Gekiha Dan – Episode 21

Alright, if you were around for the last post, you’d know that this Episode is actually a follow-on from a previous one, so if you’re not caught up on the fight til now, go read the article for Episode 20, the entire battle gets played from Turn 1 it’s absolutely beautiful.

If you’re already caught up, let’s review!

Dan’s only got 1 life remaining, and all that’s left on his field is a Lv1 Meteorwurm and a Lv1 Sabecaulus.

Hyoudo Kenzo on the other hand is sitting quite comfortably at 3 lives, his board consists of a Lv2 Byak-Garo and a Lv2 Gabunohashi, all his Spirits are currently exhausted and it’s Dan’s turn.

Before we resume that match, gotta do some plot housekeeping!

Seems even though Suzuri’s main goal is to give Brustrom a crotch massage in the hopes that the semi-finals will be redone, his attention is caught by…

…The situation going on with Mai, Serge, Kajitsu and Kazan.

Also Continuity Error! The guards were knocked into the room by Serge and it was very clearly a Green room back then with Sofas and everything, it seems they needed to cut a corner here and made the background here just like every other one but it’s still jarring, especially when the unconscious dudes have crawled into new sleeping spots.

“Kajitsu-sama” was never here to begin with! Different room dickweed!

Right, in Episode 12 Kazan explained that he’s actually from the Future, as Grand-Lolo seems to operate on it’s own kind of timescale, it connects to multiple areas of Human History at once. From Kazan’s perspective, the Horizon Ladders are like giant power Pylons, using that he wishes to move all of Humanity from his time to Grand-Lolo.

I explained earlier that the reason it’s unjust is because he’s expecting to sacrifice many Otherworlders to accommodate this, including enslaving them to build said Horizon Ladders. Essentially forcing the natives of Otherworld to suffer for the mistakes of a different race.

Kazan doesn’t really have any other options though, rolling over and dying isn’t a particularly attractive prospect either, so until an alternative presents itself, he’s going to do whatever he can to survive.

And right now that involves protecting the Blue World’s Horizon Ladder, and apparently Kajitsu.

Serge seems to have summarized my argument for me, don’t act as if the people standing in their way are directly causing their suffering, when it’s the consequences of their own actions.

Jesus christ what upper arm strength!

Kazan’s face is precisely the right reaction, he has enough strength to grab Mai while holding Kajitsu bridal-style and still have enough energy, grip and strength to jump over Kazan.

Hot damn, Serge isn’t done with Kazan yet apparently, he’s gotta go back and beat his ass personally.

That does seem pretty reasonable a plan.

Well shit.

…There’s no explanation offered as to why she can’t, she can roundhouse kick Kazan halfway across a room but doesn’t have enough upper body strength to carry Kajitsu?

WAT.

SUZURI’S JUST-AS IF NOT EVEN SCRAWNIER THAN MAI IS.

I will say, though Kajitsu and Suzuri have never really met, this shot is kind of adorable.

It helps that Kajitsu is presented incredibly cutely as something vulnerable and to be protected, so she gets a lot of instances like this.

This is REALLY not the time to be asking that question.

I feel like that appointment’s been cancelled Suzuri, at least they played off the obvious bullshittery in order to get Suzuri into a position where he could assist the plot but it’s still nonsense.

Kazan looks like he’s ready to throw hands.

It always weirds me out that Kazan’s got an incredibly “Do what you have to do” mindset when it comes to dealing with our Main characters, he’s also just as aware that Kajitsu has a very clear issue and needs assistance but y’know.

ah, I forgot about the Dragon and Tiger imagery here.

It’s a trope that’s quite common, Dragon vs Tiger, the reason it’s so common is representative, the Dragon and Tiger both represent Strength, Honor and Bravery, but it’s the manifestation of this that differs between the 2.

Dragons are usually the more thoughtful of the two, observing before action, where as the Tiger is seen as the more brash, focusing on overcoming the opposing obstacle as soon as possible.

In essence, the Dragon is the big picture thinker while the Tiger tends to focus on the moment, much like how Dan is trying to get the big picture through to Hyoudo who is single-mindedly following his desires.

It’s this kind of dynamic that generally depicts the Tiger as the more villainous of the two.

If he was already the strongest then he’d have no business wishing to be what he already is.

Fact of the matter is, if someone invested that much effort into being that strong, and aimed to ensure that they should never lose.

