#ooooooh this gets me on an entirely separate train of thoughts

[mousiefrotting]

was just mulling over some twst thoughts (overblot-related and such) noticing how most of the incidents so far end with the victim getting enough time to rest and get back to a fit condition to live their lives?- and then i suddenly remembered a canon fact that makes for suuuuch good recovery-whump happenings:

if blot accumulation in a magestone subsides when the caster's physical reserves are replenished (food, sleep, etc.), what about the post-overblot recovery?? after all the wreckage of an overblot is said and done, all the emotions have been had and harrowed- what about the physical rehabilitation process?

we see a few mentions of overblotters feeling sick right after the fact- or just generally being physically worse off after burning through a notable amount of magic- and it got me thinking; what about all those post-blot scenes we don't get to see? sure, they've got emotional (often literal also!) messes to fix ahead of them-- but what about that moment where everything just feels bad and gross and the failure of your best laid plans is just heaping onto how absolutely wrecked you are and everyone can see it?

(the thought of any of the prev ob!ers actually having to voice a physical need is just too good to resist imo- especially after the fact and having to see the ramifications!!! augugughghh and while i may have reasonings "blot bad, sleep and food good" does something to the brain i must admit))

just.. AUGH.. i need to see the emotional vulnerability and the walls betrayed by the all-powerful denial-shatterer: good old physical needs!

[francesderwent]

Thoughts on arcane 4-6

1. Isha just frankly didn't bring anything so far that wouldn't have been strengthened without her! Vi could EASILY have been about to kill Jinx at the end of 3 and then been unable to do it because that's her sister, try to talk down Cait, Jinx's desperate need for revenge cooled due to that, Sevika could have been the one imprisoned meaning Jinx had to go to the prison because they do care about each other in a fucked up way, and then Jinx gets Vi to help after meeting Vander. The entire story would work with previously known characters, and I just feel it would have had much more emotional depth than introducing this new, completely unintegrated character and saying yeah haha jinx isn't killing people anyone because she's hanging out with a child. Cut it!

2. It DOES weaken the backstory but vi jinx and vander reconciliation made me emotional.

3. Regarding point 2 - I will allow the weakening of Jinx as a father killer IF Vander survives into act 3 which the preview suggests he will and vi is forced to kill vander to protect innocents, thus making her and Jinx mirrors. That would slay I truly believe.

4. WHERE ARE THE BOYZ (Ekko and Heimerdinger boy band)

5. Of course it's Jayce fucks this all up (said with understanding that he's not actively malicious but also wtf).

6. See I reckon there could be FASCINATING parallels between the cult, which clearly tampers with people's minds and emotions to an extent, and Ekko's paradise which is just people trying to be good, but unfortunately the show writers this season are not as smart as me.

7. The way I'm actually really liking Mel out of absolutely nowhere all she needed was to be trapped in a mind prison and become a mage for me to be like wait...

oh, I agree, she’s an unnecessary plot device lol. the only one of the moments you list that I think Isha does enhance is Vi being unable to kill Jinx—because if three episodes in, we get Vi realizing that IN HERSELF she is unable to kill her sister, no matter what she’s done, where do we go from there? that’s practically the end of the whole arc. whereas in the scene as it exists, Vi gets to realize “I’m not willing to hurt anyone and everything in order to destroy evil” which separates her from Cait in that moment, AND she gets to realize “there might still be something good in my sister and yet she’s still not my same little sister anymore”. it lets Jinx appear as an equal for a moment! which is such a crazy moment as an older sibling, when you look at them and realize hey they’re not a kid anymore!! this, I think, COULD have set us up for really interesting sibling dynamics moving forward, with Vi still kind of on the “we need to defeat Jinx” train, but conflicted about it and more worried about the collateral. Obviously they didn’t do it, and it didn’t work. But I think this would have ESPECIALLY worked if they built up Isha in the first three episodes (by letting her TALK for example), and then had Cait take a second shot after Vi tries to stop her and actually genuinely kill Isha in this scene, or had Isha be a casualty of the explosion Jinx set off, or something.

