Predictions and Observations:
The Intruder II

Mana (pronounced MAWN-uh; could also be spelled Manna, Mahna, Manah, Manha, Monna, Monnah…), Yami’s childhood friend. Manna is a likely spelling, only because ‘Manna,’ in some mythology and lore, is mystical strength, the power or life force to cast spells, which this girl seems to have in abundance as a budding sorceress. She reminded me of, more than anyone else, Dark Magician Girl. It’s in the way she moves, the peculiar design of her headdress-thing and her hair itself, the collar of her dress, the shade of her magical power…There’s a connection, I’m quite sure.

We learned a lot about Mahad. A LOT. To me it seemed obvious that they were setting him up for a tragedy to occur, but that’s only one person’s opinion, and I’m not giving up yet. We learned that Mahad is VERY dedicated to Yami, because they were friends as children, and despite higher status, Yami was never above helping whenever his friends needed him. According to Mahad, several incidents like the snake flashback occurred, because he says that Yami always protected *him* far more than he has ever protected Yami. We learn that Mahad is very cautious, in what he says to Yami after asking him to come inside. However, we’ve seen him act hastily and rashly in battle, when he lost his temper at Bakura and Master Seto had to hold him back from attacking again. He is very loyal, very brave, as we can see by his intentionally drawing Bakura into a duel with him, knowing that he will probably not return, well, intact, for the sake of protecting Yami, as well as the rest of the kingdom, which is also important to him, as we can see from the scene in the street where he promises that little kid that he’ll keep Bakura away, and swears to Bakura that he will not let him anywhere near the kingdom. I also noticed that in Isis’ vision, it showed Dark Magician, of all monsters, in a climactic struggle with Bakura’s Diabound. Now that I think of it, I think there may be a connection between Dark Magician and Mahad. For some reason, Mahad’s sort of, well, presence reminds me a bit of Yugi’s Dark Magician. He’s very magically powerful, mature and dignified, loyal and dependable. Maybe it’s something in the appearance, too. I think there may be meant to draw some parallels. I’ll keep a close eye on this and keep everyone posted.

I think that in this episode it was positively screamed in our ears that there’s something between Mahad and Isis. It’s just something about how they acted around each other, or the atmospheric change when they were together. Also remember that Isis had difficulty working the Millennium Necklace until she saw visions of what was to happen to Mahad. Present logic, if the Millennium Items follow such things (which they don’t, especially not the Millennium Necklace, whose visions usually don’t fully make sense right away), dictates that this may have been because Isis was trying hardest to see the outcome of Mahad’s plan, because she was worried about him.

I think it’s rather ominous, though, how Isis says that in her vision Mahad comes back. Is this reassurance, or a warning? She doesn’t specify *how* Mahad returns: Shadow-Realmmed? Evil? Dead? Worse? She was trying to keep Mahad from going, so by this statement, is she telling him, ‘Bakura won’t just destroy you, he’ll turn you against us so don’t do this’ or has she accepted it and is saying, ‘you’ll make it, you will win’?

Like Joey said, why isn’t Shadi helping find the door? Did he mean by ‘guiding them,’ keeping them away from the really dangerous, shadow-magicky traps? Then again, he needed *Yugi’s* help when *he* went exploring in the Millennium Puzzle before, so I don’t really see what he’s done besides get them all there.

