DracuBatty

Anyone who’s seen it knows that Farewell Phantom Thief, episode 22 of Armored Alliance, is where everything between Storm and Ajit comes crashing down, completely established by Storm’s notorious cold line—”You mean nothing to me!”—to Ajit. What leads up to all of this starts a couple of episodes back when Storm finds out about Ajit joining the Bakugan Battle League, although it was actually Dan who signed him up without his consent. Ajit didn’t want to participate at first because like he tells the AO verbatim, he’s “not free to spend all [his] time Bakugan battling (see episode 12b of Armored Alliance, The Awesome Brawlers’ Training Camp Part 2) Boo on you, Dan. When Storm finds out, he presents this idea as an assignment for Ajit to steal the championship’s trophy. This is Ajit’s initial motivation. As the tournament progresses, he explicitly shows and tells how he wants to win for himself and for the honor of all those who he defeated, like China Riot, who originally made him change his mind about his attitude toward the Bakugan Battle League after seeing how upset she was when she lost to him for the second time. As his motivations change, so does his attitude on Bakugan brawling, especially after the conversation he has with Shun during their battle opens his eyes to affirm his identity as a brawler. This mini Bakugan League arc is very important to understanding Storm and Ajit’s relationship, which I will recap and then explain. While it happens, Storm’s reasons for having Ajit stay in the Bakugan Battle League change a lot. Like I said, at first, it was to steal the trophy. Then it became a high-stakes test to see how far Ajit had come as a Phantom Thief, the stake being that if he didn’t get it, a video showing Ajit and Pharol on their spree of robberies would play on the big screen for everyone to see. I genuinely wanna know how those pictures in the video were shot in such close up 4k, but I’m not even gonna ask. Ultimately, Ajit fails and Dan wins, which irritates me beyond words because you can’t sit here and tell me that Dragonoid, flipping PYRUS DRAGONOID WITHOUT HIS LEGENDARY ARMOR defeats a literal golden Bakugan (although I know Pharol and Auxilitaur, as much as i love them, are golden bakugan larpers because there is no way way they are GOLDEN BAKUGAN with base b-powers of 700 when these creatures are THE strongest faction in the show. I cant prove anything but I know im right. Justice for my goats man.) Anyway, Ajit should have won, but I digress. When Dan wins the trophy, Storm somehow steals everyone’s bakugan, makes himself known, and flees. When Dan and Ajit encounter and battle him in his warehouse hideout, Ajit confronts Storm in a very vital conversation to a point i will try to make. In it, we see how Ajit’s mindset is beginning to change. He’s angry, believing Storm’s true motive was to steal all of the Bakugan. First sign of him straying from his old ways. But Storm reveals for the final time, another layer of this entire mission. It was a test of loyalty—-Whether Ajit would choose the life of a brawler or a Phantom Thief. This puts poor Ajit in such a difficult spot. When Ajit met the Awesome Brawlers, particularly after seeing Dan and Drago battle, he was absolutely starstruck. He wanted to learn more about bakugan brawling. In learning more and more and becoming friends with the Awesome Brawlers, he seems to be more interested in brawling than thievery, which we now know that Storm saw as a threat to Ajit following in his footsteps like he wanted. In the end, Ajit chooses bakugan brawling and then Storm says he’s going to destroy him. Even way after, when Storm is possessed by Haavik, he carries that betrayal with him and it is what motivates him to “destroy” Ajit by the time of Farewell Phantom Thief and so on.

