#I do it for them (Team Bardock)

[acoldsovereign]

tag drop.

[bones4thecats]

Hi, I would like to request Goku, Bardock, and Gohan play fighting with their child/children if that’s ok?

The Saiyans Play-Fighting w/ their Kids

Characters: Son Goku, Bardock, and Son Gohan Requester: @crispy-qw A/N: I drank an entire bottle of water writing this. I'm pretty sure I mentally sobbed writing all this fluff... ⚠️ Spoilers/Trigger Warnings for: Pure tear-jerking fluff ⚠️

Disclaimer: The timeline in Bardock's part is diverse from the canon

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╚═════ Son Goku ══════════════════════════════╝

🍜 When you found out you were pregnant, Goku was very happy. Ever since he heard stories from ChiChi about how her father raised her when they were younger, he just wanted that bond with someone

🍜 It was at the time your oldest boy, Gohan, was born that Goku's nerves all calmed down. While he was nervous that someone would come down and harm his family, these nerves just got pushed away in favor of spending time with you and his boy

🍜 Goku is an amazing father, no doubt. And this is always proven when he would play fight with his two boys. Gohan would normally spend his time reading and learning while Goten, your second, would want to train with his dad and Uncle Piccolo

🍜 That day in particular, you had come home from a check-up with Bulma, who was making sure your third-baby, an unnamed girl, was doing well in your womb. You had just closed your door when you heard the sound of cheers coming from your backyard

🍜 Walking outside once again, you saw your husband and two sons messing around. They certainly weren't using their full strength as they messed around. Goku would mainly wrestle them in the air as they tried escaping his grasp, testing their physical strength

🍜 You smiled as the boys played around. It was always nice to see the three of them bond, especially since in nine weeks you would be delivering the second girl of the family. They needed to get their manliness out sooner rather than later

🍜 While you would normally sit down and watch them play, you needed to get some sleep, spending over an hour around Vegeta, Bulma, and Trunks could get exhausting for a woman after all... especially when Vegeta was being held down because he was sick

🍜 As you closed the backdoor behind you, you could hear the three boys laughing together along with a crash of them landing on the ground. This was the family you always dreamed of having. Thank Kami you got it

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╚═════ Bardock ═══════════════════════════════╝

🛡️ Bardock and you always knew you wanted children, but as you were both warriors, this had to be held back for a while. And when you guys finally settled down, you had your two boys, Raditz and Kakarot

🛡️ Raditz was far more into being a warrior than Kakarot, as he would be out wrestling with other Saiyans while your younger would train by himself, only being joined by a select few of other Saiyans he considered to be friends

🛡️ Due to the power your husband sensed in them, he began to train his sons very diligently. Almost always helping them outside while you would mainly stayed inside and would handle more medical-related topics, almost always being called away to treat some Saiyan warriors who's pride went to their head

🛡️ You were called away the same day that Kakarot and Raditz were home from training with the army. Bardock had been with them due to an injury that came to his legs during a battle, leaving him to be home-ridden for a few days

🛡️ When you finally arrived home from handling almost fourteen whole teams of warrior's injuries, you could hear laughing and smashes coming from behind your home, leading you to laying your supplies down and walking out to find your family of boys training together

🛡️ Well, training isn't the best word. They were more tackling and wrestling one another. And it was so cute for you to watch after seeing so many grizzly injuries on your people from fights planets away

🛡️ Bardock eventually excused himself from his sons, telling them to keep up their skills. He then turned from his bickering children to his wife, whom stood there as her tail swayed gently in adoration at their actions together

"Welcome home, Y/N."

"It's good to see you bonding with the boys, Bardock."

"I know. I'm enjoying this time with them."

"You better. I did not spend so much time helping create them for you to not like them." You said.

"Don't worry, I don't just like them. I love them, they're the best sons a Saiyan could ask for."

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╚═════ Son Gohan ═════════════════════════════╝

📚 Because Gohan's job took up a lot of his time, he couldn't always be around as much as he wanted to be. But whenever he did have free time, he would grab you from behind and cuddle with you, relaxing and talking about whatever's been going on in your personal lives

📚 But, after you gave birth to your daughter, Pan, Gohan had been trying to be around her more. It was difficult, but he did succeed at bonding with her most of the time

📚 You could not be more happy than to watch her bond with both her father and the man he considered to be a part of your family, that being your Namekian-ally, Piccolo

📚 Just watching as Piccolo trained her was nice, but seeing your husband take some time off to help with his daughter's development was just better in your opinion. Witnessing the closeness that your family had, no matter is blood relation was involved, was beyond wondrous

📚 One lovely day, your mother-in-law, ChiChi, had wanted to spend some time with you, to which you agreed and called up Piccolo, asking if he could babysit Pan while you left and Gohan was working. The Namekian agreed and said he'd arrive shortly, allowing you to get ready and leave

📚 You spent around two hours with your in-laws before you left, missing your daughter and husband dearly. Stepping in the backyard, you were shocked to see Gohan in his old uniform, trying to teach Pan how to throw a punch gently. He always said he hated fighting while you were together, but he did love his daughter, so maybe his love for her surpassed that

📚 Walking up and sitting beside Piccolo as he watched the two human-Saiyan hybrids, you asked how long they had been doing this and what he did to get Gohan out of his office

"Just Pan's baby-eyes did the trick. They've been doing this for around 20 minutes, Gohan's been teaching her simple fighting moves. Kicking, punching, even slapping... don't know why the last one though."

"Eh, you never know." You giggled.

📚 Piccolo smiled as Gohan tried teaching Pan to fly, resulting in her falling on her butt and him panicking and looking for any kind of wound on her body. You sometimes wonder if you married a hypochondriac

[tobiasdrake]

I wonder, is it possible to look at the way Raditz, Nappa, and Vegeta fight (maybe Bardock's team, too, if you think Toriyama had enough involvement in those animated projects) to reconstruct any general principles of Saiyan martial arts training?

I talked a bit about Raditz and Nappa here as well as going into a particular Saiyan technique I find interesting here.

It is interesting to note that both Nappa and Vegeta are proficient in that technique to varying degrees, while Raditz is not. Raditz is completely basic as a fighter, having not even trained out his tail weakness when Nappa and Vegeta have.

Though it's not clear if this implies that the elites as a whole receive better instruction than the low-class Saiyans, or if Nappa's simply reaped the benefits of following Vegeta around more closely than Raditz, and doing whatever he does.

Though they do have some distinctive arts, such as the previously discussed remote detonation technique. That both Nappa and Vegeta are familiar with it implies a bit of standardization. In fact, Vegeta knows all the top-tier Saiyan arts.

He can even rattle off the science behind Oozaru transformations. He's kind of a nerd. That's an interesting note to keep in mind when thinking about his relationship to Bulma.

(He's also vain about his beauty, fun fact.)

Dude was putting off the Oozaru transformation because it's ugly so he didn't wanna.

By Vegeta's admission, the fake moon technique is one of the most advanced techniques in Saiyan martial arts. And. Uh. Yeah. Yeah, compressing the planet's atmosphere with a continuous ki sphere in order to create a finely tuned reflection of sunlight that produces a certain kind of radiation....

Yeah, that sounds complex as fuck. No wonder only nerds super-elites like Vegeta can do it.

The Oozaru is the primary mechanism by which Saiyans destroy worlds.

With that in mind, it makes sense that the ultimate and most complex Saiyan martial art is the ability to manually induce this transformation. The most devastating thing a Saiyan can ever do in a fistfight is find a way to become the Oozaru despite environmental limitations.

Their battle plan revolves so heavily around this transformation, they've even developed battle armor that stretches to accommodate the vast increase in size. Everything they do as hand-to-hand fighters is a fallback for when the Oozaru is not available.

As he notes above, Vegeta specifically chose a full-moon night to attack Earth on in order to let him and Nappa access their full power - Though Nappa died before the moon came out. And also Piccolo blew up the moon after Nappa and Raditz entered their spaceflight stasis sleep, so that was a non-starter.

Raditz wasn't intending to fight when he came to Earth; He was just here to pick up his brother and things spiraled out of hand from there. So he didn't have the luxury of the full moon or the technical skill to compress atmosphere and compensate.

What this means is that a large portion of Saiyan battle strategy has never really been depicted. The only properly trained Saiyan warrior in Oozaru state we've ever seen was Vegeta here.

