Yugioh S1 Ep 40 PART 1/2: So Much Random Stuff Happens That It Requires Two Parts
Most of the time, Yugioh’s plot is delivered in nice, bizarre, bite-sized segments, offset by duels that I skip. But then, in this episode they decided “Hey, we should drop some plot. Like a lot of REALLY WACKY plot.”
And thus we have an episode with over 80 caps. So, this’ll be a two-parter! The other part will show up later. Like...when we finish it.
Also, despite the fact that this is probably one of the more important episodes of the season, it has quite some damage on the recording on Netflix. You’ll see that it isn’t really cropped right on the sides, and in some parts it’s got motion blur I couldn’t avoid. One day, Yugioh will get it’s Sailor Moon remaster, but this is not the day. Also, if they redubbed Yugioh, it would be an absolute tragedy, but that’s a different story.
TL;DR Forgive the massive amount of text in the upcoming recaps. There’s just so much they did and I uh...didn’t want this to end up being over 100 caps this episode alone.
So, lets get into it: The Yugi crew is looking for Pegasus.
For some reason, Tea suddenly remembers what went down the night before and decides “I bet Pegasus is hiding in that spooky tower we don’t actually know how to get into because we climbed it with a grappling hook.”
(Sometimes I get used to Yugi’s eyeliner and then they throw a shot like this at me and it’s like DAMN, Yugi, when did you have time to apply that stiletto heel to your face? Like most of the time I’m just put off by the awful hair and then the rest of the time I’m just really jealous of this emo boy’s wings.)
With that they suddenly remembered...the other stuff.
(read more under the cut)
I like how Joey is just so incredibly fed up with magic at this point. Out of all of them, he seems to hate magic the very most although his best friend is a walking dark magic portal. Joey is just completely done, but unfortunately for Joey it turns out all the magic up to this point hasn’t even remotely been the amount of magic that this show is going to throw at us, because this entire episode is a bunch of wizards just screwing with each other.
I’ve mentioned before that it feels like the power players of Yugioh are kinda like Greek Gods where they just really can’t be bothered about 95% of the time--but when they are FINALLY bothered enough to move their own ass, they just kinda sweep the floor clean and leave me utterly baffled.
Anyways, Pegasus actually is in the spooky tower, to my disbelief, at this non-euclidean desk that doesn’t seem to exist in time and space.
And then Kaiba wakes up in a cabbage-patch lookin jail cell. I would love to see more of his reaction to that but alas, this episode is not about Seto Kaiba.
Pegasus decided to make good on his word, mostly because Yugi is a cursed Pharaoh and he doesn’t want to see what happens if he doesn’t make his end of the bargain. To be quite honest, getting your mind scrambled would have probably been better than what did eventually happen to him in this episode.
Seriously, did this guy ever sell a painting that wasn’t a card? His portfolio would just be one person. And they do say that you shouldn’t make your portfolio too many styles but, damn, you can’t just do one person, unless your going to work for one specific type of video game, in which case sure just draw that one space punk chick over and over it seems to work for you.
Bakura decides to show up, and he’s very Bakura about it, introducing a new Bakura mechanic that I didn’t at all predict would ever be a thing.
Bless this storyboarder.
After showing off his weird tarot ability for no other good reason than to mess with Pegasus for a little bit, he decides to make me regret ever saying this necklace looked like it has five dicks.
I am so sorry, I had no idea! I had no idea it would be shooting lasers! What the hell, show?? What genre am I even watching anymore??
Also this whole concept that at any point these items can just shoot anime lasers and start a...whatever this trope is called, is so bizarre to me. They CAN do this...but they prefer to use cards.
They CAN do this, at any point, but they prefer to trap the souls of you and your friends in a card so you must play even more cards.
Or they can shoot you with a laser and solve their problems that way.
But why would they? They can like...play cards and do tarot and read minds and make card monsters real so who would ever want to shoot freakin lasers!
I do appreciate that Pegasus’ laser is pink like the salmon I chose for his font.
My bro argues that Pegasus probably sees just fine with the golden eyeball, but I feel like it can’t be the same, like a Spike Spiegal situation. It’s not like they ever tell us, anyway.
Him being alive for centuries is just never brought up for the rest of the episode. It comes up here and then Bakura’s like “Woopsie! Change the subject!”
Kid’s show!