This episode had me rocking in my chair and screaming like a madwoman. I’m gonna connect back to why this is so important to understanding their relationship. This is a turning point in Ajit’s life because it’s when he starts to discover himself outside of who Storm raised him to be. This is the start of him forming his own path, but his internal conflict is in that he does want to stay with Storm. Again, Storm, for all intents and purposes, was his father. And Ajit says to him (paraphrasing a bit here) “I loved you when I was little, and I still love you now.” Like I mentioned in the second paragraph, even though he is abandoning his old life, he still remembers his time with Storm fondly at this moment and continues to, even when their relationship is strained. The past is bittersweet to him. Storm, however, is a whole other story. When he has that conversation with Ajit, he brings up how he raised him in his very image, how Ajit was supposed to be his masterpiece. Ajit choosing to be a brawler is portrayed as him turning from Storm, considering how everything plays out afterward, and to Storm, it’s his “masterpiece” crumbling to dirt; everything that he had done, gone with the wind. Okay. Now, it is no far fetch to say that Storm is manipulative. It’s quite explicit, actually. In P.I. Magnus, when Ajit fails to make Storm’s mark with stolen items anonymously, Storm passive-aggressively rubs it in his face, which I think is another motivator as to why Ajit wanted to finish the mark in the first place, second to being a gift to Storm for all he had done. Additionally, everything he did to get Ajit to win the Bakugan Battle League. That video is the textbook definition of blackmail and there was threat of disappointment. Within the part of the Bakugannie community that actually pays attention to the characters, there is a consensus that Storm is an awful, irredeemable, monster for what he’s done. Anyone who read farewell, phantom thief on AO3 knows that I definitely agree he’s a human failure because i wrote it. That fic is my pride and joy. But I don’t think he should be reduced to that alone because he has layers of his own that contribute to why he acts the way he does. Hear me out on this one because I can already smell some of y’all coming after me. Ajit is Storm’s pride and joy. Contradictory to what I wrote somewhere else, he doesn’t only see Ajit as a warped reflection of himself, a mold he is trying to shape to look like him. It is difficult to live a double life, especially being a Phantom Thief, and we definitely see this in Ajit in the first half of the show. Even in other medias, for example, Gabriel Agreste or Marinette Dupain-Cheng from Miraculous. It’s hard to maintain close relationships with people because you’re constantly lying to them. In Miraculous, her double life as Ladybug causes a rift between Marinette and her friends, eventually even being the reason she breaks up with Luka. For Gabriel, being Hawkmoth is the reason he could never be close to Adrien. Storm is not implied to have any sort of relevant family or loved ones, and we can assume that his life as a Phantom Thief contributes to that. He can’t maintain a relationship, so naturally, Ajit ends up being all he really had. When they met, Ajit was an orphan who couldn’t have been older than 4 or 5 years old, likely not even knowing what crime was, so it was easy to teach him how to be a thief. He was the only one whom he could hold close because he didn’t have to lie to him. With all that in mind, you could conclude that without Ajit, Storm would be a mess.

Though his social isolation can be tied to his life as a Phantom Thief, it doesn’t mean it’s something he necessarily thrives in. Chronic social isolation is extremely detrimental to a person more often than it is not. If Ajit was the first person Storm had a meaningful connection with in years, no doubt Storm won’t know how to properly have that kind of relationship, or any sort of relationship at all. So maybe deep down, he did love Ajit, but he just didn’t know how to actually love. Back to the pride and joy thing, because Ajit was basically his child, of course he wanted him to follow in his father’s footsteps. The very obvious red flag comes in how Storm got Ajit to do that. Like I said, blackmail and pressure. I really do believe such motivators that he uses spring from the fact that what he feared the most was losing Ajit. He was an isolated, enigmatic, mentally unstable man trying to hold on to what gave his life meaning, which I believe I can confidently say because when he faces Ajit in part 2 of Farewell Phantom Thief, he says something along the lines of “everything you love will be taken from you yada yada just like you were taken from me.” Pardon my sloppy paraphrasing, it’s nearly 3 in the morning as I’m writing this. Storm referring to Ajit as his masterpiece is very objectifying, but I don’t think that’s all he meant by it. He’s definitely a perfectionist, seen by how much he scrutinizes Ajit in the show. For example, he’s upset after a failed mission and tells Ajit that he will be retrained from the basics, how he didn’t want Ajit to finish the Phantom Thief mark, and literally on his debut episode, he expresses disappointment in Ajit’s performance in the ancient temple (see Phantom Thief Comes To Call, episode 5 of Armored Alliance). This perfectionism of his was an active challenge to their relationship. While Ajit likely took it as never being good enough for Storm and never knowing why, Storm probably only saw it as wanting the best for his protege. In a nutshell, Storm was not simply an evil man, but an insecure and unstable individual who brought up and broke down a child, all while being so mentally detached, he thought he was doing the right thing. He knew how to create a perfect piece of art, not raise a child.

