SHIVERS!!! I never thought I’d actually say the stupid word, but even though this duel was FAR from the dancing hippos to the dazzling divas, this match was freaking insane and I loved every minute of it. Everything about this episode was epic, and it just continues the to raise the bar for the big fights to happen in the future. I mean, that final strike man- Eternal Avenger was simply beautiful to watch. 
Shun’s rage and despair has no limit. Today we saw just how much anger he had towards Academia, and if you thought Sora VS Shun was ugly, well this one (as expected) was even more brutal. What I have always loved about Shun’s deck is how it is built around the memories of his city and fallen comrades. Everything we have seen from his deck reflects their struggles, being outnumbered, their grief and their anger. It is precisely what makes his duels so exciting and intense to watch. I would be have been livid if he had been defeated by Dennis (ESPECIALLY IF IT WAS BECAUSE OF AN ACTION CARD- I SWEAR TO GOD I WAS READY TO FLIP THE DESK EVERY TIME DENNIS TRIED TO GRAB ONE) simply because Dennis is the ultimate betrayer. 
He tried to mess with him psychologically by shamelessly sharing how he was involved with Ruri’s abduction, how he befriended her, how he was the one who initiated the city’s destruction since he had found her- and my God guys, Heartland was absolutely in shambles. The scale of the disaster was heart-wrenching to see. I also wanted to see Shun punch him in the face, which we almost got but was interrupted by the guard. I was however, immensely relieved that Reiji had made the modification to both Shun’s and Yuuto’s duel disk to prevent them from turning anyone else into cards. I was seriously worried about Shun being painted as the bad guy had he been able to do that to Dennis. But the saddest part about all of this, is the anger is consuming both Yuuto and Shun. They were on the path to becoming no different than Academia by carding their comrades in return. The only difference between them is how their mind is interpreting their actions. Academia is all about the “hunting game” and Shun and Yuuto were all about seeking vengeance. Yuuto tried to communicate with Yuuya, wanting him to sympathize with his anger.
Yuuya however reacted maturely. Yes, he was angry, but he was more sad. Now mind you, he wasn’t sad because of Dennis’ betrayal, he was sad by how Academia has tainted dueling. Academia has stripped away the joy of simple, harmless games from Heartland, and turned it into a weapon for war. He told Yuuto that he understands his anger, and he doesn’t blame him for it, but tells him they need to end it in a different way. Once again, he vows to find his own way of ending the Dimensional War. I applaud Yuuya for even having the ability to find that optimism within him despite the fact, a lot of us (and Reiji of course) still consider it a naive thought. It is going to be a very difficult mountain to climb, but I do look forward to seeing how Yuuya will further evolve as an individual by experiencing more self-discovery, keeping his promise with Yuuto to make people smile, and ultimately, how he plans to make his method work, because ending a war with simply a show is obviously not going to happen.
We finally got to see Ruri though (ironically when I had least expected it), and my goodness she is GORGEOUS (YAY FOR LONG HAIR!). She, like Selena has dark purple hair, and honestly out of all the girls, she is most identical to Yuzu- which back-ups why Yuuto and Shun had mistaken her as Ruri. One of the bitter moments of the flashback was how it showed us Dennis tried to pull the same trick with Yuzu as he did with Ruri, since he had almost successfully done so back in the Standard Realm (bless Yuugo for his timely arrival).
The storm have now officially arrived to the Synchro Realm, and while the board wants nothing to do it with “they want to maintain peace within the city” they said, “they would prefer they didn’t bring the dimensional war to their world” they said- well tough luck you delusional geezers. Academia doesn’t give two shits about what you want, they will invade when they want to invade- and guess what? Jean-Rogers isn’t going to sit back and wait, since Dennis’ cover has been blown, he is rolling his plan into motion as we speak (and we know the bombs is about to drop next week since Sora is there too). What a bunch of fucking idiots. Reiji gave them way too much credit.
