#I just really never got over the fact that the very first thing Goku thought of when he leaned about the great ape for was his grandfather

[suns-sword]

Thoughts On Goku staying dead after Cell

So I don’t post much content but this has been in my head rent free for years, so i figured might as well try and use it to change that habit.

Something that is always discussed is how bad of a choice it was for Goku to say dead.  In just about all ways this is true.  The earth had peace that had nothing to do with Goku not being on earth, Goten didn’t grow up knowing his dad, Gohan never seemed to get over his guilt from cell, and Vegeta never had a chance to find any resolution to the darkest parts of his life before Bobbity took advantage of it.  So why do I always feel like coming back after Cell doesn’t feel like something Goku would do?

I thought about that a lot, and recently I realized why I felt this way.  I don’t think Goku ever forgives himself.  Now a lot of who Goku is is forgiveness, but he only ever forgives people who he thinks can do better.  Goku always pushes himself to do better, but its never enough to keep the peace.  When Goku was young he broke his grandpas rule and then grandpa Gohan was killed.  When krillin first died it was because he went to get Goku’s dragon ball. Every time someone Goku loves gets hurt it was because of him (In his eyes) and i can’t imagine that finding out that he didn’t just get his grandpa killed, but killed him himself helped that in the slightest.  All this was just in dragon ball.  In Z the stakes just kept getting higher and higher while still being because of himself.

What makes Goku decide that someone can’t do better is always consistent.  They keep making the cruel choice when they have both kindness and cruelty as options.  Against King Piccolo he was fighting someone who hid as long as possible but kept making games out of people’s lives.  Freeza tried to kill Goku after being shown mercy.  Cell could have at anytime stop and hid if he truly didn’t want to go out of his way to hurt people, even after managing his main goal of his perfect form.  And Goku, while he kept getting his friends killed.  He approved of his son getting beat half to death because he didn’t know him as well as he thought he did.  He let Freeza survive after Namek because he never put his all in killing him.  He almost got Gohan killed by Raddits because he spared his brother once.  Even if he meant well Goku has always been a simple enough guy that he views events by how they work out more than anything else.  Because things worked out well enough he never had a reason to remove himself.  Then he died with no hanging threat and also had no reason to hurt his friends anymore.

Goku I think really thought that he hurt his friends more than he helped them.  I think we can see what seeing the world have 7 years of true peace with out him did to his mindset in the Buu saga.  This is a Goku who saw the world at peace for longer then it ever had been since he first left Mt. Pazu.  A Goku that saw his friends all got to build happy lives with him gone.  A Goku who wanted to make sure there was no reason for him to stay so that he would make his friends be hurt because of him anymore.  So he gets Trunks and Goten ready to be all the world needs.  After all he is back for one day and he ruins Bulma’s family.  Vegeta used Bobbity in order to fight Goku after all.  Vegeta died because goku held back against him.  Gohan “died” because he assumed he was strong enough to have things be right the first time.  And he was wrong again.

Goku makes plans so very different then he does against any other villian against Buu.  He makes plans to use the dragon balls first insteid of as back ups.  He doesn’t even try to out train Buu.  He doesn’t want to risk not being strong enough after he the fusion ended.  We don’t see Goku acting like his normal self until the fight against Kid Buu.  I think thats because of 2 factors, the first is that its a really fun fight for him.  Kid Buu is a monster but isn’t actively cruel, just a kid who tantrums threatens everything.  Then we have the super spirit bomb.  The first time where the world was stronger than goku at his best.  I think to him this was proof that he wasn’t alone in either victory or defeat.  The be all end all of what earth could do.  And the earth all together was stronger than Goku imagined possible.  Irrefutable proof that there was ALWAYS some way to get better, a way to save the day.  The first day I think Goku could look at his life and really appreciate the fact that he saved the world, that it meant something that he did. 

Personally I think this would also help explain his much more lax personality in super compared to the end of Z.  Goku was able to forgive himself and was then able to just do what he enjoyed by training and spending time with all the people in the world he loved.  He is looked back and didn’t find blame in his faults, for probably the first time since he lost his grandfather. 

TLDR:  Goku stayed dead because mercy and forgiveness is the same to him, and he had a lot to blame himself for.

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima, episode 5. Time to meet the new girl for realsies.

For like forty years.

Goku's leaving out information that's extremely relevant to the new girl's question. The reason he has the skills of a middle-aged martial arts master is because that is literally what he is.

We're still going to the castle? I thought we turned around to go chase the Dragon Ball instead. Maybe I misunderstood.

Gloom n' Doom was trying to leave her behind but we all know who the real star is, and he accepts bribes in exchange for friendship.

He also accepts friendship without bribes. He's just nice. But he's not gonna turn down some onigiri if you're offering.

We have a name! Between Glorio and Panzy, it seems the denizens of Daimakai have flowers for their name pun theme.

(Goku, you named your son after rice. You have no room to talk.)

Not sure if the exchange over whose name is weirder is meant to be a parallel to Goku's first meeting with Bulma. Very rarely do the punny names get called out as funny in-universe.

They're going the "Everyone has their own unique superpower" route for the Majin, I see. And Panzy's is....

Telekinesis.

We've seen telekinesis a few times. Chiaotzu and Guldo are the most prolific telekinetic characters. But they're also...

Like. They both kinda fall into the category of "Characters who got exactly one fight and then fucked off or died." We've never had a character who was important to the plot and had abilities centered around psychic powers.

I hope that's about to change but Dragon Ball is notoriously terrible with its female characters so I'm not taking anything for granted.

Panzy is completely ruining Glorio's vibe as our solemn guide to the demonic lands and he can die mad about it. XD

Weird thing to have a character say before cutting to a montage of everyone pleasantly sightseeing with no trouble whatsoever while happy fun-time music plays in the background.

The front gate is HUNGRY OM NOM NOM NOM

Is....

...is the plan to raise Baby Dende like an ordinary child over the course of many years so that he imprints on Gomah and comes to see this castle and its occupants as his home and family?

Is that what we're doing here?

(Wouldn't he still have his memories? Goku and the others do.)

Oh, she is definitely like the king's daughter or something. There's a reason she happens to know the most convenient way to and from the castle. Glorio needs to learn how to read a room.

You know, I really thought they were gonna tease that out a bit longer.

She's got her own distinct style to her but she's definitely a bootleg copy of Bulma. Child genius female super-mechanic who attaches herself to Goku after seeing how powerful he is and happens to be the daughter of the most rich and powerful family in the region. There's visibly a lot of Bulma in her character DNA.

Even her logo on the front of her shirt often looks like a C because of the stuff covering it.

Which is kinda making me start to wonder if Glorio is a bootleg copy of Future Trunks. Grim and serious demeanor, showing up out of nowhere in a magical fantasy vehicle, leaning on a weapon but also being able to fight without it, that jacket... Huh.

HAHAHA NO

Goku, sure, but Kaioshin is one whole Fuck No in the realm of fighting Majin Buu. It is thoroughly established that he'd be up shit creek without a paddle in a straight fight with Buu.

...

In fact, so is Goku. The only form of Buu that Goku has ever been a match for is Fat Buu. And that is strictly hypothetical, based on Goku's impression of Buu versus how strong Super Saiyan 3 is supposed to be..

Strictly hypothetically, his Super Saiyan 3 could waste Pure Buu too. We all saw how well that worked out.

"Wait but wasn't Goku holding back so Vegeta could have a turn?"

Common misconception but no. Vegeta accuses Goku of that, but Goku was sincerely giving Buu his all and getting wrecked. Super Saiyan 3 is the only form Goku has that can match Buu on paper, but Super Saiyan 3's drawbacks prevent it from being able to match Buu in practice.

So. Uh. No. There is not a single person in this room that can cash the check that Glorio's stupid mouth has written. Not counting sequel series that haven't taken place yet at this point in the timeline, the only time Goku has ever been on Buu's level was when he had Vegeta to fuse with.

Seems legit. I like the cut of his jib. We should definitely make him king.

He commodifies women as bargaining chips to be bought and sold by their fathers. I don't like the cut of his job. We should not make him king.

Goku proving himself by fighting all the royal guards at once is a fun fight, well animated, and nicely paced. But I particularly enjoyed this moment.

Goku transforming to Super Saiyan not to actually go Super Saiyan but just to use the burst of ki that comes from it as a radial attack to blow the goons away. Weaponizing the power-up itself.

Some real "Shazam hits his opponent with the transformation lightning bolt" energy going on here.

...

I legit thought this guy was going to, like, reveal some sort of power that lets him teleport directly to Earth and then bring back Vegeta, Bulma, and Piccolo in a snap.

I'm looking forward to having Panzy on the team. Especially when Bulma gets here. I can't wait for Bulma to meet Discount Bulma.

[diavolosthots]

Can I request: how would the demon brothers react if they had a fanclub of some sort, who was jealous of GN!MC hanging out with them all the time? What kinda things would they pull of to try and distance MC from the brother? ( Kinda like the prince yuki fanclub from fruitsbasket if youve seen it) hope you have a great day!

Ive tried getting into fruitsbasket but never did lol

Warning: jealousy, pain, mentions of kidnapping

THE BROTHERS reacting to having a fanclub that wants to hurt their MC

Lucifer:

He’d be lying if he said it didn’t stroke his ego at least a little bit and to… a very minimal extent he actually found his fanclubs’ pranks a little funny. For example, they’d send you to the wrong place to meet up with him, but the minute things got physical, he got angry, and immediately disbanded the club, swearing that if they ever even thought about doing anything to you again, he wouldn’t be above using physical means, mainly torture. Some of them got turned on, probably the demon in them, but he wasn’t feeling very nice about it and got rid of trash that very day. 

“They shouldn’t dare to bother us again, Darling. You’re safe with me.”

Mammon:

For the longest time he’d tell you that it’s nothing and of course he has fans; he IS the Great Mammon, and that you’re just jealous. He would, literally, say that, even if he didn’t mean it. He only wants you, obviously, but the attention he got was too nice to ignore, you know? Except that at some point you weren’t there anymore and he only found out almost too late that you had been taken, which had him scared and assembled the brothers together. You got not one, but all seven rescuing you, although Mammon did most of the dirty work for once before making sure you’re okay and profusely apologizing for not believing you; he did feel bad. 

“I’m sorry, MC… you’re more important to me.”

Leviathan:

He can’t even begin to describe how uncomfortable all the attention made him in the first place. All he really needed was you, no matter how cheesy that sounded, and he really despised it when one of those measly demons slithered their way between the two of you. At first, he was too stunned to do anything besides stutter and look away, squeezing you tightly to ground himself, but then the name calling started and they were actually targeting you, like, to get rid of you, which just made him angry and lash out, much to everyone’s surprise. Angry Leviathan isn’t a nice Leviathan.

“I didn’t hurt them too bad, but let’s just say that Goku is feeling threatened right now.”

Satan:

Pfftt he’d shut that fanclub down so quick. If his eyes weren’t already looking out for someone special? Maybe he would’ve enjoyed the attention; relished in it, even. But you were here, and you were holding his attention, not them. He made it very clear that he wanted nothing to do with them and if they dared to disturb his peace with you, they would be encountering his wrath. Sadly, a couple of them took it way too far and actually physically hurt you, riling him up and going on a death-hunt. He didn’t make sure you were okay, blinded by anger and out for blood. You’d be lucky if you still recognized them after he was done. 

“Pathetic scum. They had it coming.”

Asmodeus:

Much like Mammon, he’d tell you it isn’t that big of a deal for a very long time, much longer than it should’ve gone on for, and he probably made you feel like you weren’t worth it at some point, which is when he finally put an end to it. He loved the attention, and he really couldn’t blame anyone for being after him, but it started to destroy you and that’s the last thing he would’ve wanted, so, for your sake, he’d kindly tell them off, although he soon realized that he needed to be a little firmer due to their inability to listen. He’s got you, please trust him. 

“Don’t worry so much, darling. They’ve got nothing on you, and definitely not me.”

Beelzebub:

His first thought was to ignore them. His eyes are on you and only you, no one else mattered. It worked, for a while, and things seemed to calm back down as the club retreated back into their shadows, until one day you went there, too. Tied up, beaten, and bruised is how he found you as anger rose through him. He checked over you first, tending to your needs before dropping you off with Belphegor and going to get himself a nice demon dinner.

“Demons can taste like chicken if you cook them right.”

Belphegor:

Much like Satan, he’s more annoyed than anything. He didn’t want them before and he sure as hell doesn’t want them now, when his eyes are clearly set on you. The fact that they keep bothering you, made him lash out way earlier than anyone expected, and he’s sure to hide you from the general public, and really from anyone if he had the choice. They won’t even get close enough to do anything because he’s literally attached to you. He’s the sloth and you’re his tree. 

“They’re not getting to you, not if I’m always there.” 

[actuallysaiyan]

Got anything for Goku’s parents Bardock and Gine? Or even just Bardock?

Word count: 937 Warnings/content: Fluff, AU, cuteness, family stuff Summary: Y/N and Goku have been dating forever, so he decides to bring her over to his parents place so they can all meet each other. A/N: Not sure if you wanted an Y/N fic or just something about Bardock and Gine, but I had lots of fun writing this out! Thanks for requesting and challenging me to write something about characters I haven’t written for yet!

You were a little nervous about meeting his parents. They weren’t human, for one. Secondly, Goku barely knew them himself. He had only just started reconnecting with them ever since they decided to move to Earth. You and Goku had been dating for so long, you were practically married at this point.

When his parents moved to Earth, you were happy. Except for the fact that Bulma had warned you that they were...different. For one, Bardock could be quite gruff and tough. He was a nice person, but he was a tough guy and could be prone to violent outbursts from time to time.

Gine, on the other hand, was very sweet and caring. She was always taking care of people and making sure they ate well. Bulma and Vegeta both let you know that Gine was quite the rarity within the Saiyans. Most of them had brutish and cold demeanors, like Prince Vegeta and Bardock. 

When you arrived at their house, you couldn’t stop chewing on the dead skin on your lip out of nervosity. You didn’t know if you were wearing proper attire or if they’d like the gift you brought them. Gine opened the door, and you swore that your heart stopped. Just from the moment you first looked at her, you could really see that kindness within her.

“Oh! Kakarot! You’re here with your mate!” she said, smiling.

“Awhh, it’s Goku, now. This is y/n, she’s my girlfriend.” Goku explained, rubbing the back of his head timidly.

“Bardock, Kakaro- I mean, Goku and his mate are here!”

She welcomed the both of you inside, and you walked behind Goku. He led the way into the house, and you couldn’t help but be a little intimidated. The place was very odd for two Saiyans who moved to Earth, but you knew they didn’t really know much about human culture right now.

“Hey, there’s my little brother!” Raditz called from the living room. He got up and started teasing Goku.

“Hey Raditz!”

They started talking amongst themselves as you held yourself a little distance away. You weren’t even sure where to look. It just felt a little awkward about the whole thing, but you wanted to meet Goku’s parents and make an effort for them to like you and maybe invite you over more often.

“Kakarot,” you heard a voice call from the hallway. Both you and Goku looked over, and it was his father calling for him.

Goku was almost a spitting image of the man. They had a very similar hairstyle and build, and it was quite obvious they shared some of the same body language and posture. Raditz seemed to take more after his mother.

“Hey dad! This is my girlfriend, y/n.” Goku introduced you to his father, bringing you forward.

“Nice to meet you, sir.” You squeaked out, extending your hand to him.

Bardock looked at you, studying your face and trying to gauge your reaction. You could tell he was trying to intimidate you a little, but Gine interrupted before it could get any worse.

“Bardock, shake her hand. It’s rude to stare.” She said in your defense.

Bardock smirked slightly, taking your hand in his giant hand. He did his best not to crush you, but you could still feel his immense strength. Then he cracked a smile and pulled you in for a bone crunching hug.

“So, you’re the one my son wants to marry, huh?” Bardock asked, looking at Goku.

“Yeah! We’re thinking of getting married soon!” Goku said, but you were too busy blushing from all the attention to really understand what he was saying.

You all did a little small talk while Gine went into the kitchen to cook. Not even five minutes passed before she asked you to help her out. You placed your gift on the coffee table and made your way over to her.

She was stirring a big pot of stew and it smelled heavenly. You noticed that the oven was turned on, so you figured she was cooking something else as well.

“Could you prepare the salad? I’m trying to get Bardock and Raditz to eat more vegetables, but you know how Saiyan men eat.” Gine asked as she continued to add some spices to the stew.

You quickly washed your hands at the kitchen sink and started chopping some veggies for the salad. Gine started a little conversation with you as you prepared the salad. It felt more easy going with her than with all the Saiyan men giving you this attention.

“I’m really glad I got a second chance with Kakarot. When I sent him to Earth, I was afraid I’d never see him again.” Gine said, smiling at you.

“He’s been such a hero to all of us, I’m so fortunate to have him in my life.” You explained to her.

“Who would have thought that my son, Kakarot, would be the hero of Earth alongside the prince?” she laughed at the thought alone. 

