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nixariel · 1 year

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More trivia! (this time with Extra Maps™)

For interest's sake I was trying to figure out where in Poitiers Cleo’s hôtel particulier might be, plus identify the train stations featured during Carmen's trip to Paris—and I think I’ve figured (most of) it out.

First of all, Carmen is supposed to be fifty yards from the townhouse in this shot.

That puts the building somewhere on the east side of the River Clain, slightly north of the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Poitiers, but not too far from what looks like the Pont Joubert (the little bridge in the lower right corner). The Caserne d’Aboville (barracks for the 9e Brigade d'Infanterie de Marine) would be a reasonable stand-in for location, and even looks a little similar in terms of architectural style.

The station Carmen flies in to also bears a more-than-passing resemblance to the real Gare de Poitiers

but the pattern of terrain she passes over doesn’t quite fit with what appears to be a southerly approach.

However! This particular background gets rotated and recycled about ten seconds after initial use (left being its first appearance, rotated for comparison; right is unaltered but from ten seconds later), and if we go by the second version,

the curve of the river is a close-enough fit for having taken a path like so

with the little arrow being her upcoming destination, the Gare de Poitiers. Unfortunately I could not match the station Carmen’s train briefly stops at to a real location en route to Paris

so if anyone recognizes it, please let me know! Which leads me to the other ‘???’ moment I had while working on this because

...yeah. Yeah, I’ve got NO idea what’s going on with Player’s map here. He's got France oriented in the usual 'up is north' way, but that just makes it weirder? Because by that compass, Carmen is moving south—even though Paris is east and NORTH of Poitiers.

Though this show does get a little fuzzy with its geography at times*cough*Interpol's HQ is in LYON*coughcough*and Devineaux’s conspiracy map has the Canary Islands on the WRONG side of Africa*cough*

Anyway, after Player regains Carmen’s signal, her GPS marker is heading in approximately the right direction

answering exactly zero questions about where it was going earlier, but all’s well that still ends (somehow) in Paris, I guess? The Gare du Nord then looks to be the best match for where Carmen makes her exit

even if all direct trains from Poitiers to Paris seem to go to Gare Montparnasse instead.

Update: this seems to have turned into a bit of a series, so check the reblogs to get an episode-by-episode for the rest of S1! A full-show overview is here. Also, the street Chase and Julia are driving down at the very beginning of the episode looks to be none other than the Rue de la Cathédrale, as the structure behind them is consistent with the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre’s south tower. From a cartographic standpoint, it does place them on the wrong side of the Clain as well as moving in the opposite direction of Cleo’s residence, but that’s where the artistic licence comes in, I guess. ;)

#my post #carmen sandiego 2019 #cs 2019 trivia #carmen sandiego #player #countess cleo #every show has a few goofs and in general CS 2019 does a good job of keeping them subtle #but that just makes it more fun when you do spot one XD #like when teenage!shadowsan walked through a table #clearly he started his ninja training early XDD #or when the windows of the San Diego HQ changed from two together to two separate in S2E09 #and then changed right back in the next episode #my gif #reference material #nixariel

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beepbeepdespair · 23 days

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just been reading the new jackbox interviews. "a response to things we know that people have been asking for". i think. i think we have a chance. it could actually be tmp3 this time. i did some maths and the last time a tmp game came out i was a month off my 15th birthday. now i'm coming up on 20. please.

#i am outside jackbox's hq banging on their doors and screaming /j /lh #textpost #text post #jackbox #jackbox games #trivia murder party #beep beep likes jackbox

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dennisboobs · 1 year

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Was considering buying (ridiculously overpriced) Sunny blu-rays to (very, very legally) rip them (for Personal Use archival purposes), decided to test on a blu-ray I already own, realized my external drive only reads DVDs, successfully ripped a DVD, but then was sent down a rabbit hole trying to see if I could use my (again, very, very legally) hacked PS3 to rip the .iso (I can) since it is indeed a blu-ray player with an attached PC-adjacent machine...

