#JUST KI AHHHHHHHHHH MY HEART | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

duhragonball · 6 years

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Dragon Ball 123

King Piccolo is dead! He exploded in the sky over what used to be King’s Castle, but Yamcha, Bulma, and Launch don’t know that yet. So they move quietly through the rubble to get a better look, until they find...

Another Launch! No, wait, they find Tien, and this is Launch reacting to that. Sorry.

She’s super happy an relieved to see him, and she starts bandaging him up. This is cute and all, but I can’t help but notice that this is the first time Blue Launch has really spent any time with Tien. She watched Tien break Yamcha’s leg, but I’m pretty sure she was in Blonde mode through every episode until they separated to deal with the Piccolo crisis. Certainly, she could have sneezed a few times off-screen, but otherwise I think this is the first time Blue Launch has met Tien since he turned good.

I just wonder what the deal is there, because she seems pretty happy to see him, and I always took it for granted that Blue Launch loved Tien as much as Blonde Launch does, but she wouldn’t remember the things Blonde Launch saw that made her fall for the guy. So what does Blue Launch see in him? Or is this some deal where the heart remembers?

Then again, like I pointed out before, Blonde Launch didn’t see much of Tien either, at least in the manga, and yet she still fell for him anyway. Maybe that’s how both forms of Launch roll. She’s used to hearing about new people after the fact, because someone needs to fill her in on what happened while she was her other self.

Once Bulma hears from Tien that King Piccolo is dead, she reports the good news to a TV station, and before long the whole world is celebrating.

This escaped convict is so relieved that he’s happy to surrender himself to the authorities. “Welp, crime is illegal again, so I guess it’s back to jail for me.” This guy looks like Nappa, by the way.

King Furry’s security guys congratulate him for weathering this crisis, but Furry insists that it’s all because of that boy who tore Piccolo a new cakehole and blew him up. Well, those aren’t his exact words, but man that fight was good.

Back at Kame House, Tien tells the others the whole story, and Launch is still putting bandages on him. Okay, Blue Launch is hot for Tien, there’s no question of that. Bulma’s cooking eggs for everyone, and that’s normally Launch’s thing, so I’m pretty sure she’s only doing that because she couldn’t get Launch away from Tien for five seconds.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though. King Piccolo is dead and Goku is alive, but Krillin, Master Roshi, and Chiaotzu were killed during the crisis. Worse, Shenron was destroyed, so the Dragon Balls have been reduced to ordinary stones. Not sure why they bothered bringing them back with them to Kame House, or why they’re keeping them in a glass case, but okay.

Meanwhile, this old man’s watching an enormous TV.

His wife busts in to tell him about this big egg she found in the river. I was about to say “giant egg”, because it is, but honestly, the TV sort of stole the egg’s thunder.

The old man checks it out an he’s like “This isn’t even close to the size of my TV.”

Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh. Kami left it... why not?

He tells his wife to fetch him a knife, which seems like the wrong move for dealing with an egg, but it was floating in a river before, so maybe he figures all bets are off. But then it hatches right in front of them, and they look inside....

AHHHHHHHHHH IT’S PICCOLO’S SON AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Back at Korin Tower, Korin heals Goku’s injuries with “herbs.” This word is used in the manga too, which I don’t understand because we’ve already established that Senzu beans heal injuries too, so why bother with anything else?

Korin admits that he honestly didn’t think Goku stood much of a chance, and in his mind, the best case scenario was that Goku and Piccolo would take each other out. If that happened, he would have used the Dragon Balls to resurrect Goku, though. Turns out, Korin didn’t know about King Piccolo killing Shenron, which seems odd to me, since he usually knows about everything else, including Piccolo’s wish to make himself younger. So was he watching Piccolo using the Dragon Balls, then looked away before he killed the Dragon?

Goku’s pretty frustrated that he can’t wish King Piccolo’s victims back to life, but Yajirobe points out that this is normally how life works. People die all the time, and you don’t get a reset button. Then Korin adds that it’s actually worse than that, because when you get killed by a demon, you can’t go to the afterlife, and you’re condemned to wander limbo forever.

