#I love Piccolo as a villain

[kingcrimsonsalt]

DRAGON BALL TURNED 40 YEARS OLD!! BIG FOUR 0!!

IMPROMPTU DRAGON BALL APPRECIATION POST REBLOG IF YOU LOVE BUFF MEN PUNCHING EACH OTHER

[tamashi-tai-tamashi]

One of the reasons why Gokū is an amazing character is that his kindness and forgiveness are a result of his deeply pure heart, not of some philosophical idea about morality and justice.

When he gives a senzū to Piccolo, decides not to kill Radditz and to let him go instead (well, he had to kill him in the end but he was ready to let him live, you get my point), spares Freeza and even gives him his energy after he killed Kuririn, his best friend, he does not do it because he has great ideas about how bad it is to kill someone even if that person is horrible, he does not do it because he has thought about it and feels like it is morally wrong, he does not do it because he doesn't want to be as terrible as the people he fights, he doesn't do it because he wants to be the bigger person or because he wants to prove that he's worth more than that, he has none of these grand philosophical ideas about morality, about what is right or wrong, that heroes very often have.

He does it because he is a genuinely good man. Nothing more than that. He's not a man of ideas, justice and morals. He's a man of heart.

Heroes with strong morals and a strong sense of justice, with philosophical ideas about it being wrong to kill, who spare the villain because they want to be the bigger person and don't want to be as cruel as said villain, can be good characters, although for me this trope is very often annoying.

But I think they'll never be as great as he, because the simplicity of a good man letting his enemies live and helping them out of pure kindness, is so, so much more powerful and touching than all their long speeches.

Anyway, I love Son Gokū 孫悟空.

[shannonsketches]

One of my long standing headcanons (and it might be super common) is that Geets never assumes he's welcome to return after a genuine failure, not only as a habit from being in the Freeza Force but also just an artifact of shame and pride's relationship, which feels normal enough.

But then, every once in a while, I think about how at the end of the series Vegeta not only assumed he wouldn't be included in his wish, but also actively removed himself from being brought back to life because of what he did, knowing that the punishment he faced was to have his mind and body and memories destroyed, forever. The man introduced to the series as a villainous master of survival seeking immortality -- who's third wish for that exact thing from this exact dragon ten years prior was undercut by Guru's death, resulting in his own -- saying No I Deserve to Face Judgement I Have No Third Wish.

God I fucking love Vegeta. He didn't know Bulma brought his victims back so he was like 'no we have to make sure the people I hurt are okay too, idc if I don't count'

And for the emotional whiplash, my beloved, Goku's reaction to Vegeta saying 'no no i deserve to stay dead' is 'huh i guess you're right!'

aklsjdjasj i love this orange cat too, your honor

Bonus(es) from this end bit, because the Buu saga is predictably my favorite saga:

The Genuine Shock, the 'Good for you!,' the Porunga going 'Nah man I've met Beerus my definitions of good and evil is wildly different from your little baby earth dragon'

everyone in this panel being '!!!' except 18 who faced god and walked backward into hell to say "you're goddamn right my child is unharmed"

She said stay in your lane, fate

Bulma being so happy to hear her husband's voice again, probably assuming she wouldn't for at least half a year (and probably not knowing that it might be too late for Geets by then)

Vegeta's warrior crush on Piccolo finally being mutual

Goku's little concentration face

Vegeta being reminded that nobody on Earth knows his credentials

Vegeta volunteering to be a meatshield because nobody can tank like Geets can (shout out to Krillin being impressed by it back in the day)

Vegeta volunteering to die, again, if it means keeping his home and his family (and his friends) safe.

Porunga being the coolest dragon with places to go and people to see, he does not have all day

Everyone cheering on the boys. Bulma being very ladylike in her super short dress, as always.

Dende voluntarily healing Vegeta for the first time, and Vegeta accepting help with no ulterior motive.

Vegeta backing down from executing a threat he was personally harmed by instead of just doing it like he did with the Ginyu Force.

Goku being so full of love for everyone all the time even when they've done a lot of harm

Everyone being so full of love

Bulma clinging to Vegeta when Buu turns the corner

Trunks (Eight Years Old) being 100% Ready to Rock Buu's Shit

Marron not being totally sure wtf is going on

Vegeta still not on board with the whole 'Laugh it Off' thing Goku and his friends do with existential threats, But Whatever

God I love this series so much lkjada

[z0-ne]

Hi! I was wondering if you could please do platonic goku + younger sister reader (like reader 15-16) like goku helps her do saiyan stuff also can it be hc’s please?

YES! I love the platonic Goku request so much <3 I hope you don't mind but I'd like to do a gender neutral version of this too!

