#jaco teirimentenpibosshi

[airplaneear2]

BANG 💫

#dbs #dragon ball super #galactic patrol #jaco teirimentenpibosshi #fanart #art #i saw he doesn't have a lot of fanart so I'm contributing

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super manga Ch.55-58

What a bunch of grap.

Okay, so last time, Whis went to talk to the Grand Minister about Merus.  Turns out Merus is an angel, just like they are, and that’s why he’s been so secretive about his abilities.  The problem is that angels are forbidden from taking sides in mortal affairs. They have to be impartial in all things.  Beyond this, however, there’s no restrictions on what they can and can’t do.  So the Grand Minister allowed Merus to join the Galactic Patrol, since it was a way for him to learn about mortals, but he’s clearly developed a bias from his time with the organization.  He hasn’t violated the rule yet, but he’s come extremely close. Whis asks permission to deal with Merus himself, and the Grand Minister allows him to proceed.

So Whis shows up at the end of Merus and Goku’s training, when they’re preparing to fight each other at full power.  That’s a bridge too far.  Whis has trained Goku himself, obviously, but an actual battle goes against what the angels are supposed to be about.  Also, Whis knows that Merus was planning to join the battle against Moro on Earth.  With the cat out of the bag, Merus agrees to go with Whis, leaving Goku on his own.

Which would be okay, except Goku has to take Merus’ ship back to Earth, and he doesn’t know how to navigate.

Meanwhile, Vegeta has completed the first stage of his training on Yardrat, and Pybara is ready to show Vegeta how to apply what he’s learned. 

But before they can start, Yardrat is attacked by Moro’s scouts, led by a Zarbon knockoff.   Vegeta defeats him with ease, and he’s astonished by how much his power has increased, simply from learning how to balance his body and ki in the Yardratti way.

By now, Moro’s henchmen have reached Earth, but Vegeta still refuses to go back there, since he hasn’t learned a technique that will even the odds against Moro.  Pybara agrees to skip Instant Transmission and show him something more useful for this situation, but he still doesn’t have much time to work with.

Meanwhile, the Z-Fighters have prepared for Moro’s invasion... just like they did in Resurrection F.  This arc is just one callback after another.  I can see why fans were so hard on Toyotaro while this thing was being published.  Merus seems to be the only original idea in this whole story, and we’ve just learned that he’s been forbidden from interfering, so what good is he?

Oh, and Majin Buu’s still fucking asleep.  Keep in mind he fell asleep right before the Tournament of Power started, and didn’t wake up until well into this arc, and then he fell asleep again right after he fought Moro.  And now it looks like he’s on track to sleep through the rest of this arc. 

So Seven Three goes after Gohan and Piccolo and he uses his copy ability on both of them, so he can match their powers completely.  This would seem to negate all the training they did leading up to this battle, except Seven-Three can only use one guy’s power set at a time.  So he can be as powerful as Piccolo or Gohan, but he has to fight Piccolo and Gohan at the same time, and they know a bunch of combo attacks that he can’t handle. 

So Seven Three uses his trump card, which is to use the powers he copied from Moro, except this time 17 and 18 join the battle, and Seven Three can’t drain their ki because they don’t have any.  Well, why doesn’t Seven Three just use Moro’s other abilities?  Like how he made his allies stronger, or the way he could beat the shit out of Goku and Vegeta?   Moro couldn’t drain Buu’s energy either, but he beat him just fine, so why can’t Seven Three defeat 17 and 18?

Here’s a bonus comic about Frieza’s whole deal during this Moro business.  He decides he’s just gonna stay out of this one.  I’m so glad we wasted two pages to explain that Frieza’s not going to do anything.  Maybe we could have a two page comic about how Yajirobe’s decided to sit this one out.  Or a comic about Bulma’s mom staying home to water the plants.

Seriously, fuck this Moro Saga.  We started with this whole bit about how Buu was the key to victory, and that went nowhere, then Merus’ dad made him quit the story early, and now Frieza’s just popping in to tell us he doesn’t give a shit.  Oh, and Moro keeps holding back because he doesn’t see any of the good guys as a threat, so most of the fighting in this arc has been pointless.

So Moro’s group splits up to loot the Earth of its treasures before Moro consumes its life energy.  This means the Z-Fighters have to split up and tackle the henchmen.  Yamcha fights some guys, Master Roshi takes on some girl henchmen, and Tien and Chiaotzu get stuck with an Auta Magetta knockoff.  His species are vulnerable to insults, but Tien doesn’t know how to dis people, so Chiaotzu does it for him.  Excuse me, but Tien was insulting people all the time during the 22nd Budokai.  He was a colossal dick back then.  Sure, he became all polite and proper, but it’s not like he forgot how to be a raging asshole.

Finally, Moro steps in to handle things himself, and Goku shows up soon after, when he gets close enough to Earth to sense Krillin charging his ki.  He prepares to fight Moro, but Moro empowers one of his goons more and more, in order to force Goku to show more of his true power. 

So Goku finally obliges by using Ultra Instinct.  Specifically, he uses the incomplete version he had when he first discovered the ability.  Goku calls this “Ultra Instinct Sign”, like it’s some distinct thing separate from the complete version of UI.  That’s like saying half a cup of coffee is the “initial stage” of a full cup of coffee. 

The manga has been doing this crap all along, and I think I’m finally getting tired of it.  Toyotaro really, really likes showing off all of Goku’s forms, and now there’s so many of them that it’s becoming very cumbersome to go through them all.  Super Saiyan 3 and Super Saiyan God pretty much became obsolete once Super Saiyan Blue was available, but Toyotaro seems to feel obligated to cycle through all of them whether it’s justified or not.  Likewise, why would Goku ever bother using “Ultra Instinct Sign” when he knows how to use full-on Ultra Instinct?  This wasn’t an intermediate power-up, it was Goku discovering a power and not knowing how to use it.

Anyway, we’re about halfway through this arc, and I guess we’re officially in the final battle, so maybe things will get better from here, but I’m not optimistic.  Everything that led up to this moment has been a giant waste of time.

#dragon ball #dragon ball super manga #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #goku #vegeta #moro #jaco teirimentenpibosshi #majin buu #mr satan #merus #whis #grand minister #tien #chiaotzu #krillin #master roshi #yamcha #piccolo #gohan #pybara #i don't know who the other characters are and i don't care

[ao3feed-gochi]

Fragmented Love

by starseph

Goku reunites with Chi-Chi and Goten after a grueling battle against the formidable Moro. Despite Goku's desire to spend more time with his family, He knows his role as the protector of the earth, Chi-Chi expresses her concerns about his safety and the demands of his role as a husband, Goku takes this to heart and steps up. In which we have a two-year time skip, a powerful and enigmatic villain named Valdor arrives on Earth, manipulating events and leaving subtle hints of his presence. As the Z Fighters sense a disturbance and begin investigating, Goku is torn between his duty to protect the world and his longing for a peaceful life with his loved ones. When Goku encounters Valdor for the first time, a battle of immense proportions ensues, with Valdor demonstrating his manipulation abilities. Determined to shield his earth from harm, Goku vows to face Valdor head-on, setting the stage for an action-packed fight that will test his limits and reveal the true extent of his power. Chichi refuses to be left out this time around and joins Goku and their friends for the adventure. As the world hangs in balance.

Words: 2577, Chapters: 1/20, Language: English

Fandoms: Dragon Ball

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Chi-Chi (Dragon Ball), Son Goku (Dragon Ball), Bulma Briefs, Son Gohan, Videl Satan, Son Goten, Krillin (Dragon Ball), Original Dragon Ball Character(s), Jaco Teirimentenpibosshi

Relationships: Chi-Chi/Son Goku (Dragon Ball), Chi-Chi & Son Goku (Dragon Ball), Son Gohan & Son Goku, Videl Satan/Son Gohan, Son Goku & Son Goten, Bulma Briefs/Vegeta, Trunks Briefs & Son Goten, Android 18/Krillin (Dragon Ball), Piccolo & Son Gohan

Additional Tags: Find Out Next Time on Dragon Ball Z, Smart Son Goku (Dragon Ball), Genius Bulma Briefs, chichi loves Goku, Alternate Universe - Different Powers, Super Saiyan, Good Parent Son Goku (Dragon Ball), Villains, More love for chichi, Fights, Romance Novel, Christian Themes

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/48025771

#ao3feed #fanfic #dragonball #gochi

[dragonsballsz]

was gonna point out that there’s no turbulence in space but then i remembered that people talk to each other in space in this show so who knows

also i googled it and it turns out space turbulence actually is a thing

#dragon ball #dragon ball super #jaco #jaco the galactic patrolman #jaco teirimentenpibosshi #jaco tirimentenpibosshi

[pochqmqri]

I’m so glad Jaco managed to be somewhat useful in combat again. He hasn’t like fought since Resurrection F. 