And he's fighting a Goku who already burned out his body from a Kaio-ken x4 he couldn't contain, so the competition is next to zero. Goku lands some solid hits on Vegeta because... Well, he's Counter-Fighter Goku. He's the master at breaking down his foe and making the most of whatever he's got.

Motherfucker you've been on death's door for the last five minutes how dare

Goku is obnoxious to have to fight. Truly.

But because the only proper fight we ever with a fully-trained Oozaru is against the like 5% Goku has left in his tank, we never get to see the Oozaru properly tested. Whatever its full capabilities truly are, that remains known only to them and the races they've destroyed.

As for Bardock, Toriyama had little involvement beyond assisting with character design, as is typical of his involvement with the anime specials. Though it's interesting to note that he loved the Bardock special. Toriyama rarely even bothered to watch the anime of his own work, but he had high praise to sing of Bardock.

"I really like the story of Bardock, Goku’s father. It’s quite dramatic, and the kind of story 'I absolutely wouldn’t draw' if it were me. It was like watching a different kind of Dragon Ball in a good way, so I thought it was nice."

Bardock captivated Toriyama for being a take on Dragon Ball he, himself, wouldn't have been able to make. Which. Made it funny. Years later in Dragon Ball Minus. When he tried to make it. And arguably proved himself right. But I digress.

Toriyama liked Bardock so much, he even canonized the special for the manga.

Toriyama fucking loved this special. This rarely happened. The only other time a character created for the anime ended up appearing in the manga, it was to canonize the concept of the Kaios being a set of Four Heavenly Kings rather than the one guy.

Papaya is a fruit and fruits work for Frieza. What are you not telling us, South Kaio? I'm on to you.

And then, decades later, the bestest boy of Dragon Ball Super.

Love him so much.

[duhragonball]

Thanks for answering my ask, well, about the sparkling zero thing is that the game will feature some what if stories and scenarios that looked like fan fiction which might be rather interesting to hear you talk about, I am getting the game today to form my opinions but in case you do look at those I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on them

I finished all of the Story Modes that were available to me, and I have to say, I'm not impressed with the What If scenarios. But then again, I wasn't expecting to be in the first place.

Most of the Budokai and Sparking games had What-If content of some sort, but it's usually pretty thin. Budokai 3 had some grand plans to give every character a story mode, but by the time the actual game released, all most of the characters got was a bunch of sound files from the scrapped stories. You unlocked these as "Memories of [X]" capsules in the game. Either they cost a lot of money, or you had to wish for them with Dragon Balls, I forget which.

I remember the Android 16 one had audio of him having some sort of climactic match with Goku, and there's audio of Goku conceding defeat and accepting that 16 will kill him, but I think he spares him. So it's a what-if scenario in my book. So was that Uub story mode that actually made it into the game, where Uub has to save the world from Omega Shenron. That was pretty cool, but the "Memories of..." capsules pointed to a much bigger project that never materialized.

Other than that, the most memorable what-if content was probably that "Fateful Brothers" think in BT3, where Raditz turns good and Goku takes him in. They have to stop Piccolo from killing him, and he warns him about Vegeta and Nappa. I think it ends with Raditz meeting Bardock in hell.

But a lot of it is pretty flimsy stuff. Not bad, just nothing earth-shaking. It's usually just some cutscenes to set up an unusual match that you could just as easily arrange yourself in vs. mode.

And that's kind of the gripe I have with Sparking Zero's what-ifs, because they're really just minor tweaks to the original story. There's one where Frieza and his goons invade Earth instead of the Z-Fighters facing him on Namek. And it's fine, but it's basically the same series of battles you'd fight in the "correct" version of events. There's one where Vegeta and Trunks actually cooperate in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, and they end up getting the big win over Cell, which sounds awesome, but it's not all that different from going through the Cell Saga normally with Vegeta, Gohan, and Goku.

I haven't unlocked much of this stuff myself, mainly because I'm still getting the hang of the game, and a lot of these branching paths require a lot more skill to activate the right win condition. But I've been watching Kirran and Grant play the game on Goodtimes Zone, and I've found myself enjoying their live reactions more than the stuff they're reacting to. And they like the what if stuff we're getting, but I keep noticing a hint of disappointment, like they were expecting a bit more. More branching paths, and bigger divergences from the canon story.

For example, they were hoping Cooler would show up in the middle of any Frieza-related branches, and yeah, that seems obvious, doesn't it? Hell, King Cold is in the game too, isn't he? Do a thing where he shows up on Namek, or maybe have Cooler wipe out the Androids because he's here to get his own revenge on Goku.

Instead we got... well, I'll cut for spoilers if anyone's interested...

We got Gohan Black. Now this might sound pretty impressive at first, but it kind of doesn't work. So the what-if scenario is that Gohan actually beats Frieza in Res-F before Goku arrives to help, and then Gohan starts training more seriously, so he joins the U7 team for the Destroyer Invitational and defeats Hit to win the whole thing. (Oddly, you don't get to play Gohan vs. Hit, which seems like an oversight in a what-if scenario, but whatever.)

So when the Zamasu arc starts, it turns out that Zamasu steals Gohan's body instead of Goku's in this version, because Gohan was stronger at the time. And that's fine, but it doesn't actually change very much. The real Gohan joins Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks in the battle, but it's the same Zamasu and Black. The only difference is that Kyle Herbert is playing Black in this version instead of Sean Schemmel. Actually I guess in Japanese it might not be that different at all, since Masako Nozawa plays Gohan and Goku.

Gohan Black doesn't even look that different from Goku Black. He just kind of looks like the original Goku Black with a different haircut. He fuses with Zamasu in the end, and they actually changed the Fused Zamasu model to reflect this, but they didn't have to change it very much.

And you have the real Gohan in the story, which is something new, but here's the problem: You already play the Zamasu arc in four other story modes: Goku, Vegeta, Future Trunks, and Goku Black. And it plays out the same way every time.

Good guys vs. Black

Good guys vs. Black and Zamasu

Good guys vs. Black and Zamasu again

Good guys vs. fused Zamasu

Good guys vs. fused Zamasu (corrupted)

I was already sick of it before I bought the game, because I hate the Zamasu arc. But for some reason the game devs thought we should play it five times. And yeah, Gohan remembers the damn jar for the Mafuba in his version, but so what? I still have to look at that ugly-ass stage the whole time, and I still have to listen to Zamasu preach during the fight.

As I understand it, there's a what-if where Trunks joins the U7 team for the Tournament of Power, and that also sounds like a decent idea, except it's kind of the same problem. We see the Tournament of Power in five story modes already: Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Frieza, and Jiren. I hope Trunks has something fresh to do when he runs through it a sixth time, but I'm not optimistic.

It just feels kind of weak. Maybe they're saving cooler what-if scenarios for DLC, but that seems like a poor strategy when the base game has such weak what-if scenarios. It leaves me skeptical that they even know how to write a cool one. I mean, you've got a bunch of GT and movie guys on the roster. This should be easy. Middle schoolers do this stuff. Here's some ideas I thought of off the cuff.

Goku invites Cell to compete in the Tournament of Power instead of Frieza.

Kefla defeats Goku and now she has to defeat Jiren and Goku's teammates to win the tournament. Vegeta and Gohan fuse into Vegehan in a last-ditch effort.

Golden Frieza Black.

Cell wins the Cell Games and accidentally releases Buu from his ball while terrorizing the Earth, and now he has to team up with the Z-fighters to stop him.

Dabura convinces Babidi to seal Buu up again, and they do evil stuff with Majin Vegeta on their team.

Vegito kills Super Buu, so now Dragon Ball Super plays out with Vegito.

Piccolo survives Nappa's blast and fuses with Kami to sweep the next several dozen episodes' worth of bad guys.

Ginyu Force-Kamikaze Fireballs War.

Turles shows up on Namek and kicks Frieza's ass with fruit power.

Gero sics Android 13 on the Z-fighters during the Saiyan invasion, so Vegeta and Nappa have to do a truce to stop him.

I could probably think of better ideas with some more time, but the point is that none of this would require a lot of extra assets that aren't already in the base game. But they would involve a lot of different battles and settings that you wouldn't see in the other story paths. I don't understand why they didn't get more creative with things. They had all the stuff they needed. All they had to do was think outside the box a little.

