#the bardock special

[nando161mando]

Bardock Amv - Papa Roach - Still Swinging

[queeniehostapasta]

Uh…what’s the saying…? Like father like son, eh? (Currently drooling uncontrollably send help)

[tamashi-tai-tamashi]

Why does everytime Gokū appears in Dragon Ball Legends, Bardock leaves???? Let the two of them meet and talk par pitié, they never did so in any manga or anime series so could we at least have that in that video game 😭

[sysig]

Really digging out the old OCs now; Pan-na, Pilok, Azalea, squirrel boys Will and Damien, and Cupid and Venus <3 (Patreon)

[laventory]

Bardock - The Father of Goku (1990)

This is a riff on that one Planet Dolan comic that was goin around on twitter Please go read it, it's fucking amazing

[treepan0]

I already made a comment about this but, I might as well just reblog with a more detailed version anyway. I just kind of assumed it was the stress of being in hell?

mainly in the way of how stress often affects one's appearance more often than not. For example when I get stressed be it physical or mental my hair becomes a frizzy mess, and I get bags under my eyes

and as we know Frieza did not like being dead, and being in hell one bit. so I don't think it's a stretch to say hell probably stressed him out, and it's not like the ToP arc gave him time to clean himself up either

in Z and in Dragonball Super: Broly Frieza he's a lot happier than he would have been fresh out of hell, on top of that he has time to take care of himself again, as a result he's more softer in design in those two over super

but I definitely agree on preferring baby faced Frieza, man is at least around 40 according to japanese law, sorry that baby face ain't going away realistically outside of stress

I appreciate it because I'm also baby faced, and often mistaken for a child so I'll take what representation I can get (it's also an insecurity of mine so to see people love him regardless, makes me feel a little better about it)

Sorry for shonen posting again, but am I the only one who thinks frieza's recent designs look... less feminine and worse?

Like in z his final form always had this sleek, smooth, angular and feminine looks that also kinda made him look young. I even remember goku mentioning how he wasnt expecting frieza to look so childlike.

But in db super his face kinda looks more like a rugged old man despite not being even 5 years older than he was on namek? Specially when he turns golden like

His face looks way more tense, broad and heavy now, he kinda looks like they were trying to make him look more like Cooler or King Cold. Way less smooth and sleek like he used to. It feels like his lipstick lips are the only thing trying to keep him looking androgynous. Idk bring back faggy twink frieza I guess.

[homefryboy]

idk if there’s some kinda term for this, but I like when writers give real props to adaptations of their work:

-akira Toriyama admitted the bardock father of goku TV special made him cry, he said it told a great story in a way he would’ve never come up with. This led to him giving the special a direct nod in the manga

-dav pilkey loved the captain underpants movie and saw it in theaters multiple times. He said he appreciated the movie giving Principal Krupp a softer side, saying he kinda wishes he’d done the same in the books

-dunno if this counts but some bits from western sonic media (such as Sonic’s love of chili dogs) were worked into Japanese works/stuff SEGA made

-above all, Gary K. Wolf thought the who framed Roger rabbit film was so much better than his book (who censored roger rabbit), that he retconned the original story into being a bad dream Jessica had and the rest of the book series is based on the movie instead

feel free to add any more pls

[tobiasdrake]

I wonder, is it possible to look at the way Raditz, Nappa, and Vegeta fight (maybe Bardock's team, too, if you think Toriyama had enough involvement in those animated projects) to reconstruct any general principles of Saiyan martial arts training?

I talked a bit about Raditz and Nappa here as well as going into a particular Saiyan technique I find interesting here.

It is interesting to note that both Nappa and Vegeta are proficient in that technique to varying degrees, while Raditz is not. Raditz is completely basic as a fighter, having not even trained out his tail weakness when Nappa and Vegeta have.

Though it's not clear if this implies that the elites as a whole receive better instruction than the low-class Saiyans, or if Nappa's simply reaped the benefits of following Vegeta around more closely than Raditz, and doing whatever he does.

Though they do have some distinctive arts, such as the previously discussed remote detonation technique. That both Nappa and Vegeta are familiar with it implies a bit of standardization. In fact, Vegeta knows all the top-tier Saiyan arts.

He can even rattle off the science behind Oozaru transformations. He's kind of a nerd. That's an interesting note to keep in mind when thinking about his relationship to Bulma.

(He's also vain about his beauty, fun fact.)

