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duhragonball · 3 years

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Bulma

Give me a character and I will answer:

Why I like them: Somewhere around 1998, Kurt Busiek took over as the writer for the Iron Man comic. This was back when Iron Man wasn’t particularly popular and the last two attempts to reboot the guy had failed. I read an interview in Wizard Magazine where Kurt promoted his upcoming run, and he explained the character this way: Tony Stark is a superhero, an inventor, a ladies’ man, and a billionaire. You could have a blast writing a comic book about any one of those four things, but he’s all four. I may have gotten those four items wrong, partly because it’s been 22 years, and partly because it was more famous when Robert Downey Junior echoed that pitch in 2012. Take away the armor, and what is he? A billionaire genius philanthropist.

My point is that this is the appeal to Bulma as well. When we first meet her, she’s an adventurer, but then we find out she invented the device that lets her locate the Dragon Balls. And her mission is a romantic quest, so she’s like the heroine in a romance story. Then we meet her parents, and it turns out she’s a wealthy heiress. Well, I’m assuming Dr. Brief doesn’t plan on leaving his fortune to all of his pets, but you get the idea.

There’s a lot of versatility to the character. Some arcs barely make use of her, but others take full advantage. You can plop her in almost any scenario and it works. You want to write her at a fancy charity dinner? She’d fit right in. You want her teaching shop class in your high school AU? No problem at all. You want her to seduce a bad guy? You want her to shoot a bad guy? You want her to be the bad guy? It all works.

The main thing people dislike about Bulma is the way she treated Yamcha when they were together, and she’s kind of a jerk a lot of the time. Fair point, but I think this adds to the character. If she were sweet as could be and a rich, attractive polymath, she’d be downright insufferable. Also, her attitude plays off of the compassion she shows through the series. I can’t explain her behavior around Yamcha, but she did offer free room and board to the entire population of Namek, so I feel like that needs to be taken into consideration.

Why I don’t: In the first... hundred or so episodes of DBZ, Bulma doesn’t get a lot of chances to shine, despite all the screentime they gave her. Early into my DBZ-watching experience, I found her to be something like a shriller version of TMNT’s April O’Neil, a sidekick whose job was to look cute and get into danger so the good guys could save her. She really doesn’t get back into her groove until she returns to Earth, and once I saw those episodes, and her time in the original Dragon Ball, the character began to make a lot more sense. Really, the Bulma in DBZ #1 through 108 was probably intended to demonstrate how out-of-hand the situation was. She fixed the scouter and then it exploded. She fixed Nappa’s spaceship and it exploded. She fixed Kami’s spaceship and then Namek exploded. She just couldn’t keep up with the crisis.

Favorite episode (scene if movie):

Not exactly any one episode, but one of my favorite bits in the Red Ribbon Army Sagas is that the RRA has their own Dragon Radar, but it’s not portable, or anywhere near as precise as the one Bulma invented. It’s Goku’s biggest advantage during that conflict, and when it breaks, there’s literally no one else who can fix it. Those magic babies from Arale could make a new one, but I’m pretty sure they only did that by copying the design or something. And the RRA assumes that Goku must have an entire team of scientists providing him with logistical support, and that Master Roshi must be their leader, since he’s so old.

Also, near the end of the arc, Bulma needs to call Yamcha on the phone, but Roshi doesn’t have one, and then Turtle suggests that Bulma should just build one from scratch, since she had just finished building a robot drone a few episodes earlier. And she’s like “Oh, yeah, I forgot I knew how to do that.”

Favorite season/movie: The Androids/Cell arc is a big deal because it has two Bulmas, and her son is in it too.

And this is what I mean when I talk about versatility. That Super Dragon Ball Heroes series has two Gokus and two Vegetas, and I have no idea why, because they’re exactly the same, except one pair does SSJ4 and the other does Super Saiyan Blue. Bulma’s got more layers, so in a story like this, you can have 30-something Bulma care for an infant son and tackle logistical problems while she figures out her relationship with Vegeta, while the 50-something Bulma in the future can be this strong-yet-gentle post-apocalyptic survivalist, who hopes for a better tomorrow as she longs for her fallen friends.

Favorite line: I’m gonna stray from the canon for a minute, because I’m having trouble coming up with something, but in DBZ Abridged, when she’s arguing with Vegeta during his training session, they just start shouting “Fuck you!” at each other. Then she stops and says: “My room. Ten minutes.”

And holy shit, the delivery on that line was incredible. I knew they’d try to do something to set up their relationship, but there’s no footage to do that with, so they did it all with one line and some killer VA work.

Favorite outfit: This is a big, big wardrobe to choose from, but I’m partial to the one she wore in the Imperfect Cell Saga.

I can’t really explain the appeal, but I like this hairstyle and the clothing looks like authentic stuff you could actually buy at a store, which just makes it feel more real, even though it’s not any more detailed than her other outfits. I’m not sure that makes any sense. The trucker hat looks cute on her, let’s leave it there.

