#eoz posting again!!!

[marieozeee]

In my opinon, the highfive in the project diva mv of erase or zero is much more meaningful than the people think. We are shown that originator DOES have a physical form but he really doesn't. So the fact that kaito and len could even high five in the first place is so cool!!

[dballzposting]

IS THIS REAL !??!?!?!?!

EOZ GOTEN REAL !??!?!?!?!

[keylovesstuff]

Hiii Everyone!!!

I've been around for years now and have never introduced myself. mainly cause I just choose to vibe and enjoy the posts people share, but first time for everything. You can just call me Key, I'm 24 and I go by she/her. I enjoy a variety of stuff from manwha, manga, anime, video game franchises, and just a bunch of other animated media you name its probably buried down in my blog somewhere. Every now and then I get motivation to create fanfiction. I have only written works the Dragonball and Super Mario fandom All my works are under the "Keep Reading". My DMs and askbox here is always open if you ever want to chat I apologize in advance if I come across as a bit awkward (socializing is not a strong suit of mine) or if it takes me a minute to reply (adulting and hobbies am I right?), otherwise I'm a pretty chill person. Thats about it!

One of these days I really want to change my Penname...But I've had it for years now and I'm way too attached to it lmao.

Super Mario Fics: So a lot of these are Princess Peach centric and I'm just crafting up an origin story and some other events following the 2023 film. The links take you to the tumblr post but I have included the AO3 and FFN (for reading preferences) links either in the original post itself or in the case of my earlier stuff in the reblogs.

Lost And Found

A Learning Opportunity (2 chapters on both AO3 and FFN. They are both on the same post here)

Thoughts Over Tea

Aftermath

Finding The Balance

Little Events (Finished)

Chapter 1: The Dark

Chapter 2: A Decision

Chapter 3: The Coronation

Chapter 4: Proposals

Chapter 5: Changes

Fics Inspired by others:

Villainess Peach and Bowser Jr. (Inspired by the Player One Luigi AU created by Tiny-Prom and Casual-Derg). Please make sure to their blog's and check it out.

Dragonball Fics: The first fandom I have ever written for (and by penname you could probably tell what I read mostly) I have only shared them on FFN and AO3 until now. I was just starting to write fanfiction with the first two so they might be kinda cringe I guess but that's 16 year old me for you haha. gonna embrace the cringe by sharing it on here anyways.

Tournament Day

The Prince Before The Day ( I am never gonna finish that one or go back to it lol)

Bulla's Easter Day

Even when I started making fics I'm still not sure what goes through my mind when it comes to the title or chapter titles its literally the first thing that comes to mind and nothing after that but we will get it one day for sure.

Here's Some WIPs (that's both written and not) you guys can look forward too from me. I'll remove them and add them under the appropriate fic tags once I post them:

Uncle Yamcha fic: It is currently three chapters. The first one is him and Trunks, second is Marron, and the third one is Bra/Bulla. I really want to think of one for him and Goten but nothing has come to my mind. I just think he's more close to Krillin and Bulma where he'd interact more with their kids and I can't think of a scenario for him and Goten or what they would even talk about but maybe something will come. (I've currently sent this off to my Beta for review but lemme know if you guys want to see the un-beta'd version I have on here cause I'm really forward to sharing it)

Untitled EOZ fic following after Goku leaves the Tournament grounds to train Uub. This one sits at about 8k words (not sure exactly cause I added a bunch of notes at the end for my beta to see where my thoughts were going with it all) anyways this one focuses mainly on Trunks, Goten, Marron, Pan, and Bra as really the older kids look forward to what may lie ahead. A lot of it is just me focusing on the dynamics they have with each other. When I saw that dlc for kakorat was going to be focused on that one that really makes me want to share this one. Again let me know if you want to see that.

Based on this Ask here you can already see that I've completed 4 out of my 5 ideas so that leaves the other ones and maybe more if I think of anything else. All of these will probably be added to my Little Events fic. a few little ideas not shared here but I've thought about and have some dialoge in mind but haven't fully created yet.

I want to do something where Mario and Haru interact I just think it'll be so neat.

Maybe something where I do my take on introducing Sarasland and Princess Daisy. Probably along the lines of Peach meeting Daisy for the first time.

I need to hop on the wholesome bros. content at some point and I know I wanna try my hand with Mia and Pio as a part of it.

I think thats it for now...I'll probably add more if I think of something as having somwhere to put it down no matter how small it is can be nice to look at and push me towards getting it done.

[sweetescapeartist]

MY THOUGHTS ON DRAGON BALL DAIMA

(Wasn't going to post this old draft, but decided to post it anyway since @/puyohero was curious about my thoughts)

Awesome! Love that Toriyama is heavily involved! Love the art & animation and the idea is interesting too.

SIMILARITY TO DRAGON BALL GT

Yes, GT did something similar. However GT sidelined most of the cast. Even Pan & Trunks kinda got sidelined when they were part of the main cast of GT. In this, it seems the other characters will play some sort of role too. Or I assume so. And they will be traveling to another realm/world. So maybe the others will go with Goku.

DB DAIMA seems to be referencing a lot of DB properties & not only GT. As pointed out here...

CAST AS CHILDREN COULD MEAN...

I had hoped it would turn the entire cast into children and glad it happened. Now I hope we get more info about it. Because what I want is for the other cast members to get involved. Gohan & Piccolo are on a similar level to Goku & Vegeta, so then being excluded to only focus on Goku & Vegeta would be stupid. And since it is stated that this series won't be transformation heavy... what if Goku cannot transform into forms he didn't have as a child?? Or it's very taxing on the body if they can. Now everyone can get involved in the battles! Krillin has already returned to martial arts, but we can get my boy Yamcha fighting again! We might even get to see kid Ox King fight alongside kid Roshi. That would be neat!

Now what would be funny is to see a kid version of Buu. Would it be a short chubby Buu or Kid Buu/Pure Buu? Or maybe the magic won't affect him much since he can change his appearance at will. 🤔

Also, I bet there is a joke about Krillin not getting much smaller when turned into a kid again like how there was a joke in OG Dragon Ball that Krillin didn't get much taller & Krillin is upset about the statement.

Also, the chibi reminds me of the Dragon Ball SD manga.

TITLE POSSIBLY ELUDING TO...

Another interesting thing was the placeholder name "Magic" and the current name "DAIMA." Seems like Toriyama is possibly hinting at the Makaioshin. Evil beings with magical power, the Demon Realm being a place where magic rules over science, and the fact that THIS guy looks like a Kaioshin.

So the little guy could be a God of the Demon Realm. Or maybe a God of Destruction of the Demon Realm. Who knows? We'll have to wait and see.

JOURNEY TO THE WEST REFERENCES

I see some Journey To The West/Saiyuki influence in here too which is good cause this is Dragon Ball after all. Goku with a Sun Wukong role, East Kaioshin (Shin) with the monk role. And maybe other characters who are inspired by Saiyuki will play roles similar to their inspirations.

Vegeta having a Sun Wukong role while Bulma has the Tripitaka role

Piccolo having a Tripitaka/Wukong role while Gohan also has the Tripitaka/Wukong role

Krillin with a Tripitaka role (maybe some Wukong role too since he also takes some Wukong inspiration) & maybe 18 takes on the role of Tripitaka in certain aspects?

Yamcha with a role referencing Sha Wujing role

Tenshinhan with a role referencing Erlang Shen

And if the Demon Realm is involved then there is more Saiyuki references. Journey to a dangerous land and fighting demons. This could be pretty cool to see.

GOKU'S DESIGN

And another thing... Goku's gi in Daima. It's becoming closer and closer to his End of Z gi.

The untucked style of Goku's gi in Daima is similar to EoZ, but the colors are still like his iconic orange and blue gi.

MY THEORY FOR THE STORY

In the Demon Realm, the Makaioshin & some Demon God examine Goku & his friends. They speak about Babidi and how he recruited the King of the Demon Realm, Dabura, and still failed. As well as Bibidi summoning & Babidi reawakening the evil beings Majin Buu, then Buu becoming an ally of Goku. Where a sorcerer failed, a Demon God plans to succeed. The Demon God & Makaioshin notice that Goku & company are always victorious due to their strength, transformations, and friendship that encourages each other. So somehow, they are all turned into children to make them doubt their chances of victory. And their power is nerfed too. The Saiyans might have to struggle just to turn SSJ again. I believe it will be through a spell just to be different from GT and not use a wish granting Dragon. The part that shows that a wish was made to Shenron wish was likely after they were turned into kids and they needed help in some way, or they tried to reverse the spell and it was beyond the power of Shenron.

So they venture into this new realm to fix things. Perhaps splitting into groups. Goku & Kaioshin, Vegeta & Bulma, Gohan & Piccolo, Krillin & 18, ect. Some teaming up with other groups too. Get to see stuff like Goku & Tien team up. They learn about the depths of magic & Bulma is surprised because her technology she relies so much upon doesn't matter much in the Demon Realm where magic is their technology.

At some point, they find a way to return to their actual ages and adult bodies. In the end, they confront the Demon God & Makaioshin. Of course Goku would face the main bad guy (along with Vegeta & maybe with Gohan & Piccolo). Godly power vs godly magic. Or something like that.

Now let's wait & see how wrong I am 😂

[dragon-ball-meta]

Yes. Here's the thing: Episode 1 has to be not TOO long post-Buu. Mr. Satan showed up to offer Goku the money awarded for saving the world from Buu, which would imply that it can't be TOO far later, but it has to be after the six months since Mr. Buu was erased from everyone's memory. Given Videl and Gohan were in their Senior year, that definitely would allow time for them to have graduated and been in a relationship together. It's never really specified how LONG after the wish it is, but given Mr. Satan has to explain to the public who Buu is again because of the wipe, I gotta think it can't be more than a year after that at most. Bulma's birthday party has to be set nearly six years post-Buu, as Videl is pregnant with Pan, and she's 4 at the time of the EoZ tournament, but thinking about it, Ep 2 was Vegeta going on that trip with Bulma and Trunks, so maybe between 2 and 3 is the more accurate placement. Wouldn't put it past Beerus to be out there exploring the universe for a while looking for his Super Saiyan god either.

Just Finished Daima Ep 1

Very interesting. Daima is still technically set DURING Super, but not at the point we all thought. Seems the trailers used designs specifically not in the final product, hence the confusion. But it's actually set in the years-long gap between Episodes 1 (set shortly after Buu's defeat) and 2 of Super. Trunks is turning 9, so this is about two years (or less) post-Buu. The Namekian Neva, though... now HE'S one of the more interesting additions to the series for me. Very interested to learn more about him and why he seems to have abilities no other Namekian has. This first episode alone has me super intrigued, so many lore implications here.

[dbzebra]

For the WIP tag game … 5 or 7 or 11 ??? All of them are interesting / cyoot jdjdjd but you don’t have to answer them all hehe

i will answer em all! lol

5. Goten & Trunks get turned back into kids

this one is kind of a gag fic, Goten and Trunks are adults like early 20s doing work in Capsule Corp lab for something (idk what). Pan and Bulla come in like HEY WHATS THIS DO and causes an explosion, temporarily reverting the boys to their Buu saga selves. Basically right after Buu ends, no memory of the last 15 years.

