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duhragonball · 8 months

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Dragon Ball Super Movie 1: Broly (2/3)

Well, enough of that flashback stuff. Let's move on to the present.

So after the destruction of Planet Vegeta, uh all of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball Super happened. This is kind of a weak point for this movie, because it's story is rooted in Goku's origin tale, but the climax takes place when Goku's a middle-aged man, so a lot of lore has happened in between. There's a similar thing going on when Raditz and Frieza show up in DBZ, and when Broly made his debut in the 1993 film, but Goku was 24-30 in those stories, so it wasn't quite as big a strain.

The thing is, the stuff we had to skip over was extremely important, and the movie simply can't go over all of it. If someone who knew nothing about Dragon Ball watched this thing, they would probably think that this is a story about Goku and Vegeta trying to avenge their people by defeating Frieza, except that already got dealt with in 1991. Goku, Vegeta, and Frieza have each been killed and resurrected... twice. This movie doesn't have time to explain all their baggage, much less how Goku and Vegeta became pals. So no one even tries to fill in the audience on who this big purple cat man is. You either saw Battle of Gods or you just have to roll with it.

And you know what? Good. No one was there to explain Ox King or Mr. Popo to me when I first got into this thing. I've been watching this stuff for a quarter century, and I still don't know what the fuck Tien's third eye is all about. Context is for the weak.

Anyway, this scene takes place on a private island Bulma bought some time ago. She had a resort built here so Goku and Vegeta could spar without damaging West City. And the food is good, so Beerus and Whis tagged along, although neither of them really have any impact on the plot at all. Whis asks Goku why he wants to get stronger, and Goku explains that he's feeling inspired after the recent Tournament of Power arc from the tail end of the DBS anime. Vegeta, on the other hand, is only concerned with Frieza, who was restored to life during that storyline. Frieza's more powerful than ever before, and Vegeta expects him to get even stronger and menace the Earth again.

Sure enough, Bulma gets a call from Trunks as Capsule Corp, who informs them that Bulma's collection of Dragon Balls and the Dragon Radar have been stolen by goons wearing Frieza Force uniforms. But the joke's on them, because Bulma only had six of the Dragon Balls collected. The seventh is on the Ice Continent, so they know exactly where to go to intercept the thieves. Beerus doesn't want to tag along for the trip, so Bulma leaves her infant daughter Bulla with Beerus.

So what was Bulma planning to wish for? She admits that she was going to ask Shenron to make her look five years younger. Why only five? Because if she got too young all at once, people would think she had work done.

So what does Frieza plan to wish for? Immortality was what he wanted on Namek, but not this time. No he only wants to grow about five centimeters taller. Why not just use his second or third forms to be tall? Because he wants to be taller in any of his forms. Why only five centimeters? Because he wants it to seem like he's still growing.

I've never been too happy about this gag. I mean, it's a good gag, but I liked it better the first time, when Commander Red planned to use the Dragon Balls to make himself taller. It does add some complexity to Frieza's character, though, since he's not just stubbornly trying the exact same routine that got him wrecked on Namek, and then killed on Earth, and then re-killed on Earth again.

This time, he's not trying to take the Dragon Balls by force, because he knows Goku and Vegeta are too powerful to challenge head-on. So he's using stealth instead. The minions he sent to Earth are weaker guys, which mean Goku and Vegeta wouldn't sense their ki. And it seems like Frieza's plan is to just sneak down to Earth, make the wish, and head out before anyone can stop them.

And he's not pursuing the same wish he had twenty-odd years ago. Really, Frieza was never that interested in immortality in the first place. He only decided to wish for that because it was the one thing he didn't already have. But now he's been dead twice over, and that's given him a new perspective on life and death, and he seems to think being unable to die would be similar to the unending torment he experienced in hell. Neither does he seek an invincible body. I'm not sure Shenron could give him greater strength, but Frieza feels that would take all the fun out of "the game". If nothing else, it's interesting to see Frieza consider this at all. Back in the Namek Saga, he never thought about wishing for greater power, because he believed he already was the strongest in the universe. Now that he knows otherwise, he seems fairly content with that.

Meanwhile, we meet the last two players in this drama, Leemo and Cheelai. They're operatives in the Frieza Force, but they're not warriors. Leemo's been with the Frieza Force from the beginning, and Cheelai's a recent recruit, having joined up to avoid the consequences of stealing a Galactic Patrol ship. Their orders are to find more warriors to join the Frieza Force, since their ranks are pretty threadbare. Remember, when Frieza destroyed the Saiyans, they made up half of his fighting force. The other half was still quite formidable, but all of his best troops ended up getting killed during Frieza's disastrous invasion of Namek. Then Frieza came back and tried to attach Earth in Resurrection F, and he brought like a thousand soldiers with him, and those guys all got killed as well.

As Cheelai observes, Frieza is down to women and old men like herself and Leemo. There just aren't many warriors available in the universe these days, because all the good talent got killed off a long time ago. As they discuss this, Leemo picks up a distress signal from Planet Vampa. Thinking their might be a reward for it, they head over to answer the call, and find...

Paragus! Also a bunch of alien monsters. Fortunately, Paragus isn't alone...

They also find Broly on Vampa, and he's all grown up and stronger than ever. Their scouters measure Paragus' power level at 4200, which isn't too impressive these days, but it's way better than anything the Frieza Force has at the moment. And Broly's power is too high for the scouters to measure, so they definitely want him to come along. On the way to Frieza's ship, Cheelai feeds Broly rations and takes a liking to the big guy.

When the four of them report to Frieza, Paragus explains that he had to cut off Broly's tail because of the frequent full moons on Vampa, which cause Broly to lose control of himself as a giant ape. Occasionally, Broly still loses control of himself anyway, but Paragus can rein him in using...

... a shock collar, which he can activate with a remote control. Leemo and Cheelai are horrified to learn of this, but not so horrified that they turn down the generous reward Frieza gives them for their discovery.

Now, one thing that always bugged me about this movie is that Frieza immediately starts making plans to use Broly against Goku and Vegeta. He wasn't planning to attack them this time around, but now that he has Broly on his team, it seems much more favorable. Later, when the fighting starts, Frieza is disappointed to find that Broly can't transform into a Super Saiyan, but why would he expect Broly to be able to do any of that? Sure he's a Saiyan, but Goku and Vegeta have mastered power levels far, far beyond what other Saiyans have ever dreamed possible.

But I keep forgetting that Frieza can sense ki these days, the same way Goku can. Back in the Namek Saga, Frieza had to rely on scouters like the rest of his goons, but when he trained to become Golden Frieza in Res F, he learned to sense energy. So when he sizes up Broly, he's not just guessing at how strong this guy is. He can actually perceive the untapped potential in Broly's body, and he seems to recognize that Broly would be capable of giving Goku and Vegeta a hard time. So it makes sense.

Anyway, Paragus is happy to cooperate, since he still despises King Vegeta for what happened, and he's down to attack Prince Vegeta to even the score. And Broly has to do whatever Paragus wants or he gets another shock.

Later, Cheelai tries to get to know Broly better, but Paragus forbids Broly from speaking. While they argue over this, another henchman tries to drunkenly hit on Cheelai. I really like how Leemo tries to defuse the situation here. He's not a fighter, so it suits his character that he'd try to employ a nonviolent solution, like offering to buy this guy a drink. Being a noncombatant in the Frieza Force, he's probably grown accustomed to swimming with the sharks like this. But it doesn't work, and then Broly steps up to use a non-nonviolent solution, which is violence.

But Paragus doesn't want to offend his host, so he gives Broly another shock. Cheelai confronts him over this, and while she chews him out, she swipes his remote control. Then Paragus gets summoned to talk with Frieza. While he's gone, Cheelai destroys the remote, and they listen to Broly tell the story of his green fur wrap.

It's a pretty simple story. The closest thing Broly had to a friend on Vampa was one of the large green creatures on the planet. Paragus used the creature to train Broly, goading it to attack, and then having Broly dodge it. But over time, the creature became accustomed to Broly, and they became pals. But Paragus wanted the creature to be hostile, so he shot its ear off with a laser pistol to piss it off. Ever since, Broly has kept the ear and wears it as a memento of their friendship.

I like how easily Cheelai and Leemo sympathize with Broly in this movie. They're not good guys at all. Cheelai's an opportunistic thief, and Leemo's a cog in Frieza's evil empire. But they're not heartless, and Broly's story is so tragic and innocent that you can't help but feel for the guy. Leemo compares Paragus to his own rotten father, so you can tell that he can relate to what Broly is going through. And Cheelai can tell when someone's being used. Paragus can dress it up all he likes, but he's just using Broly's power to serve his own selfish interests.

Moving on, Frieza's team on Earth have located the seventh Dragon Ball, and Frieza's fleet moves in to join them for the wish-making. But Bulma, Goku, and Vegeta get their first. They probably would have arrived sooner, but Bulma wanted to stop somewhere to buy cold-weather gear. Let's just take a moment to admire her safety-yellow snowsuit. She looks like a baby duck in this thing and it's great.

Frieza confronts Goku and Vegeta and introduces Paragus and Broly. I never really noticed these guardsmen who stand by while Frieza steps out of the ship. Paragus should have gotten one of those uniforms, since that pink shower curtain he's wearing looks dumb as hell.

I mean, look at Goku. Bulma got him a sweet blue coat and he looks like a million bucks. He tries to convince Paragus and Broly to get along as fellow Saiyans, but that doesn't get him anywhere. You'd think he'd know better by now.

So Broly's rarin' to go, and Frieza sees no reason to make him wait, and it's on. Broly attacks Vegeta, and that brings us to the final leg of this movie, which we'll cover next time.

#dragon ball #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #dragon ball super #dragon ball super: broly #broly #goku #vegeta #frieza #paragus #cheelai #leemo #bulma #whis #beerus #bulla

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randomthefox · 17 days

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(different anon) is there something wrong with the super broly movie and broly himself ? Aside from things like freeza and the opening being almost like db minus?

Well most of the movie is the fighting and all of that is really good. Absolutely phenomenal animation.

The story is really fucking bad though. You could literally remove Freeza from the movie wholesale and it would ACTIVELY IMPROVE the film. Seriously why the fuck doesn't Gogeta just kill Freeza at the end? They just fucking let him go? After he came to Earth with Broly specifically to unleash him upon them and have them killed? He's just this team rocket ass saturday morning cartoon villain now and they LET HIM GO so that he can spend his ending monologue of the movie CONQUERING A PLANET AND KILLING THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE? "Oh we gotta find a good place for Broly to live where he can hide from Freeza to keep him safe" YOU KNOW you wouldn't NEED to hide him if you just FUCKING KILLED FREEZA. You dumb fucks.Fucking ass, I fucking hate Dragon Ball Super.

I really just prefer Broly as a villain. The Super movie turning him into this uwu softboi tarzan who becomes fwiends with Goku by the end is just really asinine and makes him so much less interesting. Like, what even is his motivation? Can you answer that question? What, literally, what is Super Broly's motivation as a character? What does he WANT? He's literally just a prop for other characters, he's a passive nothing of a Tarzan archetype who exists to make you go "oh no the poor little buddy =ccc ". And his power and transformation makes, like, no sense? He just is a berserker? I don't understand WHY he's so powerful or what the reference for how powerful he is. Literally HOW can he POSSIBLY be stronger than Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan? Just BECAUSE the movie needs him to be for the sake of the fight? Nothing about his character makes any fucking sense.

Freeza killing Paragas was, like, funny from the way he pretended to be distraught about it and I do kinda like how he remembered that killing Krillin is what triggered the Super Saiyan transformation in the first place. But it would have been way more emotionally impactful is Broly DID genuinely accidentally kill his own dad. Again, removing Freeza from the movie actively improves it.

Say what you want about OG Broly but at least I understand his motivation. I know exactly what he wants. He's a psychopath who just wants to kill everything and hates Kakarot in particular. He also retains full cognitive awareness even when he's Transformed, hell arguably he's at his most Himself when he's transformed and freed from the restraints his father put him under, so everything he does is his own deliberate choice wherein he retains full agency over his decisions. As opposed to Super Broly, who is just a mindless weapon. Broly is THE Legendary Super Saiyan that Vegeta spoke about, as opposed to the dye job power boost that the transformation becomes for everyone else; a legendary warrior that loves battle and bloodshed over anything else. A monster who destroyed an entire galaxy single handedly and loved every single moment of it. A sadist who blew up a planet and taunted its inhabitants as he did so.

