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ecofinisher · 3 years

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Stuff I noticed at Snow Queen Fire & Ice and Miraculous Ladybug 😀

I just had to. Even if it is a waste of time. 😅I've done one a long while ago between Miraculous and Monster Buster Club. This one had to be done as well, all just because of those small, little spirits 🥺😥

To be clear, I’m not comparing it to what is better and whatnot. I’m comparing the similarities between the two. The spirits there made me think of the kwamis? Funny I didn't pay attention to it at first xD But then the fun part came......Three times I have watched the movie and I suddenly began to think......Hmm Gerda has the creation powers like Ladybug and Rollan destruction......Holy brick! They could be the lovesquare as well if they had added more romance into it 😂 How did I not see? (It's because you saw Kristanna mixed with Hansanna you nut)

So where do I start? Well just to summarize the shows for those who don’t know one/both of them:

Short info about both, if unfamiliar:

Miraculous Ladybug is a French animated TV show, that debuted in 2015 and is set in the modern metropole Paris and is focused on the lives of the clumsy Marinette Dupain-Cheng and the famous teeny-model Adrien Agreste. Both wield special magical jewelry, which is called a “Miraculous” which they use to transform into the superheroes “Ladybug and Cat Noir” The two don’t know each other’s identity, but funnily Adrien has a huge crush on Ladybug and in the civilian life he sees her as just a friend, while Marinette is obsessed with Adrien and sees Cat Noir only as his trustful crime-fight partner. Both students are around 14 years old in the show.

As superheroes they fight villains, that were akumatized by Hawk Moth. (He owns the butterfly miraculous, with which he can create supervillains by sending an akuma (Butterfly jinxed by Hawk Moth’s magic) and Hawk Moth’s miraculous sends people’s negative feelings such as anger, sadness and disappointment and uses his akumas to follow them and akumatize them and they’re transformed by Hawk Moth into a specific-themed supervillain.

Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice (Release year: 2016)

Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice is the third installment of the Russian franchise "The Snow Queen" It consisted currently out of 4 movies, an upcoming 5th installment, and a pre-school TV show. The first movie came out in 2012 and was also the studio's very first movie.

Resume from the first two movies is the young girl Gerda, which lost her parents to the Snow Queen makes her way through the entire snow lands to find her younger brother Kai, which was kidnapped y the north wind. With help of Orm, Snow Queen's servant she makes her way up to the Palast and defeats her, saving her brother and waking up Orm's eyes to a "better world" The sequel is focused on Orm's continuation, which makes a promise to never lie again and this promise made a reflection of himself come to life and appear near him, when he had no idea, what to do with life issues. The more he began to create white lies and bigger lies, the more life his reflection gained until he was able to get out to the real world. The reflection, which calls itself "The Snow King" tricks Orm and leads a fight against Troll warriors by sending his ice-made minions. Gerda was the last warrior to enter and make it to the main hall of the palace to miss Orm, which was fading away due to Snow King's existence and he pretends to be an injured Orm, which is warmly embraced by the girl, but then gets frozen by him, not realizing she had fallen into a trap. When things were over for everyone and the bad guys had won, Orm figured out how he would make everything okay by confessing his mistakes, which erased Snow King from existence and unfroze all warriors and friends again, which were angered at the naive troll.

This is lowkey spoiler-free. I didn't want to go into much detail here, but I would suggest you watch these movies, mostly no. 2 and 3, which are really worth seeing. As well you can see the first and see how much the studio had improved since the first up to the 2 and 3 one.

The Fire and Ice one, I'm supposed to be talking about happens a few years later, Gerda and Kai left the orphanage to go live on their own and make money to be able to at least be able to eat. Their last visit didn't make any profit and they took a ride with an old friend of theirs Alfida (The Robber girl) to pass the night by Orm, their troll friend, which had matured and was responsible to babysit the triplets of his cousin. On said night, a Spanish boy named Rollan shows up by his doorstep and is introduced to the visitors as a friend he met shortly. After the dinner ended in a disaster Kai and Gerda split and Rollan followed Gerda to give her rights, then bonded with her from being looking for his mother as well and introduces her to a map with an artifact called "The Wishing Stone" which grants any wish. Gerda agrees in tagging along and together they make it to survive the dangerous tomb encountering the wishing stone. Fact is the wishing stone was something else and this is where the powers of the Snow Queen and the Fire Demon were kept and due to Gerda and Rollan's touch on the stone, it had awakened the spirits, getting the two infected with the powers of said villains. Soon as they find out with Orm what happened, they need to get back to the tomb to retrieve the powers before the north star rises and makes their transformation complete, which means both would lose their soul/bodies to the villain. .

Random info:

1. The most popular franchise of the studio aka knowns for:

Miraculous is mostly know to be addressed as a ZAG animation product, but other known studios have worked on it as well such as SAMG Animation, TOEI and Method Animation.

Currently, the most popular series produced in France.

The Snow Queen 3 is the overall fifth movie released by Wizart Animation and was on its release the studio's best-grossing movie so far. Currently, the studio's filmography contains about 8 released movies (Counting with Secret Magic Control Agency in 2021), Two televisions shows and at the moment three movies are announced to be released.

Currently, the franchise is the most popular one in Russia, which is also where it was produced.

The similarities I noticed:

The spirits

Coal (Up) and Snowflake (Down) (Left Side)

Plagg (Up) and Tikki (Down)(Right Side)

Tikki and Snowflake have female pronouns. Both are shown to be "feminine", kind, lovable, and correct. They're a spirit of creation.

Plagg and Coal have male pronouns. Both are shown to be "male". cunning and curious. They're a spirit of destruction.

All four are able to use their powers on their own. They don't need to be with their holder to be capable of.

Differences:

- Plagg and Tikki are able to communicate verbally with each other and with humans.

-Coal and Snowflake can't speak, they usually use body language and mimic. Also, they do noises like laughing, groaning, speaking, and such.

- According to Tikki, her species (Kwami) don't fall in love/can't fall in love.

- Snowflake and Coal are shown to be romantically interested in each other. They're shown flirting and having little date-like moments, as they're away from their "owners"

- Coal is able to multiplicate. It's unknown if he's able to do it in command or only if he falls or is hit.

The "Alter egos"

Marinette is the face behind Ladybug and Adrien wears the mask of Cat Noir.

Gerda is possessed with the ice-powers of the Snow Queen and Rollan wields the fire-power of the Fire Demon.

Gerda and Marinette share the creation ability, while Adrien and Rollan are responsible for the destruction. They're each other's opposites.

Differences: Gerda and Rollan are aware of each other's identity and recognize each other's faces, despite small differences. Adrien and Marinette don't know each other's hero identity and weirdly have minor differences in their looks.

Marinette and Adrien's personality as heroes is quite different from their civilian ones, while Gerda and Rollan's don't seem any different.

It's unknown if, during the time Rollan and Gerda are under possession, their personalities are slightly altered by the villains or not. Rollan is shown to get quickly tempered with Gerda's friend, when it comes to their mishap, which usually turns into arguments.

The Yin-Yang effect

Power of creation and destruction

Marinette = Ladybug miraculous, the red earrings / Power of Luck (Creation)

Adrien = Black Cat Miraculous, the black ring / Power of Misfortune (Destruction)

Gerda = Ice (Creation) (The ice-blue shape on the crystal)

Rollan = Fire (Destruction) (The red shape on the crystal)

Character A bickers often with character B.

Ladybug with Cat Noir. Most of the moments Ladybug feels annoyed at Cat Noir's puns and flirt attempts during their missions. She had her rude moments, but deep inside her, she adores him. With Adrien's she's currently befriended, but has a huge crush, nearly an obsession with the blonde, which sometimes makes her double life harder and under pressure, she has taken choices, which led to ungood consequences.

Gerda with Rollan. Rollan's seems more relaxed with pressuring into retrieving the powers back, unlike Gerda. Rollan's easy tempter with Orm, when he's blamed for his issues annoys her as well. Gerda has shown interest in Rollan since the night she has met him and they bonded over the night when heading to the forbidden Tomb. Rollan has shown interest in her as well, but not as much as her.

"Buttmonkey Sidekick"

Cat Noir and Rollan.

Cat Noir - Thrown around by villains at billboards, yeeted by his own dad at the fricking Eiffel tower, sometimes risked his life to protect Ladybug and get wrapped up into odd situations.

Rollan suffered a few nutshots (One by himself as well), survived a very dangerous tomb, had his head frozen by Gerda accidentally, managed to step-dance in the middle of a shoot-out without getting hit by a bullet, accidentally (Or not) uses firepower with help of his butt. (Sounds ridiculous? There' the picture 😂) Press R for respect.

Naturally handsome boys.

Cat Noir and Rollan.

With and without "masks".

Don't think before acting

Cat Noir and Rollan.

Characters look the same

Gerda and Ladybug

Gerda has additional makeup on her face.

Characters look differently with their alter egos

Cat Noir and Rollan

Cat Noir has a wilder hairstyle and has cat-like eyes.

Rollan has a different skin tone, a fire-like shaped hairstyle, which he can put on fire and his eyes are slightly red-brownish.

The brains

Ladybug and Gerda.

The muscle

Cat Noir and Rollan.

Falling into the darkness

Cat Noir and Rollan

Cat Noir lets an akuma take over him and turn him into Chat Blanc, which destroys the entire world in an alternate universe.

Rollan lets the Fire Demon take over his body at the retrieval of the power and nearly commits genocide of entire kingdom.

Tall boy, smoll girl

Cat Noir to Ladybug

Rollan to Gerda

"Lovesquare"

Cat Noir has a crush on Ladybug. Ladybug doesn't. She has a crush on Adrien, which is Cat Noir's alter ego, which she's not aware of. Adrien sees Marinette as a friend only and has no idea, she and Ladybug are the same person although they look the same.

Gerda is attracted to Rollan since the first time she saw him. Rollan begins to feel attracted to Gerda with the time she's around him.

Rollan and Gerda are aware of each other because they were given the powers in the same place.

Marinette and Adrien were confirmed to be canon and should end up in the 5th season, eventually.

Rollan and Gerda should be considered canon at the end of the 4th part, due to the ending credits showing them share a kiss.

Power font:

Ladybug & Cat Noir: "Magic jewelry" (Miraculouses)

Rollan & Gerda: The wishing stone

Difference:

The wishing stone takes away after 24 hours of control over the power wielders and turns them into the slave of Snow Queen and the Fire Demon. The characters' real person is gone for good.

#how to waste your time #random thoughts #miraculousladybug #miraculous #ladybug and chat noir #chat noir #miraculous season 4 #snow queen #snow queen 3 #the snow queen #снᴇжнᴀя коᴘолᴇвᴀ #снᴇжнᴀя коᴘолᴇвᴀ 3 #снᴇжнᴀя коᴘолᴇвᴀ 3 огонь и лед #snow queen 3 fire and ice

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giuliafc · 3 years

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Betrayal -- Chapter 19 and 19bis: Inside the Mind of a Criminal (snippet dal 30) + Pigella (LadyNoir July day 30)

<< 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – 16 – 17 – 18 -- 19: Ao3 || FFN – 19 bis: Ao3 || FFN -- 20 >>

Betrayal Chapter 19: Inside the Mind of a Criminal

Written by: JuliaFC

Beta: Agrestebug and MyImaginationFlows

Summary: We learn the background story of Lila's father, Richard Sphinx, the new Papillon, and how he's going to be much, much worse than the first one...

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc, TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

TW: mention of extreme manipulative and obsessive behaviour and cruelty against family

Written for the "Snippet July" challenge of the Miraculous Fanworks Discord server @miraculousfanworks

oOoOoOoOoOo

"Well done, Lila. Now head back to the monk and get his staff. If there are more jewels like these, we need to get our hands on them!" Richard sat at the desk of his office, staring at the nothing in front of him. His elbows pinned on the wood of the desk, his face resting on the length of his hands. His body was wrapped in a purple and grey suit and a grey mask covered his face, making his green eyes shine.

Briefly, he broke contact with Lila's akuma and stood up; he slowly paced the room to the fireplace. His gloved hand picking up a photograph on the mantle, portraying a woman with short brown hair wrapped in an elegant blue tailleur.

He still remembered the day he'd met Melania, Lila's mother. She was a petite Italian lady who exuded elegance and genuineness at a celebrity party. She looked so out of place, and her cheerful smile was like a breath of fresh air in the hypocrite atmosphere of the ball room. He still remembered his burning passion, how much he'd wanted her—her and all she represented. She was the daughter of a rich Italian family of ambassadors, with excellent connections all over the diplomatic world he wanted to be part of. When his charming politeness managed to raise her interest, he thought he'd hit the jackpot.

Their story had been short but intense, their relationship the final tassel in the puzzle that brought him to the limelight. Before their engagement of 5 years ended, FERG, his company, was quoted in the stock exchange. Quickly rising to be one of the top companies in the market.

Everything was perfect. Then, Melania fell pregnant and had her baby. For reasons that Richard couldn't understand, she somehow started distancing her husband — him. He suspected that the accusations of him having committed several cases of fraud, and having caused several suicides, may have been part of it. But Richard had done it for her. Nobody else was important in his mind. He had to protect his family. He had to protect the people who mattered for him. How could Melania not see that?

"You're a heartless monster!" she accused him instead, when she tried to leave him and go stay with a friend; but he found her almost immediately and locked her up in her room.

The more he clenched his grip on Melania, the more the woman became distant, almost terrified. Eventually, she dared to ask for divorce and deny him the rights to see his daughter.

"His obsessive behaviour is harming me and my daughter! I'm afraid for our safety, Your Honour," she told the judge. "Only the money is important to Richard! He puts his company before the safety of his family."

Needless to say, she won the case. Since then, she kept as far away as possible and had tried to keep Lila away from him too. She had changed her surname to the plain Rossi, and changed her job many times. Until Lila was old enough to make her own decisions, she succeeded at keeping him away.

But Lila was a clever girl. Her thirst for power and her quest for attention were second to him. She knew what was important in life, that power and money were the only things that mattered. As soon as she had gained the use of a mobile phone, she contacted him (lying to her mother). They had been plotting against Melania ever since.

Now it was their time to obtain their aim. When Papillon trusted Lila to be his second in charge, Richard advised his daughter to gain as much information as she could about those powerful jewels that gave him power. Now all that hard work was paying off.

He squeezed Melania's photo in his hands, breaking the frame with his strong hold. How dare she run away from him? How dare she disregard his burning passion?

"You don't love me, you think you own me," shouted Melania when she left him, taking away his only daughter with her. "I don't want you to be a bad influence on our daughter. You terrify me."

How dare she. She was his wife, his other half, his property.

"You're mine. MINE. No judge can take you away from me."

He stared in a daze at the blood flowing from his gloved hands, where the shattered glass of the photo frame had pierced the skin underneath the suit. His eyes gleamed of madness. "I will be victorious. I will get the Miraculous of Ladybug and Chat Noir. And when I have the most powerful jewels in the world, you will come back. You will love me again. If you won't, I’ll force you to."

oOoOoOoOoOo

Gabriel closed his eyes as he placed a single red rose between Emilie's palms and squeezed her hands gently before closing the glass cover of her coffin one last time. He rested his hand on the glassy surface for an endless moment; the hand of Lieutenant Raincomprix falling on his arm way too soon for his tastes. He sighed and gave one last glance at the peaceful face of his sleeping wife.

"It's time to go, M. Agreste. Mlle. Sancoeur," said the officer.

They had spent a long time talking to SentiAdrien in Adrien's room. The boy had confirmed most of the wrongdoings that his teachers and friends had accused Gabriel and Nathalie of, and had pleaded completely non guilty regarding any involvement in his father's terrorist activities.. M. Raincomprix had decided to be safe, and was arresting both Gabriel and Nathalie.

"Mlle. Sancoeur will most likely be released when the heroes witness her double agenting, but better safe than sorry," said Raincomprix.

Gabriel glared at him as the officer moved his and Nathalie's hands behind their back and handcuffed them. He shot one last, languid glance at the blonde figure in the coffin, before having to follow Raincomprix and walk away.

To be continued… Day 30.2 — Bonus chapter

30.2 - Betrayal Chapter 19 bis: Pigella

Written by: JuliaFC

Beta: Agrestebug and MyImaginationFlows

Summary: Ladybug struggles to understand how to win against the vacuum akuma, but Volpina has to eventually face (temporary) defeat. (1687 words)

Written for the LadyNoir July @ladynoirjuly Day 30 — Rose.

oOoOoOoOoOo

"Hey, Vacuum Lady, Aren't you tired of collecting dirt?" shouted Chat Noir as he used his baton to propel himself up. He smirked and added, "Probably not, since you've got Volpina with you. She's the biggest piece of dirt in existence!"

"How dare you," hissed Volpina and the Vacuum akuma at the same time before they both followed Chat Noir out of the way.

Ladybug gazed at the two akumas following her partner gratefully; then she put her hands to her temples and closed her eyes shut to concentrate. She picked up her communicator and dialled Alya's number.

"What's the plan, Ladybug? I saw Chat Noir jumping away with the akumas, I thought he may be trying to distract them."

"You were correct. Listen, Alya, I need you to use the water dragon. Water passes through surfaces so you will reach me in no time," whispered Ladybug to her Bugphone.

Alya smirked. "Right-o, I'm on it!"

Just seconds after their conversation, Ladybug saw water seeping through the barrier of books that towered in front of her. And, in a whirl of magic, Dragonbee Alya appeared in front of her. She wore a red outfit with the symbol of the dragon at the centre of her chest and curvy golden lines separated the red from sections of gold and black stripes. Her hair was combed in a twirly ponytail that looked like the sting of a bee. Ladybug didn't waste time and picked up her phone again, dialling Chat Noir's number this time.

"Chat, bring your whiskers back here immediately, before your transformation wears out!" she said before he could even say meow. With a gracious jump, her partner was again by her side seconds later.

"M'lady called?" he asked with a little smirk that Ladybug would have loved to take off his face with a kiss, but she knew perfectly well it wasn't the right moment.

"Alya, Chat and I’s timers are running out, we must be quick. Use the wind dragon and swoop us out of this alley and back on a rooftop."

Alya's eyes gleamed. "As you wish, Ladybug. Wind dragon!" Ladybug and Chat Noir were wrapped in a current of wind and next thing they knew, they were on a rooftop next to Nino (or rather, Thueban Jameel (1), as he has called himself), far away from the Library Maze but still keeping it in sight. The two heroes hid behind a chimney to release their transformation and feed their kwami without being spied on, and in no time they were up and running again.

"Okay now…before the akumas find us and we get stuck into that maze again. Lucky Charm!" called Ladybug. A red and black polka dotted single rose fell into her hands. "What?" she muttered, scratching her head.

"Are we going to declare our love to a vacuum cleaner?" was Chat Noir's snarky comment. But before Ladybug could say anything, the rooftop they were standing on disappeared and they all fell on the ground, facing yet another massive wall of books.

"Shoot! Here we are again…" cursed Ladybug.

The vacuum akuma reached them as well. "There you are, you fools. Did you really think you could escape? What a bunch of idiots! Tricksters, like that thief. I'll sweep you all away from existence. I wish I didn't always try to help people. I wish my heart hadn't been so kind. I'll take all the tricksters away, so maybe my boss will forgive me. I need my job!"

The four superheroes had to forcefully separate again trying to escape from the strength of the vacuum's sucking power. Before jumping off, Ladybug took a good look at the akuma and noticed that the akumatised object must be a book, which the victim was holding in her hand to create the vortex of sucking power.

Something in what the akuma had said was nagging at Ladybug. As she ran to hide from the vacuum, she went back to what the akuma had previously said: someone had stolen a book from her library and she was upset about it.

"What do you mean by trickster?" she asked when the akuma reached her once more.

A smirk popped on the victim's face. "That liar tricked me. He told me a sappy story about his family and convinced me to lend him the book without opening an account, but in the name of someone else. He promised me he was going to bring the book back in a couple of days. I'm too nice, too gullible. I wish all the tricksters would disappear!"

Ladybug's gaze fell on her lucky charm and her eyes widened. OF COURSE! How could she be that stupid to not realise before? She unified Kaalki and Tikki, becoming Pegabug. Then, with a smirk on her lips, she called for a 'Voyage' and jumped out of the maze, stepping inside the Couffaine's boat.

"Ladybug? Is there something wrong?" said Rose. That was a strike of luck: Rose was in Juleka's room, but her girlfriend was nowhere to be seen. "Jules is in the bathroom, if you're looking for her," added Rose when she noticed that Ladybug's gaze had darted around the room.

"No, I was looking for you, actually." She opened her yoyo and took out a pearl anklet. "Rose Lavillant, this is the Miraculous of the Pig. I need Pigella's help to win against this akuma."

Rose grabbed the anklet and put it on, allowing Daizzi to come out in a buzz of magic. "I still can't believe how cute you are," said Rose when she looked at the little kwami. Then, she muttered the transformation phrase and changed into Pigella.

It didn't take long for Pegabug and Pigella to find the vacuum akuma again, just in time to see Chat Noir being sucked in the vacuum when he got distracted by their arrival. The sound of Ladybug's scream echoed in the empty alley of books.

"You've got another one with you, Ladybug? I'll suck her in too!" drawled the akuma victim. But Pigella's gaze had a determined gleam.

"Why is your heart so full of sorrow? You should rejoice and be happy!" said Pigella with the sweetest of smiles on her face.

"Don't get close to me! I'm going to suck you in!" warned the akuma, but Pigella didn't just get close to her. She hugged her. The akuma was so baffled that she got petrified on the spot.

"Gift," murmured the pink superheroine and in a flash of light, a beautiful scene appeared in between the two girls, picturing a room full of books and everyone loving each other and being nice and friendly with each other. The akuma victim had tears in her eyes.

"Why are people so nasty? Why do people do wrong things, like lying or stealing? I want everyone to be happy!" The akuma leaned in Pigella's embrace and hugged her back, dropping the book that created the vacuum in the process. As soon as the akuma's grip on the book weakened, Ladybug caught it. She broke the book to release the butterfly, which she hastily captured, cleansed and released.

"Bye bye, little butterfly," said Ladybug as the white insect flew away in the sky. Then she picked up the lucky charm and threw it in the air, releasing the kaleidoscope of ladybugs. The instant Chat Noir reappeared, she was in his arms.

"I'm purr-fectly okay, M'lady," said the feline but this didn't stop the polka-dotted heroine from crying.

"Why do you always die for me? I don't want you to do that anymore!"

Chat Noir smiled softly as he hugged her tight, then he broke the hug to wipe her eyes and stroke her cheek. "I'm sorry, ma Buginette. I'll try to pay more attention, okay?"