Marron sees her husband as a little kid and shes like OMG HES SO CUTE I WANNA HUG HIM!!!! Trunks convinces Goten that this fake Marron has cooties and she hugs him he'll turn blue and explode. and this guilble kid believes it so he bails. Eventually he realizes that Marron doesnt have cooties and likes being doted on lol. but everyone is trying to bring them back to CC to reverse it though they keep escaping lol.

eventually its just a POOF and theyre adults again like ?????????? lol its silly but ive had the idea for years just never got around to it

7. Berserk Goten

This one is actually prolly going to be a mini fic like 3-4 chapters so ill be quick with this one

so post EoZ a threat attacks (i think its Mira/Towa not sure yet) and its basically a huge brawl. long story short, an attack meant to send Goten to another dimension (literally) ends up hitting Mar and he goes berserk thinking she died. destroys his body to the point where his body rejected all magical healing and only healed naturally. he ges through angst thinking he cant trust himself to lose control again but is actually some fluffy stuff with MarTen too while he recovers

11. “Sorry I’m late, I hope this makes up for it”

so this one would actually be short and sweet, Marron is waiting for Goten at their meet up spot for a date, but he hasnt showed up which isnt like him. not answering his phone either. She then gets a notification "New Golden Fighter Saves Hostages" and shes like omg. he shows up a bit later, saying that quote with a huge bag of gummy bears her favorite snack and they go on their date :)

[shatteredfears-arch]

actual write up later whennincan think again but: basic thoughts for the post village ‘i do what i want’ thing re cassie;

She probably reforms from the crystalisis in dukes shop, bc he kept all the bodies for a reason, if a duke wants to do a thread w rhay then -fingerguns\ hit me up

Can no longer attack Ethan. At all. Circa 7 when ethan was first infected and couldnt fight elder eveline, but could fight everyone else. hes the host now, she cant do anything to him. I’m guessing it was the same for miranda, so while she was disdainful towards her, and wouldnt have fought her anyways bc momma would be disappointed, she definitely physically cant now. The Mold says no.

As with my personal canon from transferring my Faerie Halfling char into cassie, she still has fae blood which likely was a delicious treat for the good old mold. do w that what you will. but even mutated beyond belief shes still a halfling, but anything regarding that is primarily reserved for persy and owlys threads unless others want to experiment there, and she was just a witchy human in canon compliant verses.

Once she wakes up, she loses the ability to turn into a swarm. all her buggos died off. She’d need to collect an entirely new swarm before she can do it again, but the contrast point there is she can be in the cold again. But, yknow, no buggy power lol.

she’s still violent, but given her entire family is basically dead… she gets a tiny pass for now.

probably the only person shes 100% trusting is the duke (lol 100% more like 50%), and maybe hatter @ owly, but not a lot else. If threads w post village others occur (unkie, auntie, fishy, etc), its a case by case basis. she did actually like her relatives.. mostly. but her momma being gone rly puts a damper on her trusting capabilities.

her hunting skills outside of the bugging are still present please dont think shes easy to hurt now, shes angry and volatile and will stab first think later.

she didnt wake up in her hunting dress. I actually picture it more like how zoe woke up in EoZ dlc, like the crystalisis became her current outfit, and she probably hasnt gotten and doesnt care to get anything else rn. her most important bits are somehow magically covered though so whatever.

she did not have any feelings regarding rose in the first place. she did not care that ethan was looking for his daughter. she doesn’t understand that point of view. while overly empathetic pre transformation, her empathy levels dropped significantly before she even turned, and afterwards she turned almost entirely into a sadist. While her desperate desire for family returns at the loss of her sisters and mom, she had no qualms about any of that before. Her only issues with ethan were that she was told he was her prey, and she wanted to succeed in her kill. Proving herself to Alcina is always her first goal, and ethan killing Bela and making alcina pissed off and cina telling cass to take care of him set her off even further on the hunt. She does not like ethan now because he killed her family, but she can no longer touch him. Probably, considering Rose’s own reality with the mold, she’d at worst consider Rose an irritating pest.. but one her mother tolerated. At best, maybe consider her a form of family because of the mold, but.. dislike her the way the rest of the family hates each other lmao.

her head wound is still there, the tattoo (which in my canon already wasn’t fully formed, because I like how in the concept art the filter makes it look less and less visible on each daughter going down, and i like the idea of bela being the only one with the full tattoo) has faded even more. At this point, it’s mostly just a portion of a rose and the bladed stem, but nothing else.

The dark splotches under her eyes that look like crying mascara stains are still there, not super dark, but there.

her hands still look corrupted and messed up, like if the gloves are off it still looks like gloves ghosting up her arms, thats still there. But the more claw like shape has faded to more proper hand like looks.

eyes the same, one gold one silver, no vision in her right eye. her balance is off because of dyspraxia. shes evil but shes trying be nice

throw ideas at me lets write together when im free from overworked underpaid hell

[tigerlover16-uk]

Why aren't you more concerned with Goten and Trunks barely getting any screen time then?

I’ve gotten asks of this nature before, as well as someone flipping their lid at me when I said I’m more interested in seeing more of the Pride Troopers than either of them. So, alright, I’ll bite. You really want to know?

It’s because I don’t care.

Kid Trunks is one of the least interesting supporting characters in Dragon Ball for me. His design, personality and general character just do nothing for me. I like some of his interactions with other characters like Vegeta, Tapion, Future Trunks and some of his dynamic with Goten, but for the most part he just does nothing for me as a character. 

I like him well enough when he’s on screen doing stuff, but he’s never left me wanting for more of him. Even in GT where he initially had a bigger role, I found him the most dull of the primary cast (Though not as badly written as Pan was to be fair), and in Super I’m similarly indifferent to him.

I like Goten significantly more, but even then most of my interest in his character comes down to “Omg, he’s adorable!” And his sweet interactions with his family. Otherwise, I just find him exceptionally average for the most part. 

Not bad, he’s written perfectly fine, even in GT I enjoyed him (Just not his awkwardly written girlfriend), but also the least interesting member of his family by far and between his lack of focus over the years, including being a bit player in both GT and Super even less prominent than Trunks (And it should totally be the other way around, but what do I know?) and his general sense of… okayness, I feel less invested in him aswell compared to most of the other characters in the cast.

Honestly, out of all the “Next Gen” characters, including Pan, Uub, Marron and Bulla, Goten and Trunks are the ones I’m least interested in seeing developed. My biggest disappointment with the whole “Protecting 17′s island” plot going nowhere was that we didn’t get to see Marron beating people up and having ki control, I never once spared a thought to what Goten and Trunks might do against the poachers.

Like, I guess it is kinda sad that for the children of Goku and Vegeta they barely have any relevance to the story post-Buu, but honestly this is just something I expect from Dragon Ball to varying degrees. 

Certain characters just fade into the background as the story progresses and become less relevant as new ones become more prominent, with occasionally some older character making a comeback unexpectedly (Like Android 17). Tien is much more interesting than Goten and Trunks to me, and he has no real character progression in all of Z, and while he did get that in Super with his Dojo his performance as a fighter in the last arc was… well, kind of embarrassing. And I am STILL salty that Launch hasn’t come back.

I honestly never felt particularly cheated with Goten and Trunks getting sidelined. Even in the Buu Saga, their entire role came down to comic relief and fitting the role of “Supporting character tries to stop the villain, but fails so the real hero has to step in and save the day”. A far cry from Gohan being the secondary protagonist of Z.

It would be fantastic if they would start getting more prominent roles in modern Dragon Ball stories, sure. I was always kind of meh on Android 17, and his big comeback in the universe survival saga made him one of my favourite characters in the franchise. It would be nice to see the kids get that kind of treatment too…

But I don’t feel like there’s any kind of rush, you know? We’ve still got plenty of time before we hit EoZ territory with whatever comes after the Broly movie, and there’s always opportunities to explore their characters further in post-EoZ stories too. 

So since i’m just really meh on them both, I find it extremely hard to get worked up over them being sidelined when there’s dozens of other characters I’m more interested in seeing more of, and a lot of Z fighters I enjoyed seeing get the spotlight in the Tournament of Power like Gohan, 18, Krillin, and even Roshi, all of whom I like more than I would have enjoyed seeing Goten and Trunks on the roster. 

Being perfectly honest here, I’d be more interested in seeing Ribrianne and her friends come back than I would be seeing Present Trunks be a major character in a saga anytime soon.

And none of this is to say there’s anything wrong with the characters. They’re perfectly fine, if a tad underdeveloped. I don’t get the appeal of Trunks in particular, but I do feel for people disappointed in their minor roles. Again, I’ll never stop being salty until Launch makes a comeback and I really want a Dragon Ball series where Uub actually gets some decent screentime and character development. Also, LET MAJIN BUU HAVE ACTUAL PLOT RELEVENCE TORIYAMA, DANG IT!

But Goten and Trunks don’t appeal to me very much, so while I sympathise with those more invested I don’t feel like it’s some sort of crime or a major disappointment that they don’t have bigger roles right now. I’ll enjoy whatever screentime they do get and wait and see if Toriyama ever decides to do anything with them, and in the meantime I’ll probably enjoy whatever Toei does with the other supporting characters just fine.

[breezytealy]

FINALLY finished a conference poster that was driving me up the wall so here! Let’s do a tagging meme :D! Rolling in the two I got from @redasuki and @maiikawriter, thank you so much! :) 

1. Answer the new questions given by the previous person 2. Write 11 new questions 3. Tag 11 people 

1. Have you ever been out of the country? If so, where? Yup! I’m in Europe so it’s more common! I’ve been to Spain (Mallorca, Fuerteventura) and Disneyland Paris for holidays as a kid, and for work I’ve been to France (Lyon, Marseille), Netherlands (Noordwijk), Switzerland (Zurich) and USA (Hawai’i) three times :). The best was Hawaii by far, got to use the telescopes, and the islanders are genuinely lovely people!   

2. Onions - yes or no? YES they’ll in most things I cook.

3. What’s the best kind of cookie? No contest, Sainsburys raspberry and white chocolate. BUT if you’re using the term cookie to mean any type of biscuit, I am rather partial to Viennese sandwiches.

4. What do you think draws you in to make you attach to a show or character? The greater the potential dorkiness the better. Guess that’s why I love Dragon Ball, they’re all so ridiculous. I’m not one for ‘badass’ characters.

5. What has made you smile today? Read lovely feedback on an arts I did - haven’t posted it yet but will with the next textbook chapter. I’m rather proud of it as it shows my progress, so was nice to hear from other people that they liked it!

6. Do you collect anything? Ah, no sorry! Cringey memories? Hehe!

7. Do you have a favorite (or funny) tumblr memory? Seeing my friend @jaalamadarav‘s BIOWARE news blog take off :) I get to point at them like YEAHHHH! They’re really committed and a lovely person.

