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Where I rewatch Yugioh GX, Episode 114
So we open with Asuka trapped in the incredibly contrived trap, and because the writers decided that they REALLY wanted to piss me off, they have her begging for Judai to help her. Excuse me for a moment while I explode with rage. Thank you. PROFESSOR COBRA, evil eye in lava lamp, and Jim summons a monster to scare off the tiger that attacked his group, which means that him sending Kenzan and Asuka running is even more contrived. Kenzan runs in to inform Jim that he has lost Asuka, leaving out there where it happened because he was a god-dammed moron, and elsewhere, Johan and Shou continue to be equally stupid, having inexplicably lost Judai for no good reason. Really, this whole sequence has been nothing if not an exercise in contrivance.
TITLE SCREEN! A DESPERATE SITUATION! THE SCARRED HEROES oh noes, now they're not pretty anymore. oh, the angst.
So after a DBZ-esque period of padding, Judai once again asks what did he do to make Professor Satou want to kill him. You know, aside from existing. That by itself seems a perfectly reasonable motive for killing Judai, and no jury in the world would convict someone with that motive. Professor Satou explains that one day, PROFESSOR COBRA came to him and told him something, which is a prelude to a flashback of an event we were not allowed to see at the time. In it, PROFESSOR COBRA reveals to Professor Satou that he knows all about his backstory, that he was born into poverty, had to work his way through school, he had to duel ten times more often then anyone else just to support his family, and by the time he reached the title match, he was utterly spent and collapsed. Which is just as well, since if he hadn't, he would have just had his soul torn out by DD. After that, he decided to settle for teaching the youth, but the youth was lazy and unreceptive. PROFESSOR COBRA then says he can hear the darkness in one's heart, and thus he knows full well that Professor Satou desires revenge against the one responsible for turning all the students into lazy asses, Judai. That clumsy bit of exposition out of the way, we now return to the present. Professor Satou then wonders if Judai's ever heard a certain question; There is trash on the ground, and two people pass by. One sees it, but chooses not to pick it up, while the other simply doesn't see it. Who is the worse person? Judai firmly answers that it's obviously the guy who saw it and chose not to pick it up, but Professor Satou says that's wrong; the person who saw the trash could change their mind and return to it, but the one who didn't even notice it never will. And so he spells it out to Judai, that he is the foolish, unknowing person who is oblivious to the consequences of his actions.
Judai balks at this accurate assessment of his nature as a worthless wretch of a person, but Satou has no sympathy for the one who dealt him such cruel humiliation; Judai was always either absent, or just plain slept through class, failing damn near every exam. Judai says he knew this a bad thing for him to do, which would apparently explain why he did it, but Satou is not finished; Judai's classmates, noticing how Judai always won virtually every duel he was in, decided to follow his example, and stopped applying themselves, losing their spirits if you will. Okay, if Hayato's in this flashback, that means Satou was around back in season one. Why didn't we see him back then? BAD WRITING! However, even as attendance dwindled and Judai unwittingly infected everyone with his stupidity, Asuka remained resolute and focused...unfortunately, not even she could carry the entire class on her back, and so she too disappeared. Back in the present, Professor Satou says that if Judai had no talent it wouldn't have mattered that he were so goddamn lazy, but because he was the great hero who'd saved the whole world twice over, everyone admired Judai as a model student. Judai tries to say that he isn't that great, which comes off as so incredibly hollow it's not funny at all; do I need to remind everyone about how back in episode one how Judai proclaimed himself number one in the entire school, on the basis of absolutely nothing? Yeah, that's a guy who's totally modest and not the least bit full of himself at all. Oh, but now the writers feel like playing off of Spiderman, as Professor Satou says that Great Power comes with Great Responsibility, but Judai was oblivious to his responsibility and so did things spiritlessly, preventing any other students from developing greater talent that would spread and inspire others to further greatness. Judai is the rotten orange in the barrel, and thus he must be killed.
