#Like in the canon timeline how much did meeting Goku

[blueper-saiyan]

Despite not enjoying reading Planet Vegeta survives AUs very much, I still end up spending a fair amount of time thinking about what Vegeta would have been like if he’d actually grown up in the role of prince like he was supposed to. Obviously, he would have still been a tyrannical mass murderer except with far less insecurity and trauma, but that’s not really what I find interesting. I’m curious how he would view his role. In the regular timeline where basically every other Saiyan dies, he’s clearly (imo) decided that he needs to embody the absolute ideal for a Saiyan (or at least the version that he’s come up with, which is strongly biased by the fact that he grew up with only one adult Saiyan, was surrounded by people who hate his whole species, and was influenced by Freeza who both enjoyed messing with him and could directly profit if Vegeta was wrong about his own culture. So uh, probably not a particularly accurate version. But that’s a different concept to explore.). I’m not even sure if it was a conscious decision by Vegeta or not now that I think about it. Being very likely to be the last member of his species puts a very strong pressure to live up to or down to the expectations that everyone who met him would have. Beyond that, he’s royalty, and that means he’s supposed to be held to a higher standard, so he’d feel that pressure to leave a final impression even more than Nappa or Raditz. (And they both seem to care about it too, especially Raditz, which is interesting, but I’ll leave that sort of meta to the hardcore Raditz fans since I mostly just care about Raditz for the way he impacts Vegeta and don’t think as strongly about him)

So in contrast to the canon timeline, if Vegeta was growing up in a timeline where there were plenty of other Saiyans, would he feel that same pressure to be exactly what everyone expects of him? He’d have a more accurate picture of those expectations as well. I can’t decide whether or not I think that alternate version of Vegeta would still want to be the perfect Saiyan in quite the same way. Would he chafe against the actual ideal if it wasn’t more or less a framework he formed for himself? Would being able to actually be judged against it make it less appealing? What if some of the ideas about what makes a good Saiyan were things he disagreed with? Or would he still be loyal to his species and do the best he could to be the perfect Saiyan prince and then king, regardless of how high that standard might be or how much he dislikes some of it? He’s certainly canonically willing to subject himself to an impossible standard that causes him and everyone else a lot of problems. But is that only because it’s a standard he constructed himself?

Admittedly, at that level of divergence in experiences between canon Vegeta and a Planet Vegeta lives AU Vegeta, it’s hard to even really call the resulting character Vegeta still (the reason I don’t enjoy Planet Vegeta lives AUs) but I do feel like something about this question has relevance to actual Vegeta’s characterization and motives. Does he care so strongly about being Saiyan only because they’re all dead and therefore he’s forced to represent the whole species whether or not he wants to, and he’s embraced it at this point? Or is it because his father did a good job of instilling pride in him during the brief time they were together (for all the good and ill that his pride has caused)? Is he only so devoted to his “Saiyan pride” because he’s the one who came up with his version and no one else can truly decide how well he’s following it? Or does not having any external validation of how well he’s doing just make his self-imposed (and generally self-destructive) task harder? How much of why he’s so insistent on it is due to Freeza?

Freeza has a line shortly before he starts torturing Vegeta that I think about sometimes, where he basically says that he thought Vegeta was special and better than the other Saiyans. Up to your interpretation of Freeza whether Freeza genuinely believed that Vegeta is special somehow or if he was just doing some particularly cruel emotional manipulation there. Regardless of the intent behind it, if that was the attitude that Freeza was demonstrating most of the time, maybe Vegeta doubled down on being Saiyan because Freeza kept trying to claim he wasn’t like them, and he was able to see the insult. There’s also an alternative interpretation of Vegeta that he was convinced he was better than the rest of his species because of the way Freeza treated him. It’s an extremely good way to isolate him after all. In which case Vegeta only started (I often mentally call it “performing Saiyan pride” but I’m sure there’s a better way to refer to the behavior) after realizing he’d been lied to and manipulated for the majority of his life. So embracing being Saiyan so aggressively is a sort of penance for discrediting his people in the past. Or if he’d been performing Saiyan pride all along, the reveal that Freeza killed the Saiyans just spurred on a more intense performance.

Seeing a version of Vegeta with different pressures on him might give answers to some of these questions I have about why he behaves the way he does (yes it’s because he was never meant to be inspected this closely and he takes the roles he needs to for the sake of the plot, no I do not care I’m taking him seriously anyway), so I end up thinking about that version of him where he knows for sure what it means to be a Saiyan.

[fourcolour-ace]

DBZ Non-Combatant Gohan AU

Something we often talk about is how Gohan never had a choice.

In canon DBZ, a child was thrown(sometimes literally) into a world where everyone's fate was riding on him. A four-year-old child. We all know this.

Some months ago I asked myself, 'Well, what would have happened if he had been able to choose?'.

Which brings us to the(slightly improbable) alternate timeline in which Gohan had a normal childhood.

Imagine, if you will, the scene after the defeat of Raditz: Goku and his brother dead, onlookers have assembled, Piccolo is just about to grab that kid, but then Chichi arrives.

"There's no way you're taking my baby!" She's not about to let the reborn Demon King take her son, and by now it's become clear there's no arguing with Chichi. Piccolo has had his fill of human BS for the moment; he warns of a day when Gohan's strength will be needed to save the Earth, and leaves.

The fate of the planet now(as ever) rests on the shoulders of the deceased Goku. Chichi takes her son home and he starts kindergarten only a few days late.

I'm open to suggestions regarding the details of the big fights: my peers have told me the Z Fighters are "screwed" in the Saiyan saga without Gohan. Despite my years in this fandom, fights are not my forte(haha). For now, we just trust that the DBZ guys will always make it through, because they have to. The Saiyans, Frieza, the Androids and Cell: all are defeated without the son of Goku's help. I don't intend to have Majin Buu appear in this, no shade to fans of the Buu saga but things are too different by that stage of the story. Indeed, there is another layer to this will displease many: Goku and Chichi are separated.

This is no act of hatred towards GoChi, I assure you. I only wanted to make Gohan's lack of presence in combat more credible. I imagine as the years passed Chichi was ever more determined to keep her son off the battlefield, while Goku would most likely never give up on trying to train the boy. They aren't divorced, but live apart. Chichi moves with Gohan closer to the city so commuting to school will be less challenging, while Goku stays in Mount Paozu, where I imagine the Son family home becomes a bit of a Z Fighter hangout. By the time he's sixteen, Gohan hasn't seen his father in nearly a decade(though he did see most of the Cell Game broadcast). Goten fans worry not, your boy will still be born, just later.

So, when does Gohan join the fight? I'm not sure exactly, but know that there's no way to keep a Saiyan(even a half-blood) off the battlefield forever. He does meet his father at the 25th World Martial Arts tournament(I have a fun workaround for how they all found out it was happening), which is the big moment I always come back to when I ponder this AU. I won't take up too much more of your time with this post, but let me sketch it out for you:

Gohan and his high school friends are attending the tournament in order to cheer Videl on. Oddly enough, it is Vegeta who takes notice of the teen, with his uncannily familiar face.

"Kakarot, does that boy look Saiyan to you?"

"A Saiyan?" Goku looks in the direction that Vegeta indicates. "That's my son!"

So he calls out to him, the boy turns to see his father, and the die is cast. Nothing Chichi says will keep Gohan from learning his heritage now.

There's a whole lot more to this but it'll be coming in another post! Thanks for reading.

[carnal-lnstinct]

Like A Right of Passage

☆ insp ☆ / ♫ never leave you lonely ☆☆ Pairing: Raditz x Female Reader ( God of Destruction ) ☆☆ Content: 18+. MINORS DNI. DWD AU - Pre DBS: Broly, existing goku & vegeta x reader, referenced Time Patrol/Time traveling, training, ss!raditz (secret sadboy raditz uwu), he's domesticated-adjacent idk how else to explain it ☆☆ Warning: referenced character death, canon-typical violence, dubcon → consent, referenced cheating, manipulation, eventual smut ☆☆ A/N: its bullying raditz hours my dudes but he will be rewarded for his struggles. I ended up breaking it up into two parts because it was getting out of hand xD

◄ Part One | Part Two ►

You look lonely. I can fix that.

Raditz would like to think he's seen his fair share of strange and new places, but the home of a God of Destruction was by far one of the most unique. It amused him to think his once weaker sibling was being trained here, making a name for himself and saiyan eminence in the realm of the Gods. His own path to achieving great avenues of power beyond anything they have ever seen before was much different, a forced open mind to possibilities helped him to better understand the grand scheme of the universe. If he wanted to make an impact in it and define his place outside the shadow of those once stronger than himself— his prince, his own brother, and even his nephew— then he would do what was necessary.

The death of Cell turned out to be a blessing in disguise for him, having retreated to the stars following Goku's sacrifice. Circumstances that allowed him to encounter the Time Patrol was just what he needed to distract from his self-placed irrelevance on Earth. And he didn't need to be trained by gods or angels to achieve his new power. Raditz did plan on returning to Earth one day, but saw more potential for himself remaining in the Time Patrol for a little while longer, and everything that followed his Earth's history was a mystery to him until now.

"So then, where is Lord Beerus?" Raditz turned to his fellow saiyans and towering Angel, more cautious than curious of the God of Destruction's whereabouts. He is met with a peculiar look from Whis.

"Who's that?" Goku asked in the middle of stretching, preparing for his training. Raditz squinted his eyes at him in response, then scoffed.

"Don't joke around, obviously you have been training here long enough to know who this place belongs to." Goku's stare with an arch brow further showing his confusion about his implication, standing up from his stretches with a thoughtful hum. Of course he knows who it belongs to but what did that have to do with the name Raditz gave? Goku turned to both Vegeta and Whis for clarification if he missed something, the larger saiyan looked at him more annoyed in suspicions of some trick being played on him.

"I don't know about any Lord Beerus, but this is Lady (Y/n)'s place. Our universe's God of Destruction." Vegeta adds to remedy the confusion before it got on his nerves. If he gathered correctly what the Time Patrol was about from Raditz's explanation on the way, then it shouldn't be a surprise a different thread in time would have a different God of Destruction.

"Yeah, you should know that. Didn't you meet some different timeline person or somethin' of our universe's God of Destruction?" Goku adds on in retaliation to his brother's glare at him. The thought of another God of Destruction of their universe fazed both the saiyans a little. Goku saw an opportunity to gauge if there would be a difference in power between the two, but Vegeta would truly hate to have to deal with another one.

So there was more catching up to do in his own timeline than he thought. Raditz discerned some differences were more clear than others such as himself even being alive to see this world from his initial arrival on Earth, but identities never changed in history and when they did it meant something was wrong. But not here? Now he was actually curious to see the Destroyer of this time.

"Then...where are they?" He asks, breaking away from his thoughts.

Whis then smiles to himself, lifting his staff and tilting it directly at Raditz making the saiyan look oddly at him. "Lady (Y/n), nice of you to finally join us. I hope your own little adventure was to your liking."

"Well enough," punctuated a yawn behind the tall saiyan, quickly reacting with surprise as he whipped around at the sound. Raditz felt like everything had slown to a crawl and his entire body cease, disconnected from his own will at the piercing stare that locked onto him. Exactly the cold, overbearing sensation that got to him when he first encounter Beerus. How frozen he became allowed him to at least take in the Hakaishin attire and accessories, how they matched the main timelines Destroyer with some personal alterations.

Your steps come to a stop before completely passing him by, a scrutinizing glare narrowing on the petrified saiyan. You then roll your eyes with a sigh. "Oh, joy..." You grumped, monotone, then turned towards the more familiar pair. "You found yet another saiyan and brought him here. Don't you have any other places to train? I won't be having any of your noise today."

"It will just be for a little while, I promise!" Goku casually addresses with a plead, hands pressed together with a humbled smile. "We just wanted to show off where we trained a bit for Raditz."

"-Leave me out of this, it was all your idea to bring him here!" Vegeta interjects in a snap, diverting the blame away from himself to keep off your radar. You let out an annoyed groan as Whis shook his head and Raditz managed to cautiously compose himself. Whis moves to approach you, standing next to Raditz with a gesturing hand.

"Like Goku was saying, this one here is called Raditz, My Lady. Goku's older brother if you can believe it, isn't that something?" Stage fright struck the large saiyan again with your eyes turning back onto him.

"Uh-...A pleasure to make your acquaintance, G-God of Destruction (Y/n)!" Raditz quickly folded his right arm against his chest and the other behind his back, dropping his torso in a formal bow, avoiding your gaze at all costs. Your eyes immediately discovered the erect tail behind him with a hint of intrigue, not only further proof of his race, but something you realized had been missing from those you were shamelessly already acquainted with. Vegeta and Goku carried evidence of once having tails of course but after looking upon saiyans with a new perspective, your eyes peruse the tail as one would look upon an adorable small creature. An itch to touch it, pet it, feel it curl in your grasp. Certainly, this one was rarer than his counterparts these days.

"...Goku's brother, huh? Well, that's a little interesting. Goku never mentioned having a brother." You immediately shrug off the spark of excitement to not display distraction from your overall annoyance.

Whis lets out a laugh behind his hand, tilting slightly towards Raditz. "You must possess the same capacity of fighting as he does. As well as his endearing faults. Well hopefully not all of them." His last words muttered to himself but not out of earshot, a lightly offended Goku turning his way.

"So another dirty fighting saiyan, then. How uncouth." Your brows lowered with a distasteful frown at the bowed mass of hair. "Not only uninvited, but he shows up here empty-handed expecting to be trained like these other imbeciles." You lean down closer to bed of spiky hair joined by your hand finding the shape of his skull in a sudden grip, malice laced in your lowered tone. "You coming to challenge me, too? To become a God of Destruction? I don't think I should stand for that, mortal." Raditz dared not move an inch under the pressure. No amount of fighting he has endured over the years would prepare him to defend himself against a Destroyer God.

Vegeta, ever diligent to pick up on your shifts in mood by now, breaks away from his standoffish pose with a huff and approaches you and Raditz, reaching into his armor. A colored wrapper appears in your eyeshot bidding your attention and succeeding, your glare softening up as you read the sweet and attractive name on the candy bar. You take it without a second thought and eagerly tear into it to explore the flavor it would have. "Don't waste your time with Raditz, My Lady. He's just another low-class bred saiyan like Kakarot. Not likely to be able to keep up with a god, let alone become one." The Prince follows up, Raditz visibly flinching at the statement and lifting his freed head at Vegeta.

"Hey, we've come a long way from that Vegeta. Even Raditz has gotten stronger since we've last seen him." Goku quickly steps in, taking his brother's side while you ate away at the delightful treat. "You can sense it, too. There's no need for that kind of talk anymore." The younger saiyan's hand on his shoulder encouraged Raditz to stand taller and relax, Vegeta turning his nose up with a grump and folding his arms against his chest. Goku looks up to his brother with delight at the discovery of power within him. They did come a long way from Cell and even Majin Buu. "Whatever you've been doin' with the Time Patrol has really been good to your power. We could have used that kind of fight on our side in the Tournament." Such affirmation gave Raditz such mixed feelings, he may never get used to them where he isn't standing as the dominant presence. Let alone from his little brother.

Time did well for their brotherly bond, but not enough to mend that which was branded into Raditz for years. He was quick to react with a faint glower and snatching his arm away before the comforting feeling could set in. But nothing more after Goku playfully nudged him.

"There is one way to test that and I am sure you will enjoy it. How about a spar to show off the extent of your capabilities, Raditz? Certainly, we are eager to see what this power is Goku has been going on about." Whis invites to take place, turning a knowing eye to you as you finished off the candy bar. "Is that alright with you, Lady (Y/n)?"

You return from your decadent plane of existence to all their eyes awaiting your response. Played again. But the earthly treats are always worth it when they're so delicious and readily available to eat. You recompose and softly huff. "...Just keep it down this time."

Fine then, Raditz thought, he is more than willing to prove his strength. The inability to harness and control God ki wouldn't matter then- in fact, it may give him the upper hand regardless of his opponent-

"Perhaps you would like to participate this time? It's been a while since you have joined in on training."

Oh no.

Whis had a point, but you had your reasons for avoiding training with the saiyans, mainly their childish back and forth. Yet you look up more thoughtfully, considering, then your eyes return to Raditz and his poorly withheld shock. The corner of your mouth stretched into a playfully wicked grin. Meeting this new saiyan strikes up a feeling of nostalgia for the first time you meet Goku and encountered Vegeta again. How convenient it has been for them that you chose not to destroy them, and how entertaining it has been for you that they have become just strong enough to not be pests. But they make up for that as often as you desire and it has become an acquired taste of yours. You don't expect yourself to be open to that for another, in fact it seemed unlikely, yet already there are some things about Raditz that inspired your imagination.

That tail, for starters. An indulgence you never knew you wanted, robbed from you between your two tailless lackeys. You wanted a reason to get your hands on it. And one cannot ignore how much larger his stature is compared to Goku and Vegeta, how his body armor stretched to cover his physique and cling to compliment the exposed muscles. It doesn't hurt to be a little curious about what that implies. He has a genuine fear of you, and that is always flattering.

But more importantly, you caught a whiff of the power inside of him and it is completely different from what Goku and Vegeta exhibit, Something that isn't just a lack of god ki, and even more unlike Gohan's power. Compared to them, it was indeed strong for a mortal to wield. Where was this when Grand Zeno orchestrated the Tournament of Power? You can't overlook the pattern of a saiyan's power and how it tends to surprise you with how it develops.

You are eager to see what exactly Raditz has to offer.

"Why not?" You shrugged, agreeing to participate for a bit. "It's like a right of passage for you saiyans at this point."

No, no, no! The larger saiyan internalized until it reflected in his face.

You discard the empty candy wrapper between The Prince's folded arms and stroll out from the group. "Come, let us battle."

"Don't worry, you're not expected to win anything. It's just an exhibition of what you can do." Whis reassured Raditz as Goku tried to get his brother moving after you.

"And between you and me, I wouldn't hold back if I were you." You added, that smirk once again creeping into your features.

Exhibition or not, Raditz wasn't stupid enough to go so far as to fight a God of Destruction. His own well-being was and remains his priority and he could feel it in his bones that that was far from your intent. Potential humiliation aside, there was no guarantee you wouldn't just finish him off to flex your own might. He's seen what Beerus could do and it has left a dreadful chill in his spine ever since. Couldn't he just fight Kakarot or even Vegeta?

