#but fusion is THE kyoya season so it's understandable

[ladyryukyo]

Yo, this is like way too late,,,, but top 5 Kyoya moments?

wow i really needed to think about this hahaha this was so harddd

1. forfeiting during the survival battle finale in fusion

everyone knows this scene, this scene is iconic. it shows how much kyoya cares about leone, that he has priorities that lie outside of winning every battle, it humanizes him so much, not just to the audience but also to gingka & co. who are just flabbergasted by his actions here. really really good, maybe my favorite one

2. his first meeting with benkei

let's set aside all shipping here, me loving this scene has nothing to do with me shipping kyoben. it's just the fact that even though kyoya defeated benkei with ease from the get-go, he was still impressed maybe even delighted to have found such a tenacious opponent that challenged him again and again. i love how much kyoya loves it lol

3. the damian fight in masters

i love to see my faves get hurt, it's true, i'm not apologizing. the fight against damian is so so good. the way kyoya jumps into hades' gate of his own free will and then endures so much abuse from kerbecs only to stand his ground moments later and taunt him with "that was nothing" DGAGHLSG fucking yes badass as hell

4. kyoya figuring out that hyoma is fucking with the group to keep them from entering koma village

when i first watched that scene i remember thinking that kyoya is super smart which up until that point i hadn't exactly realized. i love watching him get suspicious and then his triumphant smirk when he reveals what he knows. smug little bastard, i adore him.

5. meeting tobio in fusion

the whole episode makes me so happy, the way kyoya immediately has some kind of understanding of tobio's character, then their battle, and then emerging from the experience with that mutual respect. i cant stop grinning whenever i get to that episode in fusion. tobio giving kyoya a lollipop at the end. yESS THEY ARE FRIENDS

honorary mention for kyoya's dramatic ass with his dramatic entrances in literally every season: in fusion before infiltrating the dark nebular castle, in masters swooping in at hades city on top of a bus (he actually makes all of team wildfang have a dramatic entrance here 😭), and then in fury shooting an arrow with a challenge at gingka and then arriving in a boat surrounded by fog

another honorary mention for the ryuga fight in battle bladers. similar reason as the damian fight, i love seeing him get hurt like that but he also has some pretty badass moments in there. amazing fight, so cool to watch, shish-kebab-ed kyoya has a special place in my heart

[irisviel101]

Good stuff as always. As for the rest:

Gan Gan Galaxy: Goat'd. Though the only one who got left out of proper development is Yuu. Anyway you can see that getting fixed?

Wang Hu Zhong: Honestly? Really, really wished they had more to do in Fury than that they ended up being.

Wild Fang: Aloof and friendly is the perfect way to describe them. Expected them to had more to do with Kyoya's development in Fury, or at least, call him out on the crappy attitude he's been having.

Star Breaker: Well cept Zeo, the group came across as one note.

Lovushka: Would another episode or not have helped?

Personally, I would tie Yuu's development with what happened to him in Metal Fusion; the betrayal must have left a mark on his self-esteem, not to mention the way Doji used him and how You just went along with it. I would play up his issues with his teammates not letting him battle and with Masamune constantly bringing up his status of being the sub member a self-confidence thing. And I would make him overcome it slightly in his battle with Aleksei, only for the issue to resurface after the tag battle with Tsubasa against Benkei and Demure. He would be upset for not being able to stop Tsubasa's rampage and his own loss during that battle, especially since the Festival of Warriors wouldn't be that long ago. And the tag battle with Team Excalibur would still be mostly about Tsubasa but he would play a bigger role in it. Him running off on his own to find out more information about Team Garcia would be an attempt at being useful to the team — again, a self-confidence issue — and being ambushed by them would bring up memories of his fight against Reiji. This would be his lowest point and he might even break and admit everything he's been feeling to his teammates. And I would have Kenta give him Saggittraio's parts as a call-back to Kenta's battle against Reiji where You gave Libra's performance tip to Kenta. And because his bey wouldn't be as badly damaged thanks to the new parts, You would win against Enzo, which would not help him completely get over his self-confidence issues but it would be a start. And I would have him have something to say about Ryuuga in this season, perhaps telling Masamune about him since he doesn't find out the complete picture on-screen.

I think Wang Hu Zhong had a decent role in Metal Fury, especially since Metal Fury was such a short season with so much going on. Anything more would have taken away focus from the actual plot which wouldn't really help the fact that some characters (Chris for example) are so underdeveloped. At most I would perhaps give Dashan a battle against Aguma near the end which wouldn't be enough to convince Aguma to join their side but it would plant a seed of doubt.

Again, Wild Fang was decent enough in Fury considering the length of the season and all the things that needed to be established. I would rather have Benkei give Kyoya a reality check in Metal Fury since he's the most emotionally mature of the cast and would probably understand the best what Kyoya is feeling. As for Nile and Demure, all I can say is that I wish they had more friendly dialogues with Kyoya, like inside jokes and stuff.

Star Breaker, I believe, would have benefited from giving the members more interactions with each other and by showing the people Damian and Jack are underneath all the manipulation by giving us glimpses of the bits that still remain untouched. You can see, somewhat, with Damian that he was manipulated and molded by Ziggurat from a young age. They could have either shown glimpses of the person Damian could have been by having him interact with Zeo and Jack in a friendly way, a few jokes thrown around or stuff. It would have made the outcome of his battle with Kyoya all the more disturbing to see. Alternatively, they could have learned completely in it and made him unable to understand Zeo's loyalty and love for Toby and why he's so hurt by the misunderstanding with Masamune. Make him unable to comprehend pure love with no strings attached and have him develop a semblance of friendship with his teammates by the end of the season. As for Jack, he did have more personality than Damian with his love for art, so they could have played a bit more into that in a not sadistic way. Just a pure passion for art that remains untainted by all the manipulation.