[cxldtyrant]

@long-haired-hottie asked: What are Cooler's thoughts on Saiyans? Are they just barbarians his father lifted from the stones to do his dirty work? Does he agree with Frieza's attempts to completely eradicate them? Does he hope to see a resurgence so he can make use of them in a less overt way?

Initially, when I first started with Cooler, I kind of made him an amalgamation of characteristics from not only the movies, but other forms of media such as the videogames, which did end up exaggerating his hatred for Saiyans to be on par with Freeza. Much as I disliked the exaggeration because it felt too closely aligned with Freeza's personality, I attempted to spin it in a different way: that if Cold had given the Saiyans to Cooler, he would have killed them instantly rather than let them linger for a few years of servitude due to seeing them as a threat to his family's empire. That he recalled the words of warning from his ancestor Chilled, and that rather than risk their threat, he would have eliminated them right away despite their potential. And to him, they do have plenty of potential to be sufficient soldiers and generals for the Cold Empire due to their combat experience. But Cooler, in my mind, is pragmatic. He does not toy with his enemies and will kill anyone he deems a threat. If his ancestor, who was killed by a Saiyan, deemed them dangerous, then he was going to treat them as such and eliminate them.

But then the Dragon Ball Heroes anime and manga came out and showed that Cooler could have a decent enough partnership with Saiyans if he saw the benefit in it. And then XenoVerse 2 came out and if a Saiyan sides with him in the power struggle against Freeza, Cooler tells them they can go ahead and repopulate their race and will leave their planet alone. And then Dragon Ball FighterZ came out and in a team quote with Bardock he states that he was more than willing to let Bardock get his revenge against Freeza (despite the fact that Freeza losing at all is the reason he goes after Goku!).

Let me tell you, my brain broke because it was getting a bit more troublesome to find a middle-ground with all forms of characterization for Cooler given all the inconsistencies. Which is mainly my fault for even trying, but considering how little content we have of him, I was trying to work with what I had. I was tempted not to tweak anything further out of spite.

However, I did end up tweaking some things with Cooler's feelings in regards to the Saiyans. Not just because of the aforementioned examples above, but also because of @risingsouls since Cooler and Turles ended up developing a partnership in universal conquest as a means of overthrowing Freeza, and I really enjoy their dynamic. I think Cooler still deems the Saiyans as a threat overall and loses no sleep in their eradication, but he can be made to see reason if there is an advantage in keeping certain survivors around. He's ruthlessly pragmatic, but that doesn't always mean violence as he can see sparing others as potentially beneficial for himself and his empire. But if he can't, he'll simply exterminate them.

[bitebitesnap]

I don't talk about Bardock much despite how much I love him.

He's not a cuddly type. He's worse than Vegeta, because even Vegeta can push down his pride just enough to let Bulma (or you) snuggle up to him every once in a while. Bardock doesn't-he just gives you a look of confusion and wariness before taking off with a hasty excuse of training.

But he won't lie to himself. It feels....wrong..that you want to be so close to him.

For Vegeta, he's been around countless others who want to do him harm. Anyone coming close to his personal circle is certain to be up to no good. In the Frieza Force everyone was trying to climb up bodies in order to make their own lives better. It's something he's used to and knows how to deal with.

For Bardock...it;s a bit different.

He had a team. Built up from scrap, with blood, sweat, and tears as the glue. They were people he trusted, Saiyans through and through who wouldn't ever turn on one of their own when the Force was already breathing down their backs. They destroyed together, conquered together, there was nothing else but them in his life.

And now here he is. With you-a weak, bird-boned freak willing to get within arms reach of him. Knowing what he is-what he's done, how many have been slaughtered at his hands. With anyone else it would strike sheer terror at just the sight of him.

But you don't. You push back-some half brained concept of making him calm down because your planet was full of weaklings who couldn't even stand a single punch-you argue, you outright attack him sometimes. If anyone else even tried, he would have reduced them to space dust.

Yet....

You also keep him company when he retreats into the woods for training. You tell him of remote places where he can get away from everything and be truly alone, where the larger reptilian game roams so he can feed himself plenty. You bandaged him when he bled, fed him when he couldn't do it himself.

You're just like......a Saiyan...

But they're gone. All of them. Because he failed. Because he was weak.

He can't just accept your presence. It would be as if he were relinquishing all his drive just to replace what was already lost. He can't let himself be distracted.

Yet he can't ignore himself when he glances to the side, expecting your surprised face when he tears into a mountain with his own hands, and cringes at the deep emptiness inside as he finds nothing but rubble.

[42069memesfordays]

These four have me gripped by my heart, and I cannot help but imagine them in the funniest OT4 ever.

Three Saiyans and a Cerealian.

Brainrot ramblings beneath.

I have Fantasy AUs of them now; sometimes they’re all adventurers, sometimes they’re all knights, sometimes they’re all royalty from different kingdoms, or even the same kingdom. My primary take has Gine as a paladin, Fasha as a barbarian, Muezli as a rogue, and Nion as an alchemist, where they’re all reluctantly brought together and end up bonding over how similar they really are while also finding respect in each other’s differences.

I have modern day AUs where they’re just vibing and not being dead.

I have them as one of the central ships for my Transformers and Dragon Ball crossover on a Discord server I’m part of that’s been going since last April.

They get to be strong enough to do things like break canon MUI Goku from the Tournament of Power over their knees.

Goku has two whole brothers now; three, depending on how solid I am on headcanon Turles to be Nion’s kid somehow.

I’m already thinking of a new modern day AU where they’re all single moms who’d each been with Bardock before and meet up at his funeral; shenanigans happen from there, and there’d also be a B-Plot about their kids all having to learn to get along with each other.

They’d sit on a couch in a massive pile of blankets, sipping on hot chocolate as they watch one of those sappy Christmas movies that Gine picked up; Fasha, Muezli, and Nion probably wouldn’t be wholly into it, but seeing Gine’s smile throughout the whole thing is worth it.

The Transformers x Dragon Ball AU forces them through the worst self-hatred and imposter syndrome conceivable, but it’s all made worth it when they realize that they genuinely love each other in a way that can never be understated.

They try to have a small wedding with just their friends and family, but Bulma, being Bulma, gets way too invested and sends it over the top accordingly.

I have an AU where they’re just office workers and also single moms who find solace in each other as the days go by.

I have another AU where one of them’s just a mortal, the other’s their best friend with a major crush, and the last two are an angel and devil fighting over the former over something petty; it then slowly escalates into all of them genuinely being really into each other through loads of romcom and sitcom type shenanigans.

I have an AU where they’re in RWBY as a major hunter team.

I have an AU where they’re Cybertronians; sometimes they’re all Autobots, sometimes they’re all Decepticons, and sometimes it’s a mix of both, depending on my mood.

I’ve had thoughts about them in Mortal Kombat, where they either become new characters entirely or take the place of Scorpion, Harumi, Smoke, and Kuai Liang.

A Thomas the Tank Engine AU sees them being Gordon’s crew in the modern day, where they and the Number Four have to put up with each other after the latter gets off on the wrong foot with them; their growth comes during a tour across the mainland, where Gordon’s old crew are helping them to finish up the last of their training; this is also a proposal that I have in mind for a co-op project I’m working on in yet another Discord server.

All four of them died without much to them; Fasha and Muezli both did so for the sake of Bardock’s development. Gine and Nion just got wiped out on Planet Vegeta by Frieza.

They’re kinda nothing burgers, and yet I just can’t help but latch onto them like they’re life preservers in the middle of a cold, storm-ridden ocean.

I have many questions that only a select few seem to really care about, but not necessarily as deeply as I seem to; what exactly did Gine and Fasha think of each other? What would Muezli and Gine have thought of each other if they ever met? What would Nion think of any of them, and they think of Nion? What would they think of the others in general? Would it be respect, reluctant or not? Would it be contempt? Hatred? Who knows?

They are my Roman Empire.

They fundamentally mean way too much to me, given that they all died as either background characters, plot devices, or some mix of both.

I have a Star Wars AU with them where Gine is a Jedi, Fasha’s a Storm trooper, Muezli’s a bounty hunter, and Nion’s a scientist for the empire before Order 66 where they also get brought together through sheer circumstance and learn to bond with each other; they run away post Order 66 and then end up settling on some random little planet that’s out of the way.

They keep each other grounded.

They feel comfortable enough around each other to regularly poke fun and make jabs at each other, but so help you if you do the same to any of them while the others are in earshot.

