Predictions and Observations:
The Wrath of Rebecca - Legendary Heroes III

The Wrath of Rebecca | The Ties of Friendship | Legendary Heroes I |
Legendary Heroes II | Legendary Heroes III

The Wrath of Rebecca - 4/15/07
"Because of our circumstances, our last duel was not really conclusive...One day we will meet in the arena again to decide which of us is truly the better duelist, and one of us will walk away with pride."
This is another one I've never actually seen before, though I got the idea from reading about it a bit better than I managed to understand the other couple like that (Give Up the Ghost, The Night Before, and Aftermath; of all the ones to not completely understand…). Now, the only episodes I've never seen before are the two first Capsule Monsters.

How does Mokuba know Bakura? By the time they met Bakura in Duelist Kingdom (Trial By Red-Eyes), Mokuba was long since captured. Huh. D'ya suppose that there was any way he could have remembered anything of the adventure that his empty shell recently had? Hard to believe, but… Well, it's unlikely, but Bakura *was* in the very first scene, with Yugi and Joey dueling (we saw the back of his head), so it's canon that all of them were in the same class. It's possible that Mokuba could have met some of his brother's classmates, but that's really reaching, especially considering how friendly Kaiba could be back then.

Wow. I knew that the Ties of Friendship card was the one Yugi gave to Rebecca. I didn't know how Pegasus came into it (besides creating the game). Interesting. So my main question of the week is why Pegasus chose to give it to Yugi when he didn't have to, and why Yugi chose to give Rebecca *that* card. The first part of this is perhaps the trickier. There was its being a pricelessly rare card and therefore a fitting tournament prize. However, nothing was said about this at any point beforehand even though it *would* have certainly been a prize to vie for. It seems to me that Pegasus decided at the last minute to give Yugi this card, out of the goodness of his heart ("Who would have thought that you even *had* a heart…"), or perhaps out of admiration for Yugi. After all, the card is called "The Ties of Friendship". I wouldn't be surprised if it were *inspired* by Yugi's adventure in Duelist Kingdom, because throughout he showed every opponent he faced, demonstrated to every person he encountered through his actions and his victories, that honor and friendship make all the difference, including Pegasus. But, when was the Ties of Friendship card was created? When did Pegasus have both the time and the insight? Here's my theory (and it might even be possible): throughout Duelist Kingdom, Pegasus enjoyed the show, it's safe to say. One thing I've noticed about Pegasus, simply in the variety and care with which his game is created, with inspiration from science fiction, fairy tales, cartoons, comic books; mythology from all corners of the globe, including Norse (Zigfried's cards), Indian (Noah's cards), and Egyptian (well, duh…), well, I've noticed that, in his book, great stories make great cards. I'm not really sure if I put that right, but anyway, despite his surety that Yugi's quest would end in defeat, it was still a quest that would make a great card. What if Pegasus made the Ties of Friendship card during Duelist Kingdom, while he still was against Yugi, just because of that, because it was an admirable, though futile, tale? And in the end, he decided to give the card to Yugi. That's what I'm going with for now. It kinda reminds me of that theory I had a while back about the Legendary Gambler (Tomb of the Nameless Pharaoh), and what leads to me writing a poem; I think it's much the same. Perhaps that's why it's so easy to write poetry about Pegasus.

"No scarf." I wrote that down regarding something in the episode, I'm not really sure why I wrote that down, but I'm trying to figure it out. Until then, no scarf.

Kaiba's smiling…Kaiba's actually smiling… that's so sweet, and yet it's somehow extremely disconcerting to see Kaiba smiling in a way that conveys anything other than "you're goin' down".

