ARC-V Episode 131 Discussion: Akaba Rage

[KingJinzo]

Last time on ARC-V, Jim and O'Brien tried to guide the Haou to the good side. They succeeded for about 50% (technically 25%), but the Haou activated Super Polymerization to fuse his Venom monster with the predator, creating the evil Rainbow-colored Dragon and annihilated Jim and O'Brien, only less lethally. The most disappointing thing was the the Brittish man named Phoenix didn't have any blood inside his D.

And now for a short recap of Kajiki's plan (remember the freaky fishguy who gave Jounouchi the Whale Fortress without the Ritual Spell Card and instead gave him the less useless The Legendary Fisherman card?). He is trying to resurrect his daughter Grace Tyler a.k.a. Cure Rosetta by combining Cure Bloom, Cure Bright, Cure Egret and Cure Windy with each other. And he only needed a bunch of souls as the energy source to pull that off. It's like with Dartz and the Great Beast, but less time consuming.

Now that he has to focus on his plan and to become the RotomDex next week, he ignores his son IV yet again to revive his daughter Ray Ayanami who definitively is not the clone of Yui Ikari. This episode will feature the clash between IV (also known as Dick Pitt) and his little sister Olga, proving which one of them is the better Titan killer, but this time he has no Bertold to help him around.

We see that the ARC-V is doing its work, and the energy of the four girls are falling on Layra. He understands what Ray wants and she wants to be resurrected to defeat Z-Arc (aren't we sure she doesn't want to destroy the Astral World?). Reiji is confronted by the question if she wants his onee-san to be revived, but he is more worried about the innocent lives that would be taken if she would be resurrected. Their opinions clash with each other and we see something what we haven't seen since Kaiser vs Sho in GX. Brother vs Brother.

Reiji starts by setting D/D Brownie and D/D Savant Thomas on his Pendulum Zones, setting a Scale of 2-6. He Pendulum Summons Lilith and Night Howling. He activates Dark Contract with Surplus Summons to fuse his to monsters into Temujin, triggering the Pendulum Effect of Brownie to Special Summon her on the field, triggering Temujin's effect to Special Summon Lilith from the Graveyard and uses her effect to add Night Howling to his hand, then he tunes Lilith with Brownie to Synchro Summon Alexander. Finally, he Normal Summons Night Howling to revive Lilith, then using the effect of Surplus Summons to reduce her Level by 1, overlaying the two Level 3 monster into D/D/D Boulder King Darius. What slightly pisses me off is that Darius is an EARTH monster. WHY DOESN'T HE HAVE A RITUAL EARTH D/D/D MONSTER?! He uses Darius's effect by detaching an Over Ray Unit, destroying his Surplus Summons to add another Dark Contract card to his hand, which is the Continuous Trap Card Dark Contract with the Eternal Darkness. And then he sets that card and ends his turn.

Impressed that Reiji has Pendulum, Fusion, Synchro and Xyz Summoned in one turn (like last duel, which marks this duel the second time he has pulled that off), Layra still continues to fight his brother regardless. We learn that he got Paste-Eye from Reiji (which is not a surprise at all) which symbolizes his glittering light. And what does Reiji do? During Layra's Draw Phase, Reiji activates Eternal Darkness to prevent Layra from activating Spell/Trap Cards that target monsters, from tributing monsters for Tribute Summons or from using them for Synchro, Xyz and Fusion Summons. A card that would be almost useless against Ritual decks and, of course, pure Pendulum Decks. Yeah, Reiji is basically the Player Killer of Darkness (aka PaniK in the dub), which is more or less appropriate considering that he has Dark Contract with the Gate of Yamimakai in his deck. Yeah, that card shuts down Layra's deck quite effectively. Reiji expects his brother to surrender, but Layra summons Film Magician and sets a card, much to his surprise. Aren't we supposed to root for Reiji?

Speaking of darkness, Yuya is still fighting against Zarc and he feels that Yuri and Yugo are dueling each other, basically telling his basketball team captain to make it quick. Reiji draws and takes 1000 damage in his Standby Phase. He attacks Film Magician with Darius, but Film Magician copies the ATK of Darius and cannot be destroyed by battle. According to his plan, Reiji detaches an Over Ray Unit to negate the destruction, destroys the monster that Darius has battled and inflicts 500 damage to his opponent. Alexander then attacks Layra directly, and the kid fails to grab an Action Card (which is hard to pull of in that Black Mist). Well, he actually grabbed one when Alexander attacked, but it was too late, so he uses it on Temujin's attack to negate the Battle Damage. After all, this kid is a Lancer.

Spoiler Alert!