One begins to wonder if they’re afraid of losing.

He’s got 3 lives, no refreshed spirits, and Dan has 2 spirits raring to attack, 1 spirit puts Hyoudo on the backfoot.

Yuuki knows Dan better than Brustrom clearly does, knowing that Dan only gives up when his last life is gone.

Hyoudo has decided he’s bored of Dan’s play and plans to finish him off.

Suzuri appears to be worried that Kazan will report Suzuri’s actions to him.

I suppose Suzuri doesn’t know Kazan that well, but at the very least he answers to Yuuki.

Besides, that requires him to survive Serge.

Kajitsu’s not having a fun time, but she mentions something about Light in her feverish state.

We appear to have made it to the Horizon Ladder section of the Stadium, this was what appeared when Brustrom was mentioning about “Preparations” being complete.

Kajitsu explains what Brustrom said to Yuuki earlier, that the Core system here is intended to “repair” Mother Core. Mai’s not quite sure what the hell Kajitsu’s talking about, much like most of us to be honest.

Dan moves to fill up his board, starting with an Ankillersaurus.

Dan also levels up Meteorwurm and Sabecaulus to Lv3, quite nice actually.

Sabecaulus will boost Meteorwurm to 12000 BP as Meteorwurm holds Clash.

and Meteorwurm will be able to target attack Byak-Garo, thereby removing Hyoudo’s Key Spirit.

“Resurrected” is some weird terminology, given that Kajitsu isn’t dead.

But that is the wording he uses, “Yomigaeru”

And thus explains Kajitsu’s strange abilities.

Kajitsu isn’t an ordinary Bearer of the Core’s Light, Kajitsu bears Mother Core’s Light.

As a result, her Light is comprised of the 6 different Lights our other 6 lightbearers have, allowing her to wield their Core’s Light as well.

This explains why she was able to bear the Green Core’s Light battling Dan earlier as well, Green is her colour of choice, as Bearer of Mother Core, she’s free to select which colour she bears for any battle.

Though it seems that being that cool comes with it’s own downsides, a regular Human Body can’t typically withstand the strain of bearing Mother Core’s immense light.

It also seems that all those Core Systems running Core energy into Mother Core causes Kajitsu to be directly affected by those changes, in this case, negatively.

There’s no fucking way

How did you survive SERGE!?

That’s what I wanna know, for evidently visible, and actual lore-accurate reasons, Kazan straight up does not 1v1 Serge in any universe.

Pfft, guy yeeted his Robots at him and ran away with his tail between his legs.

I’m sorry this looks cool animated but stopping this on any singular frame just makes Serge look completely ridiculous.

Naturally, the bots stand exactly zero chance against the complete megachad that is Serge.

So, given that Mother Core, a massive energy source, and Kajitsu are one and the same, Kazan kind of needs that MacGuffin lady back.

Kazan’s absolutely just regurgitating what he’s been told by Yuuki, and Yuuki only got that info from Brustrom.

He said earlier something’s very clearly wrong, but because he doesn’t know what it is, he doesn’t have the heart to question it incase his suspicions turned up short.

Poor Suzuri’s been panicking his little blue ass off since he got here.

Thankfully, Mai’s apparently found that the most effective way to cope with that fear is just to completely ignore him.

Mai requests that Suzuri assist her in stopping the Machine.

Kazan waxes lyrical about how Mother Core, in it’s damaged state, won’t be able to use it’s power to grant any wishes.

Given Kajitsu’s state only occurred after her Battle with Dan, is it possible that her mental state when battling Dan is what caused Mother Core to be damaged in the first place?

They are indeed.

So the fundamental disagreement here is all about whether or not Kajitsu’s state is a side-effect of the Machine pouring power into Mother Core, or is the intended outcome.

Naturally, Mai has the evidence of her eyes to see that the Machine is indeed pouring in power, and Kajitsu doesn’t seem to be getting much better, infact she seems to be deteriorating.

Kazan seems to believe that Kajitsu’s condition is a side effect and that she’ll recover 100% once Mother Core is fully repaired.

Though, Kajitsu did mention that Mother Core is too much for any Human to bear, I wonder if both couldn’t necessarily be true, Mother Core returning to 100% capacity might be putting strain on Kajitsu’s body.

Mai tells Suzuri that his job is just to protect Kajitsu, and to let Mai do her own thing.

Been doing fine so far, why not?

Oooo, that’s the sign of someone who understands her target audience.