I’m genuinely happy for you but it just annoyed me haha. I was devastated they would do that to Vander, and then I was insulted that presumably the whole point of them inventing Vander in the first place was to turn him into this league of legends wolfman

that is so fucked up and I am so impressed by you thinking of it

WHERE ARE THE BOYS????????? they really said “here are our incorruptible characters. they’ve teamed up. you will never see them again”

getting possessed (?) is the most in-character thing for Jayce to do, he never had a mind of his own anyway

ooooooh the cult which demands you lay down your weapons! the firelights which take up arms against the people poisoning their streets! Viktor takes away people’s suffering, removing the negatives—Ekko gives people a positive reason to LIVE

no seriously, honestly I think they just had to get her away from her favorite hobby of leading Jayce by the nose and I was like “hmmm slay perhaps?”

[bubblesthemonsterartist]

I'm probably late to the show, but for that DVD commentary thing, how about the ending scene of The Watchtower, when Shirayuki goes up into the tower and Obi finds her.

Ooooooh… this one. Yesssssss this one.

The Watchtower was written primarily train of consciousness, but it ultimately mimicked early feminist literature. It was as if Charlotte Perkins Gilman descended into me and posed a question: What would it take to break someone as mentally strong as Shirayuki?

The answer? It’s a lot easier than you may guess. And for a lot more traditional reasons than anyone would presuppose.

I know I get a lot of grief for making Obi suffer in my fics, but the thing is… he does it so well and so openly for a male lead. Someone does something nice for him or says thank you and he’s just ruined by it. His suffering is beautiful in a way because he is in the midst of a healing process after a lifetime of neglect and abuse in the manga. 

Shirayuki, though, I would argue, has had a similar degree of suffering in her life. I would never go so far as to say one person has had it worse or better than another person because suffering is relative to the person experiencing it: However, Shirayuki’s suffering is something I think we’ve become numb to because of the way she overcomes things. She lost her entire family, she was driven out of town, she was then FORCED to go back to her country and into hostile territory with a man that was going to force her to be in his harem, she has been kidnapped who knows how many times and she has been objectified more than the typical woman her entire life. 

Her pain, her life, her trials and tribulations… they are all very feminine. And therefore it often gets passed off as unimportant or par the course.

Therefore, in this fic and the fic following, I put her through the fucking ringer and I kept Obi and everyone else out of it until it was over. She is central and you are not allowed to look away or be distracted by anyone else.

Her small pharmacy is dismantled that very day and she doesn’t think she has wept this hard even when her body delivered her children far too soon for them to even take form.

As I have mentioned elsewhere: Shirayuki has long been defined by her work. It is proof that she is more than her parts and it is something that has been her focus for most of her life. And it is stolen away from her. More than anything else in this fic, this is what breaks her. This is where she teeters at the edge of her sanity because she is well and truly trapped with no outlet in sight.

“Look at the songbird,” a wistful voice dances across her skin, causing goosebumps to rise all over her body, “trapped in her gilded cage.”

And if he hadn’t shown up right when he did, the ending of The Yellow Wallpaper would have very much been the next step in Shirayuki’s life.

Her breathing starts to come too quickly, making sharp little sounds as she wonders if she has truly lost her mind and is now seeing apparitions. “Obi…?” she whispers, perhaps too hopeful, her voice too high pitched.

Now, of course, Shirayuki is thinking that she’s gone mad. People have been making comments about her losing it for some time, and now here she is, in the middle of the night, with a man she hasn’t seen in over a year but was so very central to some of the best years of her life.

His body tenses a little, head turned to look out the window and away from her. His voice gravelly and full when he replies, “What have they done to you while I was gone, Miss?”

He looks like he expects her to be angry, and she should be. He wasn’t here when she needed him the most. She knows she has every right to be furious.

Without giving too much of the game away (it’s a prompt), Obi was convinced to go check on Shirayuki and that is the whole reason he is here. He had been ignoring intel from Wistal Palace with all of his might because he just couldn’t hear about how happy and lovey the newlyweds were. And now he shows up and she is inconsolable, crying in a tower, no attendants in sight, underweight and miserable and he doesn’t know what happened. He left her with a storybook ending and he comes to find her in the midst of a nightmare that he doesn’t know how to get her out of.

BUT, Obi being Obi… he is scared that she’ll blame it on him, because he failed her. Again.

