Free De La Hoya

is a character appearing in the anime/manga series, Beyblade Burst Evolution. He was initially the leader of Spanish team BC Sol until he left and became a member of the American team, the Raging Bulls. He eventually returned to Spain and rejoined BC Sol as its leader. Currently, he is a member of the Big Five. His current Beyblade is Geist Fafnir 8'Proof Absorb. He was the world's Number 1 Blader until he had his first loss to Lui Shirosagi. However in Episode 47, he defeats Lui Shirosagi in the International Blader's Cup to regain his title. In Episode 50, he forfeits his match with Valt Aoi due to the injuries in his right arm.

He returned in Episode 25 of Beyblade Burst Turbo, with his new Turbo Bey, Geist Fafnir 8'Proof Absorb. In Episode 43, it was destroyed during his battle with Phi.

Appearance
Free has a fair complexion, and spiked and messy orange hair with a red streak running through it. His eyes are dark and his pupils aren't visible. Free dresses casually with a loose yellow tank-top and light brown jeans, showing how he doesn't care much about his appearance. On his left arm, he wears a long, dark teal finger-less glove that is fastened with a brown belt and golden buckle. Attached to the belt of his pants is a small brown satchel, as well as his yellow launcher with a white and black grip.

In Turbo, Free appears taller, and his yellow shirt now has turquoise stripes on the shoulder straps and front and the right side has two shoulder straps: a horizontal one and a vertical one with a button. He no longer wears his satchel, his originally completely brown belt has been replaced with a brown belt with a white stripe and golden rectangular buckle, and his shoes have been replaced with blue boots with loose tongues, red stripes, and white soles.

Personality
Free is very lazy and carefree. Because of this, he doesn't do much of anything in Beybattles. Free also doesn't use his launcher against the other members of BC Sol very often, preferring to spin his Bey with his hand; although he uses his launcher when facing skilled bladers.

As the strongest blader in the world (before Valt and Lui), he is well-versed in the strengths and weaknesses of beyblades. This is shown when he points out what Roktavor R3 is capable of doing, and suggests ways to improve Rantaro Kiyama's skills. Free is often seen with a bored expression and his head tilted to the left slightly, and is uninterested in most things since he is the most powerful blader and doesn't see them as challenging. He is very popular among other bladers due to his skills.

In his spare time, Free often sits around throwing his beyblade up and catching it, or visiting an old bey stadium in the forest with a deer nearby. He has a noticeable fondness for animals, as he smiles more often when he spots the deer curiously watching him. He also noticeably smiles more later on in the series.

Free is noticeably more fit and athletic than the other members of BC Sol, as he is able to do 100 sprints without breaking into a sweat and can move a boulder with a rope.

It is noted by Rantaro Kiyama and Valt Aoi that Free can be sarcastic or rude occasionally, ignoring what his teammates are saying or throwing slight insults towards his opponents. He also doesn't care about being late to important events. When he doesn't find anyone worthy of his time, Free is not afraid of simply leaving, even if he is team captain.

Free is shown to have never shaken hands with anyone until his battle with Shasa Guten, showing how his attitude about Blading is slowly changing. This may be because his loss to Lui Shirosagi made him realize the importance of treating other bladers with respect.

Free is shown to train very hard to have a stronger launch and fight more fiercely. In his battle with Valt he pushes himself to get enough strength to battle at 100% strength. However, he uses too much energy, and ends up injuring himself, making Kristina pick up Fafnir due to the pain in his right arm which was later plastered.

Beyblade Burst Evolution (anime)
Free appears in episode 2, watching over Valt, Rantaro, and the rest of BC Sol for their recruitment and practice selection for the upcoming World League. In episode 3, he battles Valt and Rantaro, easily defeating them with Drain Spin, his special move that absorbs their attacks. He later defeats the rest of BC Sol.

In episode 34, he battles Silas in the third round. At first, he's stunned when Silas nullifies Drain Spin, but relaxes once Fafnir's layers are slowly damaging Satomb and wins with a Burst Finish. Lui shows up, exciting his battle aura from the stands. He offers to battle for the Raging Bulls again after Valt defeats Joshua in the fourth match. Joshua's attempts to be in the fifth round slowly enrages him and he randomly tries to pick himself before Joshua pushes him to the side. In episode 35, he's considerably angry with Joshua for losing the match and leaves the Raging Bulls.

In episode 37, he battles Lui again. The two tie six times. In the seventh match, Lui's Dragon Crash eventually overwhelms Fafnir, causing a Burst Finish and as a result, Free suffers his first ever defeat in the series.