He's just so much more interesting. And there's better emotional payoff to him killing his father himself. His transformation is defined, makes sense, and I understand completely why he's so much more powerful than every other character. Even the visuals of his transformation are so gnarly, his fucking skin gets torn off and it looks metal as hell.

Also sure you could say him not liking Goku because baby Kakarot's crying upset him was stupid, but at least it's A connection. He has a REASON to want to kill Goku, even if you think it's a stupid one. What's his reason in Super? He has none. He's just a fucking pawn, a weapon pointed in Vegeta and Goku's direction, with no agency or motivation of his own. That isn't interesting. He's just an empty hollow pointless punch monkey. I find the original Broly to be vastly superior in literally every single aspect.

It's insane to me that they took a character as overhyped Broly, and turned him into a hot plate of fucking nothing. Super is so unmitigatingly awful.

#broly #dragon ball #dragon ball z #dragon ball super

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greatwyrmgold · 7 months

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Watched Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero on a whim the other night. Things I liked:

Pan. She had so much fun whenever she was with Papa or Grandpa Piccolo! Not so much when they were both busy fighting the giant monster, but hey.

The movie focuses on Piccolo, Gohan, and Pan instead of Goku and Vegeta.

Magenta's rant about how Capsule Corp is clearly just a front for a coalition of alien invaders working to control the Earth. It's 90% recognizable conspiratorial nonsense (minus the antisemitism and unpleasant context) and 10% weird sh*t that's just canon.

Despite the Red Ribbon Army's advanced intelligence-gathering tech, they still consider Mr. Satan to be a threat on par with Goku or Vegeta.

Piccolo has a house now!

Super Sai-ants.

Gamma 1's occasional moments of genre savvy. The first thing he says is "You say you killed King Piccolo? Did you look for the body?"

The Gammas in general, really. Especially the background squabbling-siblings moments.

All the new characters have such delightful, quirky personalities. Dragon Ball is at its best when it's a comedy series spiced with action.

Piccolo doing that thing Frieza did in the Broly movie where he hurt Paragus to make Broly get a rage-induced power-up, just without actually hurting Pan.

I can't talk much about Max Cell without ruining the positive tone I'm aiming for here, but I like the way he serves as a fulcrum of conflict between Magenta and Dr. Hedo, and that his design makes Semi-Perfect Cell look intimidating. (And not just by virtue of being kaiju-sized.)

One storyboard artist really liked the idea of the Z-fighters jumping off of high things in skydiving poses before activating their flight, and the higher-ups were right to let them do it twice.

Namekian stretchy-arms and gigantification return! Piccolo even uses both at the same time! More Dragon Ball fight scenes should use weird little abilities like that; stretchy arms aren't gonna win a fight Piccolo would lose otherwise, but they make a fight scene more unique and interesting.

The animation is good, the haters just noticed that it's CG.

Pan. She's adorable.

Things I didn't like:

Enough "Ha ha, Dr. Hedo/Gotenks is fat" jokes to stand out as a Thing.

Act 3 is basically just one overstuffed fight scene.

Cell Max is fine as a plot point and setpiece, I guess, but also not interesting.

There is no way Goten and Trunks haven't been fusing for fun enough to remember how it works. If they messed up because they were rushing or because of a disruption from the active action scene or something, that would be one thing, but suggesting that they're just rusty is...kinda dumb.

Gohan's new transformation feels like that form Future Trunks got in the Goku Black arc, in that it's an unexplained power-up he randomly got that I assume is meant to justify him fighting god-tier foes, but they didn't want to give him Super Saiyan God or Blue because reasons. My feelings about Orange Piccolo are similar, but with more understanding about why they didn't give him an existing Super Saiyan form and less irritation about being an obvious retread of the Super Saiyan 2 transformation bit in the Cell arc.

Also, Gohan's new transformation's hair. On one hand, it's among the most obvious ways that said transformation is calling back to the SSJ2 transformation against Cell, which is irritating. On the other hand, it also looks absurd. It's just...scale up Gohan's preteen hairstyle by 250% and make it gray. Why gray? And why make it that big? If it had gone full SSJ3 I might have liked it, but it doesn't go far enough, and the hair stays too stiff, like it doesn't realize it's three feet long and should be pulled down by gravity.

Basically every scene on Beerus's planet, and not just because Goku and Vegeta were there. It's good to establish why they're not coming in to save the day, but they didn't need to spend so much time on it! And they definitely didn't have to use that time on a pointless fight scene and Beerus flirting with Cheelai!

Gohan getting more focus? Getting to be a character who's important to the plot? I like that! The interpretation of that idea as "Gohan needs to focus on training instead of studying all the time"? Not so much. At least it was mixed in with a dash of "You're so focused on the academic stuff that you're neglecting your family, too," which is a less frustrating point.

#dragon ball #dragon ball super super hero #(a title almost as bad as SSGSS)#random thoughts

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sweetescapeartist · 1 year

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Why do you say that the Dragon Ball Super manga makes the DB characters be so OOC? And while we're on the subject, what do you think of the DBS manga as a whole?

Gosh... Where to begin?

Toyo's Bardock is not like Toriyama's nor Toei's Bardock. Toriyama's Bardock from the DBS anime continuity's DBS: Broly says that he wants to save/protect something for once and thats when he saves Goku. Toyo's Bardock is not part of the anime continuity. And his Bardock saves other people before he saves Goku. Fans cry about how Toriyama's Bardock was a "nice guy" for saving his son and caring about his wife, but they say nothing about Z Bardock caring for his crew and then caring for his son. But Toyo's Bardock is truly where the "nice guy" idea can be apllied. Toyo doesn't undsrstand the characters.

Toyo's Goku wants to be more Saiyan and acts like he doesn't understand Saiyan pride, meanwhile Toroyama & Toei's DBS Goku views himself as an Earthling but accepts his Saiyan side as well as understands what Saiyan pride is.

Toyo's Vegeta overly obsessed with "Kakarot" to the point he cares more about defeating Goku than he cares about protecting his family. He gets transformations handed to him; Super Saiyan Blue Evolution & the out of nowhere Ultra Ego. Vegeta copies everything Goku does even with naming Ultra Ego after Ultra Instinct & has never "went down his own path" as so many fans claim. He never directly speaks to present Trunks ever in the manga. DBS anime Vegeta is written far better. Toyo's Vegeta is just becoming an edgy Goku clone. And not a well written clone.

Toyo's Gohan trains like Vegeta by going in the Gravity Room. That's not Gohan. He trains like how his father & Piccolo trained him. The way his ultimate for works contradicts how it was originally established; Elder Kai says turn it on like SSJ, but Toyo's Gohan just doesn't transform at all and has that power. The DBS anime does it correctly in having Gohan transform into that power.

Toyo's Piccolo is an ignorant idiot who claimed that Vegeta never underestimated his opponents when that is literally what Vegeta does in almost every major fight we've seen him in.

Toyo's Android 17 is cold, dismissive and didn't develop like the DBS anime version did. Manga 17's power increase is said to be almost SSB level from little to no training. An a$$pull. Meanwhile anime 17 is not SSB level and even says Freeza's power is amazing. Anime 17 keeps up in the ToP mostly due to infinate stamina and being able to fight at max power without getting tired. I won't even talk about the Pseudo Cell Jrs stuff. Link for that here.

Toyo's Android 18 cold and hateful towards Krillin (while the anime made her loving towards Krillin). Stupid at times too. One thing that applies for both Toyo's 17 & 18 is when they say they have no life energy. That makes zero sense due to them being living beings. If they are living, they have life energy. If 17 & 18 can contribute to the Genki Dama, they have life energy. Toyo doesn't understand these characters. He makes 18 behave like an emotionless robot & as if she is literally a machine because he says she has no life energy. Did Toyo watch the Funimationextremely terrible & innacurate Funimation DUB of GT where Krillin says that 17 hated hated Gero for giving him human emotions? Because Toyo writes 17 & 18 as if they are robots given a little bit of human emotion.

Toyo's Krillin is always disrespected. Toyo calls him ugly, cowardly, weak, useless, & has Goku say to Krillin that he is small & only good for running away, ect. And Krillin's wife is mean towards him. (Seems like Toyo took a note from GT on how to write Krillin & 18 terribly.) Krillin has always been brave and fights to save his friends; saved Gohan, Vegeta, Goku, Yamcha, Bulma, 18 and others multiple times. He has skills that makes his opponents surprised by his talent despite the power gap. Toyo's Krillin is done terribly and as iff all of the things in DB & Z never happened. Where the anime has Krillin regain his fighting spirit, Toyo's Krillin is said to be even weaker because he hasn't trained in a long time.

Toyo's Beerus finds value in learning Ultra Instinct and even tapped into it to outdo multiple Gods of Destruction. Thsn later he's written to believe that a Destroyer God's techniques are better than an Angel's technique. The same Angel that is his teacher whom Beerus was trying to learn UI from. Not to mention other Gods of Destruction see the value in Ultra Instinct being above GoD abilities. Ultea Instinct is an Angelic technique, so why would Beerus change from wanting the next level of power above Gods of Destruction to thinking his own power is better than an Angel's and can actually compete? To make it seem that Vegeta is now equal to Goku. Yup. Toyo's Beerus changed to make Toyo's Vegeta look impressive.

There are other examples too, but I'd be here forever listing how badly Toyotaro writes the characters. And beyond the characters, the storytelling is just bad & extremely inconsistent.

So, what do I think of the theDBS manga as a whole?

The DBS manga is not worth reading at all.

I only read it nowadays so I can compare it to the far better DBS anime continuity & to point out to ppl how the two continuities are not the same.

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tamamita · 3 years

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I guess it’s time to come clean with how I’ve felt these couple of years. So I’ll start with this.

People who have followed me for the past 4-5 years know that I’ve been this giant buff guy wíth a positive look on life, but the truth is that I’ve been in a major depression for a couple of years, and this depression has hit me very hard this year in particular due to many factors. I have not been feeling good, especially when my wife left for Mexico. My general health deteroriated and I took a long break from gymming and have since then not returned. I have not been feeling well about my body ever since and the only method of coping has been through several medias, and that includes my constant activity on Tumblr.

My past has been one gigantic shamble and there are many things that I’ve regretted that could have changed the direction of my life for the better and it hurts me knowing that this is the outcome. I’ve been struggling to make sure that I survive and to fight fiercly to be reuinted with my wife. And had it not been for my wife, I don’t know where I would’ve been tbh. I do miss the good old times with the skitty brand and most of the things that came with it and it did improve my health a lot, but it didn’t hold out for too long, because like every other individual, we grow and the pile of responsibilities in the corner grew as you tried to get around them one by one, only to see that no change had been made.

I never got to be the artist that I had hoped to become due to neglect and social pressure. I dropped out of college and never finished my education, because of my severe depression. I knew that I had adhd, but was in denial out of fear that I’d be shunned and despite being encouraged, my fear got the best of me. My Androgenic alopecia took a massive tool on my confidence and the amount of stress and anxiety only worsened my condition and is the main reason why I have never posted any selfies again. I just... haven’t felt good at all tbh and no matter how many posts you see me make, my true feelings are never expressed, because I simply do not wanna give anyone that impression. Working as a teacher has had its pros and cons, but ever since the beginning of this semester, it only worsened, because I haven’t felt happy with the working conditions. I don’t have the energy and motivation to handle teaching when it’s so disorgnanized. My absense from work only increased as a result of me making up excuses to skip work so I could just lay there on my bed, what’s the point of goinf to work if teachers are getting shit paid anyway. Working as a teacher was only fun for a moment... But what’s the point of being a teacher if your salary is shit on the basis of your being ungraduated, even though you do a much better job than most graduated teachers? sigh... Art has been a way for me to cope and even embracing other aspects of art has been fun to say the least, but looking at so many friends becoming these successful artists made me envy them, but I can’t even pick up my pen most of the time, because my adhd prevents me from doing so... If only I wasn’t confined to the shackles of society, I could have become something that would have made me happy... This isn’t fair.

