#dbs has interesting and cool concepts

[stoopidassjamesfranco]

Dragon Ball fandom that read super, why the fuck Goku and Vegeta trains for two/ almost three years non stop without visiting family once? I was shocked reading superhero, that was so unnecessary

[nebuladreamz]

The voices are loud and I am WEAK

[md-confessions]

TW: for mentions of Drug use and Self-Harm and stuff.

So you know how in universe Uzi likes this band called "The Dead Batteries" (their logo is in their shirt)

So I like to think Uzi is hyperfixated on them, like, he has listened to every DB album hundreds of times over, and so for a fic I may have to make up a DB discog, so Uzi can ramble about them.

As of RN, I have:

They're an Alternate/Industrial Rock band.

Their first proper release was a self-titled EP that the band went on to pretty much disown a year after its release, the fans love it though. It doesn't have a specific lyrical theme. (Loosely inspired by how Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails views Pretty Hate Machine unfavorably, mostly due to him being kinda of a perfectionist and also PHM's less than stellar writing)

Second release was their first album “Drained”, which was pretty much a better version of the self-titled EP, it has some tracks from the EP but improved, though it's mostly new content. It's themes are those of relationships, can go from love songs, anti-love songs, breakup anthems, etc. It is VERY angsty.

The first album was what got them popular, but it's not their most popular release.

Drained got a remix album/B-sides Uzi is a big fan of, it's just called "Drained: Remixes and B-Sides" no cool special name. (Inspired by my interest in Linkin Park's Reanimation, a remix album of Hybrid Theory)

Their third release is the super mega popular: "All Time Low" (not named after the band but the NIN song of the same name from Hesitation Marks), it's where all their most popular songs come from, it's the one that everyone (in the MD world) knows about, even if they don't listen to Dead Batteries. The album deals with themes similar to Drained but focus a lot more on drug use and how it can ruin your life. It is also the only album in which they don't swear in.

This release is what got the band to become really famous, and Uzi made a bunch of AMVs using songs from this album as a child.

It did not get a remix album, but it got a B-Sides with songs that didn't make the cut, it's called "Rock Bottom" it's the band's fourth release.

The Fifth release is Uzi's favorite: "Deep Cuts" (named after "Deep Cuts" a term used in music culture used for songs from a band that isn't popular at all, but in universe it's a reference to self-harm) it's a concept album and the band's longest release, it's VERY personal, it's about the life of the band members, at least fictionalized versions of them. The album is also easily their darkest, as the content it deals with is DARK.

Deep Cuts's reviews were that… It got negative reviews from critics due to it being almost 2 hours long and also departing from the band's usual sound, being a lot rougher. Though the fans loved it a lot, but it never really got popular outside the fandom, which is why I call it "Deep Cuts"

Uzi's a big fan of DC, it's a hyperfixation separate from the Dead Batteries hyperfixation, she listens to it so often she could sing it all from memory. (An exaggeration of my hyperfixation of Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile, my favorite piece of media ever)

It also got a remix album called "Even Deeper" which has a more Electronic sound, and it's more danceable, it also has some covers and unused songs from Deep Cuts.

They also have other releases, but I'm tired RN…

⠀

[makshu]

The Yugi twins really are opposites...

So, I was reviewing some things today and remembered a canonical fact in JSHK. Hanako/Amane is tone-deaf.

I didn't know exactly what that was, so I did some research, and I'm here to share what I discovered (attention, I still don't fully understand the concept so I apologize if I say anything wrong in this post)

Tone-deaf or amusia is the inability to recognize musical tones or to reproduce them. People with amusia also have the inability or difficulty singing. (For more information you can search, this is more or less a summary, as I found everything very complex-)

In summary- people with amusia have difficulty (or inability) to sing, and as I said, Hanako has amusia

Now, let me tell you something. Tsukasa is said to know how to sing and appears to sing well, whereas Amane basically can't. This is yet another point that shows that the Yugi twins are literal opposites!

I find this detail very interesting, AidaIro really thought of everything to make them opposites, the only thing they have the same is their appearance lol

I find this detail very funny, because one twin can sing and the other cannot! The concept of opposite twins remains to this day, it's good to see. And this further reinforces my headcanon that Tsukasa is the artistic twin

Some people may already know this or may not find this information so cool, but it was something I thought was cool and wanted to share anyway :)

Oh btw here is the proof of this in the manga, it was in the bonus of volume 20

(translated by @dbs-scans)

Thank you for reading! ^^

[thebestpartofwakingup]

Clone high season 2 episode concepts that would've actually been fun/cool

Abe tries to get into "real magic" to impress Joan by hanging out with Aleister Crowley and Arthur Conan Doyle. Jokes about people being too into Harry Potter being lame, jokes about paranormal teen shows a la Sabrina, etc.

Ronald Reagan and Nixon gets JFK into presidential themed crypto

Mean Girls episode parody about the Salem Witch trials or Bloody Queen Mary. They write themselves.

Episode where the main cast keep finding dead bodies, basically tripping over them, parody of teen murder mysteries, twist ending that the bodies are all failed/early clones (like the clone equivalent of a stillbirth. there was no murder)

Yellow Jackets Parody episode. the bus is out of gas or something and they're stuck in a large parking lot but act like they're in the woods.

Traveling championship episode. Debate team has to compete against high school where all the students are robots programmed to behave like the greatest scientists/leaders of all time

Trans episode parody. Abe realizes he isn't aligned with the modern republican party anymore and is therefore a Democrat, treated as a self-aware bad analogy maybe to the point of other characters finding it tasteless/annoying/Abe looking for attention

Cyberbullying episode parody, bonus points if it's gossip girl

Secret cousin/twin parody episode --- obvious starting point would be like. Anastasia because of how many people famously claimed to be her.

