Where I rewatch Yugioh GX, Episode 155
Dec. 29th, 2010 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cypsiman2Oh rapturous joy, this episode has subtitles, so there's nothing between to stand between me and its sheer, reprehensible horribleness. This is going to hurt, so much...I would not be surprised if I end up passing out after all the blood rushes to my head. Anyway, Judai's summoned Rainbow Neos and activates 1 of it's 3 effects; by sending one card from his deck to his grave, he can return all the cards in Yubel's grave back to hir deck. The card he sends is Necro-Gardna, and now Yubel's grave is empty. Now we get the Peanut Gallery spelling out the obvious, as the writers continue to let their contempt for the intellectual capacities of their audience be known. Blah blah blah, now Sacrifice Lotus isn't in Yubel's grave so sie can't use its effect anymore, and now down to Johan and Chronos, where Ruby Carbuncle randomly appears to let them know that Judai used Rainbow Dragon. As though anyone gives a shit. Also, Judai performed an absolutely heinous misplay, which I'll be getting into in just a little bit.
TITLE SCREEN! RAINBOW NEOS VS. YUBEL ULTIMATE FORM all right, i'm going to ask it now, why the fuck does yubel even have an 'ultimate form' in the first place?
Winged Kuriboh appears, and Judai agrees with its squeaking, he sure wishes Johan could see this. I mean, there's no way that the sight of Yubel could possibly trigger some deeply rooted terror as a result of all the torment and torture he suffered at Yubel's hands, right? Yubel continues to be outraged at Judai using Johan's card, is he really THAT important to you, all the love you used to give me, now belongs to him! No, Yubel, you are far too depraved, stupid, and evil for me to be even the least bit sympathetic to your "plight". Then Judai sends another card from his deck to the grave, Necrodarkman, to activate the spell card Arms Hole. This lets him take any equip spell card from his deck, and add it to his hand, but he is not allowed to normal summon a monster on the turn he activates this effect. Anyway, he adds and equips Rainbow Veil to Rainbow Neos. Yes, even more rainbows. There is no limit to how far this show will take its "subtext" over the line. Judai declares his attack with Rainbow Neos, and reveals that Rainbow Veil makes it so that when the equipped monster attacks, the opponent's monster can't activate its effect, so Yubel is about to take the full force of 4500 points of damage. Also notable is that for the first time, Judai doesn't look like an absolute moron; unfortunately, appearances are deceiving, as will soon be explained. Anyway, Rainbow Neos does its thing, but Yubel activates Demon Rose, the permanent trap card that Judai chose for her for Magic Chronicle's effect. Yubel equips it to hir monster, and now it doesn't take any battle damage, but if it leaves the field, the equipped monster is destroyed. Thus, Judai's attack is a waste. Now, want to know what Judai could have done to win the duel right then and there? See, another one of Rainbow Neos's effects is that you can send a spell or trap card you control to the grave to return all your opponents spells and traps to their deck. And if Judai hadn't pointlessly and gratuitously wasted Fake Hero to needlessly bring Neos onto the field, he could have used that and Which means that Yubel's monster would be forced into its final form (Yeah, like that's any sort of spoiler), sie would lose Magic Chronicle and thus would be unable to exploit its effect, and Judai could use Rainbow Veil unopposed, and Yubel would lose in an instant.
Why is it that so many duels on this show are so poorly choreographed? Yubel blathers on about how the Demon Rose Judai gave to hir protected hir, the writers are blind to the real reason why, and due to Judai's sub-moronic play, he is forced to end his turn. And now Yubel activates the effect of the Magic Chronicle that wouldn't be there if Judai had been even halfway intelligent, and given the choices before him, Judai is forced to give Yubel Cyclone. Sie of course uses it right away to get rid of Rainbow Veil, blah blah, Yubel didn't want it to end like this, but if this is how sie has to make Judai hirs, hey, what you gonna do? Never mind that not only does this make no sense, but isn't even consistent with the previous episode. Blah blah blah, Judai activates the effect of Necro-Gardna to negate the attack, and Yubel ends hir turn. Judai makes noise about how believing in your friends and never giving up is the real meaning of a duel, and it is just so fucking hollow coming from him. Judai's turn, he plays Fifth Hope, returning all five E-Heroes in his grave to his deck to draw 2 cards. Magic Chronicle gets another counter, and then Judai summons Clayman to activate Rainbow Neos's next effect; by sending a monster to the grave, he can return all of his opponent's monsters to their deck. Judai thus gets rid of Yubel's monster, and demands that sie release his friends right the hell now. But of course, if Das Abseulich Richter leaves the field, Yubel gets to summon hir ultimate form, Das Extreme Traurig Drachen. That is supposed to be german for "The Extremely Sorrowful Dragon", but is of course garbled quite horribly. But first, Yubel turns into a giant glowing head for no good reason. And now the real one comes out, and goddamn, does it look stupid. Seriously, they just cram all these horns and eyes and faces onto it, and it just looks really lazy and sloppy. It makes me wish the Sun Dragon Ra would come down and burn hir into ash, or Thousand Eyes Restrict would absorb hir into oblivion.