"This new Papillon seems very dangerous, especially because he has a cunning fox like Volpina at his side. We need to pay even more attention than before!" said Ladybug as she hugged him again. He patted his hand on her back, gently drawing circles on the material of her suit.

"I'll be okay, as long as I'm with you," murmured Chat Noir into her ear.

oOoOoOoOoOo

"I'm very disappointed, Volpina." Richard's voice was tense as he spoke through the ethereal connection of the butterfly. "We were so close to achieving our goal, and now we have to start all over again! I've no time for losers!"

Far away on a rooftop, Volpina lowered her head and closed her eyes, clenching her fists. "I'm sorry, Father! I still have my Miraculous though, and the akuma."

She groaned thinking back at how Pegabug had immediately found the tracker she'd put on Su-Han's bag. She had completely underestimated how strong and skilled the monk was, and she hadn't been able to steal his staff. Besides, Su-Han seemed to have the annoying ability to see through her Illusions, which she really didn't expect.

"I will come up with a new plan to submit to you, Father, don't worry!" she said, seething in a low growl.

Richard's stern expression didn't soften. "You better. Did you get Melania to sign the document I gave you?"

Volpina took a paper from her pocket and looked at it carefully. It was a request to cease school and start homeschooling, signed by her mother. It had taken her much more than just a trick to obtain her mother to scribble her signature without noticing what it was all about. "I have it here. I told her that the school will be closed because of all the attacks and that I would stay with a friend of mine for some time." Pain flashed through her eyes as she added, "I doubt she would have noticed anyway, as busy as she is with work."

Richard smirked, hearing the hurt in Volpina's voice. "Worry not, my daughter. When we make the Wish, she will have all the time in the world to dedicate herself exclusively to us." His smirk widened when he felt the strength of her emotions. "Together we will succeed."

He cackled, and from her rooftop, Volpina sneered.

To be Continued… Day 31

Notes:

Thueban Jameel: "Beautiful Snake", from the Arabic for beautiful, "Jameel" (جميل) and the Arabic for snake, "Thueban" (ثعبان). (Thank you so much to my Beta, MyImaginationFlows, for her assistance with Arabic!) The peacock is the symbol of beauty, so I thought it would fit.

Author's Note

Hey! Here it is, this is a bonus chapter I had to write because the snippets didn't give me enough space to wrap up the battle and all loose ends. It's a second part for chapter 19, based on the LadyNoir prompt for day 30, "Rose". Let me know what you think of it.

I hope you will like it anyway and will leave me a comment. You know that comments are my bread and butter!

You're lucky today because you're getting even the epilogue and the end of the story. So… until I finish updating that, a temporary 'bug out'!

#miraculous ladynoir #miraculous love square #miraculous lb #miraculous les aventures de ladybug et chat noir #miraculous adrien #miraculous ladybug #miraculous #miraculous nathalie #nathalie sancoeur #ladynoirjuly2021 #miraculous fanworks

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bridgertonlife · 5 years

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“I think like, in a way, Tony Stark was always fated to die. And… here’s the thing about our culture that’s interesting. A lot of people get upset about that, when I say something like that. But when you’re a hero, your job is to die. That is your job as a hero, is to sacrifice yourself for the greater good. And that’s what we’re trying to teach people in the movie is that you’re either in it for yourself, or you’re in it for the community. And Tony was in it for the community.

And you know, I think again, as a father, it’s very difficult to watch a character like that have to make a decision, knowing that he has to give up his life at the cost of his daughter losing a father and his wife losing a husband. But that’s what heroes do. And they have to make those tough decisions. And only the best amongst us can make those kinds of choices. We should all aspire to be those kinds of people. So that was why I say that I felt like he was fated to die because, you know, our definition of what heroism is, is that. And he was a very complicated and compelling hero.”

Joe Russo (X)

Look, Joe & Co. because this now is adressed to Feige and everyone else at Marvel Studios... Writers, Producers, Directors...

I’ve been looking up to fictional heroes since I was 9 years old in 1992. I started soon, I know. My first introduction into the selfless, willing to sacrifice for the community hero was a 14 years old japanese girl named Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon who, like Tony Stark, was very human, far from perfect, but had a heart of gold and was always willing to sacrifice herself, her life, for the greater good. Saving everyone else was always her first goal. I grew up with this story, written by a woman named Naoko Takeuchi and brought into TV in an anime series by Toei.

Look, I don’t need you to teach me what is a HERO and what that hero or heroine is willing to do for the greater good. But the thing you conveniently always forget to teach is that part of that heroism is HOPE, hope in a better future. That’s why Sailor Moon was so willing to die but she always SURVIVED to figh another day. To fight the next fight, filling everyone else hearts with HOPE. And she got HER REWARD in the end, after enduring so much pain and suffering, she got to be the one to maintain humanity’s hope and wellbeing forever with the power of her love, WHILE being a mother and having the family of her dreams. So don’t come here to my house to tell me that another ending for Tony Satrk/Iron Man wasn’t possible, don’t come here to tell me that fightingh for the greater good is incompatible with hope.

Because it isn’t.

I’ve always loved the myth and figure of the hero/heroine. They usually are my favourite characters. Sailor Moon, Xena, Spiderman, Tony Stark... Tthat person who devotes their life and actions to the wellbeing of others.

Look, I even chose to be a doctor in medicine as my career choice. There’s no other profession that compares to be a real hero than that one in REAL LIFE. Could you imagine what the life of a doctor, a person that committs her or his entire life to save other people’s life, to comfort others in sickness... Would be without HOPE? Hope is what guides our everyday duty. Hope is what keeps us going everyday. Hope in science, in our capabilities... HOPE.

You stripped your fictional universe of hope the moment that you decided that Tony Stark should die and end his future as a character just like that. Decided that his sacrifice wouldn’t be rewarded, but punished, as his family is the one paying for it. Giving an ending to his character full of tragedy and hopelessness. You teached us nothing more than despair. That your life of struggles and trying to be better doesn’t deserve a well deserved reward. Only misery.

We didn’t need a fantasy movie to teach us that. Guess what? LIFE is unfair, unrewarding, every step of the way. LIFE IS HARD ENOUGH. If you were in a hospital for a few hours you would know just HOW UNFAIR and UNREWARDING LIFE IS for most people. Children dying at young ages, people with nightmarish illnesses I wouldn’t wish to my worst enemy, children that have stayed the majority of their life living inside an hospital...

That is my everyday life. Living with real suffering, and tears and trying to mostly comfort the human beings when they are at their weakest. Comforting people that’s dying.

Maybe your empty, bullshit words doesn’t permeate my brain because of that. Because I know what true human suffering is and maybe it has taken a toll on me and I’m just owerhelmed with it.

At least we all had fictional worlds like the MCU for awhile, fictional worlds were we had HOPE which helped with our real struggles but now, that HOPE is dead, just like the best fictional hero that I’ve ever loved: Tony Stark. And I will never forgive you all for stripping that character, which meant so much for so many, of his off-screen future in happiness. For killing off that HOPE.

The hope that your struggles get rewarded in the end.

#avengers endgame #talk #tony stark #joe russo #about me

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starlight-ascension · 5 years

Text

It’s dark and empty in here.

Not that I mind. I’m used to it. It’s been this way for years.

My name is Cure Echo. Or at least, it was. No one calls me that anymore. No one calls me anything anymore.

I used to love the PreCures. I wanted to be one. I was thrilled when I got my wish.

I should have known.

I thought I could fight for everyone and use magic powers to save people and defeat evil. Only, I never got teammates, and I only got to use my powers three times.

Yet I saw the others. I watched them fight at times, but I could not join in. They defeated their enemies and somehow... I had my transformation item, my desire and willingness to fight, I was right there, watching, but I could not join in.

Was I not good enough?

I finally figured it out. I heard them talking one day.

“PreCure ... viewers ... crossover ... franchise ... merchandise ... characters ... voice actress ... animation ...”

I didn’t hear the whole conversation, but I heard enough. What they said destroyed my belief in everything I ever thought I knew.

I am an anime character.

Toei Animation... The creators of my whole universe. Scratch that. The whole multiverse I live in.

My creators.

They gave me my dream and took it away.

But at first, I kept up hope. They let me fight with Flora, Mermaid, Twinkle, and Scarlet. I met Miracle and Magical.

But I began spending more and more time alone and forgotten in Toei’s basement. I’ve never had visitors. It’s just me and the dust and darkness.

I’ve come to expect it, being abandoned like this. They don’t care about me. They never did.

Nobody cares about me. Not even the PreCures themselves. If they did, they would at least try to get me unforgotten.

Even Miyuki, the girl who remembers Nico from when she was like 6, the girl who was “excited to be my friend”. Ha.

Even Megumi and Love, who want everyone to be happy, to the point of trying it on every villain they see. (From what I heard, this got Love suicide-bombed by a robot.)

I was foolish to think they would ever want me.

Unwanted, abandoned, ignored, forgotten on purpose. Toei gave me my dream only to lock it away before my eyes, leaving me to cry alone.

I don’t cry anymore. I know better than to have dreams now. It was foolish of me to have hope. It is because I had hope that I suffer now. This is what chasing your dreams leads to.

“Hey Ayumi! Brought some food!”

I look up. Enen is standing in front of me, holding a flashlight and a small bag. He must have arrived while I was lost in thought. I open the little bag he has to find a couple sandwiches, a package of chips, and two chocolate bars.

“Oh, hey Enen. It’s been a while since you last hung out here.”

“Well, I’m so busy with my life and stuff...”

“Hanging out with Gureru and the others?”

“Yeah. Did you hear about All Stars Memories?”

I sit up straight. All Stars? But those ended!

“I thought those were over...”

“They did an anniversary celebration one a little while ago with all the PreCures! It was awesome!”

I drop my sandwich.

With all the-

And I didn’t even know about this?

I see how it is, Toei. “15 years of PreCure” celebration and I’m not invited.

In the grand scheme of things, I don’t matter. Toei has been telling me this for years. They created me just to destroy my life and throw me away.

I hate them.

Fusion was right all along.

I will destroy them.

“Ayumi? Why do you have that look on your face? Didn’t your eyes used to sparkle? Why are they all empty and lifeless?”

I stand up for the first time today, walking away from the corner I’ve been sitting in for the past few hours. I search for it. The compact with the gems that I stashed away. I blow the dust off my transformation item.

I swear I will destroy my creators. Even though it may cost me my life.

I pick up the bow-shaped gem charm, once sparkling white, and watch as it loses its glitter and starts to turn black. When it’s completely black, I put it in the compact. I don’t have to shout a phrase, the dark gray light is already appearing around me as my clothes vanish and I resemble a dark shadow until my new dress appears.

Destroying Toei will cause the future of every one of their characters to disappear forever. Entire universes. Entire multiverses. All gone. Including mine.

Is it even my home anymore? I feel as if I’m in some sort of limbo between worlds.

It doesn’t matter. I will put an end to all of it. And I don’t care that this will kill me. After all, I don’t matter.

Toei and the multiverse will pay. I will die and take my creators down with me. And every one of their other creations.

The PreCures will fight me. Claim to care now that I’m threatening their very existence. I won’t fall for their lies this time.

The transformation finishes, and I look at my new attire. Similar to my old dress, only black, with the bow drooping instead of puffed, simple black wristbands with no frills, the ruffles on the top have turned into torn fabric, the hearts on my now-black hair ribbons are gone, my hair is now dark purple and down to my feet, my eyes are black and have no shine or sparkle, and the skirt is partly covered by a layer that reminds me somewhat of Cure Flora’s skirt, only black, pointy, and without bows.

Enen stares at me, a look of fear in his eyes.

“Cure Echo-”

I cut him off.

“Cure Echo is dead. Now will you assist me in my quest, or are you as worthless as I am?”

Enen nods shakily and follows. His flashlight changes, casting darkness instead of light. The cloth bag turns dark red and becomes a hooded cape. There. That looks better on him. I won’t question how it’s being done. All I know is I have a sidekick in my quest for vengeance and destruction.

I follow him to where he came here, knowing it will lead to the PreCure multiverse, where I can put my plan in motion.

Cure Echo is no more.

It is time.

#fanfic #precure fanfic #precue all stars #fan fiction #cure echo #ayumi sakagami #face-heel turn #i have more planned but i'm making it up as i go so it'll probably take me months #this is just the beginning

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tigerlover16-uk · 6 years

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You know, I don’t have a source on this so don’t quote me, but I've heard talk that the writers of Dragon Ball Super might not have known about the decision to end the show until not long before we did.

While I have no idea if that’s the case, I can believe it, because it explains a lot of things about how this current saga has been written. Especially the stuff with Gohan. His elimination felt odd, given how much set up he’d had, and back in episode 90 he was talking about how he wanted to keep getting stronger and reach “A new form that no one has seen before” or something like that.

And I really think the writers were hoping they’d be able to follow up on that in the next saga. One of the directors mentioned in an interview that they’ve been trying to nudge Toriyama into using Gohan more and exploring his and Goku’s relationship more extensively, with the two of them wanting to train and get stronger together (Which is what they were setting up in this saga).

It was clear that they’ve wanted to do this for a while, considering they started setting Gohan up for a comeback since the end of Resurrection F, and they mentioned that they couldn’t include Gohan in a more active role in the Future Trunks saga because Toriyama didn’t give them the chance.

Toriyama probably planned to have Gohan get eliminated near the end and not play a key role in beating either Jiren or Toppo from the start. Which probably wasn’t what the writers were hoping for, but they probably assumed they were going to get another saga to take Gohan’s development further anyway, so just started setting up what they wanted to do with him by having before the tournament, giving him some notable moments during the tournament itself and hoping they could always do a more satisfying pay off for his character arc later.

Doesn’t explain why episode 124 in particular was so lackluster, but they were clearly having some production problems at the time considering the animation and it ended up in the hands of a writer who has a reputation as not one of Super’s best among some people. That was probably just a bit of bad luck.

And of course with Super now being announced as over (For now, we could always get a new show), any ideas the writers probably had for continuing Gohan’s development and role in the show going forward are off the table for now.

A lot of this is speculation, but honestly based on everything I’ve seen and been able to surmise about Super’s writing process and production, I firmly believe this was the case.

I kind of feel bad for the writers, honestly. Despite all the flack Toei gets for being greedy, lazy and soulless from a sizeable portion of the fandom, I always do get the feeling that the people working on the show are sincerely trying to put out a good product.

But they’re under bad circumstances. The show was rushed into production by trigger happy executives who couldn’t wait because they wanted it to air right after Kai wrapped up and ride the hype of the RF movie, and the show has rarely more than the occasional week long break, so the writers have probably had to struggle to get scripts done on time to send off for episodes to be animated, probably without as many revisions as they would have like.

Which probably also meant that a lot of writers weren’t always able to communicate and double check that they were all on the same page with everything, which would explain why there’s occasional inconsistencies between certain episodes, especially when new or freelance writers had to be brought in, like Ayumu Hisao for episodes 119 and 126.

Add to that that Toriyama is the one planning the story (A man who is notorious for not planning ahead and forgetting a lot of minor details of his past writing, and making everything up as they go along) and the writing staff have to get his approval to do anything and don’t seem to have much authority on changing important plot details that he’s decided on if they see fit unless they fight really hard with him (And they seem to have less success with this than Toyotaro does), and naturally there’s going to be a big clash of priorities between all of the people involved.

Honestly, as much as I love Toriyama, since he’s not the one actually writing the story himself in manga form for the anime to adapt this time around, I almost wish he had less authority on where the story goes and the writers were given more freedom to go in their own directions, since they seem to have a lot of the best ideas (If not always enough time to flesh them out properly) and care more about doing things with characters that aren’t Goku and Vegeta than Toriyama appears to.

I guess all of that is why I can never be too mad at Super or Toei’s writers and animators for making it the way they have, even when things go wrong. Super’s problems aren’t the fault of incompetence, laziness or “An agenda to ruin Goku by Vegeta fanboys on the writing staff” or any of the other nonsense this elitist fandom likes to prattle on about.

It’s the result of careless executive decisions and too many cooks in the kitchen. If the show had had more time in pre-production and the writers had more freedom, I think we would have had a more consistently great product. And while that’s sad to think about how much better the show could have been, what we’ve got still has been enjoyable and has a lot of redeeming value, and I think a lot of that is because the people working on the show really were putting in their best efforts under poor circumstances.

It’s why I’m optimistic about the future of Dragon Ball and the prospect of a follow up to Super in the next few years. After how heavily publicised and derided Toei’s decision to rush Super into production was, and how clearly unhappy the staff and possibly Toriyama himself were over these circumstances, I highly doubt Toei’s executives would be stupid enough to make the same mistake twice, so if they do order another show soon, it’s likely to get a longer, more stable production timeline before it starts airing.

So, yeah, there may be a light at the end of that tunnel.

I dunno, I just wish a lot of the people in this fandom would just stop instinctively bashing Toei and the show’s production staff as being these incompetent jerks who’re actively ruining Dragon ball because they clearly don’t care about the series as much as the REAL fans do.

Often times when a show doesn’t turn out amazing and well thought out, it’s not automatically going to be down to the people making it were bad at their jobs. It’s cool if some people just straight up don’t like Super and want to complain about it, but please stop and consider WHY things might have turned out the way they did before you go disrespecting the people who make it. Otherwise you’re maybe being a little pretentious and unfair.

#dragon ball super #dbs #dragon ball #toei animation #toei

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symeraid-s · 4 years

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Underrated Anime to Watch

Tokyo Majin Season 1 & 2 Genres: Action, Horror, Supernatural, Fantasy, Drama Studio: AIC Spirits & BeSTACK Current Status: Completed, 26 Episodes Rating: 9/10

A game adaption featuring some kick-ass action and great plot. It does get a bit confusing in the second season, but the ending is worth it. The ideas, that are implemended here are interesting and lead to some genuine heartfelt and funny moments between the characters, where little seems out of place. I would actually give this anime a 10/10, but there was one character that just got on my nerves and I’m sure you’ll realise which one it was. I also have to mention the first Opening: It’s a Banger.

Mononoke Genres: Historical, Horror, Mystery, Psychological, Fantasy, Supernatural Studio: Toei Animation Current Status: Completed, 12 Episodes Rating: 9/10

This might be one of the most beautiful shows I have ever seen. As visible in the GIF above, the artstyle resembles that of a painting come to life. Through this presentation, the ethereal score and the amazing vocal performance by Takahiro Sakurai as the lead, it creates one of the most intriguing atmospheres I’ve experienced in anime. The story is told in arcs, that are seperated from each other and maybe two to three episodes long each. So, in theory, you could watch it in a random order. Also noteworthy might be, that the Anime has a sort of Prequel/OVA in the final three episodes of Ayakashi, which adapts the original manga.

Subete ga F ni Naru/F: The Perfect Insider Genres: Sci-Fi, Psychological, Thriller, Mystery Studio: A1 Pictures Current Status: Completed, 11 Episodes Rating: 9/10

There is something interesting about Anime with only 11 episodes,as they seem to have better endings than other shows. But maybe it’s just my imagination. Still, this show offers us one of the best locked room murder mysteries presented in Anime and a likeable pair of protagonists, which have perfect chemistry together. Also, a short shout out to the Opening: it has one of the coolest animation style I have ever seen.

Drifters Genres: Historical, Fantasy, Adventure, Isekai Studio: Hoods Drifters Studio Current Status: Completed, 12 Episodes Rating: 9/10

An Anime adaption of Hellsing author Kouta Hirano’s newest manga. Similar to Hellsing, there’s a lot of Splatter, but this time it’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation with Historical figures. Yes, Oda Nobunaga is also featured. The fight scenes are amazing (of course) and the plot is also great. Another positive thing to add, is that Yasushi Ishii, the guy who composed the original Hellsing score, came back to do the score for this show and it’s bloody amazing.

Gatchaman Crowds (Insight) Genres: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Mystery Studio: Tatsunoko Production Current Status: Completed, 24 Episodes Rating: 8/10

This show has some of the best CGI in Anime. And not only that, it also is one of the most stylistic Animes out there. It does have some story problems and the end is confusing, because a part of the final episode was cut out, but in general, this show is just really fun to watch. Also, who doesn’t want to watch a show that features Mamoru Miyano as a bizarre antagonist?

Vatican Kiseki Chousakan Genres: Mystery, Supernatural, Drama Studio: J.C Staff Current Status: Completed, 12 Episodes Rating: 7/10

This show falls somewhere between the categories of: “So bad, it’s good” and: “better than it’s supposed to be”, but it remains a show that is pretty fun to binge watch. So, if you have a free afternoon, give this a shot, because there’s way too much effort put into this by all the seiyuus (also, @nuimee Souma Saito is in this). It will also give you at least 5 WTF moments.

Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei Genres: Comedy Studio: Shaft Current Status: Completed, 12 Episodes Rating: 8/10

How do you determine a good comedy Anime? This is a difficult question to answer, but parodying the king of parody is a good place to start. The humor of this show is bizarre and dark, but spot on and Kamiya Hiroshi sounds like he has way too much fun voicing the protagonist. The score is also brilliant.

Donten ni Warau Genres: Historical, Supernatural, Mystery, Action Studio: Doga Kobo Current Status: Completed, 12 Episodes Rating: 8/10

This show was made by people who love the source material. There’s so much detail in each frame and, through simple editing, it is able to hide two of it’s biggest twists. It is very rare to see a show, that seems to have so much effort put into it, that pays off in such a beautiful way, that had me tearing up in episode 6. In 2014, this was one of my contestants for Anime of the Year and I really wish more people would watch this show and notice it’s brilliance.

Arslan Senki (Fujin Ranbu) Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Historical, Drama Studio: SANZINGEN & LIDENFILMS Current Status: Completed, 33 Episodes Rating: 8/10

This new version of the old OVA hits all the right notes through great writing, Hiromu Arakawas new character designs, a bombastic first Opening and Ending and fluid animation. I could complain, that I wish this Manga was adapted by Bones, but the Studios in charge do a pretty good job with the source material, even though there is some wonky CGI here and there. And, not to give to much away, one of the characters may enter my Top 10 really soon.

#anime appreciation #anime rec list #tokyo majin #mononoke #subete ga f ni naru #the perfect insider #drifters anime #gatchaman crowds #vatican kiseki chousakan #sayonara zetsubou sensei #donten ni warau #arslan senki #stuff to watch when you are bored

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tubbotums · 6 years

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((What do you think warrants a retelling of RWBY? Is it just a fun world, or is the story actually misguided?))

Oh boy, grab your popcorn and get ready to listen for a while. Gonna put this under a cut so people who don’t feel like reading it can skip.