MY GUY SWITCHED UP REAL QUICK

‘FUCK YOU MEAN “WHAT COLOUR”?

As if there was any other colour of X-Rare she could offer him.

The Venn Diagram of “things Suzuri won’t do” and “things Suzuri will do for an X-Rare” is a fucking circle.

Not even any further negotiation, just wanted to know what colour of X-Rare and he was gone.

PFFT, FOR A MACHINE POWERED BY CORE IT HAS MODERN USB SLOTS?

Oh come on there’s no way it’s that easy, there must be a password or some kind of other authorization-

…Okay so they covered the Authorization part but what Anti-Hacking system comes with a UI like this?

Now you might think she’s calling Brustrom disgusting, but the real issue is that she’s just seen that it’s written in Java.

Ayyy, Back to the Battle!

Dan attacks with Meteorwurm but then misstates it’s BP value, Sabecaulus should be boosting it by 1000 as Meteorwurm has the Clash ability.

Regardless, Dan uses Meteorwurm’s Lv3 ability to target attack Byak-Garo.

Well of course you did, what else was he gonna do? Not take out your Key Spirit?

Well this hilariously invalidates the decklist I posted last episode but ah well, it was meant to be inspired, not a 1:1 recreation.

Speed Star is a Cost 5 Magic from BS06 with 2 different effects, the Main effect makes it so reducing the opposing life with a Spirit attack adds 2 core from the void to your reserve, it’s good synergy with Windstorm as the opponent will be forced to exhaust excessively, allowing some attacks through.

To accommodate it’s rather situational applications though, it’s Flash effect is a 3000 BP battle boost.

Situational cards like this very seldom see play unless there’s a specific aim to be gained with them. Battle boosts are useful but nothing beats just stopping an attack outright or blowing up the attacker.

I’m sat here, twiddling my thumbs, hoping to sheer god this doesn’t bite Dan in the ass because Sabecaulus was being ignored for no reason.

It… it really doesn’t.

Oh thank god, Dan knows how to read, holy fuck I was about to blow a gasket.

Shoulda bloody LED WITH THAT! IT’S A CONTINUOUS EFFECT!

With both Spirits colliding at 12000 BP, the only possible outcome is Mutually Assured Destruction.

Pfft, what Anti-hacking system not only programs UI this interactive but also acknowledges it’s own degrading performance?

And apparently Brustrom must be proud of his weight because the guy is getting THINNER as things get worse!

…I’m sorry if you’re chasing a girl who shouldn’t be any more than 2 feet away from a hospital bed, and a guy who barely looks like he could handle a happy meal for the sake of your honor.

I’d pack it in my guy, it’s fucking gone.

That’s a rather serious face for someone who was so confident after being promised an X-rare.

…Flashback? There’s a Trauma associated with this?

Depicted is Suzuri apparently having Water splashed over him from a bucket in the bathroom. Seems like Suzuri’s incredibly submissive demeanor outside of a battle is due to a history of being bullied.

This also somewhat explains his rather intense demeanor once it comes to cards, In Otherworld, Physical strength is replaced by Skill in Battle Spirits, and Suzuri has a non-negligible amount of it.

In essence, he has more power in Otherworld than he does at home, he is not helpless here

Except, in this moment, he isn’t in a Battle, and he is under threat by a physically stronger person once again, his helplessness is probably setting in.

Back to the battle, Byak-Garo and Meteorwurm are both destroyed due to their Double knockout.

Why is everyone so surprised? Dan had to do precisely nothing, it was Hyoudo who had to force the draw.

Why is everyone acting like Dan’s the one who loses out here? They both lost an X-rare!

I know Dan’s on 1 life and Hyoudo’s on 3 but still!

Indeed, Byak-Garo being off the field means that nasty Windstorm: 2 won’t render Dan’s options for blocking completely untenable.

Dan attacks with Sabecaulus and Hyoudo takes a life, leaving Hyoudo with 2, Dan leaves Ankillersaurus as a blocker and ends his turn.

Hyoudo needs 1 spirit to threaten game.

“Standing Stubbornly”?

I’m sorry, is Hyoudo under the impression that he’s already earned a victory?

The only objective metric for determining who’s won the game is who’s run out of lives, and Dan still has one.

Yeah he doesn’t want to lose, neither do you, that’s why you’re still playing as well. What is this argument?