Jean-Rogers was quite annoyed to see Dennis reveal his affiliation with Academia. I thought perhaps it would potentially spoil his plans, but instead, it looks like he will be acting sooner than scheduled. The preview indicates the security blowing up the doors and invading the board room to proceed overthrowing the board’s authority. In the mean time, we know Jack isn’t staying still either, I could sense he was feeling restless by how the duel had escalated too. I do wonder how Jack will act from here on out. Since the board will be overthrown, I imagine he will take this matter into his own hands. Since there is no Fudo Yusei in this world, who is next in line to have the duty to protect the city?
The King, Jack Atlas.
This was an amazing episode! My heart was beating so fast, i really couldn’t tell who was going to win. Shun actually handled the duel better than i thought. I thought he would lose after dennis revealed he helped in the capture of his sister but he didn’t go into full rage mode and lose his composure like i expected. That’s what usually happens when the duelist is riled up and then the enemy takes them down while in that state.
At long freaking last! Ruri’s appearance is finally revealed, i thought that maybe her hair would be a yellowly colour because there seems to be a trend among Yuzu’s counterparts that their bracelet colours match their hair colours. But it makes more sense for Ruri’s hair to be a darker shade of purple considering Shun has a darker hair design.
Although you could still form a pattern by saying that each yuzu counterparts eyecolour shows what colour bead the next one will have. Yuzu’s blue eyes and Selena’s blue bracelet, Selena’s green eyes and Rin’s green bracelet, Rin’s yellow eyes and Ruri’s bracelet, Ruri’s pink eyes and finally back to Yuzu’s bracelet.
Yuya does have a naive thought of trying to end this war without losing lives, but it will be interesting to find out how he plans to achieve this. I think sticking to your ideals no matter how seemingly silly or naive makes for a way more interesting and moral character.
Neither did I. I was so freaking anxious about the bloody Action Cards- I just wanted it to wrap up ASAP. Those five strikes felt like they were taking years, and I was dreading Dennis turning the tables to his victory because of the stupid Action Cards. Thank goodness there was too much chaos to allow him to get his hands on any.
I too thought her hair color would be different, but at the same time I am glad it’s closer to Shun’s so that we can see the physical traits they share as siblings. If anything Selena probably should’ve had a different color, but it’s not a big deal anyhow. I wonder what her deck is. I figured at first maybe birds like her brother, but then the wings made me think maybe a Fairy deck.
I am really liking the pace regarding Yuuya’s character development. Sometimes we have to be very patient, but for this arc, it has certainly paid off because we are seeing serious development of maturity and resolve. Being able to understand and experience the anger and hurt Yuuto has towards Academia, along with his own problems, it is truly allowing him to grow at a consistent pace. Yuuya is probably by far the only main characters to undergo such unique and intriguing character development which is allowing him to be fleshed out thoroughly along with his flaws. Or rather in general, it has been a long time since I have watched a (long running) show where the main character isn’t constantly being protected by a plot-armor or lacks flaws.
I agree with you about his character development, it is by far the most interesting of all the yugioh protagonists. Even though i loved 5ds and Yusei, in terms of character development i hardly felt there was any for him, i mean he treasured his friends from the very beginning and the only change i saw really was that he started believing in fate more towards the end, i could be wrong but… i don’t quite see what needed to change in Yusei other than maybe not obsessing over getting his duel runner faster. Yuya is likable from the start like Yusei but does stuff that makes us want to bash our heads in from time to time, his funny playful side is really fun, his stubbornness both a blessing and infuriating but i’m actually INTERESTED as to how he’ll grow further.
I think Ruri’s deck will be something to do with Angels because Kotori from Zexal had a fairy deck (i think you stopped early didn’t you? I basically went through it all and was pleasantly surprised that it got better towards the end. But yeah, it was the weakest series) and they try and avoid repeating deck themes from previous series. They could do birds love make them feminine like using doves but if they want a really unique deck i think the angel theme will suit her better.
I did indeed like this episode how it implied the moment Dennis summoned his fusion he was immediately doomed for failure. When he tried so desperately to get an action card he constantly missed and even stated “After dropping my entertainer persona the actions cards have abandoned me”. Also what I didn’t like was when Dennis was trying to make an excuse saying “it wasn’t my fault I just happen to run into your sister therefore starting this whole mess” he even called it a hunting game.
