#it'd be cool to see other characters have arcs as character arcs are so integral to s2

[instantblizzardmaker]

imagine it, diaspro ends season 1 as an antagonist, but her malice is born of being hurt by sky then in season 2 she gets her charmix after she realizes her self worth and forgives bloom and becomes an allied force

[the-lone-witch-and-secret-room]

If I may ask, do you have anything else planned for Alador and Odalia in Locked Out, and do you plan on incorporating elements from the actual series with them (Alador being an inventor, for instance)? I ask because given how badly they screwed these two characters up in the finale, it'd be cool to see them done better, especially given how well you wrote them in the chapter where Ed and Em leave the manor.

Sorry for not answering this ask sooner, I’ve been super busy :/

I’ve got exams at the end of the month but after I’ll hopefully finally get back to Locked Out, lol.

I do have some more stuff planned for Alador and Odalia that’s going to be very different from what the show did for a variety of reasons, including character consistency. I did say at the end of chapter eight, and I’m sticking to that: they will not be getting a redemption arc. I want the main focus of that specific storyline to be on the kids beginning to grapple with the abuse they’ve experienced and how they each deal with it—but I’m not just going to pretend that because the twins aren’t living at Blight manor anymore, their parents have just disappeared into thin air.

How much of the new stuff I integrate into the fic regarding this topic (and any others) very much depends on how well it fits into the already existing story and whether it adds anything to change that specific aspect, so we’ll see.

[gronjon44]

Ok so thoughts on MK-2021

I was gonna make a longer more spoilery review but I'm gonna cut it short cause there's one big thing I wanna talk about (so let's bullet point

Kano is and always will be one of my favorite characters in the MK Franchise (with Reptile, Barakka, Noob Saibot, and Scorpion) His character felt like it should and while I originally would've wanted to see Karl Urban as Kano I do really like Josh Lawsons performance.

Lui Kang and Kung Lao were really fun to watch, Lui especially (I'm not fully familiar with Kung Lao so I won't talk about him too much other then the fact I think he's neat)

I'll kinda consider this a ⚠️⚠️SPOILER⚠️⚠️ so if you wanna skip this whole bullet point snd the next one after; The villains were all awesome in this film (Reptile was awesome to see quick as it may have been, Mileena was fucking AWESOME, Reiko and Nitarra were... there? (I don't know either of them so they were just kinda canon fodder to me), Kabal was cooler then I thought he'd be (though I wanted more)

Gorro was awesome to see but he felt... underused? I'll go more into detail at the end.

Jax was alright but I never knew much about him then and I still don't

Sonya Blade was fine until the end and she just kinda felt... crammed in? Like yeah yeah know she has more in the games and she had a presence in the original 95 film, and she was an integral part of the story all the way through till the end but then she *spolier *spoiler *spoiler* with *insert name here* and she just felt like a thematic paper weight at the end.

Scorpion and Sub Zero were FANTASTIC and i have no complaints with either (at least not directly)

Raiden was there and he was played by Tadanobu Asano (of Thor) and was a MUCH NEED improvement over Christopher Lambert

And then Cole Young...⚠️SPOLIER BTW⚠️

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(I'm doing this in a smaller font to get everything I wanna say) I wanna like his character more I do, and i have nothing against Lewis Tan he's a phenomenal actor, but Cole Young is a weird character for this film.

Hes both underutalized and at the same time completely unnecessary to the plot.

Lewis Tan is the decendant of Hanzo Hasashi (Scorpion) after all of Hanzos family was murdered by Sub Zero, say for one orphaned daughter; throughout the film he's hyped to have this big connection to Scorpion (through glimpses of a Kunai surrounded by far to even Cole seeing Hanzo in visions) and later on we see that each champion has a special power, and Coles "power" is supposedly passed down to him by his familial ties to Scorpion.

Now, from that description I'm sure you'd think Cole would gain the Hellish abilities Scorpions known for, or even his retractable Kunai, but NO, instead he gets these wrapping all across his body that act as a sort of shield to protect him and absorb incoming damage (its basically the Black Panther suit)

He also has a set of Tonfas (one of which is bladed) that appear when he needs them

Now I should point out that early on in the film it's shown to the audience that Cole is a struggling boxer trying to support his family, and if you look you can see these wrapping across his body are reminiscent of the boxing wrappings he put on his ha ds prior to a fight. But here's the thing... WHAT DOES HIM BEING A BOXER HAVE TO DO WITH HIS TIES TO HANZO?

You can argue it shows us he's always had a connection to tournament fighting, and yeah that's valid, but it doesn't change the fact that he and Scorpion don't really share a connection.

