#while Goku is prideful in Gohan

[hi-there-buddies]

“The cell saga is bad because the z fighters were idiots the entire time”

that’s the POINT

THE CELL SAGA IS ABOUT ARROGANCE

EVERYONE IS BEING STUPID BECAUSE THEY THINK THEY KNOW WHATS GONNA HAPPEN

THEY THINK THEYRE AHEAD OF THE CURVE

BUT THEY AREN’T

THIS IS LITERALLY SHOWCASED MULTIPLE TIMES THROUGHOUT THE SAGA

IT STARTS WITH TRUNKS AND BUILDS FROM THERE

GOHAN LITERALLY LETS CELL LIVE BECAUSE OF HIS ARROGANCE

THE ONLY REASON CELL IS DEFEATED IS BECAUSE GOKU, GOHAN, AND VEGETA ALL LET GO OF THEIR ARROGANCE AND PRIDE AND FIGHT TOGETHER

GOKU STEPS IN TO HELP GOHAN, WHICH HE DIDNT DO BEFORE BECAUSE HE THOUGHT GOHAN COULD DO IT HIMSELF

VEGETA HELPS GOHAN AND LANDS THE PENULTIMATE BLOW ON CELL, DESPITE WANTING TO BE THE ONE TO END CELL HIMSELF

GOHAN FINALLY FINISHES HIM LIKE HE REFUSED TO DO BEFORE

THEY ALL LET GO OF THEIR ARROGANCE AND FINISH THE JOB

THATS THE THEMATIC POINT OF THE SAGA

RAHHHHHHH🦅🦅

[dreadsuitsamus]

Cuddling With Saiyans Headcanons

author's note: i love snuggles. also once again the character banners you see in this post were created by the amazing @actuallysaiyan!! ❤️

pairings: vegeta x fem!reader, goku x fem!reader, broly x fem!reader, gohan x fem!reader

warnings: snuggles, mentions of nightmares, light nsfw if you squint

is not much of a cuddler, obviously

or is that just what he wants you to think?

Vegeta, like all saiyans, runs hot and will keep you warm if you let him

key being, if you let him

he will never initiate snuggle time

but if you pull him in, or simply ask him to, he folds

he'll scoop you up in those beefy arms and hold you just how you like

he personally likes to be the big spoon, but he'll never even admit he likes spooning at all

if you get up or move around at any point in the night, you've lost your snuggle privileges only because he sleeps so heavily that he won't be up to readjust anytime soon

and when he's up, he's at it and going to start the day's training

so consider your options carefully next time you have to pee and his arms are locked so tightly around you that it's squeezing your bladder for dear life

nine times out of ten, you'll wake up to find Vegeta on top of you, shielding your body with his

even during slumber, his top priority is your safety

Vegeta likes to rub the tip of that sharp nose against you, be it the curve of your neck and shoulder or against your cheek

he doesn't know it, but he used to do that to his mother as well when he was a young boy

playing with Vegeta's hair is the one surefire way to get him to sleep when he otherwise has a hard time doing so

don't start humming though, it makes him angry. he'll start muttering about his pride and how lullabies are for babies

he'd like you to keep giving him the sweet forehead kisses though

Goku is the king of snuggling

he's already always down for a nap, so if you need some quality Goku snuggle time, just get in bed and wait a few minutes

literally, he's got a sixth sense for these things

likes to tuck his face into your neck because you smell good, and he likes nuzzling into your natural smell that lies below the artificial scents you wear

runs like a damn furnace, so always make sure to wear a skimpy pajama set, or nothing at all

don't rile him up though or the snuggling is just gonna have to wait

he snores, but he's so soft about it that it doesn't bother you

Goku rarely ever feels particularly down or sad, but sometimes he does and snuggles are a perfect cure

sit on his lap and he'll take it from there, hiding his face in your chest and slipping his arms around you tightly

play with his hair a bit and he's putty in your hands, especially when you massage the top of his scalp with your nails

eventually he'll tell you what's on his mind, and after you talk it out, he's feeling better but very much still wants to cuddle

Goku does not. let. go. until he's had his fill

so DO NOT cuddle with him if you either haven't gone pee in a while or have errands to run later

he'd let go if you asked of course, but not without giving you those pitiful puppy dog eyes

so don't break his poor lil heart and just keep snuggling with him as long as he wants, okay?

nobody ever died from a lil bit of saiyan cuddling, after all

Broly isn't keen on cuddling at the beginning of your relationship

he actually craves comfort, but physical touch is hard for him to accept since the concept is so foreign to him

that being said, being around you is quite the comfort in itself for Broly, so laying in bed with you already works wonders

slowly he warms up to you, like sleeping just a tad closer than even the night before

he can feel the heat from your body, and the backs of his fingers curiously brush against the soft skin of your arm

he takes your hand in his one night, and keeps holding it even after you fall asleep

you're warm and soft and it's all he's ever wanted in his life

from that point on, he quickly warms up to your touch and is a clingy saiyan like no other

his hold is almost too tight, and when you start to wheeze is when you decide it would be in your best interests to ask him to ease up

but goodness he loves to hold you to his large chest, one hand on your hip and the other at the center of your back

Broly unfortunately suffers from nightmares

and though he'd never hurt you intentionally, it's definitely a risk to be near him when he's having a nightmare

there's nothing much you can do but wait it out and soothe him when he wakes up

he appreciates it nonetheless, and as your bond strengthens they become less frequent

Broly holds you like you're a teddy bear, and oftentimes will just scoop you up from your place and hold you

it is not uncommon to wake up completely on top of him and locked in those big arms

he loves to cuddle but doesn't quite know how to ask for it, so he literally will just pick you up and hold you as he pleases

if you tell him no then he will obviously respect that

broly is very big on consent, ever since you taught him just what it is and he realizes how he's been violated of it his entire life

he's a gentle giant, and you've really expected no less from him when it comes to cuddling

his tail will wrap around you as well, keeping you as close as possible

he does snore, but his sleeping face is cute so it's okay

Gohan can be a bit of a loner, as a result of his eventful childhood

so when he met you, he was cautious yet anxious to have a connection with someone not an alien or batshit insane!

so he takes your relationship slow and sweetly, and when you start staying over at his place or vice versa he is so excited

he's always touching you, kissing you, in general just being so damn sweet on you that he's practically buzzing

and he's internally kicking himself for being so clingy, so when bedtime rolls around he lays completely still

no touching at all

and it takes everything in you not to laugh at this silly, adorable man

when you finally roll over into his side and snuggle up to him, he relaxes and kisses your forehead while moving those deceptively strong arms around you

Gohan likes to rub his hands along your back and gently digs his knuckles in circles against any tense spots

he normally will wear a long sleeve shirt and a soft pair of pj pants to bed, but usually takes his shirt off before falling asleep since his blood runs so hot

likes it when you trace the lines of his abs, and that alone sometimes is the only reason he gets some training in

Gohan likes to watch documentaries before bed and takes great pleasure in explaining things you may not understand in greater detail

you, on the other hand, just like the look on his face when he's excited, so that's why you ask so many questions

your extended knowledge for trivia games as a result is just a nice little side effect

sometimes work and research can get to Gohan, and when you can't get him out of the office you resort to sitting on his lap and tucking his face into your chest

Gohan is literally defenseless against it and will have no choice but to relax against you and take a break

he takes after his father and hardly snores at all

not-so-secretly likes to be the little spoon

when Pan is born, they become the ultimate snuggle buddies and you only feel a little left out because they look so damn precious when they're cuddling

you're still Gohan's favorite though, forever and always

[paganminiskirt]

I also love how Vegito and Gogeta are not only distinctly different beings, and the former is conducted primarily by Vegeta while the latter is conducted primarily by Goku - but Vegito is clearly the more benevolent and emotionally involved of the two people, while Gogeta tends more towards frigidity and vindictiveness. Because as individuals, Vegeta’s “good side” is just as subliminal and rare to witness as Goku’s “bad side,” right; Vegeta is not a nice man by nature, and Goku doesn’t have a grudge holding bone in his body. Goku’s lack of any impulse towards vengeance is the only reason Vegeta is still breathing. This is well established.

But when Vegeta is shown to care for other people, it always manifests as him lashing out in defense of them against some greater source of cruelty - he gets pissed at Beerus for humiliating his father, he attacks Beerus for hurting Bulma, he freaks out on Cell for killing Future Trunks & knocks Present Trunks out immediately after hugging him for the first time, because he knows his son would insist on staying with him through his kamikaze attempt on Buu. Because Trunks is like that. Because Trunks is his son.

And Vegito takes that principle and drags it out to the extreme! The whole first fight with Buu is just him playing this sadistic cat and mouse game, very much in the arrogant style of Vegeta, but he also makes constant mention of the loss of Gohan, Goten, Trunks and the others - using the language of “stealing” “hunting” and “kidnapping” that brings to mind Vegeta’s own childhood trauma. He displays some aspects of Goku’s personality of course, with the playfulness and the attempts to get Buu to surrender, but Vegeta is obviously steering this ship. It’s his confidence and self-superiority that makes them lose the fight, and his belief in the necessity of a warrior’s “pride” that he explicitly cites as his reason for looking down on Buu.

Because this is what Vegeta’s attempts at “good” look like, right? Preternaturally violent and egotistical, but with a sense of protectiveness and paternity that renders his behavior heartwarming, at least enough to show you that he’s grown from the smirking, bloodthirsty garden gnome he was first introduced to us as. Underneath all the bravado, Vegito is aggrieved on behalf of someone else. He’s being kind in the only way he knows how.

Gogeta… is not that guy. He doesn’t do rescue missions, and he doesn’t feel the need to remind you of his superiority. He portrays himself as an avenger, not a defender, with lines that evoke a sense of justice and consequence like “it’s over, I’ve come for you” and “your own bad energy will be your undoing.” He snidely tells Frieza he’s coming back for him after he’s done with Broly, even though he’s visibly incapacitated and not really picking a fight. He forgoes Vegito’s up-close and relatively simple combat style in favor of these dramatic, wide-ranging attacks, more like an act of god than a natural disaster. And while Vegito allowed Buu to play with him a bit, postponing the end of the fight to sate his own lust for battle, Broly doesn’t even get to touch Gogeta once he goes super saiyan, his dedication to the pursuit reminding you of Goku’s final battle with Frieza.

…Except Goku offered Frieza clemency, and looked genuinely disappointed when he rejected it. Gogeta does no such thing. The audience gets to watch, half in awe and half in horror, as he renders this uber-aggressive Saiyan attack dog into a flailing, incoherent mess, not bothering to stop and ask him to surrender even though the updated Broly is a much more sympathetic character than Frieza or Majin Buu ever were. He enunciates the final kamehameha with such gravitas that you actually feel scared for Broly - and in the older movie, when Janemba switches back to his original form, he takes one look at Gogeta’s glowering face and scurries away in terror.

Hey, remember how Gohan fled in fear when Goku (under extreme duress) threatened him during the fight with Frieza? After he transformed into a super saiyan for the first time, guided only by mindless rage after Frieza’s pointless killing of Krillin? During a fight which only began after Vegeta, someone who caused him immeasurable harm in the past, told him to avenge the killing of both their families & the genocide of their race? All of which took place on a planet which the earthlings only had to travel to in the first place because the Saiyans killed several of their friends - a slaughter which Goku witnessed the aftermath of, at which point he told Nappa “there will be no mercy for you, you bastard” in the original manga?

Goku gets slotted into this role quite a lot, doesn’t he. He’s a protector, but also a savior, a planner, a consoler, and an avenger. He does his best to help people and he raises hell when he can’t, but he’s not vengeful by nature. Quite the opposite. See how he treats Vegeta in the Namek saga, smiling at him and bantering with him like he’s a coworker, and not the guy who crushed his bones to dust while cackling with sadistic delight.

But that’s because Vegeta only did that much damage to him. Nappa killed all the others - with Vegeta’s eager permission, yes, but that’s still enough distance to allow Goku to psychologically seperate him from those crimes. Goku’s clemency initially emerged as a byproduct of his desire to help people, but we have seen that same drive give way to brutal punitiveness when he fails, and somebody he loves dies. You can argue that it's misdirected self-hatred, anger at his own inability to be the hero those people trusted him to be - Krillin died screaming “Goku!” you might recall. The removal from other people Goku grew up enduring feeds into his sense of responsibility for the community that grew around him as an adult. He knows how important he is, and it hurts when he comes up short.

And I think that, understanding Gogeta to be primarily led by Goku but still notably impacted by Vegeta, that intense drive towards retribution the fusion displays takes on more meaning. Vegito exemplifies Vegeta’s better impulses, which are brought out in full force by Goku’s influence - Gogeta exemplifies Goku’s ugliest inner desires, with the leash he usually keeps them on loosened by Vegeta’s influence.

Because Vegeta was knocking down 100+ sentient creatures per day as soon as he could walk. He spent most of his adult life as a pampered slave, he murdered one of his oldest companions without a second thought, his introductory panel shows him munching on a severed limb, ffs. Vegeta has been through a lot, and I'm the last person to downplay that, but he hasn’t been going through it emotionally involved. He's used to this. He had to be. If he wasn't, his whole psyche would've collapsed by age twelve tops.

But Goku? Goku had to do all of that with his feelings turned on! And he chooses to remain steadfastly good and give second chances no matter how bad the situation, and that’s a healthy enough way of dealing with all this horror. But a side effect of being guided by that choice is the knowledge that he could be worse, he could be crueler. He’s a lot like Gohan, in that sense.

And Vegeta used his dying breaths to beg Goku to abandon that long-abiding impulse to show mercy. Goku might believe in forgiveness, and he might’ve let Vegeta go because of that belief, but Vegeta is a stubborn little bastard. He thinks that it’s holding him back, allowing people to slip through the cracks; to get hurt. And we’ve established that these two are both capable of misdirecting self-anger at others, though Vegeta does it much more often than Goku.