Supernatural teen romance parody episode. Abe tries to become a vampire with like Edgar Allen Poe or someone to impress Joan.

"Save the community center" episode --- This could be a great Harriet focused episode about like a bake sale or something to fund the arts but everyone is over exaggerating the stakes and the drama of being/not being a good baker. "My grandmother used to bake these cookies for me.....until she DIED" "My mother baked these cookies for me everyday I was in the hospital after falling out of that helicopter and they gave me the strength to survive" "I can't bake....my mom was always too busy with her business to teach me....." etc.

Big Mouth/Sex Ed parody episode. I think it would be really funny if THIS had been their technology episode, like getting a computer virus is treated like getting a STD and the cast talk about browsing the internet like it's casual sex, etc.

parody of those tasteless episodes about how like bullying leads to school shootings. Have like Abe or Joan or someone try to reach out to Napoleon or someone because they eat alone at lunch and because they think it's silly and mean everyone is afraid of them but then they are just like a violent maniac already. the solution is to get rid of him.

this might sound dumb but remember that one episode of jimmy neutron where jimmy was banned from the science fair for being too smart and killing the morale of any other student interested in participating? What if Clone High did that but as like a parody of anti-trans sports legislation. All the cloned scientists are banned from the science fair because it's an unfair advantage. All the Politian clones are banned from debate club, etc.

Social media/parasocial relationships parody episode where like JFK and Abe become obsessed with one another's online accounts not knowing it's them, despite Joan repeatedly telling them this, it becomes completely unhealthy but then whenever they do hang out together face-to-face they hate it and decide the parasocial relationship was better actually.

PRANK YOUTUBE/TIKTOK PARODY EPISODE ABOUT DB COOPER AND HOUDINI COME ON COME ON COME ON THIS ONE IS SO FUCKING OBVIOUS

[textfromthelookout]

Super is a horribly made cash grab. Something like the Dragon BallZ multiverse would've been a lot more interesting to watch.

Especially the early chapters were we see universes with diffrent "what-if's" like Friza taking over, Planet Vegeta still around, Cell or Buu winning, Goku being raised as sayin, introducing the games etc.

I especially hate how super ignores Vegeta's already established character development and makes him regress. Either they just didn't know how to write a Vegeta like that or simply didn't care.

And god Gohan got the worst treatment ever. I understand the man doesn't fight, it's not what he does and that's a great point to his character but not keeping up with his training especially after cell and buu? Is out of character. The man is smart and knows that a bigger threat can come in at any moment.

Just wanted to leave that, drink some water

Perfectly valid opinion! Nevertheless, I disagree with you, and you’ve given me an excuse to ramble on at length about Dragon Ball, so ramble on I shall.

Super is a horribly made cash grab.

I think you’re thinking of the Z movies (which, for the record, I like). A cash grab’s supposed to be something you make quickly just because you know it’ll sell, and while I’m no economist, I do know you have to follow appreciably current trends when you’re trying to make one. While you may be right, it’s hard for me to feel that something is a cash grab when there was a ten year dry spell between GT ending and anything important that was DB-related coming out—and it wasn’t even Super, it was a little festival special that a bunch of people don’t know about because it never came overseas. Battle of Gods didn’t drop until five years after that, after the first half of DBZ Kai had already wrapped up, and Super didn’t start properly until the second half of Kai finished two years later. You don’t spend seven years feeling out if people are still receptive to something after a ten-year hiatus if you’re trying to make money quickly, is all I’m saying.

Something like the Dragon BallZ multiverse would've been a lot more interesting to watch.

I’ve never read Multiverse so I leafed through the first 400-ish pages to see if I agreed with you, and I don’t. A common complaint about the Tournament of Power is that it’s the most dragged out 48 minutes in existence, and from the looks of it, Multiverse is like if Super was nothing but the Tournament of Power. To me, one of the best things about Dragon Ball is that it doesn’t have to be all high-stakes head-to-head all the time. You get things like the Orange Star High arc, or the filler episode where Piccolo and Goku have to get their driver’s licenses, or the one where Goku doesn’t quite have control over his ki for a day or so because he essentially shorted out the wiring fighting Hit (which is a cool fucking concept that I wish they had done more with). It’s just fun. It opens the door for questions that are more entertaining—and more importantly, more varied—than arguing until you’re blue in the face about who would win in a fight between X and Y.

Especially the early chapters were we see universes with diffrent "what-if's" like Friza taking over, Planet Vegeta still around, Cell or Buu winning, Goku being raised as sayin, introducing the games etc.

Sure, I’ll give you that, Multiverse does knock that concept around a little. The problem is it doesn’t do much of anything with it. The setting is a character too, in its own way—arguably the most important one, since it’s the one that every other character has no choice but to interact with. You’re right, all of those what-ifs would be interesting—if they were set in the what-ifs.

Here, I’ll share one of my favorite what-ifs as an example to try and explain. What if, instead of being able to retreat back to his lab, Dr. Gero was destroyed along with 19 by Vegeta��s attack? There would be no reason to go check his lab out if the android threat is eliminated, so 17 and 18 would still be asleep. Cell would grow unhindered for 17 years, and when he hatches, he could simply go up the ladder and attain perfection without a fight. Goku wouldn’t have died at the end of the Cell Games. There would be no training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for anyone. Does Vegeta become an issue again, since his character arc stalls at the part where he’s reveling in his own power? If so, how does that resolve? How would the struggle against Cell play out if they had no warning at all that he even existed? What role would Gohan play in it—or Goten or Trunks, since they’d be old enough to be a factor? These questions and any number of others you could pose don’t even account for the fact that it entirely upsets the timeline—Buu arc would occur before Cell, if it occurs at all. Assuming it does, would they stand a chance in hell against Buu without the power they gained in Cell arc and the seven year gap? Could Cell somehow end up coming into conflict with Buu? In short—how does this change things?