Do I love RWBY? Yes, I 100%. This show has done so much to change my life and has quite literally changed me as a person. It’s put me on the career path of wanting to make my own animated show, tell stories etc. It’s allowed me to meet new friends, and had it not been for the show I wouldn’t even be here typing this. When the new episodes are coming out, every Saturday I wake up at like 10:50 in the morning and wait on both my laptop and phone app so I can watch the episode at exactly 11 when it drops. Most of the time I have to wait, but regardless you see the point. My drawer has RWBY merch, my desks have figures and plushes, hell even my backpack is a RWBY one and I wear a sweatshirt that’s RWBY related basically everyday.

However, in my opinion, the show is heavily flawed from a production standpoint.

RWBY is a very inventive show, I’ll give it that. It tries to do so much with so little, and I applaud it for that. What Rooster Teeth has created is a unique world with lovable characters that have inspired so many. It’s hard to believe that this company that made this show were making Halo parodies in 2007 and still are. RWBY is probably at this point their most popular show, and the most popular web series as of now (discounting live action stuff like Content Cop or whatever). Hell, Warner Bros. Japan went to RT wanting to dub it and air it there so people could experience it in Japanese. It’s wonderful to see this show blossom and grow. But it has one thing holding it back from truly being great in my opinion.

It’s being produced by Rooster Teeth.

Like I said before, I applaud Rooster Teeth for doing what they’ve done with this show and for all the hard work they’ve done with it. I love their content and the people responsible for bringing the show to life. But for what it wants to do, Rooster Teeth is far too small of a company to produce it and don’t have the necessary people to make it what it can truly be. It’s a show that has so much untapped potential, and I keep waiting for it to tap into it and show me what it can really be. But I get nothing, and waiting every episode after every episode gets tiresome.

RWBY likes to take from a lot of different things for inspiration, but I feel like it’s too scattered and all over the place from it’s inspiration to make logical sense. I hear Final Fantasy (which I see in the character designs, weapons and dust as a concept), but then I see Game of Thrones, Gurren Lagann, and other things that don’t even remotely cover the genre that RWBY is in. I’ve brought this up to people before and have been told that it’s “Monty’s true vision” and that “I just don’t understand it and shouldn’t question it”. God bless Monty Oum, he was a great animator and a wonderful man who I would love to meet and pick apart at his brain. But the man couldn’t tell a story, which was why he brought on Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross, the lead writers of the show.

But before I get into M&K (who I both met and are lovely people), I want to touch up on the show’s inspiration. Monty wanted to create a show that revolved around his fight scenes, you know the stuff that you saw in Dead Fantasy or Red vs Blue Seasons 8-10. He didn’t care about the story and wanted to show off his fights and creative, lovable characters. If that’s what the show was going to be, I wouldn’t watch and I wouldn’t care as much as I do to write this. In my unpopular opinion, the show needs to stray away from Monty’s original ideas and gather more from outside sources that are doing the genre right. Shows like Hunter X Hunter, My Hero Academia, Fullmetal Alchemist, Sailor Moon and more that I can’t even list off the top of my head. These shows tackles themes present in RWBY and do it leaps and bounds better than what the show does. It’s frustrating to watch Gon Freeces or Izuku Midoriya get character development and progression that changes them and the path of the story but see Ruby Rose become a side character with no development since the beginning of the show. I’ll also add this in, if you want to take out My Hero from this list you can since RWBY started airing before MHA first published, and it has it beat by a few months I think? But I think the point still stands.

Now for Miles and Kerry, who I both love so much, there’s a lot of controversy around them. A lot of people, especially on this site, hate them and want different writers for the show. I’ve heard names like Lindsay Jones (voice actress for Ruby) and Mica Burton (a RT employee) as people who “should” be writing the show. Here’s the big issue with that:

Neither one has produced a show before and has written a script. Know who has? Miles Luna, who wrote three seasons of Red vs Blue.

Yes, both are still amateurs and not professionals. They’ve been doing this for about a little more than half a decade, which isn’t a lot of time in the content production world. But this leads to another problem: Amateurs are writing this show. I don’t doubt the effort both of them put into making this show. They have A LOT to deal with, considering what happened with Monty, the show’s sudden boom in popularity, and much much more. But the fact that more experienced script writers aren’t writing a show this big is an issue, and you see it all the time in the show. They like to go with this “tell don’t show” approach, which doesn’t allow us to see the world and make it feel alive. We have to trust everything the characters say instead of actually getting to see it ourselves. We don’t see the racism Blake talks about except for a sign in a background shot that shows up on screen for two seconds. TWO SECONDS of seeing this one “No Faunus” sign is more signs of racism than we ever got from 4 and a half volumes and almost 20 minutes of exposition on it. There’s also just some really bad characters in the show as well, just really poorly written. I think my best examples are almost every villain, especially Adam and Cinder. I think both are just really shitty in every aspect and don’t add anything unique? If Adam wasn’t abusive and crazy, his cause would be more sympathetic and the White Fang would feel more like a Civil Rights group like they should be instead of a terrorist group like they’re portrayed to be. Cinder’s whole deal is just “I want power”, and the big question is why. We have no explanation as to why she sides with Salem and what her motives are. She’s just a puppet for the big baddie and that’s not right considering Cinder was the main antagonist for three volumes and will have just as big of a role going forth. A backstory can really help with this, but until we get one she’s a mediocre, borderline shitty villain in my books.

If the show was handled by, lets say Studio Madhouse, or Studio Bones, and if those don’t really sound familiar lets even throw in Toei, the show would be a lot better handled. Shows like My Hero, Hunter X Hunter, One Punch Man Season 1, Fullmetal Alchemist, Miraculous Ladybug and more have come from them and have done phenomenal. The writing, worlds, characters, all written in this just amazing way that I can see RWBY being written in. I can see RWBY having this expansive, almost unexplored world that we the viewers and the characters are going to explore together. But Rooster Teeth can’t provide that simply because they don’t have the money to. That’s no knock against them either, it’s just a fact. A RWBY fight will never look as good as Midoriya vs Todoroki or Meruem vs Netero, and that’s because the budget and time isn’t there. I just want to see this show thrive and become something special like these other shows, because I know it can be that. I know it can be tightly written with a power system that makes sense and a world that’s rich and vast, with different people having different motives that makes us really question who is right and who is wrong.

Aside from all that, what do I think the show does write? It creates really likable characters that almost everyone can relate to. All of Team RWBY is really likable, same with JNPR. The cast as a whole is colorful, and they’re the main reason I come back to watch the show week after week. The music is also pretty good? But tbh I wish there was more variety in the soundtrack as well. But aside from the characters and music I can’t think of much else.

So, with all that being said, I want to rewrite RWBY to fix these issues and tell my own version of the story, the version I’d like to see. A lot of people in this fandom might not agree with me on the ideas I have and my opinions, but quite frankly I’ve gotten tired of hearing people tell me that my ideas about the show are lesser because it doesn’t align with their views or Monty’s views (which are basically the same thing). I’m doing this because of my immense love for the show and because I want to see it be better. Please don’t take these words as anything harmful and as an endorsement to not watch the show. If you haven’t, I’m actually begging you to go watch RWBY. It’s a fun adventure, but it’s just very flawed and something I as an objective viewer who pays Rooster Teeth for early access to episodes cannot overlook. I’ve done it for far too long thanks to people and I’m sick of it. This retelling also is going to help me as a writer in making a long running story, and while most of the outline is made thanks to the show, there are still going to be a lot of differences from the canon counterpart.

So please, go watch RWBY if you haven’t so you can see what I’m talking about, and to also let yourself be immersed into a wonderful world with wonderful characters. I love this show with a passion, and this retelling is being done because I want to see it do better is all, like I know it’s capable of.

#bigmusecollective #ask box

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furederiko · 7 years

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Would you look at that? It's my 1400th post! In Kyuranger episode 33, the team reunites with several old friends, as they welcome a new arsenal to their ranks!

NOTE: In case you somehow missed the notice, this belated recap-view is for the episode that aired on October 8th, 2017. Expect the one for episode 34 that aired a few days ago (on Sunday, October 15th)... soon-ish! ;D

- No intro narration? That feels weird. - With ORION's heroic sacrifice, the Rebellions are now left homeless, and without any necessary transportation. So much for their plan to head out into the Crux System to locate the whereabouts of Don Armage, right? Well... not exactly. - A familiar face teleports her way out of the blue. Yep, Eris returns! Her arrival heralds two major reveals. First, she pretty much confirms that the past has INDEED been altered. Remember how I was kind of concerned how Eris would play a part in the quest for Argo, knowing that Orion has passed away in battle 300 years ago? Turns out, that part of history has been rewritten. She no longer knew the white warrior, and it was none other than Commander Xiao who delivered the Carina Kyu Globe for her safekeeping (as well as entrusting the Vela Kyu Globe to the Vela Tribe, as we'll see later on through his... picture show). Second, in the event of anything bad happening to ORION, Eris has been asked to deliver a special message from Xiao (via the Capricorn Kyu Globe). And it speaks about... Fun fact: Do pay attention to Spada and Raptor's fun reaction when Eris shows up! XD - Legendary Battle Orion Ship!!! Turns out, Orion was building an intergalactic battleship for the past heroes' fight against Jark Matter. As has been teased in the closing scene last week, apparently Xiao took over the development, and completed the process in Orion's sake. It means Xiao was the one who hid the ship as well. - The coordinates that Xiao sends on his message leads Lucky and Tsurugi to... Orion's grave. Aaaawww -_-. At the same time, the others discover a hidden passage underneath the location. Unfortunately, Vice-Shogun Kukuruga is also on the move, tailing our heroes alongside Menaster of the Aries System, Twistler. The Jark Matters don't really have any clue of what the Kyurangers are doing there. Well, at least, until Balance spills the bean. - You see, Twistler unfortunately casts his power on Balance, Hammy, and Spada, that alters and twists their personalities. Balance becomes all classy and sophisticated, Hammy with her hair pulled back (NICE look!) behaves like an old-lady, and Spada is... a rude punk? LOL. This is worse than our regular body-switch trope, because not only they have become a completely different person, they also respond others by doing the opposite of what is being told. So much so, that Naga has to paralyze them using Aries Kyu Globe. - As for the Battle Orion Ship? Well... the 2nd team has already located it. I know what you're thinking... "That was FAST!". Surprise, surprise, the bridge's interior looks exactly like ORION's. Likely due to budget concern and to prevent spoilers ("Episode of Stinger" and web-series "High School Wars" would be released prior to this episode), it still makes sense knowing who is behind its completion. Oh, but there's a bonus item. A cold-sleep capsule is placed in the center, one which Lucky, Kotarou (seriously guys, again?), and Garu jump in to open without any care in the world. - Do we even need to guess who's inside? Of course it's none other than... Xiao himself! He's not even fazed or confused like his 'cold-sleep bro' Tsurugi was (the two even shared the spotlight in the ending sequence), seemingly more than prepared to encounter the Kyuranger's familiar faces. Aaaaawww for sweet reunion! Remember when he and Champ promised to find a way back to the present time? THIS is Xiao's way. Completely ignoring the fact that he's basically putting himself in a dangerous gambling situation. I mean, seriously, if ORION hasn't been destroyed, would the team even search for this ship and find him? Probably NEVER. LOL. And Champ? What about our wrestling robot? I'll get back to this later... - It's not Xiao if he doesn't start blabbing tall-tales right away. Both Raptor's and Naga's reactions to his shenanigans are priceless as usual. But having emotions puts the latter on a different sneer & jeer-ish level that is just... amazing. Even Stinger and Kotarou are tagging along this time as Naga breaks the 4th wall, while Lucky simply doesn't get it. Comedy gold! - Interestingly, Xiao confirms that he's aware of Don Armage's 'revival' as well. Does this imply that the current Armage is in fact the same one that Leo Red Orion had defeated in the past? He also reveals that... Battle Orion Ship can NOT be activated without the Orion Kyu Globe. Which is a problem, because the item could NOT be found in the past. So how will they counter Kukuruga's sudden air strike then? Leave that task to Phoenix Soldier and his Gigant Phoenix. Because while Naga brilliantly manipulates poor-twisted Balance, Hammy, and Spada to fight (what a FUN roll call! How I wish every member is altered), Lucky has a more important task: awakening the Orion Kyu Globe. - That's right, Orion's power has been passed down to Lucky, so he's the only one who can activate it. And it's a moving sequence too, because we get to see Orion again... albeit only in spirit form. Aaaawww, that makes me sad. Hmmm... if his spirit shows up, this confirms that he's DEFINITELY not the new Don Armage. There goes my Darth Vader theory then! LOL. That also means, Lucky's backstory might not be as important nor elaborate as we all presumed... Fun fact: Just like Akyanba, Kukuruga proves that he's also a smart antagonist. Not because he can absorb attacks and returns them. Kukuruga actually stops Leo Red before he can utilize the Supreme Kyu Globe! YIKES. Had Orion's club is not available nearby, he could've been a complete goner... - Orion Voyager debuts! True to its namesake, the golden colored arsenal is shaped like its original owner's weapon. It also activates Battle Orion Ship, with Raptor immediately jumping in to maneuver its first official lift off. The sequence gets better, because when Leo Red Orion boards the Voyager, it transforms the battleship into the team's 4th mecha, the Orion Battler. Sweet homage to ORION, right there! And I'll be damned, it's a sentient robot too. It runs off on its own halfway through battle! - Actual design might be bricky and tacky to look at, with a blue-gold color scheme that seems to be a common/standard of many Super Sentai secondary mecha. But even I have to admit, just like Gigant Phoenix, Orion Battler looks really good and visually impressive in action. I like how the ship's landing platform serves as some kind of coat-tail on the robot's back. Giving off the impression that it's wearing a cape or long coat! One more thing, I've been wondering how any passenger inside the ship would be affected by the transformation, since the battleship basically rotates 90 degrees to stand up. So it's such a pleasant surprise that this episode actually shows what happens to the other Kyurangers on the bridge LOL. A nice minor detail, considering the show could've simply ignored this fact and just ran along with it. - Back to the case of Champ. While the team is busy tidying up their new home, Stinger is quick to address the elephant (or should I say 'bull'? Nice 'flower' arrangement, by the way ;D) in the room: "What happened to Champ?". My oh my, this is one of the downside of having so many members. When one of their own is gone, the others don't immediately take notice! Seriously though, even I somehow had forgotten about him during my first viewing. According to Xiao, Champ put him to cold-sleep, and then went out to locate... Professor Anton. - This raises its own concern, because we all know Anton is a Jark Matter operative. Situation gets more dire, as Kukuruga and Akyanba seem to have discovered Anton's laboratory. One that contains the one and only... Champ!

Overall: This episode was undeniably the Super Sentai love letter to that iconic anime by the title "Uchuu Senkan Yamato". From the shape of the new battleship, the cannon sequence (which is a brilliant follow-up to Xiao's previous remark), down to the tune of its BGM, everything just felt like non-stop homage to the classic series. I have to admit, a 'reveal episode' like this sort of lost its charm upon second viewing. But when I first saw it via stream (without sub), it was genuinely entertaining and more enjoyable to experience. Like I've said above, Orion Battler is an impressive 4th robot. Yet it's far more impressive to know that the writers are addressing trivial and at times minor details that even the most devoted audience would've missed. IMHO, that's the sign of good writing! Next weekTomorrow: Champ Wars - A Luchador Story... PS: If nothing unexpected and incidental happens along the way, recap-view for episode 34 is expected to arrive tomorrow. Same time, same channel!

Episode 33 Score: 8,1 out of 10

Visit THIS LINK to view a continuously updated listing of the Kyutama / Kyu Globes. Last Updated: October 17th, 2017 - Version 3.02. (WARNING: It might contain spoilers for future episodes)

All images are screencaptured from the series, provided by the FanSubber Over-Time. "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger" is produced by TOEI, and airs every Sunday on TV-Asahi. Credits and copyrights belong to their respective owners.

#tokusatsu #SuperSentai #kyuranger #uchu sentai kyuranger #uchuu sentai kyuranger #review

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peppermint-shamrock · 7 years

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The Puzzle is Solved (almost)

This’ll be another long one, as this is such a big scene, and especially since each version is pretty different.

The manga has Yuugi counting out his money, which is nowhere near enough to pay Ushio. He comments on how Ushio will beat him up again if he doesn’t have the money, and asks what he’s doing, working on the Puzzle at this time, although he mentions working on a puzzle makes him feel better.

The Toei anime version is similar at this point, however, Yuugi does not count out the money, he just thinks about how he doesn’t have that kind of money as he works on the Puzzle. And since Ushio hasn’t beat him up yet, he doesn’t make that comment here. He does still comment on how he shouldn’t be working on the Puzzle at this time.

While the DM anime never really showed Yuugi solving the Puzzle (except as a brief clip of the Puzzle glowing while Yuugi looks astonished – see The Introduction), the Pyramid of Light movie took this on instead. The entire plotline with Jounouchi, Honda, and Ushio is completely dropped – instead, Yuugi is just working on the Puzzle alone in his room, as shadowy figures dart around the room unnoticed, interspersed with scenes of an excavation of an Egyptian tomb as Anubis awakens.

I love how he’s got a whole bunch of papers where he’s sketched out his progress so far.

In the dub, the narrator melodramatically talks about how the Puzzle hasn’t been solved in 5000 years.

…Someone tell the narrator that a kids’ movie is completely the wrong place to try to show off your vocabulary. Seriously, it’s entirely unnecessary to be using big words here, and feels forced – and I say this as someone who loves using big words.

Anyway. The voiceover continues, talking about how the solution evades Yuugi, and Yuugi grunts in frustration.

The voiceover is absent in the sub. Instead, Yuugi thinks about the recurring riddle, how it reflects the Puzzle, and then throws his hands up in exasperation, commenting on how he’s so close to solving it. There is also the addition of a brief part where Kuriboh peeks out from around the bed, before this.

In both the manga and Toei versions, Yuugi then notices that he’s having an easier time solving the Puzzle, even though he feels terrible. Cool music starts playing in the Toei version, and Yuugi also comments there that he feels like he’s going to solve the Puzzle. In both versions he starts getting more and more excited as it comes together. He says “I did it”, uncertainly in the manga and excitedly in the Toei version, as he gets it assembled minus the central piece.

In Pyramid of Light (skipping over the excavation scenes), lightning flashes overhead as Yuugi reads his notes, and goes back to working on the Puzzle. In the dub, this is silent, and in the sub, Yuugi comments “Oh, now I get it!” (unusually, as the dub typically likes to have more dialogue than the sub.) After cutting away to another excavation scene and coming back, Yuugi slides in another piece, which shines as it fits into place. In the dub, Yuugi exclaims “Hey, all right!” and in the sub, he exclaims that it’s a perfect fit. A menacing pink shadowy demon thing pops up behind him as he picks up another piece, saying it should fit too. The Puzzle glows as it’s assembled minus the central piece. In the dub, Yuugi says “one to go” and that he’s almost completed the Millennium Puzzle and in the sub he says that it’s done, then that he only needs to put in the last piece.

In both the Toei and manga versions, Yuugi comments on how he only needs to put in one more piece, and he reaches into the box, only to find the piece gone. He completely freaks out – in the manga, he tears apart his room looking for the final piece, before starting to cry that he’ll never solve the Puzzle and get his wish. In the Toei version, he stands up, saying “No way!”

Look at this poor child.

In Pyramid of Light, in the dub, Yuugi comments on how his grandpa will be surprised that he’s figured out the Puzzle all by himself, and then says “The last piece” as he reaches for it (as it’s not absent here, unlike the manga and Toei anime). The sub starts this part with an additional clip, where Yuugi states the “powers and knowledge of darkness” line. He then follows that up with saying that he’s about to finish the Puzzle that his grandpa told him would make his wishes come true (I’m pretty sure that’s NOT what he told you, Yuugi, I’m pretty sure he said it would give you dark powers, but this is Pyramid of Light continuity so we’ll go with it).

(told you I could change the subtitle colors).

At this point in the manga, Sugoroku comes into Yuugi’s room, and exclaims over how Yuugi has solved the Puzzle. Yuugi dejectedly tells him that he couldn’t finish it. Sugoroku tells him not to give up (now mentioning that Yuugi’s been working on it for eight years), and reveals the last piece in his hand. Yuugi promptly hug-tackles him, thanking him for finding the Puzzle piece. Sugoroku says that it wasn’t him, but a friend of Yuugi’s who came by, soaking wet. Yuugi thinks that he doesn’t know who that is, but thank you. Sugoroku thinks that Jounouchi told him everything, and asked not to tell Yuugi his name. Sugoroku then slips the money into Yuugi’s bag unnoticed as Yuugi celebrates the return of the final piece. He then says goodnight, and leaves Yuugi alone to complete the Puzzle and get possessed. As he walks away, he comments about how the Puzzle will pass judgement on evil, and that Ushio is probably the one that’s going to get in trouble.

(Just gonna leave him alone to get possessed, great grandparenting decision. Still though, this is where Sugoroku becomes more sympathetic and supportive of Yuugi)

The Toei version is very different. After Yuugi panicking about the missing piece, it cuts to showing the piece in the river as Jounouchi and Honda are walking by, discussing how they can’t be sure of Yuugi’s motivations. Jounouchi looks into the river and recalls Yuugi calling him a friend. He jumps into the river, and Honda freaks out a little.

Meanwhile, Yuugi is shown running through the streets, hoping that the last piece will be at school. He thinks about how the Puzzle is incomplete without it and he’ll never get his wish. He then runs into Ushio, who asks if Yuugi brought the money. Yuugi says no, he just forgot something at school, and that he can’t pay that anyway. Ushio then says he has to teach Yuugi a lesson, then.

It cuts back to Jounouchi retrieving the Puzzle piece. Honda throws down a small towel, saying he uses it for handling dirty objects, but that Jounouchi needs to buy him a new one. Jounouchi yells at him for being a cheapskate, and Honda notices Ushio with Yuugi.

It cuts to Ushio beating up Yuugi. Again, this doesn’t really have the same impact as Yuugi hasn’t sacrificed himself here, he just got caught by Ushio by accident. However, we do have Jounouchi and Honda coming to Yuugi’s defense, which is sweet. Jounouchi runs to Yuugi to see if he’s alright. Yuugi, barely aware of anything, says that he asked the Puzzle for true friends, and Jounouchi, noticing that the Puzzle is nearly complete (somehow Ushio beating Yuugi senseless didn’t damage the Puzzle at all) puts the Puzzle piece into his hand as sad piano music plays.