Long story short. If you see me spending $70 on seasons 1-5 on DVD and 6 on blu-ray, no you didn't, but also expect a 1080p season 6 bloopers upload in the near future.

definitely not from me, though. no way. i would never do that. i'm not a pirate. i'm just a good ole upstanding wiki admin.

#i need season 8 so bad but the price of it on bluray is ATROCIOUS #THESE MFERS ARE ASKING FOR EIGHTY WHOLE DOLLARS. FOR ONE BLURAY. and i'm NOT about to get fucked over with a bootleg so options are limited #i mmmmight hold off on the earlier season dvds because i think i might actually have some luck finding them in local stores #but who the FUCK has season 8 on bluray. im convinced there are only like 5 legit copies out there.#afaik a good chunk of the season 1-4 extras are out there already but the interlacing on them is disgusting #so if i can. i'm going to attempt to deinterlace them properly and then stick em on the internet archive #ada speaks #actually i should probably... see if anyone is interested in donating to help cover this lol #the episodes are out there and there arent any official blurays after season 8 (so like why even bother with 9 to 11's subpar 720p DVDs)#but 6-8 extras are all shit quality if theyre even available online at all #youtube doesnt cut it for me either #YEAH Y'ALL REMEMBER MACDEN BREAK UP BEAUTIFUL LIPS SCENE. ITS GONE. NOWHERE TO BE FOUND OTHER THAN TUMBLR.#and i. will change that singlehandedly if its the last thing i do #also like i need the cereal defense scene in hq i literally attempted to upscale the shitty youtube copy i was desperate #this is for me. the fact that im able to download every fucking dvd extra for THE X FILES. a series as old as me. but not for sunny.#FX why do you hate sunny so bad. go on. rerelease these dvds. release a fucking season 15 blu ray. bitch.#its so horrific that season 10 only has a gag reel and 11 has NOTHING included on the disc for bonuses #season 6 has a wholeass trivia game #what happened #its not even like the bonus feature stuff doesnt exist its just on youtube #and MOST of the shit is privated. because FX sucks.#low quality compressed youtube videos that ppl have downloaded and reuploaded and crunched to shit all over again #at least some of them are archived. but. fuck

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ad-j · 7 months

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WATCHLIST 2023: Glitch: The Rise & Fall of HQ Trivia

#watchlist #Glitch: The Rise & Fall of HQ Trivia

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centrevillesentinel · 1 year

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The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia; Review of CNN Films HQ Trivia Documentary

In 2017, the mobile game HQ Trivia made its debut and became an instant sensation. The live trivia game, where players competed for real money, attracted millions of users from around the world. However, the breakout game was short-lived when it was eventually shut down. What happened to HQ Trivia, and why did it fail? The mobile game disappeared just as quickly as it appeared; without a real…

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#cnn films #colin kroll #documentary #HQ #rus yusupov #trivia

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floorman3 · 1 year

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Glitch: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia Review- A By the Numbers Documentary Film

In the early 2000s, there was a boom in websites and startup companies that popped up. Just as many failures as well. People had all kinds of ideas for apps and so forth. Two young men, Colin Kroll, and Rus Yusupov, at the time, created an app called Vine where anybody could do six-second videos. It was very popular and the people who owned Twitter bought it for thirty million dollars. After a…

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#CNN #Colin Kroll #Glitch: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia #HBO Max #Rus Yusupof #Salima Koroma #Scott Ragowsky

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gamebunny-advance · 9 months

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Misc. Pikmin 4 Character Trivia

(Updated 03/05/24)

Ever wanted all the Pikmin 4 character trivia in one place? Well, here you go. If I missed anything, feel free to let me know and I'll update this post.

Note: I'm not covering the Hocotatians & Koppaites because the former are major characters with a lot about them already written, and the only interesting trivia (IMO) about the latter is already "common knowledge."

This also isn't a document of *every* line of dialogue that a castaway can say. This is just stuff that I thought was interesting and/or info that you can't get from just reading their ID or talking to them once. Some castaways don't have any entries because they're either not that interesting or don't actually talk about themselves much.