So when Goku’s mind is merged with Vegeta’s, and he’s forced to look back on his decisions to allow horrible people to live not with pride, but with regret and disgust, it manifests as Gogeta. A walking overcorrection, the sentient reconciliation of these two belief systems. Who doesn’t forgive and doesn’t forget, self-assured and bitter and terrifying, like Goku was for the first twenty seconds after he went Super Saiyan. Like he always told himself he wouldn’t be.

[bones4thecats]

Hi, I would like to request Goku, Bardock, and Gohan play fighting with their child/children if that’s ok?

The Saiyans Play-Fighting w/ their Kids

Characters: Son Goku, Bardock, and Son Gohan Requester: @crispy-qw A/N: I drank an entire bottle of water writing this. I'm pretty sure I mentally sobbed writing all this fluff... ⚠️ Spoilers/Trigger Warnings for: Pure tear-jerking fluff ⚠️

Disclaimer: The timeline in Bardock's part is diverse from the canon

╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗

╚═════ Son Goku ══════════════════════════════╝

🍜 When you found out you were pregnant, Goku was very happy. Ever since he heard stories from ChiChi about how her father raised her when they were younger, he just wanted that bond with someone

🍜 It was at the time your oldest boy, Gohan, was born that Goku's nerves all calmed down. While he was nervous that someone would come down and harm his family, these nerves just got pushed away in favor of spending time with you and his boy

🍜 Goku is an amazing father, no doubt. And this is always proven when he would play fight with his two boys. Gohan would normally spend his time reading and learning while Goten, your second, would want to train with his dad and Uncle Piccolo

🍜 That day in particular, you had come home from a check-up with Bulma, who was making sure your third-baby, an unnamed girl, was doing well in your womb. You had just closed your door when you heard the sound of cheers coming from your backyard

🍜 Walking outside once again, you saw your husband and two sons messing around. They certainly weren't using their full strength as they messed around. Goku would mainly wrestle them in the air as they tried escaping his grasp, testing their physical strength

🍜 You smiled as the boys played around. It was always nice to see the three of them bond, especially since in nine weeks you would be delivering the second girl of the family. They needed to get their manliness out sooner rather than later

🍜 While you would normally sit down and watch them play, you needed to get some sleep, spending over an hour around Vegeta, Bulma, and Trunks could get exhausting for a woman after all... especially when Vegeta was being held down because he was sick

🍜 As you closed the backdoor behind you, you could hear the three boys laughing together along with a crash of them landing on the ground. This was the family you always dreamed of having. Thank Kami you got it

╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗

╚═════ Bardock ═══════════════════════════════╝

🛡️ Bardock and you always knew you wanted children, but as you were both warriors, this had to be held back for a while. And when you guys finally settled down, you had your two boys, Raditz and Kakarot

🛡️ Raditz was far more into being a warrior than Kakarot, as he would be out wrestling with other Saiyans while your younger would train by himself, only being joined by a select few of other Saiyans he considered to be friends

🛡️ Due to the power your husband sensed in them, he began to train his sons very diligently. Almost always helping them outside while you would mainly stayed inside and would handle more medical-related topics, almost always being called away to treat some Saiyan warriors who's pride went to their head

🛡️ You were called away the same day that Kakarot and Raditz were home from training with the army. Bardock had been with them due to an injury that came to his legs during a battle, leaving him to be home-ridden for a few days

🛡️ When you finally arrived home from handling almost fourteen whole teams of warrior's injuries, you could hear laughing and smashes coming from behind your home, leading you to laying your supplies down and walking out to find your family of boys training together

🛡️ Well, training isn't the best word. They were more tackling and wrestling one another. And it was so cute for you to watch after seeing so many grizzly injuries on your people from fights planets away

🛡️ Bardock eventually excused himself from his sons, telling them to keep up their skills. He then turned from his bickering children to his wife, whom stood there as her tail swayed gently in adoration at their actions together

"Welcome home, Y/N."

"It's good to see you bonding with the boys, Bardock."

"I know. I'm enjoying this time with them."

"You better. I did not spend so much time helping create them for you to not like them." You said.

"Don't worry, I don't just like them. I love them, they're the best sons a Saiyan could ask for."

╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗

╚═════ Son Gohan ═════════════════════════════╝

📚 Because Gohan's job took up a lot of his time, he couldn't always be around as much as he wanted to be. But whenever he did have free time, he would grab you from behind and cuddle with you, relaxing and talking about whatever's been going on in your personal lives

📚 But, after you gave birth to your daughter, Pan, Gohan had been trying to be around her more. It was difficult, but he did succeed at bonding with her most of the time

📚 You could not be more happy than to watch her bond with both her father and the man he considered to be a part of your family, that being your Namekian-ally, Piccolo

📚 Just watching as Piccolo trained her was nice, but seeing your husband take some time off to help with his daughter's development was just better in your opinion. Witnessing the closeness that your family had, no matter is blood relation was involved, was beyond wondrous

📚 One lovely day, your mother-in-law, ChiChi, had wanted to spend some time with you, to which you agreed and called up Piccolo, asking if he could babysit Pan while you left and Gohan was working. The Namekian agreed and said he'd arrive shortly, allowing you to get ready and leave

📚 You spent around two hours with your in-laws before you left, missing your daughter and husband dearly. Stepping in the backyard, you were shocked to see Gohan in his old uniform, trying to teach Pan how to throw a punch gently. He always said he hated fighting while you were together, but he did love his daughter, so maybe his love for her surpassed that

📚 Walking up and sitting beside Piccolo as he watched the two human-Saiyan hybrids, you asked how long they had been doing this and what he did to get Gohan out of his office

"Just Pan's baby-eyes did the trick. They've been doing this for around 20 minutes, Gohan's been teaching her simple fighting moves. Kicking, punching, even slapping... don't know why the last one though."

"Eh, you never know." You giggled.

📚 Piccolo smiled as Gohan tried teaching Pan to fly, resulting in her falling on her butt and him panicking and looking for any kind of wound on her body. You sometimes wonder if you married a hypochondriac

[tobiasdrake]

An under rated skill of goku's is his general awareness. Generally speaking, he's very good at noticing power. That's why when he lets his foes reach full power (like Frieza) he's the one who clowns them, unlike Vegeta who gets clowned whenever he does that.

With that in mind, it's very fitting that he knows Instant Transmission. It's a skill whose fundemental requirement is being able to sense the strength of others

It's worth noting that Vegeta and Goku's situations there are starkly different - though not as much as you might think.

Frieza up to that point has been so courteous as to provide a running tally of how much ki he's using at a given point.

Goku can make a confident assumption of what 100% Frieza will look like because he's already experienced 50% Frieza. Nonetheless, Goku's motives were the same as Vegeta's all the same.

Like Vegeta, Goku was drunk on Saiyan battle-lust when he decided to both a) let Frieza power up to 100% and b) remain on Namek while everyone else was being whisked off to the safety of Earth. Though Goku's battle-lust was also driven by a desire for revenge.

But, as Kaio points out, the battle-lust of the Super Saiyan's taken hold of Goku's senses. Given the choice between revenge and a fight, Goku's more interested in the latter.

By contrast, at the time Vegeta made this boneheaded decision:

Nobody had any idea what Perfect Cell would be like. Not even Cell.

Notably, both Goku and Vegeta at their respective times were also channeling the Super Saiyan, which - as Kaio noted above - includes among its effects heightened aggression and impaired decision-making.

After being told multiple times that the Super Saiyan is a hyper-aggressive ultra-warrior, Goku finally had the chance to experience it on Namek. His assessment was "Gohan needs to leave before this form makes me do things to him too."

In an ironic twist, we even see the arrogant cruelty of the Super Saiyan intermix with Goku's own pleasant demeanor in the form of the cruel mercy he offers Frieza.

Goku's never cared about shredding someone's pride before. He's in it for love of the game. He just wants a good fight.

But here, he's like, "I've broken your spirit, your body, and your will. Run off and cower under a rock and spend the rest of your life agonizing in terror about your pathetic inadequacies, you useless trash mongrel."

He doesn't even want Frieza to train up and come back to fight him again like Piccolo and Vegeta; He's legit telling Frieza to go wallow in defeat. And that's. Just. Not how Goku talks to people he's beaten. Super Saiyan Goku is a very sore winner.

Letting Vegeta become a Super Saiyan is like getting a squirrel high on speed. He was battle-hungry and aggressive enough already, but now he's battle-hungry and aggressive squared.

Goku, for his part, worked hard on controlling this enhanced aggression. When Gohan first became a Super Saiyan, Goku tried to coach him through managing it as well.

This was part of the purpose behind Goku and Gohan's mastery of the state during their RoSaT training. After giving up on the idea of breaking the Super Saiyan's limits, part of the purpose behind mastering the Super Saiyan itself was to eliminate the enhanced aggression.

Get rid of the ki bleeding, get rid of the psychological byproducts, and normalize it so that it's as natural as their base states. There's even a cool visual effect you can pick up with it.

When a character turns Super Saiyan, their eyes turn sharp and angular to indicate their enhanced ferocity.

It's a look characters get when they're mad or focused, but the Super Saiyan always looks like that. Even when contemplative or scared, a Super Saiyan looks pissed as hell.

But once Goku and Gohan master the state, they're able to have gentler, rounder eyes in this form even while they keep the angular Super Saiyan eyebrows.

This is a man who is no longer resisting a compulsion to start throwing hands at everyone in the immediate area. The Super Saiyan answers entirely to him now, with no drawbacks.

...but when Gohan's rage boosts mix with the ultra-fury of a limit-broken Super Saiyan to form Super Saiyan 2, all of that bad decision making comes sweeping in again. The aggression...

...and the cruelty.

So. Yeah. Super Saiyan is a hell of a drug.

So far as Goku and Vegeta go, however, there is one other interesting point of comparison to be made. Against Frieza and Cell, they made similar choices, but their circumstances are admittedly a little different. Though it's worth noting that there is one other data point of interest.

For that, we turn to Majin Buu. Here, Goku and Vegeta make similar choices to forego Kaioshin's quest to thwart Majin Buu, instead choosing to have their long-awaited rematch with one another. Vegeta starts it when he throws a fit during Gohan's fight with Dabra, condemning this whole thing as a waste of time.

Borrowing the same power from Uranai Baba that once let his Grandpa Gohan face him in the ring of martial arts and say goodbye, Goku has a 24-hour reprieve from death so that he and everyone who loves him can have their closure. Appropriately, he chose to spend it at the Tenkaichi Budokai - before all this Kaioshin nonsense happened.

For Vegeta, this meant an opportunity to face Goku in the Tenkaichi Budokai. To have one last chance to truly surpass his rival, rather than living with the uncertainty of never measuring up to a gravestone. And all of this nonsense is denying him that.

But it's not quite so innocent as "I want one last fight with my rival." Vegeta wants to win that fight. By his own later admission, the hissy fit he throws here is a ruse meant to attract Babidi's attention. He's seen firsthand that Babidi can bring out incredible power and cruelty from people, and wants Babidi to fix him.

Vegeta wanted this fight. And he wanted to win it. He wanted to be the version of himself that could win it. Nothing else mattered.

As for Goku? Well.

Goku wants this fight too. Kaioshin pleads with Goku, telling him that he'll have to go through him. Goku accepts those terms and intimidates Kaioshin into surrendering and letting the fight happen.

Goku, notably, does still care about thwarting Buu. He sends Gohan and Kaioshin off to deal with that while he faces off with Vegeta. Goku is a complicated man. He wants good things for people and to have thrilling battles, and when the fists begin flying, he's visibly having the time of his life.

He just. He thinks they can afford to get away with this. Neither Goku nor Vegeta takes the threat of Majin Buu seriously. This much was evident when they started playing Janken to decide who fights Babidi's minions in the first place.

As Vegeta explains once Buu does awaken and they do start to sense his ki:

Goku and Vegeta are powerful beyond even the reckoning of the highest gods at this point (pre-DBS). And so even when Kaioshin begs and pleads with them to take this seriously, that Majin Buu is truly dangerous, his words fall on deaf ears.

Goku takes it more seriously than Vegeta does. He starts this fight insisting that he's going to go Full Power against Vegeta from the get-go to try and end this as fast as possible.

But he still plays along. He's been playing along.

This is the tragedy of the early Buu arc. Neither of them really cared about thwarting Majin Buu. They just. Assumed they could handle it. Because they were so powerful that they made everyone Kaioshin was intimidated by look like jokes, and they expected no different of Buu.

Just like with Frieza. Just like with Cell. At least they're consistent.

[cringe--is--dead]

Peaceful Paradise Interrupted

Type: One Shot

Gohan x Reader, Reader is the adopted daughter of Vegeta and Bulma

Summary: Your peace wasn't often challenged, but when someone came to earth to challenge your father and/or Goku, you end up more annoyed being in the middle of it than fearful.

Your life had settled into a routine, though after most of your childhood and adolescence, you weren't complaining. The structure gave you a peace of mind, minus the occasional extraterrestrial being hell-bent on revenge against your father or challenging Goku.

Those spats, at this rate, lasted a day at the most, an hour at the least. You hardly ever knew of them until after the issues were resolved.

Safe to say you enjoyed your peace, you enjoyed your routine, you enjoyed everything your life had become. Minus this.

The barrel of some weird, foreign gun looking at you had become your new common view. The alien man who had broken into your home, looking for one of the several (like five) Saiyan life forms, only to find you lazing around in your pajamas while attempting to finish some paper due for some class you were beginning to hate.

You craned your neck to peer around at him, studying him as he spoke into whatever communicator his people used, before speaking up, more annoyed than anything, "You realize how stupid this is right?"

He blanched, taken aback by the calm demeanor in which you spoke. He barked some orders before turning his full attention towards you, "Excuse me?"

You shrugged, "This was dumb of you to do." Your legs were beginning to cramp up under you, and you were at least grateful you had worn longer pants, "Haven't you even heard of what happens to people who come to earth looking for a fight?"

He sneered, "They end up choosing life forms far beneath them, yes, little lady, I've heard the stories."

Rude. "I'm just saying - "

"You are not the one I'm after."

"I kind of figured," He narrowed his eyes at you, pressing the gun closer towards your face, "I can't imagine I did anything wrong enough to piss you off."