But she can’t, even if she tried. Her friend. Her dear, sweet friend is here and she is filled with an overwhelming desire to touch, to prove that this is real, to show herself that this isn’t just another hopeful dream that she’ll wake up from. She rushes towards him and he looks towards her just as she tackles him flat against the wall. “Obi,” her joy is muffled into his jacket, feeling his heat bleeding through his clothes, his heartbeat steadily tapping against her cheek. “You’re here,” she clenches her fingers tight into his sleeves, refusing to take the risk of letting him go. “I thought I had lost you!”

There is a long pause before his hand rests gently on her back. And the relief she feels at that small touch is like a balm on her entire being.

“Forgive me, Miss,” he breathes, swallowing hard enough for her to hear. “I thought I wasn’t going to be able to bring myself back, but… I was wrong. I couldn’t stay away from you forever.”

Really, can we imagine any length of separation between the two of them NOT ending with them clutching at each other? Nope. N O P E. At least I can’t. ^_^

“Why are you up here in such a cold place by yourself crying, Miss?” he asks as his thumbs chase away the tears on her cheeks. She can feel his words vibrating inside her from standing so close. It hurts, almost, how good this feels.

This is the first real comfort that Shirayuki has been provided in MONTHS and the first time she has been touched in FOREVER. Shirayuki is a very touchy person and I think starving her of affection is one of the worst things that could happen to her, besides not being able to work. So she is finally getting that physical affection that she craves and hearing a long missed voice and it is an incredibly healing act for her, even at the surface level. It’s like putting a balm on a burn- it takes away the pain temporarily, but the injury is still there.

His question prods at the gashes in her heart and her eyes swell once more, “I can’t do this Obi,” she whispers, the quiet terror she has felt these last several months making her voice too thick for her throat. “I’ve made a terrible mistake…”

Words spill out of her, the entirety of the year purging itself from her self-imposed silence. She feels like she is going to vomit from the relief of expelling it all, sweat dotting the edges of her hair line. His eyes, golden in the faint starlight, looks at her in a way she hasn’t seen since she was rescued from pirates all those many years ago.

And here’s the kicker: She ultimately pulls all of her hardship down on herself (like most abuse victims will). Since he left, she had no one who would listen to her troubles without them making her feel like she was being childish or common or not worth listening to. But Obi has always been a good listener and he is hearing every trespass against her like they are crimes that he has committed in absentia.

She feels tears threaten again, but every bit of her feels nothing but pain and there are no tears left to shed. She’s run out. “I don’t want to go back, Obi…” and her voice is desperate now, hoarse.

His gaze flickers up to hers, and the faint light of approaching dawn is caught there. He looks at her for a long moment, considering, before he pulls away from her entirely. She feels an incredible shock and misses the weight of him against her almost immediately.

He walks towards one of the windows, looking hard out into the distance, and he seems to be… making a decision. Without a word, his deft hands unlatch the window before him, throwing it wide and letting the panes crash against the unyielding stone walls. A strong gust of wind pushes its way inside, the pre-dawn air cleansing the room of her whispered secrets and abnormal thoughts.

Her eyes widen as he turns to her, a faint smile on his lips, and she feels something that she hasn’t felt in a long time shiver in her chest. His hand gracefully extends, palm up towards her. “Then how about we run away together this time, Miss?”

And then here: When he realizes that everything he has done to help her has been for naught. He wanted so very hard to believe that he put blinders on that he normally wouldn’t have, but being away from her and seeing the results of his actions makes him realize that Zen is not taking care of her. He didn’t fix his bad habits when they got married and Shirayuki is almost broken.

He knows she would never ask him to do something like this unless she was certain, so when he opens that window and gives her his hand, both of their fates are sealed.

[tigerlover16-uk]

So, what did you think of Goku in the latest DBS episode then?

Ooooooh boy.

I’m probably going to get some flak for this, but honestly… I don’t think the way he was written was as bad as everyone’s making it out to be.

Honestly, I’ve seen so many Gochi fans on and off this site flipping out about the episode, at least one without having even seen it, saying how the episode ruins Goku and it’s all of Super’s problems with the character embodied in one foul mess and that they’re done with the show now because of it. And honestly I’m just sitting here scratching my head and thinking “Um… alright, then”

Not that this episodes portrayal of Goku was very positive and I see why people are upset, but let’s break it down, shall we?