8. What’s one thing you wish your parents had taught you earlier in life? How to drive at 17 (earliest age in UK). My Dad freaked out when I moved the car he didn’t want to teach me after, and I couldn’t afford lessons until mid-20s. I have my license and can drive fine, but not confident if there are other cars.

9. Do you live in the past, in the present, or for the future? Cringe about the past (learning not to), get excited about the future, and daydream of alternative presents aka stories aka DB let’s be real.

10. What’s a typical day like for you? 7:15 wake up and play with the buns, get ready, 8:30 leave to get to work for 9:30, be a scientist until 5:30, hour getting home again and spend the evening with the buns, my partner, drawing and writing. Sometimes go to the beach in the evening no matter the weather. I’ve been drawing every day since November, and now writing. It’s fun! 

11. Do you have siblings? If yes, do you have any routines that you share or specific things you do together? If no, do you wish you did? I do! Younger sis! We watch Teamfourstar together when we meet up. Also recently found out that, even though we haven’t discussed music preferences other than our particular faves for basically eight years (she is the biggest fan of RHCP going), we like the same recent music O_O.

12.  Have you ever seen a ghost?  If yes, how?  If no, do you believe in them? Nope, not seen one and I don’t believe in them, sorry. Taken too many physics classes and can’t see where ghosts would fit in. Whilst physics isn’t finished there’s some gaps that are closed :(. Though I am easily scared in the dark!

13.  Where’s the coolest/greatest place you’ve ever been? Working at a telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawai’i. At night if your eyes adjust, you can just about read by the light of the stars alone. If I could upload one particular group of memories to the internet for people, it would be those. OH WAIT I DID (don’t watch the first two videos they’re awful, was just trying my hand at it LOL). Telescope tour you can’t actually get as public :)

14.  Do you ship any rare pairs?  If so, what pairing? Trunks x Mai and Goten x Marron (when adults, obvs). Marten is my only noncanon ship I guess, otherwise I roll with canon. I’m a little invested in Marten now for some mad reason (I blame @acelious) but if the characterisations diverge from my headcanons if Super goes beyond EoZ, I’ll just accept whatever they give there.

15.  What’s your favorite smell? Wish I could say something sensible but probably petrol <_<;. Vanilla if I’m not risking killing brain cells? Haha!

16.  If your leisure time is limited to just enough for one activity, do you choose to watch tv, play games, read, draw…? Apparently draw? Though textbook right now so drawing/writing, textbook counts as one thing I’m going to pretend :).

17.  Is your hair naturally curly or straight? Tis wavey! I can straighten and curl it and it mostly stays. Humidity makes it wavey but it doesn’t look too bad.

18.  Would your ideal dream home be in a city or rural area? Rural by the sea but with a train station :). I live in a seaside town now!  

19.  How many languages do you speak? To quote Bruce Willis, I only speak two languages - good English and bad English. I can speak Cockney Rhyming Slang! Didn’t even know half the words I used were CRS until I saw a list of them, haha!

20.  What’s your favorite holiday? Camping! Haven’t done it in a while but would like to again!

21.  What’s your favorite music genre? Well according to what I’m liking on Spotify at the moment it’s the New Wave/Synth Pop resurgence and Indie Pop (aka, Walk the Moon etc).

22.  Are you an introvert or an extrovert?  Introverted! I have been known to nap at parties when it gets too much. Is just my way. I get tired after a couple of hours, unless it’s with friends where we just ignore each other for an hour or so.  New Questions! 1. What’s your favourite childhood memory? 2. You get one character to ride and die with from a fandom associated with the tagged blog. Who do you pick as a bestie and why? 3. If given a blockbuster budget and full creative control, what film/documentary would you make? 4. In the same vein, if you could run a business with financial security to tide you over the difficult start up, what would you run? Keep it small or go global? 5. How often are you caught out by the weather (no brolly/coat, too hot for jeans/biking in high winds)? 6. Any phobias or silly things you’re scared of? 7. What’s your “I totally shouldn’t be doing this but I’m an adult so screw you I can do what I want” activity? (spending, particular food etc?) 8. What’s a recent forehead slapping “I’m glad no one was filming that” moment you’ve had? 9. Magic fairy gives you points to insta-level up a skill. What do you pick? (Something brand new, something you’ve “mastered”? Something you find hard?) 10. Magic fairy also lets you magically change the colour of one type of object to any colour you want instantly and permanently. What do you do/pick and what havoc does it cause? 11. What are you procrastinating by answering these questions? ;) Tagging: @jaalamadarav @munchkinkittyhams @acelious @questdrivencollie @fanblot @repost-this-image @myfandompost only if you want to, of course!

[officialotakudome]

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Dragon Ball Super Vol 1. Review

Dragon Ball returns in both manga & anime form with Dragon Ball Super, the new series which acts as an interquel retelling the events that took place during the ten years between the end of the Majin Buu arc and the Ending of Z (canon Dragon Ball ending). In Super hero Goku is trying to readjust to a normal life outside of martial arts and deadly threats to Earth, his friends, and family. This new found peace, like always, however is interrupted by the sudden appearance of the dangerous Beerus: God of Destruction. After making his debut, Earth is once again put in danger with new threats, including those from different universes.

Dragon Ball Super is an 2015 shounen manga series, it is writing by Akira Toriyama & illustrated by Toyotarou. It is currently licensed by Viz Media in English.

Goku living a humble life (and bored of it).

After eighteen years, Dragon Ball returns with a new anime and manga series detailing the ten year gap between the Majin Buu arc & EoZ. In the new series Goku meets a God of Destruction, a new universe, and unlocks the powers of a God himself.

Goku vs Beerus.

THE GOOD: Dragon Ball Super brings a ton of memories for both old and new Dragon Ball fans. With Akira Toriyama returning to write alongside his new protege Toyotarou, fresh content is enjoyable, and features differences from the anime counterpart which are well written and excellently illustrated. New characters are introduced which expands the Dragon Ball lore to heights never before thought of.

A brand new interquel series for Dragon Ball fans!

THE BAD: Some readers may be confused by the manga/anime differences.

Hit is one of the great new characters introduced.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Dragon Ball Super gives Dragon Ball fans across different generations fresh content to enjoy for the next few years. New storylines, characters, and the return of Toriyama alongside the debut of newcomer Toyotarou brings about an excellent reading experience. Otaku Dome gives Dragon Ball Super Vol. 1 a 87 out of 100.

[dballzposting]

DBALLZPOSTING RAMBLE

Amount of evidence: LOW!!!!

Word count: Not the longest.

Eloquency: I haven't been sleeping very well lately ....

Subject: Trunks & Goten's different views of authority and power balances; Trunks is a follower while Goten is exempt.

Befote I say anything let me preface this post with: Goten and Trunks are, everything considered, very free spirits. They're not afraid of feelings and they love adventuring. When they're kids they love to have fun, and when they're older you can see in the both of them a sort of contentedness/satisfaction. They're living life well.

OK now I want to point out that despite what you'd assume when you first see them, Trunks is very much a follower, while Goten is exempt from any idea of a hierarchy.

You would assume that Trunks would be a leader given who his parents are and what his status is. He just HAS to be a natural-borne leader, right? It's in his blood? But he's just not.

When he's a kid he's very good at bossing Goten around. He's good at being player 1. But this isn't his "true" nature. He acts all arrogant when he's a kid becasue he's doing what kids do: emulating hardcore. What he is is a follower emulating the leadership behaviors of his parents.

We know this isn't his true self becasue he tangibly grows out of it. Even by EOZ, he's no longer a bitch - he's respectful, he's self-assured, he's relaxed in that confidence, he emotes freely. I think he still cares what people think about him, judging by his epic swag outfit and the way that he couldn't just live-and-let-live when it came to that flamboyant gay dude, but he's getting there.

By GT he is just a completely different man. He just wants to chill and hang out. He wants to make wisecracks. He doesnt care about work and he doesnt care enough to let himself be stressed by it. He just dips. He continues to emote freely, even coming apart at the beginning of the series when he was realizing how stressful this space journey was shaping out to be, but he pulled himself together and didn't need to freak out like that again. he adapted to the situation fine.

I don't have solid evidence I just need you to watch GT and see what I've seen and understand that he's literally just some guy ... he's some dude .... Scary shit is happening and he still has time to chill and hang out when the battle is over. I've seen it. Please believe me

In the outro there's a moment where they're showing different epic images throughout the history of dragon ball. And there's a picture from DBZ times, where Trunks is sitting on the handlebars of a motorcycle while Gohan is trying to drive it and Trunks has his arms crossed and he just looks like such a bitch. He's somebody arrogant bastard whelp

VERY NEXT IMAGE: A GT image of Trunks & Pan & Goku & Giru on the hunt for dragon balls out on an alien planet. And UGH. The CONTRAST is so much. Like maybe I should just get the images. I probably won't. But I should

The image changes to GT and you realize that THIS is who Trunks is. Not the kid. Poeple change so much from childhood. On one hand your true nature is available to you as a child but on the other hand you're emulating hardcore and changing rapidly. Trunks's truest nature was probably when he was a baby and he'd cry becasue Vegeta was so ugly

Trunks grows up and circles back and finds his true nature again. And that true nature is in those FUCKING HUGE SHORTS. That JACKET. Those DUMB GLOVES. Those THICK SOCKS and BARE KNEES. Like HWAT was he THINKING !?!??!

His TRUE NATURE is being LAME. That's who he is. He had phases where he wanted to be Cool but he's grown out of it. He's come to accept what style he really feels like himself in. He has changed a lot since childhood: He Doesnt care what people think about him, and he is Not concerned with status anymore.

He's President of Capsule Corp becasue he's gotta be. He doesnt give a shit. You'd think he'd give a shit and you'd assume that he'd give a shit but if you watch GT there is something so calm and cool about him. He's so authentic that he can even be shallow and lack self-awareness in little ways (like he doesnt think he's lame for instance). This is really as deep as he goes fellas. And he's not trying to deny that. He's not trying to look Cool or Smart or Strong. He just wears his huge shorts and reads his Cosmo magazine and readily displays when he's feeling tired or bored, but not in an immature way that demands amelioration. He's a fine adult and he keeps himself together, especially when he has to be babysitter.

He does what he must and he rests when he can.

So. All of that put together: you would think that that makes him not necessarily a leader but definitely not a follower, right? A follower WOULD care what people think about them, right?

NOT what I'm getting at though. He's not insecure, but he's still a follower. And he's not a leader, becasue he doesnt care enough to be, but mostly, becasue it's not in his nature.

Vegeta is a leader by nature. He's not interested in controlling others' freedom, but he is interested in setting them straight. Bulma is a leader by nature. She'll let weirdos be weirdos but as long as there is something she cares about, she NEEDS things to go the way she wants them to. She needs you to do what she tells you to do.

Both ultimately have good judgement in the end.

And then there's Trunks...

WAYS THAT TRUNKS IS A FOLLOWER:

I don't think it's all nurture, but I'll still point out that: being raised by leaders could have very well trained him to be a follower. As a kid, he emulated the leadership role with Goten, but still snaps to such sudden attention when his parents tell him what to do (seen in Z and Super). A truly arrogant kid would blow his parents off.