"I've been called many things through the ages" No, really? And by the way, doofus that I am, I only now know that Yu-Gi-Oh! is the name of the show because it's a canon name for Atem. I never knew that before. And, by the way, whatever happened to the name "Yami"? It kinda fell out of use halfway or so through Battle City. I'd always used it because it was shorter to type, but now it's so very strange to hear it said. Anyway, yeah. Different names. Also on that same thread, how does he remember being called anything else, when he essentially just sat around in the Puzzle for five millennia deep inside a very dangerous tomb? And isn't this the first time anyone's ever mentioned that Atem was, or may have been, a Pharaoh? I know Shadi was foreshadowing like crazy last week, saying that the labyrinth of Atem's mind seemed to convey the feeling of an ancient tomb, along with any number of facts mentioned, such as the reiteration of the prologue ("Long ago, when the Pyramids were still young…"), and I think he mentioned that in ancient times the Dark Magician answered to the Pharaoh alone, but for some reason he heeded
Yugi. I also keep wondering why Atem's been known as "Yami", when there's a card by that name that changes the field to darkness and grants f.p.b's to monsters that thrive there.

Rebecca's eight. Okay, gotcha. Only character in the original, I believe, with a canon age. Yup. Goes nicely with Blair, who I think is the only canon age in GX, who's eight and a half. *Was* eight and a half, before (I maintain) she stumbled into a time warp on the way to elementary school one day and ended up growing about a foot and a half in height and six more years in age. By the way, this reminds me of a comment during KCGC, that Rebecca and Leon are the two youngest duelists ever to compete in a major-league tournament. Rebecca would have been about (does the math, or attempts to) couple years older, say, ten or eleven.

Lots and lots of Blue-Eyes White Dragons at that KaibaLand. Ask me if I'm surprised. I dare you.

Rebecca was really getting to Yugi with that cutesy act. I think, directly following Duelist Kingdom and Pegasus, Yugi was a bit offbalanced by Rebecca's seeming silliness. He had gotten so used to duels being deadly serious. In literally less than 24 hours, he goes from dueling Pegasus for the fate of the world to dueling a little girl who talks to her teddy bear. I'd also like to note that Yugi probably would have handled this situation a bit differently before Duelist Kingdom.

I noticed that Rebecca led with Witch of the Black Forest in this duel, and, I'm not entirely sure, but it's not canonly played that often. The only other time besides this one that stands out in my mind is when Yugi summoned her in the Final Duel. Just stuck out at me.

The Ties of Friendship - 4/15/07
"Great duels can lead to great and lasting friendships, because the cards are about heart...the heart of every duelist, and the Heart of the Cards."
So… when was this dig on which Mr. Moto met Hawkins? With his gray hair and considerably stronger resemblance to today's grandpa, this would have happened long after the Tomb of the Nameless Pharaoh adventure. Therefore, since that story seems to point to Mr. Moto having been at this for a while already before the flashback in this episode, I'd have to assume that he'd been out of Egypt for a while and forgot to bring the water he'd need, or something like that. Perhaps he was off exploring somewhere else, or something like that? Incidentally, that must have been quite some years ago, because Mr. Moto couldn't have gone off on a dig to Egypt if he were busy raising Yugi.

Just ask Pegasus about Duel Monsters in Egyptian history… he'd be one of the first to tell you that there absolutely IS a connection: the game was *inspired* by the Egyptian shadow games!!

"So the stories I heard are true." I asked myself, which stories, and promptly answered myself, Pegasus told Yugi some information about the Millennium Items at a couple points ("Why? Simply because I *need you to know.*"), and Shadi told Yugi some more in Aftermath.

I noticed that they did something very interesting with Millennium Battle here; it was a time in the episode when it kept shifting between Yugi and Rebecca's duel and flashbacks to Mr. Moto and
Hawkins' duel. The Millennium Battle was during Yugi and Rebecca's duel, and different music was for the flashbacks.

"You valued the card not for its rarity, but for what it represents: the bond between us." I think that that is the other part of my question; when Yugi received The Ties of Friendship, it was nothing more than a rare card (though I wonder about Pegasus). Yugi decides that the way to truly make it special, to put this gift to good use, is to share it with someone who needs it. Like Rebecca, who didn't understand how cards could be more than ink on paper. By giving her that card, Yugi showed her how much a simple card could mean, ripped or whole, when it's a token of friendship. I'm not sure if that makes any sense, even to me.