"Do you know of the Saiyans Vegeta and Kakarot?"

"Hard to not know them," Your voice was dry, and you knew that after the scolding your mother would unleash on you, she'd have some pride in how you were keeping your cool.

"My readings had indicated that they had been here, though upon arrival, I only found you. What is a weak, earthling like you doing around two of the most powerful beings on this planet?"

"Don't let them hear you say that, my father's ego is large enough already."

His eyebrow, or where you would assume an eyebrow would be, twitched, "Your- your father?"

You hummed, introducing yourself casually, before sending a sarcastic smile, "Vegeta's oldest."

"Your power levels are far too weak to be - "

"Adopted," You could feel the energy before anything else, the feeling of your hair standing up on end alerting you that your fiancé had gotten the emergency signal sent to his phone, "But, still."

You braced yourself, the door launching open with the sounds of splintered wood falling all around. Gohan was standing in the doorframe, hair still black, but eyes livid. You glanced at the shocked man before you, if Gohan didn't feel the need to power up than this guy was weak- what had he been hoping to do?

You watched as your fiancé smiled, something cold and dark, a look that was so foreign to see on him. It sent chills down even your spine, "Hi," The cheeriness was forced, "Honey you didn't tell me we had guests."

"Surprise visitors." You glanced sadly at the remnants of the front door as Gohan walked inside, you'd have to ask Goku to fix it again.

The energy coming off of your fiancé was beyond suffocating, and the blaster fell from where it had been pointed at you, trembling in the alien's hand.

"W- Who are you?"

"I should be the one asking you that considering you're in my house." Your fiancé's anger was getting harder to hide, the smile bordering bloodthirsty.

You flexed your hands from where they were bound, sighing, catching his attention, "Please don't destroy anymore of the house."

Gohan didn't look away from the man, who was frantically trying to contact some of his men. You assumed they had all scattered- and odds are some ended up coming across your father and Goku.

They might fare better than this man was about to.

"Of course," You blinked and he was across the room, grabbing the man by the front of his tunic, before lifting him up, the gun dropping to the floor.

"Let's take this outside, shall we?"

Just as quickly as he had gotten across the room, your fiancé had taken the offending man outside, the sounds of shouting growing muffled as they left your home.

You sighed to yourself, twisting further as you remembered the self-defense classes your mother made you take. It felt almost pointless at the time- who was stupid enough to do something to piss off your family? But as you managed to free your sore wrists, you were grateful.

By the time you moved on to untying your legs, Gohan strolled back in, not a hair out of place. He smiled at you, moving to crouch down in front of you, softly batting your hands away to undo the rest.

"Are you alright?"

He paused, laughing softly at the question.

"I should be asking you that," The rope fell, and he helped you stand, hands moving softly across you, feeling and searching for any indicators that he should go out and end that man.

"I'm alright," You smiled, "You got here just in time."

Gohan nodded, eyes falling shut, and he leaned down, forehead pressing against yours. You remained quiet, letting him process everything.

"I was so scared when you sent me that signal," He spoke quietly, eyebrows furrowing as if reliving the moment, "I wasn't sure what to expect. And dad and Vegeta were already dealing with their own stuff at the moment."

"He didn't hurt me," You reached forward, pulling your fiancé closer, allowing him to burrow into you as best he could, "I think he was more confused than anything to find a human here."

Gohan laughed, a wet sound from the back of his throat, "Right. Not the terrifying Saiyan legends he was expecting."

"Just a human college student who probably would have hit him with a frying pan had I been in the kitchen," You glanced at the dishes laying in the sink- had you been closer you definitely would have.

"I assume the others are taken care of?"

Gohan nodded, "Dad and Vegeta are on their way here - "

The sound of your name being shouted outside alerted you that more company had arrived, and the sounds of an engine being killed let you know your mother had arrived with them.

You watched as Goku made his way to the front entrance of your house, peering down curiously at the broken door, hand rubbing the back of his head, "Aw man, I feel like I just fixed - "

He was interrupted by your father barging by, snarling an, "Out of the way Kakarot", before he made his way inside. You saw your mother trailing close behind, eyes wide and worried, hand clutched to her chest. Goku had enough smarts to step out of the way, moving to stand where you saw your brother and Goten in the yard, the later of the two poking the unconscious assailant with a stick.

"Oh, my baby! Are you hurt?" Gohan stepped back, hands up in defense as you shot him a glare.

Your mothers arms wrapped around you tightly, your ribs wincing at the strength of her hold, "I'm fine mom, he didn't do - "

"And this is why I still think you and Gohan should have taken one of the homes near us!" She huffed as she let you go, arms resting on your shoulders as she glared at you, no malice behind her eyes, "My security would have ensured that that man never even looked at you - "

"She moves back in and Gohan can go home with Kakarot, everyone's happy," Your father snarked, arms crossed over his chest.

"Vegeta," Your mother turned to glare at him, arms never leaving their place around you, jerking you forward with her.

"To be fair dad he was the one who got here first," You rolled your eyes as your father pointedly ignored this remark.

"Still - with the damages done I think it's best if you two come stay at home for now!"

"Mom, it's literally just the front door - "

"Perfect!" She squeezed you tighter- a warning not to argue.

You glanced helplessly at your fiancé, who only shrugged in response. The man who more than likely stopped himself from killing moments ago, fell powerless in the face of your overprotective mother.

[missmilkie]

Dragonball Bf Scenarios

Becoming Friends

2k words

Goku

After the Tenkaichi Budokai, you did end up giving Goku a call. It was about two weeks after the tournament when you met him out in the mountains. You silently prayed that he didn’t lure you out there just to murder you. Something about him gave you the feeling that not only was he not that smart, but he wouldn’t have any malicious intention. Because of that, you were at his place right on time.

You were one of the few Earthlings who could fly on their own. It was a technique you had learned from your master who had learned it somewhere else. Thanks to this ability, you traveled to the mountains with ease.

As soon as you knocked on the door of the small house, Goku opened it.

“Hey, (Y/n)! Wow you sure know how to get places on time.”

“Thanks. Training gets me so pumped.”

“I’m just finishing up breakfast. I’ll be quick though.”

When Goku said breakfast you expected like some eggs or something. His entire dining table was covered in empty bowls stacked up. Only a few still had food in them. He ate a ton! This was just breakfast!

“Sorry about the mess, I eat a lot.” Goku grinned sheepishly.

“It’s alright. Whatever you gotta do, man.” You shrugged it off.

Goku finished eating in a matter of minutes. He offered you some food, but you didn’t wanna barf while you trained.

There was a clearing not too far from Goku’s house. That was where you trained until lunch. Goku taught you how to focus your energy to shoot beams and told you about some weighted training he did. You would be trying that at home under your master’s supervision.

For lunch, you helped Goku prepare a meal of gargantuan proportions. It all smelled so good, so you weren’t complaining. All that training had worked up quite the appetite for you.

“Where’d you learn to cook like this? It looks and smells amazing.” You asked while chopping vegetables.

“When my ex-wife and I got divorced, I had to learn how to cook for myself so that I wouldn’t starve. Some friends gave me some cookbooks to study and I’ve been doing fine since.” Goku explained with a smile.

“Oh, I’m sorry to have brought up your divorce.” You frowned, feeling like an inconsiderate idiot.

“It’s okay. We weren’t really that happy together anyways. I was always away training, which was hard on her. We butted heads when it came to our sons’ schooling and whatnot.” Goku explained somewhat sadly. He perked back up again. “It was probably for the best. Now our sons don’t see us fighting all the time.”

“How old are your sons?” You questioned, trying to shift the topic.

“21 and 11. Gohan is the older one, and Goten is younger. My ex still has custody over Goten, so I only get to see him on the weekends.”

“How is Goten about all of this? Eleven is sort of a delicate age.”

“He seems to be alright. He’s just glad he gets to see me. Gohan is more affected I think. He doesn’t talk about it, but I can tell he’s sad that his mom and I weren’t happy together.”

“Geez, I need to stop asking questions. I’m over here bringing up deep stuff and we just met.” You chided yourself out loud.

“You’re fine. I love my sons, they’re a huge part of my life. They were bound to come up sooner or later.”

Vegeta

For some odd reason, everytime you left Capsule Corp, you ran into Vegeta. You couldn’t avoid him. No matter what you did, you ended up meeting him at the door. It would be more annoying if Trunks’s attitude wasn’t starting to turn around.

He had begrudgingly begun to cooperate during class. You didn’t know how long this streak would last, so you took advantage of it. You gave him positive reinforcement at every opportunity to encourage his new behavior. When you gave him a test, he passed with flying colors. It was a miracle!

You knew you kind of owed Vegeta some kind of thanks for talking to his son, but you were still upset about how rude he was to you. Your pride made it hard to do these things in the first place.

Swallowing your instinct to just glare at Vegeta as you walked by him, you prepared to say what you had mentally rehearsed for the entire walk to the door.

“Hey, Vegeta. I just wanted to say thanks for talking to Trunks. His grades have gotten so much better and he’s realizing how intelligent he really is. I think this has been a big confidence booster for him, and you’re one to thank for it.”

“Whatever. His mother told me to yell at him about his grades anyways.” And Vegeta ruined the moment.

“Your son’s education is important to me. Not just because I get paid for it, but because I genuinely enjoy what I do.” You stated with confidence. You were about to walk out the door when Vegeta grabbed you by the arm.

“You should tell me more about his progress next week. I didn’t raise my son to be a simpleton.”

With that, he released you. The cab ride home was full of thoughts for you. You and Vegeta were finally on good terms.

Son Gohan

Sitting next to Gohan was actually better than you thought it’d be. He was so funny and socially clueless. You could mess with him a bit.

At first he had things to say about you sleeping in class, but you assured him that it was fine. He saw your grades to prove it and has left it alone since. It was cute though because he mentioned it out of concern.

Gohan was so sweet compared to most other teenage boys. He didn’t bask in the attention from the other girls. He just nervously responded to them and exited the conversation as politely as possible. Gohan was a people pleaser, these things made him awkward. The fact that he was home schooled for most of his life only made it worse. He did not know how high school worked.

That was okay though. He had you to show him the ropes and guide him. You warned him about which people to avoid and not engage with. Teenagers could be nasty. In more than one way.

You took on the role of Gohan’s protector. People already didn’t like you, so you had nothing to lose. You tended to keep to yourself and stay out of drama. People held that and the fact that you were blunt, especially to those who interrupted your naps, against you.

Gohan just barely picked up on the fact that people didn’t like you. Some red headed girl that you couldn’t remember the name of had blackmailed him into going out with her. When he told you about it, he mentioned that she was confused as to why he chose to be friends with such a lazy bitch. You didn’t explain it much, but he got the idea.

While you weren’t one to stay awake in class, you were a studyer. Gohan came to your house after school almost every day to study for a bit before he had to go home. You offered to alternate which house you studied at, but he refused saying his mom would flip out if he brought a girl home.

“She would ask you if you’re pregnant. No joke.” Gohan told you with a horrified expression.

“You? Get a girl pregnant? That’s like impossible. You’re the biggest virgin I know.” You giggled.

“Hey! I could.” Gohan had learned enough from you to know that you were teasing him.

“Do you even know how sex works?” You raised your eyebrows, still laughing.

“Of course I do! The guy inserts his penis in the girl’s vagina and then they go at it until he ejaculates.” Gohan explained so matter of factly that you were on the floor laughing. “What’s so funny?”

“You know so little. I have much to teach you, my child.” You patted his head.

“I don’t think I wanna know anything you have to teach me about sex.”

“It’ll be fun.”

Future Trunks

After you met Bulma, she convinced you to stay a while. The worn down Capsule Corp building provided a room for you where the androids would not hear you scream. You figured it wouldn’t hurt to stick around and contribute to Bulma’s efforts.

This included scavenging for materials with Trunks. You would go out and dig through rubble until you could find things that were still usable. It was hard work, but you enjoyed chatting with Trunks for hours every day.

At first he was shy and awkward. Bulma told you he hadn’t really met girls his age. You had to initiate your first conversations and keep them going which was hard. You weren’t used to interacting with people, so you were just as awkward. He did warm up to you though.

“Look at this, Trunks. Isn’t it cool?” You held up an unknown object. There were a lot of things that were probably everyday items back before the androids that you couldn’t name.

“Oh wow. That’s a music player!” He reached out for the small rectangular electronic device. He inspected the small screen and large circle with buttons around it, indicating their uses. “I might have a charger for this lying around the lab.”

“Let’s see if we can get it to work!”

In the evening, you headed back to Capsule Corp under the cover of the shadows of dilapidated buildings. The two of you put the salvaged parts in the lab before digging through some junk in Trunks’s corner.

Like his mom, he was gifted with technology and liked to tinker with appliances. When he scavenged he took things for himself that he found interesting. Only he could navigate his collection, carefully sifting through boxes.

“Found it!” Trunks turned around, charger in hand.

He plugged it into the wall before connecting it to the music player. An icon appeared on the tiny screen. Success.

“I wonder what songs are on it”

“Probably old stuff that we wouldn’t recognize. My mom might though.”

“Damn, calling your mom old like that.” You teased. He immediately turned red and looked away.

“I didn’t mean it like that..”

“I’m just giving you a hard time, Trunks.”

He went back to figuring out the device with his ears still tinted red. He gasped when he pressed a button and sound came out.

You swayed to the music, you’d never heard anything so beautiful for such a long time.

“I think you’re supposed to dance a certain way. My mom used to do it with me when I was younger.” Trunks stuttered through that a bit.

“By all means, teach me.”

“My hands go here.” He placed his hands on the sides of your waist. “And your arms go around my neck.”

You tentatively brought your hands up to meet at the back of his neck. “Like this?”

“Yeah.” Trunks began to sway, leading you through the song.

I hear the crystal raindrops fall, on the window down the hall, and it becomes the morning dew~

And darling when the morning comes, and I see the morning sun, I wanna be the one with you~

Broly

A few days in, things were going well on Vampa. Broly was gentle and considerate seeing as you were a human and happened to be much more fragile than him. He took you out to explore the planet, carrying you as he flew through the air.

