Episode 16: Fierce Battle! Blue Eyes vs. Red Eyes

Pegasus speaks to his co-conspirators, Kaiba Corporation's Big 5, on the computer screen in his dining room. They're concerned about Kaiba's escape, and the possibility that he might rescue Mokuba and upset their plans. Pegasus reassures them that he has everything under control. He has his own plans for Seto Kaiba.

Meanwhile, Kaiba is piloting a helicopter, and remembering his loss to Yugi. He wonders whether Yugi might have been right about why he lost, but he refuses to consider changing his philosophy of dueling. He can't second-guess himself now, when he has to save Mokuba. (Japanese Kaiba is thinking that he wants to duel Yugi again, but first he has to rescue his little brother and save his company.) He vows to defeat Pegasus and the Big 5 and make them regret ever crossing him.

The gang have mostly gone back to sleep. Téa's in a tent (Mai's? but she's gone off on her own), while Joey and Tristan snore outside. Yugi's talking to Bakura about his Millennium Ring, which is glowing, and one of its little pointy things is pointing towards Pegasus's castle. Bakura says his Ring did this once before, on the first day he met Yugi, when it pointed towards Yugi's Millennium Puzzle. They deduce that it's now pointing towards Pegasus's Millennium Eye.

Bakura goes to sleep, but Yugi's still awake, thinking about the Millennium Items, and how they seem to be involved in the tournament. He reflects that ever since he solved the Puzzle, playing Duel Monsters has never been the same. When he duels, he feels the courageous Spirit of the Puzzle inside him. (Japanese Yugi refers to the Spirit of the Puzzle as mou hitori no boku—"another me". He doesn't make any specific reference to dueling. In fact, in the Japanese manga version, Yugi doesn't begin to play Duel Monsters until sometime after solving the Puzzle.)

Yugi's reverie is interrupted by the sound of a helicopter, and soon the whole gang is awake, as the helicopter lands right next to them. They're all startled to see Kaiba step out, briefcase in hand.

Yugi runs up to greet him, and returns Kaiba's deck to him, which he'd retrieved after dueling the fake Ghost Kaiba. Kaiba takes it with grudging thanks and starts to walk away. Yugi suggests that Kaiba stick with them, since they're all headed to Pegasus's castle. Kaiba's disdainful of the tournament; all he wants to do is save Mokuba. Once again, he turns to go. (Japanese Yugi asks Kaiba if he's learned to understand the heart of the cards. Kaiba says that he can't answer that now; he has to go and defeat Pegasus. Japanese Kaiba is much less snotty at this point than US Kaiba. He doesn't bother insulting anybody, he just isn't interested in anything but his own plans.)

Joey's pretty steamed by Kaiba's snotty attitude. He runs after him, grabbing him by the lapels, and telling him if he wants a piece of Pegasus, he'll have to get in line. But Kaiba just grabs Joey's wrist and tosses him to the ground.

Yugi runs to Joey to see if he's all right. Joey says he's fine, but now he's really mad. He challenges Kaiba to a duel, but Kaiba says Joey ought to challenge someone he can beat, like a monkey, and he starts to walk away again. (Japanese Kaiba's not doing the monkey insults, but he does say that if Jounouchi's a competitor in this tournament, the level of play must be pretty low.) Joey starts to taunt Kaiba about his loss to Yugi, accusing him of being a has-been who's afraid to duel. (In the Japanese, Jounouchi says he's a better player now, and Yugi tells Kaiba that Jounouchi beat Kujaku Mai and Dinosaur Ryuzaki.)

That finally gets to Kaiba. He says he'll duel Joey, only if Joey will agree to use his new holographic dueling system. (Japanese Kaiba just wants to use Jounouchi to test his system out. He even reassures Yugi that he's not interested in Jounouchi's Star Chips.) He opens his briefcase and tosses the duel disk to Joey, explaining how to use it.