HIS RESPECT FOR RULES. So many times as a kid we see him say something about The Rules. One example is when in the second Broly movie (English sub), he was terrifically put off by how Broly wasn't "following the rules" and was fighting to kill. For another example, he TOLD OFF Majin Buu when he came at him with that sucker punch. Those are NOT the rules of the battlefield!!!!! There were more times but I can't remember. Another thing I'll put here is how self-aware he was as a kid about being a kid: i swear it came up like three different times when he was chasticing someone for saying/doing something to him because he was "just a kid" and it was pathetic or rude of them to be behaving that way in front of him. It's like, it's hard to teach a kid about Honor, so Vegeta just taught him about Rules instead and hoped that one day it would turn into honor. But in the meantime and arguably the long term, it became the backdrop of his understanding of the world: the world is made out of rules. Rules of the battlefield. Rules of social interactions. Rules of computers and engineering. In this way, he's a follower: if it's against the rules, don't do it! (Some rules he does not respect, however. Like beating up that one tournament contestant and stealing his clothes. It's becasue Trunks was overall emulating the irreverency of his father. This, in a way, is still following what's proper.)

Okay, kids lack nuance and they follow rules like law. That doesn't mean he's a follower. BUT CONSIDER: His reverence for AUTHORITY and HIERARCHY. This was an essential element of his childhood, his parents being who they were, and he learned to DEFER TO AUTHORITY. In Super he seems much nicer than in Z, and the way he listens to adults seems more overt (honestly he's coming more into himself with that lame yellow sweatshirt but we haven't the time to discuss that). My best exmaples are THE WAY HE THINKS OF SHENRON: In one of the Z movies that i dont fucking rmeebr which one, there was a scene where Goten calls Shenron a CHEAPSKATE. Trunks FLIPS and COVERS Goten's mouth. Actuially I think I can find the gif

^ see.

He's like YOU DONT FUCKING TALK TO HIM THAT WAY...!

AND THEN IN GT, when they try to summon Shenron with the busted ass dragon balls, Bulma says of the new Shenron: He's much more crass, isn't he? AND TRUNKS TURNS TO HIS MOTHER and is like, "MOM!!!" I watched the english sub but literally what happened was that she said some barely-rude comment about this new Shenron's lack of manners, and Trunks actually said really dramatically "MOM-!!!" and then basically that She Can't Talk about Shenron That Way...!!!!!

We all know that Bulma has no respect for authority over herself, specifically when she feels that they haven't earned it. And This Evil-Looking Blue Draghon Shows Up an Literally Lights a Stoagie in front of them and Bulma says soemthing so TAME for what her lexicon is capable of, and Trunks was like MOM! ! !!!!!!!

In that moment, his respect for the concept of an in-borne hierarchy or authority surpassed any obligation he may feel to defer to his mother. As is the case with some real-life men, he may even has grown up to believe that actually, his mother is a little batshit cuckoo and maybe needs to be corralled some. (This is an unfortunate perspective).

Anyway. Another way that Trunks is a follower is the way that he never tries that hard to counter anyone. He doesn't fall back into line either but he just ... GHoes to work ...... Does what his parents want him to do .... He's not authoritative enough to be able to keep Pan wrangled in.

I want to make clear that I am NOT saying that Trunks is a follower by nature of a crushed will. I'm not saying that he's all small and pusillanimous. He's absolutely not. The first paragraph in this post holds up. I don't think he feels all small inside

I just think that his lifestyle has fostered an avenue for authenticity, because self-awareness is essential for his warrior craft, and the authentic person that we are seeing is someone who wears those Huge Shorts and does what his parents want him to do. And if he REALLY hated it then he would argue back. But he doesnt care enough too. He's cool. He's a chill dude. He's a follower. Just hanging out

Forgot to say that also: He has manners. We see that at every age past 8. He's not trying to disrespect his elders. He's respectful to Gohan and his wife. He follows the rules of respect and hierarchies.

The reason that we see Trunks a lot of the time as this chill dude is because he himself is at the top of some hierarchy. He's rich and president. He's the son of a prince. Were he on a shittier tier then I think that we'd see him be much quicker to obsequiousness.

It's interesting becasue I think that in theory, a totally healthy and authentic human would want to do away with hierarchies altogether. But Trunks is still of a culture. This is his most authentic self - within his culture. Sure, there are no hierarchies when he's hanging out with friends and doing what he wants, but the rest of the time there is. At work. At home. In space it was a bit complicated - he was the captain, and he was technically the oldest, but he would never try to tell Goku-San what to do, and Trunks just lacked the innate leadership abilities to keep Pan under control! Partly becasue Pan comes with a lot of fire for freedom because of the way that she is being treated at home.

Trunks has totally come into himself and he wears .............. "interesting" outfits. And I think that his parents have had to come to accept that he's lame. Bulma makes him be president but it's becasue he can't be head engineer so she makes him be the head bureaucrat. Vegeta hasnt given up on him becasue it's just not his nature too, but he has accepted that Trunks is lame. Every now and then he'll throw out "I'll be in the gravity chamber if you want to shake the rust off" but Trunks never takes the bait. He's always busy with something else. He's slacking. He's a slacker. Vegeta knows this. Trunks doesnt think he's lame but he is. This is just a fact.

Though he was able to shake off Baby's initial attempt at control. He was able to expel him from his body whereas the sloppy-messy Goten just had all of his memories wide-open for Baby to read. Trunks does have a due CONFIDENCE, and you CAN find his father's influence in him. He's also lame. Just a fact

ANYWAY: FOR COMPARISON:

Son Goten is much more like Goku in that: there are no hierarchies. We're all equal. The difference is that Goten does respect authority. The reason that Goku doesn't is partly his pure-hearted nature and partly because the first person who demanded respect out of him was Bulma and her insistence for honorifics. Of course Goku would say no to that. But Goten was encouraged (or beaten) by his loving mother to be respectful, and he's a sweet kid, so he took to it naturally. Everybody gets an honorifc. Everybody gets a bow. Be kind to everyone and everything. All is right in the world

He did very much tell Shenron that he was a cheapskate in that one movie. He YELLED it. This is Son Goten: authentic and fully expressive of himself. There are no leaders and followers, just people with opinions that need expressing.

In GT he was so rude to Mr Satan. Mr Satan needed some fucking help and Goten was like, "Um, I am NOT your student, and I am ON a date. >:( -.-" That was honestly so fucking rude of him. It's becasue, despite being the youngest in his house, he doesnt have the perpetual reflex to defer built in. He was raised in a way that must've been more free and forgiving. He knows in his head that Mr Satan is old and in need and that's why it was so fucking rude of him to not drop everything and play along. But Goten wasn't being a dick on purpose for the sole express purpose of being a dick, he was just prioritizing his own life over Mr Satan's right now; he was honoring himself. Can't beat someone down for looking out for number 1. He was rude to Mr Satan AND good for himself and Palace-chan. Two things can be true

I know I don't have any hard proof and this post has been very much a "remember this? no? I don't either. Take my word for it" type of a ramble, but I would postulate that when Goten is respectful, it's because he wants to be nice and proper, as a kid or as an adult, but he understands naturally that leaders are not gods; and when Trunks is respectful, it's as if the world is dependent on this order, and he feels real fear when authority is disrespected, and he probably doesnt even know why, but it's probably becasue as a kid he learned fear from his dad, and as an adult he can use reason to surmise who's deserving of respect, but on some level he is always anticipating that pattern of authority to exist as a ubiquitous order.

I think the biggest place where you can find their different responses to authority is how they interact with Gohan. I have very little canon evidence I just want to tell a story. Trunks is obviously very polite. He's known Gohan since he was little and Gohan has always been good to him. He's always been patient, helpful, and informative. This fosters safety and spontaneity, but at home Trunks gets yelled at for talking out of turn so ultimately that's what perseveres. He walks into Gohan's house and he's sooo civil. And I know that if he has questions to ask he chooses his words very carefully. He would never say anything uncouth to Son Gohan. He minds his manners so much. Honestly he behaves as if he believes that he should be shot

and then there's GOTEN and even if he didnt have the privilege of kin status with Gohan he would STILL act the way he does. He #RESPECTS Gohan, so much, and at the end of the day, Gohan does have authority in the sense that if Goten was pissing him off he could tell him firmly to Leave His House. And Goten would listen. He woudlnt defy him. He'd be mad but staying is more than asking for a fight, it's breaking a heart. He'll leave if he's told to . But other than that he can say whatever he wants to Gohan always and for forever EVEN IF IT'S SHIT THAT GOHAN DOESNT WANT TO HEAR Goten lacks the finesse to read through Gohan's composed exterior and see that he doesnt want to hear agbout it. And he'll ask him the worst questions too. Just absolutely ruin his week with it. "Gohan-Niichan is it true that men have g-spots up their BUTTS?" just the worst shit . There are no stupid questions but there are indeed bad ones

And Gohan takes it upon himself to deal with this. He wants to be a trustworthy source of information and comfort in Goten's life. So he deals wioth this

And Trunks is so courteous and careful and kind and he keeps a respectful distance meanwhile if Goten were really excited to see Gohan then he would chew through the wall and rocket toward him and lick him on the cheek like a dog . And Gohan would just very politely pull out a handkerchief and wipe his cheek off and then put the handkerchief back and not say antyhing about it. Very professional guy

[dbzebra]

Not Just A Fling

Authors Note: So a few weeks ago, someone in my discord chat psted a fic that within the very first paragraph had Goten and Marron break up and say they were just a fling. Safe to say I was a lil butthurt. In response, I made this out of pure spite. It’s cheesy as fuck but at this point idc lmao

(Also, Marron is only 1 year younger than Goten as opposed to 3 in this. So shes 17 while hes 18. Just keep that in mind)

Pairing: Goten x Marron

Time Period: 11 years after Buu / 1 year post EOZ

Words: 1958

Son Goten stared at his now mostly empty bedroom. Boxes were stacked on the floor next to his old dresser. He still couldn't believe that he was going away to college tomorrow. He spent his whole life on Mt. Paozu and now he was leaving. At least temporarily. He could never truly move away. City life was not a permanent thing for him.

Until senior year, the eighteen year-old had no intention in going to college-and his parents were okay with that. If he really wanted to he could've just asked Bulma for a job at Capsule Corporation and she would've gave him one in a heartbeat. But boring office life wasn't his thing at all. He'd go crazy after a week of filing papers and answering phones about the same old crap. So he figured he'd give it a shot. College life was supposed to be so much better than high school, right?

At least, that's what Trunks told him. Goten's lifelong partner in crime was just finishing his freshman year at West City University, and the boys couldn't wait to dorm together.

Marron was sitting on the bed, happily twirling her golden locks in her fingers as Goku and Goten made the finishing touchings on packing. A part of him couldn’t believe they’d been dating for three years already.

"All set buddy?" Goku said, placing the last box down.

"Yeah, I'm good. Can you go check on Mom for me? She might still be a mess."

Goku smiled and went to find his wife. "Good idea."