Multiverse answers this with ‘who cares, where does it put you in the power-scaling?’ and that’s not compelling to me in the slightest.

I especially hate how super ignores Vegeta's already established character development and makes him regress. Either they just didn't know how to write a Vegeta like that or simply didn't care.

Define regress. If you’re referring to Vegeta retaining his determination to get stronger than Goku after the ‘you are number one’ speech, that’s. Pretty integral to his character, frankly. Just because he’s learned and accepted it’s not the end of the world if he isn’t stronger doesn’t mean he has to drop the competition entirely. I read it less as a set-in-stone declaration of Goku’s superiority, more like a concession of his own defeat. ‘You’re number one forever because you’re better than me’ vs ‘You win for now, but when the next fight rolls around, I’ll outdo you’, you feel what I’m getting at? He does show up to fight Goku in the tournament during the very end of Z, after all. My point is that it shows Vegeta’s worldview and perception of himself is more malleable now—and so, confines him far less.

As it turns out, that concept of ‘freedom’ is the direction Super chooses to develop him in, and I feel that it pairs very well with what he goes through in Z (spoilers incoming). In Z, Vegeta is restricted by The Way Things Are Supposed To Go. In Super, especially later on during Moro and Granolah, this has a natural continuation in how his past actions in the name of TWTASTG weigh on him in ways that hamper his growth. This has been one of his biggest stumbling blocks for forever—he thinks so goddamn much, he can’t get out of his own head.

His defense of the Namekians and Earth against Moro is motivated in part by Vegeta feeling obligated to right the balance, so to speak—and he says as much, even going so far as to ask Moori if he bears a grudge against him for his actions. He still considers himself a villain bound for hell. In effect, this idea that he has to atone for his sins via being the one to save the day (which essentially amounts to being stronger than Goku on some given day) has snuck in and made itself into the new Way Things Are Supposed To Go without him realizing it.

Beerus realizes, though. I couldn’t think of a way to eloquently get across what Beerus does for him short of copying down the dialogue wholesale, so fuck it, that’s what I’m gonna do, since not everyone has access to the official translation. (From ch 69)

BEERUS: How many planets have you Saiyans destroyed? VEGETA: ? Hard to say. Fighting was the only way of life for my people, so we had a way of racking up sin after sin. B: Sin, huh? V: However, it wasn’t until Freeza’s clan came along and began using us that the destruction and invasions became business as usual. B: You trying to lay all the blame for your wicked ways on Freeza and his people? V: Not in the least. In his pursuit for power, my father built his own kingdom atop countless deaths. Freeza’s clan taking control didn’t help, but the seeds of the Saiyans’ destruction were sown before that. B: So it was the Saiyans’ destiny to be wiped out, then? V: I’d say so. B: Hmph… Ridiculous. V: But never mind that. My people’s problems aren’t your concern. B: I’m saying it’s ridiculous! V: ! W-what? What do you mean? Weren’t you going to show me a technique used by Gods of Destruction?! What could that possibly have to do with the history of the Saiyans? B: Plenty. […] As long as doubt weighs down your soul, this power’ll never be yours to wield. V: D-doubt, you say? B: Your own crimes aside, you’re feeling guilty for the sins of all Saiyans. That’s awfully self-centered of you, mortal. Here’s a fun fact. The one who suggested that Freeza eliminate the Saiyans… was me. V: W… what? B: You still think it was destiny? You’re just gonna accept that? […] Everything those Saiyans did in the past… what’s it got to do with you now? As long as you’re trapped by the past, you’ll never manage to grow past this point. My mind’s always on destruction and nothing else. That’s why there’s no limit to my power. Listen. If you really want this power, you’re gonna have to destroy any stray thoughts and recreate yourself from scratch. Before creation comes destruction. Get it?

Yeah. He takes this and he intentionally divorces his efforts to get stronger from his tendency to dog Goku’s heels in leveling up. Ultra Instinct isn’t a power suited to him, so he gives it up instead of torturing himself over it and works on what eventually becomes Ultra Ego instead. Here’s the thing though. The biggest indicator of Vegeta’s growth to me is that he can’t tap fully into that power because he’s no longer callous and unfeeling, and he knows it. He identifies too much with Granolah to simply destroy him. And he tries to lead Granolah off the path that ruined him for so much of his life. That doesn’t sound anything like regression to me.

The way things stand with Goku and Vegeta right now, the next step seems to be adapting their Ultra forms to them personally, so I’m curious to see how Vegeta will bend that power to the person he is now.

And god Gohan got the worst treatment ever. I understand the man doesn't fight, it's not what he does and that's a great point to his character but not keeping up with his training especially after cell and buu? Is out of character. The man is smart and knows that a bigger threat can come in at any moment.

You could be right, but no amount of kvetching is going to change what the writer wrote, so you may as well stretch your critical thinking legs and ask yourself why the writer thinks this is in character. Speaking from the perspective of a person who makes a hobby of examining these pieces and spackling them together into something cohesive (fanfiction. I write fanfiction, in case that was somehow unclear), this is the more fun option for me. I’m not saying it’s really That Deep (‘don’t put more thought into something than the creators did’, yak yak yadda yadda) or that my personal interpretation is correct and canon or anything, I just know that writers rarely write something a certain way without a reason.