Oh, and for the first time in the longest time, Yubel starts speaking with hir male voice. No, I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. Blah blah blah, it's pretty much the same monster as its predecessors, but now it destroys the monster it battles with. Judai sets a card to end his turn, Yubel is still talking with the male voice, going on about how sie will take Judai to a dimension where no one will ever be able to reach him, and protect his "sleep" for all eternity. AKA, standard Yubel drivel #157. Sie attacks, and Judai activates his trap card, Alchemy Cycle; this reduces Rainbow Neos's attack power to zero, so Judai takes no damage, and then it disappears. Ladies and gentlemen, the overwhelmingly overhyped Rainbow Neos, just like Rainbow Dragon, utterly useless and incapable of accomplishing anything of worth. That is just...well, it's a lot better than what is going to happen before long. Also, how the hell does Shou know what Alchemy Cycle does? It just bugs me...anyway, Alchemy Cycle removes the monster from play, and Yubel goes on about how sacrificing his precious monster to save himself is just like the Supreme King, and Judai responds by saying he's lost track of all the times Yubel's failed to kill him. He asks if sie is scared, sie asks why the hell would sie be, he says its because he's the Supreme King who will seize victory, and if I could forget that this was still Judai, I would think that he looked really damn awesome in this shot. But no, I will never forget all the asshat behavior that this prick has demonstrated over the course of three seasons. Plus, what is going to happen in this episode...stay strong, stay strong, you can do this...in any event, Alchemy Cycle lets Judai draw a card, Yubel sets a card, and ends hir turn.
Judai's turn, he uses Necro-Darkman's effect to summon Neos without a sacrifice, though one wonders why; I mean, Yubel's running a Zero-attack deck, so long as he doesn't have any monsters on the field, sie can't deal any damage to him. But, apparently he knows better, and he sets two cards to end his turn. Noise from the Peanut Gallery, Yubel says that not even the Supreme King Judai could possibly defeat hir, blah blah blah, oh noes, how will Judai survive?
EYECATCH!
Judai activates the Quick Spell card Mirage cylinder, which is almost exactly the same as Asuka's Double Passe, but in spell form. And of course, it has to be in spell form, because otherwise the painfully contrived scenario that the writers have planned can't come to fruition. Anyway, Judai does 2500 damage to Yubel, Judai goes on some more about how he won't give up until his friends are rescued, and now Yubel transitions from male to female voice. Sie says sie is happy, Judai's soul has finally reached hir, and makes noise about how his hatred towards hir is his love towards hir, and it is still naught but inane drivel. Sie says sie can never be harmed in battle, sie hurts others while sie herself is unhurt, and Gaara of the Sand just called, he said this bit way better and he's right. Sie whines about how that made it so that sie could never receive anyone's love...wait, wasn't sie horribly tortured by the Light of Destruction? Mother of fuck, can we please try to be consistent on something for at least two episodes? Anyway, the wind kicks up, creating a wall of cloud between the duelists and the Peanut Gallery. Suddenly, Judai is floating in a purple sky and is transparent, literally! He sees a castle down below, and he flies down and sees a man, looks to be some manner of king. He calls to Yubel, and it is a human...I have no idea what gender Yubel is supposed to be here. It's not like with Johan, who was clearly originally female and was changed to male at the last second to appeal to Yaoi fangirls, I just have no clue what the hell Yubel is supposed to be. Oh, and sie has a gem on hir forehead. You know, like the eye sie has as a depraved psychotic monster. Mr. King goes opens his noisehole about the Light of Destruction and the Gentle Darkness, and that Yubel's friend was born with the power of the Supreme King, which will one day save the universe.