#dbs #dragon ball super #jaco the galactic patrolman #jaco teirimentenpibosshi #dragon ball #manga

[k4iloveanimation]

Chapters: 4/4 Fandom: Dragon Ball Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Relationships: Frieza (Dragon Ball)/Original Character(s), Frost (Dragon Ball)/Reader, Vegeta (Dragon Ball)/Original Female Character(s), Nappa (Dragon Ball)/Original Character(s), Bulma Briefs/Zarbon, Captain Ginyu (Dragon Ball)/Original Character(s), Jeice (Dragon Ball)/Original Character(s), Burter (Dragon Ball)/Original Character(s), Cooler (Dragon Ball)/Original Character(s), King Cold (Dragon Ball)/Original Character(s), Android 17 (Dragon Ball)/Original Female Character(s), Android 16 (Dragon Ball)/Original Character(s), Android 18 (Dragon Ball)/Original Character(s), Cell (Dragon Ball)/Original Character(s), Beerus (Dragon Ball)/Original Character(s), Whis (Dragon Ball)/Original Character(s), Champa (Dragon Ball)/Reader, Dende & Son Gohan, Dyspo (Dragon Ball)/Reader, Jaco Teirimentenpibosshi/Reader, Chirai (Dragon Ball)/Reader, Cheelai (Dragon Ball)/Reader, Raditz (Dragon Ball)/Original Female Character(s) Characters: Son Goku (Dragon Ball), Vegeta (Dragon Ball), Original Frieza Species Character(s), Frieza's Army (Dragon Ball), Frieza Force, Frieza (Dragon Ball), Original Saiyan Character(s), Ginyu Force (Dragon Ball), Zarbon (Dragon Ball), Dodoria (Dragon Ball), Raditz (Dragon Ball), Original Female Human Character(s), Original Female Character(s) of Color, Original Female Character(s), King Cold (Dragon Ball), Cooler (Dragon Ball), Cooler's Armored Squadron (Dragon Ball), Saiyan(s) (Dragon Ball), Hit (Dragon Ball), Frost (Dragon Ball), Angel Attendants (Dragon Ball), Supreme Kais (Dragon Ball), Nappa (Dragon Ball), Androids (Dragon Ball), Future Androids (Dragon Ball), Tapion (Dragon Ball), Android 21 (Dragon Ball), Pride Troopers (Dragon Ball) Additional Tags: Fix-It Summary:

The half Saiyan children of Freeza and the Saiyan Princess do their best to prove and redeem themselves and fit in to their new life on Earth, but danger is never far away. Including the danger of their own bloodline.

#dbz #dbz vegeta #dbz fandom #dbz fanfiction #dragon ball z #dragon ball #dragon ball oc #saiyan saga #nappa #raditz #canon fix #anime

[ao3feed-broten]

Chapters: 18/? Fandom: Dragon Ball Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Bra Briefs/Son Goten, Bulma Briefs/Vegeta, Videl Satan/Son Gohan Characters: Bra Briefs, Son Goten, Vegeta (Dragon Ball), Bulma Briefs, Trunks Briefs, Son Gohan, Chi-Chi (Dragon Ball), Videl Satan, Son Pan, Jaco Teirimentenpibosshi, Original Characters Additional Tags: we're going to space, Slow Romance, friends first, then we'll get to the love part, I only kind of know where I'm going with this, oh there might be some buddy cop humor, maybe borderline creepy sometimes, just enough to make you uncomfortable, Rape/Non-con Elements, Eventual Smut, Slow Burn Summary:

Captured by some unknown galactic organization, Bulla and Goten have no clue why they were kidnapped or what lies in store for them while in the hands of their alien captors. All they know for sure is that they only have each other to rely on out in space. / Slow-burn romance, adventure, adult themes, WIP

#broten #bra x goten #bulla x goten #braten #bulla #goten #bra briefs #son goten #bulla briefs #dbz #ao3fic #ao3feed

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super Manga ch.51-54

Dragon Ball fans will read a comic like this and be like “It’s about time they let the supporting characters do something for a change!” even when “something” is “getting clobbered by henchmen.”

So last time, Moro defeated everyone on New Namek and consumed the planet’s life force.  Goku, Meerus, and Majin Buu narrowly escaped via Instant Transmission, while Vegeta hitched a ride on Merus’ GP ship, then hijacked it and made the pilot take him to Planet Yardrat. 

Moro doesn’t particularly care what the good guys do from here, since he no longer sees them as a threat.  He’s content to let them run loose in the universe until he’s ready to consume their power.  In the meantime, he’s got his army of escaped space crooks, and he sends them to find worlds with plenty of ki energy for him to eat.  Their first target is Zoon, the homeworld of Pui Pui and a bunch of crewmen from Babidi’s spaceship.  The criminals loot the planet of its treasures, then Moro shows up to devour its energy.  Then they move on to the next world.

However, this particular group of crooks is only feigning loyalty to Moro, so when they scout a planet, they just loot it and tell the others that it was a dry well.  Then they get the bright idea to loot Earth, since they heard that it has a supply of “blue aurum” or “sky gold”, a precious metal used for spaceship propulsion. 

Meanwhile, Goku spars with Merus because he’s curious about Merus’ powers.  There’s a special training room in GP headquarters, but it’s not reinforced to handle Goku beyond Super Saiyan 3.  Nonetheless, Goku is satisfied that Merus has powers and abilities that he doesn’t understand, which means Merus might be able to train him, which could help him refine his control over Ultra Instinct.  Goku thinks UI could turn the tide against Moro, except he doesn’t know how to activate Ultra Instinct at will.  Merus agrees, and takes Goku to a Hyperbolic Time Chamber where three days pass on the inside for every one day on the outside.  The time dilation isn’t as great as the Chamber on Earth, but Merus is only interested in using it because he can cut loose in there without anyone knowing about it. 

Meanwhile, Vegeta meets the Yardratti master who taught Goku Instant Transmission, a guy named Pybara.  The Yardratti look different in this comic because I guess Toyotaro wasn’t sold on how they looked in the anime, but he still included the anime design, and wrote a throwaway line about how there’s multiple types of Yardratti. 

Anyway, in DBZ, Goku said that they knew lots of neat techniques, but Pybara explains here that they really only deal in a single study-- Ki Control-- which can be applied in a multitude of ways: Teleportation, duplication, size changing, etc. 

While Goku and Vegeta train, the Galactic Patrol struggles to deal with the unfolding crisis.  They send Jaco to Earth to deputize more fighters into the Patrol.  What he doesn’t know is that Piccolo has already caught the bunch who came to loot the Earth of its sky gold, and he failed to stop them from sending out a distress signal to Moro.

I think I’m up to Volume 11 of the manga.  It ends with a bonus comic where Goku and Vegeta explain the plot of the Broly movie to Meerus. 

Jaco briefs Dragon Team on the group of criminals Moro sent to investigate the first group’s disappearance.  Moro doesn’t particularly care about the first group, but he figures if they got captured on Earth then, there must be some decent power there worth absorbing.  Jaco knows the next group, but in particular, he’s concerned about an android called Seven Three.  He has a copy ability that he activates by grabbing a victim by the neck.  Once he does that, he can imitate the victims entire moveset for thirty minutes.  They’re supposed to be ten days away by spaceship, but Seven Three last used his copy power on a planet of Sonic the Hedgehog guys, and it turns out they can make warp portals, so he arrives early.

So Seven Three manages to copy Piccolo’s powers, which forces Piccolo into a veritable stalemate.  Then Gohan shows up and turns the tide, because he’s more powerful than Piccolo and he knows Piccolo’s moves so well.  Seven Three tries a Hellzone Grenade on Gohan and he just slips out of is and catches Seven Three unaware.

Gohan manages to get the upper hand, but before he can finish Seven Three off, he switches powers.  Turns out he can save power-sets that he copied earlier, and one of them was Moro’s.  So now Gohan has to fight a guy with all of Moro’s abilities, and Moro made short work of Goku and Vegeta. 

But the real Moro learns that Earth is where Goku and Vegeta came from, and that they’ll return eventually, and Moro decides he’d rather postpone the attack on Earth until then.  So he orders his goons with withdraw and plans to return two months later.  This is relayed to Merus, and then to Goku. 

Meanwhile, Whis visits his father, the Grand Minister, and asks about Merus.  Apparently he’s not what he seems, or something.  I... sort of don’t care, to be honest.  

This arc is really all over the place.  The basic conflict is overly simplistic: Moro wants to eat all life energy in the universe and no one is powerful enough to stop him.  And yet we have all these subplots going on, most of which don’t really matter in the long run.  The fight on Earth was pointless, since Moro has nothing to win or lose, and then he just calls off the battle so he can do it again later.  The whole thing with Majin Buu apparently went nowhere.  I liked the idea of calling back to the Grand Supreme Kai, but none of it actually mattered.  Now we’ve got this whole mystery surrounding Merus, but what difference does it make?  He can’t beat Moro, and if he’s a double-agent, it doesn’t matter, because Moro has no need for such things.

#dragon ball #dragon ball super manga #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #goku #vegeta #whis #grand minister #krillin #piccolo #gohan #jaco teirimentenpibosshi #merus #mr satan #majin buu #bulma #moro #ugh

[ao3feed-gochi]

Dragon Ball NG: Dinodroid Saga

by DarkNightJester

The Red Ribbon Army remnants in an attempt to wipe out the Z Fighters an army of undead creatures known as the Dinodroids undead bio-androids created from dinosaurs. However unlike their original Dinodroid these ones are more intelligent and much more powerful. With this new threat on the horizon the Z Fighters and the next generation will have to go all out or else they'll find out what the Red Ribbon Army has in store for them and all of Earth.