TRAINING HEADCANONS! (Big brother! Goku! + younger sister! Reader)

•So first off, the reason why you don't know this is because you werent raised by Goku, you crashed on earth and were raised by Yamcha. Naturally a human can't teach you about being a saiyan so that's where Goku comes in to play!

•And when I say play I mean actually playing with you. You're sixteen but he plays with you like your six for the first few lessons.

•Flying around you in circles as you try to concentrate, talking about how fun it is to fly and you should really give it a shot so you can come up here too.

•"C'mon!Woo-hoo! look how fun it is flying all around! sure would be nice if you could do it too." He may be teaching you but hes also having his own fun teasing you, but when you give him a frustrated look he quickly covers his mouth.

•Of course after that he lets you concentrate, but he doesn't stop floating around you.

•Despite his, he's a great instructor! He explains things in a very simple way and if need be he'll drag Vegeta or piccolo into the mix so he can show you what he means when he says.

•"see how when I'm blocking, I also try to catch his fist and redirect it?" Hes shockingly paitent with you, and sometimes he seems like he slows down just so you can see it better.

•Goku will show you more than once just to make sure you get it.

•May king kai have mercy on you because he does kick your ass during training once you get the hang of things

•He is hard on you, not as bad as it would be if it was Vegeta training you but he won't hold back just because you're a girl.

•once you get a good grip in flying, ki blast, ect. Hes going to come at you, maybe not full force yet but to you its gonna feel like it.

•"C'mon! Villains won't hold back on you y'know!" He says, not exactly scolding you after knocking you flat on your ass for the fourth time today. He laughs when you glare at him.

•Dont worry, he's always going to help you back up right after trainings done, especially if you're out of breath and hardly standing on your own feet, and by the end you'll both eat until your bellies are stuffed and likely pass out under a tree before doing all of this again tomorrow.

•Goku is going to have fun with this. Especially since you're technically the first person he's teaching the actual basics to. Piccolo taught Gohan the basics, Gohan taught Goten the basics. He came around and taught them new things sure but this is something completely different.

•Its obvious he's very happy you wanted him to train you.

[tobiasdrake]

What do you think of Gohan and Piccolo?

There is a fandom war over whether Goku or Piccolo is Gohan's "real dad" and the honest truth is that Gohan's upbringing is very much "It takes a village to raise a child". He is the product of Chi-Chi, Goku, Piccolo, and to a lesser extent Krillin's influences.

But. Also. Though Piccolo and Gohan develop a strong emotional bond, it warrants noting that Piccolo's initial contribution to Gohan's upbringing is pretty monstrous, as befits the reincarnation of pure evil.

There's a tendency to be more critical of Goku's choices than Piccolo's because Piccolo was a bad guy and Goku was a good one. Generally speaking, we tend to give characters a pass for behavior that's... within their narrative wheelhouse, if that makes sense.

When good guys are being good and bad guys are being bad, we consider that business as usual. That's just what they're supposed to do. If Vegeta kills a bunch of people, nobody cares because Vegeta is a bad guy. Bad guys kill people. This is not a worthwhile observation on his character.

So there's a tendency in fandom to hyperfixate only on the good parts of bad guys, and on the bad parts of good guys - and to ignore the rest. Those are the only parts that we consider noteworthy, because they're the areas where the character is going against their mold. It's important, I think, not to do this with Piccolo when talking about Gohan, because while we all love seeing Gohan's innocence reach Piccolo and redeem him, the darker aspect of his earlier choices inform his later growth and development.

We need to learn how to consider the villainous part of villains and the heroic side of heroes in equal measure to the villain's redeeming qualities and the hero's flaws.

By the time of the fight with Raditz, Piccolo is less evil than his previous iteration. According to Gohan, that's Goku's assessment of him. Implied to be Goku's assessment of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, as that's the only time the two have met since Piccolo's reincarnation, prior to Raditz's arrival.

This is a fair assessment. I've talked about it before, but reincarnating as a flesh-and-blood Namekian with a complete range of morality rather than simply being the embodiment of one guy's evilness had an effect on Piccolo.

Piccolo opposes the Saiyans because he wants to rule the world and doesn't want them killing everyone he means to govern. But Daimao's plan for world domination was just to inflict a 40-year extermination on humanity. Piccolo's original incarnation was just evil, incapable of really thinking about his own ideas and why he wants them the way the newer form of Piccolo has.

Daimao would never have teamed up with Goku to save "his subjects" from extermination. He wanted to kill them all too. This capacity for growth and change was already in motion, already forcing him to reconsider what he actually wants from his own ambitions, from the moment he awoke in his new body.