Dude was putting off the Oozaru transformation because it's ugly so he didn't wanna.

By Vegeta's admission, the fake moon technique is one of the most advanced techniques in Saiyan martial arts. And. Uh. Yeah. Yeah, compressing the planet's atmosphere with a continuous ki sphere in order to create a finely tuned reflection of sunlight that produces a certain kind of radiation....

Yeah, that sounds complex as fuck. No wonder only nerds super-elites like Vegeta can do it.

The Oozaru is the primary mechanism by which Saiyans destroy worlds.

With that in mind, it makes sense that the ultimate and most complex Saiyan martial art is the ability to manually induce this transformation. The most devastating thing a Saiyan can ever do in a fistfight is find a way to become the Oozaru despite environmental limitations.

Their battle plan revolves so heavily around this transformation, they've even developed battle armor that stretches to accommodate the vast increase in size. Everything they do as hand-to-hand fighters is a fallback for when the Oozaru is not available.

As he notes above, Vegeta specifically chose a full-moon night to attack Earth on in order to let him and Nappa access their full power - Though Nappa died before the moon came out. And also Piccolo blew up the moon after Nappa and Raditz entered their spaceflight stasis sleep, so that was a non-starter.

Raditz wasn't intending to fight when he came to Earth; He was just here to pick up his brother and things spiraled out of hand from there. So he didn't have the luxury of the full moon or the technical skill to compress atmosphere and compensate.

What this means is that a large portion of Saiyan battle strategy has never really been depicted. The only properly trained Saiyan warrior in Oozaru state we've ever seen was Vegeta here.

And he's fighting a Goku who already burned out his body from a Kaio-ken x4 he couldn't contain, so the competition is next to zero. Goku lands some solid hits on Vegeta because... Well, he's Counter-Fighter Goku. He's the master at breaking down his foe and making the most of whatever he's got.

Motherfucker you've been on death's door for the last five minutes how dare

Goku is obnoxious to have to fight. Truly.

But because the only proper fight we ever with a fully-trained Oozaru is against the like 5% Goku has left in his tank, we never get to see the Oozaru properly tested. Whatever its full capabilities truly are, that remains known only to them and the races they've destroyed.

As for Bardock, Toriyama had little involvement beyond assisting with character design, as is typical of his involvement with the anime specials. Though it's interesting to note that he loved the Bardock special. Toriyama rarely even bothered to watch the anime of his own work, but he had high praise to sing of Bardock.

"I really like the story of Bardock, Goku’s father. It’s quite dramatic, and the kind of story 'I absolutely wouldn’t draw' if it were me. It was like watching a different kind of Dragon Ball in a good way, so I thought it was nice."

Bardock captivated Toriyama for being a take on Dragon Ball he, himself, wouldn't have been able to make. Which. Made it funny. Years later in Dragon Ball Minus. When he tried to make it. And arguably proved himself right. But I digress.

Toriyama liked Bardock so much, he even canonized the special for the manga.

Toriyama fucking loved this special. This rarely happened. The only other time a character created for the anime ended up appearing in the manga, it was to canonize the concept of the Kaios being a set of Four Heavenly Kings rather than the one guy.

Papaya is a fruit and fruits work for Frieza. What are you not telling us, South Kaio? I'm on to you.

And then, decades later, the bestest boy of Dragon Ball Super.

Love him so much.

[gojixyz69]

Kratos vs Asura DEATH BATTLE Prediction + Death Battle 2024 review

Death Battle 2024 review:

Originally I was going to review Death Battle 2024 on it's own post but after some thought it wouldn't matter since it would be me just talking about what everyone else was saying so that's why I'm going to talk about it briefly here. As for my thoughts on 2024 of Death Battle... it's pretty great, for real every episode was good with Omni Man vs Bardock being controversal because of the outcome which I disagree but that doesn't change the fact that the episode was good since it had a lot of stuff which out numbered the bad stuff. And that's the only one that has a problem, the rest were pretty good with Bowser vs Eggman being perfect which isn't suprising. Overall Death Battle 2024 was amazing and I'm looking forward to 2025 specially with...

Kratos vs Asura thoughts:

I'm really excited for this, it's the matchup that I wanted to win which while I was happy for Tom vs Wile winning I still really wanted Kratos vs Asura since it was fun and can be pretty amazing so you can imagine how hyped I was when it was revealed to be one of the strech goals and a teaser which was straight up peak. So yeah I'm excited for it and it's animated by DevilArtemis who's an amazing animator who did Omni Man vs Bardock which in terms of animation wise it was pretty good and I vet Kratos vs Asura will be great as well.