Somewhere in the back of my head lies a Dragon Ball Z: Abridged version of my Transformers x Dragon Ball AU where one of their running jokes is that they’re all absolutely unhinged for each other without the other knowing; when they finally do get to know about what the other is like, those tendencies somehow get even worse.

I’m going mad, and it’s great.

[bardocks-tiddies]

Bingo made by @sepiamestus

Going into excruciating detail under the cut because i love bardock so much i am so autistic for this man

I like them in theory. I mean duh?? Goku’s dad? Rad as fuck

Squashing him like a bug (/affection). I mean, yeah. Would he let me? No ofc not. But idc

He doesn’t get enough canon focus. He really doesn’t. He got a little screen time in Xenoverse 2 and Super, but they’ve changed his personality so much, and I don’t think Xenoverse 2 counts as ‘canon’.

LEAVE THEM ALONEEEE. How many times have we watched him die to Frieza? In movies and games and stuff? Leave him alone.

No one understands him but me and my circle of mutuals. His personality has been horrible morphed by FUNimation, and then Toriyama himself in Super

Banger design. His blood-soaked headband? Rad af. No I’m not including Super.

Doesn’t get enough fanon focus. He gets some fanon focus, but so many people write him as a tragic hero/loving father and it makes me cry every time. He’s canonically a terrible fucking father.

Like them better as part of a dynamic. I love his dynamic with Team Bardock (Fasha/Celipa, Pumbukin/Shugesh, Tora/Toma, and Toteppo/Borgos). I may not like his changes in Super, but I do love his relationship with Gine.

I know what you are. I interpreted this as “Character is Not Straight™️” and Z Bardock is certainly not straight.

I need them to be weirder. I need Saiyans in general to be weirder.

Transing their gender as we speak. I don’t think Saiyans really have the same gender social construct that Earth does, and I of course love a good trans HC, but I genuinely dont think it really works for Saiyans? If anyone else has any trans Saiyan HCs I won’t judge ofc, but I personally don’t.

Free space! The blorbo himself <3

I hate them (I think about them constantly). I do ofc think about him constantly, but I would never say I hate him.

They gave me new mental problems. Tragic hero Super Bardock (as opposed to Z Bardock) has certainly given me mental problems. Like from DBS: Broly. He gave absolutely everything and his priority being his two kids? All for Goku to just forget who he is? Genuinely some of Toriyama’s best writing.

I need them to be less weird. No.

WET CAT SOUNDS. :)

I like them but everyone is weird about them. I don’t think so? I don’t interact with a lot of DBZ spaces tho.

I cri

I miss my wife, Tails

Hate all their popular ships. I think the only “popular” ships are Bardock x Gine (which I adore) and Bardock x Toma (which I’m also absolutely on board with).

I don’t get the hype. There isn’t ENOUGH hype tbh.

Autism beam. He’s the most autistic bitch except maybe Goku, which makes sense since autism is genetic, we just know where Goku gets it from. Although I’d also make the argument that Gine is autistic, too.

Who was I before you… I mean I have dissociative amnesia so I thought it fits lol

I NEED them to be happy. After all the remakes of the destruction of Planet Vegeta, he deserves a rest.

[megamattzx]

Dragon Ball New Frontier: Tales of the Time Patrol

Scars

The Time Patrol was enjoying a day of peace and quiet that they didn't usually get. One conversation going was consistent with the guys of the Time Patrol's best group, the multiversal Dragon Team, talking about their scars.

"No," Xeno Bardock explained. "This isn't the worst scar I've got."

GT Present Trunks then began to pull his shirt slightly, showing a massive stab wound scar on his left hip. "He's talking about one like this, right?" He asked.

"Yeesh!" Gohan responded with. "Whoever gave you that, got you good!"

Future Gohan then began showing the massive scar still present from the left side of his upper body. Much worse than the one over his left eye, the entire shoulder area as well as the armpit area were most definitely scarred. "This was given to me by my original versions of Androids 17 and 18, when I originally lost my arm," he said as he told the story. "Although I eventually got my arm back, the rest of the scar is still intact, as you can see."

Vegeta Jr, aka Vegeta the fifth the shows a scar on the top part of his right arm, all the way to the entire shoulder. "This was a gift from the evil Legendary Super Saiyan, Z Broly himself", the Clone and Adopted son of Vegeta proudly boasted. "Though we eventually defeated him, he was most definitely a worthy foe!"

Super Broly went next, showing his Achilles heel, which had a huge burn scar, that went up his lower leg. "A gift from Demon God Demigra, himself!" He said. "Out of commission for months afterwards so that it healed properly."

Goten then went next, removing his shirt and showing various scars on his upper body as he started looking for a specific one. "I've gotten plenty over the last hundred years," he said as he then began touching a scar on his right hip near his stomach. "But the worst that I've gotten has gotta be this one, right here. Impaled by a clone, similar to Copy Vegeta, of me. Everything I gave, he delivered right back."

Everyone looks at Goku Jr, causing him to sigh before he starts to remove his own shirt. "Alright, fine." He finally said as he struggled to take off the weighted shirt.

"Atta boy!" GT Present Trunks said. "Here, I thought you'd be sensitive and emotional about this stuff!"

"Really?" Goku Jr responded with. "So that's how you think of me...."

"Do you have any scars to show, before Kaka out does us all?" Xeno Goten asked GT Goten.

"No, not really," GT Goten said. "Plenty of stories, but nothing to really show for it."

Once Goku Jr removed his shirt, everyone could see various scars across his back and front areas of his upper body and even parts of the arms that the shirt was covering. Some of them are scars from getting slashed or stabbed, others being actual burns. "It's hard to say which one I've gotten is the worst in my opinion," Goku Jr said with honesty. "Although some of these, I don't remember much, mainly cuz I passed out or died shortly after obtaining them."

"Damn....." Most versions of Yamcha, Krillin, Tien and even Hercule simultaneously said.

"Did it hurt!?" Beat was heard asking.

"Again, little Bro," Goku Jr. answered. "I don't remember much with many of these."

"Judging from looking at these scars with my own eyes, that's probably for the best," GT Gohan declared bluntly.

"I got you beat!" Cabba declared. Causing everything to look at him. Cabba then placed his hand on Goku Jr's shoulder before he continued. "A Saiyan Princess as beautiful as the setting sun, shattered my heart like a mirror into a million pieces."

Everyone then began laughing as even Goku Jr was seen chuckling a bit.

"In that case, then I definitely got all of y'all beat," Present Trunks said. "Boy all the Ladies, I've met."

"Oh brother!" Goten said before everyone continued laughing.

"Joking aside," Goku then said. "He's Right. The worst scars can't be seen."

[marezablr]

there's something mesmerizing about dbz kakarot's bardock dlc. you're on a planet your people stole, in a base run by the force occupying your people. you pick fights with higher classes of your own kind, but you don't dare say no to even a noncombatant from the ranks of your occupiers. to your victims you're unstoppable monsters, but to your conquerors you're particularly worthless meat for the grinder. the unfeeling justifications you quip out as you massacre others are thrown back in your face when your conquerors decide they've had enough of you.

that's the point, of course. bardock's curse is to see his people suffer the fate he handed out to countless others. but it's a rung on the ladder of empire i haven't met a lot in fiction: both vector and victim of its exploitation, the obedient dog tearing out throats just to get scraps from its owner's table, surprised when its owner decides to turn around and take it out back with a shotgun.

the only way to endure compliance in a system of exploitation is to convince yourself that compliance will spare you a worse alternative. the saiyans spend the story unable to even let themselves think about what it means if frieza's drones are spying on them, unwilling to question why they were called back, insistently calling themselves loyal. when the kill order comes, bardock and his team, enraged, protests: 'we were loyal! we served! how could you turn on us?'

but power dictates term, it doesn't follow them. that's what power means. and the saiyans should know that, because it's what they've enforced every time they were the ones facing down people who could do nothing to stop them

[eazyaustin3]

DBZ: United Saiyans (RotS sequel) | Prologue

The newly crowned King Vegeta IV sits in his throne. Every saiyan bows down to him to listen to what he has to say. Vegeta stands up, brushing the purple cape behind him to show his shining armor. A saiyan television crew pans the camera to the king and the royal throne.