As a kid an episode of the Rugrats freaked me the hell out--you know the one where Reptar becomes alive? I couldn’t take that one, it was terrifying. So maybe I’m not one to judge, because I was not a normal kid when it came to anxiety (in fact a legit phobia of dogs gave me pretty severe panic attacks on a weekly basis) but, it seems like Yugioh is a lot like brother’s Grimm because they are SO READY to cut off body parts, revive corpses, and overall gross me out, just to make a point.
Is it necessary? Eh.
But is it bizarre body horror we can stuff in this kid’s story? YES LETS DO IT.
With the way they set this up it looked as if they were just going to have them show up in the nick of time or something, but instead the show was like “lol, these kids? You’re kidding, right?”
He’s literally missing an eye and Croquet’s exact line was something like “he’s fallen ill.”
Also, I’m glad we got a cameo from Double-Spike Mohawk Mullet Man in this episode, giving Pegasus a fireman carry like a trooper.
So, because they can’t not, and because Pegasus’ security is only effective at random times of the day (they must have a lot of smoke breaks or something) the four decide to raid Pegasus’ bedroom. Why would you ever want to do this to the guy who was ritually sacrificing people the night before!?
Joey’s weird crushes on blondes that are...not in High School. Joey. Stop this. You are a child.
Anyways, Tea goes straight for the juicy stuff, because if there’s anything in this world that I would never ever want to read is a grown man’s journal filled with all his unfiltered thoughts.
Then we’re welcomed into a Pegasus Flashback, because why not make a tragic past even more tragic? Anyways, it’s OK because anime food lives here.
Bro called them gravity melons. I want to point out the party cups drawn from the side sitting on the round table we see from the top. Love it. Also realllllly love that guy with the mustache and glasses in the bottom right corner. There’s some good stuff here in this vaguely 80′s flashback.
Anyway, she totally dies. The flashback goes through things we’ve been over before--they get married, she gets sick, she turns into a rose and then becomes a grave in a really poorly kept graveyard.
And so Pegasus turns to religion. Yes, you read that right, He decides, he wants to find a religion that will explain afterlife to him, and he’s like I might as well start with the oldest and work up, so he goes to Egypt.
Uh...OK. I mean if you’re just looking for a religion with an afterlife you could have chosen...almost any of them. You could have stayed in America and like gone to...anywhere but, the guy was like “Mummies, youknow?” and went to Egypt although Cecelia is already dead and buried so it’s not like he can do the mummy trick to her now. It’s a little LATE?
My brother and I were so entranced by this bizarre hat, that we wanted to see if it’s ever been made real. AND IT HAS.
MARVEL AT IT:
IT IS VERY EXPENSIVE.
LOOK AT THAT DUMB HAT!
We checked Amazon for cheaper listings, but only found trucker hats with the Square Mason symbol on it, and Illuminati trucker hats like this one.
My brother wrote this note to them. I hope they read it and take it to heart.
Anyways, our newly found joy, held aloft by the discovery of perfect square brimmed hats was quickly sullied.
His hat is a transformer. But a round to square kind.
So in walks this guy. His name is Shadi. I’m telling you that right now because I want you to pay attention to how long it takes before we find out his name is Shadi. He is going to tell us his name at some point, and it’s very weird when it happens.
Pegasus doesn’t seem to realize it is not at all normal for a guy in modern Egypt to be walking around with this massive ankh on his chest (eh...you can’t see it in these pictures, but there’s a HUGE ankh just hanging around his neck) with earrings and pharaoh makeup. Pegasus is just that type of sheltered American. He’s like...well you look like someone from a movie so it must be legit. And that is how Pegasus decides to follow a guy who is clearly an ancient spooky wizard into an ancient death dungeon crypt.
I feel like Pegasus could have easily avoided this whole situation he got himself into.
Shadi has a whole speech about how the eyeball has a lot of power, and that he’s got to protect it all yada yada--but at the same time Shadi is like “BUT I gotta make sure some people use it so a lot of terrible things happen. You’d think I’d just...leave this stuff in this crypt so it’ll never be a problem and the world will never be cursed with terrible dark magic that was sealed away for thousands of years, but...I’m gonna make it happen anyway...and it’s not my fault...”
How many times has Shadi done this? It’s suggested that Pegasus is not the first.
It’s pretty gross, and while it’s done in shadow (which was a nice visual allusion to Shadow Magic), it’s still pretty gruesome for a kids show. To happen twice in one episode of this kid’s show, haha.
