….Don’t you just hate it when characters act ignorant? God damn it Aoi! It’s not like she hasn’t heard about the terrible things that happened to the children of the Lost Incident, she was there when Yuusaku lashed out at her brother. Aren’t they the perfect pair? It is really stupid for Akira to want to “capture” the Ignis before SOL Technology to begin with, since you know, instead of what common sense would suggest: Reach out to Playmaker and ask for an opportunity to be able to speak with the Ignis! As if the Ignis would be willing to to talk when are being hunted down! Who in their sane mind would do that?
Gah I didn’t like her this episode, I was frustrated with her actions. She is acting pretty irresponsibly, not following orders from Emma, who has a ton more experience than she does, and just doing her own thing. By the end of the episode, Emma had just given up trying to stop her. I understand Aoi is sick and tired of being saved by others, but making stupid decisions is not the best way to start. It could either be pent up frustrations that has built up overtime, and like Onizuka, Aoi is very likely going to lose again, which will surely not end well in regards to her confidence. And don’t even get me started with her ignorant comment of, “In that case, those Ignis were originally under SOL Technologies’ control” UM, HELLO?! WHY ARE YOU CHOOSING TO OVERLOOK THE CRUCIAL DETAIL OF THE VICTIMS BEING TORTURED?!!?!?!?!?!?!!?! I can’t even. Come on Aoi, I thought you were smarter than that!
But I am interested in what Takeru and Aoi’s dynamics will be like. There is a lot of potential for this to be quite fun since both Takeru and Aoi can be quick with their quips. As expected, the boys didn’t even recognize it was Blue Angel until she introduced herself, and Takeru was again starstruck (he is such a cutie). I just hope it doesn’t turn into a whiny exchange like Onizuka’s duel, where Takeru had to shut him up and put him in his place. Ugh… It would be nice if Aoi were to learn something out of this duel, rather than be salty about her loss— not holding my breath for it, since it seems to be something the writers are setting up for those who are not within the Victims of the Lost Incident circle…
Surprise surprise, the Wind Ignis, Windy has made his debut today. I will flat out say I don’t trust him the slightest. He is a trickster, he has red eyes (unlike Flame’s and Ai’s yellow eyes) and is powerful enough to even create his own partner program, Echo, and structure the world they are now in. Unlike Ai and Flame, he doesn’t trust Humans, has no intentions of searching for his Human partner, and only cares for regrouping and rebuilding their home. He claims he doesn’t know about the enemies passing through, and so the boys are left wondering if perhaps his world is being used as a cover of a sorts, concealing another world behind it. Seems likely, as the organization could easily pin their crimes on Windy, who has virtually no allies.
It looks like it will be just a matter of time before both Ema and Aoi will be forced out of this world. Windy says if the boys defeat them, then they will be forced out, rather than crash landing like the Researchers did. Aoi and Emma used their emergency escape for those guys, counting on figuring out how to get out themselves. Well, Windy is certainly presenting them an opportunity… that is, if he is telling the truth.
That being said, it is a shame that Aoi just made herself a hostile opponent they have to worry about. So much for the girls teaming up with the boys… That would’ve been fun… This is why we can’t have nice things.
I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one who is annoyed by Aoi in this episode. If Akira is there, he perhaps at least can do better in talking even if he originally want to capture the Ignis, but I feel that Aoi let her brother complex get the better of her in this episode. And then Windy…I feel a Specter vibe from him. I’m not saying that Windy is modelled after Specter, but I found him cannot be so trusted like how I feel about Specter. Although, I can understand why Windy is distrustful of humans, considering the humans he has encountered so far (not including Yusaku and Takeru), were either trying to kill him or capture for money. With one Ignis finally showed how he can’t trust humans, I wonder how the remaining Ignis feels.
I’m liking the new Trickstar designs. It looks both cute and cool. As much as I like the possible dynamic between Soulburner and Blue Girl, I prefer the next Duel to only last 1 episode.
Yeah, I was not happy with Aoi myself. In fact, her actions made me quite disgusted. To be honest, I think Blue Girl sounded quite ungrateful to Playmaker even after what happened in season 1. I found myself siding with Playmaker and Soulburner in this episode. I wouldn’t trust SOL Technologies either, especially after what happened with the Lost Incident. Aoi, you need to be a little more open-minded, especially because you know what happened during the Lost Incident and what happened to the kids during those six months. I sure hope Soulburner knocks some sense into Blue Girl, who I do agree, was pretty hostile this episode. Even Ghost Girl seemed more willing to reason with the boys rather than taking their Ignis by force. She did scold Blue Girl many times for doing things on her own to no avail. After all, both Ghost Girl and Blue Girl owe Playmaker their lives. Maybe after the duel between Blue Girl and Soulburner, that’ll cause Ghost Girl and Blue Girl to reconsider and maybe side with Team Playmaker. I was also pretty shocked that Playmaker does trust Ghost Girl after season 1. It’s good he’s learning to open up to other people and that he’s not fighting alone. Aoi, if you’re gonna be fighting for others, you need to learn to try to understand what others go through and that fighting for everyone doesn’t mean everyone’s gonna agree with you.