Finally, Professor Satou declares his attack, and Judai activates his Negate Attack trap, saving himself for another turn. Professor Satou figured that would happen, and so he activates Scab Blast; for every monster that Satou has taken over with Scab Scarknight, he deals 200 damage to Judai. That's two, so Judai takes 400 damage. Satou ends his turn, Judai takes his, summons Bubbleman, draws two cards with its anime effect, sets a card and then plays Fusion to summon...Elemental Hero Sailorman. Pardon me, but I have to...FIGHTING EVIL BY MOONLIGHT, WINNING LOVE BY DAYLIGHT, NEVER RUNNING FROM A REAL FIGHT, SHE IS THE ONE NAMED SAILOR MOON! Okay, got that out of my system, Judai uses Sailorman's effect to attack directly, even though it was previously established that Scab-Scarknight's effect forced the opponent to attack it and nothing about Mariner's effect should have changed that. But hey, they have to do this, or else Judai will lose, and that would just be so horrible, now wouldn't it? Another reminder from the writers of how much they hate Asuka, PROFESSOR COBRA laughs evilly, and Judai says that he doesn't have time to deal with Professor Satou's valid vendetta against him, he needs to go see PROFESSOR COBRA now! Satou has no time for Judai's whining, and informs Judai that he can't defeat either him or PROFESSOR COBRA, for they have something that Judai doesn't; darkness of the heart! Wait...I thought that Judai was chosen of the Gentle Darkness to wield the power of Dark Justice to save the world from the Light of Destruction. Shouldn't that mean he has lots of darkness in his heart? Ow, my brain. blah blah blah, Satou says that until now, he has never dueled for himself, unlike Judai who has only ever dueled for himself. Judai, in an epic display of missing the point so completely that he's no longer even in the same plane as the point, asks "but where's the fun in dueling like that?"
Judai, I look forward to your death, or at least I would if I didn't know better. Satou is now truly angry at Judai for believing that dueling is just for fun, and another flashback. Satou's dueling and kicking ass, and he talks about how a duelist carries everyone's expectations and survive on their own. PROFESSOR COBRA then interrupts, saying none of that matters, a kid like Judai will never get it. Oh hey, hologram, neat. He tells Judai that all he wants is his Duel Energy, and he's just hear to give him an important message, and so he shows Asuka in the random trap of randomness. Seriously, the way PROFESSOR COBRA acts about all this, you'd think he'd planned for this, when there's no way he could have done so. I mean, what would he have done if no one had randomly fallen into that random trap? He further explains that the flow of water is connected to their duel...somehow, and the more life points Satou loses, the higher the water will rise, with obvious results at zero life points. Judai objects to this arrangement, and so does Professor Satou. But PROFESSOR COBRA insists that he can't stand to see Satou be hurt by someone, and...plays a video of Asuka in front of the school meeting up with Junko and Momoe; they tell her that Judai and his friends are out playing on the beach, and Asuka decides to skip Satou's class, saying she doesn't like them anyway, and Professor Satou talks old-fashioned anyway. One, this is out of character for Asuka. She is a focused, diligent student and she would most certainly not judge a teacher on the way he teaches, seeing as she's never said anything about how Professor Chronos or Napoleon talk. Two, how the hell could PROFESSOR COBRA have possibly planned for this, or even recorded it for that matter? Did he just have a camera floating in mid-air? And three, when the hell is this supposed to have taken place? I'm not seeing a Dis-Belt on Asuka's arm, so this could only have happened before PROFESSOR COBRA arrived, which just raises even more questions. Unfortunately, Professor Satou is too distraught over the glaring plotholes, so he doesn't see through it.
Blah blah blah, PROFESSOR COBRA enjoys Judai's suffering, and Satou takes his turn, activating Scab Blast's effect to return it from his grave to his hand rather than drawing a new card. He activates it to deal another 400 damage to Judai, and then plays Gift of the Martyr, sacrificing Air-Hummingbird to give Burst Lady an additional 800 attack points. He attacks and destroys Sailorman for 600 points of damage.
EYECATCH!