My wife has been my only moral and mental support and the fact that I’ve been waiting so many years to be reunited caused me to break down several times and I only had my mom to support me. I’ve been lonely ever since and the only thing I could do was to pass time burning my eyes at the computer screen, make posts on tumble, be a wage labourer, waiting for a decision to come from the migration office. I even got Broly (my cat) to keep me company, and while it did partially help me mentally, it’s just not the same.

However, there has been some good news at least, I’m finally getting my male pattern baldness treated and my wife is scheduled for an interview with the Swedish Embassy next month. It’s been arduous, but I just want this pain to go away,

I’m just so tired, you guys...

#big vent #negative

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mozillavulpix · 2 years

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I'd like to hear your take on peak Gohan

Oh lol you saw!

Okay, let's do this.

Why Tournament of Power (anime) Gohan is Peak Gohan

1. He can actually fight

Gohan 'discourse' I find often gets oversimplified into two camps; the 'why isn't Gohan a badass fighter' camp, and the 'why can't Gohan just live in peace and not fight' camp. And the two of them feel like they're constantly arguing with each other over how Gohan should be characterised.

But I kind of find myself seeing valid points in both camps. On the one hand, I don't want Gohan forced into a lifestyle that doesn't suit his personality. But on the other hand, I also know that Dragon Ball is a fighting show and if you don't have the ability to fight (or even worse, used to have the ability to fight but lost it), you kind of look really lame no matter how many cute slice-of-life moments there are. (This is the problem I had with DBS Ep 52)

So, like...why can't he have both?

People act like there's some hard rule that if Gohan doesn't 100% dedicate his entire life to training like Goku does, he'll never get stronger (and in fact will keep actively getting weaker), but...why does that even have to be the case? This is just fiction. You can easily say "he found a compromise where he's a scholar but maybe trains a bit in his spare time so he won't get weak". I think it'd make enough sense for his character. He wants to be a scholar, but he also cares a lot about protecting his family and friends. It feels pretty natural.

2. It fixed Ultimate Gohan

Conceptually, Ultimate Gohan is honestly one of the coolest thing in the late era of Dragon Ball. After one flashy transformation after another, the idea someone's final form is basically them looking exactly the same – no big hair or scary glowing eyes – and yet remaining as powerful as someone with a form like that is just really cool to watch. It gives that sense that the character is in total control, not consumed by rage or whatnot to turn them into a different personality.

My personal big issues with the form, however, are that 1. Gohan basically gets given it for free without having to do much at all. In fact, he has to literally sit there and do nothing while he has a ritual performed on him. It's good comedy, but not as satisfying as him, like, literally having to fight and sweat for his power-up. Especially one which has all the trademarks of being a 'Final Form'.

And 2., Toriyama makes Gohan's personality when he uses that form against Super Buu very assertive and cocky, almost overconfident. Which obviously happens in fights sometimes, but Gohan is probably the member of the cast who is naturally the least like that, so it's kind of jarring to see him suddenly smack-talking his enemy like Vegeta.

It's kind of not why I like Gohan, so I really didn't like the implication that 'for Gohan to be a strong fighter, he needs to be cocky and a generic badass'.

Anyway, Gohan in the Tournament of Power fixes both these issues. For one, he has to seemingly work and train to get the 'Ultimate' 'form' back again, even if it was directly only for 1 or 2 episodes in the Super anime. And even with that power, he still maintains the traditional personality of the more polite member of the cast who also really appreciates and hypes up everyone else.

He's kind of like...the moe one, if that makes sense.

3. He gets to be cool without it feeling overblown

This was basically the issue I had with Vegeta in Dragon Ball Super. It's fun to give a character power-ups and big emotional moments, but if you reach too far, it starts to feel like mindless pandering to fans without any real understanding of a narrative.

Vegeta gets a lot in modern Dragon Ball, a lot of it for basically no reason other than ticking off a checklist. (The most egregious example to me was SSG in the Broly movie. It's not the most powerful form, there's basically no reason to even use it, but they made him dramatically use it in the movie just to prove to people he had it.)

Anyway, when they brought Gohan back, I was worried it'd fall into that trap, but it hasn't (so far). He didn't get any big power-up in the Tournament of Power, his little plot was all about learning to fight better with the power he already had. He didn't beat or even fight Jiren. Because the story took it conservative with him and decided he didn't have to be the strongest or even get close to Goku's level within one arc to show that he was cool. Sometimes you can wholeheartedly appreciate a character for what they are and what they've done, and not for what they're not.

This is also the reason why Tournament of Power (manga) isn’t part of the discussion. Because 1. I actually have trouble believing...power-scaling wise, that he’d be stronger than Kefla, it feels like too much of a jump in power to the point it feels unsatisfying and 2. he acts weirdly confident and not as polite and empathetic there, it falls too much into the trap of the Super Buu fight.

and...I think that's about it?

#dragon ball super #gohan in super

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falling-heights · 3 years

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I was wondering if you can do a yandere goku hc, but like goku who didn’t get hit in the head so he’s kinda more aggressive, violent, and not so child like? basically he didn’t hit his head as a child so his personality doesn’t switch?

Okay so like, a straight answer would be for me to just tell you that this is just Turles, because that’s exactly why Turles was introduced, to be the kinda “what-if?” with Goku. But I’m not, because I love Turles too much to admit such tomfoolery. The man’s got thunder thighs that you just can’t question, alright?

Taking Turles out of the equation makes this a much more complicated matter, and so that everyone can understand my reasonings about this set-up, I’ll explain a bit about his rewritten past first.

What might be surprising to you is that I don’t believe Goku’s journey would change as much. Grandpa Gohan would still find and raise him, and it’s likely that he’d still die by the same reasons.

At this point it should be established that when Goku hit his head, he probably suffered amnesia as well, hence why he can’t remember Bardock or Gine, so by not suffering that injury, he’ll still know some their faces at the least and his own name, which would remain Kakarot.

He would still be taught about morals and honor, taking on Gohan Sr. as more of a martial arts master than a parental figure, and when Gohan died, Kakarot would want to seek out a new master. Curiously enough, he’d never have the need to destroy earth, because as it was discovered in the Broly movie, he was never sent there for that purpose. If anything, it’d be better to compare him to an orphaned and estranged young boy with no set purpose and no way to find out where he came from.

And this is why he’d go the most likely route of seeking the martial arts. Saiyans are a fighting breed, so it would make sense that he’d want to get stronger just by following his blood instinct.

It’s unlikely that he’ll ever meet Bulma, and if he ever met Yamcha.... well, poor yamcha.

From adolescence to late teens, he’d be taking on a multitude of masters, and learning from them until he felt that they had nothing left to offer him. His skills would be much sharper than the other goku because of how serious he takes fighting.

A sense of pride and cockiness may develop from this over-powered strength. He thinks himself to be superior to everything else considering he’ll still know of his saiyan heritage. The only way someone would then be able to earn his respect would be by having equal strength or skill.

In his free time, when he isn’t training, he tests his battle smarts in tournaments, plus the money earned isn’t half bad.

And this is when you come into the equation, Dearest.

As we’ve established, Goku can only respect someone if they’re respectively strong. The same will be said about you. You’ll have to impress his ego before he’ll even consider something.

You’d meet him as a late teen, the best bet being a World Tournament, with you as a contestant. Even something as small as landing a single punch will pique his interest, and he’ll want to push your skills to reflect his. Instead of being the student, he’ll become the teacher, whether you want his guidance or not.

His intentions are good by default, however he’ll discover kindling desires for you the more your relationship develops, and he’ll soon be too attached to let you go.

But not to worry, Darling, he may be possessive and obsessed with you, but Kakarot is a tad more refined than his amnesiac counterpart. You’ll be happy with him.

He’s not a traditional romantic, but let’s say... he has a more open imagination. You’ll be able to do so much more with him than regular Goku.

Just don’t make him angry. His fuse will be shorter, more things will set him off, particularly if it pertains to you.

You see, my dear, the biggest distinction between Kakarot and Goku is guilt. Kakarot has no desire to be a merciful or kind person unlike Goku, which translates to how he treats anything that may be deemed a threat to your safety.

If someone tries to advance on you, he’ll be there to protect you. But he’s a sadistic man, and he’ll want to teach them a good lesson on their behavior before putting them out of their misery for good.

So, when Raditz arrives to recruit Kakarot, whatever Raditz expects to be done with you will decide if he lives or not. But the more likely outcome will be that he doesn’t care if Kakarot wants to bring a plaything. He may even recruit you if your skills hold up. The alignment won’t last, however. Goku and Vegeta have too much in common, too much to clash with, and considering Kakarot isn’t his old friendly self, you can imagine what Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz’s fates will be.

You’ll be free to roam the universe, Kakarot’s draw to power will lead him to eventually ruling it, most likely, and you’ll be there with him every step of the way. He has no need to prove his undying love to you because he knows just how hopeless your chances of escape are. And so do you, he’ll see to reminding you every so often.

Okay, i don’t know how this one really turned out, but more Piccolo is coming out next! Maybe later today, I haven’t decided yet...

Also! I’ve been thinking about situational hcs or snippets of actual writing instead of hcs, what do yall think?

Check out my other stuff!

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doubleddenden · 3 years

Text

As much as I'm enjoying replaying DBXV2, I think it's time they just do XV3 already. There's only so much DLC you can add to a game my man

Here's what I'd want

1. Stop rehashing Z, we know the entire god damn plot of Z by now. You know what has hardly ever been touched? OG DB. For that matter, the Black Star DB saga in GT. The Other World Tournament arc in Z isn't even touched and its one of the better fillers. Hirudigarn, Bojack, Legacy of Goku, the DB retelling movies, man there's Super Dragon Ball Heroes with more interesting shit than anything Super has put out. For that matter, a true Tournament of Power arc with all or most of the contestants. Hell, why not an ORIGINAL plot that doesn't rely so much on rehashing? Fu decided to help Dr Gero and Dr Wheelo send Cell and Frieza back before Goku met Bulma. Raditz and Nappa decide to join the Z fighters, the Ginyu Force JOINS THE TIME PATROL, idk man something new. Like, is the SKoT the only SKoT or are there other SKoTs for other Universes?

That would make an interesting and fresh plot point. Having to help correct histories in OTHER universes with new stories for each.

2. More and enhanced transformations. I wanna embrace my ultimate dad bod by becoming Super Sayain 4. I want there to be a Super Sayain equivalent for Namekians without turning them giant. Majins get a better Super than just Kid Buu. And also better hair transformations.

3. Better customizations that has more body types for everyone and better fits. I want male Majins to be able to be like Super Buu, roided out Saiyans that are like 8 feet tall like Broly or Kale, shrimpy lads like Cabba, sliders for body parts, etc. Also better fits on clothes with adjustments maybe? And extra stuff like Code Vein to add abs resize. Plus letting us mix and match under and overcoats or capes, recolor everything to our liking, etc

4. More Characters that are overlooked. Yajirobi cut off Vegeta's tail, not Krillen. Why do we have Kefla but not Caulifla or Kale? The GT aliens during the BS arc, the Tuffle Androids from SDBH, Roshi, Chiaotzu, the wolf guys from Super, there's a ton to tap into without rehashing forms and shit

5. Fighting styles. I want to use swords like Trunks and Tapion, let me.

6. No more TP bullshit, just put everything in the in game store and let me buy things in game without using real money and without an internet connection, updated now and then obviously

7. Way more customization for Mentors. Why can I recolor Vegeta's armor but not his skin suit? Is it literally his skin? I can recolor Goku's gi almost entirely. Also, I'd like at least their other outfits as options rather than just 1 I can recolor or 1 special one. I would like to mix and match too or just replace their equipment, but that might be asking much.

8. More races. Beast people are a thing throughout the entire series. Kais, androids, off worlders, DB Fusions actually did this pretty good with a catch all race. Also, custom transformations for it would be nice.

