Happy Birthday Kai! 🫶

Yuriy Ivanov Icons

GUESS WHO FINISHED WATCHING BAKUTEN SHOOT THAT SHIT WAS FLAMES I BINGE WATCHED THE FUCK OUT OF IT. SO REFRESHING AFTER THE CLUSTERFUCK THAT WAS BURST FINALLY GOT TO WATCH A GOOD BEYBLADE SHOW I HADNT SEEN BEFORE. IM GONNA DRAW SO MUCH FANART GET READY BAKUTEN FANDOM [throws random sht at you]

i can't feel a thing, i think i'm going numb, maybe i'm insane, i'm just not enough, crying out for help but no one hears

Kai Hiwatari © Beyblade © Takao Aoki

Can we talk about Takao’s decision to leave Dranzer MS on Yuri’s bed just before the BEGA tournament instead of keeping it with him? I mean, Takao is one of the closest people to Kai, Kyoujyu entrusted that precious bey to him and given the fact that the team desperately needed Kai to join, it would have been logic for Takao to keep it with him, so that his friend would be ready to battle as soon as he reappeared. 

And instead he entrusts Dranzer to Yuri, who lies in a hospital bed in a coma.

Because Takao knows. He knows that Kai will eventually enter that hospital room to visit him. He knows that despite the denial of both, they share a bond. That despite their divergence of opinions, they fight with the same passion and long for the same freedom, and deep down understand each other. He knows that to Kai Yuri has become important.

And he is right. 

Kai doesn’t remember anything from the fight against Brooklyn, his eyes are dull, and yet he remembers Yuri. He doesn’t recognise anyone, not even the BEGA bladers on the big screen while he is wandering in the city, but he recognises him. 

And there he finds that little precious bey which makes him regain the fighting spirit and the passion for the sport. 

His eyes are bright again. 

Takao knows. 

It takes Kai’s friends the entire first season to break through his walls and allow him to trust them. It takes the entire season for him to be able to call them his friends and let his guard down. Even in the first few episodes of season three he seems to have a semi normal relationship with them. He spends time with them, they do normal teenager shit together even if Kai’s version of that is chewing on a piece of straw while Tyson teaches kids how to beybattle. In his own way, he’s developed that bond. It isn’t until Max and Ray decide to leave that he starts getting into old habits again.

While its true that Kai left because he wanted the ability to battle Tyson and couldn’t do so if they were going to be a part of the same team, it’s definitely hard not to question whether or not there was more to it than that. Season one in particular goes out of its way to show that Kai has significant trauma and possibly PTSD, meaning it’s very possible he left for reasons other than wanting to prove something. People with trauma tend to latch strongly to the ones they’ve bonded to but also have a tendency to really struggle with trust depending on what’s caused their trauma in the first place. It really seems like Ray and Max leaving had a significant impact on his progress, tapping into his trust issues and basically ‘proving’ that he was right not to let people in. He felt abandoned and retaliated, putting his walls back up once again. Even Hiro states that Yuri was using him in order to get himself into the finals (don’t even get my started on Hiro, I’m not entirely convinced that he didn’t go out of his way to brainwash Kai into leaving, but that’s neither here nor there).

Honestly, I’m not even really trying to prove any sort of point in saying any of this other than to acknowledge that Kai is trauma baby who must be protected at all costs and that there’s a reason he’s the fan favorite for those of us who are also trauma babies.

I love this disaster child

more fashionably late @may-blade stuff, all the way back for day 5 prompt "cards". in my language the suits of cards are called countries so. four countries, four kings, it's almost like i have a fic about it.......

this was surprisingly hard to put together, i thought it would be easier when i started but turns out i don't know how to plan what im actually going to draw and how it's gonna look like side-by-side when finished the drawing app i use really hates having lots of layers. or maybe my tablet just doesn't have the power for it

sorry for the ridiculous long images that work kinda poorly on tumblr. i didn't want to put them in a row individually because then people would scroll for like five minutes to get past and we all got better things to do

What are your headcanons on Kai being the spoiled rich kid he is.

Spoiled rich kid Kai - I love that ask! 

So, yes, Kai is spoiled, but it is a certain kind of being spoiled, and, in my opinion, it says a lot about his relationship with Soichiro. At least when it comes to my headcanons. 

Basically, it’s all about status. Kai is a Hiwatari. Of course he can’t show up anywhere in an old truck, it has to be the limousine with the chauffeur. Of course he cannot wear tracksuits (Beyblading aside, I guess?), it has to be nice, fitted clothes. And of course he cannot go to the same school as someone like Takao Kinomiya - it has to be the English all-boys boarding school for snobs (or a paramilitary torture house in Russia, but that’s another story). 

All this comes from Soichiro. He doesn’t want Kai to end up like his father, and also he needs an heir for the company. So this is what he does, putting Kai in a golden cage and locking him up for as long as possible. It is a strong power dynamic, and even though Kai gets some luxury, he is the weaker part. Soichiro makes sure he is completely dependent on him. 

I actually don’t think Kai is walking around with a lot of cash. He doesn’t have much money on disposal (contrary to, for example, Giancarlo), because Soichiro knows that Kai is smart and will use his money for things he won’t approve of. He makes Kai beg for the (material) things he really wants. I mean, in Omniscient he makes Kai a shareholder of a company for his birthday. Talking about thoughtful gifts. All Soichiro does is tie Kai closer to Hiwatari Enterprises, if he wants it or not. And with that comes luxury as well.

And of course Kai is influenced by all that. Sure, in the Abbey he came into contact with poverty, but it didn’t affect him that much, or he didn’t fully understand what that meant. After all, he never saw how the other boys lived before the Abbey, and in the Abbey they all suffered the same way. He doesn’t know what it means to not be able to pay the bills or save up just to be able to afford the basic stuff. He can devote himself to “a higher goal” because he doesn’t have to worry about where to sleep or what to eat - or even how to pay for his education. 

I think he sometimes tends to forget how much all that is worth. Also having “the right name”. Hiwatari must be a name that opens all kinds of doors. But I like to think that as he gets older he makes good use of his power. 

Still there will be habits that just show how much of a spoiled brat he is. Judging people’s clothes for example. Or the furniture they put in their flats (not necessarily the size of flats, he knows housing is a big problem, but he doesn’t understand why people wouldn’t want their homes to look, you know, nice. He thinks you can do that on a budget). He probably has a house somewhere, filled with cats. And a maid for the cats. Or he has an extravagant collection of…something. Limited edition beyblades. Cat collars. Art? Idk, something weird. Maybe he has a thing for cars. Oh, and he definitely makes expensive gifts. It’s his love language. It can get a bit overwhelming, but he means no harm, he is just… clumsy with showing affection I guess.