But he was still a bastard. He'd been Evil Incarnate for 300 years; You don't get over that in an afternoon. He still had all of his memories,a ll of his knowledge; There was a lot of wickedness baked into his personality from the get-go.

Since he was no longer Mazoku, he had a brand new range of moral depth to engage with. But he didn't have the luxury of getting to start over as a brand new person. No clean slate for Piccolo. Now that he was capable of change, he still needed a reason and a will to experience it. Circumstances that would force him to re-evaluate his relationship with himself, others, and the world.

The threat of the Saiyans provided that impetus, by giving Piccolo a plan. A nasty plan. A plan based on strict utilitarian assessment of Gohan's involvement in the preceding fight, with no regard to the fact that this is a four-year-old child.

Piccolo, in this moment, sees Gohan as a resource to be used. He has zero empathy for him or for anyone else.

Of course he doesn't. He was the embodiment of selfishness and cruelty for 300 years. He has a capacity for empathy now but has never been put in a position where it might begin to develop. As he says to Gohan in his dying moments:

"You were the only one who ever really talked to me."

Like. Let's not sympathize too much here; this is more on him than anyone else. He tried to reconquer the world and tried multiple times to kill Goku, the only person he has any sort of relationship with. Even the attack he used to kill Raditz was designed for killing Goku.

The reason nobody ever "really talked to [him]" before Gohan is because Piccolo's only interactions with other people were verbal and physical violence. This is what I was getting at earlier. The guy, at this point in time, is a villain existing in uneasy alliance with the heroes. Let's not forget that. In fact, even his relationship with Gohan is verbally and physically violent.

That sweet scene up there where Gohan confronts Piccolo with the fact that he's not such a bad guy? This is how that scene ends.

This is what we tend to give Piccolo a pass on because we expect this behavior from villains, but it needs to be said that Piccolo's approach to Gohan's training is cruel and abusive. The development of their bond has more to do with Gohan's purehearted innocence than with Piccolo's changing outlook.

That's not a slight against Piccolo. It's the setup. This cruelty is what makes it so meaningful when he does change. It's why this moment is so powerful.

The reason this is such a moment that Toei can't stop trying to remake it is because it comes on the heels of all of that cruelty and dismissal. That he would even do this is as much a surprise to Piccolo as it is to everyone else. It violently contradicts and recontextualizes everything he and Gohan have been through for the last year.

Gohan's innocence won out and it changed Piccolo in ways he didn't even realize were happening. When Piccolo says that no one ever really talked to him before, this isn't an indictment against the world for mistreating him. Piccolo is not the Warriors of Hope from Danganronpa. It's validating Gohan for having the courage and empathy to reach him despite it all.

Gohan's training was an idea born of cruel arithmetic. Gohan himself gained some rudimentary martial knowledge but didn't get much else out of it - because Piccolo himself was unsuited to the emotional guidance that Gohan needed. When the Saiyans arrived, he was woefully unprepared for the task that Piccolo expected of him.

What did you expect? It doesn't matter that you taught him how to throw a punch; That boy is five years old. Piccolo pays for this mistake with his life.

But what he does get out of it, what he and Gohan both get out of it, is the development of an emotional bond that will last the rest of their lives - with his dying moment, his sacrifice for Gohan, being what truly kicks off their relationship.

That sacrifice is the reason Gohan goes to Namek.

Gohan, innocent and kind, doesn't resent Piccolo for the things he did. Quite the contrary, he respects Piccolo a lot. By his own admission, he has the same admiration for Piccolo that he does for Goku.

Gohan and Piccolo's bond is now pretty tight, and it remains so through the Namek and Android arcs.

Piccolo grows from his mistake, lets his ambitions for world domination slide away, and he and Gohan now have each other's backs in earnest. The respect and empathy Gohan needed is now there.

It's from that experience (and the wisdom of God now joined into him) that Piccolo's later able to call out Goku for his mistake in the Cell Games.

Piccolo sees the flaw in Goku's plan because he's been Goku. He's stood where Goku's standing, waiting with baited breath for a warrior's hunger to suddenly awaken inside Gohan and for him to fuck this guy up. He had to learn the hard way that that's not who Gohan is, and he brings that development to the table here. He's projected onto Gohan the way Goku now is, and it cost him his life.

Neither Goku nor Piccolo is entirely right here. But neither is entirely wrong either. Goku's plan does ultimately work, but only because of the effort Cell and 16 put into correcting Goku's bad assumptions and finding a trigger that will set Gohan off.

