Episode 29: Driven to Desperation! Temptation's Shadow

Morning arrives, and Yugi wonders if he's doing the right thing deciding to duel again. But he has no choice, if he's going to save his Grandpa. Still, he's not sure he can trust the ancient spirit of the Puzzle. (In the Japanese, Yugi just thinks that the finals have at last arrived.)

Okay, I'm only going to say this once. This whole thing about Yugi being afraid of the spirit of the Puzzle, and afraid to duel again? Not part of the Japanese episode. He did express some fear of what Yami almost did to Kaiba back when it happened, but by now, in the Japanese, he's over it.

Joey, Tristan, Téa, and Bakura come to Yugi's room to accompany him to the tournament. Yami Yugi appears, throws his coat over his shoulders, and they head off to the dueling arena. Tristan, Téa, and Bakura go up to the balcony to watch the finals, while the Yugi and Joey go on to the arena floor.

Inside the anteroom, they find Mai and Bandit Keith waiting. Bandit Keith taunts Joey, calling him "Dweeb" and telling him he'll kick his butt, but Joey says at least he didn't have to steal the Star Chips to qualify. Bandit Keith just chuckles to himself, knowing he has Joey's entry card.

The doors to the arena open, and the finalists enter. Pegasus welcomes the duelists, telling them only one of them will win the three million dollar prize. Joey thinks it has to be him, so he can pay for his sister's operation. Then Pegasus goes on to say that only one of them will win the right to challenge him in a duel. If the challenger defeats him, he'll be granted one request—anything that person wants. And, the winner will be declared the King of Duelists. (Japanese Pegasus doesn't mention anything about a request being granted, only that the winner will be given the title King of Duelists.)

Yugi vows to find a way to defeat Pegasus and save his Grandpa, and Mokuba and Seto Kaiba.

The first duel is announced: Mai Valentine versus Yugi Mutou. The duelists take their places, Yugi determined to keep the spirit of the Puzzle under control. He can't risk letting the spirit hurt Mai. (In the Japanese, he's thinking that winning this duel is the springboard for challenging Pegasus.)

The gang on the balcony is surprised when Joey shows up to join them—he wants to get a bird's-eye view of the action. He shouts his encouragement to Yugi.

Meanwhile, Mai reflects that Yugi and the others taught her that duelists could be opponents on the field, but friends outside the arena. If he hadn't loaned her his Star Chips, she'd never have made it to the finals. She'll give him an honorable duel, but a tough one. (Japanese Mai sees that Yugi is only thinking of dueling Pegasus, and not taking her seriously.)

Mai goes first, playing Harpie Lady in attack mode, and another card face down. Yugi thinks he'd better finish this fast, summons Gaia the Fierce Knight, and attacks Harpie Lady. But Mai activates her trap card, Mirror Wall, which reduces Gaia's attack power by half, and stops its attack.

Mai plays the magic card Cyber Shield, powering up her Harpie Lady, which now has enough power to destroy Gaia the Fierce Knight. Mai taunts Yugi, telling him she's surprised he fell for that. It's almost as if he's holding back....

Yugi draws Summoned Skull, which he summons after setting one card face down. He attacks—not realizing that Mai's Mirror Wall is still in place, cutting Summoned Skull's attack in half. Mirror Wall is a permanent trap card. (The real card incurs a cost of 2000 life points per turn in order to keep it on the field, making it an expensive card to use.) Mai continues to ride Yugi, telling him he's going to have to bring his game up a few notches to keep her interested, and the gang on the balcony agrees—Yugi's game is off. What's with him?

Inside Yugi, the spirit asks Yugi to let him help, but Yugi says he can't take that risk. (Not in the Japanese version.)

Mai's still going on about Yugi's heart not being in the game. She thinks he's still shell-shocked about losing to Kaiba, and tells him to get over it. She wants to fight a worthy opponent. (Japanese Mai tells Yugi he's only looking at Pegasus, not paying attention to her. "You think you've already won, before you've even fought the duel.") Yugi tells her she doesn't understand—but Pegasus does. He senses that Yugi's afraid to tap into the power of the Puzzle. (Japanese Pegasus knows that Mai's right, and Yugi's not concentrating on his duel with Mai.)

Tristan and Joey think Mai should can it already and just duel, but Téa thinks Mai's actually trying to help Yugi by snapping him out of his funk. Yugi insists he's not going to lose, and the duel continues.

Mai now plays Harpie's Feather Duster to destroy Yugi's covered trap card, which turns out to be the Spellbinding Circle.

This time, since Spellbinding Circle isn't shown completely, they didn't bother to redesign the whole card, just blocked out some of the lines, so you can see the hexagram outline.

Yugi switches Summoned Skull to defense mode, and also plays Feral Imp in defense. (In the Japanese, he plays it face down, and doesn't say what it is.)

Mai plays another equipment magic card, Rose Whip, to power up her Harpie Lady even more. Now its attack is 2100 points, and it easily destroys the Feral Imp.

More shouts of encouragement from the balcony, more Mai taunting, more Yugi worrying.

Mai's next move is to summon Harpie's Pet Dragon. Its attack of 2000 is raised to 2300 with Harpie Lady on the field. It easily destroys Yugi's Summoned Skull (actually, an un-powered Harpie Lady could easily destroy Summoned Skull in defense mode—its defense is only 1200 points).

Now Mai reminds Yugi of a question Joey once asked her—why does she duel? She asks the question of Yugi: why is he dueling? He says he's fighting for his Grandfather, and Joey adds that Yugi's answer is a lot better than Mai's was! He and Yugi are both dueling for people they care about. But Mai suggests that their motives aren't entirely unselfish. Joey wants to know if she thinks they should be more like her—"I'm gorgeous, I'm a great duelist." Mai says she's trying to be serious, but Joey says she's only trying to mess with Yugi's head, and gets so excited he falls off the balcony, caught just in time by Téa and Tristan, who haul him back up.

(In the Japanese, this whole scene goes differently. The question Jounouchi asked Mai, which she now puts to Yugi, is the old standby, "What is it that can be seen, but not seen?" Yugi doesn't have an answer, and Jounouchi jumps in to ask Mai if she knows the answer. She says her answer is in the way she's dueling, and Jounouchi thinks she's a talking about the heat—"It's hot, I'm burning up!" She tells him he's wrong, and he's furious—it was his and Yugi's question to begin with! Then he falls off the balcony. Mai thinks that Yugi won't be able to find the answer.)

Yugi draws the Dark Magician. But he can't attack while the Mirror Wall is still in play. So he plays a trap card face down, and sets the Dark Magician in defense, hoping to lure Mai to attack. He's got Mirror Force waiting to destroy all her monsters on the field as soon as she attacks.

Then Mai plays Shadow of Eyes (she calls it an accessory card, whatever the heck that is, but it's really a trap card, which she shouldn't be able to play without setting it on the field for a turn first. In the Japanese, it's a magic card).

It forces Dark Magician into attack mode. Dark Magician attacks Harpie Lady, running into her Mirror Wall and losing half its attack points. (The real Shadow of Eyes does switch the opponent's monsters into attack position, but it can't make them attack.) Then she plays another Harpie's Feather Duster to destroy Yugi's trap card. (The real Harpie's Feather Duster is a restricted card. Only one per deck is allowed. There are other cards that can destroy a magic or trap card on the field, though.) Harpie's Pet Dragon destroys the Dark Magician. Yugi's life points are reduced to 300, while Mai still has her original 2000.

Yugi's lost his best card, and his life points are dwindling. Yami again pleads with Yugi to let him help. What can Yugi do?

To Be Continued