Preferably Vegeta. The Prince's words replayed in his head and added to the other distasteful insults uttered his way as far back as he could remember, all seeming to loop over all at once over the pounding in his chest. The gall he had to speak of him like that now as if they haven't struggled against similar enemies for a time. He doesn't miss that from being away. Raditz isn't assured by the impression you or Whis was looking for, but he breaks out of his daze to speak for himself for a change.

"No." He stated firmly, swatting Goku away from him. "-Respectfully! N-No, Lady (Y/n) -Forgive me, but I have... nothing to prove to you."

"I know." You answered simply and promptly to Raditz's surprise, motioning for him to come over. "Give me your best shot anyways."

[ultraericthered]

I didn’t make that up! Toonami actually did this thing where they ran the whole saga under the “New Year’s Evil” marathon title, and since I’d watched the Dragon Ball Z movie (Dead Zone) towards the end of last year, watching this follow-up filler arc in the main anime series as a follow-up made sense for this New Years Eve week. And having done that, I just gotta say that WOW, I forgot just how stupid and awful this saga was. And I never liked this saga even when I was a kid watching the show on Cartoon Network/Toonami, so revisiting it now as an adult was a good refresher on just exactly why that is. 

By far the biggest problem in the whole saga is the premise itself, and all the ways it does not work at all. By bringing Garlic Jr. and the events of the first movie into the series, they’re basically canonizing that movie into the anime’s timeline of events. The issue here is that that particular movie and that particular bad guy are the absolute worst choices for material to do that with. In the movie, Roshi and Krillin knew Gohan and that he was Goku’s son, and the plot had Goku and Piccolo working together to fight a villain who’d abducted Gohan. Then in the anime, which that movie is now canonical to, Roshi and Krillin are shocked to meet Goku’s son Gohan, and Goku and Piccolo then work together to fight a villain who’d abducted Gohan, with not even an allusion to the same thing having happened before! And Garlic Jr. is the last villain you’d want to see the Z Fighters go up against in a rematch because...well, he’s immortal. He actually successfully wished on the Dragon Balls for eternal life! Meaning that any plot involving the character can only end the exact same way for him as his debut outing, cheapening his whole shtick.

Beyond the premise, even the plot itself doesn’t work! Garlic Jr. goes for the “make every human on Earth evil” plan while asserting himself as the new God of Earth who will make all Earthly life into his army of darkness to besiege the universe with. This is a decent, if uninspired, set-up...that’s coming right off the heels of the Freeza Saga and right before Freeza’s return and the debut of Future Trunks that leads us into the Cell Saga. The threat and the stakes feeling so much lower here sticks out like a sore thumb between those two canon arcs. Ultimately we’re treated to nothing new in this saga, learn nothing that we didn’t already know, see zero character development aside from one well developed MVP, and its events are never mentioned again in later arcs sans the random “Maron at Kame House” subplot.

The MVP of this saga I mentioned? Piccolo! If I could give any reason to watch this saga at all to anyone, it’s for him. His portrayal is very consistent with the growth he had in the Saiyan Saga and the self discovery he had in the Freeza Saga, and actually sets him on a good foundation for what’s to come in the Cell Saga. The stuff he does in the saga and all of his fight scenes are badass, especially whenever it’s him one-on-one against Garlic Jr. Even the final line by the narrator in the last episode (the last one featuring the main plot, at least) is about him and how much he now cares about the Earth.

Second best character in this saga would be Garlic Jr. himself. He is just so constantly unhinged, so malicious, and so entertaining as the evil little shit that he is. I found myself really wishing they did more with him as Piccolo’s foil and archenemy, ‘cause he is such a natural fit; he too is a “Junior” born/reincarnated from his evil father who’d been an enemy of Kami’s, thus making him an enemy of Kami. But Piccolo was able to grow and move beyond his initial purpose as the Demon King Reincarnated, while Garlic never got the chance to really be his own self independent from his father and it’s driven him mad, consumed by malice and incapable of changing his ways. ....BUT there’s another reason I feel it was a mistake to bring him back like this. Except for the very first scene, he spends the entirety of the saga at Kami’s Lookout. His evil lair from the movie was a huge factor in what made him work there; it was downright Satanic in aesthetic and gave the presence of sheer EVIL in a way I’ve rarely seen or felt in Dragon Ball. Having this dark priest imp occupying a much lighter looking backdrop stripped away some of his menace.

The other characters are meh. Gohan is pretty bland and at times feels like he’s regressed in growth after the Freeza Saga, Krillin is just Krillin, Master Roshi is badly written and unfunny Filler Roshi, Yajirobe and Korin are completely superfluous, Chi-Chi, Bulma, Yamcha and the rest are alright but not remarkable, and the new Spice Boys are just your basic bitch boring cannon fodder minions. If nothing else, I at least gained somewhat more respect for Mr. Popo and (to a lesser extent) Kami, even though I still don’t like them.

Oh yeah, the elephant in the room here - Maron, Krillin’s brief fling who was not to last as his girlfriend. As a girlfriend, she’s too much. She’s honestly despicable in the spoiled, demanding, emotionally manipulative and controlling way she treats poor Krillin. She’s also almost too dumb to be breathing, except for the few occasions where she says or does something that tells us she knows exactly what she’s doing and feels zero shame. The camera gaze on her and her Ms. Fanservice moments are quite appalling, and by the end, she’s accomplished nothing except making others around her miserable. Do I hate her? Surprisingly no. I think she’s best described as an Andy Kaufman joke in character form. Once you realize you’re being trolled and that you’re meant to be pissed off at her, she ends up becoming a lot funnier and her padding scenes a bit more welcome.

Now for the big shocker: with all of that said about Maron....I’d much rather sit through every one of her scenes than having to see the four scenes with Vegeta. Yes, I’m serious. Vegeta is the worst part of this saga. At least Maron was there since the saga’s start and her being Krillin’s girlfriend gives her some relevance to at least one of the major players. Vegeta is out in space, far removed from what’s going on in the story. Any viewer who thinks his scenes might end up connecting to the plot in any way will be let down, and any who then think his scenes are set-up for the next arc will be doubly let down because he then comes back to Earth empty-handed. His whole subplot accomplished absolutely nothing. He’s just filler in a fucking filler arc! In the end, all Vegeta ended up doing is reinforcing what a dumb adaptational decision it was for him to steal a Capsule ship and go into space looking for Kakarot at the end of the Freeza Saga, which was the crescendo of bad adaptational decisions made with him since he came back to life! The Bad Man shirt couldn’t come fast enough to get this character back on track and actually cool again!

Lastly, the dub was still in Season 3, so most of the voice acting I had to endure was painful, with Sony Strait’s Krillin still sounding like a munchkin, Stephanie Nadolny’s Gohan’s acting being unconvincing, Chris Sabat’s Piccolo is a laughably terrible Scott McNeil impression, his Kami is just plain terrible, even Yajirobe and Korin sounded way worse than I’d heard in the later Dragon Ball dub. The one original performance that sounds great is Chuck Huber as Garlic Jr.; I liked Don Brown better, but Chuck was really good at nailing the evilness and insanity of the character too. But of course, as this was the remastered dub that’s now the default one available, there were three roles that got redubbed. Leah Clark as Maron is a marked improvement over Daphne Gere’s original, and Chris Sabat’s new Vegeta was fine even though his deep, gruff, hoarse smoker voice he was doing back then sucked. But the last recast/redubbed role is ... J. Michael Tatum as Spice? OK but why? The other three Spice Boys have their original voice acting in-tact, so Spice having a totally different quality of voice acting from them and with a recognizable voice who’d later be Zarbon in the Dragon Ball Z Kai dub was super distracting. Worse still, there was one point I swear that Tatum didn’t redub, so Spice suddenly says a line in his first dub voice! WTF???

Overall, this was a plot for a movie or TV special that somehow found its way into the main anime as a 10 episode filler saga. And as such, it suffered greatly in quality and presentation, going down in infamy as one of the low points of the series. 4/10, can skip it if you’d like to.

“HIGHLIGHTS” OF THIS SAGA INCLUDE:

- “Somehow Garlic Jr. returned!” No, I’m not even joking here. In the opening scene of the saga, that’s pretty much literally what Garlic Jr. himself uses to establish that he’s just somehow broken free from the Dead Zone and is back on Earth. How he managed this does not get a proper explanation until three episodes in! That is cheap writing.

- Popo tells Garlic his own story. When Garlic Jr. confronts Mr. Popo at the lookout, Popo recaps the events of the Dead Zone movie and Garlic’s part in it right to Garlic’s face. Why is he telling him all this? He was there, it all happened TO him! This is not information he needs to be hearing! Maybe this was dub-induced, but doing a recap for the audience in this manner just feels gratuitous all the same.

- When suddenly vampires! Yeah, his name is Garlic and the lead Spice Boy, Spice, resembles a vampire, but I didn’t think that literal vampirism would factor into things until the Black Water Mist doesn’t just corrupt people’s souls and drive them to evil, but makes them into sharp toothed vampires who can turn others into being like them by biting them on the neck! A little excessive, don’t you think, Toei?

- Gohan and Garlic Who? Gohan is the child Garlic Jr. abducted and who sent him into the Dead Zone to begin with. Garlic certainly hasn’t forgotten Gohan, but Gohan barely has ANY reaction to Garlic! You’d think seeing him again would awaken repressed memories of the incident and justify some of his fear in the story, but it’s never really touched upon, so Garlic is just a random baddie to Gohan.

- Krillin’s near deaths. Speaking of underreactions from Gohan, Krillin is owned and nearly killed more than once in this saga. Krillin was actually killed by Freeza right before Gohan’s eyes on Namek, so there should be some PTSD reactions going on here except...there isn’t. Gohan doesn’t flash back to Namek at any point, even when it looks like Krillin might be a goner in a way very similar to what happened on Namek! I know I probably shouldn’t be expecting much since Dragon Ball hardly deals with issues as complex and heavy as childhood trauma, this isn’t Steven Universe Future here. But they didn’t even go for the barest minimum even at the easiest openings!

- Vegeta says what? There’s a line Vegeta says in one of his awful scenes that I swear had to be a dub mistranslation. He boasts about being the Prince of Saiyans whose power far eclipses other warriors and ultimately not even Freeza was a match for him, but Kakarot alone surpasses him! Vegeta, this is a bald-faced LIE! Freeza DESTROYED you in every sense of the word! The whole reason Kakarot surpasses you now is because he became a Super Saiyan and thus equal in power to Freeza! Who are you trying to fool here?

- Kami & Popo’s run / Kami Torture Porn. Some of the worst content in the saga comes when Kami and Mr. Popo travel into some other dimensional space to obtain the Sacred Water and send it out into Earth’s atmosphere. There is animation of Kami & Popo frantically running that is re-used constantly, repeated slapstick run-ins with invisible walls, absolutely terrible continuity between scenes (Kami is worn out and/or incapacitated before we cut back to the fight with Garlic Jr., then when we’re back with Kami & Popo, they’re running again!), and Kami getting electrically tortured by his predecessors ad nauseum. I’m not a fan of Kami, I don’t think he has many fans, but were there people really clamoring to see this shit happen to him? 

- That awkward silence moment. This one part in the fight where Garlic Jr. has seemingly buried Piccolo under rubble and he then just...stands there with a dumbass look on his face, taking in his triumph while there’s absolutely no sound. And it was so painfully awkward that it made me wish I was watching this with the Bruce Faulconer track ‘cause you know that would negate the silence.

- Size expansion and sonic scream. Piccolo and Kami showcased two familiar abilities here, one being a welcome return and the other being a shudder-inducing early appearance. To match Garlic Jr. in his transformed state, Piccolo expands his size a bit, which Gohan remarks he didn’t know Piccolo could do. We, of course, did know since he did this against Goku in the 23rd Budokai, albeit to a much larger (read; gigantic) size, so it’s cool to see him utilize that power again. Meanwhile, Kami at one point uses a vibrating scream to shatter a wall in front of him and Popo. That’s right, the same ability that Majin Buu would later use in a saga-derailing moment. Yeesh!

- Eternal life. One part I actually really liked was how Garlic Jr’s immortality was displayed. In his movie, it was sort of just an informed thing - he wished for eternal life, was granted it, and then kept reminding you that he had it. But here, we see Gohan tear right through Garlic’s body and blast him in the face, which would kill any other opponent...but then Garlic gets back up and his fatal wound fades into nonexistence as though it hadn’t even happened to him! It’s an effectively alarming moment to see and actually demonstrates what it means for a powerful fighter to have eternal life - unkillable.

- HUMAN VEGETA?. By far the single strangest moment in the whole saga is a very brief bit in the opening minutes of one episode where a bunch of vampiric humans are smashing up a city. One of the people is shown up close, screaming into the camera...and he has the exact same hairstyle and facial structure as Vegeta! It’s the epitome of lazy character models when you take the model of one of the most major and recognizable characters in the series and use it for a total rando! I seriously could not believe my eyes were seeing it!

- “BULLIES, I SAY! HAHAHAHAHAHA!” One of the biggest laughs came from a horrendously delivered and narmy line of dialogue from Kami, when he declares to his predecessors “You’re now nothing but a bunch of bullies! Just BULLIES, I SAY!” and he lets out a dumbass laugh of defiance that doesn’t even remotely match the way he’s looking in that moment. It simply has to be heard to be believed.

- “OH YEEEEAH? “YEEEEAH!” A close second would be this. Garlic jr. gets back up from getting knocked down by Krillin, faces Krillin and says “OH YEEEEAH?”, to which Krillin replies with a “YEEEEEAH!”

- Dead Zone Redux. While Garlic Jr. opening up the Dead Zone again is a groaner, I did appreciate the artistic value of the contrast between when it happened in the movie and when it happens here. One has a dark, black, Satanic place in ruin down below while this one has a light, white, holy place in ruin down below. It’s poetry!

- The Finale. The final episode of the conflict with Garlic Jr. deserves mention ‘cause it subverts the expectation of “What, we’re just doing Dead Zone again?” and actually surprisingly sticks the landing. Where was this level of quality for every episode leading up to it? Even some questionable lines of dialogue (”That pimple of a barrier is going to pop, and all of you will ooze into the Dead Zone like the puss that you are!”) can’t ruin the action and intensity of the personal stakes, and I particularly liked that they didn’t go the expected “it all comes down to Gohan VS Garlic Jr. again” route by instead keeping the final battle between Garlic and Piccolo, with Krillin providing back-up and a diversion while Gohan blows up the Makyo Star. And seeing Garlic’s buff form shrivel up was just oh so satisfying. And to top it off, the follow-up from the battle plays out very reminiscent of how it did in the movie, same characters and even the same musical score, only this time Goku isn’t there yet Piccolo is in a very different moral position compared to where he was last time. That’s brilliant.

- Jump Cut Sum Up. There’s a single moment that I think best sums up the entire Garlic Jr. Saga. Maron starts petting Korin and calling him cute again, causing Korrin to comedically snap at her to knock it off. The scene then immediately shifts back to Garlic Jr. brutally strangling Piccolo and Krillin while cackling maniacally as a dramatic score booms in the background. The tone has no consistency here.

[sweetescapeartist]

MY DBS MANGA CHAPTER 70 REVIEW

We learn in the last chapter that the Cerealian Dragon's name is Toronbo when Granolah speaks Namekian. Toronbo grants Granolah's wish but can't make Granolah stronger than the gods.

Here's the confusion I have... Goku is a mortal beyond GoDs so making Granolah the strongest mortal is making him stronger than gods. If you wanna say Beerus has been training and is now stronger than Goku, there's still a problem. It was said that Goku and Vegeta were stronger than some GoDs right before the ToP (but that might be anime only, so maybe it doesn't apply here). So Granolah is stronger than GoDs no matter what. If the gods that Toronbo is speaking of are the Angels, then that means Granolah is Ultra Instinct level of power since Goku is the lowest in Angel tier. But whatever. Bottom line is Granolah is temporarily stronger than Goku who may or may not be stronger than Beerus.

Granolah gets his wish granted and the cost is shortening his life... cool. Not much to say except let's see how its executed.

(I recently read that in DBXV2, during the Infinite History Saga, Videl is enchanted with Towa's Dark Magic spell by Dabura shaving off her life but granting her greater power. So granting power at the cost of lifespan has been done in DB before. Not in canon but in the games.)

Also, Granolah's life being shortened to 3 yrs got me thinking... Currently it's almost AGE 781 in the DBS manga timeline. Goku leaves to train Uub in AGE 784. We got 3 yrs left. The original manga shows Bulma said she hadn't seen Goku in 5 yrs. How I see DBS is that it is an alternate timeline that just happens to have a similar outcome to the EoZ.

So... why is Vegeta learing from Beerus again if Beerus isn't that strong now? Is Vegeta being like Krillin and continuing his learning from a master weaker than him, but gaining wisdom & knowledge? I-is Vegeta becoming Krillin 2.0?! (More like dollar-store Krillin)

I do think beerus got stronger tho. He seems very confident that Vegeta can get stronger from learning from him. Beerus probably saw Goku get UI then decide to train aftet the ToP

Anyways, Beerus is teaching us about hakai/destruction energy. Its erasing something from existence, not just destroying it (we already knew that). But, Vegeta quickly figures out how to do it anyways. By destroying a tiny pebble...

A tangent again but I personally think Piccolo is capable of easily learning Hakai energy. Think about it. Piccolo can create clothing out of nothing, why could he not do the reverse?

Goku is uninterested in what Beerus & Vegeta are doing. I dont know about you, but it sounds like Goku thinks that he's above Beerus in strength. Beerus & Vegeta aren't considered a challenge to him in any way. Goku sees UI as more important & better than anything Beerus has to teach, and Goku is right. Plus Goku learned Hakai on his own while Vegeta needs Beerus to teach him. It's a waste of Goku's time to learn it again.

(God Comics is funny. I imagine Toribot writes them)

Goku says "Let's see which one of us can be the strongest in the universe!" Really, Goku...? At present time, Goku is the strongest mortal in the universe already. He should know that. Then Vegeta for some reason thinks he will become the strongest in the universe. The last time manga Vegeta was the strongest mortal in the universe was... never. He's always behind Goku or whatever new opponent arises. This scene is meant to be comedic that they're arguing over who will be the greatest but it's not funny to me. And yet Vegeta fans still hold on for hope.