I think that, instead of one or two more episodes, I would rework Team Lovushka's arc entirely. Have them not get what they wanted after the battle with Gan Gan Galaxy which would give them a motivation for wanting to succeed in the wild card tournament, and checking on them from time to time would also be nice. I would also have them have three battles in their segment of the tournament just like everyone else, maybe show the cheating ways of Anton actually work which would give more explanation as to why they feel like they have to cheat to win. And have them return along with everyone else in the finale.

[voidix]

Masamune -Not Yu- should have been the substitute or How to not introduce a new character

So Masamune Kadoya. I feel like he’s a very polarised character in the fandom. Either you really and I mean REALLY like him or he gets on your nerves like a fly buzzing around the room you can never seem to catch.

My personal opinion on him is eh irrelevant to this discussion as I’m trying to be as objective as possible in this post. That being said I know a lot of my negative emotions that I feel/felt towards him stem from the way he is introduced.

When Masters starts we literally have no idea who this guy is except that he keeps calling himself the No1 blader with nothing to back up his loud mouth. As a viewer i was like uhm.. And the more he interacts with the gang the more he seems like a less intelligent less charismatic copy of Gingka.

So when he gets to be a main player in Team Gan Gan Galaxy instead of Yu or Tsubasa we as the viewers who are already attached to Yu and Tsubasa and have seen their strengths just feel like ??? What?? Why this guy??? It doesn’t add up??? Yes we see him train this one time but I personally as a viewer have no reason to cheer for him to be on the team when it could have been two beloved characters which makes you just really frustrated and you’re wondering how did he beat them but not in wonder but in annoyance because he literally came out of nowhere and I’m supposed to believe this guy with Gingka’s worst traits turned up 20 fold is so good he becomes a main player on team Japan? AND IM SUPPOSED TO ROOT FOR HIM NOW?? It’s just frustrating from an emotional perspective.

Especially when we have seen the anime successfully introduce an - at the time- overpowered and mysterious character: Yu

Yes there is a very good reason I mentioned him by name in the title. Yu’s introduction is very well done. We see Doji recruit him in the desert where we get a teaser for his power. During the survival battle Blader DJ announces someone has beaten 10 players at once. Then the fight with Hikaru Kenta and Benkei where he takes all of them out. At this point we have been teased enough to know this kid is no joke. So when he not only beats Kyoya but also Gingka in the final of the survival battle it doesn’t feel like it came out of nowhere. We had seen Yu’s power in action before we had seen him defeat strong blader after strong blader. So his victory in the survival battle made perfect sense. You were impressed instead of being like what???

“So Hani how would you fix that and still keep the pacing of metal masters?” Well besties it’s in the title. Instead of having him be a main player make him the substitute. It would have been a much more interesting story to have him kind of an underdog that slowly grows to be one of the strongest bladers in the world.

Not to mention it would give us a perfect parallel to Zeo

Towards the end of metal masters there is some focus put on the arrangement system vs the bladers spirit. And since the dungeon trio were the core of the HD Academy arc it would have been very interesting to have Zeo as kind of representative for the arrangement system and Masamune who used to be weak but became stronger because of his bladers spirit. Both doing it for Toby. That would have made Zeo’s win even more emotional and it would have created more tension because you’d genuinely be scared and would have no idea if Gan Gan Galaxy would actually win this.

“But hani THEYRE the main characters it would be obvious they’d win!” Would it tho? Let’s compare. I’m the metal fusion finale Gingka vs Ryuga it was pretty obvious who would win we had two episodes left there was no way Gingka would lose. Here however? Damian vs Gingka is around episode 40 and we have 51 episodes in this season. You would not actually know if they’d win immediately because there are still more than a few episodes to go.

I know this post is low-key all over the place but I hope you guys could kinda understand where I’m coming from and If you want to start a discussion I’m all ears.

[beybladefanboy]

Top 5 Metal Fury Episodes

And now for the most underrated season of the show. Most people I talk to say this is their least favourite of the three, with some outright disliking it. Hell, three years ago, I thought it was the least of the three. Rewatching it now, my opinion could not be more different. I admit this season has its issues and it does have a different feel from the first two seasons but it’s a feel I enjoy. Also, personally, some of the things people criticize this season aren’t really problems, at least for me. I like that the legendary bladers are mostly new characters. If they were all old ones, it would take away the fun of finding them and possibly the tension of them not all being on Gingka’s side. This series has always been about fighting new and exciting bladers. I would have personally been bored if the legendary bladers were all a bunch of characters we already knew and I enjoy the conflicts Aguma, Chris, and Dynamis have. Yes, the set up does lead to some past characters being underused (a problem Masters has even worse in my opinion), but nearly everyone came together for the final battle (besides Benkei who honestly has been treated like crap since Masters and deserves better) so I never took that much issue with it. Honestly, looking back at this list, these episodes are a lot more interchangeable for me than the Fusion and Masters ones so take this ranking with a grain of salt. Actually, take all of them with a grain of salt. Opinions change all the time, three years ago I didn’t like Metal Fury and thought Tumblr was cringey and now I defend Metal Fury on Tumblr as a hobby. Let’s start the list!

Honourable Mentions

Episode 111: The Greatest Tag-Team Tournament!