He was going to miss the early morning training routine with his younger son. Goten had restarted his training back when he and Marron started going out a few years back. Nothing made Goku more proud than to see the great men his boys had become. Though despite not having his father’s extra push, Goten promised to keep up his training. He vowed to one day surpass his father.

“Trunks is comin’ right?” Marron asked him. She had on a white blouse, a pink skirt and matching shoes. Her long blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders and back.

“Yeah, he just pulled up. He’s takin’ some stuff to the place now so it’ll be less of a load tomorrow.”

Goten went out into the living room to see his dad comforting a distraught Chi-Chi. The day she never thought would come finally came. Her baby boy was leaving her for good and never coming back. At least in her mind he was. Despite everything Goku said, it seemed to only make Chi-Chi cry more.

"Come on, honey. Goten can visit any time with Instant Transmission. Besides, you didn't cry this much when Gohan left..."

"Because... I-I still had m-m-my baby... And n-now... he's leaving!" Chi-Chi wailed and melted back into sobs while Goku rubbed her back.

Goten glanced to Goku who smiled sadly. Goten flashed his father an apologetic look before going outside to meet Trunks who had just pulled up in his capsule car.

He greeted Trunks with a signature fist-bump and led the older Saiyan inside.

"Classes start Tuesday right? Because of the holiday Monday." Goten asked as they walked in.

Marron waved to Trunks who nodded back.

"Yeah, but the real shit don't even start until like two weeks later. Syllabus week is a pain but you literally just gotta show up."

"Hey that's the part I'm good at. The rest? Not so much."

Trunks chuckled. "You would say that."

"How's the place lookin? It's all fixed up right?"

"Man, it's gonna be wild. You and me on our own, we finally get to live! The campus is sick too. We got a townhouse all to ourselves and it's only a block from the food court!" Trunks went on about what it was like. He roomed by himself last year, and had a blast. But this year- this year would be another level.

"I'll probably be at the food court more than the dorm!" Goten joked. "That place'll be outta business by the end of the month!"

"...Dude, I'm telling you. Our place is gonna be chick city!" Trunks put an arm around his friend’s shoulder.

Marron flinched.

Goten shook his head, laughing. "Do you hear yourself? You sound like a frat boy when you're the furthest thing from it. Besides, I'm spoken for. Right babe?" He looked to his beautiful girlfriend.

She cracked a smile at Goten's joke, but her face hid a tinge of sadness... or was it worry? He couldn't tell.

"Mare? Something wrong?" He asked. He tuned Trunks out as he kept carrying on about the possibilities.

Marron took a deep breath and wiped her eyes before looking up at Goten sadly. "Trunks is right... One of these days... you'll meet some hot sorority girl with much more experience and forget all about me..." She sniffled.

Goten looked stunned while Trunks instantly bad. "Marron, I was just..."

She shook her head, looking away from him. "Maybe it's better that we… that just save ourselves the heartbreak and-"

Goten gently cut her off with a kiss. She was stunned at first but soon relaxed into it. Goten pulled the blonde to her feet and continued kissing her to show how much she meant to him. Marron felt all the doubt in her mind wash away as she kissed him back.

Once they broke apart, Marron gaped up at him breathlessly. Her heart was still caught in her throat.

"Mare, I love you." He said with that same smile that always melted her heart. "You're the only girl I need. I don't care how many other girls there are, I only want you. You're not some silly fling to me. You're my best friend. I love you. And when you come to WCU next year, I'll show the most amazing girlfriend in the world to everyone on campus."

Marron felt the pain and worry leave her heart as relief washed over her. It was all in her head after all. "I love you too. I'm sorry, I just- I just thought about losing you and I..."

"Never in a million years."

Trunks grinned and put his hands on his hips. "I figured. More girls for me then! With my good looks they won't keep their hands off me!"

"Yeah until you open your mouth and then they run for their lives." Goten replied back with a grin of his own. Trunks rolled his eyes and chuckled.

Marron sighed happily and laid back on the bed. "Come to think it, dating a college boy is pretty hot."

“So is dating head cheerleader.”

"Gross." Trunks gagged. "Get a room."

"We're already in my room." Goten joked.

"Oh shut up!" Trunks fired back and turned to send a quick message on his phone. Work stuff. He hated having to work at Capsule Corp. That was partly the reason he enrolled in school despite not needing to -to get his mom off his back. Honestly if he had an out, he'd take it in a heartbeat. "So seriously though, we gotta plan how this place is gonna look!"

"We need a sick game room. Oh! And a second game room." Goten added.

"And a gravity chamber!"

"Don't forget a guest room."

"Why? For when Marron visits?"

"Nah, she'd sleep in my room." Goten turned to wink at her. Blushing, Marron smiled and winked back.

Trunks smirked. "We'd better make sure it's soundproof then."

Marron coughed and hide her blushing face while Goten laughed with a hand behind his head.

"That's what I thought." Trunks smirked.

The blonde then noticed a small white box on the side of his bed. Goten saved that box for last. It was probably the most important thing of them all.

"What's in this?"

Goten grinned. "Take a look."

She opened it up and gasped.

It was everything from their dates over the years, including stuff that dated back to childhood. The movie ticket from their first date was on top. Photo booth pictures, arcade tickets, toys from when they were kids, and more. And most of all, a used-up old Ring Pop wrapped in an old piece of paper.

Marron could cry. Of happiness this time. In fact she almost did. "You actually kept this?"

She unwrapped the old piece of paper and giggled. In blue crayon was an agreement on the rules of the game.

'Marriage Rules.'

Rule 1: be nice

Rule 2: hold hands

Rule 3: step on any icky spiders

Rule 4: kiss on the cheek once a day

However rule 4 was crossed out in black crayon and said 'no cooties' under it.

Below the rules was their little signatures next to each other in sloppy writing.

Goten came over her shoulder and grinned. "I still laugh whenever I look at that."

"Dummy. A beautiful girl offers to kiss you and you turn it down?" She flipped her hair behind her back, feigning anger.

"I was seven! Besides, that's one of the best parts now."

"Oh yeah?" Marron purred and leaned closer to him. "Prove it."

Trunks groaned before anything could go any further. "Jesus you two. Could you knock it off for five seconds? I'm gonna throw up."

Marron giggled again and looked to the old Ring Pop. Goten ate it within an hour. She remembered being upset with him at the time. But still- he kept it.

"You remember all this, right?"

"I remember you forcing him, Marron. And you made me be the dog!"

"Can it." She quipped, smirking at him. Trunks only laughed. "Of course I remember." She smiled.

Those days of childhood were like a distant memory now.

Goten hugged Marron from behind and then spun her around to kiss her forehead. "We should try the real thing one of these days."

Marron looked up at him in shock, her cheeks flushing pink. "...What did you just say?"

Trunks couldn't believe his ears. Did he just hear what he think he just heard? He blinked, and then blinked again. He stared at Goten similar to how Marron was.

Goten nodded and kissed her again. He took a deep breath. He didn’t even feel nervous. Not even a bit. "...Marron, will you marry me?”

Marron stared up at him, covering her mouth with her hand as happy tears freely flowed now. Every ounce of her wanted to scream with joy as he continued babbling.

“Once I finish school... we can have a real wedding. Like the one you've always dreamed about. I know it’s sudden, a-and I don't have a ring yet, but-"

Marron flung her arms around Goten, cutting him off with a deep kiss. All the joy in the world couldn’t describe what she was feeling right now. What she had wanted since she was a child finally came true. She was the happiest girl alive. She pulled back, smiling as bright as could be. “Yes. A million times yes. Let's do it. Let's get married."

Goten grinned wider than he ever did and cheered. He picked Marron up and swung his girlfriend-no, fiancee around in his arms, laughing together. After another long blissful kiss, Goten put the blonde back on her own two feet.

She rested her head on his shoulder as neither moved from their embrace. "I love you so much Goten..."

"I love you too, Mare." He smiled and buried his face into hair.

Trunks ran up and congratulated his two best friends with a big group hug. The best part was-- he got to be the best man. His speech was gonna be amazing.

They were really engaged. The next part-- telling their parents. It was a small step in starting their new life together, but they were ready for anything.

[tigerlover16-uk]

Ruminations on Dragon Ball Super

Dragon Ball Super was not a perfect series. I don’t think anyone can argue with that. It had problems big and small. Inconsistent animation, plot holes or lazy/rushed writing on occasion, wasted ideas and characters, and some awkward dialogue here or there. It wasn’t as good as it could have been.

But when all’s said and done... that hardly feels like it mattered to me in comparison to all the good that came out of it.

I never thought we would get another Dragon Ball series. After watching the original Dragon Ball on tv and the long wait for new content that wasn’t the occasional OVA, I was certain that the series really was over.

I’ve never been happy with that possibility, even though I didn’t hate GT as a kid (Because I was an uncritical idiot who liked almost anything animated) I still didn’t find the idea of the story ending there satisfying. I eventually grew to accept this as the way things were, but I have always felt like something was missing from my soul without Dragon Ball.

When I heard about Battle of Gods, I got excited and I was looking forward to seeing it when the dub came out, but even when Resurrection F was announced I assumed that the occasional just for fun movie was as good as it was ever going to get. I’ll never be able to put into words the amount of surprise and sheer, unbridled catharsis I felt when I heard Super was going to be a thing.

For the past two years since I started watching the show (I kept up with news and summaries, but I intended to wait for the dub to watch it, but I couldn’t help it and started watching subs halfway through the Champa saga), it’s practically consumed my life. Even with it’s occasional missteps, the overall experience of watching Super has been unlike anything else I’ve experienced since I still found Naruto to be good.

There’s just been so much I’ve enjoyed about Super. So many of the fights, from Hit and Goku’s epic clash, the big clash in episode 57, and half of the battles in the Universe Survival Saga have been some of my favourite fights in the whole franchise. While several characters didn’t get to do as much as I wanted, it was still fun seeing the character development people like Gohan, Krillin, Mr Satan, Beerus, Roshi, Android 18, etc have enjoyed. And not to mention the fun character interactions, plus the cute shippy moments I never realized how much I needed.

Baby Pan was utter perfection and just made me really love the character again and want to see her in a big role with a better portrayal than she got in GT. We got to meet a ton of cool and interesting characters too that I really want to see more of. Frieza got to come back in a big way in the final arc and really show off why he’s my favourite villain ever, to the point I think I love him now more than ever.

Android 17′s comeback defied all my expectations and made him one of my absolute favourite characters, something I never thought would happen. All of the slice of life episodes and moments were fantastic and a joy to watch. And they expanded the series with so many interesting ideas and concepts that could provide further story potential for decades to come.

And I could go on.

Sure, the overall series was messy and there were problems, but Super has been such a great source of comfort and relief in my not always pleasant life, and when the show is at it’s best it leaves me with a kind of joy and satisfaction that I’ve never been able to get from anything else besides Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. And really, I can only be grateful for that.

I thought Dragon Ball was never going to come back in any substantial way. I thought the hole in my heart was never going to be filled, and that I was forever going to be chasing that same magic I got from Dragon Ball in other shows and media franchises, but to never have anything QUITE resonate with me in the same way.