Umm, the writers do remember that Judai defeated the Light of Destruction already, right? Without having to turn into a genocidal maniac, right? But oh, someone must protect the Supreme King until he is ready, and of course Yubel volunteers. But Mr. King says that Yubel will have to put on armor that can never be harmed, shed hir young, beautiful form...ewww...in favor of a hideous, unsightly dragon. Ummm...why? I'm not getting the sense that there's any pressing danger or anything like that, so why such an extreme measure? In any event, Yubel has no problem with this, since hir entire existence is defined around Judai's. Oh, oops, I spoiled who the child they're talking about is. Yeah, big shock. Redundant flashback within a flashback, and now we're in an underground cell where Yubel is being operated on without anesthetic. And then Chibi Past Life Judai runs into the room, calling out for Yubel. Yes, this is supposed to be Judai's past life. Judai's transformation into a shallow shell of Yuugi/Atem is almost complete. And now Judai and Yubel, who now has a boobie on one side for no fucking reason at all, are kneeling to one another in the sunset. Question, where the flaming fuck is all this supposed to be? Blah blah blah, and Chibi Past Life Judai promises Yubel that all his love will be for hir and hir alone, always, no matter what. And now the magic flashback that Yubel summoned is over. And now Judai's eyes are back to normal, and he says that he's sure everyone will be able to get back home, and he tells Shou to tell everyone sorry for him for having brought such torment into their lives. Okay, "trouble", but torment is more accurate. Naturally, Shou doesn't like where this is going, and he yells at Judai to not sacrifice himself. Judai tries to say it isn't like that, he has something far worse in mind. In his words, he's "going on a journey to go from a child to an adult". That's a rather...creative way of referring to what he's about to do.
He does his catchphrase for Shou, and then explodes into light, which then becomes a pillar. Shou whines and mopes about how he doesn't want to go back without Judai, and apparently this finally gets rid of that stupid Doubt mark on his face. I...guess this means he's never going to feel doubt ever again? Fuck if I know. Back into the duel, Judai asks if Yubel is all right...and Yubel is pissed about Judai attacking hir...for some reason, considering that's what sie's been trying to get him to do this entire time. And random abrupt shift to male voice, as Magic Cylinder gives one last counter to Magic Chronicle, and now Judai must choose whether to give Yubel Torch Golem or Super Fusion. Judai, to Yubel's shock, chooses Super Fusion. Yubel responds by activating hir trap card, Chain Material, which will let hir use all the monsters in hir deck, hand, grave, and field for a fusion summon. Sie chooses 12 monsters, one of each level, and now sie activates Super Fusion, using both voices at the same time. Sie declares sie will create the God of Assimilation, bringing all 12 dimensions into one. Because sie can do that, apparently. Oh, and everything will die. Huge beams of light shoot out, surprise token cameo of Misawa and Tanya who are just standing around, not doing anything, and one of the beams enters the real world, cracking the window in Samejima's office. I hope a shard gets him in the neck and kills him, a huge chunk of all this bullshit is all his fault. Yubel laughs, saying that if sie destroys everything else, sie can take all of Judai's love for hirself, and then...Judai says sie's right...and now all the beams of light are gone. Judai says it's not the 12 dimensions that will be fused together...he couldn't couldn't fucking possibly...the writers could not possibly...it is their souls that will fuse. For he has activated Spiritual Fusion, in response to Chain Material, letting him choose which monsters will be fused. And he welcomes Yubel with open arms, saying hir sad journey is over.
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I would now like to take the opportunity to explain in exacting detail everything that is wrong with this, everything that makes this scene infinitely vile and depraved.
1. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that Judai should trust this "flashback" to his past life. After all, it was expressly established that Yubel can alter a person's perceptions and memories to suit hir own ends, sie did this exact thing with PROFESSOR COBRA. Considering how shoddy and full of holes this flashback is, how it introduces far more questions than it could ever hope to answer, the hypothesis that it was all a false memory created by Yubel to exploit Judai is very reasonable. Plus, this is exactly the sort of thing sie would do.
2. Even if this flashback were true, it does not change Judai's obligations one little bit. Promises are important, I agree, but there is a limit. If you promise a friend that you will help them out the next time they need your help, no matter what, that does not mean that if your friend experiences a psychotic episode and wants to shoot up an office building that you are obligated to assist them in this. Furthermore, according to this, Yubel vowed to protect Judai forever, and all that sie has done since Judai's current incarnation was to engage in unprovoked assaults against all his friends, bringing him considerable misery and causing him to have a psychotic episode. Plus, Yubel broke hir promise with PROFESSOR COBRA, so vows and promises are meaningless with Yubel.
3. Even if a promise has that kind of power that the show wants it to have, it still wasn't Judai who made it. It was his past life, when he was a different person. Reincarnation is very difficult for me to wrap my head around, but I'm pretty damn sure that you can't be bound by a promise or obligation that you didn't even make. To do otherwise is madness.
