Yu-Gi-Oh! - Episode 182

Yu-Gi-Oh! - Episode 182

Names
Series
Series	Yu-Gi-Oh!
Number	182
Season	4
Chronology
Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes (season 4)
Previous	"A Duel with Dartz - Part 5"
Next	"Rise of the Great Beast - Part 1"

Notes

In this Episode, Yami exploits the special abilities of his "Legendary Knight Hermos" and "Legendary Knight Critias" to create an attack of infinite power in order to defeat Dartz's "Divine Serpent". These steps are outlined in detail in the Featured Duel section below.

However, how exactly the steps are achieved isn't fully covered in the anime (neither in the original Japanese or English dub), making its explanation here a bit of a game-rules nightmare. What follows is an attempt to provide a reasonable explanation and possible alternatives for each step.

• STEP 1)
  • In the original Japanese anime, Yami declares (in this episode, and episode 181) that "Legendary Knight Critias" absorbs a Trap's power. This is different than simply being able to activate the Trap Card from the Graveyard. In the Yu-Gi-Oh! series, monsters and Spell Cards/Trap Cards are often shown to work in conjunction for visual & dramatic effect, but in this particular case the absorption of "Attack Guidance Barrier" instills Critias with new abilities, different than the trap's original text (in particular it allows it to ignore the activation conditions of the Trap, namely that the attack can be only be redirected to a Defense Position monster).
  • On a sidenote, the evidence that Yami plays his own "Attack Guidance Barrier" (from his Hand) instead of using "Legendary Knight Critias'" first special ability and activate Seto's "Attack Guidance Barrier" (from Seto's Graveyard), is exemplified by the fact Yami draws a card at the beginning of his turn and then plays it from his hand. That card is "Attack Guidance Barrier".

• STEP 2)
  • The third special ability of "Legendary Knight Hermos" isn't entirely clear: must monsters be removed from the Graveyard EACH TIME the effect is activated? If so, Yami's attack could have never reached the infinity loop, failing the second time Critias redirected the attack back at Hermos. For this reason, "Legendary Knight Hermos's" third special ability must allow it to remove the monsters only ONCE, and then make him able to triple the attack each time it bounces back to him.

• STEP 3)
  • It is unclear which Knight is redirecting the attack during this step. It could either be "Legendary Knight Critias" (thanks to having absorbed "Attack Guidance Barrier"), or "Legendary Knight Hermos" (activating its first special ability). In the former case, Critias's ability to 'absorb' a Trap would make him able to use that Trap's effect until the End Phase as well, just like Hermos is able to use its third special ability in such a way.

• STEP 4) & ALL STEPS
  • In the real game of Duel Monsters, an "Attack" is what a player declares with a face-up Attack Position monster. It is not a numerical value. Conversely, the term ATK refers to the points determining a Monster Card's "strength" when it battles another monster. It thus does not make sense to be speaking of "tripled attack" or "attack increased to infinity". The only thing that can triple or increase to infinity are a monster's ATK points. In the case of this episode however, it would be difficult to identify whose ATK points increase to infinity (Hermos's or Critias's), and how exactly the infinity loop is broken to allow for the Summon of "Knight of Destiny".

Featured Duel: Seto Kaiba + Yami Yugi vs. Dartz - Part 6

Duel continues from previous episode.

Dartz's Turn

• Thanks to the effect of "Impact Revive" Dartz is repeating his Battle Phase, and has just used his "Divine Serpent" to attack Yami's "Dark Magician Girl".
  • Yami activates "Legendary Knight Hermos'" first special ability: he redirects Dartz's attack to "Legendary Knight Hermos", then selects "Obnoxious Celtic Guardian" in his Graveyard and removes it from play so that "Legendary Knight Hermos" can absorb its special effects (i.e. this card is not destroyed by battle against a monster with 1900 ATK or more).
  • "Legendary Knight Hermos" survives Dartz's attack and Damage Calculation is applied normally, but since Yami is already at 0 LP that does not affect the outcome of the Duel.

