#Though admittedly I loved seeing Baby Vegeta

[icejinlov3r]

*Frieza, Frost, Zamasu and Cell watch the latest Sparking Zero trailer*

*Frost not yet revealed as a playable character*

Frost: *sniffles* Why haven’t they chosen me yet…? 🥺🥺

Frieza: Darling, there’s no need to worry. I’m sure you’ll be announced soon.

Zamasu: Yes, indeed. After all, several of your other Universe 6 Allie’s had been picked.

Cell: I dunno….there’s not a lot of slots left.

Cell: The next trailer might even be the last character reveal.

Frost: 🥺🥺🥺

Frieza: *glares at Cell* You’re not helping.

Cell: Just saying. Don’t get your hopes up.

[fruitanddarkness]

I saw Bulla mention in one of your asks that she doesn't like to go super saiyan. Mind elaborating?

It’s not much but it can be broken down like so: 

The primary reason is because the emotions required for the transformation, primarily anger, are not accessible to Bura in a way that will not cause her distress. Fear and distress come before that level of anger for her. I elaborate under the cut if you’re interested in reading further.

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-The entire Baby possessing her, her family, and that entire arc left some trauma. I head canon that she was conscious the entire time even though she wasn’t in control of her body. So you have forced dissociation alongside watching people she loves and respects be forced into a similar state. She felt helpless and violated the entire time. 

-There’s a deep sense of pride for her family being Saiyan royalty, she has to get something from her dad’s genetics.  Seeing them taken down and enslaved felt instinctually disgusting and degrading. This was especially the case with Vegeta becoming the main host for Baby.. a parental figure she has a particularly close and special bond with, watching her dad lose himself was crushing.

-Before all of this, she had no incidences in her life that would push her to transform into a super saiyan. She was spoiled as a child had a supportive family, there was minimal distress there or memory that she could legitimately become that upset about. Admittedly there are moments where she has a very short temper and can become comically angry over some things, but she doesn’t focus on concentrating those emotions of that moment into a full  transformation. 

-Bura was 10 or 12 when this happened. I write her as 19 years old and she joined the time patrol when she was 15. She hasn’t been able to revisit these emotions in a safe place due to her work and also wanting to just forget about it. When the Baby arc ended she did everything she could to try and go back to normal. She denied that she had any lingering negative emotions for her sake and in an effort to try and not trouble her family over this... that, and nobody else seemed to talk about it, so she assumed they wanted to forget as well.  Although some time has gone by, Bura personally isn’t ready to deal with the residual negativity these memories cause her. Again, when these emotions about the situation fear is still the barrier she cannot overcome.

-This last one is more of a personality trait than a reason. Bura isn't used to pushing herself physically and really would prefer not to since fighting is not her first reaction most of the time.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 042

When I saw Resurrection F in the theater, they opened with this really long video before the movie, which included a trivia section.   One of the questions was how many planets did Frieza have in his empire, and the correct response was “at least 79″, which I assume was based on the name of the planet in this episode title.   It bugged me to think that anyone would assume #79 was one of the last planets, simply because no higher numbers were ever established, but if Frieza #79 really was the homeworld of the orphan refugees in episode 40, then I guess it makes sense for it to have been conquered fairly recently, so it probably would be one of the last ones.  

And seventy-nine planets is a lot.   I tend to think of fictional galaxies as having more inhabited worlds.  DC Comics has the Green Lantern Corps, which boasts 3600 sectors of the universe, with at least one inhabited planet in each one, but probably a lot more than that.    Star Wars and Star Trek usually don’t bother with numbers, but the standing rule in both seems to be that a writer can introduce a new planet as they please, because there’s so many out there that one more won’t affect much.   I seem to remember Count Dooku referring to “ten thousand systems” joining his cause, implying that there would be at least that many who would oppose him.  So it seemed to me that if Frieza is as big a big shot as everyone says, he ought to control a much larger number of planets than 79.

On the other hand, Frieza’s supremacy is based entirely on his person, so it really doesn’t matter how many planets he directly controls, since he can only be on one at a time.    Owning a thousand planets wouldn’t change much for him.   The Dragon Ball franchise seems to go for a minimalist approach anyway.   Dragon Ball Super stated that there were fewer than thirty planets with intelligent life, which makes no sense if Frieza has more than twice as many planets under his control.    Still, the tendency always seems to be towards low numbers.    I like to think of interstellar empires as having hundreds of provincial worlds, but admittedly I have no way of comprehending that sort of scale.  Seventy-nine is probably plenty.

So this is the episode where Vegeta finally recovers from his injuries.    Well, keep waiting, because he’s still in the damn healing tank.

Meanwhile, Goku gets so restless that he tries to sneak out of the hospital in the middle of the night, and then he falls down the stairs.  

While this is going on, Chi-Chi is still knitting, and she seems to have expanded the sweater she was working on.

As for Bulma, Krillin, and Gohan, they’re hunting down the last four Dragon Balls the need to wish their dead friends back to life.   The only problem is that they’re not on Planet Namek at all.    So how are they finding Dragon Balls, and why are there Namekians here?

This time, Dr. Lychee accompanies the gang, and when they find a Dragon Ball in a tornado, Lychee helpfully explains that the tornadoes on this planet never die out, so they can’t just wait to get the Dragon Ball later.

So Gohan jumps in and goes after it, because he is his father’s son after all.

I’m confused, because Gohan got the three-star ball here, but I’m pretty sure the three-star ball was mentioned in the title of the previous episode, so I guess they didn’t actually find that one last time.   Huh.