Prediction:

This is a interesting case since it depends on if you focuse on lore for Kratos and if wondering what I mean by that? Well you see if you focuse on feats then Kratos would be country to continental levels of powers which is no where near as Asura who's at minimum planetary with his high end being low multiversal, but if you focuse on lore then Kratos would be multiversal or more specifically complex multiversal. So basically it depends on wheter or not you wanna focuse on lore or just in game feats...

Which the answore is obviouse now with the resent preview. If you don't know what I mean by that basically Death Battle released Kratos' preview and in that preview they focused on lore and said that Kratos lifted the universe with one arm. Which isn't suprising that Death Battle is focusing on lore since they did the same thing with Chosen Undead vs Skyrim and even Among Us vs Fall Guys where looked at other material for both.

Overall:

Personally I think Kratos is going to win given he's stronger and his weapons are pretty useful like the balde of olympus.

[zeevoidlight]

Vegeta and Nappa, why did Vegeta killed him.

One of my favorite characters of all time since i was a child is without a doubt Vegeta.

I've seen this question being asked constantly so i'll give my take one it now. I know many people don't like the "because Saiyans" type of explanation but one cannot ignore that their nature is much different from humans and is a great part of who they are and why they do the things they do. So my approach is usually try to see what of all that is actually because of their nature and what is just being used as a cultural shield, specially when it comes to both Vegeta and Goku. More Vegeta because he lies a lot as well, and despite being Saiyan his status as royalty changes the usual dynamic a bit compared to others of his own species. (note that i watched the latin version so my interpretation of the character might be different from that of the english one)

So regarding the topic:

Realistically and sadly, as much as I like this alternate reality people usually like to portray of Nappa being Vegeta's assigned babysitter, taking care of Raditz as well, the three of them being like a small family unit given that they only had each other as survivors of their people's extinction... I think the reality is a lot more complicated.

Being a Saiyan, and more than that the strongest Saiyan by far in their recent history, even stronger than the King himself, Vegeta was capable of taking care of himself better than Nappa. He never saw Nappa as a protector because Vegeta was leagues ahead of Nappa in terms of strength and rank. We see that on the first Bardock movie where he treats Nappa as a servant, and even asks Frieza to let him go alone to a more challenging planet to conquer where he ends up killing everyone, sitting on a rock in the middle of a pile of corpses of his own making and eating twinkies or something as he was getting news of his Planet's destruction, thinking already what was going to be his next move and hiding his concern from Frieza's informant. All of that at the age of 5.

He never saw Nappa as akin to family because for as young as he was Vegeta was still his superior. Plus Vegeta considered himself smarter than him too, and he actually was even as a child. Vegeta was, on the contrary, protecting Nappa and Raditz, and consequently himself, against Frieza and his men by playing the long game while those two probably constantly screwed up and tried to engage in an unwinnable battle. This kid didn't had the opportunity to be a kid since he was born. Always on a minefield.

As how I see it, the reason why Vegeta killed Nappa then wasn't only because Goku broke Nappa's spine and paralyzed him leaving him quadriplegic and unable to fight rendering him as dead weight, but because he was years long fed up with Nappa as well. Maybe even with what he represented as the last remains of the Saiyan kingdom and the past since he was perfectly comfortable being the last Saiyan alive as representation of what a true Saiyan was in his own understanding and values of it, considering himself the peak of that and the example for everyone else to see, which being a prince he was kinda always pressured into being that and thinking of himself as such anyways. And Nappa's embarrassing fight was the last drop and the perfect excuse to get rid of him. Dude couldn't fathom something so disgraceful that he preferred to kill him than keep enduring his presence any longer while pretending he cared (and the emotions were kinda running high).

Even after in GT when he sees Nappa again there's nothing but contempt against him. And you could say anything about GT but what I appreciate greatly of it is the character consistency.

Note: I've been watching DB and Z and it's very clear from the moment they arrive to Earth that Vegeta can't with Nappa's recklessness. When Nappa destroys East city Vegeta is like 'dude, has it ever occur to you that the dragon balls could have been here? You idiot! Don't destroy the planet, we could sell it, don't be a stupid, think, fight better, concentrate, his not fighting intelligent... Lol, by the time of Nappa asking Vegeta for help I can totally imagine Vegeta was thinking 'you know what Nappa... FUCK YOU' *yeet!

