User blog:Dreamergirl3000/Thoughts Of and After FCBF X/Battsu Episode 13

So... I was just supposed to be writing this for myself, but then I figured "People do stuff like this a lot, right? So why not try posting this and seeing how people will react, yeah? Yeah! Let's go for it!" So, after some editing happened, I bring to you a journal I wrote after I watched the 13th episode of Future Card BuddyFight X/Battsu!

Also, note, it's not A LOT about the episode it's self, but more about what I saw, how I took it, and my thoughts on the characters after it. It's also got lots of spoilers, and is mostly just me rambling my thoughts out as they came to me so... Yeah.

Erm...

Eheheheh... ^^"

Please be prepared for a little bit of drawn-out-ness here and there, and I'm sorry if some of it's confusing to you guys. ^^"

Anyways, on with the random journal entry that I wrote!

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This episode was basically Gao and Batzz’s angst when they showed up, and figured out that Wisdom had kicked Kanata to the curb so hard he was down with his back on the mat.

While Gaito also goes off and fights a later disappearing Sakate, Wisdom repeats how the Mirage Card is now "The Chaos," his flag card, and will never revert back; Gao gets the 411 on The Chaos and Geargod VII’s currently known stats from Baku; He and Batzz learn Wisdom’s motives for themselves, and when Dai, Noboru and Chibi Panda magically appear out of nowhere, they’re Deus Ex Machina saved from deletion-by-Geargod-VII by Duel Jeager who’s hugeness comes in handy for the first time in freaking ever.

While this happens, Wisdom does another pre-fight search on his opponent, and whaddaya know? He actually states a very good point: Gao Mikado has not grown since the beginning of the series. Relying on dumb luck and the perfect deck builds of Baku, as well as the ease of his deck to use, Gao has basically lucked out all his fights, and, in comparison to how his reputation and shelf of achievements has grown, his skills have not. Wisdom deems him useless, and though Gao is pissed, his anger’s waved off like an annoying fly before we get to another very interesting topic.

Batzz’s memories.

Batzz does not know why he (definitely) almost destroyed Dragon World all those years ago. Though why he did it has remained a mystery until now, there are a few hints as to what went down. It is revealed that Batzz finds something familiar about Geargod VII as he, quote, “knows his gaze.” From that, we already get the sort of idea that they seem to have met in some way, shape or form, and his memory flash of a hooded, robed person with a monster that looks similar but not quite like Geargod seems to back that up even more. What backs this up EVEN EVEN MORE is that one, Wisdom mentions that it isn’t him, but his CLAN that figured out a way to upgrade the world, and two, that Geargod isn’t just “Geargod” he’s “Geargod VII.” Thanks to that, I can imagine there being more than one Geargod, and the current Geargod just being the most recent and most powerful one, and Batzz not only met a previous Geargod and their crazy Wisdom-Chaos clan member buddy, but they influenced him into trying to destroy Dragon World, too! I know this is what happened, and I think I'll be believing that till the series proves me otherwise if it even will. (Also, note, it’s funny how it’s Geargod VII and it released the same year that the iPhone 7 came out. Hahah. Heheh. Heheheheheh. I don't know why I'm laughing at that, but it's just such a hillarious couincidence to me)

But, on the side of that, Wisdom knows this because he acknowledges that Batzz is one of the most powerful monsters in the worlds. His whole God of Greed thing kicks in and he believes only he is worthy of the “strongest monster” because he sees himself as, I guess, the strongest duelist. This also ties in to him seeing Gao as useless, and is further motivation for him to ask Batzz to join him to upgrade and control the world together. Seems pretty legit to me on the villain side, to me. Good on you, Wisdom. Not a bad bad guy if I do say so myself.