The ARC-V is 66% finished and Yuzu disappears. That doesn't look good at all. Ray encourages Layra to continue. He activates his Trap Card Photo Frame to copy the name and effect of Eternal Darkness, which allows him to use Trap/Spell Cards again and to use monsters for summons. Then he activates Pure Ray to destroy both Eternal Darkness cards and we see the manifestation of Ray's soul for a brief moment. Also, Reiji's monsters lose 300 ATK. Then Layra summons Paste-Eye and activates Montage Fusion, making a photo of Alexander and Fusion Summons C/C/C Sonic Halberd, a monster that comes out of nowhere and Reiji has never seen before. Sonic Halberd can attack twice per Battle Phase, but can also make a third attack if the opponent controls a WIND monster. Reiji realizes that he is not Layra's light. Layra destroys Alexander and Temujin, the latter allows him to add a Dark Contract to his hand. Layra is about to finish this duel by attacking Darius, then the scene switches to Yugo-Zarc vs Yugou-Zarc.

Since Greedy Venom was destroyed, he banishes a monster in his Graveyard to Special Summon a Greedy Venom on his field, which is literally the same card. He sets a card, ends his turn, and Crystal Wing's ATK go back to 3000. Yugo attacks Greedy Venom with Crystal Wing, inflicting 3000 damage to Yuri, and Greedy Venom's effect gets rid of Crystal Wing, inflicting 3000 damage to Yugo. Yugo activates Extra Shave Reborn to revive Clear Wing.... What?! Both of them have Extra Shave Reborn?! Is that a stable card that everyone has, or do we have to assume that Yuya and Yuto have it, too? It's like when Judai and Kaiser drew Battle Fusion at the same time. Due to Clear Wing's Special Summon, Yugo Special Summons 5-6 Plane, activating its effect to weaken Greedy Venom by 600 ATK, but Yugo negates that effect to boost his Clear Wing. However, Yuri avoids the finishing blow by using Drosophyllum Hydra's monster effect, returning Starve Venom to the Graveyard and half the battle damage. With Greedy Venom's destruction, he revives Starve Venom through Extra Shave Reborn. Yugo ends his turn and you can see that Z-ARC's aura is surrounding Yuri. He activates Starve Venom's effect to negate Clear Wing's effect and copies it. The problem is that Yugo cannot use Clear Wing's effect to negate it, and if would to that, Starve Venom's third effect would be triggered, destroy Clear Wing and Yugo would lose, so Yugo has no choice and to leave Starve Venom do what it is doing. Then Yuri activates the Equip Spell Card Predator Graft to revive Drosophyllum Hydra. He activates its effect to weaken Clear Wing, but negates it through the copied effect to boost Starve Venom's ATK and beats Yugo with Starve Venom.

The episode ends.

Preview:

Spoiler Alert!

-Yuri is trying to become one with Yuya/Yuto.
-Yusyo challenges him to a duel.
-Ruri disappears next.
-A female Entermate appears.
-Reiji, Yuya and Layra are watching the duel.

[King]

You were expecting a Riutal Monnster. But it was me Xyz !

[Destiny91]

DDDs now have 4 Fusions, 4 Xyz and 2 Synchros.
Since Reiji played 2 Tuners during this duel I thought we would have a new Synchro.
Well, lets wait and see if he Summons a new one next week.
BTW the Pendulum Tuner is great, they will obviously nerf it. I just hope they don't overdo it

[Dyson Sphere]

when we see yuri absorb yugo i wonder how he'll use it against yusho

[KingJinzo]

when we see yuri absorb yugo i wonder how he'll use it against yusho

He doesn't have to worry that he has no Tuners, since Z-Arc can interchange their decks at any point.

[yshipster]

I still laugh about the fact that the new D/D Tuner is called Brownie, despite i know where it comes from. Also it's interesting that Drosophyllum Hydra has a different effect in the anime. It seems like the anime doesn't want to deal with those Predator Counters...

Kinda interested how Reiji vs Reyra plays out. Actually, Reyra should win, so that Reiji get's his character development triggering loss, but then why just didn't they let Reyras attack connect this episode? And why did they bother to use Temujins second effect? I guess Reiji will survive due to an Action Card, but let's see.

[False_Revelation]

A rank 3....really? Its official. Yuya's my favorite character. Im not a fan of spamming the same cards over and over so I guess im done with reiji.

[yshipster]

Now could we get a Rank 7 D/D/D, since D/Ds can spam level 7s better than everything else...

[NassX]

damn yugo lost to the plot, yuri now with the extreme zarc plot armor and the op fusion dragons, now along with the synchro dragons(? i wish for a fusion between starving venom and clear wing, that would be hype). Poor Yusho for having to duel Yuri

[yshipster]

damn yugo lost to the plot, yuri now with the extreme zarc plot armor and the op fusion dragons, now along with the synchro dragons(? i wish for a fusion between starving venom and clear wing, that would be hype). Poor Yusho for having to duel Yuri

He should have some kind of bosses as well, and probably he'll use an insane Performapal monster/spell combo.