Shou and Johan return to the beginning, find that Judai isn't there, and that the power's been cut off to the elevator. Blah blah blah, back to the duel, and Judai activates Hero Signal, bringing out sparkman. Judai takes his turn, equips Sparkman with Sparkgun, and switches Scab Scar-Knight to defense, negating its invincibility. This also means that he won't deal damage to Satou, thus sparing Asuka from drowning for another turn. Judai attacks, but Satou activates his trap card, Victim Barrier; this not only switches the target of Judai's attack to Burst Lady, which deals 400 damage to Satou and causes Asuka to begin drowning, but it also applies Scab Scar-Knight's effect, allowing Satou to take over Sparkman. Judai sets a card and ends his turn. Elsewhere, Jim and Kenzan continue to yell for Asuka, and because all animals are Lassie, Karen has found something. Yes, it is the trap door that Kenzan witlessly triggered, and I've no idea why Karen would recognize this as being in anyway significant. Wait, why am I asking this question? CURSE YOU, GX! Oh, apparently Karen heard the rushing water, and now we hear Asuka yelling for Kenzan and Jim to get her out. Now, by all logic, they should just be able to step on the trap door, wait a moment for it to open, and then pull Asuka out. But that would make sense, and so no such thing will take place. No, for no discernible reason the door no longer wishes to open, and so they have to go search for the source of the water. They find it, and Jim and Karen go in. Back to the duel, Satou takes his turn, retrieves Scab Blast, switches Scab Scarknight to attack, attacks directly with Sparkman, and Judai activates A Hero Emerges, there are two cards in Judai's hand, and of course Satou picks Neos. Satou cancels his attack, activates Scab Blast for another 200 damage, and then Jim proceeds to break multiple laws of physics as he breaks a hole in the brick wall that has tons of pressure being applied to it by the water. No, even with a crocodile, you can't do that. Woop di doo, Asuka is rescued from her pointless and contrived period as damsel in distress, and Kenzan will never ever be called out on how detrimental he is to everything ever.
Well, now that Asuka's safe, Judai can go ahead and try to kill the man who's fully justified in killing him, and has Neos attack Scab Scarknight. But Satou activates his other trap card, Scab Scream; when a monster with 2000 attack or less is attacked, he reduces the battle damage to zero, and he gets to destroy the opponent's monster. Blah blah blah, and also Scab Scarknight transforms. Judai wonders if this is it's true form, I roll my eyes, and says yep! It's the hero who fought with everyone's hopes and expectations, more flashbacks, now of Scarknight kicking ass, but eventually it gets destroyed, breaking Satou's glasses! OH NOES! And as Satou has collapsed and is obviously in poor health, the crowd starts throwing trash, trash that I would not expect from such a classy locale. Scarknight's spirit hovers over Satou, and in some manner of spiritual vision, Satou sees Scarknight become Scab Scarknight to protect him. RANDOM! Blah blah blah, Judai summons Larva Cocoon, and then sets a card to end his turn. Satou takes his turn, and is apparently suicidal at this point, since rather then using Demandman's effect to switch Cocoon Larva to attack and having Sparkman destroy it for the win, he instead activates Scarknight's effect to destroy every monster on the field, including itself, and both players will take 500 damage for every monster so destroyed. This will result in a mutual kill, but Judai pulls a brand new trap out of his ass to save himself. By the way, the explosion is seen by Shou and Johan, so they go to investigate. Now, what bullshit trap did Judai use to save himself? Cocoon Veil, sacrificing Cocoon Larva to reduce effect damage to himself to zero. As the heroic and noble Professor Satou dies, he tells the vile, villainous Judai that he will one day realize what it is that he duels for, as though anyone in the audience is the least bit interested in what Judai duels for, as though anyone in the audience even wants to see Judai duel ever again, now that he's killed a great and valorous man.
Satou picks up the Scarknight card, and then the Dis-Belt kicks in, causing him to fall off the bridge to his final death. Fear not Satou, we will remember your valor in the face of an all-powerful villain, backed by writers who are blind to his evil. Seriously, I know we're supposed to feel "conflicted" about this, but since I hate Judai so much, I cannot do that. Judai collapses as he whines about what it is he duels for, and Creepy Eye appears, lady talking about her beloved Judai, saying she'll tell Judai the answer soon. You will not like where this goes. I certainly didn't. End episode.
NEXT TIME! Judai wallows in his manpain, and some guy wants to steal Johan's "Duel Spirits" so he can sell them. This will be even stupider than it looks. EPISODE TITLE, GIESE THE SPIRIT HUNTER card of the week is crying scarknight, which like scab scarknight was never released.