“He’s really been so helpful. Goku has a kind heart and he really would do anything to help a friend.”

“Well, clearly he picked a good mate. Your salad looks great!”

You and Gine started bringing out the food to the dining room and you went over to the men to announce that dinner was ready. You felt a little awkward around Bardock, but Gine had put you right at ease.

You could tell that you would enjoy having them as parents in law. They were both caring and loving and wanted the best for Goku...just like you did.

[dballzposting]

question: does goten ever suspect there is something happening between his mom and piccolo the way gohan clocks it or is he completely oblivious to it the whole time it’s happening. or does he ever maybe look back and go “wait a damn minute.” or maybe if he looks back he’s like good for them. anyway you’re the expert here i trust your opinion

OMG I havent spoken about that in a while I'm so honored that somebody remembered...

Well essentially when Piccolo and Ms Chichi were A Thing that was when Goten was little (before Goku came back to life) and so he didnt really know anything. Looking back he has no opinion and probably doesnt know or care .

HOWEVER at the time since Piccolo was hanging around a lot, Trunks started picking on Goten abt it, like hed be like "yeah you gotta go back home to your MOMMY and DADDY" and Goten would have to be like "PICCOLO-SAN IS NOT MY DAD!!! STOP SAYING THAT!!!" and Trunks would say something about how the reason that Goten's mother has him go to Capsule Corp so often is so she can be alone with Piccolo amd then Goten has to be like "THEYRE NOT DATING!!!!! QUIT IT!!!!!"

It's not that he thought that Piccolo dating his mom would be a bad thing, just that he was 7 and Trunks was saying it in a mocking tone so he got angry.

That's actually how Gohan comes to suspect that something is going on ... he's training with Goten and Trunks or just hanging out or something and he hears them argue about that. Trunks making some sneering comment and then Goten lunging for his throat like a pitbull. And those sneering words float over to Gohan and hit him like a hammer to the skull

Once the suspicion enters his mind it wont go away ... just immediately the train starts rolling ..... Gohan says something like "Guys! Guys! Hey!" and it seems like hes trying to get them to stop clawing at each other, so they stop, and Gohan has this admonishing look on his face, so it seems like hes gonna say something disapproving. But then he suddenly snaps to this sunshine energy that feels defensive in a way and he has his palms up in gesticulation and hes like "PICCOLO-SAN isnt dating my MOM...! Dont be ridiculous.." like it's some comedically obvious fact and hes playfully correcting them . Like "oh haha you guys how silly ..." kind of feel

But Goten and Trunks domt care and have moved on from that and it was a little strange that he had said "my mom" even though he was talking to Goten too . Trunks was there so maybe he could not have said "our mom" but it still just felt a little odd, like he could have said "our" and just looked at Goten when he said it or gestured to him or something. But he said "my" all possessive-like and that's becasue the psychological tempest has sprung its first breeze

But anyway you didnt ask about all that . I guess I think it's very plausible that Goten could have found out about Ms Chichi and Piccolo's involvement after the fact, and I think he would be surprised to find out, becasue Chichi and Goku are happily back together now and it does seem strange to think that she would have ever settled for anyone else . ESPECIALLY MR PICCOLO. Like Goten just might not believe it at first becasue like ... MR PICCOLO? Date anyone? Never gonna happen! That's just not what he does.

But Goten certainly wouldnt care the way that Gohan did. He has no stake in the situation and it brings him no torment. He would just be like OMG really? Lol.

THANKS FOR ASKING??!?!?!??

[yusuke96universe]

Turles and Lord Slug Team Up Pitch

Introduction

Hello guys, after watching MasakoX's What If Turles Turned Good parts 1 and 2 [which act more like an origin story for him within the frameworks of modern Dragon Ball similar to Super Broly] I thought I would share an old headcanon origin I had for another Dragon Ball Z movie Villain, Lord Slug and how it could make for an excellent part in this What If story that has captured my imagination. Also, it opens up a lot of potential avenues for ood DBZ storytelling.

I know he's considered one of the most uninteresting Villains in the franchise since he is essentially King Piccolo from space, but rushed in an hour long movie. Let's face it, a lot of DBZ villains aren't inherently interesting characters and usually are introduced as Pure Evil tropes

Trope Talk: Pure Evil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-XprjlATEo

Irrelevant backstory

very simple motivation

enthusiastic, zestful villainy

Pure self-confidence

Third -Act Breakdowns (where they are faced with what they truly fear and usually fail)

Afterward, they could be open to becoming a more nuanced character to explore as we've seen done time and again with cast of redeemed or evolved villains in Dragon Ball

A lot of the movie villains from the franchise would be more interesting if they weren't rushed or were expanded on and boy does Lord Slug bring a lot to the table if he is expanded on.

1) You could have Turles and Lord Slug form a dynamic duo that counterparts Goku and Piccolo. Turles is a trouble-making youth-filled underdog who has taken a shine to the crabby old man that is Slug. Turles could use a lot more modern methods to contrast Slug's far more traditional warmongering that he's developed over the centuries. (They did it a little in Xenoverse 2, but you could really expand upon it in a MasakoX styled What If) Plus, the Tree of Might likely has the ability to restore Lord Slug's youth since it canonically resurrected fossils, so Turles literally has the solution to Lord Slug's main problem plaguing him and is an open-minded businessman by nature. This hypothetical team-up of working together to gain more power, invade planets for their resources and overthrow the Universal order by killing Frieza before returning to enemies, acts as an inverse counterpart of Goku's and Piccolo's initial alliance against the Saiyans invading the Earth interfering with Piccolo's own conquest, but opened the doors for change in him and others.

2) Most likely these 2 would start off as enemies and have their forces face off against one another, but this struggle is a good thing in the long run because they could potentially provide each other, their own personal Third Act Breakdowns or at least teach each other recognize their own flaws and weaknesses to help each other grow as characters.

Lord Slug's backstory, retooled

Planet Slug

The most fun thing I found was that they gave Turles a proper origin story to build a character around, well I have a suggestion for a similar concept for Lord Slug that I think you guys could use in many different ways, but before that. Here are the facts. In the backstory I found in supplemental materials, it is stated by Guru that Lord Slug and other Evil Namekians could have possibly escaped the crisis on Namek and moved to far-flung planets in other parts of the Universe. One Super Namekian named himself after the Demon inhabited world he found himself on, known as Planet Slug. And judging from the movie, Planet Slug is most likely an icy or snow-covered planet since the Demons needed special suits to withstand the Earth's temperature.

By the way, I imagine that Planet Slug and its people could have a Mongolian theme. (I have a sketch I did for an alternate costume for Slug, but I don't remember how to post atm)

If say Lord Slug came to this planet and eventually took it over in the King Piccolo style, then I could see him having birthed a clan of Evil Namekian children to help him in this endeavor. So let's say there are about as many Namekians children as Guru or King Piccolo birthed, then they are likely different clans of Namekians on the Planet, including a Dragon Clan member capable of creating their own set of Dragon Balls. In this way, Planet Slug could act as an alternate substitute for Planet Namek, but one closely resembling how the team initially pictured Namek as a planet full of evil Piccolos, instead of the peace-loving farmers of Namek. Now, why would Slug be in space expanding his Empire and searching for Dragon Balls when his planet likely already has a set? In the movie, it's best not to think about it, but here is my idea.

Why Lord Slug is REALLY in Space

One of Lord Slug's offspring usurped him from the throne due to his old age and sickly body. So Slug was humiliatingly forced to flee his home or was looked down on as a non-threat banished him and his most loyal men off-world to live in shame and to never be seen again. So he is conquering other planets, partly because he is a refugee, but mostly because he is overcompensating for his lost and trying to help his ego by living in denial and reassuring that He is the Baddest Baddie who ever lived and terrorize/kill those weaker than him as he ever expands his empire, lamenting his old age and sickened body. He believes that if he was in his prime, he could take his throne back no problem and make them all pay for wronging him. Luckily, Slug doesn't need the Dragon Balls to regain his youth. If the Tree of Might's Fruit is capable of reviving fossils, it should be able to restore the Super Namekian to his former glory once again.

Turles's Crusher Corps vs Lord Slug's Army

A fun way they could introduce the factions to each other is as competition for a lush planet. Turles wants it for the Tree of Might, and Slug wants to freeze it for them for their conquest. They both are in each other's way, so they all fight it out. I think Slug has stronger minions, but Crusher Corps have better teamwork, and with Turles being in prime fighting condition, he would tip the scale in their favor much like Goku did in the movie.

At first, I thought Slug wouldn't be much of a match for Turles in his old and sickly state, a little trouble sure since he is the strongest, but that aged body wouldn't do him any favors. However, the first Google search result I got on Old Slug's Power level said he was at 79,000 so he's stronger than I first thought. (I thought he was around Nail's power level roughly in the 40,000) I also heard that Turles was around 19,000 but by the end of the movie was like 300,000. These power levels don't mean too much when reimagining the stories, just that Turles might have more of an uphill struggle. So, Turles would first have to eat some Fruit to win in a landslide and hopefully, the Terrafreezing process didn't ruin the Tree of Might's process.

Right before the killing blow, Old Slug might've mentioned something In desperation to save his own life. He could've brought up the Dragon Balls on his home Planet Slug/ Namek could grant any wish he wanted. This is just enough to stop Turles from following through with his attack, but it takes a little more coaxing for Slug to sell the legitimacy to Turles. A part of Turles thinks this might just be hogwash, but if this is anything like the Tree of Might, this could be a huge find. Another game-changer. He has his men take Slug with them as he checks in with the Heaters' database and finds there could be a kernel of truth to this tall tale. So Turles generously spares the old Slug's life for this useful tip which is met with some impatient ire.

If you hate being old so much, why don't you just use these Dragon Balls of yours to make yourself young again? -Turles

I would if I could, but... but I can't. I've been banished from my homeworld by my own children after they usurped me from my throne.-Slug

hahaha So you're just some washed-up old geezer trying to feel tough by throwing your power around at a bunch of weaklings. -Turles

Watch it! If I was in my prime, I wouldn't have ever let that rebellion get that far and even made short work of you and your men. If it weren't for that Fruit of yours, you'd be nothing. -Slug

WHAT WAS THAT. (composes himself) Interested in the Fruit are you, well I am not naive enough to let you ever sink your rotten teeth in one. At least, not for free. We, the Crusher Corps, are branched off of the Heaters' group who are known to deal in intelligence. If you have some more valuable information to pass on then, I could be convinced to trade off a leftover Fruit from our latest venture. Do you have anything else to offer me, old man?

(Slug’s low growling sounds are giving Turles just the biggest shit-eating grin on his face)

Slug could tell Planet Slug's coordinates, could act as their guide, or how to use their Dragon Balls, or even that they need a native speaker to use them and a password.

Turles throws him a Fruit as he is a businessman and honors his deals. This not only works in reviving the Elder Namekian, but the results are far better than expected by restoring Slug to his prime. Turles is both impressed and a little unnerved by this so he opens up a dialogue as he scans Lord Slug's new power. (he thought it would add a few decades back onto his old life since he seemed ancient, but it straight up made him young again) They discuss what had just happened and Turles's operation using the Tree of Might's Fruit to amass enough power for him and his men to kill Frieza and possibly overthrow him. Lord Slug in the meantime has been enjoying his youthful appearance and renewed vigor during the conversation, not looking Turles in the eye, but still expressing interest in this operation and compliments the plan. Turles offers a proposition to Lord Slug to join them on this endeavor if he helps them get those "Dragon Balls" he mentioned right before.

That's right. You're interested in the Dragon Balls, are you? Well, I am interested in that Tree of yours. It could keep someone young and strong forever, and this whole operation of yours is simply remarkable! -Slug

So you're in? -Turles

Remarkable enough for me to take it for myself! So I'll be doing just that! - Slug

Round 2 Super Namekian Rampages

The Super Namek overwhelms all of them, even Turles, after just eating a bunch of fruit, the gap is just too wide. He sadistically tortures them and strikes fear into their hearts. Turles isn't just put on the backfoot, he ends up on the brink of life and death. He needs to reach down deep, and something in him snaps, could be his Saiyan pride, could be becoming helpless and at someone else's mercy, could even be one of his men, that unbeknownst to himself, he had grown fond of perished, his regret for overly relying on outside gains to accomplish his ambitions. Don't know, don't care, but something doesn't sit right with Turles and this something acts as the catalyst for him to transform, but not into the traditional Super Saiyan we've all come to know. No, Turles goes into the False Super Saiyan state and overwhelms the Super Namek almost beat for beat like FSSJ Goku vs Slug from the movie, but this time, it lasts the duration of the fight. It's more of a SSJ Goku vs Frieza kind of fight with Turles's victory.

Turles diet of Tree of Might fruit has affected his body's genes and so when he transforms it's not the traditional SSJ form like everyone else, but the False Super Saiyan state that Goku used against Lord Slug. (The Saiyan loses their pupils and also uses SSJ's original color scheme with the flickering red and black hair and the orange skin with a lingering Aura effect) They could have a lot of fun with the benefits and drawbacks this form and its potential evolutions could have. False SSJ potentially falls into the theme of using Fruit as a shortcut to power vs earning the power legitimately or as a simple means to contrast with Goku.

Post Fight ~ Alliance?

Slug doesn't die though, or if he does, Turles is smart enough to revive him with the Tree of Might's extract in a similar way as the fossilized twins were. The reason is simple, Turles believes that Slug's knowledge of his people is going to be essential in the nearby future, and since he's shown whose boss by dominating the Super Namekian, they can now work together to overthrow stronger enemies like Frieza by using his Planet's Dragon Balls. The Crusher Corps gets a guide and an ally; Slug gets his revenge and the prospect of taking Frieza's empire for himself by joining this operation is too much for him to pass up. This is a temporary truce to defeat stronger opponents and gain power, but once that is over, they are going back to killing one another similar to how Goku and Piccolo formed an alliance against the Saiyans invading earth.

1) A Super Namekian could exploit their race's fusion ability through some method of Mind Control like in the original Broly movie. So Slug or his evil offspring could literally absorb one another or even someone as powerful as Nail or Piccolo if the influence is strong enough to join together. And Turles with the Heaters' resources might just be able to provide a means to provide Slug this, with some precautions of course.

2) Slug might have knowledge of Kai and Demon Realms considering he is both an older Namekian like Guru, and the fact that he Planet Slug is literally inhabited by Demons, a different breed of Demons, but still Demons nonetheless. In the games, the Tree of Might's Fruit had its effects amplified in the Demon Realm, but the same might be said if the Tree is planted on the World of the Supreme Kais or Beerus' planet. It's just a possible option for later down the line, but if there was ever a planet that could sustain that Tree and boosts its effects it would be one of these places.

This is it, I know MasakoX likes to do the space opera thing with multiple factions and also like to mix things up from the original story from time to time, so I thought Planet Slug would be an interesting means to do so and giving Turles a partner to bounce off of is typical Toriyama writing, could even open up new avenues to explore.

Am I expecting this to happen. Honestly, I have low expectations MasakoX and his team would do this and they got their own plans of inserting Turles into the main story likely connected to the character in the hood (who is probably Zamasu for some reason like in the Gero What If) or one of the Saiyans from Turles' team or even eager to get him into the main story with the Z-Cast, possibly trying to win Gohan to his side, but getting converted by him like what happened to Piccolo, but I don't mind. My expectations are low, but my hype is through the roof, and needed to share my fan theories with someone.