But why is Goku concerned about being the strongest between him & Vegeta? Goku is far above Vegeta. They're not rivals at this point. Also, Goku was the strongest in the universe until just a few moments ago. Goku should be saying "I knew bein' the strongest wouldn't last for too long. Roshi did tell me there will always be somebody stronger out there. Hehe! This is gettin' me excited! I can't wait to meet 'em!" (This would alsp parallel Monaito giving Granolah the same advice Goku already knows.)

Also, I guess Broly isn't that strong after all. Bye Broly, you served your purpose. And to think that Goku had said that he thinks Broly is stronger than Beerus...

Oh yeah. So Vegeta destroys a pebble. Impressive? Goku kinda gives a compliment or he is practically saying "Good job Vegeta! You're doing great following in my footsteps!" Seriously, this would be so much better and cooler if this seperate paths of training began right after the Universe 6 vs Universe 7 tournament. That would be the perfect spot to have them train under Beerus & Whis. [Vegeta using Hakai against Merged Zamasu, Goku able to fight Merged Zamasu temporarily because he is getting better at letting his body move on its own, Toppo & Vegeta using Hakai against each other as Goku & Jiren use power above GoDs. That would work so much better.]

Then Vegeta says he's gonna destroy bigger things soon... is that supposed to be more impressive? Its not. But this it to build up Vegeta even though there is nothing amazing about anything he is doing at the moment. Maybe later tho.

So Cerealians can't grow beards. Also I guess Granolah's race don't age? His hair grew when his lifespan was shortened but he has no wrinkles. It seems that they age more gracefully than Saiyans. If he has some wrinkles he would have looked cooler imo. Or those lines under the eyes at the very least. If the wish shortened his life & made his hair grow, it should have also showed that he aged. (Here's an edit I made of "Grampa Granolah." You're welcome)

And remember Vegeta destroying a pebble? Granolah can suddenly destroy big rocks! Cool right?! No? Its not cool? Showing Granolah destroy a much larger object right afterwards kinda belittles Vegeta's accomplishment.

Oatmil is surprised by a boulder exploding. This means one of 2 things. Oatmil is stupid & never saw an Granolah explode a boulder. Or it's implying that the boulder exploding is some technique Oatmil doesn't know of. Idk how he can tell its any different from just blowing up a rock with ki. I think it's supposed to be destruction energy. If it is then, ok. If getting his wish was so easy, then why can't he suddenly learn destruction as well?

Yay! Monaito! (This really should be a Namekian focused arc)

Granolah reminds me of Zamasu with his attitude a bit. Monaito tells him somebody stronger will definetly appear. Granolah has become like Vegeta and is over confident, so he is destined to get humbled. And think about this. Goku can probably train a bit and surpass Granolah within a week.

Granolah can now sense ki. Meaning he can have the destruction technique or UI, because why not?

Monaito blames himself for Granolah's actions. Its not your fault Monaito! You did nothing wrong! Dont be so hard on yourself.

Whis being a creep and peeping on people lol.

Granolah's hair growing was pointless because he cuts it off soon after. Nothing changed visually. This kinda reminds me of how Moro lost his arm. Goku gave him a senzu, Moro grew it back, & then Moro broke his arm when attacking Goku. Then Moro tore his arm off & reattached his old one. There was no need for Moro to grow his arm back then tear it off. Similarly, there is no need for Granolah to have grown long hair then cut it off.

Maki still brings a smile to my face. She & Gas stand out the most out of the Heeters. Maki's personality is kinda like Zangya combined with a teasing Bulma. Gas reminds me of a Krillin/Piccolo fusion with dreadlocks. I also ship Maki x Gas cause they're short and look cute together. (please don't be siblings so I can draw them together🤞)

Granolah fights Oil & Maki. I'm not impressed. They seem like they could be defeated by Chaoitzu (he's stronger than Raditz and probably Nappa now too). Granolah's movements could be seen as UI. If it is or isn't UI, it doesn't matter. Showing off that kind of power is like Goku using Ultra Instinct during a rematch with Nam or King Chappa. Its not effective storytelling. There had to be a better way of showing Granolah's new strength than making him fight opponents that give him zero challenge.

The art is good as usual and the panel flow is nice. Toyotaro is improving at creating the illusion of motion. The environment being used in the fight was smart and a good visual. Toyo still uses a ton of panels almost every page tho. But he's still a better artist than I am.

Granolah appears to have used Hakai again. Not the explosive variant but the sand variant (yes I think there are 2 ways of using Hakai).

The "Sand Variant" that Beerus & Goku (& maybe Granolah) have used.

The "Explosive Variant" Beerus & Vegeta (& maybe Granolah) have used.

Maki thinks the "Hakai" is magic so that's interesting. I would say I'd like for the next enemy to be a magic user but, we know how Moro turned out... 😓

Maki has "ki claws" & I like the idea but it would be better if she had used it against an enemy she can defeat. It doesn't make her look useful in this fight. Gas seems confident when he is about to fight Granolah, but Elec stops him. Gas would've gotten beaten but it make ya wonder what Gas can do.

Granolah appears to be a person that is easily manipulated and persuaded. He even gave information they weren't even asking for. He'll probably be easily convinced and manipulated by Freeza/the Hedters or quickly have a truce with Goku.

The Heeters plan to go to Planet Cereal to get the Dragon Balls. As I suspected, the Cerealian Dragon Balls were created so that it would be easy for wishes to be granted. Gathering 2 Dragon Balls on a nearby planet instead of gathering 7 on New Namek or Earth. Plus these new Dragon Balls ensures no interaction between Earthlings & Granolah/the Heeters. A perfect way to write Gohan & company out of the story... *sigh* 😔😒

We learn Cerealians live for 2 centuries. How's that compare to other races in Universe 7? Freeza & King Cold apparently can live more than 200 yrs, But that may be because they are mutants. Namekians can live for like 500 yrs & its possible for them to reincarnate themselves too. So in a way, Namekians can live forever. Saiyans stay youthful & live to be in their 80's, but rapidly age when they reach their 60's or 70's. Average Earthlings appear live to be in their 80's or 90's but some are over 100 yrs old (Dr. Briefs, Panchy, & Ox King are in their 90's in GT) and others can increase their lifespan through elixers or the Paradise Herb. Just some thoughts of mine.

Maki says "If he ices Freeza..." Ha, an ice pun. Elec wants to defeat Freeza so he can control his army. Its revealed they wanna kill Granolah & that they worked with Freeza to destroy his planet & race. Well... that more than likely means they're gonna die by Granolah's hand or Freeza's. This info is also an attempt to make the reader more sympathetic for Granolah. Granolah is too bland (pun intended) so I don't feel any more sympathy than I already had for him. Elec plans to make Goku & Vegeta fight Granolah since Granolah hates Saiyans. Smart but we all kinda expected it. Not bad writing tho.

The final panel talks about fate bringing the 3 (Goku, Vegeta, & Granolah) together. Sounds like a repeat of the Broly movie.

We've had 4 chapters in this arc & not 1 panel of Freeza... If Freeza doesnt appear & do something in the next chapter then I will be disappointed in the writing. Showing Freeza here and there would give tension and build up until we get the encounter with him. We also have no idea who Oatmil is. Is he an A.I. or a person? Not that big of a deal yet, but I would like to find out soon. Either show Freeza or tell us more about Oatmil next chapter pleaae

This chapter was like oatmeal (the food not the character) without butter, brown sugar, milk, & honey or raisins. Not bad, but not very good either. 

So here's my thoughts on the things that could or could not happen in this arc.

Goku vs Granolah. I don't care for the fight because the power is at a point that it doesnt make sense for enemies to get to without cheating somehow. The fight will look cool but I have no interest in it.

Vegeta vs Granolah will have Vegeta being stomped as always and Vegeta fans will make excuses & complain how it's not fair. A lot of Vegeta fans often make fun of Yamcha & Krillin for getting beat up even though those 2 bravely fight opponents leagues stronger than they are. Vegeta has gotten stomped by opponents more times than Krillin & Yamcha combined but the fans gotta deflect somehow. I don't care to hear or see the complaining again.

The interaction and dialogue between Granolah & Vegeta is going to be more interesting than their fight. But I worry because Toyo isn't the best at writing dialogue.

I have no reason to care about power growth, certain interactions, or Goku & Vegeta's training.

What I am curious about/want to see?

Monaito's well being. I want him to reunite with other Namekians. But I think he's been set up to die.

Lore about the dragon gods & Namekian lore we probably wont get.

I want Piccolo, Krillin, Gohan, & others will be involved. Piccolo because of the Namekian & wosh granting dragon lore. Gohan because his interaction with Granolah eould be interesting since Gohan is half Saiyan & views himself as an Earthling. Krillin & other Earthlings because they can bring tensions where characters like Goku & Vegeta can't. Those 2 are too strong for there to be any real tension. However Earthlings aren't all powerful so them using wits to survive is more exciting. But I doubt any of their involvement.

How long a Cerealian year is? Is it shorter than a Namekian year? How much time will pass for the Cerealian Dragon Balls to be active? How much stronger than Granolah will Goku get? Hopefully the answers aren't lazy...

Will Beerus finally fight somebody? There are 6 mortals that are near or above his power (Goku, Granolah, Vegeta, Broly, Freeza, Gohan).

Who's the villian of the next arc & what explanation is going to be given for them having power on the level of Angels? Angel tier fights don't sound interesting to me anymore. After those kinds of battles, Goku will have no challengers left.

Will Goku disappear to train or something so the story can TRY to match up with the EoZ?

Will Goten, Trunks, & Marron hit their growth spurts within 3 yrs?

Will we get spin-off manga about other characters? PLEASE!? 🙏

Also DBS moved too quickly when it comes to power. Now we're at the point that Goku & Vegeta need to stop being involved in fights for there to be any actual threat or tension. The Buu saga took place in AGE  774. After training for 4 years of peace, Goku thought SS3 & fusion was his limits as a Saiyan and he was right. Well, kinda... Goku was introduced to god ki near the end of AGE 778. Then in AGE 781, Goku masters Ultra Instinct... He mastered an Angel technique in 2 year or 2.5 yrs. That was waaaay too fast. As a result the storytelling & writing are suffering from this rushed progress. Now we're gonna have an Angel tier opponent? According to the pattern of DBS, Goku's gonna end up surpassing the Angels within 2 or 3 yrs after learning god ki. Thats not impressive for Goku, that's terrible writing. And no, Goku getting this strong so fast is not a benefit to Saiyans either. It just shows us that without god ki, Saiyans ain't all that powerful unless they're the legendary Saiyan like Broly. Saiyans didn't even have a concept of training until Goku was trained by Earthlings. Gohan, Freeza, 17, & I'm pretty sure Piccolo as well have all surpassed SS3 without the help of god ki. God ki makes Saiyans look like they have limits. With god ki, the writing is broken....

I got off topic again... Anyways that's the end of my review.

[duhragonball]

I was thinking about Goku and Krillin's friendship and it occured to me that they spent months training with Roshi together but then only saw each other for maybe a day every few years. Have you ever had a realization that tripped you out like this?

This is a really good ask, anon, and I just wanted to take a moment to say so. 

I have had a few ‘a-ha’ moments like these, but I’m kind of blanking on specific examples.  I’ll see what I can come up with.

1) For openers, there’s the whole thing where the Red Ribbon Army has a Dragon Radar, but it’s nowhere near as sophisticated as the handheld one Bulma invented.  I think the same holds true for Emperor Pilaf, but his gang is only three people.   You’d expect the RRA to have the best equipment possible, because that’s their whole deal, and by normal standards they probably do have the best possible Dragon Radar... but Bulma’s is simply that much better, because she’s on another level.   And it’s easy to overlook that, because Bulma’s supposed to be a genius teenager, like Donatello in TMNT, but the RRA’s Dragon Radar is the first hint that she’s even more special than we could have guessed. 

2) Rewatching Dragon Ball in 2019, I gained a new appreciation for the filler episodes where Mr. Popo trained Goku.  The first time I saw them, I was hoping we’d see Goku grow up and make progress over the three year gap, but instead they just focused on his early days on the Lookout, with Popo just saying things and Goku failing to understand.  It was very frustrating to watch.  

But in 2019, I noticed that all those episodes get paid off in the Piccolo Junior fight.   Popo kept telling Goku to be “quicker than lightning” and “quiet as the sky”, and Goku just couldn’t figure out how to do that, let alone fight at the same time.   He had to unlearn all the stuff that had helped him defeat King Piccolo, and he couldn’t do it... at first.    But by the time he fought Piccolo Junior, he put it all together, as demonstrated with his big finishing move.   Piccolo thought he had vaporized Goku, only for Goku to fly up into the air and crash into him.   Why didn’t Piccolo sense Goku’s presence?   Because Goku had learned to become as “quiet as the sky”.  Why couldn’t Piccolo dodge it?   Because Goku had learned to become “quicker than lightning.”  So it vindicates those filler episodes pretty nicely.   They weren’t just marking time, but they were setting up what the manga was going to do later.

3) I think last year, it hit me that Vegeta had probably never lost a fight before he went to Earth.   That alone isn’t probably any big deduction.  The only people stronger than him were all working for Frieza, and he knew to steer clear of them until he was ready.   But it explains why he was so giddy about the zenkai effect.   He had always known about it, but he never mentioned or cared about it until he experienced it for himself after losing to Goku, and then Zarbon. 

Yeah, I think this occurred to me during a conversation about Vegeta killing Nappa instead of helping him.   In theory, Nappa could have recovered and gotten a lot stronger, just like Vegeta did.   But Saiyans Saga Vegeta didn’t care about that.   He only gave his henchmen one chancemand discarded them as soon as they lost.   This attitude would also explain why he never dared to challenge anyone at a higher level.    He knew no one would show him any mercy, so the zenkai boost would have been meaningless to him. 

So he might have regretted killing Nappa after he experienced the zenkai firsthand, although he was so drunk on his own increased power that he probably never stopped to consider it.   But before Earth, Vegeta probably dismissed the zenkai as a crutch for lesser Saiyans.   In his mind, a truly great Saiyan never loses battles in the first place.  Or so he believed, until he lost a few times, and became stronger for it, and had to reconsider.

And that also explains how he warmed up to the Super Saiyan Legend over the course of one afternoon.   He and Goku made such sick gains that week that he started to wonder if you could zenkai your way to Super Saiyan, and then he was begging Krillin to shoot him just so he could get a step closer.

4) In the same vein, it occurred to me at some point that Bardock was probably stronger than King Vegeta, and neither of them realized it.   Maybe it was just a dub-ism, but I’m pretty sure “Father of Goku” has a line about Bardock’s power level being 10000.   At the time it was released, 10k wasn’t that big a deal, but in the Saiyans Saga, Vegeta was somewhere around 18-24k. Later, he would claim to have surpassed his father as a child, so I think it’s fair to assume that King Vegeta must have been in that 10,000 neighborhood. 

Which makes a nice subtle commentary on why the Saiyan Kingdom failed. They tried to breed better warriors, putting all their stock in the royal family, when the true secret lay in warriors like Bardock, who were constantly getting clobbered and healed.  Prince Vegeta only started to make real progress once he began fighting on that same regimen.

5) Also about “Father of Goku,” Frieza only wanted Planet Kanassa subjugated because of the psychic powers of its inhabitants.   I think the dub insinuated that the planet itself gave people those powers, but whatever the case, Frieza heard about these people with unusual powers and wanted them stamped out immediately.   Just like he wiped out the Saiyans over the Super Saiyan Legend, and just like he planned to destroy Namek to prevent anyone else from using the Dragon Balls. 

In short, Frieza fears and despises legends.  Why?  Because he’s so powerful that real people can’t hurt him, so his fears naturally turn to half-truths and folklore.   He chases down ghost stories and rumors, because let’s face it, what else does he have to occupy his time.   That’s why King Cold was happy to have the Saiyans working for him, while Frieza wanted them all dead.   Cold didn’t share Frieza’s hangups.   Cold barely knew what a Super Saiyan was, while Frieza thought about it all the time. 

6) One day I thought about that timeline where Cell killed Trunks and took the time machine to find the androids.    That specific timeline is pretty much empty.  The Z-fighters are all dead, and so are all of the androids and Trunks.  They don’t even have a Cell anymore because he went back in time and never returned.   There’s still a population, I guess, because the Trunks of that world wouldn’t have just stood by while Cell absorbed everyone on Earth, but that’s about it.   Bulma might have survived Cell’s attack on Trunks, but she’d be the only “name” character on the board.  It just sounds like a pretty depressing world.   Maybe this was the timeline Whis picked out to relocate Blunks and Future Mai in Dragon Ball Super.

7) It sort of blows my mind that the entire Majin Buu arc takes place over a couple of days.    Like, episode 207 through 250 all takes place over one day.   We know this because Goku only had 24 hours to be back in the living world, and that time was cut short by his use of SSJ3.  Then the Elder Kai started doing his ritual to make Gohan stronger, and that took like 25 hours, I’m pretty sure.  That wrapped up in #262, and there was no break in the action from that point onward, all the way up to the defeat of Kid Buu in #287.  So yeah, eighty episodes over two days.   It’s practically real-time footage, save for skipping over the Elder Kai’s ritual and Goten and Trunks practicing and sleeping. 

It’s hard to catch on to this, though, because so much stuff happens in the anime version that leads you to think that it’s a much longer span of time.    After Vegeta wrecks the stadium, the anime can’t decide whether or not Mr. Satan would stay there or return to his dojo.   In the Fusion Saga, Mr. Satan wanders from Buu’s house to the nearest town, then he wanders to the next town over, doing his “Last Man on Earth” bit, except this all happens during the Gotenks/Super Buu fight, which barely lasts half an hour.   In the afterlife, Chi-Chi is worried that she can’t find Gohan, but she wouldn’t have even been there that long, and wouldn’t she still be in line to meet King Yemma?  She was one of the last Earthlings to die, so how did she end up in heaven so quickly?

8) I used to think Movie 13 (the Hirudegarn one) was canon, but the last time I watched it, I noticed all these glaring problems.  They use the Dragon Balls in this one, which means it has to be set six months after the wish to make everyone forget about Majin Buum which means it’s been a year since Kid Buu was defeated.  Okay, fine, except Gohan and Videl are still in high school.   Shouldn’t they have graduated by then?   

More importantly, their high school and Bulma’s house seem to be in the same city.   I guess that’s an easy mistake to make.   It took me a long time to even notice, but Orange Star High is in Satan City, which is a totally different place from West City.   I mean, right?  They’re not terribly far apart, but they’re not the same place either.