In episode 38, he returns to BC Sol after losing to Lui after Trad conveniently shows the group the battle footage of his seven battles against him. However, an angry Shasa calls him out for leaving the team after he lost with the Raging Bulls. The rest of BC Sol's antics end up causing him to exit before he can get involved. At his training spot, he catches Valt practicing and offers to be his partner. Naturally Valt accepts but Free easily wins. However, the training helped shape Genesis Valtyrek's tip, and Valt thanks Free, who is genuinely flabbergasted by Valt's actions. The next day, Shasa finds him and continues to ask him about leaving BC Sol and coming back. Free then challenges Shasa to a battle, and all of BC Sol is shocked (Free has never asked anyone to battle before). Shasa accepts, but keeps on losing, however demands rematch after rematch. Inspired by her dedication, Free advises her to improve her launch skill. It works, and her Gaianon G2 is able to last longer against his Drain Fafnir before she loses again. This time, she thanks him and offers a handshake. Valt steps him to guide him, but Free's inability to understand has the rest of his teammates facefaulting and then laughing. Happy, he places a earnest smile. Afterwards, he hides in Kris' office as the rest of BC Sol search for him.

In episode 41, he enters the International Blader's Cup. Offscreen, he defeats Ren Wu 2-0 and in episode 43 he faces off against Joshua, his former teammate. Joshua uses a new special move to counter Free's Drain Spin, shocking him as his bey runs out of stamina. However, Joshua's overconfidence spikes in the next match, but an uninterested Free watches as Fafnir survives Joshua's Cyclone Counter and causes a Burst Finish instead. After defeating Xander and Silas, Free faces off against Lui again. This time, he defeats Lui and reclaims his title as the Number 1 Blader.

In the semi-finals, Free faces Valt and claims the lead. However, all the training he did and the power he used put too much strain on his right arm and he was forced to forfeit the match due to his injuries. After this, Free spends the rest of the Tournament helping Valt's friends train him for the battle against Shu.

Beyblade Burst Turbo (anime)
Free appears in the 25th episode with his new Turbo Bey, Geist Fafnir 8'Proof Absorb, which he created with Raul. In this time, he was shown battling Valt in a flashback and he also meets Aiger Akabane, who also ran into his deer, and defeats him in two beybattles. When Valt builds a new Cho-Z Valkyrie Beyblade to replace the one Aiger destroyed, Free helped him master it.

In episode 43, during his match with Phi, his bey was broken by the latter's dark power. He was unable to believe it and became angry and upset.

Beyblades

 * Fafnir F3 8 Nothing: Free's primary Beyblade in Beyblade Burst Evolution.
 * Geist Fafnir 8' Absorb: Free's primary Beyblade in Beyblade Burst Turbo.
 * Geist Fafnir 8'Proof Absorb: Free's primary Beyblade in Beyblade Burst Turbo with the Proof Disc Frame added until it was destroyed by Phi.

Special Moves

 * Drain Spin: Fafnir takes the opponent's attack and absorbs it with its rubber on its Energy Layer giving it more speed and power while damaging the opponent.
 * Nothing Break: Free launches with so much power that the downforce generated causes Fafnir to stick to the center of the stadium and deflect attacks. The downforce causes the base of the Nothing Performance Tip to push in, eventually making the base flat and giving Fafnir a big boost of speed and power to attack with serious force.
 * Geist Spin: Fafnir uses the power it drained from its opponent or the power of Free's launch to retract the rubber blades, becoming a circle to create a tornado to counterattack.
 * Geist Claw: Fafnir uses the speed from the Absorb Performance Tip and the metal on its Energy Layer to rip at the opponent with a powerful claw.
 * Absorb Break: Using the power from an opponent's attack and its own spin power, Fafnir's Absorb Performance Tip pushes all the way down to increase its speed for a powerful attack.
 * Geist Counter: Fafnir falls on the floor of the Beystadium and uses its Proof Disc Frame to balance itself and drift around to increase speed and power to counterattack.

Kristina Kuroda
As kids, Kristina and Free were close to each other. They always used to battle each other when they were kids. Kristina always cared about Free, and they had a positive relationship. An example of this is when Free had injured himself and Kristina helped him retrieve his Bey, showing how she worries for his health.

Valt Aoi
Free never thought much of Valt when they first met. Kristina explained how he held his own against Lui Shirosagi in the final battle of the Individual Tournament, but Free explained "a loss is a loss in my book". However, after seeing Valt's Spring Attack, Free noticed that Valt wasn't as bad as he thought. The two remained on good terms with each other since then; and before leaving to join the Raging Bulls, Free gave Valt permission to use his special beystadium hidden in the forest. It was later revealed that Free believed Valt had the potential to make BC Sol a better team, which was one of the reasons why he left.