[gokubrain]

Hi! What is Age 801 about (was it a DBS thing? I kinda refuse to watch DBS and have only read the Trunks/Goku Black arc, Moro arc, and [now] Granola arc)? Also, can we get some more canonically gay moments with Goku and Vegeta, please? Preferably DBZ and screenshots are a bonus. :-D Thanks! XOXOXO

HII buckle in this is a long one LOL

Age 801:

for starters, i've talked briefly abt age 801 on my twitter before but i'd be glad to talk about it here too HAHA

though i haven't actually played this first hand so i won't go into too much detail in fear of giving wrong information. BUT BASICALLY there was this game called Dragon Ball Online, which "was a massive multiplayer online role-playing game being developed in Japan and South Korea by NTL, set in the Dragon Ball universe." again i didnt play it but from what i understand it takes place 200 ish years after the end of the buu arc in dbz.

age 801 is the year of goku's death, but it goes deeper than that LOL

APPARENTLY as goku realized his time to die was approaching, he reached out to vegeta, and the two of them LEFT EARTH WITHOUT A WORD and traveled to a far away planet in the middle of no where to have one final battle where they both went out in a blaze of glory. i don't remember where i heard this but apparently their death battle caused a supernova that was seen from earth years later

guys?? if that's not the most fucking homoerotic and romantic thing you have ever heard than ur a liar HAHAHDFJH

ALSO THIS STORYLINE WAS APPROVED BY TORIYAMA WHICH IS ABOUT AS CLOSE TO CANON AS ANYTHING LIKE THIS IS EVER GONNA GET SO. personally i'm considering this the locked in, canonical ending for them because it's just SO perfect.

this idea that goku wanted to provide a sense of closure regarding their rivalry,, the fact that vegeta was just on board with dying like this before his time simply because he didn't want to live without goku,,, GOKU KNOWING THIS AS TRUE AND EVEN DECIDING THAT HE WANTED TO DIE ALONGSIDE VEGETA IN THE FIRST PLACE... OH THANK YOU DRAGON BALL ONLINE THANK YOU SO MUCH <3

i desperately wish i had more info on this to tell you, but i never played the game and the wiki is painfully short so !! like i wonder how long they were traveling before they found a planet far enough away,, if it took years to see the supernova then they must have been traveling for a very very long time. ALSO A SUPERNOVA??? HOW FUCKING SEXY IS THAT LOL, I LOVE SPACE/STAR IMAGERY IN TERMS OF KAKAVEGE (COUGH YOU ARE THE SUN AND I AM JUST THE PLANETS SPINNING AROUND YOU COUGH COUGH) to think that their simultaneous deaths erupted in a supernova...... god it jsut warms my heart so much THANK YOU dragon ball online

Kakavege Canon Stuff:

and nice timing, i was just looking for someone to talk with about this particular scene LOL

i'm rewatching dbz rn and i'm really obsessed with this one little filler arc that happens immediately after the saiyan arc. vegeta's on his way to some freeza planet to heal up, and goku's hospitalized. it's not very much content bc it's actually just a little side-thing that's shown while the Real filler is happening but i still love it regardless

i'm soo obsessed with this cinematic parallel here LOL i love that they're both healing from this battle at the same time but theyre also both thinking about what happened like. a LOT lol, pretty much any time either of them are on screen they're thinking about the fight that just happened HAHA

vegeta is literally floating in a healing pod dreaming about the fight whispering "kakarot" over and over?? and goku keeps sneaking out of the hospital to train for when vegeta comes back??

it's so cute LOL goku keeps like. getting out of bed and trying to train for when vegeta gets back and they're all like dude,,, ur seriously injured pls just stay in bed LOL

ITS HARD TO TELL BUT HE'S DOING SIT UPS HERE LOL

even outside of kakavege i think this is so fucking cute LOL HE'S LIKE "GUYYYSSS I'M FINE JUST LET ME TRAIN" AND THEYRE LIKE GOKU LMFAOFJDSJKFH YOURE IN A FULL BODY CAST....

but this concept that he's pushing himself wayyyy past his limits because he's so excited to fight vegeta again is just so precious wahhhh

ALSO THERES THIS ONE REALLY GOOD SCENE WHERE IT SHOWS VEGETA THINKING ABOUT GOKU AND THEN IT CUTS TO GOKU RANDOMLY PUNCHING THE AIR AND EVERYONE IS LIKE "GOKU?? WTF" AND HE'S LIKE "LOL SORRY I GOT EXCITED"AHAHKJFDSHA IM ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED WITH THE LIKE. PARALLELS BETWEEN THEM WHERE THEYRE JUST BOTH THINKING ABOUT EACH OTHER AT THE SAME TIME ITS SO CUTE

i cant show it very well in screenshots but trust me the scene transition from vegeta talking abt the fight to goku just punching the air?? is so cute

if u wanna see it for urself i'll link it here, timestamp is 9:49

idk i just love it a lot LOL I KNOW ITS KINDA SMALL AND SEEMS LIKE IM REALLY GRASPING HERE BUT,, IDK I MEAN. the way the show sets it up so that's its like. vegeta in a healing pod saying "kakarot" (and NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS IN THE SCENE BTW HE'S JUST LIKE. "KAKAROT,,," AND THEN IT TRANSITIONS AHHA FDJH) and then immediately cuts to goku trying to sneak out of the hospital to train for vegeta's return (or smth similar)?? like the show is obviously trying to set up this parallel here between them and like. idk whether this is intentional or not but it DOES come off pretty gay imo LMAODJFJH

AND LIKE. OKAY i know vegeta's excuse is revenge and i know goku's excuse is wanting to protect earth when vegeta returns but,,, u also have to remember that goku LET VEGETA GO FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF SEEING HIM AGAIN LOL SO LIKE. basically this whole scene is goku being like "omg i'm too excited i can't just sit here in the hospital?? i have to train i have to be ready for him" LOL

this entire little filler is just so... like idk i feel like. during the fight they both had some wild thoughts and emotions flying around that they couldn't really sit down and piece together at that time (because.... they were amidst a life or death battle LOL) but this downtime is really important, like the seed has been planted and now they're both gonna spend time sitting here stewing and thinking about each other?? like this is IT, this is the first of many, many times that they'll be thinking about one another. this is how feelings start blooming hehe

one more thing, there's this scene where goku sneaks out of the hospital successfully and goes to train in the middle of nowhere but he overexerts himself terribly and falls, and as he's about to fall to his death he starts thinking about vegeta LOL

THIS HAPPENS A LOT BUT WHENEVER GOKU IS ABOUT TO DIE HE HAS A HABIT OF USING VEGETA AS LIKE. AN ANCHOR TO KEEP HIMSELF ALIVE AND PUSH FORWARD LOL

LIKE THIS INFAMOUS SCENE FROM MUCH LATER ON:

GOKU'S ON THE EDGE OF GETTING HIS ASS ABSOLUTELY KICKED AND HE STARTS HALLUCINATING ABOUT VEGETA?/AHGHADHFJJSDHGF

OKAY REWIND PLEASE I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT THIS SCENE.

OKAY,,, LIKE. OKAY. OBVIOUSLY, WHY IS HE NAKED. OBVIOUSLY. GOKU?? HELLO????

BUT THIS JUST FUCKING PROVESHAHSDH GOKU USES VEGETA AS LIKE. A SOURCE OF COMFORT WHEN HIS BACK IS AGAINST A WALL!! HE USES VEGETA TO PUSH HIMSELF JUST AS MUCH AS VEGETA USES GOKU TO PUSH HIMSELF !! THEY'RE LITERALLY SO FDHSGJHKBDG

I COULD TALK ALL DAY ABOUT THE SCENE WHERE VEGETA GETS ALL VULNERABLE BEFORE DYING AND BEGS GOKU TO KILL FREEZA AND THEN GOKU BURIES HIM BECAUSE IT MAKES ME SO SO EMOTIONAL BUT I HAVE TO STOP HERE LOL i'm losing my mind

[fizzingwizard]

I could cry y’all. Episode 37 was SO GOOD. So good!! It truly felt like a Mimi episode, and it truly felt like Digimon Adventure, in multiple ways. It’s seriously fantastic!

I feel at once super duper relieved that this show is, really and truly, capable of this time of episode, and also super duper confused why, if it could do this, it hasn’t been doing it the whole time??

Anyway, we’ve now had four or five solid episodes in a row, so I’m letting myself feel hopeful again!

This episode is called “Mimi Wars,” but I feel it might be more aptly titled “Sailor Mimi”

In the name of employee rights, I will punish you!

More below!

Okay... so as I was watching this episode, I really got the feeling that they were parodying something again. Like last we had a Mimi episode - far far away in the distant past though it was - when they very obviously parodied Castle in the Sky. That’s twice now Mimi’s been compared with a girl with twin tails, Usagi’s pigtails and Sheeta’s braids xD

Although the poses Mimi uses aren’t exact replicas of Usagi’s, though, so maybe I’m wrong. I got the Usagi vibe from her personality even more, so maybe using the poses would have been considered copyright infringement and so they had to change them a little. Or, maybe Mimi is parodying someone else who also uses dramatic hand movements and talks a lot about justice in spite of being generally clueless...

See the resemblance? XD

But what I REALLY think is going on is, they’re spoofing the genre in general, while also taking it seriously. That’s important. It’s not just a joke here. This is the girl power episode, in a way, and in my opinion, it’s a better girl power episode than the fare I got used to growing up, which went more or less like this:

Guy: *does something with good intentions but inept*

Girl: Ugh! Men don’t respect women!

Guy: I’m sorry, what did I do wrong?

Girl: I won’t tell you because feminism! C’mon girlfriends, let’s assert our confidence as women by going on a girls night out shopping spree and making a bunch of random guys stare in awe at us for no clear reason!

Girls: Yes! This is third wave feminism!

... that was more or less the formula. It was... awkward. I’d like to blame on “those episodes were written by men who think all feminists are angry feminists,” but I think if I went and checked who the scriptwriters were, there’d be some women in there for sure.

What we got in THIS episode is something I’d actually want my daughter to see. First off you’ve got Mimi, who loves pink and pretty things and comes across as a real girly girl, not to mention a bit of a ditz. And the show’s straight up, “but just because you have flaws doesn’t mean you can’t grow into a great person. Also, being girly is not incompatible with being a boss.”

Mimi doesn’t need to be a man, nor does she need to be a hard ass, nor does she need to be especially kind and sweet to soften her orders. All she has to do, according to this episode, is care about her craft, care about quality, and care about worker conditions.

I mean... a show where the girl boss wasn’t a Russian spy in a former life?? A show where the girl boss isn’t a Stepford wife who got where she is by marrying rich and funding her perfume company that way? She’s... she’s Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. She gets to be flawed and girly and fun-loving and bossy and ditzy all at the same time. She loves diamonds - but diamonds are no longer a “girl’s best friend.” Rather, Mimi herself is the diamond in the rough!

This actually makes her a really good set with Sora. Sora continues to be both a tomboy and very sisterly. Mimi’s very girly but very bossy. Between the two of them, they can conquer the world. Of course, I don’t know that the show would take it any farther than they already have, but I’m just happy to see this development for Mimi at all. We had it to a degree in 99 Adventure, and Kizuna took it a bit further by making her an entrepreneur. Reboot Mimi is a remix of that for the 21st century.

*deeeeeeeeeep breath*

so... back to our regularly scheduled programming!

As awesome as Mimi is, she’s not the only one who’s great in this episode. The others get to let their real personalities shine, at least. We needed this episode sooooo bad like 20 episodes ago... le sigh.

Anyway, we start off having mad camp, for some reason (why aren’t they just staying on Komondomon?? whatev)

Food! They’re going to get food! They’re splitting up and making a plan in order to get food!!! I still miss the “food desperation” of 99 Adventure but hey, at least they’re acknowledging that they need to eat.

Sora advises Hikari and Takeru not to go too far on their quest and Tailmon swears like a knight of the round table to protect Hikari with her life.

Taichi: Oookay... note to self: don’t piss off little sister’s hotheaded partner...

Taichi adds that they’re also counting on Patamon, who is just thrilled to go off and play with Takeru.

Tailmon: *BIG SIGH*

Lol I really love that they’re bringing back the old Patamon/Tailmon dynamic where she’s all grown up serious and he’s got the priorities of a toddler most of the time... It’s Black Widow and Hawkeye bahahahaha

We even get to see them COLLECT FOOD what did I do to deserve this they are COLLECTING FOOD IT’S NOT HAPPENING OFF SCREEN I REPEAT IT’S NOT HAPPENING OFF SCREEN

Taichi even has to warn Agumon not to eat the food becaues they’re supposed to be gathering it to share ;___; omg... we actually get on screen proof that Agumon is a glutton??

Then Taichi tries to “help” by shaking the tree and the tree falls and they -

BAHAHAHAHAHA

humor!!! Poking fun at Taichi even!! Over food!! Because he has a klutz for a partner!!! And because he himself was overzealous!! ;_; I could die of Cute.

Sora absolutely shocks me this episode too. I expected she’d just watch Taichi and Agumon drift away with their folly while sighing and shrugging her shoulders or something.

NOPE

She jumps DIRECTLY UP and into the water without a moment’s hesitation, like they’re going to die without her - I don’t even know what her plan is here, she seems to want Piyomon to evolve and pull them out, but why does that mean Sora has to be in the water too?

I think her sisterly instincts just freaked out on seeing Taichi looking wet and confused and clinging to a tree trunk so she just did the first thing she could think of which was “Get to him!!”

Piyomon then fails to evolve, reason unclear, I suppose she’s hungry... they never do eat though so I’m not sure why she can evolve later xD (probably they eat off screen)

But I mean I just love that we got this bit with Sora. I call it freaking out but she doesn’t seem freaked out - she stays calm and seems decisive and takes action - all good things. It’s just hard to understand her thought process xD But it’s all good info about Sora. (again stuff we needed more of AGES ago)

Now I had thought this was all just a funny bit that was separate to the main story, but this is how Taichi and Sora end up washed up in the rocky area Mimi is. This does mean Koushirou, Takeru, and Hikari aren’t much in the rest of the episode, sadly. Not sure why but the reboot does seem to struggle with writing episodes for the whole group.

Like last week, I’m somewhat miffed that, in the end, the main group finds the stragglers instead of the other way around. It’s even worse this time because at least last episode Koushirou told them where he was and they had a reason to go there. This time they have no idea Mimi’s gonna be there and it’s all a big coincidence. On the other hand... I do think Mimi was born under a lucky star, so that explains it. :P

Taichi and Sora suddenly find them selves trapped Gulliver’s Travels style and they’re both immediately like, “Hmm... something about this situation seems very familiar...”

Taichi and Sora: Oh that’s RIGHT we totally forgot that the pink cowgirl we hand out with is also TOTALLY BATSHIT

D’awww. Our future overlord is just so adorable, I don’t even mind when she flogs us in the street

TBH, up till now they’ve woefully underestimated just how batshit she is. And it’s wonderful.

So Mimi has happened upon some poor, disenfranchised Digimon who are being forced to work for an evil boss who collects the beautiful gems that grow in this area. Like in 99 Adventure, Mimi will have none of this sort of crap. Her reasons, though, have evolved with the times:

omg... she voted for Bernie Sanders!

This is how Harry and Ron reacted when Hermione said she was starting a house-elf welfare organization called SPEW.

Though I joke - like I said before, even though Taichi and Sora are rather mind-boggled by Mimi’s mood swings and fits of passion, and there’s definitely humor there, Mimi herself is not a joke here. We are shown strongly that, however in the clouds her head might be, her heart is not only in the place, it’s also already internalized the fact that people don’t always get treated well in the real world and it’s up to those with power to ensure that are protected.

I mean. At this point, I’m going, “Sorry but ISN’T MIMI THE REAL LEADER IN THIS SHOW?!?!”

Of course she does have another, less lofty motivation... she really likes pretty stones.

Buhahahaha.

Mimi’s names are as creative as they are incredible, just like her. Taichi and Sora have trouble keying in with Mimi due to how changeable she is, but they never talk badly about her or reject her. They never try to wrest leadership from her either! Taichi might think Mimi’s names for the stones are over the top, but sort of sidesteps it and just goes along with her plan.

Reason #14567876867867 why I love Yagami Taichi: when someone else is the leader, he can be a follower. And he’ll be the BEST follower. Keep reading to see why.

The story of how Mimi befriended the enslaved rock Digimon here is pretty much how Goku became besties with Vegeta.

Men communicate their hearts through their fists! Or swords, depending on the anime. ANOTHER AWESOME SUBVERSIVE MOMENT FOR MIMI - she’s now even got cliche shonen hero tropes assigned to her!

Taichi and Sora, like I said, don’t try to change Mimi’s mind - they’re actually touched by her strong feelings about workers’ rights and her desire to help her new friends -

Taichi: Wait... what?

Sora: Well, she’s still a ten year old girl.

The rock Digimon show their allegiance to Princess CEO Mimi. They don’t even mind having their names and identities stripped away and being reduced to numbers on an Excel spreadsheet...

Taichi: I hate Excel.

Sora: I do too, but I’m more impressed that she remembers the numbers she gave us back in episode 6.

Taichi: Impressed? More like filled with a sense of impending doom

Only Taichi seems to understand Mimi’s unique power bahahaha.

But back to what I said earlier, about Mimi being the real leader: I don’t know if the show’s gonna keep doing anything with this at all, but I really like that they didn’t NOT do this in order to ensure Taichi’s the only leader. (I mean, Yamato’s so far not made much of a bid for leadership so he’s been pretty uncontested thus far. He also hasn’t had to do all that much leading given how often the group is separated... but I digress)

I love the idea that Taichi can step back and let someone else take the reins when they’re best suited. Which Mimi is, due to her easy ability to make friends and gain trust. Mimi had this ability in 99 as well and it was used in the final battle to muster the troops, so to speak. It ought to have been a bigger deal but wasn’t since she missed most of the final battle :/ But I loved that “social, able to make friends” wasn’t some stupid “Girls talk too much” trait, it was actually something that was useful. This is a great place to take that with the reboot.

At the same time, while Mimi and Taichi both have similar leadership traits, there are places they diverge that potentially make them leaders for different situations. Taichi’s pretty cool and strategic even in emergencies. He was more of a hothead in 99, but Mimi’s always been quick to anger. (And quick to cool down.) As we’ll see in this episode, that’s sort of where Taichi’s true ability lies: he’s serious, determined, strategic, and reliable as well as brave. But this is Mimi’s episode, and Taichi isn’t going to get to be the hero anymore than he (almost) was last week with Koushirou. Because more than one character can have positive leadership traits! Hallelujah.