OTP: You know, there’s a lot of chemistry between Bulma and Yajirobe, and even though it’s kind of a rarepair, I can’t help but-- Okay, it’s her and Vegeta. I’ll stop messing around.

Brotp: Definitely her and Goku. I’m imagining the set up to the DBS Broly movie going like this.

“Hey, I’m gonna invite Goku along on our trip. That way you can fight him when you get bored.”

“Why do you keep asking him to tag along I can’t stand him.”

“Yeah, but I like him and I paid for the resort, so I guess you gotta deal with it.”

“...”

Then he shows up and she sends him on some ridiculous mission to search the ocean floor for sunken treasure or something.

Head Canon: Future Bulma does tech support in Toki Toki/Conton City, because Xenoverse is canon and the Goku Black Saga can just bugger right off because it never happened.

She shows up from time to time to check on all the Capsule Corp tech in the city, and she drops by just to say hi to her boy, and also she has coffee with my Mary Sue OC, because Future Bulma appreciates how tough and cool my writing is.

Unpopular opinion: The Vegebul ship probably gets way too much attention. Not that it’s a bad ship or that it doesn’t deserve the attention, but it feels like a buffet where all anyone gets is ranch dressing. They just ignore the rest of the spread and fill an entire bowl with ranch and head back to the table to drink it. Then they come right back and line up for another helping.

I’m not knocking it. I have a Vegebul calendar in my kitchen. But it reminds me of how the “comics fandom” in the late 90′s was really just an X-Men fandom that acknowledged that other comic books hypothetically existed.

They’re gonna come after me now, aren’t they?

A wish: A lifetime supply of strawberries does sound kind of nice...

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: I hope we’re done with Bulma’s Resurrection F outfit for good. The cowboy boots, no, we’re done with that.

5 words to best describe them: Five would never be enough.

My nickname for them: Don’t have one. Vegeta calls her “woman”, but I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t go over well if I started doing that.

#ask duhragonball #dragon ball #bulma #2d3dlover

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

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Agreeing with Tarzan anon, we know very well who popularized this idea, who lit that bulb in everyone's head. Not just Tarzan, it's also a little bit of Aladin although, for that ship definitely it's Tarzan/Jane. It's very much embedded into everyone's head that Dick was the exotic circus guy whose main trait was acrobatics. I've seen DB fic writers compare him to /monkeys/. Nothing against the animal but. That's racism. The fandom is racist. The canon is racist. It's blatant and everywhere.

And oh god the tone policing in case you dare to call them out! If you ask a content creator to be mindful about their content having racist undertones or harmful for a community that's not theirs be it a different race or sexuality or gender identity, there will be so much excuses and justifications and "You could have said it nicely" "We should be kinder" "I'm making content for my own enjoyment" You know it well. Racism is the biggest problem of this fandom and probably the industry as well.

Yikes, I’ve been fortunate to never see anyone compare Dick to a monkey myself, not that I’m doubting your word or the racist bullshit any fandom is capable of trotting out there, because....YIKES. Wow, people.

And y’know, while we’re on the subject, PSA for other white people who need to hear this: Lose the word exotic from your vocabulary, and any variations of it. THAT I do see a lot, references to Dick and Damian and Cass’ exotic-ness and NOOOOPE. This is racism, guys. It doesn’t matter HOW you mean it, or even if you think you’re being complimentary by doing so, whether you’re referring to features or customs or heritage or whatever.....

Exotic, and other words of that nature, are MEANT to indicate the ‘other.’ The default setting of that form of description is standardizing whiteness, and white experiences and cultures, as empiricial “Normal” and the more you ‘deviate’ from normal white experiences, the more ‘exotic’ you are.

And that is, flat out, racism. Even if you THINK you’re saying nothing but good things about that character, you are still prioritizing whiteness as the ‘true’ human experience, and all others as innately being outliers or exceptions to the rule of whiteness.

That’s gotta go.

All fandoms have their problems with racism, but one I’ve noticed being pretty distinct to Batfandom is that Batfandom likes to think its not that racist because so much of its racism is unconscious and “nice” racism. As in, nobody’s trying to be mean or saying anything all that mean, surely, its just.....observations about various strangeties about various characters that just so happen to all have not being white in common.

Racism does not HAVE to be born of the intention to put others down, it literally just needs to be born of untrue bullshit formed at some point by racist ideas or preconceptions elevating one race above others. Meaning.....the fact that you don’t think saying something that others call racist can really BE racist, because you didn’t INTEND to be racist, you don’t have any problem with people of this race or that race, and thus how can you be racist towards this character when actually you LIKE this character.....

