Oof, my heart. This episode was a bittersweet one. There were times when I wanted to laugh, and others when I wanted to cry. It started off on a cute note with Ai’s bloated ego of claiming he is the strongest one of all, putting Yuusaku is at the bottom of the pyramid (even below everyone else!) because he was only strong because he had him as his partner (Ai you’re so savage!) and then Robopoppi is at the VERRRRRYYYYYYY bottom because of his inexperience (understandable). It was so funny how determined Robopoppi was to gain experience points by claiming he will not use skill in his battle against Emma and Gengo, and even though we know he wasn’t mocking them, Gengo certainly didn’t take it kindly. Being “talked down to” by an A.I. bruised his ego.
But just when we were at the peak of cheering for Robopoppi and enamoured by his adorable nature, those feelings came screeching halt and took a nose-dive from there. My heart crushed into a million pieces when Robopoppi announced he has come to the conclusion Humans are bad creatures and so he will turn all Humans into “experience points”, AKA: eliminate them. Whelp. Nevertheless, it made me really sad, especially when thinking about Yuusaku’s feelings.
As for the duel, I have noticed there is a really interesting theme they are using for this event. With Yuusaku, Takeru and Ryoken all being stalled by Ai’s decoy copies’ strategy, and the fodders (the Hanoi Knights) are most likely all going to be defeated off-screen (which helps keep the new momentum going), that leaves Emma/Kengo, and Aoi/Akira.
…And what do they have in common? They are both siblings, and we’re about to see them demonstrate their “family bond” despite not being fully or blood related at all. The first thing that comes to mind with this theme is how it may be used to show Ai, although he had lost his kin, he still has “family” (with Yuusaku and Robopoppi), and he is not as alone as he feels and believes to be. But since he has already made up his mind, and he isn’t going to change it anytime soon.
It is absolutely heart-wrenching how Ai’s grief of his loss has pushed him into the corner of taking up the role as the villain. But at the same time it’s so frustrating how he decided he will carry on Lightning’s wishes. Again, as it was stressed before, whatever the secret is that Lightning had alluded to, it must have played a part in persuading Ai to carry out the plans in his stead. We can also see how broken he actually is when he talks about the fallen Ignis, and how in some ways, it feels like he is deliberately trying to get under everyone’s skin so they will hate him and see him an the enemy. This makes me think Ai is either attempting to make his former comrades hate him to the point they want to kill him so that he finally has a ‘reason’ to take them out, or he is so lonely, he simply doesn’t want to exist anymore and wants to be destroyed— but not before leaving his mark behind. Regardless, it’s just so sad how it has come down to this. Although Yuusaku vowed to save him, if does turn out to be the latter, this is going to be very difficult fight for both of them.
Last but not least, did anyone else freaked out when Pandor showed us she actually as a personality? Ryoken, what were you thinking?! Oh man, she’s definitely going become trouble!
Next week, OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH SHIT. Ai found Onizuka, who was the one who captured Earth and had a hand in his death. I will be very surprised if Onizuka gets out of this unscathed— unless someone interferes to prevent him from being eliminated the same way as Queen was. Ai is NOT messing around.
As a wise person once told me “the enotions that bind us together the strongest are love and hatred”, don´t think you are far of with your guess on AI propperly wanting everyone to hate him.
Sad thing about this episode that it adds another thing to the list of things that can really ruin this season and that is AI´s overall motivation, goal and how he came to that point cause it has better be good or else I will heavily critizise the writing staff for having scrapped the potential SOL is the enemy route. The way they presented why AI is now hostile this episode is poor and idealess.
Think the main dose of comedy came from BS in this episode, to the point that I´m wondering when the lit is gonna blow right of cause Roboppy certanly seem to have the ability to set him off (then again it can be me overthinking again).
Ghost Girl managed to take advantage of a good field and the monster she showed today plus the way she set it up may just make me belive they can win this duel yet.
Last remark: the 3 knights of hanoi have never been stated to be great/powerfull duelist so I consider AI beating them like nothing no suprise.
I think it really all comes down to the “secret” Lightning has alluded. The final battle between Bohman and Playmaker/Ai is constantly being referred back to, so there must be something we don’t know about. That being said, I do agree about SOL Technology, it’s a shame that right now, it feels like they wasted SOL Technology’s opportunity to properly play the part as the antagonist, but I’ll reserve my judgement until the end of the show.
There’s a mistranslation. When I said “Besides, everyone is here to defeat me.” He’s actually saying “Besides, I was the one who finished them off.” Here, Ai is referring to his fellow Ignis. He feels responsible for their demise, thinking that when he (and Playmaker) defeated Bohman, it’s the same as him killing them with his own hands. This line makes much more sense when Playmaker in respond saying that Ai tried to save Flame and Aqua, Playmaker tried to convince Ai that he didn’t kill them. And about this, Ai blamed himself for his friends’ demise, but he doesn’t blame Playmaker for it when he said this. And from the way he behaved to Playmaker, looks like Ai still has soft spot for him.
