It’s time for the final battle of the Dark Signers Arc, and to nobody’s surprise, Godwin is the final boss of the event.
The guy basically decided he needed to become a God in order to change destiny, and sought to have control of both Gods in his body, yes including the evil one. He thought that the best way to change destiny was to become a God, destroy the world, and then create it from scratch again. Sure buddy, that’ll work out splendidly!
Then there was the backstory of what had actually happened to Rudger, and it turned out to be pretty messed up. His body ended up being chosen to serve as a “battleground” for the fight between the Dark Signers and The Crimson Dragon’s Signer. So it’s no wonder he got all twisted and messed up, unfortunately the Dark Signer was winning the internal battle, and unleash the catastrophe of Zero Reverse. He had chopped of his arm that possessed the mark of the Crimson Dragon, and entrusted it to Rex (Godwin) in hopes that they could find a way to defy their destiny and break the cycle. Anyhow, turns out the whole chopping off his arm thing didn’t really work out anyways because there was one problem: Godwin had other plans. When he went to visit him, he purposely lost to him in a duel, revealing he had this belief in his head that because his brother wouldn’t be able to defeat Yusei, the only way to change destiny is to become a God himself, and that’s how we got this crazy arrangement with Godwin possessing both the mark of the Dark Signer and Crimson Dragon.
In the end they defeated Godwin who is now dead with his brother, and the other Dark Signers are all revived and given a second chance at life. Misty has gone off to Paris, Bommer and Kiryu are travelling as well and are not expected to be back in a while, and Carly is back to the usual except has no memories of what transpired after she became a Dark Signer… Wait does that mean she doesn’t remember being killed? I can’t remember if that was ever addressed… Well I guess we’ll find out. ANYWAYS, still a bummer that the confession has been forgotten.
That said, it was nice to see everyone returning to the more peaceful days and having the chance to start anew. The season ends with Jack, Crow and Yusei all gazing at the newly built highway connecting Satellite and Neo Domino once more. With Satellite no longer cut off, it now offers opportunities and growth, marking it a big turning point for its citizens who had been abandoned for so long. You can really see how there was a huge weight lifted off of Yusei’s shoulders as he looks over at the newly built bridges after everything he has gone through.
So how well did this final battle hold up after-all these years? Hmmm I’m not going to lie this final fight didn’t quite age as well as I hoped it to, but then again, looking back it appears I had also thought the battle was somewhat lacklustre. I think a large part of it has to do with the rather laughable timing of kicking off the backstories with the characters going, ‘MY TURN– NOW HERE’S MY BACKSTORY!’ I think… How should I put it… It kind of broke the immersion of the battle? Like, okay serious stuff going on, the King of the Underworld is APPROACHING, but first lets talk about our past! That isn’t to say it’s not important, since it is important for our heroes to understand the grand motive behind the antagonist’s behaviour, and how they can put an end to it.
The other part, which sort of leaves a bad taste in the mouth is the fact Crow of course, has a larger role in this fight than the other two Crimson Signers (Rua/Ruka and Aki). Sure they have no D-Wheel of their own to participate, but there could have been other ways to get them more involved apart from playing as supports in the background. Nonetheless, it was set up this way so that it’d explain why Crow ends up inheriting the Dragon’s Tail from Yusei, and Yusei inherits the Head of the Dragon from Rudger’s arm. RIP Rua, the kid did his part in the Fortune Cup and against Demak, and the Crimson Dragon didn’t acknowledge him… That’s rough buddy.
Ultimately the main purpose of Crow’s involvement in this fight was really to tie together the unresolved mystery of the legendary D-Wheeler who flew off Daedalus Bridge (being Godwin). After-all, the was the one who shared with us the story in the first place, and why it was the legend gives them hope and inspiration to pursue their dreams by changing the status quo.
