im going on a dragon striker rant. Spoilers if you have not watched the series.
I've been rewatching Dragon Striker and I genuinely think one of the most frustrating parts of the show isn't the opposing teams and their whole shticks.
It's the freaking teachers.
Kal Asterock is supposed to be a school that teaches children how to use incredibly dangerous Tamas safely. Either in Gorotama or using somewhere else. ( Tbh tho we have no idea what the heck kids who aren't in Gorotama are doing so I have no idea how they're using their tamas in that instance. )
Instead, half the teachers seem more interested in old grudges, winning matches, or proving themselves right than actually teaching. The biggest victim of this is Key. This is a 12 year old farm kid who arrives at Kal Asterock knowing almost nothing about his own Tama or even his own mother.
Literally a while ago He didn't know his mom attended Kal Asterock. He didn't know she was the Dragon Striker. And worst part is, he doesn't know until a while later what happened to her. And even then sugoi straight up lied to him by omission and he had to learn the truth from freaking Sunspear of all people!!
When key blows up his room after awakening his tama, the other teachers don't think " hey this kid obviously has struggled with his tama and clearly from what we know he hasnt been taught before. Maybe we should have someone teach him one on one."
NOPE!! Expell him immediately
Sugoi has to come in and state the obvious that he hasn't been taught before, and his tama would be more dangerous outside Kal asterock as he would then be around a bunch of normal people who have no way to defend.
When the teachers concede and sugoi is tasked with training him ( btw that short amount of time they give him, which was like what 2 days, was not enough time!!) She doesnt really help at all. All she does is put a enormous fake burden on his chest, and tell him domination is the way.
All she does is tell him to do it again and again and again. She keeps pushing him and eventually even snaps at him that she's stuck his neck out for him. Like bro!! You brought him here in the first place!! It was your great idea to tell him about his mom, bring him to Kal asterock,and not even train him a bit before hand.
She even compares him to his mother in frustration, and just leaves. Which leaves key so frustrated and hopeless cause he's now holding a tremendous fake legacy and he thinks he cant live up to it. Which isn't helping when he's already losing control of his tama sugoi!!
Sunspear is somehow EVEN worse. He's carrying years of trauma and resentment toward Edina, but instead of recognizing Key as a child who wasn't taught or as a separate person from his mother, he projects everything onto him.
In ep 11 after key runs off horrified by what happened he literally runs up to him, grabs him and holds him in the air and trauma dumps on this poor kid. Telling him that his mother wasn't a hero but a monster. When keys dad rightfully tells Sunspear to back off and that his grudge isn't with key, Sunspear says " it is now."
Before all that, Sunspear tells Casper and Callista to go after Key during the match. Key loses control of his Tama because he's literally being attacked and almost killed, Casper gets horribly burned, and somehow Sunspear acts like Key alone is responsible.
The adult who encouraged escalating the fight never seems to acknowledge that his own choices contributed to what happened.
Key was fighting back against someone who has already tried to hurt him multiple times. Plus casper literally said " why don't you join her" about keys dead mom!! So of course key is pissed and rightfully fighting back, especially after Casper both threw him into the ground so hard it caused a crater, and then threw him in the air and held him up against the stadium cage ceiling.
Mara isn't much better. She's so obsessed with taking down the Knights that she's willing to use her vines to painfully restrain literal children. Even the other teachers tell her to stop because she's going too far. Even freaking Sunspear. Which is ironic cause dude does similar shit to her literally the next episode.
Sanga has spent who knows how many years around kids with powerful Tamas, yet when Key's destructive Dragon Tama goes out of control, his first response isn't "protect the students" or "help contain him." He runs away, furious about his princess crown diadem, leaving the kids to deal with it.
And this isn't just about Key. Sunspear pressures his own players to play dangerously. Sanga threatens to replace his own captain. The students intimidate each other, invade and ransack each other's rooms, slam each other into walls, throw each other around arenas with their tamas... and the teachers rarely seem interested in shutting that shit down, teaching healthy control of power or sportsmanship.
Just so you know I absolutely don't think these characters are badly written. I think they're written as deeply flawed adults whose unresolved trauma and rivalries constantly spill onto the next generation ie the players who btw ( are fucking 12 to 16!! ).
The problem is that the kids end up paying the price pretty much every time. Honestly, every adult in this school failed key and the others. These kids are gonna graduate thinking this is normal behavior. Key is holding so much more than a 12 year old kid should ever have to handle.
He's not gonna be able to trust people. He can't trust his own dad cause his dad knew about everything!! He didn't tell him anything about his mom, it was sugoi and Sunspear who had to spill the beans. When sugoi told key in the first ep about the basics of his mother, that should've been his dad doing that!!
Now don't get me wrong, his dad clearly loves key and I don't think at all telling key immediately the truth of what happened with Edina would've helped him in the long run. It should've been revealed to him gradually. How his mom had a tama, how she was a Gorotama player, how she was the dragon striker, a bit about her death, and later on tell him the truth of his mom's death. This should've been told to him before and a bit after he went to Kal asterock.
sugoi literally seems only interested in key because of his mom and his tama. She plays favorites all the time barely giving any other kids the time of day. Unless it's yelling at ragno.
Look I get that Gorotama is solely based on having tamas that can be dangerous to use against other players so of course it's gonna be a lot of violent and of course this is gonna affect how the teams and players treat each other. But seriously, where's the regulations!?
Casper in ep 11 doesnt even kick the ball he just goes straight for key and starts beating the shit out him. Literal 16 year old ragno at his big age decides. Aight imma leave this 12 year old kid to fall off the eyrie. Even his own teammates are like bro this has gone to far. This is actually attempted murder by ragno and by extension the other players. They should've gotten way more consequences than just a scolding by sugoi. They're lucky he didn't actually fall and die!
Key needs to go on his villain arc my god.
also are we all excited for Thursday eeeeee