Bit of a random pick admittedly. I really like Yuki, what can I say? We see more of his anxious side in this episode, which following the episode where he recklessly battled Ryuga on the volcano might seem strange. However, I argue that Yuki gets anxious when he overthinks things. He didn’t have time to overthink things on the volcano, he just acted on his anger in the heat of the moment. Anxious people can have reckless moments, especially when defending their friends, which Yuki was. In this case however, Yuki had plenty of time to get anxious after Gingka picked him to be his teammate out of nowhere. This was also Yuki’s first tournament and the crowd was biased against his team, even booing Gingka and Yuki. That would make anyone nervous. I’d be pretty nervous under those circumstances. So his anxiety is identifiable, making it even more satisfying when he overcomes it and helps Gingka kick Mei Mei and Chao Xin's asses. I can understand some people being frustrated with Yuki in this episode because he does make some stupid mistakes during the battle but speaking from experience, anxiety makes you do stupid things. In my opinion, this episode captured that feeling perfectly without being too cringey.

Episode 121: The Lion’s Pride

This is the only Kyoya episode on this list, and it didn’t even crack the top five. Yeah… I’ve complained many times about the way Kyoya’s character was handled this season but in all fairness, his internal conflict was poorly resolved but well set up. Was it out of character for him to take Aguma’s words to heart? Honestly, I don’t think so. Kyoya was annoyed with the group and avoided them numerous times before this episode, Aguma’s words were just the thing to push him into thinking he might be better off without them. Then those feelings he bottled up festered until they reached a breaking point in a later episode. That part worked. Also, Kyoya and Aguma’s battle this episode was just awesome. I really liked the Mist Mountain arc in general and this was a definite highlight.

5) Episode 107: Awaken, Anubius!

Okay, I’m warning you now: my Ryuga bias is gonna be on full display in this list, he is at his best in this season. He is one of the reasons I like this episode. It’s great seeing Ryuga put Gingka and Kyoya in their place, because let’s be honest they were way in over their heads, and his battle with Gingka was just fun in general. However the other reason I like this episode is Yuki. I just like seeing him so pissed that he sheds his anxious demeanor and takes on Ryuga because like I said, he didn’t have time to overthink things here: he was pissed that Ryuga hurt Kyoya and Gingka and acted on that anger without thinking. You can be anxious and reckless. Anyways, even though Ryuga does beat him, Yuki does still put up a fight and awakens as a legendary blader. I don’t have much else to say, it’s just really cool.

4) Episode 115: Showdown at the Tower of Babel!

This episode features three of my favourite characters: Ryuga, Tsubasa, and Kenta battling in a historical building. Hell yeah I’m gonna like this episode. This episode shows how much Kenta has already changed in the short time since he started travelling with Ryuga. Already, he’s gotten so much stronger that he put up a legitimate fight against Tsubasa, who destroyed him back in Fusion. Tsubasa recognizes that growth and realizes he will lose if he doesn’t give it his all. Then he goes and has a long awaited rematch against Ryuga. He puts up a good fight but of course Ryuga destroys him with his new ultimate move, which I initially forgot was first used here. Regardless, both of these battles are awesome, as are the moments where Ryuga and Tsubasa are just slaying some fools on the tower and Ryuga KNOCKING OVER THE TOWER OF BABEL. Apparently that moment is really symbolic, saying that humans create gods among them that choose the fate of humanity and Ryuga is one of those gods. Yeah… I can’t be credited with that observation. That was all my friend, Shadow’s doing but I thought it was interesting so I wanted to mention it here. Anyways, I love this episode.

3) Episode 126: Two Big, Fierce Battles!

Hehe the first meeting of Ryuga and King. I’m a dirty shipper, he he he. Okay, with that out of the way, these are two of my favourite battles in the series. Ryuga and King’s battle was probably just fan service: having the two legendary bladers with left-rotating beys meeting and battling but I can’t say that it wasn’t something I wanted to see. In fact, the moment I was introduced to King three years ago I wanted to see it. It’s also really cool that King was actually able to put up a fight against Ryuga not just because of his left rotation but by being clever and changing modes at the right times. He might’ve won if he hadn’t taken so many hits at the beginning of the battle. Still, I really love this battle. It’s a great display of both Ryuga and King’s abilities and this is definitely just the shipper in me, but god do I love their banter. Anyways, the more plot-relevant battle in this episode is Kenta vs Gingka. Now, after more time has passed since the Tower of Babel episode, we see that Kenta has changed even more not just as a blader but as a person. He acts almost like Ryuga at first, acting more cold and distant before breaking down and telling Gingka that he’s trying to get Ryuga to take him seriously so he rightfully thinks that defeating the one person who ever defeated Ryuga could do that. This is another episode that shows Kenta’s growth very well. Kenta does lose this battle but he still puts up a good fight and only lost because he didn’t have full control of his new power yet. He didn’t just lose because “anime rules say so.” Then Gingka and Kenta have a really nice scene together on the beach where Gingka recognizes Kenta’s growth and tells him he could even beat Ryuga with his newfound power, leading into…

2) Episode 131: The God of Destruction's Revival!

I nearly forgot about this episode when I was putting together this list. I have no idea why, I’ve said on multiple occasions that Ryuga and Kenta’s battle here is one of my favourites in the show. I guess in my mind it only takes up a small portion of the episode and I didn’t really remember the rest. Looking back on it though, this whole episode is really good. While I do think Nemesis was brought back too soon, the scene where Chris, Aguma, and a brainwashed Dynamis partly resurrect Nemesis is really damn cool. It’s exciting and sets up the story and darker tone of the following episodes really well. The first half of this episode is mostly set up, pretty good set-up albeit but still mostly set up. The second half of this episode is admittedly the reason it’s on this list: Ryuga and Kenta. I love seeing them interact, what can I say? In this episode, they’ve gotten to the point where Ryuga isn’t fazed by Kenta touching him, as opposed to an earlier episode where Ryuga practically threw Kenta off him when he tried to hug the evil out of him. Here, he just gently pushes him off after a solid fifteen seconds of Kenta clinging to him. Kenta has also gone from only wanting to make Ryuga take him seriously to wanting to stop Ryuga from getting hurt, something he didn’t previously seem to care about and becomes his main concern for the following episodes. I like seeing how this friendship between them has grown since Kenta’s Determination and how especially from Ryuga’s side, it’s mostly subtle. Then there’s their battle. Kenta is actually able to hold his own against the most powerful blader and actually comes up with a plan to defeat Ryuga by attacking L-Drago from above when it's in survive mode, a plan that makes so much sense I’m surprised Gingka didn’t think of it. It’s such a good plan that even if you know the outcome of the battle, you can see how it could work. Heck, the only reason it didn’t work was because he couldn’t break through Ryuga’s ultimate move, a feat I don’t think any character at this point accomplished. Still, despite his loss, Kenta was able to scratch L-Drago, another great example of Kenta’s power in this season. Speaking of which…