He unlocks his armor while fighting Gorro who was sent to hunt both him and his family (which frankly is such a waste of Gorro on it's own but I'll get to that in a minute)

When we see Cole get hit in his armor it glows a Hellish red, similar to the fires of Scorpions Hell based powers, but that's as far as it goes and it shows that the armor has absolutely nothing to do with their connection

If you wanted these two to share a bond in their powers, why not have Cole dress in clothes inspired by Scorpion, and then have his powers be hell based or have him control a mystical Kunai, and maybe have the soul of Hanzo watch over him

And this ties into both of the fights that Cole takes part in (Gorro and Sub Zero)

His fight with Gorro is cool, but Gorro isn't the same menace as he was in 95; he's a goon for Shang Tsung and that's it (they refer to him as a prince but even then he's mostly just a lackey, similar to Sub Zero and Scorpion were in the 95 film) And ⚠️SPOLIER⚠️ Gorro gets fucking wrecked.

And even then there is no stakes between them, other then his family might die; these two don't know each other, they have no beef, hell to Cole I bet Gorro is just a big monster.

And this is where the missed opportunity was with Sub Zero; Sub Zero HAS history with Cole there IS a beef between them (even if Cole isn't fully aware of it) but there final fight is just kinda... meh.

Sub Zero and Cole have a full fight (Sub-Z using his ice powers and Cole with his armor and Tonfas) and throughout the fight it looks like Cole might lose; that is until he cuts himself on a Kunai Raiden gave him (it was the original Kunai that belonged to Hanzo when he died) and his blood beint spilled on that blade actually SUMMONS Hanzo FROM the depths of Hell to help win the fight.

They win, Sub Zero dies, Hanzo is laid to rest blah blah blah.

Now, all of that sounds like a REALLY AWESOME IDEA in writing.

The problem is that it goes LITTERALLY NOWHERE WHEN THEY USED IT

Up until this point there is no physical evidence that shows Cole is Hanzos decendant, hell you could argue that Lui Kang is his decendant and it'd make more sense.

Cole's entire arc has been nullified by the simple fact that there is no physical evidence to show the two are related, and this whole blood feud with Sub Zero is kinda useless.

Now I'd like to propose an alternative plot point to fix this if you'll bare with me

Again, another ⚠️⚠️⚠️MASSIVE SPOLIER⚠️⚠️⚠️

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Shang Tsung kills Kung Lao in front of Lui Kang, basically setting off that entire arc like the 95 film. Now, here's the alternative I'd like to suggest.

Shang Tsung isn't the one to kill Kung Lao, Gorro is.

Gorro is ordered by Shang Tsung to kill Kung Lao after he ⚠️SPOLIER⚠️ kills Natarra.

And instead of killing off Gorro have him leave with Shang Tsung and the two return to Outworld and Lui Kang is left with a dead Kung Lao.

And to Parralell this, instead of Gorro fighting Cole, have a prelude fight between Cole and Sub Zero, one where Sub Zero actually DOES KILL Coles family (they didn't even die in the film so there)

Sub Zero can battle Cole, Cole can discover his powers, and Sub Zero (in a panic) can just fuckint destroy his whole house with his family inside by summoning a giant ice glacier inside the house.

This in turn adds more weight to the final fight between Sub Zero, Cole and Scorpion; Cole lost his family to Sub Zero, just like Hanzo did before him. And when Cole summons Scorpion in the climax it holds more weight because TWO GENERATIONS OF THE SHIRAI RYU CLAN avenging the deaths of their families in that instant.

And as for Lui Kang make him the main fighter of the ACTUAL TOURNAMENT (they don't even do the tournament in this film they just kinda talk about it) and have Lui battle Gorro for the Title of MK Champion.

Well... that was a long post. I think I'll end it here by saying that while i do have beefs with the film I still want to make it clear I don't hate jt, in fact I genuinely enjoy it.

I just... have some criticisms.

[mach-speed-spin]

If G-Rev was longer (like being 2 seasons), it'd probably be a lot better. As is, the world championship has to simultaneously juggle 4 big rivalries for Takao, the Barthez Soldat's subplot, and Daichi's existence, on top of the round robin format forcing every matchup to happen, even if there's no good reason narratively (like F-Sangre vs the PPB). That's enough material for a whole season, but it can't be as developed as it should due to the BEGA happening in the same season. If we keep G-Rev as a single season, a lot has to be cut out of the world championship to prevent it from being as bloated (since a lot of my fixes rely on making the series go on for at least 1 more season)

Get rid of F-Sangre and most returning characters. Trim down every team to 2 characters only, plus an optional coach/ mechanic (which would be Kenny for the BBA and Judy for the PPB, no other team has one). Daichi can stay since he's integral to Takao's arc. Focus on Takao's relationships with his former teammates, him adapting to his new team (Daichi), and the Barthez Soldat as a leadup to Volkov's return