Words: 262, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of Dragon Ball Next Generation

Fandoms: Dragon Ball

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Characters: Son Goku (Dragon Ball), Son Goten, Son Gohan, Chi-Chi (Dragon Ball), Valese (Dragon Ball), Videl Satan, Son Pan, Vegeta (Dragon Ball), Bulma Briefs, Trunks Briefs, Bra | Bulla Briefs (Dragon Ball), Mai (Dragon Ball), Android 18 (Dragon Ball), Krillin (Dragon Ball), Marron (Dragon Ball), Beerus (Dragon Ball), Whis (Dragon Ball), Heles (Dragon Ball), Piccolo (Dragon Ball), Jaco Teirimentenpibosshi, Tights Briefs, Broly (Dragon Ball), Cheelai (Dragon Ball), Gamma 1 (Dragon Ball), Dr. Hedo (Dragon Ball), Majin Buu

Relationships: Beerus/Heles (Dragon Ball), Son Goten/Valese, Chi-Chi/Son Goku (Dragon Ball), Bulma Briefs/Vegeta, Trunks Briefs/Mai, Original Female Character(s)/Original Male Character(s), Broly/Cheelai (Dragon Ball)

Additional Tags: Next Generation, Mild Language, Use of the Dragon Balls, Martial Arts, Alternate Timelines

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/47955115

#ao3feed #fanfic #dragonball #gochi

[ao3feed-vegebul]

by Dafy205live

Después del famoso torneo del poder, Zeno-Sama decide realizar un evento deportivo entre los mismos universos. Pero hay una complicación está vez, Goku no eligió a los participantes de su equipo, si no Freezer, por error...

¿Cómo será para Goku trabajar con el enemigo? ¿Cómo reaccionara Bills, el Dios de la destrucción? ¿Vegeta odiara la idea? ¿Cómo será para los Soldados de Freezer el convivir con el Saiyan? ¿Goku hará nuevos amigos? ¿Cuál será la reacción de todos? ¿Aprenderán a trabajar juntos? ¿O será un 7 contra 1? ¿Cómo será la convivencia con los otros universos?

4 Conocidos. 3 Desconocidos. Un Saiyan. Un Equipo. Un Universo 7.

Words: 1461, Chapters: 1/?, Language: Español

Series: Part 1 of Dragon Ball (Universe Series)

Fandoms: Dragon Ball

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other

Characters: Son Goku (Dragon Ball), Captain Ginyu (Dragon Ball), Jeice (Dragon Ball), Recoome (Dragon Ball), Burter (Dragon Ball), Guldo (Dragon Ball), Dodoria (Dragon Ball), Zarbon (Dragon Ball), Whis (Dragon Ball), Beerus (Dragon Ball), Champa (Dragon Ball), Vados (Dragon Ball), Caulifla (Dragon Ball), Cabba (Dragon Ball), Kale (Dragon Ball), Hit (Dragon Ball), Frost (Dragon Ball), Botamo (Dragon Ball), Auta Magetta, Bergamo (Dragon Ball), Basil (Dragon Ball), Lavender (Dragon Ball), Ganos (Dragon Ball), Quitela (Dragon Ball), Sidra (Dragon Ball), Mojito (Dragon Ball), Cognac (Dragon Ball), Bulma Briefs, Vegeta (Dragon Ball), Krillin (Dragon Ball), Piccolo (Dragon Ball), Jaco Teirimentenpibosshi, Zeno (Dragon Ball)

Relationships: Champa/Vados (Dragon Ball), Frost/Hit (Dragon Ball), Jeice/Kale (Dragon Ball), Zarbon/Brianne De Chateau (Dragon Ball), Bulma Briefs/Vegeta, Basil/Lilibeu (Dragon Ball)

Additional Tags: Black Goku (Brief appearance), Sports, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Wrestling, Love Confessions, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Goku Saves The Day, Forest Of Terror, Universe 7 Vs All, Teacher-Student Relationship, Established Relationship, Background Relationships

#fanfic #vegebul #dbz #vegeta #bulma briefs #ao3feed

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super manga Ch. 64-67

“Hey, everybody!  It’s me, Moro!  The cool new villain from Dragon Ball Super!  And I’m firin’ my lasers!  Shoop doo woop!  Ha ha!  Remember that?  There was this epic internet meme about shooting lasers out of your mouth in Dragon Ball, just like what I just did!  It’s pretty cool how I’m a big time Dragon Ball villain, just like Frieza and Cell, you know?  I mean, I get to be a pop culture icon, just like those guys, and people will make epic memes about the cool stuff I did in my saga.  Right?  Right?  You’re shaking your head no, are you saying the memes aren’t going to be epic?”

So let me break this down.  This whole arc has been about Goku finally learning to use Ultra Instinct at will.  Merus tried to teach him how, but the best Goku could do was use the incomplete version of UI that he used against Kefla in the anime.  So after training Goku in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Merus decided to fight Moro himself and get killed, which would then infuriate Goku until he experienced a surge of emotion that would awaken his full potential.  It’s a totally original idea, you guys!

Anyway, it works, and Goku is so overcome with rage that he taps into something deep within himself and becomes the Legendary Super Saiyan achieves Ultra Instinct again.  Moro panics, and Goku starts whoopin’ his ass, which would be satisfying if any of this felt halfway fresh.

I don’t like this arc.  Moro, Merus, and Seven Three are the only genuinely novel concepts to it, and they don’t get fleshed out nearly enough to justify the effort.  Moro’s sole purpose seems to be to prey upon all life in the universe.  What will he do once he consumes everyone?  That seems like an important question, but it never comes up.  Cell and Buu had similar career paths, where they would have gone on to destroy everything, but Cell and Buu were both monsters.  Moro’s a sorcerer or something, and he’s had ten million years to think about this, but we never hear any of his thoughts on the topic. 

Merus was an “angel-in-training” who became too sympathetic towards mortal justice.  How did this happen?  All we ever find out was that he joined the Galactic Patrol some time ago, and the nobility of fighting space-crime was too much for him to resist.  But why did he join the GP in the first place?  Whis and the Grand Minister seem to object to Merus’ life choices, but they also don’t seem terribly fussed about them either.  I can’t make sense of the guy, mostly because I can’t relate to his dilemma.  The angels in Dragon Ball are so vaguely defined in the first place that it’s impossible for me to judge whether Merus is doing the right thing or not. 

Seven Three is more of a plot device than a character.  He’s an android with the ability to copy someone’s powers and store them for thirty minutes’ worth of use.  Moro used this to serve as a handy backup of his own powers, and he ate Seven Three in order to reverse the gains Vegeta made against him earlier.  I feel like “fugitive convict alien android” could be a fertile field for storytelling, but Seven Three just stands around looking bored most of the time, like Hit with less personality.  The whole “copy ability” is symbolic of this entire arc, which feels like Toyotaro dared himself to borrow as many plot points from Dragon Ball Z as possible.

Anyway, Goku clobbers Moro for a bit, then asks him to promise to return to the Galactic Prison.  Moro agrees, and Goku gives him a senzu bean.  This scene got a lot of heat when the chapter was published, and fans were furious at Goku for giving another bad guy a senzu bean.  I feel like this misses the entire point. 

Let’s be clear, Moro tries to betray Goku immediately, and Goku just wrecks his shit all over again to prove a point.  “You can’t beat me, even if I restore your power and let you try again, so why not just surrender.”  But Moro won’t do it. 

Moro even recovers the hand he lost earlier, which contained a copy of Merus’ angel powers.  He thinks this will allow him to close the gap between him and Goku, but it doesn’t.  Goku still dominates him.

So getting mad at Goku is dumb.  He was trying to convince Moro to give up, which probably isn’t a terrible idea, seeing as no one was able to kill Moro before, and it’s not obvious that Goku has the power to destroy him.  So maybe the best thing you can do is to talk him out of being evil. 

The people you should be mad at are Toyotaro and Toriyama, who came up with this whole business of Goku giving Moro a senzu bean, for seemingly no better reason than the fact that he’s done it before with Piccolo and Cell. But it had dramatic weight with Piccolo and Cell.  The first time, Goku had to give Piccolo a senzu bean, because Piccolo needed to survive so that Kami could go on living.  With Cell, Goku gave him a senzu bean because he was so confident that Gohan would pound the crap out of Cell, even at his maximum strength. 

Why is he giving a bean to Moro?  He can surrender to the GP whether he’s got all his power or not.  Indeed, Goku tries a more original approach after the first thing with the bean doesn’t work.  I like the part where he just talks to the guy, because we haven’t seen that before.  So the part with the bean just feels even more redundant. 

Anyway, Moro’s body can’t contain the angel power of Merus, so it starts to expand and distort, which only makes things harder for Moro.  He desperately seeks out a new body...

... And he winds up merging with the Earth itself.  This puts Goku at a disadvantage, because while it doesn’t stabilize Moro very much, it does mean that Goku can’t kill Moro without destroying the Earth in the process.  Whis explains that Goku needs to destroy the power copying crystal in Moro’s head to defeat him, but Goku can’t get at it, so Vegeta uses Spirit Fission to try to make the job easier.

But Goku still can’t get the job done, so everyone starts gathering energy to share with Goku so he can regain Ultra Instinct.  For fuck’s sake, this is exactly the kind of crap they would do in GT whenever Super Saiyan 4 Goku got beat. 

The power collected isn’t enough, until Jaco runs off to find Majin Buu, and then Goku suddenly receives a big boost that puts him over the top, and he makes a ki construct that rassles Moro down and finishes him off for good. 