Recent updates: Added a new note on Patch.

Rescue Officers

Collin

Has a wireless transceiver that has been passed down to him by his grandfather. He refuses to replace it and instead just fixes it whenever it breaks.

His hobby is tinkering with machines.

He's worked several odd jobs in the past to help pay for his education. These jobs include collecting space trash, ship construction, and cleaning the "outer walls of the colony". He considers his work as the comms operator to be significantly more difficult than any of his past jobs.

This has caused him to be multi-talented, but it also causes others to take advantage of him.

Despite this, he apparently isn't one for "physical labor."

Collin considers PNF-404 to be tiny, though this may be in reference to the universe, in which all planets could be considered "tiny."

Shepherd considers him young, but in reference to who/what is unknown.

Only in the comics, Oatchi seems to dislike Collin.

Shepherd

She has the highest certificate ranking in the Rescue Corps, and a special certification in Rescue Pup training. This is something very few officers have.

She spends all of her breaks at a dog run near the Rescue corps HQ.

Apparently, she spends much of their budget on dog food.

She met Dingo before she was captain when they were both training. This may mean that she's known him the longest of the other members. Most others are implied to have met her/been recruited by her when she was already captain.

She exceeds Dingo in martial arts and cross-country.

She doesn't seem aware of Dingo's crush on her.

She seems to experience some form of imposter syndrome during the main campaign but overcomes it near the end of the game.

Her family has lived with dogs since at least the first Captain's generation. Additionally, their family is implied to be immigrants from a different planet. Their original planet is unknown, but is highly implied to be Earth/PNF-404.

Her family's motto is, "There's no better judge of character than a dog."

By her own admission, the only creatures she can "handle" are dogs. Whether this also excludes other domesticated creatures is currently unknown.

Russ

His family runs a megacorporation on Giya, and as a result is incredibly wealthy. They're so wealthy that they can regularly afford golden pikpik carrots and just casually blend them into juice for a snack.

Said family is also very large and extravagant and seems to always invite the other rescue officers to their many parties, much to the latter's chagrin.

His mother is notorious in the Rescue Corps for "being quite the character."

He claims to have only joined the Rescue Corps out of curiosity.

While he lords his intellect above most others, he still recognizes Yonny as a genius in the medical field.

He wears a lab coat under his spacesuit. His mother gifted him 64 of them to bring on their current trip.

The Emergency Kit was the first item he prototyped after joining the Rescue Corps.

He is a fan of the reporter Muggs.

His natural hair color may be green, as this is the color of his eyebrows.

He's apparently prone to "interesting" injuries, likely due to failed inventions.

Dingo

Decided to become a rescue officer after being saved in the mountains by Shepherd's father, the previous Rescue Corps captain.

He dislikes dogs due to being traumatized by one during the same rescue, as he believed the rescue pup was trying to attack him.

He appears to fear Russ's mother.

He apparently believes that any drink (and possibly food, given his theft of Bernard's pizza) sitting out belongs to him.

Acknowledges that Collin is probably their most important team member, but he still takes advantage of his kindness from time to time.

He tends to refer to most of the officers by their title/job rather than name. (Comms guy for Collin, Science guy for Russ, the captain, etc.) Except Yonny which he shortens to "Yon."

He's childhood friends with Yonny.

Yonny

He's an avid reader, but prefers paper books to digital ones. He has boxes of them shipped to HQ regularly and they would have taken up 27 shelves on the ship if he were allowed to bring just the ones he wanted.

Has experimented on at least Shepherd and Dingo without their full consent. The former by not being transparent about what was in a vitamin supplement he gave her, and the latter by abusing his tendency to drink anything that's just sitting out. He has attempted to experiment on Collin, but it is unknown if he succeeded in doing so.

Apparently bursts into maniacal laughter when working in the lab by himself. The other officers just ignore it.

He's childhood friends with Dingo.

Bernard

He is very picky about food, to the point that their food storage has a special section just for him. It consists of expensive, specialized foods.