I’ve never been more happy to be wrong about anything. Because even though Super might be ending for now, there’s a movie coming out later this year that looks like it’s going to be great, and the odds of a new series coming out relatively soon are astronomically high.

It seems surreal to think this is happening, but it feels like my longtime wish of always having more Dragon ball stories to look forward to is finally going to be a reality. And you know what? Even though I know there are going to be ups and downs, I absolutely cannot wait. But I will, because at least this time I know new stuff is on the horizon so it’ll actually be bearable. Hopefully a series post-EoZ is one of the first.

So, with all that said... Thank you, Toriyama. Thank you, Toei Animation, and all the writers and animators who worked hard to give us their best even under the worst of conditions.

Thank you for making me feel like a kid again in all the best ways possible.

Until we meet again, indeed

[tigerlover16-uk]

Goodbye, GT

This is a very personal post written mostly for the sake of posterity and closure. You're free to read it if you really want, but I'd rather nobody comment or make a big deal out of anything I say here, I just needed to get my thoughts written out for the sake of moving on. So I'd rather people just scroll past.

Well, I finally finished watching Dragon Ball GT subbed. Thank goodness.

I have a lot of complex thoughts on GT, many of them very negative. I've made it no secret that I hate this series, and I have a lot of reasons why I hate it. The complete refusal to do anything meaningful with the vast majority of the supporting cast (With the things they actually do end up being very minor stuff, or downright insulting), especially the complete mishandling of Pan and Uub's characters. The boring stories, the bad designs and the general aesthetic of the show. The unengaging fights, and that utterly STUPID ending!

There were a few things I liked here and there, but in general I have a lot to complain about. And maybe if people ask me I will talk more about the show, but since this will likely be the last time I ever watch it, I felt now was a good time to really wax poetic about why I really feel so negatively about it.

Because after really thinking everything over and my experiences with GT and the franchise in general, I think I've found a more deep-seated reason besides it's own admittedly poor quality as a show. And I just wanted to get it all out for posterity's sake and so I can really move on.

I watched GT as it was airing on Welsh television as a kid, the Blue Water Dub specifically. It aired right after Dragon Ball Z finished, and the original Dragon Ball started airing after GT wrapped up. Like with DBZ, I watched every episode as it aired, and in general my childhood self enjoyed it. I was too young and stupid to really think critically about most of the media I consumed, so I never tended to notice any flaws in the shows I watched.

And Dragon Ball Z was my favourite growing up, alongside Spider-man The Animated series, so naturally I was inclined to think of everything GT did as being amazing and cool. And to be fair, yeah there is some cool stuff here, I can see why I enjoyed it. Even though now that I look back, a lot of it didn't stick with me the same way the stories, action and characters of DBZ and later Dragon Ball did.

I was confused and uncertain about the ending, but given that the original Dragon Ball started airing soon after I was never much concerned with it. Dragon Ball couldn't really be over, here was more of it showing me all that backstory and stuff that was always hinted at or flashbacked to in Z but I never saw for some reason. I quickly fell in love with OG Dragon Ball the same way i did with it's sequel series.

It was soon after that series finished airing, however, and I came to accept that Dragon Ball was over... that a powerful, uneasy feeling started to set in. While I know I hadn't actually been watching it for ALL of my life, it really did feel like Dragon Ball had always been there. A constant, welcoming, wonderful presence in my life that made everything feel so much cooler and life in general so much more fulfilling. Something to always look forward to...

I didn't dwell on it too hard at the time, but as time passed, and life generally got harder and more miserable as time went on (I'm pretty sure I was in secondary school when Dragon Ball finished, and that was one of the worst parts of my life, let me tell you!), I started to feel very alone and wistful.

To give an idea of what I was going through without giving too much away, I was losing friends, with my longest friendship ending in a great personal betrayal, my home life was an utter mess right up to and through my parents divorcing.

And between school work, undiagnosed aspergers that my teachers refused to acknowledge might be a possibility, and just realising how harsh, cruel and kind of miserable the world really was... let's just say that I became a pretty closed off, miserable person for a while.

I got better when I started going to college and life in general became more stable, but through all of that, and for the next several years after it even... the thing that made it especially unbearable, was that through it all, I felt like something was missing.

Something important, something grounding. Something that had helped carry me through life prior to all that, and give me something to always look forward to and find comfort in whenever things seemed rough.

It felt like a part of my soul had been missing for a long time, and I never understood why.

I think it was during my later years in secondary school that my family got a computer for the first time. I can clearly remember spending so many hours of my life browsing through wiki's of all sorts of shows, games and movies I liked.

One day, I inevitably started looking up Dragon Ball stuff.

I went all in trying to find as much information as possible about this series. I read all up about the behind the scenes information and Akira Toriyama's writing process. I read up on all the characters, the manga prototypes of Dragon Ball, and the reasons for why Toriyama wrote a lot of things the way he did.

I learned about all of the dub changes, and the various dubs that were out there for that matter. I used to have a laugh about some of them. Learned about a lot of the movies, games, Specials and other stuff I hadn't been aware of because I'd never seen them before.

While I didn't have any DVD's for the series available for a while and felt uncomfortable pirating the show (Didn't stop me from looking at some other things on YouTube, I notice though... I'm a weirdo :p), but I did frequently refamiliarize myself with stuff that had happened.

And when Dragon Ball Z Kai became a thing, I watched that, and I kept up with animated specials like the Yo! Son Goku and his friends return! special or Episode of Bardock (Which I actually watched before I even watched Bardock: Father of Goku, despite knowing about that special and everything that happened in it for a while, for some reason...).

I remember hearing about Dragon Ball Online and all the stuff about it's lore, and being utterly fascinated by the prospect, since I had never imagined another take on the series post-EoZ other than GT actually being presented, even though I REALLY did wish we had more.

Over time as I was doing this, the feeling of wonder and fun that I had always felt watching Dragon Ball as a kid started to come back, and I remembered why I loved this series so much. How much it meant to me... and how sad it made me that it seemed the series would never come back.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I appreciated that we had stuff like the video games, or the occasional specials, and even the SD manga when that became a thing was something I frequently read synopsis for since I didn't know where to actually read the manga for a while. I was glad there was content being made... but it was never nearly the same thing as having a proper continuation, you know.

And a lot of the stuff we got, like the YO! special, was pretty mediocre fluff in the long run. It was fun, but it didn't fill the void. And I thought nothing ever would.

I had begun to realize what that missing part of my soul had been.

I was excited when I heard about Battle of Gods being released, but I also assumed it would just be a one-off thing, something that would be great to pass the time and give me another chance to see all those characters I loved again, but it wouldn't lead to anything bigger. And despite stuff like the hints of there being multiple different universes, I was still certain by the time Resurrection F was announced that an occasional mostly self-contained movie would be the best we could ask for in terms of new Dragon Ball content.

I can't even begin to tell you how shocked... and how darn HAPPY I was when Super was announced. I never expected it to happen... I couldn't believe it was. For the first time in years... a new Dragon Ball series. One that ignored GT's continuity, and thus it's definitive ending, and opened up the possibility of more new Dragon Ball stories for many years to come.

I wanted to cry.

I didn't start watching the show until it was part-way through the Champa saga... mostly because there weren't legal ways to view it until part-way through the Future Trunks saga, and I thought I'd wait for the dub at first. but keeping up with news and spoilers about what was happening, and browsing the tv tropes pages for Super every day and watching clips on YouTube, I just couldn't control myself and started looking up episodes of the Champa saga myself.

And oh God... I felt at home. I mean, it wasn't a perfect story, really, but... it was good. And it was new Dragon Ball. Watching things unfold was such a magical experience, and when it got to the Hit fight... HOLY COW, was my mind blown. THAT... that was Dragon Ball, through and through! And then we got the Baby Pan episode, and dear God that was adorably perfect and I love it to bits. And then we found out that Future Trunks was coming back for a saga, and the new villain for it and, OH GOD THE EXCITEMENT!

Having Dragon Ball back in my life again was just... it felt just so... right. The missing part of my soul was restored. I had my childhood... I had my best friend back.

I suppose by now you're wondering about how all of this relates to GT. You're probably thinking "Oh well then, you only hate it because you blame it for ending Dragon Ball for so long!" and... well, okay, that's kind of on point. But I didn't hate it for that until after I actually re-watched the series not too long ago.

Truth is, I've always defended GT. I mean, I knew it had problems just listening to people talk about it, and remembering it for myself. I definitely agreed the ending was wrong. But... I remembered liking it as a kid. Even loving it.

I remembered there were ideas and a few characters I really liked. People complain about a lot of things in DBZ as well, yet whenever I re-watch that and the original Dragon Ball, they both hold up exceptionally well despite some issues. Better than so many things from my childhood.

So, why shouldn't GT hold up the same? I always told people that GT was okay, that a lot of people overreacted and that it wasn't anything offensive. People were just overreacting.

I strongly believed that for years. I was glad it was non-canon, because that meant there was another chance for another, better post-EoZ series that utilized the next gen characters (And the long standing supporting cast, for that matter) better, and I didn't want Dragon Ball to have a definitive ending. But I stubbornly refused to have negative feelings about GT.

I started re-watching GT when Super was about half-way through, out of curiosity and because I wanted to have an actually up to date, informed opinion on it. Especially where comparisons to Super came up.

I didn't go into the series intending to be negative, I went in with the intention of DEFENDING IT. I knew there would be stuff that would annoy me or that would be frustrating, but I wanted to enjoy it like I had as a child. I wanted to be able to say with confidence that despite it's faults, GT was a worthwhile addition to the Dragon Ball franchise and that I liked it.

And for the first two to five episodes, I did kind of enjoy it, despite some things I took issue with...

But the more I watched and was bored of the first saga, and the more I started looking ahead and really dwelling on what went on in the show. How it used the characters, how the stories were written and how it ended... after a while, I started to doubt it. I started to dislike it more and more.

While I had made up my mind about GT not being a good continuation of Dragon Ball Z by the time I finished the Baby saga, I still mostly enjoyed that saga at least, despite some glaring issues that bothered me. I was willing to say that was mostly fine. I hated the Super 17 saga a lot, but even going into the Shadow Dragons saga, I expected to like that. I tried very hard to be positive going into it... and then it kept spitting in my face.

And by the time I got to the penultimate episode, I was sick of the show and glad to stop watching it. I did something I never expected myself to do, and declared it horrible, a blight on the franchise! And I meant it, because after experiencing such a disappointing let down, and especially after that insulting final episode when I did watch it... I felt betrayed.

THIS was the show I had been defending all these years?! It was trash! People were right, GT WAS an insult to the franchise... it was an insult to me as a fan, as someone who loves this series.

And I feel this way because it feels like the series is specifically designed to annoy me. The first saga is a boring slog where it feels like nothing of actual value happens after our heroes leave earth, all for a stupid contrived premise. The only really notable episode is episode 15, and for ALL the wrong reasons! Goku is turned into a kid for no reason, which just feels wrong at this point in the series, Pan is derailed into an annoying brat for no good reason, and the only other character that comes along for the journey is Trunks. Who is one of the few characters I don't really care that much about, and he's blander here than he was in DBZ.