Yami Yugi's Turn

• Uses "Legendary Knight Hermos" and "Legendary Knight Critias" to attack Dartz's "Divine Serpent", initiating a series of steps to increase the power of his attack to infinity: (NOTE: there are several problems with this series of steps, all of which are discussed in the 'NOTES' section above)
  • STEP 1) Yami activates "Legendary Knight Critias'" first special ability: he activates Trap Card "Attack Guidance Barrier" from his Hand and lets his monster 'absorb' the Trap's power. This lets "Legendary Knight Critias" use its newly acquired effect to redirect its own attack to "Legendary Knight Hermos" (NOTE: it can be postulated that by 'absorbing' the Trap, "Legendary Knight Critias" is able to ignore "Attack Guidance Barrier's" original conditions, namely that the attack can be only be redirected to a Defense Position monster).
  • STEP 2) Since it is attacked, Yami can activate "Legendary Knight Hermos'" third special ability: he removes "Alpha The Magnet Warrior", "Beta The Magnet Warrior" and "Gamma The Magnet Warrior" in his Graveyard from the game, so that "Legendary Knight Hermos" gains the ability to redirect any attack it receives back at the attacking monster, multipliying its power by the number of monsters removed. "Legendary Knight Hermos" redirects the attack back to "Legendary Knight Critias" and triples its power.
  • STEP 3) Yami activates "Legendary Knight Hermos'" first special ability: he redirects the attack to "Legendary Knight Critias" back towards "Legendary Knight Hermos".
  • STEP 4) Steps 2 & 3 are repeated in an infinite loop, as the attack bounces back and forth between Hermos and Critias and triples in power each time. As it reaches infinity, it eventually satisfies the conditions for the Special Summon of "Knight of Destiny" (∞ ATK / ∞ DEF).
• Yami uses "Knight of Destiny" to attack & destroy Dartz's "Divine Serpent". Because "Divine Serpent" is destroyed, Dartz loses the Duel. Yami wins.

Epilogue

While Dartz's soul is claimed by The Great Leviathan, the three Legendary Knights Timaeus, Hermos, and Critias step into the belly of "Divine Serpent", releasing the souls of Yugi, Seto, and Joey back to their bodies. The millions of other souls captured by the Orichalcos however remain trapped.

Featured Battle: Yugi + Seto + Joey vs. Dartz & The Great Leviathan - Part 1

The Legendary city of Atlantis rises from the waters and becomes a floating island in the sky: Yugi, Seto, and Joey walk through an inter-dimensional portal to travel there and face Dartz, who has now merged with The Great Leviathan as it claimed his soul.

Yugi, Seto, and Joey Summon monsters to battle the great beast (this is NOT a Duel):

• Yugi Summons "Dark Magician", "Summoned Skull", and "Kuriboh".
• Joey Summons "Flame Swordsman", "Jinzo", and "Red-Eyes B. Dragon".
• Seto Summons "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon", "Gadget Soldier", and "Vorse Raider"
• They each Summon "The Eye of Timaeus", "The Fang of Critias", and "The Claw of Hermos", then Yugi activates "Legend of Heart" to reveal the Legendary Dragons' true form: "Legendary Knight Timaeus", "Legendary Knight Critias", and "Legendary Knight Hermos".

All monsters attack The Great Leviathan, with no success.

• Yugi lets "Legendary Knight Timaeus" absorb the ability of Spell Card "Multiply", attacking with the force of 10,000 knights. Again, with no success.

The Great Leviathan counter-attacks:

• Yugi lets "Legendary Knight Timaeus" absorb the power of "Big Shield Gardna", thereby creating 'Full Barrier Shield' for him and the other monsters.
• Despite the Shield, all of Yugi, Seto, and Joey's monsters are destroyed except their Legendary Knights.

Battle continues next episode.