[dragon-ball-meta]

why do people care so much about canon, especially in fucking DB???? Was everything post-21st world Tournament not canon, because Toriyama's OG vision changed from an adventure serial to a typical battle shonen not out of artistic desire but popularity? Did canon end when the OG run ended? Did it end when the quality dropped precipitously near the middle of the Buu arc? Does GT and Online not count because he only did character designs, same with the movies? Super doesn't count because he only gave a hack writer the broad strokes? Later seasons of Daima won't count because Toriyama passed? Minus and Jako also don't because he wrote them decades later? A good bit of it even contradicts previous canon, including the OG run, so that's a non-canon too? And ofc heroes doesn't because it's from a gatcha game?

Like this isn't Catholicism, it legit won't start a religious war if you only consider Yo Son Goku and Friends canon

Well for one, that quality dip is quite subjective, but that's beside the point. Things which are "canon" are things that are considered by the author to be the official continuation of his work by his own hand. The reason establishing a "canon" or continuities is important is for the sake of criticism and consistency. Case in point, people insisting that Toriyama violated "canon" with Minus because it contradicted the Bardock special, which was never "canon" in the first place. Or people saying his depiction of Freeza in Hell contradicted the original series based on filler scenes created solely for the anime by the animation staff. There are many later story developments that would come up that people would try to pin as "plot holes" because they contradicted things that were only included in filler or spinoff materials. So for the purpose of judging the author's work, this is important. I don't know why there's so much backlash against it, honestly. It's not like anyone's saying "oh, that's not canon, you're not allowed to read or watch that!" It's just a means of trying to help keep criticism and discourse about the show's narrative and characterization more focused on the actual narrative and characterization is all. And thus, yeah, I wouldn't hold stuff not done by Toriyama himself in nearly as high regard in that sense. That doesn't mean I won't watch or read or play it and enjoy it. And it doesn't mean anyone else shouldn't either.

[blueper-saiyan]

#i could go into horrifying details about this and write a long boring essay that no one would read#but from a professional point of view it really is a fascinating subject#ofc toriyama never considered any of these things so i would just be analyzing something that wasn't meant to be

I'd definitely read that essay at least! I agree that we're not supposed to be thinking about this that much but that doesn't necessarily make it less fun to analyze. Viewing all of this in any actually realistic terms does become really horrifying almost immediately though, so I mostly ignore the implications.

I think you're right that Saiyans don't respond to social/emotional neglect in the same way as humans. They seem to either develop much faster or more instinctively than a human would, with less need for contact. But we do still see some occasional glimpses of more normal child behavior if you count smaller instances, like Broly trying to play with Baa or that little panel where Raditz is playing with a beetle. I also think that the half human kids are an interesting in-between, because Gohan clearly likes playing and seems pretty normal before being kidnapped. Goten and Trunks seems like pretty normal human kids too. Despite this, Gohan doesn't seem to suffer the consequences of being left alone for six months as strongly as a real child would. Again, that's because we're not supposed to think about that, but it's another data point about Saiyan psychology. (Or just evidence that no one in this world is affected by traumatic events in a reasonable way, but that's not fun to analyze.) Unfortunately, we don't really have that many examples to look at for how a "normal" Saiyan would be, given that Vegeta, Raditz, and Broly did not grow up under normal circumstances, and we don't have any completely clear cut examples of how they'd be growing up on Earth either, since Goku's head injury confuses things. I'd be very curious if we ever got any more information on Tarble. Even with as little actual examples to go off of as we have though, I do suspect that Saiyans were choosing the least healthy way of raising their kids, even if they can cope with it far better than a human could. They certainly don't seem very emotionally healthy in general.

I was sort of aware that Vegeta's upbringing would be irreversible, but I also choose to not think super strongly about it unless I'm in an overly analytical mood, like now. My personal opinion has always been that he genuinely doesn't really care about other people except his few loved ones, (and even that was an ordeal to realize) but he's able to consciously choose to mirror the others actions. I'm not sure whether it's just because he knows he'd disappoint everyone else (mostly Bulma, Goku, and Trunks) if he didn't, which is pretty cynical. I like to hope that he came to his own conclusion that the philosophy of preserving life and extending mercy has some value to it, even if it's not his instinct and won't ever be. I honestly appreciate it a lot if it's all a personal choice he's consistently making because he reasoned through it intellectually rather than ever feeling it emotionally. Although his actions in Buu do imply he feels some form of guilt about killing the spectators, so make of that what you will. Maybe Saiyans being more physically and emotionally resilient in general gives them more of a second chance on emotional development.