And that extra energy came from Uub, which is kind of awkward, since Uub hasn’t met the Dragon Ball cast at this point in the storyline.  Basically, Jaco remembered Merus’ theory about Buu absorbing divine energy when he gobbled up the Grand Supreme Kai, and that divine energy was split between Fat Buu and Kid Buu.  Kid Buu became Uub, so Jaco got Buu to find Uub and get him to send energy to Goku. 

Fuck all of this. 

Seriously, this is the most contrived nonsense I’ve ever read, and what purpose does it serve?  This arc isn’t a story, it’s a checklist of story beats and callbacks that Toyotaro wanted to use.

So then they wish all of Moro’s victims back to life, and then they go to a medal ceremony at GP headquarters, because Toyotaro decided to do a callback to Star Wars on top of everything else.  And Merus is supposed to get a medal for his role in stopping Moro, but he no longer exists, right?

Wrong!  He disappeared that day, but he only ceased being an angel.  Now he’s a mortal, which seems to suit him just fine, since he can be a space cop like he always wanted.  See, this is what I’m talking about.  Was this always how it was going to do, or did the Grand Minister arrange this somehow as a way to strip Merus of his divinity without ending his life? 

Because the Grand Minister could have prevented all of this by telling Merus to quit the GP from the start.  And so he kind of acts like he came up with this whole thing as a special rule-bending thing.  And yet, he punishes Beerus and the Supreme Kai for their role in this, ordering them to play with Grand Zeno for a while.  How was this Beerus’ fault? How was this the Supreme Kai’s fault?  Merus made his own choices, and Whis was the one who said he’d take care of Merus during this story, and that clearly didn’t happen. 

So that wraps things up, right?  Wrong, because the recaptured criminals suggest to Jaco that Seven Three might have survived the final battle on Earth.  Jaco is confident that he found no trace of Seven Three, but they go back for another look and they still don’t find anything, but that’s because some other characters have already recovered his remains.

They seem to have big plans for Seven Three, but before they can do anything with him, another set of space crooks show up and capture Seven Three for themselves.  And their leader is a guy by the name of Granolah, which leads us into the next arc. 

And that’s it for Moro.  It really kind of sucked.  I should write more about it in the future, but right now, I just want to move on.  I hope the Granolah arc is better, because I really need a win from the DBS Manga. 

#dragon ball #dragon ball super manga #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #goku #moro #krillin #merus #vegeta #uub #majin buu #granolah #jaco teirimentenpibosshi #beerus #whis #supreme kai #ugh...

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Minus

So I’ve been covering the Jaco manga, but there’s one last chapter to go over, and that’s the Dragon Ball Minus feature at the end of the collected edition.  The finale of the Jaco story revealed that Jaco was sent to Earth to intercept a Saiyan invader, which turned out to be baby Goku.  So Jaco was a prequel to Dragon Ball all along, and now Dragon Ball Minus turns the clock back even further to show how and why Goku was sent to Earth in the first place. 

So let’s unpack this a bit.  In 1990, Toei produced the TV Special “Dragon Ball Z: A Lonesome, Final Battle – The Father of Z Warrior Son Goku, who Challenged Freeza.”  The English dub shortened this to “Bardock: Father of Goku”.  If you’re not familiar with it, I wrote about it here.  The special was a grim tale of Goku’s father, a brutal, uncaring cog in Frieza’s war machine.  Before he dies, one of Bardock’s enemies curses him by giving him visions of the future. This allows Bardock to see horrifying scenes of Frieza destroying the Saiyan homeworld, as well as the life of his infant son growing up on Earth. By the time Bardock understands what’s happening, it’s already too late.  But as Bardock dies with his homeworld, he takes solace in a vision of his son growing up to confront Frieza someday. 

It’s a darker story than most of Dragon Ball.  While DBZ had gotten very violent, it was still pretty clear who the good guys were.  But Bardock was an antihero at best.  I’m pretty sure the only purpose of the psychic powers was to make the character at least a little sympathetic.  By giving him a peek at his own destiny, you can have Bardock confront his own mortality, and share in the audience’s appreciation for his son.  Without those insights, Bardock would just be one Saiyan among many, with nothing to make him stand out besides a familiar haircut and a famous son that he doesn’t even know.

The story goes that the special left such an impression on Akira Toriyama that he decided to canonize Bardock by writing him into the manga.  When Frieza first meets Goku on Namek, Frieza finds Goku’s face somewhat familiar, and he recalls that one Saiyan who opposed him right to the very end.  So even though the Bardock TV Special was anime-only, I think a lot of fans considered it to be canon, since Toriyama had included the scene of Bardock opposing Frieza from the very end of the special. 

However, to quote Toriyama himself:

“I really like the story of Bardock, Goku’s father. It’s quite dramatic, and the kind of story ‘I absolutely wouldn’t draw’ if it were me. It was like watching a different kind of Dragon Ball in a good way, so I thought it was nice.”  --Akira Toriyama, Interview on October 5, 1995, published in Daizenshuu v.6.

So he enjoyed the Bardock special, but if he had to create his own story about Bardock and the destruction of Planet Vegeta, then it would be very different from “Father of Goku”, which he “absolutely wouldn’t draw”.  Not because he disliked the special, but because it’s just not the kind of story that he would tell. 

I say this because I think there were a lot of fans who took umbrage with Dragon Ball Minus for changing Bardock’s backstory from the lore we got in the special. But Toriyama practically warned us all way back in 1995 that if he ever did a Bardock story of his own, it would almost certainly be very different. 

So now that we’ve established that, let’s get down to business.  In this story, Bardock is killing aliens just like he did in the TV special, only he only seems to have one other Saiyan backing him up.  That unnamed Saiyan gets a call on his scouter, and he relays the message to Bardock: All Saiyans have been ordered to return to Planet Vegeta.  Bardock is immediately suspicious, since this seems to be an unprecedented move.  The Saiyans have been working for Frieza for some time now, and they’ve been spread out, conquering various planets for him.  Why would Frieza recall all of them back home at the same time?  When he sees Frieza’s spaceship in orbit around Planet Vegeta, he gets even more suspicious. 

Frieza’s visiting the planet because he’s had his henchmen talking to the Saiyan locals, asking them about their folklore.  His goons dismiss the tales of the Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan God, but Frieza refuses to overlook even the slightest possibility of a Saiyan growing powerful enough to oppose him.  As it is, he knows the Saiyans are too proud and willful to be truly loyal to him, so he feels justified in wiping them out before they inevitably turn against him. 

This... might just be my favorite character moment for Frieza.  A lot of DBZ was devoted to explaining and re-explaining his decision to destroy the Saiyans.  His reasons generally boil down to the following:

1) If the entire Saiyan population revolted, they could pose a threat to his rule (Early Namek Saga, the Bardock TV Special)

2) Frieza’s afraid of a Super Saiyan emerging from the Saiyan population and overthrowing him (Late Namek Saga, and Dragon Ball Minus)

3) Beerus wanted to destroy the Saiyans but was too lazy to make the trip, so he commanded Frieza to do it for him.  (Battle of Gods)

What sets this story apart from the others, though, is that we get to see just how Frieza heard about the Super Saiyan Legend in the first place.  He asked around.  And apparently this isn’t the first planet where he’s done this sort of thing.  “I’m sure they’re just the usual heroic legends we hear about all the time.”

At some point, it hit me that Frieza has an interest in this sort of thing.  Not that he’s particularly fond of alien legends, but the characters in those stories the only thing that can possibly challenge his power.  So he seems to make a point out of learning about those mythical heroes whenever he can, just so he can weigh the risks of the legends coming true.

And maybe if the Saiyans were more devoted to him, like Zarbon and Dodoria, maybe Frieza might have chosen to ignore the Super Saiyan tale.  But he knows the Saiyans hate his guts, and he probably only kept them around as long as he did because his father had gotten so much use out of them.  And he might have been willing to keep the Saiyans alive a while longer, but then you have to factor in Beerus’s command to destroy them.  So in this story, Frieza asks if all the Saiyans are back home yet, and his men report that most of them will return within a month, but they’ll have to wait for stragglers if they plan to get them all.  Frieza won’t do it, though.  He plans to destroy Planet Vegeta one month later, and he can deal with the handful of survivors later.  He can just tell them Planet Vegeta got hit by a meteor. 

The story doesn’t spell it out, but I think Frieza accelerated his plans because he didn’t want to risk angering Beerus.  Not that Beerus was going to show up a month later to check his work, but Frieza had no way of knowing for sure, so better to blow 99% of the Saiyans away as soon as possible. 

And this is what saved Saiyans like Vegeta and Raditz.  Well, that, and the fact that Vegeta had no intention of obeying the order to return home.  Maybe he had the same suspicions as Bardock, or he just felt like he should defy Frieza wherever possible.  In this case, he could get away with ignoring the order, so he chose to ignore the order. 

As for Bardock, he finds his wife Gine chopping meat in his home village.  The narration informs us that the Saiyan population is only several thousand strong.  They’re warlike, so their population doesn’t increase too easily.  That sounds kind of vague, but interpret it as you will.  Bardock embraces Gine and asks about their children, which I think rubbed some fans the wrong way.  Gine wasn’t even in the TV Special, so the idea of Bardock being a loving husband and father bugged some people.  Hell, I think some fans can’t stand the idea of Bardock being anything other than a relentless badass.