4. Even if all the above does not apply, Judai does not have the right to do this. Remember the scene in Star Wars, Return of the Jedi? You know, the one where Luke Skywalker forgives his father Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker for all he has done? There is a substantive part of the fandom that has a huge problem with that, the problem being that Darth Vader's crimes extend far beyond what he did to his son, and as such Luke had no right to forgive him when there were so many others who'd been hurt by Darth Vader's actions. The only way that Luke can do this, is if all those other people "don't matter", and that is exactly what the GX writers have to do here. They have to take the position that all the suffering that Yubel has wrought throughout all of existence, all the death and torture that can be traced back to hir, is meaningless before what Judai went through. This is simply depraved.
5. Finally, Yubel regrets nothing. As far as sie is concerned, sie has done nothing wrong at all. Contrast for a moment back to Malik, who also did terrible things, but came to regret them and did everything in his very limited power to try to undo the harm that he'd wrought on all those around him, and redeem himself. Nothing of that applies here, so what we end up with is a validation of Yubel's evil! That's right, Yubel wins, sie gets everything sie wants, and the narrative smiles on this, approves of this, tells it audience that being in love really does mean never having to say sorry.
All of the above, could have been avoided, if Judai had not misplayed, and defeated Yubel like he could have. Let's wrap this shitfuck up before I die of an aneurysm, shall we? Yubel looks down at Judai and sees his past life self, Judai says their real enemy is the Light of Destruction, the one he'd already defeated and stopped forever, and now he'll eliminate the Light of Destruction's supposed effect on Yubel by fusing with hir. Even if this means he loses his existence. And now its present day Judai again. We see all of Judai's friends, the friends he is betraying by giving the one who'd wrought such unspeakable evil upon them all everything the evil one could ever want, and now he finally declares that their souls will be fused. Big special effects, screaming, and then Judai falls right into Yubel's boobie. That, in a weird way, seems symbolic of this load. Yubel embraces Judai, says their souls are now one, blah blah blah, this is so fucking heinous I can't even fucking see straight, and sie says that they'll go fight the Light of Destruction. THE EXACT SAME LIGHT OF DESTRUCTION THAT JUDAI ALREADY DEFEATED LAST SEASON! MY FUCKING GOD, WHERE IS THE GODDAMN CONTINUITY? And then they turn into light and shoot off into the heavens. Big flash of light encompasses everyone, including the people who've been being tortured in a hell dimension this entire time, and again, the Light is supposed, yet they can't keep their motifs consistent. Always yet another way to fail, this show will find it. And over at Duel Academia Island, a beam of light shoots down, everyone runs out to investigate, and it is everyone minus Judai, Amon, Echo, and Hell Kaiser Ryou. And Shou is crying, I do not give a fuck. End episode.
NEXT TIME! The season is wrapped up, and Judai spouts more bullshit about how he's on a journey from being a kid to becoming an adult. MOTHERFUCKER, LOOK TO THE ORIGINAL YUGIOH TO SEE HOW A BILDUNGSROMAN IS DONE, YOU HACKS! EPISODE TITLE, JUDAI REVIVED!? A BRAND NEW JOURNEY card of the week is rainbow neos, which like rainbow dragon before it, was abjectly useless
I...I just...not all that long ago, I made a post. I made a post about Princess Tutu. In that post, I talked about how I'd been betrayed before, how other narratives had betrayed me and said horrible, vile things about the nature of love. This is that show. This show...it hurt me. A lot. I can never, ever, EVER forgive this show, for what it did to me.
TITLE SCREEN! RAINBOW NEOS VS. YUBEL ULTIMATE FORM all right, i'm going to ask it now, why the fuck does yubel even have an 'ultimate form' in the first place?