9. Better lighting. Seriously my eyes hurt looking at the character creator screen and things get so saturated

10. Better audio mixing. People who have played the game need no explanation

11. This will never happen, but I want small crossovers, even if it's just costumes. Dragon QUEST would actually do very well since Toriyama did its art as well, and the two art styles would mesh very well. Plus Chrono Trigger, which I feel would mesh with the Time Patrol plot very, very well.

12. Please. Please stop. Letting. Goku. Hog. The. Glory. At least with XV 1 we could beat the final boss before he showed up. In XV3, I want it to be you and the other two time patrollers that came before you. That's it. No Goku. Maybe Vegeta for a change, or Trunks, but no Goku.

I don't look to see it happening any time soon given XV2 is still being milked dry, but a lot of my quieter interests have been getting news recently so uh. You know. Manifesting it.

#dbxv #dbxv2 #dbxv3 #dragonball xenoverse 2 #dragonball xenoverse 3

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invaderdoom78 · 4 years

Text

Eros part 1

Originally Trunks had intended to head back to his time immediately after Cell's defeat but, unbeknownst to him, the time machine had sustained some damage so he wasn’t able to return home until the Bulma of this timeline fixed it, which she did within a month's time. So, now that she had time to plan a proper send-off for her future son Bulma had organized a beach day for him and their friends at Kame House, though only Gohan, Chi-Chi, Piccalo (probably only at Gohans request) Krillin, Vegeta, and apparently his Uncie Nappa were able to make it. It was nice watching everyone have fun and relax especially after they’d spent so much time on edge as Gohan and Krillin played in the water, Piccolo watching from the shoreline, Chi-Chi and his mom talking to each other about Chi-Chi’s pregnancy while his father sulked behind them, and Nappa played with baby him, lifting him in the air like he was flying.

When he got home he’d have to remember to ask his mom if she knew if the Nappa in their time was still alive, though he doubted that the Saiyan would be interested in being his honorary uncle, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt to have someone around they could reach out to if they needed to know something about Saiyan culture. Letting out a contented sigh Trunks closed his eyes feeling the waves as they flowed onto the shore, gently moving against his legs as laid back into the sand. He’d just barely gotten comfortable when he suddenly felt an energy that shouldn’t have existed anymore one that should’ve been left in the cold recesses of space.

“No,” Piccolo said as everyone who could sense energy looked up to the sky “it can’t be. Goku killed him!”

“What’s going on?” Bulma asked looking at where everyone else was

“Mom” Gohan said running towards his mother “you need to get inside now”

“What’s wrong Gohan?” Chi-Chi asked as the sky darkened above them

“There’s no time to...” Gohan didn’t get to finish his sentence because the next thing any of them knew Broly came floating down from the darkened sky, a twisted smile on his face.

“What do you want you monster?” Piccolo demanded “Goku’s not here”

“Broly not come for Kakarot,” Broly said shocking everyone “Broly come for Broly’s wife”

Trunks felt his heart-stopping dead in his chest as he felt Broly’s pupil-less eyes roaming over his half-naked body and, without thinking, he took off flying as fast as he could in the opposite direction just hoping that he’d be able to lose the other Saiyan, though he knew that would be next to impossible; especially once he saw the looming shadow of an enormous figure consume his body. Thankfully he felt the energy of his friends rapidly catching up to them along with several ki blasts aimed in their direction. Letting gravity take hold of him Trunks plummeted towards the ocean, both to put some distance between him and Broly and also to avoid the ki blasts.

He didn’t even bother waiting to see if the attacks had done anything because; one he knew they didn’t and two because he saw a crevice covered landmass that he knew he could hide in as long as Broly didn’t know how to sense energy. Finding the first opening he could Trunks squeezed himself into it as far back as he could before lowering his power level. Even from his hiding place Trunks could hear his friends and Broly's fight, it sounded even more intense than the one back on New Vegeta but they all knew that unless their last battle had left the legendary severely handicapped they didn’t have a chance of winning without Goku. The only moment of reprieve that seemed to come was when the fight grew quiet, that was until...

“Princess Trunks” Broly’s voice called out, sounding sickeningly sweet from right outside Trunks hiding spot

Covering his mouth with both of his hands in a near crushing grip, Trunks tried to make himself as small as possible hoping that Broly was only trying to scare him out of his hiding place and didn’t actually know where he was. Unfortunately, like always, luck wasn’t on his side and the mountain around him was destroyed and he was left floating mid-air looking up at the overpowered Saiyan in horror as Broly looking down at him in complete satisfaction before grabbing Trunks and punching him hard enough in the gut to make him lose consciousness.

——————————————————————————————————

“That was even worse then the fight on New Vegeta” Gohan panted after Piccolo pulled him out of the ocean, coughing up a bit of water

“What I want to know is how he survived Goku’s attack,” Piccolo said as Krillin handed them both a senzu bean “we watched him explode”

“Where’s Vegeta?” Krillin asked looking around

“That absolute bastard!”

They heard Vegeta screaming from where Trunks had been hiding and flew over to the prince.

“I’ll fucking kill him when we find him”

“What’s wrong Vegeta?” Gohan asked as they flew over to the prince

“Trunks is gone” Vegeta growled

“Did Broly kill him?” Krillin asked looking at the damage that had been done to the island

“I doubt it,” Gohan said surveying the ocean below them for any sign of the time traveler “he may be insane but I don’t think Broly would go through all this trouble only to kill Trunks”

“I can’t sense his energy anywhere on the planet,” Kami said

“An energy like that doesn’t just vanish” Nail added “they can’t be on Earth anymore”

“Agreed,” Piccolo said, “I think they must have gone off-planet”

“Do you think Broly has a spaceship then?”

“He must. We left that bastard out in space when we fought him last” Piccolo said as they started their flight back to Kame house

“Where’s Trunks?” Bulma asked looking around when they landed in the sand

“Broly must’ve taken him” Piccolo sighed

“Why would he do that?” Bulma asked confused as a million scenarios ran through her head

“Yeah, Vegeta” Piccolo asked, crossing his arms across his chest “why would he do that?”

“How was I supposed to know that when I gave him permission to bed Trunks that this is how it would turn out!” Vegeta demanded

“I’m sorry” Bulma interjected, “you did what?”

“It was for the sake of the Saiyan race!”

“Wow,” Nappa said

“Like you have any room to talk Mr. stab the baby or you’ll have to cancel your 6 o’clock!”

“Fair point” Nappa shrugged

“How would that be beneficial for the Saiyan race?” Gohan asked more to himself “they’d still need an egg donor in order to conceive a child”

“Not necessarily” Nappa chimed in “though it’s rare it is possible for male Saiyans to become pregnant and it is a trait that's most commonly found in the royal bloodline. Which is partially why they were considered the elite”

“Do humans not lay eggs?” Nail asked

“Shut up Nail” Piccolo almost growled under his breath

“Here,” Bulma said calmly, handing baby Trunks over to his uncle Nappa. Thankfully for Vegeta, he’d been wearing his casual clothing instead of a swimsuit because otherwise, Bulma would’ve grabbed him by the neck instead of his shirt collar. “Listen to me very carefully” her voice was dangerously low “if you don’t get your ass in gear and get out there looking for my baby then I will make sure that not only will you regret the day you were born but every day until you die”

“How?” Vegeta asked, managing to break out of the iron grip “we don’t even have a space ship!”

“What about Kami’s old ship?” Krillin asked “wasn’t it brought to Earth when Little Green wished everyone off of Old Namik”

“Yes it was,” Bulma said eyeing the prince out of the corner of her eye “we need Goku you realize that right”

“Yeah,” Vegeta said Broly being the only enemy they’ve faced that he would willingly admit he had no chance against

“ROSHI” Bulma screamed into the house “call your sister right now!”

——————————————————————————————————

Trunks wasn’t sure how long he’d been out for or even what had happened after he’d hidden from... Broly. Shit! Did the Legendary murder his friends, did they manage to defeat them? Wait? Trunks' thoughts were interrupted when he realized that a pair of arms were wrapped tightly around him. Once again he felt his heart freezing in his chest and he was afraid to open his eyes but he knew he had to in order to get some idea of what his surroundings were like. Cracking open an eye just wide enough for him to see, Trunks saw that he was in a room he’d never seen before, it was large, but the walls kinda looked like they were made out of clouds instead of stone as they looked soft to the touch. Looking around a bit more, Trunks could see that the room looked to have been decorated for royalty and that he was also laying in a rather large bed, that was when he finally noticed who it was that was holding him. It was Broly, who’d apparently slipped back into his base form in his sleep. Trunks couldn’t tell if this was a good thing or not as the young half-Saiyan was pretty sure he could beat the other in this form if given the opportunity but he also knew better than to assume the strength of his opponent. It was weird, the more he observed the unstable Saiyan Trunks couldn’t help but take notice of the almost innocent appearance Broly took on as he slept. It was unnerving. Despite his best efforts to stay as still as possible his subtle movements of looking around the room seemed to be enough to rouse the larger Saiyan from his slumber. Freezing Trunks watched as Broly slowly blinked open his eyes, seemingly also taken aback by the strange surroundings, that was until he looked down at the young half-Saiyan, his eyes going wide in shock as a blush spread across his cheeks.

“P-princess?” Broly stammered out, releasing his hold on the other “wha?”

Taking the opportunity Trunks pushed himself away from the other, landing a few feet away from the bed. It was then that he realized that he was still only wearing his swimwear and this was something Broly had noticed as well as his entire face became beet red. There was a long, long stretch of silence; Trunks trying to figure out what exactly the larger Saiyans plan was as Broly lay on the bed looking more and more embarrassed and confused about what was going on.

“Your hair is shorter,” Broly said suddenly, sitting up hoping that this would break up the awkwardness of the situation

“What?” Trunks asked, getting agitated at the other's ignorance of his actions

“Your hair,” Broly said pointing at Trunks' head “it’s shorter. It’s, cute”

Looking the other in the eyes Trunks could tell that he was being genuine with his compliment and the fact that he didn’t quite understand what was happening. Letting out a frustrated sigh Trunks walked over to one of the dressers he’d spotted earlier hoping that he could find something that he could at least cover himself with. The dressers weren’t made out of wood, they’d been chiseled out of a large slab of sapphire, the one next to him being made of ruby. Pulling open the doors Trunks let out a frustrated groan when he saw that it was filled with nothing but different kinds of dresses, all of varying length and style, and half jackets. He went over the ruby one and opened it, this one being full of clothing that was obviously Broly’s judging by the size. Slamming the door shut he reluctantly went back to the first dresser again and grabbed the first dress and half jacket he saw.

“Do you mind!” Trunks snapped, turning to face Broly who’d just been watching him from the bed the whole time

Jumping slightly Broly scrambled off the bed and out the room. Waiting for a minute or two Trunks listened carefully for any signs of the other attempting to re-enter the room. Once he was certain that the other wasn’t going to burst in, Trunks reached into the secret pocket he’d sewn into the inner lining of his swim pants and grabbed the capsules of emergency supplies he’d stuck in there. So now he at least knew that he had some emergency rations and fresh drinking water on him. The dress he’d chosen wasn’t anything flashy; it was a simple sleeveless rectangle of fabric that had an over-fold at the waist, that was just long enough to reach past the edge of his swimwear. Sticking the capsules back into his trunk pockets the young half-Saiyan slipped on the dress and dark blue half jacket before giving the room one final glance, trying to see if there were any shoes he could wear, but there weren’t any, so he realized he’d have to go barefoot for now. Opening the bedroom door Trunks stepped out and almost walked straight into Broly, who was standing out in the hall waiting for him.

Shoving past the other Trunks decided that it would be best to explore the castle so he had some idea of what his surroundings were like so he could more easily plan his escape. He wasn’t sure how successful it would be since Broly was following a few feet behind him, shuffling his feet and staring down at the floor as he bumped his knuckles together nervously. At least he was giving Trunks some space unlike back on New Vegeta where he’d been right on top of the young half-Saiyan the entire time he explored the hastily made castle. Trunks wanted to say something to get Broly to go away, but he was afraid that if he did it would trigger Broly's temper, realizing that he’d already been pushing it when he snapped at and shoved past him earlier. The halls were full of columns that had all been made out of different types of crystals and the walls were decorated with what seemed like portraits that had been directly carved and painted into the walls depicting very human-like beings but some with pointed ears, extra limbs, horns, tails, fins, ect. Eventually, they came across a double glass door that Trunks just happened to look out of as they passed.

