Duel Identity (2)

 

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Episode Information
Episode Number30
First AiredAugust 31, 2002
 
Rating

Average Rating:8.67
Number of Votes Cast:12 
Episode Rank:88 
Synopsis
As the first playoff duel rages, Yugi has been reduced to 300 life points while Mai's life points remain at an untouched 2000. With the Shadow of Eyes card luring Yugi's monsters into attack mode and the Mirror Wall then reducing their attack points, Yugi seems helpless against the power of Mai's Harpy / Dragon team. Not only that, but he is struggling to resist the spirit of his Millennium Puzzle, fearing what it might do. But if he doesn't embrace the spirit, he may risk losing the only chance he has of rescuing his Grandpa.

Mai's new strategy seems flawless and she owes it to Joey for teaching her the most important lesson of her life. When he defeated her in his first ever tournament duel, he forced her to look at herself in a new way, confronting her fears of her abilities and her trust in herself. Mai tells Joey that her defeat against him taught her more about duelling than any of her victories and forced her to face up to her fears. But now Yugi has the chance to do the same and he is bottling up his fears, scared of what might happen.

As Yugi considers what Mai has said, the spirit of the Puzzle explains that he never meant to hurt Kaiba, but was just trying to save Yugi's Grandpa. He promises to work together with Yugi, not doing what he alone sees best again. Yugi agrees and the two begin working together once more.

Playing Brain Control, Yugi takes control of Mai's Pet Dragon, but even under his control it still refuses to attack its master. Instead, Yugi plays one card face own and then plays the Catapult Turtle. Loading the Dragon onto the Turtle's back, Yugi fires it at Mai's Harpy Lady, destroying her Mirror Wall and reducing her life points to 850 in one attack. With Yugi's inner spirit working with him once more, Mai will have to play better than ever in order to win. Fearing Yugi's trap card, she plays the Elegant Egotist, triplicating her Harpy Lady to give a trio of the powerful monsters and then ends her turn.

As Yugi's turn begins, he tells Mai that she should have attacked him on her turn. She argues that she isn't that foolish, but as Yugi turns over the card Mai realises that he was bluffing. Revealing the Monster Recovery card, Yugi tells Mai that an attack on her turn would have won her the match. Instead, he plays the Monster Recovery card to return all his monsters to his deck and then draw a new hand.

But even with his new hand, he still has nothing strong enough to defeat the Mai's three Harpies. Instead he plays the one card that he can, the Mystical Elf, in defence mode. As a female monster, it is unaffected by the Shadow of Eyes and so cannot be lured into attacking. Mai is shocked, having forgotten the flaw in the Shadow of Eyes, but is unfazed as she plays Monster Reborn to revive her Harpy's Pet Dragon, now even stronger at 2900 attack points because of the three Harpies. Attacking the Mystical Elf with her three Harpies, Mai destroys Yugi's only possible defence card.

With only one card left to save the duel, Yugi begins to lose faith in himself. But the strength of Yugi and his spirit, combined with the heart of the cards, prevails as Yugi draws the Swords of Revealing Light, shutting down Mai's monsters for three turns. Yugi's spirit tells him that there is only one way they can win, and that is through the Black Lustre Ritual. But the Ritual is risky and three turns may not be long enough to draw all the necessary cards. Even so, Yugi plays the first component of the ritual, the puny Karebo.

Mai is amazed by Yugi's guts at playing such a weak monster, but he warns her not to mock the creature as it is the start of her demise. Mai draws one card and then ends her turn, but as Yugi draws his next card he is still missing the final component needed for the Black Lustre Ritual. However he is able to play the second part and using his own Monster Reborn card revives Gaia, the Fierce Knight. But with only two turns to go, can he draw the final card to activate the Ritual.

As Mai's turn begins, Pegasus realises Yugi's strategy and is astounded by his foolishness. As Mai draws a second Harpy Lady card, she gloats to herself that Yugi will be crushed on her next turn when she attacks with four Harpies and the harpy's pet Dragon at a powered-up 3200 attack points. As she ends her turn, the Swords fade away, releasing their control over Mai's monsters.

As he prepares to draw the deciding card of the duel, Yugi begins to doubt whether it is fair to risk the lives of so many of Yugi's friends on the draw of one card. But with the support of all his friends, the power of the two Yugis is stronger than ever, shocking Pegasus who has never felt such power. As he draws the final card, Yugi reveals the Black Lustre Ritual card. Activating the card, the ritual beings.