Because you’re right, Gohan is a smart person. I don’t think he did stop training after Buu in the way you’re thinking of, for two reasons. First, he mentions at the end of Super Hero that he’s been practicing the Makankosappo in secret, and the Makankosappo took Piccolo presumably several years nonstop (between OGDB and Z) to make from scratch. Gohan may have prior knowledge to base his experimentation off of, but he has a lot less free time too, between his family and his father’s tendency to one-track-mind the things he’s passionate about—Videl says he’s been in his room working on his ant project for several days. So how long has Gohan been practicing it?

That’s rather theoretical though so, second, Gohan was ready for the Tournament of Power with 48 hours of training, which I don’t think would be possible if he wasn’t at least keeping himself physically in shape. Indeed, when Piccolo is training him (DBS episode 88), his problem is not with Gohan’s practical technique—it’s with his attitude. Freeza notices this and mentions it earlier in Resurrection F as well, that Gohan is going out of his way to leave the people he beats alive. Piccolo describes it as a failure to ‘close the deal’, in the sense that Gohan needs to be able to win in a way that leaves no room for a rematch or a sneak attack at the last second. This doesn’t necessarily mean killing, mind, especially since the Tournament of Power has a no-kill rule. What Gohan has let go to rust is his willingness to be ruthless enough to remove an obstacle that has to be removed. That, I think, is the true meaning of the ‘training’ that everyone in universe harps on him for. Gohan’s always been softhearted, after all.

I will concede that it is very stupid that he apparently doesn’t recognize Piccolo’s ki when by all rights he’s probably the person most familiar with it. I consider that ‘out of character’, in that I have no clever explanation for it, but given that it isn’t load-bearing so the story functions, I mainly shrug and ignore it. That’s the healthy thing to do.

completely forgot to say... I *hate* how bulma is now. Nothing to the bulma we saw in Z, even at her most vexing she was never like the one we see right now. Genuinely massacred her

Personally I would be angrier about Videl in your position, because boy does she just not exist in Super. More to the point, I don’t know exactly what you mean by this. Unless I’ve misremembered/misread something, Bulma is still doing what she’s done from day one. She’s still smart. She’s still willing to try using her charm to get what she wants. She still builds things that are plot-crucial (Goku Black arc couldn’t have happened without her replicating her own time machine! Which she couldn’t have done had Future Bulma not counted on her and left her own notes!) She still wants to get a look at every would-be destroyer of Earth du jour, even though it’s really not a good idea. If you’re referring to her occasional shallowness/bitchiness/pettiness, that never went away, you know. That’s a pretty big part of Bulma.

Just wanted to leave that, drink some water

Cute, but I’ve been on the internet too long to get upset when a random stranger boos something I enjoy. Thanks for the opportunity to write way too many words about it though! 2500 of them, in fact! I’d genuinely love to hear your thoughts on them.

[krello-png]

Feelings on Xicor and DB AF as a whole!

Posting a thread I had back on Twitter here, though I'll be expanding on a fair bit since I have MUCH more room to breath so, let's get into one of my favorite subjects in this fandom, AF fan culture!

The fandom in the 2000s is really fascinating to me as someone who wasn't "there", the show and manga were 100% DEAD, there were only games that retold the same story from Z to GT during that time and yet because of a certain localization that was happening the fanbase was kinda thriving, constantly making new stuff. There was ZERO actual new story content and yet the fans just took it upon themselves to make shit and keep that flame going! New transformations, endless sagas, whole multi work fan manga that just spawned from a dead series that happened to get an English Dub with a different soundtrack.

Arguably at the center of most of this was this guy right here, XICOR, third son of Goku and the main villain of AF (or at least, it's first arc.). People talk about how a character like Xicor is rather boring and yeah that is true, the character of Xicor is boring, but it's not he himself that's the fun part, it's what he represents that makes him interesting!

He's undeniably fascinating if ya think about it.

His design? Ripped from a fan form. This pic is from like, 04' if I recall correctly and it's not even a new character, it's Goku in Super Saiyan 9. That's why he has Goku's Gi but green, the spikes are there cause apparently it's a dragon form??? Who'd have thunk it eh?

His character? Basically every villain that came before him and then some, a high and mighty powerhouse with an ego to match. Eager to take the throne atop the universe where his father supposedly sat as West Kai had told him. Ruthlessly evil to his core and merciless, in other words, very generic.

His backstory? A hodgepodge of several different fanfics from around the same time that combined into what we know now. The illegitimate third son of Goku, born of West Kai and Goku's DNA because she had taken his blood (or seduced him depending on the fic!).

It's just endlessly interesting what he represents, he feels less like a real character to me and more like an icon. Something that embodies DB's OC culture and general fandom in a lot of ways, whether the fans would admit it or not, he's a mainstay in this fandom that won't go away. No matter how far removed we get from that era.

And that's not even getting into the story he's attached to, or rather the concept. DRAGON BALL AF, After Future! Or perhaps it's April Fools? AF is never concrete. It could be anything and everything. It's far beyond what it originally was, beyond what the creator of that "SSj5" image intended. Hell, it's not SSj5 at all, it isn't even Goku! But as far as the fandom is concerned, that didn't really matter.

What had originally began as one fan story, one image really, eventually became something that would define basically any Post GT story line. A lot of them having similar elements with wildly differing execution, from Goku's third son to Cellbuuzer or any manner of unholy creations one could dream up in their heads.

I think to some degree everyone involved in spreading the idea around knew it wasn't "real" but there's something insanely cool about how it became this big community fan project with ideas anyone could use in their own stories.

I honestly can't speak to the quality of AF Origins cause I've never read it myself but Toyble and Jiji's AF Doujinshis are probably the most well known versions of the story aside from maybe PGV's take, but I can't speak on that either cause it's insanely long and it's lore is.. complicated to put it lightly.