Honda says that he used to respect Ushio, but not after this. Jounouchi stands up alongside him. Jounouchi and Honda charge and Ushio and promptly get beaten up, as Yuugi continues thinking about how he wanted true friends. After Ushio beats up Jounouchi and Honda, he leaves, and Yuugi struggles to awareness. Yuugi then notices the unconscious Jounouchi and Honda and says that he can’t wake them. He then finally realizes that the Puzzle piece is in his hand, and he reaches towards the Puzzle with it.

In the DM anime, there was some reference during that flashback of Jounouchi retrieving the Puzzle piece – unlike in the manga (and even the Toei version), Yuugi knows that Jounouchi had thrown the piece out the window, and then retrieved it. It’s not until much later in the manga that Jounouchi reveals to Yuugi that he took and returned the piece (during Death-T).

In Pyramid of Light, nothing of the sort happens. Yuugi simply grabs the piece from the box and goes to put it in.

It’s interesting how different each version is. While I like Jounouchi returning the Puzzle piece to Yuugi directly, in such an emotional and dramatic scene, I think I still prefer the manga version. We get a sweet family scene instead, and it fits better with Ushio beating Yuugi up earlier (and as I mentioned, his self-sacrificing nature is such a part of his character that I don’t think it should be left out). Pyramid of Light’s take is entirely different, since the Ushio plotline is dropped. It leaves out his despair at not being able to finish the Puzzle, but it makes sense since that’s not the point of those scenes – it’s to show how he’s waking Anubis. At any rate, it definitely changes the tone completely, but it works for what it’s going for. And I might rag on the dub narrator, but otherwise the dub is fine in this instance – although I will still wonder what happened to those extra scenes, where they came from, since the dub version was created first.

#peppermint explores ygo #manga chapter 1 #season zero episode 1 #pyramid of light #yuugi mutou #sugoroku mutou #jounouchi katsuya #hiroto honda #ushio #explore part 1

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duhragonball · 5 years

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Dragon Ball Z Movie 15: Resurrection F

“Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F” premiered on April 18, 2015. Notably, it had a U.S. theatrical release only a few months later, in August. Movie 14 got a U.S. theatrical release, but it took a lot longer, and fans didn’t really have any reason to expect that much. In 2013, we were just waiting for Funimation to release it on home video. But I think it says a lot about how successful Movie 14 was. Not only did the sequel get made only a couple of years later, but the big shots in Japan who run all this stuff finally realized that there’s an international audience just as eager to pay for this stuff. I want to say the Broly movie got released in the U.S. even faster, but I’d have to look it up. And from what I understand, the Broly movie did even bigger business than Movies 14 and 15, so I think it’s safe to say that if they keep making more of these, we can count on a speedy localization.

Do we have Fox to thank for this? I mean, would any of this Dragon Ball revival have happened if “Dragon Ball Evolution” hadn’t bombed so badly? I mean, let’s say they did a good job and made DBE really kick ass, like the Thor movies. By now they probably would have made a nice little trilogy, starring a mostly whitewashed cast. Maybe the third one would be looked down upon, or they’d try to do a reboot like with the X-Men franchise, and people would write pointless thinkpiece articles asking stupid questions about “Dragon Ball fatigue”. Teenage Justin Chatwick stans would be blogging things like “OMG Did you know there was a Dragon Ball Evolution cartoon?!?!?” Maybe those live action movies would be better than Dragon Ball Super, but they’d probably also mark the end of the franchise. At least with things as they are, there’s no telling how much more Dragon Ball content we might be getting in the 20′s.

Gee, Toei, how come your mom lets you have two logos at the start of the movie?

I just found this out last night, but Res F has the distinction of being the first movie where Toriyama wrote the actual screenplay, as opposed to just coming up with the plot and story, as in Movie 14. I’m a fan of Toriyama’s work, obviously, but I’m don’t subscribe to the idea that anything he does is pure gold and everyone else who contributes to this franchise is ruining it somehow. There are GT apologists who would try to argue that GT was more legitimate because Toriyama had some vague influence on the production, and he drew SSJ4 Goku once, so that means it’s magically awesome. It just doesn’t work. Movie 14 is better than Movie 15, and I don’t think that’s because one screenplay was better than the other, but the point is that you can’t just add more Toriyama labor and guarantee a superior product.

So there’s three big problems I have with this movie, and when I rewatched it this morning, my opinion hasn’t budged since 2015.

First, the sole premise of this movie is that Frieza comes back to menace the good guys again. That’s a bad move, period. I find Frieza overrated to begin with, and they’ve already done handful of Frieza comebacks before this movie was ever conceived. Even if it was a good idea, it’s so obvious that it’s barely worth doing. When the DBS: Broly movie was first announced, I was worried that they were making the same mistake again, but then it turned out they had a bold twist on the character to justify the effort. And that’s what it takes. If you do something obvious and predictable, if you repeat an idea you’ve already used before, then you’d better have some sort of big twist to make it fresh. Movie 15 does not have this. It does an admirable job in spite of that flaw, but it’s a pretty serious flaw.

Second, the visuals are bland and unimpressive. The point of this movie is that Goku and Frieza are going to have a rematch of their epic showdown on Namek. I just went back in my archives and pulled up a still from the Frieza Saga, and it looks ten times cooler than anything in the movie. They were fighting on an exploding planet, surrounded by red skies, lightning, molten lava, and tornadoes. Movie 15 boasts the same guys, supposedly more powerful than ever, but they fight like they’re in a video game, and the background is just this dismal cloudy sky. They had 23 years to figure out how to raise the stakes, and all they could come up with was making Frieza yellow and Goku blue.

Third, everyone acts like an idiot in this movie. Like I said, we’ve done this dance before, but everyone just repeats the same mistakes and forgets that characters can do things that they’ve done in the past. Sometimes I can’t tell whether it’s an honest flub, or a deliberate callback to classic DBZ. All I know is that I remember how it went the first time, and you’d think the characters would too, since they lived it.

Now, in spite of those issues, this film does a pretty decent job working with what it has. It’s not nearly as bad as Movies 10 and 11, which commit these same three sins and puts the main characters on the sidelines. But it’s a step down from Movie 14, and around the same time, Dragon Ball Super was starting up on Japanese TV, and that show was just adapting the movies for the first 32 episodes, so I was pretty displeased with the state of the franchise in 2015.

All right, let’s get started. The movie opens in hell, which is pretty interesting, because up until now we’ve only ever seen Toei’s version of DBZ Hell. There’s a lot of inconsistencies, like whether or not you get to keep your physical body, and whether or not hell is even that bad a place to be. Since Toriyama wrote this thing, I have to assume this is his official version of DBZ’s Hell. Conveniently, we find that it’s got plenty of layers to it, including a scary looking realm full of bats, an ocean full of Pokemon fish, and underneath all of that we have an idyllic meadow with pink trees.

This is where Frieza’s being kept, and he just has to hang from the tree in some sort of testicle-looking thing. There’s angels and fairies and a stuffed animal marching band, and it’s pretty cute, but I can see where you’d get sick of it after a while.

And Frieza’s been here for a while. This movie is set in the year Age 779, and Frieza was killed by Future Trunks in Age 764, so he’s on Year Fifteen of his infinity-year sentence. Has he been stuck in this particular torment for the entire time? Who knows? I don’t know much about Japanese afterlife mythology, but my understanding is that it’s like an even more complex version of Dante’s Inferno, where there’s all these different ordeals you have to suffer through for extraordinarily long periods of time. Maybe they let him out part of the time so he can get beat up by Pikkon and watch Goku beat Majin Buu.

One touch I appreciate is that he’s still in his Mecha-Frieza form. Does it make sense for him to retain his cybernetic parts when Trunks chopped him up into so many pieces? I don’t know, but Mecha-Frieza is my favorite Frieza, so I like the nod to that moment.

Meanwhile, Frieza’s private army somehow still exists after all these years. This movie calls it the “Frieza Force”, which I’m not too wild about, but I’ll run with it. I think it’s kind of stupid to keep calling it that so long after Frieza’s death, but maybe it’s a bluff to anyone who doesn’t know Frieza’s dead. At this point, all they have left is the name. One of Frieza’s administrators, Sorbet, has taken charge of the whole thing, and I guess he’s done a fairly impressive job if he’s kept it going this long, but all he’s really accomplished is to oversee the slow dissolution of Frieza’s holdings.

Funimation made a lot out of the idea of Frieza as an emperor, suggesting he was a head of state and the planets he conquered were part of a vast interstellar nation. I think in the dub there was a comment about how the Frieza Force used to control like 70% of the known universe, but none of that’s in the Japanese version. The original premise of Frieza is that he just has a bunch of guys fighting his battles for him, and he buys and sells planets to finance all the wine and spaceships he goes through. I rather prefer that sort of aimlessness about his organization. If he were like a Roman Caesar, you could at least balance out his brutality with the semblance of authority he brings to his conquests. A Pax Friezae, if you will. But he’s not Diocletian, he’s a trust fund baby who just happens to be nigh invulnerable. He never cared what happened to anyone else, or how things would run after he was gone.

Anyway, Sorbet just doesn’t have the manpower to hold their territory, and all he can do is pull his soldiers out when uprisings get too intense. His only recourse is to wish Frieza back to life with the Dragon Balls, except he can’t find the Namekians’ new homeworld. There’s Dragon Balls on Earth, except that’s where all the Super Saiyans live, so it’s dangerous. But today, he’s decided there’s no other way. To be on the safe side, he leads an away team with just himself and his aid, Tagoma. That way there’s less chance of them being noticed by the ki-sensitive fighters on the planet.

Sigh... this is why I hate the fucking Frieza Force right here. It’s the same old spaceships, same old uniforms, same old plans. Their shuttlecraft just looks like their regular ship, only smaller. Frieza’s been dead for fifteen years, and after all this time, their biggest idea is to try to bring back LOWARD FUREEEZA SAWMA. If that was such a hot idea, then why did he get killed in the first place?

What annoys me is that there’s probably an interesting explanation for Sorbet’s strategy. You’d think he would be happier with Frieza gone. He runs this whole outfit, and even if their domain is smaller than it was under Frieza, it belongs to him, so he’s richer and more powerful than he’s ever been. But maybe he just can’t appreciate that, and he liked it better when he was a middle-manager for a big shot like Frieza. But that never gets explored in the movie. Sorbet just acts like he’s wishing back Frieza because he’s supposed to.

Anyway, it would be risky to try to go through Bulma to get the Dragon Balls, but Emperor Pilaf has a Dragon Radar of his own, so they strongarm him instead. I wonder where he got that thing. General Copper from the Red Ribbon Army had one that was never seen again, so maybe they stole it from him?

Meanwhile, here’s baby Pan. I thought Pan’s appearance in these later movies conflicted with the final three episodes of DBZ, but maybe not. The dub said she was three, but the subs said she was four. And those last three episodes took place in Age 784, while this movie shows her being newly born in Age 779, just five years earlier. So Pan could still be four years old when she fought Wild Tiger, and her birthday just hadn’t come along yet.

Anyway, Piccolo’s keeping an eye on her while her parents are shopping.

Then the sky gets dark, and Gohan and Piccolo know that someone’s wishing on the Dragon Balls, but they don’t know who or why. Oh, by the way, there’s a big statue of Mr. Satan here, and that’s his only appearance in this movie.

So Sorbet makes his big wish to have a resurrection... of F. Which stands for “Frieza.”

Just like the title of this cartoon!

But Shenron explains that it would be kind of dumb to do that. This was the thing I never understood when this movie was first announced. During the Frieza Saga, Shenron was used to wish back everyone killed by Frieza and his men, and Kami said that this would only work for those who had died within the past year. The implication being that Shenron can’t revive people who have been dead for a really long time.

But Toriyama seems to have taken that into account here. Shenron explains that he can revive Frieza, even after fifteen years, but he can’t restore all the damage to his body.

This leads to a quick flashback of Trunks killing him way back when. I’m glad they included this, since it’s worth explaining just how Frieza died in the first place. Trunks chopped him into pieces, then blasted the pieces. Apparently, after all this time, Shenron can only undo the blasting and the dying, but not the chopping.

However, the medical technology used by the Frieza Force has advanced somewhat since the Namek Saga, so Tagoma believes they could finish the job of putting Frieza back together. Sorbet decides it’s worth a shot, so we’re off to the races.

So Shenron plats along, and a bunch of Frieza chunks fall to the ground. I like the sound effects they make when they land.

Creepily, the pieces try to gather together again. I don’t know if this is Shenron’s power trying and failing to complete the resurrection, of if this is some function of Mecha-Frieza’s cybernetics. Either way, it doesn’t work.

But the pieces are all still alive, which is siiiick. Frieza’s eye even opens and looks at them, suggesting that he’s somehow still conscious in this state. See, this movie still has some cool stuff in it.

Then Shenron asks Sorbet what he wants for his second wish, and Sorbet had no idea that he would get more than one. He considers wishing back King Cold, but before he can decide...

... Shu wishes for cash, and gets it. Sorbet’s angry about this, but he has to hurry up and return to the ship before the Z-Fighters find him. The funny thing is that Shenron leaves after this second wish is granted, but in the Dragon Ball Super version, he grants a third wish, and Mai uses that one too. This is why I’ve spent the last 16 years confused over whether Buu-era Shenron grants two wishes or three. Apparently, the deal is that it’s three, unless you use one to wish a lot of people back to life at the same time. Then it’s two. So did Toriyama goof, or was the wish to bring back Frieza hard enough that it counts as two wishes? It doesn’t matter much, since Movies 10, 13, and 14 all played fast and loose with Shenron as well.

So now they have to load all the Frieza chunks into a big garbage can and haul them back to their ship.

They almost forget a piece, but Pilaf saves it for them. I wonder what would have happened if they left that eye behind?

So then they heal the pieces in their medical machine. I don’t know how this was supposed to work, but I assume they needed someone to stitch the pieces together, then they loaded him in the tank for a while, and then they had to take him out again, dress him up in his uniform, and put him back in to cure a while longer. Also, they have Japanese punk band Maximum the Hormone playing on the stereo the whole time they do this.

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“F” is a pretty good song, and I’m glad they put it in this movie, but I’d probably like it more if I liked Frieza more. The story goes that Akira Toriyama heard this song, probably because the band wrote it as a tribute to his character, and the song inspired him to create the story in this movie.

Anyway, Frieza breaks out of the tank and splashes green crap everywhere because he’s such a drama queen.

Sorbet explains everything that’s happened, and Frieza seems mostly bemused by it all. He’s displeased that he had to wait in hell for so long, but at least he’s out. Sorbet mentions that they plan to wish back King Cold next, but Frieza tells them not to bother, since he apparently doesn’t like his dad that much. This should be the tip to these idiots that this scheme will get them all killed.

Frieza kills a guy just to see how his skills are holding up, and he declares his intent to take revenge on the two Super Saiyans who defeated him. Remember, he still owes Goku for beating him up on Namek, but Trunks killed him before he could get to that point. And that’s my main problem with all of this. We already did a Frieza comeback, and it was Mecha-Frieza invading Earth in the Trunks Saga. He miraculously survived Namek, his soldiers spent months putting him back together, and then the very first thing he wanted to do was go to Earth and kill Super Saiyans. Does any of this sound familiar?

Besides that episode, we had several other stories that repeated the same theme. Movies 5 and 6 were basically the same idea, but with Frieza’s brother as a stand-in for Frieza himself. Episode 195 of the anime had Frieza come back as part of a revolut in hell. Movie 12 had Frieza come back, only to get killed again by Gohan. Dragon Ball GT had Frieza come back and fight Goku. I think Toriyama’s attitude is that he didn’t write those stories, so they don’t count, but it doesn’t change the fact that the audience still saw all of those. By the time this movie came along, “Frieza comes back for revenge” had been done several times.

Tagoma points out that maybe we shouldn’t rush back to Earth and get wiped out in a hopeless battle. Again. He suggests that it might be wiser to focus on rebuilding the Frieza Force, but Frieza kills him for his impudence, along with several other flunkies who just happened to be nearby.

At least Frieza has a reason for wanting to start with revenge. As far as he’s concerned, the Frieza Force can’t rebuild to its former glory, not if they have to hide from the Super Saiyans the whole time. Sorbet points out that Goku’s even stronger than he was before, citing his defeat of Majin Buu. Amazingly, Frieza’s heard of Majin Buu, since his father once told him that he should never mess with Buu or Beerus.

But this doesn’t worry Frieza much. He figured Goku would become stronger, and he thinks he can as well. Frieza was born with this unnaturally incredible power that he has, so he’s never needed to train or improve his strength. But now, he thinks that if he does train, he can surpass Goku after about four months. This is basically the Dragon Ball equivalent of “Why doesn’t Bluto eat some spinach and beat the hell out of Popeye?”

Here’s what blows my mind. In the subs, Frieza estimates that he’ll reach a power level of 1.3 million. I’m amazed that they’d even cite a power level this late in the franchise, let alone a number that low. Frieza claimed to be at one million in his second form, so I think everyone agrees that we passed 1,300,000 a long time ago. Hell, there aren’t any scouters able to measure that high anyway.

Seriously, is this official canon? It has to be right? Toriyama wrote that line himself. Is he saying eveyone from Second-form Frieza to Golden Frieza ranges from 1 million to 1.3 million? So like, Perfect Cell would be 1.1 million, I guess, and Majin Buu’s 1.2? That’s wild. I kind of like it.

What I don’t like is that it’s a little convenient that Frieza can catch up to Goku so easily. It took Gokue fifteen years to reach the level he’s at in this movie, and Frieza manages to tie him in just four months? If it was that easy, why didn’t he just do pushups for a week before he came to Earth the last time? He could have wiped out Trunks in an instant.

Moving on, a few months later, Jaco the Intergalactic Patrolman arrives on Earth to warn Bulma that Frieza is coming to Earth with a thousand soldiers.

I won’t get into Jaco’s whole deal, because I still haven’t read his manga yet, but baiscally he was friends with Bulma’s older sister back in the day, and Tights told him that Bulma knows the Super Saiyan who beat Frieza. The problem is that Goku and Vegeta aren’t on Earth right now, because they’re training with Whis on Beerus’ world. Bulma can contact Whis by holding up delicious food and calling out to him, but she doesn’t know if he’s listening. Also, Jaco waited until an hour before Frieza’s arrival to say anything, so now Bulma has to scramble to alert the others.

Here’s some bank robbers. I like this bit, because in the dub, they say “We’re as rich as rich guys!”

There’s just one problem...

Krillin’s a cop.

Then Bulma calls him and tells him the bad news. I feel like somewhere in the dub, Krillin observed that Majin Buu and Gohan could at least buy them some time, but then it turned out Buu was asleep the whole time, which was why he didn’t show up in this movie. I must be thinking of the DBS version. This is why I’m not big on Buu as a good guy, by the way. They have this insanely powerful good guy on their team, and then they never do anything with him. He slept through this crisis and the Tournament of Power, and I didn’t see him in the Broly movie either.

Anyway, Frieza killed Krillin the last time they met, but Krillin’s got big brass balls, so the first thing he does is suit up to fight his punk ass. 18 offers to go in his place, but he wants her to protect their kid while he’s gone.

Also, he asks her to shave his head, so he’ll look even cooler for this.

To be honest, I liked Krillin’s hairstyle in this movie, but yeah, bald Krillin is the way to go.

As he flies off into the face of certain doom, his big brass balls clanking as he goes, 18 thinks about how cool he is. Get you a lady who admires you half as much as 18 admires Krillin.

As Frieza returns to Earth, he goes over some details with Sorbet. In particular, no one could find the Super Saiyan who actually killed Frieza, and Sorbet speculates that he may have moved to some other planet or died while Frieza was in hell. Of course we know that Future Trunks returned to his own timeline, but Frieza doesn’t and never will. This loose end doesn’t seem to bother him much, and I don’t think that makes sense. Yes, from a dramatic standpoint, he ought to be more concerned about avenging his loss to Goku, but Trunks was the one to kill him, and I feel like Frieza doesn’t spend nearly enough time in this movie thinking about his own mortality.

Sorbet points out that even if Frieza kills Goku, he could just be wished back to life like Frieza was, right? But Frieza plans to destroy the Earth along with Goku, thereby eliminating the Dragon Balls and Earth’s hell. For some reason, Frieza seems to think that Earth has it’s own particular version of hell, and the only reason he ended up in that meadow of fairies is because he happened to die on that planet. So I guess he thinks that if he blows up the Earth, that hell will cease to exist as well? How does he know that?

Is that why he’s not worried about dying again? Does he think if he dies someplace else, he’ll end up in a more favorable afterlife? What happens if you die in outer space? What sort of hell is Tagoma in right now?

At any rate, Frieza thinks he has all the angles worked out, and he checks to make sure Sorbet is prepared for his “emergency plan” in case things don’t work out. This is as close as we ever get to any sort of character development for Frieza here. The last time he went to Earth, he didn’t have a plan B, and now he does.

Meanwhile, Goku is training with Vegeta and Whis, just as Bulma said. Recall that Whis is even stronger than Beerus, who dominated the boys in the last movie. So Whis can fight them both at once without any trouble at all.

But their training wakes up Beerus, so they have to explain how they pay Whis for his lessons with tasty food from Earth. Beerus is annoyed that Whis would eat this stuff without him but he’s awake now, so he can have some of the pizza they brought over.

Meanwhile, Frieza’s ship lands on Earth, and a bunch of his goons come out.

Then he blows up North City, which he calls his way of saying hello.

So it’s up to the Z-Fighters to hold the line until Goku and Vegeta check Whis’s voice mail. Unfortunately, they’re kind of light on guys. We have Piccolo, Tien, and Krillin, and Gohan’s here, but he hasn’t kept up with his training. That’s why he wore a tracksuit to this party, because he couldn’t find his gi after all this time. Tien told Chiaotzu and Yamcha to stay out of it, since this fight would be too much for them. Okay, but why? Frieza will blow up the Earth if he wins, so what difference does it make if they stay out of this? At least if they show up they can help.

On the other hand, Krillin brought Master Roshi along, He can’t even fly! Somehow, everyone involved in making this show decided that Roshi is cooler than Yamcha, which is stone cold, 100% false. Master Roshi belongs in jail, and it doesn’t even need to be a fancy jail with a roof because he can’t fly out anyway.

Then Bulma shows up with Jaco to tell the others that she couldn’t raise Goku and Vegeta. Also, she wants Jaco to help, even though he only planned to pass along the message and GTFO. Bulma trash-talks Frieza, because she figures they still have the upper hand. After all, Gohan’s strong enough to kill Frieza, right? But Gohan explains to her that Frieza’s much stronger than he was 15 years ago, so none of them stand a chance this time around.