Okay, so near the start of the episode while Goku’s leaving the market place having sold his crops, he comments about how glad he is he’ll be able to go train without having to put up with Chichi’s nagging.

Okay, not a good sign, but let’s be real here. Dragon Ball Z had plenty of jokes throughout about Goku and Chichi’s relationship and how Goku was afraid of her. Master Roshi’s first guess upon hearing that Goku didn’t want to be wished back to earth after fighting Frieza was to assume he was scared of her reaction to everything, and while that probably wasn’t true there are jokes along those lines at several points in Z. And it’s established that Goku doesn’t really like working since it’s something he never had to do before Chichi started making him just after the Buu Saga (Where she also complained about his never making them any money). He just does it to please her and provide for his family, which as the start of the previous saga and even his reaction to how much money he made here shows he takes some pride in. So him snarkily commenting to himself about not having to listen to his high-strung wife nag him because he wants to spend his free time doing what he wants? Tactless, yes, but it’s not like he said he hated doing things for her and that Chichi was a pest. It was a harmless joke on his part, it’s clear throughout Super that he does love Chichi and will do what she wants even if it bothers him.

Then we have Goku sneaking out of the house with Goten when Chichi was complaining that she didn’t want Goten training to fight (I’ll make a separate post about this this evening, since I have another ask that works for this). On the one hand this does feel out of character a little, but I don’t think it’s being mean-spirited or not respecting Chichi. Goten wants to go train with his father, and Goku’s eager to spend time with his son. As far as I can tell she was going to be alright with Goku training on his own anyway. So while she’s complaining Goku basically goes “Hey son, your moms distracted, wanna sneak out and do something fun?” And they proceed to do so.

This does raise some questions, but I buy it. If Goku feels something needs to be done he is willing to argue and work things out with Chichi, like convincing her to let Gohan train to fight the androids or Cell because he thought it would be necessary. But there’s no urgency with training Goten, he just wants to do it for fun and probably just to hang out with his dad. So here I think Goku was just thinking along the lines of “Eh, I don’t really want to argue with my wife since i don’t like it very much, let’s deal with the consequences later. She’ll understand” As was emphasized by her reaction to Goku going off to train with Whis the first time, it’s clear Goku knows Chichi is reasonable about Goku going off to do his thing even if she will try to stop him beforehand if she can just because she wants some semblance of normalcy for her family already. So while his actions here were questionable, I don’t think he was going out of his way to be disrespectful. Besides, lots of fathers will do silly or stupid things to spend some quality time with their kids or just have fun with them, is this really the worst thing Goku could have done?

Then there’s the part with Goku’s reaction to pregnant Bulma. I’ve seen some people groaning about how he thought she was just fat. And feel free to be annoyed at this, but notice he also wasn’t confused about the concept of pregnancy. He was confused because she’d told him before she was expecting and he’d apparently forgot (Probably wasn’t paying attention when it happened), so he was thinking back to that. Otherwise he didn’t question it further or seem confused about where babies come from, so… is it really all that bad that he thought she’d gotten fat at first? I mean, he probably doesn’t see pregnant women all that often outside of Chichi with Gohan and there’s an implication he hasn’t been by to see her lately, so why not have that be his initial reaction? It could have been handled a lot worse is what I’m saying.

Then there’s the scene with him wanting Vegeta to come train with him and Whis and treating Bulma’s upcoming childbirth as not that big a deal, or at least not enough that he’s confused Vegeta doesn’t want to come train. Now this is definitely a poor scene and I would have liked it to have played out differently, but I think some people have took it the wrong way. I’ve heard some people point out that, especially with the line “I was dead when Goten was born”, this pretty much makes Goku out to be the deadbeat, absent father he’s often accused of and along with the previous scenes suggests he doesn’t hold his own family in high regard or that he’s just being callous here.

Okay, one, he still wanted Goten to come train with him and showed plenty of affection for him in this episode, so I don’t think that’s the case. I think Goku’s just more confused by Vegeta’s claims like “Bulma will never forgive me” if he missed Bra’s birth, and he probably thinks it’s out of character for Vegeta of all people to skip training for this. His line about not being there for Goten’s birth because he was dead was probably a spur of the moment thing, in that moment he was being selfish thinking about his own convenience having Vegeta as a sparring partner so probably wasn’t thinking too hard about Vegeta’s way of thinking.