By who? You? If you could win so easily just by wanting it then Dan should have already beaten you.

Suzuri’s despair sets in again, and he tries to leave Kajitsu behind in order to sneak away

He’s distracted however by Kajitsu trying to bear her current situation for the sake of the “White Rose”

Well that distraction was apparently long enough for Kazan to walk around the ship he knew they were hiding behind.

Still, that’s some pretty dexterous work with that whip, using it to coil round Suzuri’s neck.

Hyoudo starts his turn and immediately attacks with Gabunohashi.

Huh, didn’t summon any spirits, but that doesn’t mean Swift isn’t a thing.

Ah, that focused stance, how so very familiar.

Sorry, reminiscing about some later quirks about Dan that we won’t get to til later.

Anyway, Ankillersaurus blocks Gabunohashi.

Hyoudo uses the Flash timing opportunity to Swift summon 2 MachGs, both at Lv2.

Ankillersaurus is defeated as it’d need to be Lv3 to have a hope of tying with Gabunohashi’s 5000 BP

…Sabecaulus is still on his board Galaxy, what?

STOP INTERRUPTING MY MATCH WITH THESE CONSTANT UPDATES ON WHAT THE PEANUT GALLERY IS DOING.

Kazan already has a whip poised to snap Suzuri’s throat like a twig, random robots we don’t care about aren’t going to add any more suspense to the situation.

2 Attackers, no Blockers, 1 life…

Yeah I guess it would be, slight problem with that estimation though, your MachGs have a little detail that makes this not a clear victory.

“Come” is cool but in this situation it’s the equivalent of Dan saying Hyoudo has no balls.

not to quote Naruto but you really need to give up trying to make Dan give up, reduce his life to zero or stop complaining.

Put up or shut up.

The thing about MachGs… is their Maximum Level only consists of 3000 BP.

Stop interrupting my match then, show!

Kazan’s really still on that idiot-juice that lets him think that he’s somehow entitled to commit mass genocide of otherworlders so he can re-colonise Otherworld, come on.

Ahh, this adds context to Suzuri’s stringest hoarding of X-Rares, he had his precious cards taken away from him by his bullies too.

Look at that intensity, my boy’s fighting back!

Anyway, 2 MachGs being 3000 BP or under means that Dan can swat them away using Victory Fire.

The 2 MachGs are destroyed by the 2nd Victory Fire.

Hyoudo finally cracks, bursting into Tears, begging to understand why Dan won’t lose.

In Hyoudo’s head he had this won several turns ago, but even though Victory’s clearly infront of him, Dan’s still fending him off every time.

Notably, Hyoudo’s acting like he’s never had this problem before.

Damn, Brustrom tries to re-centre Hyoudo and Hyoudo just tells him to suck a fat one.

I suppose this is the true 9 year old child that was hidden inside Hyoudo the entire time, he hates the prospect of losing.

Victory Fire may have destroyed the MachGs, but remember, Flash Timing only ends when both players run out of Flashes to play, the Attacker that started the Flashes being no longer on the field has no bearing on what can still be played.

Using his remaining Flash, Hyoudo Swift Summons Amenborg.

Hyoudo subsequently launches an attack, Amenborg has 4000 BP, another Victory Fire won’t save Dan here.

Kazan, if Suzuri’s so weak, how are you having so much trouble?

It seems this situation gave Suzuri an immense fear of Kazan, a bully in this situation, taking Suzuri’s cards.

So Suzuri whips out a god damn nail clipper.

Cutting right through Kazan’s whip, the force of Kazan’s own pull knocks him backwards.

Mai has successfully managed to hack into the Core System and force it to shut down completely.

Theoretically, that should stop causing Kajitsu’s condition to get any worse.

It also seems like that Core System might have been integral to other things, as it was apparently powering these Drones.

Hoo boy, how many systems were in fact relying on that Core System running?

Yeah depending on how widespread of a problem disabling that power plant was, you’re gonna need to make some distance between you and whoever the hell needed that on.

Dan is undeterred by the incoming Amenborg attack, casting Flame Cyclone during Flash Timing.

A BS03 Red Magic that is as useful as it is simple, it blows up anything with 5000 BP or less.

Amenborg’s Lv2 is only 4000… so.

At one time Dan bricked because he had something along the lines of 2 Flame Cyclones and 3 Victory Fires in his hand, he’s ready for rush tactics like this with low power spirits.

