- Joined
- Jun 17, 2006
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- #521
I thought that Reiji vs. Zarc was really good. I liked how even though Leo was certain that their only hope of defeating Zarc was gone, Reiji was still confident that Yuya's soul was inside of Zarc. Seeing Zarc Pendulum summon just gave him more hope. All of their friends and allies felt the same way and that's why they all dueled so hard to save him. Even Sawatari wanted Reiji to get Yuya out from that monster and gave him Yuya's pendulum necklace. I liked how Reiji mentioned that Yuya discovering Pendulum summoning affected him. He was quite focused on studying Yuya and creating his own Pendulum cards at the beginning of the series. It has been quite awhile since they focused on that, so I don't think it was quite emotionally effective as it could be, but it still worked as a focus point for how Yuya affected Reiji. I liked that Reiji pointed out that Yuya has moved the hearts of many people, so he should be able to move Zarc's heart. Jack also pointed out that Yuya helped to move the hearts of all the people in the City, which I thought was really sweet. It's true that a lot of people have been affected by Yuya. Everyone who has dueled Zarc has had some connection to Yuya. Some have stronger connections to Yuya than others, as I'd say that Sawatari, Shun and Kaito probably have the weakest connections to Yuya out of all of the characters present here, but they all care about Yuya and wanted to help save him.
It was pretty neat to see Reiji use Pendulum summoning to go into Fusion, Xyz and Synchro again. It was nice that Reiji was trying to reach out to Yuya through his dueling. He had a really good combination too. He was able to negate the Pendulum effects of Zarc's monsters, used Executive Caesar's effect to prevent Odd Eyes from special summoning other monsters and used their attack points to power up his own monsters. Even though Zarc couldn't be destroyed in battle, Reiji was still able to do a lot of damage to his life points in his attempt to reach out to Yuya. Everyone was cheering Reiji on and hoping that they'd take their feelings to Yuya.
Zarc claiming that he created Pendulum summoning was a surprising development. I never thought that Yuya himself created Pendulum summoning. I always thought that he just discovered it and that is still kind of true, even though it was more like that Zarc discovered it. It does put the duel against Strong in a much different light. When I rewatched the first couple of episodes, there was a distinct difference in Yuya's voice when he Pendulum summoned for the first time, which must have been an early Zarc voice. That would explain why the Japanese version refers to Yuya's Berserk mode as Awakened Yuya. It also explained why Yuya sounded more aggressive and referred to his monsters as his servants during that scene, which might also tie in with how all of the dimensional dragons are Supreme King Servants here. It's also interesting to think that Zarc's soul was finally woken up after fourteen years. During that part of the duel against Strong, Yuya was determined to win in order to prove the strength of his father's dueling, so that determination to win must have stirred up Zarc's soul. That would also further explain why Zarc was able to take over Yuya's body completely when he did. He was focused on winning, on top of being emotionally and mentally exhausted from what he had gone through up to that point. The foreshadowing in this series just continues to amaze me. They had stuff like Zarc planned out by the first and second episode. That is amazing.
Zarc wanting to use Pendulum summoning when he fought against Ray again was interesting. He was planning his revival since he first woke up, but I still say that it wouldn't have been possible if Leo didn't start the dimensional war. Even with Zarc planning for his revival this whole time, there wouldn't have been any way for that to happen if Leo didn't mess up Ray's sacrifice by kidnapping the girls and providing means to travel between dimensions for at least Academia, as that helped both Yuto and Yuri at least to go through different dimensions. Still, it showed that Zarc really didn't want to lose to Ray again and further ties into how he he's really afraid of losing. It was interesting that those four cards splitting Zarc apart allowed for him to discover Pendulum summoning. Despite his plan and his desire to use Pendulum summoning against Ray, Pendulum cards are widely available in Standard, Academia was able to gain Pendulum cards and two of the Yuzu counterparts have used Pendulum summoning too. It was nice to see that Tsukikage had been revived and was helping to get Reira to the battle though.
Of course Zarc had an overpowered Trap card that allowed him to gain all of his dragons on the field after taking that much damage. Reiji was able to hold out against those attacks better than I thought he would. All of his monsters' Pendulum effects really helped to keep him safe from Clear Wing and Dark Rebellion's broken effects. But then there was Starve Venom's effects. I was actually expecting Starve Venom to eat Executive Alexander, but it still gained its abilities and became significantly more powerful. It almost seemed like Reiji was going to survive the turn before Starve Venom's effect gave all of Zarc's other monsters piercing damage and the damage was already going to be double due to Odd Eyes' effect. It did look pretty grim with the characters thinking that the world was going to be destroyed and even the little kids were crying that this monster wasn't Yuya. They were all so lucky that Reira jumped into the battle when he did. Tsukikage was able to save Reiji and Leo, even though Reiji looked so weird without his ridiculously long scarf.