Yeah, this episode marks the beginning of the focus on the main theme of the season, Judai's manpain. The only difference between this and the main themes of the previous seasons, that Judai is so great, is that Judai's going to be whiny about it, which is even more unpleasant than him being an entitled brat about it, if that's even possible.
TITLE SCREEN! A DESPERATE SITUATION! THE SCARRED HEROES oh noes, now they're not pretty anymore. oh, the angst.
So after a DBZ-esque period of padding, Judai once again asks what did he do to make Professor Satou want to kill him. You know, aside from existing. That by itself seems a perfectly reasonable motive for killing Judai, and no jury in the world would convict someone with that motive. Professor Satou explains that one day, PROFESSOR COBRA came to him and told him something, which is a prelude to a flashback of an event we were not allowed to see at the time. In it, PROFESSOR COBRA reveals to Professor Satou that he knows all about his backstory, that he was born into poverty, had to work his way through school, he had to duel ten times more often then anyone else just to support his family, and by the time he reached the title match, he was utterly spent and collapsed. Which is just as well, since if he hadn't, he would have just had his soul torn out by DD. After that, he decided to settle for teaching the youth, but the youth was lazy and unreceptive. PROFESSOR COBRA then says he can hear the darkness in one's heart, and thus he knows full well that Professor Satou desires revenge against the one responsible for turning all the students into lazy asses, Judai. That clumsy bit of exposition out of the way, we now return to the present. Professor Satou then wonders if Judai's ever heard a certain question; There is trash on the ground, and two people pass by. One sees it, but chooses not to pick it up, while the other simply doesn't see it. Who is the worse person? Judai firmly answers that it's obviously the guy who saw it and chose not to pick it up, but Professor Satou says that's wrong; the person who saw the trash could change their mind and return to it, but the one who didn't even notice it never will. And so he spells it out to Judai, that he is the foolish, unknowing person who is oblivious to the consequences of his actions.
Judai balks at this accurate assessment of his nature as a worthless wretch of a person, but Satou has no sympathy for the one who dealt him such cruel humiliation; Judai was always either absent, or just plain slept through class, failing damn near every exam. Judai says he knew this a bad thing for him to do, which would apparently explain why he did it, but Satou is not finished; Judai's classmates, noticing how Judai always won virtually every duel he was in, decided to follow his example, and stopped applying themselves, losing their spirits if you will. Okay, if Hayato's in this flashback, that means Satou was around back in season one. Why didn't we see him back then? BAD WRITING! However, even as attendance dwindled and Judai unwittingly infected everyone with his stupidity, Asuka remained resolute and focused...unfortunately, not even she could carry the entire class on her back, and so she too disappeared. Back in the present, Professor Satou says that if Judai had no talent it wouldn't have mattered that he were so goddamn lazy, but because he was the great hero who'd saved the whole world twice over, everyone admired Judai as a model student. Judai tries to say that he isn't that great, which comes off as so incredibly hollow it's not funny at all; do I need to remind everyone about how back in episode one how Judai proclaimed himself number one in the entire school, on the basis of absolutely nothing? Yeah, that's a guy who's totally modest and not the least bit full of himself at all. Oh, but now the writers feel like playing off of Spiderman, as Professor Satou says that Great Power comes with Great Responsibility, but Judai was oblivious to his responsibility and so did things spiritlessly, preventing any other students from developing greater talent that would spread and inspire others to further greatness. Judai is the rotten orange in the barrel, and thus he must be killed.