That doesn’t mean anything, because none of that means that the people who FIRST coined that particular racist saying or thought or idea that was then perpetuated enough that you’ve since passed it on without considering all the implications.......just because YOU didn’t intend to be racist by saying it, doesn’t mean that THEY didn’t intend to be racist when they said it FIRST.....just that enough time has passed without enough people calling it out as such, that by the time it got to you, you took it for granted that there couldn’t be any harm in it, surely, because otherwise how would it ever have become this normalized, this common a thought or thing to say, without people objecting.

Well....they did object, probably. Just not enough to drown out the people saying “hey this isn’t racist, stop saying it is” OR just as likely....their objections were met with you or others who said it for similar reasons to you just hearing the word racism and immediately kneejerk defending yourself with BUT I CANT BE RACIST IM A GOOD PERSON.....when that isn’t even the ISSUE. Its “this thing you said was racist” and now you’ve got everybody just weighing in on whether or not you’re a good person and thus racist or not, instead of....whether or not this thing you said was racist.

Which is just one of the MANY reasons tone-policing is utter bullshit, and why I (as some may have noticed lololol) consider tone-policing utter bullshit and am not here for it ever, just FYI).

So like I was saying, a big part of the problem with Batfandom and racism in particular, is enough people are fans of Dick Grayson that they think there can’t possibly be any racism regarding Dick Grayson, when....no. That logic doesn’t track, because again, you don’t actually have to hate or even dislike someone to say something racist about them....you just have to....say something that regardless of intent, is actually racist.

But because its not the OBVIOUS and aggressively offensive form of racism, people are like, we don’t see what the problem is, where the harm is....thus there can’t be any harm. And thus it all loops around and self-feeds this self-assured perception that thus....no racism here exists.

And that’s not how any of that works.

Course, another big facet of it with Dick in particular is how often people retreat into “but Dick Grayson is barely even Romani in canon and all the writing of him as such is racist anyway so how can people be racist towards him when really he’s white” and....I just....don’t really know how to parse that properly, lol, so all I have to say on that subject is y’know, I’m not Romani so its not my place to speak towards how well or not he represents Romani people and thus should he or should he not be considered representation, or whether Romani fans would have been better off if Devin Grayson had never retconned him as being Romani in the first place......its not that I don’t have an opinion on any of that, its that similar to how I could have an opinion on whether or not I think the sky would just be prettier if it were green instead of blue, that doesn’t make that opinion RELEVANT.

So instead, I’ll just say on that front that its just interesting to me how many people jump to protesting that Dick’s basically white anyway because we all know it was just a writer being racist that canonized him as being Romani, so her opinion doesn’t count.......

When many of the people I see trotting out that defense whenever mention of racism in regards to Dick Grayson is brought up.....many of those same people have completely of their own free will....written stories or headcanons or read and recommended and commented on stories where Dick Grayson’s Romani heritage is referenced and made a thing.....completely voluntarily.....

And that’s just....

Hmmm.

Interesting.

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emperorsfoot · 5 years

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Some opinions on Dragon Ball ships (specifically just with Trunks):

In complete and total honesty, my OTP is actually a crossover ship. Trunks with Chibiusa from Sailor Moon. Both royal brats, both time travelers, from a dystopian/destroyed future, motivated to protect their parent(s), SEVERE DADDY ISSUES! ...they have so much in common to bond over and build a relationship on. As far as I'm concerned they're soulmates. They just have to get over the one little hurdle of existing in two different universes. But as far as ships that stay within the Dragon Ball universe, Trunks is my favorite character. All versions of Trunks. Mirai, Chibi, GT, Time Cop, etc. I love him all. So I'm very picky about who gets shipped with him. I hate how after GT the vast majority of the fandom shipped him with Pan. Not only does Pan irritate me as an independent and unattached character, she is too young. Remember the end of Dragon Ball Z? She was a TODDLER when he was 18. There is a fourteen year age difference between them. That’s gross, and creepy, and just no! In addition to that, (as is appropriate for her age) Pan is immature.In GT she’s self-centered, nagging, obnoxious, small minded, petty, and not clever enough to be with Trunks. Mai, I really have no compelling feelings about one way or another. It is technically canon, so I do have to give it some small amount of acceptance, even if I do disagree. I can see how/why she would be a good match for Mirai Trunks. Mai is a soldier and a survivor -figuratively, but in the Mirai timeline, literally as well. She has gone up against Goku and truly understands how dangerous Saiyans can be, but she's not afraid. She sees Trunks as a person, not a power house. Similarly, because of her experiences with Goku, she has a healthy fear but no hesitation when it comes to Goku-Black. She knows she can't defeat him, but she also won't hesitate to support Trunks against him. She is a good partner for him in the Miria timeline. However, shipping her with Chibi Trunks in the main timeline I have very strong feelings about. It is creepy. Lets remember that, while Mai may be in the body of a child, she is actually a woman in her forties (fifties?). She is old enough to be Trunks' mother! Mentally, an adult. Physical ages be damned, SHE SHOULD NOT FIND A TEEN/PRE-TEEN BOY ATTRACTIVE! The whole idea of Mai with Chibi Trunks makes my skin crawl and I do not like it. Its the exact same objection I have to TruPan, just the reverse. I think Trunks and Goten is cute, and I can see them experimenting together in their late teen/early twenties. In their experimental years. But they also grew up together. In a lot of ways they're more like brothers than just best friends, and sometimes shipping them together feels a bit more like incest. They're cute. But, over all, I have to be in a mood to read a Truten fic -even a clean one.