Toyble's version of the story takes the Xicor premise and runs whole hog with it, the majority of Xicor's agreed upon characterization is found here and the action is a damn fun read if you're into this kinda thing.

The real highlight is probably the art and what little bits of humor are present, it feels very Toriyama like at it's best and I've no doubt it's why he landed a job doing official work.

It's a darn shame that it never truly finished but the ending we did get was kinda sweet and I'm more than happy with that.

Jiji's AF is a lot longer and has the benefit of actually being finished, with multiple arcs that are quite fun. The highlight is probably the story with Marble and seeing Goten, Trunks and Uub handle a threat on their own.

The last arc being a repeat of the Shadow Dragons is not my favorite conceptually and their designs even less so but it's really nifty to see everyone handle their own Dragon so, I give it a pass.

Both are rife with heavy amounts of ripping shots from the original manga and tracing in some instances but I can't say I'm too bothered by it. As they're still fun to see as real takes on AF in some form. There's definitely better fan manga out there but these are the ones I wanted to highlight.

There's so many more fun and bizarre things from this era of DB's fandom history that I wanna highlight and go in depth on but I'd be here for a million years if I did so I'll leave on this:

I honestly believe there's no fandom that's like Dragon Ball's, Sonic's fandom is close, but that was never a dead franchise. This fandom can be annoying, offensive and quite unfun sometimes, but I adore it at it's best. It's a wildly interesting ride I'm happy to be part of!

[alexr-fightgames]

Working down the alphabet, here's Lei, Marduk & Miguel!

They're all interesting characters in their own right. I actually think I had more fun playing all three of them than I expected I would.

Lei is one of my least favorite characters in the game, but I think that's actually because I dislike him as a character (Lei the in-story human being, but also Jackie Chan the real-life human being and also Jackie Chan characters), and also as a fighting game concept -- the Walking Stupid Setup And Knowledge Check character. I keep stats about this, and I do alright against Leis on average; he's just annoying. "Haha, do you know about this stupid setup? Teehee, it'd be so funny if..." -- fuck you, Lei player. No giggling, dipshit. Get punted.

And then he says the worst thing in Tekken, "you're not good enough!" ... you're totally valid and good enough, Tekken player. ACAB.

...

Lei is kinda fun to play tho. You don't have to do the dumbass "haha I'm laying on the ground" stuff. His fairly Normal Tekken tools are pretty alright, and to be totally honest, I like some of his animations. His ws4 has a nice snap to it, and the panther 1~2 sweep is really cool. I like Lei a lot more dressed up as a monk, as I did here.

Craig is super interesting as a character. You'd think his reach would be bigger, but it's not like you have a fantastically huge reach advantage as him. And he's so larg. But his grab game is brutal, his ability to whiff punish is immense, and There's Always The Threat of Tackle. Craig Marduk. His tools are really very strange, as Tekken characters go. He doesn't have a normal df1 mid check like most Tekken characters, so playing him I found myself doing b+4 when up close, and So Much DB+2 when standing at range. That's a hell of a button -- if you ever see Knee play Marduk, he's mostly just using db+2. If you want to learn Marduk, the Dashfight guide from Joey Fury is fantastic. Watch this guide and you've got a Marduk, easy.

Miguel... is a pretty normal Tekken character. He's ok. SAV stance is pretty interesting, but he's not my thing aesthetically.

Just six left and we got everybody to purple! Left to go: Negan, Noctis, Paul, Shaheen, Steve, Yoshimitsu.

[altergold93]

This time on Dragon Ball Z: Spirit Control

Spirit Control is such a fascinating ability. So it has the following uses that I know of:

Teleportation, Gigantification, Multiplication, and Forced Spirit Fission.

An all around good moveset right? I wanna dive into each ability and just generally rant about them or suggest cool uses for the power.

Teleportation (Instant Transmission): So with Instant Transmission I have one question. Is it possible to teleport Ki? We've seen the likes of Gas in the DBS manga use Instant Transmission on other people at a range. So let's assume it can be used at range with enough Ki and precise control. Would it be possible to teleport a Ki attack? If so would it have to be a single orb or could you teleport an entire beam? Perhaps it depends on mastery? Either way a cool concept.

Gigantification: Is Goku using Spirit Control Gigantification when he uses his UI Ki Projection? Maybe? Idk just thought it was an interesting idea.

Multiplication: Oh boy. The good ol' shadow clone jutsu. A couple questions about this one. Do the clones half your Ki like the Multiform? If so then this is a useless ability. Hell is it the same ability? Does Tien know Spirit Control? Do you even need to know Spirit Control in order to use this one?

Forced Spirit Fission: Say hello to one of the most useful abilities in all of Dragon Ball. This ability would've instafixed Cell, Buu, and Zamasu. But hey whatever.

That's my random thoughts and rants about the main abilities... But what if there were other uses for Spirit Control? For context Spirit Control is the ability to control Ki and to an extent Magic.

Forced Spirit Overflow: So with this ability it would work similar to Forced Spirit Fission. We are forcing someone's Ki to do something. In this case the goal is to get our victim's Ki to rapidly expand and grow. This sounds like a terrible idea. But eventually this Ki will overflow from the victim and it will not be containable anymore. But before that point the victim has a massive power boost. Their power would dwarf what they had before but eventually after about a minute they would implode from the Ki.

That's really all the schemes I have for Spirit Control. But thanks for reading if you got this far!

Next time on Dragon Ball Z: Fighting Styles

[jeddyartdump]

Summary: I wanted to make a character select screen for a Star Wars fighting game.

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Despite melee duels being a central part of the franchise & many SW games produced over the years, I don't think there has ever been a SW game built from the ground up as a fighting game. Any I do see it in a game, it's just a side, multiplayer mode to action adventure games. It's never the main focus of the game.

