#dm ep57

I've read some opinions before where people say that the duel between them back in Duelist Kingdom messes up Jounouchi's motivations in this arc, but I just don't really see any evidence of that at all here. Granted, the duel from last season really wasn't necessary to have storywise and they could have easily done without it, but imo it doesn't change anything being there either.

Either way, Jounouchi still kind of hasn't really recovered from losing his best card and even though Yami offers to give it back he feels that he doesn't deserve it yet after losing it in the first place. Jounouchi felt like he was at the top of his game in Duelist Kingdom, even though he ultimately lost to Yami he still came very close and felt like he did the best he could. But after suffering such a harsh loss he began to feel like maybe his skills were starting to slip and there was still more he could learn to get to the place he wanted to be. Jou learned a lot during DK, but it's a continuous process and just because he became good doesn't mean that he can't get better. He wants to prove that he can truly stand on his own and be able to respect himself and deserve the respect of others.

As for having dueled Yami before, I don't think it matters because he's still what the gold standard of a Duelist is to Jou and so it makes sense that he would want to duel against him again once he thinks he's come far enough to be able to handle that. And I don't think it messes anything up about the duel on the dock either because, in my opinion at least, that wasn't about "Oh they've never fought before and are forced to fight now" but rather "Oh he's being mind controlled and forced to fight his friend to the death which is something he'd never normally do". It's still just as much of a painful situation whether they've dueled before or not.

And I love that Atem just understands completely why he has to do this and is quite happy to wait. He's just really proud of how far Jounouchi has come so far and believes that he can go even farther.