Now that the twins had defeated Demac, Luca now has Ancient Fairy Dragon and Reguulus in her hands. Thanks to that, they were able to activate the first of the four control units. I suppose it’s a good thing Yusei was around to help walk them through it since Ushio was out of commission due to fainting. That said, I did laugh when Yusei said, “This time, it’s my turn” because of course, he has to make another detour to check up on the sudden emergence of a brand new Dark Signer, fighting a someone who was an official member of their Crimson Dragon squad. Of course it was none other than Bommer (who as mentioned last time, was noticeably absent from the earlier gathering) and Crow who had survived the black fog.
And I must say, Rudger was certainly wise to recruit Bommer, because as soon as one Dark Signer fell, another one was available to pick up the slack. Bommer however was still very much alive, so in order to become a Dark Signer… well, he had to die. The fuel for revenge against Godwin was the ingredient Rudger needed in order to send him into the pits of hell, and we witnessed him being dropped into Moment and hung to death– which was pretty horrifying to watch. I actually forgot how he initially died, so it was equally as shocking as it was the first time.
Set out to take Yusei out since he is an obstacle who had prevented him from assassinating Godwin during the Fortune Cup Bommer finds himself facing Crow, who had survived the dark fog by sheltering himself into some sort of fridge/container that was left out on the street. (Don’t ask how he breathed in that thing.) Anyhow, because the children who had been under his care were among the victims of the dark fog, Crow is pretty upset about it and decided to hunt down whichever Dark Signer he could find. Bommer wasn’t exactly interested in dueling him however, so Crow doing what he does best, bluff his opponents into it, this time with a clock posed as a time bomb. We also saw him being tactically mindful, by understanding it would be wiser not to be caught in a duel where he is locked in auto-pilot mode, as he doesn’t want to be caught up in the same mess Yusei found himself in when Ccapac Apu slammed down onto him.
Of course it doesn’t take long before Crow realizes that Yusei was not kidding about the dangers of fighting the Dark Signer. But of course he’s fineeeee~, they can’t get rid of him that easily. Though they did laughably end it on a cliffhanger with that in EP 51. I’d say the entire episode of 52 was mostly just a drama fest of emotions between the back and forth of the duel. Though I will say it’s always nice (and ironic) to see characters call out some unreasonable strategies like being able to summon high grade monsters without having to pay a cost for it. But it is equally as funny when they respond along the lines of, ‘all thanks to the power of darkness’!
One of the good things to come out of this match-up however was to getting not just Crow’s backstory, but Bommer’s too. Both of them are experiencing the grief and devastation of losing the ones they care about, and were both are seeking revenge for it.
Thanks to Crow’s backstory, we are finally able to fully understand why taking care of the children is so important to him. Seventeen years ago, when his parents died he was left to struggle to survive on his own. What save him was finding the Black Feathers duel monster cards at the dump, and thanks to that, it gave him a leeway to make friends who would be the ones to teach him how to read and write. That’s why Crow wants to be able to pass that kindness forward to children like him, and cares so much about them. As for Bommer, he more or less has the exact same story and motivations as Crow. The only difference was that he was not alone to begin with as he had his two younger siblings by his side.
But while Bommer’s hatred is aimed at Godwin, no thanks to Rudger’s manipulation, he is instead directing his fury at Yusei because he is regarded as “Godwin’s minion” as well as someone who prevented him from carrying out his assassination during the Fortune Cup. Then on the other-side, we have Crow fighting Bommer, who wasn’t even Dark Signer at the time the children were swallowed up by the black fog that swept through the entirety of Satellite. In fact that was when he was picked-up and taken to their headquarters instead. This is precisely why Yusei was very frustrated with seeing the two fight and saw it as pointless. The problem however is that while Yusei likes to (repeatedly) scream about “STOP THE DUEL”, we all know already– which have been said many times, they simply can’t. Once the Dark Signer duels have begun, they are locked in until one falls. And unfortunately whoever does, is the one to disappears into nothingness (as seen with Demac).
In the end, despite the summoning of Earthbound Immortal Chacu Challhua, it was Crow who emerged victorious by the skin of his teeth. It was a close call, and got roughed up pretty badly (breaking two or three ribs), but his unwavering resolve to see this fight through is what pulled him through it. But ultimately, what actually contributed to his victory was Bommer wavering as a Dark Signer after seeing his siblings’ and children’s souls from his hometown crying out in pain, realizing that the only way to save them was for them to actually defeat the Dark Signer who was harnessing their souls for their respective Earthbound Immortal. And in this case, it was himself. He did briefly gain back his rationality for a moment before darkness took control of him, begging Crow and Yusei to finish him for the sake of bringing his town back. He also saved Crow’s life at the very end, getting himself caught up in debris in his stead. And just like Demac, he faded into nothingness, which was pretty sad when his siblings talked about whether he saw the shooting star.
Admittedly it does feel like a cheap way to ensure Crow wins this battle (or had it been any Signer for that matter), but at the very least they did establish that certain Dark Signers are in possession of certain bodies of souls. As Demac and the Monkey King were harnessing the Duel Monster’s souls from the Spirit World, and now Bommer, with the souls of his loved ones from his hometown. However, there was a little detail that was glossed over this episode.
Back in Episode 21, when Bommer revealed to the world that Godwin had used his village “testing grounds” for resurrecting the Crimson Dragon, Yeager was freaking out about how he knew about it (being a survivor and all), and Godwin played it off cool, though he did appear a bit irritated about it. That was also the same episode that revealed Godwin’s bionic arm. So I think it would be rather premature to conclude that Godwin had nothing to do with it, especially since he has always known about the Dark Signers, and yet made no effort to actually correct this accusation. This suggests perhaps he still had a hand in it, which certainly points to that Godwin is not necessarily the ally of the Crimson Signer as he had initially led them to believe. But we all knew the guy was shady as hell to begin with, so it doesn’t come as too much of a surprise.
Next time, no more detours! Yusei is finally having that rematch against Kiryuu!!
Next Entry: July 27th, 2022