This, I think, is what gets lost in the "Real Dad Goku vs Real Dad Piccolo" debate. It's too binary. Gohan cares a great deal about both of them, they're both prominent influences on him, and they both had a formative effect on his childhood. If you asked him to pick one, he'd probably look at you like you're crazy. The correct answer is:

That panel, that entire panel, is who Gohan's primary male role model is.

Though if you want to know whose kid Gohan really is more than anyone's, it's her:

No matter how distasteful Vegeta might find it, Gohan is his mother's son. He's sensitive, kind, curious, and far more interested in academia than in martial arts; All the qualities Chi-Chi wanted to instill in him. But he nonetheless has a lot of admiration for Goku and Piccolo too, and he carries their influence with him all the same.

(Also, as an aside. Like. Krillin? Kindly fuck off. Gohan may not be as badly hurt as Goku but he was still beaten half to death by both Nappa and Vegeta over the course of this battle. He couldn't even stand up under his own power anymore before he became the Oozaru. Also, he's five and Chi-Chi hasn't seen him, her baby boy, in a year.

It is absolutely valid for her to be way more concerned for Gohan than for Goku.)

But I digress. Point is, Piccolo and Gohan got off to a rocky start and I think that Piccolo's behavior during that time shouldn't be ignored, but also he changed dramatically due to Gohan's influence. Piccolo shaped much of who Gohan was as a fighter in his early years, but Gohan did far more for Piccolo by making him part of a family despite himself.

Now he's in Gohan's wedding photo.

And Chi-Chi isn't for reasons that can only be attributed to Toei's utter disdain for her character.

And he's teaching martial arts to Gohan's kid, with a much gentler hand than the one he once used on Gohan.

There's a real argument to be made that Gohan did more to shape who Piccolo became in the years following their training together than Piccolo did to shape Gohan. Sometimes the master learns as much or even more from the apprentice than the apprentice does from the master.

[bones4thecats]

I love my favorite lizard-emperor

[gartenofbanny]

Andrealphus's first appearance in Unhappy Campers was probably the most mediocre introduction in all of Helluva Boss thus far. Andrealphus had no build-up aside from a single line Stolas said in The Circus.

Instead, Andrealphus has been moreso built up as a character outside of the series entirely. Tweets made by Vivziepop releasing his design and describing his role

This is one of my main issues with Andrealphus's introduction as a whole. He wasn't introduced within the series itself but on Twitter. Keep in mind that he is supposed to be a major antagonist, and usually antagonists who are major have introductions within the series. But maybe he does have an introduction within the series with dramatic effect behind it..right?

Right?

When Western Energy released 13 seconds into the episode, Andrealphus just appears.

No entrance, no in-show introduction, no explained role, just nothing. Andrealphus just appears as if he's always been in the series. This is the worst villain introduction I've seen in Helluva Boss because there was no introduction within the show.

It's like the writers had no idea how to introduce him within the show and just tweeted who he is and what his role is and called it a day. That's not how any character introduction works because they're essentially spoiling their audience. Instead of building him up within season 1, giving the audience something to theorize and talk about, eventually paying off with an appearance they just do "Hey, here's this character that will appear in a future episode! Let us explain to you who he is instead of letting you put the pieces together yourselves!"

So, I'm going to bring up one of my favorite introductions to an antagonist in fiction. You all have heard of Dragon Ball Z, right? Well, here's how one of the main antagonists, Cell, was introduced.

Words can not express how much I love this introduction, why it has a great build up, and how it's fucking terrifying. But I don't feel like explaining right now.

So now that you all watched the video or have already seen it, Lets try something different. Remove the majority of the video, immediately cut to Piccolo facing Cell with Cell already absorbed the last citizen of the city and Piccolo about to fight Cell while screaming his name. That doesn't work because two things are missing.

And that is the build-up and

ACTUAL INTRODUCTION

This is why Andrealphus's introduction into Helluva Boss is mid (if you can even call it an introduction), Andrealphus had no actual introduction within the series aside from a throwaway line a couple episodes before and no actual introduction within the series either. Andrealphus just appears in Western Energy, and the episode acts as if like the audience already knows who he is and what he does.

Newsflash, we don't. Well, we know who he is, but that information was given outside the show. Because for some REASON, Viv and Spindlehorse write their characters outside of the show.