The Wind Ignis, or Windy, was so funny this episode. He’s more of a prankster than Ai, which means that Ai may not be the most immature Ignis after all. Windy seemed kinda condescending towards humans which popped up when he said that Ai and Flame have been influenced by hanging around them. Although, Ai, I don’t think saying Flame was scared by the prank was a good idea. The prank did seem quite genuine and it really did go too far like Ai said. Flame didn’t sound too happy because it was Ai that was actually scared. I guess some of the Ignis don’t trust humans after what happened in the first episode and it’s understandable. At least Windy does care for his fellow Ignis comrades, even Ai, the lazy one. I would love to see a newly built Cyberse World, which might be rebuilt near the end of the series.
Anyway, really excited for the Soulburner vs. Blue Girl duel. I’m excited to see some new Trickstar monsters that might be added to the OCG/TCG. Soulburner seemed excited to duel Blue Girl, another one of Link VRAINS’ heroes. It even seemed like he was subtly flirting with Ghost Girl and Blue Girl, calling them “not rough-looking” and complimenting Blue Girl’s new look.
That’s why I don’t understand why she’s acting this way, it’s just too much. First it’s Onizuka, but now it’s Aoi? I don’t like this pattern and it’s worrying me. The last thing I want to see is already existing characters being sabotaged at the expense of new characters.
Emma definitely was a lot more level-headed about the whole thing. She was 10000% done with Aoi. When they get back to the real world, if this duel doesn’t know some sense into her, then I hope Emma will figure out a way deliver her a reality-check.
go is making sense since he became bounty hunter for sOL
This episode was written by the notorious woman hater Yoshida so no surprises here.
I actually started to dislike Soul Burner instead of Aoi this episode. I was already suspicious of this after his duel with Go but this episode pretty much confirmed my fears: Characters are being painted in a negative light to give a reason for Soul Burner to defeat them/paint him in a better light.
There was absolutely no reason for Aoi to antagonize them like this, even more when she starts their whole interaction by revealing who she is and thanking Playmaker for saving her before, just like throwing away Go proudly passing the torch for Playmaker to duel Revolver in the last season and for giving presents to the orphanage. It felt very deliberate how they wanted the viewers to hate Aoi and side agaisnt her, jokes on you writers, I hate you guys, not her.
I hope Aoi’s deck and Go’s late Goukis still keep being popular in the card game just as a big and fat middle finger to the disrespect the writers are giving these characters.
// I was already suspicious of this after his duel with Go but this episode pretty much confirmed my fears: Characters are being painted in a negative light to give a reason for Soul Burner to defeat them/paint him in a better light.//
This right here, is my biggest fear. No character should be thrown under the bus at the expense of trying to make a new character popular/likeable. Takeru is plentiful charming, and nothing would make me happier than to see him get along with the girls, especially since I can see so much chemistry and fun interactions between Aoi and Takeru in particular.
First the repeated recap episodes in Season 1 and now the possibility of existing characters being downgraded in Season 2. I never had these lot of worries in the previous YGO. It has only been 55 episodes and I’m already fearing what happened in ARC-V Season 3 may happen so early in VRAINS or maybe even worse than that. Oh, please don’t let that happen! Come on, new series should have learned from the previous series and make it better!
Didn’t even bother trying to comment on episodes 53-54 because apart from Aoi’s newly redesigned avatar (Blue Girl) which was much prettier and sexier than her old Blue Angel alias, Blood Shepard once again entered the catalog of failure for VRAINS villains because his reason for hating the AI and his expanded past with Akira and Ghost Girl was stupidly written which only made him look premature and pathetic, not to mention his deck was absolutely appalling and dreadful where even a toddler can break its plays. Once again, another overhyped villain with no end product to show for it and hopefully when he appears again Ghost Girl will be given the chance to bury him.
As for this episode, well VRAINS never ceased to make blood-boiling episodes and this one was no exception. Personally there’s NOTHING wrong about Aoi wanting to save others instead of being babysited by everyone, but thanks to the machination of that fiend SHIN YOSHIDA the whole situation only made her look naive and inept for wasting two logout programs on two random fodders for no reason. As for the cringe dialogue leading to the upcoming duel of Blue Girl vs Soulburner, I’m 100% on Aoi’s side here. It was Playmaker and Soulburner who’re being dickheads and assholes for telling both Blue Girl and Ghost Girl to piss off when they genuinely offered to help, thus i’m not surprised to see Aoi snapping back at them because her feelings was hurt by their rude remarks. Emma’s role was a mixed bag for me here because while I understood why she’s against Blue Girl for wasting those logout programs on two random fodders, I wished she could’ve just joined Blue Girl and taking on both Playmaker and Soulburner AND defeating them, taking their Ignis AIs and delivering them to SOL Technologies just to see the consequences of them losing their Ignis partners and see what they’re going to do to retrieve them. But alas I’m not the script writer which was a regret because mainstream OP decks such as Altergeists and (especially) Tricksatars don’t deserve to get shitted on everytime.
I swear to god if they dare make Blue Girl lose AGAIN just to make Soulburner look good, then Shin Yoshida can go guillotine himself.