1) Episode 139: Flash Sagittario

If you know me at all, this was obvious. This isn’t the episode where Ryuga actually gives Kenta his star fragment (although it does include that scene twice as flashbacks), it’s the episode directly following that. If you can't tell, I really love the way this season used Kenta. Fusion threw out his development during Battle Bladers and Masters forgot about him entirely so it’s so refreshing to see him not only as a major character again, but a vital component to defeating the villain with his own arc and development. This episode is the culmination of that. Kenta’s bey evolves into Flash Sagittario at the very beginning of the episode then (after what I will admit is too much explaining) the rest of it is spent having Kenta master his new bey, creating a new special move to defeat Pluto so everyone can get to Nemesis and seal him away. Kenta’s battle with Pluto and the group’s battle against Nemesis are both great. I love seeing the Legendary Bladers all working together and Kenta gets to be a badass for once. Took them long enough. I don’t really have much to say about this one. I just really like the way Kenta was depicted in it and seeing what followed that star fragment moment I love so much. It was great seeing everyone battle together and while I like Gingka’s fight with Nemesis fine, I think this battle did a much better job at showing the teamwork angle this season was building toward and would’ve been just as good of a final battle.

[artichow]

Character bingo give us the thoughts on Madoka and Kenta (i dont think youve done either yet, sorry if youve had). Also Little My if you wanna do a moomin kne

YEEAH

MADOKA: so powerful, so cool and clever and aaaa I love her sm

definitely one of my faves ever. I know I said it a lot but her laptop scanning and battle explanations were like the highlights of the show for me!! Also the scene where she enters the survival battle with Yu and Kyoya ?? iconic behavior, it was awesome!! I really like her pink jacket in fusion, I really wish she got more screentime and storylines centered around HER. It's like that with a lot of characters and even more so with the girls of the series but Madoka appears in almost every episodes but she very rarely gets to shine and that makes me sad :( I know other people talked about it better than I did but yeah

also the goggles, very nice, makes me think of Hay Lin from the W.I.T.C.H and that's awesome. Also yeah I blasted her with my nonbinary ray, madoka non binary true and real

Kenta the sweetest of boys: he's just he's so nice and so pure and aaaargh!! his role in fusion is really cool and I love to see his evolution with bey battles during the whole series, I think he is the character whose training and improvement shows the most how far he's come!! I love that, he doesn't give up on becoming better and that's really nice, he wants to keep having fun with his friends :(( And he was done so dirty in masters, he was put on the sidelines and that really sucked, I liked this season but man,, Kenta :(

But then I liked how once again he got put aside in Fury but it resulted in him having one of the best plots in the season/entire show!! His dynamic with Ryuga is really cool, although I would have liked to see more of the two together and learning to tolerate and understand each other :(( like at first before watching fury, based on the fandom posts I saw I thought they acted nicely and like friends towards the end but nope ryuga just pushed him to the ground :') i didn't find that scene very touching like I was led to believe, disappointed but not surprised.. Anyway Kenta is an awesome character, I know he's not the protagonist but his journey really is one of the best in the show and more people should appreciate him. His dynamic with Gingka: Awesome, lovely, wholesome, can be a little angsty if you think too much about it

with Benkei: awesome, love how he's a big part of Benkei's character development and their back and forth

with Madoka: cute, love it, i imagine them cooking together

underrated: his relationship with Sora is very good too, I love how he's the level-headed one and we see how much of gingka's personality and values he got from him it's very sweet

I love his bey, it's one of my favourite and I'm really really happy because I have it :D the colours are just *chef's kiss*

Also he looks 8 and travels alone in fusion and fury?? in what world-

Little my!!! Really like her, she's funny and feral and really a good addition to the moomin family. I love how she was canonically adopted, and just does whatever she wants all the time. I want to carry her in a handbag and she'd totally fit and fall asleep in it

And also her dynamics with other characters are just the best, my favourites are with Sniff, Moominmamma, Moomin and of course Snufkin. The feral siblings are just the best and they even do vandalism together, I love them

[metalsaga]

As a fan of your analysis, I'm interested to know your opinion on my all time favorite, Masamune. It doesn't have to be a long essay, just a general opinion. Please?

Wow it has definitely been a while since I’ve done an analysis of any MFB character haha Thank you irisviel101 for the ask and influx of love for my page :)

If anyone wants any characters analyzed, feel free to send an ask my way!

I’m going to be honest, when he was first introduced, Masamune was very annoying to me. I was a huge fan of the original Metal Fusion cast, and was extremely closed-minded to the idea of having a new protagonist entering the story.

However, as the Metal Masters season went on, I began to open up to him, and I finally accepted him as a great companion to Gingka! Similar to Kyoya, Masamune constantly pushes Gingka in battle, and drives him to give it his all. Masamune is the definition of “persistent”. He never gave up on his will to win against Gingka, and taught the audience that there is always a time to try again and pick yourself back up.