She asks Frieza to wait for Goku, so he agrees to hold off for ten more seconds, and then he sics his army on the Z-Fighters. I bet she wishes she had told Goten and Trunks about this rumble.

People talk about this part as the highlight of the movie, and it’s definitely one of the better parts. It’s certainly fresher,since we normally don’t see six or seven guys battling a whole army like this. Also, I like the approach of limiting the cast to a manageable number. I think it’s tactically unwise to leave Yamcha, Gotenks, Buu, and Chiaotzu out of this battle, but leaving them out of the movie is worth it, if it gives Tien a chance to shine for a moment. I’m not saying I like Tien better than the others, but we’re in a situation now where they can’t all share the spotlight, so if we have to pick one, let’s make that decision and run with it, and hope Yamcha gets a turn in a later film.

The problem I have with a fight like this is that they have all these extras floating around in the background of almost every scene, so it’s like Piccolo will do some cool spot with five or six bad guys, while fifty more just sort of stand there and watch. The only explanation I can come up with is that the Z-Fighters are moving so fast that most of the bad guys simply cannot react fast enough to keep up.

For example, you have this scene, where Gohan zips through a whole bunch of guys and takes them all out while they look like they’re standing still. Also, it’s pointed out several times that the Frieza Force isn’t nearly as strong or as well-disciplined as they used to be. Hell, the next movie makes a plot point out of how hard it is for them to recruit good fighters.

Even Jaco makes these guys look like geeks, and he’s a comic relief guy.

But he’s clever, like when he tricks the bad guys into getting eaten by a giant fish. How did he know this thing lived on Earth?

At this point, Sisami enters the battle, and he’s at least strong enough to give Piccolo a hard time.

Also, his shorts are a size too small, but his slutty uniform is his only distinguishing feature, really.

But Gohan steps in and turns Super Saiyan to take him out. Not sure that was a smart play, since they’re trying to buy time for Goku to arrive. A drawn out battle with Piccolo might have been just the thing they needed. But I suspect this scene was intended to introduce the Super Saiyan concept to the audience.

To wit, Sorbet is horrified by how easily his best warrior went down, but Frieza isn’t surprised at all, since he’s the only one on his side who’s seen Super Saiyans in action. He didn’t know Gohan could turn into one, but it’s the same diff.

This blue guy tries to apologize to Frieza for their defeat, but Frieza blows them all up. I’m just pointing him out because this guy was voiced by Team Four Star’s Scott Frrerichs, which still blows my mind to this day. Also, for some reason, I thought he played Sisima--Shisami, Sashimi... the red horny guy.

Everyone agrees that they stand no chance against Frieza as he is now, and Frieza takes out Gohan first just to emphasize the point. I guess this is his meta-revenge for Movie 12.

Piccolo has to use a ki technique to restart Gohan’s heart, and a senzu bean helas him after that, but they only have one left, so that won’t last them much longer.

Finally, Whis checks his messages and Goku and Vegeta hear about Frieza. Whis can take them back to Earth, but it’s a 35-minute trip, so it’s up to Goku’s Instant Transmission.

All right, let’s get on with this. Frieza insists that he’s learned from their last fight, and he starts out with his “final” form, except it’s not his final form anymore, because he has a new one, so right off we see that he really hasn’t learned anything. He wants Goku to turn Super Saiyan, but Goku doesn’t need to, and they fight like this for a while. Does this really make sense. Frieza came here for revenge, so why is he bothering to play-fight like this?

Eventually Vegeta gets so bored with this part of the battle that he jumps in and starts attacking Goku. Frieza mistakes this for a show of loyalty to him, but in fact Vegeta’s just sick of Goku milking his turn.

They agree to put all their cards on the table, so Goku reveals his strongest form, which he calls a combination of classic Super Saiyan and the Super Saiyan God form he used in the last movie. This eventually came to be known as “Super Saiyan Blue”, because duh, but for marketing purposes it’s still officially called “Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan” or “SSGSS” for short. I have no idea who thought that was a good name for this.

So Frieza shows Goku his new form, which is just his “final” form with a different color scheme. He says he “settled” on this color, implying that he could have made it look different if he wanted to. I like that idea, because it goes along with my contention that the Xenoverse games should let you customize transforms along with your character. If you want your guy to turn into a Super Saiyan Purple, you should be able to, or if you want your Frieza Race guy to have a Crimson form instead of Golden, you should get to have that too.

On the other hand, this is fucking stupid. It’s the same fight from 1990, except the characters are different colors. This is the sort of thing critics make fun of DBZ for, and Toriyama did it unironically. I mean, I get it, Super Saiyan 3 is just SSJ1 with longer hair and no eyebrows, but it’s the way the character is used in the story that sells the form as being more powerful.

The problem here is that both guys have new forms at the same time and they’re supposed to be stronger than almost every other character we’ve seen before. And yet this fight doesn’t look all that different from what they were doing a few minutes ago, before they transformed.

On top of that, we have these really shitty CGI animations that look like they were taken out of a PS3 game. I mean that literally, because when I watched this movie, I noticed it right away, because the way the characters move looks exactly like they do in the games I play all the time. I didn’t mind it so much on the first viewing, but now that I’m looking at screencaps of it, it just looks really awkward and bad. It’s fine in the games, because it’s interactive, and I can control what’s happening. But in a movie, it doesn’t work at all, because Goku has this blank expression on his face the whole time. Also, there’s no physics on the tails of his belt. He’s rushing Frieza here but they’re just hanging at his hip like he’s standing still.

Seriously, who thought this was a good idea? These shots aren’t even that long, and they don’t look that complicated, so I don’t understand why they didn’t just go ahead and use traditional animation. I mean, the Frieza soldiers from earlier were rendered this way too, and I get that, because there were literally a thousand of them, and they wanted to have hordes of them milling about in the background. but this is the main hero and villain in the forefront of the action. If the entire movie looked like this, I wouldn’t have a problem with it at all, really. It’s a “contract with the audience” thing. If the whole movie is CGI or 2D animation, we can accept the visuals we’re given, but once you start switching media unexpectedly, it becomes very jarring.

Then Beerus and Whis finally arrive to collect the dessert Bulma offered them. Wait, he said it would take 35 minutes to get here. Have Goku and Frieza been fighting for 35 minutes?

I get the joke here, that you’ve got this interplanetary grudge match playing out nearby, and these two dorks are more interested in eating ice cream, but it sort of undermines what little tension there was to this story. When Res F was first announced, lots of fans joked that Frieza would find himself completely outmatched by the Z-Fighters. Goten could kill him by himself. But Toriyama introduced Golden Frieza to get around that, which means at this point, Frieza has leapfrogged Cell and Majin Buu to become the strongest villain again, to the point where he might rival Beerus if he put his mind to it. Frieza’s a big deal again, except there doesn’t seem to be much concern over it. Everyone seems confident that Goku can handle it, and if he can’t then Vegeta can, and if things really got out of hand, Whis could kill everyone in one hit.

At one point, Frieza finally notices Beerus and asks him if he’s going to interfere in the battle, but Beerus insists that he’s just here for dessert, and he’s totally neutral in this.

And Frieza seems to think he’s winning, but then Goku informs him that this Golden Frieza form has a weakness. Frieza was so thrilled to have the new form that he rushed to Earth as soon as he discovered it, but he hasn’t learned to regulate his power at this level, so he’s going to tire out in a few minutes. Goku should know, because he ran into the same problem with Super Saiyan 3 a few years back, and the same thing happened to Frieza when he fought at 100% of his full power because FRIEZA HASN’T LEARNED A DAMN THING SINCE THE LAST TIME THEY FOUGHT. This movie is just so dumb. The fact that Goku has to explain this to him again is absurd.

Frieza thinks Goku’s bluffing, but this time the CGI battle shifts into Goku’s favor, and Frieza can’t hit the block button fast enough or break Goku’s combos.

Then they fight underwater, which is just as murky and grey as the sky, only there’s bubbles down here.

Finally, we reach the point where Frieza’s punches don’t even work, and Goku pokes him in the tittly and punches him.

So Goku tells him to get out of here, just like he did on Namek, and Frieza throws a fit, just like he did on Namek. This fight is the worst. I mean, it’s not Gohan vs. Dabura levels of bad, but at least Gohan and Dabura did original stuff while they were shitting the bed.

Then Frieza signals Sorbet while he’s crying, and Sorbet shoots Goku with a ray gun to take him out of the fight.

And this is dumb too, because it’s the same mistake Goku made on Namek, twice. Only this time, Frieza actually got the drop on him, which is dumb because he’s basically doing the same thing Piccolo did to Goku at the 23rd World Tournamnet. Whis even warned Goku about this overconfidence earlier in the movie. I mean, it was forteshadowing, which ought to be okay, except when everything else in this movie is a retread of Frieza’s other appearances, foreshadowing is kind of a bad move.

But Goku’s not the only dumbass in this movie. Frieza decides not to kill Goku while he has the chance, and instead invites Vegeta to do it for him. He even offers to make Vegeta his second-in-command, although his entire Frieza Force is dead except for Sorbet. Geets declines, which isn’t exactly a shock, since he’s hated Frieza for destroying Planet Vegeta. You know, the thing that happened forty-odd years ago that Frieza probably should considered before asking Vegeta to rejoin his team?

Instead, Vegeta tells Krillin to give Goku a senzu bean, and when Frieza tries to stop him, Vegeta deflects his attack so that it kills Sorbet instead.

In return, Vegeta demands to take over the fight, now that we’ve come to his favorite part, the “Frieza-murdering” part. Frieza mocks him for thinking he stands a chance, but Vegeta turns Super Saiyan Blue himself, and now Frieza realizes he’s totally screwed. I guess he figured Goku would be this strong, but he never imagined he’d have to fight Vegeta at the same level at the same time.

This is my favorite part of the movie, where Vegeta informs him that he learned to go Super Saiyan shortly after Frieza’s death. Then again, why didn’t Frieza know about any of this? Sorbet had been spying on the Earth for years, and he seemed to know just about everything else about what was going on. Why didn’t he tell Frieza that Vegeta was living on Earth and that he was about as strong as Goku? “Hey, look, I know you think you can handle Goku with this Golden form, but just understand that you’ll probably be fighting Vegeta at the same time, and he’ll be about the same level.”

For that matter, why did Frieza invade without checking to make sure Goku was on the planet first?

So it looks like everything’s coming up Vegeta in this movie, although this part of the fight is anticlimactic, becuase Goku had already softned Frieza up for him.

But then it turns out that Vegeta swallowed a bottle of idiot pills too, because when Frieza’s Golden Form wears off, he gets desperate and blows up the Earth to escape. You know, just like he did on Namek. At least I can sort of excuse Vegeta for this, because he wasn’t there the last time Frieza pulled this trick, except that Vegeta should have seen it coming, because he pulled the same stunt himself when he first came to Earth.

So yeah, the Earth explodes, again, which just makes the Dragon Ball Wiki that much harder to read, because they count both explosions as dates of death for every character. Goten died in Age 774 and Age 779 and whenever else he would have died naturally.

But all the main characters who were watching he fight are okay, because they were standing next to Beerus and Whis, who made a force field to protect them. Vegeta’s dead, though, because he suffocated when the planet blew. On the other hand, Frieza would have survived, because he doesn’t need air. On top of that, he took out the Dragon Balls, so there’s no way to undo this with a wish.

Then Whis reminds Goku that he has the power to rewind time by three minutes. Yeah, I forgot about this. Earlier, when Beerus woke up from his nap, Whis mentions how Beerus has a nasty habit of destroying things accidentally, so Whis has the power to rewind time and undo it if Beerus does anything especially stupid.

So now Goku has a chance to kill Frieza properly, which he should have just done in the first place.

KILLER QUEEN DAISAN NO BAKUDEN BITES THE DUST

So Frieza’s dead again... until they bring him back for the Tournament of Power, because for some reason fans want him to keep coming back for more of this crap.

Vegeta is understandably upset, because he thinks Goku just jumped in for no reason, but he calms down once he finds out Frieza was about to blow up the planet.

Bulma promises a big feast for Whis and Beerus for helping them, but she adds that it’ll have to wait for them to wish back everyone who died when Frieza destroyed North City. Well, that’ll take six months, because the Dragon Balls haven’t reset since the last wish, right?

Then Goku proposes that he can Vegeta actually practice working together, in case they need to really join forces next time. Vegeta’s like “nuts to that” and Goku’s like “same here”, so at least they have that much common ground.

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The end credits are accompanied by “Z no Chikai” or “Oath of Z”, by Momoiro Clover Z. This song rules, and it’s really much better than Movie 15 deserves.

In the post credits sequence, Frieza finds himself right back where he started, and the angels and fairies welcome him back to hell. Looks like Tagoma had the right idea after all, huh?

And I guess that about sums it up. I feel like this movie wasted an opportunity to do something truly interesting with Frieza. You have a guy who was invincible, then he got killed and spent 15 years in hell, only to get wished back to life by his desperate troops. This could have been a chance for him to ponder his own mortality and the futility of power and revenge. What good does it really do to kill Goku when they both know what awaits them on the other side? What difference does it make to escape the afterlife when you know you’ll just have to go back eventually? You could try to have Frieza answer those questions and have him become a much more desperate and complex villain. Instead, Toriyama just went right back to what he had already written in the Trunks Saga.

Sadly, this looks like the final entry under the Dragon Ball Z brand. Now that Dragon Ball Super is a thing, it looks like any new Dragon Ball stories, like the new Broly movie, will be produced under the DBS branding. I kind of wish DBZ could have closed out on a better note than this.

On the other hand, that Broly movie was a lot better, and even if it was officially titled “Dragon Ball Super: Broly”, I find that it’s hard for the Z to drop out of the public lexicon. When I went to see it in January, the theater had it listed as “Dragon Ball Z: Super Broly.” Old habits die hard, I guess. Maybe one of these years, we’ll see the end of the Z, but not yet.

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des-shinta · 7 years

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Been watching older Super Sentai, heard from some friends that newer super sentais have been suffering in ratings/sales than the older ones. Do you have any idea why that is?

4 answers I can give you, and in the grand scheme? it’s likely all of them compounding each-other.The first is, there’s just a LOT more television stations out there than there used to be. toei’s “Super Hero Time” block is 18 years old, and our equivalent of it (saturday morning kids programming blocks) Died in 2014 because there were cable stations out there which superceeded it. That, and TV Tokyo’s programming, on average, has been far stronger for the same timeslot. To not even get into streaming and digital media services that are also competing, which also did coincide with the original and most singificant viewership drop that began with Boukenger, but mostly seemed to stabilize with Go-Onger through Gokaiger.

2; this is the largest issue for the most part; Japan’s population is stagnant and declining. Fewer Children have been born per year since the 90′s primarly because of the “Lost Decade” I mentioned in my reviews of Ohranger; people are more focused on trying to get by monetarily and often live at home (And yet are not called lazy by their parents for doing so as if it’s not something shameful, I hate millenial condemnations), and due to social/cultural constructs it’s more difficult to get attached to others romantically due to the expected distance and detachment in public settings; thus a large amount of the population are single and not looking to date; not helped by how their media rarely showcase people trying to date; harem comedies and similar wish fullfillment media a more preferred form of outlet for some than going out to try and connect with a real-life person.Or, in women’s case, there’s a similar societal expectation that once a woman becomes married and/or pregnant, they must permanently leave their job to become a stay-at-home parent and never return to employment, so many that wish to have a business-career in the modern age intentionally forgo dating. Made worse by (as an additonal stigma) single-income family’s not being able to support themselves anymore; so coupled with the prior points about social constructs concerning Mothers working, any money they might spend to spent on essentials, and less on Toys/games.So on both sides, No relationship? No people making babies.Thus, Toei, with how they’ve been directing their shows to be more adolescent, are doubling down on monopolizing an ever-shrinking market, instead of trying to make their shows more accessible to a wider demographic….or their attempts to do so end up juvenile garbage, so default back to the more blatantly silly stuff.

This is the biggest one, as it’s something which has been mapped already by people studying the phenomena, and Sentai’s decline in ratings perfectly matches this population curve; but is still compounded by the former and following 2 points and informs why they’re influential, as due to a series that’s run for over 40 years there’s teen/adult fans that still exist which can choose to pick up the slack if it appeals outside the aimed-at child demographic like their shows used to.

3: Inflation and the appeal of merchandising. This is a big one, as coupled with the increase in Merchandising via toyetic gimmicks since Go-Onger it’s something that makes it more difficult for collectors to collect stuff. Due to the merchandising gimmicks, it’s encouraged fans to buy more, thus inflating sales to offset other cost-based issues. But if the gimmick isn’t appealing (Ala Gobusters), that can severely hurt sales for a series that otherwise would not have been viewed a flop. This is one of the more critical things, as it’s more important for toei and bandai to see that end-of-sales paycheck than anything, which means they’re ingoring other problems and thus leads to…

4:The writing’s just sucked, repetitious, been censored or been found unappealing by the masses. Now this is three-fold; Toei has a lack of talented people to write for them right now, either from draining their talent dry over years and years of using them (Yasuko Kobayashi, Toshiki Inoue), scared them off from their horrific mismanagement and the disrespect shown to them from a caustic production environment (Riku Sanjou, Shigenori Takadera/Takatera, I always forget if it’s a T or D), or not giving the correct oversight to their newer talent so their writing flaws are more prevalent among producer mandates and anything else at toei that may be conflicting with their make.the second Part of this comes from the ever-frustrating moral guardians which neuter Toei’s better productions. Pretty much every time Toei tries to do something cool, over-protective moronic parents come out of the woodwork to complain, and those complaints have more weight than people criticising more critical things, as they have the backing of censorship board that after complaints will look at a show more critically even when it’s unecessary. As Usually the parents that complain are those that don’t actually bother to watch the shows with their kids, so don’t actually know what the fuck they’re talking about.I mean, we have that right now in the US with both adult/mature cartoons and video games being complained about their content, despite moron parents buying their kids copies of call of fucking duty (and yes I’ve seen this happen) as they think just because it’s a game/animated it’s all automatically kids stuff and don’t bother to do actual parenting by explaining crap to their kids. They’d rather just censor it wholesale instead of have them learn what they should and should not do, and sometimes actual educational shows can be just as damning with broken Aesops even the young kids can see plain as day (The starlight glimmer mess for MLP FIM I’ve mentioned elsewhere on social media in how they have yet to not make her act like a sociopath and have thus ruined other more interesting or liked characters by proxy).

In example of this for kamen Rider, I read an article containing a Gen Urobuchi interview about his tenure on Gaim (http://00tn2.blogspot.com/2016/04/katarou-555-blade-hibiki.html), who revealed that Fourze (despite being the Second highest-selling kamen rider series PERIOD after OOO to the tone of 27 BILLION YEN!) was considered a black-sheep at toei (and why Sota Fukushi’s apparently been blacklisted by them) because these parental watchdogs complained about how Gentaro Kisaragi looked like a traditional Hooligan/Teenage gangster and thus bad influence…WHEN THAT WAS THE ENTIRE POINT OF WHY HE LOOKED THAT WAY! His character and mannerisms were made to contradict and destroy an outdated perspective on that, as part of the series theme was looking past the basic appearances of those around you to see the truth of that person.

But as a consequence of these asinine assholes, Toei is very afraid to do anything new, and thus the third part of this subset: they copy or straight rip-off what they think are their past successes,so such can be a nice safe show for them in bank on as that worked before…only for it to be found they have done them in worse ways nearly every time. Because…THEY DID THAT SHOW ALREADY! And the NEW show is not giving any new nuance to what was already done before, or sabotages any chance for there to be something good in and of itself as either A: they don’t give it, instead preferring to rely more and more increasingly on stock character roles which can be plugged into any situation; or B: Someone or thing superceeds that focus with respect to both story and character.

In this last case, it’s what I have been condemning with Toei’s shows for some time, Inappropraite stuffed-into-the-show comedy (A recurring thing with Toei that does go back Decades) and/Or Insufferable red Sentai that steal the show from the other cast members. And we’re having that problem right now with Kyuranger; Idiot red hero, and once they hit the fourth episode everyone came to the realization that they’re ripping off Gokaiger

But they only put in that silliness and began to glorify the idiot (thus tying all these points together) to try and appeal down to the Shortbus brigade demographic of small children that are shrinking in number every year after there was that one show where it seemed to work (kyoryuger) because it was actually well written even if it was flawed. The more juvenile it gets and the less justified it’s comedy and story focus are, the fewer people from older demographics that were fans will watch it, as there is now PLENTY of other things they could be watching now that will appeal to them more. And the less people pay attention to the show, the fewer people will buy their merchandise until they get desperate, and thus the cycle will start all over again.

That’s all I got.

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duhragonball · 5 years

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Dragon Ball Z Movie 2: The World’s Strongest

Movie time again. I made it a point to cover each movie in chronological order of when they aired. In this case, “World’s Strongest” (also known as “The Strongest Guy in the World”) premiered on March 10, 1990, as part of that season’s Toei Cartoon Festival. I’ve written about this before, but the short version is that Toei would produce specials and run them in movie theaters during periods when kids were off from school. I think they did three festivals a year. The point is, a viewer in 1990 could watch Bulma run around in her underwear in episode 39, check this movie out a few days later, and then come back to their TV to watch Bulma in her underwear again in episode 40. So that’s kind of what I’m trying to replicate here. It sounds kind of sad and gross when I put it that way, but it’s too late to stop now.

I mentioned this before, but in the manga, Piccolo only has four fingers on each hand, but in the anime, he’s got five, like all the humans do. Once I noticed this, I started to become more aware of times when Piccolo’s pinky finger would be presented in very subtle ways, almost like the animators were trying to be respectful of the four-fingered design. This opening shot is a really good example of this. Piccolo’s pinky finger is the closest one to the viewer, but you still have to squint to find it.

This isn’t much of a direct sequel to “Dead Zone”, or even the Saiyans Saga, which had just wrapped up before this movie premiered. Even so, there’s little nods to what has gone before. Like Movie 1, this one starts with Piccolo training in seclusion by blowing stuff up. Last movie, it was boulders, but this time it’s glaciers, and it turns out these are much harder to blow up. Piccolo even mentions that the ice here is so cold that it’s impossible to melt, and even his own awesome power can’t scratch it.

This reminds me a lot of the filler episode near the end of Dragon Ball, where Goku went to a mountaintop that was supposed to have snow that was so cold that it could turn fire into ice. Goku went there in short-sleeves, gathered up a big snowball of the stuff, and carried it away in his bare hands, and then it melted in the sunlight. But it could turn the exhaust from a rocket into an icicle. Between this and Ghiaccio in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, I’m really starting to wonder if anyone in the anime industry knows how ice works.