While I'm not much of a fighting game guy, I still enjoy the aesthetic of most fighting games. Large rosters of characters battling it out, sick animations, cool & interesting interactions in the intros & outros & kickass soundtracks. I want all that for the Star Wars franchise. Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Guilty Gear, Injustice, DB Fighter Z, Soulcalibur (which actually had SW characters at one point) & to a lesser extent, Smash Bros. I want a Star Wars Fighter that fully emulate these games & more.

Which bring us to this piece. Back in December, I got an idea to make a character select screen for a hypothetical Star Wars fighter. In January, I formally got started on it. As far as character selection, I wanted to a melee focus roster. They can use guns in a few combos or as specials, but I want them to rely melee weapons. That's why there's not Han or Captain Rex. Also, I'm only one guy, so I stuck with 20.

Now, this took a little long because there was originally more to this piece that I wanted to do. After a while though, I realized I bite off more than I can chew (actually, I could have done it, just would have taken MUCH longer & the quality wasn't there), so I trimmed the fat.

And finally, here we are. Enjoy the concept. Use it however you went for your own ideas...or powerscaing rants.........or Rey rants. BTW the Star icon is meant to be for custom characters. I think it's cool to make your own OC in a fighting game.

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Characters featured:

- Darth Vader / Luke Skywalker / Rey / Obi-wan Kenobi / Anakin Skywalker

- Emperor Palpatine / Darth Maul / Kylo Ren / Yoda

- Count Dooku / Ahsoka Tano / General Grievous / Mace Windu / Asajj Ventress

- Qui-gon Jinn / Darth Revan / Bastila Shan / Din Djarin & Grogu / Jaina Solo / Galen Marek

[fandom-trash-xl]

interesting potential concept, but do you think cooler would have a kid? aka more family for kuriza?

I do find this an interesting concept, even though in my personal lore package (which I would really love to link right now if Tumblr wouldn't be a pain in the arse) Cooler is already long dead after being accidentally slain by his brother, but I'll still being willing to tackle it with the POV that Cooler is still alive somewhere. If he were still alive, I'd expect some feuding... After all, Cooler should have some of Papa King Cold's inheritance.

Frieza and Cooler are still very icy (badum-tsh) towards each other, keeping to their respective circles of the universe, not wanting to cross paths unless absolutely necessary. They do meet up sometime later in Kuriza's youth... with a frosty reception. When Kuri hears in advance that they're seeing Uncle Cooler today, he is very curious about this family member he's never heard of. He was already planning to approach the situation with caution because of his shyness, but Frieza also has this insistence on hiding him during the visit, perhaps trying to avoid his older brother "corrupting" the boy or worse... see that he's softening a bit with an heir. However, the secret keeping doesn't last long, as Cooler has a kiddo of his own.

Don't know whether to do male or female for them, because if female, with the whole traditional empire/royalty stuff going on, it seems like female heirs wouldn't get much standing in the inheritance/succession by their principles (sadly). Either way, whether they're older or younger than Kuriza, there will still be some bickering between the two brothers over one of them "stealing" the other's idea of having a kid. For name, there's a lot of options, but I'd maybe be thinking something similar to Verglas might sound cool, assuming Cooler doesn't steal another idea from Frieza and do some sort of portmanteau.

While Cooler and Frieza "catch up" in their own semblance of civility, Kuri and cousin Ver actually get along pretty well. Pretty normal space playdate with a lot more beams and such than hanging out with Bulla on Earth. Ver is the taller of the two because, while King Cold's actual love favored Frieza, his height genes seem to take a liking to Cooler's side. No matter the age difference, Ver is the big cousin and that means they can very easily piggyback Kuriza once the growth spurts kick in. Verglas is also definitely the type to be the "cool cousin", the one to show you the secrets like how to draw the "cool s"... or whatever equivalent they have in space. I feel like if they have the "cool s" in the DB universe on Earth at least, Pan would definitely be the one to show it to Kuriza- and then he has something cool to show cousin Ver in exchange.

The two brothers believe that their kids will be bad influences on each other, mainly fueled by their bitterness at each other, but they're just cousins who want to hang out. Kuriza befriending the kids of his Papa's bitter rivals seems to be a weird theme. I might throw together some loose design concept of Verglas in Xenoverse later, but here's the headcanon facts at least.

[sweetescapeartist]

What is your opinion on Dragon Ball Multiverse?

Don't really have an opinion on it since I know little to nothing about it.

Most I do know is from what I've been told. My friends have said that there are interesting concepts but the characters are often mishandled; like Vegito & Son Bra. I do think that fused Namekian named Gas is kinda cool. Has a gastropod name pun.

Other ideas are neat too. But I don't really care to read it.

Similar to DB Kakumei. Awesome art, interesting ideas, but not my cup of tea. But ppl hype it up because of the art & the Saiyan stuff. But it doesnt give a DB feel. It gives off the feeling of a different manga. Sometimes it feels too try hard. But I haven't read it for some months. My thoughts may change on that.

But DBM is something I have no intention of reading. Seems too Saiyan focused and that bires me. I'll just ask my buddies about it.