Quick nip over to Komondomon and the others - Koushirou’s group is going to try to find them, but Komondomon falls asleep. Oh noes. I wish someone (Koushirou) would ask, out loud, “Gee, what are these strange symbols that appear when we communicate via digivice? Do they mean something? How were they assigned?” I really thought we’d get a hint what with all the conveniently colorful gemstones this episode, but still nope.

My girl looking like a BAMF!

Mimi explains her plan to her servants employees. She is surprisingly artistic!

Sora plays the role of bait to create a diversion while Greymon digs a tunnel to get to where the gems are stored. Mimi congratulates herself on a job well done.

Taichi: A job well done? Who d’you think has been doing the work here?

Greymon: That would be me.

Taichi: Right, right I was going to say you >.>;

So we do see bits of Mimi’s self-centered side as well - she’s not perfect, but who is? Taichi just lives with it. Mwehehehe.

... will be fired! LMAO

No. 72 is Taichi, btw. Mimi gave up calling people by their names for Lent.

Taichi: Lent’s not for over a month.

Mimi: It’s never too early for religious sacrifice.

Taichi: And you’re not Catholic.

Mimi: I celebrate Mardi Gras.

Taichi: yOU JUST LIKE THE COSTUMES AND KING CAKE

He’s miffed and he.... just lives with it. Again. xD

It’s hilarious. And adorable. I love both that 1) Mimi is an awesome boss while being, in fact, rather bossy, and that 2) in spite of being a boss type himself, Taichi not only listens to Mimi, but he totally indulges her like he’s her older brother or something x’D He wouldn’t be out of line for saying “I have a name you know!” On the other hand, I guess he knows her well enough to understand that she doesn’t mean anything by it, and... there’s no stopping her when she gets like this :P

Feel the wrath of Tachikawa Mimi!!!

So Mimi’s plan has worked so far, and she’s got everyone listening to her despite her questionable business practices, and then she... suddenly rushes off in another direction.

Taichi: That’s it, I am through being her personal assistant if she’s just going to change the plan on a whim!

Taichi: ... I don’t want to see her get hurt or be sad though...

Greymon understands Taichi’s heart ;___; and enables him to go after Mimi. I don’t really get why it’s wise to split up given that Taichi can’t fight big rock Digimon without his partner... x’D So I’m going to chalk this up to, Greymon understands that Taichi is, at his core, the team Dad. He’s got to be allowed to worry and check up on the kids, even when it’s not so advisable. Awwwwwwwww.

Indeed, Taichi doesn’t get to be the hero this ep, but small moments like this give us waaaay more character development than always being the hero!

Fortunately Mimi does have her own partner and she’s not afraid of the enemy’s rock hard abs. :P

They make it into the storage center for all the gems. IT’S SO COLORFUL. Ten year old men is squeeing just like Mimi.

Come on!! She’s holding yellow/orange topaz and purple amethyst! It could be the material for Taichi or Takeru’s and Koushirou’s crests! (I always liked fire opal for Taichi though xD)

Taichi’s been promomted!! To chief pack animal x’D Just because it’s a cool name doesn’t mean that’s what the job is, Meems.

Taichi’s just like, “I think I’m too young for that position.” Bahahaha.

He’s going to be carrying her books to school before long.

Then something big and hard hits Taichi in the head!! He freaking starts to cry, it hurts so bad!!

Taichi: Owww! Omg I think I got a concussion from that! Help someone call an ambulance!

He was hit in the head by a diamond, which Mimi loves. So she goes off on a monologue about how much she likes diamonds. She never asks him if he’s okay x’D

Taichi: Don’t worry about me, I’m fine, not that you asked or anything.

Mimi: Please, everyone knows your head is already harder than diamonds.

Taichi: ...

The pile of gems looks like Fruity Pebbles. Mmmmm

It turns out the mastermind of this whole operation is Gogmamon, who is the bastard child of Gogmagog I assume :P He eats the gemstones as well as Gotsumon for power. He then produces the diamonds?? I didn’t quite understand if he was spitting out the diamonds because he didn’t like them, or he was creating them inside him when eating and then spitting them out like... diamond turds...

...

they’re diamond turds aren’t they >__>

Mimi is not interested in big business bulldozing the mom and pop shops and small upstarts. And she hates sweatshops! She is pro-Fair Trade all the way! And she will yell it in your face!

Taichi: It’s the yelling part that I’m having trouble with.

Mimi: A good speech from the boss is what keeps up employee morale!

Taichi: Yeah, that’s less true when the boss is about to be gobbled up herself...

Golemon and Togemon try to fight Gogmamon and this results in Golemon falling to pieces.

Taichi: Are you okay?

Golemon: My HEAD was knocked off, but sure I’m doing JUST FINE -____- little brat

Taichi stands protectively in front of Golemon’s head. Lol. He’s thinking of strategies... perhaps regretting rushing after Mimi and leaving his own partner behind...

Mimi joins him and Gogmamon finds her a formidable opponent in the war of words. Gogmamon argues that all the rocks, all the Digimon, everything here belongs to him and him alone! And Mimi brilliantly counters with:

“Fuck that! They belong to ME!”

x’D He just like... under his breath... “she admits that’s how she thinks of us...” hahahaha... I laughed out loud...

It might not be 3D but this is an excellent evolution sequence xD I haven’t said so yet but the animation in this episode was good! Good for the show anyway. It was smoother than usual despite some mechanical-like mouth movements and more than that, it had character and expression!

okay important question everyone: Taichi = Kermit, Mimi = Miss Piggy... discuss??

So Gogmamon has a pretty cool-sounding attack, “Curse Reflection.” I have often complained that the villains we fight and get new evolutions with aren’t that scary, but Gogmamon not only seemed pretty formidable (if not the smart, I mean he does have rocks for a brain), he also had a good story build up. My one disappointment in this episode is that the ending is so fast and Gogmamon so easily dealt with. This would have been a good time to introduce Rosemon (like how last week would have been an appropriate time for HerculesKabuterimon). But in both cases, we’re definitely supposed to take away at least that these guys are almost there... Anyway yeah, I would have liked a tiny bit more meant to the resolution but.

So here’s ANOTHER cool thing! Taichi notices that Gogmamon rejects the diamonds, and realizes they’re the key to defeating him. But he doesn’t just tell that to Mimi. He asks her “Did you see that?” And guess what - she did!

So even though the show couldn’t resist telling us that yes, Taichi would have been able to handle this situation - it doesn’t even let him give Mimi a hint towards victory. She figures it out for herself! The most we can say he does is point out the diamond, but she understands the implication and is able to use it against Gogmamon through her own intellect.

TAICHI DOESN’T MANSPLAIN Y’ALL. HE’S NOT A MANSPLAINER. HALLELUJAH AND PAST THE PEAS!!

Mimi is very influenced by her hardworking, CEO grandpa, Tachikawa Genichiro, who’s taught her things about business and things about values, and it really reads as if she’s the one who will inherit the family business - like she’s the family investment. You know, the role that traditionally only falls to sons. That’s changed with the world, and apparently Tachikawa Genichiro-jiisan is totally on board with his granddaughter being more than just a pretty heiress!

... btw what are they making...

“You’re fired!” Mimi yells as Lillymon takes Gogmamon down x’D kill me I love it

Like last time (and it sure was a long time ago that we saw it ;_;), the aftereffects of Lillymon’s powers is plants start growing everywhere. This is such a cool effect, I don’t get why it’s not used more. Right now I feel like Mimi/Palmon are the best set in the show.

(I did think it was funny when Mimi gives the diamond to Lillymon to use against Gogmamon and Lillymon acts like Mimi’s making this huge sacrifice since she loves diamonds so much. But 1) it wasn’t the only one, and 2) they were spat out by Gogmamo! that’s gross! that’s got to cut into the value! hahah)

The others finally catch up and the day is saved. Golemon is an employee for life now. Awww.

AWWWWWW.

I gushed about all this before so I won’t repeat myself, but yeah, I’m so happy with this episode.

Lol Sora and Taichi have accepted their places in Mimi’s world, in the end. They might have numbers instead of names and their boss might change her mind about things every five seconds, but other than that it’s a pretty nice gig overall.

Again the art, so sweet. This reminded me of Miyako yelling to Mimi about how she wants to be like her when she grows up in 02 so I capped it.

And I absolutely love this little play on words since it’s in English! Wow!

SO CUTE. How did a Mimi episode kick every other episode out of the water? Scratch that, we always knew Mimi was fantastic. A shojo hero for the 21st century.

Well I said a ton and this is really long now so I’m gonna assume you all get my thoughts on this episode. 9.5/10, really awesome, totally unexpected but perfectly suted to Mimi. I’m so so happy this show seems to have figured things out and remebered that it’s supposed to be freaking Digimon Adventure, it seemed like it forgot for a while there. I just hope we haven’t wasted too much time on those more lackluster episodes, I want so many more stories like this one.

Next week looks like another winner:

OK, that concept is hilarious x’D I’m so sorry. But also, leave it to Yamato and Gabumon to get the tragedy episode.

The mood maker will be this guy! I’m totally psyched for Yamato and Jou. Taichi’s been important in the past two episodes even though they were centered on Koushirou and Mimi, so I wonder if/when he’ll be involved this time? Or maybe it really will be just Yamato and Jou - my dream combo?? I can’t wait either way.

DID NOT CHECK FOR TYPOS! See y’all next week.

[saiyanwhore]

Arranged (Vegeta X Reader)

Chapter Ten // Earth Meet Us!

It seemed that after the first six months of being dormant in the pod, you had lost all sense of time. Each time you had woken up from slumber, you would fall victim to awful panic attacks that caused you to thrash violently. You felt trapped, claustrophobic, exposed. 

It was clearly evident you were also pregnant. Lying naked in the pod, feeling hopeless, carrying the Prince's child. You clung onto any remaining hope that you would make it to your destination before going into labor. The thought itself terrified you and you were at least thankful you were safe from Frieza.

You didn't bother trying to communicate with anyone through your scouter. As Frieza promised, Planet Vegeta was more than likely destroyed. You couldn't run the risk of him locating you. It would just add to the long list of the troubles on your mind. It was hard not to just give up all at once knowing that Vegeta was probably dead. The pain in your chest was inconceivable. Nonetheless, you tried to keep yourself strong for your baby.

You had no idea how long it had really been. You had been estimating by the size of your stomach. You had figured seven months, in reality it was almost nine. With this kind of thing the two months really did make a difference. You checked the screen in the center of the console of the pod, noticing that you were headed straight for a planet. 

Planet Earth.

It was exhilarating and petrifying all at once. Only a few hours left before you would land and you decided that you'd want to sleep through it. So that's exactly what you did.

...

"Goku! Quick! Come here!"

"Blah, blah, blah! What do you want Bulma?" Goku waltzed over to Bulma who was gawking at your pod in front of them.

You stirred awake, noticing a sharp pain in your stomach. You immediately cried out, it feeling as though someone had just stabbed you in your sides. You curled yourself into a ball and held onto your stomach tightly.

Bulma pried open the door to the pod, noticing instantaneously you were in pain and clearly pregnant. Her eyes became enlarged once she put two and two together.

"She's in labor! Come on! We got to get her to a safe place! You have some senzus right?"

"Yeah."

"Well! What are you standing there for!? Come on!"

"EW! BULMA SHE'S NAKED!"

"JUST SHUT UP AND GRAB HER YOU BIG DUMMY!"

Goku plucked you out of the pod and Bulma grabbed onto him tightly as he started flying. You felt your eyes getting heavier and heavier as each second ticked by. Eventually you passed out entirely from pain, not giving a care in the world that they had just seen you naked.

When you had come to, you felt absolutely fantastic and were a bit perplexed as to why. You laid entirely still in the bed. Your brain started to flood with memory of you crashing into the dirt and being in an excruciating pain. You also remembered a boy around the age of 12 or 13. 

Your eyes shifted around the room, looking for any clues. You sprung up in the bed once you noticed the kid hovering over you with a grin on his face.

"Hey! Where are you from!?" He screeched, looking a little too enthusiastic.

"What?" You questioned him, feeling a bit overwhelmed by his creepy stare.

"Well, you have a tail, right? And your baby does too." He pointed over to a child in the arms of the girl and you immediately recalled her from earlier. 

She smiled, rushing over to you with your child. "It's a boy!" She giggled softly, handing him down to you.

You were immediately engulfed with emotion. You looked down at your son, his dark locks pointing upwards in all kinds of directions. His dark eyes looked up at you, examining your face. Well, it was clear he already had his father's thinking face. In fact, everything about the little boy in your arms was the spitting image of his father.

Vegeta.

Your mind flashed to your lover, images of him danced around your brain. His scent almost tickling the tip of your nose. His dark eyes always so observant. Lips threatening to throw insults at anyone who looked weird at you. That pretty frame of his, so thick and muscular. You'd kill to feel him against you once more. You began crying softly as you looked back down at your son, never really knowing if he'd ever meet his father.

"What's her problem?" Goku scratched his head in Bulma's direction.

She threw her hands on her hips, foot tapping as she glared at him.

"Goku, shut up! She just gave birth!" 

Their bickering reminded you; why didn't you remember any of it?

"Why do I feel fine!?" You questioned the two, more tears threatening to spill down your face. "What did you do to me?" You weren't sure if you should trust the two strangers, still a little shaken from the events that just took place. It was a lot on your mind.

"We gave you a senzu bean. It allows your energy and physical health to be restored." Bulma explained in a very matter-of-fact tone. "So what's his name?"

"Daio."

"Where are you from, lady?" He interrogated you again, appearing at your side once more.

"I'm from Planet Vegeta." You raised an eyebrow at him and looked at him angrily. "Why?"

The boy turned himself around and stuck his butt out in your direction. You watched his tail wave back and forth freely. You heart started beating rapidly in hopes he escaped the Planet before it was destroyed. Maybe he would know where Vegeta was.

"You're a Saiyan too!" 

"A what?"

"A Saiyan! We're a warrior race. Did you forget?"

Goku shook his head no and furrowed his brows. "No. I've only lived here on Earth."

"Oh..." You mumbled, the feeling of disappointment overcoming you.

"Well, I better be on my way." You stood up. "Thanks for your help. I appreciate it. See ya!"

You blasted the wall open and flew out with Daio in your arms.

[helenared]

My firts history

This is my first fic from this couple Goku and Chichi and I hope you like it, it was inspired by a beautiful fanart of the wonderful Gokuist or Fungushi

And that story would not be published if it weren't for a great sonchichisquad friend! Thank you beautiful❤

Farewell

That’s why he didn't like saying goodbye. If there was ever a time when Son Goku didn't say goodbye to his loved ones, he had his reasons:

Firstly, he simply hated being the cause of the overflowing emotion in his family and friends’ eyes, and even in his own. That would mean admitting his weaknesses and his pride would never allow it. And secondly, If he didn't say goodbye to his family and friends, it was simply because somehow he felt he’d come back and see them again. 

There wasn’t really a particular moment of Goku saying goodbye to the people he loved -not emotionally, at least that we know of.

One example is when he left on Nimbus when he was a child -he left, just like that, to seek new adventures. A few years later, he left again -this time with Chi-Chi by his side to start their lives together. He also fled the hospital after his brutal battle against Vegeta to get to Namek and help Gohan and the rest. He didn’t say a proper goodbye to anyone, not even his own wife - it was more like a "See you soon!" Or "See you around!”, but never a final greeting. The same happened when he stayed in Yardrat, when he decided to stay in the afterlife after the battle against Cell and even when he left to train Uub.

It had always been like that. However, even if he had never been really attached to anyone, now, after having reached a certain level of maturity, Goku was trying to assimilate the fact that he had bid everyone his final farewell. 

It was harsh. He wasn’t allowed to speak to his children and friends. All he could do was watch them from above as they went on with their happy lives. But maybe it was for the best.

Gohan looked very focused as he wrote who knows what in a notebook. The last rays of sunlight were streaming through his large window as he sat peacefully inside his home office. The curtains swung as if the wind was blowing through them, but it was actually Goku. He was watching his son with a twinkle in his eye. Gohan was so smart and kind. He had always been proud of him.

Goku then saw Videl and Pan entering the room and interacting with his son. 

"Hey honey, why don't you take a break? You’ve been on that report for two hours" Videl said from behind her husband, placing her hands affectionately on his shoulders. 

"Yeah Dad, let's go have a picnic in the garden, it’s such a beautiful day outside!" Pan added excitedly, leaning over the desk, closer to her father.

Goku smiled as he watched them. The family he had built was close and loving, no matter how many obstacles they had to overcome. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Goodbye son"

Gohan would always be in good hands. And then, he disappeared.

"You’re right, it's time to relax with my two favorite people in the world and-" Gohan silenced himself as the feeling of something familiar rushed through him. He couldn’t explain what it was. It was like a warm comforting breeze that he only felt when "When my father was around ..." he completed his own thought out loud. 

His wife and daughter had no idea what he was talking about. He simply shook his head and followed the two of them so that they could spend time together as a family, unaware that he would never feel his father's energy again.