“Crap baskets!” Trunks exclaimed, his shoulders slumping in defeat once he realized they weren’t on Earth

He was barely able to register the sound of heavy footsteps rushing towards him.

“What’s wrong, princess?” Broly asked, the concern obvious in his voice

Trunks ignored him as he nearly ripped the glass door open as he ran out onto the balcony. The foliage around them looked to be tropical in nature even though the temperature was too cool to be considered a tropical environment and the colors of the foliage were complementary to what they should’ve been, so instead of green leaves they were varying shades of red, and instead of an azure blue sky, it was a light purple.

“Where the hell are we?” Trunks asked feeling any hope he had of escaping fleeing his body, gripping the stone railing tight enough to crack it under his grip

Wanting to get a better look at the planet itself and search for any signs of life, since none were visible from the castle even though it appeared to have been built on top of a mountain, hoping that he could find out if maybe, just maybe, New Namek happened to be nearby, but when he tried to fly into the air he found that he couldn’t.

“No!” Trunks exclaimed jumping a few times in the hope of making it work “no! No. Why can’t I fly?”

Trunks suddenly felt everything finally crashing down around him, all he wanted to do was get back home to his own timeline and make sure his mother was alright and finally take down the androids that had been terrorizing them for so long and avenge Mr. Gohan and his friend's deaths. Dropping to his knees, Trunks began pulling at his hair, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to fall, so caught up in his emotional turmoil that he almost missed the feather-light touch that was placed on his shoulder. Jumping a bit he yanked his shoulder away from the touch and whipped around to look at Broly, who was obviously out of his depths judging by the panicked look in his wide eyes. After a brief stare down the larger Saiyan hesitantly placed his hands on the young princes’ shoulders and pulled him close until Trunks was flush against his chest in an attempt at a hug, but at this point, Trunks didn’t care. He didn’t care that Broly was the one that was attempting to comfort him, he was just desperate for any type of physical contact, so he wrapped his arms around the larger Saiyan as tightly as he could manage, which Broly took as a sign of encouragement so he copied the other's actions and wrapped his arms around Trunks as well, feeling his chest starting to become wet as tears finally began spilling, not stopping until the young prince felt numb.

——————————————————————————————————

After getting changed out of their swimwear everyone at Kame House flew off for the Look-Out, Chi-Chi being carried by Nappa as Vegeta carried Bulma who was holding their infant son. When they got there Krillin dropped down to Korin and Yanjarobe’s so he could grab some senzu beans that they would absolutely need, as Vegeta stood at the edge of the platform glaring out in the direction of where they had fought Broly, and Dende ran up to them looking a bit panicked having sensed Broly’s immense energy.

“What the fuck was that!” Dende borderline screamed

“That was Broly” Gohan sighed

“WHAT!” Dende shrieked “you told me he was dead!”

“Somehow he survived being exploded” Piccolo growled as Krillin flew back up lugging a literal sack of senzu beans behind him

“Where’s Kami’s old ship, Dende?” Bulma asked since it was being kept on the Look-Out just in case the young Nemekian ever wanted to visit back home

“It’s by the Hyperbolic Time Chamber,” Dende said pointing the direction of the room Bulma running off in the direction to run a check of the ship's systems “How the hell are you gonna fight that monster if Goku’s dead?”

“We asked Fortuneteller Baba to bring him back,” Gohan said

“When is he getting here?”

“Hopefully soon,” Piccolo said

“Hey, guys!” Goku’s voice called out from not to far off

“Goku!

“Dad!”

Gohan and Chi-Chi exclaimed as they ran up to the Saiyan, almost tackling him to the ground as they hugged him after he’d landed.

“Now all we need to do is find Broly,” Krillin said, cheerfully

“I searched for their energy while I was on King Kai's planet so I could Instant Transmit us there,” Goku said raising a hand to his forehead “that’s weird” he lowered his appendage “why’s it not working?”

“Where is the planet?” Dende asked

“It’s a few hundred kilometers to the left of where Old Namek was”

“I know that planet,” Dende said gripping his staff “it is a bit of an oddity that either has some type of supernatural protection around it or has such an odd gravity field around it that it’s near impossible to fly there much less instant transit”

“It’s a good thing we have a spaceship readily available then,” Krillin said as they all walked towards where Bulma had run off to

It took a couple of days but Bulma was able to give the ship's engines a boost to make them more powerful as well as install a way for them to communicate with everyone back on Earth.

“My mom and dad are going to be out of town for the next few weeks but you can reach them at this number and...”

“This isn’t my first rodeo, Bulms” Nappa said, placing his hands on her shoulder, the Saiyan staying behind as his producer job leaving him in a position where he was unable to leave the planet “I’ve got everything under control. Everything will be fine”

“Ok,” Bulma said taking a calming breath

Handing her baby over to his uncle Bulma kissed the infant Trunks on the top of his head before getting on the ship, Nappa waving them off.

#team four star #dbz abridged #Dragon Ball Z #dbz #trunks/broly #broly/trunks #future trunks #princess trunks #abridged broly #bulma briefs #vegeta #son gohan #piccolo #krillin #son goku #super kami dende #nappa #chi-chi

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monster-bcrn · 3 years

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Share a few headcanons about Grundy’s physical prowess and whatever you feel like sharing! I don’t know much about him

YEAAAAAAAH! Now it’s a party! >:D

Okay okay, so DC has a TON of characters that can be considered bruisers. Mammoth, Amygdala, Blockbuster, Bane, Brickwall......the list is as endless as the number of ice-based villains.

Now Grundy is a bit different. He’s the progenitor of ALL these guys. He was there decades before Bane, before Mammoth......before anyone, really. So not only was he the original bruiser, but thanks to him we have the Incredible Hulks in Marvel.

What’s interesting is that Grundy isn’t just strong. Bane is strong.....Grundy is BEYOND strong. If he was a mutant, he’d be an omega-level (he makes the Juggernaut look like a wuss), he easily carries 100+ metric tons and has carried entire MOUNTAINS on his back.

And he keeps getting stronger. However, it takes him much longer to do so because he gains strength with each regeneration. So in that regard he’s more like Broly the Legendary Super-Saiyan in that he grows stronger the more times he gets the crap beaten out of him.

Another thing that happens is that Grundy grows bigger the more times he dies. A good example of this is in Arkham City. In Arkham City, Grundy was horrifically tortured, mutilated and murdered every. single. day. for upwards of 50 years.

In that huge stretch of time, he went from being around the size and overall look of the Justice League animated Grundy....

To this:

(Photo from Action Figure Barbecue.)

The Solomon Grundy BAF on the right is about 9 inches tall. The DC Direct Arkham City Solomon Grundy is 13 inches tall.

Now, scaling that upwards......Grundy is over 13 feet tall (in the mobile games he honestly looks about 15-20 feet tall) in Arkham City, when he was about 9 feet tall before decades of hyper-experimentation and butchery.

Boy grew so big his pants are about to fall off.

Grundy’s regeneration is some of the most potent in the DC universe. Even the SUN couldn’t destroy him. He came back even after Bizarro disintegrated him to the MOLECULAR level by throwing him into the heart of the sun itself.

He came back. As long as life, death, decay and renewal exists, so does Grundy. One major reason why he’s so OP is because he’s a necessary part of the world’s balance. He’s an avatar and champion of the Grey, i.e. the fungal life and decomposers. He spreads decay only to allow regeneration, and is Swamp Thing’s “brother” (he was originally going to be a Swampthing, but Grundy failed the requirements, so the Grey basically took an embryonic Grundy and became his surrogate mother, developing him into what he is today.)

Grundy has all these cool abilities and all (Hell, he literally used Solar Beam and could manipulate solar energy at one point. He was a freaking Venusaur years before Venusaur was a thing....) but his life sucks. It’s horrible. He’s in constant pain, constantly exhausted from struggling to keep his zombie instincts to tear people apart subdued......

He’s harassed CONSTANTLY by heroes, even when he just wants to be left alone, and it’s become a sort of ‘right of passage’ to kill him to earn your stripes as a hero. He can’t really die so it doesn’t count. Problem is is that Grundy remembers EVERYTHING done to him. So every time he’s essentially murdered, the more maddened and distrustful he gets. He doesn’t trust heroes AT ALL and WILL put on a resting bitch face if he has to even STAND close to a hero.

He HATES them with a burning passion because all they do is hurt him. The only time a hero ever gave him a real chance in the comics was with the heroine Jade. Jade was the daughter of Grundy’s arch-nemesis Alan Scott the original Green Lantern and he adored her.

He was even a hero (well....antihero) for a time with Infinity Inc. He was grumpy, a pain in the neck,constantly getting into trouble by wandering around and bumping into LA traffic (as a lifelong Los Angelian myself......our traffic freaking stinks), but he was loyal, sweet and just a huge puppy.

Until he was manipulated into attacking his friends by a villainess named Marci Cooper aka Harlequin. His friendship was destroyed and he NEVER trusted a hero ever again.

The villains manipulated him and treated him like property, but they said kind words and fed him, so he just assumed they cared about him. They never did (only the Injustice Society guys cared about him, but the team was shortlived and Grundy was left all alone again.)

Grundy is a victim of circumstances beyond his control. Endless years of torture reduced him mentally to basically a child (the rare times he snaps out of it he shows genuine fear of being sucked right back), and is easily manipulated with promises of companionship.

Thankfully there are SOME writers lately who have made heroes treat him better and have shown him to be less of a villain and more of a neutral character just wanting to find his way in the world.

(I can literally go on and on but my goodness I’m tired. XD There’s A LOT about Grundy that I’ve left out, like his relationship with Alan Scott and how horrifically TOXIC it is, his family that he lost, his bromance with Bizarro that DC keeps crapping on lately, how he became a hero in Dark Knights: Death Metal and even has a variation that is basically himself cosplaying as Bats. XD

I might do another post about that later when I’m not tired. XD)

#Rave to the Grave (Out of Character)#That Was the End of Solomon Grundy ( Headcannons)#Born on a Monday!!! (Cyrus Gold/Solomon Grundy)#bothsidesofaquestion #Christened on a Tuesday! (Memes)

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gazelessmenagerie · 2 years

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3 and 4 of that portrayal meme regarding Broly!

Portrayal Meme for the Muns

3. Do you portray your muse differently to the general fandom? 4. What aspects of your muse do you most want to explore?

( The big angry space gorilla himself, adnlsfjg I’d say I actually do portray him differently than what the general fandom sees mainly around the aspects of being nothing but the two focal points of his entire personality comprised as 1. Eternally Angry / Psychopathic 24/7 2. Hates Goku/Kakarot.

( I don’t stray too far from those points but I certainly don’t limit myself to portraying only those two sides bc that just doesn’t make for an engaging muse for me and it leaves little to work with in writing with other muses / characters. I go with the ideas of what I believe his life was like, what his personality might be like outside of being a berserker constantly in his LSSJ form and in the times after his fight with Goku and crew on Planet New Vegeta / Natade village. Suffice to say I don’t think it’s something most of the audience puts thought to and I am of the portion that thinks way too much about a favorite character asldfjgn. What are his thoughts to his situations, how does he survive, how was he raised and what would he do when faced with xyz? What are his ideals or beliefs, what about his principles he follows now that he’s free from control? What does he want..? There’s more to him than just constantly being the Big Bad Villain you get to fight in games and spinoffs but that doesn’t mean I don’t look to him and what he says in said things bc lmfaoooo some of those lines and what-ifs are absolute gems I can play around with. I just add my own spin to it based on tropes and things I like or think would work well with the portrayal I crafted from a basic structure when I first picked him up as a muse. As always, its in a constant state of development and what I choose to keep, change, or discard for another.

In short: The Broly I write has different facets, flaws and strengths, things that make him feel more alive than just what we see from his two movies/roles in games/media. So yes I’d say I portray him differently to the general fandom overall.