Reira becoming Ray's vessel was a cool twist and made sense. It would have been nice if one of the Yuzu counterparts chose to be Ray's vessel, especially as a way to mirror how Zarc forced his will onto the Yuya counterparts through the Berserk Mode, but that might have been kind of tricky. Ray's spirit didn't start appearing until after the girls were starting to merge together in Arc V and they were unconscious by that point too. Still, it made sense with all of the buildup about Reira's connection to Ray, so I was fine with that. Plus, that dramatic reveal with his long hair was pretty awesome. I liked how Ray was speaking through Reira and was so determined to stop Zarc. If he'd revive, then she'd revive as well. If he tried to destroy the world, she'd save it. It has been a pretty common theory among fans that Zarc and Ray were really gods of destruction and creation and while that didn't happen here, I think it worked out for the best. Zarc being the result of society's growing desire for entertainment and developing an intense fear of losing to the point where he'd create broken cards to keep on winning made him much more interesting than simply being a god of destruction. Ray being a normal teenage girl who was willing to fight against who many considered a demon by that point is pretty awesome in itself. If anything, making them both human makes them both more interesting and their actions stand out more as a result, especially with Ray.
I was really happy with the En Flowers, En Birds, En Moon and En Wind cards. It made it even clearer that the duels against Zarc haven't been for nothing. It wasn't just about promoting Zarc's overpowered cards. All of the duels against Zarc allowed for Reira and Ray to use those cards. Even the extremely brief duel Leo had against Zarc allowed for him to help out by putting in a third Fusion monster in the Graveyard. All of Yuya's friends' efforts to save him weren't in vain and I liked how the cards' activation requirements emphasized that. Granted, even if that wasn't the case, you could see how these duels were having a gradual affect on Zarc. He was becoming more emotional with each duel, Gongenzaka's speech about Entertainment and Steadfast dueling triggered something inside of Zarc, he responded to the notion that he was afraid of losing and Pendulum summoning showed that Yuya's soul was indeed still inside of Zarc. There was more going on in those duels than just promoting new cards, but I like that the four cards made it even clearer that their efforts to save Yuya weren't in vain. In the end, they all still helped to save Yuya even after losing to Zarc, which I thought was a really nice touch. I actually didn't think that it would come down to Zarc vs. Ray, but Reira being her vessel was a different kind of twist to the mix. It was really beautiful to see all of those flowers blooming while damaging Zarc's life points. Turning all of Zarc's monsters into Normal monsters with their effects negated was an interesting way to get around Zarc's defenses.
I liked that even though Zarc was so sure about how he was, Reiji was certain that he was also Yuya and that his heart was swinging back and forth like a Pendulum. While it still seemed weird for the cards to be the embodiment of nature's powers, I think that the purification aspect helped to make it a bit more sense, especially when Zarc was so far gone by the time he became a demon, and it was a fitting mean to defeat Zarc in that regard. Yuya being Zarc's embodiment of his pure desire to pursue smiles was sweet and sounded fitting given his idealistic nature. He isn't perfect obviously, but his desire to make people smile is so genuinely sweet and sincere. It's honestly one of the reasons why I love Yuya so much.
I really liked how Yuzu was able to reach out to Yuya. Even though they had both merged with their counterparts to form Zarc and Ray, their feelings for each other were so strong that they were able to reach out to each other. I was hoping something like that would be able to happen since I love their relationship so much. Being able to shine through Ray and her other counterparts showed how strong both Yuzu and her feelings were. She knows Yuya and has seen his determination to find her regardless of how far away they were from each other. While this probably would have been effective even if the others hadn't dueled Zarc before, I think that the others' attempts to reach out to Yuya made it easier for Yuzu to do so herself. After all, we saw Yuya within Zarc's soul well before Yuzu talked to him. I was really surprised by Zarc's attempts to refute Yuzu's claims. I always thought that Yuri was the opposite of Yuya and that may still be true, but Zarc might be another opposite extreme of Yuya's personality. Instead of wanting to make people smile, Zarc wanted to bring fear. He also claimed that his true wish was to let people who forced him to fight and treated him like a toy to have a taste of what true fear is. That said a lot about Zarc's character. It gave me the impression that Zarc only went that far because of how people reacted to the violent duels. Instead of being able to duel the way he wanted to, he felt like a puppet who was dueling only for the crowd's satisfaction. Granted, Zarc isn't entirely blameless here since he didn't have to go as far as to become a giant dragon determined to destroy the world, but it does give the impression that Zarc might have been a lot like Yuya in the original world. He probably didn't have the kind of friendship and support that Yuya does. There was seemingly no one trying to get Zarc to go back to normal in the original world. They only wanted to defeat and seal him away.