***

Goku laughed in amusement when he saw Goten and Trunks, such two great boys, training together in the garden of Capsule Corporation. Vegeta was watching them from a distance and next to him was Bulma sitting by a table with Bra.

For some reason unbeknownst to her, Bulma was holding the dragon's radar today, thinking back to the day when she met one of her best friends. She smiled wistfully. If it weren't for Goku, she probably wouldn't be where she was today.

"What the-" Vegeta whispered, suddenly uncrossing his arms, and at that very moment Goten received a mighty punch from Trunks. Goku's youngest son froze in his tracks, sitting down on the floor as if he hadn’t felt the punch at all. 

"I’ll always be thinking of you guys, especially you... my son" Goku smiled as he looked at them. Everyone there had touched his life in a monumental way.  If it weren't for Bulma, he wouldn't even know what a girl is, and she was the one who opened the initial gate into a world of discoveries.

Goten certainly made him a happier man than he already was. Becoming a father the second time was incredible, and felt just as amazing as the first time. His youngest was the living depiction of a sun rising after a storm, and he now knew that his children represented a more perfect version of him, a human version that embraced his sayajin side with tenderness.

The only thing that Vegeta had taught him was to discover and accept who he was. An alien, or to be more specific, a saiyan. It took Goku a long time to accept his roots, but seeing how much Vegeta had changed since he arrived on Earth, he could now recall the exact moment when he accepted "Kakarotto" into his life.

And with that last thought in his mind, he disappeared. And the grass started to sway from side to side, a light breeze making it dance. The people in the garden of Capsule Corporation's were left very surprised as a warm and soft sensation swam through them. 

After he recovered, Goten got up and stood into his fighting stance with a very familiar and challenging smile. "It won't be that easy to beat me, Trunks! Now hurry up! Come at me!"

Trunks smiled at his best friend. "Oh, that's what you think!" 

And both continued with their training.

Vegeta watched the boys with an arrogant smile on his lips, folding his arms across his chest again. Bulma was stunned and looked thoughtful, and her daughter didn’t understand what was going on.

***

Goku watched from the glass window into Krillin’s house. The bald man was going through a photo album with his daughter. She had grown up so much.

Eighteen was drinking a cup of coffee, sitting in the armchair next to her daughter and husband, watching them lovingly. 

"Yeah, Goku was different from any other person or being that I had ever come across in the universe. If Master Roshi were alive, he’d probably agree with me. He had a way of bringing us closer together. We went from enemies to friends and we are what we are today thanks to him. Together for life"

Goku felt really touched by this, smiling at them affectionately. Krillin had always been a very important person in his life. His first and closest friend. The most faithful of all.

"Krillin..."

And then he left.

Krillin had no idea what that emotion inside him was. Happiness? Nostalgia? Maybe. All he knew was that it wasn’t something he felt all the time. It was nice and warm. "Goku, you are my best friend"

***

Son Goku flew across the Earth, passing through all the places that were part of his journey.

Kami-Sama Dende, sharper than ever, felt his fleeting presence like a shooting star, along with Mr Popo, who placed a hand on his shoulder. 

"Son Goku will always be remembered for his incredible life on Earth and his great deeds, isn't that right, Mr. Popo?" And his guardian and master simply nodded. When facts are spoken, there are no valid arguments.

Uub, who was meditating, felt Goku too, and he thanked his master mentally for everything he had taught him. 

Yamcha and Tenshinhan, who were on the fighters' planet, sensed Goku's presence and nodded to each other, and so did Chiaotzu and Puar.

Piccolo just looked up with his arms crossed and smiled. "Goku..."

The Sayajin warrior flew across the Earth, enjoying every field, every ocean, every light breeze caressing his face. He enjoyed this last lap to the fullest.

There was only one person missing, who was no longer on Earth… 

Yes, after all, he wasn’t able to find Chi-Chi. She was already gone. He felt terrible. His wife was part of him and he really wanted to see her just one more time. He didn’t know how to find her soul among many others in Paradise. It was just a light in its true form. It was too late. 

***

After reflecting on his thoughts and making one last memory on Earth, Goku felt a touch on his shoulder. He turned around. "Son Goku, are you ready?"

He sighed. He wasn't sure yet. He felt as if something was missing. He couldn’t leave permanently like any being in this universe yet. 

After completing his last training and duties in the dragon realm, which was creating the dragon balls again, he would have to leave. His time was up, it was running out and this time it was for good. Son Goku would rest in peace.

They were on Planet Kaioshin. The wind picked up and made the petals and flowers of the trees fall, as if it were autumn time.

"I don't know, Mr. Kaioshin..." Goku replied, lowering his eyes to nothing in particular on the planet's greenish floor.

"Now boy, you’ve already said goodbye to everyone before returning to the dragon kingdom that time, and this is the agreement: The dragon balls will return to Earth and you will leave. It is the law of the universe, child. You made that choice and now you will have to deal with the consequences” Old Kaioshin continued, along with Kibito and young Shin.

Goku frowned at that. Yes, he was perfectly aware of that. He felt it was time, and the Earth deserved the wonderful reign of the dragon balls again.

But he had to find her first, find some way to talk to her and say goodbye. Because this time he would leave forever. Chi-Chi deserved at least a goodbye, she really did this time, and he had something stuck in his throat, something he really needed to say to her.

Goku looked him in the eye. "But I didn't say goodbye to everyone. I missed someone, and you’ll have to help me with this" he said firmly, his hair waving in the wind caused by the beings with him.

"That someone has already died, I know. The dragon balls no longer have resuscitation powers, but there has to be another way... I can't leave without talking to her" there was despair in the saiyan’s eyes.

There was a maddening silence -as if everyone there was thinking of a solution for the warrior. After all, Goku deserved one last request, it was the least they could do after everything he’d done.

"I think I know hos..." Kaioshin replied. "Shenlong may no longer have the power to resurrect but he does have the power of time"

Shin and Kibito were confused by the old man's statement, but didn’t doubt his words. After all, he was still their most experienced and wisest deity.

"Power of time...?". Goku wondered for a few seconds.

Until realization dawned on him and his eyes widened, sparkling with joy.

"That's it! So I just need to go over there and-"

"But bear this in mind, Goku" Kaioshin interrupted him by raising a hand in front of him. "As soon as you’re done, your body will disappear and your soul will finally be at peace"

Goku nodded calmly. "Okay, well, I think it's goodbye this time, isn't it?"

The kaios in front of him bowed in gratitude, looking at him with admiration. "Goodbye Son Goku." said the youngest of them.

And then Goku teleported to Earth, after so long. At an impressive speed he brought the seven dragon balls together again. It was incredible that his life would end with them. He didn't need a radar to find them, he just knew where they were.

The dragon balls began to shine together.

"Show yourself, Shenlong, and grant my wish!"

The sky darkened, the golden light coming from of the spheres causing the Dragon to be reborn again. Goku couldn't help the nostalgic memories that were going through his mind while his eyes reflected Shenlong's light.

"State your wish and I will fulfill it according to my possibilities!"

"I wish to go back to Chi-Chi’s happiest time in her life... my wife."

The dragon stood still for a minute, making Goku tense up, his fists clenching.

"Your wish will be granted. You will have five minutes! Goodbye!" And so Shenlong's eyes shone red and a golden light surrounded Goku and took him from his current time.

After a trip through nothing but white and gold lights, he opened his eyes and sighed in surprise.

Goku was in an incredibly large garden, so beautiful that it looked like Paradise itself. He looked around and noticed several people in the place. They were laughing, talking, drinking and eating. He heard birds singing from several directions. It was a party, apparently.

Goku turned around and was faced with a lake and a nearby apple tree. He put his hand on the tree... this place looked familiar. He approached the water, which was shining like crystals, and the ground was covered by many flowers. Rose petals were falling as the breeze claimed them. Their smell was also familiar when he took one in his hand.

When he looked at his hand, he noticed that his outfit was actually different from the one he was wearing before. He kept looking at himself until an epiphany hit him: he was wearing a white tuxedo, with that itchy bow tie.

"So the happiest time in her life is-"

"Goku!"

Goku heard that young and smooth voice calling out to him, his eyes instantly looking in her direction. It was Chi-Chi, his wife. Of course, the happiest time in her life was their wedding. He smiled at that. He would’ve sworen it was when Gohan had graduated from college or anything related to his children.

How wrong he had been.

She was beautiful. Today, he had a better grasp at these things of course, but back then… ah, if only he had known. He would’ve been able to appreciate her beauty for much longer.

Her face, her flushed cheeks, her long lashes, her black and shiny eyes, her delicate pink lips and her ivory-white skin. Her strands of hair swayed gently in the wind.

"Goku?...". She softly called him again as she approached him. "What are you doing out here alone? I’ve been looking for you."

Goku blinked a few times, coming out of his daze. "Chi-Chi… H-hi.". The moment he saw her in front of him, he felt nervous, like a hesitant teenager.

Chi-Chi smiled at him humorously and gave a light laugh. It was one of the most beautiful sounds he’d ever heard.

"Okay, come with me, there’s a table full of sweets especially set up for my husband. I’m sure you don’t wanna miss it" Chi-Chi wrapped her arms around him, starting to lead him, but Goku stopped.

"No, wait a minute" he stopped her, taking her hand and coming closer to her. "I need to tell you something. It 's important."

Goku stared at her with such depth in his eyes, she couldn’t decipher it. "Goku ... are you okay?". She asked worriedly when she noticed that he looked a little serious and tense, placing a hand on his cheek lovingly.

He stood still, enjoying the warm touch of her hand under the glove of her wedding dress. He closed his eyes and smiled softly, caressing her hand on his face. Oh, how he’d missed this -he hadn’t known just how much until now. It’d been so long for him.

Surrounding her with his arms, Goku took a deep breath and swept away any hesitation, bringing back his confidence when he smiled at her and looked into her eyes lovingly, "Come here". And he brought her close to him. Of course that would startle her a little. After all, at the time a simple touch was enough to make him panic, but he was running out of time. "Chi-Chi, I just wanted to let you know that today was... I mean-". He corrected himself. "It is a very important day for me... and no matter what happens from now on, I’ll always be thinking about you"

He felt her still in his arms. That was not the reaction he was aiming for, but he hated this kind of goodbyes the most in the entire universe. However, it was too late and he had to continue.

The orange flower petals from Chi-Chi's bouquet whirled in the breeze behind Goku's neck, enveloping them both, as if nature wanted to keep that moment only for them. 

Chi-Chi wasn’t following Goku at all.Of course they’d been harboring a very strong admiration for each other during the months before the wedding, and she hoped that could develop into something stronger after the wedding when they’d have to live together.

But this… it was beyond her wildest dreams, it felt like an illusion. He was looking at her and talking to her as if he’d known her for an entire lifetime. 

There had to be something wrong with him, it could only be that. There was no other explanation. 

What did that mean? Is he leaving? Is he going to die? Is he going to give up on her?

Those thoughts were running through her mind now, haunting her.

"Goku... I don't understand. Why are you talking like that? You're scaring me..."

Her eyes began to waver as she looked into his, her voice was low and soft, as if she were about to cry. She was afraid, not of him, but of what his actions and words could mean.

It was a mystery how she would manage to read him so well since that day, since the beginning of their lives together.

Goku rested his forehead on hers with his eyes closed, and brushed his nose against hers, as if wanting to capture the aroma of flowers flowing from his wife.

"Don’t worry” he whispered when he opened his eyes to look at her. "It's okay, trust me."

Chi-Chi looked stunned and frightened at the same time, if that was even possible, and started to doubt him again. "No, it's not okay and if there's something wrong I can-"

The touch of his lips on hers silenced her instantly. She relaxed, closed her eyes and enjoyed that moment. Her body went limp against him completely. Even if he’d been desperate to do that, it was also the only way he could think of to show her that everything was fine.

The kiss was delicate, soft and warm. No lust or despair there, just the purest possible and most loving of feelings.

When Goku leaned back a little, he gave his wife in his arms a small smile. They could feel each other's warm breaths fanning their faces.

"I just wanted to say... that I love you. I will always love you, forever, no matter what. You have changed my life in a way that I can’t even fathom right now. Just believe me" He whispered.

Chi-Chi was red-faced, surprised, stunned, scared, in love ...

All at once, and she couldn’t take it.

Soon, tears were streaming from her eyes, but she smiled at him when she felt her feet back on the floor as he released her, his arms still around her and hers still around his neck.

She really loved those words, so sweet and unusual, certainly unusual, but they flew out of Goku’s mouth so abruptly that it was astonishing to her. He seemed different from her usual Goku, and that worried her. 

But why destroy this exciting mood with questions? That statement could be a good thing, so why doubt your husband? She will never doubt the words coming from someone she loves so much, and even more now.

She laughed weakly at her husband, "Son Goku, what happened to you...", she swallowed, teary eyes looking at him when he gave a weak laugh. "I love you too, silly, and I will never give up on how I feel about you."

Goku knew this very well, and she never gave up on their relationship, no matter the flaws they had and the obstacles they had to endure. Somehow, their love for each other was always stronger than anything that could arise.

And he wanted her to know that he loved her and still loves her in a way that he could’ve never imagined and that... man, and what a spectacular life they built together. Their children, their granddaughter and their friends. All of it, he wanted her to know all of it, he wanted her to know how grateful he is grateful for all that love.

And that he will love her for eternity.

Now Son Goku can rest in peace.

Chi-Chi hugged him tightly with her arms around his neck. She understood. She simply did.

He buried his head in the back of her neck and hugged her tightly too, absorbing every bit of he could from her essence.

Chi-Chi moved back and they stared into each other’s eyes. 

"Hey Chi-Chi! Look at the amazing shoes I got you as your wedding gift!" a family friend called out, interrupting the connection the couple had established with their eyes. 

“Are you coming?” Chi-Chi asked, looking at him while wiping her tears. 

Goku smiled and nodded. "Go ahead, I'll be right there."

And so his wife shook her head and slowly moved away from him. When there was enough distance, he felt his body crumble, becoming transparent until nothing was left.

He noticed that a little over five minutes had passed... 

"Thank you dragon balls". And those were the last words of one of the greatest warriors the world has ever known. Turning into nothing more and nothing less than bright points of light spreading like fireflies between the petals of flowers in the air, dancing in the autumn breeze.

Rest in peace, Son Goku!

The bravest and kindest fighter who ever lived. 

The End

[saintheartwing]

Lily’s Post about Mary Sues

Let’s analyze this. 

None of those series you mentioned have characters that could be labelled as Mary Sues

Clark Kent, Goku, Luke, Anakin, Kirk.

Okay, a Mary Sue or Gary Stu has to be, basically, either an author avatar or stand-in, they tend to be beautiful or really handsome, have unusual, or dramatic backtories, are “chosen one” types, all of the main characters in the group will love them or admire them and those that don’t are always portrayed as in the wrong for not doing so, this kind of thing. They tend to be overpowered as well and they possess unique, special powers. They’ve basically overpowered, over-idealized, beloved by anybody and if you DON’T like them, you’re clearly in the wrong. Oh, and everything they do is treated as good, and if they DO screw up, hey, it’s no big deal. Any actual flaws are negligible or nonexistent. Like being “Naive” or wearing their heart on their sleeve. 

Let’s take a look at...Superman. Well, he’s got several big weaknesses. Kryptonite, for one. And Magic. HUGELY weak against magic. He IS overpowered and he is mostly beloved by everyone...but he has made a LOT of mistakes. Especially when it comes to Batman. Whenever Batman is involved in a story with him, it’s Batman who’s right, and Superman who’s in the wrong. Pretty much all the time. “Darkseid is dead, Superman.” “You know what Bruce? You’re not always right!” But Batman WAS right, at least technically. Batman regularly beats Superman in several stories. So Clark isn’t always treated as right. On top of that, he does have some real character flaws of constantly being torn between wanting to do more and being afraid of how far he should go. And when you have GODLY strength, that’s a huge exploit, especially for supervillains. But...he does fill a lot of the Mary Sue tropes, so we’ll give Lily some credit. 

Goku? Well Goku is a moron. The story always treats his stupidity as being a huge problem. One that CONTINUES to cause issues, and has even nearly gotten his world destroyed a few times. He’s even gotten himself and his friends KILLED cuz he couldn’t think of any other way but to sacrifice himself or the like. AND he has serious anger issues. When he’s furious, he’s almost uncontrollable. The only person more so is Vegeta. He’s also a pig who eats too much but we can sorta overlook that last one because being a glutton is played more for laughs and “He needs it to keep up his strength”.  How about his powers? Well he’s DEFINITELY overpowered. Is he handsome? Well, he looks pretty good. And he’s well-liked by pretty much the whole main cast except for, of course, the villains. So we could say...yeah. Goku’s kinda Mary Sue-ish. 