Not only is his character design tremendously unique, his bey Ray Striker, is truly amazing. I love how his constellation resembles a unicorn, and his name is greatly affiliated with the term “sword”. I think it’s a perfect name, due to the fact that he cuts through the competition to achieve his goals. Although he can run into heated situations head first, you can always count on Masamune to give it his all while getting a few laughs along the way. Seriously, his dubbed voice is so funny and perfect for his character. 

Overall, I’m glad that he is a member of Gan Gan Galaxy, and I definitely understand why people love this guy. He really is great :D

Side note: I absolutely LOVE his relationship with King. They are honestly perfect for each other hahaha

[theheightofdishonor]

@asilhalawadi  I retyped it from memory. 

There’s a lot of things the Beyblade Metal Saga get wrong (do not get me started on how dirty they did Yu) but when they got it right, it was brilliant and the connection between Ryuga, Tsubasa, and Kyoya, is one of those things. 

So starting in Metal Fusion, these three are set against each other as Gingka’s rivals- I single them out specifically because these are the only rivalries that span the entire Saga. You’ve got Kyoya who starts out intimidating but is quickly established a reliable ally-no matter what he says on the contrary. There’s Tsubasa who you can’t quite get a read on until well into the third act of Fusion but ,eventually chooses a side and sticks to it. Then there’s Ryuga, the “big bad” who never chooses Gingka’s “side” even as Gingka saves his life, he’s a wild card and they often emphasize his untrustworthiness throughout the Saga.  Green, Purple and Red respectively. 

It’s easier to split this up and discuss the inner dynamics first so Imma start with Kyoya-Ryuga. Controversial opinion but these two are just slight variations on all the same characteristics;their personalities are centered around individuality, mistrust, arrogance, a lack of manners, and a specific honor code that they don’t like revealing- they’re mirrors.It’s interesting to note that their respective colours (the colour of their auras, Kyoya’s green and Ryuga’s Red) are complementary colours. On a colour wheel, Red is directly opposite from Green. Even as they go through the same things, they’re on different sides. In Fusion, they’re both manipulated by Doji and fight to truly develop their own personality but they’re pitted against each other. In Masters, their developments take place mostly off-screen, never meeting and in Fury, they’re once again major players on opposing sides. There is exactly two points in the series where these two collide (other than Ryuga’s death) 

The first is Battle Bladers. Their match in Battle Bladers is fundamental in understanding how their characters connect. Seriously watch it, it’s one of the best battles in the Saga. Ryuga begins by trashing the stadium before the battle begins, a move that Kyoya counters by destroying the stadium even more. It’s a statement of power as much as an intimidation tactic and neither backs down. Their battle continues the same way as they snark back at each other and exchange blows each with the force of a special move. It’s very “fight fire with fire”, “eye for an eye” and it works better than anyone would have thought.  Tsubasa may be the first person to ever withstand the Dark Move but Kyoya’s the first one Ryuga fully takes seriously. It’s a fascinating battle. Kyoya taunts Ryuga to force him to use his full strength and Ryuga complies-knowingly. (The implications of him temporarily pushing back the Dark Force just because Kyoya asked-I) Kyoya has full confidence that his taunts will work, he admits as much. Ryuga, for his part, verbally praises Kyoya for being the only person to ever push him this far. (Granted, the way he says it, it’s more of an insult but.) They’re so equal in power that the battle was actually up to toss before Ryuga got possessed. But the thing with fighting fire with fire is that it leads to a lot of people getting burned. Ryuga gets thoroughly possessed (and would likely have stayed that way if not for Gingka) and Kyoya is impaled by a demon spirit. (Remind me to speculate on Hikaru and Kyoya’s response to the Dark Power). It doesn’t end well for either of them- but they’re equals. 

In Metal Masters, they’re both demoted to secondary characters. They get lives outside of Gingka and don’t meet face to face until Metal Fury. Like I said, their arcs are parallel so it makes sense that the next time they battle toe to toe- they’re both on the verge of a series long personal conflict that has direct consequences on the fate of the world. This time, Ryuga is the self-assured one, he had an entire (mostly)Gingka-free season to sort out his issues and grow in power. Kyoya, on the other hand, isn’t even comfortable with his new bey yet and it’s almost depressing how quickly Ryuga wins that match. Ryuga even marks on it,  that although their beys may be equal in power, they themselves no longer are equals. Their maths are set into motion and that’s the last communication between the two of them.

Their individual conflicts in Fury are actually the same exact problem- stemming from the fact that they are both horrified at the thought of selflessness. They have to justify their actions as something that directly affects them and being tied down by caring about something else is one of the worst things imaginable.  By this meeting in Fury, Kyoya was a ticking bomb that had its roots all the way back to the beginning of Masters. In Fusion, they had become friends, but when Masters starts, Kyoya forces their relationship strictly back into rivals and does his bet to keep it that way. (I feel so bad for Gingka who literally gets nightmares about this moment) Even when he shows up to stop Ziggurat like some kind of guardian angel with impeccable timing - he’s quick to clarify that he’s not there for Gingka and only showed up because he thought Ryuga’s presence in the World Championships was suspicious. Like he’s right but ouch. It’s important to note that no one ever calls him out on this behavior where even as he helps and fights alongside them, he’s denying that he cares. I can’t even blame them for it because it wasn’t worth the effort. 

When Kyoya actively joins Gingka again in Fury to search for Legendary Bladers, he’s obviously uncomfortable  with the situation. I mean, there’s only so much you can pile under the justification of doing it to secure your rivalry. Let’s be real, that excuse barely worked even all the way back in Fusion when Kyoya joined forces with a couple of people he can’t stand to follow Gingka all the way to effing Koma Village. So him going batshit was inevitable, Aguma was just the spark. 