Now that I have posted screenshot evidence I can say it is so fucking funny and also tragic that basically every time we see Vegeta as a kid, he is being an asshole, almost no exception. He was not going to be a decent person even if there was no Freeza, that's for sure. Was there ever any period when he was young where he was not in favor of murder and oppression? idk but we certainly haven't seen it.

Like, it makes sense that he's mirroring the adults around him. They've been modeling violence for him as long as he's been conscious. They've also been teaching him that he's better than everyone else and the only thing that matters is strength. But I've always thought it's an interesting decision to not take any opportunity to show him as legitimately child-like in any way. Is it just, not thinking about the fact that he should be about 5 and that is not how a normal 5 year old acts or is it intentional? He even usually sounds like he's already an adult. The closest we ever get to Vegeta acting like a normal child is when he's upset that Beerus is threatening his dad. And even that is him experiencing distress. I'm sure someone with a better grasp on child psychology and child abuse could write up a much better set of thoughts on it.

[nm-mattuz]

I love the universe 6 saiyans... BUT! The one who deserves a whole spin off series is Hit, Cabba Kale and Caulifla totally deserve like a special like episode of Bardock or history of Trunks but Hit would be the perfect one to let us see the ways universe 6 & 7 are different.

Also make caulikale canon.

[rjoynesjr]

No matter where this is being posted, it’s been a minute, hasn’t it? The long and short of it is that over the last few years, I went from having a job with a ton of downtime to jobs with varying degrees of less downtime, to one where I had downtime I couldn’t effectively use. Currently, my situation is one where sometimes I’ll have a lot of downtime I can effectively use. Anyway, absurdly late as it is, this is my tribute to one of my heroes as an artist, Akira Toriyama who passed nearly a year ago. Here’s a breakdown: In the first panel, we see a version of Goku who is intended to be the ultimate incarnation of him. I mixed elements of his clothing from Xeno Goku and Capsule Corp Goku (from Super Dragon Ball Heroes). He also wears the colors and symbol of Zeno from Dragon Ball Super. His hair is a mix of Super Saiyan 4 (from Dragon Ball GT) and Ultra Instinct (from Dragon Ball Super) with a hint of the colors from Zeno’s face. In the second panel we see the Toribot character that Toriyama used to represent himself in his works. Panel 3 shows the Toribot character revealing that he is Toriyama himself. Panel 4 shows Goku reverting to the original version of himself as a child at the site of his creator. The panel is an homage to the moment where Goku discovers his Grandpa Gohan has been brought back to life for a day in Dragon Ball. Panel 5 is an homage to the moment where Goku hands the 4-star Dragon Ball to his descendant Goku Jr. from the TV special Dragon Ball GT: A Hero’s Legacy. The final panel of the first page features Arale from Toriyama’s first incredibly successful manga Dr. Slump. Here she is breaking the 4th wall and literally pulling to edge of the page to see what is next. This is the type of stuff Toriyama would often do in his work. The first panel of the second page features King Kai, Goku’s parents Bardock and Gine, and Launch. Here I’m referencing a running joke in Dragon Ball Super where Goku doesn’t use opportunities to wish King Kai back to life after inadvertently causing his death; fandom discussions of Goku wishing back his parents; and Launch being a forgotten character whose name in Japan is actually Lunch. If you look carefully at the back Launch is holding you can see the somewhat obscured logo to “Spacey’s” a running gag from the Youtube Dragon Ball Z reinterpretation of Dragon Ball Z abridged. Finally, in the last panel as Arale pulls on the edge of the page again we see Crono from Chrono Trigger, the legendary RPG which Toriyama provided character designs for.

[dragon-deez-ballz]

the super broly movie reanimating the bardock special for the first third is such a blessing except. That it kind of marked the beginning of the design choice that they're going to draw saiyan kids extremely twiglike. and poorly

[tigirl-and-co]

it's one of my go-tos bc it's only 20 minutes long, and despite the special itself being pretty awful in plot, the fandub is AMAZING and the soundtrack is so good

although it is IMPOSSIBLE not to go 'I'm Dr. Dre, and this is my son, Tupac!'

i like the part where he gives the child some bread. it is the best part of the special

teehee