Likewise, I can see why people ship Mirai Trunks with Mirai Gohan. But, again, to me their relationship feels more familial than romantic. I’m pretty sure in the English dub Gohan even calls Trunks “little brother” at one point (its been years since I’ve watched it so I might be wrong about that detail). But it’s kinda hard to ship a pair of characters after a line like that. Certainly they care about each other, of course! But I just can’t see them romantically.

As for Gohan and Chibi Trunks from the main timeline, that one shouldn’t even be on the radar. Gohan is eleven when Trunks is, like, one! There’s a 10 year age gap! Gohan was old enough to change Trunks’ diapers! And I’m pretty sure Bulma or even Chichi would have asked him to help out at some point. I’m sorry, but you can’t date someone after wiping their shit-smeared ass for them. Finding Gohan/Trunks fic in the archives seriously creeps me out! Keeping things strictly within the DB universe (multi-verse?) and not crossing it over with other anime, my main ship for Trunks is Marron.

They are my solid ship. Their ages are perfect. Close enough to not be creepy or even just "uncomfortable". But still far enough apart so that they didn't really spend too much time together as children so they're not pseudo-siblings like Trunks and Goten.

GT tried to make Marron some kind of "wilting flower" having her claim she's afraid of flying, but lets get real for a sec. Do any of us honestly believe that Android 18 would allow her daughter and only child grow up to be afraid of flying? No. Eighteen would want to make sure her daughter can take care of herself. Not just fight and defend herself, but also make sure Marron was never stranded and always had a way to get home. Marron would definitely be trained in ki techniques. Of course she’d never be as powerful a fighter as anyone in the core team, but definitely not the dead weight GT made her out to be.

Also, Marron knows what it's like to grow up with a former villain as a parent. A former villain parent whom the others in their group might still be low-key afraid of or intimidated by. A former villain parent who has used her power for intimidation and extortion -like when she tried to put the squeeze on Mr. Satan for the money he owed her. Marron and Trunks have a lot in common to bond over and use as the foundation to build a relationship. A solid foundation. For a solid relationship.

#trunks #trunks briefs #Mirai Trunks #Future Trunks #dragon ball #dragon ball z #dragon ball super #dragon ball gt #super saiyan #saiyan #marron #trunks/marron #trumar #trunks/goten #truten #ships

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dbzebra · 5 years

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C, B, F, N, S, T, V, Y.

B. Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?

Not really! But some of Trunks and Goten’s interactions are losely based on the type of things my friends and I say to each other. Lots of sarcasm and busting on each other lol

C. What character do you identify with most?

In my writing specifically? I’d say have to say Goten. basically only write the same three kids sooo not much options lol). He’s pretty laidback in the end of z and GT from what we saw of him, and thats what I based his more broadened characterization of him in my writing on. (Most of that stemmed from my longfic starring him on ff.net but thats basically dead now. rip lol)

F. Care to share a favorite hurt/comfort fic?

In terms of my own stuff, then ‘Ghosts From the Past’! Which (to those who dont know) is Goten basically has PTSD from being absorbed by Buu as a kid and has a bad nightmare over it, and Marron comforts him. It has a happy ending at least!

As for other people’s work, this isn’t exactly labeled as hurt/comfort buuut i think it counts cause its really good and ngl nothing else came to mind lol. It’s called Journey’s End by Yoski. It’s Pan focused. Set way past End of Z (written long before DBS was a thing). Goku and Vegeta are getting old and everyone has to deal with that.

N. Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

Admittedly, yes! I’m sorry lol.

A sequel to ‘Not Just A Fling’ where Goten/Marron tell their parents about their spontaneous engagement! i would love to see that! I wouldn’t have the first clue on how it would go beyond “hey were engaged now” followed by Chi-Chi fainting lol.

Also lowkey Ive wanted to write a confession fic (out of everything i havent done that yet lol). I feel like have a good idea for it but at the same time, it would probably come out way too mushy. idk man.

Just those two though. Honestly would be amazing to see more Marten from anyone in general.

S. Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

Childhood friends to lovers is my shit. Idc what series it is, i eat it up lol

T. Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?