Then again, they seemed to make the same error in Episode 287, where Bulma’s out shopping and Great Saiyaman 1 and 2 foil a robbery.   Are they in West City or Satan City?  Maybe there’s more to this...

[rmjagonshi]

Marron/Tekka-la

From my alternate timeline. Here are my finalized notes on Marron/Tekka. I am unsure if I want to keep her human name, as Maron (Krillin’s girlfriend) is canon in this timeline as the Garlic Jr. Saga is canon. So I’m thinking of changing her name.

Birthed unexpectedly on 769 June 6th from an exchange of genetic material. She possesses both human and namekian genetics.

Physical Description: Marron is a namek in basic outward appearance. She has green skin and pink and red armor plates, though hers are more yellow pink. He has antenna and pointed ears, though they are not as large as Piccolo's. She had violet eyes and a small button nose. She has a full digestive track, though simple and less refined as humans. Her small intestine is much shorter and large intestine much longer. She is physically female in that she possesses both internal and external female reproductive features. If she were to give birth, she would develop an egg casing that she would then give birth to. She has vestigial breasts where fat has formed, but nothing else. She has minimal ridging along her arms and legs unlike Piccolo; her skin is relatively smooth. She has wiry black hair, much like Krillin, that she braids as it grows longer. Long fingers and toes, but she has five of each whereas Piccolo only has four.

Physical Abilities: Minor regeneration. She can't regrow full limbs without help, but she can heal wounds easily. She can't stretch her limbs much. As her skeletal structure is rigid instead of flexible. (see notes) She is double jointed. She has the ability to eat without any problems. She does have to eat minimal amounts, however she can survive on mostly water and a single bowl of rice. She does eat socially. She, being both human and namek, is a half-way merger between dragon clan and warrior clan. She can fight and possesses combat capabilities, but her raw power is lacking. She can heal and create some objects from natural material. She cannot create Dragon Balls, but she can heal and manipulate existing ones under Dende's teachings. She learns how to cultivate and grow senzu beans, much to Korin's chagrin. JOKE ABILITIES. Since Akira Torieama said that Krillin can breathe through his skin, Marron might be able to breathe under water through a similar process as long as the water is not polluted.  

Power Level: She has wide potential, but lacks raw power. She can, under great stress, tap into her magical abilities to enhance her physical strength, but cannot freely control it. She is able to keep up with Trunks and Goten until they hit SSJ. She has more stamina and ki than most, and uses that to wear down her opponent rather than over power them. At her peak adult power, she can rival the power of a SSJ or around Goku's level at the end of the Cell Games.  

Relationships: She looks up to Gohan as a big brother, and later Pan as a niece. She is good friends with Trunks and Goten, and later Bulla. She affectionately calls Chi-Chi 'auntie' and only gets away with it because Chi-Chi always wanted a daughter. She has a running joke with Vegeta where he claims "Oh, it's the half-slug. It's weird." And she responds with "You're weird." and he doesn’t have a response for it so he ignores it. She trains under Dende to be a healer and future/co guardian of Earth. She is one of the few people who fully understand her Papa Piccolo and his very nuanced moods and facial expressions. Something Gohan can also do with some concentration. She translates for people, including her Dad Krillin who has difficulty with it. She is the unofficial third Son child as Piccolo and Krillin seek Chi-Chi's help in the earlier days. When she meets Goku, he takes it well, if a bit confused. She has a similar relationship with Goku as Trunks does; she has heard so much about him but does not know him that well. Though he does dote on her like a niece. As they age, (teenager/young adult - 15-20) she develops a crush on Bulla.

Temperament: She inherited the best from both Piccolo and Krillin. She is sweet and kind and has a bit of a problem worrying about everyone else. She is obsessed with fairness and treating people nicely. She struggles when people are mean to her, but is quick to forgive. As she gets older, she understands nuance and can take people being mean more often. She develops a dry and deadpan sense of humor and is often able to make her Papa Piccolo laugh, where others can't. She is slow to anger, but is prone to blind rages when pushed. She is a bit oblivious and hyper focused. She is carefree and kind of awkward like Krillin. She has difficulty understanding her place and identity because she is so unique. Unlike Gohan, who is a half-breed of two similar races. Marron/Tekka is not, and struggles to combined both her lineages as they are so different. She isn’t a full namek, but she sure isn’t human either. But she has a huge family that loves her. It is unknown if she finds a partner and of what race or sex. Though as stated above - she does develop feelings for Bulla.    

Clothes: She wears for much of her childhood an outfit similar to the one young Piccolo wore, however it is a combination of pastel blue and purple. It has a demon symbol on the front and a turtle symbol on the back. She wears a cap to cover her antenna as an infant, but takes to wearing a headband or tuban as she gets older. She does not wear either when she is around family or friends as she doesn’t like the feel. As she gets older, she wears a gi like her parents that's yellow and blue-grey. Shoes are always like Piccolo's. She sometimes wears a turtle shell like Goku and Krillin did while training under Roshi. She gets called "Turtle Snail" or just "Snail" and she loathes it.

Early life: She has a rough go of it for the first three years, because her body is battling the two different growth rates and her organs are somewhat redundant and conflicting. She needs to eat, but not in large amounts. And certain foods make her sick (like allergy or celiac disease). She has to wear a brace for her legs for the first year, since Namek's have a flexible skeletal structure, but humans don’t. She eventually grows denser bones thanks to some medicine Bulma and a college hash together. By the time she's five, when Goku comes back to life for one day, she's about as grown as a human 10 year old. She's about as tall as Goten and Trunks, and has a has a mal-formed nose. It's there and functions, but she's missing the cartilage as it ossified and broke off in her toddler stage due to the serum she took to strengthen her skeleton. She's got a bit of a bump like Krillin, but does have nostrils from surgery.

[city-writes]

Waiting Out the Rain

Its not often the Time Patrol and the Galactic Patrol find their works overlap, but the rare time they do, each group sends their best to get the job done. This issue this time is that one of the members of the Time Patrol has a history with one of the members of the Galactic Patrol, and it might hinder their job progress.

listen... i just wanted to write for my ocs, i didn’t mean to write nearly 10,000 words

Warnings: OCs; Takes place during DB Xenoverse 2′s canon; Includes DB Fusions’ canon Pairings: Zini(OC)/Tyber

Read it here on AO3! Commission info!

___________________ With a whirl of light and energy, Trunks and Zini rematerialized back into the Time Nest, Zini slamming down the scroll she’d been holding onto the table. “Damn it!” The sudden commotion caused both the Supreme Kai of Time and the Elder Kai to jump slightly, having seen this reaction coming after watching the two work from another set of scrolls.

“Zini,” Trunks cautioned, raising a hand to put on the full blooded Saiyan’s shoulder, “It’s alright, we’ll get them next time.”

Zini turned her head to look at Trunks, the demi-Saiyan a full head taller than she was, piercing dark blue eyes gazing into Trunks’ own blue. Zini’s lips pursed into a thin line, before she sighed, hanging her head, black bangs covering her eyes. “We almost had them this time, though.” Her hands curled into fists, and she shook her head. “They’re getting bolder with each change in time, and with Mira and Towa pulling their strings, who knows what they’ll do next?”

“You’re right; Turles and Lord Slug are not to be taken lightly,” the Supreme Kai of Time said, walking towards the pair of Saiyans, resting a hand on top of one of Zini’s fists, “but thanks to your hard work, we know that Towa is baiting them with fruit from the Tree of Might, and promising them each that they can take out Goku, in any of the timelines that they invade.” She then tilted her head a bit, smiling at the young woman who’d saved Toki Toki City from Demigra’s wrath years ago. “But we’ve got people looking out in each timeline, promising young rookies who can handle themselves and anything Mira and Towa throw their way. With the information you’ve gathered, we’re a step closer to capturing them.”

Zini was quiet, but knew the Supreme Kai of Time was right. Exhaling through her nose, she nodded, looking down at her boss. “Thanks, Supreme Kai.”

“Of course!” The Supreme Kai of Time exclaimed, patting Zini’s hand. “Now, to relax and unwind, how about I make us some lunch?”

A pang of fear bolted through everyone in the room, Zini swallowing harshly before clearing her throat, stammering somewhat. “A-Actually, I made plans to eat with Pinich today, Supreme Kai, sorry.”

“Yeah,” Trunks piped up, “I was tagging along with them, Supreme Kai, but we appreciate the offer!” With that, Zini and Trunks began to walk off, sparing themselves of the Supreme Kai’s notoriously bad cooking.

“Aww, alright.” The Supreme Kai of Time’s expression withered as her two best patrollers walked away, before turning her gaze to the Elder Kai, the smile returning to her face. “Looks like it’s just you and me for lunch, old man.”

A frightened look overcame the Elder Kai, who then stammered himself. “W-What’s that? It’s about lunch time!? Oh, I need to head down to the school and teach those rookies a thing or two! Can’t be late for that!” With that, the Elder Kai ran, hoping to get away from what was bound to be a bad lunch.

______________________

Walking in the Recreation Plaza of Conton City, Zini and Trunks gave a sigh of relief, having spared themselves the horror of the Supreme Kai’s cooking.

“That was close.” Trunks murmured, looking towards Zini as they walked. “Quick thinking with that Pinich excuse.”

“It wasn’t an excuse.” Zini said without looking at Trunks, a smirk coming to her as she watched a figure eagerly approach from the air. “I really did have lunch plans with Pinich.”

At that, Pinich flew in, landing in front of Zini and Trunks with his hands on his hips, his cape flowing behind him. “What’s up, guys?” He asked, giving a wide, toothy grin. “Off the clock?”

“For now.” Zini replied, folding her arms. “Thanks for meeting up with me. Haven’t seen you in a while.”

Pinich shrugged, the grin never leaving his lips. “Ehh, you know me; Hanging out with Wanta and Paprika, training with Master Vegeta, just doin’ the usual.” With that, he looked to Trunks. “How’s the job goin’?”

Trunks frowned slightly, a hand going to his chin. “Well, we’ve been having trouble apprehending Turles and Lord Slug, and we’re concerned about their working with Towa and Mira, who we thought we’d defeated years ago.” His gaze traveled to the ground as he continued to speak, “With Mira and Towa back to their old schemes, it’s only a matter of time before they pull something big.”

Pinich nodded as he listened to Trunks, and he smirked. “You’ll get ‘em! My rival wouldn’t let some bad guys get the best of her, right Zini?” He held out a fist then, waiting for her to bump it.

Her fist soon came into contact with his, and Zini gave a smirk as well, nodded. “Right.”

They pulled their hands away from each other’s, and Pinich’s smirk melted into a playful smile. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m hungry! Let’s get something to eat!”

Zini chuckled, and soon the three of them walked around the Recreation Plaza, each grabbing a bite to eat. They were quick to find a table in the Business District so they sit and eat, Trunks having bought them each 2 burgers a piece.

“I have money, you know.” Zini had offered, but Trunks shot her down.

“It’s my treat,” he’d said, exchanging the Zeni for two bags of burgers, “For inviting myself into your’s and Pinich’s plans.”

Zini had shrugged, and Pinich just grinned, happy he wasn’t the one who had to pay for lunch.

As the trio sat and ate, they talked about what all they’d been doing since they’d seen each other last, Pinich telling of his training with Vegeta, of his adventures in space with Wanta and Paprika. Zini told of her recent missions, as well as her attempts at training other Time Patrollers, much to her dismay. She’d never been a good teacher, and it was never more evident than when Supreme Kai of Time and the Elder Kai tried getting her to be one. Trunks told of his help and upkeep around Conton City, how different it was from managing Toki Toki City, but in a good way. He told of his missions with Zini, and of rookie patrollers that showed great potential.

As Pinich took a bite of his second burger, he looked over at Zini hesitantly, the move not going unnoticed by the female Saiyan. “What?” She asked, causing Pinich to swallow his bite of burger.

He gave a smile, but their was a worried look to it, and he looked away for a moment, before speaking. “You haven’t heard from Tyber recently, have you?”

At the mention of Tyber, both Zini and Trunks froze, Zini being quick to recover and bite into her burger. Trunks looked at her warily, knowing that her relationship with Tyber was a rough spot for the Toki Toki City Hero.

But Zini seemed unfazed, simply chewing and swallowing her bite of burger, looking down at it before speaking. “Nope.” She said, exhaling through her nose after a moment, “Why should’ve I?” While her expression seemed neutral, there was a tinge to her voice that made both the other Saiyans seethe slightly, Trunks and Pinich sharing a look of concern. Trunks shot Pinich a glare that said, 'End it. End the conversation, please.’ And Pinich took it in stride, shrugging and shaking his head.

“No reason,” He replied, taking another bite of his burger.

“I mean,” Zini looked over at Pinich, her expression untranslatable, sending a shiver of worry through the student of Vegeta. “You’re the one who brought him up for some reason.” She put her burger on its wrapper on the table, folding her arms and looking at Pinich pointedly. “Why are you wondering if I’ve heard from Tyber?”

“I…” Pinich felt trapped, the stare of his childhood friend making him feel like he’d been cornered. “I…” he looked at Trunks for help, and Trunks shook his head just slightly, enough for it to go unnoticed by Zini, but still give its intended meaning to Pinich: 'Just end it here.’ But as much as Pinich wanted to just end the conversation there, he sighed, knowing he couldn’t hide anything from his best friend and rival. “I was wondering because he hasn’t written me back for a while, and I’m just, kinda worried, you know?”

Trunks inwardly groaned, and shook his head slightly, knowing Pinich had just made a mistake. Zini, on the other hand, looked at Pinich incredulously, her head tilting somewhat as she processed what he’d said. “You’ve been writing him? … Wait, he’s been writing you back?”

Pinich nodded. “Yeah.” He felt like he was making a mistake admitting this, like he was digging a grave, but whose it was, he couldn’t tell. “I haven’t heard from him in like, 3 months? I used to hear from him every other week.”

Zini gaped at Pinich, Trunks pinching the bridge of his own nose as he shook his head. What had Pinich just done?“

"I..” Zini closed her mouth, an indescribable noise leaving her as she exhaled through her nose, and she took a bite of her burger, the move sharp and angry.

“Zini?” Pinich asked.

“I’m fine.” She replied insistently, her mouth full. She swallowed her bite and looked down at her burger. “I haven’t heard from him since the four of us last hung out.” Pinich and Trunks both seethed again, knowing that was over a year ago. “But no, I haven’t heard a word from him. Probably too busy with his Galactic Patrol work.” She took another rough bite of her burger, her tail unwrapping itself from her waist so it could coil and uncoil itself repeatedly in irritation. Her last line at been spoken with a bit of snark, though she opened her mouth again, speaking with it still full. “Though he can’t be too busy if he’s been writing you every other week.”

Pinich was unsure of what to say then, Trunks attempting to speak up, “Zini, maybe–”

“Ahem.”

All three Saiyans were quick to turn their heads to the sound of a foreign voice, their gazes lowering until they were met with the sight of a small, humanoid alien in an Galactic Patrol uniform.

“Jaco?” Trunks asked.

“Greetings,” Jaco began, looking at the group of Saiyans before turning his attention to Trunks specifically. “Might I have a word with you, alone?” He leaned in slightly then, bringing a hand to the side of his mouth, whispering to Trunks, “Super elite business, and whatnot.”

Trunks nodded and excused himself from the table, walking a little bit away with Jaco, leaving Zini and Pinich alone to talk.

“Hey,” Pinich said, putting his burger down and looking to Zini, “Listen, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

“No, no, you’re fine.” Zini insisted, swallowing her food and shaking her head. “I just…” She sighed, putting her burger back down too, and drummed her fingers against the table. “Maybe if I heard from him or saw him more than, I don’t know, once a year, at maximum? Then maybe things would be better between us.”

“Have things gotten worse between you?” Pinich asked, legitimately concerned he’d opened up some old wound that Zini had healed on her own.

Again, she sighed. “No, how can they when I never see him?” A huff left the young woman, her tail wrapping itself back around her waist. “… I just don’t know what to say at this point.”

“I do.” Pinich said, a small smile overcoming him. “You still got feelin’s for your ex and you don’t know how to handle it.”

Zini’s face flushed red, blue eyes growing wide at Pinich’s words. “I-I do not! We broke up ages ago, and don’t call him my 'ex’. I can’t stand the term. We’re just friends.”

Pinich was about to tease Zini somewhat, when Jaco and Trunks approached the table. Both Pinich and Zini looked towards them, and Trunks looked apologetic. “Sorry, but we’re gonna have to cut lunch short, Zini.”

Zini blinked, the red having begun to die down from her face. “Why?”

“We might have a lead on Turles and Lord Slug.”

At that, Pinich and Zini shared a look, and Zini pushed the remainder of her burger over to him, which Pinich happily took. “What are we waiting for then?” Zini asked, getting up out of her seat. “Let’s head out.”

“Sorry,” Jaco spoke up, wagging a finger at Zini, “But we’ve got to wait for another Galactic Patroller. This job’s more than enough for a super elite like myself to handle, but Turles is hopping through both time and space, so I need the assistance of you Time Patrollers, since with the exception of the Time Patrol, time travel is a serious violation of Galactic Law.”

“Alright.” Zini said with a frown, not wanting to wait for something as serious as a sighting on Turles. “So when’s your other guy getting here?”

“He should be here soon.” Jaco said, “He’ll probably park by my ship, so let’s head there.”

Trunks and Zini both nodded, bidding Pinich goodbye as they walked with Jaco towards his spaceship, the alien having parked his Galactic Patrol ship in the Bamboo Forest district of Conton City. There was a small clearing by a lake where he’d parked, and the group of three waited there, Zini breaking the silence.

“So where’re we going? And who are we waiting on?” She asked.

“Well,” Trunks began, folding his arms, “Jaco said he’d gotten word of weird activity on a distant planet called Raika, and when the Galactic Patrol sent members to investigate, they found a large tree, sucking the life out of the planet.”

“The Tree of Might…” Zini murmured, her hands clenching into fists.

“Yes, exactly.” Jaco replied, pulling a tablet from his ship and swiping his finger across the device as he spoke. “The Galactic Patrol was swift in their response of evacuating the few denizens of the planet, though when they tried to acquire the fruit the tree bears, they were stopped by a Saiyan and a Namekian.”

“Turles and Lord Slug.” Trunks confirmed, he and Zini nodding at each other.

“Now,” Jaco continued, giving a 'hmm’ as he stopped swiping at his tablet, “As for whom we’re waiting on, it happens to be this Galactic Patroller.” Jaco then turned the tablet around, showing the face of the man they were waiting on to arrive.