Vegeta: My fellow saiyans! On this day, March 18, We are now free people! We are no longer allying ourselves with outsiders! Frieza's tyranny is over! For years we have been betrayed, always telling us what to do, when to do it and how to do it! He destroyed our entire planet and wiped us all out! But here we are, stronger than ever! The saiyan race shall do as they please! The saiyans live on! Planet Vegeta is free at last!

*The saiyans cheer loudly in the royal hall, Nappa looks on with a smile. He looks to Vegeta with a smile on his face*

Vegeta: Of course none of this would be possible if it weren't for our saviors. Our very own Grand Vizier, Nappa. And one of our very own proud saiyan warriors, Raditz!

*A giant screen appears behind Vegeta to show a front picture of Raditz. The saiyans cheer loudly again at the sight of Raditz. Confetti and pyro pop from every direction behind the throne as all of the saiyans chant Raditz name. Nappa steps away from the throne down to the ground and calls Bardock*

Nappa: Bardock, do you read me?

Bardock: Yes Nappa… What's going on over there? Is there some sort of party going on without me?

Nappa: Today is a celebration! Saiyans are chanting Raditz’ name! He's hailed as the hero of our race. I wish you could see this. Where is Raditz anyway?

Bardock: He's right here. *Hands the scouter to Raditz* Raditz: Hello? Nappa? What’s going on over there? Nappa: The entire planet is celebrating you! When you come back form earth we need to do some sparring like you promised! Raditz: They're celebrating me? Just me? Shouldn't you and King Vegeta receive credit as well? Nappa: Well, it’s his orders. But hey, I gotta go. They’re serving chicken and dumplings and I gotta have a plate! See ya! *Just outside the saiyan hall, Vegeta and Nappa request a pod*

Vegeta: Nappa, remember that deal we made with Guru? Nappa: What deal? Vegeta: The deal to retrieve the dragon balls and return them back to Namek. Nappa: Those dragon balls can be anywhere! Vegeta: Have you forgotten that I have the locator? It won't be hard to track them down as long as we have this. Nappa: Well then let's go now! What if that Guru guy finds out we didn't retrieve any of them? Vegeta: You're right… Let's assemble our squad again for the search! They have proven worthy to be a part of the elite team of saiyan warriors.

[misakialter]

Ok but am I about to Rant?

...You know what? Fuck it.

Why not, I'm gonna end the year talking about something nobody really cares but I certainly do for whatever reason: Dragon Ball Super, babyyyyyy.

Specifically the Granolah Arc.

(In advance, thank you for reading.)

Genuinely, I have like a lot to criticize about it but for those who need a refresh or have no idea what I'm about to say but still wanna read my thoughts anyways lemme do a quick summary for you.

The story continues from the resolution of the prior arc, as a power copying enemy known as Seventhree is salvaged by it's creator. Before this guy could do anything though, the titular Granolah trounces and steals the Android.

We find out he's the last of his race, and had his planet wiped out by Saiyans working under Frieza back then. He's serving a faction known as the Heeters, they sell planets but work under intel over force, now holding their own monopoly after Frieza's first death.

Keyword: FIRST. Now that he's back, they are in trouble and tell as much to Granolah, whose trauma kicks in and wants nothing but vengeance, but of course, he's too weak. Though the Heeters start to carefully plot around this development thanks to SevenThree's memory helping them get caught up with last arc's development and our heroes.

Granolah returns to his planet and the topic comes out with his caretaker, a namekian elder. Reminded of their set of 2 Dragon Balls and with the finding of the missing one, Granolah wishes to become the strongest (At a cost) and demands to see Frieza.

The Heeters, of course, tell him to stay put and set in motion their plan: Get rid of Granolah before he destroys the empire they wanna overtale by tricking Goku and Vegeta into coming, while they wish their toughest member, Gas, to be THE strongest to then kill Frieza.

After a long brawl between our heroes trying to talk Granolah down, the elder is forced to reveal some truths: A Saiyan (Bardock) saved them and the Heeters killed his mom actually, he couldn't reveal it prior as Granolah was put to work with them in exchange for their safety.

Thus, Gas turns into the strongest and faces the now teamed up trio who are vastly outmatched as he continues to grow, little by little wearing him down until Frieza's surprising arrival, who wipes out Gas in one clean sweep and leaves Goku and Vegeta with the bitter feeling of being left behind powerwise.

With Granolah now giving up on his vengeance, Goku finding out more about his father and adapting Ultra Instinct in his own way, and Vegeta fueling his newfound Ultra Ego form with his feelings on the Saiyan's past, the gang says their goodbyes and set off.

People with familiarity on the arc will notice me describing the entire second half of it in three paragraphs. And this is for sure not a mistake: This IS the relevant information of that section. So you know, we'll be here for a while when I get there. :)

So like, was the arc bad from the start?

No. Much like the grand majority of DBS, I think it's got one of, if not the most promising start so far, because as it stands, the arc set in motion a very character centric narrative over something with a bigger plot in motion. This is actually the most enjoyable part of it which we hardly get in this series at all, so it feels fucking good when people come to blows because we have so much baggage on each side the clash gets hype, much like how DBS: Broly toyed with (Or you know, how Battle Shonen that go hard do it).

Granolah is an interesting character, despite having his arc rushed at the very end and with some missed out chances. Already having seen a similar concept with Baby from GT, we know the idea of a surviving race member of a wipeout from the Saiyans writes itself. Not to mention his unique aspects such as his trauma or his combat quirks help him stand out beyond the cool design. He's also integrated into the world with as much grace as the new group, the Heeters, who serve as our "people to punch" this arc.

From the duo of Maki and Oil proving to be a little more comedic than threatening but still effective, and the cunning Elec being modestly entertaining, they don't feel out of place in the world of DB. Gas in particular I'm going to put off for now, but know that his interactions with Elec is what make the latter vastly more unique in terms of narrative role. Commander Red comes to mind but if he was played entirely straight. I think they serve the narrative pretty damn fine without the need to go beyond as characters, Gas nonwithstanding.

When it comes to Goku and Vegeta's role in the story, the latter gets the most out of it. His training with Beerus, his theraphy session with Granolah, his showcase of the Ultra Ego to an extent and him getting to interact with the Saiyan's past in a fresh way. They have never fucking fumbled Vegeta since the "doing the same thing as before but worse" allegations from prior arcs, which is a strong positive for his fans, but yeah, he doesn't get any Ws lmao.

With Goku, we have... Things happening for sure, of varying qualities, but the praises are getting short on that end, so I'm going to save it for later. On paper, I do appreciate the attempt to do more with this character and he still is not the weakest part of the character centric narrative.

In general, the central core of said narrative is one of the more interesting and cool so far. It makes the entire portion of the fight against Granolah all the better, not to mention that section having bouts of good coreography and action. I love having an enemy worth punching in a series where punching people happens so much they can be souless bricks to punch, especially if the bricks aren't interesting unlike, say, Frieza.

Speaking of, he turned out the be the funniest, most shocking element in this arc. Like not even as a joke, his presence is a legit highlight from the sheer absurdity of his impact. He barely gets foreshadowed at the first half, with the asumption it's the character who is most commonly tied to everybody what makes you think of him at all times, and isn't even used until the very last minute. But when he DOES show up, he ONE SHOTS GAS, VEGETA AND GOKU, claims to have been OUT OF RANGE for the "make me the strongest" wish to account for him, found a HYPERBOLIC TIME CHAMBER in space and proceedes to brag that he knew what's up and that got a brand new form only to LEAVE.

It's truly a chaotic shock to the system which matches the ridicolousness of Dragon Ball Heroes whipping out a new Broly out of nowhere every anniversary or so, but in an oddly positive way. Like you could've done more with the concept but honestly I can't truly be mad with the sheer boldness in display. But that's because... Well...

So like, is the second half bad or what?

I can certainly say the ending woke me up. But it's kinda fucked up how once Granolah stopped being the opponent everything else kinda crumbles into fighting a boring nothing character with no connection to the heroes and progression being constantly halted JUST so we can attempt to give this opponent some fluff.

Let's be fair: Gas holds his own with Granolah padding and brick personality aside, there is some setup to their rivalry and the backstory works, albeit motion is wasted to highlight aspects that only come out now instead of beforehand: The fact that he was envious, the stubborn devotion to his own techniques, Granolah feeling anything beyond towards him, etc. Still works fine, still patched up now.

There's also his relationship with Elec as a highlight, the former manipulating him and hyping him up in spite of Gas doubting himself, showing devotion and loyalty back to Elec and even being grateful he made him strong as he is, which is kinda tragic once he realizes what he becomes.