Frankly, I wanna punch Ai in the face when he placed Playmaker at the bottom of duelist ranking. I know how inflated his ego is and how narcisstic he can be, but come on, Ai! This is your Origin and partner we’re talking about.
I also feel the same. When Ai talked to Soulburner especially, it does feel like Ai is trying to make his former friends to hate him no matter what. My affection for Ai makes me want to believe that Ai is doing this for the second possibility you mentioned. And I can’t blame him for feeling that. Even if Yusaku and his friends by his side, it still doesn’t change the fact that he’s an A.I with free will who may constantly be targeted by either the likes of SOL for profit or Hanoi who still sees him as a threat. It doesn’t feel like freedom if those people still after him and it’s not weird if he thinks he has no place in the world. Even if Roboppi now has free will, it’s different from his fellow Ignises. Also, if this is somehow true, it won’t be weird to think he’s also doing this for Yusaku. As long as Ai is by Yusaku’s side while being targeted, problems will continuously come for Yusaku since he’ll definitely protect Ai. Coupled with his grief and loneliness, Ai decided that it’s for the best for him to follow his fellow Ignis so then Yusaku can also finally live a normal life… Although, I guess this is just my wishful thinking hoping for Ai still cares for Yusaku…hahaha…(^_^;)
And next Roboppi. I was also crushed when Roboppi just decided to wipe out humanity. And he said it in such a cute playful way! This is the first time I ever saw a character able to declare human genocide with such cuteness and innocence without sounding malicious at all. Oh, Roboppi, you became smarter but also small-minded (TT_TT)
I’m so happy to be able to see Ghost Girl dueling again. And I love her new monsters! Nice job! I wonder how this duel will end. Will either side win or it’ll be interrupted?
Go may have reformed for good, but I really don’t mind seeing him being heavily beaten up by Ai. Take him down, Ai!
Thanks for the heads up about the mistranslation! And wow that just adds to Ai hating himself even more. Q^Q I am very concerned he might die by the end of the show, be it he sacrifices himself to protect Yuusaku from another evil (IM LOOKING AT YOU PANDOR) or Yuusaku defeats him as he wishes.
I do wonder if any of the duels will actually “finish” before Ai reaches Akira, since he’s dead set on either eliminating or stalling. I wonder though if the Hanoi Knights, who we saw fall today are out of the game for good now since they disappeared. If they did, that means the sooner Ai gets to Akira, the less people are going to fall for today’s battle (so as long as they can drag it out), or something of the sorts.
About Pandor, a friend of mine is actually starting to doubt that Pandor will be an antagonist. She’s doubing that the studio will purposely make a character that will seem too obviously going to turn evil to the viewers. I can understand her point. If I’m one of the writers or director, I would make Pandor more neutral-looking so that the viewers would be shocked when Pandor turned into antagonist later on. But this still doesn’t sway my suspicion on Pandor.
Speaking of which, what happens to the duelists Ai defeated? Queen was said to be in critical condition, but I’m thinking that’s only because Ai had personal vendetta against her. Now that the three Hanoi Knights are down, are they going to end up in a coma like before or simply got logged out I wonder…
And is it just me, or has Revolver actually replaced Blue Maiden’s position within the ‘main trio’? Seeing Playmaker, Soulburner, and Revolver together like that somehow reminds me of the trio Yusei-Jack-Crow and Yuma-Shark-Kaito. (^w^)
Yugioh Fandom: Talks about tier list
Me: This is really getting annoying. WHO CARES ABOUT WHO AI THINKS IS STRONG OR WEAK? It’s not meant to be taken seriously -_-
All I wonder is why the heck Ai is following Lightning’s will when he’s the one who caused all the misfortune to happen. It makes me wonder if they’re hiding something. Also Ai seems civil when talking to SB regarding Flame. When he said that Flame wasn’t here, I got a hunch that someone else is gonna revive the Ignis to target Ai. I don’t know who but I can feel it.
Maybe that’s when SOL will finally take action? If Akira is defeated, then SOL Tech’s Kings would have no one to rely on but themselves. Since they have been gathering data of the Ignis to create their own Ignis, it’s possible that if after Akira is defeated they’ll complete their new Ignis and has it to handle the situation in their place, which won’t end up well like the Ignis eventually will have the same view as Lightning and become a bigger threat, forcing everyone to work together again.
Hm, that’s interesting to think about. Though, it’s weird that they’re trying to gather data about the Ignis when Earth was decompiled into a source code that they could understand since Ryoken confirmed back in Episode 76 that SOL Tech does NOT understand the Ignis algorithm. Maybe they’ll team up with Revolver after Ai defeats Akira?
Though, I do wonder if they’re going to make a Divine Ignis. They could easily secure the origins (even PM), create new Ignises (They could easily make a new Dark Ignis which would probably hurt Ai’s ego), and then make a Divine Ignis just to counter Ai.
Though, I feel like all the stuff that is sped through the end of the opening is the events that will happen after Akira’s downfall. If so, I wonder what the reason Revolver and SB have for dueling each other in a secluded forest area.
Roboppi: I’m not going to use my skill!
BS: Talking down to me!?
Roboppi: No I mean I’m not going to use my skill because I drew Exodia!!!!