I find Shun about to card Dennis completely understandable based as how Dennis was not only responsibility for Ruri’s kidnapping but has starting the Heartland genocide. However this leads to what the title calls “The Curse of the Rebels” where it’s shown that Reiji tampered with his duel disk to prevent him from carding him which pisses him off even more as it not only screws his chance of getting at vengeance a second time it becomes a more possible threat for him later on like what happen with Sora. Overall, the Xyz Dimension have it completely bad with Shun suffering a ton of hardships related to all this but I did wanted to punch Dennis at least and he was screwed from that.
Shun and Yuto are considered anti-heroes with Shun carding LDS staff out of assumption they were working for the Fusion Dimension and Yuto despite not wanting to hurt people, he did stated he would take drastic measure when necessary as well as shown deep hatred towards them. It was great seeing as how Yuya shown controlling the hatred of Yuto within him but in this it won’t exactly help with the thought of solely ideals can truly change the world.
As for the council, I no longer have hope for most of them showing that not only they claim they don’t want to be involve in war and rather stick to their status quo and don’t trust Reiji where they point blank saw one of their own natives using fusion yet not make any reaction whatsoever. They should know that Fusions are after them as well but all this time they never cared but used the Lancers for their own concept of entertainment until now. It basically begs the question if Synchro is even worth saving with the exception of Crow, the kids, Shinji, his friends, Yugo and ENJOY.
AKA #NotWorth.
They pretty much wasted their time in the synchro realm. The only thing that makes up for is the possibility of getting Yuzu back with the group and try to ally up with Yuugo who is also caught up with the Academia mess.
They certainly showcased how socially messed up it is in the Synchro Realm again today, and just as you said, the Board treated the Lancers as their source of entertainment, and worse of all- the audience themselves were also entertained by the violent battle between Shun and Dennis. It is quite a stark comparison when we look back at how the standard realm audience reacted during Shun VS Sora compared to the synchro audience. The Standard Realm at the very least reacted in a way which we would would expect most people to, but Synchro have no idea how real this chaos truly is, and the scary part is: most of them aren’t questioning it.
It is really too bad Shun couldn’t punch Dennis, we all wanted to see that.
I think jack shinji and crow may join the lancers that’s they only way I don’t see this being a waste
I don’t know how I feel about that to be honest. I think they will most likely stick around in their city to protect it and the people, and the “twist” if any will be Academia being the trigger to unite the Commons and Tops for the first time. At least that would make sense if it does happen because they would then have a common enemy.
[spoiler]I know that at one point the plan was for Jack and Crow to end up attacking Maiami City on a misunderstanding, but I don’t really know how that would work out now. Things are leaning in too many directions for that to work… [/spoiler]
And I STILL LOVE DENNIS AND SORA!!!
Yes, Dennis is an asshole. But above all else he’s an entertainer, even when he drops his “performer’s mask”. In a way he’s sorta the Archer to Yuya’s Shirou, they both value entertaining the crowd but their ideals and personalities (to say nothing of deck styles) causes them to do so in different ways. Where Yuya was afraid to defeat the Security officer in the Friendship Cup, Dennis would have capitalized on that right away. But where Yuya swayed the hearts of Pretty-Chef-Boy and Yuto, Dennis would have failed. In a way, I think a real duel between them would be more interesting than Yuya vs Sora, actually.
Speaking of which… I really hope Sora gets some new support because right now my Frightfur deck loses to my friend’s Ritual Beasts 9 times out of 10. *sigh*
The dumbest thing is they clearly saw a member of security using a Fusion monster against Yuya yet they make no reaction, hell the head of the council was still smiling like it was no big deal yet when they see the Shun vs Dennis fight they decide to bail out the idea without realizing their already in deep thanks to Jean. Reiji even hinted to them he was a spy and still didn’t pay attention.