But I can't fucking caaaaare.

I believe the core problem with Gas is that they waited too fucking long to start showing his development and choosing the very distracting battle that HALTS ALL PROGRESSION to try and do something with him.

This is also after the big break which was the Bardock flashback, we'll get to that, but since the goal became his defeat and he has no one to bounce from naturally, the second Goku steps up as the main opponent (After the fight has had MANY twists and he powered up several times) everything resets completely harder than when each form turned the tides. Because Goku still had no internal change, he doesn't remember Bardock yet, and the story didn't think of bringing Gas along to recruit Goku and Vegeta and build THEIR personal rivalry outside of Bardock's impact on Gas after defeating him so it feels limp without the connective tissue.

So what we have is a scene which deadass could've played like this:

Their goal is to kill Frieza. They did not want to waste time. They literally just believed they killed Granolah and incapacitated both Goku and Vegeta. What are they gonna fucking do? Defend Frieza? They don't fucking care if he dies again, maybe they wanna fight them, but it would provide a fucking change of scenery which hasn't happened since the start of all the fighting. Gas too, like, sure, he would want to kill them for knowing too much but at this point NO ONE is a threat.

As a result the jawdropping moment of Ultra Ego and Ultra Instinct together feels wasted on a very lame opponent. The revelation Goku has to use Ultra Instinct his own way is just kinda there because Gas is the least important part of said development. The epic struggle to take him down feels done already.

It's tiring. Really tiring. No matter how fancy the techniques, the core character is being built as we speak in a narrative that SOLELY focused on characters on the last minute. And I can't care as a result.

Speaking of breaking progression and being tiring, we also need to talk about a little something.

This is another joke page, dw.

But uh, anyone feels like the first flashback would've been enough? Technically, they could skim on HOW Bardock defeated Gas interrupting an already glacial paced conflict, especially not without any substantial information to the characters, Goku's development aside.

Bardock doesn't feel entirely realized either. I appreciate the fact they are trying to bridge the gap between Minus and Z Bardock to make it look like it's mostly the same character but it's not until he's fighting where this seems to be at play.

He feels like he's on autopilot on his own plot thread. There's feeling his actions are arbitrary (To the point of needing a flashback within one for justification) as him being conveniently set up to be there, rather than let his character flow naturally. His impact is felt across the characters but "just so happens to be there" is not the card they play. This isn't a rando — Nonono, this is Goku's Dad™, therefore he MUST be important... Which goes against the core idea of making Minus Bardock and Z Bardock the same character, but topic for another time.

Point is: When the story could've chosen to use the Saiyans as a positive influence (A loaded statement but yet another topic for some other time), they really chose to tell this story in a rather clunky way, contradicting the core idea of a typical Saiyan without exploring Bardock's uniqueness regarding it (If he has it) when we need it to buy into it. We're coming off from the character from Minus, you HAVE to expand on it because that one had ALSO next to nothing going for him.

So yeah, I may be beating this aspect way too much but in hindsight, if the story decided it should be focused heavily for breaks between fight while also having a half that is meandering just to trigger Goku's memories, then maybe they should've thought about it a little more when telling this story.

Which leads us to perhaps the biggest weakness of writing for DB: Getting Goku involved in the plot without him feeling less like a problem solving plot device they are forced to keep out the action. He's active, sure, but he has no connection to anybody, so what do?

His arc this time around is Ultra Instinct being a technique Goku needs to improve on despite everyone in the fandom swearing that the one we were calling MASTERED Ultra Instinct for years wasn't really it. As such, he has to find a path to use it on his own, which obviously means "dodge on your base form" but there's more to it: He has to learn and stop mimicking Whis when doing so.

The solution is simple and it works in every aspect but to make UI less impactful, but asuming we saw that coming and we don't mind, this leaves Goku accepting his emotions instead of repressing them while using UI, thus getting the most out of the Sign form.

...And it's kinda disconnected to everything? They tacked in Bardock's sole focus on his drive to win as a catalyst which is why they used the second flashback, and that kinda gets a little lost when this still doesn't tie him to Gas and with how little that statement says on it's own. "He has the same determined look" doesn't work and the Sign reveal loses a lot of impact, so what we're left is with what feels like a very random power up.

This scene of Goku recovering his memories is used as a superficial aspect as a result, because the memories themselves don't make for anything beyond one disconnected touching moment. It's even lacking impact on Goku as a character because he sure knows the thing which never mattered to his core identity at all save for being a fighting freak, it would be nice if this was important as it wants to be. But that's it. Him being positively in touch with his Saiyan side internally has always been a thing, he's supposed to be the opposite of the stereotypical one, so yeah, sure. It's not awfully offensive but it sure feels wasted.

Wait, that's it? Those are your takes?

Listen, you probably expected me to go off over the new set of DBs making the story lame with how anyone can wish for strength or what I think about the new forms and how I think they are either ugly or cool, but like, I feel there was a bigger urge to talk about the core narrative problems and less about the window dressing of the action. The balls have always been in a downward spiral to becoming too convenient already, and forms as punctuations for progression is like, tiring but it works visually, it's not a specific problem to the arc but the series as a whole.

Overral, I just feel uneven about it. The character driven conflict is obviously gonna leave you with a lot of holes if you don't keep it PERSONAL so the failure to do something so cool with DB hurts a lot. Undeniably though it's first half was the best part of this entire Manga on setup alone.

The second half is an atrocity however that makes me call the arc trash without the hesitation that I should be having. The fighting? Drags on with a nothing opponent. The opponent? Boring us to death as momentum has to stop to develop them. The developments? Tied to Bardock between breaks in a couple of flashbacks, used sloppily with a protagonist that feels uneven. Our actual protagonist? Hardly there.

Frieza coming back to end the arc feels cathartic on top of hilarious as a result. It's a spit to the face to the whole of it. And it's not horrendous as the Future Trunks Arc's ending thanks to at least having promises for the upcoming stories and ultimately being more interesting too.

o(-(

I don't know. This especially sucks because we were going so hard on something amazing like always but DBS just has a mystifying way to fuck things up for literally no reason. But you've heard me ramble enough. I still enjoy the series for that alone: I can't stop peeking no matter if it's a trainwreck with thousand dead. It's easy to pick apart the pieces.

Thank you for reading this if you did. I really appreciate it.

Take care! <3

[sweetescapeartist]

What do you think of MasakoX's What If Bulma Trained Like Goku?

Never saw it other than the thumbnails. So I dont know what its about. But Bulma training like Goku? She would have to learn martial arts. Cause even if she mad battle armor, she would need to know how to fight. The battle armor is essentially the same as Cyborg 17 & 18 except their enhancements are like internal battle armor while Bulma can remove her armor (& would be weaker). But like I said, Bulma would need to learn martial arts because from what I can tell, 17 & 18 fighting styles "installed" in their brains.

There were a lot of asks like this one, so imma answer them all in this post. And for most of these I either never saw or I only saw a few. So I will give quick scenarios of how I think they would end. So, you'll kinda get quick what-if stories from me.

Saw some of it. Felt like Broly was infantized in a way. Doesnt match up with Z Broly at all to me. Not very interesting, so I stopped watching it.

I dont think I saw it. But if he was, then he would be too weak to defeat Freeza if he became a SSJ before the Saiyan Saga.

If Vegeta became a SSJ on Namek, then he may kill Freeza, but Vegeta likes to gloat, so... Freeza may have ended up killing Vegeta either by the planet exploding or by a sneak attack. We saw what happened when Vegeta defeated Freeza in RoF.

And Vegeta was less arrogant in DBS. So DBZ Vegeta would have definetly gloated too much and would likely get himself killed. Then Freeza would recover and hunt down the rest of the Saiyans on Earth.

Never saw it. Would be lame to me tho if they stayed fused forever.

However, Toriyama would figure out a way to defuse them somehow. Likely from a wish from the Namekian Dragon Balls to defuse them (like how Supreme Kai & Kibito defused). So, after Vegito enters inside Super Buu, frees Piccolo & the kids, then defeats Kid Buu with his own might, the 3 wishes would be...

#1: Restore Earth from its damaged state.

#2: Bring those killed by Babidi and his minions back to life.

#3: Defuse Vegito.