Gine explains that Raditz has already been sent out into the field, with Prince Vegeta as his partner.  As for Kakarot, he’s been in an incubation tank for three years, and it’s almost time to take him out.  As he looks at Kakarot, Bardock resolves to steal a space pod and send the boy to another planet. 

Now, this also bugged some fans, because this directly contradicts what Raditz told Goku about how and why he ended up on Earth.  According to Raditz, Saiyan babies were tested for their combat potential, and those with the worst scores were sent to relatively defenseless planets, where they could either die alone or conquer with a bit less of a disadvantage.  Saiyan elites, like Raditz, Nappa, and Vegeta, were allowed to remain on Planet Vegeta and receive proper training and resources, so that they could fight as part of the Saiyan military. 

Dragon Ball Minus flips that idea on its head.  Yes, Raditz was correct about the Saiyan practice of “infiltration babies”, as Gine puts it.  That is a thing Saiyans do with their weakest children.   However, in this case, Bardock is using that practice without permission.  Instead of waiting around for the authorities to decide where to assign baby Kakarot, Bardock is going to send him to Earth, just to keep him safe from anything Frieza might be planning. 

And, perhaps unintentionally, these differences provide a critique of “Father of Goku.”  Like I said earlier, the only real purpose of giving Bardock visions of the future was to make him sympathetic.  He could foresee Frieza’s treachery and realize he was doomed, but he could also foresee his son thriving on Earth, eventually rising up to avenge his people. 

But Dragon Ball Minus cuts the Gordian Knot in half with a sword.  Why does Bardock need psychic powers to predict Frieza destroying the Saiyans?  The Saiyans have resented Frieza from the beginning, so why would they expect anything less than treachery from him?  Bardock doesn’t need the gift of prophecy to figure this out.  He just needs to pay attention to what’s going on around him.  And as for his son, maybe Bardock could just care about Kakarot from the beginning. He doesn’t need to see visions of Goku growing up on Earth.  He can just see the baby floating helplessly in an incubator and then imagine what will happen to him if he’s still on Planet Vegeta when Frieza makes his move. 

And this might irritate some Bardock fans, but at least this way he gets some agency and character development.   The dirty little secret about “Father of Goku” is that Bardock is a puppet of fate in that special.  The Kanassan is destined to give him the curse of foresight.  And once Bardock has that curse, he’s powerless to prevent Planet Vegeta’s destruction.  He sees Goku’s future, and seems to approve, but he has no control over that either.  Others make the decision to launch Goku into space, and so everything Bardock does in the special is futile. 

Sure, “Father of Goku” kind of works because of that futility.  I’d argue that “futility” is a theme of the story. That’s what makes it dark.  But I prefer Toriyama’s take, where Bardock suspects that he’s already doomed, but he still gets to make a choice to do something about it.  By sending Goku to Earth, Bardock gets to make a difference, even if he doesn’t realize how big a difference it will be. 

As they prepare the pod for launch, Gine asks why they don’t just all leave the planet in pods, and Bardock explains that Frieza would just track them down with scouters.  Kakarot, with his miniscule power level, can escape, but they’re trapped here, on Planet Vegeta, while they wait to find out what Frieza has planned for them all.  The two of them say their goodbyes, and Gine makes plans to contact Raditz to tell him where they’ve sent Kakarot.  She also promises to retrieve the boy if Bardock’s fears turn out to be unfounded.  But we know how that will turn out. 

So they watch the pod leave in an emotional scene. 

But the launch has not gone unnoticed.  The Galactic King has discovered the Saiyan invader heading toward Earth, so he orders Jaco to intercept it.   He clearly isn’t too concerned about the matter, though, since he regards Jaco as one of his least reliable Patrollers, and the Earth as a backwater planet of little importance.  I guess he sort of cares, but not enough to send the best.

But we already saw how Jaco handled that mission.  He missed Kakarot’s arrival on Earth, and he was adopted by Son Gohan instead, and grew up to become Son Goku, who would confront Frieza on Namek.  And now you know.... the rest of the story.   Paul Harvey... Good Day?

So that wraps up Jaco.  The only real issue I see with all of its retcons to Dragon Ball lore is the fact that Jaco has such close ties to the Brief family, and he even gives Dr. Brief his spaceship to reverse engineer, and yet this never came up in the Namek Saga, when the good guys desperately needed a way to travel through space.   Instead they use Kami’s old spaceship, which took a month to make the trip, and then Dr. Brief reverse engineered Goku’s space pod, which made the journey in six days.  Maybe Jaco’s ship was slower?  Or they just forgot about it?  Oh well. 

I’ll be taking a break for a couple weeks, and when I get back, we’ll star in on Dragon Ball Super. Until then, keep watching the skies.

#dragon ball #dragon ball minus #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #jaco teirimentenpibosshi #goku #vegeta #raditz #frieza #bardock #gine #the galactic king

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super manga Ch. 47-50

Man, you said it, Piccolo.

So Moro has escaped the Galactic Patrol’s prison after 10,000,000 years in confinement, and his plan is to restore his original magic power by using the Namekian Dragon Balls.  He found out about the Namekians from fellow prisoner Cranberry, who was one of Frieza’s goons during the Namek Saga of DBZ.  So when Moro escaped, he took Cranberry with him to lead him to the Namekians, although I’m not sure how that works, since Cranberry would have no idea how to find New Namek, or that there’s even a New Namek to be found.

Anyway, Goku and Vegeta tried to stop Moro, only to get their powers drained, and they’ve spent the last three days recovering while Moro has been very slowly gathering the Dragon Balls.  Goku thinks they can stop him by hiding the one they’re with and suppressing their ki.  But it turns out Moro can detect the Dragon Balls directly, so he doesn’t need to rely on Namekian life signs to show him the way.

So Goku and Vegeta decide to face him head on, since they don’t seem to have any better options.  Moro is surprised to find they’re still alive, but he plans to kill them once and for all this time. 

Oh, when I was complaining about how this arc just rehashes a lot of themes and imagery from classic Dragon Ball, I forgot to mention how Moro’s whole dynamic with Cranberry and his quest to restore his former power is lifted straight from King Piccolo.  It’s a shame, because I want to like Moro.  He has a cool look if nothing else, but they’re just not giving me anything to work with here.

So things look dire for Goku and Vegeta, until suddenly Merus shows up.  Recall that Goku and Vegeta teleported to New Namek on their own because Merus’ ship was still a few days’ travel away from the planet.  Well, those days have passed, and now Merus is here to lend a hand.  First he reveals this new device that was designed to trap Moro temporarily.  It won’t last long, but it doesn’t have to.  Merus just needs Moro to hold still for the second part of his plan...

...Majin Buu, whom he brought along.  The only one who could defeat Moro ten million years ago was the Grand Supreme Kai, and Majin Buu absorbed him five million years ago, so Merus has used hypnotherapy to reawaken the Kaioshin’s memories within Buu, and apparently it worked.  Buu not only recognizes Moro, but he’s outraged at all the terrible things Moro did in the past. 

Moro breaks free of Merus’ sticky trap, but it doesn’t seem to matter, because Buu kicks the shit out of him.  Moro’s energy draining ability doesn’t seem to work on Buu at all, and Buu seems to have gotten stronger from having the Kaioshin’s dormant memories brought out.  But this is all for nothing if Buu doesn’t use the magic-sealing technique that Merus needs him to use. 

But before Buu can use that technique, Cranberry summons the Namekian Dragon, and starts making wishes.  Apparently he has some device that can force a Namekian to translate his wishes, which is a clever plot device, except Cranberry never made it far enough to find out that Porunga only responds to the Namekian language, so I don’t see how he would have known to use a device like this. 

Anyway, Moro convinces Cranberry to wish for Moro’s magic to be restored, and then he kills Cranberry for his trouble, because he has another wish he needs granted.  We don’t find out what that is right away, but stay tuned.

Meanwhile, Buu restores Goku and Vegeta to their full power and assumes the appearance and personality of the Grand Supreme Kai for the duration of this battle.  I never thought of this before, but maybe Buu’s healing powers were always abilities he got from the Kais he absorbed, rather than an innate power.  I guess the only way to know for sure would be if Kid Buu healed someone, but he’d never do that.

Then we get a bonus segment which reveals Cranberry’s origin story.  He was the Frieza soldier who got beat up by the Namekian villagers, and Zarbon superkicked him to death.  Well, Mr. Popo wished back everyone who was killed by Frieza and his soldiers, and that includes Cranberry, who managed to escape Namek’s destruction by fleeing in Vegeta’s spaceship.  This probably would have been more interesting if Cranberry had gotten to do more in this story, but he’s already dead, so we know he’s done.

Moro declares victory and tries to leave the planet, but the good guys pursue, although only Buu can fight Moro in the vacuum of space.  The problem is that he’s no longer a match for Moro now that Moro’s got his magic restored.  He goes for that technique the Kai used 10 million years ago, but Moro figures out it’s a bluff.  Buu doesn’t have the power to execute it this time.  But why should that be?

Merus suspects that it’s because Majin Buu separated into two beings during the Buu Saga.  Merus assumed that the good Buu retained all of the Grand Supreme Kai’s power, since he kept the Kai’s appearance, but maybe Kid Buu got some of it after all.  And since Kid Buu is dead, that means the surviving Buu doesn’t have the power he needs to pull off Merus’ plan. 