Yami doesn’t know what his relationship was with the Sacred Court, but we really do. See, the first thing to realize is that Yami was the same person before he was ‘replaced’ as after; they’re the same person, the same Pharaoh from five-thousand years ago. To discover what relationship Yami had with the Court, you only need to look at the relationship he currently has with them. They all care about him, and not just because it’s their job. He wonders about such things as this, because he respects and is concerned for them also. He didn’t change; he just thinks that he replaced someone else, but really he replaced himself, and they’re both the same and react the same. All Yami needs to do is look inside and realize that what he would do, namely make friends with them instead of them being servants, is what the other Yami would have done as well. Technically, if we get into temporal matters, when Yami went into the past, in the past he had already been there and so therefore there *was* no other Yami past the point where he entered the past because the future Yami took his place, but that means that the other Yami was in that place before, so therefore Yami *did* take the place of someone in the past, but that would have meant that the past happened differently then it now has happened already and is in progress of being shown. That made no sense, did it? My brain hurts; I love debating Time. I’ll try again. In theory, in the present day, Yami already went to the Ancient Past, because it was in the past and therefore already happened. Therefore, in the past, at the moment where Yami entered it, the scene on the balcony, he was not replacing his past self, because at that point his past self yielded to his future self and his future self became one in the same with his past self. In other words, in the past, Yami was already there, like I said before, because it’s in the past, and by the time the present rolls around it’s already happened, so therefore, Yami is already supposed to enter the time stream of things in the moment on the balcony, and does, because it’s already happened. So therefore, if his entering the past already happened, his leaving the future already happened or was fated to happen, making temporal theories a basis for the idea of Fate. But that’s another story, of course. Isn’t watching someone’s brain chase itself in metaphorical tiny circles fun? Anyway, what was I talking about? Ah, yes: Yami and his past self are one in the same guy, so Yami just has to think of what he would have been like before, and to look around and see that these people are truly on his side, to know that they are his friends.

I’ve been thinking—if evil monsters lurk in the hateful hearts of criminals, do nice creatures reside in the strong and pure hearts of those in the fight for good? I mean to say, hate is a strong emotion of the heart, but so, then, is love. It’s possible that these creatures thrive where the heart is powerful, not only if it’s blazing with rage, but the Sacred Court have never seen it. This theory would add to my hypothesis about dueling spirits a few weeks ago, as well as explain a few things. For one, some monsters I very much doubt ever chose to be harbored by evildoers, but were obviously there. Like for example Dark Magician. He’s clearly Yami’s signature monster (the Tablet…), and perhaps, it seems, Mahad’s too, and you wonder if there’s a reason for that shared monster, but anyway, Dark Magician is a conscious and usually beneficent monster, and he would not, I believe, have moved a discontent citizen to acts of badness before then being captured. So if that’s so, how was he summoned? It’s possible that those strong of heart and will who are fighting for good also have monsters within them. I cite the fact that, like I said before, Mahad bears a strange resemblance to Dark Magician, Mana to Dark Magician Girl, and because Kaiba has such a strong relationship to Blue-Eyes, Master Seto has, or will have, a similar one with the dragon. This brings up the matter of Kisara, whom we didn’t find ANYthing out about, and that’s a bit annoying, but I’m digressing. Anyway, if Bakura, as he clearly seems able to, controls the monster rather than it controlling him, then we’ve found our Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes theory, where some duel monsters are not summoned from a prison.

Bakura (Ancient Bakura, Present-day Yami Bakura) says that he has a special (shall we say) connection to the Millennium Ring. What could this be? We’ve now, I believe, decided that he is not a spirit that resides within the Millennium Ring, because of his ability to exist outside of it and chase Present-Day-Good-Bakura in Tomb of the Nameless Pharaoh. So, what *is* this connection? He keeps saying that it once belonged to him (Spiritual Awakening; The Intruder II). What does he mean that he is *destined* to have them all? Is it just big talk?

What makes Yami realize that he was actually sent back in time?

Why can no one else see the pyramid in the sky? What does it have to do with anything?

What makes Master Seto start to wonder whether this is the Chosen Pharaoh? I mean, like was said in The Intruder I, only the Chosen Pharaoh can summon the Egyptian Gods, and Yami just did, so everyone would have known he was when he summoned Obelisk back there, not after the duel. Is something causing Master Seto unease about this? Does he think that Yami is an impostor, or that there’s more to him than meets the eye? Are there other requirements to be the Chosen Pharaoh that we don’t know yet, and Master Seto’s thinking of whether Yami fits those and finding that he does? Can he just not believe it?

Next week’s episode is The Makings of a Magician, an apparent one-parter. Yikes! Whatever happens, one of them makes short work of the other! Just for the record, the WB site still thinks that we have two episodes, and so they give us on the schedule one episode from Yu-Gi-Oh! and one from something else. This week’s ‘second’ episode: “Attack of the Slugoon Platoon!” Riiight… Okay, the duel takes a turn for the very weird….