So either way, yeah! This episode might’ve ended in a cliffhanger and reminded us that Gao is just some kid who lucked out like Lady Luck has a thing for him and is thereby biased towards him, but either way, I LOVED the duel not because of how well it was played out, but because of how outright OUTRAGEOUS it was. An equivalent of 39 Monster Size and four monsters on one side of the field, and an absurd amount of luck on the other. It’s like the winner of this duel will be the one to prove not who’s the best, but who’s craziness can hold out longer. XD Though I gotta give it to Baku, he did blatantly admit that if Gao just keeps playing defensive, his luck will run out and he’ll be down.

But, I have to say, since Wisdom’s deck is so focused on attacking with such powerful, high level monsters- like Midorikawa’s deck from Vanguard except actually efficient and effective thanks to The Chaos flag card- and overwhelming his opponent with these attacks, his deck might not have a lot of defensive spells. I know we’ve only seen him duel twice, but the thing with both these fights is that, so far, he has been unable to directly protect himself like Gao can. Sure, he has that whole stat-up-and-counterattack card he used in the duel of this episode, but that still relies heavily on the (notably very good) bet that there will be a monster in his center to defend him. It may be likely, but I’m sure, when we catch Wisdom with an open centre, just like what happens in the first turns of his opponents, they’ll cut right through and his life points will drop like flies. Especially since I believe that his deck is SO FOCUSED on Geargod VII that he bets it all on him and his monsters. Which isn’t a bad thing, but yeah- If you’ve only got one line of defence, when that happens, what’s to save you after that?

So yeah. If Gao can beat Geargod and the other monster in the center, and expose the dragon's tender underbelly, then I’m sure he won’t just luck out, but with his balanced deck build, he will win. But of course, if Gao hadn't lucked out, he’d have been life point-less long back in this duel. Which, again, brings me back to saying that this duel ain’t about skill, it’s about who’s craziness is more powerful. So I’mma stay tuned, so see how that pays out. XD

Also, can I just say that now I want character development for Gao (actual dulling skills up n all that good developing MC stuvv plz plz plz plz plz plz plz plz Bushi-), Batzz (memories pls guys memories. And more caring moments with his old friends in his little archetype party- Like the Fifth Omni Lord Knights guys- Forgot their names but yea- I kinda wanna see that again yeah yes please-) AND Saint Holy Sword (because I want to see the dragon in the moonlight in the ending- thank you guys very much-) and additionally, more name jokes, I find it hilariously ironic that Wisdom’s name is “wisdom” a word that literally means "the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise” (brought to us by Google) and yet, he is almost immaturely going after the world to upgrade it and control it, almost like Shigaraki Tomura from BnHA, except on the loose as his own master, and his deck doesn’t even have defensive spells. I mean, guys- From a dude named “Wisdom” I honestly expected card search abilities and spells ga-freaking-lore, but no. No. We don’t have that. Instead, we have a lack of spells and the search-and-manipulate play style I'd expected, and- Well- Utter chaos ^^” But I’m not saying it doesn’t work for him. To be honest, the style actually does suit him as a person disregarding his name. He thinks he is the best and though he actually does guard well, when push comes to close shove, he’ll have nothing because his arrogance caused him to not prepare. And I think that’ll be his downfall. When Gao grows into the kind of MC that I believe he ought to be (meaning relying less on smitten miss Lady Luck and to start pushing himself to look ahead and stop himself from getting into tight spots) Wisdom will still be looking down on him, but after Gao has grown past Wisdom, he will easily be able to defeat him. OK, maybe not easily but relatively easier than he had in their first duel. (Also is it me but is Gao now running some sort of Danger-Dragon world deck now without any of the bleeding-for-power of Danger? I realised that just now but yeah- Seems pretty close to me at least.)

Though, I personally think that might work against Gao’s character a little as he stands, though… The whole "gonna start doing this mostly with my own power and not luck's" thing.