His grip was light on your body, fingers nearly hovering around your shoulders and under your thighs.

“My father used to train me here. He had to cut off my tail because I couldn’t control myself as a great ape.” His deep voice was so soft.

“And to my knowledge, that is a transformation brought about by seeing the full moon? Vegeta tells me that he could control it, but Goku and Gohan never learned how to.”

Broly only hummed in response as he kept flying. The wind whipped at your hair and his, the strands loosely tangling. You could tell that Broly was focusing from the way his brows slightly furrowed, his nearly unblinking stare, and his slightly scrunched up nose. It was cute.

“This is where Ba lives.”

“Goku told me about him. Your father wounded him because he was your friend? An awful thing to do to an animal.” You glanced at his face to study his reaction.

Broly’s lips pursed into a frown and his eyes clouded with what you guessed was guilt and sadness.

“Yes. He didn’t like me playing with Ba.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Broly. You didn’t know better, and your father is the one who hurt him.” You placed a hand on his muscular shoulder, looking at him in his big dark eyes. “Beating yourself up about it won’t change what happened. You can move forward though.”

“How do I move forward from losing the first friend I ever had?” Broly averted his eyes.

“Accept what has happened. Your father hurt Ba.”

“Yes.”

“And it was not your fault.”

“Okay…”

“Now, we can try to befriend Ba again or leave him in peace if you think that’s best.”

“I…think I can try again.” The saiyan’s voice wavered for a moment.

“Take as much time as you need. I’ll be right here for you.”

[poison-rouge]

A few more takes on the Dragon Ball actors AU:

- In an interview both Goku and Piccolo actors stated how much they loved filming the car license episode. Vegeta had the idea for the plot of that filler and it was the first episode to be directed by a member of the cast (him).

- All the plushies that Videl and Gohan had gifted to Piccolo are actually the ones the fans send to the actor, the production thought that it would be a nice touch to include them in the movie.

- The actors that play Trunks (baby-kid) and Future Trunks in DBZ and DBS are brothers in real life.

- Mr. Satan actor was a real martial artist in his youth. Sometimes he gathers the younger members of the cast and teaches them some techniques to make their moves more believable.

- Bra actress is actually Bulma's daughter (where else would you find a baby with blue hair?).

- Beerus actor tends to hide food in the sets, at first his character wasn't supposed to be so much of a food lover but the writers included this trait to the plot since they found it hilarious.

- Yamcha actor took lessons with real NPB (japanese baseball league) players to learn how to play for the show, he is surprisingly good.

- Bulma and Vegeta actors are very good friends and while they are always asked in interviews about their true relationship irl, the two of them never deny or confirm anything. The fans are convinced that they had f*cked at least once in the past.

- During DB and DBZ Chaoz was a puppet and many members of the cast said that they used to be scared of it. Now in BDS he is added with CGI.

- Frieza actor is an open supporter and activist for the LGBTQ+ community, they're always seen at the japanese Pride Parade and they're very vocal about how their character is genderless.

[zeevoidlight]

Why didn't he protected them

Is actually difficult for me to discern because Vegeta and Bulma went from getting close to each other and starting to trust each other enough to be intimate, even if it was just for the sex, to Vegeta not caring if she and baby Trunks died at all, and Bulma being very distant from Vegeta while still being in a relationship. And I don't believe the thing some say that he didn't actually cared for her or didn't actually noticed her in a deeper way until much later (basically the idea that Vegeta was just Trunks sperm donor and only was with Bulma for the sex), nah. diss's moch complcated, i swear (nah not really, I just want an excuse to talk more about my obsession). (Note that I watched the latin version so my interpretation of the characters and context might be different from the English version).

I'll talk about these event and about saiyan culture regarding babies, Vegeta and Bulma's relationship during the Cell saga, and how Vegeta might have felt towards Baby Trunks and Future Trunks.

//////////

Saiyans, family and culture

The popular idea is that yes, he was a major jerk by letting Bulma and Baby Trunks almost die at the start of the Android saga, and yeah, he actually was. But one thing that people often forget is that he is not human, he is a saiyan, and that kind of behavior wasn't that abnormal for his culture/species. Is actually expected.

I mean, Saiyan's used to send their babies (the weak ones) in capsules to other planets to pop out of the ship, project an artificial moon into the sky and start making havoc for months until everyone was dead. If the baby survives they will later go to the planet for him eventually to claim the planet and sell it, and I guess later reintegrate the little saiyan into their society again. Like a rite of passage just to acquire the right to live, otherwise they just die unceremoniously.

Even Bardock was like that (pre retcon because i will use the saiyan lore of the era to explain something of the same time period of it's creation). While the others were like "hey! You got a baby kid! Aren't you going to go to planet Vegeta to check on him? How about a celebration or something", and Bardock is like "NO. Who would want to visit a low class soldier like that, I'm not r-[redacted]" (man... DBZ Bardock was a different animal entirely, i freaking loved him). (I have the theory that Raditz was actually in the lower end of high class soldiers. maybe will talk about it in another post).

Anyway, yeah, that's basically the way of thinking of saiyans. A little bit like Piccolo's tough love type of survival training with Gohan but even more savage and detached because if they died and it was their kid it was gonna suck really bad and hurt a lot their pride but what had to happen happened since they cannot get involved in those first years and cannot go save them, end of story, make another baby, maybe the next one will be stronger. They just had babies to send them off, and they have a blood relation with each other but they didn't had the concept of a family, not exactly, like humans would have, usually though, because once again the royal family did had those kinds of bonds to precisely preserve their lineage and secure their babies would born powerful above everyone else.

Of course we all know Bardock was still worried about Kakarott and he wanted to appear tougher with his teammates, he was worried the same way every other saiyan does it in a very distant manner to not get their feelings get in the way of their job as warriors (I mean, he did passed by the nursery in his hurry and stopped to check on Goku while he was there after all). Much like King Vegeta himself who said that he didn't care about what happened to his son, Vegeta, after some saiyan royal adviser (or knight, idk) asks him if it's true that he will have to give his son to Frieza because Vegeta was going to be real in danger if he did in the flashback in the Frieza saga. He wasn't going to say "yes i do feel terrible for my son and it hurts me deeply" even if he was absolutely devastated, he says that he doesn't care because he cannot appear weak, and because it was also true what he said about being more angered by how Frieza had them under his thumb, in that moment he was decided to confront Frieza so he couldn't let himself feel.

And later Vegeta himself said he didn't cared about his race or his father to Dodoria when he was revealing the truth about their planet's destruction while at the same time is true that he was angered about being lied to and about being kept in their control since childhood . The thing is Vegeta doesn't care about the actual people of his race but more about what they represent and are supposed to be, only those who are saiyan in blood and meaning are worthy of calling themselves saiyan, that's why he doesn't revive them but he does care deeply and is proud of it, just in another level. And regarding his father we know he was lying because every time he remembers him in the series he does it fondly and with a lot of pride, like when he's outright telling Goku to avenge their parents, or when remembering him to give himself confidence that he will be able to become Ssj. Is not like they don't "care", but they have to be intelligent about what to reveal so it cannot be taken against them later and to a degree convince themselves on getting detached from many things to keep their fighting instincts up front and take decisions with their heads cold whatever had to happen. Just like we hear him say all terrified in Namek when Krillin got impaled by Frieza "What an idot!...That's what happened to him for paying attention to that Namekuseijin! (Dende)", and then after Gohan looses his mind and knocks Frieza down momentarily Vegeta tells Gohan "Don't loose your time worrying about him! [Krillin]. Do you think Frieza was going to die with that?!". Is what they don't say and try to hide (as we see explicitly with Vegeta when confronting Frieza he purposefully hid the existence of Goku from him and lied, making Frieza believe that Vegeta himself was the only saiyan survivor left but in his thoughts we hear him say "and Kakarott...").

Vegeta's priorities

Same can be said of Vegeta with baby Trunks, i would believe. Their children are their legacy in a way after all, and like an extension of themselves and their own ego. But what made Vegeta forget the feelings and pride he might have had with Bulma and Trunks to not even being a thing that was important is literally everything else going on around him at the same time in those years. It was a very conflicting era for him in several fronts, specially related to his place in the world, his newfound freedom from Frieza's hand since he was a child, him getting used to a new life in another culture, another planet, other type of people, his love relationship, his place as a saiyan in relation to the other few of his species, his title as prince among the low class saiyans that had surpassed him by this point and not by little, his twice stolen destiny to be the the legendary super saiyan that now that he became one as well he had to demonstrate he was the better Ssj among them, the news of him getting killed in the near future in another timeline by just some rando earthling androids that somehow were stronger than Frieza and that the android he defeated (19) alongside the other one (Gero) weren't the right ones, he was really pissed about it and starting to get worried, they couldn't sense the androids by their chi (ki), it was becoming a mess, and he absolutely HAD to be the one that would kill all the androids all on his own to go back to his rightful place in the power scale. Is quite the heavy burden.

So, family? his son? Bulma? ultimately they were at the end of the list of his priorities. And that is very clear thorough this entire first part, even when he was officially in his relationship with Bulma.

Bulma

That's partially why Bulma was attracted to him in the first place though, because he was extremely determined in his ambitions, she respects that, and saw how deeply it was hurting him when he had that training accident and was subconsciously talking in his sleep. She was going to carry that responsibility for him so he could focus on himself. That's why she doesn't reclaim him anything or judges him on things related to that other than jokingly. She knew what she was getting into and has always known. Unfortunately she isn't that responsible of a person herself though. That's why she herself puts her own life and Baby Trunks life in danger, because she is just as determined and obstinate, and Vegeta knows that as well, that's why he doesn't "care", because he respects her decisions as well (and ultimately can't do much about it either). If she wants to put their own lives in danger because she thinks she's up to their game is her responsibility then, not his, and he cannot get involved because he has a job to do regarding himself and his own battles, he had to be detached. Also he was annoyed and fed up with Bulma's stubbornness since he already told her not to be a stupid and do stupid things like put herself in danger way before when Frieza went to Earth, and now she's doing it again (the first time he thought it was hot though (it was so funny that he looks back at her and then talks to himself all thoughtful like "Not only she's vulgar but she's aggressive/daring too", translation -> 'I might like this chick'), but this time is a not cute at all). I don't think it was something personal, not even the "[..] foolish woman and her blasted child" thing, like he says in the english dub, he had more important things he had to worry about. What he says to Trunks in the latin dub is "What stupidities are you saying. I don't care in the slightest, you idiot" (i wish I could have found the japanese one but it is what it is and is the closest I have to it) so he doesn't say mean things to Bulma or Trunks specifically. The interesting part here is to think if Vegeta was saying "I don't care" because he actually didn't care, or "I don't care" not because he didn't but because he couldn't. Vegeta is terrified of feeling and has always been. And yes, I say he was absolutely right because what saiyans try to avoid by giving too information and care is exactly what happened and Gero used her as a distraction, blasted the place and with it Bulma's ship and escaped thinking that they were going to be too busy saving her to notice where he ran to. Still a dick move but I cannot blame him too much. So yeah, it is very much in the tone of if Bulma thinks she can be in the middle of the battle field then so be it, if they survive they'll prove themselves not to be to useless after all, if they die it will suck but it had to be for being idiots.

Being a warrior

Vegeta is a warrior first and foremost. And him being a warrior is why later he is excited to see Cell's perfect form, just like Goku (being a pure blooded saiyan) he cannot contain himself from seeing what immense power looks like, and dares Future Trunks to attack him if Trunks had the balls to do it in order to stop him. Like "bro, are you really gonna to go against your pops? prove it. That's why Future Trunks cannot comprehend him, because Trunks is part earthling and cannot fathom someone getting excited about fighting for the sake of fighting itself and proving one's self where power is the only thing that matters. And why Vegeta cannot stand Future Trunks either, because F Trunks fights for justice and peace.

Baby Trunks

About Baby Trunks, we can only speculate of course but I would assume baby Trunks was conceived right after Vegeta became super saiyan (?) because later in the Buu saga kid Trunks was able to become Ssj without any effort just like Goten (who was definitely conceived during that week Goku was in Ssj the whole time), while present/future Gohan and Future Trunks had to get the transformation the OG hard way like their fathers. I guess future Trunks did accidentally change the time where he would be conceived in the present timeline by just a bit since we do see that Vegeta becomes Ssj in future timeline, probably after Goku dies (he was present with the others in Goku's house when he died and Bulma already had Baby Future Trunks with her) and before the androids appear in the future timeline as we see him transformed to fight, though that's still my speculation.

I think even though Trunks was still a baby maybe there was a way for Vegeta to sense his initial power level (? I'm just assuming some things here). And I don't remember exactly when did saiyan babies were packed and sent to planets to conquer them (maybe a few months old and expected to destroy the people in the planet in around 6 months from arrival having Goku and Earth as an example in the Bardock special) but Baby Trunks definitely doesn't look powerful or very strong regardless, not compared to Vegeta himself as a baby. And Vegeta knew that the mix between saiyans with earthlings produced a stronger breed but just look at this little guy, he looks more earthling than saiyan without much promises, might as well not have much saiyan blood in him, he didn't had his black/dark hair, he wasn't even born with a tail. And also was being treated... well like a baby but an earthling one.

He probably was conflicted about the whole baby thing, specially by how he was taught on his saiyan side despite being from the royal family (since the royal family is one of the few that can actually have familial ties similar to humans), and how being now on Earth his perfectly normal for a saiyan actions were taken from an earthling perspective as not being adequate, but he couldn't entertain the thought for too long since the androids were gonna kill everyone if the warning was true anyways.

Vegeta didn't really considered Baby Trunks to be someone he should put any attention to. Although deep down he cared to a degree as in being an extension of his pride and how Trunks was ultimately "representing him" as his son. How that affected his relationship with Bulma too in this time period is important. Like, he seems angry that Bulma tells him that his presence made Trunks cry after his fight 19, and that is quite mean for her to say that to him, but he can't reply anything to her and just tch's and looks away all annoyed but doesn't say anything or fights her on it, so i can imagine he was feeling conflicted about how to act or respond on top of everything that he had to think about.

