#Also I would've guessed Dan was one of the most hated characters given how many Deckerstar fics I've read that still throw him under the bus

[amtrak12]

Discord: "Yeah Amenadiel is probably the third most hated character in Lucifer behind Rory and Eve."

Me sitting there with my Eve icon and Chromecast nicknamed Amenadiel while writing a 200k word story starring Rory: "Fascinating."

[synergysilhouette]

(Some of) My retrospective grievances Bakugan

I loved Bakugan growing up--and for the most part, the first two seasons hold up. That said, I did want to mention things about the series that I wish they'd done better. Some of it's nit-picks, and some of it is stuff that really annoyed me. I don't recall everything, so be sure to let me know if I misremembered some things!

There's NO WAY Dan, Shun, and Runo were 11 years old (in the Japanese version; they were 12 in the English version, which is still unbelievable to me). I'd buy that everyone on the team was 16-18 and Marucho was 12.

I wish the parents and more adults in general were more involved in Bakugan. Magical creatures and cards that put you in another dimension fall from the sky and it's mostly just young people who use them? It feels like parents would at least be more concerned about what's going on, but Dan's parents aren't super involved--heck, I remember being surprised that he had a dad! That's something we never see from Yugi (whose dad is always on a business trip) and Ash (whose dad is a mystery).

Terrible treatment t of female characters. Julie, Alice, and Runo were great members of the team, but they were essentially removed from the show in season 2 because Drago only wanted to involve Dan. That'd be fine, but Marucho tagged along too, and Shun found his way there, too--and the male/female ratio was thrown off enormously, because we got a lot of new male characters, and very few new female characters.

Give more information on the location of the characters. Julie is from Australia and Alice is from Russia. Aside from missing accents, I'd have liked to have seen how Bakugan affected the different countries/cultures.

More backstories for the characters. I recall Shun's backstory and how it ties into his relationship with Skyress, but everyone else deserves that, too--plus it'd be neat to see how his traditional background (with his grandfather being a ninja) affecting his relationship with Marucho, who comes from a rich and modern family, as well as his friendship with Dan, who is also more modern.

Too many side characters who don't return for season 2 onwards. I always hated that we had fun characters like Chan Lee, Billy, and Klaus who are just written off later. It would've been fun to see them become bigger characters as the show went on rather than smaller ones.

Marucho and Shun keep getting new Bakugan. I'd have enjoyed it if the original 6 Bakugan returned to the team and they got Bakugan as well--namely because Ingram and Elfin were the only good "replacement" Bakugan for Marucho and Shun. The girls can just have their OG bakugan like Dan, or they could have two (their OG and a new one) like Shun and Marucho--though I guess technically Marucho would have 3 because of Angelo/Diablo.

Why is it that only some Bakugan can talk while the rest only let out animalistic? I kinda wish they all could talk, as well as not having duplicate bakugan with different elements.

The Vexos needed more backstories and didn't have to die. For a kids' show, this felt like a needlessly grim fate for them--and an annoying one if you grew up with the English dub, since they're just lost in another dimension rather than dead. It's Yu-Gi-Oh all over again--except the original and 5Ds had every right to be that dark. They could've just been imprisoned and we could've learned about more of them outside of Spectra and Gus. I really loved Lync and Alice, as well as Shadow and Mylene's chemistry, as well as the parallels between Volt and Baron.

Ingram's gender. This is more of a dub issue. To my understanding, Ingram is male, though in the dub, he was referred to as female for the first half of the anime with a female voice actor, and then male in the later half with a male voice actor. I'd be fine if he was NB or genderfluid, though if I had to pick between male and female, I'd prefer if he was male, given that Shun already had Skyress as a mother-figure, and Ingram could represent Shun's insecurities.

No one's gonna explain that moment between Drago and Percival in episode 26 of "New Vestroia"? That's the most surprising rivalry-turned-(almost) romance I've ever seen.

"Gundalion Invaders" was basically "New Vestroia" but with less interesting characters.