As he stands, Gao Mikado is the main character type who fights because he has something to defend, and does it without hesitation. This can also be seen as recklessness, and it is this straightforwardness that is Gao’s both strongest and weakest points. Strong because he isn’t scared of jumping in and attacking to try and bring down who’s in front of him- As shown through the all-famous Gao Formation that was even emphasised in the first season- but since he’s not careful, he can- if he doesn’t always already- end up open to attacks, and thereby end up having to climb back up form the ledge he almost fell off of, and fight with barely anything left in him defence wise. Something I think is represented perfectly by his almost exessive and starting-to-get-annoying use of consecutive uses of Dragon Shields that come seemingly out of thin air. As Gao is now, like Wisdom’s character, that works just fine for him, but as Wisdom says, Gao has not grown out of this yet, and while it suits his personality as of now, as a Fighter, it can only take him so far. (It took me this long into the post to get out of the YuGiOh habit of using “duel” and “duelist” instead of “fight” and “fighter” Majins kreisting gawd- Sorry guys-) If Gao wants to get over this person who is clearly stronger than him, he has to grow over his own limits, and in the process, he needs to become wiser. He needs to learn that he can’t keep letting himself get cornered like this, and that if he does that, he’ll be able to win and better protect what he has shielded behind him. And that will make for some very interesting character development, because not only will Gao have to start rethinking his play style, but it will change also how Gao acts OUT of the fights, as well. My hypothesis is, if Gao does take this path of growth that I hope and think he’ll take now that I think about it better, he’ll realise, as he's learning that his current strategy is dangerous in a fight that could mean so much, that he actually has people and things that he is protecting with his fights, and not just himself. And I think that will likely shake him quite a bit and change the way he looks at some things. For better if Bushi takes this the right way and he really grows, or worse if he and Bushi halfass this, and it just turns out sad and half-baked. (Like Shion supposedly was before he pulled himself out of that- OK I'll stop with the references now-)





He will still be the reckless, leap-before-you-look Gao Mikado we came to know (and some love [IDK about everyone but I like him like that, since he's just a kid and has room to grow in the future]), but after having set it in his heart and mind that something bad could happen and people could get hurt if he lost and no one was there to cotinue the fight, he will likely fight not to fight if that makes any sense, or to beat up the villain in front of him, but to make sure that this villain's evil plans don't fall upon what he cares for, or what he protects. Just like the Mighty Sun Fighter from Yota’s drawings and stories, and Gao when he first met Kiri, he would be fighting the fight for others, thus making him the "hero" the protagonist usually is. After years of wearing the costume and saying the lines, Gao would finally go the step further to be the hero that his elder brother envisioned. And I think it’ll work pretty well for him if he decides to make the full transition and not try and stay whoever he is right now, because there can be fun fights, too. But since he'll already have realised that the scale of his being the Mighty Sun Fighter that he so idolised, when situation calls for it, he can seriously bring the game with his own two hands and head, so that no one else gets hurt. Plus, he will also be an even tougher a fighter when he gets a better defense up.

This may sound a little vague, but I was just going off on whatever my brain told my fingers to type down, and as it grew in my head, I fell in love with the idea of Gao growing like this. He’ll still be the same caring, sunny Gao, but he’ll be all the- *pauses for a minute* Wiser. All the wiser.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:HelveticaNeue;font-size:12px;orphans:2;widows:2;">…

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:HelveticaNeue;font-size:12px;orphans:2;widows:2;">HAHAHAHAH!! (Edit note: I actually started laughing when I realised what I was about to type at the end of the last long paragraph. My mom thought something happened because I tried to hide it for the sake of my other sleeping family members)

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:HelveticaNeue;font-size:12px;orphans:2;widows:2;">Guess Wisdom’s name wasn’t all that ironic, after all! XD If everything goes as as I hoped and guessed before, Wisdom would’ve not only been the result of the information passed down through his clan and to him, but he would have also been the one to help Gao gain his OWN wisdom!