Pride on Future Trunks and school of hard knocks

Only when he discovered that the mysterious badass warrior from the future was his own son, the one that he was dismissing, then he started to quietly and secretly take pride on who he would become and started to pay attention to both F Trunks (in his own saiyan way) and much later to Baby Trunks because babies are not viewed as important in saiyan culture, still focusing on the battle first. Much like Bardock when he started to have his visions of Goku right at the very end of his life he started to view grown up F Trunks as more of an equal rather than competition, and seeing him grown up made it easier for him to bond. And so Vegs is like ".... Fuck yeah".

"Look at my son, Cell. He's not as cool as me but he's damn close" lol

He of course was also very prideful and wouldn't bother with any family related stuff the way Bulma (and F Trunks) were pressuring him to be, and she kinda was ridiculing him about it (jokingly though, never seriously) just to evidence him and kinda "hit him over the head" for his behavior. And his natural reaction is of course to appear tough in front of everyone else, like Bardock, like King Vegeta, and like his usual self, and throw all that family nonsense out the window. He still was very prideful and had to keep a face, but that is what would come bite him in the ass hard later on.

Trunks took the wrong way Vegeta's actions. He wasn't purposefully ignoring him, he didn't had time to bond or make him understand his methods, or teach him spelling everything out for him, at least the way he knew how to do it which is by the saiyan way, which was never going to work the way he remembered it because Trunks is half earthling, and that's something Goku also partially fumbled up with Gohan and his Rage form, but Vegeta was actually trying to teach Trunks the hard way. Vegeta was trying to actually come up with strategies, occupied on bringing solutions to the table that Trunks couldn't come up with for years in just the few days they had. Goku definitely knew it. Trunks is all "my dad has been on that rock for 3 days and he doesn't even look at me or train me" and Goku is like "shit! Vegeta is a Genius! He's trying to find a way to surpass the super saiyan", and Trunks can't understand what's happening while the two pure blood adult saiyans are talking. Like, remember the scene where F Trunks attacked Vegeta? Vegeta was actually trying to parent as a saiyan there, and feeling proud of Trunks before and after Trunks attacked him because he actually did it. He called him stupid and all but it was always accompanied with a lesson he wanted Trunks to learn, even if it was only to make him learn respect Vegeta's place as his father (and Trunks eventually came to respect him despite his shortcomings).

Vegeta and Bulma

Anyway... regarding Vegeta and Bulma though, I love how Vegeta talks to Bulma with such familiarity during the Cell saga (i just wished... the time skips didn't happen so quickly because it would have been excellent for character development outside of battle with small everyday stuff and hijinks...), and it does feel like he recognizes Bulma's intelligence and respects that aspect of her, he calls her by her name (which after 3 years I would hope he does but last time we just hear him call her "woman" so it was nice to hear him call her by her name), but then when Bulma starts to spit toxicity towards him or starts to act like she has her ego through the roof (which funnily enough is very similar to Vegeta himself when he feels confident and with his ego higher than the sky), he just looks like he's thinking "well you just can't find the off button, do you" (lol, it reminds me of home).

It actually reminds me a little bit of how Bulma and Yamcha's relationship was, on and off of Bulma being angry and with Yamcha and re-conciliating again, just this time is with Vegeta, but in Yamcha's relationship he was the one that just got all the (maybe undeserved) anger from Bulma and he didn't really had the balls to confront her because he's Yamcha and he's a nice guy but he doesn't have spice (like he used to as a bandit), while on the other hand with Vegeta is a constant battle for power in the relationship. They both act mean with each other, and even if it's not actually meant to seriously cause harm they can get get hurt and often do simply by the nature of how they relate to each other and communicate, with insults, sarcasm, back handed comments, ironic remarks, double meaning, either is to twist the knife where it hurts or even to be playful and flirt in a friendly manner, is almost never straight forward and i really can't picture them, specially Vegeta, saying that they love each other directly and explicitly but they don't have to. That's just how they are, is their game, because neither of them is willing to back out, they are both asses, though Vegeta is the one that normally does back out in the end in favor of keeping peace because he is the one that has more to loose even if it's by convenience and to keep his access to Capsule Corp and all the commodities at this point, and because he respects and admires Bulma too, he does love her in his own saiyan way and doesn't want to loose that bond he's made with her as the only other person he managed to trust and be open with (the other being Goku). (this scene is priceless and i just wanted to put it here. Is filler but i just don't care, it officially exists and is part of the collective that is DB and is good).

Bulma was ok with Vegeta not being present in their lives and only focusing on her baby, encouraging little Trunks in small ways to start developing some strength. She's always been her own woman after all, independent, confident, intelligent all on her own, always being in the middle of the conflicts since time immemorial to be part of the team too against whatever is menacing Earth. While at the same time is clear that Bulma is proud that her baby is Vegeta's because is a symbol of their deeper connection (and love if you will at this point), aaaaand because of the potential he has as a fighter and the status he gives her among the ones that know who Vegeta is (bragging rights, lol), and also brag about his perfect very cool and handsome son's genes. She was like "yeah Yayirobe, drop the child if you want, but be ware that that child is Vegeta's". (I swear that sometimes I wonder if Vegeta is the one in an abusive relationship full of toxicity, lol, the answer is they both are but flawed as it was it's what they both needed and what worked for them). (and i love this bit where Trunks falls to the ground trying to learn to walk and Bulma looks at him like "i'm not gonna do anything about it, get up on your own". Some of Vegeta is rubbing off on her, hehe).

Trunks was an accident?

About the baby, in a way Bulma and Vegeta, ever since they decided to engage sexually, were aware of the possibility of a child being born from both of them but had already accepted whatever outcome destiny had in it's plans regarding a possible offspring (when before Vegeta was very clearly against it for the fear of having a child that could be stronger than him to usurp his title and place). And to that i want to add that Trunks wasn't really planned by Vegeta in particular (I'm more sure that Bulma might have desired a baby from him after a certain point because she always fantasized with Goku once she saw him all grown up but "lost her chance" as she puts it, and now Vegeta represented another chance to have a badass baby), but that doesn't mean Trunks wasn't expected like many people believe (that Trunks was an accident). Vegeta had agreed with the consequences long before he knew they were pregnant, so no, i don't believe he was an accident as if they didn't thought having a baby wasn't going to eventually happen simply because they were having sex and a baby is to be an expected high chance result, but neither planned exactly. He just naturally happened and that was ok.

They are fine (Trunks is not fine)

Like, both Vegeta and Bulma seem actually pretty ok with the whole thing of being kinda distant kinda separate and on their own at that point while still being together as an official couple. Vegeta concentrating on his own things and not letting anything get in his way, being very saiyan about not letting himself feel (because otherwise his obvious parental instincts when Trunks gets killed and him later accepting his love for Bulma wouldn't make much sense if he actually didn't ultimately cared). Bulma seems pretty ok with putting herself and her child in danger while knowing she still has a job to do to help save the Earth just like Vegeta was doing in a way. Like, during the saga they are actually both working together, Vegeta asking her info on Dr Gero and her looking into her investigation about him in her memory, him asking if she brought the armors he requested for the z fighters and Bulma actually did made them and brought them with her. They are actually working together when it comes to the war against the androds and Vegeta is 100% concentratd on that and his issues while Bulma is enduring and helping as well, growing up from the brat she was into someone more mature but both still with things they need to work on.

The only one that cannot comprehend the dynamic here is Future Trunks. No one else feels it out of place or out of logic because it's Vegeta and it's Bulma. But like, Future Trunks gives too much credit to Vegeta for putting his Baby Trunks self in danger when it's very much Bulma's fault in this particular case. But that is because F Trunks made some high assumptions and probably fantasized with who his father might have been and was hit with the reality that he was not the way he imagined him, so he's putting a lot of expectations on Vegeta that when not met he gets angry but Vegeta is just like "dude i don't have time for this bs". And on the other hand Trunks also didn't knew how his mother was before she had to grow into someone more careful and responsible, so he cannot see his mother's faults because his love for her is blinding him from her wrong doings. (funny thing is that when she had the plane accident no one went to save Bulma either, lol). He has to learn to know his parents because he doesn't know them. Poor Trunks though XD.

////

Ultimately Vegeta changes his attitude during the end of the saga for the sake of both of them, and after having been smacked full force in the face with the realization that he did messed up in multiple ways during the saga after all, with the androids, with Cell, with Trunks too because of his cultural baggage. At the end he's much closer to Bulma and Baby Trunks, having accepted his role as father, not only the type of father Vegeta wanted to be but the father Trunks needed him to be, which still had a lot of room for improvement but it was a start, and he did changed quite a lot. Even caving in with some earthling behaviors for the better. Unnggh! is so beautiful!

[textfromthelookout]

if you have the time, I wanna know what makes vegeta so compelling to you, whole ass character arc stuff and what not. I wanna hear you go off on your short king.

Anon do you understand what you’ve unleashed? I don’t think you understand what you’ve unleashed. Or if you do understand, I can almost guarantee you aren’t prepared. This is almost 3000 words of me frothing at the mouth. I hope you know you asked for this. Like the reason I was so late answering was because I wanted to do it justice and could not figure out what I wanted to yell about first.

I guess to understand why Vegeta’s development is so fucking staggering to me, you have to understand who he starts as when you meet him.

Vegeta is around 4 or 5 when Freeza destroys Vegetasei. He’s roughly 30 when he comes to Earth for immortality. In between are two and a half decades of being taken from, which he suffers only because he believes wholeheartedly that he will grow strong enough to kill Freeza and take it all back from him. He lands on Earth with little to his name beyond his pride in who and what he is, and power that, while paltry compared to Freeza and the people in his inner circle, surpassed and still surpasses every member of his race.

Right?

One of the biggest things about Vegeta in Z is that there is A Way Things Are Supposed To Go and when they go any other way, he cannot let it go. Losing to anybody other than the people he has known for years can kill him is unacceptable. Even more so if it’s to another Saiyan. Even more so when this Saiyan is such a disgrace to the blood in his veins. The loss is an impossibility and has to be rectified. Vegeta limps off of Earth with two big driving forces now: kill Freeza for vengeance, kill Kakarot to mend his pride (or at least beat him so far into the ground that his superiority is unquestionable).

Namek is where Vegeta gets really interesting. He’s fresh off a stinging defeat that put a couple cracks into his sense of certainty and self. He knows a way to get what he wants (the Dragon Balls on Namek). He’s in a race against the powers that be for it. He has something of an ace in the hole in that he worked out how to sense ki while he was flying half dead through space, so he’s no longer forced to rely on a scouter—on Freeza’s technology. He intends to make a clean break, and for a while it goes according to plan. Zarbon’s a stumbling block, but he makes it work in his favor, takes all the Dragon Balls Freeza collected and escapes with his life to boot.

And then another repeating theme surrounding Vegeta in Z comes into play. He’ll be a hairsbreadth from getting everything he wants before it all comes crashing down around him, largely due to things entirely outside his control. He couldn’t have used the Dragon Balls even if he had decided to press Gohan on what he was doing in the middle of nowhere with a ‘watch’, because he doesn’t have a password. The Ginyu Force thrashes him, Goku shows up stronger than ever. It’s fine though, because now he knows how to get the Dragon Balls to work, so he’ll never suffer defeat again—it’s a moot point.

…Right?

I think that the point in the story where Vegeta well and truly starts to come unraveled as a person is pretty immediately after Porunga dies and Freeza starts cycling through his transformations. Because like, rudimentary or no, Vegeta’s ki-sensing ability still works. He’s suddenly faced with irrefutable proof, that he can feel in the entire essence of his being, that his power is nothing to Freeza. And he lies to himself, because he can’t accept that he’s outclassed by the magnitude he is. Because this isn’t The Way Things Are Supposed To Go. He’s supposed to avenge his people and embody the legend. He refuses to bend, and so, he breaks.

And it’s sad, y’know? The way he just… stops fighting. For his whole life, he sweats and bleeds and swallows his bruised pride for the sake of survival and hope and what does it get him? I think all the goddamn time about the anime’s interpretation of this, where Vegeta being broken for Piccolo/Gohan/Krillin to witness up close is a deliberate choice on Freeza’s part*. In fact, I may never stop thinking about it. It’s not enough that Vegeta loses his will to fight, he has to know that others know that he gave up, that he can’t do anything against this monster even if he hadn’t. It’s a stunningly cruel blow precisely because he’s so proud and strong.

The man who dies on Namek crying at the feet of both of his bitterest enemies, begging one of them to kill the other for the sake of their race—who in that final moment lets his helpless frustration, his grief, his pride in his people supersede his own personal pride as warrior and prince—is not the same man who fought Goku on Earth. That man is in pieces, and Vegeta will spend every moment for years afterward trying to put him back together with saltwater and desperation. We meme on how death means basically nothing in Dragon Ball, but I go nuts thinking about how, intentionally or not, Toriyama managed to twist that to work with Vegeta’s development.

Because now Vegeta has to reckon with his many abject failures for longer than the few minutes before sweet oblivion, you see. Now it all matters again. As long as he’s alive, he’s still being taken from.

(Bulma’s one of the few—if not the only—person to simply give him something without coercion, or prompting, or obligation. Certainly the first we see. She had every reason to tell him to fuck off, really. She didn’t have to offer him a place to stay.)

Vegeta has a transitive hierarchical logic on strength, which comes up again towards the end of Cell that I’ll touch on when we get there, but for now it will suffice to say that in order to keep moving forward, he has to readjust his purpose in life to focus solely on beating Goku. If he beats Goku, then he beats Freeza, since Goku beat Freeza. Step one, obviously, is attaining Super Saiyan. And he’s so fucking committed to that that he unwittingly locks himself out of it, up until he leaves partway through the three year gap before the androids.

I could write another entire essay on how Super Saiyan can be read as a trauma response and how it differs between all the Saiyans in Cell saga (and especially about Goku on Namek), but this is surely already more than you bargained for when you opened this can of worms, so, Vegeta. When I think of Vegeta’s awakening to Super Saiyan, I tend to default to the original dub’s take (ep129), because it has lived in my head rent free since I saw it and it will not give me peace.