Amenborg is wiped out by Flame Cyclone, Hyoudo is once again out of attackers.

Hyoudo throws another temper tantrum being unable to finish off Dan when he wanted to.

However, when Hyoudo examines the last card in his hand, he finds that it’s not a card he’s able to attack with, meaning it’s probably a Magic with a Battle Boost effect during Flash Timing that he’s at present unable to use.

As Hyoudo’s out of moves, Dan moves onto his turn.

Dan uses a new Magic, Reborn Flame.

A Cost 4 Magic from BS07, making it very new. It’s flash effect is a poultry 1000 BP battle boost, barely worth a mention, it’s Main effect however…

It allows Dan to return any Spirit from his trash to his hand, another trope of Red colour, that being the return of Spirits to the hand, much like a Phoenix.

That’s not all though, during the turn Reborn Flame is used, all Astral Dragons in the Hand are given an extra Red Reduction Symbol.

This works similar to Iberix’s ability, this would for example make Siegwurm from a 6 cost spirit paying a minimum of 3 core, to a minimum with of 2 core as long as an extra symbol is on your board.

Dan re-summons the StarEmperorDragon Meteorwurm

Meteorwurm is resurrected.

Funnily enough, cards like Reborn Flame in other card game anime are usually meant to act as pseudo-second copies for cards that a character only canonically has a single copy of in order to re-summon a card for a second time.

Naturally one might wonder why a character doesn’t just run 3 copies of their given card, but naturally in cases like Meteorwurm that thought process doesn’t apply, he only recieved it because he was given it by someone else, if he could he would, after all, Suzuri had 2 Titus in his match with Dan.

And another might wonder what the signifance would be, if a Reborn Flame is a Meteorwurm, wouldn’t you want to run it to increase your number of Meteorwurms?

The answer is sadly more complicated, ignoring the 2 Cost it takes to play Reborn Flame at a minimum, even if the card was free, Reborn Flame is only a copy of Meteorwurm if a Meteorwurm is in the trash. Which means in cases like Dan’s, to play Meteorwurm twice, he still needs to draw the 1 copy first.

It’s this situationalism that causes character decks to usually falter when built as cards need drawing in the correct order to function.

Dan attacks with Sabecaulus, Hyoudo hasn’t got a Spirit in his hand or he would have used it, so he’s forced to take from the life.

Hyoudo has 1 life remaining.

This seems to fully highlight the crux of Hyoudo’s damage.

When one first enters any kind of competitive setting, the first thing you’ll often be shown is how it feels to win at it, it’s an unspoken rule when it comes to teaching players any kind of competitive game, as winning and being praised for doing so is positive reinforcement which will help a player retain interest.

Hyoudo had a very good teacher clearly, as he learned the game from someone who would have, at the time, allowed him to win, and positively reinforced his ability, from then on Hyoudo likely found that he was infact very good, and didn’t lose even in more serious settings.

And he doesn’t appear to have had much difficulty in achieving those victories either. This strong positive feedback that he always got, along with the praise that he ultimately didn’t work for (because he’s never lost, it also means he’s never been shown to have made a mistake), he takes his victories for granted, he knows he will get them because he always has, and he denies them to other people because they must be denied for him to receive them.

And the positive feedback from winning tells him it is normal, and expected, for this to be the case.

Hyoudo was the strongest, because Hyoudo was incapable of losing. Those 2 definitions likely married in his mind and became inseparable.

Dan cracked his shell, because the one time Hyoudo expected to win, he didn’t, and then he tried again, and again, and he was answered each time due to information he could’t have known.

Something he’d gotten every time without a problem was now being denied to him, when you’re so used to the positivity of something being there before it’s wrenched from you, it is stress inducing.

And now, Hyoudo who wants to be the strongest, feels as if he has completely failed in his goal, because he is about to lose, and the strongest should be incapable of losing.

Dan doesn’t acknowledge Hyoudo’s incredibly childish whining though and moves to finish it.

With no defenses left, Hyoudo is forced to take a life, reducing him to 0.

Bashin Dan is the winner!

Better yet, this also makes Dan entitled to the Top X-Rare and a Wish from Otherworld King.

Whoa whoa whoa, let’s not get ahead of ourselves

Dan pulled off an impressive win yes, but the impressive part was the fact that he had 2 Victory Fires and a Flame Dance in his hand.

The best teacher for any child is experience, Hyoudo was incredibly rude on account of things he assumed to be true because the alternatives never occurred.