Winged Kuriboh appears, and Judai agrees with its squeaking, he sure wishes Johan could see this. I mean, there's no way that the sight of Yubel could possibly trigger some deeply rooted terror as a result of all the torment and torture he suffered at Yubel's hands, right? Yubel continues to be outraged at Judai using Johan's card, is he really THAT important to you, all the love you used to give me, now belongs to him! No, Yubel, you are far too depraved, stupid, and evil for me to be even the least bit sympathetic to your "plight". Then Judai sends another card from his deck to the grave, Necrodarkman, to activate the spell card Arms Hole. This lets him take any equip spell card from his deck, and add it to his hand, but he is not allowed to normal summon a monster on the turn he activates this effect. Anyway, he adds and equips Rainbow Veil to Rainbow Neos. Yes, even more rainbows. There is no limit to how far this show will take its "subtext" over the line. Judai declares his attack with Rainbow Neos, and reveals that Rainbow Veil makes it so that when the equipped monster attacks, the opponent's monster can't activate its effect, so Yubel is about to take the full force of 4500 points of damage. Also notable is that for the first time, Judai doesn't look like an absolute moron; unfortunately, appearances are deceiving, as will soon be explained. Anyway, Rainbow Neos does its thing, but Yubel activates Demon Rose, the permanent trap card that Judai chose for her for Magic Chronicle's effect. Yubel equips it to hir monster, and now it doesn't take any battle damage, but if it leaves the field, the equipped monster is destroyed. Thus, Judai's attack is a waste. Now, want to know what Judai could have done to win the duel right then and there? See, another one of Rainbow Neos's effects is that you can send a spell or trap card you control to the grave to return all your opponents spells and traps to their deck. And if Judai hadn't pointlessly and gratuitously wasted Fake Hero to needlessly bring Neos onto the field, he could have used that and Which means that Yubel's monster would be forced into its final form (Yeah, like that's any sort of spoiler), sie would lose Magic Chronicle and thus would be unable to exploit its effect, and Judai could use Rainbow Veil unopposed, and Yubel would lose in an instant.
Why is it that so many duels on this show are so poorly choreographed? Yubel blathers on about how the Demon Rose Judai gave to hir protected hir, the writers are blind to the real reason why, and due to Judai's sub-moronic play, he is forced to end his turn. And now Yubel activates the effect of the Magic Chronicle that wouldn't be there if Judai had been even halfway intelligent, and given the choices before him, Judai is forced to give Yubel Cyclone. Sie of course uses it right away to get rid of Rainbow Veil, blah blah, Yubel didn't want it to end like this, but if this is how sie has to make Judai hirs, hey, what you gonna do? Never mind that not only does this make no sense, but isn't even consistent with the previous episode. Blah blah blah, Judai activates the effect of Necro-Gardna to negate the attack, and Yubel ends hir turn. Judai makes noise about how believing in your friends and never giving up is the real meaning of a duel, and it is just so fucking hollow coming from him. Judai's turn, he plays Fifth Hope, returning all five E-Heroes in his grave to his deck to draw 2 cards. Magic Chronicle gets another counter, and then Judai summons Clayman to activate Rainbow Neos's next effect; by sending a monster to the grave, he can return all of his opponent's monsters to their deck. Judai thus gets rid of Yubel's monster, and demands that sie release his friends right the hell now. But of course, if Das Abseulich Richter leaves the field, Yubel gets to summon hir ultimate form, Das Extreme Traurig Drachen. That is supposed to be german for "The Extremely Sorrowful Dragon", but is of course garbled quite horribly. But first, Yubel turns into a giant glowing head for no good reason. And now the real one comes out, and goddamn, does it look stupid. Seriously, they just cram all these horns and eyes and faces onto it, and it just looks really lazy and sloppy. It makes me wish the Sun Dragon Ra would come down and burn hir into ash, or Thousand Eyes Restrict would absorb hir into oblivion.
Oh, and for the first time in the longest time, Yubel starts speaking with hir male voice. No, I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. Blah blah blah, it's pretty much the same monster as its predecessors, but now it destroys the monster it battles with. Judai sets a card to end his turn, Yubel is still talking with the male voice, going on about how sie will take Judai to a dimension where no one will ever be able to reach him, and protect his "sleep" for all eternity. AKA, standard Yubel drivel #157. Sie attacks, and Judai activates his trap card, Alchemy Cycle; this reduces Rainbow Neos's attack power to zero, so Judai takes no damage, and then it disappears. Ladies and gentlemen, the overwhelmingly overhyped Rainbow Neos, just like Rainbow Dragon, utterly useless and incapable of accomplishing anything of worth. That is just...well, it's a lot better than what is going to happen before long. Also, how the hell does Shou know what Alchemy Cycle does? It just bugs me...anyway, Alchemy Cycle removes the monster from play, and Yubel goes on about how sacrificing his precious monster to save himself is just like the Supreme King, and Judai responds by saying he's lost track of all the times Yubel's failed to kill him. He asks if sie is scared, sie asks why the hell would sie be, he says its because he's the Supreme King who will seize victory, and if I could forget that this was still Judai, I would think that he looked really damn awesome in this shot. But no, I will never forget all the asshat behavior that this prick has demonstrated over the course of three seasons. Plus, what is going to happen in this episode...stay strong, stay strong, you can do this...in any event, Alchemy Cycle lets Judai draw a card, Yubel sets a card, and ends hir turn.