Luke? Well...not really. Luke isn’t naturally gifted or talented like Goku or Superman were. Despite having the POTENTIAL to be great, his Jedi skills started out so poor he couldn’t even block blaster bolts using the force alone. He had to train for weeks if not months under Yoda just to get somewhat up to snuff and he STILL failed. “Don’t go into that cave with your weapons”. He goes in. Sees Darth Vader and...oh, wait, it’s HIMSELF he’s killed! You were put to the test and you failed. He can’t lift large objects with the Force. He’s reckless, he doesn’t think things through and he often has to rely on help from OTHERS to succeed. He only got that one-in-a-million shot on the Death Star because Obi Wan’s ghost spoke to him in his head to help guide him. He only got away from the first Death Star because Obi Wan sacrificed himself. Throughout the first two films, he’s just not good enough. He loses to Darth Vader MISERABLY, and he even loses his HAND. A real Mary Sue would have won, or at least held Darth Vader off, or tied. Worse still, he’s not just dangerously reckless and kind of whiny...he’s got a serious anger problem that rises up in the films, he almost outright gives in to the dark side. But other than that, he’s just some country bumpkin who happened to luck out at finding the right droid. All his powers, he basically earned, showing a classic heroes’s journey growth. So that, combined with the huge failures in the first few movies and even if we factor in the sequels and the stupid, dumb decisions he made...he’s not a Mary Sue. A Mary Sue wouldn’t f--k up that much. Or if they did, it wouldn’t be treated as his own fault, or as a bad thing. It’d be brushed off.

Anakin! OHHH boy. This guy is a whiny little brat. I don’t know if people realize this, but...Lily, NOBODY LIKED ANAKIN. Anakin was unlikable BECAUSE he was a Mary Sue. You DO realize this, right? He was overpowered, treated as the chosen one, and he was super whiny at that. But you know what? At least the story treated him doing awful stuff as the wrong thing. Him being reckless? A bad thing. He should listen to Obi Wan more. Him casually killing someone through the back in the Clone Wars? A bad thing, he could have just knocked the guy out or cut his arm or hand off, what he did was murder. Anakin murdering the entire tribe of Sand People that kidnapped his mom, leading to her death? Shown as a VERY bad thing because he slaughtered ALL of them, even women and children. Anakin becoming Sith and killing kids? SUPER bad thing. 

So at the very least, him doing morally reprehensible things is treated as genuinely bad. At least the story calls him out on this. 

Kirk? Uh, Kirk is just a random human. He’s not exactly super strong or super intelligent. He’s clever and he’s fairly skilled in combat, and he’s definitely good looking, but he’s no ‘chosen one’ like so many of the others. Has he got flaws? Yeah, he’s got a temper. And he  flagrantly disregards the rules. And he DEFINITELY is something of a skirt chaser. But he’s not exactly overpowered enough to be considered a Mary Sue. He hasn’t GOT enough powers at all to be counted as one. Plus, when you consider how he died? A real Mary Sue would get a far better and more dramatic death, if they died at all. So Kirk? Ahhh, not really. He’s not a Mary Sue. He’s just not powerful enough to be one and he’s no chosen one. 

But your characters? Well, let’s see. Rey is a chosen one. So is Aliana. And Aliana is descended from a LONG LINE of superpowerful Sith. She’s basically “old money”. It runs in the blood. Pretty Mary Sue right there. They’re overpowered? Yep. Very. They easily beat the crap out of Kylo Ren. Do all the main characters like them? Yeah. And any that don’t are always treated as wrong, like Leia, or enemies, like Kylo Ren. They fit the definitions to a T.

can never be wrong

“So are a lot of characters in popular culture”

Except that’s not true. Superman, as I’ve shown, has been wrong quite a lot, especially when arguing against Batman, or Wonder Woman. Superman having to kill three Kryptonians who had did a literal genocide of an alternate Earth was portrayed as VERY wrong and it haunted him for years and years. Anakin was VERY, VERY wrong. The minute you do mass murder, you kinda instantly become wrong. Kirk ends up being very wrong in the final film he’s in. He doesn’t want to leave his heavenly alternate reality, it’s PICARD who has to convince him to stop being selfish. Goku is stupidly wrong when dealing with Cell, he really screws up and it gets his mentor and a few of his friends killed because he couldn’t think of a better way to get rid of the about-to-explode Cell than to teleport him to King Kai’s moon. He could have just teleported him, say, the serpent bridge, THEN teleported back if he really thought the explosion was gonna be so big it’d take out the entire world but...nope! Then there’s how he handled Majin Buu. He THINKS he doesn’t have to use fusion with his son. After all, Majin Buu has just lost a ton of power! He and his son can beat him normally...then Majin Buu catches him off guard and claims his son. Nice going, Goku, he was weak and instead of doing what everyone told you to do, you whiffed because you assumed you could handle it. And then there was his whole “Okay Vegeta, you finish off Frieza while he’s all Golden”. Big mistake. Frieza does a self-destructive attack that BLOWS UP THE ENTIRE WORLD and Whis has to literally TURN. BACK. TIME to fix this. Thanks, Goku. You COULDA just finished Frieza off like you did last time, but noooo! You had to indulge your friend’s ego. Luke? Luke’s been wrong a ton of times. Even if we ignore the sequels and the stupid way he handled Kylo Ren and hiding off on some podunk island, he ignored Yoda’s advice multiple times, he took off to fight Darth Vader, and he lost miserably. 

Basically, every time these people do something wrong...it is, for the most part, TREATED as the wrong move by the story. That’s NOT the case for Aliana or Rey. Casually killing a guard for harassing a refugee? Cold blooded murder? Not portrayed as wrong. Overkill of guards at Canto Bight? Not even REMOTELY called out, nor the whole “mass forced suicide” thing. Killing Rey’s parents in cold blood when they were unarmed? Barely glanced over. What’s portrayed as wrong was keeping that a secret, not the MURDER thing. SHOOTING LEIA WITH ELECTRICITY? Not even REMOTELY treated as going too far. 

are always victims

“Can’t imagine why a woman who suffers from PTSD writes characters who have suffered trauma in their lives. It’s a fucking mystery.”

You realize though this makes Aliana an author-avatar/stand in though, and that enforces the whole “she’s a Mary Sue” thing, right? 

and bend the narrative to suit their needs

“If they were villains you wouldn’t complain about it this insessantly.”

But they’re NOT villains. When a story has a hero doing this, even when it has a villain doing this, that’s bad writing. Having Leia reasonably point out the fact that the Republic has every good reason to not trust a Sith and Aliana can’t just bully them into going along with everything she wants...and then having Aliana just SPONTANEOUSLY summon her own WAR FLEET to go “Sword of Damocles” on Leia and the Republic? That’s bad writing. It comes out of nowhere, no build up, and exists ONLY to tell Leia and anybody who has a problem with how Aliana’s doing things to SHUT UP I’M IN CHARGE. It’s bullying, bad writing.

Also, those other characters mentioned have other characters who will call out people like Luke or Kirk if they mess up. And Luke and Kirk or Goku will go “Yeah, you’re right, I should listen to you” and they have to change...or at least say they’ll try to. Does anybody in your story do that? Well...no. Because ANY objection to how Rey or Aliana does things is treated as BAD and WRONG because they’re the main characters, and thus everything they do is right, even if it’s morally repulsive and if ANOTHER character shot lightning at a middle-aged woman for a nasty comment, they’d be the bad guy.

Anyway, said my piece. Lily really has absolutely no self-reflection on this. She can’t handle actual criticism. All this is is DEFLECTION and PIVOTING away from your own story’s problems.  It’s very easy to crow about how popular your work is when you dismiss and delete all actual critique and criticism. 

[trunkzbriefs]

Any Son and/or Briefs family headcanons? Spicy hot takes? Truths Toriyama and Toyotaro themselves can not handle? Straight up lies?

GODDAMN SORRY this took a while cause i suck at putting thoughts together. i apologize for my obvious briefs bias i have more hcs for them than the son family despite loving them both :pensive: anyway heres some random stuff

briefs hcs:

all of the briefs are pros at non-verbal communication. i hc that saiyans have their own language (and also in my own Mind Canon they still have their fuckin tails) and a lot of it is done through tail movement/body posture/grunts/etc. etc so theyve all sort of picked that up. even bulma, who doesnt have a tail, is pretty good at getting across what she means without actually speaking. they still do speak normally but it comes in handy sometimes considering that both trunks and vegeta are prone to running out of speaking energy or getting very frustrated with words, so having another way to communicate works very well for them

vegeta is fffffffffffffffffffurry. without getting too deep into my own General Saiyan hcs (thats why i made a whole ass four subspecies!!) i think that the entirety of planet vegeta tended to be very hot aside from the part where the castle was, where the temperature would drop. meaning that saiyans working in the palace would grow thicker fur around certain parts of their body, and in the royal saiyans theyd be Especially fluffy. he kept it down on earth, but he has thick patches of fur around the bottom parts of his arms and legs. kind of like snowy boots and gloves! he also has fur that grows in on his neck like a lions mane.

future trunks is an actions sponge, vegeta is a words sponge. vegeta will pick up words VERY quickly regardless if he fully understands the meaning of it or not (completely inspired by 'THATS RIGHT BOYS... MONDO COOL' in z) and future trunks will unintentionally mimic the actions of people - around people he looks up to he might take a few small mannerisms from but this extends to copying the disposition of anyone; he's just very adaptive. this is the most obvious (and funniest) when he's around vegeta bc it really shows like. yeah damn that sure is vegeta's son

vegeta & bulla have an intimidating bastard smirk naturally. their natural smiles are pretty frightening and they have to put effort into a 'normal' one. this also extends to current trunks, his default smile is the Vegeta Bastard Smirk but he learned to have a normal smile quicker than his father and sister. future trunks has a slightly unnerving natural smile (the fact that his pupils are always drawn so fucking small makes me hc that he just has a very intimidating look of 'cat thats about to pounce on an unfortunate trapped mouse' whenever he smiles) but he learned to look normal even quicker than current trunks since he's around humans a Lot and is sort of their uh, Hope. don't want to look scary to the people who depend on you!

bulma has some fighting knowledge and mildly good ki control. vegeta taught her it as a just in case so that she'd be able to defend herself against Bigger threats if he wasn't there and also so she could raise her own ki to alert someone to her if she had to.

vegeta is extremely clean and can not stand to have things disorganized for more than like... an hour before he has to tidy everything up. every time he goes down to the lab and bulma is passed out in a pile of bolts and circuit boards it kills him inside just a little bit

future trunks has little concept of power control. since his timeline was always in danger it wasn't really an important thing for him to learn. the amount of mugs he's accidentally crushed is impressive

vegeta tends to not sound like he's asking questions when he is. he doesn't add the proper infliction to the end of his questions and just sounds flat most of the time. it's confusing to people who dont know him well.

im not even gonna lie, im a BIG fan of the chill demon panchy headcanon so i love the idea that the briefs have a Lil bit of demon in them but just dont know it ghjnkm

[banging my fists on the 'hcs that not even got could take away from me' table] future trunks has OCD

vegeta doesn't really get labels but he's bisexual & "debatably a man", bulma is bisexal & bigender transfem (sometimes shes Wamen and other times its like "gender? no"), bulla is a nonbinary lesbian, current trunks is a bisexual trans man & future bulma forgot to explain the concept of gender and sexuality to future trunks so he's a little confused on that front and his gender & sexuality are "i have literally never thought abt these concepts in my life but i think men are nice. i refuse to think about gender though" (i actually have two main hcs for future trunks which are either gay trans man or more-feminine-presenting nonbinary bisexual)

son hcs:

goku is Not as fluffy as vegeta at all, but he does have fur on certain parts of his body. namely on the back of his elbows + ankles, down his back connecting to his tail, and on his shoulders. its inherented from gine!

gohan is learning saiyan language from vegeta! vegeta acts grumpy about it but he's glad to have someone to teach. when gohan learned that most of the history had been lost he basically wished shenron for a big ol book on saiyan culture and gave it to vegeta just as an act of kindness and vegeta was like [in an angry voice but very touched] "Ok. Sit down. You're learning." by extension gohan is also teaching the rest of his family!

i will take ox king being actually non-human to my grave so like, chichi has horns and a very short ox tail! gohan and goten both have horns, but they're hidden by hair. goten's horns are bigger than gohans.

goten also has a more ox-like tail, with a little puff of fur at the end. generally, gohan looks more saiyan-like and goten looks more ox/human-like.

although he keeps up his cheery demeanor very well, goku is still haunted pretty badly by like... everything that’s happened in his life. he still has frequent nightmares about cell & buu specifically.

gohan will freak out at worse, zone out at best, if he's even tapped on the neck. it reminds him of the whole 'getting his neck snapped on namek' so that area is pretty off limits to everyone

goten gets along really well with android 17. they both have a love for nature and 17s kind of like his chill uncle, so whenever he gets too stressed out or just needs a break you can find him face down on the ground outside of 17's place on monster island.

goku is really really good at remembering completely random shit. bulma uses this to her advantage whenever she's working and has him memorize random technology stuff. a week later goku can not remember what he had for breakfast that morning but as soon as bulma asks "hey do you remember what i told you last week" hes like "oh yeah sure i have no idea what it means but [blurts out three hours worth of technical garble]"

oh boy is this a headcanon that has a lot more depth to it than just a bullet on a tumblr post, but gohan has DID!

goku, like vegeta, doesnt get labels either, and does not even Try, ask him about any of it and hes like "i dont get the gender thing but i think lots of people look nice :)" gohan is gay and like vegeta, "debatably a man", goten + chichi are both bi nonbinary, & pan is a lesbian trans woman.

both:

bulla and pan are both into music! i think theyd mess around making their own stuff w/ launchpads

i have a general hc of ki mixing or shielding, essentially, if youre close enough to someone people wont be able to tell apart your ki and you can also 'shield' someone with your ki for a small amount of time. if vegeta has his energy low, his and bulma's energy are the same. same thing with goku and chichi! goten and trunks are near impossible to tell apart, and same thing with gohan and videl.

though goten and trunks are both protective over their younger siblings, gotenks is that protectiveness times a thousand. look at bulla or pan wrong for 2 seconds and you're going to have an angry gotenks in your face asking if you have any last words. i like to think that trunks and goten fused casually a lot, especially around the time where bulla and pan were young, so its basically goten and trunks own attachment to them PLUS gotenks' attachment to them as his own person combined.

i like to pretend end of z did not happen the way it did so uub, using nimbus, travels back and forth a lot. goku isn’t the only one who teaches him how to fight as goten, gohan and trunks all think of him like a little brother and love training with him!

fuck you letters to toriyama/toyotaro hot takes:

cell, as cool of a villian as he is, definitely should have had a creepier final form. or multiple- just something that really drives in the fact that he's made up of other's dna & fuckin ABSORBS people. also his first two forms should have had a different absorbtion method other than the tail thing (not the drinking thing thats fine) it just feels.   Weird. not good

it would have been far more interesting to keep the bitter attitude towards vegeta that future trunks had imo... in super trunks was going through a Lot granted but the fact tht he wasnt more confrontational to vegeta being a dick to him seemed kind of off considering his attitude in z i just.. think it would be interesting and far better if they had more of a back and forth 'family but lowkey hate each other' relationship

i dont want to rant about super so heres some super condensed takes, goku black arc specific because thats 90% of what ive seen of super:

mai is a fucking freak ass weirdo, why did they not just make another character to pair with trunks

trunks not flipping the fuck out at his timeline being erased feels... out of character. also trunks deserved the win against zamasu

future bulma did NOT need to die

trunks should have just stayed in the current timeline

please fucking let trunks and goten grow up. we SAW a version of trunks who looked 14 (history of trunks....) and the versions of goten & trunks we have r/n in super do not look 13/14 respectively what in the goddamn hell is going on in the character design department

super definitely should have taken place later down the line

supers version of bulma and videl look awful. why are they That stick like.

vegeta needs to kill frieza. just once.

fu has enough potential to be a very interesting mainline character and i am so sad he's not

i would actively enjoy a sdbh anime with more  budget that isnt just a promo anime and has a plot that makes sense... i think db should have more wild spinoffs

xenoverse deserved a better story that went FULL in on the 'what if' type of timelines- like they did in raging blast which is a FUCKING GREAT GAME

straight up lies:

dragon ball z is a good series

[omnipedia]

A Re-Review of Ben Tennyson vs Green Lantern:

It’s been 10 months since this came out, so I decided to rewatch it and put out my final thoughts on it. It was a cause of much anger and upset in both the DB and Ben 10 communities, but I’m going to try and be as fair as I possibly can.

The Good:

Including Ben in Death Battle at all was pretty nice. Current Western Animation doesn’t appear too often on the show, so it’s nice that it’s getting as much spotlight as other mediums.

The sprite animation was excellent. It was very fluid and it was even hand-drawn at times. The up-close shots were great, with Waybig and Alien X in particular looking fantastic.

The battle itself was action-packed and really fun to watch. Bits of humour were put into it too, like Hal using a Lantern fire hydrant to fight Heatblast.

Ben was very fitting to his usual personality. The voice acting for Ben was excellent, especially with the aliens. Way Big in particular sounded very much like he did in the show. However, the voice would fit a lot better for Teenage Ben than Kid Ben. Doesn’t make the voice work any less good though.