-Insert Millie thread reference here-

Am I expecting Helluva Boss to have Dragon Ball Z's level of writing? No, it's Helluva Boss, lmao. But I did expect it to have a decent villain introduction, especially when the villain is really major. Helluva Boss has had pretty decent villain introductions and twists with Martha and Striker. Hell, in my opinion, the DHORK Agents had the best introduction thus far, but it just fumbled the bag with Andrealphus.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Andrealphus's introduction sucked and he's honestly just painfully boring as an antagonist overall, but that'll be a topic for a different essay. That's all I have for today. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you all have a great one! ❤️

[ducktoonsfanart]

Donald Duck, Three Caballeros, Darkwing Duck, Ducktales and Duck family in Dragon Ball Universe - Duckverse and Dragon Ball - Crossover - Quack Pack Week - Tribute to Akira Toriyama and Dragon Ball - My version

I wanted to do this later, but since I found out last month about the bad news that Akira Toriyama died, I decided to do something special in his honor, but not to cry because I believe that he is safe in the other world and that which left behind a great achievement for all of us who love manga and anime, so I made a crossover of my favorite characters from Dragon Ball or Duckverse in Dragon Ball Universe.

Yes, and in honor of Akira Toriyama, in honor of one of my favorite manga and anime even though the action takes place in China and certainly dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the creation of the best Disney duck, Donald Duck. I drew three separate drawings of the crossover Duckverse and Dragon Ball characters and combined the various Duckverse and Dragon Ball variants into one. I wanted to add more, but not all characters would fit, so I'll post it separately another time. I mean especially the villains.

Akira Toriyama was born on the same day as me, April 5th, but in a different year, which is 1955 in Kiyosu, Aichi, Japan, and he started his career in 1978 working for a Japanese magazine and later published the manga Dr. Slump continues to write and draw the Dragon Boy manga after 1983, so that from November 1984 he writes, draws and publishes the famous Dragon Ball, which will later become very popular and even the most popular in the world. He was particularly inspired by Osamu Tezuka, who created Astro Boy and is the father of manga. In 1986, the Dragon Ball series began airing and it would become one of the best anime I could enjoy. Yes, it will come out through various series like Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Z Kai, Dragon Ball Super, etc. Unfortunately, Akira Toriyama left us on March 1, 2024, and many were affected by this, including me that this happened. Thank you for everything, good man that you have done for all of us! Rest in peace, amen!

The first drawing I drew shows Donald Duck, Jose Carioca, Panchito Pistoles, Aracuan Bird and Drake Mallard as Saiyan warriors along with famous Dragon Ball heroes. Not to be outdone, I drew Duckverse characters that they could relate to and be similar to. So Donald Duck is like Goku (Kakarot), Drake Mallard is like Vegeta (who says OVER 9000!), Panchito Pistoles is like Yamcha, Jose Carioca (Ze Carioca) is Piccolo and Aracuan Bird is like Majin Buu (I don't have to say why ).

Another drawing I drew shows other male characters and boys with other Dragon Ball characters, like Ducktales and Dragon Ball. Scrooge McDuck is with Master Roshi (I don't have to say why), Fethry Duck is with Krillin, Dugan Duck (Fethry's nephew) is with Oolong Pig, Huey Duck is with Gohan (Goku's older son), Dewey Duck is with Trunks (Vegeta and Bulma's son) and Louie Duck is with Goten (Goku's younger son).

The third drawing I drew represents the female characters and girls of Duckverse and Dragon Ball. Daisy Duck is with Chi-Chi (Goku's girlfriend and wife), Morgana Macawber is with Bulma, Gosalyn Mallard is with Videl (Gohan's girlfriend), Lyla Lay (Paperinik New Adventures) and Kay K (Double Duck) are for Launch (in the works about one woman, but with a split personality and one of her natures is good, the other is very awkward).

Yes, I combined from the comics Donald Duck, Duck Avenger (PKNA), Double Duck, Darkwing Duck, Three Caballeros and Quack Pack into one along with various Dragon Ball variants in my own way and drew them to wear the same clothes as in Dragon Ball. I hope you like this idea and this crossover. Feel free to like and reblog this and if you support this idea feel free to say so, just don't use my same ideas without mentioning me. Thank you! Also, happy 90th birthday to Donald Duck as well as 40th birthday to Dragon Ball and Goku himself!

Also, dedicated to the topic Crossover for @quackpackweek . And finally this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK1ZrwR5NWQ

[un-pearable]

also thinks about krillin me and the bro are slowly making our way through the android/cell sagas in kai and i miss him (krillin being the MVP . constantly. emotional support AND practical planning AND carrying the team despite being dragon balls normalest guy 👍) so much

thinks about gohan. thinks about goku jr.

[tyrantisterror]

Why are Bulma and Piccolo your favorite Dragon Ball characters?

