The Trainer
by Yar Woo
Answer: BLACK AND BLUE
Each "Way of the…" card speculates a Chinese Zodiac animal's fighting technique. For each animal, pick a "feeder" answer that fits in the blanks with a letter added at the ◼. E.g., from the bulldog, the CAPLETS answer fits with a letter inserted as CAPULETS.
The added letters spell out the message GO FIND VERSUS; these fighters need rivals to test their mettle.
Each of these answer+letter words has a rival, an opposite. E.g., the CAPULETS fought the MONTAGUES. Find a place to insert the rival in the word-ladder-ring. In the ring, lines betwen squares indicate the same letter; this disambiguates placement for same-length rivals. Some spaces in the word-ladder-ring are marked with circles; read these around the ring to spell WHITE AND GOLD.| Critter | FEEDER+l | rival |
|---|---|---|
| Tiger | ????? | braWn |
| Rabbit | JEDi | sitH |
| Dragon | BOeING | aIrbus |
| Snake | sPACES | Tabs |
| Horse | SEvER | Ecks |
| Sheep | MAdISON | mArbury |
| Monkey | fREDDY | jasoN |
| Chicken | RoE | waDe |
| Bulldog | CAPuLETS | montaGues |
| Pig | gRAFT | hOst |
| Rat | LAKErS | ceLtics |
| Ox | BROWn | boarD of education |
Now we know the condition of the rivals; we need the condition of our fighters, the rivals of the rivals. In a 2015 meme, one faction thought a dress was white and gold; their rivals thought the dress was BLACK AND BLUE.
The word ladder and intermediate message tell us that Tiger's "rival" is BRAWN. Thus, the Tiger answer plus an S (you used to make VERSUS) is BRAINS and the Tiger answer is BRAIN.