It was so sweet that Yuzu wanted Yuya to respond to their feelings so that they could go home together. Reiji giving Yuya his pendulum necklace back was so nice and pretty fitting given that it went around different characters these past few episodes. Yuya hearing and seeing Yusho right as he was able to gain control back was really sweet and fitting too. Yuya thinking that his father abandoned him crushed before, but the feelings from his friends and the words from his father brought him back. Seeing all of the Yuya counterparts draw that last card was pretty neat. Smile Universe was such a cute card, even though it made the others wonder if it really was Yuya or not. Zarc's comment about how Pendulum monsters are indestructible was interesting since it added more reason as to why he wanted to use it in his rematch against Ray. These are monsters that can return from the Extra Deck easily. No matter how many times they are destroyed, they come back and that would appeal to Zarc. He was afraid of losing again, so he created a summoning method that gave the illusion of being indestructible. It gave Zarc the reassurance that he could always come back from any attack or defeat.
I liked how Yuya was determined to not be a demon, but you could also see that he was just barely holding off Zarc long enough for Reira to finish him off. Zarc and especially this last turn reminded me a lot of Marik from the Battle City finals. Like Marik, Zarc merged with his dragon, the way he was defeated involved using a Spell card that relied on monsters from the Graveyard and his defeat relied on Yuya holding him back long enough for Reira to land the finishing blow. They even had Zarc control one eye while Yuya's regular red eye was in the other one. It was a pretty awesome reference to DM. I liked that even though Yuya had control, he still needed help from his friends to defeat Zarc. It made it feel like it was still a group victory at the end, which was nice. I was worried if the dimensions splitting up again would allow for Zarc and Ray to be reborn. Not only could that potentially allow for this conflict to happen again, but I was also worried if that meant all of the counterparts would be reborn as infants again, which would be depressing. Reira sealing Zarc away himself was quite a surprise. He was already impressive with helping Ray duel Zarc, but Reira saving the day like that was such a huge twist, even though it was sad that Yuya was worried about what happened to him once he gained control back.
The preview looked pretty good. As wonderful as it is to see Yuya being happy again, it is clear that reality has been rewritten again. They couldn't jump from that duel and the dimensions merging together and go back to Standard so easily. Plus, there's no sign of Yuzu, which they would focus on if she was still there even in the preview.
It was pretty neat to see Reiji use Pendulum summoning to go into Fusion, Xyz and Synchro again. It was nice that Reiji was trying to reach out to Yuya through his dueling. He had a really good combination too. He was able to negate the Pendulum effects of Zarc's monsters, used Executive Caesar's effect to prevent Odd Eyes from special summoning other monsters and used their attack points to power up his own monsters. Even though Zarc couldn't be destroyed in battle, Reiji was still able to do a lot of damage to his life points in his attempt to reach out to Yuya. Everyone was cheering Reiji on and hoping that they'd take their feelings to Yuya.
Zarc claiming that he created Pendulum summoning was a surprising development. I never thought that Yuya himself created Pendulum summoning. I always thought that he just discovered it and that is still kind of true, even though it was more like that Zarc discovered it. It does put the duel against Strong in a much different light. When I rewatched the first couple of episodes, there was a distinct difference in Yuya's voice when he Pendulum summoned for the first time, which must have been an early Zarc voice. That would explain why the Japanese version refers to Yuya's Berserk mode as Awakened Yuya. It also explained why Yuya sounded more aggressive and referred to his monsters as his servants during that scene, which might also tie in with how all of the dimensional dragons are Supreme King Servants here. It's also interesting to think that Zarc's soul was finally woken up after fourteen years. During that part of the duel against Strong, Yuya was determined to win in order to prove the strength of his father's dueling, so that determination to win must have stirred up Zarc's soul. That would also further explain why Zarc was able to take over Yuya's body completely when he did. He was focused on winning, on top of being emotionally and mentally exhausted from what he had gone through up to that point. The foreshadowing in this series just continues to amaze me. They had stuff like Zarc planned out by the first and second episode. That is amazing.