Getting rid of the Justice 5 matches is an odd decision, but I can see it working. It's just that a Hades City break-in might not work since BEGA is in a regular building and not a flying nuclear city, so the aspect of "we´re breaking into a highly guarded fortress" is lost (unless...). Maybe a team battle with 10 beys in the stadium at once? A 5v5 would probably highlight the power of friendship really well

I agree entirely on Brooklyn's character. I'd add more but I can't think of anything you haven't said already

"Cut it with that attitude of being Cool and Edgy." Personally, I suggest the opposite. Go so hard on the edginess that it loops back around, while making it abundantly clear this is still Beyblade. MFB remains my favorite gen vibes/aesthetic wise, in large part thanks to how ham it went with the existence of beyblade gods, demonic possession, beyblade nukes, and Moses. Make G-Rev extremely edgy. Have characters get visibly injured fighting for their lives, and make sure the audience knows it's with spinning tops. It doesn't have to be "Ryuga fucking dies" level, but still lean into the edgier aspects of Beyblade

ok so uh. here's my Big List Of Changes I'd Make To Bakuten Shoot Beyblade. off the top of my head.

s1:

be less 🤨 about some of the one-off teams. racism in beyblade is a whole can of worms that i don't feel super confident in talking about overall (seeing as how i am well. very much white) but at the very least there's a couple things that stand out as questionable and this is definitely the easiest fix in regards to that

that's about it

v-force/2002:

WHY THE HELL IS EVERYONE LIKE NOTICEABLY PALER. give them some fucking sun jfc (this also applies to g-rev)

this is one of the larger ones but include atleast an episode or two showing teams from s1. in particular i'm imagining neo-borg early on (see ozma defeating yuriy in the manga), the ppb team during the america eps, and. ok i'm admittedly not sure how you'd work baihuzu and the euro team in there but whatever

psykick should not exist. make zagart be responsible for everything from the start and call him out on all of the fucked up shit he's responsible for

instead of doing a bunch of random goon episodes make them do silly filler things with Maybe a goon thrown in at the end

g-revolution:

rubs hands together. there's a LOT to go over here for starters either treat daichi better or don't include him at all. if you were to opt to remove him then have kyojyu fight alongside takao instead

i don't actually know what to do with the world tournament but it definitely needs a full overhaul. on one hand the character balancing was doomed from the start but also i do kind of wish team cybers was there.

on the topic of the world tournament remove tao entirely. we did not fucking need the "pervy old man" archetype in beyblade. who the fuck thought that was not only okay but necessary

MAKE BARTHEZ SOLDAT MORE RELEVANT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD THEY'RE ONE OF LIKE TWO INTERESTING THINGS HAPPENING.

speaking of which lean more into takao's struggles with fame

let kai and yuriy be anything more than Edgy. let them have depth. please. (i know yuriy did get to have depth for a bit but in his case i mean during the world tournament)

ideally i think takao vs kai, and really takao's battles with all of his teammates, would be a showcase of how far they've come since the start of the series. call back to their first encounters, show how they've changed, all of that stuff.

and speaking of kai. oh boy. time for the bega arc. for a long ass time i struggled to think of a reason for kai to join, but i think i've got it. after not only his loss to takao but possibly other fights during the world tournament, kai genuinely feels like he's falling behind. volkov takes advantage of this and while kai ultimately knows not to trust him, he's desperate.

this then ties into his conflict with brooklyn. brooklyn is in a similar position to how kai used to be at the start of the show, albeit less uh. Violent. so, kai not only learns how to deal with his own conflict, but also helps brooklyn deal with that same inevitability of burnout.

also, remove the whole aspect of brooklyn not enjoying beyblading because i can definitely see why the beyblade anime would be hesitant to have a character quit beyblading because they fucking hate it. this also fully allows the moral of brooklyn's story to change from "just work hard lol" to "you will never be perfect, and that's okay."

god dammit this could also tie into takao abandoning what the media and public expect of him i just now realized this one IT'S ALL COMING TOGETHER I TELL YA.

you know the clip that's like "you're taking everything i say out of context to make it sound like i think coolsville sucks" and they cut it down to "i think coolsville sucks". i want more of that vibe

here's probably The most major change. the justice 5 matches? to hell with that. instead go for a hades city-style break in, allowing everyone to showcase their own unique strengths even outside of beyblading, and letting all of the main characters win their own respective fights.

and lastly, and this is the most crucial thing: cut it with that attitude of being Cool and Edgy. you are a fucking beyblade anime, embrace that! stop trying to act like you're Above power of friendship and silly spinning tops! have some fucking whimsy in your life.

oh also i guess like. acknowledge sacred beasts existing even if they're not really plot relevant. i kind of forgot about that