Like Collin, he has worked several different jobs over his career (including the president of a space-flight company). In the Japanese script, this is *apparently reflected in him having a combination of different dialects.

Also, like Collin, he considers his job as an officer to be significantly more difficult than his other jobs. However, he also considers it the most rewarding.

He invented an all-in-one meal drink that put a boxed lunch company out of business, solely because he finds digging through lunch boxes to be a pain.

Shepherd recruited him after he was able to deliver some packages for her faster than the post office would.

He has a history with a castaway named Santi whom he considered himself to be a part of a "dynamic duo" with. They were born about the same time, went to school and college together, and at some point became the latter's flight instructor. Bernard thinks of Santi fondly, but the feeling is not mutual.

He once piloted a 20,000 hour (just over two years) flight.

*(source)

Civilian Castaways + Their Planets

Research Task Force

Twyla and Komo are close friends due to their mutual introversion. They consider each other "irreplaceable".

Komo considers Chet easy to talk to.

Twyla considers the concept of plate tectonics to be unheard of on her home planet. This may imply that Conohan doesn't have any natural mountains, volcanoes, trenches, earthquakes, etc.

Sammy's home planet of Ocobo was not always ravaged by perpetual storms. But once they started, the entire planet flooded and their planet's engineers developed artificial islands for the people to live on.

Sy is the youngest member of the Research Task Force.

Osa is Kit's senior.

Chet has considered asking Ren to try cooking the creatures of the planet, but ultimately decides against it.

TV Crew

Wolfgang and Muggs get engaged at the end of the game. If you talk to Muggs before rescuing Wolfgang, she will drop hints about already having some romantic interest in him.

Muggs is possibly one of only other people that can understand what Oatchi's thinking if her comments from Oatchi are to be believed.

Vonda claims that Wolfgang is apparently a good singer. Comparatively, she struggles to say nice things about Olimar's humming.

Frisé wrote a song called, "Song of Love." This is likely a reference to "Ai no Uta" a song used in the promotion of Pikmin (2001). The title directly translates to "Song of Love." However, the lyrics of the two songs seem completely different.

Satella Travel Employees + Guests

Molly appears to have a crush on Russ. She finds his intellect attractive and wants to wear his glasses.

Molly might also be of a higher intellect given that she once made and launched an unmanned rocket in a single night by herself (even if it exploded).

The name of the travel agency that Chewy and Santi work for, the Satella Travel Agency, is a reference to the Nintendo Satellaview.

Sheeba apparently resembles Chewy's boss.

Santi learned his piloting skills from Bernard.

He also seems to have a similar "accent" to Bernard, but it only comes out when speaking about the latter.

Santi appears to be fond of Chewy and is considering becoming a permanent employee for her sake. Whether these feelings are romantic in nature is unclear.

Planetary Science Club

Despite being the Planetary Science Club's adviser, Mika actually teaches ethics and knows very little about any kind of planetary science.

Sheeba appears fearful of Oatchi.

Sheeba wants to become a teacher when she grows up.

The Planetary Science Club students went on the planetary tour on a free raffle, but Mika had to pay out of pocket.

Kaia gave Mika a nickname: Meeki. Mika likes it, but Sheeba thinks it's unprofessional.

Keesh is apparently stronger than Sheeba, Kaia, and Mika combined.

Others

All of Beaux's roles in movies/shows are references to other Nintendo games and IPs. Specifically the first 3 Pikmin games where he plays the Olimar expy, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Mario, Kirby, and Link.

In a similar vein, his twin brother Alpin's company is called "e-Leader" as a reference to Nintendo's "e-Reader" accessory.

Alpin inherited the company from their father and works so Beaux can pursue his dreams of being an actor.

Alpin knows Fawks well enough to know exactly how he likes his coffee. (1 cup of coffee with 2 spoonfuls of milk, and 3 sugarcubes.)

From Kayz we learn a little about the different biomes on the other planets: Siguray has a scorching desert, Flukuey has steep, rocky mountains, and Ooji has a lush jungle.

Patch admits that he sees a "darkness" in Olimar's eyes, which implies that this is not his first life-or-death experience.