As both of his monsters are sacrificed, their powers of light and darkness are combined, opening the Gates of Chaos in order to allow the Black Lustre Soldier to emerge. With a powerful attack, the Soldier destroys the Pet Dragon and reduces Mai's life points to 750. Everyone is shocked, especially Mai whose spirit is broken by the crushing defeat of her Dragon. Unable to revive it again, her strategy has fallen to pieces and she cannot see any way to win. Laying her hand over her deck, she concedes the match to Yugi, unable to face seeing her Harpies destroyed on Yugi's next turn.

As Mai turns to leave, Yugi thanks her for teaching him to confront his fears and weaknesses. Mai admits that she also has a lot to learn, both about duelling and herself, but warns Yugi that they will meet again and next time she may not be so easy to defeat. Even so, Yugi must still defeat the winner of the next duel in order to earn the right to duel Pegasus and save his Grandpa. But will he be strong enough to defeat his opponent if he is pitted against his closest friend?
Notes
Quotes
Mai: "Tea told me about your sister Joey. How your duelling for her, so she can have that operation. Sounded like a bad soap opera to me, but then, who doesn't love a bad soap opera?

Mai- "You looked your demons in the eye and dealt with them."

Yugi:Dont insult my monster, it is an important step to my victory.
Mai:that little furball isn't an important step to anything, except for mabey choking a cat

Mai - "Look, it's totally furosious YuGi! I think it wants to attack Harpie's pet dragons single handedly! HAHAHA!

"It's the attack of the giant three-toed hairball." -Mai

Goofs and Nitpicks
  • When Mai is talking to Joey on the side lines, there are two copies of Shadow of Eyes on her card panel.
  • A shot of Yugi's card panel shows that he has the Celtic Guardian on the field when it was actually Gaia the Fierce Knight.
  • The Summoned Skull's stats are incorrectly given as 2500/2300.
  • Mai starts off referring to Harpie's Pet Dragon as if it is female, but then later refers to it as if it is male.
  • Right before Yugi draws Swords of Revealing Light, the feild shows three Harpey Ladies, but the Pet Dragon is missing.
  • When Yugi put Kuriboh on the field,look closly. It also shows Celtic Guardian, who he didnt play.
  • At the beginning of the episode, Yami Yugi says: Since my Shadow of Eyes card is on the field, I can't put my monsters in defense mode. The Shadow of Eyes card doesn't belong to Yugi, it belongs to Mai.
  • Actualy, He say's, "Since Mai's Shadow of Eye's..." He got it right
  • You are right but for some reason it says on closed caption "My shadow eyes card"
  • It doesn't show pet dragon you're right, but it only shows a harpie lady with shadow of eyes, elegant egotist, cyber shield and rose whip face up. It doesn't show three harpie lady's.
  • How can Mai's Harpie's attack points go from 1300 to 2450? I know 1300 to 1800 cyber shield and 1800 2100 from rose whip and I know theres a mistake it goes from 2100 to 2400 from rose whip again but where does the 50 come from?
  • As a reply to one of the above corrections: Never listen to closed captioning. They can't get anything right, so when it says "my shadow of eyes" or whatever it said, Yami actually said "Mai's shadow of eyes". I am not insulting anyone, it's just that the line was easily confused with something else and you have to kno what you're watching.
  • Another Closed Captioning mess up on this episode: Quote: Pegasus:Mai's spirit is broken. CCs: Pegasus:My spirit is broken.
  • Isn't it when yugi draws the Swords of realving light that it's Yami who doubts?
  • Yugi uses Monster Reborn to bring back Gia from the graveyard, but heisn't in the graveyard. When Yugi played his Monster Recovery card earlyer in the game, all the monsters from his graveyard went to his deck, including Gia. And Gia hasn't been seen since.
  • Actually, Monster Recovery pulls all the cards from the field back in the deck, not the Graveyard.
  • Actually, about the harpies thing, the card has 1950 ATK, and the Cyber Shield raised their ATK to 2450. About the Rose Whip, I don't know. It's ATK should have been 2750. Although only one Harpy had a Rose Whip.
  • When Mai plays Monster Reborn to bring back Harpie's Pet Dragon, she says it gains 300 points from all Harpy Ladies on the field, but she would only gain 600 because she had 1 Harpy Lady and Harpie Lady Sisters, not 3 Harpys
  • Actually, the only monsters that give the Harpy's Pet Dragon a power bonus are Harpy Lady and Cyber Harpy, so the Harpy Lady Sisters wouldn't give it a power bonus at all.
  • When Mai speaks to Joey on the sidelines, not only does she have two Shadow of Eyes cards, but she has two Harpy Ladies as well.
  • Analysis

    Cultural References
     

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