Zini’s blood went cold.

Dulled yellow eyes stared at her from the picture on screen, belonging to a tanned man, in a dark purple and black colored version of the Galactic Patrol uniform, its insignia clear on the chest of his purple armor. Short black hair covered the top of his head, and there was serious look on the man’s face, that she was all too familiar with.

“It says here he’s a Saiyan,” Jaco spoke, “and that his name is Tyber.”

Trunks looked to Zini, who couldn’t take her eyes off of the screen. “W-Why him?” Zini stammered somewhat, cursing herself mentally for the falter in her voice. “Why can’t we just go now?”

“Orders from higher up.” Jaco replied curtly, looking displeased with Zini’s impatience. “Apparently he’s one of the best in the the known Galaxy. He’s almost impressive enough to be a super elite like myself, from what I hear.” Jaco pulled the tablet away, and set it back in his ship. “I’ve only met him a handful of times, and don’t know him very well.

"We do.” Trunks spoke up. “He’s… a friend.”

“Oh, good, this should make things much less awkward then.” Jaco said, nodding somewhat. “I dislike having to be paired with other people, but if both you and… Zini, you said her name was?” A look of recollection overcame Jaco at that, and he smirked. “Ah, that’s right, you’re the Toki Toki City Hero. I’ve heard of you. Well, if the two of you speak highly of him, then everything should be fine.”

“Yeah,” Zini said, standing upright and folding her arms, her gaze not meeting Jaco’s. “Fine.”

Frowning, Jaco looked at Trunks, putting a hand to the side of his face so he could whisper to the half-blood. “Is there something I’m not reading here?”

Zini sighed Jaco’s words, the humanoid alien not exactly whispering the quietest. “Tyber and I were once… together. We got together before I started working with the Time Patrol, and afterwards, my work schedule and his work schedule just became too different and demanding for us to be together.” She lowered her gaze then, a look of genuine regret overcoming her. “We tried everything to make it work, with the exception of one of us giving up our jobs.” Her hands curled into fists for a moment, before she forced herself to relax, instead drumming her fingers on her arm. “I wasn’t about to abandon Toki Toki City, and I wasn’t going to let him give up a job he loved.”

At her words, Trunks put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. “Zini…”

“I’m fine.” She said insistently, speaking a little too quickly. She exhaled out her nose, and raised her gaze up to meet Trunks’. “I’m fine.” She said again, this time calmer, and more collected. “I just don’t like talking about it.”

“Well, if your personal life is going to get in the way of this mission–” Jaco began, sounding dismissive already.

“It’s not.” Zini growled, not liking Jaco’s attitude.

“Well good.” Jaco bounced back, giving a nod up to the sky, “Because here he comes.”

Zini paled then, her and Trunks turning to look and see a ship identical to Jaco’s descending from the sky, a black-haired individual visible in the cockpit. Swallowing harshly, Zini shrugged Trunks’ hand off of her shoulder, gripping her own arms tight.

After landing on the ground, the sound of the ship’s engine shut off, and the glass dome was that was the roof of the cockpit popped open, Tyber rising out of the ship, and flying over to where the others were gathered. He was wearing his Galactic Patrol armor, complete with matching black pants and dark purple gloves, and a pair of black and purple boots. “Jaco, sorry I’m late. There was an issue with some of the people we evacuated, and I–” In his talking to Jaco, he’d looked up from the super elite to see Trunks and Zini staring at him, and stopped speaking, his voice getting caught in his throat. “I…. Hi.”

Trunks raised a hand in greeting then. “Hey, Tyber.” The two were about the same height, Tyber having the slightest edge over Trunks by an inch or so.

Tyber raised a hand in response, before looking over at Zini, a small, genuine smile curling at the edges of his lips. “Zini.” His tail was hanging loosely behind him, as opposed to curled up around his waist like Zini’s was.

Zini exhaled, and nodded in response, her face expressionless and unreadable. “Tyber.”

The air was thick with unspoken tension, Jaco giving a small groan, raising a hand to his head as he did so. “Alright, so. We need to head to Raika asap. The sooner we get there, the better chance we have in taking out our enemies.”

“Right.” Trunks agreed with a nod. “So whose ship are we taking?”

“Whose?” Jaco asked, “What do you mean, whose? We’re going to have to take both.”

“Both? Why both?” Zini asked, tilting her head some.

“Because each ship only holds enough room for three people.” Jaco explained, using his fingers to count off. “The pilot, a passenger, and a cargo space that we use for when we have a second suspect we’re bringing in. It’s against Galactic Regulations to have more than three people on a ship, so since there’s four of us, we’ll need to split up.”

Zini did not like where this was going.

“I’ll go with–”

“I want Trunks with me.” Jaco interrupted Zini, whether it was intentionally or unintentionally, Zini had no clue, but she cursed him internally. “I work best with people I already know, and I’ve known him and Bulma for quite a while.” Jaco pointed a finger at Tyber and Zini then. “You two. Don’t let your history get in the way of this mission.” Tyber and Zini both flushed red at the accusation, both of them immediately defending themselves, but Jaco raised a hand. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t need a blemish on my elite record just because you two Saiyans have a history. Try working out your issues or something on the flight to Raika. Now come on, we’ve got no time to waste.”

________________________

Initially, the ride to Raika was quiet.

Zini sat in the passenger’s seat behind Tyber’s pilot seat, watching him from behind as he flew the ship. He hadn’t changed much at all since she’d last seen him, to which she wasn’t surprised. She hadn’t changed much in the last year either. She then looked around, noting that he hadn’t decorated his ship much. It was pretty barren for the most part, save for 3 picture frames close to the cockpit’s controls. She should barely make them out from her position. One was of him with the Galactic King, the head of the Galactic Patrol, a green, octopus like alien with a golden crown on his head. One was recent, a picture from when she’d seen him last; one of him, her, and Pinich laughing with one another, just like the old days.

And the third picture…

She couldn’t help but smile at the sight of it. It was an old picture, from around the time they’d first gotten together. The two were looking out into the sky of a random planet, which one was lost to her after all these years. Zini was in a black, sleeveless jacket with a baggy, long-sleeved blue shirt, and black Gi pants with a blue belt, and Tyber was in a black leather jacket with a purple undershirt, and long black pants. His arm was around her shoulders, his tail around her waist. The memory, while somewhat faded, was a fond one.

She’d been so focused on the picture, that it took her a moment to realize Tyber’s chair had spun around, and that he was looking at her. She recoiled in her seat, and folded her arms, glaring at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be flying the ship?”

“I put in the coordinates manually. We’re on auto-pilot right now.” Tyber responded calmly, looking over to where Zini had been looking. Upon matching her previous gaze to the picture of the two of them, his cheeks flushed somewhat, but he kept his calm demeanor. “I found that photo while going through some stuff from our time in the TimeSpace Tournament. It’s from one of our break days where we didn’t worry about training for the tournament. I think Oats took the picture.”

Zini allowed herself to smile then, recalling the white haired human martial artist. She was part of their team in the TimeSpace Tournament all those years ago, and was both a loyal ally and friend. “I haven’t heard from her in a long while.”

“I haven’t either.” Tyber admitted. “Its been a while since I’ve talked to anyone in our old group, honestly.”

Zini frowned at that, remembering Pinich’s words. “Pinich said you’d been writing him.”

Tyber blinked, then nodded. “Yeah, but that was months ago. I lost his last letter and haven’t written him back yet.”

“Yet you still wrote him.”

An exhale left the Galactic Patrolman. “Yes, I did.”

Zini gave a 'hmph!’ at that, and leaned back in her chair, her gaze not meeting Tyber’s.

Things grew quiet between the two for a short while, before Tyber spoke again. “If we’re going to face Turles and Lord Slug, we need to think of various combos and tricks we could use to disorient them.”

Zini was silent, but after a few moments, spoke up. “Do you still make barriers with your Ki?”

Tyber looked towards her at that, and nodded. “Yeah. I’ve gotten better with it over the years. I’ve made stronger, larger barriers. Not just around me, but around anyone I choose. They stay in place for a good while, so long as I concentrate on them.” He smirked then, an uncharacteristically cocky look coming to the male Saiyan. “I bet I could even hold up against your Hyper Galick Gun now.”

“I don’t use Hyper Galick Gun anymore.” Zini said, crossing one leg over the other. “I mainly use melee attacks now. My best techniques are my Ki blade, my mimicry of Android 18’s Deadly Dance, and my Meteor Crash.”

“Ki blade?” Tyber asked.

At that, Zini unfolded her arms, extending her right arm in the air beside her. She then exhaled, and shortly after, her arm from her elbow down was coated in her Ki, forming at a tip at her fingers, like the blade of a sword. “I’ve learned the technique by watching Sauza and Vegito, and worked on it to make it my own.” With a flick of her wrist, her Ki blade dissipated, and she folded her arms again. “I can control the length of the blade for up to about 5 feet.”

Tyber looked impressed, and opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of Jaco’s voice.

“Tyber, you there?”

Tyber was quick to turn in his chair, reaching for the radio comm that was attached to the ship. “I’m here, what’s going on?”

“We’re here.”

Zini and Tyber both looked out the glass dome and took in the sight of a sickly gray planet, looking like the life was being sucked out of it. “We’ve gotta get down there, and fast.” Tyber said into the radio.

“Yeah,” Came Jaco’s voice. “We’re headed down, follow us.”

As they descended onto the planet, the group found a clearing by some dead trees to park their ships at, the four patrol members exiting out of their respective ships.

In the distance, they could spot a Tree of Might, looming high above the rest of the treeline. “That must be where Turles and Slug are,” Trunks said. “We’ll have to keep out power levels low if we want the element of surprise; Turles has a scouter.”

“We’ll have to fly close to the ground.” Zini agreed, “This way we won’t tip him off this time.”

The group of four nodded, and all began flying low to the ground, using the dying trees as covering to hide themselves. As they approached the base of the Tree of Might, they looked up, seeing a cave-like hole higher up in the trunk of the tree. The patrol members all looked at one another, and Zini frowned.

“I don’t like this.” She murmured. “I can’t sense their Ki.”

“Me either.” Trunks echoed, looking upwards. “I don’t know if they’re here.”

Tyber frowned as he too failed to sense anything. “Well, what’s the plan then?”

“Well,” Jaco sighed, shaking his head. “This mission was a bust. They’ve destroyed the planet with this tree and have already moved on. We’re too late.”

“Wait,” Trunks lowered his gaze back to the group, his expression inquisitive. “Do you think they’ve already harvested the fruit the Tree of Might bears?”

The three other patrol members looked at one another at the question, before Tyber spoke up. “Let’s find out.”

The four then flew up the side of the tree, into the opening in the trunk, landing on the ground of the opening and looking around. The wood around them was dark and black, but sturdy, hearty. As they investigated, Trunks called the others over when he found a vine like substance, picked clean. “They must have the fruit.”

“We need to find them, now.” Zini said, turning to leave the Tree. As the four patrol members flew out, Tyber, Zini, and Trunks tensed, looking up quickly as they suddenly sensed a powerful Ki, only to see the devilish grin of Turles.

“Meteor… Burst!”

Purple Ki enveloped the patrol members, blasting all around them and knocking them all down into the ground below. Pain blossomed through Zini, and she pushed herself up, taking an offensive stance as Turles lowered down to the ground.

“Why, if it isn’t the warrior who defeated Demigra.” Turles spoke smoothly, his arms folded against his Saiyan armor. “And here I thought we lost you after our last encounter in space and time.”

With a yell of power, Zini rushed Turles, only to be attacked from the side by Lord Slug, the evil Namekian having rushed her first. Zini growled as she was knocked to the ground again, and got back up, taking a more defensive stance this time, her gaze flickering back and forth between Turles and Lord Slug. She’d get them this time, they weren’t getting away again! Extending her arm, she let her Ki form into a blade, extending the blade as far as she could. Spinning like a top, she forced her Ki blade to collide with both Turles and Lord Slug, knocking the duo backwards.

“Zini!”

Trunks’s voice came from her left, and she turned her head to see him with Tyber and Jaco in tow, the trio flying towards her and the evil duo. Upon seeing them, Lord Slug opened his mouth, a laser of Ki exploding from his mouth and hitting Trunks, Tyber, and Jaco head on. Zini’s eyes widened in shock, only to relax as she was the familiar blue-ish green of Tyber’s barriers, protecting them from the blast.

“Don’t take your eyes off me, woman!”

Conjoined fists collided into the back of Zini’s head, Turles having gotten the upper hand on her due to her distraction. He slammed her into the ground, then dug his foot into her back, pushing her into the ground further. “You should learn to keep your eyes on your opponent.”

“Get off of her!” A Ki blast hit Turles in the face, Trunks having gone Super Saiyan, rushing Turles after shooting him with a Ki blast.

Tyber was quick to kneel by Zini’s side, worry laced in his expression. “Zini, are you–”

“I’m fine,” She coughed, as she pulled herself up, using the back of a hand to wipe away at blood from the corner of her mouth. “Worry about Lord Slug!”

At that, Tyber nodded, flying back towards Jaco, who’d been skillfully dodging Lord Slug’s strong but slow attacks. Tyber was quick to charge up his Hyper Twin Cannon, firing two energy beams from his hands, aiming them for Lord Slugs’ back.

Knowing Tyber and Jaco had Lord Slug, Zini powered up to Super Saiyan herself, and flew to Trunks’ aide in fighting Turles, Trunks having trapped the Crusher Corps Saiyan in his Heat Dome Attack, yellow energy surrounding Turles and launching him up into the air. Zini was quick to adapt, using her Deadly Dance technique on Turles while he was falling, a combination of swift kicks that left little room for the enemy to respond.

With a flip, Zini kicked Turles downwards, sending him crashing into the ground below.

“Go help Jaco and Tyber,” Trunks said, “I’ve got Turles.”

“Alright.” Zini nodded and rushed over to Jaco and Tyber, who were struggling with Lord Slug. Jaco had out his ray gun, and was shooting energy beams at Lord Slug, but they seemed to be inaffective, the beams seeming to do little more than bruise him. Tyber, on the other hand, was firing off Destructo-Discs that were also seeming to be ineffective, merely ripping the evil Namekian’s clothing, but no more than that.

It was then that Zini flew in, sending a flurry of punches his way, Lord Slug smirking and using his arms to dodge them. Incorporating kicks into her flurry of attacks, Zini gave a yell of rising power, her jabs and kicks speeding up with every passing second. It didn’t take long for her to overwhelm Lord Slug, a powerful kick sending him flying. Jaco and Tyber watched on in amazement, but as Lord Slug got up, brushing himself off, the three patrol members recoiled, Jaco speaking.

“What’s it gonna take to keep this guy down?!”

“I don’t know,” Tyber said, “But we have to keep trying.”

A power Ki was quickly approaching them, Zini realized, looking in the direction the Ki signature was coming from. When she saw Turles, but no sign of Trunks, Zini’s eyes widened, watching as Turles took a bite of the fruit, his power skyrocketing, his fist crushing the fruit now that he’d taken his fill of it. Turles had his gaze on Tyber, who was distracted, still talking to Jaco.

“Tyber, look out!” Zini rushed to Tyber’s side, pushing him out of the way of–

“Meteor… Burst!”

The last thing she heard was Tyber and Trunks calling out her name, and then everything went black.

_______________________

The first thing Zini registered as her senses came back to her was that she hurt. Her body ached, and on top of that, she was cold and wet. A groan escaped her as she tried to sit up, her body screaming at her to stay down, but a hand at her shoulder stopped her, and she tensed. Who…? As her vision began to settle, she tensed upon seeing a purple glove, a hook of nerves curling in her stomach.

“It’d be best if you stayed down,” Came Tyber’s baritone voice, calm and even. “You’re in pretty bad shape.”

Zini gave a 'tch’ and reluctantly laid back down, closing her eyes. She was quiet for a few moments, an uncomfortable silence settling between the two of them. Feeling awkward, she spoke up. “…What happened out there?”

“The enemy over-powered us.” She felt Tyber take his hand off of her shoulder then, “You were knocked out, and Trunks moved to get you, but was stopped by Lord Slug. Lord Slug then sent himself and Trunks flying, and Jaco went to retrieve them. As for Turles, he came for us, but I managed to make a large enough barrier around him to trap him, and brought you here, out of sight from him so that you could try to regain some strength.” She opened her eyes then and looked toward him, only to see him sitting beside her cross-legged, looking at her, his yellow eyes filled with concern. Zini made a small, strangled sounding noise at the sight, and quickly turned her head away from him, doing her best to hide the rushing heat to her face.

“We would have been fine if you had paid attention.” Zini barked, irritation flowing through her as she tried to settle herself down, wanting the warmth from her face to die down. Her only response was a low 'hmm’ from Tyber, and she regretted her words, sighing. “… I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No, you’re right.” She heard him say, hearing him get up. She looked towards him then, watching as he walked towards the mouth the cave they were in, and noticed it was raining. He stood there, his tail dangling behind him as he watched the rain. “I should have been more careful.”

“Tyber–” Zini began, seething as she sat up.

“You focus on you.” He cut her off, then sighed, raising a hand to pinch at the bridge of his nose, not looking back at her. “Try and gain back some strength, and we’ll go find Trunks and Jaco after the rain’s passed.”

Zini opened her mouth to speak, intent on making a rebuttal to his 'focus on you’ comment, when she felt a lump in her wristband, prodding at her wrist. Using one hand, she dug into the wristband on her opposite arm, and pulled out a capsule she’d tucked away, smirking at her find. “Perfect.”

“What?” Tyber asked, turning around to see her sitting up. “Zini, I told you–”

She held up the capsule to show him it, before clicking in on the top part, the capsule poofing into a small box. Opening the box, Zini pulled out two senzu beans, tossing one to Tyber. “Eat it. You’re probably not in great shape yourself.”

Frowning, Tyber looked at the small, green bean. “What is it?”

Instead of answering, Zini popped her bean into her mouth, chewing on the hard medicine, it crunching loudly inside her mouth. Tyber made an unamused face at the noise, but watched as she swallowed, and jumped up, perfectly fine. “Zini?”

Zini popped the box back into capsule form, stowing it awayt in her wristband before stretching out her arms, then hopping on the balls of her feet, moving her legs around. “That’s much better.”

Tyber looked at the senzu in his hand, and slowly placed it in his mouth, chewing slowly before swallowing. His eyes widened as his body felt refreshed, all his aches and pains were gone, feeling back at 100%. “What are those?”