Patch is implied to have been or was inspired by a pundit to pursue his current lifestyle.

Bernise will actually change her fortune for you every in-game day.

Dalmo has been interested in creatures since childhood.

His hometown also has a waterfront, confirming that Sozor has at least one significant body of water.

While Dalmo never ascribes malice to any of the creatures, he appears somewhat cynical about society, calling adults the only beings capable of intentional deceit and acknowledging that being popular means not having to work as hard to get to the top.

Shnauz's home planet of Siguray apparently has iridescent, water-dwelling newts.

Jin has studied traditional sports, combat sports, martial arts, and the art of battle.

One of Corgwin's first builds was a dog-house.

Speculative material below the cut.

Planet Generalizations

Some castaways from certain planets seem to have similar personalities/traits. Given that it's stated that things like the Koppaites' general inability to plan/being picky eaters is inherent to their race, it's possible that these generalizations apply to the rest of the races as well. I have not included planets with only one castaway. These are detailed below.

Sozor (Dalmo, Grace, Horatio): Have anti-social personalities. Dalmo prefers creatures to people, Grace seems disinterested in society as a whole, and Horatio seems inept at social interactions.

Flukuey (Jin, Molly, Dash, Patch): Have unstable professions and/or are adventure seekers. Jin is an explorer, Molly is a streamer of limited success, Dash is a spelunker from a well off-family, and Patch is unemployed but purposefully puts himself in dangerous situations for the thrill.

Ooji (Francois, Kingsly): Love flowers/plant life. Francois studies plant-life, and Kingsly is a florist.

Koodgio (Lapi, Boris): Artistic types. Lapi is a painter and Boris is an author.

Siguray (Shnauz, Kit, Osa): Interested in the qualities/history of materials/items. Shnauz appraises treasure, Kit is interested in minerals, and Osa is interested in archeology.

Castaways where it's difficult to determine if their similar traits would be found in their race due to other factors:

Ogura (Sy, Pitunia): Bother are interested in studying the onion and their environmental factors surrounding it, but both are also a part of the Research Task Force, a group made of individuals that are interested in studying the planet in general, so it's hard to say if this would be something inherent to all Ogurains, or if they just happen to have a mutual interest in this area of study.

Enohee (Ren, Frise, Muggs, Wolfgang): 3 of the 4 are a part of the same crew so would have common interests by default. Arguably all 4 are interested in entertainment as Ren was on a cooking show, so TV might be a very important industry to Enohee.

Neechki (Kaia, Sheeba, Keesh, Mika, Chewy): 4 of the 5 are in the same club and would have similar interests by default, and Chewy has little in common with the rest of them.

Nijo (Santi, Bernard): Both became pilots and were prone to changing jobs frequently, but their "Dynamic Duo" shtick of always being a part of each other's lives is played as a joke, so their similar lives/interests may not be due to race.

Planets where I couldn't identify a common thread:

Enohay (Puddle, Vonda, Bernise): I would have said creative/artistic fields due to Puddle being a stylist and Vonda being a singer, but I don't think a fortune-teller really falls under that.

Conohan (Twyla, Chowder, Alpin, Fawks, Beaux): They all have different professions and interests, two are siblings, and none have especially similar personality traits. In a sense, I suppose this would imply that Conohan is a very diverse planet.

Ohri (Yonny, Dingo): Neither seems to have much in common with the other.

Giya (Shepherd, Collin, Russ): Another diverse group. However, given the stark difference between Collin's and Russ's financial situations, may imply that Giya has significant class inequality.