It might sound weird, but I love Bulma because of her very glaring flaws. She is loud, short-tempered, vain, self-centered, arrogant, too-clever by half, and extremely bossy, all of which are traits that are generally given to villainous women so that we hate them. But Bulma's not a villain - she's a hero, and for all her faults, she's also incredibly smart, resourceful, and resilient. Bulma never says die, never gives up, always tries to come up with a solution to whatever shit gets thrown her way, and goddamn, she manages to pull something together more often than not! In fact, most of her virtues are connected to her flaws - that arrogance pushes her to defy the odds and succeed, her tendency to overshoot when showing off her smarts will lead to situations where she can apply those smarts under pressure to more spectacular results, and you know what, she is really fucking pretty, so why shouldn't she be proud of it? Like, I've said before on a few occasions that I love it when a hero has villain coding, and Bulma has all the same villain coding as Jessie from Team Rocket - but she's a hero, she's unambiguously a hero, and a hero we need more often than not, and that's so damn cool. I love that she gets to be this loud, bossy, arrogant, vain person who's nonetheless a good friend and incredibly reliable and resourceful ally, that for all her abundant faults she's still a lovable and iconic hero. Girl characters don't get to be those things often enough! We need more Bulmas in the world.

My love for Piccolo is a bit simpler/more obvious. One, he's got a kickass character design - he and Aku from Samurai Jack cemented my love of costumes with big fucking shoulder pads/pauldrons. Two, as a person who had never seen Dragon Ball and found out about the series when they aired Dragon Ball Z on Toonami back in the 90's, Piccolo was the weirdest thing that first episode threw at me, and it threw a LOT of weird shit at me in that episode. Talking turtles, cats, and pigs, a lady with blue hair, a guy whose kid has a monkey tail, aliens, all sorts of shit. But then there's this big green guy who everyone is terrified of for reasons the episode doesn't really explain (because there's a whole series you're supposed to have watched before it) who asks the father of the monkey tail boy to team up with him against the monkey tail alien, and the green guy has these weird pink ridges on his arms and the coolest fucking outfit I had seen at that point in my life, and when he takes off his weird purple ball hat thing it turns out he has antenna under it, and his teeth are sharp like a vampire, and he blows a hole through the dad guy's chest, like holy shit what an icon, I loved him immediately.

And then Piccolo proceeds to train the monkey-tail kid, claiming he's going to use him to take over the world, but as the show goes on it's clear that Piccolo is not as evil as he claims to be, and clearly cares for this kid despite claiming to only be using him as a tool, all leading up to the big battle with Nappa where Piccolo, that ruthless green slug vampire motherfucker, takes the killing blow to save the kid he stole. Blew my goddamn mind. There were almost no other characters in the media I had consumed as a child up till that point who matched Piccolo's moral complexity- about the only ones I can think of that compare are Dinobot from Beast Wars and Hexadecimal from Reboot, and, well, I'm also obsessed with those two, so here we are.

Piccolo had a great character arc and defined so much of what made Dragon Ball Z instantly special and unique in my eyes as a kid. There was no one like him, no one who did what he did, no one who looked as cool as he did. What a fucking legend.

[hi-there-buddies]

I’m rewatching Dragon Ball Z like I tend to do every two days and it’s baffling how many instances of PTSD there are.

Like, people say that Dragon Ball is “simple” and that something that deep wouldn’t happen, and it makes me wonder if people have watched the show.

Just off the top of my head, I can name a few:

Gohan’s dream of Goku getting tortured by Raditz

Gohan’s dream of Piccolo sacrificing himself

Gohan’s dream of Frieza coming back

Goku’s dream of the Androids killing everyone

Trunks’ flashback of his mother and the Androids

Basically everything having to do with the Androids for Trunks

Gohan’s dream of Cell killing Chi Chi and Piccolo

Vegeta’s just overall PTSD of Frieza, mainly presented in the Frieza and Buu saga

Vegeta’s flashback of Beerus

Krillin’s whole scene in the forest in Super, where he faced all the villains who hurt/killed him

I’d say the one I find most disturbing is Gohan’s dream about Piccolo, which was in the movie The World’s Strongest. Seriously, If you haven’t watched the scene in subbed, it’s super fucked up. Basically Gohan’s just dreaming and singing about how much he loves Piccolo, with happy music and all, and as the music continues, the scene gets interrupted with a flashback to Piccolo dying. I think what fucks me up most about it is how out of nowhere it comes and the fact the upbeat music continues to play as we see Piccolo get murdered in front of Gohan’s eyes. Also they change the color inflection of the scene and idk why but it makes it ten times more disturbing. If there are any color theory experts I’d love to know whY.

Yknow what let me find the video.

OK HERES THE LAST PART:

[tequilazaku]

Man, now im thinking about Zelgadis again, such a funny character.