After all, he wasn’t around for one of his sons birth, and neither Chichi or Goten show any resentment to that. So it’s likely he’s wondering what’s the big deal if Vegeta’s not there for that specific moment as long as he’s still there for Bulma and the baby most of the time, like he spends plenty of time with Goten and Chichi when he’s not training ever since coming back to life. It’s just a case that he wasn’t thinking very hard about Vegeta’s side of things given his own personal experiences and what he thinks he knows about Vegeta since in that moment he was anxious to get going to train and was pretty sure Vegeta was going to agree to come along.

None of that’s to say this scene was fully justified. His attitude was still fairly callous, I can understand Whis’s reaction to Vegeta not wanting to train and not thinking being there for his child’s birth is such a huge deal, but with Goku it is a lot more eyebrow raising. Still, given the context I can buy it to some degree and while I think it wasn’t a well written moment, I don’t think it suggests Goku’s as selfish or doesn’t care about his own family as some people seem to take it. I think he just reacted badly in that specific moment, which yeah it’s kinda annoying but not completely unbelievable. He didn’t pester Vegeta much further after he made it clear to Whis he wasn’t going. So yeah, I get people being upset with this one and feel free to be, but it’s not that big a deal?

And of course there’s a big issue with Goku going to meet the two Zen-Oh’s to get them to start the tournament despite Beerus’s warnings, which as we all know is going to result in the two Omni-kings wanting to blow up any universes that lose the tournament. Yeah, this was a stupid move and if things end up going wrong in this saga for a lot of innocent people, it’s all going to be his fault. But let’s unpack his actions in doing this shall we.

Goku knows Zen-oh can be dangerous. He saw the Future Zen-Oh blow up the Future timeline, and he’s heard from Whis and Beerus about the things present Zen-oh has done. He knows the little guys are kinda dangerous and overreact to stuff. But keep in mind, Goku is friends with present Zen-oh. He was able to pick the guy up by the arm and swing him around when they first met without consequence, he was invited to become friends with the guy soon after and the two quickly formed a liking for each other. As far as he’s actually seen, present Zen-oh seems a lot more friendly and probably reasonable than Beerus makes him out to be. Or at least, as he’s Goku’s friend, Goku probably just assumes he can reason with him and the future Zen-oh, especially after he brought them together and ended both their loneliness.

Plus, as far as Goku knew the tournament was going to happen anyway, it was Zen-Oh’s idea. And while the little guy forgot, Goku wouldn’t have known that. He just wanted to go check up on Zen-Oh and ask if he could hold the tournament sometime soon because he was bored waiting for it. Which, if he hadn’t yeah Zen-Oh might have forgot. Or he might have eventually remembered as he and his future counterpart were both clearly bored and wanting something to do, and the Grand Priest might have eventually brought it up anyway as an idea if they ever asked him for something fun they could do. So who’s to say this scenario wouldn’t have happened anyway without Goku’s involvement?

And hey, Zen-Oh gave Goku a button to either summon him or take Goku to his palace anytime he wanted, and since they were friends, what was wrong with doing that at some point from Goku’s point of view? As far as he knew in that situation, Goku wasn’t doing any harm just basically going to ask his friend to play, and Beerus was likely just overreacting. After all, it took seeing his entire multiverse infected by Zamasu’s spirit for Future Zen-Oh to decide to blow up his multiverse, and there was nothing that urgent going on right now. Goku was just too naïve to assume that Zen-oh was really so petty as to destroy any of the universes over a simple tournament. His mistake, but given what he’s actually seen of his timelines Zen-Oh at least, is it really so wrong he had a bit more faith in him to be more reasonable than that? Half the guy’s friends were villains at one point, several of whom had or wanted to destroy worlds, after all, it’s believable for him to have faith in what’s supposed to be the top God and authority of the multiverse who’s also his friend.

Plus, given one moment from the next episode preview which has Goku looking downcast, I think it’s clear Goku’s going to be pretty shocked to find out what his friend plans to do to the losing universe and is going to take it very hard. He’s probably going to be disgusted with himself and guilty for setting all this in motion with his reckless actions and will no doubt work his butt off to fix things throughout the rest of the saga. So, yeah. It was a boneheaded move, but one that’s at least believable and could lead to Goku having to grow up a bit and start acting like the hero he’s supposed to be, which is what we’ve all been wanting, right?

