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Episode
GuideEpisode 169: Fighting for a Friend, Part 1 (Crash! Jounouchi vs Valon)
Tristan is chasing Joey through the city streets, yelling at him to stop, but Joey keeps running. Then, suddenly, Joey does stop when he sees an Orichalcos Soldier coming out of an alley. Tristan says maybe they should start running again, and the two take off in the other direction. They're nearly run over by a guy on a motorbike, who ignores their warnings and continues on up the street—until he crashes into the Orichalcos Soldier. Telling himself that it's just a dream, the guy jumps up and runs off, leaving his fallen bike in front of the Soldier, who steps over it and comes after Joey and Tristan.
Saying they'll never outrun this thing, Joey turns to fight, punching the Orichalcos Soldier in the gut. It cracks into pieces and disappears, like a holographic Duel Monster in a duel. Tristan exclaims that Joey beat him! But Joey thinks someone else did—a guy on a motorcycle has come up behind the Soldier, his hand glowing with energy.
Joey recognizes this new motorcyclist as Valon, the one who took Mai. Valon says Joey's right, and turns his bike and rides away. (Japanese Valon tells Jounouchi to follow him.) Joey takes off after him, while Tristan calls to Joey to come back. Joey stops and picks up the previous guy's motorcycle, still lying where he left it, jumps on it and drives off after Valon. (Japanese Jounouchi thinks he'll borrow the bike.) Tristan's left behind, thinking Joey's nuts—he's riding right into a trap.
Joey follows a laughing Valon through the streets, dodging through alleys and up stairways, landing on the awning of a hot dog stand. (The words "Tacos" and "Hot Dog" are removed from the sign in the US version.)
Joey nearly catches up, then Valon speeds off again, jumping a canal. Joey's right behind him, his bike just catching the edge of the far side of the canal. He makes it onto the street, asking Valon if that's it. So he wants a little more, Valon says, and takes off again. Groaning in frustration, Joey follows. (Japanese Jounouchi asks, how's that? Valon tells him not to be too excited, then drives off.)
Meanwhile, Rebecca, Duke, and Mokuba wait for Kaiba and Yami at the Hawkins' trailer. Mokuba's the first to spot them walking back, and calls out to them happily, telling them they were worried about them for a second. Kaiba says they're fine, adding that now that they know who they're after, it's time to crash their party. Rebecca says they'd better act fast, because Joey ran off to find these Paradias guys on his own. Yami worries that they'd better get there before Joey does, but Kaiba says Joey'd better not screw this up for him.
Just then, Téa arrives back at the trailer to tell everyone they've got bigger problems—those same monsters they saw out in the desert are roaming the city. Duke suggests they all jump in his car and go, when the Professor comes out of the trailer, saying that things are even worse than they could imagine. According to the evening news, thousands of people around the world are suddenly collapsing in the streets. It's those monsters, Téa says, and Rebecca adds that they must be using the power of the Orichalcos to capture people's souls. The Professor agrees. Téa adds that every police officer in town is under their spell, too.
All right, Yami says, they have to battle these monsters on their own, and find their way to Dartz.
In his island temple, Dartz kneels before the altar, telling his Soldiers to continue to collect the souls of man and beast, until they have amassed enough power to rebuild Atlantis.
Tristan runs through the streets, calling for Joey. He hears a motorcycle drive up behind him and thinks it's Joey, but instead, it's Mai, who's also looking for Joey. She demands to know where he is, and Tristan tells her that one of her little pals forced Joey into a game of cat and mouse, and now he's gone. It's all her fault, Tristan says. She's the one who got Joey into this mess in the first place. Mai, realizing it's Valon Joey's chasing, tells Tristan to get out of her way and drives off, leaving Tristan yelling at her to stop—she's the last thing Joey needs.
Meanwhile, Valon's led Joey to an empty lot, where he finally stops his bike and says let's get down to business. Joey says he wants Mai back, but Valon says Mai has a mind of her own. She did, Joey says, before Valon's bunch brainwashed her. Valon denies that Mai was brainwashed—he insists she joined them of her own free will, because she was sick of taking a backseat while Joey got all the fame. Then Valon stepped in and changed all that. Joey says Valon messed with her head. She was one of his best friends, but the last time he saw her, she was saying things Mai never would have said. (Japanese Valon says this place will do. Jounouchi asks him where Mai is, and Valon wonders why he asks—Mai isn't his friend any more. Jounouchi tells him he's wrong, and he'll get Mai back. Valon says Jounouchi doesn't understand the pain Mai is suffering, and why she wants to defeat him. Valon says he's the only one who can understand Mai. Jounouchi says Mai is his friend. Valon never fought alongside with them.)