( Honestly.... 1. Having him slowly come to realize and accept he can want things beyond being an incarnation of death and destruction wherever he goes ( but he absolutely CAN still retain that. These things can coexist with him bc there’s no way he can actually let go of his bloodlust and need for violence. It’s a part of who he is and to deny him that is to deny him in that aspect. Basically that whole ‘ you can take the wild animal out of the jungle but you can’t take the wild out of the animal. ‘ thing. )

2. That even a wretched beast like him can enjoy the smaller things in life; appreciating the simplicities of having his own will, deciding who he is and what he wants to do, forming genuine friendships or relations with people that do care for him in turn.

3. He’s still a fucking menace in spite of points 2 and 3 and he has no problem being that way to anyone he doesn’t give one shit to (I.E Everyone else. ) This puts him in a very controversial spot bc he won’t care about anyone else outside of those few he becomes close with. Someone wants to destroy Earth ? Cool. Not his problem, let him watch the carnage and kill those stupid humans VS Someone has something/someone he cherishes? Oh, he’s beyond Pissed Off and they’ll be sorry they ever saw him when he’s done with them and takes back what he values intensely/probably even over his own life. Doesn’t matter if the world gets destroyed in the process; he will tear apart / sacrifice just about anything to get whatever he wants back.

4. Reaching SSJ4 levels with good enough reason for why bc lmfao that requires him to actually get control over himself instead of being a mindless beast both to some extent of physically and metaphorically.

5. Have control over his LSSJ state than devolving to an entity only wishing for destruction and carnage until he powers down from exhaustion.

6. As always... some good ol Beauty and the Beast bc I am a slut for that dynamic ankalfndsfankdgj

#dragvnsovl #|| Tag: Answered #|| Tag: OOC #( ayy thank ya for the ask and hello~ name's kuro and it's a pleasure to meet ya )#( hope my damn splurging isn't too much to take in anflsdjg i just have a lot of thoughts for this stupid bastard and )#( he lives here rent free. )

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duhragonball · 1 year

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Dragon Ball GT 60

✨GT Stands For Gestalt Troll✨

✨"Good" "Ideas", Poorly Executed✨

All right, so it’s finally time for Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta. This might very well be the most popular thing to come out of GT, and they waited until episode 60 of 64 to do it. This guy is a guarenteed crowd-pleaser. People love Fusion and they love Gogeta and they love Super Saiyan 4. All this shit is awesome and good, but GT only gives us one episode with this dude, and five episodes with Doltaki. Let that sink in for a moment.

Why do people love SSJ4 Gogeta? Simple: He’s the biggest, baddest cat in the whole franchise. Maybe Vegito Blue or Gogeta Blue are in his league, but he predates them both by about 20 years. Omega Shenron has been eating everyone’s lunch, and he’s the final boss of GT, which made him the de facto final boss of the whole franchise until Beerus showed up in 2013. Gogeta 4 shows up and picks Omega apart like he’s nothing.

This whole Dragon Ball thing is a power fantasy. Anyone who complains about the wishes, or the transformations, or characters being too powerful, they’ve completely missed the point. It’s like complaining that a haunted house is too spooky, or that a musical has too many songs in it. Characters like Frieza, Cell, Broly, and Gogeta are popular because they get these long sequences where they just go around whippin’ ass and no one can stop them. And then someone might whip their ass and they get a lot of popularity too.

And where GT went wrong is that they failed to understand how that power fantasy works. That’s why they did one episode of SSJ4 Gogeta, and five episodes of Doltaki. I mean, I could go on, but I think that really says everything you need to know about GT’s priorities.

Also, GT completely fucked up SSJ4 Gogeta. They had a cool thing, and they totally blew it. Let’s discuss how.

So first of all, we need to have Goku and Vegeta do the Fusion Dance to make Gogeta. Omega Shenron refuses to allow this, even though he basically stood there like an idiot and let Vegeta turn into a Super Saiyan 4. Apparently he’s finally remembered that he wants to win this fight, and he can’t achieve this by just floating around while his enemies plot against him.

So Trunks jumps in to hold Omega off, and he does amazingly well, considering he doesn’t even bother going Super Saiyan for this. Keep in mind that Omega has already beaten up Trunks a couple of times earlier. Like, only one hit each time, but Omega’s supposed to be insanely powerful, so that should be enough to take Trunks out of the fight for good.

Then Bulma shoots her Blutz Wave Tank at Omega, which is completely dumb, because I’m pretty sure Blutz Waves would have no effect on Omega. Maybe she was trying to hit Trunks and turn him into a Super Saiyan 4. Seriously, why didn’t she try that? Anyway, Omega takes out her tank, and she’s more furious that he didn’t warn her that he was going to fire back.

Then Gohan and Goten try to hold off Omega, and they get creamed, and then Trunks jumps in again, and he actually drives Omega back for a decent amount of time. How the hell is he pulling this off? See, this is what GT Logic is all about. The whole premise here is that nothing short of a Super Saiyan 4 can do anything against Omega Shenron, but they need the supporting characters to jump in anyway, so we end up with this dumb paradox where Trunks can do just as well against Omega in base form as Goku was going at maximum power.

Meanwhile, Goku’s just watching this like a dumbass, and Vegeta asks him what he’s waiting for. When the characters are complaining about the plot, you know something’s gone terribly wrong.

So they finally go through with it, and Gogeta appears and Omega can’t even get near the guy without getting hurt, and everyone’s thrilled. Pan is especially excited, because she’s never even heard of this technique before, so this is the first time she’s seen it in action. Then Uub finally comes back from getting blasted in the face in Episode 58. Well, he’s selling his shoulder instead of his face, but you get the idea. At least Uub is more professional than Goten, Gohan, and Trunks. Each of them have gotten worked over by Omega Shenron and they keep acting like they’re completely fresh.

So Uub suggests that one of them fuse with him, and they all look at each other like dopes. Then Gohan says they need to heal Uub’s arm first. Okay, yeah, that’s a good point. He probably can’t do the Fusion dance correctly with a bad wing, but it doesn’t address his point. Goten and Trunks can do fusion right now. They could have done it several episodes ago. They could have done it during the Baby Saga. Uub is literally asking them why they don’t use that thing they know that makes them stronger and helps them win, and they’re all gawking at each other like Uub has a second head.

It would have been funnier if Trunks had said “Sorry, Uub, but this is GT. We have to fight in base form for no reason at all. Just trust me.”

Let’s get back to the fight. Yeah, Omega can’t do shit against Gogeta. Cool. Here’s the problem.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, in this show is interested in winning a fight. When Omega has the advantage he just toys with his opponents and gloats. Now Gogeta has the advantage, and he starts toying with Omega. He makes four copies of himself and they all shoot Kamehameha’s at him, but instead of ki blasts they shoot confetti.

Then Omega gets flustered and prepares his ultimate attack, the Revenge Death Ball. No, wait, it’s the Electric Eclipse Bomb! No wait, I’m sorry, it’s the Minus Energy Power Ball. I don’t know why I keep getting these techniques confused. They’re each so distinctive and innovative.

So Gogeta just waits until the last second and kicks the thing up into outer space. Just like Vegito did when he repelled a big planet-busting ki ball launched by Super Buu. This whole fight is just Vegito vs. Super Buu, only shorter and dumber and without Vegito’s rationale for toying with his opponent. Vegito was baiting Buu in order to get absorbed so he could rescue Piccolo and the boys. Gogeta is screwing around because... well, that’s what Vegito did in DBZ, so I guess Toei thought it would be okay if they did it too.

So one side-effect of this is that Gogeta’s deflection somehow dismantles the minus energy field surrounding the Earth. Up to now, it’s been cutting off the Earth from the rest of the universe, and not even the Supreme Kai could monitor what was happening there.

Gogeta explains that when he kicked the Power Ball, he used his ki to convert the entire thing into Plus Energy, which then neutralized the Minus Energy field around the Earth. This is pretty dumb, but it’s kind of like how Movie 12 Gogeta just somehow knew how to turn Janemba back into a regular oni kid, so I’ll allow it.

What I won’t allow is the part where Omega stupidly repeats everything Gogeta just said, almost word for word, like he still hasn’t grasped what happened. It’s not that complicated, and Omega isn’t this dumb. Toei just stuck this in here to pad out the episode.

So then Gogeta blows Omega Shenron away with the Big Bang Kamehameha, and you’d think that would be the end of the big dope...

I mean, he explodes and the Dragon Balls get scattered around, so it sure looks like he’s toast, but I know better, because the last three episodes have featured false finishes like this, and he always comes back.

And there he is, a little singed, but basically unharmed. Seriously, this guy took a Big Bang Kamehameha from Super Gogeta 4, right in the face, and he’s not even hurt. But somehow Trunks was keeping him busy at the start of the episode? GT Logic is one hell of a drug.

So Gogeta just sets up another one, which is a great opportunity for Toei to reuse the animation cells. Seriously, though, if I were Gogeta, I’d be a little nervous about this. If he survived one of these things, maybe Gogeta’s not strong enough to beat him.

Actually, maybe that’s the whole deal with Omega Shenron. He’s strong, sure, but he’s not that much stronger than Goku. It’s just that he’s so damn tough that he can take almost any offense and shrug it off. That might explain why he never kills the others with his attacks. He has to save his offensive power for when it really counts, because he doesn’t have that much to work with. His main strategy is waiting for Goku to wear himself out in a vain attempt to kill him.

Well, in this case, it totally works. Gogeta comes apart before he can deliver the final blow. Goku speculates it’s because all that Super Saiyan 4 power burned out the fusion time. That’s actually a legitimate point, since Gotenks could only hold Super Saiyan 3 for five minutes before unfusing. From what we’ve seen, SSJ4 seems to be much more stable than SSJ3, but maybe that doesn’t matter when it comes to Fusion.

Anyway, the one bright side to all of this is that Omega has lost the other six Dragon Balls, so now he’s back to being plain old Syn Shenron, and Goku or Vegeta can beat him solo when he’s like this.

Except, no, because Syn just uses the exact same trick he used before and swallows all the Dragon Balls again. And the good guys just stand there like idiots and let this happen...

... Except for the four-star ball, which Goku manages to grab before it can fly into Omega’s mouth. Well, that’s something at least, but it would have been more interesting if they had intercepted a few more Dragon Balls. Let Vegeta take on Omega with only three Dragon Balls and see how well that goes.

So there you have it. Hopefully I don’t have to explain how Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta doesn’t count as an idea. It’s just a combination of three pre-existing ideas: Oozaru, Super Saiyan, and the Fusion Technique. That doesn’t make it a bad thing. They were right to put SSJ4 Gogeta in this show. It’s a great call, just don’t try to tell me it was some brilliant innovation that GT came up with.

There’s nothing fresh in any of this. Gogeta 4 vs. Omega Shenron is just Vegito vs. Super Buu. Only the jokes don’t work and the techniques are dumber and Omega doesn’t do anything cool to put up a fight. He just keeps making idle threats and getting his ass kicked.

✨Is This Episode Worse than "The Roaming Lake"?✨

You can defend this episode by saying “Well, at least they gave us Gogeta”, but that’s kind of the point I’m trying to make here. Like I said from the beginning, Dragon Ball is a power fantasy. That’s the appeal to it. And GT keeps screwing up that appeal by giving the audience a taste of power fantasy, only to snatch it away.

Super Saiyan 4 is a great example of this. It’s supposed to be this ultimate power, but Goku keeps getting his ass kicked whenever he uses it. He’s constantly talking a big game, only to get wrecked, and then he has to ask his kids to give him their power so he can finish the fight. Now he’s got Vegeta backing him up and that still isn’t enough, so they fuse into Gogeta and that doesn’t work either.

GT loves to say “no”. Can we see more of Bulla, Goten, and Marron? No. Can we see Pan turn Super Saiyan? No. Can we check out adult Gotenks? No. Can Vegeta be a Super Saiyan 4? Well, okay, but only long enough to fuse into Gogeta. Oh, well can we see Gogeta win a fight? No.