Hyoudo is 9 and has never lost, he was going to need to do it sometime, so that he can grow as a person, consequences build character.

And before anyone starts going around retaliating towards children so they can “build character”, there is a difference between a child enduring necessary pain to contribute to their growth, and someone unnecessarily causing them harm.

Direct consequences are necessary pain, like accidentally falling over and scraping a knee teaches one to be careful when running.

Retaliations or Punishments are not direct consequences, If someone does A and you said you would do B in that scenario, you still ultimately make the decision to do B when A occurs, that’s not a direct or even a likely consequence, that’s a punishment, and that seldom teaches people anything other than to hide from or avoid you.

While some might chock this up to Dan being the admirable main character, he is also showing Hyoudo how he acts when he wins.

Hyoudo is something of a sore winner, but has never lost, Dan is acting in the way he would like to be treated when he is defeated.

He’s also reassuring Hyoudo, by asking to play Battle Spirits again and praising him for his strength, that losing doesn’t invalidate any of the things Hyoudo wants, and that he truly loses nothing from losing.

Reminds me of some advice a friend of mine who somehow was always capable of being unbreakably calm during a game of League of Legends, when I asked him about it, he gave me the following answer, paraphrased of course:

If I’m going to lose 50% of all the games I play, I might as well find a way to enjoy them too.

This statement has stuck with me for as long as I can remember, and I repeat it to myself when I find myself getting frustrated with a game I find difficult or painful.

Most people would rather stick to knowing they like winning, and therefore believe happiness is in the minimization of losing, and that causes them to become meta-slaves who will do anything to win.

But very rarely do people actively try to find the fun in losing.

This is going to be an interesting exchange, given that Brustrom now has to essentially give Otherworld King’s wish to his enemy.

In the meantime, Suzuri and Mai manage to reconnect with Serge after he outran laser robots for goodness knows how long.

Mai’s disabling of the Core system must have shut Serge’s down as well.

Serge being back means that Suzuri can be free to move as he pleases once again.

This man is like my dog after he completes any task that I consider praise worthy, instantly starts demanding treats like he’s owed it.

…In this case however, Suzuri is indeed owed an X-Rare.

Suzuri’s desire for an X-Rare lets Mai kick this problem down the road.

All this is going to achieve is just going to start having Suzuri start taking his payment in advance, or requesting collateral maybe.

Bashin Dan never actually won any events so this also technically means that this is the first event won by the famous “Clash King”

This seems like a long drawn out outro for the tournament, however, this is also a way of Galaxy saying goodbye, as I don’t believe we’ll see him again for the rest of this show.

At least, not in story.

We now skip over to the rewards ceremony, as Dan is the champion, he’s now entitled to the Top X-Rare and a Wish from Otherworld King.

Morally motivated people will empathise with Dan here however, It doesn’t behoove oneself to accept gifts from enemies.

It’s kind of like how settlements work in court systems, in order to prevent decisions being made by the judge that set nasty precedents that are bad for evil business, you may be offered money to repair your personal grievances so that you can overlook the general problem and ultimately make a decision. People take these generally because either their injury is personal or they were wanting monetary compensation in the first place and don’t mind the situation that caused them the issue persisting if they’re paid to overlook it.

If you’re motivated by justice, you’ll be like Dan, and refuse such settlement offers for the sake of seeking out a decision. It will require more effort on his part to achieve his goal but not doing so isn’t an option.

There is also this, by not taking one of the gifts, the ambiguous nature of the wish can be made more reasonable.

Dan ignores Brustrom for a moment, asking Yuuki what the hell is going on.

Yuuki doesn’t really give him an answer, just kind of acknowledges his existence.

Dan makes the obvious wish he was always going to make, they did say in the previous episode that WHATEVER THE WISH MAY BE, IT WILL BE GRANTED.

Magisa calls Dan an idiot, I mean, they offered him the Wish, and everyone in the Blue World knows he earned it.

Dan’s wish is automatically denied, Yuuki mainly focuses on the fact that it is the belief of those who ally themselves with Otherworld King that Otherworld is only as sophisticated and safe as it is because of the Otherworld King’s rule. To have Otherworld King and his forces leave Otherworld would be to leave Otherworld in disarray.

This is a typical oppression tactic Tyrants might use, Abusers also use it to get their victims to submit to their nonsense, by suggesting that the status quo is the best available scenario, and that all other alternatives lead to either complete destruction or wanton chaos.

