ARC-V Episode 117 Discussion: Icy Wind and Ringing Bells

[KingJinzo]

The episode starts with Yugo and Kaito being pushed out of the window/"cliff" by Rin and Ruri, respectively. Kaito is lucky, thanks to Kurosaki's Rise Falcon saving him. Learning that Ruri did that to Kaito, Kurosaki goes "RURI!" and rushes to her (he might need two episodes to even reach her, while Kaito and Yugo only took one episode). Yugo isn't so lucky and lands without his helmet on his D-Wheel. As 5D's male characters tend to survive falls without injuries, neither Yugo is hurt nor his D-Wheel is damaged (reminds me very much of Yusei and his Yusei-Go in the Crash Town arc). Rin challenges him to a duel and wears the Yuri-colored Academia Disk. But her logic is flawed. She challenges him to a duel, pushes him out of the window, expects him to be uninjured and then activates her Duel Disk. Even if she's a tsundere, she cannot expect Yugo to be the indestructable Keitaro Urashima from Love Hina or something.

As I predicted, following the Kachou Fuugetsu principle, Rin's deck represents the "Fuu" kanji, as her deck is based on WIND monsters, the Wind Witch archetype. It's similar to Yuzu's archetype in appearance and play style. Like most Synchro decks, her deck is spam-friendly, but interestingly, her deck uses a Burn strategy, which might be reminiscent to Speed World 2's burn effect. A WIND Burn Deck? That sounds promising. Her deck uses witches and is also music-themed: bells, which might be a pun to her name Rin (to ring). The Japanese term "rinrin" is also related to the pierce and cold wind, and for those who watched Smile! PreCure, you might have noticed that. Her deck isn't just related to wind, but also to ice. It's an icy wind that frost burns the opponent's life. Additionally, her deck copies effects from the Graveyard. As fitting to being possessed, she uses a Trap Card to taint the beautiful Clear Wing Synchro Dragon with black wind, weakening it and negating its effect.

The parasites are actually inside the girls brains (which is visually even shown). The old dude acts like any old creeper, while the Professor is simply stoic and doesn't show anything particularly evil signs from him aside from being indifferent. Reiji tells Yuya how he went to Academia and met Serena, his promise with Yusho and how and why Yusho disappeared. We also learn from Reiji that he was aware of the Professor's plan, Revival Zero. He found a file about Serena and Yuri, and that's why how he assumed that Yuzu and Yuya are connected to the plan, since they share the same face and not coincidently. That's nothing new to us, but it also confirms that the dragon boys are definitively part of the plan and not locked out. But we don't know why the Professor is only focusing on the Bracelet Girls. The good thing is that the other Lancers are also aware of Yuri now (Sawatari, Gongenzaka, Tsukikage and Crow) and Yuya finally learns his name. If Reiji knows so much, why didn't he reveal that 64 episodes before?

The duel continues. As expected, Rin uses the Parasite Fusioner to summon Crystal Bell. It has really strong effects, which makes me wonder how strong Ruri's Fusion Monster will be and if Yuzu will get an even stronger Fusion Monster than Bloom Diva. Even prior to this episode, I got Jack vs Carly and Yusei vs Aki (rematch) vibes, but this one might take it even further.

Spoiler Alert!

Rin destroys her and Yugo's baby, and Yugo finally puts his Duel Disk on his arm. He manages to summon Crystal Wing and destroys Crystal Bell. However, Rin summons another Crystal Wing and defeats Yugo with burn damage. Did you notice that she inflicted 2500 burn damage through out the duel and only 1550 battle damage? Yugo isn't carded nor captured. He simply lays on the ground. And Rin returns to the Professor. Kurosaki, you are fucked.

Yuzu is put in jail by Serena, whose parasite is still crawling inside her ear. (Did the writers watched too much Tokyo Ghoul or something?)

Needless to say, Rin is a smart duelist and I wonder how much of her skills were influenced by the parasite. Crystal Bell definitively contributes very heavily to her strategy and she knows how to use her resources from the graveyard.

Spoiler Alert!

She effectively took down Yugo and shutting down both Clear Wing and Crystal Wing. Clear Wing with her Trap Card, and Crystal Wing by forcing Yugo to use its effect once, so she can re-summon her Crystal Bell. After exactly 80 episodes, Yugo and Clear Wing are finally defeated.

Meanwhile, the Lancers finally leave the boat and arrive on Academia, and unlike Guts, they only needed two weeks in real life to get to their destination.

The preview has:

Spoiler Alert!

-Lancers vs mooks.
-An instructor who looks like a combination of Gozaburo and Yuri. (Yuri's father?)

[XBrain130]

Rin must be a dominatrix in bed. I'm not sure if I would want to be Yugo or not when she has the lead.

[darkgod789]

Spoiler Alert!

am I the only one that is glad he lost? It's nice that we are getting a generic fusion summon card and I guess I like watching the evil guys or their possessed tools win . There should've been a troll song when the fusion summoned back parasite fusioner and the synchro.

[KingJinzo]

Speaking of Fusion Substitute Monsters, does Rin use Parasite Fusioner to use it as a substitute for Winter Bell while Winter Bell herself is used as the generic material?

[XBrain130]

Speaking of Fusion Substitute Monsters, does Rin use Parasite Fusioner to use it as a substitute for Winter Bell while Winter Bell herself is used as the generic material?

Probably yes.

[yshipster]

Probably yes.

The anime version of Crystal Rose did the same thing, so this is anime-exclusive logic.

[KingJinzo]

The anime version of Crystal Rose did the same thing, so this is anime-exclusive logic.

It's not anime-exclusive, since there is nothing that prevents you from using two Winter Bells as Fusion Materials. You can use two Bubblemen for Absolute Zero.

[King]

Did Yugo held back a little ? or he actually lost ?

[KingJinzo]

Did Yugo held back a little ? or he actually lost ?

Spoiler Alert!

He clearly didn't held back. He was using his ace from the start. Rin shut down Clear Wing by negating its effects and halving its ATK to prevent it from destroying Winter Bell. Yugo negated Winter Bell's attack with his Three-Eyed Dice, but that was part of Rin's plan to Special Summon Parasite Fusioner from her hand and to Fusion Summon in the Battle Phase. When Yugo summoned Crystal Wing and attacked her, Rin used Clear Wing's effect from the Graveyard to negate Crystal Wing's effect, but she knew that Crystal Wing could negate it, since it was her plan that Crystal Wing had to use its negating effect once so it cannot be used anymore. With Parasite Fusioner to prevent Crystal Bell from being destroyed by Crystal Wing's effect, she was destroyed in battle without Rin losing the duel. And with Crystal Wing's effect being gone for the rest of the turn, she summoned her second Crystal Bell to finish of Yugo.

Yeah, there was no indication that Yugo held back. He was overwhelmed by Rin's strategy and her new Fusion Monsters. It might be tougher for her without Crystal Bell, so I don't know how the duel would have turned out if she hadn't any Fusion Monsters. But the writers could have made it different by making Crystal Bell a Synchro evolution instead, but with the same effects, and a Tuner that would act like Parasite Fusioner.

[Volteccer]

Did Yugo held back a little ? or he actually lost ?

I don't think he was holding back, I think that this is just the first time we've seen him fight someone he's played before (and so knows how to play around Clear & Crystal Wing).