Take this part of my rambling with a grain of salt, I know I’m about to get a little ‘it’s not that deep’ about it, but. Here’s my interpretation of this. Vegeta only attains Super Saiyan once he has done away with distractions—not entirely because now he can focus on nothing but his training, but because he’s inadvertently given himself space to even begin to process all the shit from the last 25 years of his life, even if he fights it every step of the way as weakness. All the self-hatred, yes, but also the aforementioned frustration, the grief, the anger. The helplessness. ‘I didn’t care if I lived. I didn’t care about anything.’

Ultimately the trigger to Super Saiyan is a single moment of all-consuming emotion, so whichever thread of canon you personally subscribe to, the facts are that something happened in Vegeta out there in the middle of nowhere space. And he returns to Earth riding high. I’m not gonna lie, he’s rocking some seriously manic energy when he shows up to waste Android 19, and honestly why wouldn’t he be? He’s latched onto this new power and he doesn’t have to feel anything else. Things are finally going right. He’s invincible. He’s the king again. This is The Way Things Are Supposed To Go.

…

…right?

Super Saiyan is supposed to be a solution for Vegeta, and instead it eventually turns itself into a problem during Cell and the androids. To be fair, he can’t misestimate the strength of an opponent he can’t sense in the first place, but even so, he’s so blinded by the euphoria of succeeding for once in his goddamn life that he can’t imagine that anything can be stronger than him. Androids 17 and 18 are a rude fucking awakening. They are the ultimate pulling-the-rug-out-from-under-you vibe check. All those pieces that he struggled so hard to put back together, kicked apart again without thought or effort. He has a bit of a crisis over it, understandably.

In the interest of brevity, I’m glossing over the intermediary parts between Vegeta coming out of the time chamber (wish we had more info on what transpired in there, personally) and the tail end of the Cell saga, because it’s something of a repeat of what he did with Freeza, except he’s using Goku’s ‘let Freeza power up to 100% to hammer home his superiority’ logic. I made a previous post on my main blog about the post-Cell part of Vegeta’s character arc, which I’ll copy down here with some minor revisions:

The hell of Vegeta swearing to never fight again is that he actually follows through, at least in the beginning.

There are seven years between Cell and Buu. In every version of the media I’ve gone through—English manga, uncut dub, uncut JP, Kai dub—Bulma says that Vegeta has trained the last five years before the tournament. Which can only mean that there was a two year gap right after the Cell Games where he didn’t train at all.

And like. Can you really blame him. His purpose in life has been cut out from under him not once but twice, first by Goku attaining Super Saiyan and avenging their people by killing Freeza, and then by Goku’s decision to stay dead and deny him the opportunity to surpass him. His strength has proven insufficient time and again no matter how hard he works, overshadowed by that of a boy half his age, who doesn’t even like to fight. His pride hinges on both of those things and even before that was mercilessly trampled on. He has no people. No planet. No purpose, power, or pride.

I really do think the only things keeping him going by this point are inertia and spite. Almost without doubt, this is the absolute nadir of Vegeta’s existence: at least, the nadir for the man he thinks he has to be, or can’t reconcile not being. If he has nothing, if the last things tethering him to his supposed innate nature (to borrow a line from this fic, shameless plug,) are torn away from him, what is left for him to do but accept defeat and submit to change?

What he doesn’t know yet is that that’s okay. He doesn’t know yet, but the seven years that Goku is no longer a presence in his life is perhaps the best thing Goku could have possibly given him. Without Goku physically there to be actionable on (for lack of a better phrase), new things can grow in the spaces where his animosity and aggression burned holes in him. Even if Vegeta is still nursing the embers of that blaze and ignoring the encroaching growth as hard as he can, he is still beginning to care about things that the old him wouldn’t. (coming back to Vegeta’s logic on strength: to Vegeta, Gohan’s victory over Cell is also Goku’s victory, and Trunks’ loss is his own loss. Bulma mentions to Gohan that he’s dead set on making Trunks stronger than him, and why would Vegeta care about that goal specifically unless Trunks’ victory over Gohan is also Vegeta’s victory over Goku?)

And then.

And then all of a sudden, Goku is back in the picture. And when he comes back, so does the Vegeta from before, like a relapse.

Because as much growing as does, he still has seven years to gnaw on the same question he has been for ages now. Why is Goku so much stronger than he is, being what he is? Why is he so inadequate? There is now a window, fleeting as it may be, for Vegeta to get some answers he had no reason to assume he’d ever get. There is now the terrible possibility that he can make things go The Way They Are Supposed To Go. And Goku’s willing to let him take that shot and get those answers, right up until the whole business surrounding Buu disrupts everything and then he isn’t anymore.

Because the thing is, they were scheduled to fight each other before anybody else. Vegeta was not supposed to see the gap between himself and Goku until he was experiencing it firsthand. Picture for a minute the timeline in which the tournament plays out normally. Goku and Vegeta fight, Goku wins, and then Vegeta’s only recourse is to demand answers from Goku—who would surely give them, to the best of his ability!—or to come to his own conclusions and act from there. Either he makes peace with affairs, uneasy as it may be, or he blows up immediately, and Goku is there to stop him before he gets too out of hand. Instead, what happens is that he’s given the opportunity to realize that he’s still inferior, he still doesn’t understand why, and most importantly, that there’s a third option open to him. At the cost of his will, there is a way.

Submitting to Babidi to force Goku’s hand and close the gap is the act of a man who knows that he is running out of time. Whatever pride Vegeta still has would not possibly have allowed this unless he was so desperate for closure that he couldn’t see another way. For ten years he’s been trying to rebuild a sandcastle below the high tide line, and it’s not that he’s too stupid to move farther up so he isn’t freshly shattered at every pass—it’s just that trying to power through in the face of futility is literally all that he knows to do. He has been coming apart stitch by stitch ever since he met Goku, his worldview and his preconceptions of destiny and self dissolving in slow motion under his feet. Goku will only be here for a day. This is the last chance he has, and he knows it. He knows he’s not going to see Goku in the afterlife, even before he asks Piccolo.

What the fuck else was he supposed to do?

The music in the background of this scene is ‘Trapped Between Past and Present’ and if that doesn’t sum up the backbone of Vegeta’s arc in Z, then there’s nothing that does.

The beauty of his sacrifice is that he still has the mark of evil on his forehead when he dies, even though he’s bucked Babidi’s mind control by that point. He chooses the present. He chooses to symbolically and very literally raze his old self to the ground for the sake of all that his new self cares for. That is why the impermanence of death in Dragon Ball works for him. That’s why I go insane over the Majin arc specifically. New growth roots in ashes, phoenixes and sapling trees both.

Super (and end of Z) is where you get to luxuriate in that growth and watch it pay off, and oh my god does it ever pay off. Without going deep into spoiler territory (formally begging all of you to read the manga here), the later arcs begin to address Vegeta reckoning with his personal sins against the Namekians, and those of his race, who destroyed countless worlds under Freeza. Vegeta and Beerus have a conversation in chapter 69 of Super where things I’ve described in this here essay are worded explicitly into the canon. I think of it to this day. I think of all of the things Vegeta does in Super and I think it’s incredible just how far he’s come.

Before creation comes destruction.

Alright that’s enough pretentious meta. Here’s Vegeta being very happy about a well-earned victory. Isn’t he so fuckin’ cute.

*ep85, or 41 if you prefer Kai

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Most Horrible DBZ Fight?

Whenever I watch the Videl vs Spopovich fight, I see all these comments about how it is the most brutal fight in DBZ. I think people only say that because Videl is a girl. Because this fight

Can't be compared to this fight

As much as I feel sorry for Videl and as much as Vegeta was still a selfish jerk in the namek/frieza saga, the comparison is not even close.

Let me explain!

History between combatants

Videl has no history with Spopovich. He is almost a nobody to her. The dude hates her dad because Mr. Satan beat him in a fight. He hurt her to get sick revenge on her dad. Nothing deeper than that.

Frieza and Vegeta have a rich and terrible history. Frieza is the monster who destroyed Vegeta's planet when he was 5. Still a kid. He worked in Frieza's planet trade organization, believing the lie that his home was destroyed by a meteor or asteroid or something like that. While Frieza humiliated him, he also had a kind of sick fondness for Vegeta. You can interpret this fight as Vegeta's attempt to overcome his abuser, in addition to proving himself as the super saiyan of legend. This gives the fight way more emotion and meaning compared to the Videl fight which basically just had shock value going for it.

Power Imbalance

Vegeta was doomed from the start, even with his Zenkai boost. Frieza toyed with him from beginning to end. Towards the end of the fight, Frieza drops all pretence of a battle and just wails on Vegeta like a punching bag.

With Videl, Spopovich was the underdog in the fight at the start. She was holding her own and she even landed a killing blow. She began to lose due to stamina. If Videl had fought smarter and tried to end the fight with a ring out, she would have won. If it was not for his Majin powers, he would be dead. But as the fight continued, she lost steam and Spopvich gained the upper hand and began pummelling her.

Stakes

Pretty obvious. The fight with Frieza had galactic consequences. Kami, King Kai and Guru were involved. Planet Namek was destroyed. The fight with Frieza was life and death. Most people in the battle died or nearly died.

Videl's fight was an inconsequential tournament fight. Not even the semi-finals or finals. You can say that's why Spopovich's brutality is so horrible because the context has lower stakes. Which leads me to my final and most important point!

Escaping the Fight

There was no escaping Frieza unless you died or he died. Once Vegeta confronted Frieza, he had no avenue of escape. You can't simply tap out of this fight. Even if he ran away using a space pod before the enraged Frieza showed up, he would be on the run for the rest of his life. Piccolo, Gohan and Krillin literally watched Frieza play with Vegeta because they were totally powerless. All they could do was watch Vegeta's humiliation.

Ultimately, it is Videl's fault that she was beaten so badly. Yeah, I said it! All she had to do was say "I give up" and the fight would be over! But because of her stubbornness and pride, she willingly stayed in a losing fight. Even when Spopovich is literally crushing her skull, she won't give up.

I can admire her resolve but this reason alone is enough for me to say that Videl should not be pitied. And why this fight is NOT the most brutal DBZ fight. It only feels that way because Videl is a human girl and people naturally hate seeing men abuse women. But there are DBZ fights that outclass this one in brutality any day of the week (most Kid Gohan fights should top Videl vs Spopovich just on the basis that Gohan is a literal child!).

The Vegeta vs Frieza fight played a major role in Vegeta's arc. It helped Vegeta respect Goku and motivated him to achieve super saiyan. It also gave Vegeta emotional depth.

Can't say the same for Videl. Her personality did a total 180 after her fight. Almost like Spopovich beat the tomboy out of her. We also never see her confront her dad about all his lies, which partly influenced her somewhat unmerited pride as a fighter which led to her attitude in her fight. What a total waste of potential character development.

[sweetescapeartist]

"SAIYAN-POWER" EXPLAINED

Saiyans have an innate ability that helps them get stronger during & after combat. I categorize them as "Saiyan-Power" & "Zenkai-Boosts." In this post, we'll look at how Saiyan-Power functions based off of what the series has shown us.

For more about Zenkai-Boosts, here's this link.

HOW "SAIYAN-POWER" FUNCTIONS:

Simply put, Saiyan-Power is the ability Saiyans have that allows them to gradually get stronger from prolongued battles. Zenkai-Boosts are the recovery side of a Saiyan's natural abilities that increases their power much faster. Saiyan-Power & Zenkai-Boosts both help Saiyans reach their physical limit, however, the Saiyan-Power ability does not give as large of a boost of power as Zenkai-Boosts do. Thus, the progression of power is impressive, but it isn't very fast in comparison to Zenkai-Boosts. However, the Saiyan-Power ability is still of benefit due to it slowly pushing a Saiyan beyond their limits. Little wonder why Saiyans are a warrior race.

This ability also aids Saiyans in becoming a Super Saiyan IF they are capable of a form higher than Oozaru. And most Saiyans were not capable of transformations higher than their Oozaru form. And if a Saiyan can turn Super Saiyan, the Saiyan-Power ability helps them reach the physical limit of that transformation, then gradually overcome the Super Saiyan limit through combat & training.

"SAIYAN-POWER" NEVER LEAVES:

As stated just a moment ago, the Saiyan-Power ability is one way for a Saiyan to gradually reach their physical limit as well as slowly keep pushing past their limits. Meaning that the Saiyan-Power ability is ever present & a Saiyan will always gradually grow in power while engaging in combat.

USAGE OF "SAIYAN-POWER"

VEGETA:

Vegeta mainly relied on Zenkai-Boosts from his introduction all the way to the Buu Saga. The most sparring Vegeta did was 1 year's worth of training with Future Trunks in the Room of Spirit & Time. We even see that Vegeta copied Goku's gravity training to the point of obsession & exploited his Zenkai-Boosts as he abused & tortured his body until he reached the limits of his base, SSJ, & SSJ2 forms.

Then in DBS, Vegeta relies on Saiyan-Power more than Zenkai-Boosts to get stronger as shown by him often sparring with Goku on Beerus' Planet.

This Saiyan-Power ability even played a role in aiding Vegeta to be capable of breaking through his SSB limits & discovering Super Saiyan Blue Evolution.

Vegeta's SSB power was pushed to its limit by Jiren.

Vegeta's compassion & pride in others triggered the evolution of his SSB power.

SON GOKU:

Goku was shown to understand how Zenkai-Boosts function during the Freeza Saga.

And Goku is also shown to have an understanding of how Saiyan-Power functions. When in the Room of Spirit & Time, Goku taught Gohan how to become a Super Saiyan in order for them to get stronger together from their use of their Saiyan-Power ability through sparring.

Not to forget that he sparred with Piccolo & Gohan for 3 years, so Goku understood the benifit of training with another person very well after he discovered he was a Saiyan. But, of course, Goku always had a training partner or a master to aid in his rapid improvement since becoming a disciple of the Turtle School.