[kiealer]

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion. // accepting

@risingsouls​ asked:

🔥🔥

ahem taps mic 

SUPER IS A FUN AND GOOD SERIES. 

the execution is off in some areas, of course it isn’t perfect. some things are downright butchered, yes, BUT-- the concepts and characters are FUN and INTERESTING. it brought a lot of new life into the franchise as a whole and spawned a lot of new fans, myself included. (plus it gave us the broly movie.) 

granted, I personally have a lot of bias and sentimental attachment to Super for a variety of reasons. it’s legitimately changed me, which I can’t say for most things -- it’s both uplifted and ruined my life, but it means a lot to me. so, a lot of my arguments are very emotionally charged, and I will fully admit that. but, with that said, I also objectively believe that Super put out a few really interesting concepts into the DB world that, while they could have been better executed, are still good in their own right. also, it’s just plainly a fun watch for me. 

on the opposite spectrum, GT is similar in its issues, although for me, it’s less tolerable because of the character writing. the only consistently decently-written character in that entire series for me is goku himself. it’s got SSJ4 going for it, and I guess a couple of cool villains, but it doesn’t hold my attention as much as Super does. (granted, that may also be because GT’s color palettes are often muted and desaturated while Super has a bunch of bright and fun colors which attract my ADHD brain.) both respective series, though, have some banging music. 

[igotopinions]

Oliver has a fun, informative discussion with author Ryan North, whose new book "How to Take Over the World: Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain" is now available for pre-order.

They discuss having one footnote for each day of the year, cramming more jokes in the margin to make a comic have more bang for your buck, experimenting with the limits of what a format can do, why they're "choosable-path" adventures that he's written, the benefits of working in a younger medium that isn't fully explored, having unlockable characters in your book, white elephant books, publishing a book that may provide a guide to doing dangerous things, knowing when to stop doing research, when one chapter should be two, the cult of Scrivener (of which Oliver is a member), apps that help you focus when writing, working "in a distracted way", Ryan's method if integrating handwritten notes with his mostly digital process, knowing when a cool fact is usable in your work, the biosphere experiment, Jon Lomberg and the Voyager Golden Record, originality, how novel's are fine THEY'RE FINE, how working in an unpopular medium can be a safety net, things to try for and try to avoid when writing a popular science book, The Core (2003), optimizing workflow as a writer, methods of learning which work best, wasted keystrokes, productivity, work/life balance, trying to separate your sense of self-worth from your work, social media, steak-umms and the bleakest thing Ryan has ever seen in his life, the best time to post about your parent's death so as to increase the viral impact, "content", how the work has to interest you, grindset, trying to appear cool & productive at all times, how Ryan doesn't like to be conscious for more than six hours at a time, task-switching between a variety of projects, Lev Grossman on how forgiving fans can be of plot holes, how the concept of a "real author" is a fake idea, Ryan's life philosophy re: fate and control over one's life, Vonnegut, the core value of most characters in his work, how Ryan definitely isn't DB Cooper, and there's even a wee cameo by Ryan's dog Noam Chompsky. You can also see a couple of babies in an interview from 2008, which Oliver may have still been figuring out his interview style...(Part one, part two).

www.soimwritinganovel.com PATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovel BUY OLIVER'S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/store SO I'M WRITING A NOVEL... TWITTER: https://twitter.com/so_writing OLIVER'S TWITTER: https://twitter.com/obrackenbury Oliver's Link Tree (For everything else): https://linktr.ee/obrackenbury

[rwby-redux]

I'm sorry I'm just adding to your backlog of asks as I read, but while you probably aren't developing much of a conlang for Oroshi (you're writing enough of them already), do you know how to say hi in their whistles? Because that sounds so cool and makes me want to know if there are real world inspirations. also RIP anyone who's bad at whistling lmao

No apologies necessary! I’m actually in the process of trying to catch up, so right now’s a pretty good time to throw messages my way.

At this point, there’s a decent chance that Oroshi’s whistled language won’t be developed past the concept stage. It’ll get namedropped from time to time within the Redux, but it has too little significance to make it worth constructing. More’s the pity, because its existence gets mentioned fairly early in the story (Russel Thrush is from Oroshi and knows how to whistle, but it’s not something he likes to broadcast).

You’ll be excited to hear that whistled languages are indeed a real thing! (And that my inspiration for Oroshi’s came from El Silbo.) They’ve evolved independently on six continents, and usually occur in either mountainous or densely-forested regions. In both environments, whistling is advantageous over shouting because it can be heard from a distance of 5 kilometers, at 130 dB. Mountainous areas generally have greater acoustics, whereas forests exert pressure over the acoustic environment, thus making whistles more energy-efficient compared to verbal communication.

You might enjoy watching these. They’re videos by a YouTube channel called Great Big Story that I highly recommend. The first—Whistling in the Wind: Preserving a Language Without Words—is a 4-minute video on El Silbo. The second—This Turkish Language Isn’t Spoken, It’s Whistled—is for the Turkish whistled language, kuş dili.

On a semi-related note, Mistral actually had more than one whistled language. As newer communication systems (like the scroll) were invented, the languages began to die off. Less people were interested in learning them because cellular communication requires less technical skill. Oroshi’s whistled language is one of the last to survive. Which is a shame, because in addition to being functionally useful, it was a major component of Mistrali culture. Part of Mistral’s main religious pantheon deifies birds, so the whistled languages were considered rather sacred. They were sometimes referred to as birdspeech.

(I envy anyone who knows how to whistle with their fingers. I can manage just fine with my teeth and lips, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how people do it with their hands. RIP indeed.)

[masteroftheblade]

What are your favorite and least favorite animes? Why do you like/dislike them?

oh god here we go lmao 🤠👍 prepare for an entire novel as always lol

my favorite animes atm are Naruto, Dragon Ball, Attack on Titan, and Claymore. Overall, my favorite genre of anime is shonen (and in case you dont know what that is, its basically shows that are marketed to young boys. it'll have shit like superpowers and poorly written female characters). My least favorite genre is Shoujo (marketed at young girls). I honestly don't hate the entire genre, I just hate how much romance is in there since im pretty romance-repulsed. If there were more Shoujo series like Claymore, I'd probably be in love w/ it. I'll start talking about these shows individually, starting w/ Naruto.