Like he starts of in sort of a Piccolo junior position of being a villain who occasionally teams up with the main characters when biggee villains appear, and he has his whole " i was cursed to become a hideous monster" thing; but because hes in a whacky comedy show, there is a twist on his character, in that he actually really LOVES being identied as a tortured loner anti- hero badboy.

So you get this whole thing where hes clearly conflicted on whether he even really wants to lift the curse, and gets completly relegated to the nicer half of the party, because Lina and Xellos both are *way* more ethically questionable than him

I mean, he really is a half monster palladin with a sad backstory and yet he still reads as in creadibly chuuni.

Anyways that is all to say 'literally me' thanks for coming to my Ted talk

[galexibrain]

Moro arc is over! Absolutely loved it, one of the best villains the series has ever seen and some amazing character moments. Obviously I'm all about Vegeta's development but seeing Gohan and Piccolo fight together like that made me so happy 🥹

Except, of course, as usual I do wish some things had been explored more u.u

And the final chapter!

Fav parts:

Look at him, getting an award for saving the galaxy! Who would've thought! He looks flustered about it. <3

Bulma should make him wear that medal during sex

My boy is alive! Really liked this one 🥰

Even Geets is happy to see him!

I love group pics! Vegeta seems to be grumpy-posing just for the lulz here lol

This felt so much like all DB was always about <3

[shannonsketches]

Sorry one more because going through the early bits of this arc and I love Vegeta and Piccolo being impressed by each other's power and having fun being ex-villains loudly and platonically flirting back and forth over the sounds of dying androids

[des2dream]

A Daydreamer's Holiday Movie Marathon: Beauty & The Beast's Enchanted Christmas🌹💛🎄

Here is another holiday film straight out of The House of Mouse once again. This is Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas which came out in 1997. Almost everyone in town is celebrating Christmas at the castle which has now been free of its curse. Mrs. Potts tells everyone the story of how Belle brought back the magic of Christmas to the castle a year ago when everyone was still cursed while Belle was still held prisoner. Mrs. Potts's son, Chip has yet to celebrate the holiday season so Belle intends to change that. She convinces the castle staff in taking part in the holiday season. However, everyone is hesitant since the Beast isn't so easily swayed into a celebratory mood nor has anyone celebrated Christmas in so long. Still, Belle isn't the type of person to give up so easily. She and Chip work to get the castle a little more festive with both the help of Mrs. Potts, Cogsworth, Lumiere, and the rest of the staff. They even convince the old tree ornaments to help them despite the tree-toper ornament, Angelique who is the most doubtful that this plan will work. Belle even writes a book as a present for the Beast. Unfortunately, there's trouble brewing with the castle's pipe organ named, Forte who is determined to stop Belle's plans as he keeps trying to tell the Beast how dreadful the holiday is and how love won't make him happy while he sends out Fife (the castle piccolo) to cause some mischief.

I do like this film, but I can agree that it's not really a great sequel to Beauty and the Beast. The animation isn't up to par with the first film (but that's expected if you've seen some of Disney's late 90s/early 2000s sequels). It's actually a mixture of a sequel and a mid-quel. I actually started watching this movie when i was a teenager because I didn't know it existed when I was little. I saw some clips on YouTube and I wanted to know where it came from. I almost thought it was lost media. I also saw this air on TV and it's on Disney Plus so that's fun. While this film does in fact have messiness to it, this movie does have a lot of charm to it. I love Forte as the villain who's not only fully animated in CGI, but voiced by Tim Curry as well! Belle is still lovable, Chip is adorable, the castle staff play off each other really well, and I enjoy the songs. Not a great sequel, but a good Christmas special!

[tobiasdrake]

What is Goku's morality?

Goku has a good head on his shoulders usually. He has an innocent and "childlike" approach to morality in the sense that Goku doesn't have a complex or nuanced approach to right and wrong. He's just a compassionate person who likes it when people are happy and safe.

I do specify "usually", however. While Goku's moral compass is wound pretty well, he also has what Toriyama called the "poison" in his character: A deep-seated personal flaw that conflicts with his moral center, making for an interesting and nuanced protagonist rather than a one-dimensional paragon.

Pretty much from the get-go, as early as chapter 3, Goku and Bulma were being set up as moral foils to one another. Goku's purehearted innocence contrasted against Bulma's self-centered callousness.

This is made explicit when Goku receives his Kintoun/Flying Nimbus, a metaphysical test of virtue that only someone who's pure of heart can ride. This serves as a litmus test for how we're meant to read various characters, in terms of their morality.

FAILURE

PASS

FAILURE

PASS

FAILURE

PASS. Uh, this alter, at least.