Ryuga is in the same boat, except when he professes to not care, it’s much more believable unless you take a good look at his actions. His help in defeating Ziggurat could be attributed to his canon reason of dealing with ghosts from his past. But that doesn’t explain why he practically forces Gingka to realize his bey’s power before his battle with Julian or him advising Tsubasa on overcoming the Dark Power and even making sure Tsubasa gets back to his team. When Fury starts, the audience has a reluctant hope that Ryuga will help- a thought that is promptly and swiftly crushed with a sledgehammer. You’re given a bit of hope again as we explore Ryuga and Kenta’s bonds and are barraged with scenes of Ryuga displaying consideration if not concern for the actual child following him around. But it’s not to be. In a scene that’s actually very similar to Ryuga’s OG battle with Kyoya, Doji taunts Ryuga who allows that taunt to influence his actions and again, it ends badly for him. Not only does he fully revive Nemesis, it ends up leading to his own death.

However, Ryuga does a 180 in death and his affection for Kenta/honour/guilt that this kid’s going to kill himself because he blames himself for your death brings Ryuga back to life (?) to hand the Star Fragment to Kenta. But it’s already too late and Zeus’s barrier doesn’t hold even with a replacement Summer constellation bey. His grand gesture, which is actually super emotional when you watch the entire thing, ends up doing nothing other than prolonging the battle. 

But, but, but. In that very last moment when all hope is gone and Pegasus is the only bey left spinning, Kyoya admits what he’s been denying for years- the effect Gingka has had on his life and that he cares for the guy. In a show of trust that Kyoya from even a couple days previous would never have done, Kyoya offers his bey spirit along with that of his precious Leon’s to Gingka. This, of course, prompts everyone else to do the same and Gingka defeats Nemesis and saves the world. But it wouldn’t have happened without Kyoya doing that. One lives, one dies. 

Now, Kyoya-Tsubasa. No worries, the rest of this is going to be significantly shorter. Green and Purple, both cool/secondary colours, are on the same side Despite this, Kyoya and Tsubasa kind of end up playing tag throughout the Saga. In Fusion, Kyoya’s the one at Gingka’s side until Doji switches the battle order in Battle Bladers and suddenly, tag, Tsubasa’s the one facing Ryuga. He loses, tag, Kyoya’s turn. In Masters, Tsubasa’s “tagged” and is now the one who travels with Gingka while Kyoya takes off and then there’s a brief pause for the Season Finale™. In Fury, Kyoya gets the star fragment, tag, he’s the one traveling with Gingka now and out of the two, Kyoya’s the one in the limelight for the rest of the season. 

On a superficial level, Kyoya and Tsubasa are opposites. Kyoya’s brash where Tsubasa is reserved. Kyoya clashes head on, Tsubasa keeps his cool. Yet, under the surface, they’re alike- moody, antisocial, and emotionally constipated. Jk, that part’s not til later. Really though, they’re pretty alike. Despite Kyoya’s abrasiveness, he’s almost always got some kind of plan in battle (even if they’re occasionally dumb things like let’s start a tornado which could potentially sweep away the helicopter that’s our ride out of here) and Tsubasa is no stranger to winging it -hacking the Dark Nebula without planning it beforehand, anyone?. Their differences balance the other person out. They’re almost foils in a manner.

With these two, Fusion is the place to be. (two pints of Sam Adams and I’m workin on three) Specifically, Tsubasa’s match with Ryuga and Kyoya’s attitude about it.That clip displays it better than I could explain. Tsubasa spends most of the actual battle avoiding El Drago- his plan is to draw out El Drago’s full strength and then attack when Ryuga’s at his weakest. (it makes more sense in the story) Everyone in the stadium is against this- the crowd is booing, even Gingka and the rest of their friends are unsure but Kyoya doesn’t lose faith for a second. He urges Tsubasa to not pay attention to the crowd-to trust his instincts and at that moment, he’s the only person that believes in Tsubasa. His faith is rewarded as Tsubasa becomes the first person to withstand the Dark Move. 

Despite having never battled each other, Tsubasa and Kyoya are established as equals in skill, power and intellect. And then the World Championships Qualifiers starts and along with it, Tsubasa and Kyoya’s one and only match.. The episode actually does most of the work for you by reflecting on these two, their skills and personalities. If you hadn’t thought of it already, you have now been spoonfed that Kyoya and Tsubasa are equals. The battle starts and them being equals is hammered in some more as they comment on how they know all of each other’s moves. But they don’t and Kyoya crushes him. Whether Kyoya would still have won if Tsubasa wasn’t possessed is up to debate. But the scales tip, nonetheless, and although Tsubasa overcomes the Dark Power, we’re not given a marker of any sort to tell if Tsubasa got stronger by the end. This is further complicated because in Fusion, Tsubasa never shows the extent of his power, so we don’t know if the Tsubasa that defeated the Dark Power is stronger than the Tsubasa before it. Either way, this battle marks the end of them as Tsubasa stagnates and Kyoya continues to grow stronger. 