That whole Saiyan biting thing to ‘mark them’ as their mate during sex or something. It’s just weird man i dont get it lmaoo

V. A secondary (or underrated) character you want to see more of in fic?

Besides my ‘Golden Trio’ I want to see more Uub stuff. I’d love to see some stuff about him basically becoming a part of Goku’s family and actually see him help protect earth like Goku wanted in EOZ. (GT did that a bit but I wanted more!)

Y. A character you want to protect

I love Pan alot. She doesn’t deserve the hate she gets. I legitmately enjoyed her character in GT.

Thanks so much for the ask!! ^^

#ask #anon #my writing #dragon ball

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itsclydebitches · 5 years

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Throwing some thoughts out there! My issue with Dragon Ball comes from looking at the story on the meta level. I think with each story there is a set of expectations it creates while following it and this is what hinders DB's stakes massively for me. It's rare in the US region for someone to start with og DB, but I did and by the time Raditz rolled around, my disbelief about anyone dying was gone because everything always worked out. (c)

(Rest of the ask under the cut!)

100% agree, anon. Not to start drawing iffy parallels (given its own culture and form), but DBZ does remind me of a child’s cartoon in many respects, in that yes, from very early on it’s clear that everything will turn out alright. There are moments where we think the characters are still invested in death (Raditz, Krillin), but we know it’ll be fine. They’ll achieve that happy ending. Other popular shonen series--FMA, One Piece, Naruto, etc.--all feel like they have more at stake. We also hold the expectation that overall the protagonist will achieve their personal happy ending (get our bodies back, become king of the pirates), but everyone surrounding them is fair game in terms of tragedy. They function more like “adult” stories where tragedy is permanent vs. “kids” stories where it occurs, but is (usually) quickly fixed. (Something like Steven Universe being a newer era of children’s shows.)

I think a lot of this stems from the fact that beyond the first quest to collect the dragon balls, our characters have no goal. It’s just “get stronger” which, as long as you’re willing to introduce new and powerful characters, never has an end. If it never has an end then you’re kinda in trouble if the tragedy doesn’t have an end either. If we had stakes taken more seriously and applied them to a story about someone’s whole life as opposed to a singular quest, then chucked in life or death battles every week... Dragon Ball would be a much darker show--not well suited to Goku’s characterization imo. Which isn’t to say that we couldn’t have gone there, it just wouldn’t feel like the Dragon Ball we know.

So instead the reader/viewer is encouraged to invest in HOW they win, because we already know they will. Or HOW they’ll be revived because, again, we already know they will. The “twists” come in the form of things like how the Tournament of Power unfolds (won’t say exactly in case you haven’t caught up on Super, but if you have think about who wins that), and how death still functions as a different kind of sacrifice: Goku staying in Other World for 7 years, Vegeta feeling proud that this time he gives his life for the Earth, everyone thinking that Elder Kai is making more of a sacrifice than he actually is since we don’t know how Kais pass on yet when he offers his life to Goku (and given what we did know about Buu permanently killing Shin’s associates, that moment does briefly read as tragic. Even if it’s quickly undermined).

And yep, the dragon balls/the gods change as needed to maintain this “It’ll all turn out okay” structure and for the most part we accept them functioning as pseudo-plot devices because that’s how Dragon Ball works. It’s built into the show’s DNA. If we suddenly stopped that we’d, again, have a very different show that didn’t feel much like our franchise. Personally, in today’s day and age I find Dragon Ball refreshing in its optimism and reassuring victories. It’s nice to watch one action/adventure show where I’m not constantly on the edge of my seat, wondering who the creator will kill off/torture next and how pissed the fandom will be about it... The only real “death” in Dragon Ball are those characters Toriyama doesn’t know what to do with anymore. The ones regulated to the background.

(But yeah, even beyond this function there are still the kind of presumed plot holes you’d expect of any powerful object. Why doesn’t Vegeta wish back the Saiyans with the dragon balls? Why not just wish yourself more powerful? There are actually answers to things like this, but they lie in characterization not overtly explained on screen. i.e. Being a survivor is a huge part of his identity, no one would be satisfied without achieving that power on their own, etc.)

#DBZ #Dragon Ball Z #Dragon Ball Super #mymetas #Anonymous

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raifuujin · 7 years

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I agree with you on Shinichi's and Kaito's characterizations being usually ooc in the fandom perspective (not saying it's wrong either, everyone has the right to have their own understanding and see a character however they want to) But Shinichi as an introvert who is always oblivious and doesn't like attention / Kaito as this extroverted pervy and somehow seemingly sexually experienced guy (even tho he has no experience at all) feels off. How do you usually characterize Shinichi and Kaito?