Judai's turn, he uses Necro-Darkman's effect to summon Neos without a sacrifice, though one wonders why; I mean, Yubel's running a Zero-attack deck, so long as he doesn't have any monsters on the field, sie can't deal any damage to him. But, apparently he knows better, and he sets two cards to end his turn. Noise from the Peanut Gallery, Yubel says that not even the Supreme King Judai could possibly defeat hir, blah blah blah, oh noes, how will Judai survive?
EYECATCH!
Judai activates the Quick Spell card Mirage cylinder, which is almost exactly the same as Asuka's Double Passe, but in spell form. And of course, it has to be in spell form, because otherwise the painfully contrived scenario that the writers have planned can't come to fruition. Anyway, Judai does 2500 damage to Yubel, Judai goes on some more about how he won't give up until his friends are rescued, and now Yubel transitions from male to female voice. Sie says sie is happy, Judai's soul has finally reached hir, and makes noise about how his hatred towards hir is his love towards hir, and it is still naught but inane drivel. Sie says sie can never be harmed in battle, sie hurts others while sie herself is unhurt, and Gaara of the Sand just called, he said this bit way better and he's right. Sie whines about how that made it so that sie could never receive anyone's love...wait, wasn't sie horribly tortured by the Light of Destruction? Mother of fuck, can we please try to be consistent on something for at least two episodes? Anyway, the wind kicks up, creating a wall of cloud between the duelists and the Peanut Gallery. Suddenly, Judai is floating in a purple sky and is transparent, literally! He sees a castle down below, and he flies down and sees a man, looks to be some manner of king. He calls to Yubel, and it is a human...I have no idea what gender Yubel is supposed to be here. It's not like with Johan, who was clearly originally female and was changed to male at the last second to appeal to Yaoi fangirls, I just have no clue what the hell Yubel is supposed to be. Oh, and sie has a gem on hir forehead. You know, like the eye sie has as a depraved psychotic monster. Mr. King goes opens his noisehole about the Light of Destruction and the Gentle Darkness, and that Yubel's friend was born with the power of the Supreme King, which will one day save the universe.
Umm, the writers do remember that Judai defeated the Light of Destruction already, right? Without having to turn into a genocidal maniac, right? But oh, someone must protect the Supreme King until he is ready, and of course Yubel volunteers. But Mr. King says that Yubel will have to put on armor that can never be harmed, shed hir young, beautiful form...ewww...in favor of a hideous, unsightly dragon. Ummm...why? I'm not getting the sense that there's any pressing danger or anything like that, so why such an extreme measure? In any event, Yubel has no problem with this, since hir entire existence is defined around Judai's. Oh, oops, I spoiled who the child they're talking about is. Yeah, big shock. Redundant flashback within a flashback, and now we're in an underground cell where Yubel is being operated on without anesthetic. And then Chibi Past Life Judai runs into the room, calling out for Yubel. Yes, this is supposed to be Judai's past life. Judai's transformation into a shallow shell of Yuugi/Atem is almost complete. And now Judai and Yubel, who now has a boobie on one side for no fucking reason at all, are kneeling to one another in the sunset. Question, where the flaming fuck is all this supposed to be? Blah blah blah, and Chibi Past Life Judai promises Yubel that all his love will be for hir and hir alone, always, no matter what. And now the magic flashback that Yubel summoned is over. And now Judai's eyes are back to normal, and he says that he's sure everyone will be able to get back home, and he tells Shou to tell everyone sorry for him for having brought such torment into their lives. Okay, "trouble", but torment is more accurate. Naturally, Shou doesn't like where this is going, and he yells at Judai to not sacrifice himself. Judai tries to say it isn't like that, he has something far worse in mind. In his words, he's "going on a journey to go from a child to an adult". That's a rather...creative way of referring to what he's about to do.
He does his catchphrase for Shou, and then explodes into light, which then becomes a pillar. Shou whines and mopes about how he doesn't want to go back without Judai, and apparently this finally gets rid of that stupid Doubt mark on his face. I...guess this means he's never going to feel doubt ever again? Fuck if I know. Back into the duel, Judai asks if Yubel is all right...and Yubel is pissed about Judai attacking hir...for some reason, considering that's what sie's been trying to get him to do this entire time. And random abrupt shift to male voice, as Magic Cylinder gives one last counter to Magic Chronicle, and now Judai must choose whether to give Yubel Torch Golem or Super Fusion. Judai, to Yubel's shock, chooses Super Fusion. Yubel responds by activating hir trap card, Chain Material, which will let hir use all the monsters in hir deck, hand, grave, and field for a fusion summon. Sie chooses 12 monsters, one of each level, and now sie activates Super Fusion, using both voices at the same time. Sie declares sie will create the God of Assimilation, bringing all 12 dimensions into one. Because sie can do that, apparently. Oh, and everything will die. Huge beams of light shoot out, surprise token cameo of Misawa and Tanya who are just standing around, not doing anything, and one of the beams enters the real world, cracking the window in Samejima's office. I hope a shard gets him in the neck and kills him, a huge chunk of all this bullshit is all his fault. Yubel laughs, saying that if sie destroys everything else, sie can take all of Judai's love for hirself, and then...Judai says sie's right...and now all the beams of light are gone. Judai says it's not the 12 dimensions that will be fused together...he couldn't couldn't fucking possibly...the writers could not possibly...it is their souls that will fuse. For he has activated Spiritual Fusion, in response to Chain Material, letting him choose which monsters will be fused. And he welcomes Yubel with open arms, saying hir sad journey is over.