The thing is, in a story arc like this, you could at least have some fun rooting for the villain, since he seems to be cleaning house so far. That’s how I found a favorite character in Cell, and I think that’s why a lot of fans enjoy Broly and Majin Buu. The thing is, Omega Shenron isn’t really getting that kind of dominant portrayal. I mean, sure, he’s having his way with the heroes. Nobody can stop him, but he’s so damn lethargic about it all. Also, it doesn’t matter much that he survived a Big Bang Kamehameha to the face when he keeps getting flustered by guys like Trunks and Uub. He can’t even kill Mr. Satan, so how big a badass can he be? Omega Shenron keeps mocking all the “small fries”, but he hasn’t been able to do anything about them. You know what Majin Buu did to all of Goku’s little pals? He ate and killed them! Omega just doesn’t have that same energy to him.

So what you end up with his is this lackluster final battle where nothing ever seems to get done. We’ve seen a lot of big power-ups and transformations here. Limit Breaker Super Saiyan 4 Goku. Syn Sheron becomes Omega Shenron. Vegeta turns SSJ4 and fuses with Goku. Goku even pulled off a Super Dragon Fist in the previous episode. But none of it matters. This is part four of a seven-episode battle, and it feels like we’re right back to square one. ‘

“The Roaming Lake” may not have the power scaling of this episode, but at least when Goku blows up an indestructible dam, it stays destroyed. TRL wins again, 61-0.

✨Positivity Page✨

Well, not much got accomplished in this episode, but at least Gogeta got right of that shitty effect in the sky. That makes the show a lot less ugly to watch, and we can all appreciate... wait a minute. Is that the Statue of Liberty?

✨The Blade Braxton Memorial Haiku*✨

YOU MANIACS! YOU

BLEW IT UP! AH, DAMN YOU! GOD

DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

#dragon ball #dragon ball gt #really sucks #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #*haiku does not come with crown as illustrated #goku #pan #trunks #vegeta #gogeta #gohan #goten #chi chi #bulma #videl #uub #mr satan

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danwhobrowses · 4 years

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Why Tashigi Deserves More Respect

I really gotta remember these other things I plan on writing XD Often I get reminded though by people around me criticizing something I realise ‘that’s a little misunderstood’ and then get compelled to write about it. For today we’re looking at the female Marine of One Piece, Tashigi. Now before we start, I want to make a point that Tashigi is still an underused character brimming with potential that Oda seems to shy a lot from. Oda can still sincerely do a lot more with her and I for one have been disappointed by her lack of use in Stampede and lack of appearance in Wano. However, I get a lot of people who feel that Tashigi is ‘useless’, and I’m going to say that this isn’t really the case.

Argument 1: Her Battles

Of course, a lot of strength regarding a character comes with their ability to come out victorious. It can harm any character in a show to constantly be on the losing side of a fight and it does hurt Tashigi (and Smoker) a lot that they do end up that way. While I would love Tashigi to have her first clean win since those guys in Loguetown I’d like to remind you that Tashigi’s fights do have a bit of defense to them, let’s look at all of Tashigi’s named opponents

Zoro (Loguetown) - We always knew that Zoro was winning this, while she was bested by Zoro the purpose of the story wasn’t ever going to be Tashigi being stronger, instead this was Zoro having to confront her similarities with Kuina in personality rather than skill.

Nico Robin/Miss All Sunday (Alabasta) - While Tashigi was unable to even strike Robin back in Alabasta, Robin’s devil fruit allowed her to be perfect for such a situation. A trained and deadly assassin, Tashigi’s physical confrontation was never going to succeed, but what was key to this battle was Tashigi’s realization in regards to the failure of Justice. In the end she had to rely on Luffy to defeat the Pirates the WG had assigned to maintain the balance.

Luffy (Marineford/Punk Hazard) - Luffy and Tashigi briefly crossed paths in Marineford, Luffy swiftly dodged her but again, Tashigi was never going to defeat Luffy and was merely a doorway to put Smoker and Luffy into a fight. It’s also worth reminding that Tashigi must’ve been capable enough to hold her own against Whitebeard’s lesser forces, since she was uninjured from Marineford. They also crossed at Punk Hazard, but then they were both weakened by being in unfamiliar bodies, something which Luffy even acknowledges.

Trafalgar Law (Punk Hazard) - as pictured above, Tashigi’s defeat to Law was another gateway for Smoker to enter the fight, but this one had more purpose in showing Tashigi’s willpower, which we will get to. As you can tell, there’s a theme: Tashigi would never have beaten Law in terms of the narrative, why do we hold it against Tashigi that she lost to the guy who later did this?

Ceasar Clown (Punk Hazard) - while listed as a fight, she fell the same way as Robin and Franky due to his DF being unrevealed, again this being a gateway to sell that Ceasar had a danger to him, I wouldn’t actually count it as a fight.

Vergo (Punk Hazard) - the Donquixote spy is one of Doflamingo’s deadliest subordinates. The original Corazon, Tashigi’s conflict with Vergo brought Sanji into the fight and once again highlighted to Tashigi the corruption within the Marines themselves. Like Law (and the next), we can’t be too harsh on Tashigi losing to Vergo, the guy easily fended off Sanji to the point of almost breaking Sanji’s leg, he also was able to beat Smoker

Monet (Punk Hazard) - Monet is a mixed one, because Zoro quickly defeats her she was quickly overshadowed by the fact that she struggled to even get on the offensive, broadening the gap between them. But, I’d like to remind everyone that Monet was able to force Luffy into fleeing their battle and was handling Robin, Nami and Chopper at once. Tashigi hadn’t completely lost either, I would bet that she’d fight without an arm, maybe not successfully but she would, and she got the finishing blow on Monet - her second offensive attack against Monet put her away and while technically this doesn’t count as a W for Tashigi she did not technically lose in this fight either

As you can see, while it’s easy to say that ‘Tashigi never wins her fights, so she’s weak’ it really undermines the opposition she willingly puts herself against. Narratively there’d be no reason for Tashigi to win these fights, doing so would lead to confusion and disbelief (for instance, would you have seen Luffy beating Kaido solo back in Bakura Town? No, obviously). Tashigi is still strong, she’s able to survive the Grand Line, easily deflect cannon fire with her sword and use Haki, the latter cannot be said for Main Characters like Nami, Chopper, Franky, Carrot and somehow Robin (like girl you spent 2 years with the Revolutionaries, where’s your Haki?). While we would love a win to validate this, Oda always puts her against an opponent that would be difficult for her to win against, and we thus mistake her inability to win as weakness. So that leads to another argument. Argument 2: Tashigi always punches above her weight While this is very much true, One Piece has often told us that being the strongest doesn’t always mean that you will win. Consider 90% of Nami and Usopp’s wins, Luffy’s wins over Crocodile, Enel, Lucci, Magellan, Cracker and Katakuri, the weak may not be able to choose how they die but that doesn’t mean that the strong can either. I’d also like to argue that Tashigi’s motive on fighting strong opponents is not because she feels that she is stronger, she fights them because they are the enemy that needs to be stopped, her motives are pure in her pursuit of justice just as the Straw Hats fight stronger opponents because it fulfills a just cause such as saving Alabasta, their crewmates, people who had their shadows stolen, Camie, Fishman Island, the Punk Hazard children, Dressrosa, Zou or Wano. Tashigi really gets criticized for it because it doesn’t yield the results it does for major characters, often needing help to get the victory. In that I wanna point out a harsh truth as well; Goku - the people many anime fans will compare power scales against - almost never beats the main villain on his own in DBZ or DBS. Freeza - required damage from Krillin, Gohan, Vegeta and Piccolo before the win, and he didn’t finish him off, Cell - tags out to Gohan, who also needs Vegeta’s help to win, Buu - needs Vegeta’s help via fusion and a full power recharge by the Dragon Balls, Beerus - he lost, Golden Freeza - he got jumped by Sorbet and needed Whis’ rewind, Hit - he gave up, Fused Zamasu - lost, and needed Zeno to wipe him out, Jiren - needed Freeza and 17′s help and Vegeta’s energy and finally Broly - needed fusion. So maybe, if even Son Goku cannot win on his own, we can cut Tashigi a little bit of slack given that she’s not even a main character.

Argument 3: ‘She does nothing’ I don’t really like this insinuation. Often Smoker and Tashigi are the ones that pick up the mess after all the enemies are defeated, but for some reason that equates to ‘doing nothing’. I think because people see Tashigi as interchangeable with any other character she is thus useless because she is not mandatory. However, Tashigi’s role is much more complex than that.

Even if she’s not strong enough to fight the biggest fishes in the pond, she still manages to grow and prove her worth. If Tashigi was replaced with any generic marine captain a lot of what happened would be different. It was Tashigi who identified Wado Ichimonji and Sandai Kitetsu for Zoro, Tashigi who (albeit reluctantly) directed Luffy to Crocodile, Tashigi who kept the Straw Hats safe from arrest in Alabasta, Tashigi who convinced Smoker that he needed to swallow his pride and side with Law and Luffy to stop Ceasar and it was Tashigi who convinced Nami to entrust the Punk Hazard children to them. Through her experiences she also cultivates her own unique sense of Justice. While she follows Smoker’s doctrine of ‘A Pirate will always be a Pirate’ and that the Shichibukai system and the World Government as a whole is flawed, she has also learned for herself that there are times that pride must be set aside, in a way Tashigi’s sense of Justice has become a combination of Smoker’s and Fujitora’s: in order to rebuild justice, the navy itself must become strong enough to not depend on pirates, but pride cannot supersede the greater good. In addition, implying she does nothing also implies that she doesn’t practice her own sense of justice either. She stepped in on Zoro twice to protect her men from harm, before even arriving at Punk Hazard we learned that she had a good relationship with the parents who had their children kidnapped as they asked specifically for her which in turn led her to personally strive to reunite the children with their parents and she even protected the truth of Vergo from G-5 so that they didn’t feel betrayed and demoralized. Of the things Tashigi does, nothing is not one of them, she displays compassion, fairness and determination in definitive moments. Argument 3: She’s too hung up on her Feminism

So, one of the major dynamics of Tashigi and Zoro is her misconception that Zoro wouldn’t cut her because she was a woman, a belief that women have to prove themselves more to be seen as strong against men being one of the beliefs she shares with Zoro’s childhood rival Kuina. While it can be a tad irksome that she’d hang onto this with Zoro, until Monet Zoro never actually demonstrated the contrary to her. This is mainly a complaint by hindsight, we only dislike the opinion because we’ve seen Zoro more than Tashigi has, and she’s not 100% wrong, Zoro himself has been a bit of a traditionalist, in Skypeia he angrily chastised Enel for attacking Robin since she was a woman, and he only does step in on Monet to save Tashigi - not even finishing her off despite being very capable of doing so. Outside of Zoro, Tashigi’s feelings that she gets treated differently due to her gender is proven and reflected in how G-5 treat her with little authority, only really listening to her because she’s pretty. You can’t be too hard on Tashigi given that she is constantly faced with this truth on a daily basis, and her desire to be seen for her strength and skills are still an amicable one, it’s worth noting that even Law recognized that her mentality and warrior’s spirit was far greater than he swordsmanship, but he only thought this internally. In Tashigi’s case it would help her confidence to be given validation, and not in the condescending way Zoro usually talks to people. While it can be annoying that she immediately thinks that she’s being treated differently because she’s a woman, this also shows that she wants to be treated as an equal; if she is defeated in combat she wants to be cut to preserve her honour, it is the mentality all Great Samurai have, including Zoro. Oda does something with Tashigi he rarely does with any woman in One Piece in making her less sexualised and body-confident to reflect her goal of being recognized by her spirit and actions rather than her appearance, but he also makes that complex for the character which in a way this is most important for.

Argument 4: She’s not a good Rival for Zoro

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about Tashigi’s character is that she is meant to be Zoro’s rival, in a similar manner to how Smoker and Luffy are embroiled in a Garp/Roger-esque cat and mouse chase. Because of this, people expect Tashigi to advance at a similar scale to Zoro to keep him on his toes, to make sure that he doesn’t end up complacent in his strive to become the World’s Greatest Swordsman. Her former likeness to Kuina also adds to this misconception, since because Kuina was Zoro’s rival with the same goal and always stronger than Zoro himself, Tashigi must be similar.