It did slightly help that most of the audience did may slight reactions but it went to waste after going back to their usually mode when someone got hurt especially the loser. I always thought that since the audience wouldn’t careless what happens to the losers I don’t think would hurt any credible in Shuns part if he did card Dennis but nope Reiji needs someone to interrogate and who better than the spy he may/may not have known about especially since he literally gave him a crap ton a pendulums compared to the other Lancers that aren’t Yuya and gives the council much more in doubt of Reiji as they were already.
You got to admit what also screwed Dennis is how he willingly shoved in Shuns face about Ruri making it a hell of a lot more personal than it already needed to be.
One does not simply bring up Ruri or Heartland without being annihilated by Shun. XD
This episode had me shaking, and the most intense scene to me had to be Shun’s speech when he activated Satellite Canon Falcon’s effect. It really displayed how much he cared about his comrades. Not just Ruri (which we already knew), but Yuto as well. That one line especially, “For closing off the path to his ambitions… taste the hatred of my one and only best friend, Yuto!”… ah, that sent a chill down my spine, it was so good. Shun really showed how much this war had taken a toll on him and his loved ones.
The other line that interested me was Dennis mentioning giving up his “entertainer role”. I think deep down, a part of Dennis doesn’t really want to do what he’s doing. He certainly didn’t reach Sora-level insanity and I think, while twisted, he has some good deep down and regrets what he’s doing… still a creep, though.
And I love Ruri’s design so much. She’s easily my favourite of the Yuzu-lookalikes. I just hope we get to see more of her in the future. She may be kidnapped, but I hope somehow she shows up again. Shun and Yuto have faith in her strength, maybe she will break free.
Speaking of which, since we know how strong Ruri supposedly was, it only makes Yuri that much more terrifying if he managed to beat her that easily. Let’s just hope he stays far away for awhile and doesn’t get to Yuya or the others. Yuzu especially.
And having watched 5Ds, I’m so ready to see the King get back into the hero role and beat down some Fusion dimension people. Jack’s real time to shine has arrived, and it’s not in some exhibition match.
SHIVERSSSSS~
Personally, I think Dennis’ definition of entertainment is being a two-faced asshole. What greater fun is there to play a double agent undercover? If he truly wanted to “entertain” he could have tried to be showy with his Fusion monsters, but instead he decided to engage in the hunting game.
RURI SO PRETTTTYYYY~ >w< Ugh I love her design so much! <3 I have a dreadful feeling she is most likely brainwashed due to the shady shit in Academia, I mean- they were injecting some weird crap in to Sora. But a break out would be fun to see (more so SUCCESSFULLY). I eagerly await the day all the Yuzu's are altogether to kick-ass. It will be golden! Even Yuzu knows how strong Yuri is, that's why she has wisely ran away and stuck to that strategy, careful not to corner herself (smart girl). I hope Yuzu and Selena together will be strong enough to fend him off if they ever encounter him. I'm ready to see Jack be awesome again too! 😀 TIME FOR SMACK DOWN WITH ABSOLUTE POWERRRRR FORRRCCCEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think the board is not stupid in bailing out, they realized that the threat is real, so they seem to decided to ban Jean’s ability to control the troops of synchro in the next episode. But Jean just have too much control over security and all they seemed to do was force Jean to act sooner than planned.
This episode was awesome! Overkill from SPACE FTW!
On another note, I have to wonder, why aren’t the audience freaking out a bit more! I mean, the arena has been devastated, surely they’d be a bit more worried?
Oh my gosh! This episode was honestly one of my favorites so far! SQUEEEEEE!!!! We FINALLY got to see more Yuto! I’ve missed him so much—they’ve been seriously neglecting him. And I have to say, that duel was one of the most INCREDIBLE things I’ve EVER seen in my LIFE! I’m also happy that we got to see Ruri (SHE’S SO PRETTY!!!) and we even found out more about the Academia/Heartland incident.
I was on the edge of my seat through the whole thing! When Shun dedicated his attack to his “one and only best friend, Yuto”, was I the only one who burst into tears because it was so beautiful?
His victory was almost the best I’ve seen him at—and dang, I really wanted to see him beat the CRAP out of Dennis at the end there! XD