Meanwhile, Goku’s gone out to the middle of nowhere to train in spite of his injuries.  

“I’m Son Goku!   Welcome to Jackass!”

On ““““Namek”“““ the gang looks for a Dragon Ball in a forest, only to discover that the foliae is actually the feathers of an enormous bird.   You could probably do a seven-book fantasy cycle around a concept like this, but Dragon Ball Z just tossed it out in filler episode.  This is one of the reasons I don’t like GT, by the way.   The first arc of Dragon Ball GT looks and feels a lot like this Fake Namek arc, but it somehow manages to do less with more.    The GT crew had to search multiple planets for the Black Star Dragon Balls, and none of them had anything nearly as creative as forest-sized birds.

As for Goku’s “traning”, it doesn’t go well, because he’s so badly hurt.   I don’t really understand the premise here.   Goku seems to be able to walk and fly just fine, but whenever he tries to exert his super powers, he siezes up and has trouble.   That’s fine and all, but if that’s what’s wrong with him, why all the bandages?   Vegeta broke at least some of his bones, so I don’t see how he made it this far on his own.

As Goku struggles to save himself from falling, he flashes back to Vegeta’s parting words.   He plans to return to Earth to finish what he started, and Goku let him go because he planned to be ready for him.    Only he’s not ready, is he?   He can’t even move well in the shape he’s in.

That gets him fired up, and he seems to find a newfound strength. 

Back on Fake Namek, the gang tracks the next Dragon Ball to a big castle.

There’s a giant inside, but he’s asleep, so it’s safe for the moment.   The bigger problem is that they can’t spot the Dragon Ball, even though the radar says it’s here.

Then this giant snake pops up.    I love this snake.   I never see this guy coming, because why would anybody sleep with a live snake in their bed?    Where did this giant even find a snake this big?   Also, he looks right at our heroes and just sort of slithers away.

With nothing better to do, the gang looks through the giant’s stuff.    Why would he have an earth-style model plane?  Is “AKIYAMA” a reference to Akira Toriyama?    Probably.

Bulma walks right up to the giant’s face and asks him where the Dragon Ball is.

Then the snake comes back and he’s all like “Uh, excuse you, people are trying to sleep.”

I love the way he side-eyes Bulma as he moves on.    Snakey is awesome.

Finally, the giant turns over, revealing the Dragon Ball embedded in an earring.  Why would he sleep with that in his ear?   Also, why does it take all three of them to pull the Dragon Ball out?   Krillin ought to be able to Kienzan the earring apart easily.    For that matter, there should be a fastener or something that they could just unhook.

After a tense moment, they managed to pull the ball loose without waking up the giant, and Bulma whispers “Saaaaaaffffffe” which is really cute.    This screencap can’t do it justice.

Meanwhile, everyone knows Goku’s gone missing, and Chi-Chi’s pissed.

Roshi tries to defend Goku’s actions, but Chi-Chi won’t have it.   Bad enough she has to worry about Gohan, but Goku insists on manufacturing danger for himself.   She’s right, Goku’s kind of being a dick about this.

Wait, is Chi-Chi saying that she’s gonna blow her nose in his sweater?

Hey remember how that giant didn’t wake up?   Well it didn’t last long, because he’s awake now, and pissed.

For some reason, Bulma insists on fleeng to safety in the model plane in the giant’s bedroom.   Why would it work if it’s just a toy?  

Krillin and Gohan fight the giant to buy Bulma some time, but their attacks only damage the giant without actually slowing him down.   Notice how they’re flying around while they wait for Bulma to fly them out of danger.

Well, whatever, Bulma gets the plane going and they all clear out, with the Dragon Balls in hand.   

Bulma takes credit for the whole enterprise.   Bulma’s pretty awesome.

Krillin looks back and sees that the castle has vanished, and when he checks again, it’s back, but it’s a completely different castle.   He doesn’t get it.

Then we see the site where the castle had been, and there’s a rock formation that looks a lot like that giant.    But Snakey is real, apparently.    This is the first big clue that Things Are Not What They Seem.

Back on Earth, Goku’s flying around all happy and stuff.    Okay, is he hurt or not?   I honestly can’t tell if he’s only staying in the hospital because Chi-Chi is making him stay in the hospital, or if he’s just working through the pain. 

On Planet Frieza No. 79, something is happening in Vegeta’s healng tank.   I guess the doctor added some therapeutic disco lights to his healing fluid.

I keep forgetting that you have to sit in the tank like a big naked baby in a high chair.    There’s a reason they never show it from this angle, and that’s because it looks really stupid.    I just naturally assumed they float upright in these things, because that’s what Luke Skywalker did in Empire Strikes Back.

Anyway, Vegeta finally gets out of the tank, and his injuries are healed, all except for his tail, which was cut off by Yajirobe.   Vegeta doesn’t care, since he believes it’ll grow back on its own eventually.   In the dub, he just says that it doesn’t matter because he won’t be needing it, which is probably more accurate, since we never see the tail again.

The important thing is that his right eye is working again, and his nipples are in tip-top condition.   Tumblr’s going to flag this one, aren’t they?

I notice Vegeta’s neck is a lot thicker than it was when he first appeared in the Saiyans Saga.   I’d have to go back and look, but I’m guessing this is when he finally completed the transition from skinny Vegeta to swol Vegeta.  Goku had beetter watch out, because Vegeta’s gonna hit him with his neck as hard as he can...