Finally, Professor Satou declares his attack, and Judai activates his Negate Attack trap, saving himself for another turn. Professor Satou figured that would happen, and so he activates Scab Blast; for every monster that Satou has taken over with Scab Scarknight, he deals 200 damage to Judai. That's two, so Judai takes 400 damage. Satou ends his turn, Judai takes his, summons Bubbleman, draws two cards with its anime effect, sets a card and then plays Fusion to summon...Elemental Hero Sailorman. Pardon me, but I have to...FIGHTING EVIL BY MOONLIGHT, WINNING LOVE BY DAYLIGHT, NEVER RUNNING FROM A REAL FIGHT, SHE IS THE ONE NAMED SAILOR MOON! Okay, got that out of my system, Judai uses Sailorman's effect to attack directly, even though it was previously established that Scab-Scarknight's effect forced the opponent to attack it and nothing about Mariner's effect should have changed that. But hey, they have to do this, or else Judai will lose, and that would just be so horrible, now wouldn't it? Another reminder from the writers of how much they hate Asuka, PROFESSOR COBRA laughs evilly, and Judai says that he doesn't have time to deal with Professor Satou's valid vendetta against him, he needs to go see PROFESSOR COBRA now! Satou has no time for Judai's whining, and informs Judai that he can't defeat either him or PROFESSOR COBRA, for they have something that Judai doesn't; darkness of the heart! Wait...I thought that Judai was chosen of the Gentle Darkness to wield the power of Dark Justice to save the world from the Light of Destruction. Shouldn't that mean he has lots of darkness in his heart? Ow, my brain. blah blah blah, Satou says that until now, he has never dueled for himself, unlike Judai who has only ever dueled for himself. Judai, in an epic display of missing the point so completely that he's no longer even in the same plane as the point, asks "but where's the fun in dueling like that?"
Judai, I look forward to your death, or at least I would if I didn't know better. Satou is now truly angry at Judai for believing that dueling is just for fun, and another flashback. Satou's dueling and kicking ass, and he talks about how a duelist carries everyone's expectations and survive on their own. PROFESSOR COBRA then interrupts, saying none of that matters, a kid like Judai will never get it. Oh hey, hologram, neat. He tells Judai that all he wants is his Duel Energy, and he's just hear to give him an important message, and so he shows Asuka in the random trap of randomness. Seriously, the way PROFESSOR COBRA acts about all this, you'd think he'd planned for this, when there's no way he could have done so. I mean, what would he have done if no one had randomly fallen into that random trap? He further explains that the flow of water is connected to their duel...somehow, and the more life points Satou loses, the higher the water will rise, with obvious results at zero life points. Judai objects to this arrangement, and so does Professor Satou. But PROFESSOR COBRA insists that he can't stand to see Satou be hurt by someone, and...plays a video of Asuka in front of the school meeting up with Junko and Momoe; they tell her that Judai and his friends are out playing on the beach, and Asuka decides to skip Satou's class, saying she doesn't like them anyway, and Professor Satou talks old-fashioned anyway. One, this is out of character for Asuka. She is a focused, diligent student and she would most certainly not judge a teacher on the way he teaches, seeing as she's never said anything about how Professor Chronos or Napoleon talk. Two, how the hell could PROFESSOR COBRA have possibly planned for this, or even recorded it for that matter? Did he just have a camera floating in mid-air? And three, when the hell is this supposed to have taken place? I'm not seeing a Dis-Belt on Asuka's arm, so this could only have happened before PROFESSOR COBRA arrived, which just raises even more questions. Unfortunately, Professor Satou is too distraught over the glaring plotholes, so he doesn't see through it.
Blah blah blah, PROFESSOR COBRA enjoys Judai's suffering, and Satou takes his turn, activating Scab Blast's effect to return it from his grave to his hand rather than drawing a new card. He activates it to deal another 400 damage to Judai, and then plays Gift of the Martyr, sacrificing Air-Hummingbird to give Burst Lady an additional 800 attack points. He attacks and destroys Sailorman for 600 points of damage.
EYECATCH!
