. We never do get to see what that card was Kaiba gave to Mokuba before he left; I’m dying to know what Mokuba’s favorite card is!
Note: Posted jointly with GX's Schooling the Master

Duel With a Ghoul and Give Up the Ghost
“Fine by me. Pegasus, go ahead and give it your best shot. There isn’t a computer system anywhere on Earth that I can’t break into… you’re on notice that the Kaiba Corporation’s still mine!”
“It appears that young Yugi’s nemesis, the real Seto Kaiba, has come to his rescue. I must admit that this little development is one twist that even I did not foresee.”
That was very interesting. Last time I saw these, I was new to the series and three years younger, but now that I actually understand what’s going on, I have a lot to say. The thing that strikes me most at the moment is that both of the Kaiba brothers gain some understanding of the Heart through this and show it, unquestionably. This is, without a doubt, one of the most concrete and undeniable times the Heart shows itself as more than a philosophy. Mokuba gradually came to be more and more on Yugi’s side, first because Yugi refused to believe that Kaiba was dead, no matter how much evidence was given. Mokuba came to believe in the Heart because to do so in that case would be to believe that his brother was still alive. He believed, whatever the reason, and it came true. This contributes in a large way to the respect and admiration Mokuba tends to show for Yugi in later episodes (Legendary Heroes I, in which when Mokuba’s in trouble, he turns to Yugi and his friends, and ESP Duelist I or II, in which Mokuba, trying to decide what to do about the Roba Brothers, realizes that Yugi, standing on a nearby rooftop, would have seen exactly what was going on, and decides to give the Roba bros. a second chance, because he knows that Yugi would do the same, come presently to mind). To Mokuba, it seemed that Yugi did the impossible, and to have someone like that so sure that Kaiba was alive gave Mokuba hope. Yugi, inwardly, wasn’t quite as confident, and I think that’s because he’s shown in the past that he can sense Kaiba (he knew Mokuba was somehow connected to Kaiba even before he knew who he was dueling), and the “impostor”, in a certain way, *is* technically a part of Kaiba, or was. I also found myself wondering how this connection between Yugi and Kaiba came to be; was it always there, because of destiny and all? Can Atem sense other people like this, too (he knew Pegasus was watching…)? Did it occur because when Atem opened Kaiba’s mind this connection was forged between them? I was also struck a lot by people’s motives in this episode, perhaps because those who usually would have rooted against Yugi, like Kaiba and Mokuba, were praying the most for his victory. This led Kaiba to intimate how much Yugi had impressed him, like when he insisted that Yugi was undefeatable. Kaiba couldn’t entirely trust Yugi to win, which is why he interfered, but then, he could afford no risks. What’s interesting is that later in Duelist Kingdom, Kaiba *must* trust Yugi, completely and entirely, namely when he backs to the edge of the tower, relying on Yugi’s not being able to attack him. Mokuba cheered for Yugi because Yugi’s victory would not only rescue him, but would be a blow against someone who not only pretended to be his brother, but also promised KaibaCorp to Pegasus, and insisted that Kaiba was dead. Joey, Tristan, and Tea took Mokuba’s side because Yugi did, and because they were on the same side now; they had no reason, really, to believe whether or not the Kaiba Yugi dueled was false, except that Yugi and Mokuba believed it. Another thing (*this* is getting lengthy, isn’t it!) we saw in this episode is a very different side of Kaiba. To me it seems almost like the two of us share that affinity with computers that lets programming and so forth become almost meditative. I’m a musical theater actress, and my head never stops playing with songs, except when I work on my web site (http://205.155.30.76/~webdesign/s12/index.html-- come see it! It’s rocking more and more every day!), or play video games, or even type. It’s a different medium from the rest of life, and requires a different state of mind. We saw Kaiba, for the first and one of the last times, in that state of mind, unconcerned about intimidating or impressing anyone, almost at his ease, only focused on what needed to be done, which, as long as you can figure out how to do it, and he did, is actually fun. I’d also like to observe that, unless Pegasus’ lackeys are bad with spelling names, the canon spelling, on Kaiba’s computer screen, was “Yugi Muto.” Hmph. I also noticed that this duel is a better parallel to the Name of the Game duel by a mile than Clash in the Coliseum! Right when Blue-Eyes was about to destroy Yugi at the false Kaiba’s command, the real Kaiba stopped it, just like when the same thing happened in the Ancient Past. It’s Blue-Eyes vs. Dark Magician, and the impostor, though an impostor, was also the person it claimed to be. Perhaps *this* was the actual parallel to the Tablet duel. This was the first time “Previously on Yu-Gi-Oh!…” was done the way we’ve become accustomed to (Duel With a Ghoul). I also noticed that the satellite was set to crash in California, somewhere along the coastline, I think, north of L.A. and south of San Francisco. That tallies with the location in Déjà Duel and My Freaky Valentine, and even explains how they manage to drive all the way to Death Valley in an afternoon. I had been imagining it as just about due east of San Francisco, roundabout Sacramento, but this makes more sense. It would also put Industrial Illusions right in my neck of the woods, even within an easy drive of where I live, which is hardly surprising, because this area is beautiful and prime real estate, and it’s not like Pegasus wouldn’t have the cash… This was the first time “Summon the Dragon” was played in the series. What did Yugi mean when he said that if anti-Kaiba attacked the right hat, he’d lose a lot more than the duel? Mokuba would be a prisoner, as per the stakes, but what else? Did he just mean that he will have let Kaiba down when Mokuba needed him most?
Note: Posted jointly with GX's Generation neXt