We get one half-decent story after that, one horrible trainwreck of an arc that did NOTHING right apart from a funny gag with Chichi and Videl, and a saga that sounds on paper like it should be the greatest thing in the world... but everything apart from Nuova and Eis Shenron's episodes was handled in the WORST WAY POSSIBLE.

The fights range from passable, occasionally good, to just BORING. While there were good jokes sometimes, the humour was usually dull. The many characters I loved either barely showed up and then only to get fodderised, have a lot of their personality drained away so they're just kind of dull, or in the cases of Piccolo and Majin Buu, get POINTLESSLY KILLED OFF! And in Piccolo's case he got shoved into freaking Hell for his troubles and never got out! What were you thinking, writers! That is NOT how you treat one of the greatest anime characters ever created!

Everything I felt could have potential to be interesting felt like it was deliberately sabotaged. Uub was shoved aside in the first episode and didn't show up until it was half over, and then despite getting a transformation all he does is have a fight with Baby that's way too short and anti-climactic and then stall the villain later on in the saga, otherwise he's so insignificant to the show he might as well never show up.

I always thought his character was very interesting and I wanted to see him be at least the co-protagonist and actually do stuff... and GT just bent over backwards to make him irrelevent, give him almost no personality or real purpose, and just generally undermine the entire point of the ending of Z...

Pan got off almost worse. She was never allowed to go super saiyan, only useful a few times throughout the show and didn't defeat anyone that mattered on her own. She got no real character development, and was mostly just a damsel in distress... because the writers LITERALLY ADMITTED that they only kept her around so she could get beat up by the villains so Goku could look better by comparison. But oh I've already made some long posts on how badly Pan was used, so I won't go on now.

Bulla and Marron barely existed as far as the show was concerned. Krillin was basically a prop that was there to be a butt monkey who disappoints his family in the Baby saga, and his only notable contribution to the story was to DIE to move the plot along.

Android 17... oh God, the poor guy. He barely had any personality left when he showed up inexplicably under Dr Gero and Myuu's mind control, that whole Super 17 fusion was stupid as all heck, and then they senselessly killed his character off for real without ever doing ANYTHING of interest with him in a really insulting manner.

Despite the brilliant premise of having all the past villains invade from hell, the show did NOTHING with ANY of them, apart from turning Frieza, my favourite villain of all time, and Cell, into a couple of jokes who are defeated in an embarrassing way.

As cool as the Shadow Dragons are in concept, not only does their explanation and build up make no sense, but only Nuova and Eis are worthwhile characters. Haze and Rage Shenron were absolutely pathetic, Oceanus Shenron felt like a monster of the week from an earlier point in the series and not suitable endgame villain material, Naturon Shenron was annoying and lost because he was the BIGGEST IDIOT in the entire franchise, and Omega Shenron was the most disappointing final boss possible with no personality beyond "Evil bad guy" and a dull final fight that just poorly rips off stuff that happened in the Buu Saga, as well as that one episode that was just pointless padding that existed to tease people who liked Nuova Shenron by bringing him back only to have his contribution mean nothing (Kind of like how Vegeta going super saiyan 4 meant nothing thanks to Gogeta being a time wasting idiot and Vegeta not even putting up a half-decent fight against Omega).

And besides that, there were only two new characters in the show besides Nuova (Who was killed off way too soon, IMO) and Eis (The only character used as well as he could have been, probably) that were any good, them being Baby and General Rilldo. And Baby devolves into discount Frieza with none of the charm halfway through his saga, and Rilldo only gets a mediocre at best fight and then gets a bridge unceremoniously dropped on him.

And apart from them? Giru/Gill was an occasional nuisance and as interesting as drying paint. Valese was awkward and pointless, Dolltaki was the WORST character in the franchise, Dr Myuu/Mu was a boring dollar store Dr Gero with a stupider moustache and nothing interesting to him at all, and none of the other few characters were anything worthwhile.

And it's not like the show did a lot of interesting stuff with the characters it already had, half the characters are barely around, with several being only silent cameos, and they don't get any development from when we last saw them. Even 18's highly touted contribution in the Super 17 saga just involved her conveniently showing up to shoot energy blasts at Super 17, allowing Goku to then do all the hard work necessary to defeat him. It was kinda cool, but it was barely anything and it still comes at the expense of wasting 17 completely.

And then that ending... that above all insulted me, because after the show went out of it's way to wreck up so many of the characters, and treat us to mediocre to horrible stories, destroy any of the potential that Dragon Ball Z left open for future stories... after all that, it had the GALL to offer up what it intended to be the definitive, no going back ending for the ENTIRE series... an ending that was out of nowhere, depressing, and overall just kind of pointless... I was so angry.

THIS SHOW... this show is the reason we went so long without another Dragon Ball series for almost two decades, outside of Kai being just a re-cut of Z. And it went out of it's way to be the worst possible send off for the franchise imaginable, and try to cut off all avenues for future series.

I was so angry over this! All those years wistfully longing to have Dragon Ball come back... all those years that I felt incomplete, like I'd lost my anchor to make life feel more bearable when things got bad... like I didn't have a lot to look forward to... all of that was GT's fault, and it was TERRIBLE to boot!

And I DEFENDED this show all that time, because I was just so clueless... I felt sick.

And yes, I know I can't blame GT for how bad life got for me, that's childish... but I really do feel like having a little hope that Dragon Ball would continue with more series would have helped through it.

Dragon Ball is not just a show or manga to me. It is my favourite media franchise of all time. The series, it's characters and it's world resonate with me like nothing else. Nothing makes me happier than watching Dragon Ball, nothing else gets me more excited. The magic I felt watching the show as a kid is something I have yet to experience from any other work of fiction, despite trying my hardest to find it elsewhere in the time since. Maybe Pokemon comes close, but it's not quite there.

Dragon Ball is an integral part of my life. And GT tried to rip it away from me. To torch the franchise and run, as tv tropes would put it.

That is why I was so happy to have Super come into my life.

Dragon Ball Super is not a perfect series, as I have stated many times before. It has plot holes, inconsistent animation quality, especially earlier on. It occasionally screws up writing certain characters like Vegeta or Goku (Even though I don't think the latter's portrayal overall is anywhere near as bad as people blow it out of proportion to be), and there are plenty of missed opportunities. The Future Trunks Saga's ending was a complete mess, some of the things it introduced didn't really pay off. It has problems...

But at the same time, it's given me more joy than any other series of the past decade. Because when Super is good... oh my God, is it good.

The best fights from Super are honestly some of my favourites in the entire franchise. Goku vs Hit, the big fight with Goku Black and Future Zamasu in episode 57, Gohan vs Lavender, Gokus first fight with Jiren, Android 18 beating Ribrianne... there are SO many good ones, and the best are so much better than any of GT's action scenes. Heck, just watching the clip of the last bout of the fight between Goku, Frieza and Android 17 against Jiren did more for me than the entire final battle against Omega Shenron did.

There are so many good jokes and funny episodes, I think I've laughed more watching Super than any other Dragon Ball series. The slice of life episodes and moments scattered throughout are wonderful, and give me such an unbelievably pleasant feeling. We see so much more of the supporting cast too, and while the show struggles with a lot of characters especially early on, they all ended up getting so much good character moments over the course of the show and especially in the final arc. It was so wonderful just to spend more time with everyone.

There were so many cool new concepts thrown in. The 12 universes, the integration of the Galactic Patrol from the Jaco manga, the super dragon balls.

And there were so many new characters that I'm actually interested in.

Obviously we have Beerus, Whis and Jaco carrying on from the recent movies, and I love them so much. But in Super we got to meet Hit, Champa, Vados, Cabba, Frost, Magetta, Goku Black, Caulifla, Toppo, Ribrianne, and so many awesome and intersting new characters, many of whom I desperately want to see fleshed out and get to do more in future series. I didn't care about anyone from GT NEARLY as much as I care about half of these new characters, except maybe Nuova.

There's just so many amazing things that have happened that I never dreamed I would experience.

I never thought Android 17 would not only come back and be developed more, but that he'd go on to be one of the best characters in the show and one of my new favourites. I never thought Frieza would make a big comeback either, but oh God was he so perfect in the Universe Survival Saga and I think I love him even more now than I already did! I never thought I'd see Master Roshi getting to be cool again and have what felt like an even better send off to his time as a martial artist than the original Dragon ball gave him, but oh lord was episode 105 so good and got me emotional.

I never even knew I wanted Pan the adorable super baby to be a thing, but oh God is she wonderful and perfect in every way and I just love her so much! Ahhh!

Already I have so many fond memories of watching Super. Sure, it's done things to upset me from time to time, but when it's good, and it is most of the time, it does more for me than most other shows I watch. When Super is at it's best, I feel the same magic that Dragon Ball Z made me feel as a child.

A feeling I never once got from watching GT.

And as much as I panicked when I heard the show was ending, we got confirmation soon after that Super would continue through the upcoming movie, and all signs pointed to a new Dragon Ball series being produced in the near future. When the final episode aired, I felt a great sense of satisfaction in how it concluded... and also excitement and hope for the future, because that last episode made it so clear that there was much more to come.

Dragon Ball GT's ending threw me out of the house, slammed the door in my face and flushed the keys down the toilet. But Super left the door open.

It wasn't a goodbye this time. It was a "See you later"

A promise from my oldest, most dear friend that we would meet again.

It was such a beautiful feeling. And I cannot wait to see what the future holds for Dragon Ball. I'm sure there'll be bad stories now and again, every franchise has those from time to time, but Toei seem to be making all the right moves to get things stable to better produce future dragon ball works. The movie seems like it's having a ton of effort put into it, at least. So I have faith. Now my dream where Dragon Ball can go on forever might finally be coming true, and I couldn't be happier.

And after all is said and done, looking back on GT... I can't help but resent it for trying to deny me that.

I can't help but hold GT responsible for all of the years where there were no new Dragon Ball series. All the years it felt like Dragon Ball would never come back for real. And for all the loneliness that caused me deep in my heart.

It had some good points. Bad as it truly was, I can't say it was the worst sequel or show ever produced, there are many works of fiction that are objectively far worse than GT, and stuff that has caused actual harm to the world.

It'll never be One More Day or Holy Terror levels of bad... but on a strictly personal level, GT causes me more anger than any other fictional work I have encountered.

Why did I bother watching it again? That was a question I found myself asking as I was binging the subbed version. Obviously the reason I started doing that was because I have a personal goal of watching each Dragon Ball series both dubbed and subbed, and I thought I might as well get GT out of the way since I'd watched it all dubbed not too long ago... but why did I keep going as quickly as I did, when watching it just caused me so much frustration to the point of feeling actually painful?

I don't fully know, but maybe deep down I just really wanted to convince myself that I was being too harsh. That it wasn't all that bad, that I could go back to liking it somewhat. Because I really didn't want to resent it so much.