“They’re called Senzu Beans.” Zini said, leaning from side to side as she stretched out her body, getting her blood flowing after being knocked out. “Earth grows them, and we get a set supply from the tower they’re grown in every once in a while. They’re rare though, and take a while to grow, so we ration them into energy capsules.” Zini patted her wristband then. “I only had the two for this mission, so we’re on our own from here on out. Now,” She began walking towards the mouth of the cave, and moved to step out into the rain, “Why don’t we just go now?”

“Don’t!” Tyber warned, but his warning came a bit too late, Zini stepping out into the rain and immediately yelping as each rain drop caused her pain, ducking back into the cave.

She was only a little wet, but her eyes were wide as she regained her composure, looking to Tyber then. “What the hell?”

“The rain’s super charged with electricity.” He explained, shaking his head. “It started to rain while I was flying from Turles, so I ducked in here, where it was safe.”

Zini blinked in surprise, wondering how Tyber managed to fly in that and rubbed at her arm, looking out towards the rain. “Here’s hoping Jaco and Trunks are at least in a better positin than us. I can’t sense their Ki.”

“I can’t either.” Tyber walked to Zini’s side then, also looking out at the rain. “I can’t sense Turles or Slug either. I can’t sense anything, but you.”

“Well we can’t stay here until the rain dies out,” Zini snapped, walking back into the heart of the cave. “There’s gotta be something we can do.”

“Our best option right now is to wait.” Tyber replied, a bit of exasperation in his voice. He turned his back to the mouth of the cave to watch her as she tried exploring their current dwellings. “The cave is a shallow one, there’s a back wall but that’s it. We’re stuck here for now.”

“I’m going out there to find them.”

“Zini, no.”

Zini frowned and turned around to look at Tyber. “You can’t keep me here.”

“And you can’t fly for more than five minutes in that rain.” Tyber shot back, folding his arms and stepping forward. He sighed then, and shook his head. “Listen, I don’t want to fight. Let’s just wait out the rain and then we’ll find them.”

Zini stepped forward too, curling her hands into fists. “I’ll be fine, you wait here if you want.” She then walked past him, intent on heading for the mouth of the cave, when she felt a strong hand wrap around her wrist.

“I can’t let you go out there.” Tyber’s gaze narrowed. “You don’t have any more of those beans to heal you after being exposed to that rain for so long.”

Zini looked at his hand, then glared up at him, the Galactic Patrolman having a good extra head’s worth of height on her. “… Let go of my arm, Tyber.”

The two glared at each other, and when she tried to pull her arm away, Tyber pulled her back in, close enough to him that the two were mere inches apart from each other. Keeping their gazes on each other, Zini reared back her other arm, curling her hand into a first that she had every intention of slugging Tyber with, but the elder Saiyan was quick, using his other hand to grab at her wrist before her fist made contact with his face. Growling, Zini began powering up, intent on overpowering Tyber through sheer force if she had to, wind and energy whipping around her.

Tyber growled too, tightening his grip on Zini’s wrists. She could see the resolve in his eyes, and angry blue eyes peered into steely yellow, when his expression faltered, his grip slowly loosening. Confused by this, Zini stopped powering up, and pulled her wrists out of his grasp, but didn’t make any motion of moving out of the cave. Instead she folded her arms, a huff escaping her. But before she could speak, could ask him what his issue was, he spoke. “Can I kiss you?” The words took a minute for Zini to process, and blinked, tilting her head slightly as her brows furrowed.

“…What?”

“Can I kiss you?”

The question was spoken simply enough, but Zini found herself frozen to the spot, her mouth feeling like it was going dry. There was a bundle of emotions curling up inside her, and it left her feeling internally confused and panicked. Tyber’s face was in such close proximity to hers, his gaze not meeting hers, rather fixating on her lips.

“Is this really the time?” She questioned, her voice coming out hoarser than she intended it to. She mentally berated herself for the show of weakness, her hands curling into fists, shaking her head slightly and clearing her throat before speaking again, this time more confidently. “We’re on a mission!” There was more anger in her voice than anything, the emotion being one she defaulted to often when she didn’t know how to process what she felt. Though as much as she wanted to push him away… she didn’t. Her gaze momentarily dropped from his eyes to his lips, only to quickly snap back up to his eyes again, which in turn, rose to meet hers.

She could feel the heat rushing to her face, and exhaled slowly through her nose, dark blue gazing into dulled yellow. There was something in his gaze she couldn’t quite place. Hesitancy? Anxiety? Desperation? Whatever it was, it sent a pang of concern through her, and before she could stop herself, she unclenched a fist, raising her hand to cup the side of his face. “I…” She sighed again and shook her head. “Tyber, this isn’t… We shouldn’t…” It was taking everything she had to keep her voice steady and even. but she couldn’t bring herself to flat out say no.

She’d missed him.

As much as she didn’t want to allow herself to admit it, she’d missed him so much. She knew they broke up on good terms, and she tried telling herself that they tried, they couldn’t make it work, and that was the end of that. She was thankful to still have him in her life, but if it didn’t work, why try again? The only outcome was being hurt all over again. And damn, did she hurt after they’d split. She’d assumed she’d hidden it well at first, but when Trunks and Pinich both talked to her about it separately, she felt ashamed, like it was a weakness to show she’d missed him. Trunks was concerned because all she did was work and work and work and ran herself ragged with Time Patrol missions. Pinich could tell through sparring with her that she wasn’t focused, that as much effort as she put into training, her mind was always on something else.

And yeah, maybe she tried coping by burying herself in her work, and maybe she’d gotten a little scatterbrained during spars, but she was fine. She didn’t need them worrying over her, or their pity. She didn’t need them, or Tyber, or anyone! She didn’t–

The heat came rushing back to her face as Tyber leaned into her touch, letting his head rest in her hand, and the feeling of his tail loosely wrapping around her leg didn’t help the blush that rose to her cheeks, either. “I know,” he spoke, his voice soft and gentle, quiet like his words were only for her to hear. He turned his head inwards towards her hand, and gently kissed her palm, closing his eyes for a moment before looking back at her, “I’ve just missed you, is all.” He murmured.

Zini’s eyes widened at that, and she gulped slightly, not being able to find her voice. The emotions that had been bubbling inside of her began to boil over, and her heart hurt. “I…” I’ve missed you too, she wanted to say, but when she finally spoke, those words failed to come out.

“Who do you think you are?” She asked instead, her voice trembling with anger and confusion and sadness, her grip on the side of his face tightening somewhat, though Tyber seemed to not care. “Who do you think you are,” she repeated, her hand beginning to tremble as well, “thinking you could do this to me again?” In her mind’s eye, she recalled the first time they were in a similar predicament, during the TimeSpace Tournament, during their downtime in the spaceship they’d repurposed from Frieza. She’d gone to his room in the ship to talk about fighting combos they could pull off during the tournament and at some point during their conversation, they’d found themselves kissing one another, much to Zini’s surprise. She’d always respected him and the way he fought, and she’d have been lying if she said that respect hadn’t grown into something else, but never would she have imagined that he’d reciprocated her feelings, or that she’d allow herself to drop her guard enough that she’d act on them in such a way.

Tyber frowned slightly at her words, confusion laced in his expression. “Do what–”

Before he could finish, Zini leaned up, and pulled him down somewhat, meeting him halfway as she tentatively pressed her lips to his, kissing him. Tyber’s eyes widened slightly, but before he could do anything else, she pulled away slightly, letting her forehead rest against his. She refused to meet his gaze, however, keeping her eyes closed as she allowed herself to lower her guard, her tail unwrapping from her waist and hanging lamely behind her.

Slowly, Tyber moved his arms, letting his hands rest at Zini’s hips. He then unwrapped his tail from her leg, and just as slowly as with his arms, let his tail slink up to her waist, carefully wrapping around her and pulling her just the slightest bit closer. When she didn’t lash out or deny him any of this, he leaned in and kissed her gently, keeping the kiss simple and chaste, before pulling away himself.

Both full-blood’s eyes were lidded, gazing at one another, before Zini and Tyber simultaneously leaned in, kissing each other again, this time more fervently and with more urgency than before. Zini used her thumb to stroke at Tyber’s face, her other hand falling to his chest, resting against his Galactic Patrol uniform. Tyber’s hands remained at Zini’s hips, his tail securing its hold around her waist, pulling her closer to him, his thumbs rubbing small circles on her hips. A small noise left him and his brow furrowed as Zini bit gently at lower lip, then sucked on it in apology, her tongue running along his lip.

The two barely pulled away from each other for air before they were back to kissing one another hungrily, Zini’s hand at Tyber’s face moving towards the back of his head, fingers curling in thick black hair, pushing Tyber more into the kiss. Tyber didn’t mind in the least, Zini’s forwardness always being something he’d admired about her. He smiled against her lips, one of his hands moving upwards to the small of her back, resting comfortably there. Zini wasn’t sure who’d instigated it, but the two started moving, until Zini’s back was against the cave’s wall, the younger Saiyan trapped between it and Tyber. Not liking the corner she’d been pushed into, she bit his lip again, a little more roughly this time, as if to say, 'How dare you?’

But Tyber wasn’t fazed, the elder Saiyan breaking the kiss for a moment’s breath, only to reclaim her lips with his own, the two kissing heatedly once more. Their tongues, warm and wet, traced over one another’s, Zini playfully flicking her tongue against his before he made the move to suck on hers in retaliation, and the young woman moaning softly into his mouth, the vibrations sending a chill down Tyber’s spine, causing him to moan in response.

Tyber was so caught up in the moment, he almost failed to notice the feeling of something slinking around his leg, wrapping itself around the limb. When he registered in the back of his mind that Zini had been comfortable enough to not only loosen her tail from her waist, but to wrap it around him? A pang of emotion went through his chest, and he broke the kiss, the two Saiyans panting as they reclaimed their lost air. Tyber looked down at Zini then, watching her as she panted, her eyes closed as she reveled in their actions and licked her lips, her head tilted back against the cave’s wall, exposing part of her neck.

A stab of something primal surged through Tyber at that, and heat rose to his tanned face, realizing just what it was that surged through him just then.

There was a primal sense of want, desire, a craving that was begging to be served, but he reserved himself, simply leaning in and pressing a simple kiss to Zini’s reddened cheek. “We should…” Tyber was surprised at how hoarse his voice was, and he cleared his throat, speaking again. “We should stop while we’re ahead.”

Zini’s eyes opened somewhat then, and she tilted her head forward, looking up at Tyber with hazy blue eyes. “I don’t…” Her voice was hoarse too, and she shook her head slightly, not understanding. “Why?”

The hand at the small of Zini’s back moved upwards, cupping her cheek, his thumb brushing against her reddened lips. “Because,” he began, his eyes closing as he spoke, “I don’t think I’ll be able to control myself if we continue.”

His words, as well as the thumb against her lips, sent a chill down Zini’s spine, one that was strangely welcomed. She pressed a kiss to his thumb, her gaze playfully narrowing, “And what? You think I wouldn’t be able to stop you?” She was the stronger out of the two of them, this wasn’t news to either Saiyan. But when he opened his eyes after she’d spoken, she saw a hunger in them that she’d never seen before, one that caused her to shiver.

“I’m serious.” Tyber warned, leaning in and pressing his forehead against hers, “I don’t think you understand just how much I’ve missed having you in my life.”

“You underestimate me.” Zini murmured, her hands moving to rest at his shoulders. “You think I don’t think about you every goddamn day?”

“Zini…” Tyber closed his eyes, his tail’s hold on her tightening somewhat, “I–”

Both Saiyans tensed as they felt two different Ki draw near, the pair pulling away from each other and gazing out the mouth of the cave, Zini’s tail quick to wrap around her waist once more. It was then that they both realized that the rain had stopped, and neither could recall when it had.

Though as the sets of Ki grew closer, both Zini and Tyber relaxed somewhat, as Trunks and Jaco came into view.

“Hey!” Trunks called out, waving at the pair. Zini waved back at her partner, stepping out of the cave as she placed a hand on her hip. Tyber was slow to follow, looking back into the cave as he exited it, brushing a thumb against his own lips, before turning around to face the others, watching as they landed in front of them.

“That weird rain finally let up.” Trunks spoke, folding his arms as he looked to Zini. “You doing alright?”

“Yeah,” Zini replied, nodding. “I brought along a few Senzu Beans, and took one after I woke up.” She then looked back and forth between Trunks and Jaco. “Where did you two go?”

“We managed to find shelter at the ships.” Jaco stated matter-of factly, “We would have come out to find you both sooner, but the electric rain was interfering with the ship’s systems.”

“Yeah,” Trunks agreed, nodding. “After we got separated, Lord Slug flew off and disappeared before I could get him. But I managed to get the fruit away from him.”

“You did?” Zini asked incredulously.

Again, Trunks nodded. “It’s safe back on Jaco’s ship. We can take it to the Supreme Kai of Time for examination.”

“I wouldn’t put it past Towa to have used her magic to taint it somehow.” Zini murmured, a hand going to her chin as she spoke. “Turles ate and destroyed his fruit, so we weren’t able to get it.”

“That’s fine; We have the one, at least.” Trunks said.

“We better get moving, then.” Tyber said suddenly, looking out at the dying planet. “We don’t want to be trapped here if it starts raining again.”

All three of them looked to Tyber, and agreed with him. “Right.”

______________________

The entire ride back to Conton City was a quiet one.

Neither Saiyan spoke throughout the entire time in space, both their minds running rampant with different thoughts, from the loss of planet Raika, to the mystery of Turles and Lord Slug’s whereabouts, to their little tryst in the cave, both Saiyans were heavy-minded, to say the least.

When they arrived back in Conton City, however, after exiting Tyber’s ship, Zini watched as Jaco and Trunks began talking to one another, and leaned against the outside of Tyber’s ship, folding her arms and leaning her head against the metal. She said nothing as Tyber stepped out of his ship and stood next to her, watching the same sight she was.

“You know,” Tyber began, letting his tail swing back and forth slowly, “I owe you an apology.”

At that, Zini blinked and frowned, picking her head up off of the side of the ship. “Apology?” She asked, looking to Tyber, her brow furrowing in confusion. “What for?”

“I didn’t thank you for looking out for me back there.” Tyber replied, not taking his eyes off of Trunks and Jaco, who seemed to be deep in discussion about something. “So I’m sorry, and thank you.”

A red tint dusted Zini’s cheeks, and she scoffed, looking away from Tyber. “That’s no reason to… tch, it’s fine."She stood up straighter then, her mind wandering as she replayed their last moments in the cave in her head again.

"Hey, Tyber?”

Tyber looked at Zini then, tilting his head somewhat. “Yeah?”

Zini looked down at the ground for a moment, before raising her gaze to meet his. “What were you going to say before Jaco and Trunks found us?”

Now it was Tyber’s turn to turn red, and he exhaled slowly, looking away from Zini. “Ask me again after you stop Towa and Mira.” he said, folding his arms. The red was slowly leaving his face, and he looked back at Zini, smiling gently. “I’ll tell you then.”

“Ahem?”

Zini and Tyber both turned their heads to look and see Jaco standing before them. “Are you two done talking? We need to head back to base, Tyber.”

“Right.” Tyber nodded, then looked to Zini. “I guess this is goodbye, then.”

“I’ll see you after I beat Towa and Mira.” Zini said, smirking. “Don’t you forget it.”

Tyber smirked himself, placing a hand on Zini’s shoulder. “I won’t.” He gave her shoulder a squeeze before letting go, and looking back to Jaco. “I’ll start getting the ship ready to go.” With that, Tyber turned on his heel, and jumped back into his Galactic Patrol ship.

“You know, for what it’s worth,” Jaco said, looking at Zini before he turned around himself, and began walking to his ship, “You’re as good a fighter as he claims.”

Zini blinked at that. “He talks about me?”

“He’ll bring you up in stories every once in a while.” Jaco said, the small alien looking over his shoulder as he walked away. “You Saiyans are always so battle hungry.” Zini laughed lightly at that, watching as Jaco entered his ship.

Trunks walked over to Zini, and the two waved Jaco and Tyber goodbye, watching as their ships rose into Conton City’s sky, and eventually vanish beyond the clouds. Zini lowered her hand, and placed her hands on her hips, unable to tear her gaze away from the sky. She licked her lips slightly, and bit down on her lower lip as she thought of Tyber’s words.

“–ini? Hello? Earth to Zini?”

At the sound of Trunks’ voice, Zini shook her head, being pulled out of her thoughts. “Yeah?” She looked up at Trunks then, and was slightly taken aback by the unamused look he was giving her. “…What?”

Frowning, Trunks folded his arms, looking Zini in the eye. “Alright, spill. What happened between you and Tyber?”

Zini frowned herself, glaring at Trunks. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Listen, I’ve known you for over seven years now,” Trunks began, unshaken by Zini’s glare, “I know you and Tyber have history. I just wanna make sure you’re ok.”

Sighing, Zini dropped her stance, and shook her head. “Nothing happened that’s worth worrying about, Trunks. I appreciate the concern, but really, I’m fine.” It wasn’t a complete lie; while her and Tyber’s way of spending time during the rain was none of his business, she really was telling the truth. “In fact,” she began, turning to walk to towards the Time Nest, “I feel better than I have in a while.” She let a hand reach up, her fingers tracing her lips momentarily, before pulling her hand away and looking back at Trunks. “Let’s go stop Turles and Lord Slug, and find Mira and Towa.”

[ssj4]

Sorry to bother you, but I keep seeing posts about a future Goten AU and I keep getting really curious! However, when I try to find links to anything about it I end up at some abandoned URLs.