But this is not why Tashigi and Zoro are always put together. Tashigi is not Zoro’s rival, no other character we’ve met has the same goal as Zoro, and this keeps his story free to develop with different challenges. Tashigi’s pursuit of strength is not for the same reasons as Zoro, she doesn’t want to be the World’s Greatest Swordsperson, she only wants to protect the sanctity of the Meito and keep them out of unworthy hands. Her pursuit of Zoro was both because he dishonoured her in their fight and so she could claim Wado Ichimonji. In the New World however we don’t see that as much from Tashigi, even when she sees Shusui she doesn’t make a point to declare taking it from him because he’s unworthy (like Kin’emon would later do), this is because she does acknowledge his strength and worthiness of using these Meito, her personal conflict now though is to be seen as worthy to him as a swordsperson rather than a pirate to a marine. In reality, Tashigi is instead Zoro’s and Kuina’s foil. She is similar in looks and perspective to Kuina but different in everything else from clumsiness, skill and ambition, the fact that Zoro struggles to handle this leads to the two becoming entwined in their respective journeys. No person gets under Zoro’s skin like Tashigi does, even to a point where he was reluctant to even be in eyeshot of her - how many people have you seen Roronoa Zoro hide from? They are each other’s foil because they are both stubborn people out to prove something but put on two different sides that conflict. That is the true purpose of their dynamic, their confrontations expose one another and show places where they can still grow and I still feel that we haven’t scratched the surface of this relationship.

Argument 5: She’s not Important

A combination of the earlier arguments, Tashigi gets a lot of flack because people think she’s not important enough as a character to have the screentime she gets. While it’s not hard to see why people feel that, it usually comes with people giving up on the idea that there’s a greater plan for her. It may just be me, but I am reluctant to believe that Tashigi appears in several forms of merchandise including calendars, games (as NPCs, Bosses, Supports or playable characters) and even figurines and not have a purpose in the greater scope of the story, do we really expect that from Oda? I doubt that very much! Granted, Wano would’ve been a perfect placement for her to push herself given the views on women in the country and it being the homeland of famous Meito. And yes, she could’ve had a much greater role in Stampede given how well they managed Smoker in it. We are allowed to be disappointed by this, but the fact that Tashigi has remained as consistent in presence as she has been in the show does hint at a bigger role, even if it’s being that wave of revolutionizing the Marines with Coby and Fujitora, her own origins or finally proving herself to the audience and to Zoro, Tashigi is not done and thus she is still important. “Just because they say a bird cannot fly, doesn’t mean that it never will” - Oda SBS 17 on Tashigi and Kuina’s names being named after flightless birds So, Why does Tashigi deserve more Respect? Tashigi as a character is one of Oda’s more subtle progressions. In contrast to Zoro who we see grow, we don’t see how Tashigi gets from A to B, we can also contrast to Coby whose rise becomes as magnificent as his puberty that Tashigi’s growth is much less abrupt and more steady, we see her struggles more than we do Coby where his successes are only heard in passing. Tashigi can also act as the ‘normal person’ in the marines, we compare her to Zoro in strength because she uses a sword but we never give her the benefit of the doubt that Roronoa Zoro is a bloody superhuman, plus not everyone has the great luxury of being trained by Dracule Mihawk for 2 years...furthermore, her challenges against Devil Fruit users are always filled with good intentions and strong willpower, but still self-doubt and shame, if anything Tashigi is one of the most human characters of One Piece for this reason; she learns, she suffers, she grows and she does it all without the luxury of Shonen perks such as superhuman power or endurance. Also she is a good person, she has a strong sense of morality and will, an altruistic desire and even in the situation she gets put in she makes a step that leads to the plot going in a positive direction. And for a character that has been in as many arcs as she has, there is still so much potential left to be untapped that fans are still after 2 decades eager to see from her.

Tashigi is a strong, valiant and just person, who is still really powerful if people stop trying to compare her to the likes of Luffy, Law and Zoro. Even when she fails she picks herself up and can still come out with a small victory from protecting innocents, arresting criminals and escorting children to get help. She is a lot stronger than people give her credit for and it’s for that she deserves respect.

#one piece #tashigi #zoro #roronoa zoro #kuina #shimotsuki kuina #smoker #smoker one piece #monkey d luffy #monet #ceasar clown #vergo #nico robin #trafalgar law #I may be a teeny bit biased because I ship her and zoro but I know I'm not alone with people liking her but hoping for more #I trust you oda

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adelcrait-old-account · 4 years

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Lost and Found— Chapter 15: The Boss

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24522103/chapters/64196512

After discovering a security breach, Vader sends Luke and Piett undercover to a bar frequented by criminals, hoping to run into the woman that is planning to defeat the Empire.

Meme spoilers and a rant under the cut:

Hello!

This chapter was a long time coming thing. I wanted to change the scenario and get them all to an actual planet with real air. Luke’s been up in space for weeks, but Piett must have been there for a few months, if not a year. I’m sending him on a vacation, he deserves it.

July me also thought it was the funniest idea to write Piett, unmasked Vader and Luke in a bar talking about Vader. Luke would introduce unmasked Vader as “his mortal enemy”, and Piett would believe it. I also find it incredibly amusing (to me) that Vader refuses to act as another person because: a) *dramatic spotlight* He is Darth Vader, a Dark Lord of the Sith, Supreme Commander of the Imperial Fleet, current temporary Emperor, Leader of the Imperial Security Bureau, Leader of the not-so-secret Investigation against the Galactical Insurrection....He will not do something as foolish as acting. Do you even know who he is? He is Darth Vader, a Dark Lord of the Sith- b) He refuses to act as Agent Broly because he just doesn’t care. In the end he did reveal his identity to Piett, and he knew it was a risk coming there unmasked, but there is trust between them, and so Vader doesn’t see the point of acting as this Agent Broly.

For some reason when I first started writing Agent Broly I imagined a tall surfer himbo of some sort. Do with this information whatever you want.

1. The Boss

Now onto the star of the night, Anak- sorry. *coughs* the spotlight please? Thank you. nOW ONTO THE STAR OF THE CHAPTER: Darth Vader, a Dark Lord of the Sith, Supreme Commander of the Imperial Fleet, current temporary Emperor, Leader of the Imperial Security Bureau, Leader of the not-so-secret Investigation against the Galactical Insurrection... My mans a bit out of character, but hey! This is an Alternate Universe where Vader when stressed acts like clone wars Anakin because there is enough love in my heart for all versions of this character.

The real boss of the chapter is Miss Celissa Vanis, finally making an appearance after Chapter 6, when Luke and Vader just found her in the Coruscant rebel base. Remember those times? Feels like ages ago. Where has she been? What is she doing? Does anyone know what she’s doing? Do I know what she’s doing? What is her Modus Operandi? Does she have one?

Listen.......She’s out there getting stuff done. It took her less than six months to scare The Darth Vader, kidnap Palpatine and Mothma and start a very organised clandestine riot. SHE’S GETTING SHIT DONE.

I really like her. She is the antagonist of the story, yes, but hey! She’s charming and makes some very good points even if the execution of her ideas is....well, bad. People are dying. But she makes sense, even if I, as a person that is also reading the story and has opinions, disagree with her.

Celissa had a dramatic entrance, and she also got a dramatic exit. It has taken me over 70,000 words, but I finally decided to include something about...you know. That guy.

Celissa stared at the ship. Her people looked at her for guidance, but she didn't have any. She was already planning to get rid of Darth Vader's new Sith apprentice. "You! Pick up the blasters and let's go. The Emperor has some questions to answer."

Palpatine, answering questions? Celissa, teach me your ways.

2. ‘The Skywalkers: I am The Last Skywalker Left, both Skywalkers say’ A STAR WARS STORY

These two... I know they’re related, you know they’re related, everyone knows they’re related, and I know that they will know that they’re related (I’m not telling you the How yet ;D) but...they share one brain cell, and in this chapter Luke has it. Which is understandable, because Vader is out of his comfort zone and has a lot on his plate. He probably hasn’t been to a space!bar since that time Hondo kidnapped Obi-Wan and him...about twenty-five years ago.

Luke, on the other hand, spent most of his life on Tatooine. He probably befriended ‘cool looking people’ in Mos Eisley when he was five and his Uncle had to drag him away because those people were dangerous. Luke in a bar filled with dangerous people is like a fish in the sea. But I think that the fact that Luke and Vader are related by blood will just be a major Plus when the truth is revealed, because I already see that they’re vibing as friends. Hell, they even argue like children through the Force because Vader’s being snarky (because he’s out of his comfort zone) and Luke is just not letting him get away with things Vader usually did.

Hey, and I love them for that.

3. ‘The not-a Commander, Someone Help Him’

I would quote Rickey Thompson’s you are my ride or die video, but I want you to watch it. This is me talking about Luke in this fic. The Commander, Ben Starkiller. As I said before, Luke is more comfortable in the ground with the normal people because he spent most of his life on Tatooine with his Aunt and Uncle, moisture farmers. He understands people, he understands crime, he has seen people being wrongly accused of crimes they did not commit. So when Darth Vader starts talking about criminals, Luke steps in. He said this in Chapter 3, and his position still stands. He might not officially be a rebel anymore, but his morality hasn’t shifted:

Vader continued staring at him. “Why did you join [The Rebellion] ?” Luke clenched his jaw. “The Empire is a rotten, corrupt fascist state that supports slavery and massive genocide,” he said calmly with a shrug, “I have witnessed enough to see that something must be done against it.” “That is all theory, Commander. I am asking what caused you personally to be against it.” “I won't watch how innocent people are killed because the Emperor threw a tantrum.” Vader wanted to say that his Master never lost his composure: out of both of them he was the most likely to throw tantrums. Sidious was more strategic in his murders. “The Empire took the life of someone you knew.” Luke clenched his jaw. “A great deal of many people, sir. This is a war.” He would never reveal what the Empire did to his aunt and uncle, he wouldn't give Vader that pleasure. "No one cares about murders on Tatooine."

4. Hondo Ohnaka, Forever Young

I loved him in the Clone Wars and in Rebels. This is the man that when confronted by Darth Maul and Savage Opress, said the following:

Darth Maul: "Filth, you will pay for your insolence." Hondo Ohnaka: "Insolence! We are pirates! We don't even know what that means. Open fire!"

I can only imagine the kind of stories there are about this man in the galaxy, and Luke has heard them all, so when he heard that Hondo said Vader tried to kill him, I just imagined this:

Imagine sending this without context to someone that hasn’t read my fic but knows the star wars lore....I would be very confused. It could also be an AU where Hondo finds baby!Luke and raises him as a pirate, and then Vader comes for his child and finds Luke Ohnaka speaking fluent pirate slang with the man that raised him.

In case you didn’t know, Hondo kidnapped Anakin and Obi-Wan for ‘business’ in the clone wars TV show. After that, Anakin was too distracted with the war to go find Hondo again, so they left on neutral-to-bad terms. On the long list of people that Vader wouldn’t want to see him unmasked, Hondo is at the bottom, because Vader doesn’t even remember he exists. Imagine you’re Vader (I know, I know), you’re approximately forty-five years old, drowning in work, undercover in a mission, arguing with this boy who is accusing you of being “impossible”, and then he goes very quiet and says “That’s Hondo Ohnaka.” The name is oddly familiar, and you turn around and you see him. That dude that kidnapped you when you were only twenty years old. This was over 25 YEARS AGO, surely he won’t remember you, right?

Right?

5. Captain Kathmir, who?

Captain to Darth Vader at the start of the Empire, led the 501st to battles, a very well known figure in the Imperial Fleet...so why doesn’t Vader want to talk about her?

Piett spoke. "Yes, precisely. [...] Everyone knows what happened to Captain Kathmir."

The Force stopped ticking.

Luke frowned. "Who?"

"Nobody," said Vader urgently, "Drop the topic, now."

She disappeared after failing him. What happened?

The Force became cold, and Luke shivered when Vader spoke. "The story is a lie built on childish rumours." he spat quietly.

In case that you’re thinking Vader might have had something with this Captain, the answer is No. In my humble opinion, in canon, I don’t see Vader having anything with anyone that wasn’t Padmé, and this extends to all my fics. There are enough headcanons for everyone.

And to conclude, a wholesome one:

Thank you for sticking with my nocturnal ramblings about this story! I’m posting another chapter in a few days, where they will do Force magic in the snow.

#lost and found #My posts #my fics

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