Let’s be honest here. While i’ll gladly fight people who think that being selfish is Goku’s defining character trait and that he’s some kind of heartless jerk, Goku IS a flawed person even when he’s written well. NOT a bad person, NOT a selfish jerk who cares more about his own interests than other people or some awful parent like a lot of dumb people want to believe, but he’s far from perfect even though he’s an overall good person. And being reckless because he wants a good fight is a long established character flaw that’s forced him to make numerous risky decisions throughout his life. Let’s count some, shall we.

During his fight with Piccolo jr after he freed Kami, Kami offered to help Goku finish Piccolo off so to keep the world safe, but Goku strongly refused to accept any help because he wanted to finish Jr himself. This despite the fact that Kami made it clear that no one else would have been capable of beating Piccolo Jr and that the Earth was in danger if he wasn’t stopped. But Goku refused to accept any help, which was explicitly stated to be down to his warriors spirit craving a great battle. He won thankfully, but if he had lost it could have been disastrous. Best case scenario is that Kami would have had Tien or somebody kill him to also finish off Piccolo, which would have meant no Dragon Balls and Goku was dead, so when Raditz showed up the world was completely screwed. Worst case, Piccolo goes on to kill the rest of the gang before that and goes on to mess things up for the earth… and then Raditz comes along and makes everything worse anyway. Goku could have accepted the help to make the fight easier, but he refused.

And that wasn’t the only occasion he made a stupid decision for the sake of having a good fight. Begging Krillin to spare Vegeta’s life. Staying on the exploding Namek because he wanted to finish fighting Frieza. Not trying to stop Dr Gero straight after Trunks warned him and the Z Warriors about the Androids because he agreed with Vegeta that it could be a fun fight. And I’m sure there’s instances I’m forgetting but this post is getting long. Point is, all of these decisions were incredibly reckless decisions at face value and could have resulted in disaster if not for a mix of good fortune and some outright miracles. Things arguably turned out better because of the decisions he made for the long run since several character got to reform or otherwise become stronger because of those experiences. But it’s important to remember that Goku wasn’t always thinking clearly in those moments.

I think between Goku Black and this current saga, Super is trying to explore the idea of what if Goku’s recklessness in his search for a great fight ultimately backfired for a change and resulted in the kind of bad outcomes you’d expect them to. His obnoxious (Though not ill intended) pestering for Zamasu to fight him helped steer him down the path of evil and resulted in the guy stealing his body in another timeline to do horrible things with it, and part of the fallout of that (And a lot of other things like Future Trunks’ originally going back in time to save Goku from the heart virus) ultimately lead to the Future Timeline being destroyed. Which puts a lot more weight on the current situation.

Let’s not beat around the bush. We know universe 7 isn’t going to be destroyed because this is set before EoZ. But the other universes could be, or at least some of them. There’s no mention of any universes other than the one we know at the end of the manga, so who’s to say at least one of them couldn’t be destroyed in all this. With the Future Timeline being erased and the current situation with the two Zen-Oh’s, anything’s possible. And if the other universes were to be destroyed along with their inhabitants, all of that blood would be on Goku’s hands.

The stakes are high. Goku is going to have to contend with the fact that his actions have put lives at risk. He didn’t mean it, he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone and he thought he was just doing something that would lead to him and a lot of other warriors having some fun, so he wasn’t being a terrible person with his actions here. But this grim situation is his fault, and he’s going to have to learn a lesson from this, grow as a character, and do whatever it takes to fix his mess in this saga so that other people don’t suffer. Because he’s the hero, and he won’t allow people to die because of him.

We can argue about whether or not Goku is truly a selfish person or not and whether he actually needs to learn to be less selfish (I don’t think he does). But he IS reckless. This sort of situation is the result of a recurring flaw with his character that he needs to finally confront and overcome if he’s going to become the wise mentor that teaches Uub to be Earth’s new guardian in the future.