#gbunny writes #pikmin #pikmin 4

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mochirizu · 4 months

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𝚅𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎 𝙻𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚍 || 𝚆𝙺 𝚘𝚌

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

Name: Valerie Littlebird

Also known as: Val, Chickadee (Martin), Kiwi(Gourmand), Dr. Lady(Zach)

Age: 25

Ethnicity: Cree

Gender: Female(She/Her)

Birthday: April 29th(Taurus)

Occupation: Medic for Tortuga HQ, Herbalist for Tortuga HQ

Height: 5'6(168 cm)

CV: Sarah Podemski

Signature Colour: Teal

Personality:

Valerie is known for her quiet, stoic and reserved nature. She usually keeps to herself, but she is not averse to joining in on the fun. Her level-headed and strategic thinking is particularly valuable during missions, especially when things get stressful. Valerie is a great listener, and her unwavering self-confidence makes her one of the most hardworking members of the team. She is very practical in her approach to problem-solving and is highly attuned to the world around her. Valerie has a very strong moral compass, and she holds her beliefs very strongly, to the point where she can be petty about them. Despite being kind-hearted, Valerie can sometimes be overly analytical and judgmental. She has a strong aversion to dishonesty, believing that lying is a cheat to life, and this can visibly upset her. She can also be dismissive of emotions and tends to avoid discussing them unless she initiates the conversation. Valerie has a strong need for personal space and dislikes physical contact unless she initiates it herself.

Abilities:

Valerie is an incredibly skilled individual when it comes to medicine and first aid. Her skills extend to both animals and people and she is often seen tending to her crewmates' injuries, ensuring they are well taken care of. Valerie's expertise in herbs, flowers, and various other plants led her to take on the role of the team's botanist. As a medic, she can make medicine from plants and herbs she grows, making her an essential member of the team. Her proficiency in cooking also means that she can whip up a delicious meal for the crew to enjoy after a long day of adventuring. Valerie is an expert problem solver, and her ability to think outside of the box has often led her to come up with creative solutions to complex problems. Valerie is also fluent in Algonquian, French, and English.

Likes:

Gardening

Botany

Dancing

Ferrets

Birds(Ravens in particular)

Crafting Jewelry

Horses

Personal space

Platypuses

Squirrels

Rain

Dislikes:

Zach

Zachbots

Donita Donata

Dabio

Paisley

Rex

Gourmand

Thunderstorms

Dishonesty

Spiders

Mosquitoes

Ignorance

Loud Noises

Trivia:

Valerie gets the nickname ‘Chickadee’ because of her Chickadee feather earrings.

Ironically enough, her colour scheme is reminiscent of a Bluebird,

Her last name is also ‘Littlebird’.

Valerie makes her jewellery and likes to braid for people when she’s stressed or someone needs to be de-stressed.

Valerie’s medicine bag contains foldable medicine equipment, such as a scalpel, bandages and even several syringes and blood testers.

Valerie has been shown using her Creature Power Suit, but she prefers to use her ‘fold-a-bat’ as a weapon.

Valerie is the only girl in her immediate family - being raised by her two fathers and several older brothers.

Her favourite continent is Central America.

Despite her CPS, Tail Attachment and Creature Pod being teal, her favourite colour is blue.

She is pansexual.

She has a surprisingly good relationship with Donita.

She has never once had a bad hair day.

Her favourite Greek Goddess is Athena.

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

Hey guys! Sorry, for the unannounced break, Uni started for me and it is a LOT. During this, I started thinking about various ways to improve Willow's design to make a sort of 'final boss' if you will. Thus, Valerie was born! I love her design and just her in general. Let me know what y'all think!

Yes, she is still paired with Martin so expect cute art of them soon.

#wild kratts #wild kratts oc #wk oc #original character #valerie littlebird #val #marlerie #cree #cree oc

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tobiasdrake · 2 days

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While you’re on the subject of underexplored Dragon Ball trivia, could you tell us something on the Dragon Balls themselves?

Hmm... not sure how much underexplored trivia I know on the subject. I think most of the details about what the Balls are and how they work are pretty well known. But I can go into a run-down.

Originally based on Journey to the West, the core purpose of the Dragon Balls is to provide a sort of miraculous quest of worthiness to their seeker. On Namek, the planet they come from, each one of six Balls, stars 2-7, is carried by the Choro or "Elder" of the village. To make your wish to Porunga, you must visit each village in turn and pass some great test of virtue that the Choro demands of you.