Well, I don’t really write Shinichi too often. I’ve written him as Conan a couple of times, and while one of those times he was off on his own, that was purely for the narrative because everyone else had made excuses to go off on their own to plan a surprise for him. By default, I wrote him expecting to play soccer with the DB, and he was more surprised when they all just left him alone. He’s okay on his own, but he does enjoy being with others. Usually. He might complain sometimes if he’s really just not interested in what they have planned. ( Like ghost hunts. He’ll go along with it, but he won’t be into it at all. )

Kaito I’ve written for a lot more, and I know that I play him off as largely on his own and not planning for a whole lot. I do refer to him as ‘my Kaito’ because I know I’m not really writing canon. He can show interest in people, but doesn’t actually plan on asking anyone out. And while I maintain that he’s not extroverted, he’s perfectly fine going up and chatting with strangers, though if he starts an interaction, there’s usually a reason behind it. Even if the reason is simply ‘they look down, maybe I should cheer them up’. He can be callous, but usually due to some amount of obliviousness, and tends to regret when he upsets someone. ( And only really cool with people he doesn’t like much, though he usually still tries to play a fool for a while. ) He might not apologize right away, but he does try and diffuse the situation by some means, even if it’s through self depreciating humour (usually around Aoko). Overall remains nice and friendly, but don’t upset him because he wouldn’t hesitate to get revenge or, for more dangerous situations, get violent. And as I have had ship threads in rp, I can say my Kaito has only been overly friendly/flirty with... himself, usually. With a mindset of knowing the things another version of himself would probably have gone through, and more than half of it is all teasing. When someone does ask him out, he gets pretty hesitant and has to consider for a while. ( Though in rp, there are experiences outside of canon to justify whichever decisions he makes. )

#Anon #Basically I try to do a hybrid #Usually whatever canon would do #And then situations that you'd have no idea would go in canon would be based on what you know of the character #I think times I've written Shinichi were decent #My Kaito that I rp I know is nicer than canon #Because I latch on to the times he's gone out of his way to help people that he's met #Which are usually people he identifies with on some level; while I just do a nice Kai in general #Specials episode 1; kid trips in front of him and starts crying #He immediately goes to reassure him and does a little magic and gives the kid a toy #I like that Kaito so that tends to be what I do #As opposed to older manga; skirt flipping; locker peeping; /bath/ peeping Kaito #Who antagonizes Aoko about her dad not having the skill to catch anyone #Mine has a lot of empathy and some knowledge of how he acts and what he does #So some guilt hitting him about being Kid at times as well #Good luck getting him to admit that he's kinda blindly following his father's footsteps though #Anonymous

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blog315 · 7 years

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Fans & Amateurs

Game of thrones has an enormous fan base, in which parts of it have evolved from the emerging convergent culture into “amateurs and professionals.” This is allowed by the melding of a corporation like HBO’s intellectual property and fan’s abilities to create clothing, videos, websites etc. Jenkins first mentions a spoof fan film which was based on George Lucas and Shakespeare in Love. This film’s dvd, which was released on Amazon, made more money than episode 1 of Star Wars. Game of Thrones fan culture is just successful as Star Wars fan culture. The accounts I am following are part of this “participation culture” phenomenon. However, I feel that we as a fan community have gone beyond simply participating. In some ways, accounts like the ones I am following, spoof videos that are making rounds on the internet, podcasts, and shows like “After the Thrones,” which did a season on HBO during season six, are keeping Game of Thrones relevant and at the forefront of our minds between seasons and books. Of course there are fans of the show or books that don’t need to anyone to keep GoT relevant, because they are so into it, but there are millions of others that are probably way more involved than they would have been had there been no fan community pushing out material on social media.

What is kind of amazing about Game of Thrones is that it is a fan venture. DB Weiss and David Benioff were two men (with obvious experience in the “industry”) that went to George RR Martin and asked if they could make his books into a show. Perhaps that’s why the show is so good, I always find that fans of source material do better work and more justice to the books they are adapting than “corporate guys” trying to make a buck. Look at Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. The films that are the weakest here are the Harry Potter franchise, because the producers, more than anything, saw Potter as a money sign. They weren’t fans. When Fuchs talks about corporations always being in control, he might be right, but when it comes to certain aspects of this world and this industry, the executives ARE fans, but with a lot more resources and money than the fans making youtube videos. But who is to say even those people won’t be the next big guys in entertainment.

Youtube channels like Alt Shift X are actually making money off Game of Thrones. Apparently, for every million views, they get paid $2000. I don’t know when intellectual property laws come in here, because his account is allowed. So are others who are simply showing clips of GoT, and those who are creating spoof videos and birthday rap battle videos with these characters. But when a 13 year old girl created a piece of art that stated “winter is coming,” and became involved with redbubble, HBO felt the need to step in. I mean, to be fair, HBO and Martin don’t own winter. Winter is coming right now. It’s Fall. I think the corporations in this case are just choosing their battles. Or maybe to some degree, it’s just too big for them. Season 7 of Game of Thrones was pirated over one billion times, not to mention there were more leaks for that season than I have ever seen for anything.