The Bad:

Ben lost the fight. That’s not the direct issue. Characters I prefer have lost their respective Death Battles before. Him losing at all isn’t even the problem, I’m fully aware that there are characters out there capable of beating him. The problem was that he was misrepresented. Ben wasn’t researched fully, and that the reasons they did have for him losing were flawed.

There were some major errors in the pre-fight bios. They used a clip of Way Big fighting Malware when talking about him fighting Diagon (Which are two completely different characters. It’s like if Darkseid was called Doomsday or Freiza being called Cell), and said that “Overuse of the Omnitrix can horribly disfigure a users DNA” (This has never been stated before, not even as a joke or a rumour). They also credited Derrick J Wyatt as one of the shows creators, despite him just being an art director for Omniverse.

The alien selection was weak. Yes, Alien X was the only one who could hold a candle to Hal, with the slightly possible exceptions of Feedback, Clockwork Nanomech or Waybig. But that doesn’t mean the “weaker” forms couldn’t be included. Some could have been rather fitting, like having Toepick (a yellow alien who’s main power is creating intense fear), or just having fan favourites like Rath and Atomix being there at all. Instead, they stuck to only the original series with the sole exception of Alien X.

A tiny nitpick, but why did they animate 10 year old Ben? It makes no sense. The voice matches better to that of the sequel Bens and causes him to have access to aliens and abilities that he would not have at that point. It’s like giving the kid version of Goku Super Saiyan God or whatever. Also, I know it’s Death Battle, but why would you make Green Lantern murder a 10 year old child when the slighty less heartless option of a young adult is readily available instead?

Research Issues:

The Omnitrix could react to the speed of the Big Bang, yet Hal has no problem outspeeding its transformation time. I may be wrong on this, but I don’t know if Hal has traveled that fast before.

They said that Alien X had no counter to time manipulation, despite the fact he could do it himself and even did so in the battle. You know, with a wave of his hand.

One of the biggest issues was them directly ignoring the failsafes of the Omnitrix. Even the Omnitrix will turn Ben into whatever alien he needs to survive, they have Ben defeated by Lantern scissors. Multiple of Bens aliens could overcome that, namely Swampfire, Goop, Bloxx, or a Lenopan. Even if it was cut off, it can still transform Ben anyways.

Hal won the fight by travelling back in time and attacking Ben before the fight started. Not only would this not work anyway for reasons due to Alien X already being able to control time, Ben would be aware of this due to the Sotobro Effect. This is “a ripple created in the timestream, that can be detectable by those whose abilities are powerful enough to perceive changes in the timestream”. As soon as Hal travelled back in time, Alien X would be able to sense it and stop him.

Alien X was extremely nerfed. A reality warper, with control over time and space, spends the majority of his appearance punching and kicking. They got his cloning abilities correct, but ignored the fact that 1. They’re not like Naruto clones, they should be just as powerful as regular Alien X and 2. a group of Celestialsapiens can make themselves strong enough to survive Multiversal and Omniversal level attacks. That latter one is forgivable for not knowing, it’s a little bit obscure to find. Ben doesn’t even Alien X to clone himself though, all he needs to do is turn into Echo Echo.

They have Alien X almost kill Hal by slowly causing him to disintegrate, despite the fact that he can cause people to cease to exist in the time it takes to blink. They said that the only reason Alien X recreated the Universe was because he couldn’t stop it from being destroyed in the first place, but this is false. Ben only didn’t do so due to having to consult with Bellicus and Serena, which he no longer has to do.

They ignored Hal’s biggest weakness, that he needs to recharge his Ring. Ben with Master Control does not have this limitation. Alien X could have just trapped him in an infinite loop of time reversal until his power ran out. From what I’ve seen, Hal’s Ring can also be taken off his body relatively easily. Batman, essentially a regular human, can take it off. The Omnitrix has only been taken off by technological geniuses with prior knowledge of the device.

That’s everything I have to say about the episode. All of my thoughts, compiled into one post. I agree that it’s one of the lacking episodes of the series and definitely deserved better, but I don’t think those involved in it should have been attacked like they were. I do not know everything about Green Lantern or DC, so if anyone is aware of things that may contradict what I’ve said, please let me know. We can have a friendly and civil discussion about it, please don’t try and start any arguments. I’ve dealt with that enough in the comment section of the video.

[hellzyeahwebwielingessays]

Mayday IS NOT a Mary Sue!

I’ve heard this assertion before and it’s just bullshit.

To tackle this topic I’m going to crank the dial up to ‘Very difficult’ and strictly look at Mayday’s debut in What If…v2 #105. Were I to take her entire character history into consideration the accusation would crumble like wet paper.

Now, there is no absolute definitive definition of what a Mary Sue is, though there are broad overlaps between the definitions. Those overlaps really boil down to an over idealized character/female character (the male equivalent is Gary Stu or Marty Stu).

For the purposes of this discussion (and because this is what I’ve seen the accusations revolve around), the idea of her being a Mary Sue hinges upon three key points:

She is not flawed

Everyone likes her

And

She masters her powers/wins her first fight with no difficulty

Let’s tackle them each at a time.

She lacked personality flaws?

Well she seemed a bit of a hothead, rather melodramatic and arguably (because she planned on returning to action) deceitful at the very end of the story. She also considered herself a freak and was upset that her athletic accomplishments were the result of her powers not her own hard work. And of course her sense of self was radically rocked when she learned her father was Spider-Man.

Whilst not a personality flaw per se, a source of contention in her life was that she didn’t fit in neatly with any of the school cliques. She was smart enough to hang with the nerds but also athletic enough to hang out with the jocks and as a result was forced to choose between them. This in turn hurt her romantic prospects the boy she liked, Brad Miller.

This is integral to the story because through her alter ego Mayday can combine her intellect and athleticism and be her truest self.

Ah, but does this not then reinforce the accusation that everybody likes her? Poor Mayday. Her problem is too many  people like her. Cry me a river right?

Well, hold on a minute. Why is the idea of people liking the character a mark of a Mary Sue in the first place? It can’t just be a realism issue as many characters can be celebrities or beloved public figures. Bruce Wayne (out of costume) and Wonder Woman are beloved by most of the general public. So is Thor, Captain America and arguably Tony Stark and ¾ of the Fantastic Four.

Obviously villains dislike them though. In this vein then Normie Osborn in What if v2 #105 would dispel the accusation. But let’s be honest, that’s a little cheap isn’t it? Obviously villains aren’t going to like the hero, they wouldn’t be effective villains if they did *glares at Kylo Ren*.

So why are those characters not regarded as Mary Sue’s then? Well, the simple answer would be that the general adoration from others isn’t really that big of a deal for most of those characters. The general public do not strictly speaking need to like the F4 (and in fact have vacillated in their opinion of them), they just need to be famous.

In contrast Spider-Man had a poor public reputation due to Jameson and this is regarded as a hallmark of the character. It’s such a hallmark that it made it into the first 2 movies and later in Spider-Girl the fact that she had a far better public image was highlighted more than once.

So what’s going on here?

Well basically a character is a Mary Sue when everybody loves them at it either serves no story purpose, or if it’s a cheap way of conveying how much the audience should love a character. Or if it makes the character’s lives easier without them putting any work into it.

To give you an example from anime Son Goku and Usagi Tskunio (from Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon respectively, two of the most popular anime ever) typically made friends easily and even converted enemies into allies more than once.

Does this make them Mary Sues?

No, because the people who became friends or allies didn’t just immediately or easily evolve into those roles. Work and effort was put into that by Goku and Usagi respectively. They endured pain or displayed bravery or sacrifice or put their hearts on the line to convince someone to bet better

Now, I’m not saying Mayday’s popularity came about through methods like that. We do not know how Mayday became as popular as she is, though we can easily infer it’s due to her athleticism, physical attractiveness and brains. She’d fit into multiple cliques in school so it’s not unbelievable that her company would be desired by them.

What ultimately disproves her as a Mary Sue in this regard though is that there is a price to pay for that popularity. She is forced to choose between the groups and thus undermine friendships with one group or another. And she can never fully be herself…until she becomes Spider-Girl that is.

Basically Mayday being popular doesn’t make her a Mary Sue because it comes at a personal cost. Her life would honestly be easier if she was just a jock or a nerd.

Of course the counterpoints to that are that it’s a pretty minor concern all things in the grand scheme of life. And if she brings those two halves together as Spider-Girl then she’s solved her problem hasn’t she?

Well for starters, not fitting in exactly with any one group, undermining one set of friendships due to servicing another, juggling those social circles?

That might be a piece of cake next to what Peter Parker dealt with in high school, but for many teenagers it is actually pretty important.

In much the same way that scale matters in super powered conflicts, scale matters in terms of emotional conflicts too. We might argue May has it easier than Peter, but Peter had it arguably easier than the X-Men, or the Silver Surfer or ben Grimm. This is why his romantic or financial struggles were as compelling as (if not more so than) those of the Avengers efforts to save the world.

Mayday is 15. She is growing up. She is still figuring out who she is. So yes, her place in the high school hierarchy (especially in 1990s America no less) and social situation would be important to her. And it is she who is ultimately our POV character.

As for the second point about the two halves of her lives, it’s true. Mayday’s emotional conflict of being pulled between two groups reconciles by the end of the story because she bridges the gap. But for starters, let’s remember Mayday was designed to be a done-on-one character with merely the possibility of a continuation. So reconciling her emotional conflict by the end of the story makes a lot of sense narratively. However, the reality is when she became an on-going character it really wasn’t a big deal.

This is because, whilst she bridged that gap as Spider-Girl, she can’t be Spider-Girl ALL the time!

She has to at some point take the mask off ad go to school and in that environment she still needs to juggle not seeming nerdy to the jocks but not seeming like a jock to the nerds. She would still need to sacrifice potential romance and team building experiences with the jocks or sacrifice arguably more substantial friendships she’s held since childhood.

Okay, so being liked by everyone in context  doesn’t render Mayday a Mary Sue.

But surely we cannot defend her fighting prowess? In her first ever encounter with a villain, her first ever fight, her first ever use of the webshooters she won, and seemingly didn’t stumble.

How can this be defended? Isn’t that at least approaching Rey from the Star Wars sequels levels of unearned skill?

First of all, May should be graded on a curve for the simple reason that she wasn’t invented to be strictly speaking an on-going character. Her whole character arc might’ve begun and ended in What If v2 #105 so given the story, of course we weren’t going to see a training montage.

But even if you ignore that the accusation doesn’t really add up.

For starters it’s pretty obvious her opponent (unlike Rey’s rival, Kylo Ren) was not overly experienced. He seemed to know how to use the weapons in his possession but was clearly emotionally unstable seeing as he was beaten by such an obvious way.

May’s internal thoughts throughout the fight also make it clear she is mostly winging it. She isn’t fighting as effectively as an experienced Spider-Man against an experienced Goblin. She is mostly riding on instinct and her strategy, whilst ultimately effective, is also very rudimentary.

She spots Normie’s gloves are capable of an electrical discharge when she webbed up his hand.

She knows he uses pumpkin bombs because she saw one when he attacked her earlier; plus it’s likely someone just knows about such an infamous super villain.

So she waits for him to pull out a pumpkin bomb then webs up his hand again, hoping he’ll react by using his discharge and blowing himself up. 

Amidst this she needles him to make him emotional and throw him off balance increasing the chances he’ll use his best weapon (the pumpkin bomb) and not think through his actions. 

Let’s also consider she webs up the same hand twice, which would make Normie consider his reaction even less.

It’s a basic but it got the job done. Mayday wouldn’t have needed to be a genius or an experienced fighter to have come up with that plan.

But as it happens her parents are two people who between them have scientific acumen, strong social skills, a penchant for getting inside people’s heads or under their skin and are very quick witted and resourceful. It’s not really necessary for the story to spell out for us that Mayday could have inherited these traits and/or observed them in practice growing up.*

From a storytelling POV, because we the audience are familiar enough with Peter and MJ (even if you don’t know that many specific stories) that context is part of the subtext of the story. So Mayday possessing those essential skills isn’t a cheap ass pull or anything.

But what about her use of Peter’s powers? She didn’t stumble with them, not even once.

Well, putting aside how the narration makes it clear she’s riding by the skin of her teeth more than once, this is justified when we compare to Peter himself.

I know that in Spider-Man 2002 and Amazing Spider-man 2012 Peter practiced with his powers and did stumble a bit in his use of them. But those were live action movies that demand a certain greater degree of realism because we have actual human beings right in front of us. They were also made 4-14 years after What If v2 #105. Additionally, whilst Maguire and Garfield’s Peter’s did have to stumble a bit, the key phrase there is ‘a bit’. 

They got the hang of their powers pretty quickly, with Maguire’s Peter trouncing Flash Thompson with ease.

Garfield meanwhile defended himself from people in a tiny subway carriage practically by accident.

Maguire’s Spidey got the hang of web swinging on his second try.

For the original 616 Peter Parker, the situation was even easier. IIRC aside from one flashback story showcasing Peter accidentally failing to control his strength, Peter had a handle on all his abilities pretty quickly, including web-swinging. Very  early into his career he held his own against four experienced heroes simultaneously. Specifically the Fantastic Four.

This was (in publication order) the first ever time Peter battled anyone with powers of their own. And remember, this event is 100% canonical to Spider-Girl’s universe. Her version of Peter Parker (her father) battled the F4 exactly this way.

Ah, but that was written in 1963. Standards weren’t as believable or grounded as they were circa 1998. Well, what about Ultimate Spider-Man from 2000? A series that was actually bucking trends because  it was more grounded and realistic (allegedly)? In this universe Peter had his powers for a while before he first ever super villain battle and had dealt with some petty crooks before.

Nevertheless he too was very effective when he first fought Ultimate Green Goblin. Ultimate Goblin wasn’t great at critical thinking, but he was overwhelming stronger than Peter and more durable. And yet, Peter at the very least held his own in the fight.

So it seems spider powers don’t require much practice before you can use them in combat. You can at least avoid attacks, hold your own and grasp the basics of web-swinging pretty quickly.

When looking at the 616 version of Spider-Man’s (and by extension Spider-Girl’s) powers this makes a lot of sense.

To begin with wall-crawling was second nature to Peter in the 616 universe and Ultimate Universe.

More importantly the Spider Sense is a MASSIVE factor in Peter and Mayday’s respective fighting styles and was explicitly a factor in Mayday’s duel with Normie.

The Marvel wiki had this to say about Peter’s spider sense on his main page:

Spider-Sense: Spider-Man possesses a precognitive danger or "spider" sense which warns him of potential or immediate danger by the manifestation of a tingling sensation in the back of his skull, and links with his superhuman kinesthetics, enabling him to evade most any injuries, unless he cognitively overrides his automatic reflexes… Spider-Man's spider-sense is directional and can guide him to or away from hidden weapons and enemies. Sudden and extreme threats can cause his spider-sense to react with painful intensity. Spider-Man can also sense and dodge attacks directed randomly or by an artificial intelligence. Using his spider-sense to time his enhanced reflexes, Spider-Man can casually dodge attacks up to and including automatic-weapons fire, provided there is sufficient distance. His spider-sense is sufficiently well-linked to his reflexes to the point that a threat can trigger them even when Spider-Man is asleep or stunned.

This is further corroborated in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide Updated Edition’, written by Tom DeFalco, co-creator of What if v2 #105

Additionally, ASM #656 established that Peter’s Spider Sense helped him greatly when web-swinging by subconsciously guiding his aim towards safe anchor points.**

So Mayday’s proficiency with her newfound powers is actually not all that surprising. Her Spider-Sense actively compensated for her lack of experience. And if we look at her battle with Normie her predominant tactic is to just dodge and keep him distracted. The latter doesn’t really require training just some common sense and guts. The former is practically the wholesale function of the Spider-Sense in the first place.

Still don’t buy it?

Still think this is all a stretch?

Think that the Spider-Sense is just cheating?

Maybe you think dodging is one thing, but Mayday actively attacks Normie three times in the battle.

She saves herself from freefall and then transitions that into a strike against him.

She webbed up his hand accurate in the midst of the fight twice!

Her ability to do all that in her first fight, with no training, surely proves her for the Mary Sue she is.

Well here is something even I never considered until today…Mayday was already  athletic before  she gained her powers.

Mayday had won herself a spot on the Midtown High girls basketball team.

The story doesn’t say when this happened but her familiarity with the team and the popular kids not on the team heavily implies she’s been on the team for a while. She talks about possibly getting a shot at scholarship or going pro. This again implies basketball isn’t just a recent new hobby, that she’s been into it for a while; an idea confirmed in her on-going solo book. This is further alluded to when Mayday laments that she believed her athletic skills were the result of training, practice and hard work.

That line itself implies Mayday has in fact had her powers all along and been unwittingly been using them. This would mean that Mayday had been practicing on the court for many years, giving her a handle on her skills that she could bring to bear against Normie.***

However, earlier in the story Peter and MJ have a shocked reaction to Mayday’s slam dunk. Along with their dialogue this implies Mayday actually didn’t have any powers before the start of the story.