SECOND TIME TRYING TO ANSWER THIS CAUSE MY IDIOT ASS FORGOT I HAD ONE TYPED OUT AND CLOSED EVERYTHING :)

some disclaimers im getting most of this from an old draft i had written about the au, i havent watched the specific scenes in dbz and dbs that these are based on in well over 2+ years so i dont remember the timeline of events that well so im sorry if some of it just straight up doesnt make sense lol

this whole thing did start out as an excuse to replace the romantic scenes with mai in dbs with goten actually so the truten themes are pretty significant but that aside future goten is a very good boy with a much different personality and outlook on things… much like how future trunks is compared to his main timeline counterpart :3c the whole thing was developed by me and my gf together and we never rly posted too much about it and the broken links you did end up finding were probably from like the one or two times we did but here u go im glad u asked 

I HOPE THE READ MORE LINK WORKS ON MOBILE IF NOT IM SORRY

the big change is it starts out with chi chi getting pregnant before goku dies of heart disease or whatever in the android saga instead of the cell saga, so even after he dies in that timeline she still has their 2nd son and he grows up in the future timeline with trunks.

when they were kids (like 10-15) goten was stronger than trunks just bc gohan and chi chi were there to teach him just a little bit. trunks and goten sparred a lot though so he was able to keep up but never really passed him. (that part isnt really important but i figured it was a nice detail that made sense)

thats when history of trunks comes into play, and they both get really serious about gohan training them. the scene in the movie where gohan knocks trunks out before flying off and getting killed is the same except now he just knocks out 2 kids instead of 1 i guess. 

i feel i gotta add that this au was created when the future trunks arc in dbs was airing, and mai was introduced as his love interest, and honestly in my opinion the scenes were written really well but i just wasnt digging the fact that before she was granted a younger appearance she was already middle aged, like she was old enough to be his mom if that makes sense. so it really isnt a dig on mai at all cause i love her and id die for her its just the romantic plot that i didnt like. so when that was airing i thought “WELL what if that was someone else” 

she’s still with them though in this timeline and she still has her younger appearance! 

the future timeline is still progressing the same as it did in canon, the androids still wrecked the place and no one was strong enough to do much about it so trunks is still set up with a time machine to meet with the other timeline. goten stays back and does his best to protect everyone while hes gone just in case

some stuff happens in between here but skip ahead to trunks coming back from the trip after the cell games i guess! lots of stuff happened obviously like trunks literally dying, spending years in the time chamber with his dad, meeting a whole gaggle of clowns that he’d only heard stories about, seeing gohan as a preteen. hes got a lot of stuff to share!!! now hes back and he can take care of the androids + cell + and goten can catch up and lifes pretty good over there! 😇

during the rebuilding period goten would spend a lot of time with chi-chi and ox-king and still slept over there occasionally which she really appreciated, and he invited trunks and bulma over there with him frequently.

despite this he wasnt present when she died as no one really expected goku black to wipe out the landscape so far from the city, but she and ox-king died along with more than half of the population. (ugh god im so sorry queen i love you😓)

as i said before mai is still here and she’s still the leader of the resistance!

events of future bulmas death is the same as well as mai originally intending to go with trunks when they meet up together in an abandoned building. goten is already there as the three of them rest up a bit and start making their way to capsule corp. goten was planning on staying behind anyways but he wanted to see the two of them off. when goku black interrupts them as they arrive, trunks and goten encourage mai to escape, seeing as she only has a gun and everyone already knows bullets arent gonna work. 

this scene is the same as it was in canon, where trunks tries to rush black but gets beaten quickly. mai trying to buy him time to let him escape is replaced with goten actually fighting him and taking a hit for trunks but getting knocked out as mai did. trunks under extreme stress from already losing his mom today assumes hes dead instantly, (he has dumb bitch disease, he didnt even check for a pulse in canon!🤔) and fires a masenko to escape into capsule on his own 

after trunks pops back in time and black is focused on searching for him, mai sneaks back in to retrieve goten (even though they told her to leave she really just ducked behind some rubble and stayed close, because she wasnt just gonna leave them!)

she takes him back to an underground bunker with other members of earths resistance and when he wakes up she tells him that trunks made it to the time machine and that hes presumably in the other timeline now. 

idk if yall remember it well but i rewatched some of the episodes just for this, and trunks in the main timeline believing goten was killed and mai is alone and he wont be able to get back is so sad. and when he spent that day with gohan and his family and cried thinking about how if black hadn’t have shown up, he couldve had a family too… he doesnt deserve to be this sad 😥

skip to when he’s finally able to get back home with goku and vegeta with him and they make their way to the bunker where he sees mai and goten together! the scene in canon where he rushes over and starts spilling his heart out is the same, with him telling goten he thought he died

they get a really sweet hug moment here when theyre both happy to see the other is still safe and it gives both goku and vegeta some Food For Thought, because goku actually didnt know there was a goten in this timeline, and he doesnt really recognize him at first. vegeta has the idea in his head that this is probably goten.

goten never really had any sort of real attachment to his dad. it makes sense hes never met him, hes only ever really heard about him through others, (his mom, his brother, trunks, and probably bulma has mentioned him as well) so he definitely knows OF him its just that, he doesnt know him. so when he sees the real goku standing there for once a lot of thoughts run though his mind, like, “that looks A LOT like goku black!” “thats definitely my old hairstyle” and “holy shit is that my dad?” but the first thing he actually says out loud is “Holy shit its goku orange” and vegeta really almost loses it because cause any doubt in his mind about this kid being related to kakarot just went right out the window cause only someone related to him would say that

and as you probably know a lot happens after that with them all finding a way to defeat zamasu but i dont want to include all of the rest when you can probably just interpret which scenes were changed  

ANYWAYS now instead of trunks surviving the apocalypse its trunks and goten surviving the apocalypse. thats why its not a really super romantic deal like Who has time for dates when goku black Might possibly be hiding in this abandoned olive garden?? so theyre just very close and privately affectionate

the ending where trunks and mai get to live in a new world with their counterparts is the same except gotens there with them of course, dbs left their ending pretty open 

so that takes care of the story changes, heres some additional details and information on gotens character in this au! 

heres his design, drawn by my girlfriend @ssj2 uwu !! 

he kept his natural hairstyle for a while, but i think he changed it sometime during the rebuilding period after the androids and just let it grow out a bunch. up until then he kept his natural style purely to honor the guy he’s heard so fondly of even if it brought him a lot of mixed feelings when people said he looks just like him. a really distinct feature about his new hairstyle is that the spikes look like horns and i love that a lot !!

and the shawl he wears was the same one chi chi wore 

some personality traits for future goten is that he has a habit of bottling up his negative emotions and has trouble taking care of himself, as hes always more focused on the well being of his loved ones. he can be mischievous and cocky but hes not overconfident (or he hasnt been since gohans death) however in some situations he can be charismatic and assertive which works really well imowhen their timeline is erased and theyre temporarily in the main timeline, goten gets to meet a bunch of people like gohan and his family, chi chi, and even his counterpart 

sorry if this post was messy i wasnt really sure how i wanted to make it look and im kinda bad at dumping information out so if any of its confusing just redirect me to it and ill try again gdjfksjdgsfk 😭❤

hmmm anyways thank u for reading!! its an au we made years ago and we love a lot and i hope u do too! be nice pls!! and send asks about it if you’d like cause its fun to think about! 

[hotstreak2k3]

Things we want for the upcoming Dragon Ball Super movie (2020) and future episodes!

While we are airing some English Dub version on a Adult Swim, there is a fatal announcement that another DBS movie is on development. Even Gohan’s dub actor Kyle Herbert wasn’t happy to know that his character isn’t in that film this time around.

Many fans have been wondering where do we go next since the Galactic PatrolPrisoner Manga Arc is unexpected goes beyond the series. Even though CBR had given some possible storylines in the upcoming movie, I am not certain we can bring back the Red Ribbon Army anytime or any other weird scenario from their list.

So here are the list of possible storylines and changes we fans should expect to see in either the next Dragon Ball movie or saved for the future episodes and manga arcs afterwards:

20.) The return of blood, gore and better animation quality from Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

19.) Gohan and Krillin enjoy their slice of life with their wives and kids in future Episodes... and train for the next threat as well.

18.) Filling up a fan theory of one the Angels sinister plot against Grand Zeno’s... and it could possibly be the Grand Minister.

17.) Bringing back Vic Mignogna as the voice of Broly

16.) Another Future Trunks Saga where we can see our favorite hero and future Mai settle down at since their Original Timeline was obliterated by Zeno

15.) One time story mini arc of Universe 6’s Saiyans (Cabba, Kale and Caulifla) adventures. In addition, explore more on their threesome relationship and the Saiyan society.

14.) Broly and Cheelai’s relationship blossoms (At least that what most fans would see a anime reference of Tarzan and Jane)

13.) Son Goku meet his parents, Bardock and Gine, for the first time!

12.) Piccolo merge with an namekian god to gain the power that rivals Super Saiyan Blue.

13.) Cooler is hint to be canon just like Tarble. But fairly some of us want our favorite badass villain to side with his brother Frieza, not as an anti-hero

12.) for the Dragon Ball Fighterz adaptation, Android 21 is now a beloved character thanks to Akira Toriyama himself. But not everyone wants the revived villains from the game. Plus her good half and the her human link partner would be a great addition to the Z Fighters. Wheras bringing back Android 16 would be a lot of fun. It’ll be cool to see a human fighting soul, his Majin Bio waifu and Goku to take on the Evil Android 21.

11.) Warriors from the Tournament of Power teamed with Son Goku and the Z Fighters to save the Multiverse from a much greater threat... like Frieza or Hearts [A villain from the Super Dragon Ball Heroes mini series]

10.) The return of Tien Shinhan and a long forgotten character Good/Bad Launch.

9.) King Kai teaches Tien, Yamcha and Chiaotzu the Kaioken technique!

8.) The development on Goten and Trunks; Goku trains Broly on Planet Vampa to control his inner power!

7.) Don’t add anymore Super Saiyan forms! Give the Z Fighters time to get caught up with their own strength, and the classic aspect from the original Dragon Ball series needs to come back!

6.) When Jiren was shown up in the Tournament of Power arc, he has poven to be the strongest warrior in the Multiverse. His potential story would be interesting to explore more of his tragic past while Goku’s for another round for this broken hero of Universe 11.

5.) Universe 7’s Saiyans (Goku, Gohan, Vegeta and Broly) visit Planet Sadala Of Universe 6. Also had a friendly spar with Cabba, Kale and Caulifla.

4.) In the Universal Survival arc, Gohan made a promise to Frieza that he will finish him up himself if Earth is threaten. Hell yeah! I wanna see our boy beat that galactic tyrant in his own hands. Sorry Goku!

3.) Make the Z Fighters become more prominent characters then being on the sideline. I mean for real Toriyama! Why is Super so focus on Son Goku and Vegeta? They already had their moments. So now it’s their turn take on the baddies much or similarly like DBZ.

-Krillin has decided to go back as a martial artist so that’ll be something for fans of the Dragon Ball.

-Tien’s new take as a role ofSensai would interesting enough to see how he teaches his pupils while taming Yurin and had another rematch with Mercenary Tao.

- Android 17 is surprisingly strong in the Tournament of Power. So would it be easy enough to had him aid Goku and friends in future battles? You damn right!

-Master Roshi is has been heavenly underestimated by his opponents, and he has overcome his pervert behavior in the TOP. Plus he can use Mafūba more then once despite how dangerous the sealing technique is. This Turtle hermit need some more comeback after a long absent.

-Videl is being treated like a housewife for her daughter Pan in Super. But many fans had forgotten that this gal is martial arts fighter in her own right in the Majin Buu Saga. When she hold on her own against Spopovich in a bloody fight, I was amazed how determined and inner strength the daughter of Satan has proven. Dont care what people are saying, she deserves more. So why can’t her husband Gohan teach her the Kamahamaha wave? Why haven’t he reason her training? This problem needs to be fixed!

2.) While Japanese fans were all looked up to Son Goku as their favorites, many westerners like me like Gohan more. He may not into fighting, but he’s willing to do it in order to keep his friends and family safe. Plus he did state that he is searching for a power beyond his Mystic form. So I hope Toriyama can hear this own out.... MAKE GOHAN GREAT AGAIN!!!

1.) Had Goku mastered his Ultra Instinct!

So here is my list I hope Toriyama and @toei-animation-official should consider take some advices. For the most part, I am not only speaking for myself, but to many Dragon Ball fans who grew up with the show since childhood. So don’t let all of us down! 🙂👍

[tigerlover16-uk]

As someone who likes hearing your thoughts on DBSuper and anything DB related in general, how do you think Toyotaro's influence in the DB world will be remembered? Honestly the man has done nothing but disappoint by writing poor plot points while dissing many characters and putting Vegeta up on a pedestal. Granted, he's not the first writer to commit these mistakes, but if he keeps this up he'll never make it big in the manga world. Think he can make a comeback with the DBSuper manga?

It’s still strange to hear people actually have interest in what I have to say, but gratifying nonetheless. Thanks for that.

And honestly, God only knows on both accounts. Public opinion on things can radically alter within weeks, and greater time and reflection can give fans a lot of time to look deeper and re-evaluate their opinions on certain works, for better or worse.

Ken Penders was once a beloved writer for the Archie Sonic comics, with many of his stories being longstanding classics. Then his stupid lawsuit happened that resulted in all the characters he created being ripped out of the comic haphazardly, forced a reboot that nobody wanted, and was probably a factor in the recent unceremonious cancellation of the comic right before a 3-part story could be concluded and any kind of closure could be had on anything. So as soon as all that nonsense turned him into the anti-Christ for the Sonic fandom, people began re-reading his work now as more critical adults compared to as impressionable children and realizing that a lot of what he wrote, while there were definitely some merits (There’s a reason people were angry so many of his characters and ideas weren’t allowed to be used anymore), his writing actually had a ton of problems and some of his stories were outright stupid. Endgame gets the worst of it, going from a well regarded would-have-been ending for the comic that changed the series forever, to a subject of mockery for it’s numerous plot holes, weird character decisions and just overall messy story.

On the other hand, we have the Star Wars Prequels. People HATED those movies with a burning passion for years since The Phantom Menace proved a let down for many, and I mean they violently HATED everything about the movies and insisted they killed Star Wars as a whole.

Yet nowadays with the Force Awakens re-invigorating the franchise as a pop cultural juggernaut and yet splintering fan opinions further, many now admit that the outcry to the prequels was WAY overblown. While a lot of old school fans still hate them, many are now willing to admit they did have good ideas and moments and were more mediocre than bad, and there’s a generation of people who grew up on and love the movies more than the original trilogy (Myself included) that can more comfortably admit to liking them and discuss why out in the open without being attacked and ridiculed (Mostly).

The movies are still huge base breakers and will always have the reputation of being disappointing follow ups to the legendary original trilogy, but after Clone Wars proved to everyone that great things did and still are coming out of that era in the timeline, most are willing to admit that the movies weren’t as damaging as they once thought.

Both examples go to show that anything can happen with time. We can make predictions, but we don’t know for sure how something is going to be regarded five or ten or twenty years from now. Doctor Who was a complete joke after it’s initial cancellation and before the revival came around, now it’s a beloved mainstay of pop culture in and outside of my home country again. Even Dragon Ball GT, while not well regarded, is generally seen in a more forgiving light by more people now than it was for years after it’s initial airing here in the west.

Truth is for most of the time he’s been writing the manga, Toyotaro has actually been popular and liked by the fandom. Right up through the end of the Future Trunks saga portion of the manga, the man has had a swarm of Dragon Ball fans passionately insisting that his is the “True” canon of Super and superior to the anime in every way. There are still people that think that way.

It was only about the time he got to Goku Black’s first confrontation with Vegeta that a lot of people really started doubting him, thanks to how ill regarded manga Black is by most in the fandom, especially compared to how beloved he was in the anime even by people who don’t like the saga. And then came the revelation that Toyotaro re-used panels from his Dragon Ball AF fan manga for the series, and apparently incorporated some ideas from it, basically literally trying to canonize his fanfictions and apparently basing Goku Black’s personality on his OC Xicor (And as we’ve established, that worked out SO WELL for him), and suddenly a lot of people realized something was up.

Which paved the way for a lot of people that had been critical of the manga up to that point, such as @dragon-ball-meta here on tumblr, to shed some light on a lot of his questionable writing practises. His treatment of Goku in several instances that made him out to be more dismissive and in several cases annoyed with his children in particular starting to gain notoriety, which hit a breaking point when chapter 27 came out last month and caused an uproar over the “Goku didn’t know when Gohan was born and Vegeta called him a terrible father” nonsense that basically looked like it was canonizing the “lol, Goku’s a bad father” meme (The most disturbing part… Toyotaro has apparently said that Goku is his FAVOURITE character… yeah… let that sink in).

I think that was the final straw for many that basically turned the man into a joke for a huge portion of the fandom. It was one of the worst controversies I’ve seen in this fandom for quite some time, so naturally just about everyone was talking about it. The Japanese fandom I’ve heard was really ticked off about it especially, given Goku is still the most beloved character in the franchise over there, even being recently voted the most beloved anime hero by most age demographics in the country.

So, his reputation has already undergone a major shift since he started writing the manga. He still has his fans who will stick by him through thick and thin, but many people meet him and his work with a lot more scrutiny than they did before, and many people consider him a joke (Gochi fans especially).

If things continue the way they have been, I feel he’s likely to be regarded as “That fan artist that draws good stuff, but shouldn’t have been hired to write an official manga because while he had a few good ideas, he REALLY wasn’t up to the job” that’s what it’s looking like anyway.

Could he make a comeback? Who knows, despite my own outrage with the Goku moment last chapter and my issues with how the Zen Exhibition match is apparently being handled so far in the current chapter, the guy did have a good idea in giving us a more fleshed out introduction to the Gods of Destruction at the start of the Universe Survival saga. For all we know despite these issues, his handling of the rest of the story could actually turn out to be really great and people might prefer it over the anime. Anything’s possible, really. How many people thought My Little Pony’s latest iteration would become one of the most popular and talked about cartoons of the decade?

I kind of doubt that will happen. My problems I’ve already brought up aside, the manga cut out Krillin’s character arc, all of Gohan’s scenes, didn’t adapt the Resurrection F arc (Meaning it didn’t properly build up Frieza for his comeback here, so the manga can’t function as a self contained story with only the original Dragon Ball manga being necessary to understand things that happen in it), cut out the Hit two parter further building on his character and abilities, and further ironing out his rivalry and odd friendship with Goku, completely botched Frost’s character compared to the anime, while also screwing Piccolo over badly in their fight, as well as removing most moments featuring the supporting cast and even reducing Future Trunks to a foot note in a saga that was literally designed as an excuse to bring him back, and is known for rushing through the story compared to the anime in a bid to catch up considering how ridiculously behind Toyotaro has gotten thanks to the monthly schedule.

Which is an especially bad thing if he does that here, considering this saga has to accommodate the majority of the Z fighters getting character moments and good fights, including re-introducing Android 17 after a long absence, as well as introducing and fleshing out slews of new characters. And given his alterations to the Zen Exhibition match which really look like they’ll hamper Gohan’s role and screw Buu over completely, and his poor handling of the Super original characters that aren’t Beerus, Whis, Gowasu and Botamo in the last two sagas, I find it likely he’s not going to do a great job with most of them. Heck, I fully expect Krillin to get knocked out instantly as a joke rather than helping to knock out two opponents with Roshi and 18 and holding his own against Majora.