So what is a fan, amateur and professional in these contexts? Well, I consider myself a fan, unless someone starts paying me for this blog, then I guess I’ll be promoted to amateur. I’m this world of fandom, you have to do more than simply participate in the culture to be an amateur. So many of us have Facebook fan pages, instagram fan pages, videos, blogs etc. but if they’re not getting any views, I don’t think we count as amateurs. To be an amateur, you have to put something out there that people see and experience. To be an amateur is inherently to be a beginner of something. So a beginner of what? What are you heading toward? People like Alt Shift X put out 4-5 videos a month. That’s around 8-10 thousand dollars a month. Is he an amateur or a professional? I mean, he’s making 100K a year, but he’s not adding anything to the production. He is simply recycling the books and show into his own analysis. Maybe to be a professional, one has to produce something original or partially original. To me, with this genre, mass and popular culture are kind of interchangeable or at least blending together. One is producing and one is consuming, but then the consumers are in turn producing and the original people who produced material are consuming that. Like HBO giving us GoT, but then also employing fans to put on a show once a week to nerd out on each episode. It’s pretty amazing.

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duhragonball · 3 years

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Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

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I guess I should provide my hottt takes on the new DBS movie. A few days ago, they did this video for Comic Con announcing the title of the movie and teasing some details about the story.

I gotta say, this is exactly why I’ve never had any interest in Comic Con. They put this on YouTube, I guess because of the pandemic, but any other year they would have gathered an enormous crowd and made them stand in line for hours to watch all of this in person. I live in the Midwest, and when I went to comic book conventions it was for the sole purpose of rummaging through back issue bins. SDCC was always promoted like the biggest and most important convention in the U.S., but all I ever heard about it were trailers for movies and TV shows. Or, like, you had to go to Comic Con because that was the only way to get an exclusive Orange Lantern Hal Jordan action figure or something. They would always hype up all of this useless stuff and I just never heard of anything so important that I was willing to fly out to San Diego and stand in line for three hours for it. So now SDCC peels back the curtain with this video, about something I’m fairly interested in, but it’s really not that big a deal. I found out most of the information on Twitter before I even knew to watch this video.

But I’m just not that hyped about trailers or sneak peaks or sneak peaks at trailers. Which is probably why I waited this long to talk about it.

I’ll just go through the video. The first four minutes are Hironobu Kageyama performing “Cha La HEAD Cha La” live on the stage. That’s a pretty epic way to open this, but I feel like it oversells the importance of this event. You finish watching him and you think you’re about to see the movie itself, instead of hearing from the people who made it.

Next we have Sascha, the host of this panel. He speaks better English than I do, but I’m not sure what the point was in having any of this in English since he has to talk to the guests in Japanese. Pretty much all of the important information in this video is in Japanese, and I think everyone understood that going in. I guess it does give an international feel. If I spoke another language as fluently as Sascha, I’d want to show it off too.

4:56 is where Masako Nozawa comes out, and she’s just a joy to watch. She looks like this sweet grandmotherly figure, all warm smiles and then she busts out “Ossu! Ora Goku!” and immediately sounds like a badass.

Guest #2 is Akio Iyoku, Toriyama’s editor. Not to be confused with the awesome editor who poo-pooed all the androids and Cell’s semiperfect form. That was Yu Kondo. Iyoku comes out dressed like Goku, but he can’t talk like him so he’s immediately second-tier.

Guest #3 is Norohiro Hayashida, Producer from Toei Anaimation. He is also rocking the Goku cosplay, which would be a faux pas in most fandoms, but he can just say that he’s cosplaying as Krillin or Yamcha, which gives him greater nerd credibility because those are more obscure references.

Around 8:30 we really start getting into this, and they show us a model sheet of Piccolo. Is Piccolo being in the new movie a big surprise? He had a dry spell in the mid-90s, but he’s been in every Dragon Ball movie made in this century so far. And it’s not like they changed his look, like when they put Goku and Vegeta in those adorable coats last time. I’m not complaining about any of this. It’s nice to see that a) Piccolo is confirmed for new movie and b) they didn’t tinker with his appearance.

All I’m saying is that they only brought up this model sheet to show off how they’re using his color scheme from the manga as opposed to the anime. Hence the red belt and the yellower arm sections. In the anime, the belt was always blue, and his biceps were hot pink instead of off-yellow. But it’s such a subtle thing that even Sascha didn’t pick up on it. It’s like they were hyping up the fact that it’s such a minor change. I like it, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a weird flex. Also, he looks like he still has his five-fingered anime hands, so I’m not that impressed. Give us four fingers, Toei!

Sascha asks Masako Nozawa what she thinks about Piccolo and she just starts off with “He was Gohan’s teacher,” and talks about how strong and cool he looks. She speaks of him like he’s a family member, because she’s awesome.