Guess that didn't work out, since honestly I think the only thing it accomplished is making me all the more aware of why I dislike it.

But you know what... whatever. I could keep being angry about GT until I'm blue in the face, but it's really not worth it. Because it's not relevant anymore. As much as it still bothers me we don't have another series set post-EoZ yet, GT has officially been replaced regardless by Super. It's clear that the franchise is back, and here to stay. Hopefully for good, this time. So really, what do I have left to be worried about?

I've got what I wanted all this time. GT's attempt to end Dragon Ball failed, the story goes on. And now that I've watched it both ways, I have no reason to ever come back to GT, or worry about it ever again. I have closure.

The show is still there for people who do enjoy it, for whatever reasons I'll never be able to relate to again. But I'm free from having to worry about it getting in the way of more Dragon Ball stories.

Now I have hope again, hope that a new Dragon ball series where Uub and Pan are treated with respect will happen down the line. Hope that I'll get to see more good character development and cool moments from all the characters I love. Hope that Launch might come back, or that underdeveloped characters might get to come back and be made a thousand times better like Android 17 was.

Here's to a bright future for Dragon Ball, the story that never ends.

And so, with all that out of the way... I guess it's time to say goodbye.

GT, you were a frustrating experience. I will admit, a part of me will always cherish those good childhood memories you gave me, even if they've been somewhat tainted. I will always love Super saiyan 4, and Nuova Shenron, and there's probably some good moments I might watch again through clips if I'm bored. I'll certainly listen to that english opening song again.

As bad as I make you out to be, in the end you weren't a complete disaster, since Dragon Ball ended up coming back anyway. And while I can never say I enjoyed watching you, part of me is glad there are others who feel differently, because people do deserve to be happy, even if I can't share the experience.

Because I'm not coming back. Because unless some exceptional circumstances happen, like I somehow become a big-name internet critic and I decide to review you for views, I highly doubt our paths will ever cross again. And I think that's for the best. I am sorry we grew apart so much, but I'm much happier where things are now.

Goodbye, GT. May your memory fade with time.

[tigerlover16-uk]

So, do you think Super will go past end of Z? Do you want that to happen?

To be honest… I don’t really want SUPER to go past EoZ.

I do want another Dragon Ball sequel set after that point, and doing it right this time. But I’m not sure I want Super as it is to go past and continue on from that point. I’d rather Super have an ending that feels like a proper conclusion to everything they’ve been doing so far, then end with either a segue into the original ending, or re-do the End of Z chapters to expand on them a bit and line them up a bit better with Super’s continuity, though keeping it mostly the same story with Goku taking off with Uub.

That way you could make a new series following on from Super, as a fresh start for people that have already been following Super, and something that fans that haven’t been keeping up, or non-fans looking to get into Dragon Ball, can watch on it’s own if they don’t feel like catching up on Super all in one go but really want to see a series set at this point in the timeline. It would also probably be good for the people who don’t like Super, aswell.

This seems like the best option for me, because going past EoZ would be a HUGE status quo shift and overall game changer that changes the focus of the story completely. 

Super has been focusing largely on Goku’s quest to push himself further to surpass Beerus and be able to defend his loved ones and planet from any further threats, while having fun fighting new and powerful opponents, and Vegeta’s own personal journey to keep up with and maybe surpass Goku. It’s also had several subplots with the other characters, like Krillin overcoming his PTSD and self confidence issues and Gohan deciding to resume martial arts, and much of the ongoing story has focused around exploring the divine pantheon of Gods and the multiverse, and how our heroes interact with that and what new conflicts arise.

Once you go past the End of Z epilogue, the story from there becomes “Goku’s own adventures as the main character draw to a close as he begins training Uub to be Earth’s new hero as the next generation of Z fighters prepare to take over for the old guard”. Which is a far cry from how things are going at the moment, and would probably be best off as it’s own series as a result.

I do want to see a sequel happen. I would love to watch a Dragon Ball show where Uub, Pan, Bulla, Marron, Goten and Trunks are the major cast, it would be a nice change of pace and open up new and different story ideas from what we’ve seen before, and a new dynamic and feel for the series.

As for if it will happen? Well, I’m CERTAIN we will get a series like that someday. It’s inevitable really, Dragon Ball is the most famous anime and manga franchise ever. Toei needs to make money. They wanted to do a new Dragon Ball series before Kai was put into production apparently, and they only went with doing a re-edit of DBZ apparently because Toriyama wouldn’t sign off on it at the time. And I think one of Super’s directors said in a Spanish interview recently that they’d been wanting to do another Dragon Ball series since GT ended, actually.

Some people want Dragon ball to stay the way it is, with the manga being the complete story and no more sequels made after it. Keep it sacred, I guess. And while I respect that way of thinking… well, it’s not viable I’m afraid.

Star Wars for a time looked like it wasn’t going to have any movies made after the original trilogy, and even after the prequels that looked like the end of the game, since it pretty much completed the saga of the Skywalkers and the ongoing narrative of the film series. And now we have the Sequel Trilogy, and much more surrounding media and probably many more sequels to come.

When you have an extremely popular franchise, eventually it’s going to get hit with sequels and reboots to reinvigorate interest in the brand so the company that owns it can make more money. Sometimes it results in bad stuff. Sometimes it produces great new stories and is a boon for the franchise that draws in a new audience. Star Trek and Transformers and MLP can attest.

Dragon Ball is the face of anime, practically. Most certainly the face of Shonen anime. If another sequel series to Z following on from the Epilogue doesn’t happen soon after or during Super, it’ll certainly still happen years down the line sometime during my generations lifetime. That’s not even just speculation and wishful thinking on my part. It’s pretty much a guaranteed fact. When it’ll happen is the only question, and the one that’s frustrating me and many others.

With Dragon Ball being relevant in the public eye again, especially in Japan, and merchandise going through the roof to the point it’s the second most profitable franchise of Toei’s after One Piece (Which is seeing some decline in interest, so naturally Toei are going to want to do some pre-emptive damage control and insurance for if that spirals into a bigger problem for them down the line). 

Following on with a new Dragon Ball series after Super concludes would be a good idea from a business perspective and would keep up the momentum of public and fan interest that’s been generated with Super’s commercial success (Despite it’s broken base status among the hardcore fandom).

And considering everyone on board seem enthusiastic about working on Super, and the director and other members of the crew have expressed that it’s certainly possible for them to continue past EoZ even though they don’t currently have plans for it, I find a post-EoZ Dragon Ball series in the near-future a very big possibility.

I don’t want it to transition just yet. I think there’s still a LOT of stuff Toriyama and Toei can do in the intermission between the current saga and the next few years in the timeline before EoZ takes place, especially with all the doors and possibilities that the current saga has been opening up and there are still plenty of universes to really explore, including the four higher ranked universes currently exempt from the Tournament of Power.

I’d say let Super continue for several more sagas and another hundred or two episodes, and then make the transition. That would seem like the best idea to me from a creative standpoint.

But who knows. Toriyama’s the one deciding what direction everything is going to go in, it’s his call when and if things will advance to EoZ. It could happen with the next saga of Super, it could happen two or three years down the line. We have no way of predicting. Super might just end after a while right before EoZ takes place in the timeline, and we go a while without a new Dragon Ball series again.

Anything’s possible. I say just try and enjoy the ride as things stand, and see where things go in the near future before really thinking too hard about advancing past End of Z.

[tigerlover16-uk]

So, which of the other universe characters introduced for the tournament of power would you like to see brought back for future stories and how?

For one… Ganos, honestly. I think it would be really cool if after the tournament is over and assuming every other universe is brought back, he gained a deal of respect for Master Roshi and asked to become one of his students.

I think it would be a good way to give Master Roshi more to do later on, and would naturally give Ganos a reason to show up and interact with the Z Fighters as a potential ally, and give him room to be fleshed out and developed as a result.

You could also do a subplot with Ganos serving as a spy for Quitela to keep tabs on Goku and friends for the U4 Gods, though eventually starting to question his loyalties as he grows closer to Master Roshi and some of the other characters. Might make for some interesting drama at some point.

Caulifla and Kale are some obvious examples. Aside from finally getting around to having Goku and Vegeta visiting Planet Sadala, I’d like to see Goku actually doing some real training with them outside of sparring. I’ve always wanted to see Goku in a mentor role to someone besides his kids, and since we’re not getting a Post EoZ series with Uub anytime soon by the looks of it, I’m cool with this instead.

Moreover, while I feel Kale’s development could have been much better handled in the current saga at least, I have grown to like the two. And as the franchises first female super saiyans, it would be straight up wrong if they were just written off after the current arcs ends. Fact is the franchise desperately needs more women Z Fighters, or recurring allies at least. All we have is 18, after all. I’d like to see Caulifla and Kale fleshed out and developed some more, and given some more backstory (Kale in particular would vastly benefit from it, since it would give us some proper context for her self loathing and depressive tendencies).

Plus, Caulifla is just fun and kinda adorable in her own way. I want to see how she’d get along with some of the other Z-fighters and supporting cast, like Goten and Trunks. She could be Goten’s honorary big sister/lesbian aunt while training under Goku, how cool would that be? (And yes I know she and Kale aren’t confirmed lesbians. But who cares, I’ll ship what I want!).

Saonel and Pilina I’d like to see fleshed out too, and I’d love to see what universe 6′s version of Namek is like and how it’s culture and people differ from their universe 7 counterparts. Plus it would give Piccolo something to do possibly, especially since we’ve barely seen him interact with anyone of his own race anyway besides Dende and Kami.

I’d honestly really like to see Gohan take Jimeze up on his offer to learn instant transmission and some of his other moves. And honestly I’d just like to see more of the guy in general, he’s got a real Tuxedo Mask vibe going for him and I like that.

Believe it or not, I kind of want Ribrianne to come back too. I’d like to see her undergo some character development following on from everything happening in the tournament of power, growing out of her more selfish tendencies she seems to have and really growing into her role as a champion of love. I think there’s potential for development there.

Kakunsa/Sanka Ku and Vikal getting some time dedicated to showing them as a couple would be really nice. Hey, first half decent LGBT rep in the franchise, so they might as well do something good with them.

And more of Rozie too, because she’s adorable.

Heck, just give the Kamikaze Fireballs their own mini saga alongside the Z Fighters and I’d probably be happy.

I DEFINITELY want to see more of the Pride Troopers in future stories. I’d love if they got their own special or short arc dedicated to them, really fleshing the individual characters out and giving them a group dynamic outside of the battlefield. And come on, they’re a  team of sentai-inspired superheroes. There’s tons of story potential for them. And for the love of god, let Gohan show off his great saiyaman identity to them and have the Pride Troopers go gaga over his poses!

Part of me kinda wants to see more of Katopesla (The universe 3 space cop guy) too. He seems fun. Have him, Krillin and Jaco team up to fight space pirates or whatever, it would be the buddy cop comedy of the year.

No idea how they could be used, but I’d like to see the Trio De Dangers again if possible, same for Obuni.

That’s pretty much all I could think of. I’d be happy with any of these characters coming back if they could be made interesting with further development and contribute to the plot in meaningful ways though