Meanwhile, Oolong and Gohan are in the area, looking for the Dragon Balls. Oolong checked Bulma’s Dragon Radar earlier, and he noticed that some of the Balls were clustering together, which meant that someone else was gathering them to make a wish. According to his flashback scene, he decided to sieze this opportunity to steal the wish for himself, so he contacted Gohan and here we are.

Okay, so let’s talk about the continuity here. As I mentioned when discussing “Dead Zone”, the DBZ movies sort of do their own thing. They’re not retelling storylines from the anime, nor are they exactly side-stories that could fit in between anime episodes. In the anime, Piccolo is dead, and Gohan is en route to Namek to find a way to bring him back to life, because the Earth’s Dragon Balls don’t work. Oolong hasn’t even met Gohan yet, as far as I can tell. Honestly, I’m not sure that Gohan and Oolong ever meet in DBZ, besides this scene.

I tend to think of this movie as being set in an alternate world where Gohan and the others managed to wish Piccolo back to life without much difficulty. In the canon, Gohan, Goku, and Piccolo won’t be reunited on Earth until much later on, so this movie just doesn’t fit into that continuity. “World’s Strongest” doesn’t know that, and it’s not pretending that it could know that. It’s just telling a standalone story as best it can.

What you end up with, then, is a movie that sort of ties into the anime, but not exactly, and you run into oddities like Gohan and Oolong teaming up. Oolong says he stole the radar while Bulma wasn’t looking, and we see her and Roshi sunbathing, as if she lives with him on his island. That seems a little off to me, but she did spend a lot of screen-time with him during the Saiyans arc, so I can see where the writers took that for granted. What I don’t really understand is why Oolong decided that Gohan was the only one he could count on to help him with this caper. I think the idea is that he wanted someone strong enough to be there in case things got rough, but naive enough that he wouldn’t try to horn in on Oolong’s wish. But how’d he find Gohan, and how did he avoid Chi-Chi?

Also, there’s a weird quirk with the Dragon Radar, where their mystery guy starts out with four Dragon Balls, an then he has the fifth, sixth, and seventh almost immediately. It is possible to hide a Dragon Ball from Bulma’s tech, so I’m guessing the dude already had three balls in storage before Oolong noticed him collecting the other four. What I don’t get is why Oolong didn’t pick up on this. Oolong’s really lazy, so I’d think that if he saw someone gathering the Dragon Balls all the way up in the arctic, he’d give up immediately, because the wish would be made before he could even get there.

And that’s exactly what happens. While Oolong and Gohan are struggling to get up an ice hill, an old man summons Shenron and wishes to have Dr. Uiro “revived”. I like the way “Uiro” is spelled, but I think I’ll stick to “Wheelo”, since it’s the more phoenitc version Funimation used.

Okay, so this wish seems a bit confused. It sounds like this guy is wishing for Dr. Wheelo to be brought back to life, but we’ll later learn that he’s been alive this whole time, but trapped under a bunch of this impenetrable ice.

So he’s wishing for the ice to be melted, right? Well, that’s what Shenron ends up doing for him, but that’s not really what he asked for, is it? This is one thing I like about Shenron. He’s not a Monkey’s Paw, twisting your wishes into ironic nightmares, or Aladdin’s Genie, trying to find ways to wiggle out of his obligations. Shenron will tell you if he can’t do something, and he always seems to do what the wisher wants, even if it’s not quite spelled out in the text of the wish. Dr. Cochin wants Wheelo to be “revived” in the sense that he wants him exhumed from his icy tomb. He doesn’t want him literally resurrected, and Shenron gets that.

Anyway, Cochin is pleased with the results, and he promises that he and Wheelo are back in business and someone’s going to pay.

And here’s a shot of Wheelo’s ice fortress thing.

And here’s the title card.

From a distance, Gohan and Oolong see all of this going on.

Then a Saibaman shows up to eliminate any witnesses. Gohan runs to save Oolong...

... but the Saibaman has backup, and Piccolo jumps in to save the day.

He even kills one just like he did when the Z-Fighters fought the real Saibamen in the Saiyans Saga. I’m pretty sure Cochin’s monsters have nothing to do with Nappa’s Saibamen, but Toei didn’t seem to mind ripping off the design. Hell, they’re practically gloating about it by doing callbacks like this.

Then some bigger creatures show up, and a strange beam of light enevelops Piccolo and he disappears.

Oolong and Gohan wake up in an ice... uh... hole? I’m not sure how they got down here or why they haven’t frozen to death, but they’re basically safe. Gohan is concerned about Piccolo, but Oolong reminds him that Gohan promised not to tell anyone they were ever here.

Gohan agrees, since he doesn’t want his mom to get mad at him. You know, I really hate it when kids in stories get pressured into keeping secrets, or they know something important and no one wants to believe them. Does Oolong honestly think that no one should know about this sinister-looking fortress in the middle of the Arctic? I don’t know how old he’s supposed to be, but I’ve heard he was nine in his first appearance, which puts him around 21 here. He’s old enough to know better, is my point.

Back at Gohan’s house, his parents discuss his recent behavior. Chi-Chi’s worried about him, but Goku’s attitude is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I think this is where Goku’s parenting skills get misconstrued. Chi-Chi works herself into a lather trying to give Gohan the best possible upbringing, and most of her worries are for nothing, because Gohan is growing up just fine. Goku understands that--intuitively, if nothing else-- but his conclusion is that we don’t need to worry about it. People see that attitude an mistake it for complacency or indifference. That’s not true at all. If Gohan was truly being a bad kid, Goku would take action. But he’s not being a bad kid, so he doesn’t need to do anything more than he’s already doing.

I’ve seen this sort of thing before, where if you’re not as worried about a problem as the person next to you, the person next to you thinks you’re part of the problem.

Of course, the flip side of this is that Chi-Chi rarely ever worries about Gohan getting stronger, because she figures he’s already superhumanly strong for his age anyway. And if he ever did need to get stronger, Goku would be on top of that, so it literally is not a problem for her. The difference is that Goku never pushes back much on this. He complains privately to himself or his friends, but for the most part he backs off and lets Chi-Chi have her way. I don’t know if that’s because he figures she knows better, or if he trusts Gohan to decide for himself what he wants to do when he’s older. Again, he’s trying to be flexible for the sake of the family, and I think people misinterpret that flexibility for weakness.

While they talk, Gohan is in his room studying. We can hear his parents, but I’m not sure whether Gohan is supposed to be able to hear them or not.

Then he has this whole nutty daydream, sort of like the one from “Dead Zone”, except he’s not drunk this time.

In the daydream, he casts off his usual clothes and dons the homemade Piccolo suit he debuted in Episode 38. I always liked this moment, like he’s just so happy to put on his li’l fightin’ pants and show everybody.

Then we see him marching around the world with Piccolo. The music playing over this scene is “Piccolo-san Daisuki”, sung by Gohan’s voice actress, Masako Nozawa.

Then he suddenly flashes back to Piccolo sacrificing himself to save Gohan from Nappa. Okay, so this movie definitely acknowledges the Saiyan Saga as a thing that happened recently, although this is really the only time it comes up.

Chi-Chi wakes him up and gives him a snack. She worries about him falling asleep while studying, because she’s always worried about something.

Back at Kame House, Oolong is being punished for breaking the Dragon Radar by being forced to cook dinner. That seems like a weird punishment, since he’s not a very good cook. Also, this once again implies that Bulma lives here all the time, and she can’t get dinner anywhere else. So if Oolong’s already been caught screwing around with the Dragon Radar, why doesn’t he just come clean about what he saw up north?

Outside, a bunch of those Saibamen-knockoffs show up looking for Master Roshi. They tell him that he’s been summoned by Dr. Wheelo, and Roshi’s never heard of him, so he says no. When they won’t take “no” for an answer, he clobbers them all with ease. So they’re not even as strong as real Saibamen.

Then Dr. Cochin reveals himself... well, it’s a pretty small island. He would have had to have been standing there the whole time, but Roshi still acts surprised when he starts talking. Cochin asks Roshi to come with him, and Roshi refuses again...

...Until he sees that the bootleg-Saibamen have captured Bulma, so he really has no choice.

This leaves Oolong all alone, and since he recognizes the off-model Saibamen, he knows where they took Roshi and Bulma. So he finally heads over to Goku’s place to fess up. At first, Goku isn’t worried, since Roshi is “the god of martial arts” an he “even won the Tenkaichi Tournament.” So does this mean Goku finally figured out that Jackie Chun was Master Roshi in disguise? I mean, this movie isn’t canon, so it may not matter, but I’m kind of interested if this is a gaffe or a deliberate thing.

Anyway, Oolong explains where he thinks they’ve gone, and how he knows, and that’s enough to get Goku out of the bath.

I guess Chi-Chi’s only mad at Gohan for fraternizing with Piccolo, which is weird because Gohan wasn’t even trying to find him. He just showed up. Goku doesn’t have much to say about this, because he’s more concerned with rescuing Bulma and Roshi. I’m not sure why Oolong’s story escalates the crisis. The only new information revealed here is that Roshi’s captor used the Dragon Balls recently, but maybe that’s enough.

So Goku’s off to save the day. Gohan wants to go with him, but Chi-Chi ain’t having it. This seems a little strict, but we’ve already seen Gohan wander off to the arctic, so I can understand why Chi-Chi has to be so hard on him.

I mean look at this. Goku just left, and Gohan’s already trying to sneak off. What a little rascal this guy is.

Okay, so this is where the movie starts to get pretty bad. I remember Team Four Star’s KaiserNeko just gushing about how good Movie 2 is, and I remember thinking: “Wow, Movie 2? Really?” I just don’t like it very much, and scenes like this are a big part of the reason why. Bulma and Roshi are trapped in the villains’ lair. It’s this huge, dark grey dome, and inside there’s... absolutely nothing? If the lights are off, why are the characters so well-lit? Did the background artists just call in sick that day?

Here’s Dr. Cochin speaking to Roshi from a giant monitor. It’s a little bit better as backgrounds go, but not much. Everything in this fortress is grey on black on more grey, with maybe some dark blue for highlights. Oh, and guess what Roshi and Bulma are wearing today.

Then Cochin releases three creatures to fight Roshi. Kishime is a green guy who looks more like a henchman from the previous movie. Misokatsun kind of looks like a fatter, yellow Dodoria, and he has a flexible body like Buyon from the Muscle Tower arc. Ebifrya looks like he’d be more at home in Turles’ gang in Movie 3, so I guess that makes him look halfway innovative.

The idea here is to test Roshi’s power by having him fight all three of these guys at once.

And they kick his ass. Roshi started out okay, but once they triple-teamed him, it was all over. This concerns Cochin and Wheelo, since they had been under the impression that Master Roshi was the strongest man in the world. Bulma scoffs at this idea, since Roshi hasn’t been the world’s strongest in a long time.

Bulma finally recognizes Cochin and Wheelo’s names, but she read that both of them were killed fifty years ago, during a “sudden weather shift”, which buried their lab in ice and snow.

Also, this area is called the “Tsurumai-tsuburi Mountains”, but Imma keep it real with you, chief, ain’t nobody got time to spell that. Short version is: They two of them did get buried with their lab, but they didn’t die. Cochin then presents Dr. Wheelo...

And he’s a brain in a life support system.

Now, this is one of my other big gripes with this movie. Wheelo’s nothing more than a friggin’ brain. He’s literally part of the background art. The only animation in scenes like this is the bubbles coming up from the fluid in his jar.

This wouldn’t be such a big deal, except this franchise relies a lot on expressive, charismatic villains with big, over the top reaction shots. Think about all the times we’ve seen King Piccolo or Commander Red or Vegeta flipping out or glaring at someone or smirking when things go their way. Dr. Wheelo can’t do any of that. I mean, that’s the point of Dr. Wheelo. His plan is to transplant his brain into Master Roshi’s body, so of course he has to be a brain in a jar that can’t do anything. But his limitations are exposed very quickly. Basically, it’s up to Dr. Cochin to carry the load and express his emotions for him, except Cochin usually has the same goofy look on his face at all times.

Also, a huge chunk of movie is spent explaining Cochin and Wheelo’s backstory, and yet there’s still a bunch of plot holes that never get addressed. How did Wheelo’s brain get transferred to the jar? Cochin did it, which means Cochin was trapped in the lab with him after it was buried in ice. Okay, but when the movie starts, Cochin was seen outside of the lab, making his wish to Shenron. So if he could escape, why couldn’t he figure out a way to take Wheelo with him?

To be sure, it looks like Wheelo’s life support system is embedded in a wall, so maybe there’s ice locking up whatever mechanism would allow Cochin to remove him. Fair enough, except Cochin wished for the ice to be melted, so Wheelo should be as free as a bird. Except Cochin didn’t wish for the ice to be melted. He wanted Wheelo “revived”. He could have simply wished for Wheelo to be given a new body, one stronger than anyone else on the planet. There may be a limit to what Shenron could create for Wheelo, but it’d still be a super strong body, and one limber enough to escape the lab through the same passage Dr. Cochin must have used.

Also, Dr. Wheelo’s brain looks positively enormous. Was he a normal human? I guess he could have been one of those pig-men like Oolong. We really don’t know. Even so, if his big idea is to put his brain in someone else’s body, it sure doesn’t look like it would fit.

I’m not alone on this. When Team Four Star did their Abridged parody of this movie, they played off Cochin as the main villain, with Wheelo as an unwilling participant of his mad schemes. In the end, Goku and the others used Shenron to give him a new body, and the punchline was that he looked utterly ridiculous.

Moving on, Cochin tells Bulma about a woodland near South City that was suddenly turned into a barren desert three days ago.

Turns out that Cochin and Wheelo were the ones who did that. I’m not sure if this was before or after they got their lab thawed out, but it seems to me that if they have a weapon capable of this sort of thing, they could have found some other means to free themselves from the ice. If they even needed freeing, since Cochin could apparently come and go as he pleased.

Wheelo apparently wants to take over the world and remake it in his own image, which is apparently hot pink deserts. I guess if the whole planet looked like this, it would sort of resemble a giant brain, so maybe it makes sense.

Then Wheelo detects a powerful ki. So Wheelo knows how to sense ki? Or does he have a scouter built into his tank? Kind of convenient either way.

Of course, it’s Goku, and Bulma had just explained to them that he’s the strongest person in the world nowadays. So this works out for everyone involved. Goku will either rescue Bulma and Roshi, or he can give up his body to Dr. Wheelo.

I’m confused how Wheelo can sense ki well enough to detect Goku at a distance, but he can’t tell that Goku is far-and-away more powerful than anyone else on Earth. It’s like they didn’t put a lot of thought into this script. This movie wastes a lot of time testing the powers of Roshi and Goku, whereas Raditz was able to figure a lot of this out without actually having to fight everybody.

Back at the house, Gohan has snuck off, and Chi-Chi is all worried about him becoming a delinquent.

Wait, is Gohan flying a plane? By himself?

Yes, that is exactly what he’s doing. I mean, it sort of makes sense, because he’s already been to the arctic earlier in the movie, and I know Oolong can’t fly a plane, but Gohan’s five. What kind of cram school does Chi-Chi have him in, anyway?

So Goku shows up and he’s cold. Those coats they wore in the Super Broly movie? That’s character development right there.

Wheelo sics... that big yellow monster on him, and then a bunch of giant balls with knives on them. Why does he have all this crap to begin with? Did he spend the last fifty years assembling death traps for a secret base no one could even enter?

Misokatsun gives Goku a little trouble, until Goku uses the Kaio-ken to rip through his elastic body, killing him.

There’s sparky wires inside him, which suggests that he’s a cyborg or something

Then the other two gang up on him. The green one has electric tentacles, while the big pink one has cold power.

They actually seem to beat Goku, until Gohan shows up, followed by Krillin. This feels a bit off to me, because Krillin hadn’t even been in the movie up to this point. I guess the later movies pull the same trick, just sort of dumping character in without really introducing them, but here it seems kind of odd. How did he even know what was going on?

The boys put up a good fight, but then they get overwhelmed...

So Goku resorts to the Kaio-ken to break out of the ice and save them. Why didn’t he just do that in the first place?

He clobbers the other two bio-warriors, or whatever you call ‘em, and the three heroes push further into Wheelo’s fortress. Okay, so here you can actually see some stuff in the background, and it looks like the Endor playset I had as a kid, only with big red globes and laser lights. Why did Wheelo build any of this?

Wheelo observes them on the security cameras, I guess. It’s weird because he seems really pleased when ever Goku beats his traps, but at the same time, he’s rooting for his henchmen to defeat Goku so he can take his body. He even seemed to want Goku killed for this, and I feel like he would need Goku to be captured alive in order to do the transplant.

Also, and this is an important point: Goku’s only winning here because of techniques that he knows. A strong as he is, the bulk of his power depends on ki techniques that he had to learn, like the Kaio-ken and the Kamehameha. If Wheelo puts his brain in Goku’s body, he won’t have access to those powers because he won’t know how to use them.

Goku finds Bulma, probably because she’s the only visible object in this pitch black room, but there’s force field that keeps him from saving her.

Bulma fills them all in on Dr. Wheelo, and Krillin wonders how he can still be alive like this.

So Cochin explains it again, and I don’t really think it’s that complicated. Considering everything else they’ve done in this movie, keeping Wheelo’s brain alive seems self-evident.

Also, they spend a lot of time reminding us of how megalomanical they both are. Cochin seems to worship Wheelo like a god, and he considers any action that furthers his agenda to be just and worthwhile, no matter the cost. Wheelo wants a body, but not just any body, he wants the best one he can get. This is an important aspect of their characters, sure, but I feel like the movie keeps harping on this point needlessly. Of course they’re fanatics. They’re mad scientists, after all.

Maybe that’s the trouble with this movie. Villains like Garlic Junior require more setup, because Garlic Junior is literally some creep we’ve never seen before. Wheelo, on the other hand, is a total cliche. A bad guy saving his brain in a jar has been done in a bunch of movies and comics. A villain who steals other people’s bodies is nothing new, and mad scientists who want to destroy the world are nothing new either. It’s new for the Dragon Ball franchise, though, so maybe Toei thought it needed to be explained more than it did. But I feel like Japanese audiences would have been familiar with all of this stuff too.

Then they catch Goku in what I assume was the same energy beam they used to catch Piccolo. Hey, whatever happened to Piccolo, anyway?

Oh, there he is.

Turns out Piccolo’s been mind-controlled. When Goku breaks free of the force field thing, he has to fight Piccolo. Only, that’s kind of a mismatch at this point. The Saiyans Saga definitely happened in this movie’s continuity, and Goku was much, much stronger than Piccolo by the time it ended. This is even demonstrated by how Goku overcomes the same traps that Piccolo couldn’t.

Maybe Goku’s holding back because he considers Piccolo a friend, but it seems like he ought to be able to knock him out a lot more easily than this.

Gohan tries to reason with Piccolo, but he just fires an energy blast at him, so Goku has to deflect it with his own. Cochin gloats that even the mighty King Piccolo has become another obedient servant of Dr. Wheelo’s.

That pisses Gohan off, and he starts to tap into the hidden rage power we’ve seen him use in the past.

Dr. Wheelo is... surprised? Happy? Bemused? Greaaaat villain design, guys.

Cochin doesn’t realize what Gohan’s doing, so he taunts the boy, which only makes Gohan madder. Wheelo orders him to stop, but Cochin doesn’t listen, which seems odd, considering how devoted Cochin is to the guy.

He even tells Gohan to go home and suck on his mommy’s teats. Wooooowwwwwwwwwwww.

Then he shoots a big laser out of his cane.

Then the whole room starts to crack and Wheelo’s brain... glows? What the hell is going on here?

Krillin takes away Cochin’s cane and demands that he free Bulma, but instead...

Cochin turns his arm into a gun. Well, okay...

A bunch of the lab falls apart, but this section looks like it’s in good shape. Piccolo’s mind-control crown shatters too, and I don’t know if that’s because of Gohan’s outburst, or Wheelo’s glowing, or maybe it just got damaged while he was fighting Goku. Anyway, Piccolo’s pretty confused.

Then Wheelo laughs and he seems pleased that he’ll finally have a chance to fight. Okay...

Cochin seems pretty upset about this, and as Wheelo does... something... more of the lab breaks apart, and Cochin falls down a hole.

There’s some giant column down here, and it glows bright yellow for some reason...

...and it fries Cochin when he falls too close to it.

This destroys his skin and clothes, revealing a robotic body underneath. So was he always a robot, or did he put his brain in a robot body? This movie makes no friggin’ sense. This is probably the only truly interesting thing about Dr. Cochin, and they kill him off before they can even do anything with it.

Finally Dr. Wheelo reveals that his life support tank is part of a big robot that he can move around in. So why was it embedded in the wall, then? Was he stuck? Did Gohan’s outburst damage the lab enough to release him? Did Wheelo do this himself and he just didn’t need to do it before?

Also, woof. The robot design is pretty good, except it’s color scheme is just black with dark green highlights. It never feels like we get a good look at this thing, because it’s always in shadow.

I mean, here’s a slightly better view, but ugh.

This wouldn’t be so bad, except the backgrounds are just as dark as Wheelo’s robot body, so you can barely see what he’s doing most of the time. This shot is okay, but he’s standing still.

Anyway, he says that if he has Goku’s body, he wouldn’t need this “ugly” one. So is that what this is all about? Does he just want to look handsomer? Because if he thinks Goku is stronger than the body he has right now, then picking a fight with him is a pretty stupid idea.

Piccolo swears to avenge himself, and Wheelo is... angry? Worried? Tired? This guy absolutely sucks.

Roshi, Krillin, and Goku try a triple-Kamehameha on Wheelo, but it doesn’t work. Hey, good luck figuring out what Wheelo is doing in this shot.

Wheelo uses... some part of his body to hit Master Roshi. Have I mentioned what a stupid idea it was to have Roshi wear all black for this movie?

Then Dr. Wheelo does...uhhhhh... Yeah, fuck this. You’re on your own, kids.

Gohan tries some stunt that involves the Nyoibo, and he reveals that he’s had the Nyoibo stowed under his cape the whole time, but he misses.

So Goku picks it up and Piccolo saves Gohan.

Fuck this movie.

Oh, good, Piccolo shot his energy blasts at a piece of asphalt, no wait, that’s Dr. Wheelo.

Ugh...