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I would now like to take the opportunity to explain in exacting detail everything that is wrong with this, everything that makes this scene infinitely vile and depraved.
1. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that Judai should trust this "flashback" to his past life. After all, it was expressly established that Yubel can alter a person's perceptions and memories to suit hir own ends, sie did this exact thing with PROFESSOR COBRA. Considering how shoddy and full of holes this flashback is, how it introduces far more questions than it could ever hope to answer, the hypothesis that it was all a false memory created by Yubel to exploit Judai is very reasonable. Plus, this is exactly the sort of thing sie would do.
2. Even if this flashback were true, it does not change Judai's obligations one little bit. Promises are important, I agree, but there is a limit. If you promise a friend that you will help them out the next time they need your help, no matter what, that does not mean that if your friend experiences a psychotic episode and wants to shoot up an office building that you are obligated to assist them in this. Furthermore, according to this, Yubel vowed to protect Judai forever, and all that sie has done since Judai's current incarnation was to engage in unprovoked assaults against all his friends, bringing him considerable misery and causing him to have a psychotic episode. Plus, Yubel broke hir promise with PROFESSOR COBRA, so vows and promises are meaningless with Yubel.
3. Even if a promise has that kind of power that the show wants it to have, it still wasn't Judai who made it. It was his past life, when he was a different person. Reincarnation is very difficult for me to wrap my head around, but I'm pretty damn sure that you can't be bound by a promise or obligation that you didn't even make. To do otherwise is madness.
4. Even if all the above does not apply, Judai does not have the right to do this. Remember the scene in Star Wars, Return of the Jedi? You know, the one where Luke Skywalker forgives his father Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker for all he has done? There is a substantive part of the fandom that has a huge problem with that, the problem being that Darth Vader's crimes extend far beyond what he did to his son, and as such Luke had no right to forgive him when there were so many others who'd been hurt by Darth Vader's actions. The only way that Luke can do this, is if all those other people "don't matter", and that is exactly what the GX writers have to do here. They have to take the position that all the suffering that Yubel has wrought throughout all of existence, all the death and torture that can be traced back to hir, is meaningless before what Judai went through. This is simply depraved.
5. Finally, Yubel regrets nothing. As far as sie is concerned, sie has done nothing wrong at all. Contrast for a moment back to Malik, who also did terrible things, but came to regret them and did everything in his very limited power to try to undo the harm that he'd wrought on all those around him, and redeem himself. Nothing of that applies here, so what we end up with is a validation of Yubel's evil! That's right, Yubel wins, sie gets everything sie wants, and the narrative smiles on this, approves of this, tells it audience that being in love really does mean never having to say sorry.
All of the above, could have been avoided, if Judai had not misplayed, and defeated Yubel like he could have. Let's wrap this shitfuck up before I die of an aneurysm, shall we? Yubel looks down at Judai and sees his past life self, Judai says their real enemy is the Light of Destruction, the one he'd already defeated and stopped forever, and now he'll eliminate the Light of Destruction's supposed effect on Yubel by fusing with hir. Even if this means he loses his existence. And now its present day Judai again. We see all of Judai's friends, the friends he is betraying by giving the one who'd wrought such unspeakable evil upon them all everything the evil one could ever want, and now he finally declares that their souls will be fused. Big special effects, screaming, and then Judai falls right into Yubel's boobie. That, in a weird way, seems symbolic of this load. Yubel embraces Judai, says their souls are now one, blah blah blah, this is so fucking heinous I can't even fucking see straight, and sie says that they'll go fight the Light of Destruction. THE EXACT SAME LIGHT OF DESTRUCTION THAT JUDAI ALREADY DEFEATED LAST SEASON! MY FUCKING GOD, WHERE IS THE GODDAMN CONTINUITY? And then they turn into light and shoot off into the heavens. Big flash of light encompasses everyone, including the people who've been being tortured in a hell dimension this entire time, and again, the Light is supposed, yet they can't keep their motifs consistent. Always yet another way to fail, this show will find it. And over at Duel Academia Island, a beam of light shoots down, everyone runs out to investigate, and it is everyone minus Judai, Amon, Echo, and Hell Kaiser Ryou. And Shou is crying, I do not give a fuck. End episode.