She calls him by his full name “Maxamillion” which made me realize he’s probably never shortened his name to “Max” in his entire life.
I’m glad Pegasus making out with a ghost happened on screen. This is now the most romance we’ve seen in all of Yugioh. Good.
So did Pegasus actually write the part where he made out with a vision, though?
I’m curious about how that process works. But, I don’t think we’ll ever find out.
Anyways, next time, on this very same episode of Yugioh:
Will Bakura stick this eyeball in he own eye or will he back out last minute and just hang it from his necklace and pretend it was there the whole time? Will Tea next read Pegasus’ food diary only to discover, in horror, that he drank upwards 60 liters of grape juice and far exceeded his daily calorie intake? Will security even realize these children have been snooping in all of Pegasus’ personal stuff for the past 30 minutes?
The team gets sent a mission to recover missing satellite pieces. When one ends up in the middle of Dig fest (a show where construction equipment perform), Wedge gets stuck in the spotlight, and ends up performing;
In hopes to get the piece inside the stadium. It worked,
And Wedge is pretty pleased with himself. That's all for today folks!
Yugioh S1 Ep 40 PART 2/2: Shadi’s Coming Out Of His Well
More plot is happening up in Pegasus’ journaling nook. Since, while Tea went straight for that journal, she missed the three things on this desk that they actually came up here for.
It’s a good thing Yugi remembers the only reason they came to this island in the first place. What follows is a bizarre set of events that just...they just happen.
There is no valid explanation for what the hell Yugi is doing at this desk. If I knew my Grandpa got revived I’d like...be first out of the room, but Yugi is staring blankly at a desk for a good minute and that is how he gets trapped in one of the most bizarre heel turns this show has taken me on so far.
Don’t worry, it’s just a space-time wormhole. Yeah. In Yugioh. The card-game TV show. It does this now.
(read more under the cut)
BOY Yugi has a somewhat more casual reaction to this than most people would have. Especially since Yugi just found himself framed for eyeball larceny. Thanks Bakura, what a good friend.
Yugi very slowly backs away from Shadi, but, despite the fact he’s wearing about 50 less lbs of fabric and Ankh, instead of running away, he just allows this to happen.
I know there’s gotta be a crossover half-finished fanfic somewhere where spiky hair bros blade wield while card wielding, but with the rate Disney is gobbling up properties, it could easily be canonical if you just give it enough time. Goofy could easily wear a Yugi hairpiece, just saying. Super easy.
Ahhh...we’re back in the brain zone. We’re back into the “Oh wow Yugi’s been hiding a lot of problems from us” zone. While this is hella random, this is actually pretty nice from a storytelling perspective, because it’s easy to assume that now that Yugi and Pharaoh get along, that Yugi has found a cure and can go on living life like this forever and be A-OK.
On the surface, everything is tied nicely into a bow: His friends understand and accept him, his Ghost Dad has decided to give him the reigns, Pegasus is conquered, and his Grandpa has woken up in the hospital (and man I can’t imagine the conversation he’s having with Yugi’s Mom right about now) But, finally getting a house tour of this brain place lets us see that while they do get along, Pharaoh wasn’t really the entire problem anyway. There’s still something super weird going on with this kid’s head and no one else knows about it.
This is where the recording gets a little wonky--you’ll see blur, it’s not on my end, that’s just how it is in Netflix. You don’t notice it as the image is moving, but when you pause it’s...it’s pretty noticeable.
Also, it was hard to catch before since Pharaoh was blocking it, but Pharaoh’s wall has veiny rainbow mold. Makes you think “oh gross, a virus--but at least it’s a real pretty one”
Shadi is immediately disturbed but instead of just...turning around, he’s decided to keep on snooping.
Ah, it’s Yugi’s sid of the brain. It’s...
...I know Yugi is super pure and I wouldn’t dare argue with that, but like, Yugi’s in High School, right? Like I’m guessing he hasn’t played with building blocks or whatever that strange bowling pin floaty is in about 10 years?
I figure it’s a representational thing of “this is his childhood” or whatever, but I’d like to think this is more like Pharaoh hastily threw this room together and just hasn’t gotten around to updating it in the past 10 years.
Either way, no one lives here anymore. I mean the floor was mustard yellow, no one can possibly stay here for very long.
So Shadi, very carefully, decides to walk in the other door that couldn’t be less unwelcoming. Like it has a giant eyeball on it and gross throbby veins. Why would you touch this door??