With the final Dragon Ball, the One-Star Ball, resting in the hands of Saichoro or "Grand Elder". He is the final arbiter of worthiness for your desire to receive a miracle from Porunga.

Krillin, incidentally, is the only person during the campaign on Namek to successfully pass a Namekian elder's measurement of virtue rather than taking a Ball by force. For escorting Dende to the safety of Saichoro's home and for having genuinely good intentions for his desired miracle, Krillin is judged worthy and given the One-Star Ball.

300 years ago, after the Nameless Namekian ascended to the lofty position of God, he was able to make Dragon Balls of his own. Though he didn't have the same organized structure that Saichoro put into his Dragon Ball system, the idea was similar: the Dragon Balls would provide a means for people to produce great deeds when in need.

It didn't pan out. The Dragon Bal ls were a mistake and brought nothing but horror to the Earth, and he regretted ever making the stupid fucking things. After Piccolo killed Shenron, God was more than ready to wash his hands of it.

By the time we meet God, it's hard to disagree. Oolong thwarted a maniac's wish for world domination by spending Shenron's world-shaping miracle on a set of women's undergarments before he could make his wish. A jackbooted warlord shot up multiple regions of the world to claim the Dragon Balls because he wanted to be taller. Bulma shot a child in the face with a gun so she could have infinite strawberries. Or a boyfriend. Either/or.

Honestly, infinite strawberries sounds pretty valid for a wish, NGL. Still wouldn't impress God, though.

There's also a piece of obscure Dragon Ball trivia says that the Dragon Balls were once used to successfully make a wish for world domination. This is why the entire Earth is a one-world nation under the dominion of King Furry. I think it comes from a Toriyama interview? But I don't recall the source so take that with a grain of salt.

In any case, God feels that the Dragon Balls were a horrible mistake and it's hard to disagree. The only thing that convinces him they're worth remaking is Goku's nobility. He sees in Goku the great virtue that has thus far been missing from anyone else who would seek the Dragon Balls, and that makes it all worthwhile.

The process of assembling the Dragon Balls is meant to be difficult. However, Bulma's invention of the Dragon Radar more or less trivialized it.

Notably, as a sign of her genius, the handheld radar that Bulma carries around outstrips the competition every time. She's far from the only person ever to make a Dragon Radar; She's just the only person ever to make a portable one.

That huge wall console is the best that the world's most powerful rogue paramilitary organization could manage. And it's still a hell of a lot better than anything Vegeta or Frieza had. They had to track people and hope a Dragon Ball was nearby.

Though I would be remiss to bring up Bulma's invention of the portable radar and not mention that, fun fact, the Radar that we often see passed around throughout the series wasn't built by her. Bulma's Radar was stolen by General Blue.

It's never seen again after this scene. I guess it was probably still in HQ when Goku stormed the place?

No, the Radar Goku finished the RRA arc with and then continues passing along from character to character is actually this one, created by - I shit you not - a cameo guest star from Toriyama's gag manga Dr. Slump.

Having seen the inner workings of the Radar while it was being repaired, Turbo the flying genius baby is able to reproduce a second copy. This copy would become the main Dragon Radar going forward after Bulma's original Radar was lost and forgotten.

Yeah, Dr. Slump canonically exists within the world of Dragon Ball and has directly impacted the story of one of its most iconic elements. However, this Radar still remains Bulma's genius design. She completely obliterated the entire test of virtue concept. I need you to understand that Bulma is the greatest heretic in the history of the universe, and that she and Vegeta deserve each other.

And now she uses Shenron for plastic surgery.

God was right. Earth isn't worthy of power like this. It was a mistake to bring Shenron back.

With some limitations, the great dragon summoned by the Dragon Balls can grant any miracle that is within Shenron's power. The main restriction this places is simple: Shenron or Porunga may not grant a wish affecting a person more powerful than Shenron unless that person consents.

This limitation serves the narrative purpose of explaining why we can't have Shenron pop any enemy that shows up into oblivion, which had been the Muten-Roshi's plan for dealing with Piccolo originally.