Okay, so next week are Legendary Heroes I and II, and GX's Jewel of a Duel II! `Til then, that's all, folks! -Clio

Legendary Heroes I - 4/21/07
"I gotta hand it to your brother; this virtual sand, it tastes just like real sand."
The Big Five are now easily distinguishable. I wonder if by now it had been clearer where these characters were headed. One of ‘em was even called by name: Johnson.

Kaiba is *really* excited about this virtua-pod; usually he’d think this over a bit more. Then again, it is, in fact, canon that he had been working on this technology even since Gozaburo’s day. I think it’s mentioned in Isolated in Cyberspace II or so: “I wouldn’t call it *Noah’s* forest, Mokuba…”

Perhaps the game was reprogrammed to attack the person who summoned Blue-Eyes White Dragon. That was when everything seemed to start going wrong, and it *was* the perfect trap (a Dragon Capture Jar) for a Blue-Eyes.

Kemo is back. If I had to guess, I’d say that he was in the employ of KaibaCorp and was temporarily loaned for Duelist Kingdom or something. Since the Big Five were in league with Pegasus, it’s not terribly far-fetched, especially if that crazy theory of mine in the Aftermath post is true at all: that Pegasus had to come up with a plan to get both the Millennium Items and the holographic technology at the same time, perhaps due to a shortage of the funds necessary for both separately. So anyway, my basis for thinking that Kemo was originally a KaibaCorp employee who was loaned as a thug at Duelist Kingdom is that, for one thing, here he is now, and for another, Mokuba addresses him by name in Everything’s Relative. This could be for the same reason Mokuba might, say, know Croquet’s name, but, for the other reason, I’m inclined to think this.

They don’t need to capture Mokuba, Mokuba will come to them—after all, they have the bait. Sound familiar? I observe that in a weird sort of way the roles are reversed; this time Mokuba has to walk into a trap to save his brother. Except this time it turns out a bit better.

I love how Yugi exactly imitates Mokuba’s backflip when they summon monsters in the graveyard. That’s just kinda cute.

Legendary Heroes II - 4/21/07
“-Gooo, Drumsticks!
-Uh, guys? Joey named his chicken.
-It's a Niwatori, Mai.
-Whatever..."
Mai knows Mokuba? When did *that* happen? Mai wasn’t around for Everything’s Relative, and she’d left by the time they’d even gotten his empty shell back. Hang on. Yes, Mai *does* know who Mokuba is—in Champion vs. Creator I, she was one of the spectators when Kaiba almost had to duel him.

The Big Five probably picked Mai because she wasn’t obviously connected to either of the Kaiba Bros. They didn’t think that, if she did know what was going on, she would help. Little did they know that Mokuba would get Yugi and Joey, both of whom are pals with Mai.

“Watch where you’re going, Joey! Ugh, that doofus will do *anything* to meet a girl. I guess he realizes *I’m* way out of his league.” Man, I love that line.

Same music used when Jaden and Syrus dueled the Paradox Bros, I noticed. I don’t believe that they use that sort of…I can’t think how to put it, but it’s distinctive…music in the original Double Trouble Duel (it never stood out at me if they did), but they played it in Tag Team Trial (“Salutations, you fools.”/ “Hope you’re ready to duel.”) and they played it right when they first encountered the maze in this episode.