I would prefer something like that. Then, the series continues on as normal until the Goku Black/Future Trunks Saga of DBS. Then Vegito would probably be in the Tournament of Power (would need another team member). According to DBFZ, Vegito & Gogeta's power is about equal to Jiren's full power (not his awakened state). So a Vegito vs Jiren battle would happen early and other opponents would be eliminated during their intense battle.

Depending on if Vegito could use UI or not due to the Vegeta half, Vegito may defeat Jiren. Or Jiren may awaken while Vegito doesn't awaken & Vegito loses. Maybe the Potara Earrings break and they defuse. Could go either way.

Never saw it. But if Freeza saw Vegeta's potential, I'm pretty sure Freeza would kill him. He kept the strongest of different alien races as trophies in a way. He kept Vegeta around while noticing his potential anyways, so the premise for this what-if is already in the series. Freeza always recognized Vegeta's potential.

But if Vegeta was seen as an actual threat to Freeza, Freeza would eliminate him just like he did with the rest of the Saiyans because he saw them teaming up against him as a threat. A very short story. And a very short story for Vegeta.

I think I saw maybe only 4 videos. From what I remember, MasakoX kinda changed how Z Bardock was. I could be wrong. And I think he made Bardock & King Vegeta team up? And the Saiyans defeated Freeza? Can't remember.

But if Bardock did convince the other Saiyans, Freeza could still easily kill the Saiyans. He effortlessly destroyed Planet Vegeta while in his first form in the original story. Saiyans pushing back against him would just result in Freeza using more power to finish them off. Back to the normal canon. Nothing changed except Freeza would be more paranoid and probably kill kid Vegeta, Nappa, & kid Raditz.

Now it's a story where there is no Saiyan Saga. THAT would be interesting to explore. How does Goku and the others find out about Freeza? Is it from Jaco? What happens after the Z Warriors (& Piccolo) train to face an enemy like Freeza? Do they all go to Namek? Gohan would probably not be there with them. Goku would lose some friends then turn SSJ. Afterwards we have a Cell & Buu Saga without Vegeta screwing everything up. DBS would be very different tho.

A two-for-one, eh?

Saw very little of the Freeza & Gero one. Interesting concept. Don't know how it ended or if it ended. I imagine it would have a lot of betrayal. Maybe even end up having Cell need to absorb Freeza to be perfect. Idk.

Broly as an android? Never saw it. But in my mind, Broly would have to be suppressed through science. Greatly suppressed so that he doesn't get out of hand. And then once he breaks the mind control mechanism or deactivation remote, we essentially get the part of the 1st Z Broly movie where the Z Fighters have to work together to defeat Broly. Except now he's on Earth, the human Z Warriors would pitch in, & Gohan would probably have to turn SSJ2. Maybe Goku dies while fighting Broly & that makes Gohan snap. Then Amdroid Broly is killed by the Father-Son Kamehameha.

Back To The Future Part 2 vibes. Incest vibes. Kinda weird having an OP character in the past and he has to pretend to be weak the entire time. Doesn't feel like there are any stakes. One Punch Man is similar due to Saitama being OP, but they make the boring idea work with comedy and get you invested in other characters.

I just feel like if Trunks accidentally went that far back, his first priority would be to make sure everyone stays alive. Second priority would be that when Goku attacks the Red Ribbon Army base, Trunks would hunt down Gero & kill him. Mission accomplished. He now tried to return to his timeline.

Also back to the incest thing... Bulma has shown attraction for Trunks in official material. Breakers to be specific. So, its kinda accurate there. She'd do it if she didn't know. But Trunks? Nah. Seems out of character. I don't remember but I think MasakoX had Trunks kinda attracted to her until she said what her name was. I know its a Back To The Future Part 2 reference, but I think Trunks would know what his mom would look and sound like immediately even when she was 16. Bulma's look is easily identifiable. So that part was just an unnecessary reference that made Trunks out of character.

Saw some of it. If my memory is correct, I thought it was pretty good.

I can't remember, but I don't think I liked it. That kind of power does make sense for someone like Gohan, but I don't think I liked the way it was implemented.

Didn't watch it. Didn't care for the name. Never like that "So-and-so Did Nothing Wrong" thing. So it didn't interest me. Plus... Zamasu did everything wrong.

Never saw it. But I would imagine it would play out with King Vegeta seeing his fate at the hands of Freeza, try to fight against it, then die to Freeza regardless of what he did just like Bardock how couldn't change his fate. He was cursed with knowing a future he couldn't prevent.

Saw a few minutes. Wasn't with it. Goku would have destroyed a lot. Only someone like Grampa Gohan could fight with him and be alright.

The people at Capsule Corp. would be wiped out & Goku would turn into an Oozaru. Then Bulma would probably be on the hunt for the Dragon Balls to wish her family and others back and find a way to kill that giant ape.

Goku falling on his head and being nursed back to health & being taught kindness by Grampa Gohan changed him.

That not happening would result in Goku's Saiyan nature causing him to wreck havoc.

Didn't see it. Never liked that ship. Toroyama didn't choose that for good reasons. Seemed too obvious that the male & female lead would get together, plus they aren't compatible. Bulma was most compatible with Yamcha, but she argued too much for no reason and ruined that romance then got stuck with someone who was worse.

If she was with Goku, Bulma would complain almost as much as she does with Vegeta. She complained about Yamcha training too much and Goku trained even more. She wouldn't be happy. She would likely divorce him/separate from him. I believe the only reason Bulma didnt separate from Vegeta was because Vegeta is the kind of guy that would stay and threaten you if you try to kick him out. Goku wouldn't. He would just want to see his son regularly.

Saw some of it. Seems like Freeza was almost a different character. But it wasn't bad. Maybe Freeza turned good too quickly tho.

Never saw it. If Freeza betrayed then but they were saved by the Z Fighters, then I can see them turning good.

ALSO...

Just a suggestion, but next time tell me if you like those what-if stories when you ask these questions. I don't really watch MasakoX's what-if videos anymore, so knowing your thoughts would be interesting.

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged - Bardock: Father of Goku Review

Originally posted on October 16th, 2015

Stilted voice-work and poor pacing bring this special down.

Bardock: Father of Goku Abridged is an example of Team Four Star’s willingness to experiment; before now, Team Four Star had not explored any of the stories outside of those that used the main cast, and they had only just released Christmas Tree of Might, which was their first foray into stories that lay outside the story of the original show. But while Christmas Tree of Might was an incredible success, Bardock is an example of the failures that inevitably come with experimentation.

That’s not to say that it’s terrible. There are a lot of really fun moments and sequences in this episode, and I personally think that Team Four Star’s use of music in this episode is some of their best. The expansion added to Dragonball Z: Abridged’s lore and backstory is also wonderful, and Bardock himself is a fairly interesting character.

The main issue is that none of the characters outside of Freeza, Zarbon, and Dodoria have any life to them, which is surprising, given that the voicework has been one of DBZA’s greatest strengths since the beginning. Given that most of the speaking characters end up dead by the end of the episode, that might not be the biggest issue, except Bardock, our protagonist, feels almost as lifeless as everyone else, and even Freeza and Dodoria feel somewhat stilted in comparison to the main series.

This problem is compounded by the fact that the pacing of this episode is janky, with Team Four Star trying to jump around between multiple simultaneous events while keeping us invested in all of them, and it works about as well for them as it did in their early episodes (which is to say, not very).

Now, the story they’re trying to tell demands that they do this in order to make sense, but jumping around and compressing time makes the episode proceed far too quickly, as the events of the plot rush by when we’ve cut away from the characters who need more time to be developed properly.

We’re never given an opportunity to become invested in the story, and a slower pace would have benefited this episode greatly, as it would’ve given us more time with the characters, and Team Four Star more time to tell a lot of jokes.

Rating: 2/5

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Stray Observations

“I can see the future!”

[duhragonball]

Super Dragon Ball Heroes Episode 50

The finale of the Supreme Kai of Time arc finally came out a few weeks ago, so let's wrap up my liveblog of it.

Just so we're all up to speed, I covered Episodes 41 through 49 here , here, and here. But if you're not in the mood to read that: this arc introduces Aeos, the previous Supreme Kai of Time, who has now returned to take back the position from Chronoa. Aeos believes that there are too many alternate timelines now, and Chronoa's refusal to deal with them has only made things worse, so Aeos and her four attendants take over the Time Nest to resolve the problem instead. Aeos's solution is to hold a big tournament with warriors from different timelines, and the losing teams get their timeline erased.