But it’s not all bad news.  Merus’ original idea has failed, but Goku and Vegeta are confident that they can overpower Moro in a fair fight.  The problem is that Moro keeps using his magic to drain their power, which spoils things.  So Merus sends them back to New Namek, and he goes out to help Buu. With his sticky trap weapon and the Grand Supreme Kai’s teleportation power, they manage to bring Moro back to the planet’s surface, where they can all fight him together. 

So I like that idea.  Moro’s not invincible like Super Buu or Jiren.  He’s got a lot of different abilities, but he still has some weaknesses, which can be exploited as long as Goku, Vegeta, Buu, and Merus work together.  Unfortunately, Moro had one other trick up his sleeve.

Remember that other wish he made to Porunga?  Well it was to free all the prisoners at the Galactic Patrol’s jail.  He had struck a deal with them all before the story started, and now that he’s busted them out, they head for New Namek to back him up.  Wait, how did they get to New Namek so quickly?  It took Merus days to make the trip.

Of course, you might wonder what difference escaped convicts could make in a battle like this, but Moro uses his magic to empower them, which is also a nice touch.  Moro may not be physically strong enough to defeat a Super Saiyan Blue, but he can make others stronger, and he can drain Goku and Vegeta’s powers while they take on the small fry. 

Eventually, Goku and Vegeta are overwhelmed, and the good guys are forced to withdraw.  Goku prepares to teleport everyone back to GP headquarters, but Vegeta decides that he’s sick of this shit and refuses to join the others.  Instead, he takes off after the spaceship that brought Merus’ group to New Namek. 

They make their own escape, and the pilot plans to regroup with the others at GP headquarters, but Vegeta forces him to take the ship to Yardrat instead. 

And this is really the first interesting twist to the whole arc.  I was getting pretty bored with Goku and Vegeta being joined at the hip, getting outmaneuvered by Moro while Merus makes all his big plans.  It’s one thing when it’s just one of them, but when they’re both doing the same thing, it’s redundant, so it makes sense for Vegeta to get sick of this shit and seek out an alternative strategy.  He’s sick of magic and tricks and teleportation, and he’s convinced that he can defeat Moro in a direct confrontation, so he’s chosen to take matters into his own hands.  So we’ll see how it plays out. 

Things have gotten a little better with these chapters, but I’m still not sold on this story.  We’ll just have to see how it goes...

#dragon ball #dragon ball super manga #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #goku #vegeta #jaco teirimentenpibosshi #merus #majin buu #moro #cranberry #moori #piccolo #gonna be honest i sort of don't care about all the bit characters introduced here #like some of the escaped prisoners have names but who cares? #and the namekian kid is named esca but he's just a cheap knockoff of dende

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super 073

#ReleaseTheEbisawaCut

This is actually a really good two-parter.  It’s a little formulaic in places, but I was impressed with it when it first aired, and I was worried that it might not hold up today, but it does. 

So to set things up, Jaco has captured a dangerous criminal named Watagash, and on his way to headquarters, he stops off at a ramen stand.  While he’s eating, Watagash breaks out of his containment jar and escapes into space. 

Okay, so I love the idea of a ramen booth in outer space.  However, this sort of undermines the idea that Beerus and Whis are completely blown away by Earth food, doesn’t it?  Like, both of these are cute ideas, but if they have ramen noodles everywhere, then why is Beerus so impressed with our ramen noodles?  And if our ramen noodles are so much tastier than everyone else’s, then you’d think Jaco would never eat space ramen again after sampling the Earth variety.

Wait a damn minute!  Jaco can’t eat noodles!  He told Professor Omori that the only Earth foods compatible with his biology were milk and cheese.  Is that all Space Ramen is?  A bowl of long strands of cheese?  Now that I look at this scene again, it sure looks like cheese.  But that’s gross!  No wonder Whis and Beerus love Earth cuisine.  This is nasty as hell!   Continuity is saved!

Anyway, here’s Watagash before he busts out.  I really like this design.  Jaco describes him as a “mind parasite”, physically weak on his own, but capable of infesting a living host and controlling their body while also greatly enhancing the host’s strength.  So it makes sense that Watagash should look so fragile and insubstantial.  This is probably how Baby’s true form should have looked in Dragon Ball GT, now that I think about it.  I mean, not exactly like this, but you get the idea.  And I think they were heading in that direction when they designed Baby, but they could have taken it even further, and made him far creepier. 

Actually, now that I think about it, could Watagash be another Tuffle weapon, like Baby or Hatchiyack?  Hmm...

Meanwhile, Gohan and Videl see a TV commercial promoting a new movie: Great Saiyaman vs. Mr. Satan.   Starring Barry Kahn as the Great Saiyaman, Pop Idol Amaguri Cocoa as the woman he loves, and Mr. Satan as himself!

Gohan and Videl are astonished, because they see Mr. Satan all the time, and never knew anything about this.  Turns out the whole project has been kept secret, and if there’s one thing Mr. Satan cannot defeat, it’s non-disclosure agreements.  But the teaser trailer’s out now, so he can take his family to the studio where they can see the movie being filmed.  That’s right, they’re advertising the movie while they’re still in the middle of making it.  That... doesn’t sound right, but I don’t know enough about the motion picture business to dispute it.

Mr. Satan meets his co-star, Cocoa, and tries to introduce Gohan as the real-life Great Saiyaman, but Videl cuts him off and explains to him that it’s a secret.  Not everyone wants to be famous like Mr. Satan, and Gohan’s boss is a “stick in the mud”, so if he found out Gohan had a superhero identity, it could hurt his career. 

All right, so we’ve got that all sorted out.  Let’s talk about Barry Kahn.  You might remember Barry from such films as Dragon Ball Z Episode 247, where Majin Buu flirted with one of his female victims and reshaped his face in an effort to look more attractive.  He looked at a magazine to find a suitable model, and the image he chose was that of superstar actor Barry Kahn.  This scene was in the manga as well, so Barry is more true-to-canon than Gregory, or that other Great Saiyaman movie they were trying to film in DBZ Episode 205.

But this is the first time we’ve actually gotten to see Barry as an actual character in the show, and it turns out he’s a huge asshole.  As soon as she shows up on set, he starts demanding that the title of the movie be changed to “Barry Kahn in the Great Saiyaman vs. Mr. Satan.”  Then he flirts with Videl and offers her an autograph, and when she declines, he tries to save face by suggesting that she’s illiterate, so an autograph would serve no purpose for her.  Then while a stuntman prepares to film a scene, Barry calls for a last-minute change, making the stunt inherently dangerous to perform.  I guess this isn’t a union production, then?

Mr. Satan tries to talk him out of it, but Barry quotes a line from Mr. Satan’s autobiography that convinces him to play along with this.  It becomes pretty clear that Barry plays to Satan’s ego to get what he wants out of him.  He says Satan’s book is his favorite, but in fact he’s only read the first page. 

So, to be clear, Barry isn’t just an entitled diva.  He’s also a manipulative, self-serving creep.  They went a little overboard with all of this, but it ties into the plot, so just run with it for now.

Oh, and Pan hates Barry Kahn.  She just takes an instant dislike to the guy, like she’s ready to throw down with Barry right now.  “It’s on sight, Barry Kahn,” she’d probably be saying if she could talk.

So the stuntman looks like he’s in deep trouble, because he now has to leap over a tank, jump inside it and pull out the driver.  And he can’t use ropes or wires because Barry considers them inauthentic and he doesn’t want them used for “his” stunts.  And Satan’s on board and the director is just zoned out for some reason.  Luckily, there’s a hero on set.  Gohan goes to the assistant director and asks if he can do the stunt himself.  Everyone’s skeptical of this idea, but Barry insists on it, because he likes the idea of Gohan getting injured in front of his wife. 

Gohan says the actual reason is that he thinks it would be neat for Pan when she gets older.  She can watch the movie and see her dad in a few scenes.  But come on.  Gohan wears this thing all the time at home.  He keeps looking for excuses to put it on.  No, he’s really doing it to bail out that stuntman, because Gohan is a Good Boy(tm). 

So of course he nails the shot, and then he does the pose and the line, and...

... the director finally comes out of his coma and he’s deeply impressed.  It’s like he somehow knows--without actually knowing-- that he just saw something special here.  Like, whatever it was about the Great Saiyaman has finally been realized on his set, and he wants more.  So he asks Gohan to join the cast and do the rest of the Great Saiyaman’s stunts for this production.  Barry is outraged, but somehow the director seems to be the only one who can keep Barry in line. 

Gohan tries to decline, but Videl tells him to do it, since no one will recognize him under the mask. 

Also, Videl likes seeing him do this.  A lot. 

Ahem.

I forget what Mr. Satan is whispering into Gohan’s ear, but it’s probably something like “I’m the champ!”  or “YEEEEAAAAHHHH!”  I think he just wants Gohan on the set because the fight scenes will be a lot easier to shoot with someone he knows so well. 

So Gohan agrees, and on his way home from shooting the movie, he takes the suit with him, but notices a bank robbery in progress.  Krillin is there to intervene, but he’s about to get some reinforcements from the champion of justice...

Oh, shit.  Sorry, Krillin. 