Apart from that, I still feel like the Dark Signer Arc was a fantastic season. There was a lot of tense moments, and alot of injuries and deaths too (though not permanent). I felt like this arc did a fantastic job enabling growth and fleshing out the backstory of Yusei’s, Jack’s and Aki’s characters. We learned how Yusei had always been burdened by the tragedy and loss that followed the Zero Reverse due to knowing his father had previously been among the lead Researchers of the Momentum project. It was a big deal for him to finally spill all the pain and guilt that he had been carrying in his heart all along. Being able to even have a short moment of meeting with his father’s spirit when the dead tried to drag him down with them was able to lift a lot of weight off his shoulders. However that wasn’t the only emotional development Yusei had to face. He also had to confront the past of Team Satisfaction, and clear the misunderstanding that formed between him and Kiryu. He was just trying to save Kiryu, and stop him from doing something terribly stupid, and yet Kiryu thought he had betrayed him.
Speaking of Team Satisfaction, I think this was actually my favourite backstory of the arc. It gave us a chance to see how Yusei, Jack and even Crow were when they were in the phase of being a part of a gang as a source of entertainment and something to do. It also gave us a chance to to see how this contributed to the skills Yusei has today, such as his ability to fight, but most importantly why he came to be so focused on protecting and cherishing bonds. At the time, Yusei had felt like he failed Kiryu by leaving him at the worst possible time in hopes that would be enough to stop him.
As for Jack, he is still obnoxious as always, but seeing how he behaved during Team Satisfaction really puts into perspective of Jack’s point about how he never really cared to be part of the group, but somehow he can’t really escape it. Carly became a rare exception to this rule however, as destiny had it, she was there for him when he was trying to figure out what to do with himself after losing his title as King. As result she became someone he came to love, and for the first time, we saw Jack putting someone’s interest before himself. He was absolutely distressed when he had found Carly’s glasses, and was determined to save her when he discovered she had become a Dark Signer. In the end, she had saved him when he had recklessly made up his mind that they’d go down together. And we got to see Jack reiterate his love for her in the battle against Godwin, enforcing that it’s because of her that he is still fighting (which is kind of funny when you think about how he went on about how he doesn’t care about Gods and Bonds earlier haha).
And finally Aki. She has come a long way from the Fortune Cup, starting with taking the leap of faith to trust Yusei, and was able to reconcile with her family. This was without the biggest step forward when it comes to healing her scars. After-all, it was her parents who responsible for referring to her as a monster and creating the rift between them by shunning her away to a Duel Academy where she only became even more isolated by her peers. However like Yusei, she too had yet a second battle she had to face, and that was ultimately needing to escape Divine’s influence. Unfortunately Misty was unable to kill him the first time, so the bastard came back and unleashed Aki’s power and turned her into a puppet he had always intended to use her as. Luckily Misty was able to kill him off the second time she caught him once Yusei had exposed him for murdering her brother. Still it’s a shame she wasn’t able to have a larger role in this final fight against Godwin.
Of course Rua and Ruka also had their shining moments. The best part was of course seeing them fight together against Demak, which was really wholesome. As for Crow, well… I mean, he’s okay I guess. He had some good moments this arc too, with how much he cares for the children and stuff, but the understandably, the way he was shoehorned into the fights despite not being a signer himself still leaves me feeling a bit iffy about it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the dude, he’s a good guy and character but… you get what I mean? Well either way, he got the mark now so he’s officially part of the Crimson Dragon Squad.
Anyways with that it’s a wrap for Season 2! Yay! Two seasons down, three to go!
As mentioned in the previous entry, as of Season 3, I’m looking to have it covered in different format (Overall Season Review as opposed to Episodic Batches as I have been doing as of the late, though that may be subject to change if I am not satisfied with how it’s turning out) mainly because Season 3 has a lot of uneventful filler or side-character focused episodes in between the build-up to the next arc. For that reason, this coverage will be on-hold until further notice. I need a lot time to try and write up the overall posts dedicated to each Season 3 and Season 4. As life has gotten much busier as of the late I don’t know how long that will take me, but I do have an idea of how I want to go about it in hopes to speed up the process. In the last post I had put down a hopeful estimate of when I’d be able to release Season 3 and Season 4 coverage between Summer 2023 – Fall 2023, but given the increase in my workload as of last week, I’d reckon it might end up having to be finished in early 2024 after-all (not what I hoped or, but it may be inevitable). Anyways that’s the situation at the moment, but I’ll be sure to leave an update notice in the Seasonal Previews when the posts are ready to be released.
Next Entry Release: TBA – Estimating between Summer 2023 – Winter 2024