I think we’re beginning to see how come there arises a situation where Master Seto and Yami duel with the fate of the world at stake. I find this plan for an army of shadow monsters ominous indeed. If Mahad does indeed lose the duel, then grief in the wake of the incident would make a plan where no more of them fell because their monsters fought for them, a plan likely to defeat Bakura, however extreme, very appealing. However, such a plan would be dangerous, requiring them to battle several more powerful shadow monsters to create this army, and an immoral one especially if they realize that Bakura’s rage is so strong because he was given such misery by whatever happened at Kal’elna and decide to do the same thing to other people in order to create stronger monsters.

Speaking of Kal’elna, we’re being hinted to, but not all at once. This is what we’ve found out so far: Kal’elna was the village in which Bakura once lived. There, former Pharaoh Akhnonkannan undertook the creation of the seven Millennium Items, doing untold damage or disservice to the villagers. After the project was completed, the village was completely destroyed, burned off the face of the Earth, inhabitants included except for one: Bakura escaped, and has since been seeking revenge against this untold injustice. This is what I’ve gathered. If anyone has anything to add, please do.

The big question: who will win? Calculating for standard duels, I think the big four are Skill, Plot, Endurance, and the Heart (of the Cards). As far as Skill goes, we’ve seen that Mahad was not too bad a duelist in Bakura vs. the Sacred Court, but he lacked the cool head that Master Seto had. He was the one who wanted to attack again even though his monster would probably get destroyed. In everyday life he is cautious, but we’ve seen that he can be rash and quick to anger in a crisis. He doesn’t seem too experienced, but then, back then a real duel, like the one about to happen, seems to have been far more rare. As for endurance, I would rate him high, but Bakura possibly higher. As far as the Heart, he is ahead in every sense: He’s fighting to help people, and Bakura only to hurt them; he’s fighting to protect the people and things he cares about- Yami, Isis, and the rest of the Sacred Court, Mana, the little kid in the street who asked if they would keep them safe from Bakura; he’s willing to take Bakura down or have who-knows-what happen to him trying! THAT is having the Heart on your side. Plot is the big downer on this. Like I said before, this episode has given us a closer look at Mahad, really given us a reason to care about him. This is standard setup to kill a character off or have something bad happen to them. I could always be wrong, but it seemed a bit too obvious. Secondly, Isis’ vision- she didn’t want Mahad to go through with this, because what she saw must have been bad. Mahad also seems to know what lies ahead, and asks her not to tell him what’s going to happen to him, and asks her to keep an eye on Yami (implying that he won’t be there to). Then throw in the fact that Bakura named Mahad as his target and I wouldn’t be surprised if he subtly manipulated Mahad’s heart into needing to take Bakura down or who-knows-what trying. I cite Bakura’s picking Mahad out of the others and telling him not to get too attached to the Millennium Ring, and then Bakura’s appearance outside town while Mahad is surveying the damage Bakura did. These subtle things would perhaps make Mahad feel like he was the target, and therefore had to get away from the city to keep it safe, to make Bakura follow, and the poignancy of the city in ruins coupled with seeing the evil person who did this just out of his reach in the distance would also spark a desire to take action at all costs. Therefore, taking into account that Bakura was expecting something like this, or even exactly this, from Mahad, makes it likely that Mahad will not triumph. However, throw in against Bakura’s side that Diabound, as far as we know, hasn’t sucked up any more Blue-Eyeses and is not as strong as Obelisk anymore, Bakura is playing in Mahad’s cave, on Mahad’s turf, and against a sorcerer more powerful than any (known) in the world. Mahad is actually GLOWING with power. And Isis did say he comes back…Plot may be against, but I’m not counting Mahad out just yet! I won’t give up!

I think this is it, so like I said, next week is The Making of a Magician, but I’ll be posting tomorrow on the new GX! Yaaaay! Party! The episode: Courting Alexis! ‘Til then, that’s all, folks! As always, if I need to clarify anything in this, just let me know, I’m happy to, and I love to discuss this stuff so please discuss with me, it’s fun!!! -Clio