I really don’t get this bit of lore, and I suspect that Toriyama threw it in just to make it clear that there’s something at stake here. One could argue that Master Roshi is happier in the afterlife, like Son Gohan was, so Korin has to rain on that parade in order to keep the story going.

But I don’t understand how Korin would know such things, especially since there’s nothing supernatural about King Piccolo or his spawn. He’s not a demon, he’s a Namekian, and his kids are all mutated Namekians, so how does that fit into all of this?

At last, Korin realizes that there is a way to get the Dragon Balls working again. Goku just needs to ask the guy who created the Dragon Balls to revive Shenron. And that guy’s name is Kami.

I don’t want to get bogged down in the definition of the word Kami, since it’s kind of a complicated topic. Suffice to say that it can be used to refer to a Supreme Being, and that seems to be the context it’s used for in Dragon Ball. In the Viz translation of the manga, they just substitute the word “God”, which makes the point a little more clearly: Goku has to ask God to turn the Dragon Balls back on.

I’m pretty sure that’s also what was meant when other characters have referred to Kami in past episodes. Suno prayed to Kami to watch over Goku while he fought in Muscle Tower, and Chiaotzu prayed to Kami when Tien used the Ki Ko Ho during the World Tournament. Even in this episode, that old couple who found Piccolo Junior thought the egg might be from Kami.

So this is what Yajirobe means when he says there’s no such thing. He’s basically saying that he doesn’t believe in God, even though he’s familiar with the concept of God. And even if he did think God existed, it’s not like you can just walk up to his front door and ask him to turn the Dragon Balls back on.

But Korin tells them that he not only knows God’s home address, he’s the guy who arranges all his appointments. Kami’s temple is directly above Korin Tower, and it’s so high up that it can’t even be seen. Goku can’t fly up to it with Kinto Un because apparently Kinto Un’s maximum altitude is the height of Korin Tower. A rocket wouldn’t work, because some sort of force field would repel anyone who approached.

No, the only way to gain access to Kami’s temple is to get permission from Korin, and then to ascend from the top of Korin Tower using... the Nyoibo.

Turns out the Nyoibo was never a weapon at all. The reason it extends on command is because you’re supposed to plug it into the top of Korin Tower, and hang onto it while it takes you up to Kami’s place. Korin gave it to Master Roshi a long time ago because Roshi wouldn’t stop bugging him about it, and eventually Roshi passed it on to Son Gohan, who gave it to Son Goku. So as it turns out, Goku already has what he needs to appeal to Kami.

Or he would, if he hadn’t lost the Nyoibo during the fight with King Piccolo. Whoops.

Goku heads back to the ruins of King’s Castle, where King Furry is holding a press conference. When Goku arrives, Furry introduces the boy as the hero who saved everyone, though he doesn’t know his name.

The press swarm Goku immediately, but he’s too busy hunting for the Nyoibo to pay any attention to them.

Then he remembers Fortune Teller Baba, and her ability to find lost objects.

Goku heads over to her place. Now, Baba charges 10 million zeni for a single reading, but you can opt out of her fee by fighting her team of five fighters. So Goku’s prepared to go that route.

But Baba points out that she’d never find anyone who’d be willing to face the guy who killed King Piccolo, so she agrees to do this one for free. Master Roshi is her brother, after all.

Turns out the Nyoibo is at Kami House, because Tien picked it up off the battlefield after Goku left. Goku heads there immediately, leaving Baba to remark that her prediction came true.

Turns out Launch tied the Nyoibo to a broom head for some reason. I mean, she needed to clean the bathroom, I get that, but it hasn’t been that long since Tien brought it here, right? Sometimes it’s hard to tell with Dragon Ball. Has it been a day or a week since Goku killed King Piccolo?

Goku immediately runs off, saying something about going to talk to God, and warning the others not to dispose of their friends’ bodies. No one knows what any of it means.

Meanwhile, Piccolo’s final offspring is burning houses down and threatening to destroy his father’s enemies.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #goku #piccolo #bulma #launch #tien #yamcha #oolong #puar #yajirobe #korin #king furry #turtle #fortuneteller baba #23rd budokai saga

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