Next is Tsubasa-Ryuga, also known as my shortest section because there is exactly one thing and one thing only that ties them together- the Dark Power. Initially there are two reasons because it’s Tsubasa’s job to spy on Ryuga but the Dark Power’s more important and they didn’t interact much because of that job, anyway. Although the weakest pairing in this triangle, they have the most significant meetings, a grand total of 4, 1 of which, notably, is not a battle. The first one occurs when Doji attempts to feed Tsubasa’s power to Ryuga once Tsubasa is revealed to be a spy. It ends in a draw because Phoenix saves him from imminent failure. The second one is the Battle Bladers Match-the one where a bit of the Dark Power latches on to Tsubasa’s soul. The third is in Metal Masters. Under instructions from the WBBA, Hyoma tracks down Ryuga who then finds Tsubasa and gives him advice on defeating the Dark Power (while destroying Excalibur for the hell of it) and safely delivers him to Gingka and co. It’s the weirdest episode- plays straight out of an alternative universe. In Fury, they meet for the last time in a completely random tournament while both are searching for Legendary Bladers. They battle, Ryuga wins and again, it’s straight out of an alternative universe because Ryuga’s almost cordial- at least compared to his usual version. Like if you look at his other battles, Ryuga in this clip can even be called nice. If you watch it, you’ll note the exact second Tsubasa determines that Ryuga’s crazy. It’s also got the line “The Dragon Emperor just is The Dragon Emperor” which cracks me up for no reason. Personally, I do think Ryuga’s a smidgen softer on Tsubasa because of the shared Dark Power thing but they don’t interact nearly enough to confirm it. 

(When I say last time, I do mean face to face confrontations, and not them just happening to be at the same place) 

Between the three of them, they’ve got this complicated push-pull dynamic despite very limited interaction between them. They’ve also got a long list in common; from personality traits:prickly, hard-working, skilled, smart, mistrustful/suspicious, pessimistic, confident if not overconfident, antisocial,  habits: most at home in the wild, unusually strong connections to their beys, and the weirdest of all; Yu who has idolized all three of them right around the time of their biggest self-crisis; Ryuga, Tsubasa and Kyoya in that order.

[beybladefanboy]

My Top 5 Least Favourite Beyblade Characters

I've talked about this in a few asks but I thought I'd go more into detail about the characters I hate most in this metal top show. Remember, I like more characters than I don't like and some of the characters I'm going to talk about are actually well-written characters objectively, they just annoy me personally. Starting with:

5) Masamune

Masamune is lowest on this list because I don't hate him. I personally find his personality annoying but he is a well written character. He gets good development over the course of Metal Masters and Metal Fury and his friendship with King is really cute. However, he is completely full of himself. The difference between him and someone like Kyoya or Ryuga is that at least in comparison, Kyoya and Ryuga don't actually talk themselves up that much. They let their actions speak for themselves for the most part. They are absolutely arrogant and do brag but not to the same degree as Masamune, who is far less skilled in comparison. He also doesn't know when to shut up and was a really shitty friend to Toby and Zeo. However, at least the show calls him out for what he did to Zeo and Toby and makes it part of the plot. Still completely selfish and horrible though.

4) Johannes

Cat-boy thingy is creepy and I don't like him. He makes me uncomfortable. I don't have a reason really I just don't like the way he is. I’m a cat person too but the way he literally acts like a cat, meowing and sitting like one, is just weird. He’s also just some annoying boring villain underling, like Jack or Reiji without the brainwashing and sympathetic backstory, which spared the two of them from this list by the way. I may not like either of them but they are interesting to talk about and I get why other people like them. Johannes meanwhile is just there to get in the way. He doesn’t do anything interesting he’s just weird and annoying to me. Tetsuya is the same way to me by the way and I could’ve put either him or Johannes on this list.

3) The Garcias

I'm lumping this entire family together because while I have separate small reasons for hating them individually, I hate all of them for the same big reason: I hate their attitude. They act like they're better than everyone else because they apparently "suffered more." First of all, suffering is subjective. Saying that one person has suffered more than another diminishes their suffering and is just arrogant. Yes, the Garcias live in poverty in a harsh neighborhood. They had a hard life and are trying to get out of it but that doesn't excuse them being obnoxious cheaters. I hate how they act like no one else has suffered more than them when LITERALLY EVERYONE ON GAN GAN GALAXY IS HORRIBLY TRAUMATIZED. Besides Masamune at this point but he didn't get out of season 2 unscathed. Meanwhile, the rest of them were at Battle Bladers. They all had to watch their friends get murdered by Ryuga or tortured by Reiji. Tsubasa was one of the people who had to battle Ryuga and came out of it infected with dark power, hurting himself and his friends. Meanwhile, Yu was manipulated and taken into the Dark Nebula and later kidnapped when he tried to leave. Don't even get me started on Gingka. I HATE hearing these know it all Garcias talk about how bad they've had it compared to the characters I've seen get traumatized for the past 70+ episodes at that point. It makes me not give a shit about their suffering because they're flaunting it and using it to excuse their frankly obnoxious and disgusting behaviour. Even Reiji, Jack, Damian, and Ryuga didn’t do that. Ryuga and Jack even admitted their mistakes later in the series with Ryuga especially taking actual steps to better himself. Meanwhile the Garcias stick to their bullshit philosophy to the end, even after it was proven wrong. They’re not any better in Fury either. They pretend to be fighting to manipulate Zeo and Toby to help them just to try and win a battle. It’s just frustrating to watch. Meanwhile, as individual characters, they still annoy the shit out of me. Enzo is an annoying brat that constantly repeats the same phrase over and over, which gets really annoying really fast, Selen's tactics make her battles against Masamune and Gingka frustrating to the point of boring, and Argo is an over the top borderline psycho, and not in a fun way. I don't have a specific reason to hate Ian but I don't really like him either so he gets lumped in with the rest of his siblings, since they all have similar attitudes. They also made Shogun Steel even more of a pain to watch.