This all gets thrown into chaos when Demigra shows up, having recently gained a power boost from the Dark King energy once held by Fu. I'm not sure if this was just a coincidence, or if Demigra somehow manipulated the Aeos/Chronoa dispute to his advantage. Anyway, he tries to seize control of the Time Nest and destroy all the fighters who oppose him, which culminates in this climactic beam struggle against Goku, Bardock, and Future Gohan.

Just so we're clear, the Bardock and Future Gohan we see here are variants from other timelines, recruited by Aeos to serve as her attendants. Bardock was the "Hooded Saiyan" who occasionally helped Goku during the previous arc. Gohan hails from a world where Trunks died fighting 17 and 18, while he survived.

Anyway, the Father-Son-Grandson Kamehameha ends with Bardock daring the boys to push even harder, which leads to Bardock turning SSJ4, Goku going Ultra Instinct (again), and Gohan turning SSJ2. This overwhelms Demigra and he dies.

However, before Demigra is beaten, Aeos and Chronoa have this nice little reconciliation where Aeos points out that Demigra only got this far because of the multitude of alternate timelines. Even if he's defeated, some other menace will just rise up to replace him. She asks Chronoa how she can continue to support sparing the timelines if this is true, and Chronoa replies that a lot of good has come from the alternate timelines as well, and she's willing to trust the heroes to rise to the occasion. Then they hold hands and do some sort of time stuff, which might have helped tip the scales against Demigra, but I don't know. When it's all over, they use the Scroll of Eternity to restore everything to the way it was before Demigra attacked.

Goku is satisfied with this outcome, but he has one last bit of business to discuss with Aeos: Goku wants the Super Space-Time Tournament to be restarted, since he never got to finish his match with Xeno Goku earlier in the arc. Aeos agrees, and this time it's just an exhibition, with the fighters who still want to fight having 1v1 matches with no brackets.

We get some brief glimpses of the other matches, like Piccolo vs. Pikkon, Master Roshi vs. Grandpa Gohan, and so on, but none of these amount to anything. This episode spent a decent two minutes re-telling the beam struggle from Episode 49, which could have been used to show a little more of the cool fights they teased instead.

Credit where it's due, Goku vs. Xeno Goku actually gets some time, and there's some cool spots, like SSJ4 Goku trying to use a Warp Kamehameha on UI Goku, only for UI to try to float over to avoid it. Then 4ku snares him with his tail, but UI-ku is still too nimble to be trapped for long.

As everyone watches, Aoes reflects on how Goku impressed her, and I think the implication is that Goku's the one who convinced her not to erase the other timelines, at least for the time being. Then there's a credits sequence, like this is a big finale, but it's not.

They do the finish of the Goku/Vegeta fight from DBS: Super Hero, and it's UI Goku who wins. Sound booking, but I wish they could have come up with a different way to end it. I mean, Aeos's tournament was already a rip-off of the Tournament of Power, and Demigra's invasion was just a retread of his invasion in Xenoverse 1, and now this. It's tough to find anything really fresh in this story.

With the match settled, Aeos announces that she'll be leaving again to survey the alternate timelines for herself. She says she wants to re-check everything to re-evaluate her decision, and warns Chronoa that if she finds she had it right the first time, she'll be back to erase everything like she intended. Chronoa seems to accept this. Maybe she's confident that Aeos will see things her way, or maybe it's just that Chronoa has no choice. This arc suggests that Chronoa cannot, or will not, challenge Aeos' authority. I guess with Aeos leaving, Chronoa is reinstated as Supreme Kai of Time, but they never explained why Aeos left the job in the first place, or what claim she had to take it back. There's a lot of unanswered questions in all of this.

Aeos's four attendants will be joining her on her new mission, including Vidros, who proposed to Yamcha during the tournament. So what about that? Well, it turns out Vidros can't marry Yamcha right away. Her people have a tradition that says she can't marry until she reaches a certain age, which is still a dozen centuries away. So she intends to go with Aeos and return for Yamcha 1200 years from now. D'oh!

This did not go over well with the fandom, who were pretty hyped for the idea of Yamcha getting the girl. I think we all knew that there'd be some kind of catch. They weren't going to marry off an established character in a web series for crying out loud. I choose to look at this in a positive light. Yamcha's still got a fiance. And just because she has to wait 1200 years doesn't mean that he has to wait the same amount of time. Aeos might do her a solid and bring her back to the present day so she can still marry Yamcha during his natural lifespan.

At least Vidros had some sort of character arc in this story. I have no idea what this alternate version of Piccolo was supposed to be about. He just shares some meaningful looks with Gohan and that's it. Future Gohan says goodbye to Xeno Trunks, Bardock takes a last look at his son, and they all head out.

I seriously wondered if Episode 50 was going to be the finale for the entire web-series, since this arc seemed to wrap up the last plot threads of the whole show. Most of SDBH was about Fu's rise to prominence, and then he got defeated with the help of Demigra and Aeos's team, who settled all of their business in this arc. So this seemed like a pretty good stopping point, but no. There's an Episode 51, which promises a whole new arc that will probably take another two years to finish. I guess Super Dragon Ball Heroes will be around for a while longer.

And I'll probably cover those future story arcs one of these days, but this seems like a good place to stop for now. It's a lot more satisfying to watch this show several episodes at a time, and it'll be at least a year before we're far enough along to make this worth my time. But we'll see how it goes.

[gojixyz69]

OMNI-MAN VS BARDOCK Death Battle Prediction

For those who don't know, Death Battle announced Omni Man vs Bardock as the first episode a new era of death battle and I gota say, I'M HYPED AF I really like this matchup and tease that they gave us looked really good and I can tell this episode is going to be banger.

But now let's get into the prediction whitch yes I did actually did a prediction for the MU but that one was short and I really want to make another prediction post so yeah without further a do let's go.

Omni-Man

Nolan's main advantages are his experince due to being over thousands of years old whitch he was fighting for a good chunch of it, and there's of course his speed whitch would put him at MFTL since he was able to traver to another galaxy in a week whitch would make Omni Man faster and finally there's his healing factor and endurance whitch would make it harder to put him out.

As for his strenght he was able to punch a planet and destroy it with two other Viltrumites whitch would put him at planetary level but do keep in mind that this feat was done with three Viltrumites and it was stated that if the core of the planet wasn't shut all of them would have died. But yeah you get the point Omni Man is planetary and before you say the black hole feat where Nolan was near a black hole that would put him at best moon level since his just standing there he's not destroying it or moving it.

Bardock

Now for him Ultraguy who's part of the team revealed what there using for him

And as you can see there gonna do a soft composite basically there using both Z and Super Bardock along with the episode of Bardock whitch was the special where he turned Super Saiyan.

Now Bardock in his base form should upscale Roshi's moon busting feat as Bardock was stated to have power level of 10.000 while Roshi has a power level of 139 when he destryed the moon whitch was calculared to be planetary whitch in tern would make Bardock planetary just by upscaling and not only that he also scales to King Vegeta who destryes three planets with a wave of his hand whitch would be around large planetary to dwarf star level.

Bardock also has range thanks to his ki attacks and he can grow stronger via zenkais and there's his future sight whitch even tough it was given it's still there and even if you don't include it Bardock has other powers like flying, shooting blasts of energy, inhance strenght and durability and he can grow stronger threw fighting.

And finally there's his Oozaru and Super Saiyan forms that increase Bardock's power with Oozaru being a 10 time multiplier and Super Saiyan being a 50 times multiplier whitch would make Bardock even stronger and faster and yes that does include Oozaru since as we saw in Goku and Vegeta's first fight where Vegeta became a Oozaru he was shown to be faster so the same thing would implie to Bardock.

Who wins?

Now let's answore the question on who would win... whitch you probably know if you saw my prevouse prediction post but if you didn't to put it simply, Bardock wins. He's way stronger than Omni Man and grow even stonger via zenkais or his transformations and there's also the fact that Bardock has range attacks whitch would help him and would do damage to Nolan who while is way faster he usually just punches at high speed rather than using his speed affectically. Now I'm not saying that this is an easy win for Bardock since again Omni Man is way faster not to meantion his more experienced and endurance not to meantion his healing factor, but in the end I do think Bardock would win since he's way stronger and with his range I do think he has what it takes to put Omni Man down for good.