Yeah, so if these robbers look a little familiar, it’s because they’re the same guys Great Saiyaman and Videl captured in DBZ 201.  Wait, no.  They don’t look like those guys at all?

Okay, he’s the flashback scene from this episode. 

And here’s the two crooks as they appear in the manga, when Great Saiyaman and Videl first meet.  Videl also has on the same flood pants in this chapter, in case you’re wondering why she looks different in the flashback.

But here they are in DBZ Episode 201, which modified their designs and added a third guy to their gang.  Also, they hijacked a bus in this episode instead of a getaway car. 

Anyway, they just got out of jail today, so they’re actually kind of happy to see Great Saiyaman again, so they can get some revenge.  The smaller crook is especially furious about it, which is probably why Watagash takes over his body instead of the other guy.  Suddenly the crook gets super strong and attacks Gohan. 

I should note here that even though Watagash has taken over this guy’s body, it’s not the same deal as when Baby would do it in GT.  The crooks still talks about how much he wants to clobber Great Saiyaman, and even though he has no idea what’s happened to him, he likes the sudden increase in power.  He does not say anything like “You fool, I am the great Watagash, and I have claimed this body as my own!” 

Neither does Watagash seek to trade up, the way Baby jumped from Goten to Gohan to Vegeta.  Watagash has other priorities.

Gohan still defeats the crook, though, and Watagash is forced to retreat.  The next day, news of the Great Saiyaman’s return has spread, and everyone at the studio thinks Gohan must have foiled the robbers using the costume he took home from the set.  Then Bulma shows up and convinces them otherwise.  See, the costume they’re using isn’t just any old costume. Capsule Corp manufactured it for them, and they made two, in order to have a spare in case the first one got damaged during filming.  And Bulma claims that someone broke into the lab last night and stole the spare. 

Luckily, she says, the thief ended up using the suit to fight crimes instead of committing more.  This is a really dumb alibi, but everyone buys it.  Bulma says this is because the entire film industry is used to stories with gaping plot holes.  You know, Dragon Ball Super really isn’t in any position to criticize.  I had to make up a whole thing about cheese ramen, remember?

Anyway, while Gohan thanks Bulma for protecting his secret, Cocoa overhears them talking and learns the truth.  Uh-oh.

Later, she asks Gohan to help her rehearse her lines.  Gohan finds that odd, since Barry would be a better partner for that, but Barry’s a dick, so this only makes sense.  As it turns out, Cocoa just wanted to get Gohan alone to reveal that she knows his secret.  And she asks for a flight home.

And as they take the scenic route, Jaco shows up in his spaceship and prepares to fire on them, because he’s somehow convinced that Great Saiyaman is Watagash’s host.  Seems legit.

#dragon ball #dragon ball super #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #gohan #videl #pan #watagash #son pan #barry kahn #amaguri cocoa #jaco teirimentenpibosshi #bulma #and #mr satan #as himself

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super Manga Ch. 59-63

Kind of wish this were ending for real, you know what I mean?

So after a lot of false starts and pointless runarounds, it finally comes down to Goku vs. Moro on Earth.  Goku’s been training with Merus to master his Ultra Instinct power, but the best he can manage is the “Ultra Instinct Sign” thing that he used to defeat Kefla in the anime.  Merus proposed a strategy where Goku relied on this incomplete UI, so Goku’s trying to fight carefully so as not to wear out his stamina, so he can use this ability as long as possible. 

And that seems to be all he needs at first.  Moro can’t touch Goku, and he can’t even drain his energy, because Goku is moving so fast that he’s dodging the energy drain effect.  But there’s just one problem: Moro hasn’t been using his full power.  He’s consumed a lot of planets since Goku saw him last, and he had no reason to show off his increased strength until now.

So Goku abandons Merus’ strategy and gambles everything on a more direct approach.  Instead of conserving his power, Goku uses his full strength, thinking he can still out-power Moro.  He just needs to finish him off quickly before his Ultra Instinct runs out.

While all of this has been going on, Vegeta is still on Yardrat, because he only just finished mastering the technique he came here to learn.  He doesn’t like cutting it this close, but since he can still sense Moro on Earth, he figures it’s not too late.  Once he’s finally ready, he asks Elder Pybara to teleport him to Earth, but Pybara says he can’t as Yardratti are forbidden from interplanetary teleportation. The fuck?  Also, Pybara says that they can only use it to go to someone they’ve met before.  The fuck?

So now Vegeta has to learn Instant Transmission on top of whatever he learned to use against Moro.  And this is bullshit, because even though I can buy Vegeta mastering all these Yardrat tricks in record time, it doesn’t add anything to the story.  Why not just have Pybara teleport him to Earth? 

Eventually, Pybara decided to break the rule and just teleport Vegeta after all, but then he thinks he’s finally figured it out.  Also, Goku got beaten up to the point where his UI form has worn off, so Vegeta can sense his energy again to lock on to his position. 

Wait, so how is Goku not dead during all of this?  Well, 17 and 18 pitch in, and since Moro can’t absorb their energy, they can hold him off for a little while.  I mean, it kind of makes sense in a post-Tournament-of-Power scenario that Piccolo, Gohan, Krillin, Tien, Roshi, and 17 and 18 could hang with an opponent like Moro.  They don’t have to beat him, but they ought to be able to keep him good and frustrated, just like Jiren.  But this arc doesn’t really play into that idea, at least not to my satisfaction.

All right, so Vegeta finally arrives, and he basically declares that he never intends to use Instant Transmission again.  What the fuck? The last few adventures he’s been on have involved teleporting across outer space or whatever, and he hates holding Goku’s hand in order to do it.  You’d think he’d be thrilled to be able to teleport under his own power.  Even if he hates teleportation on principle, he’s an idiot if he thinks he’ll never need to try this again, so why wouldn’t he perfect his technique so he can do it properly?

It’s like this whole thing was contrived to get Vegeta back to Earth as quickly as possible, and also show that he can do Instant Transmission, but at the same time, Toyotaro wanted to walk that back, because not doing Instrant Transmission is kind of a Vegeta trademark.  Personally, I don’t give a shit if Vegeta can do Instant Transmission or not, but if you’re going to write a manga story where he learns how, then you need to commit to that decision.   Toyotaro is trying to have it both ways, and I really don’t understand that, since the whole point of this Yardrat subplot was so Vegeta could learn a different cool technique anyway.  He doesn’t need Instant Transmission, so it would have been simpler to just have Pybara teleport him to Earth.  Fuck this story.

Now, I’ve been pretty hard on the Moro arc, but I will offer some positives about this thing.  The art has been on-point all along.  Moro’s got a cool design, and the action scenes are impactful.  Toyotaro has the skills that pay the bills, whether the haters want to admit it or not.  Also, I’ve noticed Vegeta is a lot sassier in this arc than in previous ones.  I approve of this. 

As to the fight itself, Vegeta starts off in Super Saiyan Blue, which ought to be no match for Moro at this level, and Moro seems to have the upper hand at first.  But every time Moro touches Vegeta, he loses some of the power he’s stolen from all those dead aliens.  That’s because Vegeta has learned the Spirit Fission technique, which is a Yardratti move that dissolves absorbed or fused ki.  For example, Vegeta claims that he can undo the fusion of Piccolo with Nail and Kami, which is an intriguing thought.  I guess if Super Buu ate Gotenks right now, Vegeta could one-shot him and separate him back into Kid Buu, the Kais, and Goten and Trunks. 

Meanwhile, all the dead Namekians come back to life?  What?  Bulma asks how that’s possible, since Moro absorbed their life force months ago.  Esca thinks it’s because the Dragon Balls on New Namek somehow preserved their bodies? Okay, come on.  Seriously?  Why is this page even in the story?  Why do the Namekians need to be revived in this moment anyway?  They were just going to use the Dragon Balls to revive everyone anyway. 

I mean, that’s a ridiculous explanation, because the Namekian Dragon Balls were deactivated when Moori was killed, and even if they were somehow still functional, they’ve never been established to have that sort of ability.  But more importantly, why is Toyotaro tossing out a bullshit explanation for this in the first place?  The revived Namekians don’t actually do anything at this juncture, so why bother with this at all?

So Vegeta clobbers Moro until he weakens to the level he was at when he first broke out of prison, I guess.  Then Vegeta asks Jaco if he should kill him.  What?  What? 

So Moro manages to slip away and escape to his spaceship, where he finds Seven Three and swallows him whole, absorbing his body and becoming...

... this guy!  Okay, so this is a major downgrade in design, but at least now I understand the context of it.  The idea is to combine Moro’s body with Seven Three’s, but the result ends up being shittier than the individual designs.  Plotwise, it makes sense, because it seemed weird that Moro would allow Seven Three to keep a copy of Moro’s powers.  But it turns out Moro wanted it this way because if he lost his powers for some reason, he could just eat Seven Three and get them all back.  Also, Moro now has the ability to copy other people’s powers, so that’s a thing. 

Vegeta isn’t too worried, since he can just Spirit Fission Moro all over again, except he’s lost the element of surprise.  Moro can just avoid his blows and not lose any of his strength.

Goku, Piccolo, and Gohan managed to do a cool trick to hold Moro in place long enough for a Kamehameha, but it doesn’t work and Moro punches a hole in Goku.  I really hate when they do this spot with characters who can’t regenerate or survive these kinds of wounds.  If you did this to Cell, then fine, because Cell could grow back, and if Goku was about to die after this scene, then you could do it to him.  But instead he’s just going to get healed up again and be just fine.  It’s dumb.