Finally Goku stops horsing around. I forgot the exact sequence of events, but he used the Nyoibo to trip Wheelo, probably setting him up for Piccolo to bombard him, and now he’s gonna use Kaio-ken Times Three, like he did against Vegeta.

In the Big Green Dub, this sequence was hilariously dubbed with the lines “I WANT THE MAGIC STICK!” followed by “NOW I WANT TOTAL POWERRRRRR!”

This shot of Goku’s foot looks cooler than every frame of Dr. Wheelo in this rassum-frassum movie.

Goku charges heroically at... Is that Dr. Wheelo, or a section of the wall?

At some point he manages to tear off one of Wheelo’s lobster claws, but that’s about the only sign of damage I can pick out.

Then he goes for a Kamehameha to finish the bastard off.

Wheelo counters with his own blast, and for a second he seems to have the upper hand until...

... Goku uses Kaio-ken times four, which jacks up his Kamehameha to the point where it blasts Wheelo into the sky.

Krillin congratulates Goku for beating him, but Goku says it’s still not over. “Don’t you remember the Vegeta fight, Krillin? We’re taking cues from that, remember? He’ll try that fake moon thing next, and you’ll need to get Yajirobe to cut off his tail.”

Wheelo decides to just blow up the whole planet, I guess using the same super-weapon Cochin was talking about earlier. I thought he wanted to rule the world, not blow it up, but maybe he figures it’s not worth it if he can’t beat Goku.

So his big power core thing starts glowing again. Why doesn’t Goku just blow that thing up?

Instead, he starts setting up a Spirit Bomb, because that’s what he did against Vegeta.

Wheelo is... confused, I guess. How does he know what Goku’s doing from the ground?

This is one of the better shots of Wheelo, and he still looks terrible. He’s not even indoors, and Toei still insisted on the murkiest color scheme possible.

One of the artists took pity on me and snuck in this really nice sunset for me. Toei probably fired him for it. “This frame is completely unacceptable! Now the audience knows where the sun is! You’ve sucked all the mystery out of this film!”

Goku tries to first his Spirit Bomb....

But Wheelo shoots at him first. He misses by like, several hundred yards, but this is enough to make Goku hold off anyway.

So Piccolo, Gohan, and Krilln fly up to keep Wheelo busy so Goku can ready his attack. They get a few decent hits in, except Krillin for some reason.

“Oh, crap!” Krillin says, “I’m in the movie ‘The World’s Strongest!’“

Finally Goku has the Spirit Bomb ready to launch. This is kind of a big deal, because we never really got to see the technique executed as intended during the Vegeta battle, because Goku got hurt and had to hand off the power to Krillin. So this movie is notable for showing what might have been.

It deflects Wheelo’s red death laser...

And as it passes by, Gohan and the others can sene the combined energy of all the people in the world. I like that cocky dude in the cowboy hat. He has no idea that Goku borrowed a bit of his energy to beat Wheelo, but he’s still confident that it’ll help kick his ass. Also, the Black lady to the right of him may be the best rendition of a Black person in all of Dragon Ball. I wish it wasn’t so obscure.

I was thinking about how the Red Ribbon Army had an officer named Brown, and we never got to see that character, and I tried to imagine what Brown should look like. I never got very far, but I thought it’d be cool if they had another lady in the RRA, and that lady looks pretty much like what I had in mind. Haven’t settled on a rank or uniform yet. She’s a work in progress.

Anyway, the Spirit Bomb hits Wheelo and he finally dies. “Son Goku!” he shouts. Remember the face Vegeta made when Goku blew him up with the Spirit Bomb? Yeah, Wheelo can’t do that. Good riddance.

For some reason the lab explodes too? Well, at least it’s not all black and grey, so good.

Everyone’s pretty happy about this victory. You’d think they’d all be freezing right now, but no one in the anime industry knows how ice works.

Goku spots Piccolo walking away, and thanks him for his help. Piccolo just says Gohan did a good job, and Gohan’s all “He knows my name!”

The narrator threatens that a new Dr. Wheelo might show up some day, and gosh I really hope not. At least give his robot suit a flashier paintjob.

Roshi gives Wheelo some credit. He did say Roshi was the greatest in the world.

And Bulma’s like, “Yeah, the greatest lecher, amirite?”

Then they all laugh, and it’s a little disconcerting. It wasn’t that funny, guys.

Bulma’s like “No, seriously, Master Roshi belongs in jail.”

And that’s the end. Thank goodness.

I’m sorry if this was your favorite DBZ movie and I was a little too rough on it, but man, I just don’t care for this one. The plot just doesn’t make sense, the final battle shamlessly rips off stuff from the Goku/Vegeta battle, and the main villain is barely visible for most of the action. Wheelo and Cochin don’t add much to the lore of DBZ either. With Garlic Junior, you got a peek into Kami’s backstory, and Turles offered a hint into what other Saiyan survivors might have been up to after Planet Vegeta was destroyed. Wheelo’s just as mad scientist from fifty years ago who got snowed in one day. He has all thes extremely powerful weapons at his disposal, but he blows them all on a mad scheme to beat Goku, specifically because Goku is strong enough to overpower him. It’s one thing for the baddie to underestimate the hero, but Wheelo wants Goku to be stronger, and then he fights him anyway.

Now, to be fair, it’s got a few good things going for it. The idea of a mad scientist giving Goku this much trouble is a good one. At lot of Wheelo’s methods ended up being employed by Dr. Gero a few years later. So if nothing else, Wheelo serves as a good proof-of-concept for the Androids arc.

There’s also something to be said for the villain’s goal being to exploit Goku personally. Usually the bad guys don’t even know about Goku, or they only hate Goku and want him dead. Wheelo sees Goku as raw material for his evil plans. This didn’t get developed much, but it’s a smart idea. I kind of wish Wheelo had put his brain in someone else’s body, just to demonstrate that it was possible. Like, even if he was stuck in Bulma’s body, that’d still be a big improvement over staring at a brain in a jar. Goku could still fight a giant robot, but at least Wheelo would have a face and hands to act with.

I also dig the idea of opening the movie with the bad guy making a wish. Cochin’s wish seems kind of pointless in hindsight, but at the very least, he took the Dragon Balls off the board for the rest of the movie. This way, no one else could make a wish.

This is a pretty action-heavy movie, so if you’re willing to forgive the drawbacks I mentioned earlier, you can at least enjoy all the fights. Personally, I’d prefer one really good long fight over several smaller, less decisive ones, but diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks.

There’s a lot of really pretty visuals in this movie. They’re sort of ancilliary to the main story, and I’m not sure they’re necessarily better than those found in any of the other movies, but they’re worthy of recognition. I’ll ust post a few down here to close us out with some positivity.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #world's strongest #goku #piccolo #gohan #chi chi #krillin #bulma #master roshi #oolong #dr wheelo #dr cochin #dbmovieliveblog

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duhragonball · 5 years

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Dragon Ball Z Movie 1: Dead Zone

All right, it’s time or the first DBZ movie. Dead Zone premiered on July 15, 1989, right between epsiodes 11 and 12. It wasn’t actually called “Dead Zone”, and it’s title was simply “Dragon Ball Z” until the other movies came out, and then it was known in Japan as “Return my Gohan!” Personally, I think “Dead Zone” works better as a title although it doesn’t really come into play until the very end.

I ran into some trouble with this one, because I own all the DBZ movies on Blu-Ray, and it turns out that I can’t take screen captures of Blu-Ray movies on my computer. So my only other option was to log on to Funimation’s streaming service and get my images from there. But the video quality was pathetic, so I’ll apologize in advance for the crappy screenshots.

I’m not sure how I’ll proceed with the other films. I can’t use Funimation.com for all of them, because the Bardock special, the Broly movies, and Fusion Reborn were all taken off the site, probably because they’ve been playing them in theaters lately. I guess I could buy the DVD editions, but I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble. Well, I’ll worry about that later.

We open on this shot of Piccolo screaming. Right away, you call tell this is going to be a great movie. Casablanca should have done this.

I’m not sure what Piccolo is up to here, but I guess he’s blowing up rock formations as part of his training to beat Goku someday.

Then he gets ambushed by three mysterious warriors, and they pretty much eat his lunch. A fourth one orders them to kill Piccolo.

Piccolo screams, and there’s an explosion, and the bad guys seem pretty confident that he’s dead. They also know that since Piccolo and Kami were once the same person, they’ve killed Kami along with Piccolo, which seems to have been the purpose of this attack.

Except Kami’s just fine. We see him on the Lookout, sitting in what looks like a confessional. He’s startled, but only because he can sense that Piccolo has been defeated. He suspects Goku, but then he realizes that it must have been... him.

From there, we move on to Goku’s house, where the Ox King just arrived to bring Gohan some presents. It’s very much like the first few episodes of DBZ, only this time Gohan is actually home when Ox shows up.

But then Ox King collapses, and Gohan has to run away before his grandpa can fall on him.

Turns out some bad guy coldcocked Ox King from behind, and now he wants the Dragon Ball on Gohan’s hat. Chi-Chi sends Gohan into the relative safety of the house...

...but this guy’s waiting inside, so that’s no good. Also he eats three pears, just because.

Chi-Chi squares up to fight these guys, but there’s three of them and one of her, and she has to keep an eye on Gohan too. There’s a lot of gifs out there of Chi-Chi’s desperate stance in this movie, because it’s just so well-animated. Everything in this movie is well-animated, really. It might not be the most innovative story, but the visuals more than make up for it.

Chi-Chi can’t even land a blow, as it turns out. The bad guys take Gohan and leave, and Goku’s out fishing. Somehow, he senses it when Chi-Chi falls, and he runs back to the house to see what’s wrong. Chi-Chi tells him that his son has been kidnapped by bad guys. The question now is: Is Goku a bad enough dude to rescue him? The answer is yes.

Then we cut to the bad guys’ lair. This shot looks amazing. I love the weird architecture of the castle, I love the salmon-colored sky and the yellow clouds, it’s just really pleasant to look at. I’d hang this up on my wall at home if I did that sort of thing.

The leader, named Garlic Junior, plans to use the Dragon Balls to wish for eternal life. With Gohan’s capture, they now have five of the Dragon Balls, and they seem pretty confident that they can locate the last two without much trouble. I’m curious as to how they can find them so easily, but this is never explained.

Also, I don’t understand why they kidnapped Gohan when all they wanted was the Dragon Ball on his hat. Gohan informs them that his father will come rescue him, and the bad guys seem mildly impressed to learn that Goku is his father. Garlic even recognizes Goku as the man who defeated Piccolo at the World Martial Arts tournament. On the other hand, they just got done beating Piccolo, and quite easily, so they figure they can handle Goku if he happens to show up.

Garlic senses that Gohan has a great power within him, and decides to raise him as his henchman. This right here turns out to be a huge mistake. Bringing Gohan here was a questionable move at best, but here we see Garlic decide to keep the kid, rather than kill him or send him back to his family. It just isn’t worth it. Yeah, Gohan might make a useful flunky, but does Garlic really need one? Probably not, but he’s too high on his own success to hedge his bets.

Meanwhile, Goku heads to Master Roshi’s place to get Bulma’s Dragon Radar. Not sure how he knew Bulma was at Roshi’s place, but whatever. Just like in the TV series, when Radditz kidnapped Gohan, Goku was able to track his son by the Dragon Ball on his hat. And this seems like a good time to discuss the continuity of this movie.

See, the original Dragon Ball movies sort of functioned as a retelling of Goku’s early adventures, with different characters and plot elements tossed in. It was readily apparent that they didn’t fit into the continuity of the TV anime or the manga, because they literally retold key moments, like Goku meeting Bulma for the first time, or Krilln meeting Master Roshi, or Tao Pai Pai’s murder of Bora. But the circumstances were changed, so it was clear that those movie moments didn’t fit in with the original story. The DBZ movies, on the other hand, sort of operate as side-stories to the manga and anime, ecxcept that there’s usually one or two plot holes that keep them from fitting into the mythos.

In this case, the big problem is that Bulma, Roshi, and Krillin are helping Goku find his lost son, but they didn’t find out Goku even had a son until Episode 2 of DBZ, which ends with Radditz kidnapping the boy. If not for this scene right here, you could make an argument that this movie works as a prequel to DBZ, and Gohan got kidnapped by a different supervillain right before Raditz showed up.

So why not say that it’s set after the battle with Raditz? Because Goku dies in that battle, and by the time he comes back, Piccolo is dead. By the time Piccolo returns to life, they’re all on Planet Namek. You won’t see all of these characters reunited on Earth until Episode 121. By that time, Goku’s a Super Saiyan, and Gohan is a few years older, and far more capable than the timid little boy we see in this movie.

Still, it’s a pretty subtle plot hole, which I think is why some fans cling to the idea that the movies are canon somehow. It doesn’t help that Toei did a whole filler arc in the anime, where Garlic Junior returns and references the events of the movie, but it just doesn’t make sense.

Back at Garlic’s castle, he’s sent two of his minions to gather the last two Dragon Balls, while the third has to look after Gohan. He doesn’t care much for this, and he stops to take a break by eating fruit from a tree in the courtyard...

... But Gohan has the same idea.

Turns out this is special fruit that gets you drunk.

Gohan has a whole hallucination, complete with a musical theme.

Somehow he wanders into Garlic’s oversized novelty cuckoo clock.

And then he sleeps it off on Garlic’s throne. Garlic seems to consider all of this as a sign that Gohan is no ordinary child, so maybe a normal kid would just pass out or die if they ate that fruit.

Doesn’t matter, because it’s wish time. Garlic gets all seven balls, and he asks the Dragon to make him immortal, and it works! Goku’s still on his way when this happens. It’s kind of surreal to see a bad guy pull something like this off without a hitch. Even King Piccolo had to fight a few people first.

The actual process of making Garlic Junior immortal seems to involve some sort of energy transfer. It even looks a little uncomfortable, but Garlic is sure that it worked.

then we get this whole scene of demons rising up from the ground and marching off to war. I’m not sure if this is actually happening while Garlic is becoming immortal, or if he’s just imagining what he’s going to do now that no one can stop him.

Goku arrives soon after, demanding the release of his son, and then Kami shows up, all glowing yellow like he’s a big shot. Garlic is shocked to see Kami, since he assumed he was already dead, but Goku is just annoyed that Kami is butting into his rescue mission. This scene makes a lot more sense when you’ve seen Kami and Goku quibble over the fight with Piccolo in the original Dragon Ball.

From there, Kami starts explaining just who Garlic Junior is. Turns out that Garlic Senior was Kami’s rival for the job of Guardian of the Earth. The previous Kami recognized the evil ambitions in Garlic, Sr.’s heart, so he picked the guy we now know as Kami. Garlic, Sr. was a sore loser about this, so he rebelled against Kami, only to be defeated. According to Kami, Garlic Senior’s last words were that he would take his revenge 300 years later.

Kami finds it tragic that Garlic would be so evil as to put his own son in charge of his vengeance, but that’s where things stand. So let’s talk about this for a bit.

I guess this is one of the things that makes this one of my favorites. The previous films really didn’t add anything to the lore or advance the story. Mystical Adventure was pretty good and fun, but it basically rehashed the same ideas that were already established in the TV series. My favorite part of that movie was the Mifan Empire, but it can’t exist outside of that movie, because there’s no Chiaotzu or Crane Hermit to run the place. On the other hand, the villain in Dead Zone has ties to Kami, which means that we can learn some things about Kami that maybe fit into the canon as well? Like, this movie isn’t canon, but Kami is, so maybe he really did have to compete with a guy named Garlic to get the job 300 years ago?

Anyway, Garlic Junior seems to be an amalgam of several Dragon Ball villains. He looks a lot like Emperor Pilaf, to the point where Funimation cast Chuck Huber to play both roles. Garlic always struck me as an attempt to make an Emperor Pilaf who could really cause trouble. Beyond that, Garlic also resembles King Piccolo because of his wish on the Dragon Balls and his plan to conquer the world, and he resembles Piccolo Junior, in the sense that he’s been tasked to avenge the defeat of his wicked father. I don’t know if the Garlics have the same relationship as the Piccolos, where the son is essentially a duplicate of the father, but it could be like that. Garlic also resembles Raditz by kidnapping Gohan and using similar moves to battle Goku and Piccolo later, and finally, he resembles Vegeta in his desire to wish for immortality. Put all of this together, and you end up with a pretty compelling movie boss.

At his core, though, I think Garlic is sort of meant to be an evil version of Kami. Garlic Senior failed to impress the previous Kami, so he went full-on evil. The current Kami, on the other hand, succeeded because he purged himself of his wickedness, although he created Piccolo in the process. The implication here is that it was kind of a no-win situation. The previous Kami had to choose between two inadequate applicants. One became a villain and the other created a villain. Even when Garlic Senior was defeated, his son was left behind to carry on his vendetta.

The story raises more questions than answers, though. What was Garlic Junior doing for 300 years? Training, I guess, but it never gets explained. The Garlic Junior Saga will later establish that he and his father are aliens from the planet Makyo, so how does that all fit into this? Was Garlic Senior always a bad guy, or was he truly sincere in his desire to become Kami until he was turned down for the job? Where are the Spice Boys in all of this?

Anyway, Goku doesn’t care about any of this. He’s just here for his son, and for some reason Garlic’s minions actually bother to stop him. They introduce themselves as Ginger...

...Sansho...

... And Nikki.

Then they puff up their bodies to get stronger and faster.

The three of them give Goku a little trouble, but then Krillin and Piccolo show up and the odds are now even. I guess Krillin followed Goku here from Roshi’s place, while Piccolo survived the ambush from the start of the movie, and now he’s here for revenge.

Turns out that Garic’s henchmen aren’t so tough when they can’t gang up on someone. Piccolo crushes Sansho like it’s not even hard.

Meanwhile, Kami and Garlic fight. This is kind of a big deal, because we never get to see Kami in action in the anime, even though he was supposed to be a very powerful character in the Piccolo sagas. But this is DBZ, so he’s helpless against as DBZ villain like Garlic.

But Kami still has some power to spare.

Meanwhile, Goku fights Nikki and Ginger at the same time, and while they give him a little trouble, he wins pretty handily. This movie also marks one of the few times we see Goku use his Nyoibo as an adult. I feel like DBZ never quite figured out what happened to the Nyoibo after Goku came down from Kami’s Lookout, but he’s got it in this movie, and he needs it, because Nikki and Ginger can pull swords out of their bodies.

This movie also marks the first time Goku actually kills a villain with a Kamehameha. In the past he either misses or the bad guy survives somehow, but here he aims at Ginger, hits him, and then hits Nikki with the same blast. That’s one of the nice things about the movies. They’re very short and self-contained, so there isn’t time for plot twists like “The big finishing move didn’t work!” or “Goku lost! What do we do now?” If Goku loses in a movie he just has to get up and try again, or hope the bad guy is feeling merciful.

Kami is clearly overmatched against Garlic, so he tries to blow himself up to kill Garlic in the process. Trouble is, Garlic’s immortal, so that trick wouldn’t work.

Fortunately, Goku and Piccolo want a piece of Garlic Junior, so Kami can sit this one out. Garlic actually wonders why either of these dudes would come to Kami’s aid. Isn’t it obvious? Garlic kidnapped Goku’s son, and he ambushed Piccolo, so now they want revenge. I mean, on top of that, Garlic’s plans for the Earth would make things tough for their own lives, but there’s plenty of reasons for them to want to beat him up.

So Garlic transforms into the big beefy guy we saw in shadow a the start of the movie. I guess this makes him the first Dragon Ball character to transform? Well, Goku and Gohan turned into giant apes, but still, this is kind of a big deal.

Like I was saying, Garlic sort of resembles Raditz here, in that he managed to get Goku and Piccolo to team up against him. He even uses the same opening move as Raditz, rushing towards them, vanishing, and then hitting them in the back with his elbows at the same time.

So where’s Krillin in all of this? Goku tasked him with looking after Gohan, but when the fight started, Krillin got clobbered by a falling pillar and dropped the kid.

Outside, Goku and Piccolo shed their weighted training clothes, just as they did against Raditz. Goku again expresses surprise that Piccolo even uses weighted training clothes, so once again, this episode just doesn’t fit in continuity. They could have teamed up to fight Garlic and Raditz, but Goku can only find out about Piccolo’s weighted clothes once.

Anyway, shedding the wieghted clothes seems to do the trick pretty well, so I guess that means Garlic Junior isn’t quite as tough as Raditz.

For some reason, they decide Garlic is beaten, so they move on to settling their own rivalry. Did everyone just forget that he’s immortal?

Garlic Junior sure didn’t, since he’s back on his feet. But instead of fighting again, he takes a different approach.

Here’s a great shot of the castle, by the way.

Then this black hole looking thing opens up in the sky and starts sucking everything into it.

Piccolo almost gets drawn in, but Goku manages to save him, which is pretty awesome.

I always thought “Dead Zone” was a dub-ism, but no, that’s what Garlic himself calls it in the original script. He even says “Dead Zone” in English. What is a dub-ism (I think) is that his father, Garlic Senior, was banished into the Dead Zone 300 years ago. Of course, any living thing that gets trapped in the Dead Zone gets killed eventually, so we might as well call that an execution, but the Japanese dub never mentions this when discussing Senior’s fate.

It would be kind of ironic, though, because Kami doesn’t have anything to do with the power of opening portals to the Dead Zone. Garlic Junior can do it (obviously), so if Senior got stuck in the Dead Zone, then that sort of implies that he put himself there accidentally, just like Junior is about to... well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Turns out Gohan’s awake now, and he’s mad.

I mean really mad!

Garlic isn’t entirely surprised to see that Gohan can resist the suction of the Dead Zone, but he doesn’t seem to think Gohan can stop him either. He prepares to attack him with all of his power...

But Gohan fires an energy blast that knocks Garlic off his feet, and sends him into the Dead Zone instead.

Garlic proclaims that this won’t kill him, but I don’t know if he’s relieved or terrified by that prospect.

Now that the moment has passed, Gohan just sort of passes out.

And without Garlic to maintain the portal, the effect wears off.

And then the sky fractures? I don’t know what this is supposed to mean. I thought the yellow and red color scheme just meant that it was sunset at Garlic’s fortress...

But now it’s a clear blue mid-day sky. So I guess it was Garlic Junior’s doing? Anyway, Kami remarks that he’s trapped forever in the Dead Zone, without even death to relieve his suffering in that place.

Ironically, Gohan thinks it was Goku who saved him, when it was actually the other way around.

Piccolo watches the others leave, and promises to deal with Goku another day.

And then we find the shards of the orange sky on the bottom of the sea, and Garlic is inside one of them, desperately trying to get out.