I really hope I was able to put that into understandable English. Another aspect of Storm and Ajit’s relationship I wanted to talk about is abuse. Bakugan is a kid’s show, and much to my annoyance, I know they didn’t mean to imply this because at the end of the day, the show exists to relentlessly glaze Dan and Drago and sell toys, BUT its there whether they intended it or not.Firstly, emotional abuse. I basically just explained that in how Storm manipulated, intimidated, blackmailed, condescended and guilt-tripped Ajit in the first half of the season. Not only that, but he also definitely isolated him. No normal functioning member of society crashes an event, causes destruction, and completely disregards their surroundings all because they want to get to see somebody in person (see episode 1 of Armored Alliance, The Mysterious Boy). I’m sure Ajit is a good actor because his life is built on lying, but seeing his debut, I think it’s safe to say he doesn’t know how to properly interact with people because what the hellionte was that. Not only that, but in the second half of episode 12, when Shun shows Ajit his room at the training camp and he asks where Ajit lives, Ajit says, “My teacher and I move around alot.” So he doesn’t stay in one place long enough to actually get to know people. I don’t think Storm forces him not to talk to people, but Storm is the reason he doesn’t really get to.Second, physical abuse. This is an insane take from a Spinmaster Pokemon rip-off anime (still love it though) but I have ONE standing piece of evidence. In episode 5b, Phantom Thief Ajit, there is an end scene where Storm and Ajit are watching the museum that has the statue Ajit was supposed to steal. To summarize that episode, Ajit helps the Awesome Brawlers guard an ancient Bakugan statue that was found in the previous segment of the episode in order to steal it. He does steal it, but it ends up being a fake because the real statue was never in the building to begin with; it had been switched out as a precaution, which was revealed by Wynton at the end.In this end scene, Storm tells Ajit he still has much to learn because he was fooled, and then he reaches out to pat his head. This seems normal, but Ajit visibly flinches when it happens. As a matter of fact, his whole arm goes up over himself in defense. If that is his automatic reaction when Storm tries to touch him, then something is gravely wrong.

Moving on, as their relationship (or what’s left of it) furthers in the series, it gets worse, as in it is all over the place. In episode 43 of Armored Alliance, Storm and Ajit face each other when Storm shows up to rob a man by the name of Mr. Gold. Gold hired Ajit as… security? Why are we hiring 12 year olds as bodyguards? Anyway, what ends up happening is that Storm and Ajit get locked in a cell together by Mr. Gold. Gold wanted them to tell him where Storm’s stash of stolen valuables were, even though they were all returned by Ajit, which he doesn’t believe. Initially, he reached out to Ajit with a [VERY poor quality, cheap, temu-looking] warning note from Storm that ends up being a fake. Don’t get me wrong now, I love Ajit and all, but either he spent so much time with Dan that he now has the same amount of functioning brain cells as him, or he’s straight up colorblind because that note was BRIGHT orange, with all the graphics of Block Craft 3D and bro genuinely believed it came from Storm. Storm has a red card. Ajit spent like 8 years of his life with this man by the way... I digress. I've seen a review of this episode that claims this is closure between them but that is FAR from it. Forced in close proximity, they have to communicate. They don't have a choice. Storm is still indignant with Ajit, initially refusing to work together with him to escape. But as he watches Ajit try to figure out a way to escape, we see flashbacks of Ajit training as a child. It's so bittersweet because the end of the flashback is such a tender moment, little Ajit asleep while Storm gives him a piggyback ride home. Compare that to now, where Storm is filled with such hatred for the boy he raised. As he reflects, in the present time, he says nothing. At they end when they do escape, Storm offers to work together with him just one last time. But when it's over, Storm