Zarc wanting to use Pendulum summoning when he fought against Ray again was interesting. He was planning his revival since he first woke up, but I still say that it wouldn't have been possible if Leo didn't start the dimensional war. Even with Zarc planning for his revival this whole time, there wouldn't have been any way for that to happen if Leo didn't mess up Ray's sacrifice by kidnapping the girls and providing means to travel between dimensions for at least Academia, as that helped both Yuto and Yuri at least to go through different dimensions. Still, it showed that Zarc really didn't want to lose to Ray again and further ties into how he he's really afraid of losing. It was interesting that those four cards splitting Zarc apart allowed for him to discover Pendulum summoning. Despite his plan and his desire to use Pendulum summoning against Ray, Pendulum cards are widely available in Standard, Academia was able to gain Pendulum cards and two of the Yuzu counterparts have used Pendulum summoning too. It was nice to see that Tsukikage had been revived and was helping to get Reira to the battle though.
Of course Zarc had an overpowered Trap card that allowed him to gain all of his dragons on the field after taking that much damage. Reiji was able to hold out against those attacks better than I thought he would. All of his monsters' Pendulum effects really helped to keep him safe from Clear Wing and Dark Rebellion's broken effects. But then there was Starve Venom's effects. I was actually expecting Starve Venom to eat Executive Alexander, but it still gained its abilities and became significantly more powerful. It almost seemed like Reiji was going to survive the turn before Starve Venom's effect gave all of Zarc's other monsters piercing damage and the damage was already going to be double due to Odd Eyes' effect. It did look pretty grim with the characters thinking that the world was going to be destroyed and even the little kids were crying that this monster wasn't Yuya. They were all so lucky that Reira jumped into the battle when he did. Tsukikage was able to save Reiji and Leo, even though Reiji looked so weird without his ridiculously long scarf.
Reira becoming Ray's vessel was a cool twist and made sense. It would have been nice if one of the Yuzu counterparts chose to be Ray's vessel, especially as a way to mirror how Zarc forced his will onto the Yuya counterparts through the Berserk Mode, but that might have been kind of tricky. Ray's spirit didn't start appearing until after the girls were starting to merge together in Arc V and they were unconscious by that point too. Still, it made sense with all of the buildup about Reira's connection to Ray, so I was fine with that. Plus, that dramatic reveal with his long hair was pretty awesome. I liked how Ray was speaking through Reira and was so determined to stop Zarc. If he'd revive, then she'd revive as well. If he tried to destroy the world, she'd save it. It has been a pretty common theory among fans that Zarc and Ray were really gods of destruction and creation and while that didn't happen here, I think it worked out for the best. Zarc being the result of society's growing desire for entertainment and developing an intense fear of losing to the point where he'd create broken cards to keep on winning made him much more interesting than simply being a god of destruction. Ray being a normal teenage girl who was willing to fight against who many considered a demon by that point is pretty awesome in itself. If anything, making them both human makes them both more interesting and their actions stand out more as a result, especially with Ray.
I was really happy with the En Flowers, En Birds, En Moon and En Wind cards. It made it even clearer that the duels against Zarc haven't been for nothing. It wasn't just about promoting Zarc's overpowered cards. All of the duels against Zarc allowed for Reira and Ray to use those cards. Even the extremely brief duel Leo had against Zarc allowed for him to help out by putting in a third Fusion monster in the Graveyard. All of Yuya's friends' efforts to save him weren't in vain and I liked how the cards' activation requirements emphasized that. Granted, even if that wasn't the case, you could see how these duels were having a gradual affect on Zarc. He was becoming more emotional with each duel, Gongenzaka's speech about Entertainment and Steadfast dueling triggered something inside of Zarc, he responded to the notion that he was afraid of losing and Pendulum summoning showed that Yuya's soul was indeed still inside of Zarc. There was more going on in those duels than just promoting new cards, but I like that the four cards made it even clearer that their efforts to save Yuya weren't in vain. In the end, they all still helped to save Yuya even after losing to Zarc, which I thought was a really nice touch. I actually didn't think that it would come down to Zarc vs. Ray, but Reira being her vessel was a different kind of twist to the mix. It was really beautiful to see all of those flowers blooming while damaging Zarc's life points. Turning all of Zarc's monsters into Normal monsters with their effects negated was an interesting way to get around Zarc's defenses.