Kaiba plays first, tossing out his duel disk, over which a huge hologram of his Battle Ox (Minotaur) appears. Everyone's pretty impressed by its realism. Joey plays Armored Lizard, but it's destroyed by Kaiba's Battle Ox. A close-up of Armored Lizard's neck being chopped is cut from the US episode. Because violence against holographic monsters is bad?

Next Joey plays Flame Swordsman, but the Battle Ox is resistant to fire attacks and Flame Swordsman, too, is destroyed. Kaiba does a little taunting, then fuses Mystic Horseman with his Battle Ox to create Rabid Horseman. (Hey! Kaiba's wearing Dueling Gloves in this frame! Continuity error! Also note the redesign of the Polymerization card.)

Joey attacks with Swamp Battleguard, Axe Raider, Battle Steer, Garoozis, Smashing Rock, and Rude Kaiser in rapid succession, all of which fall to the Rabid Horsman, reducing Joey's Life Points to 500. Joey falls to his knees, exhausted from all the attacks, while Kaiba sneers, calling him a whimpering dog. (Okay, Japanese Kaiba doesn't say anything like this. But he does have a chuckle at Jounouchi's expense, and asks him if he's finished now.) Téa, Bakura, and Tristan all urge him to get up and fight, and Joey gets back on his feet, saying no one calls him a whimpering dog! He summons his best monster—the Red Eyes Black Dragon! It crushes Kaiba's Rabid Horseman.

Kaiba's not shaken by the loss of a few points. He's got his own best monster ready to summon—the Blue Eyes White Dragon! Joey's Red Eyes is toast, and Joey loses the duel.

Joey falls to his knees again, and this time he's not getting up. Kaiba's merciless, calling Joey a snivelling, defeated dog, and saying this is exactly how he intends to leave Pegasus. (Okay, now Japanese Kaiba starts with the "defeated dog" comments.) Yugi and Téa run to Joey, protesting Kaiba's meanness, and defending their friend. Joey tells Yugi to lay off, but Kaiba's not through yet. "Do you think Pegasus would be any more merciful to you than I was?" He tells Yugi the "heart of the cards" might work for him, but he has to duel his own way, because Pegasus is the most powerful duelist there is.

Kaiba tells Yugi about the Intercontinental Tournament in New York City. Kaiba was there as Pegasus's guest, and he watched Pegasus duel the finalist, Bandit Keith. Pegasus wrote something on a piece of paper, Kaiba says, then called over a little kid from the crowd, telling him to finish the duel for him according to the instructions he'd written down. The kid won the duel on his next turn, and Bandit Keith was horrified to learn that Pegasus had written down exactly which card he was about to play. Kaiba hopes his Duel Disks will give him the advantage he needs to beat Pegasus. (Okay, I don't get this. Bandit Keith plays Garnecia Elefantis, a monster with an attack of 2400 points. The kid plays some sort of elephant monster with an attack of 1850. Yet he wins. Huh?) And, hey, the duel mat in the Japanese ep says "Duel Field" in English—why did they think they had to digitize that out?

Yugi is reminded of his own duel with Pegasus, and how Pegasus always knew exactly which cards Yugi was going to play. But he doesn't see how that gives Kaiba the right to treat Joey so badly. Kaiba says this is war, and Joey was a casualty. (Japanese Yugi doesn't go on harping on how mean Kaiba was to Jounouchi. He suddenly realizes Kaiba's purpose in trying out the Duel Disks on Jounouchi, and understands Kaiba's hope that the Duel Disks will be immune to whatever tricks Pegasus will try to play.)

Still, Yugi tells Kaiba he hopes he rescues his little brother, and Kaiba wishes Yugi success, too. In the Japanese, Yami pops up and tells Kaiba that he's going to beat Pegasus. Kaiba says whoever gets to Pegasus first will beat him. For some reason, Yami's appearance is edited out of the US version, and replaced with previous frames of little Yugi.

Kaiba heads off into the woods towards Pegasus's castle