Joey remembers his interrupted duel with Mai, when she told him that she was sick of her life, so she chose to change it. He had his little group, she said, and she wasn't part of it.
Valon tells Joey he led him there to get rid of him for good. Mai can't be happy with Joey around. He's a constant reminder of what Mai's life used to be, and she wants to forget all that. To himself, Valon adds that he knows that deep down, Mai still loves Joey, and he can't have that. He challenges Joey to a duel, and activates his Duel Disk.
Joey always accepts a challenge, he says, especially when he's fighting for a friend.
The duel begins. Joey goes first, summoning Alligator Sword (1500 ATK), thinking that he has to be careful—he doesn't know anything about this guy's dueling style.
Valon tells Joey it was a nice opening move—but his is better. He summons Psychic Armor Head (0 ATK). Joey asks what that does, and Valon says he's about to find out. But when Joey sees that it has zero attack points, he wonders if he's imagining things.
Valon says Joey's right—Psychic Armor Head doesn't have a single attack point. But when he adds it together with few other cards, it becomes his very own suit of armor. He plays the magic card, Armor Gravitation, then summons Trap Buster Armor (0 ATK), Big Bad Blow (0 ATK), Over Boost (0 ATK), and Active Guard (0 ATK). His magic card causes all the pieces of armor to form into a suit of armor around Valon. Through the visor of his Psychic Armor Head, Valon can now see readouts of Joey's life points and monster stats. Each piece of his armor may have zero attack points, Valon says, but together they form an unstoppable force. (Japanese Valon explains that Armored Gravitation allows him to summon any Armor monsters lower than level 4.)
Dartz in his temple tells the Leviathan to be patient. His Orichalcos Soldiers are gathering the energy necessary to fuel his rebirth. Then, they'll cleanse the earth of its impurities and rebuild paradise! (Japanese Dartz says that it begins. No matter whether Valon or Jounouchi fails, the loser's soul will be his, for the revival of his gods.)
The gang is on the move in Professor Hawkins' trailer. Rebecca, working on her laptop, says they're less than a mile from Paradias headquarters. Mokuba tells Kaiba they'll have their company back in no time. But Kaiba isn't so sure. They're dealing with an extremely powerful organization, and it's going to take everything they have to bring them down. (Japanese Mokuba says that soon they'll get into the Paradias organization. Kaiba says it's too quiet. From their past experience, Doma won't just stand there and let them get too close to them.)
Tristan sits down on the sidewalk, back against a lamp post, admitting he's officially lost. He'll never find Joey now. Then he looks up, and sees an Orichalcos Soldier looming over him. He jumps up, knocking over the lamp post and tripping on it, falling to the ground in front of the Soldier. Just then, a truck pulls up—it's Duke, who slams on the brakes to avoid hitting Tristan, and knocking over everyone inside the trailer. They all jump out to see what's going on, and Duke points out Tristan in the street, about to be attacked by the Orichalcos Soldier. Tristan gets ready to put up a brave fight, but before the Soldier can attack him, Yami sends his Celtic Guardian to destroy it.
The gang all rush to Tristan's side. He thanks Yugi for the help, saying he could have taken it himself. But Yami says he's afraid what would have been taken was Tristan's soul. (Japanese Honda asks what's going on, and Yami explains that the soldiers who fought against Atlantis have been revived.) Téa asks where Joey is, and Tristan explains that he hopped on some guy's motorcycle to take off after one of Dartz's flunkies. Duke and Rebecca ask if it was Valon—explaining that not only does he have a thing against Joey, he's got a deck full of monsters Rebecca's never seen before. Yami says they have to find Joey before it's too late.
But Kaiba activates his Duel Disk, saying they've got bigger problems. They're surrounded by Orichalcos Soldiers, coming out of every doorway and alley.
Back at the duel, Joey thinks to himself that this guy just summoned five monsters all at once, and now he's wearing them like some space-age suit of armor! Valon says that not only does his suit defend him, it packs a pretty mean offense, too. Joey says it's a pretty lame offense—his suit doesn't have a single attack point.
Valon says they'll see. He'll start with the right arm of his armor, a piece called Big Bang Blow. Then he calculates the probability of success against Joey's monster: ninety-nine percent. He attacks, saying he doesn't need attack points. Big Bang Blow automatically destroys every monster on the field. Alligator Sword is destroyed, and Valon's Active Guard absorbs the attack damage, while Joey loses 1500 life points. Valon explains that when Big Bang Blow destroys monsters, the total of their attack points are deducted from each player's life points. But Valon's Active Guard absorbs his damage, so he stays safe. Valon's turn ends, and his suit of armor dissipates. But he has plenty more surprises in store for Joey.