Goku uses his knowledge of both Saiyan-Power & Zenkai Boosts to get stronger. But, as a proper martial artist, Goku makes more use out of Saiyan-Power rather than over reliance of exploiting Zenkai Boosts as Vegeta did throughout DBZ.

And just like when he trained with Gohan to help him control his power and turn SSJ, Goku's intention in DBS: Super Hero was to train Broly how to control his power so that he can push his Saiyan-Power ability & increase his strength by sparring against Broly (& Vegeta) on Beerus' planet.

BROLY:

Broly has the greatest use of Saiyan-Power ever seen. During his battle with Goku & Vegeta, base form Broly was able to get stronger than the both of them within minutes due to his Saiyan-Power ability. He did not rely on any Zenkai Boosts because he never had time to rest and recover. He fought the entire time and quickly reached the extremely high limits of his base form's full power.

Then, since Broly had hit his base form limit, Freeza killed Paragus to trigger Broly's Super Saiyan transformation to push him past that limit.

Then, Broly's Saiyan-Power ability pushed his Super Saiyan form to its limit & he transformed into his green-haired Full Power Super Saiyan form (Legendary Super Saiyan).

THE OTHER SAIYANS:

GOHAN: His Saiyan-Power ability is the greatest amongst the hybrids & full-blood Saiyans other than Broly. The best examples of Gohan's Saiyan-Power are seen in the Freeza Saga (although his dormant potential being awakened aids in his rapid growth), in the Tournament of Power Saga, & in DBS: Super Hero.

FUTURE TRUNKS (DBS anime): He had pushed his SSJ2 form to it's limit and his rage awoke a new Super Saiyan transformation. Then in his Super Saiyan Rage form, Trunks was gradually getting stronger and stronger during each encounter.

PRESENT TRUNKS, GOTEN, PAN, BRA: They don't have much to show for.

UNIVERSE 6 SAIYANS: Cabba, Caulifla, & Kale made use of their Saiyan-Power ability in the Tournament of Power.

[it-came-from-mount-ebott]

Out if curiosity what soul color do you the each of the dZ fighters in dragon ball would have?

Goku: determination, because he doesn’t give up at all, no matter how strong his opponents are.

Vegeta: Integrity, because he stays true to himself, (mostly because of saiyan pride) and is also honest to himself. (An example being at the end of the buu saga when he admits goku is stronger than him)

Gohan: Justice. Justice is a focal point of the great saiyaman speech, and also future Gohan tries extremely hard to avenge everyone killed by the androids

Piccolo: kindness, because of how he took care of Gohan while goku was dead (in his own weird way) and eventually kinda became part of the son family

Trunks (this applies to both present and future, but I’m mostly talking about future): Justice. He talks about making sure none of the androids’ victims go unaccounted for, and calls out zamasu for how he has no idea what justice is.

Krillin: kindness. He makes sure everyone is safe, and also when he had the remote to activate 18’s bomb, he didn’t do it.

Tien: perseverance, he will do anything in his power to protect people, even if he needs to sacrifice himself (examples being with nappa and cell)

Yamcha: bravery, he doesn’t back down from a fight

[plagues02]

Dragon Ball - Queer HCs

Pride Month 2024 - Day 6

Goku is pansexual; he doesn’t care about his partner’s gender.

Chichi is somehow mpsec but doesn’t care to label it. She has a masc lean.

Tien is a trans man who uses he/him, and he’s bisexual with a masc lean.

Yamcha is a trans woman who uses she/her, and it took her a while to figure this out about herself. She’s also pansexual with no lean.

Bulma is a tran woman who uses she/her, and she’s bisexual with a male lean.

Vegeta is a trans man (he/him) and is pansexual. He only cares about the strength of his partner.

18 is bisexual with a masc lean.

17 is a trans man who uses he/they and mspec with a fem lean.

16 is agender and doesn’t care what pronouns you use for him, and it is also aroace.

Piccolo is aroace spec and is very indifferent to romantic and sexual attraction.

Gohan is bisexual with a fem lean.

Trunks is trans masc and use he/they. He’s bisexual and polyamorous

Goten is polyamorous and gay.

[elisajdb]

Caught!

A birthday gift for @gosha-chan and @gokuist

Goku was in a sour mood when he followed Chichi into their bedroom after breakfast. He was in a sour mood for two reasons. One being Chichi didn’t cook as much as she normally did for breakfast.

‘I don’t have time to cook a full meal because of the interview’ she said.

The interview was the second reason for Goku’s mood.

Gohan passed the first stage of acceptance into a private school in Orange City. He got high scores and passed the interview which made both parents (mainly Chichi) proud. Now came the parents’ interview which Goku hated for it meant he had to wear a stuffy suit and answer questions he didn’t understand.

“Ah, Chichi, do we have to?” Goku tried one more time to get out of the interview. “I ain’t good at this interview stuff. You’re good at it. You should do it.”

Chichi reached into the closet for Goku’s suit, shirt and tie. “This interview is for the parents.” She handed Goku his clothes. “Last I checked, you were with me when Gohan was conceived.”

“That was the fun part,” Goku grinned. This wasn’t.

Chichi went back to the closet and sifted through the clothes for her outfit. “It’s only for a few hours and it’s vitally important Gohan gets into this school.”

Goku placed his clothes on the bed and pulled his shirt over his head. “But Gohan’s so smart. You’ve been homeschooling him for years. He doesn’t need this school.”

Chichi pulled out a purple business suit, and a white blouse and hung it on the closet door. “Getting Gohan into this school will put him on the right path. He’ll have the best teachers that will nurture his brain, challenge him, and give Gohan the right connections for him to be a scientist.”

That last part sounded suspicious to Goku. Why did Gohan need to have the right connections? “Can’t Gohan do all that studying at home?”

“And when will Gohan have the time for that?” Chichi asked as she removed her robe. “You’re always grabbing him for some battle.”

Chichi placed her robe in a chair and walked back to the closet in her bra and panties. Chichi might be modest outside the bedroom but alone with Goku, Chichi was very open and confident with her body. She didn’t have a reason to not be. She always kept herself in shape. She did it for herself but Goku knew Chichi also did it to keep up with him physically. She wanted her body as fit as possible to handle the demands of his Saiyan body.

“Honestly, Goku,” Chichi griped as she selected a pair of black pumps with two-inch thick heels. “Don’t you want Gohan to grab some knowledge instead of a punch to his face?”

Goku wasn’t sure about Gohan but there was something he wanted to grab. Two somethings Goku thought as Chichi suddenly adjusted her bra. Three somethings Goku thought as Chichi slipped a leg into a sheer stocking. Four he changed his mind when Chichi slipped her other leg into a stocking. Five he thought when he caught sight of Chichi’s firm bottom when she clipped her stockings to her garter.

I wonder if I can change her mind.

Goku prided himself on changing Chichi’s mind to something he wanted. His good looks and body could be very influential when he was determined. This interview was for Gohan and Chichi had a stronger will when it came to their son, but Goku was confident he could change Chichi’s mind.

Goku made his move as Chichi slipped on her blouse. He put his hands over hers and pushed her shirt to slide off her shoulders. “Gohan doesn’t need that school, Chichi.”

His deepened voice got the effect he wanted. Chichi didn’t move. Instead, she stared at their image in the mirror. He smirked at her with his eyes sending a signal he wanted to bed her. That, too, got the effect he wanted. A blush on Chichi’s cheeks as she whispered. “He doesn’t?”

“No.” Goku pushed Chichi’s shirt down so it slipped to the floor. He rubbed his strong hands on her arms, caressing her in soft strokes before one hand went down her stomach to her panties to rest between her legs while the other cupped a breast. “Gohan’s good on his own and you’re good with the lessons you give him. You’re a good teacher for him.” He dropped a trail of kisses on Chichi’s neck. She told him before how she loved when he did that. She cursed him for remembering that now. “You’re a good teacher to me.”

“I….” Chichi exhaled, “….am?”

“Mm-hmm.” Goku opened Chichi’s bra. While his fingers continued to play between her legs, his other big hand massaged a breast. “You taught me how to touch you to make you feel good.” He could feel Chichi relaxing. He could smell her arousal growing and his fingers got wetter. A few more touches and caresses and Chichi won’t care about that interview.

“Ah,” ChiChi moaned as she felt Goku’s fingers pinching her nipple. She placed a hand over the one diddling with her sex. Her stroking fingers urged Goku to rub faster.  

Oh, yeah. Not much longer now. “Gohan’s out of the house,” he whispered in her ear. He left after breakfast to meet up with Bulma and the others. “Class is in session. Teach me.”

Chichi cried out when that hand between her legs suddenly became heated and massaged her clit. “You wanna stay here… and have fun?”

He licked her neck and rubbed his thickening need against Chichi’s bottom. “This needs another lesson.”

“Mmm, yes….” Chichi panted. “I have to teach you….. a lesson….”

“Teach me…. Babe.”

Babe. Her body trembled. Goku didn’t know what he did to her when he called her that. “Lesson one.” Chichi turned to Goku. She cupped his face and pulled him down to hers. She moaned loudly as their lips touched. She didn’t resist as Goku pushed his tongue into her mouth and swirled inside to taste her sweetness. She accepted his advances before fighting back to battle her tongue over his. Goku let her. Their goals were the same now. He relinquished control as Chichi’s tongue tasted him. Her body pressed forward forcing Goku to step backwards to their bed.

When the back of his legs touched the bed, Chichi pulled back. She was out of breath but her eyes were hungry for him. “Lesson one,” she said again.

“I’m ready for lessons one, two and three, Chichi.”

Chichi smiled. “Good.” She placed her hands on his chest and shoved him so hard he fell on the bed. Goku smiled, expecting Chichi to pounce on him but she grabbed his clothes and threw them over his face and chest. “Get dressed for our interview!”

It took several moments for Goku to understand he wasn’t going to get the lesson he wanted. He pushed his shirt off his face to catch Chichi storming into the bathroom with her clothes and slamming the bathroom door shut.

“Damn.” Goku fell back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. “Guess she’s really serious about this interview.”

Goku didn’t try to put any more moves on Chichi. He knew when and when not to push and the ire Chichi gave him when she came out of the bathroom, told him to not push her.

It’s only for a couple of hours Goku told himself when they left for Orange City. When Chichi took Gohan to the school for his entrance exam and interview, they returned in time for lunch. Goku expected he and Chichi to be gone for the same amount of time. He thought after the interview, they’d meet up with Gohan, Bulma and his friends at the cherry blossom festival.   

But when they arrived for their interview, Goku was stunned to see a large crowd near the school. The lines were so long, it ended four blocks from the school’s doors.

All of this couldn’t be for the parents' interview. Goku thought there was a food festival going on to justify the lines but seeing only adults wearing stuffy clothes like him and Chichi and overhearing them talk about the school confirmed Goku’s fear. This was the line for the parents to be interviewed.

“Hmm,” Chichi looked at her watch. “I guess we should’ve come an hour early instead of twenty minutes. It might be an hour before we start moving in line.”

“Whaaa?” Goku screamed. “We gotta wait an hour?!” There were so many people Goku couldn’t see the front of the line. “How long before we get inside?”

“At this rate, probably two hours.”

Forget being done by lunch and the festival! Goku doubted they would be done by dinner!

“I know it’s a long wait,” Chichi understood Goku’s discomfort. She didn’t expect to wait this long either. It wasn’t like this when she brought Gohan, but since this was for her son, Chichi was willing to put up with any discomfort for his education. “We can do this, Goku. This is for our son’s future. While we wait, let’s go over our interview questions.” Chichi reached into her purse for a list. While waiting for Gohan’s testing and interview to be over, Chichi spoke with other parents and learned of possible questions parents would be asked. “This’ll make the time go by.”

It did make time go by but it also made Goku question the school and if it was right for Gohan. Chichi kept urging him to say his favorite hobbies are reading and sports. They weren’t. Chichi wanted him to say his favorite words are ‘friendship,’ ‘effort’ and ‘victory’ but those weren’t his favorite words. He didn’t have any and he didn’t like he had to lie for Gohan to get into this school.

After another hour of waiting, the time was drawing for Goku and Chichi to be interviewed. They and two other parents were brought to three different rooms. Goku and Chichi waited in Room C while the parents before them were in Room A and Room B.

“All right, Goku. After these parents are interviewed, it’ll be our turn. Let’s go over our questions and answers one more time.”

Goku knew if he brought up his concerns with others around, Chichi would yell at him and force him to cave to her desires, but alone, Goku thought he and Chichi were on a fair ground where her yelling wouldn’t influence him and she will be forced to listen to his concerns.

“I don’t like this, Chichi.”

“Don’t like what?” Chichi thought Goku would be happy. “It’s almost over. We’ll probably interview for ten minutes and be out of here. We’ll get a big lunch when we leave. I promise.”

Goku didn’t think their interview would be for ten minutes. They’ve already been waiting for fifteen minutes in this room. He read the Ki of the people ahead of them. The parents in Room A were still being interviewed. The parents in Room B were still waiting and Goku knew his alphabet to know B comes before C.

“I don’t think this school is right for Gohan.”

“It’s the best private school closest to our home.”

“But if we gotta lie for Gohan to get in, is it a good school?” Goku questioned. “Why should the school care about my hobbies and favorite words? I ain’t attending the school. Gohan will be. Gohan’s a smart kid. It’s his brain they should care about. Not mine.”

He had a point and Chichi didn’t think it was fair either. She was appalled by the questions and wondered why should the parents be interviewed when the child is doing all the work. “It’s the school’s process, Goku. It’s how it is. I don’t like it either but I want Gohan to get the best education possible.”

Goku understood that and wanted what was best for Gohan, too, but Goku didn’t like what he and Chichi had to go through for it. “I didn’t have to lie to get what I wanted, Chichi. I didn’t lie to get you. I didn’t lie to win the Tenkaichi Budokai. Why should we lie about Gohan’s education? If this school can’t take us being honest, then it’s not good enough for Gohan!”

Chichi was taken aback by Goku’s passion. He didn’t have any interest in Gohan’s education. Whatever Gohan wanted was fine with him and Goku always agreed with what she wanted but Goku taking a stance on integrity gave Chichi pause. Was this the right path for Gohan if Goku is questioning it? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, Chichi found Goku’s defiance very attractive.