In essence, “Otherworld King imposes his law onto Otherworld and without him there is no law, you can’t blame us, we’re just protecting it!”

Oppression only ever exists due to people believing it to be necessary when it almost never is, there’s no reason to believe Otherworld King and the Humans leaving would necessarily cause the visibily orderly Otherworlders to become anarchistic.

Dan request a change to his Wish then, as clearly his first wish will ultimately go unheeded as he has no way of holding Brustrom and Yuuki accountable for not granting it, He asks to speak to Otherworld King directly.

This is a pretty good move, so far we’ve only heard about Otherworld King from the perspective of his allies, and they’ve all been acting in his name and doing all these awful things.

Dan wonders if Otherworld King is ignorant of what’s happening and hopes to open a dialogue, to ensure that Otherworld King is in fact:

1. Aware of the issues at hand
2. The source and/or complicit in the existence of those issues.

It’s also Otherworld King that is supposed to grant the wish, so Dan can ensure that his desires are delivered to Otherworld King directly rather than being blocked by people who haven’t even spoken to the guy yet.

Brustrom, all of a sudden, cackles at Dan’s will and demands a Battle with him.

It seems Brustrom either answers or heavily respects Yuuki’s opinion when it comes to this though, as he only then asks permission to proceed with this plan.

Yuuki agrees with letting Brustrom fight, and decides to make the granting of Dan’s wish contingent on defeating Brustrom. If Dan defeats the big oaf, he’ll be allowed to see Otherworld King personally.

Yuuki then states that should Dan lose, Dan will become Yuuki’s servant.

…Maybe it’s just because of Yuuki’s calm and cool demeanor, but hearing it, it almost doesn’t seem that bad.

Naturally however, no-end-in-sight ultimatums like this indicate that Brustrom’s about to get his shit wrecked.

Dan agrees to the terms and immediately Opens the Gate to fight Brustrom.

As Battlefield Galleries can be entered by any member of the public, this also offers the opportunity for these very clear fugitives to bring Kajitsu to Magisa.

Mai breaks the very important news to everyone, that Kajitsu isn’t the Green Soldier, but in fact bears the Light of all colours, Mother Core.

The battle against Brustrom approaches, but sadly we’re out of time in this episode as that’s the end of it!

geez that was a pretty heftily packed episode, and we’ve still got the card of the day!

Naturally, that card is Reborn Flame, the card Dan used to resurrect Meteorwurm.

I don’t have much to say about the card itself, but it’s the first in what will inevitably be a pattern of support for Dan’s very clear favoured Family, Astral Dragons.

Localized as “Star Dragons” in Battle Spirits Saga, Astral Dragons are what the writers are using to ultimately differentiate Dan from his narrative ancestor, Bashin Toppa.

Bashin Toppa’s era had 5 Red X-Rares over the course of it’s run from BS01 to BS06, of those 5, 4 of them were of the Ancient Dragon family.

As a result, Bashin Toppa is often represented alongside Ancient Dragon support, and most Ancient Dragons tend to be variants of his ace, Siegfried.

While Dan’s ace, Siegwurm is an Ancient Dragon, uniting Dan and his narrative predecessor, it was also an “Astral Dragon”, this initially held no narrative significance whatsoever to Dan’s deck, instead having Dan focus on the “Clash” keyword wielded by Uchuuchouten. It’s only now that Dan has used a card in direct support of that family, likely due to wielding 2 Astral Dragons, notably Meteorwurm lacks the “Ancient Dragon” designation too, instead having the additional family of “Soldier”, also known as “Valiant Hero” in Battle Spirits Saga.

This makes Dan’s battle with Julian even more significant, as not only did Dan defeat Bashin’s old ace, Siegfrieden, but he then received a new evolution of his own ace, which discarded the signature family of the old protagonist, solely focusing on Dan’s own signature Spirit family.

They did right by Bashin Toppa thus far, but to simply have Dan be another Toppa would be a disgrace to the character, Toppa might have been riddled with mistakes but the show overall isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever watched, I even enjoyed it and it’s my least liked series.

Dan needs to be his own character too, and if Meteorwurm wasn’t the jumping off point for doing so, the use of Reborn Flame, Dan’s first card to support Astral Dragons, definitely was.

I’ll see you lot in Episode 22. We’re getting close to the halfway point.