1. Naruto.

Honestly, the only reason I started watching Naruto was because my friends peer pressured me into doing it, and it actually differed from what I expected it to be story-wise. The beginning of the show started off amazing; it had excellent world building, magic systems, interesting characters, and it attempted to address how messed up the whole shinobi system is. But then Naruto got on the front page of Shonen Jump, and everything went down from there. It started to focus more on cool fight scenes than the actual plot. I wont get too much into that, because you can literally find entire blogs dedicated to dissecting that, but Naruto killed itself w/ its own popularity. That said, I love the characters and world building and I can look past most of its flaws anyway.

Would I recommend reading/watching it? Yes, but only to say you did it for bragging rights. Don't go into watching Naruto if you want deep looks into imperialism and militarized governments, because you will get the complete opposite of that :P Also the best way to watch it is to watch it with friends.

2. Dragon Ball.

I only started watching DB about a month ago, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I think its a garbage series. The fight scenes have little to no weight to them, because no matter what, the protagonist of that episode will always succeed in some way. For example, when Goku (a 12 y/o boy) was fighting Giran (a 10ft tall godzilla man) and was getting his ass beat until Goku just... randomly grows back his tail that was cut off earlier and wins. We are never told why he grew back his tail, and i think he only gets it back so he can have a cool fight scene in a later episode. Goku can literally be battling genocidal gods and he will still always win. The show also goes out of its way to sexualize/show a female character being harrassed. Every. Fucking. Episode.

That said, it is a fun show, and I really enjoy watching it. Like Naruto, I really love the characters and the world they are in, I just hate the way it was handled, and its painfully obvious that DB was made by a bunch of old men in the 80s. Unlike Naruto, however, I really appreciate how simple it is. It doesn't force a narrative about space genocide or whatever being bad, and I'm very thankful because that kind of narrative would be absolutely botched in this kind of series. It's also nice to have a show that doesn't take itself too seriously. Shows like AOT are amazing and important, but those shows can be overwhelming with their heavy subject matter. I would only recommend watching DB if you want to see some really good art/character design. Don't take the show seriously, and you'll have a good time.

3.Attack On Titan.

This anime was actually the first I've ever seen! I saw the very first episode when it aired in 2014, so I'm definetely biased in that regard, but I still try to look at this show in the most objective way I can. This show does almost everything right. The pacing, the characters, the art, the plot, you name it. It takes a concept that looks silly on paper and turns it into this grueling story about war, politics, and the trauma of being a soldier. It never treats it's characters like they're only one-dimensional, or like they are there just for one purpose only. These characters feel human in a way Naruto and Dragon Ball could never be. But there is one thing that has me concerned about this show, and its about the weirdly anti-Semitic undertones it has.

You probably heard the controversy already, but it really effected the way people on the outside of the fandom view the series. The show is heavily inspired by European culture, specifically that of Germany, and there are an ethnic group of people called The Eldians in the show that are pretty anti-Semitic in this kind of setting. The Eldian people have the capability of turning into Titans, and the Titans are what divided the world and killed millions. As a result, another group of people started doing the shit the Nazis did to Jewish people, basically making the Eldians into this weird allegory for the holocaust??? Which was kind of a shock to me when I first realized that was the angle they were going for. I genuinely did not expect that considering what the series started off as. The foreshadowing is there and all, I just didn't think they'd use real-world events as inspiration.

Now, this actually has the complete opposite problem Naruto and DB had. Naruto and DB had amazing ideas and concepts that went to shit, AOT's whole holocaust narrative was trash from the beginning.

The show could have easily had a different kind of social/political commentary without even going near the holocaust narrative. It comes off as kind of a half assed idea that people put way too much effort in, so it's kind of in this weird grey-area between "modern anime masterpiece" and "what the fuck were they trying to get across with this show?". If you asked me what the moral of the show was, I wouldn't be able to tell you.

Now, because of the fact that the Eldians can literally turn into man-eating beasts, this makes the comparison of Jewish people and Eldians very racist, and it doesn't help that Japan is still full of legitimate Nazis, making the whole situation look even worse. Since I am not Jewish, I wont speak for other Jewish people. There is a very heated debate on whether the show is racist, and frankly I don't think it's within my right to say if it is or isn't. What I will say, is that I really loved the show and appreciated the social commentary it provided, and I think a lot of people would benefit from watching it, but I think it's also important to listen to Jewish people's views on the show. For this reason, I specifically avoid reblogging AOT stuff, but I do love that show and I wont hate on people who do reblog stuff from it. It's definitely not a light watch, but it does provide a lot of thinking material.

4. Claymore.

This. Show. Was. Amazing. But. Underrated.

First off, this is a shonen show that is led by a majority female cast and a female protagonist, and all of those women are badass swordwielding lesbians and I love it. Second, the art style is beautiful. Third, the story is really interesting from so many angles, so much so I am not even going to mention what its about because you dont need to know, you just need to watch it and see what happens. The first season was an absoloute ride of a show, and if you love shows like AOT or Berserk, you'll love Claymore. Honestly, this show was what AOT should have tried to be. It also has its fair share of militarized imperialist commentary, but this is the only show on this list that actually fucking critiques imperialist ideals and has a main character that actively refuses to participate in that kind of oppressive system, choosing to fight it all together.

But the show got fucking cancelled right before the first arc even finished. You can thank shows like Naruto for that 🙃🙃🙃

10/10 Would reccomend, but just be prepared to be left on a major cliffhanger. You can try reading the manga, but it's kind of hard to follow since all of the warrior girls look the same.