Joey says that's the sloppiest finish he ever saw—Valon just ended his turn with no cards on the field to protect himself. But Valon says he doesn't need to hide behind anything. He wins all his duels by facing his enemies head on. That's a lesson he learned the hard way, a long time ago.
In flashback, Valon's youth as a juvenile delinquent is shown. (Cut from the US version is a long sequence, beginning with young Valon fighting in a churchyard. A nun tells him to stop. Then, Valon and the nun sit before the church altar, while she cleans up his cuts and asks him why he always gets into fights.)
(A gang of toughs come into the church, saying their boss has bought it and the nun must leave. The nun protests, asking what about all the children, but the toughs knock her down. Valon starts to defend her, but she grabs his arm and shakes her head.)
(Later, young Valon runs up the street to stand before the church, which is burning down. He watches in horror as the stained glass window breaks. He hears someone say it's just an old church, and then laugh, and he turns to see the toughs who threw him and the nun out of the church. The leader of the toughs says that now they don't have to tear it down.)
(Next, sirens are heard, as young Valon, gasping and holding a length of pipe, stands in the alley amid the bodies of the four toughs. The outside of a jail is shown in the rain.)
Young Valon is fighting with the other inmates of his detention center. (Cut from the US version is this scene of Valon in solitary confinement in a straitjacket after the fight, when the guards come to get him.)
Afterwards, he's brought to see the head of his detention center. (Cut from the US version is this shot of Valon, still in a straitjacket, walking into the man's office.)
He's been in and out of twelve detention centers, the man tells him. (Cut from the US version is this pan of the man facing Valon across his desk.)
But his is different. (Also cut is this shot of the outside of the prison in the rain.)
Taking a deck of Duel Monsters cards from his desk drawer, the man says they have more productive ways of dealing with troubled boys. He offers the deck to Valon, telling him to try channeling his energy into these cards, instead of his fists. (And also cut is this shot of the guards untying Valon's straitjacket, and this close-up of the warden.)
Present-day Valon adds that the man had friends in high places. (The Japanese warden tells Valon that he'll be there for a long, long time. But there's another way to get out of there. He shows Valon the deck, telling him to fight with these. One survivor will be released, but those who are defeated will be damned. It's up to him. Valon takes the deck.)
Young Valon is on an island dueling. He plays the Seal of Orichalcos. Later, a ship arrives at the island, and representatives of the detention center's silent partner check on his dueling skills. Young Valon flings before them a whole stack of Seal of Orichalcos cards, each with a soul trapped in it. They're astonished that he beat all these men. (There's no dialog in the Japanese version. It's apparent that Valon and the other duelists have been stranded on this island and left to duel until there's only one left standing. The men on the boat have come to collect the survivor.)
Then Dartz himself confronts young Valon, telling him his talents are being wasted on this secluded island, and asking Valon to come with him. All he has to do is work for Dartz's company. Young Valon eagerly agrees. (Japanese Dartz tells Valon he sees his power. As promised, Valon will be released. But does he want to fight stronger battles? Valon says it's interesting. He wants to be stronger. Dartz tells him he's accepted as a member of Doma. Valon says one day he might defeat Dartz.)
Present-day Valon tells Joey that ever since Dartz rescued him from that dump, he's been working for him. But he duels on his own terms, just like he always has. And today, he's not fighting for Dartz—he's fighting for himself. (Japanese Valon tells Jounouchi that he lost what he valued most a long time ago. Rafael, Amelda, and he are different from Jounouchi. Valon says he doesn't have to shoulder anything. He fights for victory. He has to win—this is his life.)
Joey thinks this selfish punk doesn't know the first thing about Duel Monsters. This game is about way more than winning for yourself. It's about fighting for the people you care about. (Japanese Jounouchi thinks he isn't stupid. Once, he might have agreed with Valon. Cut from the US version is a flashback of Jounouchi getting into a fight, while Jounouchi thinks that he used to like to fight all the time.)
(Winning was the only thing that meant anything to him. But now he knows that's not the real way. After he met Yugi and fought many duelists, although he experienced many unpleasant things, he's learned a lot.) Telling Mai to hang in there, he says it's time to teach Valon a lesson, Joey Wheeler style. (Jounouchi tells Valon that duels aren't a tool to defeat an opponent. He won't be defeated by someone like Valon.)
Valon says he was just getting warmed up. Just wait till Joey sees what his Deck of Armor can really do! (Japanese Valon says, Interesting. If Jounouchi can defeat him, try it!)
To Be Continued