Next up, we have Pan, and now we’re talking. The scuttlebutt is that this was the character Toriyama was referring to when he spoke of an “unexpected character”. And I guess Pan fits the bill, since I don’t think anyone expected her to be this old in the movie. I understand this is her kindergarten uniform, so she’d have to be about five or six years old. I love Masako Nozawa’s reaction here. Throughout this video, you can see that Goku and Gohan aren’t just roles to her.

I’ll put on my fanboy hat here and point out that Pan’s age may imply that this movie takes place after the final episode of Dragon Ball Z. She looks older here than she did when she fought Wild Tiger, at any rate. So far, the entire Dragon Ball Super franchise has been set during the ten-year gap between the Buu crisis and the finale of Z. So everyone has been wondering if DBS would move beyond End of Z, or whether Akira Toriyama even still recognizes the continuity of those final chapters. They were supposed to be ten years of peace, but all the battles in DBS say otherwise. Also, I’m pretty sure Pan and Bulla’s ages in the DBZ finale don’t line up well with their appearances in Super, but I’ve never studied it very closely.

So this might be set post End of Z, or this might be Toriyama retconning End of Z altogether. I’m interested to see which way this goes.

Here’s Krillin, still working for the police, although his uniform looks more like Bronze Age Lex Luthor than anything else. Like Piccolo, the “big” story here is that he’s been tweaked to resemble the coloring in the manga, so his sclera are now white instead of fleshtoned.

Never mind that, here’s Piccolo’s house. This is probably the breakout star of this video, because I think everybody is excited to see Piccolo’s house. Because it’s new lore! No one even knew if he had one or not. It was a running gag in DBZ Abridged that he was homeless. I mean, congratulations to Krillin for getting his eyes colored in right, but that doesn’t tell me anything new about the character. But Piccolo’s house is a big friggin’ deal. What’s inside of there? What’s on the second floor? Check out his mailbox. What kind of mail does he get? It’s exciting.

Nozawa even points out that she and her co-workers would talk about this sort of thing in the recording studio. That’s a big deal to me, that the voice actors think about the same kind of stuff that I do as a fan.

Around 15:30, they start talking about Toriyama’s commitment to the making of this movie, which seems like a weird thing to focus on, because he wrote the screenplay to the last two movies. Did anyone think he was stepping back? I get the impression that there’s still some hard feelings about the failure of Dragon Ball Evolution, in the sense that they want to reassure everyone that we’re still in good hands. I suppose one of these days, Toriyama won’t be as heavily involved in a project like this, so maybe it makes sense for Toei and Shueisha to make it clear that today is not that day.

On the other hand, Toriyama was just as involved with Broly as he was with Resurrection F, and Broly was a much better film. The Dragon Ball Super manga seems to have revived the old argument over who’s to blame when the story is a letdown, and I think that misses the point. Look, the Zamasu arc sucked, and I don’t care who wrote what parts, or whether Toriyama had a bad idea or whether he handed a good idea off that was badly executed. They can hash that out behind the scenes if they want to.

About 19 minutes in, they show us this model sheet, and refuse to explain who these guys are or what they’re doing in the movie. Are they villains? Who knows? I’d like to think they’re important characters to the story, but I have my doubts that Krillin will have a big part to play.

At 20 minutes, they announce the title of the movie, and I’m not very thrilled with “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.” They can talk it up as much as they want, and maybe the title is relevant to the plot, but it’s just too many uses of the word “super”. Especially when they’ve got another series called “Super Dragon Ball Heroes” on YouTube.

Then we get this teaser trailer, or whatever you want to call it, with a CG Goku hopping around and doing his classic fighting pose. Now, for some reason, lots of people concluded that this means the entire movie will be done in this CG style, which has led to a debate over whether or not that’s a good thing. If they can make the whole movie look this slick, then I’m fine with it. Hell, I’m not picky. They could animate the whole thing in Yukio Ebisawa style, and I’d be thrilled.

But I’m not understanding where people got the idea that it’s definitely going to be a 100% CGI movie. They never spell that out in this video, and they even go out of their way to admit that this shot of Goku isn’t actually from the movie. So is there some other source people are referring to, or did everyone just jump to conclusions?

And that’s pretty much it. I don’t mean to sound negative on this panel, but I don’t feel like they revealed very much, unless this is actually going to turn out to be Piccolo and Pan having an adventure by themselves. I think Toei could make a movie like that and it would be a success, but I have my doubts that they’d go in that direction. If this is going to turn out to be another big slugfest with Vegeta, then I’m down for that too, but don’t show me Piccolo’s house if the movie’s going to be about Vegeta punching a guy.

Bottom line: I’m still looking forward to this, but I don’t feel like I know much more about the movie than I did before. Well, except for the part about Piccolo’s house. I’m looking forward to seeing the inside of it.

#dragon ball #dragon ball super super heroes #piccolo #pan #krillin #goku

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