I liked that even though Zarc was so sure about how he was, Reiji was certain that he was also Yuya and that his heart was swinging back and forth like a Pendulum. While it still seemed weird for the cards to be the embodiment of nature's powers, I think that the purification aspect helped to make it a bit more sense, especially when Zarc was so far gone by the time he became a demon, and it was a fitting mean to defeat Zarc in that regard. Yuya being Zarc's embodiment of his pure desire to pursue smiles was sweet and sounded fitting given his idealistic nature. He isn't perfect obviously, but his desire to make people smile is so genuinely sweet and sincere. It's honestly one of the reasons why I love Yuya so much.
I really liked how Yuzu was able to reach out to Yuya. Even though they had both merged with their counterparts to form Zarc and Ray, their feelings for each other were so strong that they were able to reach out to each other. I was hoping something like that would be able to happen since I love their relationship so much. Being able to shine through Ray and her other counterparts showed how strong both Yuzu and her feelings were. She knows Yuya and has seen his determination to find her regardless of how far away they were from each other. While this probably would have been effective even if the others hadn't dueled Zarc before, I think that the others' attempts to reach out to Yuya made it easier for Yuzu to do so herself. After all, we saw Yuya within Zarc's soul well before Yuzu talked to him. I was really surprised by Zarc's attempts to refute Yuzu's claims. I always thought that Yuri was the opposite of Yuya and that may still be true, but Zarc might be another opposite extreme of Yuya's personality. Instead of wanting to make people smile, Zarc wanted to bring fear. He also claimed that his true wish was to let people who forced him to fight and treated him like a toy to have a taste of what true fear is. That said a lot about Zarc's character. It gave me the impression that Zarc only went that far because of how people reacted to the violent duels. Instead of being able to duel the way he wanted to, he felt like a puppet who was dueling only for the crowd's satisfaction. Granted, Zarc isn't entirely blameless here since he didn't have to go as far as to become a giant dragon determined to destroy the world, but it does give the impression that Zarc might have been a lot like Yuya in the original world. He probably didn't have the kind of friendship and support that Yuya does. There was seemingly no one trying to get Zarc to go back to normal in the original world. They only wanted to defeat and seal him away.
It was so sweet that Yuzu wanted Yuya to respond to their feelings so that they could go home together. Reiji giving Yuya his pendulum necklace back was so nice and pretty fitting given that it went around different characters these past few episodes. Yuya hearing and seeing Yusho right as he was able to gain control back was really sweet and fitting too. Yuya thinking that his father abandoned him crushed before, but the feelings from his friends and the words from his father brought him back. Seeing all of the Yuya counterparts draw that last card was pretty neat. Smile Universe was such a cute card, even though it made the others wonder if it really was Yuya or not. Zarc's comment about how Pendulum monsters are indestructible was interesting since it added more reason as to why he wanted to use it in his rematch against Ray. These are monsters that can return from the Extra Deck easily. No matter how many times they are destroyed, they come back and that would appeal to Zarc. He was afraid of losing again, so he created a summoning method that gave the illusion of being indestructible. It gave Zarc the reassurance that he could always come back from any attack or defeat.
I liked how Yuya was determined to not be a demon, but you could also see that he was just barely holding off Zarc long enough for Reira to finish him off. Zarc and especially this last turn reminded me a lot of Marik from the Battle City finals. Like Marik, Zarc merged with his dragon, the way he was defeated involved using a Spell card that relied on monsters from the Graveyard and his defeat relied on Yuya holding him back long enough for Reira to land the finishing blow. They even had Zarc control one eye while Yuya's regular red eye was in the other one. It was a pretty awesome reference to DM. I liked that even though Yuya had control, he still needed help from his friends to defeat Zarc. It made it feel like it was still a group victory at the end, which was nice. I was worried if the dimensions splitting up again would allow for Zarc and Ray to be reborn. Not only could that potentially allow for this conflict to happen again, but I was also worried if that meant all of the counterparts would be reborn as infants again, which would be depressing. Reira sealing Zarc away himself was quite a surprise. He was already impressive with helping Ray duel Zarc, but Reira saving the day like that was such a huge twist, even though it was sad that Yuya was worried about what happened to him once he gained control back.
The preview looked pretty good. As wonderful as it is to see Yuya being happy again, it is clear that reality has been rewritten again. They couldn't jump from that duel and the dimensions merging together and go back to Standard so easily. Plus, there's no sign of Yuzu, which they would focus on if she was still there even in the preview.