So yeah, this is one of my personal faves from the movies. I dig the idea of a bad guy actually wishing for immortality, only to have it backfire on him so spectacularly. It fits in nicely with the whole theme of greed in this story. Garlic didn’t need to attack Piccolo or kidnap Gohan to further his plan, but he did it anyway because he saw no downside to it, and it all came back to haunt him. Goku and Piccolo almost lost when they got too wrapped up in their own grudge, but they managed to get back on track before it got out of hand.

Also, this movie is just a visual feast. Even simple things like Nikki eating pears or Chi-Chi tossing her apron aside are really beautifully done.

It’s a little light on characters, but after Mystical Adventure, I’d say that was a good move. Yeah, it would have been nice to have more of the gang in this movie, but they would have slowed the story down. Honestly, they could have left Krillin out of the mix and it wouldn’t have hurt anything.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #dead zone #goku #piccolo #gohan #krillin #kami #garlic junior #nikki #ginger #sansho #shenron #garlic senior #master roshi #bulma #ox king #chi chi #dbmovieliveblog

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duhragonball · 7 years

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[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (59/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation. This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

Previous chapters conveniently available here.

[4 August, 238 Before Age. Planet Wist.]

He had stumbled, and the results had been disastrous, but very soon he would have another chance. He would make things right, and everything would be as it should have been.

Since the destruction of Goldwall Fortress, the Shockmaster had established a new command center in an abandoned castle a thousand miles away. Wistian technology had transformed the old stone manor into a gleaming administration building, and it was quickly staffed by the highest ranking survivors of the Wistian military. These personnel reported to his new chief of staff, Tigon, formerly a lieutenant colonel in charge of public works projects.

"Rewistification has come to a standstill in the southwestern districts," she said as he stood on the roof and contemplated the view of the valley below. "The devices we used to irrigate the farmland were destroyed in the battle, and so were the supply houses where the backups were stored."

"WE’LL REPLACE THEM," he said, his voice seemingly booming from everywhere at once. "ONCE THE CAMPAIGN IS COMPLETE. WE’LL REPLACE EVERYTHING."

"My Partner," Tigon began, for that was how he wished to be addressed, "That timetable simply won’t work. It’ll take weeks to finish assembling the fleet, and weeks to deploy them to Extraliga, to say nothing of the return trip. The farmers need irrigation now, during the growing season. By the time we return, winter will have set in."

"THE CAMPAIGN IS ALL THAT MATTERS," the Shockmaster said. "EVERYTHING DEPENDS UPON IT. ALL RESOURCES MUST BE PUT TOWARDS THAT GOAL, UNTIL EXTRALIGA IS WON."

"Is this how you make our planet great?" Tigon asked. "By starving its people? By selling them into slavery to pay mercenaries to fight in your war?"

The Shockmaster crossed his arms over his massive chest. "YES," he said.

Tigon was stunned by his bluntness. She opened her mouth to speak, but then he twitched his fingers, and she was suddenly engulfed in bolts of violet lightning.

"DON’T CONFUSE ME WITH THE DEGENERATES WHO ONCE RULED THIS WORLD, TIGON," he said as she convulsed violently. She dropped to her knees and only then did he cease his attack.

"MY AUTHORITY IS ABSOLUTE. I WON’T CHANGE MY PLANS SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY ARE UNPOPULAR. I SEEK TO TRANSFORM THIS PLANET INTO A PARADISE, AND NOTHING LESS. IF THE PEOPLE MUST SUFFER HARDSHIP FOR THE GREATER GOOD, THEN SO BE IT. NOTHING WILL DISTRACT ME FROM MY OBJECTIVE. NOT LUFFA, NOT THE REBELS, NOT THE PEOPLE, AND CERTAINLY NOT YOU."

She recovered from the assault and nodded as she caught her breath. "Yes, sir," she said. Under the circumstances there was really nothing else she could say. She finished her report and left him to stare at the valley.

He didn’t expect them to understand. He had renamed the planet and its people, but none of them were true citizens of Wist. Wist was an ancient civilization to them, barely a footnote in their history. Despite all of its grand and glorious achievements, Wist had fallen, and the planet eventually gave rise to a new civilization: Goldwall. The Goldwallish were fools, possessing reasonably modern technology but preferring to live like a medieval people. They lived in stone castles and wooden houses, and they fought pointless battles over which noble family would rule which parcel of land. Their leaders had all been cruel, treacherous and venal, and they had ruled by fear and intrigue rather than any real power.

It embarrassed the Shockmaster that he had unwittingly played such a pivotal role in Goldwall’s history. For centuries, its rulers had used his legend as a sort of boogeyman to frighten their subjects into obedience. He could understand the value of intimidation, but they had no vision beyond their own appetites. Then the day finally came when he was summoned in earnest. The boogeyman proved to be real after all, and unlike the pitiful regimes who had used him as a crutch, he had a worthy vision for the future, and the strength to realize it.

At first, the people welcomed him, for he brought peace and stability simply by his very existence. None could defy the power of the Shockmaster, so the old disputes and conflicts swiftly became irrelevant. His deputies would jockey for position in the new order, but they knew better than to defy him personally. Alien interlopers had sought to oppose his rule, but they could only chip away at the edges, and he saw them as no serious threat. The Goldwallish were eager to accept anything he told them to do, but only because they believed he would deliver easy, guaranteed victories.

No one had questioned the invasion of Extraliga until it began to unravel. He had gambled much, and paid in manpower and materiel, but he had waited millennia for the chance to take that world. To him, the wormhole’s capture and Luffa’s counterattack were minor setbacks. The resentment of his subjects was little more than a minor annoyance. He had stumbled, but he had stumbled before, and as always, he would rise again and seize the final victory.

Tigon and her kind quibbled over useless details. The wormhole had been a convenience and nothing more. If he had to send a fleet across the galaxy to conquer Extraliga, he would do so. If the fleet needed six weeks to make the journey, so be it. If he had to make his subjects suffer to rebuild his military, then they would suffer. If he had to supplement that fleet with mercenaries, he would. If those mercenaries demanded Wistian slaves in lieu of payment, then it would be done. All that mattered was his goal, and he had already sacrificed far more important things in its pursuit...

*******

A thousand miles to the east of the Shockmaster, night had fallen over the ruins of Fortress Goldwall. Once, the fort would have been a bustling center of activity, lit by hundreds of lamps as officials and merchants went about their business. After the Super Saiyan's rampage, the only signs of life in this place were scavengers hoping to find something useful or valuable in the rubble, and they only came around during the day. Now, the only light was the meager starlight of the moonless sky, and a single flashlight.

The young woman who carried the flashlight moved purposely across the broken fortress. Unlike the usual scavengers, she didn't pause to search the area randomly. Instead, she went to a specific spot and began digging.

An hour passed. Then two. When a Wistian patrol vehicle flew over her position, she shut off her lamp and ducked under a leather cloak to hide, but this was the only real opposition she encountered. Finally, when she had found what she was looking for, she emerged from the hole she had dug, and leaped away from the ruins. She landed hundreds yards away, and broke into a run as soon as her boots touched the ground. Picking up speed, she continued along a road, altering her course and speed only to avoid Wistian convoys and checkpoints. Finally, she vaulted over a fence at the edge of a village and entered a bog on the other side. Wading up to her knees, she spoke a single word in a long-dead language, and vanished.

She reappeared in a room lined with peat and vegetation. There were candles, but most of the illumination was provided by what looked like bubbles that hung in the air and gave off a pale yellow glow. There, in the center, a creature sat upon a moss-covered cushion, engrossed in deep meditation. His muscular body was mostly humanoid, but his bulging yellow eyes and scaly green skin gave him a fish-like appearance. His only clothing was a vest covered in coral, and breeches made of seaweed. He glanced in her direction almost a soon as she arrived, and nodded courteously.

"Trrouuuble?" he asked in a slurred, gargling voice.

"No, I just found it a lot sooner than we expected," she said, removing her cloak to reveal her costume. In spite of the hours spent digging through debris, her blue gloves and boots were spotless, as well as the tricolor leotard she always wore, and the tricorne hat on her head. Her face and legs, however, were covered in dust and grime, a silent testament to her long night's work. "The locator spell you used managed to pinpoint it almost perfectly."

"Wellll dooooone," he said.

"I don't like all this sneaking around, Tobiko. I came to Planet Wist to fight for its freedom, not to dig up old relics from ruined fortresses."

He began to respond, then paused and made a series of esoteric gestures toward his throat. When he completed this spell, he began to speak normally, in a voice she found quite charming.

"Forgive me, Ensign Liberty. I would have searched the ruins myself, but my unsightly form would have been too conspicuous. And though it may not be to your liking, you have a talent for slipping into places unnoticed."

"I'm a revolutionary, mister," she said. "I know the importance of stealth, but I prefer to use it to make strategic gains. Intelligence gathering, sabotage, assassination, that sort of thing." She reached into a satchel hanging from her arm and withdrew a oblong, iridescent gemstone. "But this bauble you sent me to retrieve hardly seems worth the trouble."

He reached out his webbed hand to take the gem from her and examined it carefully with his bulbous eyes. "We shall soon see, M'ranga," he said. "The Crystal Chronicle contains historical records from as far back as the Golden Age of this world. Over the millennia, the knowledge of how to access those records was lost, until the Lords of Goldwall saw it as nothing more than an opulent treasure. But if I can decode its data-lattice with a Spell of Decryption, we may discover a number of gains, strategic or otherwise."

"That's all it is? A history book?" Ensign Liberty asked. When Tobiko nodded, she shook her head and threw out her hands. "What good can that possibly do us? We need to be worried about this planet's future, not its past. The Lords of Goldwall have been oppressing the people here for thousands of years, and for all the Shockmaster's promises, he's on track to finish grinding this world into dust. All he cares about is conquering a planet on the other side of the galaxy, and he's willing to use every resource on this planet to raise his army. We need to be fighting, resisting, not poring over musty old tomes."

"Be mindful, M'ranga. For all your righteous passion, I fear you are making the same mistake the Shockmaster has made."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Our enemy was sealed away thousands of years ago, and now he has awoken in a world he no longer recognizes. He seeks to restore it to the way it once was, or rather the way he wishes it had been."

"He wishes ancient Wist had never fallen," she said. "You already told me all about that. Wist was a paradise once, and he claims he can bring it all back, if only his subjects obey his every command."

"But Ancient Wist never fell," Tobiko replied. "Over the centuries, it changed and evolved into something completely different, but there was no fall, my good Ensign. That would require some singular, catastrophic event to mark the end of one era, and the beginning of the next. History is rarely so convenient, as any historian will attest."

She considered this for a moment. "You're saying the Shockmaster's strategy is flawed because it's built on a false premise. He's pinning all his hopes on this one great battle he's planning, because he thinks that's how the universe works."

"Months ago, you tried to shoot the Shockmaster in his own fortress," Tobiko said. "Your attempt failed, but even if it hadn't, did you truly believe you could liberate Planet Wist in a single stroke?"

"Of course not," she said. "Killing him would have been a big step forward, but only a step. It would have left a power vacuum, and there would have been usurpers, but each of them would be far weaker than the previous regime. The revolution would have an easier path to victory, but not a guaranteed one."

"Then you understand. The Shockmaster, I suspect, does not. If we study the past that he has overlooked, we may find the way to exploit this weakness."

She rubbed the tip of her chin, then took a seat on one of the mossy cushions in Tobiko's sanctum. "Where do we begin?" she asked earnestly.

*******

[6 April, 7491 Before Age. Wist.]

"Remarkable texture, wouldn’t you agree, Lord Beerus?"

"Mmm? Oh, yes. And the flavor is simply amazing. I think a second helping is in order."

"You’ve already had a second helping, my lord. And a third for that matter."

"No one asked you to keep count, Whis! For your information, I’m trying to make as fair an evaluation of this meal as possible."

"Oh, I see."

"It’s one thing to prepare a good meal, but a truly great chef must be able to produce consistent quality. If the second helping is as good as the third, then it demonstrates unparalleled skill."

In the great hall of the Mystic Council, the little boy watched from the doorway while his father served the meal. He was proud of his father. The Wist Hegemony was the greatest power in the universe, and the Mystic Council was wise beyond wisdom itself. That they had selected his father to run their kitchen was a tremendous honor. On days like these, his father had brought him along to watch him work, and the boy had been proud to see the Mystics lavish praise upon the food he prepared.

But this time was different. Tonight, it was not the Council he served, but a pair of visitors. He didn't know who they were or why they had come, or why the Mystics had not used their invincible magic to make them leave. Surely the power of the Ur-Ember was enough to destroy them! Instead, the Mystics spoke in hushed whispers, and they had approached his father and pleaded for him to save them all. They were afraid. Until now, the little boy did not think such a thing was possible. He didn't understand everything that was happening, but he had gathered that something very terrible would happen unless his father could please the two visitors with his cooking.

"Then have you made your determination, Lord Beerus? Or will you need another slice?"

"Don’t rush me. I’ll have to think about this... Hmm, maybe after a nap."

"It wouldn’t be fair to keep them in suspense, now would it? You did say you would spare this world if the meal appeased your anger."

"Yes, well, if they don’t like the suspense, then this planet’s rulers should have been more polite when I arrived. Why, just thinking about it makes me positively..."

He paused to make a long, loud yawn, and then he rubbed his large eyes with his paw-like hands. Then he smacked his lips and continued speaking.

"...errr, positively furious."

"So furious that you want to take a nap, Lord Beerus?" Whis asked with a wry smile.

As they bickered, the little boy watched his father, who stood nearby with a bottle of wine. His father was a consummate professional. As terrified as the Mystics had been, he had accepted his role in the crisis with dignified grace. The boy thought he could make out a bead of sweat rolling down his father's face, but there was no other outward sign of anxiety. He would discharge his duty to the very end.

"Oh, fine, I suppose it was a good enough meal, after all. Hey, you over there."

It took the boy a moment to realize that the visitors had noticed him watching from the doorway.

"Yes, you, little boy. Go and tell those 'mystics' or whatever you call them to get back in here. I’ve made up my mind."

The boy looked to his father, and when he nodded, the boy ran to the great foyer, where the Elders of the Mystic Council waited anxiously. Minutes later, they convened before Beerus, like accused prisoners in their own Great Hall of Judgement.

"You should thank your chef," Beerus said idly. "In spite of your rudeness earlier, his exquisite cooking has convinced me to spare your planet."

The Mystics looked at each other and murmured with excited relief. One of them cleared his throat to speak. "Lord Beerus," he said, "On behalf of the Wist Hegemony, I wish to thank you for your merciful--"

"Oh, enough of that," Beerus said with a wave of his hand. "I’ve had enough of your speeches for one day. Just remember that your little 'hegemony' may have a great deal of power by mortal standards, but it’s no excuse for arrogance. Whis! We’re leaving."

"Right away, my lord."

They rose from their seats, and the one called Whis held out his hand. A long staff appeared from nowhere, and he took it in his hand. Beerus placed one hand on Whis’ shoulder.

"Oh, one last thing," Beerus said before they departed. He began to pick his teeth with one of his clawed fingers. "Although I’ve decided to spare your planet from destruction, I’m afraid my generosity will not be extended to your moon. Well, so long."

Before any of them could register what he had just said, Whis tapped his staff on the floor and the pair of them were engulfed in a column of light. When it faded, there was no trace of either of them. Dumbfounded, they looked out the large window on the south wall, which offered a picturesque view of the city. The full moon, hung in the sky as it always had. The Wistians called it Nostal, and its surface features resembled the face of a smiling woman.

A few seconds later, Nostal's cheery face turned an ashen grey color, and then it exploded in a burst of purple light.

*******

[4 August, 238 Before Age. Planet Wist.]

"The Ur-Ember was the source of power that sustained Wist as a galactic power during its Golden Age. It radiated mystical energy like a star, but it was small enough that you could hold it in your hand. Of course, that would be impossible. Most beings would be utterly destroyed before they could even approach it, much less touch it. That was why it was kept on Wist’s uninhabited moon."

"But Wist has no moon, Tobiko," Ensign Liberty said.

"Indeed. According to legend, the Ancients grew too arrogant, too satisfied with their own supremacy. One day, the gods took notice of them, and paid a visit. They became offended, and destroyed the moon to teach them humility."

"But you said there was no single catastrophe that caused Wist to fall," she said. "Losing the Ur-Ember would have been bad enough, but the moon’s destruction must have wreaked havoc on this planet’s environment."

"It wasn’t as bad as you might expect," Tobiko said. "During the Golden Age, Wist had many advanced technologies and magical devices. The loss of the Ur-Ember was tragic, but not a disaster. Working together, the Ancients eventually stabilized the planet’s orbit and shielded it from whatever debris might have remained from the moon’s destruction. It was a watershed moment, to be sure, but Ancient Wist continued on for many more thousands of years. There was no single event that marked the END of Wist and the BEGINNING of Goldwall. It was a gradual transformation.

"As I was taught, Wist was dealt a serious blow by the gods, but we were determined to recover and learn from the experience. As I said, there were other resources besides the Ur-Ember, and so the Council set to work reallocating those resources to compensate. In the Golden Age there were weather control systems that kept the entire planet in an eternal summer. There were machines that ran on magic to produce food from thin air. Buildings could be transformed completely. With the Ur-Ember, all of these things and more could be used simultaneously. Without it, some of them had to be shut down. The weather system was one of the first to be deactivated. Traditional farming techniques slowly resurfaced. Much of the magic power on Wist was committed to military defense and law enforcement. Too much, I always believed..."

*******

[29 September, 7480 Before Age. Wist.]

"Your father saved us, and it seems only fitting that his son should carry on that tradition."

The ancient sorceress looked as young as himself, and when he considered this, he could only marvel at the glories of Wist. His father had been granted the honor of serving their meals, and now they were prepared to bestow an even greater honor upon him.

"Please, my lady," the young man said as he genuflected before her. "My father only did what he could. I am unworthy of this boon."

"Such humility is the provenance of your worthiness, my young champion," she said. Her voice was as gentle as it was powerful. When her slender hand touched his face, it felt softer and smoother than anything he could imagine, and yet he could somehow sense the mighty energies that surged beneath her radiant skin. It saddened him that such a wonderful person had been reduced to seeking his lowly aid.

"Wist is secure, but with the loss of our moon, we shall surely face an age of turmoil," the sorceress said. "It will take time for our weaknesses to show, and time again for our enemies to exploit these flaws, but these events shall come to pass, as surely as autumn follows summer."

"My lady, Wist has no autumn," he said. "Our climate is regulated by the Temperator, is it not?"

She made a small, sad laugh and gently tilted his head until he was looking up at her. "You are correct, my champion-to-be, but only for now. Wist has indeed known continual summer for many centuries, but the end shall come. The Temperator will go on as it has for some time, but without the Ur-Ember to sustain it, it shall eventually run down until it fails."

"But your powers, my lady!" he said anxiously. "Surely you and the other Mystics possess the means to... to..." He didn’t even know how to finish the thought. It was unthinkable that she and her peers lacked the power to solve any problem, and yet it was unpardonable folly for him to suggest that she had overlooked a possible solution.

"Powers we have," she said. "But many of the wonders that have sustained our Hegemony depended upon the augmented power of the Ur-Ember, which was destroyed with our moon. With its raw power augmenting our abilities, we could sustain a great many things. Now, we Ancients must shepherd our remaining power carefully, and use it only where it is most vital. Do you understand?"

"I... suppose," he said. "It’s difficult to imagine you having any limitations, my lady."

"You will understand better in time," she said. With a wave of her hand, a tiny spark of light floated into the atrium of the Great Hall. It moved directly above her waiting hands and then exploded with a burst of light. He shielded his eyes, and when he dared to look again, he saw her holding a massive silver helmet.

"Behold," she said. "This Helm of Power contains a portion of mystical energies from every member of the Mystic Council. Whosoever wears it shall be given strength and wisdom fitting a true champion of Wist. Indeed, the wearer shall become the living embodiment of all that is ever just and good in our culture. And we have chosen you to become that embodiment of Wist."

"Me? But... surely there are better..."

"We have searched and found none more worthy," she said. "The Council has ruled. This power, this burden, shall be yours alone."

"Burden, my lady?"

"The autumn of Wist is inevitable, my champion. And beyond that, a long winter. Without the Ur-Ember, our enemies shall gather and multiply in the shadows. It will be your task to defend Wist during that long winter, and to uphold what our society stands for. The task will be difficult, sometimes thankless, but always vital. Will you accept the power?"

He was confused. "You said the Council has already decided, my lady. What choice is there? If Wist needs my help, then I must answer the call."

She smiled proudly. "Then take your helm, champion. Become the first of a new age of heroes."

He reached out and took the helmet from her and placed it upon his head. It was completely dark inside, for even the lenses on the helmet were made of opaque silver-colored material. And yet, once the helmet was in place, he found he could see perfectly, as if there was nothing on his head at all.

Then he felt the power, like a bolt of lightning surging from his skull down to the tips of his toes. He stood up, and felt his muscles swelling, his body expanding. Electricity swirled around him, and he made an astonished cry.

The storm inside him did not subside, and he realized that it never truly would, but soon he found that his mind and body had adjusted to the power within him, and he looked down to find the ancient sorceress looking up at him with satisfaction.

"THE ENTIRE ROOM..." he said. He no longer recognized his own voice. It rumbled like distant thunder, and seemed to come from everywhere at once. "EVERYTHING IS SMALLER... NO... I’VE JUST GOTTEN BIGGER, HAVEN’T I?"

"Correct," she said. "You have been transformed into a being of power incarnate. As the Temperator allowed us to be masters of the weather, so you have become a master of the mystic energies bestowed upon the helm."

"HAVE I BECOME AN ANCIENT LIKE YOU?"

"In a sense," she admitted. "Your lifespan will be many times more than that of a normal man, and you now possess the same innate powers as I, but instead of mystic insight, your power is confined to physical might."

"YES. I CAN FEEL IT."

"Our Hegemony has suffered a tremendous blow, and there will be other shocks to our society to come. You will protect us from those disturbances, absorbing their impact and allowing our culture the chance to adapt to the coming changes. Henceforth, you will be known as the Shockmaster."

There was more for him to understand, of course, and she promised to explain it to him over the next several days. For now, he could only be amazed as he slowly realized what he had become, and the possibilities that now lay before him. As the sorceress spoke, he made many personal resolutions to himself.

The first was that he would defend Wist with all his heart and soul. The second was that he would never forget the supreme confidence she had in him, and do everything in his power to never let her down.

The third was that he would find some way to bring back Wist’s endless summer, and banish the hated autumn to the dustbin of history.

NEXT: The Tarnished Age

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