I have a thing or two to say about the Witty Phantom. If the source I got this from can be trusted (ha! That’s a good one! *No!*) then Witty Phantom is one of the few characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! that Darren Dunstan plays besides Pegasus. I have my theories about Sparkman in The Maiden in Love, but anyway. What really strikes me about the Witty Phantom is that, just in his manner and slightly in his voice, he bears some resemblance *to* Pegasus. Due to recent events, it is a known fact that one way to really, really put Kaiba on edge is to mention Duelist Kingdom. It’s not too far-fetched to say that he is, at least in some sense, afraid of Pegasus because Pegasus is one of the very few ever to have power over him. Similarly to how Adena’s resemblance to Mokuba is a complement, I think that Witty Phantom’s resemblance to Pegasus is, if not a conscious decision on Kaiba’s part, a subtle insight into what, even before Duelist Kingdom, the designer—Kaiba—considered a villain to be.

“Stranger from a distant land” must be codename for “player” or something. Mokuba, with his knowledge of the game, would then know that if an NPC (non-player character, controlled by the computer) mentioned a “stranger from a distant land”, they meant a player character, such as Kaiba.

Couple things I noticed about Joey in this episode. I’m trying to think how to put it. He seems to be enjoying the game, and seems to “fit” into it the most. I mean, they all do in different ways, Yugi has a fairy in his hair and Mokuba has a…clone…but Joey really seems to be enjoying this game, it seems in a way attuned to him. I’m reminded of a couple things over the years that have made me wonder if there’s some sort of subtle symbolistic connection between Joey and Kaiba. I mean, it’s plain to anyone with eyes that they don’t much like each other and on the outside are quite different, but as the two runners-up, they both have places in the grand adventure, in the puzzle Pegasus spoke of in The Final Journey, right beside Yugi and Atem themselves. Both are Yugi’s rivals but also his friends; Kaiba, I suppose, tends to more often consider himself and be considered a rival, and Joey, more often than not, is just Yugi’s friend. Both tend to act tough and stand up for others, which is amazingly admirable but what sets Yugi himself apart from this trio is that he doesn’t really need to act tough to stand up for others; just being himself is plenty. Both challenged for the Final Duel in The Final Journey, and dealt with the rejection in different ways, but I notice that night that both of them spent a lot of that time thinking. I’m kinda grasping at straws and I have little clue what I’m saying, but I know it’s something even though I can’t quite tell what. I’ll keep folks posted. My point is, I guess, that the reason Joey seemed somewhat attuned to this game is because he and the guy who made it, namely Kaiba, are sort of like two sides of the same coin. Of course, I wouldn’t want to be the one to break it to either of them.
Oh. On that point, I wanted to note, silly fur suit aside, that his friends got nifty armor but Joey got a special costume—the traditional garb of the national hero. I’m not really sure whether to theorize that this is an example of the game being attuned to Joey, that it gave him the outfit of the national hero, or to say that it would be typical of Kaiba to program the game to give Joey a caveman suit.

Legendary Heroes III - 4/28/07
"According to legend, when heroes are united, they will create a power strong enough to destroy the Mythic Dragon. We will fulfill that prophecy, now!"
Witty Phantom said “His disguise didn’t fool us”, while all along we were thinking that the monsters meant to grab Adena and accidentally grabbed Mokuba (which was what Mokuba intended). Perhaps they were reprogrammed to go after Mokuba, and they would have grabbed him anyway even if he hadn’t switched with Adena?

“*Any*one else!” That’s so hilarious. Kaiba really does not want to accept Yugi’s help, at all, but I think that he knows that Mokuba was very smart to go to Yugi; despite everything, or perhaps because of it, Yugi is a known ally. He has the talent and ability necessary to win the game, and he’d be unlikely to turn Mokuba away. Yugi was the right choice; Kaiba just really doesn’t want to admit it.

Kaiba sure owes Joey for that one! He said that he never asked for Joey’s help and never needed it, but Joey got himself digitized *protecting* *Mokuba*!!!! Surely Kaiba will at least say thank you for *that*!
I wanted to note that last time Harpie’s Pet Dragon was in play, Mai surrendered to Yugi’s Black Luster Soldier. Here, Pet Dragon protected Soldier. Kind of an interesting connection.