Mila Ivanov, 17

I might do the white tigers or some of the metal saga characters for head canons next if I can get some good ideas in, I wasn't able to brainstorm another fic but I'd love to hear any recs so I can use them as a jumping off point

Head canons under the cut :3

I love that Rising showed him actually dressing like a regular teenager when he wasn't blading. I love that he's eccentric enough to have a whole persona and outfit just for blading and he'll change into it beforehand.

Keeping his beyblading skills aside, like physically he is so strong. In V-force, he matches up with the driving speed of cars on a bicycle TWICE, he literally runs the length of half a town within minutes.

Even with Kendo, his grandfather is a Kendo master (you can’t get the license to teach or run a dojo unless you get to a certain level, trust me I’ve done plenty research) and Takao is often shown to outsmart him during training, landing direct hits on him. This also proves that he definitely knows how to strategise, to land a hit on your opponent in kendo, takes not just strength but concentration and quick thinking.

During the abducted island part, his ankle breaks pretty early on in the arc but he actually does suppress all of that pain and is hyperactive and goes on to battle through all of it AND WIN mind you 😤 He also has to be held back so many times when he gets angry, like everyone just knows he’d throw a few punches and start a fight (that he will 100% finish).

And I was just watching the first episode of Grev yesterday and I realised that when Daichi shows up with his unconventional way of battling outside of the Beystadium, there are two moments that make Kai smile. First is when Daichi taunts Takao about not wanting to step outside his comfort zone, Takao immediately takes up his challenge and commands Dragoon to follow Gaia Dragoon up the hill. Kai sees this and smirks at how easily Takao has kept up with Daichi. Next when Takao is struggling against Gaia Dragoon’s attack, Kai advises him to focus on the beyblade itself - and sure it’s Kai who points him in the right direction, but the one who comes up with the strategy to use Daichi’s own play against him and totally destroy him in the match is Takao. That’s why Kai smiled when Takao wins because he knows that Takao is just that strong, and can’t be done in with new tricks so easily.

And this is just one example, there are sooo many more.

Like does nobody ever stop to think that maybe the reason half the plot of Grev is everyone wanting to compete against Tyson and beat him to prove their own worth is because they all think Tyson is just that strong?

The only thing that actually weakens him is when his mental health takes a hit after his friends abandon him, literally the only time he hasn’t been able to battle at full strength in any of the seasons is when he the opponent in front of him was someone he considered a friend or an ally.

This also isn't to mention how he pretty seamlessly adapts to beybladers literally warping reality around him, like Tala and especially Brooklyn. One of the things I actually really appreciate a lot about Classic Beyblade is the way a lot of the themes run through a whole season, I think G-Revolution is a perfect example of this. OP mentioned the scene in episode 1 where Daichi's Gaia Dragoon is knocked out of the stadium, but he insists on continuing to battle, stating that "Where I come from, the whole world is our stadium!" and Tyson, of course has to adapt to this. But that doesn't stop after the first episode, it's a running theme throughout the whole season, with many of the stadiums they battle in during the tournament taking on the form of large and open outdoor spaces rather than standard issue dishes or even the more enclosed special stadiums in the first season. This all ends up culminating in Tyson literally having to beybattle in the sky of Brooklyn's New World where there is no ground let alone a stadium, and at that point...he just kinda does it.

Tyson's charisma levels are also off the charts if you want to get even more technical. Maybe it's more "persuasion" I'm not sure, but it's worth noting that he pretty much single handedly reformed several otherwise evil or shady beybladers, convincing them to stop cheating, often times while mid-battle with him, and always resulting in him winning.

This is technically a separate topic, but it's worth noting, too - if we considering the Manga continuity as canon in place of Anime Seasons that don't exist, Tyson is also the most versatile protagonist, with experience in every generation of Beyblade (Prior to X) as per the Beyblade Rising Manga where he and the OG's experience Beyblade Burst, and the Metal Fight system wouldn't have existed without the HMS. But I digress, I'm really just geeking out here because I have a deep appreciation for OG.

Volkov used Kai.

Daitenji used Kai.

And Yuriy used Kai...

Yuriy knew about Volkov's plans and so Neoborg entered into the World Championships in order to stop Volkov. Yuriy's goal was to become champion so that he could interfere with BEGA before it even got started... In order to ensure his victory, Yuriy reached out to Kai to join them so they could use his strength and guarantee they'd make it to the top. All this right after Kai had said:

No matter what Kai does, no matter what path he travels, even when he thinks he's in control (in this case using Yuriy to get to Takao) Kai's decisions have NEVER been his own.

In the moment Kai joins with BEGA, Kai is MAD, and I think the choice comes as completely irrational. But he's so SICK of everyone using him.

So fuck them all.

He'll use BEGA to fight Takao again.

https://www.corocoro.jp/title/383

Most chapters you can read for free. However, the last chapter is, unfortunately, paywalled.

Tala used to be TALL. He was almost as tall as Spencer in season one:

and then puberty hit Bryan and Spencer like a transfer truck going 90 between season one and season three:

Like seriously, I can suspend my disbelief that okay, maybe something happened with Ivan and he couldn’t be at the tournament with them

But what happened to Boris and Sergey??? The only possible excuse I can think of is they are /also/ in a coma at the same time and thus are actually unable to go see Yuriy (because again, there is no way they would not be there every second for him otherwise).

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. 

“I need money.”

“For what?”

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).