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:HelveticaNeue;font-size:12px;orphans:2;widows:2;">And now that I think about it, that can work for Saint Holy Sword and Batzz, too. After all, Batzz will learn why he tried to destroy his home world, and will be wiser now and try not to do it again, and I don’t know SPECIFICALLY how it could work for our little panda-looking friend, but because of the journey he will take with Batzz and Gao (we were fully reminded that he was on this journey with them, too, when he actually jumps in and yells “I’m here, too!” As much as I remembered it, I almost forgot for a while that he had any growing left to do either, as he could well just stay as the cute mascot of the show if Bushiroad wanted him to stay that way-) he might learn something from this, too, and grow into the name and glory of “Saint Holy Sword Dragon,” and be called by that name, rather than the name “Chibi Panda” which seems to be reminiscent of his current status as nothing more than a cute- albeit determined- little panda. (Like fighter like monster- Come on guys, let's grow into our names and titles! And Batzz! You just be someone worthy of the respect of all your archetype buddies! Yeah! Character development!)

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:HelveticaNeue;font-size:12px;orphans:2;widows:2;">So yeah! I was just supposed to write the first paragraph or so and breeze over the plot, but this became an entire analysis of the future of BuddyFight X/Battsu instead! Maybe I should get concussed more often? (kidding kidding- Never again if I can help it- I hate high-maintenance health situations, they kinda stress me and make me feel uncomfortable…) As a conclusion, I hope everything goes well for our main trio, and that they FINALLY take their turn to do their own growing (as I realise only now that everyone on their side has done this growing one way or another, and Gao’s the only one who’s been left behind- probably since nothing has ever challenged him like Wisdom and Geargod VII have-) and that the series is executed well until the end! I know a lot of people got bored, but if Bushi plays this season right, it could be- Freaking amazing! And I’d hate to let potentially good things do to waste, so, Bushiroad, please, I ask you, from the bottom of my little fangirl heart, please please please play this season out well and give Gao the growth he deserves for the fourth season of his series (I noticed that Vanguard went with the whole 4-seasons-then-switch thing so I’m assuming they might do the same with BuddyFight, maybe, maybe not, but who knows- I think they will) and that it’s fun till the end, even if some people aren’t watching it anymore.

<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:HelveticaNeue;font-size:12px;orphans:2;widows:2;">But, with everything said and done, as much as I’d LOVE to keep talking about this, I’ve gotta go. I’ve got a date with another previously (relatively???) popular anime that people have dropped after the first season (*almost east-asian-street-sarcastic tone* Monster Striiiike-) and it is late, and I am injured, so, with that, Future Card BuddyFight, for this week, I bid you adieu! ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^

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<p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:HelveticaNeue;font-size:12px;orphans:2;widows:2;">So yeah... This might be a little long but this is actually what some of my post-episode writeups look like. And I've got a lot of em so... Yeah- Lots of note space taken up-

<p style="orphans:2;widows:2;">Since this was mostly to discuss Gao's growth and the dynamic between him and the (very cool 99-point-worthy) antagonist of the series, I guess I apologise if you thought this was about the episode it's self, but I hope that it's at least clear ^^" I can't say I wasn't hoping a person or two might agree with me on how I thought and felt about Gao, but I can't control people, so I'mma just wait and see what the comments end up saying. ^^"

<p style="orphans:2;widows:2;">Now, as the journal (written and finished at 21 hours and 36 minutes) said, it's late (now 22 hours and 24 minutes as I type here at my computer), so I've gotta go. Sorry everyone again for all the little side comments, and I hope you all enjoyed.

<p style="orphans:2;widows:2;">See yah on the dueling scene or in the comment section! (hopefully, maybe) Axion out. ^^

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<p style="orphans:2;widows:2;">-PS- After watching the subbed for so long, I ALOMST wrote "Taiyou Bancho" instead of "Mighty Sun Fighter" every time I wrote that title- Whew- *sighs hard and wipes brow*