Shou and Johan return to the beginning, find that Judai isn't there, and that the power's been cut off to the elevator. Blah blah blah, back to the duel, and Judai activates Hero Signal, bringing out sparkman. Judai takes his turn, equips Sparkman with Sparkgun, and switches Scab Scar-Knight to defense, negating its invincibility. This also means that he won't deal damage to Satou, thus sparing Asuka from drowning for another turn. Judai attacks, but Satou activates his trap card, Victim Barrier; this not only switches the target of Judai's attack to Burst Lady, which deals 400 damage to Satou and causes Asuka to begin drowning, but it also applies Scab Scar-Knight's effect, allowing Satou to take over Sparkman. Judai sets a card and ends his turn. Elsewhere, Jim and Kenzan continue to yell for Asuka, and because all animals are Lassie, Karen has found something. Yes, it is the trap door that Kenzan witlessly triggered, and I've no idea why Karen would recognize this as being in anyway significant. Wait, why am I asking this question? CURSE YOU, GX! Oh, apparently Karen heard the rushing water, and now we hear Asuka yelling for Kenzan and Jim to get her out. Now, by all logic, they should just be able to step on the trap door, wait a moment for it to open, and then pull Asuka out. But that would make sense, and so no such thing will take place. No, for no discernible reason the door no longer wishes to open, and so they have to go search for the source of the water. They find it, and Jim and Karen go in. Back to the duel, Satou takes his turn, retrieves Scab Blast, switches Scab Scarknight to attack, attacks directly with Sparkman, and Judai activates A Hero Emerges, there are two cards in Judai's hand, and of course Satou picks Neos. Satou cancels his attack, activates Scab Blast for another 200 damage, and then Jim proceeds to break multiple laws of physics as he breaks a hole in the brick wall that has tons of pressure being applied to it by the water. No, even with a crocodile, you can't do that. Woop di doo, Asuka is rescued from her pointless and contrived period as damsel in distress, and Kenzan will never ever be called out on how detrimental he is to everything ever.
Well, now that Asuka's safe, Judai can go ahead and try to kill the man who's fully justified in killing him, and has Neos attack Scab Scarknight. But Satou activates his other trap card, Scab Scream; when a monster with 2000 attack or less is attacked, he reduces the battle damage to zero, and he gets to destroy the opponent's monster. Blah blah blah, and also Scab Scarknight transforms. Judai wonders if this is it's true form, I roll my eyes, and says yep! It's the hero who fought with everyone's hopes and expectations, more flashbacks, now of Scarknight kicking ass, but eventually it gets destroyed, breaking Satou's glasses! OH NOES! And as Satou has collapsed and is obviously in poor health, the crowd starts throwing trash, trash that I would not expect from such a classy locale. Scarknight's spirit hovers over Satou, and in some manner of spiritual vision, Satou sees Scarknight become Scab Scarknight to protect him. RANDOM! Blah blah blah, Judai summons Larva Cocoon, and then sets a card to end his turn. Satou takes his turn, and is apparently suicidal at this point, since rather then using Demandman's effect to switch Cocoon Larva to attack and having Sparkman destroy it for the win, he instead activates Scarknight's effect to destroy every monster on the field, including itself, and both players will take 500 damage for every monster so destroyed. This will result in a mutual kill, but Judai pulls a brand new trap out of his ass to save himself. By the way, the explosion is seen by Shou and Johan, so they go to investigate. Now, what bullshit trap did Judai use to save himself? Cocoon Veil, sacrificing Cocoon Larva to reduce effect damage to himself to zero. As the heroic and noble Professor Satou dies, he tells the vile, villainous Judai that he will one day realize what it is that he duels for, as though anyone in the audience is the least bit interested in what Judai duels for, as though anyone in the audience even wants to see Judai duel ever again, now that he's killed a great and valorous man.
Satou picks up the Scarknight card, and then the Dis-Belt kicks in, causing him to fall off the bridge to his final death. Fear not Satou, we will remember your valor in the face of an all-powerful villain, backed by writers who are blind to his evil. Seriously, I know we're supposed to feel "conflicted" about this, but since I hate Judai so much, I cannot do that. Judai collapses as he whines about what it is he duels for, and Creepy Eye appears, lady talking about her beloved Judai, saying she'll tell Judai the answer soon. You will not like where this goes. I certainly didn't. End episode.
NEXT TIME! Judai wallows in his manpain, and some guy wants to steal Johan's "Duel Spirits" so he can sell them. This will be even stupider than it looks. EPISODE TITLE, GIESE THE SPIRIT HUNTER card of the week is crying scarknight, which like scab scarknight was never released.
Yeah, this episode marks the beginning of the focus on the main theme of the season, Judai's manpain. The only difference between this and the main themes of the previous seasons, that Judai is so great, is that Judai's going to be whiny about it, which is even more unpleasant than him being an entitled brat about it, if that's even possible.