NEXT TIME! The season is wrapped up, and Judai spouts more bullshit about how he's on a journey from being a kid to becoming an adult. MOTHERFUCKER, LOOK TO THE ORIGINAL YUGIOH TO SEE HOW A BILDUNGSROMAN IS DONE, YOU HACKS! EPISODE TITLE, JUDAI REVIVED!? A BRAND NEW JOURNEY card of the week is rainbow neos, which like rainbow dragon before it, was abjectly useless
I...I just...not all that long ago, I made a post. I made a post about Princess Tutu. In that post, I talked about how I'd been betrayed before, how other narratives had betrayed me and said horrible, vile things about the nature of love. This is that show. This show...it hurt me. A lot. I can never, ever, EVER forgive this show, for what it did to me.
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Date: 2010-12-30 02:21 am (UTC)I can't leave you to suffer this alone- I'm watching it. Gah, it's a raw recorded straight from TV without the ads cut, and wow, those Happy Meal ads are shrill. Anyway ^^;
Yugiohonline ad, blah blah blah...some magical girl ad? Again, anyway ^^;
Dark!MorallyAmbiguous!Juudai would be more likely to be appreciated if his actions that led him to this point were in fact morally ambiguous, asigu opposed to morally despicable. Though the lack of his former hyperactivity and 'ooh a plastic bag flying in the wind- tanoshii!' is appreciated.
Oh wow, this is just... I...
Love? Yubel sounds like a stalker (I never even watched more than short clips, but I'm having flashbacks to 'Audition', what with all that creepy 'you must love only me!' stuff), and that this is being portrayed as anything but immensely creepy is...well, immensely creepy.
Now, I like reincarnation, but not like this. It's not this holding of someone to their actions in a past life, but of that person themselves being so determined in their feelings that they remain, even when they're reincarnated and have lost hose memories. Essentially, I value it as an expression of free will. Like Priest Seto's feelings for Kisara still showing through in Kaiba Seto's feelings for the BEWD, even three thousand years later.
I think Yubel's voice changes to masculine when she/he is being more aggressive in the duel? I just don't have the energy to be properly annoyed tonight.
Juudai forgiving Yubel for everything she/he has done is, as you've said, very bothersome. Gah. I have an original story where I'm picking at that sort of issue- it's not an easy one to navigate. GX...isn't really equipped to even try.
Asuka! I've missed you! Ahh, I wish you'd been the protagonist...
*HUGS again* We need to find you an awesome anime to watch after GX is done- you deserve it.
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Date: 2010-12-30 02:49 am (UTC)Happy Meal ads are very telling about who the target audience, and how hideously inappropriate this sort of material for that audience, isn't it?
Moral ambiguity involves admitting that Judai can be wrong, and sticking to it for more than 5 seconds. As it stands, the first commandmant of Yugioh GX is that Judai is always right, even when he performs a complete 180, he was still right before, and is right now.
Season 3 has some very, very, VERY twisted ideas on the nature of love, as evidenced by Amon and Echo, though in their case it is not only recognized as fucked up, it is actually interesting. Yubel's psychotic obsession? Not even that, it's just painful and annoying.
Yes! What you said about reincarnation, that helps a lot! And oh god, Seto Kaiba and Kisara/Blue Eyes White Dragon...Yugioh already did this plotline, and beautifully! Why the hell GX decided to dirty the pool with its shit (vulgar metaphor is deliberate, sorry), I've no idea. Oh, that's right, GX hates the original series, we established that with Abidos the 3rd.
That...more or less seems to be the case, and it certainly feeds into the hideous gender dysfunction that is Yubel.
It is very difficult to overstate just how disturbing and wrong this expression of "forgiveness" is. And...in my story, the GX rewrite I'm working on? Yeah, not a coincidence that I'm working over the whole issue of forgiveness and redemption. And no, GX trying to handle forgiveness for serious atrocities, is like Captain Planet trying to deal with AIDS.
Poor Asuka, used as a meatsack to give Judai wangst and manpain, and quickly forgotten.
Well, another friend of mine pointed me to Kara no Kyoukai, which looks to be very interesting, and right now I'm watching Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, and already it is looking quite promising. And yes, thank you again for the hugs, they are love.