Well. That was a bit of a lacklustre end to the duel. Despite Blood Shepherd successfully shaving Lightning down to 200 LP, the way they built up the music for him, I was confident they were setting everything up to fall apart when Lightning makes his comeback. And that’s exactly what happened. However the way the price was paid was terribly anticlimactic. I expected a more dramatic exit, but all we got was Kengo telling Emma all he was trying to do was protect her, because that’s what a big brother does, before fading off. (Aw…)
The reason for that, is obviously because Kengo’s exit pales in comparison to what happened to Jin, and in the other Yu-Gi-Oh! series. I mean, it wouldn’t be Yu-Gi-Oh! if people’s souls/data weren’t taken at some point, right? So I feel like it was a missed opportunity to not give us a more dramatic scene, especially when Kengo is the first Human everyone (including the audience) witnesses losing to an Ignis. In a scene I probably should have been having chills about the way Lightning finishes his opponent, I was still feeling amused with the way Lightning handled Kengo. And it’s not because I hate the guy, (quite the opposite, I have become fond of him), it’s because Lightning is such a well written villain! He is entertaining to watch because you are left wondering what else he has up his sleeves, or how he is going to react next.
But the biggest joke about the end, was how quickly they shifted away from Kengo and Emma. They didn’t bother to properly focus on her reaction, let alone give them a true moment. Instead, they shifted to everyone’s reaction, which made me laugh because it was really poor timing. They really should have spent more time on it, make it so Kengo’s “defeat” matters, as it should. Even the others, while they are shook, they aren’t really… how should I put it, horrified in the way they probably should be? I don’t know, it just didn’t do it for me.
As for next week, Onizuka will be back in action, and I’m not particularly excited for it. It’s not really what I expect after a duel like this one. I am hoping we will at least get the chance to finally get the trio to have a proper talk, because it would annoy the hell out of me if we have to wait yet another week for it. But considering how Onizuka looks, I am starting to wonder if they really intend to kill him off, or at least make it so he is out of the commission for a prolong period of time after-all, because the guy looks like a dead-man walking. He traded his soul to the devil, and he’s paying the price. I am curious to see how Akira is going to behave, as we see him most likely speaking to Queen as well. It hope he isn’t actually going to confront her about working on developing new Ignis of their own, because that would be stupid.
But then again, Akira has proven to be (at times) a very stupid man, so I wouldn’t put it past him to do such a thing. You would think he would be more sensible than that after the shit he has witnessed first hand, and learned what SOL Technology has been up to.
Lightning, you were almost cool… Then you simply pushed your Armatos Legio into the league of disappointment and you only won due to a Deus Ex Machina + Raigeki + Harpie’s Feather Duster combo outta nowhere with a rigged “destiny” draw. Nonetheless, thank you for burying that Bloody “Jobber” Shepherd who continued the annoying trope of “Older brother being morally correct than the younger sister”.
Speaking of borefest duels, Go is finally having the long-awaited rematch against Playmaker next episode. I never liked Playmaker’s plot armor, but for once I’ll tolerate him since he’s facing off against that pretentious “entertainer” who has slumped beyond redemption.
blood shepherd had few bad plays which could make him lose anyways. for example he could put the fusion monster in defend position and he survived since this combo destroyed all face up cards
lightning finish combo was like dark hole card+ feather duster with the distraction of all the cards. I hope next week it really their final battle
Gotta agree with how they end Blood Sheperd just like that. They could have done better. Other than that, the Duel is great, showing both BS and Lightning are strong Duelists of their own. The next one would be Go…seriously, just end that guy already. I don’t care if the Duel is bad or not, just give that guy a thorough beating. I hardly care for him anymore. This better truly be the last time Yusaku duel Go. Looks like the studio is eager to get rid of the Duelists from SOL Technology’s side so they could finally focus on the battle between Playmaker’s group, Hanoi, and Lightning’s group. Would somebody please quickly expose SOL’s misdeeds to make them out of business. Or have Akira take down the higher-ups and take over SOL, he’ll do better job and help people than those bastards who only cares about making money!
There are lots of frustrations I want to let out, but this would do for now. I won’t expect much for next week, but at least I heard the cast list for next episode would have all the main characters appearing again. And I hope the end of this episode will be good character development for Emma and closer bond with Aoi (they’re both little sisters who have older brothers protecting them after all).
Yeah, not exactly my favorite episode either. I wish they had delved a little more into Ghost Girl’s thoughts. She was sweating a little in nervousness and only said, “Nii-San” a couple times before shifting over to other characters. Blood Shepherd put up a good fight, but Lightning is just way too strong. Kinda expected the Fusion Monster.
I was touched how Blood Shepherd’s kinder side came out in his last moments before fading away. He’s really grown on me as a character recently. He’s really gained my sympathy. I mean, what he did was to protect Emma. That show how much he loves his younger sister if he was willing to sacrifice his life to protect her. Ghost Girl was undoubtedly upset her brother faded away. And everyone else on Team Playmaker was shocked to hear her call him her older brother, pretty much learning the two are family. This just gives more reason to fight against Lightning and now Emma has a personal reason to fight against him, and that’s to save her brother and avenge him. Wow, Lightning’s committed so many crimes that lead to personal problems for each member of Team Playmaker.
I do wish Lightning could have had more dialogue before disappearing with Jin. I really wanted him to maniacally laugh before leaving, showing off his strength and gaining another human to brainwash and another duelist for his army. I expected Team Playmaker to be angrier than portrayed.
My favorite part of the episode was when Lightning discarded Judgment Arrows and then all of Blood Shepherd’s Continuous Spells and Traps got destroyed one by one. It was a great sequence and the sign that Lightning had the final advantage. Also, that fusion summoning was really pointless.
Jin was in the castlist for this episode, so I was anticipating him speaking…he only grunts once (It was then transitioned to Kusanagi fretting over him). I was kind of disappointed.
I still felt sad when BS disintegrated into data. I never thought I’d be so fond of that guy given how cruel of a character he was at his introduction. VRAINS sure love making their #3’s suffer. Windy was the third Ignis introduced and the one who suffered and is left in a bad state. BS is the third big brother character introduced and the first to lose to an Ignis and the first to fall.
I feel like, with BS out of the picture and with GO being focused next episode, they’re going to eliminate SOL Tech’s goons so that they’ll be out of focus for the rest of this season and the enemy faction will slowly be reduced by one since Lightning is clearly the much bigger threat.
I gotta agree: the duel was a little underwhelming, especially at the end. It’s a little odd having the episode end with Lighting leaving when we’re so used to having the episodes end with some sort of reaction.
Speaking of which, I’m sure we’ll get focus on Emma losing her brother next episode. That seems to be a recurring thing with Kengo’s character.
What made this duel kinda lackluster for me was how Lighting seemed…almost generic. He’s the calm, sophisticated, always a step a head kind of antagonist but didn’t see much else from him in terms of personality otherwise. Though I say he’s almost generic because one thing I noticed is that despite his countermeasures in place, Lightning seemed genuinely surprised by some of Kengo’s moves, even losing his composure briefly from Kengo’s taunt, which is something you rarely see from the main antagonist’s first duel.
Didn’t think Yusaku and Go would actually have a rematch after so many episodes since their last duel. I was thinking Aoi would’ve dueled him to avenge Earth, but I guess it makes sense in the long run. Go blames Yusaku for feeling overshadowed by him and is willing to do whatever it takes to prove his superiority over him.