Pharaoh has a very odd hot/cold attitude towards Shadi, kinda vacillating between should I just kill him???? and also wanting to just hang out and talk shop about magic stuff.
Wh...why, Shadi?
Why have you been randomly entering minds, Shadi?
You live in a crypt under the desert, what are you talking about?
Anyway, the best part of this whole exchange is Shadi trying to figure out why all this Pharaoh crap is here when he has literally studied only the Pharaoh and all his stuff for the past who knows how many years that Shadi has been alive.
OH
So my prediction that Yugi’s brain was a Dali Painting was just--the wrong artist. I was off by a couple degrees of abstraction, was all. Turns out its...a little worse than melting clocks...it’s a full on Escher.
Yugi Muto, your mind is an non-Euclidean painting and like one room with this weird green foam bowling pin with glasses. I would say Yugi needs to find balance in his life but he freakin needs to find gravity first, wow.
Well that explains where Yugi wanders off to when Pharaoh’s in charge. He’s just having the time of his life pretending he’s David Bowie and recreating that one scene from Labyrinth word for word.
I mean, that’s what I would do if I had incurable Labyrinth brain. When life gives you lemons covered in stairs...
Shadi decides he better start looking for evidence quickly, and so he runs up to the first door he sees and of course this happens.
This door and every door--all the doors are traps and Pharaoh’s just like “Are you still here, Shadi???”
Luckily for Shadi, Yugi pulls him out of this position. Not sure how since Yugi is 70 lbs when wet, but when he’s a brain apparition, I guess anything is possible.
Yugi blames Pharaoh’s behavior on the “secrets” that the puzzle is trying to keep secret. Honestly I haven’t really given much thought to whether the puzzle holds more than a ghost so...news to me, show. Nice you brought this up right before the end of the season but OK, let’s go for it.
And then a door just...starts glowing.
Behind the door is something that we are familiar with, but Yugi hasn’t seen before since Yugi didn’t wander into the ritual sacrifice chamber from the other night.
So uh...I haven’t really given it much thought but it just occured to me that if Pharaoh ever played the old version of this card game where people’s soul’s get devoured, then that’s kinda effed up.
I mean in Yugi’s defense we don’t know how big the blocks room is. Maybe he’s got a k’nex room next door? Either way, it definitely feels like the 60-40 Pharaoh-Yugi mix that I suspected is turning into way more of a 99-1 ratio. Really seems like Pharaoh just keeps Yugi around because he likes the kid a lot, not because Yugi has that much control over Pharaoh physically because uh...one has a room of this colossal electrical magic creature and the other has a room of with a scooter car in it and a toy rake.
Most shows you’d expect a doomed asshole like Shadi to dig too deep and never recover. To keep going past the point of no return. I mean, Yugi’s totally willing. Yugi’s like “hey, lets go deep as we can and find all the secrets!”
And then Shadi proves he’s one of the smartest millennium power players there is by just quitting while he’s ahead and getting the hell out of dodge.
PS THERE’S BEEN AN APOCALYPSE THIS WHOLE TIME.
There’s only like 8 episodes left this season what are you talking about, Shadi?
Remember when Bakura first turned evil and told Pharaoh “I’m going to take all the items and destroy the world” and Pharaoh was like “Oh. OK.”
There it is. There’s the name drop.
Literally the last thing he says is his freakin name.
Thanks for absolutely nothing, Shadi. You came down here to sentence the guy who stole the eye, the first thing your family’s had to do to save the planet in I’m guessing thousands of years, and before actually finding him you got Too Spooked and you bounced.
So Bakura roams free, because Shadi assums Yugi stole the eyeball but doesn’t want to bother to do anything about it because Yugi’s mind was too freakin complicated and self destructive.
TL;DR Yugi was SO EMO that it broke Shadi within ten minutes.
I mean, congrats, I guess?
Next week, on Yugioh:
Will anyone else realize that Yugi was gone or is he going to catch up to everyone and just not mention this happened because Yugi doesn’t Talk About Things? Is Mokuba just wandering around the castle being like “WHAT DAY IS IT!?” Is the rest of Pegasus’ staff taking the week off now that their only client is comatose?
Anyway, I brought up Labyrinth so I think it’s law that I have to post this as well, this actual footage of Yugi and Pharaoh on their time off. Yugi is the baby in this scene.