Again, I could be completely wrong and he could do a good job, and I’m just being judgemental and jumping to conclusions. But I’m finding it hard to be confident that he can make up for his set backs, even if he does end up doing some things better. Which isn’t saying much, his last two sagas he wrote did a few things better than the anime, and they were still worse stories overall.

If he does turn things around and actually writes a really good or even great saga and generally cleans up his act going forward, I could see Toyotaro making a comeback in the eyes of the fandom and being remembered in at least a more fond light than he is now. But if he screws up as badly as I fear he might and like he’s been doing lately, I can only imagine his standing in the fandom getting worse, and at best he’ll largely just be forgotten and ignored by most fans when Super finally concludes, or he’ll be a laughing stock. How that’ll effect his career in professional manga writing, I don’t know, but it likely won’t do him much good.

I guess this whole thing is a learning experience for fans wanting to start working on the actual properties they follow. Even if they’re extremely talented in one aspect (Toyotaro with his drawings) and have passion for what they’re doing, that doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to do a good job if they’re on writing duties, and they better put their absolute best efforts into things and think things through clearly, because their contributions WILL be scrutinized and they will have a significant impact on the franchise in general.

A lot of fan artists and fanfiction writers do great stuff and deserve to be respected, I know people who have written stuff that’s better than professionally published stories and in some cases are better than parts of the series the fans were adapting from. But there’s a REASON why fanfiction writers aren’t usually hired to write for the works they follow, and why it’s often considered a bad idea. And Toyotaro in many cases has done a good job of proving that point.

I really don’t hate the guy, whatever you may get from how I talk about him. I just want to make that clear for everyone, especially anyone who likes his work reading this. I kind of envy him as a fellow fan for getting to work on writing an official Dragon Ball story, I’d die for that opportunity, and I will still give him credit wherever it’s rightfully due, especially with his art. I just wish he thought things through better and didn’t make as many questionable choices despite having so much more time and being in a better position to plan things out than the anime writers had.

Will Toyotaro make a comeback? Good question, probably not, but we’ll see. I’ll say this though, for all his problems his adaption and the things going on in and around it is at least interesting to talk about, and at least we’ll have some nice artwork and drawings of all our favourite characters to look at however things turn out.

[firstpuffin]

Checklist for the next series of Dragon Ball Super:

I believe I’ve made a few passing references to anime over my articles and recently even analysed a part of the popular series Dragon Ball. Given how big a part of my life it has been (getting me through the lowest part of my life) I’m kinda surprised that I haven’t spoken more about it, although that’s easy to justify: anime fans don’t typically represent themselves well. I wanted to establish myself before starting the nerd talk so as to avoid being associated with the weeaboo culture.

  Yes, I might be just a bit paranoid about how people view me, and yes that’s because I would absolutely do the same.

 Now that I’ve exposed my insecurities let’s introduce the actual article.

  The Dragon Ball story originally ran from 1986 to 1997 under the names of “Dragon Ball”, “Dragon Ball Z” (which you mostly likely know) and “Dragon Ball GT”. In 2015 “Dragon Ball Super” began, entirely new, apparently entirely ignoring GT and it… was divisive up until it came to a close in 2018. It followed the boy with a monkey tail and who later turns out to be one of the alien Saiyan race as he aimed to become stronger and stronger; long story short imagine Kal-El with a tail, training to reach the godlike power that he is so often portrayed with.

  I could go into how the series was rushed which caused the quality to suffer at the start or I could mention how the main character, Son Goku, suffered from writing that turned him from single-minded, smart but under-educated, into a bumbling fool and a poor misrepresentation of the character. But for such a negative person I do try to look forward into the positive.

-Did… did they make him bigger instead of drawing him closer? -

pictures from otakutale.com

  No, I’m looking at what I want to see in the next series, should it happen. As with all stories that get me invested, there are a number of things that I want to see expanded on and events that I want to see happen. Just to be annoying these things don’t tend to happen, but I can always hope and here are a few that I would like to see.

Let’s start small; Bulma’s sister interacting with the cast:

  One of the main characters of the show is Bulma, who is also the one responsible for the story. When Bulma was sixteen years old she met Goku and she had been a regular character ever since, helping out with her brain (and wealth) while charming viewers with her vanity and sheer force of character. In a short spin-off we discover that she has an older sister who hasn’t turned up in the two decades since the story began.

  Her sister, who’s name I haven’t mentioned yet because I want to establish that she is a person and not an obscure sentient item of clothing, is called Tights and she is a writer who lives…somewhere. Tropical I think.

-Tights in her first (I think) anime appearance-

  As she only really appeared in the spin-off it could be assumed that she isn’t “canon”, or part of the “real” story; however, she appeared briefly twice in Super, making her canon and also meaning that she even has a voice actor so it is now not only possible for her to appear in the story, but I’d even say it’s now expected. In the credits of the final Super episode she is even seen with the main cast so we know they’ve met.

  So why do I want to see this so much? Well, because I’m a big softy and I think it’d be cute. But also, I like character interaction and Dragon Ball has some very interesting characters. Heck, Bulma’s husband Vegeta is a godlike alien who once tried to destroy the Earth and actually killed her ex-boyfriend (don’t get any ideas). This means their children are half-alien which could be the cause of prejudice, and I always find the rejection of such things to be sweet, so I’d like to see that. On a similar note, it could also be cool to see Vegeta’s brother Tarble, but I don’t see that happening.

  I could go on but it’d be more of the same, which is why it’s only the first entry.

Android 17’s family:

Another character who started off as an antagonist, No.17 soon became redundant when the true villain of the arc appeared and afterwards he followed his dream to be a park ranger. It’s kind of bizarre given his murderous tendencies at the beginning, but let’s just put that down to being an edgy teenager. His sister, No.18, was also a villain who was forgiven and she got hitched to another main character, Krillin. No.18 goes down in history as one of the few Dragon Ball wives who retain their personality after marriage, they have a kid and it’s a very sweet family.

-androids 17 and 18 respectively-

  Perhaps I should mention that while they are referred to as “androids”, the siblings are actually modified humans although how they were modified and in what ways are not really explored.

  Anyway, No.17 disappears until Super where he becomes vital to the story, and we find that he has a family himself, including two adopted children which is…interesting. As I mentioned he first appeared with very little regard for life and in an alternate timeline he and his sister eradicated most of Earth’s population, so learning that he has adopted children shows a massive change that I want to see explored.

  Basically I want to see his family; the type of person that he would marry, the type of child he would have and how they get along with those they adopted. While we know he’s met Krillin and their child, they know nothing about his family and it could be really sweet.

-Future No.17; Yeah, time (travel) changes everything-

The matured children:

This might sound a bit odd but those who have watched Super will understand what I’m getting at. Towards the end of the Z series our heroes have been pumping out children and despite Super apparently going on for a while two of these children just haven’t grown, physically or psychologically. One of them, Trunks, seemed to have some character development about mid-way but nothing has come of it, while the other, Goten, may actually have become younger.

-to my eyes it’s not one growing but the other being shrunk-

  As fans we want to see these two grow up and become their own people and just to tease us further, at the end of Z there is a 10 year time-skip where we see them as adults. Now we’ve seen in the Dragon Ball series that as a Saiyan Goku develops slower than humans before having a sudden and extreme growth spurt, so maybe this is what’s going to happen.

  There is the possibility that as a children’s anime they want there to be young boys for the viewers to connect to; there are now the children Pan and Bra (I know it’s a weird name; remember Tights?) but they are both girls and Dragon Ball is aimed at boys so… This might be the way they are thinking, even if it’s kinda irrelevant considering the boys so rarely appear.

  It’s important to remember that the reason why the children don’t appear is exactly because they are children: in the final (for now) arc of Super they weren’t involved because they weren’t mature enough and every time that something interesting happens Goten can’t get involved because his mother Chi-Chi makes him study (like seriously! how often is Goten gonna get to meet a time-traveller? give him some freedom already!). But as teenagers they are just as useful as Goku was when the story started (he was twelve years old!) and we can start having some decent storylines with them.

-Goten and Trunks after the timeskip-

More Saiyans:

The reason why changes depending on what the author wants, but the Saiyan planet was destroyed not long after baby Goku was sent away and there are only a few full-blooded Saiyans still alive, with two of them being killed within a year of us learning about Goku’s alien heritage. From memory, there are three full-blooded Saiyans currently (four if we include the latest movie) and one of them is never seen; there are five human-Saiyan children, one of which is second generation and I’m not sure how the genes would work in this case so I hesitate to call her “half-Saiyan”.

-it was a good-looking movie, if a bit lacking in plot- gif from crunchyroll.com

  However! In the Dragon Ball universe it has been established that there are currently twelve universes (ignoring timelines because that’s just a mess) and at least one of which has a whole planet of Saiyans who evolved slightly differently. Our heroes have met three of these and there has been a promise to visit the planet. On top of this, we know from the Saiyan we don’t see and possibly from the movie I mentioned (and screw it, different timelines too) that there is the chance of Saiyans from the local universe surviving too.

  But why would I want to see this? After about two decades we’ve discovered that female Saiyans can achieve the famous Super Saiyan transformation (there was a surprising amount of debate on that) and we know enough stuff about the Saiyans from both universes, so what’s left?

  Character interaction, that’s what. The Saiyans we know are exceptional in talent and sheer motivation, so where they are all beyond planet destroying levels of strength and capable of the aforementioned Super Saiyan transformations, they may be the only ones who are at that level. Our heroes could go to this planet that is the mirror image to their own and the conversations would be fun, but so would seeing the locals react to the sheer power that Goku and friends have achieved; we’ve seen hints of this already, but more time could be spent here and with reactions on a greater scale thanks to the sheer amount of local Saiyans.

-two very different histories of the same species-

  Is that it? Nope. So far both Goku and Vegeta have shown a very clear lack of interest in their own long dead people, but seeing an entire planet of their kin could awaken something in them. But their own planet is long dead, right? Except in the latest series they introduced the Super Dragon Balls (hence the series name) that can grant literally any wish (this power may be neutered at some point but we’ve seen seven universes get resurrected so…), including bringing a single planet back.

  And as I said, the Saiyans of each universe are very different so this war-like but relatively weak race would need putting in their place by our heroes, and that could be very, very fun.

 As you may have noticed I like characters and their interrelationships quite a lot. Thus it’s a shame that Dragon Ball is largely a dorky action series which doesn’t do much with families… heck, two out of the four wives I remember are just that: wives. The author has confessed to having difficulty writing women. Only Bulma and No.18 are anything more than just wives and mothers, and both of them are great! (no disrespect to wives and mothers, but Videl has lost most of what made her great in Z; and not because she’s a wife but because that’s all she is now)

  I’m going to leave it here for now as I have a few things I want to see and I don’t want this entry to go on for too long. Dragon Ball is a fun series if you just want to relax with something that isn’t too serious, and as long as you can let certain poorly-aged characters slide. Master Roshi is kinda…unpleasant; thankfully he doesn’t appear much later.

-picture of Roshi- Just… just fuck this guy-

[carnal-lnstinct]

How do you feel about Gobul? And how do you think it would’ve played out through the series?

readmore cause I talked too much lol

I never disliked the idea of Gobul and I embrace it far more now than I did when I was younger (having seen dbz before db), but yeah I honestly think they're cute together. I just accepted everything I saw as a kid and kept rolling to get to the next fight so I do love their canon dynamic more than anything because it feels like how they're supposed to be, but I wouldn't lose my mind if things played out differently and they wound up as a couple instead.

Goku and Bulma have love for each other whether it's just old friends or like family, it's not crazy if wound up being more and they lived happily ever after. I don't think anyone outside of Bulma (and Krillin) understands Goku the most so being his rich, fiesty wife and loyal best friend respectfully just fills out everything he would need to just keep doing what he doing anyways. Even their kids are best friends, they may as well be brothers by blood! That being said I do not vibe with TrvnksxG0ten or TrvnksxG0han or TrvnksxP4n or anything involving Mai

Gobul could still have Gohan after Piccolo Jr is defeated, and then later on Trunks and/or Goten (twins maybe?). Probably Trunks for the android timeline. Gohan would still be a scholar of some sort with his genius mom and grandpa, but still kind like his dad and grandma and probably still strong af since they never address his rage boost (we know it comes from Chi Chi toei just give us the truth already)

Plus romance doesn't matter in db, we know it's just to give them something to do off-screen/downtime/for comic relief until the next big thing happens. Bulma would be at Goku's neck the same way Chi Chi was, she'd still bonk him on his head and call him out on his impulsive judgment calls, but because she is often more involved with the bad things that happen then she may be less confrontational about training their kids and understanding towards their saiyan instincts.

So I don't think too much of the series would be different up until the 7 year time skip and of course how Trunks handles coming back to the past to meet Goku and give him the heart virus antidote. Even if he doesn't tell him they're his mom and dad goku shows his instincts are good at reading people around that time so he'll trust him. Or Trunks could just tell Piccolo, Krillin or Yamcha to ensure he is born

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 194

So there’s one last loose end to take care of in this arc, and that’s Trunks’ timeline, which was never changed by the events of the Androids and Cell Sagas.   Even though Cell was beaten in the main timeline, and 17 and 18 are no longer a threat, Trunks still has to stop them in his own native world, where 17 and 18 killed all the Z-Fighters and wiped out most of the world population. 

Bulma’s thrilled to see him return in one piece, and she’s surprised that he’s gotten taller.   Trunks explains how he used the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, so he doesn’t just look older, he is older.   Trunks said he was 16 in his first appearance, and he would have been 17 on his second trip to the past, and if you throw in those two years spent in the HTC, he’d be 19 now.   

Trunks explains the whole story to Bulma, who’s somewhat saddened to hear that Goku died in that alternate world too.    He was the only casualty, though, but it’s still kind of tragic that his was the one death her time machine couldn’t prevent.   Then Trunks tells of how Vegeta fought to avenge Trunks in battle, and she seems genuinely surprised by this.  

She had been sticking up for the guy all along, but this seems to be the first time she’s ever gotten confirmation that he really was a good person on some level.

I like this, because it’s a sort of closure for Bulma, who kind of put this whole saga into motion by inventing the time machine, but who hasn’t had much of a presence in this story.    She may not get much out of this, but she does get some confirmation that maybe her dead lover really did care about her after all.   

   Then there’s a radio bulletin of an android attack on Parsely City, so Trunks resolves to hunt them down and finish them off for good.   Bulma is concerned, but Trunks is much, much stronger than he was before, and now he’s more than a match for the androids.   

And, yeah, that’s pretty much how it plays out.    18 tries to beat up Trunks by herself to get over her bad mood from losing a video game, but she gets her ass kicked.    

So they try to double-team him, only Trunks is too strong for that to work anymore.  He vaporizes 18 before 17 can react.

Huh.   I guess she was full of pink smoke bombs or something.

I always dug 17′s reaction to seeing this.    They’ve been invincible for all these years, so there’s the standard “IMPOSSIBURU!” reaction you tend to get from DBZ villains, but there’s more to it than that.    18 was the only one on this planet he ever cared about.   Even if he kills Trunks here, he’ll never get her back, and that’s a loss he’ll have to endure for the rest of his existence.    I’m pretty sure Trunks spells that out in the dub, reminding 17 that this is exactly what he’s made everyone else feel like this whole time.   

Not that 17 has long to contemplate this, because Trunks isn’t fucking around here.   This is his world and he’s in charge, so we’re not letting the bad guys go, or giving them a chance to get stronger, or checking to see if they’ll turn good later, or torturing them to make them pay for their crimes.   No, this ends here and now.   

But it’s not over yet, because there’s still one last enemy out there.   

Cell, who was scheduled to activate right around the time Trunks defeats the androids.   

Three years later, the world has begun to rebuild from the android horror, and things are starting to return to normal.  

The Capsule Corp. building is even restored.    

And the time machine has been refueled for Trunks to go back to the altered past and tell the gang about how he beat 17 and 18.    Not sure why it took three years for them to recharge the time machine this time around, but whatever. 

Trunks suddenly tells his mom to go back inside, and she misreads him completely and thinks he’s got a girlfriend that he doesn’t want her to know about.    Maybe it’s just because I’ve gotten older, but Future Bulma’s hawt.

But Trunks gets her to go inside, and then he calls out Cell, announcing that he already knows who he is and what he’s planning to do.  

Cell is confused, until he realizes that Trunks must have learned about him in the past.   More accurately, Trunks heard about all of this from another version of Cell, the one we’ve seen in episodes 140-191, who succeeded in stealing the time machine and absorbing the androids in the past.    

But that guy still got killed, despite all his successes, and when he gloated about his origin to the Z-Fighters, he inadvertantly warned Trunks to expect an ambush at this exact time and place.    So this version of Cell won’t be so lucky.   

But this Cell still thinks he has a chance, since he’s clinging to the data he learned on Trunks from Dr. Gero’s spy robots.     That tells him that he should be stronger than Trunks...

... Except Trunks killed 17 and 18, which he shouldn’t have been able to do.   

But Cell really doesn’t have any choice here.   His ambush failed, and Trunks has superior intel and power, but Cell needs to become perfect, and his only hope of doing that lies in the time machine, so he’ll have to fight his way past Trunks to get it.    Trunks doesn’t want to fight in the city, so he knocks Cell into the countryside.   Somehow, Cell still thinks he has a chance. 

Yeah, well, he doesn’t. 

And that takes care of Trunks’ future world.   No more androids to worry about, and that Goku Black horseshit happened to some Blue-Haired AU Trunks that’s not even canon anyway, so fuck all that.      All my dude needs to worry about is when the Supreme Kai of Time shows up to tell him he broke the time laws.   

Meanwhile, in Otherworld, King Kai is done building the house that he and Goku are going to live in.    On Snake Way.  For all eternity.   Yeah.

It doesn’t even last five seconds.   Seriously, Goku just goes over to touch it and it collapses.   

Which is fine, because Goku didn’t want to stay in this dump anyway.   Well, why didn’t you say this before King Kai went to all the trouble to build an entire house? 

So Goku takes the whole group on a trip to meet those other warriors King Kai told him about, who got to keep their bodies and train in the afterlife.     Seriously, why didn’t he ask to do this a month ago?  

Annnnd, that’s it for the Cell Games Saga.    It’s fan-friggin-tastic.