Towards the end of season 2, when he was forced to forfeit their match in the International Blader's Cup due to injury, Free admitted to Valt that even though he lost, he still had fun, having finally understood what he meant.

In Beyblade Burst Turbo, Free and Valt are still on good terms with one another, evidenced by when Free warned him about Aiger Akabane's possessed behavior, and later offered to help Valt master his new Cho-Z Valkyrie Zenith Evolution Bey. Valt later attempted to avenge Free after his Geist Fafnir was destroyed by Phi in a battle.

Joshua Burns
When Free and Joshua met, they were good friends. They were also on the same team, and remained on good terms. However, when Joshua lost to Silas Karlisle and then Valt Aoi, Free was disappointed and left the team. When they battled later on, Joshua's new move, Guard Twist stopped Free's Drain Spin, much to Free's shock. However, Joshua was overconfident and lost the battle.

Silas Karlisle
Silas had the most potential of beating Free but never won. Free also noticed Silas's skills and thought he was a good blader. After the International Blader's Cup, Silas was promoted to the Big Five, along with Free, Valt, Lui, and Shu Kurenai.

Shasa Guten
Free had never shaken hands with anyone until Shasa Guten. When Shasa called him out for abandoning his teammates, Free demanded for a battle with her. Although Shasa lost, Free congratulated her and shook hands with her. He fixed her launch skills as well. It is also revealed that Free was the one who observed Shasa's match against Royals in the World League.

Lui Shirosagi
Both bladers share a long rivalry between them. After Free lost to Lui, he worked hard so he could get his revenge, ultimately beating him at the end of the Individual Tournament. He was shocked after losing to him, as it meant he was weaker than Lui.

Shu Kurenai
Shu and Free were bitter rivals with each other, and Shu was always determined to beat Free and become a better blader than him. But after losing to Free, he became much harder on himself, and much angrier at the top blader, who didn't seem to care. Free's defeat and dismissing comments to Shu were the driving force that caused him to become Red Eye. Shu also called out Free for leaving BC Sol, thinking he was disloyal. As Shu grows stronger after the World League, Free grows interested in battling him.

Gallery
For a full gallery of images of Free, see Free De La Hoya/Gallery.

Trivia

 * Free is a variant of Freyr (which was later modernized to Frey) who was a vanir from Norse mythology and the god of agrarian culture in some communities and also the god of fertility like most vanir. Free is also a shortening of the old English name Freeman.
 * His name is named after Oscar De La Hoya, a professional boxer that nicknamed "The Golden Boy", fitting Free's nickname.
 * He is not only the No. 1 Blader in the world, but he also won 2nd place (behind Shu) in a character poll about the most favourite character in the series.
 * Free, like Kai, is often depicted as a bored, yet skilled Beyblader with a strong sense of leadership, a high regard for honor, and an appreciation for nature. They both even share the trait of being popular among Beyblade fans and leaving their respective teams for a given reason regarding the protagonist. Unlike Kai however, Free doesn't take Beyblading as seriously until later on in the series.
 * Free is the third Beyblade character after Ryuga and Yoshio Iwayama who can launch his Beyblade with his own hand.
 * Free's habit of launching his bey with his hand may be a reference to Ryuga from the Metal Saga, who also tended to launch his Meteo L-Drago LW105LF with his hand as well, especially in Metal Masters.
 * Coincidentally, both Free's and Ryuga's Beys are dragon beys that use reverse rotation and the spin-stealing technique.
 * His birthday is November 11.
 * In Beyblade Burst Turbo Free owns a gold Level Chip on Fafnir.

Quotes

 * "A loss is a loss in my book." - Free to Kristina Kuroda
 * "Let's be honest. If I use my launcher, the battle wouldn't last that long."
 * "Hey, fun stuff." - Free to Valt Aoi
 * "I see you're having fun." - Free to Valt Aoi
 * "The real fun is when you win." - Free to Valt Aoi
 * "You are very bad at sneaking." - Free to Silas Karlisle
 * "Spread your wings, Fafnir."
 * "This is over."
 * "Can't you hear your bey?...It's asking you to free it." - Free to Valt Aoi
 * "I fly solo, but I might consider having a wingman." - Free to Joshua Burns
 * "You finally decided to show up." - Free to Lui Shirosagi
 * "NOTHING BREAK!!!!!!"
 * "'If' you beat me." - Free to Heinrich
 * “Great effort but keeping studying, A-minus.” - Free during a battle with Silas Karlisle
 * "I'm absorbing your power and finally putting to good use." - Free to Silas