reestablishes that they are still enemies. Ajit, of course, is still upset and confused. And honestly, I'm confused too. Storm is very volatile. Ajit seems to be what matters most to him, back when he was his protege and even now when they are enemies because he's so focused on hurting him because Ajit betrayed him. Hes very focused on this boy, but it's kind of hard to pinpoint how he feels about Ajit for certain. Whenever there's some sort of Battle Judgement or big showdown between the AO and whatever enemy of the season they face from Armored Alliance and onward, Storm and Ajit face each other. From what I've noticed, every single time, Storm expresses his resentment for Ajit in trying to defeat him, but always tries to get Ajit back on his side. In some way, he still cares. I never said it's a good way of caring, but it's still there nevertheless.Now onto Ajit. Although Ajit is growing as a person and I guess battling with some sort of imposter syndrome from going from a thief to just a normal kid like his friends, trying his very best to do what is right, the way he responds to Storm is all backwards. It's very interesting to me. He doesn't sharply reject it. Sometimes he thinks about it. The most infamous example of this is when he faces Storm in Legends, episode 5 The First Fated Battle and Storm tells him to follow his own path, but they will meet again, that he will come back to him. And what does Ajit say? “You've got it, Master.” Two things. One, I will never get over the whole Master Storm thing because it's weird, possessive, and in my honest opinion lowkey sounds like racism. Two, I think this reveals another layer of Ajit's mental state rather than an erasure of his growth as a character. STAY WITH ME NOW.

I genuinely think its some sort of Stockholm Syndrome. We know that Storm was the only person Ajit ever had in his life until the Awesome Brawlers. As he says in Ajit and Lia, “Before that, I had nothing. No parents, no friends, nothing at all.” We also know he is a victim of emotional abuse. As much as him saying “You've got it, Master” is a BIG step backward, it also shows how he still cares about Storm because he is still emotionally attached. You have to remember, as much as Ajit carries a lot of bad memories because of Storm—the manipulation, the curry (see episode 16a of Geogan Rising, The Taste of Memories), and so on—Storm was all he had. Stockholm syndrome is the kind of thing that can arise in a situation like Ajit's. So while I do think he knows better than to go back to Storm, I think that's why he doesn't seem to be so opposed to it. So at the end of everything between them, because Bakugan Gen 2 is over, we are left with Ajit's perpetual internal conflict because of what can be seen as Stockholm Syndrome and Storm still miserably trying to manipulate and hold onto Ajit because while he says he wants to destroy Ajit, he probably just can't accept the fact that Ajit is actually letting go of him. But of course, because of who he is, he does not take it like a normal person.I REALLY wanna talk about what Storm meant by “destroying” Ajit but I think that's gonna make me tack on another 1000 words and I will lose the plot yet restate everything I just said. My biggest problem with their arc, while it is one of my favorites, is obvious. Man of Action wrote a literary MASTERPIECE and had no idea what to do with it. Again, I know im overanalyzing everything because like I said, this show only exists to sell toys and relentlessly glaze Dan and Drago, but like AAUUGGGGHHHH. They never got closure. We never saw any more of Ajit's childhood. We don't actually know what Storm and Ajit’s relationship was like outside of thievery. They never get closure. Their interactions past Armored Alliance make absolutely NO sense because we can analyze all we want, but the show never actually reveals where they stand in how they feel about each other and the real reason they say and do the things they do. I can write about them all i want, but at the end of the day, they're not gonna talk about abuse and Stockholm syndrome in a kid's show. Only France and Canada do that. But bakugan is Japanese-Canadian… bro they should have made Thomas Astruc write this show 😭 I DIGRESS. Bakugan, do better. Okay I think im done now.