2) Ryo Hagane

My reasons for this are mostly in Metal Fusion. He allows his teenage son to believe he's dead for reasons he claims are righteous, all while using this lie to justify hurting his son. Gingka's point counter being broken does drive him to take things seriously and push himself to fight harder to get into Battle Bladers. That is important to the plot and I won't deny that. But did it have to secretly be his dad who broke it? No. It could have been any random person, it could have been Tetsuya. Having his dad do it is an act of abuse, not to mention theft and property damage. I know no one gives a shit about the law in Beyblade but this is still messed up. I don't like the twist that Ryo lives but he does give Gingka semi-important information in the final episodes of Fusion and I might have been able to stomach this twist a little more if Ryo hadn't broke Gingka's point counter. That was a step way too far for me. I still wouldn't have liked Ryo though because allowing his teenage son to think he was dead is still messed up. He's also a terrible director. It frustrated me so much to see him force the Japanese and African teams to battle despite nearly all of them not being well enough to battle because they don't want to "show favouritism." How the fuck is it showing favouritism?! You shouldn't be making any teams fight when they're injured! It's not "showing favouritism" it's common decency. Gingka and Kyoya shouldn't have been allowed to battle when they were in such poor condition and Ryo was being both a bad director and a bad father by forcing them to battle. It seems like a small thing but it makes me hate Ryo even more than I already did. In short, Ryuga was right: "l always knew that your old man and his bey were second rate."

1) Rago

He killed Ryuga. That's it. What, you wanted an essay? Do I really need another reason? Well, he's also a one note villain without any traits to make him stand out among the other power-hungry villains of the series. He could have been replaced by a robot and his impact on the plot would have been the exact same. He's as boring and lifeless as a plank of wood. People say the new characters in Fury are boring. In this one case, I agree. This series has no excuse. Ryuga in season 1 was an excellent nuanced villain even though he and Rago's motivations were technically the same: power. Ryuga however had charm, he was scary, his greed for power began to physically control him by the end, giving us a hint of depth to a previously one note psycho. Doji was effective through his plans and presence in season 1, even Ziggurat had more to him than this "Rago" bitch. Ziggurat had an interesting plan and brainwashed children, Rago is just nothing. He does nothing interesting or memorable and the only reason I remember his name at all is because the one memorable thing he did was murder Ryuga. That alone wouldn't be enough to justify saying he's the worst character in the series but the fact that he's also a lazily written villain seals the deal for me.

Okay, there’s my list. Again, I like way more characters than I dislike and if you like any of these characters, that’s fine. I know for a fact Masamune, Johannes, and the Garcias have fans and while I don’t really understand why in the case of those last two, I can respect that opinion.

[beybladefanboy]

Hello, buddy ! Can You make a post to describe your favorite characters from every Beyblade season ? 🙂🙂

Odd question but I'll answer it to the best of my ability.

Metal Fusion: Kyoya and Ryuga

Kyoya was my favourite character throughout this season. I liked seeing how his rivalry with Gingka started as kind of obsessive due to Doji's influence but then became healthier and more good spirited. However he still retained his sarcasm and wit when he became an ally to the heroes, playing the straight man to a lot of their jokes which was just fun. He's a fun character in general. I love the sarcastic assholes and his over the top arrogance, which you'd think would be annoying, is actually really entertaining. As for Ryuga, he's an excellent villain in this season. He scared the heck out of me as a kid and still managed to make me anxious rewatching it now. He was the perfect balance of entertaining and threatening in this season. I like him as a villain in Fusion. In Metal Masters and Metal Fury, I grew to like him as a character since we saw his true character in those seasons. So while I like him more in seasons 2 and 3, I don't want to repeat myself too much. Just know that Ryuga is my true favourite.

Metal Masters: Tsubasa and Zeo

Tsubasa got a lot of character development in this season through the Dark Tsubasa arc. I loved seeing him truly become part of the group and learn to accept and control the darker side of himself rather than unrealistically driving it out like other stories do. I like this take better. In real life we can't force out unwanted aspects of ourselves. Trying to repress 'darker' thoughts or feelings just backfires, which it did for Tsubasa. Instead Tsubasa learned an actually applicable lesson about accepting our flaws but not letting them control us, which resonated with me as a kid and still does now. As for the new characters in Masters I'm honestly not the biggest fan of them. I find Masamune annoying, I really dislike Wang Fu Zhong and the Garcias, and most of the others are just kind of there for me. I don't really get why these characters get so much attention here in the fandom. Out of all the new characters, I liked Zeo the most. I felt really bad for him. He got abandoned by one of his best friends and his other best friend was dying in the hospital, leaving him to be abused by HD Academy in his efforts to save Toby. It was just incredibly sad. His bitterness toward Masamune is really understandable to the point where I'm kind of on Zeo's side. Masamume was being a really inconsiderate friend.

Metal Fury: Yuki and King

Yeah, I like the new characters of Fury more than the new characters of Masters. There were less of them in this season so they were allowed to develop a little more than the Masters cast did, starting with Yuki. I find Yuki's anxiety and self-doubt to be very relatable to me personally and seeing him learn to overcome it was really satisfying. I also like how he isn't overtly powerful like the other legendary bladers. His strength comes from his knowledge and precision, which come in handy more than a few times. It's a nice way of showing that brute strength isn't all that matters in a blader. As for King, I just think he's really funny. I don't really know why. He's the kind of character I would normally hate but I find his arrogance entertaining and his friendship with Masamune is one of my favourites of the series. I love their little back and forths and how they support each other when they need it but make fun of each other literally any other time. It reminds me of one of my real life friendships.

Shogun Steel: Ren and Takanosuke

I wasn't a big fan of Shogun Steel or its characters but if I had to pick favourites, it would be Ren and Tanakosuke. Ren was the closest thing the series had to an original character (she deserved more screen time!) and Takanosuke... Well he's that type of character that redeems villains through his sheer goodness. He's like Kenta or Mokuba in that way. So I kinda just like the type of character he is. Shogun Steel doesn't give me much to work with but since I've seen it, I felt I should include it.