Observations:
The Final Duel IV

I can’t exactly call them ‘predictions’ anymore, except as where they’ll go from here, but there are still plenty of observations to be made.

Well, here’s a prediction: Jaden’s going to have his work cut out for him. I mean, Yugi just took down all three Egyptian Gods singlehandedly and in one move, defeated his most trusted and beloved monster, and what impressed me most was that even when it really hit him what the end of the duel would mean, he still was able to call out his final attack. I think it’s quite hard to imagine anyone, even one so amazing as Jaden, taking Yugi down at this point. I’m sure I’ll be proven wrong all too soon, but right now I think Jaden, while cool in his own right, has nothing on Yugi.

I’m still curious about the carvings in the Abandoned Dorm of the Millennium Items, especially in light of the Millennium Items’ finding their eternal rest as well.

So… GX chronology anyone? To go by what we have, and now we know that it’s just Yugi and he would no longer have the Puzzle, I’d say that it’s been, oh, a few years between, for the following reasons: Yugi’s voice changes, apparently, between Yu-Gi-Oh! and GX, and he grows quite a bit, because when Jaden runs into him he’s basically indistinguishable from Atem as far as we see (we don’t see his eyes, and we can say with certainty that Yugi, once he’d have grown a bit more, would be indistinguishable from Atem, because they’re two sides of the same soul and all, equal in every way). In that time period, not too much more could have happened and apparently no more tournaments. Apparently things settled down after Atem left and the Millennium Items weren’t around and there were no more big scary evils to fight. In that few-year period of relative quiet, it would not have been widely-known that Yugi no longer had the Millennium Puzzle. This fits what we know from The Next King of Games, The King of Copycats, and other episodes in which I wondered about this. Oddly enough, the real wrench in the works is Kaiba, who seems to have changed dramatically; he knew Chazz would defeat Slade, even with such a penalty; the card he made, in his own image, that uses his same deck, including his three most treasured cards (and in this symbolistic show, you have to bet he’s behind it, not just that Kaibaman isn’t quite a chip off the old block) taught Jaden not to fear defeat, when…well, we all remember the Battle City finals… Anyway, my point is that I think this experience drastically changed Kaiba’s perspective. I just daydreamed someone asking Kaiba how he knew that Chazz would win, and Kaiba replying that he didn’t; he’s seen someone defeat all three Egyptian Gods at once, simply through believing that he could and knowing how to play his cards. If Duel Academy was worth saving, it had that potential too. I dunno. He’s been through Duelist Kingdom, Battle City, and everything else. You’d think that he’d have realized that long before now, but the evidence showed that he really hadn’t. But apparently now he has. Maybe it took Yugi’s victory and Atem’s departure to really show him what dueling is all about. He didn’t seem any different, but we all know that he’d hide it.

What about Yugi’s deck, the one going on tour? I’ll check, I think Dimitri’s moves are mostly the two magicians, but I’ll take a look, ’cause I happen to have those recorded at the moment. I can understand Yugi keeping Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl in his deck, among others, because after all they’re his most-trusted monsters too, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if when/if (no, when! When, darn it!) we get a chance to see him duel in GX we see Silent Swordsman, Silent Magician, Gandora, Marshmelon (by the way, the pronunciation’s changed again…), and those weird building-block monsters and gear-monsters of his.

The thumbs-up and Monster Reborn. I couldn’t help but be reminded of some early GX. Remember in The Next King of Games, when Jaden thanks him, Yugi just gives a thumbs-up, and walks away. I wonder if they’re symbolically similar? And as for Monster Reborn, it plays such an instrumental role in some of Jaden’s early duels that I had wondered if it might be a bit of a signature card for him. Among other incidents, it was the card he drew right before his duel with Chazz in Welcome to Duel Academy was cut short.

Golden Sarcophagus—as Tea said herself, major symbolism there. It’s what brought them together, and it represents their bond to some extent. And it continues to represent that, carrying Yugi’s deck after he assembled it for this duel with all the strategy and strength Atem taught him, and carrying the card that Yugi knew that Atem would play. It represents their bond even as it allows them to separate, because it was their teamwork and how much they care about one another that made this possible.

I had been wondering about Yugi’s poker face there. I was stunned and startled that he was able to keep it together that well considering what a win would result in. But I think I get it now: just like Joey said, he was having the time of his life, and like Yugi said himself he was too focused on dueling. I think it shows how far Yugi’s come as well as who he’s always been that he duels with such heart that he forgets his own emotions in favor of his opponent’s emotions and his goal. Now I just creeped myself out, remembering the Face Off duel, in which the reason Kaiba is still intact today is that Yugi would not allow the goal to overwhelm his conscience. But I think that if put in the same situation today Yugi would still have saved Kaiba. I’m not sure how to say it exactly.

Oh, the metaphor. I couldn’t help but feel like the characters’ reactions were mimicking my own. I was thinking the same thing when Tea mentioned the symbolism of the Golden Sarcophagus and Gandora, it was kind of ironic that she actually mentioned it. I was a bit disappointed, the ending was rather anticlimactic (which Joey mentioned; I was expecting fireworks and sappy music too). I just couldn’t believe that it was over, even as it stared me right in the face.

Some more poetry (which of them haven’t I posted yet…? I think this is the only one I haven’t…):
Riddle:
My brow is a seer,
My forehead a spy,
My features are stone,
With nine eyes, seven wise
My left hand unlocks and
My right hand controls
Both my heart and my knees
Merge together two souls
Great spirits reside
In both stomach and heart
But when I am whole they
Must with these shells part.
Speak loud one word when
I’m as I should be,
If you seek soul’s release
I’m the lock to the key.
Name me.

I feel like I should say more. Something to commemorate the end of what has been part of my lifestyle for the past two years. I first fell in love with the show watching some early Battle City reruns in Summer 2003, when I was thirteen years old. I began to watch it more regularly, enchanted by a world in which loving what you do makes anything possible, in which friendship conquers all. By August, I was hooked, and I vividly remember anticipating the conclusion to Friends ‘til the End over the weekend of August 16th, my thoughts returning to asking what would happen now that Yugi had given Joey the Millennium Puzzle whenever they were idle. As I began my freshman year of high school that Fall, I confess that Yu-Gi-Oh! sustained me as I struggled to adjust to more work and everything I’d loved changing and growing. Now, even as the show comes to the end, I ask myself why mourn the final page of the script, when the production has hardly begun? We may know the whole story, but for us it will never truly be over. I identify with what Joey said: what we learned from this show and its characters, what made it magical for us, isn’t going anywhere, and never will. And when it gets down to it, I’m glad to have known this show at all, to have been a part of all of this. And I’m glad to have done so alongside my friends in the groups I’m in here online. Thank you for predicting with me and for being patient with me. In light of the end I feel those thanks are in order. But of course I’ll still be predicting for more GX in the Fall (and there had better be some…). No new episodes known as of yet, but I’ll keep checking for anything and let everyone know. For now, that’s all, folks. -Clio