Though I occasionally like to joke about an AU where Bulma uses Shenron to solve the Saiyans. Can't teleport them into the sun or something? That's fine. I wish for you to teleport their spaceships into the sun.

No, I know you still can't teleport them even if you teleport their vehicles. That's fine. I'm asking you to teleport only the ships.

And then everyone lives happily ever after. Until about six or seven years later when the Androids kill us all.

But Shenron's and Porunga's power limitations also mean the story can have fun moments like this.

Goku is able to resist Porunga's attempt to warp him back to Earth because he's too powerful for the dragon to move involuntarily. He must consent to the teleport.

Of note: This particular piece of context doesn't come up in the DBS: Broly film directly, but it provides a fun bit of context to its finale.

When Cheelai used Shenron to save Broly, he had to consent to that. He could have told Shenron to go fuck himself and kept fighting instead.

But he doesn't want to. You can feel it just from looking at his face. Gogeta broke Broly's legendary berserker rage. In this instant, staring down Blue Gogeta's Kamehameha, Shenron asked him, "You want out of this, my dude?" And he said yes please. I'm done. I'm ready to go home.

The power restriction is also the reason why Shenron couldn't revert the Twins to normal humans.

But he can pop those self-destruct devices right out of their bodies, no sweat.

The other key limitation that Shenron has is an inability to resurrect the same person twice - Something Goku just sort of throws in as a new rule at the start of the Saiyan arc.

It's interesting to note that it's not specifically a prohibition against repeated rezzes, but against "granting the same wish twice". This never comes up in any other context, but it's interesting to think about.

Good thing Porunga doesn't have that limitation. Like. At all.

Hey, look at that. He was able to bring back Piccolo, Krillin, and Yamcha even though he'd already revived those two before.

Before the Buu arc, it could be assumed that he could raise people twice because those people had previously been raised by Shenron. Different dragon, different wish history. But no. Porunga's just better.

Our bootleg wish-dragon is a pale imitation of the real thing. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you that. But ours can do multi-rez so suck on that Poru--

Oh, never mind. Muri found out about multi-rez and gave him a tweak. Porunga remains the superior dragon. Of course, he's not the only person to upgrade their dragon. We have Dende to thank for Shenron's upgrades too.

This is a point that I've seen people get confused on. Dende's Shenron grants three wishes like Porunga. However, a multi-rez is so costly that it expends two of those wishes. So you can have three individual wishes or a multi-rez and one other wish.

The language here is super ambiguous, admittedly. It's easy to interpret Dende as saying "If I activate multi-rez then I have to set the limit to two." Like. We can configure Shenron for three wishes OR configure him for two wishes but make it possible to do multi-rez.

But subsequent chapters and authorial statements have clarified the matter. As long as you aren't multi-rezzing, you get three wishes.

It's just. Nobody ever uses Shenron for anything but multi-rez so it rarely comes up. This is not helped by general inconsistency, which Toei is particularly bad about but Toriyama's guilty of too. In the DBS: Broly movie, Shenron inexplicably is back to granting only one!

My dude. What happened to your upgrade? You were upgraded, you defective knock-off! DX

I think he just wanted to get the fuck out of there before Frieza realized he can still make his wish for improved tallness. He grants enough of that shit for Bulma as it is. He doesn't want another person muscling in on it.

This is what his life has come to.

It's also interesting to note that with multi-wish dragons, you can bank a wish if you don't have anything else in particular that you want.

Speaking of inconsistency, they made a multi-rez wish so shouldn't Shenron be down for eight months, not four? Either way, point is that you can cut down Shenron's recharge time by not using some of your wishes. Which makes sense if you think about it, but is more user-friendly than a lot of magical reality-warping macguffins typically are.

Shenron's great about that in general, concerning himself with making sure that the miracle he grants is in line with the intent of the wish, not just the letter. Unlike that bastard Porunga. He knows what he did.

In fairness, that's as much Dende's fault as Porunga's.

That about covers it for the Dragon Balls and their Wish Dragons, I think.

#dragon ball #dragon ball z #shenron #porunga

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