Talk:Nelly Virsaladze

Total Flow Control?
Hi, I'm new here but I've been reading/watching "Saki" for a long time now and something's bugged me about Nelly's playing style for a while now; is it just me, or does she totally control the flow of the game?

My reasons are as follows:

First of All, Her Eyes
Throughout her part in the Nationals, Nelly's eyes almost constantly had flames in their pupils, except when Sawaya channeled Hoyau, and for the time period that this deity was activated. This prompted Nelly to comment that "Suddenly, I can't read her. Shishihara, what did you do?" and not only that, it was during this period that Kyouko went on her rampage and managed to win lots of hands. But when Hoyau went away, Kyouko's speedy wins seemed to faulter, and not only that Nelly's "flame-pupils" returned. She even thought to herself, "Is it finally gone?" On top of this, whenever she wins, she's framed in the boxes, with special emphasis given to her eyes which contain her "flaming-pupils". This suggests that her "fire-pupils" are a way of showing that her wins don't occur naturally, and that she's using an ability or power whenever they're shown in the manga. And since they are active for most of her match, and that Kyouko runs away with the wins when Nelly's eyes are normal, this suggests that Nelly's power may be over flow control.

Second, Nelly's Rinshan Kaihou
After Nelly won with her inexplicable rinshan, Saki suggested that Nelly actually knew she was going to get a rinshan (supported by Nelly calling out that the hand is "already over" before declaring her kan and winning) and not only that, but got it for a particular reason, other than simply winning and increasing her lead. Further, the two remaining East tiles that Sawaya needed to win, and should have gotten due to the influences of the red cloud and Pakoro, were in the dead wall, which resulted in Sawaya wondering if they were exchanged. These strange occurrences suggest that Nelly can read and alter the flow, and her ability to do so may be stronger than Sawaya's kamuy.

Third, Nelly's Grin
When Himematsu overtook Rinkai, and climbed to first, Kyouko looked relieved, while Nelly, instead of looking worried or angry, simply smiled smugly as if she knew Himematsu wasn't staying in that position for long. This could simply be arrogance on Nelly's part, but it does suggest that she knew either she would win or that Kyouko would lose, again hinting at knowledge of the flow.

Fourth, Hisa's, Sawaya's, Choe's, Alexandra's and Kyouko's Observations/Comments

 * Near the beginning of the series, Hisa is talking about monsters and those who can sense the flow of the games, at both times Nelly's image/silhouette is shown, implying she is both a monster player, and someone who can sense/alter the flow of the game.  Much later, in the Nationals, she's narrating part of the match to her team when she happens to say that Nelly's horrendous draws and inexplicably dealing into others bothers her, suggesting that perhaps there was a strange reason for those things, and that maybe even Nelly was doing it on purpose.  Not only this, but she also comments that in East Hand 4, Saki won with a 2600 point hand which could have gotten larger in theory.


 * Then the manga cuts to Sawaya who is thinking that Huri's second attack earlier had been interrupted by a cheap win (the same hand Hisa talked about), and then wondered if Nelly had something to do with that as Nelly was the one who dealt into Saki's hand.


 * Choe then asks Alexandra if "it" begins this round, to which she replies probably


 * Alexandra then calls out to the monitor for Nelly to "make sure [she] takes [all the points she lost] back." and even mentioned earlier that Nelly would have probably shifted Saki's winning tile, if Saki had declared riichi.


 * Kyouko then goes into some detail about Nelly's ability and says that Nelly plays as if she is aware of how good or bad her draws for that hand will be, and plays defensively or offensively accordingly.  But also that there is more to this ability than she or anyone else knows.   Further, after the match, when Kyouko is talking about Nelly's ability, she mentions that despite researching her and knowing her skills, she says "and still, no one...no one could stop her".  This all suggests that Nelly is not only aware on some level how her hands will go, but that she can alter the flow for other players too and that it is perhaps impossible to completely stop her wins.

Fifth, Nelly's Comments
Nelly herself mentioned that whenever she gets bad draws or is unlucky, she has to endure it, but implies even then she can still do something as she says "I haven't gone easy on my opponents thus far". And despite her bouts of bad luck, she also mentioned that she can control/adjust when her waves of good luck come, such as ensuring that the biggest wave would strike then, before immediately winning the game with three consecutive non-dealer sanbaiman hands and incidentally winning back all the points she lost. Then after the match, she turns to Kyouko and casually asks if Kyouko was in tenpai by the 4th turn, and mocks her for calling twice (especially because she on the left to Nelly). Afterwards, she runs towards Sawaya and tells her that she knows Sawaya still has a deity she didn't summon, which Sawaya confirms. Later, in her team room, after Megan and Hao criticize her play, she says that "the sponsors like to root for the underdog, and that we should be getting hit a little", implying she dealt in on purpose and perhaps even knew she would still win doing so. Heck, earlier when Sawaya protected herself by summoning Hoyau, and interfered with Nelly's ability, Nelly mentioned "she can't read her". This all suggests that Nelly is very much aware of how her opponents hands will come along, how her hand will form, and even how the flow of tiles will unfold, and even alter or change all that to a degree.

So, what do you guys think? Does Nelly really have total flow control?

Response
Well i'm not sure about total but she definitely has flow control as stated early on. Cold Touka might be the closest we've seen to total control unless that was a translation error.

Hey! Really great analysis of Nelly, your thoughts and mine almost completely line up! I think there's still some room for interpretation as we only have bits and pieces of her ability, but I do believe that Nelly manipulates the flow in a different way, which is somehow separating her good luck from bad luck and bunching them together at different points in the game (evident by her dealing in at times contrasted with huge winnings). Nelly only won 4 hands over the two hanchan, the 3 big ones at the end and the Rishan Kaihou in the beginning. This could definitely point towards using a little bit of luck just to mess with Saki and then saving the rest for a big win at the end, which is also another way of messing with Saki. Notice that Saki's two biggest selling points as a mahjong player are Rishan Kaihou and her winning at the end of the game, AND THEN Nelly said to Saki "You're lucky I was so lucky, or you would've been kicked out". She also said she'd make it harder to determine when she was going to use her luck in the Finals, which also points to her picking and choosing when she uses her luck. Probably, like Hisa, she knows what the limitations on her ability are, and is willing to use psychology and fear tactics to help herself along.

I believe that her ability to read the others' hands is also from this manipulation of flow; like Jun, she can probably see where the flow is going towards (such as Sawaya during her summons or Saki whilst she was fighting for a comeback), but unlike Jun she can only manipulate her own flow, which is why she plays defensively or offensively like she can see the end result of the hand. So I wouldn't say she has total flow control but she can definitely manipulate her own.TheWickedWizardOfOz (talk) 01:44, November 26, 2016 (UTC)

ნელლი ვირსალაძე
is the spelling of her name in georgian alphabet GaiaMIX (talk) 12:12, January 31, 2019 (UTC)