Regardless, if Mayday trained, practiced and worked hard as a basketball player (and was good enough to make the team) she’d have developed certain skills. Skills that would have been transferable to her duel with Normie.

She’d have developed hand-eye co-ordination. Hence her ability to aim her webs and strikes accurately.

She’d have developed an awareness of the physics of he body. As in what movements in relation to the situation would generate what result. Like for example when she transitioned her swing into a kick.

She’d have had a certain knowledge of basic physics, because she’d need the ball to go where she’d need it to go. As in if she pushes off left with her arms out she should travel X distance. If she curls up her body it will slow her down, etc.

She’d have developed muscle memory and been able to move on instinct. Hence she could still be great at dodging even without her powers.

She would’ve known how to observe terrain and her opponents. E.g. she knew how to use the bridge’s shape to create a pendulum motion and kick Normie. And she knew observed his electrical discharge attack and pumpkin bombs.

She would’ve learned how to use the terrain and her opponents’ strengths and weaknesses to her advantage. Hence she, you know…won the fight.

And she would’ve known how to perform under pressure. She wasn’t thrown off by her powers or Normie’s almost lethal attacks.

All of these factors would’ve served her incredibly well in her fight.

When taken all together NO.

Mayday Parker is not, and was never, a Mary Sue.

*Mayday’s scientific knowledge would also have served her very well in being able to figure out the right way to move in the battle. For example when she broke her freefall and turned the swing into an attack.

**We might also speculate it was the Spider-Sense that guided Mayday in how to use trigger the web-shooters through the double-tap mentioned in the story.

Although frankly Spider-Man being such a famous and well documented hero the general public have probably seen him shoot a web and thus know about his famous hand gesture. So Mayday, being intelligent (let alone scientifically clever like her Dad) probably deduced how to activate the web-shooters.

***Not to mention, the scene demonstrates Mayday testing out her powers. So she didn’t walk into battle with Normie completely unaware of what she might be capable of.

[catbowserauthor]

Dragonball 30 Day Challenge: Day 27: Favorite Family Relationship

This is the easiest question of the entire challenge. The answer has remained the same since I first got into Dragonball and if anything has only grown stronger since then.

Goku and Gohan

I love this relationship. I know people make jokes about Goku not being a good father but I seriously wonder if we’re watching the same show. I have never seen that. A perfect father, no but a bad one and one that doesn’t love his kids? Also no.

In my opinion, outside of Goku’s relationship with his grandfather, his relationship with Gohan is the strongest one he has. He was around from the time Gohan was born until Goku died in the fight against Raditz (and many more) and those prime years of bonding are evident in the way they view each other. One thing I always thought was worthy of note is that after Goku and trains with Kami, he really takes on that forgiveness and give a second chance nature that we all really associate with him. But what happens when Raditz makes a mention of taking Gohan if Goku won’t help?

Goku flat out threatens to kill Raditz.

This is not something we see very often from Goku. That kind of anger and downright hatred is something so alien to see on Goku’s face and honestly is quite frightening. We see it again in several of the movies and one of my all time favorites is Goku’s glare to Turles in Movie 3 after he’s attacked his son. That look, that glare and Goku’s just utter “that’s it” is brilliant. I’m a huge fan of the dialogue here, in both English and Japanese

Japanese: Gohan! I ain’t sure about the earth but I’m sure gonna save you. And I’m DEFINTELY gonna defeat THAT guy.

English: Gohan! You did a good job today but now it’s time for Daddy to take over. ...did you hear what I said? I’m done playing games. This ends NOW.

And when Goku arrives to confront Turles; granted, it’s different from Japanese to English but I think it conveys the message so well that I don’t care:

Turles: I’ll enjoy beating you, just like I beat your son.

Goku: You’ll wish you never laid a hand on my son!

And later, when Goku is all but ready to give up, lying face down, utterly spent and defeated, he can only give his apologies as his friends’ pleas echo through his head. But when he hears that “Daddy...”

 He gets up.

Gohan’s interactions with Goku are very telling as well. He adores his father and learns quite a bit from him, despite how he starts the series quite coddled and sheltered. Goku’s lessons about the mountain come in very handy as Gohan learns to depend on himself. I love the reflections we see between Goku on Snake Way and Gohan learning to fight and fend for himself.

Some of my favorite scenes in the series are the downtime. For example, during the movies, Goku and Gohan play with one another in the tub or they turn training into tag in the Time Chamber or just spending time fishing. That seems to be something special for them and I love it.

I adore that it’s not just ChiChi that is guilty of coddling and protecting her son. Goku is just as guilty. As Piccolo says “Look how much he’s coddled you.” We see this later on to a T when Gohan has to demand his father stop going easy on him. It takes a very strong verbal assault for Goku to push himself and stop trying to protect his son.

And this behavior never leaves Goku. We see it in the early parts of the series and in the movies where Goku never hesitates to put himself in harm’s way for the sake of his son. Even though Goku is very much a battle junkie, his son will come first—on Namek, in the fight against Cooler, against Freeza, against Broly...

The latter is actually some of my all time favorite exchanges in any of the movies and is a huge reason I still prefer the older Broly movie to the newer one even if the newer one may be better from a story and animation standpoint. While Goku knows by this point that his son is an effective fighter, he spends a majority of this fight trying to protect Gohan especially when he sees to what depth Broly will go.

Broly: Kakarot, how much do you love your son?

Goku: Gohan, leave.

Gohan: But Father-

Goku: Now!

We also see this in Super, when Gohan is fully grown with a child of his own. When he fights with Goku, he still has to demand that Goku go all out because the Saiyan automatically holds backs to protect his son. And threatening Gohan is still one of the easiest ways to see Goku lose that goofy attitude. It’s downright dangerous for your health. 

And one of my all time favorite pieces is in Movie 9 where Goku, being dead and confined to the Afterlife decides ‘screw it’ to the rules when his son is being killed. The fact that Goku breaks through the barrier between life and death to protect his child is one of the most telling pieces of the series. 

While Goku does strive for self improvement, his real pride and joy has always and will forever be his son. He holds confidence in Gohan that not even Gohan holds in himself and he doesn’t fail to tell Gohan about it either. Their time together in the Time Chamber shows how much they love each other. Want to see an interesting phenomenon? Watch how much Gohan’s confidence soars when it’s just him and his father. Compare that to the doubts that re-enter as soon as they return to the outside world and Gohan has to contend with different expectations on him again. The only expectation Goku has ever had for Gohan is for him to be who he is and that is damn beautiful.

[duhragonball]

State of the Damn Wienerfic

I’ve finally finished the “thousand years ago” section of my OC’s backstory, which is a big relief to me.    The first 141 chapters of Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan were intended to develop the title character as a protagonist in her own right, and not just a guest star or supporting player to the main cast, like Tapion in “Wrath of the Dragon”.   I was always worried that I’d meet some untimely end before I finished, and no one would know how things turned out for her.  

From 142 onward, I’m flashing forward to the events of Dragon Ball:Xenoverse.    It’s not going to be a total adaptation of the game’s story mode, but I did like the notion that if I ever reached this point, the fic has a tenative ending, and a curious reader could run Xenoverse 1 on Steam and get a general idea of what happens next.   But I’m still alive, so I guess I’ll go ahead and write my version.  

It’s still surreal to me that I’ve reached this milestone.   I’ve thought about it for so long and now it’s here.   I wrote the bulk of #142 last November, and some other material that still needs to be organized, and my goal for this year’s NanoWriMo is to plow forward.   A lot of things will be different, and I think one of them is that I feel like I can be more open about the creative process.   So if you want to see how the sausage is made, click the read more.    If you’d rather see how crayons are made, watch this video below.   

There’s a Sesame Street version of this, but those are all orange crayons, and I like yellow better.    Also I like the way Mr. Rogers says “crayons”.

All right, now that those weird crayon people are distracted, let’s talk about Luffa.

I came up with the idea around 2004, I think.   DBZ was done airing in the U.S., and I wanted to write some sort of fanfic about it, but I was having trouble coming up with ideas.    I felt like the main story had wrapped up very well with Z, and GT only seemed to prove that you can’t top the original story.    So I started thinking about the lore, and that led me to the Legendary Super Saiyan that Vegeta spoke of in DBZ Episode 66.  

There were a few things that bugged me about the DBZ fandom at the time.    Mostly I was just reading the GameFaqs boards to find any hot scoops about upcoming DBZ games, and no one really knew much of anything, so the board was mostly guys shooting idle speculation back and forth.   Occasionally someone would bring up the fact that we never saw any female Super Saiyans, which led some to suspect that such a thing must be impossible.    The one explanation that stuck in my craw was that “women can’t get angry enough”.    Usually, misogynists are always saying women are too emotional to do anything else, so by that logic, you’d think it would be much easier for Saiyan women.    They’d just flip out whenever a stray laser bolt fries their hair, like Daphne Zuniga in “Spaceballs.”

The other thing that bugged me was the Broly-worship in some circles.   One way or another, Broly hype reached American fans well before the Funimation dub of Movie 8.   I remember the official promotions from Funimation acknowledging that fans kind of already knew who the guy was.    For a few years before 2003, I think Broly became this mythical figure, like your friend whose uncle works for Nintendo, or “Q” telling 4-chan all about how everyone you don’t like is going to get arrested soon.     I’m pretty sure this is why you can still find Broly fanart where he’s beating up Galactus, Kid Buu, and Superman, to name a few.    I think a lot of fanboys got it in their head that Broly could kick anybody’s ass, which is weird because he can’t even win in his own movies.   

I think even the official stuff played into this idea, since Broly would often be used as a special bonus boss in a lot of video games, so you beat Kid Buu and then hold on, now you have to fight Broly.   So it’s not hard to get the vibe that he’s the real final boss of everything.    I’m curious how the 2018 version of Broly will affect the perception of the character, but it’s probably too soon to tell.   In the mid-2000′s, though, it felt like a lot of people believed that Broly was a more legitimate Super Saiyan than Goku or the others, by virtue of being green and irrationally violent.  

So this was on my mind when I thought about what to do with the Super Saiyan from 1000 years ago.    I felt like there were people who wanted to believe that this character was a lot more like Broly than Goku, which is dumb, because the whole point of Super Saiyan Goku was that he was taking on the same role as the last guy.   And, for my money, the moral of Goku going Super Saiyan was that he was the only Saiyan of his generation who understood the same thing all the old Super Saiyans did.   Something about his upbringing on Earth helped him reach that level.    All the other Saiyans were too contaminated by their own culture of ruthless dickery.  

And so I thought that it would really flip the script if I wrote a story about that Legendary Super Saiyan and made him very different from the fanboy perception of Broly.    And I’d make him a her, just to twist the knife.  Not only is this not Broly, but she’s one of those women Super Saiyans everyone thinks can’t happen.  I doubt anyone from GameFaqs in 2007 would even notice my fic, but I’d like to think they’d be pissed about what I’ve done. 

I tried writing some of this down in 2006, but I didn’t get very far, mostly because I was intimidated by the scope of the idea.   I didn’t think I could do a long story, but I wasn’t sure a short story could get the idea across.   So I just didn’t do it at all, and kept thinking about it from time to time.    I wanted to make Luffa as a custom character in a video game, if they ever made a game with CAC features.   Ultimate Tenkaichi had it, but you could only make a Saiyan man... which just reinforced my motivations for doing this kind of a story.   

Finally, Dragon Ball Xenoverse debuted a more robust CAC feature in 2015, and I could design the character properly.   I didn’t have much in the way of ideas, so I just sort of let the gameplay take me where it would.   The game is set in the future, and Trunks just wishes for an ally, so who’s to say that this ally couldn’t have come from the past?    You do a lot of grinding in the game, and there’s a lot of exposition, and that gave me time to think about what what Luffa had been doing right before she got to this place.   And slowly, I started to iron out what I wanted to write.   

Her costume was just a convenience, really.    I went with short hair because the long hair doesn’t “float” when you go Super Saiyan in the game.    I wanted some sort of old-school looking armor, but everything in the game was based on costumes from the show, and the “Saiyan” armor in DBZ was Frieza’s thing.   It wouldn’t have existed a thousand years earlier.    I might have gone for something like Cabba’s outfit in Dragon Ball Super, but that wouldn’t be available until a few years later.   So that left me with a choice between a baggy martial arts dogi or the skin tight Pilot Suit.    The Pilot Suit is kind of... distracting, since it’s just a skin, and the developers make you stare at the character’s ass the whole time.    On the other hand, a baggy dogi kind of made her look like Cell Games Gohan.   So I went with baggy pants and fitted shirts.  

The black and yellow color scheme was mostly so I wouldn’t confuse my character from the others appearing on the screen during fights. That ruled out purple, orange, and blue, since the Z-Fighters wear those.   I resisted yellow, because that’s my favorite color, but later I realized black and yellow is perfect, because that’s the color scheme of the giant ape in Vegeta’s flashback.   

Playing the game helped motivate me to actually sit down and write the story, because I finally had a fleshed out character that I could see and do things with.    And making her fight DBZ characters got me to consider how she would react to those concepts.   Would she respect Vegeta’s royal bloodline, or would she be unimpressed like Goku?    How would she feel about Frieza’s destruction of their home planet?   Would she even recognize it as her home planet?   How does she feel about the fact that no one remembers anything about her?   

My goal for the first 141 chapters was to build a world and a backstory that would set up the answers to those questions.  The villains in that part of the story are all misogynists of one stripe or another.   They view women as tools to be exploited, or as enemies to be eliminated, or as distractions to be ignored.    They see Luffa doing her thing and they all say “She can’t do that,” and then she does it harder.   

Now that I think about it, I suppose the appeal to the character, and the thing that frustrates her so much, is that she’s just trying to be herself, but all these buttholes in the universe are outraged by it, and yet they just can’t stop her.   They want her to die, or go away, or become something else, something they can accept, but she just refuses to do that, and she’s got the raw power to tell them all where they can shove it.   This whole thing is my ham-fisted attempt to write a feminist allegory with Saiyans in it, and I’ll never be good enough to get it exactly right, but you know, it’s not as hard as I thought it would be.    Along the way, some LBGT stuff started to get into the mix, and I thought “Well, I’m really in the deep end of the pool now.”    I’m sorry if I got anything wrong, but I think I did okay.   I’m not breaking any records, but I managed to avoid drowning, right?  

Anyway, that’s why the Saiyans hate her guts, because all the Saiyans in DBZ resented Goku as being weak and worthless.    Even when Goku surpassed Vegeta, Vegeta still thought he lacked the killer instinct to be a “““true”“““ Super Saiyan.    Luffa’s got plenty of killer instinct, but the Saiyans hate her out of jealousy and fear.    Vegeta accused Trunks of lying about being a Saiyan, because his hair wasn’t the right color.  I wanted to make a whole population of Saiyans who would quibble over those kinds of details.    “The stone the builders have rejected has become the capstone.”   

This is also why I made the Saiyan King the main villain, because I wanted to echo Goku’s conflict with Vegeta, and King Vegeta’s conflict with Paragus and Broly.    If there’s a Super Saiyan every thousand years, then what happens to the second strongest Saiyan whenever that day comes?    Does he stand aside like John the Baptist, or does he refuse to accept the changing times?  

The purpose of all of this was to explain why Vegeta remembers the legend of the Super Saiyan, but nothing about the person.   Why doesn’t he know Luffa’s name, or what color her pants were?   Because his ancestors hated her, and suppressed the parts of her story that they didn’t like.    Even as Vegeta recalls what little he knows, he thinks “I never actually believed it.”

Okay, but Luffa had friends, right?   Wouldn’t they have left a record for future generations?    Well maybe, but how long would it take to fade into obscurity?   And Luffa’s kind of a private person.    Everyone in her inner circle avoided the spotlight.   There’s a move about her, but it’s filled with wild inaccuracies.   Eyewitnesses to her battles can only describe a glowing blur.     Close-up footage just shows an irritable Saiyan woman with a strange dyejob.   Most civilians find regular Saiyans to be pretty extraordinary as they are.   A Super Saiyan doesn’t seem that much more impressive.  

What you wind up with is this legacy of battles that were fought and won by a single, mighty warrior, but no one can agree on what that warrior was exactly.   At some point, enough time passes where the Saiyans are willing to reclaim the legend.   “Yeah, that guy had to be a Saiyan.      Who else could do all those things?”   But the things she stood for and learned along the way, that’s all lost.    

I just didn’t think it’d take me 647,471 words to explain all of that.  But now I can finally write the part with all the popular characters in it.   Right now, my big problem is that I have to slap together a few more OC’s and I need to figure out just what the hell Towa’s deal is.   The Dragon Ball Wiki attempts to explain whatever happens in those Dragon Ball Heroes games, but it doesn’t seem like they wrote any of it to fit a coherent narrative.    I’d like to use as much official Demon Realm lore as possible, if only because that’s what Towa and Demigra’s fans would be familiar with, but I’m not sure how this is going to look.   I mean, they’re gonna get an ass-whoopin’, I know that part, but I’d like to flesh out their characters before the beating starts. 

Anyway, I got my work cut out for me.  But at least the soundtrack will be epic.