“All right,” she gave in. Maybe they didn’t have to give a white lie. Maybe they can be honest. “We’ll be honest but try to sound impressive, okay, Goku? It’s for Gohan.” ChiChi cleared her throat. “Son Goku, what are your favorite hobbies?”

Be impressive. Goku thought for a moment and told the truth. “My favorite hobby is martial arts.”

“And why is martial arts your favorite hobby?”

“It’s something I’m really good at. My first memory is sparring with my Grandpa. He taught me martial arts. Martial arts kept me from losing my mind when Grandpa died. Martial arts gave me friends and a wife who gave me one of my greatest joys: a son. I wouldn’t be as happy as I am or have a family if I didn’t have my favorite hobby: martial arts.”

Goku hoped that was good enough. It was the truth but he had second doubts when he saw tears in Chichi’s eyes.

“Oh, Goku,” Chichi’s voice shook as she struggled to control her tears. “That’s the sweetest thing you ever said.”

Goku was nearly knocked out of his chair as Chichi threw her arms around his neck. “Is it a good answer?” He hoped so.

“It’s the best answer.” To show she meant it, Chichi kissed Goku but it wasn’t a delicate, chaste kiss she reserved when they were outside the house. This was a hungry, I want to take you to bed kiss where her breasts rubbed against his chest, where she slid from her chair to settle on Goku’s lap while her skirt rose up her thighs under the push of Goku’s hand as they kiss over and over where she sucked his tongue, nibbled his lips with Goku sliding his fingers to the treasure between her legs.  

Chichi reluctantly pulled her lips away to catch her breath. While Chichi struggled to compose herself, Goku was ready to cut loose. “Martial arts also got me a wife who taught me sex. That’s another hobby I like.” Goku winked at her. “Can I say that?”

“No,” Chichi giggled at her silly husband. “Don’t say that. Your first answer is enough.” She fanned herself. This was getting too hot and she couldn’t cool down.

Goku touched her chin and turned her face to his. “I mean it.”

“I know.”

Chichi saw Goku moving to kiss her again. She turned away so their lips wouldn’t touch but mistakenly put her vulnerable neck in the path of Goku’s hungry mouth.

Oh, no.

Oh, yes.

Goku’s lips on her smooth neck got her pulse racing. His sharp teeth on her sensitive skin made something hot and wild explode in Chichi. Her control was slipping away fast. She didn’t stop Goku as he turned her face to him so he could properly kiss her. When his lips touched hers again, Chichi knew she was done for. This was the kiss Goku gave her when he returned from Yardrat. It was the same kiss he reserved for whenever he entered her. A kiss so potent and delicious she had no resistance against.

It was hard to pull away from this intense need and demand of her husband but catching the school clock on the wall; the posters of land maps and historical figures made Chichi remember where they were. She pressed her hands against his chest to gently push him away when she noticed her blouse was open and her breasts were bare to him. They were kissing. When did Goku open her blouse? When had he unhooked her bra?

“That’s enough.” Goku didn’t listen as he pulled a nipple into his mouth. Chichi fisted his hair and arched her back to drive more of her breast into Goku’s mouth. “Goku….. we’re about…..” Did he have to suck so good?  “…… to be interviewed.”

Goku pulled his mouth off one breast and before licking and sucking the other, he said…. “They’re still talking to the first family.”

“They are?” Did this mean they have time for a quick one?

Goku muffled a moan as he rubbed his face against her breasts. “I can feel the Ki. Two people in Room B and six in Room A.”

That meant they did have time for a quick one. Oh, they shouldn’t but Chichi couldn’t help herself anymore.  

“Be fast,” Chichi told him as Goku removed his jacket while her fingers loosened his tie and quickly unbuttoned his shirt. She pushed the white garment off his body and licked her lips in hunger. She marveled at his rippling muscles for a moment before painting Goku’s chest with her kisses. She palmed his chest, massaged and pinched where her lips didn’t touch. When her delectable tongue swept his contours, Goku’s muscles jumped. Her mouth felt as good as he imagined his mouth on Chichi’s skin when he sucked, licked and bit. Her dark head was going lower where he wanted her to go but time was short. He felt a ki entering Room B. He had to move fast.

“I want you naked.” Goku didn’t wait for Chichi to respond. Impatient for Chichi he pulled her jacket,  snapping a button free. He pushed it with her blouse off her body. A strap of her bra snapped as Goku tugged and tossed it to the floor with their clothes.

He heard Chichi gasp his name when he pulled a nipple into his mouth and sucked hard. One of his hands grabbed her skirt and pushed it up so his hand could push past the delicate lace to tease between her legs. Chichi clenched his fingers as soon as they dipped inside. She was hot and wet; more ready than he anticipated.

“I’m ready,” Chichi told him as she rocked her hips on his fingers. “Ah!” she cried out as she felt his thumb rubbed against her clit. “Please put it in.”

“Oh, really?” Goku slipped a third finger in. He couldn’t help but taunt Chichi. “How ready are you?”

“Since this morning,” she mewled as she felt that third finger pump in her.

“When you rejected me.” He pressed hard on her clit and latched onto Chichi’s mouth to muffle her moaned. It was the confirmation he needed. He thought she wanted him then but pretended to not.

He pulled his fingers out. That was enough taunting. Besides, he couldn’t wait anymore either. He was hard as a rock and needed to plunge into Chichi’s heat.  

“Take me,” Chichi straddled herself against Goku and rubbed against his erection.

Goku grabbed Chichi’s hips ready to lift and pull Chichi on top of him.

“Sorry for the delay, Mr. and Mrs…..” the secretary who would escort Goku and Chichi to the interview room froze at the sight of the half-naked couple. Her file of Gohan slipped from her fingers and scattered across the floor.

Chichi turned her head gasping horrified as Goku screamed, “Don’t come in! Don’t come in!!!” With his hand on Chichi’s back, he pressed his wife closer to conceal her breasts and hide his stiff penis while waving frantically at the shocked woman.

The dark-haired woman flushed embarrassed at what she walked in on. “I’m sorry!” she blurted out apologizing as if she did something wrong. She got on her knees and hastily gathered the papers of Gohan’s file. “I’m sorry, but we had to dismiss the parents in Room B. Their child cheated on the entrance exam. We are ready to fuck….  I’m mean suck…..” she squealed, picked up a couple of papers and shielded her eyes. “Interview you.” Interview. Right. That’s what she wanted to say. She heard the rustling of clothes as the couple hastily dressed. She lowered the papers below her eyes and caught a glimpse of the package between  Mr. Son’s legs. “Oh….. wow.”

What an expected treat on her birthday!

She’s not so bad either. The birthday woman thought as she saw Mrs. Son cover her breasts over her bra.

As she stared, the woman heard Mrs. Son argue with Mr. Son over how embarrassing this was; how he didn’t alert her; and how this could ruin Gohan’s chances when she caught the curious secretary still looking at them. She screamed, “Can’t we have some privacy?!”

The secretary jumped to her feet and scurried out of the room but not before she got an idea on how this wouldn’t ruin Son Gohan’s chances. This could make him a lock to be accepted into the private school.

“So, what happened, Mom? Did the school accept me?”

Gohan thought with a few days of the interview and the incident with Broly behind them, it was safe to bring up the parents' interview and if he was accepted at the private school in Orange City. Gohan knew his Dad left in the middle of the interview and that likely ruined his chances but he wanted to know for sure.  

“Don’t worry about the school, Gohan. You can continue to study at home.”

Gohan took that as a sign he didn’t get in. He wasn’t mad he was rejected. He was happy to continue studying at home but a part of him did regret he wouldn’t be in a room with kids his age. He missed that when he did go to school before fighting forced him to homeschool.

“Okay, Mom.” Gohan accepted that and returned to his room to study with dreams of one day attending school and creating a group of friends like his Dad.

“Sorry, Chichi,” Goku apologized when Gohan left the room. “Guess I ruined Gohan’s chances.”

Chichi waited until she heard Gohan’s bedroom door close. “He got in.”

“But you said Gohan can continue to study at home. Doesn’t that mean he didn’t get in?”

Chichi shook her head. “You were right, Goku. That school isn’t good enough for Gohan. He’s too good for it. They wanted Gohan because of you.”

“Me?”

“That damn secretary,” Chichi couldn’t believe the mess her indiscretion with Goku caused. “She called to say Gohan has been accepted but her loose lips told a few teachers and parents about us. I’m getting calls from parents who want to arrange study dates here. Teachers have been calling to see if we will be attending orientation and all the parent-teacher conferences. The secretary researched us and learned you won the Tenkaichi Budokai. She talked to the headmaster and suddenly, no one cares about Gohan’s academics. They want to create a martial arts class with you as the teacher and use you to get more funding for the school.”

“Me?” Goku pointed to himself. Was Chichi serious?

“Classes are already booked in advance pending your acceptance.”

“For me?” He couldn’t teach a martial arts class! “But Gohan’s the only kid strong enough for me to train.”

If only that was the case. “You won’t be teaching kids martial arts but their parents. Mothers,” Chichi elaborated. “And the female teachers. They are the ones who signed up.”

“Why? I didn’t feel anyone strong when we were there.” Goku rubbed the back of his head. “Why would a bunch of women want me to…..” A look from Chichi answered his question. “Oh!”

“Oh indeed.”

“Well,” Goku chuckled. “You always said I’m handsome. You’re not the only one to notice.”

Chichi rolled her eyes. So much for integrity. Goku was finding too much humor in this. “Oh, don’t you start.”

“But you told me I’m good-looking. So many times.” Chichi’s irritation excited him. “Remember how you constantly told me I’m handsome; how happy you were to marry a handsome guy.”

Who knew a few compliments would cause her naïve husband to grow an ego over his looks? “I’m starting to regret it.”

“No, you’re not,” Goku circled his arms around Chichi’s waist. “You act all mad but you like the attention on me.”

In a way she did and she didn’t.  “And why would I like it?”

“Because you know no matter how many women think I’m handsome, I only care if you do.”

A sly smile curved Chichi’s face. Goku wasn’t wrong about that. “You could be right.”

“Could be?”

“All right, you are. Happy?”

As long as he has Chichi, he’ll always be happy. “Very.”

[ultraericthered]

One Villainous Scene: Defeat From The Depths Of Victory

We all know Vegeta, right? Edgy, haughty, hot-tempered, trash-talky quintissential shonen manga/anime rival to the hero whose driven by his pride, his anger, and his burning desire to surpass the hero? The guy who worked his way up from Arc Villain to Lancer and secondary lead of the franchise, with sort of became a trend in Japanese media to follow? I assume that's the Vegeta we're all most familiar with.

I say all this because that is not who Vegeta was in his initial lifetime. It does make a sufficient deal of sense why he'd become that upon his revival, with his new lease of life shifting gears towards wanting to become a Super Saiyan for real and surpass Goku as the strongest Saiyan warrior alive so that his status as the Saiyan Prince could remain backed with justification and importance to him. But prior to this, back when we first met Vegeta, he wasn't quite the same person as we'd later come to know and love him as. The first time around, Vegeta was a more shrewd, cunning, caluclating, premeditating and deliberately precision-heavy character. He was an ideal foil for Goku since while Goku is known to either think on his feet or not do much thinking at all, Vegeta has a sharp mind and a sense of caution, and as such he can think deeply and many steps ahead of his enemies.

Upon touchdown on the planet Namek, Vegeta's every move was thought out to give himself the tactical advantage over the much more powerful, more dangerous, and more well equipped adversary he was putting himself up against, his own former mentor and boss, Freeza. Impressively, he kept himself ahead of the game this way, easily outmaneuvering and killing both Cui and Dodoria before claiming a single Dragon Ball from a Namekian village he slaughters, hiding it deep beneath the nearby lake. Even when he finally faces a hurdle that catches him off guard and bests him in the form of Zarbon, Vegeta is able to rebound stronger than before, taking all five Dragon Balls Freeza gathered on his mothership, then taking the Dragon Ball that Krillin had just been given by the Grand Elder, and getting his payback on Zarbon in the process. At this point, Vegeta just needed to retrieve the ball he hid in the lake and he'd be able to gather all seven together to make a wish. Eternal life would be his!

Which makes the stroke of fate that followed all the more cruelly ironic for him, as Goku's son Gohan managed to find that underwater Dragon Ball and take it away. On his way to the lake, Vegeta even ran into Gohan in a super tense, menacing encounter that could be a great Villaionus Scene all on its own, but Gohan managed to fool him by not only keeping his newly acquired Dragon Ball hidden, but not letting him know that the radar he was carrying in plain sight was what he'd used to find it. Vegeta realizes too late he's been had, and as you'd expect, he's not happy. In fact, he goes downright ballistic.

Keep in mind I started watching Dragon Ball Z as a kid for the first time during the Namek Saga; I'd not yet seen the saga where Vegeta was the Big Bad at the time I got to this episode. Once I had finally seen it, this moment hit me even harder because now I had context that the last time we ever saw Vegeta get this explosively furious to the point of a full-on meltdown was when Goku had overcome him and bruised him up so bad that he had to see the sight of his own blood for the first time in his life, and he responded by threatening to put enough power into a Galic Gun attack to blow up the Earth. It's funny that it later takes Freeza getting pissed off over Super Saiyan Goku overpowering him to lead to the destruction of Namek, but when you see Vegeta get this ferally enraged over how easily all of his near perfect scheming got derailed by the son of Kakarot, you almost fear he's gonna wipe the whole planet out in a blind rage tantrum! Oh, and that voice acting from Brian Drummond...I dare say it actually surpasses Ryo Horikawa's delivery of the scene. He just sounds completely unhinged in his screaming fury, with the echo in his voice making the moment extra chilling and so unforgettable.

Vegeta losing his shit with anger became a lot more common as the series went on, but back when he was at his prime as a collected and stratetically clever villain, seeing him snap was pure nightmare fuel. ....Provided it was in a scary way, not an unintentionally funny way.