So then Merus jumps back in, even though we’ve established that he’s forbidden from interfering in mortal affairs.  Whis warned him against fighting Moro as he planned, and yet, Whis has curiously taken his eyes off the guy while all of this is going on. 

Moro doesn’t know Merus is an angel, and Goku seems to be the only one who understands what’s going on.  He pleads with Merus to stand down, since he’ll cease to exist if he keeps fighting with his angelic powers.  And that’s Merus’ whole plan.  Goku needs to use the complete Ultra Instinct to win this thing, and Merus thinks he can get Goku to reach that level by sacrificing himself in the battle with Moro.  So either Goku can rise to the occasion, or he’ll be forced to watch Merus disappear.

And I mean literally, because Merus starts to fade out as he fights more seriously.  I thought the Grand Minister was going to execute him or something, but apparently this whole thing is automatic.

So then Merus uses the last of his, uh... existence... to destroy the crystals in Moro’s body that came from Seven Three’s copy ability.  They were in Seven Three’s head before, but now there’s one on Moro’s forehead, and one in each palm.  Anyway, Moro tried to copy Merus’ powers, but Merus cut off that hand before it could take effect.  He smashes the other two crystals  and then disappears once and for all.

And we’ll call it there.  Next time we’ll go through the “epic” finale of the Moro Saga. 

#dragon ball #dragon ball super manga #goku #moro #merus #whis #vegeta #pybara #jaco teirimentenpibosshi #oh forget the others i don't have time for this #2023dbapocryphaliveblog

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super manga Ch.42-46

The 2023 Dragon Ball Apocrypha Liveblog continues!  This month, we look at the Dragon Ball Super manga as it continues beyond the anime series.  The Tournament of Power is over, and the Broly movie is behind us, so with no other material to adapt, the manga begins a totally new arc.  Is it any good?  Let’s find out.

All right, so the manga  version of the Tournament of Power ended in Chapter 42, but there was still some room left in the chapter, so Toyotaro just started in on the Moro Saga with the space that was left.  Not much gets done here.  Goku meets Vegeta for a training session in the Gravity Room, when Bulma calls them to tell them that Majin Buu is being kidnapped by aliens.  Turns out, they’re Galactic Patrolmen, and when Goku tries to stop them...

... their leader, Merus, defeats Goku with surprising ease.  Vegeta doesn’t do much better, and Merus decides to bring them along so he can explain the situation when they wake up. 

Turns out, Merus doesn’t need Majin Buu at all, but rather, he’s counting on the Grand Supreme Kai, whom Buu absorbed five million years ago to obtain his chubby, innocent form. 

Let’s turn back the clock to ten million years ago, when the Grand Supreme Kai and the South Supreme Kai were defending the universe from some other existential threat.  According to Merus, this was a powerful magic-user named Moro, who could absorb power from entire planets.  To win, the Grand Supreme Kai used a secret technique of his own invention to seal Moro’s magic powers at the cost of a great deal of his own.  The Galactic Patrol then incarcerated the defeated Moro, and though he was sentenced to death, no one could find a way to kill him, so they just imprisoned him indefinitely. 

But now Moro has escaped, and Merus thinks that only the Grand Supreme Kai can stop him, which means they need to get Buu to cough him up.  Now, I had heard about all this back when this story was being published, but it never made much sense to me that the Galactic Patrol should be so familiar with the Kaioshin.  I mean, King Kai once said that he had never had the honor of seeing the Kaioshin before Shin came to Earth to meet Goku.  But in the flashback, we find Galactic Patrollers observing the Kaioshin’s battle with Moro, so apparently they had some sort of relationship with the gods, and the GP has somehow existed for literal millions of years.  That sounds a little weird, but if you’re willing to buy this, then it isn’t hard to swallow that they were also involved in the Buu crisis 5 million years ago, and they were informed about the Grand Supreme Kai getting absorbed. 

But getting the Grand Kaioshin out of Buu will have to wait, because Buu’s still asleep from before the Tournament of Power started, and no one knows how to awaken him.  In the meantime, Merus deputizes Goku and Vegeta.  For the duration of the Moro Crisis, they’re part of the Galactic Patrol.  Goku tries to shake hands with the Galactic King again, and he fondles the king’s pee-pee again.  Well, why does the king keep holding up that appendage if he doesn’t want Goku to touch it? I don’t think Goku’s reaching down and grabbing that one by chance.

This is all presented as a chance to run through all the GP’s nonsense. They’re given rules about not using their Patroller status to flirt with girls or some nonsense, and Jaco offers them battle vests like his own, but the boys don’t want them, so they have to have the GP logo written on their clothes instead, because the regulations require the logo, but not the uniform.  Jaco wants to show them poses, and... you know, the Jaco manga was really, really good, and I’m glad I read it, because everything they’ve done with Jaco in Dragon Ball Super has just been this really weak, watered down version of the original presentation of the character. Without Professor Omori to ground any of this, it’s just another silly alien who only cares about goofy rules and silly poses. 

Anyway, Merus heads out to assist with a case, and Vegeta insists on joining him, because he wants to understand how Merus defeated him so easily on Earth.  So Goku tags along with Vegeta, and Jaco tags along with all of them, because he’s assigned to Earth, which means he has to keep an eye on Goku and Vegeta. 

Merus’s deal is that he’s this super-competent officer, the kind of guy Jaco only pretends to be.  He foils a space-train robbery, and it looks like Goku helped, but Vegeta realizes that Merus could have done the job even faster than he made it seem. 

Merus gets a report of Moro’s ship heading for an uninhabited region of space, but Goku realizes that he’s heading for New Namek, which not even the Galactic Patrol know about.  But Moro does know, because he heard about the Namekians and their Dragon Balls from a fellow prisoner, a dude named Cranberry who used to work for Frieza.

Goku tries to sense Moro’s energy, and he’s disturbed by the way it feels.  Also, he can tell that Moro could sense Goku sensing him, which is creepy. 

Since the GP can’t reach New Namek before Moro, Goku and Vegeta decided to teleport ahead and intercept him.  This turns out to be a bad move.

Vegeta does manage to save a Namekian child before Moro can consume his life force, but the battle doesn’t go well.

Vegeta seems to do okay, until Moro unleashes some of his restored power, which allows him to manipulate the energy of the planet itself against Vegeta.  Vegeta feigns defeat in order to get Moro to talk, but all he really finds out is that Moro wants to use the Dragon Balls to recover his full power, which isn’t exactly a shock. 

From there, Vegeta seems to have things well in hand by fighting Moro at Super Saiyan Blue, except Moro’s been playing him from the start.  He’s been absorbing power from the planet and everyone on it this whole time, including Goku and Vegeta. 

Oh, hey, let’s check in on Beerus.  Turns out he doesn’t give a shit about any of this, because the battle is happening on New Namek, and the Namekians only drink water, so there’s no tasty food at stake. 

So Moro drains Goku and Vegeta and leaves them for dead so he can track down all the Dragon Balls.  Meanwhile, Bulma calls Jaco to find out what happened to the boys.  Look at Mr. Satan and Tights, playin’ with Bulla.  That’s cute.

But Goku and Vegeta didn’t die.  The Namekians found them and healed them.  Unfortunately, their kid healer isn’t as efficient as Dende, so they’ve been out for three whole days.  During that time, Moro has... only found three of the Dragon Balls.  Uh... Frieza had already tracked four of them down in his first appearance. I mean, which is it?  Moro’s supposed to be insanely powerful, but it’s taking him a long time to collect the Dragon Balls. 

I mean, it’s not like the Namekians can do anything to slow him down.  They fuse a number of their best warriors into a single, powerful savior, and Moro kills him without even looking.  So why has it taken three days for him to get this far?  It can’t be because the Namekians are good at hiding, since Moro seems to have the same ki-sensing powers as everyone else in this franchise. 

I gotta say, I’m not very impressed with what I’m seeing here.  Moro just feels like a bunch of concepts from classic DBZ mashed together into some kind of DBZ-loaf.  His hunt for the Namekian Dragon Balls is so derivative that I’m not even going to bother explaining it.  Moro absorbs energy like Android 19 and Cell.  Moro also has a backstory very much like Majin Buu’s.  The Kaioshin defeating him, the being sealed away for millions of years, it’s all there.

I mean, this story acts like Moro is this next-level threat, so having him do all the same gimcracks as past villains seems like a waste.  And the power-scaling doesn’t really add up either.  He’s super-duper strong, fine, but apparently he was even stronger in the distant past, and the only one who could defeat him was the Grand Supreme Kai, who jobbed out to Majin Buu, who’s been jobbed out to pretty much every major character in Dragon Ball Super at this point.  I think the idea here is that the Grand Supreme Kai used to be a lot more powerful way back when, and it was because of Moro that the Grand Supreme Kai was so helpless against Majin Buu.  But... that feels kind of cheap to me. 

Well, we’ve still got a ways to go.  Maybe this will get better.

#dragon ball #dragon ball super manga #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #goku #vegeta #moro #cranberry #merus #jaco teirimentenpibosshi #the galactic king #mr satan #grand supreme kai #south supreme kai #bulma #tights #bulla #beerus #whis #moori