And more importantly, Super really needs to find a way to re-rail his character already. I’ve said before I find Goku in this show more hit or miss than a lot of Goku fans, but that doesn’t mean I’m ignorant to the fact that Goku’s character is being flanderized throughout a lot of it. He’s often made overly stupid, particularly in the Future Trunks saga, he’s less responsible and mature than he used to be and more of a goofball than ever, and occasionally more selfish than he’s supposed to be. I’ll argue there are plenty of episodes where he’s mostly or completely in character, and i don’t really have issue with how he’s portrayed in the first two sagas or even most of the Champa saga, but the show’s writing of Goku is very inconsistent and fans have been very vocal in their displeasure of his portrayal.

So it can’t be understated. Goku NEEDS to start acting more mature, because we’re all fed up with seeing him acting like a flanderized, less Goku-ish version of himself. We don’t want him to be Superman, but we want him to be the hero we know he is, the guy that’s a bit naïve but not a complete idiot who does care about his family and friends whatever his flaws. And while I still argue that not all of Goku’s portrayals in this show have been as bad as fans make it out to be (Some points definitely were, though), he needs to grow some more as a character to get him back to the point he should be at.

So that’s why I really don’t mind that episode 77 emphasized his more selfish and negative qualities, unlike other instances where the show has done that. Because here it actually seems to have a purpose, since all signs seem to point that he’s going to have to confront his more stupid actions here and start acting like his heroic self again. So, basically, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. I hope this leads to Goku acting more mature, or at least a lot less over the top in future stories after this saga (And i still really hope this isn’t the end point for the show). As much as I’m sure we’d all like to have Goku just suddenly act like his old self again and forget all of those stupid moments from previous episodes, all of Goku’s more exaggerated and selfish, battle-crazed moments in this show still happened. It would be lazy writing to just ignore the way he’s been characterized up to this point, they need to actually work on it to get Goku back to the point he’s supposed to be at.

Sure, if this all works out like that then you could say that the end result is that the show derailed his character simply for the point of “Character development” that just resulted in him being in the same place he already was in Z, but that’s how things have worked out, so let’s just cross our fingers and hope he’s at least likeable for the rest of this story so that we can finally move on from being frustrated over his portrayal up to this point. At least for the time being.

Now, this is all just what I think this is all about and speculation based on everything I’ve gather from following the show and everything going on around it. I could be wrong, if Goku ends up being poorly written throughout this saga and these problems aren’t addressed, then alright, episode 77 did just write him terribly and I’ll be angry along with everyone else over how Goku is being treated. But I’m an optimist, I like to believe the best in people, including the show’s writers and Akira Toriyama, who I’m sure mean well and aren’t trying to do an injustice to Goku despite what some detractors might want to think. I’ve been looking forward to this saga very much, so I’m not going to let one episode with some questionable moments for Goku ruin that for me.

So, to sum it up, yeah Goku wasn’t written all that great in this episode. but I think that’s part of the point and I don’t think any of it’s as bad as people are making it out to be. So until we’ve seen at least a few more episodes of this saga and get a good idea about where this story is going and how Goku is going to act throughout, I don’t think we need to be slamming the panic button just yet. I get that some people are just fed up and if that’s the case, okay then. I can’t tell people how to feel and their frustrations are valid, but in all honestly i think we should try to keep calm for now and see where things go with this saga and with Goku’s character.

If anyone cares to read up to this point, I thought the episode itself was fine by the way. i liked the scenes with the two Zen-Oh’s. The colour palette was a bit odd compared to previous episodes, but I guess I didn’t mind it too much and the actual animation seemed fine (Or at least nothing bothered me, I could actually feel a sense of speed and impact with some of the action). I liked Goten in this episode. I thought the scenes with Bulma and Trunks were cute, and Vegeta’s reactions were spot on. Thankfully, I was a bit worried they were going to make him really over the top panicky expectant father here. I chuckled at a few scenes, and overall it set up the story competently.

It wasn’t a great episode, and I did have my issues with a few scenes like Goku and Vegeta’s conversation, but overall it was okay. I wasn’t expecting this episode to be anything special, it just needed to set up the saga, and it did so fine. The good stuff will come later, next episode I’m more excited for because we’ll meet the other Gods of Destruction and see how Goku takes the news of the losing universes (Possibly, they might not in the end) being destroyed, so that should give us a better idea of where this saga is going.