And so on. In terms of morality, Goku takes a pretty simple position: He doesn't like it when people are being hurt or oppressed. That's it. That's all there is to it. Goku has a strong sense of compassion for others and while he doesn't go actively looking for wrongs to right, he can't look the other way when they land in front of him.

Oh, you're being enslaved by a militant warlord? That's not nice. Goku's gonna go file a complaint. Stapled to the general's face.

He was just here to find a Dragon Ball but, as long as he's in the area, he might as well liberate an oppressed population. Goku loves to help others.

In fact, the RRA arc is a great demonstration of Goku's moral center, because he didn't have to go to war with the Red Ribbon Army. Goku finds what he's looking for about 2/3 of the way through.

That's it. That's all he wanted. He's done. Goku's mission is complete; He can go home now. He has zero investment in any further conflict with Red Ribbon.

...until this happens.

Bora's death sets in motion the events that will carry Goku through the rest of the arc: His rematch with Taopaipai, the siege of Red Ribbon HQ, and the Uranai Baba Tournament are all for the sake of this man, a man Goku's known for like ten minutes, who lost his life because he tried to protect Goku from Taopaipai.

Everything after this point is revenge for Bora and the utility of getting what Goku needs to make Dragon Ball's very first resurrection wish.

Hiring Taopaipai was a mistake that turned Goku from a meddlesome interference into a vengeful nemesis gunning straight for their door.

This more or less remains Goku's relationship with the various ne'er-do-wells of Dragon Ball. He doesn't like when people get hurt, and he relishes opportunities to fuck up their oppressors.

If you hurt people in front of Goku, he's gonna fuck you up.

If you hurt people he likes, may Enma-Daio have mercy on your soul.

But.

This is where Goku's "poison" comes into play. Goku is a moral person but it isn't morality that drives him. If he sees a mugging taking place (and understands what he's seeing) he'll go punch the mugger, to be sure. But he's not looking for muggers to punch.

Goku has heroic inclinations, but he is not a superhero. He's an athlete looking for good sport. A martial artist driven by a desire for self-improvement, always on the lookout for his next rival. This complicates the way he approaches the villains of the story.

What Goku wants, more than anything, is a rival who can keep pace with him. A chance to push his limits and test himself. It's at the end of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai where we first see Goku's poison begin to push him into... questionable decision-making.

The reincarnated Piccolo uses the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai as a chance to get revenge against Goku. This stops being a martial arts tournament once the poorly-aliased "Demon Junior" reveals his true identity.

Or, at least, it probably should have. But Goku is hellbent on taking the title of Strongest Under the Heavens even if the whole goddamn island is about to get leveled. To the bitter end, Goku refuses to let this stop being a sports competition.

There is nothing on Earth more important than this.

The thing about Goku is that he's really good at mixing his morality with his poison.

He gives Piccolo a Senzu to restore him to full strength after the match, then sends him on his way hoping Piccolo will come after him for revenge some day. He wants to use Piccolo as a motivator to keep pushing himself - An incredibly dangerous decision to make given that this man wants to kill him and conquer the world.

Goku makes the moral argument that they can't kill Piccolo without killing God, but as Krillin points out, this isn't a binary choice. They could have sealed Piccolo away with the Mafuba/Evil Containment Wave while he was lying helpless on the ground.

You know. Instead of giving him a Senzu and wishing him tremendous gains. This is Goku's poison in action. We see it again with Vegeta, where Goku even admits that he's being unbelievably self-serving by insisting on sparing Vegeta's life.

We see his poison strike when he agrees with Vegeta to do nothing and allow the Androids to be created. Once again coming up with a moral angle to it, but only after his kneejerk reaction of wanting to fight.

But it's easy to overlook because Goku's questionable decisions tend to work out for the best anyway. This poor man's been searching for years for a sinister archrival that will come after him like a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain, but they keep reforming.

Well, at least he got to have this.

Good times.

Goku is a generally good man compromised by a desire for sportsmanship that sometimes inhibits his perspective of things. When he can, he tries to satisfy both his moral center and his poison.

But sometimes his poison gets the better of him.

Goku makes questionable choices when he gets his blood boiling with the rush of competition, even at times when he probably should be thinking about harm mitigation. Because that is a thing he cares about; He doesn't like it when people get hurt, and he'll go out of his way to help others in crisis.

But he can't help himself. He was born for the stage.

Which makes it fitting that Goku's journey ends with one final compromise between his moral center and his poison. Right at the very end of his journey, Goku finally manages to satisfy both.

By relying on the karmic cycle itself, Goku destroys the monster that Majin Buu is while making a promise to fight each other again one day in a better life. The ultimate evolution of "No, let the bad guy go so I can fight him again."

And a promise well-kept.